NaviAsia
CEO helps keep Kellogg alumni network strong through service,
teaching
By
Romi Herron
Most
would consider John Tomaszewski '98 well connected.
He
is co-founder of Chicago-based NaviAsia Consulting Group,
which provides strategic sourcing and supply chain management
to small- and medium-sized companies intending to utilize
China as a base. Navigating the business challenges there,
the firm aims to "bridge time zones, distance, cultures
and languages to create an integrated supply chain across
the Pacific," according to its Web site.
And
Tomaszewski is at the helm.
His
success, he says, has come in part because of a network of
industry contacts he established through a prior international
business development role with BP/Amoco that took him to China,
Mexico, Poland and Romania. Now, he draws on his expertise
in consumer products, technology, automotive and energy industries
to enable others to grow their businesses with international
strategies.
But
the Kellogg alum, lauding the relationships he began cultivating
within the school's community in 2001, says that reconnecting
has been equally vital to his career endeavors.
"When
I graduated from The Managers' Program in 1998, I was part
of Kellogg Corps that summer," recalls Tomaszewski, referencing
the student-run organization that sends teams of MBA graduates
on 4- to 6-week projects with nonprofits in developing countries.
He then began working as a consultant at A.T. Kearney.
"I
really didn't have time to re-engage with the school then,"
he says. "But as I was working toward creating my own
business three years later, Dean Emeritus Don
Jacobs asked me to become president of the Kellogg Alumni
Club of Chicago." Tomaszewski was honored to accept.
"Almost immediately I realized the friendships I was
developing were refreshing and motivating."
One
of four Kellogg Alumni Service Award winners this year, he
says support from the Kellogg administration during the founding
years of his business has been "tremendous." He's
garnered new ideas and exposure to faculty with whom he had
not studied during his Kellogg experience.
Increasingly,
his involvement in alumni service has afforded others to learn
from his insights too. A frequent guest lecturer in the Kellogg
Executive MBA Program, he also is an adviser for the school's
annual Global Initiatives in Management excursions
to Asia. In April, Tomaszewski addressed an audience of Kellogg
faculty and alumni at the Asian Business Conference in Evanston,
highlighting Chinese sales and marketing transformations and
emphasizing key differences between Western and Eastern approaches
to sales, marketing, distribution and sourcing.
Currently,
he is helping create a new leadership framework for the Kellogg
Alumni Club of Chicago, convinced that the president's role
needs to evolve.
"This
past year we've been in transition. I've recognized that we
needed to create a steering committee to oversee the entire
club, because the president's responsibilities are exceedingly
challenging to align with one person's schedule," says
Tomaszewski, whose own schedule includes responsibilities
as a member of the World Trade Center of Chicago China Committee.
"So now I'm in an advisory role with the intent of passing
on the leadership to three new alumni."
As
the club's immediate past president, he is eager to continue
developing his Kellogg relationships through other programs
offered by the school's alumni community.
"The
alumni club has been a valuable opportunity for me to reconnect
with the school and its values," he says, noting one
benefit has been his acquaintance with David M. Messick,
the Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision
in Management. Messick and Tomaszewski confer on global issues
— an opportunity that pleases the alum.
"I
had not had the opportunity to learn from David while I was
at Kellogg, and now that I'm outside my traditional learning
experience, I am grateful to benefit from our interactions.
My experiences with the alumni club have reinforced in me
the importance of lifelong education."
