About

About Digital Erudite

I decided to start a blog in late 2008, after observing how blogging was progressing as a medium for sharing news and providing insightful commentary. Digital Erudite is my “professional” blog – a place where I talk about my professional interests and try to add value (you can tell I was a consultant). While I’m intellectually curious, I constrain this site to the realms of technology and marketing, discussing how they shape people’s lives and impact business. You’ll see posts on subjects ranging from cell phones to online gaming. I try to keep it interesting though.

About me (the quick version)

My name is Brian Guenther and I was a strategy consultant for one of the major consulting firms for four years. As a consultant, I had opportunities to work on a wide variety of projects for a number of different clients. My client list includes large health insurers, technology companies, and not-for-profit organizations. I’ve developed strategy roadmaps, supported a three-way merger, and implemented a marketing system, among other things. My job has taken me to places like Los Angeles, Louisville, Atlanta, Hartford, and Chicago. Consulting enabled me to build a broad set of skills and experiences that are useful for analyzing technology and business trends.

After my tenure as a management consultant, I chose to leave the field in order to pursue an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California – Berkeley. I am currently pursuing this degree and look forward to graduation in the spring of 2012. Despite the rigor of this program and my attempt to relocate fully to the West Coast, I will still be pursuing my geeky interests and writing the occasional piece for this website.

The Whole Story

Both of my parents are the children of German immigrants who came over to the United States after World War 2. They grew up in California and earned degrees in Chemistry. They then had the fortune of coming out to the Washington DC area to compete for the same job. In the end, my father won out and got the job, a research chemist position working for the government. My mother worked at a military base where research, sinister and otherwise, is conducted. They married and my father went on to earn a PhD. in Chemistry.

Then I came out and joined the Guenther family (my brother was born two years earlier). I was born seven weeks early and so almost didn’t make it. Fresh out of the womb I was wafted hundreds of feet in the air on an emergency helicopter, taking me to a better-equipped hospital. Turns out I liked the view from up there.

Much to my mother’s chagrin, she was too busy to keep working, so she opted to stay at home and raise us. As all boys are, we were trouble. We were raised in Frederick, MD – the second largest city in Maryland after Baltimore. This isn’t really saying much, because Frederick is terribly boring and feels small. In the latter years of my time there, I was desparate to get out. As a young kid it was okay though. I rode bikes, skated, played with Legos, and generally made myself a nuisance.

In school, I was a successful but indifferent student. I did not proactively study, did not take notes, did not pay complete attention in class. Despite all of this, I was able to get through school with only one B, a  slew of AP classes under my belt, and a semester spent at the local community college because I couldn’t find any other high school  classes which interested me.

In those days, I spent the time when I wasn’t at school doing all sorts of things. Bike-riding, roller-blading, ice-skating, gaming, impromptu sports games, you name it. I also worked a lot. I got my first job at McDonalds when I was 16. This sucked, but I had to start out some where. And I really liked the money. I followed up my stint at McDonald’s with jobs at Pizza Hut, Food Lion, and Best Buy. Terrible jobs one and all, but I did learn a lot about myself and how to work.

In the fall of 2002, I found myself at the University of Maryland in College Park. Because of my GPA and SAT score (which could have been higher, I didn’t study), I was admitted into the University Honors program and the Robert Smith School of Business. I’m not going to regale you with 4 years worth of stories though. Suffice it to say, I did well and enjoyed myself. I joined the Hinman CEOs program and took an intense interest in entrepreneurship. This exposed me to some great people, many of which have become very good friends.

During my college years, I not only studied but worked every semester. In Washington DC, this was quite a commitment. An 8 hour shift often meant an additional 3 to 4 hours of traffic. I wanted to learn about business and differentiate myself though, so I soldiered on. I interned at Department of Commerce, a small marketing consultancy, Changewave Research, and finally Freddie Mac. Each of these positions involved significant amounts of research It was a great experience, and really helped when it came time to look for a post-undergraduate career.

After four years at UMD, I walked away with not one, but two undergraduate degrees. One in Marketing and one in Finance. I had pushed myself academically, even taking 21 credits one semester (the norm was 15-16). I also had 4 internships under my belt, not to mention multiple years of more blue-collar style labor. These credentials allowed me to earn interviews at pretty much every company I applied to in the fall of 2005. I probably interviewed 30-40 times. However, one job interested me above all others – a strategy position at the largest consulting firm interviewing at Maryland. The day(s) over which I interviewed are an interesting story, but one I will save for later. I got the job, which is all that mattered.

I started my post-undergraduate career as a business analyst in July 2006. After a couple of weeks of training and networking with my new colleagues, I was thrown to the wolves. At my firm, the primary responsibility for finding projects to work on is the analysts’. I was very interested in M&A at the time, so I set myself the goal of finding an M&A project. I was fortunate. On my fourth day looking for projects, I found one. Within hours, I had met the project leadership. I considered the opportunity and, feeling like James Bond, knew I could not say no. However, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

It was the hardest six months of my life. I worked all day, Monday through Sunday, for six months on an engagement that was extremely overwhelming, requiring commitment, fortitude, and leadership to succeed. I was assigned the task of defining the process through which the vital data was going to be combined after the merger was completed. After the merger was approved, I created our capstone presentation for the client, briefing a director and his team on their new customer base.

In the four years I was a consultant, most projects were fairly crazy, but none like that first project. It was a great way to start out my career. I was pushed to the limit and everything since has come easliy. I’ve worked for non-profits, telecommunications companies, health-care providers, and health insurers doing a wide variety of projects including corporate strategy, system implementation, and process re-design. I have gained a broad set of experiences and skills from this work and it has been fun. However, I’m preparing to embark on a new journey later this year: attending business school and obtaining an MBA. I’ll share the details as I learn more.