For an entire week, there was no driving. I flew back up to New York for a family reunion and enjoyed six days of hanging with my kin. But now I’m back on the road and the returned feeling of the accelerator underfoot is a happy one. My first stop was Atlanta. Before heading to Delta to interview Jane Kell and Tad Hodgson, there was some business I had to take care of first—and that was restoring a state of hygiene to my car.
For the past month, I have abused her and used her as an office, closet, cafeteria, and even napping pod—so it was time reward both of us with a Big Clean. When I told my thirteen-year-old cousin (an Atlanta native, and my hostess) about my plans for a serious washing, her eyes got big. “I know this place,” she told me ambiguously. Could she be a miniature carwash junkie? She led me to Cactus Carwash and I as rolled up, I thoroughly understood her obsession. The place was as enterprising as a beehive. In its huge lot, a small army of employees scrambled around the rows of sparkling cars with their doors splayed open, washing and waxing every surface in record time. “Yes, we are one of the busiest carwashes in the nation,” an employee acknowledged to me, my jaw still agape. I waited inside, hit up the free Wi-fi, flipped through a copy of InStyle, and before I knew it, my wheels emerged, looking more road-ready than ever. Hotlanta here I come.
The next day I arrived at Delta’s global offices near the Atlanta airport to meet with Jane Kell and Tad Hodgson, excited not only to show off my clean car, but also eager for my first duo-interview. I had been searching for a pair of Williams alums who were co-workers to see what sorts of things brought them together. In this case, it was almost pure coincidence, but perhaps in conversation we’d discover some similarities in their stories.
Jane and Tad both work for Delta’s Customer Insight and Analytics department. Jane is the Manager of Web Analytics and Tad is a Senior Analyst. I ask them what ‘Consumer Insight and Web Analytics’ means, and they distill it into a more digestible description of “understanding Delta consumers” and then incorporating it into a strategic marketing plan. Jane really focuses on the understanding how customers use their website, which over time has unsurprisingly become a really crucial driver of business. And Tad researches and develops the surveys that are the backbone of the research Delta conducts. As an enormous global company, almost every change that is made means money, and lots of it. So, its Jane and Tad’s job to make sure Delta’s actions are grounded in thorough, meaningful research. When I ask them how their Williams education helped them develop their analytical skills, they both agreed that a liberal arts education teaches you more than one way to tackle a problem. Maybe the methodology you’re using to find an answer isn’t the right kind, and so you’re taught to question it. So far, I’ve interviewed what I would consider to be a diverse smattering of alums—journalists, historians, financiers, and they all recognize the importance of asking a good question. When you’re always asking, you’re always learning, and so your education never really stops.
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