CCRP - Week 1 (Monday)

Day 1 - Orientation Day (Monday - 18 August 2008)

After some initial paperwork was taken care of we began introductions and a received a brief program overview. Justin Kitch, co-founder of Homestead and Intuit General Manager of the Small Business Web Division (SB-Web) came to welcome us, teach us a little more about Intuit's current strategy, and had an informal Q & A session.

Here are some things I learned from Justin's presentation:

• His company (Homestead) was acquired this past January 2008 and is the most current acquisition Intuit has made


• His background involves going to work at Microsoft in 1994 and subsequently quiting two months later because he hated the culture (he said, "with a lot of jerks and idiots")


• 1998 started Homestead which was hit like other companies with the dot-com crash


• Late 1990's he made Homestead one of the first subscription based software services


• In 2004 Homestead became profitable again after the crash


• Culture of Intuit still moves slower than what it should, difficult to change but is moving in the right direction


• Discussed the connected services strategy, software as a service (SAS), maintaining successful back-office software and increasingly placing more focus on front-office product offerings, etc.

John Schiavone, Technical Training Leader for SBD - PD, the new Intuit branding along with the new brand attributes which are: (1) Honest, (2) Committed, (3) Real, (4) Smart, & (5) Spirited. Additionally, he discussed the importance of writing goals and having clear objectives when talking with our managers. He counseled us to have and know our top five goals and at least one of them should be a personal goal. Intuit leadership reports regularly on goals in these three main areas (1) employee's, (2) customers, & (3) shareholders. John suggested we understand and report to our managers how we have improved in delivering results to these three areas as well. John explained the employee review cycles and other cycles that happen in the company (mid-year performance reviews around February, annual performance review July/August) and suggested that we ask for monthly or at least every other month reviews with our mangers. another helpful suggestion was to have regular weekly drive-bys to explain what your doing and how your improving.

We did a Mountain View campus scavenger hunt to familiarize ourselves and then creatively present to the group our findings. Presentations included pantomimes with narrator, skits, drawings on a dry-erase wall, and more.

After lunch, we received information about the various Intuit benefits and received our security badges. At the conclusion of the day, Lucy Beard announced John Mastrorilli to us as the person who will replace Lucy as the FRDP director. Finally, we reviewed what we learned, discussed the pluses and deltas, and received of preview of the next day's activities. The day was very fun! It was filled with tons of energy and activity. It was also great to have tons of interaction with the various Intuit leaders and the other CCRP new hires.