Bridgette Chambers, EMBA ‘08 MBA Fuels Rapid Growth for Value-Add Executive

As a former member of the Texas National Guard serving in the U.S. Army Reserves and the recipient of numerous American Business Awards, including Executive of the Year, Maverick of the Year, and Turnaround Executive of the Year, Bridgette Chambers, EMBA ’08 knows a thing or two about leadership and results.
Despite her considerable success, Bridgette sensed at one point that there were additional tools available that would help propel her career to the next level.

“Everyone gets traction in some component of the business they’re working in, but you need to really understand how all of the moving parts come together in order to form a healthy, thriving company,” Chambers said. “I had reached a point in my career where I knew that the success I had achieved would not be repeatable—nor would the failures I avoided be consistently avoidable—if I did not improve my comprehensive understanding of business and finance. I recognized that the MBA was the right path to acquire that insight and knowledge.”

As Chambers began to research different Executive MBA programs, she evaluated Rice, University of Texas, Northwestern and Notre Dame along with Texas A&M. She ultimately selected Mays Business School because of the respect for tradition and the work ethic that envelops the school’s curriculum and study. “I would be proud of my own accomplishment if I had obtained my MBA from another university,” she said, “but with A&M, I am proud of myself and my Aggie affiliation.”

In the Mays Executive MBA program, three things stood out to Chambers as being most impactful. First, the program emphasized utilizing a team approach—whether solving individual problems or working on complex projects. Second, the Capstone project required students to apply numerous competencies in a comprehensive manner. Third, the “executive nature” of the course structure allowed her to test her new knowledge and skills in the marketplace as well as at her place of employment. “The net effect of these three elements was a rigorous educational experience that was thoroughly grounded in the real world; one in which I learned as much from my classmates as I did from my professors,” she said.

After graduating from the program, Chambers transitioned her career from serving as an entrepreneurial CEO of several small start-ups to taking the helm of larger, more complex organizations, including Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG), the world’s largest independent community of professionals using SAP solutions, and Constellation Research, a research and advisory firm focused on disruptive technologies. Today, as the president and COO of Nite Group, she works with clients as diverse as Novus International and Perdue Farms to help them achieve significant operational, financial, and programmatic transformations.

She attributes the possibilities for career transformation to the business tools that can be acquired in the Executive MBA program. “In my field of turnaround work, the ability to prioritize and value activity is critical to moving the client company back to a stable position,” she said. “I was fortunate to have had quite a bit of company transformation experience by the time I enrolled in Mays, but for those who are just starting out or who are still early in your career, the takeaways will be invaluable. You will learn how to measure not just monetary worth but also intangible value in order to determine which investments to green light or to stall, as well as how to hold the stakeholders charged with those specific initiatives accountable for delivering planned value.”

Chambers is also quick to point out the importance of the “softer” leadership skills she developed at Mays. “I gained the ability and confidence to guide a team to success—rather than just managing the team’s tasks,” she said. “This powerful insight has helped me build strong teams of experts capable of solving complex problems, creating a culture of innovation, aligning operations to a corporate vision and growing a company’s bottom line. I have also learned that a leader’s ability to truly lead sometimes means getting out of the way….and this insight was validated numerous times during my
MBA experience.”

As for professionals who are considering an MBA to elevate their career, Chambers offered some emphatic advice: “Do not put off the decision to apply for another year, quarter or even month! Every day you are faced with challenges and opportunities that beckon you to optimize, remediate, grow, cut or innovate. With an MBA, you will have the academic platform to better understand your past experiences and more effectively guide your future. You will also be able to communicate risk, value and return in a language that differentiates you from those who did not arm themselves with the right knowledge or education. Bottom line, you will do more and you will go further.”