Carolyn Edwards

Carolyn Edwards, MBA '22

Gaining Confidence as a Leader

Carolyn Edwards, MBA '22, was searching for a way to boost her business acumen when she began her Executive MBA journey at Michigan Ross. “I’ve been at GrubHub for my entire career, so I haven’t changed jobs to experience other people and other businesses. I was missing the knowledge and the ability to be holistic in my view. I was really laser-focused on GrubHub and only GrubHub.”

Carolyn started working at GrubHub in a sales role, but realized quickly she was better at managing existing business relationships than forging them. Carolyn transitioned into account management and became a general manager on the team that spearheaded GrubHub’s new delivery service, a response to the growing use of food ordering platforms and the demand from restaurants to provide delivery.

“Growing GrubHub Food Delivery was really cool because we built all of our systems internally, got the support, built out all the KPIs and metrics; really got it started from nothing.”

Watching GrubHub Food Delivery take off prompted Carolyn to set a new goal: going back to the basics and building out her academic knowledge of business and finance. For Carolyn, Michigan Ross was the place to work towards that goal. 

I looked at a few other Executive MBA programs. The biggest thing that set Ross apart was the way I felt welcomed and a part of the family even as I was going through the interview process and visiting campus.

It was important for Carolyn to understand the basics of business and strategy from a general management perspective, another reason she was drawn to the Michigan Ross curriculum. She also identified Ross’s global alumni network as a key influence.

Carolyn knew she was in the right place when a class she didn’t expect to enjoy became one of her favorites. “I actually enjoyed accounting, I looked forward to it and really loved it, so that spoke volumes to me with the level of professors and how good they are.”

Carolyn said she was impressed with how her courses focused on relevant business trends. “I’m a huge fan of Corporate Responsibility with Jerry Davis. It was an eye-opening class, and he took us on that journey with him. It was super relevant to today’s world, and it is hard to get buy-in from leadership about the environment and social responsibility because it doesn’t always move the bottom line. It’s starting to be a huge thing in corporate and the course is staying ahead of the game.” Carolyn said she looks forward to taking what she’s learned in the program back to her team, as well as what’s ahead environmentally for GrubHub.

The Executive MBA also exposed Carolyn to new methods in marketing, which she's eager to bring to the marketing team at GrubHub. “Either they haven’t heard of it, or they wouldn’t use it because it's just too new, so Ross stays ahead of the game. It’s getting me some clout amongst my teammates, yes.”

Carolyn said she saw the ROI of pursuing an Executive MBA at Ross right away, recognizing the program's immediate impact on her own personal and professional growth at work.

“It is a significantly different conversation with the finance group. At my confidence level now, being able to speak shop with them and influence them on ways we want to go and understand their perspective, it really helps me navigate that space a lot better.”

My confidence has gone up so much more because I feel as though I can speak to more things and am more of an expert than just being in a room with these folks. I feel a lot more confident.

For those considering an Executive MBA, Carolyn has some advice: “Make sure it’s right for you, but pretty much anyone that comes to me from my job who asks, ‘Should I do it?’, I say absolutely. If you are willing to make the investment, both the time commitment and the financial commitment, the amount of benefits that I’ve personally been able to achieve through this have been amazing. It has helped me progress in my career, grow my confidence, understand business better and communicate better – you’ll realize ROI from it immediately.”