Brand Manager, North America Ericsson
As a young professional, Luis Ortiz found a way to further his company’s goals and initiatives while helping individuals in need. He developed a business initiative for Ericsson that not only met and surpassed company objectives but also helped a nonprofit organization. By looking beyond boundaries between for-profit and nonprofit organizations, Ortiz crafted a creative solution to help Ericsson increase its brand awareness while assisting the North Texas Food Bank. Ortiz links his ability to create innovative solutions to his time at the Jindal School learning about marketing and advertising. His course work challenged him to redefine traditional marketing ideas and pioneer a new generation of market strategy.
Tell us the highlights of your professional career. What are your proudest achievements?
An important highlight from my professional career was creating and launching a software development competition at Ericsson. The competition, Technology for Good Hackathon, leveraged Ericsson’s corporate social responsibility platform to help the North Texas community while simultaneously raising brand awareness for Ericsson. The competition challenged software development students to create solutions that used Ericsson technology to help solve operational challenges at a nonprofit organization. Ultimately, the competition increased awareness of the Ericsson brand, helped the human resource department build better relationships with local universities and identified top young talent. It engaged our research team in real-world testing of Ericsson application programming interfaces (APIs), gave students great experience — including the opportunity to work with our technology and network with Ericsson employees. And since the nonprofit organization we partnered with for the competition was the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB), the innovative solutions that came out of the hackathon were designed to make it easier for NTFB to fulfill its mission of feeding thousands of people in need in the DFW area. The hackathon was very successful and I subsequently received the Ericsson President’s Eagle Award for outstanding contributions to the business. This award is the highest honor given to an Ericsson employee in North America. I am very thankful for the award, but I am even more proud of all the goodwill that has come from this project for Ericsson, the North Texas Food Bank, the student participants and most of all, the positive impact on the community.
What brought you to UT Dallas?
I attended UT Dallas for both my undergraduate degree in psychology and my MBA. In both instances, I wanted to study at UT Dallas because of the school’s sterling academic reputation, the diversity of its student body and the beautiful, modern facilities. UT Dallas is highly regarded in both the scientific and business communities, and there is simply no other university that offers such a fantastic value.
What is your favorite UT Dallas memory?
A memory that stands out is the trip abroad to Barcelona that I took with the full-time MBA class. We learned a lot and had so much fun. Some of my most valued friendships were forged during that trip and in the program.
What was your favorite class and why?
From the beginning of the MBA program, it quickly became very clear to me that my interests were in marketing…. It was not until I took advertising and brand management classes with Abhijit Biswas, clinical professor of marketing, that I really found the area of marketing that I am most passionate about. I think my passion can be accredited to Biswas’ own enthusiasm and interest in the subject. He truly made learning about branding and brand management fascinating. He is so eager to share his knowledge with his students that his enthusiasm rubs off on you, and his classes are fun and interesting.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I don’t have a lot of free time, but when I do, I enjoy playing soccer, street photography and keeping up with what’s going on in the world of technology and gadgets.
What advice do you have for current students hoping to succeed in the business world?
I think there are three key things students should keep in mind as they enter the business world:
- Always deliver on what you promise. You want people to be able to count on you.
- Always go above and beyond to add value. Everyone gets busy at work, and it becomes very easy to simply complete tasks to get them off your ‘To Do’ list. But, it is important to always try to be thoughtful and deliver something to a project that adds value to your team beyond what was expected.
- I would say that people inside companies often get too caught up on getting credit for projects or outcomes. The only thing that type of attitude accomplishes is to make you look selfish. As long as you are thoughtful and do what you think is best for the company, the rest will take care of itself.
What makes an effective leader?
I believe humility and communication are very important qualities that all leaders should possess. Nobody has all the answers, so effective leaders know when to reach out for help, to trust the individual capabilities of their team members and to delegate accordingly. Open communication ensures everyone on the team has a clear understanding of what the project outcome should be and what their individual roles and expectations need to be.Luis was featured in the Fall 2013 issue of Hispanic Executive for his accomplishments in marketing and communications.
