Mark Hanson

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Feisty It Is!

After sending a downright ludicrous proposal for an MBA internship to Mark Hanson, Sony’s VP of VAIO Product Marketing, I got a response tonight. Whoo-hoo! Here’s to half-baked ideas on how to find an internship when your internship center is failing you.

Mark Hanson responded with:

Brendon,

How could I possibly NOT remember you? Interesting proposal… I believe your suggestion and expertise would reside in a different division of Sony. I’ve forwarded your info to a couple of Sr Managers in the related divisions. I have also forwarded your resume to HR.

I wish you luck in your endeavor.

Mark Hanson
VP and GM of VAIO PM
Information Technology Product Division

Admittedly you could read some negative things into the response. For example: “How could I possibly NOT remember you?” Of course he remembers me. I spent nine months tracking him and his engineers down until I got a laptop design problem fixed for free for myself and a half dozen other disgruntled Sony customers. Sure he remembers me. But probably not fondly. Which perhaps explains why my “expertise would reside in a different division”.

Somewhere near, oh I don’t know…Guam? Shanghai?

That aside, I think I’ve answered the question proposed before: crazy or feisty? Feisty it is!

in Personal 0 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Crazy Or Feisty?

It’s internship time! Given that the UBC Commerce Career Centre has a grand total of seven jobs listed for the Lower Mainland, I’m taking matters into my own hands these days. But where to work?

On an impulse, I remembered my old friend Mark Hanson, VP of Sony VAIO Marketing. Given the amount of work I’ve done to solve Sony laptop problems for Sony customers, I figured I’d be a shoo-in for an internship position there. After all, I’d pretty much been working for them for over the past year anyway, right?

I fired off the following quick email to Mark Hanson last night:

Hey Mark,

Don’t know if you remember me, but I’m willing to bet you remember this website:

    www.brendonwilson.com/ideas/sony/getangry.shtml

I’m still getting email on a weekly basis regarding the Sony thermal shutdown problem, not just on old Sony models but on new ones as well. That got me thinking:

I should work for Sony.

What I’m going to suggest might be classified as either ballsy or just downright crazy, but I think it makes sense: I’m currently in the middle of my MBA at the University of British Columbia, and it’s coming around to internship time (June – August). I’m already helping Sony to solve its customers’ problems when Sony’s own customer service seems incapable of recognizing and addressing customer issues, or addressing them in anything but the most ham-fisted manner (ie: replacing whole motherboards for $800).

The failure of their laptops is costing people more than money or lost work: it’s costing Sony the loss of a lot of street credibility. I talk to people and see just how disappointed they are with their laptops, especially given that they bought a Sony specifically because of the dependability they’d come to expect from Sony. Now they’re swearing they’ll never buy a Sony again. Not just a Sony laptop. Any Sony product.

So, here’s what I propose: you hire me for my MBA internship and I track down your customer service and your quality assurance issues.

You already know my attributes: I’m smart. I’m technologically savvy. I’m an evangelist. I take service seriously. And I get the job done. It’s all there on the resume on my web site.

I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Brendon

I just can’t decide: would this be considered “crazy” or “feisty”?

in Personal 0 comments