Career Profile Part 1

 

Name: William Fisher Position/Title: Product Manager Company Name: EF Education (Stockholm, Sweden) Company's web address: http://www.ef.com, http://www.englishtown.com Company Description: EF Education is a multi-national group of seven private companies and two not-for-profit organizations, all dedicated to either teaching foreign languages or fostering intercultural exchange. Founded in Sweden in 1965, we maintain offices in 40 countries and offer educational services to over 200,000 participants per year. EF Multimedia is the interactive media division of EF that produces and sells CD-ROM's and Internet services for learning English.

Job Description:

As Product Manager for EF Multimedia I supervise both the production and sales of our interactive products. I work together with educators, programmers, designers, marketers, and project leaders throughout the course of every new production, from design to release. At the same time I supervise sales of our existing products through EF's international direct mail channel, as well as through a network of retail distributors. Diversity is certainly no stranger to EF, as all of our business is international in nature. I am doubly fortunate in that my daily contacts are "cross-functional" as well. I work with several different types of people. Altogether I work with 15 full-time production employees and 5 sales employees, as well as a large network of international sales agents.

Career Path:

In 1992, I left the Stockholm School of Economics to head up EF Multimedia, so my career path to date has been quite linear. I had approached EF in 1992, hoping that they would back me with the financing to start my own educational software company--an idea that first hit me during my undergraduate education in the U.S. In 1993, they contacted me to see if I would consider leaving school and starting up an EF division instead. I obviously agreed to this. As for my business goals, I hope to grow EF's interactive division into the company's largest and most profitable division. Delivering education over the Internet to an international public, is a challenging, rewarding and exciting goal, and I certainly have no plans to change jobs. Hopefully, they will continue to keep me on as well.

Career Challenge:

The greatest challenge I believe I face is managing the great diversity of employees and contacts as mentioned in my job description. Educators pontificate, artists pull one way, technicians push another, and sales people are swayed to go along with the market. To complicate matters, I work daily with employees from 4 countries, and frequently with agents from all over the world. Each of these entities wants to make different products, and indeed all of these markets should really have products tailored to the specific needs of their region. Trying to steer the proverbial boat in a stable and consistent manner is a real challenge.

Educational Background:

B.A. Computer Science, Brown University 1998-1992

One lone year at the Stockholm School of Economics, 1992-3

Favorite Course:

My favorite course was a Comparative Literature course called "Scandinavian Literature," that was taught by a terrific professor, Arnold Weinstein. His lectures were great, the reading was interesting, and combined they introduced and then sold me on a region about which I previously knew nothing. Subsequently, I have lived there for 5 years of my life. Of course, this was a great break from the rigors of computer programming as well.

Best Course for your Career:

Computer Science 192: Educational Software Design. This now defunct course was taught by legendary professor Dr. Andries van Dam. This was the course which made me start to really think about how people teach and how they learn, and about how some of their learning experiences can be enhanced through the appropriate use of technology. Getting to know Dr. van Dam a bit was also a pleasure, but that's another subject. . .