Sometimes you just have to step away from helping clients with design-to-value teardowns and ideation and Product Cost Management to consider the less fortunate.  In this case, the less fortunate include our Managing Partner, Eric Arno Hiller, and his fellow alumni at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Sure, it’s one of the greatest engineering schools in the universe (…or is it the “multiverse?”), has produced a large number of Nobel Prize Winners, and has respected alumni and programs in a plethora of disciplines.   But, let’s talk about what really matters to most people in the world of large American universities:  College Football.  Eric has done an analysis of Illinois Football and coaching.

According to Eric:

I have loosely followed Illinois football since I was a freshman in 1991, through my time recruiting many interns and full time people to Ford Motor Company as a young engineer, through being president of the Boston Illini Alumni Club, through moving to Chicago — the heart of Illini alums on earth.  

Until circa 2007, I veritably bled orange and blue.  This was due to my experiences with student leadership in the College of Engineering and personal experiences, far more than the sports.  But, after being friends with enough Wolverines and Buckeyes and Badgers, I really did get perplexed and irritated about what is really going on with Illini Football.   So, while visiting my college roommate, I was inspired to do a little analysis.

Eric wanted to answer the following questions:

• Is Illini football performance really as bad as I perceive it to be?

• Is this a new phenomena, since I became an Illini, or have my older Illini brethren struggled here as well?

• Was Illinois ever good?

• What coaches were the greatest in history?

Along the way, the data led Eric to some other interesting insights that he shares in with the graphic flair of a recovering engineer and recovering McKinsey consultant.

To see the analysis of Illinois Football, CLICK HERE!

Download the analysis here:

Eric also started to think about what to do about the problems with which Illinois struggles, and tries to scratch the surface of a solution.   Find out what he says in the analysis!

(Spoiler alert!:   Don’t expect miracles — generating hundreds of millions in impact for clients with design-to-value, Product Cost Management, and great product management is in Eric’s wheelhouse.  Touchdowns on the gridiron, are a bit outside of it.)