Making a Bundle
MILRs Make "Makers" key to win
Congratulations to the winning team of the Masters in Industrial and Labor Relations (MILR) (from left to right) Sangwook Han, Abeer Almohanna, C-KPI, CIPD, Mao Asato, Shelly Chiou, Brainard Chandrahas, Julia Baker, and David Johansson!
This year, CAHRS partner company Stanley Black & Decker (SBD) shared a scenario with MILR students who, led by Cornell Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) Human Resources Studies (HRS) Professors John Hausknecht and Rebecca Kehoe, delivered potential solutions to the HR challenge.
“This year’s case really hit the mark that we’re always aiming for with the bundle case competition,” says Kehoe. “The challenge pushed them to really wrestle with the underlying business imperative – the linkage between the Maker experience and the ongoing success of the enterprise. This HR-business connection is so central to our class, and this opportunity for reinforcement is one of the primary reasons we organize the bundle case each year.”
As background for the case, SBD proudly recognizes its frontline manufacturing workforce—known internally as “Makers”—as one of the cornerstones of the company’s success. Eager to enhance a unified experience, the students proactively explored operational practices and drew on valuable employee insights from professional review platforms. During their research, the MILR students were impressed to find a wide range of positive experiences and strengths across different plants, highlighting opportunities to share best practices and further elevate performance, growth, and collaboration company-wide.
In reflecting on the process of the case study, Chandrahas says “the Bundle project reinforced for me that the biggest performance lever in complex organizations is not technology alone, but how frontline employees experience and engage with it. The most effective solutions are not about adding new programs, but about making existing systems meaningful and actionable for the workforce that actually creates value.”
“Everyone on my team brought a unique set of strengths, and together we complemented one another in a way that allowed us to ask the hard questions and excel,” says Chiou. “This experience reinforced that the strongest business outcomes are achieved through people-centered solutions designed to improve how work gets done, ultimately driving operational performance, scalability, and margin impact.”
Johansson agrees with the growth afforded by the bundle experience: “The bundle case allowed me to have an open mind towards new ideas and be able to watch my teammates and I grow. It also taught me about the importance of being well rounded when it comes to the “business” and not just making HR the main focus.”
A special thank you to SBD CAHRS members Steven Rann, Vice President, Total Rewards; Jennifer LeDonne, Vice President, HR Canada & International HR Operations; Marissa Ingley, Vice President of Labor & Employee Relations; Jennifer Walker, Vice President and Chief Impact & Inclusion Officer; and everyone else who helped to bring this case to campus – it’s another great example of CAHRS partnerships in action!
