Kelly Watson combines decades of leadership experience with a passion for developing future business leaders. As managing partner at Orange Grove Consulting, she advises organizations on leadership development and DEI strategies, building on a career that includes senior roles at Telecom New Zealand USA and entrepreneurial success as founder of a million-dollar consultancy. In the classroom, Kelly leverages these experiences to connect theory with practice, using real-world examples of both triumphs and failures to deepen learning. A published author of two books and contributor to academic research, she brings scholarly rigor and practical insight to create an engaging, experiential learning environment that prepares students to thrive in today’s competitive business landscape.
How do you incorporate your industry experience into the classroom?
Like most clinical professors, I have extensive business experience that provides excellent war stories. However, I try to bring the “real world” to the classroom by sharing stories of how I have seen theoretical concepts applied in the workplace and especially where business failures have clear theoretical underpinnings. This connection between what students are learning and what researchers have documented is, I think, what differentiates degree-granting institutions from so much of the management training stuff out in the marketplace.
What are you most proud of professionally and why?
My career has had three distinct stages so far, all of which have some achievements for which I am proud. The first was my time spent at several large corporations, where I rose quickly to senior leadership. I became a vice president the year I turned 30 and had my first child. This quick rise demonstrated what hard work, long hours, and the ability to lead others can produce. In the second stage, I built several entrepreneurial ventures and achieved a successful exit. I’m most proud of building a million-dollar leadership development consultancy that continues to serve important organizations and is in the process of launching a new, transformational training product. In my third career stage, I have expanded my focus to teaching and research, writing two books, and earning a PhD. I am proud of less visible achievements now: lightbulbs coming on for students, bringing experiential learning to the classroom to make learning more effective and fun, getting a research paper published, etc.
What do you enjoy most about teaching at LMU?
First, LMU CBA treats clinical faculty like part of the family. This is huge. Second, LMU’s mission is something I believe in and take pride in living. Third, LMU CBA gives faculty the space to bring ourselves into the work: we craft our own unique approach to teaching, we can launch initiatives and bring new ideas (ie., there is no “NO”), and our colleagues are extremely supportive.
What advice do you have for graduate business students?
Ok, I’m going to be pretty direct here: You just need to do the work and trust the process. You will get out of the program what you put in. I can’t understand people who pay money to show up unprepared and expect the faculty to entertain them. It’s not a Ted Talk, it’s a graduate degree. Trust that the people who created the courses know something about how students learn. Trust that the work is there for a reason. I earned an MBA and a Ph.D. while working full-time and raising three children, and never missed a class, read every single assigned reading, completed every single assignment (without using AI), and engaged with every single activity, even if I was skeptical about its value. It’s really interesting to be on the other side now, and I can truly see the obvious difference in those who put in the work without excuses. And I know who I would hire and more pointedly - who I wouldn’t.
What’s a fun fact you’d like others to know about you?
A lot of people know I’m a big soccer fan, but few know that I am a professional soccer referee. I often spend my weekends on a field somewhere in long socks and shorts with a whistle dangling from my teeth.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Thank you, LMU, for the privilege to be a part of this school.
To learn more about Kelly Watson's professional and academic experience, please visit her LinkedIn profile and faculty bio.