When Pramod Iyengar returned to school after working for several years as a manufacturing engineer with United Technologies, he was ready to change careers.

The young engineer headed back to the University of Michigan, where as an undergraduate he had earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering. However, this time he had a business degree in mind

Post graduation with an MBA in hand, Iyengar landed at Intel Corp., where he had the opportunity to join a “very efficient and very well-structured finance team,” he explains.

For his part, Iyengar says Intel gave him the opportunity to learn not only the discipline of finance, but also how to use financial data and analysis to influence and improve operations across the company.

Intel also offered the opportunity to move into a variety of other areas. "Employees just had to take the initiative and take advantage of them," comments Iyengar. At Intel, Iyengar began as a finance manager with the distribution channel and soon became a senior financial analyst with the microprocessor products group.

Looking back, he credits the chip maker with regularly bringing together finance professionals from across the company.

Says Iyengar: "They would share best practices and strategies for using finance to improve decision-making in other areas, like accounting and sales."