OwenBloggers: Isaac - MBA '08

Chat with the OwenBloggers

We are going to add a new feature to OwenBloggers.com.  We're going to open up an IM client under our main google account and allow readers to talk to us any time.

How's this going to work?  At first we're going to be in a "beta" stage; we want you guys to add us to your Google Talk client and start conversing with us whenever you want.  Ask questions, make suggestions, whatever.  If people really like the additional feature, we'll make it a regular item... probably including scheduled chat sessions.

So, for now, add owenbloggers@gmail.com to your Google talk buddy list.  Shoot us a note, whatever you feel like.  It'll be myself and several other people using the account, so you never know who you'll get. 

If you want us to expand the feature to include AIM and other services, leave me a comment below and tell me what you'd like to see. 

Owen wins (another) case competition

Owen's been in the news a lot lately; i like it when we whip up on other schools, especially in areas that aren't considered our "specialties". It seems like every case competition we go to we either place 1st or 2nd, and as you can tell by the picture, we look good doing it too.

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Congratulations to Kristin Arterburn, Michael Augustine, Mark Becher, and Denver Glazier for their second place finish last Friday at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Real Estate Development Case Competition.  This is the premier MBA real estate development case competition and it draws students from many of the top real estate programs in the country.  In the span of two days teams were tasked with creating a full development plan, including a financial analysis, project design, and a project timeline.  The competition included 15 top business schools with Owen, NYU, Emory, and Wharton competing head to head in the final round.  The Owen team gave a dominating performance but were narrowly edged out by NYU.  Other competing schools included: Chicago, Columbia, Tuck, Georgia, Ross, Kellogg, Rice, McCombs, UCLA, Kenan-Flagler, and Darden.

Dean Lehman's top 10 takeaways from Strategic Management 355

Our Strategic Management course came to a close Thursday and Dean Lehman (wearing his professor's cap this time) left us with a fantastic list of takeaways.  I was so engaged in the discussion I didn't have time to take them all down, so he was gracious enough to email them to me after class.

It was one of those moments when I was sitting there thinking "this is why I went to business school". When one gets the opportunity to hear someone like Dean Lehman, seasoned veteran from the business and academic world, speak from his heart and share some of his most important life lessons...  it's the kind of thing you experience just a few times in your life.  Great, great, great way to end a class.

So here's the list; I'm only going to share the first 5 for now;  you'll get the rest of the list later, so stay tuned!.

 

10. The world really is flat!

If you aren’t thinking about the impact of globalization on your business now, you will be.

9. Good strategy requires a leap of faith.

It takes time to determine if your strategy will succeed. I takes guts not to change course too soon.

8. Strategies need to be simple to understand and easy to articulate.

A successful strategy is one that everyone in the company can understand. The most elegant can be described in only a few words. If it takes too long to explain, it’s probably not a great strategy.

7. Truly sustainable advantage is an elusive goal.

Most every strategic move can be emulated by your competition, very little is truly sustainable. You need to constantly work hard to stay ahead.

6. Strategies must be internally consistent.

All of the operating levers of a strategy need to reinforce each other. If one area of the company is out of synch, it will have severe ripple effects across the company.

5. There are many potentially successful strategies even in the same market.

There is no “perfect strategy” for any given market. If executed well, there are many ways to succeed.

A break from studying

Somehow I bought the lies that MOD III is a cinch compared to MOD I and II.  Yeah, it's not as intense as first semester, but right now I'm staring down two 10 page reports, 2 presentations, 1 business forecasting final exam model, and 2 in-class presentations; did I mention this all has to get done by Thursday?  Oh, and did I mention I've got the 2 presentations tomorrow?  and I'm hosting a prospective student? 

Note to incoming class: MOD III isn't quite the workload of the previous MOD's, but don't think it will be easy.  Add on top of that your interview search and it makes for a very hectic MOD. 

The good news is that I've basically got 2 weeks of vacation coming--- turns out we have a spring break and I've got no finals scheduled for next week.  How did I miss the fact we have a spring break between the MOD's?

 

Technorati Tags: MBA - Owen - Vanderbilt

Life moves pretty fast

 It feels like I've been at Owen for about 8 weeks; it's been over 6 months now.  so much has changed, I feel I've learned so much, its hard to even remember what life was like back then.

I received an email this week that reminded me just how fast life is moving.  On Wednesday I'm going to host a prospective student and bring him with me through the day.

It's only been about 12 months since I myself was in those shoes... that seems like a lifetime ago. Meekly following along as Alan Hopper showed me around the school and brought me into his Operations class.  Have I really been here long enough to fill the role as a "guide"?  Have I become so much a part of a community in 6 months I'm now qualified to show the ropes to the next class at Owen?

Moral of the story; if you're thinking about business school prepare yourself for a whirlwind of an adventure.  Get ready to learn a lot, live a lot, and please, please, please take the time to soak it all in.  Before you even know it you'll be admitted, taking classes, finishing finals, getting jobs, hosting prospectives, and then graduating and moving on with your life, all in what seems to be about the same length of time it takes for me to write this sentence.

 

Technorati Tags: Owen - Vanderbilt - MBA - B-school

Valentine's day... continued...

I'm going to follow up on Justin's post with a quick response to the article on "can your relationship survive B-school?"

I was a little nervous about this same topic before starting school last August.  Kim and I had just gotten married in May and we were just getting used to married life, and along comes the hell that was the first two MOD's.  It was hard, I worked long... long... long nights and didn't get to see her much (especially around exam time).  Weekends were soaked up with group work.  Days were tied up in class.  Kim and I would sometimes go days without seeing each other awake.

So what is my take-away from my experience?  Can your relationship survive?

Looking back it seems like a stupid question.  Business school is just another challenge.  Life is full of them.  If you're sitting back asking yourself if your relationship can survive B-school, ask yourself another question.  Ask yourself if your relationship could survive a big career change.  Ask if it could survive some sort of unforeseen financial stress.  Ask if it could survive having children.

See, these are all just challenges in life--- some bigger, some smaller.  If you're in the right type of relationship, no matter what the challenge is, your relationship will survive.  Business school makes it seem all scary; tests, late nights, hectic schedule, but it's going to be no different than other challenges at other points in your life together. 

If you're in a relationship that you know you can weather the ups and downs of life still come out together... your relationship can survive business school. 

If your relationship does not fit that profile--- you've got bigger issues than figuring out whether or not to get an MBA.  You're going to have bigger, nastier challenges later on in life; those should worry you just as much as a master's degree.

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/16132004

Grading at Owen should be like this...

OK maybe not, but i found this highly amusing.  Professors, if you're reading this, the stairway leading down to the garage would be a prime candidate for exam grading...

http://www.rvc.cc.il.us/faclink/pruckman/humor/grading.htm

For those of you who thought...

 that you could "avoid" higher level math in an MBA program---

I bring you an excerpt from my weekly problem set in business forecasting:

 

 

 

I'm going to go cry in the corner now.

Web 2.0

I found this video to be one of the most intriguing videos on the internet.  The presentation style is very creative and even if you don't enjoy technology as much as i do, it's still visually impressive.  For those of us that thrive on tech, the video clearly encapsulates the rapid changes the web has undergone in the last few years months.

Grouped to death

B-school is all about groups, but right now I'm grouped to death.  I have 3 groups projects all vying for my time.  It's almost impossible to find a time that works for everyone where we all can be productive and minimize wasted efforts.

I know, I know, in the real-world you have to coordinate meetings, but nothing like this.  Trying to balance interviews, job searches, 4-5 other class meetings, clubs, and, oh yeah, life, means there are very few timeslots that are free in your day.  Trying to coordinate this effort feels like herding cats.

Sometimes I feel the number of "group assignments" is a little obscene; there was no for at least 2 of my group assignments to be done in a group (but it is easier to grade them...).  As a matter of fact, they were less effective because you spread the efforts across several people, and no one person had all the knowledge.

Off to my second group meeting of the day--- and yes, it's Saturday.  But before i go, i'll share one of my favorite posters from despair.com.