OwenBloggers: Isaac - MBA '08

Standard Deviations

So i'm going to start a new series of semi-weekly posts titled "Standard Deviations".  It'll be bits-and-bites of information--- likely incoherent, but it's my ill-concieved  attempt to force myself to get my head out of my books and blog more. 

• This weekend was almost a complete bust.  Spent Saturday writing one paper, Sunday another.  With finals coming up and a 5-course class load, i'm trying to clear my plate for this week so i've got ample time to cry myself to sleep over my upcoming Derivatives final. 
• Weekend wasnt a complete bust--- i take that back. Had a lovely dinner with four old friends and one new one.  Fantastic little Italian restaurant named Cafe Nonna.  Highly recommended.  Great wine good food, better people.  After dinner we somehow were talked into going to one of these commercial haunted houses.  The actual haunted house was nowhere near as scary as the customer base.  Standing in line to get in was 100 times more frightful than the freakshow inside.
• Here's a little advice--- dont ask me what i think about the economy.  It seems that since i'm in my second year of an MBA, everybody thinks i can look into some crystal ball and predict where the economy's heading in the next year.  The fact is that even with an MBA, i'm only better at talking through and understanding the complexities of the free market--- the powers of prediction is not a course offered at Owen.  I have a more informed opinion--- but that's it.  Remember, even people who call themselves "economists" really dont have a clue.  If you look the academic economist's track record, they have successfully predicted 15 of the last three recessions.  Simply put--- nobody has an answer, but there are indicators. 
• But like everything in economics, the answer "it depends" even applies to seemingly clear-cut signals.  Take for example the fact the Canadian dollar (the loonie... i get a kick out of that).  is now somewhere at/above the level of the USD.  I bet in the last two weeks i've heard fifty people tell me what a bad thing this is for the economy.  Really?  Are you sure?  If i'm an exporter of US goods, this is great news.  Canada, our largest trading partner, now views US made goods as slightly "cheaper".  So... is that a bad thing?  The point is there's no right answer.  It's kind of like predicting the weather... storm systems are made up of an infinite collection of temperatures and pressures.  If I look at the barometric pressure and it's falling--- does that mean it's going to rain or shine?  It doesnt, but taken into account along with all the other "inputs" into the system, you can make a pretty good guess.  Same thing in economics, except there are many more variables and you can't measure many of them directly...
• A very good friend of mine sent me this link.  It's a somewhat morose topic--- the last lecture of a CMU professor diagnosed with terminal cancer.  However, it's a fantastic presentation and i urge everyone to take the time to watch it.  It really helps you take a step back and check your bearings--- we all need to do that from time to time.

Yet another reason I love my Mac

So i decided i wanted to catch up on some of my housecleaning duties today; found some old DV home movies of past Christmases and vacations and the like. Huh... wonder if those trite apple ads about "just make a movie, it's so easy" are really accurate.

I dont have a powerhouse Mac.  I've got an iMac, a nice one, but still not a video-editing behemoth Mac with 16 gigs of RAM or anything, just an off-the shelf model with no video editing software besides what came with it (iMovie).

So i plugged in my 6 year old Sony handycam which oddly had a firewire port back then.  iMovie pops up, asks me what i want to call my project.  In less than 15 seconds i'm editing tape and inserting titles for chapters without even having to THINK.  i think that's what's great about macs... you dont have to say "where would i find this"... it all just kind of works.

So i'm importing an huge movie file and i noticed how unbelievably fast it was converting the movie... really fast.  So i decided to run a little test.  Let's see what my dinky little off-the-shelf iMac can do. 

As i type this, i'm making a backup of my important files to an external drive (100 gigs), posting a blog entry, converting a video, playing iTunes, and just for fun, creating a powerpoint, browsing the web, and watching a quicktime movie.  It's just as responsive right now as it is sitting idle--- which means it's about 100 times more responsive than any PC under any circumstances.  a little tool i have called iStat is telling me my iMac is kinda busy, but not really--- 73% of resources are free and i honestly just cant think what other applications to open to test it further.

I love... LOVE my mac. 

What does this have to do with a blog about B-school?  yeah, not too much... but maybe i can convince some of the incoming students they dont have to settle for the dark and uninspiring world of the PC--- take that money you'd spend on a thinkpad and buy yourself a Mac.  i promise you it'll be the best purchase you'll make.

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.

Bad publicity is better than no publicity

Great... you love picking up the WSJ and seeing this on the front page...

Vanderbilt Chancellor needs to "reign in spending"

(this link goes to WSJ; if you dont have a login, i'm sure you can find it reprinted elsewhere...).

Not News: Vanderbilt's Chancellor Spends Tons of Cash

Ok, so pretty interesting article (especially the part about illegal substance use at the university mansion).  But, I doubt very seriously Gee's spending habits are much different than chancellors at other schools.  I know plenty of schools whose de-facto heads-of-state in either academics or athletics have been caught abusing funds, giving favors to supporters, or fraternizing with the co-eds.  Heck, Gee spending a ton of money (when he's brought in millions during his tenure), who cares?

I'd rather him spend like a Rockefeller and raise the rankings and endowment of the school than sit back and watch the paint dry. At least we're getting something for the money...

Great article

Link: The "Do Nots" of Networking.

Great link, pertinent information. However, as life has a tendency of doing, those that need this information will not believe it applies to them; those that already mastering these tips will worry they don't do enough.  I've found those individual most needing "refinement" in interpersonal skills are usually the ones who think they're a networking guru.  Anyways, give it a read; if you find it useful, you're probably already a good networker.  If you read it thinking "oh, I've got all this down", you need help.