OwenBloggers: Sam - MBA 2008

Life after school - the first month

Like most of my classmates, I spent the first two weeks of my post-MBA-"working for the man" life locked in a series of ballrooms attending one training session after another. As part of the Experienced Commercial Leadership Program at GE (and more specifically at GE Healthcare), I spent two weeks learning about the business, listening to talks by senior management (Jeff Immelt, Beth Comstock, and the ever-popular "Q," to name but a few), and, well, eating and drinking on the company's tab.

Before I get an irate email from my program manager(s), I'll mention that there were many many other things; those were only the highlights of a week packed with fun and interesting yougetthepoint ...

I'll just briefly mention that ECLP is not limited to GE Healthcare; ECLP is a cross-company organization with members in very nearly every business out there. For those of you at the Owen School interested in ECLP outside of healthcare, drop me an email from your OGSM account to the blog (owenbloggers@gmail.com) and we'll see what we can do to get you connected with someone in your target business.

Now, on to the list:

• Day 1 was spent learning how to lead teams. My very second class at the Owen School was the Professor T-Love taught Leading Teams and Organizations, so its only fitting (and by fitting I mean "comically ironic") that my very second session at Corporate Training was a crash course in LTO. Judging by the puzzled stares drawn by my laughter, I was among a very select few who thought the "Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing" slide was even remotely amusing. The balance of the afternoon was the soundcheck version of LTO's greatest hits, minus the rap interludes and Dawson's Creek references.
• You're expected to know stuff. While that might sound like a "well, duh!" statement, I'll mention that we spent quite a few days learning about the business: how GE is organized, how GE Healthcare is organized, the products we offer, as well as a full day of human anatomy. We didn't spend any time whatsoever learning about the healthcare system; they just assumed we knew all about that. So however painful those healthcare classes are (and let's be honest: some are painful and others are downright excruciating), take the time to learn it now, because the question "How do you not know this?" is not a fun question to have to answer.
• The only constant is change. On the first day of my second week, the CEO of GE Healthcare resigned to take a job at another company. On the same day a new CEO of GE Healthcare was announced, a man who had been, until that very day, in charge of one of the Industrial Businesses. And on the first day of my third week, a brand new organizational structure for the whole entire company was announced. The overall corporate structure was changed from 6 major businesses (of which GE Healthcare was one) to 4 major businesses (with GE Healthcare now being part of the newly formed Technology Infrastructure business). And all of this after the announcement that both GE Money (credit cards and other consumer finance properties) and GE Consumer & Industrial (appliances, lighting, and other consumer items) might be leaving the fold. GE might be an approximately $180BB company with about 320K employees, but "stagnant" might not be the best descriptor.
• There's more to marketing than <insert misconception here>. *Here I'm talking in general, not just about GE* I know its easy to dismiss marketing as print/radio/television advertising for toothpaste and hair gel (I'm looking at you, finance concentrators), but there's a whole lot more to it than that. In today's world, the really successful companies are the ones that make things that people want, and the only way to figure out what people want is to ask them, and that falls under the marketing function. Marketing feeds into product development, marketing feeds into long term strategic planning, marketing feeds into pricing, and it even bleeds into production. So while DCF's, Black Sholes, and asset pricing are cool and impressive, you'll always need to know how to position yourself to take full advantage of the results.
• This blogging thing is really taking off. Although many of the bloggerati will bristle, when the CMO of a fairly large corporation has her own blog (which, unfortunately for you guys, is behind the GE firewall) and actually updates it bi-weekly, its pretty safe to say that blogging has made its way into the mainstream. The public facing blog of GE is called "From Edison's Desk" and is for the more technology-minded amongst you.

I'm sure there's more, but this post is already a bit on the long side, so perhaps I'll post a follow-up in a few days.

ECLP, GE, GE Healthcare, T-Love, Untitled, LTO

Shan Foster's NBA Draft Song

Vanderbilt's favorite SEC Player of the Year SLASH newest member of the Dallas Mavericks SLASH Singer-Songwriter Shan Foster wrote a little ditty about the NBA draft. Check out the video on YouTube and check out our man Shan next season in Dallas.

[via Nashvillest]

Customer Service

Yesterday over on The Twitter, NotAnMBA quipped:

finance is *not* the language of business.. customer *needs* are the language of business..!

As a guy that just got done with his MBA, where NPV’s, DCF’s, and other large Excel documents are considered the language of the trade, I have to say that I couldn’t agree more. Obviously there are many skills you learn over the course of an MBA, each with a rightful place in your proverbial bag of tricks.

But the bottom line is that businesses exist for one reason and one reason alone: to make money. Sure, there can be other goals, but as Bob Nardelli once quoted, “No margin, no mission.” In today’s world, that means treating people right (unless you’re a wireless or an internet company, but their times will come).

Case in point: as part of our upcoming move, I’ve had to schedule connections for cable and internet service. As it turns out, the cable company can’t schedule a service connection until the previous tenant has scheduled a service termination. On the phone with the cable company this morning, I told them that I had been calling for two weeks, trying to get new service scheduled. The customer service rep not only offered to call the current tenants and leave a message, but also offered to keep a watch on the account and call me back as soon as the termination order had been placed by the current tenants.

It seems like such a small thing - “How about I call you back?” - but its turned out to be a relatively big selling point for me. Rather than explore other options for my television and internet needs, I’m willing to work with them a little and see what happens.

Of course, whether the cable guy shows up on time is anybody’s guess.

J.K. Rowlings' 2008 Harvard Commencement Address

JK Rowling gives Harvard's Commencement address. One of the best speeches I have heard in quite some time.

Part 1 of 3.

Part 2

Part 3

Information overload

For the past few weeks, I've had very little to do with my time. Sure, there's been a round of golf here, an errand or two there, flurries of calls over the impending house purchase (cleared the last contingency last Friday, we're good until the walk-through and close), and some moving logistics to deal with, but the vast majority of my calendar has been, as they say, "unscheduled."

But I don't really do all that well with tons of unscheduled time on my hands. My wife would disagree, but I'll point her to my use of the word "tons." The difference, as they say, is *all* the difference.

Sure, a vacation, such as it is, has been nice, but even *I* have my limits. And apparently 4 weeks is my limit.

As the uber-geek that *always* plugged in, I've spent some time recently playing with all the new and cool social web 2.0 apps cropping up on the net. Of course there's twitter, one of my favorites. But there's also Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Pownce, FriendFeed, Tumblr, and the brand new Plurk.

Oh, and let's not forget my *ever-popular* blog at OwenBloggers.com ...

Yes, many of these "services" are simply glorified time-wasters (I'll let you pick which is which), and once I start actually working for a living many of them will most likely fall by the wayside, but it does get me thinking about my already over-fragmented lifestyle.

Do I really need *more* ways to split my attention? The horcruxian promises of web 2.0 aside,do I really need more places to look, more windows to keep open, and more media to track?

No, I didn't think so ...

[Re-posted from my Tumblog]

Information overload

For the past few weeks, I've had very little to do with my time. Sure, there's been a round of golf here, an errand or two there, flurries of calls over the impending house purchase (cleared the last contingency last Friday, we're good until the walk-through and close), and some moving logistics to deal with, but the vast majority of my calendar has been, as they say, "unscheduled."

But I don't really do all that well with tons of unscheduled time on my hands. My wife would disagree, but I'll point her to my use of the word "tons." The difference, as they say, is *all* the difference.

Sure, a vacation, such as it is, has been nice, but even *I* have my limits. And apparently 4 weeks is my limit.

As the uber-geek that *always* plugged in, I've spent some time recently playing with all the new and cool social web 2.0 apps cropping up on the net. Of course there's twitter, one of my favorites. But there's also Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Pownce, FriendFeed, Tumblr, and the brand new Plurk.

Oh, and let's not forget my *ever-popular* blog at OwenBloggers.com ...

Yes, many of these "services" are simply glorified time-wasters (I'll let you pick which is which), and once I start actually working for a living many of them will most likely fall by the wayside, but it does get me thinking about my already over-fragmented lifestyle.

Do I really need *more* ways to split my attention? The horcruxian promises of web 2.0 aside,do I really need more places to look, more windows to keep open, and more media to track?

No, I didn't think so ...

[Re-posted from my Tumblog]

Full Circle

Just under 2 years ago I had the good fortune of being introduced, through the wonder that is Owen Orientation, to 8 of the coolest people. Introduced via Consuela-mail (no, that's not the official term, but I'd like to see it *become* the official term) in the middle of the summer, our first official meeting was a tentative and semi-awkward Coffee Talk at the local Starbucks with 9 people trying to figure out exactly how the dynamic was going to work.

Being brand new business school students, our first collaboration was, of course, a major motion picture production (The VUsual Suspects, which is a story in and of itself). Over the weeks and months that followed we made our way through discounted cash flows, the black tie only "Midterm Celebratory Experience," "factories brew!!," little dogs in funny hats, broken legs, new career goals, "Real Men of Genius," starting and growing a blog, new marriages, new relationships, old relationships, kids, and the wonder that is Froebenomics.

And now as the curtain begins to fall on our time here at the Owen School, Miss Kathleen made the wonderful suggestion of getting the band back together for one last hurrah. Last night, as our waiter Mark kept "firing" the family style dishes, we got together, shared a drink, and enjoyed each others' company for another night.

For those of you out there who are skeptical about all the claims of culture and community repeated by members of the Owen Family, I'd ask you to simply consider this: two years later we all bent over backwards to make it to dinner. One person drove 5 hours after closing on a house, one cut a trip short, another boarded a plane at 7 in the morning, and Isaac actually left work early.

Our travels here at the Owen School didn't always take us in the same direction, but in the end it turns out that we still went through them together.

Sappy, yes. But also true.

Is 41 points considered a rout? A shellacking? Or just plain old gettin' schooled?

Oh.

My.
God.

I don't really know what else to say except that that was one of the best Vanderbilt basketball games that I've ever attended.  Neltner was on fire, equally effective on both sides of the court.  He was making plays underneath, he was shooting from the outside, he even got a couple steals in the first half.  Shan Foster missed only 2 shots all night, with the first one coming deep in the second half.

That's 4 in a row for the boys, 2 of which were on the road.  This gives us some much needed momentum going into the Florida game this Saturday afternoon (2pm CST).

Technorati Tags: basketball, Business School, MBA, Memorial Gym, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

Is 41 points considered a rout? A shellacking? Or just plain old gettin' schooled?

Oh.

My.
God.

I don't really know what else to say except that that was one of the best Vanderbilt basketball games that I've ever attended.  Neltner was on fire, equally effective on both sides of the court.  He was making plays underneath, he was shooting from the outside, he even got a couple steals in the first half.  Shan Foster missed only 2 shots all night, with the first one coming deep in the second half.

That's 4 in a row for the boys, 2 of which were on the road.  This gives us some much needed momentum going into the Florida game this Saturday afternoon (2pm CST).

Technorati Tags: basketball, Business School, MBA, Memorial Gym, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

For the Apple Faithful - Fake Steve Jobs is liveblogging on Twitter

For the Faithful amongst you, check out FSJ's live Twitter feed from the MWSF Keynote.  I'm laughing so hard that people in the library are starting to stare.

http://twitter.com/fakestevetwit

PS - you don't need a Twitter account for any of this.

UPDATED - He's a bit on the graphic side, so anyone who is easily offended should probably look elsewhere for MWSF coverage.

For the Apple Faithful - Fake Steve Jobs is liveblogging on Twitter

For the Faithful amongst you, check out FSJ's live Twitter feed from the MWSF Keynote.  I'm laughing so hard that people in the library are starting to stare.

http://twitter.com/fakestevetwit

PS - you don't need a Twitter account for any of this.

UPDATED - He's a bit on the graphic side, so anyone who is easily offended should probably look elsewhere for MWSF coverage.

The Weekend Reader - Friday January 11, 2008

Richard Branson's Virgin Group Gets Healthy [WSJ]

Apparently taking on the airline and music industries (not to mention all the hot air balooning) isn't quite challenging enough for Sir Richard.  The Virgin Group has announced plans for 6 Virgin Healthcare Centers in a country, as the WSJ so aptly puts it, where "... doctors are employed by the government and healthcare is free."  VHC would offer a second tier of services on top of the National Health Services primary care.

Figuring Out HIV's Protein Diet [WSJ]

Scientists at Harvard Medical School have published a preliminary list of 270 host cell proteins on which HIV depends.  This is the first step in a new approach to defeating the virus - instead of trying to attack the virus directly, the thinking is to remove things provided by the host cell that HIV needs to survive and perpetuate itself.

Scientists Create Stem-Cell Line [WSJ.com]

A new technique for generating stem cells that doesn't destroy the embryo from which they are derived.  This is yet another way to get around some of the ethical concerns surrounding this incredibly important, and incredibly controversial, line of research.

Autism and the Limits (For Now) of Genetic Screening [WSJ.com]

Two different reports (here and here) suggest that a certain mutation on human chromosome 16 is present in nearly 1% of patients with autism.  As the health blog so accurately points out, this does very little to inform us about the other 99%, but it does begin to chip away at the genetic causes for this disease.

U.S. Worst At Beating Death From Preventable Illness [Health Affairs - REQUIRES SUBSCRIPTION]

The US comes in at the bottom of the 18 country pile.  Even more heartening is the fact that rate of improvement in the six years between 1997 and 2003 was the smallest of the bunch as well.  While the death rate did decline by 4% (people under age of 75), the rest of the list showed an average of 16% decline over the same timeframe.  The "winning" numbers were put up by France, with 72.6/100,000 for men and Japan with 54.3/100,000 for women.  The US came in with 123.4 for men and 96.4 for women (both per 100,000 patients).

Mass. Greenlights Drugstore Clinics [WSJ.com]

Massachusetts joins the growing trend of in-store retail clinics to treat minor ailments.  CVS and Wal-Mart are two of the more recognizable names getting involved in this movement.  Doctors are, predictably, not wild about the idea, as it "... might not have enough oversight from MD's."

Teva To Spend $1B In India On Deals And Plants [Pharmalot]

The world's largest maker of generic prescription drugs announced plans to expand operations into India, spending nearly $300M in the coming years in building and acquisitions.  These are in addition to the already established Teva India and research facility near New Delhi.  The move offers them not only access to lower cost manufacturing but also entrance into the Indian market, whose economy is experiencing an incredible amount of growth.

D.C. Bill Could Require Licenses for Drug Reps [WSJ]

In the ongoing struggle to enforce more order on the marketing and promotional juggernaut that is pharma sales, the District is considering a bill that would require drug reps to register and obtain licenses.  The bill prohibits off-label marketing and promotes the education of doctors on generic substitutes.

San Francisco Hearts Compulsory Health Insurance [WSJ.com]

Another ongoing struggle is that of universal healthcare.  The City by the Bay is one step further down a path they believe will lead them to nirvana - a federal appeals court ruled that the city can, in fact, force employers to either offer coverage to their employees or pay into  city-run fund.

Technorati Tags: Business School, Health Care, Healthcare, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

VU men's basketball goes 16-0. Best start *ever*.

Earlier tonight the VU men's basketball team hosted the Fighting Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina in the SEC opener at Vanderbilt's Memorial Gym.  The 'Dores came into the regular season undefeated and ranked 13th (AP, 12th in the coaches poll).  With Ole Miss falling to Tennessee, that leaves Vanderbilt and four other teams (Kansas, UNC, Memphis, and Washington State) with undefeated records.

Shan Foster hit two from outside the arc early in the game to move into the all-time lead for 3 pointers at Vanderbilt and then couldn't seem to find his shot for most of the remainder of the game.  Aside from a pretty sweet fading jumper late in the second half, most of the late game scoring was left to freshman center AJ Ogilvy, who delivered 21 in the second half for a total of 25 for the game.

The students (pictured at right) were out in full force tonight.  It looked like the entire section was SRO tonight.  They made so much noise that at times it was hard to hear the band, which is no small feat.

VU faces the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena this Saturday afternoon (12:30pm central).  The game is listed on CBS and should be a good one.

Technorati Tags: basketball, Memorial Gym, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

Jumping into the WayBack Machine on the interwebs

Yesterday a friend of mine asked me about graduation requirements for the Marketing Concentration here at the Owen School.  As is the case with most graduate institutions, the Owen School is continuously learning and reevaluating itself and its requirements for graduation.  This past year the marketing department changed the requirements for the incoming first year class, while the second year class had the choice of following the old or new requirements.

The only problem is that the department's website only lists the new requirements.  While it makes sense that most people visiting the department's website are prospective students and therefore need the requirements to which they'll be held, it does make it a bit more difficult to find the information that for some reason I forgot to save on my computer.

Enter the Internet Archive.

Over at archive.org they have a tool called the "WayBack Machine."  You type in the URL and hit the conveniently titled "Take Me Back" button and the archive spits out dated links to different versions of the page in question.

Once again, the interwebs save my bacon ...

Technorati Tags: Business School, Marketing, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Internet Archive

Only 122 days until graduation

Mod 3 is now officially 2 days old.  My schedule this mod (and next mod, for that matter) is a bit on the peculiar side in that I only have classes 2 days a week (Tue and Thu this mod, Mon and Wed next mod).  Whereas in my six previous mods I've had a fairly even distribution of classes (2-3 per day every day), this mod they're all stacked up one right after the other.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you ...

A few notes from the first two days of class:

• The day kicked off with 3 hours of Healthcare Marketing.  Seeing as I'm going to be a marketer at a healthcare company, it sounds right up my alley.  The professor quoted OwenBloggers.com not once, but twice this morning, which was nice (even if one of them was a Jared quote).
• I had to take a placement quiz of sorts for one of my classes.  In the email I got back from the professor, the subject line says "High Pass."  The body of the email, however, urges me to attend the review session as I might fall behind in the class.
• I spent the entirety of one class listening to the two guys sitting behind me talk, and not in that whispering-because-you-know-you-shouldn't-be-talking voice, if you know what I mean.
• I finished the day off with Consumer Analysis, where we learned, among other things, that:

• Apple was named for an orchard, not for the Beatles, Adam and Eve, or Newton.
• The 1957 Edsel is a collector's item.  So is the 1957 Chevy Bel Air.
• One of the TA's has a Ducati motorcycle (it might be that he wants a Ducati - I wasn't clear on that part).
• The Oxygen Network was named for ... well, it complicated.

That's all for now.

Technorati Tags: Business School, Health Care, Marketing, MBA, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

Viral marketing - word of mouth or something more deliberate?

We've all seen those videos that rip around the 'net, seemingly taking on a life of their own.  In marketing classes we've heard about the Viral Revolution and how a campaign that goes that way is some of the most effective marketing around.

This morning I stumbled across a post on TechCrunch (as well as the follow up) written by one of the founders of the Commotion Group, self-proclaimed "Viral Marketing Hired Guns" (their description, not mine).  In the post Dan Greenberg outlines a few strategies his company employs to nudge videos along the viral path.

Some of the highlights include:

• Content is not king - so long as its either shocking or features scantily clad women.
• Use MySpace, Facebook, blogs, and forums to get the word out (not very surprising)
• Make sure the thumbnail is appealing - apparently YouTube has an option that lets you take a frame from the middle of the clip  The guys pay special attention to that frame.
• Start a flame war in the comments section ... with yourself.
• Tag to control the "Related Videos" stream and push your own content rather than someone else's.

Whether you condone this sort of thing or not, it does make for an interesting read. Check it out.

The video is a personal favorite from the Duke University Business School's annual FuquaVision.  Check out the "Real MBA's of Genius" clip while you're at it.

Technorati Tags: Business School, Facebook, MBA, Myspace, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Techcrunch, Vanderbilt

Viral marketing - word of mouth or something more deliberate?

We've all seen those videos that rip around the 'net, seemingly taking on a life of their own.  In marketing classes we've heard about the Viral Revolution and how a campaign that goes that way is some of the most effective marketing around.

This morning I stumbled across a post on TechCrunch (as well as the follow up) written by one of the founders of the Commotion Group, self-proclaimed "Viral Marketing Hired Guns" (their description, not mine).  In the post Dan Greenberg outlines a few strategies his company employs to nudge videos along the viral path.

Some of the highlights include:

• Content is not king - so long as its either shocking or features scantily clad women.
• Use MySpace, Facebook, blogs, and forums to get the word out (not very surprising)
• Make sure the thumbnail is appealing - apparently YouTube has an option that lets you take a frame from the middle of the clip  The guys pay special attention to that frame.
• Start a flame war in the comments section ... with yourself.
• Tag to control the "Related Videos" stream and push your own content rather than someone else's.

Whether you condone this sort of thing or not, it does make for an interesting read. Check it out.

The video is a personal favorite from the Duke University Business School's annual FuquaVision.  Check out the "Real MBA's of Genius" clip while you're at it.

Technorati Tags: Business School, Facebook, MBA, Myspace, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Techcrunch, Vanderbilt

Merlin is my hero.

So I've found myself with a bit of extra, unscheduled time on my hands these days.  This morning, as my wife headed off to that great big time-sucking black hole we lovingly refer to as "The Lab," I spent some time re-perusing one of my all time favorite blogs, Merlin Mann's 43Folders.

As I dug back through the posts, I ran across this little morsel of email-inspired comic relief.  The fact that very many of these apply to a particular Professor here at the Owen School is, quite frankly, what makes it art.

Five email tics I'd love for you to lose

1. The liberal use of the “VERY HIGH PRIORITY!!!” flag.
2. The 18-line sig about all the Bad Things that will happen to me if I ever reveal the contents of your privileged, confidential (and unencrypted) message.
3. The unrequested press release (and the serial ignoring of the “Unsubscribe” I sent you for the previous seven press releases).
4. The graphical background, font and table tags, and remaining 14k of HTML cruft associated with every. single. message. you’ve ever sent.
5. The including of my — plus 98 other strangers’ — personal email addresses in the “To:” line of your friendly reminder about Tyler’s birthday party.

Friend: I love you, but you must evolve.

My apologies to Merlin and the rest of the crew, both for stealing his picture and, more importantly, his content.

If, like me, you've got a few minutes to kill today, head on over and take a look around Merlin's site.  Its time well spent.

Technorati Tags: Business School, email, Inbox Zero, Mac OSX, MBA, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Merlin Mann, Vanderbilt

Best. Geek. Gift. Ever.

As I'm sure many of you out there did, this morning my wife and I made coffee and then commenced to tearing open the gifts.  With my family off in Texas and hers in New Hampshire (while we spend the holidays in Tennessee), it was only the two of us making our way through the gift pile.

Somewhere near the end of said pile my wife grabbed a gift from her best friend (who, incidentally, had her second child yesterday).  And under the colorful wrapping paper and Christmas bows she found what has to be the coolest geek gift ever - How the Grinch Stole Christmas ... in latin!!.

Apparently there are also latin translations of both The House at Pooh Corner and Harry Potter.

Very cool ...

Technorati Tags: Business School, MBA, Nashville, New Hampshire, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Pooh, Grinch, Vanderbilt

No room at the inn .. err ... pew ...

Its not often that I talk about religion, which is to say I *never* talk about religion except for those rare few times my friend Austin is around and I feel like sparring.  My wife, the consummate Catholic, likes it when I tag along to Mass on Sunday mornings.  Tonight, as part of my Christmas present to her, I've returned to Midnight Mass for the first time in about ... well, let's just say its been quite some time.

After spending the vast majority of my formative years listening to the Sisters chronicle and catalog all the different ways we were going to burn for eternity, I thought I was done with organized religion when I packed my bags for college.  So it only seems right, in an incredibly ironical sort of way, that I marry a girl who goes to Mass each and every week.  To know me is to know that I'm a huge fan of comic irony ... when its happening to someone else ...

So here I sit, a full hour early for Mass, in one of the last seats in the house while the cats are at home trying to unwrap my Christmas gifts for me (my wife used curling ribbon on the presents; the cats like to play with curling ribbon; my presents end up unwrapped).  Anway, we arrived 75 minutes before Mass and only just barely got seats.  There are people lining the walls and 2 or 3 deep at the back of he church.  And still there are those people, those lone few forward scouts, who insist on telling each and every person who asks that the entire pew is "saved".  I'm all for helping your family out, but its *10:30 at night* ... how exactly is it you can't all make it to church together?

As its unlikely that I'l ever really find an answer to that question that will ever really placate me, I'll sign off here.

Here's hoping you and yours have a safe and happy holiday season.  We'll be posting sporadically until after the New Year, but we'll be back in full force once spring semester kicks in.

Technorati Tags: Business School, MBA, Nashville, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Midnight Mass, Vanderbilt

So maybe there's *one* thing we could learn from the British

Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist.  Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.

I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles.  The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.

I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated.  I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.

The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies.  Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving.  On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail.  Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.

That's right ... jail ...

The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news.  While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.

But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade.  Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain.  Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability.  The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.

Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.

But back to the Brits.  They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable?  Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones?  What's the probability of being caught in the first place?  What's the probability of being convicted once caught?  What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted?  The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.

Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?

I don't know the answers to these questions.  I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.

UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy.  Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.

** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere.  As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.

Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

So maybe there's *one* thing we could learn from the British

Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist.  Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.

I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles.  The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.

I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated.  I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.

The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies.  Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving.  On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail.  Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.

That's right ... jail ...

The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news.  While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.

But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade.  Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain.  Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability.  The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.

Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.

But back to the Brits.  They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable?  Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones?  What's the probability of being caught in the first place?  What's the probability of being convicted once caught?  What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted?  The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.

Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?

I don't know the answers to these questions.  I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.

UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy.  Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.

** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere.  As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.

Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt

So maybe there's *one* thing we could learn from the British

Although my waistline and my bathroom scale might suggest differently, I have been, for the better part of two decades, an avid cyclist.  Ever since Greg LeMond first brought the Tour de France trophy to these shores, I've not only followed the sport but also tried as best I can to get out on my bike a few times a week to spin away a couple of miles.

I'd like to think that I'm a generally safe cyclist - I wear a helmet, I obey traffic laws, I don't listen to my iPod, I use hand signals (mostly non-graphically), and I largely stay out of the way of automobiles.  The truth of my perceptions notwithstanding, I have lost count of the number of near death experiences foisted upon me by some motorist who is, at the very moment in question, talking on a cell phone.

I am aware, of course, of the numerous "scientific" studies that allegedly prove that driver safety and cell phone use are completely and utterly non-correlated.  I am also aware that many of these studies are performed under sets of conditions fraught with enough observer effect artifacts (telling people that you're watching how carefully they drive a closed course while talking on the phone possibly makes them drive more carefully than they would otherwise) to make one question the validity of the data.

The Brits, it seems, are either unaware or unmoved by these studies.  Wednesday's BBC News carried a story of the possibility of more severe penalties for motorists who call or text while driving.  On Thursday, multiple sources reported that driving while operating a mobile phone now carries the maximum penalty of two years in jail.  Accidents that result in death carry a life sentence.

That's right ... jail ...

The cyclist in me cheered upon reading the news.  While it does very little for me (we have enough trouble getting people to follow U.S. laws, let alone British ones), it did restore my faith in the fact that someone out there, in some small way, agrees with me.

But then, as he has done on more than one occasion in the past two months, Mike Shor rained on my parade.  Not directly, of course - I would hope that he has better things to do than 1) figuring out whether I'm having a parade and 2) deciding if he wants to somehow make it rain.  Rather, I recalled a lecture from his Game Theory class that dealt with punishment, commitment, and believability.  The bottom line is that any punishment must be strong enough to be a deterrent yet tempered enough to be believable.

Anyone who doesn't understand should go watch Dr. Strangelove, which should clear things right up.

But back to the Brits.  They seem to have the severity aspect covered, but are they believable?  Do people really believe that they'll be sent to jail simply for chatting away on their mobile phones?  What's the probability of being caught in the first place?  What's the probability of being convicted once caught?  What's the probability of drawing the maximum sentence once convicted?  The perceived probability of all three events happening might be so low as to make this law more cannon fodder than anything else.

Perhaps they could take a page from the Clayton Act, or perhaps a page from the FTC's playbook, or perhaps some other strategy to increase the perception that prosecution is an actual possibility?

I don't know the answers to these questions.  I suppose time will tell whether this law is indeed useful or simply more words on the page.

UPDATED 12/28:
The Boston Globe reported this morning that a man lost control of his SUV while typing a text message and killed a 13 year old boy.  Even worse was the fact that he apparently didn't realize he had hit someone until hours later.

** FULL DISCLOSURE: I think Game Theory is an excellent class and should be taken by every MBA student everywhere.  As a matter of fact, I think every MBA student everywhere should take it from Mike Shor, grading complications notwithstanding.

Technorati Tags: Business School, cell phone, cycling, MBA, Nashville, Owen, Owen Graduate School of Management, owenbloggers.com, Vanderbilt