OwenBloggers: Sharran Srivatsaa

Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing

It was Monday morning. The colorful leaves on the trees around campus, the crisp air with traces of pollen sparked the occasional sneeze, and the relatively warmer sunlight streaming through the windows somehow put a calm smile on people. I love this time of the year, it is a time that reminds me, humbly, that I am not in charge. It is a time that something greater than me instantly makes me feel like a better person when I wake up and look outside the window.

It was Monday morning, and I walked into Leadership class, found a seat and put my stuff away. We had a guest speaker that day, so I pulled out my Moleskine and got ready. A gentleman, with an aura of confidence and humility, sat across the table from me talking to Professor Dick Daft. When he saw me, he got up, reached his hand out to me and introduced himself. "Mike Hyatt," he said... "I love the Moleskine too!" We talked for a minute about blogs and the moleskine notebooks before class started.

There were a few things that Mike talked about in his presentation on Culture and Leadership that really resonated with me. He talked about the importance of history: learning how the organization was built, understanding the inspiration of the founders, and feeling the culture of the organization. Then he talked about the importance of taking the history, culture, vision, and mission into perspective and building a core set of values. While I have heard many leaders talk about this, I liked how Mike took it a step further... he talked about how it was important to map those values to behavior. While talking about values, Mike said,

"Its not good enough to have a fancy plaque in your lobby, it should be embodied by every single person in every single thing they do... and good leadership is showing how an organization's core values translate into behavior and everyday action."

Another aspect of Mike's presentation that I enjoyed was the spirit of intentionality and its effect on personal development. People in Mike's position are constantly pressed for time... in fact, most of us feel like there is not enough time in the day and we are constantly spinning our wheels trying to get things done. Mike talked about how he intentionally takes a retreat during the month to gather his thoughts and think about his organization and his personal life. For someone who likes to have a packed calendar, I enjoyed the idea of an intentional retreat...even if it is for a couple of hours where I just sit down, observe the world, collect my thoughts, and dream big.

Thank you, Mike, for taking the time to share your story with us.

You can read Mike's blog at: www.michaelhyatt.com

Technorati Tags: michael hyatt,sharran srivatsaa,vanderbilt,mba,owen,ogsm,leadership,daft

Whatever. If something sucks, it sucks.

Today one of my colleagues ripped on me, in the presence of numerous other folks, and plainly stated that he/she was ticked off at my lack of support for one of the administrative entities of the school on a particular matter. First, I am glad that this was said... 1. I serve in some official, elected capacities and it is my responsibility to hold up my end of the bargain 2. It takes courage to say "what the heck," especially in public and at the right time... and most importantly 3. It is the right thing to do... if not it would get brushed under the rug and there would be all that harboring-negative-feelings-crap, which I hate.

Then I got to thinking... should I be all PC and support the administrative entities of the school (maybe it be faculty, staff, deans, admissions, career management, library etc.) at all times, no matter what I thought? I think I am blessed with enough common sense to not bash the school... but if I am having a discussion with three friends in the hallway and we talk about how one of the recent projects done by one of the schools administrative entities sucks, well... if I think it sucks, I will say that it sucks. That's the friend and Owen student in me talking. Now what is unacceptable given my role on campus as a member of the student government is that I don't do anything about it... that is wrong. And I try very hard to make sure that never happens. But that is a discussion for another time.

The Owen Student Government is a body has elected officers... elected by the students. The interest and development of the student body is my primary responsibility and I feel very strongly about it. I see it as my right as well as obligation to call a spade a spade... if something sucks, it sucks. Well, I probably shouldn't say that it "sucks," (i.e. I should probably substitute it with another word) but I am going to call it as I see it... and its going to offend a few people in the bargain, but I am sorry that I cannot deal with mediocrity, especially when excellence is clearly within reach.

So how does this quasi-rant help potential students: The Owen culture is not one of accepting what is given to us. We try to challenge it. I try to challenge it. We should challenge it. Change is challenging in an educational institution, and at the very least it takes a whole academic year for a new initiative to get rolled out just because that's the way everything works. But that should not change the way we look at problems and potential solutions. This is a school that embraces change... and is constantly looking for ways to make this place better. That is one of the fundamental reasons why I love Owen. Please...call a spade a spade when you come to visit. Tell us what you like about Owen and also share your ideas that will help us make this a better place to live and learn. For that matter, send us an email right now... to owenbloggers at gmail dot com and tell us what you think. We want to hear from you. If something sucks, we want to know.

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Whatever. If something sucks, it sucks.

Today one of my colleagues ripped on me, in the presence of numerous other folks, and plainly stated that he/she was ticked off at my lack of support for one of the administrative entities of the school on a particular matter. First, I am glad that this was said... 1. I serve in some official, elected capacities and it is my responsibility to hold up my end of the bargain 2. It takes courage to say "what the heck," especially in public and at the right time... and most importantly 3. It is the right thing to do... if not it would get brushed under the rug and there would be all that harboring-negative-feelings-crap, which I hate.

Then I got to thinking... should I be all PC and support the administrative entities of the school (maybe it be faculty, staff, deans, admissions, career management, library etc.) at all times, no matter what I thought? I think I am blessed with enough common sense to not bash the school... but if I am having a discussion with three friends in the hallway and we talk about how one of the recent projects done by one of the schools administrative entities sucks, well... if I think it sucks, I will say that it sucks. That's the friend and Owen student in me talking. Now what is unacceptable given my role on campus as a member of the student government is that I don't do anything about it... that is wrong. And I try very hard to make sure that never happens. But that is a discussion for another time.

The Owen Student Government is a body has elected officers... elected by the students. The interest and development of the student body is my primary responsibility and I feel very strongly about it. I see it as my right as well as obligation to call a spade a spade... if something sucks, it sucks. Well, I probably shouldn't say that it "sucks," (i.e. I should probably substitute it with another word) but I am going to call it as I see it... and its going to offend a few people in the bargain, but I am sorry that I cannot deal with mediocrity, especially when excellence is clearly within reach.

So how does this quasi-rant help potential students: The Owen culture is not one of accepting what is given to us. We try to challenge it. I try to challenge it. We should challenge it. Change is challenging in an educational institution, and at the very least it takes a whole academic year for a new initiative to get rolled out just because that's the way everything works. But that should not change the way we look at problems and potential solutions. This is a school that embraces change... and is constantly looking for ways to make this place better. That is one of the fundamental reasons why I love Owen. Please...call a spade a spade when you come to visit. Tell us what you like about Owen and also share your ideas that will help us make this a better place to live and learn. For that matter, send us an email right now... to owenbloggers at gmail dot com and tell us what you think. We want to hear from you. If something sucks, we want to know.

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Social Impact at Owen

We have many great initiatives at Owen. We are doing some very exciting things to contribute to a greener world. We have a whole new system of low-flush restrooms. The entire building has energy efficient lighting. Isaac and I created the Green Room last year... a printing resource room that has energy efficient printers, recycled paper, full-duplex printing, no cover pages, and handy paper recycling bins. We use recyclable cups at our social events and we got some very cool social event glasses that students are using instead of using the plastic cups. Recycle bins all over the place. Recruiters and companies cannot spam our mailboxes with recruiting flyers. Baby steps.

What I am particularly excited about is the new set of positions we have created as part of the Owen Student Government. We have a first and second year position on the student government executive board that focuses entirely on Social Impact. Daniel and Jeff and doing a wonderful job building a strategy to integrate the students, clubs and organizations, recruiters, and alumni... all using the power and responsibility of Social Impact. These guys just shared the strategy and timeline they have built with me and I am so impressed. The goals for integrating Social Impact into the student government was to have a central clearinghouse and repository for social impact activities related to Owen, to make a formal commitment to recognizing and supporting the impact that we can have on our community, and most importantly to allow the students to be stewards of the community.

Jeff and Daniel, thank you for doing such an amazing job. I am proud of our team and I am excited to see the new initiatives that you are going to roll out over the next six months.

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Forced to Focus

As I sit at the most coveted table at the Starbucks across the street from Owen, listening to some old Matchbox 20, I stare right into the java jacket of my neighbor's Eggnog Chai... deep in thought, more like lost in thought. I realize that I am so darn tired. I still go from 6am to midnight every day... but these last few weeks have been very different. Everything that is on my plate has demanded an extraordinary amount of focus... that is if I want to get through all of it in decent time and still do a good job with every task. My pathological disgust for mediocrity only drives me to focus harder.

But before I lose focus, I want to tell you about a class that demands unwavering focus every single second...Corporate Valuation Management.

Fondly called "Corp Val" and taught by Professor Craig Lewis, it is considered the most demanding class at Owen. A right of passage, if you will. The class is a deep dive into the valuation of companies and is every aspiring Investment Banker's dream and nightmare rolled into one. There are many classes that I have taken at Owen that have had interesting material and/or taught by engaging professors... but you could still find a few minutes during a 90 minute class period to tune out before you needed to tune back in. (Its hard to tune out in T-Love's class because he is always switching it up) You cannot afford to tune out even for a single minute in Corp Val. I am constantly learning, writing, or trying to get un-lost in the class. Craig is such an amazing professor. There is no redundancy or padding in his lectures, everything he says is right on... measured, organized, clear, context-sensitive, and extremely useful. My head hurts after Corp Val because it is 90 minutes of unwavering focus.

The class is amazing. We definitely have an advantage taking it as second years because we have had the core classes, we have had our summer internships and everyone on my team has multiple job offers (i.e. more relaxed than the gunner first-years), we all know each other and are flexible with each other's schedules since we know each others significant others/personalities etc., and we are a lot more efficient than we were a year ago... i.e. we can sit down a bang out the tough parts in an hour or two and then break away to write up the rest of the assignment. We do have a dream team, but sometimes we feel like the Lakers. The class is demanding... the assigned reading is technical, there is a deliverable every class, your understanding of the material better be sound because you can get cold-called, and the lectures demand every ounce of focus you have.

Isaac and I joke about how we would take Corp Val with Craig if it was offered every module. And he is just too nice a guy with an amazing understanding of the material from both a practical and academic perspective. My advice to you if you are an incoming student.... 1. Take Corp Val before you graduate no matter what your concentration is 2. Pick your team wisely and hopefully it is people who you like spending a lot of time with... make sure you have a breadth of talent/skills and one person who definitely knows his/her statistics.  3. Make sure you don't take it during a Mod when you are going to be away multiple weekends 4. Do not take it after lunch!

The rhythm is back...

Technorati tags: sharran, srivatsaa, owenbloggers, owen, mba, vanderbilt, corp val

Golf for Business and Life

I spent many years at some of the most beautiful golf and tennis resorts but I never took full advantage of the free golf. Every single time a golfer looks at my Kaplaua shirt, he/she shrieks in excitement... and then proceeds to bang his/her head against the wall when I tell him/her that I only played the Plantation course once in my 2.5 years there.

Vanderbilt runs an awesome class called Golf for Business and Life. The program runs on a group instruction format and we get access to some amazing golf pros who walk us through fundamentals, etiquette etc. I like it because it gives me a chance to get out on the course once a week, to practice at my own speed, and to have personalized instruction from time to time. I particularly enjoy my Tuesday afternoons because the Vanderbilt Legends Golf Course is about a 20 minute drive from campus. I hardly drive my car (well, unless I am visiting N) in Nashville, so this gives me a chance to get away from campus and enjoy the lovely outdoors before it gets too cold to wear a polo shirt.

I was a decent golfer to start off, but just getting out and playing once a week has made me so much more comfortable. I still love tennis... and I am glad N does too. I somehow need to hit a lot more balls per minute... and I am not so fond of the little, white sucker just sitting there staring at you... I prefer whacking yellow fuzz.

Technorati tags: sharran, srivatsaa, owen, ogsm, vanderbilt

Golf for Business and Life

I spent many years at some of the most beautiful golf and tennis resorts but I never took full advantage of the free golf. Every single time a golfer looks at my Kaplaua shirt, he/she shrieks in excitement... and then proceeds to bang his/her head against the wall when I tell him/her that I only played the Plantation course once in my 2.5 years there.

Vanderbilt runs an awesome class called Golf for Business and Life. The program runs on a group instruction format and we get access to some amazing golf pros who walk us through fundamentals, etiquette etc. I like it because it gives me a chance to get out on the course once a week, to practice at my own speed, and to have personalized instruction from time to time. I particularly enjoy my Tuesday afternoons because the Vanderbilt Legends Golf Course is about a 20 minute drive from campus. I hardly drive my car (well, unless I am visiting N) in Nashville, so this gives me a chance to get away from campus and enjoy the lovely outdoors before it gets too cold to wear a polo shirt.

I was a decent golfer to start off, but just getting out and playing once a week has made me so much more comfortable. I still love tennis... and I am glad N does too. I somehow need to hit a lot more balls per minute... and I am not so fond of the little, white sucker just sitting there staring at you... I prefer whacking yellow fuzz.

Technorati tags: sharran, srivatsaa, owen, ogsm, vanderbilt

Samba goes to Law School

While my most of my fellow business school students (yes Tony, I know you are taking Mergers & Acquisitions) are grooving to the MBA tune, I have ventured across the conceptual divide to take a class at the Vanderbilt Law School. Here are some random thoughts:

1. They don't speak English at the law school.
2. I thought it was a great idea to take a class in Estate and Gift Taxation as it would give me a good foundation to speak with ultra high net-worth clients when I am in the wealth management world post-graduation... but now I have realized why we all need Trust and Estate lawyers
3. I am an avid reader. I have read most of the classics and have finished every book I have picked up except for War and Peace... I am still working on that. I even read text books on compiler construction and android epistemology in college... but nothing comes close to the utter lack of comprehension I experience when I read my law school text book.
4. The law class is harder than all the business school classes I have taken... and for those who think I am slacking this module... take a hike.
5. I am so impressed with the law school faculty. Our professor for the course makes the material so enjoyable... I love going to class because it is a completely different way thinking and teaching. He is a distinguished trust and estate lawyer... he cleverly breaks down the material by filling each part with stories... all while backing it up with the statues.

I wish I had a career counselor who would have advised me to get a JD/MBA. I strongly believe that it arms you with the ability to understand the world from the perspective of an economist while being able to articulate thoughts and ideas based on the lessons that we have learned from years judicial history. Law school provides some much needed conceptual context that most of us in the business school could definitely benefit from.

L to R: Jose, Yujin, Samba, Kat, Markus - and no, the picture has no relevance to this blog entry.  

The samba has definitely lost his rhythm...

Technorati tags: sharran, srivatsaa, vanderbilt, vandy, law school, jd/mba, mba, owen

Pursuit of Happiness

I just finished watching The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith and I am a ball of mixed emotions. With its close tie into my current career path of choice, the message hit pretty close to home. Set in 1981, the movie talks about how Will Smith is one of twenty hot shots who get into a high flying, non-paying internship program at Dean Witter... and only one of the interns gets a full-time offer. One!

We MBA interns have it easy. When I finished watching the movie, I could not stop to think about whether my summer would be different if that was the kind of program I was in... and I don't know why, but many parts of me wished it was like that.

We are all different and it has taken me all these years to realize that I work best when I am overloaded with work. The more work I have to do, the better I do... I eat better, I am healthier, I am less stressed, and I sleep more... weird. Somehow seeing my Outlook calendar jam-packed gives me a sense of calm... one of my classmates at Owen made fun of me because I had quick meetings scheduled for the 10 minute break between classes. If it works for you, and works for the person you are meeting with, I think anytime is a good time.

Advice for incoming students: Spend the extra time early on building your schedule and putting the effort into being organized and managing your time. Take the time to put things into you outlook calendars. Take the time to file the handouts and the articles in the right binders. Take the time to print off the slides and make notes. The few times during which my organization fell apart, it had a ripple effect into the rest of my life. It was no fun.

Last week at lunch I got some of the best advice that I have ever received. The funny thing is that all of us have gotten this advice at some point in time in our lives, and sometimes the advice is not anything tremendously insightful... it just comes from a person who you trust at a time when you are receptive to it. One of my colleague/mentors told me that the best thing that I can do for myself in this business is to take care of myself physically and emotionally. Physically for the obvious reasons... but emotionally because this business has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows... and if you can go home and walk into a warm and loving family, it would work magic for the mind, body and spirit. It might sound like common sense, but it was something that I needed to hear at this point in my life.

I am feeling the rhythm of the samba....

Technorati tags: owen, owenbloggers, mba, vanderbilt, sharran, srivatsaa

The pink elephant dances to the rhythm of the samba

1 year down. I am spent. But I feel awesome.

This past year has been filled with all kinds of joy and junk. I have learned more in this past year than I have during any other period in my life. For all of you getting ready to come to Owen or go to business school elsewhere, here are a few things I wish I had known before I came to business school:

1. Everyone gets through business school... how you get through is what is left to be decided. Right from the first day you have to make choices... and the more things you say "yes" to the more things you will have to say "no" to. For example, if you say "yes" to a full range of extra-curricular activities, your grades will probably suffer. My point: have a rough sense of what you want out of your business school experience. This will act as a filter and allow you to make choices that are right for you.

2. Extra-curricular activities are not like the ones that you did in undergrad. These are a lot more involved and demanding, and you cant get away doing a poor job. Well you could, you would just let down a lot of people and that is no fun. So add things to your plate carefully.

3. Study your brains out. Ask for help. Find people with like-minded goals and from a study group to keep you in line. Study your brains out. Ask for help. Did you hear me? Study your brains out.

4. You don't have to party hard, but show up for social gatherings. I would recommend that you show up for every social gathering, even if it is just for a part of the time. Nobody is going to force you to drink, hang out with a Sprite and get to know your school mates. And there is absolutely no freaking excuse for you to EVER miss a social gathering at school... remember, at least show up.

5. Be selfless. Everyone is at school to move forward in their lives, its just not you. The best thing that you can do is always be available and accessible to help anyone that you can in anyway that you can. Don't hold back your answers to the Stats homework. Share your contacts with your classmates. Show up at their parties. Don't be selfish, everything will come back full-circle.

Oh, and everyone is going to be stressed... so smile.

My lunch with the CEO of Wal-Mart

Yesterday I had lunch with Wal-Mart North America's CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright (Corporate America's Rising Star by Fortune) as a part of Owen's Distinguished Speaker Series. This is one of the favorite parts of my Owen experience, a chance to connect with business leaders from around the world in a small group setting. I see Webcast's of successful individuals giving lectures and presentations at different schools, but I wonder if those students get to have lunch with the speaker, sitting right beside the Dean of the school, engaging them in great conversation. After the presentation we also had a reception where the Owen community was able to meet and speak with Mr. Castro-Wright in the lobby. There was brain-food for the famished students :)

At lunch I jumped in line right behind Mr. Castro-Wright because I wanted to ask him a question about a potential connection with his past position at Nabisco. I was a part of the Britannia Amritraj Tennis (BAT) Program, a joint initiative between the Amritraj Brothers and Britannia/Nabisco to build the future of Indian Tennis Players. Indian Davis Cup player Leander Paes is a product of this program. Mr. Castro-Wright ran the Asia-Pacific operations for Nabisco at that time and I wanted to see if he remembered the BAT program. Of course he did, and what was better... he is a tennis player himself, a common thing that brought both him and me to the US.

I began to look at Wal-Mart from a different perspective when Mr. Castro-Wright said,

"We at Wal-Mart save people money so that they can live a better life."

He is the first big-time CEO that I have met that actually answered the questions that I asked him, instead of beating around the bush. Glad to meet you Sir.

Technorati Tags: wal-mart - sharran - owen - srivatsaa - vandy - vanderbilt

Managing Innovation - Day 1: Thirsty Dog + H2O Backpack

I am taking  Managing Innovation this Mod with Prof. Dave Owens. Here is Dave's unofficial website, here is a link to his official profile at Owen, and here is a link to the class blog.

We spent the first portion of the first class talking about what we thought about innovation... its "definition," what it means to us, what we consider to be innovative, why it matters, etc. This was one of those discussions that I just wanted to hang back and listen... how many times have you thought about the meaning of "innovation?"  Its one of those words that just finds its place in our vocabulary but we never really explore its true meaning and impact on our everyday thinking.

 

The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds 

And few have the imagination to see beyond them.

 

Dave said, "I want you to think about a cool idea right now..." and then KL said, "Oooh I got one..."

+

I think KL was referring to some kind of CamelBak for her dog!

I am particularly excited about our class project which we get to choose and define ourselves. The assignment describes it best:

As a group, find someone with a problem you are willing to solve. Your innovation should address a challenge that your client faces in his or her professional context. Your team is free to address any problem of any size in any way that you find to be appropriate, but you are required to implement it by the end of the course.

FYI: course is 7 weeks long, ha!

Isaac and I will be working on this project and I will write more about this as we flush out the details.

___
Managing Innovation: Mod 4 2007
Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management
Professor Dave Owens: Bio | Personal Site
Class Blog

Technorati Tags: owens - owen - vanderbilt - innovation - sharran - srivatsaa - owenbloggers - mba

Bradford introduces Barry to Project Pyramid

Dean Jim Bradford is out connecting the hidden treasures of Owen with each other.

Bradford met with Jeffrey Barry (Owen MBA '89) who is the Senior International Economist at Overseas Private Investment Corporation in Washington DC, and spoke with him about the Project Pyramid initiative at Vanderbilt.  

"OPIC was created to facilitate the employment of private capital in emerging markets.  They fund micro-lending, seek to promote transparency, collaborate with private and public partners for promotion of business development, and provide housing and many other services in over 150 countries worldwide."

Thank you Dean Bradford for making the connection with Jeffrey and OPIC, we are looking forward to building this relationship! 

Read Dean Bradford's blogosphere introduction here.
Read about Project Pyramid here | Contact Project Pyramid
Read my last post on the hidden treasure here

Technorati Tags: project pyramid - owen - bradford - opic - projectpyramid - owenbloggers

iPods, BigMac index, and international currency markets

I love my friends... they know my interests so well that they always forward good articles to me. Ria just sent me this... the original link to the article on BBC is here.

iPods set the tempo in currency

As a sign of the global reach of the iPod, an Australian bank has opted to use the music player as a benchmark to track currency values worldwide.

Commonwealth Securities has launched an iPod index, based on the cost of the 2 gigabyte iPod Nano player as a way of showing if a currency is overvalued.

The idea stems from The Economist magazine's Big Mac index.

The bank has chosen the iPod since they are all made in China and its price - in theory - should be consistent.

Appreciation

This is in contrast to McDonald's burgers, which are made worldwide, says the bank.

As a result, the price of an iPod after taxes should be the same regardless of where it is sold, argues Commonwealth Securities.

However, in practice this is not the case.

At present the cheapest place to buy the iPod Nano is Canada, for around $172 (£87), but at the other end of the spectrum is Brazil, where the same model sells for $327.

I particularly like this quote by Economist Craig James:

"The index suggests that the US dollar has potential to appreciate against a range of major currencies, with the Australian dollar about 15% overvalued against the greenback," said Craig James, Commonwealth Securities' head economist.

I would tend to look for other traditional indicators to corroborate James' theory that the US dollar has potential to appreciate against the major currencies, but I like how he broke away from the shackles of traditional thinking by using the most popular consumer product in recent times to explain the potential of the US dollar in the international currency markets.

The iPod has definitely got the rhythm of the samba...

Project Pyramid: Yunus' impact on Vanderbilt and Owen

Last week Dr. Mohammad Yunus, Vanderbilt PhD, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Microfinance and Grameen Bank. I have seen a lot of award ceremonies... but this was the first time my eyes welled up with tears. This man truly changed the world... in the most human way possible.

Here is a quick interview on Jon Stewart...

 

Bottom of the Pyramid: In economics, the bottom of the pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the four billion people who live on less than $2 per day. The phrase “bottom of the pyramid” is used in particular by people developing new models of doing business that deliberately target that market.

In Spring 2007, Owen will launch its second course in the (student-driven) Project Pyramid series, a new Vanderbilt University-wide initiative housed in the Owen Graduate School of Management. The course titled, "Project Pyramid: Business applications and innovations for alleviating poverty in India" will be a joint 7-week course between Owen and The Vanderbilt Divinity School (in collaboration with the Cal Turner Center for Moral Leadership) culminating in a trip to Hyderabad (India). On the trip to India, students will work in teams to understand the impact of micro-finance, micro-equity and other ways that different agencies and institutions are empowering those at the Bottom of the Pyramid in India. As this would be the first trip from Owen to study the alleviation of poverty, the teams will build case studies to document their learning and experiences. These cases will then be used as a (great) starting point for students who take the course in the coming years as it will give them a peer-perspective of the situation and hopefully bridge the scholastic/practical divide. The course is already oversubscribed!

Professor Bart Victor will be leading the course this Spring and we are extremely excited about it. He has spent countless hours with the Project Pyramid Leadership Team developing the course and curriculum, planning the trip, and helping us build the strategic vision for Project Pyramid as a student-driven, university-wide program.

In addition to cases, articles, and speakers, we will be using Yunus' Banker to the Poor and CK Prahalad's The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid as learning resources for the class.

Technorati Tags: bop - project pyramid - yunus - vandy - owen - vanderbilt - cal turner - sharran - mba - vanderbilt mba

Pray B3yond

Core Marketing Final....two words: Data Dump.

The final was pretty anti-climatic... here is a rough timeline:

1. Day 1: Prof. Hoeffler talks about the course and the final exam... calls the exam the "perfect final." Hmmmm. Basically the final is a "Live Case" which deals with the hottest product launch in the fall
2. Sometime in Week 5, Professor Hoeffler tells us that the Live Case is going to the on the PlayStation 3
3. A week before the final Prof. Hoeffler gives us a bound 60 page classpak with all the relevant information regarding the launch of the PS3... press releases, blogger reviews, analyst reports, etc.
4. Everyone except the hard core students ( and the four wise men) put the classpak in their backpacks and forgot about it because Prof. Hoeffler said it was going to be an open-book final
5. The four wise men got together, cracked the case apart, and basically rewrote the classpak in bullet form
6. The class period before the final Prof. Hoeffler gave us some sample questions
7. The four wise men got together again, pulled a marathon, answered the sample questions, created potential questions and answered them, and related the PS3, Wii, and XBOX to every marketing framework that was covered in class (that would be all 18 of them) This included analysis of current strategies, potential alternate strategies, analysis of risks and pitfalls... whoa!
8. The rockin' crib sheet was made
9. Then came the final... data dump. We had been noodling over these ideas for so many hours and Prof. Hoeffler was right... all the learning happened in the 48 hours before the exam.

1 down, so many more to go.

Technorati Tags: vanderbilt - vandy - owen - vanderbilt mba - owen bloggers - owenbloggers - sharran - hoeffler - four wise men

Owen Dean Jim Bradford joins the blogosphere

Jim Bradford, Dean of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management has joined the blogosphere. I have had many opportunities to meet and speak with Dean Bradford and what impresses me every time is his warmth and professionalism.

Bob Bruner, Dean of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, is also an active blogger. It is wonderful to see deans of business schools and members of the administration share their experiences with the community.

We had our official OwenBloggers photo-shoot a few hours ago and Dean Bradford joined us for the pictures as our fellow blogger. Top tier business schools such as Darden and Owen work hard to preserve their aura of exclusivity but in my opinion the times are changing... the students, recruiters, and citizens of the world are curious to know what is happening inside these redbrick buildings. I applaud the likes of Dean Bradford, Dean Bruner and Juwono Sudarsono (Minister of Defense for Indonesia) who take the time to share their ideas and experiences. Their reflections deliver some much needed transparency as they give us a chance to connect with the "person" instead of the "position."

Dean Bradford's Blog: www.deanbradford.com

Technorati Tags: vanderbilt - owen - vandy - mba - sharran - bradford - bruner - bradford - sudarsono - blog

MBA Admissions Tip: Your story ties everything together

The MBA application process is designed to be the beginning of a life changing experience. I would encourage you to talk to friends and family and to reflect upon your life and aspirations, beyond your family… beyond your experiences… beyond hometown, state or country… and try to envision what really and truly makes you who you are, and what an MBA will do for the spirit inside you. This and this alone will guide you through the application process, admission interviews, two years of business school and the career search process. Let me say it again, this and this alone will determine your success and true happiness… not your exemplary academic accomplishments, professional experiences or personal strengths.

GMAT scores, undergrad academic records, and recommendation letters are marginal at best (in the qualitative way) without your ability to tell your story and tie it all together in your essays and interviews. You might have all your bases covered with regard to being in the "definitely interview" applicant pile with your GMAT score and years of meaningful work experience… but these are not going to get you anywhere unless you can tell your story. Your story has to be unique… because you are unique. Your story has to grab the reader and transport them into your world. Your story has to make the reader want to be you. Your story brings your application to life… please spend time crafting this.

We are a story-telling race, keep that in mind. Everyone likes a good story.

Technorati Tags: mba - vanderbilt - owen - vandy - sharran - essays - gmat

T-Love/J5, Marriage, BUFUMUFU and Red Bull

With everything that has been going on inside the Owen bubble, I need jolts like this to wake me up sometimes. I got this email last week while I was half-asleep, chomping on my breakfast... and as soon as I read the first line, my beautiful macbook screen was plastered with quasi-chewed, semi-crunchy bits (or should I say chunks?) of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch. Yes, that was my half-asleep, wake-the-heck-up way of saying....WHOA!

Dear Sharran,
I think I'm getting hitched and apart from being overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted, I'm also very happy.

As Ai would say, its "teh awesomes." Congratulations Su!

This is going to  be a rockin' week. Operations case due today. Multiple Career Management Assignments due today. Directive Letter due on Wednesday. Marketing Case due on Thursday. Finance assignment due on Friday. What the heck!

But it is the stuff outside of class that is kinda fun. This week we are building the syllabus for Mod 3's Bottom of the Pyramid class and also developing the relationship between Owen and the Divinity school for collaboration on this initiative going forward. Kat and I are going to the Jurassic 5 concert with Professor T-Love... yeah, that will deserve its own entry with pictures and quotes. I will be a part of the Diversity and Multicultural student chat on Thursday morning at 7am CST... if you are a login into the chat this week please know that it is 7am in Nashvegas and I will be coming straight from the concert from the night before... Admissions has promised me Bagels, Cream Cheese, and a six-pack of Red Bull. And I am hosting a prospective student on Thursday... poor dude.

Tuesday's was supposed to be my night to get my Waltz groove on with Hayley and Jenni but that's not happened since the second week in Mod 1. BUFUMUFU!

Technorati Tags: Vanderbilt - owen - vandy - bufumufu - Jurassic 5 - bop - pyramid - t-love - sharran - mba

OwenBloggers going big: people, languages, logo!

Somehow my ability to deliver quality content (ha!) seems to be in the wee hours of the morning. Around 10 weeks ago, OwenBloggers.com was just and idea and Ike and I were talking about how great it has been to see an idea develop into an online community dedicated to bringing transparency to the aura of exclusivity that surrounds a b-school education.

We have been working hard behind the scenes (I love saying that because there is no way you can check up on me!) and I am excited to share some wonderful news with you.

I had the opportunity to connect with Susan Strayer last week. Susan is a second year MBA student at Owen, consultant, business and HR Professional, career strategy expert, author of two books... and now an OwenBlogger! The first year of b-school is tough enough, and Susan was able to balance that and finish her second book during her first year in business school. We are excited to have Susan on our team!

All funk and tons of spunk, Hwee Chong, a second year MBA student from Malaysia has joined OwenBloggers! Hwee has had a successful career as a CPA and is studying Marketing at Owen. She was an intern at Intel last summer, and she will bring the Intel spirit and give you the "Owen Inside!"

Nat Robinson loves everything that is far away... second year MBA student and world traveler Nat has joined the OwenBloggers team. A finance maestro at Owen, Nat spent his summer as an intern in China and is gearing up for a spring break trip to India as a part of the "Project Pyramid" class to use business to solve poverty. Welcome Nat!

Jose is drawing some loyal Spanish readership.... and we are excited to introduce Merry Li who has joined the OwenBloggers team to start writing in Chinese and Yujin Yu who will be our resident Korean blogger. All the foreign language blogs will have on-demand translation to english as well (Thanks Ike!)

Wait, there's more! We are in the process of getting a logo for OwenBloggers.com... so be on the lookout for the new logo for your favorite business school blog. I am sure we will take t-shirt orders in time for Christmas gift shopping!

Now do you believe me when I say that we have been working our buns off behind the scenes? ;-)

Ummm and someone needs to do something to Hawaiianize this city... I have been freezing my bottom off lately. Wow... look at what it is like on Maui (Lahaina, I should have learned about opportunity cost before I came to Owen.

Technorati Tags: owenbloggers - owen - vanderbilt - sharran - mba

What the heck is an adjective doing in my accounting problem?

... says Isaac, describing an engineers aversion to word problems. "All I have to do is put a bunch of periods and throw in some verbs and y'all are confused... but if I put the question to you in five bullet points you can even calculate the movement of a black hole." Its kinda true... I have seen engineers freak out when they see blocks of text, they seem to want stuff in pieces. I personally don't mind the text but prefer bullets...

This is a dead weekend at Owen... 80% of the school including some faculty and administration are out doing things. The finance folks are in New York for Wall Street Week, the Net Impact folks are in Chicago for the Net Impact conference, and the gung-ho jobseekers are at NSHMBA in Cincinnati. The remaining 14 students are on here thinking that they can get caught up and get ahead at the same time, and I am one of those suckers. But strangely its working.

I have been getting some quality study time as well as some quality down time. Its raining so there is not much to do outside but it has given me a chance to actually catch up on some emails and phone calls that I have been meaning to finish up for about 10 weeks now (umm yeah, Mod1 required some trimming of the fat)

I went to the information session for Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and I was kinda blown away. I have been to a bunch of information sessions and nothing has really grabbed me enough to walk down and talk to the presenters after the session... but yesterday was different. CEB has a unique business model and somehow it fit everything that I have been searching for... I spent some time talking with an Owen grad after the session and he was extremely helpful in talking about the company and sharing his experiences.

Moral of the story: Go to enough information sessions and eventually you will find a company that was just built for you!

Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Owen - Vanderbilt - mba - CEB - sharran - Net Impact - nshmba

Present Value of MY Range Rover

Its past 4am and I guess now is as good a time as any to blog. Its been a few days since my last entry so let me get you up to speed...

We had our first marketing case analysis due this week and I feel like I know everything about Land Rover now. Its amazing what knowledge of a particular product or service can do... suddenly I start noticing all the Land Rovers on the road. There are a gazillion of them in the Green Hills area where I live... its kinda posh around here and I always noticed the Beamers and Mercks, but now I see that people actually buy the $80k Range Rovers. I think I want one. I gotta have some idea on how I am going to spend my signing bonus :-)

(snack break - leftover chinese food... yum!)

I am loving Finance. Somehow my brain works well with the "Time Value of Money" concept... for example, I can quickly calculate the present value of my Range Rover. Anyway, the key to finance is going to be to keep up with the reading and the everyday assigned (but not graded) homework. I think it is going to be extremely beneficial to be an overachiever and stay ahead of the class in Finance, that way if I wanted to watch Studio 60 on Mondays I could actually plop back on the couch that has never been used and turn on the TV that has never been turned on and watch the show, comfortably. I am probably better off watching the commercial-free recording online the very next day, but hey... it was a good idea. Sam just TiVo's the puppy.

I have had multiple requests to bring back the cartoons. It takes forever to draw with a mouse but I will be able to do more after Thanksgiving when I bring my Tablet PC back to Nashville. But stay tuned for some uncut videos.

Quote of the week: "If you don't have more than one spelling for multi-syllable words, you need to get more creative." -Prof. Steve Hoeffler

Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt - Owen - mba - Land Rover - sharran

Are you better than your team?

My friend is visiting business schools this fall and I am learning a lot about the other MBA programs out there... and the more I listen to what he has to say, the more I like it here.

His most recent visit was to a prestigious program in the northeast with fourteen redbrick buildings that make up the business school. If I had to summarize his experience in one polite word it would be "disappointed." What surprises me was that any of the top tier programs could actually disappoint someone... and if that really happens it tells me that there is a fundamental disconnect... and I know its not with my friend because he has a stellar academic and professional record as well as a very mature outlook on life.

He was particularly disappointed with two things... the very young students and the lack of teamwork in the program. He said that he saw students hunched over on their books in individual study tables around campus... He said that the silence was deafening. I will wait for another 2am post to discuss the age factor but I definitely want to start the discussion on the teamwork aspect. I am a better person today because of the teamwork here at Owen. We do everything in groups.... and that is the beauty of it all. What good is Sam's PhD, Doug's Brewery experience, Jose's Sports Team Management experience, or Justin's gray matter to the growth and development of the student community if they do all their studying and playing on their own?

During the first seven weeks I actually experienced synergy (where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts) I don't think I would have learned or contributed half as much if it wasn't for the group learning at Owen. I will leave you with two simple examples...Once our group was working on a statistics assignment and we were stuck. So I walked into the library and stopped at the first student that I saw (who was our grade) and said, "Man, do you have any idea how to do this ANOVA problem?" and he dropped what he was doing, walked into our study room and explained the entire problem. The other example happened this morning.... we have a marketing case analysis on Land Rover due and Ike and I decided to chat about it for a little bit. I read the case multiple times and had some idea of where I might go with my analysis but after talking to Ike I feel like a rockstar. Ike picked up things in the case that I never saw and more importantly he came up with some amazing new commercial ideas for Land Rover.... and when he started to share his ideas on how Land Rover can market there Range Rover differently, it immediately gave me a whole new perspective on the case. In fact, it is actually an individual assignment but our Marketing professor demanded that we discuss the case with our classmates over Pizza and Beer.

Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt - Owen - Vandy - mba - marketing - sharran

Love Man Hate Stress

I wish I had the time to draw you a cartoon, but we are slammed. Final exams for Mod 1 start tomorrow, yes finals. Suddenly everything is due - multiple papers, take home exams (these are not fun), and so much more.

But I had a great morning: I got to have breakfast with Gary Loveman, President and CEO of Harrah's Entertainment. The Distinguished Speaker Series brings in some amazing speakers and while they are on campus, the Owen community has the opportunity to interact with them in many ways. Loveman, a former HBS professor, was instrumental in turning Harrah's around and making it the largest gaming company in the world. The breakfast table had a dozen people including Dean Jim Bradford, Dean Jon Lehman, Professor Luke Froeb, the DSS team, 2nd year students who had interned at Harrah's this past summer, John Hamilit