OwenBloggers: Sharran Srivatsaa

Owen Transitions, Part 1: Changing of the Guard

With only a few weeks till graduation, this is a time filled with transitions.

I have officially relinquished my position as the President of the Owen Student Government. OwenBloggers' very own Ryan Dix is taking over the reins along with a new executive board comprised of members from the class of 2009. This is a great tradition at Owen because it allows for graduating second years on the Owen Student Government to transition their responsibilities to the new executive board while a whole academic module to spare before graduation. This gives the outgoing board a chance to enjoy their last seven weeks after having served the student body for a year, and at the same time it allows the new board members to get acclimated to their new roles while still having access to the members out the outgoing board for advice and guidance.

This is also the standard operating procedure for the other Owen student clubs and organizations. Isaac, Sam, and I, transitioned the leadership of OwenBloggers to Jared, Colleen, Matt, and Neeraj in early January. Everyone talks about the strong tie that founders have towards the organizations that they have built from the ground up, but my range of emotions were on the other end of the spectrum. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with good friends and take OwenBloggers from an idea to what it is is today... and I am excited for the new leadership team to infuse this community with their new energy, excitement, and ideas, while taking OwenBloggers to new heights.

We are in the process of transitioning Project Pyramid to the next year's leadership team. This upcoming year is going to be an important year for Project Pyramid as it goes into its third year as one of the only student-driven MBA organizations in the world that has a cross-campus mission of using interdisciplinary thought to explore the business responses to the alleviation of global poverty. You can read more about Project Pyramid here and read about the amazing things that they are doing on the Gold Pyramid Blog, right here on OwenBloggers.

The Owen Corporate Ambassador Program (OCAP) has had a very successful first year. The mission of OCAP is to be the student ambassadors to alumni and corporate executives while working with Alumni Relations, Corporate Relations and the Dean's Office. We already have recruited, chosen, and trained five new members of the class of 2009 to serve as Corporate Ambassadors for the next academic year. Through OCAP, I have had the opportunity to travel with Dean Jim Bradford to alumni receptions across the country. host corporate executives and recruiters, connect with alumni, and have coffee with Presidents and CEO's. I am very thankful for the opportunity to be an Owen Corporate Ambassador and to be able to work closely with Sylvia Boyd and Peter Veruki at Owen Corporate Relations. Sylvia and Peter together know almost every single Owen alum, and if they don't, they are actively working towards doing that. My hats off to Sylvia and Peter... being a Corporate Ambassador has been one of the highlights of my Owen experience.

The changing of the guard is a nice way of kicking us out in style. I am enjoying seeing the members of the Class of 2009 take charge of the many initiatives that we recently called "our babies." My extra-curricular and community activities at Owen have tremendously shaped and molded my Owen education... I have pitched ideas over coffee, attempted to save the world, interacted with wonderful people in the Owen administration, and most importantly made some great friends.

The guard might change, but the rhythm of the samba will live on.

Technorati Tags: owen,vanderbilt,mba,owenbloggers,project pyramid,dean bradford,ocap,osga

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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Dean's house + Faculty chefs = good party

The Owen community not only welcomes new ideas but quickly steps aside and lets the entrepreneurial spirit ride free allowing new clubs and organizations to be born year after year. OwenBloggers and Project Pyramid are two unique ideas that were born in recent years that have had a solid impact. We hear a lot about these two organizations because they have significant portion of external association… i.e. there is a way for people outside the Owen community to connect with them in some way. Today I want to showcase a unique organization that was born at Owen last year… the Owen Culinary Society.

I am going to paraphrase the mission, vision, and values of the Owen Culinary Society (OCS) because its my blog and I can do whatever I want :-) …To bring the community together by exploring the various cuisines of the world. That simple, and that cool. Members and friends of the OCS often pick a theme and cook a great meal… and people show up, eat, drink, and are merry.

The last OCS event was “Dinner with the Dean” where Dean Jim Bradford hosted the dinner at his house and the chefs were Jim, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications Yvonne Martin-Kidd, Professor of Finance Craig Lewis, and Professor of Accounting Richard Willis. The spread included everything from grilled shrimp to flat-iron steak… it was awesome! The greatest part was that after we ate… we packed ourselves to-go-plates. Yum! I particularly enjoyed it because it was held during a weeknight and I got a chance to speak with new first-year MBA students… many of whom have been spending hours on end in the library trying to cope with the heavy workload of Mod 1. Ha, Suckers!

Liz and I were swapping engagement stories :-) Way in the background Jim and Yvonne... right behind me in the white shirt is our very on Jared

Nice job putting the event together, Isha.

Technorati tags: sharran, srivatsaa, owenbloggers, owen, vanderbilt, ocs, bradford, dean, mba, ogsm

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.

10 Pearls of Advice: What I wish I had known

Some lessons looking back over the last 4 Mods...

1. Without a dependable study group, I would have probably quit in October
2. The only way I got through Mods 1 and 2 was staying two weeks ahead of the class in terms of reading and assignments (wherever possible)
3. I am so thankful that my class schedule allowed for flexibility during Mod 3 because I spent the entire 7 weeks on career management. If you know which Mod is going to be loaded with internship search, weight your classes accordingly
4. Decide what you want your transcript to look like... if you know that you are going into a field that is not going to scrutinize your GPA, don't sweat it... work for the B. My point - if you know you want a vowel-based transcript, say "yes" to school work and "no" to the extra-curricular stuff... because its hard to juggle them all AND do them well... and worst of all it will kill you. I speak from experience.
5. Force yourself to get six hours of sleep... the super-human spirit at school carries over into our personal lives and sleep deprivation is not cool. If you get at least six hours of sleep a night, you will do amazingly well at bskool.
6. Do not ever eat Pizza... in fact, give up pizza for the two years you are here.
7. Take 1 day off a week. Block off your schedule. Don't care about what people say. It is your day. Do whatever you want. Study. Sleep. Whatever. But don't schedule anything for that day. Let your body, mind, and spirit get rejuvenated.
8. Take full responsibility for your internship search. Put the CMC, your peers, and your contacts in a position to help you. Work on your career from Day 1... think of it as a project that does not end until you get that internship offer. This means that if you don't know what to do when you grow up, please don't try to figure it out on your own... please, please, please get help.
9. Go out with the Owen gang. You don't have to drink... just go out. Amazing friendships are built at the local watering holes... and 10 years down the road the beer you bought me might come back to you 10,000-fold :)
10. Optional reading is exactly that... optional. Don't be an overachiever and try to read everything... you cannot. I thought I could - but I could not. Dude, there is no way you can do the optional readings in addition to everything else that you have going on. (Maybe if you are super interested in the subject matter, once in a while it might be worth it)

If I had time to blog, I would take a nap

Its a school night...  I am home working on a case and attempting to be a quasi-geek by running regressions to show the quantity theory of money (inflation and its relationship to growth of money etc.) and an email pops up from a cool friend:

I was surfing the OwenBloggers website and noticed you haven’t posted anything in almost 2 weeks!!  What’s up with that?  I think you should stop slacking off!!

In light of my new celebrity status, I better get back in the blogger saddle. This is what is on my mind right now...

1. I miss my lovely cousins. K and A are in Shanghai on spring break. I think this is going to be the first summer in almost ten years that I might not get to spend time with them.

2. I was in a five-person round-table discussion with Peter Shutz, former CEO of Porsche. You can read his bio here. The dude is awesome! One of us asked him whether he was spending his time [these days] doing consulting work. To that he responded:

"Consultants listen to your problem and (normally) tell you what to do to fix it. I listen to your problem and tell you a story. I am not a consultant. I am your friend, I am your mentor."

 

 

3. I will get a chance to attend Dr. Mohammad Yunus' address at the Vanderbilt Senior Day on May 10 with Dean Jim Bradford, Prof. Bart Victor and Project Pyramid Co-Founder Rehan Choudhry.

There is some amazing stuff happening in the Microcredit/Microlending world... check out this PBS:Frontline story.

And if you missed the World Premiere of OwenBloggers: The Movie, we have released a couple of clips on the OwenBloggers Video Gallery. Check out the trailer first...

And if you are wondering what the weather in Chicago is...

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 4: "Draw" to improve on emptiness?

While working though parts of the Google Labs Aptitude Test designed for the uber-geek (Dave), I was thinking about how I would answer the question:

 

This space intentionally left blank. Please fill it with something that improves upon emptiness

Dr. Betty Edwards discusses the ways to use drawing to make the shift from left-brain mode to right brain mode. Learning to draw turns out not to be "learning to draw." Paradoxically, "learning to draw" means learning to make a mental shift from left brain mode to right brain mode. You can practice some of her exercises here. I guess if I learned how to draw and could potentially do it well, it would give me the ability to get into right brain mode at the blink of an eye. Now how does that really help me when I am presented with a blank box on a non-traditional aptitude test?

I did an simple experiment.. I gave the question and a blank box to seven different people. Every single one of them drew something (i.e. did not fill it with text or numbers) Why? If the natural tendency for the average person is to draw when presented with a blank box, and if the act of drawing taps into the right brain, then all the people in my sample (can make the switch to right-brain mode when necessary and) don't need Dr. Betty Edwards' book.  

I like my small sample, jump to quick conclusions, non-scientific way of looking at life. Don't you? :-)

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

Project Pyramid: Owen's hidden treasure

Do you care about poverty?

Project Pyramid is currently the only interdisciplinary, sustainable development focused, student-driven, global poverty alleviation initiative in the world. Now the question to ask is whether this organization's mission is to "do well" or to "do good?"

The root of this question points to the tension between the individualistic economic prosperity and community-oriented values that pervades our culture and the media. In today's world, "doing well" translates to making a great deal of money, living a luxurious lifestyle, and take care of oneself. "Doing good" means serving the common good by doing what is considered the right thing to do. "Doing good" is often seen as altruistic and soft-hearted, and also soft-headed and anti-business.

The problem with adhering to the stereotypes of "doing well" and "doing good" is that they become mutually exclusive. Project Pyramid's belief is that we can embrace both.

Currently in its first year, Project Pyramid has gained the support of the entire university including Vanderbilt University Chancellor Gordon Gee, and retired Chairman & CEO of Dollar General, Cal Turner. Mr. Turner has not only pledged his full support for the program but has also sown the initial financial seeds.

Students from Owen and the Divinity School are currently on a spring break trip to India studying the implications of existing "bottom of the pyramid" solutions and exploring the viability of new business models to alleviate poverty.

Do you care about poverty? You should.

The media is starting to uncover more of Owen's hidden treasures:

• Owen and Divinity Students Travel to India to fight poverty
• OwenBloggers and Project Pyramid
• Vanderbilt's Owen students use capitalism versus poverty
• Business and faith: a unique partnership inspires future; Vanderbilt business and divinity students travel to India to fight poverty
• Business & Faith... On AScribe: A Public Internet Newsroom

Some Project Pyramid resources:

About Project Pyramid
Project Pyramid Blog
Contact Project Pyramid

Technorati Tags: project pyramid - sharran - srivatsaa - owen - vanderbilt - vandy

The 1st Annual Vandy Star

Every Thursday evening a couple of kegs magically appear in the lobby of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. This brings students, staff, faculty and alumni together in a relaxed, social gathering after a hectic Owen MBA week (Monday - Thursday).

A few weeks ago the Owen Media and Entertainment Group organized the first annual "Vandy Star," Owen's very own Karaoke contest. A group of 25 bold singers put their names in the hat to compete for the $200 cash prize. The judges were Dean Jim Bradford, Prof. Kimberly Pace, Prof. Luke Froeb... our very own Randy, Paula and Simon. Boy, were these judges in character?!

This was one of the best in-school events that we have had this year. The lobby was packed with students and their families enjoying themselves. I think this is going to be one of the biggest events next year... the student who won the competition this year wants me to sing Purple Rain... ha, like that is going to happen!

 

This video has nothing to do with Owen but I thought it was way cool...

Technorati Tags: vanderbilt - owen - sharran - srivatsaa - mba - vandy

Holidays + Coffee + Around the world = Vanderbilt MBA

The Vanderbilt MBA students are going to be traveling for the holidays and are coming to a Starbucks (or another location where you can get a tasty beverage) near you. This will be a great opportunity to connect with students 1-on-1 and talk about the Vanderbilt MBA experience.... oh, and the Venti White Chocolate Mocha is on us! I will be organizing a coffee break in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dates for each event will be announced very soon...

Leave a comment below or send us an email owenbloggers@gmail.com if you are interested in attending any of Coffee Breaks... and let us know if you have any specific questions. If you are in the US and don't see your city below, please let us know and we will shake the building up to get someone to you! :-)

Atlanta
Austin
Blacksburg, VA
Boston
Buffalo, NY
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus, OH
Dallas
Denver
Florida - East Coast
Hartford, CT
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Louisville
Memphis
Michigan
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Nashville
New Jersey
New York City
New Orleans
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Portland, OR
Sacramento, CA
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
St. Louis
Tampa, FL
Washington DC

India

New Delhi
Surat
Mumbai
Chandigarh

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

Weekly Roundup: One thing I would change

I wish Owen students would blog more... even Dean Bradford is blogging! Investment Banks advise aspiring i-Bankers to refrain from blogging for various reasons but there is no reason for other business school students not to blog. The Internet is such a wonderful medium to share stories and successes... I wish more students would blog, set up personal websites, play with videos on YouTube and Google Video and find new ways to create and develop content that showcases their talents and experiences.

Technorati Tags: owen - vandy - vanderbilt - blog - sharran - mba

The reason they give you a chance to rest over break...

... is because they know that you are not going to get any sleep for a week. This week is nuts... its 1:15am and I am still up, brain and body have shut down but my fingers are banging away. I spent almost the entire days engaged in some form of scholastic activity... yes, I studied all freakin' day. The "day" of a business school student starts at about 7am and ends at about 2am (unless you are Justin and it starts at 5am and ends at 3am). I came home and TiVo did its magic again... gave me the latest Studio 60 episode (nice)... and now its time to hit the hay so that I can wake up and do it all over again. This week is nuts... but this Thursday is India Day at Owen, might have to pull out the traditional garb! 

Me thinks its a good time to bust out the 'ol video camera...

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

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

Sleep? Really?

I have been up for about thirty six hours straight and my brain is not sharp enough to even hit the "I am feeling lucky" button on Google. I have tried all kinds of sleep-killers such as White Chocolate Mocha, Lettuce, Sprite, and Yogurt covered raisins but nothing seems to be working right now.

Its Thursday already so let me give you the update on the Owen-work-week in haphazard order (well I could organize it chronologically for Sam but Justin might appreciate the context-insensitive jumps from subject to subject as there is not much neural activity right now... and what is left  is targeted at forcing me to close my eyes and sink into this atrociously comfortable chair in the library.

• 2nd big finance homework due tomorrow but we got it done last weekend, nice Sharran... way to stay ahead. But the funny part is when people ask for help, I am clueless for a moment because I had not looked at the problem set for a week... but of course, it all comes back! aaah!
• 2nd big case response was due today for Marketing. The case was on TiVo and I think everyone knows that I am a gizmodo fan now. I was always skeptical about TiVo, I never really knew much about it, and I never really watched much TV... so it never really appealed to me. (I never really use this many never reallies in the same sentence) I read the case (set in 1999) and after listening to Ike's mad rant about how he "loves" TiVo, I just went online and bought it. Apparently not many people have done that before and Prof. Hoeffler was pretty tickled by it and told every section that "this dude sharran is nuts, he read this case and bought a TiVo." Well, I guess I did. 
• This week is pink week (breast cancer awareness) and there is a 5k run for that on Saturday... runs don't scare me, 28 degree weather does.
• I wonder how Justin finds the courage to run at 5:30am in this yucky weather (yucky as in how it really feels, sitting in my living room and looking out the window you would think you are on Maui sometimes)... today I had to leave my car running for 15 minutes to defrost the windshield, gross. Maybe its Justin's growth....er... beard that helps him stay warm? He claimed that the itching helped the circulation. I guess.
• I drank 17 bottles of Propel Lemon so far this week
• Librarians know what they are talking about... if you are going to the library to do research, please don't do it by yourself... ask the librarian. Why do you think they are there in the first place? This is what they enjoy doing.... some people like to make bread, some people like to dance around poles and put (brand conscious) tattoos on their "cheeks," and some people like to help you do research... ask the Librarians for help

There is a higher purpose ZZZzzzzzzzz.......

Technorati Tags: Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt University - Vanderbilt Owen - sharran - tivo

Paul Rusesabagina to speak at Vanderbilt

I had a Netflix subscription for a while, and during that time I got to watch a whole lot of movies. The movie that biggest impact on me was Hotel Rwanda, which is the true story of a hotel manager (Paul Rusesabagina) who saved 1,200 people during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. I would highly recommend this movie. You can view the trailer here.

Paul Rusesabagina is going to speak at Vanderbilt next week! Mondays are generally my longest days as my first class is at 8am and the last class finishes at 7pm. Rusesabagina's talk is at 7pm, which means I need to have all my work for Tuesday and Wednesday done over the weekend... should be a blast!

Update: Just got an update from the Vanderbilt Speakers Committee - you can see the film Hotel Rwanda for free if are in the Vanderbilt area... you gotta love this place!

There will also be showings of the film Hotel Rwanda on Sunday, September 24, 2006, at 5 and a 7:30pm in the Sarratt Cinema. Tickets to the film are free.