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

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Owen Transitions, Part 2: Batman Bruce

I am living proof that business school makes you smarter... that is if you at least take it halfway seriously.

People often say that you go to business school to network and learn the buzzwords... I guess, but the networking and the buzzwords are absolutely useless if you have no idea what you are talking about when you network and use the buzzwords. That's why, as Isaac would say, we need to get our learn on.

Looking back, the core curriculum at Owen is fantastic. I admit...I whined and complained about the material, assignments, professors, and group members from time to time, but it was definitely worth it. Everyone struggles with the core... or at least some part of the core... and now they (we) are better for it.

Batman Bruce taught us core Statistics... this class was a good wake up call for Isaac and me. I remember we spent six hours in the library one Thursday evening over numerous plastic cups of our regular Thursday evening beverage trying to decipher every single component of a one page regression output. I can proudly say that it was the best six hours spent studying anything in Mod 1... and it was probably the reason that I was (personally) able to walk out of the final without any hurting body parts. I also served as Batman Bruce's Teaching Assistant (along with Asif and Isaac) and the Batman is one brilliant bird.

In Mod 3 of my second year, I used one of Batman's regression model lectures to build a pricing model in our New Product Development marketing class. Isaac saw it and said, "Whoa, that is awesome" and I even sent Batman a copy of my paper. I did not care who liked it and who didn't, but I was able to take something that I had learned in core and apply it, without any direction or syllabus-oriented-coercion, to a problem that I was faced with in a completely different scenario... and it worked like a charm.

If you come to Owen, you need to take a class with Batman... He knows all about the rhythm of the samba.

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What are you taking in Mod 3?

 
I saw this during the holidays...

A lot of prospective students (both the ones who visit and the ones who send us emails) have been asking questions about course loads, types of courses, and in general what we are doing in the classroom. Everyone's course load varies based on the other commitments outside the classroom. Most students take at least one lighter module in their first year when it is peak recruiting season for the careers that they are interested in, and the first part of the first year is filled with the core curriculum anyway. 

I have one of my heaviest academic loads this Mod. It just so happens that all the courses that I want to take before I graduate are somehow offered in Mod 3... and I know that I will not have the inspiration to take a very heavy load in Mod 4 when graduation is just around the corner ;-)

1. Equities Markets
   > Professor Nick Bollen
2. Game Theory
   > Professor Mike Shor
3. Developing and Marketing New Products
   > Professor Dawn Iacobucci
4. Derivatives
   > Professor Bob Whaley
5. Project Pyramid: Economic Development and Global Poverty Alleviation
   > Professor Bart Victor

Each class deserves a blog entry of its own but I want to write about the Taxation class that Isaac and I are taking...

Taxation of Business and Investment Transactions
> Professor Bill Henderson

Owen students talk about Corporate Valuation being the most challenging class they take at Owen, I am starting to think otherwise. Taxation is probably the most challenging yet intellectually rewarding course that I have taken in my educational career. Professor Henderson is "old school" and will cold call you until you are blue in the face... which means that you don't dare show up for class unless you are prepared (oh, and if you don't come to class, he will pick on you more the next time... so you are done for either way ;-). Isaac and I just go to class prepared, and it is awesome... Professor Henderson knows the tax laws inside out and does a phenomenal job of giving us real-life examples and bite-sized information so that we can understand the material. The take home final (which is a mini-binder) which he gives you in Week 2 is to prepare an entire tax return (yes, the complicated kind) which on average has taken students about 75 hours to complete in the past. This is a class that I will remember forever, and every Owen alum who has taken it raves about it. I am particularly enjoying this class because it brings a whole new dimension to what I learned last semester in the law school in my Trust and Estate Taxation class.

My favorite part of his syllabus for the class:

What is Expected of You as a Student:

You are expected to perform as a professional -- with dedication, integrity and a commitment to excellence. You are expected to attend all classes; to arrive on time and remain until dismissed; to arrive with all assigned reading and homework problems completed; to participate actively and effectively; and to demand of yourself and your fellow students complete fidelity to OGSM’s Honor System in all aspects of your course work.

Oh, and he means every word.

Bottom Line: This class is not for the faint-hearted and it jives to the rhythm of the samba.

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Christmas Home Stretch

I cannot believe it is December already.

I normally don't get nervous about final exams. I try to put in the work during the term and normally the final does not seem to hard. These last few weeks have somehow flown by and I don't know if I am really ready for my finals.

I am definitely nervous about the final exam I have at the Law School. Vandy Law is a different beast... with many horns, many teeth, many trunks, many fire-spitting orfaces, and many claws. I dont even know how the exam software works there. The professor bascially told us that we could bring in any material that we wanted... open book, open notes. He also very clearly said that he would even give us parts of the questions beforehand but was confident that it would not help. Okay, if that does not make you uncomfortable, I dont know what will. I am going to have to crack down and study for this puppy.

Today I got together with the wise men to talk about schedules. We looked at everything that was due for the rest of the semester, and blocked off times on our calendars to meet and crank it out. Sometimes I dont know what I would do without my Outlook calendar. I would definitely not make it through the semester without my study friends.

Owen is an interesting place. Some people work in groups, some work individually, some use a blended approach. But I have noticed that there are very few students who study individually. There is a very strong culture of studying in groups at Owen. Professors encourage collaboration, not sharing of answers. Most of the classes are built around group work, so I have very few assignments which I have done individually. Everyone learns differently... and I am a big fan of group work. The hardest part is finding the right teams, but when you do find the right team, the learning is rich and is filled with many different perspectives. The true spirit of a diverse skill set comes to bear when different team members contribute in different ways to the same assignment. Its awesome to see someone else do something better than you, and as a result it affects your grade and your learning positively. If you have a dysfunctional team, good luck. But that's why you get to pick your teams after the core classes. But I must say that I have always had great teammates.

I cannot wait for the semester to be done. I want to be able to read for pleasure, workout everyday, see if I can get back on the tennis court and watch football. I am pretty sure I will be doing a good chunk of wedding planning, which I am actually excited about.

I am also using the rhythm of the samba to fight the flu. Sun Tzu would be proud.

Tags: sharran, srivatsaa, owenbloggers, vandy, owen, ogsm, mba
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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

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.

Chill with people who change the world

I like learning new things and the learning has been awesome over the last academic year. I am starting to like different topics within each functional area. I like the consumer preference side of marketing, the queuing theory side of operations, the strategy and alignment ideas of human capital, and the options/derivatives side of finance.

Options are amazing. I feel like if a person can understand options, they understand the markets inside-out because options tug at the very root of the speculative spirit of the financial world. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hang out with Dr. Hans Stoll on the tennis court. (this is the time you go... whaaaaa? noway!)

Hans Stoll is the guy who came up with the Put-Call Parity. You can read about the Put-Cal Parity on Wikipedia here but it is one of the coolest things that the options world has seen. Hans is a great guy... and has a mean serve. I am going to take a couple of his classes next year. Pretty cool.

Managing Innovation - Day 3: The Elephant's Cue tip

You gotta love a professor who gives away CFLs are prizes for in-class "competitions."

How many creative ways can you use a paper clip? You can twist it, turn it, bend it, melt it, or just use it to poke a hole in play-doh... but the point is, as beings of superior intellect, we limit our own creativity. We are obsessed with the practical implication of a creative endeavor. The guy in this video makes a motor??

Is one of the creative uses of a paper clip not to poke holes in play-doh? Or to be used by our friendly neighborhood elephant as a cuetip? Business school students are driven to find solution to problems, sometimes even where they don't exist. Business school students are driven to find practical, implementable ideas at (almost) every juncture. We are given the tools, training, and inspiration to analyze, dissect, re-construct, and even measure (with statistical confidence!) every step of our action plan. We are analytical ninjas. We can run regressions in our heads and can interpret R^2s and betas like you cant imagine... but the best idea that we can come up with for the use of a paper clip is to poke hole in play-doh?

 

Enough of self-bashing... the elephant's cuetip was my original idea, but what I learned from class was that we are responsible for the constraints that we put on our creativity. "Outside the box" ideas are often useless. They don't embody the practical constraints that solution has to include... it does not matter if you look at it from the perspective of a fourth-dimension alien from the Q continuum... a pencil, is a pencil, is a pencil... we just use it to write, right? Wait... is that a self-imposed constraint?

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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The Owen Experience: Beyond the Students and Faculty

You will hear the bskool buzzwords like networking, relationship management, working the rolodex etc. but my favorite part is about Owen is the people that are at the school everyday... students, faculty, and administration.

Keip-dawg is one of my favorite people at Owen... she is awesome. Everyone knows Keip-dawgger and its super fun to hang out with her and her lovely puppy, Maddie. Keip hangs out with the students at school, supports student events, interfaces with faculty, and always has a dazzling smile on her face. She is the best second and third-hand compliment-giver-person in the world... it really shows her warmth and care.

Kristin was recently published as well, you can read her article here. Her next piece is going to be on the OwenBloggers!

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Bodaciously Overwhelmed

The last thing I should be doing right now is blogging... finals start a week from today and surprisingly Owen is empty... there were seven people in the library today, and I was one of the lucky ones to be in a room all day. I cannot even begin to explain how much there is to study... sometimes I am glad that there is only one mod worth of stuff to review, then I remember that we have packed an entire semester's worth of learning into seven weeks... wow, this is nuts.

But even if I had all the time in the world, I could not make a video like this one... nice job Chris!

Technorati Tags: vandy - owen - mba - vanderbilt - sharran - cljazzy - karate-kid

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

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

Sutton redeems himself?

Robert Sutton co-authored Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-truths and Total Nonsense... Profiting from Evidence-Based Management (nice title#!@#)??).... we called it EBM in our LTO class and it was unanimously voted off the reading list. I made a "Sharran Textbook Content Quality Pyramid" for my final LTO class paper... Tim laughed. I think it was a well written book... it just did not sync very well with the general student/personality class dynamic.

I think the exact title I gave the exhibit was "The Srivatsaa Textbook Tower based on utility value" (i.e. the higher up it is, the more valuable it is)

That's Doug in the background!

"The No Asshole Rule" is Sutton's new book after EBM... definitely got to give him mega points for the title. A good review written by Guy Kawasaki can be found here

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

Learning redefined

One hour in a library room today somehow gave immense insight to everything that I have learned so far at business school ... everything seemed to make more sense, a deeper meaning, a stronger purpose... a reconfirmation of why being here right now is a fantastic opportunity.

What the heck are you talking about Sharran, you are making no sense.

The Bottom of the Pyramid team met today to develop the syllabus for the Mod 3/4 class, "Project Pyramid: Alleviating Poverty in India." Putting together the syllabus for a non-traditional, special topic, MBA course is a very easy task, right? Sure! Not.

Prof. Bart Victor joined us to guide us through the syllabus building process... and he is awesome. He said, "You MBA students have low BS tolerance... so lets get this rolling," and then he somehow worked his magic and built the skeleton for the syllabus. He pulled business frameworks from our MBA curriculum and built the syllabus around using those business frameworks to address the needs at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Yeah - sounds simple enough now, doesn't it? Try coming up with that by yourself.

Everything just made sense. And in response to all that all I could say was, "Wow... cool."

 

Wow. Cool. Thanks Bart.

Technorati Tags: bop - vanderbilt - owen - vandy - sharran - pyramid

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!

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Discover Weekend & Campus Visit Testimonials

Discover Weekend at Owen is next weekend, November 10-11, 2006... the admissions and campus visit teams are working hard to get everything setup for the event. Here are some testimonials from students who have attended Discover Weekend in the past.

Please leave a comment or email me if you would like to connect with any of these students directly:

"Discover Weekend really sealed the deal for me.  The quality of potential classmates, current students, faculty, and admissions staff made the choice to attend Owen easy.  Several of the people I met during Discover Weekend are my best friends today.  It is a very professional event that highlights not only the MBA program, but the city of Nashville as well."
-Matt, MBA 2008

"Discover weekend not only allowed me to learn about Owen and get a feel for the people and culture, it was a lot of fun and where I met three of my future classmates and great friends.  We are celebrating our one year anniversary this weekend ;-)  One of the greatest aspects about this MBA program is the Owen community, one you are welcomed into from your first contact with Admissions - so enjoy your visit and have fun." 
-Jen, MBA 2008

"The experiences I had at last year's Discover Weekend truly impacted my decision to come to Owen; these experiences revolved around the interaction among the Owen community.  My advice to prospective students is to notice how current students interact with staff and faculty members; this illustrates the unique bond students have with the faculty.  Owen faculty members have a genuine interest to see students succeed.  Also, try to notice the drive students have to see Owen become a better place; everyone here is proud to be a part of this amazing environment."
-Travis, MBA 2008

"I had a fantastic time at Discover weekend last year. The student hosts were extremely helpful, and are a great representation of the culture here at Owen. The interactive classes are very reflective of the learning environment, and quality of professors. In addition, Discover weekend allowed me to experience Nashville and evaluate if the city would be a good fit for me."
-Marisa, MBA 2008

"I think my campus visit was very helpful. One of my biggest concerns was how the life in Nashville was (especially for international students). I had the chance to visit the school with another Venezuelan. We went to a class and had lunch together. At night we went to a bar and I got to meet many other students and I could see how well integrated the international students were with the rest of the community. My visit had a huge influence in my decision to come to Owen."
-Jose, MBA 2008

"I had an excellent experience at Discover weekend. The only thing I would change is the name tag situation.  It was difficult figuring out who was a Sig O, who was student / staff/ or faculty, and who was a prospective student.  My conversations would have been a little more productive if I could tell this from the start."
-Rachel, MBA 2008

"Discover weekend was a great opportunity to see how passionate the students and faculty were about their school.  I had visited other schools, and Owen differentiated itself with its small school feel - not once did I feel like I was part of a crowd, but rather, I was a valued individual.  The classes were thought provoking, and I met some people with whom I still interact.  This weekend is a great opportunity to see the school, gather information, and make an informed decision."
-Andy, MBA 2008
ps: Andy got a Vandy (cool...that rhymes, "andy got a vandy"... say it really fast!) tattoo after Discover Weekend, beat that?!

"Discover Weekend provided a great opportunity to experience life as part of the Owen community.  During this weekend, I developed relationships with many current and prospective students that I am now happy to call friends and colleagues.  This weekend truly allows you to experience unique aspects of Owen's culture that can only be appreciated by participating in the life of the school."
-Michael, MBA 2008

Other campus visit thoughts and testimonials:

"I visited Owen in the summer when school was out, but Amy was very kind and showed me around. I also had a friend who gave me a tour around some places in Nashville. It was great seeing the area I would spend the next 10 months in and making sure it was a good fit for me. I would recommend that people considering the MSF degree talk to some students who are going through it now for any questions and to get a better idea of what the program is like and how it can help you out in your careers."
-Joe, MSF 2007

Justin: On campus visits, restoring the mojo
Isaac: When to visit business schools

Post a comment if you are coming to Discover Weekend and would like to connect with one of the OwenBloggers.

Technorati Tags: Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management - Vanderbilt Owen - Owen - Discover Weekend - vandy - sharran

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

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