MBA Herald

2006-11-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

More about the We Are Smarter Than Me project to create business book with Wharton and MIT as its lead partners. There was a story in the WSJ a couple of weeks ago on the project, but this one from NPR is free.

2006-11-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

MIT Wants to Know: Are We Really Smarter Than Me?

We Are Smarter Than Me is “a business community formed by business professionals to research and discuss the impact of social networks on traditional business functions”.

The central premise of We Are Smarter Than Me is that “large groups of people (”We”) can, and should, take responsibility for traditional business functions that are currently performed by companies, industries and experts (”Me”)”.

One of their first initiatives is a network book: “We are inviting thousands of contributors from leading institutions (Wharton, MIT, and Pearson) to participate in a revolutionary publishing project - a “network book” to be published in 2007 by Pearson Publishing. Each contributing member will be an author. In addition to research that will be conducted by MIT and Wharton faculty, a conference called Community 2.0 will be held next spring.”

The people behind this initiative are Barry Libert, ceo of Shared Insights, Jon Spector, vice dean and director of Wharton’s Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Thomas W. Malone, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and founder and director of the newly founded MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, Tim Moore, editor-in-chief of Pearson Education and Dr. Yoram Wind, Lauder Professor and Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and founding director of the Wharton “think tank,” the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management.

2005-12-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

C. K. Prahalad #3 in Thinkers 50 Ranking

C. K. Prahalad comes in at #3 in the latest Thinkers 50 ranking as reported on the Michigan Ross School of Business website. Produced by the Stuart Crainer and Des Dearloveat — contributing editors to Strategy + Business magazine, which recently named Prahalad's, "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits," the top business books of 2005. Thinkers 50 is the definitive bi-annual guide to which thinkers and ideas are in. Read the full story in London Times.

2005-08-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Business Week had an excellent article For the Poor, Help from MBAs about microfinancing and social entrepreneurship. I suggest reading this article if you are interested in non-profit.

2005-05-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you have seen the Fast Company's list of best book of 2004. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad has been named #1 book of the year by them. I'll list the whole list back to you in the same Letterman-style that Fast Company did.

10. Word Spy by Paul McFedries
9. The Allure of Toxic Leaders by Jean Lipman-Blumen
8. Why People Buy Things They Don't Need by Pamela Danziger
7. Free Prize Inside by Seth Godin
6. Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill
5. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
4. Unstuck by Keith Yamashita
3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
2. Managers Not MBAs by Henry Mintzberg
1. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad

2005-03-05T07:34:00.000-08:00

C. K. Prahalad's "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" named best business book of the year by Amazon!!!

Amazon.com names C.K. Prahalad's Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid the top business book of 2004, according to the editors at Amazon.com. The editors stated that, "Our favorite book of the year in Business challenges readers to reexamine their thoughts about Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets."

Yup. Very cool, huh? This is a highly coveted award in a book world. It has been a truly exceptional year for Ross School of Business - a generous gift from Stephen Ross - the largest donation even given to any business school, a number one position in the prestigious Wall Street Journal MBA Ranking and now Prof. C.K. Prahalad book was ranked the best business book of the year by Amazon. Truly an amazing year!!!

Read more about the fastest growing markets in the world.

Read more about business books businessbooks

2005-02-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL REPORT: Corporate Social Responsibility at Michigan

No, I've not deserted. I've been too busy with classes, job search, more classes and than even more job search... and, truth be told (the whole point of Blogging, right?), I'm bone tired but I still love my time here. Now I'm back ... a little.

We have just published a special report on corporate social responsibility. Here is the official description:

With nineteen faculty members researching, teaching classes and publishing articles and books on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the Stephen M. Ross School of Business is a leading national, education force on this important topic.

This Special Report congregates the critical mass of activity currently underway at the school. Faculty, undergraduate, MBA and doctoral students are at work–and making a difference–in this emerging business arena. You will learn about the school's resources (centers and institutes, dual degree options, internship and consulting programs and student clubs) as well as its faculty, recent books and more.

You can check out the report here (As I know you will want to!).

2004-08-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Economist Article: Profits and poverty

C.K. Prahalad thinks there can be a win-win relationship between business and the poor

“IF WE stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognising them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up.” That “simple proposition” begins a controversial new management book that seems destined to be read not just in boardrooms but also in government offices. “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Eradicating Poverty Through Profits” (Wharton School Publishing), is essentially a rallying cry for big business to put serving the world's 5 billion or so poorest people at the heart of their profit-making strategies. It has already been praised by everyone from Bill Gates—“a blueprint for fighting poverty”—to a former American secretary of state, Madeleine Albright—“if you are looking for fresh thinking about emerging markets, your search is ended.”

Its author, C.K. Prahalad, is accustomed to rave reviews. (The C is for Coimbatore, the Indian town of his birth, the K for Krishnarao, his father's name.) After becoming a management professor at the University of Michigan via a job at Union Carbide and study at the Indian Institute of Management and Harvard, he wrote “Competing for the Future” (Harvard Business School Press) with Gary Hamel in 1994. This tome was regarded as perhaps the best business book of the 1990s—an accolade that, admittedly, may be less than it sounds, given the amount of rubbish published by the business-book trade.

As the two gurus searched for their next hit, Mr Hamel stumbled across Enron, a then-thriving energy conglomerate that he eulogised in “Leading the Revolution” (Harvard Business School Press). Mr Prahalad, by contrast, “after searching for a couple of years, saw that the big idea was creating wealth at the bottom of the pyramid”. He has been evolving his ideas about how firms should focus on the bottom of the pyramid—a phrase he shortens to BOP, to contrast with those wealthy folk at the TOP—since 1997, despite a spell running Praja, a business-activity-monitoring software firm that later had to be sold when it could not raise the capital it needed in the aftermath of the tech bubble. “Badly timed, but taught me a lot,” claims Mr Prahalad.

He is a fierce critic of traditional top-down thinking on aid, by governments and non-governmental organisations alike. They tend to see the poor as victims to be helped, he says, not as people who can be part of the solution—and so their help often creates dependency. Nor does he pin much hope on the “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) programmes of many large companies. If you want serious commitment from a firm, he says, its involvement with the poor “can't be based on philanthropy or CSR”. The involvement of big business is crucial to eradicating poverty, he believes, but BOP markets must “become integral to the success of the firm in order to command senior management attention and sustained resource allocation.”
Mr Prahalad reckons that there are huge potential profits to be made from serving the 4 billion-5 billion people on under $2 a day—an economic opportunity he values globally at $13 trillion a year. The win for the poor of being served by big business includes, he says, being empowered by choice and being freed from having to pay the currently widespread “poverty penalty”. In shanty towns near Mumbai, for example, the poor pay a premium on everything from rice to credit—often five to 25 times what the rich pay for the same services. Driving down these premiums can make serving the BOP more profitable than serving the top, he argues, and points to a growing number of leading firms—from Unilever in India to Cemex in Mexico and Casas Bahia in Brazil—that are profiting by doing precisely that.

BOP till you drop

But to be profitable, firms cannot simply edge down market fine-tuning the products they already sell to rich customers. Instead, they must thoroughly re-engineer products to reflect the very different economics of BOP: small unit packages, low margin per unit, high volume. Big business needs to swap its usual incremental approach for an entrepreneurial mindset, because BOP markets need to be built not simply entered. Products will have to be made available in affordable units—most sales of shampoo in India, for example, are of single sachets. Distribution networks may need to be rethought, not least to involve entrepreneurs from among the poor. Customers may need to be educated in how to consume, and even why—about credit, say, or even about the benefits of washed hands. The corruption now widespread in poor countries must be tackled (about which Mr Prahalad has penned a particularly useful chapter).
There are plenty of sceptics. Are the opportunities for profitable product re-engineering really as common as Mr Prahalad thinks? How much can private firms accomplish given inept or corrupt governments in many poor countries? “There is much less scepticism now than when I first started talking about the BOP,” retorts Mr Prahalad. What the leading firms are grappling with now, he says, is not whether there are profits to be made, but how to serve the BOP on a big enough scale, and how to transfer what works from one part of the world to another.
Another challenge will be to persuade development experts to support a profit-driven strategy. Mr Prahalad worries that firms may be deterred from BOP strategies by fear of attracting criticism from activists. If a large international bank were to start lending to the poor at interest rates, reflecting higher risks and start-up costs, of say 20% (compared with around 10% in rich countries), “the whole anti-globalisation lobby would probably be against it. Yet the alternative is for the poor to borrow at 500% from a money lender. Whose side are the activists on?” If you are on the side of the poor, he says, “surely you need to help get rates down from 500% to 20%. After that, you can work on getting them from 20% to 10% like in the rich world.”

2004-08-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

“This experience really epitomized education at its best and really epitomized the spirit of the Michigan Business School education.” 2nd year student about a project with Prof. Prahalad (more)

Video Interview with C.K. Prahalad

Video excerpt from a student project on literacy

2004-08-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

How serving the poorest can bring rich rewards
Management Today had a great article How serving the poorest can bring rich rewards on Professor CK Prahalad most recent work.

"Professor Prahalad, who teaches at the University of Michigan business school, has been one of the world's few truly original business thinkers of the past 20 years. In the 1980s he was among the first to describe the challenges of running the modern multinational corporation. In the 1990s (with Gary Hamel) he wrote the groundbreaking Competing for the Future, still a key text on strategic thinking and the core competencies of the corporation.

In recent years, Prahalad has been exploring what he sees as the three major trends shaping business. There is the need for businesses to 'co-create' value with their customers. There is the global restructuring of industries, labelled 'outsourcing' for short. And then there is this third and, for him, most important development: the emergence in world markets of the poor, the people who are, in the words of the title, 'at the bottom of the pyramid'.

Prahalad challenges his readers to reconsider the prejudice that may have deterred them from doing business in poorer parts of the world. It is as though we have forgotten our own history, he suggests. Didn't Marks & Spencer start out in business by saying: 'Don't ask the price, it's a penny'? Low margins but high volume and high return on capital have always been a successful business strategy when executed properly.

But his argument is more ambitious than that. The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets are potentially huge. They could become 'the engine for global growth and change'. We must help turn 'the poor' into 'consumers', and develop markets where in the past there was only 'poverty alleviation'."

2004-07-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

Professor Prahalad’s book the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, The: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits is on SALE (link)!!!

"C. K. Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they dobusiness in developing countries if both sides of that economic equation areto prosper. Drawing on a wealth of case studies, his compelling new bookoffers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability."
Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect,Microsoft

"The Bottom of the Pyramid belongs at the top of the reading list forbusiness people, academics, and experts pursuing the elusive goal ofsustainable growth in the developing world. C. K. Prahalad writes withuncommon insight about consumer needs in poor societies andopportunities for the private sector to serve important public purposes whileenhancing its own bottom line. If you are looking for fresh thinking aboutemerging markets, your search is ended. This is the book for you."
Madeleine K. Albright, Former U.S. Secretary of State

2004-07-29T13:05:00.000-07:00

More Women Earning MBAs in Michigan
The was an interesting article about increase in female students at University of Michigan. For more information, check out the full story at http://www.detnews.com/2004/schools/0407/29/a01-226481.htm

2004-07-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

Knowledge@Wharton just published an excerpt from Professor Prahalad upcoming book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&ID=1020 One of the world's leading business gurus, a Professor at the University of Michigan Prahalad is also a co-author of the worldwide bestseller "Competing for the Future"--presents 11 in-depth case stories from India, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Nicaragua.

2004-07-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

The Globalization of Service Activities: Growth Catalyst or the Final Straw for U.S. Workers?

The first event in Michigan's new research initiative on offshore outsourcing. While off shoring has become a contentious political issue, the business and policy implications of this phenomenon are not well understood. In this video presentation you will see discussions about:
How globalization of service activities affect growth prospects for developing countries.
How will off-shoring affect developed country businesses and will the effects will vary across sectors.
How should developed country governments respond to this development? Do efforts to protect "U.S. Jobs" make sense? If not, what alternatives are preferable?

View the Complete Video

2004-06-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

I have made a tough choice for Michigan over Tuck and Yale. The primary reason I favor Michigan is a gut feel. Most of the benefit I'll receive at the MBA program will be dependent on my ability to seize opportunity and build business network - things that I could do the best at a place that I love. I feel that Michigan is just a better fit for me.

2004-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Serving the Bottom of the Pyramid

University of Michigan had a special project with Prof. C.K. Prahalad (author of the global bestseller Competing for the Future) to document how companies across the world are working successfully to provide products and services and improve the living conditions of the poorest of the poor.

Along with written case studies, each team also produced a video documentary of the companies and the people they serve. The cases and videos created have helped change global development policy at the State Department, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Michigan website even features a video by C.K. Prahalad explaining the benefits of focusing products and services on the needs of the poor, and how business can help create social transformation at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Condensed versions of the cases and videos will be featured in Prof. Prahalad's upcoming book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, to be published this summer by Wharton School Publishing. The book can be pre-ordered here.

2004-04-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

I just gave my notice that I would be leaving a techie job at a Fortune 100 for either Michigan, Tuck or Yale. Boss has asked me to seek a deferment. I hate my job, but if I were given a better job title/responsibilities/raise, I might consider deferring if the school permitted it (For example, Michigan has granted some in the recent past, so I might have a chance).

Advice, anyone?

Should I seriously consder deferring my life for a year? Maybe I could also reapply to Wharton next year?

If so, what should I consider asking for as incentive? A coworker says not to settle for anything less than a major package (upwards of $15K)...I haven't taken negotiations yet, so have no skills in this area!

2004-03-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Mckinsey had a great article on IT: What CEOs really think about IT

Chief executives of large companies in the United States and Europe would like to see a tighter relationship between their business managers and IT. A recent survey of French CEOs and CIOs shows that top executives expect business leaders to be more involved in technology decisions than they actually are. Their lack of interest tends to cede control to IT managers, who may not grasp the business requirements. Full article

2004-03-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

Trump goes back to his alma matter (article)

The Apprentice III is coming to Wharton.

Donald "You're fired!" Trump, a '68 Wharton grad, says he plans to include Penn's prestigious business school in Season 3 of his smash NBC "reality" show. (Season 2 launches Sept. 9.)

"In my opinion, Wharton is the finest business school in the world," said the always-understated Trump in an interview Saturday at the TV critics' summer meetings. "We'll be doing a task involving Wharton, with the Wharton geniuses telling us what to do."

According to Trump, the idea came up during a conversation with Wharton Dean Patrick Harker last month, when Trump was attending the graduation of his daughter, Ivanka, from his alma mater.

"He said, 'We'd love to do it.' I said, 'I'd love to do it,' " recalls the billionaire developer, also an executive producer. "A lot of schools want to get involved, but my relationship is with Wharton. I'm very loyal. I have a great feeling for the school."

Production on Season 3 begins in August. The contestants' task may take place in Philadelphia, Trump says, "because Philly is a place I know very well." Previously, the New York-based show has traveled to Boston, Miami and Palm Beach, Fla., for different competitions, Trump says.

More than 1 million mogul wannabes applied for 18 slots this season - up from 215,000 for the January-to-April first round, Trump says. Again, the winner gets a six-figure job with the Trump Organization. (No hair tips, we assume.)

The first Apprentice, Bill Rancic, will appear in several episodes as a boardroom inquisitor, joining Trump and costar Carolyn Kepcher. Other alums may pop up - villainous Omarosa is a safe bet - but creator/exec producer Mark Burnett is playing it coy.

He's earned it. The Apprentice was the No. 1 new show last season in both total viewers (averaging 20.7 million) and among those demographically desirable 18- to 49-year-olds.

Trump is signed through Season 3, adding that "as long as I have a good time, I'm staying." The TV thing has catapulted him to the celebrity stratosphere, Trump says, but his first love remains real estate. (Call it an edifice complex.)

TV-wise, Trump's first-season apprenticeship has been enlightening, however. He's discovering the intricacies of ratings and demographics, not to mention the joy of surviving in a medium with a monstrous rate of attrition. He began the season on NBC with such stars as Whoopi Goldberg and Rob Lowe. "They're all gone, and here I sit."

But Trump isn't even sure he would qualify for his own show. "These are very, very tenacious people. I don't know if I'd be willing to go through what they go through to become 'the Apprentice.' They go through hell."

2004-03-17T12:57:00.000-08:00

Visited Wharton Technology 2004 Conference. There were some really good panels about the value of open source software and how organisations could try to commercialize open source products. CNet had a good news coverage of the conference, including some audio recordings of the panels.

There was also a special report by CNET and Knowledge@Wharton:

With the economy rebounding and the technology sector once again focused on new partners, products and opportunities, the Wharton Technology Conference on Feb. 27 emphasized the future with the theme: “From Survival to Growth: The Emerging Face of Technology.” Panelists and speakers from industry, the government and academia discussed entrepreneurship and business innovation, new technologies, and hot-button issues such as outsourcing and open source software.

“Leaders Determine If the Economy Is Ready to Grow … It Is Time to Grow”
The recession is over. The U.S. stock market has rebounded, and productivity (although not hiring) is on the upswing. So how should businesses respond to this apparent run of good economic news? Keynote speakers Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP America, and Bruce Harreld, senior vice president of strategy at IBM, offered their advice at the February 27 Wharton Technology Conference. It’s time, they said, to exploit new markets, look at competitors as potential partners and emphasize growth over stability. Full article

Getting the Most Value out of Open Source Software
Last week, software company SCO Group sued DaimlerChrylser AG and AutoZone, an auto parts retailer, for their use of open source operating systems Unix and Linux. The lawsuits – and others SCO filed last year against IBM and Novell – are further evidence that open source software is fast becoming a viable commercial choice. At the same time, there is growing debate over the actual usefulness of open source software vs. proprietary software in the context of new applications development. These were topics that drew particularly spirited discussion during a panel on “Delivering Value and Innovation Using Open Source Software” at the Wharton Technology Conference. Full article

Information Technology: Value Creator or Commodity?
In the last decade, companies frequently could gain competitive advantage by coming up with a new technological innovation. The first banks to offer their services online, for example, undoubtedly attracted new customers, at least initially. Now, however, online banking is “just a commodity everyone has,” says business writer and consultant Nicholas Carr. Carr was one of several panelists at the Feb. 27 Wharton Technology Conference who debated what value, if any, can be created these days through IT. Full Article

2003-11-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

Knowledge@Wharton had a great article about professional woman taking on entrepreneurial ventures

For Rebecca Matthias, Motherhood Is a Fulltime Job
In 1982, when Rebecca Matthias was pregnant with her first child and working as an architect, she couldn’t find maternity clothes that were appropriate for a professional woman. Thus was born a business niche, one that she and husband Dan Matthias went on to develop into Mothers Work, the largest maternity retailer in the U.S., with 1,000 stores and 2002 sales of $453 million. During an interview at Wharton, Mathias talked about the growing pains of an entrepreneurial venture. Full article

2003-10-27T13:07:00.000-08:00

Wharton Information Session

I went to Wharton's information session and wanted to share some of my observations. There were about 30 people in attendance, an adcom representative, and one alumna. I was quite impressed by the adcom representative who did an outstanding job talking about Wharton, what it offers and what it can do for us as students.

After the formal part of the presentation, the alumna spoke, and she was quite helpful as well. She was accepted at Duke, Kellogg, Stanford and Wharton, waitlisted at Columbia, but decided to come to Wharton. Some interesting questions were:

1. Why did you choose to come to Wharton?

Answer: What impressed me most about the school was community. I really wanted to ensure that my experience outside the classroom was going to be as good (or even better than) as my in-class experience. I really felt that Wharton would provide me with that opportunity and it did. I was also looking for rigorous academic experience and you definitely get that at Wharton.

2. What is Wharton's competitive advantage?

Answer: I think that Wharton's different because of its truly global community. No other school compares to Wharton in that area (36-37% of this year's incoming class are international, 6-7% are permanent residents). But what really differentiates Wharton from other schools is PASSION, passion of its students for everything they do - from scuba diving to helping non-profit organizations. My passion, for example, happened to be the business side of medical profession, which leads to another Wharton differentiator - its flexibility and its individual approach to serving students' needs. Wharton really wants to make sure that your 2 years at school are the best years of your life. Faculty worked tirelessly and individually with me, for example, to make sure that I get what I wanted out of the program. Also, students are very involved in the government of the organization. My classmates, for instance, picked me as a class representative for a committee to choose our current Dean.

Adcom member: Another example of how much the students are involved at Wharton is Pre-Term. Pre-Term was an entirely student driven initiative. They suggested it, they planned it and they implemented it. Originally, Pre-Term was a one week program, but later generations of students suggested that Wharton extends it to one month. We did it, and now everyone who enters Wharton’s regular program enters it on an equal footing because of the Pre-Term.

3. Could you talk a little bit about learning teams?

Answer: Learning teams have both positive and negative factors. Like any other real-life setting where you don't get to pick people you'll work with, learning teams present their challenges. But you learn to work with those challenges, and it only makes you stronger. Every team has at least one international student and that creates interesting dynamic for the team as well. Overall, my impression of my team was very positive, we worked together on the problems and became good friends.

4. Did you feel that the fact that students have so much input in how the schools is run and how the classes are taught had any NEGATIVE impact on quality of teaching, etc.?

Answer: It works just like any other democracy. There were some instances where we had to go through some pushing and pulling. For example, there was a lot of debate about Wharton’s non-disclosure policy. But, remember, that you must prove to the administration that what you propose will add value to the process and to the experiences of your classmates at Wharton. If you're unable to do so, your change will not be instituted. Yes, like any other democracy, such system has a dark side to it, but nevertheless it is the best system. Then the adcom member added: Also, please understand that while professors are very responsive to students' concerns, they have a right to say "no" and to continue to teach classes in the way that they think best fits the class

2003-10-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tuck II - class visit, interview, tour, etc...

The drive to campus was quick and easy, and parking was a breeze. I arrived at 8:00, and by 8:15, there were about 15 of us at the admissions office checking out the school. My day started by attending an 8:30 class - Economics for Managers. The first thing that I have to say is that the friendly atmosphere of Tuck is truly unique. The first thing that I noticed when I came to class was a 100lb chocolate lab parked on the steps between the aisles. Come to find out, at Tuck, you are able to bring your pets to class. I shit you not. I met "Charlie Brown" (the lab) as well as several other students. While the class was scheduled to be an hour and a half, the time flew by. The professor was great and students really seemed to interact well with him. Even though it was the first day of class, he jumped rigth into the material and held class for the entire period. While I find it hard to describe faculty and class dynamics, all I can really say is that I was impressed by the professor, the students, and the interaction. If this class was an indecation of the education and classroom experience that I would receive while at Tuck, I would be very happy. Next came the interview. Nothing exciting to tell here. My interviewer had my resume, and he proceeded to tell me the topics that he wanted to cover over the next 45 minutes. We started with my resume, then went onto the "Why MBA, why Tuck, why now, what are your interests, etc..." Nothing too tricky except for a couple of team dynamic questions. All in all, the conversation flowed smoothly, and I seemed to have a lot in common with my interviewer. After the interview, I had to kill some time before I met back up with my student guide for lunch. I was relatively impressed by the eating facilities. The cafeteria had really good food - a full range of options from sandwiches to slad bar to a grille to hot entrees. Nothing really special here, just some more conversation with more students - all friendly and all very happy with their experience. Finally, the day wrapped up with a tour of the Tuck facilites. The academic facilites were great. Classrooms were a good size, the library was pretty sweet, and hereis the killer of all - wireless internet and intranet not only throughout Tuck but the enire campus (including outside!) While this place may be out in the country, it is not short of any technology at all. For those of you who will be able to live on campus (those of you who are single), Whitmore Hall is very very cool. The rooms are nice and connected to the Tuck facilites. Key on those cold New Hampshire winter mornings! Finally, I wrapped up my day by thanking everyone I met with and saddly traveled southbound out of beautiful Hanover and into Boston...

2003-10-14T16:16:00.000-07:00

Great article from Knowledge@Wharton:

What Women Buy -- and Why

Women comprise more than half the U.S. population. And – of more interest to marketers – women make or influence the purchase of more than 80% of all products and services. Women are the majority decision-makers today, not only in the traditional areas of fashion, food and cosmetics, but also for such big-ticket buys as automobiles, financial services, home improvement, computer electronics and travel. So you might think there would be nothing about the buying habits of women that American businesses don’t know.

However, according to the authors of two new books about marketing to women, American businesses are woefully ignorant about this sector of the population, sometimes to the point of paying millions for advertising and sales strategies more likely to annoy their target audience than attract them. Full article

2003-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Tuck I

I arrived in Hanover early Saturday afternoon. The drive from Manchester to Tuck was long (approximately 90 minutes), but beautiful. The sun was shining, the weather was beautiful, and the backdrop of the mountains was damn near blissful. I guess that I should warn in advance that you are likely to hear some very biased comments from me when it comes to Hanover because I am an outdoor nut (for a frame of reference, feel free to read Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods.) I rolled into Hanover and immediately felt at home. The town is small, but was filled with activity as the weather was nice and the football game was still going on. What really sets this place apart is the attitudeof the people - residents, students, vistors, whoever! I kid you not, every person that I saw or smoke with had a smile on his/her face. It is really hard to convey just how nice everyone was. I loved the fact that cars stopped for the pedestrians, people held the door for each other, people said hello to strangers as they were passing on the streets. While this is far different than what most people experience in the hustle and bustle of the east coast or other large cities, it is an absolutely refreshing. What is great about it is that even though everyone has things to do or places to go, they do not let their agendas take the place of every day courtesy. (novel concept!)

Well, after grabbing a quick bite to eat (at EBAs for the Tuckies that are reading this!), I decided to head to campus and check out the facilities. In order to find my way to the B-school facilities, I stopped a student on the street and asked fpr some directions. He was more than happy to oblige and pointed me towards "Tuck Drive." I proceeded to amble through campus really soaking in the atmosphere of being completely removed from urban society. When I finally made it to Tuck, I walked around a couple of the buildings trying to find someone to talk to about the program (somewhat difficult on Saturday because many of the students had left for the weekend in order to celebrate the end of the first term.) I finally caught up with a student that was more than willing to give me his perspective on Tuck. He proceeded to talk about the many positives of Tuck - the location, the size, the closeness of the students, the activities to participate in , the atmosphere, etc. When I asked him what he thought the weaknesses of the school were, he talked about the aggregate size of the alumni network as well as the "distribution" of those alumni (predominately the east coast). Also though, he was quick to add that he thought that while Tuck's alumni group may be smaller, they are just as tight or tighter than any other school's alums. After about a half an hour, I felt bad about monopolizing this guys time and decided to take off, continue my personal assessment of the campus and students, and then check into my hotel.

Sunday - nothing exciting unless you are an avid outdoor enthusiast. I decided that I had to take advantage of the AT (Appalachian Trail for you novices...) since it runs rigth through Hanover. I thin k that it is important to not just how important outdoor recreation is to the Tuck experience. It seems as though virtually EVERYONE is into it. The major activities include hiking, skiing (cross country and downhill), snowshoeing, mountain biking and running. Coming from an avid enthusiast, it was great to see a student body that took these things so seriously - who says that the only thing you go to school for is an education! Besides hiking, I found my way to the Library and worked on my essays. I also ran into several more students that were more than happy to share their Tuck experience with me.

To be continued...