U.S. News and World Reports ranks Case Western Reserve University 38th among national research universities. I find it exciting when one of the universities I attended is recognized for their achievements. Read more about the rankings at the university’s website: the daily | news and information for Case Western Reserve University.
September 13, 2011
May 292011
BNET had a nice summary regarding a study conducted in Australia: MBAs Don’t Really Care About Social Responsibility, Study Shows.
The study reported that in a hypothetical situation of MBA graduates considering job offers, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was a marginal deciding factor (very marginal). This is counter to the tendency of business students to cite CSR as an important factor when deciding which company to work for. Essentially MBA students were saying one thing, but doing another.
Shocking.
However, can this really be surprising for anybody, much less MBA students?
According to the BNET article, salary and advancement were among the most important:
- The students were most concerned with salary, opportunity for advancement, and time and travel demands.
Followed by a few others:
- Corporate reputation and workplace reputation mattered only marginally, and even then only when students were comparing companies with the very best and very worst reputations.
- Students who said work/life balance was important to them did generally make that a significant factor in their hypothetical job choices.
These results may be reflectint Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Having a secure job and income can lead to resources (i.e. money) to satisfy the need for shelter, food, safety, health, property, and so forth. It should not come as a surprise that students would make choices in favor of job security as opposed to some abstract ideal such as Corporate Social Responsibility.
Furthermore, a student’s choice for salary and work-life balance over CSR should not necessarily imply that the students do not care for social responsibility. The sort of ironic twist is that one of the MBA tools called a conjoint analysis would have likely provided evidence that while CSR is important, when choosing a career MBA students perceive less value in CSR compared to other attributes. As a super quick summary, a conjoint analysis is one of the tools that marketers use to help determine the customer’s perceived value of various attributes; most people do the same analysis in their head while shopping. For example, a four door car is worth more to me than a two door, I really want leather seats but I’m not willing to pay more than X dollars for it, a sunroof is nice but not worth more than $Y nice, and I have to pay for satellite radio no matter what. . . and et cetera.
I would wager most job hunters perform a similar analysis: CSR is nice, but salary is more important, as well as location and work-life balance. Free coffee trumps all.
Or whatever.
Also, in a crummy crippled economy one should not be surprised that a paycheck > social responsibility.
The Point: The desire to fulfill higher needs should not be synonymous with apathy of other needs. Do companies have an incentive to find a savvy way to make CSR a fundamental need akin to salary and work-life balance?
May 29, 2011
May 162011
So I recently walked across a stage to collect my MBA diploma. It has taken me two very long years to get to that point. Two major questions arise as I graduate from business school:
- Was it worth it?
- What did I learn?
The notion of worth is dependent on each person, and I would not be totally surprised if I were to learn that some of my b-school colleagues felt they got less than they bargained for. For the most part, though, I imagine the vast majority of my peers found the experience totally worthwhile. And even though the job search has been – and still is – quite difficult for me, I definitely think earning my MBA has been a completely worthwhile experience.
Why do I think it was worth it? Because, simply put, I know way more things now in April 2011 then I did back in August 2009. For me, that knowledge has value.
Some of the things I learned were technical and academic book knowledge such as accounting, finance, marketing terminology, operations, a plethora of strategy frameworks, and so forth. More importantly, though, I learned to think things at both a strategic 30,000 foot level as well as down in the weeds. I suspect most people are either detailed oriented or ‘big picture’ sort of folks. When looking at issues I think it takes a bit of conscious effort to learn how to be able to flip between these extremes. I give credit to my MBA studies in helping me flip between them.
Something unique to the Weatherhead program is the Manage by Designing program. This has been a fantastic experience. It has allowed me the opportunity to go to Denmark to the Kolding School of Design where I had an opportunity to work with designers from all over the world. We looked at designing new approaches and thinking regarding transportation, which is a problem not limited to Denmark, but rather the entire globe. In addition to the Denmark trip, I had an amazing opportunity to work with the Office of Patient Experience at Cleveland Clinic to design new approaches in physician-patient interactions. In general, the Manage by Designing program was a fantastic approach to build a holistic management tool-belt.
I would not go so far as to say I learned some useless material; however, I did notice a few business things that had marginal value (that wording itself reeks of business school education).
For example, I do think that business jargon is needlessly complex. Many entities share a piece of the blame. Business textbooks, journals, cases, websites, and so forth. I am not entirely certain why business school students and professors tend to use complex wording; I have my guesses, though. With that being said, my aforementioned Design curriculum had a considerable focus on communication and structuring a compelling argument. Again, though, it does seem as if business folks tend to write more complicated than they need to.
Since I did not have a formal background in business, I structured my courses so I learned a little bit of everything. For example I made certain to take an additional finance class, a Six Sigma/lean operations class, as well as a couple of entrepreneurship courses. However, I did take more marketing and strategy courses than any other type. It is what I enjoy. Along similar lines, the Weatherhead program is moving away from being heavy in concentrations to cultivating more of a general management education. I think this is a good move. It is how I structured my education and I think good managers need to know a bit of everything.
Finally, I met some absolutely fantastic people. We had a very international class and I would like to think I can now travel all over the globe and have friends wherever I may be. I have had a blast hanging out with my classmates in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Chicago, Darden Softball, New York, and many other places including a certain paintball field.
I’m going to miss seeing these folks on a daily basis.
In conclusion, I learned a great deal of stuff earning my MBA. I learned formulas as well as new ways to thinking. The lessons made it worth my time.
Definitely good times.
May 16, 2011
Apr 302011
As I prepare to graduate with my MBA I have started to search for some self-deprecating MBA jokes. I have compiled some here, and if you know of any others that are worthwhile to add, feel free to email me.
You know you are an MBA when . . .
- You ask the waiter what the restaurant’s core competencies are.
- You decide to re-org your family into a ‘team- based organization.’
- You refer to dating as test marketing.
- You can spell ‘paradigm.’
- You actually know what a paradigm is.
- You understand your airline’s fare structure.
- You write executive summaries on your love letters.
- You think it is actually efficient to write a ten-page paper with six other people you do not know.
- You believe you never have any problems in your life, just ‘issues’ and ‘improvement opportunities.’
- You calculate your own personal cost of capital.
- You refer to your previous life as ‘my sunk costs.’
- Your three meals a day are a ‘morning consumption function’, a ‘noontime consumption function’, and an ‘even consumption function.’
- You start to feel sorry for Dilbert’s boss.
- You refer to divorce as ‘divestiture.’
- Your favorite artist is the one who does the dot drawings for the Wall Street Journal.
- None of your favorite publications have cartoons.
- You account for your tuition as a capital expenditure instead of an expense.
- You insist that you do some more market research before you and your spouse produce another child.
- At your last family reunion, you wanted to have an emergency meeting about their brand equity.
- You decided the only way to afford a house is to call your fellow alumni and offer to name a room after them if they help with the down payment.
- Your ‘deliverable’ for Sunday evening is clean laundry and paid bills.
- You use the term ‘value-added’ without falling down laughing.
The above taken from gmatclub.com
MBA Guys Describe Marketing:
What is marketing?
1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” – That’s Direct Marketing”
2. You’re at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says: “He’s very rich. “Marry him.” -That’s Advertising”
3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day, you call and say: “Hi, I’m very rich. “Marry me – That’s Telemarketing”
4. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink, you open the door (of the car)for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her ride and then say:”By the way, I’m rich. Will you “Marry Me?” – That’s Public Relations”
5. You’re at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says:”You are very rich! “Can you marry ! Me?” – That’s Brand Recognition”
6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” She gives you a nice hard slap on your face. – “That’s Customer Feedback”
7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say: “I am very rich. Marry me!” And she introduces you to her husband. – “That’s demand and supply gap”
8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say anything, another person come and tell her: “I’m rich. Will you marry me?” and she goes with him – “That’s competition eating into your market share”
9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and before you say: “I’m rich, Marry me!” your wife arrives. – “That’s restriction for entering new markets”
April 30, 2011
Let’s Connect