Where in the World is the MBA Show?

Episode 49: Is Harvard Making Conjugal Visits?

It is September 7th and this is the MBA SHOW!

i am lieutenant MBA - Sean Bonawitz

and i am International MBA of mystery - Stav J. Davis

We usually save our Business-Porn section for the end of the show but this is just too huge!

What is it?

HBS is in love with Bernie Madoff!

What??

yes - the New york Times finally got HBS to admit that an "anonymous" professor is working with the Wall-street con on a case study based on this life.

have they got no shame??

I actually think its brave of them to look the root of the problem in the eye.

Well, to me it seems like a populist move. it smells bad.

Well, I think this is out of the box thinking of HBS part. In any case, I have the feeling a big storm is brewing around this story.

Anyway - on to our main topic: B-school branding vs. reality!

Many times b-schools brand themselves very aggressively around a certain message, but how does that message come out in practice?

Well, lets take a look at the recent hot topic of entrepreneurship. Many schools brand themselves as entrepreneurship meccas, but a new study published by poetsandquants.com may suggest otherwise.

They used 120 million linked in profiles to measure how many graduates of each b school actually went on to found a company. And the results are:

1. Stanford
2. Harvard
3. MIT-Sloan
4. Haas
5. Tuck

Wow. I didn't think of Harvard and Tuck as entrepreneurial.

yes. There are no surprises with Stanford and MIT, but HBS and Tuck are a positive surprise. on the other side of the scale we have Babson which only reached number 8 on this ranking and Kellogg which isn't even in the top 10.

Babson always emphasizes it's entrepreneurial direction, but this study shows it may be no more than a successful copyrighting campaign.

But then again - this study may be skewed too. You have to really look into the data to know the truth.

So - our tip of the week should be pretty obvious - don't listen to slogans! Go search for the raw quantitative data concerning your areas of interest! And don't rely only on one data point like this survey - because it may be flawed. This is your life - don't let people control it with creative branding.

So - Stav, what are you up to this weekend?

i'm going to try to license a patent for my startup. What about you Sean?

I'm going horseback riding in Maine!

Great! I am Stav j. Davis - international MBA of Mystery.

And I am Sean Bonawitz - Lieutenant MBA, and you've been watching -

THE MBA SHOW!!!

Episode 48: Strengthening Your MBA Core Term

Tom: It is August 31st and this is episode 48 of the MBA Show! I am TheRealTomRose.

Christina: And I am Christina Johnson! We have a great show today. We are here to celebrate the beginning of yet another MBA year by discussing the issue of CORE TERM (print).

Tom: The Core term, which in some schools can be spread over more than one term or even a whole year, is a horrid idea that means that your school is trying to cram business fundamentals into the first few classes you take.

Christina: Like what classes?

Tom: You know, basic accounting, finance, marketing, statistics, love making.

Christina: I think that is a wonderful thing! I sure need those fundamentals. I think this will increase my chances of getting recruited for an internship!

Tom: As a matter of fact, I have a quote here from a senior associate dean at Darden: ““These classes are vital to performing well in internships.”

Christina: I bet they are so much fun! Something so important must be a lot of fun!

Tom: Oh, you poor little MBAby (pronounced: em-bi-ey-bi = MBA and baby in one word, get it?). As a veteran, I can tell you that the core courses are designed to destroy your life and eat away at your sleep-hours like little Gremlins. It is definitely not fun!

Christina: So you mean there are things in the MBA that I will not like to do?

Tom: There are plenty of things, but this will be the first of them.

Christina: Come on, is it really that bad?

Tom: That really is up to you. The core classes alone are not that bad, it’s how you mix it with all the other stuff – recruiting events, social events, group assignments. You know what they say – you have to choose two out of three: sleep, social life or studying.

Christina: Oh, well. I better get into them books right away then! Tom, what are you up to this week?

Tom: (Fill in whatever). And what about you Christina?

Christina: (Fill in whatever). I am Christina Johnson.

Tom: And I’m theRealTomRose! Don’t forget to subscribe…

Together: You’ve been watching The MBA Show!!!

Episode 47: Why MBAs Can't Mention Their Past

Miro: Welcome to the MBA Show, We’ve got a new school year here in Cambridge,and we’re here some brand new eager, yet terrified first years!

[Pan]

I’m MiroKaz.
I’m The International MBA of Mystery.
I’m Lieutenant MBA.

Miro: We’ve got a special show for you today, celebrating the

We’re here today to talk about the issue of Personal Branding.

(1) MBA Tip of the Week:

[LESSON 1 SEGMENT]

We have some fresh MBA’s here. What is worrying you right now?

Stav: I’m worried about being pigeon holed.

Sean: Well, what did you do before school?

Stav: Well, I used to be a great engineer in my home country. I was like johnson from johnson&johnson. And that’s where i want to take it. medical devices, energy, web. Whatever. But my problem is that i got involved in film production too, and that’s what everyone remembers, because there are 100 engineers for each film maker.

Sean: wow. Filmmaker

Tip 1: You only get one thing.

Stav: Well, what if I’ve done two things?

Miro; No! You get one thing.

Stav: But, I used be the president of my home owners association!

Miro: NO. You only get ONE thing. The great thing is that you get to pick what that one thing is.

Sean: You know Miro, we just got done filling out multiple applications showing what multi-faceted, accomplished individuals we are. Are you suggesting we now reduce ourselves to a one-dimensional description?

Miro: I know it’s counter-intuitive, but you should NOT take credit for everything you’ve ever done. And you only get one message

[LESSON 2 SEGMENT]

Stav: Great tip. So what’s tip number 2?

Tip 2: Focus on the future, not the past.

Sean: I have a classmate who just completed a PhD in physics. But he wants to go into the entertainment industry. Obviously very different fields, but a PHD in physics!

Miro: Great example! This person should brand himself as sports-management guy. Drop the physics thing. It’s amazing to have a physics phd, but if you don’t want to be remembered as physics guy - just don’t mention it.

Stav: So that’s tip number 2: Focus on the future, not the past.

[LESSON 3 SEGMENT]

Sean: Guys, I have to be honest, I really haven’t experienced this problem.

Stav: what do you want to do after B-school?

Sean: Management consulting.

Christina: BORING

Stav: Then how can you make your brand more interesting?

Sean: Well, I know this contradicts the previous tip, but I was a bomb technician in the US Navy.

Stav: [Excited.] Like “The Hurt Locker”?

Sean: Yes, just like “The Hurt Locker”.

Miro: Wait, wait, wait. You were a bomb tech and now you want to be a management consultant. [prompt for story].

Sean: Well Miro, the last time I was in Iraq, it was hot, I’m wearing the bomb suit, looking for this bomb on the side of the road, and all I could think about was becoming a management consultant.

Miro: Seriously?

Sean: Yes, I named my rifle “McKinsey”.

Miro: This is actually a great example of tip number 3, which is actually an exception to tips 1 and 2. IF YOU NEED A BOOST OF INTEREST IN YOUR CASE, YOU CAN TALK ABOUT YOUR PAST ONLY IF THERE IS TRUE AND CLEAR CLOSURE. if you were in the army and are now in b-school, it is obvious you’ve closed doors. Same thing If you got your PhD and are now in b school. It is clear you’re not going back and you won’t be pigeonholed.

Tip 3: Exception. It’s okay to mention the past if the door is clearly closed.

Stav: just a short disclaimer: all these tips are relevant only for new admitted students, who are bombmarded with many new people and introductions

Sean: But if you’re still an applicant - you are in a different position. You are being evaluated by professionals who know how evaluate your past wihtout pigeonholing you.

(2) Radar
Miro: Packing for my trip down south
Stav: i’m meeting with a web 2.0 start up, to see what i can do for them.
Sean: 2-day baking class.

Close:
International MBA of Mystery
Lieuntentant MBA
Miro Kaz

Should You Go To Harvard?

Stav: Welcome to the MBA show!!!!

I’m MiroKaz

i’m international MBA of mystery

[Miro & Stav intorduce themselves.]

Christina: And I’m TheRealTomRose!

Miro: So today we’re going to talk about pre-term. But first - Tom, do you want to introduce today’s headline?

Christina: (excitedly!) YES! Let’s get to it! “Should I go to Harvard?”

Stav: So there’s this guy who was admitted to HBS, but he’s arrogant enough to publicly debate his decision to accept the offer or not. He put up a website, Should I Go To Harvard.com, with two buttons on it and allows the public to vote Yes or No.

Christina: What? Why is he doing this?

Miro: Obviously, this is a publicity stunt for his startup! His press release mentions that he’s the CEO of CollegeBudget.com. The

Stav: As a mater of fact, I have a quote here from the CEO: quote: “I don’t consider this a publicity stunt.”.

[Group laughter]

Stav: Wait, wait, wait. I have another quote here. “It has been a meaningful way to get feedback.”

[More Group Laughter]

Christina: Well what’s the latest news with it?

Miro: This just in! Harvard just opened their own website: ShouldWeRejectThisDoucheBagOrNot....Dot EDU.

Stav: Seriously though, as of last week he had 25,000 votes. This seems to have been a good venture! But now - his domain reroutes to Harvard.edu

Christina: Well clearly he’s made a decision!!!

Miro: Well, that’s one possible explanation. I think someone has been receiving some pressure from the Admissions Committee.

(2) Jargon: Pre-term

Miro: Anyway, so - many of you are starting you MBA. Many schools offer some kind of “PRE-TERM”... For those of you who don’t know. Preterm is a special week of classes that occur before real MBA classes start. It’s a change to learn topics that you might not have skills in.

Christina: Yay! Class before class! This couldn’t get any better!

Miro: Are you going?

Christina: No (dead-pan face).

Miro: Why not?

Christina: Well I spent the whole summer going back and reviewing through my old economics notebooks, so I’m ready! I don’t need pre-term to learn the stuff again!

Stav: I hate pre-term for exactly that reason. I have been brainwashed to not participate in these things.

Miro: Are you going?

Stav: Of course! I’m not going to miss out on the strong american tradition of paying a bunch of extra money for something I have already paid tons of money for.

Miro: I have been to pre-term. I think that the value of pre-term has nothing to do with academics. It’s entirely a social event. A chance to meet people and start making friends.

(3) Business School Tip of the Week: Go to Pre-term

Miro: So what do you think about this?

Christina: Well you can never have too many friends! But what’s this thing I’ve heard about...like free-term.

Miro: Actually this is great. If it doesn’t exist, you can start a free-term program. It’s a better socializing experience. Plus, if you can teach one of the topics at free-term, you can build your brand of being a smart, capable person.





(3) Radar
Miro: Emma’s baptism
Stav: Pre Pre-term.
Christina: Movin in.

Close:
International MBA of Mystery

Will the US Downgrade Take MBA’s With It?

http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/08/wharton-admissions-as-elitist-as-youd-expect/
http://www.stacyblackman.com/2011/08/08/evolution-of-the-executive-m-b-a/
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/08/05/hbs-grad-behind-viral-hit-leisure-diving-featured-on-tosh-0-thrillist-more-photos/

Welcome to the MBA Show.

Today we’ll unpack what the US credit down-grade means to MBAs.

[you creep up]

Ah! Who are you? How did you get here? This is a closed set. Security.

It’s me guys

Why the disguise?

I’m from over seas and I want to hide my true identity.

Ooh, that doesn’t sound like a good sign.

How do you feel about being an MBA?

I love it! I’m not going to work for the next two years.

Why would would you be embarrassed about that?

Well, I haven’t told my friends I’m an MBA yet.

Why not?

They’re engineers. Being an MBA is the ultimate sin.

Okay “vaguely international MBA”, what are our headlines for today?

(1) Headlines: US Gov’t Credit Downgrade

As you know Standard & Poor’s recently downgraded the credit rating of the United States government. In case you don’t know, Standard & Poor’s evaluates how risky different forms of debt are. Until recently the US government had (and has always had the highest rating). They are saying that US goverment is now risker than it was last

That’s bullshit! US debt is the safest debt in the world. Down grading it is ridiculous. S&P is just looking for a way to indicate that something has happened, but I think they’re just hurting their own credibility at this point.

GE is AAA rated. Does that mean my money is safer with GE than with the US.

Actually, there is a separate rating for sovereign nations. So you wouldn’t compare the US and GE’s bond rating. You would compare different countries with one another.

For example, it would be interesting, to note all the other countries which currently have a higher debt rating than the United States:

Australia
Austria
Canada
Finland
France
Germany
The Netherlands
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Swiss Confederation
United Kingdom
New Zealand

New Zealand! You’re telling me that I’m better off loaning money to Frodo Baggins than I am with the United States.

In my country, Hobbits are considered to be quite trustworthy.

So, Interest rates are about to go up. Althought, if you have fixed rate student-loan debt, then you’re solid.

Who’s going to give me a fixed rate student loans?

Well the US gov’t gives fixed rate loans.

Fantastic. That’s really useful for me. I got all my loans from the mother land.

It’s good. With the us currency about to collapse, or at least downgrade. soon, you’ll be albe to buy an MBA with one month’s salary. Unless we have to political will to fix this, and I think we’ve proven we don’t, the US economy is busted.

The old school US economy is busted. But I’m buying a ticket into the new world of innovation, and for that - an american business education is still the best and still worth it. There is a reason New-Zealand didn’t come up with Apple, Google and Facebook all emerging from the US and not from all the other AAA rated countries, including New-Zealand.

(2) Business Porn

Recent HBS Grad Brian Thorne, and his friends John Lewis, Alex Scott, Ed Foy have created the wildly popular website LeisureDive.com

This is guys taking photos of themselves jumping into pools in poses that look really relaxed and casual.

Four of the worst stereotypes of HBS grads all coming to roost at once.

White guys,
White names
no redeeming value
Summering in the Hamptons.

If they’re doing this as a joke, then this is great, but if they are deluding themselves into thinking this is a legit business.

I love this! This is one of the first sports where bankers have an edge. Finally an athletic activity where I can participate in business attire.

I hope these guys are self-aware. I’m pretty sure

[Showing Pictures]

Give me an example of a leisure dive.

I think it’s better shown with a picture:

One raised elbow

A killer leisure face

An item that indicates leisurely attitude (in your non-raised elbow hand). Some acceptable items include: Red Stripe, White Russian, Paperback novel, Croquet mallet

(3) Radar
Miro: Wife’s away
Tom: Scam condo tour for a mythical free cruise.
Stav: I’m writing a business plan.

Your Salary = Your Business School Ranking

We have a great show this week. We’re going to tell you how one tweet can get your a free MBA.

but first...

(1) Headlines: Forbes Ranking

Forbes released it’s rankings this week.

More rankings? I’m so sick of rankings I don’t even care... Who won

Harvard, but that’s just a control. If it’s not harvard at the top it’s obviously just a calculations error.

Otherwise people start to get suspicious.

As tired as I am of rankings, I actually really like the Forbes rankings.

Why?

They are based entirely off of salary earned 5 years after graduation. I like it because there is no subjectivity. Cold hard numbers. And let’s be honest. Salary is the best proxy we have to day of measuring the value of a person.

which brings us to this weeks’

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/winners-losers-in-forbes-2011-mba-ranking/

(2)Business Porn

Let’s find out, who’s making what, five years out.

Graduates of Harvard made an average of $230K 5 years after graduation.
Wharton grads made $225: and then things start ot drop off pretty substiantially.

They barely even cleared $200k. I don’t even understand why they get up in the morning.

The poverty stricken Stanford grads made a mere $205K which is down $20K from the same cohort two years ago.

Startup loving, west-coast hippies.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/what-top-mbas-earn-five-years-out/
(3) The Tweet That Won A Free MBA
John Yates earned a a free MBA degree with just one tweet.

University of Iowa’s Tippie business offered students the chance at a free scholarship for creating a tweet on “What makes you an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire?”

Tell ‘em what the tweet was.

“Globally minded (5) 
Innovative and driven (7)
 Tippie can sharpen (5)”

For those of you who are interested in profit, but not poetry, I should point out that that tweet was also a haiku!

[Someone does counts on hands] Globally minded

Ah the universal symbol of haiku interpretation

I love how he included a syllable count in the tweet. Because there is no way the admissions staff would detect haiku-ness on their own.

So how many tweets were there overall?

58.

What? Wow, applciations took the entire GMAT, wrote a full application and still couldn’t get their applications in early enough to write an additional 140 characters.

This should be a lesson to MBA applicants everywhere. If the admissions staff decides to hold a creative, out-of-the-box, experimental application stunt. You should definitely play along!

Because no-one else will.

MBA’s are so freaking conservative! Write a damned tweet! Good lord.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/08/04/the-tweet-that-won-a-free-mba/


(3) Jagon: A-Player

Here’s a term you might have heard before that you’ll be hearing often in business school … and in banks … and consulting firms … and basically everywhere that hires MBAs.

An A-player is that top notch worker who does what it takes to get the job done. A-Players become the drivers of your business. They’re the people that you can’t let go. Or as I think of them … bankers.

(4) Business School Tip of the week:

A-players hire A-players and B-players hire C-players

Well, I haven’t been working out lately. so I would say that I’m currently employing a pair of A players down there.

No, what I’m saying is that really good people hire other really good people. Mediocre people, hire losers.

The idea here is that mediocre players are afraid to hire people that might make them look stupid, so they only hire people that they know they can intellectually dominate.

You only have to let one mediocre person in the door and its’ a downward spiral from there.

Can I have one??

No. Not even one.

Tom, I’m going to have to let you go.

Well if we fire all the C-players too, then it’ll just be an empty table.

Radar
Tom: 6-Flags.
Miro: Meditation workshop

Episode 43: Serving Up Hot Cups of Coffee Chat

What’s going on TRTR? Well MiroKaz, the recruiting season has officially started.

I was talking with an incoming student the other day and I mentioned the idea of a coffee chat, and he said, “What is a coffee chat”

[miro laughing smugly]

I realized, someone has to do something to help these youngsters out.

Well, I have a tip. (Something about beans)

Woah, there Joe Starbucks.

Contrary to how it sounds, the coffee chat has little to do with coffee, and is actually a formal part of the interview process.

Coffee chats exist for big firms only. They make employees available to students for brief chats about the company.

You’ll be signing up at your career center for a time slot with said employee.

It is often the first contact between you and the firm. (unless you happen to have been an info session already.) In the coffee chat, a rep will speak with between 1 and 3 candidates.

It will be billed as a casual conversation, despite the fact that

THE OPEN

Miro: Well, I guess we’ll get started with out him.

Consultant: Richus Exhausticus

Candidate: Whore-itus desperatus

[Miro sitting in front of glass wall speaking to imaginary interviewee.]

[Tom outside banging on wall screaming]



Tip: Don’t miss your sign up and get stuck with the 5:45 am slot.

Tell me about yourself...

Miro: So, tell me a little bit about yourself.

[Tom face:] Struggle to think, go crazy and spout gibberish.

Miro: At consulting co, we welcome people with diverse backgrounds.

Tip: Make sure you have well-practiced 30-second pitch for yourself.

Your turn to ask questions

Miro: Do you have any questions for me.

Yes, I have a great question for you. As a person who prides himself on client service, data analysis, and actionable results, (which you may have noticed are the top three bullet points on your website), I have often wondered how a person of your stature handles the logistical supply chain optimization in this increasingly global world. I’m particularly fascinated by techniques for applying the newton raphson method to facilities that have traditionally employed news vendor optimization. I think this is specifically important considering the rise of the BRIC countries and the shift of the world’s reserve courency away from the US dollar and towards the Chinese renminbi (or the ‘yuan’ as it’s colloquially called.) What I’m really trying to say here is, ‘Tell me about work life balance’.

Tip: Don’t be a dick, ask real questions.

The close

Miro: That’s very nice, but …

Tom:

And that’s when I realized I was on the wrong greenline!

And I’ll never eat that many hotdogs again.

And that’s really the only time my herpes have been a problem

Have you considered using a facial mosturizer

Which is why, I never ever play poker with a four fingered person

Seriously feel how soft my skin is

That’s how I found myself down at fraggle

Tip: You should end the interview
-Thank the interviewer for their time
-Ask if you can follow-up

-Get a business card

-Write a thank you note

It’s a week of top 10 lists here at The MBA Show

Title: The 10 Best Places to Work and the Most Expensive Places to Learn.
42-The-Top-Ten-List-Episode-Youtube
It’s top 10 week at the MBA Show. Tom and Miro review the best places for MBAs to work and the most expensive business schools in the country. Also, find out the easiest way to generate content for your personal brand.


(1) Headline: It’s a week of top 10 lists here at The MBA Show:

First up: The top 10 jobs for MBA’s.

This is a Universum survey:

Google
McKinsey & Company
Apple
Goldman Sachs Group
The Boston Consulting Group
Bain & Company
Facebook
Amazon.com
J.P. Morgan
Nike


http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/mba100/2010/full_list/

Google? That’s not a consulting firm, OR a bank. I don’t understand it...



Moving on.


(2) The top 10 most expensive private MBA programs.


Business School, Tuition & Fees,
1. Havard University (MA), $56,204
2. Columbia University (NY) $55,588
3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), $54,009
4. Stanford University (CA), $53,118
5. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (PA), $52,500
6. University of Chicago (Booth), $51,680
7. Northwestern University (Kellogg) (IL), $51,680
8. Dartmouth College (Tuck) (NH), $51,000
9. Yale University (CT), $51,000
10. Cornell University (Johnson) (NY), $50,992


http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/articles/2011/07/19/10-most-expensive-private-business-schools

(3) The top 10 reasons to go to business school.

10. Education

9. Find a mate

8. The Experience

7. The Network

6. Getting a Job

5. Escape

4. Pedigree

3. Money

2. Money

1. Money


http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/mba100/2010/full_list/

(4) Jagon: Boilerplate

Boilerplate. Boiler plate is a slug of text that never changes. It is commonly used to refer to clauses in legal contracts that are used over and over again, but can also be used euphemistically to refer to things that are boring or un-original.


(5) Business School Tip of the week: Write top 10 lists

Radar
Tom: At the beach, in NJ
Miro: Clambake at my place

Not recruiting yet? You're late!

(1) Headlines: This week’s headline comes to us from viewers Brian Jones and Zach Cohen. Recruiting season has begun!

[Cheering, Whooping]

I love recruiting. I can already smell the coffee chats and padfolios greese.

Dude, you’re looking at the wrong month of your calendar again. Recruiting doesn’t start until september.

Not true my friend. Two major recruiting events have already happened.
In the last week:
Bain held a global info session and JP Morgan started up the MBA Advantage recruiting program.

They can’t do that, there’s a moratorium.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Miro is referring to a mythical limitation on company recruiting which protects students from aggressive company recruiting events.

You can’t be telling me that the moratorium is BS

Well it’s going with or without you. You can sit this one out if you want. There will be plenty of interviews for startups at the END of the year.

Ahh damit.

So should incoming students freak-out?

That’s a great question. And we’ll answer it... In this weeks bonus content!

Check it out by subscribing to our newsletter at www.TheMBAShow.com

Sneak preview. Don’t worry about it too much. We’ll tell you what you do need to do in the bonus content. You can subscribe at www.TheMBAShow.com

J.P. Morgan MBA Early Advantage program
http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/recruiting-process/mba.asp

(2) Jennifer Fremont-Smith
Jennifer is a true serial entreprenur. She has founded a whole boatload of companies before getting a mid-career MBA as a Sloan Fellow and is currently the CEO the super-hot Boston area start-up Smarterer.

How may companies did you start?

Is the limiting factor was your interest?

Give us an example a company you didn’t care about?

Recommend for curent MBAs thinking about Entreprenurship?

How do you package yourself as an MBA?

Why go get an MBA?

Did theory pan out?

How will the job search look different in the future?

Is network not important anymore?

I thought there were people who played the game and people who didn’t? Is that changing?

We who are you are funded by?

(3) Jargon: Slipping the noose


(4) Business School Tip of the Week
Write a review of the product of a company you are interested.


What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: Making Cheese
Tom: My wife Tracy’s birthday
Jennifer: My daughter Lucy's 8th birthday

INSEAD Reveals Its Secret US Invasion Plan

We have Great Show today.
Business school essays are about to get much, much shorter
and say goodbye to a relaxed summer before business school

But First: breaking news!

(1) Headline: The French are Coming the French are Coming

INSEAD Announces that they are invading the US and plans to offer a degree on US soil!

What kind of degree?

They won’t say

When are they opening the campus?

No timeline as of yet.

Well will they go indepenant or continue their parnternship with Wharton.

Unclear.

This is like academic vaporware.

Miro, are you listening? Our sovereignty has been challenged! They’re not setting up shop in one of our expendable territories such as Puerto Rico. We’re talking about the main land.

I’m not that worried. The whole point of INSEAD is that it’s international. as a commentor pointed out in the aritcle about this on Poets and Quants It doesn’t make any sense to get a 100% US INSEAD education. That sentence barely make sense.

Why would you take one Europe’s best B-schools and bring it to the U.S.

INSEAD is a great school with an amazing education. By coming to the US, INSEAD finally gets rid of the one thing that has been holding them back:

What’s that?

French People.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/07/01/can-you-tweet-your-way-into-b-school/


(2) Headlines: Tweet your way to an MBA

University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Business is adding a new requirement to their MBA application: the Tweet.

It never ends. Am I required to friend their Dean on Facebook.

They are asking everyone to submit a tweet as part of their b-school application.
140 characters to answer:
“What makes you an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire? Creativity encouraged!“

the question itself is over 100 characters.

The thing that makes me an exceptional Tippie Full-time MBA candidate and future MBA hire is … damn I ran out of characters.

The school is offering a full scholarship for the best tweet.
Wait a minute, the article says, “The school plans to ask five or so finalists if their tweets can be shared with others via social media and the winner will ultimately be announced on Aug. 4 on both Facebook and Twitter.

So they’re not actually tweeting the essays? Hahaha. They have finally taken the ‘social’ out of social-media.

God forbid a low quality tweet, escape the lips of an MBA candidate without prior review by an admissions committee.

(3) Jargon - Eat your own dogfood.

For instance, if you are a blogger at blogger you better be using blogger to blog your own blog … rather than wordpress

Huh?

So eating your own dogfood is when a company uses it’s own product. The rason this isn’t called feasting on your own filet migon. Is because you usually find out that your product sucks in a bunch of ways. But this way, you can make it better.

Let me give you a different example using my job.

Miro, you have a job? That’s amazing! How much to you make?

well, I have a start-up called Testive.

They’re not paying you anything are they.

It’s called equity! Its an investment in my future. Why can’t my father understand that?

So tell me about the dog food at Testive.

Anyway, we make software that we sell to test prep companies. So we started a subsidiary company that does test prepartion, just to be a customer of our own software.

You started an entire subsidiary company just to be a customer of your own product.

Yes

So how’s it going?

We were right. It sucks! But this is fastest way to make it great.

(4) Business School Tip of the week:

Do a pre-MBA internship.

Are you sick and tired of only having one internship during you MBA?

Do you wish you could destroy yet another summer with three months of work?

Want to invest your time on a project someone else is going to get the credit for?

Well look no further!

The pre-MBA internship. It’s like a regular internship, but it PRE!

Business week is covering students how quit their jobs in the spring before the MBA and spent the summer before they start school doing an internership.

As patrick henry once said: I regret that I have, but only 1 summer to give to Goldman Sachs First Boston, Singapore Branch.

http://www.businessweek.com/business-schools/a-farewell-to-summer-the-premba-internship-06302011.html

What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: Tutoring
Tom: Coding Coding and more Coding

Your Salary = GMAT * 325 - $123,000

Find out the formula for predicting your starting post-MBA salary based on your GMAT score. Test Prep company, Knewton, released their analysis that every 10 points on the GMAT translates to an additional $3K in starting salary. Also Tom and Miro talk about what to do if your colleagues at your internship or new job are trying to undermine you.

(B) We have Great Show today.
We’ll quantify your worth based on your GMAT score
And discuss what to do when your team dismisses you as ‘just another MBA”

(1) Headlines: 10 pts on the GMAT worth $3000

Knewton CEO Jose “Giant Hands” Ferreira just released a video looking at starting salaries based on your GMAT score. Knewton found, you will earn an additional $3K for every 10 points in your GMAT score.

Here at the MBA show, we have looked at Jose’s data and created a handy formula you can use to determine your self worth.

[Show formula] Your salary = 325 * GMAT - $123,000

So, how are you doing Miro?

Well, let’s say, that I’m not exactly meeting expectations.

How so?

Actually, I took my starting salary, plugged it in and figured that I should roughly have scored a 380 on the gmat.

For those of you who have already taken the GMAT, we find this is a helpful tool to figure out how much you should be making.

you know this can only serve to make most people feel terrible about themselves.

That’s what we do here at the MBA Show.

Okay, let run some of the numbers

For a 500, $40K.
If you have a GMAT score of 700 your salary should be $105K

For those of you with big eyes, you can expect to break 100-grand when you hit 690.

Another neat way to use this is to figure out whether you should go to business school at all.

For example, suppose you’re currently making $60,000. Plug that into the formula, and you’ll see that you need to score at least a 570 on the GMAT, just to make it worth it to play the game at all!

So, how did Knewton figure this out?

Apparently, there is very high correlation between GMAT score, the school you attend. There is also a strong correlation between the school you attend and average starting salary.

Interestingly, the best-fit line, notably under-predicts salaries at the high end. Basically the people at the top get more than their fair share of the pie.

Let’s face it, anything else would simply be un-american.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/06/22/ten-gmat-points-equal-3000-in-starting-pay/

Jargon - Breaking the MBAs
Companies I’ve worked at.

Wide-eyed and busy-tailed MBA is managing a company veteran.

The MBA says: In my operations class I have this amazing piece of analysis that will help us synergize backward-overflows. All it will take from you subordinate is just three weeks of work!

What happens?

As it turns out, someone who has worked at the company longer than you has many options for discouraging you, disuading you, embarassing you, undermining you, etc.

This is what we call breaking the MBA

Which brings us to our
Business School Tip of the week: We’ll be looking at what happens someone tries to break the MBA.

I will be suggesting ways for MBA’s to fight back.

Dazzle your subordinates with powerful MBA jargon. Such as using a runge-kutte approximation instead of the newton-raphson method.
Watch how quickly you will be made to look like an idiot in front of your boss when your subordinates respond in kind with industry and company jargon.

Explain to them that YOU are the boss.
Laugh at them

Load your subordinates down with meaningless, un-fulfilling tasks until they relent.
Don’t do those task

Schedule a meeting to discuss our relationship and certain challenge that I have been facing as an MBA.
Fail to go to meeting because you are playing foosball with the CEO

Fine, fine I give up! What the hell am I supposed to do with you god damn it!
Just acknowledge that I know more than you.

Fine. You know more that me. But, my business card is embossed.

What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: 4th of July Staycation
Tom: I’ll be watching the fireworks from the MIT sailing pavilion.

How To Beat The New GMAT

Dave Wilson, President and CEO of the company that makes the GMAT explains the new Integrated Reasoning section to Tom and Miro. He also suggests why it's worth taking a hit to your social life in the first semester of b-school.


Dave is turning 70 this weekend and will be riding his bike 70 miles for TeamMBA, a brand for student volunteerism in business schools:

Join dave on his ride now here:
http://teammba.gmac.com/about/daves-70-70-70-ride.aspx

What To Do When You Hate Your Internship

Many MBAs are starting their summer internships, and many of them have discovered they are miserable. Miro & Tom talk about what to do if you are one of them ... and some tips for business school deans on the job hunt.

We’ll provide Resume tips for business school Deans lookin’ for jobs
and talk about what to do if your Internship sucks

(1) Headlines: John’s Hopkins Dean Resigns

Yash Gupta has resigned abruptly as Dean of John’s Hopkins Carey School of Business. Gupta was the founding dean of the business school which was created in 2007. He left before his first class of full-time MBAs even graduated.

Big vote of confidence to those students Miro!

Students weren’t too sad to see him go. In the past 6 months his name came up as a finalist in 3 different university president or provost searches.

It’s always awkward to run across your Dean’s resume on Monster.com

An what a resume it was! We have a link at the site. The dean compiled a 41 page resume of his accomplishments.

I love this thing

I know you do Tom. I have come up with highlightst hat I think you will enjoy.

As the inaugural dean, I have been
charged to create a unique program that can leverage the strengths of Johns Hopkins.

That’s it? For a 41 pager, I would have expected something a little more concrete. For example, you’d like to see some numbers in there so you can get a sense of what was really accomplished.

“Graduated 0 full-time MBA Students”

“I have developed very strong relationships with Maryland legislators [sic] I have used my visits to Annapolis to share our vision for the Carey School with them, and have received an overwhelmingly positive response.”

Received overwhelmingly positive response.

Applied for consulting position with McKinsey. Received “Overwhelmingly positive response.”

Did you get that job?

If I had gotten the job, wouldn’t I have just said so?

[Cut away to McKinsey: Someone takes resume from job applicant and files is into one a bin labled “Overwhelmingly Positive Response” which is immediately adjacent to “Actual Job Offers”.]

To strengthen ties in the school community, I introduced Dean’s coffee sessions for faculty, staff and students, respectively to provide a venue for participants to talk directly to the dean.

This isn’t really a resume. It’s more like a calendar that has been exported to Microsoft word. Went to grocery store, And, received overwhelmingly positive response.

So, I’ve spent some time with this monster, and I think I can boil these 41 pages down to 1 message:

Please let me out of Baltimore! Seriously, have you seen the wire. It was based on reality.

http://poetsandquants.com/2011/05/24/the-b-school-dean-who-didnt-want-to-be-dean/
http://www.csv.vcu.edu/dev/provostsearch/pdfs/Gupta_CV.pdf

Jargon
The Say/Do Ratio

Remind me of what the Say/Do Ratio actually is.

It’s the ratio of things you say you’ll do, to the the things you actually do.

Ideally, you want to keep your say/do ratio as low as low as possible. That means minimizing what you promise, and maximising what you do do.

Some people call this under-promise and over-deliver.

What should the say-do ratio ideally be?

Well, it depends on the situation.

For example, if you say you’ll meet your friends at 6pm, you want try to keep those promises as close to 100% as possible.

Otherwise you’ll experience credibility collapse.

Shouldn’t we just keep the number as low as possible all the time?

Well, no, in government contracts for example, it is standard industry practice to under bid, typically by a factor of about 10:1. If you bid 1 to 1, you’ll quickly be out of business.


Business School tip of the week
Hate your internship? Congratulations!

This doesn’t sounds like casue for celebration

MBA’s, many of you out there are just starting your internships and for many of you, you are not liking it.

Are you sure this is good? This sounds like a disaster.

Compare the idea of a bad internship with the idea of having a bad job. One of the great things about the internship, is that it’s guaranteed to end in 2 months. Hate your intersnship? Congrats! You have just run a successful experiment.

It will probably be hard to appreciate right now.

Avoiding a terrible life-long career by discovering you hate it iearly with an internship is one of the main values provided by b-school

So, what do they do now if they hate it?

The first thing you want to figure out is whether you hate the industry, or you hate the culture of your specific firm. It may be that your job is bad because of the jerks you work with, or it maybe that your industry is full of jerks!

Tease: If you’re stuck in an internship you don’t like. You’ll want to stick around for our bonus content, where we’ll go over some specific steps you can take to help make it right.


What’s on your radar this weekend
Miro: Going to the Provincetown film festival.
Tom: Kim Harves is getting married. Congratulations Kim and Mark.

A Very Special Graduation Message

This week, a very special address to the nation's graduating MBAs.

Which business school is toughest to get into?

(1) Our Guest

Stacy Blackman

http://www.stacyblackman.com/

(2) Jargon

Boil The Ocean

(3) Business School Tip of the Week

Behave Yourself!

In business school, all sex is sex in public

The authors of Case Studies and Cocktails discuss how to gracefully get through business school. From sex with classmates to excel tips, Carrie Shuchart and Chris Ryan, have published the definitive guide to surviving and thriving in your MBA program.


(1) Authors of Case Studies & Cocktails
Carrie Shuchart
Chris Ryan

http://www.casestudiesandcocktails.com/

Buy Case Stuides and Cocktails on Amazon

(2) Jargon: Leverage

(3) Business School Tip of the Week
(A) Be Open to anything
(B) Color Code your Excel

2011 MBA Jobs Report: Salaries are up!

The 2011 GMAC jobs report is out. MiroKaz and TheRealTomRose discuss which metrics have gone up, and which have gone down. Also, learn how to build your resume in three easy steps.

(1) Headlines: The 2011 Jobs Report is out!!!

[Very excited]

Everything is up!!

What’s up doc?

Average salary is up to $91K from $89K last year
The average b-school salary increase was 73% over pre-b-school salaries.

That makes my wallet feel nice and happy.

Last year 32% of MBAs had jobs in March. This year, 54% of MBAs had jobs in March.

[Math on paper] Miro: If this trend continues, by the time the entering MBA class graduates in 2013, 98% of them can expect to have six figure job offers in March.

[miro reaction]

That means they’re basically guaranteed to get jobs.

Both: Woooooooah.....

[Realization] Wow, if everyone is going to have a job after graduation,

This changes everything! Now that we’re all guaranteed to get high paying jobs...

- I can finally stop focusing on studying around the clock and go out drinking on weeknights

- I can take out $100k in student loan debt that we didn’t need in the first place!

- I can use loan money to pay for lavish international sailing vacations in the Caribbean!

- I can go out for expensive dinners and act like part of the elite.

- Instead of insisting that all money be poured into our education with can throw a shit fit at any noon meeting that doesn’t have a catered, non-pizza lunch

- I can pay $150k for a piece of paper that frankly my parents wish were a law degree.

- I can finally pay our share of the class gift! Woah woah, let’s not get crazy here. That’s $50 a year you know.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/61afa41c-7aef-11e0-991a-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1MeAPjzAR
http://poetsandquants.com/2011/05/10/class-of-2011-more-job-offers-higher-starting-pay/
http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/blogs/entry-detail/?blog_id=1461&entry_id=13295
http://www.gmac.com/NR/rdonlyres/7EFAF983-BEA9-4A6C-B7BE-7E01B1D94D80/0/2011CRS_SurveyReport_WebRelease.pdf

(3) Jargon: Fractional Jet Ownership
Minimum 5 year contract
1/16th of a Jet is 50 hours of flying a year
at least $400K to get in plus about $250K a year plus $1500/hour

Buying a jet costs an average of $5M and $1500 an hour plus a full time crew.

http://www.netjets.com/default.asp

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Build your resume bullets
Think of your summer internship from a resume point of view.
You’ve already got the top line. You know what company you’re working. Now it’s the time to work on the bullets underneath.

Start strategically planning your summer based on what you need to achieve to have credentials coming OUT of the summer. You need to get staffed on good projects NOW.

What does good project mean?
MEASURABLE OUTCOME

TIME FRAME THAT YOU CAN INFLUENCE

Size where You can have an impact.

BONUS CONTENT: HOW TO GET STAFFED

5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: Old friend coming into town. an acutal journalist
Tom: Flying to a caribbean. I’ll be using USAir’s fractional seat ownership program.

How to Raise $1.8M in VC While Still in Business School

Vanessa Green explains how to raise VC money while still a student in business school. Also, women out number men in grad school ... except in MBA programs ... despite 10 years of recruitment efforts.




We have Great Show today.
Vanessa Green will tell you how raise $1.8M in VC funding
All, while still in B-School

Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes.

(1) Headlines:

50% of Graduate students are women.

We did it! We won. Wooo hooo. Yes yes yes yes yes.

*Bing* Excluding business schools

[deadpan] Oh ….

But enrollment of women in business schools has increased from 25% to 35% in the last 10 years

We did it! We won. Woo hoooo. yes yes yes yes yes.

*Bing* Only at the top 10 business schools.

Son of a bitch!

But … Overall, MBA’s are now 30% female

That is terrible! 10 years we’ve been investing in this. That’s 5% over 10 years. If you look at the statistical error, we may not have moved at all.

Recruiting women is tapped out. That has been pushed and pushed and pushed. We have reached the limits of what push can do and now we need pull to take over.

At this point, fewer women are applying to business school simply because the marketplace isn’t offering enough attractive jobs.

GMAC’s annual survey
Women send 20% more resumes for ½ the job offers that men receive.

Well that explains that. Based on those stats, the number of women going to b-school should be going down.

But check this out: In China, 63% of GMAT test-takers are women.

I’ve got it. I know how we can increase the number of women in business school! Become Chinese.

Tom, I’m an entrepreneur. I’m trying. Believe me, I’m trying.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/may2011/bs2011054_151720.htm
http://poetsandquants.com/2011/05/07/why-more-women-become-lawyers-doctors/
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/28/why-do-men-outperform-women-at-harvard-biz-school/
http://poetsandquants.com/2011/03/02/women-the-mba/

(2) Interview: Vanessa Green

Intro: If you’re a woman thinking about going to business school and you’re looking for a role model, look no further than our next Guest. Vanessa Green created her own job. Actually, she created four. She raised $1.8M in VC money from Venrock and Paytech while attending B-school full time!

There are advantages to being a man in entrepreneurship. There is a stronger culture of women supporting men married to their jobs. There isn’t a strong culture of men supporting women married to their companies.

Can you start a company and have a family too?
Would you raise money during school again?
Didn’t they pressure you to drop out of school?
Who are your cofounders?
Three guys. Course 6. PhD’s.

When did you decide to do this?
Vacation.

Why didn’t you give up after 28 firms?
The ball was always rolling.

The momentum really built after we got our first term sheet. We ended up with three. We had to force it in the end.

People won’t give you a term-sheet unless you force them to.

I pitched over 30 firms. You don’t just pitch once.
Wear heels, put hair down.

What was the most painful thing that you gave up?

I’m good at reading people, assessing situations. Memorable.

What is the difference between men and women entrepreneurs.
Women are more passionate about their project, but men are motivated by making money.

My office is right by school.

I have prioritized school.

Setting expectations on the company side is really important.

They asked you to change your voicemail message?!

(3) Jargon: Vesting
Earn you share over time. Vesting is the schedule that you earn your promised shares on.


(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Find a Team
B-school is a great opportunity to build a team. Having the right team is the most important thing.

Remember to subscribe to our newsletter.

The Best and Worst Careers for MBAs in China

Meng Xing explains which MBA careers are golden in China, and which ones will leave you feeling like a failure. India sets off a land rush of American university satellite campuses. And find out why you’ve been emailing your Chinese friends using their last name.

We have Great Show today. China is taking over the world and India is hoping the world will take over them. The Split Internship, everyone is doing it.

Remember to subscribe to us on iTunes.

(1) Headlines: India invites colonization

Well, that’s a nice, refreshing change of pace

India has passed the foreign universities bill. Allowing, FOR THE FIRST TIME, foreign universities to grant degrees on Indian soil.

When asked for comment, the Dean of Wharton said:
[Both] Caching!

I think we’re basically looking at a land rush here.

Wharton isn’t going to miss out on THAT satellite campus opportunity.

My money say that Wharton is going to be the first school with boots on the ground over there.

Not so fast!
[briefcase that says Miro’s School of High Priced American Education]
I know after the show is over, I’ll be heading out there myself to claim a stake.

Sarcastic: What are we going to do with out you on the show.

I’m sure I’ll be out of business by next week’s show.

Oh, right. Because of the brand issue. It won’t make sense to open a school in India at India prices. It only makes sense if you can charge a premium.

And in a few years I think Indian Business School is going to run them all out of business . Within the decade, ISB will be competing for the best candidates in the world with top american schools.

No way! They need basic managers, not MBAs!

Exactly that’s what an MBA provides.

American MBA programs are where you go to get an elite job like Banking, Consulting, or Trading.

So you’re saying the MBA doesn’t actually train you to DO anything?

No, it teaches you the greatest American trick in the world: use other people’s money to make MORE money!

Dude, your next boss is going to be skypeing you from Bangalore.

http://www.coolavenues.com/b-schools/b-school-profiles/indias-business-school-faculty-crisis


(2) Interview

Name card: Xing Meng

1st year at Sloan. Born in China. Moved to US at 3.5yrs. Moved back to china at 6yrs. Moved back to US at 14yrs. Went to Berkeley for undergrad. Moved to Hong Kong at 21 to work at JP Morgan. Came back to Sloan at 24yrs.

(3) Jargon: Meng Xing.
Chinese names are written with the last name first.


(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Max 5
Don’t sign up for more than 5 different extracurricular activities at one time.

Remember to subscribe to our newsletter.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: A finance test, an accounting test, etc.
Tom: Mother’s Day
Xing: Skydiving

4 Must Know Tips For Drinking at MBA Recruiting Events

Jeff Blake explains how to stay sharp during an open bar recruiting event, and Columbia Business School unveils a secret MBA program allowing you to get your degree behind your employers back.

(1) Headlines: Columbia Unveils the Secret MBA

For people who don’t want their employer to know they are getting an MBA, Columbia is offering one of the first “Saturday Only” Executive MBA Programs.

That’s right. It’s the secret MBA!

Yup, with classes on Saturday, you don’t need to take off work and can get your entire MBA without letting your employer know.

For those of you married to your job, but still want a little piece of MBA on the side.

There are a lot of advantages for you who have been seduced by a secret MBA.

This MBA program is younger,

your job is nice, but it’s taking you for granted,

you’re probably just not as excited by your job as you used to be.

And let’s be honest, there’s a thrill in the danger of sneaking around to get your MBA.

So that’s why we’ve prepared some tips for those of you flirting with getting a secret MBA

1) Remember to tell your Secret MBA never to call you on your work phone.

2) Develop a credible cover story for your job ahead of time. Yeah my grandfather is in the hospital again … every Saturday from 8 to 5.

3. Enlist the help of your good friends to cover for you at work.

4. At some point, your secret MBA is going to start pressuring you to leave your job. And you need to be very honest with your secret MBA that you are going leave your job at some point, but just not now.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575522132505136178.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_Careers_EXECUTIVEMBARANKINGS5_6


Our next guest is going to teach you some tips for recruiting events that you won’t learn from your career office.

(2) Interview - Jeff Blake

Jeff Blake is a 2nd year MBA at MIT Sloan in the Biomedical Enterprise Program.

Today we’ll be talking about drinking at a recruiting event. Jeff is going to help us help you survive recruiting event.

Recruiting event etiquette.

Hold the drink with your left hand.

Hold the drink by the bottle with a napkin.

Drink Lime and Soda Water to blend in without drinking and keep your edge

If you hold an empty drink, you can go into a circle and you always have an excuse to leave to “get another drink”.

Prop list:
Soda Water with Lime
Scotch on the Rocks
Nearly empty glass.
Beer

(3) Jargon: Deadfish

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: De-prioritize school-work, and make sure you pick a team that matches your priorities.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: A finance test, an accounting test, etc.
Tom: Taking it easy.
Jeff: I’ll be hitting the clubz with TRTR for some official MBA recruiting.

Studies Prove American Business Undergrads Are the Dumbest Of All the Majors

Tom and Miro interview Swiss business student Firat Aslan, international student of mystery, about the benefits of a global education. And today’s jargon will get you hugged in northern Switzerland and beat up in southern Switzerland.

This episode is brought to you by Venture Cafe. Because great things happen when smart
people bump into each other. Every Thursday from 3-8 pm at One Broadway in Cambridge Mass.


SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER at THEMBASHOW.com for Bonus Content

(1) Headlines: Business majors are dumbest

The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education reported the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement. They discovered what me and any of my phi Beta Kappa friends could have told you. Business majors are dumb.

Undergrad business majors had the Lowest GMAT Scores of any other major taking the GMAT.

What? that’s supposed to be their thing

That’s like saying Sprinting Majors from the Cambridge School of Running are finishing last at NCAA running contest.

Also, they don’t actually do any actual running, they only do tons of group projects about running.

Out of all undergraduate students business majors spend the least time studying and improved the least over their careers in writing and reasoning.

But they were statistically tied with education majors.

Oh great, the only people as poorly educated as business majors are educators.

But, wait, I can explain all this. Why do you choose business as a major? Because you want to get a kick-ass finance job.

And we all know that those jobs are not given out to people with good grades. Networking is what gets you those jobs.

What they should really be judged on is salary. They get higher salaries than average coming out of school. How is that not success?

Scientists and engineers do even better than that, and some majors , like philosophy close the gap by mid career.

That’s why we need to get rid of the undergraduate business major. You can learn bean counting at the bean factory when you graduate. Spend college to learn how to think.

Get rid of it? Business is the biggest undergraduate major. The marketplace is calling for MORE business undergrads, not less. And they’re making more money too, which means they’re basically better people.

Dude, I’m a better person because I can evaluate history through the lens of the Hegelian dialectic, not because I can read a balance sheet.

I’m not so sure.

How else could I have written that Marxist critique of the NPV equation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/education/edlife/edl-17business-t.html?_r=1&hpw

(2) Interview - Swiss, Turkish Undergrad

INTRO: Firat is an Undergraduate business major at University of Applied Sciences, Northwestern Switzerland Current on tour in the US with swissnex. A trully international man of mystery.
Networking New York

http://nwny.ch
http://swissnexboston.org/
http://www.xing.com/profile/Firat_Aslan11

(3) Jargon: Gruezi

Hello in Swiss

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Learn A Language

BONUS CONTENT TEASER
If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to build a community sign up for the newsletter for access to our bonus interview with Carrie Stalder, manager here at the venture cafe.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: 2 hour meditation workshop
Tom: 2 minute meditation workshop proving that I’m 60 times more efficient than MiorKaz.
Firat: Going to NY to visit Wall Street!

How MBAs Can Save Thousands of Dollars on Taxes

Warning: this episode could save you money. With tax day approaching, MiroKaz and TheRealTomRose walk MBAs through how to deduct tuition on their tax returns.

(1) Headlines: MBA - 1 IRS - 0

A maryland nurse has outduled the IRS and won a court case allowing her to deduct the expenses from her MBA on her personal taxes.

MBA’s not paying taxes. Yes! Another way that MBAs can screw the common man.

Tom, this is just a loophole that MBAs are exploiting. This write-off was designed to encourage that blue-collar worker struggling at night school to build better life for his family.

Blue collar? Hello. What color is this?

You shouldn’t feel bad about taking this deduction. School is a business expense. Why do people go to school? The main reason is to secure employment. Are printing resumes a business expense? Then school should be a business expense too.

Tax deductions are a way for the government to inceitive certian behaviors. Doctor’s and lawyers are clearly excluded from this deduction because we don’t need tax breaks to get people to go to med school. . We don’t need to provide tax breaks to encourage people to get MBAs.

Did you take it?

Of course.

(2) Business School Tip of the Week

How to take advantage of the MBA Loophole. We’re going to show you exactly how to save thousands on your taxes.


Wait wait wait wait. Before we start, it’s important that we use protection.



What are we about to do?

I’m talking about legal protection.

We are not tax professionals.

So, we have prepared a quick disclaimer that we need you to read.

That’s great. I’ve boiled it down to it’s essance : DON’T SUE US.

No seriously, we barely know what we’re talking about half the time. So, don’t sue us.

If you’re going to sue us, stop watching now. We’ll wait.

Now that it’s just Canadians watching the show...

First, figure out if you’re elegible:

1) Do you need you your degree to qualify to perform the job you want to do?
- Correct answer: NO
-This excludes Doctors, lawyers, and accountants.

2) Are you career switching?
- Correct answer: NO
- Crap, all MBAs are career switchers, that cuts out tons of people.

Well, not so fast. I worked for an web traffic measurement company before this and i’m becoming an education entrepreneur, but I think of it as extending what I did before. It’s online, and it extends all the skills I learned in my prior job.

I get it, I used a cell phone at my last job, and i’m planning to use a cell phone at my next job, so that’s really an extension of the same career.

Are you TRYING to get me audited?

Audited? Dude, you’re an entrepreneur. You’re not going to make any money.

Well, just in case, I prepared this... [IRS, Take him! banker]

Oh please, I’m bullet proof. I have tax lawyers up to here. What’s the point of being rich if you can’t afford OJ style justice.


3) Is this required by your employer or does it improve skills required in doing your work?
Correct Answer: Yes
- Can’t write off your yoga classes.

Unless your school offers them.

4) Are you carrying on your ‘business or trade’ while in school
Correct Answer: yes

Doesn’t this exclude ALL full time MBA’s?

No, because the courts have ruled that almost anything counts as “carrying on”.

TEASE: In bonus content we’ll talk about how full time MBAs can deal with the the issue of carrying on and how this works for consultants and bankers where firms primarily recruit MBAs.

To get the bonus content, go to www.TheMBAShow.com and sign up for our newsletter.

http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108550/nurse-outduels-irs-over-mba-tuition?mod=taxes-advice_strategy
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/when-you-can-deduct-the-cost-of-your-mba/
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/more-on-mba-tuition-deductions/

3 Reasons Why All MBAs Should Teach

MBAs are applying to Teach for America in record numbers. Babson's Olin School of Management launches a satellite campus in Silicon Valley, and Tom & Miro talk about how you should give a lecture in something you know nothing about.

Welcome to the MBA Show teachers edition.

Does that mean we have all the answers in advance.

I think the only think we know for sure is that we DON’T have all the answers.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER at THEMBASHOW.com

(1) Headlines: MBAs do TFA

MBA applications for Teach For America are up 7x over the past three years from 91 applicants to 641. TFA takes students out of top schools and matches them with underserved public schools.

I thoguht they only recruited undergrads

They’re do.

I thought they were a NOT-for-profit.

They are.

I thought they only paid public school teach salaries.

They do.

You know I hate it when people are motivated by things other than money! [disconnect]

I know. It’s okay.. But there are a bunch of great programs out there. Education Pioneers and The Broad Foundation also have great programs specifically aimed to get MBAs into educational system.

And if that doesn’t work out. You can always get a job in banking

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2011/bs2011041_412443.htm
http://broadresidency.org/
http://www.educationpioneers.org/


(2) Headlines: Babson Opens Satellite Campus

Babson’s Olin School is opening a satellite campus in Silicon valley. Well actually, San Fransisco.

Schools have satellite campus? What is the plural of campus? Campooses? Campusi?

Well if you remember back to your Latin …

What Latin?

I don’t have time to lecture you on the genitive neuter but

let’s just stick with Campuses.

I think the basis of this conversation highlights the absurdity of this plan. This is basically designed to milk the brand.

Noooooo, They are reinforcing the brand. Babson has a really tight focus on being the entrepreneurship school. You want to be the entrepreneurship brand, so you go to be in Silicon Valley. It enhances their credibility.

Is anyone else doing this?

Wharton has had a program there for a decade.

They do?! How come I haven’t heard of it?

Becuase it’s basically an Executive MBA program designed to milk the brand.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1051cd96-5c6a-11e0-8f48-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1Ifzz5f4k


(3) Jargon: Teaching
Our jargon this week is a word most MBAs don’t know, and you should because its a career path and something you should consider: Teaching

1. Give back
2. Help Children
3. Contribute to society

I was just kidding. [defeated look from miro]

Banking..

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Teach something.

Give a formal talk or presentation

What do you mean?

Engineer a situation where you get to be the leader giving a talk, lecture, or presentation.

Why would I do that?

Build Credibility.

Don’t I already need to be credible to give a talk?

Credibility is a chicken and egg thing. No one is credible until they give their first talk. Afterwards, then you’ll have credibility. In job interviews, you’ll be able to say, oh I actually used to teach social media.

Build expertise

Tom, I came to business school to transition to being an entrepreneur. I don’t want to give another talk about how do to market research?

You should give your talk in something you want to go into. It’s okay for it to be a stretch topic, because after you commit to giving the talk, psychologically it will be a very powerful motivator to BECOME an expert in that topic.

Network

How so?

When you’re prepping for the talk, you can reach out to anyone. For example. suppose you’re giving a talk on M&A in education. That’s a great reason to reach out to Andy Rosen, the CEO of Kaplan.

So you ARE thinking about giving a little back in non-profit.

No, I’m actually thinking about A-ing someone in education.

What’s A-ing?

Acquiring.

Is that a thing?

No. It could catch on.

BONUS CONTENT TEASER
If you’re interested in more on-the-ground steps to give one of these talks, check out the bonus content where we’ll discuss a step-by-step guide.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Polishing up our application for Mass Challenge. This is a start-up accelerator, and we need your help to make it to the next round.

Go to Bit.ly/Testive and vote us as 5 star, on the star ranking on the upper right of the page.

Lord knows, we don’t ask you for much. And while you’re there, remember not to vote for anyone else.

HubSpot's CEO Explains Why All Bankers and Consultants are Miserable

HubSpot's CEO, Brian Halligan, explains that every MBA needs "a good job and a good mattress," and banking will only get your the second one. McGill's Desautels Business School is fined $2M for raising their tuition 1882%. And TheRealTomRose begrudgingly admits that nobody likes being a banker.

(1) Headlines: McGill Fined for Raising MBA Tuition 1882%

So the government of Quebec is fining McGill’s Desautels School of Management $2M for raising prices from $1700/year to $32K

Is that in American dollars or moose dollars?

Who cares? That’s a whooping 1882% increase.

Students must be pissed?

They’re actually not. The school needs the money. Just a few years ago they weren’t even ranked in the FInancial Times top 100 and they had to fire ⅓ of their tenured faculty.

Woah, no faculty, who’s in charge of not meeting with students? What happens to ex-canadian tenured faculty?

They’re fine. It’s Canada. They’re getting free healthcare, smoking weed, getting gay married. You know … Canadian Stuff.

Wait, so let me get this:
Tuition used to be $1700
And how many students? Okay, 60 students.

And the entire tuition-based-revenue of McGill last year was $102k

I PAID MORE FOR MY MBA THAN THE ENTIRE B-SCHOOL AT MCGILL LAST YEAR. I feel so alive. Like a true American consumer.

So the school is saying they have to raise prices to be able to compete and offer a good education. And goverment is saying that this violates Qubec’s equal access to education law by making school so expensive.

So what kind of statement are they making to the government here?

I think I’ve got a pretty clear idea what they are saying here. [finger] CENSORED

The human interest story is really interesting here Miro, but lets ask the more important question. Is this move NPV positive? Let’s run the numbers.

What are we losing per year. 1.2M in gov’t subsidies
What is the one time fine? $2M
What is the student revenue at 60 students w/ $32k tution? 1.92M
This project has an IRR of 44.338%

How did you do that so fast?

Miro, I’m in finance, this is what I do. (run the model before hand and then pretend like I came up with the numbers on the spot.)

Wow. that’s really NPV positive. And that makes sense, because all you have to do is pay the fine in the first year and then you more than make up the loss in government funding with the tuition increase.

And I have a solution to that problem.

DON’T PAY THE FINE!

You can’t do that, it’s illegal!

If I’m not getting the government subsidy, then what do I care if I have an outstanding parking ticket?

I can’t believe you would seriously suggest that an entire business go rogue.

Dude, it’s Canada.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c30298ba-570d-11e0-9035-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1I183RQXV

(2) Guest: Brian Halligan

He’s the CEO of HubSpot. HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software platform for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s one of the hottest start-ups in Boston, the USA, the universe.

Author: Inbound Marketing

HubSpot has been in the news lately for closing a $32 Million Dollar D round with the biggest names in money: Sequoia, Google Ventures, Sales Force, Matrix, General Catalyst

And here’s the best part MBA’s, They’re hiring. [Jazz hands]

Brian, for those of us who aren’t high on entrepreneurship. What is 30 second overview of HubSpot?

You just raised $32M at rumored to be a $200M valuation. At this point, it’s $1 Billion, or bust. You’re on a run rate of $25M this year, I can’t sleep at night thinking about it.

Brian, brian I need your help. My heart says starup. I’ve got an offer from Deutsche Bank for $150k in starting salary with another $50 in guaranteed bonus comp. Talk me down man, talk me down. I will do it, I’ll sign it!

(3) Jargon: COCA. Cost of Customer Aquisition.

So this is the cost that it takes to get each new customer on board. Take all the marketing and sales you spend in a money and divide it by new customers. That’s your COCA.

Brian, you talk a lot about these at Hub Spot. Why is that so important?

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: What is a tip for all MBA’s.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: My wife is away
Tom: Moving

USNews says Stanford is Number 1

USNews moves Stanford up to number 1 in the business school rankings. Tom and miro find a student commuting more than 20,000,000 miles for an MBA. And, the official MBA Stimulus Package is announced.

(1) Headlines: Self Worth Quantified

USNews Business School Rankings are Out. Stanford is # 1

Blowing Harvard out of the water by TYING them in every single metric used in the ranking scheme

Except for the least important one: acceptance rate.

Isn’t acceptance rate important? Not really, it’s only 1% of U.S. News’s Rating. The most important things by far are a peer review ranking (deans) and recruiter rankings. (Combined to make 40% of the score.)

The unprecedented 50 point plunge in the Crummer school of business. John Byrne over at Poets and Quants thinks that this is basicallyl due to volatility in the lower parts of the rankings.

We think he may have overlooked the more obvious explanation. It’s called the Crummer school of business.

How much money do you have to get from a donor before you name your school Crummer? My name is Terrible. I’d like to name your school.

Don’t all these rankings create a reinforcing cycle? If you rely on peer reviews, the top schools stay the top schools because everyone looks to this list.

This is the way rankings should be. The exerts in a field always know other experts in their field. So, if you poll experts, you’ll get a pretty good idea of who the top people are.

That has nothing to do with quality of education. You basically just reinvented the popular group in high school.

Yes, I did. But this time, for $150k and a 760 GMAT, you can now be a part of that group.

Finally, justice will be served! Oh chess club, you are finally paying off!

And if you play your cards right, you’ll soon be a member of the Scotch club.

Do we acutally have a Scotch club.

I’m CERTAIN we have a Scotch club.

(2) Business Porn: This week’s business porn is on frequent fliers.

As you know, many Executive MBA’s travel to get their degrees. Many travel from New York to Boston, for example.

Harsh Gupta, a student at Kellogg’s Exec Ed. Program, is commuting to Chicago from Dubai!

He’s traveling round trip every other week.

He’s traveling 14,512 miles per round-trip.

He’s traveling a total of 20 million miles to get his degree.

That’s like going to the moon and back 50 times.

Travel alone will be costing him $180k. That’s more than tuition!

(3) Jargon: Failure Mode

Failure mode; this is the most common form of failure in a system. Thats what differentiates it from the failure average or failure median.

Used in a business context, this is the most common ways in which a project fails to meet it’s goals.

So, you might say, a common failure mode of The MBA Show is when MiroKaz tries to make a math joke.

What I love about this term is that it is a non-threatening way to talk about what things can go wrong and avoid them. Have a conversation with your team about potential failure modes and how you will avoid them.

It’s a lot easier than saying how how is Jim going to screw this one up.

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: The MBA stimulus package.

So before we get to our tip. Let me outline a scenario for you. You’re a b-school student. You have no job and a huge amount of loans. You decided to go on a lavish vacation for spring break. How does that sound to you?

It seems like people are basically taking out loans to pay for vacation.

Would you recommend that?

No, that sounds like a terrible idea.

So what’s our business school tip of the week?

Take out a loan and go on vacation.

This pains me.

MBA’s, as you know, our economy isn’t doing so hot. One way to get out of this is to do what Americans do best. Spend baby spend. So this year, we’re calling spring break “The MBA Stimulus Package”. You’re welcome America.

Dude, you’re 100K in the hole. How is this possibly good idea?

In b-school time is precious. And in many b-school jobs is that time is EVEN MORE precious. For many people, this is the last opportunity you will get for a while to take this kind of time off.


(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: Going to Mexico
Tom: I’m going on a cruise in the west Caribbean.

Qaddafi's Son Kicked Out of B School for 'Crushing the Rebellion.'

Should brutal tyranny be ground for explosion? Spain's IE Business School gives the boot to Qaddafi's son. Also, NYU Stern and Tisch graduate the first class of MBA/MFA's.

(1) Headlines: Your favorite ranting lunatic has had his son expelled from business school.

Charlie Sheen has a son?

No, I’m talking about Muammar Qaddafi

Qaddafi’s Son expelled from B-School
Khamis Gaddafi was expelled from Spain’s IE Business school. While supposed to be doing his required internship he was instead “leading an elite military brigade in Libya trying to crush the rebellion.”

Now, on your resume, you’ll want to phrase that starting with a verb to show action. I would suggest that you start with “crushed”. And if possible, you want to include a number.

What sounds better? Crush rebelling, killing innocent civilians, or Crushed rebellion killing 30,000 innocent civilians.

Well, that certainly satisfies his leadership requirement. Now all he has to focus on is “Client Service”

Can you imagine what it would be like to be on this guy’s core team.

Ehm, excuse me Mr. Gaddafi, your core team has some to me with some grievances.

For example, under priorities I notice that Dave has ranked “academics” as number one, And, I see that your top business school priority is “Winning my father’s affection by learning how to exploiting the resources of the Libyan people”.

Yes, but that is quickly followed by my second priority: “getting a job at McKinsey”.

Oh, we’re getting breaking news here. Apparently even though Mr. Godaffi has been expelled, he is apparently refusing to step down from his post as Vice President of the Sports Analytics Conference.

(2) NYU is about graduate its first combination MBA/MFA class

This is the combination of two powerhouse programs. Stern is a powerhouse business school and Tisch is a powerhouse film school. This program gets you a degree from both schools in 3 years.

MBA should not be allowed to make videos

Why are we spending all this money trying to recruit more students. We already have students. Let’s just sell them a second degree.

Here’s a real business insight: It’s far easier to sell MORE to your existing customers than it is to find new customers

Christ! MBA programs have finally figured out the info-mercial model.

Operators are standing by … If you act fast, for just 1 additional year of school, we’ll throw in [together] an MBA.

(3) Jargon: Space

That’s not jargon. Everyone knows that mean a business area, industry, opportunity

The way that I found out that this was jargon is by using it in a conversation with my wife, and she accused me of using jargon.

Have you ever tried to defend someting as not being jargon to someone.

In fact I did just then. I said, no it’s not jargon. Everyone uses that term.

EXCACTLY!

And she said, yeah everyone you KNOW in your MBA program..

And that’s when I realized that jargon is defined by the listener.

For example, if you're talking to a 5-year-old, EVERYTHING is jargon. Or any MBA a program ranked lower on USNews and World Report.


(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Priority matrix
This is a great tool for aligning teams

So I did, this with my core team. We each ranked four area in order of priority
Beers - Fun
Babies - Family
Bucks - Job
Books -Academics


That’s all great, but it’s so dorky. Do you really want to be that guy who says, “Lets’ all hold hands and discuss our life goals.”

No, but you do want to have SOME KIND of discussion about this. Here is the line that I use and have found to be effective:

“What level of performance are you guys thinking about for this project?”

Or you can try my strategy of sending an email that says “Just so you know, I prioritize efficiency over quality.”

Yes, there is always the dictator method.

Apparently today’s episode is all about dictators.

(5) What’s on your Radar?
Miro: Taking the SAT
Tom: I’m taking the SAT on Saturday. I feel like i’m in high school again. [texting on phone] And afterwards we can hang out at the mall and buy Mrs. Field’s cookies with my dad’s credit card. Crap, I’m out of cellphone points, I’ll text you tomorrow.

How to get a job in the healthcare industry

Discover how to get a job in the healthcare industry and watch Tom and Miro learn the difference between 'pharmaceuticals' and 'biotech'. HBS second year Jonathan Sheffi schools us in the art of using cold email to get a job in the healthcare industry. Also, Tuck centralizes recycling.

(1) Headlines: MBA’s, it’s a sad day today. Business schools are cutting back. The recession finally hits home.

Just listen to the extreme measures that we are going to:
(1) Tuck centralized recycling,
(2) HBS isn’t running the A/C at night!

That’s rich person cutting back. Here’s a real cutback:
Ohio canceled their full time MBA Program.

What? What?! oh god, oh god. This is the beginning of the end. The room is spining. I knew it, i knew it. The mayan calendar was right! This is the beginning of the end. Someone get me a scotch. [breathe into bag]

Whoa! What Ohio said, is tht they can’t be good at everything. So they are focusing on their part time program.

Okay, I’m over it.

This is the silver lining of bad times. You can get the political will to make the effeiciency cuts that probably should have been done in good times.

So you’re saying that all-you-can-eat lobster is no longer integral to an MBA education? This is what it’s like to go to med school.

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/feb2011/bs20110214_474769.htm

(2) Guest

Our guest on the show today is Jonathan Sheffi. Jonathan is a 2nd year at HBS He has worked with Amgen, the FDA and the Broad institue, and has worked in health care consulting. He also writes a great healthcare blog at JonathanSheffi.com

So, good god, health care. Pharma, bio-tech, delivery, hospital. These all mean the same thing to me. Fix me. Go.

Oh wow, that’s alot of ground? So if I’m an MBA which one of these should I get job in?

And what is the general Salary range for these jobs?

I’ve been hearing a bunch about the Obama care revolution. How much of that money has been earmarked for MBA’s?

So what did you do?
Pac 10 cheerleader with a luscious bosom

So what routes can MBAs use to get into this industry?

What’s going to take for me to get one of these jobs?
-what was your background
-signaling conversation

So why would anyone go into health care?


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1643c260-3b7f-11e0-9970-00144feabdc0.html

“Healthcare reform is one of the catalysts but [MBA interest] started before that,” says George Telthorst, director of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences at Indiana’s Kelley School of Business. “Healthcare is a social good and I think a lot of young MBAs realise they can do good but also have a more stable career in the future.”

(3) Jargon: atorvastatin

We try to pronounce that and fail.

He gets it right and explains why it’s important that you be able to pronounce drug names.

This is the drug name of Lipitor, the most proiftable drug in the world. It sold US$12.4 billion last year.

So, if you’re going into health care, you should probably be able to say atorvastatin.

(4) Business School Tip of the Week: Cold email.

How did you get your Job at Amgen?

Cold email, it really does work, but it works in volume.

(5) What’s on your Radar?

Tom: I’m going to a dude ranch in new york. And you have no idea how hard it was for me to find an exclusively republican dude ranch in new york.
Miro: Wife’s out of town. You know what that means at the Kazakoff house: slasher films and Chinese food out of the delivery box..
J: Sloan BioInnovations 2011

How to say your name so that people remember

Ali Freedman from SpeakAndWriteClearly.com joins Tom and Miro to provide some tips on how MBAs can improve their speaking skills. Learn how to say your name so that employers remember you and the quick way to make sure you remember the name of everyone you meet. Also, Tyra Banks is now an HBS student.

(1) Headlines:

they have finally done it. Scientists at Harvard have finally condensed the entire HBS degree down into a single drunken week.

How’s they do that Tom?

Raise the price!

So discovered this when we Tyra Banks has enrolled in Harvard Owner/President Exec Program.

At least the average MBA just got 1% more attractive. And after Prince enrolls next year, the average MBA will be 1% more flambuoyant.

The program is three weeks on campus spread out over three years, and the first week is $31K.

That makes the fulltime MBA, the discount option.

Dear super successful business person. Do you already own two hit television show? Do you have a diamond necklace for your dog? Do you make your omelettes out of free-range, organic Fabrege eggs?

The Harvard Exec Education Owner/President Program is for you, Tyra Banks.

But seriously, why does Tyra Banks need an MBA?

Is trying to get a job investment banking? and she needs more credibility.

This one baffles me.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/16/program-banks-baugher-opm/

Speaking of successful business women, our guest on the show today teaches Consultants at Boston Consulting Group (among other companies) how to enhance their communication skills

MBA’s, please welcome to the show...

(2) Alison (Ali) Freedman
Introduction:
from SpeakAndWriteClearly.com
Masters in Education at Michigan. MBA at Ross.

Well, I’m a small Internet celebrity, so there’s obviously nothing that I can do better. But we need to do something about Tom? You travel all over North America. What kind of advice to hear your self giving over and over again to MBA’s?

People feel like they are good at speaking, but basically, they’re NOT. I do a lot of video work with people and show people what they actually look like.

- There is nothing I find more annoying than endlessly admiring myself on tape.

- That’s why I play The MBA Show on loop while I sleep.


A lot of the work you do with people is on simple things such a saying a name?


Saying your name more slowly can help people keep track of your name.

Or you can add something to help people remember your name such as “Tom Rose, like the flower”. Slowing down and saying your name clearly is a really important part of meeting someone.

Model out good behavior

SKIP - What if your name is foreign sounding, or you are an MBA working abroad?

If your native language is Hindi. You need to say your name really slowly. And make it easier for you to say it.

If you are saying someone else’s name, make an effort it will be okay.

How does an MBA end up as a presentation trainer?

If needed for time, What else do you frequently find youself telling MBAs?

(1) Say your name well and think about remembering other people’s names.
(2) Pay attention to the non-verbal communication you use. (A problem for MBA’s because we’re put into a lot of high-pressure situations.)
(3) Don’t “up-speak”. Don’t end statements with question marks at the end.
- To fix this, think about puting a period at the end of the sentence.
(4) Focus on things that you can change. For example, I’m 4’ 11” and I know I can’t change that.
(5) Slow your pace. (MBA’s often speak too quickly.) Try practicing with a period after every word.


(3) Jargon: Up speak (Up tick)

What is upspeak?

Why is it a problem?

How can you train this out of yourself?
- Put period at the en dof the sentence.

(5) Business School Tip of the Week: NAMES Acronyms

How do you remember people’s names?

I have an acronym that I use to remember names.

Neighbors and Friends - Think of people you know who have that name.
Anyone Famous - Tom: Tom Cruise
Mental Image - Miro in Spanish means “I look”, so I picture you with a hand mirror.
Early Ellen - Alliteration
Silly Willy - Rhyme the name

How can you practice this?

We write our names on our arms. Tom: “Tom Rose” Other arm: “The Real”


Close: Alison also teaches communications at MBA programs throughout the country. If you would like to hire her, goto http://www.speakandwriteclearly.com

(7) What’s on your Radar?

Tom: Taxes
Miro: Taxes
Ali: Nuitblanche - All night arts festival