Thursday, March 31, 2011

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

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

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.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

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