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FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Chicago Booth Kick off Week: bows and arrows or milk and honey? |
The answer is both. I am used to working in a 24/7 culture, but can honestly say that I have never had as much coffee as I did in my first week of being a Chicago Booth Exec MBA student. The week was exhausting, exhilarating, stimulating, frightening and fun. 252 students met in the Hyatt Regency in Chicago for the first time last Saturday when the Chicago, London and Hong Kong campuses came together for the first session of our programme. It was the beginning of the beginning. Everybody was on their best behaviour and many people felt guarded given the onslaught of the accomplished international crowd. The difference in relations between people on Saturday 14 and Friday 21 June was startling – by the end, our perfect selves were sent packing, the masks came off and real friendships were born. Our schedule was gruelling – around nine hours of class time were accompanied by reading and group work. On a particularly long day, I woke up at 6 am to work on an assignment, after having finished my studies around 11:30 pm the previous day. After having your brain in a particle accelerator all day, it’s impossible to just go to sleep, so the Hyatt bar became our decompression chamber. People say that networking is one of the most important parts of the MBA, however I’m not sure if I was able to pull sentences together by midnight. Like Cinderella's carriage, after midnight I turned into a pumpkin. Our teaching assistant put this cartoon in a problem set. That made me love her a little bit. To stave off the exhaustion, the university overfed us constantly. Even by US standards, this was too much. But I ate everything! So did lots of people. I wonder if we can get Booth bulk discounts for lypo at the end of the course… Most of our classes were great, and to my surprise, I am becoming quite fond of economics (I am a Politics graduate, so this is unexpected). Perhaps meeting Eugene Fama, the most recent economics Nobel Prize winner and Chicago professor, had something to do with it (for a quick summary of his talk, see here). I only had one criticism of the academic programme: the LEAD class we had on learning to be adaptable to different cultural norms felt like indoctrination of political correctness. Instead, it would have been good to discuss when adapting is impossible and how to know when to cut your losses and leave a foreign posting. Me and Eugene Fama. In this photo, I'm hoping his brilliance will rub off on me. As well as class time, we had intense group sessions as we battled to complete assignments late into the evening. For me, it was a good way to get to know people I would not otherwise and I am glad for the opportunity. However, it was not all roses for everybody. For a leadership course, we had a case on whether to promote an accomplished but difficult woman to partner. While my group had a lengthy discussion, nobody was at each other’s throats, which may not have been the case for everyone. It must be said that after just one week of classes I am starting to see things differently. I am not yet a world dominating billionaire, but I am definitely approaching my work and my work relationships in a more considered way. I also know a lot of very impressive people. The quality of my fellow students cannot be overemphasised – I am studying with brilliant, ambitious and successful people who come from all over the world. Hedge fund founders and bankers mix with surgeons, luxury goods entrepreneurs, a modelling agency owner, a vet, and yours truly, the PR person. Despite the packed schedule and exhaustion, we didn’t say no to a good night out or two. After a few days of intense work, we deserved some fun, and after all – it’s networking! There was some napping happening in class the day after the night before, with some nappers being more subtle than others (you know who you are!). We ended Kick Off Week with new knowledge, new friends and new waistlines. Our next session starts in less than three weeks’ time. I think none of us know how we are going to manage what is certainly going to be a very intense 21 months. I’ll keep you posted. Sophia Matveeva EXP-21 |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Adjusting to the New Normal |
wrote about Kick Off Week in Chicago, I have been adjusting to the “new normal”. No, I’m not referring to a new era of low interest rates, but to the crazy life in which me and my fellow students combine the most academically rigorous MBA programme in the world with doing well at work, not getting dumped by family and friends, staying healthy and sane, showing concern for the wider world and finding time to sleep. I have always been told that something would have to give and have been experimenting with various alterations. My first cunning plan was to study microeconomics before work, when my brain was still fresh and my inbox quiet. However, once your colleagues and clients find out you are up early, it means that your work day simply starts earlier (my tip: if you study before work, guard this filthy secret your life). After several failures of the first initiative, I decided to try studying after work, but quickly realised that work events, client dinners and my aforementioned friend and family responsibilities make that impossible too. This now means that I am saving my geekiness for the weekends, which is very very hard during a London heatwave. The lack of sleep and constantly being pulled in different directions shows that this degree is not simply about the academics and the networking – a big part of it is learning how to thrive under extreme pressure and not be taken away by the men in the white coats. David Booth came to the London campus and talked about how his MBA led him to start his fund, which eventually led to a $300 million gift to the University of Chicago. I eagerly sat in the front row, buzzing on caffeine while one of my classmates was taking an involuntary nap in the audience. The overarching point is that “the new normal” means that lazy Sunday mornings with breakfast in bed are a distant dream. David Booth in conversation with Prof John P. Gould in London Another theme I have noticed from my own experience and from conversations with my classmates is the intense questioning of one’s career choices. So many avenues have opened up at once that it is difficult to remain satisfied with the status quo. Of course, none of us are putting ourselves through this challenging experience to stay in one place, but I did not expect this evolution to start so quickly. One of the students from the year above told me that this is typical and that his employer is getting more and more nervous the closer he gets to graduation. They expressed their nervousness with a good bonus, which seems a positive way to express their concerns! (Employers please note: I’ll also accept your money if you feel uneasy.) After three measly weeks of adjustment and hurried studies, we had another study week in London! This involved a lot of caffeine, the discovery that we are all irrational and working out how much soup you would trade for bread. All this will be in my next post. Time for me to study. Sophia Matveeva EXP-21 |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Hong Kong is open for Business |
The Month of August has been a very exciting and historical time for Chicago Booth in Asia. On August 18, we celebrated the opening of the new campus in Hong Kong along with the arrival of the first group of students to study on the campus. The first group to sit in the beautiful new state-of-the-art classroom and study groups rooms was the Miller International group. Classroom Study Group Room This one of three groups of Executive MBA students comprising participants which are 1/3 Chicago-based, 1/3 London-based and 1/3 Hong Kong- based. Students in these mixed International groups spend a week studying in London and a week in Hong Kong before returning to their own home campuses. The Fogel group followed for a week and we now have the Becker group on campus for their International Session week. The Opening event and ribbon-cutting was great (see the pics!) and the campus is already functioning at peak efficiency. Ribbon cutting Lion Dancers On August 31 we hosted an Inaugural event to celebrate the arrival of the Executive MBA Program and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to Hong Kong. This was held at the Island Shangri-La Hotel and featured speaker including: Education Secretary for Hong Kong Mr. Eddie Ng, Distinguished Alumnus Mr. Francis Yuen, Provost of the University of Chicago Eric Isaacs, Ian Solomon VP at UoC, Dean Sunil Kumar and Deputy Dean Rob Gertner. Education Secretary Eddie Ng speaking This was followed by a fascinating panel entitled “Which Capitalism for the 21st Century” featuring Professors Kevin Murphy and Luigi Zingales, and Distinguished alumnus David Booth. The event was attended by more than 350 people and was a huge success. It was great to see so many people come out in support of the start of what will be a long and fruitful relationship with Hong Kong. Rich Johnson Managing Director - Asia |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: The End of the Beginning |
This August, the Chicago Booth Executive MBA class finished its first quarter. Already, so much has changed and while I can’t claim to be a different person, there have definitely been some tectonic shifts in the way I think and approach things. We still have 13 weeks stretched over one and a half years left and if this pace of change continues, I wonder what we will be like when we go to Chicago to graduate in March 2016. Cleverer? Yes. But what else? The first quarter has given me a strong dose of humility: I have admittedly been quite used to feeling rather impressed with myself, however being in a class with people who manage international hedge funds at the age of 34 or have Computer Science PhDs has taken me down a peg or two. This could be construed negatively, but I think it isn’t – these people open up the realms of possibility and inspire one to reach for greater heights. The world is no longer enough. Another positive is that my memory and analytical ability have improved. I became curious about this phenomenon and did a little investigation – apparently this is normal and is a result of something called neuroplasticity. This basically means that our brains are pliable throughout our lifetimes and can develop new abilities. Learning new skills, such as a language, a musical instrument or doing maths, is a brain training technique which helps to increase intelligence. Since I arrived at this highly analytical programme from a media background, I am probably one of the first to feel this effect. By the time the Statistics and Financial Accounting courses are done, I expect many more of my classmates will. (For more info, read this book). So far, balancing studies with work and life has been very challenging for us all. Some things have had to give. A former gym bunny, I now look down at the pavement whenever I bump into one of the trainers on the street. General impatience has also sometimes reared its ugly head and I have eaten far too much chocolate in the last three months. I began wondering if I was turning into the Incredible Hulk and was thrilled to read that many of us probably are! One of our assigned readings is Thinking, Fast and Slow by Nobel Prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. In it, he talks about the fast System 1, which “operates automatically and quickly, with little sense of voluntary control,” and the slow System 2, which “allocates attention to effortful mental activities.” Kahneman says that when our System 2 is busy working on hard tasks which require self-control, like microeconomics, our System 1 runs riot! He says “people who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgements in social situations.” In other words, when we are already making an effort with a hard task, it is much harder to control our impulses. You have been warned. Next time we meet, our year of 250 students will be split between three “home” campuses: Chicago, London and Hong Kong. I have heard that from next quarter, our studies are going to get very tough indeed (in fact, a friend called next week’s Financial Accounting and Statistics syllabus “sadistic”). However, aside from the studies, I remain more curious than ever how we will change as people. As always, until next time. Sophia Matveeva EXP-21 |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Get out of your comfort zone |
“Chicago Booth Executive MBA Program is not about teaching you in your comfort zone, it is about bringing you out from your comfort zone.”-->--> This is why Chicago Booth is recognized for its academic rigor and innovations in business education. All alumni and students in our community have gone through a transforming experience of challenging and rethinking what they thought they knew, developing new abilities and pushing themselves further than they ever thought possible. -->--> At recent admissions events, I have heard many questions about how to cope with such a rigorous program, whether it is easy to fail a course or whether students are very competitive. It is a good start that our prospective students have set a realistic expectation and they know they have to put in real effort to study once they are admitted into the program. However, we also want to clear their worries about Chicago Booth being serious, boring, too academic or too quantitative. -->--> At Chicago Booth, we believe in data over dogma. Students harness their experiences and the power of open, rigorous, and thoughtful inquiry to challenge assumptions and test and refine ideas. This is part of the Chicago Approach to Business education which resonates beyond the classroom. As this is a general management program, you will also have plenty of courses to hone your practical soft skills in other areas such as strategy, marketing and organizational behavior. What you learn in the classroom does not stay in the classroom, you are the one to decides when and how to apply what you have learnt to your professional and personal life. -->--> Given the diversified class profile, the learning environment can be competitive and yet cooperative, exciting and fun. With the multi-cultural student group, the interaction and discussion in class are often dynamic and can be colorful at times. At Chicago Booth, we don’t see competition as negative. It can be healthy sometimes actually. If you ever find a program which guarantees you no competition, you should avoid it. Students often work in teams during courses and they are not alone in this learning journey. In fact, they help one and another to go through the journey together. The cooperative, exciting and fun part of the learning process is often initiated by students themselves. -->--> We are here to facilitate your learning journey, but we are not here to fail you and defeat your confidence. Before your admission, our Admissions Committee would have already assessed your level of quantitative and analytical skill and your ability to apply those skills to our MBA program. Before your study, there are resources for you to pre-prepare for the MBA program. During your study, you will have additional supports from our Chicago Booth faculty’s teaching assistants. These teaching assistants are often our PhD students or graduates who are fully qualified to help students with any academically-related questions in their courses. If you are committed and willing to put an effort into your study, you should not be worrying about the word “failure”.-->--> Our Executive MBA experience is not about staying in your comfort zone and doing what you are already good at doing. When you join the Chicago booth community, the invaluable network is already there for you. You cannot only think about how to tap into the network to advance your career, you will also have to contribute and challenge yourself to build meaningful relationships and add value to the network. You join our unique community for the transforming experience which will impact your professional and personal development. This is what we want for you. Stephanie Wong-->--> Assistant Director, Recruitment and Admissions-->--> Executive MBA Program – Asia-->--> |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Think career change is easy? Think again. |
Imagine you’ve been accepted to the Executive MBA program at Booth. Well done! This will be the first of many ‘Booth’ accomplishments you achieve. Along the way you’ll acquire a world-class business education and an unmatched global network. You will also have the strength of the Booth brand behind you, which brings an unspoken credibility that’s hard to describe in words (got that?). You might think the doors to career success should be flying open for you. Well, it’s not that simple. -->--> Career change is hard. Often times really hard. Mid- to senior-level professionals who have built their careers on years of developed functional and industry expertise often struggle to understand and articulate how that collective experience translates to the next level, a new function or industry, or even a new country. Instead, they often expect the MBA to do the talking for them.-->--> Add to that the heightened expectation by employers of what an experienced professional with a Booth MBA should bring to the table — not just value add via experience and skills, but the leadership gravitas, professional polish and rich network that are assumed to be de rigeur for an individual of this caliber. -->--> I compare earning the Booth MBA to being able to walk into a bigger stadium, compete against tougher opponents, and feel like you belong in the game. ‘Playing’ is not necessarily easier than it was before you embarked on the MBA, but you become a more competitive professional. In this way, your MBA doesn’t just simply level the playing field; it elevates you to a new one. -->--> It is this challenge of career change that underpins why Chicago Booth invests heavily in Career Services for all its student populations. Our Executive MBA students have a global team based in Chicago, London and Hong Kong, dedicated to their career management needs. In the lives of our busy students, with big jobs, heavy school loads and personal lives to contend with, there is often not enough time to dedicate to one’s career management. That’s where working closely with one of our coaches to develop a custom plan can be incredibly valuable. -->--> Our students are the masters of their own careers and how they develop as leaders and professionals. And our coaches are their trusted partners, offering thoughtful perspectives, challenging beliefs, dispelling myths, and providing a way forward in what can often be a confusing and energy-draining process. As coaches we also bring the benefit of having worked collectively with thousands of students and seek to use that collective experience for the benefit of our current classes. Career change at the executive level is hard, but our students are up to the task and they know they have a partner in the journey. Wayland Lum Senior Associate Director - Career Management |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Real or fake? |
I’m not talking about Gucci bags. I’m talking about faculty members. On September 16, 2014, the Straits Times newspaper in Singapore reported that a local university has moved up two places in the World University Rankings. Four days later, the newspaper reported that a faculty member in the same university had faked his credentials prompting the university to relook at its recruitment process. Read article I asked an Associate Dean in our school about the Chicago Booth recruitment process for faculty members. He told me that Chicago Booth faculty interviewers in their circle of connections usually know the new recruits more than the recruits know about themselves! During a chat over lunch, I asked a professor who left a top business school and joined Chicago Booth a couple of years ago about his interview experience with Chicago Booth. He said, “Boy, it was drilling!” In my four years of recruiting students for our Executive MBA program in Asia, no one has ever asked me if our faculty members are “real”. I supposed they have done their research or perhaps they trusted that the school has done its due diligence in hiring faculty members. Well, in case anyone would like to have information about our faculty members, below are some of our award-winning faculty members and the courses that they teach in our Executive MBA program. Click on the name for the faculty member’s biodata. The same faculty members teach at our campus in Chicago, London and Hong Kong. All our students get the same academic standard and they earn the same MBA degree (not EMBA on the certificate) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Linda Ginzel - Essentials of Effective Leadership, Negotiations Nicholas Epley - Essentials of Effective Leadership Ayelet Fishbach - Negotiations Lars Stole, Michael Gibbs - Microeconomics Christopher Hsee, Richard Thaler - Managerial Decision Making Haresh Sapra - Financial Accounting Federico Bandi - Statistics Douglas Skinner - Corporate Finance for Executives Luis Garicano - Competitive Strategy Per Stromberg - Financial Strategy Sanjay Dhar, Pradeep Chintagunta - Marketing Strategy Our Executive MBA students also have opportunities to interact with prominent award-winning faculty members including our Nobel laureates. Kang Jung Seok (Head of Strategy and Planning, Citigroup Capital Korea Inc.) with Eugene Fama, 2013 Nobel laureate. Photo was taken at Eugene Fama’s lunch time talk with our students during kick-off class week in June 2014 in Chicago. In researching for a program that is a right fit, prospective students should conduct desktop research as well as speak with the school’s students and alumni about their experience including the quality of the faculty members. The quality of the faculty and the approach to general management education should be the primary consideration when choosing your program. Lim Su Chen Associate Director, Recruitment & Admissions Executive MBA - Asia |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: The Fear of That Next Step |
A word I don’t ever hear being used by our executive MBA students is ‘fear’. And in the success-focused world of top-tier business schools and the MBAs that they graduate, I guess that’s understandable. -->--> However, fear can take many forms in the MBA experience of most, if not all, of our students – fear of not performing well in class, fear of not being ‘worthy’ amongst an accomplished set of peers, fear of not being able to juggle work/school/family, or perhaps an overarching fear of having taken a leap in doing the executive MBA in the first place. -->--> But there’s also another fear that’s not being talked about – the Fear of That Next Step. -->--> That’s right. Being scared of pursuing what you say that you want to do – because many people (executive MBAs included) talk about wanting to make a change, but a much smaller percent of people actually will make that change. And oftentimes the difference between those two groups has nothing to do with ability, and everything to do with what they perceive as being possible for them personally. It’s one thing to state that you want to create a new venture, become a C-level exec or live and work in another country – but what will be the impetus for you to actually start the process that will help you achieve those goals? What inside you knows that these outcomes can be your reality and not simply just the aspirational chit chat heard in b-schools across the globe? -->--> While being scared of your own success can seem ironic or even paradoxical, this fear is actually a strong signal that you are approaching the outer limit of what you believe you’re capable of and what you see as your current realm of possibilities. The operative words here are current realm. When your dream is bigger than your reality can handle, it’s necessary to stretch beyond your existing capabilities and the beliefs you hold about who you are and what is possible for you. This can be scary, because looking over the edge just beyond your capabilities and beliefs can be like peering down into a dark crevasse. What’s beyond the crevasse is unclear, not to mention how you’ll manage to get to the other side. The Booth MBA program will test you in this way – taking you to the edge of your reality and then providing a rope bridge across that dark crevasse. What new fertile ground of possibilities this bridge leads to is completely up to you.-->--> So how does one channel the Fear of That Next Step into transformational growth through the program? There are several areas to notice and embrace:-->--> [*]Know your worth – Your cache as a professional increases as you move through the Booth exec MBA program. You’ll be learning cutting-edge tools and theories, building a top-flight global network, while going through a highly rigourous MBA program. Know that you belong here and get very comfortable with this new reality. Which relates very much to…-->-->[/*] [*]Make a reality shift – Towards bigger ideas and dreams. Possibilities expand by virtue of being introduced to new knowledge and a peer set of other high-achieving professionals. What you originally came to business school for may shift as you realize that you were actually dreaming too small. One does not go to a place like Chicago Booth with the intention to do small things or make incremental gains…or to play it ‘safe’.-->-->[/*] [*]Leverage the perception shift of others – We humans are characteristically very bad at understanding how others perceive us. And when that perception by others happens to be very positive, our myopia can mean a missed opportunity. People’s perception of you as a Booth MBA will open doors for you, in ways that are visible and sometimes invisible. Coupled with ‘knowing your worth’, you become better positioned to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves to you when you recognize the new way in which people perceive you. -->-->[/*] [*]Go for it! – You come to Booth to achieve your dreams – full stop. Use this amazing program as a laboratory for you to grow, to try on new selves, to experiment, and to fail. Step into this experience fully and take risks you wouldn’t normally take - Attend a Booth event for execs, take an impossibly challenging course, or go after that promotion. -->-->[/*] [/list] As Daniel Burnham, the city planning mastermind behind ‘The Plan of Chicago’ once said - "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work." -->--> And in the words of our Dean, Sunil Kumar, - "Swing for the fences, the school has your back." Wayland Lum Senior Associate Director, Career Management -->--> --> --> |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: More Than Networking |
We talk a great deal about the diversity of our executive MBA students in terms of industry, job function and geography. The richness of the classroom and the learning experience benefit tremendously from this diversity. However, the personal stories of the students add another dimension that is sometimes overlooked due to schedule constraints, competing student demands and the academic focus of the program. Today during their lunchtime break, the XP-85 students listened to a classmate describe his upbringing in Cote d'Ivoire and his subsequent journey to the U.S. to attend university and start his career. One of his classmates, a journalist, conducted the fireside chat and did an excellent job of asking the right questions and keeping the story on track. The class plans to showcase more of their cohort in this way. In the world of speed networking and instant messaging, it is a treat to hear someone talk about their personal stories in detail (or at least in more than 2 minutes or 40 characters). From an admissions perspective, it's also validation that the students we chose to attend Booth's executive MBA program have rich and fascinating backgrounds and experiences. Patty Keegan |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: The Female Perspective |
Yesterday the admissions team had lunch with the ladies of EXP 21, our most recently admitted Executive MBA class here in London. It was a very enjoyable hour of good food and conversation with an interesting, diverse group of women. Our main topic of conversation was the Executive MBA admissions process from a female perspective. Are the challenges and concerns of our female candidates the same as the challenges and concerns of our male candidates? For the most part, yes. A couple of interesting points arose from our discussion though. The group agreed that, as prospective candidates, they had found it enormously useful to speak with female students and alumni during the admissions process. It was helpful to have someone to speak to about the challenges and benefits of the programme; particularly women of a similar industry, country or background. Having a female mentor or 'buddy' within the Booth community gave our candidates the confidence to take the next step. We also discussed how some of the women had found it difficult to negotiate company support for the Executive MBA. Some of the group assigned this difficulty partially to gender, noting that a concern about 'social cost', risk aversion and an unwillingness to overstate past performance has been linked to female executives being paid less and promoted less. This issue has been well documented in academic, including Chicago Booth. Again, the opportunity to speak with female students and alumni who had successfully 'been there, done that' was deemed to be very helpful in this case. It was a really useful discussion and the group came up with several great ideas to help us develop our outreach. Hopefully you'll see some of these ideas 'come to life' on this blog and on our website over the coming months. In the meantime, if you're a female candidate who would like to connect with one of our fantastic female students or alums on an individual basis, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Rachel Waites |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Enjoy the journey |
If you’re like me most of your new year’s resolutions are already broken. I was going to exercise more, eat better, etc… all the standard stuff that millions of people promise themselves each year only to give up a few days or weeks in.-->--> Why does that happen? Why is it that these plans to better ourselves so often fall flat? According to Chicago Booth professor Ayelet Fishbach there could be a few different reasons. -->--> 1. 1. People don’t continue to do things that “don’t feel good”. So if you make plans to exercise until you cry every day.... you won't continue to excercise for very long.-->--> 2. 2. Focus on the journey not the goal. She says to try to enjoy the exercise and not think too much about the number of pounds or inches you are trying to lose.-->--> I thought that Professor Fishbach’s conclusions correlated really well to the Executive MBA student experience at Chicago Booth. As an aspiring or incoming student at Chicago Booth keep these two points in mind. -->--> If you begin a study routine that keeps you up all hours of the night on a regular basis the likelihood of continuing that is low. Understand what resources are available to you and what is “doable” for yourself.-->--> Enjoy the experience without constantly thinking about the endgame. Take time to smell the roses so to speak. Be sure to enjoy your class days and time reading and learning about new things. The experience at Booth is very much about continuing a journey of lifelong learning. Sure - you get a great credential along the way but if you can learn to enjoy the process and think less about the product I predict you will have a more enjoyable experience at Chicago Booth. Toby Cortelyou -->--> |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Case Study Myths |
As I’ve spoken to prospective MBA over the years, I often get questions about teaching methods, and specifically about the case method. It’s clear from these conversations that many students don’t understand the case method, what it can do and, (perhaps just as important), what it can’t do. Here then are some of my views on the major myths surrounding the case method. -->--> Myth #1 – A school either uses cases or it doesn’t. In reality, just about every business school uses cases in one form or another. Some use cases as the sole teaching method and others use cases to supplement lectures, discussion and other forms of teaching. Chicago Booth, for example probably uses cases in 80% to 90% of its classes. Cases are a useful way to generate discussion and show how important business concepts are applied in practice. Schools may also use cases differently. For example, at “case only” schools such as Harvard or Ivey, students are expected to infer general principles and frameworks (theories) from the case itself. At other schools, such as Chicago Booth, the general principles are taught first and then applied in the discussion of the case. Both types of schools teach the theories, but they do so in different formats. -->--> Myth #2 – Cases are designed to teach how to handle a particular business problem. -->--> Although cases do outline a specific issue facing a company, the case is really just a means to teach an important underlying principle or framework. Cases shouldn’t be viewed as a means to learn all the “answers” but rather as a way to understand key concepts. These concepts will help you ask the right questions and develop your own answers – perhaps for issues that are unlike any you’ve ever faced before. You will never be in exactly the same situation as the protagonists in the case, so the specifics of what they did or didn’t do isn’t nearly as important as understanding the underlying concepts that you can apply to your own issues and organization. -->--> Myth #3 – Cases must be recent to be relevant. Following on myth #2, if a case is really about teaching a concept, then the particular company, industry, country of origin or timing of the case really doesn’t matter. All that matters is how well the case communicates and highlights the key principles. So, for example, a case the Holland Tulip craze in the 17th century may be more effective in teaching about financial speculation than a case covering the recent real estate bubble in the US. Again, the case is simply a means to teach a concept, not a recipe for dealing with a particular business problem at a particular point in time. -->--> Myth #4 – The more cases the better. Remember – the goal of a case is to help you learn a particular concept and how it can be applied. Hopefully, you professor’s goal is also to help you learn and understand the concept. Ideally, he or she will use whatever methods and materials are most effective in the learning process. Many times, that might be a case. However, some subjects, such as the basics of accounting or data analysis, don’t lend themselves quite as well to cases and may be better candidates for lectures, simulations, or other teaching methods. The ultimate focus should be on what you can learn not on how the material is delivered. -->--> I hope that this helps clarify and demystify the case method. There is no magic to cases, they are simply one teaching tool in a professor’s toolbox. Used effectively, they can lead to some amazing insights. Used inappropriately or poorly and they can simply lead to a lot of hot air. Your focus shouldn’t be on how many cases or what type of cases a school uses, but rather on how much you’ll learn – from whatever teaching method is used. Bill Kooser, Associate Dean for Global Outreach |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Are You Ready for Executive Search? |
Career Services recently hosted our Executive Search Industry Roundtables, which brought together senior consultants from leading search firms and many of our Executive MBAs (XPs) in specific industries – Financial Services, Manufacturing, Energy, Tech, and Healthcare, as well as a roundtable focused on the C-level. The event was designed to give search consultants and our students a forum where they could have industry and leadership focused discussions, while getting to know each other, unburdened by the expectation of ‘finding jobs’ and ‘placing candidates.’ The conversations I overheard were content rich and engaging, covering a wide range of topics from what companies in a given industry value in high-performing executives to leadership characteristics required of executives in more complex environments. While some of our XP students are certainly ready for executive search, many are still approaching the cusp of working with search consultants, i.e. one or two levels away from being ready for the kinds of opportunities that executive search firms typically work on. One thing that initially surprised me when I first started to work with our XPs is the variable nature of what they understand about executive search. I thought I’d share some commonly held misconceptions about exec search and the realities of how search consultants work with exec MBAs in particular. Is executive search a good option for career changers? It might seem like a good idea for exec MBA students wanting to make a career change to tap search firms in their future industry or function of interest – after all, search firms know where these jobs are, right? That could be true depending on what search mandates the firm has, how robust the firm’s research capabilities are and how strong a network the firm’s consultants have in that given industry. The thing is though, search firms are not looking for career changers. Search firms are hired (and paid handsomely) by their clients to identify and engage hard to find senior-level talent that is a strong match in terms of experience and skills to the mandates they are hired to complete. In most cases, this means exacting requirements in terms of a candidate’s experience (i.e. sector, function, geography, business scenario), skills, leadership and management capability, and personal characteristics. Put another way, finding the green square peg that fits in the green square hole. If finding these candidates was easy, companies would not need to hire search firms, which utilize massive people and technology resources to be able to identify just the right candidates for just the right opportunity. Are executive MBA students ready for executive search? What I consider one of the primary responsibilities of Career Services is to help our XPs level set their expectations for what it means to be prepared for their job search, of which executive search can certainly play a part. Several factors need to be considered on whether or not an exec MBA is ready to work with search consultants including how prepared they are to articulate their value and tell a strong story, as well as their current professional level. To tell that compelling story about the value you bring actually takes quite a bit of work. It’s no less than writing a carefully crafted script for a commercial, where the high quality product being sold is you(!) And just as your expectations for the type of opportunities you want are raised when you enter into the Booth Executive MBA program, the expectations of employers of how prepared, focused and polished you are will be heightened as well. Being a strong professional is not enough. You also need to be able to sell yourself effectively with a coherent and focused message. Top search firms are also looking to engage very senior executives for their client mandates, typically at the C-level or C-level minus 1-2 levels. Depending on the class make up of exec MBA students at a particular school, there will be a varying percentage of those that fit into that experience range and those that do not. What this means is that search firms will have varying degrees of interest in exec MBA students, which likely factors in broad stroke criteria such as the average age of the class (as a proxy for years of relevant experience), what a school is known for (e.g. finance, international business) and the overall reputation of the MBA program for a given school. Should exec MBAs make relying on executive search firms a primary part of their job search strategy? Well-performing search consultants focused on C-level searches place an average of 9-10 candidates a year. With the very specific candidate requirements of client companies, the infrequency of such placements should be no surprise. And this is also a strong indication for executives that they should not heavily rely on search consultants as the primary way in which they’ll find their next job. Search consultants are an avenue, but not the only avenue to new opportunities. Executive MBAs in particular, should ideally have a robust network through their school which they can then leverage. Regular networking with school alumni, together with other means of sourcing jobs such as executive-level job boards, school-facilitated job postings, attending professional conferences, networking sites like LinkedIn, and executive search, comprise a more complete and effective search strategy. Knowledge of how executive search works and the preparation to engage search firms will help you confidently answer in the affirmative – ‘Are you ready for executive search?’ At Career Services, we’re here to help you determine if executive search is a good option for you and put your best foot forward in engaging with search firms. |
FROM Booth EMBA Blog: Milestones |
In London last week Booth held a celebration marking our 20 years of our Executive MBA program in Europe. We will have a similar one in Asia next month marking 15 years of our program there. It was an amazing event, with over 300 alumni from every cohort from the beginning. We even had current students (EXP21) and a new admit from Kuwait who will start EXP22 in the summer. Thus at one time we had people from our 22 European cohorts in the same room. It was wonderful to see so many old students and friends! Such great memories.-->--> My first observation from the celebration is that setting up the program was an amazing, bold move for us. At the time all of our classes had always been held in Chicago. The school was contacted by a group that asked if we would consider setting up a program in Andorra (!!). While the Deans were skeptical, we like crazy ideas, so a delegation was sent to Andorra to hear them out. This idea was rejected, but they persisted and eventually a sponsor and building were found for us in Barcelona. That is where the EXP program began and operated for its first 11 years. -->--> Why did Booth start an Executive MBA program in Europe? Part of the answer was probably to plunge into the unknown and see what happens – academics often think that way. If the program did not succeed, it could be shut down quickly. Part of it was no doubt a desire to find a way to spread the influence of our ideas and teaching methods more broadly. Globalization was gaining traction at that time but nowhere near where it is today. -->--> The way the program was implemented was also a bold move. Virtually all schools with cross-border EMBA programs choose local partners. We did not do so, nor do we do so today. Booth elected to fly professors, and PhD students to serve as teaching assistants, to Barcelona to teach classes for a week at a time. We also rented a building and hired a staff, far from our home. Clearly this is not profit maximizing! But we are not maximizing profit. We do not want to dilute the quality and nature of our teaching. Running the program (now in London and Hong Kong) is very hard and very costly, but it is the only way to deliver the same education, professors and quality as at our original campus. -->--> My second observation is that the first students also made a bold, gutsy move. The University of Chicago was then famous in the US, but not very much in Europe. The first program was bootstrapped from nothing. The first students in EXP1 and EXP2 were, along with the professors, pioneers. Collectively they figured out how to make it all work, and set the tone and culture for what has become an incredible, thriving global program. -->--> This is a salute to those bold, crazy, gutsy pioneers: Among many other thanks to Professors Harry Davis and Jack Gould, Associate Dean Bill Kooser, and the students of IXP1 (later EXP) and the other earliest cohorts. Collectively they figured out how to make it all work, and set the tone and culture for what has become an incredible, thriving global program. Thank you so much for taking the chance and creating all of this for us! Mike Gibbs -->--> |
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