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FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Dean Blount speaks at White House |
Visiting the White House on Wednesday, Aug. 5, Dean Sally Blount ’92 met with senior advisers and several leaders from the business and business school communities to discuss the changing needs of the 21st century workplace. That workplace must focus on expanding opportunities for women in business through recruitment, training and retention while implementing policies that work for families, according to Blount, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, and several others. Telltale signs of this change are already apparent. Streaming video service Netflix recently announced that it would grant unlimited paid leave to employees within the first year of a child’s birth or adoption. Kellogg also just announced a record-high percentage of female students — 43 percent — in its incoming Full-Time Class of 2017. “We’ve worked hard on that the last couple of years,” Blount said. “We invest heavily in developing the 21st century workforce and we see that as part of our mission with the strong female leadership that we have.” Learn more about Dean Blount’s White House visit. Find out about Kellogg’s Women’s Business Association. Filed under: Business Insight, Career Tagged: class profile, Dean Blount, leadership, WBA, White House, Women's Business Association |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Warmth and competence | MBA Learnings |
Current student Rohan Rajiv is blogging once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. Read more of his posts. We discussed the tension between “warmth and competence” in the first week of classes at school. The HBR article that the chart below appears in has an apt title – “Connect, then Lead.” The thesis is: start with warmth and prioritize demonstrating warmth over competence. High warmth and high competence inspires admiration, while low warmth and high competence inspires envy and other negative emotions. Source: HBR (https://hbr.org/2013/07/connect-then-lead) Academics have used this concept in various ways to show how various cultural/demographic/occupational groups are perceived in various parts of the world. As usual, I’m going to gloss over all that and focus on the implications for you and me. I’ve been retrospectively examining how I’ve been doing on warmth vs. competence. And I’ve found that I’ve failed a lot more than I’ve succeeded. As you’ve probably realized, the point here is not “admiration.” Being warm is just the right thing to do in most cases. However, I’ve realized I fail at this simply because behaving this way isn’t just a matter of wanting to. The fakers might disagree, but there’s always a fake-your-way-to solution to most problems in the short run. In the long run, I believe getting to warmth is a journey that accurately represents our progress in our journey to true self confidence. My thesis is that it takes true self confidence to begin with warmth. Observing myself, I see a clear trend – I become myself as time passes in an interaction. However, in the early stages (e.g. the first 10 minutes), I subconsciously choose to lead with competence. That’s definitely because leading with competence placates my insecurities and makes me feel at ease. As momentum builds and a sense of ease builds up, I get over those insecurities and move into the confidence zone. Sometimes it only takes a minute to make this switch. Other times, it takes up to ten. But the pattern is there to see. The only good piece of progress I can report is that I am becoming increasingly aware of it. And as I become aware of it, I find that it becomes easier to get to that state of ease. Rohan Rajiv just completed his first year in Kellogg’s Full-Time Two-Year Program. Prior to Kellogg he worked at a-connect serving clients on consulting projects across 14 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. He blogs a learning every day, including his MBA Learnings series, on www.ALearningaDay.com. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: competence, life lessons, MBA Learnings, warmth |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Upcoming Webinar: A Conversation with Kellogg’s Director of Admissions |
Have you ever wanted to know insider tips on applying to Kellogg? Want to know how to make your application stand out? If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you won’t want to miss Wednesday’s webinar with the Kellogg Admissions team. “Applying to Kellogg – A conversation with the Director of Admissions,” is scheduled to begin at noon (CDT) on Wednesday, Aug. 12. Beth Tidmarsh, director of admissions for Kellogg’s Full-Time program, will host the conversation and provide advice on the application process. Register for the webinar In the meantime, take a look at her previous blog series’ about applying to Kellogg:
Filed under: Admissions Tagged: admissions, admissions tips, application, application tips, Director of Admissions |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Discovering the many faces of innovation |
By Ahalya Vijay Did you know that Candy Crush brings in almost $1 million in revenue every single day? By comparison, Angry Birds earns $10,000 per day. Angry Birds innovated from a product perspective, but Candy Crush pushed all the right buttons to drive customer behavior in its favor. Also, did you know that Uber’s business model is not product innovation? Uber’s fee-based model has been used by transportation and logistics companies like Maersk since the 1960s. Uber innovated by integrating existing elements into one seamless ‘ecosystem’ – it created a platform where independent drivers could communicate directly with customers on the street. And it made this platform available in each person’s pocket. These are just a few of the interesting insights learned from Doblin co-founder Larry Keeley during a class visit to the global innovation firm’s Chicago offices. Keeley also teaches Innovation Frontiers, a core course in Kellogg’s MMM program. The topic that afternoon was, quite simply, a crash course on what innovation looks, feels, tastes, smells and sounds like. While most people think of innovation as mostly product-focused, Keeley used the above examples to discuss a 10-part innovation model that Doblin has developed. Product-focused innovation is a disruptive change, often resulting from a radical shift in technology that involves patenting a new product. Product innovations are easily ‘copiable,’ though, and often at a lower price point. Keeley emphasized that successes like Uber were drawn out of multi-part innovations – disruptive changes that touch multiple components of the 10-part innovation model that result in the formation of a new ecosystem. For instance, consider the first ever Ford car. While it was a definitely an example of product innovation, positive cash flows continued to be a problem until Henry Ford launched channel and profit model innovations by selling to car dealers instead of directly to customers. Interested in where this is going? We were too. After learning how multi-faceted innovation could be, we split up into teams to ‘get our feet wet’ by designing an innovative new product or service, while at the same time thinking about more than just the actual product. I guess we were all quite inspired by the session, because after 20 minutes the room came up with five amazing, yet viable, game-changing ideas. My team was quite jazzed up by the whole process, and we are even thinking of taking things a step further on our idea (which integrates philanthropy and retail to help donators feel more connected to those whose lives they are changing – that’s all I’m saying for now!). The visit ended with a tour of Doblin’s offices. It’s interesting how Doblin has subverted the typical office set-up with a few rooms to facilitate teamwork and hotelling desks called “home bases” that encourage directors to sit next to consultants. They also have micro-kitchens (a la Google) with a delicious range of coffee. Another interesting feature is the main room in which they have client meetings – all furniture is on wheels making it easy to change the set-up of the room, and the room is partitioned into three sections by curtains to walk clients through Doblin-created solutions. All in all, our visit was eye-opening. Through the innovation process, I learned more about my fellow classmates and what they are passionate about. Personally I learned the importance of taking a different approach to innovation, a critical component of several courses, projects and activities that we will do as MMM students over the next two years. Learn more about Kellogg’s MMM program. Ahalya Vijay is a first-year student in the MMM program at Kellogg. Prior to Kellogg, she did education consulting work with the South African government and technology/operations consulting across the US and Canada. Filed under: Academics, Business Insight, Student Life Tagged: design innovation, Innovation, MMM |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Making the most of your first year in an MBA program | MBA Learnings |
First-year student Rohan Rajiv is blogging once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. Read more of his posts here. A few months ago, I wrote a letter to an incoming MBA student in an attempt to help incoming students prepare for their two years at school. I tried staying away from specific advice in that post, as the assumption was that the framework ought to work for everyone. Today, however, I’m going to dig into my first year process and provide specifics on how I spent my first year. Given the MBA is a $200,000 investment (not counting opportunity costs in lost income), at this time last year I was very curious about any specific “process” advice. And I was generally left disappointed as most of the advice I found online was the in the “feels-good-but-useless” category – e.g. find your passion, build great relationships, travel, dream, take risks, etc. This post has a lot of inherent personal bias as it is what worked for me, so please take these notes with healthy doses of salt. And, yes, this will be long and dense, but I hope you find it worthwhile. As I outlined in the previous post, there are six priorities at business school: academics, career, extracurriculars, social, framily (close friends and family) and you. I’ll go through what I’ve learned as I’ve approached these at school. 1. Academics a) Finding classes
I’ve covered my process in detail in lessons learned from internship recruiting. I just have two adds:
This is heavily biased as it comes from the point of view of an introvert.
My past life was outside the US. So most of these notes are directed to staying in touch with family and friends who live far away.
This is the single most important priority. Nothing matters more. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re likely doing it wrong.
I thought I’d show what all of these notes looked like in action. I’ve written about this a few times, but aside from just recording meetings, I generally record productive time on my calendar. If I’ve spent 90 minutes studying but felt like I did 60 minutes of productive work, I generally store that on my calendar. At the end of the week, I add up the time spent on each priority and look at how I spent my week. It is always very illuminating. Over time, I added more nuance – e.g. tracking group time vs. solo study time, etc. As I could go on about this topic for hours, I thought I’d share two graphs and what they mean. These two graphs show how I spent time in the year. I don’t track time spent with framily or with wife/myself. This is strictly for the “work” part of my life. It is an approach that’s added incredible value considering the time investment (roughly 30 minutes per week). I’ve continued to do this in my internship and it is among the better things I do. A few notes:
1. Spend energy and time on things you value or consider important. The first step here is to determine which of these priorities matter to you. Academics, for example, clearly matter to me. It doesn’t for everyone. But understanding what matters to you is the first step to allocating your energy and time – your most valuable resources. Everyone who goes to a decent program will tell you that it often gets overwhelming. I think of it as preparation for life as a business leader. If you walk out of school having learned to prioritize things that matter, that’s a great lesson to learn. 2. You can’t win them all. Business school can often feel like high school. You can easily spend hours worrying about your popularity, social standing and/or what you are missing out on (a.k.a FOMO or fear of missing out). The first step here is to acknowledge that school is the same as life – you aren’t going to get along with everyone and not everyone’s going to like you. That’s OK. Just be yourself. Everyone else is taken. 3. No one owes you anything. It is tempting to walk in thinking that the school owes you a great experience for the fees you paid, that your group mates owe you for your selfless dedication, and so on. I think a better way to approach this is to just remind yourself that nobody owes you anything. You’re in a great environment that you can mold to suit your needs and style. That, in itself, is a great opportunity. Like all good things, your experience is what you make of it. Make it meaningful. Make it count. Rohan Rajiv is a first-year student in Kellogg’s Full-Time Two-Year Program. Prior to Kellogg he worked at a-connect serving clients on consulting projects across 14 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. He blogs a learning every day, including his MBA Learnings series, on www.ALearningaDay.com. Filed under: Academics, Admissions, Student Life Tagged: Admitted Students, Advice, culture, life lesson, MBA Learnings, prospective students |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Free lunch and ping pong don’t make a culture |
By Raymond Hwang This post also appears on LinkedIn. I never wanted to be one of those people that took pictures of their food and texted it to others. But while interning at LinkedIn this summer, I became one of them. It started slowly … a picture here to my family, a picture there to my classmates. But soon my addiction to culinary-related sharing was out of control. Everyone had to know about the sushi I ate for lunch, all playfully captioned with “did I mention it’s free?” Such a shameless parading of perks is fun, especially when you work in technology for the summer. But when does the glossy finish of “free” begin to fade? The answer is quickly. Free lunches and ping pong alone do not create a culture — at least not a great one and not by default. I’ll give you three reasons why that’s the case. 1. Entitlement aka “I hate how used to this I am” When I first arrived at LinkedIn, I was thrilled by the arcade games, foosball, and the quality (and quantity) of food. I laughed condescendingly when I first heard someone say to me “the lunch today is terrible.” I swore those words would never come from my mouth. After all, who complains about free lunch? Well, the answer is me. I complain about free lunch. As of last week after a “below-average” lunch, I have officially joined the entitled club. Unfortunately, the norm, no matter how wonderful, quickly becomes ordinary. For better or worse that’s human nature, and if you expect the perks alone to cause you to skip joyfully to work each morning, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. 2. Perk escalation aka “Everyone else is doing it” The thing about the tech industry is that top companies are in a constant battle for top talent. As such, when one firm begins offering a perk, pressure is immediately placed on others to offer something similar in order to maintain parity and continue to attract the best people. Maybe those free yoga lessons means the company is dedicated to your wellness, or maybe it’s just that they’re trying to keep pace. 3. Presence vs. presents aka “Let’s buy him an iPhone and call it a day” As a kid I was lucky to have wonderfully caring parents. But I had friends whose parents were largely absent and to compensate they would buy their kids the coolest toys. I was jealous at the time but looking back I was quite fortunate. From what I’ve seen in parenting, presence matters much more than presents. A similar principle holds true here. I have friends and classmates who are interning at wonderfully sexy companies with perks aplenty who honestly hate their jobs. A great sushi station can only go so far in making your 14-hour day and crappy team bearable. So if not perks, what makes a good culture? Well perhaps it’s best to first take a step back and define “culture.” I love Jellyvision Founder Harry Gottlieb’s definition of culture as “the sum of all interactions between employees and customers.” In short, culture is a byproduct of consistent behavior from every member of the firm. In LinkedIn’s words, it’s “the collective personality of an organization,” and like people, that personality can be vicious, caring, exciting, and so on. So what is it like at LinkedIn? All of this brings me to my summer at LinkedIn. The perks are aplenty here — just ask my parents and annoyed friends. But while I’m beyond thankful for the many perks that surround me, what I’ve enjoyed most, and what I believe truly sets this company apart, is a culture that is compellingly authentic and joyfully modeled by the employees of this company. Here at LinkedIn we have a codified culture statement and a set of values. While those can be empty words in other organizations, it works here because senior leadership didn’t sit in a board room, define our culture, and then announce it from a stage. The culture and values of the company were defined bottoms up, then incentivized against, hired against and fired against. Leadership is committed to our culture, models it day in and day out, and the vast majority of the employees I’ve worked with do as well. Personally, relationships matter came to life for me when this summer my family went through a difficult season and my manager, director, and HR all worked together to give me time off and make sure I prioritized family. Our members come first proved to be more than a platitude when in several meetings I saw leaders decide not to move forward with an additional monetization option because it would hurt the user experience. Take intelligent risks was displayed when one of my projects as an intern was presented, operationalized, and launched in less than two months. The wonderful thing is, there are plenty more examples I could give. Culture is either reinforced each day or eroded each day. Each small, seemingly minor, individual act adds up to a much greater whole that becomes a company’s culture. Perhaps that’s why act like an owner is also one of our values. Each day, every employee can act like a founder and decide to grow a spectacular culture or simply take without giving. My encouragement to those seeking new opportunities in the near-future is to find a place where culture is not lip-service; a place where you not only enjoy the culture, but can imagine enthusiastically helping to grow it; a place not just about perks but about people. In my opinion, that’s what truly matters most in the end. P.S. Please don’t take free lunch and ping pong away. Learn more about Kellogg’s Two-Year MBA program. Raymong Hwang is currently a second-year student in Kellogg’s Two-Year MBA Program. While at LinkedIn he is interning on the Product Marketing team. At Kellogg he is a leader in both the Marketing Club and High Tech Club. Prior to Kellogg, Raymond worked at General Mills in a cross-functional rotational program. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: culture, internship, summer internship, Two-Year MBA Program |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: KWEST: A truly ‘amazing’ experience |
By Kyle Burr Nearly 1,000 participants. Five continents. More than 40 countries. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to KWEST. KWEST – Kellogg Worldwide Experience and Service Trip – is an institution among Kellogg MBA students. Each year more than 85% of the school’s incoming class and their significant others (referred to as “Joint Ventures” or “JVs”) embark on a weeklong adventure to countries all over the world. This year’s KWEST kicks off in less than a week, with students departing to a variety of destinations, from China and Portugal to Argentina and the Galapagos Islands, and many places in between. Each trip consists of 20 incoming students and JVs, and is usually led by five rising second-year students. As per its namesake, KWEST participants not only spend the week building friendships with their new classmates, but also dedicate part of their time to community service activities in the countries they visit. Designed to build camaraderie prior to the upcoming fall academic quarter, KWEST is often the first impression of Kellogg for incoming students, and frequently results in the formation of lasting friendships that persevere long beyond their time in Evanston. By tradition, participants are asked not to share any personal information revealing:
In addition to providing a vast array of exotic locales, the portfolio of KWEST trips is intended to provide the style of travel and leisure (or lack thereof) that suits the needs and interests of everyone. As an incoming student last year, I had the opportunity to participate in what is likely the most polarizing of all trips – KWEST Amazing Race! Simultaneously the most coveted and intentionally evaded of the options available, this trip attracts a certain kind of individual that is spontaneous, comfortable with an extreme amount of ambiguity and willing to place their full trust in the hands of a few similarly adventurous strangers. Inspired by the eponymous hit TV series, “KWEST AR” participants are at the complete whim of their second-year student leaders. We had absolutely no idea where we were headed on a day-by-day basis – including our initial destination! Once we arrived in a city, we were split into five teams of four students, each led by a second-year leader. Just like the television show, we were given a series of clues, with each leading to a different site in that particular city or we received a team challenge to be solved on the spot. Without the aid of Internet devices, teams relied on [hopefully] friendly locals that [with any luck] spoke English and could correctly point us in the right direction. Each “race” typically lasted three to four hours and could cover more than 10 miles on foot! The next day, we got up, traveled to a new city – often in a new country – and did the whole thing all over again! Last year took us to Bucharest, Romania; Sofia, Bulgaria; Istanbul, Turkey; and Antalya, Turkey. While it is surely an unorthodox way to see the world, it is unquestionably an unforgettable experience. Which is why I am leading it this year! Stay tuned in the coming weeks when I will reveal the details of this year’s trip after we return to the US. Other “special trips” include:
For thousands of current and former students and JVs, KWEST was a foundational part of their Kellogg experience – and an adventure most will never forget. More than just a “last hoorah” before hitting the books in September, it is often the beginning of a journey that will continue after they’ve left Evanston behind. Trip leaders play an integral role in this process by cultivating the right group dynamic, dealing with unforeseen circumstances, and ensuring that all goes smoothly during the week. However, in most cases their influence extends far beyond the KWEST week itself. KWEST leaders often form the underlying fabric of Kellogg’s informal peer-to-peer mentoring network, serving as advisors and role models to first-year students long into the school year. In that spirit, I look forward to meeting the next cadre of KWEST Amazing Racers and continuing the legacy of my own leaders and many before them. Kyle Burr is a member of the 10-person, student-run KWEST Executive Committee. Prior to Kellogg, he was a management consultant working for governments, non-profits and social enterprises in Washington, D.C., Swaziland and Uganda. This summer he interned as an Associate Brand Manager with the Kraft Heinz Company outside Chicago. Filed under: Student Life Tagged: Kellogg Worldwide Experience and Service Trip, kwest, service |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: What I learned at the BCG Northeast Women’s Conference |
Amanda McCarthy, left, with fellow Kellogg student and BCG intern Kate Mann. By Amanda McCarthy As part of my summer internship with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), I recently attended BCG’s 2015 Northeast Women’s Initiative Conference in NYC. The day was geared specifically toward associates, consultants and women like me who are spending a summer interning with the firm. The morning kicked off with an amazing presentation by Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson on the benefits of a “Get Better” mindset. Citing research study after study to a room full of data lovers (myself included), Halvorson explained why we should all avoid a “Be Good” mindset – one where we are constantly attempting to prove ourselves and outperform others. Instead, we should embrace a “Get Better” mindset, where we always perceive ourselves as having more to learn. This allows us to embrace risk and be less afraid of failure, a key to professional success. One of the points Halvorson made that stuck with me the most was that bright women are more likely to have a “Be Good” mindset. That made me really take time to think about whether I embrace a “Get Better” mindset, and if I don’t, how it could negatively affect my own career journey. It was really inspiring to have the day to step away from work, to learn, reflect and share thoughts with hundreds of other career-driven women at the firm who, like me, are still at a relatively early stage of their careers. Kate Mann, a fellow Kellogg student and summer consultant with BCG, echoed my thoughts when she described her reaction to the event: “What I appreciated most about the conference was that it was tailored for women specifically at the associate / consultant levels,” Mann said. “The panels and Q&A were focused on topics that impact and interest those of us still in the earlier stages of our careers, and made for a much more relevant day of learning than a one-size-fits all conference. “I thought the networking and post-internship panels led by more senior consultants, though not tailored specifically to women, were really strengthened by the opportunity to meet, network and learn with women at our same level from around the Northeast.” BCG is one example, but it’s nice to know that many employers where Kellogg students plan to work are investing in the development of women — and diversity more broadly — at their firms. All in all it was a great day, and I look forward to talking more about it with my fellow Kellogg students when I get back to campus in a few weeks! Amanda McCarthy is a rising second-year student in Kellogg’s Full-Time Two-Year MBA program. She serves as a Director of Marketing for the WBA. Prior to Kellogg, Amanda worked in media and marketing research in NYC, and spent this past summer at Boston Consulting Group’s NYC office. Filed under: Business Insight, Student Life Tagged: BCG, Consulting, internship, life lessons, summer internship, WBA, Women's Business Association |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: A better way to evaluate performance | MBA Learnings |
Second-year student Rohan Rajiv is blogging once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. Read more of his posts here. Incentives drive behavior. Our “Leadership in Organizations” professor repeatedly stated that incentives are among the strongest levers to changing culture. As we discussed incentive systems, we discussed the issues with the traditional tier-based evaluation systems. Most companies have some variant of a system that grades people above or below target/expectations relative to their peers. We discussed a couple of issues with this:
We discussed a 100-point scale with 20 questions scored for five points each. These 20 questions could be divided into four areas – e.g. task performance, leadership, culture and teamwork. Each question would drive to specific questions about how a team member performed. Of course, the manager(s) would need to substantiate each question with clear examples. Why would this be better?
So, here’s to giving it a try … someday. Rohan Rajiv is a second-year student in Kellogg’s Full-Time Two-Year Program. Prior to Kellogg he worked at a-connect serving clients on consulting projects across 14 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. He blogs a learning every day, including his MBA Learnings series, on www.ALearningaDay.com. Filed under: Academics, Business Insight, Student Life Tagged: incentives, leadership, leadership in organizations, MBA Learnings |
FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: My One-Year experience: An interactive timeline |
Shannon Holly knew she wanted an MBA to advance her professional development, but she didn’t want to commit the time to a two-year program. That’s when she discovered Kellogg’s Full-Time One-Year MBA Program. Instantly, she was hooked. During her year in the program, Shannon took full advantage of the Kellogg experience. She majored in three different subjects, won the annual Kellogg Marketing Competition, traveled to South Africa to study challenges facing the education industry, joined an ’80s cover band and much, much more. Tour Shannon’s interactive timeline to see how she shaped her Kellogg experience and how you can shape yours. Filed under: Academics, Career, Student Life Tagged: alumni, dak, day at kellogg, finance, GIM, Global Initiatives in Management, graduation, housing, kwest, leadership, marketing, marketing competition, One-year, One-Year MBA Program, strategy |
FROM MBA Data Guru: Kellogg Interview Questions |
Kellogg Interview Questions Kellogg is somewhat unique in that it allows anyone who applies to interview. Kellogg MBA interviews are typically off-campus with an alumnus, although it is also possible to interview with an admissions committee member on campus or over Skype. Interviews with Kellogg tend to vary greatly based on who interviews you. You can expect anywhere from 6 to 14 Kellogg interview questions. Kellogg interviews are on the longer side, sometimes lasting an hour to an hour and a half. If you are interviewed by an alumni, typically they will have already read your resume but not your whole application. Below are the most common Kellogg interview questions, ranked from most to least common. Your chance of being asked each questions is in parenthesis. Most Common Kellogg Interview Questions
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