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Posted from GMAT ToolKit | FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: The JV Experience: Global Opportunities |
![]() Summer Traveling at Kellogg As a Joint Venture (JV), it is amazing to live here and to take advantage of all the unique opportunities that come up. It is definitely the time to explore new places! This summer, I lived in Nairobi, Kenya for two months, and I was also one of the leaders of KWEST Chile. These two opportunities made my experience at Kellogg much better, and I encourage all JVs to go and try them. Summer Jobs When Felipe started to look for summer jobs, we hoped to do something different and new. Then we received an email from a Brazilian friend with a job posting in Kenya, and I encouraged Felipe to apply. In just two months, we were in the airport to Nairobi! Felipe would be working for a startup, and his boss connected me with a NGO where I could volunteer. It was great to have a job for two months. I worked for Dignitas Project, a NGO that coaches and educates teachers and principals inside one of Nairobi’s slums. By doing so, the organization improves the education of unprivileged children. Dignitas Project also supports the children by providing uniforms, water, books and notebooks. It was my first time in a slum, and I could see the terrible reality. The first time I visited a school, I almost cried. I had mixed feelings: I was happy the children had the opportunity to go to a school but sad about the conditions. It was unbelievable how they wanted to stay close to me and how a simple smile could make them so happy. ![]() Dignitas Project In Kenya, we also had a Kellogg group that made our lives there much better. We traveled around Africa to Rwanda, Seychelles and Zanzibar. We also did a lot of activities, including meeting for dinners, drinks and picnics. That made my experience in Kenya much better and further embedded me in the Kellogg community. KWEST After Kenya, we led KWEST Chile. When we decided to, I was scared. Planning a trip for 25 people was not easy, and I was insecure about my English. However, it was worth it! It was wonderful to travel, and I loved passing on the Kellogg culture to a new group of students. We had a really good time, and I am extremely happy to have met all of those people. After KWEST Chile, the leaders went to Peru and Colombia. We had a great trip together, and at the end of it, we stayed in Baru, an island in Colombia, with more than 25 other Kellogg students! ![]() KWEST Chile My summer was amazing, and I am already missing it. I definitely did things that, from the beginning of my Kellogg journey, I pushed myself to do: try new experiences and enjoy all that this time can provide me! Thaleya Freitas is the Joint Venture of Felipe Godoy ’14. Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Freitas worked at an advertising and event agency before moving to Evanston with her husband in 2012. Filed under: Student Life Tagged: global, joint ventures, kwest, KWEST Leader
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| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Kellogg is for Starters |
![]() Winning First Place at Startup Incenerator There is no doubt that entrepreneurship is thriving at Kellogg. With the addition of Linda Darragh as the executive director of the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative (KIEI), there have been sweeping changes to the programming and curriculum that are paving the way for students and alumni who aspire to start their own businesses. In my first year of the 2Y MBA program, I was fortunate enough to have a front row seat to these changes and develop a story that is a testament to how Kellogg is turning innovative thinkers into successful practitioners. I joined Kellogg knowing I wanted to spend time working on a new venture. Leading into the fall, I had been working on an education technology tool to help licensed professionals (CPAs, nurses, lawyers, etc.) manage continuing education requirements called License Buddy. In October of 2012, after seeing a flyer in Jacobs, I signed up for Startup Incinerator, a business plan competition that was organized by the professors who run the NUvention Web incubator course. The competition started out with over 90 individuals/teams pitching their ideas, and through the series of elimination rounds over the weekend, we ended up placing first in the competition, which secured us (along with HAAM Lock) a spot in the NUvention course. During the last two quarters , we worked on the product, following the Lean Startup principals championed by Steve Blank. Presenting weekly updates and getting feedback from an impressive set of faculty, mentors and venture capitalists accelerated our development in a way we would never have been able to do on our own. That combined with the Entrepreneurial Selling, Entrepreneurial Tools for Digital Marketing, The Entrepreneurial Firm: Building the Winning Team, Business Law for Entrepreneurs and Startup Programming and Management courses Kellogg has pioneered, along with the programming put on by the Kellogg Entrepreneurs Organization (KEO) and the eClub, I feel more prepared and confident as an entrepreneur than I could have imagined. Not only was our team runner-up in the NUVC pitch competition at Northwestern, we also headed to NYC to kick off the Dreamit Ventures summer accelerator program, which was an exciting ride. Kellogg has provided me with a foundation I sincerely feel I would not have gotten anywhere else. Entrepreneurship can be a daunting and lonely path, but there is no better time and place to do it than at Kellogg. If you are lost, you have unparalleled resources to keep you on track. If you are discouraged, you have one of the greatest academic communities to support you. And when you find something that works, there is an entire community of over 50,000 Kellogg students, alumni and faculty to celebrate your successes and help push you along. Kellogg is truly a special place, and I consistently feel humbled to be a part of it. So, whether you are a prospective student, current student or alum, what are you waiting for? It is time to get started! Jeremy O’Briant (@jobriant) is a second-year student in the full-time MBA program at the Kellogg School of Management.� Filed under: Academics, Career, Student Life Tagged: entrepreneurship, KIEI, NUvention
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| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: C.K. Prahalad Case Competition Winners: Behind the Birth Kits |
![]() Winners: Richie Khandelwal ’14, Otmane El Manser ’14 and Charag Krishnan ’14 Otmane El Manser ’14, Richie Khandelwal ’14 and Charag Krishnan ’14 beat out teams from more than 80 business schools to take first place at the Ross School of Business’s C.K. Prahalad Case Competition on Oct. 31. The team won for their innovative response to a case study involving an India-based company that produces medical kits for use during childbirth. For these students, participating in the case competition was an incredibly valuable experience (and a great opportunity to earn bragging rights) while balancing social responsibility and business logic. ![]() I like to think about ways to apply business frameworks and skills to have a positive social impact in developing countries. The theme of the case competition echoed well with this vision. And the question of finding a balance between profit generation and value creation for the base of the pyramid was very interesting to me. My teammates and I all had very different backgrounds — ranging from the social sector to engineering to IT consulting — so the conversations we had about the best solution to the case were very enriching. We all benefited a lot from comparing our perspectives on the topic. — Otmane El Manser ’14 ![]() The corporate and the social world are still two different entities that don’t talk to each other as much. Since I come from a corporate background, the case competition helped me get in the circle of people who are thinking more about social enterprise. The most valuable part of participating was definitely the network. I met a lot of people at the conference from other business schools and we’ve had an ongoing relationship since then. – It’s good to know people who are excited about a similar space. — Richie Khandelwal ’14 ![]() The key learning was, no matter how innovative your products are, the user experience eventually determines the adoption of the product. And the user experience is determined by soft competencies in addition to the hard aspects of the product. I also really enjoyed the discussions that came out of working with my teammates. We had a great mix of perspectives. — Charag Krishnan ‘14 Filed under: Business Insight, Student Life Tagged: business, competition, India
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| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Kellogg Business Design Challenge Recap: Hiep Nguyen ’14 |
![]() A crucial step in the design process is throwing a bunch of ideas on small sheets of paper and then putting them on a larger piece of paper, preferably attached to a wall. Here, we posted all of our thoughts from numerous interviews and on-site observations, and we looked for patterns that would help us generate critical insights about the Hyatt traveler. Overall, the Kellogg Business Design Challenge was a wonderful experience. Teams were formed from the get go and we had the opportunity to hear from a real company, facing a real challenge, asking for a real solution. In this case, our client was a hotel company that was aiming to increase its customer loyalty. With the only rules being “no apps” and “no mobile phone tethered door locks,” the client gave us a significant amount of creative freedom. Throughout the process, the teams were invited to attend weekly workshops taught by Chicago-based innovation/design firms and learned how they gathered information, synthesized their findings, executed their ideation process and ultimately tell a story that connects their solution to the problem(s) at hand. For me, this was the true value of the entire challenge. To be able to immediately apply the tools we learned in the workshops is an opportunity not many classes offer and our team took full advantage of it. At the end of the day, we developed valuable takeaways relating to the hotel experience and generated what we felt was a powerful recommendation. Most importantly, we gained a valuable skillset that each member could apply to nearly any obstacle they will face in the real world. Hiep Nguyen (pronounced “Hip”) is originally from Northern California. Prior to Kellogg, he was living in the over-priced (but totally worth it) city of San Francisco where he was a traveling healthcare consultant. In addition to participating in 1st year innovation design challenges, Hiep enjoys studying the fields of marketing, strategy, and social impact. When he is not doing that, he is playing basketball, riding his snowboard, or attempting to not fail miserably as a vegetarian chef. His twitter handle is @HipSince85. Filed under: Business Insight, Career, Student Life
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