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15 Feb 2016, 09:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: 3 ways to improve society without spending an extra dime |
 By Michael Pelehach Whether you’re a Kellogg student or just starting to consider business school, I’m guessing free time is a scarce commodity for you. As current students, our calendars are overflowing with classes, group meetings, company information sessions and a bustling social life. As prospective students, you’re likely balancing a full time job with GMAT practice tests, essay writing and interview preparation. Being busy isn’t a bad thing, but it might cause your priorities to change; things that are typically important to you might suddenly drop to the bottom of your to-do list. According to the Millennial Impact Report, 84 percent of millennials made a charitable donation last year. Of those who donated, roughly half contributed more than $100. Such statistics have earned us recognition as “The Giving Generation.” While there are arguably more effective ways than charitable giving to make an impact, these statistics show our generation’s commitment to making the world a better place. I’d guess that for most of you, attending business school or exploring it as a next step has made that tough. I’ve learned from talking to classmates that many of us want to give back but simply have trouble carving out the time for it. What if I told you there were easy ways you could have a positive impact without spending an extra dime? Because the Internet seems to be obsessed with lists these days, I’m going to share “3 Easy Ways To Improve Society Without Spending An Extra Dime.” While I can’t guarantee it will be as riveting as “15 Charts Anyone Who Has Taken A Shower Can Relate To” or “The 13 Most Influential Candy Bars Of All Time” (each of which actually populated my Facebook newsfeed this week), hopefully it will help you find a way to incorporate impact into your busy lives. Amazon Smile Back in 2013, Amazon launched Amazon Smile — an online shopping platform that gives .5% of all sales made to charity. It’s easy to use and has the exact same interface you know and love. Simply visit www.smile.amazon.com, select the charity you want your purchases to benefit and start shopping. Not sure which charity to pick? My recommendation is Room to Read, a nonprofit started by Kellogg alum and former Microsoft Executive John Wood that tackles global problems with literacy and gender inequality in education. Kiva Microfinance strives to offer basic financial services to the world’s poor, many of whom are living on $2 per day or less. Since being started by Muhammad Yunus in the 1970s, microfinance has reached millions. Kiva, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, has played a huge role in spreading microfinance. Users can log on to Kiva.org, easily search individuals in need of credit for small business ventures, and make microloans for as little as $25. Over the past few years, I’ve extended loans to micro entrepreneurs in 20 different countries and have been paid back 100% of the time (amazingly, Kiva boasts a 98.4% repayment rate). Goodsearch How many times do you Google something in a given day? Five? Ten? Twenty? Kellogg gives us numerous opportunities to search business school essentials: “Why is a Statement of Cash Flows important” or “How do I calculate the change in net working capital?” Goodsearch.com is a search engine that donates one penny from each search’s advertising revenue to a cause of your choice. It might not sound like a lot, but it adds up! My 3,443 searches have contributed just under $35 to Kiva, while the entire Goodsearch community has raised more than $12 million for charities, schools and community groups. I encourage you to explore these effortless ways to improve society. However, if none of these are appealing to you, there are plenty of other ideas out there. Just Google Goodsearch it! Michael Pelehach is a first-year student at Kellogg and a director on the Net Impact careers team. His experiences doing international development work in Peru and teaching English in Bulgaria motivated him to get his MBA and transition into a social impact career. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: net impact, social impact  
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15 Feb 2016, 16:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: 3 ways to improve society without spending an extra dime |
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By Michael Pelehach Whether you’re a Kellogg student or just starting to consider business school, I’m guessing free time is a scarce commodity for you. As current students, our calendars are overflowing with classes, group meetings, company information sessions and a bustling social life. As prospective students, you’re likely balancing a full time job with GMAT practice tests, essay writing and interview preparation. Being busy isn’t a bad thing, but it might cause your priorities to change; things that are typically important to you might suddenly drop to the bottom of your to-do list. According to the Millennial Impact Report, 84 percent of millennials made a charitable donation last year. Of those who donated, roughly half contributed more than $100. Such statistics have earned us recognition as “The Giving Generation.” While there are arguably more effective ways than charitable giving to make an impact, these statistics show our generation’s commitment to making the world a better place. I’d guess that for most of you, attending business school or exploring it as a next step has made that tough. I’ve learned from talking to classmates that many of us want to give back but simply have trouble carving out the time for it. What if I told you there were easy ways you could have a positive impact without spending an extra dime? Because the Internet seems to be obsessed with lists these days, I’m going to share “3 Easy Ways To Improve Society Without Spending An Extra Dime.” While I can’t guarantee it will be as riveting as “15 Charts Anyone Who Has Taken A Shower Can Relate To” or “The 13 Most Influential Candy Bars Of All Time” (each of which actually populated my Facebook newsfeed this week), hopefully it will help you find a way to incorporate impact into your busy lives. Amazon Smile Back in 2013, Amazon launched Amazon Smile — an online shopping platform that gives .5% of all sales made to charity. It’s easy to use and has the exact same interface you know and love. Simply visit www.smile.amazon.com, select the charity you want your purchases to benefit and start shopping. Not sure which charity to pick? My recommendation is Room to Read, a nonprofit started by Kellogg alum and former Microsoft Executive John Wood that tackles global problems with literacy and gender inequality in education. Kiva Microfinance strives to offer basic financial services to the world’s poor, many of whom are living on $2 per day or less. Since being started by Muhammad Yunus in the 1970s, microfinance has reached millions. Kiva, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, has played a huge role in spreading microfinance. Users can log on to Kiva.org, easily search individuals in need of credit for small business ventures, and make microloans for as little as $25. Over the past few years, I’ve extended loans to micro entrepreneurs in 20 different countries and have been paid back 100% of the time (amazingly, Kiva boasts a 98.4% repayment rate). Goodsearch How many times do you Google something in a given day? Five? Ten? Twenty? Kellogg gives us numerous opportunities to search business school essentials: “Why is a Statement of Cash Flows important” or “How do I calculate the change in net working capital?” Goodsearch.com is a search engine that donates one penny from each search’s advertising revenue to a cause of your choice. It might not sound like a lot, but it adds up! My 3,443 searches have contributed just under $35 to Kiva, while the entire Goodsearch community has raised more than $12 million for charities, schools and community groups. I encourage you to explore these effortless ways to improve society. However, if none of these is appealing to you, there are plenty of other ideas out there. Just Google Goodsearch it! Michael Pelehach is a first-year student at Kellogg and a director on the Net Impact careers team. His experiences doing international development work in Peru and teaching English in Bulgaria motivated him to get his MBA and transition into a social impact career. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: net impact, social impact
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15 Feb 2016, 17:23
17 Feb 2016, 06:59
17 Feb 2016, 07:18
17 Feb 2016, 09:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Our path to a case competition victory |
 Left to right: Hameed Hirani, Melanie Chuen, Emily Todd, Ankita Baxi and Terri Petmezas By Ankita Baxi “It’s here!” Our team captain excitedly included that message while forwarding us the case for Kellogg’s Annual Healthcare and Biotech Case Competition. As we all read the topic, we started to share a flurry of ideas, opinions and observations over email. The topic of the case was whether direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing is bad for society and whether it should be banned. DTC marketing has many shades of gray and impacts multiple stakeholders. It spurs a debate about the need for patients to be better informed, the position health care providers should play in prescribing decisions and how pharmaceutical marketing budgets impact drug prices. This was a fairly complex problem to tackle. In the week we had to put together our point of view and presentation, many aspects of our team experience and approach became key drivers for success in the competition: An openness to allow for an evolution of ideas Early on in the process, we agreed on a collective point of view and divided up our research to ensure our point of view would be well supported. However, midway through the week, an interview with an industry expert required us to re-work our solution. It was one of our favorite meetings during the case competition – everyone was energized to find the right solution rather than fight for their individual opinion. In this conversation we iterated on our opinion and discussed a variety of approaches. Often, we would have a “devil’s advocate” to consider the issue from the perspective of all key stakeholders, including the judges, who were executives from a pharmaceutical company. This holistic process enabled us to be fully confident in the solution we were putting forward. Excitement to debate a complex topic The case competition has been one of my favorite team experiences at Kellogg. As I reflected on why, I realized that it was because we were a group that came together and truly enjoyed debating and discussing these complex issues. Our group was one with diverse background in the healthcare space that allowed for rich and deep conversations. The issues we debated are not necessarily ones that we would discuss in regular conversation and this presented an opportunity to learn about my team’s opinions and their experiences (both personal and professional) and how that impacted their perspective on the issue. A second piece of this was that our topic was incredibly salient in the current healthcare landscape and as such, inspired in us an excitement to be part of a relevant national conversation. Giving and receiving feedback within our team Each team member did an amazing job of giving and receiving feedback. I noticed that the feedback was delivered in a way to maximize team performance rather than to put another person on the team down. Those who received feedback were eager to learn and improve for the benefit of the team. Feedback is critical for a team to function well – in many instances feedback isn’t given. When it is given, it isn’t positioned in a thoughtful way that supports growth. This team experience demonstrated to me the power of positive, constructive feedback. Our recommendation acknowledged that while DTC marketing has many benefits, its drawbacks are more widespread, impacting multiple stakeholders. It also took into account that patients consume information from different mediums. We proposed that for DTC television marketing for any given drug, two-thirds of the marketing must be about disease awareness, while only one-third of the marketing could be branded. This enables patients to learn more about their disease state rather than jumping directly to a branded pharmaceutical product. For online mediums, we proposed that marketing can be branded, but it must be better targeted (e.g. advertising can show up when patients search for their disease or symptoms but not on espn.com for example). On the day of the competition, we were all huddled together in a room practicing our presentation. We agreed that we were very happy with our experience and our output, regardless of the outcome. It was icing on the cake that we won (though one of our judges did say he would violently oppose our proposal if it were enacted as legislation)! We are all grateful for this amazing opportunity to tackle such a complex problem and the opportunity to meet and learn from students from other schools. The day of the competition, we met a variety of impressive students ranging from MD/MBAs to PhD candidates from schools across the world. It was a unique opportunity to expand our horizons and learn from one another. Learn more about Kellogg’s Full-Time MBA program Ankita Baxi is a One-Year MBA student at Kellogg. Her prior experience includes consulting, specifically focused in consumer insights and marketing strategy in a variety of industries. After graduation she will be joining Bain’s Chicago office. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: Biotech, Case Competition, competition, Healthcare, healthcare and biotech case competition, One-Year MBA Program  
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18 Feb 2016, 15:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Unconventional career advice from Cal Newport |
 By Jessica Pawlarczyk What is Cal Newport’s number one piece of career advice for Kellogg students? “Don’t follow your passion; get good at a skill instead.” According to Newport, the award-winning author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You and Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, “follow your passion” is one of the most prevalent, yet misguided pieces of career advice. “It actually sets you up for failure,” he said. Newport shared plenty of unconventional, eye-opening career and productivity advice with Kellogg students last month during an e-chat hosted by the High Tech Club and eClub. In the quest to find a career you love, skills trump passion, according to Newport. Preexisting passions (or even the ability to identify your life passion) are extremely rare in today’s world, and Newport has found that passion has little to do with a person’s career satisfaction. Instead, Newport’s research suggests that passion is the result of working hard to become excellent at something. Therefore, Newport urged Kellogg students to master a valuable skill and get “so good at it they can’t ignore you.” “Train like an athlete to systematically get better,” he said. By acquiring a valuable skill and adopting a “craftsmen mindset” of mastery, Newport told students they could start building career capital. Once obtaining career capital, students can then leverage it to ultimately find career satisfaction. According to Newport, the secret to building career capital lies in the ability to concentrate and do “deep work.” But what exactly is deep work? Newport defines deep work as demanding work that involves laser-sharp focus for long periods of time. Deep work can lead to extraordinary results, namely the ability to master complicated information and produce higher quality results in less time. Most importantly, deep work leads to a true sense of fulfillment. To be able to get to the deep work level, Newport recommended students follow these 3 steps: 1. Embrace boredom The ability to concentrate is a skill that has to be practiced before being mastered. In today’s world, people use technology to cure their boredom –they pull out their cell phones while they wait in line at the store or find themselves in any unstimulating situation. Being bored and free of distractions every once in a while is crucial to stretching one’s ability to concentrate, however. 2. Quit social media Newport doesn’t have a personal Facebook or Twitter account so that he “can prioritize deep work and prioritize what really matters.” In addition to social media, students should be wary of other digital tools that hijack attention, such as email. 3. Eliminate non-deep work “Email is a major issue for people trying to do deep work,” Newport said. “It’s a self-imposed handicap.” Newport writes process-centric emails in order to minimize back-and-forth emails and does not respond to emails that he deems unimportant. In conjunction with eliminating non-deep work, Newport advised students to schedule deep work into their calendar and treat it like a meeting that can’t be canceled. While Newport admitted that deep work is an arduous skill to master, he recognizes that deep work has significantly enhanced his own professional life. “Deep work gives me much more meaning and satisfaction out of my work,” he said. “I’m excited to inspire others to make that shift in their life as well.” Learn more about Kellogg’s Full-Time MBA program. Filed under: Academics, Career, Student Life Tagged: Advice, career advice, deep work, eClub, guest speaker, High Tech Club  
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19 Feb 2016, 20:31
20 Feb 2016, 02:17
20 Feb 2016, 03:25
20 Feb 2016, 10:11
22 Feb 2016, 08:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: What I learned co-chairing Kellogg on Growth |
 From right: Co-chair Hilary Coles ’16, 7-Eleven President and CEO Joe DePinto ’99, Kellogg Dean Sally Blount ’92, Silicon Valley Connect Managing Director Ellen Levy and Co-chair Michael Hartley ’16. By Hilary Coles “Never stop preparing.” Those were the words of encouragement I received before taking the stage from Robert Swan, the first man to walk unsupported to the North and South Poles and the final keynote speaker at the first ever Kellogg on Growth forum. The moment you stop preparing, Swan said, is the moment you lose — wise words from a man who has seen his one mode of transportation sink, lost his vision from sun blindness and saved the lives of his teammates. When I first learned about the Kellogg on Growth forum, it was in the midst of fall quarter of my first year. Though I knew I had chosen a world-class school, I was floored by the resources available to us as students, the quality of our professors and the opportunities the Kellogg network opened for us. The forum seemed like the perfect way to show the world outside Kellogg the caliber of our program. Having run galas and fundraising events for 2,000 people in my previous job, I felt my background was one that could add value and create a high-production value experience worthy of my classmates’ time. I was fortunate to be named student co-chair of the event and was thrilled to have a way to give back to the community that had already given me so much. Once selected, Michael Hartley (my co-chair) and I dove into the planning and quickly caught up on where the administration landed for the debut of this hallmark event. It was particularly interesting to meet with the faculty steering committee and hear their perspectives on what knowledge today’s business leaders need to arm themselves with – and how Kellogg on Growth could add focus and depth to the student experience. We were also impressed by the flexibility the administration and faculty offered in considering diverse panelists (some without business backgrounds), topics and themes (high technology was really encouraged to reflect the burgeoning role it is playing in post-MBA job choices). The steering committee made it clear from the beginning that we were looking to shake up the traditional conference experience and produce something surprising, challenging and thoughtful. This openness was what caught the attention of our group of 30+ student leaders who worked with boundless enthusiasm to create the first ever Kellogg on Growth. Kellogg on Growth was an unprecedented collaboration between administration, faculty and students, with more administrative oversight than any other Kellogg event. Understanding the needs of all the players involved (sponsors, administration, speakers and students) was an incredible experience in stakeholder management. Finally, given that the event evolved and changed throughout its inception to execution really underscored the necessity to stay flexible in today’s workplace in order to deliver on your plan in the most successful way. The final production this past November was the result of thousands of hours put in by our phenomenal student teams, administration and faculty. We learned to be flexible as we evolved the structure of the event in order to deliver the highest quality experience possible, and build a legacy going forward for Kellogg on Growth to, well, grow into. Learn more about Kellogg’s Full-Time MBA program Hilary Coles is a second-year student in Kellogg’s Two-Year MBA program. In addition to Kellogg on Growth, she is on the exec team for the Strategy and Business Development Club and co-President of the Kellogg Boxing Club. She is originally from Toronto. Filed under: Academics, Student Life Tagged: collaboration, conferences, Kellogg on Growth, leadership  
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23 Feb 2016, 10:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Solving a business challenge with design thinking |
 By Kristen Zhou Coming from a background in finance and engineering, I often solve business problems and improve operational performance using hypothesis-based analytical thinking and data analysis. When I was exposed to the design thinking approach for the first time as a MMM student, it struck me how many transformative design innovations have been created with this approach. Last quarter, I had a great opportunity to learn and practice design thinking in a real-life application by participating in the Kellogg Business Design Challenge (KBDC), an annual competition hosted by the IDEA club. This year’s challenge was to leverage technology trends in consumer healthcare to revolutionize the way patients engage with their healthcare providers. The sponsor, AstraZeneca, is a global innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company. During our team’s brainstorming session, one of our teammates shared a heartbreaking story about how her friend, who suffers from bipolar disorder, ended up in the emergency room four times in the past few years. We were intrigued by the story, and we wanted to tackle the pain points in the mental health field. Through numerous in-depth ethnographic interviews with patients and doctors, we identified the following pain points:
Throughout the whole process, the IDEA club offered multiple useful workshops in design research, led by innovators from design consulting firms such as Gravity Tank. We learned how to come in from the point of view of what people value and what their needs are, as well as to focus more on user-centered ideas that would resonate with the end users. To get the most out of this process, our team followed the design thinking method while leveraging our diverse background to spark unique ideas. I could not be more proud of our enthusiastic and diverse team: Seoan (neuroscientist), Jinsoo (industrial designer), Jonathan (percussionist), Laura (strategy consultant), Catie (corporate strategist in Oncology) and myself (financial engineer). The design thinking approach led our mind maps further and further. We explored ethnographic, open and generative ways users and other stakeholders think and behave —with no pre-conceived hypothesis to test. As we branched out, we were getting to new ground. That’s where the amazing design ideas happen. After numerous iterations, we came up with a solution that provides better communication and flexible scheduling between patients and doctors; it also enables doctors to provide preventive care for patients with mental health disease. By leveraging the Internet of Things and Cloud technology, we designed an A-to-Z companion set that includes a smart pill dispenser, a physical activity tracking wearable device and a patient analytics cloud platform. I believe that technology will become the connective tissue that holds together the continuum of care, and patient data has to be open and shared to drive new discoveries. On the day of the final presentation, we were all extremely excited and couldn’t wait to present what we achieved over the past months. The five of us narrated an engaging user story with a beautifully sketched storyboard, and our delicate 3D-printed working prototype won us a big applause. After a discussion among the judges, we came in second place in the competition. We were extremely happy with what we delivered. Also invaluable was the incredible experience of going through the whole design thinking process as a team. To me, design thinking is a way to systematically be innovative. I would love to further develop the ability to think at a system level of design that synthesizes design, technology and business. Equipped with both business and design thinking skills, I can’t wait to become a more confident leader who can better build an innovative and sustainable business.  Kristen Zhou is a first-year student in Kellogg’s MMM program, focusing on Entrepreneurship and Data Analytics. Prior to Kellogg, she worked as a financial engineer in the Investment Management industry in New York City. She is looking to drive innovation in the high-tech industry as a product manager. Filed under: Academics, Student Life, Uncategorized Tagged: design innovation, design thinking, Healthcare, Innovation, Kellogg Business Design Challenge, MMM, technology  
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24 Feb 2016, 15:58
24 Feb 2016, 18:56
25 Feb 2016, 06:01
25 Feb 2016, 09:00
| FROM Kellogg MBA Blog: Financing for growth thanks to my Kellogg MBA |
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At the first ever Kellogg on Growth forum, more than 60 influential thought leaders from a dozen industries came together to share their unique approaches to growth. One of the hot topics of the day was scaling and financing growth. In the “Financing for growth,” session, Prof. Mitchell Petersen concluded the session by asking each of his three alumni panelists — who ranged from CEOs to one of the most powerful women in banking — how their Kellogg MBA helped them tackle issues related to finance growth. Their responses are below.  Mike Sands ’96 President and CEO / Signal Former CMO and COO at Orbitz “What Kellogg really taught me — and it’s so important to any company’s success, but certainly for an entrepreneurial company — is teamwork. You learn at some point in your career to not be a great individual contributor but to rely on other people. You realize that you’re only as good as your ability to attract other great people to work with you and for you. “I think that Kellogg is really extraordinary in both exposing you to really amazing people and then getting you to build the skills to work with those folks in a setting that amplifies your personal talents. The hardest thing that I find for non-executives to learn is the transition from being great personally to making other people great. I think that Kellogg is extraordinary in helping build that skill set very early on that so many people miss when they get into the business landscape.”  Lisa Earnhardt ’96 President and CEO / Intersect ENT Helped Intersect ENT land on Forbes’ list of “America’s Most Promising Companies” “Collaboration is something that has been at the heart of Kellogg from the very beginning, and I still see it being a key to who we are. As I see different alums from the various schools, I think that’s where we really do stand apart. I really am only as good as my people, and I just want to make sure I inspire them to do great things and (that I) get out of the way.”  Anne Clarke Wolff ’86 Head of Global Corporate Banking / Bank of America Merrill Lynch Named one of the 25 most powerful women in banking “Clearly collaboration is the word that quickly comes to mind, but I think Kellogg continues to underestimate the power of its humility and the power of thinking bravely. I think we all see MBAs come in from a variety of other programs, and yet people want to work with Kellogg people. I think that the collaboration takes the ego down to a level of realizing it’s the humility of the team’s success and how you really do leverage the great qualities. “I continue to feel like Kellogg people will bravely raise points and bring a perspective that in many cases, other people are more concerned by, “How am I going to be viewed?” I’d really continue to take advantage of what is an incredible incubator here in terms of pulling all these great skills together with great peers and phenomenal faculty leading that inspiration.” Learn more about Kellogg on Growth. Filed under: Uncategorized  
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25 Feb 2016, 09:14
25 Feb 2016, 10:08
26 Feb 2016, 01:22
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Hi Generic [Bot],
Here are updates for you:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuck at Dartmouth
AGSM at UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE
 GMAT Club REWARDS
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