A look at conflicting incentives | MBA Learnings

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about markets, they’re rife with conflicts of interest.”

Let’s now take a look at the life of John Doe. John is an executive at a leading Fortune 500 company headquartered in the US. He gets paid $1 million in cash, $4 million in stock, and $20 million in various incentive related bonuses that are tied to “EPS,” or earnings per share.

Now, let’s think about the many decisions he needs to make as a CEO that impact other constituents:

What Corporations Can Learn From Startups

By Carter Cast and David Schonthal Organic growth has softened. Purchase frequency has slowed. What to do? When pressed to innovate, many corporations have the same knee-jerk reaction: to hire people and spend money. They create cross-functional task-force teams and launch expensive, time-consuming market research studies, generating mounds of data, but to little effect. Instead… Continue reading

Learning with Legos

Kellogg’s Leadership in Organizations course prepares students to solve problems and influence the actions of individuals, groups and organizations. Earlier this quarter, students in the class learned valuable lessons in leadership thanks to an unlikely source: Legos. Marita Fernandez and Terri Petmezas, both One-Year students in the class, wrote about the assignment and what they learned from the hands-on experience.

Preventing career derailment

Sometimes, people mess up. Signals get crossed. Miscommunications occur. Clear goals aren’t set. But when it comes to managers, those mistakes can result in derailment, said Carter Cast ’92, a clinical associate professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Kellogg. “What is derailment?” said Cast. “It occurs when a manager [who] is expected to go higher… Continue reading

How to answer Kellogg’s essay questions — Part 2

The 2015-16 Kellogg Full-Time MBA application features two distinct essay questions. In the second of a two-part series, Beth Tidmarsh, director of admissions for Kellogg’s Full-Time program, reveals how to write a stellar response.

Question 2: Pursuing an MBA is a catalyst for personal and professional growth. How have you grown in the past? How do you intend to grow at Kellogg?

How to answer Kellogg’s essay questions — Part 1

In the first of a two-part series, Beth Tidmarsh, director of admissions for Kellogg’s Full-Time program, reveals how to write a stellar response.

Question 1: Leadership and teamwork are integral parts of the Kellogg experience. Describe a recent and meaningful time you were a leader. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn?

My One-Year transformational experience

Going back to school in my 30s wasn’t something I originally planned.

I studied business as an undergraduate and switched into an enjoyable consulting career after earning my master’s degree in industrial and labor relations. Yet my dad always told me that “your education is something that can never be taken away from you.” After some reflection on his advice and some prodding from a partner at my firm, I decided an MBA would be a great addition to my resume.

Given my education and experience, I only considered accelerated one-year programs. Kellogg’s 1Y program clearly emerged as the program for me thanks to my interactions with students and alums and my experience at Day at Kellogg (DAK).

As a 1Y, I recognized that time would be precious, and I wanted to ensure I maximized my time in Evanston. After giving some thought to how I would use my time in school, I landed upon a few guidelines to help shape my experience:

Kellogg switches up MBA essays (via Poets & Quants)

The Kellogg Full-Time MBA application became available for applicants yesterday.

Among other requirements, the application features two essay questions and two video essays.

Kate Smith, assistant dean of admissions and financial aid, spoke with Poets & Quants’ John Byrne about what’s new with this year’s application, what stayed the same and what the admissions team hopes to learn from applicants.