We started our second year with a one week pre-term course on Leading and Managing Crises. We discussed responses to multiple crises – both good and bad. And, as I was on the lookout for a new crisis to apply my learning, Volkswagen appeared in the news for what has to rank among the dumbest decisions of all time.
From Big Data to Big Profits
From raw data to real dollars, Russell Walker’s new book shows how to monetize big data By Cheryl SooHoo How do you turn your company’s big data into big bucks? First think big and then bigger about the value of your data, says Russell Walker EMP 64, clinical associate professor of Managerial Economics & Decision… Continue reading
MMM course partners with local nonprofit
Answer this: What is design to you?
That’s a pretty open-ended question, but that’s Professor Erin Huizenga’s intention when she asks her 60 MMM students the first day of class.
In Communication Design, Huizenga exposes students to the basic elements of graphic design and visual narrative. Students experiment with grids, typography, color theory, Gestalt principles and visual framework. Huizenga stresses the importance of knowing the fundamentals first.
“You have to learn the rules of the road, then you can play with them and make them your own,” Huizenga said.
Examining entrepreneurship in Cuba
The famous American Economist, Frank Knight said, “Profit is the reward for taking risk.” Dr. Knight argues that profit and risk are intertwined. In seeking profits, we must therefore seek risks that are attractive.
That is how Kellogg students are introduced to Risk Lab, an experiential learning course that allows students to examine the attractiveness of risk in a real-world investment decision. Last year, the course examined the opportunities and challenges facing Cuban entrepreneurs.
The students worked with the Cuba Study Group, which released its full report based on the students’ findings this summer.
Carlos Castillo, who was one of the students in the course and graduated in June, took some time to talk about what he learned from the experience.
I gave a TED talk. Here’s what I learned.
As I stood at 4 a.m. in the stairwell of an apartment building in China trying to email a minute-long video via a horrendous WiFi connection, I thought, “This will never work.”
The video, taken in selfie mode on my cell phone, was of me attempting to compress five years of thought and research into one compelling minute. I had to email the piece as my application to speak at the upcoming TEDxNorthwestern conference, which I had just heard of that day, and the directions stipulated that all applications had to be received the previous day.
My cover email vaguely blamed my late submission on time zones and begged that I still be considered, but after the organizers’ email systems wouldn’t accept the large file, I sent one more desperate email to a general NU email address, gave up, and went to bed.
A few weeks later, I was genuinely shocked when I found out that I had been selected to present. As you may know, TED conferences present “ideas worth spreading.” Like many of you, I have been edified and moved by TED talks. I’ve always loved the idea of giving a talk, and it just so happened that when I heard about the conference at Northwestern, I had something to say.
Round 1 application deadline is one week away
This is a friendly reminder that our deadline for Round 1 applications is quickly approaching. To be considered for Round 1, please submit all application materials by 5:00 p.m. (CT) on Tuesday, September 22.
If you submit your application for Round 1, you will receive your admissions decision on December 16.
How to live a good life takes center stage during orientation (via Clear Admit)
Before diving into the fray of finance, accounting, operations and marketing, every incoming first-year student at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management first spent an afternoon grappling with the question of how to live a good life.
“What do I value?” “How do I find my personal mission?” “How do I create an action plan to live a life consistent with this mission?” These considerations—not how to cut costs, gain market share or increase profits—were part of a new element introduced this year during Kellogg’s Complete Immersion in Management (CIM) Week, the stretch of days before classes start when incoming students meet each other and the school for the first time.
What got you here won’t get you there | 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. I started a collection of content subscription projects via my “A Learning a Day” blog between 2009 and 2013 – “good morning quotes” on week days, “book learnings” on Sundays, “Monday learnings” on Mondays (this was… Continue reading
Key lessons from Social Impact Days 2015
“Dreamers, innovators and visionaries assemble!”
That was the call I imagined myself and other first-year students hearing last month at the start of Kellogg’s Social Impact Days.
OK, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little. But honestly, not by much. Over the course of three glorious days, 100 of my closest friends and I embarked on our first Kellogg-guided journey. And what a journey it was.
To be honest, when I first signed up for Social Impact Days, a pre-term program run by the Kellogg Public Private Interface (KPPI) Initiative, I had no idea what to expect. What kind of people would I meet? What do they really expect out of us this early in the journey? Am I even going to have any friends there? Fortunately, all of these worries were quelled on the first night when I met the other students, many of who had the same initial questions I did.
Faculty podcast: How to handle a bad boss
Of all the annoyances the workday can entail — that too-early alarm, rush hour traffic, late nights stuck at your desk on deadline — having a bad boss can be the most insidious.
“Nobody wants to go to work when they don’t get along with their boss,” says Jon Maner, a professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School. “It really weighs on people’s everyday life.”
Learn about what motivates bad bosses and how to manage them from Kellogg faculty members Jon Maner and James B. Shein in this month’s Insight in Person podcast.
Could ‘Growth’ Become A New Business School Discipline? (via Poets & Quants)
Kellogg has carved out an unusual niche in the growth and scaling space from both a curricular and thought leadership perspective. The school has rolled out seven different courses on the topic since the spring of 2014. The school also is considering a capstone course or experience to what it calls a “pathway,” or set of cohesive courses that help students develop a specific set of skills.
Developing the initiative has turned the more typical way courses are developed at a business school on its head. For years, academics in narrow disciplines largely constructed theories of business education in the abstract, hoping that their outcomes would eventually line up with market needs. In crafting a curriculum around growth, Kellogg went to the market first, asked business leaders what challenges they faced, and came up with a series of courses to teach the required skills.
3 productivity principles | MBA Learnings
Some of my highest impact learnings as a graduate student have been around productivity. One of my professors in the first couple of weeks described getting your MBA as a two-year course in decision making and trade-offs. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve written about what my process has looked like. And today, I thought I’d attempt to pull out three productivity principles that have become apparent to me in the past year.