Two semesters down, two to go (redux)
I just finished up final exams/projects on Wednesday. They capped a long, hard semester where I learned that graduate school is not exactly like the undergrad experience. For example, there was a lot less partying and a lot more commuting.
Um, wasn't exactly like this...
Last night I posted my highlights for the semester from the engineering perspective on my EECS blog. On this blog, I’ll list some highlights from the LGO/Sloan side (in no particular order):
- My Sloan core team. There were six of us (including myself). We really hit it off from the very beginning in the orientation activities, and we were able to keep it going the whole semester. My group included a girl from Senegal, a guy from Korea, a guy from the Dominican Republic, a girl from Peru and a girl who partially grew up in France. All very nice people, and I really learned a lot from them throughout the semester about their cultures. The group reflects the general level of multi-culturalism at Sloan (I think it is over 50% international at this point), which was something I definitely was not expecting, but was probably the best part of the whole experience.
OP class - seriously, we didn't pose for this photo...
- On that note, the one C-function I went to (Korea) was also a highlight. Done really professionally, I didn’t realize that companies actually sponsor these things for tens of thousands of dollars. Very impressive and Erika and I had a lot of fun (and it included free beer and food). I’m going to try to get to more of these next semester.
A fan dance by Sloanies
- The Sloan sponsored Oktoberfest was also awesome. It included free sausage, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, good beer (are you sensing a theme here?) and a sweet German oompah-band.
This isn't the band that played, but you get the idea...
- Out of all my Sloan classes I enjoyed Marketing, with Professor Mark Ritson, the most. Our case studies ranged from Snapple to Wal-mart, and he had a lot of real world experience, especially in luxury brands (which was fun). He told stories about working for Louis Vuitton where they would actually burn $10,000 extra handbags while drinking cognac and smoking cigars rather than put them on sale (true story!). He also explained how retail stores like Wal-Mart and Costco have so much leverage over brands. For reference, see the recent flap between Costco and Coca-Cola (guess who won?) As a direct result of this class, I’m going to get a Costco membership: they sell $160 Dom P champagne bottles for $80, and their store brand champagne ($10 a bottle) is rated a 94 out of 100 on the champagne quality scale (plus they have those trampolines up front!) Ritson will probably kill me for posting this seeing as how he works for Dom Perignon and I know he reads my blogs…
Costco brand champagne
- The SIP (Sloan Innovation Period) class put on by our LGO leadership committee on how to motivate under-performers in real organizations. This was the first year that LGOs had to take SIP classes in the fall semester, and our leadership committee really stepped up to the plate to negotiate the bureaucracy and offer this class to LGOs for credit. It ended up being a great class for me, because I had never managed a group where motivation was a problem, but that is definitely a major (and delicate) part of a typical managers job. It was great to hear from classmates (Steve Smith, Min, Steve Lee, and Tim McIntosh among others) who had actually been there talk about their approaches. Good stuff that is really practical knowledge – in general all the “leadership labs” that have been put on by our fellow LGO students have been great – a real highlight of the program for me and exactly what I wanted to get out of LGO.
- The Sales club sponsored three day Sales training class. This was also very practical and valuable outside of class knowledge, and I would recommend that everybody take it. Among other things sales related, the instructor basically taught us how to write emails to high level executives that optimize your chance of actually getting responses. Since taking the course, I have actually used his techniques and they really do work (valuable for company liaisons on the internship committee to take…)
- The trip to the Michigan-Notre Dame game that I went on with my friends Tim, Bayan and Todd. I think 8 LGO ’11s went to Michigan as undergrads, and pretty much all of them went to this game, so we had a good crew out there.
Superfans
- Last but not least, LGO ice hockey. Awesome. I can’t really skate or play hockey, but it is good times. We even had a bunch of local alums show up and play with us. I figured out that a good way to defend is to dive all over the ice – more surface area when you’re horizontal, and I turn my fat ass into an advantage that way, rather than a liability.
We're not really as good as the uniforms and gear make us appear
That’s a lot for now, there was a lot of other cool experiences this semester but didn’t quite make the cut given the time I have to write this post (on the bubble, as they say). Those include competing in the 100K elevator pitch competition, an American Airlines case competition, and all the talks and seminars that I went to. I do have a blog post about a lot of that stuff on my EECS blog.
I plan on writing a few more blog posts over the next couple weeks, definitely one about my internship at Raytheon which is really exciting.
But right now, I’m gonna go play some video games…and maybe shovel a little bit…
Big Daddy - you're going down...
MIT 100K Competition
I attended the finals for the MIT 100K business plan competition this past Wednesday. The competitors entries were all very impressive, but I was especially impressed (as was the rest of the audience – they won the audience prize) with the company Global Cycle Solutions who won the development track prize. They basically have come up with a design to easily convert energy from a person pedaling a bike to do other “work”, like charging a cell phone or shelling corn. The idea is that the bike is often the first capital investment that people in poorer countries can make, and this way, they can turn their bike into a mini-business. A person riding a bike in place with this special attachment can shell corn much easier and faster than the usual way (by hand).
Picture of someone using Global Solutions' corn sheller attachment
Although it seems as though not all the applications they purport to be able to do are ready, and the manufacturing of these attachments will be an issue, I think it is a cool idea. I also like the fact that they demonstrated the use of how a little clever engineering could potentially improve the lives of many people in developing countries in a way that is environmentally friendly and personally empowering to boot. Well done!
Overall, the experience was very interesting. The keynote speaker was Rodney Brooks, one of the founders of iRobot, and a professor at CSAIL at MIT – a lab where I hope to be spending a lot of time in the coming two years. He described his experiences as an entrepreneur, and outlined in a very entertaining speech (about halfway through that video) his tongue-in-cheek “PROP” method for starting a business, standing for Passion, Rejection, Opportunity, and Persistence. Having worked for a startup out of college, I can certainly vouch for those qualities being a pre-requisite for a successful venture. In deference to him, however, I would add an additional “M” and “T” in there, forming what I call the “PROMPT” method (my thoughts are purely from my experience – I’d be interested how this jives with the experts at Sloan).
Rodney Brooks
The “M” stands for Management. I think it is romantic to believe that an early-stage company can succeed with poor management, as long as the idea is good. I think this is an especially seductive thought for engineers especially, who are maybe used more to academia and certain work environments where good work is generally recognized and rewarded based on the merits of the work. And I am sure there are certainly plenty of cases where this is true. In my experience, however, poor management (mis-allocation of valuable resources, poor communication with employees, lack of professionalism) can easily sink an early stage company, even if the idea is sound. In addition, the management should be intimately familiar with the product, and ideally be working on the project alongside the employees in its development, at least at first. One question on my mind: can you learn to be a good manager? (Rhetorical answer: I certainly hope so, that’s why I’m going to Sloan!)
The “T” stands for Timing. This is a difficult principle, as timing involves an element of luck. However, when I look back on the development of our product, a telehealth system to deliver preventive care best practices for patients with chronic disease, I wonder what would have happened if we just started the company one or two years later (say 2005 instead of 2003). Back in 2003, the exploding health care costs in this country, although well known, had not seeped into the general consciousness of the country as a national crisis (as it should have been). Moreover, telehealth and data driven health solutions were sort of niche ideas, not a part of the mainstream solution of health care reform as they are now. As such, we had a difficult time selling our system in this country, because nobody was really motivated to pay for it – a well documented failing of the episodic based U.S. health care system as opposed to the “wellness” systems that exists in many other countries where the government is the single payor. In any event, we ramped up (despite the fact that we hadn’t secured any contracts) and by the time Obama got elected and the country finally came around on the idea, the company was bust, rather than waiting patiently with a solution in hand. Now other major players have entered the scene. There is certainly something to be said for the “stealth mode” that seems to be popular now – it certainly increases the flexibility of the company to better time entry into the market place. Operating within one’s means from the beginning, even if it means few employees making steady contributions, increases the liklihood the company will be around long enough to seize opportunities when they arise.
Anyways, I am interested to see how the companies involved in the 100K progress. They certainly seem to have bright futures, and the fact that they have gotten this far should indicate some grasp of the basic principles (aside from luck of course!) and that most valuable of commodities – good press!
