I must say the highlight of my orientation weekend was becoming the very first EWMBA student in the class of 2011 to be cold called by a professor in class.
It was a friday evening and I checked into the Doubletree Hotel at Berkeley Marina. Over the next three days, I would be participating in the new student orientation, for the 2011 class of Evening and Weekend MBA students at UC Berkeley's Haas school of business. Soon after checkin, we were each handed a packet with reading material and told to prepare for a case study to be discussed the next day in the classroom.
Fortunately, I had recently re-acquainted myself with the rigors of classroom learning experience. One of the entrance requirements to Haas was to complete a pre-requisite course in Statistics, which I satisfied through UC Berkeley's extension. I had to complete the course and receive a passing grade prior to the start of orientation. I had planned my study such that I was completing each of the 12 course units every week. As a result, my schedule over the past three months had been crazy. Good, I thought; a 5-page business case study to read overnight, no problem!
Friday night's event was a welcome dinner, interspersed with addresses by the dean, associate director and an alumnus's address, followed by informal networking with classmates. My day had started early in preparation to fly down to Oakland from Seattle. My wife dropped me at the airport and after the 2-hour flight, a shuttle ride on AirBART to the Oakland Coliseum station, a ride on the BART to Downtown Berkeley station, a shuttle ride to the hotel and finally a dinner reception, I was ready to put off the case study on Robert Mondavi's winemaking business until the next morning.
Students were up by 8AM the next day for breakfast and after an hour-long talk on leading through innovation, we headed to the hotel's parking lot for a team-building exercise. We were divided into 20 teams and each of us were given identical set of materials and an hour to design and construct a structure that would withstand the assault of really fast-flying tennis balls. The team whose structure has the most number of intact eggs within the structure, ranked by the height of the eggs above the ground, would be the winners. This was our first taste of team collaboration among the students. It was clear within a few minutes who were the doers and managers, visionaries and risk-takers, cautious and impatient types...and those commenting from the peanut gallery. No, the goal of the exercise was not to segment students but I can't help mention. What really stood out was everyone's creative energies, ability to disagree but commit, scramble as a team to win and still cheer competitors.
We then boarded a shuttle to Haas and, after what seemed like an eternity before the photographer snapped a few group photos of the entering class, headed to a 90-minute case discussion in the classroom. As prof.Maria Nandorff discussed the use of a case study as a teaching method, I remembered my recent meeting with a senior leader at amazon.com who had remarked, "always have an opinion on everything, take sides and be able to defend your position". Thankfully I had heeded that advice while reading the case earlier that morning and I wasn't at a loss when prof.Nandorff cold called me to discuss the key issues in the Mondavi case. It is not without reason that the senior leader offered me that advice. Successful leaders are those that make good judgements quickly even in an ambiguous situation. Quality of judgements can only be improved via experiential learning whereby one makes a judgement (takes a stand), evaluates the quality of its outcome and applies the learning into the next judgement. While this feedback loop can take a long time in a real-world situation, a case study discussion short-circuits the timeframe by offering nearly instant feedback on the possible outcomes of one's judgement and alternate possibilities.
The rest of the afternoon was spent touring in and around Haas, followed by a rock-n-roll themed costume party dinner and karaoke. By sunday morning we checked out of our rooms and after a couple of hours of talks from the career services and the alumni association, we temporarily parted ways, with a plan to re-unite during the following weeks as classes get underway.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
"Are you going to be an owner or a visitor?"
Those were David Gent's parting words on August 10, 2008 as he wrapped up the weekend orientation for new students entering the Evening and Weekend MBA program, class of 2011, at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. He urged the class to decide for ourselves how we will spend the next three years at Haas and beyond.
Many years ago, I committed myself to getting an MBA, although my motivations for the same have gone through many reflections and about turns. It wasn't until last summer ('07) that I shifted my aspirations into high gear. MBA application essays require a student to articulate their reasons for pursuing business education. I have listened to many podcasts, read books and articles, all of which emphasized the importance of defining a clear post-MBA plan in order to submit a strong application. On the other hand the alumni and currently enrolled students I had met almost unanimously indicated they were either re-thinking or used the time during the MBA to craft their post-MBA plans.
So, are application essays a creative or serious undertaking, you might ask. Why do these two constituents project diametrically opposed viewpoints on essays? The idea is really to have a clear plan and articulate that in the essays. It is OK for this plan to change over time, as mine certainly has. In fact, it was the very same admissions staff at the orientation who encouraged the entering class to keep an open mind and stay open to new possibilities as we embarked on this new educational experience.
As I researched schools last year, UC Berkeley was the only school I decided to pursue, influenced by its strengths in entrepreneurship and stated mission to prepare leaders who will "lead through innovation". As I have learned at the weekend orientation, it is perfectly OK to change motivations. After all, it is an outcome of learning and increased awareness of possibilities. If you had asked me four years ago, I wouldn't have been able to describe what it meant to be an "owner". However, it is precisely that word presently motivating my pursuit of an MBA, thanks in large part to Amazon.com, my current employer, for generating the awareness. At Amazon, employees are encouraged to think like owners and help structure initiatives that first and foremost improve customer experience and then improve the financial bottom line.
An MBA is not a transaction in which education is traded for time and money. Rather, it is a long term investment that will only pay off by nurturing one's networks and promoting the program's branding, thereby one's own branding. I certainly plan to be an owner, doing everything in my capacity to further the program's and, in turn, my own success.
Many years ago, I committed myself to getting an MBA, although my motivations for the same have gone through many reflections and about turns. It wasn't until last summer ('07) that I shifted my aspirations into high gear. MBA application essays require a student to articulate their reasons for pursuing business education. I have listened to many podcasts, read books and articles, all of which emphasized the importance of defining a clear post-MBA plan in order to submit a strong application. On the other hand the alumni and currently enrolled students I had met almost unanimously indicated they were either re-thinking or used the time during the MBA to craft their post-MBA plans.
So, are application essays a creative or serious undertaking, you might ask. Why do these two constituents project diametrically opposed viewpoints on essays? The idea is really to have a clear plan and articulate that in the essays. It is OK for this plan to change over time, as mine certainly has. In fact, it was the very same admissions staff at the orientation who encouraged the entering class to keep an open mind and stay open to new possibilities as we embarked on this new educational experience.
As I researched schools last year, UC Berkeley was the only school I decided to pursue, influenced by its strengths in entrepreneurship and stated mission to prepare leaders who will "lead through innovation". As I have learned at the weekend orientation, it is perfectly OK to change motivations. After all, it is an outcome of learning and increased awareness of possibilities. If you had asked me four years ago, I wouldn't have been able to describe what it meant to be an "owner". However, it is precisely that word presently motivating my pursuit of an MBA, thanks in large part to Amazon.com, my current employer, for generating the awareness. At Amazon, employees are encouraged to think like owners and help structure initiatives that first and foremost improve customer experience and then improve the financial bottom line.
An MBA is not a transaction in which education is traded for time and money. Rather, it is a long term investment that will only pay off by nurturing one's networks and promoting the program's branding, thereby one's own branding. I certainly plan to be an owner, doing everything in my capacity to further the program's and, in turn, my own success.
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