Graduate Student Blog
Post by:
Ajay Mehta
MBA 2011
General MBA focusing in Operations and Business Strategy
MBA Council, Operations Club
The Final Year Begins
This is actually my first attempt at a blog and I’m a little nervous on what will come out. Perhaps I should relate it to business school…
ONE MORE YEAR! Being back in Boston is, in a way, comforting...I have a set schedule of classes, get to catch up with classmates I haven’t seen in a few months, and no early morning commuting through Chicago traffic. Another plus is that I no longer have to sleep in a hotel which I did for my summer internship. My back feels great.
This leads me to my summer internship which was with the Canadian National Railroad in Chicago, IL. The internship was a great experience which allowed me to really test some of the skills I had gained in my first year. I was tasked with reviewing a system that the CN used to sort cars in classification yards. After surveying the system and what the competition was doing, I wrote a paper concluding my results and directing the company in the right direction. Writing this paper was a tough task, but using business terms and tools gave me a completely different outlook on how I should write the paper. I caught myself using business jargon and making multiple SWOT diagrams to convey my points. I realized that I was relying on some basic marketing principles which without an MBA would have made my viewpoint very narrow. I also needed to quantify the suggestions I was giving my superiors, and by creating a financial analysis I showed them how the suggestions I was making would save the company money in the long run. These tools, as simple as they seem are not common place for most people. I truly saw the value of getting an MBA and being able to convey these figures clearly and successfully. I used terms and catch phrases which really helped quantify the decisions that company executives outside of the engineering department would be making. In return, my recommendations were taken seriously and will be used to calculate the railroads yard budget in the following years.
With that I conclude my first blog entry…stay tuned for more.
About the author:
Ajay is a full time MBA student focusing on operations management. His professional experience prior to BU was with Union Pacific Railroad in Houston, Texas, where he managed a signal maintenance work group. Ajay spent his childhood in Jackson, Mississippi and left to pursue an engineering degree from the University of Iowa. He likes summer, basketball, and listening to his iPod.
Team MBA Win
Boston University School of Management Wins TeamMBA Award for Second Year in a Row
A global award recognizing a “commitment to social responsibility”
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The TeamMBA Award from the Graduate Management Admissions Council |
After winning the 2009 TeamMBA Award from the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) for a “commitment to promoting…social engagement,” Boston University has again been honored for “exemplifying a commitment to social responsibility through the actions of [its] students.”
This year, GMAC, an association of leading business schools around the world, has recognized Boston University with one of only six service awards, granted at a ceremony in June, 2010.
--The Graduate Management Admissions Council
Specifically, BU won the Service Award for Corporate and Social Responsibility, based on the School's support of its annual, student-run event Link Day, organized with help from the School of Management'sPublic Nonprofit Management Program. In 2010, this event aligned the business skills of 60 MBA students with the needs of 15 area nonprofits.
Last year, Boston University was the only school world-wide awarded GMAC’s overall institutional award for outstanding support of student involvement in social engagement “through school-led programs, services, institutional culture, and more.”
The School of Management's receipt of these awards, along with the recent recognition of its Net Impact chapter’s top global status, highlight the growing international reputation of BU’s Public Nonprofit Management Program to attract, support, and help shape tomorrow’s leaders in social responsibility.
More about the foundation of BU's Service Award for Corporate and Social Responsibility: Link Day 2010
More about the 2010 TeamMBA Awards, from the Graduate Management Admissions Council
What I liked best of Year 1 and What I’m looking forward to for Year 2
[Steve Annen, MBA and MS in Media Ventures Class of 2011]
What I liked best about my first year:
I’m from Chicago, which is an awesome town in case you’ve never been there; it has thick pizza, tall buildings, and a giant metal bean. I’ve been to several places in the US, but limited funds have restricted my international travel to Canada (once) and Mexico (once…actually, about one half). However, I have met people from all over the world here at BU and the differences still fascinate me.
In Greece, for example, “afternoon” is considered to be from about 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM. In the US, Schlitz is a brand of beer, but in Germany, “schlitz” means…something else. There are hundreds of examples of the cultural differences (what’s this “metric system” you speak of?), but in the end, there are cool people from all over.
The first year is definitely stressful, but knowing that we’re all thrown into this same situation together eases a lot of the strain.. Former lawyers, doctors, substitute teachers, and mustachioed-workers for the Colorado Russian consulate…everyone is now here for grad school and hanging out with them has been great. Plus, now I have places to crash once I have money to travel.
What I am most looking forward to for my second year:
My program is different than most of my classmates; I am earning a dual degree MBA and MS in Media Ventures. My 2nd year focuses primarily on the media portion of my degrees and actually sends me to Los Angeles for the spring and summer. There are several things I’ll miss about Boston (the people, the Spring Gala, and the MBA talent show to name only a few), but I am looking forward to experiencing life on the West Coast. The idea of networking is ground into your head as an important aspect of the MBA, a fact that has been verified by the alumni I have interviewed. As great as Boston is, I look forward to trying something new and meeting more people in my future-industry. I’m sure I’ll jump back east, so I’ll see everyone then.
Aside from LA, I am honestly looking forward to my Negotiations class at SMG this fall. I have heard nothing but good things think learning the basics will prove to be invaluable in any career.
See you all on campus in a few weeks!
Lessons Learned in B-School
[Posted by Felicia Jadczak, MS-MBA, Class of 2011]
One of the primary reasons why I decided to apply to business school was to make a move and get ahead in my future career. I had just been promoted in my job at the time, but there was no space for further growth. After five years in the same field I was more than ready for a change. I knew that business school was a doorway for something bigger and better, even if I didn’t quite know what that “better” would actually turn out to be!
I remember showing up for the first day of Pre-Term, hot and sticky, wondering if I should have worn business casual, worried about how I would fit in with the rest of the class. I was a liberal arts major: my specialties were English, French, and writing, and I had only taken one math class in my entire undergraduate college career (it was the lowest grade I ever received, in case you were wondering!) I imagined that the other students would be crazy intense ex-investment bankers, ultra-competitive, with closets full of suits and ties, shiny shoes, and leather briefcases. I could just picture the months ahead: long nights of struggling alone over big fat finance textbooks and mind-numbing spreadsheets. That first night I wondered why, oh why did I ever think I belonged in business school? Admissions must have made a SERIOUS mistake by accepting me!
Well, it turns out my fatalistic predictions were only partially true. To my surprise, there were many other people who were just as nervous as I was. There were other English majors! There were other people who’d never opened up an Excel spreadsheet in their entire lives! There were very few bankers, and shiny shoes and suits only emerged on presentation days. There were long, long, sleepless nights of pouring over big fat finance textbooks and mind-numbing Excel spreadsheets, but they were not spent alone. And most importantly, competition was almost non-existent.
One of the very first lessons I learned in school was that we’re all in this together. I still remember the first Saturday morning I showed up to school, planning on somehow making my slow, slow way through a MyFinanceLab homework set, and wondering how I would ever manage when I already felt behind in class. I ended up working on the problems with two other classmates who were more helpful and supportive than I could have ever imagined possible. It was an eye-opening experience and one that was repeated many times over throughout the year. Yes, you might not be an expert in one area. But you probably are really good at something else that another classmate thinks is impossibly hard.
Yesterday evening, as I sat enjoying a mid-week drink with many of my cohort members, I realized that not only have I managed to make it through the first year alive, with enough skills and training to succeed (so far) in a very challenging summer internship, I’ve also somehow come away with a fantastic network of friends and colleagues. I count people from my first semester, second semester, and study teams among some of the best friends I’ve made since coming to school. My cohort has proved to be an invaluable source of support, tutoring, friendship, commiseration, and endless new ideas for social activities. And I wouldn’t be working where I am today if not for the help of an MS-MBA alumna who promoted my resume with her former co-workers.
Yes, business school has proved to be one of the hardest experiences of my life. But no, I wouldn’t trade the hard work, frustration, challenging situations, and incredible fun of the past year for anything.
Update on Summer Internship
[Posted by Yvonne Choi, Public and Nonprofit MBA/MA in International Relations, Class of 2011]
Hi all!
Welcome to the Boston University blog. Hope this is helpful in your pursuit to figure out whether BU is the right fit for you and if you have already chosen BU, prepare you for the first year.
The first year of business school is hard and long but I had tons of fun too! I think BU does a great job of creating an atmosphere of camaraderie and healthy competition. They seek out those who are brilliant but are not overly showy. Sounds so cheesy but I have met some of the most interesting and diverse group of people from all over the world. And, this summer, they are interning all over the world… from Africa to Vietnam and all over the US.
For me, this summer, I am interning with Bank of America within their leadership program. After a month of summer break, I am ready to get mentally stimulated again. I am commuting to Providence this summer from Boston and although it’s been a bit rough waking up so early, I am able to take a quick nap and do some work on the train so it’s not so bad. The ultimate goal of my summer internship is to be accepted into the full time rotational program with BofA after I graduate so, as they say, not only am I “interviewing” them but I am also being “interviewed” throughout the entire summer. It has only been a week into my internship, but I have already been asked of my constructive feedback on how the BofA banking centers are being run and about my opinion on how to improve customer experience and employee engagement. I think BU has done a great job in instilling in its students key business leadership tools, specifically from our Organizational Behavior class, and core business knowledge in operations, marketing, and finance to generate constructive and intelligent assessments of business situations.
I hope everyone is having a great time enjoying the summer weather. It has been fabulous in Boston, not too humid.
Reflection: Guatemala Trip
[Posted by Stephanie Hawkins, Public and Nonprofit MBA, Class of 2011]
If someone had told me a year ago that I would be traveling with 35 people I had yet to meet, I never would have believed it. But on May 9th, I boarded a plane headed to Guatemala with other members of my BU MBA class. The idea was proposed by a classmate: a cohort trip, not only to celebrate the end of our first year together, but also to have the opportunity to give back. In addition to the social nature of the trip, we would be volunteering and raising money for the Primeros Pasos clinic outside of Quetzaltenango (also known as Xela). I’m not surprised that over 60% of our cohort decided to attend. My cohort has many students that are in the Public and Nonprofit Management program, the Health Sector Management program as well as former Peace Corps volunteers. In the months leading up to the trip, between studying, classes and group projects, students planned the logistics and raised money for the clinic.
We arrived at our first stop, Antigua, late Sunday afternoon. After exploring parts of the city, it was early to bed for most of us, since the next morning we departed early for a hike of Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano where we were able to get close to flowing lava and some classmates even roasted marshmallows over it! We proudly flew our BU flag when we reached the end of our hike. Afterwards, we set off for Xela where the group split into two volunteer groups that worked at the Primeros Pasos clinic (www.primerospasos.org) in separate shifts.
Over the two days we spent volunteering at the clinic, we were able to paint the entire outside of the clinic, build bookshelves, construct whiteboards, check-in children visiting the clinic, and deliver medicine and toothbrushes to local schools. I was among the group that walked to a local school to deliver the supplies. It was amazing to see the kids playing at recess just like kids do everywhere. They were fascinated by us, asking us if we were “gringos” and asking to see pictures we had taken of them. We had seen the unbelievable natural beauty of Guatemala, but volunteering enabled us to have a more human experience in the country. After Xela, the group traveled to Panajachel, a town on Lago Atitlan, where the group kayaked, ziplined, shopped, ate, and celebrated before boarding the bus back to Antigua for our last night in Guatemala. It was a quick and intense five-day trip that was filled with so many memorable experiences.
The hope is that this kind of trip, one that allows BU MBAs to experience a developing country and give back, will be an annual occurrence. For me personally, somewhere along the way, I realized something. I realized that somewhere between marathon team meetings and study group sessions, late night IMs from classmates offering help, and many meals and social outings, we had formed our own kind of family. Our trip was a great way to give back and experience Guatemala; it was an amazing way to celebrate our newfound family.
Kenneth W. Freeman Named Dean of SMG
Kenneth W. Freeman Named Dean of SMG
When Kenneth W. Freeman was offered the School of Management deanship, the former CEO turned to an old and trusted advisor: his father. The 97-year-old Freeman père, who immigrated to Massachusetts from Nova Scotia as a teenager, told his son that when he came of college age, during the Depression, he’d hoped to attend BU, but his family couldn’t foot the tuition — “which he recalled was $100 a year,” says Freeman.
“My father said, ‘Ken, this is a gift for you, and for me. If I were you, I’d take the job.’” Freeman will start on August 1.
In another respect, Freeman, 60, has lived his father’s life, and then some. The elder Freeman, a self-made businessman, inspired his son to enter the business arena, where he’s best known as a turnaround expert, shepherding Quest Diagnostics from a problem-plagued upstart to the world’s leading medical testing company. The results of a study conducted by professors at INSEAD and published earlier this year by the Harvard Business Review rated Freeman the 67th best performing CEO in the world.
Freeman, now a member with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., will replace Louis E. Lataif (SMG’61, Hon.’90), SMG’s Allen Questrom Professor and Dean, who has helmed the school for 19 years. Freeman is the trustee chairman of Bucknell University, his alma mater, and an executive-in-residence at Columbia Business School.
University President Robert A. Brown says the appointment meshes man and mission. “Management education faces unprecedented challenges in the years ahead as we prepare the next generation of leaders in the global economy, who accept their responsibilities to society, as well as to their firms," says Brown. "It is exciting to have Ken Freeman as our dean of the School of Management. His business experience, his intellect, and his values are the perfect tools to lead our faculty in shaping the future of management education and continuing the positive trajectory of the school.”
“I’m thrilled to join the Boston University community,” Freeman says. “The School of Management has great momentum. I look forward to doing a lot of listening and learning in the early days as we prepare to further distinguish the school by building on its unique strengths.”
While he says that detailing any immediate to-do list would be premature, he sees his role as “chief advocate.” Freeman intends to dedicate himself to building strong relationships: with the faculty, the staff, the students, and alumni.
Under Lataif, SMG leapt 15 spots in this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankingsof American business schools, to number 31. It was the largest improvement by any school in the rankings, which reflect academic quality, the mean starting salary/bonus of graduates and their employment rates, the quality of entering students, and reviews by peers and recruiters. SMG was among the five highest-rated business schools in New England, and in that group, it had the highest percentage of graduates placed in jobs within three months.
During Freeman’s four-decade-long career, the profession and practice of business has been transformed by new regulations, new investment vehicles, powerful new technology, and globalization. “I bring to the school an open mind and a keen interest in driving innovation in what we teach and how we teach, how our students engage in learning, and in scholarship. I hope to bring the ability to anticipate and lead innovative changes in conjunction with the faculty and students, who in the end likely know as much or more than the rest of us about technology.”
With business scandals dominating the news, Freeman says, business education “is at a crossroads. It’s not just about developing core quantitative and analytical skills. It’s about developing strong leaders who know how to effectively interact with each other around the world, treat each other with respect, and work in a team environment, having at the core a very strong value system.”
“I also see the opportunity and the need for us to be focused very heavily on procuring the resources that will assure that SMG has the talent, technology, and ethical standards that place it among the best business schools globally,” says Freeman. His efforts will build on the work of Lataif, who garnered significant resources for the school in the form of increased annual fund and capital giving and the establishment of a number of endowed professorships.
When Freeman took over the predecessor company to Quest Diagnostics in 1995, the business was part of Corning, Inc. At that time, the lab testing industry faced allegations that it had overbilled Medicare by charging for unnecessary tests. At the beginning of 1997, Corning spun off the business to its shareholders, and it took the name Quest Diagnostics.
Freeman, who had worked at Corning his whole career, led a dramatic transformation of Quest Diagnostics from an embattled company facing massive challenges on multiple fronts into the leading provider of diagnostic testing in the world. “The secrets of success,” he says, “involved relentlessly focusing on creating a strong company culture grounded in core values and satisfying the needs of employees and customers, driving organic growth through the development of an industry-leading esoteric testing capability, investing in continuous improvement in operations, and strategic acquisitions that dramatically increased the company’s market reach.”
The bottom line: under Freeman’s leadership the market capitalization of Quest Diagnostics increased from $350 million at the time of the spin-off to $9 billion-plus when he handed over the reins to his successor as CEO in 2004.
At KKR, which he joined in 2005, Freeman serves on the Portfolio Management Committee, which oversees all of the firm’s private equity investments around the world. He is a director of hospital operator HCA, Inc., medical device makerAccellent, Inc., and building products manufacturer Masonite Corp. After taking over as SMG dean, Freeman will continue his affiliation with KKR as a senior advisor.
Freeman earned an M.B.A with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1976. His nonbusiness passions are spending time with his family (married 38 years, he has two grown children and two young grandchildren), music (especially playing the piano), reading, watching sports, and keeping fit. He once considered a keyboardist’s career, but says he “discovered quickly that if I wanted to eat, I would need to do something other than performing music.”
What a video where Kenneth Freeman talks about building on SMG’s established strengths:http://www.bu.edu/today/node/11159
Video by Devin Hahn. Photo (above) by Kalman Zabarsky. Article by Rich Barlow, who may be reached at barlowr@bu.edu. Devin Hahn may be reached at dhahn@bu.edu.
First Year MBA’s Guatemala Trip
We will have several student bloggers checking in this summer about their internships, summer travel plans, why they chose BU, transitioning to Boston and to simply share with you their thoughts and experiences! While they get settled, we thought we'd share a video and some pictures from the Cohort D trip to Guatemala.
35 First Year MBA students left after classes ended for the Spring semester and headed to Primeros Pasos Medical Clinic located in the Palajunoj Valley of Guatemala. These students worked as volunteers, donating their time and their newly acquired MBA skills to help make a difference for this organization. This type of service isn't new to BU, in fact it mirrors Link Day which you can learn about here.
One of our students will be blogging about the trip and all the amazing experiences they had, but in the meantime please enjoy this video of highlights/fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUKbDBmPb2I
Pursuing a Legacy
I gave my last presentation of the school year on Tuesday, for our team project this semester. It was actually a really fun project, studying Palm, which has a lot going on right now. My team this semester was a fabulous, laid back but still hardworking group. It was really easy to work with them. That was probably helped by having a semester under our belts and learning great lessons from our teams in the first semester. (Or they might just be fabulous…) And, I think the presentation went reasonably well. Actually, all the presentations were really good, and it was neat to see how far our first year class has come in a year. A lot has been accomplished and it went by really fast. It is kind of surreal. There are still two exams and an individual paper left, but little by little the semester is coming to a close.
We are also starting to make plans for next year already and getting excited about the incoming class of students. The 2012 class is mostly formed. Conversations are already buzzing on Facebook, and get togethers for admitted students are being planned all over the world. It has been great to see many of the new faces at the Open Houses, and the enthusiasm everyone has. I think the first years will really bring a lot to the program, and boy have we got plans for them. With all the lessons we have learned this year, I think many of the soon to be second years are really interested in finding ways to help incoming students and make their business school experience even better.
While we are making plans for next year, the second years are in the midst of “disorientation,” wrapping up classes, participating in their last Thirsty Thursday, singing at the last kareoke night, nailing down jobs, and getting in the facetime they can with all of their friends. I have had a chance to see some of the activities for the outgoing second years this year, including a celebration luncheon where professors and staff reminded students of the amazing contributions they made to the program and one another. It will be a hard act to follow. The outgoing second years really left an inspiring legacy and they will be sorely missed. I remember the first couple of weeks I was at school, and all the advice and encouragement that the second years gave me. Their words and comraderie were really helpful.
And though there is hardly any time to think about it with finals coming up, but here and there are momentary thoughts, questions, and reflections on the year. “Halfway through…” “Have I done what I wanted to?” “What’s left?” “What do I want to make sure I still do?” “How can I leave a legacy too?” Hopefully, the summer will give some time to regroup and we will all hit the ground running in Fall. At any rate, we will give it our best shot. Thank-you to the outgoing second years for setting the bar so high. I’m sure we will appreciate the challenge.
[Posted by Alicia May, MS·MBA in General Management, Class of 2011]
I figured after first semester I could take on anything, so I decided that in addition to overloading on coursework that I would also train for the Boston Marathon. Training for a marathon is like a part time job, so on top of school priorities, team meetings and managing to have a little fun, 2nd semester has been very busy. For those of you who aren't from Boston, "Marathon Monday" is Patriots Day and all the surrounding schools have the day off. The marathon course runs right past several colleges: Wellesley at mile 13, Boston College at mile 20, and Boston University at mile 24. I may be a little bias, but comparing all the cheering sections, Boston University had an awesome turn out this year! As I approached Kenmore Square, I was looking for all my classmates that came to cheer me on and felt so lucky because I REALLY needed it at that point! I finished the marathon and celebrated with my friends and family. Now that the marathon is over and classes are winding down I am going to have to find another hobby to occupy my time....it looks like it might be sailing lessons over the summer. Gosh, I love this city.