Top 10 Business Schools

As a marketing professor, I am always keeping my eyes open for examples of strong marketing. At the same time, I try to think of ways to help my marketing degree students experience these examples for themselves rather than having me just tell them about it.

For the last several years, I’ve kept track of TOMS Shoes. Actually, one of my students first shared the story of this company with me. He was one of those students who cared both about business and doing good. His team did a presentation about TOMS’ dual focus of making a profit and giving back to the community. In case you don’t know TOMS story, here’s the elevator pitch: With every shoe you purchase, TOMS gives one to a child in need. As part of his Amazing Race experience, Blake Mycoskie (TOMS’ founder) discovered a lot of children without shoes. He set up his company to help change that.

There are many things from a marketing perspective that TOMS does right:

• Product – the basic shoe is comfortable and interesting. They constantly change up the designs to keep customer interest. They work with designers to add extra cachet. They even have seasonal offerings. But, the basic shoe is great. Product also includes packaging, which again is a hit for TOMS. Check out the photo below from Savannah Smiled’s Tumblr(http://savannahsmiled.tumblr.com/). The box reminds you of the cause and TOMS story. Inside, there’s a shoe bag, a logo sticker and a letter from Blake.

 

• Price – these are definitely not the cheapest shoes around. But, that’s not really the point is it? Instead, the price point is acceptable (basic shoes are $44 - $58) especially when you realize that you are really buying two pairs – one for you and one for another. TOMS does little discounting; the most frequent is free shipping.

 

• Place – TOMS is primarily sold in their own online store. But, they can also be found online at Amazon and in select bricks & mortar stores including Nordstrom’s and independent specialty boutiques.

 

• Promotion – this is where TOMS excels. Great website. Having received TOMS emails for about 2 years, great email marketing strategy. TOMS also does all of the social media – twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This year, they’ve direct mailed one catalog (which I know got my mom to buy another pair after seeing all her choices). And, the blog is very engaging. TOMS doesn’t rank in organic search for shoes, but that’s a highly competitive category. The cause marketing initiative “One Day Without Shoes" is where TOMS’ efforts are unparalleled. One April Tuesday every year, One Day Without Shoes asks people all over the world to take off their shoes to see what those without experience every day. This initiative has its own website, highly linked to TOMS of course. The website itself has a lot to offer – a robust story; an event locator and ability to register your own event; a national challenge to get organizations to register their members with a Blake party for the winner; downloadable event materials including rally signs, street stencils, DIY shirts, pocket cards, stickers, banners, displays and toolkits; an iPhone event locator app; videos; a photowall; even a way to do it virtually via Sims and all of the social sharing integrations you could want.

 

So, this year I asked my undergraduates to participate in this event for extra credit. Although they thought it was a way to earn bonus points, I hoped they would experience the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Lucky for me, my class meets on Tuesday so they could come to class without their shoes. Naturally, I too went without shoes for the day – yep, those blue toenails are mine.

 

 

Afterwards, they have to reflect on the day and share their thoughts with me. Their reflections covered a couple of key themes:

1. You become a champion of a cause and play a key role informing others:

“Fortunately, right before my M450, while walking through the hallway between the library and the business building, a student stopped me and thanked me for participating, claiming she did not have the courage to do so. It made me feel amazing. It’s funny how one person can make that big of a difference.”

 “Also, I realized that very few people are aware of this issue. With many people unaware of TOMS or the event, I found enjoyment in explaining my slightly kooky appearance in the middle of the library. I felt like I was an insider with great information about a good movement/cause.”

“I love being able to explain to people why I am walking around looking like a crazy person, it brings a spirit of humility upon me.”

“One thing that I learned during my experience of “One Day Without Shoes” was how much awareness that simply one person can make by going barefoot. I never believed it until I did it on April 10. More and more people kept on asking me about why I wasn’t wearing shoes and just like the website had mentioned raising awareness can be achieved by drawing attention to certain things.”

“It was cool how people would ask you the reasoning behind being barefoot, because I was able to spread the word about one day without shoes.”

2. Without shoes, you spend more of the day looking down to try and protect your feet:

“Before this experience, I didn’t realize how much I took shoes for granted. Every step I took was calculated and not one went without me looking down to see the next. I think it was a good experience to essentially walk a mile in someone else’s shoes... Only walking that mile barefoot. When I was walking barefoot outside, it was the thing on the top of my mind. Whereas when I have shoes on, I think about what I’m about to do next, what I have to do later that day, etc. I never think about the next step I’m going to take.”

“Today, I was without shoes. I spent a great deal of my time looking down in order to make sure I didn't step on anything sharp or jagged. Walking without shoes also made me walk a little slower than normal.”

3. Without shoes, your feet get dirty and they hurt:

“At times it was painful and agonizing to think about how dirty my feet were getting.”

“At the end of the day, my feet hurt in spots that don’t usually hurt!”

“My feet became very dirty and they were starting to ache after awhile.  I also realized that you use different muscles in your feet when you walk without shoes.”

4. We take our shoes for granted, worrying about which ones to buy rather than being glad we have them

“Sometimes I spend so much time shopping for the 'perfect' shoe when in all actuality I should be grateful to have shoes period. It is important at times to step back and be thankful for the basic needs of life.”

“We as Americans don’t realize how good we have it in our country. We take for granted the fact that the many people in the world do not have one pair of shoes while we all tend to have several pairs of shoes for different occasions.”

 

Dear TOMS Shoes –

Kelley School of Business Indianapolis undergraduate marketing students and I want to thank you for giving us an opportunity to undertake a worthy experiential education activity. 

We vow to go “One Day Without Shoes” again next year!

(FYI – in case you didn’t know, IUPUI won The Challenge in 2011 and Blake will be visiting our campus on April 30, 2012 to celebrate our efforts and share his story)

I expected to use the skills I've acquired through four years of study in a new job. I hadn't expected these very skills to be so critical in the application process.

Three months ago, I applied for a job with Robert Bosch, LLC, the U.S. subsidiary of the German manufacturing giant. I first discovered the job on the Kelley Careers website, an incredible resource of job, internship, and interview postings open to all Kelley students. The job, very nearly my dream job, is a 24-month rotational finance development program called the Professional Development Program. Through four six-month rotations, the position allows the trainee to experience different functional roles in finance (cost accounting, product forecasting, internal auditing, etc.) while working in different regions and with different teams. I saw the job as an amazing opportunity to gain exposure to different functional roles before finding the optimal fit as well as a chance to see more of the country. With the resume and cover letter I'd created with help from the Career Placement office, I applied for the position. Like applying to a "reach" school, I had hope but little confidence.

A few weeks later, I was contacted by Bosch to set up an initial telephone interview. In addition to standard background questions, the interview was primarily behavioral-based. For those unfamiliar with the concept, behavioral-based interviewing seeks to understand the applicant by asking for examples from work and school of specific events and qualities. I had thought Kelley's insistence on practicing and role-playing answers to behavioral-based questions to be a tad excessive. I'm very glad that I was wrong. I answered maybe a half-dozen questions constructed as: "Tell me about a time that you did [something]" or "Tell me about a time you demonstrated [a quality]." The time spent in class practicing answers to questions very similar to this was immeasurably valuable.  

A few days later, I was invited to complete the next phase of the interview process: a finance case study. This is truly where I appreciated my education at Kelley Indianapolis. In I-Core, the integrative core classes when students take Finance, Operations, and Marketing together, I completed what seemed, at the time, to be an endless series of financial case studies. I lived and breathed in Excel for months, and I resented it. Now, serving as the gatekeeper to my dream job, I found myself staring down a case very similar to those my team and I had completed in the introductory financial management class. Scenario testing and cash flow analysis, concepts I had never even heard of prior to college, were the basis of my deliverable. So much of what we do in higher-level courses at Kelley is case-based. Not only does it allow us to learn from the real world, the skills we gain are incredibly applicable.

I met with my financial management professor and shared what I'd prepared. He made suggestions and provided the kind of mentorship and faculty insights that I've come to value from my Kelley instructors. Then, I submitted the case and waited.

A few weeks later, I received word that I'd made it to the final round. Bosch would be flying me out to Farmington Hills, Michigan to interview and present my case. The PowerPoint presentation skills I'd developed in many of my Kelley classes would be a major factor in whether I was able to attain the job I so dearly wanted.

The flexibility of my professors was invaluable in making preparations to fly to Michigan. Falling as it did the week before exams, the interview conflicted with a number of assignments and presentations in my courses. With enough notice and flexibility, however, all of my instructors were willing to work with me to ensure that I could both complete my assignments and make it to Michigan. Without their support, I would never have been able to get the job.

My time in Farmington Hills is nearly a blur. I was impressed by the quality of the other applicants, both undergraduates and MBA candidates, but working with the bright and talented students at Kelley had prepared me and I did not feel overly intimidated. A series of interviews preceded the presentation of my case study. I believe it was my case study presentation which truly set me apart. Rather than focusing strictly on academic concerns, finance education at Kelley mixes theory and practical application. My ability to focus on pragmatic concerns was appealing to the working professionals evaluating my work.

The final aspect of the interview process was a smaller case study, but built as a group assignment. Two other candidates and I had twenty-five minutes to read and present a mini-case.  Five or six company representatives, in HR, finance, and other disciplines, watched and evaluated both how we worked together and what we ultimately presented. I've heard students complain that too many classes at Kelley Indianapolis involve group work. As I sat down with two strangers to read and present the finance case, I silently thanked every single one of my past group members for the experiences I'd had.

I returned to Indianapolis excited and hopeful, but set thoughts of Bosch aside as I entered final exams. A week later, I received the call. I'd gotten the job.

It's so easy to take for granted everything we learn through our years at Kelley Indianapolis. Attending one of the top 10 business schools is a privilege, but it's more than a sense of honor and accomplishment. The education I've received at Kelly has prepared me in ways I never realized for what I hope and expect to be a bright and exciting future.

I read a fascinating article in the Financial Times today (on.ft.com/n1vjS8) about Ted Weschler, a hedge fund manager who spent $5 million in charity auctions to secure lunch with Warren Buffet.  On Monday, Berkshire Hathaway announced that Mr. Weschler will be brought into the company next year in a management role.  More impressively, Mr. Weschler will be one of the two or three people who will manage the firm's more than $66 billion equity and debt portfolio after Mr. Buffett, who is now over 80, leaves the company.

$5 million for lunch seems like an extraordinary amount of money for lunch.  Heck, it IS an extraordinary amount of money for lunch...but compared with the earnings potential of a Berkshire Hathaway executive, it's a drop in the diamond-studded platinum bucket.

What, one might ask, does any of this have to do with us -- members of the Kelley community who likely don't have $5 million, or a track record of managing billions of dollars in assets, to bring to a lunch with the world's most famous investor?

Whether it's a $5 million lunch or a five minute conversation at "Meet the Recruiter," opportunities for networking rely on the same principles: be prepared, be enthusiastic, and, when opportunities don't present themselves, make them.

Be prepared.  Have your "elevator pitch" ready.  If you meet someone at a campus networking event who works in the industry you want to enter, what are you going to say? If you had five minutes with a recruiter for your dream job, what would you tell her?  As one of the top 10 business schools, Kelley provides regular opportunities to interact with industry.  You could meet the CEO of a local company at the annual golf scramble; don't let that be the first time you've thought about what to say.

Be enthusiastic.  You are your greatest champion.  You don't have to be a raging narcissist to enjoy talking about yourself.  Focus on the things that excite you.  Networking gives you the opportunity to speak to someone in a related field about your passions.  That's pretty amazing, so enjoy it.

Make opportunities where you need them.  The Kelley community is vast and represents many nations, states, industries, sectors, companies, and positions.  If no formal networking event matches your interests, leverage the reach of the Kelley brand.  Speak to your professors about their colleagues, their past work experience, and their contacts.  Kelley places many students each semester in undergraduate business internships; has someone on campus done an internship at a company where you'd like to meet someone? Make that connection, and you can forge your own contacts with the organization.   Our faculty have worked in a myriad of industries and positions; has a lecturer worked at the firm you'd like to join?  Make an appointment to have an informational interview with them. 

Every day at Kelley, we meet people - recruiters, speakers, visiting lecturers, fellow students, and more.  Every meeting is an opportunity to build our brand, to prostleytize, to lay the foundation for future reward (personal, professional, financial, etc.).  Whether you're pursuing an undergraduate finance degree or a supply chain MBA, opportunities to network are everywhere on campus.

Even without a million dollar lunch.

Accounting Meet the Recruiter is always an important event for those pursuing an accounting degree or even finance degree.  A flock of top accounting firms and some corporations in the Indiana area come to this event looking for top students.  I was very fortunate to have only gone to this event once looking for a "career" my sophomore year, and hopefully, it will be the only time I have to.  

As you may know if you follow my blog even sporadically, I interned with Ernst and Young, a "Big 4" accounting firm, last summer and will be interning with them again Spring 2012.  I worked hard to establish a great relationship with the firm and developed some pretty intense firm loyalty, and when I offered to help at Meet the Recruiter, I was thinking I would help set up and hand out swag (or as Michael Scott from The Office say "Stuff We All Get").  It turned out that I did do those things, but also, I was going to speak to potential recruits and help recruit!  

I wasn't nervous in the sense that I wasn't comfortable answering questions people had.  I can spit out Ernst & Young facts just as good as any employee.  I was nervous about talking to fellow classmates who were looking to be part of the firm.  It's a fine line of a) (s)he is a friend, b) s(he) is a solid student, and c) I didn't want to seem biased.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was definitely awkward sometimes.  The most awkward/weird position I was in was when I talked to people in the Kelley MBA program or MSA program or people who have already graduated and were working on their CPA already.  They would ask about me, and I would respond with something like, "Oh, ... I'm actually only a third year undergraduate student."

Being on the other side created immense gratitude from within me and appreciation for my luck thus far.  I am sure that all my colleagues here at Kelley Indianapolis will find something no matter what though - considering we are one of the top 10 business schools.    

 Tuesday was Kelley's Accounting Meet the Recruiter event in the Campus Center.  As the offical kick-off of the recruiting season, Meet the Recruiter brings employers and students together in an informal, information-oriented event.  For students pursuing an accounting degree, Meet the Recruiter is the best opportunity to make initial contact with accounting firms and other interested companies.  

More than just making contact with recruiters, though, Meet the Recruiter brings Kelley alumni back campus with their employers.  It was a thrill to see friends from the past few years come share their experience and enthusiasm with current accounting students.

One of the great advantages of attending one of the top 10 business schools is the strong connections Kelley enjoys with employers.  Not only does the Kelley name on our resumes go a long way in opening doors, it actually attacts employers to us.  The Meet the Recruiter event is a wonderful opportunity to begin "building our brand" and preparing for the first round of interviews.

As I walked into the Campus Center this afternoon, I realized how lucky I was as a Kelley student to have the full support of the Career Placement Office.  They had prepared me in so many ways for this event and for the job search process.  Undergraduate business internships helped flesh out my resume and make me a more attractive candidate.  Resume and cover letter workshops, mock interviews, and degree-specific information sessions have all helped me feel confident as I rode the escalator up to the waiting recruiters.

It is so easy to take for granted all the small things that make Kelley more than just an accredited business school.  My experience today helped remind me to be thankful, not just for the education I've received in the classroom, but all the other support that Kelley provides to its students every day.

To my fellow students pursuing an accounting degree: do not miss the Meet the Recruiter event.  It truly is the very best start to what promises to be an exciting and challenging season.

I know that less than 12 hours ago I wrote about the beginning of this semester, but being the obsessive planner that I am, I took a gander at my 4 year plan.  And holy cow!! The end is so near, and it is kind of scary.

All that I have left are 4 accounting classes, 4 finance classes, 3 general business classes, 1 economics class, and 1 psychology class totaling 37 credit hours, and I will completed my accounting, finance, and international studies majors and economics and psychology minors.

I honestly cannot believe it.  I felt as though it was just yesterday I started at this accredited business school - one of the top 10 business schools.  It's all flew by, and just from reading my past blogs, I can tell how I've changed and grown.  Also, I can tell why it's gone by so fast.  It's been a lot of fun and still challenging.

It just hit me once I quantified how much I have left.  I know I don't graduate until May 2013, but if the next two years go as fast as the past two years have gone, it won't be too much longer until I write another blog about how fast the past four years have gone.

I'm sitting here wondering if anyone else has had this eye-opening/nerve-wrecking/relieving/exciting/any-other-emotion-possible realization.  Quantify how much time you have left.  How much is it?  Now how do you feel?

I got home tonight, took a look at the homework and studying staring me down, and decided that the most effective use of the 10 minutes I have before I fall asleep after sitting down would be to finish out the lessons that I have learned during my time here as a student of the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI...

 

I can still pull all nighters...and live to tell about them.

 

Cash is king...but the market will punish you for hoarding it.

 

There is always "three legs to a stool" - industry, company and competition...forget one, you fall over (or do really bad on the Capsim Challenge).

 

A BATNA does not involve a birdie and little paddles.

 

Don't ever lick envelopes after eating Goldfish crackers...especially envelopes containing resumes.

 

It is scary when Microsoft Word asks "Do you want to save your changes?" when you didn't make any...what does it want to save?

 

One Red Bull will give you wings...two will make them flap...combining Red Bull with pixies sticks will send you into orbit.

 

What goes up must come down (the aftermath of pixie sticks with a Red Bull chaser...brutal).

 

I can read and retain the equivalent to a ¼ of War in Peace in one week...that's got to come in handy sometime.

 

It is possible to study yourself stupid.

 

I can out run bees...handy when walking (or sprinting) through the North Garage in the Spring.

 

There's a reason backpacks have two arm straps.

 

I really do have a thinking cap.

 

"Springitis" is the condition experienced by most students during Spring semester when it starts getting warm...it is generally cured with the end of the semester.

 

During one's senior year, "Springitis" escalates into what is known as "Senioritis," which is further aggravated by the receipt of one's cap and gown...the only cure is a diploma.

 

If you make an appointment...keep it - at all costs...for real.

 

Accounting will NEVER go away...accountants - you have job security because of people like me.

 

Have I earned my super stretchy lap top cover? I'm not sure. What I do know is that I have it...forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I was honored with an invitation to "Business Outlook 2010" at the Columbia Club hosted by the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association.  This was my first visit to the Columbia Club.  I used to always wonder what it was like inside and if there really is a secret room in the basement where members get to control the weather in order to speculate on commodities prices.  

Tuesday evening, I had the privilege of attending a great event sponsored by Delta Sigma Pi.  The event celebrated the hard work and encouragement of members.  It also was the fulfillment of many years of work to establish a scholarship for students attending the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. 

The DSP members work Colt events to raise funds for their Kappa Sigma Chapter.  Extra funds from these events were placed in a fund to establish a scholarship with the IU Foundation.  The idea of a scholarship started in 2000 and Tuesday evening the Chapter presented a check for $10,000 to the IU Foundation. 

The dedication and spirit of giving back to the community demonstrates the awesome leadership of the Delta Sigma Pi Kappa Sigma Chapter.  I believe they are the first Delta Sigma Pi Chapter to establish such a scholarship for their school. 

I want to thank the chapter for their leadership, vision, and persistence in pursuing such a goal.  They are truly an inspiration to all of us. 

The Chapter was also included in a special segment on Fox 59 news, Hoosiers Give Back.  See the link below.

http://www.fox59.com/pages/video/?clipId=3239503&topVideoCatNo=97185&c=&autoStart=true&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=