Top MBA students

Assignment: Kelley

Friday, May 18, 2012 by Sally Winter

I always knew that I wanted to write news stories. I started a stapled-together newspaper in second grade. I edited my high school newspaper and anchored our college news show, IU News Forum. What I’ve learned after nearly a decade as a television news reporter is that the subjects in my stories mean more to me than having my name on the byline.

I joined the IU Kelley Indianapolis family in late March as the new Assistant Director of Communications and Media Relations. As an alum of IU Bloomington’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism, I’m thrilled to make my transition from journalist to communications writer within the IUPUI family. My husband, Seth, is Kelley alum, so I know first-hand how valuable that name recognition is once you graduate.

People always ask me how I could leave television news. “It must be so exciting,” they say. And the world of broadcast news does have its merits: I interviewed then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, Mrs. Obama and then-Vice Presidential hopeful Joe Biden. I was granted access to fascinating factories and thrilling airplane rides, plus I met everyday people who made a difference. I loved covering news on university campuses such as Kent State, Youngstown State and Northern Michigan Universities. But I felt like something was missing. I’d spend a day on a story (sometimes a very boring one!), and then move on. It was something different every day, but it only scratched the surface of each topic. I wanted to work more in-depth on something I cared about; something on which I could have a biased opinion for once.

That’s why the communications job here at Kelley Indianapolis is perfect. It gives me a chance to meet and promote some of the most inspiring, accomplished students I’ve ever known, while also returning home to Indiana. I can continue to fulfill my love of writing stories while also using my years of reporting experience to assist the media in covering what’s happening here. There’s plenty of room at the table for schools to be publicly recognized; Kelley deserves its place at the top.

I know that a Kelley degree is valuable and noteworthy. I understand how much weight it carries on my husband’s resume and vicariously I know how it feels for a student to work hard and finally complete I-Core! Just listening to the accomplishments by Kelley students at the Scholarships and Awards Breakfast last month impressed and motivated me to help tell the stories of the young people here who achieve so much. I’m inspired by two recent stories: Kelley grad Assoumaou Mayaki, who plans to do work in microfinance development for struggling women in Niger, and Evening MBA graduate Manoj Rana, who survived a deadly house fire with 95 percent burns to his body, and went on to earn his degree. These are stories I love to tell.

There is no shortage of impressive and newsworthy students, faculty and staff here at Kelley Indianapolis. I look forward to meeting you all and telling your stories. Please contact me at spwinter@iupui.edu with anything interesting you notice at Kelley.

The Creative Process

Friday, February 10, 2012 by Kyle Anderson

Edward De Bono is a business management consultant whose primary focus is in fostering creativity in businesses and indivduals. To anyone interested in creative thinking (and everyone should be), I would highly recommend both "Lateral Thinking" and "Six Thinking Hats" as seminal works on purposefully creative thinking.

De Bono would appreciate the transformation going on in the Kelley Evening MBA program. In order to foster creativity, one of the techniques that he suggests is to examine a process, but purposefully omit a key part of it. That is, as a thought experiment, he would we look at the educational process and ask, "How could we have college courses without textbooks?" Then you would spend time coming up with alternative ways to accomplish the educational mission without something that is considered central to the current process. This creative pursuit may lead to a better and more creative way of teaching.

While we are not abolishing textbooks, the MBA program has begun a transformation of its core classes by reducing the number of classroom hours in half. A 1.5 credit hour course meets only 4 nights over an 8 week period. As a professor of these courses, I have had to make some major adjustments to how I teach.

For the last six months, I have asked myself, "Why do I teach in this way?" and "Why do students need to be in the same room with me to learn this material?" This self-reflection and analysis has led to an adjustment in every part of the curriculum of my courses. I now rely on videos, podcasts, and exercises to engage my students much more strongly outside of class. While the number of hours we meet has decreased, the content and learning have remained strong.

Creativity doesn't just come from sitting around and trying to think up great ideas. Rather, there is a process, and one technique is to restrict what we already do. By restricting one aspect of my class (the number of times we meet), I have been forced to creatively come up with a different way of teaching.

And it is one that I believe will improve the educational experience of our Kelley Indianapolis MBAs. When all of the faculty have gone through this process, we will have dramatically improved the overall curriculum of one of the top part-time MBA programs in the country.

De Bono would have predicted it.

Climb the Smallest Mountain 1000 Times…

Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Kelley Indianapolis

From Kelley Indianapolis' Marc Lane, JD/MBA student

As the turn of the year presents me with new resolutions, career ambitions, and life challenges, I look ahead to the mountainous range of lofty ambitions I’ve set with promise, vigor, and even a bit of reserved apprehension. My journey these first few weeks begins, as past year’s journeys have, seemingly productive and positive, with the freshness of youthful purpose. But, each step towards a mountain presents a new perspective, a closer look; each goal becomes a bit more daunting and the mountain a bit taller. I’ve faced this realization in the past, and have come to know it well. Each year, its passion meets with demoralizing demise where reachable hill tops have become the Himalayan Summit.

While this illustration might seem embellished, I ask you to consider carefully the expectations and goals you’ve set for yourself, your significant others, and those within your reach at work. Personally, I’ve gained much through carefully considering my own abilities and managing expectations. However, I do not wish to quell the human spirit, to tread on the dreams of those passionate enough to challenge the mountains, the lofty goals we dream of achieving. My goal is only to provide an alternative perspective.

In my youth, my career goals often emulated the depiction presented above. Through experience I’ve gained a great appreciation for the value of meeting small goals, and an understanding that lofty ambitions always require a thousand steps in between departure and reaching the summit. Why do we so often overlook the small successes we achieve? These successes are like footholds in the mountainside; they are the foundations upon which we stand to take the next step towards the peak, towards our ultimate ends. Without recognizing and appreciating these small gains and the realization of progress in the midst of various struggles and minor defeats we lose perspective of where we’ve come from. We focus only on the distance between our current position and the lofty goals we’ve set. And, in time the negatives begin to weigh upon us; breaking us down.

Whether your goal is to become a CEO, president, the top sales person on your team, a better husband/wife, a better father/mother, a better friend, or even a better you, this practice remains equally invaluable. Dismantle lofty goals into logical, rational and reachable stepping stones. Develop an understanding of why each step is important, and celebrate the successes of reaching smaller mountain tops. I promise, you’ll come to find the road less daunting and in the end you’ll look back upon your journey with a greater appreciation for what you’ve accomplished.

Recommended reading: The Progress Principle; Leadership and Self-Deception; The Leadership Challenge; Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

DIVE-ing in with the Indy venture community

Monday, January 23, 2012 by Todd Saxton

This is always one of my favorite times in the semester—when the DIVE project teams meet with their ventures to kick off projects. What is DIVE? DIVE is an acronym for the Discovery, Innovation, and Ventures Enterprise. It is made up of students in our Evening MBA program with an interest in venturing in some way —which might include starting their own company, joining a high-growth venture, or working with investors and entrepreneurs as a service provider (e.g., attorney, banking, consulting, etc.). The Evening MBA program of the IU Kelley School also has enterprises in supply chain management (gSCIE) and finance (FIND). The enterprises are key components of our graduate experience. Projects typically run from January through May/June.

As Director of DIVE (though I prefer “DIVE Master”) I accept about 20 folks each year who have gotten through most of the core classes—strategy, accounting, finance, economics, marketing, and operations—and are prepared to lend their expertise and training to a venture. DIVErs get real-world exposure to venture challenges such as funding, market focus, and operations with lean resources. It is a big step from the classroom to the venture world. Through the DIVE experience, these folks learn a lot more about the world of venturing, and if they really want to join that world! Of course, our DIVErs are the best of our top MBA students—which is saying a lot. DIVE is also a key differentiator in our entrepreneurship program.

What do the ventures get out of it? Well, these founders typically have limited managerial “bench strength” and face a variety of barriers to launch and/or growth. Our DIVE students not only have strong training in core functional areas, but also great experience in industry—including current active connections and a network. That is one advantage of the Kelley School locating its Evening MBA program in Indy—great access to the business and venture community and associated network.

We have connected with DeveloperTown this year for a number of DIVE projects. DeveloperTown (DT) is a really cool IT and software development company based in Broad Ripple. By partnering with clients, often young high potential start-ups, DT helps develop a robust technology infrastructure necessary for growth—but takes an equity position so it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. DT also has a unique and really interesting structure. Each Developer has his or her own “house” in DeveloperTown to decorate and call home. When projects require collaboration, the developers can literally roll their houses together. Of course, having our DIVErs work with serial entrepreneurs like Michael Cloran and John Wechsler (partners at DT) is a big bonus.

As usual, we have a great range of projects and ventures to work with this year. We have some pre-revenue true start-ups like:

Musical DNA, who is developing a new approach combining 3D graphics and gaming elements for music education
uFlavor, a customized beverage company
TransitionU, a venture helping students bridge the transition from high school to college successfully
FAST Biotech, taking a revolutionary technology for assessing kidney function real-time to market.

Other projects will involve helping high growth ventures figure out new markets and opportunities—such as Triton Brewing, a craft brewery with strong momentum, and Courseload, a venture working with universities on eTexts to help lower the exorbitant costs of college textbooks and take advantage of enhanced interaction through technology as well.

Rounding out the mix is a social venture in the Dominican Republic called EcoBricks, for which the students will help develop a sustainable business model to transform waste into building materials.

In coming weeks I hope to share more about each of these projects—in the meantime, I love hearing about the cool things going on in our local venture community, and learning more about our DIVErs and how they plan to help these ventures. These companies will do great things, and we hope DIVE can play a part. So DIVErs down—and game on!

Kodak Was a Snapshot in Time

Friday, January 20, 2012 by David Hosick

The news of Kodak going belly up this week came as a surprise and an affirmation.

At the Kelley School, students hear a lot about innovation. Top MBA students are consistently challenged to become the next great business minds, people willing to take educated risks and stand ready to capitalize on the rewards and opportunities they create.

The economist blogger Schumpeter has a great take on Kodak's fate. It really hit home with me as I regularly deal with students and faculty and their visions of the business world. Because Kelley embraces experiential education and is one of the most respected entrepreneurship programs in the nation, it makes complete sense that our programs should be talking about the points Schumpeter is trying to make here.

Shouldn't an industry giant like Kodak have been ahead of the curve and anticipated changing trends in the industry? Kelley certainly has been involved in the dialogue about changes ahead for accredited business schools today.

How can a business that set the standard be so unprepared to embrace change?

It really is a scary concept that such an massive company failed to reverse its fortune even when the future became so apparent in the 2000s.

Certainly tech companies have the highest burden to overcome when it comes to staying ahead of the curve, but the lesson here is really about boundary scanning by industry leaders. True leaders must continually innovate their company and be willing to fail to remain innovative. I have a lot of respect for leaders willing to take on those risks and effectively overcome them--especially in light of Schumpeter's final statement here: "Market dominance is only a snapshot in time."

Carpe Diem Boss!

Case Studies and Group Work

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 by Dave Wohlreich

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.

Retaining Employees for Fun and Profit

Monday, December 5, 2011 by Amanda Cross

Back when I was a student in the Kelley evening MBA program, we learned about the "agency problem" in Economics. Basically, the idea is that if you hire someone to act as your agent (such as hiring someone to manage your business), that that person will shirk their duties unless you align their financial incentives to your goals (such as by giving them bonuses consummate with business performance).

Something has always bothered me about the agency problem. While I am totally on board with aligning incentives, I don't like how it implies that the only thing you need to do is offer profit-sharing and all your employees will be productive and loyal.

In fact, it turns out that even giving people a whole truckload of money doesn't necessarily make them happy working for you. In the blog post, 5 ways to keep your rockstar employees happy, which appears on gigaom.com, Daniel Debow sites an employee survey done at Google about what employees valued most about their jobs. Despite the famed money and perks available at that company, it was instead “even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers” that got the top spot.

It's expensive to replace good people, so it is incumbent upon businesses to keep the talent they have. The fact that the employees are more likely to stay when they're feeling cared-about and looked-out-for is no surprise to me. It seems to me that the course of action that involves caring about people and trying to help them be fulfilled is always one that leads to long-term business success.

If you're wondering what the 5 ways were, here's the summary:

Create a culture of education
People like to feel like they're spending their days becoming smarter, more enriched humans.
Provide regular, consistent feedback
Despite what it might seem like, your employees almost certainly aren't intentionally screwing up. Be humane, specific, and immediate in your feedback and you'll make your people feel like you value them.
Set time aside for weekly 1:1 meetings
Actions speak louder than words, and taking the time demonstrates that your people are worth your time.
Manage the grunt work properly
Even star performers know they're going to have to do some boring tasks sometimes, but you have to take it upon yourself to help them see why the grunt work is important and not lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.
Publicly acknowledge good work
A survey in McKinsey Quarterly indicates that this is the single most important incentive for motivating employees.

Check out the whole article properly on Gigaom.

Networking without $5mm

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 by Dave Wohlreich

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: The Other Side for Ernst & Young

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 by Daisy Pham

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.

Business Students: Are you engaged with Twitter yet?

Thursday, August 11, 2011 by Kim Saxton

So many of us today are experimenting with the various social media networks – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and now Google+. As any quantitative marketer would, I too have been experimenting. Like many others, I’ve found that each network has its own purposes and benefits. Likewise, each network has its own culture. For me, the hard one to wrap my hands around was Twitter. 140-characters? Seems like either more than I want to say or not enough. After watching Twitter feeds for a few weeks, I was sure I should do it but didn’t know where to start. So, I created my profile. And, that was it…for 4 months. I still couldn’t quite figure out where to start. So, I want to say a quick thanks to local marketing consultant Doug Karr at Marketing Tech Blog for this “How to Twitter Infographic”.

Over time, I kind of figured out a lot of this. But, if someone had handed me this overview at the beginning I probably would have gotten a lot more out of Twitter sooner. I still can’t say I’m deeply entrenched in Twitter. There are only so many hours in every day. But, I love watching the feeds on my smartphone. Even better, I can see what others are thinking and talking about. It gives a whole new meaning to experiential education.

So, how about you? My bet is that our undergrad and top MBA students do. Are you present on Twitter? Are you actively engaged? What do you get out of it?

Primer on the United States' financial situation

Thursday, July 28, 2011 by Amanda Cross

Economics is notoriously difficult to understand, even for top MBA students, and that, combined with a general public malaise when it comes to gaining a deep understanding of the issues facing our country, makes it difficult for average citizens to thoughtfully converse about the financial crisis that America is in right now.

But it's essential that we have an informed and engaged citizenship if we are to make progress. This video summarizes a report created by Mary Meeker, a partner a KPCB and former financial analyst at Morgan Stanley. It's a lengthy video, but provides a solid primer of the financial situation and outlook so that regular citizens can participate in the discussion in an informed way.

I think the video does a good job of defining the budget deficit and the history leading up to the situation we are in today. I'm a little concerned that the uninitiated might hear "cutting the deficit" to mean "cutting the services offered," since that is one of the two options for cutting the deficit and it is the one that uses the word "cut."

Like many Americans, I get nervous about the idea of cutting the services provided. After all, there are a lot of people who are depending on entitlements to get by right now. When the video talks about citizens "making sacrifices" so that we can get past our financial woes as a country, it's easy to interpret that as meaning "the most needy will just have to do without."

But I think that how we ought to read it is that families and communities will come together to fill in the gaps left by the cut to entitlements, since they just aren't working. It wasn't a bad idea to try having the government run these programs: theoretically the government should have been able to realize huge economies of scale.

The large entitlement programs have failed in another way as well: by taking the responsibility off of individuals to help those in their families and communities, they made it easier for people to separate themselves from the people in need. Distance like that makes it harder to identify with those less fortunate and realize that it could happen to you.

Every problem is an opportunity. Perhaps overcoming this economic crisis will do more than just avoid pinging the US's credit rating. This can be an opportunity to be a stronger, more compassionate society, if we choose to take it.

What does “Average” really mean?

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 by Kim Saxton

A common problem with quantitative marketing is squeezing the insights out of your data. To make this easier, most market researchers have a few favorite statistics they look at – averages and top-box % ( you know, % excellent or very good…). But, easier doesn’t always equal better. Let’s look at some examples.

I was reminded about the importance of knowing the distribution of your data recently from the Wall Street Journal article titled, “When Median Doesn’t Mean What it Seems.” It seems some researchers are trying to find a new test for Alzheimer’s - quite a worthy cause. This test includes a brain scan of a radioactive substance to show amyloid buildup which doctors’ subjectively assess on a 0 to 4 scale. In submitting their results to the FDA, the researchers used the median to show that the scans predicted Alzheimer’s. However, it turns out that the range for most scans being evaluated was 0 to 4. So, while the median was diagnostic, in fact the same scan could be interpreted in many different ways. It’s great to be able detect Alzheimer’s, but some people are worried about false positives – telling people they have Alzheimer’s when they don’t. And, rightly so.

I saw how disastrous averages can be when I was a marketer at a major pharmaceutical firm. Pharmaceutical sales are dependent on the use of a salesforce to visit doctors and share information about their brands. At the time, we had research that suggested the average (in this case, it was the mean) sales rep visit with a doctor lasted 5 minutes. So, marketing developed 5-minute messages (imagine a 5-minute TV ad using a brochure) for every brand. Then, we did research by standing in doctors’ offices and timing all sales rep visits. It turns out that about 80% of visits lasted 2 minutes or less, a few were 5 minutes and the rest lasted over 15 minutes. So, the mean was 5 minutes. But, very very few visits actually lasted 5 minutes. Instead, we should have had a 2-minute and a 15-minute message.

Finally, in every class every semester us professors have our students fill out teaching evaluations. Afterwards, we get an exciting report that shows how many people gave us each rating, the mean rating and the median. Generally, I find the median tells the most positive story. So, I like to report that number to my bosses. But, the most insightful way I’ve used this info was to sort the scanned sheets into 2 piles – those that rated me low across most questions vs. those that rated me highly. Then, I tried to figure out which specific questions were different between the two groups. I discovered that the low raters really rated me low on the fairness of my grading. This analysis is like a scatter plot – put ratings of enthusiasm on the x-axis and grade fairness on the y-axis. Suddenly, the correlation between the two variables leaps right out. My interpretation – they are working hard and feel they aren’t getting credit for their effort. This grade disappointment made them rate me as not a good instructor. It caused me to change the activities that were graded so they better reflected work volume and topics that should be mastered in the course. But more importantly, I focused on being more transparent about how activities would be graded. Next semester, the # of students using the bottom ratings dropped to zero and my overall means went up.

So while averages are easy to use, they under-represent the interesting ideas in the data. A quantitative marketer needs to make sure they understand the real distribution of their data by exploring frequency %, median, mean, and even scatter plots of two variables. Every spring, I get super excited because I get to teach a couple of marketing MBA electives where I help our top MBA students figure out how to squeeze as many insights as possible from data. They are so creative that they frequently find patterns I didn’t even think about looking for! So, I get to learn something new too.

Thoughts upon returning from Russia

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Sheryl Hugill

I could use this blog entry to write about all of the sights we saw in Russia, or about the business meetings that we attended, and I might do that soon too. But honestly, the entire experience of the trip had such an impact on me as a person that I'd like to talk about that first. It had an effect on me emotionally, personally, and professionally, and there are quite a few thoughts swirling around in my head about that now upon returning. One big reason I took the Emerging Economies: Russia class is because I love traveling and learning about and experiencing other cultures, and I saw this as one of the few opportunities I might have to learn about and visit Russia in this capacity. And now, especially after taking the trip and having that experience, I find it disappointing that more MBA students in our program weren't willing to do the same. Yes, it's a lot of money. But the trip and class as a whole really costs no more than a normal part-time MBA semester of credit hours here at Kelley. So, even if you have to take only this class one semester in order to pay for it, do it! It is well worth the expense many times over. And plus, there are also other ways to pay for it. Kelley offered a partial scholarship for it. I know that one of the other students that went used his work bonus to help pay for it, and I did that as well. But even if you think it's not affordable, there is always a way and I guarantee that if you make the effort to find it, it will be worth it in the end. The eight weeks in this class leading up to the trip were quite valuable. I really enjoyed taking the time to learn all about Russia - its culture, politics, food, history, etc - before visiting there. It made the actual trip and being there so much more valuable and meaningful. When we were ready to leave, we already had an idea of what Russia was like in our heads - now it was just time to experience it for ourselves. What I got out of the trip exceeded my highest expectations. I didn't really have too many expectations going in, honestly - I just tried to be open and take in whatever happened, which I think is the best way to go about it. Maybe it was just that attitude that caused me to feel differently than I might have thought that I would. One of the first things I felt the first few days of the trip was a sense of awe. I never traveled very much or very far in my childhood and even though I have been to a few different countries now as an adult, it was still kind of huge to me that I was in Russia. And on top of that, I was traveling with a group of successful adults and meeting with executives at huge multinational companies. It made my head spin just a bit. Once I adjusted to that feeling and accepted that yes, I was really there, I got quite a bit out of both the business meetings as well as the time spent out with people, both my fellow travelers as well as people we were meeting in Russia. The business meetings were very valuable and rewarding because we were getting to see the reality of doing business in Russia, what we had been researching for weeks. We saw both the perspectives of U.S. firms, some of which had been in Russia for quite a long time, as well as from Russian companies, both large ones and start-ups. It gave us a much more real sense of how things are accomplished there. It was also a really nice experience to meet the people that we had put ourselves in touch with in order to set up our meetings. That had been part of our challenges and preparation in the class leading up to the trip, to set up business meetings on our own in Russia to get information for our team projects. Spending time with those in our group and meeting new people in Russia was every bit as rewarding as well. Because the MBA program is part-time and most of the students either work full-time already or are full-time students in another program along with the MBA (we had both an MD/MBA and a JD/MBA along with us), sometimes that can make it hard to really spend time connecting with your fellow students. But there is no better way to connect than to go off to a foreign country with some of them for a few days! We all truly got to know each other very well and honestly, we really got along famously. I hope to continue to stay in touch with each and every one of the people on this trip and count them as friends for a very long time. I think that all of my fellow students that went on this trip would agree that we owe a huge debt of gratitude to both our professor, Marjorie Lyles, as well as our executive-in-residence for the class, Nate Feltman. You can tell that Prof. Lyles loves both doing work internationally as well as sharing her love of that with students. She truly has a passion for that which becomes very clear when you are on the trip experiencing it with her. Her fondness for her students and her pride in their dedication to the class becomes very evident and was a huge encouragement and support to us. And Nate brought exactly what we needed to our time in Russia. He has spent a few years over there as legal counsel and was just the link we needed to Russia. His love for the country is very evident as well and added so much to our trip. He was our translator and guide at times as well as friend. You tend to have professors and executives or professionals that are involved throughout every step of earning an MBA, but there are only usually a select few that end up being sought out as true mentors. I think Prof. Lyles and Nate should be warned that they have the potential to become that for any one of the eight of us students that visited Russia with them. I think that I could potentially say that all of us fell in love with Russia on this trip. The sights, meetings, people, experiences... all of it was enough to make all of us want to return at some point. A phrase that one of the executives in one of our meetings used that keeps coming back to me is "international American". I believe that is what is true about each of us on the trip that sparked us to go - a passion for learning more about other cultures and nations and wanting to make the world seem a bit smaller. I really hope that in our experience and in our sharing of it with others that we can prompt them to do the same and be international Americans as well.

Kelley Evening MBA Ranks 11th Nationally and 5th among Pulbic Programs

Thursday, March 17, 2011 by Ken Carow

Congratulations to the students, faculty and staff that make one of the best MBA programs in the country.

The Evening MBA Program at the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis maintained its status of one of the best programs in the country as judged recently by the U.S. News and World Report. The part-time program ranks 11^th in the country and 5^th overall among public universities.

The report ranks only the top 166 part-time MBA programs in the country. Other Indiana programs to be ranked included Purdue University (17), Butler University (105) and Ball State University (121).

The Evening MBA program boasts an enrollment of more than 400, and the students have an average of five years of work experience. The average GMAT score for the most recent students admitted to the program is 622.

An Aid for Prospective Grad School Students

Thursday, April 29, 2010 by Jim Plew

Since I can't resist frequenting Barnes & Noble at least a couple times per week, I felt like dropping by today to find a book on MBA programs. Usually, I try to keep up with one or two novels from my favorite authors while I'm there, but this time I found a new resource that should prove to be invaluable to me over the next few years.

After walking around the education section, I stumbled upon a book titled "How to get into the Top MBA Programs." This immediately caught my attention because I'm planning on taking the GMAT soon and applying for grad school in the next two years. However, I had no idea that the planning process was so in-depth and convoluted. After reading several chapters, I realized that I'll need to begin doing more research this summer if I want to attend the business school of my choice after I graduate.

The book even included a checklist and timetable of steps to be taken in order to prepare the application! Because of my axiomatic obsession with checklists and other organizational aids, this aspect of the book was the key selling point for me. I would strongly recommend a resource like this to any student interested in attending graduate school.

- Jim Plew

Tips for your first semester

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Sheryl Hugill

*whew* Wow, first semester is down. I feel accomplished. So, having survived it, here are my tips for anyone that is new and just starting the evening MBA program...

1) This is not an undergraduate degree. What I mean by this is that while you probably will expect to go off of your undergrad experience (I know I did, it was all I had to judge by), it will NOT be the same. Professors are different, grades are different, expectations are different. It's just... different.

2) Grading is based more on how the entire class is doing than on a specific scale. From what I can tell so far, most teachers will give you a loose grading scale. The scale seems like it is probably approximated based on how previous classes have probably done. But grading is more based on a curve than anything else. You can do horrible on a test, and if the entire class did horrible - well, it won't be as bad as you think. The professors are only permitted to give out A's to a certain percentage of the class, so the A's will go to those that are the best of the best - not all of those that get a certain grade. This is all from what I can tell of my experience of my first semester, of course. The jist of all of this is that if you think you are doing badly in a class - you are probably not doing quite as bad as you might think.

3) The little things determine the big things. Remember as part of your undergrad how you usually had some form of homework to do and turn in at least every other class period? Not so here. Most classes will have around four or so things that your entire grade is based on. Some classes have a participation, some don't. All have homework/reading for pretty much every class, but it is usually not turned in. Instead, the homework builds on the bigger things, the things that your grade is based on, such as projects and tests. Find out what these bigger assignments are early, and stay prepared for them by doing as much of the homework as you can, even if it doesn't have to be turned in. It's difficult to stay on top of all of it, but make sure you can at least follow the discussions in class.

4) The rest of the class very likely feels the same way as you do. I mean this in a way as feeling overwhelmed and like you are not doing as well as you think you should be. I'm very hard on myself, and I got pretty good grades in my undergraduate career, so in the back of my mind, I expected the MBA program to go just as smoothly. And well, I felt kind of like I crashed and burned early on. But the outcome was better in the end. And from talking to fellow students, almost all of them had similar experiences and concerns.

5) Hang in there. It's expected that you go in not knowing what to expect. How could you? This is your first MBA program (I'm guessing) and probably even your first masters degree. So just pay attention, go with the flow, learn from each test/assignment what is expected of you, and go into the next test or project prepared. You will survive, and it will be a learning experience that will help you through the rest of your MBA career.

Korea 10

Monday, August 18, 2008 by Ken Carow

The end of my summer at Yonsei

The hospitality shown by the Yonsei staff has truly made this a great experience. I enjoy doing many different types of things in the summer and this is one of those experiences that I may do again in the future.

The scheduling of classes during the summer allowed me time to interact with the students and experience the culture and beauty of Korea. I enjoyed the interaction with the students both during class and in meetings with students outside of the classroom. Not all of my students were business majors, so I found it interesting working with students in the sciences or engineering. Many of the students in my class were also interested in masters programs, so I was able to answer some of their questions in considering their future goals. I encouraged several of them to gain a few years of work experience before applying to a program, so they could attend a better Master's programs. Most MBA programs require at least 2 years of work experience. The better the program, the better the job opportunities. If you ever researched MBA programs, the salary differentials for graduates of top quality programs and lower level programs are huge.

The weekends allowed me the opportunity to travel and experience many of the great palaces, temples, and mountains of Korea. It is a great country. These are the main items that I wrote about in my earlier blogs. I would have never considered Korea as a travel destination before hosting a foreign exchange student from Korea, but having experienced the wonders of Korea, I would enjoy returning again. The kindness shown by our exchange student's family made for a great trip and many connections.

Capsim Competition

Monday, May 5, 2008 by Ken Carow

Congratulations to Nathaly Reyes and Jacob Wilkes! They took second place in the Capsim Global Business Simulation Competition. The competition had a record-breaking number of participants. The challenge "provides an opportunity for students of all levels - from first-year undergraduate to MBA students to find out if they have what it takes to run a multi-million-dollar company," a Dan Smith, president of Capsim.

Nathaly Reyes and Jacob Wilkes entered the Capsim Competition. The competition is an international competition that includes both undergraduate and MBA students. 642 teams began the competition and 266 teams persisted to the eight round of the competition. The top six teams in the preliminary competition get the prestige of going into a final round against each other. A school can only have one team in the final round. Kelley Indianapolis had a second team (Jessie Cartine and Leinid Grabovsky) that was in the seventh position. In total we had eight teams placing in the top 10 percent of the teams entering the competition.

Each of the teams were in our new spring J411 Analysis of Business Decisions course. J411 uses the Capsim simulation where students compete against other teams of students in their class in an industry. Effectively, the teams are running a company for eight periods. The simulation helps students hone their business skills and consider the impact of different business decisions on the success of their firm in a competitive industry. The competition was an optional opportunity for students participation.

The capstone provides an experiential learning component for Kelley students. Congratulations to each of the teams that entered the competition. A job well done!