more Deezies:

from the adcom director’s blog

Folks, finally, a pixel of useful info breaks out, and now you know why sooner or later, and problably later, the Internet will open up China, and even years after that, famous Walled City of the HBS adcom.  For those ‘organized and eager group’ of Round One applicants that Dee refers to,  read investment bankers, consultants from McK, Bain, and BCG plus  PE princes from the usual suspects (calling Tom Lee and Geore Soros). TO the extent we can hold Dee to speaking factually here, it seems that Round One admission odds are better, since same number of admits, and fewer applicants, but you are competing against a wall of kids who are super stars and have backgrounds, should I say, stats (nope cannot say that, after all what are stats) that are often “associated” as they say in cancer studies, with certain outcomes. It also seems to be official confirmation of wht she has said in BW interview, DONT BOTHER APPLYING IN ROUND 3 IF YOU HAVE 2NDRY SEX CHARACTERISTICS. THAT IS FOR COLLEGE SENIORS AND ESTABLISHED ODDBALLS.

this piece of bloggerol is sorta what we have been saying all along.

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THE DEE-DEE BLOG WATCH!!!!!!

In this section we follow HBS adcom Deirdre “Dee” Leopold  (“Dee” is her formulation, what humiliations  blogging drives us to) Leopold. I will try to”demystify” the typical adcom, ahem,  blogulations.

her latest entry

http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/blog.html

has some doozies,or shall I say, Dee-zies. Seems like most of the kids who are sending her questions are not interested in 10 Ways HBS is Great, or a list of famous faculty, or her thoughts on the slap-happy videos of HBSers around the campfire (several of whom I was shocked to recognize as former clients, they sure look different than I imagined) :   OH no, get a grab of this:

well, I CAN!!!! SO keep those questions coming. At least she does admit that not everyone should apply to HBS, that is something Brit “The Black Box”  Dewey (prior adcom director of beloved memory) would never admit!!! (You may recall our parody Brit answer to guy who told her at a Forum that he has anger problems and murdered prof in college, “Well, that could really add to our case discussion teaching method, as a diversity point of view, APPLY!!!”).

more on her entry later, just wanted to get the ball rolling.

check  out our new homepage

http://hbsguru.com

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Check back….post coming soon!

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ESSAY 4 — Changing The Family Business

In 1995, during the second year of my internship with Mogul Investment Bank (MIB) in New York, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and told he had 6 months to live. My father owned a sporting goods store in Queens. In the next two months, I was able to hire a store manager, add a bill paying system, and educate my mother to run the store alone. My father died four months after the initial diagnosis.

I first used contacts at MIB to obtain a definitive diagnosis of my father’s cancer from world-famous specialists at Sloan Kettering Hospital. After consultation with them, my family elected to peruse a ‘care’ not a ‘treatment’ course for the cancer. That decision gave us more time to focus on preparing my mother to take over the business rather than ‘fight’ the cancer. Through a local priest, I located a recent immigrant from Greece (our own ethnic heritage) who was smart and happy to have the manager’s job. He was a lucky hire.

I spent a month training the new manager and going through the old records. (I took an unprecedented three-week leave from MIB and moved back home.) My father was able to help a little, but he soon became too sick. I computerized the bill paying system, and concluded that computerizing the inventory was not worth it. My mother had worked in the store in the past (as had I), and I was able to make her feel comfortable about taking over by making her a collaborator in the reorganization. Also working in the store was a way to take our minds off my father’s illness, and my father was pleased to know that my mother would be financially secure and the store would go on. [word count--297]

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CHANGE ESSAY 3 — Savvy IT Consultant With Perhaps Too Much Attitude

As an Information Technology consultant to a major state’s Department of Motor Vehicles [DOMV], I led a 22 person cross-functional decison team (technical and management) in selecting a single vendor (from six) for a $10 million ‘call center’ upgrade.

My first hurdle was credibility. I was a twenty-eight year old consultant and most of the DOMV managers were older, sometimes by 10 years or more. I was extremely respectful to everyone, even going so far as to call senior people ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms’ until asked to use their first name. I also made it a point of meeting individually with 10 leading managers my first two days on the job and personally asking for their help. Many Motor Vehicle senior people were ‘political’ and I made it a point to respect that as the ‘corporate culture’ (it helped that my Dad had been a state ‘lifer’ although not in this state). But I also confirmed from my consulting company that the very reason we were brought in was to make a merit decision. (This is not always the case.)

After ‘earning’ some good faith, I then made it clear, through weekly memos, technical reports, and meetings, that I was firm about reaching an objective decision. I actually made the process more quantative than strictly necessary. The danger of running this ‘wizard’ show was not getting full information about each department’s needs, but I tried to do that informally. Also, my clear objectivity ‘freed’ up the internal technical people, who proved very helpful.

When disagreements emerged, I resorted to an ‘objective scoring process’ to build consensus. At one point, I had to initiate a second round of scoring. I could have been more of “a people” person but given my age, the internal culture, and the limited task, the ‘super straight arrow’ model worked. [word count --303]

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CHANGE ESSAY 2 — Same Situation – Turning Salesmen Into Consultants – Seen From The Trenches

In 1991, Monitor Software’s (MS) management understood that real growth was going to come from adding the sale of ‘consulting services’ to their core product: specialized data-base software. As one of four consultants from Condor Consulting assigned to help make this transition, my challenge was to guide the government accounts sales force into selling consulting engagements as well as products.

Because the government account sales force already perceived itself as successful, the first thing I had to do was explain why a ‘relationship building’ approach was needed for long term profitability. I met with each member of the 30 person sales force in person for one-hour and from these meetings I developed a 10-day “Change In Mission” training program. Also, as the field specialist, I accompanied sales people on sales calls and showed them how to qualify sales leads into real consulting opportunities.

Because closing a consulting ‘contract’ was more complex and prolonged than selling a product, I also suggested a new profit plan to accommodate the changes. I also built in other standard ‘salesmen’ incentives such as premiums, bonuses, and prizes which were new to MS. In two years, the software consulting practice at MS grew from zero to $ 8 million. Looking back, one key was redesigning the compensation package, and selling that idea to MS management. Management thought the package too ‘rich’ but I stressed that they were asking the sales force to ‘change’ dramatically, and this also required some radical ‘re-thinking’ on their part. They still balked, and I suggested a pilot program for volunteer early adapters. That worked, and soon the benefits became clear to the sales staff and management. [word count-- 272]

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CHANGE ESSAY 1 — Turning Programers Into Consultants

What specifically have you done to help a group or organization change? (300 word limit)

In 1990 as a senior associate at Condor Consulting, I headed a four person Condor team for two years at Monitor Software (MS), a mid-size firm which sold data-base management software products. Our mission was to convince 120 key MS programmers and engineers to sell MS consulting services as a new ‘product,’ in addition to their old engineering and programming tasks. These valued and long-term employees were not sales oriented and were comfortable with the status quo. Also, they were committed to finishing their current projects, not adding to them. I helped plan several company meetings and question-and-answer sessions to share the company’s new vision. I explained the need for MS to change in order to remain competitive. But many MS programmers and engineers, at the end of our first orientation ‘phase’ (6 months), were not committed to the change. After carefully assessing these meetings with my own ‘change’ team, I told senior management the original plan would take 3 years instead of 15 months. We had to hire new people, deal with winning over more recruits, and craft an exit strategy for those unwilling to join.

Over the next two years 70 percent of the initial target audience signed on, and 30 percent were transferred, quit, or let go. The new consulting ‘business’ became 25 percent of MS’ total revenues.

Executing lay-offs at the same time as making new hires was hard. So was integrating new hires into this roiling environment. My team’s success was based on (i) open communication, (ii) a willingness to change the first plan, (iii) hiring outplacement and recruitment experts (after a failure of trying this in-house) and (iv) constantly sharing the new vision and benefits. Although we revised the ‘change’ plan, we never waivered in our ultimate commitment to it–and it showed. [word count-- 300]

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