BULLETIN FROM THE KREMLIN BUILDING AT HBS:  

CHECK OUT THIS  RESPONSE CUM SNARL-O-GRAM   TO NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT PE WHIZ KIDS AND IB STARS SKIPPING BUSINESS SCHOOL (SEE POSTS ABOVE). LET’S SEE, WHEN FACED WITH SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND NEW, WHAT IS THE PLAYBOOK YOU REACH FOR:  1.  CIRCLE THE WAGONS,  2. CLAIM THINGS WERE ALWAYS THIS WAY (A TYPICAL HBS TROPE, EVEN TO SOMETHING AS OBVIOUSLY ‘NEW’ AS THIS DEVELOPMENT), AND 3.  REPEAT THE LEADERSHIP ROSARY.   

OF COURSE, GIVEN THE SENTIMENTS BELOW, WHEN THE HEDGE FUND MARKET DEFLATES, AND THOSE “GET RICH QUICK KIDS” DECIDE TO APPLY AND COOL THEIR HEELS FOR TWO YEARS, THEY WONT BE WELCOMED BACK W. OPEN ARMS, NAH?????  DOES ANYONE OVER THERE THINK THIS KIND OF OLD-FASHIONED TUB-THUMPING AND  PREACH-IFYING (”a lifetime of principled leadership,”) CUTS THE MUSTARD W. KIDS OR EVEN SENTINENT ADULTS THESE DAYS? I MEAN AS A MATTER OF COMMUNICATION STYLE AND CONTENT BOTH. THE WORLD IS WATCHING YOU TUBE AND HBS IS WATCHING SUNRISE SERMONETTE.

The M.B.A. Investment

To the Editor [of The New York Times]:

“Bye, Bye B-School” (Sept. 16) correctly showed that an M.B.A. degree is not for everyone.

The M.B.A. program was never designed as a personal get-rich-quick plan. [NOPE, IT IS A GET RICH PRETTY QUICK  PLAN AFTER YOU WAIT TWO YEARS AND START OUT 200K IN THE HOLE]  It’s about entrepreneurship, building organizations and preparing for a lifetime of principled leadership in all kinds of operations — not just on Wall Street, but around the world.

For a significant number of young women and men, business school provides valuable knowledge, skills and perspectives that will transform potential into a real capacity for leadership. A rigorous M.B.A. education is an excellent long-term investment.

W. Carl Kester

Boston, Sept. 19

The writer is a finance professor and deputy dean for academic affairs at the Harvard Business School.

hmmmmmm, one of these folks is Wharton Adcom hottie Gabriel Snyder, you can send your guesses below

NON-STORY ABOUT NEW SLOAN DEAN FROM SCHOOL NEWSPAPER — HIS NEW MANTRA –REACHING OUT TO BUSINESS LEADERS AND LEARNING BY DOING  –WHICH ECHOES THAT INSIPID COLUMBIA TWO APP QUESTION TO COMMENT ON SPEECH BY DEAN TO B SCHOOL FLAKS, SEEMS TO BE A SAD, SAD ADMISSION THAT THESE SCHOOLS HAVE ZILCH TO OFFER EXCEPT LEGO TOYS, GARAGE SPACE AND INTRODUCTIONS TO REAL BUSINESSMEN.

DUH, WHAT THE FRIG IS THE FACULTY FOR???? 

 

Schmittlein said he had three ideas for developing Sloan’s educational system: creating programs that allow students more opportunities to “learn by doing”; increasing opportunities for students to customize their education and gear it toward their career goals; and further incorporating new knowledge created by business leaders inside and outside of MIT into the school’s curricula.

God, that is soooooooooo inspiring.

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Team Dynamics, this time on the Supreme Court: a lot of b school essays, in one way or the other, ask you capture some team dynamic, and what role you played. Many kids applying to b school lack the vocabulary or emotional intelligence to do this smartly. Folks, it aint hard, and as w. much leadership analysis, esp. at the level needed for apps., mostly common sense will do: below is Jeff Tobins analysis of who is successful on one team, The US Supreme Court. You could almost plagiarize this, apply it to the nerds on your team, add some similar semi-bs, and have a great answer, to many app. questions.

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For that matter, Mr. Toobin reveals in this book just how much personality shapes interactions on the court and sometimes determines the direction of debate. It’s well known, of course, that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice O’Connor shared a long friendship that predated their arrival on the court, but Mr. Toobin also reveals that she formed a close bond with Justice Breyer, with whom she shared a practical, pragmatic outlook. He tells us that David Souters “gentle charm” probably made him “the best liked of the justices among his peers.” He tells us that Justice Kennedy’s travels abroad and his interest in international law pushed him to the left over the years. And he tells us that Justice Scalia never learned to translate his moxie into real influence on the court, while Justice Breyer, who’d “watched his former boss Ted Kennedy push legislation through the Senate” by building coalitions, knew how to work his colleagues  decorously, respectfully but unmistakably  to try to get them to see things his way.

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from SK’s fav book reviewer (well, 85 percent of the time) M. Kakutani, in

Power Lineup, Swings From Right By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
THE NINE–Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
By Jeffrey Toobin

Illustrated. 369 pages. Doubleday. $27.95.

WHY THEY CALL IT THE SECOND CITY–FORTE FORUM IN CHICAGO.

Dispatch from one of our more snarky and honest  correspondents. $100 reward for photo of the HBS exercise band. Perhaps their next move should be a scrunchy, a la Seinfeld. Who is Jackie Zavitz????

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Forté Forum last night was an extremely mediocre event - filled with lots of mini Jackie Zavitz-es = icky!! Schools had clearly sent their second-string admissions staff, if any at all. There were only about 20 schools in attendance, but all of the big-hitters were there: HBS, Wharton, MIT, etc. HBS (sorry, no Dee) had a strange exercise band give-away with a tagline about “stretch your potential” or something lame like that. Since when is HBS reduced to supermarket gimmicks? Oh well. I was really discouraged about the kind of girls that were there - humorless, superficial and bitchy business drones. Reminds me why I’m more comfortable around guys!

hbs-career vision essay–this was a question submitted by BW poster:
Is it a dealbreaker to skip the “optional” career goals essay for HBS?  I thought I might go with “Is there anything else you want ADCOM to know?” in my application and talk about career goals in the interview, if I get one. 

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ANSWER: Well, it is not a dealbreaker, altho my bet is, of the~ thousand kids they admit, like 85+ percent (maybe 90+) will have answered that question, but that could also be the stat from the general applicant pool, so not sure there is any predictive value. I cert dont know, altho WOULD LIKE TO, what the admit percent is of kids who answer that question vs. leave it out, altho my guess is, pretty similar. It just seems a good way to round out your story, and in some cases, if you are a-typical, a valued piece of info as to why you need MBA in light of goals. Answering this question WRONG can be a deal-breaker (well deal-damager), e.g. if you declare some set of goals that does not compute w. need for MBA — want to be movie star, anchor man, super real estate agent in Hamptons (well, maybe), run the largest auto detailing shop in Canada (real example, not a chain, etc. Just expand two man biz–also no good if you say you want to start Hedge Fund to rival X Y Z and you dont have any experience.  General High School fantasies about biz also not good, e.g. I want to be a Tycoon, or Start Reality TV show about CEO’s (who knows, some dude w. an MBA could start a TV show about hiring people, but my guess is, that was not on his app). To kick  it up a notch.  The real impt questions are those which capture what you have in fact DONE not what you want to do, to wit, 3 accomplishments, mistake, and Leadership. Leadership Q is now, amazingly optional, but prob.  also answered by 90+, and a good idea, too, b.c. you can write an impactful answer here, more so than saying right things about sustainability in career answer, which is true, but hey, anyone can say they want to start largest auto detailing shop in Canada and keep it green too, but real leadership exp. tend to be unique and telling.

To kick it out a notch: I’d say like ~70 percent of the apps they get will have leadership and career questions as 2 out of 3 of the optionals, and, dudes, I’d think a long time before not doing that yourself, dont get cute, it dont work, unless you have a very good reason. Beyond that,

it is pzzble in Undegrad Q to actually explain something, or provide context for you entire app. by esp. explaining who you were like when you entered school, and what happened there.

it is pzzble in what else to tell some charming pwerful story about birth in poor, violent place, and how that has impacted values blah blah and score,

it is pzzble in Global issue to link some global issue w. your own accomplishments and dreams, altho DO NOT WRITE SOME POTTED PLANT HERE about global warming etc.

it is pzzble in culture shock to say something smart and revealing, esp. if you have been victim and did something about it, but even w.out that kind of drama, just capturing how you felt in alien enviro and how it recalibrated values can be a plus.

You kinda have to think which pzzble gain best suits your story. The choice is often not so impt as it seems, the HBS admit process is dense and holistic, your deal usually comes out in the wash, and that is what they are looking for.

HOPSCOTHING THE WORLD FOR HBS APPLICATION INSIGHT: Dearly beloved HBS Dean of Recent Memory Kim Clark is back in the news, with a more red blooded and red state pronouncement about moral relativism than he might have gotten away with in his  02138 days (but he would rebut, that is NOT the HBS’s zip code, it is in Allston not Cambridge and HBS was allowed to be Harvard’s right wing, well right “wingtip”, esp. during the reign of Dauphin Larry Summers.)  

 ”We’re seeing the effects of decades of educational institutions abandoning their commitment to character development and to values as part of their missions,” said Kim B. Clark, president of BYU Idaho. “A kind of moral relativism has taken over and many faculty and administrators abandoned the idea that you should try to teach and develop students with character and honesty.”

 

Kids, ‘moral relativism’ is GOP code for decadent, Mapplethorpe-loving Democrats, but hey, post readers, enuf about morals, what does all this have to do w. NUMBER 1, YOU getting into HBS? The Dean  goes on:

In an official statement, Kim B. Clark, then dean of Harvard Business School, wrote, “Our mission is to educate principled leaders who make a difference in the world. To achieve that, a person must have many skills and qualities, including the highest standards of integrity, sound judgment and a strong moral compass — an intuitive sense of what is right and wrong.”

 

Hmmmm, if take those sentiments, and sprinkle about a full quart bottle of Evian over them, to give them the right PC and not Utah/Idaho  flavor, to wit, replace  right and wrong with VALUES, value focused life, blah blah (any values actually, just make it sound like you go deep, and do not violate any Taboos)  , and if you embrace “diversity and globalism” as complex elements of decision making, instead of carping on “moral relativism” (decrying moral relativism  is not a good sentiment for an HBS app., if you want to complain about moral relativism, wait til you get admitted– Moral relativism is GOOD, w.in normal limits) well, you can add some very nice decorative elements to your GOALS essay, and if you can make any sentiment about values, diversity, embracing outsider elements a driver of your other essays, esp. accomplishments, who knows, you may get some bonus points, or even better, you may, by  dint of changing your hat and shoes discover a whole new persona, which may then get you rethink your entire outfit, and the tone and content of all your answers,  that happens, right???

Story below is sappy, and easy to make fun of, but at its heart might get inspired to work your life story sorta along these lines. Just go lite on the Bible stuff, and replace it w. Sesame Street (is that stilll on???) or any other moderne PC classics, even Harry Potter.

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Well, time to hire a sylist as well as a resume coach. For those of you bummed out by last post, about how many kids are skipping b school to make millions in hedge funds, it must be great to know that if you do go to b school, well, Whirlpool will be breathing down your neck

The New

Battle for M.B.A. Grads

As the competition gets more intense, recruiting companies get more creative

By RONALD ALSOP
September 17, 2007; Page R1 THE WALL ST. JOURNAL

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LONG, DETAILED, AND CONVINCING NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT HOW HEDGE FUND/PE HOTSHOTS ARE SKIPPING MBA DEGREE.  JUST NOT WORTH MISSING TWO YEARS, AND AS I HAVE BEEN SAYING ALONG, IT IS NOT LIKE YOU LEARN ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN B SCHOOL.  IF YOU DONT NEED THE BRAND…..AND IF YOU ALREADY ARE PURRING ALONG AT HEDGE FUND OR IB IN TRADING, WELL, YOU DONT, JUST SKIP IT.  ARTICLE DOES SAY MBA IS OK CHOICE FOR CAREER SWITCHERS. OF COURSE, ALL THIS IS PREMISED ON A STRONG AND RICH HEDGE FUND MARKET. WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH, THE TIGERS START LOOKING AT B SCHOOL. 

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 “If you want to make the most money in the shortest period of time, you can’t be away from work for two years,” says Vitaly Dukhon, 30, who recently left the Fortress Investment Group in New York to join another hedge fund.While in college at Harvard, Mr. Dukhon thought he would go to business school in his mid-20s, but in his first job on the Treasury desk at Deutsche Bank, he realized that the smartest people just a few years his senior were staying put. “I saw that people that had been working for 20 years did have M.B.A.’s, but people five to six years older than me were not going,” he says. “Going to business school is a way for people to try to open the door, to try to get into a company or hedge fund. But if you’re already there, it doesn’t make sense to go.”

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News

HBS Unveils New MBA Track

School launches ‘2+2’ program, allowing juniors to apply, defer enrollment

Published On 9/14/2007 4:13:49 AM

By CLIFFORD M MARKS

Harvard Crimson Staff Writer

According to Sanford Kreisberg, an independent admissions consultant at HBSguru.com, the program’s true value for HBS will be ensuring that stellar students don’t opt for a JD instead.“Strategically, it’s a good move on Harvard’s part,” Kreisberg said. “They’re just trying to locate talent early and stop stars from going to law school.” . . . .

Kreisberg said the school has been courting Google for some time, and this program provides a chance to strengthen ties with the company.

“This is a brilliant way for Harvard to make an alliance with Google, something they’ve been dying to do,” he said.

 

 

Harvard Business School (HBS) unveiled an admissions program yesterday that will accept applications from current college juniors starting this spring for enrollment in the HBS Class of 2013.

The school is promoting the program, which will begin this spring, as a way to attract undergraduates with backgrounds in the natural sciences or liberal arts who would not normally pursue a master’s in business administration.

“Our hope is to really broaden the base of undergraduates who consider a future career in business,” said Andrea L. Kimmel, who directs the program.

The “2+2” track, named for its schedule of spending two years in the workplace, followed by the two-year MBA curriculum, differs significantly from the experience afforded to most HBS students, who come to the program with more workplace experience­.

Currently, HBS admits roughly 20 graduating seniors a year to its MBA program, and also requires two years in the workplace before matriculation. Kimmel said HBS plans to eventually admit 90 MBA students—10 percent of each class—through the 2+2 program.

William Wright-Swadel, director of the Office of Career Services, said a more diverse class might be difficult to achieve if students already interested in business apply.

“It’s going to be about whether they market it well and the kinds of students they actually admit over the first few years,” he said.

According to Sanford Kreisberg, an independent admissions consultant at HBSguru.com, the program’s true value for HBS will be ensuring that stellar students don’t opt for a JD instead.

“Strategically, it’s a good move on Harvard’s part,” Kreisberg said. “They’re just trying to locate talent early and stop stars from going to law school.”
The application deadline for the Class of 2009 is July 1, and HBS will notify applicants of admission decisions in September 2008.

Wright-Swadel expressed some reservations about the effect of the application schedule on undergraduates, who might feel pressured to make career decisions earlier.

“That’s an absolute mistake,” he said. “That’s not what the Business School is looking for.”

Kimmel said HBS scheduled the program application date so early in order to allow accepted students to take advantage of special training opportunities.

Students in the program will gain access to pre-matriculation summer programs on campus, career counseling, and opportunities for jobs with recruiting partners, such as Google, McKinsey & Co., and Teach For America, which has promised HBS to consider 2+2 admits for positions.

Kreisberg said the school has been courting Google for some time, and this program provides a chance to strengthen ties with the company.

“This is a brilliant way for Harvard to make an alliance with Google, something they’ve been dying to do,” he said.

—Staff writer Clifford M. Marks can be reached at cmarks@fas.harvard.edu.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519505