Wharton Executive MBA Blog

WEMBA 36 - San Francisco: China Trek 2011

2011-07-09T01:41:00.000-07:00

As Prof Percival would say “Chinaaaa…” This was one fantastic trip, a truly unique experience in the medley of new and old that makes up today’s China. In 10 days, we (21 students and 4 guests) visited 14 organizations in the areas of technology, government, media, energy and venture financing, discovered the cities of Beijing and Shanghai, saw a glimpse of 5000 years of history, and most importantly partied at least at a dozen clubs.
China’s demographic statistics are mind numbing. There are 200+ cities with over 1M people - contrast that with US-7 and Europe-35. There are over 700M cell phones subscribers satisfied primarily by one company – China Mobile and over 500M Internet users in the country. China leads the rest of the world in the amount of hydroelectric power production at an astounding 652 TWh and is the second largest consumer of primary energy in the world. The GDP is 5.8 Trillion USD a year and increasing at 9.7% per annum. It is no wonder that China is the third most visited country in the world with over 60M visitors per year and growing (that is the half the population of Japan).

June 25th, Saturday: Beijing (Arrival and Dinner)
With Michelle O (Marla), and her patented arm wave, on our side, we had ensured dignitary status for the trip – we knew we would not have to stand in queues or follow the line or anything close to conformance. Most of us arrived on Beijing on the 25th (10 of us were on the same plane – ask Harshit Scotsman for the details). The thunderstorms from the past week had cooled the city considerably.

The Beijing Airport has an impressive architecture – shaped like a dragon with a turtle holding it down to ensure planes would land safely! We were greeted at the airport by FangFang, our guide at Beijing who arranged a ride for us to the Novotel Peace Hotel – our place of residence for the next 4 days. LanLan had arranged a luxurious 40 course dinner – imperial style, at Wu Ju Tai Nei Fu Cai, one of the highlights of the trip. From the exotic to the delicate the dinner spread was simply amazing and lasted over 3 hours. FangFang had arranged a local tailor who was waiting for us back at the hotel; many of us ordered hand-stitched shirts and suits. We headed out clubbing for the night, as was the case on most nights. There was a special guest at the club scene – for details contact Stacy.

June 26th, Sunday: Beijing (Guided Tour)
After breakfast, we headed out on a guided tour of the city. FangFang was at once engaging, knowledgeable and helpful. Our first stop was the Tiananmen Square – the largest public square in the world.

Located in the heart of the city it is surrounded on one side by the Beijing museum, shopping on the second side, the major street on the third side and the entrance to the Forbidden City on the fourth. FangFang gave us a glimpse of the local history and highlighted the disconnect between the previous generation and the contemporary youth. The Mao memorial is right at the square and the queue was over 2 hours long. The 60-ton granite obelisk at the T-square honored the heroes who fought imperialism both within and outside.

Forbidden City was next and it was magnificent. Forbidden City or Gugong was so called because it was out of bounds for ordinary people for 500 years. Within the outer wall are over 800 structures, with a total of 9999 rooms, just one short of the perfection appropriate only to the gods. The wooden walls are elegantly decked with exquisite art and handwork – ranging from allegorical scenes to fierce dragons in multi-colors. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest building in the Forbidden City and was the setting for Imperial Coronations and other royal events. There is an expanse within the Gate of Supreme Harmony that could accommodate the whole imperial court – over 100,000 people. The inner enclosure housed the imperial concubines, the Emperor’s bed chambers and the Imperial Garden. We spent about an hour and half just catching a glimpse of the Palace Museum and left amazed, awed and mostly hungry.

Next stop was Spicy Hut (I think...). The food was so hot and spicy, DiBarnaba (or Sueshni as he is now known) was soaked in sweat, but it was so tasty he could not stop. After lunch we leisure strolled the back alley shopping area and then an hour bus ride took us to the Great Wall.

Mutianyu is a short section of the 3000-mile Great wall restored to its original form with its imposing guard towers about 90KM north of the city. Set in rolling hills covered in green this time of the year, it is a spectacular and awe-inspiring sight. We took a gondola ride up to the wall and spent over an hour and a half scaling the wall, taking it all in and generally wondering the how, why and what of the Wall. We met General Tso selling beer on the wall – a refreshing quencher on hot summer day. A few photographs later we came down a narrow chute, riding on a small plastic trolley – quite an interesting thrill. Fortunately, there were no major casualties though Monica rear bumped Vidya coming down at what seemed to be 40 Miles/Hr. The ride back was quiet - most taking a small nap.

The last planned event was at Candy TV, a local Karaoke hangout. Leo had arranged for us to meet students from the reputed Peking University – over 20 students showed up. After cursory introductions, exchange of business cards and discussions around job opportunities, the so-called singing ensued. There is a video of Elango dancing to the tunes of Michael Jackson that is hilarious. We headed back to the hotel where some of us retired others went clubbing again. “I will rest in my grave”.

June 27th, Monday: Beijing (Company Visits, Bell event)

Deborah, Bo, Vidya, Susan and Lauren decided to explore the city and planned to visit local shops, the Temple of Heaven and other touristy stuff over the next couple of days. For the entire trip we often saw Lauren treated as a rock star and she picked up more Chinese than can be learned in 30 days with Rosetta Stone. She even got the accent down pat!
An early breakfast, liters of coffee and Aspirin for the needy prepared us for the company visits. It was probably the first time I had seen everyone come in suits and I hesitate to say this, but together we did look quite striking.

Tencent: Victoria Wu (Director of Business Development, Brent Irvin, Corporate Counsel)

Established 1998, $45B Mkt. Cap, listed in HSE 2004
Largest online user database. 500M internet users in China today, over 80% using Tencent.
90% of users between the ages of 18-35 use Tencent, cultivated when they were young, now network externalities. Highest PCU (peak concurrent users)
10K employees, average age of 27.5. Hiring – globalmba@tencent.com
Features: Provides a unified platform (Communication, information, entertainment, e-commerce), users stay because of integrated features. Superior in offering to any platform in US today in terms of raw features.
Only 4 major players (Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, NetEase)
eCommerce Transaction value = $162.4B
Visit http://web2.qq.com for a tour – has over 20 apps and more coming
35% owned South African Company (Mesberger – other interesting investments, also DST)
Strategy: 4 things needed to win in the market place (Content, Knowledge of local culture, Continuous Innovation and User Retention)

Baidu: Kaiser Kuo (Director of International Communication)

Baidu, literal meaning is “hundreds of times”, represents a persistent search for the ideal. The name is derived from a Song dynasty poem written more than 800 years ago. The logo is shaped like the paw leaving footprints and thereby a trail.
Impressive building, aerial view like a search box
Own 83% of search in China, 17% by Google, the rest are cumulatively less than 1%. Over 1Billion queries every day.
Baidu succeeded because they really understand what the local people want, did not impose American product on Chinese customer, more successful page ranks, and followed the guidelines of the government.
Kaiser used the term – high tolerance for cognitive dissonance. Referred to the general opening up of China in some aspects while tightening in other aspects.What happened in Libya has potentially increased scrutiny.
The Government views stability to be more valuable than complete freedom. It would seem that the Chinese Government Is opposed to congregation of any form and that is at the heart of the Great Firewall of China. There are over 20 bodies local, state and government who impose rules and restrictions on what content is allowed – and in many cases there is some latitude in how companies work within those guidelines. If a slip up happens, it is the willingness of the company to do a retraction. The government wants to be assured that it has that power over the company.
Filtering can be done in two ways – do it yourself (steep learning curve, high costs, but some control over time) or outsource it back to the filtering agencies (lower cost, but no control). Baidu does it itself, Google outsources.
Baidu calls its search history the database of intention. They use past searches to predict what may become hot and use that information to better serve queries.
Another strategy is to develop actionable insight from mining people’s search – which they feel provides them with competitive advantage.
Built an open API platform that provides apps from within the search window (box computing)
Today has thousands of apps available straight from search box - most developed by others
Growth in foreign markets. Specifically targeting areas where the competition has no natural advantage. Google has won some languages but there are many where it is still open season.
Advertising still the primary form of revenue.
Hiring all the time.

Bain Capital: (Gome Investor)

Capital investments and operational expertise provided together. Focus on EBITDA growth.
60 employees, consulting and operations. Two teams (Portfolio and operations)
Consumers in China are different in 3 ways (Education, Price Sensitivity, Disparate needs). To succeed one needs to understand the local people and the local business customs.
If you are not here already then you are late. Not just a destination for sourcing but rather a real market for consumption.
Expertise in Retail, Industrial and TMT. Focus on due diligence during deal time becomes a capability and pays of during operations.
General Strategy at Gome:
- Create KPI, measure, monitor, adapt.
- Continuous focus on relative market share appreciation.
- Used a strategy similar to Walmart in US for beating Best Buy in China. In addition, leveraged vendor financing for building large number of stores throughout the country. Best Buy just built 5 stores. Gome started later and had 70 stores in the first year. Had information on which stores succeed and why and used it to build better stores.
- Focused on Supply chain and inventory management. Implemented a sophisticated ERP system (with SAP).
How does Bain exit: mostly by divesting. Leave behind a stronger company then when they acquired. Do not look for controlling interest – insist on board seats.
3 ways to make money (Accessories, Warranty, Credit). Product Margins are always thin.

The business visits for the day concluded and we left discussing the day’s takeaways. It was obvious that China was thriving in this new age of change. There was a quiet confidence in the way our hosts all spoke about their past successes and their voice eagerly anticipated the next set of challenges. They were all young and hardworking, smart and savvy. They had figured out a way to beat Google, Facebook and BestBuy in China – not an easy feat. It would be too simplistic to assume that these companies enjoyed favorable conditions – the reality is that they figured out how to play the game before anyone else and had built Guanxi with all the key stake holders, including the government. They thrived because they realized an American product and business model will not directly translate to success in China and had adapted it just enough to create a competitive advantage.

Built right opposite the Bird’s nest and the Water cube, Pangu, China’s only 7-star hotel, was the location for the next event. Our evening affair was hosted by Wharton Executive Education and featured a talk by Prof. David Bell on success strategies for the Internet market. We had a chance to meet local Wharton Alumni at the event and after wine and hors d’oeuvres we headed back to the hotel. While some retired after the heavy day, there was some serious partying afterwards with most folks coming back only at sunrise. Instead of a short nap, Elango and Sueshni went on a run to T-square and got back just in time for the visits next day morning. Earl probably has the best stories – though Sanju was in prime form as usual (he can dance!).

June 28th, Tuesday: Company Visits
The evening’s festivities had taken a toll - the breakfast table had blood-shot eyes, dark circles, poor silverware handling and large doses of coffee/tea. The bus left promptly but we were a few people short – much to the chagrin of Papa Leo. There were 3 visits planned for the day.

China Huaneng Group (CHG, Dr Jiang and Dr Xu)

Dr Jiang( Assistant President, CHG) was a government appointee at CHG, the largest state-owned energy enterprise in China. He greeted us and gave us an overview on China’s Energy situation and the general outlook of CHG. Most famously he said that CHG was governed by 3 colors:
- Red: Serving the society (centrally owned)
- Green: Care for the environment and to develop clean technology
- Blue: Embracing an open attitude and continuous learning
The most powerful country is the country with the most power.
Dr. Xu Shisen leads the research organization at CHG. He highlighted that the costs of setting up research in China is comparable to most other developed countries.
China’s power generation capacity reached 960 gigawatts at the end of 2010, including 700 gigawatts of thermal power capacity, 210 gigawatts of hydropower, 10.8 gigawatts of nuclear power and 31.07 gigawatts of wind power and is second only to US. By end of 2011, China is expected to be the number one power generator in the world.
Rate of annual production growth at nearly 10% includes 8.44% growth in Hydro, 8.3% in coal, 19.16% in Nuclear and 92.6% in Wind.
Average coal consumption rate at 335g/KWh is low by international standards.
Technology development in multiple parts:
- Develop large scale generation units (soon to have a 1GWatt single unit)
- Pollutant Control Technologies (FGD, PM removal, NOx Emission Control)
- System Optimization and Energy Saving
- Post Combustion Carbon Capture technology.
All plants equipped with detox capacity – in next 5 years all facilities will have NOx removal.
From 2006-2010, 6.7GW of old units replaced with more efficient and cleaner units.
Even within China, CHG leads the way at 3222g/kWh.
Huaneng HaiMen Power Plant will produce 1030MW at 292g/kWh – most efficient.
Recent worlds events (Beijing Olympics, Shanghai World Expo) accelerated CO2 Capture projects
China Government will impose the highest emission standards in the next few years
- China -> 50mg/m3 of emission, USA -> 100mg/m3 of emission
Realistic expectations (by 2015, 25% will be from renewable sources)
Technology cooperation and IP sharing via license with Ember Clear and Duke Energy
Power Distribution and Power Generation in China are two different entities – opportunities exist to further enhance collaboration.
The Coal is in abundance but not geographically proximate to areas of consumption. Energy plants are primarily built close to the coast and transportation is inefficient. Gasification technologies are a viable alternative and are increasingly being deployed.
Global (Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Netherlands, Mexico, UK) and hiring

Innovation Works (Chris, Kai-Fu Lee)

Y-incubator and investor built by ex-Google China VP and ex-head of Microsoft China, Kai-Fu Lee who is revered in China as perhaps the most prominent technologist.
“The Chinese entrepreneurial environment is still in its formative stage, with significant barriers for the early-stage entrepreneur: the lack of management experience and coaching, the reluctance of venture capitalists to invest in companies in the formation stage, and the lack of networking and experience to pull a company together. These barriers all contribute to a dearth of high-tech start-ups in China. Innovation Works is matching entrepreneurs, engineers, ideas, and capital with a unique business model that improves success rates and speeds time-to-market.” – From their website.
3 investment programs (seed financing, Y-combinator, Entrepreneur-In-Residence)
Things they look for:
- Strong Background, entrepreneurial experience, some functional prototype
- Does not look for controlling interest, divest at every round.
- Experienced entrepreneurs tend to be more successful, reduce investor risk and require less hand-holding. Most companies find it hard to form teams – sales teams are especially hard.
In the last 18 months IW has created fair bit of value – USD$500M valuation
How to approach them: Use networking, develop an understanding of your customer base, ride on trends, have a complementary cofounder and use simple ideas.
The internet model is littered with good products with poor monetization. IW provides most help in this space.
Two success models:
- Companies enjoying significant competitive advantage & technology barriers can enter and succeed on their own.
- If only moderate advantage then use local team, run locally

Beijing Information Exchange

An integrated news and information trading platform still in its initial stages
Will provide features similar to Reuters and Bloomberg with particular emphasis in China
Information access is free, however subscription required to participate in trading.
Over 200 subscribers already and growing.
Business models still being defined.

End of day two further solidified in our minds that the new China was built to succeed.
There could not have been more contrast between CHG and IW. CHG was a high rise designed by an American architect that housed a state owned enterprise fairly rolling in money. We were hosted in a conference room with a 30 foot ceiling, a 25-seat rosewood table, comfy leather seats best spoiled by dignitaries, walls decked with marble and oak, and windows adorned with tinted glass. The tea served was exquisite, probably the best in China, and there were designated servers who attended to us. It was elegant, royal and seriously imposing. Innovation Works on the other hand was two floors of a non-descript building, random work spaces, clumsy and yet energetic and happening. The conference room where we sat in plastic chairs was marginally more than a make-do and at one time supposedly had bunker beds for the entrepreneurs. Yet both places had one thing in common – they both housed innovators and were powerful agents of the change sweeping China.
Dinner was at a Peking Duck restaurant, one of the oldest in Beijing. After dinner most people went for a massage and later we hung around at the lobby to toast Zander’s birthday. For a change, folks retired early around 2:00 am.

June 29th, Wednesday, Beijing (and off to Shanghai)
There were two visits planned for the day. The first was a meeting with Northern Light Ventures, established by an ex-Whartonite with an entrepreneurial background who had sold a technology company to Juniper. It was followed by a visit to the Foreign Affair Office of the Zhongguancun Science Park. Some folks decided to use the day instead to do more sight-seeing and shopping as it was our last day in Beijing.
Badaling Pass is the most visited section of the Great Wall and is only 70 KM North West of Beijing. Unlike Mutianyu, this section of the pass was more touristy, with souvenir shops and restaurants lining the access road. The Wall was a short walk up from the drop off point and was the lowest point in that section. The views were amazing and with the slight fog, it resembled scenes from old-style Chinese flicks. The construction was obviously different at Badaling– most strikingly, the shelters were built inside the Wall at the former, while it was on the Wall at the latter, the patterns, bricks and steps were all different and Badaling distinctly had night lighting.

Michael Lee had suggested that we visit Summer Palace and we decided to follow up on it. The 700 acres recreation area had 25000+ visitors on that day and yet we did not feel the crowd. The landscaped park with a large boating lake, pavilions, temples, theatres, bridges and fountains are a welcome escape from the bustling city of Beijing. The palace was built in 1880 for Empress Cixi (or Dragon Lady).
We all congregated at the Pearl Market in Beijing for shopping and then headed to the train station to catch our train to Shanghai. The train ride was a party that went on all night. Suffice to say that it included music, dancing, intoxication, finger-food, cards, gossip and more. There is a whole lot of stuff in the middle of China – we passed through populated cities and what looked like Ghost Towns, arriving in Shanghai comfortably but less than rested.

June 30th, Thursday, Shanghai
Shanghai city is a true metropolis, inspired by western cities yet distinctly local. Vicky, our local guide, ensured that we reached our hotel (Howard Johnson) safely despite the revelry en route. We only had an hour to freshen up as we had an aggressive schedule for the day.

Coca Cola China – Thiery Roques (CFO)

Nearly 1.7B servings of Coke products a day in China and continuously growing
Vol = Population x Incidence x Times x Average Consumption. Goal = Increase all four.
Consumption primarily in developed cities, distribution partners focusing on efficiency
- Cofco and Swire are primary partners in China
Traditional business model: They own the IP and leverage bottlers and distributors to make the product accessible at all locations.
Expanded portfolio of products (has introduced new products primarily targeting the Chinese market that has received initial success)
Increase brand loyalty through events and marketing
E.g.: Mongolia: only 2.5 M people, but huge per capita consumption results in high profits.
Continue to enjoy high margins – are systemically developing brand loyalty
KOlab is their innovation lab where they focus on creating the right products and enabling partners to distribute the product effectively.
Coke directly employs 15,000 and indirectly supports the jobs of another 400,000 suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. Coke has helped ensure better quality control along the supply chain and increased the refinement of the beverage industry as a whole.

China Business News – Qin Shuo, Chief Editor

Inspired by world news agencies and provides the same level of sophisticated news delivery in China.
Provides coverage in international business, finance, industries, services and tourism.

Dianping.com – Michael Jiang, VP of Product

Chinese version of Yelp + Groupon, been around for 7+ years, 40M monthly unique visitors
Customers come to dianping to seek information, stay loyal because of coupons
Provides reviews by food item, ranks and rates restaurants and other services (KTV, salons, hotels)
Provides coupons in the form of a flyer that can be downloaded or printed or web-shared on social networking platforms – to cater to the Chinese model
Provides a unique service – a text message with 70 characters that includes restaurant, favorite dishes location etc.
Chinese users prefer to click than search
A sales intensive process today as the sales team also needs to provide consulting service
It takes almost 6 months of sales to be successful in any city – needs to reach critical mass
Revenue Streams (coupon + group buy transaction revenue)
Have a check-in feature – yet to monetize as is the case across other platforms
Looking at strategies to reduce workforce requirement
Largest PoI database – do not consider PoI to have sustainable revenue, provides hidden benefits. Location based services have become very popular.
Incentivizes with virtual currency

The Coke visit was really an eye opener – here was a multi-national that had successfully adapted in the Chinese market unlike other bigwigs. The Coke experience introduced to us the CPG mindset in China – their marketing, partnerships and most interestingly the Bar made it a very special visit. We created a custom cocktail using an advanced user interaction system at the bar – one of the many innovations that Coke provides its customers. One of the most interesting insights was that of the Little Emperor. China’s one-child program and the rapid economy growth has created an entire generation of young kids and adults who have 6 people (parents and grandparents) catering to their whims and spoiling them with goodies that previously may have been out of reach. Hats off to Tania for pulling off the visit. At CBN, almost everybody took a photo in front of the TV camera as a newscaster though Suncheth was perfect as the sports anchor. Dianping.com had a good operational model and had figured out a successful monetization strategy.
Dinner was at the Crystal Jade Restaurant, a Shanghai-nese style restaurant with good food and great company. Charles had joined us for the evening and it was great to catch up with him. Eric and Lan had ensured that there was enough food and drinks for all of us and then some. Later most of us went to Xin Tian Di, a local hangout with breath-taking views of the Shanghai city-line and the Huangpu River. The Bund area is full of restaurants, clubs and people and was happening. The night ended late, we were famished and some of us retired to our quarters. For others it was massages and clubbing as usual.

July 1st, Friday, Shanghai
We had 4 company visits planned for the day - a quick breakfast, some tea and we were on our way to the one thing that Lebron and Kobe share.

Nike – Laurent Payre(Running), Andrew Wong(Inline Stores), Aaron Cain(Athletic Training)

The average number of sneakers for an 18 year old in America = 6. The average in China is 1.
The targeted age is slightly older, 20 as opposed to 14. Primarily due to affordability.
6 geographies worldwide, 7 categories. China itself is a geography today. Global strategy adapted locally. Future is digital. Basketball is the most influential – Kobe is the big name.
Chinese youth are highly individualistic and the market is fairly sophisticated requiring investment in R&D and not just marketing. In China, Of China, For China.
Chinese youth carry more practical values and are fairly status conscious.
In the last few years there is heightened fashion consciousness with people accessorizing and personalizing their outward appearance. Acceleration of consumer evolution.
Knockoffs in general are not a major issue since often that is not the catered market. The real competition are local shoe companies that tend to spend more in marketing and are inflating the cost of acquiring ambassadors. Often throwing money at athletes is not the answer. Nike differentiates itself as a partner in the quest for athlete success. (Sports medicine, training, physiological and psychological assistance)
There are over 7000 Nike stores in China. Often times people walk in and ask “what is the most expensive stuff you got?” People want access to the Nike brand.
National TV advertising in China is expensive – takes away margins.
Hong Kong today is no longer the style leader for China.
Nike and the Government have shared objectives: They both want athletes to perform better. For the Government it is about pride.
The “Never give up” and the 1288 campaigns really won over the hearts of the Chinese.
Their mission: Inspire 1 Billion athletes, Get people moving!!

Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange (Wu Hongbing)

Today here are 60 Assets and Equity exchanges in China – will be collapsed to 3-4 in the next 10 years. Only 4 trade internationally – Shanghai and Beijing participate in international trade and are premier markets for local trade.
The exchange provides a platform for trading stock rights (equity), asset rights, creditors rights and intellectual rights for state owned enterprises.
The Equity market is the largest with over 60% share of trade at UAE
UAE also has the largest trading volume at 250B out of the 600B for all China. Over 10K trades a year.
Property rights trading platform for transactions between state-owned local and foreign assets. Services platform for M&A activity between private and public assets.
Financing services for small and medium enterprises – funding from pre-revenue to growth stage. VC’s and Angel investors participate in this market.
Private investors may be allowed to exit in secondary markets.
Also provides a platform for the trade of energy, environment, technology, cultural property, agricultural products. In the future will be the platform for carbon trading.
Asset mix is changing with more and more private trading
50% of trade is from public to private – roughly privatization at 300B a year, 15% annualized growth.
Trading floor is competitive. 85% of trades get competitive offers & over 20% has more than 2 bids.
No derivatives or license trading at the moment.
The real job is to ensure that there are investors – not to be an I-banking institution.
Revenue through transaction fees.

SHSTI (Shanghai Technology Investment)

Funded by government in 1982 to promote commercialization of tech breakthrough in China as a replacement for previously existing grants programs. The fund is tasked to make equity investments to sponsor commercial breakthroughs. Government does not set investment strategy.
Key events
- 1992 first batch of VCs
- 1993 first fund with 5 state owned banks to attract capital from private sector
- 1998 second batch
- 2002 first company in Hong Kong exchange
- 2004 first Joint Venture
Multiple Functions
- Banking venture investment
- Equity (At all stages of the Company)
- Incubation
- Investment and value added service
- Combining investments from all subsidiaries
- National strategic alignment
Today manage 14 funds with over a 100 investments, Average IRR of 10%. Over 90 employees: advisory and professional (57 seed, 20 early, 23 strategic). 50 companies have had equity trade sale, 30 public listed, 40 companies on the way
Capital market is hot with majority Private Equity investment
- Target key companies in specific industry
- Overseas collaboration, capital and expertise
- Acquisition up and down the value chain
Initiative and funding used to be from government. Now fund is encouraging participation and that is converting this from a Government-lead to market-driven investment organization.
Criteria for investment
- Technology ideally proprietary or substitutes for inefficient existing technology
- Team composition.
- How big is market?
Two reasons to fail:
- Academicians with not enough business exposure leads to low success rate
- Management team can't handle change or growth
Failure rate is only 5%. Failure is defined as bankruptcy, poor products or no growth
To incorporate a company it takes a month, to declare bankruptcy takes a year.
Clean-technology, financial, service and consumer are primary areas of focus.
Willing to invest in Asia, Europe and America
Strategy: Spend time up front to set up good companies, Help companies grow bigger, Invest up and down value chain, Leverage government relationship. Very hands on in operations.
Hiring: Care about 5 years work experience. Education not so critical.

AdChina (Phillip Kuai, General Manager, Mobile Ad Platform)

Established 2007, fastest growing Internet startup in China.
450 people, Integrated advertising platform, 45% sales people, 4 cities
Primary objective is to connect demand and supply of Online and Mobile Advertising
Provide platform for demand side advertisers
- Manage ad campaigns
- Create categories for targeting
- Pay influential opinion leaders
- Plant viral communication
Publishers are suppliers
- Worked with over 1000 advertisers on 3000 campaigns
- Information is really what is driving the internet
- Coverage at an individual website not enough
- By working with different publishers AdChina has wider reach
- Avoids overlap, helps advertising be more targeted. 400 publishers
- China online advertising is time based so frequency capping is new
Advertisers want security so pay for time, instead of frequency
Objective is to reach sufficient people to create impact on revenue
Mobile grew rapidly. Very big share of people’s time. Android is the biggest
Features
- Tracking code in the posting tracks user behavior and helps reach the right people
- Allows Content to follow Behavior
- Allows Location based targeting
- Re-targeting people who clicked on ad but didn't buy
- Mobile Device targeting, Keyword, System Device, operating system, Time-based targeting
Publishers like CPM though CPC is better (Brand advertising vs Banner ad)
People are bored on the mobile (Name and cell phone number known on the app – send text link ad)
Privacy: Looser definition of privacy laws in China
MicroBlog platform for partnership and distribution of advertisement for WOM
Limited Optimization help – not providing metrics or customization help.
Provide segmentation and targeting through surveys
Limited TV spots so people are spending advertising budget on the Internet
Move away from sites to apps trend is consistent
Self service is not as relevant in China, relationship based (Quanxi)
Pricing pressure is not as much. Sales turnover is a concern. Bundling products helps.
Copycat environment, so need to run very fast to have advantage. Need to integrate across all social media platforms
User behavior on Internet is different from mobile. People are more mobile. Ads are more entertaining than waiting for a bus! Webpage is crowded, Mobile is less cluttered and ads draw more attention.
Opinion: Admob won't work in China
- People don't pay for ads, pricing is not relevant
- Rev share model does not exist
- Any reliance in self service is a tough sell
- Discount is not sustainable, since margins are thin

What a busy day! The Nike experience was probably the most stimulating; here was a company that makes money inspiring people. The advertisements and vignettes were very compelling and so was the Nike/Liu Xiang story. There were videos of how students in China have compulsory Physical Education and how it is a barrier to getting admissions in good schools/colleges which was funny and touchy at the same time. Nike formulated a strategy to address this need by introducing a training program for students to learn running and to enjoy sport instead of considering it a chore. Tina shared with us her story of getting her first pair of running shoes, improving her speed to make it to the school of her choice and how much she coveted the same- it got pretty darn emotional in the room. Later we went to a Nike store – and all got 40% discount on everything in the store, always great marketing. Tina was also the designated translator at SHSTI and UAE and she did a great job! AdChina was our last visit and it was apparent that we were eager to be done.

The next 36-hours included momentous partying (Kuperman taught us how to dance and sleep at the same time, and Nathan has some rad bar skills), shopping like it was going out of style, food and bargaining as a competitive sport (you want Eunsoo and Cheng on your team anytime you are negotiating), and generally hanging out till it was almost a crime. The only sober moments were a short visit to the Jade Buddha temple and the world famous Chinese acrobatic show. Most folks started heading out, but for some the party continued to Hong Kong.

Our hosts (Leo, Tina, Lan, Eric) really made this an unforgettable experience. While for most of us this was a first trip, it certainly won’t be the last for any of us!

Some Key Takeaways

China continues to be a premier sourcing destination for manufacturing, though technology talent and services are increasingly being sought for by multi-nationals and locals alike.
The Little Emperor phenomenon and the high individualism in today’s youth is making China an ideal location for luxury goods and premier services accelerating the consumer evolution.
There is a high degree of adaption required for foreign goods and services to be successful in China for two reasons. Local customs and culture and Government/Society imposed rules and regulations.
Knowledge of local language is essential to succeed in China
Digital and mobile are very important to succeed in China. People spend enormous time on mobile/Internet and China being a vast country, this provides a mechanism to rapidly make products and services available to the whole geography.
Consumption patterns are not uniform across the country- the South East coast is much more developed then the interior and the west inlands.
Funding for new ventures in plenty, though bulk of it is late stage funding by VCs and PEs and Government sponsored funds. There are opportunities to invest in the seed stage.
The general privatization of the country and the large amounts of transfer of wealth between the public and private sector maybe creating opportunities for investors to turn around and make profit.
Operational prudence and strategy are highly sought for in China across businesses and investment arms.
China is making a big push for energy self-reliance which opens up many opportunities in the areas of efficiency, pollution control, energy saving, and other clean technologies. Coal will continue to be a major provider of energy but there are opportunities in renewables.
Our batch is extremely well connected in China!
Urban China is happening and a lot of fun!

Crossroads ...

2011-04-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Growing up in a small town in South India, traveling by train was the affordable and preferred means of long distance travel. Since the town itself only had trains to a few larger cities, one typically had to take a train to one of the larger cities that was a hub and then transfer over to another that took one to the desired destination. It was an interesting experience traveling with people planning to go North, West and East on the same train, all waiting to reach the hub. On getting there, people took breaks, stretched out, exchanged contact information with newly formed friends and moved on to the next train.

The first year at Wharton felt a lot like that. We came into class 36 with several destinations in mind – investment banking, consulting, marketing, entrepreneurship – and traveled this journey together to the end of year one; getting to know a bit more about other destinations that you may not travel to on this journey, listening to the excited voices of other passengers talk about the exciting vistas they plan to travel to and wonder if your destination sounded too ordinary in the face of that.

Having reached the crossroads now, it is time to pick one’s destination. And catch the right train. Some of the passengers who came with you so far will follow you through to your electives, new learning teams will be formed and new seating preferences sealed. But all that's for another day. Now's the time to rejoice over the journey behind us, for the year that whizzed past in a crazy stream of hyperstimulated consciousness. What better way to do that than a class toast to seal the deal?

We had corporate finance finals as well as marketing strategy finals to close the term. We had an exciting farewell to SABRE as the winners were announced to an Oscar-like suspense-filled crowd. The winners won the adulation and cheers of the cognoscenti that knew what it took to win the crown. The losers trash-talked each other in jest about how badly they performed. It was a fun exercise that will definitely be missed. Relief was writ large on every face on Saturday, as a grueling Term 3 came to an end. Congratulations to all class 36ers for staying the course and fighting it out to the end - its an amazing achievement that I'm sure all our predecessors would be proud of as well!

Meanwhile class 37 is ramping up to make its history. We're all meeting with different subsets of them and responding to their questions and concerns and helping them make the right decision about which MBA program to join in case they are undecided. Good luck to all of you as you start your journey! I look forward to a few of you stepping up to share your thoughts on this blog.

The Bard said "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly". But alas one can only wish for speed and there are always consequences to the choices one makes to apportion time between life's commitments. Henceforth, you would be hearing less from me on this blog for a while, and I look forward to hearing the voices of other members of class 36 that will lend more color, excitement and perspective to this blog.

It has been a wonderful year, and thank you all for sharing the journey!

Welcome Class 37!

2011-04-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say a huge WELCOME to Class 37. We got to meet some of your during your visits and hope that we meet the rest of you soon.

You're in for a whirlwind adventure of pushing yourself and the concept of time management beyond what you knew before. Prepare to be surrounded by brilliant people (seriously humbling) just as excited about your future as you are.

It's a special time, that first term, enjoy it and welcome to the family.

Heartbreak hill ...

2011-04-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

The end was almost in sight .. that's when the Heartbreak Hill showed up last weekend. Having survived that, we are getting ready for the final stretch towards the finish line next weekend!

Last session can be described in a succession of V's - V for victory, V for Veeraraghavan, V for vagaries V for Viagra, and V for VC.

Veeraraghavan - last weekend was OPIM finals. It was definitely a challenging exercise, so it remains to be seen what the outcome is for the class. Last session was also interesting from the point of view of the class discussion in Patti's class on Viagra vs. Cialis. As she said in class, this is not a topic on which you can research market share on Google - for obvious reasons :). After the class got done with the usual set of jokes around this, we had a good discussion around how Cialis was able to position itself in a market that already had a clear leader. We followed that up with a second session around Dove and the campaign around real beauty and its repercussions. The classes seem interesting so far, but in terms of preparing for the finals, the materials seem quite haphazard and all over the place, so it will be interesting to see how we can bring all of it together in our minds in a week in time for the exam.

Victory - after a long wait of 28 years, India finally brought home the cricket world cup, beating Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium last weekend. All the Indians in our class have waited for this moment for decades, from the time we were kids that watched Kapil Dev and his team win this in 1983. Sadly though, after all this wait, we had to be stuck taking our OPIM finals while the game ended. We made up for that by watching the replays after the exam, during lunch break. Many others in class were intrigued by all the excitement that this generated and were trying to follow what was happening as well. All in all, definitely the highlight of the session, if not the year, for me.

Vagaries - this was also a session where the fire alarm on campus went off, right before the OPIM final, as people were trickling in for the test, following their time-tested rituals before taking an exam. It was fascinating to see how the crowd dynamics evolved as folks were asked to vacate the building and wait outside in a plaza behind campus. Imagine race-day when you are at the start line, doing your stretches, obligatory porta-potty visits, checking your gel packs, and getting your mind ready for the start of the race. If they had announced that the race would be postponed even by an hour, that would throw your plans off quite significantly. It was something similar last Saturday as well, as folks didn't have time to eat breakfast, or print their last minute cheat-sheet printouts. Instead we suddenly had this free-time on a morning outside campus to just chill and kid around about the test and the cricket finals - was quite interesting to observe the interactions from a distance and see how different people responded to a change in schedule on a day where they were probably not used to that happening.

VC - We had Anu Nigam from the Sand Hill Angels come talk to us about what venture capitalists and angel investors look for when they look at startup pitches. Had quite a few interesting nuggets to learn from. I must also add a shout-out to my classmate Sanju here for bringing so many interesting speakers to talk to us. We also had the CEO of Equilar come talk to us about executive compensations.

As the class 37 students are making up their minds between Wharton and other options, many of us met with or spoke with them as well, to help them through the process. I met with four of the candidates that I had spoken with for lunch to celebrate their admission into the program and answer any questions they might have. The admissions reception is scheduled for this Saturday on campus, so I hope all the folks who got admitted attend it and make the right choice ;). If you have any questions to help you with your decision making, feel free to reach out to us any time.

Lot more to write about the CFA GIRC competition at Omaha, but I shall reserve that for another post. We're on our way back to the Bay area from the event and our flight out of Phoenix should be boarding any time, so that's it for now folks! Good luck to everyone on next week's finals!

Once a runner ...

2011-03-27T00:17:00.000-07:00

[In keeping with the running theme about running, today's title is inspired by one of my favorite books on running - "Once a Runner".]

The highlight of the past session was the talk by the SVP and CIO of the SF Giants, Bill Schlough who's also a Wharton alum. Despite being the busiest session in the year so far, the talk was well attended and appreciated. Friday night gave a chance for classmates to mingle with the families of the rest of the class at a dinner at Thirsty Bear Restaurant. As expected, nothing can dampen the spirits (both the spiritual and bacchanalian kind) of Whartonites. Sleepless nights spent partying or working on assignments (or both) followed by full days of lectures and cases whizzed past and before one knew it, the three-day weekend was over.

This weekend was an occasion to get to know Senthil from OPIM 632 better. I haven’t heard anyone mention Silvia Plath and William Feller in the same breath – he does seem to have an interesting breath of taste in books. A quick summary of sustainability and carbon footprint considerations in the supply chain was fascinating as well – brought out several facts that I had not heard of before. The other interesting class related event of course was the MKTG 621 final – was interesting to take a closed book, no-cheat-sheet test after a long time. The class itself was one of my favorites so far in the program and it will be missed. We got exposed to marketing strategy discussions with Prof. Patti Williams through the Medicines and Aqualisa case - was interesting to learn formally what we were trying to wing our way through in SABRE so far. Many of us stayed up late on one of the nights, debating over cost of capital, corporate capital structures, asset, debt and equity betas and a whole bunch of other things as the night progressed, for the Teletech case in Finance.

This term underscored more than anything else my feeling of being a participant in a race that I probably qualified for by mistake, like the other academic sojourns of mine where I've felt equally out of place in the midst of a sea of talent. I have friends that recounted the experience of running the Western States 100 to me, and at some level the WEMBA program itself can be abstracted to that race. Only those that have the endurance and will to qualify for it would even consider applying. Once you’re in the race, your vitals are checked at every aid-station to ensure that you have what it takes to reach the next one.

It’s been an honor so far to witness the races run by my fellow classmates, even as I huff and puff along from one aid-station to the next, willing one leg in front of the next. The effortless cadence of the elite runners to whom this is just another race to be done perfectly, the flair and gregariousness of the social runners, cheering on the slower ones and chitchatting with the aid-station staff, the methodical approach of the personal-record hunters as they watch their time and vitals at every step, the tired visages of the few having a bad day as they trudge towards their next stop, unsure whether to call it a day and race another day or not. As the year almost draws to a close, it’s been amazing to look back and see the hills and valleys we’ve conquered so far in our quest for that elusive belt buckle that the finishers get to keep.

The nostalgia stems also from hearing back from applicants who I had interacted with during the admissions process – their happiness at getting in brought back pleasant memories from last year, and my exchanges with my own mentors who helped me through the process –Miri (class 34), Ashish (class 31), Laura (class 31) and Venk (class 27). Congratulations to all the newly minted members to the WEMBA family and wish you all the very best!

To continue with the running analogy in this context, the Anbessa song comes to mind – we’ve done our part keeping the WEMBA flag flying high in the first year, and now it’s your turn to get into your stride and power ahead of us.

Term 1-3 speed-round update from Joanne

2011-03-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Okay. It's been awhile, I know. Sorry for the blog-silence (and thanks to Anand for carrying the blogging torch!). We're rounding out our first year (completion of Term 3) and I'll give you the quick update from my side.

Wharton:

Term 1 I studied a lot, maybe close to 25-30 hours per week. The content was interesting, yes, but also there was a part of me that wanted to prove that I'm smart enough to be there. I guess everyone (well, me at least) thought just maybe I was the admissions mistake. I wanted to "keep up" in regards to test scores, etc. What I gave up was time with my husband and friends. I found that there is such a thing as too much studying. Still managed to squeeze in my first triathlon (yay!), which was a super fun activity to do with my husband and cousins.

Term 2 Cut back significantly on the studying, down to about 10 hours a week or so. In hindsight, this was an overcorrection from the first term. Grades went down (which is okay) but maybe flirted with disaster a bit. On the bright side I was able to spend more time with Tim (husband) and Fuzz (dog). Still managed to stay out of the lowest 10% (number of "LT"s are tracked by the school) but probably just barely. I'm sure my poor showing in statistics will come back to haunt me in electives. Alas, my mother's statistics-gift (her Masters) was not transferred to me.

Term 3 (mid-way through) brought more interesting professors (in a good way) and butt-loads of classes. I've ramped up the studying again somewhere between where I was Term 1 and 2. Classes, which started in Term 1 as full-term classes, are now half term (most of them) that overlap at an alarming rate. They still remain interesting and engaging (operations/supply chain optimization, marketing, finance) and I find myself furiously scribbling notes for my startup (you know, business principles I never knew I was supposed to do when starting a venture - oops, better late than never).

Because I thought I was hot-stuff, I also allowed myself to get drafted into the Global Consulting Practicum course this term (yes, all those words have been selected carefully). GCP partners a Wharton team with a team from an international business school, in our case Instituto de Empreza in Madrid, to create a US market entry strategy. I'll have to reflect/write more on it when it's done. So far, it's had it's ups and downs. Adding this to the workload has definitely taught me my limits.

Life/Career Update!

Well, thanks to everyone for listening to my rants last year about entrepreneurship and my corporate job. :) With the blog-radio silence, trust me, I saved you from months of my agonizing over whether or not to leave my job and pursue the startup full time. Ultimately, it was the wise words of our backyard landscaper that led me stop the on-the-fence BS which was causing my suffering, and just make a decision already. So I did.

On January 6th, I said farewell to my gray cubicle and hello to full-time startup life.

I. absolutely. love. my. career. now. (yes, all the periods are necessary)

Things I love about it: creativity, variety in work, and the feeling that I'm building something fantastic. I realize that I belong in this world and am enjoying every minute of it.

Wharton has been a huge supporter of our startup - from the professors, to my fellow classmates, and the awesome staff. Coming from a non-business background, the benefits from learning all the business fundamentals has helped me tremendously and I'm truly grateful for all the amazing things in my life.

Discovering limits ...

2011-03-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of data that get sent across the web gets sent using a protocol called TCP. How does one send data as efficiently as possible across a channel whose capacity one doesn't know? TCP does this by increasing the window size of data sent for every acknowledgement it receives for receipt of data. It does this until it starts to see packets lost, at which point it throttles down to the bandwidth that it just observed and tries to maintain that data rate for transmission, fluctuating around that mean value using the same mechanism.

What's the place for a networking lesson on a Wharton blog, you ask? The Wharton Executive MBA program topped rankings yet again recently. One of the reasons of this other than the usual that you hear, is how the program manages to extend your capacity for work, slowly but surely. It doesn't sound like a lot of fun while you are in the middle of it facing time crunches, but looking back at some of the busier sessions, it has been amazing to see the amount of work that got done between sessions with minimal time and additional commitments.

Which brings me to the TCP analogy. This session promises to be one where most of the class will hit our capacity ceiling. And as if they knew it, the load for the session after the one this weekend seems to be lighter too, as if to give us a breather. In the upcoming session, we have Bell's MKTG 621 final, in MKTG 622 we have a Medicines case assignment due to be submitted, SABRE decisions due, and an Aqualisa case due to be read for discussion. In OPIM 632 we have an assignment due, and three (yes you read that right) cases to be read for in class discussion. In FNCE 601 we have a Teletech case on cost of capital and hurdle rates due, and in WHCP 614 there is a lot of reading that needs to get reflected into a five-minute presentation on communicating change.

Now one thing I know for sure - this too shall pass. But during the time that it hasn't, it has been a scramble trying to identify all the different things that need to get done, and re-prioritizing them based on urgency or learning team conference call coordination. Last session itself was an exercise in juggling tasks and this one promises to do one better on that.

What else happened last session? Two of my classmates, along with two from class 35 represented Wharton at the Hult Case Challenge and just missed getting selected to the next round. We're proud of you anyway, Chris and Brian! Five of us represented Wharton at the CFA Institute Global Investment Research Challenge Western Regional Finals (that's a mouthful!) last weekend, and won. We now move on to Omaha to represent Wharton at the Americas finals. A big shout-out to Arif and Tao, the two classmates that were instrumental in making this happen!

As an earlier post alluded to, a few of us 36ers, a couple of Harvard alums, Prof. Smetters and Dr. Harvey Rubin from the Penn School of Medicine started a nonprofit recently called Energize the Chain to eradicate vaccine preventable diseases in the developing world through an innovative use of cell phone towers for off-grid power for vaccine storage. We have submitted grant proposals to Gates Foundation as well as USAID. The reason it gets a mention on my blog today is that one of our team members, Alice, at Harvey Mudd, got one-on-one time with Mr. Gates himself to present the idea and hear his feedback - way to go Alice! We are hoping that exciting things come out of this project and hope to launch a project in India and/or Kenya soon. Couple of our team members are in Kenya right now attending a GSMA conference to learn more.

Stay tuned for how this three-day marathon session pans out. I expect sleepless nights, caffeine-filled days and a lot of fun!

Be careful what you wish for ...

2011-02-26T23:58:00.000-08:00

A facebook post by Michael, my classmate, inspired the title for this week's post. As the saying goes, you should be careful what you wish for, for you might get it. All of us that got into Wharton were made aware of how busy Term 3 could get, and yet it feels like we weren't prepared enough for it. As a hectic fortnight whizzed past before the previous session and we're midway through another one, it seems nostalgic to remember the time from a year ago when this was a distant possibility. Don't get me wrong. I love what I'm learning this term. Its a confluence of work, school and personal schedules that makes this term hard for me, whereas for some others its taking on GCP over and above Term 3 schedule that makes it harder.

Last session whizzed past tamely given all the excitement leading into it. Many of us were up late doing (or re-doing) the Webvan case for David Bell's class, and then doing (and re-doing) the discounted cash flows for the finance case. Sabre period 1 decisions had been submitted and we had different teams trash talking each other in good spirits. I believe that one of the milestones that went relatively unnoticed is that the Webvan case was probably the last assignment that we get to do together as the original learning teams put together when we joined. I'm sure everyone one in my class has something to say about how awesome their team is as well as about how badly their team sucked on other attributes. I actually went back and read what I wrote in my Wharton admission essays about learning teams and what skills I bring to the table. It helps to have that thought out well and observe yourself as you interact with your learning teams and see how true your assessment of your skills were. This is a classic case of a constrained optimization problem where each team member has to optimize their time distribution over individual assignments where they are graded individually and team assignments where the team gets the same grade and everyone pitches in towards the work. People's perception of how good/bad their learning team members are, is often linked to where along this continuum those members chose their optimal distributions.

As we form newer teams to cooperate on projects like SABRE and GCP, its refreshing to work closely with other classmates and see the differences and similarities in their modes of operation. At the same time, terms like this where everyone is so busy highlights those in the class who make it worth the while to spend time at Wharton. There are several of these, but I shall just pick one to illustrate, while leaving his name out since he might prefer it that way. Not only does he take leadership in most of his learning team assignments, he always goes out of his way to help classmates with difficult concepts. His attention to detail is as good as his ability to make a jazzy presentation of the material he wishes to present. With a busy career and a busy personal life, its just incredible to see how he manages his time and manages to stay on top of so many things - definitely it has been a great learning experience for me. This post (like others by me) is influenced by what limited set of observations I get to make of my class, but I'm certain that there are several stars like this in my class, which makes school fun and inspirational.

Speaking of inspirational, as part of homework for these two weeks, we were required to record a 3 minute video as part of our Management Communication class based on the iPremier case where we needed to role play and convince the executive team at iPremier on what future course of action to take. Given that most of us did not prepare for it in time to use the recording resources back in school, it was interesting to watch the hodge-podge of video qualities, backgrounds, presentation templates and approaches from different classmates for this assignment. We were required to "create" a chart to aid us with our explanation, and this required that we invent some data and plot it the way we wanted to, to make our case. I didn't realize that inventing data to plot it in Excel to fit what I had in mind was so much harder than it sounded. Recording without an audience and pretending that there was one in front was not easy either. I've always had a hard time rehearsing for any presentations that I make, and sure enough that came back to hurt me this time as well. Its been interesting to read the materials for this class and learn formally how to be a better speaker.

As we hit home stretch for next session, the finance midterm looms ahead. Before that, we have our SABRE Period 1 decisions due tomorrow. Teams that did well need to remember to keep their eyes on the ball, and the teams that didn't .. well, need to get their act together and reverse their fortunes. The CFA GIRC team had our report for the Western regional finals due last week and the presentation happens in a few days time, so its been crazy scheduling that in the middle of other deliverables for school. It was a great learning experience about the semiconductor industry, performing public comparable valuation, DCF analysis etc. to the extent one could given the time constraints. Another illustration of the importance of being careful in what one wishes for, and being prepared to handle the consequences of realizing that wish.

Missing the forest for the trees...

2011-02-16T00:08:00.000-08:00

This has been the longest lag so far between a session and an update about it. And rightfully so. This is probably the busiest two weeks in the program so far, without a single exam at the end of it.

Last session was over even before it began. We had our marketing case reports due for the elBulli case. In addition to coming up with interesting business ideas for Adria to ponder over, creative classmates such as my learning team buddy and superstar Arif used Adobe After Effects to create ads for a new restaurant that Adria could start in Barcelona. The fact that the ad was excellent could be summarized by the response from one classmate who thought that we had just downloaded that ad from the elBulli website! Thanks to our classmate Leo, we had two really engaging and inspiring speakers last session, the CEO of EmberClear and a parter from KPCB. Albert, the CEO of EmberClear, was amazingly articulate about the business case behind gasification of coal as the next incremental technology innovation in energy that will drive billions of dollars of business. He recommended that all of us look at incremental changes rather than totally radical ideas such as "cleantech".

Did I mention that we also had our first final for the Term? OPIM got done with a crisp, two-hour final exam from Christian. We also had our first session of MKTG 622, which is the marketing management strategy class. Patti Williams will be spending the next few sessions with us as we rattle our SABREs and learn the material by building a company. All the Wharton MBAs are divided into several worlds of 6 companies each. Each company is a team of 5 people and sells two brands of a particular product in its own world. Given a lot of market reserarch, production planning, sales, distribution, forecasting and other data, each team has to decide what its best strategy for growth is. The game is played over 6 periods of decision making where one uses a software called SABRE to fight it out. May the best team win!

Coming back to why these two weeks are hard. We had the first set of SABRE decisions due a few days ago. There are two cases due in David Bell's marketing management class and one due in the finance class. For the communications class we are supposed to read a case and record a video presenting a defense to the media about the situation presented. We are supposed to do this as teams of two, critiquing each others work, which is due for recording this weekend as well. Oh and did I mention that those of us that are participating in the GIRC investment research challenge have our reports due this weekend? And GCP folks have their Devil's Advocate round coming up soon as well. Those of us with busy jobs or kids at home can also bid goodbye to sleep for these two weeks. Would this explain the record turnout for our weekly lunch meeting in South Bay today where 10 of us showed up to commiserate over each others' predicaments.

In the middle of all this, it is easy to get bogged down in the details of the case materials presented. Be it SABRE, or the Webvan case in marketing or the New Heritage Doll case in Finance, there is much more data that what someone could potentially use in their analysis. In fact without getting some perspective from the conjoint study data and perceptual maps in SABRE, one can get lost navigating all the other pieces of information there. As part of the Webvan case, Prof. Bell uploaded a few of his interesting research papers for reference. For the engineer in me, it was fascinating to see how Bayesian spatiotemporal models and discrete time hazard models were being used to analyze how an online retailer such as Netgrocer could have increased their customer base. Again, lots of data, lots of math, but a few key intuitions that guide the analysis.

So term 3, at its midpoint, seems to be about sifting through the muddy waters of detail to arrive at key insights. About not missing the forest for the trees. For data obsessed engineers such as myself, it seems to be about seeing data as a means to an end, not an end in itself. At a more philosophical level, it is about seeing where the trees of coursework and homework fit within the larger, more beautiful forest of life filled with the cheer of near and dear ones, Valentine's Days, chasing toddlers and smiling newborns.

The Batmobile and race cars

2011-01-29T15:58:00.000-08:00

It took a few days after a marathon 4-day session last week to sit down and post a summary of events. So here it goes.

We had a full-day corporate valuation training on Wednesday attended by a good number of class 36 and a few class 35 folks. Classmates who are looking at investment banking internships were quite happy with the session that would help them with their interviews. Continuing with the Impact Investing speaker series, we had a speaker over lunch to talk to us about different ways of looking at metrics for analyzing social impact from a market perspective. The Brazil committee met to discuss more about how to plan the visit, and solicit wider participation. The Wharton Business Plan Competition Phase II deadline was yesterday, so teams that wanted to meet face-to-face and discuss their submissions met and spoke about it. Folks neck-deep in their GCP work had separate meetings with their teams, chipping away at their tasks, one hour at a time. Few of us that are participating in the Global Investment Research Challenge had a quick pow-wow with our mentor Prof. Percival to get his advice on how we should proceed. We had two speakers come and talk to us about networking and how to go about doing it successfully. We had another speaker talk to us about charisma and how to make a good first impression.

Then of course there were the lectures - the reason why we were there in the first place. Percival gave us an extended session on discounted cash flows, with enough theater and script mixed in so we will remember what we were taught through all the drama. We had a couple of really interesting marketing classes where Bell and our TA Eric discussed Unilever's entry into the north-eastern Brazil market with a new low-cost detergent. Christian spoke to us about call arrival process modeling and how to estimate wait times and service times in a multi-server Poisson arrival model. We also started discussions on the Toyota Production System with a really cool French video about Citroen and their adoption of TPS.

We also had a flurry of applicants show up and attend sessions. This is the final stretch now, so I hope everyone has submitted their applications, or are close to doing so. It has been a busy month for me as well on this front. I have interacted with about 11 applicants so far, reviewing essays where asked to, responding to questions and in general providing them the same level of approachability and guidance that class 34 gave me when I visited Wharton last year and asked for help. So many of them are strong applicants and I hope they all make it in - class 37 promises to be one amazing class already!

Last weekend was also the deadline for my classmates to send in their applications for the Wharton Non-Profit Board Leadership Program. We had several classmates submit their applications already and are in the process of reviewing them. It was amazing to read about a completely different part of their lives that we seldom get to see in school and see how that motivated them to volunteer their time to help others. We hope to find the right set of nonprofits to match them with that can utilize their skills and interests the most, and from whom they can learn and benefit the most as well. We have a one day training program for all applicants planned for mid-Feb. Stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks!

As I read these essays from classmates, the essays of the new applicants to WEMBA and interact with my classmates looking into internships and career transitions, I cannot but help think about the Batmobile and race cars. Race cars are built to win - on race tracks. Every piece of their being is fine-tuned for that one act, to extract the last ounce of performance from them under challenging circumstances. The Batmobile on the other hand - a pure work of genius. Driving fast is only one of the things it can do. If you saw it parked outside your local supermarket while someone did grocery shopping, you might notice it because it looks different. But if it didn't, one would never know the things it was capable of.

Corporate life, to a great extent, seems to be similar. Through our undergraduate and graduate years, we are trained to excel at one specialized area. We get into jobs in that area of specialization, and before we know it, we're being fine tuned to excel at that one thing inside the corporation. Within a few years, we are all race cars ready to win races for our companies in that one area of specialization. But what if there were a few Batmobiles in there, that appear the same as race cars, but in terms of potential were vastly different? Where in the corporate world are there Batmobile detectors that beep when those exceptional employees walk past them and indicate to the management - behold! This is someone that you need to cherish and whose work scope needs to be expanded wider. In other words, how does a Batmobile - so used to its daily routine of winning races that it finds it as interesting as grocery shopping - signal to the outside world that it has potential that they cannot see? What in our corporate HR structure is made to detect these signals? One can learn about Hackman and skill variety and job design, but how does this get integrated into corporate business unit structures and career growth paths? How does one taken a specialist out of their "competency trap" and redeploy them into something else where they are untested but claim potential, or interest, or both?

All interesting questions ... and as many of us navigate the paths of career transitions, something to ponder about as we think about starting our own enterprises. Where would a Batmobile fit within your organization were you to build one?

Timing

2011-01-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

After three weeks of rest and recovery, Term 3 started for me this weekend. Many of my classmates took the Global Modular Courses offered locally as well as overseas in India and other countries. I heard from a few of them that the marketing class in India, as well as the product development class out here in San Francisco were quite interesting. Some of us had other commitments during the break and hence could not sign up for these – there is always next December to catch up.

Friday started early for some of us that are participating in the Global Investment Research Challenge – we met on campus early before classes to strategize and divide up work for the fun ride ahead dissecting a firm’s financials. After two terms, the starting of a term feels like meeting long-lost friends after a while – was awesome to meet everyone again and get back into the cauldron that is the WEMBA program. This session we started with Terwiesch for OPIM, Percival for Corp. Finance, and several instructors led by Carl Maugeri on Management Communication. In two OPIM sessions we play-worked on two production lines – first a small assignment approving/rejecting mortgage applications as a line of 5 people, and then as a longer assignment bidding for contracts to build a circuit board that beeps and blinks based on how quickly a line of 5 employees can churn these out. Competitive juices were out in full flow as teams practiced how quickly they could insert the different components and move the product down the line to reach the tester at the end and be validated to be defect-free. Based on activity times we had to make bids on how low our selling price could be. The winning team in my section made 31 of these in 10 minutes with zero defects – hello, China, here they come!

The revelation to me for this term so far has been Prof. Percival. Not in my wildest dreams had I imagined that analyzing and contrasting the financials of FedEx and UPS over the past two decades would be presented as interestingly as a suspense thriller. The man should definitely go into theater. It was just fabulous sitting back and soaking it in – seeing how the numbers were just one piece in a larger context in which they were set. The focus of the course is value creation – and from the session we had, it looks like it is not just about the value creation happening in firms, but also within our minds about rethinking the rights and wrongs of earnings management and other shady but legal accounting practices. I’m sure I will spend more space on this course in the coming weeks, so will postpone further analysis. The Management Communication class promises to be engaging as well. It was great fun to be broken up into teams of seven and have an opportunity to address the team on a topic provided to us and speak for 3 minutes about it. We were videotaped and are to get a detailed analysis of how we did and recommendations for improvement during a 30-minute one-on-one meeting next session.

As if all this action wasn’t sufficient, we had two lunchtime speakers come talk to us about their work – one on impact investing and the other on issues that companies face as they go global. This was also the first session in the MBA program so far that one of the sections had a class as late as 7.15-9.15 pm.

Some classmates came with their significant others, some with their kids. It was great to see everyone relaxed after a good break and after having spent time with their families. It is difficult to get enough time during the term to do justice to all the relationships in our lives. It reminds me of stuff learnt during undergrad actually, if you will humor me – the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. It states that if you sample a process often enough, you will be able to reconstruct it fully without any loss of quality even though you did not get to witness the entire process. Life during the MBA program seems like an experiment at disproving this. In the recent past theories, like compressive sampling have actually extended this further to say that for sparse signals (that have very little information in them over long durations) one can actually time the sampling at appropriate times, less frequently than the Nyquist rate, and still reconstruct with full fidelity. But unfortunately, not everything in life is a sparse signal. Catching up with friends during breaks might suffice based on how well one knows them, but time not spent with kids is memories that cannot be reconstructed with any other samples from life. One can only try to sample more frequently during breaks and see if one gets back any signal from times that one did not witness.

Timing seems to be a culprit in corporate behavior as well. As we are learning in the finance class, the artificial segmenting caused in a company’s life through splitting earnings reports into quarters causes the firms to move numbers across the divide to achieve their earnings estimates and manipulate public perception of performance. Clearly a 3-month sampling period seems to be insufficient to gauge how well a firm is doing. It will be interesting to see if the FASB comes up with stricter regulations around these earnings management tricks. OPIM opened our eyes to a different sort of timing – within production lines. For maximal performance of a team, the members need to work in lock-step, or achieve “line balance” as we were told. The takt time needs to be regular. It was also interesting to hear a professor use variance in VO2Max between students as an example for variance between people, just like variance in productivity. Terwiesch's got to be a long-distance runner.

In life, timing is everything. For those of you that are applying to the program, this is something to keep in mind. As you work on your essays and schedule your interviews, think about why you are doing an MBA, as well as why you are doing it now.

Global Consulting Practicum - SoyPro in Israel

2011-01-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

For those who have not heard about GCP, here is the official home page. And below is my unofficial story...
What people have told me about GCP:
One of the most valuable experiences at Wharton, but it is a LOT of work, really a LOT. Think three times before signing up for it, think ten times before signing up for it during the first year. Since term three is the busiest term, adding GCP to it does not really help.
What I thought when I heard what people said:
No problem, it is only one term’s hard work. Of course I can handle it during term 3. Let me do it during the first year so that I can focus more on my career second year …
Well, the reality is: GCP spans two terms (not one!). During term two, we have to start building a team, writing up project application, bidding for projects, worrying about whether we will get a project, and finally, working on the engagement proposal before flying to Israel after Christmas. AND we are doing all these while preparing for three final exams for term two… Every week, we have a team meeting with the Israel student team, a team meeting with our project faculty (PF) and TA, and an internal team meeting; every three weeks, we report our progress to GCP office; of course, every day, we are searching for data for an unfamiliar industry, building the work plan and dealing with travel logistics to Israel. Wow, I really did not sign up for so much work before term three even started!
You do not think I am writing this to convince everyone not to do GCP, right? Of course not! Even though the work came much earlier and was a lot more than I predicated, every piece of work is accompanied with ten times more fun. Did I mention that I love Israel?

Project:
The Israel SoyPro project was not our team’s first pick, but I have to say that I felt really lucky that we did not get our first pick! Now, I realized that GCP is not about the nature of the project, it is about the people and the consulting process. I am not deeply passionate about soy beans but later I found myself laughing with our teammates, each holding an Edamame (immature soybeans in the pod) in hand taking a picture in a Japanese restaurant in Israel. All I have to say is that accept any project you get, surprises will come during your journey, especially from the people you are about to meet and the country you are about to experience.

Israel:
Winter might not be a good time to travel to Europe or Asia, but winter is great in Israel. It was in the 70-80’s when I floated in the Dead Sea and soaked myself in the mud. The beaches in the Dead Sea or Tele Aviv are just amazing: blue in color and quiet with healing power. Masada and Jerusalem are about the culture and history of this amazing country. Even though I am not religious, it was just fun to listen to the ancient stories, walking the old city and taking pictures of art, food and architecture. I had the best hummus, kebab and falafel in the world, the best. The coffee, wine, fine dining, and sleepless energy made Israel a lively city. Wow, food is really just yummy: lamb spareribs, chicken pate, gnocchi, bread, pomegranate juice and dessert. Of course, it also gifted me with several lbs in weight – it certainly did not help to watch “eat, love, pray” on the way to Israel. I constantly asked myself: when did I start to feel guilty of enjoying life (aka food)?

Work:
A lot of work. I arrived two days early for sightseeing knowing that once work starts, there will be no time for break. We worked from 9am to 10/11pm every day. But of course after work, we ate together, took a taxi to hotel and fell right to sleep. Exciting discussions happen every day – it is so much more existing to argue in person than on the phone-, but we are making rapid decisions. Many stakeholders gave us many feedbacks towards different directions, but we have 100% liberty to decide whether to incorporate their feedbacks. We are perfectionist when it comes to work. The biggest satisfaction is when the client said “I am very positively impressed by your proposal” with a big smile. It was only the first victory, but it meant so much to all of us.

People:
I cannot remember how many times our Israeli team members or our Wharton team members told me during the week in Israel: “I feel so lucky that I am on this team (and not on the other team ).” We first met on the phone every week for more than a month and we became friends; we then spent a whole week together under one roof and we became best friends. We are also very lucky to have no-nonsense project faculties (PF). Our PFs taught us so much about consulting in real life and shared so much of their personal experiences with us that we really felt connected with them.

The road ahead:
While we still have 4 months’ work in front of us and I might change my perception about GCP during the tough journey, I felt confident that I will be back to Israel one day to visit my dear friends there.

- Pardon any typos or grammar errors. Jetlag is my excuse. :)

A new year, a new term

2011-01-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

Its hard to believe but we are 1/3rd of the way through! This week, we start term 3, and it is going to be one hectic term.

It was a good break between terms; for some of us, it was a chance to spend some good time with family; for others, it was GCP travel; for some, its going to be week long modular courses.

Some of us spent time doing investment research on a company as part of the CFA Institute's Investment Research Challenge. While the report is not due for another seven weeks, the break offered a good opportunity to do some background data mining. Personally, it provided me an opportunity to get to know the Lippincott library better. While we are based in San Francisco, and don't have physical access to the library, the online access more than makes up for it. In a span of days, I was able to collect 100s of articles, forecasts and research reports. When I couldn't find something I needed, I just emailed the librarians, who actually ran queries for me, and returned some very interesting search data. Amazing!

Lan mentioned in her post about the last minute dash to get the PRiSM assignment done. She got done before our group :) Some of us sat past closing time (and convinced Larry to keep the campus open) so that we could have a shot at submitting our assignment. The assignments are tough by themselves; working with study team dynamics adds another dimension to the assignment. (For the non-WEMBA reader: the PRiSM assignment requires us to model the ability of individuals to repay their loans, based on multiple parameters that could impact credit-worthiness. Its a huge multiple regression for the statistically inclined).

If the past is any predictor of the future, the professors will keep us on our toes, the discussions ought to be just as mentally stimulating, and the classroom interaction just as fun.

How did I miss the class photo?

2010-12-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

I have not posted for such a long time and I forgot my password on blogspot... Or, maybe I am just getting old with each term?

It is hard to post after Anand's philosophical writing, but I thought I would put down some simple words to end my 2nd term.

So, how did I miss the class photo? Simply put, I had too many things going on during the last day. Right after the Stats final, I run down to the 4th floor to finish up the PRiSM case, knowing that a career service appointment is coming up at 12pm and GCP team meeting at 1pm (which last for the rest of the afternoon). Most of my learning teammates joined me before noon with wine/beer in hand. Since classmates promised to call us before the photo session starts, we focused on the case.

Even though the 4th floor study room is not at all where you want to be with a glass of wine, we were surprised that there is actually cell signal. We got the photo call, then hurried to the elevator. Elevator rose to the 5th floor but the door did not open. In a panic, we started pressing other floors and the elevator started going down slowly, a little faster than the snail. We can see a little light coming through whenever we passed a floor. Finally, we reached the first floor and attempted to break the door without any sign of success. So we started pressing the emergency button, calling classmates on cell phone... It was really warm inside the elevator, which made me more anxious... I cannot remember how we got out but I remember the relief I felt when the door opened and when I saw Larry's big smile. And the photo was done.

The silver lining is that we are moving to a new building next year so the new students probably will not encounter the elevator episode. But the lesson to myself is "do not end the semester with three hard deadlines in a row". While we did complete all the tasks on time, I had no wine, no fun, not even a chance to say congrats or goodbye to my classmates. I wish I have learned the important lessons Anand learned - not to get bogged down in the homeworks and deadlines, but training your mind to cut down to the chase by distilling the situation down to its basics - which is to enjoy life and be happy.

Penchant for parsimony

2010-12-19T17:21:00.000-08:00

As Term 2 wraps up and we head towards the holidays, one lesson that stays in mind from the term is the importance of being concise and precise in what we say by getting to the heart of the issue quickly and efficiently. Abel called it "nuanced observations", Ziv called it "nuggets", while Waterman taught us that we should always be parsimonious in our choice of regression models. So a penchant for parsimony was indeed what we tried to develop in the last four months. Ittner distilled down complicated cost accounting scenarios to the basics of activity based costing and allocation bases. Abel taught us how to simplify interactions between international economies through the IS-LM, AD-AS models and the asset, goods and labor markets. Useem made us focus on leading people by "saying it so it sticks" and providing us with a leadership template that summarizes the essentials of how to lead effectively. Waterman, through the PRiSM credit risk modeling gave us a sneak-peek into getting comfortable with volumes of data and analyzing and finding a signal within noisy, discontinuous, real-world data. Finally, Ziv made us realize how complex the issue of insurance hedges against oil price shocks could be, and gave us a taste of how we could navigate those waters by just focusing on the essentials and simulating and analyzing different risk environments. In essence, Term 2, for me, was all about learning not to get bogged down in the details of the data or the business situation that you are in, but training your mind to cut down to the chase by distilling the situation down to its basics, getting a laser focus on the key issues that need to be addressed, and finding appropriate solutions for them.

This post, however, clearly does not attempt to do what its title suggests. There's a lot to talk about, given that we're done with Term 2. Just a year ago, we were all busy with our admissions essays, talking to alums and students, figuring out the best time to interview with John and Barbara, deciding on where else to apply, supporting friends who were going through the same process ... fond memories of a time apparently from the distant past. The year just flew by, and boy what a journey it has been. Many of us in our class had significant events happen in our lives. Shane got married on the week school started, soon to be followed by Chad and more recently by Tao. Chandra kicked off the class 36 baby series soon after we got our admissions calls, and we've had Sonny and Harshit adding to their families as well. Mohit is leading the pack among the liberated ones to have taken the decision to submit themselves to a lifelong overlordship by getting engaged. Congratulations to all of you and welcome to the new additions to the class 36 family!

The last session was over before it began. We had two finals, and a credit risk homework due in Waterman's class. It was a welcome change to sit in Ziv's exam and not have time pressure to complete the test. One had time to admire the surroundings, wonder what the answers might be to problems that one didn't have a clue about, and in general ponder about existence and other matters of consequence. Waterman rounded up the term with a multiple choice final where one ended up with different answers for the same questions depending on how many trials one attempted on the problem. Now if only they converged to the right choice ...

We celebrated the end of the term with a toast - yes, beer and wine before noon! Here's a picture of the class looking relieved to be one-third done with our MBAs.

Well, not really. The term was not quite over for many of us. We had postponed completing our credit risk analysis project for Waterman (called PRiSM2) until the weekend, so many of us were in the building until late evening. Thank you Larry for staying past your usual 7 pm closing time just to accommodate us poor souls cranking out a report and predictions before the 9 pm deadline. We owe you big time!

As the year draws to a close, many of us are also beginning our journey towards the goals that we have set for ourselves post-MBA. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many classmates start their companies in the past few months - first steps towards what I'm sure will be great efforts and at least a few big successes. Kudos to you all! Thanks to the dedication of classmates like Satish and Abhishek, the class had several informational treks to companies in the Bay area, forging relationships with them and paving the path for future classes to benefit from these interactions. For those that intend to apply to Wharton, look forward to several key announcements coming up early next year, about the new campus, new career management services locally, and the laying of foundations for relationships with firms in cleantech, finance, consulting and other key Bay area industries. Doug has been hard at work in making a lot of this happen, assisted by folks like Eswar from class 35 and Satish and others from my class.

That's it for now. Happy Holidays everyone and hope all of you have a wonderful new year ahead!

Refueling ...

2010-12-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

Many of you would be aware of the interesting problem of a truck traveling in the desert. The truck gets 10 mpg, and starts next to N 50 gallon gas drums. Its tank can hold 10 gallons and is empty, and it can only carry one 50-gallon drum. You're asked to figure out how far the truck can go in the desert.

Why is this interesting, apart from its mathematical challenge? As several of you heard, the Wharton full-time program has made an announcement opening up executive-education classes for free (a limited number every so many years) for its alums. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

What is less known, but more significant for WEMBA students, alums and applicants, is that WEMBA classes are open to alums to audit, subject to approval by the faculty. This is a really cool part of the program for those that feel that they need to refresh their knowledge on something they learnt several years ago, or for auditing a class that was not offered at the time they were in school.

Reaching one's destination often involves several constrained optimization problems. Those that plan ahead and stow away refueling and recharging material for use when needed often end up reaching farther along the path to their destinations than those that don't. In this journey, it is heartening to note that Wharton helps by stowing away some of those refueling materials for us along the way, to stop, refuel and charge ahead.

Just thought I should highlight this at a time when Wharton and the revamp of the fulltime curriculum is being discussed. One more reason to join the program!

Updates:
1. You can read about the curriculum overhaul here.
2. The curriculum overhaul is going to reflect into the WEMBA program as well, probably starting 2012.
3. WEMBA class audits are free once you graduate from the program, East or West.

On apples, consumption, and giving back ...

2010-12-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

Another weekend, another final. Term two comes to a close 11 days from now, bringing us a third of our way towards our destination. Last weekend we got done with our macroecon finals. As expected we had really interesting questions on the final, including Abel's trademark two-period apple consumption/allocation problem. Speaking with him over lunch, I learnt that multi-period consumption models are an area of research of his, which is probably the reason we get to consume apples at all his exams. Its pretty awesome how one "toy problem" (as Ziv calls these) can highlight so many aspects of real life macroeconomic issues such as tax rates, interest rates, binding borrowing constraints and social security. On being asked about his other areas of research, he tried to dumb down and explain one of the other topics he was working on - "optimal inattention to the stock market" which seemed quite fascinating as well. It would have been great if we got more time to interact with our faculty to learn about their areas of research and how that applies towards real-world problems. Zander from our class got a tshirt designed for Abel with apples in front and "Extreme Consumption Smoother" at the back, and we gifted it to him at the final lecture - was pretty cool! As Kent mentioned to me tonight, Abel should be glad that we didn't give him the parting gift that we gave Kent - classrooms plastered with posters that deify all the "demons" that he made fun of in class.

The two-period consumption/allocation model serves as a good metaphor for the two years at Wharton for all of us as well. How we allocate our time across the two years - when to get burnt out, when to conserve energy, when to accumulate "brownie points" at home to use efficiently when needed, how to partition workload at work between the two years .. it is actually not a bad approximation, coming to think of it. Speaking of multi-period models, we had, in my view, one of the most interesting sessions in the program so far in Ziv's class over the weekend where we discussed a risk management case for hedging against oil price shocks through different insurance contracts. That was followed by a lightning drive-thru through PERT and CPM time-to-completion analysis and job completion times. It would have been interesting to have this as a full-credit class spread through the term so we got a better opportunity to internalize and learn more about these fascinating topics.

After that cerebral weekend in school, I ended the Saturday at a class 34 alum's house party with many class 34 students. Was great to see them again after the holiday party last year and their subsequent graduation. It was interesting to see that it was better attended this year - now that the class had graduated and had fewer opportunities to meet. It was also interesting to see how many of their careers had evolved in the past two years. Can't wait to see how the paths of class 36ers course-correct and accelerate over the next 16 months.

Though a good chunk of this post focused on academics, we're hardly all about classroom experiences. Here's a sneak peek at some of the cool stuff my rock-star classmates have been upto. After the gruelling weekend, some of them had international flights to catch, to travel to their first client meetings as part of the Global Consulting Practicum - one of the great experiences of the Wharton program for those that are interested. On top of the insane hours we need to put in into Term 3, these troopers like Monica have signed on to work with an international client, and students from an international MBA program to advise the firm on a consulting project. Hats off to them, and good luck!

Continuing the tradition of the earlier classes, class 36, under the leadership of Wendy are planning to extend and expand on the NonProfit Board Leadership Program in its West Coast incarnation. Call for applications has gone out and we will have training sessions coming up next term for the individuals who will join the Boards of different local nonprofits starting next June. Another project that's progressing pretty well with serious involvement from classmates like Chandan is Energize The Chain - an awesome project that aims to solve cold-chain issues in vaccine storage in developing nations by innovatively using cell towers. Its amazing to see folks devoting time towards giving back to the world around us through initiatives such as these even in the midst of their busy lives juggling work, home and school. Kudos to you!

Many of you might have read about Wharton's overhaul of its curriculum as announced earlier this week. Watch this space (or the official EMBA blog) for updates on the implications of this for the EMBA program. Thats it for the penultimate update for 2010! Roundup of term 2 and the year coming up in two weeks!

Mind over matter ...

2010-11-20T23:27:00.000-08:00

It feels good to be back home, a day after possibly the longest day we will have in the program. For most of us, yesterday began really early (for some the night before ended very late). We had classes from 9.30-12.30, 1.30-4.30, 4.45-6.45 and to top it all, a two-hour exam on leadership from 7.30-9.30 where we had to write essays on leadership related issues based on cases we had learnt. Did I mention that we had two homeworks assignments due as well?

Hats off to fellow 36ers who survived the day and came out unscathed. Many of us went back and celebrated at the Wharton Pub at the end of it all. The day started with Bretton Woods and the Big Mac Index, gained momentum with Monte Carlo simulations and exotic option pricing, and led us into dinner with volatility smiles and Mahalanobis distances. If you didn't follow me through the end of that sentence, not to worry. I didn't either - now the lecture notes would have to rescue me. After all that, we got time to hurry and huddle together for a quick dinner and then take the test of our lives. I don't think I've written so much since my English exam in 12th grade, where I had to critique Pygmalion, Lord of the Flies and Macbeth over three hours. Since then, laptops arrived and the clickety-clack of the keyboard has replaced writing for most of us. Getting my fingers and shoulder used to writing for that long again was definitely an interesting experience. Studying for the test was a worthwhile exercise as well, tying together the different concepts we learnt in the leadership class.

In the middle of all this, several of my classmates were busy preparing to deliver their presentations for the International Study Tour choices. This year the top three contenders were Turkey, China and Brazil. The extent of research done by the teams and the quality of their presentations was just remarkable! These guys should work the tourism departments of those countries. Thank you guys for giving us a quick crash course on the business potential and party potential of all these countries. Whichever we end up picking, I'm sure that many of us would visit the other options as well in the future, so we will rely on your expertise and contacts to guide us then.

And just when I thought that class 36ers (yours truly included) had minds of steel that could conquer it all, today put things in perspective. Unfortunately, the day began with one of our faculty having a medical emergency and canceling his session in the morning. While we had a joint session for the other class in the morning, we waited to hear that he was well and was going to be taking time off to rest and recover while we figure out how to reschedule the class. But he had other ideas. He rushed out of the hospital at the first chance he got back to campus, so he could teach us what would be one of the most interesting topics we have covered in the class so far. Despite appearing to be tired, it was clear how excited he was to teach the same topic that he has probably taught to Wharton students for decades. The commitment, dedication, and pure mastery over the subject were just inspiring to watch and an experience to be part of. We all wish him the best of health and speedy recovery!

In journeys like this one, it is often the quality of the minds (like the one above) that you encounter that matter. The nuances of their commentary, the sophistication of their world view on their subject matter, their keen senses of humor - these are experiencies that will get etched in our memories forever. For that, I'm glad to be back in school, and to be back at a place like this where one sees the mind transcending physical limits and achieving what one would think was not possible.

The road less traveled ...

2010-11-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the leadership and efforts of our Vice Dean, Doug Collom, Wharton San Francisco in conjunction with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati launched the first session of a series of workshops focused on entrepreneurship. This first episode of the Wharton Entrepreneurs Workshop got oversubscribed in a few hours after it was offered, which is a great indicator of how many among the Wharton community (students and alumni) are interested in starting companies, or are currently doing so. I was not surprised to have this validated at the event either. I met a few alums and current students who left their jobs a year ago and are in the early prototype stages of their startups that they bootstrapped so far.

Class 36ers were of course, the largest contingent, given that we're already in school and this felt like another lecture we could go to. The speaker today was Rob Coneybeer, co-founder and general partner at Shasta Ventures. The discussion was around what the focus should be while starting a company - how much of a focus on the product vs. team and other things. He had a few interesting observations to make and experiences and anecdotes to share. Can't wait for future episodes of this series. Doug is also trying to get these archived so that folks who could not make it can watch them offline.

Why is this the update for the week? When interviewing at Wharton I used to compare what resources are available here with the Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs at Philly, and wonder how much of it we were missing here. Though we still probably aren't there at that level of operation, efforts like this are unique to our geography that no other region in the US could do as well. We are at an amazing confluence of technology, capital, talent and entrepreneurial bent, and programs like this are ideally positioned to leverage all of these and fashion the big successes of tomorrow.

So if you thought Wharton in SF and entreneurship did not gel well, think again. And keep watching this space for more updates on such programs. The road to entrepreneurial success is a long and lonely one, and events like this help solidify connections that go a long way towards making that journey quicker, livelier and more memorable.

Pedal to the metal ...

2010-11-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Last week was probably the toughest so far in the program. Two midterms, one homework submission, one team-project simulation and a lot of required reading for OPIM that started last session. It felt great to survive that and forge ahead ... albeit from the frying pain into a rapidly forming fire. We were supposed to have a final in the leadership class as well this session, but we managed to get that postponed so that things were more manageable.

Having said that, some of the experiences were just surreal. It is not everyday that one has the opportunity to look at a headline news item on the Fed and their actions to get us out of the financial mess and hear one's Professor explain in class "Ben must have done that because ...". For those that think that this sounds like PR for Wharton, let me add that other top programs would rightfully have similar claims to make as well. My experience is at Wharton, hence the description. In Abel's class we also had a simulation where we got to run economies as a fiscal team or a monetary team and wreck them through our badly chosen interest rates and taxes. There were a select few that won the tournament of course, through judicious and prudent policies. But it was fun to wreck an economy nevertheless, something one might never get a chance to do again ...

Speaking of other programs, we had a get-together of MBA students and alums from the Berkeley-Columbia, UCLA and Wharton programs on Friday night at the Meridien. Was interesting to chat with students and alums from other programs and compare notes. Many of us class 36ers were spent after two days of exams and homeworks, so we might have sounded a bit brain-dead to the rest of you ... accept our apologies for that :).

It was also great to meet with prospective applicants who attended our sessions. Looking at their backgrounds and accomplishments, I think class 37 is going to be an amazing class .. just as ours ;). Its getting time for you guys to narrow down your choices in terms of programs, as well as what to put on your resumes and essays. If you haven't scheduled your interview at Wharton already, you might want to get on the phone and get started soon. John and Barbara are amazing people to talk to, and let us assure you that they don't bite, so come soon! If class 36 is in session, I do hope to meet with all of you while you're in as well.

The other highlight of the weekend was Ziv's OPIM opening session. It is kind of surprising, spooky and brilliant all at the same time when your Professor walks into the room knowing all your names and employers and looks at you at appropriate parts of the lecture to point out to you how it relates to your job, or asks for your input based on your direct background. The material seems heavy on math but the treatment in class was more to stimulate intuition and teach the correct thought process for making business decisions, so it would be interesting to see how these two paths converge as the course progresses.

It was also great to see so many spouses, partners and children show up for this session. We also had Doug speaking to us about his plans for WEMBA West in the months to come and details about the announcement about the new campus. Given all the activities that we had, there were no speakers scheduled this time, which was great as it gave us time to catch our breath during the hectic sessions.

Post-session, it felt great to see that diapers.com, which was started by a couple of WEMBA West alums, got acquired by Amazon for a good chunk of Benjamins. Of course, as Waterman told us this time, "correlation is not causation". But hey, it feels good to think that it might be. Given the interest level and experience that my class has in entrepreneurship, I wouldn't be surprised if 5-7 years down the line it was one of their names that I find on a similar news article. On that note, its time to post this and call it a night ...

The power of ten ...

2010-10-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

October 23rd 2010 was a landmark date in the history of WEMBA West - something that many of us will remember for years to come. After a lot of planning (thank you Juana and Doug!) we had an event that brought together all batches to ever be part of WEMBA West - from class 27 all the way to class 36. How cool is that!

The event was kicked off by Mike Useem with an engaging lecture on leadership. For those of us in class 36 it felt like a continuation from earlier in the day when we had just finished our leadership simulations and lectures for his class. All ten cohorts have had the rare privilege of learning leadership from Mike, so it was only appropriate that he kicked off the event. It was fun to watch cohorts that graduated years ago volunteer enthusiastically to answer questions that Mike posed to the audience. Of course there was the pride in one's own class evinced by the cheers that the responders got from their classmates.

This session was followed by a wonderful reception hosted at the Wharton Pub. Great food, great music, and an important announcement from Doug - stay tuned for an official update when its ready to be announced. The warmth with which classes from years past greeted us class 36ers and engaged with us was quite refreshing. It was also fun to observe them meet each other and catch up, after a long hiatus, in a school setting.

What did I learn from this event? School is school irrespective of what age you graduate from it - nothing like a ten-year reunion to drive that home. The growth of the WEMBA West program in the past ten years has just been amazing, and the next two years will expand and solidify our presence here in the Bay area. So applicants, now's your turn to claim a piece of WEMBA West history and make it your own!

What else? We got done with managerial accounting last session with an "interesting" final to wrap things up - alas, no more Ittner or Useem for the rest of the program. It was a pleasure to learn from them. In terms of visitors who came to speak to the class, we had David Pottruck, the ex-CEO of Charles Schwab who came to talk to the class despite not being in the best of health. We also had Stephen Denny, the author of "Killing Giants", give a riveting lecture on what companies can do to stand on their own against giants in their own market. We had animated sessions to discuss which electives to vote on for Year 2, with the different focus groups recommending electives important to them. Some of us were out partying with Berkeley-Columbia folks Friday night as well. And oh, did I mention the upcoming mixer on the 5th where we will have WEMBA, Berkeley-Columbia and UCLA folks attending! All in all, the sessions end up being so packed with action that one needs all of Sunday just to recuperate and get back to regular life!

That's it for this update. For folks that are looking to apply, visit us, attend a reception, and let us know if we can help answer any of your concerns. Until next time, goodnight, and good luck!

Come Visit!

2010-10-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

Hey all you out there (yes, you!). If you're thinking about Wharton's program in San Francisco or knows someone who might be, I encourage you to schedule a campus visit. No matter what we write (although it is fun for us to keep the blog), it's hard to convey the energy of our class. It's sort of magical to be honest... like fairy dust. No, not really, but seriously I am a believer in things always working out the way they're supposed to, even if it's not what we expect. I found a home at Wharton and if you're looking to do an MBA, I encourage you to find a home that fits you and I hope that 101 Howard is on your journey.

Learning from the Best

2010-10-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I wrote about my experience at Wharton directly but have been thinking about this post for some time.

Okay - Wharton EMBA is not cheap. Seriously. The value (to me) is in the classmates, the network, the brand, and of course, the professors. When I was talking to people from other schools the had mixed reviews about the professors, in stark contrast was the way the Wharton students talked so highly of their professors. Now I'm living it first hand.

Term 1: Great professors to ease you back into school work, detailed explanations and gentle teaching

Term 2: I was apprehensive since our professors were so awesome in Term 1 but was pleasantly surprised when we got: one of the best storytellers I've ever met (great for a leadership class), a fast talking British statistics professor, a quirky and operations-loving cost accounting teacher, and an uncensored macroeconomics dude. Sure, they might be eccentric but they are PhDs after all! (Can I say that since I was in a PhD program?)

One thing that strikes me about all the professors is how much they care about the students. They genuinely want us to learn, understand our passions, help us with startup ideas, and work with us to create new electives (like internet retailing and how it relates to business model, marketing strategy, and supply chain -- yes please!).

So even though I had already settled the money factor in my head before coming to Wharton, I've been pleasantly surprised at almost all the interactions I've had. They say we get the best professors (ones that get the highest point bidding in the full-time program) out here in SF, and I believe it. It's an incredible value to connect with and learn from these amazing folks inside and outside the classroom. Money more than well spent in my opinion.

The paradox of choice ...

2010-10-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

Its time for our class to be voting on choices - where to go on international trip and which electives to pick for next year. There's a more immediate vote going on - in what we call "hell weekend" we have three midterms scheduled and two homeworks due. A vote is on to see if we can move one of them to the following session.

In the midst of all of this choice, its easy to get lost. In fact its hard not to. There are those that wish to remain generalists and pick electives from different specialties. Then there are those that wish to focus on a specialty and go deep. Then there are those like me, that love being back in school and find half the electives interesting - which means that it would take about 10-11 years in school to finish those.

The choice is on for new applicants as well, as the MBA receptions are on in full swing for many programs. We have our steady stream of visitors during our sessions, and had a reception after our last session for potential applicants. It felt great talking to all of them, sharing what I've learnt, and reliving those exciting days of taking the GMAT and writing essays. Good luck to all of you! For those of you wondeirng if the Career Management Services at WEMBA West are any good, stay tuned for updates officially from Wharton as well as from us students in the coming months ...

These are exciting times ... these are testing times .. as one decides which of the roads to take. There's but one life, but there are so many lives to live. What road at the fork will we pick and where will that lead us to?

City that hosts it all!

2010-10-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

The better half ...

2010-10-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Just got done with our first session post-Philly. While we did miss the fun we had at Philly, it was great to be back on home turf and settle down into our familar classrooms with familar faces sitting at familiar locations :). Had two riveting sessions on managerial accounting from Ittner, and three macro sessions from Abel where we got done with baby steps and are into the core of the macro material now. We also had a talk from Howie Kaufold about the electives process for our second year courses.

What was most heartening for me was that I got to meet two potential class 37 candidates, and both were women. Officially now I've had more potential women students contact me than men. So I thought I'd dedicate this post to that topic. As Wharton EMBA program wins yet another #1 ranking (WSJ), it is sad that like other EMBA programs, the number of women that are part of a typical cohort is not that high. I've heard various reasons for this, including the fact that the typical woman candidate has a child or children at home and that makes it even harder to strike a balance, on top of managing work and school. That the full-time programs get more women applicants because at that stage in their lives it is easier for them to make the commitment to school.

So why am I, a man, writing this post? Firstly, I can speak to the caliber of some of my women classmates out here in SF, as well as a few that I met while at Philly. Not only are they balancing great careers and school, some of them have kids at home as well! Having had the good fortune to have the women closest to me through my life all be super-women that juggled all these responsibilities, I know that it can be done. And that it can be done well if done right. For the folks with kids, I think a cooperative spouse is an amazing support system as couple of my classmates can attest to. For folks without kids, or those that are single, I do wish to learn more about reasons why the applicant pool is not as large as that for men since I firmly believe that there is no dearth of talent.

This is not a "feminist" post or something that's going to refer back to women's empowerment and all that. We all know our history and where the world is today. A woman is no less smart, no less capable, nor less ambitious than a man today. Several of my classmates and other Wharton alums that I've met are living testimony to this. So why is the applicant pool of women in EMBA programs so low?

So if you are a woman reading this blog (including the few that I've spoken to so far) - take the plunge and apply! Its not going to be an easy two years, but I believe that it will transform your lives in more ways that you can imagine right now. If you have any questions feel free to write to us, or talk to us and we're more than happy to put you in touch with folks who have been through similar experiences and can guide you.

Its a blur

2010-09-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

In the short break between terms, we presented our Field Application Project to our sponsoring organization. FAP can be a strain. It was a lot of work for our team, and we had to pull long nights to get the analysis and report done. It left us with a very short time to prepare for finals in term 1, and they were brutally hard.

Term 1 feels like hors de oeuvres after the first few Term 2 lectures that ratcheted up the pace. The Philly trip was a blur -- classes, networking, parties, after-parties, caffeine, more caffeine, more networking, both with students from the east as well

as our own West buddies.

In both WEMBA programs, the class is divided into two sections, and in each of the first three terms, rotation of students occurs, allowing one to take classes with each of your fellow grads in the first year. This

adds to the learning experience -- one learns from classmates as well as faculty.

Faculty -- wow! We thought the first term faculty were phenomenal, and then term 2 turned out to be mind-blowing. It takes incredible passion to be fully focused at delivering a great lecture (twice a

day, once to each section), and then sometimes do a third lecture at the end of the day. I never felt that the professors "tired" of teaching. With the rapid give-and-take that occurs during the lecture, you have to be on their toes, in case you are called on to respond.

Mike Useem knows how to deliver a performance (I highly recommend you read his book, "The Leadership Moment"); Andy Abel is entertaining and helps keep dry macroeconomics interesting (plus you get to say that you are one degree of separation from Ben Bernanke); Chris Ittner helps you take a dry set of numbers and question everything behind them (it was entertaining that he picked the entertainment industry's accounting as a starting case); Richard Waterman makes statistics come alive with his choice of cases as well.

Reality check: There is a boatload of work this term, since we have 4 courses in parallel instead of the 3 from term 1. The half-credit-unit courses imply finals in the middle of the term as well. Plus, we have to prepare for our international trip presentations (coming up soon for a

presentation/vote); some classmates are preparing for GCP interviews (Global Consulting Practicum); and we will soon have to vote on electives for the second year.

To WEMBA37 applicants: This is an incredibly phenomenal program but it is a lot of work. It requires commitment to the program and to your fellow classmates. Its not just a network that you build here, but lifelong friendships.

I have had the privilege of meeting fantastic friends; we have opened our vistas and conquered prejudices. One of my closest friends in class comes from a diametrically different ba

ckground. Yet, we have learned from each other, and have influenced each other's lives.

As you start the application process, bear this in mind. The impact that the program has on you is a given; the question is: what impact will you have on the program?

Whee!

2010-09-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

That, in short, describes how last week felt for most of us, riding down the rollercoaster of Term 2 in Philly. Classes from 9 am to 6 pm, official events until 9.30 pm, unofficial events until late into the night ... rinse and repeat for three straight days. Follow that up with a day long trip to Gettysburg as part of our leadership class. And the sheer exhaustion of sleepless nights, four classes filled with new information, and the sheer wealth of talent in front of you in terms of the class from the other coast that you wish you had enough time to interact with at a slower pace - it takes a few days to recover from this journey and the recovery has just begun for me.

Mothership was all that one was expecting it to be, and more! As an Indian, I was proud to see Dhirubhai Ambani's name outside the big auditorium in Huntsman - Indian names in these buildings are a rarity and its always cool to see them. I loved the campus and the architecture of so many buildings out there. I'm told that Usain Bolt ran at the stadium at Penn as part of Penn relays - how cool is that! School had started for fulltimers and undergrads, so campus was choc-a-bloc with students and parents. Some of us wondered which category we would get slotted into, since we fit neither well. You will probably get to see some pictures in the coming days when one of my co-bloggers finds time to upload some.

This term promises to be an exciting one! Leadership from Useem, Stat from Waterman, Macroecon from Abel and Managerial Accounting from Ittner, to be followed up by OPIM with Ziv - so much to learn from the best minds that offer it to us in three-hour capsules to gulp down and digest. Its amazing how dedicated, well-informed, inspiring and passionate each of these people are, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the term has in store. I never thought I'd learn so much about leadership with the civil war as a backdrop, and the trip to Gettysburg with Prof. Useem and my classmates achieved just that. We also had an amazing guide - Bill Bowling from the National Parks Service. If anyone plans to visit Gettysburg I would recommend him in a heartbeat - there seems to be nothing civil war related that he does not have a detailed answer for, including days, dates, months and years when things happened! Look him up online for some other blog posts that talk about him.

Hope essays are going well for the folks that plan to apply for next year. Some of the folks that contacted me are working on other essays right now and were going to get to their Wharton essays later. I would recommend to atleast have an outline of what you intend to write for your Wharton essays ready and to call admissions folks and schedule an interview when you're ready to talk to them. Also reach out to as many current and former students of the program as well. Talking to more people helps refine your thinking and realize what you want from the program. It definitely helped me think through my essays and reasons for joining Wharton.

That's it for now folks! Its crunch time for new applicants now, so keep your focus and hang on tight - this is going to be one hell of a ride!

Inching up to the top of the roller coaster ...

2010-09-10T21:38:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since Term 1 ended. This has been a great break to spend some quality time with family, as well as catch up at work and put in the time needed to finish up things that had slowed down during finals week. Term 2 starts in less than a week in Philly and we're all excited to check-in to the mother ship, meet classmates from the other coast, and enjoy the experience. Oh yeah, there are these small annoyances called classes that happen all day as well, along with the associated required reading that we are supposed to be doing now, and the preparation required between classes. But then again, who has time to read ahead of time when one can always read later :) ...

We had a good get-together today with class 33 and class 36 folks at Pedro's in Santa Clara today. It was great to meet class 33 folks who showed up and hear about their experiences. Equally great was to meet classmates after what looks like forever and catch up. Its been only 4 months since we've all known each other, but one could already get the sense of long-lost friends getting back together the way the conversations went today. Feels great to belong to a close community like that. A shared experience of surviving through stress brings people together I guess ...

As we inch up to the top of the roller coaster for another engaging ride starting next week, I wanted to give a shout out to the WEMBA East folks ... get ready! We're coming! Can't wait to meet the counterpart class from the other coast and get to know them!

WEMBA Reflections post Term 1

2010-09-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

Now that all of us WEMBA 36's have successfully completed Term 1 (on 08/28/10), I certainly have a better understanding of what I signed up for :)

For starters, it is certainly more work than I had believed - certainly people said it will take 20 hours a week but I thought that I would be able to manage with less (haha!). In essence, we have signed up to go through an experience and the appropriate effort needs to be made (else you will short-change yourself). In summary, regularity is the key - somewhere between 5-20 hours a week is what is required (yes, not all sessions are as hectic - we had a couple of days that were pretty chill).

The academia is competitive but unlike undergrad or even grad school, your peers are very helpful. I think that's a major difference - the classmates, teachers, alumni are SO much more responsive and available. The other major realization I had is that there isn't much time - 2 years is generally a short period of time anyway but in WEMBA since you only meet alternate Fri/Sat, its effectively even shorter! Its important not to procastinate. So reach out, socialize, mingle/network, utilize Wharton resources, discuss ideas, construe feedback - start whatever you want early - you have to make the effort to reach out and make things happen for you and quickly!

The material that we covered in Term 1 (Managerial Economics, Financial Accounting, Management of People) was very interesting and very applicable to everyday life. Its surprising how much of it makes sense when you put it in context of work or your own expeirence - ofcourse it also makes you wonder how some of the people you work with know so little! I was engaged even more by the great professors we had and some of the great discussions that were triggered by the diverse backgrounds and experiences of the students.

The weekly routine does become very hectic. The week that you are not in school is not any easier because either you are preparing for school or working on a team/group assignment or doing other related research AND catching up on work and family chores/commitments. Since you end up choosing between work, Wharton and family many times a day, in some cases you will have to choose to be a C-class player and suck it up. What's important is to balance your priorities to achieve your goals in all aspects of your life.

My decision to join WEMBA wouldn't change if I had known all this upfront though - the reason is because WEMBA is a transformational experience (different for everyone, but life-changing nevertheless) and this is what it takes for that to happen...

On to Term 2 - WEMBA East we're coming.

Application Tips

2010-09-03T18:39:00.001-07:00

Lessons I learned from The EMBA Application Process…

For those of you who are applying this year, it is time to start! I guess there are four things you need to worry about once you have decided to apply to Wharton – GMAT, Resume & Essay, Recommendation, and Interview, usually in that order. I did GMAT four years ago when I had lots of time, so I do not remember much about it. Pick the test date, then put together a study schedule and follow it with discipline. A super high score (close to 800) really gives yourself good feelings about yourself but might not help much in the application. Pay attention to the class average stats. Budge your time wisely.

Now, what matters more is the other three. Before you start any of them, you have to think hard what you really want to do with your life. My yoga teacher’s line for today was “the purpose of life is a life of purpose”. Stanford’s first essay question – what matters to you the most – is a great question you should ask yourself, even though you do not have to write it for Wharton. The key is to be “open, safe and vulnerable”. You really have to face the real you, know your dreams, understand your priorities, and identify your weakness. Another good way to know yourself better is to jot down what you spend your time on every day. For each activity, ask yourself what motivates you to do it and ask yourself what else you should do instead. It will help you identify who you are, and also help with the Wharton essay – how do you plan to spend 20 hours per week on study while living your normal life.

Once you have your own story, share it with your family and friends. They will ask questions to make your thoughts clearer. Do mock interviews too!

Now, you are ready to interview! Yeah, I meant interview. One key difference between EMBA application and interview is that you can interview before submitting your application. EMBA also interviews EVERY applicant – the admission staff really wants to know every applicant. So, go ahead schedule your class visit and interview. During the class visit, you will be able to meet current students, and observe the high level of engagement in the classroom. Most importantly, decide whether WEMBA is a good match for you.

Once you have met the admission staff and current students, you can start writing your essays, updating your resume, and asking for recommendations. Those are pretty standard once you know your story.

Feel free to reach out to any of us by leaving comments on the blog site. We are more than happy to help!

Network, Network, Network

2010-09-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Outside of networking opportunities at school hosted talks and alumni gatherings, I find the class using each other as great resources through a variety of mediums:

- Email group (unofficial): a google group of most students. Great place to get references for a variety of things from each other. Just this week alone, people shared sample NDAs, advertising contacts in Asia, and import agent contacts!
- Email list (official): this the mailing list for all students and administration staff. Used often to communicate schedule changes, reminders for school events, etc.
- Student clubs: mailing lists to share upcoming events and information for specific clubs (finance, entrepreneurship, etc.)
- Blackberry Group: group chat on BBM with about 30 members. Quick 411 on golf plans, bar hopping, poker rounds, and club scenes.
- Facebook Group: internal group of students and select administration staff. Lots of group discussions around upcoming trips, sharing of articles, class photos, team events, etc.
- Webcafe: internal tool (think Sharepoint) to share documents, course materials, reports, presentations, etc.
- Direct Email: Wharton’s address book gives you access to all students, faculty, and a ton of mailing lists.
- Good old texting: and when nothing else works, this does!

It feels like drinking from a fire hose at times, but seriously, the information shared is awesome! Best of all, the network is for life!

I love school!

2010-08-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

I am a nerd but seriously, I love school. Not just the learning a lot of stuff in a short period of time aspect, but the community, the ideas, and the energy -- you know, the whole package.

Yesterday we had our first final and at dinner our Econ professor had some "healthy banter" with us about the exam. On my way out of school, I chatted with the Admissions Director about some potential applicants and making school visits (dare I say) fun! Last night a group of fellow nerds and I studied for our Accounting final today and while we were taking it seriously, we also chatted about careers, aspirations, and our entrepreneurial ventures. During my run this morning on the beautiful Embarcadero (take that Philly), I bumped into several students on their was to campus and it hit me -- I am having the academic experience of my dreams.

I don't know if it was the endorphins from running or a long overdue epiphany but I am completely, utterly grateful for this experience. For those who anyone who might think that being away from the mothership (read:Philly campus) makes any less of an experience, I challenge you to come and feel the energy we have in SF and tell me that it's not pretty darn amazing.

The end of the beginning ...

2010-08-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

In a few days, Term 1 will be history, and class 36 would have made 1/6th of its way towards graduation. As you can see from the silence on the blog, we're all busy preparing for our first finals in possibly several years, trying to remember how it felt like to take a three-hour exam, remembering how to make efficient cheat sheets, and listing out materials to take with us for open-book exams.

Just in case you forget, these exams are on top of your work and life commitments. After hearing about these from earlier WEMBA batches, it now gives us first-hand experience in juggling all of these commitments in this crucial week, dropping a few to pick them up later, cherry-picking a few that we refuse to let go of (like family commitments) and holding on to them for dear life while watching other less important ones drop off for now .. It makes for an interesting experiment in time management, to say the least.

For applicants to the WEMBA program, here's an update. Some of us met with the admissions folks over last session. They are really excited to start the receptions for the next year and are waiting to meet all of you at the receptions in the Bay area, as well as in a host of other cities that they will announce on the official Wharton blog. Meanwhile, feel free to write to any of us with questions you might have - just leave comments here and we can get in touch with you, or better still, come to a reception and meet us there!

Join me in wishing the WEMBA 36ers the very best in their finals - hope all the lost sleep will be worth it :). As with all beginnings, as we reach the end of the beginning, we come that much closer to the beginning of the end of this wonderful journey...

Entrepreneurship Club!

2010-08-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

The enthusiasm of our class is unmatched! Just within the first term, we have already established: eclub (entrepreneurship club), finclub (finance club), En-a-CT (Energy and CleanTech club), real estate club, golf club, expert club... . Classmates joked that we need a "recap" club to summarize all the great activities organized by these clubs.

As an organizer of the eclub, I am going to write about eclub (of course!) But first of all, let me mention several differences between our clubs and the full time MBA clubs. First of all, our clubs are not across classes since class 35 and class 36 have different schedules: we show up in San Francisco during alternate weekends. Nevertheless, we are trying to find opportunities to learn from and collaborate with the class 35 eclub. The advantage is: we have a chance to define our club mission and strategy and deliver it for our class! Second, since we are not on campus 24x7, we need to be very selective in what we organize. There is very limited free time during class weekends and all the clubs want to schedule some activities. We learn to collaborate and deliver high quality activities (value, value, value!). Third, since we are all working in different companies/industries, we can tap into our existing networks very easily. Within a short time, we already have a pipeline of speakers filled up!

So far, eclub has organized two activities: a) club member meeting to establish club mission; b) entrepreneur panel with our classmates. Over half of our class is interested in setting up their own companies - the unique value Wharton EMBA West advertises to applicants is true! We focused our club mission to enable our classmates to run their startups. The first panel with entreprenuers was very successful: entreprenuers from our class discussed challenges they faced openly with us and answered all sorts of questions from us. One classmate commented "I started to know what I do not know."

Our upcoming events include: Panel with VCs (from our class and outside of our class), Busienss Plan Competition Prep, and Treks... I really feel that I am on track to accomplish the entreprenuership mission I wrote in my application essay!

Parties on non-school weekends

2010-07-27T23:09:00.000-07:00

Attend Harshit's party this weekend. Wow! I didnt know what I was missing. Got to connect with the families of my friends. Had some really interesting discussions and ate some amazing food. Pictures from the house party in South Bay. People also got together in San Francisco and Seattle.

School this coming weekend!!

House Parties

2010-07-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

In addition to all the networking events, it’s nice to see the batch come together for what seems to be quickly becoming a ritual – house parties. I hosted the second one last week. So far we seem to be averaging one a month. It’s definitely great to get more face time with your class mates, but the real value of these events are for families, quite frankly.

There’s no question that the program is taxing and takes a lot of hours – both in and outside of class. And there’s also no question that we can’t do this without the support of our families. The house parties give them a chance to meet each other, trade war stories, and form their own network. After all, we are all in this together!

The sound of silence ...

2010-07-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

As fall approaches and the MBA admissions process starts for different schools, many of you might have started the process of taking GMAT and wondering what to do with your essays. As I look back to those days, one useful piece of advice I could give would be that the habits you develop during this time will help you once you are in the MBA program as well. As you navigate the labyrinths of application forms and deadlines, listen to yourself. Take feedback and advice from as many different people as possible, internalize it, and then take a pause. Look within. What comes to mind when all there is is the sound of silence? Just as the application process is all about figuring out what you wish to achieve with the MBA and how your life so far helps you towards that, the MBA process itself, as I am learning firsthand, is all about figuring out what you want out of it and working towards that. What rings true in the silence of introspection as you prepare your essays is what will guide you as you navigate the waters of the MBA program.

In some sense, it is like transplanting you as you are driving during rush hour in Boston or New York, into the traffic in Mumbai on a normal day in India. You are already an expert at driving in an environment where traffic rules are considered useful suggestions rather than rules, so you know how to move forward successfully under uncertainty. Now you need to figure out how to travel towards your destination in an environment where everyone seems to be traveling in totally different, sometimes contradictory directions. The sights and sounds on the roads are aplenty, several roadside vendors of interesting products beckon you to stop awhile and take a look. Each moment is a sensory overload in terms of the information your brain can process, yet you need to focus and remember that you hit the road with a plan to get to a destination. While you can have your pick of roadside distractions to entertain you along the way just as any other person, it is ultimately up to you to reach where you intended to reach. If you are lost all that you need to do is to stop and ask any bystander for directions and they are eager to help. But unless you, in the silence of your thoughts, process all inputs thrown your way and find out where you wish to go, you will not get there.

So as you look ahead to some of the busiest years in your life, stop, relax, reflect. For one, you will not find time to do that for a while, especially if you get into a program that's intense and intensely rewarding such as the WEMBA program. Listen to your mind as it tries to find an optimal resting place between the different constraints of time, family, friends, work, money and desired goals. Observe what process led it to that choice. Once you are in the MBA program, these observations will help you stay the course and course correct when needed, and not get lost as myriads of choices get thrown your way. After all, it is through moments of silence that our inner selves speak loudest to us.

Term 1: Check Point (exams and FAP)

2010-07-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

More than half of the first term is gone… we have had 3 mid-term exams since the second weekend in SF and finally, we now have two weekends (end of July and mid-August) without worrying about any exam. Then, the finals will arrive at the end of August. What a packed term! And it will get worse in term 2, 3, 4 …

When I evaluate how well I did in the exam, I cannot help but using the equity theory learned from the management class: was my output/input ratio above or below my expectation? If not, did I study efficiently? Did I spend the extra 80% of time to get the extra 20% of score? Of course, sometimes I tend to compare my output/input ratio to others’ – “too competitive”. But more than often, I would self-correct since comparing with others will never make me happy. The ultimate goal is to learn and apply the knowledge, at the same time, maybe improve exam tactics. Study partnership definitely helps, even if you understand one concept better than other people, explaining it to them make your own understanding deeper. Knowing others got a better score with your help is much more satisfactory than getting a higher score yourself. And when I am the person being helped, I feel very grateful for the great classmates I had the honor to meet in Wharton.

The biggest project for me this term is FAP (field application project) since I convinced my learning team to conduct the study in my organization. If you really want to do it in your organization, the key is to convince your upper management to sponsor FAP before you start at Wharton. Since the project lasts for less than three months, a quick start is crucial. After that, you will work with your organization and your learning team to define the scope and approach. Our data collection is mostly done via phone interviews and competitive analysis. Of course the highlight of the project was meeting the president of my organization – half of my team travelled to Seattle for this. It is an eye-opening project not only for my learning term who did not know much about my organization before, but also for me. I got to know many people in my organization and learn about cultural differences outside of my team. Coordinating the entire project is not easy at all, and I probably spent 20 hours just to arrange all the appointments and internal data collection. Not everyone will understand the importance of the project, and you really have to believe what you are doing and continue doing it especially when people refuse to participate for various reasons. Believe that you can make a change is the key to success of FAP, or to any other endeavor in life.

Pacing oneself ...

2010-07-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Since I don't run quite as often as I talk about running, I thought I'd use running analogies this time as a wishful motivator to get me out and about. These first six weeks at Wharton have been like the first two miles in a marathon. You know you're a 4-hr finisher, but you like to feel cool and stand at the 3-hr starting line with the Boston qualifiers. You see them zipping ahead and in all the headiness of the race, the cheering crowds and the reality that race day has finally arrived, you get your adrenaline rush and start sprinting along with them too.

It feels good for the first mile. At the second mile, slowly some muscles start to cramp. Stomach tightens. Posture sags. You start taking big breaths from your wide-open mouth ... and slow yourself down to a jog, trying to recover your breath and deciding to pace yourself at the speed that works for you. Ultimately, thats what the marathon - and in a sense, life - is all about. Its about the journey, and your experience along the way; the friends you make, the people you cheer along, the folks that run beside you when you begin to tire and cheer you on. Its about finishing strong with a smile on your face, your friends crossing that finish line together with you.

There are the 3-hr finishers. Hell, there are the 2.5-hr finishers. Kudos to them. The key is, what is in this journey for you? When you decide to apply for an MBA program, or more specifically for the Wharton Exec MBA program, what motivated you? As you will all find out, this is not your typical Exec MBA program. Getting the same experience as a full-time program in terms of workload - that is the exhilirating part about this program, and that can be something difficult to get your head around as well. The key, as we're learning slowly, is to pace yourself. To keep in mind, that this is not a sprint, but a marathon. What matters is not how long it took you to cross that finish line, and how many were ahead of you, but how many will remember that you ran the race with them, and cherish the shared experience for years to come.

Things that made it worth it.. in session 2 alone

2010-06-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

It’s not easy chasing that equilibrium people talk about. I wonder if I’ll ever find mine. However, I did find a few things last session that made it fun.

1. Wharton Clubs: it’s a set of people with common interests. Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Invest Banking, Consulting, and Clean Tech were the ones people talked most about. The concept of taking ‘treks’ is pretty neat. A bunch of students setup day long meetings with a few firms in an area (say VC firms, or Invest Banks) and then they spend about 1-2 hours with each firm. They sit in on meetings, listen in on conversations, get to ask tons of questions, and make plenty of connections. For a lot of people, they have a sense of the career switch they have planned, but with no concrete ideas/next-steps or connections. This solves that all, and more!

2. Learning Teams: the Director of Admissions is behind the art and science of putting these together taking a bunch of factors such as work experience, job sector, location, scores, and his secret sauce into the mix. What comes out is teams of 5-6 people called learning teams. All team projects for the first year are done within this team. This team is where you start – the foundation of team learning. They are your de facto study group, people you lean on, and the people you probably get to know first (and best?).

3. Class Diversity: not to beat a dead horse, but the people here come from varied backgrounds. The class profiles give you a sense.

4. The Wharton Bar: this is a great idea; kudos to whoever thought about it. A bar just for students and faculty in the hotel where everyone is already staying. Drinks are half off. And no one needs to drive back!

5. Commuting Options: a bunch of us carpool up from South Bay in a Limo. That’s right, a limo!

Perspective on Priorities

2010-06-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

I always thought that I managed my time well, but the WEMBA is teaching me new prioritization skills on a daily basis.

There's a fair amount of work in between classes -- this is the undiluted full-time program in an executive format. Right after the last session, we plunged into the MGMT course paper on "job analysis". Throw in a couple meetings with the learning team and the host organization for the Field Application Project. After two crises at work last week, that left me bleary eyed, I finally did the d-thing: delegated. It was my team's chance to sink or swim. The team at work did well with me watching from the sidelines. I see the upside potential of this already!

Delegating allowed me to make time over the weekend to cram some micro-economics in prep for the mid-term that's coming up in the next session; I haven't ever pulled an all-nighter for anything -- work or exams -- ever, so if I don't prepare ahead of time, I am royally screwed. The distribution curve in the class for grades is reflective of the caliber of students: > 50% of students scored more than 90% on the first accounting midterm.

To keep things in perspective, there is a lot of fun as well. One of our classmates threw a house-party in the south bay last weekend, and more than 50 (students + significant others) showed up. Talk about team spirit! You do learn to party well...

The other important thing is to manage time while you are in sessions. This is the only time to physically network, so the key is not to work on cases or assignments while you are in between classes. Its been fun to mix with the class at the Le Meridien each night -- you don't have to drink to mix and and have fun. The poker sessions are fun too -- there's a number of newbies learning to play.

Managing time at home is the final challenge. The last two weekends, I spent Sunday with the family going out and doing things we haven't done in a while. The meaning of the cliche "quality time" has finally dawned on me.

Right now, I'm looking forward to the BBQ on Friday (assuming I survive Prof. Smetters midterm)...

The journey of a lifetime ...

2010-06-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

When we started school a month ago, not many of us thought that we'd be going to school in a stretch limo. But sure enough, thanks to the creative spirits and enthusiasm of one of our classmates, Tania, that's exactly what a dozen of us get to do each time we're in session - chill out in a cool stretch Hummer, turn up the music and have a ball of a time to school and back!

Its precisely such experiences of camaraderie and fun that makes us look forward to every weekend we're in session. Even as your thirst for knowledge is quenched by high-caliber professors like Smetters, Lambert and MacDuffie, shared experiences inside and outside the classroom make this more than just an information-transfer exercise. As our individual journeys progress like brightly-lit buses hurtling down the countryside at dusk, these reunions feel like reunions with familiar buses with their passengers on their separate journeys pulling up alongside on this shared stretch of road, looking at us again - waving, cheering, smiling faces encouraging us towards our final destinations. Those memories make us wish we got to know those fellow travelers better, while this one actually gives us the opportunity to do so.

Irrespective of the roads that brought us to this shared stretch of road, every classmate I've spoken to seems genuinely interested in what I've done, what I aim to do after the MBA, and how they can help me reach my goals. This is similar to what I've heard from many of them as well, about their own personal experience with other classmates. I firmly believe that what you are in life is not because of what you were able to do, but who walked with you, supported you, carried you through to that destination. And going by the caliber of people around me, I feel positive that this journey is going to be an exhilarating one. And when that journey is going to be in a limo every other week ... man, what a journey ;) !

Chasing Equilibrium…. Are we there yet?

2010-06-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

During orientation week, Prof. Kaufold talked about balancing between career, school, and personal relationships. It’s not news to me. In fact, I read all about it in other Wharton blogs and heard all about it from the alums. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into. And I’ve always been really good in time management. Or so I thought…

The first week of school was crazy! But good kind of crazy. We were fire hosed with massive amount of info, but I felt completely energetic being challenged intellectually and meeting all the great people in my class. I thought, now that boot camp week is behind us, I can finally get into a rhythm. Or so I thought…

Then we got to go home. Now career and home life also got thrown into the mix. And the next two weeks got even CRAZIER!!! Time flew by faster than I had ever experienced. I felt like I was constantly putting out fire. You know that game “Whack-a-Moe”? I love that game in the arcade. But now I’m playing it in real life. Things just keep popping up everywhere! Emergency at work, accelerated milestones, vendor issues, staffing plan change, review sessions, team telecons, case presentation, 3 hours daily commute, paper drafts, post-readings, pre-readings, and oh, a midterm.

Realization #1 – Slacking off is NOT an option! Every minute counts now. It really does. Being the geeky engineer that I am, I actually did a whole cost/benefit trade study on different commute options since I spend about 3 hours commuting to/from work everyday. I can really use every minute of the 3 hrs I waste in traffic everyday.

Realization #2 - Something’s gotta give! I told my boss that I would try my best to maintain zero impact to work due to school. I told my partner that I would try my best to keep a balance to maintain our relationship. And I promised myself that I would also do my best in school and stay on top of all my studying. Oh, and exercise… it’s completely out of window at the moment. And sleep? Ummm.. what is that? I quickly realized… I can’t have it all. I can still keep them all, just not at 100% at all times like I had hoped. Something’s gotta give.

Realization #3 – Equilibrium is a moving target! So I thought once I have my schedule figured out, I can get into a work/study/travel rhythm. Ummm… reality is, unanticipated events/issues kept happening and will probably continue to keep occurring for the next two years. Sometimes you just can’t plan for everything. By trying to live a 30+ hrs life in a 24 hrs day? Well, I will have to keep changing my rhythm to adapt to each day. The infamous elusive equilibrium point!

Frustrations became acceptance once I realized these points. It’s ok to grab a quick yogurt with my partner instead of a full sushi dinner. It’s ok to redefine quality time. It’s ok to trade planned study time to put out fires at work. It’s ok to skip a hockey or biking session to catch up on studying. It’s ok to put off blogging for a while. It’s ok to ask for understandings and not try to be everywhere. It’s well… simply okay. It’s ok to not beat myself up for not having a perfect plan. May not be my original plan, but somehow, all the fires were put out and everything still got done. Well, except the sushi dinner. LOL.

Now that our first midterm is done, I can finally relax for just a minute to catch up on blogging to tell you guys that it’s ok, don’t beat yourself up, and everything will be ok.

Welcome to Wharton, and we’ll be chasing equilibrium together for the next two years!

Returning back for Session 2

2010-06-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

So we are back in 'student mode' this Thursday -> Saturday and we have an Accounting mid-term and have to discuss/finalize our FAPs. Today, I was catching up on the eRoom daily email alerts for the last 2 weeks (we should check them each day!) and learnt that we also have a survey to do (SG Cowen) and an opportunity for setting up time with Wendy.
There seems to be an influx of information - and this really is going to be about consistency, and really making an effort to keep up with the happenings during our sessions (via team meetings/action items, Facebook, eRoom, Homework, pre-reading and post-readings!). I guess this is one more difference in an EMBA where perhaps in-between sessions you do not get regular face-time and thus are more likely to miss something.
Since we had our kick-off week in May already, we know what to expect. I can understand what the alumni meant when they said that the sessions can become a routine and a break!

If you are not from San Francisco...

2010-06-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

Not everyone is as lucky as those living in San Francisco (esp. those whose apartments are within a block to the classroom). The travelling can be daunting to lots of out-of-towners. So do you settle with a local EMBA program or do you choose the seemingly "painful" road to Wharton? I chose the latter and it turns out to be the best choice ever.

Now, let's talk about the Seattle 7... (later on we discovered the 8th but 7 just sounds better per Brian, LOL). When you are from out-of-town, you really have a strong support group. Before school, we had three gathering (reception, Wendy's home party, Seattle Wharton Alum event) and lots of email exchanges, some of which are hilarious. We are already each other’s good friend before the first class. Our "scientist" Brian knows the science behind negotiation before attending Bschool and got all of us an "MVP" + "EasyBiz" deal from Alaska airline. As a result, on the way to San Francisco, two of us (not me!) got upgraded to first class.

After the flight, we followed Mohit to the BART station and learned how to buy a BART ticket while making fun of each other. We successfully found our way to the hotel then school (with a little detour - my mistake) and picked up several students from other cities on the way. Yeah, when you have a tight group, you naturally attract others... When I bumped into Seattle people during class breaks, they always gave me helpful tips about what would happen in my next class. Thanks to Mohit, I was emotionally ready for the Microsoft jokes Eco Professor played on me.

Just today, Wendy found a cheaper ticket to San Francisco and sent out an alert. Brian told the group Alaska could refund us the difference, Parry figured out a way to do it, and I got 40 bucks back! All of these happened in 15mins via email. Can you believe it?

I cannot wait to travel with these cool people again in two weeks! Of course, we are having happy hour in Ruth Chris next week...

Btw, this is not only Seattle... I heard the South Bay people are renting a limo to school every week? Craziness...

Caffeine addiction

2010-06-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

I'm just getting accustomed to treating caffeine as another essential food group. Is it just coincidence that classes are held at the Folger Building?

The Abilene Burger Company

2010-06-01T18:48:00.001-07:00

Wharton does stuff well -- the first thing that strikes you is the way they put the learning teams together. I'm sure all the LTs (learning teams, not lowest ten) have something similar to say.

Our first team meeting started with all of us trying to test the waters, but we quickly realized that we were comedians first. Prof. Kuriloff's story about the tyranny of agreement and the folks that ended up in Abilene eating burgers was a reminder that we didn't have to all be too nice all the time, and we chose our team name on a whim. (Actually we had other suggestions for which we might have been sent off to sensitivity training :)

By Thursday, when we had the "identity" assignment, we were ready to share and bond... Group hug, anyone?

I'm sure it won't all be kumbaya moments, but we're off to a very positive start.

What did we get ourselves into?

2010-06-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

As I drove up to San Francisco on May 23, I kept asking myself if I was really sure that I was doing the right thing. The $$$s and time commitment? And I'm not getting any younger...

Just meeting the brilliant class that makes up WEMBA36 put those thoughts to rest. Diverse, smart, accomplished, -- one fails to find enough words to describe the cohort.

The nitty-gritty begins:

Prof. Kaufold: The reality check slide says it all. Its going to be one thrill ride for the next two years. I've been putting this in perspective since I got back from Week 1.

Muzzammil, my 4 year old son, wanted to know what grade I was in at school. When I explained the concept of college to him, he was baffled that he would have to leave mom and dad behind -- sweet as that sounds now, I'm sure he will be singing a different tune in a few years :)

Asmina, my wife is surprised to find me going to bed with the Stickney book lying on one side... I hope she realizes what she has gotten herself into as well.

The Friday after week 1 was strange -- I had so much fun during the week that it felt odd going back to work -- hey, that's what pays the bills, so I've got to keep that up. I spent a lot of time describing the experience to my colleagues, and have probably convinced a couple more folks to think of a WEMBA. It actually felt good delegating and not having to worry about a crisis at work through the whole week.

Week 1: Notes to self

2010-06-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

So, week 1 was amazing: Good food, Awesome profs (who appreciated humor and made learning fun, so opposite of undergrad), phenomenal class mates and not so bad food and hotel.
I also really enjoyed Wharton because, I got a lot of self-feedback. Which is weird because I goto work every day and am still not able to reflect like I was able to in the classroom and in group sessions. Almost freaky!!!

My two key take-aways:
Lesson 1: More talking = Less Learning
So in class during the first three days, I was pumped, excited to be learning cool Wharton MBA stuff. I was so excited that I would be tempted to speak up to every topic in class. Ofcourse, I had to have my opinion heard. But what I realized by day 3 was that I was so focused on getting my opinion heard that I was missing out what other people were saying. Sometimes, I would be thinking about how to formulate what I wanted to say and the prof had already moved on to the next thing. Bad Idea!!! I remember when I first started in sales, I would talk so much that I walked away from the customers learning nothing about them. My coach/mentor at that time told me: Shutup and make money!
So on Wednesday night, I told myself: Shutup and Learn.

Lesson 2: Your team mates are cooler than you think
Like Damn!!!!! Go Business-Casuals. Between the 5 of us, I think our team has experienced everything, and I mean everything. We have a VC/portfolio manager/ Investor, Consultant/Comedian/techie, Entrepreneur/Soldier/Product-manager/world traveller, IIT Grad (Bachelors and Masters)/Software Director/techie/Entreprenuer/Did I say IIT grad?
So note to self: If Wharton has admitted someone, be rest-assured that that person is a super start in his or her own right.

Needless to say, the Wharton education is paying for itself already.
Additionally, I have so many things that I need to explore, like the Wharton clubs. The investing club actually makes a trip out to Omaha, to visit Warren Buffett. Yes, thats right meet Warren Buffett in person. Did you know that dinner tickets with Warren go for upwards of $1 Million dollars.

Lastly, Sort of Random note: I also just ordered my Wharton MBA Business cards.

Until next time, Adios!!!

Wharton West Week 1 - the People

2010-06-01T17:26:00.000-07:00

Many people wrote this on their Facebook after the first week: what an amazing group of people! Before flying down to San Francisco, I got to know several classmates quite well through admission welcome dinner in Seattle, Wharton Seattle Alum event and most importantly, Facebook. I felt the energy and enthusiasm, with a little anxiety. Who are these 92 people I am going to spend the next two years with?
During the intro session, I heard the following keywords: musicians, dancers, models (& hand model), extreme sport, marathon, wine, PhD, doctor, tech, banking, VC, entrepreneurs… We are definitely a diverse group of people with great passions for almost everything I can imagine. I breathe in such diversity and will try my best to contribute to the class.
The only pity is that I did not get a chance to talk to everyone in person during breaks, dinners and parties. I enjoyed every conversation I had and cannot wait to have more of those during the next class. I was hoping to work out a strategy for meeting people, but for now, I will just keep it random.
The highlight – with the crazy schedule, several of us kept working out in the morning every day. Some are talking about starting a runner group. We really work hard, work out hard and play hard!
The lowlight - wine is good, but not so good when you have to get up at 6am to work out and attend the 7:30 math class.

Wharton West Week 1

2010-06-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Before my aging memory fades, I want to capture Wharton West week 1. Maybe it will help future Wharton WEMBA West or East classes, or maybe not. Still, for those wanting to gain an understanding of the "Wharton West" experience in a short summarized manner, here you go!

Sunday: no classes, just meeting and greeting. each classmate's intro was funny, creative, and (broken record) impressive. dinner with the partners and it was great to meet the "better halves."

Monday: first day of class! for future wemba classes -- make sure you do your Management reading and relate theories to cases clearly in your pre-term work, the pace is fast. 6+ hours of sitting is rough and it was definitely one of the "drinking from the fire hose" experiences that continued through the week. Also note, no matter how prepared you are (I think I did most of the pre-term work), there will be additional class assignments and work to do the first week. Let the fun begin.

Tuesday: Living in the hotel the first week is pretty cool. People are always out and about. More group dynamic sessions after class, which were surprisingly helpful, even at the end of a long day. I met with my study group and other classmates to knock out some of our assignments and went to bed late.

Wednesday: Early morning run (missed my husband and dog, my usual running partners) and ran into some classmates along the way! I skipped early morning Math Camp (thank you UCLA Engineering). Fatigue started to set in...cure = soda, candy, caffeine. I know (tsk tsk tsk), my body punished me for those. Wednesday afternoon around 4 PM it seemed like the morning was days ago. Class dinner at a local restaurant/brewery was awesome. I met people from the other section (the class is broken into study groups of about 6 or so people, and study groups are assigned to either section 1 or 2) and started to get comfortable with everyone. Go liquid bonding!

Thursday: There was obvious hurt in the class from last night's partying. Boy I'm rusty at this late night partying thing. A few more sessions and our end of week toast was followed by more meet and greet time, and finally returning to our normal lives.

The week went by FAST with things to fill up every second of the day, and as I said before, I'd done most of the pre-reading so there were some who were even busier than I was during the week, prepping for classes. It was a (good) shock to be back in a classroom, and an equal (good) shock to return home at the end of the week.

Wharton stood out to me because of the strong class camaraderie and full-time-like experience. Those two things held absolutely true this week, in addition to amazing work experiences that people shared to help bring concepts to life. That's when I realized that I have the best of both worlds - real world exec wisdom/knowledge + full-time program-like bonding - at Wharton. I'm grateful to be here and can't wait for the next two years.

YouTube video: the Science of Motivation

2010-05-31T22:51:00.000-07:00

Check this out. It's quite fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded

Wharton West EMBA Sounding Off!

2010-05-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

Joanne - female, Wharton West (San Francisco), Chinese-American, loves TV/clean energy/entrepreneurship, can be found snowboarding/golfing/running at the beach with my husband and dog