I spent part of this morning at Creative (www.creative-va.com), getting a tour of their very unique facility and talking about the convergence of furniture and technology in a variety of workplaces. As plans progress for the new wing of the business school, the University will need to think about how people will communicate, learn and work in the next decade and beyond. It was therefore a very enlightening experience. The absence of walls at their headquarters was striking. The video applications, including a massive image being projected on one wall, were intriguing.
We are hopeful about identifying potential capstone projects at Creative (and perhaps with its clients) for 2010. I think our MBA students would find such an engagement to be very educational.
At the GMAC meeting a few weeks ago, one of our keynote presenters was Guy Kawasaki. He spent several minutes discussing the various ways that he is using Twitter. I’ve been thinking about how MBA programs might take advantage of the site — in marketing to prospective students, in connecting with alumni and, perhaps, in enriching the curriculum. I would love to hear from those of you who have identified or considered Twitter’s commercial possibilities for your own businesses. If you are willing to devote a few minutes to thinking about how our MBA program might take advantage of Twitter, I welcome your comments.
A few months ago, Assistant Director Debbie Fisher approached me with a unique idea for a cocurricular activity. She envisioned a dinner series, to be held several times a year in the homes of select alumni, that would allow our students, alumni and friends of the MBA program to have intimate conversations on important topics. Each dinner would include about a dozen individuals who shared a common interest. We would be deliberate in selecting the invitees and would ask them to reflect on a few thought questions in advance. I thought it was a great concept and offered my support.
The first dinner, involving twelve talented women, took place at Katie Gilstrap’s home last month. (An alumnus of the MBA program, Katie is part of the executive team and leads marketing efforts at First Market Bank.) A handful of current students joined a few alumni and a couple of corporate friends, including Denise Odenkirk of Owens and Minor, for dinner and discussion. I am told that the wide-ranging conversation provided a rich learning opportunity for the students, one that could not have been replicated in a classroom or formal panel presentation. I suspect our alumni and friends learned a few things, too. Debbie will be distributing to all of our current students a document containing the most important points that surfaced that evening.
The feedback from all participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Three of our current students have visited with me to express their gratitude for scoring an invitation to the first dinner. Debbie has already begun planning a second event involving a new group of individuals. The concept is clearly a powerful one for learning.
Debbie and I hope that our students and alumni will come forward with topics for future dinner conversations We are prepared to provide logistical support and to expand the learning opportunities for our students.
“Don’t ever stop being curious” and “Question everything” my grandmother told me on the phone the other night. Of all my relatives she is the most interested and curious about what I’m learning in graduate school. She is constantly challenging me with questions on subjects that I don’t know anything about and pursuing thoughts to the nth degree when I would have settled just to have an answer.
I’d love to be able to say that my grandmother was a big influence on me when I was growing up, but this conversation has been one of many that I have initiated in the recent months since she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Don’t get me wrong, we visited and called on occasion, but the closeness did not happen until the reality of what I would lose hit me. And I’ve been lucky, I have the opportunity to appreciate the gift that she is and hear her insights directly. I’m driven to listen, not just because I want to have memories to remember her by or because it helps her to talk about something other than doctors, her health and treatments, but because she challenges me to keep reaching beyond what I am today. Her influence now, while I’m in school, reminds me that learning is a lifelong journey, and should not stop when I get my degree.
Who is your biggest influence in your life today and what lesson did you learn from them?
At the GMAC meeting in San Francisco last week, I attended a session on curricular changes in the MBA program at Columbia. In an attempt to introduce more flexibility in the core requirements, the school has begun offering students a menu of courses to satisfy certain requirements. It has also trimmed the core and expanded elective offerings. These are ideas worthy of study. I plan to share them with our Graduate Council.
I also learned that Columbia and other MBA programs are now offering courses lasting only one week, often in the period between final exams and graduation in May. The courses are targeted to students who have just finished their first year. Some schools are using the week before classes start in January instead, giving students at any stage of the program a chance to take advantage of a unique offering. These intense periods of study, worth three credits, usually surround a timely and innovative subject.
If we could arrange a course or two for January 2010, what would you like to see as the focus? I have heard from several students who would be interested in a second international experience, beyond the required International Residency. Perhaps this would be a good time to examine that option. As an alternative, maybe we could build a course around a particular industry — energy, healthcare, advertising or consumer products — and have the course center on a live project.
