February 2011
2 posts
[Please] bother me while I think →
What could possibly give you a 7x advantage over other people in the realm of “eminent creative achievement”? One word DISTRACTIBILITY.
I just ran across this article in the WSJ that fits in a bit to my previous post. The article describes new research connecting creativity (the fuel of breakthrough innovation) to the INABILITY to focus on one thing—it also shows correlation...
3 tags
A jack of all trades is...
… a master of people?
You all know how the old quote goes, “a jack of all trades is a master of none.” Seeing as I am now only a few short months away from graduating this wonderful experience that has been the Darden MBA, I figure it is about time I address this nagging question about why I would choose the basis of this quote as my blogging namesake. I guess the short answer is that not only is...
September 2010
2 posts
3 tags
New Darden Blog--Global Voices of Darden
Here is my latest post on Darden’s new forum for global discussion Global Voices of Darden. Global Voices will be the place to go to find out about what Darden is doing overseas as well as hear about the experiences of international students exploring U.S. culture, and U.S. students discovering other cultures through Darden’s Global Business Experiences and exchange opportunities. ...
2 tags
China Adventure
While most of my fellow SYs at Darden will soon begin studying for Q1 exams, I feel like I just barely got settled this last week into the rhythm of being back at school. After a wonderful internship at Celanese this summer, I spent about a week traveling to visit family in nearby Arkansas before jumping on a plane to Beijing. Many of my classmates have discovered (especially after my part as...
July 2010
1 post
3 tags
Back to work!
I can’t believe the last couple of months have gone by so fast! Of all the summer internship offers that I was extended, I ultimately decided to come to Dallas, TX and work for Celanese Corporation—a Fortune 500 multinational chemical company—as a part of the Celanese Leadership Program. The internship is meant to give us an inside look into the full-time rotational program...
March 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Springtime!
Spring has finally arrived in Charlottesville! After a winter of surplus snow that quickly wore out its welcome, followed by lots of clouds and rain, the sun is here to stay (I’m keeping a positive attitude!). Exactly two weeks ago, I finished off my last Q3 exam and (with a big smile of course) got ready to give my tired brain a rest for the next week and a half. I had originally thought...
1 tag
March Madness!
March Madness is in full swing, and that of course brings on the Darden First-Year Bracket Challenge. While the Cougs advanced on to the second-round in a 2OT nailbiter (Yay!) my other picks aren’t doing too well. My current standing (T-18) out of the 108 first-year brackets submitted… here’s my bracket (click on the bracket to enlarge):
February 2010
3 posts
4 tags
International experience (and an MBA) means better...
I ran across a BusinessWeek article this morning that I found particularly interesting. While the title of the article, Why Do MBAs Make Better CEOs?, obviously piqued my interest—I can confidently say that many (if not most) of my fellow Darden students strive to run an enterprise as CEO in the [near] future—what I found really interesting was not the quantitative analysis (i.e. CEOs...
Donate to fire victims (UVa international... →
On Monday a house on Robertson Avenue was engulfed by fire and the three renters (doctoral students in the Chemical Engineering program at UVa) lost all their possessions and housing furnishings. Like so many of our international students, they did not have renters’ insurance. I hope you can join me in donating even a few dollars directly to these students using the link above. It’s not...
1 tag
January 2010
2 posts
1 tag
“I met a Tibetan cab driver this morning, and when I told him I hoped his country...”
– On a serious note, this morning I read an article about the Chinese economy and potential asset bubbles that I recommend to everyone interested in international business. While some would say that China’s shift towards a more democratic and market-oriented economy is fantasy, I would argue...
1 tag
Winter Break
Yikes! Have you ever lived through a couple of weeks with pretty much nothing to do except get lost in reading/family/TV/movies/presents/snow/fireworks/etc (oh yeah, and interview prep), during which time you wrote a bunch of half-finished blog posts that you then look over again a few weeks later when life is back in full swing and realize are worthless? Well if you have, then you know exactly...
December 2009
0 posts
2 tags
“Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure...”
– Elbert Hubbard.
I thought I would share this quote for all of my classmates that are feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Keep up the effort!
November 2009
5 posts
3 tags
Black November turns bright
What a wonderful Thanksgiving break this has been! While it is still difficult to provide for a wife and son on a grad student budget—in an economy that hasn’t provided an opportunity for my wife to find work—we took the opportunity to reflect on all of the huge blessings we have received in our lives up to this point, and it wasn’t hard to find them. It’s hard to...
2 tags
No bailouts here
This past Wed & Thurs the entire first-year class descended on the auto industry. Each learning team group was assigned to take charge of an auto manufacturer’s financial, operational, and marketing strategies for the next seven years. We were tasked with evaluating the current position of each company in respect to overall economic conditions, the different market segments for...
1 tag
Field Trip
It’s not too often that you get to experience childhood again. Waking up this last Wednesday morning brought back memories of elementary school: waking up early, your heart racing with excitement to get to school… it’s field trip day! As you get dressed and eat breakfast as fast as you can, hurrying Mom out the door, you dream of getting on the bus with all of your friends and...
1 tag
Syndication! →
That’s right, you read correctly… this blog has officially become syndicated! (kind of.) I was selected a couple of weeks ago to represent the entire Darden School as a member of its Student Bloggers group. As one of the eight first-year students selected, I am looking forward to representing the student body and I am also excited about the extra exposure this blog will get. If you...
October 2009
4 posts
1 tag
Q1 Finals Week at Darden
So, everything I heard from the second-year students was a lie! Finals week (last week) really was not easy. Don’t get me wrong, the exams themselves weren’t that difficult, but they still required almost five hours hours of total focus for five straight days. The one good thing about finals week is that my afternoons and evenings were free. For really the first time in a while, I...
3 tags
General Management & Operations Forum
Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the General Management & Operations (GMO) Club Forum at Darden. This annual event brings in executives from various companies that are recruiting on-campus this year. Visiting us were representatives from BB&T, Danaher, Eaton, GE, Meadwestvaco, and Progressive. The afternoon was spent participating in panel sessions with our visitors where we...
2 tags
National Black MBA Conference
The National Black MBA Assoc. (NBMBAA) is probably the largest of the minority MBA organizations committed to diversity. Much like its counterparts—National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) and The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (CGSM), both of which I am a member—NBMBAA seeks to increase diversity in business schools and the ranks of management. They work towards this...
2 tags
“Victory awaits those who have everything worked out. It is called luck. Defeat...”
– Roald Amundsen. A Norwegian polar explorer—the first to navigate the Northwest Passage (1903−1906), the first to reach the South Pole (1911), and the first to fly over the Arctic basin and the North Pole. Said in a comment about Robert Scott, whom he beat in the famous race to the South Pole and...
September 2009
2 posts
1 tag
First month at Darden
Now that my first month at Darden is finished and Q1 finals are only a couple of weeks away, I think it’s time to reflect a bit on what exactly has happened. When I first began to write this post I began to write that “it seemed like much more time had lapsed than two months.” The funny thing about that is only a month has gone by! Life has been so busy and I have accomplished so much in such a...
2 tags
San Jose BioCenter & Genia Technologies
I know I should have written about this a long time ago, but I really haven’t had much free time since leaving the Bay Area at the end of July and moving all the way across the country to begin my MBA studies at the Darden School. So, in an effort to get up to date, my post today is going to summarize a bit about my time working with Genia Technologies out of the San Jose BioCenter...
July 2009
2 posts
3 tags
Ten unconventional wisdoms for funding startups →
Two weeks ago at a dinner in San Francisco put on by Finance4Founders, Venture Hacks blogger (and serial entrepreneur) Naval Ravikant spoke to entrepreneurs about how they should approach fundings (via VentureBeat).
He gives some great insights into the funding process that all current and prospective entrepreneurs should read, whether they need funding now or not—besides, how often do...
2 tags
As a follow-up to my last post Silicon Valley still matters, I have posted below a portion of an article by Valley entrepreneur and finacier Georges van Hoegaerden. I believe it to be a spot on assessment of the past decade of venture invesment, and I share his views on how venture will need to “behave” in order to rebound. As I alluded to in my previous post, venture will need to...
June 2009
6 posts
4 tags
Silicon Valley still matters
Yes, Sarah, Silicon Valley still matters. BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy wrote a few things last week that I completely disagree with in her post Does Silicon Valley Still Matter?. While the thesis of her article seems to be a question, upon reading it you know right away what she thinks the answer is… no. She bills the Valley as a has-been of tech innovation, and leads readers to...
2 tags
Term sheet manners →
A great post from Fred Wilson’s blog that discusses a more personal approach to negotiating changes in terms for any type of deal. When I previously worked in real estate investing, it took me a couple of gaffes before I learned this principle. Some people would take offense to my initial offers (that seemed so clear and flexible on paper). At first I tried to explain that “this is...
2 tags
Twitter tips for MBA students and job-seekers →
Things to do (and not do) on Twitter if you want people to take you seriously in the professional world.
2 tags
China seeks to make Shanghai the newest global...
I’ve been meaning to address the Lujiazui Forum for a couple of weeks now, but just couldn’t find the time until a nasty cold/flu bug necessitated a couple of days off work for rest. According to the WSJ, last month around 700 top policy-makers and finance professionals met to determine the fate of Shanghai as a global financial center and, more importantly, how to insure that the...
2 tags
Microsoft's new Wii killer →
New Microsoft Xbox technology leaps far ahead of the Wii.
2 tags
Consortium OP
This past weekend I had the wonderful privilege to attend the Orientation Program (OP) for the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (link). The Consortium is an organization supported by top business schools and various corporate sponsors that provides merit-based, full-tuition fellowships to minority candidates who show demonstrated support of the Consortium’s stated mission:
To...
May 2009
10 posts
1 tag
Dilbert makes fun of MBAs →
Scott Adams (Dilbert) makes fun of MBAs, case studies, and blames the current state of the economy on MBAs… good stuff!
P.S. Thanks @missjoolz.
Solo Piano Radio →
Where I go when I need some relaxing music to think, study, or get my mind off of stressful things.
1 tag
Amazon chooses Darden for Kindle project
So, it’s all over the news. Amazon has chosen the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia to be the only business school in the country to use its newest, upgraded Kindle DX reader to replace the books and cases that make up its curriculum. (link) I am [obviously] very excited to possibly be among the first students to use this new technology as part of my...
1 tag
“The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business is the first business...”
– BusinessWeek
2 tags
The three meeting rule
I have been turning this thought over in my mind for the last week or so after having a discussion with a good friend of mine. This friend mentioned that he has never felt very comfortable meeting new people due to trouble finding things to talk about with people he doesn’t know. This has never really been a problem for me, so as we spoke I tried to think about how I generally meet and...
1 tag
Macdonald goes to Morganthaler
I know that this is from a few weeks ago, but I found a few interesting quotes in reference to Kevin Macdonald going to Morganthaler as a Co-Managing Parter of their Private Equity Team:
“The recruitment process really came from two different directions at once,” says Macdonald, a former co-founder and managing partner of Monitor Clipper Partners.
“Morgenthaler was working with one of the top...
1 tag
The chain reaction of short-term focus
I ran across another opinion today (this time by Jeff Busgang) about the lack of viable exit strategies for venture-backed companies due to the current problems with our financial system. He, however, goes into a bit more depth regarding his opinions on the future of venture funding over the next few years.
I reference his article only because he states very well what I also believe to be the...
2 tags
“Many web applications that we know and love today are successful because they...”
– Scott Shapiro, Momentum Venture Management
Comment by Jack: I agree with what Scott says here, execution is just as important (if not more important) than your technological edge. This is relevant in almost any industry; one company may have the better product, but they can still lose due to...
1 tag
Is venture capital the engine of innovation in...
I just read a rather compelling argument at WSJ.com by Foundation Capital general manager Adam Grosser who argues that the venture capital industry could literally disappear unless changes are made in our economy. He claims that not only are our banking institutions losing interest in underwriting the smaller IPOs that provide exit opportunities for seed-stage investors, and access to public...
1 tag
“There is a material difference between what venture capital firms do and what...”
– Adam Grosser, Benchmark Capital