MBA Day Camp Blog: Book Smarts and Street Smarts

The Olympics -- What it means in the way of jobs

There are several opinions out there on whether the Olympics are good/bad for the resident city.  Whether you agree with the Games or not, it is important to see who emerges as winners.

• IT - the Games take an enormous component (6,500+ PCs, 4000+ Printers in Chicago's bid book).  In Sydney, 1.3M lines of software code were needed
• Construction - $1B in venue construction in chicago's bid book
• Raw Materials - 130 tonnes of steel in Sydney
• Tourism - $7B incremental spend in tourism projected by Chicago
• Employment - 315,000 man years of labor w/$11B in spend - Chicago 2016 study

All in, Chicago is projecting $22.5B in incremental benefit including.  All these arguments are subject to debate - what is undeniable is that a HUGE AMOUNT OF SPEND will be occuring. 

As entrepreneurs, you must understand the procurement processes and indirect opportunities to benefit from this spend (e.g., big firms will get big contracts but will have to outsource several parts of these to small-mid size and minority businesses).   Look at London 2012 - a very organized procurement arm has been stood up and one can learn a lot from those processes.

Also, there will be a tourist bump -- how long, how pronounced is up to debate but even at 1/2 of some of these projections, these bumps are in the several billions.  Look to see how you can take advantage of this massive consumerism.

Whether you want the Olympics or not in your country, there is no reason you personally can't benefit from them!

Aveek Guha, President, www.mbadaycamp.com

The mini MBA -- the end of the traditional MBA program as we know it?

As pointed out by Business Week (http://bit.ly/nbmWD), more and more professionals are turning to 'mini-MBA' offerings to advance their professional career.  This poses an interesting question -- are business schools killing the goose that lays the golden egg by offering this type of program.  At $2-$4K, these programs are substantially less than traditional MBA education ($100K).  The question on the table: does this program represent service of an untapped market or cannibalization of their core product?

An opinion of one: I think this could cannibalize the traditional program -- if one can use these byte sized programs to land jobs, it could start a growing trend for short, focused training (<4 weeks) instead of the traditional, generalist business school method (2+ years). 

We could be looking at sea change in the way graduate education is delivered -- only time will tell.  What do you think?

Aveek Guha, President

www.mbadaycamp.com

http://itunes.com/apps/mba101

Jack Welch - Online MBA - why this may be different

Jack Welch recently announced that he would be launching an online MBA (http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/jun2009/bs20090622_962094.htm).  He claims he will be heavily involved in curriculum development, even teaching, the managerial principles that made him one of the most revered executives of all time.

Yawn.  For Jack Welch's online MBA to be truly novel, he will have to lean on his sizable corporate rolodex from an employment perspective.  That is, he must convince corporate recruiters that a product of his online university, would be equally (or better) adept at solving problems than traditional schools.  If Welch makes a few calls to GE and ex-GE execs ( Home Depot, Best Buy, etc) and influences hiring from his online MBA pool, this could become a true shock to the MBA system.  If employers go to Welch, traditional schools may lose their most vital bargaining chip.  If not, Jack Welch U will disappear into the muck of already crowded online education options.  Wait and see.

Aveek Guha, President, www.mbadaycamp.com
Now on the iphone! http://itunes.com/apps/mba101.com

Turnaround & Restructuring -- Get it while its hot

If looking to switch careers, look no further than turnaround & restructuring firms -- the practice is in torrid growth now with practically all companies suffering from recession doldrums and turning to structural actions.  Consultancy Alix partners reportedly has 60+ staffers helping GM with their bankruptcy; Deloitte was under pressure from the Treasury department to fast track the Chrysler deal.

Advisory firms in this restructuring space (there are plenty) are getting their moment in the sun.  If you are looking to jump to a growing space, emphasize the cost cutting or value realization points in your resume, and apply to these firms to ride the wave.

Aveek Guha, MBA Day Camp
Now on the iphone! -- http://itunes.com/apps/mba101

De-globalization -- A return to the known

There will likely be a near term deglobalization that will occur due to this financial meltdown.  Take JA Solar out of China: last summer, they bought $100M in bonds at the urging of their Lehman bankers. Now, they have written off the entire $100M, and its stock is down 66% since Lehman filed for bankruptcy.  The consequence: they will now keep their financial investments and assets at home -- "For the near future, we are quite comfortable with Chinese banks, they are backed by the Chinese government", says their CFO, Anthea Chung. [business week, may 18th]

This trend of capital flight back to originating countries will only increase in the near term with firms still staggerring from their US losses.  Couple this with the tight US consumer market and foreign geographies look even more pragmatic for investment in funds and talent.

Expect all foreign firms stung from US investments to be cautions for the next few years.  Look to see how your skills and ideas can help foreign firms that will now look closer to home for their investment sandbox. 

Aveek Guha, President, www.mbadaycamp.com

Want to be a marketer? Become a technologist

It is cool to be a technologist again.  Web 2.0 & New Media is becoming a wide ranging, not well understood, but highly coveted turf for management consultancies, marketing departments, ad agencies, web firms, and a range of mom-and-pop specialists.  The jury is still out on who will reign supreme.  My view on the winners?  The people that actually understand the technologies.

So embrace your inner geek -- get on Facebook, start Twittering, watch a podcast on predictive markets.  You need to kick the tires on these technologies to understand how to use them.  In this space, the devil is truly in the details.

The future domains of Marketing, PR, Communications, & IT will have enormous intersection and in many cases, the lines will be blurred.  A programmer who knows how to use these technologies may become the defacto thought leader in Marketing -- who knew?

Bottom line: the traditional roles in these functions is changing with a clear emphasis on technology.  Those who can work comfortably with these tools can emerge as leaders in 21st century version of these functions.

Aveek Guha,

President, MBA Day Camp, www.mbadaycamp.com

Do what lawyers do: first the government, then the private sector

A very traditional career track for lawyers is to start careers in the public office and then move to more lucrative private practices.  This may be the path for MBA's in the next few years.  Consider that:
a) the federal government will be one of the only entities hiring aggressively in the next 2-3 years and
b) they clearly lack the capacity and capability to address all the new policy scope

While it may feel decidedly unsexy, it may be the best short term solution through the current corporate hiring freeze.  Its a take-what-you-can get market -- the tried and tested path for lawyers may soon become the path for MBAs to get through the downturn.

Aveek Guha
President, www.mbadaycamp.com

Poor Gordon Gecko - End of an Era

In a late addition to the stimulus bill, Congress placed tight restrictions on compensation arrangements in all financial firms that have or will receive funds from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

This is yet another nail in the 'deregulated capitalism' coffin: now, fairly restrictive compensation controls will govern executive behavior.  The long term effect will be profound - people are attracted to Wall Street for the prospect of exponential riches -- $500K/year doesn't warrant the blood, sweat, and tears.  Expect a reversal in flow of the engineers, doctors, every-day-man joining the financial services industry.

Gordon Gecko would be turning over in his grave.

Aveek Guha
President, MBA Day Camp
www.mbadaycamp.com

Stimulus Package -- Time to double down on the winners

As the economic recession is proving to be deeper & broader than anyone expected, there will be one set of clear winners -- beneficiaries of the almost one trillion dollar stimulus package.  With even healthy companies belt tightening (see Google, Microsoft, Digg recent job cuts), the stimulus package will now have near exclusive ownership of this elusive category: where are jobs & stock investments safe?

So everyone should look at the spend in this package -- one industry winner that is emerging is broadband, with a near $3B bet in this space.  We may not like the government messing with free markets, but there is no reason why we can't benefit from it -- pay close attention to the winners in the package because they look like the clear heavyweights to back.

Aveek Guha
President, MBA Day Camp
www.mbadaycamp.com
http://mbadaycamp.typepad.com/mbablog/

You've gotten in -- now get the job you deserve

The job market is going to be tight, as tough as any in recent memory.  There are a couple of key principles to help you along:

1. Act like you belong
A oft-remarked comment from recruiters lately is the relative immaturity of MBA grads.  We can debate the truths/untruths of this statement, but the fact is, this year they will look to people that are business-ready more than others.  There is less patience for development of talent.  That means that MBA grads need to act like executives.  So ask recruiters tough questions - how is your firm looking to manage through the recession, what are your competitors doing that you envy, what is keeping you up at night.  Save the "how does your mentorship program work" questions for the back burner.  Bottom line, they will look for people that act, walk, and talk like they are professionally-ready, be in that category.  Don't patronize, they will see it a mile away.

2. Trumpet recessionary-themes in your skillset
If you have experience in recessionary topics in your background, now is the time to bring them to the forefront.  That means cost-cutting (as unsexy as it may be) or innovation.  On the former, experience in process redesign, shared services, etc will be of interest to recruiters -- its germane to the current times.  On the latter, many companies, while hunkering down now, are still trying to see around the corner.  So experience in innovation (however, broadly you want to define it) will be interesting -- so what have been involved in that pushes the frontier in business (e.g., social media, crowdsourcing, global business practices, etc).  A recruit that can show affinity to the current environment stands out over others.

Bottom line, it will be a tough recruiting year, now is the time to be aggressive and focused.

Aveek Guha
President, MBA Day Camp
www.mbadaycamp.com