RaceSco MBAlog

Greetings! There's a good chance you've never been here before. If that's the case, let me show you around.

I started this site when I entered business school at Cornell in August 2002, and since then, I've tracked literally thousands of keywords that have been used to find this place. I've noticed some trends and thought I'd share them with you – and take a guess at what you might be looking for.

1. Scott Sanders. Yes, people search for me! Or some other person with my name. Like this guy, or this one, or this one. Yup, not me.


2. Cornell University, the Johnson School, and MBAs. There's a lot to read here about my two years getting my MBA. Some popular posts follow in this list.


3. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. I wrote about Immelt is a couple of blog posts, including one great story where I overheard him quizzing some first-year MBAs.


4. Chips Ahoy. I ranted about marketing research gone wrong when my favorite cookies had their taste changed for no good reason. (P.S. It was Chips Deluxe that changed, not Chips Ahoy.)


5. Lehman Brothers CIO Jon Beyman. Beyman gave a moving talk about his role in the post-9/11 recovery of his company, having been across the street from the World Trade Center.


6. Vistakon and other Harvard Business School cases. Sorry, I don't have the answers to any of these cases. You'll have to suffer through the case, just like I did.


7. Betty Vinson, Bethany McLean, Worldcom, and Enron. The corporate scandals of several years' past fascinated me. I don't know why. I was also fascinated by business schools' seeming rush to teach ethics to us old students, which has got to be destined to fail. I wrote about these figures at various points on this blog: Vinson's Worldcom dilemma, McLean's book (and now documentary movie, too), and Enron's web of deceit.

Well, there are good odds that you were looking for some of the keywords above but not necessarily those subjects. Still -- I hope you find something here interesting.

I'll leave you with one last good post -- the one I heard most about from my friends and family, and the one that generated the most controversy. And I still stand by it today.

It was about the male:female ratio in business school. How true it is.

Well, this posting is long over due. Yes, I did graduate. (I have the diploma to prove it.)

The last month or so was a real whirlwind, between the end of classes (i.e., exams) and everything else (i.e., saying goodbye to people, pub crawls, etc.). One of the highlights was the annual Follies, which I helped with. I think a number of b-schools have similar events, where we had a number of skits and videos that essentially make fun of everything at the school -- not so much everyone (unless we had permission) because we're sensitive to people's feelings and stuff. There must have been some HR people among us.

Bill Clinton spoke at graduation. It was very cool to have a speaker like that. Actually, he spoke at convocation, a pre-graduation ceremony that was designed specifically to accommodate grad speakers. By tradition, Cornell only allows graduates (and staff, I guess) to speak at the actual graduation ceremony. They also don't pay for speakers nor do they award honorary degrees. This usually means there's terrible grad speakers. I guess we got lucky that our friend Bill has a new book out to promote.

The convocation speeches were actually quite good. Surprisingly good. You can read the transcripts over here. (If you know anything about Cornell, be sure especially to read the senior class president's speech and Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman's speech.)

This blog is about the MBA experience, and mine is now over. I learned so much, am more talented in the work I now do, and made some great friends. I'm honored to have had the experience to attend such a wonderful school like Cornell and wonderful business school like the Johnson School.

I may post some observations and retrospectives here over time, but for now, this blog will be quiet. I encourage you to read through the archives and get a flavor of what it's like to get an MBA and what it's like to go through the Johnson School's program.

I hope to start a new one that will cover some marketing techniques and ideas, particularly those that focus on thoughtful data-driven marketing and the retail industry. I hope you will read it. Thank you for reading MBAlog these past two years.

Comments and questions? Email me.

Yesterday, the namesake of the Johnson School, Sam Johnson, died. I had the chance to correspond with him very briefly last year and learn about his life; he was quite inspiring to me. Following is the message our dean sent to us about his passing.

I am very sorry to inform you that Sam Johnson died quietly at his home in Racine on Saturday, May 22, 2004, after a difficult and prolonged battle with cancer. Sam was a Cornellian (Class of 1950) and a great friend and benefactor of our school. We will miss him deeply.

Throughout his life, Sam modeled what it meant for a leader to operate as a catalyst for the larger good. He transformed a small family wax company into a major global enterprise. In doing so, he insisted that his family companies not only be great businesses, but “good” businesses, respecting their employees, bettering their communities, and protecting the natural environment. And he expressed those commitments in both words and deeds.

Sam shared generously his time, thoughtful counsel, and financial resources to decisively shape the Johnson School. He loved this school, and always found ways to be with us – on campus and elsewhere. He served as a Cornell trustee for 22 years and chaired the Johnson School’s advisory council for almost 20 years.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the naming of this school as the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, in honor of Sam’s great-grandfather, the founder of S.C. Johnson. Sam and his family also established three endowed professorships, supported the renovation of Sage Hall and other important initiatives, and encouraged countless others to support the school as well

As Dean, I counted on Sam’s friendship, counsel, support, and encouragement. Sam believed in the positive potential for business for transforming social change. He also believed in the positive potential for business education for transforming business and its role in society. As the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, we are linked with Sam not only by his name, but also by his aspirations. We will continue to carry his legacy with pride.

That's all I can say.

Last week's 20th anniversary event was absolutely amazing. Jay Walker, founder of Priceline, talked about how his new company, Walker Digital, thinks about creating products and services for consumers in the new Internet world. (Hint: It doesn't seem too different from the pre-Internet world, except you have cooler tools available.)

Abby Joseph Cohen from Goldman Sachs (and CNBC talking head) talked about the economy and how things are looking up. (Unemployment is actually very low, she says, and outsourcing and the Asian trade deficit aren't as bad as they seem. Trade with Western Europe should concern us more.)

The President's national economic advisor, Steve Friedman, talked about a variety of topics and impressed me much more than his predecessor, Larry Lindsey, who I saw speak at the Northern Virginia Tech Council in 2001. I had lunch with Friedman and about 25 other classmates. He spoke off the record, and was quite open about the pros and cons of certain policies. Not 100% open -- for example, he refused to comment on a few topics -- but quite refreshing for a senior Bush administration official.

GE's Jeff Immelt talked about innovation. More interesting was chatting with him at the reception afterwards. Immelt was approached by a group of three first-years, and their class year was clearly indicated on their name tags.

"So, you're all first years?" Immelt asked. The group nodded their heads affirmatively. "You're all working hard?" he asked. They all grimmaced and said that they were working very hard.

"Good," said Immelt. "'Cause in your second year, you don't do shit."

Laughter ensued.

Now, that's not an exact quote, but it's 95% there, including the more colorful language.

Frank Rhodes, a former president of Cornell University, introduced Immelt. Rhodes was absolutely amazing. His introduction was so well-written and delivered superbly. He is a charming older man with a British accent, and he just seems like a real, genuine, sweet man. A friend and I spoke with him briefly afterwards, and he expressed concern about the job market. Not really something that he needed to be concerned about, considering how far he is removed from university life. Very nice.

The audience for the speeches was quite impressive, too. I was able to match up many attendees' name tags with the buildings on campus with their names on them.

So, I'm a bit star struck from hanging around with all these high-profile (and rich) people. I can't wait to see what they come up with for the 25th anniversary.

P.S. I did skip the Sandy Weill lecture to attend Data-Driven Marketing.

The 20th anniversary celebration starts today. Sandy Weill speaks at 4:30, but I would have to miss Data-Driven Marketing to see him... and I'm still working on finishing the group assignment that's due for that class today. Tough choice -- see the CEO of Citigroup speak or attend class and get the assignment done properly. I already saw Weill last year... so maybe I'll do the right thing. But then senior-itis is setting in. I didn't think I'd experience that again!

Last night, as part of a separate program on ethics in business, Fortune magazine journalist Bethany McLean spoke. She was one of the first to write an article questioning the happenings at Enron. (What's really interesting to me is that most of what she questioned was based on publicly available financial statements, not insider accounts!) Since then, she also wrote The Smartest Guys in the Room, an account of the entire Enron debacle. She talked about what happened at Enron and painted pictures of the executives behind the company. Really interesting stuff.

I nearly forgot to write about Just About Jobs, which first happened here at the Johnson School last year. The second installment happened on two different dates in March.

Sam Johnson had read that some recruiters didn't like to visit Ithaca because of its remote location. So, with Mr. Johnson's help, S.C. Johnson and some alums provided private jets from NetJets to fly recruiters in from NYC and Boston at no cost to their companies. It's a great way for recruiters to find some talented MBAs and get a free trip, and a great way for us to meet companies who ordinarily wouldn't come out here.

The event got a lot of press coverage, including a couple of mentions in the Wall Street Journal. Even though I didn't participate in it this year or last year, it really created quite a buzz in the school. It's really remarkable when you have a couple dozen recruiters in the building all at once. Not to mention the coolness of your school flying people in on private jets to interview for jobs!

Yes, we have a mega event this week at the Johnson School. It's the twentieth anniversary of Sam Johnson's gift to the school (and anniversary of the renaming of the school in Johnson's honor), and we have a gazillion high-profile speakers coming up this week. The full schedule is here, and following are some notable speakers:

• Abby Joseph Cohen, Managing Director, Goldman, Sachs & Company
• Stephen Friedman, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council
• Jeffrey R. Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric Company
• Bill Nye, The Science Guy (yes, really)
• Jeffrey Parker, Chairman and CEO, CCBN
• Warren Staley, Chairman and CEO, Cargill
• Jay Walker, Founder and Chairman, Walker Digital; Founder, Priceline.com
• Sandy Weill, Chairman, Citigroup

The lectures are Wednesday and Thursday. I'm pretty excited to hear from all these folks. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens.

It's been a while since I've posted any updates. Partly, I've been lazy, and partly, I've been busy. So let me get you all back up to speed.

• The biggest news is that I accepted a job with Acosta Sales & Marketing, the largest consumer packaged goods brokerage in North America. They essentially act as an intermediary between CPGs and retailers, and they also offer a number of marketing services, which is what I'll be working on. I'll be in Boston working as a Category Development Manager. A good part of my time will be working with frequent shopper card data from retailers.
  
  
• Spring break was a few weeks ago. I spent time in Rochester, Boston, and New Jersey. It was nice to have a week-long break. I know I'll be having very few of these back in the real world!
  
  
• First-half classes ended right after spring break. I only had one half-semester class this time around (Government Regulation). I think it was the right decision to focus on full-semester classes. It's really hard to get deep into a subject in just 7 weeks instead of the normal 14. My only second-half class is the companion to the Government Regulation class, which focuses on developing technologies and regulatory concerns.
  
  
• Classes have been good. The workload hasn't been terrible, which is largely due to wise class selection. Data-Driven Marketing has been very interesting, especially since we have a number of projects that are similar to the type of work I'll be doing with Acosta. Negotiations has also been great -- I'm learning a lot of techniques that I've already put to use.
  
  
• I'm a TA this semester for Marketing Management (for non-b-school students). I've been learning a lot by being on the other side of the table -- and I appreciate how long it takes to grade papers!!
  
  
• The Dean had us to his house in groups of about 25 to talk about the school's five-year plan. The Johnson School is apparently going to position itself as a "general management" school rather than focus on a specific discipline, as some say that Kellogg does with marketing and Wharton with finance. We subsequently got a full-color brochure explaining the plan in marketing-speak. It seems good to plan, but they are talking about it an awful lot and I'm not sure why.
  
  
• My former employer, Ross Perot, was honored for his support of the military. He has done a lot that never received much attention, and I'm glad he received such a high honor.
  
  
• Richard Clarke has totally captivated me. I haven't been the biggest fan of the Bush II Administration (or the way government works, in general), and his insight has been fascinating.

And here we are at today. There's only about a month left until graduation. It's very hard to believe how fast this program has gone by. I'll write some more on my thoughts looking retrospectively on the experience of getting an MBA over the next month.

Seems like the tech sector is still feeling some job insecurity. Two articles this week:

Jobs Data No Boon for Tech, Wired Magazine, 8-Mar-04
Lingering Job Insecurity of Silicon Valley, New York Times, 9-Mar-04

Several good columns in the New York Times have appeared recently, all of which have been critical of the Bush Administration's ability to forecast jobs accurately. Paul Krugman's editorial today really highlights this failing. The chart below from Krugman's article really puts things in perspective.



I'll be writing some more about this soon.

I got an email yesterday from Corey Rudl with this subject line:

Scott, I need your shipping address

I have no idea who Corey Rudl is, but it really caught my eye! Turns out it was a company selling some marketing reports. I guess it's good they know how to write compelling subject lines, considering the type of business they're in.

Well, it seems that a ticket to see Bill Gates at Cornell gets you... placed out on the street.



I went to the lecture with some classmates, and we arrived about 30 minutes early. We figured that since we had tickets, it would be plenty of time to be seated. Nope.

"Reserved" ticketholders streamed into the room, past us common ticketholders waiting in line. They seemed to be mostly faculty and staff of the university, not students. We waited in line, then were turned away just a few minutes before the speech. So, we went back to Sage Hall to see Gates via closed circuit television. But that room was full too, since we waited in line for so long. Damn.

Now for the second Bill. After hearing rumors of this for a few weeks, this morning, Cornell announced that Bill Clinton will be a graduation speaker. How cool. I just hope it doesn't turn out like the other Bill's talk.

It seems that Bush's recent Economic Report of the President that the administration sent to Congress has some creative plans for boosting the number of manufacturing jobs. MorningNewsBeat says that this report recommends reclassifying fast food employment as manufacturing jobs, since the worker is assembling burgers. Umm. I don't even know what to say about this. Wow.

I just saw a commercial for K-Mart. For some reason, they highlighted their Martha Stewart collection. Seems like strange timing, considering all the negative publicity she's getting right now, no?