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Memory Lane from the International trip with EMBA 2011

Greg DeCapio EMBA 2011 stumbled across a recent article on the top tourist attractions in the world. Coming in at #10 in the list is the Grand Bazaar, visited by EMBA 2011 on their International Residency trip to Istanbul, after first spending several days in Budapest. Apparently Vanderbilt’s 50 students were among the 15 million others who visited the amazing Grand Bazaar-- the world’s oldest shopping mall! The complete article is at:

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40711683

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from our 2011 residency, which included visits with some amazing organizations, including:

• In Budapest: Zwack, Coca Cola Hellenic, GE Lighting, Mattel and Brown Forman/Jack Daniel’s, Corvinus University School of Management, Renault, and sight-seeing on the beautiful Danube and the old palaces and churches of this gorgeous town.

• In Istanbul: Koc Industries, Central bank of Turkey, Turk Telecom, various temples, and the Grand Bazaar.

Now, we are busy planning the EMBA 2012 trip to China for spring 2012. In preparation, the students are reading Market Entry Strategies by Christopher Lymbersky and and One Billion Customers by James McGregor.

Newest Executive MBA Class Recognized at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management

Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management on Saturday, July 23, recognized fifty students for completing the two-year Executive MBA program.

Vanderbilt Executive MBA students typically arrive with an average of 12 years of experience and represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds from mid- to senior-level corporate executive to entrepreneurs to professionals such as accountants, attorneys and physicians, to managers in technological or scientific fields. As William Thomas, an executive at Bridgestone Americas put it: “I arrived to be a better business man, but I’ve become a better person.”

Intense, real-world projects as part of “C-teams” allow EMBA students to immediately apply their classroom learning while working closely with their peers. The July 23 celebration provided an opportunity for each student to show appreciation for family, friends and employers who supported and encouraged them during the two-year journey to an MBA.

In all about 400 people were there to send our students out in style. Alex Nicholson, EMBA 2001, was the presenter and the lead donor among 8 alumni who contributed to give a Vanderbilt blazer to each member of the EMBA Class of 2011 to celebrate their joining the ranks of alumni. Other contributors included: Nancy Abbott EMBA ’91, Nelson Andrews EMBA 2001, Michael Blackburn EMBA 1994, Dr. Ravi Chari EMBA 08, Doug Howard EMBA ’85, Henry Lodge EMBA ’81, Kent Wood EMBA ’00, and MBA ’82 graduate Jon Caplan, as CEO Brand Group and President, Johnston & Murphy, for producing the blazers and a gift card from J&M. Don’t they look fantastic? Way to go EMBA 2011!

Aligning Strengths in our Market to Innovations in Programming

Vanderbilt’s Americas MBA for Executives--a partnership with FIA in Brazil, ITAM in Mexico and Simon Fraser University in Canada--was our timely solution to a changing need by businesses we serve for executive education. These MNCs with strong ties to Nashville have a presence throughout the Americas. Two news pieces in the past 24 hours highlight the changing face of our business community:

1) Forbes just published an article listing Nashville, TN as the #3 expected growth city in the US. It mentions Nashville's growing Latino population and its pro business culture in general (which ties perfectly to the growth and entrepreneurial theme of Vanderbilt's host residency in the Americas MBA for Executives Program; namely courses in Innovations for Growth and Launching New Ventures for Growth and Sustainability—all of strong interest to our Americas cohort and partner schools. Further, Forbes wrote about Nashville: “The country music capital, with its low housing prices and pro-business environment, has experienced rapid growth in educated migrants, where it ranks an impressive fourth in terms of percentage growth. New ethnic groups, such as Latinos and Asians, have doubled in size over the past decade.”

2) The Nashville Business Journal just published an article with two quotes from corporate partners we serve—Bridgestone and Schneider Electric. The complete article is available at this link:

http://www.owen.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt/programs/americas-mba-for-executives/upload/NBJ-Americas-MBA.pdf

ROI and the Decision to Finance Your MBA

When you are about to commit to financing an MBA, it may be hard to imagine how and when you’ll recover the cost. However, if you are a graduate from Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA Program, it may be harder to remember why you waited so long (12-14 years on average post college) to get started with the MBA and enjoy these substantial returns.

Consider these facts:
• While experiencing the worst of the recession, the Vanderbilt EMBA Class of 2010 graduated earning 20.3 percent more than pre-MBA. That is nearly double the increase for all EMBA programs (at 11.4% globally--still good, given the economy, and a great endorsement for the educational investment in general.)
• In recent Vanderbilt classes, the time to recoup the total cost was 1 year after graduation to less than 4 years.
• With these supporting facts, the average 50k school debt for EMBA 2010 graduates doesn’t look so daunting, since typical students have 20 or more years to enjoy increased earnings after completely recovering the cost of their MBA. When those Vanderbilt MBAs earn $28,500 more by graduation on average and take off from there, the gain is a million dollars or more in improved earnings over that 20-year period.

How long will you want to work and enjoy those returns? How long will you need to work with those kinds of returns? If your inclination is to work really hard and retire really well, consider the real return on education, not just the upfront cost of tuition.

And yet, the top reasons most of our students pursue an MBA are not financial, although they result in financial gain down the road. These reasons include ability to be more effective, versatile, valued, and promotable at work; ability to be agile in finding new employment; desire for hedges against uncertainty; and desire to remain competitive.

Planning to enroll this year? Now is a great time to fill out your FAFSA (if a US citizen) and consider the educational loan that can be your path to career agility, and, yes, a better income. Are you worth the investment? Need some reassurance? Call us at 615.322.3120.

When the Profs Become the Voices in Your Head…or On Your Car

When learning foreign languages, you know you have achieved something when you awake realizing that you’ve been dreaming in that language. What have you achieved when, as an MBA graduate, you are channeling your professors and their advice?

I think it means you have achieved a few things. Perhaps it signifies you have achieved a nerd level that could cause eyes to roll. More importantly, it probably means that those faculty relationships and lessons were lasting and useful in how you think differently with the MBA.

Here is a story from last week, when I caught up with EMBA 2009 graduate Justin Calhoun, who is a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in Memphis, helping ERISA administrators customize compliant DV/DB plans. In an information session, we were making the point that your faculty and class peers in the EMBA program become the voices in your head. Justin said he could underscore that point in an unusual way, and that he’d send me a picture of his car license plate. Here it is, and let’s see if you get it (answer at bottom, but don’t cheat!):



Justin is referring to the four fundamental components of a sustainable competitive advantage, which are:

Valuable
Rare
Inimitable
Organized

Next time you see Justin in Memphis, honk once if you remember VRIO and twice if you want him to stop and tell you how he uses this invaluable lesson from his strategy class at Vanderbilt to help his clients every day.

Making Time When There’s Limited Time for an MBA

An alternative title to this piece could be: “If Getting an MBA Was Convenient, Everyone Would Have One.” One common truth for working executives, who still want an MBA, is that they may have put the decision off for years, waiting for the right time. Perhaps they now feel past the time when they should have taken the plunge. To them the “right time” is a panacea where time stops--when the job isn’t going to be so demanding, when the kids can take care of themselves (what a nice thought!), and when their volunteerism and community leadership take a vacation. They are right, and they are wrong.

Waiting for the Right Time versus Orchestrating the Time Candidates most attractive to our admissions committee for the Vanderbilt Executive MBA Program have certain things in common:
• They are at or approaching senior leadership, where problems get larger and more complex. A lull in activity at work isn’t going to happen. If it does, it may indicate you don’t have the skills to be successful with the next messy problem, and that education may be required for getting consideration beyond where you are stalled.
• They are leaders in their communities. If getting an MBA is something you aspire to, plan ahead. Wrap up standing commitments and terms of community service, and “unvolunteer” yourself temporarily, so that you can dedicate that time to school for up to two years.
• They know how to include their constituents in their decisions. This means both at work and at home. Helping your work associates to get excited about the new tools you can bring to the table with an MBA can maximize your ability to leverage what you will learn by creating open space for new ideas. Your spouse or partner must buy into the reality of the time you will need—about 20+ hours a week in the more demanding full-load EMBA programs—if you are going to be successful as a working student. Discuss how that might change your family dynamic.

The Real “Right’ Time—If the demands on your performance are about to escalate or have already escalated past the point of your personal comfort, it’s probably time to get serious about advancing your education. For executives, an MBA is timed best when the skills you have used to get where you are now will no longer get you through the next set of challenges. For most this means that:
• Functional prowess developed over one or more decades needs to be delegated to those junior to you; you need to stop doing and start leading.
• Cross-functional abilities need to guide you from viewing the world through your functional “safe” lens; you need new learning to cross those functional lines, and an executive classroom peer group can provide those other functional perspectives you need in a safe environment for experimenting with new skills.
• People skills will need to be at their peak.

If these sound like your challenges, then it’s the perfect time for an MBA. Consider EMBA or PMBA formats, and pay attention to the peer group that will push you the farthest from wherever you sit too comfortably now. Getting an MBA won’t be easy, but good time management and priority setting will go a long way.