MBA

Yup, we have roughly five weeks left until the MBA is over. It’s hard to wrap my head around it. Some people would say, the end is coming; I say the beginning is fast approaching!

Here are some things I’ve been working on so far this semester. Hopefully this will give readers a lens into what the last portion of an MBA looks like.

SHOUT OUT! I want to give a shout out to my Real Estate focused classmates Chad Murphy and Alex Atherton for their recent accomplishment. Out of 139 teams they are one of four going on to the finals to compete in the ULI/Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition. (http://www.udcompetition.org/) Chad was in my original group starting the program and has become one my best friends here. Alex has also become a good friend and is a fellow Minnesotan whom I’ve had the opportunity to work with him in different group settings. This is a huge deal for both of them and they certainly deserve it given all the time and effort they’ve put in. Both were recently in Houston to check out the actual piece of land they were working with and will have a lot on their plate as they work towards the final competition coming up in early April.

JOBS:  For those worried about quitting a job, going back to school and making a career switch,  DON’T worry! For those willing to put in the extra effort, utilize the full gamut of resources (I.E. events set up by groups on campus, professors, classmates, previous contacts, professional events — literally be willing to talk to anyone and everyone) and spend your time here figuring out what you think it is you want to do post MBA the opportunities are endless. Utilize the student card, people love talking with students. It’s not easy, it’s been a roller coaster, when I last wrote I was being considered for a pretty awesome opportunity. Ultimately it didn’t work out. Not to worry, since then several other equally if not more awesome opportunities have come down the pipeline. I feel like the ball is now in my court and I am the one getting to decide.

SCHOOL: Still working on a lot of incredibly relevant –I can’t wait to use this in the real world–types of projects. For Corporate Strategy myself and my teammates are working on a “Business Model Innovation” for Starbucks all the while trying to recognize pre-trends and how to apply those at Starbucks to break the risk/return ratio. It’s no easy task considering Starbucks is consistently listed as one of the most innovative companies. In Market Intelligence we’re learning how to use data in ways I couldn’t even comprehend prior to school. These are the kinds of things I talk about in an interview, especially when going up against candidates from top tier schools. I’ve gotten the, “wow, you know how to do that” remark several times now. Damn right I do! In Marketing Communications myself and another team (the teamwork theme lives on through the entire process) are developing an entire communications plan. Again, learning new ways to think I didn’t even know about until coming back to Leeds. Incredibly relevant stuff! Finally we are learning about crowdsourcing, creativity, and innovation among other things in New Product Development. Our last individual project in that class was to develop a new product and assess its need in the market. I thought I had a good idea until I saw everyone else’s. I was blown away by the creativity.

FUN: Yes, if you do it right and prioritize there is still a lot of room for fun. One of the great things about the MBA program, or any graduate/PH.D program here on campus is that you get access to all the university’s club teams. I, along with several others in the program, have been riding with the CU Cycling team. Last Sunday I partook in my first race. It was a lot of fun! Being it was my first race I can only improve, which is a nice way to say I didn’t do well. But, it’s been a lot of fun regardless. March Madness has begun and the Buffs are dancing! I am sure it will be a lot of fun cheering these guys on. It’s also been exciting to hear where people are beginning to get offers from. We’ve all worked so hard to get to this point and I couldn’t be prouder of my classmates.  If you have any specific questions about school, fun, life in Colorado please feel free to reach out via this blog! Make it a great day!

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Things feel differently now that I’m in the second half of the semester. Midterms required a big push, and life was busy with projects and homework. Now I’m focusing on larger projects due at the end of the semester and putting more time into my internship in the Cleantech market assessment project. I’ll have two large projects due at the end of April, three finals and a large presentation. Other then that it’s various assignments carrying me to the last few weeks of April.

Non-academic work includes helping put on the last event in The Business of Outdoor Recreation Lecture Series put on by the Leeds Outdoor Industry Club (LOIC) and the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). www.outdoorindustry.org/leedsmba. I’m now the VP of Events, so there will be some transitioning happening over next few weeks. Our last speaker, Patagonia’s CEO, drew over 300 people, which is great for a club that’s less then 3 years old! I’m also taking on part of the Energy Frontiers Conference as the Director of Business for the Energy Club. www.cuenergyclub.org/energyfrontiers.  We’ve got some great panelists and we will be gathering local and state energy companies to be part of the career fair.

The search for the right internship continues, but I’m confident that everything will be sorted out before the rush of finals come. I’ve had some good interviews and made it through a couple rounds on internships that I’m excited about. It’s been helpful to work with my mentor and talk about the various internships and get extra insight on how each one would look to a potential employer after school. Talking with the second year students has also been a great resource for understanding how to approach internships and what outlooks are for careers I’m interested in.

The shift from daylight savings has also brought extended “playtime” into my schedule. While I only made it out to the slopes once so far this winter, the shift from indoor climbing to outdoor is likely to happen within the next week. I’ve been running more on the weekends to try and get into “ultra” shape, with a 50-mile race on my calendar the weekend after school ends on the April 28^th.  Spring break plans haven’t been hatched yet, but the choices are almost endless and I’m waiting to see what happens with the weather. Snow will likely take me back down to Silverton, and warmer weather may pull me west to the Colorado Plateau. Bound to be good either way!

Until the next post.

-Peter

The 2012 Leeds MBA Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) team won the West Regional competition held at the University of Southern California on Friday, March 2 beating MBA teams from the University of Arizona, Santa Clara, San Diego State, Thunderbird, and UCLA.

The team of Lindsey Jensen, Dane McDonald, Jeff Schreier, Mark Wiranowski, and Nick Wyman advanced to the 15th International VCIC finals to be held April 12-14 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill – CU Leeds 8th trip to finals since 2000!

Congratulations!

There wasn’t any easing into the second semester, and my time has become an increasingly valued commodity. I was glad to have given myself a week to relax in Boulder before starting, which allowed me to get things organized and prepare for this semester. All of my five classes have group projects to varying degrees and with the mix of classes I now have 5 different teams. In retrospect it would have been easier to have the same team for a few of my core classes, but so far it hasn’t been too complicated.

Strategy (Core) – So far we’ve been focusing on overall industry strategy and competitive strategy. One of the biggest things about this class is that I’ve developed the business strategy vocabulary, as well as the basic structure that go into evaluating strategic situations. I noticed myself using these terms when I was helping a New Venture Challenge team with their business idea. Pretty cool stuff.

Applied Finance (Elective) –Taking off from where we left pro forma statements in Corporate Finance, this class is all about building financial models from case studies. Valuable, yes. Time intensive, yes. The cases focus on varying aspects of business financials, including operational changes, capital structure, mergers and acquisitions and company evaluation. I’m sure getting better at Excel!

Science Energy and Technology (Elective) – One of the things that I was concerned about is the fact that this is an evening class (Monday and Wednesday). The goal of this class is to get an introduction/history to the mainstream energy production. We go through the various energy production types (oil, gas, coal, hydro…), learn about them in greater detail and discuss where the future of this production is projected to go. Although the style is lecture based, I’m captivated and the time goes by quickly.

Decision Modeling (Core) – In a single word this class is all about “optimization”. While we started out with easy problems dealing with applying rules to specific situations, the learning curve has ramped up (just like the second year students promised it would). I find this class very interesting but it requires a paradigm shift for me. It’s all about how you set up the problem (decision, objective function, constraints) rather then trying to solve it right away. Again, another class where I’m getting to know the power of Excel.

Macro Economics (Core) – This is a partial class in that it is only 1.5 credits, and only goes through the first half of the semester. One of the great things about this class is that everything becomes relevant and extremely current given the world economy right now. It’s interesting to see the cash flow of the national government, understand more about the drivers in consumer consumption and see how government policies affect investment.

All things considered, I’m learning a ton (which is why I went back to school).

Thanks for reading!

Peter

Classes for the Spring 2012 semester started on January 17^th and I cannot believe how fast time flies – we are already rounding out our FOURTH week! Besides attending new classes and reuniting with friends, there have been some amazing events at Leeds. Last week, we had a networking event with Geoff Tanner, the Director of Product Innovation at Del Monte. He was responsible for one of last year’s most successful new product launches for Milo’s Kitchen, a new line of home-style dog snacks.

On Tuesday, NAWMBA (the National Association of Women MBAs – CU chapter) hosted an event at Bar Method, an alternative workout/fitness location in Boulder. The ladies got to try out a private, one-hour class followed by a short business discussion with Bar Method Boulder owner, Leslie Rosenberg. Emily Rugaber, a current second-year MBA student commented, “the Bar Method event was really fun despite being an incredibly difficult workout. The best part was sitting down with the owner, Leslie, after class and learning about her struggles and accomplishments when starting franchises in Boulder and Denver.”

Just this week, the Leeds MBA program partnered with the Outdoor Industry Association to host Patagonia CEO and President, Casey Sheahan at the Stadium Club at Folsom Field. Katie Childress, also a current second-year student, attended the event. She stated, “there was no fluff in Casey’s presentation. Patagonia, including its employees, truly views the environment as its #1 stakeholder. Casey’s leadership approach is something that Leeds students should learn from: creating a culture that supports the company’s vision, even down to the type of food it sources for the cafeteria.”

There are many more events this semester that I am looking forward to, including a luncheon next week with Mark Harrison, a Leeds MBA alum who currently works for Google.

Stay tuned…Glenna

They said it would go quickly, but this fast? In about 10 weeks, we’ll be done. I’ll have an MBA and it will be back to the real world. The experience has been nothing short of fantastic. In the beginning of the process I wanted to find ways to make it last longer, I was learning so much and having such a great time doing it. The people were great, the experiences were all new and my way of thinking was continually challenged. But now, I feel ready. I am excited to take this new way of thinking into the real world to make a real impact. Let’s do this!

For the final semester I am taking a marketing heavy approach. I’m in New Product Development (NPD), Market Intelligence, Marketing Communications, and a core class which all MBA students take, Corporate Strategy. So far they all seem to complement each other perfectly. In NPD class we’re learning about the entire process from start to finish of developing a new product for market. As a part of a team we’ll get to develop our own product. Market Intelligence is a class based on statistics and understanding market research data. It is a great class to help you understand the information available to you as a marketer and how to make decisions using that data. How do you build and communicate your brand and get your target customer to associate with it? That’s what we’re learning in Market Communications.  Finally Corporate Strategy, a class based on business model innovation, and bucking the trends. Staying pertinent to the customer and not letting your business become obsolete. I am not sure if it was just luck, but like I said, these classes all seem to link up really well and are helping me close the loop in the understanding of marketing.

On the job front I had the opportunity to go through the entire interview process with a company back in Minnesota where I am from and am currently waiting for news on a decision. Sometime this week, fingers crossed. I’ve continued to actively network and am confident with each resume I submit that it’s not going into a black hole. It would be great to have a few offers early and be able to focus on the academics for the last semester. You can tell, although I don’t think students will admit it, there is a level of stress associated with the final semester and the pressure to land a job. The opportunities are there, Career Connections does a great job of bringing in local companies, and helping students stay connected. I am excited to see where we all land.

Finally, onto the fun and games. There is still not a lot of snow up in the high country. It’s been a disappointing season for the mountain resorts. But ah, the silver lining … it’s been a great winter for riding bikes. It’s going to be a bit colder this week but up until now it’s been consistently sunny and in the 50s to 60s. Ironman training pretty much takes up the rest of my time, and I am planning to get in on some collegiate racing for the CU cycling team. It’s pretty cool that even as a graduate student I am able to do so. Still hoping for some more snow, but either way there’s always something fun to do outside even if the skiing has not been great.

Thanks for reading,

Chris

Three quarters of the way through, and feeling good about the prospects ahead! This semester definitely had a different feel than the last two. It felt more like a working career type experience (in a good way) than any other, mostly I assume because the large emphasis on group work. My finals included mostly big group projects and presentations with a “small” fifty plus hour final individual case analysis in Entrepreneurial Finance. I should note that while I’ve come to really enjoy finance, marketing is where my true passion and talent resides. I know not everyone took fifty hours in fact, I assume the majority took less. It was a huge commitment, but I am a bit slower when it comes to developing my models and analysis of the case. I don’t want to scare anyone off, it was a tremendous experience and I learned a lot. I know that being able to use those finance skills as a marketing professional will be invaluable.

I really enjoyed the oftentimes lopsided mix of individual work and group work. It came down to the wire more times than not but it was amazing to see not only what our group produced but what other groups came up with. For our Business Plan Prep class the final was a competition between our group, which developed a business plan for Swiftwater Skirts (a live company started by a fellow student) and six other teams. We didn’t capture a top two placement but after watching each group present I was not envious of judges. To me, there was no clear winner and every team did a great job. It’s crazy how far we students have come in terms of presenting, our preparation, and our ability to handle tough questions about the work we’ve done. I expect great things from our class, and often times find myself trying to think of a way to start a venture that would allow me to hire us all, we’d do well for sure! The same was true with our Digital Marketing class. Each group had to go into the Boulder community and find a client to set up and run a digital marketing campaign for. It was a semester long project, one in which I have brought up in every interview and informational meeting I’ve had since starting the project. This was as real world applicable as it gets. Companies are looking for this, and that sort of experience stands out

I am now looking forward to a nice break, although to mirror Peter’s last post it’s nearly impossible to completely check out. I’ve been, and will continue the focus on networking and must now begin to balance that out with interview preparation. The last thing I want is to build a relationship, have that person be responsible for getting me into an interview situation and then not be a good candidate. The second semester I am sure will fly by even faster than the first three. As I move into 2012 there will be career search, practice interviews, real interviews, class work, internships, and prep for Ironman Panama. Oh yeah, maybe a day in the mountains too! It will again test my limits and give me a chance to learn, grow, and accomplish more in a shorter period than I ever thought possible. I can’t wait!

Happy Holidays!

Chris

Wow…it’s finally here. I just wrapped up my finals and I am almost ready to head out west in my packed Subaru. When I reflect on the semester it definitely felt long, but short at the same time—that funny contradiction where time and memory don’t quite match up.

My finals consisted of a three-hour Finance exam, Marketing Presentation and Socially Responsible Enterprise essays. The Finance exam was case-style with a couple questions that combined what we have been learning the last seven weeks. It was hard, but doable. One of those exams where time goes by quickly and you’re glad when it’s over after you’ve turned it in. Our group was chosen to present our marketing strategy to a few members of Rudi’s marketing. It was about a 20-minute presentation and overall it went well. The essays went smoothly and focused on bringing our own views and class discussions into the questions with material from our textbook to back up our opinions.

After a nice long refreshing break I should be ready to come back to academics. My two elective classes next semester are Applied Finance and Energy Science & Technology. I feel that the financial part of business is too important, and a 7-week crash course just doesn’t cut it. The energy class is the first one of the RASEI graduate certificate classes that I was recently accepted into. It should be a good semester and prepare me for an exciting internship.

The non-academics parts of school are going well. LOIC submitted our proposal to pitch at SIA in January (read previous post for background info). I’ll be attending a couple great GEA events coming up soon in the spring semester. I’ve also been working with my Market Assessment Program team. Our project focuses on CO₂ conversion by using algae. It’s really interesting stuff! We meet our researcher at NREL and got a project overview along with a lab tour. I’ll definitely be processing and mapping out my thoughts during the break.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

I’m now working to finish up a few things before taking off for the break. This list includes checking in with Dave at Career Services, applying for a few internships at NREL, submitting my application for the Professional Mentorship Program, finishing this post, and sending off a scholarship application for the Association for Corporate Growth (Denver chapter). It’s kind of hard not to check out, but I know that my efforts will provide dividends later.

After that it’s packing up for a relaxing month of rock climbing, long trail runs, snowboarding, mountain biking, ice climbing and spending time friends and family.

Happy Holidays!

-Peter Swank