The PhD Project

Last week I attended the PhD Project conference in Chicago. It is a conference hosted by the KPMG Foundation that provides prospective PhD students from minority backgrounds to learn more about business doctoral programs. Since 1994, they have taken the number from only 200 business professors to over 1,000. I was happy to be invited with 300 prospective students.

We had several sessions that covered what the application process is like, the life a doctoral student, and the career path of business academia. They also had breakout sessions for each discipline. I attended both the Management/OB and Marketing panels.

This was a great opportunity to network with current Professors, Doctoral students, and prospective students. They also hosted a university fair and we got to meet with different doctoral program admins and professors.

Interestingly, there was another conference going on at the same time at the same hotel. The Mid-West Fur Fest. There were like 100 guys dressed up in full body animal costumes. Loved it!

I'm considering working for a few years and then going back to school. There were many people in that scenario and it was good to hear their stories.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about PhD programs and meet others with similar interests. The best part was all the free food!

Peter Bishop is Back!

They finally brought back Peter Bishop! In the last episode of Fringe, Peter Bishop returned and he explained more of his story and appears to have insight on why no one remembers him. In this time line, the Observer never saved Peter from drowning in the Lake. But for some reason, the Observer has decided not to erase him completely. He was stuck in some parallel dimension or something until he was released by one of Dr. Bishop's failed experiments.

It will be interesting to see how he will get everyone to remember him. I'm sure Walter will find a way at some point  once he gets motivated.

Interview with Dean Mittelstaedt

I had the opportunity two weeks ago to sit with the Dean of the W.P. Carey Business School, Robert Mittelstaedt. In that interview I had the opportunity to learn more about his background, his accomplishments with the school, and his vision for its future.

Before we got into details about the school he learned about my background and gave me some career advice. He said to starte with what you are interested in, but not to plan too far in advance. He cited his own experience of going to Wharton for his MBA and not planning on getting into academia, but eventually found himself as a VP in Wharton's administration, which lead him to ASU.

One of the key issues he expressed for W.P. Carey graduates was to understand that technical skills will only get you your first job and that leadership skills will enable you to grow in a company.

He also said that after our formal education ends that we should be still reading the Wall Street Journal everyday, as well as other business publications.

In terms of the school, he was pleased with the trajectory the school is going with receiving funds from W.P. Carey, the McCords, and gaining high rankings with only a few years of existence. Out of 10,000 business schools in the world, only 1,000 are accredited by the AACSB, and only 500 of those are in the U.S.

He also spoke highly of the faculty and felt they were just as qualified as the Wharton professors. Our Supply Chain emphasis is ranked number three in the nation by U.S. & World Report. The management department is highly ranked in research and we spoke about Prof. Sinha, my New Product Development professor, who is highly regarded in his field.

It was a great interview to learn more about career management and the school's history and future. I'm glad to be part of it!

New McCord Hall ASU MBA Building Ground Breaking

Last Saturday was the groundbreaking for the new McCord Hall building for the W.P. Carey School of Business graduate students. Dean Robert Mittelstaedt spoke opened the ceremony by speaking about the school's rapid rise in the rankings with only fifty years of existence compared to others with longer history. He also spoke about the investment of W.P. Carey of $50 Million to the school in 2002.

The school recognized that they were the only one in the top 30 that had not built a new building in the last 20 years. $17 Million was generated completely from donations from the community and alumni. No state funds were used to finance this project, showing the strength the school has to garner such a large amount to improve its facilities.

ASU President Michael Crow also spoke about what the new building meant and how much of an influence the business school was making through access, excellence, and impact.

After the speakers, a few of the school leaders and donors went to the site and started digging with the shiniest shovels I've ever seen. It was almost a shame to get them dirty! Carly and I actually got to do some shoveling too.

It was a pretty fun and historic event. Too bad I won't be there when it's done!

Tri Four Done!

I just finished the most hard core trimester ever in the MBA program! I took Managerial Accounting, Supply Chain Management, and New Product Development, all of which were super quant heavy courses. I think my mind is about to explode from all that math!

Managerial Accounting and SCM were both case based and provided a lot of insights in to actual operations at companies like P&G, ZARA, Whole Foods, etc.

New Product Development was by far my favorite. We covered conjoin analysis, customer preference and perception mapping, and pricing/bundling. It was pretty intense, but I loved the material and the tools it provided to know how to launch a new product in the market. We learned how giants like P&G, AMEX, and the like prepare to launch products.

It was a super challenging trimester, but definitely worth it! Only two more to go!

National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) Conference

Last week, another ASU MBA friend and I attended the National Black MBA Association Conference in Atlanta, GA. First off, I know what your thinking. Your thinking, last time I checked, Josh is Native American. But don't you worry, it is open to all MBAs of every background!

They had over 400 companies at the career fair and 15,000 attendees. It was an exciting opportunity to meet with several Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) firms and speak with their Assistant Brand Managers (ABM). Brand Management is the field I'm interested in which includes supervising all the supply chain, finances, promotions, and, pricing of a brand or product like Clorox or Tide.

Each company has a booth you can approach and try to arrange on site interviews with. I interviewed with Henkel (Dial soap) and Kimberly Clark (Kleenex). Hoping to hear back soon from those companies for an on site interview.

The companies also host parties in the evening to give you opportunities to network with the associates representing the firm. I was invited to Kimberly Clark's party (which included a comedian named Kimberly Clark) and to Johnson and Johnson's huge jazz concert party.

While I still have an offer with Bank of America, I'm using my offer period to explore opportunities in another industry and hopefully land some offers!

The conference was a success and I'm looking forward to this week's National Society for Hispanic MBA's conference in Anaheim, CA.

New iPhone 4S

Apple introduced the iPhone 4S today at their special event. Honesty, I'm a bit underwhlemed by it. Absolutely no external design changes whatsoever. We waited an extra three months for this? Oh, well, there are some cool new internal features though. It has and A5 chip making it two times faster, an eight mega pixel camera (which is pretty legit), and dual band capability (CDMA and GSM) that does make it truly a world phone.

They also introduced a cool voice application called Siri that acts as a personal assistant and completes commands, kind of like Jarvis on Iron Man. One friend said it would be cool to say "iPhone, make me a sandwich." Someday.