EMBA Survival

How to answer a simple yes or no question

There are basically 5 appropriate responses:
"Yes, you are correct."
"No, you are not correct."
"It depends..."
"I'm sorry, I can't answer that question."
"I'm sorry, I don't understand your question."

Here's how not to answer a yes or no question:
"Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla."

If I ask you a binary question, please don't answer me with a paragraph.

Rice vs. UT (again)

Which EMBA do you prefer? As you already know, I prefer Rice.

Rice EMBA		UT EMBA
Year 1		Year 1
	Organizational Behavior		Managing People and Organizations
	Strategy		Strategic Management
	Financial Accounting		Financial Accounting
	Data Analysis		Managerial Statistics
	Finance		Financial Management
	Negotiations		Executive Seminar I
	Leadership		Executive Seminar II
	Managerial Economics
	Team Dynamics
	Leadership Communications
	Ethics
	Strategic IT
	Marketing
	Management Accounting
	Operations Management
Year 2		Year 2
	Globalization of Business		Global Management
	Economic Environment of Business		Marketing Management
	Business and Governments		Legal and Ethical Environment of Business
	Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship		Operations Management
	Advanced Competitive Strategy: Integrating the Enterprise		Art and Science of Negotiation
	International Business Briefing		Executive Seminar III
	International Negotiations and Communications		Executive Seminar IV
	Elective 1
	Elective 2
	Elective 3
	Elective 4
	Elective 5
	Elective 6
	Elective 7
	Elective 8

oral assessment III

Here's my 5 minute prepared presentation during the Rice EMBA Intensive Learning Weekend.  Preparation and rehersal both significantly reduce anxiety and significantly improve delivery.  We had the opportunity to rehearse our presentations 3-4 times with 2 peers prior to delivering to the class and the instructor.  I found that 3-4 dry runs before the actual presentation are very much worth the effort.  We are only talking about 15-20 minutes of your time.

creating corporate advantage

This article was written by the authors of our Strategy textbook.   After reading it I got some new ideas for my final strategy paper - but it's too late for that.

I suspect it will be a good refresher to skim in a few years.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=98303&ml_page=1

(you have to be a hbr subscriber to read the entire article)

financial models by headcount

I've seen head-count burn-rates calculated at a couple of places, but it's not the norm.

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/10/financial-model.html

Scroll down to the bottom, in part II: lessons.  The number 1 take-away was Focus on headcount.  Granted, that won't work for all business models, but it is interesting how accurate it turns out to be.

an introduction to venture capital

for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital, start reading:

http://www.venturehacks.com/

http://www.techconfidential.com/vc-ratings/

http://www.thefunded.com/

Also, you might start reading the thoughts of individual VCs themselves on their blogs.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3071-the-venture-capital-blogs-resource-page

http://andrewbfife.blogspot.com/2006/06/65-vc-angel-investor-blogs.html

If you invest some time reading these sites, and you are smart and motivated, you will walk away with an actionable strategy for pitching your business plan to VCs.

how to cite a blog in your academic paper

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=citmed.section.61024

reputation and perception

As discussed in Negotiations,

“The history of the race, and each individual's experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.”

-Mark Twain

Oral assessment II

Assignment: prep for less than 10 min, stand up in front of class, and talk about a predefined topic.  I imagine it gets easier the more you do it.

In the speech I mention Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, The Now Habit, Getting Things Done by Dave Allen, and First Things First by Stephen Covey.

All of those books were very useful to me.  I read them to prep myself for the demands of an EMBA.

likeable leaders

The thesis of this book is that leaders are often chosen more for their charisma, not their character, competence, or even true leadership ability. 

Outside of that, the point I believe my professor was making when discussing this book is that people often attribute causality for events when there is no logical connection.

Back to the book.  I haven't read it yet, but I will.  Probably won't have time until after I graduate.  The main fact is, however, people want to work with likeable people.   That isn't going to change.