B-School Blogs: Differences Between Managers and Leaders, Lunch with David Booth, and More
Weekly highlights from MBA bloggers around the world.
MBA in the USA -- Grayson Leverenz weighs in on sports chat during interviews. Seems international MBAs are baffled by how Americans commonly use sports to develop rapport with an interviewee. When Leverenz recently asked an Indian student what was the biggest surprise about doing an MBA in the United States, the student replied, "People love sports in India, too--but we don't talk about them during interviews."
Random Rantings -- LBS strategy professor Freek Vermeulen poses the question: Managers and leaders, are they different? The bottom line, he believes, is that no single leader type fits every scenario; different companies at different times need people with different skill sets.
MBA or Not to MBA -- David Booth joined Chicago Booth students for lunch on campus last week, which brought up a question for Maybe MBA: Not whether markets are perfectly efficient but whether the amount of money to be made from inefficiencies is worth the cost. "While in any given period, someone can be the 'rare orangutan' (as Booth so lovingly put it), but can they be the rare orangutan consistently?"
Square Method -- As he enters the 7th quarter of his business education at Darden, Christof Meyer realizes that perhaps he's spent too much time focusing on the technical details of the MBA program and not enough on the bigger picture. A new goal: finding a way to use his MBA skills and technical abilities to make the world a more beautiful place. Or at least keep the world from getting more ugly.
Out on a Limb (Back in the Saddle) -- After "pimping himself out" to investment banks and consulting firms during milkround, N.A.S. (London Business School) recalled a grim assignment during a course on Understanding General Management which asked students to write their own eulogy. The exercise offered some perspective to see whether one's life and career goals are on track, and so at the urging of friends, he has posted his life's summary here.