24 Hours
Jonathan Bailey, MBA 2012
It's 2:30pm on a Wednesday. As class finishes, most of the ninety people in my HBS section are off to the gym or to read the cases for tomorrow, but I am heading to the library to prepare for my bi-weekly joint degree seminar. This week Professor Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs at the US State Department and current Kennedy School professor, is leading a special class on negotiations. Having negotiated the recent US-India nuclear deal, Professor Burns certainly knows his material. The ‘negotiating in the public and private sectors arc' was something we as joint degree students chose and helped design, and in previous seminars we have had the top negotiation academics from HBS and HKS. The seminars are great at getting the first- and second-year joint degree students together and have helped us to bond as a group. Now obviously it means more reading, and obviously not every speaker is to everyone's liking (at this point I think I have heard every possible opinion on the 2008 financial crisis), but the seminars are an important first step by HBS and HKS to making this a truly ‘joint' degree.
Sparsh Bhargava, MBA 2012
I'm in Hyderabad today, Day 8 of my IXP in India. We have spent the last seven days speaking to experts, meeting with urban and rural clients of microfinance, and working with one of the top MFIs in the world on a consulting project, helping them with a new business they are trying to launch.
Today, though, is a little different, as a classmate and I get to meet with a local NGO that is working on waste management, a topic that the both of us have been interested in for some time. We leave the hotel at 6am, and the NGO leader that our professor put us in touch with, takes us to interview and watch a couple, who are ragpickers, at work. We go to the dump ground area in Hyderabad and learn more about their day-to-day lives, the logistics of ragpicking, and the extreme poverty that they live in. The NGO leader also discusses the supply chain of recycling in the city, the role of the government, and the challenges of scaling waste management in Hyderabad and in India. As I head back to the hotel, I wonder how this problem with all of its significance will be solved. Will it be through the government, NGOs, or the private sector? What will be the innovative solutions that work in these cities with a growing population, increasing consumption, and often a lack of infrastructure?
I come back to the hotel around 9 AM and meet my team. We head to the office to continue working on our project. The company is starting an agricultural business and is looking to launch in six months. We've been asked to develop the marketing strategy and the institutional framework at the village, district, and state levels for this new business. It has been a great experience so far as we learn more about how agriculture in India is changing.
The day ends back at the hotel with a talk by Vikram Akula, the CEO of SKS Microfinance. We listen to Mr. Akula's fascinating story about how he started the company years ago from scratch, the remarkable growth to build the largest MFI in the world, his encounters with the local politicians, and the current challenges that MFIs face in India.
Michael O. Braimah, MBA 2012
2:30 pm: I have just finished an LCA (Leadership and Corporate Accountability) class where we discussed fiduciary duties at corporate entities. As usual, Professor Clayton Rose did a phenomenal job facilitating the class discussion and challenging my section mates and I to think about tough issues. I dash off to Spangler to grab a slice of pizza and meet with my buddy, Cheick Sanankoua, to discuss our vision for the Africa Business Club (ABC). Cheick and I will be serving as co-presidents of the ABC in the coming year, and we have been meeting on almost a daily basis since assuming our new positions. In the short time I have been in the role, I have found myself using lessons and skills I picked up in LEAD (Leadership and Organizational Behavior) and LCA. We quickly go through key issues and agree to meet the next day.
3:30 pm: Next, I'm off to Hawes for an Alpha Fund meeting to listen to a couple of stock pitches. The Alpha Fund is a student-run Investment Club that enables students to learn about and practice investing in public equities firsthand. We typically have two stock pitches every meeting. It served as a valuable networking resource during my summer internship search. The meeting ends, and the pitches were impressive as always.
4:30 pm: I find an empty alcove in Aldrich to read my BGIE (Business, Government and the International Economy) case for tomorrow. We'll be discussing Chilean fiscal policy and the country's copper surplus. The Finance case is a continued discussion from today, so I just read the recommended material from the textbook
6:00 pm: I join a group of my section mates for an early dinner at Grafton Street. Section life is central to the HBS experience. I am in Section H and consider myself lucky to be around some of the most amazing people I have ever met. It's nice to finally take a breather and relax a bit.
8:15 pm: I am off to Cumnock Fields to warm up for the HBS Soccer Club's first game of the spring season. We are playing the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy today. I know from last season that they are a very good side. Our co-captains, Stephen Burn-Murdoch and Juan Fernandez, lead the warm ups and pre-game discussion of tactics. The game is tough, but we win 2-0 in the end.
10:30 pm: I head back to my apartment and take a warm shower.
11:15pm: Time to catch up on emails. One of the things you quickly learn at HBS is the importance of staying organized and being timely in your communication. So many things are always happening at once, and it is so easy to miss out on really exciting events. I judiciously go through every email and make sure I am not missing any detail.
12:30am: I head to the living room to chat with my roommates, Jason Herron and Mark Lurie. In the 90 mph pace of HBS, we try to carve out sometime every day to catch up on each other's lives. We briefly chat about the next day's cases and head off to bed.
1:30am: it's off to bed but I know six hours later, I'll be at it again. Because if you ask any HBS student, they will tell you: "it's just another day at HBS".
Sebastien D'Incau, MBA 2012
A day of contrasts
It's 7am. I wake up in Beijing at the sound of my alarm clock (Radiohead, "Let down"). I am finally getting adjusted to the +12 hours of jetlag. Last night memories resurface: a night of discovery in Beijing, a dinner where we couldn't understand the menu, a cab driver who took us around Beijing by night, a dance club where locals and foreigners were dancing to the same songs. Quick shower. Quick breakfast. Today is particularly exciting: We will be visiting Google China in the morning and Baidu (the Chinese online search market leader) in the afternoon. Our bus rushes through the Beijing morning traffic. Tiger, our IXP local guide, explains how owning real estate is a source of pride for Chinese men. Interesting. We finally arrive at the Google office and start with a one-hour Q&A session with the president of Google China. Our 50 + students group is well prepared, and the executive does not hesitate to candidly answer all our questions — even the most controversial ones. We learn about the Chinese context, Google's governance, its international strategy, and what the future might look like for Google in China.
We then head to Baidu's office. A quick tour gives us the opportunity to contrast a local Chinese work environment with the westernized Google. Again, a senior executive spares a couple of hours to interact with our group. We learn about Baidu's history, and we discuss the feasibility of an international expansion for the Chinese giant and their relationship with the government as a Chinese company.
The access to high-level executives from both companies as well as the opportunity to contrast is enlightening. On our way back, a debate starts about globalization and how to operate a US company in the Chinese economy. We finally head back to our hotel. Most of the nights are "free" on our IXP — our faculty leader Professor Koll encourages to go "explore the other side of Beijing." With all that this city has to offer, it's going to be a short night again.
Michelle Giguere, MBA 2012
Today our small group is being paired with a translator, and we are setting off to shop our way through downtown Shanghai. Our goal is to examine Chinese athletic brands in comparison to global ones and to understand more about the Chinese consumer's evolving preferences. Later this week our group will present our findings to the rest of the faculty and students on the trip at our capstone event at the HBS Alumni Center here in the city.
As we walk through the busy streets, we stop to talk to shoppers and store employees along the way. Having a translator is essential, but once the language barrier is broken, the shoppers are friendly and eager to chat about everything from fashion to favorite sports teams, both Chinese and American, surprisingly. After several hours of shopping and observation, we take a break for lunch at a wonderful restaurant suggested by our translator, hidden away from the hustle of the shopping district. Over the meal she tells us about her family, and she shares personal stories about her volunteer work with orphanages in the rural provinces, where she has had a remarkable impact. After observing a formal tea presentation and devouring delicious dumplings, we are back on the street for a tour through the Nike flagship store, one of many American brands we have observed with a formidable presence in China.
After completing our assignment for the day we decide to walk along the river at our translator's suggestion. It is one of the most striking places in Shanghai, with traditional architecture on one side of the water and the remarkable modern skyscrapers of the financial district on the other side. This spot seems to perfectly capture what I have loved most about the city, a unique and wonderful juxtaposition of history and modernity. Tonight we are planning to venture to the top of one of these skyscrapers to take in more of these stunning views, and then it will be off to a local nightclub, another one of our translator's excellent suggestions.
Ryu Kawano, MBA 2012
It was a month before the India IXP, and we finally had our first project scoping call with our partner organization in India. We had been assigned to help assess the effectiveness of a decentralization program being undertaken by one of the leading microfinance companies in India. The program pilot was being run in Bihar, a location not covered by our IXP itinerary. However, the team believed that it was important for us to visit the site to fulfill the scope of our project. While we understood that changing our itinerary would be difficult since it was last-minute, we emailed Professor Shawn Cole, our IXP leader, about our request. Within 48 hours, Professor Cole and the team at the IXP office were able to sort out logistics to make the Bihar trip possible. This is one of many illustrations of the IXP office's dedication to making our trip as perfect as possible.
Maliha Khan, MBA 2012
It’s a Friday afternoon during the Pre-MBA international program, and we're all looking forward to the weekend, minds far from the class that’s about to begin. However, the case turns out to be of great personal interest to me – it is on Big Bazaar, a mass retailer in India that models itself after the traditional Indian marketplace. Growing up in Pakistan, also a developing country, and being familiar with the retailing world, I’d often wondered how to adapt company strategies to local markets, and how to tap into the burgeoning middle class in South Asia.
The class did not disappoint. Ananth Raman (our professor and the case writer) skillfully led the class through a discussion on why the idea of Big Bazaar was so novel in India and how it succeeded in attracting local customers. The discussion throughout the class was typical of ones we’d had in the Pre-MBA program – rich with the experience of students from many different countries, all with varying backgrounds and different experiences to add to the debate. Moreover, the class also made me realize the variety of angles with which we can approach business problems – although I may have had some cultural familiarity with the subject matter, there were other students in the classroom from other regions of the world who approached the business model in a completely different manner, which I found very refreshing.
Evgeny Koudryavtsev, MBA 2012
It's a Friday night in November, and my wife Anya and I are making the final preparations for the "Around the World Appetizers and Drinks Night." We are proud to present Russian national drinks and food to the students and partners of Section H. We spent quite some time cooking food and are curious to see if people like it. Finally, it is 8pm, and we have just finished arranging food and drinks on the table. In a few moments, guests start coming over and our apartment quickly fills up with a few dozen people.
Everyone starts tasting food and drinks and engaging in conversation with each other. Earlier today Anya attended the marketing class with the section, and she is discussing the Dove marketing campaign with a few students, while I am greeting newcomers and making sure everyone is comfortable. Partners and students seem to be enjoying what we have cooked. After an hour or so, Anya and I are joining our section mates in other apartments to try Indian and American appetizers and drinks. Everything was so delicious! We both enjoyed the evening and look forward to the next Section H event, which is taking place in just a few days.
ZiHan Lin, MBA 2012
I am excited. Today is the day — after months of collaborative preparation, the 8th Annual Healthcare Conference at HBS is finally here. It would be a day of learning and networking, with over 40 speakers on eight different panels, covering everything from global healthcare to biotechnology to healthcare policy to life science venture capital. As my fellow marketing manager, Emily, and I set up the registration tables with other Healthcare Club volunteers, we both eagerly look forward to greeting all of the 670 attendees we had managed to sell tickets to in the last three months. These were very busy months — November for launching marketing efforts, December for continuing sales while tackling finals and trying to enjoy my winter break, and finally January for the last push. Emily had done a fantastic job advertising the conference both inside and outside of HBS, and I provided backend technical support by constantly updating the conference website as well as Facebook and Twitter pages to provide the most up-to-date information on our speaker lineup. As a result, our audience is a wide variety of students, faculty, and industry professionals representing more than 70 academic institutions and 120 companies. And now here they come, streaming in one by one — let the Conference begin!
Richard Lou, MBA 2012
After four months of hard work, my team and I met up for dinner and drinks to celebrate the successful completion of the 2011 Real Estate Symposium. As we laughed about our trials finding a replacements when one of our original speakers canceled, we also reminisced about the compelling debates and unexpected insights that arose during the guest panels.
When we initially met as a team, I was excited to be a part of such a diverse mix of RCs and ECs who brought unique perspectives to the planning process due to everyone's unique backgrounds. We first brainstormed the myriad of keynote speakers we could possibly attract. Real estate figures such as Steven Roth, Larry Silverstein, and Donald Trump were potential speakers on our list. What was different about this conference from similar events in the past few years, however, was the fact that the real estate industry was finally rebounding from one of the worse recessions since the Great Depression. This macroeconomic context provided us with a clear direction not only for each panel topic, but also with the types of companies we wanted to invite to speak.
The energy from the kick-off meeting remained high for the subsequent four months. We were honored to host Jeffrey Hines, President and CEO of Hines, a privately owned, international real estate firm, as our keynote speaker. He addressed directly the challenges and opportunities the industry faces as it exits a global recession. Although the day of the conference turned out to be an unexpected snow day, it hardly deterred the attendees from trekking to Spangler Auditorium. At the end of the conference, I realized that by hosting the real estate conference at HBS, we were able to educate those new to the industry and bring together a community passionate about the business.
That celebratory night also marked the transition of the RCs into new roles on the board of the Real Estate Club as the ECs were about to graduate. While we were able to relax and enjoy a great meal, the RCs also knew that we had more work ahead of us in planning the 2012 Real Estate Symposium and to try to outdo ourselves next year.
Brendan Mosher, MBA 2012
It is 3:30am. I am already awake and dressed. Just a couple years earlier as a member of the US Army this would be been a somewhat normal occurrence, but in my new life as a first-year student at the Harvard Business School it is early — very early.
I am up to take part in the Armed Forces Alumni Association's (AFAA) 10th annual Tent Drive. The mission of the AFAA is to assist in the professional development and job search process of members; to promote camaraderie; and to raise awareness and support for the military on the Harvard Business School campus. The Tent Drive is our largest and most important fundraising event of the year. For 36 straight hours members of the club take turns staffing a large military tent pitched prominently on Spangler Lawn. All donations received from the event are donated to the New England Center for Homeless Veterans — a nonprofit that provides homeless veterans the support they require in order to successfully re-enter the work force and achieve self-sufficiency.
As I walk across the Charles River on an unusually cold April morning, I'm thinking about the more than 275,000 veterans across the US who have served in the military and are spending the night on the street. Though these veterans no longer wear the uniform, their fight continues as they struggle with unemployment, mental illnesses, and often addictions to drugs and alcohol, that have made return to "normal life" as we know it seemingly impossible. I feel for them and believe that helping them is a cause worth supporting.
After arriving on campus, I begin my shift. As you might imagine, foot traffic is slow between and 6am, and I pass the time reading cases for the day ahead. By 7am students are beginning to trickle into Spangler to get breakfast and meet with their learning teams. As more students arrive on campus, I spend time answering questions about the military, greeting familiar faces, and most often explaining why there is a large tent pitched on Spangler Lawn. Over the two days we raise more than $6,000. Although slightly short of our goal, I am amazed again and again how generous HBS students can be — especially considering there are no shortage of charities to support. Overall, the event was a great success, and I'm already looking forward to our next fundraising effort.
Caitlin Reimers, MBA 2012
The fish market in Mumbai, where I'm on an IXP, is like nothing I have ever seen. And arriving at 9:00am, I am late and have missed rush of the morning. Nevertheless, the sights and the smells are incredible. Dozens of old, old wooden boats line the docks. They stay at sea for weeks, manned by ten or fifteen men that sleep on the deck. The fish that arrived fresh that morning have already been unloaded, and the men have already begun to prepare the boat for another two weeks out on the ocean. I am told they will spend only two days back in Mumbai — just enough time to mend the nets, re-fuel, and maybe reconnect with family. Most of the unloaded fish have already been sold in a live auction very early in the morning where local merchants and restaurants purchase the day's supply. However, the remainder (primarily shrimp as far as I can tell) is sorted throughout the morning by hundreds of women, crouching together in brightly colored saris.
Sara Roedner, MBA 2012
Early on Sunday morning, I arrived on campus to meet the rest of the leadership team for the 2011 Retail and Luxury Goods Club Conference. As we ran around, setting up the welcome area for attendees and speakers, and ensuring that there was plenty of caffeine for the day ahead, I was both nervous and excited!
By 10 AM, over 350 attendees had assembled for our opening ceremonies. As participants registered for the conference, I saw HBS students, students from neighboring schools, and members of the retail and fashion industries — all gathering for a day of panels, speakers and networking.
Listening to the conference VPs open the event, I reflected on our kick-off event the evening before, when Stephen Sadove, Chairman and CEO of Saks Inc., spoke to conference attendees about Saks' resurgence an
d strategy at the Sheraton Commander in Harvard Square. After his speech, I saw firsthand the power of an HBS conference event: students traded thoughts on fashion with entrepreneurs and industry leaders, business cards were exchanged, and new friendships were formed.
On Sunday, attendees had the opportunity to attend four exciting panels — featuring experts on topics including Retail in Emerging markets, Entrepreneurship, e-Commerce and Sustainability. The conference closed with a joint keynote and Q&A session with William Lauder, Executive Chairman of the Estee Lauder Companies, and Tommy Hilfiger.
As the conference wrapped, and people began to disperse (carrying goody bags that we had spent hours stuffing just the day before!), I thought about how satisfying it was to see the months of planning culminating in such a successful event. As we put away the last of the materials, my mind was already wandering to next year's conference — as one of the 2012 conference VPs, I've got big shoes to fill!
Daniel Serna, MBA 2012
On a warm, muggy Monday morning in June, we hurried from Spangler to Aldrich for our first class in the Summer Ventures in Management Program (SVMP). As we entered the classroom where we would spend the next five days discussing cases, we noticed name cards indicating our seats. My seat was in the back row, in the middle of the room. I peered out across the room and saw 79 of my new friends eagerly making final preparation for our first case, Airbus. The classroom atmosphere was simultaneously inspiring and intimidating. Several of the leaders of the SVMP program had encouraged us to speak up in class early to make ourselves comfortable in the novel learning environment, a model distinct from large college lectures or small group seminars. Perhaps it was Professor Esty's inviting introduction to the case, or my comfort with my new classmates, or merely my fascination with airplanes. When he asked the room who supported the launch of A380, a $10 billion+ endeavor, I raised my hand. When he called on me, and all the eyes in the room suddenly faced me, I simply responded that I believed in the value proposition of the airplane given globalization and the growth of global cities. My trepidation subsided as I completed my sentence. What I did not anticipate, and what helped me learn the most, were successive questions from Professor Esty and my classmates. I learned a lot about HBS, my fellow SVMPers, and myself in that class, and the experience greatly enhanced my perception of HBS. I knew I felt at home in this learning model, with these people. Although I would investigate and consider other paths, this experience was one I wanted to repeat, and I envisioned HBS as place where I could thrive.
Matt Thurmond, MBA 2012
It's a Wednesday morning on the China IXP, and I take a minute to reflect. We're in Chengdu, a city of 11 million people, and now sit squarely in the middle of China's less developed Western province. This is the second stop on our trip, and after arriving last night on the bus I'm still in shock. The city is Las Vegas. Skyscrapers line the streets and light shows surge their way up the sides of buildings and down the main thoroughfares.
Today I'm hoping to get outside of the development and do some exploring. My classmate Dina speaks Mandarin so a few of us accompany her into the local market. "How much for this pepper?" I ask one vendor. She smiles and hands it to me as a gift, refusing payment. Another vendor laughs as we snap a picture of his hand-tied sausage links. We keep moving and pass more surprises — bins of turtles, blocks of soy, racks of drying noodles. These people live a surprisingly simple lifestyle considering the explosion of economic development just outside.
We reflect that night on our observations of the city, and I note the nervous optimism of the vendors we spoke with. They're excited about development but worried that the system can tip out of balance at any moment. Our professor, a China scholar, describes how the older citizens have lived through the rations of a planned economy and now struggle to manage the dislocations of a market-based system. I wonder what's in store for Chengdu as they try to transform themselves into a top destination for foreign investment. I think they can do it, and am thankful for such a unique window into the spirit of these people as they emerge onto the world stage.
Monne Williams, MBA 2012
In the morning of day three on the Rwanda IXP, we took a bus to a more rural part of the country called Rulindo District. Coming into Kigali, I thought Rwanda was beautiful, but the view of the country during the bus ride was awesome.
We visited a company owned by Rwandan businessman Sina Gerard. He has farms, a restaurant, and even places where women in the area make desks to be sold to local schools. Gerard told us about his philosophy of creating wealth for the entire community, through building schools and employing local people. It was really quite remarkable, and I look forward to having some time to think about what it really means to be a socially conscious enterprise. On a fun note I tried his spice, Akabanga, and I love it. I bought three bottles to bring back to the states. You have to try it!
Tomorrow we meet our project partners for the first time. Excited to start working!
