April 24, 2008
MAP Wrap Up
Right now, I am sitting on a plane traveling from San Francisco to Detroit. My MAP team delivered our final presentation to PG&E on Monday afternoon (two final presentations, actually – our project generated a lot of interest within the company) and emailed our report out to the printer late last night. To say that MAP exceeded my expectations is an understatement; not only did I have an awesome team that consisted of 5 incredibly dedicated classmates, but I also had a great client liaison, company sponsor, and topic (renewable energy). To top that off, our faculty advisors and communications coach provided valued guidance and validation throughout the process. The experience culminated with a presentation to senior PG&E executives – and the preliminary feedback was very positive. We definitely got the sense that we had substantial impact at a very senior level.
We managed to fit in some fun between wrapping up the presentation and moving on to complete the final report. After the presentation on Monday, we had a night out in San Francisco in which we hit a couple of establishments, including what became my team’s favorite spot in SF, a Chinese restaurant called House of Nanking. The following day, our client liaison took us out for a tour of a wind farm about an hour-and-a-half outside of San Francisco. We saw some 1.5 MW turbines, which are the approximate height of a 40-story building. From a distance, the blades look like they spin slowly, but from up close, it is clear that they really whip around. It was an awesome day for the tour because the wind was really blowing.
So now I head back to Ann Arbor where lots of barbeques and other end-of-year parties await. It will be nice to get a chance to hang out with everyone now that we don’t have any academic obligations. People will start to head out of town as early as tomorrow, but many will stick around for at least a week. I for one am hanging out for the weekend and then heading out for the Erb camping trip, which begins early next week.
Posted by leahyt at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2008
MAP and Moustaches
We are approaching the midpoint of MAP, and my team just delivered a draft Phase 1 (of 2) report to our company sponsor, Pacific Gas & Electric. We also scheduled our final presentation, which will take place on-site in San Francisco at the end of April, so the project is really starting to come along.
With many first-year MBAs periodically out of town during MAP, things feel fairly quiet in Ann Arbor. The second years, most of whom are set on jobs and finished with many of their academic requirements, seem to be having a low-stress Winter B. I for one am looking forward to spending some time in Ann Arbor because I was traveling again last week, and I am hoping to take care of some personal stuff (taxes, bills, etc), and potentially make my way over to the gym (exercise recently has consisted of loading/unloading baggage from the overhead bins).
One thing I am looking forward to in Ann Arbor involves a special month-long event called the Rossstache. It is a Burt Reynolds-inspired contest in which participants grow facial hair as a way to raise money for charity (you can check out the details here: http://www.rosstache2008.blogspot.com/). If the connection eludes you, that perhaps is partly the point – but it is a great event and for a good cause. I have been unable to participate thus far because I've continued to interview for summer internships, but I'm hoping to make up for lost time this week. The competition ends on April 3rd.
Finally, everyone at Ross is gearing up for GBR, which is just a few weeks. I just wanted, once again, to encourage anyone on the fence to come check out Ann Arbor and see what Ross is all about!
Posted by leahyt at 01:51 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
MAP
It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. MAP started two weeks ago, so MBA1s regrouped in Ann Arbor for a few days and then spread out across the globe. I headed to San Francisco, specifically to Pacific Gas & Electric Company, where 5 of my classmates and I are doing some research relating to alternative energy technologies – this is exactly what I came to school to study and exactly what I want to be doing when I graduate, so the project is ideal for me. PG&E has been a great client and they kept us busy in SF – we had had a ton of meetings in which we learned all about the energy industry. Fascinating stuff, especially with all of the renewable energy activity taking place in California these days.
And it didn't hurt to spend a week out in beautiful San Francisco - my team and I managed to do a lot of exploring. Last weekend we biked from downtown SF across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. We had lunch on the water (it was 70 degrees and sunny) and then took a boat across the bay back to SF. We also explored the city via cable car, had a great dinner in Chinatown, and met up with a few other MAP teams that were also working in the Bay area. All in all, it was an awesome trip.
My MAP team is now back in Ann Arbor for a few weeks – we will be meeting with faculty advisors, conducting primary research via conference calls, and starting to put together the early pieces of the final presentation and report that are due at the end of April. MAP is very much meeting the high expectations I had for it.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Posted by leahyt at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
February 29, 2008
Spring Break
I am currently out in Denver at the 2008 Cleantech Venture Challenge sponsored by the Leeds School of Business. There were 8 teams selected to compete in the competition, and the field was narrowed to 4 for the competition round taking place today. All 4 teams selected for the final round are from the University of Michigan. I also just learned that a Michigan team competing in a separate competition in Cincinnati just advance to the Final Four, which will take place tomorrow. Overall it has been a great week for the Michigan entrepreneurial program!
Ross is currently on break, so I actually got a couple of days of skiing in out in Steamboat prior to this b-plan competition. I was skiing with 8 Ross students, and we had a blast – lots of great powder and lots of great food (a couple of my fellow travelers are excellent chefs).
There were a bunch of trips similar to mine – student groups went to Aruba, Jamaica, Florida, Utah, and Panama, just to name a few. It was great to spend some time outside of the hectic pace of business school, and the fact that so many students chose to travel with classmates illustrates the strength of the relationships that have formed over just a few months.
Oh, I almost forgot. We had final exams last week (seems like a very long time ago), which means that core classes are all done. Very bittersweet because we will no longer share classes with our section mates. Going forward, classes will primarily be elective-based. We still have MAP to go before this first year is over, but if the last 3 quarters are any indication, the next 7 weeks are really going to fly!
Posted by leahyt at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2008
MAP, Boyne, Ross Follies
We are in the final stretch of Winter A with finals coming next week followed by a weeklong vacation, after which MBA 1s will make their way back to Ann Arbor and then disperse throughout the globe for MAP projects (http://www.bus.umich.edu/MAP/ProspectiveStudents.htm).
Back in January all first-year MBAs had to rank their top 10 MAP choices – the only restriction in selecting a MAP related to the number of international MAPs everyone could put in their top 10 (just because international MAPs are so popular). That said, most people I’ve spoken to have gotten one of their top choice projects. I actually got my first choice – I’ll be analyzing the alternative energy industry, which is exactly what I returned to school to study. While I got my first choice, I would have been happy with any of the 10 projects on my list. In fact, there were so many interesting projects focused on Cleantech and/or Sustainability that I had trouble narrowing down my list to only 10.
While things have been crazy with recruiting, classes, and MAP, there have been a bunch of fun b-school activities recently. A couple of weekends ago, the Ross Ski Club sponsored a trip up to Boyne – the 550 foot vertical drop is intimidating, but the 100 or so students who made the trek returned largely unscathed. Joking aside, the Boyne resort is a great place (it’s not their fault there are no mountains in Michigan), and there were plenty of other activities – dog-sledding, cross country skiing, tubing – to keep the advanced skiers busy once they’d had their fill of the mountain.
Last weekend was Ross Follies (http://www.rossfollies.org/), a mostly live performance (there are some taped segments) written/produced/directed/performed entirely by Ross students – there were, however, some guest performances by some faculty, including a cameo from Dean Dolan. My favorite part was a b-school rendition of Flight of the Conchords’ “Business Time,” which took the audience through a (satirized) on campus interview. It was absolutely hilarious.
That’s all for now – all you admits, make sure to attend your local Ross Reception and save the weekend of April 10-12 for Go Blue Rendezvous!
Posted by leahyt at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2008
Recruiting, Recruiting
As foretold in my previous posting, there are a lot of very happy MBA 1s walking the halls these days – summer internship offers have been coming through, and I know a lot of people who have gotten very good offers. The process is still unfolding, so we will see how everything shakes out in the end.
I got some good news recently as well – a business plan that some fellow students and I submitted for a business plan competition was selected for the final round. So I will be traveling at the end of February to pitch the plan to a group of judges, many of whom work for Venture Capital funds. If you are interested in entrepreneurship, be sure to check out the Zell Lurie Institute website (http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/). The folks at ZLI were a tremendous resource as my team and I crafted our plan; the strength of the entrepreneurial program here is evidenced by the fact that Michigan is represented on 4 of the 8 teams selected for the final round in this competition.
Now turning to another type of recruiting - to anyone out there trying to decide whether Ross is the right fit for you – or if you’ve already been sold on Ross, but just want to meet an engaging group of people – I would strongly encourage that you attend the admitted student reception (coming soon to a city near you!). The reception was a great opportunity to meet alumni, current students, and admissions staff, not to mention future classmates. I attended the reception in New York City, which took place at Stone Tower Capital’s offices in midtown Manhattan.
It was a memorable night for me because of the size of the turnout and the enthusiasm of the crowd. I spoke with then-MBA 1s who were doing their MAP at American Express in New York, alumni from dozens of companies (lots of folks in finance, it is New York after all), and I was finally able to put some faces to the names of the admissions staff with whom I had been in touch.
The reception was my first experience getting to know Michigan alumni, a vibrant network that has played a very important role in mine and my classmates’ career searches. I would highly recommend attending the reception – you will get a flavor for the Ross community and will undoubtedly meet some great people. Go Blue!
Posted by leahyt at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
January 10, 2008
It's Winter, Sort Of
We’ve had a fair amount of snow already this year, but the temperature topped out at 60 degrees a few days ago – a couple of my friends actually went to hit golf balls (yes, in January in Michigan). I’m not banking on many more days like that.
Anyway, we just finished our first week of classes, and this is gearing up to be a very interesting quarter – all 3 of the courses I am taking (Management Accounting, Operations Management, and Valuation) are case-based, which is a format that I have enjoyed, though one that certainly requires a lot of pre-class preparation. Once again, I’m very impressed with my professors, and I’m enjoying the material. Accounting and Operations are core courses, and it seems like we will really get a chance to take the tools we have learned, apply them to the cases, and practice decision-making. It will be another challenging semester as we continue to build on the fundamentals and prepare for our MAP assignments.
Speaking of which, the list of MAP projects was released, so all first year MBAs are now in the process of ranking our top 10 choices. The projects do not disappoint – there is everything from developing market entry or marketing strategies to performing carbon footprint analyses. The project location could anywhere from here in Ann Arbor to as far away as China. MAP should be an incredible learning experience, and I am having trouble deciding how to rank my project preferences.
On the recruiting front, most of my classmates and I returned to Ann Arbor last week prior to the start of classes to practice for on-campus interviews, many of which will take place over the next several weeks. Everyone is feeling the pressure, but there will be some very happy students as early as next week – the investment banks make their summer hiring decision quickly and make offers to students within a day or two of the interviews.
Final note about the football season (well, maybe) – Michigan emerged victorious over a favored Florida team ranked 12th in the country. It was an exciting, high-scoring game, and one that will hopefully put the team on the right track for next season. A bunch of our best players are not returning, but we have a new coach and a lot of momentum. Go Blue!
Posted by leahyt at 06:53 PM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2007
The End of Fall B
I can’t believe the second quarter has already ended, it was quite a blur this past week with finals and recruiting events. I finished up exams on Saturday, so for the past couple of days I've mostly been laying low with friends, catching up on sleep, and cleaning up a cluttered email inbox. We got about a foot of snow over the weekend, so it has definitely been good indoor weather.
Some highlights from the past few weeks:
Recruiting is really picking up, and there are a couple of cool experiences that I wanted to highlight just to give a sense of the types of things you can expect as a 1st year MBA hunting for an internship. Companies offer students opportunities to apply for a “day in the life” visit to one of their offices around the country. I know students who went out to New York to visit financial services companies, one of my roommates went to the West Coast to meet with some marketing executives, and I even heard about a group of lucky students who got flown to and from Ann Arbor via a corporate jet – they took pictures on the plane, so I’m confident this actually happened.
As far as academics, we registered for Winter A courses and there is some flexibility in scheduling next term, since we only have two core classes (Management Accounting and Operations Management). Most students take either three or four total - I will probably stick to three classes, with Valuation rounding out the two core courses.
Towards the end of this week, we will find out what the options are for MAP this year and then begin to decide which ones we’d like to bid on (learn more about MAP here http://www.bus.umich.edu/MAP/ProspectiveStudents.htm). I’m really hoping to do an international MAP, but it is not guaranteed that I’ll get one. About 50% of the class gets sent on international projects, and they are always very popular, so we’ll see what happens.
I imagine that if you are reading this, you are probably in the thick of the application process. Thinking back on last year, I remember that it was not exactly the most relaxing Christmas and New Year’s for me (I applied in Round 2), but the end is definitely in sight. Good luck to all finishing up apps, and Happy Holidays!
Posted by leahyt at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2007
Bring on the Buckeyes!
It’s been an exciting couple of weeks here; earlier this afternoon, I finished up a team presentation for my marketing class. That’s one big project out of the way for the semester, and though I’m not focused on marketing for my career, I really enjoyed the project, partly because our focus was a startup company called TerraCycle Inc. (http://www.terracycle.net/). TerraCycle makes fertilizer projects, among other things, and they have a very interesting business model in that they take organic waste, turn it into fertilizer, and then package the product in recycled material. Check out their website (link above), where you’ll find links to a bunch of interesting articles about the company.
There were a ton of great events on campus again this week, starting with a live interactive video conference call with GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. Then on Tuesday, Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman William Clay Ford, Jr. came to campus to give a talk titled “The Road to Sustainable Transportation,” in which he discussed the opportunities and challenges facing the auto industry specifically, and the U.S. in general, in building toward a sustainable transportation system. I was unable to participate in the Jeff Immelt event, but did make it to the Bill Ford’s presentation.
I mentioned in an earlier posting that I’m a dual degree student at the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, and it’s really been great that I have been able to weave sustainability topics into the core curriculum at Ross. I didn’t necessarily expect to have as much opportunity, especially in Fall A and Fall B, because all students (unless you happen to waive out of a class or two) take core classes such as finance, accounting, strategy, and marketing. However, I did a strategy group project on the wind energy industry and the marketing project mentioned above on a company that’s very focused on sustainability. So while course requirements certainly dictate your first 14 weeks at school, there is plenty of opportunity to study particular areas of interest (and to attend lectures like the one Bill Ford delivered yesterday).
OK, enough business for now. Let’s talk football. Ohio State comes to town this weekend to play the Wolverines for the Big Ten championship, and ESPN’s College GameDay apparently will be broadcasting from Ann Arbor. I’m picturing a fairly low-key atmosphere. I live in a house with 7 people, and we’re planning on hosting a coffee and muffin party starting at 9am. Anyway, I’m hoping to see a whole lot of this at the game:
1.) Take that!
Go Blue!
Posted by leahyt at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2007
Fall B
We just had a week off for Fall break (though there was much scheduled on the recruiting front – more on this later), so I had a little time to reflect on the first part of school – they really packed a lot into those first 7 weeks. Accounting, Statistics, Business Economics, and Strategy - it sounds crazy to me that I took all of those classes in that brief period and did not fail anything, but that is what my transcript says. In all seriousness, the professors were awesome, and I learned a lot of tools that will be incredibly useful for the remainder of classes this year, as well as for future internships/jobs.
Next up: Marketing, Human Behavior and Organization, Finance, and an Erb Seminar – this last one is tied to the Erb dual degree program I’m doing.
Outside of class, one of the things I’m working on at the moment that I am particularly excited about is helping to develop a “Leadership Crisis Challenge.” This case competition, which will take place in early January, is one of the ways that Ross has woven leadership development (beginning with the Ross Leadership Initiative Foundation Session discussed earlier) throughout the academic calendar. I got involved in this project after I joined Net Impact, specifically their Curriculum Committee, which works with Ross faculty and administrators to incorporate issues relating to Corporate Social Responsibility into the business school curriculum. The Leadership Crisis Challenge will focus on leading companies amid crisis situations and developing skills such as quick thinking and persuasively articulating a point of view. The exercise will also heighten awareness of corporate social responsibility.
I mentioned above that there were recruiting events over Fall break, and I just wanted to provide a little color on that. Each year, Ross organizes Forums, such as the Wall Street Forum and the West Coast Forum, that give students an opportunity to meet with companies in their area(s) of interest. As an example, check out the list of forums organized by the Finance Club.
And just to give you a sense of the day-to-day here, I am currently sitting in a coffee shop with a classmate (one of the friends I met on the golf course) strategizing about summer internships – we are both interested in the alternative energy industry, so we’re working together to make as many contacts as we can. I have a section officers meeting in 30 minutes, class in 2 hours, and then a section happy hour tonight at 6:30pm.
And finally, to update an item I mentioned earlier, I continue to look for ways to fit the Triathlon Club into my schedule.
Happy Halloween!
Posted by leahyt at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
Introduction from Tom
The first question I get asked when I call friends and family back home is, “How’s school.” My response has consistently been some variation of “great / busy / insanely busy.” And I don’t see that changing anytime soon. About the only things you can count on is that you’ll have 8 classes each week (2 ½ hours each), there are Wolverine football games on Saturday, and there’s always much more to do than hours in the day.
Before I get into specifics about school, I just wanted to start off this blog with a bit of background info on me: I studied undergrad at Georgetown University (they don’t have a good football team, so no mixed loyalties for that sport) where I majored in Political Economy. Before coming to Michigan, I worked at the New York Stock Exchange for five years, specifically in NYSE Regulation. So I worked in the securities markets, but my responsibilities were very much on the legal side of the industry.
I am currently an Erb Institute dual degree student (MBA/MS at Ross and the School of Natural Resources and my career interests lie in the renewable energy industry, particularly the intersection between government policy and business strategy.
Enough background, here’s a quick summary of life at Ross up to now:
Late August: Ross Leadership Initiative (RLI) – our version of orientation with a heavy emphasis on developing leadership skills and on section bonding. I never pictured that in my first few weeks in Ann Arbor, I would 1.) make a movie with 5 classmates 2.) help coordinate the preparation of a 3-course dinner for approx. 100 people 3.) spend a day with my section cleaning up a park in the greater Detroit area (well, this one I expected) and 4.) do a workshop on screenwriting/how to tell a compelling story. Those are just a few highlights (and for any non-quant folks worried about how cooking and filmmaking is going to help you in accounting, stats, and economics, don’t panic – there’s a Quantitive Skills Workshop the week before RLI).
Now onto the first couple of weeks of classes (and corporate presentations and clubs). It is not an exaggeration to say that you get hit with everything all at once. By the time I remembered that school has a painful byproduct called homework, I could barely find time to actually do it. On the first game day of the football season, and two days before the start of classes, there was a meet-and-greet tailgate sponsored by an investment bank. Most people I know attended, at minimum, several corporate presentations each week. Then there are the clubs and other activities, some of which are so popular that they require applications and interviews. I joined Net Impact, the Energy Club (http://www.rossenergyclub.com/), the Ross Admission Ambassador program (hence this blog), and I’m a section representative for Ross’s student association.
I also seriously thought about applying to these 2 programs:
1.) The Wolverine Venture Fund
2.) The Community Consulting Club).
They are incredible opportunities that are extremely popular – I decided not to apply this year, which is just one of many examples I have so far of not doing everything that I would like to. It is just flat out impossible. Check out a list of other clubs and activities.
I literally would like to join 90% of those. Ross Triathlon Club would be one example that’s in the 10% – I just don’t enjoy pain enough to participate, but you never know, I’m here for 3 years. Seriously though, it just goes to show that there’s something for everyone and that the students here are incredibly active in the community.
So what else to highlight in this first introductory post? The first term (Fall A) flies by – picture the above plus 4 semester-long classes all fitting into a 7-week time period. By the way, the professors are incredibly engaging and make the material rigorous, but accessible. The new ballpark in Detroit is awesome, I saw a Tigers game in early September. In addition to football, I bought student tickets for basketball and ice hockey, so I expect to see a lot of Wolverine games this year. I know I talked a lot about sports already, so just a plug for those of you interested in other forms of entertainment: I keep getting invited to go to concerts and other shows, a lot of great stuff come through Ann Arbor and Detroit – a group of my friends just went into Detroit two Fridays ago to see Kings of Leon. And another friend just went to a Henry Rollins Spoken Word performance last weekend here in Ann Arbor. For anyone looking for outdoor activity, there is hiking, camping, fishing, kayaking, skydiving, and paintballing all nearby. And this isn’t just a random assortment of activities, this is what I know some of my friends and classmates have done over the past couple of weekends.
Finally, the University has a beautiful golf course – maybe not as exciting as skydiving, but it’s a great way to spend an afternoon. I’ve played 45 holes so far, and I met some classmates who have become good friends out on the course.
That’s it for now. It’s been an intense and awesome couple of months!
Posted by kkellerz at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)