Our MBA Class of 2012 Music Video ! I am the guy in the blue shirt. I appear at 01:45, 01:55 & 03:08

Open Course Ware: M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All

Check out the links:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/12/21/m-i-t-game-changer-free-online-education-for-all/

M.I.T. intends to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world. The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree. Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. The certificate will obviously not carry the weight of a traditional M.I.T. diploma, but it will provide an incentive to finish the online material.

For details, check out: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm 
For a list of courses, check out the link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/

FOR MBA related resources, visit:

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/

Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan

From: http://www.actionplan.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?mode=preview&pageId=242

There seems to be a lot of hype and hope based on the next phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan. Let us home that it is real and we see results.

But I do have to appreciate what the Canadian govenment is doing right now to help students in Ontario. Hats off to you, Canada ! :)

- Gerry.

How to get a Business Licence in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (What I did for my business :) $60 is all it takes !!! Online application & email delivery of your MBL (Master Business Licence) in 2 days!

You apply online. Pay $60 by credit card. And get your business licence within 2 days.
Link for BizPal: https://www.appmybizaccount.gov.on.ca/wps/portal/mba_pub
Link for Business Registration site: http://www.ontario.ca/en/services_for_business/STEL02_039990
Cost: $60.00 to register or renew your business name
If your business is commencing after June 30, 2010, RST is no longer applicable and you will need to contact CRA to register your business for the HST. Visit the CRA website or call 1 800-959-5525 for more information regarding the HST
The Master Business Licence or the Enhanced Business Name Search Report is a PDF file that can be printed or saved to a personal computer
You can pay online by credit card

How To Leave An Unsatisfying Job And Pursue Your Dream Career

From the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/crime/2011/12/11/how-to-leave-an-unsatisfying-job-and-pursue-your-dream-career/
Good points here:

• Believe in yourself
• Take a risk
• Do not be afraid
• Motivate yourself to get out of your dead-end job
• Step away from your comfort zone
• In 10 years, no body will care or remember that you were at a job or your work
• If your job has become rote or boring
• Get the necessary education
• Start with a small company in the field that you choose to enter
• Then... go big gradually...
• It is NEVER too late
• Age is NOT a factor
• Do not look back at what you are leaving behind you. Just look ahead at the possibilities
• Learn to MOVE ON
• Look for the first break, even if it pays less
• Have faith
• Keep at it
• It will work out someday

Quote "Today, I am where I want to be. My advice, for those who want to leave an unsatisfying job, is don’t hesitate to pursue a new career, because it is there for the taking. Leaving my old job for a new career was one of the best things I’ve ever done. And I have never looked back!"

How Your OSAP Funding is Released

A sample depicton. Confirm your OSAP account online :)

(For Students Studying In Canada)

Before any of your funding can be released, your Confirmation of Enrolment form must be completed. This form will be available from your financial aid office at the beginning of your study period, after you have enrolled in and started classes.

When you go to the financial aid office to pick up your funding, you must:

provide proof of registration;
present two forms of identification:
One piece of valid photo ID issued in Canada by the federal or a provincial or territorial government (a legible photocopy is acceptable). Examples of acceptable ID are: a valid driver’s license, passport, provincial health card with photo, permanent residency or citizenship card, etc.
One document proving that the Social Insurance Number on your loan or grant authorization document is your own. For example, you may present your Social Insurance Number card (a legible photocopy is acceptable) or an official Government of Canada document that indicates your Social Insurance Number (e.g., a Canada Revenue Agency Notice of Assessment, a Canada Pension Plan Statement of Contributions, or a Confirmation of Social Insurance Number from Service Canada)

The combination of these two pieces of identification must include your photo, your name, your address and your Social Insurance Number.

A note will be made of the documents that you presented and whether the identification was consistent with the information on your application. These documents may not be recorded or copied.

After the above documents are reviewed and approved, you and your financial aid office can then complete your Confirmation of Enrolment form. Once that is done, the financial aid office releases your funding.

Note: Your funding certificate must be negotiated within 30 days of the date on which your institution signs it. If your institution signs the funding certificate in the last month of your study period, you must negotiate it by the end of that month.

7 principles that drove Steve jobs to success

From the video: http://video.forbes.com/fvn/tech/lessons-from-apple-chief-steve-jobs

7 principles that drove Steve Jobs to success:

1. Do what you love. Be passionate.
2. Put a dent in the universe
3. Connect things to spark your creativity (Creativity is connecting things from different fields)
4. Say "NO" to 1000 things. Keep things simple. Eliminate clutter. Simple. Elegant. Easy to use.
5. Create insanely different experiences
6. Master the message. Be a great story teller. Think visually. Picture superiority.
7. Sell dreams, not products

Steve Jobs: "In Craziness, we see Genius!"

Video about Steve Jobs ---> MUST WATCH.

The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us

From the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/10/05/the-top-ten-lessons-steve-jobs-taught-us/

The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us:

1. The most enduring (? product) innovations marry art & science.
2. You can not create the future through focus group feedbacks
3. Never fear failure
4. You can not connect the dots forward - only back ward
5. Listen to that voice in your head - about right or wrong
6. Expect a lot from yourself and others - push yourself & others to do better, go further, work harder.
7. Don't care about being right. Care about succeeding
8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with
9. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination and sense of vision.

Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent

From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/12/14/top-ten-reasons-why-large-companies-fail-to-keep-their-best-talent/

1. Big company bureaucracy
2. Failing to find a project for the talent that ignites their passion
3. Poor Annual performance reviews
4. No discussion around career development
5. Shifting whims / strategic priorities
6. Lack of accountability / lack of people telling them how to do their jobs
7. Top talent is attracted by other top talent
8. Mission company vision
9. lack of open mindedness
10. Crazy / unpleasant boss

The Ten Biggest Lies of B-School

From the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/08/10/the-ten-biggest-lies-of-b-school/

The Ten Biggest Lies of B-School:

1. You will be rich
2. You are smarter than people without an MBA
3. There is always a right answer
4. If you have made it this far (to B-school), you are destined to succeed
5. You know how to "fix" the first few companies you join after B-school
6. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) will always tell you what a company is worth.
7. The "soft" courses (leadership & people management) are least important
8. You are going to be more creative & entrepreneurial after Business school than before
9. Your peers will give you lots of tips and insights that will help you in your career
10. The Ivy League MBAs will be even more successful

*********************************

My feedback: Nothing is written in stone. It is wrong to generalize. B-school students are smart by virtue of their ambitions, training and the intense academic environment their minds engage in on a daily basis. MBAs are smart. I know. I see them on a daily basis.

- Gerry.

****************************

It is OK to have problems!

Problems!

We tend to associate problems with negativity.
We tend to associate problems with failure.
We tend to associate problems with unpleasantness.
We tend to asssociate problems with shame.
We tend to associate problems with guilt.

Not right.
Not correct.
Not true.

In my opinion, if you do not have a problem, then you have a problem right there! 
It means that you are not doing enough things in life.
It means that you are not trying hard enough to get where you want.
It means that you are not take risks.

The real issue is not about HAVING problems.
The real issue is how you DEAL with the problems and attempt to solve them. Let us celebrate our problems, instead of crying over them :) Let us look at the opportunities that lie beyond those problems!

- Gerry Som.

Yo MBA student! Do read www.Forbes.com on a regular basis :)

www.Forbes.com is an excellent website that all MBA students should read on a regular basis, in my opinion. They have a lot of useful information, especially for people in Senior Management.  

- Gerry.

CEOs LOVE the Publicity & Media image. They can't handle failure. And that is what pulls them down :)

From the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/2/

CEOs: High-profile executives who are constantly in the public eye. The problem is that amid all the media frenzy and accolades, these leaders’ management efforts become shallow and ineffective. Instead of actually accomplishing things, they often settle for the appearance of accomplishing things.
Behind these media darlings is a simple fact of executive life: CEOs don’t achieve a high level of media attention without devoting themselves assiduously to public relations. When CEOs are obsessed with their image, they have little time for operational details. Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski sometimes intervened in remarkably minor matters, but left most of the company’s day-to-day operations unsupervised.

As a final negative twist, when CEOs make the company’s image their top priority, they run the risk of using financial-reporting practices to promote that image. Instead of treating their financial accounts as a control tool, they treat them as a public-relations tool. The creative accounting that was apparently practiced by such executives as Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling or Tyco’sKozlowski is as much or more an attempt to promote the company’s image as it is to deceive the public: In their eyes, everything that the company does is public relations.

------------------
My personal theory is that it is important for everyone to have experienced failure in order to stay grounded. It is important to have perhaps seen poverty. It is important to have experiences rejection. All these experiences make you a better human being.

- Gerry.

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7 Habits of Unsuccessful CEOs & Executives

From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/

7 habits of unsuccessful CEOs, executives & leaders

1. They see themselves and their companies as dominating their business environment. (Warning sign: Lack of respect)
2. They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests (Using company to carry out personal ambition)
3. They think they have all the answers (Do not accept other view points. Leader without followers)
4. They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them (You are either with me or against me)
5. They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image (Warning: Blatant attention seeking).  Instead of treating their financial accounts as a control tool, they treat them as a public-relations tool. 
6. They underestimate obstacles (Warning: Excessive Hype)
7. They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past. They stop innovating & adapting (Warning sign: Constantly referring to what worked in the past)

Find your "Me-Time". There is even a "Me" in Ti"me"!

I need my Me-time.
I could do with some Crowd-time once in a while,
I could do with some people-time & friend-time on and off,
But I do need my Me-time without fail everyday.
I am not fond of the Bartime.
I do not need Party-time on a regular basis.
I do not need Vacation-time regularly.
But I do need my Me-time everyday.
Me-time for for thinking, for peace, for self discovery, for ideation, for betterment.
Me-time makes me a better me.

- Gerry Som.

MBA Trivia - Notable Firsts & Business Degrees. Source: Wikipedia.

Notable firsts

• 1759 – The Aula do Comércio in Lisbon was the world's first institution to specialise in the teaching of commerce. It provided a model for development of similar government-sponsored schools across Europe, and closed in 1844, when it merged with Instituto Industrial de Lisboa to become Instituto Industrial e Comercial de Lisboa. [1]^{[citation needed]} After the division of that organization, and several changes of names, it became the Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão of the Technical University of Lisbon
• 1819 – The Ecole Supérieure de Commerce of Paris (now ESCP Europe) was founded. It is the oldest business school in the world. [2]
• 1857 – The Handelsakademie Pest (now Budapest Business School) was founded. It is the oldest business school in Central Europe and the second oldest in the World.
• 1881 – The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is the world's first collegiate business school. [3]
• 1898 – Handelshochschule Leipzig (aka Leipzig Graduate School of Management), the first business school in Germany, was founded.
• 1898 – The University of St. Gallen established, the first university in Switzerland teaching business and economics.
• 1898 – The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (then the Graduate School of Business or Chicago GSB) was the first business school to offer a PhD program and an Executive MBA program. It is the first business school to have a Nobel laureate on its faculty: George Stigler won the prize after retiring from the school in 1981. It is also the first business school to have six Nobel laureates on its faculty.
• 1898 – The College of Commerce at the University of California, Berkeley, later renamed the Haas School of Business, was founded as the first business school at a public university
• 1889 – The predecessor of Manchester Metropolitan University Business School was founded as the first school teaching commerce in the United Kingdom. [4]
• 1900 – The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College was founded as the first graduate school of business in the US, offering the first master's degree in business administration, titled the "Master of Commercial Science"
• 1902 – The Birmingham Business School was set up as the then University of Birmingham's School of Commerce, the first Business School in the UK.
• 1906 – The Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) was established as the first school of commerce in Poland
• 1907 – The École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal, now HEC Montreal, was founded as the first business school in Canada [5]
• 1909 – Stockholm School of Economics or Handelshögskolan i Stockholm was founded as the first institution dedicated to business and economics in Sweden.
• 1910 – Harvard Business School was the first business school to offer a degree called the "MBA"
• 1911 – Helsinki School of Economics or Helsingin kauppakorkeakoulu was founded as the first Finnish-language institution dedicated to business and economics in Finland.
• 1918 – University of Edinburgh set up the first faculty for the study of business and commerce in Scotland
• 1921 – Nanjing University (then named National Southeastern University and later renamed National Central University and Nanjing University) moved the Faculty of Business originated in 1917 from Nanjing to Shanghai to establish the university business school, which was the first professional Chinese university business school. Later the school became Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Nanjing University Business School was refounded, as well as the School of Management at NCU in Taiwan.
• 1931 – MIT Sloan School of Management The world’s first university-based executive education program — the MIT Sloan Fellows — was created in under the sponsorship of Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., an 1895 MIT graduate who was then chairman of General Motors.
• 1936 – The Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH) was established as Norway's first business school.
• 1941 – ESAN - Escuela Superior de Administracion de Negocios ,the first business school in Latin America and Peru, was founded by Stanford.
• 1946 – The Thunderbird School of Global Management, then called the American Institute for Foreign Trade, was the first graduate management school focused exclusively on global business.^[1][2]
• 1948 – The University of Western Ontario was the first university outside the United States to offer an MBA [6]
• 1949 – The University of Pretoria in South Africa founded the oldest business school in Africa and was the first university to offer an MBA outside of North America.^[3] In January 2008 the Graduate School of Management was formally replaced by the Gordon Institute of Business Science.^[4]
• 1949 – The E. Claiborne Robins School of Business was founded as the first business school within a liberal arts university.
• 1953 – The first Latin American school of business, Adolfo Ibáñez (see Adolfo Ibáñez University), is created in Valparaíso, Chile [7].
• 1955 – IBA was established by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Wharton School provided professors and assistance, to what would become the finest and most prestigious business school in Pakistan.
• 1957 – INSEAD, near Paris, France, became the first European institution to offer an MBA program.
• 1958 – Fundação Getúlio Vargas was the first business school founded in Latin America to offer an MBA-type qualification
• 1964 - IESE launched the first two-year MBA program in Europe under the guidance of the Harvard Business School.
• 1964 – National Chengchi University offered the first Chinese MBA program. [8][9][10]
• 1964 – INCAE Business School or Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas was founded by Harvard Business School [11]
• 1966 – The National Institute of Development Administration or NIDA was the first graduate school that offer an MBA program in Thailand
• 1973 – The École des Affaires de Paris (EAP) (now ESCP-EAP) was the first business school with campuses in three countries
• 1991 – The IEDC-Bled School of Management was the first business school to offer an MBA program in Eastern Europe.
• 1992 – The Thunderbird School of Global Management was the first business school to have campuses on three continents.
• 1994 – CEIBS (CHINA EUROPE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL) was the first business school in China to have received funding from a foreign government, namely the European Commission. [12]
• 1999 – Kyiv Mohyla Business School was the first business school to offer an MBA program in Ukraine.
• 2001 - IESE launched the world's first intercontinental, modular Global Executive MBA program
• 2001 – The Asian Institute of Management was the first graduate school of management in the world to receive ISO 14001 Certification. [13]
• 2010 – Skema Business School, opting for a multi campus strategy all around the world, in Brazil, France, China, Russia, Australia, Morocco and the USA, is the first French Business School to open a campus in the United States in Raleigh, North Carolina among the Research Triangle Park.

Various Business Degrees

• Associate's degree: AA, AAB, ABA, AS
• Bachelor's Degrees: BA, BS, BBA, BBus, BComm, BSBA, BAcc, BABA, BBS, BMOS and BBusSc
• Master's Degrees: MBA, MBM, MM, MAcc, MMR, MSMR, MPA, MISM, MSM, MHA, MSF, MSc, MST, MMS, EMBA and MComm. At Oxford and Cambridge business schools an MPhil, or Master of Philosophy, is awarded in place of an MA or MSc.
• Post Graduate: Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM), Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Business Management, Post Graduate Program (PGP) in Management
• Doctoral Degrees: Ph.D., DBA, DHA, DM, Doctor of Commerce (DCOM), FPM, PhD in Management or Business Doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy)

Doctor of Professional Studies (DPS)

Cartoon: Capitalism in a nut shell

Business History Classes in Harvard Business School

From the link: http://www.thebhc.org/publications/BEHprint/v028n2/p0153-p0162.pdf

"The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: The United States" is the course taught there w.r.t. Business History. Textbooks:

1. Management Past & Present
2. Andrew Carnegie & the rise of big business
3. American Business: 1920 - 2000. How it worked.

Course Outline is also mentioned in the link above. Course number 1122. Some details below:

Career Focus

For MBAs who want to study the past and present to help guide their thinking about the future.

Educational Objectives

To provide an understanding of the development of entrepreneurship, modern management, business, technology and finance; to examine other institutions that have affected these areas such as governments, unions, and intellectual property rights; and to analyze the evolution of changing attitudes toward American capitalism and their impact on the environment in which business leaders and other stakeholders operate.

Course Content and Organization

This course offers students an opportunity to explore the historical development of entrepreneurship in the United States as the country became increasingly industrial, urban, and technologically and financially advanced. The course covers the founding of the new nation, early entrepreneurial venturing, changes in the strategy and structure of business, the winners and losers from capitalist expansion and the impact of technological and financial revolutions. It also looks to the future of entrepreneurship and capitalist development through an historical mirror.

The course's perspective provides a broad understanding of the long-term impact of technological change, entrepreneurial innovation, and market evolution on U.S. business, managers, the work force, and government. The history of entrepreneurship and managerial capitalism in the United States offers students a comparative point of reference for considering capitalistic development and its long-term impact on material prosperity and collective perceptions of economic activity across time and national boundaries.

Through discussions, readings, and slide presentations, students will encounter several different units of analysis: the individual business leader and entrepreneur, the worker, the company, the industry, and the country.

The course is divided into the following modules:

1. Historical Foundations of Entrepreneurship
2. The Emergence of Organization: Railroads, the "Titans" and Managerial Capitalism
3. Prosperity, Depression and War
4. Technological and Financial Revolutions
5. Capitalism at Crisis Point and Beyond