Elective Selection and the Balanced Portfolio Approach

Here's the list of elective selections. Looks like there was some collusive behavior to get some classes voted onto the list. :) In general, the list is pretty similar to Class 31's list.

Here's the list:

TOP 30 ELECTIVES

ACCT 742 Problems in Financial Reporting
ACCT 896x Applied Financial Analysis and Equity Valuation
FNCE 717 Financial Derivatives
FNCE 719/731/748 International Corporate Finance
FNCE 720 Investment Management
FNCE/REAL 721 Real Estate Investment: Analysis and Financing
FNCE 726 Advanced Corporate Finance
FNCE 728 Corporate Valuation
FNCE 750 Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation
FNCE 751X Mergers, Acquisitions, and Buyouts
HCMG 863 Management & Economics of Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Industry
LGST/MGMT/OPIM 806/691/691 Negotiation & Dispute Resolution
MGMT 671 Executive Leadership
MGMT 701 Strategy and Competitive Advantage
MGMT 721 Corporate Development: Mergers and Acquisitions
MGMT 773 Managing Organizational Change
MGMT 782 Stratetic Implementation
MGMT 801 (0.5) Entrepreneurship
MGMT 804 (0.5) Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Management
MGMT 806 Formation and Implementation of Entrepreneurial Ventures
MGMT 809 (0.5) Private Equity in Emerging Markets
MGMT 811 (0.5) Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition
MKTG 753 (0.5) New Product Development
MKTG 754 (0.5) Pricing Policy
MKTG 756 Marketing Research
MKTG 771 Models for Marketing Strategy
MKTG 777 Marketing Strategy
MKTG 781 (0.5) Entrepreneurial Marketing
OPIM 653 Mathematical Modeling and Its Application in Finance
OPIM 654 Product Design and Development

This is for the benefit of those who follow after us: after giving it some thought, I decided that I wanted the best overall business background from Wharton. So I went for a "balanced portfolio". I spread my votes across the most important classes in management, finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship, instead of going for a major. If I end up getting one, then great, but if not, it wasn't a big deal to me. The words from the Alumni panel reasonated with me: those "soft" classes are the ones that they have found over the years as they've advanced in their careers are the ones that have retained their value. The comment that quant calculations don't keep you up at night thinking about them but people issues do affected my decision to vote for more management classes than I would have. However, I think that those in our class that are contemplating a more radical career change (such as in finance) had a different approach, and instead concentrated their votes in one area. For example, no one taking a general management approach would have voted for Financial Derivatives.

Here's what I voted for:
1. Executive Leadership
2. Strategy and Competitive Advantage
3. Corporate Development: Mergers and Acquisitions
4. Marketing Strategy
5. Formation and Implementation of Entrepreneurial Ventures
6. Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation
7. Corporate Valuation
8. Investment Management

Looks like a lot of us used the same "balanced portfolio" approach, as everything I wanted got onto the list. There's no guarantee that they will all be offered, of course. The process is that Howie is going to work with the faculty to get classes from this list scheduled. Overall, I'm pretty happy that we are in the ballpark.

Speaking of ballparks, Sports Management was one of those classes that I wanted to take but when I thought about it there's no way I'll ever be an agent for the NFL, so I didn't vote for it. I suppose that my willingness to pay was less than the tuition amount for a .5 unit class. If anyone really wants to understand why, it's a story better told over a beer.

It's been kind of hard to choose electives at the end of Term 2 for the remainder of the program; I wish that there was some way to alter the voting process to make it term by term instead of locking it in this far in advance, before we've even had the marketing core, for example. But I'm sure it's a matter of scheduling.

On the lighter side, there's some activity going on for "proper" End of Year 1 Trip for our class. Sounds like there's a lot of interest! Las Wage$, Cabo, and China were all mentioned, as well as the usual questions about the crime rate...:) Kudos to the Sam-ster who's organizing it!

-R

Section 1 Pics from OPIM 631 Assembly Line

Hi everyone,
I've added some pics (thanks, Robert!) from Section 1 to my Flickr photo set of the OPIM 631 assembly line.

Here's the URL: Flickr photo set of OPIM 631 for both sections

Or you can click on the badge at the right.

-R

Wharton Teaches the Programming Model for Biz

Yo, it's your friendly neighborhood blogger again...

We've been getting a ton of potential recruits for next year's cohort visiting lately, and I'm tired of studying Business Analysis Using Regression, so I decided to take a blog induced break for 10 minutes.

Here's an example of what you learn to do in the statistics core class: multiple regression with multi-level categorical variables.

If terms like r square, RMSE, t ratio, p value, leverage plots, and heteroscedasticity (try telling someone that your doctor said you had contracted it at the next dinner party) float your boat, then statistics is for you. It seems to be extremely useful in all areas that we'll soon be taking electives in: finance, marketing, management, and operations. It also has been useful for fantasy football statistics. Maybe that's why Nihal (GM of "The Cats") is The Man this season. Nihal is going down this week though, 'cuz he plays me.

If terms like those don't float your boat, then at least you know that all those complicated terms and numbers are.
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Lest you think this is all quant and no fun, I was talking with a pretty well-known VC the other day who loves Wharton grads. Here's a quote from her that I thought I'd pass along:

"I really like Wharton grads...Wharton is a great b-school because they teach you the programming model for business. Wharton grads can quantify everything, unlike other well known and established schools in the area." Such as the one that starts with an "S"! :) As Kent said, at "S", they teach you how you should feel.

Back to studying. Gotta get HW4 done before I head to Maui for Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

In Honor of Milton Friedman

Some sad news: Nobel Laureate and Famous Economist Milton Friedman passed away today in San Francisco. You know the famous guy who's on every other slide in Macroeconomics?

Here's a link from the SF Chronicle:Link
I got a chance to ask Kent about his thoughts today, and here's a part of what he said:

"Friedman was an intellectual giant outmatched only by his humility." -Kent Smetters

Thought it was worth passing along and you all would be interested.

-Chairman P

OPIM 631 Quips And Quotes

There were quite a few funny moments in OPIM 631 as well this past weekend. Terwiesch is giving Abel a run for his money for the Humorous Lecturer of the Quarter Award. Here's some quotes from section 2's OPIM class:

"What's wrong with you all? I hear there's quality problems offshore now." -Zach, after making five working circuit boards with zero bad ones

"That's what happens when you take the lowest bid."

"Zach, you have a new career opportunity."

"Do you know how many units the morning line made? One. So this is good line, in a relative sense."

"What happens when there's a mistake on the line? They happily go on producing the same crap."

"Let me say it this way: sometimes it's good to be slow."

"We need more strippers. (after everyone laughs) No, not that kind."

"Can you please return the electronics kits? It won't be any good if you take them on an airplane, and they won't be impressed when the LED blinks."

"It's not a horror movie." -Terwiesch during the 1960s YouTube.com video archive of the Cranberry factory video we saw in class. Some of us thought that the musical soundtrack was ripped off from The Shining.

I've posted some pictures here: Flickr link to OPIM 631 pictures

Robert says he has some hi-res ones from Section 1 and I'll post a link later when I get a link.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! See ya in three weeks. I'm out until then.

-R

Exams, Exams and Results, Oh My!

End Game for Term 2
It's crunch time! We're heading into the home stretch of Term 2. I can't believe we are almost 1/3 done with the program already! It's flying by. Here's some thoughts from last weekend, which was an extra long three day session from Thursday through Saturday. These three day sessions are real killers to get through. By the third day, everyone is pretty much brain dead. And the rain started in SF, making the trek back and forth from the hotel far less pleasant than we have enjoyed so far. I saw a lot more cab receipts this time around. I decided to walk because the fresh air and exercise really is nice after sitting through all the hours of lecture.
Exams, Exams, and Results, Oh My!
Well, we got back the results from our Macroeconomics mid-term, Statistics mid-term, and OPIM final this session, and we took our Leadership final on Thursday afternoon. I breathed a sigh of relief as I managed to do just fine pretty much across the board, with some variation. I was pretty worried about Macro, but Abel seemed like he was pretty generous on the grading, that's all I have to say! Otherwise the mean would have been much lower than 121 out of 164 (sd of 21. The amazing thing was that the average for the 7 bonus points was 6.58 with a standard deviation of 1.51. What did you have to do to get the bonus? Put your name on the line on the top of the pages in all caps. I was pretty sure the mean would be 7 with a sd of 0, but I guess someone missed that. Looks like the final exams also give bonus points for your name on the top of each page, so there's no way anyone should miss it if they read this?
MacroSim and Abel Quips
Well, we started off the weekend with a computer simulation of a closed economy in groups of two or three. My team got DQed when I failed to hit OK on the dialog in round 4. That's ok, we were outta control anyway at 78% inflation by that point anyway. And then we got out of control again when we kept playing the game. My take after playing: if these equations represent anything close to a real economy, the variables are so sensitive and complex that I now have a vastly increased respect for economists. It's anything but straightforward.

The team that won in BOTH sections won by cooperating between the fiscal and monetary teams, and they are rewarded with 12 bonus points on the final. Unfortunately, Abel said this afterward:

"The good news is that you got 12 points extra on the final. The bad news is that the final is worth 1 million points."

I'm pretty sure he was kidding, so those dudes don't have to worry about the final as much as the rest of us. Abel spent the other lectures on asset markets, money, and prices, a current policy topic on indexed bonds, exchange rates and open-economy macro policy, macro policy in Argentina, monetary non-neutrality and the Phillips curve, and political business cycles.

By popular demand, here's the top quips and quotes:
Abel: "What's the value of e?" Eve: "2.7182818284680298432". Abel: "We could get you help."
(About the J Curve): "If they came up with the idea 40 years ago, they might have called it the Nike Swoosh."
(Looking at Murat's empty seat next to Sean): "I think he thinks it's like a wedding, where you can RSVP or not. Wait til he sees the thank you note."
"This is really a rectangular hyperbola. But if you want to call it a downward sloping curve that's fine."
"'Beggar Thy Neighbor' is British speak for screw your neighbor."
"I don't mean Monopoly money, I mean the money that the monopoly issues."
"Restructuring is such a cool word. It means I owe you a ton of money and there's no way in hell I'll repay it."
"Who was Phillips?" A: "The screwdriver?"
"What's the misery index? It's not Kathleen Bates."
"Al Gore had to work really really hard to lose that election."

I got an IM message towards the end of the last session (when we were covering the plot of the Phillips Curve) that read: "This stuff is like astrology. I think I can see the Big Dipper."

Hand Cramps?
Oh yeah, and does anyone else still have hand cramps after the Leadership final? You'd think that if they could figure out how to convert the essay section of the GMAT to computer based, that Wharton could figure out how to let us use a keyboard too. One of our classmates said: "I was going to give Useem a hand signal after the final exam but my hand was too cramped."

Realizing the Value of a Wharton Exec MBA Panel Summary

Wharton Alums speak on the Value of a Wharton Exec MBA after graduation

Last night on Friday November 3^rd, WEMBA Class 31 invited our class to join a Wharton Alumni panel last night for a panel discussion on the topic, “Realizing the Value of a Wharton Exec MBA”. Most of us agreed that it was very useful and valuable to hear what the alums shared with us. We also agreed that it was weird being at 101 Howard without any books on a weekend that we didn’t have class! John and I managed to get there early in time to grab the usual dinner being served after class. Dessert was very good last night. The turnout was pretty good for Class 32; there were about twenty of us that made it. There were about thirty Class 31 students there. This would have been a good event to videotape because it would be of general interest to all of our cohort, not just the Bay Area students. Some of the panel speakers agreed to send some of their advice via email; stay tuned for more info as I get it.

Here’s what the invite for the event said:

“We have organized a panel of Wharton EMBA alums to come speak to us about how they leveraged their Wharton education to propel their careers. Panel will comprise of EMBA students who have been in the industry for a years and can speak to realizing the value of their education.

If you are looking to grow rapidly in your career, make lateral changes in your organization or move to a new industry - this is the panel for you!

The panel participants were:
Gaurav Kapoor (Class 27, CFO, MetricStream)
John Balczewski (Class 27, Project Manager Gas Hydrates at Chevron)
Shauna Barker (Class 28, VP Finance and Treasurer, PMC-Sierra)
Wael Diab (Class 28, Director of Marketing, Broadcom)
Roel Peteers (Class 29, Co-founder/VP Marketing & Business Development, H-Stream Wireless)

Russ Laraway (Class 29, Senior Manager, Google Adsense Online Sales and Operations)
The panel was moderated by Naveed Hussain (Class 27, Director, Boeing)

Afterward the event, we met some of Class 31 and Prof. Len Lodish and his wife at Frisson, a restaurant and bar that’s walking distance from the Le Meridian Hotel. It was a good place to meet and it was nice to chat in a more informal setting. We should go there again sometime. Here’s the URL: www.frissonsf.com

Here my summary of the ideas that were discussed last night, if my recollection serves me right:

• One alum made the case that most underutilized resource at Wharton is your classmates. Get to know them as much as you can while you are here. Don’t hang out with the same people all the time. Broaden the base of people that you get to know well.
• Another underutilized resource is the faculty. They have a wealth of knowledge and contacts that are useful. Some faculty have been very instrumental in helping companies get off the ground.
• Networking is more about what you can give that what you can get. If you take that point of view, it’ll change the way you approach networking. Ask yourself “how can I help?”.
• Maximize your time after class to get to know your classmates. Do you always eat lunch with the same people? And yes, it’s ok if you aren’t the Palmer scholar. One guy started a company and never had to make a “cold call” to someone he didn’t know personally for two years!
• Wharton gives you the confidence to take risks. You know the brand is strong enough to rely upon if you have to switch industries or jobs. There were many examples of this.
• For those that are younger: it might be good to get a major and don’t put WEMBA on your resume so you look more like a FT program grad. A number of students have moved east to the FT or WEMBA East programs who want to make the transition to a finance job in the East Coast.
• Don’t be afraid of calling Wharton alums; they are usually very willing to take your calls to help you out.
• The food is better in the West than the East.
• Don’t chicken out of the GCP or anything else. You don’t want any regrets.
• 20% of Class 31 has switched jobs during the past five terms.
• Keep things in perspective during the program from a work-life balance point of view. Four of the sixty Class 27 cohort went through divorces during the program.
• What is the ROI of a Wharton education? The PVLR is very high but the P&L is still negative.
• Try to leverage your domain knowledge when moving jobs. Keep your technical skills sharp because you never know when they will come in handy.
• A major does not really matter that much for experienced professionals who stay in their fields. Don’t overlook the soft stuff and focus too much on the quant stuff. Some of the alums wished they took more management classes as opposed to more finance/quant classes.
• As you move up in your career, people become much more important. Go for breadth in your classes so you know what you don’t know.
• A spirit of always learning and being able to pick up new things is one key to career advancement.
• Get as many of your classmates phone numbers in your cell phone as possible.
• Stay in touch with your classmates after graduation.
• Take advantage of the facebook, alumni database, and many services while you are at Wharton.

Out for now...good luck on studying for the Management final in Useem's class.

-"Chairman P"