The Perfect MBA Career: Portfolio Manager
If working in investment strategy seems appealing, then a job as a portfolio manager may be right for you.
Regulating Tech, Migrant Workers, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Will Regulating Big Tech Stifle Innovation? – MIT Sloan Newsroom
The MIT Sloan Newsroom talked to Sloan Economist John Van Reenen and Professor Emeritus Richard Schmalensee about the difficulties of regulating the titans of tech now that they have grown to “dwarf the rest of the U.S. economy in recent years.”
“You see this concentration of mega-firms across lots of sectors, like retail and logistics … and that raises issues about ‘Is this leading to a reduction in competition?’ You’re trying to protect consumers by regulating, but then you can end up taxing innovation.”
Schmalensee explains that regulations could take aim at “antitrust policy around mergers and acquisitions.”
“A lot of people have argued for being tougher on acquisitions. It’s not an extension of U.S. antitrust law or policy for that matter, to say ‘You really ought to be a little more skeptical of mergers, even with small companies, when they might grow into big competitors or have technology that can be used to make it difficult for others to compete.’”
You can read more from Van Reenen and Schmalensee here.
Reel Life Learning – Sawyer Business School Blog
The Sawyer Business School Blog recently profiled Sam Slater (MPA ’16), whose double life as an independent film producer collided halfway through his degree when he signed a five-film studio deal, beginning with the recent Mile 22, starring Mark Wahlberg, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich, and Indonesian action firebomb Iko Uwais.
Slater explains he didn’t think twice about putting his MPA on hold.
Slater and Regina Hall on the set of Support the Girls / Photo via suffolk.edu
“Stopping the MPA just didn’t seem like the logical thing to do when there were so many accommodations being made to help me finish. Plus, I like politics. I like what goes on locally. I want to be involved. I genuinely wanted to finish the degree,” he says.
You can read the rest of the interview with the Sawyer Business School here.
Is the U.S. Losing its Ability to Attract Highly-Skilled Migrant Workers? – Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Martha Lagace spoke with HBS Professor of Business Administration Bill Kerr about his recently released book, The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy and Society, which explores the “benefits and pain points of high-skilled migration.”
Kerr explains that he wanted to “uncover how this part of our business, economic, and social landscape operates and to argue, hopefully in an accessible format, for ways to make this process better.”
“The book brings to the surface both who really obtains the gift of global talent—who benefits the most from this gift—and also who does not benefit or gets hurt. I worry about the gift of global talent becoming less and less and less for the US.”
He adds, “Globally about half of skilled migrants are female. Countries and firms that want to benefit from global talent need to be able to welcome women. We explore why global talent flows matter so much, from superstar scientists to white-collar workers. There are many parts worthy of celebration, but also many parts to critique.”
Read the full article here.
Impulses, a Culinary EMBA, and Immigration Figures – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
How God Influences Your Grocery Bill – Questrom School of Business Blog
BU Questrom Professor of Marketing Didem Kurt recently co-authored new research with the University of Pittsburgh’s J. Jeffrey Inman and Harvard’s Francesca Gino that explored links between “grocery sales data and rates of religious adherence in thousands of counties across the country.”
According to the study, “religion and religious messages were linked to lower spending.”
People who were reminded of God’s presence were less likely than another control group to spend money on “impulse purchases such as magazines and gum,” an effect that the researchers note “persisted whether or not an individual described themselves as religious.”
Kurt explains, “We attribute this result to the notion that thinking about God reminds people of commonly shared values—such as frugality—even if they don’t believe in God. Managers may want to consider proximity to houses of worship when choosing a retail location. They need to be cognizant of the effect of religious cues and reminders on consumer spending.”
You can read the full article here and check out the complete paper on Science Direct.
A Full-Course Meal – Sawyer Business School Blog
The Sawyer Business School Blog recently profiled David Lanci, EMBA ’02, who after many years as a chef, shifted into the food services industry and founded NexDine, which offers “catering and dining services to corporations, schools, colleges, and senior living facilities around the country.”
Lanci told the Sawyer blog that his Suffolk EMBA “gave [him] the confidence to go out and start this company. One thing I really learned from my EMBA is to take a holistic view of everything and never have a singular view. It’s not just about what’s on the plate.”
NexDine founder David Lanci, EMBA ’02
Lanci continues:
“I realized that how you communicate with the people in the group has a dramatic impact on the outcome. I realized it wasn’t just out of sheer will you could get something done. You had to collaborate, and that was the aha moment for me.”
He concludes, “Food is almost the easy part. It’s just as challenging—if not more so—to manage people, manage clients, manage budgets. And in our industry, we’re not making widgets. We can’t do everything the same way for every client. Every location is different. People’s appetites are different.”
You can read the full interview with Lanci here.
Undocumented Immigrant Population Roughly Double Current Estimate – MIT Sloan Newsroom
According to new research from MIT Sloan’s Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi and Yale’s Edward Kaplan and Jonathan Feinstein, “the number of undocumented immigrants living in the country is about 22.1 million, nearly twice the most prominent current estimate of 11.3 million.”
Fazel-Zarandi explains, “It’s likely that undocumented immigrants are more difficult to locate and survey than other foreign-born residents and if contacted, they may be inclined to misreport their country of origin, citizenship, and number of household residents, fearing the legal consequences of revealing their status.”
He continues:
“A common argument in favor of a tougher immigration policy is that people who have entered the country illegally elevate levels of violent criminal activity.”
“Whatever the extent of criminality that is assessed, it’s clear that crime statistics be thought of in relation to a substantially larger population of undocumented immigrants. This lessens the risk in per capita terms. What’s acceptable for a population of 11 million is unlikely to be sufficient for a population of 22 million.”
You can read the full article here.
What are the Most Successful MBA Startups of 2018?
Earlier this month, LinkedIn released its 2018 list for the Top Startups in the U.S. The list includes 50 of the newest successful startups in the U.S. Most specifically, the list analyzes young companies that are experiencing exceptional employee growth, increasing interest, member engagement, and talent. The social media platform used its network of 575 million members to see which startups commanded the most attention and had the most top talent. To be eligible, startups need to be less than seven years old, have at least 50 employees, and be privately held and headquartered in the U.S.
We decided to take a look at the list and see which of these year’s startups were founded by an MBA. This list is by no means exhaustive, but quickly we were able to find founders and CEOs with MBAs from top universities such as USC Marshall, Wharton, Harvard Business School, and Columbia Business School. Continue reading…
The Politics of Purchases, Grocery Chain Rebuilds, and More – Boston News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Boston business schools this week.
Why U.S. Grocery Chains Need More (and Better) Store-Brand Products – Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review recently revealed new insights into how store-brand products enable grocers to carve out a niche for themselves among more established competitors.
According to writers Marcel Corstjens and Rajiv Lal, “private-label products are essential to the profit margins of hard discounters,” like Wal-Mart, which typically sell 90 percent private-label goods compared to 15-51 percent of ordinary grocery stores, depending on where you are in the world. “Hard discounters win by only stocking products with a very high rotation.”
The two point to the miraculous feat of French supermarkets, which regained a significant market share after stores began “offering affordable goods of reasonable quality.”
In order for U.S. grocers to compete with hard discounters, the article notes that they “will have to offer private-label goods of the “right” quality at the “right” price. No easy feat, indeed.
You can read more from Corstjens and Lal here.
How Going Out Can Spur Outside-the-Box Thinking – MIT Sloan Newsroom
New research from MIT Sloan Assistant Professor of Work and Organization Studies Jackson Lu finds that people who have “had a close friendship or romantic relationship with a person from a culture drastically different from [their] own tend to exhibit higher creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.”
“‘Going Out’ of the Box: Close Intercultural Friendships and Romantic Relationships Spark Creativity, Workplace Innovation, and Entrepreneurship” suggests that “people cannot simply ‘collect’ intercultural relationships at a superficial level, but instead must engage in cultural learning at a deep level.”
Lu writes:
“When in an intercultural relationship, an individual should not eschew cultural differences but rather embrace them, because such differences enable one to discern and learn the underlying assumptions and values of both the foreign culture and the home culture. Without close social interactions, it can be difficult for individuals to juxtapose and synthesize different cultural perspectives to achieve cultural learning and produce creative insights.”
You can check out the rest of the article here.
How We Play Politics in the Store Aisles – Carroll School News
In a new Journal of Consumer Research study, Carroll Assistant Professor of Marketing Nailya Ordabayeva finds that “conservatives buy products they believe will signal their own superiority (big-name brands, high price tags) while liberals buy products they hope will show their uniqueness (unconventional colors or design).”
Ordabayeva’s research has “startling implications regarding the extent of our national polarization,” suggesting that people are paying very close attention to taglines like Mercedes’ “A Class Ahead” and Apple’s “Think Different.”
Professor Ordabayeva’s research finds that conservative and liberal Americans have decidedly different buying patterns, with conservatives favoring well-known brands and liberals opting for more creative choices.
“Better or Different? How Political Ideology Shapes Preferences for Differentiation in the Social Hierarchy,” can be found here and check out the rest of the entry on Carroll School News here.
Kyrie Irving Hits The Books at Harvard Business School
On Monday, Boston Celtics All-Star Kyrie Irving attended the first day of a class called “Crossover Into Business” at Harvard Business School.
Irving—a five-time All-Star, former World Champion, and part-time actor—is one of several professional athletes enrolled in a semester-long program taught by HBS professor Anita Elberse, specially designed to help professional athletes develop their business acumen by working with HBS MBA student mentors. Some of the stars of HBS’s autograph-worthy cohort include Detroit Pistons center Zaza Pachulia, former All-Star Chris Bosh, and Brooklyn Nets breakout point guard Spencer Dinwiddie.
Earlier this summer, as he was recovering from an injury, Irving was expressing interest in attending a professional business course, similar to many of his aforementioned fellow NBA players.
“When I am playing basketball or perfecting my craft, which comes with a lot of sacrifice, then the time that I’ve got outside of it, I’ll use to develop a lot of interests and passions that I have, to make up for that,” he told Boston.com. “I feel like if I had the same amount of time that I was afforded [for basketball] to learn about business and investments, I think I’d probably be in a pretty different place.”
In a field where intense drive and dedication are integral for success, it may come as no surprise that many professional athletes make the seamless transition to accomplished entrepreneurs after they hang up their uniforms.
Venturing into the business world may even be a necessity for some athletes, as professional careers are often lucrative and short. Pro football players, for instance, can earn tens of millions of dollars in their career but the average career only lasts six years.
So, what do you do with tens of millions of dollars and extra time on your hands? You invest.
Many universities have developed programs that cater to current and former athletes to learn how best to manage their earnings.
The University of Miami Business School offers an 18-month Executive MBA program for Artists and Athletes, specifically scheduled around the NFL season. Founded in February 2015, the inaugural class had 43 students—most of which were current or former NFL athletes. Many of these athletes come familiar with many aspects of business, from branding and marketing to media and public relations. These programs provide the framework to help athletes transfer these skills into the business world, leveraging their personal brand and networks to elevate their careers.
Business skills become a necessity as many former athletes face financial challenges. According to a paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April 2015, 16 percent of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years. Current Carolina Panthers wide receiver Torrey Smith famously said, “When football is done, some guys are lost. Most people have never seen this type of money. They don’t come from families that have money or understand money … you can get into a hole real fast.”
Niche MBA programs are popping up across the country to address this growing need. In addition to the University of Miami EMBA, there are also similar programs at George Washington University and Indiana University.
In 2017, Smith graduated from University of Miami’s Executive MBA program, which he attended with his wife, Chanel. The couple used the skills and knowledge gained from this program to inform the work of their charitable foundation, the Torrey Smith Family Fund.
The Smith Family Fund serves young people in the Baltimore area. NFL players all around have flocked to this program compared to other niche programs in the country, as it has been carefully tailored to fit their schedule, interests, and needs. The University of Miami is aware that not all students can learn successfully online, while other students haven’t set foot in a classroom in over a decade.
Along with a rigorous curriculum, Miami hires professional trainers to work with current players at 6:30 a.m. before class, and tutors to work with the players at night from 7:30-10:30 p.m.
You can learn more about the University of Miami Business School program here.
