Oxford Saïd MBA Students Suggests a Few 2018 Resolutions
The start of every year is a great time to reflect on what went well the previous year—and how you can improve in the next. Indeed, the time-honored tradition of setting resolutions for the new year can be especially valuable for MBA students and applicants. Whether you’ve just completed your first or third semester of an MBA program or are still working on perfecting your MBA applications, there are always a few resolutions that can help make the most of how ever much of your MBA experience is still ahead of you.
We’ve compiled a list of business school New Year’s resolutions from current MBA students at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School. While some are specific to Saïd’s program, they all represent great business school advice you’d do well to read regardless of whether you haven’t yet started or are closing in on graduation.
Business School New Year’s Resolution One: Balance Your Time
Whether you’re busily working on your applications, are about to start your first semester in an MBA program, or whether your final semester stretches out in front of you, learning how to balance your time is key to success in any MBA program. Marla Woodward (MBA ’18) explains how important it is to take care of all aspects of your life.
“To balance your time, pick an activity for your mind, an activity for your body, and an activity for your spirit,” Woodward wrote in a blog. “For example, this term I’m leading a project for the Oxford Strategy Group for my mind, I’m participating in fencing for my body, and I’m maintaining weekly family dog walks for my spirit.”
Containing the amount of time spent on schoolwork is also important. During your MBA, you’ll be presented with countless readings and assignments. Each class will load your schedule with things to do, and the best way to achieve success is to plan out how you’ll budget your time to get everything done for class while not overwhelming your life.
“Map out all readings, exams, and group projects in your calendar, so you know what’s coming when,” Woodward recommends. “This will help you anticipate how to budget your time when you have multiple group projects all due on the same day, and it will also come in handy when, heaven forbid, you can only find time for a portion of the readings and you need to decide which are the most valuable.”
Business School New Year’s Resolution Two: Take Advantage of Your Network of Classmates
This resolution is especially important for applicants who are preparing to start an MBA in 2018. Instead of thinking of it as entering a world of strangers, Bremen Leak (MBA ’18) advocates taking the attitude of poet W.B . Yeats who said, “There are no strangers, only friends you have not met yet.”
When Leak first started his studies at Oxford Saïd, it seemed like everything that could go wrong did. He was waitlisted. Then, once he was finally accepted, his housing fell through, and he was left without a place to live. But after starting school, he was offered a place to live by a classmate he had just met. And this was just the first of many times that he says a classmate helped him out.
“Since my first day inside the business school, I’ve watched my classmates—some 330 MBAs from 60 countries—band together to help one another succeed,” Leak wrote in a blog. “They’ve divvied up reading assignments and formed study groups and tutoring sessions. They’ve shared jokes, drinks, encouragement, and advice… Who were these people but strangers just a few months earlier?”
If it wasn’t for the fact that Leak had learned to treat his classmates like close friends, no matter how long [or short] their acquaintance, he could have missed out on many opportunities.
Business School New Year’s Resolution Three: Use Every Resource Available to You
From the moment you first start considering an MBA, there will be countless resources available to help you make the best decision. Here at Clear Admit, we offer dozens of articles each week containing the latest MBA news, advice from admissions teams, and interviews with current students. Of course, there are also the rankings from outfits like U.S. News & World Report, the Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, and others to help you find the best program for you.
Perhaps most important of all are the resources provided by individual MBA programs themselves. There are the websites, of course, and the information sessions and the school fairs. But many applicants tell us that the most invaluable resources provided by the schools are the students themselves and everything you encounter on campus is a visit is in any way possible.
That’s what Nikhil Dugal (MBA ’18) discovered when he first started considering an MBA. In fact, the availability of resources was one of the main reasons he chose Oxford Saïd—in particular, the resource of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.
“Coming from a background in economics and math, I wanted to study business in a place that was focused on supporting social entrepreneurs and actively involved in the changing narrative on the nature of business. Due to this reason, I had a very specific list of MBA programs,” Dugal explained on a Skoll Centre blog. “Saïd Business School was at the top of this list, especially due to the countless resources they offer to social entrepreneurs and the presence of the Skoll Centre.”
Those resources helped Dugal receive the Skoll Scholarship, which provided him with the opportunity to pursue his goals without worrying about his finances. Since starting his MBA, there have been many other opportunities.
“Over the next year I plan to use all the resources we are offered here, including programs such as Map the System, Skoll Academy, and Skoll Venture Awards to refine the mission of my organization and explore levers for change to help us scale our impact,” Dugal wrote. “I’ve had the opportunity to attend a few sessions at the Skoll Academy already and am extremely impressed with the program the Centre has been able to put together as an alternative to the Consulting Development Program and the Finance Lab offered to the rest of the MBA class.”
With just a week into the New Year, there’s plenty of time to make good on your business school resolutions. What are you waiting for?
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
New Partnerships Marry Business with Social Purpose at Oxford Saïd
Late last year the University of Oxford Saïd Business School partnered with the Global Thinkers Forum—a social purpose organization focused on accountable leadership, women’s empowerment, and youth development—to promote the annual Global Thinkers Forum Awards for Excellence. The event took place at the British Library on November 30, 2017, and celebrated recipients of the GTF Excellence in Global Leadership awards.
As part of its partnership, Oxford Saïd sent school delegates including Dr. Dina Dommet, director of student and program services; Dr. Marc Ventresca, associate professor of strategic management; and Amy Major, MBA recruitment manager. Many current MBA students, alumni, and university staff also attended.
“The work of the GTF is to build, recognize, and value global leaders in key fields—these are people who embody a breadth of vision to engage the challenges of our world and who bring a disciplined focus to support women’s leadership and new models of youth development, especially in the Middle East, the Gulf States, and Africa,” Ventresca said at an event underscoring the many deep ties between Oxford and Forum.
“GTF was incubated at Oxford, in the original academic work and action research of founder and CEO Elizabeth Filippouli,” he added in a statement. “Seven years on, it now encompasses a wide range of initiatives and partnerships in the United Kingdom and globally. The ties with the wider Oxford family are broad and deep, and each year go and grow in new directions.”
The Global Thinkers Forum brings together a diverse network of influencers and thought leaders from a wide variety of subjects and industries. Its goal is to encourage these leaders to share their visions of the future so they can effect positive change in the world around them. This year, the event’s theme was “The Trust Imperative in an Era of Uncertainty,” and one of the award recipients was Radha Basu. Basu works at iMerit.com, an AI and skill development agency in India and the United States. And during Hilary Term, he’ll be bringing his experience to Oxford Saïd as a guest lecturer.
“This event and the partnership with Global Thinkers Forum is one of the many ways our students can engage with and benefit from innovative work of our alumni,” Dommett said in the same press release.
Find out more about the recent event here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Inside Dean Matthew Myers’ Plans for the SMU Cox School of Business
On August 1, 2017, Matthew Myers became the ninth dean of the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. As the former dean of Miami University’s Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio, Dean Myers comes to Cox with plans to build on the school’s current strengths and enhancing its offerings.
In a Cox Today article titled “The Dawn of a New Dean,” SMU Cox dives into Myers’ plans in a detailed interview. Here’s what he had to say.
Joining Cox
SMU Cox Dean Matthew Myers
According to Myers, the most frequent question that he’s asked is, “Why Cox?” He explained that he was looking for an institution that knew its place in higher education and had an established identity. It was also important to love the city where the school was located, and he and his family were immediately drawn to Dallas.
“Dallas has a robust economy with people willing to invest in Cox and SMU,” he said. “You cannot have a world-class city unless there is a world-class university, and a world-class university cannot exist without a world-class business school.”
Investing in Teaching and Research
For Myers, there are many assets to the Cox School, and one of the greatest is its faculty and staff, in whom he plans to invest heavily to enhance the school’s research reputation.
“If you look at the top 30 business schools, the common denominator is excellence in research reputation. Teaching and researching complement each other—rather than detract from each other, as some believe.”
In particular, Myers will focus on improving research in the areas of global marketing and strategy issues, especially since crossing organizational boundaries has been a major theme in Myers’ career.
Investing Globally
Myers also hopes to bring his penchant for global business to SMU Cox. “We do not have a choice in business education but to be globally oriented, not just geographically,” he said. “The practical and relationship side of global business, including neighboring countries such as Mexico, should be a focal point.”
Myers even talked about how the NAFTA issue is salient for Cox both in terms of its research and topics of discussion in the classroom. This type of contemporary commentary about global issues is what he wants to bring to SMU Cox.
Investing in Students
Myers is also interested in enhancing the use of technology and innovation in the curriculum for each of the school’s degree programs. “That’s where the growth sectors are in the global economy,” he explained. “Cox graduates should have a place in those sectors after graduation no matter what their major is. It’s certainly something to focus on in the next five to 10 years.”
Dean Myers also plans to increase student exposure to the local and global business markets to better prepare them for the job market post-graduation. “Students have numerous choices in universities, and it’s very competitive,” he wrote. “The strategic relationships we have with the business community are important, as well as being attuned to growth opportunities. Many students want the option to work in entrepreneurial or nonprofit businesses, or they may want to work in London or Seoul with global firms.” SMU Cox will aim to provide opportunities that fit each student’s wants and needs.”
Investing in Partnerships
This limited development time also motivates Dean Myers to enhance SMU Cox’s partnerships with corporations and initiatives in the Dallas area. He explained that he’s interested in Dallas’ potential particularly for start-up incubators, venture capital, and entrepreneurship. “I want to understand how we can be involved,” he said.
Myers already feels that the Cox and Dallas communities are energetic, but he wants to enhance the strong academic relationships even further to leverage opportunities for students. For example, he noted that many top recruiting firms are cutting back to just a handful of university relationships, and he wants to ensure that SMU Cox stays in the mix.
“We want to make sure we are inside that play with all of the major companies, such as American Airlines and GE, and with startups, too,” he said. “We think we are there already, but it’s competitive and we have to modernize.”
About Dean Myers
Myers began his career in academia in 1997 after earning his Ph.D. in marketing and international business from Michigan State University. He became a professor at the University of Tennessee, where he led the Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department at the Haslam College of Business from 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013, he served as the associate dean of executive education at Haslam. During that time, he was recognized three times as “the outstanding faculty member for MBA programs” and was responsible for launching the global Executive MBA program, which partners with ESSEC Business School in Paris and Central European University in Budapest.
In 2014, Myers became dean of Miami University’s business school. Of his appointment, he said, “The extension to the dean role was very fluid and natural. Giving the external nature of work and its greater connection to business, it was an area in which I could contribute.”
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
Meet Six MBA Scholarship Recipients at Oxford Saïd
At the Oxford University Saïd Business School, outstanding MBA candidates have the opportunity to earn the Pershing Square Foundation scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to future leaders who are in Saïd’s 1+1 MBA program, in which participants combine a specialized master’s degree with the school’s one-year MBA. Recipients of the award receive full tuition, college fees, and living expenses, plus a unique mentoring plan.
Peter Moores, Oxford Saïd dean and a professor of finance, talked about the scholarship in a recent news story calling it a “chance of a lifetime” for the recipients. “The Pershing Square Foundation’s gift will allow exceptional future leaders to gain deep knowledge and action-orientated business skills while being mentored by one of the most illustrious leaders in their fields,” he explained. “This customized, fully funded, two-year path eclipses all others. It’s simply a chance of a lifetime to help shape and develop amazing individuals who can go on to make an outstanding impact on the world.”
The six recipients for the 2017 year:
- Tim Krupa: Before attending Oxford Saïd, Krupa worked on the policy team for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; he was an advisor on youth sport and disabilities policy. His experience also includes field work in Zambia in 2013, where he researched the determinants of well-being among Zambian children.
- Vuyane Mhlomi: From Cape Town, South Africa, Mhlomi is a former Rhodes Scholar and medical doctor. He also runs a non-profit organization, the MH Foundation, which uses education to cultivate Africa’s future leaders. Also, he’s the co-founder of the Emergent Healthcare Group (EHCG), a company that commissions affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare centers.
- Tulsi Parida: Before her MBA, Parida worked for Teach for America in the Bronx. She then joined Newsela, an education tech company, before relocating to India to oversee the growth of a mobile English learning app.
- Carl Rietschel: Out of Hamburg, Germany, Rietschel is a former Boston Consulting Group employee, where he worked on major government projects and clients within the financial industry.
- Giorgio Tarraf: Tarraf is the co-founder of Save Beirut Heritage (SBH), which started as a Facebook group and transformed into a large cultural organization with more than 10,000 volunteers. So far SBH has preserved more than 120 landmarks in the Lebanese capital. Tarraf has also joined the United Nations at the office of the under-secretary-general for global communications.
- Lauren Xie: Xie is a Harvard graduate with experience working for CSIRO Australia on a project focused on improving the incomes of 10,000 small farmers in eastern Indonesia. She has worked on a variety of complex issues including deforestation as well as indigenous peoples’ rights.
To apply for the Pershing Square Scholarship—for the September 2018 intake—the deadline is January 5, 2018. You can apply here.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
The Premiere International MBA is Waiting For You in London
“London doesn’t love the latent or the lurking, has neither time, nor taste, nor sense for anything less discernible than the red flag in front of the steam-roller. It wants cash over the counter and letters ten feet high.” – Henry James
It could be argued that London is the quintessential—or at least the original—international destination. Both defiantly English and seamlessly accommodating for an international community, London is a city in a state of constant reinvention.
Oscar Wilde once said London was composed of “beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics,” which makes perfect sense that the city is presently and almost always the world’s global financial center (close but no cigar, Singapore). It’s no secret that the city leads the charge when it comes to gold, silver, derivatives, foreign exchange, money markets, debt securities, and international insurance. And London’s strategic location means it can stay connected to both the East and West at all times.
These reasons and so much more make London perhaps the definitive choice for b-schoolers who aspire to cut deals that bridge cultures and cross borders. For prospective MBAs with international ambitions, opportunities to interface with every conceivable industry abound in London, as do opportunities to collaborate with non-UK companies with London hubs.
We took the liberty of giving you the skinny on four London-area business degrees that will set you on a global path. Let’s take a deeper dive, shall we?
London Business School
The London Business School EMBA-Global Americas & Europe degree is a multinational collaboration that imparts the “insight, network and international perspectives” that today’s globally focused executive needs. The program—a partnership between LBS, Columbia, and the University of Hong Kong—is available in two distinct paths for entrepreneurs, managers, or executives. EMBA-Global Americas & Europe students earn two MBAs as they study in New York and London, while EMBA-Global Asia students bridge the gap between East and West as they study in Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, and London. Forbes ranked LBS’ international degree first overall in terms of its return on investment, as its 2012 class earned average salaries of $119,100 and paid back their investment in 3.4 years.
Imperial College London
The ICL’s Global Online MBA is a two-year, part-time degree that combines “innovative thinking and insight with new technology to develop practical solutions to real world issues, benefiting business and improving society.” The Global MBA is structured to maximize intimacy and in-class time, culminating in a week-long Capstone Business Game project.
CHECK THIS OUT: Oxford Saïd Dean, Together with Apple’s Tim Cook, Launches New Entrepreneurial Hub
Oxford University Saïd Business School
The Saïd Business School 13-month masters-level Global Business Diploma is focused on giving graduates the tools to “undertake the senior international responsibilities which drive organizational success.” Director Kathy Harvey explains that the degree is guaranteed to “provide insights to anyone operating, or aspiring to operate, in a global environment.” Graduates will have an advanced “understanding of the issues involved in conducting business in a global landscape,” particularly “global business strategy, risk and reputation, corporate diplomacy and doing business in emerging economies.”
Cambridge University’s Judge Business School
The Judge Business School at Cambridge University Global Business concentration emphasizes cross-cultural differences; doing business in/with emerging economies; managing the multinational enterprise; and multinational organizations in social and environmental issues. The concentration was developed specifically for MBA students “seeking careers in careers at multinational organizations; small and medium-sized enterprises in sectors that are affected by international pressures; and students with a general interest in the role of organizations in global issues.”
Oxford Saïd Dean, Together with Apple’s Tim Cook, Launches New Entrepreneurial Hub
Building on the success of Saïd Business School’s Oxford Launchpad and Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University has launched a new entrepreneurial hub: the Oxford Foundry. Saïd Dean Peter Tufano and Apple CEO Tim Cook helped kick things off at an October 11 launch event.
The new student-led and student-centric hub will be open to all 23,000 Oxford students and is part of an effort to inspire campus-wide innovation. Its focus will be to help students develop their entrepreneurial skills as well as create and scale ventures.
The Oxford Foundry will welcome students from all academic disciplines, from engineering and medicine to history and business. The goal is to take these students from all different backgrounds and bring them together to learn from one another, generate new ideas, and tackle business and societal issues.
In particular, the new hub will support students in the three following ways:
- Community Building: The Oxford Foundry will draw inspirational and leading figures in the entrepreneurial world to speak to students and exchange ideas. It will also have a student advisory board and will partner with societies across the university including the 10,000-strong Oxford Entrepreneurs.
- Experiential Learning: The Oxford Foundry will host problem-solving competitions and workshops to help students put various skills and ideas to work.
- Start-Up Support: Each year, a select number of ventures will receive support including dedicated workspace, access to networks, and industry expertise to scale and start their ventures.
Oxford has a strong history of entrepreneurship and has produced more founders of “unicorn” businesses (worth $1 billion or more) than any other school in Europe. The new Oxford Foundry promises to only further strengthen this entrepreneurial community.
A look inside the new Oxford Hub.
“Entrepreneurship is of increasing importance to students. As a generation, millennials desire to be more socially responsible, innovative and to make an impact,” Oxford Foundry Director Ana Bakshi said in a university press release. “Whether starting their own ventures or aspiring to lead in organizations, the Oxford Foundry will develop students’ entrepreneurial skills, understanding, and self-efficacy. The aim is to create future leaders whatever career they pursue.”
The Oxford Foundry spans two floors in a renovated Victorian ice factory. It offers co-working space, presentation areas, a café, and incubator space for accelerating new ventures.
To learn more about the Oxford Foundry, visit the school website.
