Kimberly Rescigno, MBA '10

Predicatably Irrational

Today, Dan Ariely, a professor in the MIT Media Lab and behavioral economist, gave a talk to the Marketing Club and Israeli Club at Sloan. It just so happens that I was given his book last year for my birthday so I brought it along to get it signed. Essentially, the topics he covered that drove behavioral change were aversion to loss, instant rewards, and regret.

The talk was perfect for a psychology major discussing how peoples' behavior is often quite counter intuitive to how you would think people would behave. One such example he gave was research he was doing that would be applied to outrageous Wall Street CEO bonuses, and how this could possibly hinder performance. Of course, none of the companies wanted to do any experiments or even studies with him because they rationalized that their CEO's were extra special and above these kinds of compensation studies.

But then he spoke about health care applications and how physician compensation must really change from the a reward per service model, which will only promote the most expensive procedures and treatments.

The inscription above reads "Dear Kim, Irrationally yours, Dan Ariely."

South East Asian c-function

We were so proud of our friends as we watched the second year dance number last night. This is always one of the best events of the year!

Sent from my iPhone

Access to Capital: East Africa

I am participating in another study tour this year much like the study tour to Antigua last year. This time, I will be traveling to Kenya and Rwanda studying how companies access capital to fund small to medium sized enterprises. I am also blogging for this trip and you can read the trip blog and twitter here: http://atceastafrica.wordpress.com/

The CEO Perspective

Tonight was a pretty cool evening to be a Sloan MBA. As part of one of the premier classes at Sloan called CEO Perspective, our class was able to speak with Jeff Immelt CEO of General Electric from 6-8PM. Now, having interned for GE during undergrad, I have to say I was pretty excited to come to this class. It's like the rock star ads from Intel featuring their engineers.

I think the most interesting parts of this class is when the CEO's share with us their thoughts on managing bad press and how they mentally get through tough times. Immelt said, "Before I go to bed each night I rethink how I could have done things differently and feel self doubt, but in the morning I have to look in the mirror and think to myself, 'I'm the man!.'"

But more importantly, Immelt spoke about how the business landscape in the U.S. has dramatically changed forever since the credit crisis of 2008. We can't expect the world to be the same way we left it entering our first year in business school. The "new currency" for business is no longer cost cutting, but rather job creation and he intends to use GE's capabilities to the max in terms of investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and transportation. His parting words were, "My biggest fear is that you are all living in the past. Instead, be a part of what's next." And that is exactly what I intend to do.

G-lab 2010

It has been about a month since my G-lab team finish our three week assignment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with the premier job posting website in South East Asia. Working since September 2009, our team comprised of two Sloan full-time MBA's and two Sloan Fellows. Our task was to provide a user segmentation and appropriate marketing recommendations, but it also included an inbound marketing strategy to supplement the traditional advertising strategy the company currently employed.

Taken from inside a tour bus, on the right is the Petronas Towers and on the left is the KL Tower. The landscape is truly amazing, but the best part by far was the food!

The above picture shows what we had one lunch time on site with a company employee who had been with the firm 10 years. He took us out and we were able to have a sampling of some very traditional Malaysian dishes. The best by far was rojak and chicken "in a paper bag" (deep fried in a bag to make the chicken tender). What a great place!

Alas, the experience came to an end with a two hour presentation to management, follow up meetings for implementation, and a 30-page report. The G-lab team went our separate ways, but one classmate and I went on vacation to BALI for a week before coming back to Boston to finish our last semester!

One of the best times at Sloan is in between classes and an internship. There are very little worries in the world and no deadlines for deliverables. Therefore, this vacation was truly relaxing and included a 10 hour private tour of the island, surfing lessons, spa visits, and of course eating like queens for dinner on beachside for only around $10 each!

That is the very truncated story about G-lab, one of the main reasons I came to Sloan to get an action learning, truly global experience. Coming up in a few weeks is my study tour trip to East Africa trying to understand how African businesses get access to capital. You can follow the progress of that class and trip here. 

Back in Blog!

Wow, I have sheepishly come back to my blog after almost of year of unwarranted neglect. But rather than kindly ask the admissions team to delete this blog (and thus erasing the evidence of said neglect) I am going to try to turn around this situation and make a come back!Having said that, I hope that we can move past the information black out and finish strongly as I head into my final semester at MIT Sloan!

The brief version of my life since the *last* Chinese C-function has been as follows:
May 2009- End of my first year at business school!
- Attended a classmate's wedding in Thailand with about 10 other Sloanies. By far one of the best trips of a lifetime.

June-August 2009- Excellent internship based in Orlando, FL in the Aerospace and Defense Industry with a major government contractor. Met great people, applied strategy coursework, and learned a great deal about an industry I had no prior experience in.

September-December 2009- Very glad to be a student again! This term, I was a Communications Lab Teaching Assistant teaching and practicing 35 first year students communications frameworks useful for managing others, presenting, and interviewing.

So that brings us to 2010, the year I never thought would come while busily studying in the E52 Trading room during CORE last year. But here it is!  I have taken a very fulfilling course load to get the most bang for my tuition buck which includes highlights such as Advanced Corporate Finance, Applied Probability Marketing Models, Developing Breakthrough Products and Services, and a special seminar in Access to Capital in East Africa (we will be traveling to Kenya and Rwanda over Spring Break and SIP).

But I will dedicate a full post to the highlight of this year so far ( all two months in) which is my experience in "G-lab" working in Malaysia over January for the premier online job posting site in South East Asia!

"SIP-"ing refreshments over Spring Break!

The first half of the spring semester has flown by, and I can't believe SIP, or Sloan Innovation Period, is already upon us. Last week, I somehow managed to hand in 3 papers and have a Finance I midterm and now I am back to blogging and looking forward to the next two weeks of project work and relaxation!

I have worked hard with three other classmates to co-organize a SIP study tour to Antigua over 10 days during SIP and Spring break. The objectives were to learn about the country, do some on the ground project work, and also take in the culture and have fun! A group of roughly 15 students will fly down to Antigua from 3/18-27 to visit companies, Antiguan officials, and provide two local businesses with project work, one in hot sauce manufacturing and the other in hospitality.

I will surely have pictures when we return, and I will hopefully have a log of the events to capture the idea of our trip!

Sustainability c-function

Here we are trying out the Boston pedi-cabs that were on display at the c-function. Every little bit helps to make the city greener!

China C-function!

Here is a pic from last night's c-function of the dragon dance after we feasted on re free Chinese food!

Semester 2: A new start

So here I am in the E52 computer lounge, a place I grew to know and love during CORE last semester. It brings back memories of furiously typing away papers, or running optimization models in Excel, but this time something is different....

I'm taking electives now, classes of my choice! I'm loving the classes that I've chosen (Strategy, New Ventures, etc) and I realize this semester will be less stressful, but equally developmental. Tonight is the first C-function of 2009 (for China) and I really can't wait to attend. I will attempt to post live pictures from the event using my iPhone to share how fun these cultural events are!