MIT Sloan Blog

A river runs through ... um ... MIT

Patches of murky ice have given way to inklings of activity on the Charles. A scull here, a sailboat there, tourist-filled duckboats afloat, seagulls doing their best Greg Louganis into the rippling early spring waters. Hopeful signs of spring. Change in the air ... and as ever on campus.

Spring has sprung, and so has a lot on which we have been working here at MIT Sloan.

- We launched a redesigned MIT Sloan home page last week. Should be a lot faster, more content rich, a better representation of the breadth of activities here. The previous home page was launched in 2004, so this is very much a breath of fresh air, both in its look and feel and its use of technology. The redesigned home page is the first in a number of changes we plan to make to the website over the next year. Our goal: a website that is clear, compelling, informative, fast, optimized for any device, worthy of this great institution. Love to hear feedback (srolph -at- mit.edu). And look for more change on the horizon.

http://mitsloan.mit.edu

- We populated the MBA website with a bunch of new content. Props to my colleagues Michelle Choate and Tina McCarthy and our friends in the MBA Admissions Office (Julie, Rod, et al.). We hope the site is better organized, provides greater depth, and is more fun than its predecessor. Hey, nobody said innovation had to be boring.

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba

- We brought on board a new digital media specialist to take our podcast and video efforts to the next level. A big hearty welcome to Anthony Placet, who in a few short months has shown the value of having a professional multimedia editor. He has greatly enhanced our audio podcasts and is ready to begin producing videos. Look for an MIT Sloan Video Short -- Coming soon to a computer near you.

- On the podcast front, we've launched some interviews with fascinating folks of late. Student Samantha Joseph jumps out of planes and has jumped ably into business school despite her non-traditional background. Sheila Chandrasekhara is an author, b-school student, and arguably MIT Sloan's top chef. Professor Arnie Barnett makes numbers palatable and applicable to problems of the day. Check out interviews with these folks and more in iTunes or our new collection on MIT TechTV.

http://mitsloan.techtv.mit.edu

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Something to talk about

After the relative quiet of January in Cambridge, the energy that always comes with the spring semester will be a welcome change of pace. The rather large variety of conferences, trips, club events, and other professional and academic endeavors provides engagement and activity for the entire community. But for those of us working in communications, it means something equally important: content!

For us, the January lull is great for a while. It gives us time to take a breath after the mad rush to get magazines and brochures to the printer in time for Christmas delivery. We can clean out the old files and have some fun composing new intro music for our podcast series. And we get plenty of snack breaks to finish off the Harry and David goodies sent to us by our generous vendor friends.

But by the end of the month, we're itching to put pen to paper -- or fingers to keyboard -- and start producing some new stories. Luckily for us, there's a lot to talk about.

Our faithful readers can look forward to material delivered via new and old-fashioned media. On the Web front, we'll continue our Student Stories and Faculty podcast series, blogs from our students and our dean, and faculty research spotlights, as well as extended features on the many spring conferences and trips, and the infamous $100K.

First up, the Second Annual Sports Management Conference. The list of speakers for the event is extremely impressive, featuring executives from each of the 2007 championship teams in professional baseball, hockey, football, and basketball.  As numbers -- and the meaning behind them -- become more and more important to sports, this conference promises to be a must-attend.

For those who prefer "old school" media, we'll be producing several new brochures, including updated admissions and career information materials for the MBA program. And as has been our custom, we'll bid goodbye to another semester with a new issues of MIT Sloan Alumni Magazine.

Admittedly, it's hard to capture the true energy of this place on paper, the spirit of the student body. But we sure have a lot of fun trying.

- Posted by Michelle Choate

House cleaning

The MIT Sloan campus is quiet this time of year. Many students are dispersed across the globe, meeting with industry and government leaders on Treks. Some are immersed in MIT's Independent Activities Period (IAP). Others are just taking a breather. The holiday lights are down (well, most of them), and the exhilaration of New Year's Eve has spawned the lull between the year's new beginning and the real beginning -- classes begin Feb. 5.

Seems like a perfect time for a little house cleaning -- miscellaneous news, stray observations, a little of this, a little of that. So here goes, in no particular order:

• Kendall Square is quiet, but that doesn't mean students are sipping lemonade on a beach somewhere. Treks and IAP keep them plenty busy. Plus, if any students are sipping lemonade, it's well deserved considering the frenetic pace at which they go about schoolwork, activities, and the job search during the semester.

• We added a bunch of RSS Feeds to the MIT Sloan website, including feeds for press clippings, faculty publications, events, and a feed that encompasses all our feeds -- kinda like a super-size feed (without the trans fat).

• It seems like yesterday that Sloanies were huddled around TVs to watch the finale of The Apprentice Season Four to see if Randal Pinkett, a graduate of MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) Program, would win a coveted position with the Trump Organization. In contrast, this season's Apprentice -- Celebrity Apprentice -- seems awfully silly. Granted it's for charity, but I just don't view Randal Pinkett, who has a number of advanced degrees, through the same prism as Stephen Baldwin. I mean, Stephen was great in The Usual Suspects, but captain of industry he ain't.

• My podcast partner Michelle Choate and I interviewed Senior Associate Dean Alan White for a podcast episode on MIT Sloan's international initiatives. Alan is in the fortunate position to have witnessed the dramatic changes in China over the past 30 years. He traveled to China for MIT Sloan in 1979. Then, he said, there were few cars in Beijing, everyone dressed the same, and business (including business schools) was under the purview of the government. Business schools didn't even have placement offices, because the government determined the career path for all graduates. Now, well, you know. Look for the episode in a few weeks.

• Recent additions to the MIT Sloan website:
  • Internship allows MBA student Devorah Cohen to explore the business side of the entertainment industry
  • New Assistant Professor Michael Grubb offers a different take on corporate disclosure models
  • MBA student Abdur-Rahim Syed ‘peeks behind the curtains’ at eBay
  • Podcast: MBA student Megan Ford on her experience in TV and movies and her career behind the scenes
  • Recent faculty publications
• Save the date:
  
  • MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference, Feb. 9
  • MIT Private Equity Symposium, April 4
  • MIT Sloan Sales Conference, April 25
  • $100K Entrepreneurship Competition winners announced, May 14
  • Reunion 2008, June 5-8

That's it for now. Oh yeah, and classes begin Feb. 5. Did I say that already? OK, I'm ready for the spring semester.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Web sight

Maybe you’ve noticed a number of changes on the MIT Sloan website. If not, I’ll take that as a good thing — we notice what we don’t like, assimilate what we do (hey, sounded good). We’ve initiated a number of changes to the website in the past year, among them the launching of this very blog.

Our goal, of course, is to keep pace with the ever-changing way in which folks use the Web. We thought we were in a good way back in 2004, when we completed our last major redesign. But along came blogging, feeds, podcasting, MySpace, Facebook, twitter, de.licio.us, all things Google, YouTube, and so much more. All under the rubric of Web 2.0, which I might better express as, “Web 2. ... Oh, man, how are we supposed to integrate all this stuff into our online communications?”

The answer, of course, is to do our level best. And so we have, are, and will. Among our online ventures in the past year:

• Started audio podcasts
• Set up MIT Sloan News Feed
• Transitioned the website to XHTML
• Launched the MIT Sloan Blog, student blogs, and Dean Schmittlein’s blog
• Created flickr communities for MIT Sloan student and alumni photos
• Began using the Google calendar tool
• Adopted the Google search engine

We’re not done, of course. Right now we’re developing a mobile version of the website, creating a bunch of new RSS feeds, eyeing broader use of blogs, and working to make video content more prominent on the website. Indeed, online communications work continues apace at MIT Sloan. As well it should: I attended a webinar the other day in which a speaker mentioned Web 3. ... Oh boy.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

A little venturing can go a long way. Just ask all those 30-somethings who emerged from the dot-com era with a king’s ransom. Those heady days are gone, of course, but entrepreneurship is still going strong. Especially at MIT, where innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration make quite suitable bedfellows.

There’s a reason the annual MIT Venture Capital Conference attracts some 400 venture professionals, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Now in its 10th year, the conference is both a showcase for entrepreneurial thought-leadership and a stimulus for entrepreneurial connections.

This year’s conference, Nov. 30, includes presentations from Diane Greene, co-founder and CEO of VMware; Frank Moss, director of the MIT Media Lab; and Christopher Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google. Plus, an Entrepreneur Showcase (Nov. 29, open to the public) will exhibit the business vision and technological prowess of 30 early stage businesses.

Come on, you can venture a little. Check it out >>

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Even our dean blogs

Dave Schmittlein listens to Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield. He so loved Dickens’ Great Expectations that he once had a plant he named Estella, desired beauty of protagonist Pip. He has lived in Philadelphia for 27 years, but still carries the dream of the 1967 Boston Red Sox and is never far in spirit from his native Northampton, Mass.

He watched much of the Red Sox championship run this fall with some Sloanies in the lobby of his building. As a kid, he loved to play Frisbee, Kickball, and Jarts. And baseball, lots of baseball. Yes, baseball is a passion of the newly minted dean of MIT Sloan, the John C Head III Dean.

And so it seems fitting that we unveil Dave’s blog a few days after his beloved Red Sox won the World Series for the second time in four years. Seems fitting as well that his first entry draws a collective significance from those very Red Sox (past and present), Great Expectations, John Fowles’ The Magus, and the value (both literally and figuratively) of re-reading.

Some pretty thoughtful stuff — insightful, personal, genuine, laced with a touch of humor. Oh, and for a math guy, he’s a heck of a writer. Hope you’ll check it out. More entries soon to come.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Perfect pitch?

So, you've hooked up with some genius across campus and together you've developed a jaw-dropping product and innovative business model that will save humanity and make you zillions in the process. All you need is venture capital. Well, it goes that a friend of a friend gets you invited to a party for this illustrious vc — big-time investor, hailed the most powerful woman in the city a few years back, rich beyond belief but a sucker for a business plan that marries social good and profitability.

So, you put on your Sunday best and plant yourself amid the gaggle of other would-be entrepreneurs around the bejeweled vc at this lavish affair. Suddenly, the vc spills her drink. The others rush off for paper towels and to refill her drink. They'll be back in 60 seconds. So, you speak. Intelligently? Persuasively?

It's a shame the success of a brilliant business idea could hinge on a 60-second pitch, but there's a reason entrepreneurial gurus like MIT Sloan's Ken Morse stress the importance of the so-called elevator pitch. Your opening could arise in any place, at any moment. You have to capitalize.

Morse has taught students the art of the elevator pitch for years, and refining one's pitch has always been part of the events leading up to the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, which is in its 18th year and has facilitated the birth of over 85 companies. This year, the elevator pitch emerges from the, um, elevator, with its own competition as part of the Entrepreneurship Competition.

MIT's first-ever Elevator Pitch Contest will take place Oct. 13 at the MIT Stata Center. A panel of venture capitalists, angel investors, and entrepreneurs will judge the contest. There is no fee to participate or attend, and the competition is open to both students and the public. More than $10,000 in prize money will be awarded.

“The Elevator Pitch Contest is a brand new addition to the $100K Entrepreneurship Competition series that allows up-and-coming entrepreneurs to test their ideas with passion,” according to Jeff Sabados, lead organizer of the $100K. “Conceivably, a participant could win $2,500 in 60 seconds, which isn't bad for an afternoon.”

• More on the Elevator Pitch Contest >>

• Contest organizer Gaëtan Bonhomme delivers his pitch (MP3) >>

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Man of the people -- The sequel

The new academic year started this week, but the biggest news was the introduction of our new dean, David Schmittlein, to the MIT Sloan community. 

A new dean is a huge event for a school, at least for faculty and staff.  Either directly or indirectly, the dean is our boss.  But how much does a dean matter to students?

At MIT Sloan, it matters a lot. 

When I started my MBA at Wharton (gulp) 25 years ago, I had no clue who the dean of the school was.  I still don’t.  The dean was completely irrelevant to me: a remote figure who had minimal (if any) engagement with students and no impact on our lives.  Perhaps that’s changed there, perhaps not.  It’s a big school, and a big ship to run.

Even if I hadn’t known him briefly when he was my professor at Wharton, here I’d still be able to know David Schmittlein in his capacity as dean because here the dean is engaged with students.  Our prior dean, Dick Schmalensee, appeared regularly at student events, from Town Hall meetings to the MIT Sloan Follies.  He was so well known that he could be charmingly parodied when he stepped down (see video).  The cover of our most recent alumni magazine captures him well: informal, friendly, involved with students.

MIT Sloan expects a lot from a dean, from world-class scholarship and guiding vision to administrative leadership and fundraising prowess.  And that’s only the beginning.

Amid all the more formal introductory hoopla, the incoming dean appeared at Town Hall this week, where the whoops and applause from students were genuine, as were the smiles and gracious words from David Schmittlein.  In various events this week he’s already had a chance to display his warmth, humor, and humanity.  We want those things, too.  Quite frankly, the students expect them. 

The incoming MBA class of 2009 got a chance to see their new dean in their first week of school.  He won’t be a figurehead who shows up next at their commencement.  He’ll be in the thick of things, whether he likes it or not.  Chances are, he’ll like it.  And I predict we’ll like him a lot, too.

- Posted by Tracy Carlson

Points of view-book

I’m feeling very positive about the new MBA viewbook (PDF) that published this month. Aside from making me crave chocolate (please see cover), the piece serves as a nice reminder of a spring spent getting to know some really interesting and seemingly tireless students (please see profiles inside cover).

Flipping through pages filled with the bright, friendly faces of my new acquaintances, I’m glad for the opportunity to have worked on such a project. The writer’s life can often be a solitary one, so it’s a welcome change to step out and into the varied worlds and passions of our students and our faculty — if only for a few moments. 

Now that those moments have passed, I find myself wondering what addendums to their stories the summer has brought. How were their internships? To what exotic locales did they venture? How are our most recent alumni enjoying their new jobs?  What’s next for the Sustainability Lab? What will the Class of 2009 bring to campus?

Getting the answers to these questions will be a pleasant challenge, and yet another chance for me to broaden my horizons beyond my paper and pen — and occasionally play broadcast personality with my podcast partner Scott.

It’s definitely something to look forward to for the fall. Please keep tuning in.

- Posted by Michelle Choate

Building on legend

As I look out the window of my new office onto the construction site for the much-anticipated E62, I am reminded of a bit of lore surrounding the MIT Sloan buildings that currently stand.

For instance:

• The School's main building, E52, housed the U.S. headquarters of Unilever Corporation before Alfred P. Sloan purchased it for MIT in 1950. In fact, Unilever's owner commissioned the murals that still decorate the lobby walls.

• Right next door, in what today is known as E51, National Research Corporation made beverage history. During World War II, the company's failed attempts to freeze-dry blood using low-temperature physics yielded an unexpected result: freeze-dried orange juice and a now-famous brand, Minute Maid.

• In addition to a bird’s eye view of the construction progress, building E60 — home of my old office and home base to the construction company — gave the world a little something called consulting. Well, the building didn’t actually have anything to do with that development, but the company who’s name is carved above its door, Arthur D. Little, did.

Because of what happened within its walls, E60 now stands as an historical landmark, and an eager new neighbor to E62. And who knows what will happen there …

If you’re in possession of additional interesting tidbits about MIT Sloan landmarks — or anything else about the School — feel free to drop me a line.

- Posted by Michelle Choate