MIT Sloan Blog

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

Jolly good Fellows

The new MIT Sloan Fellows class joins heady ranks. Carly Fiorina of HP fame, Kofi Annan of, you know, the United Nations, and Keiji Tachikawa, former president of NTT DoCoMo and now head of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It’s possible none of the new Fellows will lead Japan into the final frontier or mediate between Mideast adversaries or be bold enough to tinker with storied HP. But the program’s track record suggests many of them will move on to big-time roles in major corporations, governments, and international bodies. Check out the new crop of Fellows >> (Flash required)

Student stories

Storied careers lie ahead of MIT Sloan students. But the stories leading up to their arrival in Cambridge serve as great prologues. Interesting folks, one and all. In new episodes of the MIT Sloan Podcast, we highlight the stories of three MBA students: Kristen Oldenburger ('08), Susan Rogol ('08), and Oliseyi Boroffice ('07). I don't want to spoil the podcast episodes, but consider these varied backgrounds: One is an airline analyst who traverses ice rinks with the precision of a jet pilot, one a chef and former Martha Stewart colleague, and one a soft-spoken Nigerian intent on alleviating poverty in his native country. Listen to their stories:

• Kristen Oldenburger ('08)
• Susan Rogol('08)
• Oliseyi Boroffice ('07, dual degree with Harvard's Kennedy School)

Oh, and please ignore my bumbling as an interviewer.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Playing by numbers

Suspect record-breakers. Gambling referees. Interstate dog fighting rings. Lately the sports pages are more concerned with scandal and sensationalism than box scores. While it certainly provides talk radio with endless hours of dialogue, it’s not very good for the games.

As professional sports wades through the legal and public relations consequences of recent events, it’s hard to remember that there is still so much more to sports than a few bad apples — and there’s more afoot than misbehavior. In addition to the athletes giving their all for true love of their game, there are people working hard behind the scenes to put together the best teams possible in the hopes of giving their fans what they most want to talk about: wins.

During the spring semester, the first-ever MIT Sloan Sports Management Conference provided a glimpse into the work of these unsung team players and how they’re changing the face of sports. Featuring leading executives from the major U.S. professional sports leagues, the conference explored the increasing role of analytics in sports. Sponsored by the MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media, & Sports Club, the conference featured alums Daryl Morrey, MBA ’00, general manager of the Houston Rockets, and Jamie McCourt, SF ’94, vice chairman and president of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Analytics may not make the headlines, but more and more teams and leagues are finding that it’s making good sense.

Listen to the podcast episode >> (MP3)

- 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

Redefining sustainability

MIT Sloan Professor Rick Locke is a pioneer in the sustainability realm. He worked closely with Nike as it sought to improve factory working conditions across the globe. So it seems appropriate that he emerge with a new definition of sustainability.

The definition seems strikingly pragmatic during the week after Live Earth, which a cynic might alternately characterize as the beginning of a presidential campaign, a well-intentioned pep rally, or the embodiment of the very excess against which it sought to rally.

Here's how Professor Locke views sustainability in the context of MIT Sloan's S-Lab:

“Up until now we have considered aspects of sustainability — climate, energy, water, food, poverty, and social development — in isolation. S-Lab is developing an integrated framework to consider the system-wide dynamics of human society along with tools and methodologies for measuring and monitoring sustainability efforts and their applications.”

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Flexing our green thumb

Amidst the burgeoning success of the new Sustainability Lab (S-Lab) and the proliferation of environmentally focused campus initiatives comes another step in the School’s commitment to being green: environmentally responsible publications.

For those projects that still require paper (such as brochures and magazines), MIT Sloan has been flexing its green thumb, advancing from simply printing on recycled paper to the use of vegetable-based inks.  Partnering with designers and printers who are adept at working within environmentally friendly parameters, several "green" publications have debuted this spring, including the latest materials from the Career Development and MBA Admissions offices.

Production choices made by the MBA Admissions Office for their new recruitment brochure — including paper with a post-consumer recycle percentage of 100% that is manufactured with wind power — translated into the preservation of 113.8 trees for the future, saved 48,363 gallons of water, and conserved 80,648,000 BTUs of energy.

In addition to guilt-free flipping through the pages of our publications, future Sloanies will be going about their business in a green facility. Construction for building E62 began this spring and is slated to be complete by 2011. While the structure itself will be green, efforts have also been made to insure that the construction process is as environmentally friendly as possible. The Dibner building, torn down to make way for E62, will not be forgotten — or unused. Materials from it — and the surrounding parking lot dirt — are being recycled for use in this and other construction projects.

As Kermit the frog once said, “It’s not easy being green,” but it certainly is worth it.

- Posted by Michelle Choate

Smart, selfless, and quite a singer

Elaine Chow was not your typical b-school student. She came to MIT Sloan with the express purpose of bringing her newfound business savvy back to the non-profit realm from which she emerged. But altruism was not the only mark of distinction for the recent graduate of the MBA Program. The Oklahoma City native has pipes like you wouldn't believe. Before coming to MIT Sloan, she spent time pursuing a career as a professional opera singer. In the end, her passion for managing non-profits propelled her from the operatic stage to the b-school stage. Before she graduated in June she was kind enough to pass along some recordings. Here goes:

• Elaine Chow — Sample 1

• Elaine Chow — Sample 2

In the next few months, look for our podcast interview with Elaine. We discuss non-profits, opera, and her MIT Sloan experience.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

A Day in Schmalensee's Shoes

Now that we've heaped praise on outgoing Dean Richard Schmalensee (see "Man of the People"), let's have some fun with him. Check out this hilarious parody, "A Day in Schmalensee's Shoes," on YouTube. The film is by student Will O'Brien.

- Posted by Scott Rolph

Net worth

A bunch of students could visit business execs in Beijing and Hong Kong and get a pretty skewed impression of China as an emerging economic superpower. But do pockets of prosperity truly reflect a country's "net worth"? Professor Yasheng Huang and 21 MIT Sloan students think not. That's why over Spring Break they visited China's Yunnan province, one of the poorer regions of the country. The trip was a healthy reality check, amid the Gold-Rush mindset of many entrepreneurs heading for China, and it helped students grasp the importance of business leaders weighing the broader consequences of their activities. Net worth ought to reflect more than numbers on a balance sheet. Read about the trip.

- Posted by Scott Rolph