Daytime MBA Student Blog

Sports in Durham

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Diana Yarmovich

I am not a die-hard sports fan by any means, but I enjoy going to sporting events a few times a year, and this was something that I considered when moving to Durham. When I was living in New York, I had the Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants, Devils, Rangers, Knicks, and Nets all a stone’s throw away, and I wanted to keep the game-going tradition up wherever I moved. Going into business school at Duke, I googled major sports teams and was dismayed to find out that most teams were 2 hours away in Charlotte, with the exception of the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh. However, I quickly learned that my logic was flawed because Duke Basketball wasn’t on my radar …

Duke Basketball

At the Duke/UNC game on Coach K's birthday.

Admittedly, I did not know much about Duke basketball or even NCAA Basketball before coming to Durham. I went to a Division III undergrad (Brandeis!) with no sports presence, and I competed in the occasional March Madness office tournament pool, but that was the extent of my college basketball knowledge. Last year, I willingly participated in Campout for roughly 6 hours and didn’t make a valiant effort to win tickets. In fact, I didn’t actually go to a game until January 2012, when a classmate handed me a ticket. However, from then I was hooked and made it to 4 games last year.

This year, I won season tickets (through a Campout exemption due to a wedding) and went to many more games, including the Duke/UNC game in Cameron. The layout of Cameron Indoor Stadium (only seats 9,314) and the energy from the fans is unlike any other sporting event that I have ever been to. The Cameron Crazies are on their feet the whole time and constantly cheer, sing, and make hand signals for Duke. There is Crazy Towel Guy, a lifelong Duke fan who will stand on his feet and whip out his towel during every game. There are even celebrity sightings at the games, with Peyton Manning, Rob Lowe, Doc Rivers, and Dick Vitale making known appearances in the past couple of years. The intimate environment of Cameron combined with the Crazies and the dominance of the men’s basketball team and Coach K makes going to basketball games some of the most fun I’ve ever had at a sporting event.

Carolina Hurricanes

Enjoying a Carolina Hurricanes game with some friends.

I hadn’t been to a professional hockey game since I was 9 or 10 years old, until this year. The MBA Association held a lottery for Carolina Hurricanes tickets, and gave out 100 tickets to Fuqua students for a game against the Winnipeg Jets. Unfortunately, I did not win the ticket lottery, but one of my friends did and gave me her ticket.

Although our seats were high in the upper deck, it was still fun to watch some hockey, check out a new arena, and root for the home team. A few weeks later, I went back to the PNC Bank arena to watch the Hurricanes play the NJ Devils. A small group of us wanted to go check out the Devils game and Duke had great tickets available for $20/piece. Being from NJ, I had to root for the Devils who ended up winning the game. I don’t know if I’ll see any more games before I leave N.C., though I am glad that I was able to check it off my bucket list and remind myself that hockey is fun to watch in person.

Durham Bulls

At the Durham Bulls stadium.

I have been to 2 or 3 Durham Bulls games since coming to Fuqua, and although they are not a Major League baseball team (they’re Minor League), the games are fun and every seat in the house is a good seat. Also, since the Durham Bulls stadium is right next to American Tobacco (a former tobacco factory that’s been converted into cool shops and restaurants), there is ample parking in the area and lots of bars/restaurants to go to before and after the games.

So, for all you sports fans — don’t overlook the Triangle area. Your Durham bucket list should include going to games with all of these teams!

Lessons from Latin America

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Student Guest

Guest Blogger: Joel Theodros, first-year student.

What an AMAZING trip! I recently got back from my first trip to South America. During spring break, I went there with 25 of my classmates as part of the Global Academic Travel Experience program, or GATE. It was the perfect blend of fun and adventure as well as education. Our trip was led by our distinguished professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, which allowed us to have special insight into the business and political climate in South America. A number of events happened while we were there that also shaped our trip to Brazil and Argentina: the passing of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, the election of an Argentine Pope, and a whole host of economic events including Brazil’s announcement of protectionist policies and Argentina’s controversial take-over of an oil company controlled by Spain’s Repsol. To say that a lot was happening in South America would be a great understatement.

We were also fortunate to have access to business leaders from a wide range of industries including banking, petrochemical, and health and beauty, to name a few. We enjoyed all of the presentations and learned a ton of cool and insightful information on a whole host of topics.

Here’s a list of 10 random bits of information I learned from corporate presentations, cultural excursions, and from interacting with the people we met along our journey:

The Latin America GATE group visited the Casa Rosada, the office of the President of Argentina.

The name Brazil comes from brazilwood, an indigenous tree and the country’s first export during the early days of trading with European settlers. The name Rio de Janiero is Portuguese for “River of January” and was given by the European explorers who visited the area in January 1502. Rio de Janiero was also the original capital of Brazil until 1960, when the government was transferred to Brasilia.
The famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero is considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the fifth largest Jesus statue in the world. Constructed from 1926 – 1931 it is considered an engineering marvel because in addition to its large size, it was assembled on top of a 2,300 foot high mountain, where it was carried to by train, piece-by-piece.
Imported goods are very expensive in Brazil. In addition to an import duty tax there are additional taxes and “extra” margins put onto these items. In one case, while walking the streets of Sao Paulo, a group of us stopped by a sports car dealership and noticed a Lamborghini that would cost $300,000 in the U.S. cost 1.2M Real (roughly $600,000 USD).
Messi is often regarded as one of the greatest, if not, the greatest football (soccer) player of all-time. However, Maradona will always be the national soccer hero because he led the national team to the World Cup championship over England after the Falkland War between the two countries.
During the presentation from Itau Unibanco’s (one of Latin America’s biggest banks), we learned that bank ATMs in Brazil aren’t connected to other banking institutions. What this means for bank customers is that they can only deposit and withdraw money from an ATM associated with their own bank and not another competing Brazilian bank. Ironically, international tourists are able to use any ATM in Brazil if their home bank is part of the same alliance network.
The Catholic Church in Argentina and the national government have a long history of public spats over social issues and their relationship is often described in the media as being mutually hostile. The dynamic recently took on a dramatic twist during our trip when Pope Francisco became the first Argentine Catholic Pope.
Argentina doesn’t import any beef. While anyone who’s ever tried a savory Argentine steak will argue there’s no need to do so, the issue has become a thorn for the industry as it seeks additional markets outside of Argentina.
Argentina modeled its capital after Paris and is often regarded as the Paris of South America. The mix of coffee shops, opera houses, and museums that line the streets gives it a very sophisticated and historical feel.
Avenida 9 de Julio (translated to July 9 Avenue) in Buenos Aires is the widest avenue in the world, spanning the width of an entire city block. While the design of the avenue was inspired after the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in France, its name honors Argentina’s Independence Day from Spain on July 9, 1816.
Nightlife in Argentina doesn’t begin till very late in the evening and can run into the wee hours of the morning. In the heart of Buenos Aires, it’s not uncommon for stores to close in the afternoon just to reopen at 10 pm as the nightlife goes into full swing. Also, club goers don’t go to the club until around 1 am!

This trip was everything I could have asked for and more. From wine tasting and tango dancing in Argentina to walking the world famous Ipanema Beach to being interviewed on national television in Buenos Aires about the new Argentine Pope, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. But what made this trip all the more special was that I was able to enjoy it with my classmates and Ambassador Duddy. Taking stock of my first year at Fuqua, I can’t believe how much I have learned and experienced in one year. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was working in my office wondering what business school would be like. Now that I am here, I can confidently say that being at The Fuqua School of Business has exceeded all of my expectations. And while I am sure there will be other trips to South America, I know this GATE trip was truly a unique experience — one that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Fuqua on Board

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ralf Kloeckner

This is the final week of the MBA for me. Looking back, one of the most memorable experiences has definitively been Fuqua on Board (FoB) in which I participated throughout my two years here. FoB also celebrated its tenth anniversary last year, and was redesigned in some big ways during this past academic year. So that was reason enough to dedicate a blog to it. Therefore, I gathered input from some students, staff, faculty, and non-profit board members on what they perceive to be the program’s secret to success. I am grateful for the support from Dr. Thomas Keller, Meredith Driscoll, Ruth Tolman, and Darlene Ritter.

What is FoB?

FoB provides students with the opportunity to work with a non-profit Board of Directors from the local community. Students also develop a project with a real impact for the organization, thereby enhancing the reputation of Fuqua. Very often, these projects involve strategy formulation, corporate governance enhancements, or developing a fundraising policy.

Why does FoB exist?

It provides a way for students to gain first-hand experience about non-profit corporate governance. This knowledge is a critical part of educating future business leaders in practical, ethical behavior in challenging situations. As for the participating non-profit organizations, they receive a fresh pair of eyes and a head full of ideas for their operations. My project was the organization of a board and management retreat to enhance collaboration and gather input for a review of the organization’s 5-year strategy.

How does FoB work?

Students must apply to the program and are chosen through acompetitive process. Students rank the boards that they’d like to join, in order of preference, and then they’re placed with an organization. Typically, students are paired up with a board member who has volunteered to be their mentor and act as primary contact and facilitator. Whenever schedules permit, the students attend regular board meetings and board committee meetings. Program directors from Fuqua provide regular feedback channels, networking events, and expertise on difficult situations.

What do non-profits expect from FoB?

The expectation is that students have the courage to ask tough questions, as well as bring concepts from the classroom to the board. This can help enhance how the non-profits fulfill their mission. Since for-profit and non-profit organizations are distinct in many aspects, it is very fruitful to combine knowledge and skills from both sides.

What are the challenges for FoB?

Students with a busy academic schedule and little or no board experience can sometimes be overwhelmed by overenthusiastic boards. This can lead to mutual expectations that would be hard to fulfill. FoB coaches and staff therefore organize workshops and networking events for all parties to achieve realistic expectations and effective cooperation.

What’s new at FoB?

Fuqua on Board was reorganized during this past summer in many important aspects.

The program management was moved under the central Fuqua function of ‘Student Life’.
There is now a student who serves as project-lead (Meredith Driscoll).
There are also second-year coaches (like me) who served as active FoB students the previous year.
The engagement period has changed from one academic year to the calendar year.

All of these measures aim to ensure that knowledge is accumulated and passed on over the years, that FoB is more tightly integrated into the life of Fuqua, and that non-profits can benefit from the cooperation according to their planning period.

How did I personally profit from Fuqua on Board?

As an international student, it was even more important for me to get out of the venerable walls of Fuqua and meet people in the community who are exemplary in their commitment to making Durham as best as it can be. Had I not done this, I would have missed out on a significant part of my Fuqua experience — listening to and learning from non-Fuquans.

A Truly Global Consulting Experience

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Matt Rogers

At Fuqua we have many options when it comes to spring break. Many of my peers embarked on journeys to tropical climates. There was also a ski trip — dozens of MBAs descended upon unsuspecting Park City, Utah, for 6 days. Still others joined formally sponsored trips through Fuqua’s Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE), and traveled to South Africa or South America. I opted for an entirely different experience, joining the Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum (FCCP). It’s an “experiential” opportunity for class credit.

For FCCP, groups of students are paired with a corporate client and over the course of the two spring terms, engage in a real-life consulting project. The projects run the gamut of what a real consulting engagement would be like. The big perk of FCCP is location. Opportunities are available both locally and internationally. This year, international projects included clients in South Africa, Brazil, and China. Students with an international project traveled abroad for spring break to work with their client in person. Fuqua offered dozens of potential projects, and I searched for one that aligned with my own passions, international travel and the non-profit space. I opted to work with a client in Shanghai, China, which provided the opportunity to explore a new city on a continent I have only visited once before. I worked with a team to improve a business plan for a fledgling non-profit client.

The Prep — Spring 1 Classes

My team at the Forbidden City.

Unlike some other spring break opportunities, FCCP isn’t all fun and games (all the time), and it takes a lot more preparation. Spring Term 1 is very busy for FCCP teams. Over several months, my team scoped our project, agreed on deliverables to our client, conducted copious amounts of research and outlined our 2-week trip to China. Our goal was to maximize our time on the ground during spring break in order to deliver the most value possible to our client. The FCCP classes provided the skills critical to success. In particular, classes showcased Fuqua’s strong relationship with Deloitte’s strategy consulting practice. Three classes were taught by practicing consultants who provided us with some of the foundational skills we would need to navigate the client relationship, including effective engagement management and international research techniques.

The Trip — China for Spring Break

My team of 5 and I left for Shanghai the day after our Spring 1 final exams. Eighteen hours of travel later, we hit the ground running. Here’s a brief outline of our trip:

Days 1-4 Working Days: Client meetings in Shanghai

Days 5-7 Pleasure Days: Flight to Beijing for cultural/historical tour and much needed R&R

Days 8-12 Working Days: Client meetings in Shanghai with final presentation to client on day 12

Day 13 Pleasure Day: Free time in Shanghai to explore

Day 14 Return Home

As you can tell, we were pretty busy. Week one consisted of heavy working days, typically including rounds of interviews with stakeholders followed by several hours of synthesizing and discussing data collected. During this time, we made sure to enjoy Shanghai through its food, after all, even busy students need to eat! And Shanghai is a city where a student can eat! The highlights of our days included stops at 5-star restaurants and incredible street food vendors.

Halfway through the trip, we took time to enjoy our break and traveled to Beijing for some sightseeing. Highlights included a trip to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall — all breathtaking spots that I highly recommend visiting. The trip also provided critical team building time, when we were able to step back and reflect on what we had accomplished thus far and determine a path forward.

The Results – Life as a Consultant

Week two culminated in a final project presentation. We wrapped up loose ends and final interviews, created our final presentation and delivered our final product. I wish I could elaborate more on the process, but as with all consulting projects, much of our work was confidential. However, this piece I can share with you — the experience of FCCP is a true Fuqua experience and a global experience. While working during spring break may not sound like fun to you — FCCP is certainly something I would recommend. It’s a chance to gain some real-life work experience and simultaneously travel internationally with a group of your amazing peers.

This summer I am heading off to an internship at The Boston Consulting Group to try my hand at consulting full-time. FCCP and Fuqua provided me with a safe environment to explore the profession prior to my internship. I left China feeling like I had really learned about what life could be like as a consultant; I am now better prepared to handle the rigors and stress of the job. I also left China grateful for the chance to experience two of the world’s most amazing cities and their vibrant cultures. There aren’t many places outside of school where one can easily find such an experience.

My Top 3 Questions about the MBA Admissions Waitlist

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Matt Hamilton

The waitlist seems like purgatory — trust me, I know! I applied during the second Daytime MBA admission round last year, and was placed on the waitlist for 82 days (not that I was counting).

I was thinking about writing something on this blog about the waitlist and decided to sit down with Megan Overbay, Director of Admissions and Fuqua Class of 2003 … who was also admitted from the waitlist! I had a nice chat with Megan about the MBA waitlist process and wanted to share with you some key things that I wish I had known last year. Megan also blogs from an admissions perspective, so you may want to check out some of her posts, too.

There were really 3 burning questions on my mind: Why am I on the waitlist? What can I do now? When will I know my fate?

Why?

There are a variety of things that could place someone on the waitlist. I personally know someone with a strong undergrad GPA and a 99^th percentile GMAT who was on the waitlist last year. I also know someone with impressive and extensive work experience who was on the waitlist. And I know people who are the perfect Fuqua fit, with good extracurriculars, who nailed their interview … who were also on the waitlist.

The best answer is that the admissions committee liked everything about you, but saw something in your application that gave the committee “pause” — meaning there was some part of your application package that was confusing, unclear, inconsistent, or simply not convincing. This could have been a weaker academic profile, a concerning recommendation, a gap in your story, unconvincing answers for “Why Duke,” etc.

What Can I Do?

In our perfect world the MBA admissions committee members would call everyone on the waitlist, talk with us for 2 hours, and provide detailed feedback about whatever aspects of the application held the committee back from an admission offer. But this would obviously be time consuming and would ultimately be giving us a fish, rather than teaching us how to fish. Hurdles and disappointments are a part of life, and resiliency and self-awareness are two characteristics that admissions committees seek in their applicants.

So instead, each waitlisted candidate needs to do some serious introspection and honest evaluation of his or her application package. Reread your essays and think about your recommendation writers. Ask yourself: Is this really presenting a full picture of who I am? Am I really conveying my reasons for why I want to be at Duke? Do I make a compelling case for what I’d contribute to the school? Is there anything that doesn’t make sense?

The truth is that the waitlist is really not the place for waiting. You have a wide-open spectrum to make the case for why you should be admitted. There are no word counts, criteria for recommenders, or subjects assigned. The goal is to essentially address any concerns, gaps, or confusion in your application file. This can be done by staying in touch with the admissions committee via mbawaitlist@fuqua.duke.edu. You can send them information like:

Rewritten essays
Reports of additional coursework
Updated test scores
Notifications of job changes or achievements
New letters of recommendation

But you aren’t restricted to just these items — you can be creative to further make your case, just be sure to address any area that you think may have been lacking in clarity or focus in your application package.

There are basically no rules for the waitlist other than the consideration: how will the admissions committee view this? Remember, you are coming to business school to get an education and ultimately get a job. As you “take advantage of the waitlist” with supplemental essays, letters, and so on, you should try to treat admissions as a prospective employer. If you are overbearing, too persistent, or fake, that isn’t going to help your case.

For more information, check out these Frequently Asked Questions about the waitlist.

When Will I Know?

The process is simple: basically, if you’re waitlisted, the next time you may hear from the admissions office is when decisions are released for the following Daytime MBA application round. So, Early Action waitlisted candidates will either hear a yes, no, or nothing (which means still on the waitlist) when Round 1 decisions are released. Any waitlisted candidates remaining from Early Action, as well as those waitlisted in Round 1, will be reviewed along with the Round 2 applicants. If your decision is updated to admit or deny, then you would hear something around the Round 2 decision release date. Similarly, all candidates on the waitlist from prior rounds are considered with the Round 3 applicants and would hear updates around the Round 3 decision release date. All of this communication will be via email — same as the rest of the applicant notification process.

After Round 3, things change somewhat. You could possibly hear from the admissions office at any point after Round 3. An invitation for admission would come by phone.

Given this timeline, you’ll want to be sure that any updated materials that you send are received by the MBA admissions committee at least 2 weeks before a round’s decision release. After Round 3, waitlisted applicants should keep the admissions office updated regularly through the summer, because the waitlist could be reviewed at any time.

Check the Daytime MBA apply page for decision release dates for each admissions round.

Final Thoughts

Being on the waitlist isn’t the ideal place to be, but it’s better than an outright “no.” The key is to stay positive, do your best, keep learning, and ultimately just let the chips fall where they may. I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason, and one way or another we all somehow land on our feet. Best of luck.

Three Months Abroad

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Anjali Menon

I just returned from 3 months abroad. I did an exchange program at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa. At first I was very apprehensive about missing the first spring term, especially since the two-year MBA really does fly by. However, I really regretted not taking advantage of study abroad opportunities during undergrad, and I vowed that if I had the chance to do it again, I would. So, I certainly couldn’t pass it up this time!

I decided to do some traveling for 3 weeks prior to the term start, so I went to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda by myself. Don’t be alarmed. I’ve actually travelled quite a bit by myself, and sometimes prefer it, because it gives me a chance to experience new things and meet new people that I may otherwise not get a chance to, had I been traveling in a group. Following my initial travels, I headed to UCT in Cape Town where I joined 7 Fuquans and 13 other MBA students from around the globe. At times, it felt like being on The Real World, which inspired us to do this video.

I was very excited to get a chance to live in Africa. It had always been a dream of mine to live in a foreign country, and being in Africa gave me a chance to gain a very unique perspective on a completely different culture and lifestyle. I realized that Cape Town is much more cosmopolitan and westernized than other parts of Africa, but their business world is still struggling with modernizing post-Apartheid, and integrating all races into a company (South Africa has one of the highest levels of segregation in the world). So, I greatly appreciated being able to immerse myself in the society to see what life in South Africa is really like.

I think the fact that Fuqua offers a chance to actually live in another country, and to experience what the culture and business environments are like first-hand, is a truly remarkable opportunity. To me, it proved that Fuqua isn’t just touting global opportunities, but it actually embraces and lives by that mantra.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I bought a business class flight for my trip? For that long of a route, it was definitely nice to stretch out my legs, and if possible, I highly recommend it for anyone else planning on doing a long-haul trip.

The Unofficial 5-Step Path to Leadership Success at Fuqua

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Dipesh Shah

While salaries and job statistics are quantifiable metrics that allow prospective students to compare business schools, how can you tell if a school will make you a better leader? There isn’t a metric that really defines leadership — and ask any person on the street, and they will give you a different definition of what it means to be a true leader.

In an effort to help you understand the reasons Fuqua is the place to be for leadership development, I have put together this “unofficial” 5-step path that future Fuqua students can follow to become a leader of consequence.

#5 – Fuqua is a Student-Run School

Get ready to be overwhelmed with opportunities.

In my eyes, one of the biggest differentiators at Fuqua is that the school is very much student run. What does that mean? As a future student, you will have immense opportunities to shape the way the school operates and the experiences of your current and future classmates. We all have the chance to leave a legacy. Still wondering how? What if I told you that the admissions interviews and campus visits are heavily organized by student volunteers? What if I told you that this blog you are reading right now is written by students, and we develop many of the story ideas? What if I told you that in addition to receiving guidance from Career Management Center staff, all first-year students are assigned to second-year career mentors? We also receive intense job prep through student run clubs. In addition, the professional clubs hold individual symposiums to not only bring the best speakers to campus, but to also educate current students on new trends in the industry. Finally, the MBA Association (the MBA version of student government) also provides more opportunities to shape your Fuqua experience. The leadership opportunities at Fuqua are immense and very diverse — it is up to you to decide where you want to be a leader.

#4 – Lots of Opportunities

How do I know what is best for me?

I think you get the picture — there are lots of opportunities for leadership — but how do you know what is best for you? Well, it all begins the summer before you start at Fuqua. You will be asked to pass along a leadership survey to your former colleagues to provide anonymous feedback on your leadership, your strengths, and development areas. Using that information as a base, along with a month-long orientation in August, which includes a leadership and ethics class, you will be armed with the information you need to work on your areas of development. In addition, Fuqua provides each student with a leadership journal, and we are encouraged to reflect on where we are, where we want to go, and the steps we will take to get there.

For example, if your survey feedback says you need to work on mentoring, maybe you should take on a role as a mentor through Fuqua2Duke, which pairs MBA students with Duke undergrad mentees. Does your feedback say that you need to work on project management skills? Then maybe you take on a club leadership role where you will be responsible for managing work across multiple work streams.

By arming you with feedback and by teaching you how to approach filling the gaps in your leadership skills, Fuqua provides you with the opportunity to develop into a better leader.

I chose to get highly involved with the High Tech Club as a first-year because it was a deep area of interest and passion for me, and I wanted to meet other students with that similar interest. As a second-year, I chose to get involved as a COLE Leadership Fellow, which provided an opportunity for personal leadership development and the ability to coach first years to think about leadership.

#3 – School is Intense During the First Year

Who will guide and coach me?

As a result of the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership and Ethics (COLE), each first-year student and team is assigned to a COLE Leadership Fellow. The fellow’s role is to help guide and coach each first-year team so they remain high functioning. The COLE Leadership Fellow meets with each team 5 times over the course of the Fall and Spring terms and leads discussions on feedback, goals, and other relevant topics. Read more about this in Sarah’s blog post.

The COLE Fellow also coaches each individual first-year student through using a Personal Development Plan (PDP). The PDP is a document that helps each student set very tactical and specific goals for everything from recruiting, academics, or life. By making the leadership development process a specific part of the curriculum, Fuqua provides an end-to-end leadership development experience.

While your COLE Leadership Fellow is one coach, you will end up with many coaches! You’ll have a Career Fellow, who is a second-year student dedicated to helping you with your career development. In addition, faculty and peers take on unofficial coaching roles based on your interests and passions. The Fuqua community is unbelievable in terms of the availability of people who are committed to your growth — it is up to you to express your interests and find these people!

#2 – I Crushed my Internship & I’m Back as a Second-Year

How can I become an even better leader?

In the Fall of your second year, you will come back to campus for CLEAD-2, which builds on the orientation you completed as a first-year. While the topics may be familiar, the experiential aspects allow you to use all the skills and experiences you have gained over the previous year. You’ll also think about how you will make the most of your last year of business school, and create a transformational experience. The 3-day CLEAD-2 event puts you in uncomfortable business situations dealing with conflict, ethical grey areas, and courageous leadership. Each experience is meant to push students to think about how much they have grown and how they can use the time they have left at Fuqua to continue their leadership journey. For many, these situations will be an opportunity to practice how they may deal with a difficult situation in a work environment and provides students a safe place to have deep discussions on a variety of topics. At the end of the day, this experience provides more opportunities to practice your leadership in a safe and protected setting, and to get feedback. Eventually, we all will be faced with difficult decisions in the real world, and it’s great to have the opportunity to practice while in business school.

#1 – My Fuqua Experience is Over …

Am I a leader of consequence?

There isn’t a certificate at the end of your Fuqua MBA that grants you “leader of consequence” status. However, the 2-year journey will provide a ton of opportunities to develop yourself and your classmates, so together you become better and more equipped leaders. At the end of day, it is up to you to decide if you want to take the leadership journey or not. In my eyes, Fuqua provides an opportunity to make your MBA experience truly transformational. You have the opportunity to diagnose your weaknesses, chart a path to overcome or build on them, and then practice these skills so they become strengths. The Fuqua experience has been a transformational experience for me. It has allowed me the space to identify my leadership style, figure out what I want out of my career in the short- and long-term, and allowed me time to think about how my activities impact my personal purpose. I hope you will also follow the path, and allow it to be a transformational leadership development experience for you as well.

Optional Concentrations Tie Into My Interests

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Diana Yarmovich

Coming into Fuqua, aside from the core class requirements, I planned to take classes that really interested me or would be useful for my upcoming internship and future career. This led me to take classes like Negotiation, Information Management, Managing Human Assets, and Pricing, but also my Strategic Planning Practicum (now part of the FCCP course) and Financial Statement Analysis (thus far, my favorite class at Fuqua). Over the last summer, I decided to look at the concentration requirements, and found that I was only two courses away from achieving both the financial analysis and management concentrations. Therefore, I aimed to complete those requirements in my second year, and I’ve already finished the management concentration and am one class away from the financial analysis one. Concentrations are optional at Fuqua, and it is totally our choice to pursue zero, one or even two.

Financial analysis and management more or less define my MBA experience. These concentrations tie directly into my interests and club leadership roles with the General Management and Finance clubs. These concentrations are giving me a balance of hard and soft skills, which will be directly related to my future work in financial analysis, and also provide the skills I’ll need to one day manage people.

Coming into the MBA program, I already had a great understanding of financial statements specifically for asset management companies, but through the courses in financial analysis, I have learned so much about analyzing financial statements for other industries (retail, consumer products, technology, etc.) and how to project a company’s future financial statements. Additionally, courses in the management concentration allowed me to think about various business concepts from a management perspective — people and change management, decision-making, and innovation — which touch a wide variety of corporate functions and industries.

At various times I considered not pursuing the concentrations, mostly for scheduling reasons, but in the end, I decided that I wanted to fulfill the concentration requirement for my own personal satisfaction and to boost my functional skills on my resume. Moreover, I think that listing the concentrations on my resume inherently helped me to get interviews and gave me talking points during interviews. In addition, due to the structure of Fuqua’s curriculum, I was still able to take other classes that I was interested in, like Raising Capital and Product Management. Although I am still tackling one final class needed for the financial analysis concentration, I’m now glad that I stuck with them and that I’ll gain the concentration credentials.

Organizing Fuqua’s First Global Week

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Student Guest

Guest Blogger Maria A. Rodriguez R., second-year student

Now that I’m just a few weeks away from graduation, I’m thinking about the experiences I have had during this amazing MBA adventure. In less than 2 years I moved to a different country (from Bogotá, Colombia), started a challenging program at a top business school, in a language different from my own, shared my learning experience with outstanding people hailing from all over the world, and participated in all sorts of activities, many of which took me way out of my comfort zone. One of the most challenging and fulfilling was organizing Fuqua’s first Global Week.

When I was selected as the International & Diversity Executive Officer of the 2012-2013 Duke MBA Association (MBAA), I knew that many challenges were ahead of me, but little did I know that those would involve coordinating the first edition of a school-wide event of such importance as Global Week. The idea for the event came out of a task force organized by the outgoing 2011-2012 MBAA members. A 1-day Global Conference was suggested to serve as a platform for the discussion of global business issues and to foster greater collaboration among international diversity clubs. One of the key reasons I applied to Fuqua was because of its commitment to being a global business school, so I thought the conference would be a great avenue to further advance this vision. Deborah Costa, the incoming President of the MBAA, was also convinced of the importance of a global conference, so both of us decided to move forward with the initiative.

Holding the final (and lengthy) agenda for Global Week.

Event Expansion

We started the planning process in April 2012, by connecting with the co-presidents of the 6 international diversity clubs, the Dean of the Daytime MBA Program, the Director of the International Programs Office, and the Global Sector Leader of the Career Management Center. We agreed on January 30, 2013, as the event date, and put a team of 4 MBAA leaders together to hit the ground running. And then the summer came. And it was really tough to coordinate things over email. But we kept doing as many things as we could, while we were learning a big lesson: once people are not on campus, no matter how great everyone’s intentions are, things are just not going to move forward as quickly as expected.

However, this “delay” actually played out in our favor. When we came back to school, officially as second years, our class voted during C-LEAD 2 that the global aspect of our MBA experience was so important that it deserved a whole week of events. And that’s how the Global Week idea was born.

Given that we still had some time before our conference date, we decided to move forward to transform our original 1-day event into a week-long one. Given that the event had expanded, we put together a larger team of organizers led by Dima Hwaidi, a fellow outstanding second-year who stood up to the challenge of becoming the general coordinator, with Deborah’s and my support.

Associate Dean of the Daytime Program Russ Morgan kicked off the Global Map activity by placing the first sticker. He was followed by Professor John Graham (left).

Week in Review

The results were amazing. During the week of January 28 to February 1, we put a big global map in the Fox Center, and Fuquans put stickers on the places where they were born and had lived. After a few hours, I was amazed that there were stickers on every continent (well … all of them except Antarctica, which is still pretty good, if you ask me).

Introducing the Global Supply Chain Panel.

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday we held Lunch Fairs, led by the international diversity clubs, featuring delicious food from different regions of the world. On Monday we had our weekly Language 2 Language program, where Fuquans practiced speaking Spanish or French. On Tuesday we had a Distinguished Speaker Series session focused on global leadership, with Mr. Bill McDermott, Co-CEO of SAP.

On Wednesday there were panel discussions on Business Trends in Emerging Markets and Global Supply Chain, with high-level speakers coming from private equity, diplomacy, retail, and management consulting. I personally had the most interesting takeaways from these panel discussions, as they provided incredibly valuable perspectives on the growth drivers by region and on the skills needed to effectively tap into those opportunities. Wednesday also included the annual Exchange Fair, informing students about the great variety of study-abroad opportunities available at Fuqua.

Performing Culture Shock, one of the acts presented during Fuqua’s Got Talent show.

On Thursday we encouraged students participating in our weekly Diversity Tables initiative to talk about the regions and cultures they come from. And, then Friday’s finale included Fuqua Discovers South Africa (a student-led presentation about the country’s culture and economy), Fuqua Friday celebrating the Lunar New Year, and the annual Fuqua’s Got Talent Show (featuring acts that showcase our student body’s richness of cultures). I had the most fun performing during Fuqua’s Got Talent, as part of an act called “Culture Shock,” where 8 of us came up with choreography inspired by music from different parts of the world. After the show, we closed the week-long event with a Global Party where attendees were encouraged to wear clothes that are traditional of cultures other than their own.

I know I speak on behalf of the student leaders who made Global Week happen, when I say that we see this as part of our legacy at Fuqua. We believe this was the first edition of many Global Weeks, where Fuquans and the bigger Duke community, will continue to discuss global business trends and bring to life the global nature of our community. As a leader, this experience taught me that collaboration requires a lot of work and, at the same time, is one of the most powerful ways to generate impact. Global Week will definitely provide a lot of stories that I will be able to tell my children one day, when they are faced with a big challenge that is aligned with their passions.

I Love Spring

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Matt Hamilton

Cherry blossoms at Fuqua!

… and I’ll tell you why:

No Recruiting! I wrote about my very hectic recruiting experience this year, and I’m pleased to report that it all paid off. I’m going to work at Morgan Stanley this summer as a credit analyst on their Fixed Income Desk — imagine a big trade floor, lots of computer monitors, lots of noise, etc. — I’m very excited. My wife doesn’t want to miss out on all the NYC fun, so I’m packing up my little family and we’re
Enjoying the outdoors with my daughter.

all moving to the big city this summer.
Springtime. Growing up in Southern California, I’ve never really experienced a proper spring. I went out of town during spring break and came back to Durham to find all the trees filled with flower blossoms. In addition, the sun is shining, the temps are warmer, and the days are longer. I’m playing with my 2 toddlers outside a lot more, and we’re even going camping next week.
School. The core curriculum that all first-year students go through (accounting, stats, operations, etc.) provides an excellent foundation in business. But, starting with Spring Term 2, our course load consists of electives, and so far it’s awesome. I’m in classes ranging from valuation to entrepreneurial strategy, and each one is fascinating in its own way. More importantly, all of the students in the electives are very passionate about the material, so the class discussions are very engaging.

So the journey continues. It was about this time last year that I was making decisions, resigning from my job, and getting ready to move cross-country to start my MBA. Looking back, I really feel like I have gotten exactly what I wanted out of Fuqua. If I could rewind the clock a year, I’d make the same choice again.

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