The Inside Look

Please allow me a moment to hypothesize.  If you are an active reader of business school blogs, you probably know quite a bit about business school.  If you know quite a bit about business school then you probably know about the challenging time constraints of First Year students.  You probably know about the demanding core courses, the job search, and the mixture of emotions that come along with meeting new people in a new environment during a new era of your life. 

But here’s what you might not know about.  You might not know about the transition that takes place between a student’s first and second year.  It’s a transition that isn’t always tangible, and something that can’t be fully comprehended until you experience it.  It’s a transition characterized by insight, questions, and decision-making.  For many students it’s a transition of revelation:  this past summer I did ABC, and I now know that I want to do XYZ.  Above all, the transition that takes place between your first and second year revolves around inner reflection – thinking deeply about the type of person and leader you want to be.

Now allow me to be less vague and step off my soapbox for a minute.  Here at Fuqua, we spend our first week as Second Year students participating in two activities:  1) Re-orientation   2) A leadership course known as ILE (Integrated Learning Experience).   Re-orientation is simple and straightforward: Here’s what you should expect from your second year at Fuqua.  ILE, on the other hand, offers a series of distinct experiences.   For example, as a class we engaged in an activity known as “Interactive Theatre”, in which professional (and I might add…seemingly brilliant) actors performed a role-play in the workplace, portraying characters that teed up conversations for the audience about biases, discrimination, and perception.  We engaged in improvisation – freeing our minds and unleashing our creativity in a safe environment.  We role-played workplace conversations and commonly-practiced behaviors, attempting to recognize and maximize our strengths and to take note of / develop our weaknesses.   Finally, we engaged in an activity known as the People’s court, where we, as a class, put ourselves on trial in a mock courtroom setting to evaluate our performance as a class on a number of counts.  How effectively were we promoting and representing Fuqua?  How were we doing as a team…as a community?  These were the questions we sought to evaluate, and as a jury, ultimately judge.  

As you can see, we experienced a lot!

Yes…AND…that’s not all.  While these activities served as frameworks for engagement and self-reflection, ILE was more than a series of activities that we were forced to attend and consider.  In my mind it represented an intangible wildcard that affected every participant in a different way.  Many of us ended up in less comfortable territory, where we were then forced to step on the brake, look both ways, and re-evaluate the realities we see within ourselves:  How do I behave in the workplace?  How do I appear when engaging in conversation?  Am I representing Fuqua in the best way I can?  Am I representing myself in the best way I can?  Am I being honest with myself?  Am I achieving what I have set out to achieve at Fuqua?  Am I courageous?  And if so, will I one day be a courageous leader in the workplace, in my community, or with respect to my family?

Tired of the questions?  Well…if you are then you might not want to go to business school.  Because what I’ve learned so far this year is that as future leaders in the business world it is imperative that we ask questions and never become complacent.  It is imperative that we act and think prudently, do the right thing, and always consider what is at stake when we make decisions – for our co-workers, our company, our community, our customers, our family and friends, and then for ourselves.

I stroll down this philosophical path because as you enroll in business school and encounter these “soft” courses or experiences you’ll find a divergence of opinions about how to engage.  Many will discount these moments believing it is easier to shrug them off than it is to confront them.  But, as you can probably tell, I would argue that these courses or experiences offer the greatest opportunities to grow. 

On a personal level, ILE placed me in a different mindset for my second year.  It set the tone for a year of emotional stimulation – one built on indulging in “soft” experiences, helping others develop, and repositioning the bigger picture that places Fuqua and friends above my own personal ambitions. 

Most importantly, ILE made me pause.  It made me think.  It put me back in touch with who I am and what I want from my MBA experience – a challenging environment, good friends, and to constantly learn and grow for the better – during my second year of business school and beyond.

Hello readers.  This blog post is long delayed, and I will now make a concerted effort to write with more consistency.  A lot has taken place since my visit to China, and I feel it is appropriate to pick up where I promised to…with some post-China thoughts.  Despite the fact we are now in October, the content for this post was scripted during the correct era – immediately upon returning from China. 

During our GATE (Global Academic Travel Experience) class, all students were required to write about a cultural disconnect that they experienced while travelling in a foreign land.  So, that is what I have in store for you….my disconnect…my thoughts…enjoy!

Off the Tourism Path:

One house:  One bedroom.  One dining area.  One communal bathroom.  Residing on circa 800 square feet.  One house for one family.

One house plus one house plus one house plus one house plus one house plus one house equals six houses.  Six houses for six families. 

Six houses for six families equal one “neighborhood” within one community.  That community is Hutong.

Upon arriving in Hutong, I could tell we were off our beaten tourist path in an instant.  Our excursion began with a bicycle ride. No, no, no…we didn’t ride the bicycles.  We were pulled in a cart by a man who was riding a bicycle, a cycle-rickshaw if you will.  I can’t say for sure but my guess is this was his full-time job. 

After a five-minute ride distanced from the tall buildings and swarms of thousands of people, we stepped off on a main road surrounded by small “neighborhoods”, and near the home of the family that would host us for lunch.  We approached the home through an odor-ridden alleyway and entered through a modest door that caused me to duck my head.  Parked in the center of white-tiled floor stood a circular table covered with plates of nuts, muffins, and tomatoes.  Our meal awaited us.

The intimate, rectangular dining room couldn’t have been much bigger than my bedroom in Durham.  Filled with one large mass of furniture that showcased the photos of the family of three, the room had no television, no couches, and an A/C unit centered near the top of the main wall.  The opening in the back of the room led to the kitchen.  The opening on the main left wall led to the home’s sole bedroom, where both the parents and their daughter dressed and slept. 

Four-star and five-star hotels out of sight.  Mainstream China was in front of us. 

According to our tour guide, Kai, the house that hosted us for lunch represented the average standard of living for a homeowner in China.  Approximately an 800 square-foot domicile, with a communal bathroom shared by neighbors (six families), and one bedroom which the entire family shared.  Was this poverty? Certainly not by Chinese standards.  But was this poverty compared to what we know and typically see in the United States?  I would have to go with “yes”.

The noticeable disconnect in standard / style of living quickly made an impression on our group, causing one of my classmates to ask me on the journey home, could you imagine living like this?

While my answer to the questions was a quick, yes I could imagine this, the connotation and implication associated with the question sparked my curiosity.  My first observation would be that for an American accustomed to a higher standard of living, it would be most natural to view the Hutong standard / style of living in a negative light.  Meaning – we might be apt to classify the standard of living in communities like Hutong as “good”, or in this case “bad”, based on what we know and what we are used to.  Our thought process might be something along the lines of:

I cannot imagine sharing a room with my parents.  That would not be fun at all.  Sure, I shared a room with my younger sibling when I was growing up, but after ten years old I was on my own.  Nor could I imagine sharing a bathroom with my neighbors.  Is that even sanitary?

It would be hard not having an Air-Conditioning unit in every room, multiple rooms to dine or decompress, or any additional space / land surrounding my house.  Not having a buffer for when my parents yelled.  And having neighbors that knew the ins and outs of my life. 

While my quick response to my classmate’s questions was, yes I could imagine this, behind the curtain my mind churned:

While I will never truly understand what it means to live like the residents of Hutong, I could imagine living like this because it would be all that I would know.  I might know that I was living at an average standard relative to the rest of the Chinese population, and that better and worse conditions existed, but any perception of whether this was “good” versus “bad” would probably be based on how much I liked growing up the way that I did – what I experienced, not because of what I did or did not have.

As a young, American student who attends a well-established, private university in pursuit of an MBA, I certainly view the Hutong standard / style of living as adverse compared to what I know and what I grew up with.  But what is most impressionable about this experience is the notion that world citizens across all income brackets and standards / styles of living have different criteria for what makes them happy, makes them comfortable, and what they want out of their lives.  I imagine that there are some Chinese residents who are very wealthy and capable of living a lavish lifestyle who choose to live in a community like Hutong because it is what they know, what they like, and what they grew up with.  And there are equally Chinese residents who are much more impoverished and would give anything to live in a community like Hutong, but cannot afford to do so.

So when considering whether or not I would want to live like the residents of Hutong given what I know, I would opt out based on the thought of sharing a room with my parents alone.  But given different circumstances, and understanding that what I grew up with and have experienced in my life is the anchor for how I determine my lifestyle preferences and what makes me happy, I have a sneaking suspicion my decision would change.

After four terms of core classes (summer term included) and cases and projects that resided within our ILE (first-year, six-person) teams, we finally entered the elective atmosphere  for the final term of the year.  So what did that exactly mean…having a schedule fully based on electives?  It means:

1. We had complete control of our schedule, and the classes we chose to enroll in
2. We had the opportunity to work with different teams (classmates)
3. If you have interest in pursuing a concentration, you could start working towards that now

As much as I enjoyed the core, I felt a bit of relief when it ended.  I felt this relief because I knew that from that point forward, my success and interest level in the classroom (however I chose to define it) entirely depended on me.  For example, I would say that I am more of a quantitative person than a qualitative person.  Therefore, when I was required to take a core course that was more qualitative (like strategy) I often struggled figuring out how to best apply my strengths to the subject at hand.  Knowing that, during the final term of the year I opted to focus my schedule on mostly quantitative classes, trying to play to my strengths, and more importantly, my areas of interest.

While I will spare you the details of lessons learned from every class, here are some final thoughts on my first all-elective term.  First, entrepreneurial finance proved to me that business (especially trying to start one) is anything but linear.  Every situation is unique, and greatly depends on instincts, common sense, and luck.  That’s right…LUCK.  Every case we studied presented us with a number of options about how a particular business / company should grow.  And in every case the answers could not be any more unclear.  As a team, we often based our recommendations on many, many, many assumptions, to a point where I wondering if randomly guessing was the most favorable option.  In the process of understanding how uncertain the decisions I make in the future will be, the lessons from the course emerged.

On the other hand, my course in Decision Models taught me how use software tools to assess complex business scenarios and make decisions based of numbers and objectives.  We considered goals of the customers / company, assumptions, and best and worst case scenarios.  Never before had I been so involved with the world-changing power of Microsoft Excel.  And never before had I felt so satisfied when solving complex cases with the tools we were taught in class, tools that will prove very useful in any job that I pursue in the future.

Now for the kicker… 

While the official academic calendar year has come to a close, it does not signify the end for some of us first-year students.  Class time in Durham is over, but travel time has just begun.  I write you from Xi’an, China, where I am part of Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) course, one of many that run throughout the Fuqua MBA program and the calendar year.  China, South Africa to name a few.  But there are more on the horizon, and I would say these courses are a “must-do” for all.

International exploration is a core aspect of the Fuqua experience, as the school continues to open satellite campuses across the world.  What does that mean for Duke?  What does that mean for Fuqua?  What does that mean for the business leaders that graduate from the university?  These are the questions we hope to gain greater understanding of as we proceed on our journey through China.  Stay tuned for more details…

Between classes, clubs, job search, and social outings, the high-paced tempo of first-year business school life almost always holds steady.  Like most time-consuming endeavors, however, it becomes even more important to take a step back and indulge when the opportunity presents itself.  For me these indulgences come in the form of business school activities that aren’t related to class.  Usually it’s a section-related social event, Fuqua Friday, or a tennis game, but on this particular day I opted for inspiration – the CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) Award for Enterprising Social Innovation presented to Dr. Jordan Kassalow of VisionSpring, an organization dedicated to reducing poverty and generating opportunities in the developing world through the sale of affordable eyeglasses.

Dr. Kassalow accomplished exactly what I hoped he would: he inspired.  He covered his beginnings as a mountaineer, his transition to the social entrepreneurship space, and his continuing growth as a person and a businessman literally changing lives in the world.  Even more impressive than his accomplishments through VisionSpring was his candor – his genuineness – his transparent nature and his willingness to share that VisionSpring, in addition to all of its success, is still evolving.  Rarely, as students, do we catch a glimpse of the inside developments affecting organizations.  It all seems so glamorous when big corporations march through the doors and tout their recent earnings and future plans for growth.  So you can imagine that when we hear about these developments – the true uphill climbs – that we really appreciate it and learn from it because as intelligent, driven students we all know that succeeding in business is tough.  Tough..tough…tough!

While Dr. Kassalow’s presentation was certainly a must-see, its impact paled in comparison to the effect that the event had on my fatigued brain: Stimulation, motivation, entrepreneurial ideas.  At 8PM on a Thursday evening after a busy week, I felt invigorated – jumpstarted.  Most importantly, the triggers subtlely reminded me that this experience is more than the day-to-day formalities; more than course packs and exams; more than job search or doing what you feel like you should be doing.  It’s about appreciating the value that Fuqua creates, being pushed and encouraged, and above all, indulging in what matters to YOU.

That’s exactly why I’m here.

I’ve always been an above average student, but certainly not the cum-laude, made-the-dean’s list-every-semester, hang-my-grade-on-the-refrigerator type of student.  So the adjustment for me within the Fuqua community of ambitious, motivated souls wasn’t so difficult.  However, if you pay attention, you’ll learn early on that succeeding at Fuqua has little to do with the grades you receive, and everything to do with how well you have learned the information that your renowned faculty has taught, along with the expectations you set for yourself.

This message rang clear for me on March 6, the day I finished Corporate Finance and my third term at Fuqua.  For a humanities geek like me, taking Corporate Finance was a risky endeavor.  In fact, I was pretty sure the term “Beta” was confined to the Greek alphabet and nothing more.  Throughout the entire course, I found it hard to follow the relatively dense lectures and classroom comments, often wondering if my classmates were speaking in my dialect.  The assignments were both time-consuming and challenging, forcing me to insert numbers for the sake of filling in blanks that I could not answer.  On top of that, I was carrying a sense of guilt knowing that my professor was one of the best I had ever encountered, yet I still did not understand the material.  It appeared that Corporate Finance and I were not meant to be.

But then I smartened up.  I found a tutor (which is covered by Fuqua), started from scratch with the problem sets, and focused on understanding the concepts as opposed to searching for the right answers.  I decided that if I was going to fall flat in this class, I was going to fall to miscalculations as opposed to misunderstandings.  Most importantly, as I started grasping the material week by week, the pieces started fitting together and the confidence began to build.  Never before was I able to look another student in the eye when asked, “Are you ready for the CorpFin final?” and respond with “As ready as I will be because I don’t even care.  The amount I have learned has far exceeded my expectations.”

No kidding.  I was so eager to take the final exam I had trouble sleeping the night before.  Since I literally knew nothing about Corporate Finance before the course, I was thrilled to get through the final, confidently knowing that I had adequately answered all questions and keenly aware of the progress I had made.   At the very least, enough to keep pushing me toward a concentration in Finance.