Freitag Mai 20, 2005

What makes an MBA program excellent?
As you might remember, last week I started a new thread about MBA programs. As a result, I received some interesting comments, both online and offline. Here are the two that I found most interesting:

"McNealy and Ballmer attended Stanford GSB. Dennis Kozlowski went to Seton Hall. Need I say more?"

"FWIW, I completely disagree with your friend who believes that MBA's are about brand names. I think they're about the tools, as well as the network. However - it's NOT about the brand name, unless you're in a business where the brand name really matters. If you're a technology person interested in an MBA, then it's about the tools and the learning and the network. If you're a marketing person, it's probably more about brand. As an employer, WHERE you go is only interesting if a) it's really one of the top schools (though it begs the question why someone would bother getting an MBA from Wharton if they're an engineer) b) if it's someplace where I (as a hiring manager) have a connection or an opinion. In general, in engineering, MBA's are only as useful as the amount you learn"

This led me to the question: "What makes an MBA program an excellent MBA program?"

Looking at the biographies of Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer, there could be several reasons why they both are such successful business men. Here is for example an extract from Steve Ballmer's bio:

"Ballmer was born in March 1956, and grew up near Detroit, where his father worked as a manager at Ford Motor Co. He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While in college, Ballmer managed the football team, worked on the Harvard Crimson newspaper as well as the university literary magazine, and lived down the hall from fellow sophomore Bill Gates. After college, he worked for two years at Procter & Gamble Co. as an assistant product manager and, before joining Microsoft, attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business."

When I read this I was wondering how much of Steve's career was determined by either his dad being a manager at Ford, his attitude and personality (e.g. managed the football team), his first real jobs (at Procter & Gamble), or his education at Harvard and Stanford? What job would Steve Ballmer have today, if he just went to a noname business school, maybe even outside of the US?

Provided that it is critical where you get your MBA, what are the things that make these programs excellent programs? What is different? What do these business schools provide that cannot be learned or aquired somewhere else? What is so unique about Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, INSEAD, etc.?

Again, I'm very curious to hear your opinions and experiences!
( Mai 20 2005, 12:55:57 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [5]

"Firefox-based Netscape 8 tastes good"
"The good:

* Security settings per-site is handy
* Ability to switch specific sites to use the MSIE engine is very useful when you stumble upon sites coded by brain dead webmasters.
* It's firefox, with a nice set of additions."


The full article can be found here.
( Mai 20 2005, 11:53:11 AM CEST ) Permalink

The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org
"Each year, more OpenOffice.org books hit the market, with nearly a dozen easily available in US bookstores today. They include very technical references, very basic introductions, and books that focus like a laser on just a small portion of the software's capabilities."
The full article can be found here.
( Mai 20 2005, 08:09:33 AM CEST ) Permalink

OpenOffice.org Success Stories
"This confidence stems from the abundant anecdotal evidence that OSS benefits both government and commercial organizations. In Asia, Singapore's Ministry of Defence (Mindef), for instance, saved S$15 million (US$9.3 million) by deciding to let its existing licenses for Office 97 software lapse and to migrate to OpenOffice instead.

Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), the nation's IT development agency, has been replacing its fleet of proprietary software with freeware and open-source applications such as GIMP, OpenOffice and Irfanview. NECTEC director Dr. Thaweesak Koanantakool reckons that at a nationwide level, using OSS saved Thailand US$45 million in 2003. "

The full article can be found here.
( Mai 20 2005, 08:07:00 AM CEST ) Permalink