The “Trade-Off”

Life is full of trade-offs. So, apparently, is business.

This morning, as part of Arv Malhotra’s “Managing Innovation Processes” class, we had accomplished tech journalist Kevin Maney speak as a guest lecturer. Maney is author of the recently released Trade-Off, and presented the book’s namesake framework to us. Essentially, Maney has identified two conflicting forces in business: fidelity, which he defines as the total experience of something; and convenience, or how easy it is to get or do something. All products in today’s economy, he argues, can only be high in fidelity or convenience — not both.

Take music. A U2 concert offers consumers high fidelity — the music, lights, 360 degree stage, the bragging rights to friends — but generally low convenience, like traffic, parking and ticket price. On the other side of the spectrum sit MP3s, iTunes and iPods. These are low cost and extremely convenient. But they offer mediocre fidelity: the sound quality isn’t great and there are no liner notes or cases to display proudly on your bookshelf.

Now, consider the compact disc. It sits smack in the middle of this spectrum. While it offers higher sound quality than MP3s, it is less convenient and provides significantly lower fidelity to consumers. Maney argues that these types of products — those trying to offer high fidelity and high convenience, end up doing neither. They fall into the “Fidelity Belly.” And there they die.

He can probably explain the concept better.

The “Trade-Off” was an interesting idea to discuss in class. Much of what we learn at Kenan-Flagler is about competitive cost advantage (essentially, Maney’s convenience) and product differentiation (his fidelity). Why can’t companies do both though? It was suggested that there are limitations on both companies and consumers. For example, as Starbucks tried to take its high fidelity coffeehouse experience to the masses, it stumbled not only because of operational growing pains (company-induced) but also marketing/brand challenges (consumers began questioning exclusivity).

There are big lessons to be learned here. Today’s companies can use the Trade-Off lens in two ways: to identify innovation and new product development opportunities and also to remain focused and disciplined at playing their own game.

Those that fail to do so run the risk of becoming obsolete.

– Marc Zawel

Intensive Networking To Offset a Bad Job Market

Before coming to business school I was already aware of it and had tried to practice it.
Now while I’m at school there are various events or times in between events specifically for it.
Whenever I tell my wife about this she comments as though she has a bad taste in her mouth: “Oh, you’re doing that.”
What is it? Networking.
For me it has seemed like the necessary evil (emphasis on evil) of being in the business world. Some doctors have to stick their hands in unpleasant places, business people have to network. It’s our cross to bear.
So, when the Career Management Center advertised a three hour session on Intensive Networking I thought about switching professions (surely doctors don’t have it this bad). But, I was wrong.
Roy Cowell is an executive recruiter/transition coach based out of Chicago. He’s worked or consulted with McKinsey, BCG and several other companies (I couldn’t write them all down quickly enough to recount them here). Anyway, he’s been around the block and knows his stuff. How did we get him to come speak at UNC Kenan-Flagler…through Jeff Fischer’s network. Jeff is the head of our career management center.
We had probably 200 people at his talk last night and I am pretty sure that everyone entered the room with the same skepticism that I did. “Intensive Networking? Sounds like in-your-face-multi-level-marketing.” But the talk was really good, worth every one of the 180 minutes we were there. Roy systematically deconstructed the job market and explained why it doesn’t really matter that “the job market is so bad” and then explained (from a recruiter’s perspective) how most jobs get filled.
After giving us some great context to understand the landscape, Roy laid out a three step process for an effective job search, complete with explanation of how many people go about it wrong and how to do it right. He used stories from experience to describe various tactics and gave a lot of depth around each of the sub-steps involved in the main categories.
Now with this description I’m sure that this can sound like any old pep talk in a down job market, but this was different. What impressed me the most was something that has been present throughout my experience at Kenan-Flagler. Roy discussed/explained/disarmed networking in such a way that he explained some of the phenomenon that I have experienced in my working experience, he challenged some of the ways that I already thought about networking (“using” your network) and taught me several new tips in a framework of understanding that I hadn’t seen before.
It was a good session…long, but I’m glad that I went.
Jeremy Bergwerff

Mixing and Mingling at Mez

On September 30, members of Triangle Area Net Impact chapters gathered at Mez Restaurant in Durham for happy hour.  The delicious chips and guacamole certainly didn’t hurt, but the best feature of the event was the opportunity to meet other people interested in sustainability.  The variety of folks at our table sums it up pretty well:  UNC Kenan-Flagler first-year MBAs, a UNC Regional Planning and Development student, a Kenan-Flagler MBA grad, Tracy Triggs-Matthews from the Center for Sustainable Enterprise, and a visiting Fuqua MBA.  The crowd also included Jessica Thomas from CSE, Kenan-Flagler second-year MBAs, other Fuqua Net Impact members, and Triangle Area professionals.
I had a great conversation with Joanna, a Duke MBA student who hails from Melbourne, Australia.  It turns out that she too had attended the September 25th CSE Distinguished Speaker Series event featuring Matt Kistler, Wal-Mart’s Senior Vice President of Sustainability, and Dr. Kellie McElhaney, a Kenan-Flagler Adjunct Professor Entrepreneurship and Haas School of Business Professor.  She found the event fantastic and recommended reading Dr. McElhaney’s book, Just Good Business:  The Strategic Guide to Aligning Corporate Responsibility and Brand (note to self:  find said book on www.betterworldbooks.com and order!)  I especially enjoyed listening to Joanna and my classmate, Lysandra Gibbs, describe their personal reasons for pursuing a sustainability-driven career.  As someone who is making a career transition, I continue to learn from other people’s stories.
The Mez happy hour was a great representation of the larger sustainability network that we, as Kenan-Flagler Net Impact members, belong to.  It’s exciting to know that such excellent resources and professionals are readily accessible.  I’m looking forward to future Triangle Area events!

Marisa Niemczyk

Core curriculum heats up

As you walk into Cafe McColl these days, the tables are littered with second years eating their lunches and first years cramming for midterms.  The first year core curriculum is starting to heat up as the first round of tests are coming to fruition.  First years scurry between tables asking fellow classmates questions like “How do I account for a player that Manchester United trades midseason?” and “What is a p-value?”  Meanwhile, the second years reminisce what is was like when all the core professors lined up to issue their punishments.  Oh the days at Cafe McColl.

The reality is that the core curriculum is a great experience for multiple reasons.  First, you learn a lot about the core business practices that will be necessary regardless of your career focus.  Secondly, the professors that UNC Kenan-Flagler have teaching their core classes are second to none.  They are incredibly bright, energetic, and even a bit funny.  Lastly, you build such great camaraderie amongst your fellow first year students, especially those in your legacies and study groups.  In addition, the MBA program has a wonderful tutoring relationship setup between first and second years.  On any given day, you will see multiple first and second years working together to make sure that the midterms go smoothly.  Just another example of the incredible environment that UNC has been able to build here at Kenan-Flagler.

College football is in the air, the weather is absolutely perfect, and the first years are earning their stripes.  It doesn’t get any better than this.

Andrew Johnston

Introducing the Family Tree

As a Second Year student planning on starting a business, I’ve started to shift my academic focus at Kenan-Flagler toward those classes that will directly provide me with the tools necessary to successfully do so. One such class I’m taking now is an Entrepreneurship course offering, Innovation & Product Development, taught by Prof. Barry Bayus.

Throughout the quarter, Barry has walked us through the new product development process, providing best practices on conducting market research, identifying voice of the consumer, translating needs into specifications, brainstorming ideas and designing new products.

Concurrently, we have been working in small teams on an innovation project for mobile phone giant Nokia. The project has allowed students to directly apply all that we are learning in the classroom to a real business case.

My team has developed a product called the Family Tree. It’s a mobile phone docking unit, targeted at seniors, that integrates and simplifies communication and printing capabilities. Here’s the pitch that we developed and just sent to Finland for review by company executives.

With luck, look for the Family Tree on store shelves by next spring!

Or at least we hope so.

– Marc Zawel

UPDATE: Here are the other team entries to see how we stacked up.

Sustainability at Wal-Mart

On Friday, 9/25, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School hosted a brown bag lunch with Matt Kistler, the vice president of sustainability for Wal-Mart.  The event was open to current MBA students, and I think I speak for the 30 students who were there when I say we were fortunate to be able to engage in an informal dialog with someone on the front lines of sustainability work at a leader in the field.  Below is a small sampling of the conversation.  Items listed in bold are questions from students.

How is sustainability organized at Wal-Mart?  Is it its own department?  How is it connected to the rest of the company?
Kistler’s response consisted of a few parts.  First, his vision is to get sustainability integrated into the company’s operations to the point that a sustainability branch is no longer required.  At this point, there is a department heading up sustainability initiatives; however, their initiatives are focused on incorporating sustainability practices into their results.  Also, he mentioned that their sustainability office is relatively small and operates with just one consultancy.  Their power, or “secret sauce”, derives from robust networks including thought leaders, NGO’s and academic institutions.

What emerging sustainability challenges does Wal-Mart face?
Kistler focused on a number of challenges, but one jumped out at me:  Wal-Mart (and all retailers for that matter) need to figure out how to transform linear supply  chains into cyclical ones.

Why does Wal-Mart care about sustainability?
Kistler focused on the cost savings that Wal-Mart enjoys thanks to more sustainable practices.  For instance, Wal-Mart’s truck fleet is 38% more efficient than it used to be.  That means that they spend 38% less on fuel than they did before upgrading their fleet.  For a company whose second largest cost is energy, this is good news.  More directly put, Kistler said that Wal-Mart’s sustainability office does not undertake an initiative unless it is a profitable one.  In other words, there is no philanthropic thrust behind any of their programs.  This makes sense, given Wal-Mart’s corporate mandate; however, it does make me wonder how they determine whether a decision will be profitable or not.  For example, it is quite possible that Wal-Mart could still be profitable while being bolder and adopting more sustainable products, even ones that are a little more expensive.  In other words, how much of a long view has Wal-Mart truly taken compared to other companies?  It is hard to tell.

Have you personally changed at all in this role?
My personal favorite was this question.  Kistler stated that he looks at the world through a different lens.  He sees buildings in terms of how inefficient they are.  In fact, he mentioned that he is a terrible party guest as he will analyze his hosts’ home and find all of the inefficiencies down to CF light bulbs and less efficient heating systems.

On a final note, Kistler mentioned that he’s frequently asked which business schools ask the best questions, and that we were giving his current top schools a run for their money.  The message I took from this is that we should keep doing what we’re doing!

Joel Thomas (MBA Class of 2011)

You can’t fake that

Today, I had many reasons to be proud to be a Kenan-Flagler MBA student.

I listened to extremely qualified candidates from the seven legacies stand in front of their classmates (self-included) and state their case, make their jokes and otherwise give their all to run for first-year legacy rep.

I witnessed 290 fellow 2011’s race against the clock to finish an important Leading & Managing group consulting assignment skillfully placed between two midterms.  Some groups couldn’t find a place to meet because the study rooms were all full.  The tension level was at an all-time high, and yet people were still helping one another, truly.

As Peggy Tate said during my interview at Kenan-Flagler, “you just can’t fake that 365 days a year.”

Mostly, though, I’d have to say that my pride stems from the fact that everywhere I turned throughout the day, I was greeted by a bright and welcoming shirt like this one:

I can’t speak with much authority on what it feels like to be gay in business school (or at all, for that matter), but I’d imagine that it’s not an easy place for one to be so.  Traditionally, most people aren’t really “out” on Wall Street.  However, just like the face of business is changing to incorporate  different perspectives on sustainable practices, so too is there a shift in focus to be more inclusive and mindful of diversity in the workplace.

The change has not been overnight, nor are we close to done.  But it was encouraging to be engulfed in a rainbow of inclusive and well-intended Kenan-Flagler students who were wearing their hearts quite literally on their sleeve. All said and done, Ally Pledge Day was a success. We rounded up 329 signatures – 283 in person and another 46 online (a few more at the West End Wine bar social in the evening).  Just check out the lunch crowd:

The lunchtime team was kind enough to take a break to pose for a photo.  We almost got a perfect rainbow.

I can’t be sure what was brighter, the shirts or the smiles.  You’re thinking that sounds cheesy, right?  I’ll give you that.  But I’m telling you – it’s true. You really can’t fake it.

Alicia Conway (Class of 2011)

Catching Up

Yes, the class of 2010 is officially the second year class at Kenan-Flagler now. When I look back, I realize how much I have learned in this past one year. Not just technical skills, but there has been so much learning on other softer fronts. And, of course, my network has expanded tremendously, as can perhaps be seen from my Facebook and LinkedIn contact lists!
But before starting the second year, there was a three-month hiatus from the school.  I would say that the time was very well spent through internships. My internship was definitely a great learning experience and a natural culmination of the first year. Obviously, we can’t expect to apply everything (or even majority) of what we learned during the first year in a 12-week project, but at least the internship provided me with enough opportunities to complement my first year learning and prior experience to craft out something meaningful for my company and for myself. The break also gives you time to recharge and rejuvenate. I did this by going back to India for a short vacation and making the most of it. No doubt, I really enjoyed the summer of 2009.
We are back to school now, and things are again moving in the fast lane. I really can’t say right now whether the second year is more relaxed or not, because at least currently, I am super busy with the recruiting season kicking-in, club activities going on in full-swing, and the usual load of the course-work and assignments. Nevertheless, I think that the second year class is better prepared or perhaps  more accustomed to handling multiple priorities and crazy schedules – courtesy Mod1 and Mod2 of the last year.
The economy is showing signs of improvement, but there is still a lot of uncertainty in the market. The overall morale of my classmates is mixed – some who got job offers through their internships are relatively relaxed, while others are gearing up for a tough recruiting season ahead. I am hopeful that things would be better and looking forward to the rest of my time left at Kenan-Flagler.

Vivek Kumar

And the Admissions Season Starts…

Well it’s that time of year when we officially launch the MBA admissions season. Our MBA application just went live yesterday. If you’re thinking about applying for an MBA this season, start an application at www.mba.unc.edu/apply.

You may be interested in some of the changes we’ve put in place for the coming year:

Interview Policy – This year we’ve started an “invitation only” interview policy. In order to be invited to interview, you have to complete Part I of our application and we’ll do a quick screen on your profile and determine whether or not you’ll be invited. More details about the policy can be found on the Interviews and Campus Visit section of our website or by viewing the FAQs about interviews. Some of you may recall that I wrote a blog post last year about our open interview policy. But now that’s changed for this year, so please forget that post!

Student-Read Essay – We have a terrific team of current students who are being trained to read and evaluate one of our essays this year. This is a new initiative for us, but we thought it was important to incorporate the student perspective into our admissions process. The essay that the students will be evaluating is Essay #4: Kenan-Flagler has five core values: excellence, leadership, integrity, community and teamwork. If you could add one value what would it be and why? Be sure to explain how you have lived this value.

Looking forward to reading your applications and seeing many of you across of the globe this fall!

– Lisa Beisser

Goodbye!

Barcelona has been wonderful, I’ve been so glad to be living in Europe again. But as the announcements have come and gone for all the fun parties (and championship winning games!!!!) I’ve missed, I’m regretting my decision to stay in Europe long after school finished up here. I miss my Kenan-Flagler family, and I’m scared that my incessant Facebook status updates are not enough to keep me fresh in my friends’ memories.
I chose to remain this long to be able to explore parts of Europe I had yet to visit, and I have. I’m on the train home from Bilbao now, not riding a motorcycle as I’d hoped to, due to my extremely foolish insistence on riding from Barcelona to Nice in the rain. I hate riding in the rain, and crashed in Nice, so the train it is. However, since it seems to never stop raining here, I’m glad to be on the train and not cold and wet on a bike.
I have taken some wonderful trips, including revisiting two of my favorite cities, London and Paris, finally seeing the Cote D’Azur (even though most of that trip was spent recuperating from a sprained ankle in my hotel room), watching the World Superbike race in Valencia, and finally seeing the Guggenheim Bilbao, as well as the special bonus of seeing one of Bilbao’s nightly “Saint’s Week” processions, and sharing a hotel with the cast and crew of Cirque Du Soleil’s Varekai, tempting me to run away with the circus…
The big reason I’m staying so long and missing all the awesome parties with my wonderful friends is that I’m obsessed with MotoGP. This is the world’s premier motorcycling race series, and Spain competes head-to-head with Italy for having the most passionate fan base. The Jerez, Spain round was always the first on the calendar, and remains the first European race. It’s a big deal, like going to Mecca, but even bigger, for people like me.
So I figured why not stick around and be with my people the first weekend of May, then rush back to the Hill in time for graduation? Well, it turns out, as much as I prefer living in a European city over Small Town, USA, I also prefer being with my friends! I knew I’d miss being “in the bubble” once graduation comes and it’s time to start making money, but I didn’t realize just how much I’d miss my family at Kenan-Flagler. I’ve never been in such a tight-knit group before and it was an experience I’m sure I’ll always try to recapture.Here’s 3/4^ths of the Kenan-Flagler/ESADE crew gathered ‘round the laptop for one of our Tarheel’s winning games. Of course only the fashionista remembered to wear the right t-shirt!If you’d like to read the next chapters, you can always find me on LiveJournal.

Susanna Schick