MBAs Across America to Hit TV Screens and Other MBA News Snippets

Sunday sees the start of a series documenting the tales and travails of those in the MBAs across America program – an initiative that was started by four students at Harvard Business School (HBS) last year.

MBAs across America, (also known as MBAxAmerica), puts MBAs at the disposal of small businesses across the US for a week at a time, where they analyze challenges and make recommendations that the owner can then put in practice.

The idea is encourage a resurgence in the nation’s entrepreneurial endeavors and allow the participants to showcase the skills and expertise that an MBA can bring to the table.

One of the co-founders of MBAs across America is Casey Gerald, who will oversee the current participants’ efforts:

“I'm a supporter, cheerleader, chief believer and enabler for the MBAs,” he said. 2014’s teams are representing Columbia Business School, Stanford, Babson, Ross and Haas School of Business as well as HBS. 

Gerald’s ‘light bulb’ moment, as he puts it, came at Yale when a visiting lecturer explained that if you wanted to make a change in the 20th century world you should sign up to law school – but if you wanted to enact change in the 21st century, you’d be better off going to business school.  

Gerald gave a speech at Harvard Business School’s Class Day this year, which has been heralded as one of the most inspiring, from an MBA student, to date. In it, he says he arrived at HBS promising himself never again to work for either a startup or a nonprofit, based on his prior experiences, but that he now leaves the school ready to helm a combination of the two with MBAs across America. He ascribes his change of heart emotionally to a near-death experience, which he says washed away his fears of failure and of insurmountable debt.

Growing America: A Journey to Success is a six-episode documentary series that kicks off on Sunday November 16 on HLN, a spin-off of the US cable news channel CNN.

Business case winners ‘cerebrate’ good times

Following on from the Indian School of Business’ success in this year’s Hult Prize, another Indian school has won the business case competition run by NUS Business School this year.

In announcing the winning team from the School of Business Management, NMIMS Mumbai (NMIMS), NUS Business School marked 10 years of its student-run MBA business case competition, known as Cerebration (not a typo, but a combination of the words ‘cerebral’ and ‘celebrate’).

Teams from leading US schools UCLA Anderson, Dartmouth Tuck and UNC Kenan-Flagler were beaten to the S$10k (c. US$7.7k) prize by NMIMS in the final held at NUS Business School.

“It has definitely been an experience that stretched our ability to work as a team, and that is something that will come in useful in the course of our careers," said Anisha Mukhija, of the winning team.

The challenge was to work on a business case supplied by sponsors Daimler Financial Services and SPRING Singapore, with particular attention paid to changes and technological developments affecting the global economy.

Cerebration was set up NUS Business School MBAs in 2005 and is held to be the world's largest student-run business case competition for MBA candidates. Last year’s winners came from UNC Kenan-Flagler.

Guggenheim architect behind UTS Business School’s new home

This week a sneak preview was given into the building, which is said to have been designed from the inside out – prioritizing the interior before then adding its sandstone-colored skin and glass panels. The UTS Business School design, at Ultimo in central Sydney, is Frank Gehry’s first project in Australia.

"Australia can no longer compete on the cost of labor; we have to compete on the quality of labor and that's what these buildings are all about,” said Shirley Alexander, UTS’s deputy vice-chancellor, education and students.

Professor and UTS vice-chancellor, Attila Brungs, said the work represented the “physical manifestation of the innovative and creative thinking that underpins UTS's commitment to creating revolutionary spaces to support our new models of learning.”

One of these new models is a concentration on collaborative learning spaces, made possible by saving space on lecture theaters by taking them online where possible.

The official launch of UTS Business School’s new home is due in February when Frank Gehry is expected to be in attendance. It will be named for Dr Chau Chak Wing, following an AUD$20m (c. US$17m) donation by the Australian-Chinese businessman.

Frank Gehry's Dr Chau Chak Wing Building image source.