Friday, April 20, 2007

CEOs make excellent Business School Professors…

I hardly ever talk about what goes on in class, but I feel the class I had on Monday was a great example of the value of having a CEO as someone to teach and facilitate a class discussion. For my Supply Strategy & Factor markets class, we have the pleasure of having Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics and a partner at the private equity firm KKR. On Monday, we tackled Microsoft's entry in the video game console market, with the case being taught from the perspective of the contract manufacturer, Flextronics. Firstly, the energy Michael Marks generated within the class was pretty phenomenal, as well as clearly articulating the tradeoffs and issues involved in the case and constantly putting students on the spot. It was one of those rare moments when I suddenly felt how finance, marketing, accounting, human resources, strategy, organizational behavior as well as other areas such as sales and global management all come alive in an hour and half class.

I am looking forward to covering the X-Box case again in a few weeks, this time from the Microsoft angle to get the other side of this market entry. story.

2 comments:

D A said...

It seems to be a great experience for you in the class..Enjoy the time..

Anonymous said...

Jambo !!!
Habari Yako (unsure of spelling ?) and that is the extent of my Swahili (blame it on the parents for not teaching us anything) !!! hee hee

My sis and I came across your website by chance, I don't quite know the path, but insane clicking leads one to some weird places sometimes !(not that this is a weird place, quite the opposite). So we merrily googled and clicked our way to your blog site as we were searching for info on the "Stanford MBA application process" and the university itself.

Why ? I guess to gain some insight to entry requirements, the campus, the application process etc.

As usual both she and myself should have been using our time to study, but you probably know how it is. My sister and I are not considering an MBA at this stage, let alone studying at Stanford ? Well maybe she might, one day, especially after reading your site ; )

Actually the source of my/our curiosity is that I have a mate who completed an MBA at Stanford last year and he and I are always arguing about, well everything and he always talks about Stanford. So I guess I just needed to see and get a feel for this Stanford place !! ha ha

I must say your "blogs" really do provide a wealth of info. I couldn't help myself realising that your "homeland" is Tanzania, and that you climbed Kilimanjaro ? I had to briefly skim through your other blogs and I must say WOW ! a few words that come to mind are inspirational and insightful.

I have yet to travel to the African sub-continent and want to very soon, and definitely climb the mighty Kilimanjaro. Your blog is great because I get to hear about what's going on in Tanzania from an insiders perspective, (my mother was born and raised in Uganda and father raised in Kenya).

Anyway enough said. Sounds like you've got big plans for Tanzania and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours and will be waiting to read of your next adventures !

Asante
Cheers Mate !