My EMBA Journey

Do you think you know every country in the world and their location? Take this challenge from Travelpod.com

I had an excellent opportunity to visit Washington as part of a seminar series. The core objective of the seminar is to inculcate an understanding of how political system functions and its impact on business. Our cohort comprises of executives, small business owners and entrepreneurs, for whom this seminar served as an foundation to understand the role of politics and how to make an impact to benefit their businesses.

This seminar was conducted by the Washington Campus - A consortium of 16 major university business schools who are committed to graduate business students and corporate executives. Following where some of the key topics covered by various political members. They included former treasury secretary, staff of white house, political speaker, lobbyist, OMB staff, campaign managers and others.

Decision Making in Washington
Congressional Committees
Political Appointees
Structure of the Federal Courts
The Role of Lobbyists and Interest Groups
The Business/Government Interface
The Political Landscape
The Organization of the White House
Congress: A Representative's Perspective
The Federal Regulatory Process
The Future of the US Economy
The Role of the Media
US Foreign Policy

How do you identify a true leader? What potential does a leader need to possess to inspire and lead a team of talented followers? As part of an organization behavior school research work, I stumbled upon a book signing video from Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard and famously known for merging HP with Compaq.

I was very inspired by her thought process, understanding of people, faces of fear, concept of change and her self integrity. Her answers to the questions where straight from her heart.

Have you ever wondered could there be a competitor to 100 million traffic monster YouTube? Guess what, NBC and News Corp has partnered to create a new video sharing site named Hulu. You can visit them at www.hulu.com. This is going to be a great competition between the media giants and Internet giants. Ultimate benefactors are consumers.

Looking at the first video hosted by hulu looks like it's in for a long ride. It is taking head on the core weaknesses of YouTube. Low resolution, poor quality videos are replaced with high resolution great quality pics. Because the videos are supported by NBC you don't have to worry about legitimacy of the content.

Here is a sample of NBC's hit TV show The Office from the hulu website. Enjoy...



Currently the website access is restricted to invitation only. You can sign up here to recieve your invitation.

Legendary chairman of IBM Mr.Thomas Watson predicted the following in 1943.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

What a great prediction. We are currently doing a class on Organizational Behavior and our professor Peter Murphy is a great source of inspiration. He uses various Harvard Business Reviews, class discussion, relevant quotes to keep our cohort thinking about OB concepts.

I found a great website which has various quotes

Some of the great quotes are listed here...

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Attributed to Bill Gates, 1981, but believed to be an urban legend.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"It will be years -- not in my time -- before a woman will become Prime Minister." -- Margaret Thatcher, 1974.

"Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality." -- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

You can go to this website to check on some of the bad predictions of our century

I am a member of Boston chapter of Association of India Development(AID). We have a mailing list and today I received an interesting email which is of special interest to me. As per Hindustan Times, a famous Indian daily newspaper Dow Chemical has agreed to setup an fund to clean up thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil along with measures to resolve the long running lawsuits. I am pasting the email I recieved from AID India. Personally I am really happy for the people of Bhopal. Its high time that Dow Chemical has decided to step up and take ownership of liabilities they acquired from Union Carbide.
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You can visit the website of AID India
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India, Dow Chemical may settle Bhopal gas disaster claims: report
Mon Oct 22, 2:52 AM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India could reach an out-of-court settlement with US giant Dow Chemical to clean up the Bhopal gas disaster site and end liability claims after more than two decades, a report said Monday.

India's law ministry said the move would clear "legal hurdles" to future Dow Chemical investments in India by setting up a fund to clean up thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil along with other measures to resolve long-running lawsuits linked to the disaster, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

The government was prompted by Indian industrial conglomerate the Tata Group to pursue a settlement, and Dow Chemical's chief executive wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this year on the issue, the newspaper said.

The law ministry was not immediately available to comment on the report.

Thousands of people were killed on December 3, 1984 when a then Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in central India disgorged 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate gas in one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

Dow Chemical, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, has long insisted that all liabilities regarding the disaster were settled when Union Carbide concluded a 470-million-dollar compensation settlement with New Delhi in 1989.

But local and federal court cases in India have challenged that view with lawsuits calling for more compensation for survivors and liability claims for ongoing health problems linked to the disaster.

Social activist Sandeep Pandey, who is associated with the gas tragedy victims, told the newspaper that his supporters would oppose any move to settle with Dow Chemical.

"Allowing Dow Chemical in India without paying the liabilities is a crime," Pandey told the newspaper.

Compensation payments to survivors as well as medical attention have been delayed because of bureaucracy and lawsuits since the settlement.

According to the Indian government, at least 15,000 people have died from illness resulting from the disaster while Amnesty International said resulting illnesses had claimed 22,000 to 25,000 lives.

Local victims' rights activists put the figure as high as 30,000.

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If you need to conduct survey for doing consumer research, market research, service analysis or any other form surveys, use this software service QuestionPro. You can login to their website at http://www.questionpro.com

We are currently going through a course on leading change. Following is an excerpt from my journal on how to lead change.

Change is an integral part of a successful outcome. Our mankind’s evolution can be attributed towards the process of change which went through over a period. Civilizations growth can be owed to the various steps taken to change.

What is Change? Change is a process of transforming a current state to a different state. Change involves three stages, 1) Current form 2) Transitional form and 3) New form. Understanding these different stages would help one to successfully create and lead a change process.

Determine if Change is required?
Let us deep dive to understand the “current state”, this is a stage one needs to evaluate the need for change, it is important to have a clear basis and a reason for change, as the saying goes “Don’t fix! If isn’t broken”. Following are certain areas which needs attention in this state.

1. Evaluate if a change is required
2. Complete a cost benefit analysis of a change
3. Understand the physical/emotional aspects behind the change

Calculate the opportunity cost and return on investment for not making a necessary change and making a necessary change. This will give a clear idea, whether to pursue a change or not. Along with the financial aspect most important aspect is the human element. Transformation from one form to another leads to movement of one’s comfort zone. Humans react differently when they are moved from comfort zone. Some of the instant reactions are “Fear”, “insecurity” and “uncertainty”. Some humans react with pleasure, joyful and challenged. It all revolves around self-confidence, motivation and final outcome.

Following is an excerpt from GrassRootsLeadership. I watched the below segment on ESPN and started to look for the book named "Its Your Ship" written by Mike Abrashoff who was selected to become Commander of USS Benfold at the time, the most junior commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet.




We all face similar situation in our life where we have to lead teams and be able to set an example as a leader. In my opinion everyone should read the ten principles of Mike.

TEN PRINCIPLES OF MIKE ABRASHOFF



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NFL Leaders Using Mike's Playbook
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ESPN Monday Night Football Transcript
Baltimore Ravens vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Airtime- Sept 10, 2007 at 9:10PM Eastern

Mike Tirico: Here's Michelle Tafoya.

Michelle Tafoya: Well, let's talk about captains for a minute.

During the offseason, Carson Palmer's dad gave him a copy of this book. It's called It's Your Ship and it's by a naval captain who turned a mediocre ship into one of the best crews and best ships in the Navy. Now Carson read it cover to cover and he told me he took away two lessons from this.

Number One: If the people around you believe you care about them, they will follow you into battle

Number Two: The leader must be above the group but of the group.

And his teammates must believe in him. They voted him offensive team captain for the season, Mike. He said that was the single greatest honor of his career.

Mike Tirico: More important than the Heisman Trophy, he said. Kind of surprised us all when he said it.

You've seen that all kick-off weekend, those Captain C's, permanent captains, season-long captains by Roger Godell [NFL Commissioner], as part of the edict to increase the leadership and leadership awareness within each locker room. And the teams have voted for two captains. And we have seen alot of the familiar, big name players wearing those this week.
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NFL Football season started with lots of fan fare. My favorites Pats routed jets. Allegation of video spying did leave sour taste of the win. Bill Belichick you are better than that, You don't have to spy to win. Please remember you are working for Kraft organization which is known for its integrity.

This issue made me thinking about spying in general, Corporates spend huge resource on corporate spying; in recent memory I could think of SAP/Oracle spying issue, also an ongoing issue between Mclaren and Ferrari. On what basis does the management of SAP, Mclaren either encourage such unethical practice. I am really surprised to see companies could do such a thing in the name of competition. It all boils down to certain individuals in the management who "want to win at all cost". This behaviour can eventually prove catastrophe.

I hope we managers do not encourage/participate in any such behaviors and not jeopardise the companies brand.

Chameleon - Lizard with ability to change color. Chameleon's changes its color to blend in to the environment and protect themselves from preadators.

SmartLid, a Sydney based company has taken this concept to the consumer product, a hot cup lid. The innovative lid alerts consumers their coffee/tea may be too hot by changing from a dark coffee bean color to a bright red when the lid is applied.

The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), organized in 1972, is the independent, private-sector organization with responsibility for the oversight, administration, and finances of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), and their advisory councils, the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council (GASAC). The FAF selects the members of the standard-setting Boards and Councils, and protects the independence of the Boards.

Read more about FAF

I stumped upon a great link on Bhopal Tragedy.

Please find the video link to the resources on Bhopal Catastrophe.

There is a movie made on Bhopal named Bhopal Express.
Link to the free DVD.

You can click here to make donations for the Bhopal Victims

Watch this space for series of articles on Bhopal Tragedy, its aftermath and how you can make a difference. This is part of my Ethics course.

Apple Safari for Windows


Microsoft IE MarketShare
In the late 90's Microsoft killed Netscape by its shear power of Marketing, Strategic product positioning and in a way poor counter efforts from Netscape themselves. Microsoft amazed everyone by capturing 95% of marketshare by 2003. Then in 2004 came Mozilla Firefox which surprised everyone by taking a sizable marketshare away from Microsoft within 2 years. Now there is even bigger threat coming for Microsoft, and that is Safari for Windows. It was announced by Steve Jobs that Apple Safari browser would be available for Windows and currently it is available for beta.

Impact of Apple Safari over Microsoft IE
Currently Apple Safari has a marketshare of 3.5% in the Internet browser market. I personally think this number is going to rise in next 5 years. My estimate is at the least 10 - 15%. This would cause grave impact to the position of Microsoft Internet Explorer. If we combine the marketing power of iPod/iTunes and the new iPhone along with AppleTV, Apple Mac and may be one day a Apple Leopard OS for Intel. I don't see a reason why the marketshare numbers wouldn't go even further higher.

Where is Apple leading us all
Apple is taking baby steps to recapture its lost glory days of 80's. I think they are probably positioning themselves to increase their market-share in the high profit equipments such as Wireless, Digital Entertainment, and Second PC Market.
I think Apple's strategic partnership with Google may take them towards their goals.


Some interesting facts on Internet Browser Trends .....

Internet Browser Trends
In 1997 Netscape had a marketshare of 81% and they went down to 10% in 2001. During the same period Microsoft's marketshare went up to 89%. In 2004 Microsoft had a market share of 95.48% as per WebSideStory(Wiki Reference). This is an era when Microsoft got very complacent and didn't care releasing any new upgrades to IE 6.0, it turned out to be a disaster for Microsoft as open source developers took it upon themselves to create a rival Internet browser with new features. Competitors started introducing features such as Tabbed window, pop-up blocks. Microsoft was forced to follow innovate or mimic strategy. Within 2 years of Mozilla FireFox existence they captured an amazing 9.95% of marketshare.

Latest Trends

Apple has scheduled its release of iPhone in the next few weeks. Now most important question in everyones mind is "Can iPhone become the phone of the decade?" In my opinion it has all the juice to become an innovative product of this decade. iPhone might even catapult the success of Apple's own iPod.



I believe Apple is entering an upward trend in digital entertainment with iPhone. Following are the traits I think would be an instant success

1. One touch call
2. Visual voicemail
3. New SMS functionality
4. Complete Internet browsing(Safari)
5. Google Maps, Google Widgest
6. All your Google extras
7. Built in sensors
8. Multi touch & Intelligent keyboard


Challenges facing iPhone

Currently iPhone is tied to AT&T Wireless which is a bottleneck. Not many customers have a great opinion about AT&T when it comes to signal strength and customer service. This issue is similar to DRM problems faced by iTunes customers. Wireless spectrum in US has to change in order to accomodate the growing need for independent wireless equipment sellers and carriers. This model has been time tested in Europe and Asia. It has lead to booming equipment design and innovation in cellphones. Customers are free to use their desired models wrather than tied to a single model for more than 1 or 2 years.

Already there is a drop in iPod sales, would iPhone become a competitor to iPod?

As we all know Nintendo's Wii has become the hottest selling video game player than Microsoft's XBox and Sony's PS3. I wanted to see what lead to the success of Wii. I was thinking what did Nintendo's marketing team did to achieve this success.



I came across an article in BusinessWeek related to Wii the most successful video game console from Nintendo. This article explains how a conservative company such as Nintendo learned to ease and let go the control, which eventually brought the huge success which it is enjoying today. One of the most notable and innovative marketing program is the Ambassador program in which friends and families were invited to play Wii. Nintendo conducted a massive sampling program by inviting people to play in 25 malls. Around 300 trained staff helped to yield 1.1 million physical interactions and 90 million impressions.

This is a great example of how social networking can be used effectively by a marketer to make inroads in to the league of big boys

How Nintendo Learned to Chill Out

My team went for a International Trip to Poland and Praque, I couldn't make it to the trip for family reason. I will be taking the trip to China in April 2008.

Following are the pictures from their trip

Ernesto's International Trip pictures

Monica's International trip Pictures

Our cohort has reached its first major milestone. We successfully completed our first semester. I am attaching my cohort picture with our Marketing professor Mike Greenwood.



Honestly, In my experience Prof Greenwood has been the most inspiring professor. His teachings of Marketing combined with Sun Tzu's Art of war strategies has helped me to view business from a strategic point of view instead of a tactical approach.

I had an opportunity to attend a panel discussion on the subject of "Doing Business in Poland". This discussion was conducted by Suffolk University and co-sponsored by Polish American Networking Organization(PANO) and Polish American biweekly publication White Eagle News.



This event gave me an excellent opportunity to interact with Polish community. Panel members included Consul Dariusz Wojtaszek from consulate general of the Republic of Poland in New York, Tad Witkowicz a Polish born serial entrepreneur and Patryk Drescher a Senior associate with Ropes & Gray.

I got a great insight in to the polish political, economic, social and technological factors. Following are some of the interesting notes I took from the panel discussion.

Poland has the largest fortified castle in Europe
In 2006 Poland noticed a 5 - 6% GDP growth
President and Prime Minister of Poland are identical twins
Poland is a member of OECD, NATO, EU
Poland has a population of around 30 Million
1.5 Million people migrated outside Poland in 2006. Major reason is attributed to 14%unemployment issues.
Poland saw a 30% productivity growth in 2006
Poland has a relatively low labor cost
Poland has a low Taxation(19% Tax) next only to Slovakia(16%)
EU gave 9 Billion Euro for infrastructure projects
FDI investment is around $109 Billion. In 2006 it was around $14.7 Billion

Investment Opportunities
Government is creating new programs to encourage foreign investment
Grants for organizations who provide training to Polish people
Grants for organizations who create new jobs in Poland
There are even exemptions for real estate taxes

Why should you invest in Poland?
Politically Stable
Member of European Union
Low labor cost - $50,000 USD engineer in Poland is equivalent to $180,000 USD in Boston, MA
Highly educated workforce
Strong GDP Growth

Largest American Companies in Poland
Apollo Rida
Citigroup
DELL
Google
GM
Intel
Gillette

Positives in Polish Investment
Quality Workforce
Flexible & Hardworking Workforce
Strong technological skills
Generally everyone speaks English

Some Negatives need to be cautious on
Polish people are shy, If you didn't ask they won't speak
Polish trademarks takes up to 3 years
Polish company registration takes up to 6 years, but the process is getting revamped by the government.
Communication is a critical aspect between Polish and American counterpart

More Information on Poland
Poland Government Link
Polish Food in Boston

Critical Characteristics of a good Leader: Mike White, PepsiCo International’s chairman and chief executive officer, told a Stanford Graduate School of Business audience March 6 what he considers the six critical characteristics of good leaders:

• All good leaders have perspective. They simplify problems, ask the right questions, and balance long- and short-term interests. They listen more than they talk. Good leaders “need to be able to cut through the clutter and come up with a solution.”



• Successful leaders turn strategy into results. They face reality and adjust plans to achieve their goals. They motivate people and are decisive, adhering to the 70-30 rule: If you have 70 percent of the information it’s time to make a decision because “if you hold out for the last 30 percent you’re probably toast.”



• Great leaders have the courage to make changes, even when things are good. In 1996, when PepsiCo announced it was spinning off its restaurant business, Forbes magazine called the move a huge and irretrievable strategic blunder. It turned out to be a good move, but at the time it took a lot of courage, White said.



• Effective leaders are self aware and savvy. They know how to read people and organizations, and they flex their style to achieve results.



• True leaders have unshakeable integrity. They set the moral tone and ethical standard of an organization. They ask for help and seek the council of others.



• Proven leaders know how to build strong teams. A leader’s ability to recognize potential in others and foster it builds successful organizations.

On April 21 2007 We were privileged to have Regina Lewis PhD, VP of Dunkin Brands,Inc. present her experience with Dunkin Brands. She focused on the impacts of Consumer Insights to a brand. Our team asked many questions relating to Dunkin Donuts brand, its evolution, cross marketing opportunities between Dunkin and Baskin Robbins,etc.,

She presented on "How can consumer insights creatively drive brands to new level". She gave some excellent information on how to focus on various needs and states. Also how to capture those details in a structured format and equate it to areas of opportunities. Thus offering numerous opportunity for a marketing manager to use its resources efficiently. For e.g. Dunkin Donuts found that people like to drink coffee at around 3:00 PM because they want to celebrate the end of office hour.

She explained 2 innovative theories on marketing research - Depriveness Study and Realness Report. Depriveness works on the psychological senses that people realize the importance of something when they didn't have it. Realness research works on the principle of reciprocation where by requesting the customer of opposite competitor brands to switch brands. This gives great insights in to competitor gaps and innovative results.

Overall, this was great presentation by Dr. Regina Lewis. I loved every moment of it.

BTW, I will be going to a presentation on "Doing Business in Poland" next week.

HR Management Article: What is the Return On Investment of the Executive MBA?

This is an interesting article relating financial support from corporates to Executive MBAs. Is there a lack of return on ivestment? Article by Suffolk University Executive MBA director Kristin Polito

My day started with an exciting creation. Yesterday I got to play with a recent introduction named Yahoo Pipes. In simple terms, Yahoo pipe is an information aggregator which can be used to aggregate information from various sources. In addition to this, data collected from different sources can be conditioned, processed and formatted to desired output. Surprisingly creating a Yahoo pipe was very easy and instantaneous.

Today I extended my yahoo pipe learning to create a pipe for doing a SWOT analysis. I thought it would be a cool to share my learning's.

Click Here to see My Pipe URL

Following are the steps to create a Yahoo pipe

1. Go to pipes.yahoo.com/pipes
2. Click on Mypipe and create a new pipe
3. Name your pipe
4. Select the input data from the toolset. I selected a Text input and name it Company Name.
5. Select the String from the toolset for concatenating the words such as "Strength's", "Weaknesses", "Opportunity", and "Threats". You should have 4 String box for each attribute.
6. Select 4 Source objects from the toolset. I selected Yahoo search. At this stage connect each string attribute to the source attribute. This would result in fetching data for individual keyword. For e.g. If you have Company name as Amazon, you should get output for Amazon Strengths
7. Select a Union operator and link every source object to it
8. Finally connect the Union operator to the pipe output. Now hit preview pipe, if you see the results - Hurray - You have created your first pipe.

You can view my SWOT Analysis pipe here ...



Following is a list of my other pipes.

SRIC-BI | VALS: "VALS™ is a marketing and consulting tool that helps businesses worldwide develop and execute more effective strategies. The system identifies current and future opportunities by segmenting the consumer marketplace on the basis of the personality traits that drive consumer behavior. VALS applies in all phases of the marketing process, from new-product development and entry-stage targeting to communications strategy and advertising."

13 Strategies for Advancing Your Career

from Sun Tzu’s Art of War
By Gary Gagliardi

Why do most people never find a satisfying rewarding career? Because they never learn how competition in the job market works. Success in a career demands a long-tern strategy, but unfortunately, most Americans know little of either developing a career strategy or executing it. 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote a book called The Art of War that outlined those rules to creating a winning strategy. Though written in the context of war, those same rules can be easily applied to any competitive endeavor. In our book, Sun Tzu The Art of War Plus The Art of Career Building, we adapted the complete text of Sun Tzu’s philosophy directly to advancing your career. Here are a few highlights:

the best brands of the world - vector brand, logo, logotype, logos and logotypes

I found this site named Brands of the world, which has the downloadable brands of various companies.

Best brands of the World is World's one of the most visited web sites intended for browsing and exchange of the World's famous brand-logos. The primary use of site is to enable designers to access vector-forms of the well-known brand-logos that they can use in their presentations, given the permission of the copyright owner. The web site also enables designers to upload their own works and professional details.

T. V. Raman

T.V.Raman's usage of Google - tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful.

The Break-Even Calculator

Arthashastra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arthashastra
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Arthashastra (more precisely Arthaśāstra) is a treatise on statecraft and economic policy which identifies its author by the names Kautilya[1] and Viṣṇugupta,[2] who are traditionally identified with the Mauryan minister Cāṇakya.[3]

The Sun Tzu Strategy Site

Who Is Sun Tzu?
SUN TZU QUOTE OF THE WEEK
They do not engage an enemy advancing with well-ordered banners nor one whose formations are in impressive array...Therefore, the art of employing troops is that when the enemy occupies high ground, do not confront him' with his back resting on hills, do not oppose him.

Mark McNeilly. Author & Speaker

Mark McNeilly. Author, Speaker, ConsultantMark is the author of two books on Sun Tzu's Art of War, both published by Oxford University Press. Sun Tzu and the Art of Business: Six Strategic Principles for Managers helps business people apply Sun Tzu's strategic philosophy to business problems. With this book now in its sixth printing and translated into five different languages Mark is one of the world's most widely read authors on the application of Sun Tzu's principles in business. Sun Tzu and the Art of Modern Warfare was created for those who have an interest in how Sun Tzu's ideas have been applied in military history and current warfare.

Coca-Cola - Press Center - Speeches

Speeches
06/22/06
Leadership and Transforming an Organization
CIES - The Food Business Forum
World Food Business Summit: Flying High in the Face of Competition
Paris, France
E. Neville Isdell, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company

Project South Asia

Area Development Online: "Still, France and the UK have the most well-established auto clusters in Western Europe. France is home to a number of automotive suppliers and fuel cell research facilities. This is where PSA Peugeot Citroen produces 900,000 vehicles a year. The UK is especially strong in automotive assembly plants, with Honda and Press Steel Fisher manufacturing car bodies there. Experts say Western Europe can rebound as countries seek to improve productivity."

Beat The Market, An Interactive Microeconomics Game

MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS

A Study Guide
by

Richard A. Stanford

Government Provided Datasources

List of Government Provided Datasources

Managerial Economics, Companion Website


This site contains the following resources:
Learning objectives for each chapter.
An online study guide containing multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions.
Appendices to the book offered only online
Excel Modules.

Patrick Kuhse professional speaker


Patrick’s dynamic presentations have entertained, enlightened and inspired countless audiences throughout the country. From Harvard to Stanford, he is a favorite on college campuses and is a frequent keynote presenter and guest speaker at various forums including in-house seminars, industry and trade conferences. Patrick utilizes his 20+ years of experience as a financial planner, stockbroker, entrepreneur, international fugitive and federal inmate to uniquely translate common critical thinking errors into our everyday personal and professional ethical challenges and dilemmas.

Official Website of Patrick Kuhse - Patrick Kuhse professional speaker


Official Biography of Patrick Kuhse - Biography of Patrick Kuhse

Patrick Kuhse, Former International Fugitive and Convicted Felon, Addresses HBS Students - News


Patrick Kuhse first started to feel dissatisfied at Arizona University. The Iowa country boy joined a fraternity where he confronted the painful contrast between his plain ordinary roots and his friends' wealthy families. Despite growing up in a "very tight family unit" Kuhse began to believe, "I didn't grow up so good."As he began to comprehend the power of wealth, envy and desire captured Kuhse's consciousness until he began to feel entitled.Wasn't he just as deserving, after all, of all that wealth as his friends? As he lived and traveled with his fraternity brothers, the desire to become wealthy eclipsed everything that had ever been important to Kuhse, including family. Finally, too impatient to wait until graduation, Kuhse dropped out of college and went to work as a salesperson at a securities firm.During his first few weeks in his new office in New York City's Chrysler Building Kuhse remembers thinking, "These people are obsessed with money - they never sleep!" His new peer group was filled with 50 to 60 "hard chargers" and "type As.""I thought I had finally died and gone to Heaven," he said

Chapter 2: - Title

Describing and Exploring Data
Once a bunch of data has been collected, the raw numbers must be manipulated in some fashion to make them more informative. Several options are available including plotting the data or calculating descriptive statistics ...

Course Descriptions

EMBA 600 – Management Seminar
The Executive Management Seminar is comprised of activities, exercises, cases, and simulations, all of which are integrated to provide you with an introduction to self-awareness and leadership. The course provides you with the opportunity to learn about and experience first-hand the many complexities in the roles of top leaders and managers. The course is designed using experiential educational processes that help illustrate highly valuable insights students can apply to their leadership development.

EMBA 610 – Organizational Behavior
Examines the fundamental principles underlying attitudes, motivations, and decision-making in the workplace.

EMBA 620 – Marketing Analytics
Introduces the general concepts and managerial applications of descriptive and inferential statistics using evidence from judgment, samples and processes. Includes basic probability theory, with applications of the Binomial, Poisson, Normal and Chi-Squared distributions; and the use of contingency tables, conditional probabilities, and tests of statistical significance. Introduces multivariate analysis with linear, nonlinear and multiple regression, with exercises in data mining with large data files. MS Excel is used throughout the course.

EMBA 625 – Operations Management*
Taking place internationally, as part of the International Seminar, Operations Management is the systematic direction and control of the processes that transform inputs into finished goods and services. These goods and services have characteristics that distinguish them in the marketplace, such as high quality, low cost, or rapid delivery. This course introduces the concepts and analytical methods useful in understanding management issues in manufacturing and service industries. Topics covered include manufacturing and service operations, supply chain management, total quality management, and forecasting.

EMBA 630 – Economic Analysis for Managers I
Develops the basic tools of microeconomic analysis with emphasis on business decision-making on organizational performance and competitiveness with respect to domestic and international business. Microeconomic topics covered include the price system, supply, and demand, market equilibrium, elasticity, utility theory and consumer choice, short-run and long-run costs and their impact on output decisions in perfect and imperfect markets, and the economics of labor markets, and other factor inputs in the production process.

EMBA 630 – Economic Analysis for Managers II
Develops the basic tools of macroeconomic analysis with emphasis on business decision-making on organizational performance and competitiveness with respect to domestic and international business. Macroeconomic topics covered include national output and income, inflation, unemployment, personal consumption and government expenditures, business investment, the Federal Reserve System, money supply and demand, monetary policy, interest rates, aggregate demand and supply, supply side economics, international trade, comparative advantage, and the balance of payments, and exchange rates. This course is a continuation of EMBA 630 I.

EMBA 640 – Financial Reporting and Control
Deals with the structure and information content of the three principal financial statements of profit-directed companies: the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. It develops skills in the use of accounting information to analyze the performance and financial condition of a company and to facilitate decision-making, planning and budgeting, and performance appraisal in a managerial context. Students with no prior background in accounting complete a programmed instruction in the mechanics of double entry accounting at the start of the course.

EMBA 650 – Value-Based Financial Management
Introduces the basic principles of corporate finance. The main focus of the course is on fundamental principles such as time value of money, asset valuation, and risk and return trade-off. Topics covered also include cost of capital, capital budgeting, and capital structure.

EMBA 660 – Marketing: The Challenge of Managing Value
Marketing is changing -- constantly driven by dramatic technology developments, globalization, and evolving consumption values, practices, and lifestyles. This course covers marketing themes, theories, and trends that are critical for superior business performance in the 21st century. In this course, we examine current marketing theory as it is being shaped by forward-thinking academics and new developments in business practices. This course provides students with a strong foundation in marketing principles and practices.

EMBA 670 – Information Management for Competitive Advantage
Focuses on exploiting information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) for a competitive advantage. It explores the impact of IS and IT on the internal and external environments of organizations. Examines decisions needed for effective deployment of IS and IT, such as selection of IT infrastructure, valuation of IT business models, and analysis of the operational benefits and risks. Introduces students to the opportunities and challenges of managing technology activities to meet the needs of business executives, IT executives, users, and IT partners.

EMBA 680 – Managing in the Ethical and Legal Environment
Applies multidisciplinary analytical techniques and case analysis as strategic management tools to assist executives in successfully navigating an increasingly complex, evolving, and highly competitive business environment in which ethical, legal, economic, and regulatory forces are continuously reshaping the global marketplace and creating or limiting competitive opportunities.

EMBA 780 – Managing in the Global Environment*
Taking place internationally, as part of the International Seminar, this course introduces students to the fundamentals of the global business environment and the cross-cultural factors that affect management practice in this environment. Topics covered include economic environment, free trade and regional integration, foreign direct investment, exchange rate determination and relevant government policies, the decision to go international, and the multinational firm and its business functions.

EMGOB 860 - Leadership Seminar
Designed to develop and refine organizational leadership skills at multiple levels, this seminar combines classroom activities with a physical challenge, resulting in an intensive educational experience based upon the synergy of concept and application.

EMBA 770 - Washington Seminar
Conducted in Washington, D.C., this seminar provides a first hand exposure to the linkage between public and economic policy and its impact on business strategy development and execution. It includes meetings with key members of Congress, the Administration, lobbyists, the media, and other organizations that may influence policy development.

EMBA 800 - Strategic Management
Students develop a multifunctional general management perspective, integrating and applying knowledge and techniques learned in the core courses of the EMBA program. Students also learn about the principal concepts, frameworks, and techniques of strategic management; develop the capacity for strategic thinking; and examine the organizational and environmental contexts in which strategic management unfolds. Students achieve these course objectives through a variety of learning activities, such as case studies, computer simulations, examinations, project reports, and experiential exercises.

EMGIB 900 – Global Product Innovation & Development
Designed to equip students with the necessary knowledge, expertise and capabilities to understand and apply the foundational concepts of global product innovation and development. Covers a variety of topics related to global product development, engineering and manufacturing and their integration to successfully launch new products. The course will use casework and an experiential project, the latter of which will immerse the students in the concept of virtual teamwork.

EMKT 900 –Customer Perspectives: Behavior, Research, and Analysis
Introduces students to key concepts in the fields of buyer behavior and marketing research. Customer perspectives will be examined in light of major topics in consumer behavior including attitudes, involvement and decision-making. To gain an appreciation of methods for understanding buyer behavior, students will explore qualitative and quantitative marketing research approaches (including data analysis).

EMBA 900 – Experiential Field Research Project
The objective of the Experiential Field Research Project is to create a synergistic event that combines a student’s course work, research, and career business experience which will serve as the capstone of the Suffolk Executive MBA Program. The event is a research-based application of what is learned in the classroom to the student’s professional work environment. This experiential is personally designed, business focused and built on the student’s own interests and career goals. Each student will be assigned a faculty member to facilitate the successful completion of this field research project.

EMGOB 840 – Power and Influence
The exercise of power and influence and the related aspects of political behavior have been recognized, both from a practical and theoretical standpoint, as an increasingly important and largely overlooked component of organizational life. The main objective of this course is to provide a framework of detecting, interpreting and understanding power and influence manifestations in a rational and objective manner. Topics addressed include: (1) the concept of power, influence, and politics and their role in organizational life; (2) sources of power and influence; (3) assessment of and conditions for the use of power; (4) strategies, tactics and modalities of political behavior; and (5) managerial and structural implications of power and politics. The course is conducted in a seminar format with computer model applications.

EMGOB 855 – Conflict and Negotiation
Emphasizes the theory and skills of win-win negotiation. Students assess their own negotiation styles, analyze the process of negotiation and apply theory-based skills for integrative problem-solving approaches to negotiation. The course utilizes a mix of teaching tools, including readings, lectures, cases, exercises, videotapes and role-playing.

*International Seminar
This week long seminar is an exceptional opportunity to experience the global business environment first-hand in Europe, Asia, or Latin America. The seminar includes a comprehensive examination of the economic, political and cultural perspectives of doing business in the global community, and exposes you to strategic issues through an experiential learning process. Students register for the combination of EMBA 625 and EMBA 780 which are the two courses which comprise this seminar.

Suffolk EMBA - Program Overview

The Suffolk University Executive MBA Program is a Saturday-only, 18-month program offered in Boston, Massachusetts. The program offers a cluster-based, fully integrated approach to executive learning with an emphasis on global leadership. Offsite seminars that emphasize leadership, global business, diversity and ethics, policy and management are central to the program. Case studies, lectures, experiential learning, and management simulations are emphasized in a team-centric environment.

* 18 courses (51 credits)
* Saturday-only schedule (with exception of Residential Seminars)
* Students move through the curriculum in cohort groups
* A Field research project tailored to your individual career goals
* Structure: 4 Integrated Clusters

Unlike traditional MBA programs where students take courses in a sequential order, the Suffolk Executive MBA features a cutting edge cluster structure which mirrors how business works across functional areas. In our unique approach the relationships between subject matter is leveraged. Course content and subject areas are represented in the chart below, individual course titles and descriptions can be found here Course Descriptions.


Suffolk’s Executive MBA features four required residential seminars that promote an educational experience focused on integrated thinking and global leadership. Each seminar builds upon previous classroom work and sets the stage for the next cluster of courses. Each seminar is held at an off-site location. The four seminars are as follows:

Management Seminar
The introduction to the Executive MBA experience, the Management Seminar focuses on ethics and social responsibility, and utilizes both business simulations and case study methods. This 4 day seminar takes place in Chatham, MA and provides you with an excellent opportunity to learn about and experience first-hand the many complexities in the roles of top leaders and managers. The highlight of this seminar is a simulation which creates a realistic leadership experience. The simulation emphasizes the interpersonal dynamics that occur between people as they address issues that often involve departmental interdependencies, power relationships, and judgment. Students receive peer feedback relating to their simulation participation and role effectiveness. Our students find that this seminar to be highly motivational, resulting in tremendous personal growth.

International Seminar
In this week-long seminar, you will participate in a comprehensive examination of the economic, political and cultural perspectives of doing business in the global economy. You will be exposed to strategic issues through an experiential learning process. The Executive MBA prepares students to become comfortable working in teams which function across borders. During the seminar, you meet with industry leaders, local, national and multinational businesses; and complete a group project. Company and cultural visits combined with both pre- and post-trip class sessions create a dynamic and rewarding educational experience. Executive MBA students visit Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Leadership Seminar
This 5 day seminar was created to develop and refine organizational leadership skills at multiple levels. Classroom activities and a physical challenge result in an intensive educational experience based upon the synergy of concept and application.

The challenge of leadership is to know your strengths and to develop them in ways, which have a direct, positive impact on the organization. While leadership is traditionally defined as a "top-down" flow of power, vision and influence, recent trends in empowerment and downsizing have led to a redefinition of the concept. Leadership is now viewed, in part, as "interpenuership": it is not the title, but rather the person, who defines the role of "leader." You will learn how well you really function in a group dynamic. Do you rise to face challenges? Do you accept and handle risk? Do you adapt to change? How well do you really know your leadership style?

Washington Seminar
As an Executive MBA student you are given direct access to movers and shakers in Washington, D.C. This 5 day seminar provides first-hand exposure to linkage between public and economic policy and its impact on business strategy development and execution. You will meet with key members of Congress, the Administration, influential lobbyists, the media, and other organizations that influence policy development. You will examine first-hand how the branches of government operate and learn to assess government action and its impact on both national and international business.

Suffolk University - Executive MBA

Great Leaders Are Born on Saturdays

Suffolk’s 18 month Saturday-only Executive MBA combines academic rigor with a strong focus on practical application. The Executive MBA is ideal for mid-level executives and professionals who aspire to greater responsibility within the competitive global environment. Our students learn to collectively leverage their experiences to look across organizations and borders.

* Saturday Only Schedule - Earn an MBA without interrupting your career.
* Valuable Cohort/Mentor Network - Immediate access to a network of highly motivated professionals.
* Leadership Training with a Global Perspective -Challenge yourself to lead others and thrive in the dynamic and competitive marketplace.
* Immediate Benefits for Your Career - Leverage your experiences in the classroom and in our career focused experiential project with immediate application to your organization.
* Life-Long Learning for Life-Long Results - As a graduate of the Executive MBA program you may audit any Executive MBA course without tuition."