The Business Plan competition was a fun challenge after all

During last week of classes, in December, all second year MBAs presented their business plans to a panel of external judges. Out of twenty teams/projects, five were chosen to be in the final round. The selection was made based on several factors, like for example: comprehensiveness and clarity of the business plan, fit of the strategy with the market opportunity, quality of analysis, integration of the plan's functional components, creativity during the presentation, etc.

Our team was one of finalists, and we were excited about that! We presented our product for a second time in front of a new panel of external judges in a QVC infomercial format. The infomercial drove the audience through the product benefits, its competition, the technology behind it, the financial aspects and funding mechanism, and how the product would satisfy the target consumer’s needs.

After thorough judges’ deliberation, we ended up in second place; but we definitely loved the additional challenge of those last 2 days of competition!

Thanksgiving, what a great tradition

  On November 24th, about 50 people met at Pete’s and Carolyn’s house to celebrate the thanksgiving holiday. For those of you who do not know them, Pete and Carolyn are current professors at Boston College. Every year, they offer their house and prepare a fest for all the students who want to share that special date with them.

Among the participant of this year were current students of different programs of the Boston College School of Management (MBA, MSA, MSF), and some alumni who keep in touch with these professors and come back every year to spend thanksgiving with them.

We had a great time, chatting, eating, and learning curios facts about different countries represented in the group. This year we had people from several countries, like India, Greece, Germany, Mexico, China, South Korea, USA, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, and Canada.

We are all very grateful for the strength of the BC community, and the nice time that we spend with Pete and Carolyn. I hope I can visit them again next year.

Business Plan Project

Going back to classes has been great, and I can’t believe we are already in the second half of the semester.  One of my favorite classes has been the Business Plan Project. It is one of those classes that keep you connected to the real world situation, because it requires you to work with an entrepreneur who wants to launch a product. The objective of the class is for the team to develop a business plan for that new product to be launched next year. My team and I are just in the middle of developing the interim report, and we have learned many things about this new industry and technology. I cannot say details of our project, but I can tell you how interesting it is to be part of it.

During the summer…

After a fantastic summer we are all back to study. But, before I tell you about my new classes and electives, I wanted to share with you my internship experience.

I went to Atlanta this summer to work for 12 weeks in a great company: Newell Rubbermaid. I did my internship in Corporate Marketing, and had the opportunity to work with really brilliant and nice people. My boss had great experience both in Marketing and Consulting, and I learned a lot about how to approach problems.

I worked on several projects with different people. For example, one project I worked on was with a specific brand (Ashland) and its various team members; for other projects, I had to work with 2 marketing agencies.  And the best of all, I collaborated to produce the first Newell Rubbermaid global marketing summit, which brought great speakers to inspire the marketing community to be curious and do better brand building.

I had a great time, and the most wonderful experience.

What a leadership week!

During the last couple of weeks, different BC MBA clubs have organized fantastic external speakers and events for the student BC community. The Marketing and the Sports Club organized "Leadership 101 within College Athletics", which was an interesting panel between several people in the sports industry. Speakers included Gene DeFilippo, Athletics Director of BC, Lou Imbriano, CEO of TrinityOne, and Mark Lev, Vice President of Fenway Sports Group. They all commented about their experiences in different stages of their careers and shared how to succeed in the world of sports.

On the other hand, in the same week, Graduate Women in Business Club and the Council for Women of Boston College put together another panel presenting 6 terrific women who talked to us about their lives in "Women's Perspective from the Top". The room was full of professional women and students from BC, who laughed at some of these women's anecdotes and experiences. We all paid attention to their very different stories about being at the top of their professions. Elizabeth Pomfret, Chair of the Department of Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Diseases in Lahey Clinic, talked about her experience in the medical field, while Pamela Civins, Executive Director of Boston Partners in Education, shared how the education world shaped her life.
Great inspiration for all of us!

Manager‘s Studio Session

A couple of weeks ago, we had another Manager’s Studio session.  This is a unique activity of the MBA program at Boston College, in which CEOs come to BC to talk about their experience, successes and also failures. This time the guest was Greg Brown, the CEO of Motorola Solutions. His impressive career was a topic of the conversation; however, the focus of these sessions intends to be more intimate and in depth.

I was very impressed with the openness of this CEO.  We not only heard about the successful changes he implemented, but also times when he made mistakes, how he tried to fix them, the costs, and his personal sacrifices.  We all listened very carefully to how he enjoyed his work and how he tried to balance his life and family demands.

What I love about the Manager’s Studio, is that it gives you broader perspective into the business world, and valuable experiences from women and men who are performing in it. These are invaluable opportunities of BC MBA program.

Winter is going by very fast, but our classes are faster!

We started school mid-January and we have just passed the midterms of the first part of the semester; it is going by very fast. I am taking several electives for my concentration in Marketing, but one class that I am really enjoying right now is Modeling Decision Analysis. We have had 2 team assignments so far, and the best part of doing these assignments has been the rich discussions within the team.

Another class that is really interesting for all of us is the Management Practice II. This course is essentially a consulting project for a company. In my team case, we are doing this consultancy for Mercedes Benz. The project is very interesting and challenging; we just wished we had more time to devote to this, as it really puts into practice a lot of what we have been learning.

I will write more later, for now enjoy your Friday!

By the way, we won the final Championship Game of Flag Football last December at Cleveland Circle field ….