MBA Diary: Harvard'S "Makeover"

From the moment we entered Harvard Business School, we were promised that we would have a "face to face experience".

And everyone has doubts: what have I become?

Consultant?

Entrepreneur?

Hedge fund managers?

Or a resourceful global supply chain manipulator?

The MBA course for two years is over half.

Do I have to go to China to chase opportunities?

Or are we looking for opportunities at home, no matter where they are?

Am I worried about the loan that I have to build for this degree, or do I follow the Harvard's frequent suggestion that I should regard the loan as a "rounding error" of my future wealth?

Technically speaking, the large scale recruitment campaign in 2006 started in October, but in fact, the year has already started, because this is the beginning of hunting for summer jobs.

With the encouragement of the employment guidance office, the students drew up a well-designed data sheet and marked it with color, which was full of contact telephone numbers, including alumni, friends, friends' cousins, and dog friends.

Among those who aspire to Wall Street, some have submitted up to 30 applications, resulting in 30 interviews in a week.

This is totally insane, but this is a typical symptom of collective frenzy.

When you put 1800 Harvard MBA students in a closed space for a few months, the collective frenzy gradually matured.

I spent two minutes in two investment management companies, and each interview took about two minutes to determine our matching degree.

When the other side asked me to explain why the stock price would float, I remember that I was "out of my mind" at the time. I felt as if I was floating above the room, looking at two men in white shirts, and they were staring at my waving hands. They looked puzzled and confused, and I didn't say anything.

This is how I see it. If I had never read Harvard Business School, I wouldn't even have this interview, nor would I have studied the investment management industry, nor would I have met the insiders in that field, nor would I know for sure that the job was not for me.

Now I can safely remove it from my list of candidates.

The business school is an educational process for many students. It is also a process of editing life.

It gives you time to think about which job can give you satisfaction.

You will meet many business people and listen to their opinions. Every time you meet, you are thinking, yes, I can be like this person, or I can work for them, or please, let me leave this place.

Over the past year, I have had many two experiences.

Terry, chief executive of YAHOO (Yahoo)?

Semel (Terry Semel) explained how he bought negotiations, or David, founder of Carlyle Group (Carlile).

Rubenstein (David Rubenstein) provides advice on the management of public and private sector life, or Richard, founder of Perry Capital (Perry Perry)?

Perry (Richard Perry) gracefully uncovers the hedge fund industry, or is it Google's Larry?

When Paige (Larry Page) described how search and plation technology would change the world, I was thinking, wow, that's great.

There are also some unexpected speakers, especially a series of entertainment and media executives, like Geoff of NBC NBC Universal Television.

Joe Zucker (Jeff Zucker) and Revolution Studios?

Roth (Joe Roth) and President of Universal Television (Universal Studios) Brad?

Gray (Brad Grey).

On a wet night in February, I heard a hero in the news field, Alessandro, President of Grupo Reforma in Mexico.

Hung Ke?

Virtue?

PULL?

Alejandro Junco de la Vega, the group's newspaper, traces the corrupt politicians in the country in an unprecedented way.

In this sense, business school is far from the kind of business experience that I imagined.

There is no doubt that there are financial and accounting courses, game theory in strategy, and hard work to deal with the balance of payments in international economics.

But business schools also strongly encourage you to think about how this may become a part of life.

There are also all the repressed energies in such schools, which will be released in the most unexpected way.

Just before Christmas, a guy named avi?

Kreamer (Avi Kremer) classmates were diagnosed as motor neuron disease (ALS), Lu?

Glick (Lou Gehrig) is suffering from chronic neuromuscular disease.

He wrote an article in the student newspaper about how he managed a fortune 500 company from dream to get married with his fiancee.

His classmates quickly took action to hold sales, auctions and other activities. By the end of the school year, more than 100 thousand dollars had been raised for the study of the disease.

He is determined to continue his MBA study and plan to graduate in time next year.

"We are talking about" leaders who change the world, "said NIM, the leader of cremo.

Boaz (Nate Boaz) quoted Harvard Business school motto as saying, "avi has given us the best lesson so far."

For some people, it's not too early to come back to work.

For them, MBA is like a mandatory vacation. They lie on the beach with palm trees and curse their Blackberry wireless e-mail system.

They can't wait to get back to the professional escalator.

After 10 years of journalism, I enjoyed this holiday.

It gave me the time I never had before to accompany my wife and son, which may have no effect on my future in the business world, but it is still wonderful.

Now I find them fascinating.

Who would have thought that the cash flow curve of the supply chain, Sarbanes Oxley Act (Sarbanes-Oxley) or start-ups is so interesting?

At the practical level, I have worked with a technical savvy student to set up a digital content company Maby Media to explore innovation and business opportunities in podcasting.

Podcasting is a way to record and publish audio content online.

We have drafted a business plan, talked with potential investors, tested the market, conducted a "road test" to the technology, and kept our cost at the lowest level.

It has always been a fascinating process to enter the digital media from a newspaper office. Everyone here is groping for trial, testing parameters and business models, and questioning everything from the delivery system to the essence of news and entertainment itself.

This is a turbulent frontier, where there is no limit to what our business will become.

If I did not enter Harvard Business School, would I have time or courage to set foot in this field?

Maybe not.

If you have problems here, someone will give you an answer.

As professor often said, this is a risk free environment.

This is particularly evident in this year's business plan competition. The winning student made a plan for a company called Uplift to make bra for a more productive woman.

She felt frustrated because she could not find the right bra, and her inspiration was rooted in her frustration. It also came from her own first rule breaking the sales rule. This rule is: don't imagine yourself as a client.

She won $10 thousand in cash and equivalent accounting and legal entrepreneurship services to help her turn the vision into reality.

Let's not say that Harvard Business School is just talking on paper.