The McCombs School of Business in Texas is gearing up for its seventh annual Study Abroad Fair, to be held today in McCombs Plaza, in an effort to encourage business students to go overseas.

About a third of the business school’s students study abroad, the highest percentage of any college, according to Claudia Prieto, the international program coordinator for the business school.

“We want our students to have some type of global perspective,” she said. “Over 33% of our business students have international experience at graduation time.”

The Study Abroad Fair will focus on 27 partner schools that cater to business students. Only students enrolled in the business school can participate in the programs.

Meanwhile, the University-wide Study Abroad Fair takes place today in Gregory Plaza, and will include programs available to all majors. The University-wide fair takes place twice a year.

Other colleges, including the College of Communication and the Cockrell School of Engineering, will also hold their own study abroad fairs later in the semester.

via DailyTexanOnline.com

from QS Top MBA

With the third largest economy in the world and few rivals in certain industries –automotive, chemical and electrical products in particular – Germany is one of the world’s leading industrial nations.

A high-wage driven economy and a successful history in business and industry in recent years has also seen her develop into a leading finance centre, particularly in Frankfurt, and with an automotive industry that is the envy of the world. Despite this and its population of over 82 million, large by European standards, Germany is not a powerhouse in terms ofbusiness schools and MBA programs. The UK, Spain,France, Switzerland, and Italy all have internationally renowned business schools. So why has powerful Germany lagged so far behind?

Bologna Process
The Bologna Process, designed to level the playing field for education across Europe, has had a complex impact in Germany and divided opinion perhaps more than in any other European country. In Spring 2009, ten years after the process began, there were still protests to Chancellor Angela Merkel against the restructuring of the German education system. The changes to the system had to be radical in many cases. German undergraduate programs, which are legally bound not to charge fees, had previously been based on a five- or six-year diploma system. To some minds, this system encouraged many students to take their time with degrees, often changing between courses and not feeling the pressure to complete courses. On the other hand, many Germans valued the system of education for its own sake, and felt that forcing students into the new three-year system was a mistake.

Either way, according to Bärbel Schwertfeger of German-based website mba-channel.com, the result was that, under the previous system, too many Germans left university too old to get the work experience necessary for business school. “After six years study and three years of work experience, this didn’t fit with the German culture, which favours education within a company which the employee would then never leave.”

Internationalism
Germany’s problem attracting international students – though it must be said that, proportionately, mostMBA programs in Germany have an enviably high proportion of international students – has been partly down to the accreditation process. Currently Mannheim Business School is the only one to have received the enviable triple-accreditation.

The problem is more to do with time than quality, says Dean Professor Wulff Plinke at ESMT in Berlin. “The key international accrediting bodies, AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA, take at least three years to accredit a course and it can take a school the same time to even be prepared to apply for accreditation. We’re delighted to have the AMBA accreditation for our course so early.”

Sabine Weinheimer of Goethe Business School in Frankfurt agrees and shows that this lack of accreditation heavily affects the performance of business school in the rankings. “Before Bologna, there were not many programs held in English. As a consequence the programs are relatively new and they do not show up in the rankings yet, a circle we are currently breaking out of. It will take a few years before prospective students get a real feeling for what they get out of the [German business] schools. Only then will the market get a boost in awareness which it needs to grow further.”

Despite recent bad press, Germany is an extremely multi-cultural nation and very welcoming of international students and workers. The level of English is also generally very high, particularly among the younger generation. However, additional problems lie elsewhere. Says Bärbel Schwertfeger, “if you don’t speak German you can forget about a job [in Germany], even in an international bank and even one that is English-speaking.”
Sabine Weinheimer says, “For foreigners the German education system has a good reputation but mainly among those who seek employment and want to stay in Germany.” However, according to more than oneMBA graduate interviewed, work is “difficult to find” in Germany at the moment as the nation suffers from the economic downturn, and this is true “especially for non-German speakers.”

Finding her way
Despite a relatively slow start, in business school terms, Germany is beginning to find its way and MBArecruiters are taking notice, choosing six business schools in the top 100 European business schools(see table 1). Dean Plinke of ESMT, a school created by funding from 25 leading German companies and associations and particularly strong in executive education for middle-level employees of those companies, puts this down to Germany’s “great strength in the automotive industry. Germany is well-known to be a technological innovator,” he says.

A recently article by CNN Expansión tells the story of two Mexican senior executives with more than 70 years old that last year took the AD2 program from the IPADE Business School.

One of them is Víctor Manuel Requejo (71), founder of Hipotecaria Nacional and headman his own property consultant. He studied the same AD2 program 37 years ago. The other is José Antonio Pérez (73), who leads Grupo Fármacos Especializados.

About their experience in Business School after 70, both remark that:

• “Sometimes, CEOs doesn’t appreciate the innovation in market, and this takes companies to ruin”.
• “The blindness of the manager makes the company fade”
• “We can discover new skill within ourselves enhancing the team working”.
• “I was forced to study so I could participate in the discussion tables. You can’t make an opinion without any background”.
• “I learned a lot from the passion that IPADE’s teachers use to communicate. The passion leads to change, to reflection”

Via CNN Expansión

Time is money, whether you’ve got a job or not. While it may be tempting to chase down every possibility when you’re searching for work, don’t. Many can lead you down a blind alley, where you may lose the contents of your wallet.

A focused search using tried and true methods, especially networking, will lead to your next job, not tactics that smack of desperation.

Avoid these five job-hunting “don’ts” that will yield the poorest of results, according to leading workplace advisor Liz Ryan.

1. Spray and pray.

Don’t blindly send your resume unsolicited, electronically or otherwise, to any company without first making verbal contact. Says Ryan, founder of AskLizRyan.com, “Tossing out un-customized cover letters and undifferentiated resumes in huge volumes and crossing your fingers is a job-search non-starter. That doesn’t work, and it hasn’t worked in 10 years, or more.” Establish a connection before sending a customized cover letter and, adds Ryan, “You can even customize your resume if a job opening calls for it.”

2. Stand in line for a job fair.

Admits Ryan, “Sad to say, but most job fairs are a waste of time. Avoid the huge cattle call-type job fairs where zillions of employers have booths, yet no one is taking resumes.” There are some job fairs that have value. Ryan, a former human resources executive, points to company-specific open hours and college placement job fairs. Tap your network to learn if anyone can recommend worthwhile fairs. “Ask around before you head off to a job fair or risk having your time wasted and your ego dashed.”

3. Earn certifications nobody wants.

It’s common to feel less-than-confident in your skills if you’re having a hard time finding work, but don’t rush out to spend money on any additional training unless you’re certain it will yield improved results. Ryan reveals, “Before you sign up for a certification training program, check the job boards to make sure that employers are asking for it. There’s no sense investing time and money in a certification no one wants.”

If you’re getting the hard-sell from an educational institution, Ryan says, “Ask the people at the school that’s doing the certifying, ‘Which local employers have hired your graduates in the past year?’ If they can’t tell you, run away.”

4. Pay a headhunter.

Don’t dole out money to any kind of recruiter or sign a contract agreeing to do so. “Real headhunters, also known as search consultants or third-party recruiters, won’t take your money. They get paid by employers to fill open jobs.” She warns, “If a recruiter calls or emails you to say s/he’s got jobs open, and then invites you to his or her office for a counseling session and presents you with a range of career-coaching services, bolt for the exit. Real search professionals won’t take a dime from their candidates.”

5. Sign up with a resume fax-blast service.

This old-school — and desperate — tactic is a total turn-off to potential employers and smacks of spam. Ryan says, “Services that send out hundreds or thousands of your resumes might have been worthwhile 20 years ago. Today, they’re worse than pointless, because it irks employers to get unsolicited resumes. Forget the fax-blast services and do your own careful research to reach decision-makers with messages they actually want to hear.”

via Yahoo! HotJobs

By Joel Friedman

Joel Friedman was eliminated from his position as the vice president of enterprise technology at the First Horizon National Corp. in May 2009. He spent 13 years with the company. Mr. Friedman, 40, received an Executive M.B.A. from the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business in 2006. He lives in McKinney, Texas.

It took three months of exhaustive searching for me to land with a company and position that is a perfect fit. I have accepted and already started my role as chief information officer for Century Payments, a payment processing company that is 15 minutes from my home.

There were many things that I was surprised to learn during my unemployment experience.

For one, I realized that even though your job should not be your life, the job and your ability to contribute meaningful value is a significant portion of who you are. To illustrate my point, think about the first few questions somebody asks you when they meet you for the first time. I can almost 100% guarantee that one of the first three questions will be “Where do you work?” It’s difficult when this portion of your identity is taken away, and you cannot proudly answer this question.

Also, I learned that no matter how hard I tried to shelter my kids from the emotional roller coaster of unemployment, they noticed. I was very financially fortunate during my ride. I had plenty of notice from my previous employer and was able to prepare financially for a period of inactivity. My wife and I agreed that we would make minor adjustments, but take no drastic actions that would “scar” our three children. During the past three months, the kids have participated in all activities, and from a financial perspective they have not had to sacrifice. I had thought that this would eliminate their worries about Dad finding a job. Boy was I wrong. And unfortunately I discovered this way too late. I wasn’t aware that my children were struggling with my unemployment until I informed them that I had actually received and accepted an offer. At that point, my middle child did a dance for joy and exclaimed to his mother that “we don’t need to move now!” What a wake up call. I feel terrible that I did not address their concerns with them head-on earlier in the process. I know that this was a difficult time for my wife and me, but I now really wonder just how hard it was for my children.

Additionally, it took time for me to realize the vital importance of being able to communicate who I was effectively (basically, building my brand). I really struggled with this during my first few weeks of my search. I was not able to clearly explain to people who I am and what I do. I have performed many different roles inside of technology organizations. So when it came down to people asking me what I do and what kind of position I was looking for, I was all over the place. It was only after taking a mental inventory of what I had accomplished over the past 15 years that I was able to sum up my experience in clear, concise terms that provided the receiver of the information a much clearer picture of me.

]]> http://www.mbaoutlook.com/2009/07/learning-the-lessons-of-unemployment/feed/ 0 http://www.mbaoutlook.com/2009/07/zoosa-a-new-social-network-for-nonprofit-boards/ http://www.mbaoutlook.com/2009/07/zoosa-a-new-social-network-for-nonprofit-boards/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:46:07 +0000 admin http://www.mbaoutlook.com/?p=756

Zoosa, a social impact platform created by the Harvard MBA graduate Mike McGlade, has recently been launched as a new network that connects professionals with nonprofit boards and skills-based volunteer positions.

Zoosa aggregates the best social enterprise resources:  industry news and employment and volunteer opportunities, to create a single destination where professionals can learn about the renewable energy, education, and nonprofit sectors.

While visiting Zoosa, MBA graduates can create a social impact profile that highlights their professional skills, their offline actions, and their interests in certain social impact issues.

“These social impact profiles have the potential to save nonprofit organizations, churches, and schools millions of dollars annually at a time when charitable giving is under increasing pressure,” says Mike McGlade, CEO of Zoosa.

Unlike other professional networks that connects job seekers with high level jobs, like LinkedIn and Plaxo, Zoosa offers a new way for organizations to find individuals who do not volunteer today, but would be willing to join a nonprofit board or donate their professional skills if asked.

McGlade  began working on Zoosa while a student at Harvard Business School, through the HBS Social Enterprise Summer Fellowships Program. “HBS is focused on supporting students who want to get involved in social entrepreneurship,” adds McGlade. The program provides financial support to MBA students working with Social enterprises to address important managerial issues utilizing their analytic and strategic skills, and recently expanded to support students starting their own social enterprises.

via www.csrwire.com

At the beginning of business school, everyone’s on his or her best behavior. Conversations stay shallow. In our attempt to paint ourselves in the best light, our “story” becomes very generic. It’s a series of linear events that led us to business school. We pretend that we expect this will continue after business school, and our post-graduate careers will turn out exactly like the essays we wrote, so we could get there in the first place.

Then, at some point, everyone stops pretending. The coursework is difficult. Most people have at least one class that truly challenges them, and some [like me] find the entire core semester material to be outside their comfort zone. Some love the coursework, but dread networking with a stranger. On top of that, their grades in some instances depend on their worst nightmare — class participation.

In one way or another, most first-year MBA students find themselves swimming upstream. As people begin to realize this, the real stories start to come out. Unlike the rosy pictures we all painted during orientation, our early careers were a series of fits and starts, big wins, upsetting steps backward, and, at times, complete stagnation.

MBA’s Value Questioned That’s why we’re in business school. At least, for me, a big reason I came to business school was that I thought if I had an MBA, I would have the credentials to skip forward and never find myself standing still. And while business school has delivered on just about everything I expected, it’s not possible for an MBA to provide that. Because the most important thing I’ve learned in business school is that business is messy.

No doubt, the economy has played a part in this. Many MBAs nationwide don’t have jobs. Some will work for free this summer, hoping to prove themselves, and some have accepted positions they swore they would not take in September. The value of an MBA has been called into question.

And yet, what I keep hearing from most of my business school colleagues is how badly they’re suffering from MBA withdrawal as the summer begins. I think what we miss most is the real-life case studies we were exposed to every day, just by talking with each other. While we learned theories in class, every professor acknowledged that, in reality, nothing ever goes by the book. The advantage of having 240 classmates from a wide variety of industries and backgrounds is that they’re able to bring topics to life. And because business is messy, the people you think will teach you one thing often end up teaching you something entirely unexpected and infinitely more valuable.

Political Values Challenged For example, a classmate of mine is a former rocket scientist [no, really]. He taught me not about a complicated technological process but about patience. I was frustrated with a group dynamics situation and wanted to fix it immediately. He told me to hold on, that these things often fix themselves, and that sometimes trying to “fix it” only makes it worse. He was right.

There are countless things my colleagues have taught me this year. My values have been challenged — I’m a liberal from Portland, Ore. who recently fired a 12-gauge shotgun on a ranch in central Texas and liked it. My technical skills have significantly improved and when I get stuck, I have a former Microsoft (MSFT) product developer on speed-dial. Most important, I’ve made peace with the fact that, in business school, there’s no award for “best all-around.” A good manager delegates, and as the year has gone by, we’ve each gotten more and more comfortable saying to a colleague “you’re better at this than I am, you do this part.”

It has been fun to watch people start to find their areas of expertise. Initially, we may have known a functional area that appealed to us and made broad stroke claims, such as “I’m a marketing person.” By now, I think most people have gotten a lot more specific. It’s not: “I’m a finance guy.” It’s: “I’m really interested in restructuring,” or “I want to work with startups and help them develop better financial structures.”

Excited for Next Year My primary goal for next year is to broaden my circle. The problem is, for everyone, inertia sets in. You don’t mean for it to happen; you swear to yourself you’re going to branch out, but then you’re busy, and it’s just easier to do a project with people who are all in your cohort, or are all involved in the same club. This means you miss out on working with amazing people.

For example, an international student in my cohort is a financial whiz and I assumed that she was going to pursue an investment banking job. So, I was surprised this semester to find her sitting next to me in an entrepreneurship class. For someone who kept quiet in our core classes, she was surprisingly vocal and developed a fantastic new business plan. Her financial savvy and my marketing experience would have been a great combination, if only I’d known she was interested in startups. Similarly, I participated in a global exchange trip to Russia. In the process, I became close friends with a number of people I had never met before.

It’s easy to miss people when you’re buried in new material, overwhelmed with work, and trying to find your career path. But by now, we all know how to manage the workload and still find time to look around. We’re figuring out what we do better than anyone else and when to pass things off to others. This is what makes me so excited for next year. It’s going to be fun to watch everyone hone in on his or her go-to skills. As we discover who the experts are, new faces will emerge, ready to teach us something entirely unexpected. Even in a bad economy, where careers are a series of fits and starts, and disappointments are inevitable, the value of this experience is unquestionable.

From: American Chronicle

www.mbaoutlook.com

Pasos para solicitar un préstamo bancario

Las principales razones por las que una empresa puede necesitar una opción de financiamiento son: la falta de liquidez necesaria para hacer frente a las operaciones diarias, como cancelar deudas, comprar insumos, mantener el inventario; y a la vez, para expandirse y apostar a nuevos negocios.

Ahora, por todas las empresas es sabido que la forma más habitual y sencilla de obtener financiamiento es por medio de un préstamo bancario u otra entidad financiera.

El proceso para pedir un prestamos es un tanto dificultosa, por todos los documentos que hay que presentar. ¿Pero, cómo no errar dentro del proceso de petición de crédito? Pues acá entregamos algunas claves.

1. La empresa debe determinar cuál será el monto que va a solicitar, y analizar en una primera instancia si es que está en condiciones de cubrir dicho monto.

2. Debe evaluar las diferentes ofertas financieras que existen, teniendo en cuenta el importe del préstamo, el plazo, y los costos de cada oferta (tasas y comisiones). La tasa de interés que señalan los bancos o entidades financieras no suele ser en realidad el único costo a pagar por el préstamo, además existen otros que no se mencionan en primera instancia, tales como las comisiones por mantenimiento

3. Una vez que conocemos el monto, debe hallar la cuota mensual a pagar, y luego, incluir dicho monto en sus proyecciones de ingresos y egresos (flujo de caja), y así, saber si con los ingresos que se están generando hasta el momento es posible de pagar.

4. Debe averiguar cuáles son los requisitos solicitados por el banco o institución financiera que ha elegido. Lo usual es que soliciten los siguientes:

- Experiencia en el mercado: de 6 meses a 1 año como mínimo, para poder demostrar que la empresa esté legalizada.
- Ser sujeto de crédito: es decir, no estar clasificado como un cliente moroso o deficiente en el cumplimiento de sus obligaciones.
- Tener capacidad de endeudamiento.
- Estados financieros históricos.
- Estados financieros proyectados (presupuestos o proyecciones, especialmente proyecciones del flujo de caja).
- Relación de 3 clientes importantes (últimas facturaciones).
- Relación de principales proveedores.
- Garantías comerciales.
- Plan de negocios (en el caso de inversiones, por ejemplo, para la ampliación del negocio): este requisito permite demostrar si el negocio es rentable.

5. Debe prepararse para contestar las preguntas que le realicen sobre la empresa. Prepararnos para decir por qué necesitamos el dinero, ofrecer detalles de la inversión, demostrar el rendimiento de la inversión, y demostrar que seremos capaces de pagar la deuda contraída.

6. Corresponderá esperar a que el banco o entidad financiera evalúe y mida el riesgo de otorgarnos el crédito y, de acuerdo a ello, decida aprobar o no entregarnos el préstamo.

Nota Original: Pasos para solicitar un préstamo bancario

Fuente: Altonivel.com.mx
www.altonivel.com.mx

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4 errores en un plan de negocios

El plan de negocios es un paso esencial que debe tomar cualquier empresario, independientemente de la magnitud de su negocio. Su principal valor será la evaluación de todos los aspectos y la factibilidad económica de una iniciativa comercial tras un análisis de la misma.

Sin embargo, existen algunos errores catastróficos que echan por la borda cualquier intento de éxito en una empresa, conózcalos:

1.- No arriesgar todo
Una empresa puede haber firmado un acuerdo, pero el énfasis excesivo en ese acuerdo puede ser percibido como debilidad. Si el 80% de los ingresos provienen de un contrato, la empresa puede vérselas muy mal si el acuerdo no llega a buen fin.

2.- Ignorar a la competencia
Un negocio no funciona en el vacío, tiene competidores directos e indirectos que lucharán a diente partido para mantener su base de clientes actuales y su cuota de mercado. Ésta declaración le indica a los inversores que el equipo de gestión es sobre confiado y no puede prever factores externos que pueden impactar el negocio.

3.- No tener un nicho establecido
Pretender que el mercado de su empresa es inmenso, y que por lo tanto cualquiera es un potencial cliente, hará perder rápidamente toda credibilidad en la misma. Al mostrar que comprende las necesidades de un pequeño mercado y puedes servir sus necesidades, ganará la confianza de los potenciales inversores.

4.- Proyecciones poco realistas
A los inversores les gusta ver una empresa con proyecciones financieras realistas y alcanzables. En este sentido, es mucho mejor ser conservadores y trabajar con un equipo profesional contable para mostrar números atractivos pero realistas.

Nota Original: 4 errores en un plan de negocios

Fuente: Altonivel.com.mx
www.altonivel.com.mx

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Los ingredientes de la creatividad

Podríamos decir que todos tenemos creatividad, pero la cantidad nos viene determinada en la lotería genética. Los grandes genios creativos de todos los campos - de las artes, de las ciencias, de los negocios o de cualquier otro ámbito - lo son porque han nacido con esa cualidad.

Por otro lado, para los que no tienen el don ¡no todo está perdido!. Aquellos que aspiran a mejorar sus niveles de creatividad, sean cuales sean, podrán. ¿Como?, utilizándola.

Si centramos el tema en el ámbito empresarial aparecen los dos factores habituales la empresa y las personas. Para potenciar la creatividad hará falta que los dos factores actúen coordinados.

Los ingredientes que la empresa tendrá que poner son las condiciones que estimulen a que las personas utilicen su creatividad. Estas condiciones deberán cubrir áreas como:

- la cultura de la empresa, que deberá premiar la creatividad, las nuevos enfoques, las mejoras y minimizar el valor de los errores y de los fracasos de las iniciativas fallidas.

- la selección y la formación de las personas: Tendrá que elegir, formar y estimular la creatividad individual.

- el entorno físico: la disposición de los elementos de trabajo, la decoración, el ambiente, que contribuirán a que todo fluya en la dirección adecuada.

Por su parte, las personas deberán tener la disposición, la orientación, la voluntad de enfocar su labor haciendo de la creatividad un aliado. Pensando continuamente como mejorar las tareas que configuran sus responsabilidades para aumentar su rendimiento. Pensando cómo hacer para que su trabajo sea un elemento vivo que mejore con el tiempo la capacidad de competir de la empresa.

Nota Original: Los ingredientes de la creatividad

Fuente: Altonivel.com.mx
www.altonivel.com.mx

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