Archive for April 2010

I have an MBA which field should I go into? Have you ever thought about owning a coffee shop after completing your degree?

Let’s look at Joseph Glendinning co-owner of Biggby Coffee locations in Birmingham and Bloomfield Township in Michigan. In 2008 Joseph opened his first Biggby Coffee with his sister Rose Glendinning.

Joseph Glendinning Profile

Joseph Glendinning was an associate attorney in business, real estate and tax law in Chicago for Amari and Locallo law firm and River North Law Group. He has a Bachelors from Albion College, a law degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago.

Joe said that while practicing as an attorney he helped others achieve their goals, but he desired to achieve his own. “I wasn’t super excited to go to work every day,” he said. “I enjoyed my work, but I never felt satisfied with my career choice.”

“I invested a lot of time, money and effort into my career as a lawyer,” Joseph said. “It wasn’t easy to leave it behind for something that was not guaranteed to be a success.”

Work Life Balance

When getting an MBA what is most important? Is it having the bragging rights of working for a prestigious firm/corporation? Or is it more important to do something that you love? The average person spends over 50% of their waking life working, so why not do something that you love?

So is the right thing to do to own a Coffee shop after completing your MBA? What is the right decision post MBA in-terms of jobs and career placement? That is a question that you have to personally answer for yourself nobody can tell you what is right for you. Food for thought some traditional choices are more risky today so non-traditional MBA career path should be considered.

Joseph was able to apply the skills acquired from obtaining his MBA to the day-to-day operations of running his own business. His MBA also expanded his perspective on business, work life, and career path. MBAs have value for traditional corporate positions and entrepreneurial career options.

Advice for others: “I think the best advice is something that my father told me as a boy,” Joseph Glendinning said. “He always told me to find a job that isn’t a job, but a passion – something that I could wake up to every morning and couldn’t wait to start doing.”

Next MBA Chat:  April 26th 7:30pm-8:30pm EST.  Follow the hashtag:  #mbachat

Posted by Hajj Flemings who is the Tech MBA Online Program Ambassador. You can follow him on twitter @hajjflemings.

Going to school is an apt metaphor for improving yourself. Are you ready to go to school? We can argue that whether or not you are enrolled in an institution of higher learning, you are in school.

We are all in a worldwide classroom. Class is in session every day. Where do you choose to sit in class? Do you take the challenging assignments? Do you try to get by or are you trying to excel? Training to be world class in your field is important. Whether you enroll in a seminar, a night class, at a university, or simply choose to continue learning by reading books, journals, blogs, tweets or gather information online, you can commit to being a lifelong learner. Commit to reading, create a love for learning and reading and engage both sides of your brain. You can turn yourself into an expert—one whom others turn to as a reliable source of information and advice in a particular area.

Rethinking mental development.

What does it mean to be smart? What does it mean to be smarter than someone else? In fact how do you quantify being smarter? It is GPA? Is it IQ? Is it your career field? Is it how much you make? Is it power? Is it influence? Being smart is effectively using resources to get desired results. Being smart is also the ability to turn your education into value. Obviously, reading alone, going to school, or acquiring information doesn’t necessarily mean an individual is smart. Utilization of acquired information to produce desired results requires an individual to think about what he or she is doing to structure or convert the information into something useful better known as work. Smart people think and process information to creatively solve problems and capitalize on business opportunities. Your life should be run like a business.

Every successful business has a set of competencies. What are your core competencies? Think about what they are and then look to further develop them. Studies have shown that the average person uses only 10 percent of his or her brain capacity. This is an inefficient use of our intellectual capacities. Commit yourself to constant learning and to thinking with openness to new ideas, new ways of doing things. Open yourself up to new experiences as a way to gain knowledge. Understand the value of your experience; some of the greatest lessons are learned in unexpected places. Decide to actively acquire knowledge.

“Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man’s training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.”
—Thomas H. Huxley, English biologist (1825–1895)

Photo Credit: Tycoon, originally uploaded by fotoJENica a/k/a Jenny Romney.
Posted by Hajj Flemings who is the Tech MBA Online Program Ambassador. You can follow him on twitter @hajjflemings.

It is time to re-think the workplace of tomorrow and the workforce who will thrive in the anywhere economy. The Internet and Wi-Fi have changed the way we think about the workplace and how work gets done. Is the virtual worker concept a millennial thing only? It better not be, it is a shift that Gen X and Baby Boomers have to make if they want to be relevant and employable.  The Virtual Company article in the April 10, 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine quantifies some of the benefits of operating in a virtual environment.

Stats from Inc. Magazine ‘The Virtual Company’ Article
(April 10, 2010)

• $200B productivity gains for American companies.
• $190B savings from reduced real estate expenses, electricity bills, absenteeism,
  and employee turnover.
• 100 hrs per person not spent commuting
• 50M tons of greenhouse gas emissions cut
• 276 M barrels of oil saved, or roughly 32% of oil imported from the Middle East.
• 1,500 lives not lost in car accidents
• $700B total estimated savings to American Businesses

Case Study: Cisco Study finds telecommuting significantly increases employee productivity, work-life flexibility and job satisfaction and saves $277M.

Digital Lifestyle

As a global economy we are becoming more comfortable with technology and digital lifestyle changes in how we read books, listen to music, get our news and do work.

• Over 480Kbooks available for download on the Kindle by Amazon.
• Apple sells over 300K iPads the first day.
• iPhones and Androids make up 75% of the smartphone web traffic.
• Twitter as a reliable news source.

These lifestyle changes are re-wiring how people and companies operate in the real world.  Virtual workers of tomorrow are expected to be familiar with some of the basic digital resources: videoconferencing (Skype), online documents (Google Docs), and instant messaging (Google Talk) to name a few. The ability to engage and communicate across various mediums and be productive is critical.

Who’s Responsible?

What role does our educational system play in preparing the next generation workforce? Whose responsibility: is it the colleges and universities or it is the employees? I believe there is a shared responsibility. Our colleges and universities have to prepare our future leaders to excel in a virtual global economy and the student/employee has to continually upgrade himself/herself to be productive and relevant in a virtual work environment.

In closing check out the ‘Is There a Virtual Worker Personality?’ article in Businessweek.com it discusses the differences between introverts and extroverts in the virtual workplace. In reality a virtual workers will still requires human interaction from management and working on projects (via co-working, telecommuting or planned faced-to-faced companies meetings.)

Posted by Hajj Flemings who is the Tech MBA Online Program Ambassador. You can follow him on twitter @hajjflemings.

Technology has the power to change everything and the world of education is no different. In life, we often hold on to what is comfortable to us and the comfortable world of traditional education is changing. The MBA revolution will not be televised—it will be experienced online. Whether you are ready for Education 2.0 or not, it is here to stay. Lets navigate some of the myths that you typically hear about online MBA programs.

There is No Social Interaction

One of the biggest myth is that there is no social interaction. An online MBA can provide a rich interactive experience: videos classes, emails, Skype calls, discussion threads, group projects with your cohorts in the program, face-to-face residences—both domestic and international.

The Tech MBA Online program was specifically designed with three interactive residences, all of which provide a blended learning experience (online and face-to-face). Two of the three residences will take place on campus at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI and are extended weekends (Wednesday-Sunday). The third residency is a weeklong international experience abroad.

Instructors are Unqualified

The Tech MBA Online courses are taught by the same professors that teach the on-campus MBA program at Michigan Tech. The online students are getting the same quality of education, just experienced in a different format.

Online Programs Are not Accredited

The Tech MBA Online program is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) but not all online MBA programs are created equal or accredited so beware. Selecting a quality online program is important and you should confirm that the School or College is accredited by AACSB.

Companies Won’t Pay for an Online MBA

Tuition reimbursement policies can vary from company to company. These policies are typically not limited to on-campus programs, but make sure that you have ask your human resources department to confirm. There was an interesting article on BusinessWeek.com that addresses this issue.

Online Students Don’t Have Access to Resources

As an online student in the Tech MBA Online program you will have full access to University resources including: career placement, professional development, the MBA Association, communications coach, and networking events.