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From reciting Shakespeare to simulated rock climbing, from finding your inner leader to silencing your inner critics, the fall 2007 Sloan Innovation Period challenged students with mental and physical exercises designed to hone management skills and instill leadership values.
In the weeklong series of workshops and lectures, SIP participants delved into real-life scenarios with re-enactments of the crisis in Bosnia and controversy over a development project in Bangladesh. They pondered the meaning of integrity with the creator of est, Werner Erhard, and even participated in a play.
Several SIP classes targeted different approaches to leadership, including “Targeting Your Leadership Style,” taught by Margaret Ann Gray, MIT director for Organization and Employee Development; “Global Leadership” by Victor Menezes, former senior vice chairman of Citigroup Inc.; “Leadership Styles and Values” by Jeffrey Shames, the retired chairman of MFS Investment Management; and “Will You Be A Great Leader?” by Jon Moynihan, executive chairman of PA Consulting Group.
In “Leadership As Acting,” MIT Sloan senior lecturer Christine C. Kelly led students through a shortened production of Shakespeare's Henry V, mining the dialogue, plot, and action for lessons in how to command and cajole a team — or in this case, an army.
“Leadership is an emotional expression,” said Taariq Lewis, '09, who enthusiastically dived into the nuances of playing Shakespeare's young king. “In this class, we remember how to be open and honest and emotional. I'm trying to be a better leader by learning how to be emotionally charged but still corporate.”
Some SIP participants enjoyed the challenge of tackling difficult subjects such as game theory; others relished the pleasure of doing something completely different, such as learning improvisational skills, and still others just liked “having a break” from rigorous coursework. As George Tan, '08, said gratefully, “Most of the SIP classes are very different from what you're normally doing.”
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MIT Sloan welcomed nine new and seven visiting professors to campus over the fall. In their first few months, they've gotten to know the School and the community — and we've gotten to know a bit about them. They represent a variety of academic and cultural backgrounds, but share an excitement about becoming part of the energy and collaborative spirit that are so prevalent at MIT Sloan.
These 16 faculty members are teaching in the areas of behavioral and policy sciences, finance, strategy, operations research, and economics and management. In addition to their specific experience, they also bring personal philosophies about their teaching and their research.
For Harborne Stuart, a visiting professor from Columbia University teaching the core strategy course, teaching is a “fruitful collision” between teachers and the students who will be applying what they learn in their future careers. “For many teachers, there is too much of a disconnect between the research they do and what they teach,” says Stuart, but “our students are our proxy to the real world.”
Assistant Professor of Accounting Ewa Sletten also thinks about how teaching and research counterbalance one another. To her, teaching yields “immediate rewards,” while one must “wait for the returns” during the more drawn-out and methodical process of research.
In addition to the appeal of teaching and student interactions, many of the new faculty members were looking forward to collaborating with their colleagues at MIT Sloan and across the Institute.
“MIT has a very collegial feeling,” says Sletten. Her thoughts were echoed by Jorge Vera, a visiting professor from the Catholic University in Chile, who was drawn by the School's reputation for research. “This was a good opportunity to meet colleagues in my research area,” says Vera. “MIT Sloan gives so many opportunities to explore and opens so many new areas of knowledge.”
Like her fellow faculty newcomers, Pai-Ling Yin, a new assistant professor of strategy, is glad to find herself here. “[MIT] is a good fit for my interests. ... MIT is a good fit for my style.”
Photo: New Assistant Professor of Accounting Ewa Sletten says teaching and research counterbalance one another.
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On October 11, 2007, the MIT Sloan PhD program joins forces with their counterparts from Harvard to host the Doctorate in Business Recruiting Forum. With over 25 participating schools and a faculty panel, the event will provide valuable insights into the possibilities of a career in business academics.
“Ever thought of being a professor?” asks Sharon Cayley, program manager for the MIT Sloan PhD program. “This forum will give attendees a chance for some frank, person-to-person talk about the vocation and why it's attractive to a select few.”
Part of what makes a doctorate in business appealing is that business scholars have the opportunity to influence both the educational and the corporate sectors. Because most research is grounded in the reality of business, many scholars today see their theories enacted in actual practice across the business spectrum. Business scholars often work with the top people in a wide variety of fields and can be found advising leaders of industry, collaborating with colleagues on cutting-edge research, and guiding students and executives returning to the classroom in search of new ideas and practices.
The faculty and student panel begins at 5:30 p.m., followed by the doctoral programs recruiting forum. Representatives from each school will be available from 6:30 onward.
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It's hard to comprehend wealth without having seen poverty. So on a trip to China this spring, a team of MIT Sloan students bypassed Hong Kong and Shanghai for poorer sections of the country and a broader perspective on its emergence as an economic superpower.
Led by MIT Sloan Professor Yasheng Huang, the team traveled to the Yunnan province, one of the poorer regions in China. They visited small businesses, met with Chinese NGOs and developmental organizations, and witnessed a level of poverty in stark contrast with the global perception of a booming country on the rise.
“When westerners think of China,” says lead student organizer Lei Zuo. “They think of what they see on TV: Beijing or Shanghai, where everyone is getting rich, and people are benefiting from the economic boom. But the reality is that 70 to 80 percent of the population is living in rural areas and is still not benefiting at all.”
Zuo was raised in China and aspires to return to work in social entrepreneurship or economic development. He says providing a window onto the poorer sections of China helps students like himself understand the consequences of what many see as a Chinese gold rush.
“One thing I am trying to figure out for myself is my role as a business person in the future — how to shape the direction of a company in a way that is both socially and environmentally responsible, and at the same time profitable.”
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Once a laudable goal, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is now a growing force across global markets. A recent tally found $4 trillion in such investments worldwide. One in eight investment dollars in the U.S. is connected to environmental, social, and governmental factors.
The time is ripe for analysts to help their clients make a profit while making a difference, says Graham Sinclair of KLD Research and Analytics in Boston. Sinclair made this case during a morning-long presentation to MIT Sloan students in March 2007 as part of the Sustainability at Sloan Speaker Series.
An excerpt of Sinclair's presentation is featured in the MIT Sloan Podcast this month. Student interest in SRI reflects widespread adoption among students of the larger goal of sustainable business.
An increasing number of students come to MIT Sloan with sustainability in mind. The Non-Profit Internship Fund has enabled dozens of students to spend their summers applying business knowledge for social causes.
This past academic year teams of students helped small and large ventures across the globe advance sustainable practices, as part of S-Lab, a first-year course modeled on curriculum staples G-Lab and E-Lab.
Taught by seven prominent faculty members, S-Lab represents a uniquely MIT Sloan opportunity to put theory into practice for the sake of making a difference in the world. For students, the course proved a vehicle to meet Sinclair's clarion call that business as usual has failed and it's time for business unusual.
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BlackBerries are not just for pie any more. And some fear the addictive pull of BlackBerries and other “smart phones” can cause more harm than grandma's sugar-laden pie.
MIT Sloan Professors Wanda Orlikowski and JoAnne Yates and doctoral student Melissa Mazmanian sought to understand the so-called “CrackBerry” phenomenon, a nickname spawned out of the addictive nature of such devices.
The team spent several months studying BlackBerry use at a small financial services firm where the work is fast paced and work-life balance valued. Employees had used BlackBerries for four years, and the team found some negative patterns.
Ninety percent of the firm's employees described their behavior with the device as something akin to compulsion, confessing to an inability to refrain from checking the device.
With such obsessive use, employees came to expect each other to be available day and night, and the devices proved a distraction in meetings — prompting the company to limit such use.
The employees recognized the drawbacks of BlackBerries, the team found, but they maintained the benefits outweighed the costs.
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Teachers earn excellent marks from studentsAndres Almazan is beloved for his passion, practical teaching methods, and sense of humor. Jesper Sorensen is renowned for inspiring deep and informative class discussions. In May both were rewarded for these traits with MIT Sloan Teacher of the Year honors.
The honors were conferred as part of MIT Sloan's Excellence in Teaching Awards, which each year give students a chance to acknowledge teachers who stand out for their knowledge, passion, dedication, and ability to communicate and inspire.
“It is a great recognition from the students,” said Almazan, a visiting professor. “It was very nice to realize that the students felt that the class was useful and that they enjoyed it.”
Known for peppering his Finance Theory II lectures with jokes, Almazan works to create a lively, engaging atmosphere for learning.
Hailed as knowledgeable, dynamic, and witty, Associate Professor of Strategy Sorensen earned the award in part for his ability to steer meaningful class discussions.
“He takes the time to engage the class in serious discourse,” said one student in nominating Sorensen for the award. “This encourages us to share our views/opinions about whatever case we're discussing without being too self-conscious.”
Learn more about the Excellence in Teaching Awards.
Photo: Associate Professor of Strategy Jesper Sorensen, who received MIT Sloan Teacher of the Year honors and is renowned for inspiring deep and informative class discussions.
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Jack Welch to teach at MIT SloanEnergized by a discussion with students a year ago, former GE CEO Jack Welch has agreed to teach a course for MBA students at MIT Sloan this coming fall. In teaching the course, the frank and engaging Welch hopes to inspire more MBAs to be interested in leadership and in making a difference in the world.
“I haven't wanted to teach at business schools before because a lot of the people getting MBAs want to become consultants and investment bankers, and that doesn't require a lot of management expertise,” says Welch. “But when I appeared at [MIT] Sloan last spring as part of my book tour, I found a very enthusiastic dean and students who were engaged and energized by many of the same issues about which I care.”
The course, titled Conversations with Jack Welch, will meet eight times this fall. It reflects MIT Sloan's philosophy that students must be exposed to both innovative management theory and the world's top management practitioners.
Says Alex d'Arbeloff, the honorary chairman of the MIT Corporation and the retired founder of Teradyne, Inc.: “It's a good idea for MBA students to talk to experienced practitioners who have been successful at managing large and small companies. Jack and I agree that by having more students interested in being good managers we will develop more leaders who can run or create companies.”
A veritable “rock star” of the business world, Welch is sure to draw a throng of students seeking enrollment in the class. In April 2005, as part of MIT Sloan's Dean's Innovative Leader Series, he spoke to an overflowing audience of students. At the time, he urged them “to err on the side of bold.” This fall he's sure to impart equally concise and inspiring wisdom.
Learn more about Jack Welch teaching at MIT Sloan.
Read about Jack Welch's presentation to students in April 2005.
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Developing leaders in the developing worldFor half a century, the challenges of the developing world have been a chief concern of the MIT Sloan community. The MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership underlines the force behind that commitment with its Global Scholars Fund, an initiative designed to cultivate leaders in emerging nations.
The Global Scholars Fund will provide financial assistance to MIT Sloan Fellows from underdeveloped and emerging countries who have resolved to return to their countries after the program. Scholars will be selected from high–impact organizations that lack the resources to sponsor a fellow.
One of the most internationally respected executive development programs in the world — and, at more than 75 years old, the oldest — the MIT Sloan Fellows Program is an intensive MBA program that gives its fellows a rare opportunity at mid career to concentrate fully on the course of their organizations and their careers. They spend one full year broadening perspectives, building knowledge, skill, and networks, and planning productive innovations.
The program has proven its power to develop outstanding managers into principled global leaders, says MIT Sloan Fellows Program Director Stephen Sacca. “The Global Scholars fund will expand the reach of this experience to citizens of emerging countries, where the need for innovative solutions to social, economic, and political challenges is greater than ever before.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan, Secretary–General of the United Nations and an alumnus of the program (SF '72), agrees. In fact, he believes the MIT Sloan community will also benefit. “The Global Scholars Fund is an excellent idea. People from the developing world bring another dimension to the program. With this initiative, you are really making an important contribution, and everyone at MIT Sloan will gain by it.”
Learn more about the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
Photo: Kofi Annan, Secretary–General of the United Nations and an alumnus of the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
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MIT IAP: From the serious to Dr. SeussSports management, brush painting, Soviet poets, patent law, archery. In a community of hungry learners, the annual Independent Activities Period (IAP) is an eagerly awaited smorgasbord of delectables. Under way now, until Feb. 3, this learning extravaganza offers the MIT community more than 700 courses designed for both serious students and idle dabblers.
After three decades, IAP has given birth to scores of hallowed traditions such as the 16th Annual Tribute to Dr. Seuss and the MIT Mystery Hunt, which has been a passion among puzzlers for a quarter of a century. A scavenger hunt for puzzlers, the Mystery Hunt challenges teams to solve a sequence of puzzles that lead to a coin hidden in the darkest depths of the campus.
Another beloved and equally whimsical tradition is Charm School. For more than a decade this three–ring circus teaching nuance and niceties has been a great IAP favorite. Topics include walking like you mean it, buttering up big shots, and the ubiquitous but oh–so–necessary e–mail etiquette. Charm School began as a spoof on Emily Post but grew to challenge her expertise in matters of politesse.
And then there's food. How would you go about building a better brownie? MIT's Laboratory for Chocolate Science puts this dessert under the microscope.
Perhaps spurred on by a “lab” devoted to the substance, the community is especially passionate about chocolate. Other IAP offerings include a Chocolate Tour of Boston, Chocolate Sculpture, Chocolate Truffle Making, and more. The chocolate lab is a student group, not a federally funded research center, but its members treat chocolate with the same studious inquiry they bring to the study of finance or DNA.
Speaking of which, serious, challenging, career–changing courses are also on the IAP roster. MIT Sloan alone offers a hearty helping, including several for–credit courses like High–Tech Start–ups with Jack Gill, the Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans with Joseph G. Hadzima, and Distributed Leadership with Deborah Ancona and Thomas Malone. There are also non–credit courses in everything from patent law to investment banking.
Learn more about Independent Activities Period.
Photo: Cat in the Hat, with Thing One and Thing Two, characters conceived by children's book author Dr. Seuss, who is the subject of an annual IAP tribute.
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Top CEOs team to create the Alfred P. Sloan Management SocietyTwo of the abiding tenets that fuel the work of the MIT community are collaboration and experience. To progress, you must collaborate across function and discipline, and you must integrate research with actual practice. The revolutionary Alfred P. Sloan Management Society is a powerful amalgam of both ideas.
The organization brings together 15 of the world's most visionary executives with MIT Sloan students and faculty to bridge the worlds of academia and industry. The business leaders will bring their expertise into the classroom and also unofficially advise on curriculum, research, and other academic matters. Citizens Financial Group CEO Lawrence Fish will teach a banking case study.
“We are a small group of experienced and interested people who want to become engaged for the benefit of MIT Sloan," explains society member Michael Armstrong, who has chaired the boards of Comcast, AT&T, and Hughes Electronics. Armstrong is now a visiting professor at MIT Sloan. "While we may set up a more formal set of objectives, the Society will retain its informality and responsiveness so that we can function effectively as a good sounding board for the Dean and faculty.”
MIT Sloan lecturer Howard Anderson is credited with the inspiration for the organization. As founder of the Yankee Group, he had developed relationships with many of the group's members, which include the CEOs of Bell South, Aetna, and the New York Stock Exchange. "The Society," he says, "consists of leading movers and shakers in American industry who are committed to working with faculty, administrators, and students — who as a result will be in regular contact with some of the nation's best business minds.”
Anderson believes in the power of first-hand knowledge. "Society members," he says, "are making a commitment to help train the next generation of business leaders.”
Read more about the Alfred P. Sloan Management Society and its distinguished members.
Photo: Michael Armstrong, who has chaired the boards of Comcast, AT&T, and Hughes Electronics.
AP Photo
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MIT Sloan Convocation 2005: Theoretical insights. Practical methods.Every three years, MIT Sloan alumni travel to the Institute from around the globe to monitor advances on the frontier of management. The three-day MIT Sloan Convocation draws some of the world's most renowned alumni, all dedicated to investigating new directions in technology, entrepreneurship, consumer behavior, and management practice.
The 2005 MIT Sloan Convocation, Oct. 6-8, featured talks by Morris Chang, SB '52, SM '53, ME '55, chairman and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC); Carly Fiorina, SM '89, former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and John Thain, SB '77, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.
MIT Sloan Convocation offered alumni the opportunity to upgrade critical knowledge by attending an invigorating roster of talks, discussion groups, and seminars with the industry leaders and MIT Sloan professors who are defining their fields. Rebecca Henderson, for example, explored strategies for competing in an increasingly open world. Michael Scott Morton investigated corporate strategy for information technology.
Other faculty led panel discussions, including Richard Locke, who hosted Hannah Jones, vice president for corporate responsibility at Nike, and Scott Nova, executive director of the Workers Rights Consortium, in a frank dialogue about socially responsible globalization.
The convocation kicked off Oct. 6 with the Passion to Action Summit — a confab of MIT leaders that served as the official launch of the MIT Leadership Center. In addition, the 2005 convocation celebrated two key landmarks in the history of management education: the 75th anniversary of the MIT Sloan Fellows Program, the first executive program in the world, and the 25th anniversary of the Management of Technology Program, a trail-blazing program that inspired more than 250 imitators. The two programs merged in 2004.
Read more about MIT Sloan Convocation 2005.
Photo: In one session at MIT Sloan Convocation 2005, MIT Sloan Professor Rebecca Henderson explored strategies for competing in an increasingly open world.
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New management minor aims to make brilliant students smart managersIn a landmark move set to take effect in the fall, MIT undergraduates now have the option of pursuing a minor in management at MIT Sloan. The much-anticipated initiative will allow students studying science, engineering, and other majors to "supersize" their technical education with top-flight management training.
MIT Sloan Professor Thomas Kochan, chairman of the faculty committee on the management minor, says the new initiative will help MIT students "hit the ground running, as they graduate and move into technologically driven organizations." While other schools offer management majors or individual business courses, he adds, the MIT Sloan minor in management is a strategically coordinated curriculum aimed at students majoring in science, engineering, and other non-business disciplines.
Kochan notes that MIT Sloan will be expanding its faculty by three to help meet the new program's demand. Even with the additional teaching staff, however, the School anticipates that enthusiasm for the new minor will far exceed capacity, and the program will be limited to 100 undergraduates during the first four years. Students will be selected using a lottery system that will be open only to sophomores and juniors.
MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee says he believes the management minor will make MIT graduates more productive. "They will better understand the economic, organizational, and workforce setting in which they pursue their scientific and technical work," he believes. Industry recruiters, hearing of the new program, seem to concur. "We applaud this new management minor at MIT," says IBM Director of Corporate Recruiting Margaret Ashida. "Innovation, which is the engine of economic growth, requires top talent to be equipped with high-value IT skills and the business knowledge to apply them.”
Learn more about the new undergraduate minor.
Photo: MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee, who says the new management minor will help MIT students better understand the context of their scientific and technical work.
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Independent Activities Period: Tea to Tarot to TradingOne of the defining characteristics of MIT is IAP — the Independent Activities Period that takes place every January between semesters. IAP includes academic courses, how-to-sessions, lecture and film series, recitals, and contests of every description. Courses can last for an afternoon or for several weeks and are open to students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
What makes the decades-old IAP program quintessentially MIT is the sheer volume and diversity of knowledge offered. Students and staff can study the Japanese tea ceremony or anti-poverty programs. They can try their luck at the 1876 MIT entrance exam or the Argentine tango; investigate the Tarot or Napster; discover how to launch a magazine, a shelter for stray cats, or a biotech company.
MIT Sloan's annual Special Seminars in Management are among the most dynamic and most anticipated courses in the IAP catalogue. These for-credit seminars give members of the community the chance to explore topical management issues with faculty and industry experts. Students with an interest in the corporate sports scene, for example, can study sports management with MIT Sloan Assistant Professor Shane Frederick and Daryl Morey, SM '00, senior vp of operations and information of the Boston Celtics. The common denominator of these management seminars is that the topics are hot and the faculty, the best in their fields.
Members of the community who want a less intensive intellectual adventure can enroll in brief, not-for-credit courses like "So you Want to be a Trader," MIT Sloan Professor Andrew Lo's entertaining introduction to the life and work of a financial engineer, or "Evaluating Job Offers," an illuminating discussion about comparing career apples with career oranges in today's job market.
With hundreds of IAP experiences to choose from, the trickiest thing about January is deciding just what urges to indulge.
Photo: MIT Sloan Professor Andrew Lo, who presents "So you Want to be a Trader" during IAP.
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With OpenCourseWare, distance learning is freeThe idea sounded like so much pie in the sky at first. That anybody, anywhere, with access to the Internet could follow the syllabi, read or watch the lectures, study course notes, complete assignments, and take exams for almost any offering in the MIT course catalogue. Free of charge. But that vision, audacious as it might have sounded in 1999 when the idea was first floated, has become a dynamic, functioning reality.
It's called OpenCourseWare (OCW) and it's about improving the world through knowledge — the cornerstone of MIT's mission. MIT OCW is made possible by a dedicated collaboration of faculty, students, administrators, and two key sponsors — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. As a result, students and educators from around the world can access 900 courses in 33 academic disciplines in all of the Institute's five schools — and the goal is 1,800 courses by 2008.
Approximately 100 MIT Sloan courses are now available through OCW, giving managers around the world the latest information on subjects including transportation management, the impact of politics on global markets, ethics, accounting, entrepreneurial finance, marketing strategy — even game theory for managers. All OCW courses are taught by the Institute's top faculty, including Nobel laureates and other celebrated experts.
Feedback from users across the globe perhaps best illustrates the results. "This is an outstanding and incomparable stance of MIT to give access to such invaluable learning quality to the world," wrote Triatno Yudo Harjoko, an educator in Indonesia. "I am from a developing country and I would like to express my gratitude." A self-learner from Azerbaijan wrote, "This is a wonderful initiative, something I've been dreaming about! It gives great opportunities for studying new things and improving my current education. Commercial distance education is too expensive for people in the country where I live, but what you did makes quality education really available.”
Learn more about OpenCourseWare.
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Integrating diverse perspectives to transform managementOne of the most dynamic mergers of the new century is not among Fortune 500s but among two of the most venerable think tanks in global leadership. In 2004, the MIT Sloan Fellows and the MIT Management of Technology programs — each the first and most revered programs of their kind in the world — integrated their considerable resources to form the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
In the 1990s, MIT Sloan observed that the international business environment was undergoing a wholesale transformation. The needs and goals of leaders, wherever and whatever they managed, were intersecting. General managers needed to understand how to manage the technological component of their organizations while engineering and technology types needed to gain a broader general management perspective.
Within the intense, exhilarating environment of the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership, the great divide that used to separate technology and business has narrowed. The program creates a forum for interaction and collaboration among managers from diverse industries and professions and from all corners of the globe. As a result, innovative products, successful businesses, and productive new partnerships are being forged across previously unscalable boundaries.
Learn more about the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership
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To be or not to be ... a leaderMost people wouldn't equate the teaching of Shakespeare with a business school, but MIT Sloan isn't like most business schools. "Leadership in Action: Performing Henry V" is the latest in a long line of innovative curriculum offerings that bring the unexpected to the MIT Sloan classroom.
Created by the new MIT Leadership Center as part of the weeklong Sloan Innovation Period, the course features both an examination of the play's content and a student-run performance of the Bard's famous work. Through this process, students learn valuable lessons about communication, teamwork, and leadership.
Both the play's storyline — and the act of staging it — make clear how much can be accomplished by a united group with a clearly stated purpose in a short period of time. And the course itself, with its dramatic acting component, encourages students to step outside of their comfort zones and approach problem solving in an innovative way.
Learn more about "Leadership in Action: Performing Henry V"
Photo: MIT Sloan student Yulia Poltorak on stage in Shakespeare's "Henry V," learning leadership by acting.
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