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The MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition season got an early start this year with the first-ever Elevator Pitch Contest (EPC). Held October 13, the EPC gave would-be entrepreneurs the chance to test the polish of their pitches before a panel of esteemed judges and share over $10,000 in prize money — including $2,500 to the grand-prize winner.
Long believed to be an essential element of an entrepreneur's toolbox, the 60-second elevator pitch can garner the attention of critical contacts and be the first step toward turning an idea into a business. EPC competitors were encouraged to structure their pitches around five concise sentences: First, state the problem; second, state your solution; third, state who you are and why you're the one to solve the problem; fourth, state the value proposition; fifth, state the call to action.
What else makes a great pitch? According to Gaetan Bonhomme, MBA '08, one of the EPC organizers, a perfect pitch is one that not only conveys the essence of an idea in simple and direct terms, it is tailored to the specific audience you are pitching to.
The EPC also offered competitors an important opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs and exchange ideas, ideas that may evolve into $100K competition contenders.
Next up in the $100K cycle? December's $1K.
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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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The message was one of leadership and optimism June 8 at MIT's 141st commencement. In his address MIT President Emeritus Charles M. Vest encouraged the 2,110 graduate and undergraduate students receiving degrees to “go out and make the world well.”
“MIT's extraordinary faculty,” Vest said to a sun-filled Killian Court, “has given you and me the opportunity to literally change the world.”
Likewise, in her charge to graduates, MIT President Susan Hockfield reminded them of MIT's deep commitment to leadership, stating that of all the many accomplishments of the graduating class, perhaps the most important was that they had begun to distinguish themselves as leaders.
“We need your leadership as we face the challenges of an increasingly complex and interdependent world,” she said. “And we need your leadership to develop new ways to bridge old divides — not only between peoples and nations, but also between technology and policy.”
Among those future leaders receiving degrees, 476 represented MIT Sloan. In all 444 MBA degrees, 14 PhDs, 10 Master's of Science in Management, and eight Master's of Science in Management of Technology degrees were conferred upon MIT Sloan students.
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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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Reunion 2007, June 7-10, will bring together 10 MIT Sloan classes for a weekend of activities sure to rekindle old ties and yield new ones.
Alumni in this year's reunion classes — '57, '62, '67, '72, '77, '82, '87, '92, '97, 2002, and 2006 — will have a chance to catch up with old friends during class dinners, take part in a traditional family BBQ, and get together at a special Reunion version of MIT Sloan's weekly C-Function.
Alumni will also have the opportunity to participate in an Executive Education workshop led by MIT Sloan Professor Richard Locke on corporate responsibility in the global supply chain. Locke will explore the difficult challenges global companies face in upholding a high standard of corporate citizenship.
Reunion will also feature Back-to-the-Classroom sessions with MIT Sloan professors. Among the dynamic professors presenting this year are Shane Frederick, JoAnne Yates, Thomas Malone, and Arnie Barnett.
And Ken White, SM '69, and MIT Sloan Professor Lotte Bailyn will present a career workshop for alumni on the challenges professionals face in juggling individual career and lifestyle choices.
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Sales Conference: Good selling begets good leadershipOften overlooked in academic circles, the art of successful selling will be explored in depth on Friday, May 4, when MIT Sloan hosts its first Sales Conference at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge.
The theme of the conference will be “The Power of Sales Driven Leadership,” and panels of experts will focus on the practical, hands-on sales skills behind great business leaders.
Tim Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales at Google, is slated to serve as keynote speaker. He, along with a number of executives and venture capitalists from some of the nation's leading companies, will take part in panels covering topics ranging from trends in global sales to sales force building and management.
The conference is run the MIT Sloan Sales Club, which has grown to include nearly 100 members since its launch in 2006. Largely focused on entrepreneurship, the club sees sales training as an integral part of any business education. And the conference is a way to introduce students to a wide range of philosophies and ideas concerning sales.
“We want to bring together senior executives from all different industries and backgrounds to discuss their particular challenges in sales, as well as provide practical training on how to improve your own sales skills,” explains Nathan Williams, codirector of the conference. “The Sales Club is incredibly diverse and we want to reflect that diversity at this conference.”
Photo: Tim Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales at Google, is keynote speaker for the conference.
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March Madness: Students drive the agendaMIT Sloan has its own March Madness: a string of student-run conferences that each year herald spring, illuminate innovative approaches to management, and give students the opportunity to shape discourse in business sectors.
Seven conferences have been scheduled from February to the end of April. Associated with student clubs and run entirely by students, the conferences represent an opportunity for students to explore business sectors of interest, interact with global business leaders, and sharpen their management skills by running a major event.
The busy season of conferences began with the MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference, Feb. 10, which showcased the growing role of analytics in sports. Other scheduled conferences are:
Running a conference is very much in the spirit of the MIT Sloan student experience. MIT Sloan is about active learning and collaboration among students. It's about engagement with leading management practitioners and developing innovative solutions to real-world problems.
The spring schedule reflects that. In addition to conferences, students will hear from leading management practitioners as part of the Dean's Innovative Leader Series. They'll take part in the Sloan Innovation Period (SIP), an intense week of experiential leadership learning and exposure to the groundbreaking faculty work. And as part of the annual Spring Trips, they'll travel the world meeting business and government leaders.
Photo: Through conferences, speaker events, and trips and treks, MIT Sloan students interact with global business leaders, like UBS AG CEO Peter A. Wuffli, who speaks this spring as part of the Dean's Innovative Leader Series.
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Leader in sustainability to speak to MIT Sloan communityGoing up? Since joining Otis Elevator in 1975, George David has made the corporate ascent. And as chairman and CEO of United Technologies Corporation, Otis' parent company, he has done it in a way that achieves both shareholder value and sustainability.
MIT students will have a chance to learn David's approach to achieving a balance thought by some to be next to impossible. He will speak Feb. 22 as part of the Dean's Innovative Leader Series.
In a decade under David, UTC has turned profits, established a record of innovation and productivity, and emerged as a global leader in sustainability. The company was recently included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the eighth year in a row. It was also recognized at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos as one of the “100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.”
Interacting with such innovative and forward-thinking leaders is at the heart of the MIT Sloan experience. Classes and student clubs host hundreds of speakers throughout the school year, in addition to the corporate and governmental connections students make on trips and treks.
The Dean's Innovative Leader Series invites select leaders who are shaping the present and future marketplace for frank and meaningful discussions with students.
A list of past speakers is a veritable who's who of global business, including Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox; Carly Fiorina, SF '89, former president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and G. Richard Wagoner, Jr., CEO of GM.
This spring two more dynamic leaders will speak: Jack Welch, former GE CEO and a lecturer at MIT Sloan, on April 12 and Peter A. Wuffli, group chief executive officer of UBS AG, on April 24.
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Inaugural MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference, Feb. 10Good draft picks. Innovative coach. Spirited fans. Grit, hustle, and determination on the field of play. Now you can add analytics to this list of keys to success for a professional sports franchise.
Increasingly a powerful tool in distinguishing the best sports franchises, analytics will take center stage at the inaugural MIT Sloan Sports Business Conference, Feb. 10 at MIT, sponsored by the MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media & Sports Club.
The conference will feature leaders in sports analytics addressing such questions as: Why are some sports teams and leagues more successful than others? How does quantitative analysis factor into personnel decisions such as drafting players and making trades? How should teams determine the optimal ticket pricing strategy? Will rule changes be introduced to counter the pace of technology improvements?
“This conference will bring together for the first time sports industry leaders from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL who are integrating an analytical approach into their personnel decisions and business operations,” says conference co-chair Daryl Morey, MBA '00, assistant general manager of the Houston Rockets and former instructor of the popular Analytical Sports Management Course at MIT Sloan.
Slated to participate are:
“MIT Sloan's inaugural Sports Business Conference is an important step in showcasing the role of MBAs and the use of analytics in the industry,” says McCourt. “As president [of the LA Dodgers], I believe that hiring the right people with the necessary analytical skill set combined with excellent interpersonal skills will result in a winning team for fans and profitability for the franchise.”
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Vaccines, personalized medicine headline biomedical forumAs policy makers weigh the risks and responses to global pandemics and bioterrorist attacks, the Biomedical Innovation Forum at MIT Aug. 17 showcased in-depth case studies on the development and deployment of vaccines. The forum also highlighted research on personalized medicine.
The free, two-part forum, titled “Collaborative Innovation in Action,” was an opportunity for diverse biopharma players from industry, academia, and government to share perspectives and concerns and weigh case studies presented by researchers and practitioners.
Among the participants were:
The forum was hosted by MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation, the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, in collaboration with the Personalized Medicine Coalition and the New England Healthcare Institute.
In conjunction with the forum, organizers hosted the 5th Annual Celebration of Biotechnology in Kendall Square. The celebration included the unveiling of a cluster map charting the growth and concentration of biotechnology enterprises in the MIT/Kendall Square area.
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Project marks 10 years of cultivating Chinese management educationChinese business, a rising force on the world market, increasingly bears the imprint of the MIT-China Management Education Project. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the project has shaped graduate management education at four Chinese universities, trained more than 150 Chinese faculty members, and produced 1,500 international MBA graduates.
“Although Chinese universities have offered the MBA since 1991, we had no real model for MBA education until the [project]” was launched in 1996, says Zhao Chunjun, former dean of Tsinghua University and current vice chairman of China's National MBA Education Supervisory Committee.
The project was ambitious and innovative from the outset. Instead of exporting management knowledge and faculty, which other universities do, it aimed to cultivate local knowledge, curricula, and teaching techniques.
As part of the project, faculty members from universities in four regions of China — Fudan in Shanghai, Tsinghua in Beijing, Sun-Yat Sen (Lingnan College) in Guandong, and Yunnan in Yunnan — spend a semester at MIT Sloan. They attend MBA classes and work with MIT Sloan faculty members, who act as mentors.
MIT Sloan faculty members in turn visit the Chinese universities to conduct faculty workshops and to teach and co-teach courses for students. MIT Sloan students also visit the universities to work with their peers on teamwork, leadership, communication, and career development.
The anniversary was celebrated in July with seminars, celebrations, and other activities at Fudan University and Tsinghua University. On hand were many of the MIT Sloan faculty and staff who spearheaded a project that began with an innovative concept and in just 10 years has had a profound effect.
Says Senior Associate Dean Alan White, who oversees MIT Sloan's international activities, “We have had a major impact on business education in China, and that has brought this institution and this nation visibility and good will.”
Photo: Senior Lecturer Neil Hartman is one of the many MIT Sloan faculty members who have taken part in the MIT-China Management Education Project.
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Biotech and housing innovations win MIT $100KTwo life-changing inventions took the top prizes at the 2006 MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition during a ceremony at Kresge Auditorium on May 18.
The start-up SteriCoat won the MIT Business Venture Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize for a revolutionary antibacterial coating that significantly reduces the incidence of infection in patients using catheters.
The other top honor — the new MIT Social Impact Prize — was awarded to CentroMigrante Inc., which integrates architectural innovations and a versatile self-help business model to provide clean, safe, affordable housing for indigent job hunters in developing urban areas.
This year marks the evolution of the MIT $50K, the world's preeminent business plan competition, into the MIT $100K. The additional funds make possible the new MIT Social Impact Prize, which recognizes the business plan that best serves low-income communities.
More than 164 teams entered the competition, the largest number of entries “since the peak of the dot-com bubble,” says Lawrence Walmsley, an MIT $100K organizer. Fifty-five of those teams competed for the Social Impact Prize.
Read more about this year's MIT $100K contest.
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Energy 2.0 — The MIT Energy Conference highlights energy innovationsAgainst a backdrop of record-high energy prices and increasing concerns about global warming, Energy 2.0 — The MIT Energy Conference Saturday, May 13, highlighted innovations that could solve the energy and environmental crisis on the horizon.
With a theme of “Solving Tomorrow's Energy Crisis,” the conference explored potential energy solutions from a multi-disciplinary perspective — addressing the global energy crisis from the standpoints of the technologists who discover solutions, the policy-makers who regulate them, and the financiers and entrepreneurs that make them possible.
Keynote speakers were:
The conference included tracks devoted to biofuels, nuclear energy, solar panels, clean carbon technologies, building efficiency, and transportation issues. It also featured a technology showcase, at which MIT professors demonstrated their energy innovations.
The MIT Energy Conference came 10 days after the MIT Energy Research Council released its recommendations to MIT President Susan Hockfield for how MIT can help meet the global energy challenge.
Photo: Attendees at The MIT Energy Conference had a chance to ride in GM's HydroGen3 fuel cell prototype, which has brought the production of a hydrogen-powered car within reach.
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CIO Symposium: Maximizing the business value of ITOnce consigned to managing technical people and assets, chief information officers are emerging as important strategic leaders — asked to partner strategically with other units, to develop profit and product centers, and to help drive the corporate agenda.
This is one of a number of trends on the agenda at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, June 21. The symposium brings together 500 senior-level IT decision-makers for a day of networking and spirited discussions on today's business and technology issue.
With the theme “Maximizing the Business Value of IT,” the symposium will focus on the impact of recent IT developments along two tracks: Technology & Business and IT Organization.
Panels will address the following topics:
Dave Girouard, who manages Google's growing enterprise business worldwide, will deliver the keynote address. The symposium is organized by the MIT Center for eBusiness and the MIT Sloan Alumni Club of Boston, in association with the Society for Information Management (SIM).
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Latin American leaders to debate region's future at MIT Sloan conferenceWith nine presidential elections on its horizon, the emergence of left–leaning leaders, and the region's role as a major crude oil supplier, Latin America looms as an uncertain but important force in global economics and politics. Government, business, and academic leaders this Friday and Saturday will debate the region's future as part of the MIT Sloan Latin Conference.
Scheduled to speak are some of the region's most prominent thought–leaders. The list includes:
In its ninth year, the annual student–run conference helps crystallize the challenges and opportunities for a region with a promising future but a history of political instability and inconsistent economic growth.
It also positions MIT Sloan, which boasts prominent experts on the region and a sizable Latin American student population, at the center of discussions over the region's future.
Conference attendance is free, but space is limited.
Learn more about the MIT Sloan Latin Conference.
Photo: Luis Alberto Moreno, president, Inter–American Development Bank, one of numerous Latin American thought–leaders slated to speak at the MIT Sloan Latin Conference, March 10-11, 2006.
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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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Bright lights of business converge at MIT Sloan Convocation 2005Alumni traveled to MIT Sloan Oct. 6-8 from around the world to get late-breaking knowledge from business legends like Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor, John Thain, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, and Carly Fiorina, former CEO and chairman of Hewlett-Packard.
At this, MIT Sloan's much anticipated triennial convocation, alumni had the opportunity to connect with one another, with faculty, and with some of the great business minds of our era. They took classes with the school's top faculty — intensive updates like Rebecca Henderson's "Standards and Strategy: Competing in Increasingly Open Worlds."
Many of the weekend's discussions dealt with issues of global responsibility — "Making Globalization Work for All," for example, featuring Hannah Jones, vice president for corporate responsibility at Nike, and "Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty" with Barbara Stocking, director general of Oxfam, Great Britain. During a networking lunch, MIT Sloan students presented a poster session, sharing information and insights on current projects that are changing the world.
One of the high points of the convocation was the Passion to Action Summit. The event celebrated the launch of the MIT Leadership Center and featured panel discussions organized around critical global business issues. Featuring such headliners as biotech pioneer Bob Langer, Nobel prize-winning biologist Phil Sharp, and Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe, the summit presented discussions that illuminated the hallmarks of productive, visionary leadership.
Photo: Carly Fiorina, former CEO and chairman of Hewlett-Packard, speaks at MIT Sloan Convocation 2005.
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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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MIT celebrates its leadersMIT is celebrating the launch of the MIT Leadership Center today with the Passion to Action Summit, a half-day program that draws together extraordinary leaders for intense, provocative discussions of ideas that are shaping society — how we live, how we work, how we learn, and how we lead.
Rosalind Williams, historian and MIT professor; Bob Langer, biotech pioneer; Phil Sharp, Nobel prize-winning biologist: and Bob Metcalfe, inventor of the Ethernet, will explore the implications, opportunities, and responsibilities of propelling technological innovation.
MIT Professor Peter Senge will talk with Frannie Léautier, a World Bank executive; Jeremy Hockenstein, CEO of a non-profit in Cambodia; and Ron O'Connor, founder of Management Sciences for Health — all striving to develop sustainable solutions to societal challenges and overcoming the barriers of leading across sectors, locally and globally.
Four entrepreneurial, creative MIT students will demonstrate how they organize, innovate, and act on their passion to make a positive difference in the world with MIT Professor Woodie Flowers. Together, they examine what more can be done to support and enable MIT students to lead.
This celebration of MIT leaders is the ideal occasion to launch an organization dedicated to spurring creative thinkers into active leaders. The MIT Leadership Center blends MIT's pre-eminence in technological innovation with the MIT Sloan School of Management's resources in management and leadership. Working together with business, academia, and industry, the Center creates cutting-edge theory, pragmatic tools, and action-oriented curricula to enable present and future leaders to tackle complex, global challenges and create positive social change.
Learn more about the MIT Leadership Center and the Passion to Action Summit.
Photo: Rosalind Williams, historian and MIT professor, will participate in a session exploring the implications, opportunities, and responsibilities of propelling technological innovation.
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Opening the path to urban leadershipAll good leadership requires courage and creativity. Urban leaders must possess those qualities and others — in double doses. Present and future city leaders will converge to explore the enormous challenges and extraordinary opportunities they face at the MIT Summer Institute for Urban Leadership Tuesday, Aug. 30 - Thursday, Sept. 1.
Prominent alumni who have leveraged their MIT academic experience into leadership roles in the management, governance, design, and development of cities will speak frankly about their careers in city planning, public safety, infrastructure, transportation, the environment, city management, economics, health care, and urban design and development.
Through candid discussions and workshops, MIT graduate students will develop both a personalized leadership profile and a network of leaders to call upon as they navigate their urban career paths. A professional career facilitator will work with participants in an interactive workshop.
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Class of 2005 celebrates achievements and calls to actionIn an undulating landscape of black, one graduate's mortarboard stood out, a fluorescent pastiche surrounding the slogan "Go Sloan!" Add to that the roar that erupted at the first mention of the School, and MIT Sloan spirit stood out at MIT's 2005 commencement in June.
Ebullience was at hand. The day was bright and cloudless, and the 2,100 MIT students assembled at the base of the Great Dome in Killian Court heard an inspiring group of speakers. MIT President Susan Hockfield, officiating at her first commencement, encouraged students to "put what you have learned here to work for the good of this nation and the world. We have never needed your talents and skills more.”
The day's keynote speaker was Dr. Irwin M. Jacobs, cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Qualcomm. Jacobs is a quintessential example of the 21st century CEO who integrates engineering expertise and management skill to make a technology-based company soar.
But Jacobs' advice to the graduating class was not what many expected. Among his recommendations was a push to pursue politics. "When I came to be a student here, I was lucky to benefit from the Research Laboratory of Electronics. ... Now the funding has been cut back quite a bit. There really are reasons to get out and become very politically active.”
Jacobs received both his SM (1957) and his PhD (1959) from MIT. He also served on the MIT faculty for seven years before embarking on entrepreneurial adventures that led to his launch of one of the most successful telecom companies of our age.
Photo by Donna Coveney, MIT News Office.
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Hockfield leads MIT in a critical missionIt says much about Susan Hockfield that the week-long festivities surrounding her inauguration did not overshadow the honoree herself. The first woman and the first biologist to lead the Institute, what most distinguishes MIT's 16th president is a straight-shooting eloquence and a burning sense of mission.
“Think of how many of the major challenges of this uncertain, unsettled age are shaped by science or technology ... daunting problems of quantitative analysis and complex synthesis — energy, climate change, AIDS, stem cells, urban sprawl, global poverty, access to health care, and even the future of Social Security," she told the audience at her inaugural ceremony. Then she set forth a challenge.
“With our expertise in interdisciplinary problem-solving, MIT is uniquely equipped and obliged to make a critical difference: to do the analysis, to create the innovations, to fuel the economy, and to educate the leaders the world needs now. In that context and understanding that profound responsibility, I believe MIT must step up to the great global challenges of our day.”
A noted neuroscientist who also holds a faculty appointment in MIT's Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Hockfield practices as she preaches. As a professor at Yale, she advanced research about cancer of the brain and as Yale provost, increased funding and facilities to pursue the thorny challenges facing the planet.
“Susan Hockfield gave a wonderful inaugural speech, emphasizing MIT's engineering culture and how the Institute can make a difference in a number of areas, including energy and the environment," reported Lotte Bailyn, T Wilson (Class of 1953) Professor of Management at MIT Sloan and a member of the Inaugural Committee. "It's exciting to have a life scientist and a woman as president of MIT.”
Read more about Susan Hockfield's inauguration.
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Balance in biotech's favor at MIT $50KA company marketing a device to help people with a balance or vestibular disorder was awarded the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition's $30,000 grand prize in a ceremony at MIT's Kresge Auditorium Monday, May 9. The victory for the privately held company, Balico, marks the fourth year in a row a medical device company has taken the top honor at the oldest and best known among university business plan competitions.
The Balico business team includes Baruch Schori, a participant in the MIT Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership.
The company reports that at least half of the U.S. population suffers from a balance or vestibular disorder sometime during their lives. It will develop and commercialize a wearable vibrotactile balance aid that accurately senses and displays body tilt to help reduce the risk of falls.
Balico was chosen from seven finalist teams, each of which presented its business plan to an audience at the ceremony that included venture capitalists and business leaders.
The $50K judges awarded first runner-up honors to Nanocell Power, which has a manufacturing process that provides efficient distribution of expensive catalyst and carbon nanofibers in the fuel cell membrane. The second runner-up was Vacuum Excavation Technology, which offers an excavation device that works with existing machinery to enable efficient operation without risk to utilities or operators.
Learn more about the MIT $50K winners.
Photo: Business team members of Balico, winner of the 2005 MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition.
Photo by Justin Allardyce Knight
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Jack Welch tells what it really means to be the "smartest person in town"“A rock star of the business world," was how MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee introduced him, and retired GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch did not disappoint the hundreds of students crammed into Wong Auditorium, spilling out into corridors, and watching live on Webcam.
As famous for his candor and rhetorical skill as for his strength as a business leader, Welch needed no warm-up act to keep the crowd on the edge of its seat during his talk at MIT Sloan on April 12, 2005. Although in the midst of promoting his bestselling memoir "Winning," written with new wife and former Harvard Business Review editor Suzy (Wetlaufer) Welch, America's most charismatic CEO spent the hour focused on leadership and never lost track of whom he was talking to.
Part of the Dean's Innovative Leader Series, the talk was heavily attended by present and future leaders and Welch talked straight to them. A leader's role, he told them, is to impart vision and a healthy corporate culture, build great people and great teams, and show them how to lead. A leader's job, he said again and again, is not to be "the smartest person in town," but to hire and inspire the smartest people in town.
One of the keys to growing into leadership, Welch said, was to build confidence and for that reason, he noted, he never berated anyone when they were down. He himself had accidentally blown up a plant early in his career as an engineer at GE and never forgot that his boss, former MIT professor Charles Reed, left him feeling taller and more confident than when he arrived for the reckoning, quaking in his boots.
Confidence, Welch said, was something the students seated before him would build at MIT Sloan. "As one of the greatest schools in the world, MIT Sloan gives you self-confidence — after all, you got here in the first place." But he urged his audience to aspire beyond being one the smartest in the classroom. Looking around at them, he predicted, "The people in this room will go out and do something that will change the shape of the game!”
Watch the video of Jack Welch's talk.
Read about Jack Welch's talk at MIT Sloan.
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Latin Conference features many of the region's top business leadersEven a whirlwind trip through Latin America would not yield the intensive dose of inside information found at the Latin Conference March 4 and 5, which is why this annual MIT Sloan event draws hundreds of participants each year.
Featuring a red-carpet roster of Latin America's most influential business, government, and academic leaders, the eighth annual Latin Conference included Dr. Leonel Fernández, president of the Dominican Republic, Enrique Iglesias, president of the Interamerican Development Bank; Carlos Brito, zone president North America, InBev; Hernan Buchi, former Chilean minister of finance; Domingo Cavallo, former Argentinean finance minister; Enrique Baliño, president of Zonamerica; Grey Warner, senior vice president of Latin America, Merck; and Alfonso Gomez, president of Colombia Telecomunicaciones — among other eminent leaders.
The MIT Sloan Latin Conference is a student-driven event designed to provide those interested in working within the region with current, industry-fresh information on opportunities, challenges, and strategies for succeeding in Latin America. Moderated by several of the Latin American experts on the MIT Sloan faculty — Richard Locke, Arnoldo Hax, Donald R. Lessard, and Roberto Rigobon — the conference focused on corporate strategy, entrepreneurial issues, and economic policy.
Learn more about the 2005 MIT Sloan Latin Conference.
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