Field 3 is well under way and I feel a lucrative IPO in the not-so-distant future.  Last week we had “Go Day”, which was an opportunity to pitch our business ideas to the people who are going to be “investing” in our businesses.  Each group had ten minutes to convince investors that its idea has the potential to become a sustainable business within the next five years.  Most groups focused on the attractiveness of the market, value proposition of the product or service, and revenue model.  People got pretty creative, actually.  There were more than a few pitches that involved hilarious skits, product mock-ups / wireframes, and interactive games.  Overall I was impressed with the quality of the business ideas.  People pitched concepts across industries as diverse as education, pets, travel, consumer goods, and games.

After the pitches concluded, the “market” opened.  Each of us has an allotment of money to invest in the most promising sounding ideas.  HBS did an awesome job creating a custom marketplace for us to use.  Each team has a ticker symbol and the trading process is very fluid.  Although a lot of the ideas were interesting, some of them just didn’t seem super feasible to me.  For those companies, instead of buying their stock (and effectively pumping up the price by doing so), I shorted them, which basically just means making a bet against them (which drives their stock price down).  The market is a cool way to assign a market value to your idea and give you a read on how investors perceived the viability of your concept.  I’m happy to report that my business’s valuation is solid, at least for now!  The market will be opening at regular intervals as the semester moves on, so we’ve got to make sure that we follow through on our value proposition and adequately communicate our progress to investors.

As a humorous aside:  Turns out that some finance-types figured out how to game the trading system by aggressively “day trading” in order to generate massively outsized returns for themselves.  We got an email from the administration that, while they admire this investing savvy, they will be taking measures to ensure that short term gains and losses can’t be exploited in future trading sessions.  The point is to have a market-based indication of the long term viability of your business, which requires investors to take a longer term view.  Ahhh, HBS students…so enterprising.

Overall, Field 3 has been a blast.  As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, it is invaluable to have the experience of starting a business with so much support.  I think of it as entrepreneurship with training wheels.  There are also some cool ways to integrate the Field 3 experience with our coursework.  For example, this week we are doing a joint assignment with our Strategy class.  We just finished a unit on industry analysis using the Five Forces framework, and the project is to do this sort of analysis for the industries that we are planning to launch our businesses in.

I can’t wait to get your feedback on my team’s business idea, stay tuned!

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a small, intimate chat with one of Harvard Business School’s most recent alums:  Tyra Banks (she graduated from HBS’s Owner / President Management Program this past Friday!).  For those of you who don’t know who Tyra is, you obviously missed every Victoria’s Secret fashion show between 1997 and 2005 / have never been sucked into a day-long ANTM* marathon.  Basically, Tyra is a supermodel turned talk show host turned author turned media mogul.  She’s been working toward her degree for the past three years, and I have to say I’m really pumped that she and I overlapped on campus this year.  Her classroom was right beside mine and, I’m not gonna lie, it definitely makes the day more exciting to stalk a supermodel between classes (if you don’t believe me, see below):

Anyway, Tyra agreed to speak with some students last week, and I was lucky enough to get a spot in the audience!  I went into it not really sure what to expect.  However, after five minutes of hearing her talk, it was abundantly obvious that she is an incredibly intelligent, well-spoken person and that she’s put enormous effort into the work she’s been doing at HBS.  And yes, she is ridiculously hot in person, despite the fact that she was super casual in jeans and a Harvard sweatshirt (which actually made her even hotter, somehow).

She was very candid about her experience at HBS, and talked a lot about the specific ways she has applied what she’s been learning to her own business, Bankable Productions.  It was clear that she has tons of ideas about how to continue building her brand, and that she’s pumped to take her company to the next level.  Much of the conversation was focused on her goals for Bankable Productions – it turns out that she would actually prefer to be behind the camera, and her goal is to build a sustainable company that isn’t just built on fans…she wants to make it bigger than that.  The overarching mission – and she was clearly very passionate about this – is to redefine beauty and to help women feel empowered and self-confident.  “Wait!” you may be saying right now.  “She’s a supermodel!  Isn’t she the very person who makes women feel badly about themselves in the first place?!”   Au contraire!  When Tyra started modeling at age 19, she was an anomaly in the business, first because she was a black woman, and second because she was “thicker” than most models.   As her career progressed she knocked down walls everywhere she went…she was the first black woman to walk many of the runways in Paris, first black woman to be on the cover of Vogue, first black woman to receive a contract with Victoria’s Secret.  A really hot pioneer, if you will.

Anyway, she thinks of her show, America’s Next Top Model, as a way to change how we perceive beauty.  For example:  she said that 30% of the girls that she casts to compete are “non-debatable beauty”, whereas the other 70% are “debatable” (read:  gap teeth, really far apart eyes, very dark skin, short hair, etc.).  She thinks that her viewers will identify with the women on the show, and will see how beautiful they really are and, as a result, feel better about how they look.  In addition to ANTM, she’s got a ton of other projects going on, one of which is TZONE, a non-profit she started to help young girls with self esteem issues.

It was a really cool experience to hear her speak, and I left enormously impressed by her energy and ambition.  I know she has some interesting projects in the works, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more from Ms. Banks in the coming years!  She didn’t specifically mention a Harvard Business School version of America’s Next Top Model, but you never know…

*America’s Next Top Model

Iceland was a blast!  I’d highly recommend it to any and all who are looking for a slightly off-the-beaten-path vacation.  The weather was surprisingly mild (given our apocalyptic expectations, anyway), the country is beautiful, the restaurants are great, and the nightlife is bumpin’.

We finished up our Icelandic adventure with a glorious roadtrip around the southern part of the island.  Some pals and I rented a car to drive the “Golden Circle”, which is a day-long, three part adventure of natural wonders.   We saw the site of the old Icelandic parliament, some sweet geysers, and a glorious waterfall.  Some pictures of our journey are below!

We spent our last day in Rekyjavic wandering around town and checking things out.  A couple of pictures to set the scene for you:

Alas, we were unsuccessful in our efforts to stalk Bjork, but believe me, I tried.  I freaked out more than one Icelander by sidling up to them and asking if they knew Bjork’s address.   I suppose that would be like a random Icelander creeping up behind me and asking if I knew where Britney Spears lives…definitely weird.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into one of the more random trips I’ve ever taken!

We also went and saw an amazing waterfall…my hands almost went numb trying to get a good picture of it in the freezing rain, so you’d better enjoy this one!

After our icy safari we warmed up with delicious lobster soup!  Hitting the hay now…tomorrow we’re renting a car to drive all over this crazy island!  In addition to visiting some more natural sites (e.g., geysers, waterfalls, etc.) we are also planning to stalk down Björk’s house.  Word on the street is that it’s painted totally black…

Hilarity to ensue, I’m sure!

I know what you’re thinking right now:  “Iceland?  In February?!”

You are correct to be dubious.  However, there is a reason that we are visiting Iceland in the darkest throes of the winter:  It’s cheap!  When you have negative money, you kind of take what you can get.  And what we got was…Iceland!  Joking aside, I’m really pumped to be here.  We’ve got a glorious agenda planned for the next several days, including but not limited to:  Hiking around a glacier, marveling at the Northern Lights, renting a car and carousing about the island, eating hearty lobster stew, enjoying cups of hot chocolate, and generally painting the town.   We have already taken a dip in the warm waters of the Blue Lagoon (see below), which was a ton of fun and quite therapeutic:

Per usual, I look forward to updating you on our shenanigans as this jaunt progresses.  Check back!

*Whatap

In the meantime, I’d like to introduce you to my glorious Field 3 team.  This particular group of people represents, in my opinion, the fantastically crazy amount of diversity that makes HBS so wonderful.  For example, on my six person team, we are from six different countries, speak seven different languages, have worked in five different industries, and have vastly different views on all of the possible businesses that one could launch out into the big bad world.  So, without further ado…

The Romanian  Code Name: Anastasia.  Our financially savvy CFO, Anastasia hails from the depths of Romania.  So far in her career she’s crushed investment banking and consulting, and is about to take the world by storm as the CFO of the next big start-up (ours, obviously).

The Brit  Code Name: Sir Austin Thunderheart. This jolly ol’ chap comes to us from Londontown, and is rumored to have been educated at Hogwarts prior to HBS.  He is fluent in both American and British English, and allegedly served as Kate Middleton’s vocal coach prior to the royal wedding to make sure her accent was appropriately classy.

The Brazilian  Code Name:  Gisele.  This Brazilian bombshell was, in a past life, private banker to the rich and famous, which has prepared her well to schmooze with all of the investors who will be eager to invest in our new business.  Gisele enjoys cooking, long walks on the beach, and hanging out with her pet goat.

The Dude from China  Code Name:  Mr. Bill.  Already a legend, Mr. Bill is an enigmatic figure and our team’s sole engineer.  He possesses the rare ability to communicate exclusively via graphic tees, and it is commonly believed that his collection of these shirts runs well into the hundreds of thousands.

The Canadian  Code Name:  Maple Leaf.  Our resident Canadian brings a certain… Je ne sais quoi… to our team, and is currently earning not one but two Harvard graduate degrees.  The ambition is palpable, people.  He will go far, and we plan to ride those coattails all the way to success.

The American  Code Name: MBAdventure.  Just a gal trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, and blogging along the way…

Hello, comrades!  Hard to believe, but second semester is in full swing already.  I must admit, it was a shock to the system to get back in the saddle classroom, but we HBS peeps are nothing if not adaptable.  In fact, I can report that I started the spring term with a bang by getting Cold Called* – for the first time ever, might I add – on our first day back in the very first class.  Awesome.  Some of you may be aware that my name is Parker (not MBAdventure…shocker, I know), and the case for that fateful morning was an entrepreneurship case that dealt with the board game industry.  One of the companies mentioned in the case was Parker Brothers, and my darling professor felt that this was a sign from the Cold Call Gods that he should give me the “opportunity” to start things off.

Cold calls aside, I’ve loved my classes so far!  We’ve got a killer line-up…see below for what I’m taking this term:

The Entrepreneurial Manager – Awesome class with a badass professor.  This is definitely the course that I’m most excited about, given my road-less-traveled entrepreneurial aspirations.

Strategy – Really fun so far, for two reasons.  1) The cases are super interesting and…you guessed it…very strategic in nature (derr)  2) Our professor is insane in the membrane (in a good way).  He literally runs around the classroom while he teaches, and frequently gets in your face yelling, “More!  More!  We need MORE!” and gesticulating wildly while you are talking, seemingly in an effort to literally pull smart things out of your brain.

Leadership and Corporate Accountability - Pretty much just business ethics, mixed with a bit of corporate governance, with a splash of law in there for good measure.  We’re basically going to be grappling with lots of tough “gray area” decisions…hope my moral compass is tuned up!

Business, Government, and the International Economy – Macroeconomics, HBS style. Oh joy!

Finance 2 – Just like Finance 1…but gnarlier.  Last semester we didn’t have to consider taxes in any of our valuations; not the case this semester.  Eek.

And finally…FIELD 3!  This is the wild card.  We are starting our own business!  There’s a lot to say on this, so I’m plotting a dedicated post in the very near future.  For now just know that it’s been awesome so far – I love my team, we’ve got some good ideas, and I feel an IPO looming in the not so distant future (I’m a glass half full kind of gal, in case you haven’t already noticed…)

That’s it for now.  As always, more to come from me!

*Torture device commonly used in HBS classrooms, whereby you are forced to start out that day’s discussion by answering some incredibly open-ended question posed by the professor

Exhibit A

It’s such a surreal experience, and it goes something like this:

You have an interview.  You’re nervous and holding on to your faux leather portfolio for dear life.  You hop on the HBS shuttle and head over to the Doubletree, awkwardly riding in silence while other freaked out interviewees sweat nervously beside you.  Chatting with people only increases your chances of the whole, ‘”What are you interviewing for?’ ‘Company X.  You?’ ‘Me, too.’ ‘Cool.’ ‘Cool.’  <insert awkward silence>” scenario.

You get to the hotel.  Perhaps you swing by the student lounge that’s been set up by HBS to grab a drink and a snack before heading to your assigned room.  Perhaps you don’t, preferring to skip 1) the possibility of spillage and 2) the stressful experience of catching snippets of conversation as you put cream cheese on your bagel (…”How did yours go?  Mine was awful…did you get that crazy pricing case?  I got that crazy pricing case and blew it!).

You get in the glass elevator and head to your appointed interview room.  Outside of the door there is a chair.  A very small, uncomfortable chair.  You sit down and shuffle some papers around while you wait, observing the scene in front of you.  On every floor of the open atrium hotel, business suit – clad Hell Weekers mill around like ants in a corporate ant hill.

The door opens, and the sound of end-of-interview niceities floats out into the hall.  This is it.  The previous interviewee darts out of the room and runs like hell for the elevator, and now it’s your turn.  You enter the room and realize that yes, in fact, it is just as weird to interview in the sitting room of a hotel room as you thought it would be.  As you walk your interviewer through your resume and outline your three biggest strengths (with colorful yet succinct examples!), you try not to get distracted by the fact that he / she slept in this very hotel room the night before.  Did he/ she chill on this exact couch last night in his / her underwear watching TV after getting in from the airport?  No…can’t go down that road.  Way too distracting.  Focus!  Must talk intelligently about key industry trends now!

When it’s over, you are both physically and emotionally exhausted.  Walking out of the hotel room, it strikes you as incredibly poor planning on HBS’s part to hold these interviews in an open atrium hotel.  What if someone decides to jump?!  You yourself fight this very impulse as you slink back to the elevator, get on the shuttle, and finally get back to the sanctuary of your apartment.  One interview down, so many more to go…

It’s like the Eagles said:  You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave….

Hell Week has come to Harvard.  I’ve heard whisperings of this infamous event ever since my first day on campus, and now that it is here I can confirm that it is, in fact, just as scary as it sounds.  Hell Week (or, “recruitment week”, as the HBS administration sugarcoats calls it) is the week that tons of companies come to campus to interview students for summer internships.  This is when the biggies are here - your consulting firms, investment banks, hedge funds, major consumer goods companies, tech companies, etc., and students pretty much run around like crazy people in suits trying to get the perfect internship.  It’s kind of like getting hazed by corporate America.

There are a variety of telltale signs that HBS has temporarily sunk down to the seventh circle.  These signs include, but are not limited to:  Everyone is anxiously walking around wearing suits; the man at the on-campus dry cleaner’s was incredibly stressed out by the insane number of overnight suit cleaning requests; the barista at the coffee place in Spangler is matching customers shot for shot of espresso in an effort to keep his energy up; there was a run on resume paper in the bookstore.

I’ve observed a variety of Hell Weekers, and have identified several different breeds in their natural habitats:

The Consultants:  Probably the most high strung of all of the Hell Weekers.  These aspiring road warriors tend to have upwards of 10 interviews scheduled, and they have been prepping for months.  Consulting interviews are case based, which is basically an excuse for interviewers to lock you in a room for an hour at a time and see how much they can make you sweat.  Hence the increased demand for overnight dry-cleaning service on campus.

The Hedge Funders:  Another particularly hardy breed, these future finance whizzes have been preparing stock pitches for weeks, and are known to pepper their vernacular with financial jargon, like, “I’m long Domino’s man, that sh*t is delicious!” (translation:  I really like Domino’s pizza).

The Investment Bankers:  The bankers run in packs, and thrive on their ability to crunch out financial models in excel for hours and hours (and hours) on end.  Rumor has it that they think in nested IF statements.  Banking interviews serve to assess not only your financial acumen, but also your capacity for working 100 hour weeks for an entire summer, so it’s helpful to enhance your intensity by chugging a 5 hour energy (or two) right before the interview starts so that you can ride that Niacin Flush all the way to an offer.

The Consumer Packaged Goods Peeps:  These bright young stars are the future managers of some of your favorite household brands, and are both quantitatively savvy as well as very creative.  I don’t get the sense that these interviews are as hard core as some of the others, but are nonetheless stressful, I’m sure.  For example, if you had to think of a hip new way to market toilet paper to the masses, could you?

The Techies:  Tech geeks flock to interview with giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook to try their hand at breaking the code (get it?!) to enter one of the most dynamic industries out there.  These interviews vary in their intensity, but definitely require a true passion for technology and all that it is doing / can do for the world at large.  HBS Urban legend has it that some of your more hard core techies actually tweet live while in the middle of interviews to keep the world updated on how it’s going.

If you happen to encounter any of the aforementioned in the wild, don’t panic.  Establish your dominance by making eye contact, back away slowly, and – if they start trying to “walk you through their resume” – run!

Good luck to all of the Hell Weekers at HBS and beyond…you’re going to crush your interviews, I’m sure!

Greetings from the glorious island of Phu Quoc!  We have finished our jaunt around ‘Nam with a bang by spending a couple of days on this glorious tropical retreat.  Hard to believe that in a mere 48 hours I will be back in the frigid tundra of Boston…

Hope you enjoyed a peek into the first ever HBS international FIELD experience.  There’s a lot more FIELD work coming my way in the near future (e.g., starting a sustainable business…nbd), so I’ll be sure to keep you all updated with how it’s going!