Each week we collect all the MBA news that’s fit to print and provide a quick overview of the latest trending topics from top business schools around the world. Here’s your quick MBA News You Need digest for the week of February 25, 2019.
Tuck MBA Students Win Global Universities Challenge in Dubai
This year, a team of five Dartmouth / Tuck MBA students took home the top prize in the Shaping Future Governments: Global Universities Challenges held in Dubai. The Challenge, hosted at the World Government Summit (WGS), pitted 15 teams from top business schools around the world against each other for a two-day competition. To win, teams had to craft quick and creative solutions to global problems. Specifically, they were tasked to come up with a 10-year strategy for the sustainable development of the fictional war-torn country of Urmania.
This was the first time that Dartmouth Tuck competed, though the second time they attended the Summit. Team members Travis Cyphers, Maria Barragan Santana, Melina Sanchez Montanes, and Alen Amini gave a five-minute presentation to a panel of judges presenting their three-phase idea. They proposed to:
- Stabilize the country through developing a rule of law, integrating with global markets, and improving social wellbeing.
- Connect youth, communities, and the economy through technology.
- Transform Urmania with transparency and public-private partnerships.
Dean Matthew Slaughter was excited about the Summit and Tuck’s performance. “What a terrific example of how wise leadership is about asking the right questions, building the right teams, and taking the right risks—and winning, too!” he said in a press release.
Columbia Research Reveals US Homeowners Didn’t Take Full Advantage of HARP
On December 31, 2018, the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) expired. It was designed to help U.S. homeowners find more affordable home loans, but more than 51 percent of homeowners didn’t take advantage of the offer. They were slow to consider refinancing that would save them money—on average $8,719—because of suspicion of banking institutions. While this was not the main or only reason homeowners left money on the table, Columbia Business School researchers found a correlation between the two.
They found that trust is required to make financial decisions. The researchers warned that if trust in financial institutions is not developed, failures to refinance will continue to happen. This will not only be costly for banks, but for society as a whole, since lower payments reduce defaults. Learn more in the two-page research brief here or read the short press release here.
Avoid a “Case of the Mondays” According to UCLA Anderson Researchers
Have you ever headed back to work on Monday feeling less refreshed even after a lovely weekend? You’re not alone. The problem is that America is one of the worst when it comes to time off for workers. This means that the American workforce is not doing so well. The reality is that vacations improve health, boost job performance, trigger creativity, and make you happier. So what can you do to take advantage of the benefits of vacation even without paid time off?
According to UCLA / Anderson’s Colin West, Cassie Mogilner Holmes, and Sanford E. DeVoe, the way to fix the problem is to make your weekend your vacation. In two recent studies, they found that if you treat your weekend as a vacation, you’ll return to work on Monday happier. The key is to be vacation-minded and spend more time on the weekend doing enjoyable activities instead of chores.
“Simply by adopting a vacation mindset, people became more attentive to the present moment, thereby extracting greater happiness from this time off,” the researchers wrote. “Rather than any changes in one’s activities, it was indeed one’s minding of the present moment throughout the weekend that increased enjoyment during that time and produced greater happiness when back at work.”
Kellogg Professor Offers 6 Tools for Communicating Complex Ideas
When you’re a leader, you’re also a teacher. At least that’s how Northwestern / Kellogg Professor Mitchell Petersen sees it. He explains that “their job will entail communicating ideas to others, convincing them the ideas are right—convincing them that this is the right way to think about a problem.” So, what can leaders do to help communicate complex ideas to audiences? He offers six tools for success on Kellogg Insight.
- Use Data: Data will help leaders present a solid conclusion as long as logic and an underlying structure are also provided.
- Use Logic: Casual observation and simple intuition can help you wrestle with a complex problem. It’s valuable in its own right and serves as the basis for rigorous analysis.
- Use Equations: Equations help you capture relationships and make your case with accuracy and precision. It offers a way to boil down complex issues.
- Use Pictures: Visuals can help your audience see what you’re saying and remember the relationship between different variables.
- Use Stories: Stories can summarize certain logics and relationships, and they become memorable and tangible.
- Use Participation: Allow your audience to push back, disagree, or ask for clarification. This helps you know if your audience is following along with you.
Read the full report in Kellogg Insight here.
3 Events and 3 Reasons for Round 3 at Michigan Ross
Managing Director of the Michigan Ross full-time MBA program and admissions, Soojin Kwon, took to the MBA admissions blog to talk about 3 events and Round 3. Amidst welcoming 500 Round Two candidates for on-campus interviews, the school also executed various events:
- The Black Business Students Association hosted the 43rd annual Alfred L. Edwards conference in early February. The event brought 230 prospective students, current students, and alumni together to talk about career goals and work/life balance.
- February is also home to Diversity Week with more than 20 student clubs hosting various events to raise awareness. There were events focused on story-sharing, unconventional interests, the impact of growing up with a “Tiger Mom.”
- Launched this month, Wellness Week is new programming focused on students’ physical, emotional, and mental health.
With the Ross Round 3 deadline just around the corner on March 18th, Kwon also noted a few points of interest about related admission:
“1. We reserve space in the class for Round Three.
2. We like Round Three applicants! Every year, many of our best students — academically and leadership-wise — were admitted in Round 3.
3. There’s no chance of being admitted if you don’t apply.”
