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Review: Michael Fern, Management, Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business

Management 619:  Something or Other but known as:  CAPSTONE
At a glance

  • 3 unit course offered every quarter but summer
  • Workload:  Ridiculously Heavy
  • Teaching Style:  Discussion, case-based
  • Interest in students: Very High
  • Relevance to outside world: Ridiculously High

Overall Professor Rating: 4.5

Overall Course Rating: 5

Note:  Since this is the last required course in the entire program, it is one heckuva class.  It beats you down, it brings you together, it pulls you apart.  But you learn a tremendous amount from it.

About Me

I haven’t done one of these reviews in a while.  The truth is that 1) I have gotten worn down a bit by the program so I have been less motivated to write about my courses and 2) I have a bit of senioritis.  I actually am going to be walking in my commencement this Friday, so I’m easily distracted, I guess.

I started the program almost 3 years ago – March of 2007.  During the past years, I have had trouble finding good, expansive reviews of faculty and/or courses.  So I started writing these.   There are lots of sites out there that provide feedback and rates – ratemyprofessor is the most notable. The SantaClaraMBA Yahoo group also has a big database of comments and lots of additional information in its message archive. That database can be a bit hard to wade through, and the comments are short and often just link to other threads, which are themselves pretty short and superficial. Only here can I write as much as I want  🙂

I review professors from a variety of perspectives.  First, I explain the context(s) under which I took the class.  Time of year, time of day, etc.  Then I talk about the quality of the class and the professor, and finally about the professor as a person.  After all, we are trying to learn about our interactions with people, so knowing that side of a teacher is critical, too.  So these would be interactions outside the classroom, etc.  I also just write whatever it is that I think is relevant or will be helpful to others.  That is my overall goal.

The facts

I took MGMT 619 in Winter 2010, in the 7:20 section.  This was the best quarter for me, as it interfered the least with any other event at my work.  Capstone is not a class with which to be trifled, and I wanted to make sure I planned it correctly.  This is also the only course about which I warned my manager that I would “check out” at some point from my job responsibilities.  This is important – be careful about when you take Capstone.

Selecting a team is critically important for Capstone.  Unlike some other final courses for MBA programs, this is all about teamwork, rather than an individual thesis.  I received emails throughout the summer if I was available to be on a team in the Fall, and then again for the Winter.

I was lucky in that many of my classmates from my very first class – MGMT 501 – whom I knew well, considered friends, and had worked with in the past, were all taking the course at the same time.  It is true that one never knows what will happen with any team, even one composed of people whom you know.  But at the very least, this is a case of the “devil you know” being better than the devil you don’t.  And trust me – at some point, during all the stress of Capstone the devil does make an appearance.

Fern is one of 3-4 faculty in the management department that teach Capstone.  The number of sections offered depends on how many petition to take the course by a certain deadline.  For instance, there were 3 sections in the Fall, 2 in the Winter, and I think 4 in the Spring.  Some of the other faculty that teach the course include Madsen, Levehagen, and Chandy.

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June 7, 2010 Reviews of Professors, , , , , 1 Read more >

BP Increased Oil-Capture Rate to 10,500 Barrels a Day Update3 – BusinessWeek

BP Increased Oil-Capture Rate to 10,500 Barrels a Day Update3 – BusinessWeek.

About 1/2 way into this article, the COO of Exploration and Production at BP says that they hope to capture “90-plus percent of this flow.”

I realize that by now they must know to be a bit safer in their estimates, but in this case they are still saying that their “hope” (not goal or anything more concrete) is to let “only” 5-10% of the oil to keep leaking straight into the Gulf.

Awesome.

I will admit that this is one of those disasters that is so terrible that sometimes I can’t watch.

June 6, 2010 Articles from the Web, , 0 Read more >

Higher Ed Tech Talk: OMG the OS is the Internet

[link removed because 1) it was a while ago and 2) don’t want to piss off the original poster….]

A short time after the iPad came out, someone at another university (a CIO, I think) posted that “OMG, the Internet is the OS!”  The gist is that he had a revelation that with such a device, it wasn’t about the operating system anymore.  It was about applications that ran on the internet, like Google Docs.  One didn’t need an OS anymore to run local apps.

I had two problems with this.  First, the iPad does run an OS, and Apple is in the business of operating systems.  Yes, any tablet or slate will have some kind of OS on it (even the JooJoo Pad, which is about as basic and internet-oriented as it gets, runs a small linux kernel).  But a lot of applications on the iPad that are so heavily touted – the media player, the book reader, the music player – run on the installed operating system.  These are not cloud-based applications that are accessed via the internet.

Second, I found the revelatory nature of the post rather surprising.  It’s not like internet-based applications are new, nor are other cloud-based service such as storage (enterprise level like Amazon’s S3 or Rackspace or personal solutions such as Dropbox), applications (aforementioned Google docs, as well as a few others).  Software as a Service (SaaS) has been around for a while, too, where one can run traditionally local solutions (like MS Exchange, powering an Outlook-based e-mail and calendar system) in a hosted environment – essentially outsourcing but to the internet.  There is even a Microsoft Office solution for sharing documents via cloud storage, kind of like Google Docs but with a monster of a local application (the Office suite) doing the heavy lifting.

So why would it be so stunning that applications are migrating towards online?

June 6, 2010 Articles from the Web, Work-related, 1 Read more >

the Groupwise to Google experiment (part 2)

So back in part 1 of this experiment, which was quite a while ago, my goal was to see whether I could effectively use Google mail, calendar and contacts as a direct replacement for Novell Groupwise, which we use at Santa Clara.  “Effectively” doesn’t mean that all of a sudden all of my e-mails come from gmail.com.  After all, if I work for SCU, and I intend to represent myself as an employee of SCU, I need to have an scu.edu address.

Fortunately, Google mail has the ability to send e-mails as if it were a different address (not just reply-to, but actually with the header and “from” of name@scu.edu).  Now, you may say “but Allan, that’s basically spoofing or faking someone else’s e-mail address.  Won’t that get caught in spam filters?”

If all Google offered was the ability to change the “from” field then most likely yes, it would get filtered like crazy.  All of my e-mails ending up in spam filters would not be an effectively switch to a different service.  However, I am able to use SCU’s outgoing mail server for the messages.  So Google mail is doing the composition, but once it tries to send, it’s actually talking to and sending from the scu.edu mail server.  Which means it now looks like and comes from the same place.  Not sure if that makes sense, but the bottom line is that spam filters will leave me alone.

Many of my colleagues use Google mail because, in all honesty, they don’t like Groupwise.  However, since I am a Blackberry user and the university has set up a Blackberry Enterprise Server that talks back and forth with the Groupwise servers, I actually didn’t mind at all.  My mobile device and desktop clients all talked to each other very efficiently.

That all changes if I stop using a blackberry unit.  As good as they are, and as good as the current version of the Blackberry OS is (which is a lot better and prettier than the one on my 2.5 year old unit, btw), I have found myself wanting many of the features that are offered by various other smartphones, such as an iPhone or an Android phone.

For instance – I have an HTC Incredible from Verizon as my personal phone.  The other day, while trying to finish off the little details of our inventory, I was walking around, viewing our inventory spreadsheet on the nice big, bright screen on my phone, which has retrieved that spreadsheet via its Dropbox application.  This was so much more efficient than anything I could do on the smaller screen of my Blackberry.

Thus…I have ordered the new EVO 4G from Sprint (SCU has a contract with them).  This means that if I want to use the new, Android phone for my mail, calendar, etc, I need to get everything moved over from Groupwise.  So it’s not about dislike for Groupwise so much as a need for something that will work with the new phone.

Anyway – I have most things set up.

  • Setup a Groupwise rule that will simply forward all incoming mail to a Google mail account
  • Have already worked with the labels in Google to see how well I can manage such e-mail all flying in (since Google mail doesn’t have folders, this is an important step).
  • Using Companionlink, running on my home computer (which stays on most of the time), to synchronize my calendar, tasks, and contacts with Google
  • Verified that meetings proposed by Groupwise to me and ones that I propose from Google work (way to go, iCal standard)

Once the phone arrives, I just log into the created Google account and I should be set.

This should be interesting.  Though I figure this post is pretty boring…

June 5, 2010 Work-related, , , 4 Read more >

thoughts on Specter

Yesterday, “Democratic” Senator Arlen Specter lost in his state’s primary to a Tea-Party-affiliated (the line between Tea Party and anti-establishment is blurry, IMO, especially when you consider that it was founded on opposition to the ARRA stimulus package, specifically).  This is a bit of a tough situation to really assess, but is nonetheless important.

First, Specter has annoyed the bejesus out of me for a while.  First a Republican, then claims that he doesn’t like where his party is going but really just doesn’t like where his numbers are going and switches to the other party, then everyone loves him for “crossing the aisle” and being “bipartisan.”  Just because someone votes against party lines once (then changes parties entirely) doesn’t make that person a messiah.  Yes, party lines have been as rigid as they have been…since I started following politics (a whopping 10 years, maybe), but that doesn’t mean we should start putting people on pedestals.  I mean, the whole rage over Snowe from Maine?  She really only cast that one vote in support of the health care bill to put it before the Senate and is praised for her courage from Democrats, but really didn’t show a consistent bipartisan spirit otherwise.

But just because Specter was a useful ally because he crossed party lines and helped give Democrats a strong(er) majority in a ridiculously partisan Congress doesn’t make him a savior of any kind.  From what I’ve read of his track record (which isn’t extensive, by the way – I follow Pelosi more, for instance, at least partially because she’s from my district in CA), he doesn’t deserve that kind of estimation.

But enough of that rant.  What is perhaps more disconcerting is that the whole Tea Party movement does nothing to stop this partisan mess that is going on in Congress.  Yes, it sends a message to both parties.  I would argue, however, that mid-term elections always send a message to the President as there is almost always disillusionment following the election (how many presidents really deliver on every campaign promise within the first 1.5 years?  How many aren’t attacked left and right by the opposition, even if they are the incumbent, much less the force of change that Obama represents?  People pick up on this, and vote accordingly).  But while the message of massive, rather organized (though if you watch even a couple episodes of the Daily Show you will likely see how illogical some of their platform arguments are) discontent and anger over the “established” ways of “government as usual” is important, the formation of a highly ideological movement that has developed legitimate political and popular backing just creates more partisanship.

Does anyone really think that putting Tea Party-oriented candidates in Congress will decrease partisanship?  Or that somehow bills that have been stuck here or there will suddenly move forward?  Or that government as usual will in fact stop operating as government as usual?

The obvious truth, as one reads this post, is that I’m more of a “work from within” kind of guy.  I do believe that it’s possible to make change from within.  Some of the most influential senators have been the least visible ones, the ones that have been deal-makers, ones that help find compromises and get the job done.  These aren’t the ones that kill off public options (and I don’t think that such people would have made any difference at all in the electrical storm that was the health care reform bill and is the still existent overall debate) or that even make it onto Sunday morning shows.  And I’m not sure they even exist anymore (I do wonder if Clinton or Obama, in another 12 or so years, might have become those kind of people in the Senate had they not run for higher office).

This post, as are many of mine, is all over the place, and is indicative more of how torn I am over the political landscape than anything else.  I’m more of a centrist than anything else, and many nowadays would probably even call me slightly conservative (though definitely not on health care reform or economics – I’ve already been called a socialist on the latter topic).  But overall I’m just a pragmatist.  And it’s becoming just flat-out hard to be a pragmatist in today’s climate.

May 19, 2010 Getting Political, , , 0 Read more >

a stadium for santa clara…

Measure J here in Santa Clara in the upcoming fall elections covers the building of a new sports stadium in the city.  This would be the new home to the 49’ers, a well-known, established football team with a loyal following that would certainly come down the peninsula for games just as they currently head up to the city to Candlestick Point.

Based on the phone surveys, television commercials, and the number of trees killed on flyers in the mail, this is a pretty hot topic.  This group endorses it, another group opposes it.  The teachers support it, but the school janitors don’t (I’m just making that up, but it really seems that divisive at times).

I was speaking with a work colleague about the topic while thinking about this blog post and started off by comparing the project to a stimulus package.  On the one hand, this is a big, government-driven project that will create jobs right now and into the future.  Ongoing business at the stadium will also generate tax revenue.  The measure is actually written relatively well considering how often these kinds of projects go massively over budget, with various protections built-in.  This is the type of project that only a government can put together.  With very few exceptions (McGowan’s ATT Park for the SF Giants, Jones’s Texas Stadium for the Dallas Cowboys), no individual business (much less a person) could start up such a project.  This energizes the local economy, contributes to GDP, and helps overall long-term growth.

On the other hand, the main argument I’m seeing in the mail (and I must admit I’m throwing a lot of stuff away) is that this is a bad idea because this is going to be paid by debt.  And we’re all in this mess because of debt, right?  Well, personally, I don’t think that holds a lot of water (at least not to a quasi-Keynesian like me).  Deficit-spending (i.e. fueled by borrowing) is not bad unto itself.  It is in fact the only way to fund big stimulus projects, almost by definition (if the economy needs to be stimulated, it is unlikely to have enough existing monetary power to fund such projects without borrowing).  The problem is if such spending goes unchecked or if there aren’t plans to recoup that debt as part of the plan.

As I thought more about the issue last night, I realized that there is a key issue with thinking of this as a stimulus project.  One of the problems with any stimulus package – including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA!!!! as pirates would call it), the big federal package started under President Obama at the start of his administration – is that there is a lag before its effects are felt.

Let’s say that the money goes into a project the day after the ARRA was approved.  Person X is hired after being unemployed for some time.  Person X now has money.  Person X spends some time paying off bills, perhaps overdo, and then saves for a while out of a renewed inclination to do so (the national savings rate is still higher than it has been since, I think, the 1950’s or so, perhaps ever).  Eventually, after Person X is confident of his or her income and financial stability and perhaps the well-being of his or her family’s well-being, there is some spending.  Then the money multiplier (where $1 from Person X leads to something like $100 of GDP growth) kicks in and things start to get better.  This is the lag.

Well, the key is that such stimulus packages go towards “shovel-ready” projects.  These are not only ones that are ready to go right off the bat, but also ones that have already been approved, presumably because they have gone through some vetting (not always the case – lots of examples of ARRA funds going to some dumb projects).  The Santa Clara stadium, however, is a totally different situation.  The fact that we’re voting on it indicates that it’s not shovel-ready, and the benefits are still unclear.  Such projects – stadium construction – have historically gone over budget.  Those overruns are almost always borne by the taxpayers (even if the original costs are designed to be covered by the team).

I don’t know where I stand on this, even with the mail-in ballot sitting on the table in front of me.

May 18, 2010 Getting Political, , 1 Read more >

Adobe Upgrades Software to Help Defend Against Apple (Update1) – BusinessWeek

The article linked at the bottom of this post is a more balanced version of what I’ve read on sites like boygenius report, which was much more anti-Apple.  I will look for the little tidbit that Adobe’s CTO wrote later, too, which is quite interesting.

The two quoted sections below frame the entire discussion, I think.  Both companies are basically trying to work within closed systems on a single, dominant platform.  The iPhone and iPad block out Flash, which is an established, dominant media option.  Adobe needs to have Flash work with iPhones and iPads.

The resulting issue, then, is whether “people,” whether Adobe or independent developers, start working on more open platforms.

Narayen said Apple’s criticism reflects an attempt to protect its way of doing business. “This has nothing to do with the technology,” he said. “It’s not a technology decision, it’s a business model: a closed, proprietary business model, with complete control, as opposed to having open innovation drive what happens across devices.”

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris disagreed. “Someone has it backwards,” she said in an e-mailed statement. It’s HTML5 and other standards supported by the iPhone and iPad “that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.”

via Adobe Upgrades Software to Help Defend Against Apple (Update1) – BusinessWeek.

April 12, 2010 Articles from the Web, , , , 0 Read more >

Conan O’Brien to Host Talk Show on Time Warner’s TBS (Update1) – BusinessWeek

Conan O’Brien to Host Talk Show on Time Warner’s TBS (Update1) – BusinessWeek.

I am still upset with NBC for the way they handled the entire Conan situation, and will not watch any episode of Leno ever.  So while I am sad to see Conan go to TBS (they don’t yet have a established record for late-night shows…), I’m glad to see him get a show.  And that it’ll go head to head with Leno (with a head start, actually).

April 12, 2010 Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

the GroupWise to Google Experiment (Part 1)

So the university at which I work uses Novell’s suite of applications for e-mail, calendaring, systems management, and storage.  For a while now, I have been contemplating how to stop using the GroupWise (e-mail and calendar) client, which is terrible on a Mac, and move to a different set of tools.  At the same time, I have been seeking a bit more freedom with my choice of phones…

GroupWise is not very integration friendly.  Yes, I can IMAP into the mail server, but that’s just mail.  If I want calendars, the ability to propose meetings, etc, then the best solution on campus is to use a blackberry connected via the Blackberry Enterprise Server IT has hooked into GroupWise.  This is a very nice integration – e-mails come very fast, calendar changes are pretty smooth (though sometimes I run into problems with recurring meetings) and the address book synchronization is great.

However, I won’t lie and say that I wouldn’t mind a phone that gave me a big touch screen rather than the traditional thumb-punching keyboard (and no, I am not interested in a Storm).  So I have been looking at Android smart phones (ATT coverage is very bad here, so I have not seriously considered the iPhone).

So, how do I get GroupWise e-mail, calendar, tasks, and contacts all into an Android phone?  Well, that’s why this is called the “GroupWise to Google Experiment.”

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April 5, 2010 Can't be Contained, Work-related, , , , 2 Read more >