MBET Blog
The Ministry of Truth
I missed posting on the leap year day... but no! Here's to time-changing blog posts!
Yahoo! Directory Graduate School Business Plan Competitions
Need some money for your startup venture? Enter a business plan competition!
What makes a software company successful?
An excellent reference... I think the most interesting point was that successful companies had high levels of sales force productivity. So many people talk about success being based on technical excellence. To heck with that. Success is based on how hard you can sell your product. The rest of the stuff is important but never forget that a great company is more than just a R&D department.
Hi Karen!
Today at lunch Karen - one of the tireless MBET staff - mentioned she
found my blog. So I better keep it clean.
Another Question
The best part of answering questions is that it kills time without making me think a lot. It's a great tactic for presentations too.
Can you give us more of an idea... things like age distribution, are most people coming straight out of CS or similar, what other disciplines, how much work experience is typical, how many involved at 'upper level' of previous startups, male/female split, etc?
I can give you an idea, yes. This is the first year of the MBET program though, so don't take the numbers I give you as being statistically significant. The faculty could change the entry criteria at any moment and one year's class might look nothing like the next. The program is also being promoted more now than it was before so the next class might look different based on a change in the set of applicants. So, having given the disclaimer, here we go.
There are 22 students. 16 male, 6 female. Most are from an engineering/CS background. I would say about 9 or 10 have significant work experience. That leaves about 12 pretty much straight out of undergrad. Now, a number of those people are from Waterloo where we have co-op, so those "straight out" people have worked at places like Cypress Semiconductor and Ericsson which is fair exposure to what the working world is like. I, at 32, am the oldest, perhaps tied with someone else (I can't really remember all this detail). One person was born in '81 versus my '71 which about sets the age range.
No one really has what I would classify as "senior experience", startup or otherwise. Immodestly, I would say I've held the most senior position of anyone in the class, but I don't know everyone's resume inside-out. I worked as a product manager at a self-funded, 9 year old, $20M software company as a product manager responsible for a $7M product line. And by the way folks, yes, I am available. Leave comments if you want a resume. So that put me in what I would consider the middle of the company. Other people may have had more senior positions that I'm unaware of, but no one was a CEO or anything.
My feeling (and this is purely my personal opinion) is that the program is largely geared at people coming out of undergrad who want to start a business but don't know anything about, well, business. You have an engineering degree, you have a great idea, but have no idea how to get funding or how to prepare a pro-forma cash flow for your business plan. You think you want a patent but don't know what it would do for your business. Et cetera.
For me, the program is a one-year MBA with a focus on technology management. I don't think that's really what the kind of program the faculty set out to build, but that's what I'm trying to take away from it. Not that I'm ignoring the rest but if I had to explain the degree to prospective employers, that's how I'd pitch it.
If you're coming out of school or have a few years experience, this is probably a great program for you. If you've been doing technical stuff for several years and want to cut over to being more into business stuff, MBET would be great. Already started a company? I doubt it would add a lot to your experience, but who knows? I think anyone thinking about either starting a company or pursuing a MBA should take a good lookat MBET.
MBET Businesses
Someone asked what types of business MBET students have started... most are IT businesses. Let me preface the list by saying that most of the class are pretty young and most have, relatively speaking, little work experience. I'd like to say someone is working on the next Siebel, but it's a bit more modest than that.
I have to sort of punt on this question though as I am, technically, under NDA. I would probably tell you something vague in person but putting it in writing on the web is definitely a no-no. Sorry. The entire class has a group NDA so that we can talk to each other about these types of projects but we're not supposed to tell anyone outside of the class.
Having said that, I know of one group - the one I'm working on for the practicum - that has disclosed its plan in public. The product is a computer-vision based system for casino table game monitoring. It's a good product and a very good market.
In general, none of the businesses are what I would consider huge, except maybe the aforementioned one. But they're all being started by young, passionate people and I think they'll go far on energy and smarts alone. This is still the first year so I think if one or two really successful businesses come out of the program it will be a success. And hopefully it will go from there...
Phone
Fans of my blog (if I can be so bold to assume there is more than one) will rejoice at my being stuck on this plane. Here’s more stuff.
I have not yet go on about how much I love my new mobile phone. When my old Samsung died I got a Kyocera SE47, the “
slider”. Wow.
First of all, let me carp about what I dislike. It would be nice to drop the big antenna – why are modern phones still backwards compatible with the antiquated analog cellular network. Damn big antennas. Nokia dropped ‘em. Let’d dump them across the board. Also, no Bluetooth. Why are there no Bluetooth-enabled CDMA phones? I could use a lot more data airtime if I had Bluetooth… geez guys, this is a major selling features. Wake up. And what’s with proprietary connectors? Why can’t there just be one bottom-of-the-phone-connector so I don’t have to spend a fortune on accessories? Oh, wait I know… because the phone manufacturers want me to spend a fortune on accessories! Anyway, it makes it impossible for me to find a USB charger cable for the damn thing. And, sans Bluetooth, I need a cable to use data service on my laptop and I can’t find on of those either. Am I some sort of freak? Why is it so hard for me to get what I want? Are my needs so far out of the mainstream?
Now, on to what I love. Everything! It has a speakerphone which we used in class one day to get a WebEx demo of the Capstone simulation… wow! The volume and clarity were amazing! The screen is incredible! The fact that my carrier charges $2 to download a photo is highway robbery, but I like the functionality. It has the same old Openwave browser my old phone had, but the screen is bigger and it’s pretty useful. Yahoo has a great WAP gateway and they’ve done a fantastic job at getting me to put them as the center of my online life. It’s not just the web email service, it’s the WAP gateway, the virus scanning, the spam filtering (now that I’ve trained it enough to stop filtering out email from professors…). Yahoo’s MailPlus alone is awesome and their other services like groups just makes me use them more. Except for searching of course. Yahoo plus Google – who would by whom? Or would it be like Ford buying GM – too big for anyone to make work? Anyway, back to my phone.
I love the size of this phone. The slider form factor is great. Only one LCD screen keeps costs down, there’s no leverage so I won’t crack it in two trying to press it against my ear and when closed it’s small. Way small. I keep it in the coin pocket of my jeans. I’ve never met anyone who actually keeps coins in the vestigial fifth pocket but it’s a great place for a cell phone. It’s an odd design evolution – element with purposes evolves into uselessness but then re-emerges as something extremely useful… perhaps there’s hope for my appendix yet. Maybe it will turn into an auxiliary brain or something. And I always have it with me. Being made to have a phone on you at all times can be a pain but when a phone is this small… well, why not have it? It’s almost non-existent in my pocket. And the vibrating alert is pretty strong so I don’t miss it when it rings. I have finally found a phone that is as effortless as a set of keys.
Mid-Term MBET Update
While I wait for “
Master and Commander” to help me while away the next 139 minutes here on Air Canada 755 let me go over the first five weeks of MBET year one, term two.
Accounting moved away from deciphering public statements into more management accounting as I mentioned before. Cost analysis and job costing were the bulk of the material. Interesting stuff, although I find it odd to have developed a taste for accounting. The Quickbooks assignments are finally done and thank goodness for that. If you’re doing them make sure to budget lots of time. Finance is getting into high gear covering the “efficient market” hypothesis so far with more on the markets to come.
Strategy is done and the class convinced Prof. Fader to let us do a practicum-related paper instead of having the exam that ended up being cancelled because of the snow day. Personally I would have rather had the exam. There are a few of us in class who seem to go be the theory that work is better done sooner rather than later. More people, it seems, would rather defer work wherever possible. Not that they want to avoid it per se, just that they’d rather do things later given the choice. Ugh. Not for me. I’ve got both the 609 and 610 (e-business & applications of IT) presentations out of the way. There will be plenty more work to come so why wait? There’s a marketing paper due, also related to the practicum, at the end of March. I look forward to both papers with utter dread. Luckily they’ll be done in groups and I think that my practicum team is pretty bright and that we have a good business plan to work with which will make things more bearable.
We’ve had what seems like a million papers to read for operations and management of technology. Some good, some boring. I’ve enjoyed the case studies. It seems that there are simply too many papers to read though. Which make it good that someone has to present each paper (3 papers per class!) which at least forces me to pay some amount of attention.
Tax and law have been pretty thin this term, with just two tax classes and the threat of an assignment (no actual work yet though). Today is supposed to be our first law class, which I unfortunately have to miss to go on this trip.
That’s it for classes. In the business skills module we’re getting a grab bag of general business stuff and a six-week business writing course. Personally I think my writing is good enough, but then again I have an overdeveloped self-image. Pretty much everyone is class could use some work on their writing.
Finally there’s the simulation which is really the most enjoyable thing this term. It’s run via
Capstone and it’s a simulation of running a electronic component business where you have to manage R&D projects, marketing spending and production. I think that it’s really only marginally relevant to real life but as a game it’s a lot of fun. Everyone in my team is enjoying it – we did the best in the second round. It’s only 8 rounds so there’s a certain bias towards short term results but I think that we have a strategy that would work equally well for 8 rounds or 80. I shall not reveal my secrets yet however – you’ll need to wait for the end for that. Keep comin’ back folks.
LES Update
Tangam won! The presentation from Tangam, "Authorized Bootlegs" and
NetDog were all great but we got the nod.
I think our plan was further along than the others'... Prem has done a ton of work working with a casino to verify all the features & financial numbers as well as lining up some great new team members. So, congratulations to us and to Prem!
LES
Like a dope I forgot to pack my digital camera in my rush to get packed and get lunch for the kids before I had to hop a cab to the airport. I’ll buy a disposable camera once I get to San Francisco but don’t expect pictures right away. I’m no big fan of camera phones but here’s my idea – really, really cheap yet decent digital cameras. The problem is the optics as opposed to the electronics – good optics are always expensive. But what I need is a camera with optics that are “good enough” and that’s cheap enough so I can just always leave it in my bag. Passport, laptop AC adapter, camera, boom. Always ready to go. The LES presentation is, however, ready to go. Prem, Harish & I have rehearsed it a couple of times and I think we’re in pretty good shape. The plan itself is the star however, not us and I think it’s what will shine.
Travel
I’m on my way to San Francisco for the LES Business Plan Competition presentation. Only one thing stands between me and San Francisco – a 5-hour flight. I used to not mind these long flights. I actually used to look forward to them as they’re a great chance to get caught up on work, especially email. But as a student I no longer have to deal with 200 emails a day and without work I’m left a little short of entertainment. Whoever said that “life is about the journey, not the destination” never travelled by air. The only highlight of the trip – an entire hour into it – is that I got to go to the Maple Leaf lounge one last time. My Aeroplan “Elite” status expires at the end of the month… for those that are looking forward to a career in software sales or marketing, plan on getting used to travelling, especially to the west coast. I still managed to scrape enough fly time in 2003 to qualify for “prestige” status in 2004 but I doubt that I’ll take many flights as a student. Undoubtedly I’ll be back on the wagon, er, plane whenever I get a job again. For those who have yet to enjoy the pleasures of business travel, let me sum it all up like this – you’ll never have it. There is no pleasure in business travel.
Which makes it hard to explain why I like it as much as I do.
They took me didn't they?
Someone asks in the request for MBET applicant questions "How selective is the MBET program?" The glib answer is above.
The real answer is that I think they took about 1/2 of the applicants last year. They have intake targets regardless of how many people apply. This year 23 people started and there were 2 or 3 deferrals I believe. Next year they want a class of somewhere between 30 and 35 - this is all unofficial of course. I have no idea how many applications have come in so far but I would guess somewhere just below 100. But that's just a guess.
Note that there is no GMAT or GRE requirement to get into the MBET program. You need a reasonable average but considering that my undergraduate average was almost 75% exactly, that part isn't insurmountable.
They do, however, interview everyone and review their work history. People who have an "entrepreneurial drive" are what they're looking for. So it's subjective. That's not much help probably, but this isn't a typical MBA program - they want to take people in who, at the end, go out and found companies, work in start-ups and innovate.
I'd say that out of the 22 people remaining at least 6 of them plan to start their own business after finishing school. Well, actually, I should say that 6 have started their own businesses and that they plan to keep at it full time. That's what they're looking for I suppose.
Does that answer the question? Probably not. But any othe rquestions are welcome!
Google-fu
Noticed that
Google has added a new
define directive? Neat. Google continues to unify the web.
JLCA
No, DC has not come out with Justice League California. Microsoft is workingon an automated Java-to-C# tool,
JLCA. Obviously they must feel that Java is still worth fighting... though I think it would just be too complex to automatically convert apps built with complex systems like EJB or JMS. But there are some smart people at Microsoft - who knows what they can do.
Prebuttal
So I'll admit that I got a certain amount of inspiration for talking about outsourcing because
Slashdot re-ran their link the the
Wired article I linked to earlier.
This post says: "people are losing jobs and you're blaming the victim!"
Yup. You bet. There are times when it is, indeed, acceptable to blame the victim. This isn't teenage pregnancy here. This is lazy people getting fired. Which, last time I checked, is what is supposed to happen to lazy people.
"But they work hard!" Well, sure, but working hard doesn't cut it anymore. Want to make a living working hard? Buy a farm. Want to keep software development jobs on the same continent as you? Start making better software.
Of course, I really don't blame developers as much as their managers, but they're all complicit.
Oh - and apparently U of Waterloo had a co-op job posting for software developers in Banglore last week. Personally, I think it sounds like fun.
Indian Outsourcing
So I've still got Indian outsourcing on the brain.
First of all, I'm not talking about call center outsourcing. This is menial work for any human being and call centers, like water, seek the lowest possible level. I've never understodd why New Brunswick is so damn proud of all the call centres there. I'm talking about real work, which in the Indian outsourcing context is IT development.
A lot of companies are setting up in India.
Some people think it's bad. Like Cringley, I think it's "our" fault, where "us" is global IT development managers. Unlike Cringley, I don't think it's all that bad.
First of all, in the US context, jobs have gotten shipped offshore before. No one seems to bemoan the loss of the clothing industry, the bulk of the semicondustor industry (aside from Intel) or any of the other industries that have fled to cheaper labour markets.
Second, the reason that Indian firms like
WiPro and
PSI Data Systems have gotten so much business is that they, unlike most US IT managers, actually care about the process of how IT software gets developed. No one has had the gumption to stand up to the American cowboy developer mentality and actually try to tighten things up.
Deming taught the Japanese about quality and then the Japanese proceeded to crush lazy US auto companies whose managers thought quality was irrelevant. Did nobody learn anything there?
The
Capability Maturity Model for Software has been around for ages - 1987 to be exact. And has any US IT firm really embraced it? Nope. But the Indian outsourcing firms have and while the jury may still be out on the quality of their work I know one thing - even if it is bad (which I don't believe it is) it can only get better. US IT organizations have rode the wave of technology and not bothered with becoming any more efficient. But the s-curve of IT technology is approaching its upper plateau... there's no more free ride from increasing technological capability. IT organizations have to get better as organizations not just keep pulling in better IT.
Mad about jobs moving offshore? Ask yourself: did you ever do anything to stop it?
MBET Applicants
If anyone applying to enter the MBET program in Sept 2004 wants questions answered, please just leave a comment and I'll answer. Good luck applicants!
Bloggers
So last night I met up with
Matt,
Ryan,
Jesse & Matt (whose exact blog I do not know but is on
LiveJournal somewhere) at the Grad House and we shot the breeze for a while. I think
uwstudent.org is the only outlet for campus agitation at UW... a campus defined by apathy. It was good fun. Nice guys. Nice to get out for a change - too much hard working around class. Plus I had "aqua train" last night too - I thought I was in good shape until I got into the pool with a dozen other people and told to swim like hell. It's good to get some external motivation, for me at least.
Anyway, greetings to other bloggers.
Point-Counterpoint
So, there's nothing like arguing with yourself as you're guaranteed to win.
In the last post I think implied that TV networks are being massively hypocritical for not running advocacy ads. If you missed that then one of us has a problem.
However, do you really want the airwaves open to anyone with an
axe to grind and a few million dollars? Don't you already get enough of that during an election year? Do you really want to have
PETA running images of slaughterhouses during breaks in
American Idol? Or, perhaps more horrifying,
Rush Limbaugh popping up like some transplanted
X10 ad from hell? Personally, I watch TV for the escapist entertainment value. If I want advocacy from the
left or the
right, I'll pick up a newspaper (or if I need to pick up some dog crap off the sidewalk, I'll go get the
Post). If I want to hear from the lunatic fringe then I'll, I'll... uh... how exactly do you link to the whole internet at once?
I may not trust
CBS to be the guardian of my morality but turn my precious free entertainment time over to them? Wure, why not.
