Smith Newslink MBA - An eNewsletter for MBA Students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business

Happy Holidays from the Smith School!

Click here to view a special holiday message: http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/happyholidays/

Check Out These Winter Break Internships
The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship has received requests for 18 winter break internship opportunities. Opportunities for skill development vary from financial analysis to market research, product marketing to public relations, and advertising/sales channel development to Web design. In addition, each internship varies in scope, time commitment, and location. Roles are primarily voluntary and meant for professional development in applying classroom learning to real businesses. Please note that some opportunities could lead to longer term engagements and/or summer internships/full-time employment.

If you are interested in any of the positions, please contact the appropriate person directly, and copy Andrea Galati (agalati@rhsmith.umd.edu) of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship on your e-mail.

Companies offering internships:

Biodiesel University
Crooked Monkey
Dayna Designs, LLC
Kooz Beverage Company
London Ink, LLC
North Star Games
Silverthorn BioFuels
XTS Inc.
Road of Life (Cancer Prevention for Kids)
Tailored for Success, Inc. (Professional Workplace Consultation Services for Women)
Byte Back (Community Tech Training)
Wilderness Technology Alliance (Pioneering Character & Technical Education for our Nation’s Youth)

> Full position descriptions

Smith to Hold Winter Commencement Ceremony on December 21NYMEX Holdings & New York Mercantile Exchange Chairman
Richard Schaeffer '74 to Address Graduates
The Robert H. Smith School of Business will hold its winter commencement ceremony at the Comcast Center on December 21, at 1 p.m. The keynote speaker will be Richard Schaeffer, chairman of NYMEX Holdings, Inc., and the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. Schaeffer has been a member of the Exchange's board of directors since March 1990, was treasurer from 1993 to 2004, the vice chairman from 2004 to 2006, and has been an executive committee member since 1992. Schaeffer has been an Exchange member and seat-owner since 1981. He was an executive director of global energy futures for ABN Amro, Inc., and a conferring member on behalf of the company and its predecessor, Chicago Corp., since 1987 on all of the New York commodity exchanges. Schaeffer graduated from the Smith School in 1974.

All are welcome to attend. For more information on Winter Commencement, visit http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/stories/2006/graduation-winter.html.

Introducing a New Podcast Series: ‘Conversations’
The Smith Media Group in the Office of Marketing Communications is delighted to introduce a new Podcast series: ‘Conversations.’ As the name implies, this Podcast series will be comprised of conversations with members of the Smith Community.

In the inaugural episode, second-year MBA candidate Sachin Agarwal speaks with Smith Chair Professor of Finance Dr. Pete Kyle. Dr. Kyle is one of the premier financial theorists of his generation. In this conversation, he talks about his career, research interests, the Kyle Model, the Brady Commission, and two books that every MBA should read.

Download Podcast now!
iTunes (M4A) || Windows Media Player (WMA)

Smith MBAs Launch Smith Asia Business Review
Last year, some Smith MBA students got together and launched a business magazine called the Smith Asia Business Review. This quarterly magazine aims to provide information to the Smith community on economic and business events in the larger Asian economies. It also highlights the biggest Asian business stories over the quarter. With the very first issue, "The SABR", as it is known, established itself as a high quality product packed with useful information in a concise format.

After the pioneering work done by the Class of 2006, the Class of 2007 made this project their own, and it seems the SABR is here to stay. Edited entirely by students with a review by faculty prior to publishing, the SABR is yet another example of the Smith School's global outlook.

This global outlook is reflected in the different countries that the Class of 2007 student editorial board comes from:

Tray Spilker , Macroeconomic Analysis (USA)
Yuejuan Weng , China - Hong Kong -Taiwan
Myoungseok Song , South Korea
Jaywant Masurekar , India
Yasuo Matsuura , Japan

The SABR can be found on the Finance Association's Web site.

Smith to Host 2007 National Women MBA Conference
Planning has already gotten under way as the Robert H. Smith School of Business gets ready to host the 2007 National Women MBA Conference next fall. Smith was awarded the event at this year’s conference which was hosted by the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Every year the privilege of hosting this event is passed from one business school to another, and Smith is honored to be given the opportunity to be the next site of this influential event.
“Take the lead” is the theme of the conference, which is aimed at helping women advance in the workplace. It is an opportunity for women MBAs around the country to meet with recruiters, network with fellow women MBAs and learn valuable skills that will help them throughout their careers. The event schedule is set to include a career fair, industry career panels, workshops, and speakers.
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Dr. Ackoff Speaks at Smith on Systems Thinking
On Friday, December 1, Smith MBA students gathered in the Frank Auditorium to hear Dr. Russell “Russ” Ackoff speak on systems thinking. Ramin Riahikhoee, a first-year MBA student at Smith, greatly enjoyed Ackoff’s talk:

“Dr. Ackoff offered a fresh approach to looking at and solving business problems. I always wonder if analyzing complex business problems through narrow lenses [such as economics, marketing, leadership and finance] is realistic, but that's exactly what business schools around the world offer. Dr. Ackoff offered an alternative; a holistic view of a business as a system within a larger environment that is defined not just by its individual parts but by the interaction of these subsystems,” said Raihikhoee.

Ackoff is the chairman of INTERACT: The Institute for Interactive Management. INTERACT’s recent consulting projects include corporate development planning, organizational design, management support systems design, and urban development. Ackoff also is professor emeritus of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and has written or co-authored 20 books and more than 200 academic journal articles. He has a B.S. in architecture and Ph.D. in the philosophy of science, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

With a sharp mind and great knack for story telling, Ackoff held students’ attention for several hours. He relayed business wisdom in story form and recounted amusing anecdotes from his life and work. Each of his stories ended with a pithy business lesson, such as “if you can’t solve the problem, you may be looking at the wrong problem.” He is a proponent of viewing business problems from different perspectives to find the best solutions.

Ackoff also criticized business schools for compartmentalizing MBA programs into different areas, such as finance, marketing and human resources. He argued that these topics are only meaningful when learned as a whole system. He explained that a system is about "interactions" between parts and is not just the sum of independent parts.

His approach to business education is similar to Yale’s new first-year core curriculum which launched this year. The new curriculum is a series of eight multidisciplinary courses called organizational perspectives that is structured around organizational roles, such as the innovator or the operations engine. Yale believes that the focus on organizational role, instead of disciplinary topic, creates a better learning context for students. This is an interesting concept that may become a future model for other business school curriculums.

Emission Reductions, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency – The Triple Convergence
Peter C. Fusaro, one of the world's leading experts on energy and environmental markets, spoke at the Smith School of Business recently. Fusaro is the founder of Global Change Associates and the CEO of Energy & Environment Capital Management, LLC. He is also a frequent consultant to governments and the author of What Went Wrong at Enron. Fusaro spoke on the latest trends in energy and environmental markets, including recent policy and technological developments. Fusaro’s talk was organized by the Smith chapter of Net Impact and by the Smith MBA Finance Association.
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Learn about Smith by Reading Student Blogs
Reading school brochures, visiting campuses, and sitting in on classes all help prospective students learn about which business school will be best for them. However, talking candidly with current students is the best way to learn about a school. When meeting current students is impossible, the next best substitute is reading student blogs.

Several students at the Robert H. Smith School of Business write blogs to chronicle their journeys through the MBA program. Mark, a second-year MBA student, writes about his summer internship and class experiences. Camille, a first-year MBA student, writes about orientation and the core curriculum that every first-year student takes. She also addresses female applicant concerns. Nat, a part-time MBA student, addresses time management issues and recommends electives in his blog entries. To learn more about these students and Smith, visit these blogs:

Mark, second-year MBA student
http://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/mark/

Camille, first-year MBA student
http://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/camille/

Nat, part-time MBA student
http://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/nat/

Allen J. Krowe Teaching Awards for 2006-2007
All students are invited to nominate deserving Smith School faculty members and instructors (i.e., PhD students, adjunct faculty or instructors) for one of several Krowe Teaching Awards in the areas of general excellence. The award winners will be chosen and announced in Spring 2007. The deadline for this round of nominations is Friday, February 2, 2007. To be nominated, an instructor must meet the following criteria:

The person must be a member of the Robert H. Smith School of Business faculty or a Smith School instructor. Adjunct faculty and doctoral students are also eligible.
The person must not have won a Krowe award within the past three years.
The person must have taught during one or more of the past three years at the Smith School.

To nominate a deserving faculty member or instructor, and to check the list of past winners, visit http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/krowe.html.

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