The Data MBA

Disrupt the 401K

Having recently re-entered the working world after finishing my MBA, I, once again, began contributing to a 401k account. I’ve had a 401k since my first job after undergrad and have always contributed towards it while employed. Looking at my 401k accounts on Mint, however, has been pretty depressing recently as the market value isn’t even equal to my contributions.

Some may say that I need a better asset mix of high and low risk funds, international and domestic funds, and stocks and bonds. I, however, think we need to reconsider how we invest in our future.

I believe that our financial system would be more stable and there would be fewer personal (individual, not systematic) financial crises if we were allowed to invest a percentage of our earnings as we see fit, just as we invest in our 401k.

Here is the main change I would like to see made to our system:

• According to the Federal Reserve, the US savings rate has been declining for years. To increase the amount that individuals save, I propose we make a percentage of individuals’ net income eligible to be put into their savings accounts or CDs, just as 401k contributions are made. 

This is not a perfect solution and could be seen as a way around taxes, but consider the fact that many individuals are not savings for their retirements as they live paycheck to paycheck. Why not give people an easy way to access their money when it’s most needed, without the harsh tax penalties and fees to financial firms?

Financial firms have had a stronghold on about 4-5% of American’s gross income for years, with steep fees and taxes on withdrawing from these accounts when people fall onto hard times and need cash for rent and basic needs. While we face fees when we need money, these firms borrow at almost zero cost from the Fed and invest our money in risky assets (JP Morgan, anyone?).

Financial firms cannot invest our savings in risky assets, yet they can do whatever they like with our retirement and pensions. Something has to give

I am merely offering up one possible solution. Can you think of any?

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Employee Benefits

Since I’m currently negotiating employment terms, I thought I’d share some ideas I have for employee benefits.

• I think the idea of a set amount of vacation should die in a fire. Companies like the Motley Fool say ‘take whatever time you need, as long as you get your work done.’ Why can’t more employers adopt that mentality?
• Sick time - can you help being sick? Really?
• Affordable health insurance is key.
• Transit benefits are small tokens to show that employers care.
• Fitness benefits - have a gym, or at least subsidize memberships. If you’re going to make us sit in an office all day every day, help us at least try to stay in shape.
• Finally - pay your employees well. Know that cities are expensive, employees have loans/mortgages/rent to pay for, food is expensive, and the less we have to worry about paying for things, the happier we’ll be and the harder we’ll work.

All for now.

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Entrepreneurship at Business Schools Pt. 2

Back in  June, I had a post about Entrepreneurship at Business Schools where I stated:

The real-world will never truly enter the classroom due to constraints of time and money.

Having been enrolled in an entrepreneurship class this past semester, this statement is now painfully true and equally frustrating. In the classroom you talk about guys like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and James Dyson and how they started their companies and made them what they are today. What you don’t talk about, however, is how the guy up the street opened up his corner store, how the new small restaurant was started, or how some small consulting company started and sells its services. These companies are the heart and soul of our economy and we’re focusing on companies like Amazon and Facebook.

As I said, it’s frustrating.

PS - this post was scheduled to be posted yesterday but I saved as a draft, oh well.

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Rabbit Rabbit

Superstition has it that if you say “rabbit rabbit” as your first words at the beginning of each month you have good luck for that entire month.

I think this month is ripe for some experimentation. I don’t write much, so I’m going to try to do a post a day on business, the MBA, data, jobs, the economy, and/or whatever’s going on.

I’ve got 2 minutes to get this done and posted to have December 1 count.

Til tomorrow.

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Small Keyboard Redesign Proposal

I believe that the @ character should be moved to where the ` currently lives, next to the 1.

We use @ a lot more than we use the ` character when we’re typing emails and logging into our various email-affiliated accounts. I can’t remember the last time I used `, therefore, I believe ` should be moved to the 2: <Shift>+<2> = `

I approve of the Google Chromebook’s push to remove the Caps Lock button. I have already disabled Caps Lock on my MacBook Pro. Small changes.

Thoughts on this redesign? Why isn’t this a default action yet?

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MBA on the 99%

Ironic, no?

Just a couple quick & unstructured thoughts:

• As horrible as it is, I don’t believe that student debt should be completely forgiven. I’d like that to happen, trust me, but that would be more government money that was wasted if there’s no chance of getting nearly $1T back.
• Deregulation in the MBS, CDO, CDS markets as well as individual greed and inferiority complexes got us where we are today. Individual greed & inferiority complexes = I want the biggest house I can get because *insert family/friend/acquaintance* has a big house.
• Banks’ functions should be to stimulate business, not turn the biggest profits necessary. I’d like to see more small business loans by larger banks.

That’s about it for now. I appreciate the arguments the protesters are making - I hope they can solidify their message and create some changes.

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Goals

Learn MS Visio, improve R, SPSS, and SQL.

Target: December

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Fun Summer - Over

I had an amazing summer internship learning about a new industry, and how applicable data analysis and business metrics can drive corporate strategy. Huzzah!

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Entrepreneurship at Business Schools

Jason Freedman had a great post over at HumbledMBA titled “Why are business schools failing at the education of entrepreneurship?” While I have not (yet) taken any entrepreneurship classes in my MBA program, I completely understand Jason’s frustrations with the product MBAs are receiving (myself included), especially in entrepreneurship. 

Some MBAs enter their program to become entrepreneurs. Many have already started their own business and/or have been a part of start-ups and companies recently started by entrepreneurs. Taking classes in entrepreneurship can help students understand what they’ve already experienced and, at times, what to expect when they start their own companies after school.

However, with regard to Jason’s post about the pitch event he judged and other b-school events (case competitions, etc) - these events are competitions, not the product of an entrepreneur’s passion. A 10-week competition sounds like a long time, but if every idea only took 10 weeks from thought to pitch, more people would do it.

Team-based competitions have different dynamics than individual or even 2-person teams and can severely restrict the development of a business plan. Other times, people just cannot come up with good ideas. Students are interested in entrepreneurship so they take a class and are encouraged to enter the competition by their professor or career services center.

The real-world will never truly enter the classroom due to constraints of time and money, but such events and competitions are good environments to practice real-world experiences.

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MBA Requirement #1

No self-respecting MBA should not be an expert (or at least very well versed) in Excel.

Plain and simple.

End of post… but not really. Many post-MBA jobs will require knowledge of Excel to some extent. But do you want to just get by, or be a data rock-star who knows her/his shit?

Think about it: if you want to prove to management that you’re right - you need hard evidence (usually in the form of ROI/IRR or projected revenues).

Finance/Accounting/Strategy/Consulting/Marketing… you name it - you need to know and understand what your data is telling you.

This is a fact, and I hope more MBAs and prospective MBAs take this into consideration so they will be prepared for their internships and/or full-time positions.

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Standard “I’m too busy to update” post

Studying + midterms (already?!) + research papers + internship applications - sleep = Lack of updates

Having said that. I’ve been making some serious progress with learning R, especially all the Financial package.

Also, I’m really excited about datamarket.com, and plan on using it very soon.

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Participation

This is a bit of a rant here, but should also serve as a cautionary tale for future MBAs.

Unfortunately, I do not think I will hear from about 40% of my MBA class unless they are called upon to speak.

If you want to get your MBA degree and hope to be in some form of management at some point in your career, you are going to have to speak up and make your opinions known. I do not care if my classmates are correct in what they say, that’s what professors are for, people need to take a chance and gamble with their thoughts while we’re in training as opposed to when actual jobs and money are at stake.

Professors and peers notice when you do not speak and will think less of you for being quiet.

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Useless Bloatware is Bad Customer Service

I made two changes to my cell phone service in May; 1) switched from AT&T to Verizon, and 2) switched from a BlackBerry to the HTC Droid Incredible.

My phone is everything a mobile phone should be to someone in their 20s: my MP3 player, chat device, connection to social media, news, email, planner, and I occasionally make calls from it.

I have always been annoyed with the useless programs and apps that HTC and Verizon put on my phone but figured they were harmless if I just ignored them. My annoyance reached a breaking point when I tried to uninstall Skype, which I initially installed when it was in beta, and wasn’t able to do so because it is now promoted by Verizon.

Long story short, after a couple hours of research yesterday I learned how to root my phone, risked losing everything playing with the shell, and deleted about 15-20 programs and widgets that I never used but were always running in the background.

Bloatware has been a problem with computers and phones for years. From all the pre-loaded games on computers 15 years ago to useless apps like CityID, companies have been trying to get us to buy these apps and programs without the option to delete.

Bloatware that cannot be deleted makes me dislike companies for not giving me the option to have the experience I want on their products. If I buy a phone from HTC and Verizon the phone is mine, neither company can take it away from me and I should be able to use that phone as I see fit.

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