Robbie's MIT Musings Blog

Blog Archived

2006-06-12T15:23:00.000-04:00

Now that I've graduated from MIT, I'm going to archive this blog. I'll keep it up for posterity sake, but I won't update it moving forward.

I've received and continue to receive a lot of positive feedback regarding the things I've written about here. I'm glad I started this blog not only to serve as a future reminder to myself of the various people, places, and events I experienced at MIT, but also for anyone else that is interested. Thanks to Yoav, Matti, Ilana, and Sam for also blogging while at SDM. It has been fun comparing notes!

It's official!

2006-06-11T13:21:00.000-04:00

I've graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with two Master's degrees. Commencement ceremonies were last Friday (June 9th). The weather was horrible (of the Boston variety) on Wednesday and Thursday, but amazingly held out for us on Friday. There were just a few sprinkles, but the commencement gods took it easy on us. While I won't look back on Boston weather with fond memories, at least I can't say that my graduation day was ruined. It ended up being rather cool and comfortable!

Here I am in full graduation regalia:

It was great seeing my classmates again and reminiscing about old times. As my wife will attest, I rarely take time to appreciate my achievements, but it was hard not to this time around as I walked down the ramp after having my name called out and receiving two diplomas from MIT. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice to attend a university I've held in the highest regard. I owe my wife a debt of gratitude for being so supportive through the whole thing. She's amazing!

What's next? Who knows. I wrapped up my 10th computer book last week so now I find myself with a lot of spare cycles. I'm exploring a few things and I'm sure by the end of the summer I'll be at full capacity again. That's the way it always has been with me. It is nice to have a little break, but I can already feel my ambitionitis starting to flare up!

Joel Moses, Institute Professor, MIT

2006-03-19T01:47:00.000-05:00

Professor Moses gave the Thursday keynote for our SDM business trip. He is one of only a handful of Institute Professors at MIT. Here is a description of what it means to be an Institute Professor:

"There are only 15 Institute Professors, and they are regarded as the very best among an already impressive crowd. The highest honor awarded to MIT faculty, appointment as an Institute Professor is at once an acknowledgment of extraordinary leadership, accomplishment, and service and an invitation to follow intellectual pursuits without the hindrances of departmental responsibilities. Institute Professors report directly to the provost, rather than to a department head, and they have no obligation to teach, which opens the door to projects and political appointments that would otherwise not be feasible." (read more)

Professor Moses was involved in the initial creation of the SDM program. He didn't have much in the way of a prepared talk, he just answered questions.

Professor Moses bio

Notes:

Talked about the founding of the SDM program

Recent Visiting Committee that evaluated MIT programs said that SDM was the "best program" and the "Sloan of yester year"

Q: Why aren't other institutions implementing programs like SDM? A: Primarily because engineering and business schools aren't that close

Q: What was the feedback from industry when you started SDM? A: Speed up the process of training an engineer to run a large organization

Q: Do you think we have enough classes on finance? A: We don't teach you everything you need to know. We teach you a process for how to learn.

Recommends a book by a MIT Political Science professor: How We Compete

They didn't want to have a second degree for SDM to be a MBA because of the stigma around MBAs

Everyone talks about courses, courses, courses, we are teaching people how to learn

Randall Pinkett, Entrepreneur, Apprentice Season 4 Winner

2006-03-19T01:13:00.000-05:00

I heard that Randal Pinkett was going to be at MIT Thursday afternoon to speak to LFM. They had a few spots open for students of SDM so I signed up. I watched Season 4 of the Apprentice and knew all about Randal. He has 5 degrees including 2 MIT graduate degrees as part of the LFM program and a Ph.D from the Media Lab.

I've listened to over 50 talks since I've been at MIT and Randal ranks near the top in terms of presentation skills. He is extremely personable and a very dynamic speaker. I guess this should come as no surprise considering one of his early companies did corporate training for presentations skills and the like.

Randal's talk covered the 5 main lessons he's learned over his career and an update on what he is doing and what he has planned for the future. There was plenty of time for Q/A at the end and Randall answered several questions about the Apprentice (including the Rebecca controversy). I took ample notes.

Randal's bio

Notes:

Admitted "Aprenti" is not a word, but "when you have 5 degrees, you can make up words"

Started the talk by giving several "shout outs" to some acquaintances in the audience

He found it a little odd to be speaking at MIT when he was sitting in the same seats as us just a few years ago

Most people talk about starting a business as a "venture", but he thinks of it as an "adventure"

Five lessons learned:
#1. Know your position and play your position

He's started all of his company with the same 3 guys

He had 5 degrees and earned $25,000 his first year after completing his Ph.D at MIT

Required a lot of sweat equity and persistence to get his bootstrapped ventures off the ground

Before the Apprentice, he met with his executive team to figure out how to brand himself on the show

He decided to position himself as a strategist and he thinks that paid off
#2. Take risks but accept uncertainty

At his company, he encourages risk taking

If you take risks, you will fail a lot

He was concerned going on the Apprentice about how he might be portrayed. Going on the Apprentice was a big risk. Jennifer W. was an event planner and she got fired on the show because she did a poor job of event planning. That can't be good for her event planning career.
#3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, but be sure to learn from your mistakes

Every month he does debriefs at his company. They aren't the easiest things to do, but they learn a lot.
#4. It's not what you know, it's what you can learn

Important to be able to take what you learn and apply it in different fields

At MIT, he learned skills on how to learn new things

The adaptability he learned from MIT helped him on the Apprentice

Working in the entertainment industry now with Trump, but he doesn't know anything about the entertainment industry (yet)
#5. It's not who you know, it's who knows you

He knows who Bill Clinton is, but Bill Clinton doesn't know him

If no one knows what you bring to the table, there is no way to make your network work for you.

What is Randal doing now?

A month ago he started his assignment with the Trump organization

From January to mid-February it was a media whirlwind for him

He has 3 projects with Trump: 1) Overseeing a renovation of Trump properties in Atlantic City. 2) Upgrade Trump Entertainment's IT systems (they are currently running Lotus and will probably move to MS solutions). 3) Helping Trump with some developments in Philly (Randall's hometown).

He has two books in the works: "Campus CEO" in Feb 2007 about how to start businesses from college and "Black Faces in White Places" which hasn't been signed yet

He is doing a national commercial with Outback Steakhouse sometime this year

He has become a national spokesman for Autism Speaks (the charity he worked for during his final assignment on the Apprentice)

He has been doing a lot of speaking engagements

Maintains his connection with BCT Partners

Anticipates returning to BCT in a full-time capacity after his Trump assignment (he said this is publicly known) at which point he wants to turn BCT into a multi-billion dollar org like Trump.

Q/A

Started 5 companies, but 2 crashed and burned

Regarding the final episode and the Rebecca controversy, there was a bit of confusion as to whether Trump was asking Randal if Rebecca should be a co-Apprentice or if she should have a job with Trump. Randal thought Trump was asking if she should be a co-Apprentice. Randall said Trump later confirmed this to be correct in interviews. Randal was glad with his decision because he didn't believe Rebecca deserved to be co-Apprentice.

Randal's experience with Trump so far: Trump is tough, but Randall doesn't mind asking questions and Trump has been very understanding

The boardroom scenes on Apprentice take 2 hours to film, but you only see 15-20 minutes on TV

They did some creative editing on Apprentice like when Trump said Randal might be in trouble during a boardroom and they cut to Randall swallowing hard and looking concerned. Randal said that was at another point in the boardroom and not related to Trump's comment at all.

Before going on Apprentice, the producers asked him if he would feel comfortable being the "black guy". Randall said he is used to it. Now he has a platform to communicate his message.

Q: How do you decide to take on something new? A: He's overly ambitious. He's learning about setting priorities and learning a lot from Trump on this. Trump is real particular about his time. Randall doesn't think he is foregoing his health, faith, friends, or family at this point.

When you are new to an organization, you need a dense network and over time you need a broader entrepreneurial network

Q: What did he learn on the Apprentice? A: Didn't learn much. It was more about applying what he knew. Team dynamics was interesting to deal with.

He wants to get a role similar to Bill Rancic (as a fill in when George can't make it) for Trump Season 6 in LA this spring.

Something I don't miss

2006-03-15T14:47:00.000-05:00

Is the weather in Boston. It was sunny and chilly (~40 degrees) this morning. At lunch, I watched a snow storm (yes a snow storm), roll over the Charles River with a fury. The winds had to be at least 40 MPH if not more. It was crazy. Then as quickly as it came in, it was gone. That's Boston!

Negotiation and Conflict Management, Tom Kochan

2006-03-15T09:43:00.000-05:00

Professor Tom Kochan compressed a full length negotiation and conflict management course down to a couple of hours. I took a few notes, but had to leave three quarters of the way through to attend another meeting.

Notes:

Most people make the mistake going into a negotiation, thinking they don't have the power or think they are at a disadvantage. This is a fatal flaw.

If you don't have power, you shouldn't be in a negotiation - you should be in avoidance mode.

Classic way to make a distributive situation into an integrative (or mixed) situation is to find something that is important to one person but not as much to the other

No negotiation will be successful unless you prepare

Have to know your BATNA - best alternative to negotiated agreement

You need to understand the difference between mediation and arbitration

Separate the person from the problem (if possible)

Scott Stevens, Vice President, Systems Engineering, Juniper Networks

2006-03-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

Scott was invited to speak to SDM on the topic of leadership. Scott's company is an archrival to my current employer (Cisco), but I tried not to hold that against him ;-) As Scott freely says, he isn't "politically correct" and his talk was very candid. It was actually refreshing to hear a VP of a major company be as frank and as open as Scott was. Overall, it was an excellent talk.

Notes:

Mostly manages remote people

Juniper has had 14 consecutive quarters of growth (would have been more if it wasn't for that nasty bubble bursting)

Downturn was good because it got rid of a lot of the "bullshit"

Juniper makes $2B in revenue a year and have about 4000 employees

He thinks Juniper is at a fun size right now

Expecting approx. 30% growth per year

Not too worried about open source because their customers require a lot more than router code

Air Force was a great experience. At 24, he was in the Air Force and had 200 people reporting to him. Took him until age 38 to have that many reports again.

Leadership to him is very domain specific (leading people vs leading innovation)

Interesting transition to go from knowing everyone on his team when it was sub-100 to not knowing everyone

How do I lead? I hire smart people

Smart people are typically a pain in the butt. They are motivated differently and are very concerned about their career

The most fun thing he gets to do when leading the org is figuring out what his staff cares about and what motivates them

One of his rules: no politics within his org

Engineers like to know where the boundaries are

He still has some military in him when it comes to leading

"I" don't have to be right. "We" (as an organization) have to be right.

Seduction (ability to influence) is a big part of his job

He likes to do stupid/fun things such as trying to convince a flight attendant to give him a bottle of win before he gets off a plane (requires influencing other peoples moods)

They get 3000 feature requires per year but can only implement a couple hundred

Was your MBA help? "My MBA was interesting and that’s about all I'll say"

He spent 6 years after his MBA (at Oklahoma City University) studying leadership

Has thought about the difference between him and a front line individual contributor that has been at Juniper just as long as him

He thinks he has been successful because he has tried to think differently than everyone else and tried to do his job better than anyone else

Authority is just in the air waiting for someone to grab it

He had a list of 20 leadership techniques (I could only get down a few of them:
- Call people on their agendas
- Everyone is different
- Have them be accountable for their role
- Remain approachable but have a bite

As a low level leader, his job was to solve problems. As a high level leader, his job is to help other people solve problems

Career development is one of the biggest frustrations at a startup (it tends to not be a focus)

One of the most critical things about him as a leader is what other people are saying about him (his "identity")

He was "put in a corner" after Juniper bought his company so he decided to work on his identity and eventually he got his old job back

His leadership style changes as the situation demands. In the Air Force, he could send people to jail ;-)

Leadership is about seduction. Seduction is about relevance.

Consistent in his message both publicly and privately

Spends a lot of time thinking about what he can offer his team so they'll want to keep him around

Talked about trust as a big issue in leadership

At MIT this week

2006-03-13T20:12:00.001-05:00

I'm at MIT this week for the SDM business trip festivities. I've already attended a couple of talks and will blog my notes soon. I'm going to attend several talks this week so I'll blog considerably more than usual for the next few days.

Thesis topic redefined

2006-03-11T09:51:00.000-05:00

I've settled on a title for my thesis: The Dynamics of Internet Publishing. In it I cover the different forms of internet publishing including blog networks, ebooks, online books, online magazines, and other forms of online content. I analyze the disruptive force of internet publishing to traditional publishing, new opportunities internet publishing offers, and challenges internet publishers face.

Originally, I had a completely different topic for my thesis. Since I was going to write something that was close to book length, I thought I'd try to turn my thesis into a book. This way I could get paid for writing my thesis. I had come up with a topic I felt was publishable and got a well-known publisher to sign it. They were going to give me a nice advance and we were all set.

However, as I started to write, I lost interest. Yes, I was going to be paid for it, but I didn't want my MIT thesis to be on a topic that I wasn't passionate about (anymore). So I scraped the original book project in favor of a new topic that I am passionate about, namely internet publishing. I'm not going to approach a publisher about publishing this as a book. Instead, I'm going to self-publish it after I'm done (probably this summer). I figure this is a great way to cap off a thesis on internet publishing: i.e., self-publish it via the internet.

Many of my friends and colleagues know I've been involved with the publishing industry since the late 1990s, but by the end of this year it should be apparent why I'm doing a thesis on internet publishing.

Disrupting my notions

2006-02-14T16:58:00.000-05:00

Disruptive Technologies was fascinating today. Professor Utterback traced back over the history of light bulbs and made many salient points along the way.

A student had asked about "first mover advantage" in the previous class. He promised to address it later and did so at the beginning of class today. There are a couple of papers he spoke about (I don't have the references on hand) that covered the issue in some detail. The net result after looking at the "first mover advantage" for more than 10 years is that if anything, first mover advantage ends up being a slight disadvantage in aggregate. I look forward to reading the papers.

Another point Utterback made concerns the fact that large companies have consistently shown to create significant advances in technology when challenged by a competitor, but can only improve 3-5% when not challenged. What does that say about what people are doing at large companies that aren't facing direct technological competition? It furthers my suspicion that large companies are filled with inefficient workers that add little to the bottom line. I estimate that in companies with tens of thousands of employees that you could cut 10% easy and potentially more of the workforce with little impact to the bottom line or the long-term results of the company. I don't have empirical data, it is just a guestimate based on all the inefficiencies I've seen in big companies. But I digress…

Lastly, Utterback pointed out that companies tend to focus on improving only their own technologies as opposed to trying new technologies and improving them. For example, when Edison was making advances with electric-based lighting, the gas companies were scrambling to figure out how to make lighting efficient with gas. Companies would rather eek out performance in a long-standing technology than get ahead of the performance curve by adopting a new, promising technology.

Interesting stuff.

15.840 - Innovation in the Marketplace

2006-02-14T16:38:00.000-05:00

Here is the course description for my Innovation in the Marketplace class:

The relationship between manufacturers and the customers they serve is changing very rapidly. Firms are increasingly outsourcing their product development. At the same time customers – both industrial buyers and end consumers – are rapidly becoming much more active as innovators. We examine this “Internet Age” change and explore its implications for the business models of both new and traditional manufacturers.
von Hippel

15.365J - Disruptive Technologies: Predator or Prey?

2006-02-14T16:37:00.001-05:00

Here is the course description for my Disruptive Technologies class:

Focuses on the management of product and process innovation and on economic, management, and technological influences on innovation. Both sustaining and disruptive innovations in products and manufacturing processes covered in lectures and cases presented by the leaders of change in different industries. Emphasis on emerging and disruptive technologies as seen from the points of view of entering firms (predators) and incumbent firms (prey) are covered in a class exercise, and project (preferably done in small groups).
J. M. Utterback

15.905 - Technology Strategy

2006-02-14T16:37:00.000-05:00

Here is the course description for my Technology Strategy class:

Provides a series of strategic frameworks for managing high-technology businesses. Emphasis on the development and application of conceptual models which clarify the interactions between competition, patterns of technological and market change, and the structure and development of internal firm capabilities.

Final semester

2006-02-14T16:24:00.000-05:00

My final semester at MIT has started and I'm taking just a few classes remotely from NC. I also have a thesis to finish (which I've yet to start!) I plan to graduate in June assuming all goes well.

Since I'm not on campus this term and not in the thick of things, I don't expect to post much to this blog. I will post occasionally as interesting things come up. After I graduate in June, I'll officially retire this blog to the blogosphere graveyard.

Story: New MBAs finding education pays off big time

2006-01-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

This is good news for those working on an MBA or those that have just completed one.

Part-time versus Full-time MBA, Which One is Right for You?

2006-01-16T13:54:00.000-05:00

I was contacted in December to participate in the inaugural podcast for a new site called MBA Podcaster. The topic was part-time versus full-time MBA programs and I was supposed to give a student's perspective. Mark Rice, Dean of the Graduate School of Business at Babson and Dr. John Mather, Executive Director of Masters Programs at Carnegie-Mellon also participated. It was an interesting experience and overall I think the discussion was good. You can download the podcast here. They've recorded a few other podcasts now too.

More Design Challenge advice

2006-01-08T01:59:00.000-05:00

I just read Sam's latest entry and I couldn't resist adding my $.02. He says the new SDM'ers in the January program shouldn't burnout on the design challenges (DC) because they are more about team building and having fun than competition. Yeah, that's what the DC losers say! :-) Speaking as a member of the winning DC1 team last year, I can say that while all that stuff is important, it sure feels nice to win if for no other reason than you can rub it in your classmates face for the duration of the SDM program. Kinda like I'm doing right now.

Seriously, I had a great DC1 team and I deserve little if any credit for our success. I was "project manager" which amounted to making sure we were making progress (which we always were) and staying out of the way. Interestingly enough, in over 10 years of work experience, my DC1 team was one of the best teams I've EVER worked with. I got lucky. I've also been on teams at MIT that would rank as the worst I ever worked with.

New SDM'ers: my one piece of advice for you (which doesn't really apply to DC1) is if you are allowed to pick your team for a class project, PICK YOUR TEAM. Don't get assigned to a random team. A couple of times last year I thought I'd be adventurous and let my team form through osmosis and perhaps I'd meet some new people along the way. Sometimes you'll get lucky like I did with DC1, but other times it will be a disaster. In fact, when teams are picked at random you are more likely to end up on a disaster or end up on one that no one else wanted to join because everyone else picked their teams ahead of time.

One more to go

2006-01-08T01:31:00.000-05:00

Another semester has come and gone. I'm back in NC now. It will be nice to get settled at home again, but I'll miss my friends at MIT and the campus atmosphere. I do enjoy the college environment. It was my last semester as an on-campus student. I have only one more semester to go before I graduate. I have two half term classes and one full term class to go. Oh, plus my thesis ;-) While I don't think it will be as busy as last semester (in which I took 6 classes), I still have some work to do.

Last semester was a productive one. After spending much of the last 3 months trying to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up, I now have a much better idea. I attended several networking events and met several new friends and potential business partners along the way. I also got to play basketball regularly with Yoav, Ilana, Paul, Sam, Deming, and others which was always fun.

All in all and despite the weather ;-) I couldn't have asked for a better experience in Boston. It was hard on the family life, but it was short-term and I took full advantage of it (as is evident from the 19 classes I've taken to date and 45 speakers I saw while on campus).

I wouldn't expect much out of this blog moving forward. Now that I'm back home and reintegrated fully with my day job, I won't be as involved with what's going on at MIT and therefore won't have much to blog about.

Russ Siegelman, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers

2005-11-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

Russ led an open and informative discussion about the current state of the VC world. Much of what he discussed follows what I've been reading in various VC blogs, but it was good to hear it directly from a Partner at one of the premier VC firms.

Russ Siegelman's bio

Notes:

KPCB has 10 professional investors

Focuses on seed and A rounds

Looking for companies that want to do something big

Proactive in seeking out certain areas (have to be proactive with the increased competition)

We are having a second smaller bubble; a lot of enthusiasm; lot of activity in Web 2.0, mobile, and China/India

It is a good time to be a entrepreneur in the Valley and a good time to be an investor

However, there are some ominous signs because some VCs are raising huge funds ($2B)

Starting to see some really good teams

He's not particularly interested in traditional enterprise software requiring big purchases ($250K+). Sales cost is too high. Friction within companies to do these purchases is high

Not excited with companies selling big equipment to carriers

They are investing in some companies selling equipment to corporations for things like data center consolidation

What is he interested in?

Likes the whole consumer Web 2.0 space

It is confounding because they go from no users to a lot in a very short period of time

Cheap to start

A lot of questions on the business models

Not a lot of seasoned teams

Competitive risk with Google, MS, Yahoo

It is a little bit like rolling the dice

Really likes the ASP model (now dubbed software-as-a-service)

salesforce.com is just scratching the surface

ASP is attractive because you don't need a huge sales force

Downside is it requires a lot of upfront capital

A lot of other VCs are looking at this area too

Security writ large

Probably the 1 area companies are willing to write big checks

Great area

Dabbled in Energy

Better batteries

Distributed power generation

BioTech and Medical Devices is obviously a hot area

Dabbling in Open Software

The proprietary software models are breaking down

May not know for a few years how this will work out

Very bullish on the whole mobile area

Cell phone is a computing platform

Q/A

From Ken Morse: Is New England an afterthought to Valley VCs? Response: Honestly, you aren't at the top of mind. China however is top of mind.

What's different with the ASP model now than in 1999? Response: ASPs have to add value above just making the software available online. Some quasi successful ASP companies ran into the recession and ran out of cash. WebEx doesn't get a lot of press, but they had a great model and are doing very well now

Are hardware deals going away? Response: Hardware investments make up about 25-30% of the total. SW is so attractive because it is so cheap to start

Will you only do large deals? Response: Recently invested $200,000 in a $800,000 round for a Web 2.0 company

Does location play a role in your decision to invest? Response: It is a stretch to invest outside of CA, but will do it if the deal/team is good.

Outside US, it is a real stretch. Outside of China/India, extremely difficult

What does he like in a business plan? Response: Simple, concise, on point, what problem are you trying to solve, why is it economically interesting. Not as interested in distribution channels, etc.

After 15 minutes into many presos he listens to, he doesn't have an idea what problem they are trying to solve

Should your numbers be conservative or error on the high side? Response: Doesn't really matter as long as the rest of the business plan is consistent with those numbers

What does KPCB do after it invests in a company? Response: He views KPCB as a service company. When you get funded they become trusted advisor, make introductions, help with recruiting, will contact customers, get experts for product reviews, help picking lawyers, accounting firms, etc.

Tim Rowe, Founder and CEO, Cambridge Innovation Center

2005-11-30T20:47:00.000-05:00

Tim started the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in 1999, which is across the street from the MIT Sloan buildings. I've been over there a few times to meet with Dharmesh. It is a nice place. One of the biggest pains with starting a company is plunking down big bucks on an extended office lease. At CIC, you pay monthly and most of the services you'd expect are included.

Notes:

He ran a radio station when he was at Amherst College.

He graduated from MIT Sloan in '95

After that he "crafted" his first job (and recommends everyone do the same)

craft = figure out what you want to do and then convince someone to hire you to do it

Suggested working in management consulting for a few years to get experience in a lot of areas

Needed to find office space for his wife's startup. It was easily the largest expense for the company

In response to this issue, he created CIC

A VC asked if they could incubate small companies, so they spent $18M in VC money.

Then the bubble burst and they were in trouble.

CIC is somewhere between an executive suite and traditional office space. It is targeted at startup CEOs

Has been growing like crazy - 110 startups and there is a waitlist

They don't negotiate anything with the contract

Includes space, furniture, receptionist, IT people, food, drinks

Pay monthly, give 30 day notice

Prices start at $500 per person/month ($200 for space and $300 for services). The most expensive private offices go for around $2000/month.

He estimates 20,000 sq ft is space for ~100 people

Before he started, he flew around the world and spoke to everyone that was doing something similar. Suggests everyone should do the same before starting a company.

He takes security very seriously; uses cameras to resolve disputes every few months

He used $15M from VC to start CIC

He recommends using as little capital as possible to start a company

With office space, you have to start small

He views his business more like a hotel than traditional real estate

Hard to compete in the same locality

Most people in real estate don't like what he does because they want to lock tenants in on long leases

Most incubators subsidize the cost of space which encourages mediocre companies to hang around which is the wrong way to do it. Give the CEOs money, but force them to pay rent.

He's currently looking at expanding the CIC concept to 6 or 7 other locations

There is no better job than being the CEO of your own company

Revisiting The Road Not Taken

2005-11-17T16:15:00.000-05:00

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by"

This famous line from a Robert Frost poem has reached cliche-like status because it is so often quoted. I stumbled upon the full poem today and was energized by it. You don't get the true effect of the quote without reading the poem in its entirety. It has been a good three or four years since I last read the poem, but I'm going to add it to my periodic reading list. Mr. Frost had true command of the English language. His poem says so much more than just the sum of the words.

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The two faces of Ambition

2005-11-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

By most measures, I'm considered an ambitious person. My definition of ambition is: an innate and often unstoppable desire to achieve. The current edition of Times magazine has an article on ambition and how it often dictates a person's level of success. I agree that ambition has played a significant role in the things I've accomplished (however modest).

But there is another side of ambition that isn't often discussed.
After the dot-com collapse in 2001, the high-flying, take chances, innovate-innovate-innovate days most high tech companies were used to were over (at least for the next couple of years). Things changed at work for me. It wasn't so easy to achieve anymore (for a variety of reasons). If a highly ambitious person is not in a position to feed the ambition monster, the monster can bite back. This can make for some difficult times. Unfortunately, ambition doesn't give way to the current market happenings or fluctuations in society. At times I've thought of ambition as a disease that gone untreated can result in depression. Even so, if I could zap that characteristic from my make-up, I wouldn't do it. It is who I am. I'd be a completely different person without it.

Here is a quote included in the Times article that sums up ambition nicely:

"Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high we reach, we are never satisfied." -Machiavelli

Jerrold Grochow, Vice President for Information Services and Technology, MIT

2005-11-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

I had a great meeting with Jerrold Grochow, MIT's CIO. He's one of the first people I targeted for a career interview. I went in with a list of questions and he answered openly and honestly.

Here is a subset of my notes from the meeting:

Discussed his career path: changed jobs every 3-4 years to take on new challenges

It is important to understand the motives of the people you are working with

Being a CIO, you have to deal with a range of issues: people, technical, legal, etc.

It requires a combo of strategy and tactical focus

A big part of his job deals with making tradeoffs or helping people make tradeoffs

I asked his thoughts about Nicholas Carr: IT shops are not even close to having the same capabilities, so there is still a myriad of places for competitive advantage.

To be a CIO you need a broad background in tech and mgmt skills including financial and marketing

Spot sourcing works, but not full outsourcing of IT

News @ MIT Sloan

2005-11-07T12:36:00.000-05:00

In the Nov 7th edition of News @ MIT Sloan, this blog along with fellow SDM bloggers Ilana and Yoav are mentioned in the front page story on "B-School Blogging".

The newsletter is also available in pdf.

Lucky or Smart

2005-10-30T23:52:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I've heard many entrepreneurs attribute a big part of their success to luck. I just stumbled on a book from Bo Peabody titled Lucky or Smart where he talks specifically about this. It is a short book and I plan on getting the Audible.com version this month. Here is an article from Bo that summarizes the content of the book. It is a good read.