Spreadsheet One

MBA Class of '99 Blasts Off

Illustration by Greg Clarke

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to get into Stanford Business School-- but it helps. The 362 students who entered Stanford's MBA Class of 1999 in September were selected from a record 6,559 applicants, up 3 percent from last year. Only 7 percent of those who applied were offered admission.
       Students were drawn from 117 different undergraduate institutions. Stanford contributed the most (37), followed by Harvard with 27, the University of Pennsylvania with 24, Princeton with 20, and both Berkeley and Yale, each with 18. Among the 46 students who already hold graduate degrees, there are two PhDs, two JDs, and three MDs. Not surprisingly, scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) tended toward the stratospheric. There was one perfect 800, eight 790s, and six 780s.
       Grades are obviously important, but not all-important. Since the School does not interview applicants, recommendations and previous work experience take on added weight. This year's new students averaged four years of work by the time they applied. Most of them took traditional paths to business school, such as management consulting (27 percent) and investment banking (19 percent). But others followed different routes. There are teachers and musicians among them. There are producers, directors, and actors--including one regular on a Mexican soap opera. There are professional pilots. And, yes, there is indeed a rocket scientist in Stanford's MBA Class of 1999.

Silver Apple for a Silver Tongue
"He speaks to alumni groups frequently; he rarely says no," said 1996 Silver Apple recipient Jerry Porras, as he presented this year's Stanford Business School Alumni Association's Silver Apple Award to his colleague David Brady. "He's a real treasure to our alumni community."
       As usual, Brady voiced a few opinions--this time on the topic of why he was about to receive the association's award for service to alumni groups.
       "There are three reasons I enjoy speaking to alumni groups," Brady told an Alumni Weekend audience that filled Memorial Auditorium on a hot September morning.
       "It's not going to be long before I want to talk and no one wants to listen. So if they're ready, I'm talking.
       "Second, universities are not a very good place to get older. Students stay the same age. I just keep getting older. Alumni groups age with you. When you mention John Kennedy or even Dwight Eisenhower, people know who you're talking about. They don't think of Oliver Stone movies.
       "The third reason is that you always get good questions, good discussions at dinner, and good ideas that help with future research. The pleasure is all mine. I appreciate being invited to speak to alumni."
       Brady, the GSB's Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professor, is also a professor of political science in the School of Humanities and Sciences. He is associate dean for academic affairs at the Business School and director of Executive Education. Alumni aren't the only ones he can't say no to.

Illustration by Greg Clarke

Pearls from the PMI
Some things are best remembered for what they leave behind--the oyster and its pearl, for example. Or the Public Management Initiative (PMI) and the clubs, course work, and ongoing nonprofit organizations it has fostered.
       Each year, first-year students in the Public Management Program select an area around which they will center their collective attention during their second year. Looking back over the past years, we find several enduring contributions.
       The first student-run I Have A Dream program in the country was founded by students in the MBA Class of 1992 under the PMI "Youth: Raising Our Future." The GSB students "adopted" two middle-school classes in East Palo Alto. Now in the 9th and 10th grades, the children continue to be tutored by MBA student volunteers and will be financially supported through college.
       In the same working-class neighborhood not far from the University, students in the Class of 1994 involved in the "Urban Development" initiative started up Start Up, an educational incubator for neighborhood entrepreneurs. Funding in place, Start Up continues with a full-time paid director and student volunteer consultants.
       MBAid, an outgrowth of the 1996 initiative in "Global Sustainability," places students and grads in internships in developing countries. MBAid is partially supported by the Stanford Management Internship Fund (SMIF), a Public Management Program innovation that is still going strong after 16 years.
       Currently the most visible legacy of a recent initiative is the Global Management Program (GMP). "Think Locally, Manage Globally" was actually the loser by one vote when the Class of 1994 voted for a PMI. Backers of the losing proposal took their prospectus for an academic certificate program to the deans and faculty and won their support. Several of the original backers were among the first graduating students to receive the certificate in global management.

Photo by Anne Knudsen

Information Age Firms Get Lean and Mean
Companies in fast-moving industries are slicing themselves into lean organizations, spinning off portions of operations such as manufacturing, sales, or service to outside contractors. But the trend doesn't mean that all corporations must follow this pattern to remain competitive, the GSB's Haim Mendelson told the Stanford Computer Industry Project (SCIP) fall meeting.
       Mendelson heads a team of researchers who have been studying computer, consumer electronics, and communication firms worldwide, identifying successful competition strategies. He describes some of the firms as Information Age organizations that tend to have short product lifecycles requiring the rapid processing of a great deal of information. A high percentage of the products of Information Age firms were introduced less than 12 months ago and are replaced rapidly as the cost of underlying technology declines. Successful firms in this category assimilate and process data effectively and use information quickly.
       "Information Age firms cope by doing less but doing it very well," said Mendelson. Often this means spinning off important parts of their operations to outside firms.
       In contrast, Industrial Age companies change products less rapidly and therefore can absorb and adopt information at a slower pace.
      The two types of firms have different approaches to outsourcing and alliances. Two-thirds of the fast-moving Information Age firms have developed partnerships, while two-thirds of the Industrial Age firms do all the development themselves, he said.
       SCIP is an interdisciplinary research program launched in 1991 to focus on the business, political, and technological dynamics of the worldwide computer and information technology industries. SCIP research is conducted by faculty, research associates, and graduate students from across the University, including the Business School, the departments of computer science, industrial engineering, and political science, the Center for Economic Policy Research, and the Institute for International Studies. SCIP currently has 16 corporate partners.

"The trouble with the rat race is when you win, you're still a rat."

Gary Hirschberg, President and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, on social responsibility