Pre-holiday push

It never seems to fail that the week before Christmas is one of the busiest of the year at work. I guess everyone's trying to get things wrapped up before they go on vacation for the holidays. This year sure isn't an exception - this week has been crazy at work. I have back-to-back-to-back meetings and conference calls all day (and sometimes even am double booked in simultaneous meetings and conference calls). Then at about 6:30 or so the meetings all stop and I can finally start doing the work I actually need to accomplish that day. The upside of this is that it's made it easier to wait for decisions from Chicago and Duke, since I don't have much time to think about waiting. Hopefully I'll be one of the lucky ones to get a call from Chicago when they start contacting the admits today. Of course, the odds are pretty good that I'll be in a meeting so I'm actually looking forward to the voicemail. I guess this is good practice for the kind of time management skills I'll need at school.

Motivation

Or more accurately, the lack of motivation. Ever since getting the admit call to Kellogg, I have not been able to focus on work. My productivity has dropped dramatically, and I spend more time than ever checking out the BW and GMATClub forums. Part of it is the fact that I know that I'll be resigning from my job in 6 months so I really have the mindset that I'm just marking time at work, and also unfortunately the work I'm doing at the moment isn't all that exciting.

I can't wait for next week to be over. First, I'll have my decisions from Chicago and Duke, and can start more seriously thinking about where to enroll. Also, it means the beginning of a 2 week vacation for the holidays. It can't come soon enough.

Leadership qualities (non-MBA post)

In the NY Times this morning, there is an Op-Ed piece discussing the decision by CBS News to ask US presidential candidates questions that go beyond policy questions to get more at what their core beliefs are - questions like "who's the most impressive person you've met?" and "what's the biggest mistake you've ever made?". While those questions seem pretty normal to anyone who's preparing for MBA interviews, they are a bit unique in the political arena where questions tend to focus on what policy positions a candidate may take. CBS News says that they are asking these questions in response to voter polls that say a president must have high integrity and character. What was a bit frightening to me was that the opinion piece took the exact opposite position, saying "integrity...is probably not a qualification for navigating the treacherous and ever-shifting waters of domestic and international diplomacy" and "The decorums of political contest demand the rhetoric of integrity and sincerity. The performance of political duties, especially at the highest level, requires something quite different."

It seems to me that the business world learned its lesson a few years ago with all the corporate scandals that the performance at all costs, personal integrity doesn't matter, style of leadership eventually leads to trouble. I think that certainly if you ask any of the top MBA programs whether integrity is important to leadership they would answer absolutely yes. So that begs the question - is integrity important to business leaders but not political leaders? I do not dispute the Op-Ed's assertion that the world of international affairs and diplomacy is not black and white, and often does not offer clear choices between good and bad options. The world is complex and nuanced. However, I would propose that this is precisely why a political leader needs to have strong personal integrity, in order to find their way through the ambiguity. I don't think that having integrity means being stubborn and insisting on simple right-or-wrong positions, but I think it does make it easier to navigate the grey areas. I also think there are things that are just plain wrong and should not be done, regardless of politics. A leader without integrity leads down a slippery slope to a place where anything goes, the end justify the means. In the end, leadership is leadership whether leading a multinational organization or a country. And in the end, I think recent history has shown that we'd be better off if our political leaders from all parties put integrity and character above politics.

Now I've seen it all

Now I think I've seen it all. I live in the NJ suburbs outside New York City, and so seeing wildlife near my apartment is nothing new. I've seen more deer than you can imagine, also some turkeys (followed shortly thereafter by turkey vultures), racoons, geese, and various assorted rodents. I've even seen a bear once. But last night was certainly something new. As I'm driving home from the train station after work, all of a sudden the traffic comes to a dead stop. I look up ahead and see a few police cars with the lights on, and a car at a strange angle on the side of the road. So I figure it's another accident, probably someone driving too fast on a rainy night. But then I see the police all wandering around the side of the road pointing their flashlights into the trees. Then I see an animal moving around in the shadows. I knew it wasn't a deer, because nobody calls the cops for deer. So my next thought is there's a bear on the loose. But as the animal comes a bit closer to me, I can see that the proportions are not right for a bear, the legs are too skinny. As it walks past my car, I clearly see that it is a large, black cow (actually I think technically it was a bull). I continue to watch in amazement, since while this isn't the first time I've seen a cow, it's the first time I've seen one wandering down the street outside my apartment. To add to the absurdity of it, as the cow, now trotting, goes down the street, it is followed by no less than 3 police cars, with all their lights on, as well as another car which I presume contained the cow's owner. Must have been a slow night for the police.

In book reviews, I'm about halfway through Frank Brown's (Dean of INSEAD) new book. It's a pretty quick read, and has some great advice on what it means to be a leader in today's global environment. I've had the good fortune to meet Frank on several occassions, and, in my opinion, he's a great leader to learn from. (NB: I am not applying to INSEAD, so this is not an attempt to kiss up to the Dean to improve my chances).

Slainte

Accomplishments on flight to Ireland: Have dinner while watching movie, sleep (it was an overnight flight)
Accomplishments on flight home: Have lunch while watching movie, sleep off Guiness-induced hangover.

As you can see, not much progress on the essays. One of my HBS recommenders did submit their recommendation though, so at least I have some feeling of progress. I really need to get moving on Chicago's essays so I can start drafting Stanford's. That is my goal for the weekend. Well that and enjoying the first week of football season.

The Ireland trip was a blast. We went to Johnnie Fox's Pub for their "hooley" night. It was amazing - great food, a live band playing traditional Irish music, Irish step dancers, and Guinness that flowed like water. I'd highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in Dublin.

Waitress or economist?

Another non-MBA update. Work has been keeping me busy so not much has been accomplished the past few days on the MBA front. I did meet with a retired partner yesterday, who has been a mentor to me, to discuss my plans to pursue an MBA and he was very helpful and gave me some great advice. Today I discuss with my immediate boss, who may be more aware of my plans than I thought, since he and the retired partner I spoke to are good friends and have apparently discussed my plans for an MBA. We will see how it goes today. Still no progress on recommenders, but that's because I've been waiting to talk to anyone else about it until I speak to my boss.
I guess I lied again about it not being an MBA update. The real reason for the post was a funny thing happened to me yesterday. I was at lunch with a colleague at a sushi place near the office. While we were eating, I overheard the guys at the table next to me talking with the waitress about how this restaurant doesn't serve coffee. As in, it's not on the menu, you can't get a cup even if you want it. When we finished our lunch, the waitress asked if there was anything else we'd like, and I asked her whether it was true that they didn't offer coffee. She said yes, and I remarked that it was interesting that they wouldn't, since it seemed to me that people would be more likely to stick around and possibly order dessert if they could have coffee as well. I was not expecting the reply I got. She explained that they are a smaller restaurant and economically it's not worthwhile for them to serve coffee, because for the price of a cup of coffee, people would end up sitting and talking for another half hour or so when, without the coffee, the people would have left sooner allowing the restaurant to seat another customer who would then be paying more for appetizers/entrees/etc than customer 1 would have for coffee. Economically speaking, the opportunity cost of offering coffee was greater than the revenue it would generate. She got a good tip.