Kelley Direct Online MBA – Page 6 – Create lasting momentum for the career you want

Kelley Direct Entrepreneur Spotlight: Scott Baird, Sales Team Lead – Midwest, CloudKitchens

Posted on November 3, 2021 by Kelley School

Kelley alum Scott Baird worked in startup leadership and earned his MBA while working full time. The pursuit of diversifying my knowledge base and experience is a constant driver in my life, and my MBA experience was no exception. When I applied for my MBA, I worked in sales for the San Diego Padres. I wanted to diversify my business knowledge with topics I didn’t think I would be able to get on the job, but I worked non-traditional hours in sports, so an “in-person” MBA was not feasible.

I chose Kelley Direct because it had the most well-rounded online program and provided access to the best and brightest minds across multiple industries. The collaboration aspect of Kelley Direct really sets the program apart from other MBA programs. I loved working with people from all over the globe who excelled in their positions and picking their brains on how to apply that to my role. (more…)

How to build (or rebuild) a recruiting process that really works

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Kelley School

Rather than getting stuck just trying to gather the most applicants for a job or largest pool of people and simply hope that the quality of individuals will show themselves based on the number, Sarah Wanger Director of Admissions for the Kelley Direct Online Programs, shares that there is a smarter way to go about recruiting the right talent—one that matches your organizational values. So how do do you begin? In a recent ROI Podcast from Kelley School of Business Indianapolis Sarah shares her keys for success that helped her team at Kelley Direct smash all previous recruitment records for their organization.

Whether you’re a brand new company or a seasoned veteran, listen in as Sarah unpacks the fundamentals of recruitment to help you build (or rebuild) your recruiting process that actually works.

Interested in the Kelley Direct Online MBA program? Learn more today.

Kelley Direct Alumni – Q&A Series: Laura Fooks, MBA’20

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Kelley School

Laura Fooks, MBA’20 is based in Denver where she works as the co-founder and Chief Encouragement Officer at Light Speaks Loudest—a subscription box service designed to inspire confidence in teen girls and help them build empathy toward others and grow their spirituality.

Why did you pursue an online MBA? I knew I wanted to get an MBA so I would have a better foundation as an entrepreneur. I specifically pursued an online program because I didn’t want to commute to classes after my full-time job and wanted flexibility in my geographic location.

Why did you choose Kelley Direct? Although I grew up visiting IU for basketball games and hearing about the incredible business program (my parents are Kelley alumni from long ago), I didn’t ever think I’d be a student here. When I began researching online MBA programs, I noticed that Kelley kept making the top of the list in rankings and tended to be more affordable than other options. Plus, I loved the opportunity to connect in person during Kelley on Campus week while still maintaining the overall flexibility of an online program. (more…)

Virtual Idea Blitz business pitch competition builds Kelley Direct student’s entrepreneurial, teamwork skills

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Hannah Carroll

What started last year as an effort to solve COVID-19 challenges transformed into a fast-paced virtual entrepreneurship competition for Kelley Direct Online MBA students.

Held over a weekend in April 2021, the Idea Blitz introduced students to the process of business idea development, testing, and validation. Kelley Direct offered the intensive experience in lieu of Kelley On Campus, an in-person experience that was postponed due to safety and travel concerns.

“The Kelley Direct faculty and staff have become very nimble and found ways to engage students in spite of the pandemic,” said Punyatoya Mohapatra, MBA’22, a member of the winning Idea Blitz team. “The Blitz was something I wouldn’t have gotten to do without Kelley Direct. It was different and unique.”

The Idea Blitz business idea competition combines components of two classic innovation models—a design sprint and a startup weekend. As in a design sprint, the teams follow a process to surface an idea, uncover insights, and prototype the concept. The weekend ends with a video pitch to a judging panel of venture funding experts.

“We’ve developed a strong set of materials that help students navigate their way through idea development, prototype building, validation, and product pitch at a rapid pace—in just 48 hours,” said event co-organizer Regan Stevenson, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and management and the John and Donna Shoemaker Faculty Fellow. “That time pressure gives them a bias toward action. Instead of getting stuck on things, they are forced to make decisions. We show them how to take small steps in the right direction to get the data they need to make critical decisions.”

Stevenson co-teaches the Blitz curriculum with Will Geoghegan, Interim Chair of Kelley Direct Programs and clinical assistant professor, and Greg Fisher, Larry and Barbara Sharpf Professorship and associate professor of entrepreneurship.

From idea to pitch

(more…)

Sleep is good for business

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Kelley School

How much sleep did you get last night? Managers across the globe reported that they got less than the magic recommended 8 hours. In Japan, for example, the national average is 5 hours and 59 minutes; in India, the average is 6 hours and 20 minutes. If you are an American, the numbers are not much different. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about 83.6 million US adults sleep less than 7 hours. And we are becoming more sleep-deprived over the years. In 1942, getting 8 hours of sleep was the norm. Now the average across the globe is 6 hours and 45 minutes.

But we are managers, we are leaders, we are supposed to burn the midnight oil, right? In the end, work needs to get done! Well, yes, but should we compromise sleep? There is enough consensus that sleep deprivation is bad for your health. Lack of sleep has been related to cardiovascular disease, strokes, weight gain, memory loss, weak immune systems, diabetes, and decline in cognitive function. Overall, sleep deprivation is bad for our health.

But sleep deprivation is also bad for business. Sleep-deprived employees show low levels of work engagement, job satisfaction, job performance, citizenship behavior, creativity, and innovation, and high levels of decision errors and unethical behavior. When thinking about interpersonal outcomes, lack of sleep is related to high levels of social loafing, and low levels of team effectiveness and trust in negotiations. (more…)

Kelley Direct Faculty Q&A Series: Cristiano Guarana

Posted on April 13, 2021 by Kelley School

Cristiano Guarana is an assistant professor in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, teaching Leading Organizations in the Integrated Core 1—Understanding Markets and Institutions.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?

My personal life mission is to “help people improve their lives via education.” I set this personal mission years before pursuing my Ph.D. In fact, my personal mission informed my decision of leaving Brazil, my home country, moving to the US, and becoming a professor. As a professor, I am paid to create and share knowledge, which is a humbling experience. Every day I learn new things, I meet new people, I talk about ideas, and I truly hope that students can apply what I teach in their jobs, in their lives. It is extremely rewarding when students email me months and even years later saying that they still apply the leadership lessons in their new positions. It is humbling to see that some students attribute their promotions and new positions to the knowledge they got in my class. Perhaps even more gratifying is also seeing that the knowledge I shared with the students is now cascading down the organizations and we are creating a better and healthier work environment for all. Needless to say, I am super proud of my students.

What can students expect from your Kelley Direct courses?

Students will learn that leadership can be developed. We all can become leaders if we put in the effort. Leading Organizations focuses on leadership behaviors that students can learn, practice, and see the outcomes of. We talk about behaviors related to becoming a leader (leadership emergence) and behaviors related to performing as a leader (leadership effectiveness). Specifically, we have a holistic view of leadership and discuss behaviors related to personal leadership, relational leadership, contextual leadership, inspirational leadership, supportive leadership, and ethical leadership. We also focus on developing critical thinkers and do a deep dive into cognitive biases and team-level biases. To achieve these goals, we engage in a variety of activities such as case analyses, video case analyses, and simulations. I hope the students leave my class thinking differently about leadership and how they can make a positive impact in their organizations. (more…)

Kelley Direct Faculty – Q&A Series: Markus Vodosek

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Kelley School

Markus Vodosek is a clinical associate professor in Management and Entrepreneurship who joined Kelley in the Fall of 2019. He teaches Navigating the Global Business Environment, a new elective on managing in an era where success means balancing globalization with de-globalization.

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?

Without question, the most rewarding aspect of my job is when students tell me how the concepts and cases they encountered in my courses have helped them make a difference in their jobs. For example, a student mentioned to me recently that our discussion of an EU requirement for all textile products to be content-labeled in every language of the EU countries where the product is sold helped her small company save a bunch of money. Because of our discussion her company labeled its products correctly from the get-go.

What can students expect from your Kelley Direct entrepreneurship courses online?

I am eager for students to gain the knowledge and skills they need to advance in their careers. In my courses, we achieve this objective through a combination of guided self-study, video lectures, analysis and discussion of business cases, and individual reflections on how the topics of a given course relate to the company students currently work for.

I often introduce current events for class discussion. For example, in November 2020, 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific that account for one-third of the world’s population and economic output signed a regional trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). In class, we might discuss the opportunities and threats RCEP presents for the companies students work for in terms of exports, imports, and foreign direct investment. (more…)

Longtime Cisco CEO John Chambers, MBA’76, shares business, leadership advice

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Hannah Carroll

Ever want to pick the brain of an accomplished CEO? In its new webinar series, Kelley Direct does just that for the program’s online MBA and MS alumni.

Conversations with the C-Suite features Kelley School of Business alumni with remarkable executive experience. They share their insights on leadership and issues facing businesses, and offer advice for future executives. Kelley Direct alumni have the opportunity to submit questions and watch the live interview.

The series kicked off with John Chambers, MBA’76, chairman emeritus of Cisco Systems and CEO of JC2 Ventures. During his 20 years of leadership at Cisco, Chambers shaped how we use technology. He grew the company from 4,000 employees and $1.2 billion in revenue in 1995 to 70,000 employees and more than $47 billion in revenue in 2015.

Kelley School of Business Dean talks via Zoom with John Chambers, MBA’76, chairman emeritus of Cisco Systems and CEO of JC2 Ventures

Kelley Direct provides many opportunities for alumni to learn and connect. To learn more and get involved, email kdalumni@iu.edu.

Here are some of the lessons Chambers shared in his Conversations with the C-Suite interview with Idie Kesner, dean of the Kelley School of Business and Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Management:

“If you don’t disrupt yourself, you’re going to get disrupted.
“I’ve watched what happens when you don’t disrupt. [The pandemic] is going to create a period of tremendous disruption. Probably 40% of the companies that people are working for today will disappear within a decade and almost all job creation will come out of start-ups. I’ve learned the hard way—if you don’t disrupt yourself, you’re going to get disrupted. If you don’t think out-of-box, if you don’t catch market inflection points, if you don’t realize that every business is going to be completely transformed and every business will become a digital business, then you’re going to get left behind.”

“The most difficult companies to change are those that have been successful.
“One of the quickest ways to fail is to keep doing the right thing for too long. Whether you’re a tech company or in another industry, the most difficult companies to change are those that have been successful. And you almost get that entitlement mentality. When you paint the picture of change, whether it’s for your small group that reports to you or for a large company, you want to do a combination of outlining a vision of why you have to change and showing the vision for how you’re going to change. You’ve got to hit them with the tough reality. If you don’t change, you don’t survive.” (more…)

Kelley Direct Student Spotlight: Mike Wolfner, MBA’20

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Kelley School

Technical engineer Mike Wolfner advanced on a product management career path with the help of an online MBA from Kelley Direct.

Tell us about yourself—job title, company, and current hometown—and what you do in your current job. I graduated from Kelley this past August with my MBA and I work for Nokia (yes, that cell phone company is still around ). They acquired the technology start-up I was at in 2018 to expand their Internet of Things software capabilities. My background is engineering, and I gradually moved from technical engineering to sales engineering, and it was at this point that I wanted to step further into the business world. An MBA was the next logical step. Armed with my MBA and the expansive education it provided, I have completed my journey and I am now a Product Manager at Nokia responsible for cutting-edge software analytics applications.

Why did you pursue an online MBA? Being late to the game (I’m in my mid-30s), with a good job, and with an expecting wife, a full-time program was too big of a disruption to my life. So naturally, I started to look for part-time programs at the local schools in the Denver area. However, a close friend pointed me to Kelley Direct specifically because of his experience with graduates and their rave reviews.

I realized I wouldn’t have to commute to class, after a long day at work, and I could get a better education from a more reputable university online. My research showed that online programs required occasional in-person experiences as well as small classes, over webcam, with the “real” professors at that business school. That sold me.

I said to myself, “hey, I already work remote and spend my meetings over webcam…why not do the same for school too?” So, at this point, I narrowed my school search to just online programs.

Why did you choose Kelley Direct? I have had this conversation with a dozen people already! I chose Kelley because it was the leader in the three requirements I set: overall reputation, quality of online education, and price. Kelley is a top business school, and they are the best at delivering an online curriculum. And being a large, public school, they are also more affordable that many of their comparable competitors. Nokia gives employees a generous stipend for continuing education, but it is a fixed amount. I am responsible for anything above their limit, so this decision factored in financial ROI too. (more…)

Women and the Kelley Direct Online MBA: Networking, experience, support, and opportunities

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Kelley School

Amy Turk is a Johnson and Johnson Global Franchise Marketing Associate Product Director from Warsaw, IN. Amy took photos on July 31, 2019

Earning an MBA creates powerful career opportunities for women—for advancement, for increased earning potential, and for executive positions.

A common concern of prospective students is how to balance MBA coursework with a full-time career and personal commitments. The Kelley Direct Online MBA provides the flexibility and customization to make it possible.

“The Kelley Direct online program gave me so much flexibility in terms of how I participated and when I fit it into my life,” said Brooke Spenser, MBA’19, a senior manager for new product innovation at Walmart. “Looking at it from a whole life point of view, it gave me a much better work/life/social balance to be able to insert education where it’s convenient.”

The highly customizable program empowers you to tailor your focus to fit your career path. You can also take two to four years to complete your MBA—making Kelley Direct one of the most flexible top-ranked degree programs available online. That option was essential for Amy Turk, MBA’20, to succeed.

“I had two young kids,” said Amy, who works as a global strategic marketing manager at Johnson & Johnson. “So, when I started the program, I knew that I would not be able to complete it in two years. One thing I very much appreciated about the Kelley Direct program is that there’s an enormous amount of flexibility that allows you to customize the program to what you need and when you need it in your own lifestyle. I was able to set the pace for when I finished the program, how many classes I took each term, and it worked well.”

About 28% of the current Kelley Direct Online MBA class are women. As a program, we continually work to increase the number of women in our program. We’re committed to expanding the MBA networking and business leadership pipeline for women, bringing more diversity to the C-suite, and enabling women to launch successful business careers.

Our new partnership with Forté, an MBA women’s leadership foundation that works to increase the number of women in business, demonstrates this commitment. We are excited to bring more merit-based scholarships and professional development opportunities to Kelley Direct women.

“This is a great opportunity for women considering an online MBA to ask questions and get some advice from women who have been through the MBA research phase,” says Director of Admissions Sarah Wanger. “They know what it takes to balance an MBA while working and, for some of them, raising a family. They have it down to a science.”

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