Category Archives: Jobs & Careers

Jobs & Careers, Market News, People

Chicago Graduate School of Business: Gets Gift & Changes Name

With the worldwide economy looking a bit glum, it is expected that a record number of people will be try to head for various schools in the next 6 months, including one of the all time top b-schools: University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business GSB.

But that school’s name is going to change.

The GSB announced on Nov 6th the receipt of a gift valued at $300 million from alumnus David Booth ’71. In appreciation, the university will rename the school to “The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.”

In an interview, Booth described the gift as “largely unrestricted.”

According to Chicago’s press release:

“The school plans to use the money for several new initiatives, including aggressively attracting and retaining star faculty. Other uses being considered include developing new faculty groups in academic areas not normally associated with business schools, expanding existing research centers, and launching ambitious programs to better leverage the school’s intellectual capital.

The gift may also be used to expand the school’s international presence beyond its existing campuses in London and Singapore.”

This also creates a new record for the largest gift to a b-school… breaking the previous record of $105 million given to Stanford GSB by Philip H. Knight in 2006.

5 Questions, Aerospace, Business Strategy, Capital Markets, FAQ, Finance, Industrial, Innovation, Insurance, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, People, Start-ups, Venture Capital

5 Questions With Warrent Buffet

1 Comment

Warren Buffet doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone because his performance numbers speak for themselves. And that’s what makes it so interesting to hear him take Q&A: “The nastier the better”… as he says!



It’s a long video… if you are in a rush, here’s our summary of the various Q&A:

Q1. What do you look for in the people you like to work with?
WB: I like to work with people I like. I don’t look at their CVs or Grades to decide who can do what. In fact, I don’t even look if they have a degree. If you are working with people you don’t enjoy, please do yourself a favour, and leave the job and work with people you like. You’ll do better.

Q2. What kind of businesses do you like to invest in?
WB: I want to invest in businesses that are stable and where I can visualize it 10 years from now. Companies like Coke (soft drinks), Gillette (mens shaving blades) are examples of my investment choices. There are many others like GEICO (automotive insurance), Nebraska Furniture Mart (maximum sales from a single store location in the US), Iscar Metalworking Company (an industry leader in metal-cutting tools from Israel). I don’t have the understanding of technology-intensive business like software etc, and I stay away from them.

Q3. How do you do business valuation? How detailed is it?
WB: I like to invest in businesses where I have great comfort with the business owner. A paragraph is often sufficient to know the business value. The example being Nebraska Furniture Mart owned by Mrs. Rose Blumpkin, who recently turned 101 years, who has no formal education but has great common sense.

Q4. Tell us some of your bad decisions and what you learned from them?
WB: I invested in US Air though it was a difficult sector. Call it Temporary Insanity. I have learned that my bad decisions have happened when I had more cash than necessary. The airline industry is one step forward for mankind, a giant step backward for capitalism! And then there are other mistakes that conventional accounting does not capture, like the selling of 5% stake in Walt Disney (at $6m) within a year of buying it (at $4mn) in the 1960s. Today that stake is worth over a billion dollars.

Q5. Why not split the Berkshire Hathaway share to make it more affordable to investors?
WB: I think of my investors as a club or an audience in my presentation and we want long-term investors not traders. I don’t want high trading volumes for our shares. In fact, I will be happy with no trading at all. Our share price ($25k per share in recent times) has helped us maintain that seriousness and attract long-term investors.

Thanks for coming by!
MyOrbit Team

Internet, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, Online Marketing

Are You Considering Self Employment?

If you are considering starting off with self-employment on a home-based business (it’s getting common), there there is an interesting post made by Tom Lindstrom on the Home Business Archive blog:

Problems Associated With Being Self Employed

On a personal note, self employment for those with family is fraught with another set of problems. A steady paycheck keeps a family well supported and many money worries at bay, while self employment may be more akin to times of feast or famine. Are your family members willing to help you achieve your dream of being self employed?

The post is not aimed to discourage anyone — it is more to give you a feel of the typical challenges he has seen. The biggest challenge we can point towards is that there is no more a guaranteed income source. You will have to put your best efforts, and the income may not not come.

Some more thoughts from our experience of seeing various entrepreneurs:

  1. If you have a family to support, then you should have at least 6-12 months of living/operating expenses in your bank. Plan to have little or no income in the first 3-4 months. That is a very real scenario
  2. If you are offering services, don’t waste time on prospects who are not interested. Time is very important, and its better to reach as many prospects as you can, and let the interested ones reply back.
  3. If you are offering products on your website, then promote that site through a few blogs, press releases, and reputable article sites. Feel free to contact us if you feel stuck. No, there’s no fee for such help!
  4. If you have any property or inventory, that should also be insured. Also ensure that everyone in the family has comprehensive health/medical insurance. Nothing can probably hit your new business harder than sudden large outflows of cash arising from uninsured expenses/damages.
Advertising, Business Development, Contracts & Legal, Finance, Industrial, Innovation, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, People, Project Management, Sales & Marketing, Training

Harvard Newsletter: Tools of Persuasion: Pitch Your Offer and Close the Deal

If you are in any form of business or profession, then this podcast from Harvard Law School is a must-listen item because its packed with valuable insights on how to share good and bad news, how to sell your ideas to a reluctant or untrusting client or business partners using powerful tools of persuasion. This podcast is based on an article by Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman of Harvard Business School – from August 2007 issue of PON newsletter.
Click here to play.





The original post and podcast are available here.

Business Development, Jobs & Careers, MyOrbit Blogs, New Media, People, Sales & Marketing, Training

Harvard Law School podcast: Negotiating for Job Satisfaction and Success

1 Comment

There are times in the careers of most professionals, when you will feel if the job you are doing is going the way you wanted it. Even when we take up new jobs, we assume somethings rather than discuss them upfront – which also leads to issues sometimes. These are very common situations, and happen across career stages and industries.

This latest podcast from Harvard Law School features an article from the November 2007 issue of their “Negotiation newsletter”. It talks about how thinking broadly about your career goals can increase your value and opportunities both inside and outside a hiring organization.




The original post and podcast are available here.
And here’s the main site for more info: www.pon.harvard.edu/