Old Rag is a 10 mile circuit hike located about 30 miles northwest of Charlottesville.  We left for the hike at 9:30am and arrived just in time to grab the last parking space at the trail head.  Apparently we weren’t the only people thinking this was a good weekend to enjoy the colors.  It took us about three hours to hike the four miles leading up to the summit and another two hours to hike the six miles back to our car.  The summit approach was fairly slow going  as the last mile is a rock scramble and we frequently had to wait for other people at points where hand-over-hand climbing was required.

Our weather was perfect and the hike provided some much needed exercise.  We all returned to Charlottesville physically tired and mentally refreshed.

The big focus of this event was the Class V rapids on Friday.  If you are not familiar with Whitewater Rafting, rapids are classified according to difficulty level.  Wikipedia defines Class V as follows:

Class 5: Whitewater, large waves, large rocks and hazards, maybe a large drop, precise maneuvering (Skill Level: Advanced Whitewater Experience) (link)

Since about two thirds of our group had never been rafting before, many of us were a bit apprehensive Thursday evening and we all talked about what to expect the next day.  The predominate term used to describe the coming experience was ‘intense’.  Despite the build up, no one backed out and we were all in good spirits during breakfast on Friday (expect for Kristy who was white as a ghost).

After breakfast we rented wet suites, signed some crazy waiver, and hopped on a bus.  On the way to the dam one of the guides gave a lecture on whitewater safety.  Kristy and I were at the back of the bus and had trouble hearing, but caught some of the important elements like, ‘if you get caught under the raft and can’t breath you need to get out from under the raft’.  There were also some tips such as, ‘hold on to your paddle so it doesn’t hit someone in the face’.

At the dam we formed groups of eight, picked our raft, and received more instruction from our guide.  My group had the pleasure of being led down the river by Joe.  During the winter Joe rents snowmobiles in Denver and in the fall he tells dirty jokes while leading groups on rafting trips down the Gauley River.  Most of his jokes were amusing enough that we are still talking about them a week later.  At the moment I can’t think of one that is fit for reprinting.

For all the hype the rapids didn’t seem too perilous.  As you can see from the photo above, I was in high spirits after running our first Class V rapid.  Shortly after this rapid, we ’surfed’ a rapid, which is pretty much like what you would imagine.  Our raft came close to flipping and everyone fell out except for Kristy, me, and our guide.  I think Joe was a little disappointed with this outcome, compared to his most desired outcome of being the only person left in the raft.  He later referred to our situation as a lack of team spirit, since we didn’t all fall out of the raft together as a team.  At the end of the trip this was rectified when Joe flipped our raft – we all went in together.

Running the river was a great experience.  We used Class VI as our outfitters and they were awesome.  The guides were fun and safe, and the food was great.  Also, going with my classmates was much more fun than this trip would have been outherwise.  Thanks go out to Andy Shipley and the rest of the Outdoor Club officers that made this event possible.

Our group met at 10am on the Darden grounds and then carpooled to the trail head off Skyline Drive.  The hike to the Blackrock summit took about an hour.  We then spent another hour at the summit on a rock scramble and completed a short loop hike before heading back down to our cars.  The total trip took about 5 hours during which we got some good exercise and nice views of Virginia.  We also kept to our plan of completing an outdoor hike every weekend.

This hike was one of many optional events planned for first year students during orientation week.  Another group of second year students organized a community service event for the same time on Saturday morning and 20 first year students showed up to help.  Saturday evening there was a Darden Community picnic for all students, faculty, and staff.  Kristy and I had fun catching up with our friends at the picnic and watching a performance by the Darden faculty band (BluesJam).

Last weekend we hiked part of the Riprap trail off Skyline Drive.  After driving 45 minutes from Charlottesville, we parked and started our hike around 9:30am.  About one mile into the hike we passed a group of four that were running along the trail, which made us feel a little athletically inferior.  Thirty minutes further into our hike we heard lots of rustling and thought there was another group coming along the trail.  After pausing to look, we found ourselves staring at a big black bear about 30-40 yards away.  Maybe it’s because the bear didn’t look right at us, but for whatever reason neither of us were scared.  We just took a couple seconds, slowly turned around, and started walking back to our car while making quite a bit of noise along the way.

The picture of me above was taken about 5 minutes after seeing the bear.  We didn’t think to get a photo of the bear, which was probably the right decision anyway.  The photo on the right was taken along Skyline Drive.

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1. If you are interested in seeing a full list of outdoor activities in Charlottesville, the UVA Outdoor Club is a good place to start. There is also an Outdoor Club at Darden.

My first project was based in South Africa and lasted about one month. Since my wife arrived in London the day I left for South Africa, we arranged for her to travel with me for the first part of the project (see photo with elephant above). While she was touring South Africa, I was working with my project team to support the formation of an international joint venture. Specifically, my role was to perform an operational capabilities assessment of a South African company. Having completed similar projects with PRTM as a pre-MBA associate, it is clear to me that the first year Darden program did a great job of preparing me for this project. In particular, the following capabilities that I developed over the last 8 months at Darden significantly improved my effectiveness on this project.

Communication skills - for this project I participated in dozens of executive level meetings. The case method of teaching was good preparation for these meetings and during the first year program I participated in around 300 case discussions. These discussions were in many ways similar to executive meetings as both environments require that I make clear, concise, and helpful points at the appropriate time.

Broadened business background - the general management curriculum at Darden provided me with a broad background in understanding businesses. This proved extremely useful for a capabilities assessment project, where the real work is not in determining the company’s capabilities but in determining the level of capabilities required for success in the context of the specific business and industry. This is another area where the case method was very helpful; instead of diving into the derivation of particular formula (e.g., Little’s law), we broadened our understanding of business situations and industries by reading case after case during the first year.

Technical competence - being able to drill into the technical details of a business situation was another important skill for this project. In several instances I identified the relevant inputs of a specific business formula (e.g., inventory optimization) in the context of this particular company. Then, during interviews I would assess the company’s capabilities for managing these inputs. Darden helped me develop this technical competency by introducing concepts in technical notes, providing an environment to practice these concepts (learning team), and then reviewing these concepts during classroom discussion.

Increased confidence - the Darden program increased my confidence in assessing and managing business situations. Because of this increased confidence I pushed others a little harder then I would have otherwise, and ended up generating better results for our team. I attribute this increased confidence to the rigorous first year program coupled with the support provided by the Darden faculty and staff, my classmates, and my learning team.

GBEs at Darden generally have a significant academic element and students receive course credit. The Mexico City program consisted of four main components, which are outlined below. More details are also available on the Darden webpage.

Business cases – we discussed 5 cases with IPADE students on issues relevant to Mexico. The IPADE professors made sure to involve us in these discussions and Darden students seemed to receive their fair share of cold calls.

Guest speakers – presentations and Q&A sessions with 5 business leaders from various industries including entertainment, retail sales, and beverage distribution. Some of the speakers used English and others used Spanish along with the translation service provided by IPADE.

Company visits – trips to Barcadi, Grupo BIMBO (an industrial bakery with several brands including Wonder Bread), and Kidzania (an amusement park for kids).

Cultural visits – we visited the Anthropology Museum, climbed the pyramids at Teotihuacan, attended a soccer game, and participated in a wine tasting. We also received some cultural exposure by working on a group project with the IPADE students.

This trip left me with several insights on the cultural and business environment in Mexico. I also gained a new respect for the scale and maturity of the US business school market. There are 4 well know full-time MBA programs in Mexico and the combined graduating class of these programs is around 200 students per year. In comparison, US News ranks 63 full-time US MBA programs and the combined graduating class of these programs was 12,500 students in 2007. While many of the 63 US programs may not be as reputable as the 4 programs in Mexico, and the US has 3 times the population of Mexico, there is still a huge difference in the relative size of these two markets for MBA education.

Another aspect of this trip I really appreciated was Professor Peter Rodriguez’s involvement throughout. Peter participated in every activity including classroom discussions, company and cultural visits, dinner each night, and the soccer game. Since this was his fifth time leading the Mexico City GBE and the Mexican economy was part of his Ph.D research, Peter was able to provide us with a substantial amount of information on the business and cultural aspects of Mexico.

Close friends and family – This group focused on the towns and communities rather than the MBA programs.  Basically, my friends and family thought I should attend the school where my wife and I would be happiest over the next two years.  Important considerations were my wife’s employment opportunities, the city’s attractiveness, and the community within the MBA program.  Darden was favored here as the employment opportunities in Michigan were bleak and Durham (Duke) is not a very desirable city compared to Charlottesville (see City of Charlottesville Awards).

Coworkers – While applying to business school I was working for a management consulting firm and 90% of my coworkers already had an MBA.  When I solicited opinions of coworkers, each would start by asking me several questions regarding my goals and then focus on helping me identify the programs that fit best with my development needs.  I was a little surprised that none of my coworkers felt one program was any better than the other, and the rankings were never mentioned.

Web search – My search of blog posts and internet forums did not provide much insight.  Many of the suggestions I found focused on one or two data points from the class profile and job placement data.  For example, last week I found a post that recommended school X to an Indian student because it had 35% international students compared to 30% at school Y.  However, in this case I happen to know that the international students at school Y are fairly diverse, whereas most international students at school X are from Asia.  While the data in these online posts is generally accurate, it’s not always relevant.  Also, employment data is biased towards the short term and generally provides very little insight on the long term career benefits of different MBA programs.

In hindsight, I had subconsciously picked my school months in advance and was only trying to reconcile my instinct with all the facts, logic, and opinions of others.  Going through this reconciliation process was valuable as I was able to identify my logical rational for attending Darden such that I could easily explain my decisions to others.  Based on my experience, here are some tips for deciding between business schools.

Trust your instinct- Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink discusses how our subconscious brain is more effective in making complicated multi-objective decisions then our conscious brain.  The argument is that we can consciously identify the differences between options but do a terrible job of assessing the importance of each difference.  The notion of “fit” is just another way of saying trust your instinct.

Visit the campus – this is the best way to assess how well you “fit” with the school.  When on campus, don’t spend time gathering information that’s available through other sources.  Instead, try to immerse yourself in the culture and gauge how well it “fits” with your own personality.

Don’t put too much weight in others’ opinions – these perspectives are the result of someone else’s goals, development needs, and values.  When asking the opinions of others, try to follow up with questions that identify the underlying rationale of the position.

Forget about the rankings – they do not take individual preferences into account.  Furthermore, they change every year.  For example, Darden’s BusinessWeek ranking has fluctuated between 5 and 14 over the past ten years.

Think both short and long term – don’t make decisions based only on short term considerations such as if your target company recruits at the school.  Getting a job is just the first use of an MBA; make sure to consider the 10-30 year time horizon.