Project Firenze : Deepthi Kapila

Deepthi 'Rovingreporter' Kapila interviews Prof Denise M Rousseau at Tepper ... Evidence based Management is in.

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:54:00 GMT

Professor Rousseau shares her thoughts on Firenze and the applicability of evidence based management. Here is an excerpt from the interview.

The Microsoft case is known for its emphasis on research so much so that

25% of the grading is based on the quality of research carried out. How should students go about researching when there is so much information out there?

The Microsoft case is a live and complex business problem. There is no clearly defined process for structuring the unstructured problem. Looking for a good solution begins with first making sense of the concepts. This can be done by thinking of alternative ways of defining the question. The next step is to develop a logic model - define the outputs, inputs and process. The process of developing the logic model will help you think about what you need to know and what you need not know before you can arrive at a solution. Once you know what you need to know, you can go about searching for the information.

What is the best way to search for information?

The most important thing is for students to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. There is a lot of data out there! It is necessary to synthesize this data into something that is directly usable - knowledge. The best way to go about doing this is to ask! Pointer knowledge – knowing people who may be the experts in the field of your interest or who may know people who are experts - can be very powerful. Reference librarians can help you look for information applying effective search techniques. They can also help you get good quality, peer reviewed evidence. Carnegie Mellon students are fortunate to have access to an exhaustive repository of electronic databases and reference books - they should leverage that! People in general, also tend to underestimate the power of public libraries and the vast amount of information that can be accessed through them.

How do you envision a case like this adding value to students?

Students today are inundated with data and information. It is becoming increasingly important, for students especially, to develop mindful ways of sifting through this data and assimilating the information it conveys. A case like this enables students to become more aware of the rich repository they can tap into once they know how to search and link seemingly unrelated topics. Couple this with good problem solving strategy and you've got a budding evidence based manager.

Any other advice that you would like to give to students in general and particularly current/future participants of the case competition?

Yes. Think outside the box. Do not confine yourself to thinking of solutions only within your industry. There seems to be a general tendency for people to assume that because they are in one particular industry/business, only experiences and data gathered in that particular industry/business will be relevant. It is important to remember that there are many aspects of the problems that can be generalizable. Think of these generalizable aspects in different categories. It is not unusual to see that new ideas and innovation can sometimes stem from dressing up an old idea in a new role.

Professor Denise Rousseau is a H. J. Heinz II Professor of Organizational Behavior and Public Policy, H. J. Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. Her research and teaching interests primarily lie in Evidence based management and decision making in addition to psychological contracts in organizations, idiosyncratic deals and workplace flexibility, changing employment relations, human resource management and strategy, organizational culture and performance, and multilevel research methodologies.

Student Update: Professors and Librarians being overtaxed because of Firenze.

Pradeep U.N. — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:38:00 GMT

Deepthi Kapila writes in from Tepper -

"These students worked so hard, availed themselves of the opportunity to meet up with the profs and even the business librarian who visits Tepper once a week mentioned how there was a spike in people asking for information related to the case! "

The business librarian is a feature at the bschool which I remember was rarely used by many people. She would have office hrs where could go and pick her brain to get more information on our topic of research.

Tepper also had several professors taking special time/classes to help the participants. Profs Denise Rousseau, Jefferey Williams, Alan Montgomery, Sunder Kekre and John Mather have gone out of the way to do this for the students. In the past Profs R Ravi, Baohong Sun have been advisors. Faculty support like this is such a fabulous thing and reveals itself in the quality of student submissions which in turn puts in great light. As invisible as their hand looks - the impact they have on the student's outputs is mammoth!

Welcome 1st years!

deepthi.kapila — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:08:00 GMT

Look Mommy, Look! The little girl squealed in delight as she tugged away at her mother's skirt for attention. She was straining her neck to see the F18 waltzing right above her. Fully in control, the F18s swooped down from 15,000 feet and almost touched the tip of the water before it lifted up effortlessly.

Within the very first few days of orientation you will be told, retold and told again about how brutal the first year is. By the end of the first week your head will be filled with thoughts of textbooks, pub crawls, picnics, readings, assignments, midterms, club memberships, case competitions, corporate presentations, formal suits, home, free food, Friday beers, networking, house parties, long distance relationships, moving, unpacking and furniture.

In the first week itself, you will also be told about how soon the time flies by. When I joined school last year, I bought into everything that everyone told me during orientation except that the first year will dash past you and it will all be a blur. How can time possibly fly when you are thousands of miles away from home and loved ones, when the city freezes over, when you are stuck poring over books and are surviving without a pay-check? In November, while walking out of the library one cold snowy afternoon, I remember my friend remarked in frustration - "Everyone says time flies by, it is mini 2 already and the time is crawling. When the heck will it pick up speed?" But boy, were we wrong! Time does fly by when you are having fun doing whatever you are doing. It may take a mini or two to figure out the most optimal way of having fun (don't know if I should attribute that to the optimization class in mini 2?). Once January is here, the internship recruiting season picks up pace. Before you know it, it is time to head out for your internship. You come back and suddenly find yourself dishing out free advice to the new 1st years (look who's talking!)

Come May 2010 and you will be ready waltz through tough business problems. Not just waltz through it but you will even be able to make it look effortless because of all the hard work you put in now! Come 2020 and you will appear on the front page on WSJ. Welcome to Tepper!

Now you know what I did this summer!

deepthi.kapila — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:27:00 GMT

The big key didn’t fit. She peeked through the keyhole again. Still difficult to see but she was getting used to the brightness emanating. She tried the little key and it fitted!

Here is what I've been up to in the last 12 weeks. Tried to keep it as brief as possible and as non-MSFT as possible but couldn't help using some MSFT lingo. Give me a shout (through your comments) if you have any questions/clarifications. More about what I learnt from these projects, how I went about them can/will be posted later.

Project (Read overview if this does not make sense by itself!) Stream/ Concentration	Brief Overview	Role played/Details/Results/Impact	Concepts from 1^st year courses at Tepper applied
FAST integration Strategy	Microsoft acquired FAST for $1.2bn in April 2008. Project was to strategize technology integration and creation of a go-to market plan for Microsoft Services	Primary owner, created the business plan and strategy deck for Microsoft Services. Coordinated with and got buy-in from the senior level executives (VP, Technology; VP, Integration) from the acquired company and from various stakeholders including key owners/sponsors in business groups, technical community, and field across Microsoft.	Strategy, Interpersonal Negotiations, Groups & Teams (to help reach a consensus that required compromise from different stakeholders at different levels), Core accounting (to understand the acquired company’s financial statements), core finance (to calculate ROI, NPV)
Customer evidence collection Change Management/ Org Behaviour	Services moved to a new strategy in FY07. Mandate of the project was the gauge the level of adoption of the strategy. Collect anecdotal evidence of customer success stories while simultaneously identifying any gaps in the adoption.	Primary owner. Required extensive coordination and high horsepower to interact with several members in the field from across the globe. The project ultimately had participation from 6 continents, 20 countries representing 40% of the engagements carried out in FY08 across 15 industries. It was an extremely ambitious project to start out with since typically in Q4, the field is busy closing numbers but persistence, negotiation and influence resulted in an overwhelming participation. The information had to be analyzed and presented using a concise comprehensive model that aligned with the corporate scorecard while ensuring that none of the detailed elements of the story were lost.	Organizational Change Management (concepts of measuring change, lifecycle of change), new product management (concepts of perceptual mapping, technology adoption curve), B2B marketing (to understand the dynamics of the field selling to enterprise customer)
Slides for CTO's (Microsoft Services) keynote at TechReady Presentation/ Communication	TechReady is a bi-annual global conference with participation from around 6000 employees in technical roles in Microsoft from around the globe. Prepare slides to be presented as part of CTO’s keynote to convey key messages at a global conference.	Primary owner. Understand the key message to be conveyed and define the executive communication message. Ensure that the message suited executive's style and was presented in a clear, concise and succinct manner that resonated with the 6000 strong global audience	Communications for business managers (concepts of defining and delivering executive communication)
MGX Storyboarding Marketing	Microsoft Global Exchange (MGX) is a global conference organized at the end of every fiscal year with participation from different groups in sales roles n the organization. Positioning, messaging and communicating the HQ strategy to a global field audience.	Co-owner with 2 others- This year, the conference saw participation from over 13,000 employees. Project involved positioning and creative storyboarding of the message to ensure that we successfully captured their mindshare in an environment where the audience is being loaded with information from different groups. Coordinated with the 6 different speakers for the session from different countries to ensure that story flowed smoothly and that the speakers conveyed the different aspects of the story without overlap while ensuring that all messages fitted into the single theme of the session.	Concepts of core marketing, business communications (creative methods of presentation)
Offerings mix analysis Quantitative Analysis	Quantitative analysis group project with 4 other interns (from Tepper and Tuck) to analyze sales/delivery data for FY08	Co-owner with 4 other interns. Analyze FY08 data across 5 diverse databases that capture sales and delivery information to find trends and correlations; investigate reasons within the databases to explain the patterns.	Core Statistical Analysis (concepts of correlation, regression)
SeattleWorks Community Service	Lead team comprising interns from Microsoft and other leading Seattle companies to help clear out a quarter acre of invasive, non-native plants in Lincoln Park to help rebuild a healthy eco-system	Co-owner with 3 other inters which each owner leading 25 people. A project in which the results were seen within 3 hours and yet the impact will last for years to come.	Did something similar to this at Tepper during 1^st year orientation. J So school gave me that extra bit more experience in such projects.

- Deepthi

Bye bye Seattle

deepthi.kapila — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:34:00 GMT

We are at departure time. The plane gates have been closed. The captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign. We now ask you to turn off any electronic equipment you have.

Last few minutes in Seattle. The fact that there will not be any more royal treatment any longer and that I have to return to the status of lesser mortal again is yet to sink in. I will not get the "You interns!" remark with undertones of envy anymore.

Our summer ended with a red carpet experience at Columbia tower. Since Sheldon has already called the event for his next blog entry, i am bound by the secret code not to write about it. :) If he does not write about it in the next 2 weeks, bug him through your comments until he does!

I am now looking forward to going back to school, catching up with my friends about their summer experiences. The 2nd year at Tepper kicks off with the "International Management Game" - an experience that integrates all the core concepts that we learnt at Tepper so far. Come to think of it, there is a good intersection between the objectives of the MSFT case competition in the 1st year and those of the game in the 2nd year.

In both, you try to learn to

(1) Apply the core concepts learnt at school so far

(2) Work in an ambiguous environment where you have a lot of data/information available but you have to decide what is relevant

(3) Collaborate in a team

(4) Prioritize because you will be working under the pressure of tight deadlines

(5) Communicate and articulate results to the board of directors/ senior executives

(6) Become comfortable taking business decisions based on a balanced mix of analytics and intuition.

Both the game and the case competition try to be as real-world as possible. I think there is one main difference between the two. The game is great learning experience where learning is more internal (within the team) and intra-team (as we will be competing against our classmates and teams from other schools). The professors and board of directors (typically Tepper alums now senior executives from different companies who have obliged to be on the board) have seen the game being solved many a time in the past. In the case competition, the problem has never been solved before. It is a live business issue that Microsoft is currently facing and your recommendations are very likely going to be taken up and implemented. The learning is 2-way. Microsoft execs learn from you as much as you learn from the experience.

A classical example of the learning and impact you have is Dusko's experience. Dusko, the poster child of the case competition won it the first year and was then offered to come back to Microsoft for the summer to actually implement his recommendations. So watch out what you recommend - you might end up owning it. And do ask Dusko what he did last summer.

- Deepthi

Meet Firenze Blogger - Deepthi Kapila

Pradeep U.N. — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Haiku girl,
Italics opening
Divergent thoughts in order

Really achieving your childhood dreams

deepthi.kapila — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:36:00 GMT

Dare to dream.

A man whose mother jokingly introduced as "This is my son, he's a doctor, but not the kind who helps people" has touched the lives of millions of people across the globe. He legacy lives on through Alice, through his Last Lecture and through his children Chloe, Logan and Dylan. Denying sympathy and pity from his audience, he said, "If I do not seem as sad and morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you".

The Professor who dared his students to dream big humbly commented on his last lecture "I am flattered and embarrassed by all the recent attention to my Last Lecture. I am told that, including abridged versions, over six million people have viewed the lecture online. The lecture really was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful. But rest assured; I'm hardly unique. Send your kids to Carnegie Mellon and the other professors here will teach them valuable life lessons long after I'm gone."

This great man lived 11 months of his life celebrating being alive, like each day was his last. "I'm dying and I'm having fun. And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there's no other way to play it". A majority of us lose heart, whine, complain and give up when faced with small obstacles in life. Randy was a little different. "Brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the OTHER people". His life, speech and book have inspired millions and will continue to inspire generations to come.

To me, it reiterates my belief in a more basic element of humanity that ties us all together. It reinforces my faith that there are endless possibilities out there. It commits me more to achieve my dreams, to make an impact in the world and to enable other people achieve their dreams. Randy Pausch, you will be dearly missed.

- Deepthi

Traffic on I5-N is backed up

deepthi.kapila — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:39:00 GMT

We had just gotten off the I5-N."Turn it up! Turn it up!" A shrill voice from the back of the bus yelling to the driver. The driver enthusiastically turned the volume on the radio up. "The traffic on 520 W and I5 is backed up quite a bit but it now seems to be clearing up." A loud cheer went up in bus#13 that was part of the 20 bus motorcade arranged for the 800+ summer interns to go to Woodland Zoo.

It takes a while to get used to special treatment. All traffic on 520-W and I5-N was stopped for the Microsoft interns on their way to the Summer Intern Celebration @ the Woodland Park Zoo. 20 bus motorcade with police escort. Not a single stop along the 15 mile journey. Puzzled expressions from the stopped motorists, a few bystanders and kids waving as the convoy passed them. Once we reached the zoo, we were treated to a surprise concert by Vampire Weekend and Ben Folds. The concert was good but personally though, the journey was more exciting for me. No hard feelings Ben Folds! And no prizes for guessing what the Zoo fest ended with - free Zunes to all the interns.

Oh by the way, remember that the internship lasts only 12 weeks. When and if you do come back to Microsoft or Seattle as a full-time employee, you will be on the receiving end - waiting (and impatiently waving hands?!?) for a 20-bus convoy filled with interns to cross the bridge (maybe even secretly praying for the internship to end soon!). But for now, I'm an intern and am loving it.

- Deepthi

Interns join Microsoft

deepthi.kapila — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:54:00 GMT

Now that Pradeep has explained what the case competition was about, let me pick it up from "May/June - Interns join Microsoft" item on his list of events. Even before you start your internship, you will very likely receive at least a dozen emails welcoming you to Microsoft - right from the wonderful recruiting team to you manager to the senior management in your group.

This summer, we are part of 60+ strong MBA contingent from the top B-schools in the US. Of the 60, 5 of us came about as a by-product of Firenze, all 5 of us are interning at Microsoft Services. The whole internship program itself is extremely well structured so that you can make the most of your 10-14 weeks at the company.

Each intern usually has at least 3 main points of contact in the company.

A manager who helps you learn the group's business, sets your commitments, provides resources, feedback and coaching to help you complete your project.
A coach who provides tactical guidance to complete the project and who helps answer day-to-day questions you may have.
A buddy who is an invaluable resource who is in a non-evaluative role, outside of your group and provides general advice about anything you care to ask about.

The MBA staffing team does a great job of facilitating events that help you network with the interns, their managers, buddies and coaches from the different business units and groups in Microsoft! Typically, by the end of the very first few weeks, you will start to leverage this network - be it for getting advice about concerts in Seattle or for giving them data you may have to help them with their project or for even setting up informational interviews with people in other teams to learn more about their groups.

Here's a snapshot of some of the activities we have had so far - Fortnightly MBA after-work socials, casino night, community service day, amazing intern races and kayaking on Lake Union, soccer matches, women's networking events, company picnic, spouses events and lunches with the senior leadership including Steve Ballmer (CEO), Chris Capossela (SVP, Information Worker product group), Lisa Brummel (SVP, Human Resources), Mike Risse (Vice President, Worldwide SMS&P), Kristin Johnsen (GM, Global Delivery, WW Services), Brad Goldberg(GM, Search Business Group), Andy Lees (SVP, Mobile Communications Business) and many more.

All in all, it's 12 weeks packed and bursting at the seams with things to do! Now that I am done writing about the mandatory "introductory blog" 2 weeks after I started blogging, I can go back to my random thoughts blogging from next week.

- Deepthi

Where time does anything but stand still!

deepthi.kapila — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:58:00 GMT

Standing on the bridge overlooking the interstate late one evening, I felt the bridge tremble each time a car buzzed past under it. Hundreds of cars on either side travelling at least 10 or 20 above the speed limit I thought. I squinted just a bit. All I could see now was a yellow blur on the right and a red one on the left.

4 weeks have just flown past me and I have a big midterm review coming up in 2 weeks. The midterm review supposedly decides whether or not you are suitable for a full time position at Microsoft. Though the reality of the matter is that the management would have made their mind up already and the review is likely going to be a way to validate and communicate that decision, I still find it difficult to shake off that academic mindset - I feel the review is like a pass/fail exam, the one hour that will decide the rest of my career here.

To complicate things further, it can be hard to deal with the fact that I have not been able to come up with any brand new discoveries or earth-shattering recommendations. I keep asking myself what value am I adding? Having gotten used to churning out solution after solution to cases in a short period of time such as a day or a week, being forced to think through the nitty gritty details of the recommendation for a whole 12-week period is slightly different. The devil is in the detail. The good thing though about going deep without necessarily compromising fully on the breadth is that I have had to meet a whole bunch of people from across different groups in the company, getting my hands dirty in the process rather than being stuck at a desk poring over tons of printed material.

At the same time, it thrills me to bits that the recommendations I make (once I think through the operational details!!) are actually going to be implemented world-wide. A 6-week internship that will have a global impact across at least 6 continents(I wish we had a few subsidiaries in Antarctica too), 50 countries (I am guessing a bunch of countries will continue to do things their own way), over a 1000 strong field consultants and countless customers over the next year or two. Now that's what I'd call impact!

PS - That blog was actually authored on 23rd June, 2 weeks before by midterm review that happened on the 7th July. Just getting the dates out there so I don't confuse anyone when I say i am out of here in 3 weeks in my next post.

- Deepthi

The phenomenon called Firenze

deepthi.kapila — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:10:00 GMT

I looked up straight. The glistening snow on the peaks blinded me momentarily. I tentatively pushed a small pebble over the edge with my foot. Each second felt like an aeon as the pebble reached the ground hundreds of feet below. I looked at the clouds below. A deep breath. I stepped forward and took the plunge. A moment of uncertainty and everything around me suddenly slowed down. And then I began to fly!

Business at Microsoft happens in cycles. Your cycle depends on the group that you are in. So what happens when you are an active B-school alum in the middle of a trough of the cycle and have some time to spare - the Microsoft Case Challenge is born.

December 2006 - I finally got the email congratulating me on my admission to the Tepper School of Business. I made it! A few weeks later and another email from a current student (Ramesh who will be a full time employee at Microsoft shortly) talking about why I should go to Tepper and about his Microsoft business leadership experience. A few more mails exchanged and I knew I wanted to be part of the phenomenon. Just about 8 weeks into the academic life and 18 teams and 90 students from Tepper decided to take the plunge. Within a short span of 4 weeks, we experienced a whole gamut of emotions - Ambiguity with more than enough data we could ask for, exhilaration over little wins, frustration when we felt stuck or realized that our basic assumptions were wrong, excitement about coming up with recommendations that actually landed, time pressure when we had to balance this with exams at school and much more! All culminating in the business leadership experience at Redmond - an experience that made all the effort every bit worth it. An experience that marked the beginning of my journey with Microsoft. Join me on my journey of self discovery.

- Deepthi