Best MBA-Related Reads for the Week ending 2005.01.14

Here's the best MBA-related reading from the week ending January 14, 2005. Did I miss something? Please note it in the comments.

• Business School Career Cube - See, I knew I picked a winner last week when I called PandaCH's blog the best "new" blog added to my RSS reader that week. He's outdone himself this week, by posting this wonderful image. (Found at PandaCh.blogspot.com)
• Personification of Business Schools - Megami transmogrifies Wharton, Stanford and Harvard into three guys that you'd really like to punch in the nose. Repulsive yet fascinating.(Found at megami77.blogspot.com)
• B-School Students with a Cause: Social Responsibility in MBA programs - Business Week says that "A growing emphasis on social responsibility and ethics among MBAs is having a positive impact in the classroom and the real world." How real a trend is this? The article fails to back up its claims that business students are becoming any more caring. Anecdotes do not make a trend. I say it's bullshit, but it's at least hopeful bullshit. (Found at Business Week)
• The CEO-English Phrase Book - Writes Slate, "when CEOs speak what sounds like English, they're actually talking in an entirely different language." They picked it up at business schools. (Found at Slate)
• Ding Letters with Style - Any post that starts with "shits and giggles" and then actually delivers on that dangerous combination wins my vote. Read the comments too. (Found at WakeChick.blogspot.com)
• Portable Power - "Portable power, however, goes with you wherever you go. It becomes "intrinsic to the person you are" and thus is more valuable in the long run. The people who survive and thrive after a layoff or other unexpected turn of events, for example, can often fall back on their portable power as a resource." (Found at Worthwhile)
• Intolerant Bozo of the Week - It was a tough call between Prince Harry and TreeSuit2BusinessSuit, but ultimately Harry's just an inbred idiot while TreeSuit is a genuine ex-Marine bible-perverting jerkface. (Found at TreeSuit2BusinessSuit)
• B-Schools Encourage Spiritual Exploration - "While graduate-business programs certainly aren't trying to inculcate religious beliefs, more schools are offering courses dealing with spirituality and personal fulfillment. Will the trend help future leaders remain true to their convictions?" Have you actually read the course description for "Creativity and Personal Mastery"? It's amazing, as is the student feedback.(Found at WSJ Career Journal)
• Rough HBS Interview with Reactions - I've learned to stop trusting Business Week's overzealous thread-deleters, so I'll quote the entire post here:

  Just to add my two cents, I'm also anxiously awaiting next tues/wed. I had a disasterous interview with HBS, though. I felt like the guy was working through his marital problems in my interview (i.e. asking me if I'd feel I wasted my education at HBS if I chose to be a stay-at-home mom, asking me tons of other questions relating to having children, etc.). I mean, freaking A, I'm not even married or anywhere close. Not to mention he asked me "what would your ideal engagement ring look like." He asked me later if I thought his wife was wasting her education since she went to HBS and is now a stay-at-home-mom. I was really stunned after the interview. None of the questions asked could really gauge what I could contribute to a program. Anyways, he did ask me what book I read recently. I don' t know if it was rote formality, but he didn't seem to care much about any of my answers. He cut off almost every single one of my replies, interrupted me several times, and didn't let me finish a thought. Hopefully it was some 'battle of wills' and 'testing of how you'll respond' rather than just a mean, nasty angry interviewer. And for that other poster that keeps rattling on about 'lesser schools," my interviewer actually said, "not to be pompous, BUT it IS Harvard." I'm hoping for Stanford. My interview there went WAY better, and if the alumni are any indication of the population at large, Stanford all the way! Please!

  (Found at Business Week Forums)