Executive MBA-Review of immersion experience in USA
- SKKGSB
- Hit7165
- 2019-10-01
Executive MBA Immersion I
Indiana University Kelley School of Business
Chan Joong Kim, EMBA Class of 2021
Intro (May before starting MBA)
You may have a life as a father or mother of a household or as a son or a daughter, or life as a CEO, executive, manager, or an employee, but do you have a life of your own? It didn’t take me more than just a few days to make my decision to apply for the SKK GSB/Kelley EMBA program. This was an opportunity that came at a time when I needed a way out of the life in which I had locked myself.
At the Beginning (Orientation, 8/3) – You should see the person.
The first meeting of the 32 of us on the day of orientation started out like any other ordinary business meeting. What started to feel different was a class in which we had a chance to draw each other's faces in the afternoon. In fact, when I first came across this project, I had already decided to write in the evaluation sheet to make sure they leave this project out the next year. I don’t even stare at my face for more than 5 minutes myself, so it was hard to imagine looking at someone else’s face for more than 30 minutes. But of course, because Korean students are used to learning by rote, they all showed amazing concentration when drawing a person’s face within the time limit. As I began to paint my partner’s face, to my surprise, I began to see a person as a person only, not by his rank and age or which company he works for. The professor’s lecture was centered on a simple message: ‘Every project should be started by understanding people’. It was only then that I thawed a bit.
The Leadership Challenge (Prof. Doug, 8/12~8/15)
1)What motivates us: Autonomy
What does a person react to? A huge bonus? Promotion? Welfare benefits? To my surprise, the study confirmed that it matters how much autonomy I have in what I am doing, whether I am the owner of the work or not. It gave me the answer to how I can encourage the organization and staff as a leader. Based on the results of this study, financial benefits such as performance-based pay may lead to a negative return on the development of the organization. It was a wake-up call to question whether the solution most companies are currently implementing is the right one.
2)Delivering Results
A leader should always talk with a result in hand. Although I am the youngest member of the class, I tried a small simulation based on the lesson I heard from the professor, as a leader in my position. On the third day of August 14, we were given the role of a consultant by the professor to provide a "solution packaging" that creates a consensus for "change" and rejuvenates the company. Thirty-one classmates were divided into six teams to sum up interviews of those in major positions. Each team had shared the information to raise the organization’s social consensus from 14 percent to more than 60 percent for change, by running simulation models, allocating the given budget and time-frame, and provide a solution program based on the result.
Even though I was assigned to a different team, I shared two tools voluntarily and autonomously by using some of my personal maintenance time for my cohort classmates. One was a simple Excel tool that would automatically check how much budget and time remain whenever individual items in the Solution Program were included in the Solution Package by the team. This was basically based on two of the following Trusts: Helping Tool ① helped them focus on more essential tasks (e.g., interview summaries, discussions, etc.) and ② saved them time to focus on more valuable things which led to good results. I expected that if I could save an hour for the other 30 31? people with the one hour I invested in this, I could create a positive synergy that could save more than 30 hours for the whole organization.
And, what about the results? Out of the six teams in total, four passed with more than 80% raise in consensus, two teams failed in the mission, one with 59% (short by 1%), and my team unfortunately failed also, with 50%. Results aside, the moment that made me feel excited was when the professor said that the first place team of the SKK GSB EMBA class scored higher than the Purdue MBA students who were taking classes the same week. Although my team failed, there was a sense of accomplishment, pleasure, and emotion that I had never felt while working at a company. It was perhaps not because of the achievement of one particular team from the whole class, but because of our combined achievement.
The Leadership Challenge (Prof, Michael, 8/15~16)
The tasks that were given to us were not easy – they were things like finding a way, moving objects using ropes, and rolling drum cans, and each task was physically challenging.
However, I was impressed and thankful to the cohort for carrying out these tasks because everyone voluntarily performed the tasks together, despite its physical challenges. They certainly had the choice to work hard on the mission, but they were also given the autonomy to not volunteer as a leader, not to listen to a leader, and to make excuses to avoid hard work with their social rank and age. But none of them exercised this option, even though each member was given the autonomy. From my point of view, as the youngest in terms of age and rank, I thought the reason that we could all be one in the name of motivation, was because all the teammates respected me and really got down to my level.
If, in the distant future, I climb the corporate ladder to the CEO level and became a president of some organization, and get an opportunity to bring everyone up to my level and they ask me, “What is the driving force to get you to where you are today?” I wouldn’t hesitate to answer that the motivation came from the class of 2021, SKK GSB/Kelley EMBA program.
[Conclusion]
I am very grateful that this journey is just the beginning of the EMBA class of 2021 with 18 months remaining. One the one hand, knowing that I can spend the rest of my life in the future with these people, I’m sad that I didn't know them earlier so that I could have filled more of my days with them. However, as a well-known monk said from “Love in Time”, there is a right timing for people to meet each other, given that we could not have met each other unless the relationship and time are ripe enough to face each other, so I can say that the timing was right for us to meet. In that sense, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all SKK GSB/Kelley EMBA staff, including Director Lee Jae ha, Director Eric Shih, Team Leader Hwayeon Cho and Manager Soyoon Kim, for providing opportunities for our EMBA class of 2021 to meet at the Right Time at the Right Moment.