MBA Mondays Everywhere

Comments (Archived):

1. Fred,I believe it’s just a great idea, kudos for the iniciative.I understand why you wanna keep the mbamondays day but i feel you might regret it. Let’s assume it becomes reasonably successful, you wouldn’t want readers to come back on mondays only. When you started out it sounded like a cool name for your readers what to expect (“i talk about mba in posts only on mondays”) but imagine taking it out of this blog. I’d go for mbaweek.com or better yet reallifemba.com or streetsmartmba.comJust my 2 cents

2. if you want @mbamondays just let me know 😉

   1. you have it?

      1. only the twitter address not the domain, sorry

         1. hold on to that please. i might need it.

            1. no problem, you can have it, I bagged it when I saw your post this morning to stop anyone else claiming it.

            2. Nicely doneOn Tuesday, February 1, 2011, Disqus

            3. My wife had a similar issue: she started a website that provided free information, but someone else was holding the .COM and not using it. Here’s what we did, which worked: Purchase MBAMondays.org, which is available and makes sense since your info will be free. Put the content up and file a trademark application for MBAMondays with your first-use date being when you started providing the service. Once you have a trademark registration, it will be easier to obtain the domain through ICANN’s UDRP process (may cost a few thousand, though) if you really want the .COM. My wife’s squatter just abandoned it once the trademark registration issued, and she used a service to grab it quickly. You may also be able to purchase it cheaply if you’re able to contact the owner, but if you have the .ORG, a trademark registration, and are actively using the mark, it will be tough for the squatter to use it for anything useful, and the price should go down.

            4. p.s., Grabbed MBAMondays.org just in case you decide to go the above- described route. Just shoot me an email with your IT guys info and I’ll transfer it over if needed. Thanks for all the free insights!

            5. Thank you. I will probably need it

            6. See, Fred, you inspire generosity!

            7. MBAMondays.org fits with what you’re doing with the content (education), unless you want to host ads (donations like here) then .com is better.I’d vote for donations vs ads. Just my two cents or $10/year 😉

            8. You are one cool guy, Richard.Also, tweeted you to tell you a nice little development in the outcome of your book suggestion. Thank you!

            9. not really but thanks anyway Donna.

            10. British modesty…

3. First off, congrats, for inspiring AVC as a place that makes creative thought and innovation core values.Having a separate domain for the series is I think a smart connecting strategy to a new audience. I wonder though why you are considering a new format that is more textbook like. Is encapsulating the info in a standard format really necessary? Maybe a new format for a fresh view of the material is exactly what is neededBTW..pravin’s website is a visual feast. Thanks for sharing.

   1. pravin is an ITP gradi am a huge fan of that cohort

   2. I still prefer reading a book (albeit a kindle) to looking at a screen for content that I need to concentrate on. I usually send Mark Suster’s blog to instapaper to read on my Kindle because they are so long (great content but long!)For technical manuals I still don’t think you can’t beat paper.

      1. Hi RichardNo one right answer here I’m sure. I bounce back and forth between my iPad and hardcover for reading. The first for convenience (subways and planes) the latter for presentation (mostly wine books) but I think that someone soon will crack the presentation problem on the pad.My point above (not well articulated it appears) is that the content of these posts is the post plus the comments and I just don’t intuitively feel that they fit in an electronic form that works like a text book.Feeling like there is a Marshal McCluhan like connection between new content and new form that defies traditional encapsulation if you will.

         1. Definitely agree with you about the comments Arnold. It’d be great if they were curated and added to a wiki that accompanied each MBA Monday post.Talking of wine I watched a really quirky series about a British guy who set up a biodynamic vineyard in France, it was interesting. There’s a video of him here http://www.decanter.com/new… giving an interview on biodynamics.

            1. Thnx Richard.Interview was interesting and I know of this guy.I’m somewhat obsessed with a natural approach to winemaking, Been posting a lot on new wine biz models (Naked in the UK), the coming disintermediation of the wine biz and attempting to get folks to understand the real taste difference in a natural approach to winemaking.My wine hobby is quickly starting to swallow my life. Must be a sign to jump in with both feet 😉

            2. You mean like into a tub of grapes? Fun!

            3. …and by the way, I tweeted you about the book because it was completely off-topic in the AVC comment stream.Now I’m realizing that with this crowd I never have to worry about being off-topic. Case in point: THIS comment stream. Love it.

            4. I just saw the tweet Donna, thanks. I agree I don’t worry about being off topic here.

         2. Agreed. I think the popularity of the MBA Mondays series is largely due to it being an “un-textbook”.

            1. And I think the wildly heterogenous and open nature of the dialogue is inspiring. Comments from students and pros intermingled.I applaud this direction that Fred is taking as he is letting the info find new forms to fit new audiences, searching for what Mark Essel would call a socially relevant fit.

            2. But is it that the format is “un-textbook” or the content and interaction are “un-textbook”?

            3. Good question, Donna. I’d say it’s both, but mainly the content and interaction.

      2. haha — was just thinking that today when I had about five extra minutes and went over to Suster’s blog — had to save it for later when I can take the time to soak it all in — but I must say it is always worth the time.

   3. “congrats, for inspiring AVC as a place that makes creative thought and innovation core values”I think you can add “generosity” to that list of core values as well!

      1. Well said…It is truly an ‘inclusive’ spot on the web. Membership is not required.

4. Something with a Wikepedia structure to have people add content to it, without destroying the beautiful short style of the posts. Not sure how to do this.

5. mbamondays.avc.com as a subdomain?start posting on Tuesday :-)Just kidding, maybe should you file for a trade mark, not that expensive, just in case the owner is not friendly.In any case you will hit #1 in a Google search instantly

6. status report: work in progress!

   1. kuhnian?

      1. because of:http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…the guy who introduced the concept of “paradigm shifts”

7. That’s a great idea to make content shareable that way and with so many content consumption options. I’m assuming that they would all sync up automatically with new content that’s produced weekly. So you might want to add that as a requirement to anyone who wants to do something else with it. Otherwise, you risk having incomplete versions.

8. This seems like a great time to stop and thank you for providing all this great content, free of charge. I’m a relative newcomer but have learned much in a short time. The format and information is great and I look forward to the future of this blog and MBA Mondays, if you decide to spin-off.

9. MBAFridays.com is avail (as well as the rest of the week). Might be good to let people mull on the posts over the weekend.

10. I just tried http://www.MBAmondays.com and it’s pointing to AVC.com ! (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/mba…

11. I’ve said it before, will say it again, love the series. Great educational value in the posts as well as the comments. I love that you allow it to be freely syndicated around the web which, IMHO, can only add to the discussion around the posts themselves. Great job! When I first came to Fredland I thought I was just gaining insight into the VC industry, I never thought I’d gain so much insight into life in general and meet new friends to boot. Thanks for that Fred.

    1. Ditto.(Nicely said, Malcolm.)

12. Great idea Fred. Love that it’ll be accessible in multiple formats. I think what will be key is to use any textual/creative device needed to illustrate the lesson. It should be done in text where applicable, video where applicable, infographics, etc. You get the idea. Dimensionalize it and it’ll be awesome.

13. Thank You so much for sharing your knowledge.-From an engineer who is passionate about business but thinks that a start up is a better investment than business school.

14. There is a nice separate pullout section in the FT from yesterday talking about MBA programs from around the world and the value/importance of it.With things like IT Opencourseware http://goo.gl/BXpY, a whole bunch of spreadsheets one may need from Aswath Damodran’s MBA Finance course http://goo.gl/JanC at NYU freely available, a weekly MBAMondays post by Mr.Wilson one has to wonder the disruption of knowledge dissemination.For a very long long time knowledge was held sanctum and to be shared only with the chosen few.This slow increase in transparency and desire to share bodes well for a healthier society.Is it possible that Mr.Wilson may have been influenced by the movements of change in the Arab streets to expedite the process of wanting to share and get people to be a bit more aware.I wonder how the Wharton’s of the world look at such things.

    1. Wharton could give away all of its lectures for free online and it wouldn’t hurt their admissions. The value of an MBA from a prestigious school is in what it signals: that the alumnus had a high GMAT score and good grades (i.e., that he is intelligent and diligent), that he has exhibited leadership skills in outside activities, that he had the social savvy to navigate the interview process, etc.

       1. Many in the world are not lucky enough to be born in the right place and right time to have access to all that you mention. So giving the knowledge is always beneficial to make them a better person. It may also close the gap of what is considered to be intelligence.I can say that going to IIT Kanpur or to MIT does not in anyway make for intelligence. More of being able to get through some tests and using good memory skills to get past the hurdles.I strongly believe that kids born in Rawanda are no different from kids born in Fairfield county CT. What gets one kid into a Wharton and the other to be gathering wood for energy, is a function that is not of their making.It is having access to information/knowledge plays a big role in shaping how that person may function in society.I personally don’t attach value to where one went to school etc. I try my best to share the knowledge I may have and hope and expect others would do the same.Mr.Wilson sharing what he write son MBAMondays is the same ideal to spread the knowledge he has and share his experiences. Anyway if knowledge is shared and Wharton remains the same then that is good for everyone.

       2. Agreed.I’ve hired lots of MBA from great schools especially for BizDev jobs. Besides great skills though what impressed my was the built in networks that they graduated with. Big asset.

15. I think it’s a great ideea to run MBA mondays on their blog.

16. The AVC community is larger than it seems at first sight.

17. Very cool.

18. I said it before on a comment, this blog is as much “high education” as I have found in many of my graduate level classes.Fred, I would like to propose that if you want a curated site devoted strictly to MBA Mondays, that you acquire the URL for “MBA Monday University”: MBAMU.comIt even has a nice ring to it if you sound it out: M – BAM – U

19. Fred,Sounds like I owe you an email. I had a project idea surrounding your amazing MBA Mondays writing and bought both the domains MBAMondays.com and MBAMonday.comWhat’s the best way to talk offline?Jason

    1. An entrepreneur possibly.But I wonder if he tables were reversed what would be the outcome Fred would want being a VC. This could be a nice dialog in the art of negotiations another MBAMondays topic.

    2. Interested to hear how it goes Jason.

    3. I will respond to your email unless you prefer to conduct the negotiationsin public. If so we can do that here

       1. Public negotiation in the comments section of AVC.Now that would be an amazing precedent!Something poetic about the idea.

          1. what’s to negotiate? I’m sure Jason want’s to donate the domain to Fred’s MBAMonday cause, particularly as Fred gives his knowledge away for free 😉

             1. just following Fred’s train of thought…I’m sure you’re right. 😉

    4. Give unto Fred what is Fred’s 🙂

20. One)Thank you. I have truly learned a ton.2) This just goes to show you that despite some of craze around google sucking, good content will find its way into the hands of those that want it. (think about that list of over time potential ways to read MBA Monday)

21. I’ll get the most utility out of a quick table of contents with posts clustered by topic, and a fast search index. The iOS app sounds great, looking forward to the illustrated MBAMondays.com.

22. I’ve enjoyed the ‘case study’ articles in recent weeks.I wouldn’t mind seeing more case studies, paired with Fred making comments on some of the specifics.Not asking Fred to pick anyone apart but any insight or analysis into why a company succeeded, failed or did otherwise would be really interesting –

    1. great feedbackwe will do more of this

23. over the holidays i wrote a little php tool to suck down the mba mondays posts and generate a kindle book … its still a bit of a mess formatting-wise – but ill send a note along when its ready.

    1. oohcould we actually publish it in the kindle store?

       1. I was thinking exactly that – that maybe it could be posted as a “free book”. Hopefully that’s possible :)BTW – when I started out I was happy to find out you used creative commons for your posts. CC licenses are easy to understand and use. I really like how flickr incorporates those into their service. My aunt is an photographer and artist (plug for her stuff: http://www.flickr.com/photo… ) – and one of the reasons she doesn’t post her art to facebook is because of the the terms that would be applied to her works (whereas flicker allows her to select her terms).

24. I thought DailyLit did BOOKS? 😉

25. Hi Fred,Since you’ve said to go for it and licensed the work under creative commons, I’ve published a Leanpub book (PDF, EPUB and MOBI) out of the version that I sent you in December for review. (I’ll update it to have January’s posts sometime in the next week.)The book is available at http://leanpub.com/mbamondays. I priced it at $19 since that price has worked well for similar books on Leanpub.You are of course welcome to put the EPUB version in the Apple store and the MOBI version in the Kindle store. In theory you could even put the PDF version on Lulu to make a print version :)A couple questions:1. Regardless of the fact that it’s creative commons, since this is your book we’re going to send you the standard 75% Leanpub royalty or else donate it to the charity of your choice. Can you tell me either the charity to choose or your preferred PayPal email address? (My email is [email protected].)2. Is it OK to use your avatar (from Twitter) in the book cover and on the about you / about the book pages on Leanpub? (I had assumed no, but then I saw that DailyLit had done so, so I figured it was probably OK.)Finally, if you think the PDF version is good enough to link to, we’d love a link to http://leanpub.com/mbamondays from the MBA Mondays section of your blog :)ThanksPeter Armstrong

    1. yes on avatarcan you send the money to donorschoose.org?

26. Fred you should turn your MBA mondays into a course on Udemy. It’s a great medium and I am using it to learn a lot.

    1. yeah, i’ve heard great thingsi was hoping this post would lead others to do that

27. I’d like to include all of the discussions where possible. They are acritical part of the seriesI suspect there will be certain forms of MBA Mondays (like daily lit) thatdon’t include them. That is unfortunate but understandable