The Chicago Approach in Action: Part Two

Building the New Venture

"Professor Lindsey Lyman taught us that things are not done by magic, that you need to work and plan everything that you do because otherwise you’re not likely to succeed. He always taught us to do our research,try to figure out what's coming around the corner, and how we can prepare for the unexpected. He also taught us to trust our colleagues, and how to build a good team that you can work with. Professor Rollert would bring in interesting speakers to class so people who have been entrepreneurs themselves or have been involved in startup companies could share what they learned. One of the interesting things that he taught us was that there's plenty of room in the middle and the bottom. You don't need to start the next Grubhub, but you can start a business that you can love and you can create 100 jobs and make the world a little brighter for those 100 people."

Irena Kaplan, Evening MBA

Competitive Strategy

"My favorite class, hands down, was Competitive Strategy, taught by Professor Ram Shivakumar. I find myself using his framework for future classes...it’s kind of a bedrock that you build forward on. Being able to use it outside of the classroom and use it to multiply my learning has been very powerful."

Lillian Foy, Weekend MBA

Diversity in Organizations

"I learned many tools and resources I could implement in my life to be a better advocate for minorities and people of color, especially when Black Lives Matter protests were happening. I learned about implicit bias, and understand how bias can go into our decision making and critical thinking. I could apply this to business and my personal life, but feel it was especially impactful in my relationships, and in being an advocate in the community."

Kaley Neeson, Evening MBA

Investments

"I have been spending more time on Robinhood after this class. I had spent time on the site before in practice for classes, but now I have a much better understanding about stocks and shares than I ever did before."

Amber Agarwal, Weekend MBA

Managerial Decision Modeling

"I am not a data person; my whole career has been in communications with qualitative research but the whole reason I came to Booth was for the quantitative and data-related skills, so I’m taking the business analytics concentration. Professor Baris Ata’s class was my first introduction to modeling, but now I’m confident that I can model and I can understand when people talk about the data, what goes into the model, or the type of analysis they’re doing."

Nicole Silva, Evening MBA

Managing in Organizations

"Professor Ann McGill’s class was super impactful in terms of what you learn in the class and can apply on a day-to-day basis. We talked about things like motivation, goal setting, and how managers can best lead teams; all of those concepts are super hands-on, and really useful at work."

Rosemary Concepcion, Weekend MBA

Marketing Strategy

"Professor Sanjay Dhar’s class made the biggest impact on me because I was looking to transition into marketing. This class gave me a really solid foundation that allowed me to make the jump over into the marketing side."

Ritvik Bansal, Evening MBA

Social Enterprise Discover Lab

"I love all the lab classes; they are my all-time favorite experiences at Booth. I'd never thought of myself as an entrepreneur before Professor Robert Gertner’s class, but I was working on an idea about how can we solve the problem of giving taxpayers more transparency in where tax dollars go, and more transparency into government budgets...I spent the whole quarter working on this idea, did a feasibility study, and worked on my business model. I met with developers and coders and dug into the city of Chicago’s budget. That experience really helped me think of myself as an entrepreneur and gave me the confidence and skill set to start with an idea and have something to show people 10 weeks later. I do consider myself an entrepreneur now because of that experience."

Linda Pantale, Evening MBA