Andrea Toochin

Business, work, and the path to and through the MBA.

You can scroll the shelf using ← and → keys

FT: Revenues struggle at women-owned businesses

30.01.12 | 5 notes | entrepreneurship female leadership MBA Babson Financial Times Women-owned businesses

Babson: Semester Two

25.01.12 | 15 notes | dataapplegoogleAmazoncloudcloud computingAlaska airlinesebscohbshbrharvard business schoolbabsonmba

I just started my second semester of graduate school at Babson. I waited until I was really ready to apply to an MBA program, until I wanted it only for me and not for my parents, for my employer, or for society. And now I have to say I love it. It feels like hope and education and fuel to me.

My econ professor apparently jokes that people go to HBS for the name and they come to Babson to learn. Still I derive joy from trolling the EBSCO database for pearls from HBR and I have to toot my own horn because HBR included a company I’d been thinking about while on holiday — Alaska Airlines (AA). I was fascinated by the fact that AA offers healthy food onboard and has its flight attendants collect all recyclables, which is more than I can say for Sir Richard Branson’s airline Virgin, despite the billionaire’s talk about fostering the search for renewable energy sources.

Alaska Airlines, though was mentioned in a different light in the Jan/Feb 2012 HBR piece entitled Creating Sustainable Performance, which notes that around 2000 AA was lagging so they decided to do something about. To oversimplify, they made the shocking decision to launch a plan that partially involved- wait for it - seeking input and suggestions from their employees and actually letting them act on those suggestions.

Today in class, though, one main message was that marketing is all about pleasing the customer and that marketing  = company strategy, apart from its various other definitions. But one point that came up that echoed one of last semester’s main messages was that one of the driving forces in big technology business these days is data. Amazon, Apple, and Google are all after consumer interests and we give up our consumer interests when we give them our virginity data.

Does Boston Have A Tech Startup Vibe?

31.12.11 | 3 notes | googlestartupfacebooksilicon valleybostonnycfoursquareBostonSan FranciscoBay Areanetwork effectbabsonincubator

I’ve spent the last two weeks of 2011 on the West Coast, first in Juneau, Alaska, and second in the Bay Area. In Palo Alto and the neighboring towns, I saw the Google campus and the Google street view cars, passed many buildings that house major tech companies, such as Salesforce.com, and spoke to locals involved in major tech deals. What they seemed to say is that the Silicon Valley is the tech hub 1) because it’s where the money is (VC mecca?) and 2) people here are optimists that truly think they can change the world.

The way I see it from a macro perspective with very little background is that the major tech startups that have the benefit of a platform/network effect, such as Facebook and Google, are based here, whereas the burgeoning NYC startup scene is home to mostly software or application companies (Foursquare) that sit on top of Facebook or other networks, hence the network effect.

This made me wonder: where are the software and Web startups in Boston? We have amazing startups based in the Boston area like Zipcar, Constant Contact, Clover, Rue La La, and Living Proof, to name a few, but are we lacking when it comes to startups, specifically tech-based startups that aren’t hardware-based?

Boston has brains abound and access to money in Boston and New York but a need for a bit more risk appetite and confidence. I find people have a chip on their shoulders when Boston is compared to NYC and San Fran but there’s no need to compare. Boston is about four seasons, academia, and incubator labs. It’s about succeeding because of your passion and brain not your connections alone. I think the key is keeping innovators in Boston instead of losing them to NYC and the Silicon Valley.  

One of my #Babson professors posted this #HBS video on the father of the ”Five Forces.” #michaelporter 

11.10.11 | 45 notes | HBS Harvard strategy Five forces Babson barriers to entry competitive

Connections are the new wealth; isolation is the new poverty.

Babson Professor Bala Iyer on “Social Capital.”

02.09.11 | 9 notes | Bala Iyer Babson Social capital social media new media technology Web entrepreneurship