Happy Holidays

Post By:
Taylor Marge
MSMF Candidate, 2013

There is a cold chill in the air and Christmas music can be heard all around. This means one thing, finals of course. As the semester comes to an end the Math Finance students are all busy preparing for finals and wishing the second year students good luck as they venture out into the working world. Although our professors keep us busy with assignments school isn’t the only thing on our mind. As the semester comes to a close the time to look for internships is upon us. This can seem like a daunting challenge but luckily we do not have to take it on alone. The Feld Career Center has been helping us all semester with our resumes, cover letters and focusing our internship search criteria. Now they are offering information sessions on how to research potential employers and search for companies in which we are interested. Boston University has many resources to help us in our search from databases with company information such as size, location and type of employment to feedback from alumni who have worked in the industry before. The resources offered at the School of Management are invaluable to us, especially since many of my classmates do not have full time work experience any information related to the company or the industry. The Feld Career Center in conjunction with the Pardee Library (The School of Management’s library) does a great job teaching us how to utilize all of these resources.

In addition to our hard work this semester we have also taken some time to enjoy ourselves. Most recently the MSMF program sponsored a holiday party for all of its students and professors. It was a wonderful opportunity to chat with classmates and professors in a relaxed setting. We were also joined by Dean Ken Freeman who wished the second year students luck as they begin their careers after graduating from the MSMF program. The holiday party was a much appreciated celebration after a hard semester of work. A special thanks to the Graduate Programs Office for organizing our holiday party.

Happy Holidays!

Taylor Marge is a first year Math Finance student with a background in engineering. He excels at summarizing articles for co-workers and remembering inconsequential information.

A Hungry First Year MBA

Ryan (far right) enjoying a bite with classmates during pre-term

Post by:
Ryan Sosin
MBA Candidate, 2013

My name is Ryan Sosin and I am a hungry first-year MBA student.

Boston may not be the culinary center of the world, but food is definitely at the center of my BU MBA experience. Going to school a stones throw from Kenmore Square, a short walk to Fenway and easy T rides to downtown, Brookline and Allston provides plenty of options to eat.

You will hear during your MBA, no matter where you go, that networking is just as important as your classes. This is very true, but people often mistake social events as the study guide and not a good meal with good friends. Food gives you the brilliance to turn around your selected Integrated Project product the night before the mid-term deliverables are due; it sustains you during the two days you spend in close quarters with three other people for PharmaSim (a 3-day marketing simulation) and most importantly, it is the ultimate networking activity.

During pre-term, people travel in packs while the smaller social groups are still shaking out. One day, about 25 of us piled into the Kenmore Square Qdoba at the same time to chow down on burritos. While we talked about where we were from and what we think of Boston, Qdoba turned into a five-star restaurant/mess hall. We had pushed all the tables together and the staff was bringing us chips and dip. It was a classy affair!

There is also an event called “Thirsty Thursday” just about every week throughout the year. Most of them are at the unofficial BU Graduate School of Management (GSM) bar, Cornwall's. A short walk from class, Cornwall's is the site of many debriefings after exams, presentations or data cases. While many choose to use their free drink ticket to get a pint first, the smart kids are chowing down on the free nachos and cheese sticks before others get to them.

My classmates and I have dumped an untold fortune into the coffers of Breadwinners and Starbucks, a café and coffee shop located on the second floor of the School of Management building, during our first months at BU. There is something very comforting about getting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Peggy before frantically trying to wrap your head around free cash flows in the graduate student lounge.

By the time you reach Thanksgiving, the bonds with your classmates have grown fairly strong. Those who did not travel home for the American holiday held a potluck dinner with food from all over the world. They watched football, ate oysters and played cards with a giant deck that could double as plywood.

Ryan Sosin is a 1^st Year MBA with experience in collegiate athletics and a life-long dream of being an astronaut. You can find him ordering a PB&J sandwich at Breadwinners.
Follow @thefosh on Twitter.

Health Sector Case Competition

Post By:
Katy Perkins
MBA, class of 2013

Pictured from left to right: Mike Schildkraut, Director of Strategic Marketing; Rhonda Rickey, Director of Global Alliance Management; BU MBA students Katy Perkins; Ritika Mahal; Sara Meinke; and Jin Chon, Senior Director of Global CNS and Strategic Product Planning

As a team, we were very excited to represent BU at the BAHM Case Competition! We had a great experience, resulting in third place.

BAHM is the Business School Alliance for Health Management. There are ten participating schools:

· Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business

· Boston University School of Management

· Duke University Fuqua School of Business

· Harvard Business School

· Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management

· University of California – Berkeley

· University of Colorado – Denver

· University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business

· Vanderbilt University Owen School of Business

This was the second year the ten schools came together for a case competition. This year Duke’s Fuqua School of Business was the hosting school.

The corporate sponsor for the case was Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and the topic was Alzheimer’s disease and brain health. We were given ten days to design a launch strategy for a novel biomarker assay for the risk assessment of Alzheimer’s disease, paired with a preventative drug therapy, which is about to enter Phase III trials. We spent considerable time assessing the strategic and competitive landscape, pricing issues, current patient and disease management, reimbursement and the role of insurance organizations, and put together all our recommendations on how to successfully deliver this risk assessment and drug therapy to market. Our strategy involved building physician relationships, particularly with primary care physicians and neurologists, using direct-to-consumer marketing and providing patient and caregiver education. We also did extensive analysis to forecast results of the launch.

Our team had to present late in the day, but we felt very good about it. We gave a twenty minute presentation followed by fifteen minutes of questions. The judges asked insightful questions and seemed genuinely interested in our ideas. At the awards reception, we were recognized as the third place winners. Wharton got first place and Duke got second place. We were very excited and proud to return to BU, having placed in the 2011 BAHM Case Competition. We look forward to BU doing even better next year!

Katy Perkins is a 2nd year MS-MBA studying Information Systems and Health Sector Management. She is the President of the Health Services Management Association and is interested in a career in process improvement in healthcare delivery.