BusinessWeek.com recently featured a story on France’s HEC School of Management’s efforts to make an impact in Africa. The initiative will help the Foundation of World Agriculture and Rural Life and the African Cotton Producers Association to “create locally run, industry-specific business programs for African cotton producers in 13 African countries including Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Cameroon.” Current students will have the opportunity to travel to villages and hold meetings with local cotton producers. HEC officials hope their efforts will inspire other business schools to become more directly involved with Africa because there is a lot of talent and need there (see BusinessWeek.com “Africa’s B-School Challenge“).

Schools in the United States are certainly becoming more engaged with Africa. Wharton hosted a Global Africa Business Forum this past fall. Like other schools, Stanford has an Africa Business Club and students can participate in a study trip to South Africa next winter. HBS alum, Monique Maddy, who was originally from Liberia, wrote about her experiences returning to Africa after business school to build a telecommunications company in the memoir Learning to Love Africa. Her company has been the subject of an HBS case study.

There are so many ways to become involved with international projects while at business school. Be sure to research how your schools of choice are making an impact around the globe.

Last week we discussed choosing recommenders. This week we are providing e a few tips on how to prepare your recomenders, specifically how to create a Recommender Package.

First, you should discuss your need for a recommendation with recommenders a few months in advance of the deadlines — this summer if you are applying first round or the beginning of fall if you are applying second round. Giving them a a few months is not only polite but also shows that you are organized and inspires them to take notice of your performance. The bare minimum you can give recommenders is one month.

Next you need to prepare recommenders with a Recommender Package that provides instruction on both process and content. As etc and etc points out you should not assume recommenders are familiar with the application timeline, online submission process, or how to discuss your work.
There are three main components to the Recommender Package:

1. Instructions — First, lay out the schools (with deadlines) that your recommender will be writing a rec for. A simple table can be helpful. Many schools, such as Stanford, suggest that recommenders submit the recommendation at least a day in advance of the actual deadline to ensure your application is complete. Next, address whether each school needs the recommender to answer school specific questions or whether a general letter is acceptable. Finally, briefly explain the online recommendation process as most school prefer online submissions (HBS actually requires online submissions).

2. Your strengths — Explain to the recommender that in order to make the process easier for him/her, you are providing a list of characteristics that you are highlighting about yourself in your application along with a few examples of each characteristic from the time you’ve worked together. Of course, state that the recommender can amend or adjust any of these ideas. Then you should provide a list of at least three strengths (eg, leadership, vision, teamwork) with one or two examples. A recent performance evaluation can be a good place for you start in thinking up strengths and examples.

3. Area of development — Most schools ask recommenders about your weaknesses or areas of development. Rather than shying away from this, make your self-awareness a strength. Give the recommender a growth area for you (again a recent performance evaluation can be a good place to start) as well as examples of how you are working on it. Also you can address how getting your MBA will help you further develop in this area. Then the recommender can speak to your maturity and awareness, showing schools you intend to hit the ground running and improve through their program.

4. Your goals — You can also briefly state your career goals and reasons why you are seeking your MBA. Hopefully your recommender is already aware of your goals, but it can be helpful to give a succinct description that the recommender can use as a reference.
A Recommender Package is a win-win for you and the recommender. It allows you to influence the content of the recommendation and and it makes the process much easier for the recommender. This spring is a great time to start creating Recommender Packages before the essay topics are posted summer and demand your attention.

Hello. This morning I was interviewed by Diana Jordan of MBAPodcaster.com about the kinds of books MBA aspirants should read in the run-up to application season. Definitely check out the podcast and read more about the topic in this recycled “oldie, but goodie” blog entry from last year.

Setting aside time to read over the next few months is one of the smartest things you can do to enhance your candidacy for top-flight MBA programs. Many candidates have not read a book for personal enjoyment or education for years, and they often don’t consider the busy summer and fall before MBA application season a good time to start up again. But when you examine the list of reasons for diving into some good books over the next several months, it really seems like a no-brainer. Reading can:

• Improve your vocabulary and mastery of grammar: reading is a change of pace from GMAT prep, but can still help you in this area
• Improve your writing: your b-school essays will represent one of the biggest and most important writing projects of your life. Getting ideas about interesting sentence structures and storytelling methods will be invaluable
• Give you more to write about: you may think of whole new essay ideas or refine ideas about certain sections of essays
• Give you more to talk about: business school interviewers want to learn about the “full you.” Many interviews go into current events, history, politics, etc., so if you can demonstrate that you’ve kept aware of the world outside of your cubicle, you’re a step ahead of the game.

Demonstrate your passions
By no means is it necessary to plow through a stack of the latest business books so that you can drop buzzword after buzzword in your essays and interviews. And you shouldn’t feel obligated to round out the “weak” areas of your business experience by hitting the local bookstore to get “Stocktrading for Dummies” or “Marketing for Dummies.” After all, we go to business school in order to learn about disciplines that are new to us.

The most important thing is to further develop your own interests and passions, not demonstrate that you are a member of the “Warren Buffett Book of the Month Club.” If you are interested in art, read about that. If you are intrigued by the history of baseball, immerse yourself in it. If medical science advances fascinate you, find some gems in this arena. Of course, it never hurts to develop some form of “business perspective” on the subjects you feel passionately about. For instance, if you love reading about medicine, mix in some books about, say, the economics of the healthcare system in the United States or the behavior of the global pharma industry.

If you wish to transition to a new sort of career after business school, demonstrating this kind of commitment can be particularly important. If you have been an IT consultant for the last five years, but want to become an entrepreneur and launch a new restaurant concept, you should show a commitment to the area that goes beyond spending your $50 consulting per diem in the finest restaurants your client’s city has to offer. Reading about consumer trends, restaurant/retail entrepreneurs or the organic food movement helps show that you follow your interests, you don’t just talk about them.

Some ideas about what to read
To reiterate: read anything, just read! That’s the key element—thinking about words, structures, ideas and storytelling. Even John Grisham’s latest paperback helps with that.

But, if you wish to assemble a reading list with a little more of an application and interview preparation agenda, here are some ideas. First of all, I recommend that all my clients read selections from Songbook, by Nick Hornby (the fellow who wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy). This is an entertaining book featuring essays about the author’s favorite songs and the impact they have had on his life. Hornby uses music as a “door” to enter into discussions about some very serious issues, like his son’s autism. Since his essays are of a similar length to some you’ll be writing for your applications, you can really get some strong ideas about structure and storytelling.

Here are some other books that are not only entertaining an interesting, they might just influence your ideas on business without pounding you with a hail of buzzwords (Please click here to check out the reading list on Amazon):

Powerful ideas from science and history
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn
You’ve heard the term “paradigm shift” a thousand times. Read the incredibly persuasive book that essentially coined the term.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond
Learn why some societies thrived while others vanished.

Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, by Robert Wright
Illustrates how certain ideas, philosophies and cultural institutions come to the fore; argues that one of the main motive forces of human history is a drive toward more cooperation.

Viewpoints on the economy and society
The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman
A must read in an era of increasing globalization; illustrates the technological and societal forces that make the world a smaller place everyday.

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
Isolates the reasons why certain trends becomes phenomena.

Freakanomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Strange viewpoints and sometimes counterintuitive analyses of critical economic and societal issues

Costing the Earth, by Frances Cairncross,
A little outdated, but this is the most compelling economic analysis I have ever read about the true impact of economic activity on the environment, and the impact of environmental health on the economy; by a former Economist editor

Business books that make you think
The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen
Illustrates the organizational impediments to innovation faced by industry leading companies.

Trading Up: The New American Luxury, by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske
Isolates the trend of affordable luxuries, a force behind many of the top consumer brands of the last two decades

The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures, by Frans Johansson
Illustrates how the most compelling innovations come at the intersection of diverse disciplines

Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things, by Donald Norman
Design is a huge part of major recent success stories such as I-pod and Target stores; read a great book about what makes great design

Business History
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., by Ron Chernow
Compelling business biography.

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, Daniel Yergin
Yeah…more oil, but it’s important stuff and this was a Pulitzer Prize wining book on the rise of the commodity to its current place of prominence in the world economy.

Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers’ Trust from Wedgwood to Dell, by Nancy Koehn
Sweeping intro to the discipline of business history, cutting across a wide variety of industries.

BusinessWeek.com has posted a question and answer with Peter Johnson, Director of Haas Admissions. Haas is currently ranked 8th on US News and World Report’s 2008 Business School rankings for full-time MBA programs. See the full list of rankings here.
Johnson touches on many points of interest for all MBA applicants whether they are considering Haas or not. Below are some of the topics discussed:

Age of applicants
Johnson debunks the myth that “older” students (in their 30′s) are at a disadvantage. They are competitive applicants and valued members of the class. Moreover Johnson notes that students in their 30′s have no problem finding positions in traditional areas such as management consulting after graduation.

Work experience
Applicants often wonder how many years of work experience they should have before applying. Johnson states that, “the most important issue for [them] is the quality of the work experience rather than the length of time.”

Quant preparation
MBA programs can be especially challenging for individuals with limited quantitative experience. Johnson recommends taking a course in statistics or college algebra if you did not cover these topics in college, or a refresher course if you did poorly. Also an accounting or introductory finance course could be helpful. Similar to many schools such as HBS and Stanford, Haas has a two-week “Math Camp” before the start of school to prepare students who are unfamiliar with these topics.

Holistic application review
Johnson says that the Haas application review is “holistic” meaning they consider everything – academic preparation, work experience, and leadership potential as well as team skills, interpersonal skills, and initiative.

Recommenders
Johnson’s advice on choosing recommenders was in keeping with the advice on our blog. He says the “title of the recommender is less important than the information he or she can provide” and suggests asking a direct manager who is most familiar with your skills and accomplishments.

Campus visits
As we discussed in our blog on choosing schools, Johnson highly recommends visiting campus. During a Haas campus visit you can sit in on a class, attend an information seesion, and have lunch with students.

Financial Aid
Many applicants are concerned with how to pay for business school. Haas has a significant financial aid program. Through the Maxwell Fellowship Program, they offer up to three full tuition scholarships each year. Additionally, The $1.5 million is awarded in Haas Merit Scholarships or Haas Achievement Awards, and those are either full tuition or half tuition for both years of study.

Joint degree programs
Haas offers an MBA/MA program in International and Area studies which allows students to earn both degrees in less time than required to complete them individually.

Johnson provides helpful, concrete advice for applicants to any MBA program so check out article regardless of whether or not Haas is on your list.

Your recommendations are one of the most important pieces of your business school application. Along with your essays, your recommendations give schools a chance to see the person you are beyond your numbers and resume. However, you have a lot less control over your recommendations as they are written by someone else.  In fact, there are only two ways to make the most of your recommendations — choose your recommenders wisely and prepare them well. In today’s blog, we’ll give some tips on choosing recommenders. In next Monday’s blog we’ll discuss how to prepare your recommenders.

Professional recommendations are best
In most situations, current and recent supervisors are the best choices because they can speak to your current skills, values, and work ethic as well as future potential. In fact, HBS states that they want at least two professional references. (Note that HBS and Stanford ask for three recommendations while most schools ask for two.) Also you should choose professional references instead of professors. As the Wharton blog notes, schools can see your educational background from transcripts and test scores; for that reason a recommendation from a professor won’t add much to your profile. Whereas supervisors who have worked with you recently can elaborate on the aspects of your character that aren’t seen in resumes, transcripts, and scores.

People who know you well are best
Choose recommenders who know you well and can provide specific examples that speak to your personality, character, and values. Many applicants are tempted to ask their CEO or a famous school alum to write a recommendation. But as etc and etc points out you shouldn’t just go for the big name. The Wharton blog confirms that “more important than pedigree or title is how well a recommender knows you.” If the CEO of your company is your direct supervisor and knows you well, then he/she is the right choice. However do not skip several levels of hierarchy just to have the CEO write your recommendation. In fact, like HBS, most schools specifically request your current supervisor as a reference, recognizing that this person is the most familiar with you and your work style. If for some reason you cannot have your current supervisor write your recommendation, you can submit a quick note to schools explaining why — eg, you just switched roles and have a new supervisor, you are not comfortable informing your place of work that you are applying to school.

Build your relationships
Though the deadlines are a still many months away, it is important to start thinking now about who your recommenders will be in order to build your relationships with them. Your recommenders should be invested in your future and enthusiastic about helping you reach your goal of getting into business school. Though you don’t need to tell your recommenders right now that you want them to write a reference, you can take time this spring to make them mentors. Find opportunities to discuss their career path and ask their advice in order to involve them in furthering your career. Then it will seem natural for them to write your recommendations this fall.

Impress recommenders
Ideally you have already impressed your recommenders over the past few years with your performance. However, you want to be especially aware this spring and summer to demonstrate your leadership, initiative, maturity, and self-awareness. Your recommenders should see that you are ready to take the next step in your career by going to business school.