MBA Life

Posted by mbablog on Apr 16, 2012 in Blog Posts | 0 comments

Dear Prospective MBA Students,

So you’ve been admitted to an MBA program? First off, congratulations! But what are you really getting yourself into? MBA life in the Crosby MBA program might not be completely representative of what to expect of all programs but we hope these photos can paint a good picture of what it’s like to be an MBA student. Welcome, to your new MBA life!

Sincerely,

The Crosby MBA Program

MBA CFA Choice? How about Both?

Posted by mbablog on Apr 3, 2012 in Blog Posts | 0 comments

Should I pursue an MBA or attempt to become a Chartered Financial Analyst?

Many ponder this question, and it provides fodder for several finance message boards. The vocal minority who post on those message boards tend to hyperbolize the benefit of one or the other and create a dichotomy between the two. Fortunately, despite what those posters may lead you to believe, you can pursue both, and the Crosby MBA program is a great place to do so. The Crosby MBA Program at the University of Missouri’s Trulaske School of Business is one of only 58 schools in North America to have earned the ability to call itself a CFA Program Partner.

CFA Program Partners are “high profile universities of global stature that embed a significant percentage of the CFA Program Candidate Body of Knowledge™ (CBOK™), including the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, into their degree programs.” Dr. Stansfield, a CFA charterholder, helped the Crosby MBA program become a CFA Program Partner. For potential students contemplating whether to pursue the CFA designation or an MBA, a Crosby MBA will allow you to have your cake and eat it too!

While I was at the University of Missouri, I took Professor Stansfield’s Equity Analysis, Derivatives and Portfolio Management classes. I did not seriously consider entering the CFA program until I took his Equity Analysis class in my first semester at the University of Missouri. The class was very interesting and sometimes highly challenging. During the class, Dr. Stansfield talked about the value of the CFA designation and what it took to get through the CFA program to become a charterholder. Due in large part to Dr. Stansfield’s encouragement, I decided to enter the CFA program, and with the help of my challenging MBA coursework, I was able to pass level 1 of the CFA last June.

The educational experience was exactly what I hoped it would be, as the MBA curriculum challenged me to think critically about what drives value in business and my own personal career path. During my time as a Crosby MBA student, I learned from some great faculty members, including Dr. Stansfield, who was tremendous teacher of some difficult topics, and his occasional humorous remarks made his classes some of the best I have ever taken.

I feel very lucky to have been able to go through a great MBA program at the University of Missouri. I am also very grateful to Dr. Stansfield for creating enjoyable classes and encouraging me to enter the CFA program.

Nick Wingbermuehle is a recent graduate of the Crosby MBA Program and a CFA Level 2 candidate. He is currently a financial analyst in Kansas City, MO. He is one of many successful CFA Level 1 candidates who also earned an MBA. This year, a student team from the Crosby MBA Program won the St. Louis Regional CFA Institute Research Challenge.

Josh Bax: MBA Analytics Appeal

Posted by mbablog on Mar 21, 2012 in Blog Posts | 0 comments

If you are interested in learning more about ways you can learn more about marketing analytics news, the link has a great post outlining 5 of the top blogs for news on the industry.

Analytics MBA Appeal

What used to be a skill expected of only the most highly trained IT professionals of a company is quickly becoming basic and expected knowledge for new MBA hires in many career areas. SQL is this skill and allows for auditors, marketing professionals, and policy makers to leverage the vast amounts of data being stored in the relational databases of their companies.

This data is everything from credit card transactions to likes and dislikes on Facebook. It is zip code specific census data and the intimidating thing about it is that the amount of this data is said to be doubling every 18 months. To make sense of all of this, business has SQL as their tool of choice that acts as the interface between them and the raw data.

For instance, have you ever wondered how a company like Amazon knows the next book you are interested in? It is because they are able to forecast a customer’s future purchasing decisions using SQL queries written against the data of previous customers.

But be careful. It has been said that writing SQL is easy; writing good SQL is hard. Becoming familiar with the basics is the first step to extracting the information in the data (aka being able to see the forest through the trees).

Josh Bax is an analytics mba professor in the Crosby MBA program and a database administrator at Shelter Insurance. Bax uses Microsoft SQL Server  to teach Marketing Analytics & SQL.