Inside HBS » snow

Snow Day and Illegal Luncheons

rob — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 01:47:53 +0000

A day after proclaiming the end of winter and the melting of the last piles of snow, the weather strikes back:

Snowing Again!

From Spangler Window

Aside from just complaining, I’ll add a quick story: a club I help lead hosted a fantastic luncheon today with a company executive. I’m completely sold on the idea — presentations are often tediously boring, and there are typically fewer than 10 people in each that are truly engaged and interested, anyway. The opportunity cost (and risk) are also high — do you really want to take an hour away in the afternoon for a potentially useless presentation? This is why you’ll see about half of the audience walk out in the middle of these things!

A luncheon solves each of these problems. You only have the most interested participants, you give them an environment where they can interact one-on-one, you offer a higher quality interaction to the presenters, and you take care of it all during a time when everyone’s already on campus!

Here’s the catch: career services bans all club events before 3pm. Why? I guess it’s to prevent conflicts with classes. Small group lunches walk a fine line here. Are they “official” club events? Well, if they’re invite only… maybe not. It’s a tricky issue, but I think we’ll keep hosting them as long as the benefits seem to accrue to all parties. It’s probably something we should discuss with them at some point, but I’m a bit concerned the answer might be a “our policy is no” rather than consideration of the actual impacts. HBS has a lot of rigid policies…

A Weekend Break from Recruiting…

rob — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:46:01 +0000

Took some time off after a stressful week to hike in the heavy snow and do some shopping. It’s lovely to get away! A few quick photos:

Burlington Mall

The Paul Revere Trail

The Paul Revere Trail #2

Snowing (again) in Boston!

rob — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:59:01 +0000

Another snowy weekend in Boston! It’s been a perfect weekend to sit inside and stare at the snow falling outside my window. It’s probably a bit more fun to do that when you’re in a house with big picture windows next to a roaring fire, but while my dorm room isn’t the perfect venue, it still provides a nice backdrop for case studies and recruiting prep. While the snow is significantly deeper outside right now, here are a few photos from the first major snowfall before Christmas. It captures some of the beauty of our little isolated campus in Cambridge:

Snowy Kresge Hall

Snowy McCulloch Hall

Snowy Dean's House

Snowy Campus

Winter Classes Start Today!

rob — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:18:03 +0000

It’s a beautiful cold day in Cambridge (errr… Allston) today. Everyone seems a bit tentative in class… even my comments wavered a bit. It’s funny how just a short few weeks away, a new professor, and a new seat assignment brings everyone from a point of feeling completely at ease to slightly nervous and awkward.

Fantastic professors this semester — two former CEOs of Fortune 100 organizations and a bunch of other HBS old-timers. It’s interesting to think about how much the professor mix affects your educational experience here… I can’t imagine what it would be like to be stuck with green professors for two semester in a row! Even if the RC-year classes aren’t the most interesting ones to teach from a research perspective, it still seems like it would be a fun experience for even the most tenured faculty.

A few pictures of the sun and snow today:

New Year at HBS 1

New Year at HBS 2

New Year at HBS 3

New Year at HBS 4

Skiing at Cannon Mountain

rob — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:16:47 +0000

Flew back to Boston a couple days ago with just enough time to head to the slopes before a week long special HBS program. We decided to go up to Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. A two-hour drive, and right off the highway in Franconia Notch. A gorgeous drive up — beautiful sunny weather. Unfortunately, just a bit too beautiful. From what I understand, most of Christmas has been a cycle of freeze-thaw for the Northeast… magically transforming fluffy snow into giant sheets of ice. There’s nothing like flying down a mountain at 100 mph and skidding across an ice patch!

Sun Setting at Cannon

In spite of that, it was a beautiful time. Outside of a smaller beginner’s area, the slopes at Cannon definitely seem a bit geared towards the advanced skier. The view from the top of the mountain is particularly gorgeous:

View from the Top

We picked Cannon because it was one of the few ski resorts that had reasonably priced tickets. A half-day college student was only $36, a relative steal compared to the $70-$90 seen on many other area mountains. Skiing gets expensive! I don’t know if I ever appreciate how much it cost my parents when I was a kid… One last photo:

The Lower Slopes