Hello HBXers! After months of planning and preparation, HBXConneXt is finally here. We are excited to meet many of you in person for the first time this weekend!

We weren't sure what to expect when we sent out the invitations for this event, but we were absolutely blown away by your response: More than 600 people from over 30 countries RSVP'd, jumping at the chance to travel to the Harvard Business School campus for a day of continued learning, networking, and exploration into the future of online education. 

We started talking about HBXConneXt about five months ago. We wanted to help you, as a community, strengthen the bonds that begin on the platform and give you a sneak peak into Harvard Business School. 

Beyond that, we wanted to share with you what we have learned in developing and delivering CORe and Disruptive Strategy with Clay Christensen. As many of you have noted in feedback to us and each other, HBX is "not just another online course."

We believe that the three C's (community, career, and connections) set HBX apart from many other online courses and make it a truly special learning experience. We look forward to hearing how you have been impacted in those areas and discovering ways that we can improve on your experiences.

In the weeks dedicated to preparing for the event, I have been reminded of something German writer Johann Wofgang von Goethe once wrote:

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” 

We hope that HBX has succeeded in making the earth a bit more of an inhabited garden for you through the connections it helped foster and look forward to hearing your stories on Saturday. Please come ready to be inspired and make connections with the incredible community of HBXers that will be traveling from around the world to our hometown of Boston. 

For those who cannot make it to the event, know that you have as much to do with creating that inhabited garden as those who will physically be here!

Whether you're able to join us in Boston or are following along from afar, please visit our social media channels for updates and highlights throughout the weekend and join in the conversation using #HBXConneXt.

---

Taking HBX CORe while working is akin taking up a second job, moonlighting in the glow of your computer screen on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, frantically trying to absorb as much information and contribute enough discussion to stay ahead for the weekly quizzes. Throw in the unforgiving business school application cycle, and you have quite the challenge! The CORe pre-Round 1 crunch of applying to business school, which forces you to truly evaluate your life’s journey and future intentions, transforms itself into yet another full-time job for your already overworked brain to handle.

During the June 2015 cohort of HBX CORe, I jumped into all three – helping a freshly FDA-approved product ramp up for launch at work, preparing applications for five Top-15 business schools, and completing the 2.5-month commitment to enhance my knowledge through HBX CORe. I apparently wanted more stress, and had inadvertently pre-planned a solo trip to Europe right before my HBX final. Through trial by fire I gained a great deal through the process. Here is what I learned about how to best approach applying to business school at the same time as taking HBX CORe.

1. Strategize and know what you’re getting into, early

Applying to business school properly is a grueling, multi-step, multi-month process, and that’s after you get past soul-searching, career-building, and the wonderful GMAT. Starting early made all the difference for me; for Round 1 deadlines in September/October, I began hashing out my application strategy in April. This gave me enough time to thoroughly think about my career and life, read up on application strategies, listen to admissions podcasts, truly consider where and if the MBA would strengthen my path, and figure out my career goals. Having a concrete end-game that I was both excited about and could speak to made the application process far easier. Being prepared early also allowed me to feel comfortable taking on HBX in the middle of the process.

I felt up to it because I was prepping well for applications and learning to prioritize my time. Based on the 10-week course, I knew I’d have to tackle at least two quizzes per week, with variable lengths of time for each module. Since we were only the third public cohort, there wasn’t much previous experience to tap into; one advantage now, however, is more statistics, knowledge and advice floating around from HBX CORe alumni on how to do well in the course. Regardless, juggling multiple commitments like these will never be a cakewalk, so be prepared.

2. Be organized

Once I had my business school goals set, I had to tackle the essays - and everything you've heard about each school’s prompts being drastically different is true. In parallel with all this, I had developed an overly complex spreadsheet to track my goals, brainstorms, school research, essay outlines, and most importantly to manage my time. Because I had HBX CORe mixed in right in the middle of this process, I had to be very efficient with my hours spent after work and during my weekends to make sure I kept everything in line without tearing my hair out. My spreadsheet kept an ideal schedule of when I’d complete the multiple essays per school, fill out each application, and when I’d hit the “Submit” button for each, and even accounted for my vacation. Just having this written down helped ease my mind and keep me on track, even though I didn’t follow it as well as I’d expected.

3. Put yourself out there and interact

I spent time attending MBA networking events and visiting schools in both California and New York, an essential effort to take for the application process. The strongest encouragement and most helpful feedback I received during this process was often from current students. You’ll find that the MBA community is eager to help potential applicants as much as they can, because the whole sphere you’re getting into is a true pay-it-forward type of community. Learn to put yourself out there, meet people, and harness this energy and spirit as much as possible. I was able to get great essay feedback, resume input, interview prep, and decision advice all from current students, who became my best resources.

Not surprisingly, I found the same to be true about my fellow HBX CORe cohort; all of the people I met online or in person were willing to help even the most remote strangers pull through this experience and come out the other side together. The local San Francisco HBX group I set up met once every few weeks to grab drinks and blow off steam, and some of us ended up exchanging questions and answers paired with late-night camaraderie for the rest of the course. It made the experience that much more fulfilling and constructive, especially during the final exam.

4. Be flexible, and be prepared to sacrifice

You will end up sacrificing a lot during this process. For each person it could be different aspects: time, money, sleepy, or sanity. Both applying to business school and HBX CORe will test the limits of how much you can stretch yourself. The last month or two before submission was a chaotic blur. It was a humbling process, as I had to juggle my HBX CORe final, essay drafts, my trip, and an increasingly busy work schedule. I cut my Round 1 school list to five in order to save some sanity, and more importantly to make a better quality application to the schools I truly wanted to target. I took days off work to do school visits and study up for the HBX CORe final, because weekends simply weren’t enough. I also said goodbye to my weekends for two full months.

5. Manage your time

With HBX CORe, even my best time predictions of module length and difficulty would go awry and I’d spend hours marching towards dusk working to advance my module completion percentage bit by bit. Approaching 10-20 hours of lectures and quizzes prior to the Thursday deadlines forced me to budget ample time to avoid a Wednesday night panic. If it was Monday night and I wasn’t at least 75% done with my modules, I learned quickly that I needed to shift into overdrive and later readjust my habits. I set a rule for myself that I would finish everything by Tuesday night, to account for any unforeseen issues - work travel, getting sick, Wednesday happy hours, etc.

For my essays, I set an (admittedly ambitious) schedule of finishing two essay drafts per week, based on three drafts to completion and two to three essays per school. I quickly fell behind on this and learned to re-adjust and prioritize. My scheduling lessons from HBX kicked in and I became efficient with my time, especially after I finished my HBX final. As a result, after September I had completed a decent set of written, peer reviewed, peer destroyed, and rewritten essays for all five schools in time to submit for and conquer Round 1.

6. Maximize the HBX experience and its benefits

I give HBX a great deal of credit for whipping my business school application process into shape. Aside from time management, the constant reflections and discussions within the HBX modules generated a stronger ability to gather my insights and put them into words, which proved especially useful for brainstorming my essay topics and plans of attack. The collaborative nature of the HBX platform fostered a unique community that allowed me to flex my networking chops. Through this, I gained a good snapshot of the diverse field of HBX students and their industries as well, a unique factor to a global course.

HBX also strengthened my application directly. Going through a well-developed course by HBS will catch any adcom’s attention; it shows initiative and interest in the business field, as well as attests to quantitative strength and conceptual understanding of what one would be presented with in the opening months of the MBA program. It gives a stronger basis of knowledge for those of us not from a business or accounting background; being an engineer, I had zero experience with accounting and only a basic economics foundation. HBX presented information in these areas in such an effective way that I came out with a confident understanding of not just the concepts, but the applications of accounting and economic principles.

7. Push towards success!

As is evident, the HBX experience began to pay off even in the middle of the program, working my hard and soft skills to develop myself into a more well-rounded person. It continued paying dividends after completion; it gave me much more confidence going into applications and interviews, and all the interviewers who questioned me about HBX were genuinely intrigued and impressed by both the program and that I had taken the initiative to complete it as a personal and professional experience. I was proud to have completed the rigors of HBX CORe, and I made sure it was known. In the end, I was admitted to my top two choices of programs with scholarships, and am extremely excited to join the UCLA Anderson School of Management, Class of 2018 in the fall!

---

Digging through a basement bargain bin of books, who could resist the urge to purchase Ellen Shell’s book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, at 50% off of the cover price? A paradox to the book’s title, of course, the decision to purchase the book was an inevitable tango with a good bargain.

In a society dominated by cheap prices, we are increasingly becoming travelers in a world of foreign and unfamiliar prices. The “Age of Cheap” makes it harder to infer if the price we pay is actually the deal we believe it to be. It’s stressful to constantly renegotiate new norms for what constitutes a fair price while our relationship to pricing is positioned on a slippery slope of value and perception.

The Bottom Line on A Good Bargain

Does paying less make us wealthier? The satisfaction of finding a deal can create great personal joy, but in the long run, cheap prices can point to breaks and flaws in the value chain. The bargain price that we see affixed to clothes, food, or other items could be the result of workers earning below a living wage or materials gathered through unsustainable practices.

Cheap comes at a cost. If the consumer doesn’t pay this cost, who covers it? Workers, suppliers, and the environment are a few easy targets that help carry the burden.

Who is Ultimately Shouldering the Cost

The cost of cheap doesn’t always get paid by something or someone else either. You, as a consumer, might ultimately pay for a cheap price. Maybe you’ve purchased an inexpensive piece of furniture, then spent an entire weekend assembling it. In this case, the cost of cheap has been passed along to you by doing the assembly work. You become an extension of the factory, albeit likely lacking some critical skills and tools.

Consumers work for free, if the price is right, but are inadvertently paying for a cheap price. The initial price might make us more satisfied, but the extra labor doesn’t create wealth.

Let's Reevaluate

It’s hard to put down the 75% off coupon and walk past the deal of a lifetime, but how can we re-evaluate our relationship to price? Knowing that all of our purchases have consequences for ourselves, the environment, and the companies that make our goods, to name a few, we can begin to set our own mandate for how we consume.

We can choose to ignore a bargain and shop with our own standards in mind. The standards we choose are up to us: craftsmanship, quality, sustainability, transparency, etc.

Putting aside the flashy discount sticker, what’s your story with price? What standards guide your decisions to consume?

---

Interested to know more about willingness to pay and other fundamental business concepts?

 

---

This post is from The Harbus, the news organization of Harvard Business School. Click here to see the original article.

Jody Greenstone Miller is a thought leader on the future of work and the Co-Founder and CEO of Business Talent Group (BTG), the leading global marketplace for top independent consultants and executives interested in project-based work.

BTG was recently named to Inc. Magazine’s prestigious list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in America and to the Forbes list of America’s 100 “Most Promising Companies.” Fortune Magazine named Jody one of its ten “Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs” in September 2015. She was also named by EY as one of twelve “Entrepreneurial Winning Women” in North America.

In this interview, Jody discusses her thoughts on alternative paths to reach leadership roles in organizations and how traditional work models are propagating the gender gap in leadership.

Tami Kakaraparthi (HBS ’17): I want focus on a few primary areas today. First, the future of work and how you imagine that; second, the women’s leadership gap; and third, any ties you see between the two. Before we dive right into those topics, I wanted to get an understanding of why these areas became your focus. What brought you there?

Jody Miller: Early on in my career, I ran a company and loved it. Then I had my daughter, and I didn't know how to run a company the way I was required to do it and have the kind of relationship I wanted with my daughter. That's what drove me to look at this and think, is it possible to do it differently? It was really the drive to create an option that I just didn't feel existed in the world.

When I look at why we have such limited progress, I think it has to do with the fact that most women are not willing to make the kind of sacrifices that are needed today if you want to rise to the top of your organization.

The company I created, Business Talent Group (BTG), tries to create alternate career options for people that are different than what is currently available in the world. Our mission is to create a global platform for high independent talent to do project-based work.

TK: Could you tell speak more about what these alternate options look like?

JM: When you think about work, you have to separate flexibility from availability from absolute workload. Those are three totally different concepts, and all of them, in my opinion, have to be available.

For example, inside BTG we allow anybody, but most significantly our leadership, to work less than forty hours a week if that’s what they want and not penalize them. We are structuring the job so it can be done within the shorter hours, which means thinking about and dividing up the role differently. Or one might take an intensive project, work sixty or eighty hours a week and then take four months off once the project is finished. The problem is that currently, we don’t have models that allow people with different work requirements to rise inside of organizations.

TK: Given the labor supply in the current market, what would be the incentive of the company to completely restructure job roles and shift their mindset?

JM: There are several reasons companies should try this. Firstly, the way we manage today is lazy. This new model requires a much greater skill of a manager because everything has to be thought out in advance.

The archetype of a company in the twentieth century was a pyramid structure where everybody stays for many years and goes up. In the twenty-first century it’s going to look like a puzzle. People are going to be coming and going, there are going to be different shapes, and management will be about aggregating talent from a lot of different sources.

Once you go through this, it is much better for the company because there is more precision in assigning the right people to the right projects and hence more discipline about work and productivity metrics.

Number two, I think the talent shortages that are coming are real. Companies are going to have to change the way they think about work in order to attract enough of the people that they need at the higher levels. I think three populations that really are in the bulls-eye: women who are getting more education than men, millennials who expect more fulfillment from their careers, and baby boomers who will only come back in on different terms.

TK: You have once said, “Women don’t like to lean in because they don’t like what they’re being asked to lean into.” How do you think the traditional work structure is holding women back?

JM: I don’t think women who are professionally successful have a problem with leaning in. We all know how to lean in. The reason you don’t have more women in the top is that there’s only one model of success, which requires an enormous sacrifice to everything else in your life.

There are many men who decide not to do this either, so it’s not just women. The men who decide not to do this don’t talk about it because there are enough men who decide to do it that they’re the ones taking all the slots.

In my view, there is nothing wrong with talking about bias, but that alone is not enough. To really solve the problem, there have to be different paths to the top. It is a fundamental disconnect between the ability to imagine someone at the very pinnacle of an organization, but reaching that pinnacle through a different path.

TK: Do you think asking women to correct for biases could have negative consequences?

JM: I think if women are constantly being put under a microscope and being told, “people don’t like your voice, people don’t like you,” it could have negative consequences. Constantly telling women about all the things holding them back, that they can’t control, doesn’t feel positive to me. What is your choice?

The attention on this problem is good. But the fact that the conversation has been almost entirely focused on either women needing to be more aggressive or the unconscious biases that exist in society have limited the progress we have made. Even if both of these issues are solved, I still don’t think you would close the gap enough.

We would be better off spending time on truly making the institutional changes at work. It’s like politics. Political coverage is almost entirely about the horse race and very little about what’s really going on to solve our problems because it’s a lot easier and sexier to talk about the horse race.

If we don’t tackle the third leg of the problem, which is truly making alternative paths to the top, we will not see fundamental changes occur.

The saving grace is that demographic changes force companies to make these shifts. Demographic changes give leverage to the people who want to do it differently. While we are not there yet, it will happen, just that it will take longer to happen that it should.

TK: Would you have any suggestions on what we, as business school graduates, should focus on in our careers over the next five or ten years, to make sure that we position ourselves well?

JM: First, coming from a business school gives you a huge advantage because Harvard is among the best markers of credibility. Beyond that, I think it’s important to get experience for the first few years in a really high-quality professional environment. It will train you to be a professional and help you forever.

After that, keeping your eye on the new trends and getting exposure is probably the best single thing you can do. It’s important not to get complacent in the fact that you’ve got a secure job. Make sure you’re in the flow of the next generation of innovation; otherwise you’re going to become a highly paid expert on something that doesn’t matter anymore.

---

Jody’s thoughts are a refreshing take on problems that are especially relevant as we make important career choices. The first step to changing the fundamental structure of current work models is to challenge them, and we at HBS are very well poised to start instituting these changes and helping shape the way professional roles and the workplace overall will look in the future.

Nearly 20 years ago, Professor Clayton Christensen was the first to use the term “disruption” in a business sense. From the beginning, Professor Christensen gave disruption a specific definition to describe specific phenomena. Over time, the meaning of disruption has diminished as many use it to refer to something that is “…cooler or faster or based around a more advanced technology.” Working directly with Professor Christensen over the last two years has helped me to see that correctly understanding disruption can yield profound insights to questions like:

• Competition: How do we respond to competitors? How do we position ourselves in the marketplace?
• Growth Strategy: Where should we look for new growth opportunities? How can we predict if our new ventures will be successful?
• Understanding Customers: What do our customers really care about? How can we uncover their true needs?

So what is disruption? Professor Christensen says that a disruptive innovation is one that “transforms a complicated, expensive product into one that is easier to use or is more affordable than the one most readily available.”

Recently, I sat down with Mark Johnson, co-Founder and Senior Partner at Innosight, to discuss the use of the term “disruption.” Johnson identified four common myths that, when dispelled, can bring greater understanding to what disruption truly is.

Myth #1: The purpose of disruption is to topple giants. 

Big disruptions tend to get a lot of media, like Netflix disrupting Blockbuster. However, Johnson says that it’s important to remember that these disruptions weren’t designed to destroy incumbents. “Rather,” he says, “the innovators succeeded because of their relentless focus on satisfying under-appreciated consumer needs, or what we call ‘jobs-to-be-done.’”

Myth #2: Disruptions always develop something entirely new.

Instead of introducing brand new technologies, many disruptions simply assemble existing elements and deploy them in a disruptive manner. Platform-based businesses like Uber are an example. Uber didn’t invent taxis, the internet, or apps. But the company assembled these components to offer a service that initially wasn’t as convenient as taxis. But over time Uber improved little by little, pulling customers into their market share.

Myth #3: Disruption is all about technology.

Disruption is not necessarily centered around technology. Many disruptions are business model disruptions. Here, Johnson gives the example of Warby Parker, an online retailer of prescription glasses. Many eyeglass-wearing people are overserved by in-person ophthalmology clinics. Warby Parker serves these overserved customers by utilizing a new, virtual business model. Warby Parker didn’t invent any new technology, but they introduced a new business model to a historically stagnant industry.

Myth #4: Customers care about inventions and innovations.

Johnson says, “What customers care about is whether a product or service enables them to do something that they could not do, or do well enough, before.” Companies shouldn’t be innovative for the sake of being innovative. To be successful, innovations must have purpose. Disruptions find traction only when there is a population of consumers who find the disruption useful in getting a job done.

---

Want to learn more about disruption and other theories from Professor Christensen? Disruptive Strategy will equip you with the tools, frameworks, and intuition to make a difference.

---

This post originally appeared in Harvard Business School's MBA Voices Admissions blog. Click here to see the original article.

Last year, HBS replaced its previous week-long residential pre-MBA program, Analytics, with HBX’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, an online primer on the fundamentals of business that is open to learners around the world. 

While some incoming students are required to take CORe as a condition of their admissions decision, it is open to all incoming MBA students. After taking CORe, students arrive on campus with the skills and confidence needed to dive into their MBA coursework.

We recently caught up with the former Executive Director of HBX, and current Executive Director of Harvard Business School’s MBA Program, Jana Kierstead.

Can you tell us about HBX CORe?

HBS was interested in entering the online space, but we only wanted to do so if we could offer a high-quality product that matched the style and mission of the school. We wanted to be sure that we stayed true to the case method of learning while also taking advantage of the unique features of an interactive online platform.

CORe was designed entirely to be a highly-immersive, engaging learning experience with a substantial interactive component. In other words, we don’t want you to go more than just a couple of minutes on the platform without having to do something. You aren’t logging in and just watching a video lecture, (our videos are great, though!) you are interacting with the platform in some way – using a spreadsheet emulator, exploring a balance sheet, etc.

Here at HBS, we know that you not only learn from your professors but from your peers as well. One of CORe’s unique features is the diverse, global group of learners that meet on the platform. Throughout the course, there is a peer help section where students can ask and answer questions of their fellow cohort members. You will be frequently asked to answer cold calls, comment on the contributions of others, or even engage in a group discussion.

Who can benefit from taking CORe?

Is it cliché to say everyone? The topics covered are so widely applicable and we truly believe that almost everyone can benefit from this type of education.

One of the best things about the CORe learning experience is the wildly diverse group of learners with whom you get to interact in your cohort. While college students and early career professionals from a variety of backgrounds make up a large percentage of our cohorts, we also have students in later stages of their careers that contribute a wealth of knowledge and experience. There is also a great mix of those with a background in liberal arts, STEM fields, and business.

How is CORe similar to the MBA program?

CORe was designed by some of the same HBS faculty members that teach in the MBA program and uses our signature case-based methodology. It also requires a high level of participation and peer interaction. It’s an incredibly powerful way of presenting content that allows students to solve real-world business problems through the eyes of an executive.

Aside from not being a degree program, one major way CORe is different from our MBA program is in terms of scale: CORe is not subject to the physical constraints of a residential program. As long as applicants have the aptitude and motivation, we have the ability to make top-notch business education available to them.

Are incoming HBS students involved with CORe at all?

Our faculty have embraced CORe whole heartedly and we’ve heard feedback that the students who have completed CORe before entering the MBA program are really well-prepared to engage in their MBA coursework.

What tend to be students’ biggest takeaways?

We’ve heard from students time and time again that they truly feel as if they understand the “language of business” after completing CORe. They are able to better understand the articles in the Wall Street Journal, or they have a new appreciation for the world around them. Even seemingly mundane things like going to the grocery store take on new meaning once you understand bundled pricing!

We’ve also had students who have taken on new responsibilities in their current jobs, gone onto new careers, been accepted into their top choice graduate school and MBA programs, or even started their own companies after completing CORe!

How has HBX evolved after the initial few CORe cohorts and what surprised you?

We are continuing to improve our platform by adding new features, many of them stemming from student suggestions. Beyond that, I think we were all a bit surprised and delighted by the supportive nature of the CORe community and peoples’ willingness to jump in and answer questions, provide motivation, and share guidance. It reaffirms our belief in the power of peer learning and that learning is not a zero-sum game.

What’s your advice for someone who is considering applying for CORe?

CORe is a terrific program for the serious learner – there is so much to do and see on the platform, and such potential for interacting with your fellow students to deepen the learning experience.

The program requires a commitment of roughly 150 hours to complete the coursework, and your success depends your level of participation and contributions to the online community.

As with anything, you will only get out of it what you put into it!

---

Want to learn the fundamentals of business in an immersive, interactive online course?

 

Who do you think the next President of the United States will be? What about the winner of the 2018 World Cup? You probably have a guess, or at least a list of possible results. But no one actually knows for sure. 

Some situations have such complex dynamics that even think tanks and advanced modelling software have trouble understanding them. For example, imagine you are trying to estimate the box office results of an upcoming major film. You have some historical data on how similar films have done at the box office, but every film is different and is released in a different economic climate. You want to incorporate all of the various factors that affect the success of a film: advertising expenditures, the cast, demographic appeal, date of release, and so many other variables that you couldn’t possibly list them all, let alone measure them.

It turns out that one of the best predictors of box office results is the Hollywood Stock Exchange, or HSX. The HSX is a virtual market where anyone (you and I included) can sign up, get H$2 million in fake Hollywood dollars, and start betting on all kinds of Hollywood-related outcomes (e.g. Oscar nominations and box office results). The way it works is simple: The Jungle Book is currently selling for H$187.51 which means that the market expects The Jungle Book to earn $187.51 million in the first four weeks of its release. If I think The Jungle Book will actually make more than this, I can buy this MovieStock® at H$187.51 and then I can cash out my MovieStock four weeks after release for however much the actual box office earnings were (divided by $1 million and in Hollywood dollars). Just like a real stock market, the price of a MovieStock fluctuates with trading and I can always sell my MovieStocks for their current value before the cash out date.

The HSX is a great example of a prediction market. Prediction markets are markets where people can trade stocks that are tied to the outcome of an event. In a prediction market, the current trading value of a particular stock can be interpreted as what the public (or group of traders) collectively predict the outcome of the event to be. 

These prediction markets can be quite powerful. There is a significant amount of literature showing that HSX quickly absorbs new information (such as casting decisions) and accurately predicts box office results. HSX also has a history of correctly predicting Oscar nominations. There are dozens of prediction markets for events ranging from elections to sporting events with thousands of stocks being traded in real time. Many use real money and most are open to the public. While we don’t recommend “gambling” in these markets, we do recommend checking them out and thinking about their value and their limitations.

---

Want to learn more about prediction markets as well as other fundamental business topics?

 

Kayla Lewkowicz participated in the January 2016 cohort of HBX CORe. This is the final installment of a series of reflections inspired by her experiences. The original post appeared on her blog here, and the whole series is available here.

As my time with my cohort comes to a close, I wanted to pause and reflect on what I learned, and what I'll take with me moving forward in my career. HBX was incredibly time-consuming but ultimately, very rewarding and insightful.

To make a decision, look at all the factors

When you make a decision, you have to know everything that's at stake. Building a team of people that can help you see beyond what you want to see--your inherent bias--is essential to make an informed decision. Economic and market forces, cultural shifts, the political landscape, and how your product is received all impact the financial statements and the data. You can't look at one aspect of your business to know whether or not you're successful, but you do have to know what's most important.

Related: Know What's Most Important

This means that judgment can be more important than data collection or quantitative analysis. Though the numbers may tell one side of the story, they can be just as subjective as survey comments or customer sentiment. As a manager and decision-maker, taking a holistic view of all of the possible data points--qualitative and quantitative--and then looking beyond what the data says to get to the "why," will make you more successful.

Be an experimenter

Rather than going with "what feels right," use data to make a decision.

Most people know this is the right way to do it, but have trouble in practice not because they're data illiterate but because failure is psychologically painful. An experimental mindset--where you're tinkering and tweaking--encourages understanding your customer, your audience, and your performance in a well-rounded way.

Related: When In Doubt, Test & Learning to Experiment

To do this right, we need to ask questions. Experiment. Get curious. Test. Otherwise you'll never learn anything, and never ship products that really innovate.

Relationships matter

Where your business fits in the market matters, because its relationship to other companies matters. As consumers, it's how we figure out what we want; as managers, it's how we know how we're performing. In business, everything is tangled up in so many factors that it's often not clear what's what. After all, you can't find the solution if you don't know the problem.

Related: Kickstart Your Business With Networks & It's All Related

Making decisions isn't always so easy as "because of this, we should do that." Whether that's price, logo, or investing decisions, the world isn't so linear. With such high stakes, we need to separate what's important from what's not, and what's related with what's not. We can do that by experimenting, asking questions, or collecting data. Knowing that relationships matter, and seeking them, helps us make more holistic business decisions (see above) and maybe even predict the future.

Would I recommend HBX?

In short, definitely.

As a liberal arts student with very little in the way of business background, I feel more comfortable and familiar with the language of business. In our quarterly earnings presentation, I understood the CFO for the first time. I've been able to take a new look at social media data and performance for the Twitter handle I manage. And ultimately, I have a better understanding of the principles that make up business decisions.

---

Interested to know more?

 

---

HBX CORe was an enriching learning experience, but getting the most out of the program required meticulous planning and disciplined execution. I was a part of the September 2015 cohort, and during my tenure as a CORe student, I had to travel incessantly in addition to juggling a full-time job and two startups. Managing CORe on a daily basis along with my work commitments could have been a daunting task, but adequate planning helped me tread the fine line between work-life balance.

As a technology consultant, my travel schedule is predictable as I fly on Sunday evenings and return on Thursday nights. However, in September 2015, LFC 360 was nominated for the annual Football Blogging Awards held in Manchester, UK – an event which extended my travel to three continents and five time zones in the space of the12 weeks I was enrolled in HBX CORe. I had neither predicted nor prepared for an erratic travel schedule like this when I signed up for CORe.

Such unforeseen situations which deviate from the norm are unavoidable and can take a toll on your health if you are not well prepared. With better planning, one can position oneself to efficiently navigate through such scenarios. Here are a few pointers from my experience which helped me manage HBX Core while juggling a hectic travel schedule:

1. Manage time zone shifts

There are a few parameters to consider when you’re hopping time zones, and it is extremely important to manage these efficiently. A week prior to an upcoming travel schedule, I introspected the following:

• Am I going to go through a time shift?
• How big is the time zone shift?
• What will my work hours be like in a different time zone?
• How can I best reduce the effect of jetlag during my travel?

2. Optimize travel schedule

Sometimes, you can make little tweaks to your travel schedule which help you gain valuable pockets of time. If you are a traveling consultant, flying on a Monday morning instead of a Sunday frees up ample of time on the weekend. Similarly, I had taken a flight to the UK on a Friday evening, and worked from the airport until an hour before take-off. Another aspect to consider is scheduling flights post the infamous HBX CORe Thursday deadline.

3. Manage your diet

It is easy to get carried away when that odd sandwich and coffee at the airport becomes your staple food. Make sure you consume healthy meals while you are traveling, and pack a few of those energy bars as backup. It is important to provide adequate fuel to your body to keep your mind sharp for the duration of HBX CORe.

4. Manage your sleep

Going through a few sleepless nights is a common situation when juggling work and HBX CORe. However, it is scientifically proven that adequate sleep aids the learning process. Make sure you manage your sleep efficiently. Using fitness devices to keep a check on your sleep cycles helps you objectively evaluate your health – I personally used a fitbit HR.

5. Creating a conducive environment at work

HBX CORe requires a significant time commitment. If you’re going to succeed in HBX CORe, it is very important to set the expectations appropriately with your team, manager, or partner at work. My manager was very flexible and supported me with an option to cut down on travel time by working remotely whenever that was possible. This proved incredibly beneficial and supported my ability to perform well in CORe.

6. Communicate with your family and loved ones

While it is easy to assume that your significant other, parents, or children will adjust to your sudden post-dinner absence, the reality is quite different. To manage yourself better emotionally through the journey, make time for them. Compartmentalize your day and set the expectations upfront to strike that balance between the two.  Getting support from your loved ones while on this journey is perhaps the most underrated aspects of managing CORe – especially when the going gets tough!

7. Prepare offline notes

While HBX CORe has a dynamic and engaging platform, its peer-based learning model requires you to have a stable internet connection. As I travelled to and fro between New York, Manchester, and Mumbai, I did not have internet connectivity on certain flights for up to 22 hours. So you may look to book a flight which does offer in-flight WiFi or have your notes ready in paper format.

---

Imagine a man who sells apples on the side of the road out of a cardboard box. Every morning, he buys some apples at the grocery store, then walks to his corner. He sells the apples for $1 each until he runs out, then heads home for the day.

For the apple seller, accounting is easy. If he wants to know his balance sheet, he looks down in front of him. There are some apples (his inventory) and a cardboard box (his property, plant, and equipment). If he reaches into his pocket and counts the number of dollar bills he has, that’s his cash. Together, those are all of his assets. His equity is exactly equal to his assets – he didn’t borrow any money to buy the apples or the cardboard box in the morning, so he has no liabilities. He can do this whenever he wants to get the current balance sheet of his business. His income statement is just as easy – he remembers how much money he had in his pocket before he left home this morning, and counts how much he has now. The difference is his net income for the day.

One day, a truck of workers passes by and they offer to buy his entire box of apples, but they’ll need to pay him tomorrow. For the apple seller, this is a great deal – he could go home early if he agrees and spend more time with his family, or he could use the money to buy more apples and make a lot more money today. But he would need to keep track of how much the workers owe him for the apples, so he writes a note on the side of his cardboard box. The next day, as he’s buying apples, the man at the counter in the grocery store says, “You know, you buy apples from me every day. You’re my best customer – why not just pay me once a week? That would be easier.” So he starts writing on the side of the box how many apples he buys each day, so he knows how much to pay at the end of the week.

This is an example of accounting in action. The marks on the side of that cardboard box are the beginnings of T-accounts – recording his accounts receivable and his accounts payable – and this apple seller is still running an extremely simple operation. If he opens a bank account, because he’s worried about being robbed while he stands on the side of the street, he’ll need some way to record that. If he decides to hire his son to sell apples two streets over, he’ll need to keep track of how many apples his son has sold and how much to pay him. Suddenly, he can’t generate his balance sheet just by looking in his box.

Very quickly, the benefits to accounting become apparent. Accounting gives us a standardized way to keep track of all of these things, so you can quickly and easily understand your business.

---

Want to learn more about accounting, economics, and analytics? Check out HBX CORe, an interactive online program from Harvard Business School!