Ross Ambassador Blog

Learning by doing

One of the main reasons to choose Ross was the school's excellence in leadership education. I am one of those people who actually buy these modern ideas that traditional management is dead and that we live in the Age of Leadership.  I knew Michigan was going to be an exciting place for learning how to lead, but only when I experienced it first hand I could fell how wonderful it is to be part of this community.

The Leadership Crisis Challenge is a competition that happens every year at the beginning of the Winter Term. You and your team-mates are put in the shoes of business execs (mid-level, where you are very likely to end up following your MBA) who have to deal with a crisis affecting the company.

The competition follows several rounds, including drawing up initial solution to the crisis, arguing it before the company's Board of Directors, making a statement which is recorded on video, and (for those who reach the final) a press-conference with real journalists from leading US media outlets!

The combination between working on a case, role playing, presenting before a Board on which the members are played by leading Ross faculty and second-year MBA's, and the final round with real professionals "grilling" the best teams is a truly "Ross experience".

Even though my team did not make it to the final round, I was very happy with the competition. One piece of advice for anyone who would be interested to participate next year is - pick your team carefully, it'll repay!

Go Blue!

Ross Smarts

Coming to Ross, we all carry our baggage of stereotypes and things we think we know. I have to admit that group work was such a thing for me. I like to think I am pretty open-minded and easy to work with, but so far I have always seen group work as mostly a brainstorming exercise with real work being done on your own.

I had to readjust my thinking pretty quickly once I found myself sitting in Ross core classes. Once you realize that most of your grade depends on working with a team, you are not left with much of a choice. I have to admit I had my fair amount of anxiety. But what struck me most from working with all my teams so far is how smart the people here are. There is a treasure of knowledge, experience, and diversity surrounding you here at Ross and it is up to you to make use of it.

It is not always easy to work within a team - for example convincing the engineers in your group that the most straightforward approach for a paper for a class which deals with leadership and interpersonal relations is not the best thing can be a challenging task, but that is also an important lesson about your future career - you can’t always choose who you are going to work with, so you better learn to work with other people.

It is surprising how much learning happens when you work with your peers. When things are not laid down in plain sight for you, and you have to work hard to get to the core of things, you find yourself learning much more. And since everyone on your team is likely to have unique background and therefore unique perspective, you are quite likely to slap yourself on the forehead more than once when “obvious” things are pointed out to you.

Going through the strenuous MBA application process has a big advantage. You are surrounded by people who are not just as smart as you are, but are considerate and open-minded, so that you do not have to worry about people “showing off” or trying to impress their professors.

I have been at Ross for more than 3 months now and any time someone asks me “What’s the best thing about Ross?” only one thing comes to my mind - it's the people. The Ross Smarts.