GeekMBA360

By now you probably have heard that Zynga, the creator of massively popular social games like Farmville and CityVille, is planning its Initial Public Offering. It’s widely believe that Zynga will push for (and probably will receive) a valuation as high as $20 billion. As a result, Zynga founder Mark Pincus will finally join the [...]

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Thirteen months ago I took a very challenging job. I was tasked to turn around a struggling $70-million-a-year commodity business. There was a lot of skepticism about the prospect of this business. After spending several weeks of reviewing the business metrics, we determined a very focused strategy. More importantly, we focused on building small wins. [...]

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Some folks are going to disagree with me on this post. Based on my experience on both ends (as an employee and as a manager who frequently works with human resource professionals), I believe that HR’s most important role is to make sure the company does not get sued. There are complex regulations and laws [...]

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I recently had an exit interview. I was leaving the company. As part of standard HR practice, the Human Resource Manager met with me for half an hour. She started the conversation by saying: "Before we talked about the details such as COBRA, your last check, vacation balance, etc, we want to find out why [...]

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Today I have a special treat for everyone. China holds a special appeal to many ambitious young professionals in the United States and around the world. But, many people are unsure or apprehensive about going to work in China, given the cultural, language and other barriers. I recently conducted an interview with Ms. Marie Cheng, [...]

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Not everyone is in the position for doing this. But, Let’s say that you’re single, a year or two removed from college, and you could live off savings and family’s support for a year. You have a promising job at a Fortune 500 company. You’re given an opportunity to pursue your dream job. However, there [...]

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Jimmy had been working for the same employer for almost a decade. His employer was a recently funded start-up when he joined the company as a contractor. He performed well, and was soon hired as a professional service consultant. Jimmy had great customer facing skills. Customers loved his work. He won an excellent employee award [...]

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This year marks the tenth year of my career. In other words, not counting the two years of business school, I’ve been slaving away in Corporate America for a decade. Ten years is a long time. Life is short. Lately, I have been doing a lot of reflection and thinking about the past, present and [...]

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I’m going against the conventional wisdom. Job hopping is good for you if you can plan your moves strategically, Since I’m neither a USC Trojan fan nor a Tennessee Volunteer fan, I’m fairly indifferent about Lane Kiffin’s move from Tennessee to USC. From an ethical standpoint, I didn’t like how Lane Kiffin made empty promises [...]

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I know quite a few people who recently moved out of the United States or are considering moving. Many of my MBA classmates are now working in China. They feel that the United States is in decline, and the future is in somewhere else. Given how much debt the United States government owe, some folks [...]

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