AOM 2011: Parting Shots

Did you know that San Antonio loves God, Country and Free Enterprise?

Neither did I until a massive billboard with this message on the side of the freeway at 3:58 AM this morning on my taxi ride to the airport caught my attention.

Here's some more things I learned on the trip:

1. The temperature difference when you go in/outside a building is about 30 degrees. The experience is like a punch to the gut.
2. Gary spends almost as much time playing Angry Birds on his iPad as he does fixing his hair to make it look like he didn't fix it.
3. Rob compulsively hides things behind the TV... like the iron.
   
4. He's also got the best presentation skills of anyone in the Academy. Seriously, it's like Shaq dunking on midgets... like Gary.
   
5. When it comes to partying, academics beat fraternities hands down. They are PRO and have a system when it comes to effective (and long-lasting) partying. They are happy to share this information at will.
   
6. We have a list of great inside jokes and stories. My favorite is from the first day when I gave someone a Dash & Cooper business card and they thought it was a dog-walking business. Classic.
   
7. I'm convinced Howard Haines is a retired ninja. There wasn't a morning, regardless of hour, that I heard him get ready or leave the room for the day.
8. I'm addicted to the hot sandwiches from The Filling Station. So much so that I'm talking to the owner about franchising with another location in Salt Lake. So if anyone wants to help me start that company, let me know.
9. I sat next to a senior researcher from Harvard in one of my neuroscience workshops. Nothing really interesting came out of that but I thought it was cool.
   

After all the great stuff at AOM, I am undecided on whether or not I will get a PhD. Everything that I hoped for came to fruition: people think my paper idea is a big contribution, my line of work would be very effective for economic development and updating the entrepreneurship theory, there are a number of people who would like me to consider their schools when I send out my application, etc, etc.

But I learned a lot about academics that I didn't know was there. Once you go into academics, there's no "going-and-coming-as-you-please" with the professional world. You often have to make a choice between scholarship and teaching and that affects school choice since brand equity and reputation is all you have in academics. On the flip side, I might be better off putting all my eggs into my professional career and then going after a PhD later in life. There are a number of things that I need to consider about what I really want to do to make a contribution to the world. As my friend Gary put it: "If I wanted to make a contribution to the social entrepreneurship realm, I wouldn't write a paper that adds to the literature, I would just fly to Africa and start a social enterprise that changes lives."

I'm very lucky. Truth be told, I shouldn't be where I'm at given what I deserve. At 24, I have a slew of opportunities to choose from. For me the quagmire is trying to decide which opportunity would best accomplish my commitment to making a dent in the trash can that is the world. This week in San Antonio helped me realized that I am lucky to have the choices that I do but attempting to live an intentional life doesn't make finding the road less taken any easier. Especially when it's a 51-49 kind of choice.

AOM 2011 and Trending to a PhD

"If others would think as hard as I did, then they would get similar results.'' - Sir Isaac Newton

I have just arrived into hot and muggy San Antonio for the 2011 Academy of Management annual meeting. For "manglement" scholars, it's a big deal where most of the big names in management research come together and nerd out on fantsy pants jargon and various statistical methods.

How exactly I got here has been an unexpected path, but the gist of it goes like this:

I know a guy.
This guy asked me to help on a research project with a looming, near impossible deadline.
I say "Maybe".
He says "How about $1000?"
I say "Works for me."
Two weeks of sleepless nights later he presents the stuff (I get an invite, not common for data monkeys).
Everyone loves it, he and his boss give me a personal shout out (also not common).
They ask me to do more projects.
We eventually have a conversation about getting a PhD after my undergrad.
I think it's a neat idea (researching complex ideas is pretty fun).
I somehow convince the University it's a good idea to fly me to AOM.

So that's about it. I thought really hard during a series of punctuated efforts. Did my best to produce good work and now I'm here largely because some people who are in charge of stuff thought that I was good enough to keep around and let me do things not a lot of people my age get to do.

It's transformed my undergraduate experience and I am forever thankful to the University of Utah to have me involved as much as I have been and underwrite some of the opportunities to let me do what I love doing.

But I'm not a PhD student yet. First, I have to finish my undergrad (this December), I also have to apply with a 700 or higher GMAT score.

Other than that, it's possible that I might be entering the 2012-13 school year as a PhD student at the University of Utah. I'll keep everyone updated as the situation progresses.

But here I am in San Antonio. Eating food, sweating a lot and using my best media training (thanks Foundry). So while I'm here, I'll be updating the blog with the sessions that I am attending and my thoughts about what's interesting about them as they relate to the "real world" and the research I'd eventually like to contribute to the conversation.

So far I've split my time between three themes: entrepreneurial theory, neuroscience and strategy, building and incorporating robust empirics into your research.

Needless to say I have plenty of time and people to get all nerdy with. But since I try to make sure that what I am doing in life has some generalized practical application, the point of being here is to think really hard about what problems I could work on so that my work (and Foundry experience) might simultaneously achieve many subtle aims like touching the next generation of entrepreneurs (mine).

So with that, I hope you stay tuned to hear some of the stuff I'll be participating in. And if you happen to be here at AOM, feel free to connect via Facebook or email to collude session schedules... I'll be in the back sitting quietly, NOT making a scene.