Why I Enjoy my Policy Class, and Others

Every Wednesday, I'm treated to one of my favorite classes: Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Not-for-Profit Management. I've thought a bit about why I like this class so much. Here's what I've come up with:

• The class draws upon so many disciplines: policy, politics, business, religion, personal values, international comparisons. First, I enjoy multi-discipline thinking. Second, these are topics that I'm well-versed in, as opposed to finance, accounting, etc. (although the reason I'm in business school is to learn core business concepts). Regardless, being in a class where I can bring my expertise and experience to bear is very refreshing and empowering.
• We get to learn grammar. In the first 20 minutes of class, our professor went over grammatical mistakes we made in our papers. I absolutely love this.
• My favorite classes of all time: social studies. This class reminds me of those other courses.

Speaking of which, a short list of my favorite classes of all time:

• Language AP (high school)
• Math team - yes, I count this as a class (high school)
• Chemistry AP and AL (high school)
• Government AP (high school)
• Physics (Rhodes)
• Martin Luther King (Rhodes)
• Post-Colonial Literature (Rhodes)
• The American Presidency (Rhodes)
• Edmund Burke vs. Thomas Paine (Rhodes, taken at St. John's College in Oxford)
• US Congress (Rhodes)
• Islam (Rhodes)
• The Synoptic Gospels (Rhodes)
• History of the Bible (Rhodes)
• Western Civilization after 1715 (Rhodes)
• The World since 1945 (an international relations class, Rhodes)
• My policy class (Duke, Policy School)
• Leadership (Fuqua)
• Ethics in Management (Fuqua)
• Managerial Accounting (Fuqua)
• Financial Statement Analysis (Fuqua)
• Social Entrepreneurship (Fuqua)
• Management Communications (Fuqua)
• Many Spanish classes (Guanajuato, Mexico)

Implications for Nonprofits in Federal Spending Cuts

There will be tough choices, no doubt about it. There will also be compromises. There are a few issues at play related to nonprofits and federal spending cuts:

• Nonprofits receive a not-insignifiant amount of money from government spending.
• The public benefit theory of nonprofits goes something like this: more healthy nonprofits, taken as a whole, are a good thing because of the pluralism principle. A vibrant, robust NP sector facilitates social change (think women's suffrage). The NP sector is essentially subsidized by direct funding and through tax exempt status. One side argues that NPs should only be tax exempt if they are performing services that government would normally provide (education, health care, etc.), and another side argues that we should be encouraging pluralism of interests and organizations because they enrich society as a whole.
• The theory also states that many diverse NPs create independent power centers outside government. Contrast the US (where anyone can create their own 501(c) organization) to France, where NPs must have a political figure on their board. In France, the power is largely concentrated in hands of government (and religious organizations, too), with less power flowing to the NP sector. I would argue that a robust NP sector allows citizens to voice opinions, and be empowered, in a peaceful channel. E.g. pro-choice and anti-abortion groups are empowered through nonprofit advocacy. The alternative?
• One final point from the Chronicle of Philanthropy. 2012 Obama Plan: $451M for Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $770M for AmeriCorps. 2011 Republican plan: $0 for CPB, $0 for AmeriCorps. Yes, we must make cuts. We must make sacrifices, and there will be compromises. Yet the argument of "private money will step in where government steps out" rings hollow in many instances. Foundations give only $45B per year in the US, a very, very small fraction of federal government spending. Personally, I have trouble reconciling these issues. I fundamentally believe that less government is good government, but to a point. It is naive to think that such dramatic cuts to CPB and AmeriCorps would be fully compensated for by private funding, nor can we make a compelling argument (in my opinion) that programs like these are "excessive, unnecessary, and wasteful spending," as Hal Rogers (chair of appropriations committee) says. It's going to be interesting to see how all of this budget wrangling plays out.

Stuff I've Been Doing

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy at school, and the next week will be even more crazy. At times like these, it helps me to reflect on things that I do during the day. This helps me remember that I'm not just spinning my wheels. I took two classes in Fall II, felt as busy as I ever have, and yet didn't feel half the satisfaction (academically, mostly) that I do now that I'm taking 3.5 classes. Anyway, here's some of the things I've been up to, with limited commentary (as I write this, I'm downloading a jazz album by Melody Gardot. Very excited about this.)

In the past week I've been part of some amazing conversations with very well-known leaders in their field. The list:

• Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation.
• Roger Martin, founder of the Monitor Group and Dean of the Rotman School of Business. He's also written a few books on design thinking/integrative thinking. I've never really grasped "design thinking," but Roger clarified things for me. It's essentially a combination of finding a "third way" that traditional business and decision making frameworks cannot see, with some courageous leadership thrown in. Roger is a bigtime leader in designing what business schools think. He said, "I hate to break it to you, but what you learned in your 1st year as an MBA isn't worth anything... it will all be obsolete pretty soon." What Roger's school teaches is more of a way to think and make decisions.
• I asked him about how leadership relates to social entrepreneurship. His response: "Leadership is not just decision making, but the act of creating something better than what existed before. Leadership is when you create."
• Daniel Lurie, CEO of Tipping Point Communities, a foundation in the Bay Area that's modeled after the Robin Hood Foundation in NYC. Daniel came to my policy school class and spoke with us for 2 hours. I don't know much about foundation work, and it was insightful to hear about his group makes funding decisions. Check out this VERY COOL promotion video on what Tipping Point does. It's a tear-jerker.
• Fuqua's Social Impact and Sustainable Business Conference. I sat in on a few panels, including ones on how technology is doing good in developing nations, while identifying market opportunities (think cell phone ring tones to teach english), a panel on how organizations can maintain their social mission as they scale, and a keynote address from some big wig at Coke who talked about their social responsibility efforts.

Other things I've done

• Flew out to Berkeley last Thursday morning with a team of 3 other Fuqua students to compete in Haas' Education Leadership Case Competition. Our task was to create a communication, community engagement, and implementation plan for a new site-based budgeting system at LA Unified School District. We did well, but didn't win. These case competitions are very taxing, and you know it's not going to be an "enjoyable" experience. But, you learn a ton from these things, and that's why I did it. Mission accomplished.
• Flying BACK out to San Francisco next week for an interview (in the midst of working on final projects since our term ends next week as well).
• Learning a lot of Financial Statement Analysis. Surprisingly, this has been one of my favorite courses at Fuqua. Now I actually know about margins, earnings quality, pro forma statements, and a bunch of other stuff.
• Faculty/Administration Fuqua Friday. I've had some great relationships with faculty, and I always encourage first year students to do the same. I was talking to a faculty member about this lack of interaction. I took note, went down to see some friends in the Fuqua administration, saw that they were enthusiastic about the idea of a "Faculty/Administration Appreciation" Fuqua Friday, floated the idea to our student government president, and three weeks later... the event happens. THAT is a student-run business school. We had students send personal invitations to faculty, and the faculty actually showed up. The whole night was unbelievably satisfying, and I think it shows the power of an idea. Executing this Fuqua Friday wasn't difficult, but it was the IDEA that made it so successful. The faculty felt so appreciated, and I'm pretty sure they were very pleasantly surprised by the invitations they received. This brings me to another larger point - thanks. It matters. Thank the faculty. Thank the alumni who help you find a job. Just thank someone.
• Another example of the power of an idea - this year, a few education reform-interested classmates and I have been toying with the idea of forming an education reform club. A few of my classmates finally came up with a great idea to kick start this group. These students invited 7 of the most respected and well-loved faculty to a 30-minute presentation on "the state of education reform in America." Afterward, the faculty posed questions based on their particular area of expertise. The accountant said "this is obviously an accounting problem - if expenses are increasing yet student achievement remains flat, somebody is not accounting for/tracking/analyzing inputs and outputs correctly." The economist said "No no no, this is all about incentives..." You get the idea. Anyway, the room was packed with professors and interested students. Again, the power of an idea was demonstrated. Very cool.

Well, those are just a few of the things I've been doing. I leave you with a couple pictures from the Faculty Fuqua Friday, and a few videos of the same song... "heartbeats," originally by a Swedish band called The Knife (Jose Gonzalez's version is a cover, albeit an awesome one).

Original version by The Knife

Jose Gonzalez' awesome cover, set in the SF streets

A live-ish version

Shane - I didn't get a photo with you... we'll have to do it next time.

Joe (in-house leadership guru), Puneesh (big-hearted classmate and fellow leadership/ethics junkie), Ted (in-house ethics entrepreneur and professor), and me.

Leadership in Soccer

A quote from teenager and future DC United starting goalkeeper on playing for Ben Olsen:

"Ben's like the commander, like the general," said Hamid. "It's different. I've never really felt like I'm fighting for the general. I feel like I'm a cadette in his army. It feels good. The guys want to fight for him."

This quote struck me as indicative of inspirational leadership (a specific term that describes one of six leadership "domains" in a popular leadership framework). A lot of people were critical of DC United's hiring of Olsen. Although Olsen's dedication to the club is unquestioned, many people thought he was too inexperienced to lead the team. My opinion is that Olsen's lack of experience is more than offset by the attitude he brings to the team. Unlike most other soccer coaches, who bounce from club to club, Olsen has been the face of DC United for much of his career. The payoff comes through inspiring kids like Bill Hamid to play harder, and to understand that commitment to a cause (in this case, DC United) larger than yourself has real performance outcomes. Short of playing for someone like Jose Mourinho or Guus Hiddink, I'd much rather prefer to play for Ben Olsen over a more experienced (yet transient and uncommitted) coach.

Business purpose, business outcomes

Quote from Milton Friedman in 1962:
A businessman or entrepreneur who expresses preferences in his business activities that are not related to productive efficiency is at a disadvantage compared to other individuals who do not. Such an individual is in effect imposing higher costs on himself than are other individuals who do not have such preferences. Hence, in a free market they will tend to drive him out.

Interestingly, Friedman wasn't talking about "social purpose businesses;" rather, he was arguing that free markets will drive out racial discrimination. I'd say this is pretty applicable to what's going on in the Middle East today.

On a somewhat related note, our Social Entrepreneurship class (and my Ethics class last term) had some good discussions on the feasibility of social ventures, socially responsible businesses, purely profit-motivated firms operating in the social sector, and nonprofit business ventures.

Here are two good articles that address the issues:
Debate between Milton Friedman and John Mackey (CEO, Whole Foods) in Reason Magazine. Very good dialogue... well worth reading.
Cover story in this month's Harvard Business Review by uber-business professor Michael Porter w/ Mark Kramer.

More commentary later, but I must study now. Really.

Thankful

This is why today is awesome:
- 70 degree weather after a long bout of cold. Frisbee is imminent.
- Interview in NYC canceled because of the snow up there. Get to stay in Durham on this amazing day.
- Section Six happy hour last night
- Went to boot camp this morning and felt pretty strong.
- Went to my Philanthropy, Volunteerism, and Nonprofit Management class at the policy school. This class is taking me back to my liberal arts roots, and I love it. Today we talked about the great philanthropists and Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth. I absolutely love this class.
- Listened to Lucero's Dreaming in America on the way to the gym (bonus Lucero video below)
- Charlie Davies on trial with DC United (Davies and Andy Najar = sick combination)
- Fascinating events happening in Egypt. A massive moment in time, and a very positive expression (thus far) of humans' desire for economic and political freedoms. Inevitability of human progression, if you ask me.
- Just booked a 2-week trip to Colombia for spring break
- Going to go study some Social Entrepreneurship today
- GATE (study abroad) reunion tonight while watching the Duke-Maryland game

Now, get to work.

Group Photo

One of my resolutions this year was to take my camera everywhere and take photos of everyone having a great time. I'd regret nights where I didn't take photos - as if these moments would be forgotten. I like taking photos and sharing them with friends - it's a fun way to reflect. But tonight at Jess and Sam's wedding party, I opted not to take photos. I was enjoying myself that much; memories captured through photos were not needed tonight.

Learning from Difference

I just sat in on a Public Policy course that I will audit for the remainder of the semester: Nonprofits, Volunteerism, and Philanthropies. The course is taught by Joel Fleishman, who is supposedly "the man" on the national philanthropy scene. He's a sweet old man.

I entered the classroom and the girl I sat next to was brewing her own yerba mate (a tea from Argentina). We had a guest speaker who used to run Oprah's philanthropies for 9 years, and is now the Executive Director of a family foundation. While she was talking, the professor got up to turn on a pot of coffee (making an awfully loud noise), which was placed directly on the podium. I bring up these two examples to make one simple point: policy school is different than business school.

Five of my Fuqua classmates and me are auditing the class, which has about 15 people total in the class. After the first few minutes of class, I immediately regretted not taking more policy and law classes during my tenure at Duke. Why? For one, the nature of these subjects (policy, in particular) is what I'm familiar with. Subjects that have global and social dimensions naturally speak to me, while many business disciplines - while interesting in their own way - do not speak to my personal purpose/mission. Second, small, discussion-based classes are more my style. I'm naturally more engaged, and this has an impact on my learning. Third, the mere difference of taking a policy course is refreshing. I'm not making a judgment on whether business courses are good or bad. But, learning how the "other half" thinks (e.g. policy folks) is important for me as a professional (since I'll be dealing with this world after graduation), and perhaps more so for my intellectual stimulation. As a fundamental principle, I believe in the value of cognitive diversity and from learning through escaping one's comfort zone. At business school (or any graduate school, profession, etc.) it is so easy to be myopic. I believe that those who venture into other intellectual worlds or different cultures will be rewarded with so much - knowledge, empathy, etc.

By the way, the speaker today gave a presentation on celebrity philanthropy responses to natural disasters - pretty interesting stuff.

Now, onto study for Financial Statement Analysis. It's raining outside. Here's a photo of the library (pretty cool scene while it's raining outside this massive, brand new library with huge windows).

Small Town Durham

My day: got up at 10 after a very late night, doctor's appointment, read some Social Entrepreneurship at a coffee shop, go running (55 degree weather on January 19th), sit outside for a while and just chill, happy hour with the MBAA Career Cabinet and the CMC career counselors, then trivia at Dain's.

I am happy to announce that team "Unemployed. So What? F-U" (i.e. Liz, Ashanka, and me) is the proud winner of tonight's contest. With Liz's knowledge of western states and feminism, Ashanka's movie expertise (yes, she's from India, and yes, she dominated), and my sports knowledge, our team was perfectly balanced.

We won a $25 bar tab, but unfortunately had already tabbed out. So what options did we have, given that the kitchen was closed? One obvious choice: tequilla shots, and milk and cookies.

I say all of this to make a point: living in Durham and going to Fuqua is a blast. Dain's is a true neighborhood bar, and it takes me about 5 minutes to walk there from my apartment. Dain, the owner (in one of the photos below), is always at the bar and hanging out with the patrons. Before trivia we had some really good conversation - on microfinance and Indian politics - and tried our best not to talk about our job searches, which is what most people at school default to in conversations. It's a great feeling to be around friends who are supportive of each other, and who don't judge or require explanation when I say "no, I don't have a job yet."

I'm very lucky to be part of this community and to have made such good friends. It's a bit sappy but 100% true... if I had gone to Chicago Booth, I'd probably know more economics. If I had gone to Berkeley, I'd probably have some pretty good friends and be more connected to the Bay Area (but not by much). But I can't imagine having a better social experience than what I've had at Fuqua.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately about what I've learned in the past 1.5 years. Ironically, business school has taught me so much more about myself (values, goals, interests, passions) than about "business." My goal for this semester is to make sure the academic piece is tended to, but I'm quite satisfied that the "personal growth box" is checked.

Quote of the night:
Trivia Guy: What state first gave women the right to vote?
Liz: WYOMING!!!
Ashanka: Whoa, are you from there?
Liz: No, but I am a feminist.
Me: Whoa.

MLK "Free Day" - Is this the best we can do?

Yesterday I took time to reflect on MLK's legacy. I pulled out my old book of MLK's speeches (from an MLK class I took in college - still one of the best educational experiences of my life) and listened to an NPR show on the March on Washington. As I did this, I thought "how many others took the time to do the same? I am privileged to have been instructed on King's legacy, but what about others who only have a superficial understanding of King's very, very complex philosophy? Why do we 'honor' such an important figure by the empty offering of a vacation day?" Certainly King wouldn't have wanted to be celebrated this way.

One school (ONE school) in Chicago doesn't take the day off. Instead, they teach their kids on King's legacy. It's very easy to whitewash King's philosophy into one of peace and racial tolerance (two values to which he was convicted, of course), but it's much more instructive to understand the complexities of King. For example, his views on the Vietnam War and class (versus racial) inequality tell us much more about our complex world than do simplified portrayals of King. We're doing King's legacy a disgrace by having a free day instead of truly using our time to think critically (and maybe even act?) on King's philosophy. Congress obviously found it important enough to honor him, so let's do it in a way that's forward looking and productive.