:Jeff Young's MBA Blog

We’re at the airport here in Omaha after meeting with Warren Buffett today. It was truly an enlightening experience.

We arrived last night, and had a really great time here in Omaha, though cold–like 18 degrees. We checked into the hotel and went to dinner as a group……fajitas…..Nebraska style. We then went out with one of Ty’s friends to enjoy some local fare in Omaha. But the main event was today. Sure Omaha is nice, but we were here for one reason and one reason only–to hear Warren Buffett.

This morning, we left the hotel at 8 a.m. and toured Nebraska Furniture Market, America’s largest furniture store. The scale of the operation was truly amazing. Buffett acquired the company in 1983, but has left original family in charge. They at least four huge building which comprise the complex selling Furniture, Flooring, Appliances, and Electronics.

We then left the furniture store and went to the Q & A session at the country club. The room was filled with approximately 125 business students from Baylor, Duke, Ohio State, Creighton, Texas, Western Ontario, and NYU. Most of the questions were business related, but Mr. Buffett managed to expound on the question to reveal so much more than the nature of each question. Don’t get me wrong, he answered every question, but he also dug so much deeper on each topic.

My favorite answers of his were in regards to financial innovation (i.e. derivatives). He said that that’s where all the money is now, but he’s not so sure they add anything meaningful to society. He also answered a great question about how he’s able to speak openly as a public figure, and still lead a company even though his opinions might not always be in the best financial interest of the firm.

Mr. Buffett treated us to lunch at one of his favorite joints, Piccolo Pete’s. We then got some photo opportunities, which I’ll share later.

Mr. Buffett will be on MSNBC on Monday conducting a similar session, and I encourage you to tune-in.

Until Next Time,

-JY

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As I’ve mentioned before, I will beheading to Omaha on Thursday with several other students to get to participate in a Q & A with Warren Buffett. I will be updating the blog from Omaha. If I get the chance to ask a question, I am interested in his take on the health care debate, and what his ideas would be on bending the cost curve.

What would you ask?

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It’s been really cold in Waco. We had a brief stint of unusually high weather last week, but other than that, I can’t remember it being this cold around here. But like they say, “if you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait 10 minutes.”

The cold weather, however, has caused many of us to shift our attention to Baylor basketball. I’ve attended our last 3 home games, and it’s been a blast to watch the team play. As of last week, we were 20th in the AP, and 24th in the ESPN/USA Today. A road win today over rival TAMU will no doubt vault us into the top-20, where we can start to focus on seeding in the tournament of 64, as a bid will be almost a formality at that point. The team now has a signature win after beating then No. 6 UT on their court.

Racquetball

Over the past month or so, several MBA students have taken a liking to racquetball. It’s great exercise and provides an outlet for our competitive juices. There are about 10 MBA students who enjoy playing, and I think we’re going to start a tournament in the coming weeks, so it should be fun.

Classes

are about to start picking up. Module-1 is about to end, so exams will be coming soon in Finance and Economics, probably my two toughest subjects. Wish me luck.

Until next time.

-JY

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After a nice, relaxing break, classes resumed this week. I had a really nice break, was able to spend time with family and friends, and watch plenty of football. My wife and I spent the Christmas holidays with my family in Nashville. We had a really great time and got to see a little snow. I had a great interview with the CEO of a big nonprofit hospital in Nashville while I was there. We chatted for about an hour, and he indicated that there may be an opportunity to do my residency there. Once again, fingers crossed.Now that my batteries are re-juiced, it’s back to it.

I am taking a fairly heavy workload once again. Currently I am taking the second modules of both Corporate Finance and Economics, Healthcare Residency Prep, Marketing, Healthcare Finance, Healthcare Economics, and Public Issues Related to Healthcare. As you can see, I’ve got a heavy amount of healthcare courses, which will be nice, since that is what I’m planning on doing once I am finished.

Outside of class, the Baylor basketball team cracked the top-25 after trouncing Oklahoma on Saturday. We haven’t beaten them in like 30 years or something, so it was nice to get that monkey off our backs. I was at the game, and really like our team. Hopefully, this win will be the beginning of a good conference season, and we’ll be back in the NCAA tournament after a 1-year hiatus. Ekpe Udoh is a beast.

Until next time.

-JY

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Papers

Being a grad student means that one has to spend quite a bit of time doing research and writing papers. I’m currently working on two papers, one for strategic management and one for healthcare. For my strategy paper, I am required to analyze a strategic problem at a major company. I chose the strategic issues at Airbus. I turned a rough draft, and it looks like I’ve still got a lot of work yet to go. For healthcare, I chose how hospitals can address long term care.

Ethics

Baylor just completed a two-week ethics seminar. Part of the seminar involved MBA students breaking into teams and competing in a 36-hour case contest. Our team won our division and got some $$$ which was nice. We also heard various presentations concerning the importance of ethics in business.

Residency

Still haven’t lined one up for sure, but things are looking up on two fronts. I received a call from a recruiter with HCA who may have options in both Dallas and Nashville, and I’ve also been in contact with a hospital in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is also an HCA facility. Fingers crossed, one of these will work out.

Until Next Time,

-JY

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Healthcare Speakers:

During Thursday’s class, Mr. Kent Keahey, CEO of Providence Hospital in Waco, addressed our class and provided an update on the current  healthcare reform bills being mulled over in Congress. It was a really informative presentation and summarized well the current proposals being considered. It looks like the bill that just came out of the House has little chance of being signed into law, as it increases the deficit, which is a deal breaker according to Obama. The same holds true for the Kennedy bill in the Senate. The somewhat bipartisan Baucus bill really looks to have the only shot, but will need to have some tweaks if it’s going to get passed by December 31st.

On Friday, Jack Cleary, CEO of North Central Baptist in San Antonio addressed our class and gave a really informative presentation about his career as an administrator, and offered some best practices that were critical to his success.

Ethics Case Competition

Also on Friday, I participated in a case competition focused on ethics. We were given the case on Wednesday evening, and had roughly 36 hours to put together a presentation and present it to the judges. I think we did pretty well, but not sure if we knocked it out of the park.

All in all this made for a really busy week. I had final exams in both Operations Management and Management Information Systems. Next week I’ll begin the first modules in both Economics and Finance.

I was also notified that I’ll be going on the trip to Nebraska to meet Warren Buffett in February, so that should be a really great trip.

Until next time,

JY

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Last Friday, our healthcare class traveled to Dallas to tour the Baylor Health Care System headquarters. Most of the class rode a bus from Waco, but since I live in Dallas, I figured I would just meet the group there. The Baylor Health Care System is huge. They saw over 100,000 admitted patients last year and 500,000 more outpatient visits. They are also the 2nd largest private employer in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex with over 18,000 workers.

We were welcomed to coffee and breakfast in one of the most impressive corporate board rooms I’ve seen, followed by an introduction and welcome from Joel Allison, their CEO. He gave us an update on what’s going on at Baylor Health and commentary on his opinions of the ongoing healthcare debate. It was interesting to get his take as a hospital CEO. All anyone is talking about is politics, but he feels that the more critical issue is continuing to provide quality care and keeping the patient first.

We also heard a presentation from Dr. David Ballard concerning quality initiatives at Baylor and how they are always endeavoring to get better and not just be acceptable, but outstanding. George Terrazas, a BU Health Care alumnus, also spoke with us concerning how hospitals can access funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He is a management consultant for Baylor.

We ate lunch on the top-floor of their main tower overlooking the Dallas skyline. Michael Taylor, one of their senior vice-presidents, spoke to us. You can tell just by listening to him that his mind was always going 100 miles an hour. He had so much to say on so many topics it was really challenging to just keep up. He has developed a new heart hospital in a joint-venture between Baylor and a private group of physicians connected to the Baylor hospital. Really interesting stuff.

Finally, we got an inside look at the new cancer center currently under construction. It will be a really great facility once opened that they hope will make a difference in the community.

All in all it was a great day and I learned a lot. I’m really looking forward to starting my administrative residency where I can spend every day learning in an operating hospital.

My visit to Nashville last week went really well. I met with an executive with the Tennessee Hospital Association and we are exploring some options for my residency there. Hopefully I’ll have some good news on that front soon.

Until next time,

JY

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New Classes:

This week marked the end of two of my classes, but the beginning of two others. Several classes are taken in 6-week modules over three semesters. I have completed the first modules in Accounting and Quantitative Business Analysis (QBA) and have now begun Operations Strategy and Management Information Systems. The great thing about this type of scheduling is that you are exposed to various types of courses each semester as opposed to 4 consecutive months of the same thing.

Round Table with  Warren Buffett

On February 25, 2010, twenty-seven students from Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business will travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to meet with Warren Buffett. Buffett regularly invites groups of graduate business students to participate in a two-hour Q&A session at the headquarters of Berkshire-Hathaway, followed by lunch and a photo session.

I, along with the rest of my MBA class, will have the opportunity to submit an essay with the winning entrants being selected to attend. One of the great things about being a part of a reputable program is the opportunity to be exposed to many interesting people and experiences. Hopefully, I’ll get to go along.

Warren Buffett

Ethics in Healthcare Administration

This week we have been covering ethics pertaining to Healthcare Administration and the often life-changing decisions that come with working in such an industry. We discussed the decisions by executives and doctors concerning Terry Schiavo and how such a sensitive issue can capture the tug at the emotions of most any American.

Interview in Nashville

Tomorrow I am flying to Nashville, TN to meet with an executive from the Tennessee Hospital Association regarding a potential administrative residency opportunity there. Hopefully there will be a good opportunity and I can have my plans for next summer and fall lined up soon.

Until Next Time

JY

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One thing I’m looking forward to as I pursue my MBA is getting to meet various interesting people from all types of professions. Yesterday, as part of my Organizational Behavior and Strategic Management classes, we heard a presentation from Sandy Magnus, a current NASA astronaut. She has twice traveled to space aboard STS-112 and STS-126. She spent over 4-months aboard the International Space Station as part of Expedition 18, and returned aboard STS-119.

Sandy’s presentation was fascinating as she described her career and experiences both prior to joining NASA and her life as NASA astronaut. She described the organizational structure of the various parties involved in the construction of the space station, and the operational structure aboard the space station itself. She also commented on the strategic goals of the space station and how each nation’s agencies cooperated together to bring about such an impressive human achievement.

She answered questions from the audience on all sorts of topics ranging from how to go about day-to-day living in space to the future of human space exploration. Her presentation was one of the most interesting parts of my MBA experience so far, and I look forward to hearing from more professionals to get a broad view of the real world application of our classroom study.

Until Next Time,

JY

Sandy Magnus - NASA Astronaut

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Welcome to my blog. The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my experiences in the MBA program here at Baylor. I began my first day of classes on Aug. 24, and my specialization is Healthcare Administration.

After a productive orientation, the first week of class filled my plate amazingly fast. Between staying on top of reading assignments, completing my work as a graduate assistant, and trying to get things in-line for my administrative residency, I have found little time for much else. As if that wasn’t enough, I’m commuting back and forth from Dallas each week. Trying to find a school/life balance will be something to monitor for the next two years.

The classes I am taking are:

Accounting Planning

Strategic Management

Organizational Behavior

Quantitate Business Analysis

Management Communication

Healthcare Administration

So I hope you enjoy my posts here as I pursue my degree. I hope to update once per week.

JY

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