Tiger Sisters - Spilling the Tea: Harvard Business School (HBS) vs. Stanford Business School (GSB)

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Hi everyone, it's Cherie and Jean. We're giving an inside look into our experiences at GSB (Stanford) and HBS (Harvard) MBA programs. This is the first episode of the Tiger Sisters video series and we hope you find it helpful. Let us know in the comments what other questions you have about career, school, or life. We want to share the ups and downs of our experiences so you can learn from our mistakes and choices. We've been there and we are here to help.

Hi, I'm Jean. And I'm Sheree. And we're sisters. So I just graduated from Stanford's Business School around two and a half weeks ago. And I graduated from Harvard Business School seven years ago. Today, in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about our experiences at each school and kind of compare and contrast what we did. Yeah, let's do it.

So first question for you, what was your favorite class? Oh my gosh. So many amazing classes. so many fabulous professors. One of my favorites I'm thinking of right now is this class called Founders Dilemmas with Professor Shakar Ghosh. And the reason why it was one of my favorites is obviously the content of it,

which was all about founders, every single class we had a different founder challenge that we talked through. So not only was it super relevant to me at the time because I was working on my startup, as you know, and it's relevant once again because we're working on our startup together. but the main reason is because of the professor, Professor Gosch. So obviously he's this fantastic like Titan of industry

and he's built and sold $100 million companies, but he was just, he just cared about us as students so much and he cared about our learning, he cared about our growth. And like for example, at the end of the class, he actually gave each of us a book with like a personalized note in every one of the books, and it was just really, it was so touching. Because his care for us as students came through so much, we actually bonded a lot as a class, and we actually had this really close-knit community within the class. And even today, some of my really good friends are from that class,

and I never would have known them had it not been for Professor Gosh creating that environment. Yeah. I felt like my experience at Stanford in terms of getting to know the professors and really feeling how much they care about the students changed my entire like academic and also like community experience. In undergrad, I feel like a lot of the classes I took were these like giant lecture halls, 300 people. It was really hard to get to know the professor but like since the classes are much smaller in grad school, you have like one-on-one opportunities and the professors like really care much more I feel like about the students and getting to know them. I will. I will take a little bit of credit for that because I felt like in my HBS experience, one of my, like, not regrets,

wish I gotten to know more professors better. And so that was something I remember I told you when you were going into GSP. I was like really, you know, make the effort to try to get to know your professors because they're just so amazing. And given the opportunity, they will like really invest in you. I've had professors invite students to their house completely like host them for like dinners and like the professor. Yeah, like group dinners. group dinners and professors aren't like, you know, talking about how great they are, because we already know how great they are. The professors who are like Titans in the industry, who are like, many of them, million billionaires. And they're like interested in getting to know

us. AsimR. That definitely turns someone on out there. Weirdly. There was a similar class at Stanford that was focused on startups and founders. It was called Formation of New Ventures and I just took it this past spring. It was taught by the iconic Jim Ellis, Patricia Akash, and Scott Brady, who are incredible professors. And it really focused on founders at different parts of a life cycle for a startup. So in the very beginning of the class, we talked about the founder's chemistry. Like if there's three founders and they have these skill sets, do they work and complement each other? Will they be successful? All the way to the end of the quarter, we talked about like exit opportunities for startups. Could they IPO? Could they be bought by another company? And what were some of the

decision-making factors for CEOs and the founders at that point? Yeah. Actually, I think the corollary to that class at HBS is a class called Scaling Tech Ventures by Professor Jeff Busking. And I think actually nowadays, I mean, I've been, I'm seven years out of HBS, but I think nowadays there's so many more classes that are all focused on sort of the entrepreneurial journey and that entire set of curriculum. You graduated from Harvard Business School seven years ago. Now looking back on your experience, was it worth it? Absolutely.

Harvard Business School was worth it, and it was not for the reasons why I thought it would be worth it going in. So, as you know, I almost didn't go. I almost turned it down. And actually, for me, it was a really difficult decision to even decide to go to Harvard Business School. And it was because I was coming from Silicon Valley. I was coming from the world of tech.

And a lot of my most honestly like trusted and revered mentors and advisors were telling me that it was a bad idea. And I was going to be giving up, you know, super valuable time in my career. So even going into business school, I was a little bit, I was just a little bit hesitant even going in. But now that I'm seven years out, I can confidently say it was one of the best decisions I had ever made. And the reason is actually because of, and I almost like hate to say this word because it doesn't fit what I'm thinking, but it would be what people say is the network. But like for me, I don't view my like relationships with my friends as a network. I'm just like these are my organic friends that I'm genuinely friends with that I love to hang out with and like catch up with, et cetera. And then like they have friends that they know.

I love to almost like peer mentor each other, even though that's. not something we would ever call it. We've never been like, oh, great, like, had a great time catching up with you and, like, peer mentoring each other. We would never say that. It's just, like, it's just part of our natural conversation. Yeah, like, we need a movement to redefine, like, networking or, like, what is a network? Because I feel like the word is, like, so icky to people nowadays. You're like, oh, my God, LinkedIn, it's the networking platform. Or like, oh, I have to go to a networking event, blah, blah, blah. Like, we need to redefine what the word networking means. Because at business school, it is networking, but it feels so organic because you get to know people as people.

And yes, people do have career ambitions and the things that they're passionate about. But because it's so authentic to who they are, it comes up naturally in conversation. And you're like, oh, what are you working on now? But it's like people care so much. And because your friends outside of like work stuff, people just like want to help each other. Well, and also I think it's that you have similar interests, right? people who go to business school are interested in business and find it fun and like interesting and like actually think it's cool to like build up companies and help each other be successful.

So that naturally becomes part of your conversation. So that's why I'm actually hesitant to even say the word network. It's mostly that the vast majority of my closest friends today that I'm in touch with most often are actually all from HBS. And I imagine and I actually I'm pretty confident this is going to be true is that I'm going to end up making even more friends over the course of, you know, over the fullness of time, over the course of my lifetime,

that are also from the HBS network or basically just like HBS friends or friends of friends. What should we call it if we don't call it network? Because like when you're hanging out with your like classmates on a Thursday night at Beer Pong League and getting to know them as people, that's like networking, but it's also not like there's... Yeah, that's a GSP thing.

We didn't have that at HBO. Like, what would you call it if not, like, networking? Or what should we call it? It's just friendships. Yeah. With people who share a lot of common interests and are similarly, I guess, like, ambitious, passionate, excited about, like, same or even, like, different industries. But, like, they just want to help each other. What were the biggest differences you saw between my experience at Stanford and your experience at Harvard?

Yeah. So one of the things that was most surprising about the difference between HBS classes and GSP classes, and I actually got to go to a few of the GSP classes, which was kind of cool because they were so different. But I guess that would be the exact difference between HBS and GSP, is that within GSP, they're all different types of classes that range from lectures to case studies to almost like undergrad style classes that are really like workshop focused and you even like work on prompts together in class.

At HBS, that would never be the case because HBS is actually really well known and famous for the case study method, which is that for every single class, you have a case study, which is essentially a essay or like research, a mini research paper about a company in a situation that everyone reads ahead of time.

And when you get to class, you need to be ready and you need to be prepared to express your opinion and answer questions about that case study. So because of the case study method, one, classes were much more emphasized at HBS than GSP were. Because every single class you went into, you could be cold-called versus I felt like at GSP it was a lot more relaxed depending on the class because some classes had no cold call. Yeah. Cold call is when the professor picks on anyone at random and you don't raise your hand and they just say, hey, Jean, can you tell me why did Alexander, the CEO,

or Alexandra, the CEO, choose to, you know, take investment from venture capital fund A versus venture capital fund B and do you think it was the right reason and like, why not? Or it would be something that's even more specific to the case. It would be like, hey, Gene, like this case about, you know, the history of Singapore and the, you know, the building up of Singapore's business economy. Can you summarize to the class, like the three main reasons why that happened? And then you would be like, oh. Yeah, that's so nerve-wracking.

Yeah. Oh, my God. Even thinking about it now, I'm like starting to sweat because it's like a big deal. Because first of all, all the classes have like 90 people generally. And so you're like giving a speech and you're like answering in front of 90 people. Granted, everyone like wants you to do well. but there are definitely times, very comical times when it was very clear that the person who was cold called did not answer the case. Did not read the case.

And then it would, the professor would either kind of try to help them along or they'd be like, oh, I got you. And they would really just like needle the person into the ground. That was rare. But in either case, like, you know, the class we were always like supportive of, you. each other as classmates. The reason why the case study method is so well known and famous and kind of revered is because it's a very specific way of learning where each student has to put themselves

in the shoes of the protagonist of the case. So the protagonist is usually the CEO, or maybe the protagonist is a newly graduated HBS student who's like taking on this role as like, you know, head of the factory for the first time but every single case you put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist and you have to answer for yourself what would I do in this case so that's why it's like really powerful it's almost like getting like hundreds of little snapshots of business experiences over time and then

understanding through the course of the class and the course of the class discussion that's facilitated by the professor what they actually ended up doing why they decide to do it what is the recommended course of action and you kind of get to like look back on yourself. It's like, okay, why did I think this was the right course of action? And like, what have I learned that I can apply going forwards? So you've worked at iconic tech and finance companies. Why was it important to get your MBA? Yeah.

So I would say in both tech and finance, they're both very male-dominated industries. And I would say in such industries, there's a lot of unconscious bias. And as a woman in these industries, having an MBA, especially from an institution such as Harvard or Stanford, is in a lot of ways kind of like an unspoken totem. And to quote my former CMO, that's something that people in the room can never take away from you. They might not know anything else about you, but the fact that they know that you went to X business school and you have that sort of degree and pedigree behind every single thing that you're saying in the room. it really makes a difference. And I think that's something that people may not even recognize about themselves. I think it's an unspoken truth that people don't really want to admit.

But having an institution like Harvard and Stanford, especially in business school, people want to take that call with you or want to have that conversation with you just because they see a Harvard or Stanford business school on your resume. Yeah, I would say that's true for a lot of cases. and I would say maybe said in a more sinister way, I think there are a lot of times as a woman in business where people are kind of looking for a reason to dismiss you and having a degree,

having a business degree or having a grad school degree behind your name make you less dismissable. Yeah. And add like immediate credibility when you walk into the room and people haven't met you before, but they've seen that you have this like stamp on your resume. And I'm not saying that's the right thing. In fact, I think that's a very wrong thing.

It's kind of just like the reality that I've experienced over my last like professional career. Yeah. And I would say that for certain people that walk through the world and a certain identity or experience, having that is more important than others. Yeah. Like one of my professors like said this analogy and I thought it was really helpful. but like if you're born starting on third base, like you don't need these things behind your name generally.

And it's helpful. But like if you're not born on third base and you don't have, you know, that type of access, like it does help having it on your resume or even having an email that's like blah, blah, blah at Stanford.edu. Because everyone at school and, you know, the administration, they're always just like having this email or having, you know, this alumni network will open up so many doors for you. And you know what?

they're right. It's the uncomfortable reality that we live in now and I really hope it changes, but this is what I've dealt with and I've seen it to be true. Damn, she said it. She said it. I want a stamford.edu email address. How do I get one? Get a PhD. Okay. Adding that to the list, PhD.