Learning from a Free Walking Tour in Milan
I’m teaching in Europe this month; I was in Copenhagen last week and will be in Italy for the next few days. I had some open time in Milan, so I signed up for a free walking tour. I always love these because they attract an interesting group of people, and the guides have a […]
Presentation Learnings from a Dave Ramsey Event
I am a huge fan of great presentations. Unfortunately, in the business world many (most?) presentations are weak; they are plodding, cluttered and dull. People like to blame PowerPoint, but the issue isn’t the software platform. I think the issue is that people haven’t studied and just don’t know how to present well. My book […]
Making Sense of Course Feedback
One of the most unpleasant parts of teaching is reviewing the course feedback. Most instructors try to create a great class; I certainly do. So, reviewing the student evaluations is a stressful moment. Even when most of the comments are positive, the feedback from disappointed students can be painful. The Importance of Feedback Teaching is […]
It Is Time to Drop the Zoom Events
The Super Bowl is coming up, and the Kellogg Super Bowl Advertising Review along with it. For me, it is a particularly busy and fun time of year. There are campaigns to study and brands to analyze. I speak at a lot of seminars and programs before and after the Super Bowl, discussing advertising trends, the […]
Don’t Use Virtual Backgrounds!
The business world is slowly emerging from the COVID lock-down. Front-line workers have been on the job throughout the pandemic, delivering packages, cooking meals and repairing engines. Managers and executives are just now going to meetings, traveling to visit customers and attending in-person discussions. Still, it is quite clear that virtual communication will remain a […]
Seven Things We Should Learn From Zoom Teaching
This week I’m celebrating the end of a most unusual academic year – I just wrapped up my spring quarter courses. It was a busy twelve months: I taught a total of 10 courses in the Kellogg MBA program, including classes in Beijing, Miami, and Koblenz, Germany. Of the ten, four were in-person, five were […]
Learnings from Teaching a Hybrid Course
I recently wrapped up the winter quarter and this week I’ve been reflecting on what I learned. It was a new experience because I was teaching my Marketing Strategy course in a hybrid format, with some students in the room and some elsewhere. Back in the fall I had a mix of in-person and Zoom […]
A Case Competition Adapts to a Zoom World
COVID19 has turned the world of education upside down. The classroom experience has changed in profound ways; some instructors are teaching completely on Zoom, others are wearing masks and speaking to small, distanced classes, others are working to figure out a hybrid system. Still others are experimenting with asynchronous content to complement synchronous classes. Of […]
Learnings from the Kellogg Classroom – Fall 2020
This is an off week for teachers all around the world, and a great time to reflect. The few remaining Christmas festivities are largely behind us and classes have not yet started up. So I sat down with all the student feedback I received from the fall quarter to reflect on what I learned. The […]
Kicking Off the Fall Quarter: Four Teaching Observations
This week I kicked off my fall quarter – three courses and over two hundred students. I have two classes that are largely in-person, socially distanced and masked, and one class that is on Zoom. Here are four learning points from the first classes. In-Person Still Works I wondered if an in-person class would work […]
How COVID is Sparking Innovation in Kellogg’s Branding Program
COVID 19 is causing disruption for brands all over the world. It is also sparking innovation. Recently I’ve seen this happen with the executive education branding program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Disruption and Innovation Perhaps my favorite topic to teach is defensive strategy. When competitors attack, brands have to defend aggressively. Failing […]
Spring Teaching and Zoom: The Student Feedback
Last weekend I sat down and read through the student feedback from my spring quarter Biomedical Marketing courses. Reviewing student feedback is always a strange experience. There are the positive comments, and these are delightful. It is a pleasure to hear from students that they learned something and valued all the effort that went into […]