Hussein Kanji: Why London? (London Business School)
"I know I'm taking a gamble. I'm making a bet on a school that's largely unknown in the United States, passing on my alma mater, and moving to a country where technology seems to mean individual taps for hot and cold water."
Two days ago, I wrote a rather hefty check to London Business School. Actually, in that great American tradition of consumer debt, I charged the amount. Either way, it's official. I'm heading to the United Kingdom and going back to school.
There are a couple of different kinds of reactions I get when I share my news.
One reaction is that lots of friends stare at me, befuddled. You're doing what? What do you need business school for? Do you know how many MBA graduates would kill to do what you do now? What do you hope to learn that you haven't already picked up?
I suppose it's because they think I've done well for myself in my career. I guess I've been pretty fortunate.
It wasn't too long ago that I was invited to help build a new strategic acquisitions practice at Microsoft (MSFT). Without giving away too much, my job is to help Microsoft divisions craft their inorganic growth strategies. I recently spent a couple of months jamming on MSN's acquisition framework. To my friends who love corporate life, I couldn't be in a better spot. My VP, a former partner at McKinsey, deadpans that my job is high beta – high-risk, high-reward. He's right. The job is great. It's one of those rare gigs that let you make a direct impact on an industry leader. There's a definite opportunity cost in leaving.
So why pack up, move to another continent, and attend London Business School?
Two reasons.
I had my career eureka a few years ago in the midst of raising a first-round of financing for my startup. Up until that time, I had always thought of myself as an entrepreneur. But as I began to work with the venture capital community, a thought struck me: Should I be considering early-stage venture capital as a full-time profession?
I was bitten by the startup bug early on. My freshman year at Stanford coincided with the birth of Mosaic Communications. Mosaic, of course, became Netscape and one of the Web's first success stories. In the wake of its IPO, I began to juggle a typical set of college activities — classes, writing for the school paper — with a more peculiar set — advising local startups, being a founding employee of a Web startup (which sold to KPMG), joining Sun Microsystems' strategic technology team, etc. All of this culminated in my attempt to start a dot-com in 2000, which ended when my founders and I decided not to take the money we were offered (for a litany of reasons).
It also sealed my decision to want to enter the venture-capital industry. This decision still catches some people off-guard.
Given the interest in venture capital, however, most understand. An MBA is pretty much de rigueur for the venture profession.
There are still a few holdouts. I still affectionately get "the lecture." Technology entrepreneurs don't need MBAs, I'm told. Look around. Does Steve Jobs have an MBA? Larry Ellison? Bill Gates? Entrepreneurs should start companies, not dilly-dally at venture funds or at business schools.
One friend, who sold his company for a quarter-billion and made the cover of this magazine, has been stalwart in his advice. Return to entrepreneurship. Start a company. My old boss, a former vice president of Microsoft, still gets a kick out of recalling that every recommender I turned to — including himself — sat me down, delivered stern caveats about why not to do an MBA and told me to go think about starting a company before handing me my recommendations.
In the end, though, everyone understands.
All this may explain the desire for an MBA. But not necessarily my choice of school. That's usually the next set of questions I get.
Why London? Why not Stanford? Or Harvard? Do you really want to live and work in Europe? (I'm not sure. It depends.) Stay in technology? (Definitely.)
Wouldn't Harvard or Stanford make a much better fit then? After all, if you really love high-tech, they say, you're far better off at Stanford. It's right down the street from the epicenter of venture capital. Why pack up and move to another continent just to attend business school?
Earlier this weekend, I read an interview with Jeffrey Garten, the outgoing dean of Yale's School of Management, in The New York Times. Garten asserts that schools are not doing enough to prepare students to operate in a global economy. That may be true of American schools, but I don't think the same could be said of the European schools. Schools in Europe are forced to operate in a far more global climate.
As much as I want to play to my strengths, I think school is all about the chance to plug weaknesses. I grew up in cosmopolitan New York, spent a year abroad in the Middle East and worked for the world's largest technology company, but the truth is I don't know much about business overseas.
The way I see it, technology development is increasingly dispersing overseas. Software is inherently fluid. We can argue about how long this phenomena will take to become wide-scale, but it's a clear long-term trend in the industry. There have been an explosion of articles describing the Indian, Chinese, and even Eastern European talent pools. All these markets have some comparative advantages over the U.S. (although some clear disadvantages as well).
I'm not sure how many individuals like myself, who have a good grounding in technology and an interest in international business, exist. My feeling is it's a small number. I'm hoping scarcity is on my side. Partners at funds whom I keep in contact with seem to think I'm making a sound move. My fingers are crossed.
As far as school goes, John Mullins, a professor at London Business School who holds a Stanford MBA, put it best. Twenty years ago, Harvard was the top dog and Stanford's reputation was being established. People raised an eyebrow if you chose Stanford over Harvard. Today, Stanford's become the pre-eminent business school for entrepreneurship and technology, and is pretty much on par with HBS. There is something about London Business School that feels very much like Stanford did back then. For a 40-year-old program to rise to world-class status in such short period of time only portends well for its future. I think London's emphasis on international business will only work in its favor long-term.
I know I'm taking a gamble. I'm making a bet on a school that's largely unknown in the United States, passing on my alma mater, and moving to a country where technology seems to mean individual taps for hot and cold water.
I'm not worried. I guess it's because I'm such a big believer in serendipity. Sure I fret over financing, readjusting to student life and lost salary. I know I'll always wonder if I'm sidelining myself in an ever-changing industry. But I have faith.
Years ago, when all my high school classmates found themselves applying to the same set of colleges in the Northeast, I decided to be different and go to a school 3,000 miles away. At the time, all I knew about Stanford was that it wasn't Harvard, it wasn't Yale, and it was supposed to be just as good. I may have had a grand belief that I could lie out in the California sunshine and work on a tan while my classmates were slogging through another New England nor'easter. (Nobody ever told me about Bay Area rain.) What I never expected was for Stanford to introduce me to high technology and Silicon Valley. That made attending it one of the best decisions of my life.
I like to take risks. Going off the beaten path works well for me. It's the same attitude that took me to Yemen (another story, another time) and it's what is leading me to London. I'm excited. This is going to be a brand new adventure. I can't wait.
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