Archive for the 'stern' Category

New Gig

Lefty December 16th, 2008

So the big news here is that, after a joyous six months of working on personal projects and freelancing (at Euro RSCG and MCD Partners), I’ll be starting a new job on January 5th. I’ll be joining Organic, one of the original Silicon Alley interactive agencies (and current Omnicom company), as Director of Strategy. It’s a pure account planning role, where my key responsibility will be to provide consumer insights to our creatives in order to deliver effective client work. The day-to-day will consist of a whole lot of talking to consumers, as well as research, writing, and presentations on digital media.

I’m honestly very excited to start. Organic is a great company (with a great blog), and I think this role will be a really challenging opportunity for me. I’ll probably be working mostly on Bank of America to start, with some new business work thrown in as well.

Done!

Lefty September 26th, 2008

After three years of classes, homework, group assignments, presentations, and textbooks, I finally finished my last class at Stern last Tuesday. All I need now is the big diploma with “MBA” on it.

spring semester

Lefty December 26th, 2007

I just got my course schedule for the spring semester at NYU. I’m taking classes on Business Communication, the Entertainment & Media Industry, and the one I’m most excited about: Game Theory. I think this class will finally position me to take my rightful place as Lefty Leibowitz, Math Genius.

B65.3323 Game Theory and Business Strategy (3 credits)
Course Description: Game theory studies competitive and cooperative behavior in strategic environments, where the fortunes of several players are intertwined. It provides methods for identifying optimal strategies and predicting the outcome of strategic interactions. The field of game theory began around 1900 when mathematicians began asking whether there were optimal strategies for parlor games such as chess and poker, and, if so, what these strategies might look like. The first comprehensive formulation of the subject came in 1944, with the publication of the book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by famous mathematician John von Neumann and eminent economist Oskar Morgenstern. As its title indicates, this book also marked the beginning of the application of game theory to economics. Since then, game theory has been applied to many other fields, including political science, military strategy, law, computer science, and biology, among other areas. In 1994, three pioneers in game theory were awarded a Nobel Prize, marking the ‘arrival’ of the field. In 2005, two other prominent researchers in game theory were awarded a Nobel Prize. Among the other applications, game theory today is finding its way into the world of business. (Pick up a business magazine or book and there is a good chance that it will use some game-theory jargon such as zero-sum game, Prisoner’s Dilemma, win-win game, etc.). As well as learning the underlying theory in the course, we’ll be looking at how game theory can indeed be applied to business.

Looking ahead to 2008

Lefty December 9th, 2007

I’ve been a bit neglectful of posting here over the last month, as I’ve been focused on getting a huge project out the door at work. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about the upcoming year and all the big decisions that need to be made. There are a lot of things happening next year, and all of them are going to require some thinking:

1. In February the aforementioned project will launch, so I’ll need to figure out what to do afterwards. I can stay the course, or I can more seriously pursue the online video project that most of my posts lately have been hinting at. We’re also going to take a vacation in March and I need to decide where to go. The contenders right now are: snowboarding in upstate NY or VT, snowboarding and visiting friends in Portland, visiting the state of Michoacan in Mexico, or perhaps just finding a nice tropical beach to surf in Costa Rica.

2. I’ll be graduating from Stern, most likely in the August. The program has been taking up pretty much all my free time over the last two years, and finishing will be a real transition point. It will free up a lot of time and mental energy for me, and I think also open some opportunities to go in different directions.

3. Related to both the above, I need to decide where to live. I’ve been back in NYC for 13 years now (after spending my childhood here), and the pace can take a toll. My wife and I have been talking a lot lately about moving out to the Pacific Northwest, and now that my school obligations are wrapping up, we’ll have the opportunity to do so. But leaving NYC won’t be an easy decision - I’ve got a lifetime of friends, relationships, family, and experiences here. At the same time, the call of life in a more manageable city, and the adventure of new surroundings, is very strong.

9/29-10/6

Lefty September 29th, 2007

With the advent of fall and the welcome relief from NYC summer heat, I’m planning a busy week!

Sunday, 9/30: It’s time to start getting in shape for hockey season. I think I’ll head out to the beautiful new rink at Aviator Sports for open hockey in the morning, and then fill up on tacos at the Red Hook ball fields for lunch with Emily.

Wednesday, 10/3: This is going to tough - there are three events that I want to check out, all featuring varying degrees of geekiness:

- First, my pal Todd Seavey is holding another edition of Lolita debates on the LES. This program is the descendant of the Athenaeum Society debates I used to run, but I haven’t had a chance to attend much over the last couple of years. The topic is “Is the Ivy League Superior?”, which is sure to stir up controversy.

- Second, the NY Tech Meetup is going on. Every month 500 or so folks that are interested in technology in NYC get together and watch while six people demo something cool to the larger community. I’m not sure what’s on tap for this week, but I’ve heard good things about this event and I’ve wanted to attend for awhile.

- Third, Dorkbot NYC is getting together. Their motto is “people doing strange things with electricity” and this month’s meeting features an inventor of an interactive haunted house, a presentation on the topic “Robots on Fire”, and a demo of the mysterious “SensorBib.” This is another one I’ve been meaning to check out for awhile.

And, of course, on Thursday, 10/4 is the kickoff of Stern’s annual business plan competition. I had a great time participating in this program last year, when me and the crew from Materialite made it to the semi-finals. I’ve got a few ideas I’m thinking about entering this year as well.

The Resolution (for now)

Lefty April 29th, 2007

After over six months of preparation, Materialite (my team’s entry into Stern’s annual business plan competition) went before the judges for the final time on Friday. Our presentation came off really well, and I thought we nailed all the judges’ questions. They were very generous with their praise, telling us that it was one of the best plans and presentations they’d seen in all their years of judging. In the end, though, they didn’t believe that our business had the potential for “social impact” that some of the other plans had. And so, we didn’t win.

After the event, one of the judges came up to us and reiterated the above, encouraging us to go forward with the idea and telling us that we would have had a real chance to win if we were in the “traditional” entrepreneurship competition rather than the social entrepreneurship competition (which requires that the business has a “double bottom line” of financial performance and the above-mentioned “social impact.”)

So all-in-all, the day was more encouraging than discouraging, though obviously there’s a bit of disappointment in not winning. Next we’re all going to take a couple of weeks off to rest up after all the stress of the final judging and then get together to discuss what to try next.

Random Personal News

Lefty March 12th, 2007

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written on here, since I’ve been super swamped with school and work. Here’s a post that qualifies as “random personal news” if there ever was one:

- Materialite, my team’s entry into the Stern business plan contest, just got passed through to the next round. We’ve just got three other teams to beat out now in order to win the $100,000 first prize.

- I had a great poker night at Michael Malice’s on Friday. I was the third to get knocked out (out of six players), but the company, Chex mix, and Modelo Especial were a big hit. I also walked out the door with a brand new copy of the Batman: Year One graphic novel, courtesy of Scott.

- Guitar Hero 2 rules. My love for karaoke now has a serious rival.

- Emily, Champ, and I are heading up to the Catskills this weekend (specifically Roxbury, NY in Delaware County). I’ll post some Flickr shots of our planned snowtubing outing when I return. (link to Googlemap)

- We finally hooked up our Netflix subscription a few weeks back. I was skeptical about signing up for a long time, but now I’m totally sold on the service. They make it so much easier to watch and rent films. Movies rented so far: Dog Day Afternoon, Grey Gardens, The Departed, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Up next I have about 30 Japanese samurai movies, starting with Shogun Assassin!

- My ice hockey team, the Tanya Hardings, upset the #2 team in the league in our first round playoff game by a score of 3-2. Semi-finals, here we come. (I was also fortunate enough to score a goal in the game, the credit for which I give entirely to my hard-nosed, never-say-die teammates.)

- Gotham Girls Roller Derby finally got a new practice space - it’s a big warehouse in Astoria. I haven’t been up there yet, but I hear it’s looking pretty good. The plan is for the season to start up again in the spring sometime.

- No SXSW this year for me. My entrepreneurial finance class was on Sunday, and I really didn’t want to skip it (since it’s the best class I’ve taken yet at Stern.) I’m hoping to hear some good stories of A-Town adventures upon people’s return to NYC.

That’s about it for now. I’ll write something more tech/entrepreneurship/nyc related next time, I promise.

Stern New Venture Fair

Lefty February 24th, 2007

This Monday evening, I’ll be joining the rest of the Materialite team as well as other quarterfinalists at the Stern New Venture Fair. We’ll be manning a table and answering questions from the fair attendees, which will supposedly be made up of potential funders and advisors. Should be fun.

Entrepreneurship Week USA

Lefty February 24th, 2007

If you didn’t know it, the good folks at the Kaufmann Foundation are launching Entrepreneurship Week USA this week (February 24-March 3). They’ve got a big event out in Stanford to kick the week off, but us East Coasters have some options to participate as well. On Monday in DC they are hosting a conference on entrepreneurship in public policy (including the effects of legislation on immigration, healthcare, and education.) And in New York on Tuesday, they are holding a networking event at NYU Stern to connect young entrepreneurs with potential mentors.

Semi-Finalist Candidate

Lefty February 17th, 2007

We just heard word that our “social entrepreneurship” entrant into the Stern Business Plan Competition has survived into the “Semi-Finalist Candidate” round. There had been 40 plans in the competition, but only 12 made it into the current round (including us). Now we have to write a full-fledged plan by March 1st, at which point the field will narrow to 4. At stake: $100,000 in prize money!

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