Dropbox peace of mind

First-year student Rohan Rajiv is blogging once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. Read more of his posts here.

If I had to summarize my learning on pricing from my Microeconomics classes, it would be: avoid price competition like the plague. And to do that – differentiate, differentiate, differentiate.

We discussed Dropbox’s move last year to lower prices to compete with Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. The big question was whether this was going to be a race to the bottom in a future where storage would inevitably be free.

Now, Dropbox is one of my favorite products. I have been a user since the early days when they used to be hosted on “getdropbox.com” and their brand had nothing but positive associations. All my working files sit on Dropbox, and ever since I did that three years ago, I’ve never had to fret about whether my working files will ever be lost.

So I thought I’d put together two recommendations for Dropbox based on what I’ve learned in Marketing and Microeconomics in the past few months. 

Students develop forecasting tool for Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls and Kellogg’s Analytical Consulting Lab have had a partnership that extends back to the spring quarter of 2012. In the fall quarter of 2014, a team of second year students (Gavin Driskill, Andres Oksenberg, Pankaj Tanwar and Bruno Valle) completed the most recent project with the Chicago Bulls as part of the course, led by Professor Russell Walker.

Since the team’s first season in 1966-67, the Chicago Bulls have evolved into one of the most iconic teams in all of sports and developed a brand recognized around the world. The Bulls organization won six NBA championships in 1991-1993 and 1996-98, and in recent years has reached the playoffs six consecutive times and made nine appearances in 10 seasons.

In addition, through community relations efforts and support from Chicago Bulls Charities, the organization has made an impact on Chicago by contributing time, materials, resources and financial donations with an emphasis on youth education, youth health and wellness, and violence prevention. Through the efforts of everyone associated with the team, the Chicago Bulls have established a tradition of excellence on and off the basketball court.

The Bulls, led by Director of Analytics Matt Kobe ’11, presented the ACL team with a merchandise and concession forecasting challenge. The team wanted to improve the forecasting of these revenue streams to help the team better plan and promote throughout the season.

The Polar Plunge with Lady Gaga and Vince Vaughn

On Sunday, more than 4,500 people braved the frigid waters of Lake Michigan to take the 2015 Chicago Polar Plunge and raise more than $1.1 million for Special Olympics.

Along with celebrities who took the dip — like Vince Vaughn and Lady Gaga — were nine Kellogg students, including four Kellogg Board Fellows.

The team of Board Fellows raised nearly $4,000 for the cause.

An intro to Kellogg’s Career Management Center

What is DAK? That was my first question as I began my role as Managing Director of the Career Management Center (CMC) just over a year ago. DAK stands for “Day at Kellogg” and we held our first DAK of 2015 this past February.

DAK is an extended weekend where admitted students and their spouse, significant other, partner, etc. come to get a feel for the real Kellogg. It is a peek behind the curtain and a glimpse into what a life at Kellogg would feel like, from the social experience and academic life to my personal favorite – navigating your career life!

I spoke with a few hundred admitted students about the high-quality student and alumni career support they could expect to receive as a member of the Kellogg community.

Kellogg announces 2015 Youn Impact Scholars

Tree farms that bring green space, jobs, and new hope to American towns in the grip of post-industrial decay; investments that help small businesses thrive in the face of withering conditions: these are just a few of several forward-thinking projects being implemented by this year’s cohort of Youn Impact Scholars.

The program, in its second year, honors students and alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to becoming leaders in social impact in any chosen field, says Elizabeth Coston, Kellogg’s manager of social innovation. “We’re agnostic about whether they’re going into nonprofit, corporate, government, education — they are committed to somehow having a positive impact on society or within their organization,” Coston says.

A Tweeting priest, and what he’s learning at Kellogg

Photo by Victor Sokolowicz

From Northwestern Magazine — By Sean Hargadon

The chants rose to the roof of the Owen L. Coon Forum: “Manny! Manny! Manny!”

The Cash Cows had just won the Kellogg School of Management’s new student Olympics, and soon Manny — who had emerged as a leader during the weeklong orientation program that pits teams of first-year MBA students against each other in collaboration-inducing competitions — was being tossed in the air.

“It was like a high school football game for me,” says Manuel Dorantes, who is also known as “Father Manny.” “It was phenomenal.

There are no stupid questions. Just ask a Nobel Prize winner.

First-year student Rohan Rajiv is blogging once a week about important lessons he is learning at Kellogg. Read more of his posts here.

In our first Microeconomics class this quarter, our professor spoke of her experiences presenting research to audiences that included Nobel Prize winners. She noticed that the Nobel Prize winners were most often the ones who raised their hands and asked questions. Some of the questions could be perceived as simple questions, as they occasionally sought to clarify some of the most basic concepts of the discussion.

When she observed this pattern repeat over and over again, she realized it was that willingness to learn and dig deep that made the Nobel Prize winners special. They might not have understood the topic when they started, but they saw to it that they didn’t stay uninformed for long. Our professor’s message to us was to make sure we asked questions about any concept we didn’t understand in class.