Living The Dream

Many of you know Maslow’s pyramid of needs. Actually, Maslow never came up with a pyramid. He had a ladder. Other people took his ladder and created a pyramid that is now used in management books.

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Rich people can and do risk more than ordinary people. And they do so intentionally. This puts them at a disadvantage. Ironically, these risks and dangers are rarely experienced by middle class or poor people, because these risky activities require expensive equipment, machines or gear.

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I’m 3/4 into the Master of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSIE) degree program at HEC Paris, and it is time to write a reflection on my experience. I’ll think about whether it was worth the time and effort, and of course if I’m getting what I expected.

It’s worth mentioning that a lot of universities and colleges moved to virtual classes. We, at MSIE, had a 100% virtual/online program from the beginning. Our cohort is number four which means HEC and Coursera figured out a lot of issues that they might have had before, like in any version 1.0 product. My cohort started in Jun 2019 so this post marks a year into the program.

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Time flies. I’m already about two-thirds into the MSc Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at HEC Paris. The previous post I wrote was My HEC Paris Journey, Part IV: Organize and Incentivize. From the time I published it, I’ve taken these seven courses:

1. Design Thinking,
2. Social Entrepreneurship & Changemaking,
3. Scaling Up Operations,
4. Marketing through Social Media,
5. Team Working,
6. How to Create a Business Plan and
7. Fundamentals of Negotiation.

That’s a lot of courses in a span of several months. There were a lot of useful tidbits, insights and tips. Too many to write about right now. Ergo, I’ll talk in more details about the latest course which I finished today—Fundamentals of Negotiation.

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In our day and age, learning is more important than ever because things change so rapidly. I learned and taught a lot of things during my career which led me to discover that the best and the most effective learning method is to use MMAT: Motivation, Methodology, Action and Time.

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In English, to wish someone a nice and tasty meal is said with “enjoy your meal”. I never liked this phrase because it sounds like a command—enjoy! And if you don’t obey my command then there will be repercussions. Of course, it’s silly to think of this phrase this way but still the “enjoy your meal” phrase sounds too harsh and not elegant. Maybe people try to remind each other that they should enjoy their food instead of gulping fast food on the go or chowing down a salad while browsing Facebook and answering emails?

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We’re halfway done with the phase one of the Master of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship program at HEC Paris. This post will summarize two new courses that I’ve taken and passed: New Product Development and Organizational Design and Management. The common theme of these two courses is organizing teams and incentivizing them, hence the name of the post.

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It’s time to write a new blog post about my experience in the HEC Paris Master of Science program. I’ve taken two new courses: Business strategy and Strategic Management of Innovation. They were somewhat related which was good for building a broad knowledge, because several concepts and topics were used and discussed from different angles in both courses. When I was a schoolboy, I liked strategy games like chess, Civilization and Command & Conquer. I had to balance building roads and factories with investment in defense and military troops. As with these games, in business it’s all about the strategy.

Let me first tell you about the Business Strategy course.

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It’s already been two months since I was accepted into and joined the MSIE program at HEC Paris (Master of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship). Right away, there were two courses that I needed to pass within a month of July 2019. Luckily, there was a summer break in August. So the deadlines for the final exams were extended one month (into the second month of the program). The first two courses were Entrepreneurial Strategy and Boosting Creativity. Let me share a little bit about the courses and the final exams.

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Two months ago, I applied and was accepted to a master’s program at a prestigious business school (ranked #2), HEC Paris. The degree is titled Master of Science in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MSIE). It has 10 normal courses, 10 practical project-based courses and one large team project. The master’s program lasts about one year and a half. Thus the program ends in 2020. However the graduation will be in 2021, because HEC has only one graduation ceremony which is held in its beautiful Paris campus.

I finished my first Master’s degree in 2007. It was Master of Science in Information Systems Technology from the University of Northern Virginia. I don’t like traditional universities and degrees. I’m a strong proponent of modern online education like Node University or Udacity. I taught at the Hack Reactor coding academy and I’m a huge fan of vocational schools that teach practical trades as opposed to abstract and theoretical knowledge unnecessary for real-world jobs. Needless to say, that there are a lot of materials available online via YouTube and blogs. So it might come as a surprise that I’m getting a second master’s degree. However, I decided to commit to getting a second Master of Science degree for the following reasons:

• Motivation: When you pay 10s of thousands of dollars or euros you are more motivated to continue and finish the studies
• Focus and pre-filter: Someone with a good reputation already did the selection for me. I avoid ads or possible distractions from web surfing when I’m on Coursera.
• European perspective: Living in San Francisco and Silicon Valley area for the last seven years I understand that we live in a bubble here. SF is not the entire world which has other, bigger and more real, problems. It’s nice to hear and learn another perspective on business and innovation.
• Content: Things change fast and after 12 years, it’ll be nice to become a student again and get a nice broad overview of current methods and techniques in entrepreneurship in a nice distraction-free format (reading blogs or watching YouTube is a pain!).
• Experience: the MSIE program is mostly (50%+) project based which gives actual experience instead of just abstract lectures.
• Brand and Network: HEC Paris is the number 2 business school in Europe with a large and global presence, brand and alumni network. Brand is great because it attracts the best students (for peer learning), best coaches (for projects) and best faculty (for lectures).
• Convenience: The MSIE program is 100% online with weekly live calls, chat rooms, forums and online proctored exams. I don’t like the idea of being confined to one location and a set time for lectures for the next two years. With this format, I can travel often or even move to a new place altogether.
• Relatively cheap: The MSIE, HEC Paris program costs only 20,000 euros compared to ~$30-40,000 USD for master’s from Harvard Extension or $150,000 USD for Wharton EMBA.

I looked at other Master’s programs. In particular, I researched Wharton Executive MBA (WEMBA) in San Francisco. They fly all the faculty from Pennsylvania every other week. I even took a few courses from the same program. The requirement of being tied and having to come to SF every other week for two years is too limiting for me. The price is very steep.

I looked at master’s degrees from Harvard Extension and even took a course from them. I didn’t like their approach. It’s too rigid with the focus on minute details, facts and rote memorization. The requirements for home assignments for some courses are too arcane (must be only in MS Word with certain font size and margins). The fact that they require students to come to every live webinar every week (missing even a single webinar is not allowed) is very depressing and limiting. The platform is clunky (can’t download videos for online viewing).

I like that HEC Paris uses Coursera which is one of the best platforms for online courses. The MSIE content is relatively new and the approach is more practical. I’m in cohort 4 which means that it’s only the fourth batch of students. If I’m not mistaken, cohorts 2 and 3 are still studying and haven’t graduated. Being in the 4th cohort means that university and Coursera ironed out all the kinks and perfected the program.

The application process was lengthy but totally doable: a few essays, video cover letter, bio, experience and two references (done by email). The Coursera and HEC Paris staff are responsive and all the logistics ran smoothly so far. The students have incredible backgrounds and I’m sure we’ll learn a great deal from each other in addition to the lectures and projects.

I’ll try to keep writing about my journey through this innovative and practical Master of Science program.