A Harvard MBA Gives Kellogg The McKinsey Treatment

Kellogg School of Management. Photo by John A. Byrne.

The idea to do exit interviews of graduates came out of a town hall meeting at which a Kellogg MBA, who formerly worked for General Electric and had already landed a product manager’s job with Apple, made the suggestion.

Ziegler took the idea to heart, enlisting the MBA to design the questions. She invited all of Kellogg’s nearly 1,000 graduates to participate and insured that only direct reports to Dean Sally Blount would conduct the interviews.

“It was very important that the senior team did it,” she insists, because it signaled that everyone on the senior team cares. And not every one on the senior team gets to spend a lot of time with students so we wanted them to hear what they have to say.”

EXIT INTERVIEWS: SIX CORE QUESTIONS ASKED OF THE CLASS OF 2012

The school created 200 interview slots and filled all of them within a day. Ziegler herself did 95 of the 225 exit conversations in the bold red leather chairs in her office.

At the core of each session, lasting roughly 30 minutes, were six questions:

1)   What were your expectations of Kellogg and how did the school perform against them?

2)   What did you like most and what did you like least?

3)   Has there ever been a time when you felt especially proud to be a Kellogg student?

4)   Has there ever been a time when you have been less proud?

5)   Let’s pretend you have Sally’s job or my job. What would you do?

6)   Would you recommend Kellogg? Whether your the answer is yes or no, what is the single reason you would give for your recommendation?

ANSWERS MOSTLY REAFFIRMED THE VALUE OF KELLOGG’S CLOSE-KNIT COLLABORATIVE CULTURE

The answers to those questions largely reaffirmed the value of Kellogg’s close-knit culture. Some 223 of 225 interviewees said they would recommend the school to others. The remaining two students said they would recommend Kellogg to people who they thought would best ‘fit” the school. “The number one reason is some combination of people, culture and community–one of those three words,” she says. “The other reason that came up a lot was a phrase that seemed a little bit like, ‘you will be a better person after you have been at Kellogg.’ It’s this idea that I am better because I spent two years here.”

Out of those exit conversations came the idea to have a fully dedicated staffer in Kellogg’s career management center devoted to international students and domestic students who are seeking jobs outside the U.S.

Why is this stuff important?

Ziegler puts it this way: there are seven schools most often considered the best in the world: Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Columbia, and MIT Sloan.

THE BEST SEVEN BUSINESS SCHOOLS DELIVER THREE THINGS CONSISTENTLY

“If you go to any of the top seven schools, you get three things consistently,” she says. “You get a great academic experience, though the pedagogy may be different. You get an amazing alumni experience because you get access to an outstanding alumni networks. These schools have produced great leaders over decades and decades of time. And the third thing is that the likelihood of you getting a really good job is very high because the top recruiters are coming to each of these schools to find the best and brightest. The mix might be different at any one place, but recruiters really want the students who graduate from these schools.

“Those you get no matter what. What makes Kellogg differentiated is this culture and community,” Ziegler believes. “I characterize it as being one of partnership or co-creation. It is a student-driven culture that supports a diverse array of voices and ideas at the table. Our students deeply care about one another. A typical story I hear is about the students who say they were up for the same job at Orbitz yet they helped each other prepare for the job interviews. And then, when one got the offer, the other student who didn’t sent a card and flowers congratulating the winner.

“Or I hear stories about how swamped students might be but they will always respond to another student who asks for help. I think that is special, particularly relative to the other six in the seven. That is something we really cherish and celebrate and need to continue to cultivate. Not every person wants that. Not every person wants to be expected to play a leadership role and put his or her fingerprints on the school. That’s okay. That’s why there are lots of choices.”

DON’T MISS: KELLOGG DEAN SALLY BLOUNT’S BRAVE NEW STRATEGY or THE WORLD’S BEST MBA CAREER MANAGEMENT CENTERS

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