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AUGUST 2000 MBA JOURNAL: INTRODUCTION Dana Kyles: Who I Am and Why B-School is for Me "Not only did I want to change industries, I wanted to learn more about the exciting market changes I frequently read about ... and that's what led me back to full-time graduate school."
I wrote that mission statement immediately after undergrad and it holds true to this day. I was merely looking for a fancy way to say, "I'm through with academia forever." So two jobs, one partnership, and one small business later, how did I end up desiring full-time graduate school? My name is Dana Kyles and I'll be attending Indiana University beginning the fall of 2000. I was born and raised in Detroit (Mich.) and attended Eastern Michigan University as an undergraduate finance major. Undergrad was an extremely rewarding experience because it gave this "inner city youth" first-time exposure to the business world via internships at a brokerage firm in New York and a commercial bank in the Midwest. More importantly, it gave me a sense of the professional I wanted to be, long-term. Instead of being the corporate "shirt" selling financial products/services, I wanted to be on the other side of the fence as a thriving entrepreneur seeking the funds to aid the expansion and growth of my own corporation. After graduation, I went into commercial banking as a commercial credit analyst. It was a very exciting starting point because as a 21-year-old professional, I was an integral part of approving multimillion-dollar loans for multinational corporations as well as the first $100,000 for a grassroots entrepreneur. I loved my career, because I analyzed the ins and outs of every aspect of a company seeking financial solutions from our bank. That gave me the inside scoop on how businesses operate. Still, the job was too conservative, regulated, and "in the box" to accommodate my entrepreneurial spirit. To provide balance, a partner and I formed my first partnership, Ascension Investment Club (AIC). AIC consisted of 12 young, minority professionals from different industries with the intent of pulling their industrial knowledge and financial resources together today for economic empowerment tomorrow. It was our way of building equity for future business opportunities. After nearly two years of banking and AIC, something had to change. AIC was my passion, so I continued with it. Banking, on the other hand, was draining my enthusiasm. I consistently volunteered for special projects and even joined trade organizations, but it didn't help. I had reached the peak of my learning curve and was bored to death, learning little, and just going through the motions each day at work. My career was no longer allowing me to be the professional I wanted to be, so it was time to move on. My next step took me in two directions. I started a small home-based business, and eventually changed jobs. The home-based business was a grocery shopping service similar to Webvan and Peapod. The business has recently been sold, but it was an excellent crash course on how to (and how not to) run a business. The job change -- from credit analyst to loan workout analyst -- occurred several months later. I was excited about the position because it involved a different type of analysis that would help me understand how and why businesses fail, as well as how they recover. Bankruptcy recovery (loan workout) also requires advanced, cutting edge, survivalist thinking that would appeal to my progressive side. Or so I thought. I was there for about 90 days before I realized it was the same as before with a different spin. Banking is banking; and banking was not for me. I was ready for an industry change. Not only did I want to change industries, I wanted to learn more about the exciting market changes I frequently read about in Business Week and The Wall Street Journal. I felt so behind the intellectual curve in terms of e-commerce, marketing techniques, the dot-com explosion, brand management, and new consulting practices. I had an insatiable thirst for a higher level of business knowledge, and that's what led me back to full-time graduate school. Indiana University's Business School was especially attractive to me because its program is based on the concept of integrated learning. Straying from the customary departmentalized theoretical problems (marketing, finance, accounting, and information technology), Kelley School of Business (KSB) MBAs are taught live cases with cross-functional problems by teams of professors. That was most important to me because I've never had accounting-only, marketing-only, or I.T.-only problems. Every business challenge I've encountered was multi-dimensional, with inconsistent data, and just-in-time information. I felt that a realistic graduate school should deal with problems that mirror those of real business. I was also attracted to the congeniality of the KSB staff and students, its Midwest location, and its fellowship opportunities. Expectations I'm entering graduate school with youth, high ambition, leadership skills, financial experience, and an entrepreneurial spirit. At the end of these two years, I expect to be a more well-rounded, management-ready professional. I expect to be equipped with the knowledge level and skill set to merge comfortably into a demanding corporate environment, an unstable dot-com environment, or my own entrepreneurial environment. We'll see.  | | [an error occurred while processing this directive] Learn about your online education options |
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