Guest speakers

American professors are extremely fond of guest speakers. Perhaps it is the reputation and connections of the school which allows for such a strong network, but they do manage to have some extremely relevant speakers. Regardless whether it is mergers, acquisitions, banking, entrepreneurship, consulting, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, or traders, we have had real life examples of people who do this for a living, their views and opinions, and not least their pieces of advice.

I personally think guest speakers are a great idea. You have all this information from problem sets and textbooks and then you have an example from the real world of how to apply it. They love coming back and talking about what they do, and the students love the limited readings and an engaging lecture.

The only problem is if the speaker is terrible. My most anticipated guest speaker was a woman who was managing director for Blackstone Private Equity, a large investment fund. Super relevant to multiple classes, and a great contact in a somewhat closed off industry. Alas, she was morbidly dull, going into excruciating detail about her investments and contracts, rather than keep a overarching focus so that undergraduates students could understand her and maintain interest. She simply didn't know her audience, speaking to us as if we were seasoned investors. She was probably brilliant at her job; she was an awful guest speaker.

Conversely, yesterday was the best speaker we have had so far. A UNC graduate from '86, he went into the IT services as it was starting the develop and then set up his own company improving doctor-patient information flow in the cloud 16 years ago. He sold to a listed national company 3 years ago, but stayed on to help develop the product and maintain his legacy. He was great for two reasons: audience knowledge and honesty. He knew who we were and what we were looking for, and his direct (American?) approach and choice of words fully engaged the crowd. Basically he knew he had hit the jackpot, that he was the market leader in his field, and that as an entrepreneur he had to look out for himself. He also spoke openly of his frustrations, his ideas, and gladly told war stories from the entrepreneurial front. For a European, his smugness was almost too much, but you just couldn't help like the guy. For 75 minutes, this guy had me on the edge of my seat. It was pure entertainment. Below are some of his quotes, see if you agree:

"Imagine you build and sell GPS navigators. Suddenly everyone starts building them directly into the cars, but you already have contracts to supply every GPS to Ford and GM.... AND Toyota." - His analogy to his successful product

"We knew we were better, we were going to take them out, and we weren't afraid to show it. As my CFO put it at the negotiations in San Fransisco: 'Your best asset is this view'" - On acquiring their biggest competitor to become the sole provider of their service.

"Sarbanes-Oxley sucks! Now if I want an audit I have to pay $150,000 for someone to look at my numbers and agree with me that they add up. Remember how you took accounting last year and after reading all about GAAP you thought 'I'm never going to use that crap' - oh yeah you will!" - On the diverse functions of an entrepreneur

"When they want to dance, they bring a bus with the band" - On being a target for an acquisition

"Everyone kept saying: 'Kick a field goal, stop trying to for a touchdown'. Bullshit, I can only sell my company once and I am going to do it right!" - On investor pressure to accept a lucrative offer

"I got Michael Porter to invest! This guy is like the Godfather of strategy. He has his own building at Harvard, just for himself!" - On the personal joy of having a great product

"As a CEO I do 400,000 air miles a year - it is ridiculous! But its cool! I've met pretty much every founder in Silicon Valley and they are smart as crap!" - On becoming an entrepreneur who made it and the perks

After being taken over, in a corporate setting: Senior manager 1: "Should we buy this company as well?" Speaker: "Fuck no!" Senior manager 2: "He just saved you 2-3 million in due diligence." - On being a niche expert and speaking your mind to your new managers on the first day post-acquisition

"I'll tell you, the amount of crap you have to do with the 50'th employee is unbelievable. So I hired a competitors HR manager and she did it all. It was great!" - On the strains of American regulation and how to deal with it