How to Renew Life Purpose After a Devastating Break Up - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 11 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis finds courage to take a risk and start a company after a heart-breaking break up. He finds freedom in the moment and takes responsibility to try something - starting a company - that initially seemed impossible. De Franciscis finds perspective by thinking about how his story would translate into film, keeping an eye on the protagonist and his ability to maintain momentum and make big decisions.

How GE Teaches Employee to Take Ideas to Action - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 10 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis shares what he learned about taking ideas to action while working at General Electric (GE). An analytical thinker and trained economist, de Franciscis becomes immersed in GE's action and execution based culture that rewards practical problem solving. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Practical and Theoretical Problem Solving Approaches Differ - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 9 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis learns practical problem solving approaches working at General Electric (GE). At GE, de Franciscis finds a culture built on execution and delivery. Solving problems requires taking action and executing on the plan. This contrasts with his previous experience working in consulting, which focuses more on theoretical problem solving. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Volunteer Teacher Becomes an Education Entrepreneur - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis shares how volunteer teaching and mentoring inspired him to start a company. De Franciscis joins Young Enterprise while working in Europe, teaching high school kids business and entrepreneurship. After relocating to the US to work for General Electric (GE), he begins advising and mentoring interns on career development and planning. Through the volunteer experiences, he begins identifying education market inefficiencies and ultimately builds a business aimed at solving those problems.

Learning Leadership in GE Management Rotation Program - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis joins General Electric (GE) and enters an international management rotation program. The program rotates de Franciscis to a new country and business unit each couple months, where he selects projects to complete. The opportunity teaches him not only about executing under short-term deadlines, but also about a broader company culture norm that emphasizes execution, accomplishment, and resiliency over pure intellect. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Enron Arthur Andersen Project Experience Informed Values - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 5 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis reflects on lessons learned working on an Enron project for Arthur Andersen as both companies imploded. At a societal level, de Franciscis learns how delicate corporate reputations can be during crisis, noting Arthur Andersen was acquitted but only after the company collapsed. On a personal level, he gains perspective on personal versus company commitment. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How Company Friendships Create Competitive Advantage - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 4 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis builds professional friendships working at Arthur Andersen in Europe. When the Europe manager prioritizes monthly dinners across country team leaders, the resulting relationships facilitate not only friendships but also performance increases to levels two to three times that of competition. De Franciscis compares this approach to the traditional American corporate culture of healthy competition. He challenges the accepted view, citing how competitive culture rewards selfishness and limits potential by penalizing socialization, sharing, and collaboration. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

Learning Motivation by Training Pro Tennis Players - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 3 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis develops motivational tools by teaching professional tennis players. De Franciscis finds mental fitness, not physical skill, separates good from great in tennis' top 200 players. He motivates his students by identifying gaps and then marking progressive improvements over time as the players pursue respective goals. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

What Defines an Intrapreneur - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 2 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus (www.globalcampus.com) founder Maurizio de Franciscis gets promoted several times within a medium-sized company by suggesting ideas and helping the company understand where to invest. Leaving account management for consulting and business development, he takes an entrepreneurial mindset internally inside an existing organization - an intrapreneurial mindset - and develops customer-centric ideas to help the company innovate. Specifically, De Franciscis connects his curiosity to empowering customers and providing them visibility and increased participation. De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

How to Apply Macroeconomics to Solve Global Education Problems - Maurizio de Franciscis

In Chapter 1 of 19 in his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, education entrepreneur and Global Campus founder Maurizio de Franciscis shares how his economist training has proven useful starting a company. De Francisicis uses macroeconomics to understand global education supply and demand issues and the associated transaction costs. He highlights a UNESCO report that $200 million in scholarships go unclaimed each year. Identifying the money left on the table and the high transaction costs finding a college education give him cause to create a business that matches talented international high school graduates with top universities and scholarships.

De Franciscis graduated from Universita degli Studi di Roma - La Sapienza - and earned his MBA from INSEAD.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you apply your economics education in what you do as an entrepreneur?

Maurizio de Franciscis: I think that the first way I apply it considering what I do with global campus is microeconomics. To me the problem of education looks like a micro economic problem because I see that kids want to study somewhere, a place that is best for them pretty much. And don’t care where it is, in which country.

So it is become from the point of view of the of the buyer, if you want, of education. It’s a global market. And from the point of view of the sellers, they are trying to internationalize but they don’t quite view it as a global market yet. And the mechanisms that enable a global market are not there. And so from my point of view when I looked at the market and said there is a problem here between the kids who want the education and the institutions that offer it, there is no communication. I said okay where is the evidence for this.

And I saw there are about two hundred million dollar of scholarships at the UNESCO tell us are not claimed every year. And that is because people don’t know about these scholarships they may be eligible for. And then there are very high transactions costs because families in emerging countries pay intermediary school agents quite a bit of money and these agents then sell the lead on to universities, increasingly here in the states but even more in Europe for quite a bit of money as well. And so as an economist the first thing you observe is there is money left on the table, the money on scholarships, and there are high transaction costs that is an indicator that the market is inefficient. Even if you didn’t just want to stop at the tuition.

What Defines Product Management - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 21 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares what defines product management. Pryor segments product management into two groups, the building element, known as product development, and the selling element, known as product marketing. Pryor is drawn to the marketing element more, as he enjoys packaging and presenting product to customers in exciting new ways. Pryor enjoys the subtle positioning marketing challenges that are present in across many nearly identical products but highly differentiated brands such as Coke and Pepsi. Pryor earned an MBA from the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

How to Plan a Product Management Career - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 20 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor provides a product management career development framework. Pryor lists three stages of product management. The first is a mainline product manager role that provides opportunity to give birth to a product, go to market, and learn from the experience. The second stage is a group product manager role that includes managing a product family, defining the company product approach, and managing a product manager team. The third is a company product executive role such as VP Product, that includes managing resources, budget, sales and marketing relationships at an executive-facing level. Within these three groups, Pryor highlights an additional division between new product managers, or trailblazers, and mature product managers, or optimizers. Pryor encourages product managers to get experience in both areas and develop a preference. Pryor earned an MBA from the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

What are the Rules of Engagement Doing Business in China - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 19 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares lessons learned working in a Chinese business environment. Through experience working at a trade show and managing a team, Pryor identifies differences in both communication and management styles. Pryor learns how to establish respect and trust working with Chinese teammates, partners, and customers. To reduce his outsider status, Pryor prioritizes understanding his team's interests and background before getting to business. Pryor earned an MBA from the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

How MBA Product Manager Measures Success - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 17 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor notes two ways to improve product positioning and performance in business. First, Pryor uses his sales team as a qualitative sounding board to understand competitive positioning. Second, Pryor does decision analysis using marketing data to understand inputs affecting product sales performance. He notes that great products do not always sell and that these two feedback mechanisms help improve product functionality and also drive sales by satisfying market demand. Pryor earned his MBA from the University of Navarra IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

How Profit and Loss Responsibility Motivates Product Managers - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 16 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares how profit and loss responsibility motivates performance in his field. Pryor details the importance of motivating managers financially, comparing East Coast and West Coast Internet business cultures. To Pryor, East Coast product management styles are more financially and numbers driven, imparting a business management feel. Pryor notes how West Coast style differs, as it takes a more developmental and technical specification focus, imparting a more technologist feel.

How Successful Product Managers Communicate Across Cultures - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 15 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor shares tips on effective team communication in multi-lingual and multi-cultural environments. Pryor references his own experiences working across teams in Europe and China and how focusing on message fidelity, or accuracy, across parties enabled success.

How to Use an MBA in a Product Management Career - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 14 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, international Internet product management executive Ramsey Pryor how he has used his MBA to develop his career. Pryor applies general management skills - operations, accounting, finance, marketing, sales - in his product manager role working across company divisions. The diversified experiences provide Pryor general management training and experience that prepare him for future career advancement.  Pryor earned his MBA from the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Barcelona, Spain and his BA in Economics and Spanish from Northwestern University.

Why Broad Experience is Useful in a Product Management Role - Ramsey Pryor

In Chapter 13 of 22 of his 2010 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Ramsey Pryor explains why his broad experience has helped him develop an international product management career. Pryor resists specialization and focuses on learning a little about a lot. This "Jack-of-all-trades" approach helps Pryor manage the various relationships - programmers, legal, design, sales, etc. - fundamental to product management success.