Mazzeo Michael - Roadside MBA: back road lessons for entrepreneurs, executives, and small business owners

Lighthearted (And in Search of Footwear), We Take to the Open Road

After an economics conference in Boston, the three of usall business professorshad a bit of time to kill before our flights home, so we decided to hit the road. Mike had never set foot in Maine, so for kicks we drove an hour north on I-95, stopping for a wicked good lunch at Bobs Clam Hut just over the state line. Figuring a walk might help us digest our deep-fried seafood, we wandered into a shoe store just across from the restaurant. We werent looking to buy shoes, but the sales staff insisted on asking us repeatedly whether we might want to try something on. Scott, who likes his solitude, asked a salesman why he was being so insistent even after having been told no, thanks a couple of times. The salesman, later joined by the manager and all of the rest of the stores employees, proceeded to describe in amazing detail the store owners secret shopper program, in which employees can be marked down if they are not sufficiently persistent when working with customers. Paul and Mike soon wandered over, and the three of us began asking the shoe stores team all sorts of questions about topics we teach to MBA studentssales incentives, relationships with suppliers, product differentiation, and competition. It was twice as educational as the conference we had just attended, and the conversation extended so long that we had to exceed the speed limit to get back to Boston for our flights. This chance conversation allowed a sneak peek into the workings of a small establishment, and, to us, it was thoroughly exhilarating.

We are economists and professors who have been teaching business strategy classes to MBA students for years. Paul Oyer, a professor at Stanford, is slim with thinning blond hair and couldin the movie version of our livesbe played by Police front man Sting, perhaps with makeup to make him a bit Jewish-looking. The oldest member of our group, Paul spent a few years in the so-called real world before starting work on his economics PhD, and he is also most likely to tell, and perhaps retell, a joke that isnt very funny.

Scott Schaefer, a professor at the University of Utah, is not quite short but definitely not tall and has a full head of brown hair; imagine a casting of Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld) in a bushy wig. Scott fancies himself a lovable curmudgeon, which Mike and Paul agree is about half right.

Mike Mazzeo, bespectacled with close-cropped hair and a quick sense of humor, is a professor at Northwestern University. Mike is the youngest and most impressionable of our group and has yet to meet a fad diet he was unwilling to try. As far as Paul and Scott can tell, Mikes only character flaw is a lifelong devotion to the New York Yankees; think Ben Stiller with a Derek Jeter complex.

We all started our professorial careers at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management; Scott arrived in 1995 after completing a PhD at Stanford, Paul a year later from Princeton, and Mike from Stanford in 1998. Finding many shared interestsbaseball, beer, dogs (canines, not frankfurters), and, of course, economicswe became friends through our publish-or-perish days as assistant professors, and remained close even after Paul left for California in 2000 and Scott for Utah in 2005.

Over the years, weve taught thousands of MBAs at leading business schools. A majority of our students have gone on to work for (or consult with) large companies, so our classes have tended to focus on strategic issues facing big business. Weve taught cases about Intel, Southwest Airlines, Procter & Gamble, Nordstromthe list is pretty long.

Our unplanned visit to a Maine shoe store made us realize that the strategic challenges that small businesses face are just as rich and compelling as anything being discussed inside Six Sigma redoubts like General Electric. And the knife cuts both ways: the MBA tactics and tenets we teach would, we think, be just as valuable in the hands of a small business owner as they are in the hands of a Kraft brand manager or a Bain consultant.

To us, this meant just one thing

Fast-forward a year: Mikes and Pauls marriages had just ended, and Scottsunbeknownst to him at the timewasnt going well.

Hey guys, I have an idea I want to bounce off you, Scott began the conference call. Remember last December, when we went to that shoe store in Maine?

How could I forget? I learned more there than I did in five years of graduate school, said Mike, always the quipper.

I keep wishing I could go back and get data on their compensation plans, Paul added. (And yes, this is exactly the sort of thing economists lie awake at night thinking about.) I probably discussed five examples from that shoe store when I was teaching a Strategic Human Resources Management course this year.

I know, I cant stop thinking about it either, Scott said, with a passion he normally reserves for occasional anti-Yankee diatribes. Suppose we try to do that again, and again, and again. How do you think your courses would be different if you had examples from ten or fifteen businesses like that?

That could be interesting, Mike said, but we only see each other at conferences once or twice a year.

Right, Scott said. So we take a road trip, just for this. Suppose we find a week this summer where neither of you has your kids and hit the road in search of interesting small businesses?

This is either the best idea youve ever had, or the worst, Paul commented. Im not sure which. How do you think well find interesting businesses, and how do we get them to talk to us about strategic challenges?

Well, Im not exactly sure, Scott admitted. But look at it this wayif the businesses are boring or we cant get people to open up, at least you get a road trip out of the deal. What states havent you been to?

Paul religiously tracks which states hes visited (which a lot of people do) and also states where hes spent the night (which is a little weird). Ive never spent the night in Missouri.

Missouri it is, Scott ceded, already beginning to dread a weeklong stream of unfunny Show Me jokes from Paul.

Guys, there might be a book to be written here, Mike interjected. We collect examples from the road of interesting strategic problems facing small businesses, then show how the frameworks we teach in our MBA classes apply. I bet the average small business owner could really benefit from a dose of strategic reasoning; itd be a great introduction for business owners who havent done an MBA, and a solid refresher for those who have.

Like Economics of Strategy, but applied to small business? Scott said, shamelessly plugging the textbook he co-authored.

Uhhhh, sure, said Mike, but maybe not so heavy on the math?

Well call it The Roadside MBA! Paul exclaimed.

OK, Ill check about taking a week away from my family this summer, and you guys check your parenting schedules. Compare notes in a week? Scott said.