2018 Best MBAs: Smruti Sriram, London Business School - Poets&Quants

Smruti Sriram 

London Business School

“Passionate believer in young people as agents of positive change. Love working on creative and sustainable projects.”

Age: 31

Hometown: London, UK

Fun fact about yourself: Big house/ dance music fan

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Oxford, Philosophy, Politics, Economics

Where did you work before enrolling in business school? Supreme Creations/ Bags of Ethics – helping run my family business

Where did you intern during the summer of 2017? I stayed at the business though was going to join Octopus Ventures

Where will you be working after graduation? Supreme Creations – growing it!

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

30% club women’s scholar

Wings of Hope mentoring

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? 

Getting institutionalised mentoring – 10% of the MBA class mentored 14-18 year olds for Wings of Hope as part of a pilot

Back to School Day event in January 2018

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? Promoting the people behind the manufacturing of our product – particularly the women who make the eco bags. These women have been featured on our clients’ social media and communications platforms (clients include Nike, and London Fashion Week)

Who was your favorite MBA professor? 

Too hard. Too many.

Simona Botti – Brilliant energy and crystal clear concepts.

Lakshman Shivakumar – Invaluable insight into financial statements.

Tahoun Ahmed – Non-traditional teaching methods which make the concepts stick!

Oded Koenigsberg – Loved the guest speakers.

Anna Pavlova – Really made corporate finance fun and approachable.

What was your favorite MBA Course 

Brand Management- It’s all about nailing your brand identity!

Pricing Strategy! Don’t forget to increase prices

Why did you choose this business school?

International

Collaborative student body

A lot of U.K. and Europe-focued case studies which helps my UK-based business.

What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? Don’t portray someone you are not. Be authentic, and highlight some of the more interesting aspects about your background – don’t be a cookie cutter template

What is the biggest myth about your school? Not sure. But I thought MBA students would be more arrogant – at LBS they really are not! Super collaborative and supportive – socially and academically

What was your biggest regret in business school? None.

 Which MBA classmate do you most admire? So many!

Martina Machado- Energy, drive, and keeps supporting – never gives up

Samantha Kempe – creative genius

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? Fell into it. Dad was the greatest mentor I could have

“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…at my business without as much knowledge.”

If you were a dean for a day, what one thing would you change about the MBA experience? Make the community more socially engaged – this needs to go much further. We are meant to be future business leaders. Our duty is to society and improving— not only to maximise profits.

What are the top two items on your bucket list?

Get fitter

Meditate more

In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? Creative and energetic – but never lets people down.

What is your favorite movie about business?  The Pursuit of Happyness

What would your theme song be? Currently love “Peggy Gou” – Itgehane

Favorite vacation spot: Havasupai, Arizona

Hobbies? Kickboxing, singing, Barrys Bootcamp is my new fave, directing videos.

What made Smruti such an invaluable addition to the class of 2018?

“I was introduced to Smruti by a faculty member and booked in a 30-minute meeting to talk about the School and MBA programme. We ended up talking for an hour-and-a-half – but I knew within minutes that we had to try and get Smruti in the MBA class! During that meeting, she exhibited all the attributes we look for: drive, passion for learning, outstanding experience, a strong academic history and most importantly, the desire to learn from others from all around the world.

Smruti is a PPE graduate from Oxford – a degree probably most famous for producing Prime Ministers, CEOs and other leaders. But the element that drew my attention most was that she was working for her family business in the UK, with connections to India, making ethical bags for major retail companies.

I quickly found that we weren’t unique in our interest in her career, the following articles had already appeared in the UK media in Harper’s Bazaar and The Guardian. Smruti had already appearing in several rising stars lists, including Management Today’s 30 Under 30.

And this interesting article about father-daughter working relationships on the BBC. Perhaps most interestingly, Smruti had co-founded a charity called Wings of Hope.

During her time at London Business School she has been active in many clubs and activities, but it’s her work to involve her peers in the charity which was most inspiring. They put together an amazing event called Back To School Day, with big names from science, entertainment, and education (See Video).

I am delighted that Smruti is returning to her business and look forward to tracking her success over the next few years. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her become a high profile success, in business and society. Smruti is one of those students who make me so proud to be part of the London Business School family.”

David Simpson
MBA Admissions Director

 

 

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2018 Best 40 Under 40 Professors: Daniel Effron, London Business School - Poets&Quants

Daniel Effron

Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour

London Business School

Honesty is the best policy. That’s Daniel Effron’s motto. Of course, the greatest distance is often the one between how people think and how they act. This gap is Effron’s passion. A social psychologist, Effron studies the impulses that lead to shortcuts that ultimately produce rationalizations.

This zeal for honesty and consistency has helped to turn him into one of the London Business School’s most popular professors – and earned him the Class of 2015’s Teaching Award.

“Before I taught my very first MBA class, I received a lot of advice about how to adopt the right “business school persona” to command attention in the classroom. I quickly found, though, that authenticity works better than any persona. I wish more people had told me to just focus on my enthusiasm for what I teach and my genuine interest in what students have to say.”

A Stanford Ph.D., Effron teaches courses in organizational behavior, workplace ethics and effective management at the London Business School. A prolific research, his research has been covered in outlets as diverse as The Atlantic, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. Despite the notoriety, Effron remains as passionate about teaching as research – and it clearly shows with students.

“Daniel is an outstanding educator,” writes one student. “He has a great mix of a deep technical knowledge of his subject and a wonderful ability to read and manage the ebb and flow of the class conversation.”

Age: 35

At current institution since what year? 2013

Education:

BA in Psychology from Yale University in 2005

PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford University in 2011

List of courses you currently teach:

‘The Science of People in Organisations’

‘Ethics in Work, Organisations, and Society’

Twitter handle: N/A. Read more about my research and teaching at www.danieleffron.com

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LIFE AS A PROFESSOR

“I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when…I discovered that teaching MBA students is a blast.”

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

I study the psychology of unethical behavior. I’m particularly interested in the mental tricks people use to license themselves and others to cheat, lie or express prejudice without feeling too bad about themselves. For example, I’ve studied how doing good can free people to do bad; how workers are more likely to overbill for their time when it’s their “last chance” to do so; and how political leaders get off the hook for dishonesty by inviting their supporters to imagine how the lies “could have been true”. By identifying the psychological traps that lead good people to do bad things, my aim is to help organizations facilitate more ethical behavior.

“If I weren’t a business school professor…I’d be a psychology professor. What can I say? I love being a professor.”

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

I weave students’ stories about their everyday work experience through each class to make course material come alive.

One word that describes my first time teaching:

Overdressed.

If your teaching style/classroom experience had a theme song, what would it be?

Another Star as performed by the Gene Harris trio. It’s an upbeat jazz piano tune played with enthusiasm, improvisation and humor. Some years I play it on the classroom speakers as students are arriving.

As a b-school professor, what motivates you?

Learning from my students and my research.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:

Before I taught my very first MBA class, I received a lot of advice about how to adopt the right “business school persona” to command attention in the classroom. I quickly found, though, that authenticity works better than any persona. I wish more people had told me to just focus on my enthusiasm for what I teach and my genuine interest in what students have to say.

Professor you most admire and why:

One of my earliest academic heroes was Claude Steele, who designs elegant experiments to address real-world problems.

STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

Students’ hunger to learn and apply new ideas and skills.

What is most challenging?

Students’ hunger to learn and apply new ideas and skills (it’s an incredibly motivating challenge).

Using just one word, describe your favorite type of student:

Open-minded.

Using just one word, describe your least favorite type of student:

Sophomoric.

What is the most impressive thing one of your students has done?

My students impress me every day with the insights they share in the classroom. I never mind teaching the same material to multiple streams of students because, in each stream, students’ contributions to discussion are different, surprising and thought-provoking.

What is the least favorite thing one has done?

On my first MBA teaching evaluation, one student wrote just one comment: “Hands in pockets – not so cool.”

What does a student need to do to get an A in your class?

Understand how to apply course material to new situations.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as…

Reasonable.

But I would describe myself as…

Indebted to my teaching assistants.

Fill in the blank: “If my students can…recognize and avoid the psychological traps that can lead good people to do bad things in business, then I’ve done my job as their professor.”

LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Fun fact about yourself: I once received a hug from singer-songwriter Carole King.

What are your hobbies? I’ve been performing in improv comedy groups for the last few years.

How will you spend your summer? Writing, traveling to Australia to speak to members of government about my research, and playing in the park with my two-year-old daughter.

Favorite place to vacation: My most memorable trips have been to Bali and Slovenia.

Favorite book: Anything by Nabokov, White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

What is your favorite movie and/or television show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?

It’s hard to beat 1990s-era The Simpsons. It strikes the perfect balance between silliness and social critique.

Favorite type of music and/or favorite artist:

I was on a bossa nova kick for a while. These days I’m listening to a lot of Americana.

Bucket list item #1:

Produce a research discovery that is regularly taught in MBA programs two generations after my death.

THOUGHTS OF REFLECTION

What professional achievement are you most proud of?

Receiving tenure three years early.

What is your most memorable moment as a professor?

I gave a talk about my research at a comedy show and then a group of actors improvised scenes inspired by my talk.

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this…

Diversity.

And much less of this…

Classes at 8:15AM.

In your opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at doing what?

Many organizations have a limited understanding of the forces that can lead ordinary people to act unethically. We need to move beyond blaming corporate malfeasance on “a few bad apples” and proactively design organizational contexts that make it easy for people to live up to their ethical values.

Looking ahead 10 years from now, describe what “success” would like for you:

I’d like to design and scale up interventions based on my research to improve ethical behavior in organizations.

Students Say…

“Great energy and made me want to listen and learn.”

“Fantastic. I found this a potentially life-changing experience.”

 

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