Surprise, Surprise – Bernanke Shocks Markets Again

This time last year, I wrote my first blog post for the Leader’s Edge about the Federal Reserve’s decision to implement a new quantitative easing program. The Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke introduced a surprising twist – the program was open-ended, setting no predetermined limit for purchasing bonds. Markets surged in reaction to the unexpected news. Since that time, the Fed has consistently bought $85 billion of treasury and mortgage-backed securities per month, aiming to dampen interest rates, boost the housing market, and encourage spending and investment.

Bernanke surprised markets announcing the Fed will not begin tapering the quantitative easing program.

This past Wednesday, Ben Bernanke surprised markets yet again – but this time, by announcing that the Fed will not begin tapering the quantitative easing program. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, investors and economists were convinced that the Fed was going to cut its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion. After assuring investors this Wednesday that the Fed will continue at its current pace, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average reached all-time nominal highs.

These press conferences from September 2012 and 2013 both defied investors’ expectations and fueled optimism in the markets. Even more so than last year, investors today obsessively analyze Bernanke’s statements, attempting to forecast the Fed’s future plans. Analysts are already anticipating the next Federal Reserve press conference, debating whether quantitative easing will be tapered before the year’s end. This sensitivity to the Fed’s policy decisions has contributed to market volatility.

Given the Fed’s inconsistent announcements in recent months, Nrayana Kocherlakota, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, has admitted that communication has been an issue for the central bank. In June, Bernanke announced that tapering would begin before the year’s end, sparking a media frenzy. Analysts forecasted the dramatic consequences of reducing the flow of cheap money into the economy. On Wednesday, Bernanke counteracted his prior statement and emphasized that the program is not on a fixed course. In a Reuters’ poll, economists agreed that the Fed’s communication has been unclear in the past few months, resulting in market uncertainty and widespread distrust of the central bank.

How do you think the Federal Reserve should improve its communication strategy? Do you think the media contributes to market uncertainty and confusion?

– Kara

Marketing Internship with a Language Focus

This past summer I worked for maslansky + partners (m+p), a research driven communication strategy firm. Their enterprise is founded on the following principle—“It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear. ®” Specifically focusing on language, m+p works to understand the target audience in order to help companies share their stories and communicate their brand. They approach each client with a clear perspective in order to provide a unique strategy, which is aided by their Instant Response Dial Technology. This technology is utilized within focus groups—participants receive dials, which range from 0 to 100.  Dials are initially set at 50; as testing messages are read, participants dial up (100 is highly positive) or down (0 is highly negative) second by second to record their reactions. Look below to see Instant Response Dial Technology in action:

My internship with m+p as a Language Strategy Intern spanned from May till August, and throughout the summer I was able to work with their dial technology for a variety of clients. Some of the clients I had the opportunity to work on projects for included AARP, Bank of America, Axe, Toyota, and the National Pork Board. On a day to day basis, my duties ranged from helping with focus group planning, data analysis, assisting with business proposals and presentations, and researching both current and potential clients.

In my idle time, I was tasked with researching Procter & Gamble in the interest of tracking and analyzing the organization’s language. My goal was to discover what they did well, what they did poorly, how they reacted to events, and how they are changing their language, if at all. All of my conclusions went in a deliverable that was presented to the company at the end of the summer. This long term project was one of the things I most enjoyed working on at m+p—I was able to spend time looking at one company in a very different way—with a language lens. Instead of thinking of message creation, I was able to dissect messages and key in on how specific messages succeeded or failed.

P&G response to environmental testing on Tide.

One particular finding I found interesting from my Procter & Gamble (P&G) research was in regards to their product, Tide. In 2011, Women’s Voices (an environmental group) tested a range of cleaning products to learn about their ingredients. Of the tested products, Tide came back positive for a potential carcinogen called 1,4 dioxane. Women’s Voices contacted P&G for a response to the test, yet P&G chose silence as opposed to making a statement. When P&G eventually agreed to reformulate the product line, reactions were already rippling through market channels, especially social media. Even though some consumers seemed lost to the brand, others were willing to give it a second chance. However, if P&G had reacted differently to the testing, fewer consumers may have dropped the brand.

Not only did I thoroughly enjoy my time with m+p, but in addition, my internship opened my mind and changed how I perceived language. Words are no longer just vessels to carry messages. Instead, each specific word has a purpose and provides an audience with a connotation that is either positive or negative. Use the proper words, and you have the dynamic ability to capture the full potential of your message. I know that what I learned with m+p will not only help me with my future job endeavors, but throughout my life as well and that is something I am truly grateful for.

– Kathrin Hashemi

How I Got Into Venture Capital With A Dual Degree In Biomedical Engineering and Applied Math & Statistics, And A Minor In Entrepreneurship & Management.

I began thinking about what I wanted to do with my life and what type of career I wanted back in high school. Thanks to some pretty stellar and unique engineering internships, I decided I wanted to be an engineer, but wasn’t sure which kind. I was also interested in being a doctor so Biomedical Engineering seemed like a solid compromise.

Boom!  In the blink of an eye I am picking out my classes for my first semester at The Johns Hopkins University.  I selected Introduction to Business since the topic was of interest to me and the course would help me satisfy several graduation requirements. While at the time I thought this course would just be an interesting elective, it turned out to be a pivotal course for shaping my future career path.

Over the next two years, I would spend the summers and winter breaks working at a DOD lab back home as an engineer. However, through those internships and my BME coursework I learned I did not enjoy being an engineer. What should you do if this happens you?

1. Don’t freak out.

Biomedical engineering is by far the most interesting technological field right now.  To date, I pride myself on keeping up to date with advances in both the “science” and the “techniques.”  Yet, I had decided that I did not want to be an engineer and I had decided that being a doctor was also not in the cards.  So I asked myself, “What have you done on this campus that you truly have enjoyed? Not just intellectually, but the actual process of completion?”

2. Go to “first meetings of the year.”

Go to as many first meetings as possible for any organization you might be interested in.  While there is no way you can (or should) do them all, it’s a great way to find some niches of which you had been previously unaware.  I had the great privilege of being a part of many groups on campus including (but not limited to) SGA, AKPsi, The Pre-Law Society, the Politik, Senior Leadership Consultants, and the club Ice-Hockey team.

3. Listen to yourself. 

When I self-evaluated I realized my true day-to-day passion revolved around business. Mind you, this is not the most reassuring realization. Fortunately, there was some precedence for this type of thought. The solution for most Hopkins engineers is to go into some sort of consulting. Which makes sense; you can use a lot of the same equations and all of the same analytical skills. Instead of optimizing a cell pathway, you’re optimizing logistics for some big corporation.

4. Don’t rush a decision.

If you are already pivoting from what you are studying, make sure you pick the right pivot. A lot of my peers went on into consulting. Yet, personally, something didn’t “feel” right. Basically, I would be engineering for businesses, not actually doing business. “And what about the science?” I asked myself. Shouldn’t I stay involved somehow?

The semester before I was having this conversation with myself, I was taking an E&M course called “Managing Social Enterprises” which was all about how management styles differ between social and for-profit companies as well as startups vs established companies. It was from this class that I finally found my answer. I would love to join the Venture Capital/Startup world. This would allow me to practice business plus stay connected to the biomedical world. The question was–how?

5. Talk to everyone.

It is not so easy to be a BME/AMS double major and decide you want to go into VC.  Most VCs have been to business school and/or worked for a successful startup.  I had not.  Fortunately, one night I happened to be in DC visiting some friends.  While hanging at a local bar, I started talking to someone who knew a local VC and he put us in contact.

6.  Internships!

You may or may not be paid, but such is the nature of internships in 2013. The most important thing is the experience the internships provide, not the paycheck, so be sure to take advantage of internships even if they are unpaid.  During my senior spring I interned for Fortify Ventures, an early-stage tech VC firm located in DC. While I was what you would call a gopher, I learned quite a few valuable lessons. I was able to turn this internship into another internship, joining the investment team at the Center for Innovative Technology, an early-stage VC firm located in Herndon, VA. Fortunately for me, CIT invested in not only technology firms, but also green energy and biotech companies. So it was at CIT that I finally began evaluating companies, thus gaining some true VC experience while still only being an intern.

7. Leverage where you are to get one step closer.

Before I could be considered a viable candidate for full-time (non-intern) position at a VC firm, I needed to either go to business school, get my Ph.D., or join a successful startup. I chose the third option. While my true passion is biotech, I chose a tech company for a practical reason. Biotech startups take ten years to grow and tech startups take just two to three years.

Last October, a video-processing company called Veenome came and pitched CIT. Being on the investment team at CIT, I was able to get a clearer picture of Veenome than most of the other applicants and was thus able to land a job with Veenome. Here I am, six months later, truly enjoying work everyday and very well poised for the career I want. Yet, I often think about what would have happened if I had not listened to myself and had stayed an engineer.

– TJ Bozada

Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity Offers A Unique Business And Social Experience

“Alpha Kappa Psi is recognized as the premier developer of principled business leaders,” but the Rho Psi chapter here at Johns Hopkins University is so much more. In addition to promoting our core values on campus – Brotherhood, Knowledge, Integrity, Service, and Unity – the men and women of AKPsi at Johns Hopkins denote family in the truest sense – whether it be through the big-little families or the fraternity as a whole, each member shares something with the others.

The Rho Psi chapter at Johns Hopkins combines business activities with social ones. We have industry presentations for our pledges as they rise through the ranks of pledging, where they are able to learn from experienced members about endeavors in entrepreneurship, marketing, financing, management and more. Plus, through the national fraternity, our chapter has the opportunity to attend the annual Principled Business Leadership Institute, held recently in Philadelphia, and the AKPsi Convention – being held in New Orleans this summer – with other chapters of the fraternity. Our chapter also complements other groups on campus including the AMA and KAIROS society in putting on events such as “Dress For Success” and various networking events.

In addition to these on campus events, our chapter holds off campus trips to foster knowledge in the sectors of business. The brothers recently visited the New York Stock exchange and were given the opportunity to view the closing bell. They also recently toured the Federal Reserve Bank of Washington DC, with a private session with a Senior Economic Advisor.

The fraternity also fosters social relations by holding date parties and a formal throughout the semester, while the brotherhood creates invigorating outdoor activities including, but not limited to, sailing, skeet shooting, and paintball. Plus, we hold community service trips at least once a semester; recently the brothers and pledges of the Upsilon Class participated in the fall President’s Day of Service by aiding the community in the building of a park.

All in all, there is no other community that I would rather be a part of at Johns Hopkins.

– Samuel Licker

Announcing the 2012 Center for Leadership Education Oral Presentation Contest

Public speaking and presenting in general is ranked as a high quality asset of any great leader, according to Forbes, and yet roughly 70% of Americans fall victim to “speech anxiety.” This usually doesn’t just include public speaking, however. There is generally a written, an oral, and sometimes a visual component to a great presentation. This skill is fine tuned through a lot of practice and now Johns Hopkins University is giving students the chance to show off their presentation skills to compete for a prize of $1,000. If you have a vision of how to re-purpose the JHU baseball diamond on University then show your stuff and submit a qualifying video to the Center for Leadership Education by October the 26th. You have the chance to make a difference on this campus, so don’t miss the opportunity!

More information here

and register for the competition here

Sinan Ozdemir, your one stop guide to everything public speaking

You Now Have the Leader’s Edge

Welcome to The Leader’s Edge, the Johns Hopkins Center for Leadership Education’s blog! This blog is a resource for students, faculty, alumni, industry experts and business owners who are looking to engage in a discussion about business.

Whitehead Hall, Home of the Center for Leadership Education

The Leader’s Edge is meant to serve as an educational tool and an open forum for new ideas. Take a look at the following questions:

– Are you interested in marketing, communications or advertising?
– Are you planning on starting a business? Have you already done so?
– Are you interested in finance, investment banking or accounting?
– Are you a current student who might have an interest in learning about business?

If you answered “yes,” “maybe,” or even “no” to any of these questions, then you are a right fit to participate in The Leader’s Edge. Our student bloggers will be contributing posts about business leadership, marketing, and other relevant topics in the business world. But while we are confident in our team, we’re not the only ones who have a voice. We greatly appreciate any thoughtful comments, feedback, or your own stories that you feel would add to our project. Blogging is a two-way street, so make sure your voice is heard!

Our student bloggers are Clint Hall, Kara Deppe, Jenna Link, Danielle Stern, Sinan Ozdemir, Devin Alessio, and me, Dave! We look forward to showing you our best work, and if you would like to learn more about us, click here

– David

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