Running Commentary, November 4, 2011

Two score and seven years ago my mother brought forth on this continent, a new baby - me.  That’s 47 years for those trying to remember the definition of score and a big no for those wondering if I was around for the Gettysburg Address.   

When it comes to birthdays, I subscribe to the Satchel Paige philosophy.  The baseball great once wisely asked “how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” That's sound guidance from a man who threw three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics when he was 60.  I’ve always tried to live by Satchel's advice, though my wife would tell you I often take this directive to the extreme given the frequency of adolescent behavior and general tomfoolery occurring at the Thurman household.  All I know is that I’ve still got a few years to blame it all on Sam and Ben. 

The average age in our three professional MBA programs is 30, meaning that, on average, I’m now roughly 17 years older than most of you.   Seventeen years ago, I was a newly minted Texas MBA settling in to my post-MBA job at Trammell Crow and ready to conquer the world.  It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, but looking back, much has changed since my days at McCombs (then simply known as the Graduate School of Business) and I thought it would be interesting, and hopefully even humorous, to share some of those reflections from 1994. 

•     In 1994, with email in its infancy, I, and most other Texas MBA students, relied on physical mail folders located in the northeast corner of the atrium for program related news.  Several times a day, I would check my mail folder for notes from my study group, student organization flyers and other important notices.

"Classroom 2000" Back in the Day

•     In 1994, the Legacy Events Room was the very mysterious and futuristic-sounding Classroom 2000, home to the school’s information systems management program.  To this day, I remember Professor Tm Ruefli’s overhead slide showing a large dollar sign designed to highlight the market demand for ISM graduates as a way to entice incoming students to select this concentration.  At the time, graduates specializing in ISM and technology were averaging 3.5 job offers (much higher than the school average) at an average annual salary of…are you ready for this…$50,000.

•     Speaking of technology, in 1994 I was using a Dell 320 SLi notebook computer for all school-related work.  I was told at the time of purchase that the 2 MB of RAM and the 40 MB hard drive was “all I would ever need.”  The model was later recalled because of overheating issues that caused some computers to literally catch fire and blow up. I think mine is still in my car’s trunk which, ironically, was recalled for the very same problem. 

•     In 1994, the weekly MBA Think n Drinks were always at the same location, Nasty’s, slightly northwest of campus.  I may still have an open tab if you're interested.

•     In 1994, I bought my first mobile phone, the Motorola MicroTAC DPC-550.  It wasn’t quite as ancient as the “brick” phone used by Gordon Gekko in his “go to work” call to Bud, but it was close.  The not-so-smart phone had a seven-character LED display, spotty coverage, short battery life and, well, that’s about it.    

•     In 1994, I was still listening to Nirvana’s Nevermind album quite a bit.  Remember the baby on the album cover?  He’s now 20 and works as an artist at the Obey Giant design firm with Shepard Fairey.

•     In 1994, Rice beat Texas in football…yes, football.  It was the first time since 1965 and the last time, well, maybe ever.

•     In 1994, 4,258 people registered for the 8th annual SXSW conference.  Johnny Cash delivered the keynote address and provided a memorable acoustic set at Emo’s.   This year, official registration topped 19,000 and the economic impact to the city was estimated at $167 million.

•     In 1994, marketing professor Robert Witt was the dean of the Graduate School of Business.  Today, he is president of the University of Alabama. 

•     In 1994, the Texas MBA “cohort” experiment was well underway as the first class under that structure finished the core requirements with their assigned cohorts.  While the move caused significant upheaval for my class, history has shown that it was clearly the right thing to do. 

•     In 1994, I was reluctantly transitioning from cassettes to CDs.  I still have more than 500 cassettes in various boxes and have been pleasantly surprised to see a few indie bands return to the inexpensive format in the last year or so.  Cassette sales are up 46% this year, with 22,000 units sold.  Of course, in the early nineties, this figure was around 400 million.  Baby steps, cassettes.  Baby steps. 

•     In 1994, I was enrolled in an elective course entitled Business & Government.  The instructor was Admiral Bob Inman…that is until President Clinton selected him to be Secretary of Defense.  While he ultimately withdrew his name from consideration, it was still an exciting time to be in the class.

•     In 1994, my state-of-the-art 27” Sony Trinitron television weighed in at 107 pounds and required a shelf depth of at least 26 inches.  My current TV weighs 42 pounds and technically only needs about 2 inches of shelf space.

•     In 1994, Google, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Amazon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Craigslist, Blogger, eBay, Pandora, Foursquare  and Flickr did not exist.  Man, I should have been more productive.

•     In 1994, the Texas Evening MBA, the Texas MBA at DFW and the Texas MBA at Houston programs did not exist…neither did my job.  Since that time, the three programs have collectively produced more than 1,300 Texas MBA graduates and I now have the best job in the world. 

So, here's to the next 17 years and beyond, even if I'm not really counting.