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Roadside MBA
Backroad Lessons for Executives, Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

Roadside on the Road in October

October 15, 2014 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

It has been very enjoyable to get out and speak to people about the insights from Roadside MBA – over the past couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to participate in a few nice events and tell some of our best stories. Several of these events have been organized through the Kellogg Alumni Association. The school had a great program in downtown Chicago and I sat on a panel discussing growth opportunities and strategy. My two fellow panelists were Kellogg grads with impressive entrepreneurial resumes: Scott Dorsey, who co-founded the digital marketing company ExactTarget after graduation, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Destinations

Three Economists in an RV

May 14, 2014 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

After a long day of travel, the Roadside MBA team pulled into Tulare, CA late last evening.  The plan had been for Mike and Scott to fly to SFO on the first flights of the day and head down to Palo Alto so we could get started around noon.  Unfortunately, Mike awoke at 4:30am in Chicago with to a voicemail message from American Airlines. His flight to San Francisco had been cancelled, but the airline had “protected” him on an alternative – a 10 o’clock flight to Palm Springs, connecting to Phoenix, continuing onto San Francisco arriving at 6:30pm.  Awesome!  Fortunately, a reroute to San Jose … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Road Trip #7

Delivering some Roadside insights

June 21, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

Along with our book (update:  more than half the chapters have been drafted and we are closing in!) Scott, Paul and I are hoping to convey business insights to our audience through lectures, seminars, fireside chats – basically anyone who is willing to listen!  I got the opportunity over the last couple of weeks to introduce the Roadside MBA project to a couple of interesting groups of small and medium-sized companies.The first was through an organization called Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), which according to its website (www.icic.org) is a “nonprofit research and strategy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Destinations

Roadside Madness

March 22, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

… [Read more...]

Filed Under: MBA Lessons

Small Business Movies

February 26, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

Small Business Movies:Now that we are in the thick of writing the Roadside MBA, I see the connection to small business in nearly everything I see or do.  So, of course, as I was watching the Oscars last night I started to think, “What are some good movies in which small businesses feature prominently?”  Here were a few nominees that I was able to come up with:1.      Ghostbusters (1984) – What do you when you get fired from your university jobs?  Start a ghost-extermination business, of course!  Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis try to get their business off the ground – though every … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MBA Lessons

What We Are About

February 7, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo 1 Comment

I enjoy reading Matt Yglesias’s blog on Slate, and it was exciting to see that he had a recent piece on small business.  In it, he relates the process he went through to get an entrepreneurial endeavor of his own started.  It was quite a hassle. Unfortunately, Matt’s experience is not uncommon.  In talking with small business people all over the U.S., we heard many stories about red tape and regulation and taxes and other issues that add frustration to the challenges of building and operating a successful company.  In one form or another, navigating through these challenges – along with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MBA Lessons

Day 1 in Dothan complete

January 29, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

We just pulled into our motel for the night in Pensacola, Florida after a 2.5 hour drive from Dothan, Alabama.  We had some fantastic visits in Dothan, including a company that manufactures fire hoses and one that recycles the precious metal from the catalytic converters of junked automobiles (see photos  below).We had great plant tours at both of these locations, but what was really exciting was the interesting economics at play in both of these businesses and how they linked to successful business strategy.  We learned that making fire hose requires substantial sunk investments, which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Road Trip #6

Prepping for the Trip

January 27, 2013 by Mike Mazzeo Leave a Comment

For all of our trips, we start out by setting out a route.  We try to pick four cities/towns, each in a different state, that are reasonable driving distances from each other.  The longest drive we ever took between days was on a cold and snowy January day from Pueblo, Colorado to Garden City, Kansas (more than 4 hours!), but typically we do around two hours or do between stops.  I'm excited about the upcoming trip, because it is in the part of the country where I have not spent much time - Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and Mississippi. Once we get the locations picked, the next step is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Road Trip #6

About Us

The Roadside MBA Team The Roadside MBA Team is (L to R) Mike Mazzeo, Paul Oyer, and Scott Schaefer. Learn more.

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Taking it to the Tweets

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Roadside MBA
Roadside MBA
@roadsidemba

@Horsley_ML @HarvardHBS Somehow gotta get @pauloyer on @FoxNews...

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10:14 pm · March 25, 2018
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AlleyWatch
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5 Solution Differentiation Moves That Customers Love ft @roadsidemba alleywatch.com/2018/02/5-solu… via @AlleyWatch

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7:06 am · February 1, 2018 ·
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Roadside MBA
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@DaniAmores @STRATMAZZ has fans???

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11:01 am · December 11, 2017
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Bahaha fb.me/1Awi20Smt

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2:35 pm · October 2, 2017 ·
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Paul Oyer
Paul Oyer
@pauloyer

A @roadsidemba first. Lunch at @IKEACanada #rsmba11 pic.twitter.com/bO562AGkO0

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12:08 pm · June 15, 2017 ·
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Roadside MBA
Roadside MBA
@roadsidemba

Word of the trip: Turbidity

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8:58 am · June 15, 2017
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Scott Schaefer
Scott Schaefer
@scottschaefer

Winnipeg hotel way too hip for me. @STRATMAZZ seems to like it. pic.twitter.com/gxL6hqOpdE

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6:21 pm · June 14, 2017 ·
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Paul Oyer
Paul Oyer
@pauloyer

Best potato-based interview we ever had. @roadsidemba #rsmba11 @BlackGoldFarms

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11:10 am · June 14, 2017 ·
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Paul Oyer
Paul Oyer
@pauloyer

Wow! Grand Forks is great! @roadsidemba #rsmba11 @AE2S1 pic.twitter.com/3INpHlcbzm

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11:10 am · June 14, 2017 ·
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Scott Schaefer
Scott Schaefer
@scottschaefer

Paul Bunyan's ox. Bemidji, MN. pic.twitter.com/jtlwvuvsop

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10:51 pm · June 13, 2017 ·
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