XBA：性价比更高的速成MBA课程？

    优秀导师的力量

    在欧米帕克豪斯酒店，卢克•奥文斯6.6英尺的体格远远超过了五位赋桥导师。28岁的奥文斯曾经是普林斯顿大学（Princeton）的篮球队员。集训营最紧张的一节课是“Cintas y Lazos”。课上，学生们将评估一家新公司（生产绶带等）的财务状况，并根据品牌、工资、生产成本和其他因素，向投资者提交一份报告，制定实现盈利的计划。导师房间里贴着一则启示：“不论你的开场白是什么，一定要有活力。”在给导师们提意见时，奥文斯总是满怀激情：“我们真的在努力让导师们养成反馈的习惯，反馈，还是反馈。”

    一个糟糕的老板会让一个公司变得如同地狱一般，同样，一位不得力的导师会毁掉XBA集训营。赋桥为每16名学生委派一名导师。而奥文斯则为导师提供指导。

    2011年，曾在麦肯锡（McKinsey ）担任分析师的奥文斯刚刚从哈佛商学院（Harvard Business School）毕业，就被彼得招至麾下。奥文斯在聘用导师时会寻找那些平易近人、具有良好信誉的专业人员。赋桥的许多导师都是拥有多年工作经验的MBA在读学生。他认为，导师从训练营学到的东西并不比学生少：他们会获得领导技能，甚至能够唤醒一直被埋没的教学天赋。

    导师们在正式为学生授课之前，必须完成50至60个小时的培训。他们在20天内必须为每一位学生提供约100次绩效评估，并且，必须拿出两天时间与所有学生集体讨论他们梦想的职业，并为他们提供实现职业目标的途径。

    2010年从哥伦比亚大学（Columbia）毕业的本•莫宁在去年冬天参加了赋桥集训营，当时他供职于初创公司DormAid。他的导师便是奥文斯。奥文斯会经常向他介绍自己在麦肯锡学到的金字塔原理（即情境、复杂、问题、答案）。莫宁表示，这种思考让他学会了如何简化论证，以及如何将PowerPoint与Excel等工具用于获得实效，而不是为了炫耀。目前，他是沙特阿拉伯公司Makshaff Services的一名投资组合经理，主要在美国和海外工作。

    开拓新领域

    赋桥没有浪费时间去等待扩张的机会。公司在多个城市开设了集训营，并在今年一月与美国驻伊拉克和阿富汗老兵组织（Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America）合作推出了老兵集训营。曾在美军信息部门工作过的詹姆斯•王表示，在五角大楼，他所工作的部门缺乏创新；而集训营则激发了他对于创业的兴趣。

    赋桥还与多所大学合作，为学生提供补充课程，例如鲍登学院（Bowdoin）和圣路易斯的华盛顿大学（Washington University）等。（有些学校免费向奖学金获得者提供，有些学校则以公开课形式向学生提供。）坎蒂斯解释称：“大学的行动很慢，他们是既有价值的守护者。”坎蒂斯认为，与赋桥集训营合作，大学可以更快填补知识缺口。“我们所做的事情与大学没有太多重叠的部分。”

    The power of a good coach

    At the Omni Parker House, Luke Owings' 6'6" frame towers over five Fullbridge coaches. Owings, 28, played basketball at Princeton. It's a day after the program's most intense lesson, "Cintas y Lazos," where students review the financials of a new company (it makes ribbons, of all things), and are then tasked with presenting investors with a plan to reach profitability, taking into account brand, salaries, manufacturing costs, and other factors. There's one message in the coaches' room: "Whatever you do for this opener, bring the energy." Owings bounces as he advises the coaches: "We're really trying to get them into that culture of feedback, feedback, feedback."

    In the same way that a terrible boss can create a hellish workplace, an ineffective Fullbridge coach can ruin the XBA program. Fullbridge assigns one coach to every 16 students. Owings plays coach to the coaches.

    Peter recruited the former McKinsey analyst in 2011, just after he graduated from Harvard Business School. Owings looks for approachable professionals with credibility when he searches for coaches. Many Fullbridge coaches are current MBA students with several years of work experience. He argues that coaches get just as much out of the program as the students: they gain leadership skills and awaken otherwise latent teaching talent.

    Coaches complete 50-60 hours of training before meeting students, provide each student with around 100 performance reviews over the course of 20 days, and spend two days with each student to brainstorm about their dream careers and offer a path to achieve those goals.

    Ben Monnin, a 2010 Columbia graduate, participated in the Fullbridge program last winter while working at startup DormAid. Owings, who was his coach, often spoke to him about the Minto Pyramid Principle (situation, complication, question, and answer), which he picked up at McKinsey. Monin says that kind of thinking taught him how to simplify arguments and use tools like PowerPoint and Excel for effect, rather than show. He now works in the U.S. and overseas as a portfolio manager at Saudi Arabia-based Makshaff Services.

    Moving into new territory

    Fullbridge has wasted no time waiting to expand. The company hosts programs in various cities, and it launched its veteran program in partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America this January. James Wang, who works in the military's IT department, says there's little innovation in his department at the Pentagon; he credits the program with sparking his interest in entrepreneurship.

    Fullbridge also works with universities like Bowdoin and Washington University in St. Louis to offer complementary courses for students. (Some offer it free to scholarship students, others send students to the open enrollment programs.) "Universities move slowly; they're a conservator of values," Candice explains. Working with a program like Fullbridge helps these schools fill this knowledge gap faster, Candace argues. "There isn't much overlap between what we do and what they do."