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Argenti Destroys Pe'er, Wainwright,
Martin in Battle to Advise Women on FYP |
 Hanover, NH: In the annual battle of serving as
First Year Project (FYP) advisor to women in the first
year class, Argenti vanquished rival professors Aviad
Pe'er, Fred Wainwright, Bill Martin, and Margaret
Peteraf. The statistics are convincing (see graphs).
The Profit recently spoke with Professor Argenti about
his victory.
TP: First of all, congratulations. You really came
out ahead this year.
PA: Thank you. It's been a great ride. And
congratulations to you on this new publication. I love
it. Tuck has always been a leader in communications,
and The Tuck Profit continues this rich tradition.
TP:
We just throw bouquets at each other.
[laugh]
So how did you do it? Would you be willing to share
the secrets to your success?
 PA: Sure. You know me, I'm always willing to sit and
talk with students. It all comes back to my patented
communication strategy framework. I considered my
constituency and crafted my message carefully,
incorporating feedback into future messages.
TP: Interesting. So you actually used your own
framework--which is brilliant, by the way--
PA: Thank you, it's not bad.
TP: So you use that framework in your day to day
life?
PA: Oh yes. I use that framework almost every day.
TP: Wow. So help us understand how your framework
applies to this particular situation. For starters, who
was your constituency?
PA: That's an easy one. I actually had two
constituencies--my fellow FYP advisors, and Dean Danos,
the final decision maker.
TP: I see. Did you use the same message with both
constituencies? Walk us through the mechanics of how it
worked.
PA: At first, I based my arguments for wanting to advise
a particular group on my prior experience with the
client company or industry, and also on any prior
relationships with individual students in each group.
 TP:
Do you have a lot of prior relationships with students?
PA: Of course, I teach two classes in the first-year
core curriculum. But those relationships are only the low hanging fruit.
After a little while, the other professors started to
push back on my choices. Professor Pe'er was
particularly astute in discerning my strategy, and it
was difficult to make much headway with him. I tried to
incorporate his negative feedback, but we came to a
gridlock.
TP: How did you break that gridlock?
PA: Very simple. I brought in the second constituency:
the real decision maker, Dean Danos.
TP: And what was your message to the Dean?
PA: Like any great communications strategist, I first
considered the Dean's priorities. What do you think is
the Dean's number one priority?
TP: Providing a world-class education for future
business leaders, training and preparing them for a life
of leadership and success?
PA: Nonsense. He cares about one thing, and one thing
only: the rankings. How can I help him with what he
cares about?
TP: I don't know. Can we please lose the
Socratic method?
PA: Sorry. I can help the Dean by sticking around. If I
were to leave Tuck, it would be an indelible blow to the community,
and would signal to the experts at the Wall Street
Journal, Forbes and other publications that Tuck is
unable to retain its top talent. So I threatened to
leave, unless I got full control over the selection of
my advisees. After that, it was fairly easy to select
my advisees.
TP: Wow. I can see how, logically, your solution
flows perfectly from the communications strategy
framework. Brilliant! Is there anything you would have
done differently?
PA: No, I think I actually did the best I could have
done. I am satisfied with my victory.
TP: You may not be aware of this, but you could have
done better. It was brought to my attention recently
that the maximum female/male ratio, given the groups
that formed this year, and given a max of 60 advisees,
was 70%. You were only able to achieve 58%.
PA: That can't be right. Check your numbers again.
[looks at watch] Listen, I have an interview with some
coal miners in 5 minutes. Can we continue this later?
TP: I think we're done here. Thank you for speaking
with us. Congratulations again on your victory, and good
luck next year!
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