GSB? Say What?

As I mentioned earlier, there have been two big life changes taking place for me over the past several months. The first is the expected arrival of Baby C, and the second is my return to the world of academia. As with a lot of professions today, business school does not escape the infatuation with acronyms. In fact, it may seek to define acronyms that can find their way into industry. During my days in telecom, I believe the quintessential example of going too far was POTS - Plain Old Telephone Service. C'mon, necessary? I think not.

For several years, I have joked with friends at other business schools about their use of acronyms and their insistence on referring to the business school of a university by acronym rather than the university name itself. The best example is from my friends at Harvard. It has been rumored that a Harvard student requires you to ask three questions before they will reveal that they go to Harvard, but once they reveal, they will never tell you that they go to Harvard. Instead, they will rave about their experience at HBS (Harvard Business School). HBS this, HBS that! Well, I guess I am now guilty as charged.

Entering my own personal lexicon is the GSB. The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business => GSB. I have been humored by the efforts others have gone to in trying to solve this acronym. Most notably, the soon-to-be grandparents of Baby C have been prodding for months for clues to Baby C's name. Today, I was actually asked if GSB was somehow a representation of our family monogram, including the first initials of mom, dad, and baby. Wow! Kudos for effort, but it certainly isn't that easy. We haven't broken down yet - the name will remain a secret, but I'm sure I'll continue to use "GSB" in every day conversation.