Inside the London MBA

The end of the second autumn term

My second autumn term at London Business School ended a couple of weeks ago. I am now in Mexico, enjoying a great life! (see my sisters and mom in picture)

Last term, I invested most of my time in activities related to the Consulting Club, lectures and travelling. There was some running and even some learning about opportunities in Private Equity and Venture Capital (surprisingly, the job search never ends)

My experience as head of training for the Executive Committee of the Consulting Club was really worth it. The club is really demanding, being the biggest club on campus, and is also a great opportunity to help and learn. Last term only, we delivered over 670x30-minute 'crack-a-case' training sessions and improved the quality of trainers by recruiting more experienced 2nd-year students to help out. This is a considerable improvement over last year's figures. I am really proud of this

My electives were Project Management, Analysis of Marketing and Decision Making, and Thinking Strategically. The latter, delivered by Jean-Pierre Benoit (one of the best professors at school) became one of my favorite lectures in the MBA programme

I continue to appreciate living in London, able to travel to other European countries so easily and even enjoy such a dramatic weather. Last term, my mother and aunt came to visit and we went around France, Spain and Netherlands. Again, a great time

The good habit of long-runs over the weekends has come back as we prepare for Paris Marathon in April 6. I am so excited and hoping I do better this year

Finally, the never-ending job search might actually have ended, difficult to tell. There are some untapped opportunities I cannot neglect and must try

Second year!

It has been a while since my last post.  I promise I have good excuses.  I became a father on August 23rd, and have been very busy at school this year as President of the Student Association and a full load of electives.  I have a lot to report.  After a great summer at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, I was sure I wanted to continue with a career in Brand Management.  I was lucky to have a couple of offers and have accepted a position with Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, OH.  I can’t wait! 

So this year is all about preparing myself through my electives to excel in that position (and of course savoring my last moments as a student).  This term I took a second course from my favorite professor, Bert de Reyck.  This course was Project Management, which taught a disciplined approach to managing the many constraints (resources, budgets, people, expectations, deadlines, etc) of large scale projects.  It had some of the risk mitigation elements in common with his first year course in Decision & Risk Analysis, but took it out of the individual decision environment into the complex world of massive projects.  I also took Creativity & Personal Mastery with guru Srikamour Rao (check out www.areyoureadytosucceed.com), who teaches this course at Columbia Business School and Haas.  It was a great course which breaks the mold for MBA courses.  My third course of the term was Brand Management with Mark Ritson (check out www.MarketingRitson.com).  This was my favorite course thus far at London Business School, absolutely fantastic.  I am biased because I am going into Brand Management as a profession, but my classmates going into other industries would likely say the same.  Academically, a wonderful term. 

I have also landed a really cool second year project.  I am working with a classmate on a project at Apple, in their marketing group.  We just started in December, and the project is set to last until April.  I can’t say much about the project, but it is of great importance to Apple’s business in the EMEA region, and our advice is intended to guide major actions for the company (assuming it is approved by Apple’s board).  As an Apple user, and a future marketer, this is a tremendous opportunity and I am thoroughly enjoying it. 

Finally, the Student Association has been doing some great things this year.  We put on some terrific events, are adding more value to the student clubs, and are making headway on key priorities to further enhance the student experience.  Our goal is to make the place even better for you (prospective students), than it was when we arrived. 

Happy New Year!

WOWOWIE ENTREPRISES & INT'L SERVICES

Lunch time (i.e. about 3 PM) in between 2 company presentations, Irfan (one of my roommates for the trip) and I felt we could use a little bite. Despite my one stop strategy (hearty breakfast around 9AM and then barely anything for the rest of the day) I was keen to try some local food as Irfan suggested.
We were wandering around the International Financial Center mall, asking people around when we ended up in this secret wing where we found this authentic Filipino food place: Wowowie. No tourist around was a good sign! We ordered the best Filipino food around to eat in, in this lovely little shop, no bigger than the lifts of the tall buildings!
We had some lovely beef and chicken with pancit bihon and karioka for desert. A delight! Not to mention the very warm welcome from Marria and Siony as you can see on the pix!
So if you're in Hong-Kong, need some good seat-in or take away food, just go to Wowowie, it's the Shop 133, 1st floor at 19 Des Vouex road, Central Hong-Kong!
Tel: +852 2522 3727
Mobile: +852 9105 6903

Goodbye Berkeley

How to describe my exchange experience in a phrase? I would say 'life changing'. I've been here in Berkeley since the end of August and this place has blown me away. The students and people in general are friendly, helpful and collaborative not competitive. The school has welcomed us like we are their own students. We have had full access to the careers service, get a permanent email address and now qualify to join the Haas alumni network. The policies of the school are symptomatic of the attitude of openness and inclusion that permeates this whole area.

Berkeley has been a refreshing change after a number of years spent in London. Usually, if somebody smiles at you or tries to talk to you in London they are completely crazy, or drunk. Yet here people literally walk down the street smiling all the time. Just happy to be living in such a great place.

The focus of the business school is management of technology and entrepreneurship. They have branded the school a centre for innovation, attempting to combine the massive volume of research conducted on the campus with entrepreneurs from the MBA class. I have taken classes such as Innovation in Services and Future of IT. Imagine a school where (almost) nobody wants to work for an Investment Bank or Hedge Fund! 

I have tried hard to find a job here and have turned down 1 offer. If I can find the right job I would move here permanently after the MBA.   

My previous blogs have focused on sports, so what have I been doing in Berkeley? Well I've been busy. The University sits on the edge of a large mountainous park. I have been running in the hills (<- see view from top of hill) training for the Las Vegas marathon. The hard training paid off when I managed a PB 03:11:42 on a freezing day in the Nevada desert. I went with many of my new friends on the international exchange from IESE & Columbia business schools. See pictures below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/fouad.jaidi/LasVegasExchangeStudents?authkey=i0m3aiXOwhg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21498601@N05/

Then there is the sailing. The San Francisco Bay is great for learning how to sail. I've taken some courses with a club called OCSC at Berkeley marina. I highly recommend the professional sailing instruction at this club. I have passed the US sailing certification at Basic Keelboat and Basic Cruising, training in J24s.

Overall, I have learnt a lot here at Berkeley. Some practical skills but also a different attitude towards business. An attitude of entrepreneurship, innovation and social responsibility. I recommend any 1st years considering exchange to come here and to experience a different perspective on business and life.      

This blog is dedicated to my close friend Fouad Jaidi MBA 2008 at ESSEC. 

Join us for an online chat with current students and members of the admissions team

Take this opportunity to put your questions to current students and members of the admissions team direct from the comfort of your desk during our 12 December online chat.

Event details:
•    Date: 12 December 2007
•    Time: 10:00am PT / 1:00pm ET / 6:00pm GMT
•    Where: This event is hosted by Accepted.com

In addition to several members of the MBA Admissions team, our panel of guests includes two current MBA students.

About our student participants:

Kitty Lee, MBA2009.  Kitty is a first year MBA student and MBA Student Ambassador. With dual British/Canadian citizenship, Kitty followed undergraduate studies in Business Administration at the University of Michigan.  Prior to beginning her MBA Kitty worked as a consultant with Mercer Management Consulting in the United States. 

Megh Kamath, MBA2009.  Megh is also a first year MBA student and MBA Student Ambassadors.  Megh is from India and studied Mechanical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore for his undergrad.  Prior to joining London Business School, Megh’s most recent professional experience was in the UK as an Assistant Vice President at Credit Suisse.

We hope that people are able to log onto this chat, but if you can't make it for this particular event you can view the transcript from the previous event, or, the transcript from the 12 December event will be available in about 5-7 days time.

我们在吃早饭 (we are having breakfast)

No day can start without a hearty breakfast. Mike, Irfan, John and I are staying in a very nice hotel (thanks to corporate discounts!), where we have a pretty nice continental/chinese breakfast. After that you're set for the rest of the day.
None of us could eat at the buffet held by Merril Lynch yesterday. We had a very nice experience there. Four people presented us the various aspects of the firm, and opened the floor for a 30mn Q&A session. We then moved on to another room where a buffet was served and 15 other employees joined us. They ranged from VP to head of the region. That was very informative. On our way out we were given a few gifts (among them a laptop case!).
We also saw Goldman Sachs, along with 2 Chicago schools. A partner gave us a very interesting speech about his career path and the culture at the firm. He was followed by a panel of new associate, most of them former business school students.
Then after a few refreshments we headed to Soho when we went through 45 minutes worth of escalator! Pretty cool neighbourhood. We finished the day with drinks with Olympus (a Private Equity firm) where we had some very good insight into the PE world.
Today is gonna be a long day, UBS and Citi, with hopefully a stop at the Victoria Peak at lunch time!

第一天我们在香港 (1st day in Hong-Kong)

Here we are, in Asia. We had a pretty good flight from London, 11 of us in the same aircraft, that was kind of cool. Landing in Kong-Kong is just like entering a swimming pool. We came from 10 degree (celcius) to 22.
After checking in the hotel we took a quick midnight walk, wearing short sleeves shirts! Now we're about to start our marathon. We're meeting with Merril Lynch and Goldman Sachs this afternoon. Then we'll meet a couple of private equity people at the pub. Look forward to that.
We still have our take home exam to complete though, not sure when we'll find the time... Maybe at 6AM when we're too jetlagged to sleep!
More news to come very soon...

Santa Pub Crawl 2007

The fall term might still be in its last gasps, but the partying has already begun. I attended one of the great London Business School traditions this past Saturday - the Santa Pub Crawl. A night of 400+ students dressed in Santa outfits, spreading merriment, bewilderment and various other 'ments around the streets and bars of London. Other than a few traumatized children, a great time was had by all. I somehow managed to come home sans any remnants of my Santa costume (disclaimer: Santa costumes worn over regular clothes), so I can only hope it was given a good home/burial.

But enough talk, I'll let the pictures below do the 'splainin. Preparation for next term's job search begins now, and on top of the clubs, event planning and competitions I'm involved with, time is scarce. Conventional wisdom says I should probably study for my accounting exam too.

Thanks to Mike O. for the pics and for bringing sexy back.

Spring Break in "The Motherland"

Seems there were many people as eagar as I am to get to East Africa. The cue to reserve a place for the Africa Club's Kenya trip begin outside Ag 06/07 at 9am. I was thinking I'd just stroll up at 12:30, the beginning time that was publicized, and deposit my check. Luckily I was in the vicinity early enough to join the line at 11. Because by 12:30 there was only one spot left.

With a safari at Masai Mara and Mount Longonot planned, and visits to the Nairobi Stock Exchange, multinational companies and NGOs, the trip promises to be a memorable one.