Inside the London MBA

Capstone begins today

Capstone 1: a Final touch; a crowning achievement;a culmination 2:a stone that forms the top of a wall or building

The capstone class marks the beginning of the end of the MBA at London Business School. It is a 3 day class where you get back with your original stream and "wrap" up your learnings from the MBA. Essentially it is UGM (our very first course of the MBA) revisited after we have gone out and studied everything we wanted to during the two years at school. For me the excitement is about reliving the first few months of the MBA - for me those were extremely formative in terms of friendships and my own development. It will be interesting to see how we have all changed (for the better, I hope) over the 2 years vis-a-vis the personalities we all brought into the classroom when we started.

Victorious again: UCLA case competiton

The case teams from London Business School are on fire this year. Our team had another massive victory at UCLA, Anderson winning top honours over 15 other schools including Chicago GSB, Oxford Said, USC Marshall, NUS, HEC , IESE and many others.

The team (all MBA2009s):

Rodrigo Ormaechea
Abhishek Kapur
Ilias Anagnostopoulos
Arturo Silva-Santiesteban

http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/x19893.xml

This is particularly good news for the consulting club which worked hard to get teams together and increased participation at such competitions as compared to previous years.

BU Tech Strategy Case Competition

I'm proud to announce that the London Business School team (Rene Plug, Sasa Brcerevic, Tobias Schweiger and me) have finished in the 3rd place (out of 16 teams) at the BU Tech Strategy Case competition. We are still in Boston recovering from the celebration last night.

http://www.casecomp.blogspot.com/

Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities Trade Show

So tonight was the big night - where everyone showcased their work from the term, researching unmet needs in the market and coming up with viable products to meet those needs. Our group, having identified our tendency to develop good content but not deliver the best way, had made a commitment to do well on this project this term. But as the term went, with milkround and loads of other commitments, it had fallen by the wayside for sometime.  Amazingly enough, the last couple of days we pooled together as a whole team and created... the SUPASNACKA.

What I was most proud of was seeing our most quiet group member get passionate about the project. Though nervous about pitching to the angel investors judging our work, he mustered up that passion in his presentation, and it showed!  One of the VC guys even left his card with us. At the end of the night, there was a prize handed out for the best idea. Guess who took that prize home from Stream B. :)

Cheers to group love!

VCIC and Competitions

People in business school love abbreviations. As an example, my current core classes are DRA, DEO, MOB and Marketing. I'm sure marketing will be changed to MKT soon, though, as vowels continue to lose favor among the naming experts.

Deciphering VCIC may be a bit more intuitive than the classes mentions above, thanks to the first two letters. It's the Venture Capital Investment Competition - where students across business schools become venture capitalists for a weekend and evaluate investments in new businesses.

My team, MARSH Capital, made it through the first round, where we pitched our make-believe fund and what we lovingly named "the MARSH approach." Balance was the key to our success, as we had collectively worked in technology, finance, law, strategy and marketing. The subsequent round involved spending Thursday through Saturday (straight) poring over business plans, grilling entrepreneurs, fiddling with financial models, creating term sheets and summaries and ultimately presenting to a tough crowd of VCs. It was an amazing, not to mention exhausting, experience that shed some light onto the process of VC investing, and the hurdles entrepreneurs face in securing funding.

In the end, an EMBA team did an amazing job and took home the prize. They'll be representing London Business School at the next round this weekend in New York, so best of luck to them!

No matter what your focus is, there are plenty of competitions that provide invaluable learning experiences and ridiculous opportunities here at London Business School. As a further example, myself and some other MBA '09s are currently managing €100,000 of real money in the finals of a European portfolio management competition, sponsored by Fortis. We gained about €6,000 last month. Seems crazy, I know. But there are competitions for brand management, business plan writing, case studies, social ventures - all the perennial favorites. So whether you get involved for the learning, the glory or the cash prizes (this is London, after all), there's plenty of competition to go around.

DEO

DEO stands for Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities. That is one of the five core courses we have in the spring term. It's pretty interesting in that it analyses the key components to make a new venture succeed. Guest speakers come and explain their entrepreneur experience after we studied how they launched their businesses. Another good aspect is the application of the tools we learn each week. We start the class thinking of an unmet need in day to day life and go out there to interview people in the street using a special technique. We then build a little feedback presentation to show the class. This week we're at the stage where we film people in their day to day life to show how we can improve some minor problem they face. I attached 3 videos of groups in our stream (you can vote for the best). We have diverted a little bit from the original goal but I thought it would be fun to share!

Still Jet Lagged But Enjoying My Year 2

I came back from Mexico three weeks ago to dive into my Brand Management course. It was a very interesting and cool block week. Two weeks ago, I started two more electives: Financing the Entrepreneurial Business and Venture Capital & Private Equity. Although there is overlap, each course has its own style, cases and passionate professors. I am revisiting Finance concepts I had managed to forget and partnering with people I like and can learn from for group work.

Last term was difficult for various reasons: came back exhausted from two summer internships, did lots of work for the Consulting Club and even took somehow part of the Milk Round for full-time jobs. This term, having spent a full month of freedom and love in Mexico, I feel revitalised (though with a never-ending jet-lag).

I am devoting my time to school work, my second year project, running, the club and myself. I will give swimming and tennis a try too. 6 1-hr swimming lessons at 7:00am on Mondays at the school's pool for £30 seems not bad though too early for the least exciting day of the week.

Last Wednesday we had one of our best Consulting Club meetings at the Hob Goblin by school (see pictures). We laughed a lot, had a good meal and a few drinks. I have enjoyed and learnt a lot from my contribution to the club. This role is by far one of the best experiences I have had at London Business School.

This term is looking really good. We are all set with job offers and only a few courses. I am having a fantastic time!

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!

The Calm Before the Storm

You might be wondering where everybody has gone... Or maybe not. But if you are, November is apparently the busiest month of London Business School. I do not know if this is true for all business schools, but it is here. So, to cut the proverbial stress with a knife, the MBA Office has decided to offer a De-Stress Week. This week the following are being offered:

1) Free Massages
2) Chocolate Indulgences
3) British Breakfasts (By the way, is there anything in the British diet that is health conscious? -- I mean, I love clotted cream and scones as much as the next guy...)

So, this has been a surprisingly pleasant and relaxed week. Of course, next week involves the dreaded corporate finance midterm (not a final!). But I choose not to focus on that... I prefer to focus on my return to New York in December and my New Year's vacation in the Italian Alps. Have I made you jealous yet? Well, hopefully about everything except British breakfasts...

Another weekend has flown by

Our weekends begin on Thursday afternoon, when our Economics professor sends us off at twelve noon.

Thursday lunches are for practicing Mandarin - I've started a series of lunches where native speakers are volunteering to coach those want to improve their conversational skills (strangely enough, I'm the only ethnic Chinese taking this course). I spent the afternoon working on the finance assignment and catching up with a friend over hot chocolate at The Windsor. Met with a group to discuss possibly joining the JP Morgan Good Venture competition. Ran late to meet another friend for tea in the Quad before he went off for the full-time AT Kearney dinner event. Attended the Alumni in Consulting event feeling cynical about the profession, but coming out in the end inspired by the passion and energy of some of them. Home late and hungry again.

Friday, up early for the Women in Business Conference - more inspiration from Entrepreneurs and CSR sessions - plus plenty of good take-aways from the Fashion workshop. Acting class. A couple of Guinesses at Sundowners. Then running off to the National Film Theater to catch the London Film Festival (and shamefully consuming McDs on the way). Home late, not so hungry and exhausted.

Saturday morning was meant to be easy before I meet two friends (a Croatian 08er, and my Estonian former flatmate from Delhi) at the Interdependence Day event at The Royal Geographic Society. But then got a spur-of-the-moment invitation for brunch at Le Pain Quotidien to celebrate the sunny weather. After the seminars: Starbucks at Knightsbridge; minor window-shopping to put the business fashion skills to practice. Then back at Baker Street to meet others for the Navratri event in Chiswick. Wiki says:

Navratri (Sanskrit:नवरात्रि) is a Hindu festival of worship and dance. The word Navaratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit; Nava - Nine and Ratri - nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti (metaphor for goddess Durga ) i.e. female divinity are worshipped.Navratri (Sanskrit:नवरात्रि) is a Hindu festival of worship and dance. The word Navaratri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit; Nava - Nine and Ratri - nights. During these nine nights and ten days, nine forms of Shakti (metaphor for goddess Durga ) i.e. female divinity are worshipped.

So dance the night away we did indeed.  

...till 1am. Home with friends at 2. Chatted over midnight snack and a glass of wine till 3:30. Pass out.

There was no way I was going to make it to football practice at 10 on Sunday. Got a call asking where everyone else was anyhow. Finally arose out of bed at noon. Made pasta for lunch. Touched base with team at 2. Read through my pigeon hole mail in the sunny quad - played with the daughter of one of the Japanese 09s. She's quickly learning more and more English. Dove into the computer lab to upload photos and finish Finance and Accounting reading. Greet the same familiar faces. Hour-long tea break on Baker Street as everything else around campus is closed on Sundays. Pass a djembe class in the Fairbairn room. Back to basement to finish Accounting and reward myself by allowing time to blog. I promise myself I will give myself enough time to cook the spinach in the fridge and be in bed tonight by midnight.

Parlez-vous chinois? (Mandarin classes)

You guys must all be familiar with the language requirement. London Business School's vision is to be a pre-eminent global business school. As a result, a good level of English is mandatory but not sufficient: you need to be able to speak another language at a commercial level (we call it level 2 at the school). For more than half of the class, who are not native English speakers, it is no problem at all. My language requirement is fulfilled by my French for instance. However, like many others, I found that the MBA experience is a unique opportunity to start learning another language.

Guess which one I chose? Mandarin of course! After I had made up my mind I told my friends, and they were going "you're crazy that is too difficult, it's gonna take too much of your time" or "you don't need to take a language, you're wasting a credit". Well I am happy I made that choice though. We have 4.5 hours a week, for the first year (for a total of 90 hours). But this is really fun. You are not expected to know as many words as you would in Spanish for instance, but the vocabulary will take you as far as the grammar is much simpler. No genders, no tenses.

We start with pinyin which means that you write using the same alphabet as English plus 4 accents. I'd say there are about 400 different 1 syllable words you can write with those (x4 including the accents). With this set you cover a large part of the 50k+ Chinese symbols that there are. For the level 1 we have to be able to have a simple conversation, recognise a few characters (I think about 120-150) and know about the grammar.

It is a commitment though, but if you feel that you have a genuine interest in Chinese, either professional, cultural or just aesthetic (the 3 apply to me :) you should go for it!

Where has everyone been?

I'm sure all the applicants have been checking back every other day wondering, "why aren't there any new posts?" We have been, technically speaking, swamped.

09s have been inundated with at least one assignment, plus one-plus hours of reading per class. Not to mention all the new club kick-offs, and for some asians interested in banking, already interviewing for summer internships. (Bain China has already completed their interviews last month!)

08s have just returned and been drowning in the milk round.

I've been through two of each course now. It's amazing to see how the ability of the professor to hold the class' attention reflects amazingly on how much I feel like I'm enjoying/learning from that course. Accounting regulations was never more entertaining! (The assistant professor just finished his Ph.D. at The University of Texas, my alma matar. And he did say, "I've been here one month now. I hate it. It's expensive. I miss Texas.)

And microeconomics, which I remember from my senior year in high school being extremely dull and senseless, has become very relevant to my everyday encounters with business, culture and politics. (Plus it was a perk that fresh bagels were offered right before our discussion about the bagel and cranberries case.)

It's Thursday afternoon. The sun is shining. I need to go buy football cleets. And Tattoo is coming up in two days. I'm outta here.

Our first day of "real" core courses: Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility

Stream B has the luxury of starting our Mondays for the next 5 weeks with Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility, a course which has had extremely mixed reviews. The cynics think it's a waste of time, while the idealists lap it up. I've always been the liberal-artsy-type person, and getting a taste of psychology, philosophy and sociology in a business course is a treat.

What I find comforting immediately is that the professor has stated immediately that she's not here to judge what is right or wrong for us - that is purely based on our beliefs and values. What I'll take away from this, is how to make the decisions right for me when I come to those ethical issues.

What defines an ethical issue? 

"Any decision that will positively or negatively influence someone else is an ethical issues," she tells us. Not every issue is a plainly-in-your-face-Enron-sized issue. It can be as simple as deciding on whether or not to go out late and effecting your ability to contribute in the study group meeting the next day.

"People tend to weigh too heavily on the short-term and too lightly on the long-term."  This course is great even beyond the workplace. Knowing this fact might help one stop and think over the options a bit more. Can you think of examples where this might be applicable to your life?

And finally, as one of my goals here is to pick up more English idioms, I've learned today that "deep throating" refers to the Watergate scandal - an anonymous whistle-blower.

GLAM

What is GLAM you may ask? A new David Bowie album, which would be a fairly decent follow to "Fame." Nope. It is the Global Leadership Assessment for Managers (known as GLAM henceforth). Effectively, it is London Business School's attempt to illustrate our weaknesses and strengths (if we have any). They also contract out to do a personality survey that tells us if we are ambitious or aimless, arrogant or modest, open or closed. Now, I like critical feedback as much as the next guy, but some of it is really harsh. I am apparently aimless, lack all sympathy towards other people, and untrusting. Now I know why all of my ex-girlfriends left me. Has GLAM been a success? It is very difficult to say. Maybe this is the kind of thing that can only be measured in many years when we are either effective or ineffective leaders.

The most fun part of it so far, however, has been a very well structured simulation where we had to run a small specialty motor company against other groups. We had to choose all of the variables from sales to marketing to R & D. It was an all day event, and I always love these strategic games that force people to make difficult high-level decisions. Unfortunately, they did not announce a winner since they said that the purpose was to practice group dynamics and leadership traits. But I am willing to declare my group the clear winner -- highest market share, highest revenue, and best press releases. Okay, so maybe I am not so aimless and closed, but maybe not so modest either.

Poppin' Bottles

To the victors go the spoils. Witness below study group D5, winners of the Stream D Business Statistics Case Competition, enjoying a fine bottle of Veuve Clicquot, provided to us by our stats professor in recognition of our victory.

Pictured from left to right are Rishi from the UK, Athena from Greece, Rohan from India, Hamish from the U.S. and Leo from Brazil. Not pictured is Zaza from Georgia.

The case competition occurred on our last day of Statistics, and involved being given about 4 hours to solve a business case and create a presentation based on our results. The winners were chosen based on the quality of the regression model, analysis of the implications of the model, overall good looks of the group and the presentation itself.

We capped off a marathon session of statistics with dinner at a great little Greek restaurant in Camden (organized by our favorite Greek, Athena). The food and drink allowed us to unwind after a long day, and we left 95% confident that we'll be seeing more champagne in our future. 

Last turn of the warm-up lap

Yep that is it, vacation is almost officially over. September has been the month to start working on soft skills. After the CV workshop, followed by a one to one session with a coach and a half-day networking class, we spent a whole day dedicated to work on presentation skills.

Divided into groups of 6 students, one professional trainer video taped us and delivered a customised feedback. One of the most useful and engaging workshops so far, as we could comment not only on our performance but also on other's. The MBA office did a good job at grouping us differently from our usual study groups. More chances to get to know us, more nationalities to learn from, more professional backgrounds to interact with. I had some pretty useful take aways from that session: I need to be more concise, less wordy! Well after watching the tape, it's clear that I need to work on that. Not sure I should apply the same to my blog posts (I haven't received any feedback yet so I will continue :)

Thursday, Friday and Saturday (yes Saturday, you know that day which with Sunday forms weekends) we'll be wrapping up the month working on our global leadership skills. A global school has to develop global leadership skills, and I am looking forward to that 3 day class!

Then Monday, core courses kick off. The reading required for these is pretty thorough, a good mix of case studies and text books. On top of that the second year MBAs will be all back! Not only the campus is gonna be much busier but the student association activity is gonna take another dimension! Man, I haven't been that busy in months, since I resigned from my previous job...

They're kidding, right?

Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications, With Cases     by Robert M. Grant      (Paperback - 31 Aug 2007) 1 Used & new from £285.24

***FYI***Response from Lecturer***Phew!

Here is the link for the Blackwells copy:

http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/display_product_info.jsp?isbn=9781405163095

And here’s the relevant Amazon copy:

Contemporary Strategy Analysis by R.M. Grant (Paperback - 19 April 2007) Buy new: £29.99 £23.99

Quiet days...

I am in the middle of a 6-day weekend! September is the month when the MBA office spares the new students. Most of us haven't studied in a long long time so the rhythm is not too tough. If on top of that you add a waiver on statistics (that is one full day of class a week that becomes free) and no language requirement/assessment (I am gonna take Mandarin, but no need to assess myself, I just know 3 of the 3000 characters it takes to have a decent conversation) then the schedule tends to be light.
That is a great opportunity to spend some time thinking about what can be done in the associative space. Each nationality group, for instance, tries to put together a trip to their home countries; given that France is next door, we have to do the same at the French Club. I fear we're gonna compete with the dates though.
Time also to come up with a 'career strategy'. It's gonna be another 3 months before the official internship hunt kicks off, but it's never early enough to put one's thoughts together and run them by the career coaches.
Finally also a good time to browse the ocean of info the portal carries: speaker series, clubs meetings, class schedules, career services events, sports tournaments, library databases... A huge amount of information to digest, I wish the speed reading classes had started.
Some are said to have started preparing the class for the autumn term starting next month, but I haven't actually seen them.

Mein Deutsch ist schreklich

There were three types of MBA 2009’s on campus today:

• People stressing the diagnostic language test and feverishly cramming verbs, cases and tenses into their heads
• People who were comfortable in their knowledge / lack thereof in their chosen language, but who were now wondering if they should be studying too
• People who were exempt from the language requirement, solely there to make the rest of us feel bad about ourselves

So, in case you couldn’t tell, we had diagnostic language tests today. Prospective students, take note: you will need to be fluent in at least two languages when you graduate from London Business School. More specifically, you’ll need to pass Level 2 (of 3), which I would assume means you’d be able to write an insipid blog entry like this in another language. I say “assume,” because, clearly, I did not pass Level 2 this morning. I did it for diversity's sake, though -- with so many multilingual people here, I had to represent for those of us who are embarrassingly unilingual.

Not surprisingly, there were a large number of students taking the diagnostics because they are picking up (yet) another language for either business or personal reasons. Mandarin is, of course, the hot language this year, leading to this humorous exchange:

Friend 1: We heard you were asking someone how to say "parents" in Chinese, how can you not know that?
Friend 2: That's not true, I know how to say "mom," and "dad," I just don't know how to say them together.
Friend 1: [Deadpan] So you don't know how to say "parents."
Friend 2: I have to go.

Friend 2 did fine, by the way.

Thankfully, to provide a midday break from thinking about grammar, the Investment Management Club held a “Stockpicking 101” session. This was an introduction on how to write a stock pitch – crucial not only to those who seek jobs in equity research, but also those entering the stock pitch competition next month. I'm planning on entering, so anyone with hot stock tips, feel free to send them my way.

Apple's Banana

With regard to working our study groups, 2nd to the Away Day in terms of fun so far was the PeopleExpress computer simulation that was used in our Understanding General Management course yesterday. Task: take an airline start-up and report the quarter with the the lowest stock price in the last year. There were five variables. Simple enough, no?

So picture the six of us in the war room - scrambling through the help notes, scribbling key points on the white board (I'm obsessive with this), naturally dividing out roles and developing a mini-strategy. Through the last 40 minutes we watched our stock price sore to $68 in Q4 of 1989. We held the highest score in the class. Celebration.

Take two involved us developing a strategy then having another go. Piece of cake, right? Just replicate what we did before and be slightly more aggressive. We ended up with a lower stock price than the first time. I was deflated, knowing that the champagne prize and recognition went to a much more successful group. What happened? More than losing, I was disappointed that we didn't learn anything.

Or did we? We were so stuck on our first method, we forgot to expand our minds beyond it. We were framed! And after hearing the strategies from the other groups, we realized we were playing much to conservatively and reacting too quickly to negative numbers in our charts. Our group was majorly risk averse (despite the fact we mostly had no problems leaping off 10 meter high wooden poles and trapezing across steel tightropes).

Now will we be able to overcome it in the next year? We shall see... meanwhile, our 3rd favorite activity together has proven to be writing on a banana with a ballpoint pen. It's all about the texture. Try it. I dare you.

Open Your Mind

Slave to my worldview, I went for the first of my series of back - to - back UGM classes. The first case we read was the Honda (A) case – written by consultants in pin-stripe suits, people like you and me - out of business school and interestingly far removed from the place where the ‘action was’. Throughout the first hour, I kept wondering why we were not using Michael Porter’s competition model to ‘solve’ the case. It’s classical conditioning – if there is a case, it has to be solved; and solved by fitting it, somehow into some arcane framework that someone somewhere has developed. By the time my frustration reached a crescendo, the professor handed us another case, Honda (B) and I attacked the case with hope, ‘this one we will solve’. I am not sure that the discussion fitted into the classical definition* of ‘solve a case’. To belabour the scene and the situation a bit more, in the post lunch session, we dissected the Apple case – again, discussion but no concrete solution (please refer my definition of 'solve a case' below).

We didn’t quite ‘solve’ any of the cases in a traditional sense, but I got some very key insights into not only how general managers work through the interrelation of four key elements - values, frames, commitments and processes. A little bit of thought convinced me that everyday life may also be influenced significantly (if I may be allowed to flaunt my newly acquired business statistics knowledge, at a 5% level of significance or 95% level of confidence) by the interplay of these forces. Without becoming too philosophical or pedantic, I’d like to share my personal experience with frames.

What is a frame? It is our worldview; it is reality as we see it, its reality as we believe it. The frame is a double edged sword – it can facilitate what we make of ourselves, but at the same time it shuts us from absorbing new experiences and prevents us from growing – intellectually and more importantly, as human beings. For example, a couple of days back, I believed that a case that is usually taught in business schools (mostly across the Atlantic) to teach strategy (read how to apply models) cannot be used to understand something quite as subtle as ‘what goes on inside a manager’s head’ – that was my frame, constraining me from new experiences. I believed that cases are meant to be dissected with such rapidity and by fitting them into one of the many available frameworks that the consulting companies would just have to roll out the red carpet (and hopefully the dough) for me.

I am still new around here and haven’t figured out much about how the ‘general manager’s mind’ framework works or even how to approach dissecting a case. But I am now aware that there are processes in my head that are, without my knowing, stymieing my growth. And it has made me question some of the frames within which I operate.

So, if you think that business school is only about textbooks, networking and getting the million dollar job, you should probably take a step back and analyse the frames within which you are operating.

All I’d say is, if you choose to come to business school, just open your mind.

* The classical definition of ‘solve a case’ is to fit it into some framework or model and take full advantage of what is called the 'hindsight bias'.

P.S. Thanks Professor BL for opening my mind.

Study Group Reality (aka I don't belong)

So, you probably know this already, but you will get a Study Group in Business School. Now, I heard all sorts of nightmares about these groups before I started school, but all in all, I have to say that I like my group. We are quite the diverse group of people -- The Russian-American math genius with a heart of gold; The Statistician who has heaps of experience at major credit agencies; The VP of a major bank; The Italian McKinsey consultant who looks (and I assume plays) like Kaka; and the Australian girl who has either been a model, actress, or basketball player in her previous life and also happens to be a great writer. And that brings us to me - No obvious talent. I think they put me there to motivate me (or to make them feel good), or to highlight that I bring nothing tangible to the group except a desire to Blog about them. It is like the quote in that classic film Rounders, "If you cant spot the sucker the first 30 minutes at the table, you are the sucker." In this case, however, replace the term "sucker" with "man with no discernible skills."

Shifting gears though ... speaking of poker... I have now joined the Poker Club, and it might be the best club at school. No, this club won't help you get great jobs like the Private Equity Club, but it sure is a lot of fun. I can't wait to invest more this weekend. I am also angling for a Senior VP role in the club -- gotta find something for my CV. Also, it should be noted that the President of the Poker Club also is a blogger though he has his own which you can find on the links to your left. It is called "Plausible Deniability." Whether the name is a legal defense or a life philosophy, I do not know for sure, but the blog is a must read if you are considering Business School, even if you don't really belong or have any talent like me.

B is for brilliant breaks

B is for best. B is for Barrick. B is for busy busy busy.
Jessica has just sent out the autumn term calendar for Stream B and the first thing I see is that the most of the column under Friday is left white. This means long weekends to travel. Late Thursday nights - be it till 3am dancing salsa or studying french. I'm with Stuart about being baffled about juggling social, career and academic events. After last night's stream pub crawl all I can think about now is bed.

San Francisco Exchange

Its been awhile since I last wrote a blog entry, so what have I been doing? Of course there was the internship. But the less said about that the better. Now I'm in San Francisco on exchange at UC Berkeley. I have much more positive things to say about the Bay area, so I think I should focus there.

But first I feel like providing some advice if you are currently thinking about internships for next year. Firstly,  do your homework and research exactly where you are going, what you will be doing and who you will be working with \ for, before you commit. My other top tip is that if you aren't sure exactly what you want to do then do something really different, what do you have to lose?

Berkeley is amazing. I came here 2 days after finishing my internship and classes have been running for nearly 3 weeks. Yes their term starts early! My first purchase was a mountain bike, renting an apartment came third on the list, after getting a phone.

I have been training on the Olympic athletics track, running in the hills behind Berkeley and mountain biking around Mt Diablo. I have a weekend of sailing in the bay this weekend and some golf lined up for next week. If you like the outdoors lifestyle then this is the place to be.

I also met a lot of other students and we have been having a great time exploring the area. Last week we went to San Francisco and checked out the 'summer of love 40th anniversary concert'. See pictures.

I spent the weekend in Mexico for my study group mates wedding. CONGRATULATIONS Poncho! There were lots of LBS students attending. The wedding started at 9pm and the party went on until the next morning. By the end it was only the Bride & Groom, some teenagers, the MBAs and very tired looking sets of the wedding couples parents. The Mexicans certainly know how to party. Hopefully, I will be able to post some pictures when I get them.

   

And this is how it begins...

7:30 Wake up in the midst of a warm new duvet
8:20 Leave home, bike to school
8:40 Lock up, dart to locker to pick up name plate
8:45 Business Stats lecture
10:30 First break, grab a cup of hot water for my green tea. Chat with stream-mates about Stream B Pub Crawl next night - and how it might clash with drinks with the new Dean. Head back to Stats.
11:45 Lunch break. Look for a fork for my homemade stir-fry noodle lunch. Eat in the quad with classmates in the sun that still lingers.
12:30 Head to stats tutorial sessions.
14:00 To the computer lab for the stat excel workshops. Check emails and invite other stream members to our Pub Crawl. (Informally known as the Pub Crawl Crashers)
15:30 Have a quick "coffee" break in the quad.
15:45 Programme collaboration briefing. Content is a bit dry but G makes it fun.
16:30 Quickly check emails and online errands.
17:30 GLDP Briefing. Room is full. Good to see people from other streams, will miss that. Work on some Chinese character memorization.
18:00 Search from Singaporean restaurant with Chinese-Indian F. Give up search and settle for yin-yang fried rice, which turns out to be quite a good portion to share.
18:55 Rush to Women in Business intro meeting. Impressed with their research initiatives. Chat over the quiche about hiring practices and maternity leave laws between different countries.
20:35 Realize that I've got two missed calls from the same strange number. Turns out to be an old Chinese-Brasilian friend passing through London for an interview.
20:50 Read cases for Understanding General Management.
21:30 Bike home.
21:45 Finally attach the front headlight to the bike. Porter claims I'm hiding from him.
22:00 Home. Laugh with flatmates about youtube videos. (I think I'm the serious one out of the three)
22:45 Blog. On standby for drinks with friend passing through...

R mentioned that if ones schedule isn't like this...  precious time here is being wasted.

It was a bit noisy downstairs...

... as the neighbours were hosting a party in the street all day. That was part of the Notting Hill Carnival of course which I saw the first day only this year, Sunday 26th: children's day. It's actually not that bad as the parade is really professional and the streets a little less crowded, but still the same amount of music and yummy chicken.
Monday was still a bank holiday but also the MBA kick off. Not sure whether that should be considered the first week really as it was more about knowing each other as well as the programme for the upcoming two years. One of the activities I really liked that week was when all nationality groups (we're 58 nationalities this year by the way) had to put together a 2 minute introduction about its culture and anything the others should know about it without probably knowing. The Germans won the contest, they really deserved it as they were pretty imaginative.
The week literally flew by: barbecues, pubs, parties, briefings,... A very good induction before the month of September which should take us one step closer to the actual back to school period and the challenging mix of academics and student associations starting with autumn term!

Welcome 09s

It's quite interesting to see the fresh faces around campus. The MBA2009s start their journey today and I heartily welcome them to campus. It is quote unbelievable that I am no longer a first year MBA student.

They will start their orientation tomorrow at Lords. My own orientation seems so far back in the past. Today is when the 09s get allocated their streams and their *ahem* study groups. I remember getting together with my study group for the first time and chatting for a couple of hours with everyone trying to figure out where we were  coming from and where we were headed. After spending so much time with my study group over the last 12 months, that discussion feels alien.

Anyways, I gave this piece of advice to some 09s I met a few days ago and it is the one thing I wish I could change about my first few weeks on campus. Make the most of your time with your peers. Get to know everyone while you all are still new. Once you get into your streams and study groups you won't get the same opportunity as you will over these next few days.

Once again welcome to your home for the next 2 years.

Chat online with Manish and David Simpson, Associate Dean, MBA Programme

Chat online with David Simpson, Associate Dean, MBA Programme, and Manish Gajria, MBA2008 and MBA blogger, on Wednesday 25 July, noon (New York), 17.00 (London), 21.30 (Mumbai).

Join this BusinessWeek.com hosted live event and put your questions to Manish and David about everything from campus culture and living in London, to admissions requirements and the essays that make the Admission’s Committee stand up and take note.

For full details on how to take part visit the BusinessWeek.com website.
The event starts at 17.00 London time.

View the transcripts from previous events.

Our Field Trips + End of Markstrat

Almost 3 weeks ago stream B -about 70 enthusiastic students- travelled to Leipzig for our Operations Management trip to Porsche. The factory was awesome and those nights out were some of the best. Other streams are travelling to Italy next weekend while others have just been to Amsterdam.

These are all good learning experiences that happen to be great night outs too. A highlight of the class, other than our Italian professor Andrea Masini, was the on-line Littlefield simulation. It was constructive but also fun and for some people even addictive. Needless to say, most teams did better than the "donothing" team, which shows we actually learnt something!

The end of Markstrat was quite an event for B6 -my study group-. Markstrat is a simulation that resembles a business environment in which firms compete for market share, launch products to market and aim for the highest stock price index. Teams -study groups- made decisions over several periods without really knowing the dynamics of the simulation. Just like in the real world of business, we had to make educated guesses, based on past data.

Peter Kolev, Diogo Vasconcelos, Rajat Maaker, Vivek Kohli and Andrew Bate, my study group members, beat everyone else by reaching the highest stock price index. Stories like this don't happen by chance. A lot of planning, effort, passion, individual and teamwork went into it. Well done team!

Marathon Mishap

Last Sunday was London Marathon day. I set off on the familiar route to the start line at Greenwich and I thought I was set for a good finish time. The training had been injury free and smoother than any previous year I have competed.

Then the ultra reliable London Transport system failed and I was stuck 3 miles from the start line. The only alternative rail route would have guaranteed getting to the start late. So, together with hunders of other runners, I walked the last few miles in a desperate bid to get to the start. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived at the start area the place was a ghost town. Still cursing the docklands railway I started the marathon.

I spent the next 2 hours weaving between people dressed in Rhino suits or as Rupert the Bear in a deperate bid to get ahead. It got me nowhere. I did 5 miles at 12 minute mile pace. This was very frustrating and by now I was cursing the DLR and the London Marathon organisers. Eventually, I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to break away from the crowds and tried to enjoy the festivities that surround the marathon. The support from the crowds was phenomenal. I finished eventually in 3.56.

I was cheered on Monday by being accepted on the international exchange programme. I managed to secure a place at Berkeley HAAS for one semester next year. Since the start of the MBA, I have realised that my lack of international experience really stands out amongst my peers. This made me quite concerned when my first round exchange application was rejected. Berkeley was not my original first choice, however I have a growing interest in entrepreneurship and getting Berkeley must be fate giving me some kind of sign. I'm definitely looking forward to spring in California. 

End of Spring, Beginning of Summer

Last term went too quickly. Summer job search was exciting, time-consuming, tough but fun.

After a couple of tests, we celebrated the end of last term with Salsa and Sangria, an annual event organized by the Spanish and Latin American clubs. We listened to some "flamenco", "Los Hombres G" and salsa, of course. We had a great time!

The break was quick and short too. Time just flies. Some people went to Japan, others to South Africa; I travelled across The Netherlands and Belgium. Bruges was awesome.

We just came back last week. Seven courses this term seems to put me under lots of pressure but I am, once again, excited by the experience. My electives are Finance 2, Strategy 2 and Mandarin - my favourite subject. We will see how it goes!

Last of all, the marathon is next Sunday. I hope my "injured" foot does not let me down.

A summer term for this summer weather...

We arrived back from Spring Break last week and were met with an onslaught of new courses. Because we did not have class on Easter Monday, the class schedule was shifted back a day and left some of us in class all day Saturday! Luckily, that wasn’t me as the weather in London over the past 10 days has been unbelievable, and sitting in class across from Regent’s Park over the weekend would have been torturous. This term gave first year students a pick of many electives, whereas the second term had only offered a few. With many of us eager to take on some specialised courses, I worry that some may have taken on a bit too much. I am certainly feeling the strain even though I have only signed up for 1.5 electives. This term continues with the hands-on nature of the second term. While our marketing and organisational behaviour lectures have officially ended, we are still working hard to complete these courses. My study group is helping to restructure the marketing department for a leading global footwear company in response to a strategy change for our MOB project. Right now, we are on the client site about 5 hours a week for interviews and meetings, before delivering our final recommendation in a few weeks. Our marketing course has continued into this term through a marketing simulation game called MarkStrat. Our study group has started the simulation with a company that is leading the industry. This sounds great but it also means that we can only lose this top spot to our competitors. This term has an operations theme to it with the core courses of Operations & Technology Management, and Managerial Accounting & Control. One course to help us design/optimise processes, and the other to measure the financial results of the production. For our operations course, all streams will be headed on a field trip to manufacturing plants throughout Europe. My stream is going to visit Porsche and BMW in Germany, another stream is going to Ducati in Italy, and another is headed to Amsterdam (tulips I think). In another core course we are learning about global macroeconomic trends to help us position our future firms optimally in the global business environment. That’s it from me for the boring blog about academics, over to the others for the marathon and MBAT!

Into the final week

The last week of term is shaping up to be the busiest week so far. I have 5 exams this week, 2 of them on Saturday. But rather than spending the whole weekend revising I headed down to Silverstone with some of the running club to compete in a half marathon.

The weather was horrendous. During the race it switched from hail stones & high winds to sunshine several times. I was freezing cold by the end of the race. I managed to finish in 1:30 which was a good as I could hope for given the conditions.

To give you an idea how  much we have been training for the marathon here is the 22 mile route we have completed twice in the last 3 weeks -

http://www.runlondon.com/routefinder/routefinder.aspx?quickCode=RL050054

Don't forget, donations to my charity sponsorship webpage are much appreciated. Thanks.

http://www.justgiving.com/showmethemoney2007

What did I do last week?

First of all, I sprained my ankle due to 'overuse' and have not run for days. I hope I can soon recover for the marathon in April. -Feel free to sponsor me please!-.

On Monday we had our last Decision and Risk Analysis workshop, then Mandarin in the afternoon, which was enlightening as usual. Next week we have our final Mandarin oral test. Khizar Khan and I are aiming to practice over the weekend trying not to make a fool of ourselves.

On Tuesday morning I attended breakfast with Costas Mitropoulos, founder and CEO of Kantor, the first cosulting firm in Greece. He spoke of challenges in Eastern Europe and how he went about starting his firm. It was a very pleasant discussion.

Our major task for the week was to prepare for a Trade Show as part of our DEO (Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities) class. The objectives of the project were to discover unmet needs and develop a prototype to demonstrate our idea to challenging judges. It was hard work to get it done and fun to be there for two hours, listening to Rajat's pitching.

John Mullins, our DEO professor, did a great job preparing us for this event. He even brought the press (Rajat's favourite moment of the show) and an interesting audience of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. He is passionate about instructing and got the key learning points across really well. I enjoyed the cases and meeting the ’entrepreneurs in the cases' themselves.