Strategy Exam

Strategy was one of the tougher exams that I've taken, bar none. It took 12 hours. Yeah, that's right - it was a scheduled 12 hour exam. We went from 9am to 9pm.

It was also a group exam. I took it with my 7-person study group, some of whom are pictured above, celebrating the end of the exam. From left to right: Steve (Korea), Beto (Mexico), me, and Natalya (Russia). Sheena (Singapore) took the picture, and Anais (Italy) and Robustiano (Argentina) also weren't pictured.

We had the case (on Zara / H&M / the Gap) ahead of time, but didn't know the questions. Even so, we were able to do some prep work in advance. And thank goodness; we wouldn't have finished in 12 hours, otherwise. During the exam we split up the work into sections and charged ahead. We took turns editing / reviewing each other's finished sections. In the final hour we cobbled everything together. We all got along well, which was great given the stressful conditions, and our final grade was a solid A.

In the end, our school bar was full of fellow MBA 2011's ready to celebrate the end of Strategy.

Patriots-Buccaneers American Football

The fact that I'm blogging about this betrays how behind I am on blogging (you could check your NFL schedule). But it's Christmas break, which should give me plenty of time to catch up.

I went to the game! This will end up being my only game of the year, and in pure football terms, it wasn't a great one. The Bucs were seriously outmatched by the Pats. The Bucs will end up winning 3-4 games this year. But it was SO good to see a football game live. It's one of my favorite things to do. I was so caught up in the moment and the excitement that I don't know if I could tell you a single play that happened. I remember that the Patriots won!

Another bonus: my roommate knew one of the Patriots players. And now I know a few, as well. We got to sit in the Patriots' team seats for free, and then we went out drinking with the team after the game. It ended up being one of my favorite - if not my absolute favorite - nights out on the town in London. The players were all great guys. R down to earth, normal people. I know that the Patriots' head coach, Bill Belichick, recruits "high character" guys. It definitely shows.

Business school speakers

One of the untold value-adds of the MBA are the ton of speakers that come through. In any given week there are 4-5 speakers/companies at least. Since we're in London, which is a central hub for European business, a lot of executives are swinging by anyway. So we get access to lots of CEO's and VP's and the like, and hear what they think is the latest stuff in their given industries or companies.

Sometimes I attend because I want to go work for XYZ company. But more often than not, it's just intellectual curiosity. Last week I attended a panel of speakers on the video gaming industry - one of the speakers had sold his company the week before for $75M but STILL kept his speaking appointment at our school, and was a really sharp guy. This week I'm attending two lectures by different companies about consulting to private equity (very educational).

The pics above and below are a good example. General Mills came through school and talked us through a marketing case for one of their product lines; in this case, Old El Paso. In general, the students benefited from learning, and General Mills had the opportunity to raise awareness at our school and hopefully attract some top talent. Fascinating stuff! No, really, it was.

In a nutshell, Mexican food didn't exist in the UK about 5 years ago. And over that course of time, it has risen to be - let's call it relatively well known - to 70% of the population. And they don't have the benefit of Mexican restaurants to help raise awareness. But it didn't happen overnight - they had very flat adoption, then a huge spike after a successful new tv commercial, then flat for a while, then a huge spike after the next marketing promotion. They were really smart about it, and they could measure the impact of each incremental thing they did.

Last pic is their "afterparty" / networking session - free champagne and haagen-dazs (another General Mills brand).

New Internship, New Career?

I left TRX with the objective of getting an MBA, then going back to work in the upper echelon of a technology company's management, quite possibly in travel, and quite possibly in product management, with the goal of becoming a CEO asap. And that's still in play. But I started to question my original plans, which I think is a healthy exercise now that I'm free and clear of the working world.

Is travel a good industry? It's one of the least healthy industries in the world, it's cutthroat competitive, and has tight margins. The clearest proof may be that I had to leave the industry to go for an MBA to expand my opportunities. So maybe I should reconsider travel.

What about tech companies? Well, I actually really do like high-tech stuff. I worked in two high-tech firms (telecom and software development) and enjoyed both. They were both relatively dynamic, and I embrace change and ambiguity. I follow news on cutting edge gadgets and technologies just because it all fascinates me. And good opportunities seem to go hand-in-hand with technology. So I seem at home in tech; it just suits me.

What about product management? What I've read about it still sounds quite interesting. Product managers control a product, setting marketing strategies, and recommending / requesting (depending on the degree of authority) product changes. It's basically a mini-CEO role, but over a single product within a company that has several products. Sounds great - but it turns out that those roles don't go to fresh MBA's in Europe. You have to start a few rungs lower and work into the job. So I still like the idea, but it isn't the immediate "CEO path" I thought it might be.

At school, I've learned more about management consulting. Consultants are hired by a company to give advice to senior management on its biggest issues. And since they get practice with top management issues, they are often recruited to become corporate executives (read: CEO!). So, maybe I should become a consultant? But often, and especially lately, the issues they handle are "ugly" problems - cutting costs in a warehouse, downsizing a company, etc. Imagine consulting a carpet manufacturer in a village in Eastern Europe for 6 months on how to reorganize its factory. Not my style, even if it does add a ton of value.

But then I learned about boutique consulting firms - relatively smaller firms that focus only on a specific industry - like technology, for example. And I thought, "Aha!" This might be another path to the same destination, and might be an even quicker path to the top. And maybe along the way I'll decide that I love consulting, and might just stick with that.

The big news is that I have an internship lined up with a Technology-Media-Telecom consulting firm that works exclusively on really cool strategy projects. It has a great, convenient office at an exclusive location amidst the tailors on Savile Row. I start in January. This is exceptionally rare for an MBA; I would say that in our class of 400, maybe 10 of us will be interning during the year. I couldn't be happier, and quite frankly, am way ahead of the curve for MBA's. Now back to studying - I've got finals in a couple days!

College Game Day

Football! Over here, that generally means something different - "soccer." But on rare occassions, I get to view (and celebrate) the great American pastime that is real football. A couple of my friends here went to USC and they have a Huuuge alumni community here in London. Go figure, right? A bunch of people from sunny California would decide to move to cold and dreary London? But from time to time I get to join them out at Sports Cafe. We generally don't get college games on TV here, but we do get 1 NFL game per week. A couple weeks ago we had the Colts-Pats game - hopefully you caught it, because it was one of the best games I've ever seen!

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum

It was inevitable that I would go. I live less than a 5-minute walk from the legendary (and totally touristy) Madame Tussaud's was museum. It was worth the price of admission. As you walk around the crowds, you might bump into someone and apologize - only to realize they're made of wax. The figures all look quite realistic.

I also found the morbid history to be really interesting. Madame Tussaud got her start in taking "death masks" made of wax from famous people that had been beheaded during the French revolution. Those masks still exist, and are on display - including Marie Antoinette, and the actual guillotine blade that killed her.

Riding the bus

I've become proficient at riding London's big red buses, which is a big step towards becoming a Londoner. Three of my friends (Lee, Molly, Mia) are pictured.

During busy hours you want to stick with the Tube (subway) because the roads have bad traffic. But otherwise, the buses are the way to go.
1. They are cheaper; 1 pound vs. 2 pounds for the tube, or 5-10 pounds for a taxi
2. You can see where you're going as the bus travels, giving you your bearings
3. Buses travel to more exact locations, places that tubes do not, so there is less walking
4. Buses run 24 hours, while the Tube closes around 11:30pm - 12:00am
5. Buses are often faster for short trips, since changing trains and all the station stops add a lot of time

Today I too a bus to meet up with someone I haven't seen since high school! Colleen seems to be doing great, she is a guru at helping out with business pitches. And we had Spanish tapas which were, at least I thought, pretty good. Though my opinion is not harmed by the three chocolate desserts that we split! Good times.

Eloquent!

We had a debate in Ethics recently, and just got back some feedback. I did pretty well! The point about French was part of my rebuttal.

"...Peter French (and nice reference, by the way)... Joshua in particularly made an eloquent argument."

- Josh

London nightlife

If there's one take-away I would offer you from the picture above, it's the hundreds and hundreds of people. This is how London spends its time at night. Everyone goes out to huge nightclubs, spends a fortune on cover (generally 15 - 20 pounds; about US $30 - 40), and drinks cocktails. People dance all night, primarily to house / techno music.

This is a huge contrast to the style of nightlife in Atlanta. In Atlanta it's quite rare to pay entry, and if there is a fee, it's minimal. Drinks inside are relative cheap due to competition. The biggest difference is that Atlanta is primarily a scene with bars, rather than clubs. The emphasis there is on socializing, talking, and bar games (pool, darts, foosball). Most people seem to drink beer, and there's relatively little dancing - if anything, a small area would be devoted to dancing. I'm getting more used to the London scene, but frankly, it's not my preference! I'm more of a talker than a dancer.

Trini Barbeque night

London is a truly international city in a way that Atlanta never was. This night was no exception. My roommate, Mark, knew a girl from Trinidad. She invited Mark to a barbecue and I tagged along. It was south of the city - farther south than I had been before, to an area called Clapham.

The short list of things I didn't know ahead of time: absolutely everyone else was from Trinidad (of all places!), and it was a themed party (so everyone was wearing a costume that started with the letter "B"). Needless to say, I was a little out of place! But I felt welcome to be there.

Some of the better costumes included Bob the Builder, a Biker, Barack Obama, Betty Boop, and...

A Beefeater! Definitely my favorite costume. The fact that he was tending the grill (including beef sausages) was too perfect. They served some of the best chorizo I've had in London. The weather here, despite advance warnings to the contrary, has been really nice over the past couple months. I could count on one hand the number of times it has rained, with only two legitimate downpours. Most days I'm in a t-shirt and jeans. And yeah, I've been here two months - today is my anniversary!

Morris Dancers

I walked out of my flat (apartment) the other night for a quick pint with my flatmate Mark. We walked just around the corner to the local (you call the bar that's nearest to you "the local") and saw a few dozen people participating in what looked like Irish dancing. It was kind of like a Lord of the Dance show, but with less spring in their step, and more hitting of large sticks together.

Apparently this is a traditional English dance called Morris dancing. And it is thoroughly entertaining to watch people with bells on their knees dancing and knocking sticks together while you grab a beer. We're thinking of hiring them for our next party. On a related note - I love that England, and especially London, is oozing with culture. I run into little surprises like this everywhere - like the Queen's uniformed guard that rides on horseback past the business school each day.

The new apartment: my bedroom

Now that I'm semi-settled in my new apartment, I think I'm overdue for providing some pictures. In general, I spent three weeks looking around, and I think I finally found the "holy grail" of apartments in London. The search was painful and involved looking at tons of places. But I think it was worth it, in the end.

We'll start with my bedroom. Oh - first of all, this is a furnished apartment, which is fairly common in London. So it came more or less as-is, with the exception being that I bought the sheets in this picture (really nice ). Relatively for London this is a big bedroom, with a double bed and a good amount of extra space. In general, the furniture is fairly modern. You can see blinds in the left corner of the window; the window lets out into a very small "courtyard"-type area that is private to the apartment. Near the window is a built-in wardrobe, and when combined with the set of drawers that you can see, I've got plenty of space. The marble floors run throughout the entire apartment. Also you can't see the lighting, which I could add an entire post about, but it's dozens of Italian small lights set up on a central control for dimming (it has different light programs / settings).

To the right of my bed is the bathroom. You can just make out the black sheets of the bed in the mirror's reflection. It's a good-sized bathroom and very modern looking.

The right hand side of the bathroom has a walk-in rain shower (the water all comes down from the fixture on the ceiling). My roommate's shower is similar, but his also features a steam shower. Actually, if you look in the glass in the shower door, you can see some of the bedroom lighting that I mentioned (several smaller lights, maybe 10 - 20).

House warming party

I promise, I swear, this is the last post before I start taking / adding lots of pictures to the blog.

Last night I had an open-invite housewarming party and it went off without a hitch. I would guess that we had 100 people throughout the course of the night, with maybe 75 at the peak, and we were up until the wee hours of the night. I love to host events for people and this was a great way to socialize with my new classmates.

Tomorrow is a big day. The first day of school! Ok, so there aren't any classes or work to do, and I've already met 50% of the other students. But I find out who my stream is - we're divided into smaller sections of maybe 75 people, to make it more manageable, and these are the people we take all our classes with. I hope I get a bunch of my friends! Even more exciting / intimidating is the prospect of a study group. We'll have a lot of group projects to do among a much smaller team of 6 - 7 people. Groups are randomized by nationality, prior work experience, and gender, among other factors. Getting good study group members can have a huge impact on your first year at school. So a lot is riding on tomorrow!

Be it ever so humble...

So after searching high and low, I finally have a home. No pics for now as I don't have internet at the new place yet. I'm jumping online at my b-school for just a bit. But soon! And there will be an air mattress for anyone that would like to visit. And you know you do.

Living it up in London

I am thoroughly enjoying London. Most of my first week here has been spent more or less as I expected - making new friends among the LBS students and going out every night. The group pictured above are actually some of my best friends here - Molly (USA), Trisha (Philippines), Hernan (Peru), Mark (Canada), and yours truly.

The bars here are similar to what you'd see in the US. You go out, chat, and have a few beers. And beer here is mostly cold, contrary to popular belief - I guess it's something that changed a few years ago. So it's a fairly familiar routine for me, but going out every night is wearing me down a little bit.

I'm a little disappointed on my progress with practical matters. I bought some socks, which was a nice baby step. But I still have some loose ends in the US, I don't have an apartment yet in London, and I don't have a bank account. This upcoming week is just going to have to be super-productive!

Adios, America

I've landed safely in London. My final weekend was truly frantic - rushing around to see people on Friday and Saturday, then packing / purging my things on Sunday. I ended up moving with virtually the clothes on my back - two checked bags, one backpack, and one laptop bag. I own nothing more (ok - keep me honest - my house is still for sale).

The way my friends reacted to my departure reminded me very much of when I left for India. Certain people stepped up and wanted to see me more, while others faded away. It's a very good indicator for who will or will not put effort into keeping up a friendship going forward. And this is not a sad note, FYI - this is a happy note, in fact. Most everyone that I expected made an effort to see me, and a couple people who are relatively new friends surprised me with an exceptional effort to spend time with me.

Wow. I mean, what can I say? It made me feel good to feel loved. But it also mires me in melancholy now that I have moved away from some of those great relationships. I'm sure I will form new bonds in London, but they aren't in place yet. They will come, and I will learn to love London. But in the short-term a move is always hard.

My new MacBook Pro arrives

An early step before leaving for business school. I can say without hesitation that this is the nicest piece of hardware that I've ever owned. The new MacBook Pro has only been out for about a week and I've already got it! So much about it is brilliant. Made from a single piece of aluminum in order to save weight and add strength. At brilliant, color-rich screen. A backlit keyboard. A power cord that magnetically attaches. A fast, new, Intel-based processor.

But I didn't buy it for the operating system. I'm a Windows guy. So what I've done seems pretty radical but it was actually very easy. I downloaded the RC version of Windows 7 (basically the beta version of the new version of Windows, which should release in October). Then I downloaded a trial version of VM Ware's Fusion product. And so now I'm running a beta within a trial. The result?


What you're looking at is a little window with Windows 7 in it that's sitting within Mac OS X. I'm running both at the same time, which is great, since the Mac OS is actually a little better at some things like music and pictures. I can blow Windows 7 up to take over the full screen and then toggle back and forth between the operating systems (they can share documents, pictures, etc.). You can even run Windows apps within the Mac OS, in a view called "Unity" that is pretty self-explanatory.

I'm not overly technical, so this is pretty amazing to me. And I'm super-excited to see that everything is working. Whoa.

Update

I've been back in the US for quite a while. About 8 months so far. But I've been traveling a lot lately - 4 weekends away over the course of 5 weeks. This upcoming weekend is in Las Vegas. So I will put up some travel-related posts for those trips.

The big news, of course, is that I'm moving in early August to London. Which means that I'll have to get this blog up and running again. Talk to you again soon.