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!