(Post) MBA Blog

Possibly the best writing on the web

2005-10-10T20:58:00.000Z

I realise I'm probably months behind the rest of the world, but I've recently discovered the Best Of page on Craig's List, possibly the best writing on the web since Suck.com (note: not a dodgy site!). Funny, poetic, profound, in a thousand years an alien race will unearth this and realise just how beautifully messed up we really were...

Party in Passau

2005-07-11T13:13:00.000Z

Weddings are tough work, make no mistake. I've had two consecutive weekends of weddings and it is really starting to catch up.

This time it was a very good friend Gregor and his lovely fiance Huda, tying the knot it a wonderful old castle up a mountain outside Passau - the City of Three Rivers (and about 50 churches).

Well, it was just about as nice a wedding as you could hope for: friends from around the world, a cracking best-man's speech, plenty of food, drink and dancing and a cool band, all in a grand old Bavarian dining hall.

I got a chance to catch up with a few friends from UCL who I hadn't seen in years and that was great.

And as for the city itself, windy old cobbled roads and beer gardens kept "zie krazee Londoners" going all night.

Letting Loose in Lisbon

2005-07-04T09:30:00.000Z

The first of many weddings this year kicked off in style with a trip to Lisbon, Portugal, for the marriage of my old friend Cecilia to a very good bloke, Philip. Cecilia I met on my second Masters degree, so there were a bunch of old pals from the Institute of Education (London).

We spent half our time in Setubal, the next town from Lisbon. Lovely place. That's my big tip for those visiting Portugal - Lisbon, while being very nice in a Paris-ey kindo of way - is a little too commercialised for my tastes, while half an hour away in Setubal, you are greeted with the authentic Portugal.

The wedding was up a mountain in a fine old chapel with stunning views. The party followed until the wee hours. Food great, people great, weather great. Overseas weddings are A GOOD IDEA!

What a Ball

2005-06-23T10:18:00.000Z

The Magdalene College May Ball. Words that fill the studnets of this fine city with such anticipation. One of the most traditional and glamorous of the main Balls, it is the last to insist on white-tie for gentlemen. If you want the full low-down on the night, just go to the May Ball site.

I attended with a couple of MBAs: Alasdair, the May Ball Wizard, Stanislave, the Marketing Wizard and his charming wife Irina, the...er...Wifely Wizard. While there was no theme, you could say that in all it was one of the classiest nights of the Cambridge calendar and well worth the sizeable sum I paid for tickets.

The arrangements were surprisingly fiddly: paying for and picking up tickets, geting fitted and picking up the white-tie suit etc etc, and to be honest, the May Ball is not really aimed at working folk. Especially since I had to pretty much block out the whole of the next day to recover.

Highlights were The Thrills, who played 'Big Sur', among others, the ceilidh and I have to say, generally, the people: familiar faces in such a different light and new faces which is always nice.

And as I emerged from Magdalene at 6 in the morning, slightly worse for wear, none other than my boss swishes past on his morning jog as we exhange pleasantries. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Why No Blog?

2005-05-24T10:07:00.000Z

I have been in something of a black hole since my last blog a couple of months ago. Library House, along with the London School of Economics, EEDA & Create Partners launched The Gauntlet, a revolutionary online self-assessment tool for ambitious entrepreneurs, designed to teach them how investors think and to score them as if presenting to and being judged by a panel of venture capitalists. In essence a 'Virtual VC', no easy task, if only because VCs themselves rarely agree on what makes a good investment opportunity!

The big launch was 23rd May, involving the BBC, the FT, Telegraph and radio as well as branding consultants, PR advisors and legal professionals. Not to mention a constantly evolving internal structure of sales, operations, technical and the Directors, who all had to be kept abreast.

Not surprising then that I have been offline. But the launch was successful and we are pushing ahead full-steam, so I am back online.

One Year, Two MBAs

2004-11-03T01:49:00.000Z

Fantastic!! I got a call from a Cambridge MBA friend about this; he then emailed the whole class and the email was so well written I had to include it.

If you don't want to read the whole thing (below), the upshot is that Oxford business school have plastered a whole slew of Cambridge MBAs on their course brochures! And yours truly takes up the whole of the front cover of the Exectutive MBA brochure (left)!! Well I never. Two MBAs in one year. I must be special!

As for Oxford, well, I don't like to be nasty but really, if they can't recognise their own students there must be something wrong. That kind of thing could never happen at Judge. I guess we must just really be better looking!

***
The main reason for this email is to highlight a serious transgression on
the part of Oxford's Said B-School:

I visited Oxford to show my wife around the 2nd best university in England.
As part of the tour, I took her to see the site for the most important
program in academia--the MBA program.

To my utter dismay, I spotted a royally wrong sin when we browsed through
their brochures--Oxford decided without consent from Cambridge to use our
Cambridge MBA students as their models for their brochures. I have attached
the evidences: our own Robbie (Max) appears on the cover of Said's
Executive MBA brochure! (I think Max is talking with Alex Barcardit and Ben
Davis in the pic). In addition, our party-animal Georg and our Arabian
beauty Miriam (appearing twice in different brochures) are also in the
brochures for biz programs!

I understand that Cambridge MBAs just look better than those from
Oxford--but to do this without notification and consent from us? -- totally
unforgivable and unacceptable!

Can we let this transgression pass without administering punitive
measures?! At the least, I felt we need to let the world know of this grave
transgression. Please forward this email as you see fit.
***

The US Election - It's a TIE!

2004-11-03T01:40:00.000Z

I'm watching John Simpson of the BBC *right now* on TV commenting on the election in the US and would you believe: he's wearing a Magdalene tie!!

Further, I was watching a documentary about Arnie Schwarzenneger eariler in the day, and I could have sworn *he* was wearing a Magdalene tie as well!

What's going on? I'm willing to put money that the eventual President will be wearing a Magdalene tie.

Well now, that's my comment on the US election. Could it be any more trivial?

The Big 3-1!

2004-11-02T02:09:00.000Z

It is my birthday today. I'm not having a big celebration - I'm too busy and too tired.

I don't know if that is a good sign.

But I will be meeting friends over the next four days and will be having, as Ben Hardy might say, a number of bijou celebrationettes in due course.

So, have I taken over the world yet?

No, but one step at a time eh?

A CV for VC

2004-09-24T15:50:00.000Z

Popped back up to Cambridge on Wednesday for an interview with a research firm there that's looking to do an interesting project in the venture capital space. Got there at 12.30 and spent the next hour and a half with the guys...seemed to get on very well with them.

Then on to Judge - I had booked some time with the folks there to try and finalise the installation of CollaMBA (my web software for MBA group collaboration) and to chat about the contract etc.

Things didn't go as well at the Judge. I had two bugs: one was stopping users from uploading files as attachments to email messages, the other was spewing out weird formatting stuff in the emails themselves. The first bug we fixed - it was just a directory permissioning problem. The second we haven't yet fixed. It turns out the Judge server uses a different email program, which treats emails differently to the one I had been using. Luckily this new email software (Exim) was actially developed at Cambridge! So I checked around and emailed a chap with the problem I was having. It turns out he is the guy who developed the software! Can't get better than that. He gave me a few tips and insights and things should be better now.

After a few hours I went to the Eagle to meet a new Magdalene MBA - one of the new lot I hadn't met before. Very nice chap - as are all the new Magd MBAs. They're gonna get on great. I spent the next few hours introducing him to college life over a few jars and dinner and he seemed very keen on rowing. I really wish I had someone to do this to me when I got started. I really had to learn the hard way and payed the price in some respects, rowing being a good example (I didn't quite know just how fun and important it was and it was too late when I did realise).

Unfortunately we spent too long discussing the finer points of Cambridge; I caught the last train back to Kings Cross which got in at 1am!! Needless to say, there was no way I could get to remote Chorleywood - a cab would have cost me £45. Instead I paid £15 and crashed at my folks place near Central London. The nice thing was, I ran into the ex-Director of the Judge MBA at Cambridge station and we took the train back together. We had a great chat about all things Cambridge, which as you can tell I do not tire of, and he let me in on some insider information which was fun. Nice guy.

I picked up my voicemessages today. Chorleywood is the worst place in London for mobile reception, so I have to go to this one spot in town (outside the doctor's surgery!) that has reception, to pick up messages and make calls twice a day. I had a voicemessage from the firm I interviewed with - I got the project - starting Monday!

Off for Antony's b'day party at Denim tonight. A little weird to see the MBAs in a different environment from Cambridge, but nice-weird. Last Saturday we all got together at the Angelic pub in Islington, which was a lot of fun. The night before, I got together with some old London friends at Itsu, off Fulham road, which has a great bar upstairs. Partied a little too hard I think, but it was the first proper night in London I had had since arriving back. So many more friends to catch up with in Lodnon, it will take a couple of months before I say my 'hello's' to all. And I still have a number of dates to keep in Cambridge, especially dinner at college, which I am relishing! Will be back in Cam next week to introduce Collamba to the new students (and fix the final bug). It will be a pretty anxious time. A lot of people think the idea behind Collamba is great, but I really want to have that verified with real life users.

Dramatic Cambridge Finale

2004-09-16T13:58:00.000Z

So I spent the weekend in Cambridge and crashed into a hell of a crazy Friday.

Started off meeting the new Magdalene MBAs: Jason, Martin & Colin. Fine chaps; along with Robert I'm sure they'll make a good impression with the Magdalene lot. I was supposed to spend half an hour chatting; instead I took two hours to run through a list of 40 points which represented the accumulated wisdom of my year here. I wish I had that kind of thing when I started. i hope it gets them off to a good start.

I then just caught the IT guy and spent an hour installing my new web collaboration software that I recently developed, called CollaMBA, on the Judge servers and finished just in time to rush to my long-overdue meeting with the careers advisor. That lasted for two hours and I think we can safely say her foot met my backside a number of times.

I had parlour dinner pretty soon after that. What do you know, I had forgotten my suit, tie, the works, but I managed to borrow one from Nate and rushed off to formal, arriving half way through the starter. Well, we had a fine meal and the port flowed pretty freely afterwards, I can tell you. Martin and Colin turned up afterwards to meet the MCR and I introduced them around; they took to it like ducks to water.

I spent the next couple of nights at a friends and on Sunday we had the semi-finals and finals of the Magdalene croquet tournament. My partner James could't play, so I made arrangements with Donal at Friday dinner. But he couldn't make it in the end so I grabbed Simon and we played Andy and his partner and all was well again.

Well, we got off to a slow start and to be honest never quite recovered, especially against Andy's many hours of practice. However, Simon and I decided to give the crowd a few treats and we went for some dramatic shots, which certainly got the crowd going and got the opposition pretty upset. In the end it wasn't enough, and we lost honourably, it has to be said. The only consolation is that Andy and co. went on to beat the porters in te final, which took some doing, as they put in a lot of practice.

Well, a lovely weekend in Cambridge, among friends, good food, decent weather and lots of laughs. Exactly how much better does it get?

Pay-back

2004-09-16T13:42:00.000Z

I'd love to say that the opportunitites are coming in thick and fast, but I'm afraid that if I do, they'll stop coming in at all.

But things are looking good. A number of short term VC opportunities have popped up on the horizon and I have been approached by an interesting strategy firm in London. I have completed a CV/CL for a very very cool internet company in London and been made aware of others openings in another internet company that may actually be marginally cooler, if coolness equates to general disruptiveness of technology.

Furthermore, one of our MBA project clients finally refunded me for flight costs, and a telecoms company that grossly overcharged me also paid up, so I'm practically awash with cash!

Type Casting

2004-09-16T13:25:00.000Z

As if the Myers-Briggs, Belbin and CareerLeader tests weren't enough, I stumbled across (and took) the Enneagram test on MBAMatch.com.

This one features 9 different personality types:
Type 1 Perfectionist
Type 2 Helper
Type 3 Achiever
Type 4 Creative Thinker
Type 5 Quiet Observer
Type 6 Loyal Sceptic
Type 7 Optimist
Type 8 Boss
Type 9 Mediator

and after doing the test it emerged that I was heavily 1, 3, 4 & mostly 7. Interestingly I scored poorly on 2 & 8 - Helper and Boss. Me, not a boss?!

Judging by the description, Being a perfectionist, I am 'self reliant, highly responsible and hard working'..., as an achiever, I am 'an enthusiastic personable team leader who is self assured'..., as a creative thinker 'I am a warm person with a different view of life, with an empathy especially to people who are suffering'...and finally as an optimist, 'I am a playful, optimistic and enthusiastic person - life is an adventure. I love life to be stimulating and up-beat. I have great vision for things and I am helpful and highly imaginative'...

This is all well and good, but all this feels a little like astrology; having done a few of these now, I would recommend a little pinch of salt, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Hunt Begins

2004-09-14T18:16:00.000Z

With the end of the MBA, I have entered the strange world of the job hunt. This involves lots of web - and soul - searching. For the former I have access to broadband in sunny Chorleywood and for the latter I have Chorleywood Common, particularly inspiring on a blustery, elemental day like today. Two hours tramping around the Common, and I'm a little closer to some answers.

As if to highlight the whole 'Job Thing' even more, I turned on BBC Three when I returned from the Common to find an old friend from UCL presenting the news at 7pm (her name is Sevi, if you want to know). That brings to two, the number of old UCL friends presenting the news; the other is Sheban Rattansi, on Sky.

Funny how we all take such different routes in life, eh. Now I need to decide what my route is going to be...

The Beginning of the End

2004-08-31T12:08:00.000Z

Having just handed in my dissertation to the MBA Office, the realisation dawns that in that singular act, the MBA comes to a close. 12 months, dozens of assignments, too many parties and countless friends, where once were new faces.

So the sun sets on this episode in the collective lives of the MBAs. Drama, tragedy and comedy, rolled into one intense year. Where we found the time for half the things we got up to, I'll never figure out. And being at Cambridge, possibly the nicest university town in the world, has given us all plenty of inspiration; timeless values conveyed in timeless architecture, eccentric, fascinating people and the sense of purpose that comes from a vision broadened to a truly global scale.

This isn't the last blog. There's still a big farewell bash tomorrow and plenty of goodbyes to be said, at Magdalene and the Judge. Consider it the title music before the credits roll...

A Sacred Moment

2004-08-26T12:19:00.000Z

So tonight is the last MBA 2003 pub night. The Master of the Crawl, Ethan, has returned from vacationing in the US for this one last sacred purpose (among other things).

And the last Pub was pronounced: it is to be The Pickerel Inn, the old Magdalene favourite.

The list of pubs for the whole year was revealed to all. Some were good, some really bad, all worthwhile. My favourites include The Boathouse, The Fort St George, The Granta & The Waterside.

They were (alphabetically):

Pubs visited by MBA 2003:
All Bar One
The Anchor
B Bar
Bar Ha Ha
The Baron of Beef
The Boathouse
The Bun Shop
The Cambridge Arms
The Castle Inn
Champion of the Thames
The Cow
The Cricketers
The Eagle
The Elm Tree
The Fort St George
The Free Press
The Granta
The Hat and Feathers
Ishca
The Kingston Arms
The Lamb and Flag
The Live and Let Live
The Locomotive
The Maypole
The Mitre
The Panton Arms
The Pickerel
The Rat and Parrot
The Red Bull
The Salisbury Arms
Sauce
The Slug and Lettuce
The Spread Eagle
The St. Rategund
The Waterside
The Zebra

Exam vs Assignment

2004-08-24T16:25:00.000Z

We received the last of our grades back yesterday, with plenty of surprises for most I'd say.

If your thinking about a business school, then I recommend you look into the assessment technique - and steer clear of those that emphasise exams. They are pointless, I don't care how much you argue the merits of forcing people to sit down and cram and then sweat it out for a few hours in a big room.

I am so glad the Judge has a practical attitude to exams - we have about four in total - compared to other schools I could mention (who are still revising I believe!). Give me a break; those who would argue for exams: go read a book or two on learning psychology. Exams lose on all fronts, but most of all, in terms of remembering what you have learnt.

You see the great thing about getting a pack of assignments written a while ago, each with a grade-sheet attached is that in 5 minutes I can re-read any of them and be able to discuss with most the merits of stakeholder theory or various approaches to eBusiness planning, and that you can't do I'm afraid with an exam you took months ago.

Assignments give room for original investigation, properly reading around a subject and thoughtful articulation. Exams test how quickly you much stamina you have in your writing arm. I know which is more useful in the real world and I'm glad I chose the MBA that agrees.

My VALS

2004-08-24T14:45:00.000Z

I've just completed the SRI VALS test and in true Californian form, want to announce to the world the latest take on 'Who I (Really) Am':

Apparently I am primarily an Innovator and secondarily an experiencer.

Well, that was a welcome distraction from my Individual Project. Back to Innovating!

Re-Wired

2004-08-16T23:49:00.000Z

Ahead of all the job applications about to get under way, I redeveloped my website: zaeem.com which was a little more than the 'couple of hours' I thought it would take.

Well, I'm pretty happy with it, though not quite sure where I found the time since I am supposed to be finishing my dissertation right about...now(!)

"Online trust mechanisms and their implications for the marketing of experience goods"

That's as close to the title I think I'm going to get. I'm actually quite proud of the 12 thousand words I wrote in just over a week and like all Masters students from time immemorial I sincerely believe I have made a lasting contribution to the field.

It's a shame no-one will ever read it.

Heck, some of the other students have even got to SELL their dissertations to the highest bidder! Before writing it!! Now that's MBA material.

SinAmp

2004-08-13T23:29:00.000Z

My new friend has become my new enemy.

I downloaded the new winamp today and discovered it has an internet TV function: about 100 channels of free rubbish, with a couple of gems, and it was those gems that kept me occupied for most of the day, even as I was emailing my dissertation supervisor promising to get a first draft in by Monday (not going to happen).

This new toy is very, very dangerous. Do not go anywhere near it. You have been warned!

Donnie Darko

2004-08-13T23:13:00.000Z

I am happy to report that full and liberal use is being made of the well-stocked Magdalene DVD library in my dying Cambridge days.

Recently for example I got hold of Donnie Darko, which I've been wanting to watch for a while but have never in a weird enough mood to rent it from BlockBusters.

Well, the beauty of a free DVD library is that 'free' kind of puts you in the mood, no matter what kind of film it is.

I highly recommend Donnie Darko. Then I highly recommend splashing your face with cold water and jumping straight onto the internet to find out what the hell the film is about!

I figured a good place to start was the donnie darko website. It wasn't but it is a fantastic site and worth visiting nonetheless. While there, I noticed who produced the site: its hi-res, who are based in London and who themselves have a superb website. I recommend a visit there the same way I recommend a visit to a show - it is pure art and it makes me go gooey.

I did also notice the job vacancy for a producer/project manager...are you thinking what I'm thinking...?

Career Leader

2004-08-12T23:44:00.000Z

I've had an interesting time with Career Leader, the psychometric test from some folks at Harvard. It turns out (after hours of questioning), that my core interests are:

+Creative Production and
+Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking

my core values are:
+Positioning
+Affiliation
+Autonomy
+Lifestyle

my core attributes are:
+creativity
+critical thinking
+quick thinking
+teamwork

and the kinds of job I am cut out for are:
+Advertising Account Management
+Entrepreneurship
+Marketing and Marketing Management
+Public Relations and Communications
+Research and Development Management and New Product Development

Now, am I entirely convinced? Not really, but it did throw up a couple of interesting ones, such account manager and pr manager: I hadn't thought of those before. Let's see how handy it really is...

Doing Well by Doing Good

2004-07-15T19:53:00.000Z

I've just got back from a day and a night in London. Hmm, about London, the place most of us will be ending up soon, by hook or by crook. The place is heaven and hell, rolled into one.

Today I was on the East side, finally sorting out the 45 computers I've had sitting in storage for *far* too long. The East side is a dump, plain and simple. The people are rude (not 'chirpy') and the area is built over with concrete like some 70's city planner just wanted to erase it from the map. But, yes, there *is* something about London that keeps drawing people and has done so for hundreds of years. A couple of days ago I wrote the entry for London on our MBA students knowledge sharing platform (wiki) and the Samuel Johnson quote came to mind...

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson

And it's kinda true. Without hell there can't be a heaven and London reminds you of that every day.

Anyway, what was I doing in London with 45 PCs? I bought them a while ago at auction and was going to set up a big Easyinternet cafe franchise. I ended up doing the MBA instead. After months of half-heartedly trying to sell them, and storage fees burning a hole in my pocket I decided I had enough; I called Computer Aid International and offered to donate them.

So they picked them up today, I finally got rid of the cursed storage (a darn good business model if anyone is thinking of starting something - they have perfected the 'out of sight, out of mind' principle), and as eBay Fox told me: the charitable donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!! So I actually save more money than the computers are really worth.

Oh lord, I never thought I would get excited about tax deductions. See what an MBA does to you!

Off to the Pickerel Inn for the Thursday MBA social now to celebrate. I missed the Magdalene Master's BBQ last night but will be making up for it with a Magd grad party Saturday, the Magd croquet tournament (don't ask) and a few Magd parlor dinners which I think are just what the doctor ordered for this poor, worn out MBA.

Falling into Position

2004-07-08T16:52:00.000Z

What does parachuting have to do with leadership? Hmm, not a lot at first glance. But for those who have parachuted solo before, there is more than a tenuous link...

A few MBAs headed up to the North London Parachute Center (not in London, not even North Cambridge!) on 25th April to train for a static line square chute solo jump, (rather than a cissy tandem jump). We didn't realise that training would take about 10 hours and be so damn tiring. But train we did and the next day we headed back, butterflies all round and went for the jump.

We climbed, plane door open, and climbed and climbed. The ground fell away until it was like a fuzzy patchwork, a scene from a Manga comic. Then the call came and one by one, all twelve of us took the leap: Jorne, Sarah, Lisa, Alvin...I was the last to go, nerves building as I watched all the others get pulled away from the plane and dangle, helpless in the air.

Then I was up. I got into position - head up, legs round and then WHOOSH! I pushed off, flung into position and began the count:
"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand. Check Canopy!!!"

and the canopy unfurled, oblivious to adrenaline coursing through my entire body. I thanked God there and then and began to laugh spontaneously "It's open! It's o-o-open! Ha haaaaaaaaaah! It's OPEN!"

But I was running on instinct, fighting back the panick that would arrive if the though of being suspened so high even dared cross my mind.

I went through the drill, with sharp breaths of almost elemental excitement - beyond thinking, just feeling my way through as the ground below reminded me just how crazy the whole thing was.

When I got to the ground and composed myself, I got to thinking how much like leadership the whole experience was: you're up there alone, no one to rely on, to bail you out if things go wrong. You have to summon the kind of courage that comes from somewhere deep and ancient - primordial almost. Now, while leadership isn't guite as bad, there is a lot to be learned from parachuting and I recommend it to anyone aspiring to leadership as a taste of things to come. I floated the idea to the director of the MBA here. And floated it did - right past. No sell.

Oh, well, I for one am hooked and can't wait to head back up to the blue yonder.

The General Idea

2004-07-08T16:41:00.000Z

I was hooked up with a Boston VC called Hemant Taneja the other day by a Judge prof., and gave him a call recently. Nice guy - working at General Catalyst on wireless etc. Man, the guy has like THREE undergrad degrees from MIT plus a couple of Masters I think.

Needless to say, got him on LinkedIn as well, which increased my network from about 7 to over 400 in one fell swoop! Not sure how much I'm bringing to the party here people, but then I haven't been really serious yet about this LinkedIn in stuff.

So, Hemant gave me a lot of valuable advice on starting up - largely confiming what I had learned over the year, but it's good to get another angle.

Consult This!

2004-07-08T16:33:00.000Z

So I applied to a consulting firm, just to test the water, and shockingly got through to the final round which I had last Monday.

The great news is...: I didn't get it! Great news because I really, really didn't want it and was afraid I would just take it if offered, if only to pay off The Debts. I'm glad my lack of enthusiasm shone through, aided by a touch over 5 hours sleep the night before and a 7.15 train down to London. Mind you, the other chaps at the assessment center were nice enough.

Now it's time to either apply seriously or get my arse into gear with my start-up ideas...

Having a Ball

2004-07-08T16:20:00.000Z

I haven't written about the Jesus May Ball yet, and for good reason - it's taken me this long to recover from the trauma!

Oh, it all started off well enough: black ties and ball gowns aplenty, a touch of magic in the air as we entered Jesus College to be greeted with feasts and marquess, all that jazz. We hung out for a while then I dragged a few MBAs over to the hypnotist's show. When we got there he was just starting and I volunteered to be a subject - BIG MISTAKE.

I was hypnotised, along with 7 others and made to do the strangest things. It's not that I was put into a trance as such...more that he made me not really care anymore about the 300+ audience.

So I started off with an impression of Jimi Hendrix, (which went well according to many), but moved into rather dodgy fantasies which was when it all began to go downhill...

From there I was made to dance Swan Lake with another guy (I was the prince, thank God) and the grand finale was a bizarely erotic dance we all had to do. I seemed to find my Inner Tom Jones, much to the crowd's pleasure. All together I provided about 2 hours worth of low-brow entertainment. It felt like half that.

From then on, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to reality, so I can't say I greatly enjoyed the rest of the night. I tried to erase the memory with plenty of bumper car action. All I got was a very sore neck the next day.

So tip #1 gang - by all means go to a hypnotist, but just make sure you're not the butt of the joke, eh?

MiTunes

2004-07-08T15:50:00.000Z

I've been fiddling with iTunes for a while now, encouraged by the Ethanator who loves it, although I never figured why. I was quite happy with WinAmp, then I ran across the Radio feature in iTunes and WOW! Like 20 channels of music, and about 200 stations altogether.

Now I can finallly get some decent jazz and trance, both of which I missed since coming up from London. I feel many hours about to be wasted...

The Beginnng of the End

2004-06-21T18:17:00.000Z

Holy cow. I have just finished my last assignment ever, for the MBA. I've lost track of all the work we've completed and handed in over the year - maybe twenty or thirty peices overall. All I have to do now is the dissertation and that's for September.

I handed in two assignments today and wrote another from scratch this afternoon. Perhaps not the greatest quality control there, I'd agree, but we're all pretty tired.

I'm going to celebrate by listening to some thumping drum'n'bass and finishing off my crappy film (Chronicle of Riddick - don't ask)

Technicolor Cambridge

2004-06-14T16:26:00.000Z

I have started taking films with my Magical Minolta. You can download a QuickTime movie of the busker here. Warning: it's an 11 MB bruiser, so you need broadband.

Enjoy.

When a Plan Comes Together

2004-06-14T14:51:00.000Z

So what happened last night...? I jacked in work around 3-ish and joined the guys at the Clare College Backs. The we got kicked out by porters, so we headed over to Trinity Backs - Neavester, The Setch, The Ethanator, Waders plus their better halves. And it was jolly pleasant, I'll say that. Hung for a couple hours and headed over to Jesus to watch The Big Match; the place was packed to the rafters. Anyway, we know how that turned out. The French + their comrades kept celebrations to a minimum, largey as a survival tactic. But, Ozzie boy Ant decided to smother me in banana peel, which was nice. To be honest, I had done the same to Vanessa not five minutes before. It all got very messy on the Jesus lawn. Jolly Japes!

Post Jesus we all tramped up to the all-girls Lucy Cavendish College on the whisper of free entrance and free refreshments. Enough to make any student walk twenty minutes. Ran into Adamski, Kipster, The Normanator and more Magdalene Mafia, which was fun. Great Jazz/Funk band, apparently called The Mother Funkers, although that would make them the 65th Jazz band in the country with that name, and they deserve better. Yes, there was the inevitable scuffle at Lucy Cav - something to do with the footie and too much testosterone no doubt. Some semi-official femi-biker chick started blaming me. I told her where to go in no uncertain terms.

Rode home at 1-ish, after outstaying my welcome. Chain came off bike. Replaced after much fumbling around in the dark and resulting greasy hands. Pushed off and chain snapped. Waddya gonna do, eh? Pushed the damn thing home and crawled into bed after a few classics on "Cambridge and Ely's STAR 107.9 FM!". Nice.

After a ropey start today, things picked up. It began with a call from Benji waking me to tell me my assignment was due in in about an hour (it takes me that long to get out of bed!) and becasue my bike chain snapped, I was reduced to pushing the thing around Cambridge trying to get it fixed in time.

But it all came together: handed my assignment in, paid a wedge of cash into my battered bank account, picked up my bike, picked up my Jesus May Ball ticket and bought a last minute mask (pictures tomorrow, for sure). Best of all, Nathan B and I ran into a busker playing Cat Stevens from inside a street trash can (picture provided courtesy of Max's Minolta-powered Picture Palace).

So, starting to gear up for tonight. This really is the big one. Looking at a 3 a.m finish at the earliest! Wish me luck people...tomorrows posting may not be so eloquent.

Then again there may not be a tommorrow...!

As Good As It Gets

2004-06-13T13:26:00.000Z

Oh dear, it's Suicide Sunday in Cambridge and that means lots of garden parties hosted by the various colleges. It also means lots of pretty young ladies in frilly dresses and us guys looking studly in our stiped ties and shades.

I had to go to Trinity Old Fields for my college party (pictured left, two hours ago, taken with my new Minolta Dimage), since last years was so debauched that the Magdalene society were expelled from the college grounds. Well, I got half an hour in with Alasdair and Matt before we had to move on - them off to the Pembroke party and me to Judge to carry on with some work!

That's right, I have to crank out an assignment before tomorrow's May Ball at Jesus. Unfortunately I'll be missing the Magdalene special dinner (ball every other year) as it is the same night.

I missed bumps yesterday as I was in ondon for a couple of days - first round interview with 'A Consulting Firm' and then a great night out with some friends. Met a venture capitalist on the train down! Job hunt just gets weirderer and weirderer...

I will try and join the guys for Sidney Sussex soon and will keep you posted.

Keyboard Aikido

2004-05-26T10:56:00.000Z

I have to blog my Wiondows shortcuts, but I haven't yet blogged either parachuting, 'extreme punting' or partying (or my Lord of the Rings 'experience') - how sad is that? However, I majorly impressed/disarmed Benji and Adam with just a few simple moves, so for your pleasure and profit, I present 'Keyboard Aikido'!!...:

+ F11 in your browser: full screen view!
+ Alt-D in browser: highlight address bar!
+ Yahoo and then CTRL-Enter: www.yahoo.com!
+ F5: Refresh
+ Alt-Left in browser: Back

I reckon CTRL-Enter must have saved me about three ulcers by now.

Update...more shortcuts
+ Alt-F4: close window
+ Alt Gr-1 (through 4): change the heading font of the line in word

Time Management

2004-05-22T13:59:00.000Z

This is a great example of time management I came across recently. Read and ponder...

"One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers, he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes". Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the space between the big rocks. Then he asked the group once more. "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.

"Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar, and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" No! The class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!" "No," the speaker replied, "That's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." What are the 'big rocks' in your life? Your children, your loved ones, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others, doing things that you love, time for yourself, your health, your significant other.

Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you'll never get them in at all. If you sweat the little stuff (the gravel, the sand) then you'll fill your life with little things you worry about that don't really matter, and you'll never have the real quality time you need to spend on the big, important stuff (the big rocks).

So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the 'big rocks' in my life? Then, put those in your jar first."

Scenario Planning

2004-05-10T18:54:00.000Z

Ben and myself will be visiting our hi-tech entrepreneurship client tomorrow. He is a top Prof. in the chemistry department, working on trigerring mechanisms.

We have but one goal - destroy shareholder value! Our method - scenario planning!

Seriously, scenario planning has come in for a bit of criticism lately for being consultant-speak rather than common sense. To prove those who couldn't get into consulting wrong, I shall demonstrate how Ben and myself planned our scenarios for tomorrow, by utilising powerful narrative techniques.

Scenario A
Top Prof:"Do you know what I mean by triggered response?"

Ben: "pH-responsive polymers are amphiphilic polyelectrolytes exhibiting pH-mediated conformational transitions between an expanded structure dominant by electrostatic repulsions and a collapsed structure governed by hydrophobic interactions. "

Max: " Yes, I agree Ben. pH-sensitive polymers are endosomolytic components to facilitate intracellular delivery of macromolecular therapeutics. "

Ben: "Quite right, I think biological rationales include endocytosis and mechanism of the cellular uptake of certain envelope viruses"

Top Prof: "You guys rock!"

Hmmm...alternatively...
Scenario B!
Max: “Whattup Nizzle Slizzle. That trizzled re-lizzle tech-nizzle you be dropping is DOPE!”

Ben: “Word up. Hotta than yo momma!”

Max: “When I hear ‘trigger’, I’m thinking about the AK-47 I be packing in the mean streets of Cambridge, home-boy”

Ben: “Word up, East-side 4eva boyeee”

Top Prof: “Get out of my office now. I’m calling Shai and Sandra.”

Erm...perhaps this scenario stuff is a little harder than we thought...!

Slave to the Wage

2004-05-02T18:40:00.000Z

So the summer internship and dare I say it, real job applications have begun in earnest.

This means hard work. It means hard work for the rest of my dang life. Somebody remind me why I'm doing an MBA again?

Oh yes, to work like a slave, I remember ;)

That's 4 summer places and 1 real job application today. That's plenty in my book. I have even started a spreadsheet to track these things. Oh dear. Tres MBA. Sooo chichi.

Who's the GMan!?

2004-04-22T20:03:00.000Z

I've just been invited to open a Gmail account.

1 gigabyte of hard drive, baby.

*Sniff*, I guess some peope are just natural A-list. *Sniff*

Death by MCP

2004-04-18T18:55:00.000Z

Major Consulting Project assignment finally over!!!

I just need to tell the world, that's all.

A bruising 5 weeks of intense consulting, analysis and writing, with a total of two days off. A hell of an experience, in every sense of the word. Worth choosing the Judge for anyday.

Off to present to the cllient, WHO in Geneva on 5th May. I can't wait to get their reaction on our findings...some of which weren't pretty.

And you guessed it, no sooner do we finish and hand in the report, does Cambridge decide to let loose its yearly quota of rain and grim skies. Hmpf!

MBAby!

2004-04-10T12:24:00.000Z

The good news filtered through the ranks of the Judge - Valerie's having an MBA baby!

We're all very excited by one of our own MBAs being pregnant. If it's a boy, we'll name it after the director the MBA, if it's a girl, we'll name it after the director of the judge!

The Knowledge Bank

2004-03-31T17:57:00.000Z

So I'm sitting in a Starbucks opposite the World Bank headquarters in Washington, and our MCP interviews are very nearly over. Just one left, before Cesar and I race to Baltimore to catch our flight.

What a blast it's been.

To say The Bank is 'interesting' would be a huge understatement. It is intricate and powerful and huge. It is the 800 pound gorilla you read about. We've met some great, hugely experienced people here at the Bank, who graciously gave us their time and suffered our MBA freshness for an hour or so each time.

Last night we dropped in on the Judge Alumni in Washington get together, hosted by the head of the Judge, Dame Sandra Dawson. We didn't get an invite, but I think being a thrusting MBA and inviting ourselves was rather expected. A fine evening all round, I'd say. We met some very nice alumni and swapped cards while they reminisced their time at Cambridge. Most of them are at The Bank/IMF/IFC/IDB etc, being some of the few MBAs that these places take from anywhere around the world. I think Cesar and I put on a good show and suitably represented class of 2003 ;-)

Back in London in a few hours. Gonna miss this place!

P.C in D.C

2004-03-28T20:44:00.000Z

As an entry for the project risk assessment I wrote 'Diplomatic incident' and 'Be polite' as the mitigation. You certainly have to be careful here in Washington; a stray word can get you into a lot of trouble.

So what have we been up to? For starters, here is a blast of a story:

Cesar and I get into town on Thursday night and went out to see the town on Friday. We walked a long time and ended up at the Lincoln Memorial. I was lost in a presentation given by a ranger, but Cesar wondered off. He turned round and who did he bump into? Of all people, Anthony, our other team mate!! That's right, in a city of millions, we bump into the one person we need to, when we need to. I was great, after we got over the shock that something very weird and a little scary just happened.

We are also lucky because it is the Cherry Blossom festival here in Washington, which involves a mad kite flying contest on the Mall and lots of singers at the Jefferson memorial. We've been walking everywhere and the guys won't believe that I have flat feet!! Grrrrr....

So, at the end of the day yesterday, we wound up at ESPNzone, where after plenty of hassling, we got to sit in front of the huge sports screen (about 15 by 15). In huge lazyboy chairs. Eating huge meals. It was great. We watched the Utah-Denver basketball game which was brilliant; I nearly turned into a football hooligan in the dying seconds as Oroyyo scored the winning point, which 0.2 seconds on the clock. Any more of this an I'm in danger of becoming a fan. I bet the two MBA Utah Nathan's were stoked. I certainly was.

Another bit of madness:
While waiting for our plane in Heathrow, we bumped into Sarah Michelle Geller, yep, Buffy the vampire slayer herself. I got a couple of pictures, but the autograph was too difficult, given the mass of paparazzi. We then showed the photos to the check in clerk, who had just a hoot and secretly upgraded us for the heck of it. So we reached DC is style, just below business class. British Airways rocks!

Were having a little trouble pinning people down for interviews at the World Bank, as they are all abroad on duty tours (missions). We have between 4 and 10 interviews over the next 2-3 days, depending on luck.

Somehow I don't think luck will be too much of a problem...

On the run

2004-03-25T17:07:00.000Z

Bloggin from Heathrow, connecting from WHO Geneva to Worldbank Washington.

Not as glamorous as it sounds - Cesar and I are tired and just want to get back to the sanity of Cambridge, which we will on 1st April. Proper run down then...(it's been great!)

Here at the WHO

2004-03-24T12:44:00.000Z

Blogging from the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. In the middle of a battery of interviews with senior folk here, all of which have gone well so far...

This is a fascinating place, full of many idealists which is quite refreshing. Off to the World Bank tomorrow, for more interviews, again around agency cooperation and knowledge sharing. I still need to line up the interviews though, so will keep you posted. The team is exhausted...all we want is a couple of hours off!

By the way, exams went well and so did the celebrations afterwards!

A weight on my mind

2004-03-11T19:28:00.000Z

Nathan just scared the hell outta me.

He said if we put all the material we had to revise for tomorrow's exam together in one pile, we probably wouldn't be able to carry it.

That guy really isn't helping things.

I'm gonna have to show him what a weight feels like, after the exam...

The Final Countdown

2004-03-10T19:09:00.000Z

2pm Friday. That's the date of our last exam, an evil brew of Marketing, Strategy and International Business.

The Judge is empty, but heads are filling up rapidly. There hasn't been much time to cram for this one, but we're all trying, sustained by the thought - the vision - of what's on the other side...

Wish us luck!

Re-Strategised!

2004-03-04T20:49:00.000Z

Revision is rarely a pleasant affair, and so I expected as much for strategy. I've been pleasantly surprised so far; even a cursory re-read of the notes has allowed me to discuss just now with some authority the pricing and alliance strategy of one Cambridge Display Technologies, as well as their resources, with Nathan. Of course he didn't know that I was fresh with the immediate afterglow that comes from cramming, but that's just another trick you pick up on the MBA.

I'm over not getting to present the strategy case we wrote the other day. In pretty much everything we're doing, I'm managing to fit some strategy in somewhere, (even operations!) and I take this as a sign that the course was very good, as were the lecturers. In fact I'd say they were the most passionate and energetic of the lot, with plenty of time for us outside class and that certainly stays with you. I'm regretting not popping along to the end-of-strategy drinks with the lecturers.

I can't imagine next terms courses being quite the same, apart from maybe advanced strategy, which I'm taking along with two high-tech and a venture capital course.

De-Strategised

2004-03-02T21:05:00.000Z

I've just found out others kinds feel the same way about the strategy presentation as I do. I think it's great getting us to write a case, but getting only a couple of people per stream to present on the basis of their work being the best, sucks. It's supremely demotivating. By all means, pick a bunch of people for balance, but not on quality. You don't want to tell a bunch of driven MBAs their work just isn't up to scratch. Of course we can take it (and I'll shout down anyone who says we can't), but for God's sake, you can't just throw a serious competition into such a collaborative environment.

I've probably got more to say on the matter, but I'll leave it here for now. I just need to go home and eat something.

And that's the other thing...I'm getting pretty damn bored with cycling everywhere. It makes you cold and tired and there are only so many times you can marvel at Kings College chapel on the way home.

Bad day. Started off good (cool visit to Isle of Ely Brewery in the morning), but have only been stewing in my juices since our final strategy session.

Out-Strategised

2004-03-02T20:13:00.000Z

I couldn't believe not being asked to present my strategy case today. The result of many hours work writing a case study on the Microsoft-Disney alliance, we analysed the unanalyzable; we developed frameworks where none existed. But to no avail.

Well, I think my public might like it, so here it is, in powerpoint. Remember, it was supposed to be an oral presentation, so some of the slide may not make immediate sense. And as for the case study itself, here it is in Word.

It's long, but interesting and done in the style of a Harvard case, i.e. it starts with a "it was a cold, blustery, February morning...". The spoiler: Disney shouldn't go with Microsoft, but since they have, Apple better bet off their backsides. And don't count out Sony! (but forget about RealNetworks)

Blog-Rock-and-Rolling.com

2004-02-29T15:34:00.000Z

Some news just in - BlogRolling.com has just been acquired by a much larger company called Tucows, of downloadable, rated software fame.

This is a interesting, since, as you may well know, I am the developer of BlogLinker.com, a very similar service to blogrolling.com.

Am I expecting a call anytime soon? Not really - my site has far fewer members than blogrolling. However, I do believe my service provides a touch more value to the consumer, with its built in reciprocal linking. And I have some developments in the pipeline that will really make my users happy.

Anyway, it's nice to see things moving on the IPO (google) and trade sale (blogrolling) front for web companies.

MBA Olympics...the final result!

2004-02-29T15:19:00.000Z

Yesterday was one of those days I don't think I'll forget for a while.

The Oxford boys and girls are a decent bunch, even if there are a lot of them (quality over quantity, remember!). The long and the short of the day is that Oxford won ALL of the daytime events, while, you guessed it, Cambridge won ALL of the evening events. That's right Cambridge won the bar olympics hands down; darts, table football, pool and the drinking contest (what contest!).

I won't forget the roars of delight on our first win of the day (darts) or the deafening cheers of 50+ Cambridge MBAs on winning the drinking contest (the 'boat race').

As I explained to my new friends from the other place:
"We won at everything that will actually help us to get jobs and make friends. You guys won at stuff you'll do on Sunday mornings." They conceded moral defeat.

Oh, and it was confirmed by a lovely young Oxford lady - we are indeed better looking, cooler and a lot more charming than the Oxford kids.

Vistory is sweet.

MBA Olympics...the scores so far

2004-02-28T18:34:00.000Z

It's 6 o' clock and most of the events have been played out. The score is brutal, but we console ourselves that we are in fact better looking than our counterparts at Oxford. And cooler.

Anyway, we lost football 3-1, we lost table tennis (yes, I'm the captain) 10-2 and we just lost chess 3-2.

I am confident, however, that we will win the bar olympics at Queens, to be played out over the coming hours.

Myers-Briggs Reveals my Innner MBA

2004-02-25T20:08:00.000Z

Having just taken the Myers-Briggs test, I can now announce to the world who I really am: INTP!

That means:
More Introverted than Extroverted
More iNtuition than Sensing
More Thinking than Feeling, and
More Perceiving than Judgement

For a rundown on the types, see team technology or personality pathways.

To be fair, I fought the careers councillor all the way when pinning down my type. I'm not sure it's a good idea getting an ex-philosopher to do a psychometric test ;)

It turns out that I am destined to be a strategy consultant. I better get cracking on the applications then!

Giddens at Cambridge

2004-02-25T19:59:00.000Z

Tonight a bunch of us MBAs popped over to St Catherine's College to hear Anthony Giddens speak on Globalisation.

He described the three phases of Globn.: the scholarly debate as to whether it extisted (80s & 90s), the rise of the protesters in the mid 90s and the coming together of protesters and corporates to figure out what should be done.

He then said something interesting, that the most powerful driver of Glob. was not economics but rather communications technology, since that was what allowed Glob. to take place at all.

Giddens also spoke a little about the USA, and recommended that we get rid of Bush before the US can engage properly with the world again. This was met with a round of applause!

An useful evening all in all, even if I don't agree with his point that the media is keeping a check on corporate and governmental shenanigans (they may report it, but guess what - the people just don't give a damn!). I have to say, I'm more Silverstone than Giddens.

Breaking Point

2004-02-18T13:38:00.000Z

You know, there comes a point in the term when things build up to the extent that you just want to sink your fist into a brick wall.

A combination of lack of sleep, a pile-full of work, lecturers with a rather 'different' style of teaching and organising a few too many things at once, like Table tennis, a couple of cambridge websites and an MBA Olympics event (with an opposite number from Oxford whos sarcasm belies belief). And did I mention the pile of work?

Oh God. Give me enough strengh to last the day without doing something stupid.

Sunday Smiths

2004-02-15T17:05:00.000Z

Thank God for The Smiths. I'm not sure I would have survived a day of valuations without their very special brand of weirdness.

A rush and a push and the land is ours; Handsome Devil; Some girls are bigger than others, There is a light that never goes out...the list goes on.

The queen may be dead, but The Smiths live on!!

Thai Nights, Cambridge Mornings

2004-02-15T14:58:00.000Z

Had a great time last night at the Thai Night 2004, an evening of everything Thai, at the Guildhall in Cambridge.

Food, music and traditional dance, all organised by the Thai students society, with wonderfully carved food stalls and even the Thai ambassador for London. And the evening was hosted by none other than Patty and Nathan, our very own MBA glamour couple! The MBA turnout was good as well - about 15 of us in all.

Half way through the evening I was called on stage to have a valentines note from a 'secret admirer' read out aloud to me. Of course it was a bit of fun, but I happily milked it with the other MBAs, especially in the Anchor afterwards (the 'anti-valentines' party). But I think the highlight of the evening had to be the purchase of opium incense from the 'products from Thailand' stand. I'm not sure it was supposed to be there, so I snapped it up before anyone looked to carefully!

The night before was a trek - 4 in the morning at Sauce, a new bar on the corner of Station and Hills road. Met the owner who turned out to be an ex-runner at the LIFFE (derivatives exchange) in London. I think I missed working in the City more than he did, probably because he saw more of it.

All this built up into a bit of a come down Sunday morning, made worse by the fact that I have to make a final push to complete a company shareholder valuation for Dixons, that's causing problems. The work is piling up and so is the stress. And we're playing Oxford in the MBA Olympics very soon.

I may just have to dip into that opium incense at some point this week!

When the going gets tough, Max gets hungry...

2004-02-10T20:59:00.000Z

Just kidding. Of course I rise to the challenge! And there's been plenty of challenge of late. How about the readings for this week (required, not recommended)? How about 2 cases, 3 chapters and 3 papers, all for strategy tomorrow. Or 1 case and two papers for international business, again for tomorrow.

Yes it's getting brutal - what the kinder timetable gave with one hand, our internal drive and motivation took with the other. There are fewer classes this term, but we're all getting increasingly stuck into whatever we're doing - the readings, the assignments, sports, special interest groups, after hours clubs, whatever.

I think I'll miss being surrounded by such a driven bunch of misfits ;)

Over the weekend, I put many hours into sorting out our informal MBA website: cbsc.org.uk, although I haven't really announced it to the class yet. A major part of the redevelopment is the photo gallery, with lots of embarrasing pictures. Lovely.

I also floated my web idea to the MBA director yesterday, as well as the in-house web developer and head of IT. They loved it, so now it's up to me to implement. What is it? Well, suffice to say it's a neat tool for organising groups - and yes, I know there's a ton of free groupware out there; this one is different, and tailored specifically to MBAs. Stay tuned for developments on that front...

Also, put together a strategy document on the redevelopment of the Magdalene College website today. It's beeing reviewed and added to as we speak. I hope to finalise recommendations by the end of term.

Preparing for the Cambridge-Oxford MBA olympics - I'm captaining the table tennis team. Don't laugh! We actually have a very strong team, and we're practicing a lot. Oxford are going to be in for a shock!! (and a jolly good pasting!)

Finally, I had a Myers-Briggs session with the MBA careers adivsor today; it was something of a revelation. Apparently I'm destined for strategic planning. Of course I knew that deep down inside already! ;) So what happens to all the entrepreneurial ideas I have up my sleeve? Oh, I haven't you about those? Well what did you think I was doing, attenting all those entrepreneurial events I wrote about??

Plenty on the horizon. I just hope I have the staying power. More bananas!!

Full Moon at the Judge

2004-02-06T09:53:00.000Z

Last night was the first meeting of a series of meetings at the Judge in conjunction with Full Moon. It's intended to get scholars on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs together to discuss a particular issue, to see both sidea of the coin.

And a very interesting meeting of minds it was two. Organised by Mark de Rond of Judge faculty and Shai of CfEL, the entrepreneurs that joined us were John Snyder of WebTop.com, Brian Corbitt, Ian Grove-Stephenson of chalkface.com and Patrick Dark, Judge MBA alumni and partner at Sulaiti Consulting. The topic of the evening was multiple directorships - good or bad? The consensus was only one directorship or more than 5-6 is bad, around 3 is good, as long as they are in different industries or at least not with competitors.

Slush Puppies

2004-01-28T16:07:00.000Z

My lord,

One little blizzard and this country grinds to a halt. To be fair, it's crazy outside. I stepped out for 10 minutes and got the brunt of it, and it was brutal; I couldn't even ride my bike.

I had to pick today to sign up with the dentist and visit the doctor. Of all days, today!

Man, no wonder the British Empire spread across half of Africa and Asia - the Brits just wanted to warm up a bit!

That '50s Show

2004-01-28T14:19:00.000Z

Kings hosted the black tie dinner for the 50K entrepreneurs competition on the 16th. I went along, with 3 entries at stake, and not a hope of winning any of them.

Worse, I completely forgot to invite Nathan along, even though he was my wing man on one of the entries. I felt really bad about that, but then tucked into my melon starter.

Amazingly, I won...nothing. I'm getting surprisingly used to losing on this MBA. I've lost every squash match (2), every football match (10) and every entrepreneurial competition (1) I have taken part in.

Tim got through to the next round, teamed up with Jeremy. Shu also got through. I nearly chocked as his team's new CEO walked up to accept the prize; Shu had asked me to be his CEO about two weeks earlier and I had politely declined. Nilimah got through; I had started her off by photocopying some fluff about writing business plans. Seems it worked. Greg got through, even though I had spent the best part of ten minutes explaining to him why his idea wouldn't work.

Anyone of a cynical dispossition might call me a loser.

Seperately, just as I was starting to develop a cynical dispossition, my team won the WHO knowledge management project, which was being contested internally by another MBA team. Hardly the Oscars, but at least it's ended my losing streak.

Bring on the Table Tennis!

Ma(g)d Scottish Dancing

2004-01-28T14:02:00.000Z

Last Friday was the highlight of the season - The Magdalene Ceilidh (mad Scottish dance). Dinner with Sarah, Erik, Valerie and Jorge, then joined another 20 MBAs for the dance, largely because I had told them nobody knew the steps. I wasn't far wrong.

I had given Erik, Val and Jorge a super hard time earlier...

Me, glasses lowered, social diary opened "So, Erik, I see you put your name down for the Magdalene formal?"
Erik, excited "Oh yes!"
Me "There are lots of names down. You do know that?"
Erik, worried "Oh, yes"
Me "You do really want to go, don't you?"
Erik "Oh yes, yes!"
Me "Hmmm......"

(appropriate dramatic pause)

Me, smiling paternally "Okay, you can come"
Erik "Oh YES! YES! YES!"

And so it went, with all the other dinner guests. For one brief moment, I held their very happiness in my hands, and I was utterly smitten with the power. Please, don't ever make me president, not matter how much you want to.

The White Stuff

2004-01-28T13:43:00.000Z

This is it, the one we've all been waiting for people!

So it didn't snow at Christmas, we can forgive that. Cambridge has finally come through for us with 4 inches of the powder overnight.

Cycling in was equal parts superior technique, luck and fine balance. I didn't get killed once! I was amazed.

I stopped about 5 times to take photos of the colleges and photos of the dozens of people taking photos of colleges. Heck, some were probably taking photos of me taking photos of them!

Ran into my flatmate James, hauling his tripod and SLR across the courtyard of Magdalene, just as I was done with my old, digital brick. We 'swapped' tips and moved on, searching for the next hit. Man, his are going to come out so much better than mine!

Got a few of Kings (didn't everyone?!), the Cam and Trumpington St. Ran into Emmanuel on the way, who rather annoyingly managed to effortlessly pick out great shots for me to snap. He didn't even have a camera!

I would have got there in the end though! Was nearly late for the coach taking us on our factory tour. If you've never seen a factory from the inside, it's a lot like a supermarket (shelves, stackers, trolleys, bored faces, conveyers), just with more screwdrivers.

Now there's a (shallow) thought: to what extent are supermarkets merely retail factories where we do all the work, and pay for the privilege?

A Case of Channel4

2004-01-28T13:26:00.000Z

One of the nice things about an MBA is that - if your school is any good - you get to study a case and at the end of the class: lo and behold! it's one of the main characters from the case sitting there at the back, listening in.

That's pretty much what happened to us after cracking a case on Channel 4 (upmarket UK TV channel). We were invited to question him afterward in the main lecture theatre. At some point I decided to give him a hard time. I think it was The Charlotte St Connection; that's where Channel 4 used to be based, and where I used to hang out as a philosophy undergad at UCL, and finally, where I broke up with a very special lady, all those years ago...

I think what really triggered it was the three corporate slogans he showed us, something like:
1 Make trouble
2 Do it first and
3 Enact change

Him"who are our main competitors"
Me "channel 5"
Him "why"
Me "because they make more trouble than you and do things first, and if those are your core-competencies, then you're in trouble"
Him: silence

Hmmm, not sure I wanted that job in media anyway, becasue I'm certainly not going to be offered one now.

I Love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning!

2004-01-14T19:19:00.000Z

Last Saturday, as if we weren't tired enough from the exams and celebrations, we dragged ourselves out of bed to catch a 9 a.m coach for paintballing.

Only a few of us had done this before, and with about 50 tired MBAs, it was going to be either tepid, or rather ugly.

Lucky for us it was ugly. Real ugly.

You see something happens when you put a gun in the hands of an MBA. I don't wholly recommend it. The red mist sets in and pent up agression and crazed imaginings of the MBA debt piling up take over. There's only one course of action from then on - unrestrained, unstrategic, unorganised, unethical violence, of the Milgram-ian kind.

The Blues won of course, led by our able commander Mark Wadley, of the British T.A. The Reds demonstrated the meaning of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, though it was never really close, (especially after a few daring runs by your intrepid writer).

The rest of the weekend was spent nursing bruises and what I'm sure are cracked ribs...

Exams Over

2004-01-09T18:05:00.000Z

A vacuous gaze and a limp grin.

Such was the look on the faces of a bruised, but proud set of MBAs as they emptied the exam hall this afternoon. They had been given Cambridge's worst - and had survived. Until the next time that is, when it's set to happen all over again.

The 2003 MBAs had just completed their Organisational Behaviour exam, a three hour 'bruiser' that would leave other students scratching their heads. But not so the Judge! This was just another day on their 'tour of duty', for just two days before they had faced-down a three hour accounting and finance exam which included topics that would have made the LBS boys and girls go rather faint!

"It was a bruiser," glared one fellow, upon stumbling out of the hall "but I'm glad it's over, and look, the sun's just come out! How God smiles upon us this day. Time to party!"

Party indeed. With a wry smile and a cheeky glint, those Cambridge MBAs surely know something the rest of us don't!

(By our Cambridge Correspondent)

Welcome Back!

2004-01-06T10:42:00.000Z

Before I forget, there are plenty of things I need to do, web-wise:

1. Move my homepage from Yahoo Geocities to www.zaeem.com. I'm getting plenty of messages telling me to update the site or it will be deleted, so I guess it's time to move on to the domain I bought a long time ago.

2. The Cambridge Business School Social Club website. Again, taking a while, but will step up the pace.

3. The Magdalene College website - in dire need of professional attention, and I'm just the man for it!

4. Enter the MBA reading lists on myMediaList.com with a few reviews - there are a couple of real clangers and some unexpected gems...

5. Move this blog to www.mbablogs.com, a blogging tool I developed a while back; much better than blogger!

6. 'Fix' blogLinker.com so that I can set it to auto-scroll through my favourite sites every morning over coffee; save messing with mice and keyboards!

7. Get a few more folks onto LinkedIn, for their sake, of course.

But of course, all this will have to wait until after the exams, which are tomorrow (Accounting & Finance, 3 hrs) and Friday (Org. Behaviour, 3 hrs)!

God, I can't wait.

Now Max, stop procrastinating and get back to some serious cramming!

New Years Eve. Disused Warehouse. 3 a.m.

2004-01-02T19:17:00.000Z

My last evening in London was not expected to go with a bang, despite it being New Years Eve. A quiet evening with friends was all I expected, or wanted for that matter.

Instead, after starting the night off in South Kensington, we took in a tour of the city via a number of friend's pads and ended up at Hoxton, trying to find a club, as I vaguely recall (it was about 3 am by this time).

We couldn't find the place, so, wondering what else to get up to at this late hour, we turned the corner and stumbled across an extremely dodgy warehouse party going on. Of course, we jumped right in! At £3 a pop, how can you go wrong?

Personally, I thought warehouse raves went out in the early 90's. Perhaps this was a post-modern re-enactment, a recontextualisation even!? More likely the police realised they had better things to do fishing drunk tourists out of the fountains in Trafalgar Square.

So my buddy and I spent the better part of 3 hours taking as much hardcore techno, drum and base - and whatever else they've managed to come up with since the last time I listened to this stuff - as we could. And we felt young again!! (No, It wasn't the chemically induced kind of feeling either).

Mind you, we also felt a little itchy, being surrounded by hippies and rave monkeys who looked like they'd just hiked in from the nearest forrest. So we got out of the place, all five floors of underground heaviness, and hit Brick Lane for a cracking Salt Beef Bagel, dripping with grease!

That was my new year's and I loved it! London still has some tricks up its sleeves!

But after a week of London madness, I was ready for Cambridge once more and last night, I arrived back and was glad for it.

Networking. Socially. Online

2003-12-29T13:52:00.000Z

Those that have had their ears to the ground may have picked up a new phenomenon on the Web grapevine lately - Online Social Networking (OSN) - like real-world networking, but, erm, online. I picked up on it a couple of months ago, although I remember the original prototype (Six Degrees) a few years back. Join the network and see how many people are between you and Kevin Bacon!

No sooner does blogging explode and blogger.com itself sell up to Google, (and Google announce an IPO), does a new phenomenon rise from the flames of the dot-com bubble like an overcooked Thanksgiving turkey, I meant phoenix! Yep, that's what I meant: rising like a phoenix.

The web never ceases to amaze me. The boundless optimism, the sheer energy devoted to finding new ways to help you:
a) make money by selling stuff or getting a better job
b) get a date
...and that's largely what it revolves around. This cheeses me off a little, but it won't stop me jumping on the bandwagon! I've paid my dues - I set up eVolunteer.org.uk a few years ago, so I can grab a piece of the action with a clear conscience!

So what is my take on this new area (sarcasm aside?):

What are the main uses?
As mentioned, making business connections and finding new friends (read: dates). At the moment this is purely B2C (remember that term?) but look forward to OSN being used as a knowledge management tool in the enterprise. And that's my prediction - you heard it here first! The three main uses are:
a) Searching out others with common interests, that ultimately you can sell to (tribe.net)
b) Searching out others who we may like (friendster.com)
c) Searching out others who may be able to help us (linkedin.com)

How will they make money?
Unlike others, I think they can make money, a lot of money. I think this field will exhibit significant barriers to entry once people are locked in to one or two sites. a $15-30 p.a. subscription fee will be more than acceptable to those making new business and romantic contacts, for sure, such as in the case of friendster.com and linkedin.com. Others, like Tribe.net will make money by charging people to sell things online, in the form of classified ads.

Where is the value?
The value is in trust, and that's a huge proposition on the net. The value is trust because we are more likely to trust other who are themselves demonstrably trusted by others. The cultivation of a personal OSN shows a number of things:
a) It shows you are not a random, untrusted source
b) It allows friends and colleagues to write about you in the form of testimonials
c) It provides the possibility that you are actually connected to me through a mutual friend
...all this provides trust, which makes the money-making propositions on the part of the main OSN sites all the more realistic.

So, for those that want to learn more about OSN, and there will be many of you especially of you're going into anything remotely innovation oriented, you can flick through these articles...
Social Networking Press:
http://www.redherring.com/ (needs free registration)
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/866641400895.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/12/01/globaloffice.biz.web/index.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7307344.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61227,00.html
http://www.tribe.net/tribe/servlet/template/pub%2CAbout.vm?section=AboutPress&article=Press001
http://www.adage.com/news.cms?newsId=39344

You can also take a look at these main OSN sites:
Social Networking Sites:
http://www.tribe.net:
aimed largely at hedonists who want to find each other, as far as I can tell.
http://www.myspace.com:
free disk space realigned to cash in on OSN.
https://www.linkedin.com/network:
make contacts with people who don't want to know you! yay!
http://www.ryze.com/:
Ryze helps you expand your business network
http://www.Itsnotwhatyouknow.com:
how true, how true...
http://www.friendster.com/index.jsp:
For dating or making new friends. Let's face it, for dating.
http://www.meetup.com:
Meetup is a free service that organizes local gatherings about anything, anywhere. In England, we call it "Going to the Pub".
http://www.ecademy.com/:
Connecting Business People in an Exchange of Trusted Networks
http://www.everyonesconnected.com/:
Meet people through friends you already know whether to date or just have fun
http://www.hi5.com (acquired http://www.sona.com):
Meeting new people, connecting with friends, and sharing ideas
http://www.ringo.com/:
The new, easy way to meet people, acquired by...
http://web.tickle.com/:
Learn surprising things about your friends Â» See who they know Â» Meet new people

Pirates of London - The Musical!

2003-12-29T13:47:00.000Z

If there's one thing I love about London it's the pirate radio. For those that are unfamiliar, it's a great London tradition, stretching back at least 25 years. Temporary radio masts spring up at the top of tower blocks, electricity cables are mysteriosuly diverted, the turntables start going round and then...musical magic!

You can work through the dial and come across at least 5 or 10 pirate stations, especially on the weekends and holidays. May I suggest 102.4 FM, sir? Or perhaps 102.0? The choicest underground house and garage for the masses!

Why are pirate stations great? They are mostly commercial free, they are run by people who love the music they play and they are important voices for local communities. And very often, many of the great dance tracks of our time start off with airplay on the pirate stations, either being requested by listeners of not making the cut. Pirate stations are the open source of the airwaves.

London, you may suck at many, many things, but you know your music.

Christmas Muppets

2003-12-26T00:28:00.000Z

British television at Christmas time is traditionally such a dull affair. The paradox is that at no other time in the year are there so many people gathered round the stupid-box, yet TV folks chose precisely this time to screen the worst of the lot!

Maybe it's because I've been without TV for three months that my expectations were unrealistic, but I'm afraid the only fare that did it for me this year was Amelie and yes, Muppets from Space, both excellent choices.

Shanghai Noon (Jackie Chan) was a bit of a let down, as was Polar Bear Battlefield. Surprise nuggets of the day were Natural World's take on Prince Charles' Highgrove and Some Like it Hot. To be honest, I'd be happy just with re-runs of Magnum!

Yes, I did watch the Queen's speech this year, (for the first time), and no, I didn't stand up, because I'm a rebel like that, see!

Quality time with the TV, ahem, family, was only interrupted by a few hours sporadic work on Org. Behaviour revision. The exam for OB is on the 9th Jan and Acc. & Finance is on the 7th, so plenty to keep me out of trouble.

Cambridge Bubble vs London Edge

2003-12-24T19:45:00.000Z

The trip to London for Sir Paul Judge's party was a pleasant enough affair - guys in black tie and girls in cocktail dresses. Everyone was on their best behavior; plenty of milling around and polite chatter at his pad, which turned out to be in Pimlico, not Tower Hill.

There were also lot's of digital cameras floating about and I quietly pointed out the irony to a number of fellow guests (the line was too good to use only once) that the "lovely" building they were taking pictures of across the Thames was in fact none other than MI5 headquarters (the not-so-secret service) and that MI5 were probably taking pictures of us taking pictures of them!

Hey, I said it was ironic, not funny.

Tough crowd...

The trip to Sir Paul's flat was not uneventful. We sliced through East London in two coaches, barely slowing down to admire those monuments to 60's Modernist Optimism, that tower blocks that blot, sorry, dot the landscape, the warehouses, factories and industrial estates.

Anyone who says people can pull themselves up by the bootstraps to get out of places like East London by and large don't know what the hell they are talking about. Most of the time they haven't been brought up there, or even lived there, among the despair and poverty and soul destroying estates. A land of daytime TV, rizlas, Tennants Extra and local Kebab shops. Junkies, drunkards, pollution and gangs. Sure they visit - it's very trendy for rich suburban kids to get a taste of 'real' London by spending Saturday night in Shoreditch and getting a 'real' bagel from a 'real' shop on Brick Lane at the end of the night. How exciting! How 'real'!

No we didn't slow down, because we were still in our Cambridge Bubble you see. What is the Cambridge Bubble? Well, it's a weird sense of being sucked in to another, parallel reality, after you've spent just a little time at Cambridge. Nothing else really matters; the rugby cup, Saddam being pulled from the ground...all these passed me by to a large extent, and I don't really mind that they did.

But being in the bubble can make you complacent; it truly is an ivory tower, from which everything seems safe, and/or fixable. I grew up in those streets of East London that we rushed through on our way to, well...anywhere nicer. And it felt very weird passing through, still in this bubble. I know just how little separated the privileged ones in it from those less lucky outside it.

Merry Christmas

Thinking Big

2003-12-19T18:44:00.000Z

Candace Johnson joined us here at Cambridge toward the end of November to speak to us about what it means to be an entrepreneur (she was voted in the 50 most influential female business leaders of Europe, by Time and Fortune Magazine). The title was 'Thinking Big' and you can really believe that after listening to her, as she really bubbles over with enthusiasm and a genuine passion for her field and for young entrepreneurs just starting out.

Here's what she said...

People rarely talk about the sacrifice involved in entrepreneurship (Ep). Ep is about courage - if you're not willing to sacrifice your life for a project, then forget it. Ep is about ownership and getting others to take it as well. Ep is about personal responsibility beyond money.

Candace has a very creative background, which she advised was very important for Ep; she has five degrees in music, most of which were completed ahead of time and all of which she picked up by age 22! Candace also stressed the need to want to change the world and the need to have a mentor and a protector, (in her case the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, ~1982!).

[I'd heard a lot about the need for mentors, but nothing so far about protectors, so this was particularly interesting for me]

When writing your BPlan, ask yourself "what will make me give up?", and then write the plan so that you will never get into that position.

You only ever have two or three real visions in life, and even that's a lot.

Her role models include Michelangelo, Beethoven, da Vinci and Steve Jobs. Candace also mentioned a book "The agony and the ecstasy" by Irving Stone, [which I can't seem to track down].

How to find your mentor: Call them at 7:30 every morning in order to avoid their secretary. Once you have them, make sure to never lose their trust.

When starting, Candace said it took her about three years to build up a believing team. Throughout she tried to get everything for nothing. Her line was "We don't have any money, but we're trying to do XYZ, and if we're successful, we will buy it". It works out all the time!

In your BPlan, you need to try and get the costs and revenues right and to aim to make money within 12-18 months. Remember: you don't need all the paraphenalia at the beginning!

Genius!

2003-12-17T21:06:00.000Z

You see, you don't get this kind of thing at any old business school you know. Cambridge MBAs are smart, creative and skilled. But above all, they can work the hell out of Photoshop!

Go Christoff!

For the record, the MBAs among the portraits are Joe, Carrie, Geo, Max and Chris himself.

Better than S*x! (Well, TV anyway)

2003-12-16T14:16:00.000Z

With term coming to an end and work starting to slow down, I've managed to waste plenty of time on AtomFilms, a website with lots of great shorts and animations. Better than TV anyday, but of course it does require broadband. Here are a selection of great flicks I've had the chance to view over the last day or two...

The Dark! - Very British animated 'horror' comedy. Actually quite festive!

White Bits - very funny, very clever. You'll laugh hard at the punchline.

Gerbil in a Light Socket - cute, sassy Gerbil wants to be fried!

Black Star - fast and furious animated action: Jackie Chan meets mutant superheroes!

and last but not least...

Ninjai, The Little Ninja - a little ninja just wants to know who he is, but must waste some baddies along the way!

I hope you have as much fun wasting time as I have - Enjoy! Now I have to head off and crank out a Management Practice essay in 4 hours before our MBA Xmas party! That's 2,500 words to you and me Skippy!

The Mind of an Entrepreneur

2003-12-05T17:35:00.000Z

Today we had the pleasure of having Richard Dellabarca over to the Judge for lunch.

Richard is a Judge MBA from a couple of years back, and like many, chose to stay in the Cambridge Bubble after graduation. He is Commercial Director and Company Secretary for Artimi, an UltraWideband start-up (headed by Jack Lang) that promises to revolutionise consumer electronics connectivity.

Although we had only 1 hour with Richard, we all felt that it was one of the most productive sessions of the term.

Richard got started with Artimi via the Entrepreneurship Summer School here at Cambridge. He met a couple of engineers working on UWB and, as he says, things just 'clicked'; there was a personal chemistry and a sense of trust that was very important to all involved.

His insight into the required skillsets of an entrepreneur was very useful. He raised money for 5 years in investment banking although he still found the MBA he picked up very useful. However, in terms of the sheer complexity of entrepreneurship, he admitted that 90% of what he knows now, he learnt while on the job, and this is coming from a qualified barrister and chartered accountant, which goes to show that entrepreneurship is certainly not the easy option.

Among the roles pointed out by Richard as suitable for MBAs in start-ups, top of the list cam Financial Director, marketing and business development. Richard highlighted the need for early credibility - even the little things like cards, letterheads and a website count.

Another couple of insights:
Quoting Jack Lang, Richard said it takes $1 to make and $10 to market a new product at start-up stage. Also, contrary to popular opinion, it may be beneficial to sell the start-up before customers are acquired and sales come in, because sales narrow the band for valuation - if you're confident in your negotiating skills, it may be better to retain and leverage valuation flexibility.

Top-hat and Tails

2003-12-02T09:27:00.000Z

My lord, I never thought a black tie event would cause so much fuss. We are all traipsing down to London (yay!) for a party at Sir Paul Judge's pad in Tower Hill. It'll really be the highlight of the season and is certain to beat getting 'thrown out' of the St John's party (see below) hands down.

But, a lot of the overseas guys are having trouble with the idea of black tie/dinner suit/dinner jacket etc. I never really thought about it, but really, it can be something of a minefield if you are not used to it. In fact, someone emailed round a list of definitions to help each other out. I was amazed that this was such a complex social ritual, but as my old supervisor used to say on the very subject of complex social rituals: "there you go".

Of course, everything about Oxbridge oozes exclusion, no matter what the rhetoric is. Is that a bad thing? I think there are pros and cons - it really isn't black and white, and this coming from an ex-philosopher who has little time for ideologies of the left or right. One day I will write about the nature of 'inside' and 'outside' in Cambridge, as the place is imbued with it. One day I'll even write about the secret society at Magdalene I'm trying to worm myself into, but that will probably be my last diary entry! (Come on Max, don't you know you're not supposed to try !)

So, here are just some of the definitions, taken from this website:

Black Tie means formal. Men wear tuxedos, women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates.

White Tie means ultra-formal. Men wear full dress, with white tie, vest, shirt and cummerbund. Women wear long gowns.

Formal usually means the same as Black Tie, but in some trendier cities like New York or Los Angeles, it could mean a black shirt, no tie with a tux. Women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates.

Ultra-formal means White Tie. Men wear full dress, with white tie, vest, shirt and cummerbund. Women wear long gowns.

Black Tie Optional means you have the option of wearing a tuxedo, but it should clue you into the formality of the event, meaning a dark suit and tie would be your other option. Women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates.

etc etc

A Weekend for the Young

2003-12-01T09:37:00.000Z

Decadent weekends are good for the soul. They might not get you into Heaven, but Hell is starting to sound kinda fun.

Let's see what I remember...

Friday was the usual formal hall, which managed to descend into a party a bunch of us Magdaleners gatecrashed at a St Johns mansion somewhere on the outskirts of town, on the verge of a forrest. But even with our gowns it was less Harry Potter and more Cambridge Witch Project!

We soon got tired of the St Johns lot. We raided one of their bookshelves, where I discovered 'The Countess of Pembroke's 'Arcadia' '.
"Have you read it?" came the polite question from the book owner, a delicate young Johns girl, (probably from the country).
"No, but it sounds bloody weird!!" I snorted.
Oh dear, you can take the boy out of the City, but you can't take the City out of the boy.

One of us, an American, caused a ruckus with a Johns girl in the kitchen and we were chased from the mansion. I think they started shooting, not sure. We began singing what's becoming a favorite Magdalene number, (to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes'):

"Oh I'd rather be at Oxford than St Johns,
Oh I'd rather be at Oxford than St Johns ...etc etc"

We ended up partying back at ours until 7. I haven't slept so late for a long, long time. Kerouac would be proud!

Saturday...
All I could do all day was work on my entry for the 50K competition. It was the only thing that even remotely motivated me.

Sunday...
Played football against Wolfson college. Lost 10-0. You read right. It was devastating. I had a good game though!

The Gentleman's Outfitter

2003-11-26T22:10:00.000Z

I stopped into A. E. Clothier today (yes, I too am amazed they have a website) to try and find a decent dinner suit for the upcoming Christmas party at Sir Paul Judge's pad in London ("overlooking the Thames", was all we were told) as well as assorted college balls.

Not as easy as it sounds. My first call was Moss Bross on the way into the Judge Inst., but I felt the manager there was a little too eager to sell me what seemed a reasonable outfit although I wondered just how many times the suit had been hired out before. (What!? You want me to buy a brand new dinner suit?? But I'm a stoodent!)

Later on I decided on A.E Clothier on Pembroke Street. It was much smaller than Moss Bross but you felt you were in safe hands there. A couple of old chaps looked down at me over the rims of their glasses and proceeded to fit me out.

And they even managed to sell me some Magdalene cufflinks! Who says you can't buy class?

The Grad Pad

2003-11-26T21:52:00.000Z

I paid my first visit to the Graduate Union tonight, after the talk by Yoshi (below). The food was expensive, the dining hall concrete and the lifts confusing but the company was pleasant .

The point is, I suddenly realised it was the most conspicuously modern building I've been into for weeks! God the change did me good. There is such a thing as too much medieval splendour you know.

Oh, to see a high-rise London tower block once more - my heart yearns!

The Toyota Way

2003-11-26T21:38:00.000Z

We were privileged to have Mr Yoshio Ishizaka, Executive VP of Toyota at the Judge today to speak on the leadership principles of himself and Toyota. He was accompanied and introduced by the black-shirted one himself - Mr Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi. Mr Ishizaka was more laid back than I thought he would be, always willing to poke a little fun at himself, which makes a nice change.

Somebody wanted to ask Kevin Roberts why Saatchi & Saatchi ditched the Cobra beer account under pressure from some big brewing clients, but they thought better of it!

Right guys, you know the drill, this is a run down of what he said...

The key traits of being a good leader:
1. The leader needs to be visionary; the leader needs a clear vision of what is required and also a clear mission for the team and the firm.

2. The leader needs to be a great communicator. He mentioned early attempts at internal online forums he promoted at Toyota, which seemed to be a great success, as well as the twice yearly Town Hall meetings he would have, where anyone could raise issues.

3. Yoshi's eight rules of leadership:
i) Keep an open mind and a develop a love for travel
ii) Communicate as much by listening as by talking
iii) Pack a positive attitude; everything can be worked out. Eliminate negative thinking
iv) Invest in your mind and body. Not too many late nights, not too much rich food. Keep time for yourself & family
v) Be a student for life
vi) Respect others at all levels
vii) Believe in building an entire team, not just your own position
viii) Know how to have fun and be a likeable work colleague!

On a final note, Yoshi encouraged us to try to bridge the gap between different cultures, since the world was getting smaller every day. Here here!

As Disruptive As It Gets

2003-11-22T21:32:00.000Z

Being a little slow off the blocks, I only recently heard about Skype in last Wednesday's Financial Times.

Skype allows you to make free telephone calls internationally, of better quality than regular telephones, using a P2P type architecture like Kazaa. In fact, it was developed by the same people. [Note: I strongly recommend Kazaa Lite, as regular Kazaa has spyware and adware]

All you need is an internet connection and for the receiver of the call to also have Skype and you're set. This is amazing stuff. If things play out as planned, in 3 years we won't even be using regular telephones anymore. I wouldn't want to be working for an oversized telco when that happens.

Imagine; free calls to ANYWHERE in the world! Not cheap, but FREE. The developers will eventually make their money from voicemail and other add-on services, keeping the telephone calls free.

I urge you to download now - it took me about 60 seconds to download and install (3 MB file). Also, there is no sypware or adware.

It's good to talk ;)

WE WON!!

2003-11-21T18:19:00.000Z

The Judge team taking part in the AT Kearney Global Case Study competition has won again, beating LBS, Rotterdam and Manchester; actually 40 other competitors in all.

I never had a doubt.

Well done boys!

Why do I say 'we' won? Don't you get it yet people? The Cambridge MBA is about COLLABORATION. Right now, that means sharing success, but judging by our football experience, we're also sharing sorrow. The point is, we're sharing. That's the hardest thing to do, but that's what Judge is about, come rain or shine.

The BANJO team are: Ben Hardy, Ben Davis, Anthony Rich and Joern Roegler. Alasdair and I will be toasting your good fortune at Magdalene formal tonight, you can be sure!

If you want the full press release, you can find it here.

Daily Affirmations

2003-11-19T18:14:00.000Z

Look in the mirror and repeat after me (without laughing):
"Every Day,
Echo: Every Day,

In Every Way,
In Every Way,

I'm Becoming A Better and Better
I'm Becoming A Better and Better

M. B. A!
M. B. A!"

Well done! Now stop looking in the mirror you narcissist and get a life! ;)

A.G. From P&G

2003-11-19T17:59:00.000Z

It's been all interviews and talks lately, my oh my. Well there was a brief spiritual interlude (see below), but clearly that didn't last long.

Today we were addressed by A. G. Lafley, the CEO of Proctor & Gamble, the best consumer goods firm on the planet, pretty much. This was achieved by the wonders of modern technology, a la videoconferencing from New York. The talk was, I think arranged by Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and CEO in Residence of the Judge Institute, Cambridge's business school. He spoke for a while and seems a rather irreverent kind of guy.

On to the take-home lessons of the day (which was on what principles had allowed Lafley to weather the storm P&G has been through over the last couple of years):

1. Know Yourself. This comes from meeting with Steven Covey [who I ready many years ago; highly recommended] and consequently developing a Personal Mission Statement. [This kinda reminded me of something Jack Lang said - know yourself because you will have to convince others about your ideas]

2. Values. These are non-negotiable. You have to walk the walk after you talk the talk, achieved in Lafley's case by a deep desire to be in-touch with all going on around him.

3. Respect Your Customers as the Boss. Complaints are gifts from customers and should influence your behaviour and action plans.

4. Change is the Only Constant. Embrace change, don't react to it or avoid it. Create the conditions for leadership in your firm and people will step up to the plate.

5. See things as they are, not how you want them to be. Don't kid yourself and don't surround yourself with 'Yes men'.

6. Balance Leadership, Management and Mastery. Credibility only comes from mastering the craft. Seek out the masters and learn from them.

7. The Power of Strategy. Read Clausewitz, John Keegan, Sun Tzu, Porter and Drucker. Very few other strategy writers count.

8. The Power of Execution. Ideas are great; now get it done, right.

9. Make a Difference. Leadership will be judged by what comes after the leader. What will your legacy be?

10. Have Passion. Have fun everyday. P&G was the right choice for Lafley, but that was only by chance and he admitted how fortunate he was. This sense of passion has been extremely motivating. [This reminds me of Herman Hauser talking about the role chance played in his success].

Finally, what really matters for leadership are points 4, 5, 7 & 9.

All in all, a very good talk, with interesting Q&A afterwards, althought the v-conferencing system (top-of-the-range Tandberg) let us down a couple of times. My ECP team cared a little too much about this, but that's because we're currently analysing the company, not because we're geeks.

I would have asked him, given the chance, what leaders he now finds personally inspiring and how does he seek them out and learn from them? Also, I would have asked how he would have resolved clashing, non-negotiable values held by different members of the same team. But I didn't get a chance, so it's all rather moot isn't it!

Spiritual Refreshment

2003-11-19T09:39:00.000Z

It's time for some refreshing thoughts people. I don't know about you, but I'm real tired and I need some pumping up! C'mon people, Get Excited!

"There's no I in 'team', but if you look hard enough, there is a 'me'"
- David Brent, 'The Office'

"Don't forget the golden rule - He who has the gold makes the rules."
- Random venture capitalist (to a group of entrepreneurs, no less)

"We invest in missionaries, not mercenaries!"
- Kleiner Perkins, outlining their 'position' regarding entrepreneurs

- Always welcome, some Byron:
"And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,—
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent. "

- And pushing the boat out, a touch of Khayyam:
" 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it "

An Audience with Julie Meyer

2003-11-15T00:01:00.000Z

Last Thursday a group of MBAs at Judge had the great privilege of an informal, roundtable discussion with Julie Meyer. This was thanks to Alan Barrell, the Cambridge angel, who asked her on our behalf.

Julie Meyer was a coup for a number of reasons. She is the founder of FirstTuesday, the regular networking events that matched start-ups to VCs in the late 90's, becoming in the process a global phenomenon. Julie was very much the poster child of the Internet generation, especially in London, where I had my eCommerce start-up in 99-00, (before the crash made me pack my bags for charity work in Central Asia!). Yes I hit FirstTuesday. Yes it was inspiring.

Secondly, Julie is one of the most accomplished networkers in the industry. It's fair to say she has possibly the most valuable contacts-books in venture capital today; forget rolodexes, we're talking full-on databases!

Last but not least, Julie co-founded Ariadne Capital after selling her stake in FirstTuesday. Ariadne is a new, fresh approach to venture capital; certainly one to watch. Ariadne is even on the lookout for new people!

These are the notes of the meeting. She conveyed more valuable information in less time than a new MBA could hope to transcribe, so the notes are necessarily a little on the 'raw' side.

On Venture Capital
Julie felt that VCs do not seem to have enough accountability for their actions and on the other side, entrepreneurs just wanted to spend other people's money.

The current VC model is to take 2% of funds under management, but it doesn't have to be this way!

Any venture capital firm has two clients, the funding institution and the entrepreneur. The interests of both these clients needs to be aligned, but this is rarely the case. Indeed, we should be overemphasising this alignment, due to the unstable human element in any deal/start-up.

On Start-ups
Any start-up needs to be sales-focused and when Julie comes across a good sales-person she grabs them. Sales has been somewhat looked down upon in the industry (even at INSEAD, where Julie took her MBA). Sales people are important because reference clients are crucial, particularly in the early days. In terms of the flow at Ariadne, it's capital -> sales -> talent.

Start-ups need to think globally, and they can only do this effectively by being in the right circles. Julie has very close relations with players such as Microsoft (Steve Balmer in particular), Cisco and Apple as these guys will be the trade buyers. Julie said that the trade sale should be the priority for start-ups, rather than the IPO, at least in this market. Few start-ups will achieve a successful IPO, so it is sensible to rely on the trade sale for an exit; the IPO may be a red-herring. Of course, this kind of exit means networking like mad from the start!

Ariadne is currently looking at a number of high-tech areas: P2P, business intelligence, WiFi and security. These companies are generally convergent and disruptive. Ariadne is not currently looking at life-science/biotech.

On The Ariadne Way
Ariadne's business model is one of investor and advisor, for instance Julie's ability to reduce the sales cycle for start-ups. A lot of VCs actually started out as advisors and then became investors. Kleiner Perkins for example started out 30 years ago as a firm advising small companies on government grants.

Ariadne is a demand-focused, customer-centric organisation. The firm looks for markets that are crying out to be serviced and then tries to find the technology that will service that need. The average deal size for Ariadne is 3-5 million. Deals are normally Series B or C, although rarely it is Series A.

Ariadne will seek institutional funding in 2004; it is currently funded by private investors exclusively. In terms of the structure of Ariadne Capital, it has 25 founding investors and 8 executives in residence.

On Ariadne People
In terms of the kind of people at Ariadne, Julie said that diversity of work background is extremely important. She herself had not come from a VC background when she started the firm, and this allowed her to come to it with a relatively fresh perspective and set of ideas. This is why she values diversity in the firm, which has people from consulting, industry, investment banking and technology. Regarding folks coming to VC with technology backgrounds, she thought this was great and very important, but these people also need to concentrate on scaling up the business.

And great deal structurers don't have to come from investment banking! Bundeep Singh Randar (COO) of Ariadne is one of the best deal structurers in the industry, yet is not from investment banking. Ariadne is breaking the rules! Ariadne is looking for people who are change agents, who are not waiting for the market to change before they do anything.

On 'Julie'
Julie mentioned that she felt she moved too quickly with her prior venture, First Tuesday, and that she teamed up with people whose priorities were not properly aligned with each other and the venture.

Julie's formula for replicating success in Ariadne: look for the people that have already been successful and figure out how they achieved their success. "Successful entrepreneurs are my universe!" she said.

The concept of fairness in deal is crucial to Julie and the team at Ariadne. Adversarial situations will not help in the long-run. Squeezing start-ups of equity until they have only a tiny amount will correspondingly reduce their motivation, which is bad for everyone involved.

(Author's note: Ariadne is Greek, the name of "the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë who gave Theseus the thread with which he found his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth..")

Framing Success

2003-11-12T19:12:00.000Z

Yesterday I had the pleasure to meet Nick Corfield. Who is Nick? Well, if you're my age, (see below), you'll remember a publishing/word processing system called FrameMaker. That's was Nick's little brainchild and very successful it was too; he sold the company (Frame Technology) in the mid-90's to a growing outfit you may know called Adobe.

We had a very productive round-table session at the Judge, mostly of questions and answers, after his introduction. He's an ex-Cambridge man, having read maths tripos in the early eighties. He then shot off to Sillicon Valley, as at the time there really wasn't much in the way of start-up city in Cambridge. Fair enough. Nice bloke - he once climbed Mount Everest. You see? You only get that kind of person at Cambridge. 'S what I've been telling you all along!

Some gems from Nick:
1. Networking is crucial, if only to get your first customers.
2. While he didn't start off to build a million or billion dollar company, it was somewhere in-between. He wasn't thinking small!
3. The English accent works wonders in silicon valley! Instant credibility.

Actually I knew the last one, but it's worth repeating, as is my cheerful annecdote. I once got into a recursive loop with a motel clerk outside San Fran:
I said 'thank you' for the coffee,
she (yelled) 'no problem!!',
to which I replied automatically 'Er, thanks',
which brought on another, similarly knee-jerk 'no problem!!'.

This pattern, needless to say, continued for quite a while. Worthy of Monty Python, or at least Benny Hill.

Billion Dollar Brains

2003-11-12T10:43:00.000Z

Another Enterprise Tuesday last night, this time hearing from budding ex-student/academic entrepreneurs. The line-up was:

	Nick Haan, Founder of BlueGnome
	Julian White, Founder of Genapta
	Asim Mumtaz, Founder of Enecsys (middle, beard)

They gave a brief presentation of their companies/business plans and then answered questions from the audience. What did they say?

How did they get their first customers?

Julian: Publicity gave them their first customers, but there is no substitute for getting out there and selling - something a little anathema to British academics.

Nick: Introductions to first customers via VCs, even though these particular VCs were never interested in investing in BlueGnome (i.e. these VCs were being nice!). Other VCs still very much interested in BlueGnome. More came from the scientific advisory board Nick is on.

What financial safety net did they have when starting?

Julian: No safety net!

Nick: University Challenge Fund. Then he just quit his job!

Asim: Looking for different sources of funding and also looking at £10K Pathfinder stage funding

Approach to patenting?

J: Spoke at length to patent agents and 'translated' the idea for them

How did they get their teams together?

J: Team came from the lab, although multidisciplinary. Some of the best ideas the team came up with were over a few Guinesses at the famous Eagle! Be careful when selecting team as you will be working with them for a long time and under great pressure. Perhaps think twice about starting with friends/family?

N: Multidisciplinary; he found Bioogists to be extremely approachable (he is a mathematician I think). Also, don't get people like you for the team, get people with different skill sets.

A: Team from the engineering labs, all working on the same project. The business brains came from an open email to the MBA class.

How much did they need to raise from external sources?

J: They needed less than 250,000, from the University Challenge Fund

N: Raised about 170,000 from the UC Fund

What's the attitude towards VCs?

J: Would rather finance the business through customers than VC, though may need VC funding at some point. Mentioned Mary Spillane, presentaiton coach in respectful tones. (Presentation coach who worked for the Oval Office as well as a number of start-ups in Cambridge)

N: You don't have to go out and raise a lot of money quickly from VCs!

A: Will (try to?) raise about 250,000 from VCs

Why are they doing this?

Julian: Wants to see his idea to fruition

Nick: Wants to do something useful/practical with his research

Asim: He and the team have great belief in the product

Jack Lang - angL by name, angeL by nature (yeah, it's a stretch, whatever)

2003-11-10T19:25:00.000Z

One of the great things about being in Cambridge is the quality of people you meet. Take Jack Lang for example; great entrepreneur (one of the men behind Acorn computers, ETrade UK and now currently at Artimi), important business angel (early stage start-up funding) and and all round nice bloke. He gave a presentation the other day to Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, a student club set up to promote entrepreneurship, at Michaelhouse Cafe, Trinity Street. Want to know what he said? Read on...

Jack started by mentioning a couple of useful books: "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore, "The High-tech Handbook" by Jack Lang and "The Monk & The Riddle" by Randy Komisar (to note: Kasar says if your idea is brand new, then all bets are off regarding success predictions but if it is a better new, then you better go like a rocket if you are to be successful). Also mentioned at a later date was "Inside the Tornado", again by Geoffrey Moore. Jack noted that the ideas in both of Moore's' books were based upon Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers.

Regarding VC and Angel funding, Jack says there is plenty of pent up money - just not enough decent ideas. Some networks he mentioned were Cambridge Angels, Cambridge Capital and GEIF.

CfEL and St Johns are able to offer space, which while it may not be free, are comparatively low cost, supportive and and flexible. Also, the lawyers Taylor Wessing, may postpone charges if they like the team and the idea. It should be noted that the local partner of Taylor Wessing Simon Walker, has written Tolley’s "Startups, Law and Business handbook”, which is an excellent book of precedents. The government is giving money away as part of the SMART awards and even £40K just for a good idea.

The entrepreneur has to ask him/herself: "why now?, why me?" You have to know yourself if you are to motivate others!

In terms of the criteria VCs use to make judgements, in order they are:
1 A global, sustainable, underserved market need - the Internet is still growing 10-fold every 18 months and PC features 2-fold over the same period (i.e. Moore's Law)
2 A strong team
3 Defensive technology, although no technology patent is really defensible in the long run
4 Believable plans
5 60% IRR. Thats right, 60; you've got to go like a rocket!

Ultimately, its not just the idea (#1) that has to be good, but the whole proposition – team, development plan, potential market

Jack also mentioned the need to connect with the majority of people; how many of us read the Sun or the Sport? We ought to if we are to understand mass markets.

Jack mentioned that in the early days he started with technology and then tried to fit it to a market need; now it's the other way round - he starts with a market need and looks for a technology.

On questions regarding geographical opportunities, he noted China to be of interest, but tha you had to really be there to tap into the opportunities. Indonesia and Vietnam were also of interest, Indonesia being the cheapest, but too unstable, and with correspondingly poor infrastructure and education.

On a question of the relative importance of network(ing), determination and creativity, Jack held that the network(ing) was the most important.

The Big 3-0!

2003-11-02T15:40:00.000Z

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me

...sing along...

Happy birthday dear Meee-eeee
Happy birthday to me

So what am I going to do, now that I'm an all grown up 30 year old MBA student?

SAME THING I DO EVERY YEAR, PINKY...

TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!......

Pinky and Max (right), seen yesterday trying to take over the world.

The First Hurdle

2003-10-27T14:04:00.000Z

Our first exam is next Wednesday and you can start to feel the tension in the air at the Judge. Management Analysis, my old nemesis, we will meet for the last time in a few days, when I will finally purge my soul of your eveil intentions!

Or, as Carter would say:

"Your a big field of mathematical enquiry, but you're out of shape. For me, it's a full time job!"

Been Going 19 Hours Back-to-Back

2003-10-26T22:10:00.000Z

Yes, I was delirious yesterday from a day far too packed for any self-respecting human being, thus producing this remix of Paul Hardcastle's classic from the 80's. Note: you probably won't get it, if you haven't heard the song. Go download now!

In 2003 Cambridge seemed like just another MBA,
but it wasn't.
It was different in many ways, and so were those that did the studying.
In other business schools the average hours per day of the combat student was 12...
In Cambridge it was 19.
In inininininin Cambridge it was 19.

(TV announcer's voice)
The shooting and fighting of the past two weeks continued today
25 miles North of London
I really wasn't sure what was going on (Vet's Voice)

Nininini Nineteen, 19, Ni-nineteen 19
19,19,19,19

In Cambridge the combat student typically served a twelve month tour of duty but
was exposed to hostile fire almost everyday
Ninininininininininin 19 nininininninin 19

An average day on the Cambridge MBA

Herman 'in the' Hauser

2003-10-22T18:25:00.000Z

Britain's greatest hi-tech venture capitalist came to give a talk at Cambridge last night, about the importance of vision when starting a business.

Herman's a little like an older version of James Bond. He's the one in the middle of the picture. As someone remarked "Of course, I feel anyone with a cravat must be inherently interesting".

Herman's tips for priorities when starting a business:
1. The product is in a growing market, as this kind of market is more forgiving
2. The quality and experience of the management team behind the venture
3. The technology
4. The business model; actually more complicated than people assume
5. The finance; if the idea's good, the money will follow

All in all a great evening, organised by the Center for Entrepreneurial Learning. I even got to speak to he great man afterwards!

What Time Do You Call This?

2003-10-20T23:37:00.000Z

Yes, it's 12:40 am and I'm still at the Judge with my team working on a marketing project.

I leave the house before my flatmates wake up and now return after the go to bed it seems.

I get the feeling there will be a lot more of this. Need to get up in 6 and a half hours.

Strange thing is, I'm still WIRED!!!!! This rocks!

As an aside, am I allowed to say that I actually enjoyed finance today? Three case studies, and after the full morning prep'ing, I and my case partner Calum seemed to handle them pretty well. What's going on?? Whatever it is, I hope I can keep it up; it's the first time I've really felt on top of things in this class.

The Class Clown

2003-10-16T17:41:00.000Z

Something very interesting has happened.

Yesterday, someone sent an email (via hotmail) to the whole MBA class calling himself the 'Class Clown'. The text of the email is as follows...

*******

To all current MBAs

I am your class clown! I am in the class, but prefer to be anonymous. Why?
Well, so I can make some comments about the class, without retribution!

I hope to bring some life to us all, by adding some humour to the class. You
will get the occasional joke, but also the occasional constructive
criticism..

If you want to un-subscribe, click here

I have a few comments I want to make at this stage:

1. Please arrive at class on time!
2. if you arrive more than 20 mins late, you should probably skip class.
3. Turn your phones off. Don't leave class to answer them... and then come
back in!
It is really disruptive for the rest of us!!!!!
This may be a cultural issue, but either may its just plain rude.

Remember - MARKSTRAT is just a game!

Yours truly,
Class clown

_________________________________________________________________
Find a cheaper internet access deal - choose one to suit you.
http://www.msn.co.uk/internetaccess

Well, well. This should prove interesting. The class is intrigued; who could it be? We each have our suspicions...

The 'Wall'

2003-10-15T19:42:00.000Z

How early does one hit the wall on an MBA?

Surely not this early. I was supremely demotivated today. Must have been something to do with the full day of maagement analysis today.

Honestly, I just don't see the need fro this to be a core course. Okay, great, it makes the Judge look better with a solid quant course upfront, but in terms of what I want out of an MBA, this certainly ain't it.

And to prove the point, at the end of 6 hrs of quant, it turned out the subject of our case study did the opposite of what was recommended!! Why? because people are not machines and the course of action chosen involved the possibility of great fame and kudos that the optimised choice did not offer. I couldn't figure out the optimal choice, but I was the first to figure out the human choice. I think that says something about all this number crunching; someone still has to show me the value of it all.

Oh dear, I am having a bad day aren't I?

Herman!!

2003-10-15T19:36:00.000Z

Yep, the great, the one and only Herman Hauser will be visiting the Judge next Tuesday as part of the entrepreneurial get togethers recently organised.

Reserve my seat now!

Robbie!!

2003-10-15T19:34:00.000Z

Apparently there's a whisper going round in class that I look a little like Robbie Williams. I'm sure there's a compliment in there somewhere :-/

Max, er, Robbie, relaxing yesterday

The Village Idiom

2003-10-15T19:31:00.000Z

One of the interesting things about doing an MBA at a decent school is the mix of nationalities. We have over 30 nationalities here at the Judge and it can make for interesting cross-cultural conversations.

For a start, it's kinda difficult for foreigners to 'get' British humour. Certain idioms just don't make sense out of context. Take the title above. It's a play on Village Idiot, whis is something of an idiom.

This puts a certain discipline on interlocultors when communicating. It really opens our eyes to how often we use metaphors and idioms as shortcuts to communication and in so doing forces us to be very clear. This is a good thing; it's almost like re-learning how to walk straight. And if you work hard enough, there's plenty of humour everyone can understand for you to use to 'connect'.

The Big Mistake

2003-10-08T17:10:00.000Z

We had a cocktail reception at Magdalene College last Sunday night. Going wasn't the mistake. Staying as long as I did certainly was. Don't get me wrong; I had a legendary night with my flatmates. Magdalene by night is lurvely and retiring to the MCR (Middle Common Room) was great fun. It's just that I had a very packed schedule the next day. I slept at 3 and got up all of three hours later, in time for

a) the address to the entire MBA class by the head of the Judge Inst. (8.30)
b) college photograph and 'new graduate' talk (9.00)
c) start of financial accounting course where we discussed a case study that i really should have read (9.30 and for the next 6 hours!)

It was the longest day in recent memory.

If you're starting an MBA anytime soon, take my advice - by all means have fun, just remember what your there for.

Serious Football Match Report

2003-10-08T17:02:00.000Z

I always seem to come off worst during sporting get-togethers, no matter how 'friendly'. So it was last Sunday, once again on Jesus Green full of youthful optimism and energy that a sunny weekend in Cambridge tends to bring. But disaster! Only two minutes into the warm-up period I pulled one of my more important muscles and was reduced to a shadow of my former sporting glory. Thus removed to the goal area (no hands allowed), I had, as Alisdair dryly noted, "fallen on my sword".

Yet, as a Judge MBA, I tend rather towards seeing the positive in everything, as I'm sure you do too. The long periods of solitude gave me a chance to ponder the game and it's players. I was once a philosopher of sorts and this combination produced the following reflection which, while a touch cerebral, I'm sure you'll nonetheless enjoy. Thank you.

There was a young player called York,
The goalie (that's me) he often would stalk,
He'd let out a scream!
But his kicks were obscene,
My his shooting really needed some work.

Erm, they get better...

There was a young player called Ashish (tough to rhyme with),
Who ought to be kept on a leash,
The ball he would hunt!
Though sadly toe-punt,
With a vigour resembling a quiche!

Ok, my last chance...

There was a young player called Mark Enzer,
Who'd tackle like his life-a depends-a,
A space he would spot!
And at pace he would plot!
The ruin of both my leg-ends-a.

Da-daa! You've been a great crowd! More adrenaline-pumped match reports next week!