Masters in Management

MiMs at Global Case Challenge

As I write this post, Flora is on a flight to Hong Kong for a job interview, Prou is organizing the end of term party for MiM class, Marcus is solving the finance assignment due Monday and Andy is amusing himself with Korean baseball videos on youtube.

Get introduced to the MiM team that, just an hour ago, competed for the European regional finals of One Laptop Per Child Global Case Challenge, held at Imperial College London. The College, in collaboration with Hult School of Business, hosted over 20 finalists from all over Europe, including MBA teams from INSEAD and London Business School itself. The challenge was to crack a real business problem pertaining to OLPC’s current initiative of providing laptops to children in least developed countries. This had to be accomplished in a span of 3.5 hours and presented to a panel of judges. The team providing the most practical and effective solution would be rewarded.

This all-day event turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences at school for all of us. Being a part of a gathering comprising the best consulting brains all over Europe to work together for a noble cause was a real privilege. Our team dynamics made this experience even more worthwhile. Our objective was to have fun. We ended up doing a really good job and received great feedback from the judges. And we had fun, of course!

Some great moments –

“I jotted these numbers down, can’t remember what they are though”

“Ok, let’s target Brazil, Jordan and Parul (instead of Peru)”,

“Yeah well, that’s the flaw in our strategy… but there is no Q&A so..”

“Would I like to present? No thanks. I like to hear myself listen”

Judge to the team: “You finished 1-min before, so we can ask you some questions”
Team-member: “Orrrr… you could give us extra points for finishing early!”

On a more serious note, it was amazing how we supported each other to perform our very best. Our solutions were practical and effective, if not path-breaking. We probably lacked experience as compared to other MBA teams but our enthusiasm and creativity made up for it. Even when we were lost, we didn’t panic or argue but objectively assessed all possibilities to reach conclusions. I so hope to work with smart and fun people like this in my professional life as well.

After spending 11 enjoyable hours of working together, cracking up over silliest of things, realizing when we were screwed, making last-moment changes and finally putting up a good solution, we came back as five friends who were proud of what they achieved together. Most importantly, we were happy to be part of an effort that will provide better education and learning to countless kids in least developed countries.

So, there and back again, do I really know everything?

‘Course not. At London Business School, one of the feelings I had to get accustomed to was that people are smart. Like, really, really smart. And charming and well-spoken and so forth. And about half of them come from non-business backgrounds. How unfair – I have a first in business admin and now I don’t even seem to have a tangible advantage!

But here comes the effect the courses will have on you. My initial reaction was – “Hey, I know this stuff already!” And then I listened some more. And I felt – “I know this stuff – sort of”. Phase three is when you say: “That would’ve been really useful had I known it before.” Ultimately, you admit that you don’t know about 75% of the matter you are being taught.

Here is where your environment helps you. I’ve learned a lot from lectures, but I learned perhaps even more from my peers. The diverse backgrounds of the student body create a wealth of knowledge that is readily on tap. As a MiM, I’ve found it extremely helpful to speak to the more experienced MBA’s, Masters in Finance students and so forth. Your study group keeps you on your toes all the time. I’m taking every single professional development course I can get my hands on. I do some things I’ve always wanted to do, like acting classes. My outlook on business has changed completely, and so has perception of myself. And – this time around, I am enjoying every single day of my course. We’re halfway through our programme, and I wish time would pass a lot slower.

So, on balance – was it the right decision to come to London Business School? I knew that getting a masters degree was the right choice at the right time. But I reckon that I’ve got a lot more than I bargained for. They say converts are the most fervent believers. And by now – I am a believer.

The study group experience

Like myself, most of you coming into business school will not have had the experience of being in a study group before, and would be at least somewhat apprehensive when arriving into a new environment and immediately get stuck working with people you have never known in your life.

Well from the picture below, you can see that it has worked out quite well for my team =)

 

The picture is taken after we won a team competition, and among other prizes got a bottle of champagne as reward =D

Every study group has been carefully composed to ensure that a variety of culture, work experience and interest is represented. In our team there is me - a Canadian/Chinese, as well as a Brit, a Lithuanian, a Greek and a German. We studied wildly different things from economics to international relations to biology, and had various work experiences.

In all aspects we have a very different background, and it was not easy in the beginning for everyone to work together. Some might prefer a more laid-back working style, while others would want to sit down and get the work done quickly and move on. Some of us have had training in areas like accounting and finance, while others were total beginners.

So what's the secret to working together successfully? I think it comes down to having a lot of patience and respect for everyone, understanding that we have different backgrounds, working style and speed. Sit down as a team and figure out what you want from the course, and what's the best way to work together. Finally - and most importantly - have a big sense of humour and enjoy each other's company. I truly believe that if you enjoy working together, your work will be better too.

I think it's important to note that each team has different dynamics. Some teams, like ours, meet frequently not only on campus to work, but also go out to dinner and movies often. Other teams could just meet for work and then part ways to relax individually. In the end just know how your team works best.

It could be unnerving in the beginning having to work so closely with people you barely know. But by grouping together people who might otherwise never work together, 'magic' could happen and find unexpected synergy between people who are so different. I for one have found myself in an amazing team, and the fact that we have achieved great results in competitions shows that we have worked very well together. 

Go Team Munchkins!!!

A learning experience beyond the core curriculum

I definitely think that the core academic curricumulum of the Masters in Management does not give a complete picture of all the learning possibilities that the school offers. I will try to give some examples of extracurricular activities in which current MiM students are involved:

- For those interested in consulting, the Socially Responsible Business conducts some pro bono consulting projects in which MiMs are much more than welcome to participate. Last week I was talking to one of my classmates who outlined me the project they are doing for a South African IT company. It seemed to me an amazing experience and I am sure that having this experience will give him a competitive advantage when applying for a job in consulting.

- For those interested in marketing/consulting, some MiMs are involved in several projects in which they try to help start-ups to draft a sensible business plan and improve their marketing strategy and operations. They are doing so in cooperation with other students from UCL, so aside from learning this projects are giving them the opportunity to network with real entrepreneurs and other students from the University of London network.

- Finally, for those interested in Finance, last Saturday we had to make a tough choice. We had to decide whether to attend a Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) modelling seminar organised by MBA students with prior experience in Private Equity or one of the Finance Club training seminars. As I had already been in the LBO modelling seminar (it was the second time it was conducted) I decided to sign up for a full-day course on advance valuation issues conducted by AMT training (and kindly subsidized by Credit Suisse). Although probably it is not the funniest way to spend a Saturday, it was an amazing learning opportunity and I am convinced it will help me in my future job in IBD.

These are some examples, but the opportunities to get involved in extracurricular activities (conferences, seminars, etc.) and gain deep knowledge in the area you are more interested in are literally endless. Maybe the most difficult thing is to decide when to actually start to study for the core courses final exams!!

Next week are the finals so maybe I should come back to study now... I will post again soon on how a typical MiM prepares for the exams.

Young Entrepreneurs

As our team is about to take part in the Global Case Competition this Saturday themed around social enterprise, I started to look up some successful social entrepreneurs online, and was very impressed!

Wokai.org is an online platform which links investors worldwide to provide microloans for rural entrepreneurs in China, with donations starting from as little as USD10. Since Nov 2008, they have raised a total of USD 160,000 loan capital. So next time when you are about to spend money for a glossy magazine, consider saving it to give as a microloan!

www.wokai.org

 

INSIDE THE MARKSTRAT WORLD

When considering to apply for the MiM program, you may wonder how the educational experience will look like, especially if you studied business in your undergrad.

Of course, there are tons of theoretical learning intended to provide you with the basic tools you will need in your future business career. However, at London Business School there are plenty of opportunities to put your skills into practice and probably one of the more exciting (and time consuming) is playing Markstrat in the Marketing course.

Markstrat is a web-based simulator that intends to reproduce a virtual market with two products and 5 competing companies. Each study group forms a team that tries to outperform their competitors by devising and implementing a sound marketing strategy. Managing the overload of information and the tight time constraints is not easy, especially if you need to reach an agreement with the rest of your team!

This is a very valuable experience both in terms of marketing knowledge and soft teamwork skills. And although my team is not one of the best performers, I am enjoying the experience especially when it means postponing the preparation for our second term finals!!

In following posts I will try to explain other opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities (this time non-compulsory) that enrich our educational experience at London Business School

So why on earth should I choose to come back for more?

In my view, the problem about studying is that you spend a good two years of your degree essentially learning how to study – and my final year was crammed with technical training and what I’d like to call the real stuff.

Essentially, I was trained in basic techniques for two years, got a huge amount of subject knowledge in the final year and then found myself within an analyst training programme that was like an executive MBA and brought everyone up to speed. At the end of ten weeks of sitting in the stuffy training centre at Smithfields meat market, every last “I’ve got a masters in Shakespeare” spoke banker lingo. So why study business if you get taught seemingly everything you need to know by your employer?

Let’s revisit my idea of learning everything in the last year of a business degree – essentially, with a one-year masters degree, you double your training time used on teaching advanced, truly value-adding concepts. And this time, it’s at masters’ level – this time, our professors mean business. At London Business School, where most students are coming out of two to six years of work experience, your background is taken into account. Coming out of an investment banking job puts you right in the limelight. And unfortunately for me, our professors are aware what you’ve done before.

The problem with being an investment banker is that everybody you meet always wants to talk about the economy, and “the Crisis”, and what is gonna happen next. Honestly, try it out – become an investment banker and then go to a dinner party and try having a conversation with people. It will invariably hinge around your job – and to what people think you do.

And people always assume you will know everything about just about anything and will expect that you speak knowledgeably about any industry, the gold price, WTI (“Texas light sweet”) forwards, and that crazy son-of-a-gun M&A deal that happened in Libyan telecoms last week and how that’ll affect the long-term regional value creation aspects in the TMT sector.

If you’re really unlucky, you find yourself having been singled out, separated and monopolised by someone eager to fight a pitched battle over LBO valuation nitty-gritty, while you try to convince the waitress to bring you two mojitos at once to make your situation more bearable. No wonder investment bankers normally stick to their own kind.

So, there and back again, do I really know everything?

But I already know all of that – sort of

When you’re coming from a business undergrad background, you might not see the point in doing a postgrad degree in business. After all, you’ve probably studied all the subjects before. Chewing through marketing theory and business strategy again might not seem that appealing to you.

But here’s a thought – I discovered that so many opportunities are only open to me now with a masters degree. Once you’re out of uni you’ll probably spend a lot of time exploring the opportunities with an undergrad degree – and you might miss some really good ones, just because you don’t fulfil a seemingly statutory requirement only. There’s more to it than it seems.

In the UK, the job market seems to be very permeable for people with degrees in science and arts of all sorts and virtually all employers welcome applications from people with bachelor’s degrees. That is not the same everywhere. In France, graduates are expected to have a “Bac plus cinq” level education before the job market takes them seriously. In Germany, where people were told that their previous five-year diplomas were equivalent to a three-year bachelor course, employers quickly looked beyond the Bologna conversion and asked for masters’ level education in the ideal candidate.

So, you will ask what benefits the postgrad in business brings for an undergraduate with a business background. In my previous IBD job, I met linguists, architects, electrical engineers, physicists etc etc. You get the gist. And they didn’t seem to have problems with business at all.

In cynical moments, I think that I should’ve studied something fun instead of biting myself through accounting, getting innumerable group projects done for marketing, strategy, corporate finance, managing a student firm and at the same time writing a dissertation about M&A in the cement sector.

OK, I AM a nerd but even for me, my concept of fun is somewhat different. Frankly, I couldn’t wait for the day my last exam was over.

So why on earth should I choose to come back for more?

to be continued...