MIT, Strategy... but... is it time to look back and relfect

This week, well we handed in the MIT presentation, did the interim Strategy presentation and that was a big chunk of the team work we are supposed to do this term.  Since the PMI and Fin WAC are also completed, most of the team work that is required is completed.  OSC results were out and they were poor as expected, the exams were conducted two weeks after the other exams and that shows in the results.

The MIT presentation and to an extent the strategy presentation is about making use of the tools that we have learnt with the specific case that we have taken in perspective, having different teams working on different companies allows us to have a complete understanding of these tools, and that is part of the learning.

Let me throw in my piece, we are doing Google adwords as the choice of MIT strategy presentation, and working with it, I see that the PUV matrix wont support an Auction based pricing model, where the firm does not set the price, if someone told me this, I would not have had the level of understanding as trying to do it and failing at it.  Its also easy to get the buyer and supplier confused in the case of five forces model, as in Google, the person making the Ads is the buyer and the Publisher is the supplier from the looks of it, but what role does the surfer play, they see the ads, and certainly they are customers as well.  Very interesting in our case and in many cases.  I now appreciate a model of MBA where there is one Classroom session, one Team working session, one Case Study session and one presentation, it makes it an all round learning exercise.  Cranfield I think does a good job at this mixture, every time.  Most of the improvements that I see can be done are around the course, not in the course itself, which I think is at a level higher than what the rankings or the brand name would suggest.

We also completed a couple of important milestones in terms of the course, we have to complete the selection of electives next week (tomorrow in fact).

There are two types of electives from the credits perspective

1. Full Electives (20 Credits)
2. Half Electives (10 credits :) obviously)

Then there is a subtler way of dividing them into hard subjects and touchy feely subjects, I am choosing almost all the touchy feely subjects, as it makes you think more, and nothing is black and white, black and white stuff can be learnt from anywhere in my eyes, not the touchy feely subjects for which you need the class' perspective to have a good learning.

I think Cranfield makes the selection of electives more of a secret, which is not something I consider as correct, there is nothing to be secretive about it.  I think overall given the constraints of arranging the course, an earlier decision regarding electives helps everyone, again this is one of those things that I think needs to change around the course.

In terms of academic learning, I think we are at the half way point, given the fact that most of the electives would be taught in smaller groups and is kind of light-weight.  I have learnt a lot till now, looking forward to the future as well, but largely what I have learnt is that knowing stuff can only get you till a point, knowing how people behave is important.  This is even more true to me because I always think differently and even though it seems fashionable, being different means many times you will be terribly wrong and people will think that you are a fool :).

Most of my life (in terms of time) now is revolving around the freelancing work that me and Shiny are doing, I think this is important to keep us going after the MBA and I feel it is a nice income now too.  My business plans are also taking shape, many plans around education and schools.  I think thats the way to go, let me see how things shape up.

Fun, WAC and Food

Its always fun to work as a group, especially if you win, this week we celebrated a victory over the other streams in an inter-stream fun competition.  Strange feeling as I have been in the winning team in both terms (red stream in first term and Blue stream in the second), we have to take a Sunday off to enjoy at London, which was the prize, looking forward to it.

We also had a small dinner, this time with a complete south Indian menu with the table tennis team, it was full fun that day too.  I also got my new bat for table tennis, which is suiting my game very well and I think I will make good progress in my game with that and the advices I am getting from people.

We also got the results of the Assessment centre, while the 360 degree feedback was almost along expected lines, I am happy to have improved on some team working skills.  Some of the feedback provided was also helpful to me, and I expect these skills to stay on and improve.

One activity I planned for this week, but never happened was the passport, I need to renew it soon the get a Schengen visa for the Easter break trip.  I hope I do it in the next week.

We had our first WAC of the term, the financial management, I enjoyed working on the numbers, even though  I was very rusty to start with.  Overall I am not very happy with my WAC, but then these are things you get over with and be happy rather than worrying about producing a masterpiece.

Sinchan, one of my close friends in the cohort is going through a tough time in his life with a broken leg and related hospitalisation issues, I felt like someone took me four years back when I initially thought that it was the worst time of my life, I think the progress I have made from that point is significant, in every direction.  I hope he comes out with even better positives.

The subjects in term 2, the general mood of students towards learning have all changed, results are flowing thick and I just passed Statistics, which is remarkably the only subject I scored below 60.  I think I am one of the students who has scored at about average, and since I am not aiming for any academic mastery, I am very happy with those results.  Operations and Project Management results would be out next week too.

People are also busy choosing electives, at this stage, I am not very clear but next week I have to decide on the electives, I am planning to go for touchy feely stuff, rather than hard subjects, the only expected exception would be Investment and Risk Management, which is one thing I want to consolidate my knowledge on.

A relatively free week coming up, term two is 50% done, even though friends say this one year would fly, I think I am enjoying every bit of it.  Hope my business plans are suitably supported by god and I come out with a solid business idea by the end of the year.

Assesment Centre, Presentation Skills and a Relaxed Week

This week has been primarily a week of relaxed activities, the lectures had been restricted to the first two days of the week, after which we had the assessment centre and Presentation Skills lecture, which basically was to prepare us for the Press Conference that we would have in the a few weeks.

One memorable event was that we had our Term 1 team dinner together with our learning team tutor, which is another important part of the Cranfield team development environment, in which the tutor hosts a dinner for us, we went to the Swan in Salford and had a nice dinner.  We also had an useful and enjoyable interaction with John Glenn.

The assessment centre itself was a good experience, and even though there are parts which one might feel as not very useful, the whole scheme of things are so close to reality that, it is a rare opportunity for students to get exposed to without the risk of either getting or not getting a job.

Another interesting event of the week (or more to come) was that we had a Venture capitalist presentation being done in Cambridge University, broadcast live and we benefited a lot from the practical insights of the VCs present there.

There are recruitment presentations and events happening, I am not very seriously participating in them, but I think I will make some job applications after this MBA, primarily to test my newfound skills and their practical use, and never know may work for some time if everything works...

!!!OXTLML!!!

Another busy week

Well, the topic says it all, even though this week was packed in terms of schedule, there is not one superstar event.  A couple of touching experiences and a few things moving forward.

First of all, we had a good presentation by an entrepreneur, who started and sold Coffee Nation come and talk to us about his experiences.  There is an interesting project that he offered to the students, even though I think its interesting, I am not sure if I will do that.  The VCIC results were announced after that, and as expected, we lost.

During the week, it was almost confirmed to us that we (me and Basheer) would be going to Uganda, for our field trip, I was initially a bit unhappy, but on a second thought, I think its better than many places and Africa was always something I wanted to see, so no regrets, I think we will have a great time there.

I spent a lot of time deciding on a new Table Tennis blade and set of rubbers, as I had broken my old one.  I bought a costly bat at the end, even though I did not enjoy the money outflow, I think I will enjoy the bat and have some fun with it, especially in the MBAT.

We also had a second meeting with a slightly larger group of people, about the MBA oath project, and I think we are steadily moving towards a larger group of people who are willing to sign the oath, personally and as a leader of the net-impact group, it will be a good success. Lets see how things go.

Then we had the best lecture of the week... well thats an understatement, it was the best lecture I have ever had in a subject called people management, not only the topic (SEMCO, Mexico) interesting, the lecturer made it like an orchestra, he had a framework to work with, but he got the ideas from us, it was like he brought in the class's experience and viewpoints out to the table so easily, I was a bit pessimistic about this lecture for no good reason about the subject, but I loved it and this is going to continue for one more day on Monday, everyone will surely enjoy it.

Then on the Sunday (today) we watched the movie Tuesday with Morrie, a wonderful movie, probably set very aptly for me.  It made me cry, and yes after a long long time I cried and did not want to hide the fact that I cried, the movie was wonderful, do watch it in case if you get a chance.