Teaching is done... now waiting for an official close

Well teaching part... capstone is around the corner, just 30 minutes from now.  Capstone is a academic-year-completing event which, like many events in the MBA is completely organised by students.  A few of our colleagues have completely burnt out a lot of their time to get this in order.

Last week, we had our "final" MBA cricket match, which unfortunately we lost, we did not have some of the key bowlers playing this match, but then its a game and we lost it.

We had a great session of Key account management from one of our emeritus professors, Prof. Malcolm McDonald, who was simply great in condensing an entire course into one hour.  Someone considering key account management as a career choice would have really made a lot of pointers for interviews and for future work during that session.

We also had a presentation from another Entrepreneurial Alumni, Robert Wright, who had, during his career founded or co-founded three companies in the airline industry.  It is overwhelmingly encouraging to see such people, especially when they are so down to earth in their presentations and approach.  I was personally impressed with the way in which he explained the various aspects of entrepreneurship and leadership which made him what he is today, certainly someone to get inspired from.

We continued our efforts on our venture, which is progressing along very well, next week will also witness another milestone with the name and other such "formation" decision to be taken on Friday this week.  I am so happy that this happened to me as this future venture has changed the direction of not just my post-MBA career, but my entire life.  Let us hope that things get better in the coming few weeks.

An edit : I think its extremely important to add the leadership exercise that we did last week not just the task and the learning but also the feedback session, after an year in the MBA that was the best feedback I got very succinct and clear it really helped me modify my actions in the future

The Final Week of Lectures

Well, if you are one among the students not taking leadership elective, your MBA teaching is already over, leadership has one more week to go.

Last week had been filled with Innovation lectures (12 of them in total) we had a great simulation which was fun and filled with learning.  I personally learnt a lot once again about my personality and how it should work in a new product development environment.  These simulations, they seem meaningless if you think of their academic purpose, but in real life when you are in a situation similar to the simulation itself, one can go back to "experiences" rather than "theories", so I think its an excellent method of teaching.

We also had the last exam for Risk Management course and I think that was a cakewalk for most of us.  The syllabus was narrow and the teaching was clear, so no negative surprises in them.  We are also coming to a stage where we know what to expect in an open book exam, and people are very well prepared for that.

From the other side of Cranfield, I got the "Best Table Topic" award in Toastmasters, like they say "Success is counted the sweetest by those who have never succeeded", I personally felt this format is something I had been uncomfortable with in the beginning and now I am getting around it and starting to perform.  This behaviour itself is kind of a pattern that repeats itself again and again with me not just in the MBA but anywhere in life and identifying such patterns is important as well.

We have many things to look forward to, but specifically next week is full of leadership final sessions and then the capstone event.  We may get some sports in between, which is something to look forward to.  Lets hope for the best.