So Conflicted

My head is saying, 'study for economics!'
My body is saying, 'have a nap!'
but my heart is saying 'watch the Olympics!!!!!!!'

So my eyes are diligently glued to my textbook and my hands are making coffee to thwart my body.

My heart will get its wish at 3:30 when the Canada / USA hockey final begins. I am Canadian after all, and though I have never played ice hockey in my life, team Canada needs all the good vibes it can get!

Fishbowl

The fishbowl is not a place for the happy or even for the content. Do not expect to be welcomed with open arms. Everything you thought you knew is wrong. In the before exams, friends are turned into mortal enemies, savagely defending their 3x2 territory.

Do not make eye contact.
Do not smile.

Back away slowly and let the unwashed sulk over their textbooks in peace.

I've been in the fishbowl for 3 hours now and I think some of my friends have turned to stone. They literally haven't moved for hours. I don't want to get too close though lest I wake the beast...

Past Exam Questions

You know that you have a lot of work ahead of you when the sample questions are along the lines of "explain X as fully as you can." Basically, tell me everything you can about X, Y, or Z.

I envy anyone that is ambidextrous because my hand will be sore after this one!

Cold FX, don't let me down now...

It's murphy's law - you can feel yourself catching a cold less than a week before exams. Thankfully a quick trip to the drugstore and all is well.

When MBA students are mistaken for Zombies

The Rotman School of Management appears to have been taken over by a pack of raging zombies. MarkStrat presentations and reports are due today or tomorrow thus students are spending an irrational number of hours with noses pressed to our laptop screens.

Now, I don't want to say that MarkStrat has sucked the life out of me, but despite all efforts, I was unable to cover the dark circles under my eyes this morning.

Thankfully, I'm not alone.

One of my colleagues just admitted to only getting 8 hours of sleep.... in the past 3 days.

It was all worthwhile in the end. After a few bumps in the road, our team regrouped and finished strong. Who isn't happy with a Bronze medal?

Great Scott!

Markstrat, India Presentation + Upcoming Exams means my hair is starting to look a little bit like this: I don't mean Marty McFly.

Flights to India

In amongst all the crazy schoolwork, I do have one thing to look foward to - India!!
I've browsing flights and I have to say, I now understand why my Indian classmates don't visit home very often. Flights are bloody expensive and all seem to arrive in the middle of the night...

Two Worlds Collide

As I mentioned earlier, we have A LOT due this week which has led to some unfortunate choices:

Finance group project vs. Marketing group project

Add in an extra class and a networking opportunity, spells out disaster. As my marketing team learned this quarter, if you spread your resources too thin, you lose every time. This can now be applied to real life thus a choice has to be made: disappoint one group or the other.

Unfortunately for us all, I'm completely letting down my finance team this weekend and I feel horribly about it. Marketing is my field and I didn't perform as well as I'd hoped last quarter so it is absolutely imperative that this project be an A+. We had some ups and downs during the simulation which again puts pressure on this final report.

I feel like a complete jerk, but the Finance report is worth so little comparatively.

Sigh - business lesson learned - you literally cannot get everything done at once. Prioritization is just as important as Performance.

When there is too much on your plate...

I am officially stuffed to the brim with assignments coming due in the next week. Not to mention exams right around the corner! Add in a little bit of volunteer work + a veterinary appointment and you have a veritable smorgasbord of things to do.

1. Markstrat Report & Presentation: 25% (2 term class)
2. Finance Case Study: 10% (1 term class)
3. India Study Tour Presentation: 15% (1 term elective)
4. Scouts Canada Event: Feel Good
5. Veterinary Appointment: Dog Feels Good

Crash and Burn

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

We took some bold moves in the last MarkStrat period which totally didn't pan out. We fell into last position.

This period we cut the fat and totally refocused. I'm confident that it will pan out and we'll be able to turn this ship around. FINGERS CROSSED!

Facebook Gold?

Invitiations to upgrade to 'Facebook Gold' have been circulating through the news feeds of countless, unsuspecting facebook users. If real, FB Gold offers a new 'video chat' feature and claims to have no advertising.

Too good to be true? Probably.

I strongly suspect this is a scam - if there is no advertising, who pays for the site? You? Me?

There has been no official announcements from the Facebook camp. Be wary.

Olympic Advertising

I love the Olympics, and I love Advertising, but the lack of variety is really starting to get to me. I know, I know - advertisers spend a lot of money for exclusivity during the Olympics, but I think the creative executions are already burnt out... but not nearly as much as the network promos. Maybe it's time that I invest in a TV remote control so that I can mute... Or I could turn the TV off and write my leadership paper... NAH!

Olympic Spirit

How on earth does Rotman expect me to concentrate when the Olympics are on?

Shoot the Dog

A familiar 2x2 matrix made an appearance in marketing class: Yes, dear friends, it's the matrix that was created by BCG in order to make decisions about products in the marketplace. I won't bore you with the details because then you would have no reason to take an MBA, but the idea is you would like to have products in any category other than the ones with low market share & more growth. Make sense?

Products that are in a dying segment that don't make much money are called 'dogs'. Insensitive business people will say that you need to "shoot the dog." The problem today was the dog looked eerily similar to my dog Daisy. So, when professor Soberman was saying 'shoot the dog', I was hearing 'shoot Daisy'.

Truthfully, I am a bit sensitive when it comes to my dog, particularly since she has cancer, but I'll admit, after class, my laptop wouldn't start and I kind of lost it. MBA exacerbates any stressors in your personal life. Be prepared.

My Hero

Now that interviews are starting to happen on a regular basis, the Rotman study room (known as the "fishbowl") is not nearly as quiet. Today I got a pair of earplugs from the front desk and I can honestly say that they have saved this afternoon's study session!

HURRAY!

Corporate Finance

I find the capital budgeting portion of finance in Q3 to be much easier to learn than the capital markets portion from Q2.

Possible reasons:
1. Capital budgeting is more intuitive, thus easier to learn
2. Teaching methods are more appropriate for my learning style
3. Finance is finally sinking in

Of all the above, I'd tend to lean toward #3. In Q2, my prof Kent Womack kept assuring me that it could take a while for finance to really start to *sink in*. After nearly 9-10 weeks of this stuff, I'm starting to believe him. In hindsight, I would definitely have spent some time learning about corporate finance ahead of embarquing on this journey.

That being said, it's starting to sink in now, so there is hope for us all!

No class Wednesday = Day Off??

Upon discovering that first year students do not have classes on Wednesdays, everyone was overjoyed. Upon first glance, it seemed like a much appreciated mid-week break. This belief was punctuated by the introduction of 'Tipsy Tuesday' which, as the name suggests, was a regularly standing social evening which involved sampling various beverages with ingredients such as barley and hops.

What a sham. Tipsy Tuesday is no more and I spend more time studying on Wednesday than on any other day!

MarkStrat Strikes Again....

This morning we gathered to review the results of decision 3. I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed, but the group rallied admirably and I think we've staged a comeback. (FINGERS CROSSED!!)We'll get together sometime this week to plot out our next decision.

Competing teams, be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

How timely. With the G7 summit coming to an end in Iqaluit, I've gained some understanding to the financial plight of the current Canadian government. Please be patient with my simplistic analysis of the situation:

In the early 2000s, the Canadian government was enjoying a healthy budget surplus. Elections were fought based largely on whether this surplus should be used to pay down the accumulate debt or cutting taxes. Tax cuts won out shortly thereafter the GST (goods and services tax) was cut from 7% to 5%.

What I've learned in class:
1. The GST is a roundabout way of encouraging saving because the tax is only paid when you buy something.

2. Lots of saving = increased productivity. Why? Basically, the more households save, the more funds are available for borrowing. Interest rates are lower thus corporations are apt to borrow funds to invest in buildings and equipment which are used to produce more things.

3. Budget deficits ultimately increase interest rates and cause investment (& productivity) to fall.

If the above is true then the cut in GST, the promise that helped elect the current government, was a terrible idea and has severely impacted our ability to dig our way out of this recession.

Less intake in taxes means the government is now running a (growing) deficit which will ultimately mean that the interest rates must rise (currently interest rates are artificially low). Rising interest rates mean less investment and lower productivity. Plus, households aren't saving as much which again means that the supply of funds available for borrowing is reduced. Ouch!

I now understand the tough position that the government has put themselves in, but I'm having trouble being sympathetic. If in 3 weeks, I can learn the basics, the government should have done a better job anticipating this eventuality.

Bah! I can't believe I just posted about politics! I'm having trouble deciding whether I've hit a new high, or low...

MBA Teams

Thankfully neither of my groups have a WGD.

Journey Mapping and Prototyping

Design Visa: Day #4

As a quick refresher, the Design Visa is a series of workshops that is being offered by DesignWorks in conjunction with the Rotman Business Design Club.

Today we completed our journey map and began prototyping our solution. The process certainly wasn't easy, but let me tell you, once you throw yourself into it, you learn some really insightful stuff.

Business Design (as I've interpreted it these past few weeks) is all about curiosity. Who are the users? Who do they encounter? What do they feel/experience? Why do they behave a certain way? What are their needs? Why do those needs exist? Last time we brainstormed solutions to meet their biggest need, today we brought the solution to life. The process involved creating a story board that included our solution and illustrated how we envisioned the solution working. Next, we presented the story board to one of our users and solicited feedback in order to better serve their needs. It was an interesting process and I can really see how it could be useful for any strategic initiative.

I can't say enough about the tools that we've learned so far.


On another related design note - an exciting opportunity to learn more design thinking has just been introduced. Twelve lucky students will be traveling to California this spring to learn more about design from Jump Associates - a leading design management firm. I'm definitely jealous to be missing this trip (I'll be in India - YAY!)

India - the journey officially begins

The journey begins long before stepping foot into the airport. Today we began our preparation for our trip to India. While there are only fifteen students in the class, it is evident that we each have unique experience and interests which guarantees a access to a broad base of knowledge.

There are a number of class deliverables, all of which I'm looking forward to. The basic idea is to become an expert in an industry which operates in India so that when we visit, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances to conducting business overseas.

We began by looking at Indian culture - or as our professor pointed out, generalizations as our learning experience is based on research, thus is subject to many exceptions. Prior to class, we watched a film called 'Outsourced' in which an American moves to India after his entire department is, you guessed it, outsourced. He encounters many challenges in adapting to his surroundings which led to much class discussion.

I am beyond excited about this trip and learning experience!

Cover Letter Craziness

Today, I literally spent hours writing one cover letter.

Never in my life did I think it would take *that* long. There is something about applying for an opportunity that I'm excited about that turns me into a proof-reading maniac. In the end, I'm not sure that a letter can truly highlight my skills, abilities and experiences in a way that also allows my personality to shine through.

Regardless of my struggles with writing cover letters, I'm happy to report that I've seen many GREAT opportunities on the job board. FINGERS CROSSED!!

Jet setting

Today a lucky few of my classmates are finding out where they are going next year on exchange. It's funny - when I applied to Rotman, I was SURE that I was going to apply for an exchange, but as I started to look at the options, all of which were impressive, and I compared to the classes offered at home, I just couldn't give up the opportunity to take some of the stellar electives that are offered in second year. Instead, I am going on at least one study tour to India. I am thrilled to be starting India classes this week.