Though I guess that’s why we’re here, after all.

The work is really good and interesting. And it seems like it’s all about valuation.

And there’s the looming need for a job up-and-coming.

Ball Season

And it’s Ball season! We had Exeter ball a few weeks ago which was the victim of scheduling — cold (6 centigrade) rain and springtime dresses don’t mix well. Still and all fun, though:

Making friends with the vodka-dealing dragon.

Me ‘n Anne

Much nicer weather (and a better theme and job overall) was had at the Keble Ball. The temp was up 10 degrees C and it was clear. And the ball was just well done.

Does it really look all that different? Except that we’re outside…

Punting for birthdays

Mariah and Noor had birthdays and we had a punting picnic before going off and working our stressed little MBAs off.

Punting Mariah

If Anne and I turned into Brett Easton Ellis characters…

MBATs

Just came back from four days at the MBATs, where we played a lot of sports. It was a bit of a mixed affair– some serious scheduling snafus but fun overall. I was a bit disappointed to be 30km from Paris but not really get there. And to have so much really terrible food in France. But a cafeteria there is a cafeteria anywhere.

And we broke everyone in Rugby. Badly.

INSEAD says “ouch”… right before going down 5-nil.

Other stuff

I have a job interview! And about a dozen other jobs to apply for. Will update on the interview after it happens (end of the month). It’s crazy because I just physically don’t have the time to get this stuff done. I’ve awoken fully clothed more than once at my desk with my books open in front of me. Assignments galore.

I occasionally have a bit of fun, though…

Prepping for the Wig Bop

Saw Alan Rickman at the Union, along with Gina Carter, who were pretty amazing. Go watch the film Snow Cake. It is good.

Headed out tonight to do anthropological research on cocktails. And gender. In business school. For which I am proud. Proud that I took the class (Customer Insights). Proud that my group chose cocktails to research.

We get to create something new in the world. That’s pretty exciting,when the product category is a cocktail.

That’s about it. I have about a squillion things to do (yeah, I know, moan, moan, complain, you work *so hard* (said in a whiny David Cross sort of voice) but it’s more or less true.

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Dang. TMI again.

Financial Management:

This was really straightforward and mostly exactly what I expected, although there was an added bonus of theft which threw me for a loop on one of the questions. I think I did OK, though I really felt like I should have hit it out of the park.

Technology/Innovation Strategy:

This is one of those “would have been great as a take-home exam” exams. I think I did pretty well, but there are so many frameworks– as this is a pretty young discipline– that it’s pretty tough. But only 25% of our grade, so…

Macroeconomics:

A take-home exam, and possibly the most interesting assignment we did. Lots of short-answer questions detailing, among other things, how to find the social cost of pollution (which implies that you could also price it and then charge for it– creating incentives to *stop* it, as you and me are bearing the cost while producers are benefiting…)

Operations Management:

If I didn’t manage to score a decent score in this course after 10+ years in ops, then what good am I? Others seemed to think it was tough; I thought it was really straightofrward– though a bit challenging.

Marketing:

One of my (other) favourite courses on the MBA (Surprise!), the exam was, as suspected, really straightforward and numberful. I think I had some good insights and hopefully it’ll all go well. Who’d have thought that Charcoal could be so interesting? (the case was on Kingsford Charcoal…)

And then there’s the EP… which we’re working diligently on finishing… (HA!)

The Boat Race

I totally spaced (after the last week– see below) that my transcontinental flight was on MONDAY not SUNDAY and was packing through the time to see the boat race… But I got to watch it with one of the Pembroke Philosophy lecturers in the MCR, and …

WE WON!!!!

Cambridge put in their best effort, but our heavier (~10lb/man) and taller (~1″/man) crew ate them alive. They ran out of steam about 3 miles in… which is nothing to sneeze at. These guys put in a hard hard hard day’s rowing. I know it’s only 20 minutes– bring me to your gym next time and I’ll set up the rowing machine for you and you can see how much that 20m will burn in calories. These are serious athletes.

Italy (part 2)

I liked Italy before, but going to Tuscany with Antonio and a bunch of MBAs was… just great. It was pretty seriously on the spendy side but we squeezed every last drop of wine out of Giovanni’s wallet.

Not to mention the Prosciutto.

The group of us is now known as “The Fellowship of the Pig” as we ate so much pork it’s insane.

Tetsuya inaugurating the Fellowship

We ate and drank the most amazing food. I can’t really describe it too much but:

Sebastian photographing the best olive oil you will never taste.

Gareth and Francois gettin’ jiggy with the soon-to-be pasta

Tiramisu from scratch

We fried Parmagiana and put chicken salad in the cups. That guy on the left grows the best olives…

Giovanna caught up with us!

Seb and Mariah drinking and eating…

We got shown around this ancient forest by the cute old guy who let us go on the roof… and who lives there and owns it. Marry into wealth!

Trippy MBAs in Lucca

…and drank more wine…

…and ate more food…

…until we passed out on the lawn in front of the rich guy’s villa, in his family since 1610 or so…

Skoll World Forum

Man, it’s been some experiences since I last updated this thing.

The Skoll World Forum is the best thing you’ve never heard of. It’s full of amazing folks fixing the world behind your back… and often doing a damn good job of it.

Met Nederlands folks doing in-country development, which may turn into an internship.

A fascintating Serbian woman running a media centre there.

Bill Strickland and Walter Mosley were telling their stories. Bill’s comment on what he would do in Darfur: “If we could get those people to notice how beautiful the sunrise was, that just might give them hope.” This from a man who’s spent 25 years teaching at-risk youth and adults the power of beauty in ceramics, architecture, and job skills.

Jimmy Carter and Al Gore and Paul Collier spoke, eloquently and… hard to describe.

This conference will make you believe in yourself… or else just give up. So much happens, both in and outside of the seminar rooms. You can read about and see the sessions here.

And now I’m going to bed.

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Remember, with these numbers, that grades are different here than in the US. A 50 is a pass, a 60 is a “strong pass”, and a 70 is a “distinction”.

• Decision Science: 64
• Developing Effective Managers: 63
• Finance 1: 63
• Financial Reporting: 62
• Managerial Economics: 59
• Strategy 1: 63

What’s good about these? I did broadly well. What’s bad about them? No distinctions. But, as I’ve said before, as long as I pass with a 50.0001%, learn stuff, and achieve my career goals, then that’s great for me. I’m somewhat surprised by a couple of the results– I had a distinction in ME for my paper, then got a fail on the exam, but in traditional Oxford fashion, you don’t get to see your results, so you can’t learn from your mistakes. Which is odd and frustrating. I’m having them check my results against their database (there have been a few mishandled marks in the past), which apparently involves virgin blood and incantations which are different no matter who you ask. It’s good to know everything’s going well.

This term’s hit like the proverbial ton of bricks– hence the slowness in updating.

Contests

I’ve managed to squeak to the finals in the Idea Idol business plan competition, which could mean that my career gets on track if I win and it gets funded. The idea would be very cool to try and do, so we’ll see how it goes. The pitch is on the 19th of Feb, and it should prepare me for my Business Plan project pitch.

School

I’m taking 5 courses, the readings for which are breaking my brain. I decided to drop Global Strategy at the last minute in order to take Financial Management (which would you take?). Funnily enough, although I hear that Global Strategy is good, and I heard nothing but horror stories from last year’s FM class, Financial Management is really tying together pretty much every course on the MBA. I think the course has been a bit redesigned and I suspect that with a smaller portion of people– the people who want to do this work– the course is more interesting. Core courses are Marketing (excellent) and Operations Management (which I think they’re trying to make less boring), and other courses are Technology/Innovation strategy (more on the innovation– i.e., not a course in dot-com-nomics) and MacroEconomics (life-changing).

Macro is really amazing. It’s addressing and framing a lot of things that we, and this presidential race, is arguing about. Globalization. Tax policy. Deficit spending. Corporate Social Responsibility. And it’s putting frames around things so that an intelligent conversation can be had.

And that is a big part of the reason I came to do the MBA, and this MBA in particular. So, for any of you out there thinking of coming to Oxford, do so, and take Oren’s Macroeconomics class.

Sport

Rowing has been iffy. I ended up in a lower boat than expected which is less of a problem. I’d like to get a bit more exercise, and I’m stronger than most of the people in my boat, but I also have lots of time constraints, so. And now that the river’s down there may be some changes and I may go up a boat or 2.

Business Plan

Our business plan idea is going along swimmingly. We’re quite happy and surprised with how it’s going and it could actually be something we do. It may not turn out to be a huge, billion-dollar idea but it could well pay us a bit each year and that would, certainly, be nice.

Personal

Some out-going. Gareth had his birthday and it was fun, followed by the Hollywood bop at Linacre. I was all West Hollywood.

Me and Uma Thurman

A fun time had by all.

Career

I think I’m moving my career towards design and design strategy. I think that’s going to give me the contacts and language that I need to move onwards and upwards. If not that, then I may go the serial entrepreneur route. Root for me on the 19th to wow the judges (all professional investors) to do what last year’s judges did and just fund me. Or to give me the £5,000 prize money. That’d be OK, too.

That’s all. Sorry so scattershot, but I’ve got rowing in four hours and three cases and two chapters to read in the next 90m…

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OK, that’s not true. I have had some fun. Mostly at the expense of my stress levels and my ability to sleep.

7th week starts tomorrow. Three assignments due next week, and one the following week (analyse eBay and the internet auction industry in microeconomic terms in 3000 words or less, using a semester’s worth of theory that you’ve sort of gotten explained to you in 6 easy lessons).

And it’s the ChristChurch Regatta, which is sort of the crappy novice boat race that us crappy novices get to race in. Our boat is doing well, despite the -3 temperatures and the general darkness and our lack of outings. I just hope we don’t blow it on the first race, even though we are racing a boat one level above us. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Lots of general tiredness/stressedoutness/etc. I’ve been sick and not getting nearly enough sleep (sounds familiar?) and slept in the school’s common room for almost 2 hours. Then stayed up working on something or other dumb until late. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I managed to NOT get in a 500 word entry about myself which might someday be worth £150 from Amazon in exchange for doing this blog– the school had offered us the chance to be an “official” blogger to promote the school, which would have been nice except there’s no time. Though I’m doing this for my friends, mostly, and in case it proves useful to someone who’s considering doing this. If you are, I can only suggest that you get a lot of fun in now, ’cause it’s going to be all work/all play once you’re here.

I’ts actually not that bad. I made a list for a friend earlier this week about some of the great things about Oxford/that I’ve gotten to do in the 7 (is it only 7? really??? I can hardly remember my life outside of this…) weeks since I got here, and it went a little something like this:

• Meeting the President of Ghana/Chair of the AU.
• Meeting Hamid Karzai.
• The intellectual stimulation of drunken late-night conversations.
• Walks across ChristChurch Meadow in the pre-dawn gloom.
• Pints of local beer at the pub(s) which date back to 12something AD.
• Last week’s Diwali celebration with fireworks at the b-school with 40 countries or so worth of MBAs eating Indian food and dancing to Bhangra.
• Pimms and Lemonade at 2 AM when we’re not supposed to have the bar open at the MCR.
• Dining at high table.
• Dining at formal hall.
• Dining at other people’s halls.
• Meeting the guy who started Glastonbury (with like 12 other people in the room).
• Realising that some of this stuff I’m learning is actually sinking in and may be useful.
• Realising that a lot of this stuff that I’m learning is useless from the viewpoint of the real world but may be useful as a model Or not.
• Meeting people from the Clinton Foundation people.
• Having a thought that I might actually get just the job I want, which might mean working with and for a personal hero.
• Being made the Pembroke College Middle Common Room Sommelier.
• Black tie dinners.
• Suit-wearing.
• 4AM Kebabs (this is a debatable point, but McCoy’s, my local kebab van, is actually generally really good. Especially at 4AM when you need the grease.
• The view from the back of Exeter College over Radcliffe Square.
• The mass of really cool people that I get to work with– particularly my EP group.

That’s probably a good enough list, and enough time away from my studies. So much for my “I get one day a weekend” promise to myself. I did lie in until 11 and walked around for an hour today before getting to work… I know, poor poor pitiful me…

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And a little bit of play.

I should really be reading but…

This week was Diwali, a major Hindu/Jain/Sikh holiday– the biggest holiday of the year in fact.. As about 1/4 of our class is from India, we of course had a party. There was lots of tasty curry (everyone was concerned at the spice but I was, of course, fine with it. There was Bhangra and then Indian techno dancing. I’ve been working with Indian folks for years and, as a rule (stereotype?) they’re generally really warm, friendly people. Now I know that they’re serious partyers and even more warm and friendly. I have several offers for food dates and dinners and I’m very much looking forward to it– and to any possible future weddings, etc.

Deepti, Jitin, Aashima, and Inhektab serving up some goodness…

There was also a birthday party and a Crew Date. A crew date takes some quick explanation. And no, there aren’t any photos.

A crew date: You take 8 guys, a coach, and a coxswain, all of whom for some reason get up at 5:30 to row on the river at 6AM way too often, and have them take out to dinner 8 women, a coach, and another cox who do the same thing. Each person gets a bottle of wine and starts drinking. Several drinking games are played– or made up– on the spot until all go out for more dancing and drinking. Pennying. Sconcing. International Drinking Rules. It’s all much more high class (ish) than keg stands and beer bongs, but then it’s done in a restaurant. But a restaurant who lets people bring their own booze, which is bound to attract a certain type of binge-drinking student.

What I really enjoy about these things is getting wickedly liquored up and finding interesting people to talk to who can still hold a conversation. And finding the upstairs part of the club where they were playing mid 90s hip hop. Enough of this cheezy late-90s trance!

And the day afterwards I did 2 outings, as someone was too hungover to turn up in the D boat. At least I got my hangover burned out, and then to the library, and then to Excel, and then…

That’s about all. I really should be reading…

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