samirabid.com

It was with some shock that I went to my Mandarin class last night to find the rest of the class waving exam results.  They were not meant to be out until today, yet, here they all were, with papers in their hands, and mostly looking happy – although not all it has to be said.

With no chance to get my paper results before the Chinese class began, I was imagining spending the two hours of facial gymnastics (of which Chinese is without equal) completely distracted.  As it happened one of the lads was online.  Aha!  I could check via my.wbs.com ….

The obivious drawback of that being everyone in the room was now ribbing be and trying to look over my shoulder at the computer screen.  It was a painful process.

Very happily, I have solidly passed them all.  In Economics I even got a distinction, including my review of Land Rover so that has made me feel pretty good.

I can now look forward to the next set of exams (in about 6 weeks time) but more importantly, properly enjoy my birthday this weekend.

“An Ox year is a year of duty, discipline and hard-work. Like an Ox ploughing a field we must toil during an Ox year with success coming from diligent labour and hard work.”

I will have to save my wild new concepts an ideas for the year of the Tiger – that is next year!

“the best view of ones soul is from beyond the edge looking back” – a nice motto from a good friend.

“without risk there is no profit”

This is an interesting argument and one that does stack-up.  The other interesting perspective is how Risk is typically always seen as a negative, yet profit is clearly positive.  The Strategic Advantage class today was on Risk and Risk Management.  This is something I am very familiar with from Vehicle Dynamics where you are often testing and developing vehicles, at their absolute limits, and where they are, more often than not, far from highly finished examples of automotive creation – some of the beasts created when I worked at Aston Martin and at Jaguar were just that!  I have always found myself to be comfortable with higher levels of risk (racing, snowboarding etc) so it was good to hear the positive side of risk too for a change.

“people don’t resist change, they resist being changed”

Change Management had another great lecture on Monday.  I was in discussion with some of my colleagues and we just can’t understand why it is not a core module (unlike the modelling module where the general consensus is that it should definitely be an elective!)  Everything in business life is changing all the time, even if this week we were being asked to consider managing stability i.e. to not always assume that change is necessary.  Companies are made up of people, of individuals and just assuming that the implementation of a change is trivial, however important the specific change is from your perspective, is to be grossly underestimating the task at hand.  Companies are set up to operate efficiently within known parameters and so changing the status quo is often a challenge, especially if influential people are comfortable with things as they are (influential people does not just mean someone more senior either!)

Perhaps implementing change will be easier in this period of recession, as there is a higher fear of losing jobs, but even then people won’t be pushed around.  Having the right approach will be key, especially in companies where there is already “change fatigue.”  It is a slight shame therefore that only 12 of the 80 students are sitting change management this term; I am glad I am one however.

Yesterday we had a number of fascinating lectures from people involved in the public sector. If I am honest, this is not somewhere I have ever considered before but now have a much better appreciation of the sector and a more positive view. There are some people earning some serious money, in a flexible working environment, not limited by location and challenged with making a positive difference to the immediate world and environment around them. Very interesting actually and I have a much greater understanding than before. It is probably still not for me but now I know some more people to contact should I need to know more. After all the public sector is recruiting.

This is an article that might be good to read for those worried about the value of the MBA and making that investment – especially in a recession.

Very funny!

It feels like meetings meetings meetings this week so far.  I honestly haven’t stopped from when I got in at 7.30am (yeah still not adjusted to “student” timetabling!) on Monday.  Marketing on Monday involved a highly intensive final group project simulation to review, critique and recommend a new marketing strategy to the board, Management of Change involved an OD simulation in vertical and horizontal teams using practising techniques for change management that overran by an hour, followed immediately by a very interesting lecture by the head of strategy research at BT, talking about Enterprise 2.0.

Today my team presented on Enron in our Strategy lecture – no mean feat as it could get immensely detailed, followed by the Dean presenting on the upcoming rankings, a Student Liaison committee meeting (yes your views do get an airing – actions to follow), and then Modelling and PoM!

In all that melee of activity however, I was kindly recommended to watch this lecture on Managing Innovation.  A great speaker, Rebecca is clearly on top of her subject and passionate about the future.

Truly inspiring and definitely strikes a cord with me; so a recommended watch!

Sadly it seems that cohurt are not quite as happy about the quality of the lecturing being received this term as last.  Maybe it is just different but a significant disparity appears to exist between modules, according to the general feeling I am getting over coffee and in syndicate meetings.  It is still early in the term so there is time for things to improve.

The Mclaren F1 was and remains the benchmark for high performance road cars. Designed by Gordon Murray and built in Woking using a small highly trained team of automotive professionals working under the steely gaze of Ron Dennis, it subscribes to the Colin Chapman school of light weight, massive power and razor sharp handling. Not for the faint -hearted, Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson is famously scathing about the F1′s twitchiness, but that might just be sour grapes. His ex – colleague and fellow presenter Tiff Neeedel is a a much bigger fan of the F1, calling it ‘ a triumph of engineering skill that stands up in 2008 as much as it did it 1994.’

For those struggling with the economic downturn here is a job opportunity of a life time (must like sea food)

Today the weather is quite foggy and cold.  Together with this and one of the lads on the course bringing in his DaKine bag makes me pine somewhat for the snow and mountains.  I only discovered mountain life properly a few years ago and have since been fortunate to have spent many weeks in their company.  No chance of heading out this year but that is fine as the MBA continues to surprise and delight (Operations will be proud!)

Support your local blog!

Entiatech have a few new bloggers; people with something to say and a desire to just introduce themselves (aka old skool web!) so support them and get to know them in a different context.

It is the Autosport Racing car show on at the moment in Birmingham.  Sadly funds and timing preclude me from going this year, the first time in ages, but following it on the web it was good to read another strong interview by Ron Dennis (McLaren CEO).  As he nears the end of his career it is fascinating to see how he chooses to spend the rest of his life and nice to hear he will be pursuing a path to genuinely help others.  Similar in many ways (but of course different in scale!) to Bill Gates.  The scientific approach to developing F1 is a good one, although there are better market sensing techniques that “market research surveys” – sometimes gut feel has its place too.

Read what he had to say here