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It is a great time.  The weather is hot and sunny.  ALL the modules assignments are now completed.

As I reflect on the past few months, working so intensely and so hard with such good people, it has changed my perspective on the world forever.

To be able to critically consider things in a way never before thought of is a privilege and one I am lucky to have been able to experience.

So the dissertation now beacons.  A monster project but one I have high motivation for; I hope it remains so high through the next 10 weeks!

Follow this link, thanks to my fellow students.  Check out the resources section too if you need more help.

Independant article on why an MBA.

The scene is now set for the summer months ahead.  The days of sitting in the lecture theatre are now a pleasant memory.  As I near the end of my last assignment, International Business on joint ventures in emerging markets, it is an exciting time ahead again.  Time to put all this theory into action!

My dissertation will be on developing and evaluating the reasonable prospects for a new venture.  The subject: Motorsports.

It was a brave step to take this route as I had a confirmed offer from a successful multinational company in the technology sector.  However, opportunities only come along so often and I decided to take this one.  More details will appear through the summer, as I can tell you about them.

The world of motorsports is in some turmoil. If you have missed it in the news, it is not because of the recession but because of political things.  The fighting is a shame because the F1 season is shaping up to be a classic.  Jenson Button is out in the lead but his rivals have caught up in terms of machinery.  Looks like we will have another good fight until the end; although not to the last corner of the last lap, please Jenson!

Wimbledon also started today.  Murray is through, having dropped one set. He has a very solid game and is more emotionally stable than Henman.  This doesn’t make it so on the edge of your seat, but great to see the Brit’s doing well in sports.

The chilli are looking good and we had our first home grown strawberry today!

“The Newfoundland Fisherman”

A boat was docked in a tiny Newfoundland fishing village. A tourist from Toronto complimented the Newfie fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

‘Not very long,’ answered the Newfie.

‘But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?’ asked the Torontonian.

The Newfie explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The Torontonian asked, **’But what do you do with the rest of your time?’

‘I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take an afternoon nap with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs… I have a full life.’

The Torontonian interrupted, ‘I have an MBA from Queen’s University and I can help you!  You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.’

‘And after that?’ asked the Newfie.

‘With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to St John’s, Halifax, or even Toronto!  From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.’

‘How long would that take?’ asked the Newfie.

‘Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,’ replied the Torontonian.

‘And after that?’

‘Afterwards? Well my Friend, That’s when it gets really interesting’,answered the Torontonian, laughing ‘When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!’

‘Millions? Really? And after that?’ said the Newfie.

‘After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take an afternoon nap with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.’

And the moral is:

Know where you’re going in life… you may already be there”

So the Warwick MBA lectures, for me, have come to a close.  It seems not 5 minutes ago that I was starting my first week and intrepidly getting to know the people I now call friends.

Of course there is nothing to be down about.  As someone pointed out to me, this is just another beginning.  We now all have this amazing global network to visit on!

The sun is out and it is now time to adjust to a summer of study.  Having completed many modules in quick succession, it now comes time to write them up.  After that, the dissertation project will begin – something I hope to discuss more about on here, once it is finalised and approved by the University.

If you are reading this in the UK, then I hope you are enjoying the sunshine – long may it continue.

Last night was the last Varisty “£1-a-pint” night for a majority of the class.  The strong social side of the course is not something often written about on these pages.

Perhaps in the past I have been conditioned to seperate “work and play” and continued to do so.  The tools, models and theory are great but the network of new friends, from so many backgrounds, cultures and countries, is, in the words of a friend from India “the hidden pot of gold, at the end of the rainbow.”  The shared experience of this journey will, I hope, remain a strong bond between us all forever and wherever we all end up.  Awesome!

All most as soon as it has begun, the MBA is coming to a close.  This week I start my last taught module.

The subject is International Business and in many ways I couldn’t think of a more fitting way to finish – with such diversity in the group, this course has been truly international. 

The course readings are significant.  In fact there are so many that the binder is already full – and that is before any handouts for the week.

The highlight I hope will be the FINS exercise at the end of the week, where each team represents different groups in a simulated negotiation.  There are a mix of western multinationals, governments of emerging countries and local companies in the emerging countries.  Negotiations are expected to centre around trade incentives, tax breaks, joint ventures, knowledge transfer, government stability (or likely instability!), cost optimisation and managing the media and press to each groups advantage!  Should be a good way to finish.

The exam and module results have been released today.  It is always a nervy time when you open the letter to read the results; it was great to be with some fellow students as we all opened them together.

This term I did better than last term!

I am really pleased. Firstly I passed everything, which is not to be underestimated as it was a very busy period at the end of last term.  Made slightly more busy for me as I was also involved in organising the Ball.

I managed to get distinctions in 3 (nearly 5!) out of 5 subjects; Corporate Finance, Modelling & Analysis for Management and Practise of Management – that was for the charity work we did with Age Concern.  The other two subjects were Marketing Strategy and Strategic Advantage.   My course work for these two was enough but, even with my best ever exam essay performances (!!), the exams were still what let me down from completing the full sweap.

Life on the MBA contines at a different pace these days.  I have just completed the module on Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation and it was excellent – watch out you Entreprenueurs out their as I need a victim sorry, candidate, to interview for the assignment.  The course had a good number of guest speakers who all brought their unique view of Entrepreneurship; academic, business owner and venture capitalist investor.  

Next week is the last taught week on the MBA for me and for many.  The course is International Business and I have heard it is excellent.  It is going to be another sad time I fear for life in lecture room A0.01 will come to an end.  It is the last module for a few people too, so we are organising a BBQ for the class for when it finishs, as a final farewell, until Graduation.  What a fantastic roller coaster it has been.

-The big news this week is that the sun is shining and my lovely wife is expecting a baby!

For those that are interested to know how the Business Decision analysis course went, well it was a game of two halves; the first half excellent, the second half not very well recieved by the majority.  Some useful software presented which should be very useful for my dissertation and beyond I hope.

This week however belongs to the expectation of the new arrival; I have been overwhelmed by peoples kind words.

UPDATE:

I have incorporated many of the concepts, tools and techniques into my consultancy work.

This is having a massively positive difference to my customers as we are able to make more objective decisions, faster and incorporating more subjective criteria (such as customer convenience factors or variability of demand).

Interested? Then please visit my consulting website, contact me and we can go from there.

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This week sees the beginning of the Business Decision making and Efficiency analysis module.

I am really not sure what to expect for the up coming week although the module looks thoroughly prepared with interesting guest speakers in the evenings and lots of reading in the packs.  It is interesting to know how people make decisions and again surprising to find a whole specialism dedicated to the research of it.

Decisions and their justification, happen all the time so it will be interesting to see the approaches and theories presented as well as some, hopefully practical, tools.