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Its a big news week in the world of Formula 1 motor sport.

First BMW have declared their hand and are folding; 2009 will be their last season.

Felipe Massa is now happily on the road to recovery and the media is reporting that the doctors are very happy with progress.  He suffered a freak accident when a spring fell off a fellow car and hit his helmet.  Only a week after the sad loss of Henry Surtees to a similar freaky style accident, in his case a bouncing rear wheel from a competitor who had just crashed off, motor sports has really had another wake up call; you might say it is similar in stature to the Imola weekend in 1994 where Senna was killed.

Ok that is the doom and gloom.

The big news for sports fans is that, as a consequence of Massa’s situation, Michael Schumacher (aka the Stig!) will be racing for Ferrari in his place at Valencia in Spain in 24 days time.  This will be a fascinating situation.  Assuming it is not a let down because he is not fit, hasn’t driven this car, hasn’t driven an F1 car for well over a year and he hasn’t driven the track, it promises to be a fascinating weekend.  How will he work with Kimi? How will he approach the weekend? and the big question for me, How will he drive along side Hamilton!?

Hamilton joined F1 the year after Shumi retired. They have never been in a race together.  With it looking like Alonso will not be at Valencia because Renault didn’t quite get his wheel on properly at the last race, there should now be plenty of interest in the race for the Spanish organisers!

Lets hope Shumi is fit enough, qualifies in the top 10 and has a titanic battle with Hamilton – even if it is not for the lead!

I can’t wait!

The dissertation continues a pace. I am finding it an excellent experience and a tough slog at the same time.

The topic of my dissertation is looking at determining business feasibility (very interesting) combined with Motor Sport (extremely interesting!)  Through the company I am working with, I have been conducting primary research (i.e. new, not from a book research) with some successful and influential people in the Sport.

For example so far, a multiple Indycar and Indy 500 winner, a former F1 test driver and now successful team owner and an F1 team principal. Furthermore, I have interviewed a former England Rugby star and have other exciting meetings in the diary for the next few weeks.  What a different experience!

It is great to be involved and meeting these people, who have freely given their time (nearly 3 hours in one case) to help me with researching my project.  Having a chance to apply the MBA / business perspective is awesome.

The hard slog is when I am back at the desk, alone and needing to crunch through the information and pull together the report.  Like many, I am a people person so miss the energy of the class.

Top Gun made an appearance in discussions today around my dissertation!  All those hours spent watching the film were not in vain.  How great!

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”

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.

Almost as soon as it begun it is over. The Ent Finance module was one of the best courses that WBS has put on; it throughly deserved its standing ovation at the end.  The professor was visably moved at the recieption and feedback recieved and you could tell the sense of achievement that he felt having moved us all on so far in such a short time.  The course alumni event in London was equally good and a chance to meet with UCLA and WBS former graduates.  In Nick Bates language, this production was simple awesome.

The long awaited entrepreneurial finance course begins tomorrow.  We have our seating plan and have had a good go at all the pre-reading and case reviews.  The work was hard to fit in around the other commitments but I enjoyed it.

Updates to follow on whether the course is as good as I have been told.

Hope everyone had a great break over Easter.  Summer is on the way and chilli progress is promising …

Posts have been thin on the ground since the Ball as I took a little time out and unplugged.  Essays for Corporate finance and for Marketing were submitted last weekend, along with our final syndicate group work for Modelling.  Overall they went well even if the guidelines for them were a little hazy.

Entrepreneurial Finance becons now.  I am very intrigued by this module.  It is like no other on the course and has the reputation of being one of the best experiences yet.  The professor is flying in from UCLA and, judging by the pre-work and rumors of the week long format, promises to be something quite tough, quite challenging but extremely rewarding.

Oxford won the boat race convincingly on Sunday. There was a program on before discussing their mental preparation and I think that had a big influence; were Cambridge beaten before they even got in the boat?

The story of last weekend though, for racing and sports fans, was of course the fantastic story of Brawn GP.  The team that only a few weeks ago was facing closure with no backing, turns up in Australia, locks out the front row on the grid.  Then in the race, Jenson Button drove well to secure a long over due victory and Ruben’s (the man most thought had driven his last GP in Brazil 2008) sees good fortune shine and picked up second (after some adventures in the race.) 

What went less well reported was that the actual racing was really exciting.  Yes, even F1 !  The front wing on the new cars certainly make them look odd but it the aero changes have certainly made the difference – car have not run that close to each other for many years.

A great rags to riches story.  Richard Branson also timed his entry into F1 sponsorship perfectly – he is a lucky guy!  As is Lewis Hamilton – 3rd in the first race when the car looks a handful and when he started dead last.  Like Alonso and Schumacher before him, he never gives up and it pays off.  The mental toughness, like in the Oxford boat cannot be underestimated in sports success.  Fascinating. An exciting season is ahead…

The exams are all done.  It is possible that they are the last exams I will ever do.  An exam is a strange environment and a total intensive memory test.  In the past I have never performed at my best in them but this last set were the  best I have ever done. Results aside, I was very happy with my “exam performance” and did my best.

I took a different approach this time to before and although my nerves (and adrenaline!) were still high as I turned over the papers, I was able to recall much better and gave myself time to compose what I was going to say.

Exams are stressful but I kind of enjoyed it!  Also, I learnt a lot studying for them that will be very useful for me in future – the ultimate aim anyway.

The results will be out in a few months (after the marking and external marking and appeals and other admin …)

Yeserday was a great party.  Some of the guys put on a bash at their flat, with every colour alcoholic jelly, shotters and beers.  The weather was warm and sunny and it felt great letting off steam.

Tonight is the “Night at the Oscars” Ball and so final preparations are underway.  It will be a good night and everyone is making a big effort on the outfits.  Who has won the Oscars themselves is a closely guarded secret, with all to be revealed on stage later …