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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.

The end of last week finished well. Another presentation for Corp Finance was concluded and it was good that I had done something a little different for this than everyone else; 10 groups had the same case so there was some repetition as you would imagine, but no-one had the same results, thus showing how important assumptions are in calculating WACC (great name!)

Thoughts now move to revision and to the reports that I need to do the week after. My modelling team are ahead of schedule for this so hopefully I will only have two individual assignments to complete by this time; one for Corporate Finance on Ford and one for Marketing on the computer games console industry.

I am also organising an end of term bash for the class. We have found a local stately home and are having “a night at the Oscars” ball. The challenge has been to be as inclusive of the diversity within the group as possible, and I am enjoying it. The awards will be a highlight of the evening and catagory suggestions are flooding in!

It promises to be a great night and a good way to finish the term.  It will also be the last time that near everyone will be all together in the same place.  This terms seems to have flown past much quicker than last and I will be in reflective mood tomorrow when we meet in class, as a whole, for the last time.

A sunny picture to compliment the sunny day today.

To be honest it feels like week 8 hasn’t really finished and here we are, Monday again.

It is an intensely packed week ahead, with presentations for me today, tomorrow, Wednesday (the Dragons Den is back!) and on Friday.  With presentations of course comes preparation and this can take some time.  10 people have their own view on the best way to convey the hard work that we have done during the term; that anxiety being that as the presentations are the things that are graded, if they don’t convey things appropriately then all the team suffer in their grades.  It is also interesting to see peoples attitudes to risk on these exercises; no matter how many times we are advised the way NOT to create “death by powerpoint” presentations, people cling onto the infamous bullet point, like a safety blanket.

I have been able to dust off my movie making skills however and I hope the Dragons will like what I have put together; ultimately the client liked what we have done and the film(s) should convey this in a fun way.

The presentations will be good but stepping out of the comfort zone to produce something awesome will have to wait a little long; the great thing is that I now have the skills in the locker to do it in the future.

What a great weekend.  Valentines was a great excuse to spend some time with lovely my wife.  One of the unseen challenges is balancing family life with the intensity of MBA study.

For many on the course it is not an issue but for others this balance takes its toll on their loved ones.

Simply good food, good company and uninterrupted time together was great.  We even popped in at the cinema to see the much talked about Slumdog and I am glad we did.  A very thought provoking film that confirmed much of what I have seen on India.  A good love story too and apparently based on a true account.  If you get the chance, watch it.

The reputation of Entrepreneurial finance is with good cause.  We got the folders for the module last Friday and the work load is significant.  Although fully intensive, one does sometimes feel we are not being pushed hard enough on the MBA so this module will certainly make up for it; especially having to give submissions through the exam week of this term.  I am really looking forward to it and to meeting the lecturer flying in from UCLA.

In the last week also, the momentum has started to build for everyone on the project and job front.  The PepsiCo presentation, where they brought fridges full of produce!, was very popular with the cohort and I am sure they will get many applications.  Rolls-Royce are in this week and there is a session on renewable energy solutions that I will be attending.

I am looking at projects in growing sectors (if there are any!) in the field of business strategy and development, rather than say with a business operations focus.  Ultimately however, my approach is always to understand what the business issues first.

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

After some serious disruptions, just before exam week, we are now all moved and set-up again.

Since I last wrote, we have sucessfully completed another project, for Operations Management. This was a challenge but I feel we come through good in the end, both for the presentation and the report. Other groups did well too and so congratulations to them.

It is head down now for the push into the exams next week ….

It seems strange to be writing this but term end is rushing up on us already. People generally are starting to think about the end of term exams and getting all those reports and presentations finished, as well as keep up momentum with their PoM project. Seems a bit sad that we won’t be having more time with the these lecturers too as all too soon (next week in fact) it is pretty much our last lecture with them.

Keep those comments coming in regarding life and the things they didn’t tell you about Warwick.

Today we presented our view on the concept of Fear Marketing. This is where companies use a perceived danger or threat to manipulate your behaviour and get you to buy something. It is quite a theoretical subject and we only had time to present some of the fundamentals of the teams’ research. Even then I think it might have been a little heavy going in what was quite a short presentation. Saying that, from the really positive feedback we got, I think the message got across. Certainly there was some lengthy and constructive discussions before we presented as to the best way to do it and I hope (for the cohorts sake at least!) we got it right. The presentation was punctuated with some funny Ad’s so if nothing else we lightened the mood. In terms of learning it has been a really interesting project, from both a direct subject matter point of view and also a group dynamics point of view; both positive it has to be said … I will never look at a screaming kid in a screaming kid in a super market and will definitely think twice before asking directions!

Organizational Behaviour (everyone’s favourite subject) was today on leadership. It presented a really interesting model on the subject and one I could definitely relate to from my former management experience – certainly I felt I got way more out of the session, having had to struggle and solve these issues in a real situation; it made the whole context way more relevant.

Only one more week of lectures for this term and then we are into the revision for the final exams. Time is flying by.

Great comment this week from one of our lecturers “To understand the world you need theory, but not all theory is useful.” Simple, to the point, easy to understand and accurate.

With comments like that, coupled with a truly staggering ability to remember everyones name, where we are from, what we have studied and where we have worked, it is clear why Economics is right up there as a class favourite. Incidentally my highest mid-term result too! My project is on Landrover so it will be interesting to chart how current events are unfolding for them, in both a macro and micro sense and another chance to do something I’ve never done before.

The SSLC meeting was an interesting event; quite confrontational in someways and I didn’t always feel like a valued customer. Saying that, we covered a fair amount of points in the time, got some good feedback to pass on to the cohort and hopefully started the ball rolling on a few issues – perhaps more to the benefit of future classes but that is fine.

Last night Mr Scruff was in town! Yes a night out with da yooof and one of my favourite Brighton DJ’s. It was great to break the routine and have a cracking night out. A little worse for wear this morning but hey, I am a student and this is what we are meant to do right? Anyhow, I recommend you go see him if you get the chance – new weblink on the right.

If you have a comment, don’t be shy – share your thoughts!

The much anticipated Warwick Business School “Dragons Den” event was held today. I supported the morning presentations, our team being on 4th just before lunch.

We have a very challenging brief; something that on the surface looks simple but in fact requires a fundamental operational change. I felt my team has, so far, been able to contain the scope to something that is manageable within the time we have and consequently was positive going in. The Dragons happened to be IT experts in this field, so we were expecting a good grilling on our approach, especially as non of us have serious experience implementing a change management project of this nature.

It came as a pleasant surprise therefore that they pretty much agreed with our (much debated!) approach and really spent the time giving us very positive and constructive feedback and advice. Having watched the previous presentations, it looks like everyone managed to “pull-it-out-of-the-bag” so to speak when the pressure of having to present came up. Overall the hardest questions I felt in fact came from the cohort who were right in their asking stuff that, admittedly was going round in my head too, but I decided to give them a break – especially considering the pre-presentation nerves that had been around. Interesting stuff really.

Tomorrow, a “free lunch” and a chance to put on my Student Liaison Rep hat and have a discussion on some of the issues bugging the cohort at the moment (one or two certain module leaders, soft skills course, lack of microwave and that kind of thing …) I am interested to see how seriously we are taken – if you are thinking about coming to Warwick maybe you’ll be interested too.