And I'm Done!

And I'm done with my MBA. Actually, I was done on Friday but I took it easy over the weekend :)

This now concludes 20 months of hard work, late nights, early mornings, essays, individual assignments, syndicate assignments, case studies, class discussions, research, and exams. During this period I met a lot of great people who taught me a lot of different things. I also formally learnt a heck of a lot about many different subjects. Specifically, I took these courses during my four study terms:

1. World of Management


2. Data & Decisions


3. Managing Processes


4. Accounting for Managers


5. Financial Management


6. Corporate Finance


7. Managerial Economics


8. Economics and Public Policy


9. Business Strategy


10. Corporate Strategy


11. Implementation of Strategy


12. Managing People for High Performance *


13. Leadership & Change


14. Negotiations *


15. Marketing


16. Brand Management


17. Consumer Behaviour


18. E-Commerce *


19. Information Strategy


20. Business & Sustainable Development (half subject)


21. Strategic Management of Intellectual Property (half subject)

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Actually, it really was.

And now it winds to a close. All that's left is my graduation on the 17th and then I can officially say that, yes, I am an MBA from Melbourne Business School, thank you very much :)

Now to find a job so I can start my next adventure...

Speaking of jobs, by the way, I received the nicest job application rejection phone call today. It was from the job I mentioned a few weeks earlier (the one I was most excited about) and, though I'm terribly disappointed that I didn't get it, I understand that the company needed to choose the best person for the role who, in this case, was unfortunately not me. Still, out of the 200 applications they received I was one of the four people they interviewed and that's a really good feeling. Oh well. Next time, then.

- - - - - - - - - -

* I received commendations from the Dean for my participation and academic achievement in these subjects. Woo hoo! :)

All Done with MBA Classes!

Today I attended my last MBA class and participated in my last syndicate meeting. I now have two assignments (one individual and one syndicate-based) and two exams to do before I'm completely done with the MBA.

11:15am on Friday, 2 May, 2008...here I come!

Meanwhile, I went and signed up for my graduation regalia. Since The University of Melbourne follows the Oxford style of gowns and hoods for its formal academic dress, I get to wear a black gown (the Melbourne Business School MBA's colours are a sky blue stripe with a gold band), a hood, and a black trencher cap (with black tassel).

We have two other functions before that, though -- the end-of-term party and the valedictory dinner -- both of which should be lots of fun. I'm getting all excited about this now :)

MBA, Job Application & Work Update

Yesterday was a tough day:

• My Brand Management final exam (on Wal-Mart) was due.
• My Corporate Strategy syndicate had to make a presentation (on Bertelsmann).
• I had tonnes of reading to do for Corporate Strategy (a case on the Foster Group) and Business and Sustainable Development (on social sustainability and the Bottom-of-Pyramid concept).

The next couple of weeks (yes, I have just two weeks to go!) are going to be tough too. I have:

• One case analysis (for Corporate Strategy) and one critical analysis (for BSD) to write and hand in.
• Two big assignments (for BSD and Strategic Management of Intellectual Property) to write up and hand in.
• One big syndicate assignment (for Corporate Strategy) to work on, write up, and hand in.
• Two exams to prepare for and then sit (for SMIP and BSD).

On the job front:

• I've applied to three jobs -- two in internal communications (with an intranet focus) and one in external communications (with a social media focus).
• I've received one rejection -- one of the internal communications ones -- and hope to hear from the other two either this week or next week.
• I have two more jobs to apply to -- both in online strategy (one of which is really exciting) -- and I should get those done by tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, my work at MBS is keeping me busy too:

• I have to finish writing a major section of the training materials (for the new portal we're deploying across the school) by this evening. That needs to get reviewed and approved by Friday.
• I'll probably start conducting the actual trainings (mostly one-to-one since I'm pretty much done with the group trainings) for that next week.
• I've already sat with one of the departments and worked through their online communications strategy. On Friday I need to sit with them and actually start implementing that on the portal.

Yes, life is busy and exciting...and quite a lot of fun, actually (which, really, is the important part).

Mark Ritson Talks Luxury Brands

Mark Ritson, who taught us Brand Management at the Melbourne Business School this term, is featured in the latest University of Melbourne Up Close Podcast in which he talks about marketing luxury brands. He touches on what we learnt about luxury brands in the BM course which is really fascinating (well, at least to me) so make sure you take a listen.

Also, I don't think I wrote about this back then but a few months ago Amanda Sinclair, another one of our MBS professors, was featured in an Up Close Podcast as well. She talks about mindful leadership, which is something we learnt about in her Leadership & Change course last term and now, hopefully, practice! That's also a really good podcast so check that out as well.

I like this whole podcast business. Of the non-IT elective I've taken at MBS, Leadership, Brand Management, and Negotiations were my three favourite (though Consumer Behaviour comes very close) and now, instead of just waxing lyrical about them to everyone I meet, I can give people a slight taste of them as well.

7 Weeks to Go: Graduation and 2 More Commendations

It's hard to believe but I have only seven weeks -- six study weeks and one exam week -- to go before I'm done with my MBA!

I started this term with five courses and two of those -- Brand Management with Mark Ritson and Consumer Behaviour with Brian Gibbs -- I'm done with. Well, except for the Brand Management take-home final exam which I hope to work on this weekend.

The remaining three -- Corporate Strategy with Geoff Lewis, Strategic Management of Intellectual Property with Michael Vitale & Duncan Bucknell, and Business and Sustainable Development with Jeremy Baskin -- start next week.

Graduation

Meanwhile, today I received my Graduation Intention form (the paperwork you need to fill out if you want to graduate) and invitations to the Melbourne Business School (MBS) post-graduation lunch and the MBS Valedictory Dinner. Wow...this MBA-ending thing is getting real!

My official graduation ceremony is on 17 May, by the way.

Commendations!

To my surprise, I also received two commendations from the Dean for a couple of courses that I took last term. I got a commendation for "all round excellence, both in terms of academic achievement and classroom participation" for E-Commerce with Pat Auger and "outstanding academic performance" for Negotiations with John Onto. I'd received H1's in both those courses but I wasn't expecting this. Needless to say, I am feeling both honoured and, well, a little chuffed :)  Pat and John: Thanks!

By the way, last year I received a commendation for class participation in the Managing People for High Performance course with Carol Gill.

Yes...I'm feeling happy today :)

Should You Get an MBA?

CIO published three interesting articles today:

1. Should You Get an MBA? by Meridith Levinson
2. 10 Reasons Why You Should Get an MBA by Thomas MacKay
3. Six Reasons Not to Get an MBA by James Clark

As you can probably guess, the articles discuss the reasons why technology people -- specifically those who eventually want to be CIOs -- should or shouldn't get an MBA. Levinson writes in her introductory article:

With all the weight companies are placing on needing business-savvy IT leaders, IT professionals who don't already have the prestigious degree are considering obtaining it. [...]

[IT professionals worry] that not having an MBA will eliminate them from job opportunities and severely limit their prospects for career growth. [...] But many IT professionals remain resistant because earning the degree requires so much time and money. [...]

To help you figure out what's best for you, CIO.com invited two IT professionals to weigh in on the MBA debate — one on each side.

Since I am four months away from completing my MBA, you can also guess that I would tend to agree with MacKay. In fact, some of the posts I've written here have demonstrated what he talks about in his article:

An MBA teaches you to look at problems and opportunities holistically. It also provides analytical frameworks, such as risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses and strategic plans, that you can apply to any problem or opportunity you encounter, whether in or beyond IT. The business mindset that an MBA gives you becomes habit because you use those frameworks repeatedly in a rigorous academic environment, and you see how they can be applied in a variety of situations from one course to another.

Clark also makes some valid points. These include problems with the time, money, and effort required to complete the degree. He also talks about the difference between learning in an academic setting versus learning hands-on. "I get more out of doing than studying", he says. While that is true to an extent, I think sometimes the opposite is also correct. As I wrote in  my MBA application essays: "doing an MBA is [the smarter option for me right now] since I will be more focused, more determined, and will have prioritised my life around learning instead of earning." Of course, a prerequisite for thinking that was is to not be concerned about "earning" for the duration of your MBA.

In my opinion, the path you choose will depend on your natural business acumen, where you are in your career at that time, which company you work for, and what you preferred method of learning is. For example, you might have good natural managerial abilities, be working under a great leader or mentor, be working at a company that helps develop its employees' abilities, and be someone who learns quickly in a hands-on environment. In that case, you are not likely to need an MBA.

If your situation is different -- in some cases, even slightly -- the MBA might be exactly what you need. It's all on a case-by-case basis, I think. Recruiters know that as well, which is why not having an MBA doesn't eliminate you from the running for most managerial positions. On the other hand, having an MBA does tell your potential employer a bit about the breadth and depth of knowledge that you possess -- and that can't be a bad thing.

How the MBA has Changed My Life

It's funny when you catch yourself unconsciously and automatically applying the stuff you've learnt in the MBA. That happened to me a couple of days ago when I dreamt that, instead of going for a Internet- or technology-based career, I'd gone ahead and bought myself a second-hand bookshop in Carlton. (Dreams and conveniently devoid of explanations, aren't they?)

The dream itself was short and my most vivid image from it was walking in through the bookshop's front door into a place that looked like a cosy, old-style study/library/reading room and thinking, "Wow, I own this now!" I'm pretty sure that, in response, my conscious brain commented, "And how the heck did that happen?"

Soon after my dream, I stirred and, in that half-awake, half-asleep state, I realized that I had automatically started doing a full-fledged analysis of the business. I remember wondering about:

• Revenue streams -- which new ones I was going to add
• Profit margins -- trying to figure out which revenue stream would bring the business the most profit
• Inventory and inventory management -- which types of books were the most profitable, what their turnover was, whether I should move into selected first-hand books as well, etc.
• Plans for expansion -- in the first phase I was going to add wireless Internet and a small, self-service kitchenette/cafe in the corner
• Marketing plans -- customer surveys, flyers, word of mouth, sponsored events, starting a reading club, partnerships, etc.
• Industry analysis -- figure out which industry I was in (second-hand books), whether I wanted to be in any other industry or industries (coffee shop, retail bookstore, Internet cafe, community venue, etc.), who my competitors were and what were they doing, etc.

And so on. I've written all this down not to show off all that you learn in the MBA degree, but because I'd actually gone ahead -- quite automatically -- and mentally prepared this analysis and was, in my dream, getting ready to carry it out!

Fortunately, the realization that I'd done all this startled me awake more fully, at which point I rolled my eyes (thinking: "great -- now I'm doing this in my sleep!"), turned over, and went back to sleep.

I wonder, though, whether this was a divine hint telling me to ditch all my technology-related dreams and get into the nitty-gritty of running a bookshop (something I'd love to do, by the way). Whether it was or not, at the very least I got a blog entry out of it.

Taking Notes

[Note: Cross-posted from my personal blog]

I take a lot of notes. And I mean a lot of notes. I take notes for things like:

• Planning out a report, paper, or essay
• Brainstorming a website, business strategy problem, or a computer program/algorithm
• Taking notes during a class lecture or conference
• Even making a shopping list or a list of things to do

I like to think I take good notes and, since I'm a bit of a perfectionist (some would say I'm obsessive), over the years I have actively refined my note-taking technique. Here's how I take notes these days.

Note-Taking Tools

I start by making sure that I have good note-taking tools. These days I take notes with a mechanical pencil with 0.5 or 0.7mm 2B lead (i.e. softer but darker than the typical HB or #2 pencil; see Wikipedia entry on the pencil for details on gradation) on white, good quality, narrow-lined file paper. I also use a good quality eraser.

I use a pencil and eraser because I like clear and neat notes and diagrams (i.e. dark lines and no cross-outs). I use file paper because that gives me more flexibility in terms of storing, organizing, moving, and re-writing notes within subject-indexed, tab-separated file folders ('binders' for Americans).

May I geek out a bit? These days I'm using a Faber Castel Grip Matic pencil, the 2B lead that came with it, and a Staedtler Rasoplast eraser. The pencil's pretty old now so I need to buy a new one. I generally prefer Staedtler over Faber Castel -- I've been using the former's pens, pencils, lead, and erasers for about 16 years now -- but I haven't been able to find the right products in Australia so far. I guess I need to look harder. Oh, and Pilot and Uni products are good too; particularly the Uni SA-S fine ballpoint pen which I have been using exclusively for about 3 years now.

Note Organization

I organize my notes rather thoroughly: listing on each page the date, subject, page number, and, if in a meeting, the names of the participants in that meeting. To organize the notes themselves I use a series of headings and nested bullet points. Here's an example:

More recently I've started to take notes on my laptop. For that I use Microsoft Word with 12pt Georgia font and the same sets of headings and series of nested bulleted lists as I do on paper (except that those are now defined as MS Word Styles so they look a little different). This is what my electronic notes look like:

The Actual Notes

Then come the actual notes themselves. Since I write a lot, I've had to develop my own, mostly intuitive, shorthand to write things down quickly. For example: "this func. says nothing abt. price lvl.; dep. only on tech, labour & capital." Since I type quickly, I write full-ish sentences when typing notes, though. They may not be entirely grammatically correct, but I don't usually abbreviate words.

In the actual note-taking I try to write down as much as I can while still listening to the lecture/discussion, not missing anything going on (even at a deeper level), and participating in the discussion as well. It's not easy but I've been doing it for years so I'm used to it by now. Taking notes this way gives me a pretty accurate recording of what went on during the class (since that's what I developed my note-taking for) and, even if something isn't quite clear to me at that time, I can usually follow the logic and work it out later.

At the end of every note-taking session (e.g. at the end of every class) I try to review the notes to make sure I haven't missed anything. Then, usually while preparing for an assignment or just before an exam, I do one of two things. I either extract what is important from my notes (and in parallel from lecture slides and assigned readings) by re-writing them on a new sheet of paper or on my laptop. That is, I take notes of my notes. If not that, I make an index in which I identify what I've written and on which page that topic is located. The former helps me prepare for closed book exams and assignments. The latter helps me get ready for open book exams and meetings during which I might need to refer to my notes.

I don't follow any specific note-taking system like the Cornell system that the good folk at Student Tablet PC use [1], though that sounds like a really good methodology. Nor is my system as elaborate as Tim Ferriss' (via Kevin C. Tofel). I am interested in getting into mind maps like James Kendrick, but my note-taking style has always worked well for me so I haven't yet found a reason to change.

I do, however, use a mind map-type construction for breaking down complex problems. But, since I'm a stickler for writing things neatly, I use lists instead of diagrams. For example:

And that's about it. Oh, one last thing: storage. Since I have craploads on notes, I generally have a crapload of file folders to store all my notes in as well. And since I've been using, for the most part, the same system for about ten years now, my old notes still come in handy every now and then. The only problem is: I can't take all my old notes with me.

All of that,
I gue
ss, goes some way to demonstrate why the obsessive note-taker in me wants so desperately to get a tablet PC. I mean, seriously, how could I not want to get the ultimate note-taking tool? But, since I can't afford one now, I am so looking forward to getting one later and then scanning all my MBA notes into it so that they're ready for use any where, any time. In fact, I'm getting all excited just thinking about it now! Yes. I am a geek. I wrote a whole blog post on note-taking (with pictures and all), didn't I? :)

[1] The Student Tablet PC website has a whole category on note-taking. 

Word of Mouth on the Web

It's funny how sometimes you just don't connect things. I read about Word of Mouth on the Web (WOMOW) some months ago on Rave About It's Local/Focal blog. It was only today, however, that I discovered that WOMOW was founded and is run by one of my classmates at MBS, Fiona Adler.

WOMOW is "a platform for word-of-mouth information so that recommendations can be stored and accessed to help people find the best local businesses." That is, it's a place where you can find & rate local businesses and give & receive advice from members about local businesses.

I've discovered this service at a particularly good point in my life because my study term is just about finish (one and a half weeks to go!) after which my wife and I will have about three weeks of vacation (she's also on her summer break). We were going to spend this time exploring Melbourne and its surrounds -- have monthly tram card, will travel! -- and WOMOW is the perfect resource for doing that effectively.

For example, we haven't explored Fitzroy as much as we would have liked to. WOMOW will help us plan our explorations better by giving us a list of places that we shouldn't miss and a list of places that we can do without. And if we visit a place that isn't already listed there, well then we'll just create a new listing for it and everyone will be better off.

Ah, I like this whole Web 2.0 stuff (much as I hate the term "Web 2.0" itself).

P.S. How do you pronounce WOMOW, I wonder. Is it Woe-Mao, Woe-Moe, Whommo, or something else entirely? :)  I guess I'll have to ask.

My MBA Journey So Far

I started writing about my "MBA journey" in a section called Ameel's MBA Journal on my website. Relevant from that are the following:

• My reason for doing an MBA as explained through my application essays
• A quick overview of how the MBS MBA works
• What I did (and learnt) in my first term

To quickly recap, though, these are the courses that I have taken so far:

• World of Management (core) with Paul Dainty
• Accounting for Managers (core) with Jim Frederickson
• Data and Decisions (core) with Chris Lloyd
• Financial Management (core) with Sam Wylie
• Managerial Economics (core) with John Asker
• Managing People for High Performance (core) with Carol Gill
• Business Strategy (core) with Doug Dow
• Economics and Public Policy (core) with Ian Harper & Mark Crosby
• Managing Processes (core) with Kannan Sethuraman
• Marketing (core) with Jody Evans
• Corporate Finance (elective) with Ning Gong

And these are the ones that I am taking now:

• E-Commerce (elective) with Pat Auger
• Information Strategy (elective) with Pat Auger
• Leadership and Change (elective) with Amanda Sinclair
• Negotiations (elective) with John Onto
• Implementation of Strategy (elective) with Jack Goodwin

I am 5 weeks into this study term (all study terms are 12 weeks long) and my first three courses have already started. The last two are second-half intensives -- i.e. taught in half the time with double the number of classes per week -- and will start on Friday.

Now that I've set the scene, I can start talking about what we're doing in each of the courses I'm taking right now. I will do this in future posts, of course, and not all in this one!

Recapping Older MBA Posts

This is my new, "professional" blog. Before this, I used to blog exclusively on my "personal" blog. On that blog, I wrote three MBA-related posts that are, naturally, relevant to this one as well. Instead of re-posting them here, I figured I'd simply link to them instead.

The first post ('Talking About My Internship') is about a panel discussion that I was a part of during the latest MBA intake's Orientation Week. In it, I list the points that I tried, and hopefully managed, to get across in that discussion.

The second post ('AFR Ranks Australian B-Schools...Hmmm') is about the latest business school (b-school) rankings published by the Australian Financial Review's (AFR) BOSS Magazine. Their method of ranking determination was a bit contentions and this post talks about that.

The third post ('MBA Blog Spin-Off?') was the proposal that led to this blog. It contains links to other b-school blogs that you might find interesting.

A One-Stop MBA Shop

As in any other industry or business sector, management has its own jargon, assumptions, and set of models and theories. Having already gone through two terms of an MBA programme, I am now quite comfortable with a lot of the this stuff. So much so that I find myself using it more and more frequently outside the business sphere. What I realize, however, is that this terminology, which is ultimately a shorthand way or expressing complex ideas, is not readily understood by people who aren't in this field. For example, what do you make of this statement: "the value-add of this process is easier to understand if you look at things from a triple bottom-line perspective"?

I will, therefore, try to explain the terminology I use as I go along. Mostly, I'll do that by linking to Wikipedia entries that, for the most part, explain those things better than I can. For more complicated models and theories, though, there is always Value Based Management.net (VBN.net).

According to the the site's About Us page:

Value Based Management.net is a management portal specifically aimed at the information needs of senior executives with an interest in value creation, managing for value and valuation. We provide learning materials explaining management methods, models and theories on strategy, performance, finance, valuation, change, corporate governance, communication, marketing, leadership and responsibility with links to additional resources in the field. [Source]

Basically, if you want a one-stop, quick overview of a popular management theory, model, or method, VBN.net is the place to go.