(Post) MBA Blog

Possibly the best writing on the web

2005-10-10T20:58:00.000Z

I realise I'm probably months behind the rest of the world, but I've recently discovered the Best Of page on Craig's List, possibly the best writing on the web since Suck.com (note: not a dodgy site!). Funny, poetic, profound, in a thousand years an alien race will unearth this and realise just how beautifully messed up we really were...

Party in Passau

2005-07-11T13:13:00.000Z

Weddings are tough work, make no mistake. I've had two consecutive weekends of weddings and it is really starting to catch up.

This time it was a very good friend Gregor and his lovely fiance Huda, tying the knot it a wonderful old castle up a mountain outside Passau - the City of Three Rivers (and about 50 churches).

Well, it was just about as nice a wedding as you could hope for: friends from around the world, a cracking best-man's speech, plenty of food, drink and dancing and a cool band, all in a grand old Bavarian dining hall.

I got a chance to catch up with a few friends from UCL who I hadn't seen in years and that was great.

And as for the city itself, windy old cobbled roads and beer gardens kept "zie krazee Londoners" going all night.

Letting Loose in Lisbon

2005-07-04T09:30:00.000Z

The first of many weddings this year kicked off in style with a trip to Lisbon, Portugal, for the marriage of my old friend Cecilia to a very good bloke, Philip. Cecilia I met on my second Masters degree, so there were a bunch of old pals from the Institute of Education (London).

We spent half our time in Setubal, the next town from Lisbon. Lovely place. That's my big tip for those visiting Portugal - Lisbon, while being very nice in a Paris-ey kindo of way - is a little too commercialised for my tastes, while half an hour away in Setubal, you are greeted with the authentic Portugal.

The wedding was up a mountain in a fine old chapel with stunning views. The party followed until the wee hours. Food great, people great, weather great. Overseas weddings are A GOOD IDEA!

What a Ball

2005-06-23T10:18:00.000Z

The Magdalene College May Ball. Words that fill the studnets of this fine city with such anticipation. One of the most traditional and glamorous of the main Balls, it is the last to insist on white-tie for gentlemen. If you want the full low-down on the night, just go to the May Ball site.

I attended with a couple of MBAs: Alasdair, the May Ball Wizard, Stanislave, the Marketing Wizard and his charming wife Irina, the...er...Wifely Wizard. While there was no theme, you could say that in all it was one of the classiest nights of the Cambridge calendar and well worth the sizeable sum I paid for tickets.

The arrangements were surprisingly fiddly: paying for and picking up tickets, geting fitted and picking up the white-tie suit etc etc, and to be honest, the May Ball is not really aimed at working folk. Especially since I had to pretty much block out the whole of the next day to recover.

Highlights were The Thrills, who played 'Big Sur', among others, the ceilidh and I have to say, generally, the people: familiar faces in such a different light and new faces which is always nice.

And as I emerged from Magdalene at 6 in the morning, slightly worse for wear, none other than my boss swishes past on his morning jog as we exhange pleasantries. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Why No Blog?

2005-05-24T10:07:00.000Z

I have been in something of a black hole since my last blog a couple of months ago. Library House, along with the London School of Economics, EEDA & Create Partners launched The Gauntlet, a revolutionary online self-assessment tool for ambitious entrepreneurs, designed to teach them how investors think and to score them as if presenting to and being judged by a panel of venture capitalists. In essence a 'Virtual VC', no easy task, if only because VCs themselves rarely agree on what makes a good investment opportunity!

The big launch was 23rd May, involving the BBC, the FT, Telegraph and radio as well as branding consultants, PR advisors and legal professionals. Not to mention a constantly evolving internal structure of sales, operations, technical and the Directors, who all had to be kept abreast.

Not surprising then that I have been offline. But the launch was successful and we are pushing ahead full-steam, so I am back online.

One Year, Two MBAs

2004-11-03T01:49:00.000Z

Fantastic!! I got a call from a Cambridge MBA friend about this; he then emailed the whole class and the email was so well written I had to include it.

If you don't want to read the whole thing (below), the upshot is that Oxford business school have plastered a whole slew of Cambridge MBAs on their course brochures! And yours truly takes up the whole of the front cover of the Exectutive MBA brochure (left)!! Well I never. Two MBAs in one year. I must be special!

As for Oxford, well, I don't like to be nasty but really, if they can't recognise their own students there must be something wrong. That kind of thing could never happen at Judge. I guess we must just really be better looking!

***
The main reason for this email is to highlight a serious transgression on
the part of Oxford's Said B-School:

I visited Oxford to show my wife around the 2nd best university in England.
As part of the tour, I took her to see the site for the most important
program in academia--the MBA program.

To my utter dismay, I spotted a royally wrong sin when we browsed through
their brochures--Oxford decided without consent from Cambridge to use our
Cambridge MBA students as their models for their brochures. I have attached
the evidences: our own Robbie (Max) appears on the cover of Said's
Executive MBA brochure! (I think Max is talking with Alex Barcardit and Ben
Davis in the pic). In addition, our party-animal Georg and our Arabian
beauty Miriam (appearing twice in different brochures) are also in the
brochures for biz programs!

I understand that Cambridge MBAs just look better than those from
Oxford--but to do this without notification and consent from us? -- totally
unforgivable and unacceptable!

Can we let this transgression pass without administering punitive
measures?! At the least, I felt we need to let the world know of this grave
transgression. Please forward this email as you see fit.
***

The US Election - It's a TIE!

2004-11-03T01:40:00.000Z

I'm watching John Simpson of the BBC *right now* on TV commenting on the election in the US and would you believe: he's wearing a Magdalene tie!!

Further, I was watching a documentary about Arnie Schwarzenneger eariler in the day, and I could have sworn *he* was wearing a Magdalene tie as well!

What's going on? I'm willing to put money that the eventual President will be wearing a Magdalene tie.

Well now, that's my comment on the US election. Could it be any more trivial?

The Big 3-1!

2004-11-02T02:09:00.000Z

It is my birthday today. I'm not having a big celebration - I'm too busy and too tired.

I don't know if that is a good sign.

But I will be meeting friends over the next four days and will be having, as Ben Hardy might say, a number of bijou celebrationettes in due course.

So, have I taken over the world yet?

No, but one step at a time eh?

A CV for VC

2004-09-24T15:50:00.000Z

Popped back up to Cambridge on Wednesday for an interview with a research firm there that's looking to do an interesting project in the venture capital space. Got there at 12.30 and spent the next hour and a half with the guys...seemed to get on very well with them.

Then on to Judge - I had booked some time with the folks there to try and finalise the installation of CollaMBA (my web software for MBA group collaboration) and to chat about the contract etc.

Things didn't go as well at the Judge. I had two bugs: one was stopping users from uploading files as attachments to email messages, the other was spewing out weird formatting stuff in the emails themselves. The first bug we fixed - it was just a directory permissioning problem. The second we haven't yet fixed. It turns out the Judge server uses a different email program, which treats emails differently to the one I had been using. Luckily this new email software (Exim) was actially developed at Cambridge! So I checked around and emailed a chap with the problem I was having. It turns out he is the guy who developed the software! Can't get better than that. He gave me a few tips and insights and things should be better now.

After a few hours I went to the Eagle to meet a new Magdalene MBA - one of the new lot I hadn't met before. Very nice chap - as are all the new Magd MBAs. They're gonna get on great. I spent the next few hours introducing him to college life over a few jars and dinner and he seemed very keen on rowing. I really wish I had someone to do this to me when I got started. I really had to learn the hard way and payed the price in some respects, rowing being a good example (I didn't quite know just how fun and important it was and it was too late when I did realise).

Unfortunately we spent too long discussing the finer points of Cambridge; I caught the last train back to Kings Cross which got in at 1am!! Needless to say, there was no way I could get to remote Chorleywood - a cab would have cost me £45. Instead I paid £15 and crashed at my folks place near Central London. The nice thing was, I ran into the ex-Director of the Judge MBA at Cambridge station and we took the train back together. We had a great chat about all things Cambridge, which as you can tell I do not tire of, and he let me in on some insider information which was fun. Nice guy.

I picked up my voicemessages today. Chorleywood is the worst place in London for mobile reception, so I have to go to this one spot in town (outside the doctor's surgery!) that has reception, to pick up messages and make calls twice a day. I had a voicemessage from the firm I interviewed with - I got the project - starting Monday!

Off for Antony's b'day party at Denim tonight. A little weird to see the MBAs in a different environment from Cambridge, but nice-weird. Last Saturday we all got together at the Angelic pub in Islington, which was a lot of fun. The night before, I got together with some old London friends at Itsu, off Fulham road, which has a great bar upstairs. Partied a little too hard I think, but it was the first proper night in London I had had since arriving back. So many more friends to catch up with in Lodnon, it will take a couple of months before I say my 'hello's' to all. And I still have a number of dates to keep in Cambridge, especially dinner at college, which I am relishing! Will be back in Cam next week to introduce Collamba to the new students (and fix the final bug). It will be a pretty anxious time. A lot of people think the idea behind Collamba is great, but I really want to have that verified with real life users.

Dramatic Cambridge Finale

2004-09-16T13:58:00.000Z

So I spent the weekend in Cambridge and crashed into a hell of a crazy Friday.

Started off meeting the new Magdalene MBAs: Jason, Martin & Colin. Fine chaps; along with Robert I'm sure they'll make a good impression with the Magdalene lot. I was supposed to spend half an hour chatting; instead I took two hours to run through a list of 40 points which represented the accumulated wisdom of my year here. I wish I had that kind of thing when I started. i hope it gets them off to a good start.

I then just caught the IT guy and spent an hour installing my new web collaboration software that I recently developed, called CollaMBA, on the Judge servers and finished just in time to rush to my long-overdue meeting with the careers advisor. That lasted for two hours and I think we can safely say her foot met my backside a number of times.

I had parlour dinner pretty soon after that. What do you know, I had forgotten my suit, tie, the works, but I managed to borrow one from Nate and rushed off to formal, arriving half way through the starter. Well, we had a fine meal and the port flowed pretty freely afterwards, I can tell you. Martin and Colin turned up afterwards to meet the MCR and I introduced them around; they took to it like ducks to water.

I spent the next couple of nights at a friends and on Sunday we had the semi-finals and finals of the Magdalene croquet tournament. My partner James could't play, so I made arrangements with Donal at Friday dinner. But he couldn't make it in the end so I grabbed Simon and we played Andy and his partner and all was well again.

Well, we got off to a slow start and to be honest never quite recovered, especially against Andy's many hours of practice. However, Simon and I decided to give the crowd a few treats and we went for some dramatic shots, which certainly got the crowd going and got the opposition pretty upset. In the end it wasn't enough, and we lost honourably, it has to be said. The only consolation is that Andy and co. went on to beat the porters in te final, which took some doing, as they put in a lot of practice.

Well, a lovely weekend in Cambridge, among friends, good food, decent weather and lots of laughs. Exactly how much better does it get?

Pay-back

2004-09-16T13:42:00.000Z

I'd love to say that the opportunitites are coming in thick and fast, but I'm afraid that if I do, they'll stop coming in at all.

But things are looking good. A number of short term VC opportunities have popped up on the horizon and I have been approached by an interesting strategy firm in London. I have completed a CV/CL for a very very cool internet company in London and been made aware of others openings in another internet company that may actually be marginally cooler, if coolness equates to general disruptiveness of technology.

Furthermore, one of our MBA project clients finally refunded me for flight costs, and a telecoms company that grossly overcharged me also paid up, so I'm practically awash with cash!

Type Casting

2004-09-16T13:25:00.000Z

As if the Myers-Briggs, Belbin and CareerLeader tests weren't enough, I stumbled across (and took) the Enneagram test on MBAMatch.com.

This one features 9 different personality types:
Type 1 Perfectionist
Type 2 Helper
Type 3 Achiever
Type 4 Creative Thinker
Type 5 Quiet Observer
Type 6 Loyal Sceptic
Type 7 Optimist
Type 8 Boss
Type 9 Mediator

and after doing the test it emerged that I was heavily 1, 3, 4 & mostly 7. Interestingly I scored poorly on 2 & 8 - Helper and Boss. Me, not a boss?!

Judging by the description, Being a perfectionist, I am 'self reliant, highly responsible and hard working'..., as an achiever, I am 'an enthusiastic personable team leader who is self assured'..., as a creative thinker 'I am a warm person with a different view of life, with an empathy especially to people who are suffering'...and finally as an optimist, 'I am a playful, optimistic and enthusiastic person - life is an adventure. I love life to be stimulating and up-beat. I have great vision for things and I am helpful and highly imaginative'...

This is all well and good, but all this feels a little like astrology; having done a few of these now, I would recommend a little pinch of salt, but enjoyable nonetheless.

The Hunt Begins

2004-09-14T18:16:00.000Z

With the end of the MBA, I have entered the strange world of the job hunt. This involves lots of web - and soul - searching. For the former I have access to broadband in sunny Chorleywood and for the latter I have Chorleywood Common, particularly inspiring on a blustery, elemental day like today. Two hours tramping around the Common, and I'm a little closer to some answers.

As if to highlight the whole 'Job Thing' even more, I turned on BBC Three when I returned from the Common to find an old friend from UCL presenting the news at 7pm (her name is Sevi, if you want to know). That brings to two, the number of old UCL friends presenting the news; the other is Sheban Rattansi, on Sky.

Funny how we all take such different routes in life, eh. Now I need to decide what my route is going to be...

The Beginning of the End

2004-08-31T12:08:00.000Z

Having just handed in my dissertation to the MBA Office, the realisation dawns that in that singular act, the MBA comes to a close. 12 months, dozens of assignments, too many parties and countless friends, where once were new faces.

So the sun sets on this episode in the collective lives of the MBAs. Drama, tragedy and comedy, rolled into one intense year. Where we found the time for half the things we got up to, I'll never figure out. And being at Cambridge, possibly the nicest university town in the world, has given us all plenty of inspiration; timeless values conveyed in timeless architecture, eccentric, fascinating people and the sense of purpose that comes from a vision broadened to a truly global scale.

This isn't the last blog. There's still a big farewell bash tomorrow and plenty of goodbyes to be said, at Magdalene and the Judge. Consider it the title music before the credits roll...

A Sacred Moment

2004-08-26T12:19:00.000Z

So tonight is the last MBA 2003 pub night. The Master of the Crawl, Ethan, has returned from vacationing in the US for this one last sacred purpose (among other things).

And the last Pub was pronounced: it is to be The Pickerel Inn, the old Magdalene favourite.

The list of pubs for the whole year was revealed to all. Some were good, some really bad, all worthwhile. My favourites include The Boathouse, The Fort St George, The Granta & The Waterside.

They were (alphabetically):

Pubs visited by MBA 2003:
All Bar One
The Anchor
B Bar
Bar Ha Ha
The Baron of Beef
The Boathouse
The Bun Shop
The Cambridge Arms
The Castle Inn
Champion of the Thames
The Cow
The Cricketers
The Eagle
The Elm Tree
The Fort St George
The Free Press
The Granta
The Hat and Feathers
Ishca
The Kingston Arms
The Lamb and Flag
The Live and Let Live
The Locomotive
The Maypole
The Mitre
The Panton Arms
The Pickerel
The Rat and Parrot
The Red Bull
The Salisbury Arms
Sauce
The Slug and Lettuce
The Spread Eagle
The St. Rategund
The Waterside
The Zebra

Exam vs Assignment

2004-08-24T16:25:00.000Z

We received the last of our grades back yesterday, with plenty of surprises for most I'd say.

If your thinking about a business school, then I recommend you look into the assessment technique - and steer clear of those that emphasise exams. They are pointless, I don't care how much you argue the merits of forcing people to sit down and cram and then sweat it out for a few hours in a big room.

I am so glad the Judge has a practical attitude to exams - we have about four in total - compared to other schools I could mention (who are still revising I believe!). Give me a break; those who would argue for exams: go read a book or two on learning psychology. Exams lose on all fronts, but most of all, in terms of remembering what you have learnt.

You see the great thing about getting a pack of assignments written a while ago, each with a grade-sheet attached is that in 5 minutes I can re-read any of them and be able to discuss with most the merits of stakeholder theory or various approaches to eBusiness planning, and that you can't do I'm afraid with an exam you took months ago.

Assignments give room for original investigation, properly reading around a subject and thoughtful articulation. Exams test how quickly you much stamina you have in your writing arm. I know which is more useful in the real world and I'm glad I chose the MBA that agrees.

My VALS

2004-08-24T14:45:00.000Z

I've just completed the SRI VALS test and in true Californian form, want to announce to the world the latest take on 'Who I (Really) Am':

Apparently I am primarily an Innovator and secondarily an experiencer.

Well, that was a welcome distraction from my Individual Project. Back to Innovating!

Re-Wired

2004-08-16T23:49:00.000Z

Ahead of all the job applications about to get under way, I redeveloped my website: zaeem.com which was a little more than the 'couple of hours' I thought it would take.

Well, I'm pretty happy with it, though not quite sure where I found the time since I am supposed to be finishing my dissertation right about...now(!)

"Online trust mechanisms and their implications for the marketing of experience goods"

That's as close to the title I think I'm going to get. I'm actually quite proud of the 12 thousand words I wrote in just over a week and like all Masters students from time immemorial I sincerely believe I have made a lasting contribution to the field.

It's a shame no-one will ever read it.

Heck, some of the other students have even got to SELL their dissertations to the highest bidder! Before writing it!! Now that's MBA material.

SinAmp

2004-08-13T23:29:00.000Z

My new friend has become my new enemy.

I downloaded the new winamp today and discovered it has an internet TV function: about 100 channels of free rubbish, with a couple of gems, and it was those gems that kept me occupied for most of the day, even as I was emailing my dissertation supervisor promising to get a first draft in by Monday (not going to happen).

This new toy is very, very dangerous. Do not go anywhere near it. You have been warned!

Donnie Darko

2004-08-13T23:13:00.000Z

I am happy to report that full and liberal use is being made of the well-stocked Magdalene DVD library in my dying Cambridge days.

Recently for example I got hold of Donnie Darko, which I've been wanting to watch for a while but have never in a weird enough mood to rent it from BlockBusters.

Well, the beauty of a free DVD library is that 'free' kind of puts you in the mood, no matter what kind of film it is.

I highly recommend Donnie Darko. Then I highly recommend splashing your face with cold water and jumping straight onto the internet to find out what the hell the film is about!

I figured a good place to start was the donnie darko website. It wasn't but it is a fantastic site and worth visiting nonetheless. While there, I noticed who produced the site: its hi-res, who are based in London and who themselves have a superb website. I recommend a visit there the same way I recommend a visit to a show - it is pure art and it makes me go gooey.

I did also notice the job vacancy for a producer/project manager...are you thinking what I'm thinking...?

Career Leader

2004-08-12T23:44:00.000Z

I've had an interesting time with Career Leader, the psychometric test from some folks at Harvard. It turns out (after hours of questioning), that my core interests are:

+Creative Production and
+Theory Development and Conceptual Thinking

my core values are:
+Positioning
+Affiliation
+Autonomy
+Lifestyle

my core attributes are:
+creativity
+critical thinking
+quick thinking
+teamwork

and the kinds of job I am cut out for are:
+Advertising Account Management
+Entrepreneurship
+Marketing and Marketing Management
+Public Relations and Communications
+Research and Development Management and New Product Development

Now, am I entirely convinced? Not really, but it did throw up a couple of interesting ones, such account manager and pr manager: I hadn't thought of those before. Let's see how handy it really is...

Doing Well by Doing Good

2004-07-15T19:53:00.000Z

I've just got back from a day and a night in London. Hmm, about London, the place most of us will be ending up soon, by hook or by crook. The place is heaven and hell, rolled into one.

Today I was on the East side, finally sorting out the 45 computers I've had sitting in storage for *far* too long. The East side is a dump, plain and simple. The people are rude (not 'chirpy') and the area is built over with concrete like some 70's city planner just wanted to erase it from the map. But, yes, there *is* something about London that keeps drawing people and has done so for hundreds of years. A couple of days ago I wrote the entry for London on our MBA students knowledge sharing platform (wiki) and the Samuel Johnson quote came to mind...

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." - Samuel Johnson

And it's kinda true. Without hell there can't be a heaven and London reminds you of that every day.

Anyway, what was I doing in London with 45 PCs? I bought them a while ago at auction and was going to set up a big Easyinternet cafe franchise. I ended up doing the MBA instead. After months of half-heartedly trying to sell them, and storage fees burning a hole in my pocket I decided I had enough; I called Computer Aid International and offered to donate them.

So they picked them up today, I finally got rid of the cursed storage (a darn good business model if anyone is thinking of starting something - they have perfected the 'out of sight, out of mind' principle), and as eBay Fox told me: the charitable donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!! So I actually save more money than the computers are really worth.

Oh lord, I never thought I would get excited about tax deductions. See what an MBA does to you!

Off to the Pickerel Inn for the Thursday MBA social now to celebrate. I missed the Magdalene Master's BBQ last night but will be making up for it with a Magd grad party Saturday, the Magd croquet tournament (don't ask) and a few Magd parlor dinners which I think are just what the doctor ordered for this poor, worn out MBA.

Falling into Position

2004-07-08T16:52:00.000Z

What does parachuting have to do with leadership? Hmm, not a lot at first glance. But for those who have parachuted solo before, there is more than a tenuous link...

A few MBAs headed up to the North London Parachute Center (not in London, not even North Cambridge!) on 25th April to train for a static line square chute solo jump, (rather than a cissy tandem jump). We didn't realise that training would take about 10 hours and be so damn tiring. But train we did and the next day we headed back, butterflies all round and went for the jump.

We climbed, plane door open, and climbed and climbed. The ground fell away until it was like a fuzzy patchwork, a scene from a Manga comic. Then the call came and one by one, all twelve of us took the leap: Jorne, Sarah, Lisa, Alvin...I was the last to go, nerves building as I watched all the others get pulled away from the plane and dangle, helpless in the air.

Then I was up. I got into position - head up, legs round and then WHOOSH! I pushed off, flung into position and began the count:
"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand. Check Canopy!!!"

and the canopy unfurled, oblivious to adrenaline coursing through my entire body. I thanked God there and then and began to laugh spontaneously "It's open! It's o-o-open! Ha haaaaaaaaaah! It's OPEN!"

But I was running on instinct, fighting back the panick that would arrive if the though of being suspened so high even dared cross my mind.

I went through the drill, with sharp breaths of almost elemental excitement - beyond thinking, just feeling my way through as the ground below reminded me just how crazy the whole thing was.

When I got to the ground and composed myself, I got to thinking how much like leadership the whole experience was: you're up there alone, no one to rely on, to bail you out if things go wrong. You have to summon the kind of courage that comes from somewhere deep and ancient - primordial almost. Now, while leadership isn't guite as bad, there is a lot to be learned from parachuting and I recommend it to anyone aspiring to leadership as a taste of things to come. I floated the idea to the director of the MBA here. And floated it did - right past. No sell.

Oh, well, I for one am hooked and can't wait to head back up to the blue yonder.

The General Idea

2004-07-08T16:41:00.000Z

I was hooked up with a Boston VC called Hemant Taneja the other day by a Judge prof., and gave him a call recently. Nice guy - working at General Catalyst on wireless etc. Man, the guy has like THREE undergrad degrees from MIT plus a couple of Masters I think.

Needless to say, got him on LinkedIn as well, which increased my network from about 7 to over 400 in one fell swoop! Not sure how much I'm bringing to the party here people, but then I haven't been really serious yet about this LinkedIn in stuff.

So, Hemant gave me a lot of valuable advice on starting up - largely confiming what I had learned over the year, but it's good to get another angle.

Consult This!

2004-07-08T16:33:00.000Z

So I applied to a consulting firm, just to test the water, and shockingly got through to the final round which I had last Monday.

The great news is...: I didn't get it! Great news because I really, really didn't want it and was afraid I would just take it if offered, if only to pay off The Debts. I'm glad my lack of enthusiasm shone through, aided by a touch over 5 hours sleep the night before and a 7.15 train down to London. Mind you, the other chaps at the assessment center were nice enough.

Now it's time to either apply seriously or get my arse into gear with my start-up ideas...