The breaks are off...

... as we hurtle down to the mid-point of the MBA. A week has passed since the mid-terms, we have back our results (except QMM and Global Econ) and I managed to do well in all. At least I managed to do as well as I expected to do (i.e. *barely* scrape by in Corporate Finance) so no complaints. Now if only QMM and Global Econ don't turn out to be shockers, I will have survived the first half of the last term of the first year.

Post mid-term is a whole new story. We seem to be working endlessly, including on weekends. Apart from the daily stuff (which most of you know by heart by now), we're supposed to hand in three project reports until the end of the term, which is a mere 3 weeks away.

The first one's for Operations Strategy - a real life case for a Sports goods manufacturer / retailer in Europe, that will be discussed with the company in concern. The second one is a mock M&A negotiation in Corporate Finance between AT&T and McCaw Communications, but mock or no mock, there's a ton of stuff to do. Finally, my pet project is the one for Competitive Strategy, where we had the liberty to choose any company we wanted. Mine's a well-known telco in Spain / LatAm, and considering I'll be doing telecom consulting for my summer internship, it's the one I'm most interested in.

Needless to say, our final grades depend on how well we perform on these projects, so I better get back to them. Now where did I leave my coffee??

Another finde..

So finally another set of midterm exams is over. The good part is that they end quickly so there's no prolonged torture. The 2nd day of exams brought Quantitative Methods (QMM) and Operations Strategy papers. QMM seemed to go uncomfortably well, so either it *was* easy or I screwed up big time. I think it's option A.

The Ops Strat exam had an HBS case on [German luxury car manufacturer] that had trouble in finding a good place to locate their new production plant. I think I did OK, but so did the other 219 of us so it's up to the profs to bother about the grades.

Finally yesterday we faced our fears (well some of us anyways) - Corporate Finance and Global Economics. For once I'm certain I screwed up Corp Fin big time... like I was telling someone, "I have a lot of numbers, I'm just not sure if they're right". But then I only want to be partially blamed for this - we were told we'd have a sheet with formulae on it, but the one we got was barely sufficient. Now if we were allowed to bring our own cheat sheets, it would have been a whole different case... Only now I'm glad I didn't choose finance as a career. I got whacked by the WACC.

By the way, we had a question which promised 1 Bonus point to the best answer in the class (which I have my doubts on, but that's what it said). The question? "What would you rather be doing right now?" There sure are going to be a few creative answers to that one!

Global Econ went pretty well (again, my opinion only!) considering Melissa and I had revised a couple of key concepts (Open/Closed Economies, Fixed & Flexible exchange rates) just before the exam and 2 of 3 questions were directly based on them. Sea lo que sea, exams are over!

Oh, we also had our first ever Beach BOW right after the exams, and the party ended at 3 AM (for some of us) at the awesome Danzatoria up on Tibidabo. Cheap beer, warm sun and eye candy is probably the best post exam therapy ever.

¡Hasta pronto!

Exam Time

Mid Term time again. Did case on [Spanish Airline] for the Competitive Strategy exam today. 1 down, 4 to go. Up next - Quantitative Methods and Operations Strategy.

Houston we have...

Having gotten into the third term routine, a few of us (actually all of us) were a bit surprised to get an email from Student Affairs informing us that the Operations Strategy course won't be held in our usual classroom, but was going to be held in another, in a different building.

Now it so happens that in every operations class, one study group has to prepare a presentation about the case, analyse the competitive situation of the company with a focus on operations and suggest possible alternatives. Today's was about a German textile manufacturer that catered and supplied products to basically all the major car manufacturers in Europe and a few in the US & Asia.

So why the change in class? Well our professor had a word with the CEO of the company under consideration, and the two decided that the conclusions that we would arrive at as a group would be presented to the CEO to get to know his thoughts on the same... through video/teleconference. Imagine our relief when, after listening to our recommendations, the CEO replied "I came out of a board meeting 5 minutes ago, and we've decided to do the same". Phew, disaster averted.

By the way, I think Georgio may have won what could probably his 30th COW with "Why did [Italian Car Manufacturer] turn around so spectacularly two years ago? Uhh..because I left the company!" . I'll find out on Friday.

In other news...

>> This blogger has been down with a spate of illnesses. First it was cold, then cough, then fever, then every kind of -itis you can think of (gingivitis, bronchitis etc etc) and once I recovered from that, I got the stomach bug that kept me throwing up like there was no tomorrow. For some time I wondered if I should be reading my cases in the bathroom instead of going back and forth. But all's well that ends well so no complaints!

>> I had the amazing chance to meet Mr. Narayan Murthy, who among other achievements, founded Infosys. He is on IESE's board of directors and some 30 of us had a chance to hear him speak and answer questions over breakfast, and it was fascinating to hear his views on the strategy of Infosys, the growth of emerging markets and the competitive advantage of Europe. I'll post some pics if I can lay my hands on them.

>> Whoever said Term 3 was easy or laid-back or relaxed or any other adjective meaning the same needs to see me a.s.a.p. It's all a bunch of cleverly packed lies to make us feel better. In fact, apart from your standard cases and pop-quizzes, this term we have to deal with, on an average, 3 assignments to be submitted per week.

The fact that some of them are team assignments doesn't really help, as you end up working for all of them, lest you get left behind. The only saving grace is that we have a bunch of holidays this term, so there are only 3 weeks in the entire term where we have classes all 5 days a week, so there's some breathing space left.

>> Oh I forgot. There's another thing that makes it harder to concentrate on studies, and that's the weather. It's so good, there're no words to describe it. It's April and the temperature's already hitting the 20s, which means that it's going to be a hot hot summer. ¡Welcome to Barcelona baby!

Summer in Barcelona!

No, it's still firmly springtime here in Barcelona (which only means one thing - lots of rain!) but I'm talking about me spending my summer in Barcelona.

I finally heard from my number 1 choice for internship and they said Yes! Which means I get to do what I wanted so bad, and I get to spend summer in Barcelona. And hopefully pick up some more Spanish on the way. I can't believe my internship search is finally over.

In other news, this blog has been apparently nominated for the Best of Blogging awards. Gee, I must've done something right.

Nothing sucks more than having a 10 day vacation and falling sick on day 1 and recovering on day 9. Groan.

Term 3

The last term before the first year ends is here! I must admit that it hasn't got a warm welcome, considering we had final exams (Term 2), then "a whole weekend" to recover(according to our QM prof), immediately followed by a week of new courses.

Everyone's looking forward to the coming Friday as we take off for Easter Break. A quick word on the third term though. We have 7 courses -

Global Economics
Corporate Finance
Operations Strategy
Quantitative Methods for Management (Half Term)
Competitive Strategy
Leading Organisations (Half Term)
Transforming Organisations and Markets with ICT (Half Term)

- and going by the looks of it, I think I'm gonna enjoy Corporate Finance the most. But its too soon to say. A ver.

Quick update on the weekend. Friday Night - Killer party at A Viva Voz where some 35-40 of us karaoked the night away. Now I have the kind of voice that shouldn't be heard outside the bathroom, so I was pretty reluctant to sing, but its amazing what a couple of beers and some tequila can do!

Here's Ranjeet and I singing ... lets just say something that would cause Madonna to sue both of us.


Bala and Rawan serenading each other..


The night clearly belonged to Hiro and Kenji, with their superb rendition of Livin' on a Prayer!



Meanwhile off-stage, Morgan got busy with what he does best -


... and then some more!


The guys singing "We are the champions"


Just a bunch of really happy people!


Saturday - Killer brunch at Susan's. I have no pictures for this, but believe me when I tell you that we ate like there was no tomorrow. Pancakes, french toast, baked omlette, hash browns, banana cake ... slurp.

Sunday - Killer barbecue at Stefan's where we started eating at 1430 and finished LUNCH at 1900h, with my groupmates from Team A1. Pics to follow.

All in all, a killer weekend. I think I must've eaten a month's worth of calories in 2 days. Now if only I could find those jogging shoes...