Week 6 - Module 3 - Accounting, Microeconomics, Business Decision Modelling, Organizational Behavior, Pitch Workshop,

Despite the long title, the last week was quite managable. Either that, or I am getting used to the rigor. :) Well, truth be told, the last week was relatively easy on assignments (only 1 due last week). So, here is the summary of the week that flew by:

Accounting: Being an accountant's son, I know that accountants rank "up there" in the "boring index" (Sorry Dad!). But the Accounting class was nothing short of brilliance! In my opinion, there is only one person who can teach accounting in such a way that the entire class looks forward to the class. And that person is Professor John Moore. Professor Moore handled the Pre MBA class for accounting as well. Day one of accounting was almost a re-run of what happened in the Pre-MBA classes. In my personal opinion, it was a good re-run as it helped me reiterate most of the concepts that were covered in the Pre MBA classes. I would strongly recommend going through the Financial Accounting workbook as it really saves a lot of time and effort in the course. Professor Moore was funny, witty and I never thought Accounting could be this sexy! :)

Organizational Behavior: Organizational Behavior is basically HR. The course was taken by Dr. Shawna O'Grady. Shawna had taken our First week orientation course too. The course has some rather interesting case materials and prereads and I liked skimming through them. (Notice the word 'reading' has been replaced by 'skimming'). The best take away from the course, in my opinion, is having a conclusion statement or a finishing statement after an interview. A finishing statement would be something like "I want you to know that I really enjoyed this interview and ...." Basically, one sentence that sums up your interest in the firm.

Business Decision Modelling: I was (and am) extremely interested in seeing what Business Decision Modelling has to offer. The course is being taken by Dr. Yuri Levin. I have had the opportunity to attend only one session of his course has I was down with a flu on Saturday. So, at this point, I have very minimal input to give. I look forward to working closely with Dr. Levin as I think Business Decision Modelling will be fun.

Microeconomics: No updates from Micro econ as our classes begin on Monday.

Pitch Workshop: We had a 'Pitch Workshop' on Tuesday, conducted by the BCC. Basically the pitch is aimed at answering "I would love to work for XYZ Inc. because...". It was an interesting session in its entirety because 1. I went through the companies I was interested in, and their Org Structure 2. I now know what are my transferrable skills which I can sell to my prospective employers 3. I now realize that there is not much time for the OCR!!!

A typical pitch consists of 3 parts:

1. Intro

2. The organization you want to work for and why (mention the org structure, and the work they do, and how it aligns with your over all goals)

3. What do you bring to the table (based on your prev experience, mention your transferrable skills).

We also had a meet up with some alumni and it was a very interesting interaction. The interaction was being led by Cormac Evans, Associate Director - Corporate Relations and Student Programming. Among the many things I liked about the interaction, one was the ordering of questions by Cormac. Most of us will be approaching a lot of people with respect to job information. One of the main things in networking is asking the right questions about the job, and not just asking ANY question. In that sense, Cormac's questions were spot on, and would have impressed most 'future networks'. Questions like transferrability of skills, work pattern, basic skillsets needed and a whole hoard of others give you that edge over the other 10 people who will be with you, during the networking sessions. I will post those questions up soon. (In case I dont, please remind me).

On a parallel note, the class is going to Ottawa for Canada Day and it promises to be a day full of awesome fun. I hope I have recovered from this darned flu by then!!! :)

Time for some rest!

Cheers!

Week 2 - Module 1 - Role of a General Manager / Leadership

At the cost of repeating myself, I have to start my post with "What a week!!!" If week one was getting to know each other and team work, week two has only one word to describe it - Intense!!! 3 team assignments and 1 individual assignment followed by a presentation on Saturday was not what we expected in week 2. But that is exactly what was in store for us.

Leadership was taken by Dr. Bill Blake. The course was very interesting and engaged in answering what is leadership, its importance, the role of a leader, the ethical aspects of leadership, international and multigenerational leadership among many other topics. The class involved a lot of discussions, and case studies from HBR, Ivey and a few others. There was this particular quote about leadership that I particularly liked.

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he (she) wants to do it" - Dwight D. Eisenhower

The course, while light in many aspects, was interesting in one particular aspect. The huge thought process differences that exists between the east and the west. That is the biggest advantage of an international MBA, in my opinion.

The role of a General Manager was taken by Professor Peter Richardson. Professor Richardson is an authority in strategic management and had an extremely easy way of teaching a rather interesting subject. Unlike what it seems, 'The Role of a General Manager' is more of a strategy paper. We were introduced to basic concepts in strategy, something I really enjoyed. the entire week was spent in going through many cases, coming up with organization size up, vision, missions, strategic objectives, action items, Porter's 5 forces, PEST analysis and many other frameworks, which we had to eventually use for a team assignment . The thing with 2 out of 4 assignments were that the topics were given in the afternoon of the submission day. Imagine getting an assignment topic at 1 pm and having to 12 am in the night! With classes from 8:30 to 4:30, things were not exactly easy. But to be honest, when you submit that assignment and then walk back home at 12:30, the sense of accomplishment is really addictive! (Hope we dont get
addicted though).

I guess, for most teams, the honeymoon period is over. Most teams have understood how individual members of their teams work, and that is a great thing. One of the advantages of having such an intense first week is the insight gained by teams on how to work together on a common task. How to split tasks, take ownership and trust each other mutually. The cultural nuances of different work cultures is something I am learning as the days go by. As I mentioned earlier, that is one of the key motivators for me to do this course - the ability to understand how "high performance" teams work, when they are stressed 24X7!

On the party end, the entire class (almost) celebrated a friend's birthday on Saturday and then went to a local disc (Name to be updated soon). It was a great evening, and by the time we left, none of us looked like they had a stressful week! :) Thats the beauty of this batch! Work hard... Party harder! :) I hope the momentum is maintained during the more stressful months of Aug /Sept / Oct.

Tangentially, for one of the assignments on leadership, we got a chance to interview the CEO of KEDCO (Mr. Jeff Garrah). His thoughts on leadership were really insightful, frank and practical. Kingston is a lovely place in that sense. The local leaders are easily accessible, and all you need to do is send them an email with your requirement. We have not received the grades for the assignment, but the talk was really something that cannot be evaluated! :)

Gotta crash now! :)

Appleseed's recount of Week 2 - 2009
Bizgirl's recount of Week 2 - 2010
Nathalie's Recount (in French) of her MBA experience