The shakeup

Last CE
Last night was our last Christianity Explored class. It's weird to think that it's been seven weeks already. In some ways it feels like longer, in other ways, it's just sped by. My co-leader, James (see picture) was great and together I think we made a great team.

Ok, so the funny hat and balloon were from the crackers we had over dinner at our last meeting. It does make sense - honest.

Setting up the tree
Tim's family are coming to spend Christmas in Oxford this year so the house wouldn't be the same without a Christmas tree. Last Sunday, we put up the tree and all the decorations.

I haven't had a tree in England since I've been here so it's really nice to have one. It will be nice to have a full house at Christmas too, so Tim's family, if you're reading this, come prepared to spill all the dirt on Tim (bring props/pictures if possible)!

The NBD saga continues
I completely gave up on trying to join a group and decided to set one up myself. A much better idea.. I think we've got a pretty good team together and I'm looking forward to working wiht each of them. Today is NBD bid day, when we put in our first, second and third choice projects and hopefully we will get the project we want. It's too soon to tell, I'll let you know the status as soon as I know.

Fingers crossed.

Back to the grindstone
I've just recieved my projects Financial Reporting Analysis to review for 1600 today so it's back to work for me.

Week 7

Assignments
Three more assignments due this week. Three more assignments completed this week. My study group was selected to present out Managereal Economics Industry report to the class on Monday. Our study was on the Retail Grocery Industry in the UK. Fun stuff.

Keble Formal Dinner
So Ben Carswell invited a number of us in the MBA class to Formal Dinner at his college Keble. Keble was a beautiful college, with a great old school atmosphere.

Conversations in the pub
I was talking with my mate Tom (see picture) in our study group today and he was commenting on the conversations you overhear in the pubs in Oxford. People here don't talk about the football or the latest movie, instead, chances are the people on the table next to you are taking about particle physics or the some deep philosophical topic. He's planning to get a dusty old Latin book to take to the pub with him to see if it increases his pulling chances. Good luck Tom!

Templeton Dinner
Last night's party was my first formal ball which took place at my flatmate, Tim's, college. It was a very good night. It started with a glass of champagne and a ballet display in the entrance. Very civilised.... and unusual. But very cool.

Templeton was miles away, but they do make up for it with the food. It was one of the best dinners that I've had at any college here in Oxford, including my own. I enjoyed eating beef for the first time ever last night. And the puddings - yum!

I've included a few pictures below which are selections from the night. There is one of myself and Kevin who is also in my study group and Ioannis dancing with two girls. Enjoy!

The Valley at SBS

User Experience
So, it seems it's all about user experience. Everything. At least, everything that is currently coming out of the Valley is concerned with the experience of the user. It reminds me of a book that I read some time ago called "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug. Make stuff easy for regular people to use. Not just for some techie with a pHD in Computer Science.

Tonight, Said Business School hosted a Silicon Valley Event at the business school and being an ex-techie and general tinker-er with all things web, I went along.

The lineup
Chris Sacca - Principle at Google was one of the masterclasses that I sat in on. His words of wisdom for MBAers:

1. So (he says "so" a lot) forget business plans -> Write a Manifesto (see Google's)

2. Forget thinking small (segmenting market) you may miss a great opportunity -> e.g. with Google's "Organise the world's information and make it universially useful" you can find out loads of cool stuff

3. So, forget Money First, user next -> start with the user experience! Google's top100 what do people want - search, find obtain, commerce, communicate

4. Forget Too much talking -> more doing! less meetings (amen)

5. Humility? -> there are smarter people than us out there, be humble. Not just as an individual, but as a company. The geeks will make it happen.

6. Talent is not headcount -> they don't forget about the people at Google, culture is important, food is important.

7. So, forget secrecy -> at google you have a duty to share everything. be a hub of information. there are wiki blogs all around google. be open

8. Top tip: underpromise and overdeliver.

Hmmm... what do I think?
I was a little surprised at the weight that Google seems to have in the Valley at the moment. I mean, everyone knows that there is a company called Google that does searching and some other stuff and that they had a weird IPO a few years ago. But I don't think that the scale of the Google phenomenon has really filtered through to the subconcious of the rest of the world.

Evan Williams, founder of Blogger.com and current CEO of Odeo Inc

He has set up a handful of companies in his time (I think he's early 30's) so he had a few start up tips:

1. your problem needs to be much smaller than you think

2. someone else is working on the same thing that you are (it's not a reason not
to do it, just be aware of it)

3. low costs = more competition -> reason to pick a smaller problem, reason to be more differentiated

4. user experience (again) - useability of the software, design, obviousness -> this is an underpracticed, underused area of the web

Thoughts?
I liked the guy. He kinda reminded me of many of my wonderful geek friends. The "Ok, so I made it big, but here is a piece of really cool technology that I'm really into right now..." attitude. My inner geek started to flex it's well hidden muscles a bit while chatting with him.

Others worth mentioning
Bob Young - Founder of Red Hat / Lulu
Spent the day wearing a black baseball hat. I'm not not a linux fan, I've just never got into it. Was impressed with his wisdom and down to earth-ness. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to speak with him.

Reid Hoffman - Founder of LinkedIn
Of which I am a part - send me an e-mail if you'd like to add me to your list.

Craig Newmark - Founder of Craiglist & Jim Buckmaster

Allen Morgan - a VC and Managing Director, Mayfield

As I type this all up and turn my mind, finaly, to my Decision Science (Stats) prep, I think that all in all, it has been a great birthday.

It's getting cold

Brr... The temperature outside is currently -1 degrees with freezing fog. The weather forecast shows the first snow fall this Friday. I took this picture at 13:00 this afternoon... and yes, it is a frozen spiders web! I thought that maybe I'd been here for 8 years and just missed it, but apparantly it is an unusual thing to happen and everyone's been taking photos.



It's my Birthday
And I was planning to let it pass by without a mention, however my lovely flatmate Johannah convinced me that I only have a birthday once in Oxford, I should make the most of it!


A really nice group of people turned up and we all just chilled out and relaxed.
There are some really great people on this course. I shall have to do a bio on some of them soon, just to give you an idea of what they're like. They are very diverse and all very genuine and always ready to chat, help out or share a laugh.

The all signed a lovely birthday card for me and Anurag even organised a candle for my sticky toffee pudding - yumm...

Tomorrow is actually my birthday but I'm not going to celebrate it then. Instead, I'm hoping to get a real feel of what it is like to work in the Valley. I'll let you know my thoughts tomorrow.

At home

Tapas
Fridays are becomming routine. Decision Science (Stats) in the morning, some event or the other for lunch, Finance in the afternoon. Quick meeting then Happy Hour (cocktails for £1) in the Common Room until 19:30 then out for dinner somewhere with a random group of people from the business school. It's a great way to meet new people and get to know others better.


This week, Ryo organised for us to check out a tapas place...






American football
Aparantly, there is this sport that they play across the pond, which they mistakenly call "football". It looks a little like rugby except that the players wear all kinds of body armor and there are all sorts of unusual rules like you have to stop the game every couple of minutes so that the television stations can play their advertisments. Weird.

So there was a match between two universities in the States, Ohio State (which my flatmate Tim went to) and Michigan (which my friend Mike went to) and apparantly there has been some kind of feud between these two universities for over 100 years. Who do I support. Kevin, one of the guys on the MBA (and another graduate of Ohio State) somehow managed to hire out one of the lecture rooms and we watched the game on the projecter in the room. The business school is beginning to feel like home.



It's a strange game, this American football, I'm not entirely sure I understand what was going on, but the guys seemed to enjoy it and apparantly it was a very good game, especially for Tim as Ohio State won in the last few minutes.

The Valley
It's my birthday tomorrow and some guys from Silicon Valley are coming to speak with us. I'm looking forward to the day, not because I will be a year older, but because I've been thinking more and more that the Tech industry is were I'd like to be. I'm going to be in a Masterclass with Chris Sacca (Google) and Evan Williams (ex-blogger). How cool is that!

Super sub fusc

It's week 6 and no one can quite believe that we only have two more weeks until the end of classes in the first term. Michaelmas has sped by and now our thoughts are turning to the exams that will take place in week 10. In fact, we have already recieved our candidate numbers and exam timetable (morning and evening, Monday to Wednesday).

This week the assignments have been coming thick and fast and sleep is becomming an optional extra.




But there is a light. On Monday night I was sitting in the library having skipped the last half of my Managerial Economics class because I had to write my Organisational Analysis essay due the next morning, and I got to that point where I thought, "sack it, why am I stressing so much?". It was a dawning realisation that its fine, it's going to be ok, that I can only do the best that I can do and no more.

Super sub fusc
I have already introduced you to the concept of sub fusc (the outfit that we need to wear for matriculation, exams, graduation etc). On Tuesday we had a mock mock Financial Reporting Exam so some of us in our class decided that we would make the experience a little more real and wear our version of sub fusc... Here are some of the results...

Drinking from a fire hydrant

I was speaking with one of the guys in my study group this morning and he said that he felt like this term has been like "drinking from a fire hydrant" and it really inspired me. There has been so much stuff coming at you in a great rush and it's as if you're trying to get a decent drink, but at the same time it's impossible not to get completely soaked.

At the same time, it's also like having a fire hydrant go off in the middle of a hot summer and you're one of the "kids" who jumps into the middle of the water gushing everywhere and it's exactly what you've been desperately wanting that you can't help having a great time.

It's so easy to get distracted here - back to the books!

Week 5

I can't believe that it's nearly Friday again. It feels like only yesterday that I was updating my blog with the stuff that happened last week and it's nearly the weekend again!

So,

Aussie Ball
I'm sure that Tuesday night must have been some special night for Australians because there was a ball on that night and as Kate is an Aussie, we all went along.
The theme of the evening was "A day at the races" hence the hats!





A fabulous time was had by all.


NBD h-e-double hockey sticks
In preparation for next term, we need to get ourselves into groups to do a New Business Development (NBD) project. Over the last few days, it seems as if everyone has been getting into more and more of a frenzy about which group they should be a part of and which project they should do. It's like a high school ball and no one wants to be left out in the end but no one wants to commit until they know who else is involved in a venture. It's very trying for me to go through this process, though I'm sure it's good for me??

Crunch time
It is possible, but the pace is picking up again. Have an Organisational Analysis assignment and a Decision Science assignment due next Tuesday and a major (40% of the grade) Managereal Economics Industry Report due next Friday. If I don't update this blog for a while, you'll know why!

Having said that...

Here's a recap of week 4 (the middle week)

Building a Business
They are offering a free course on Building a Business on Tuesday nights so I decided to go along to see what it was all about. Interesting stuff. The speaker was one of the founder of a company called Business Boffins whose aim is to help new businesses get off the ground. Very interesting, I don't think I will be able to go to the entire course but I should be able to drop in on some of the more interesting lectures - next week is on Intellectual Property.

CE Course continues
Week three of this course is the heavy stuff as we discussed sin. Had some very good discussions. I mean, do you really think that sin is a serious problem?

Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation launch
On Friday night I put on my suit and looked in the mirror and realised that it was the first time that I had worn a suit in months! After nearly 8 years of wearing one almost every day, I now felt weird wearing one. Anyway, the launch was a big media launch with representatives from the Hundred Group, HM Customs and Excise and eminent scholars. All very important.

Japanese meal
Afterwards, I went out with some friends for a genuine Japanese meal.


Ack - the library is closing, must go now. Will finish later...

Some perspective

My friends Debs & Paul came to visit me on the weekend and commented as I mentioned the vast amounts of work that I've been doing (and still have to do) that from my blog, it appears that all I do is party. So in this entry, I hope to redress the balance.

There is a lot of work to be done here
No really, there is a LOT of work. Let me explain. We are in the progress of doing a one year Masters in Business Administration at the University of Oxford. Most MBA's take two years - we are doing it in 12 months. This term we have 6 core courses: Finance I, Organisational Analysis, Financial Reporting, Statistics, Strategy and Managerial Economics. Each of those courses would have taken you the whole year in Undergraduate, and I am a poet (the Oxford term for complete novice) at them all.

Have I mentioned the workload?
I don't think you quite understand it. Each course has one three and a half hour class each week. Each class has at least 2 chapters of the text and a case to read beforehand. Each of the more numeric courses (Finance, Stats and Fin'l Reporting) give out exercises to work through each week which must be completed before the next class. Each class has between 1 and 3 assignments to be done either individually or in groups which count towards your final grade.


On top of all that, there are the lectures by random visiting speakers, presentations by potential future employers, Oxford Business Network (OBN) events, and finally the bops.

Can you now understand why I may focus slightly on the few hours a week when I'm not chained to my desk but instead get the chance to let my hair down a bit? The memories of the workload will last whether I like it or not, the things I want to remember are the people that I meet here. The incredible diversity of the students, the interesting stories that they tell, the wonderful relationships that I make which I hope will last for the rest of my life.

So please forgive me if it looks like all I do is party, and rest assured that there is plenty of studying happening as well.

Remember, remember

I missed a post, so here are some pictures which should tell the tale...

In search of an answer

We have to let the Business School know which electives we would like to do in Hilary (i.e. next term) by this Friday. How can I choose when I would like to do them all? Here are my choices:

Finance II
Yes I am seriously interested in doing an advanced Finance course! According to the lecturer, it is focused on the poets (i.e. non-experts like me) in the class and it covers interesting topics such as risk management, capital structure (debt vs equity), some corporate governance and such like. There are individual rather than group assignments and according to the lecturer, ALL self respecting MBA students should of course take it.

Organisational Analysis
A strong contender I hear you say, considering my background in change management and process re-engineering however perhaps it is my background that is making me hesitate a bit about taking this course. Looking back, it wasn't exactly rocket science so maybe this is a course that I could coast along but won't learn that much. Reason to take it? or not?

Technology Innovation Systems
Not much thought, I think that I should do this course. It is geared towards people with entrepreneural leanings in the technology area. It will give some vocabulary for venture capitalists, go through the (facinating) Google case, and discusses the interplay between technology, the market and architecture. Now, I'm not saying that I am going to go off and start my own company, but perhaps it will be useful to get a feel for what it might be like as well as give me a greater insight into the technology industry.

Macroeconomics
Now this one I'm really not sure about. I can't deny my interest in Economics and economics at an international level is far more interesting that supply and demand graphs! But have I done the reading and do I have the global awareness to take on such a far reaching course? Of course, this is Oxford and here you have opportunities that don't normally abound, so tonight I went to listen to John Ralston Saul talk (at New College) about his recently published book "The Collapse of Globalism". He argued that the concept of globalism as defined in the early eighties which countries around the world have been basing their policies on is now dead. The years following the end of the cold war have seen countries, led by one particular world power, return to nationalism and often the more unpleasant aspects of it. Post-9/11, many countries have seen their leaders begin to wake up and realise that they do in fact have some power and can make a difference. He argues that there is a danger of countries closing their borders and becomming more internal in their outlook. China is increasingly becoming a major player on the world stage and if they decide to get into bed wuth India then they won't need the West to grow!

Interesting stuff. I can't say that I agreed with all, most of what he said, especially in light of greater awareness we now have of people in other nations, cultures and the ease of communication we have with these people. It would take something extreem to make people (though mostly in the west) give up the advantages brought about by the shrinking of the world.

On another note, he did suggest that the great thinkers of the world are long overdue a debate on the "way things are done". Much of the current ideas surrounding when you go to university, the age you start work, when you retire were developed in the early 1900's when the average age that you would expect to live to was 50. Today, we are still adhering to the same rules, yet someone born today can expect to live until they are in their 80's or 90's. Why can't a woman take 10 years out of her life to have kids when she is between 18 - 24 when her body is best suited for it instead of putting herself at risk and wearing herself and her middle aged partner out having kids in her late 30's? Think about it.