Week 34: Holiday Break (con't)

Week 34 ends and Christmas has passed. No new grades have been posted. A few Christmas greetings have been passed around.

Received a sample case from the organizers for the John Molson International Case Competition coming up in Montreal. I should get around to reading this before returning to Kingston, but there is plenty of time yet.

Not much else going on with respect to the program. I am starting to get bored, which is a good sign that I may finally be rested after going so hard for several consecutive months. Also, I am beginning to formulate different job hunting alternatives and wondering how to proceed with my search for employment.

Week 33: Holiday Break

Week 33 ends and so does our first week of break. Nothing much to write about, just a few more grades posted.

Week 32: Capstone Simulation (Module 8)

Week 32 has ended and with it so has the week long Capstone Simulation. Wow! Hard work, but very awesome. To sum it up in two words: LIFE CHANGING.

Everyday this week we have entered our decisions into the LINKS Enterprise Management Simulation and awaited our results. 2 decisions were due everyday: one at 12:30 PM and one at 5:30 PM. Results were made available from the previous quarter at 7:30AM and 1:30 PM everyday. This was to allow people the luxury to sleep. Also, 2 memos were due everyday detailing your teams strategy and decisions with references to all of your MBA courses and learnings. A final 5 page report is also do tonight at midnight.

Basically the 13 teams were separated into 2 "industries" with 7 teams in industry A and 6 teams in industry B. Both industries were identical, but separate (ie they did not interact with each other). The basis was that you were manufacturing "set-top boxes" for TVs. You could conduct research, request market studies and many other information gathering actives. These in turn would help you set your price, marketing budgets, choose distribution channels, choose regions/countries to sell in, take out loans, increase capacity, change product configurations, etc. Overall it is impressive the level of complexity that can be simulated. It is also impressive how competitive MBA students can make an activity such as a week long simulation.

Industry A was won by team 417 who came from the mid-field with an impressively well thought out strategy to sell high volume low quality products. They blew the competition out of the water, pretty much literally. This industry had people all over the place: low end, high end, mid end...everywhere.

Industry B was won by team 407 who excelled at making and managing margins to maximize profits. This industry was tightly clustered for the entire game with everyone locked in a price war.

Congratulations to the winners who will have their teams immortalized on the Capstone Simulation plaque.

With the end of this module we are also seeing the end of our teams. We have been in these same teams since May and now we find ourselves saying good bye. In addition there are several people that will not be returning after the holiday break. Some of these people will be away for a few months and some are gone to finish their degrees abroad on exchanges. To celebrate we are embarking on the "twelve pubs of Christmas". Should be fun, but it is still bittersweet.

We have from today, Dec 12th, off until Jan 13th when classes start-up again. Finally some time to spend with my wife. Also, the first week of January is MBA Games in Halifax! I'm not going, but a good portion of the class will be there and I hope they do Queen's proud.

Well, I'm now off to practice a case for the upcoming John Molson International Case Competition starting on Jan 5th 2009 in Montreal. Afterwards we will meet up with the class. This is a long week...

Week 31: Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Module 7)

Week 31 saw us start and finish module 7 which was comprised of a single course: MBA 843 Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This course was taught by Dr. Kelley A. Packalen. Kelley's background and her unique teaching style made this a great course. Although we covered a lot, the course was as nice to us as it could be.

Topics covered:

• Why Entrepreneurship matters even if you aren't an entrepreneur
• Are you an entrepreneur?
• Creativity & Innovation In-action
• The entrepreneurial process
• Capitalizing on sources of innovation
• Corporate innovation
• The business plan
• Getting the deal done
• Growing the venture
• Making the pitch
• Meeting the entrepreneur
• Putting the pieces together

We had several guest speakers. One notable one was Dany Battat of Battat Toys. In addition we had a local entrepreneur pitch his idea to us, which we had to evaluate using the framework we created. Also, each team had to pitch their "top" idea to the class as though the class were a group of angel investors. There was a few computer simulations too, which were neat to learn from and we did a lot of discussion centered learning in class.

We also had a the president of Barclay Capital, Jerry del Missier, come in and give the class a talk on the financial crisis. He is a Queen's MBA alum from '87.

This weekend we are having a "festivus"! Should be a blast!

Next week is the capstone simulation. It promises to be a very difficult week. There is 107 page manual to read prior to Monday's class. One more week...

Week 30: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 30 and module 6 is over. This week we had the IT Management test on Monday and papers due on Wednesday for both International Business and Negotiations and Conflict Management.

Thursday and Friday a large portion of the class headed to Toronto for a couple of days of info sessions the Business Career Center had arranged. These sessions were to help put students in touch with organizations that might be hiring MBAs every year or could not justify a coming to on campus recruiting.

I'm not sure how these events went since I got a call late Wednesday to go to Calgary for an interview with a major Oil & Gas Producer. So, I was off to the races Thursday to get to Calgary for a Friday morning interview. The company took care of all the details via a travel agent and I can submit all additional receipts for food and taxis. I took full advantage of the event and visited a few friends and dropped in on my former place of employment to say "hi". Good to see them all again!

Now I am back in Kingston getting ready for our winter gala! This is our big event the class has planned to celebrate how far we have come. In addition there are people that will be leaving on exchange after the Christmas break that we will not be seeing again since they will be completing their required credits on exchange. Bitter sweet, but it promises to be fun.

Next week we are starting and completing module 7! More on that in next weeks entry.

Queen's MBA Class of 2008 "preliminary" placement statistics

These are preliminary numbers. The official ones will be published on the Queen's Business Career Center website very shortly.

Percentage of students placed (6 months after graduation) 93%

• In Canada 77%
• Outside Canada 23%

Locations in Canada:

• Vancouver, BC
• Calgary, AB
• Edmonton, AB
• Toronto, ON
• Ottawa, ON
• Waterloo, ON

Locations outside Canada:

• India
• United Arab Emirates
• UK
• USA

Employment by sector, average salary:

• Finance 35%, $78,000
• Management Consulting 20%, $94,500
• High Tech/Telecom 25%, $74,500
• Manufacturing 4%, $80,000
• Bio-Pharm 2%, N/A
• Other 14%, $77,000

Salary Info:

• Average $80,000
• Median $81,000
• Top $122,000

Placement by citizenship (some cases by region of origin and not citizenship):

• Overall 93%
• Canadian 88% (note: this is lower because of a trend for Canadian students to take a period of time to "decompress" after the program prior to looking for work)
• Indian 100%
• Chinese 100%
• African 100%
• European 100%
• South American 100%

Week 29: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 29 is ending and the website is up for us to "apply to graduate". In addition the weather is now consistently below zero, we have a light dusting of snow that is staying on the ground and all the leaves have fallen off the trees. Shouldn't be long now until we see a good dumping of snow.

Although most of the courses/classes are finished, here's what's up with the program this week:

MBA 853 Strategic Implementation & Change:

• Completed. Just waiting on final grades for team assignments.

MBA 822 Finance Strategy:

• Final exam was this week. Most people were very relieved when this was finished. This course is now complete.

MBA 840 IT Strategy:

• Final exam on the afternoon of Monday Nov 24th. Will be our analysis of a case and the write up in the format for all the assignments (ie 250 words, problem statement and 2 recommendations).
• Not much anyone can do to study for this except review the professor's requirements for these "mini-case" write-ups.

MBA 851 Negotiations & Conflict Management:

• Individual Final Paper due by midnight Wednesday Nov 26th
• 10 pages, 1 inch margins, 1.5 spaced, 11 point font
• Pick a past negotiation, preferably from your work, and analyze it using course concepts

MBA 854 International Business:

• Individual Final Paper due Wednesday Nov 26th
• 10 pages
• Choose one of two questions to answer
• Q1: A student will choose one (1) country in the world. The country is your choice, and more than one student can do a single country. The student will write a paper that examines how well the country is positioned to withstand and eventually recover from the current global financial crises
• Q2: This course has examined many international organizations to illustrate their capacity to impact business strategy in the international arena. Some of the organizations we have mentioned or examined in some detail include the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, and others

There were various career talks yesterday on how to start our off-campus job hunt now that on campus recruiting is over. In addition, a large portion of the class is headed to Toronto on Thursday/Friday next week to listen to info sessions by companies that do not make the trip out to Queen's for on campus recruiting. This is something new the Business Career Center is trying out in an effort to place graduates with companies that either can't afford to come to on campus recruiting or do not need MBA graduates every year, but are interested in hiring a few people this year.

It is becoming very apparent that our tight knit community of 75 students is about to be shaken-up. In three weeks the "team-based" portion of the program is coming to an end. After we return from Christmas break several people will be on exchange and other students on international exchange will arrive. There are some people who will not be returning since they will be completing all their course requirements abroad. It is definitely bitter-sweet; good to be at this stage after working so hard, but sad to know our "MBA" community will be breaking apart.

As I mentioned earlier the website for applying to graduate is up. It is weird to be applying to graduate since it still seems like I just started the program. In addition team photos were completed this week and we all need to have our grad photo selection submitted by next Friday. Most students have finalized their electives. Things are just humming along.

The team I am a part of for the John Molson MBA International Case Competition has been getting stuff finalized. An alternate has been selected and we are in the process of finalizing a coach. The organizers need bio's and a team photo by next Friday. We are going to need to practice before Christmas break to be ready for this competition when we return. This is a week long competition with teams competing twice some days. Should be intense!

The MBA soccer team lost out in the semi-final's and the waterpolo team went out with a splash during their final game. The hockey team played their last pre-Christmas game, but they will be playing more after the break. The basketball and volleyball teams are finished as well. Hopefully everyone is practiced up for MBA Games.

MBA Games is in Halifax this year and from what I can tell the plane tickets have been booked. I'm not going as it would require me to come back early and I'm just heading out to the John Molson Case Competition right away. This way I get an extra "business day" back home with which to try to catch-up with various friends and hiring agencies.

There is a big gala being organized for next week. We are doing a masked ball to celebrate our year to date before the break. From my sources it promises to be a night to remember.

Okay, enough procrastinating with this blog. Back to writing my papers...

Week 28: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 28. Classes are pretty much at an end for this module except for a few days next week. Then the final exams and final papers. I can't believe it is still so warm here. It was actually raining yesterday. Registration for specialization courses after Christmas was this week and the Business Week rankings came out.

Without further ado, here is what went on this week:

MBA 853 Strategic Implementation & Change:

• Lectures on culture change levers, influence and persuasion
• All day change simulation. Check it out at http://www.experiencepoint.com/. A lot of business schools use this simulation. It was pretty cool. You read the "change model" and "players guide" then, as a team, we planned out our change strategy and which "tools/tactics" to use to implement them. Each tactic required money and time. We had $500,000 and 78 weeks to reach a better than 60% buy-in for our changes strategy.
• Team assignment based on learnings from the simulation. In addition each team must create their own framework for change.
• Individual assignments returned
• Our prof was a little disappointed that the class didn't prep the case for one of our lectures, but we are just loaded to the hilt and it couldn't be helped
• The books used for this course were " The Heart of Change" by John Kotter and "Execution" by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

MBA 840 IT Strategy:

• Lectures on delivering IT solutions and developing IT leaders
• More team presentations on a emerging technologies. Every class we have 2 of these presentations. The topics covered by the end next week will be: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Mashups, Web 2.0, Blogs, Location-aware technologies, Grid Computing, VoIP, Social Computing, Electronic Ink/Digital Paper, Paper Batteries, Speech Recognition, Biometrics and Wearable Computing.
• Every class has a mini-case associated with it that must be equal to or less than 250 words

MBA 851 Negotiations & Conflict Management:

• Lecture on the Cuban Missile Crisis Negotiations
• Another "live" negotiation assignment. Everyone received an envelope a few days prior and had to prep their side. Then we are given 40 minutes to negotiate with a pre-arranged partner to see what we come up with. This time we weren't supposed to get a settlement, but almost the entire class did, meaning they didn't honour their client's wishes.
• Session where each team presented the business negotiation styles and practices of a country of their choice. Countries discussed were: South Africa, Japan, Israel, China, Switzerland, South Korea, Russian, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Iran, Germany, Turkey, and Spain.
• Text for this is "getting to yes" and "essentials of negotiation, 4th edition"
• Submission of topics for the final paper where each student must analyse a past negotiation with the concepts and methods taught in the class

MBA 854 International Business:

• Lecture that had a team present the "Life, Death, and Property Rights: The Pharmaceutical Industry Faces AIDS in Africa (HBS 9-702-049)" case and whether IP rights should be changed. Every lecture a team presents the case assigned and frames the topics the professor wishes to be discussed.
• Students should have chosen a country to write their final paper on by next week. This research intensive paper is on how the student thinks the country will be effected by the current economic crisis and what will be the future ramifications.

MBA 822 Finance Strategy:

• No more lectures, but there is a tutorial session next week that Dr. Wang has been kind enough to put on
• Final next week.

This weekend there is an internal case competition to decide the team that will represent Queen's at the John Molson Strategy Case Competition in January 2009. In addition there are various working sessions for team work. Of course everyone will be starting to study for exams and beginning their final papers.

Queen's Ranked #1 Non-US MBA Program by Business Week

Well, it is official. Queen's has kept their #1 non-US MBA program position! Everyone is definitely happy about the results!

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/rankings/

Top 10 Non-U.S. MBA Programs (2008, Nov 13)
1 Queens University
2 IE Business School
3 INSEAD
4 Western Ontario (Ivey)
5 London Business School
6 ESADE
7 IMD
8 Toronto (Rotman)
9 IESE
10 Oxford (Saîd)

Registering for module 9 electives

Today students had the option to start registering for their module 9 electives. Students are required to take 2.5 units of course weighting over the course of module 9, which basically translates into 5 courses. However, students may only take as many as 7 courses. In addition they are not allowed to take more than 2 courses per block and no auditing of courses is permitted due to past experiences (i.e. they don't want to taking to many resulting in the student failing and auditing doesn't require the same level of commitment on the part of the student which affect the other students who are actually registered in the course)

Here are the courses and their blocks:

Jan 12-30 Block A:

• MBA 823 Corporate Valuation & Mergers and Acquisitions (instructor: Bill Cannon) (Finance)
• MBA 832 Marketing Strategy (instructor: Ken Wong) (Marketing & Sales)
• MBA 871 Financing of New Ventures (instructor: Elspeth Murray) (New Ventures)
• MBA 882 Strategic Leadership (instructor: Tina Dacin) (Consulting & Project Management)

Feb 2-20 Block B:

• MBA 826 Risk Management (instructor: Louis Gagnon) (Finance)
• MBA 881 Global Strategy (instructor: Doug Reid) (Consulting & Project Management)

Feb 23-13 Block C:

• MBA 824 Investments (instructor: Sean Cleary) (Finance)
• MBA 873 Services Management (instructor: Barry Cross) (Consulting & Project Management)
• MBA 833 Advanced Topics in Marketing (instructor: Michael Darling) (Marketing & Sales)

Mar 16 - April 3 Block D:

• MBA 835 Consumer Research (instructor: Peter Dacin) (Marketing & Sales)
• MBA 872 Managing Innovation (instructor: Lib Gibson) (New Ventures)
• MBA 828 International Finance (instructor: TBC) (Finance)

April 6-24 Block E:

• MBA 825 Corporate Financing and Capital Budgeting Decisions (instructor: Alex Faserak) (Finance)
• MBA 844 Project Management (instructor: Kathryn Brohman) (Consulting & Project Management)
• MBA 870 Marketing of New Ventures (instructor: Rob Woyzbun) (New Ventures)
• MBA 837 Sales Management (instructor: Shannon Goodspeed) (Marketing & Sales)

Entire Module Courses:

• MBA 890 New Venture Project (instructor: Shai Dubey) (New Ventures)
• MBA 891 Consulting Project (instructor: Barry Cross) (Consulting & Project Management)
• Students can also participate in the "TriColour Venture Fund", but must take the associated New Venture courses to qualify.

Here are the actual course descriptions:

Queen’s MBA Elective Course Descriptions
Winter/Spring 2009

Finance

MBAS 823: Corporate Valuation & Mergers and Acquisitions
Topics covered in this course include: introduction to stock valuation; real economic income and risk; security valuation in efficient capital markets; the CAPM, leverage policy and valuation; dividend policy and valuation (including the Gordon model); discounted-cash-flow-(DCF)-based valuation models; the fundamental securities analyst's common stock valuation model; valuing private and public companies; share valuation; share-exchange merger valuation; and divestiture valuation analysis.

MBAS 824: Investments
The purpose of this course is to examine valuation, risk assessment, and strategic management of financial assets, as well as the markets in which these assets trade. The major focus of the course will be on practical applications, with frequent reference to capital markets. An understanding of the underlying theory will make this approach meaningful. The course assignments involve hands-on investment decisions, designed to make you use the concepts in the real world.

MBAS 825: Corporate Financing & Capital Budgeting Decisions
Topics covered in this course include: bank credit policies and assessment; the choice and implementation of corporate financing policies; bank credit assessment; preferred shares and convertible securities; corporate financing decisions; optimal debt and dividend policies; strategic aspects of capital budgeting and cost of capital estimation; project analysis; optimal investment decision rules; hurdle rate estimation; capital budgeting procedures; & hurdle rate determination.

MBAS 826: Risk Management
This course offers you a unique opportunity to learn about derivatives and their applications as risk management and yield enhancement tools for financial institutions and non-financial corporations. We develop the key relationships of derivatives valuation (the cost-of-carry model, risk neutral valuation, binomial trees, and the Black-Scholes model). We analyze standard derivative instruments (futures, forwards, FRA’s, swaps, stock options) as well as more recent ones such as exotic options and credit derivatives. We explore best practices in the area of market and credit risk management and address topical issues pertaining to the use of derivatives, including capital requirements for regulated financial institutions and strategic issues associated with corporate risk management.

MBA 838: International Finance

Topics covered in this course include: multinational corporations; international trade; exchange rates; balance of payments; foreign exchange market; parity conditions; currency futures & options; international portfolio investments; currency swaps; Euromarkets; hedge funds; translation & transaction exposure; economic exposure; and cross-border valuation.

Marketing

MBAS 832: Marketing Strategy
This course has a simple objective: to help you (and your company) make money. Specifically, we work off the philosophy that we make money by creating value for customers; we keep making money by sustaining or enhancing that value over time; and we lose making money when we cease creating value. In keeping with that philosophy, the course begins by examining how marketing can create, destroy or lose customer value. We’ll then explore the central organizing paradigm - a framework entitled “Mission Critical Marketing”[1] (MCM). In the process, we’ll touch on each of the four variables that define profitability: price, cost, market share and market size. We’ll dedicate another class to a methodology called “market profiling”. Two final classes are directed at “sustaining and enhancing customer value over time”

MBAS 833: Advanced Topics in Marketing
This course is designed to provide students with a view of complex contemporary marketing situations and the solutions that marketing leaders have designed for these situations. The course builds on top of the knowledge gained during the Marketing Strategy course (MBAS 832). Advanced marketing topics are hard to define per se; however, in today’s increasingly complex business environment marketing can be viewed in many different ways. The underlying philosophy of this course is that marketing connects the organization to the marketplace. A second pivotal assumption is that there is no neutral ground and that all marketing activities either contribute positively or negatively to the development of business, the protection of business or the brand equity. The third theme element is the rapidly changing nature of marketing. [Prerequisite MBAS 832]

MBAS 835: Consumer Research
This course deals with various aspects of the collection and use of consumer/customer information for the purpose of making marketing decisions. This course provides you with skills to use information to translate conceptual understanding into specific operational plans. Using market data, this course requires you to take marketing information and develop specific marketing-based interpretations in various decision contexts. [Prerequisite MBAS 832]

MBAS 837: Sales Management
This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of sales management by developing the key skills, behaviors, and strategies necessary to succeed in sales. Specific issues include prospecting, the pre-approach, the approach, the presentation, the trial close, determining objections, meeting objections, closing the sale, and following up.

Entrepreneurship & Innovation

MBAS 870: Financing of New Ventures
This course will focus on the practical and real issues associated with the funding of an early stage company. The objective of the course is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and tools to strategize, plan and execute a funding strategy for an early stage technology or biotechnology company. Both the entrepreneurial start-up and the investor perspectives are explored in order to fully appreciate the dynamics, tensions and issues associated with funding early stage enterprises. The course content is based on the assumption that a mix of theory and contemporary practice provides the most insightful information, relevant facts and helpful pedagogy in studying early stage financing with all its temporal nuance and historic mystery. A series of guest speakers, each expert practitioners in their respective fields, has been organized to provide the students with a mix of real-world exercises, simulations, and briefings.

MBAS 871: Marketing of New Ventures
This course will focus on the unique marketing strategy and marketing management challenges faced by technology start-ups. The objective of this course is to provide students with the knowledge, skills and tools to prepare them for marketing management within a technology-driven new venture. Our definition of new venture includes new business ventures within existing or mature organizations as well as “start-up” new enterprises. Our definition of success is “sustainable” enterprises – not “get rich quick” or liquidity events favouring founders or VC’s. The course content is based on the premise that new venture marketing is a unique yet familiar subset of big “M” marketing as practiced by mature, proven enterprises. The course will be divided in two topic areas. Part 1: New Venture Crash Avoidance: Strategies for Reducing Risk and Getting to Market Part 2 will focus on New Venture Marketing Planning and Management: Unique Considerations and Techniques.

MBAS 872: Managing Innovation
This course will explore such topics as: individual vs. group creativity, innovation inspired by research; innovation inspired by the customer; sustaining product innovation; disruptive Innovation; and the innovative organization.

Consulting & Project Management

MBAS 881: Global Strategy
Most influential companies are global. Few companies who aspire to superior profitability are able to do so within the bounds of a single country market. For an increasing number of businesses, competing internationally is no longer an option. Moreover, the actions of non-North American multinationals means that today more than ever, competitive activity must have a strong defensive element as well.

Success in international markets is not a matter of luck, but of skill and persistence. Developing proficiency in international strategy translates into competitive advantage. Building competence in this area means understanding, at a sophisticated level, how companies succeed in the most demanding competitive arenas, which are usually found beyond their borders.
The approach we will take in this course is practical and problem-oriented. It is intended to enable you to acquire proficiency at strategy formulation and implementation in an international context. The course will do this by developing and applying concepts, analytical frameworks, and intuition to the strategic issues that face real-world multinational corporations, regardless of their industry.

MBAS 882: Strategic Leadership
This is a management skills course that is designed to enhance professional effectiveness, career development (promotions, salary, and job satisfaction), and quality of life in general. Through a variety of readings, self-assessments, videos, simulations, learning logs, and class assignments, you will develop a wide range of ideas, tools, and best practices that will help you bring out the best in yourself, others, and your organizations.

MBAS 873: Services Management
Students will develop a general management perspective of the typical service business for those looking to take leadership roles in a service organization or consult for those companies. Students will understand the systems and processes necessary in creating service breakthroughs, with a key focus on the involvement of a customer in a service, employee & customer loyalty, and their role in the service profit chain.

MBAS 844: Project Management
The purpose of this course is present the basic foundation concepts in project management to fulfill the Project Management Institute educational requirement for PMP certification. The course content is designed into five specific modules: a) Initiating the project, b) Planning the project, c) Completing the core functions, d). Facilitating the project, and e) Closing the project

"Best In Class" FEI Invitational Case Competition 2008

The team I joined was fortunate enough to earn the right to represent Queen's at the 3rd annual "Best In Class" case competition sponsored by the Financial Executives International Canada Chapter and hosted by the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Ten schools were invited to send a team of four students to participate. (Queen's, Rotman, Schulich, Ivey, HEC-Montreal, McGill, St.Mary's, Sauders, Alberta School of Business and Haskayne) Here is a brief synopsis.

Thursday Nov 6:

• Rent a vehicle, leave Kingston at 11:30 AM, drive for 3 hours to Toronto, check in at the Delta Chelsea
• Arrive at Rotman just prior to 4 PM for the 1 hour tech. session to get laptops set-up for the wireless network. We were also given swipe cards and a tutorial on the information services available.
• 6 PM-7PM a meet and greet in the atrium

Friday Nov 7:

• 9 AM the live case is rolled out. The CEO and several executives presented their company. This year it was Pacific & Western Credit Corp.
• 9-10 AM teams retired to their working rooms to review annual reports and other information and prepare for question period
• 10-11 AM all teams assembled and each takes a turn asking a question of the company's CEO. We managed to get in 60 questions.
• 11 AM onward teams are expected to remain sequestered in their assigned work areas and not interact with other teams.
• 11 AM-1PM Lunch with case organizers and company execs.
• 6 PM Pizza supper provided
• Teams work as long as they like researching and analyzing publicly available data

Saturday Nov 8:

• Our team was working until 2:30 AM. Then we went to the hotel to practice our presentation. Got to bed at 3:30 AM.
• Up at 6 AM to get showered and to look "fresh" for the judges
• 7 AM at Rotman, grab some coffee and fruit provided by the competition, also assigned an proctor who is responsible for escorting us around to ensure we abide by the rules
• 7:45 AM all team must have submitted a paper copy of their slide deck as well as an electronic copy on a USB key provided. Slide decks much be in black&white (gray scale allowed) with no animations. However, a team did get away with some colour in their deck. I mention who since it is all in the past.
• 7:45 to 8 AM all teams in the atrium while judges are introduced and the order of the presentations was drawn randomly
• 8 AM to 1:30 PM each team presents for 15 minutes with 10 minutes of questions. Judges are given 5 minutes to finish evaluation while the next team sets up. Teams are not allowed to see other team's presentations, but must be waiting in the staging area 5 minutes prior to their set-up time. Anyone who is late is disqualified.
• 1:30 PM the CEO of the case company roles out a "surprise" crisis. This time there were two independent problems: loss of access to major source of short-term liquidity and Shoppers Drug Mart whats to purchase company at a premium through a share swap.
• 1:30 PM to 3 PM Teams sequestered in working rooms while they analyse and make a new solution to the crisis.
• 3 PM Teams submit their decks and power point presentations as before and then it is revealed who the top 4 teams are that will get to move on to the finals. The first team sets up right then while the remaining 3 are sequestered again. All remaining teams are allowed to watch the finals. In addition, a new set of judges is assembled and introduced.
• 3 to 4:30 PM Final presentations
• 4:30 PM Teams clean out work rooms and make their way to the reception at Osgood Hall in downtown Toronto
• 5 PM cocktails and mingling with organizations, case company execs., and other schools
• 6 PM dinner
• 7 PM awards (1st place HEC-Montreal, 2nd place Rotman, 3rd place Haskayne)
• 9 PM all is done. Contestants leave for home or the hotel
• 11 PM go out for a drink with my team member

Sunday Nov 9th:

• Up at 7 AM to leave by 8:30 AM
• Back in Kingston at Noon-ish. Unload and return the rental vehicle
• Dive into team meetings and course work to catch up on all the material I have missed

Overall it was a really unique experience. I hope next year's Queen's team does better and I hope the organizers a least sit the team all at the same table. Every other school was seated as teams, but the organizers saw fit to split the Queen's team up at 2 different tables on opposite sides of the dinning hall. They couldn't have put us further apart if they tried.

All that aside, the event was meticulously planned and it is a great experience for MBA students to get a taste of what it is like to be in the "hot seat" that many executives find themselves. This experience has definitely made me want to participate in more case competitions and I would recommend others try them out as well.

Week 27: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 27 has ended and I find myself sequestered in a small meeting room awaiting my turn to present at the "Best in class" FEI invitational case competition. This year the "live" case company is Pacific & Western Credit Corp. As I write this post we are practicing a few more times before our allotted "semi-final" presentation time slot. I will post a separate entry on the competition. I will say that to avoid bias based on school name, we are not allowed to refer to our school. Therefore we are "Team Da Vinci" as the theme this year is great thinkers.

Classes have been in full swing this week. There were a two major assignments due, one in Strategy and one Finance Strategy. The Strategy assignment was a 40% individual paper where each student was expected to apply course concepts to a case and focus on a strategic plan as well as an implementation plan. The Finance Strategy assignment was a 20% team assignment based on the "Marriott" case. Each team had to calculate the WACC for the company, but a lot of assumptions was required.

Although we are away from class, things are still rolling on. There is a 75% attendance requirement for all courses in this particular program. Luckily all of my teammates and myself are above this requirement even with the time we were missing to participate in this case competition. The classes are being taped with the professors miked, but I doubt I will find the time to watch 9 hours of lectures. In addition the Financial Strategy quiz weighting was moved to the final since the policy of the professor was not to allow make up exams.

Finally, the other course are proceeding as planned. Nothing unusual there as the workload continues to ramp-up.

Week 26: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 26 ends and I can't help but notice that the year is now officially half over. It is now downhill to the finish...if it only felt that way.

We had our first MBA 853 Strategic Implementation & Change course this week with Tina Dacin. Tina is the professor whose course I sat in on when I came out for my interview last year. The course promises to be engaging. Tina's quick wit and keen observation skills makes it hard for anyone to get away with attempting to do other work in her class or to just "coast" by.

In Finance Strategy we had a quiz. It was just a quick 30 minute test. Pretty simple, but everyone studied like crazy for it. A lot of people were feeling worried because of the experience they had with the previous finance professor.

The class had a Halloween party last night that was a blast! Lots of fun. Some of the teams took the opportunity to dress as a team. One team was a troop of smurfs, another a gang of Mexicans and yet another was Hugh Hefner and his bunnies (the guys were the bunnies and the girls were Hefners).

Today has been a massive drive to complete work. I have been too busy to update this blog as I usually do because the workload is getting heavy. Just managing to squeeze this entry in at 2 AM, as daylight savings kicks in to buy me an extra hour of sleep, after spending the last 12 hours hammering out the 80% draft of the Marriott Case for Finance Strategy. Prior to that it was a team meeting to kick off yet another assignment. Lucky for me my wife was willing to show up with some dinner so we could visit for half a hour. Not sure what I would do without her. Okay, I'm outa here. Tomorrow promises to be just as busy.

Week 25: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6 cont.)

Week 25 is over and the weather is definitely getting colder. Those members of the class that are used to warmer climates are already sporting winter coats. What are they going to do when winter actually arrives?

Campus is busy, but quite. The undergrads are busy studying for their mid-terms. They have also made it very hard to schedule meeting rooms less than a week in advance as they too are working on various group assignments. The libraries are full as well, which makes me all the more thankful we have our team rooms. At least we have some space to work in.

Business Week came to campus and did a photo shoot with various hand-picked students. This is a good sign since it means Queen's likely ranked very well again! We all have our fingers crossed hoping for the number 1 spot! We should know in a couple of weeks.

We had a guest speaker on Tuesday evening. Bill Bamber, Queen's MBA'94 alum and co-author of the just released book, "Bear Trap: The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Panic of 2008" gave a talk on his first-hand witness to the carnage on Wall Street. It was quite interesting.

We also had another guest speaker on Thursday at noon. Thalia Kingsford, Senior Investment Advisor - Vice President, with BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. in Calgary, Alberta came to talk to the "women in business" club, but everyone was invited. Very interesting woman who shared her experience and advice with us.

A number of internal case competitions were run during the few days we didn't have class this week. Teams for the Tata CSR and Financial Executives International Canada (FEI) competitions have been selected. Also, the team from Queen's that submitted an online case for the Thunderbird case competition was selected as one of the top ten entrants. That team is going to Phoenix, Arizona to participate in the final round and could win $25,000!

My team for the FEI was the team selected to represent Queen's at the competition on Nov. 7th & 8th held at the Rotman School of Management. Most case competitions are 3 hours of frantic work followed by a presentation to a panel of judges. The FEI case is a 24 hour case, which means it is going to be a lot of work. One good thing about these competitions is that they want the entrants resumes, so you know the sponsors will probably look them over!

A lot of prospective students are starting to visit the class. I had the privilege of joining some of them for lunch today. I know I was in their shoes this time last year, but that seems like eons ago. If the information I have found is correct, business schools will see a bumper crop of applications this year since the economy is taking a turn for the worse.

Grad photos were also this week. Weird to be taking grad photos when there is still a lot left to cover. It just serves as another reminder of how quickly the time is passing. By November I have to select the specialization courses I want to take. We also have to "apply to graduate" for spring 2009 in November!

People who have accepted international exchanges are in the process of finalizing flights and other paperwork required. They need to have all this completed to ensure their position is held.

A lot of people have had second round interviews with various consulting firms and banks. Some people have even had offers. Some have accepted and others have declined. On campus recruiting has come to a close and there are currently no more info sessions. I have been lucky enough to receive an invitation to interview for a job I applied for with Imperial Oil on Monday. It took them quite a while to get back to me, but I am excited about the opportunity nonetheless.

The work load has been picking up steadily over the week. We are now under the gun again to complete various team projects as well as a mountain of reading while preparing for quizzes and writing individual essays. Time management has become key to balancing homework, class, case competition teams, interviews, home-life and many other activities.

Class has been interesting. Lots covered and all of it interesting. Managing IT has been the strangest because it has pretty much reversed who speaks in class. People who rarely ever spoke are now involved in the class discussion more than ever. It probably helps that a lot of the class comes from an IT background. There were a couple of inventive individuals who came up with an "odds" table for who speaks during class. They place wagers on who will speak out in class as a way of adding an element of excitement to their day. I imagine this change might have them re-writing their "odds" table.

All is not lost though! We are still finding time to have fun. The hockey, ultimate frisbee, soccer and waterpolo teams all played this week. This weeks point four was at the Tir Nan Og for karaoke and if it doesn't rain the class will be going paintballing tomorrow afternoon! (Note: it did end up raining so we didn't go paintballing. It rained hard. The fallen leaves have this way of clogging the drainage inlets, so there were parts of streets that were flooded all over town. Also, it rained pretty much the entire day. I'm not used to that from where I come from. Kind of depressing/annoying since you get the grey skies and you get soaked.)

Well, another blog entry completed. Now back to the Finance Strategy assignment...

Week 24: Finance Strategy, Managing IT, Negotiations&Conflict Management, International Business and Strategic Implementation (Module 6)

Week 24 has us starting module 6. The courses for this module are:

• MBA 822 Finance Strategy (taught by Wei Wang)
• MBA 840 Managing IT (taught by Jim McKeen)
• MBA 851 Negotiation & Conflict Management (taught by Rick Jackson)
• MBA 853 Strategic Implementation (taught by Tina Dacin)
• MBA 854 International Business (taught by David Detomasi)

Finance Strategy is going to cover Derivative Securities, Options, Capital Structure, Cost of Long-Term Debt and Corporate Restructuring. Dr. Wang seems like a good prof so far, but it is hard to say since we have only had one class. Long puts and short calls are definitely going to be haunting a few people's dreams this week.

Managing IT is going to cover the role of IT, IT planning, leveraging the business with IT, investing in IT, managing technology, delivering solutions, developing IT solutions and knowledge management. Dr. McKeen seems like a good prof, but again we have only had one class. This class is going to make extensive use of cases to help us learn. Originally I thought this was going to be all about the technical aspects of IT, but it is anything but that. This course is all about how IT and technology can be appropriately used and maximized to further the business. Whether it is a calculator or a full blown SAP implementation, if the business isn't fully utilizing the resource then it isn't getting the full benefit. Should be interesting to see where this course goes. With so many people from IT backgrounds the are a lot of people interested in this course.

Negotiations & Conflict Management is going to cover preparation for negotiations, positional bargaining, styles, interest-based and principle-based negotiation, framing, mediation, intraorganizational bargaining, ethics in negotiations and cross-culture negotiations. Dr. Jackson has a unique presence in the classroom and I think this is going to be a very interesting course. The course relies heavily the teachings and a text by the prof, but also on "getting to yes" (ISBN 978-0-14-015735-2).

Strategic Implementation is going to cover crafting strategy, change frameworks, binders, resistance&inertia, change levers, building your team, building urgency, culture, selling the change, influence&persuasion, and networks&social capital. Haven't had this course, but Tina's class was the one I sat in on last year and I remember her being very exciting and energetic. Have to wait till next week to find out if my memory is correct.

International Business is going to cover business-government relations, competitiveness and globalization, country risk, emerging markets & global opportunities, the market & politics of oil, trade & protectionism, WTO & NAFTA, national standards in a global economy, social & legal responsibility of multinationals and the future of the global economy. Dr. Detomasi is a very engaging lecturer. This course is relying on the students to present the cases for each class. In addition everyone needs to do quite a bit of reading in advance. Also, one of the final projects is to pick either Obama or McCain and write the inaugural speech they would deliver should they become president. That should be interesting.

In addition we had a guest speaker on Tuesday. Neil Weinberg, Senior Editor at Forbes, came to give a talk on corporate governance and responsibility. He co-authored the book "Stolen Without A Gun" with Walter Pavlo Jr. which details Walter's slide into white collar crime. Neil was also able to give us his view on the recent events happening on Wall Street. Overall it was very interesting and kind of neat to get to hear first hand from someone at the epicenter of the "credit crisis".

This weekend we are headed to the corn maze on Wolf Island. Should be fun. Also, there was a change to visit with the AMBA program on Thursday evening. We have met them before, but it was good to network a bit more. Also, there is quite a bit of reading that could be completed this weekend, but no rush. We are just a week into this module and already the work is pouring on. This is the last major module prior to the Christmas break, so hopefully that will provide some extra motivation.

Week 23.5: Brief dialogue on job hunting and employment opportunities at this time.

After a comment on the "Week 23" post I have decided to re-post my response here to allow others to view it easily.

I only want it to be clear that this is my opinion and the opinion of a few others I have discussed this with in the program. What is really happening will only be told by history. It is very likely I'm wrong, if not in entirely than in part.

From what I have heard, many companies are being a little more selective on who they are interviewing, particularly the consulting companies and the banks. In addition there are fewer positions available (e.g. 3 instead of 5) compared to previous years. Also, some of the "rumoured" offers are a little lower for some positions compared with other years, but these are "rumours" and I have no way of knowing what are the facts. (Pure speculation is dangerous, but I'm human and can't help my curiosity and to fill that curiosity with speculation when fact is not available.) All of this is a result of things slowing down and other qualified people entering the labour market.

I have been looking closely for a position related to oil and gas in Canada and I can tell you that all seems to be well in "the patch". Lots of jobs of all types. In fact the french giant Total just moved into Calgary and is looking to drop billions into building an oil sands project despite the downturn. There is also rumours that these times of lower oil and gas prices will result in consolidations. This of course means work for all the financial and supporting services for these acquisitions and mergers. So, it seems Alberta and "the patch" are a little bit more shielded.

One clear distinction should be made between Canada and the US. From what I have heard Canada is still relatively strong even if things are slowing. Some firms in the US have come to a grinding halt. In other word, although Canada may be slow, at least we still have job opportunities. Not a lot of people were looking to go to the US after the program, so this shouldn't affect too many of us. Most the international students were looking to work for a Canadian company and see where that took them since visas to work in Canada are available where as the same visa in the US is all but vanished. (If a US reader had further insight please feel free to share via posting a comment)

In addition, one person I talked to was a tad bit concerned since they were thinking of going to the United Arab Emirates for banking. However, one of their contacts mentioned that there were a large number of applicants from Europe and the US. A lot of them ex-bank employees and looking for work as a result of certain closures and downsizing. This could be a serious issue for this individual should the situation not change over the next 6 months. I haven't heard much regarding other international employment environments. (If readers from other parts of the world has any insight please feel free to share via posting a comment)

However, all is not dark! I distinctly remember a particular CEO who talked with us a few weeks ago (although it seems like eons). Bruce was quite confident that getting into these firms, both banking and non-banking, was difficult in these times, but the effort well worth it. He has seen many a career made by someone entering industry in a downturn and watched as they have been catapulted to the top during the ensuing recovery and boom. This makes sense, but only time will tell if this particular dip will rebound in a similar fashion or some other random fashion. Also, it may have just as much to do with the individual in question as the circumstances. It all sounds a lot like luck to me...

As my father always used to define luck when I was younger, "luck is when preparation and opportunity meet". So, getting the education and a key position is the preparation allowing you to take advantage of the opportunity when it arises. Hopefully I can take care of my "preparation" now and get ready for my "opportunity".

Week 23: Week off between modules.

Week 23 has been filled with a lot of nothing. Getting a few resumes out, filing some notes from the last module, sleeping in, reading a book and just a whole bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. It has been good to just relax.

Had some family come to visit for the week. Took them to see "Fort Henry" and the lookout deck at "Thousand Islands". Dropped in on the Penitentiary Museum and Sir John A McDonald's house. All and all, just a lot of stuff I haven't had time to take in since arriving here in Kingston.

Quite a few people who are from this part of Canada have taken the opportunity to return home for Thanksgiving (i.e. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London, etc.). That still leaves those of us from other areas here to spend the holiday in Kingston. So, I have taken it upon myself to organize a Thanksgiving potluck dinner. Not only is it going to be fun, but it will allow some of my classmates who are from out of country to experience the holiday as it was meant to be experienced. I say "some" since I'm not sure how many of them are planning to attend.

That's all for this week. Back to relaxing.

Week 22: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 22 marks the end of Module 5. Just finished the last final exam and I am looking forward to having a week off. Lots of tired people today since last night most of us were burning the midnight oil to get up to speed for this morning's 8 AM finance exam.

This week saw a lot of people going for interviews with the various organizations that have been on campus for the past several weeks. Some people had to write tests at alternate times to accommodate these interviews and the faculty made it possible via a non-disclosure agreement. There were even a couple of people that went to a BioPharma conference in Quebec city to scope that out for potential job opportunities.

Other than filling out a survey for the upcoming negotiations class and submitting a few resumes I should pretty much have the entire week off. This is good since some family is coming to visit and I will have time to see them. Plus I will definitely enjoy the opportunity to recharge.

Week 21: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 21 is ending. There is just one more week to go until we get a break for a few days. Also, fall has "officially" arrived. In addition the mornings and evenings have started to get a bit "chilly" and some of the leaves have begun to change. Nothing like a brilliant red maple leaf to remind you that you are in Canada and that winter is coming.

Monday through Wednesday I was attending various information sessions in the evenings for oil and gas companies that came to campus. It seems like most of them were willing consider my prior experience and education. The companies I went to were Shell, Nexen, Imperial Oil and Total. Imperial is coming back Wednesday of next week to give a MBA specific session.

Classes have been busy. Lots of late nights reviewing various team term projects. Lots of very early mornings to get in just one more rehearsal/practice before a presentation to the class. All teams had to give presentations for Operations Management, Marketing Fundamentals and Business Decision Models.

Operations Management presentations were on our final reports for the projects we did analyzing the locations we did our field trips too. Ours was on Amey's Taxi here in Kingston. Other groups did them on: Cancoil Thermal Corp., Dofasco, The County Cider Company, Hotel Dieu Hospital and many others. With the completion of this report and presentation we are pretty much done this course since there is no final exam.

Marketing Fundamentals presentations were on each teams product re-launch. Our team did the zeppelin and proposed launching a small fleet of these giant floating hotels to offer luxurious cruises to the very wealthy. Other teams chose: Clear Pepsi, Dodge LeFemme, Britney Spears, Concorde, iCam, Kindel, Electric Sports Car by GM, Segway and many others. In addition we had to submit a very substancial report.

Business Decision Models presentations were of each teams choosing, but a lot of teams decided take advantage of their field trip in Operations Management and modelled the business they visited. Our team modelled the call center and taxi allocation of Amey's Taxi. Other teams did: Cancoil Termal Corp, Dofasco, "Match Maker" for the class based on surveys the class filled out (by far the funniest, hopefully other classes do this as well to "maximize" happiness), Personal Interactive Meal Planner (Pimp...lol), eBar (this optimized our MBA student lounge snack offerings), class seating arrangement (this "broke" solver as it was too complex), Cell Phone Plan Optimizer, NHL team chooser to beat the Maple Leafs, Traffic Light and a few others.

Homecoming is also this week. There is a big football game that everyone is going to and there will definitely be some social gatherings. The police banned the sale of kegs earlier this week in an attempt to try to curb the over enthusiasm expressed by some of the undergraduates, but I think they will just succeed in covering the roads with broken bottles since undergrads will be undergrads. The class has created some interesting t-shirts we hope to sell at the game to make a profit! (Note: Turns out this went very well. We broke even and made quite a health profit to contribute towards the class' trip to MBA Games. The party was something else...)

I also had an appointment with Julia Blackstock. She is definitely one of the better business career center people available to the students. Very knowledgeable, to the point and friendly.

David Edwards from the business career center gave a lecture on salary negotiation. A lot of people have been getting calls to interview for positions with the companies that they applied for on the Career Services Network, so the timing is about right. Although I am familiar with a lot of what David presented, it was good just to be re-familiarized with it so I have a clear understanding of this topic. After all, I'm hoping I will be in a situation where I need to do this sometime in the near future.

Case competition teams are beginning their practice sessions where they can find time. We need to have a series of internal competitions to see who is going to represent Queen's MBA at the various case competitions before Christmas.

All the sports teams are now in full swing. The hockey team is playing on Monday! Point fours are still going strong! Everyone is tired, but I still see a lot of smiling faces. This post has been somewhat random and poorly written, but that only reflects the tired and fatigued state I'm in. One more week...

Week 20: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 20 and the pace is picking up...as if that was possible. I have been getting up at 7 AM (tried 6 AM and it was a "no-go") and working straight through till 12 PM (some later) every night for what must be the past 3 weeks straight. Weekends are those prized days that I get to sleep in to 8 AM (sometimes even 9 AM! OMG!). My only solace is that pretty much every other person in the program is in the same situation and is feeling the same pressure and fatigue. Just a couple more weeks and we get a few days off!

This week I attended On Campus Recruiting sessions for Cormark Securities, Secor Consulting and Petro-Canada ("retail locations/lubricant divisions"). All were interesting, but I don't think any of these companies are "me". I will stick to my original plan to look for work more closely related to upstream oil and gas.

Classes have been tough this week. Although we had Wednesday off, it was just used to attempt to catch-up on all the work we have due. There was also a finance test on Friday morning. I certainly hope the school addresses the issue of the professor teaching this course for next year. He is not being very effective and a lot of the students are somewhat frustrated by the situation. A lot of people needed to skip class the day before the test, myself included, just to attempt to get prepared because we have been too busy to find the time in the past few weeks. As if that wasn't enough, recently I just discovered the finance text we are using for this class is used in a commerce undergraduate course. They do cover the text in 4 months and we do it in 3 weeks! But what the hell, we can take it...after all we are MBA's, right?

(Strange that the one of the central themes of the Organizational Behaviour and Leadership courses was "work-life-balance", yet all MBA programs pretty much throw that to the wind.)

Friday afternoon we played "the Beer game" in operations management! What a blast. It was played with different teams sitting around tables and operating a "supply chain" of "beer" symbolized by poker chips. This game definitely taught us all a good deal about the "bull whip" effect using a fun and hands-on approach. Everyone "bet" $2 up front. This "all-or-nothing" prize was awarded to the team that succeeded in keeping up with supply while minimizing inventory and backlog costs (i.e. achieving "the goal"). I would post more here, but it would only ruin the experience for others.

We also had another prospective student join our class for a day this week. It is that season again when the next year's class is busy submitting applications, coming out to be interviewed and sitting in on lectures. Weird to think I was in that position just under a year ago. Now I'm clinging to a coffee cup to fight off sleep so I can complete the endless stream of assignments. Yep, livin' the grand life...sigh.

Even with everything going on there are still people managing to find time to fit in some exercise. Yesterday evening I was in the pool with our "inner-tube" water polo team during our first intramural match. Other people have found time to play some basketball and soccer. Still others are making time for running and swimming regularly. All of this is supported and encouraged by the programs program who supply equipment, entrance fees and "fit-to-lead" trainers where needed. It is a good way to begin training for this year's MBA Games in Halifax. (checkout the video Dalhousie has put up on YouTube for more info.)

This weekend is going to be filled with editing reports and team work sessions to continue the Business Decision Model "field trip" presentation and Marketing "product relaunch" presentations now that the "lead/second" pairs have brought them to "95%".

Also, I have information sessions for Imperial Oil, Nexen, Total and Shell next week. That is only going to add to the workload...

(now I really have to get back to work and stop procrastinating by writing on this blog. It is amazing what seems interesting and "uber" important when you have so many other things that need doing)

Week 19: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 19 started with a presentation from Bruce M. Kagan, CEO of Blackmont Capital Inc. This was an interesting presentation from an individual who has risen quickly through the ranks for the banking world. Afterwards, a few of us that signed-up were able to have lunch with Bruce and spend some additional time talking with him. One word of advice that he gave was to be the guy that "shines". If you can choose between taking on a significantly larger job that you will do an "okay" job at or a job that is smaller that you will "excel" at, then you should choose the job you "excel" at since you will stand out. Standing out is how you advance in the banking world.

What was really neat was that Blackmont was in the news for the next two days after, on the front page of the business section, as various rumours were circulating about a possible deal between CI Financial and Canaccord regarding the fate of Blackmont. It was really neat to meet a key player in this real world drama as it unfolded.

Monday to Wednesday were regular classes, but on Thursday and Friday we had a quick 2 day course on Business Communications (MBA834 Business Communications). This course was taught by two instructors from Ottawa who have 70 odd years of experience in television journalism between them. In addition, they have assisted executives with communicating better for the past several years. Several teams and individuals volunteered to present to the class. They picked a presentation they had done previously in the program, or created one based on a personal subject, so that they could be analyzed and suggestions made on how to improve. I definitely think this course was useful, but I wish it had been included earlier in the program. We could have benefited more from having it earlier in the program and used these learnings in all the subsequent presentations.

For fun the class is still keeping up with the weekly "point four" and various sports teams are still being formed up: volleyball, basketball, hockey, inner-tube waterpolo, etc. It is hard to commit to these since I find myself very busy and don't know where I would fit them in.

This weekend is going to be brutal for workload. There isn't enough hours in the day anymore and without the team working together this would never be achievable. We are approaching the end of the module quickly and there are larger "term" projects due. In addition there are the usual smaller assignments due. On top of both of those are the ever looming mid-terms and final exams. As if this wasn't enough, people are still busy signing-up for and attending evening info sessions for On Campus Recruiting as well as applying for jobs that have been posted on the career services network. The only real "light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel" is that this will all be over in a few weeks...and then the next module will start.

I need to keep reminding myself that not only did I voluntarily sign-up for this craziness, but I competed for the opportunity and paid for it too.

Week 18: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 18 saw the undergrads return to campus in droves! Frosh week is in full swing with all the first year students being put through the paces by their second year overlords. Lots of craziness on campus. Although it is amusing and their presences adds a much more human feel to campus, the downside is that we now have to compete with the undergrads for meeting rooms, space in the cafeteria, space in the library, etc. In addition they are kind of noisy. Last night they turned Goodes Hall into a dance hall and the music was loud enough I gave up on trying to do any reading whatsoever.

This week has been full of half days. Most of this additional time outside of class has been taken up by assignments or extra studying. In addition the on campus recruiting (OCR) events will kick off next week so a lot of people are busy making final preparations. They need to do this now since next week's workload looks like it could be much more demanding.

OCR for the next few weeks is mainly information sessions hosted by various companies looking to hire grads from all of Queen's. Quiet a few are coming, but not all of them are targeting MBAs. Then certain companies will be returning to interview students they are interested in during the week allocated in October.

Lots of teams have found places to go and tour for their MBA 841 Operation Management project. My team decided to approach a local taxi company, Amey's Taxi, and we did our tour today. The owner was very open and happy to answer our questions. Should make for an interesting project.

Lots of sports teams are getting organized for intramurals. Looks like the MBA class will have a volleyball, soccer, badminton, basketball, and hockey team. I haven't been on skates for over 5 years, but I'm still going to sign-up for the hockey team. Now I just need to find equipment.

This weekend will be filled with more homework, a few team working sessions and hopefully some fun. Looking to watch the first year engineers try to climb the greased pole to remove the "tam" and to attend a free concert by the Arrogant Worms.

Week 17: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5 con't)

Week 17 is over. This marks the halfway point of the team based portion of the program. Time is flying by.

The week has been a continuous steady pace, which has resulted in a lot of work to be completed over the long weekend. Luckily we have Friday afternoon off to get a head start on the work. Overall the class is much more subdued than previous modules as people buckle down and get back to serious work.

In addition this was the last week we have campus to ourselves. The undergraduates are returning next week and that will make booking various meeting rooms much more difficult. A lot of them are already here. Next week is their "frosh" week, which means they will basically just be partying. The MBA's on the other hand will be working our butts off.

Business Decision Models is launching into simulations. This is a little bit more complex than the linear programming models from last week. They pretty interesting, but playing with Excel to get the models to perform just right could take some extra time.

In Operations Management we had a guest speaker from Shouldice Hospital. This was after we had completed the Harvard Case Study. It was really cool to be able to talk with the guy who runs this facility and get his responses to different issues and solutions you considered while studying the case. The teams are also expected to find a plant location to tour and complete an analysis for this course. A lot of business have turned down groups. I hope my team is able to secure a location soon.

Marketing has been interesting, but it is mostly just discussing all the readings and concepts. Each team needs to pick a product or service to "re-launch", design a marketing strategy and present it to the class. The guest speaker we had in this class was from MXI Technologies. It was interesting to see how the theory we have been learning is actually implemented to allow companies to aggressively grow their revenue.

Finance started off slow, but has just kicked in today and yesterday. We are now neck deep in bond valuation and next week will be stock valuation. I am very glad I took the professors advice and purchased the TI BA II PLUS (financial calculator). The slides include explicit instructions on how to properly use the thing, avoiding unnecessary confusion on my part. I'm going to have enough to learn without fighting a calculator.

On top of all the courses the class had high performance team reviews with our team facilitators. Each individual filled out an anonymous online survey about various performance aspects for all of their team members. These results were then reviewed one-on-one for each person in the program with their team facilitator. Afterwards the entire team met with the team facilitator to discuss how they could continue to improve and what they could learn from their reviews. I definitely think this helps since it let people gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Overall this is a very good thing to have in the program.

The MBA Games and Case Competition teams are finally getting moving after a month of organizing and planning. It will be interesting to see how it all goes. I am hoping to be able to compete in a few Case Competitions and the MBA Games. This year's MBA Games are in Halifax and start the day after New Year's (Jan 2nd). Ouch! The plan is to fly out and back to help with the commute, but each individual will need to cover their flight.

Finally, while all this other stuff is going on, as if that wasn't enough, people are still ramping up their prep and practice for On Campus Recruiting. Mock interviews are going on and people are sizing up which info sessions to attend in September.

Basically it comes down to one thing:

September is going to be a very busy month.

Week 16: Business Decision Models, Operations Management, Marketing Fundamental, Finance Fundamentals (Module 5)

Week 16 has ended and I feel like I just updated this blog yesterday. This week we started Module 5 which is comprised of MBA861 Business Decision Models, MBA841 Operations Management, MBA831 Marketing Fundamental, and MBA821 Finance Fundamentals. We have had classes in all but Finance Fundamentals this week.

MBA861 Business Decision Models is taught by Yuir Levin and will cover optimizations models, simulation models, decision analysis and revenue management&dynamic pricing. So far this course has been comprised of symbolic logic with basic math that we then turn into models in excel and use "solver" to complete. Yuir is quite interesting and has a very strong understanding of the material.

MBA841 Operations Management is taught by Paul Roman and will cover decision making, process design, service processes, plant evaluation, change management, supply chain, knowledge management, inventory/consulting, synchronous manufacturing and operations strategy. This course relies heavily on cases with textbook reading which are used in team and individual assignments. This material is then used by the professor to facilitate discussion and teach in class. In addition each team is responsible to organize a field trip to a manufacturing facility and complete an analysis of the plant. Paul is an awesome down to earth professor who knows the theory, but insists on relating things to "real life" and how solutions would be implemented.

MBA831 Marketing Fundamentals is taught by Rob Woyzbun and will cover marketing function, marketing analysis & objectives, core marketing strategy, brand strategy, marketing "mix", product strategy, pricing strategy and trends. This course has quite a bit of reading, but is mainly focused on the discussion and learning that occur in the class room. Rob is an entertaining and fun professor with a strong grasp of the subject material. Moreover Rob is a Porsche enthusiast.

MBA821 Finance Fundamentals is taught by Naceur Essaddam and will cover time value of money, interest rate and bond valuation, stock valuation, NPV and other investment criteria, capital and investment decisions, risk analysis, real options, capital budgeting, return/risk&CAPM, return/risk&capital budgeting. We won't have our first session in this course till next week, but it look like it will be fairly technical with a lot of number crunching. (Note: After the first class we discovered a financial calculator is a requirement for this course. The professor recommends the Texas Instruments BA II Plus since it is the one he is familar with and can assist the students with using it, but any financial calculator will do.)

Already this week has seen more than a few late nights as the course load has come on full blast. I skipped the "point four" social gathering last night to figure out why my excel model was telling me that it wasn't "linear" even though it clearly was "linear".

This weekend some of us are headed out to go white water rafting near Ottawa and the MBA games sports teams are having their first practices tonight. I plan to participate in both of these activities and still get all my require work done.

In other news, the consulting club had an alumni from a previous MBA class who is with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) come in and give a presentation on what it takes to get hired with BCG. There was also a presentation by "MBAs without boarders" earlier in the week.

Next week I have my "mock interview" with the Business Career Center. These are just pretend behaviour interviews designed to help students get in top form for On Campus Recruiting.

I have also been presented with the opportunity to apply for a potential position back in Calgary thanks the help of one of my colleagues here in the program. Of course I have reciprocated by putting him in touch with people I know in the asset management field. Guess networking really does work sometimes.

(Note: The rafting turned out to be absolutely awesome. We went to River Run Rafting and the operations and facilities were top notch. I would definitely recommend this to others.)

Week 15: Corporate Social Responsibility (Module 4)

Week 15 had ended and so has Module 4 on Corporate Social Responsibility. The class is pass fail and the grade is 50% for the in class presentation and 50% for the individual paper. This week has mainly been each team presenting their topic in one hour segments.

One thing that I found surprising was how our presentations have really improved since the program started. Everyone feels compelled to take it to the next level since they know everyone else will be doing the same.

Some of the topics covered:

• Meaning of CSR
• Duties, rights and best practices
• Basic Framework
• Strategic Framework as it relates to CSR (i.e. Michael Porter and Triple Bottom Line)
• Corporate Governance as it relates to CSR
• Shareholder Activism as it relates to CSR
• Stakeholder Relations as it relates to CSR
• Hypocrisy as it relates to CSR
• Volunteering as it relates to CSR
• Fair Trade as it relates to CSR
• Diversity as it relates to CSR
• Philanthropy as it relates to CSR
• Profit as it relates to CSR
• Corruption & Bribery as it relates to CSR
• Human Rights as it relates to CSR
• Science and Technology (i.e. cloning) as it relates to CSR
• Sex (i.e. as used by corporations in marketing) as it relates to CSR
  

The paper requires each student to pick a company that was not used in one of the case studies presented in class and evaluate how their corporate strategy compares to their corporate social responsibility strategy. To give people time to prepare their presentation, the paper is do Sunday evening. So the weekend is pretty much shot.

Overall I have learned a lot and I recognize that it is these softer skills that will differentiate between a good manager and a great one.

This week's point four has been moved to this evening and it will be a Karaoke cruise on the lake! Should be a blast! In addition some of the MBA administration staff are coming too.

Next week we dive into another 4 course monster module that will see us take Operations Management, Business Decision Models, Marketing Fundamentals and Finance Fundamentals.

Week 14: Career and placement prep week

Week 14 was a pretty easy week, but still busy. Monday was a holiday so we only had a four day week. In addition, Tuesday started off with a continental breakfast. That made for a nice easy return to school after having a week off.

The week was complied of different sessions to prepare the students for the events surrounding the On Campus Recruiting (OCR) week in October. We had:

• "mock interviews" sessions
• "finance" and "case" interview sessions
• "finance" and "case" customized resume sessions
• a dinning and etiquette session
• a cover letter session
• an effective communication session

There was also a trip into Toronto on Thursday evening where students attended one of four events:

• IBM Global Business info session (directed at those interested in strategic and IT consulting)
• ACQUIRE (directed at those interested in investment banking and private equity)
• TD Women in Finance (directed at the women in the class interested in finance careers)
• BMO info session (directed at people interested in knowing more about specific finance position with a major Canadian bank)

The school bussed the class to and from Toronto. For some of the events undergraduate commerce students were also invited to attend.

Attendance was mandatory for pretty much everything with the exception of a few students who already had jobs secured. Also, if students wanted to make arrangements to meet with particular people regarding employment they were allowed to skip out on certain sessions.

On the whole it was good and I definitely feel more prepared for OCR and job hunting in general.

This weekend will be taken up with some R'n'R while reading the text book and cases for next week.

Week 13: A break at last

Week 13 is at a close and I find myself in New York City.

Monday was the final test, which I completed in 2/3 of the time. This was unnerving since I seem to take up the majority of the time given to write tests. This was made stranger since just as I returned to my team room, my cell phone started to ring from the drawer I had left it in prior to heading to the test. As luck would have it, the head of oil and gas trading for a major Canadian bank based out of Toronto was calling me. Seems that their HR people were going through the online CVs that were posted and my background was of interest to them and they would like to discuss what their program has to offer successful candidates. Got to hand it to Queen's, they did a good job getting our CV's up there at least a month before anyone else. I was excited at getting the call, but since I wasn't at my best, I asked if we could delay the conversation until a later time.

After checking my schedule it seemed that meeting in person on August 7th would be the best option. Queen's is busing the class to Toronto for various events concerning employment in consulting and banking on that date, so it would work out. After a few e-mails everything is set-up. As luck would have it the bank in question has offices just a few blocks away from where the event I chose to attend.

In addition, we all returned to our desks in our team rooms after the final test to find a book that needs to be read for the module after this next one called "The Goal". On top of that we still have prep work to do for next week's workshop on building our full customized resume. Even when we get a few days off there is still stuff to do.

Tuesday the class headed to the beach near Picton. It was awesome. Beach volleyball, laying on the beach and swimming in lake Ontario took up most of our time. Everyone who went really enjoyed their time.

Wednesday my wife and I drove to New York City. On second thought, it would have been better to drive the hour and a half to Syracuse, NY and fly, but for some reason I got it in my head that driving would be a welcome break from the stresses of studying and a chance for us to spend sometime together.

Whoops.

Driving in New York City has got to be one of the more stressful experiences of my life. After fighting to get into the Lincoln Tunnel, I mistakenly missed a turnoff and ended up driving through Times Square at night. There is a reason people take taxis everywhere in New York and now I know why on a very personal level.

So, after fighting the crowds and touring around the city for a few days I find myself updating this blog. Classes resume next Tuesday and I am enjoying the time away from Kingston, even if I'm finding New York a little too involving.

Week 12: 3rd set of finals continues (Module 3 con't)

Week 12 gone and finals are still going on for Module 3. Monday the Organizational Behaviour individual assignment paper was due, worth 50% of the final grade, and this morning was the Management Accounting exam.

All the teams are also working on finalizing the team Organizational Behaviour assignment that is due next week. Then there is the final exam for Microeconomics on Monday. It is all done after Monday. This weekend will be filled with studying. Then we get the rest of next week off.

Today the "point-four" is back on as people take brief break from studying. Should be fun.

I was going to head to the library to start hitting the books for Microeconomics on Monday, but it is absolutely amazing outside after having rained for almost the entire week. This is the kind of Friday afternoon that begs you to find some friends and a sunny patio to enjoy a pint. There is tomorrow morning to start studying and my brain could use a 16 hour break. However, I should get studying...ah, what the hell, I'm outa here for the day.

Week 11: 3rd set of finals begins (Module 3 con't)

Week 11 has seen a lot happen. Classes are finished and we wrote out first final for Module 3 today. Next week the final papers for a couple of classes are do and there are more finals. It was hard to get anytime to study for the Financial Accounting exam we had today with everything else that we had to due. As a result I was studying until midnight yesterday and then up with the birds today to continue.

Earlier in the week the teams presented their solution for the case in Management Accounting. It was centered around a local sky diving business. Some of the people involved in the business were in attendance to see if our class's input could help with the business. It was neat to be presenting your ideas to the people who lived the case.

The class is looking pretty much tapped out. Moral is okay, but energy levels are dropping. Hopefully some sleep this weekend will help.

Also, we are into our second round with the Business Career Center. Now we need to start preparing for the workshop to help us put together out "customized" resume. The previous sessions were just to get our "online" resume put together, which Queen's posted online this week! In addition we receive our business cards!

That is all I have time for this week. I have to get back to writing the "written analysis of the Harvard Business School case Cigarette Wars (A) and Cigarette Wars (B)" for the team Microeconomics assignment #3 due next week. If I hustle, I might get done in time to join up with a few others for a pint at one of the local establishments.

Week 10: Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting (Module 3 con't)

Week 10 has been one of the most intense so far. There has been no break or let-up in the workload. Week 9 was busy, but the weekend that followed was just as busy, if not more so, since there were no classes to get in the way. Week 10 has been even busier since the additional time needed to keep up on all the work needs to be placed around class time. This has meant coming in early and staying really late. (7 AM to 12 PM at school and anytime additional you can squeeze out while your at home)

The real casualty has been my gym schedule and the time I once spent with my wife. I hope I can get my back to the gym this weekend. Making peace with my wife on the other hand will likely be more difficult and take little more work and time, but that will need to wait until after this set of exams. If all goes as planned we should be able to make a quick trip together to get away for a few days after exams finish and before the next wave of work begins. That should help to smooth things over.

Basically between now and next Friday there is a major assignment due every other day with some small assignment due in between. This is a generalization, but I don't have the time to write all the details here. Next Friday sees us start writing final exams. Then there is a test or major paper due every few days. From now until July 28th there will be no letting up. Basically the last 2/3rds of July are going to be very intense.

Other activities that went on:

• point four had a very low turn-out, but some of us did show up
• the 2nd canoe trip was a big hit
• those people involved in the student council have seen even more of their time disappear
• our "class norms" have been a big issue and we have pretty much been put on notice that we should show up to class on time or the administration is going to do something about the situation (this is for returning to class after short breaks)
• somehow various clubs have still managed to squeeze out time to meet (the consulting club even managed to do some one-on-one case practice)

Okay, that is all the time I have allocated to this activity. Time management is key. On to the next task: reading that case for management accounting...

Week 9: Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting and Canada Day (Module 3 con't)

Week 9. It is finished. I apologize for being brief, but I really shouldn't have the time to update this blog.

Monday saw a bunch of the class go skydiving. Everyone made it back, including the 2 professors that went with the students. I hear it was a blast and I will have to consider going if a 2nd excursion is arranged.

Tuesday we went to Ottawa for Canada Day! It was awesome. Everyone met for lunch, a few brews at a pub, Darcy McGee's, and to enjoy a few "Smiling Jerrie's". Afterwards we all wandered. My wife and I ended up having a nap under a tree at the Jazz festival. Then we all met up infront of Parliament to watch the concert and fireworks. Some people went to a nightclub instead. After the fireworks we boarded the bus and were back at Goodes Hall by 1:30 AM. Everyone was tired, but we all made class at 8:30 AM the next day!

We have had a few half-days this week, but that only seems to allow us just enough time to attempt to complete everything that has been assigned. This weekend will be filled with assembling the "Annual Report Project", at least for me since I'm the "lead". My team will have the wonderful task of editing it next week. On top of that I have at least 3 or 4 other projects I need to complete my portion of and get to other project "leads".

The point four went ahead again this week. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

I would write more, but like I stated earlier I have too much to do. More next week.

Week 8: Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting and Canoeing (Module 3 con't)

Week 8 has come to a close. More Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Microeconomics, and Management Accounting. All the courses are in full swing. The work required before the class combined with all the assignment work is definitely keeping me busy...all the time. This weekend is going to be packed with lots of work.

We were going to go on a class field trip to a local Kingston business for our Management Accounting class to do a "live" case study next Monday. However, it was a sky-diving business and a few of the students decided to make use of the opportunity; they got some people, including the professor, to sign-up to go sky-diving the day of the trip. Since the school cannot be associated with such a high-risk activity, the field trip had to be cancelled. Now the rest of the class doesn't get a field trip and they still have to find their own transportation to the sky-diving location. Doesn't really seem fair to the rest of the class, but I guess there will be other opportunities for field trips.

Friday we had our first of four "speechcraft" sessions, which is an introductory course to "toastmasters". About half the class has signed-up for these sessions and I really think they are going to help us become better public speakers, which should help given the amount of presenting we are likely going to be doing.

This week's "point four" tried to incorporate a non-drinking activity, "movie in the square", to include those members of the class that don't drink. Unfortunately almost no one showed up and the people who did were people who participate regularly regardless of the venue. Hopefully we are able to find a way to get everyone coming out since it is always a welcome break, especially since the weekends seem to be filling up with homework.

Next week the class has organized a trip to Ottawa for Canada Day! That should be AWESOME. Spending Canada Day in Ottawa was on my list of things I had to do while in Kingston for this year.

Week 7: Financial Accounting, Organizational Behaviour, Management Accounting and Canoeing (Module 3 con't)

Week 7 has come to a close. Just got back from a perfect afternoon of canoeing! Paddling around a beautiful lake with nothing but the sounds of nature is exactly what I needed after this week.

The week started with a half day off on Monday morning, which I had to use to take care of some business at the bank and to do some additional reading for courses. At noon we had a presentation on the international exchange options that are available for Module 9, the module after December, if people want go on one. There are a lot of really good schools and they cover pretty much every continent.

We also had a couple of very long days since we had to stay for an additional 3 hour session with Doug Reid in the evening on Monday and Tuesday until 9:30 PM. The 2 sessions were on how to complete business case studies and they definitely helped me understand this particular method of teaching much better. To top it off Dr. Reid was excellent.

We had our first couple of classes for MBA852 Organizational Behaviour. The course is taught by professor Jana Raver and focuses mainly on human resources. Dr. Raver is interesting and the material seems intriguing, but there is a ton of reading. The course is supposed to cover human resources management, organizational effectiveness, designing high-quality jobs, recruiting and hiring, managing employee engagement and withdrawal, employee stress and well-being, employee motivation and compensation, performance management, employee development and learning organizations, and strategic alignment for HR and organizational culture.

Similarly we had our first couple of classes for MBA812 Management Accounting. The course is taught by professor Clinton Free. Dr. Free is from Australia and was definitely able to get on the students good side when he launched into an unexpected 10 minute presentation on Australia at the beginning of the first class. So far the course seems to be okay, but I'm waiting to see how the next few lectures go before I decided if I like it or not. The course is supposed to cover cost fundamentals, cost-volume profit analysis, costing systems, activity-based costing, budgeting, variance analysis, decision-making with relevant costs, management control systems, capital budgeting, financial modeling, performance measurements, balanced scorecards, financial performance appraisal, transferring pricing, pricing and target costing, management accounting for entrepreneurs, and ethics.

This week also contained our first class of MBA801 Microeconomics with professor Bo Pazderka. As the name of the course suggest we will be learning about all the details surrounding microeconomics.

Furthermore we had more MBA811 Financial Accounting with John Moore. It is interesting, but the main assignment, an analysis and comparison of 2 annual reports, is looking like it is going to take more than a little work.

In addition I had my second appointment with the Business Career Center to work on my online resume. I think I have managed to narrow some stuff down, but it is tough. Nobody wants to shut doors on opportunities, but I am quickly realizing some of the career options just aren't a good fit.

This week's point four gathering went well. It also doubled as a fund raising event to help the 2 teams from our class heading to Montebello, Quebec this weekend to participate in an adventure race. The funds are going to support cancer research and the teams should have a blast as they complete 8 hours of hiking, canoeing, and biking.

Finally, we had the afternoon on Firday off and, for those of us that signed up, we went canoeing. The canoeing trip I just returned from was the perfect activity for an afternoon where one is recovering from "socializing" too much the evening before at the point four gathering. I am feeling rejuvenated as a result and should be able to dive into an intense weekend of assignments and readings.