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.