Queen's wins UCLA and Boston Tech Case Competitions

So, we have had several teams go to case competitions since our class has had a very keen interest this year. There has been a lot of internal rivalry to get on these teams as well as to be the team selected to go. As a result some pretty good teams have been sent out to competition.

We have had teams that went to:

• L'Oreal E-Strategy Challenge (Online) (Marketing)
• CSR Case Competition (November - hosted by University of Toronto) (CSR Strategy)
• Financial Executive International "Best in Class" (November - hosted at the University of Toronto) (Finance)
• Tata Consulting Case Competition (October) (Strategy)
• John Molson International Case Competition (January - hosted by John Molson School of Business in Montreal) (Everything)
• Boston Tech Strategy Case Competition (April) (Strategy)
• UCLA Global Leadership Competition (April - hosted by UCLA Anderson School of Business) (Strategy/Everything)

Last week the Queen's team that went to Boston Tech won first place! You can check it out on the blog for the event. First place got them $25,000 they got to split between the 4 team members

Just yesterday the Queen's team that went to the UCLA Global Leadership Competition won first place! Here is the official event website. They also won $25,000 to split between the 5 team members. Last year Queen's came in second and there was quite a bit of pressure for this year's team to perform. The competition is invitational only and the schools that attend are some of the best in the world:

• Fudan University School of Management, China
• HEC School of Management, France
• Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School, Hong Kong SAR
• Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), Mexico
• London Business School, England
• National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore
• Peking University Guanghua School of Management, China
• Queen's School of Business, Canada
• Seoul National University, Korea
• Tel Aviv University (Recanati), Israel
• University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, USA
• University of Chicago Booth School of Business, USA

To be asked to attend is an honour, but to win...wow. Congratulations to all the teams and I hope next year's class will embrace case competitions the way our year did. They are fun and you learn a lot.

Week 48: Electives - Block D (t-minus 3 weeks)

Week 48 is over...finally. Only 3 weeks to go. As spring approaches the skies are pretty much constantly overcast and it rains quite a bit here in Kingston.

Managing Innovation ended last week, so there is no update for that course.

Consumer Research ended yesterday. From what I could tell everyone was in groups completing some sort of group assignment/analysis with the professor going from group to group.

International Finance ended today with a Saturday morning exam. Everyone found it quite difficult and everyone was up late last night trying to study and get their formula sheets finalized. As much as I am going to miss my classmates and this time at Queen's, I am NOT going to miss the late night cramming and Saturday morning exams.

Either last week or this week the students in the Consulting Project course had to submit a 75 page paper. No word on what has been happening with the New Ventures Project course, but I will post something next week once I talk to some people in the course.

This week's point four was at Fanatics, a sports bar, where the class was able to reserve an upstairs area that comes complete with it's own bar, big-screen TV and a Nintendo Wii. Also, this weekend there is a big party/social gathering to see several of the exchange students off. A lot of them are leaving in the next week.

While all this has been going on I am busy booking a moving company and filing my taxes. Also, the job hunt continues, but it is difficult while studying full-time. Guess I should get some boxes this next week to start packing.

Next week, to kick-off Block E electives,"Marketing of New Ventures" and "Sales Management" courses start to the final block of electives. The following week the "Corporate Finance and Capital Budgeting Decisions" and "Project Management" courses start. Now that I have completed my required 5 elective courses I find myself presented with the decision of whether I should take anymore courses.

Week 47: Electives - Block D (t-minus 4 weeks)

Week 47 is over. Only 4 weeks to go. It is absolutely awesome outside and there are so many other things I would rather be doing. Therefore this will be a short entry.

Managing Innovation ended today. The class wrote their final exam at noon. This class had a series of individual memos for each class in addition to the final. I got the impression that people enjoyed this class, but that it might not have been as useful as it could have been. Also, the professor was not enthusiastic.

Consumer Research had the class complete an in-class assignment where the students analyzed survey results using the Systat12 program mentioned previously. The final is next Thursday.

International Finance covered more on exchange rates, hedging strategies and a little on accounting methods. The professor has been summarizing the chapters assigned for reading as well as providing updated readings and articles. A lot of the time students are not quite understanding what the professor is expecting of them when we review in-class examples. Also, groups have started presenting their cases. This is part of the marking scheme. Each group is responsible to analyze and present a case that represents a particular topic in the course. Furthermore, there is a problem set due for each group next week and a final next Saturday.

This weeks point four was trivia night at the grad club. One of the exchange students is leaving tomorrow and several others will be leaving in a couple of weeks. It feels like they just got here. Also, some of our fellow classmates will be back from their Mannheim exchange in Germany this weekend.

Scott Carson, the director of the full-time MBA program, hosted a wine and cheese event to talk with the class today. It has been confirmed that an extra lecture hall will be added. It is looking like there will be 17 teams of 6 to 7 people with a total class size of 110 (55 students per lecture hall).

With only 4 weeks left people have started to discuss their plans to move away. Also, there is some discussion on the upcoming transition week for the incoming class. I wonder what kind of hazing our class will decide to put them through...

Week 46: Electives - Block D (t-minus 5 weeks)

Week 46 is over and spring has pretty much arrived. There is barely any snow left, but the temperature still continues to hover just above or below zero. This week I heard the familiar sound of Canadian Geese returning from their hiatus to warmer climes, which has always been a sign of the changing seasons for as long as I can remember.

With only 5 weeks left a lot of us are trying to coordinate our move out of Kingston and some people have started to pack-up their desks. The end seems to be coming way to quickly.

This week saw the class complete the first week of the penultimate block of electives. The courses offered are International Finance, Consumer Research and Managing Innovation.

The International Finance course this week has covered foreign exchange rates and international trade. Topics included how countries measure trade, decide on currency exchanges and the underlying arbitrage laws that keep everything in check. Although the math is very simple and the concepts are fairly straight forward, it is amazing how complicated this topic can get very quickly. The professor is pretty dry, but very knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. The workload is quite light compared to other finance courses. Couple of chapters and some cases to read for every class.

Consumer Research started off with a lot of bland theory, but has since picked up now that the class is focusing on the analysis of the data. Initially the course focused on how to design questionnaires (ie yes/no questions vs. pick one of five options vs. 1 to 7 scale for strongly agree to disagree questions). Then it focused on applying statistics to this kind of information with a lot of statistic theory. Now the class is bringing laptops to class and using a program called Systat12 to analyze the data. The professor is entertaining and has a dry sense of humour that the class is finding engaging.

Managing Innovation also started this week. I haven't been able to get an update from someone in this class, but I will and either edit this post or just include it in next weeks posting.

This week the point four was at Tir Nan Og, an Irish pub, for karaoke night. This was also the last evening with one of our classmates who is headed to France on exchange. A lot of the exchange students have taken this block off and have decided to travel. Some are going out to the west coast to Vancouver and others are headed to New York City. This weekend the MBA hockey team has their first playoff game and fit-to-lead has arranged a trip and tour of a "sugar bush", which is a maple syrup production site.

There are still a few prospective students coming for interviews. It is close to the start date, but apparently there is still room for a few more students. Strange to think that all of us in the program were in their shoes only a year ago.

On the job front, I am aware of two of my classmates that have received offers and are in the process of negotiation the final details. Both are good offers that represent a step-up from their previous positions with good compensation. This has been encouraging to a lot of us and is proof that even in economic conditions such as these there are opportunities to be had.

Queen's expands program for class of 2010

A note from the director of the full-time MBA program, Scott Carson, has been circulated confirming that the class size will be larger for next year along with a few other changes.

Here are the changes that have been made:

• First, Queen's is going to be piloting a three day pre-MBA in the week before the orientation begins. It will take place over three days, one day on each of statistics, accounting and finance. The objective is to help students to become familiar with the subjects and get a head-start before courses begin.
• Second, the MBA Curriculum Committee is going to strike a subcommittee to review the electives section of the program to see what changes could or should be made.
• Third, the class size will be increased to 110 students. The benefit is that some employers who currently don't recruit on campus would find it attractive to come if there were more candidates for them to meet. Also, bringing senior business people to the School to speak would be helped if they could be assured a somewhat larger audience.
• Finally, if the class could be split for teaching purposes, the class size could be lowered. Having 75 students in class is not a problem, but having two classes of 55 could create a more intimate setting. In order not to lose the community feeling that students enjoy at Queen's the administration will ensure that each student and team has the experience of working with all of the others. One way of doing this is to rotate one quarter of the teams between the two classrooms every second module.