Time to end the pre and head for the real one

The Pre-MBA has come to its end.We closed the week with some sessions with the orienteers from our previous batch.They shared with us their interesting experiences,followed by a Q&A.This was followed by a great lecture on strategic innovation by Prof Mark Jenkins where he explained business strategy in the concept of that used in Formula 1 Grandprix.It was really fascinating to see how important 'Pitstopping' was in the Formula 1 race...the entire strategy that went behind making the race a success.

The weekend found the entire group of Pre-MBAs moving to Milton Keynes to chill out on Saturday... for movies,sightseeing or shopping.We had a welcome tea party organized at the Mitchell hall by the community centre where all the international students in the campus were inducted.It was followed by a drink at the Mitchell bar with our last year MBA alumni...our orienteers for the three streams red,blue and green who would be with us for the Orientation week beginning tomorrow.It was really exciting to share all the experiences they had carried with themselves from their MBA year.

The WAC..CING and the socials-28&29th 2006

It was our first date with WAC or 'Written Analysis of a Case' as we MBAs put it.No there is nothing romantic and good about a WAC.For a MBA student,its the most daunting thing in a MBA coursework,it has a bad reputation of stealing people's sleep...putting them thru nervous wreck..and they have very strict unmissable deadlines.Our WAC was about a nation's economy.We were in groups working on it.The groups had to discuss about the current economy and make some reccomendations..there were two subjects,one about Far East and Asia ..the second about Europe.

So we did a whole day of research and collecting data and then most of us spent sleepless night writing report.Our team split into pairs and everyone wanted to do something different...so there we were predicting a country's economy overnight.....tough job!!!!The entire Pre-MBA group appeared like dead men sitting before dumb computer terminals .....as AmitT rightly puts it..the whole campus was quiet except for we struggling souls!!!So this was the beginning of what was to come over the year..and unfortunately this time 'there was no lull before the storm'....the storn announced as it was coming upon us with full force.

The tiring WAC day and night was followed by an accounting lecture -Keith Parker which was very interesting and refreshing as well.The evening was one which we all looked forward .It was our first party-the Pre-MBA socials at the club.Sachin,Yan,Shirley and myself took the onus of making prparations for the night with Graham's help.It was indeed a great celebration...began with some music numbers followed by the couple 'paper dance' ...which was really enjoyed by all.
We had some chinese food and inroduction of the partners/wives of our batchmates and a performance by myself.Then we all hit the floor and danced till mid night to all rocking numbers from around the world.That was it...'our Cranfield experience' had already begun........

Can 'Blue-ocean' strategy reach the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid?

Well,that was a day worth marking in as noteworthy on my blog.It was a glimpse of the 'Strategy' lectures that we would be having in term two by Cliff Bowman..a subject which is very close to my heart.We had some very interactive discussions regarding the effects of synergy at different levels of an organization-corporate,business and functional due to acquisitions..the horizontal and vertical integration.We got introduced to various models of Strategy which would be dealt in details later on in the course.Sean Rickard came in with his session on 'Globalization'-the good and bad sides of it.The discussion generated some very strong arguments and counter arguments from the class consisting of people from diverse country,cultural and economic backgrounds.It really portrayed how much we had to learn from the diversities of our experiences and opinions we have brought into this course ...and indeed how truly globalized we were.The day was concluded with Joe Nillis' talk on 'Global Macroeconomics'-the various global drivers of change,globalization and free trade market.The evolving concept of 'Blue Ocean strategy' which I have read in the book by Kim and Mauborgne were discussed.So there lies 'fortune at the bottom of the pyramid' as Prahlad puts it...but have we exploited it well enough?

Are we really Global?

The second week of our Pre-MBA zoomed in with the weekends having the SOM abuzz with the Pre-MBAs making a lot of noise around the campus working on 'Globalisation' presentations.Our team got together Sunday afternoon at the last hour to put in some slides.Thomas (from Germany) came in on Saturday and joined us to make our presence felt from three members to four.We had some very thought provoking presentations discussing different view points of Globalisation.The presentations were followed by Graham making us aware of the positives (which were really good enough)and the negativesof our presentation skills which called for improvement.Dr Ruth Bender conducted the post lunch session with 'Report Writing' - the pros and cons of it.She portrayed the finer aspects which we had to take into consideration while penning down a report.I really marvelled at how difficult and yet how simple it was to write an analysis report..difficult to unravel the key ideas from the data and information that we are flooded with...and yet simple when it would become a practice and words would begin to flow freely and obviously just as it did with Dr Ruth with all her experiences.We started on with some team building 'Plank' exercise but due to the sudden rains the game had to be postponed for later.

The Business Management Challenge-Sept 18th&19th

Minimax learnings initiated us into a more complex 'Business Management Challenge' during the next two days.Each of the teams was busy safeguarding its own imaginary company....aiming to increase the retained earnings.We soon forgot that it was only a game...the only thing which seemed to matter to us were our company's balance sheets,P/L statements...and to gauge our competitor's moves after each decision period.The decision making was rigorous..but somehow we didnt feel fatigued..because we were so involved in the act of running this business of ours.It felt exciting to see how our strategies took shape in the form of results that we had predicted and how the companies controlled the market supply-demand cylcle.

After five periods,we were asked to forecast the balance sheet & P/L for the final period and we came to know that the game had ended.The board of directors from each team made presentations in the annual shareholder's meeting and none other than the competitors were our shareholders.So it was just a very collaborative environment where we learnt a lot from each other's strategy and understood the consequences of them .Decision making was important in every aspect of life because "We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice" as Stephen Covey puts it.

The very first day-September 17th,2006

"How dull it is to pause ..to rust unburnish'd and not to shine in use" as Lord Tennyson has quoted in his famous poem Ulysses.As I landed at Heathrow back in London once again but this time on a different note,to fulfill a dream and learn the unknown,know the unexplored.Earlier work has brought me here but never felt this way.It was a myriad of emotions that were locked up in my heart..yes here I was as a student going to the university of my dreams 'Cranfield School Of management'..with so many aspirations and such high hopes.I was received at the airport and ushered in a Vauxhall to the beautiful scenic campus at Bedford.I got my accomodation at Lanchester Hall.While I was strolling down the campus lanes,met a few others of our Pre-MBA group-everyone excited and jet lagged cos of the long way they have come from.

The next morning was something that I would love to cherrish for a very very long time.It was my first day to be there in the prestigious lecture halls at the SOM.It all began with the speech of our Full Time MBA director Mr John Glen who inducted us to this elite community and introduced us to Mr Graham Heard who was responsible for the Pre-MBA programme.Initial sessions of banking facilities,MIRC presentations followed.So far so good..it was my idea that we would go easy the first day.

But I was wrong.Bang!post lunch we strated with the business simulation game conducted by Karen Valverde.We began with what is called 'Minimax'.It was a game that we played in two markets.Each market consisted of four companies who competed with each other for similar but not identical products.We were broken up into eight teams each simulating a company playing in the respective market.The challenge was we had to make some very important strategic business decisions in about 20 mins each.We floated through a hurricane of decision making...which involved concepts in accounting,finance,strategy,operations everything in a nut shell.My team comprised of Dumisa (from South Africa),Vijay(from India),Moorthy(from India),Cesar (from Spain), Thomas (from Germany) and myself.Cesar and Thomas had not yet arrived for the Pre-MBA ,would probably join us next week.

We worked hard,made tough decisions,did a lot of number crunching.The results were declared after four periods.To our despair we had been bankrupt!!.The lessons we learnt were really important.It is rightly said "Failures are the pillars of success".We learnt the hard way that for any decision we make in life,perhaps the most important thing was 'Strategy' which we needed to think about,understand and thereby implement.So our learning had begun even before we could setlle down..that told us of what was more to come in days ahead.