Stress,well-being and the confusion with Cows

The week started off as usual with the French classes.Gradually the language classes are becoming tougher as people are finding difficulty with the french phonetics..its getting funnier also with the desperation of MBAs from different end of the world trying their tryst with 'French'.In our stressful lives dawned in the 'Stress & well being session' where we were prescribed the tricks of the trade..namely meditation,exercise for a balanced healthy life...but alas..where is the time for a MBA...the day is only 24 hrs and he has too much to do.Tuesday evening was marked by the advent of IBM global business services in campus.They caught the attention of the Cranfield MBAs ,being a very approachable management consultant firm,we had a captivating presentation from them and they dispersed into rooms where they represented their different service lines.

Wednesday morning saw us hovering near the pigeon-holes awaiting the arrival of the SDS group report case study.Finally it arrived 'Cows and confusion' as Sean named it.The rest of the week found us on our toes trying to untangle the mystery behind this confusion with our knowledge of 'Regression' and simulation model put in place.As usual the 'Thursday' acted as a relief with the MBA band practice gearing in..as we are getting ready to hit the christmas ball with our first band performance,followed by the Las vegas night at the socials.It was an enthralling experience as the MBAs dressed as 'gangsters and molls' gambled around the
tables of Poker, Blackjack, Craps and Roulette..winning & losing their fake money.The weekend found us chilling out-few of us gathered in for parties and went for 'Casino Royale'-the new 007 movie at MK after being inspired by the Las vegas nite,there were some tennis and football games around the campus..to shed off our anxieties and getting us ready for another very busy week.

Campus being hit by the 'WAC'

It was a dreadful week..and there was active preparation as we were gearing ready..with our seat belts on..to get set go for the storm.. the first Economics WAC and there it came with a bang...'Tea,Toast & tenacity'..indeed the name quite appropriate as it challenged our strength and tenaciousness in its real sense.The case study was handed out Monday morning at 11.00 am and then everyone was rushing around the school...making their preparations..first doing their individual analysis,then team meeting..followed by stream dump presentation.Finally we were all ready for the hardest part..that was to write down the report ..now that we had an information overflow.And with the deadline being immovable as ever ..fixed at Tues 2pm,it was all the more horrible.

All of us struggled in to put in the report with its added word restriction in place.At 11pm in the night some pizzas were arranged to comfort the suffering souls.As the night progressed,almost everyone was awake ..struggling to put in their thoughts together..some in rooms,some at the forum...together,hoping that would reduce the anxiety somewhat.Next morning there was this 'WAC run' where everyone hurried to the SOM to print their final copies and hand it over to grad admin.Finally the pain was over and we all met with swollen eyes from lack of sleep...at the socials to celebrate its passing away.The rest of the week was the so called 'reading week' but ironically there were lots to read but no time for it.We had a few back-to back sessions from the careers office for CV writing and learning the art of schmoozing,followed by personal development.On thursday evening,we went to the Networking party at the Loreal London office.It was an ideal platform for the new students to be introduced to the Cranfield alumni and it was a wonderful evening where we shared the experiences of our past years during their MBA at Cranfield,also came to know about the companies they were working in at present and could gauge how and which way we could direct our career search.

Halloween,Operations simulation

The pressure is building up.On Tuesday,we had a marvellous presentation session by Stephen Carver.He mesmerised the audience with his charismatic presentation skills.We wondered how often we are unaware of our body movements while we present and how much our body movements,expressions conveyed even when we did not use words.Our first assignment 'OB Individual report' was due on Thursday 4pm.Everyone was busy pondering over the irritating yellow papers...getting their Quoits ready before the report.We celebrated Halloween on Thursday night we .Our stream reps Robin Duxfield & Wei had arranged the evening in a wonderful way at the socials.The whole place was marvellously decorated with pumpkin lanterns and everyone came dressed up in their halloween masks.

We could hardly recognise one another behind skeleton masks,witch attires and mummy dress es as we drank 'Blood of the witches'.On Friday morning we gathered at the Sports hall for the OM simulation.Poeple were shivering in cold while they struggled to make electronic circuits-the 'Standard',the 'Premier' and 'Dual' breadboard chips where we simulated the Operations of an electronics factory-made our product according to the customer's orders and delivered in time.There was one team which simulated the manufacturing model and the other which audited them.The results were declared and then the teams combined together to come up with the learnings from the exercise and then implement the best model and repeat the exercise.It was indeed a great experience as we could put in practice the theoretical models and could see their effects in reality..gave a lot of practical learning.