Great English Wild-life

Have been far too guilty of system 2 judgement and decision making recently (slow, deliberative and rational!). So much so that after a relaxing and reflective week in the US I feel I have fallen asleep at the wheel a little.

An interesting week back in the office has culminated in my first ever Friday off to catch up on studies for the IE-Brown Executive MBA, so am all read up on Corporate Strategy, Integrating the Marketing Mix, and Costing for Decision Making, Leadership final exam completed, Psychology exam sketched out (you know exactly what that means!) Still feeling like very little achieved and hellish amount still rolling inexorably down the hill at me.

To balance this tomorrow is the Summers first trip to Wildwood; one of the few charities I support, not out of a love for squirrels and badgers but because it’s a great day out for the kids and I’m a sucker for anywhere that makes decent sausage chips and beans!

Kent has many great things going for it:  the weather, the beautiful beaches,

 the countryside, the country pubs, the food, the markets, the North Downs, the cost of housing, the UK’s only high speed train and the rash of top quality breweries (well done New York for your micro-breweries but Kent has being doing it for centuries and I would swap NYC for a leafy country pub any day of the week)!

The truly great thing for me though is the array of parks, open spaces, and wildlife. Numerous zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, even a safari park (I lie not; the main picture is taken in Kent). So tomorrow’s trip to Wildwood will see me and the kids stuffed out with sausages and ice creams while we stare quizzically at hedgehogs, squirrels, badgers and other odd little fur balls. I don’t really get it but it’s somehow very British. And the sausages. The chips, beans………

Farewell Providence, hola Madrid!

So, we’re done. It’s all over. Back-slapping, hugging, tears, waves goodbye. All completed. The 2^nd face to face session for the inaugural IE-Brown Executive MBA is complete. 5 nights and 6 days of culture, art, ethics, health, psychology, entrepreneurship, society, creativity and innovation have passed by in what seems like only a few hours.

The teaching aside, the main outcomes from this amazing week has been how this disparate group of 24 has really begun to gel. Study groups were established back in March, and they have worked through their own separate dynamics, the most obvious development has been to see how relationships and friendships have grown across these teams. This picture was painted in real-time for us by our very own classmate,  the charismatic and charming William Reich and his pianist skills. The great and good of Brown and IE gathered to on Thursday night to celebrate the new partnerships and a series of standing ovations, and let’s not forget the solitary plastic flower thrown by an emotional Gerardo, marked how proud the whole group were of him.

So all eyes turn now to Madrid, well after we break through a crushing schedule for July which includes 8 sessions, 4 exams, preparation for our Innovation/Entrepreneurship project, several readings and who knows what else. We will be in Madrid in October and it will be interesting to see the contrast between what has been an MBA with a very East Coast USA feel to it (not least the 730am starts!) and the introduction of a Spanish/European aspect.

Dinners at 10pm, infeasible small portions of (admittedly wonderful) food, later starts (please!!) and great night life will be just a few of things we can expect, or at least hope for.

A week of culture and politics.

So, here we go! 3 months into the IE-Brown Executive MBA and I am flying out later today on BA from Heathrow to JFK, stay over in NYC to see friends, colleagues and clients then jump on the Acela Express to Providence in Rhode Island. I will stay in Providence for a week to attend the second face-to-face session. 3 months ago this week looked like it belonged to another age, its amazing how fast its come round.
4 days a week for the last 12 weeks I have been taking part in the online debates, the other 3 days have been spent studying, and trying to prepare, for those online debates. Add into this 10 hour working days, 2-3 hours travelling, a young family and all other manners of time demands and 3am finishes are not unusual. I can see the times my fellow students are posting comments so I know this is not an unusual occurrence.
Being totally disorganised and more than a little lost really doesn’t help. I’ve also learn that my bad habits are deeply ingrained, that I need other people around me to help me learn effectively and that I have a crushing disposition to daydream!
It’s a week of Brown and liberal arts (no accountancy/finance for a week!!) so we will be covering psychology, culture, politics, and the arts, philosophy, innovation, health ethics and society! One of the highlights will be a concert featuring the Barenboim-Said Conservatory in Nazareth, Israel.   This part of the programme was a key selling point for me and, I am sure, the rest of the class. We got to know each other quite well in the initial fortnight at Brown, the ensuing 12 weeks have allowed us to deepen those relationships, it’s going to be great to spend more time together working on this part of the programme.
A really good friend, someone who has been a real rock for me in an extremely difficult 18 months, asked me recently if I would recommend the MBA to her; my answer was to ask whether she had a spare 40 hours a week. On reflection that was a poor answer. I will revisit that question after my week of culture and philosophy; I can say with impunity that I have never before had a week like this in front of me. it was described as the hippy week, appropriate I suppose. Seeing as its Glastonbury week!

Related articles

• Is Providence, Rhode Island the Country’s Most Creative City? (gadling.com)

Justin Bieber is a mental overload, or has one?

So I usually start my blogs via the following process, I think of a theme – this week its ‘my brain hurts’, and I suspect it’s going to be a recurring one – and then I Google the theme to see what visuals it produces. That tends to set the tone of the blog. However I used the term ‘mental overload’ hoping for depictions of dumper trucks overloading skips or some such, what I actually got was a load of pictures of someone/something called JUSTIN BIEBER? Lots and lots of Justin Bieber, what does he have to do with mental overload? Is it a song of his? Anyhow I hope the use of his name has an effect on the search results!

Life so far in QS and on the IE/Brown Exec MBA is proving as challenging as we were told. This last two weeks have been especially challenging. Getting the balance between work, family and the MBA is very difficult. I don’t have it as complicated as others but I have underperformed on all 3 fronts. And all 3 fronts have been extremely patient, but it’s not an everlasting cup of patience, so I need to get it right.

Severe dose of ‘man-flu’ this week isn’t helping so am trying to cover as much as possible from home, sales for work, and study. Being snotty and feeling crap is really not helping! The reason my brain hurts? Well tonight for example I have been reading up on next weeks’ Management Economics subject (aggregate supply and aggregate demand relating to the business cycle), have been reading up on ethics, taking part in the online forum part of the programme which this week is covering Finance (long term assets), strategy (entry opportunities and strategies), Leadership (change and innovation). Tomorrow will be more snot probably combined with writing up notes, sales to the US, and getting stuck into Cost Accounting and Marketing Management!!

On the plus side, (or is it debit, or credit, I actually no longer truly know!) we are already talking about a relaxing, sophisticated week or three immediately after the graduation ceremony which will involve doing absolutely nothing. Possibly a light cocktail or two, followed by witty banter and sophisticated debate; thats right, we plan to get (expletives deleted) rather jolly.
Going further into the black, it’s a fortnight of birthdays; at the last count 10 friends and family have their birthdays from May 20th until 1st week or so of June (not including a rash of colleagues and classmates) mine is on Friday, so another year passes. Any wiser? Not sure, any greyer certainly! This time next year, that’s all I can keep saying, this time next year I will be graduated, debt free and back in the saddle!

Bishp Pete, the MBA and other stuff….

Was Bishop Pete a soothsayer? For those of you too young to remember last November the Bishop of Willesden (seriously!) was lambasted in the UK press and across the internet for some rather rash comments that were described as anti-royal and treacherous. In essence all he said was that the Royals cost the UK a lot, tend to be pretty unpleasant, get divorced and why can’t us republicans have some of that cash for a party of our own. He was portrayed as a national disgrace by The Express, Mail and Telegraph etc as someone who should be hung, drawn and quartered.

If you’re interested in what he really said click here http://churchmousepublishing.blogspot.com/2010/11/bishop-pete-broadbent-suffers-facebook.html his two prophecies were that Billy ‘Bald Before His Time’ Windsor and whats her name would be divorced in 7 years and that the press once they had bored of his heresy would soon turn their gaze to Royal bashing themselves. Lets see.

Its been a few weeks since my last post as the IE Brown Exec MBA is taking its toll on my time, cruelly exposing my inability to manage time properly. We’re in the thick of it now, project proposals are in, study group beginning to gel, initial feedback from professors working their way into our thought process and analysis. a personal favourite has been the coaching sessions with Mark Fritz; this aspect of the course is to help people understand how they are going to use this wondrous, life-changing event. Some people are thinking of a career change, others want to adapt their behaviours and to become more skilled at influencing people.

Sliding out of the office now to get home to try again to understand the interplay between inflation, GDP and unemployment, carry on with the latest financial accounting exercises and contribute towards our current marketing management paper. Mustn’t forget to read the book on health and society, oh, and the one on ethics. Need to read again a couple of chapters from the text books as well. Getting the picture?

Students drowning in debt!

What with London Met in the UK cutting  course provision, student fee increases in the headlines and now this article, are we seeing a new landscape for higher education institutions? Or are we seeing a continued flight to quality? What does this mean for highly ranked, prestigious universities with clear career tracks laid out for students? How do new players compete in this market now?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2011/04/higher-education_bubble_continued?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/studentsaredrowningindebt

Reflections on an MBA

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please – Mark Twain
Am having my daily attempt at reflections.

Part of the IE/Brown Exec MBA asks us to reflect regularly on what we have achieved, how we have performed, what’s going to be carried on into the next stage. Am reflecting that I have a hole in my sock, a broken lap-top, a personal conflict paper to write (plenty of case studies there!) and an urgent need to get on top of things so I can reward myself with a few drinks tomorrow evening!
On a more relevant side I have studied from 9am until 2pm, broke for lunch, an hour in the gym and a walk (if I am going for walks this is getting serious, I only ever walk to go somewhere, usually to or from a pub!). Then it was back to studying until 7 when I broke again to write this.
Having spent nearly 7 months in the USA over the last 4 years I suspect I am becoming immune to the ever so jolly, ever so friendly ways out here, luckily I have downloaded copies of ‘The Inbetweeners’ to keep me rooted!
On another level altogether I was reflecting sleepily on my image in my hotel window this morning when I noticed that the guy on the opposite side of the hotel was also reflecting, problem was he was also in vest and underpants, there was a bit of a stand off, but I think we both learnt a lesson about drawing curtains too early in the morning…..

Books, books, books

Books, books, books. 6 of them. Brand new. Lined up on a shelf. Absolutely zero, nil, no chance whatsoever of getting opened up in the next 15 months. Not when our friends in Madrid and Providence have conspired in such a ruthless manner to supply such a volume of happy looking, “come get me” text books to fill every nano second of my spare time. Ah well never mind at least the coloring crayons they came with will still be good to use in 2013.

Finished a busy round of client visits in NY and arrived Pittsburgh tonight, on to Washington DC on Thursday, those text books will take me well over my flight allowance, will be in the USA for 2 weeks so am going to need my new giant, tree wasting friends with me!
Going to be tough to be away from the kids for another two weeks, went shopping recently and discovered that my 5 year old daughter is in love with some louche little tearaway called Alfie apparently. She fell for him when he dressed up as Peter Pan, seriously what chance has any 5 year old got when a blonde curly haired little terror called Alfie gets into his Peter Pan gear?! Am going to be watching this one, quick drive past their house to size up his potential might be in order?
1st real online sessions on the IE BROWN EXEC MBA this week, not my best efforts so far and feel like I need to seriously get up a gear or two; was expecting the 1st month back in the UK to be a whirlwind as I work out how to balance things but after only 2 weeks I am feeling off the pace, good to be challenged though!

A very British MBA, dont you know!

I Have been back in the UK for 5 days now. In that time I have enjoyed some very British, reassuringly so, experiences: I had a fry-up (delicious), bad date (my partner for the evening was adamant that the term ‘date’ in no way, shape or form was representative of that evenings experience. Quite adamant). The there was some road-rage whilst a pedestrian (you simply cannot undertake on a zebra crossing, and then hurl abuse at said sleepy pedestrian without getting some form of…well….reaction!) Of course in the list there is a curry (also bad, very disappointed ‘Popadom on the Hill’ I spend a lot of money with you and rarely receive any form of discount or incentive – I’m doing an MBA don’t you know I could help!) And the Kebab Cocktail Jalfrezi was clearly the remnants from last nights efforts. Tried watching the Cricket World Cup; but I dont like the one-day stuff, test matches are what its all about.

So, its 12:30am, just got in, having spent 4 hours extra at the office to catch up on course-work and an online debate for the IE Brown Exec MBA, am only into week 2 and its glaringly clear how much this is going to take, my emotions are already ranging from desperation (monopoly excercise in economics) to delirium (cost accounting exercise), there has also been some bemusement (have been looking at the wrong place on the IE online campus for online debates. Modern day equivalent of the goof staring through an empty classroom window while behind him a packed classroom gets on with the day’s business).

Will be back in the US next week for the annual NAGAP convention, that will be a chance to catch up with two classmates from DC and hopefully a couple of others from the NY area. Donna, Zoom one night off studying, what do you say?

I am already looking at the study schedule and trying to gauge where I can sprint and where I will need to slow up and spend time with my family and times where I focus on my work with QS. Within these musings the Royal Wedding surprisingly became of interest, a careful day off here and there and I can get a fortnight off over Easter, am no Royalist at all but for a few days at least I will forego my campaign to reinstate the practice of sticking their heads on spikes on Westminster Bridge! So the only question remaining is: economics or marketing for a night time read?

The MBA – a new window on real or virtual hell…….

2 weeks of programming (de-programming?) complete. A typical day at Brown University on the IE Brown Exec MBA (a new venture between Brown and IE Instituto de Empressa) started at 7 with breakfast, i-pad in hand, trying desperately to keep up with the reading schedule. It would typically end around 9pm; i-pad still in hand. We had half a day off on both Saturday and Sunday, so that’s 14 hours a day over 13 days, 182 hours in total!
Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, economics, Marketing Management, Competitive Strategy, Innovation/Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Communications, Psychology, Health/Ethics/Society, Creativity, all covered.
Plenty of networking included as well, but I think everyone on the IE Brown Exec MBA was beaten by the end.
So we have now all returned home, whether it be Mexico, China, England, Netherlands, San Francisco, Peru, New York, Florida or Rhode Island I am sure we are looking at that reading schedule, that session schedule and laughing, laughing, laughing! Welcome to hell we were told, well we’re there now so may as well enjoy it as much as possible,