Ah, spring in England!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Spring in England
Forget everything I said yesterday about the improving weather. Below is a picture of daffodils and a nice spring day that I took yesterday then the next picture is the view from my bedroom window this morning. Its April and we've probably just had the heaviest snow we've had all year.
Ah, spring in England!
Ah, spring in England!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
The Half Way Point
It's the beginning of April and Term 2 is over and I've almost run out of holidays before Term 3 starts. The days are finally getting longer and a bit warmer and there are daffodils absolutely everywhere.
There isn't really all that much to write about the last few weeks of term 2. There wasn't much that was new, just more lectures, more learning team and another set of exams. Our orienteers had warned us that for most people term 2 is the low point and I can see why. The novelty has worn off, the work load is about the same as term 1 but you also have to start working on your CV and job applications and the weather is really quite lousy.
The one thing that was a bit different was our project management week. I've done a little bit of project management in the past but it was taught in a really interesting way. One whole day was a simulation to project manage the building of a warehouse and we were judged on how close we came to our original estimate in terms of time and money and how much profit we made. We had to track our actual budget against forecasted, ensure labour and materials were ordered in advance of when needed, assign resources to tasks, etc using action forms that represented a week.
Sounds simple enough but to make it more realistic, the simulation would throw in spanners like delays, slow progress or extra activities that threw out the whole schedule. In about week 7 (of a 20ish week project) the lecturers took 2 people from each team and swapped them into another team and we had to stay there until we were performing integral jobs in our adopted teams. The idea was to test that the systems we were using were robust and we weren't just relying on one or two key people. In the pictures you can see huge wall charts with lots of post its. That's because we
weren't allowed to use any PM software like MS project to run our Gantt charts. It all had to be simple and visual to show that we actually understood how the process worked. Our team did well, topping Blue stream and coming 3rd overall.
On the social side, there was the usual Thursday night socials and WAC parties and a few birthday parties to keep us busy. The Picasa album has a few photos from John's 40th which was a very fun night. The best party though was definitely the night of our last exam. I think we were all just so glad to get to the end of term 2 and have some holidays.
On Easter Saturday, about 40 MBAs and partners went on the ski trip to Flaine in France, right next to Mont Blanc. For almost half of us, it was our first time skiing or snowboarding. It was fantastic conditions to learn in - deep snow and constant snowing for the first few days then sunny days and fresh snow at night. On the last afternoon, our instructor took us
right to the top of the resort and took us down the network of blue runs back down. Took us about two hours to get down but I've proved that I can now stay standing up on skis going down blue runs. Definitely a highlight of the MBA for me so far.
Term 3 starts on Monday and looking at the timetable I'm not 100% convinced that it will be much lighter than the last two terms although we have been assured that the toughest part of the MBA is now behind us. The majority of our subjects are now electives but we still have two compulsory subjects - OB and business law. Plus, working out what to do after the MBA!
There isn't really all that much to write about the last few weeks of term 2. There wasn't much that was new, just more lectures, more learning team and another set of exams. Our orienteers had warned us that for most people term 2 is the low point and I can see why. The novelty has worn off, the work load is about the same as term 1 but you also have to start working on your CV and job applications and the weather is really quite lousy.
The one thing that was a bit different was our project management week. I've done a little bit of project management in the past but it was taught in a really interesting way. One whole day was a simulation to project manage the building of a warehouse and we were judged on how close we came to our original estimate in terms of time and money and how much profit we made. We had to track our actual budget against forecasted, ensure labour and materials were ordered in advance of when needed, assign resources to tasks, etc using action forms that represented a week.
Sounds simple enough but to make it more realistic, the simulation would throw in spanners like delays, slow progress or extra activities that threw out the whole schedule. In about week 7 (of a 20ish week project) the lecturers took 2 people from each team and swapped them into another team and we had to stay there until we were performing integral jobs in our adopted teams. The idea was to test that the systems we were using were robust and we weren't just relying on one or two key people. In the pictures you can see huge wall charts with lots of post its. That's because we
weren't allowed to use any PM software like MS project to run our Gantt charts. It all had to be simple and visual to show that we actually understood how the process worked. Our team did well, topping Blue stream and coming 3rd overall.On the social side, there was the usual Thursday night socials and WAC parties and a few birthday parties to keep us busy. The Picasa album has a few photos from John's 40th which was a very fun night. The best party though was definitely the night of our last exam. I think we were all just so glad to get to the end of term 2 and have some holidays.
On Easter Saturday, about 40 MBAs and partners went on the ski trip to Flaine in France, right next to Mont Blanc. For almost half of us, it was our first time skiing or snowboarding. It was fantastic conditions to learn in - deep snow and constant snowing for the first few days then sunny days and fresh snow at night. On the last afternoon, our instructor took us
right to the top of the resort and took us down the network of blue runs back down. Took us about two hours to get down but I've proved that I can now stay standing up on skis going down blue runs. Definitely a highlight of the MBA for me so far.Term 3 starts on Monday and looking at the timetable I'm not 100% convinced that it will be much lighter than the last two terms although we have been assured that the toughest part of the MBA is now behind us. The majority of our subjects are now electives but we still have two compulsory subjects - OB and business law. Plus, working out what to do after the MBA!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Midway through Term 2
It's now the end of week 6 in Term 2 and it's gone surprisingly fast. We all have new teams this term and it's been interesting to start the team process again, this time with people that 
you at least sort of know. My team this term is Devan - a Malaysian accountant whose been working in the UK for a few years, Deepti - an Indian program analysts, Jenny - a Taiwanese IT project leader, Philip - an English automotive engineer and Eric - a Taiwanese/American marketing manager.
The group is very different from my last group and it's interesting to realise that you play different roles within different groups and need to use different teamworking skills to get things done. This team is very organised and we're getting through the workload pretty well together. I suspect that the real test will come this week. Our project management subject is all taught in one week - this week coming - and involves a project simulation. The idea is that 15 minutes represents a week in the life of a project and we need to submit action forms to manage resources, labour, procurement etc. According to all reports, it's a very intense week and can get quite stressful so we'll see how it goes.
I was also participating in the L'Oreal business challenge for the last 8 weeks or so. In teams of 3, we had to manage a portfolio of brands in a simulated business world and submit decisions every week which represented 6 months of real time. It was a really interesting learning activity - think I learnt more from that than the whole marketing subject actually. You had to forcast sales volumes, build production capacity, decide on advertising and promotions budget, manage distribution channels and decide which brands to launch, retire or upgrade. My team missed out on a place in the semi-finals by only 2 spots but it was still worth it. One team from Cranfield is through to the next round and is currently developing a business plan as their next submission.
Other things - I've resurrected my German to a sufficient standard to pass my Level 2 requirement. I am going to keep going with it though to try and improve it further (my vocabulary is still quite poor). Cranfield put us all through a professional management level assessment centre which was a very useful experience. I did a couple of assessment centres at the end of my undergrad but they were a long time ago and this was slightly different because it was aimed at management level. We've got a lot of feedback from it (including 360 degree feedback and a couple of other career tests) and I've organised a follow up appointment with careers to talk about the results.
One achievement for me for the term has been organising the launch of the Cranfield chapter of Net Impact. This is a network of students and professionals interested in Corporate Responsibility (CR) which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for businesses. I organised a debate between our chair of CR and an emeritus accounting professor who is a real synic about these issues. It was a really good evening with about 100 people turning up for it.
The biggest social event this term was Burns night. It started with a day of sports competition with London Business School - rugby, basketball, football and ladies touch rugby. We started playing touch rugby at the end of last term since most people here have never heard of the game, let alone know how to play. We didn't have a huge amount of participation from the
MBA girls but quite a lot of the partners got very involved. Our official team is 3 MBA's and 5 partners. For all of us, it's really a Sunday afternoon social activity with anyone who wants to play (guys and girls) coming to play for an hour or two so a fair few of the couples come and play together.
I thought we played really well against LBS. We tied one game and lost the other by one point which is pretty good seeing as there
were 8 of us and 23 of them!!! That night, there was then a Burns supper to celebrate the Scottish poet Robert Burns complete with haggis and Scotch whisky. It was quite a strange way to spend Australia Day! We all had a lot of fun being taught Scottish dancing by the band but I think at least a few of us were surprised at the attitude of some of the LBS people. There was definitely a touch of arrogance about some (although not all) of them and I for one am very glad that I didn't go to LBS!
you at least sort of know. My team this term is Devan - a Malaysian accountant whose been working in the UK for a few years, Deepti - an Indian program analysts, Jenny - a Taiwanese IT project leader, Philip - an English automotive engineer and Eric - a Taiwanese/American marketing manager.The group is very different from my last group and it's interesting to realise that you play different roles within different groups and need to use different teamworking skills to get things done. This team is very organised and we're getting through the workload pretty well together. I suspect that the real test will come this week. Our project management subject is all taught in one week - this week coming - and involves a project simulation. The idea is that 15 minutes represents a week in the life of a project and we need to submit action forms to manage resources, labour, procurement etc. According to all reports, it's a very intense week and can get quite stressful so we'll see how it goes.
I was also participating in the L'Oreal business challenge for the last 8 weeks or so. In teams of 3, we had to manage a portfolio of brands in a simulated business world and submit decisions every week which represented 6 months of real time. It was a really interesting learning activity - think I learnt more from that than the whole marketing subject actually. You had to forcast sales volumes, build production capacity, decide on advertising and promotions budget, manage distribution channels and decide which brands to launch, retire or upgrade. My team missed out on a place in the semi-finals by only 2 spots but it was still worth it. One team from Cranfield is through to the next round and is currently developing a business plan as their next submission.
Other things - I've resurrected my German to a sufficient standard to pass my Level 2 requirement. I am going to keep going with it though to try and improve it further (my vocabulary is still quite poor). Cranfield put us all through a professional management level assessment centre which was a very useful experience. I did a couple of assessment centres at the end of my undergrad but they were a long time ago and this was slightly different because it was aimed at management level. We've got a lot of feedback from it (including 360 degree feedback and a couple of other career tests) and I've organised a follow up appointment with careers to talk about the results.
One achievement for me for the term has been organising the launch of the Cranfield chapter of Net Impact. This is a network of students and professionals interested in Corporate Responsibility (CR) which is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for businesses. I organised a debate between our chair of CR and an emeritus accounting professor who is a real synic about these issues. It was a really good evening with about 100 people turning up for it.
The biggest social event this term was Burns night. It started with a day of sports competition with London Business School - rugby, basketball, football and ladies touch rugby. We started playing touch rugby at the end of last term since most people here have never heard of the game, let alone know how to play. We didn't have a huge amount of participation from the
MBA girls but quite a lot of the partners got very involved. Our official team is 3 MBA's and 5 partners. For all of us, it's really a Sunday afternoon social activity with anyone who wants to play (guys and girls) coming to play for an hour or two so a fair few of the couples come and play together.I thought we played really well against LBS. We tied one game and lost the other by one point which is pretty good seeing as there
were 8 of us and 23 of them!!! That night, there was then a Burns supper to celebrate the Scottish poet Robert Burns complete with haggis and Scotch whisky. It was quite a strange way to spend Australia Day! We all had a lot of fun being taught Scottish dancing by the band but I think at least a few of us were surprised at the attitude of some of the LBS people. There was definitely a touch of arrogance about some (although not all) of them and I for one am very glad that I didn't go to LBS!
Exams and Holidays
So picking up where I last left off (quite a while ago). I got through the exams okay although I found it really difficult to concentrate on studying for them. I think I was just so tired by the end of term. They all went fine though and then we capped off the term with a fantastic christmas party (see the link at right to the web album). We've got a really good MBA band this year and they had everyone up and dancing for a large part of the evening. The next morning everyone started leaving campus for the two week christmas holiday.
Since both my sister and I are in England, my parents decided to come and visit us over Christmas. We spent Christmas week in a picturesque cottage near Burford in the Cotswalds. It was like something out a Jane Austen novel, especially the carols service in the village hall! My New Zealand friends Adrian and Amanda and their one year old daughter Talia joined us for Christmas and we spent a lovely couple of days eating, chatting and walking around the area.
The rest of the week was pretty lazy. I really needed to just sit still for a few days and take advantage of the nice bath tub! The most taxing thing we did was visit the local pub and take a day trip to Bath. The highlight of the day 
for me was watching my sister's partner being used as a street performer's sidekick (there are more photos in the Christmas week web album). At the end of the week the rest of my family flew off to Spain and Morocco for 10 days while I headed for a few days at my friend Helen's at Shrewsberry in the mid-west over New years before coming back to Cranfield.
for me was watching my sister's partner being used as a street performer's sidekick (there are more photos in the Christmas week web album). At the end of the week the rest of my family flew off to Spain and Morocco for 10 days while I headed for a few days at my friend Helen's at Shrewsberry in the mid-west over New years before coming back to Cranfield.
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