klogs, blogs and accelerating industry

You turn your back for a minute and the whole damn thing changes. If I'm not careful I'm going to stumble back into the realm of new media looking like some out of touch, out of date refugee from the early 2000's - which is of course exactly what I will be. Seems the adoption of Blogs is accelerating - first up, Klogs or Knowledge Weblogs - kind of internal enterprise repositories of knowledge, or maybe just online places to think. Phill Wolff is the place to start your reading on this.

Hmm, if I get five minutes to think I'll see if I can work out what the class could do to aid this - communal reading blogs for classes. Oh, all you MBA's and future MBA's reading this take a look at this. Its Doc Searls weblog, you read it, you follow the links, you hunt out the interesting stuff. Its part of a public, private conversation - an in club thats open to all. In this case the club is for thinking very hard about the internet, new media and how to get value out of technology. Thanks to this same technology the velocity of the conversation is fast, and thanks to it being public anyone can keep up to speed by reading along. By the time McKinsey or PWC or IBM publish their whitepaper on enterprise blogging these guys will be onto something else, despite the fact that there's probably someone in IBM joining in this conversation right now.

Can you distribute knowledge, information and debate between your offices at the same pace this conversation happens between individuals spread out across the world?

The Oxford Business Forum

Some time yesterday afternoon Nico and Eric got on stage to talk to us. Now, we didn't know who they were at the time, although if I'd thought about it I may have recognised Nico from the press photos. About this time last year Nico was badgering the school and his fellow students about an idea he'd had. He wanted to invite world class business leaders to the school to mentor students, not to stand up and talk, but to sit with us in small groups and chat. Now it turns out that Nico must be a pretty incredible guy because he made it happen.

Likewise last years Oxford Business Forum must have been a pretty incredible event. It would have been even more incredible if Romano Prodi and Bill Clinton hadn't dropped out at the last minute. It happened because Nico, Eric and a bunch of other students made it happen. Nico, Eric and the school were so pleased with it they wanted it to continue, and that's why they wanted to talk to us. The OBF is organised by students, for students and if its going to happen this time its going to happen in February, sixteen weeks from now, and a big chunk of organisation needs to be done in the next four weeks.

So, in best Oxford tradition we were invited to the pub to talk about it, and like all the best things in Oxford the pub of choice was the Turf Tavern. Of course in best business school tradition there was also a meeting - at 9AM this morning. Now nothing is set in stone yet, but I put my hand up for the sales and marketing team. A couple other folks did too, so I'm not alone, but even so it could be a lot to take on.

And that's had me thinking, if you read the post below you'll see that there are plenty of people in this class who've done incredible things, and unless I start turning up to these meetings, raising my hand and putting in the hours well, I may never be one of them. So thats one of my things for the year, learn to raise my hand, step forward and make something happen. Job one, live up to something one of my old colleagues told me, and make a product famous. The Oxford Business Forum 2003 is going to be awesome, and you read about it here first.

Induction day 2

Day two was much like day one, we were told things, we wrote them down and listened attentively. So, we can now access all the business databases and market research the school has available (and that's a lot), we know even more about job hunting and we've been thoroughly intimidated by the business of exams, assessment, pass marks and so on.

There were however a few interesting bits. One was the chance for everyone to say sixty seconds worth of material about themselves. I think its fair to say that there are one or two special people here. Things my classmates have done that I haven't include :- winning olympic silver medals (round of applause), serving as bodyguard to the Israeli President (collective intake of breath), flown jet fighters (general - cool thoughts circulate), and founding companies. You got the impression that as we filed out of the hall more than a few of us were wondering what such an exceptional bunch could do if we put our minds to it - sod the MBA, lets all start a company and get rich...

Then they told us about the Oxford Business Forum, and I think I became a whole lot busier.

Induction day one

No time to write a lot, but after our first days induction and following drinks reception I can tell you :

• We have loads of support staff, which allows us to focus on the learning stuff and not worry so much about tracking down obscure books
  
• The food is pretty good, and the orange juicing machine is really cool to watch
  
• The careers service has a big financial services bias
  
• Many of my new friends have wives, kids and mortgages. My old friends tended to have partners, pets and landlords. I think they call this growing up.
  
• our study packs are *really* big, thats a lot of reading to get through.
  

And apparently McKinsey are the biggest employer of SBS graduates taking 5% of the total. Always said they had more taste than the other consultancies. Oh, and crack-gmat is apparently a fine product which I can cheerfully recommend. Expect some blatant merchandising soon. (well, as soon as my FTP client starts working properly so I can update things other than the front page)

Jenkinson shows his class as SBS make unbeaten start to the season

A raft of new signings and foreign imports saw SBS start the season with a completely new lineup, but it was left to course director Tim Jenkinson, the only man with first team experience, to come off the bench and earn a well deserved draw. A pre match conference had revealed that while the side may have lacked match fitness there was enough talent to be confident of taking something against an under strength St Antony's eleven. (well, nine, SBS lending them two players to fill out the numbers)

Early play though was dominated by St Antony's, as SBS attempted to get on first name terms with each other, a well worked St Antony's move seeing them take the lead after ten minutes. By now though SBS were starting to gel and with Matt Dagget and Per Stenvall providing a physical presence up front that few sides in Oxford will be able to match pressure on St Antony's started to build. The deserved equaliser came from a corner, Stenvall heading in past the unsighted keeper. Antony's hit back quickly, and ten minutes before half time Jenkinson was brought on, his introduction nearly had an immediate effect as his throughball sent Martin Lloyd clear, but he shot wide from twelve yards with just the keeper to beat.

A half time team talk and a quick reminder of everyones' names saw SBS make a strong start to the second half. Up front Dagget and Jenkinson proved a handful, a reshaped Asian / Argentine midfield provided an immediate improvement in passing. An equaliser duly arrived - Hernan Enriquez despatching an exquisite volley on the turn from ten yards. St Antony's though refused to die and restored their lead through another well worked passing move, the finish squeezed in at the near post.

This proved the cue for more pressure from SBS, but with St Antony's defending well it was left to Jenkinson to provide the breakthrough. Collecting the ball on the edge of the area he rode two challenges before turning and lashing home a rocket strike from the corner of the area. Without doubt the goal of the game. By now St Antony's were reduced to attacks on the break, SBS survived a late claim for a penalty, but moments later another break out brought Antony's their fourth goal. With time running out SBS pressed on in search of yet another equaliser. It arrived late in the day, the St Antony's defence unable to do anything but divert Jenkinson's driven cross shot into their own goal.

So, plenty to look forward to in the new season, and while FIFA / Oxford bureaucracy may yet keep SBS out of Michaelmas term's MCR league there's a guarantee of more games and plenty of goals from the new look Said XI.

Final result : SBS 4, St Antony's 4

The Oxford Challenge

Yesterday was all about meeting the rest of the class, and doing some teambuilding stuff. The format was pretty simple, divide into groups of 14 (two study groups each) and then answer 60 cryptic clues about Oxford, mostly by going to places and looking at stuff. I think my team was feeling pretty confident early on, not only did we have me, with eight years of living in Oxford knowledge, we had another guy who'd lived here for six. This though meant that we spent a very long time planning and maybe not quite long enough running around.

We were also victims of the fact that yesterday Oxford decided to change just a little bit. Only a little bit, but enough to mean many of my time saving ideas weren't. For instance

> It usually takes seconds to get a cab from the train station, yesterday it would have taken fifteen minutes
> Graduation ceremonies meant some buildings were closed at unusual times (like when we needed to be in them)
> There were no tour guides standing round trying to sell tours (who could have answered our questions)

Still, we did pretty well. What we didn't do was come up with brilliant ideas like getting the answers from guidebooks and postcards, or hammering google for the answers. (all legitimate tactics) Ah well, a creditable finish apparently, but not in the top two. Unlike several teams we didn't find time for a quick half anywhere either, which suggests that British culture is really starting to take hold.

Still, I've now met the class - and they're all lovely people. The predominant accent is American - but there are loads of folk from Asia and Europe here, and the local Brits probably less than 20% of the class. After the tour we went for drinks and food, my attempt to introduce the class to some of Oxford's curryhouses was then stalled by Chutneys being full, and the ever reliable Shemons being shut - on a saturday night!! Fortunately someone else knew where we were going and top notch curry followed. Although it took me a while to realise that "this is a baby jesus vindaloo" is a compliment...

"The diary guy right?"

That's what people say when they meet someone who's writing a blog about their course (I'd already told the class this project was happening). So my online chronicle is good for something - it's a handy icebreaker.