Ajaz Ahmed is a very nice man

Despite the fact that I was running a temperature and wanted to do nothing more than curl up with a hot water bottle I made it to London for the meeting with Ajaz Ahmed. Things started well, he hadn't managed to book a room, which upgraded us from meeting in an office, to meeting in the Meridian Hotel - as a side effect lunch was upgraded too, from sandwiches to some very fine hotel cooking. So we met up, me Lance, Jeremy and Jennifer and we chatted for a couple of hours. Which was very cool indeed.

There is something nice about being able to shoot the breeze with someone you're interested in. Less of the thrity seconds to say something interesting you get at networking events and more of the 'hey what about this' or 'what did you make of xyz'. We talked about what we wanted out of our careers -I apparently should start my own company, Jeremy has a future in the BBC, Jennifer needs to leave big companies for agencies and Lance, I forget what Lance was supposed to do. Still its nice to be told you should start your own firm. Much more of this and I will...

And we got bought books. This turns out to be something of a theme with Ajaz. He buys books for his managers and he buys them for clients. He even buys them for MBA students who turned up for a day of networking. I like this. Books are fantastic, wonderful things. Back at Domino I always wanted to give our clients books for Christmas, but it never happened. What I like most about the whole book giving thing is that it sends a whole bunch of signals about what a company is not. This is not a company that is scared of new ideas, this is not a company with one way of doing things, this is not a company where experience always outweighs learning.

Looking at that list you'd think every company would want to be like that, but very few are. I got myself a copy of the Economist Style Guide which I've been meaning to get hold of for ages. Expect my writing to improve dramatically in the next few weeks as it wends it's way into my head.

Off to London

I'm off to London today, for the first bit of networking to fall out of the Oxford Business Forum. Ajaz Ahmed of AKQA has invited us to spend some time checking out his offices, which should be nice. Always interested to see the insides of other new media companies - especially successful ones.

In other business forum news one of the mentors has come back to us to talk about taking the event global and running it in partnership with other business schools in the states. All well and good, as long as they call it the OXFORD business forum.

Demoralisation sets in

If you're going to set twenty one case studies for a course you should at least make them the kind of thing where people feel they're making progress. The marketing cases have not been like this. Each has been carefully selected to demonstrate how little we know about a specific subject area, but due to the tutors refusal to set questions, rather 'just tell me what you would do' nobody ever has anything close to what is presented as the answer in class.

Now this may not actually make too much difference to our marks since there is no real answer and the aim is just to show us things we wouldn't have noticed otherwise. However it does grind you down. A lot. By now our study group meetings are more about doing enough to satisfy ourselves that we tried than they are about trying to crack the case. Five weeks, over a dozen cases written and submitted by hand, in triplicate to the examination schools, and no feedback, no suggestion of progress, no nothing.

I'm sure on paper this looked like a great plan. Real, practical hands on teaching stuff. But when you come to address it its not there. You look around in class and see the blank faces, the resignation and the dejection. You can't teach people by telling them they missed the point week after week after week. I still think I'm learning from this, but I definately think I'm in the minority now. There are just too many trees, and we're too deep in to them for anyone to see the wood without making a real effort.

I'm sure this is having knock on effects as well. If you work quickly and care little a case takes 2 or 3 hours. So thats 7.5 hours a week, plus the lecture of 3.5 hours, plus the reading (maybe another hour or two and ) plus the two hour study group meeting to discuss the things. Thats thirteen hours if you're not trying. If you are trying each case could take four or five hours and it all spirals out of hand very quickly. I've got a gut feeling that this term the exam results will be down, too many people have been stressed out by this work, too tired and too jaded to work through the problem sets from finance or the next installment of Macroeconomics.

Still, its all part and parcel of the start up approach to business school. You try new things, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. This one isn't, but as long as the experiments continue I'm sure we'll be fine...

Feedback is good

Just had an email from a successful applicant to Said who reckoned this site was useful - which makes this all worth while. I've also had some feedback from faculty to the effect that they really like the site, and indeed that those aplicants they've seen this year who've admitted reading the thing have tended to be above average.

So, are the people who do research in advance better candidates, or is reading this site good preparation for the interview ? I have no idea, but I think the best thing I can do is give you some insight into what the place is like. The better informed you are when you decide to apply here or accept an offer from here the more use I'm being.

Victory!

Its interesting what counts for a win in football. But a solid performance, a thirteen goal thrashing and our first goal of the season are definately a victory. Hell the fact we had eleven men, got there before the opposition and put in a good warmup counted. We also added our first booking for foul play Jeff 'Chopper' Pittman doing his best to slice a Pembroke forward in half in a manner that suggested the English game has a certain appeal to the American psyche. Indeed Jeroens rugby induced transformation into SBS's very own Jaap Stam has been a thing to behold.



From left to right (back row)

Neil Chazin, (USA), Daniel Maman (USA), Bryan MacMilan (Canada), Martin Lloyd (Geordie Nation / UK), Wenqi 'you'll never beat the Chinese' Lu (China), Mathew Lawrence (USA?), Serguei 'Russian Madman' Evlanchik (Russia),

Front row

Yimin Jiang (China), Jeff 'Chopper' Pittman (USA), Brent 'foul throw' Hablutzel (USA), Jeroen 'Stam' Ariens (Holland), Narek Harutyunyan (Armenia), Neil 'Skipper' Hunter (UK).

Why was it a win? Aside from all the improvements thanks to our previous outings the opposition needed seventeen goals to go through, and as the second half wore on their increasing frustration and desperation gave the game an edge our previous outings have lacked. As they lost their way we kept our heads up, kept battling and while we finished dead on our feet we went home the happier, not least Brent Hablutzel, scorer of the seasons only goal.

The Business Forum

It was big, we did it and it was a success. Art or Science I don't know but the thing went off with scarcely a hitch, attendees had a great time and a whole bunch of serious business folk turned out to talk to us and they too had a great time. There will at some stage be a big long write up of this , complete with pictutres but for now I'm just coming to terms with the fact that its finished.

They told us about this event on day one of the course and those of us who decided then and there to take part have never known what it's like to be at business school without the pressure to put this thing together bearing down on us. The constant worry that we haven't got enough mentors lined up (by January we had six and thought seriously about cancelling, two weeks later we had twelve which vindicated an awful lot of us)

Oh, and I did the closing toast at the evening dinner, raising a glass to next years forum. It's the start of a tradition, and I was in from the beginning. One of those things that makes it worth coming to school in the first place.

Catch Up

Stuff I've forgotten to blog about in the past few weeks includes...

Cambridge Day - we thrashed them at Rugby, they thrashed us at cricket. More worrying was that despite this being an event organised here in Oxford they then thrashed us at 'turning up for a beer' with ninety of the light blues making the trip and winding up in the Kings Arms. How many could we muster - football team, Rugby team and a handful of others - that was it.

Football vs Linacre / Corpus. With SBS fielding a team reducded to nine men this turned into the usual rout, but as the goals rained in I swear you could see us getting better. We played a disciplined offside trap - and had the linesman existed we'd have done a damn sight better. We got in among them and put ourselves about and while we never stood a chance with reduced numbers and an injured goalie we are definantely makling progress....

Oh, talked to the ref. Apparently when he started doing sunday football there were forty referees on the circuit. Now its down to eleven with people dropping out after abuse, assaults and a general lack of support. All that grass roots football the FA says its supporting may not really be there.

Intermission

The Oxford Business Forum is now occupying most of my waking thoughts. In the mean time here is some politics.

* To the tune of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands"...

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is
too risky, Bomb Iraq.

If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq.
If we think someone has dissed us, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections, Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions, Bomb Iraq.

It's "pre-emptive non-aggression", bomb Iraq.
Let's prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq.
They've got weapons we can't see, And that's good enough for me 'Cos
it's all the proof I need to Bomb Iraq.

If you never were elected, bomb Iraq.
If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq.
If you think Saddam's gone mad, With the weapons that he had, (And he
tried to kill your dad), Bomb Iraq.

If your corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq.
If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq.
If your politics are sleazy, And hiding that ain't easy, And your
manhood's getting queasy, Bomb Iraq.

Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq.
For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq.
Disagree? We'll call it treason, Let's make war not love this season,
Even if we have no reason, Bomb Iraq.

Now, take yourself over here for the gulf war game.

How hard can it be?

Round the corner is a G&D's icecream parlour. As well as ice cream they do coffee, hot chocolate and pizza bagels - bagels cut in half and used as pizza dough. Over the last few months one of my standard run out of food again fixes has been to go to G&D's for a hot chocolate and pizza bagel.

Now this should be easy, first you make a hot chocolate, then you charge me, then I go and read the paper somewhere while you make the pizza. Then you call me and tell me the pizza is ready and I collect it and take it back to my table. Easy right?

So far this has *never* happened. I've seen all other possible variations though, make pizza, then hot chocoalte, then charge (takes ages), make hot chocoalte, then pizza then charge (at least I get the hot chocolate quickly). Today I got make hot chocolate, charge, make pizza. It was looking good. Till they forgot to turn the microwave on....

Lots of other stuff to write about but I've got to get some work done this evening.

Four degrees and dropping?

I've just been interviewed by the Sunday Times about networking and jobsearch (Hi Kathy if you're reading this) so I guess in a couple of weeks I'll have used up a few more of my fifteen minutes of fame. Although Warhol never explained how long print lasted, maybe thats my whole shebang... Anyway it was an interesting subject because today as I was heading out of lectures I bumped into some friends from OxMediaNet on whose steering committee I sit. Turns out they were running an event in association with Beyond bricks about wireless technology - so I mooched along and got to talk to all the local entrepreneurs doing stuff with wireless technology in Oxfordshire.

I'm going to miss my network when I leave Oxford. After years in media here it's nice to know that I can pick up the phone and get stuff - printing, designing, photographers, camera crews, rumours, gossip and leads. Not to mention a fair few people to go to the pub with and shoot the breeze. The thought of starting again somewhere else... but then again, after this course I'm never going to walk into a city completely cold. I'll always be able to call one of my current contemporaries and say didn't you used to work in New York, Paris, Shanghai or Hong Kong - where's the right place to go when you're taking a client to lunch?, what's the best accounting firm in town? - whatever. In the same way if I ever need a lawyer, accountant or banker they'll be on the end of the phone.

There was a TV documentary recently about the six degrees of separation theory. One theory they tested was trying to connect some random englishman with a mongolian sheep herder. Well, after this course that's easy - there's a Mongolian guy on the course with me. I reckon I can do it in four, easy...

Who am I ?

I've long suspected that technology has been becoming political. Already we've had dissidents arrested, attempts to exploit technology in the face of the law and technologies outlawed in the face of popular support. All this though will look like small fry when identity becomes a digital service.

This is an interesting model around which it could do so. Once again Doc Searls has read the interesting stuff for me.

Hope I have time to read it

Following up a link from Doc Searls who's been collecting bloggers thoughts on the Challenger tradgedy (how do these guys manage to blog so consistently, excellently and still get stuff done?) I found William Gibson's Blog. Much of which is not so much blog as dialogue with his fans and critics. Presumably its part of the promotion for his new book, but I think once he starts blogging Gibson will find it hard to stop, and for my part, while his books may vary in quality his actual writing, the descriptions, the imagery and the clarity of thought is always exceptional.

As a note to this. I've just read two chapters of our finance text book in a little under an hour, and made notes on it. It seems my old speed reading skills are finally picking up after many many years of rustiness. This time last term I'd have taken a couple of hours to read the same amount of material, and probably made worse notes. Learning is a skill, let no one tell you otherwise.

Keeping myself busy

I do not have time to write this blog, but it will all be alright in the end because it always is. Other things I haven't had time to do this term inlcude

Being marketing director for the Oxford Business Forum
Writing for the SBS magazine (2.3 mb PDF, I'm on page 5)

I've been writing up the Dean's seminars this term as well. This week was Hector Sants, CEO Europe for Credit Suisse First Boston. He had a bunch of stuff to say about the future of investment banking, including the really interesting notion that in the future investment bankers will be team players, highly ethical and generally nice guys. He admitted that this is going to be one hell of a culture shift, but in a new environment where reputation, fair dealing and regulation are the norm the industry is going to have to change.

Read my full report on Hector Sants (.doc)
Read the full version of my Silicon valley report

Cynicism Watch

This made me smile, especially the first two poems. After that the satire seems to dry up. Damn funny though.

Invest in education

According to the Macro-economic figures we've just been shown there's a 16% return on investment in education. Better than pretty much anything else over the long term. Makes me feel better about my big pile of debt.

Woodgate

It looks like Newcastle have signed Jonathan Woodgate, a young, english, talented central defender and one of Leeds United's crown jewels. Regardless of what happens this season it should ensure we're challengers next year. I should be delighted.

However Woodgate was convicted last year of taking part in a brutal attack on an asian guy that put the poor kid in a coma and left him with bite marks scarring his face. Regardless of whether this was a racist attack it was brutal and violent and while Woodgates conviction was for affray not assault - apparently he wasn't the one who did all the damage - he was there. He and his mates pretty much lynched some guy.

So what am I supposed to do? The guys done his time (well, his fine and community service - surely not nearly enough) and so maybe deserves a second chance? But its bloody hard to imagine supporting someone with that kind of record. Apparently some particularly senseless Rangers fans refuse to include goals scored by Catholic players when looking at match results - even to the extent of claiming that they didn't really win certain titles. This is clearly ludicrous, I can't edit Woodgate out of the team, I can't support ten out of the eleven men on the field.

Bloody hell this is difficult, god only knows what our black and asian fans make of it.

Don't try this at home

Macroeconomics should not be attempted with a hang over. In particular it should not be attempted if you are at the one MBA school that teaches economics differently. No money supply diagrams here, no sir. No, what we have is the Solow model of growth as a starting point, which requires you to get your head round some damn complicated graphs and some really interesting ideas about technology.

The perfect case study

Marketing rolled on today with another 3 case studies, all of which were written by the professor, a guy who clearly doesn't understand what makes a good case study. Having now observed hundreds of the things a good case study should be

1. Based on real companies but with the names cleverly changed. Thus a case about Microsoft should not start "Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft sat back in his executive chair" but should instead read "Joe Fence, CEO of MegaSoftware sat back in his executive chair"

2. Add a little local color. One case study included the line "you can't make an omlette sans oeufs, without eggs!" to show that the person saying it was French. This had nothing to do with anything, but it shows how global and open minded the business school community is.

3. Include at least one instance of an unco-operative member of staff or a personnel issue. This is to prove that the case is in the real world. Thus we get 'Marco Baggio the production manager who passionately believed that increaing sales was the way forward'. In line with point 2 Marco should be Italian and the product should be pasta.

4. Leave room for the student - usually at the top. A good ending would be 'Following Joe Fences' resignation the board appointed Pete Jones, a recent graduate of Harvard Business School'

5. Open with something that makes the point of the case obvious. If it's about selling companies Joe Fence will lean back and 'ponder whether or not he should sell his company to Peach Computers for fifty pence and a packet of crisps' you now know what the case is about

The point is that case studies have evolved from being descriptions of the real world to being a type of creative writing practiced solely by business school professors. It's about as stylised as Haiku and its relationship to the real world is tangential to say the least.

Those exam results in full

The transcripts of our exams came through today, which means we now know exactly what we got on each exam and for the assessed coursework. So, how did I do?

Decision Science : 74.5
Financial Reporting : 60.0
Finance 1 : 80.1
Industrial Organisations : 63.6
People and Organisations : 65.7
Strategic Management : 69.8

Grade A is 70, B is 60 and C is 50. Anything below that and you have to retake.

Have to say these marks are almost exactly the opposite of what I was expecting, I am decidedly not what business school slang terms a 'quant jock' or someone who's good with numbers. However the results seem to suggest exactly that. The true story is of course that I spent most of my revision time fretting about the quant subjects because I knew I wasn't good at them and paid for it with weak performances in subjects where I thought I'd be good - Strategic Management and People and Organisations. Or perhaps my rather freewheeling essay style just isn't that suited to business school. Who knows?

Oh, and I can only assume I had some kind of complete failure of the brain in the Financial Reporting exam, I really did think I'd turned in three solid essay questions and a decent job of work on the company assessment. The technical 'how would you account for this questions' I thought were a mixed bag, but they're worth next to no marks. Really thought I'd done better than that. Still, I can now read the annual reports of premiership football clubs and use them to work out the likely state of the transfer market - short form, Leeds will really wish they'd sold a few players come June / July.

One of the single most annoying things about Oxford is that this is the first time we've been given feedback on assessed work. According to university regulations that can't happen until the complete course has been finished - so we were all forced to go into the exams with no indication of what was expected. It's a level playing field - but it's also extremely frustrating to say the least.

Time to worry about a job

Barely got here and its time to think about jobs. I had a chat with Wally Olins today who is co-founder of Wolff Olins and will be teaching branding in the final term. Since one of my goals is to work in advertising I asked what the situation was like. I knew things were bad, that it's one of the few sectors hurting more than the new media business, but I wasn't expecting to be told that "Stay here till September, nobodies hiring now, maybe things will be better then"

Brutal stuff.

So if advertising really is a dead dog - and I'm by no means convinced it is yet. (Talent will get you everywhere I believe, of course its for other people to decide if I've got any but...) Anyway. If advertising is a no go then I''ll have to look at technology businesses and / or marketing jobs. Ogilvy recommended a few years in brand management with an FMCG firm as a route into advertising, but I think I'm in too much of a hurry for that.