Read my Online CV!

Go on, you know you want to.

Martin Lloyd's CV

OK, now thats finished it's time to see what the slave traders have to offer me.

Ten (thousand?) strong and counting

Jenny Brown may not be a Hah-vahd socialite, but as online doyenne of the MBA bloggers she has unearthed another addition to our ranks. Michael Rutner is at Wharton, and he knows what irony is, so we have to take his claims to be an American with a pinch of salt ;-) Michael is a second generation MBA blogger

"Before starting this blog, I learned a great deal about the life of an MBA applicant / student by reading blogs like these."

and since that was the point of me writing this blog in the first place the emergence of a new set of blogs for the next academic year makes me very happy indeed. Go check out Michaels stuff and see what happens when an innocent lawyer is thrust into the hectic world of Wharton.

Now, any of you Said accepts out there feel like having a go? I promise its not as much work as it looks like...

Jobhunting

My jobhunt starts today. First emails to all those people I can think of who might be useful, and then updates to this site to create an online resume. From that comprehensive document I'll produce cut down .doc's tailored to particular jobs. Before I do that though I have to find the jobs. What am I looking for?

New MBA WLTM stimulating, exciting job in the brand / technology / marketing space for mutual learning, exchange of ideas and the chance to achieve some really cool stuff. Investment banks need not apply

News from the front?

Iraqwar.ru is a very interesting organisation. All anyone seems to know for sure about them is what's available on their 'about us' section. There have been some newsgroup discussions about it, most of which seem to agree that it is more or less what it claims to be with most objectors being broadly disbelieving for no reason, and most proponents cautiously positive. It's not helped that its English translation is by a Russian guy called Venik, who while not responsible for any of the content has a reputation for trolling newsgroups.

So these are the caveats. After an hour of looking through this I can't find a conclusive piece of evidence that the Russian Intelligence Briefings from this site are what they claim to be, namely transcripts of GRU intelligence briefings. On the other hand, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that points towards them being at least partially accurate. Several times the updates predate western media sources by several days, and they successfully predict several Anglo-US offensives. (They are however completely foxed on day 1 when the ground assault co-incides with the air one)

The quotes from soldiers, journalists and others seem reasonable, and their reporting seems to parallel the general pattern of the war emerging through western media. Its also worth noting that while they make Anglo-US casualties sound far higher than has been reported here, they describe the losses as 'militarily insignificant' , while the Iraqi army has lost 8-10% of its fighting power (as of 2 days ago).

So, if we believe the breifings are what they say they are does this mean they're true? Of course not. First Russian intelligence has its own axe to grind. Secondly Russian Intelligence may not be accurate, radio intercepts, spy planes and so on all require interpretation and are easily confused, even by experts. I imagine it's easy to 'hear' the same event repeated times in radio traffic and then imagine (say) multiple reports of a tank being lost. So, read the reports starting on day one, and make up your own mind. But there's no denying that this is more compelling than CNN and if accurate far more detailed information.

Oh, I'm back from holiday. Next things to do, get a job and get on with a freelance copywriting job I've picked up. More on that later.

UPDATE This has just appeared. Whoever the people producing those updates were they weren't the GRU. They may have been ex GRU. They may have been Russian embassy staff, they may even have been Iraqi intelligence, but I very much doubt that. They seem to be claiming to be ex-GRU who wrote reports for the good of mankind. They also seem to have fallen foul of whichever government it is they operate on behalf of. I'm off to archive their material before its removed, and for the purposes of checking it after the war.

There will now be a brief hiatus

Time to pack my bags and abandon this wet and windy island. Well, thats what I thought I'd be doing when I booked a holiday in Madeira, but no. Since discovering that I'm leaving Britain has decided to recreate some kind of arcadian springtime. Oxford is looking truly lovely, the sun has been shining for days and I just hope that Madeira is as nice as this.

I'm logging off. See you in a week or so.

One to read

I made the mistake of picking up the Sunday papers today and found in the Times one of the most harrowing reports yet of what is going on in Iraq. A while ago I wrote that jumpy US marines might kill civilians, and was soundly told that it wouldn't happen, that the war was about liberating Iraq, not killing civilians. Sadly war is hell, and intentions are quickly forgotten and soldiers do things they would not have thought themselves capable of for reasons no one will ever be able to explain.

From the Sunday Times US Marines turn fire on civilians at the bridge of death Registration required to read this.

Lets hope we're closer to victory when I get back from Holiday. Now we've started I believe we have to win, but I wish we hadn't started.

Must be my birthday

At least, I can't think of what else I did to deserve champagne breakfast, smoked salmon, cream cheese, bagels, strawberries and cream. So far twenty seven is a good age to be.

Going back to Brandsville

I don't remember leaving Brandsville anymore than I remember the first time I arrived. I suppose I wandered in slowly through the outskirts and the suburbs. Soaking up the scenery until one day I was surrounded by the skyscrapers and it seemed as natural as the green fields where I'd started out. Years of thinking about, working with and commenting on brands had brought me to a place where although I saw them everywhere it never struck me as odd. In store displays were loaded with meaning about product strength, positioning and the latest trends in graphic design. Phone companies banks, cosmetics, cars, whatever. I saw them all. Always.

Then I left. Packed up my bags, went to business school and forgot about the meanings in the marques and the hidden messages in logotype and straplines. Leaving was a lot like arriving, I sauntered out, barely noticing the transition. I'd given up my citizenship of Brandsville and become a consumer again. If the world was emptier I didn't notice.

Last Thursday I had a meeting in London, and since its a long way on the bus I packed a book from next terms reading lists. 'The New Guide to Identity' by Wolff Olins. I read it, the bus rumbled on and at somepoint it arrived in London. Along the way I'd revised logos, identities, image and projection. I'd been reminded that everything from the lines of a BMW to the smile of a receptionist are there to be loaded with meaning, then aimed at the passers by and the interested with a delivery mechanism so stealthy they'll never even know they've been hit.

When I looked out of the window I realised I'd taken an express train straight to the heart of Brandsville. From the Golden Arches, to the Virgin V and the home brewed efforts of the Feng Sushi diner the world was alive and buzzing with messages and signs and meaning. The words of some new prophet flyposted on a subway wall.

Brandsville. It's been a while.

New MBA Blog found!

While checking to see who links to me (can you tell I'm avoiding doing all this writing) I found a new MBA Blog. Lucky Goldstar (surely another pseudonym?) is at Insead where among other things he has fallen asleep in finance class. Hell, if we'd spent thirty seconds longer on stripped bonds I'd have fallen asleep in finance class too.

Welcome to the blogroll lucky.

MBA Goon

I feel like I'm in Archers Goon. Archer wants his words by Friday. Only in my case Archer is the rest of my NBD team (words needed today) and the business school (many many words needed by the end of the week). Stuff I've promised to write includes pieces for the next school magazine and copy for forthcoming recruitment brochures. (In an earlier life I was an occasional copywriter)

So coming your way are

The final write up of the Oxford Business Forum
The write up of Herman Hauser on why the future is wet
The big write up on Synesthesia

The thing I'm working on at the moment is the job skills needed for Heritage Theatres new marketing manager. What I want to say is "The ideal candidate will have several years experience of marketing for publishing companies, preferably in the education sector. Key skills will include the ability to screw distributors and media sellers alike to the floor while maintaining good enough relationships that they want to work with you again." and when I was allowed to write recruitment ads I occasionally got away with this kind of thing. (nothing as good as Ogilvy's legendary "Wanted, Trumpeter Swans" ad though). Sadly this is a business plan, and you can't say things like that, .
time to break out the dictionary of marketese and weasel speak.

But only after I get over my first jogging expedition of the year. I really should remember that if you stop it gets harder again.

Things get grim in Baghdad

Salaam Pax is providing better coverage of whats going on in Baghdad than any of the media channels. Worrying things to come out of his latest report are the failure of the Iraqi authorities to properly sound air raid alerts and the definition of targets adopted by the west. He seems to think that so stealthy and frequent are western attacks that the authorities are having trouble knowing when to sound alarms and all clears, I guess this means people are getting caught outside when the bombs start to fall.

The fact that we bombed an officers club is scary too. Sure its a legitimate target since our strategy is to go after the Iraqi leadership, but he says it was in a residential area, and that we missed it, but hit surrounding areas. Since our precision munitions are precise to 35m (admittedly bloody good from 30 000 feet up) its not hard to see how we could start hitting civilians in large numbers when we go after things like this.

This war is grim and getting grimmer, but unless we're very lucky it'll get a lot lot worse before its over. I think our military expected that, but I'm not sure the western public has been prepared for this at all.

Crunch Time

So what happens if you lock five MBA students in a room, during the first *really* nice weather of the year and tell them to write a business plan? Well, they do it, but all of them wish they were elsewhere. To be fair the school becomes absolutely lovely in summer, all light and space, and the rather harsh stone quad becomes surprisingly attractive. Just waiting for the trees on it to develop leaves, and all that climbing ivy to get done climbing.

Anyway, a couple of days have gone by and we've thrashed out a lot of the detail for Heritage Theatre's future plans. Along the way we've discovered that even a rigourous process of 'does this number look right' for each and every assumption in the model still leaves you with an incredibly optimistic result which needs revising to handle the demands of reality. Still, many spreadsheets later we're all happy and tomorrow is the all singing, all dancing presentation, complete with video footage. (anyone know of good DVD ripping software? Answers by midnight or not at all please)

After that its just a case of write the business plan up nice and tidy and this term will finally be over.

What, you were expecting more from me about the war? Sorry, too busy to watch the CNN /BBC/Fox websites and blog. Take yourselves to Technorati's current events material and find more opinion than I can muster written by bloggers with a lot more time on their hands than I have right now.

OK, just the two links. Dear Raed is the weblog of an Iraqi man calling himself Salaam Pax, he's in Baghdad writing as it all happens. Some people aren't convinced he's real, obviously if he is he doesn't want a visit from the Baath party. So he can't provide evidence. After a bit of research Paul Boutin has concluded that he's probably real. Sooner or later weblogs will produce their own Anne Frank. For now though add Dear Raed to blogs like the UN worker in Afghanistan and the Homeless Guy in Nashville. Showing you lives you can't imagine living.

Decision points

Nothing to do now but watch the news and wait for the next decision point. The thousand or so demonstrators on the streets of Oxford last night may have been a little late to the party, but the start of the war doesn't mean the end of the protests. The question of course is not whether the war can be stopped, but whether the decisions taken by the politicians can be altered. Right now the war is on autopilot and the two armies are being left to sort things out among themselves.

But at some point there will be decisions to be made, and they'll be decisions that go beyond the theatre of war. Perhaps that might not happen till Saddam is gone and the regime broken, or they might come sooner. Wars are too unpredictable for predicitions. Of course the one decision we know we have to make in the UK will come at the local elections. How will we vote, will those who took to the streets take to the ballot box, or will a significant number of British people continue to claim that there's no point voting cause politics is too detatched from reality?

I hope not.

Explain (in one paragraph) the following concepts

1. M1 to M4
2. Total Factor Productivity
3. Purchasing Power Parity
4. The Gold Standard

A few people were foxed by the in one paragraph thing. (it meant a paragraph each) and much email resulted. Jeff Pittman set the tone for last nights discussion

"Hmm, maybe I wasn't supposed to write just one paragraph. Here's the gist of what I wrote:
"1M represents is the liquidity of one bloody Mary, 2M represents Modigliani and Miller who took away my dividends and terrorized my dreams last night, 3M represents an example of my overreaction to stock prices and 4M represents the money supply on steriods. TFP is the residual of the factors which made me feel so low last night, aka two f*ing pints over the convergence of accumulation and depreciation. The gold standard is what I hold my socks' toes to, and purchasing power normalization is what happened when I moved to Oxford and bought into this program.""

As you can tell, we're taking the exams very seriously this time around.

Exams underway

In fact exams nearly over. Only four this term, sat in three papers. Today was a two hour paper on Macroeconomics and Finance II and a one and a half hour paper on Management Accounting. The first and last went pretty well, the Finance paper was, well, tough. Fortunately I spent most of yesterday with my quantitatively gifted girlfriend who patiently explained many of the things I didn't understand, while simultaneously discovering just how little I really know about maths.

How I ever got good marks on last terms finance paper is beyond me. In the unlikely event of it happening again I'll be convinced that our marks are assigned by examiners throwing darts, blindfold at a roulette wheel and have nothing to do with what we actually know. Tomorrow is Operations Management. I reckon passing won't be too hard (hey, fortune, have a hostage) but doing well will be extremely difficult.

Commons debate in real time

Don't worry, I have done plenty of revision for tomorrows exams. This is all a bit more interesting though.

Back later, Jack Straw is summing up and he's showing everything that's wrong with the parliamentary culture. What should be a serious debate loaded with gravitas is turning into a shouting match, a public school boys contest of one upmanship and a frankly obnoxious display. How the hell people are supposed to take us serioiusly after watching this is beyond me.

He's summing up by saying that he 'cannot impune the intentions of anyone in this house' which given that half his speech has comprised character attacks on those who disagree with him and pathetic party political comments has knocked him back even further in my esteem.

hmm, biggest rebellion in modern british political history, biggest demonstration ever and what do we get, nothing. 250 000 countryside alliance supporters was all it took to derail Labours long standing commitment to abolish bloodsports. 1 million suggest killing people is wrong and ... nada

In other news the US published a list of nations it has successfully bribed. "Boucher said the 30 countries on the list are Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Britain, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador (news - web sites), Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea (news - web sites), Spain, Turkey and Uzbekistan. "

Sorry, that's the 30 countries who support it. We know Turkey have been promised $16 bn and places like Columbia and Afghanistan are in no position to say no. I'm a little skeptical personally.

Now go here and ask about civil disobedience

Baghdad is big

"The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforseeable and uncontrollable events" - Winston Churchill. (credit for the quote)

Reading CNN I've just discovered that Baghdad contains five million people. That's about 2/3rds the size of London. London is very very big indeed. When Churchill was contemplating a German invasion of Britain he consoled himself with the thought that at least London would swallow an entire German division before being broken. Popular resistance, he thought, would make an occupation impossible. Up till now I've imagined Baghdad as a kind of town, in a desert, the kind of thing you could walk through in an hour or two, not an enormous, sprawling metropolis, thousands of streets, a million houses.

In comparison the US has 250 000 troops in the region, including only 120 000 combat troops, the rest are support personnel for the Army and Navy. The UK adds another 30 000 or so combat effectives. Regardless of whether Saddam goes or not if Baghdad doesn't welcome our forces with open arms, but instead sees them as an occupying power could this city swallow the entire invasion force? There are other cities to occupy, supply lines to guard and all the rest. What if the Iraqi regime survives the initial onslaught, what if the Iraqi people oppose invasion more than they loath Saddam?

What if Baghdad is to become the Arab Sarajevo, beseiged for months, bombarded and surrounded. Starved into submission by the 'liberating' troops? Even worse, what if it becomes the next Stalingrad, plenty of people have proved willing to die for obnoxious regimes before now.

Perhaps this is why Stormin Norman turned back at the approach to Baghdad, perhaps this is why so few US generals think this is a good idea. Perhaps this is why the US army wanted so many more troops before they went into action. For a year there have been suggestions that the US military is not happy with the plan it is being asked to follow, is this why? I don't know where I'm going with all this. I oppose the war, I don't think we need it. On the other hand, if it has to come lets hope Bush is right. Lets hope Saddam goes, the Iraqi's elect a benign government, the Kurds are happy with whatever they get, the Shia's and the Sunni live in peace and the monstrous Ba'ath party is consigned to history.

Lets hope Baghdad doesn't swallow all our hopes.

That Robin Cook Speech in full

I never quite got what people meant when they talked about Robin Cook as an impressive politician and a prime ministerial candidate. Well, his resignation speech made that, and a whole lot of other things very clear indeed.

Told you so

Worth some friendly coverage in the Guardian. Thats what I said would be the minimum payoff for the first MP to get a blog. Actually I think his payoff will be several hundred constituents who feel they have a relationship with him, talk to him and promote him. Expect this mans majority to be unassailable by the next election.

Can weblogs get a good man a great job

Well Tim seems to think so. Read all about the latest attempt to expoit networked blogs for the benefit of mankind here
Can Weblogs Get a Good Man a Great Job?

[update] Hmm, #17 on Blogdex and rising. If the usual rules hold and each step up the results ladder doubles the traffic a few more links will see this generate loads of traffic. Not sure its going to result in a job offer though. I am of course ready to be proved wrong.

Maybe he should try Phill Wolff's bloggers for hire page instead.