Filling Some Blanks

Aaaaaaah Christmas.  You wonderful, magical holiday.  This year, gone is the family, heat, cricket, beach, prawns, and paradoxical winter paraphernalia of an Australian Christmas.  Here are the friends, snow, European getaways, mulled wine, shrimp and fireplace-warming reality of a UK Christmas.

And thus Term 1 has ended.  Amazing.  While I rest on the couch, having reacquainted myself with leisure reading and exercise, it occurs to me there are a few things I’ve failed to properly document over the last 12 weeks.  With time now on my side, I’ll try to fill in a couple of the blanks.

Two short weeks ago our heads were glued to textbooks.  When they weren’t, our hands were glued to our pens, and our pens to our exam papers.  The glue didn’t help.  At all.  

To what was our attention affixed?  Here are a few highlights.

Accounting

A traditional MBA foe.  More difficult, yet much more interesting, than it’s often credited (or debited).  With a steely determination and a dextrous calculator hand, we balanced balance sheets, reported income, stated cash flows, documented variances, priced transfers, and ratio’ed ratios.

Decision Making and Data Analytics

We waxed lyrical about multiple and serial regression.  We formed and subsequently rejected null hypotheses with a scientific level of pragmatism.  Over the break I read Freakonomics, which is probably the absolute perfect epilogue to both this subject and:

Economics of Organisations and Strategy

Hawks.  Doves.  Lines, curves, axes.  Within these runes are a clear articulation of supply and demand, of elasticity and marginal cost, of predatory and limit pricing.  A subject fit for Hermione Granger herself.  (Over the break I also read the final Harry Potter, and I would appreciate the withholding of judgement.)  Some formal learning in economics was one of the major things I was looking forward to about studying an MBA, and it didn't disappoint.

Other Highlights

 - Negotiating venture capital agreements with real start-up companies,
 - Creating a marketing plan for launching Premier Inn in Australia (featuring Karl and Susan Kennedy from Neighbours),
 - Turning our study group’s idea for a household inventory management system (patent pending) into a detailed business plan,
 - Placing 3rd with Frank, Aya and Ben at the European final of the AT Kearney Global Prize (picture below), and
 - The workload.  While not an academic topic in itself, this one aspect has been the most defining part of the experience, and deserves a bit more explanation.

The Workload

The last post was about a WAC - an original Cranfield form of assessment over 24 hours.  Fortunately, we only get two of those a term.  So a normal day is presumably a bit more manageable, right?  Well, no, actually.

An average day (for me) starts on campus at 7:30AM with a learning team meeting.  Here we discuss the case studies and readings that form the pre-work for the morning’s lectures.  Those lectures typically run from 8:30AM to 12:45PM, and generally are more discussion-focussed than formative.  Hence the need for pre-work.

In the afternoon there is typically an extra curricular activity (coaching, careers events, guest speakers, etc) for a few hours.  Squashed around this, the afternoon/evening needs to be spent on preparing for the following day’s lectures - reading course material and case studies, discussing in study groups, etc.

Then there’s assessment work.  This gets shoe-horned somewhere in amongst simply ‘keeping up’.

All considered, my routine (and it’s different for others) generally sees me packing up around midnight.  I live off campus, so have a brief drive home before starting again the following morning.  The reality is, there could be another 6 hours in the day and I probably still wouldn’t get everything ‘properly’ done.  Needless to say, managing self and workload is vital.

Now, all of that varies day to day, but that would be an average day for me in Term 1.  I’m aware some of my colleagues put in less time (i.e. they are likely smarter than myself), while others put in more time (i.e. they are presumably more diligent than myself).

Yes, it’s intense.  Seriously intense.  BUT, it’s amazing!  When the alarm goes off in the morning I’m pumped for another day.  And as my Christmas break winds down, I’m impatiently awaiting the beginning of Term 2.

Hope you’ve had a great Christmas, and a happy new year.  Cheers to 2015!

~ Craig

The Good, the WAC, and the Ugly

Sure, I probably said last blog that I’d dedicate this post to a discussion of our timetable.  But I can do that any time.  Today is a special day, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to provide some direct insight into a Cranfield mainstay:

The WAC

The WAC (Written Assessment of Case) is essentially a 24hr assignment, handed out 4PM Friday afternoon and due 4PM Saturday afternoon.  It’s an achievable 1500 words (excluding appendices), but the biggest challenge seems to be in coming up with valuable insight, keeping under the word limit, and collating meaningful appendices.  The WAC’s reputation precedes it - I’d heard plenty about it before arriving here.

With that short introduction, I’ll attempt to give you a quick hourly update over the next 24 hrs.  Wish me luck!

1530

3:30PM Friday afternoon.  We receive the WAC in 30mins.  Work on other topics started this morning at 0730 after a late night, so things aren’t optimal.  For the next 24 hrs I’ll be relying on my years of studying Strategic Coffee Consumption in the Global Business Environment (SCC).  I hope to gain a professorship on that topic in later life.

With 30mins to go I’ll quickly brush up on cash flow statements, ratio analysis and variance analysis.

1600

WAC received.  Topic = consideration of hostile takeover of GSK by KKR (both are major pharmaceutical companies).  Report required for CEO and board of KKR, analysing 2013 annual report of GSK and financial statements.

Our team has split up for 60mins to read the case material.

1500

Still reading.  Annual reports are long...

1800

Team has regathered, had a few clarifying questions, tried to fumble out some meaningful insights, but did more fumbling than 'insight'ing. Will start calculating all the ratios we can think of, because that seems the logical thing to do.

1900

Team has preliminary values for most fundamental ratios. A couple of points to clarify. All off now for stream meeting to discuss with 31 stream mates. Hoping to corner the accountants in our class for help.  Will either bribe or threaten them... Haven't studied Negotiations yet...

2000

Reasonably successful stream meeting. Haven't shared notes with everyone, but clarified a few technicalities, got a couple of ideas for additional insights, and verified that we're not too far off the money.

2100

Separated into groups. Gary and Ranjit clarifying ratios and compiling calcs. Craig, Anuradha and Michel working on appendices - showing working of ratios and citing assumptions.

2200

Tensions rising. Some members' work more complete than others (probably due to workload, but objectivity lost at this stage), and wanting to move on. Some members unwell, and a level of snappiness has set in.

2300

Team review of final calcs complete. Not necessarily complete team cohesion. More work required on presentation of calcs for appendices, but generally all happy(ish) with the numbers.

0000

Calling it a night. Remaining appendix work split up. Some more numbers / formatting work to do in the morning, but suffering from a late night the previous night.  Driving home to bed.

0100

Took some time to unwind after getting home. Checked the Aus news to help take my mind off things. Australian politics hey? Zzzzzzzz

0200

Zzzzzz

0300

Zzzzz ACID TEST RATIO! 

0400

Zzzz WACS!!!! Zzzzz

0500

Zzzz CV!! CAREER!! Zzzzz

0600

Zzzz CHLOE!!! PRIORITIES!!! Zzzz

0700

Zzzz ALAAAA- *snooze* -AAAAAAAAARM!!!!!

0800

Breakfasted. Showered. Travelled. Claimed computer. Cursed Macbook (separate grievance). Gary's found a possible calculation error. Coffee.

0900

Calculation error reviewed. Agreed on one correction. Not agreed on another. No time to argue, finishing touches on appendices to complete.

1000

Appendix work done, although waiting on final input from others. Where have the last 2 hours gone??? Haven't written a word of the report; realise priorities haven't been well managed.  How do these numbers become words??? Will read last WAC quickly to get in the writing mindset. Coffee.

1100

Report writing commenced. Additional time spent collating appendices. Reasonable report structure complete, basic intro section written, opening sentences of each other section drafted.

1200

Reasonable progress on report. Written 600 words, although will edit heavily at the end if time permits. Busy morning. Lunch break. In fact, after mindfulness session yesterday, am calling this a Lunch and Smile Break. On some level this is a lot of fun. Spring in step on the way to sandwich purchase.

1300

Lunched. Coffee'd. Chocolate in hand. Saw 2 people at lunch who were reviewing their final draft. Swore at them.* Realised again my priorities haven't been optimised. Need help from some kind of Optimised Projects consultant...

1400

Report coming along. Other students also coming along. Loudly, and in groups. Impatience rising. Moved to quieter location. Gave fake congratulations to another classmate casually strolling past having finished. Swore at them.*

1500

Getting there getting there getting there. Exec summary drafted. Final appendices in. Focussing on completing essential tasks before trying to fine tune. Couple of good ideas won't fit into the report. Nobody will read about the interesting z-value!!!

1530

Not now.

1555

Stop stop stop! Must upload!

1558

Uploading to Turnitin. Submit? YES YES!

1601

Oooooooooooooooh baby! Well that was crazy. No word from teammates for a couple of hours. Did they make it?

You know what? This is a fun way to do assignments. Well, 'fun' is not the right word. It's good though. Intensive, but now it's 4:05, heading to pub for a pint with other spent souls, and am pretty happy with the final submission. It won't change the world, it contains good and bad bits, but it's a satisfying result under the circumstances.

1630

London Stout, you little ripper!

*References to swearing are for effect.  I'm a professional.