World Sojourner : 3760

One-fourth of my MBA was spent at New York University as an ‘exchange’ student.  London Business School’s exchange program goes through two rounds of applications.  The policy is that during round one a student cannot go back to their home country, but if the exchange school has openings after the first round of applications then it’s game on.  I applied to NYU and was accepted.

My experiences at NYU are documented in the archives of this blog.  It was great to spend time in New York City and the NYU professors were fantastic.  One of my classes was Brand Management taught by Scott Galloway.  He started Red Envelope, sold it and then moved into activist investing and teaching.  I learned a lot from Professor Galloway – he is very good and I respect him a lot.

A few things that stick in my mind from his class – think before speaking because he punishes bad logic and never, ever be late to class.  Yes, there was some Brand goodness mixed in but the above points rank first and second.  Also, somewhere on that list is ‘never join a group where one of the business owners is also a member of the team if they can’t separate emotion from logic’ but – I digress.

My buddy Daniel (who learned the same points as listed above) dropped this link onto my Facebook page.  It seems Scott’s policy on fuzzy logic and tardiness has now gone viral thanks to an email he sent to one of his students.

My favorite quote from his email:

In addition, your logic effectively means you cannot be held accountable for any code of conduct before taking a class. For the record, we also have no stated policy against bursting into show tunes in the middle of class, urinating on desks or taking that revolutionary hair removal system for a spin. However, xxxx, there is a baseline level of decorum (i.e., manners) that we expect of grown men and women who the admissions department have deemed tomorrow’s business leaders.

For the record – I completely agree with most of his points.  His email is an instant classic.

http://deadspin.com/5477230/nyu-business-school-professor-has-mastered-the-art-of-email-flaming

My posts are a little out of order, but oh well,  the last week or so has moved quickly.  Frankly, in hindsight, the entire experience moved quickly.  It seems like yesterday that I was walking into the bureau and getting acquainted with my new blogging location.

* Before I forget, thank you Nolan – I never met you but thanks to your poor WIFI security I was able to continue to live the wireless life I’ve come so accustomed too, while in New York. 

* My t-mobile wireless connection in the United Airlines lounge comes and goes so who knows when this will be posted. 

I think it’ll take a while for me to completely digest the last four months, 8 months, two years and hopefully when it all comes together I’ll be near a computer and write about it.

A few take-aways from my trip & time at NYU

* The teaching at NYU is excellent

* I met a lot of really nice people there

* I see very little difference between London and New York.   Both are nice places, but … (sorry DMN, oh wait I can write Natasja – err Suzy, wait did you reveal that too??)

* I repeat, I met a lot of great people at NYU

* Strategic problem solving should be done without bias and the process should be followed.  Period.

* Bring on Beer Blast Sundowners

* I liked NYU; but love London Business School where Global is global and it doesn’t take a project to build a relationship.

I’m tired and time is running out before my flight.  I had a good time, but my home and heart is in London (until August at least).

{editors note: this was finally posted once back in London}

My time in New York is quickly coming to a close.  Thanks to the end of term demands of most classes including three more papers and one presentation (today, not too bad) plus the pace of our second year project picking up life is pretty hectic.

I’m trying to do things in little clumps and move a lot of projects along slowly rather than focusing on one project for a long amount of time.  My packing is a good example.  This trip to England, thanks to my future move back to the US (have I actually written about this??? Hmm, another day), does not require me to bring home any cold weather clothing, nor some of the more obtuse books in my US collection so those things are heading back to WV.

I bought one of those ‘I’m going back to “my country doesn’t have as nice of things as London”‘ bags (if you’ve ever spent any time in Heathrow you know what I’m talking about) that will fit a small automobile or 10 little people.  I filled this one with neither.  Instead, it has books, clothes, jackets, and one of the chairs I really liked from the apartment.  Actually no, it was a table.

Anyway, so far so good on keeping everything moving along.  I just need to get to Thursday, on that plane, and home so the final chapter of this MBA can start to be written. 

Recently, thanks to the nearing of deadlines, each weekend has been dedicated to finishing or working on projects for classes.  Last week it was Brand Strategy and this weekend Competitive Strategy.  Comp Strat, or Consulting 101, has been a great class. 

For those of us heading to Consulting after graduation, it’s almost a must-have.  The first part of the class is lecture around different types of analysis and concepts that can effect a business and how they can help a person develop an effective strategy.  The second half of the class consists of teams of 4 presenting their analysis and recommendations for cases that were assigned during the first week.

Our team’s case is Bernard Matthews (giant turkey company in the UK).  We have to make recommendations on where BM should go in the future.  Should they continue to expand only in the UK or move on to the European Community (time line is 1990)?

I’ve enjoyed working with our group.  We work well together and that’s a good thing considering that over the last 2 days we’ve been together approximately 18 hours.  Two meetings, one around 10 hours the other 8; thank goodness we get along reasonably well.

The deck is essentially complete.  We only have a little more analysis on the valuations to do, but all is good. 

The professor takes the presenting teams out for a drink at the end of the class.  Now that will be time together well spent.