Peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon

"Peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon" read one of the slides we used today in group debate on Corporate Social Responsibility.
Confused? Let me then start afresh.




Each Monday morning our stream has Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility. The best thing about the course this year is a group debate that is held each lecture on a separate topic.
For instance, last Monday two groups presented pros and cons of bribery (should a company use bribery when it operates in a country where bribery is common practice). And though the "pro" group brought chocolates for the whole audience, they lost. Sorry, guys, I voted for you :)
It looked like touchy-feely side won all the time. So when we gathered last week to prepare our presentation on the pro side of "The only social responsibility of a law-abiding business is to maximize shareholders' value" the general mood was: "There's no way we can win this, so why not have some fun?"
In order to prepare we had four group meetings, each time with a new central idea, including:
1) Milton Friedman (he is the father of "profit as the only social responsibility"),
2) The Godfather ("It's nothing personal, Sonny, it's strictly business"),
3) video with Warren Buffett giving his money to Gates foundation not as a businessman but as a person,
4) wheel of fortune ...
...and somehow ended up with peacocks (all the credit goes to the President of the Poker Club who presented it to us late on Sunday evening between two deals).

So what do peacocks, BP and Kevin Bacon have in common?
Basically peacocks use bright feathers to attract peahens. And modern companies use social responsibility to attract customers. And everything you can think of, even social responsibility, can be linked in less than 6 steps to Kevin Bacon- ahem, to Profit Maximization.
The "good" team that prepared slides independently was arguing that businesses should be socially responsible. Why? Well, because it's profitable to the companies... gotcha!
For the first time this term in our stream, "bad" guys has won the debate :)

Textbooks and most recommended books

Long-long time ago when I was applying to business school I wanted to find out which textbooks are used in the study process and what other reading professors recommend. If there's someone out there who is as curious for books as me, the following lists are for you.

First-term textbooks:

• Business Statistics: Quantitative Methods for Decision Makers (4th ed) by Mik Wisniewski
• Strategy: Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, techniques, applications (6th ed) by Robert M. Grant
• Corporate Finance: Principles of Corporate Finance (8th ed) by Brealey, Myers & Allen
• Financial Accounting: Financial Accounting (6th ed) by Harrison and Horngrenn
• Managerial Economics: Principles of Microeconomics (Version 4) by N. G. Mankiw

Most recommended books (students' survey, top-15)

1. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt
2. Good to Great by Jim Collins
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
4. The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
5. Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
6. Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
7. The Innovator's Dilemma/Solution by Clay Christensen
8. The New Business Road Test by John Mullins
9. Are You Ready to Succeed? by Srikumar Rao
10. Barbarians at the gate by Bruan Burrough
11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
12. Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
13. The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto
14. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
15. When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein

I have only read 6 out of the Top-15 list before, so long way to go! (keeping in mind that the whole survey mentions more than 250 titles)

Away Day

We had our Away Day today: Streams A&B (~160 people) enjoyed the whole day of outdoor activities. I've been told that it's gonna be great, but I could never imagine how great!

The first task we did was to climb a 30 feet high pole in a group of four, stand on top of it and lean backwards, holding each other (to form so called "flower"). I passed every single stage from "Never-ever" to "OK, if everyone's gonna try I want to try it too". It turned out that the hardest part for me was actually climbing to the top: my left arm ached, I had doubts about my security rope and couldn't help thinking "How am I going to stand on top?". Did I mention that the pole was very shaky? But once I clambered there (I decided to go second and it was a good idea because there's nothing better than a friend's helping hand) the rest became easy: wait for other people to climb, hold tight, lean and then let go. I loved it!


The second task was similar: we had to climb the pole in pairs and jump from it together to a trapeze. If I haven't done the "flower" exercise I would never thought of trying this one. We did a spectacular leap, but barely touched trapeze with the tips. And some of my groupmates undertook two or three attempts! Could you imagine? Perfectionists! :)
The third task was to walk on ropes around a specially prepared area without touching the ground. In this case we needed to think of an algorithm since the necessary support ropes were in short supply.

After that we had to assemble a puzzle on time. The task was split: we had to figure out how to assemble the puzzle in the first place, then to make up a way of dismantling it and assembling back together and (last but not least!) do this as fast as possible. In the end we did it in 17 seconds, but I've heard there was another team who did it in 10!
And the last exercise was getting a "solution" for a blindfolded "client". The solution was in the middle of the "acid lake" which noone could go in. The only way to get there was build a rope system, and guide the blindfolded client towards the answer. A very hard exercise indeed and I was amazed how well out team did it!

We had very good briefings after each task and came up with insightful analysis. It was also very interesting to observe how people tend to react in challenging situations: some listen, some begin to express themselves (all at once), some take lead, some drop out, some propose the ideas, some just go and do it. Great way to find out more about your classmates (and yourself)!
This fantastic day ended with a training in juggling and a barbeque :)

New Order Business School (by Seth Godin)

Check out the following article NoBS, the end of the MBA by Seth Godin. It is Seth's thought exercise that might be useful to:

• MBA-haters ("aha, Seth too says that MBA is dead!")
• MBA-aspirers ("if I get an MBA from *** it will be my silver bullet")
• MBA-about-thinkers ("what other options have I got? What will I get from the degree?")
• MBA-admits ("find out what it all about")

And it is also an interesting read!

Report about the last two months

The winter is nearly over, though the weather here has no clue (as you can see from the picture on the left). Apart from winter sports (and work, of course) there’s not much to report, since I always try to write something MBA-related.

So recently:

• I’ve met a number of LBS students, including Genie, and (hopefully) future classmates (“hopefully” because all of them have more than one offer). The most interesting discovery for me is that all those people have different backgrounds, so one cannot say that LBS only takes Russians from McKinsey or Morgan Stanley.
• I’ve got lots of e-mails from rejected applicants, applying applicants and classmates. 95% of all letters in my rusgirl gmailbox came in the last 2 months!
• I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by amount of paperwork for an HSBC loan. Like a self-respecting iceberg, the checklist of documents for this loan is rather small, but… the application itself requires a lot of supporting documentation, which is not listed, but better be provided. Well, I have been told it is gonna be like this, so don’t take my words as a complaint. I have already passed the stage of “OMG, I’ve got so much to do! I cannot think of it now I will think of it later” and arrived straight to “The later is now”.
• I’ve discovered that I can tell what stage of application process is solely looking at my blog statistics: in February - GMAT posts go down and interview posts go up. And – strangely to me – more people click on INSEAD label on the right-hand bar than on LBS one! Are they trying to tell me something? :)))

Book about IB, trading and consulting - "Fast track"

Couple of days ago I came across one interesting book and immediately thought of first year MBAs who are now torn between banking and consulting.

2Facts:
1. The "Fast Track" is written by Mariam Naficy who worked at Goldman Sachs (IB) and Gemini (MC), and then got her MBA from Stanford.
2. The book holds lots of interviews with insiders and a very good list of additional literature.

If you're interested look at Amazon reviews here.
Tip: don't check the book's website - it is useless.

Back on MBA track

I have decided to stay in current job for one more year and apply to business schools once again.
I haven't finalised the list of schools yet and, of course, I have no time left for research now :) "Where was my head half a year ago?" - a typical question for many MBA-hopefuls, I'm afraid.

LBS, of course.
And a couple of American top schools (again, no safe choices - challenges, here I come!). I'm quite definite on Harvard and I think about Stanford and MIT, Columbia, Chicago (you'd better stop now, girl, or...)
Last year admission season gave me a lot: friendship, better job, lots of contacts and much wisdom :) I wonder what this one will bring?

And a piece of advice from people who managed to get in while having 60+ hours jobs, sleep and private life is most welcomed :)

How does is feel to be rejected

I feel good!
© James Brown

(I believe that this post will be useful to many people, because through your application process you usually receive at least one rejection.)

Unsuccessful? Disappointed? Misunderstood?
Nope. (Ah, well, yes, misunderstood – yes :))
Then – how?
* Prepared, because a week before the rejections from b-schools came, I went for a job interview (just an interesting vacancy, I planned it as some kind of ‘interview practice’). Which disappointed me a lot. They needed absolutely another person, not the one they described in their vacancy. A ‘rainmaker’: some 30+ year-old-man with connections to bring clients out of nothing. Not me. And, of course, rejection followed: ‘If only you were some 5 years older…’ (yes, I would have a husband and two kids and no more work experience than I have now). Maybe my CV was too good? ;)
* Flattered, because from the school answers I could judge that I’m ‘too young’. And show me a girl that doesn’t like being told she is young!
* Philosophical. My grandfather used to say: ‘If you miss this bus, it was not yours. The next will come and it will be yours’. That’s a great thought that saved me much nerve in life.

I started the whole MBA-thing for a following number of reasons.
1. Discover what route I want to take in life.
2. Challenge myself.
3. To go and live abroad (and this was the most fast and obvious opportunity concerning job search and visa, imho).
4. Give myself an immense present of studying in UK.

I cannot put a tick near every point of that list. But I got a lot of what I haven’t asked for.
For instance, I found that one of my recommenders thought about getting an MBA himself, so we had a lot to speak about.
I talked to my degree supervisor and found out that he now teaches parallel programming and grid computing. I envy those students who have his course now: they practice all that things – our professor made us write our programs on paper…
I came to UK and visited the School, and I felt at home there. No matter what adcoms think and how they choose, I know that I would have survived there and fit in ;)
I’ve done some research and I’ve immensely widened my reading list.
I’ve passed tests, and discovered that I do tests well! (‘Do you play the piano?’ – ‘Don’t know, I’ve never tried’)
I gathered everything on time, despite of bureaucracy at my University, broken printers of my recommenders, and all other obstacles that were on my way. I really enjoyed the process, though I cannot yet think of redoing it next year ;)
I found out that it’s OK to tell people about the rejections!
And finally, I would never forgive myself if I hadn’t tried.

My visit to World MBA Tour

I was yesterday at World MBA Tour Moscow. All in all: partially useful.
First of all, I came too late (2 hours after the beginning) to attend any speeches, since they were already said, and to collect any materials, since they were already handed out. But I didn't plan to do all that.
I wanted to talk to London Business School, Oxford Said and Cambridge Judge. None of them were present. Harvard and Stanford were not present either.
But INSEAD was there! I talked to alumni and adcom and arranged to visit a special INSEAD presentation scheduled tonight. It has limited admission, I found out about it from a friend, and talked my way to attend it. Disappointing information: INSEAD alumni told me that it is very difficult to get a loan or a scholarship for Russian citizens there now.
Then I talked a bit with IMD and Cranfield. And established in my decision not to apply to Cranfield yet (I'm too young for them, since the average age of full-time program students is 32).
Summarizing (a friend of mine who was there):
I don't really have any questions about the schools, because I have already asked all I wanted to know current students, alumni and adcoms online. Second, all questions I've heard so far at the tour, have already been answered numerous times online, and replies don't change. If you receive a new answer, it means you haven't researched the school properly. The only question I was interested in is loans and scholarships. When I ask it, they all say: have a look at our website.
Of course, it is also interesting to look at alumni and those who want to apply :)

Inspiring

I’m here again!

© Take That

Enough rest for now, or people will keep asking me about my sunburn. Let’s return back to computer and to my normal greenish face color ;)

I decided to write some inspiring post, since the last one was of a ‘useful’ kind. Maybe this will, too.
Anyway, from time to time since I decided to take the first step on my way to MBA, I (and everybody else, perhaps) have a kind of desperate mood like ‘I won’t be able to’, ‘I’m not fit’, ‘Who do you think you are, Trump or Einstein?’, ‘I’m too young (too old)’, ‘enter-your-fear-here’. This is very dangerous mood and it is essential to get out of it as soon as you can. So here is my recipe:
1. You are smart, you know? Or you won’t figure out how to decipher M.B.A. and got thus far. So remove all doubts about your brain functions.
2. This MBA-game is not a point in life like get it or die. It’s just a moonlit path: if you look hard for it, you’ll find it. If not, it doesn’t matter, cobbles are not that big at night. When you spend time on preparation - you don’t lose it even if all this effort won’t bring you to a place of your dream - because you are growing, you are thinking, you are finding your way and you are investing this time in yourself.
3. Don’t take this too serious – it’s your great adventure!
4. Why don't you better go and do something useful like write an essay?
Cook your inspiration with these 4 ingredients and add your own to taste.

I'm thinking about coming to London at the end of October. How do you think - will they let me to attend Sundowners? ;)

Women and MBA [versus children & family?]

I’ll go wherever you will go…
© The Calling

I’ve been trying to put down the thoughs about this subject for quite a long time, but I finally wouldn’t do it if so many people hadn’t asked me to (well, they actually didn’t know what I was going to write about so the blame is mine, of course ;)). And though I try to devote as much time as possible to my GMAT prep, I decided not to postpone my blog-activity further.

A number of people are interested in the question “what the meaning of life is” (yeah, I know, 48 ;)), but I guess, many women have an ultimate answer for this one – children. Most men won’t share this point of view, because they traditionally assign the meaning of life to career, power, or simply “good life”. And I’m sorry for those women who think that children are silly and annoying rascals (but yes, they can be, like anyone ;)).
I’m reading blogs of MBAs and future MBAs for some time now, and as I have spotted, approximately 1/2 of men have family (and/or children), while most women do not. Wives and girlfriends are easily following their partners, but if a girl wants to go for an MBA, she usually leaves her partner (or her partner leaves her). The only exception, I notice, are men, who have (or going to have) an MBA themselves. Seems really like you cannot eat the pie and have it. It’s a weight on my mind, even though I know the reason for their behavior. Correct me if I’m wrong (or maybe two-year full-time students are just a wrong sample? ;))
My mom used to say that the higher education a woman has, the fewer children she’s got. And – the higher you go, the higher standards you have for men whom you can marry :) I won’t try to refute the latter, but as for children… Well, it seems impossible to prepare, study and then work (to pay back the loan) – and have kids simultaneously. Kids are out of question for… 1-2-3… 5 or so years. Or not? Any success stories about husbands leaving everything and going with their wives or babies at lectures? ;) [Obviously joking. But there is only a part of joke in a joke: my family says that I already have 2 diplomas – my mom was going to have me while she was doing hers.]

I guess that is why there are fewer women in B-Schools that men, and not for any other reason: it's difficult to handle one or more 20-year-projects (bringing up a child) and do anything serious along.
Opened America, as usual ;)

[UPD: I've found an interesting article on MBAJungle.com about families and MBA]

Choosing the School and searching for GMAT Literature

Hey Joey, c'mon tell me 'bout your dreams…

© Bon Jovi

STEP 2. CHOOSING THE SCHOOL

In March I came across a contest, - organized by some good Russian newspaper – the winner of which would be awarded a place at Durham School of Business. I began searching for articles and essays to get the idea “why MBA, why now”, I searched the Durham site and found out that the place was awarded in distance-learning program… what a pity!

I appreciate distant learning and all the advantages of Internet, but I still think, that it is better to study full-time and in person, because, first of all, you can devote all your time to studying, second, you have face-to-face contact with staff (I have always preferred vis-à-vis exams to written or test ones, because I’m not able to use my charisma during the latter *joking*) and finally, get to know your classmates, build you personal network, which is the next (for someone even the first) big thing apart from the education itself.

So I didn’t take that chance, but I started thinking about MBA.

Then I came to a presentation, organized by British Council, about getting master degrees in UK (that was a really helpful one!), found out about ratings and resources. Going through those resources I surfed to LBS site and registered. They sent me their catalogue (surprise!) – and at that point I began to think about LBS seriously. I read through the catalogue, then the website, then began searching about LBS in BusinessWeek-Forums and eventually came across these blogs. :)

I already knew, that there are also Oxford and Cambridge MBA programs (not forget about Durham) in UK and INSEAD in France (and a lot of other great schools, like IESE, but they won’t put me closer to UK). I feel that I’m missing something, having not researched them properly, but I like to focus on one important thing and do all my best about it. And then – I’m lucky, I know that, I usually do it from the first attempt.

STEP 3. LITERATURE FOR GMAT (useful for Russians!)

When I was preparing for IELTS, I have found all the materials I needed in the Internet, but I couldn’t find the same thing for GMAT. It seems to me, that this test is not so popular among Russians as IELTS (many people pass this one for immigration to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and they tend to help each other).

So I found out that in our major bookstores (in Moscow) and even online ones there are no books for GMAT (except for Barron’s, but it’s the same as “no”). I went to American Center (Nikoloyamskaya, 1, metro Taganskaya) and found a great variety of books for GMAT, SAT, GRE, TOEFL, but they don’t give them home. Stay there and study… Although my trip was not in vain: they gave me phones of shops where the books may be:

1. Anglia, (095) 299-77-66. They usually have Princeton Review (great!), Arco and Barron’s
   
2. Angliskaya Kniga, (095) 928-20-21. May already have something.

And in a week or two I decided to phone MBAConsult (the company that prepares for MBA) and it turned out, that they also had books! (Official Guide, Princeton and some of Kaplan’s)

I found out, that most GMAT-takers in Moscow order books from Amazon (you must have a credit card anyway to pass your GMAT – else it will be very difficult to register) and wait for them for about 4 weeks. Amazon is also a great source of discovering whether the book is worth buying or not.

And at last - it’s possible to buy second-hand books (I will sell mine when I pass the test :), but it’s a game of chance: you need books quickly, but they maybe no one wanting to sell.
I don’t know how people in other cities of Russia manage to get books, it seems an impossible task, really :)

STEP 4. GMAT ITSELF
Well, I’m preparing right now. Quant is nearly easy (I get more than 90%), but Verbal seems impossible. I cannot really master the logic of it.

So I’d better go and study and post some good web-resources a bit later.

*Little bit more about HSMP

You can get a HSMP without MBA – first of all, you must qualify, then you have to gather a lot of documents, wait for 2-7 weeks about the decision and finally you must find job in UK. But with MBA from TOP50 all you have to do, is provide your diploma – and you get the visa (it will be definitely easier to fing a job ;).

Where to go, what to do - a bit about myself

She was the first girl on the moon...

© Roxette

No, not first, really. I know, that there are some people from Russia (or better to say Russians or Russian-speaking-people, because they may have lived anywhere, prior to coming to school) who graduated from LBS. I don't know them in person, so they are like a phantom example to me. Most people here, in Moscow, are eager about American schools. I don't, in fact, understand why: I see advantages in American schools, but I also see disadvantages in America. So I will not look in that direction (at first) and focus on European schools.
I'll make myself clear - I'm not admitted anywhere yet, because I'm just starting my Application Game and keeping fingers crossed to finish it next year :)

PREVIEW
I always wanted to have a chance to live and travel in Europe: it is a set of small (comparing to Russia, mind me) countries, with different languages, different cultures and long-long history, - already fascinating, isn't it?..
Europe is near and America&Australia are too far away: it will be to expensive to visit my friends and family or to persuade them visit me ;)
I have always been specially interested in UK: reading books about ("Oak roots" for example, though I don't think it was translated into English), reading English authors (Conan Doyle, Stivenson, Tolkien, Rowling, Pratchett - wow! - and it is not the whole list!), loved music, films, was interested in people, culture and history...
English language is the one I know best of all European ones (additionally studing French and German and hope, someday they will be as good as it).

STEP 1. IELTS
Short time ago, I have done IELTS: not yet knowing, what for - simply to test my knowledge of language, which I studied for so many years. I got 8 out of 9 and was pleased with myself :)
Immediately after it I began researching where I can go in UK to continue my education (I believe, this is the best investment in myself I can make).
...I am still thinking about applying to some Master Program in IT or Usability Course in Holland... Maybe it will be my backup if I fail in GMAT. But I'm bewitched with the idea of MBA (had been bewitched and reading about it at the age of fifteen, but then it was just a dream, really).

I found out, that all MBAs from TOP50 can get a HSMP Visa in UK, and this is great. Also a person, who had a Master degree at Scotland can have a work permit (for two years, as my sclerosis tells me) in Scotland.

to be continued...