Week 2 Hilary

It is week 2 and I have managed to readdress the balance between work and play. That is not to say that the work has reduced, (in fact it has increased), I just seem to have remembered how to prioritise again.
Surprisingly, Mark, Swapandeep and I are also running in the mornings which is a start to ward off the effects of eating too much/at strange times. Its funny, as much as it pains me to wake up early (having not gone to bed until the wee hours), once the run is over I am ready to take on the lectures...
Also this week, in a spot of good fortune, I managed to get all of the Trinity term electives that I bid for and so am extremely happy. There is one course that was heavily over subscribed and in this week's Dean's Q&A (which is a great way for the students to air their feelings about the programme) it was the hot topic. He seemed keen to resolve it.

This week's other events:

Sir Martin Sorrell
Sir Martin is CEO of WPP and came to SBS to give a talk about 'why making money is not about making money'. During his talk he talked about the founding and subsequent spectacular growth of WPP (company with a market capitalisation of £18 Billion), his mistakes and his predictions for the future. He believed that there were 6 points that one should consider when thinking about the future of their respective business:

1. Globalisation: Shift of wealth from West to East
2. Over capacity of production: i.e automotive industry
3. The web: I think that we all got that one
4. Internal communications: What to do about companies that have grown by acquisition?
5. Distribution: Part and parcel of globalisation. Mentioned Tesco and Wal-mart as examples
6. Corporate Social Responsibility: Now a prerequisite for doing business.

Having no knowledge of the global media industry, it was a fascinating learning experience and a great opportunity to hear someone who has been successfully involved in it for 40 years.

Bain and Company Consultants
A recruitment event designed to give a personal touch to the explanation of what Bain does and why we should apply. Oxford is now getting more and more well known as a leading MBA school as is demonstrated by the number of top firms like Bain coming to get us. I enjoys these types of events as website and here say can never accurately convey what a company is like to work for. I find asking their employees a much more robust way of understanding what it is like to work for that particular company. Bain was no exception, the people were extremely bright and enthusiastic about what they did.

BT OneIT event
Another recruitment event, this time from BT (that's British Telecom). They have a highly respected leadership programme into which they only admit MBA graduates. The programme is relatively new (3 years or so) and during that time Oxford has only managed to get one person onto it. This year (through that Alumni) they are making a concerted effort to employ more. It seemed from the presentation that they may get more applications than they expected.....

Templeton Party/Indian Party at St Anthony's
Templeton College kindly arranged an open house at their Rewley Abbey Court site on Friday night. It also coincided with Shoko and Aston's birthday so turned into quite a bash. Following this many of us made the journey in the cold to St Anthony's College to get down to some Indian tunes (I never thought Bhangra could be so much fun......and so painful the next morning)

Japanese evening
An informal Nabe party arranged by Maho and me took place yesterday. It was just another excuse for a few of use to get together, eat Japanese and generally hang out. I like doing these things as it gives us an opportunity to socialise outside of school/noisy pubs.

The Participants of the Japanese evening

I feel that I am now back into the swing of things and am ahead of the game when it comes to assignments (3 were handed in this week). The EP project is going well and our supervisor seems as enthusiastic as we are....must mean that we are on to a good thing. As a further sign of our improved organisation skills, us students are now even finding the time to do some 'interview practice' between ourselves. Should put us in good stead..