Sunday, March 18, 2007

Week 9 Hilary

The theme for this week was revision and a very (very) well received EP (Entrepreneurial Project) presentation.

It was amazing. On Thursday afternoon my EP group and I presented our business plan to a panel of potential investors. All of the investors were friends of the school and the idea of the exercise was not so much to get funding but more gain experience in presenting to these types of people. Never-the-less, we started with a little skit (a risky strategy) followed by the presentation proper from Esther and I. Throughout our talk (supported by powerpoint slides) I had the feeling that it was going well as we seemed to hold the panel’s attention, but I was only aware how much they liked our idea when we asked for questions at the end. The following 10 minutes was spent not answering questions but listening to the panel debate amongst them-selves how to grow the business. Whilst I have presented a lot in the past, I have never received such a response from respected individuals. Due to the enormous enthusiasm and offers of help (including introducing us to some very big players in our chosen industry) the team and I are now discussing the best way to take this forward. I will all depend on our partner and his idea of the future. Exciting!

On Monday (prior to all the EP excitement), I attended a presentation by Eric Knight (from Knight Vincke) about activist shareholders. His company invests in large-cap public companies that aren’t doing very well with an aim to get the board to improve the way it runs them. His methods involve gaining consensus among other shareholders and using the press to pressurise the management team by writing ‘open letters’ detailing where the incumbent management are failing. Despite having relatively small stakes in these large companies, I got the feeling that it was Mr Knight’s ability to form these consensuses as well as his understanding of the best way to manage to press which has lead to his success in this field. His comment that financial analysts look at a company as it is today, whereas he looks at a company how it may be in the future was well received (especially by Esther who compared it to the famous Bobby Kennedy speech).

On Saturday night a few of us (me, Namiko, Andrea, Akiko, Allan, Haruyo, Brandon and Caroline) went to see the Luminox display on Broad Street. It was quite a surreal event with the whole street seeming to be a mass of displays of fire in one way or another. The main sight was the large ball of fire dangling above us. It was a very enjoyable break from revision.
Luminox PosterVery Large ball of fire dangling above us
Namiko and Akiko
Namiko and I
Andrea getting too close to the fireThe guy controlling 'The Volcano'Speaking of revision (and seeing that it was that which filled most of my week), I now have pages and pages (and pages) of notes which attempt to summarise all that I have learnt in the past 8 weeks. As I sit here now, I am looking over the ones necessary for the Financial Management and International Business and Global Governance exams that I have tomorrow. Tonight all of the Hertford MBAs will sit in our common room and debate the issues in order to make sure that we understand them all. Following that we will go through a few previous years' exams. Wish me luck!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home