zooming after the mba

beneath all the failing grades in quantitaive subjects, still companies are recruiting for our MBA action consultancy or internships for next April. i'm a bit puzzled. are we all gonna pass the first year of MBA even with these failing quiz scores. nobody seems to be addressing the issue. or i haven't seen any much concern about it.
looking at the MBA process from the outside, it seems the real deal is going through the process... as an ordeal or trial by fire. but in this case, being unburnt is not the issue... instead it is surviving the whole process. if that is the case, the MBA program fails on the Quality-Delivery-Productivity model on all aspects. it is no different from buying a MBA certificate in Recto. although i do believe that surviving the MBA, especially here in AIM will make one wiser in thinking and stronger emotionally. but then, how do you quantify what has been learned in an MBA? ah...
i have high hopes after this MBA. for one thing, the corporate world in the philippines is so hyped with certificates and recognitions. i don't plan to be a nitwit though, i want to create value in my life and the workplace. for that to happen, i would have to go through with corporate politics, and make sure i can turn things around or make a contribution. and another thing would be, an MBA would differentiate those people who 'can think and deliver' and those who 'can think and bullshit.' and of bullshits, let's leave that for another post.

the calm after the storm

after 10 weeks of B-school, i was able to sleep at 11pm yesterday. the Financial Management exam was finished and we had a day of lecture before another quiz in Quantitative Analysis tomorrow. it was so far one of my best sleep. i woke up around 6 am very fresh but tired of the prospect of the next few days before the weekend. luckily for us in the 16-month MBA, the faculty seems to have seen the burnout from our batch. they kinda loosened a bit of the schedule and postponed some stuff for us. it really was a bit too much... to many numbers flying around, with very little time to research your data. we were missing classes either to catch up on sleep or to study. and if we were in class, we were half-asleep or we haven't read anything. one batchmate told me he hasn't been reading any cases recently, just studying for the exams. although it seems strategic, it undermines the case method which is the same one used in the top B-schools like Stanford U. this makes me question the 16-month program. is AIM really ready for the 16-month program? or are we just labs rats? and so i relax for a few hours, so i may study again for statistics!
BTW, an MBA survey by Beyond the Grey Pinstripes (yeah such a long name), ranked AIM as 42 overall in the world. And guess what? INSEAD and Thunderbird, trail after AIM! Check it out at http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org.

bombs, the estribo gang and my conspiracy theory

i just got home from my girlfriend's place. prior to that, i almost got mugged by the estribo gang in a bus. these 3-4 guys usually surround you and force you to shift your attention somewhere, while forcing you to move or be trapped between them, and while you are pushed from all directions they go through your pockets! luckily for me, i was a bit alarmed when one of the guys sat beside me given there were other open seats infront of me. second, when the guy behind me was trying to shift my attention to my left by saying he lost something and it went below on my left side, i move to the right in small increments. when he kept pushing me to the right , i found myself in the middle of the 3 guys and the guy infront was shouting at me like i was blocking his way. at that moment, i shouted a curse which for 1 second stunned them -- in a way they stopped pushing me from all directions and i was able to go out of the bus. i left my cap though but it wasn't much. if you look at the pic, i'm the one referred to as X.
there was a bombing in glorietta 2 the othber day, 8 people were dead and around 70-90 wounded. the place is just a 3-5 minute walk away from school. luckily i wasn't loitering around. i was working on my writing exercise to be passed at 3:30. it happened around 2:30 and at 2:45 my dad called me up... i was oblivious to the matter, b-school is such a torture for freshmen.
the bombing is an unfortunate incident expecially when the peso has just appreciated to its lowest in a long time. also, because of this appreciation, some export segment are closing because they are losing out on the cheaper dollar. tsk tsk tsk... which brings me to my conspiracy theory... could the government have initiated the bombing so they would not have to subsidize these exporters?

of nerds, learning and madness

i haven't read any case for 2 days (yesterday and later). my brain's capacity for processing data is slowing down. i guess i need to flush out some data before i can enter more for processing. unfortunately i dont know how long will this cycle time be. hours ago in the economics class we had a live case and i was like dreaming during the discussion, actually it was more like floating. after the class i went to greenbelt to play Warcraft DOTA hoping to be refreshed but it didn't work. i still have coughs and colds since monday, although it's getting better i'm still not up at full capacity for working. the thing with the learning process is that you have to go through it -- that's why its a process... they say there have been suicides in the university. madness! i thought being an mba would make you a nerd... but its the other way around, exposing you to the rigors of business, you have the all-around capacity to get through the day... and at the end of the day, its the relationships with the people around you that matters... and of being a nerdy or madness -- its all a choice.

the next wave

i was hoping to get a fresh start on the newly-added mba subjects : financial management 1 (FM1), management costing and productivity (MCP) and operations management (OM) but luck doesn't come my way. after 2 weeks of WACs and the innovation challenge, im suffering from cough and colds... sad to say, most of the quizzes are coming my way this week or next... i was planning to watch & listen to Damodaran's video lectures but it seems i need more time to sleep an recuperate. although my tonsils are alright, it seems to be a bit bigger due to my smoking habits. i would want to stop the smoking habit but it really is a big help when you want to be awake at the wee hours of the morning. it helped a lot when i worked night shift @ siemens and convergys. i do understand that is is costing me healthwise to do that... im not comfortable sounding like a finance geek for now. more rest for me.

crunch time & WACs

i just got my 4th written analysis of case (WAC). i'd say it was the most stressful WAC i have done. we get the problems by 5pm on a friday and submit it the next day at 8am, that gives us 15 hours of eating, analysis & synthesis, some drinking and writing. the 4th WAC was a buzzer beater for most of us. i was happy to finish it in time... fortunately I got an HP-. no comment, i did my best although at that time, without sleep and rushing in time, i thought it was all crap. but hey, miracles to happen... :-)
back to my acads most of the subjects right now are quantitative subjects. im not a business major back in college so i'd have to REALLY work hard in the next few weeks.
btw, here is the grading system here in the Asian Institute of Management.

Distinction (D 94)
Disinction Minus (D- 92)
High Pass Plus (HP+ 90)
High Pass (HP 88)
High Pass Minus (HP- 86)
Pass Plus (P+ 84)
Pass (P 82)
Pass Minus (LP 80)
Low Pass Plus (LP+ 78)
Low Pass Minus LP- 76)
Unsatisfactory (U 70)

gotta read some more and then sleep!

after the Innovation Challenge

since sat 830am last saturday, i was awake... 48 hours for the innovationchallenge.com paper. i just submitted the concept plan at 5am today. i won't comment on the paper anymore. :-) i went through with my first class half-asleep. i couldn't take any more beating but i was really happy that it was done. it was a delightful 10-hour sleep. i didn't enjoy the weekend much. i wasn't able to see my son who always playing with his cars and rambling stuff. i miss him. the sacrifices you take for an MBA...
so now its back to the case studies and numbers of MBA life here at AIM. i wish we could pass the elimination round though. the top 10 teams will be sent to Darden school of business Virginia, all expense paid. i would really need a vacation although i have a lot of stuff to catch up. and so finally, a blog... :-)