a walk on the wild side

the post-MBA depression

2009-01-20T22:53:00.002+08:00

if there is case of postpartum depression, post-MBA depression should be possible. i guess the recession is something relevant after your quarter life. Back during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, I just started in college and it never really affected me and my friends. Earning your keep changes everything. Especially the taxes. I guess I don't have to worry about that since I don't have any taxable wage for now anyway.

Its depressing how the current batch of MBA graduates from AIM are slow in their diffusion back to the employment rat race. As far as I know only 2 of the 30(?) Filipinos have jobs... well 4 were company sponsored so that's 6 out of 30. I guess HR professionals are still drunk from vacationing. Also, it's the first batch of graduates from the 16-month MBA program who graduated in December, while all the previous batches graduated in May. I guess this should have been foreseen by the administration, regardless of the current recession, and measures should have been put in place. Else, why go for a 16 month program if your graduates will be idle for four months anyway.

So the jobhunt continues...

2009

2009-01-05T07:01:00.002+08:00

i'm disappointed with the job hits from my MBA degree. but perhaps it's due to the fact that we graduated on Christmas season. i expected more leads and initial interviews. on the other hand, I think the job market is still adjusting and checking out how the economy is gonna perform in 2009. I wont tell much about the details of the year 2008. a lot of articles online and offline have already done that. i will say though that a lot of things happened last year both on the good and the bad extremes. so will 2009 be better? let wait how the economy pick up/slows down this week, since its the first business day of 2009.

i am hopeful though that there can still be jobs worthy of my MBA investment. i'm looking at starting a mini business but i'd rather it be a second stream of cashflow.

a professor of mine advised me to be open to overseas employment but i'm having second thoughts given what i've read that the Singapore economy is shrinking. i'm not too keen on working too far from the philippines.

the calm after the storm...

2008-12-22T00:15:00.006+08:00

im going back to Cebu later today. it's been a week since my MBA graduation here at AIM. I've been busy packing my stuff and organizing my digital files, still i'm not yet done. After 16 months of blood, sweat, tears and CP, the thrill level goes down. I'm now the young MBA graduate but still jobless. I guess all the HR people are still partying.

One thing I will remember in the graduation is the batch name coined by Madhu, our distinction graduate in his speech. The previous batch which was the last of the 2-year MBA called themselves the last of the Mohicans, and Madhu then called out batch as the first of the Conquerors. I had tried to email the whole batch about a consensus on what our batch name is supposed to be but AIM always has fail points to consider, in this case group email. Although Madhu's coined batch name, even though not done by consensus or popular vote is okay.

I've been staying in the dorm up to now andit feels weird that the walls and hallways do not echo the pressure of the past 16 months. The nooks and cranny of AIM is devoid of the familiar faces who either greet you with sweet, drunken or sleepy smiles. I miss my batch mates. My experience in AIM, although not the best, I think thats what makes it beautiful. It calls to my mind what a friend told me once about falling in love, "Its not the pretty face which makes yoou fall in love, it's the small quirks and annoyances that endears the person to you."

After 16 months, I believe AIM has given me more than a diploma. But one thing that must be addressed is the "unofficial/official" policy on cheating. The cheating must stop and the cheaters must be penalized regardless of cultural differences.

*(I wasted 800php on the worthless official photographer)

the battle of the UMPCs (part 2)

2008-12-08T22:19:00.003+08:00

MSI Wind is actually a worthy contender for the top spot of UMPCs. But the keyboard real estate for the period and comma key which is half of the normal size restricts the functionality of the unit. Everything else is the same, the screen is okay although the speakers is really loud. And then there's the cheap and small touchpad. In terms of installing a hacked OSX, the Wind is the most stable but the wifi card doesn't work but instead they use another internal wifi card. I think the card is from Dell. These hacker guys actually created a new distribution called WINDOSX. Check the torrents for it. Another downside for the Wind is the 3-cell battery that comes with it.

The Lenovo Ideapad s10 has a lot of hype but it died down later on during the launch. So far it is the thinnest of the other mentioned UMPCs. But it doesn't have any distinguishing feature worth mentioning. As a johnny-come lately in the UMPC, it doesn't offer much to switch to the Ideapad. It did have a good love story a marketing video in youtube. Somewhat like the laptop version of BMW's The Hire series.

An interesting update on the HP mininote 2133. HP just unveiled the HP mini 1000 which dropped the VIA processor and is now sporting and atom 1.6Ghz processor. And the other good news is that: NO MORE VISTA for it. I haven't seen it personally but based on my experience on the HP 2133, the keyboard real-estate is the best there is. Let's hope its still the same. The touchpad on the other hand could have been bigger. Let me update this in a few days when I get to feel a test unit. The picture looks mighty nice.

seeing Red (Mobile)

2008-12-04T11:45:00.006+08:00

August this year I got a free uMobile sim card. the concept was a network that was ad-driven but you can still load credits. The sim had a free 100php load each month for 6 months, but unfortunately I didn't really use it because : (1) it couldn't text to Globe Telecom and (2) I only have 2 celfones.

In the Philippines, the mobile phone user generally has 2 handsets/units. The primary being a Globe/Smart sim while the secondary being a Sun Cellular sim. Now why the need for the secondary unit with a Sun sim? Well, it's a cost issue. Sun Cellular offers unlimited texts and calls to other Sun Cellular sims for a set fee. Unfortunately, the signal is spotty in certain areas and sometimes the bandwidth is full.

So here comes uMobile. But then the concept of being Asia's first ad-funded mobile didn't work. They were unable to get 10K users by the year end. Connectivity Unlimited Resource Enterprise, Inc. (CURE) which owned uMobile was at a loss because it needed to jumpstart their 3G offering or it loses its license. Now here comes Smart Telecoms to the rescue. They basically bought CURE to expand their 3G license.

Red and 3G. Red Mobile is positioned to go after the secondary phone segment, those with Sun Cellular sim cards. Well to rationalize it first, to carry 3 phones is crazy. So instead, dislodge the current secondary phone network. The offering of Red Mobile to Red Mobile is very interesting.

But then the need for a 3G mobile unit. Hmm... Red Mobile/Smart is poised to take on Sun Cellular by giving the consumer more quality at an incremental price of 50 cents per text/MMS/call minute/video call minute to another Red Mobile user. Furthermore Smart has an extensive network compared to Sun. Let's face it, Sun Cellular's service although spotty and at times very busy saves users a lot of money from using their Globe/Smart credits. But then again, how much are we willing to pay for reliability... at a cheap rate?

I personally haven't decided yet if I am moving to Red Mobile. My free sim hasn't arrived yet. I would predict thought that Filipinos will stay with Sun Cellular. Free is still free, as long as its cheap (hell yeah!).

the ultimate burger... Ridiculous Challenge

2008-11-30T12:24:00.003+08:00

I chanced to drop by A. Venue yesterday for some chow and I found this place Burger Avenue. They had some pretty heavy quarter pounders grilled to perfection there and so i ordered a cheeseburger. Then I played around with my little kid and then I saw these pics on the wall. It said 'the 'ridiculous challenge.' Whooa! This is the place! They sell this triple decker of a burger which you have to finish in 5 minutes else you have to pay 255PHP.

If only I knew before my order was taken... I'll come back next Saturday. Their burgers are ok. Juicier than other fastfood shops, even Burger King. The place is quite small though. There's quite a number of successful challengers with their pics on the wall... but then there are more failures with their pics pasted in 2/3 albums.

the battle of the UMPCs (part 1)

2008-11-25T23:44:00.005+08:00

the battle for being the ultimate Ultra Mobile Portable Computer (UMPC) is afoot. so far the big brands have dished out their versions. so far i think only the Asus and Acer are the worthy contenders. MSI Wind and Lenovo's Idea pad follow suit and then there is Dell, Neo and some other not so well-known brands. And lets not forget the ergonomic HP mini-note whose hype died when the hardware screamed Via chipset (instead of Intel Atom) and the software croaked Vista.

The Asus 1000h so far has the 'almost-best' keyboard with a functional and ideally-sized touchpad. And at the time of introduction, it was the only umpc with a 6-cell battery translating into 8 hours battery but with internet it boils down to 4 hours. The other worthy contender is Acer Aspire One which has better aesthetics and best keyboard, especially the full-size right shift key, the small directional keys is quite a big issue The touchpad is a bit small though. Since the Aspire One is a johny-come-lately it was able to come up almost right away with 6-cell variants of the battery. Apart from that it comes in sleeker colors than the 1000h. Between the two, i'd have taken the Aspire One although initial specs wasn't so enticing because it was sporting an SSD instead of a hard drive, plus I was pushed for time given my MBA deadlines. And by the way, I'm comparing UMPCs with hard disks only. Those with SSDs are a different animal. The 1000h is a bit lengthier than the Aspire One thus it is able to sport a 'functional' keyboard. The Aspire one though is a beauty to hold when closed since it almost like a thick notebook. Almost all the other specs are the same. The software can either be Linux or XP, and thank god not Vista! I was able to fool around with the Kalyway distribution which installs Mac OSX Leopard in the Asus 1000h and all I can say is... WOW! It was a whole new FUNKY machine! But there was sound issues, and the wifi needed a bit of setting up which was wasting my time. Some guys in eeeph.com say that the iDeneb distro is better but still the same issues. I haven't read about anyone in the Philippines working with OSX on the Aspire One.

Oh well those are the two top contenders for the UMPC in my opinion. In part 2 I'll talk about MSI Wind and the Lenovo Ideapad. Stay tuned!

we need jobs... more than MBA degrees

2008-11-20T23:58:00.008+08:00

midnight just passed. the last day of mba classes just passed.

16 months (approximately) of torture came to an end.

but there are still some loose papers to finish.

i'm now basically a young mba graduate... without a job. an uncertain future in a hopeless country. months into the mba proper last year, we already knew the effects of the subprime crisis in the US. we didn't really care much that time. faced with the daunting tasks of passing our quanti subjects, mba was a far greater threat. the world right now is focused on what the new US president will do. will he really create change...?

the world is getting smaller now. we cannot disregard the speed of information which affects asia and rest of the world, and vice versa. we must be responsive to global issues, opportunities and threats. but what can this mba do?

ah... it's hard to start a fire. my high school algebra teacher used to say, "there are many ways in killing dogs."

and so why am i blogging again?

today, i reach out again to the outside world looking for a job. but more than a job, looking for meaning, more than the theories in the academe. we live in an exciting time. companies will crumble and sprout out. old empires will give way to new ones. evolutions and revolutions will strike like a fart wanting to escape.

hello world!

the next 48 hours

2008-06-28T02:31:00.003+08:00

after a long time of searching, after IPVG and Microsoft, my action consultancy (internship) started. well it started 3 weeks ago. i have a study with Global Business Power Corp (GBPC) about the power industry in the Philippines regarding the Independent Power Producer Administrator. so i had 3 weeks to study, and now i have 48 hours to finish my paper. :(
while my classmates are poring over our cases for the 2nd year electives. i have to consolidate... err write my report.
i've been absent from this blog for quite a time. the power industry has a lot of complications now especially with the deregulation ongoing. but there's a lot of opportunity in it as well. it makes me rethink if i really want to go to Singapore after b-school...

summer and a MS internship

2008-05-08T11:00:00.004+08:00

so eventually I was able to find an internship/action consultancy. after 3 weeks of interviews, here come Microsoft. but still no terms of reference or contract yet. that part is a bit slow. so i'm still wary of what might happen.

so a mac user working for his internship in MS. unfortunately im not allowed to talk about the project outside of MS. there is a sense of secrecy for the project which is in the area of marketing.

i'm organizing the UP Social Dance Club's grand reunion this coming May 30th. It's been a long time since we ballroom dancers have congregated, danced and caught up on our life stories. our former club director, Tom Pena is also coming for a visit from UK. So it all fits in. about 3 years ago, the club was dissolved in the university of the philippines and a new and similar organization was made, for reasons beyond ideas and egos which should not be discussed anymore. it also is a good time to celebrate a grand reunion since this is the year of UP's centennial. there have been reunions in the past but it's always been by batches and some pseudo-reunions. hopefully there will be a big turnout on May 30th. many people have been hitched. a few have become mothers, and fathers. People have changed and gained weight or lost it. This will be a fun event. But i'm planning to make it just a casual night out of dancing... an lots of photos. I guess that will make it more dynamic, less fixed cost and no more waiting for latecomers so we can start the program. in the end, what's important is that we KEEP ON DANCING!

the song of despair

2008-04-29T03:13:00.003+08:00

it seems that an MBA is an anomaly. in the search for my action consultancy (internship), companies who should be bringing their cases/problem to consulting companies and paying roughly 100K-200K PHP(sometimes more) are employing MBA undergrads for 100PHP a day or 8 hours. it's demeaning considering my tuition here at AIM. at 100PHP a day, it seems like I am back at UP where i was a library student assistant... but with more brain work to be done.

is this the case of all businesses right now? or is it only in the philippines?

i wonder what will be the state of businesses when we graduate this december. most of my batch mates are contemplating to go abroad after the MBA. this is brain drain all over. ah... why did the gunslinger cry at the watch tower?

the ballad of the forlorn mba

2008-04-21T17:02:00.003+08:00

on account of being the last paper to be submitted, everyone is slacking off to catch their breath. almost half of my batchmates have started their action consultancy or internship while the remaining ones are still looking for companies. as for me, i'm slacking off for a few hours before i journey to my POTFin analysis of Apple Inc. i actually found a harvard case as a model since organizationally, there is not much literature online.

its a sad thing that we AIM students are having a hard time getting internships even here in the Philippines. I don't know if this will be the trend when we graduate. That is if we do graduate. There are still some issues with the administration about the grades. but there is not much that we could do. so we focus on our action consultancy and then what? some might not be accepted back into the school? the thing is, even with the problems with the current MBA16 batch, the administration has already decided to accept the next batch for this May. I wish them good luck.

blog-forward

2008-04-17T15:56:00.004+08:00

everything just finished today. well for me at least. some people have to take the MCS exam tomorrow. our CAN group got exempted. very unlikely but we did. somehow we pushed through in the last minute and got the exemption. we just finished the OM exam about an hour ago and it was quite ... well simple. anybody who has done top-down programming in college would have no problems... but common sense would really help.
so first year business school is unofficially over (until tomorrow officially). but there are still 3 papers to submit. 1 individual, 1 by dyad partners, and the last one is by ad-hoc teams. I need to finish my part for the Chinese Nuclear Power Plant business plan tonight. I'm still researching about Apple for now.
I guess as early as now, I am feeling nostalgic. the pressure, we all hate it but we live by it. Although there have been flaws in the delivery of the MBA16 program, there are learnings. The problem is, even with the difficulties, the administration still wants us to pass our quantitative subjects! I would understand the process issues that we have, it is like a reflection of the real world outside. But then some of us are looking into another perspective. Whereas 8 months ago we were idealistic and hungry for learning, right now we are looking at finishing the course, getting our individual diplomas and getting out of the school. Its a bit sad, the issues plaguing MBA16 and the attitude of my batch. I understand what they are feeling and sometimes, I feel that way too (hmm, sounds like a song.)
we had our last strategy class this morning and it was like an eye opener. we look too much at business and corporate life that it reminded us about ourselves and individuals, as brother and sister, daughter and son, husband, wife and lovers, how business ethics should not be at the expense of other human beings. it was like a graduation speech, yet we are not yet graduates. i appreciate that class by professor Gallegos. I think that will be something sort of a guidebook for me. There is too much angst in my life, within and outside the mba arena. i guess there is still hope.
ashton kutcher, in 'a lot like love' was advised by his deaf-mute brother... Oliver, this is your life. It doesn't wait for you to get back on your feet.

and so with my nostalgia i continue to write on this blog. i'm actually done with the report this blog was initially for, but it seems my life is now connected with it. including my laziness. and so my blogging continues... to infinity and beyond!

financial management 2

2008-04-09T21:24:00.002+08:00

in three days we will have our exam in financial management 2 (FM2). this will be a make or break exam for some of the guys and gals who already got a 2 unit failure here at AIM. fm2 is the hurdle to get into 2nd year. the thing is, there is no wash grades for it. and given that there are three teachers for it, its kinda hazy from corporate finance to derivatives and instruments, to risk management. i seriously hope that AIM look into the delivery of their 16 month program. the only people who would probably pass fm2 would be those who have functional knowledge of finance. as to passing, i could only hope.

reflections

2008-03-25T01:42:00.002+08:00

i finished my social dancing walkabout. it wasn't a blast. but it was ok. i was able to address the issue of teaaching 3 dances in 3 hours. the most notable would be how they learned the tango in an hour only. the tango a latin dance but it is considered a standard dance in dancesport. i learned tango the hard way. strict tempo dancesport isn't much fun. plus my teacher's were too nerdy, the footwork and tempo was draining... it was hard to enjoy the dance. but in a lot of ways i am thankful for that training. it helped my form a lot and only minor quirks remain to be corrected. but the speed was something i'm not up to par yet.
anyways, around 10 pairs had fun doing the swing, chachacha and tango. everyone was quite excited with the tango which was nice because most of the time in group dance classes people shy away when its tango time. there was a low turnout of participants, partly due to scheduling and communications. the email system here at aim is still buggy. 2 of my emails did not push through on that same day. some 2nd year MBA and MDM friends were asking me why their class wasn't informed of the issue. apparently the posters i left at the elevators weren't enough or they were too busy/engrossed to notice it. marketing isn't a strong suite of mine. i had problems attracting female participants in the walkabout and i owe a lot to Rosie, Bingo, Kristine, Johnson, Lan and Diamond for helping me find other females and in taking photos. i could have made sure by advertising to the class presidents about the walkabout but then the low turnout was optimal in teaching everyone. i also thought i could have pre-enlisted the participant and have them pay me in advance. but revenue generation was not really a risk factor. and besides, at 100php the dance session was a steal. i could charge 15 times if it wasn't my walkabout.
im thinking about how to present the walkabout report. hmm... it seems i'll have to be creative...
only a few more weeks and 1st year b-school is officially over , the hype over passing FM2 is high among us whose passage to second year is contingent on that course. and our professor isn't something to be trifled with. so we are gonna be on an overdrive in our next two sessions for FM2. goodluck to me and my comrades.
i'm looking forward to my Action Consultancy with IPVG, i had fun in our interview. half of the time we were laughing as if we were college students in the cafeteria. perhaps, it was in their culture. IPVG CEO Enrique Gonzales says his company is like the 'Apple of Asia.' and Apple is one of the two companies i would like to work for after my mba. 2nd would be Google. IPVG can come as third :D back to their culture, it was a lot of fun being there alone, and yet we were not talking about monkey business but the current issues RA had as operations manager of the e-games division. the thing is it seems he's been too busy lately, that he has replied or filled up the Terms of Reference for our Action Consultancy. i'll just have to pester him a bit and drop by his office sometime.
the next five weeks is filled with deadlines for papers. we even have this presentation for Management Communication where one of us in the CAN group will act out a world leader in a speech. I was thinking of doing Ghandi but i have too much flabs. hahaha.

grades and dance-walkabout....

2008-03-17T08:36:00.005+08:00

our b-school grades for quantitative subjects were released last friday. for our program, we are required to pass 25% of our quanti grades. So out of 17 units, we must not fail in 3.75 units; although we are still taking up the remaining 3 units of the total. i was fortunate enough to fail in 2 units, in Language of Business (LOB). so I still need to pass Financial Management 2 to seal my quanti subjects for the first year. some of my friends, weren't so fortunate thought. 4 Filipinos were advised that they cannot anymore proceed to 2nd year, but they can stay to complete the 8th month since they are already paid for.
its ironic how one of Asia's premiere business school has undertaken its MBA 16-month program in a moderately unstructured fashion. the delivery of the program is questionable. a lot of emphasis was veered towards speeding up the process but retention or inculcation of the learnings was given secondary though, based on my opinion. since the start of the program, there were already a mismatch of the student's progress and speed of delivery of the courses. eventually the courses were slowed down for us students to breath but the feedback process was terrible. wash grades were incomplete and teacher feedback did not mirror an exact picture of how student's were faring in class. moreover, some students say some mentors aren't much help to them. the previous batch who were still under the 2-year mba program had an allowable failure rate of 11 units. i think AIM restructured the program to weed out mba's who weren't good enough, but then its not enough to be stricter on rules, without restructuring the teaching and feedback program.
i feel the program could have been rolled out better. i hope the administration acknowledges their shortcoming and work better with the students if they still want to regain being the number one b-school for Asia. i wish goog luck to my friends an to myself who still need to pass FM2 to proceed to second year.
i'm going to hold my dance walkabout tomorrow : Social Dancing 101, the idiots guide to dancing chachacha, tango and swing. i didn't put the 'idiots guide' in the poster though. :D

the next 6 weeks

2008-03-10T01:15:00.002+08:00

the first half, its finally going to end.
in 6 weeks 1st year of B-school is over, and it should be time to contemplate... like Socrates did.
in 3 weeks this blog which was started as a project of my HBO class folio will be submitted. and so, what have I written? and does my writing come with lessons learned? or is it but a diary of dates and events? what more could i have done?
what have i learned?
ah... my blog says, a walk in the wild side. but what is wild with taking up B-school?
there's the rub.
did i study b-school to learn? or just to have that diploma for an entry into a better job?
did i study b-school find my inner business acumen? or just to translate my gung-ho tactics into businesslike propaganda?
did i study b-school to become another guy in a black suit with an attache case?

the next 6 weeks will be full of deadlines and projects. sleep will be a luxury but i do hope, that when the smoke clears, things will be pretty calm. and ideas will mold into a core, that will better me.

live to die another day

2008-02-29T01:50:00.003+08:00

I was supposed to climb Mt. Banahaw covertly. yes covertly. when I ventured into Brgy. Kinabuhayan Dolores, I met with my guide and we were instructed to go pass by the Barangay Hall to register our climb. Unfortunately, we were instructed to hire a Barangay Tanod to accompany us at my expense. And the only available place would be Tatlong Tangke, a short hiking trip far away from the peak -- a walk in the park. I was asked if I had secured a DENR permit to forego the Tanod from accompanying us and to be given the go signal to climp up to the peak (Durungawan area)... and so I traveled from Kinabuhayan Dolores to Tayabas and then to Pagbilao, wasting around two hours looking for that permit. I was able to pinpoint where to find that permit, it was only 10 minutes away from Brgy Kinabuhayan. At the end of the day, after carrying my hiking pack I was dead tired. The next day I was supposed to go back to Kinabuhayan to secure that permit. It was too much strain on me physically.
Thus today I officially end my Banahaw Walkabout plans. Although if you look at it, the setbacks are exactly what the risks are. But I'll concede this battle to fight another tomorrow.
I'm thinking about taking pictures of Manila's destitute population... at night. I don't really need to go that far. Makati has its share of that populace. Too much hypocrisy with the high-rise buildings around the Glorietta area. Alternatively, I'm thinking about a 'corporate' social dancing DANCEabout.

the mystic MBA

2008-02-20T18:46:00.003+08:00

the recent weeks have been plagued with scandals. this country basically eats scandals for breakfast. and im sick of it.
B-school on the other hand is too fast.. or perhaps i'm getting slower. too many deadlines have gone by and i've forgotten about this blog. anyways, im looking forward to our one week break next week. i'm doing my walkabout trip to Banahaw... yes its pushing through. i've contacted someone to guide me through the mountain covertly. but i'm going there alone. im not sharing the risk of going there. furthermore, from a project management perspective, everything falls into place. from the setbacks to the opportunities, the consequences and risk factor... that's why i must go... and find the mystic in me. there are reports of NPA activity though. That doesn't really concern me as a civilian. there are lots of people from the University of the Philippines who have gone to the mountains in protest of the government. And these are people who have first-class college education. I am not an enemy thus I do not feel any conflict with them or with any of their beliefs. I'm still trying to clear the plans with the contact... so for now, they are but plans....

2 weeks notice

2008-02-08T17:55:00.001+08:00

my walkabout just flew away!
in 2 weeks we will be having our first B-school break for this year. and in 2 weeks i'm supposed to lead a team to scale Mt. Banahaw-- considered a holy mountain where mystics, cultists and mountain hikers frequently scale to meditate and commune with nature. Alas, I guess I didn't do my homework that early. Mt. Banahaw is closed to the public up to next year. Apparently they closed it because a lot of visitors were polluting the area. And so with 2 weeks notice, I am left without any walkabout.
B-school has been uneventful except for deadlines. It seems our WAC adventures have stopped. It seems that unofficially we only have 12 WAC cases instead of the planned 16. I actually love the challenge posed by WAC, but then again there is too little time left for the weekend to de-stress so we may start fresh the next week. The past few weeks has been like a train ride to wherever. So many stuff to read. Wednesdays feel like Mondays and Fridays like Sundays.
And so back to my Walkabout. I'm not looking forward to doing a Ballroom Dancing Workshop. For me its too boring. But I may be looking at it from a different viewpoint. We'll see...

project management & walkabout

2008-01-20T09:51:00.000+08:00

it seems my jan 8 post didnt' push through. anyways, i learned something about project management today. i had planned a ballroom dancing activity here in AIM and I had the go signal from the Student Council and the SSAR (i think it mean student s... for academic relations :-D). According to my contact in the SSAR, they would be the ones reserving the SGV Conference hall II for today's activity. unfortunately, perhaps due to oversight it was not reserved. But still it was fine, the guards say nobody was reserved for today. But when I went there there was this leadership seminar. The guards asked why there was this seminar without any reservations. Apparently that seminar was not finished yesterday and they had the room reserved also for today. I could have contested the issue but I had no official papers to show that I was reserved since I was assured that they would be the ones reserving the venue. But I'm not pointing fingers here. I actually find the event fruitful for me.
Back in the University of the Philippines, when we used to have dance workshops, we put up flyers for marketing and we were assured there were participants. Sort of like "If you build it, they will come." Here at AIM, marketing it isn't that easy. I sent an email to the whole batch of students and there were a few responses. There were actually a bunch of batch mates who personally told me that they will go. But as I went about calling people in their rooms to inform them that the workshop is canceled, most of them were asleep. I guess I tailored the sunday schedule to fit my schedule. I thought of doing it on a Sunday afternoon but I assumed that most people like me would be studying their case packs. Moreover, our Saturday schedules were usually spent sleeping after a WAC.
I also learned that marketing ballroom dancing which for most students here is a new thing would be quite difficult. First they do not know the current rates outside, which is pretty much twice the cost I was charging, and about 3 times more dances. Second, as students, there was a price range which they were working with. Since most of us here at AIM are studying full time, we also are working with budgets. I guessed I had an overlooked the issue since I had a different market segment in the first place. My primary market segment was the younger students whom I see always going out and dining in these expensive places. There was no secondary market identified. Plus, I did not take into consideration that most of the students are busy studying, thus they just brushed off the ballroom dancing invitation.
I learned that there are people willing to help you. But they also have jobs to do and as such they can't accommodate you even with that sincere smile and the kind words. But I don't take it against them. In the end, I should be ready, end-to-end.
I've started a new walkabout project. I'm organizing a team to scale Mt. Banahaw in Quezon. I guess what I've learned can help me prepare for this. Mt. Banahaw is one of those places where there is a lot of psychic energy. This is perhaps due to the effects of volcanic activity since it is a dormant volcano. Furthermore there is a lot of myths about the place. I hope to bring a group to that place called the 'twilight zone' where all the electromagnetic forces converge.
I have started jogging in preparation for the walkabout and also for my health. So far I've been getting my old jogging pace. I've started with slow jog but the impact is a bit heavy on my feet although, it builds up on my stamina. Also, I promised to run the marathon walkabout of my friend, so that would be my first official marathon.
There has been talk about giving the wash grades or temporary grades for the 1st year of MBA. I'm a little bit concerned because there is no immediate feedback for those classes which have ended about 2 months ago. There is only a maximum of 25% quantitative/qualitative subject which you can fail. And I feel that I haven't been very good in my quantitative subject. I cant exactly point to the exact issues why I'm having a hard time on these quantitative subjects. I am alright with algebra and calculus but finance and accounting seems very alien to me. :-)

walkabout + xmas break

2007-12-14T17:02:00.000+08:00

it's my first day for the christmas break and it seems rather lonely than happy. i spent most of the day sleeping and planning what to do for the next three weeks. my main problem now is looking into what my Walkabout would be. it is a requirement for my HBO course and i'm at a loss on the possible projects to take. there are a lot of possible projects to make just for the sake of passing. i'm looking for something that is new to me, something challenging -- perhaps out of this world.
i'm looking forward to going home this xmas. i havent spent much time in the province (live a week) in 4 years. although im not looking forward to our high school reunion. most of my friend aren't gonna be there anyways. plus i'm gonna need to review finance if i plan to pass the next 12 months of b-school. i do hope i can go on a land trip going home, from manila to mindoro to cebu then to iligan. i can go through a roll-on roll-off barge then go around in buses and boats.

the week before the break

2007-12-11T08:41:00.000+08:00

i've been quite busy. lots of things have happened. my recurring tonsilitis (i'm gonna have my tonsils removed soon, i hope). WACs... i realize Managing Costs and Profits can be VERY ambiguous. the AIM xmas party... it was fun but i invited my girlfriend to the party so i
ended up bringing her home instead of getting drunk but i've gotten over drinking a long time ago. smoking... i havent gone more than 6 sticks a day... that's a BIG improvement for me. my ibook seems to be slowing down more and more. i think i may need to optimize my hard disk utilization. xmas shopping... there's a lot of sale going on but im a wantin-and-savin my money from work. i'll be workless for a year more and i don't have any backup dough. although i'm gonna buy my kid an nba jersey from greenhills. it would be nice for him because he runs and run around... oh well, they say its the 'terrible two' stage. i just got my texas instruments financial calculator, it doesn't look well. but the warrior is gauged by the way he uses his weapon and not how fancy it is. i've been jogging for over a week now. around an hour everyday, rain or shine. i hope this continues. i need physical training, the mental part is already excruciating :D
i was contemplating last week for my HBO walkabout wherein we undertake a self-made process which has managerial, instructive, unfamiliar, experiential, challenging and risky qualities. but the important thing is that i get to learn something based on those qualities. or it may be based on some objectives i set beforehand. the guide basically asks me my strengths and the gaps or weaknesses. and there goes my problems what are my strengths? and weaknesses?
i have 2 more exams coming. one in finance and one in operations management. then there is that QA project. my only concern so far is finance. i was looking into amazon.com for the Bluffer's Guide to Finance and it was pretty cheap except for the shipping part. now i have to study my financial ratios...

after 4 months

2007-12-02T02:01:00.001+08:00

i just realized that it's december already. 2 more weeks to go before xmas break. and the last 4 months of B-school was ended by another failed mutiny by the Magdalo Faction of the Philippines. It seems this group is keen on taking over hotels. :D it was a bit shaky for an afternoon that was scheduled for another WAC. i was napping when my room mate stormed the room saying that everyone was to be evacuated. luckily, the issue was resolved within 2 hours. but i went out anyway to my friend Tony's place. the confusion in Makati was too crazy for me. I ended up watching the most recent Heroes movies.
im coping with my finance well. though i might not be able to pass, i guess i learned a lot compared to previously. (a.k.a. i can not make educated financial B.S.)

B-school woes... and dancing

2007-11-18T21:01:00.001+08:00

i just got feedback from my professors through my mentor. i expected pretty much the same. i haven't been participating much in our class case discussions. i feel that, although enlightening, most of the ideas shared are too straightforward and easily derivable from the case facts. there is no value addition in terms of industry insight based on experience. my reason for not being the person to input insight on the other hand would be... none. right now i just am not, i don't really know. it seems im more of a listener at the moment. but i do inderstant i have to step up. after 3 months of b-school i'm still in a way, slacking off. so i need to step up.
i went to a reunion with my dance organization in college. i was expecting to meet my old friends but unfortunately very few came to the event. most of them were of the newer batches. i did win the impromptu swing competition with one of the new members. :-) some of my friends from India are looking into Salsa lessons. i'm hoping we can schedule them right so it won't interfere with our cases.
the schedule seems to be better now in B-school. it seems everything is fine. although i need to read a lot more about finance if i want to get the most of my education. everything seems to be converging with finance. it is something inescapable here in AIM. and so i must read again.

moving forward

2007-11-11T05:00:00.001+08:00

after our 3-day-exams...
yes we survived. after the sleepless mornings, we had a long weekend. (we do no sleep at night. we take naps instead) and right now i'm in my slacker mode. i just watch the Avatar book 3 : fire online at veoh.com. the interconnection is much more reliable now at the dorm. the diwali was fun although i came late around 11pm. a lot of people were drunk and dancing. too bad i left my camera. our plant visit did not push through last saturday so we had the weekend all to our caprice. and i slept most of the time. we will be having Prof. Cruz to finish our FM subject. so we are all looking forward to a more austere environment... hmm... we kinda gotten more comfortable with Sir LT since accounting... but it didn't help increase our grades. our economics class is done and we are having Marketing Management and Human Behaviour in Organizations again. Ah.... i wish the quantitative subjects will go away but apparently i would have to love that which i ... dont like... abhor is a very strong word to use. its not that i hate numbers. numbers just are too strict. it leaves no room for art. but if i want to have an mba education, i must embrace numbers. :-(
its almost christmas in the malls. id like to be in a festive mood but im looking out for the next pile of assignments.

boomerang

2007-11-04T21:53:00.001+08:00

i had a blast going back to my province. i haven't realized how long i've been away and how my cousins have grown up -- i couldn't carry them anymore! my son had so much fun running around expecially in the airport. and i was so tired running after him. he has this penchant for cars and planes... i don't know why. my mom's birthday went well, it was like a reunion of some sort. some close relatives were there also. i didn't have time to meet my friends though. perhaps this december if i can go home to iligan. i might be here are AIM or in cebu that time. its only 6 more weeks before the next break! i have some serious studying to do first. i wasn't able to read any case. now its back to study mode.

the long weekend

2007-11-01T01:15:00.001+08:00

i'll be going back to my hometown Iligan City with my gf and little boy in tow. we are gonna surprise my mother on her birthday with her twin. it will be a good time to relax a bit from B-school. just a bit. i am bringing with me 7 cases for next week's class. and about next week, i have 3 major exams :-( hopefully the trip will freshen me up a little, and clear my mind of the pressures in B-school. perhaps it would be a good time to reflect. i'm fond of climbing our rooftop during midnight and gazing at the stars, wondering about life and anything.
i chatted with my high school friends on yahoo messenger yesterday and i do hope we could meet back home. i am paying my debts to my goddaughter whom i haven't seen in 4 years. she's into ballet and her mom says she like girly stuff like barbie and necklaces. i bought her fairy wings from SM that could complement her ballet outfit plus a necklace.
i just got my backpay from Siemens. i'm more than happy with the amount considering what i've done for 19 months on the operations floor. i'm thinking of getting a Palm treo 650 although i'm having second thoughts since there have been complaints about the 650's operating system crashing from time to time. i'm happy with my hand-me-down p910i phone but there is not much free applications that can be used with the p910i. plus the casing is expensive! and if i do sell it at a second hand place, still the casing is more expensive than the price i can sell it at. the treo 650 though is a far better phone as regards to functionality, given the multitude of freeware from Palm. i do miss my old m500. it was a workhorse. i'm keeping my eyes open for a good treo bargain by december. most of the people in mapalad.com, i think, are going for the iphone or the p990 for the WIFI capability. the treo 680 is pretty expensive but its not much of a leap from the treo 650. the iphone is a revolutionary phone, kinda like my p910i without the flip; but i find it too expensive especially that its not yet 3G capable.
we had our batch Operations Management game today. we were tasked to create a device wherein we can put in an egg and drop it from the 3rd floor, without breaking/cracking the egg. our team's 3 design were lemons. we discounted the idea of a parachute to dampen the free fall. we went for other ideas which were good actually but needed more design testing. the main drawback was we spent too much on materials and took too long, plus our product did not work. also, our group isn't really up to speed communication-wise and we're a bit of lagging in terms of cohesiveness.

zooming after the mba

2007-10-27T22:10:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-24T17:54:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-21T00:49:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-19T01:40:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-15T11:05:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-10T01:33:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-08T22:40:00.000+08:00

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... :-)