Well - this will be my last blog posting for the foreseeable future because Geeta and I are entering a new phase of our lives and we've a got a new blog to run.
http://werehavingthree.blogspot.com/
It has been a pleasure and I really hope this blog has been useful for all prospective MBA candidates.
All the best in your endeavours.
Sacha Gera, MBA
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Back to Working Life
I'm starting the third week of my new job at IBM. It feels good to be back in the working world although it was a bit of an adjustment the first couple of weeks – Over the summer I’d become accustomed to waking up on my own terms, and going to bed when I felt like it. It definitely isn’t like that anymore! My first client engagement/training engagement is in Mississauga which is quite the commute from downtown (where I live). I’m getting used to Toronto traffic and I can see how people waste a lot of time on their daily commute. I’m trying to beat the traffic by going in early and staying a bit later.
The first couple of weeks have involved training, and some job shadowing to ease me into the management consulting world. It’s been quite the experience so far – keep you posted.
Over the last couple of weeks, I really feel like I’m getting back into a routine. My schedule on Monday through Friday has become pretty standardized with work, home life etc. Weekends are my time to relax and spend time with Geeta. I’ve also started running more often and for longer distances. I try to get in two 5km runs per week and one 8-10km run on the weekend. My goal is to stay as fit as possible both physically and mentally over the coming weeks.
Other than that, there hasn’t been a lot going on. The May, 2009 Ivey class continues to stay close after graduation and we get together at least once a month. We recently got together at a colleague’s place + on occasion we get together for after work drinks. Definitely miss not seeing everyone every day. I’m now starting to reminisce on the Ivey days more frequently. I miss them. What a year it was! I was looking at pictures, and our year book the other day and it really made me appreciate how amazing the year was; from the China Study Trip, to the Consulting Project, to making new friends…what a year!
The first couple of weeks have involved training, and some job shadowing to ease me into the management consulting world. It’s been quite the experience so far – keep you posted.
Over the last couple of weeks, I really feel like I’m getting back into a routine. My schedule on Monday through Friday has become pretty standardized with work, home life etc. Weekends are my time to relax and spend time with Geeta. I’ve also started running more often and for longer distances. I try to get in two 5km runs per week and one 8-10km run on the weekend. My goal is to stay as fit as possible both physically and mentally over the coming weeks.
Other than that, there hasn’t been a lot going on. The May, 2009 Ivey class continues to stay close after graduation and we get together at least once a month. We recently got together at a colleague’s place + on occasion we get together for after work drinks. Definitely miss not seeing everyone every day. I’m now starting to reminisce on the Ivey days more frequently. I miss them. What a year it was! I was looking at pictures, and our year book the other day and it really made me appreciate how amazing the year was; from the China Study Trip, to the Consulting Project, to making new friends…what a year!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Winds of Change
In a couple of hours, my parents are coming to visit Geeta and I for the first time since we’ve relocated to Toronto. I’m excited that they're coming up. My parents are moving to the U.K. (in a couple of weeks) for the next four years as my mother has taken a diplomatic posting with the Canadian Embassy in London. I’m excited for her and my dad. I still can’t believe that they are uprooting their lives at their age (now in their 60’s), but at the same time I am inspired that they are actually doing it. What I like most about it, besides having a place to crash in central London, is that my parents are actually following through on a dream that they’ve talked about ever since I was a child: taking a foreign posting. I am always inspired by people who follow-through on their dreams and make things happen. I try to live my life by this same principal – ‘don’t just talk about it, make things happen’. It is sad that they are moving and that the ‘Winds of Change’ are in the air in all aspect of my life at the moment - but after the MBA experience I feel more prepared to deal with change then ever before.
I spent all of last week in Ottawa helping my parents pack up their household. It is amazing how much stuff can accumulate in 30 years of occupancy. My parents had a hard time departing with many of their antique possessions, which made the move frustrating at times ;) After a few dozen rounds of debates/arguments/boxing we were able to dispose of roughly two tonnes of excess furniture, articles, clothing and junk - the move was finally completed and the new rental tenants were ready to move into my parents’ home on time and on schedule.
While in Ottawa, I also had the opportunity to meet up with a few Ivey classmates that happened to be in town. It was nice seeing them. Since Geeta and I have moved to Toronto we’ve been able to frequently meet up with Ivey friends, which has been really nice and has helped us ease the transition into the big city. Good friends in any city = good times ….in my opinion. Our social senator liaisons recently organized a class get together at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, which was a fantastic way for all of us in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to meet up and catch up on the last couple of months since school ended.
With one week to go before starting my first post-MBA job at IBM, I’m feeling ready and excited to get back into the working world. I feel like I’ve been off of work for far too long now, and I think that getting back to work will help me get into a routine again. Geeta and I have been without an income for about 15 months now so the money won’t hurt either ;) I had a large list of things to do while I was off on vacation, and I’m happy to say that at least half of it was completed. My post-MBA vacation was a great time to do a lot of self-reflection and I think it was quite healthy for me. I realize that I need to work on finding more time to relax especially when I settle back into the working routine – I’ve become quite the restless soul over the last few years!!
Earlier this year I promised myself that I would read a self-improvement book called Crucial Conversations. It’s about learning to deal effectively with conversations that involve high emotions, high stakes, and opposing opinions. I’m almost finally done the book, and I must say that it is well worth the read. I highly recommend it to everyone. It is applicable to your professional life and your personal life, and it will change the way you communicate and handle yourself when it counts the most – both at home, at work, and everywhere else.
I’ll end off with an interesting set of lyrics from my favourite rock band. Yes - I know it has nothing to do with this blog entry, and the topic of 'enemies' is kind of a strange one...but thought I'd share it anyhow.
“Choose your enemies carefully because they will define you.
Make them interesting because in some ways they will mind you.
They are not there in the beginning but when your story ends.
Going to last with you longer then your friends”
~Cedars of Lebanon, U2
Until next time…
Sacha
I spent all of last week in Ottawa helping my parents pack up their household. It is amazing how much stuff can accumulate in 30 years of occupancy. My parents had a hard time departing with many of their antique possessions, which made the move frustrating at times ;) After a few dozen rounds of debates/arguments/boxing we were able to dispose of roughly two tonnes of excess furniture, articles, clothing and junk - the move was finally completed and the new rental tenants were ready to move into my parents’ home on time and on schedule.
While in Ottawa, I also had the opportunity to meet up with a few Ivey classmates that happened to be in town. It was nice seeing them. Since Geeta and I have moved to Toronto we’ve been able to frequently meet up with Ivey friends, which has been really nice and has helped us ease the transition into the big city. Good friends in any city = good times ….in my opinion. Our social senator liaisons recently organized a class get together at a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, which was a fantastic way for all of us in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to meet up and catch up on the last couple of months since school ended.
With one week to go before starting my first post-MBA job at IBM, I’m feeling ready and excited to get back into the working world. I feel like I’ve been off of work for far too long now, and I think that getting back to work will help me get into a routine again. Geeta and I have been without an income for about 15 months now so the money won’t hurt either ;) I had a large list of things to do while I was off on vacation, and I’m happy to say that at least half of it was completed. My post-MBA vacation was a great time to do a lot of self-reflection and I think it was quite healthy for me. I realize that I need to work on finding more time to relax especially when I settle back into the working routine – I’ve become quite the restless soul over the last few years!!
Earlier this year I promised myself that I would read a self-improvement book called Crucial Conversations. It’s about learning to deal effectively with conversations that involve high emotions, high stakes, and opposing opinions. I’m almost finally done the book, and I must say that it is well worth the read. I highly recommend it to everyone. It is applicable to your professional life and your personal life, and it will change the way you communicate and handle yourself when it counts the most – both at home, at work, and everywhere else.
I’ll end off with an interesting set of lyrics from my favourite rock band. Yes - I know it has nothing to do with this blog entry, and the topic of 'enemies' is kind of a strange one...but thought I'd share it anyhow.
“Choose your enemies carefully because they will define you.
Make them interesting because in some ways they will mind you.
They are not there in the beginning but when your story ends.
Going to last with you longer then your friends”
~Cedars of Lebanon, U2
Until next time…
Sacha
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Four Recent Financial Post Articles
I've written four recent blog articles for the Financial Post. Enjoy.
High Yield Corporate Bonds - A Safe Short Term Play With High Return Potential?
Timing the Economic Recovery - Maximizing Portfolio Returns with the Sector Rotation Strategy
Nortel: Bidder Motives, Canadian Pride
Why GM & Chrysler but not Nortel?
High Yield Corporate Bonds - A Safe Short Term Play With High Return Potential?
Timing the Economic Recovery - Maximizing Portfolio Returns with the Sector Rotation Strategy
Nortel: Bidder Motives, Canadian Pride
Why GM & Chrysler but not Nortel?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
First post-MBA blog…Toronto – my new home
First post-MBA blog…Toronto – my new home
This is blog #36 and my first as an Ivey MBA graduate. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep doing this but it was really nice to hear from some readers that this blog has actually been somewhat helpful to prospective MBA students - So I’ll write from time to time as an MBA grad and Ivey alumni and profile my life in the big city – Toronto.
It has been over a month since graduation however time seems to be passing very quickly. I’ve been busy catching up on all the things I neglected during the year including filing my taxes ;) Geeta and I travelled to Florida for 11 days – Disney World was overwhelming, Miami was not totally as expected, but the Florida Keys were heavenly. Did I mention that we got chased out of the waters by a shark while beaching it up in the Keys – no worries; no one got hurt :)
So how does it feel to be done?
Well besides the flashy/shiny Ivey ring that I received upon graduation, I really don’t feel all that different (by the way the ring has got quite the bling bling factor to it – still trying to get used to it :) ). I do however feel more prepared for the working world and more confident than ever. I feel like I have a toolbox of strategy, financial, leadership, communication, analytical, networking and marketing tools to propel toward my executive aspirations. Guess time will tell.
Life in the big city.
We have moved into our new apartment in central Toronto, and we are really starting to embrace the vibrancy and cosmopolitan nature of our new home – Toronto, Canada. So far so good – really liking the restaurants, coffee shops and walking. Love that everything is accessible and that we don’t have to drive much in the heavy traffic. What’s even better is that we’ve moved to a city where many of our Ivey colleagues/friends are also located. It feels like we are picking it up where we last left off. In the first couple of weeks, Geeta and I have managed to meet with many friends and it has made the transition much easier. Good friends + new city = don’t matter where you are!
In other news….
My brother’s family is the new poster family for Immigration Canada. I think this is hilarious. My niece and nephew have since been enrolled in modelling school. Too funny! Check it out here. Pic on the left.
My niece Sanya turned one! – can’t believe it has been a year already. She was born during module 1 of the program and I am looking forward to seeing her in an upcoming trip to Otown (aka Ottawa). My Californian niece Ayana is now four! – man I feel like I am getting old! Pics below - baby Sanya in her crib and four year old Ayana at her Cinderella-themed bday party.
My dearest parents are moving to London, U.K. come late August! My mother is taking a diplomatic posting with the embassy in London - I am so proud of her and all her accomplishments. She’s always a source of inspiration. The fact that both my parents are still ambitious enough (even in their 60’s) to make big moves and live a fulfilling life is hugely inspirational to me. I hope I’ve gotten some of that in me. I’m looking forward to many wonderful trips to the U.K. over the next four years.
Until next time…Sacha Gera, MBA :)
This is blog #36 and my first as an Ivey MBA graduate. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep doing this but it was really nice to hear from some readers that this blog has actually been somewhat helpful to prospective MBA students - So I’ll write from time to time as an MBA grad and Ivey alumni and profile my life in the big city – Toronto.
It has been over a month since graduation however time seems to be passing very quickly. I’ve been busy catching up on all the things I neglected during the year including filing my taxes ;) Geeta and I travelled to Florida for 11 days – Disney World was overwhelming, Miami was not totally as expected, but the Florida Keys were heavenly. Did I mention that we got chased out of the waters by a shark while beaching it up in the Keys – no worries; no one got hurt :)
So how does it feel to be done?
Well besides the flashy/shiny Ivey ring that I received upon graduation, I really don’t feel all that different (by the way the ring has got quite the bling bling factor to it – still trying to get used to it :) ). I do however feel more prepared for the working world and more confident than ever. I feel like I have a toolbox of strategy, financial, leadership, communication, analytical, networking and marketing tools to propel toward my executive aspirations. Guess time will tell.
Life in the big city.
We have moved into our new apartment in central Toronto, and we are really starting to embrace the vibrancy and cosmopolitan nature of our new home – Toronto, Canada. So far so good – really liking the restaurants, coffee shops and walking. Love that everything is accessible and that we don’t have to drive much in the heavy traffic. What’s even better is that we’ve moved to a city where many of our Ivey colleagues/friends are also located. It feels like we are picking it up where we last left off. In the first couple of weeks, Geeta and I have managed to meet with many friends and it has made the transition much easier. Good friends + new city = don’t matter where you are!
In other news….
My brother’s family is the new poster family for Immigration Canada. I think this is hilarious. My niece and nephew have since been enrolled in modelling school. Too funny! Check it out here. Pic on the left.My niece Sanya turned one! – can’t believe it has been a year already. She was born during module 1 of the program and I am looking forward to seeing her in an upcoming trip to Otown (aka Ottawa). My Californian niece Ayana is now four! – man I feel like I am getting old! Pics below - baby Sanya in her crib and four year old Ayana at her Cinderella-themed bday party.
My dearest parents are moving to London, U.K. come late August! My mother is taking a diplomatic posting with the embassy in London - I am so proud of her and all her accomplishments. She’s always a source of inspiration. The fact that both my parents are still ambitious enough (even in their 60’s) to make big moves and live a fulfilling life is hugely inspirational to me. I hope I’ve gotten some of that in me. I’m looking forward to many wonderful trips to the U.K. over the next four years.
Until next time…Sacha Gera, MBA :)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The night before convocation
What a surreal moment it is. I’m feeling happy, excited and sad all at the same time. Tomorrow is our convocation and it marks the last day that we will all be together as a class. If only I could have one more class together in Amp A to hear Gerard talk about cuuuulture, to hear Dany make a funny comment, to hear Selena talk about oil and gas, to hear AK sing ‘Journey’, to see Matt B. raise his eyebrows and deliver a Jack Welch quote, to see Ricky playing on his iPhone, to see Alan playing chess, to see Sudha getting riled up about biotech, to see Vikas being an eager beaver, to see Mark T. take his time to answer a question, to hear David Atkinson ramble off a well-polished response, to see Diana and Adwoa correct the professors with the pronunciation of their names, to watch Heather make an intelligent remark, to see Samar look for water, to see Erin talk legalities, to see Jamie sum it all up, to see Zev talk ‘greed is good’, to see Rahul rap, to see Steph debate accounting, to see Sid talk banking, to see Z smile, to see Sabir say !’er, to see Flossie brew up an wicked response in case she gets called, to see Jeff talk medicine, to hear Joy-Ann talk about how cold it is, to see Jimmy serenade a classmate, to watch Waleed rock his chair, to see Pat deliver his roller-coaster speech, to see Matthew John talk politics, to hear Sebestian talk business, to hear Greg’s deep analysis of the situation, to hear Tom talk face-grinding, to hear Mukul talk cricket, to hear Garima talk India, to hear Raghu make a bold statement, to hear Neal talk numbers, to hear Sunny talk ops, to watch Jason B. trade stocks, to watch Anya talk Russia, to hear Karen talk consulting, to watch Andrew crunch some numbers, to watch Sid D. and Somea in deep discussion, to see Vanessa wearing a ‘vote for Vanessa’ shirt, to see Chris talk IT, to hear Will talk law, to hear Nolan spontaneously whip up a response, to see Ramit staring at Mukul, to hear Alykan talk about oil fields, to hear Pierre Mason crack a joke, to watch Joseph fall asleep, to hear Pier Jr. talk about the lab, to hear LP talk French, to watch Justin P. demonstrate his seeds of greatness, to watch Justin W. put himself out there with a vulnerable speech, to hear Gang deliver a perspective from China, to watch Wei’s observant tendencies, to hear Karthik offer a candid perspective, to watch Senay’s ‘Obama-ness’, to watch Mark R. play professor and teach a class, to listen to Manju’s long words of wisdom, to watch Neha’s facial reactions, to watch Somea’s strong will, to hear Khaled quote a section from the law book, to hear Anurag’s soft-spoken intelligence, to see Dev’s perfectly maintained beard, to watch Ashish snap a picture and to listen to myself ramble about Nortel. Oh – and to wonder why all those AMBAs are so smart…..
Today was a busy day. I had a number of errands to complete, and a lunch to attend before my parents, in-laws, and sister in law came into town. I managed to fit in time for a coffee with a good friend – which was really nice. It made me realize how much I’m going to miss hanging out with everyone. At night, Geeta and I cooked up a bbq dinner and enjoyed some good discussions and laughs with the family..
Dis-Orientation Week Update:
Wednesday: We attended Ivey Laundy! It’s an Ivey tradition for the outgoing class to make/show videos, demonstrate their talent etc. What a funny night. There were some pretty awesome videos with imitations, slide shows etc. Some pretty amazing performances too including singing/rapping/dancing from various classmates. We followed up with an appearance at the Barking Frog, an Ivey MBA’s most frequented club. Crazy times, very little sleep, and my body is aching - a last taste of what partying is like at Ivey.
I can’t believe tomorrow is it ;(
Today was a busy day. I had a number of errands to complete, and a lunch to attend before my parents, in-laws, and sister in law came into town. I managed to fit in time for a coffee with a good friend – which was really nice. It made me realize how much I’m going to miss hanging out with everyone. At night, Geeta and I cooked up a bbq dinner and enjoyed some good discussions and laughs with the family..
Dis-Orientation Week Update:
Wednesday: We attended Ivey Laundy! It’s an Ivey tradition for the outgoing class to make/show videos, demonstrate their talent etc. What a funny night. There were some pretty awesome videos with imitations, slide shows etc. Some pretty amazing performances too including singing/rapping/dancing from various classmates. We followed up with an appearance at the Barking Frog, an Ivey MBA’s most frequented club. Crazy times, very little sleep, and my body is aching - a last taste of what partying is like at Ivey.
I can’t believe tomorrow is it ;(
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
‘Disoriented’
‘Disoriented’
We are only a couple of days away from convocation and we have been spending most of the week getting ‘disoriented’. Yes – we are in the middle of ‘disorientation’ week; a week of decompression and social events to become unacquainted with the daily MBA work load and reacquainted with fun.
Thought it would be interesting to recap some of the highlights from this week.
Saturday: Ivey Formal, aka “prom” night. What a night! Can’t say I remember it all unfortunately ;) Good friends, good company, and lots to celebrate – enough said. I was honoured to be selected by the class as the winner of this year’s MBAA Outstanding Contribution Award. Thank you!
Here are some of my favourite memories from the night: when Gerard Seijts was awarded professor of the year, the crowd chanted ‘cuuuulture cuuulture’ over and over. Here’s the background on this one: Professor Seijts’ most used word during his Leadership course is the word ‘culture’….add on a Dutch accent and you’ve created an Ivey MBA’s favourite phrase; ‘cuuuulture’. At the end of the night, we found a video camera that had been left behind. We got excited and a few of us began filming some pretty interesting videos at a late hour. We had a good laugh watching them the next morning. One particular Doctor (let’s call him Dr. Ethical) tried to convince me to pawn the camera in exchange for some shawarma at Barkat’s. Barakat is a popular shawarma joint frequented by Ivey MBA students.
Sunday: Ivey Circle Goodbye/Hello Lunch + Bowling: Geeta (my wife) was President of the Ivey Circle during the school year. The Ivey Circle is a social group for the partners of those attending Ivey - It’s a support network for our partners and they do all kinds of things ranging from social events to charitable drives. We spent Sunday afternoon socializing with Ivey Circle members; saying bye to those of us leaving and hi to those that are just joining the new May class. Sunday night was all about bowling. Team 5 met up for an early dinner, reminiscing on our year, putting together bowling 101 summary notes for the class and discussing our bowling strategy ;) – Just kidding! Fun times, fun times!
Monday: Paintball + Pub Crawl. I haven’t played much paintball (only once before), but I must say that it was quite the experience. I have a few war wounds like many others. It hurts when I sit ;) We pubb’ed it up at night hitting three locations in as many hours. Pretty crazy night to say the least. I can’t say I was expecting it to be a super-fun night after a long, tiresome day of paintball in the forest, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
Tuesday: Golf + rest time. We played a round of 18 at Forest City National – best ball format. It was awesome being out for the first time this year. I can’t say I played exceptional but I hope to play a lot more during my summer break. Following golf, I came home and fell asleep and I guess that’s why I’ve got energy to write this right now.
That’s my mid-week update. Stay tuned for the rest of it after convocation.
We are only a couple of days away from convocation and we have been spending most of the week getting ‘disoriented’. Yes – we are in the middle of ‘disorientation’ week; a week of decompression and social events to become unacquainted with the daily MBA work load and reacquainted with fun.
Thought it would be interesting to recap some of the highlights from this week.
Saturday: Ivey Formal, aka “prom” night. What a night! Can’t say I remember it all unfortunately ;) Good friends, good company, and lots to celebrate – enough said. I was honoured to be selected by the class as the winner of this year’s MBAA Outstanding Contribution Award. Thank you!
Here are some of my favourite memories from the night: when Gerard Seijts was awarded professor of the year, the crowd chanted ‘cuuuulture cuuulture’ over and over. Here’s the background on this one: Professor Seijts’ most used word during his Leadership course is the word ‘culture’….add on a Dutch accent and you’ve created an Ivey MBA’s favourite phrase; ‘cuuuulture’. At the end of the night, we found a video camera that had been left behind. We got excited and a few of us began filming some pretty interesting videos at a late hour. We had a good laugh watching them the next morning. One particular Doctor (let’s call him Dr. Ethical) tried to convince me to pawn the camera in exchange for some shawarma at Barkat’s. Barakat is a popular shawarma joint frequented by Ivey MBA students.
Sunday: Ivey Circle Goodbye/Hello Lunch + Bowling: Geeta (my wife) was President of the Ivey Circle during the school year. The Ivey Circle is a social group for the partners of those attending Ivey - It’s a support network for our partners and they do all kinds of things ranging from social events to charitable drives. We spent Sunday afternoon socializing with Ivey Circle members; saying bye to those of us leaving and hi to those that are just joining the new May class. Sunday night was all about bowling. Team 5 met up for an early dinner, reminiscing on our year, putting together bowling 101 summary notes for the class and discussing our bowling strategy ;) – Just kidding! Fun times, fun times!
Monday: Paintball + Pub Crawl. I haven’t played much paintball (only once before), but I must say that it was quite the experience. I have a few war wounds like many others. It hurts when I sit ;) We pubb’ed it up at night hitting three locations in as many hours. Pretty crazy night to say the least. I can’t say I was expecting it to be a super-fun night after a long, tiresome day of paintball in the forest, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.
Tuesday: Golf + rest time. We played a round of 18 at Forest City National – best ball format. It was awesome being out for the first time this year. I can’t say I played exceptional but I hope to play a lot more during my summer break. Following golf, I came home and fell asleep and I guess that’s why I’ve got energy to write this right now.
That’s my mid-week update. Stay tuned for the rest of it after convocation.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Bitter Sweet: What a year!
Today marks the first day of my post-MBA life. That’s right – I’m done and it’s bitter sweet.
My value investing team finished off our very last MBA project last night. Ramit, Justin, Heather and I effectively hammered though a demanding final project, pulling a couple of very long tiresome days. It was symbolic of what the MBA was all about: hard work, collaboration, passion, and a sense of accomplishment.
So how do I feel?
I am excited, I am happy, I am relieved, but in all honesty it has been an emotional week for me. I’m sad that the MBA is over. It’s been the most incredible, life-changing year of my life and I’ve made so many amazing friends that I will see less often and will miss dearly. Change has never been something I’ve enjoyed. The MBA has made me far more accustomed to it but I know it’s harder for me than some others. I have one more week of nothing but free time to enjoy with my MBA colleagues before we say adios; we call it ‘disorientation’ week. A number of events are planned including a prom, golfing, bowling, paintball, clubbing, dinners, parties and of course convocation. I am not leaving here without my degree ;)
Most surprising changes in me during the year:
-I’ve become a Facebook addict along with the rest of the class. Prior to the MBA, I never went on Facebook more then once every couple of months. I wonder if this will last?
-I’ve become an SMS texting monkey like everyone else in the class. I never texted much before coming here. I’m proud to finally say that I discovered the iTAP functionality on my phone and can text just as fast as everyone else now. Ok – maybe not as fast as those ‘crackberry’ addicts.
-I’ve gone way more grey than I ever expected. Yup – even the top is going grey and so are some of my beard and chest hair too ;) I know you didn’t need to know that!
-I’m going bald. I was in denial for so long but the receding hair line is here to stay and probably will grow over the coming years.
-I went through that party phase that everyone generally goes through in their late teens and early twenties - at the age of 28 ;)
-I feel like my age again. Prior to the MBA, I always felt like I had to act way older than I was. I’m comfortable with being young again. I know I’m still uptight and intense, but I’ve learnt how to have fun again.
Most important learnings from the year:
-Effective leadership is about so much more than you’d think.
-The power of collaboration and team work.
-Put yourself out there; make yourself vulnerable.
-This quote from Nelson Mandela sums one of my key learnings:
“Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.”
Favourite quotes from class during the year (names kept anonymous):
“assets are something people eat”
“a large % of criminals come from and go to Toronto”
"why develop a website in Canada for a bunch of farms to click and order lubricant"
“I feel like I’m in a Petri dish of male testosterone”
“errors are ok in general hospitals”
“I wouldn’t perceive BMW as a value but it’s valuable”
“the really smart people either burn out or become crooks and go to prison”
Team 5:
In closing, I wanted to make a special mention of my first learning team from the year. When I look back at this year, I realize how critical those first few months were. It was a time of anxiety, sleepless nights, and stress. Those first few months really set the tone for the remainder of the year and I was blessed to be a part of ‘Team 5’. We wrote a blog about our team earlier in the year in an effort to share our story with the hopes that other teams could benefit from our positive experiences – have a read if you get a chance. What was truly amazing about our team was that it was about more than school and academic achievement. It was about friendship, collaboration, mutual respect, common goals, and having impact. Thank you Garima, Heather and Matt for an amazing year.
I won’t stop writing quite yet. I’ve got a long summer break ahead and I’ll need to fill in my time. I’m not sure what my plans are for blog writing but I won’t call it quits yet, at least until convocation and disorientation week are complete.
Until next time.
Sacha Gera, MBA
My value investing team finished off our very last MBA project last night. Ramit, Justin, Heather and I effectively hammered though a demanding final project, pulling a couple of very long tiresome days. It was symbolic of what the MBA was all about: hard work, collaboration, passion, and a sense of accomplishment.
So how do I feel?
I am excited, I am happy, I am relieved, but in all honesty it has been an emotional week for me. I’m sad that the MBA is over. It’s been the most incredible, life-changing year of my life and I’ve made so many amazing friends that I will see less often and will miss dearly. Change has never been something I’ve enjoyed. The MBA has made me far more accustomed to it but I know it’s harder for me than some others. I have one more week of nothing but free time to enjoy with my MBA colleagues before we say adios; we call it ‘disorientation’ week. A number of events are planned including a prom, golfing, bowling, paintball, clubbing, dinners, parties and of course convocation. I am not leaving here without my degree ;)
Most surprising changes in me during the year:
-I’ve become a Facebook addict along with the rest of the class. Prior to the MBA, I never went on Facebook more then once every couple of months. I wonder if this will last?
-I’ve become an SMS texting monkey like everyone else in the class. I never texted much before coming here. I’m proud to finally say that I discovered the iTAP functionality on my phone and can text just as fast as everyone else now. Ok – maybe not as fast as those ‘crackberry’ addicts.
-I’ve gone way more grey than I ever expected. Yup – even the top is going grey and so are some of my beard and chest hair too ;) I know you didn’t need to know that!
-I’m going bald. I was in denial for so long but the receding hair line is here to stay and probably will grow over the coming years.
-I went through that party phase that everyone generally goes through in their late teens and early twenties - at the age of 28 ;)
-I feel like my age again. Prior to the MBA, I always felt like I had to act way older than I was. I’m comfortable with being young again. I know I’m still uptight and intense, but I’ve learnt how to have fun again.
Most important learnings from the year:
-Effective leadership is about so much more than you’d think.
-The power of collaboration and team work.
-Put yourself out there; make yourself vulnerable.
-This quote from Nelson Mandela sums one of my key learnings:
“Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.”
Favourite quotes from class during the year (names kept anonymous):
“assets are something people eat”
“a large % of criminals come from and go to Toronto”
"why develop a website in Canada for a bunch of farms to click and order lubricant"
“I feel like I’m in a Petri dish of male testosterone”
“errors are ok in general hospitals”
“I wouldn’t perceive BMW as a value but it’s valuable”
“the really smart people either burn out or become crooks and go to prison”
Team 5:
In closing, I wanted to make a special mention of my first learning team from the year. When I look back at this year, I realize how critical those first few months were. It was a time of anxiety, sleepless nights, and stress. Those first few months really set the tone for the remainder of the year and I was blessed to be a part of ‘Team 5’. We wrote a blog about our team earlier in the year in an effort to share our story with the hopes that other teams could benefit from our positive experiences – have a read if you get a chance. What was truly amazing about our team was that it was about more than school and academic achievement. It was about friendship, collaboration, mutual respect, common goals, and having impact. Thank you Garima, Heather and Matt for an amazing year.
I won’t stop writing quite yet. I’ve got a long summer break ahead and I’ll need to fill in my time. I’m not sure what my plans are for blog writing but I won’t call it quits yet, at least until convocation and disorientation week are complete.
Until next time.
Sacha Gera, MBA
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
You can learn a lot from a pig…
Yeah – I know it’s a weird title but very true…. I’ll get to that in a minute. Here’s the background on this blog: I am taking an elective right now called High Impact Presenting (as mentioned in my last blog entry). It is one of those courses that has had a big impact on me. Our professor, Dennis Shackel, is a gem. He is truly one of those professors that pushes you to your limits and allows you to explore new territory. How far does he push your limits? Well in the last class, every classmate was asked to recite poetry or sing a song of their choice. Over half the class sang a song! I find this remarkable because I think it’s one of the hardest things to do, but it is proof that he’s pushing us MBA candidates out of our safety zone.
I didn’t think I’d be getting much more out of the MBA program this late in the game, but I was wrong! I’ve gotten a lot out of this class and I’m becoming more comfortable with taking risks and making myself vulnerable during presentations/speeches… which typically leads to a more engaging and captivating performance. Further, I’m learning how to communicate and work more effectively with the four different personality types: Dominant, Consciousness, Influence and Steadiness. Personally, I am in the dominance category and I guess I already knew that. I’ve made a conscious effort over the last couple of years to become more comfortable with not having to always lead and to become more comfortable with delegation and trusting my teammates. I’ve come to realize that a successful team needs all four personality types to excel.
As another exercise we were asked to draw a pig – no joke. Apparently, there is a lot you can learn from drawing a pig. For example, research shows that if it you draw it in the centre of the page you are an optimist. If you draw it on the bottom of the page, you are generally more pessimistic. Based on how many legs you included, how big the ears were, how long the tail is etc….you can determine a lot about your personality type. Below is my pig – I was never an artist as you can probably tell. In fact if I recall correctly I was always a ‘C’ grade art-student in elementary school. Guess you can see why. Here’s what my pig (or perhaps better described as a wolf) tells me about me: I am an optimist, am active, am creative, have a strong sense of detail, don’t remember dates very well, like security, am stubborn and apparently I’m a good listener ;) I admit the listener part is not always true.
As another exercise we were asked to draw a pig – no joke. Apparently, there is a lot you can learn from drawing a pig. For example, research shows that if it you draw it in the centre of the page you are an optimist. If you draw it on the bottom of the page, you are generally more pessimistic. Based on how many legs you included, how big the ears were, how long the tail is etc….you can determine a lot about your personality type. Below is my pig – I was never an artist as you can probably tell. In fact if I recall correctly I was always a ‘C’ grade art-student in elementary school. Guess you can see why. Here’s what my pig (or perhaps better described as a wolf) tells me about me: I am an optimist, am active, am creative, have a strong sense of detail, don’t remember dates very well, like security, am stubborn and apparently I’m a good listener ;) I admit the listener part is not always true.
On a more personal side of things, the last week has been really difficult in some ways. Geeta and I still haven’t found a place in Toronto, my Value Investing elective has been a bit of an academic stretch for me, I’ve been busy on the personal front and I’ve come to realize that I need to work on my ‘crucial conversation’ skill sets. Crucial conversations is a pretty famous book about how to handle/communicate effectively during those critical moments when your emotions are interfering with your ability to say what you want to say in an appropriate and effective manner. A few years back, I used to feel confident in my abilities to face tough situations – I felt that my ‘crucial conversations’ skills were a strength of mine. Over the last couple of years, I seem to be having a lot more of these moments both professionally and personally, and many of those conversations haven’t gone as I wanted them to. I feel like I’ve lost a bit of confidence in my abilities to conduct these conversations and I know that I need to work on it. I took a course on developing ‘Crucial Conversation’ skills about a year ago and it was really helpful. It takes practice and I know I’m going to be spending some time this summer improving upon this.
Until next time…
Sach
Monday, April 13, 2009
The Party is Almost Over
I’m two weeks away from completing my MBA at Ivey and I’m starting to feel like the party is over. In reality the party is just starting…literally – the next three weeks are going to be filled with lots of social events as grad is quickly approaching. In fact, we have our very own disorientation senator (i.e. to help us get disoriented with the MBA program :)). She’s done a great job organizing a fun-filled week to cap off the MBA program in style and amongst good friends.
So how do I feel? Well a week ago I would have said tired and stressed. I was writing my very last two exams for two finance/accounting’ish courses – not necessarily my strengths. I worked fairly hard and I think I did ok in both. I definitely don’t feel like screwed up either of the exams and I feel proud of myself for taking on two electives that were out of my comfort zone.
I’m now taking two more electives to end off my MBA, neither of which have exams ;) One of those electives is Value Investing, one of Ivey’s most famous or shall I say infamous courses. Value Investing is taught at only three schools in the world; Columbia, Ivey and I can’t remember the other one. It’s about teaching students Value Investing methodologies and philosophies (i.e. Warren Buffet style of investing; looking for undervalued stocks). I took the course because I am an active stock investor and would like to better my investing performance.
The course is ‘infamous’ because it has a reputation of being Ivey’s most demanding course. I’ll let you know if that’s true in a week’s time. The other course that I’m taking is High Impact Presenting. What a course! It’s the only course I’ve ever been in where you’re sweating the entire duration of the course + experiencing non-stop laughter. It’s one of those courses that pushes you to your uncomfortable zone; where you can be called to the front of the class to recite an impromptu speech, sing, dance or even rap a song. Yes – I said rap a song. In fact one of my classmates had to rap and he was asked to do it three times; each time with more enthusiasm. I don’t think I would ever have had the courage to do that and I was truly inspired by this classmate’s courage. We’ve had others come up and sing and recite poems. Want to know what it’s like? – Check this out. Very cool class and highly recommended for those that aren’t afraid of being pushed out your comfort zone.
Over the last couple of weeks, Geeta and I have been struggling to find a new place to call home in Toronto. I think we have the neighbourhoods picked out but we still haven’t found what we are looking for ;) We are hoping to get the apartment hunt out of the way sooner than later so that we can focus on planning a trip to Europe or the Caribbean post-grad. Geeta is also actively looking for a job and we are both fairly busy these days. We are itching for a trip to perhaps Spain or Morocco.
With a couple of weeks to go, I’m excited. I’m excited about starting a new chapter of my life. I’m excited about seeing everyone reach their full potential over the coming years; I’m excited about leaving this program with so many new friends. In the mean time, with only two weeks left I’m gong to make an effort to spend as much time as I can socializing with my soon-to-be ‘alumni’ colleagues and to soak in the Ivey bubble for just a bit longer.
By the way…I’ve started running again now that the weather is improving. Time to get in shape again!
Until next time…
Sacha
So how do I feel? Well a week ago I would have said tired and stressed. I was writing my very last two exams for two finance/accounting’ish courses – not necessarily my strengths. I worked fairly hard and I think I did ok in both. I definitely don’t feel like screwed up either of the exams and I feel proud of myself for taking on two electives that were out of my comfort zone.
I’m now taking two more electives to end off my MBA, neither of which have exams ;) One of those electives is Value Investing, one of Ivey’s most famous or shall I say infamous courses. Value Investing is taught at only three schools in the world; Columbia, Ivey and I can’t remember the other one. It’s about teaching students Value Investing methodologies and philosophies (i.e. Warren Buffet style of investing; looking for undervalued stocks). I took the course because I am an active stock investor and would like to better my investing performance.
The course is ‘infamous’ because it has a reputation of being Ivey’s most demanding course. I’ll let you know if that’s true in a week’s time. The other course that I’m taking is High Impact Presenting. What a course! It’s the only course I’ve ever been in where you’re sweating the entire duration of the course + experiencing non-stop laughter. It’s one of those courses that pushes you to your uncomfortable zone; where you can be called to the front of the class to recite an impromptu speech, sing, dance or even rap a song. Yes – I said rap a song. In fact one of my classmates had to rap and he was asked to do it three times; each time with more enthusiasm. I don’t think I would ever have had the courage to do that and I was truly inspired by this classmate’s courage. We’ve had others come up and sing and recite poems. Want to know what it’s like? – Check this out. Very cool class and highly recommended for those that aren’t afraid of being pushed out your comfort zone.
Over the last couple of weeks, Geeta and I have been struggling to find a new place to call home in Toronto. I think we have the neighbourhoods picked out but we still haven’t found what we are looking for ;) We are hoping to get the apartment hunt out of the way sooner than later so that we can focus on planning a trip to Europe or the Caribbean post-grad. Geeta is also actively looking for a job and we are both fairly busy these days. We are itching for a trip to perhaps Spain or Morocco.
With a couple of weeks to go, I’m excited. I’m excited about starting a new chapter of my life. I’m excited about seeing everyone reach their full potential over the coming years; I’m excited about leaving this program with so many new friends. In the mean time, with only two weeks left I’m gong to make an effort to spend as much time as I can socializing with my soon-to-be ‘alumni’ colleagues and to soak in the Ivey bubble for just a bit longer.
By the way…I’ve started running again now that the weather is improving. Time to get in shape again!
Until next time…
Sacha
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Secrets of Effective Leadership (Part 3)
In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you're born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others - what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership'. The following is part three of my blog series on ‘The Secrets of Effective Leadership'. Part two can be found here.
"Knowing how to get visibility and give it"
I've seen so many talented individuals who do incredible work, but fail to get the recognition that they deserve. Perhaps they are being modest and don't advertise their accomplishments, perhaps they shy away from the spotlight, or perhaps their boss and colleagues aren't good at creating that visibility for them? Nevertheless, an effective leader will learn the ropes of how to get and give visibility and do so without coming across as arrogant.
Gaining visibility is critical to increasing influence and leverage amongst your peers and subordinates - essential for effective leadership. How do you gain visibility? There's no fixed answer for this because it really depends on the environment you're working in and the type of people that you are working with. Sharing and broadcasting successes, especially when it's a team-oriented accomplishment, is one way of gaining visibility. Taking on high profile projects is also another way. Informing your boss and upper management about your wins, in a manner that isn't considered brown-nosing, is another method. My old manager always used to encourage sending an occasional status update to upper management on a project that was going exceptional in an effort to gain visibility - this always seemed to be good advice. What was interesting was that my boss would always follow-up with an email of encouragement and praise, with my upper management copied on it - those emails would always fire me up and make me want to do better and more.
It's not all about gaining visibility; it's also about giving visibility to those around you. Effective leaders create visibility for those around them. It's not easy for an individual to advertise his/her accomplishments, but it is easy for a leader to advertise it for them. Creating visibility is something that is easy to do and is very much appreciated by others - an easy way to develop a good reputation and following. Further, it encourages others to do the same.
"Managing expectations/Managing your boss"
In part two of this blog series, I talked about quality versus quantity and the importance of not spreading yourself out too thin. Managing expectations and especially one's boss, is critical to getting the right quality versus quantity mix. In my experience, effective leaders are good at managing expectations; they under-promise and over-deliver. They know how to say ‘no' without burning bridges and hurting their reputation, and when they over-deliver on their promise they are praised. How do they do this? I definitely still have a lot to learn on this one but here's what I do know: when you're at that critical moment when your boss is piling on an additional tasks, take a minute to think about things before committing. Think about how it's going to impact your ability to perform on other tasks and whether you have the physical capability and resources to deliver up to your own expectations. A former mentor of mine always used to tell me that it takes a long time to develop a strong reputation, but only one screw-up to lose it all. Under-delivering and failing on a commitment can easily be considered a screw-up and have undesired effects on one's reputation. Another mentor used to tell me that a good leader will protect their reputation at all costs. The point being that effective leaders seem to manage expectations well in order to protect their reputation, and are a good at developing relationships with their bosses such that they can say ‘no' without disappointing them.
"Communicating for your audience"
I am convinced that good communications skills are imperative for effective leadership. What I've noticed is that good leaders not only communicate often but do so with their audience in mind. I always find it humorous when a presentation is made using technical jargon and acronyms that are not understood by 75% of the crowd. Sure, complicated verbiage sounds great and may make you look smart but you may be missing the boat with most of your audience. Effective communication is about getting the message across, about energizing your audience, and about earning trust. Effective leaders understand their audience and will find a way to reach out to everyone - They will tweak their communication accordingly from a content and delivery perspective. What I've noticed over time is that the good leaders communicate in multiple ways, are visible and are accessible via email, town hall meetings, open-door policies, casual drop-by's etc. My old boss, whom I look up to very much, used to walk the floor at least once a day spending at least an hour chatting with all his subordinates; it was a perfect opportunity to voice concerns, give a quick status update, and develop a relationship. My upper management was always captivating at the monthly town hall meetings because they used language that we all understood, and they made sense of complicated business slides in layman's terms. Further, they always understood the morale level of the room and made a conscious effort to find a suitable way to get everyone re-energized.
----------------------------------------------
As I mentioned at the start of Part 1 of this blog series; perhaps it is premature based on my limited years of experience and young age to have such strong opinions and beliefs about leadership - but I do believe that it is easy to spot out an effective leader because they stand out like sore thumbs. The points mentioned throughout this blog series are my opinion of how and why they stand out and are surely practices I will be carrying forward in my leadership journey.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Secrets of Effective Leadership (PART 2)
In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you’re born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others – what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership’. The following is part two of my blog series on ‘The Secrets of Effective Leadership’. Part one can be found here .
“Having the guts to not follow the herd”
Do you remember a time when you were confident that everyone else had it wrong, or that everyone else didn’t have the confidence to voice an opposing opinion? Humans love to follow the herd. We gain comfort by advancing in numbers. It’s not easy having the confidence to go against the grain, because you know that you if you’re singled out you may be put on the spot and be completely wrong. In my short career, I have observed that effective leaders have the guts to voice an opinion that is contrary to the masses. Even when they are wrong, their discussion and arguments in support of their view often benefit the rest of the group in some shape or form and are therefore value-added.
“Responsiveness”
It is not uncommon for a leader to be flooded by emails, voice mails and other requests. It’s tough keeping up with it all and not realistic to respond to it all in a timely fashion. What I’ve observed however is that effective leaders are responsive – even when they can’t find the time to respond they send a quick note back acknowledging the message and they provide an estimated time for a response. This ensures the receivers’ comments are valued, and generally a delayed response is not minded if the receiver knows when to expect a response. There’s nothing worse than not hearing back. Being responsive is an easy way to build credibility, trust and respect.
“Priority versus urgency”
Time management is such an important skill as one climbs the ranks – you’ve got so much more to do with so much less time. A former director of mine used to tell me that it was all about priority versus urgency. He was a firm believer in Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and would label every task with an urgency (high/low) and a priority (high/low). I admit that I’ve never read the book but he used to tell me that effective leaders would spend most of their time in the high priority/low urgency quadrant avoiding the temptation of constantly fire-fighting tasks in the high priority/high urgency box. He told me that ‘fire-fighting’ was addictive and often necessary but that it was the high priority/low urgency projects that would gain you the visibility and that would allow you to add value to the organization as a leader.
“Following through on a commitment”
There’s nothing worse then failing to follow through on a commitment – you lose trust from those that depend on you and you lose credibility; a leadership nightmare. Many leaders spread themselves too thin and take on too much. Quality is better then quantity in my opinion and effective leaders realize this and will not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a request knowing well that it may take away from the quality of executing on something else. Taking on too much is often the cause of why many leaders fail to deliver on commitments. It’s also a common reason for why leaders lose their energy and passion and even burn themselves out – which is doing no one any favours. Of course saying ‘no’ isn’t easy and it’s really about managing expectations in my opinion (i.e. managing your boss) – described in part three of this blog series to follow.
Stay tuned for part three…
“Having the guts to not follow the herd”
Do you remember a time when you were confident that everyone else had it wrong, or that everyone else didn’t have the confidence to voice an opposing opinion? Humans love to follow the herd. We gain comfort by advancing in numbers. It’s not easy having the confidence to go against the grain, because you know that you if you’re singled out you may be put on the spot and be completely wrong. In my short career, I have observed that effective leaders have the guts to voice an opinion that is contrary to the masses. Even when they are wrong, their discussion and arguments in support of their view often benefit the rest of the group in some shape or form and are therefore value-added.
“Responsiveness”
It is not uncommon for a leader to be flooded by emails, voice mails and other requests. It’s tough keeping up with it all and not realistic to respond to it all in a timely fashion. What I’ve observed however is that effective leaders are responsive – even when they can’t find the time to respond they send a quick note back acknowledging the message and they provide an estimated time for a response. This ensures the receivers’ comments are valued, and generally a delayed response is not minded if the receiver knows when to expect a response. There’s nothing worse than not hearing back. Being responsive is an easy way to build credibility, trust and respect.
“Priority versus urgency”
Time management is such an important skill as one climbs the ranks – you’ve got so much more to do with so much less time. A former director of mine used to tell me that it was all about priority versus urgency. He was a firm believer in Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and would label every task with an urgency (high/low) and a priority (high/low). I admit that I’ve never read the book but he used to tell me that effective leaders would spend most of their time in the high priority/low urgency quadrant avoiding the temptation of constantly fire-fighting tasks in the high priority/high urgency box. He told me that ‘fire-fighting’ was addictive and often necessary but that it was the high priority/low urgency projects that would gain you the visibility and that would allow you to add value to the organization as a leader.
“Following through on a commitment”
There’s nothing worse then failing to follow through on a commitment – you lose trust from those that depend on you and you lose credibility; a leadership nightmare. Many leaders spread themselves too thin and take on too much. Quality is better then quantity in my opinion and effective leaders realize this and will not be afraid to say ‘no’ to a request knowing well that it may take away from the quality of executing on something else. Taking on too much is often the cause of why many leaders fail to deliver on commitments. It’s also a common reason for why leaders lose their energy and passion and even burn themselves out – which is doing no one any favours. Of course saying ‘no’ isn’t easy and it’s really about managing expectations in my opinion (i.e. managing your boss) – described in part three of this blog series to follow.
Stay tuned for part three…
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Secrets of Effective Leadership (PART 1)
I'm 28 years old and I have had a total of about 8 years of full-time work experience. That said I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with many incredible leaders. As such, I make a conscious effort to observe those around me and absorb as much as I can in an effort to improve my own leadership skills.
Perhaps it is premature, based on my limited years of experience and young age, to have such strong opinions and beliefs about leadership - I've come to the conclusion that it is easy to spot out an effective leader because they stand out like sore thumbs. In my opinion effective leadership is partially learnt, partially something that you're born with, and very much something that you can improve upon by learning from others - what I like to call the ‘Secrets of Effective Leadership':
"There is no substitute for hard work"
Some folks are creative but have a hard time keeping focussed on the objectives, some folks are book smart but can't stop their analysis paralysis habits, some are gutsy and will push their way through and some can talk the talk but have little substance behind what they say. And then there are some who will work harder then the rest and execute - I'm not talking about those that put in the long, inefficient hours, but rather the ones that learn to work harder and smarter with time. This is a real leadership quality in my opinion and there simply is no substitute for hard work. At the end of the day every project and every team needs one of them. That said, it is important to note that an effective leader will realize that they may not always be the most creative, or have the best analytical skills, or be aggressive enough to solve every problem, or have the communication skills to charm the audience - an effective leader will recognize the importance of having one of each of the aforementioned in order to build a powerhouse team that has all the tools required to excel.
"Are you confident or cocky?"
I am convinced that one cannot climb the corporate ladder without an incredible amount of confidence. Confidence is the key to leadership success; without it one would have a hard time influencing and leveraging others - an essential skill set for any leader. I believe that confidence is not something that you can just turn on; it is something that comes from hard work, knowledge and experience. The problem is that confidence often turns into cockiness and even overconfidence with time. An effective leader will recognize the fine line that exists between the three and consciously recognize when they cross that line. How do you know when you are becoming arrogant? I think it's when you start losing respect and influence from your peers and subordinates. How do you know if you're becoming over-confident? My former boss would remind me each time before taking a trip to a client's site, that if I wasn't nervous about the trip/project then I was overconfident and not prepared. It was always a message that I would ignore at first but then it would scare me enough to make me work harder in an effort to cover off all possible angles of failure.
"Having the courage to shine bright"
As one climbs the ranks, as one gains influence and respect, as one becomes an effective leader, it's hard not to feel shy about moving past your mates, your colleagues, and even your former bosses. It's hard recognizing for the first time as a progressing leader that you've got enemies who wouldn't mind seeing you fail. It's also hard becoming comfortable with the fact that your leadership decisions will never be liked by 100% of your subordinates/colleagues and that you will never be able to satisfy everyone. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that an effective leader needs to find a way to become comfortable with all of this. A quote comes to mind about this. It's from Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech in 1994: "Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won't feel insecure around you."
Stay tuned for PART 2...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Six Weeks Until Relaxation Therapy
I finally finished up my preparations for my two cases for tomorrow, so I thought I’d write a quickie before bed. I’m wired anyhow so there’s no point trying fall asleep when I know it won’t happen.
I’m down to the last six weeks of school before grad, and I’m now taking electives. Over the next six weeks I’ll be taking Corporate Financial Reporting, Portfolio Management, Value Investing, and High Impact Presenting. Up until two weeks ago I had decided that I would not take any finance courses for the rest of the MBA program – I can’t say that finance and accounting are my favourite subjects and having taken two core courses earlier in the year I felt that I didn’t need any more knowledge in these areas. But then it dawned on me – finance/accounting are my weakest subject areas. When I asked myself the following questions ~ What is an MBA graduate without a strong financial background, and do I feel like I am confident to talk finance-speak? – ...I realized that I needed more finance/investing ammunition…. So I decided to make three of my four electives investing/finance/accounting-related.
Last week was March break. Geeta and I spent half our time in London and the other half in Toronto. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came up to London, and we later met my brother and his family in Toronto. It was a productive break; I got a lot of personal tasks out of the way and it was really nice seeing family. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the ‘break’ I was looking for. While other classmates came back re-charged from their vacations, I came back drained. I think I needed a quiet week away from everyone, and it turned out to be quite the opposite. Not that I don’t love spending time with family….but I think that after two draining months of school I needed a bit of solitude. I was so burnt out by mid-week that I decided to delay studying/writing my P.Eng exam in April. I just can’t heck it right now.
Recognizing how drained I feel, I decided to push back my start date with my new employer to late August. I’m hoping that a few months off will give me ample amounts of time to recharge, and re-learn how to relax and enjoy life again ~ relaxation therapy. I sometimes feel these days that I’ve forgotten how to relax – I’m restless 24/7 and don’t know how to sit still. There is always a million things to do (school-wise and personally). My Outlook to-do list is almost 60 items long and I just feel overwhelmed all the time. When school calms down, I catch up on my personal to-do list ….which these days often involves banking, taxes, dealing with my rental property, finding a place to live in Toronto, employment stuff, and a few other family/personal things etc etc. The only thing that gets me through is being organized, managing my time, and grabbing a workout when possible. Yes – a one year program will make you a fantastic time manager.
So, with six weeks to go and 3.5 months off before I start my new job I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do this summer. Here’s my list: travel, spend time with friends and family, drive across Canada, get back into sports, discover my new hometown/Toronto, read, use my newly acquired investing skill sets to fix my investment portfolios so I have a chance of recovering from this brutal year, get into shape again, volunteer maybe, do something I’ve never done before, gift myself with a new car maybe….find a place to live.
On a final note, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a good leader. I’m not thinking of the traditional attributes (i.e. strong communication, decision making, organizational skills etc), but rather about the little things, the so-called secrets of leadership success. I think I’ve gathered a pretty good list from my work experience and from my tendencies to observe others. I hope to blog about it soon for my next article for the Financial Post.
Lastly, to my surprise I actually did pretty well last term in terms of marks. I’m happy that the hard work paid off, especially considering that I made it a priority not to focus on marks and rather focus on learning….Luck always has something to do with getting good marks in a case-based school and it wouldn’t have surprised me if things didn’t go as well as they did last term.
Until next time…
Sach
I’m down to the last six weeks of school before grad, and I’m now taking electives. Over the next six weeks I’ll be taking Corporate Financial Reporting, Portfolio Management, Value Investing, and High Impact Presenting. Up until two weeks ago I had decided that I would not take any finance courses for the rest of the MBA program – I can’t say that finance and accounting are my favourite subjects and having taken two core courses earlier in the year I felt that I didn’t need any more knowledge in these areas. But then it dawned on me – finance/accounting are my weakest subject areas. When I asked myself the following questions ~ What is an MBA graduate without a strong financial background, and do I feel like I am confident to talk finance-speak? – ...I realized that I needed more finance/investing ammunition…. So I decided to make three of my four electives investing/finance/accounting-related.
Last week was March break. Geeta and I spent half our time in London and the other half in Toronto. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law came up to London, and we later met my brother and his family in Toronto. It was a productive break; I got a lot of personal tasks out of the way and it was really nice seeing family. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the ‘break’ I was looking for. While other classmates came back re-charged from their vacations, I came back drained. I think I needed a quiet week away from everyone, and it turned out to be quite the opposite. Not that I don’t love spending time with family….but I think that after two draining months of school I needed a bit of solitude. I was so burnt out by mid-week that I decided to delay studying/writing my P.Eng exam in April. I just can’t heck it right now.
Recognizing how drained I feel, I decided to push back my start date with my new employer to late August. I’m hoping that a few months off will give me ample amounts of time to recharge, and re-learn how to relax and enjoy life again ~ relaxation therapy. I sometimes feel these days that I’ve forgotten how to relax – I’m restless 24/7 and don’t know how to sit still. There is always a million things to do (school-wise and personally). My Outlook to-do list is almost 60 items long and I just feel overwhelmed all the time. When school calms down, I catch up on my personal to-do list ….which these days often involves banking, taxes, dealing with my rental property, finding a place to live in Toronto, employment stuff, and a few other family/personal things etc etc. The only thing that gets me through is being organized, managing my time, and grabbing a workout when possible. Yes – a one year program will make you a fantastic time manager.
So, with six weeks to go and 3.5 months off before I start my new job I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do this summer. Here’s my list: travel, spend time with friends and family, drive across Canada, get back into sports, discover my new hometown/Toronto, read, use my newly acquired investing skill sets to fix my investment portfolios so I have a chance of recovering from this brutal year, get into shape again, volunteer maybe, do something I’ve never done before, gift myself with a new car maybe….find a place to live.
On a final note, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a good leader. I’m not thinking of the traditional attributes (i.e. strong communication, decision making, organizational skills etc), but rather about the little things, the so-called secrets of leadership success. I think I’ve gathered a pretty good list from my work experience and from my tendencies to observe others. I hope to blog about it soon for my next article for the Financial Post.
Lastly, to my surprise I actually did pretty well last term in terms of marks. I’m happy that the hard work paid off, especially considering that I made it a priority not to focus on marks and rather focus on learning….Luck always has something to do with getting good marks in a case-based school and it wouldn’t have surprised me if things didn’t go as well as they did last term.
Until next time…
Sach
Thursday, March 5, 2009
ICP'd Out!
There’s no better time to write a blog entry then when you feel like you have absolutely no time, you’re under the gun, and your head is about to explode. Yup, don’t ask me why I’m doing this right now – let’s just say it’s therapeutic for me in some odd way.
I’m in the midst of finishing up my Integrative Consulting Project (ICP for short - mandatory component of the MBA program), and my team and I are busily attempting to complete our extensive write-up and presentation slides for this project. We are close but not quite there. I’m waiting on some content from my mates, so I found a quick breather to write this. The goal is to finish up by Friday night so that we can all finally enjoy a weekend to ourselves.
I’m pretty beat-up right now. I must say that this month probably takes the cake for being the busiest month of the MBA program. I’m sure if you ask those around me, including my wife, they’ll tell you that I’m half out of it, dazed, always in a crabby mood, and sleep-deprived. Yup; I say that describes me at the moment. Don’t let me discourage you from your one year MBA dreams – as they say; no pain then no gain ;) I’m only 8 weeks out from graduation and nothing is going to bring me down right now.
We recently completed our final exams for Module 2B; Managing Operations, Marketing, and IT. Wow, three exams in three days! I made it through that busy week with the help of my peers, but I’m not convinced I did exceptional. It’s so hard to tell whether you did well on an MBA exam. Some of my colleagues recently came to conclude that all MBA exams are strategy exams and that realizing this earlier would have paid off. I guess I always knew that it was all about strategy and I hope that my emphasis on this aspect will pay off with these final exams.
On a positive note, the new U2 album is finally out. It’s called ‘No Line on the Horizon’. I’m always biased when it comes to my favourite band but I think it’s their best album since Achtung Baby. Song #2, called Magnificent, is already one of my favourites all time. The band has been on Letterman every single night this week, and it has been a real treat coming home each night after an 18 hour day to watch them on television before bed. Poor Geeta is gonna be stuck listening to them for the next few months ;(
Ok, c’est tout. Until next time…
Oh…did I mention next week is March Break? Thank god! No major travel plans…P.Eng exam studying, trip to T.O. to meet up with my brother’s family, lots of time with Geeta, and SLEEEEEP!
I’m in the midst of finishing up my Integrative Consulting Project (ICP for short - mandatory component of the MBA program), and my team and I are busily attempting to complete our extensive write-up and presentation slides for this project. We are close but not quite there. I’m waiting on some content from my mates, so I found a quick breather to write this. The goal is to finish up by Friday night so that we can all finally enjoy a weekend to ourselves.
I’m pretty beat-up right now. I must say that this month probably takes the cake for being the busiest month of the MBA program. I’m sure if you ask those around me, including my wife, they’ll tell you that I’m half out of it, dazed, always in a crabby mood, and sleep-deprived. Yup; I say that describes me at the moment. Don’t let me discourage you from your one year MBA dreams – as they say; no pain then no gain ;) I’m only 8 weeks out from graduation and nothing is going to bring me down right now.
We recently completed our final exams for Module 2B; Managing Operations, Marketing, and IT. Wow, three exams in three days! I made it through that busy week with the help of my peers, but I’m not convinced I did exceptional. It’s so hard to tell whether you did well on an MBA exam. Some of my colleagues recently came to conclude that all MBA exams are strategy exams and that realizing this earlier would have paid off. I guess I always knew that it was all about strategy and I hope that my emphasis on this aspect will pay off with these final exams.
On a positive note, the new U2 album is finally out. It’s called ‘No Line on the Horizon’. I’m always biased when it comes to my favourite band but I think it’s their best album since Achtung Baby. Song #2, called Magnificent, is already one of my favourites all time. The band has been on Letterman every single night this week, and it has been a real treat coming home each night after an 18 hour day to watch them on television before bed. Poor Geeta is gonna be stuck listening to them for the next few months ;(
Ok, c’est tout. Until next time…
Oh…did I mention next week is March Break? Thank god! No major travel plans…P.Eng exam studying, trip to T.O. to meet up with my brother’s family, lots of time with Geeta, and SLEEEEEP!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Give me a break!
It’s 11pm on a Saturday night and I’m sitting in Spencer (building for Ivey MBA students). What a way to spend a Saturday night. Its been a really rough day, in fact a really a rough couple of weeks. School has been kicking my ass lately and I think I’ve taken on a bit too much on the extracurricular side of things. I haven’t had much time at home or for myself and it’s taking a bit of a toll in a few different ways. The thing is that I don’t see a break in sight and I just seem to be taking on more and more. I recently decided that I will write and finally complete my Professional Engineering designation (i.e. write an exam) in April; yet another stress to add on while I complete the last couple of months of this intense program. The next couple of months promise to be insane, and I’ll have to make some changes to make sure that they are sustainable.
First off, I think I need to unload a bit of the extracurricular stuff; I think it’s about time that I transition the bulk of the Ivey MBAA blogging website responsibilities to the newly appointed team. The initiative has been hugely rewarding but it’s quickly becoming a monster; that said a successful monster as the site continues to grow in popularity by the week! Secondly, I need make the gym more consistent to keep the stress levels down and keep me sane. Thirdly, I need learn to limit my unproductive studying time so I avoid my natural nature of slipping into ‘analysis paralysis’; I tend to hit those late hours of studying which tend to be nothing but diminishing returns and a waste of time in hindsight. Most importantly, I need to make my partner more of a priority; I have been pretty absent from home lately and I don’t feel like that’s fair to her nor has it been easy for me.
Last weekend, ten of us took a trip up to Ottawa for the February long weekend. We had a fantastic time checking out the city and enjoying the winter’esque playground. We went snow shoeing in the Gatineau Park, we hit the Rideau Canal for Winterlude and we got a private tour of Parliament Hill and the Prime Minister’s office thanks to an Ivey schoolmate hook up ;) It was a good time with good friends and a memorable weekend to say the least.
Final exams are fast approaching. I’ve been studying most of the day and will continue to do so basically until the week is over with. I need a break but can’t find one. Oh well, c’est la vie. I’ll suck it up. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. By the way, I got my Operations course midterm back. I thought I did horribly, but somehow I did pretty well. I think it’s a testament to working with my former Team 5 learning team in preparation for that exam; we all managed to do well. I realized that one can excel in the MBA program without necessarily nailing the quantitative side of things (I screwed the calculations up on the exam). Having good qualitative descriptions, a big-picture view, and management insight can substitute for those quant marks. Ok..one more quote from Marketing class…I really like this one:
“ ‘Intel inside’ was the greatest brand building exercise before Barack Obama”
Pics from “Iowa, er, Ottawa” :)
First off, I think I need to unload a bit of the extracurricular stuff; I think it’s about time that I transition the bulk of the Ivey MBAA blogging website responsibilities to the newly appointed team. The initiative has been hugely rewarding but it’s quickly becoming a monster; that said a successful monster as the site continues to grow in popularity by the week! Secondly, I need make the gym more consistent to keep the stress levels down and keep me sane. Thirdly, I need learn to limit my unproductive studying time so I avoid my natural nature of slipping into ‘analysis paralysis’; I tend to hit those late hours of studying which tend to be nothing but diminishing returns and a waste of time in hindsight. Most importantly, I need to make my partner more of a priority; I have been pretty absent from home lately and I don’t feel like that’s fair to her nor has it been easy for me.
Last weekend, ten of us took a trip up to Ottawa for the February long weekend. We had a fantastic time checking out the city and enjoying the winter’esque playground. We went snow shoeing in the Gatineau Park, we hit the Rideau Canal for Winterlude and we got a private tour of Parliament Hill and the Prime Minister’s office thanks to an Ivey schoolmate hook up ;) It was a good time with good friends and a memorable weekend to say the least.
Final exams are fast approaching. I’ve been studying most of the day and will continue to do so basically until the week is over with. I need a break but can’t find one. Oh well, c’est la vie. I’ll suck it up. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. By the way, I got my Operations course midterm back. I thought I did horribly, but somehow I did pretty well. I think it’s a testament to working with my former Team 5 learning team in preparation for that exam; we all managed to do well. I realized that one can excel in the MBA program without necessarily nailing the quantitative side of things (I screwed the calculations up on the exam). Having good qualitative descriptions, a big-picture view, and management insight can substitute for those quant marks. Ok..one more quote from Marketing class…I really like this one:
“ ‘Intel inside’ was the greatest brand building exercise before Barack Obama”
Pics from “Iowa, er, Ottawa” :)
Picture 1: Part time at dad's bar
Picture 2: Snow shoeing the Gatineau
Picture 3: Parliament Hill
Picture 4: The Canadian Prime Minister's conference board room
Monday, February 9, 2009
Giving Back...
Graduation is less than three months away and I’m getting excited. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to attend Ivey. Not only has it been an incredible academic and professional skill builder, but it has also been a builder on the personal front as well.
When you attend Ivey, there are a number of key buzzwords that seem to revolve around you day in and day both inside and outside the classroom: ‘alumni power’, ‘cross-enterprise leadership’,'leadership’, ‘integrity’, 'case-based method', ‘corporate social responsibility’ to name a few. These buzzwords are probably common in many schools, but at Ivey they are really engrained in you. You realize that these buzzwords form the foundation of all past and present Ivey graduates and that this foundation is a primary reason of why the alumni network is so strong, and why the Ivey brand is reputable.
As graduation is around the corner, I found it fitting to have come across a video narrated by Larry Rosen, CEO of Harry Rosen (a long standing Canadian menswear retailer). Mr. Rosen is an Ivey MBA grad and prominent spokesperson for the Ivey Alumni Society. Watching this video made me think about what it means to be apart of the Ivey Alumni society and how the school’s success has been largely based on a set of common qualities exhibited by most Ivey grads; that we share a common interest in being Ivey ambassadors for life, that we strive to be ethical leaders, and that we understand the importance of giving back to the school that has given us so much. If you have a minute watch the video.
I recently found out about an Ivey tradition called the “Ivey Class Gift Campaign.” In 2001, the MBA and HBA students at the time decided that they wanted to do something to give back to the school and show support for incoming students. They wanted to leave a legacy - Well they succeeded! That initiative has continued ever since and has been hugely successful. What inspires me most about it is the fact that it is completely student-driven, and that despite mountainous debt loads students still want to give back. Since 2001, outgoing MBA and HBA classes have given back over $180k and have initiated a number of improvement programs; setting up new scholarships for incoming students, improving the school’s furnishing, and constructing new lockers to name few. I find that inspirational.
As graduation is around the corner, I’m excited about graduating, I’m excited about taking the Ivey pledge and earning my Ivey Ring, I’m excited about becoming an Ivey alumnus and Ambassador for life, and I’m excited about taking part in the Ivey Gift Campaign and doing my part to continue this legacy of giving back to the school and to future students.
When you attend Ivey, there are a number of key buzzwords that seem to revolve around you day in and day both inside and outside the classroom: ‘alumni power’, ‘cross-enterprise leadership’,'leadership’, ‘integrity’, 'case-based method', ‘corporate social responsibility’ to name a few. These buzzwords are probably common in many schools, but at Ivey they are really engrained in you. You realize that these buzzwords form the foundation of all past and present Ivey graduates and that this foundation is a primary reason of why the alumni network is so strong, and why the Ivey brand is reputable.
As graduation is around the corner, I found it fitting to have come across a video narrated by Larry Rosen, CEO of Harry Rosen (a long standing Canadian menswear retailer). Mr. Rosen is an Ivey MBA grad and prominent spokesperson for the Ivey Alumni Society. Watching this video made me think about what it means to be apart of the Ivey Alumni society and how the school’s success has been largely based on a set of common qualities exhibited by most Ivey grads; that we share a common interest in being Ivey ambassadors for life, that we strive to be ethical leaders, and that we understand the importance of giving back to the school that has given us so much. If you have a minute watch the video.
I recently found out about an Ivey tradition called the “Ivey Class Gift Campaign.” In 2001, the MBA and HBA students at the time decided that they wanted to do something to give back to the school and show support for incoming students. They wanted to leave a legacy - Well they succeeded! That initiative has continued ever since and has been hugely successful. What inspires me most about it is the fact that it is completely student-driven, and that despite mountainous debt loads students still want to give back. Since 2001, outgoing MBA and HBA classes have given back over $180k and have initiated a number of improvement programs; setting up new scholarships for incoming students, improving the school’s furnishing, and constructing new lockers to name few. I find that inspirational.
As graduation is around the corner, I’m excited about graduating, I’m excited about taking the Ivey pledge and earning my Ivey Ring, I’m excited about becoming an Ivey alumnus and Ambassador for life, and I’m excited about taking part in the Ivey Gift Campaign and doing my part to continue this legacy of giving back to the school and to future students.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
I Can See the Light at the End of the Tunnel!
It has been a while since I last posted. I kept waiting for a time when things would calm down in school but that never seems to come anymore. This module has been particularly tiring, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel; yes – only 3 months to go until graduation. Frankly, I think I am ready to move onto the post-MBA phase of my life but at the same time I already know that I’m going to miss coming to school everyday. I realize more than ever that I love coming to school everyday; socializing with all the great people in this program, listening to the engaging class debates, and absorbing life in an unfamiliar surrounding. I know that life is about to get way more routine very soon as I venture back in the workforce.
On the first day of class following the Christmas holidays, our IT professor took 15 minutes out of the class to ask each of us what we would remember most from our MBA program experiences. It was incredible to hear what everyone had to say. It made me remember so many wonderful moments that I seemed to have forgotten. It also made me realize how this program has provided value to each of us in so many different ways. Common memorable experiences included: the China study trip, Outward Bound/Ropes day, diversity of the classroom, friendship, ups and downs of the program, being there for each other, teamwork, and alumni interaction.
This module (2B) is composed of a Management Operations course (plant and supply chain operations), a Marketing course, and an IT Management course. All three courses offer very different and useful perspectives about Cross-Enterprise leadership, but I must say that Marketing is my favourite course. The professor is incredibly engaging, and the cases we cover are very interesting. I thought I’d spit out a few quotes that have stuck with me over the last few weeks (one from each course):
“The best technical solution may not work politically and the political solution may not work best technically.” ~Nicole Haggarty, IT Management Professor
“When you think of innovation don’t think of it in terms of new products, think of it in terms of new market segments” ~Niraj Dawar, Marketing Professor
“Culture is what people do when no one is looking” ~Larry Menor, Management Operations
Here’s one more from marketing class, but it in fact comes from some professor in Chicago: “All communication between human beings is persuasion.” I couldn’t agree more. I guess with this blog entry I’m trying to persuade you to go to Ivey and do your MBA because it’s so memorable and because you will be enlightened by your professors’ cool quotes :) By the way, I just wrote my Operations mid-term exam yesterday and my brain is fried. It was one of the most tiring exams I’ve ever had, and I’m still not recovered from it.
Until next time…
Sacha
On the first day of class following the Christmas holidays, our IT professor took 15 minutes out of the class to ask each of us what we would remember most from our MBA program experiences. It was incredible to hear what everyone had to say. It made me remember so many wonderful moments that I seemed to have forgotten. It also made me realize how this program has provided value to each of us in so many different ways. Common memorable experiences included: the China study trip, Outward Bound/Ropes day, diversity of the classroom, friendship, ups and downs of the program, being there for each other, teamwork, and alumni interaction.
This module (2B) is composed of a Management Operations course (plant and supply chain operations), a Marketing course, and an IT Management course. All three courses offer very different and useful perspectives about Cross-Enterprise leadership, but I must say that Marketing is my favourite course. The professor is incredibly engaging, and the cases we cover are very interesting. I thought I’d spit out a few quotes that have stuck with me over the last few weeks (one from each course):
“The best technical solution may not work politically and the political solution may not work best technically.” ~Nicole Haggarty, IT Management Professor
“When you think of innovation don’t think of it in terms of new products, think of it in terms of new market segments” ~Niraj Dawar, Marketing Professor
“Culture is what people do when no one is looking” ~Larry Menor, Management Operations
Here’s one more from marketing class, but it in fact comes from some professor in Chicago: “All communication between human beings is persuasion.” I couldn’t agree more. I guess with this blog entry I’m trying to persuade you to go to Ivey and do your MBA because it’s so memorable and because you will be enlightened by your professors’ cool quotes :) By the way, I just wrote my Operations mid-term exam yesterday and my brain is fried. It was one of the most tiring exams I’ve ever had, and I’m still not recovered from it.
Until next time…
Sacha
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Rude Awakenings
It’s Tuesday night, and I’m feeling sick to my stomach. Coming back to school after the holidays has been a rude awakening. I’m not used to working this hard again, and I’m craving a day off and a morning to sleep in. I’ve been extra quiet since school started up in the new year. I’ve been in more of a thinking mood lately, and haven’t felt like socializing much. I think I’m anxious to move on with the next phase of my life, which will be a move to Toronto and a new job.
My perspectives on what I want out of the last four months of this program have dramatically changed in the last few weeks. There’s no doubt that having some free time in China gave me an opportunity to think about my goals for 2009, and how I want to go about spending my time at school and with my colleagues, my friends, and of course my best friend; my wife. After a couple of very excellent conversations with some good friends and Geeta, I think I have a much more clearer picture of some of the changes I want to make in the last four months of school.
So what do I want for the last four months?
Out of School…I want to:
-Take the time to really learn and absorb from the classes and not to trade a deeper learning and understanding of the material for higher marks. I like to excel and therefore I like to aim for high marks, but I also know that I’ve sacrificed a bit of learning all year round in order to focus on getting higher marks. I need to get more comfortable with making this trade-off and I know that it will mean that I may not be able to do all the cases and class preparation everyday.
-To make a meaningful impact for the school.
Out of my social life….I want to:
-Spend less time socializing at the bars, and spend more quality time with friends and colleagues from Ivey
-Spend more time getting to know my colleagues that I don’t know as well or haven’t had a chance to connect with during the year
Out of my home life…I want to:
-Spend more quality time with Geeta
-Make more of an effort to connect with family more often
Other than the fact that school is whipping me back into shape, things are progressing: I haven’t been keeping up with my workouts as I would like, I’ve got a new learning team, and I’m working with another team on an exciting new consulting school project for a very interesting client.
Until next time…
Sacha
My perspectives on what I want out of the last four months of this program have dramatically changed in the last few weeks. There’s no doubt that having some free time in China gave me an opportunity to think about my goals for 2009, and how I want to go about spending my time at school and with my colleagues, my friends, and of course my best friend; my wife. After a couple of very excellent conversations with some good friends and Geeta, I think I have a much more clearer picture of some of the changes I want to make in the last four months of school.
So what do I want for the last four months?
Out of School…I want to:
-Take the time to really learn and absorb from the classes and not to trade a deeper learning and understanding of the material for higher marks. I like to excel and therefore I like to aim for high marks, but I also know that I’ve sacrificed a bit of learning all year round in order to focus on getting higher marks. I need to get more comfortable with making this trade-off and I know that it will mean that I may not be able to do all the cases and class preparation everyday.
-To make a meaningful impact for the school.
Out of my social life….I want to:
-Spend less time socializing at the bars, and spend more quality time with friends and colleagues from Ivey
-Spend more time getting to know my colleagues that I don’t know as well or haven’t had a chance to connect with during the year
Out of my home life…I want to:
-Spend more quality time with Geeta
-Make more of an effort to connect with family more often
Other than the fact that school is whipping me back into shape, things are progressing: I haven’t been keeping up with my workouts as I would like, I’ve got a new learning team, and I’m working with another team on an exciting new consulting school project for a very interesting client.
Until next time…
Sacha
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
China Study Trip ~ Hong Kong...Part 4/4
We flew into Hong Kong from Shanghai on another domestic Chinese carrier by the name of Dragon Air. Once again I was impressed with their domestic airline service. As we pulled into Hong Kong and flew over the mountainous terrain surrounding the city one could see the lit up skyline of Hong Kong. It looked like Manhattan, but with the lights of Vegas. As we landed at the international airport, I remembered all of my friends and family that had told me about the infamous landing approach at the Hong Kong airport. Landing at Hong Kong is quite scary for those that don’t like a bumpy ride due to the positioning of the airport and the local geography. Sure enough as we approached the runway, the plane took a steep dive into an area that appeared to resemble a valley…pretty freaky!
After a 45 minute bus ride into downtown, we reached our Hotel. This hotel was far superior to the dump in Shanghai. I remember being really excited about having landed in Hong Kong and finally having the opportunity to see the city. I love photographing skyscrapers and Hong Kong boasts a skyline that is arguably better than that of New York City. Over the next couple of days I would go nuts with my camera photographing much of the skyscraper architecture present in the city.
Picture: Hong Kong at night
Video: Kowloon Market
After a day in the city I had come to the conclusion that Hong Kong rocks! It’s cosmopolitan and commercial like New York City, hilly and unique like San Francisco, and tropical like Hawaii; three of my favourite places. I think I could easily live in Hong Kong! After taking a couple of cable car rides over the surrounding hills and having ascended the ‘Peak’ (a mountain overlooking the city), I was in love with the views and sights of the city’s beautiful terrain and forest of skyscrapers.
Picture: Hong Kong skyline
On the second day in Hong Kong we visited the Hutchinson Port, which is the third busiest shipping port in the world. We enjoyed a very entertaining presentation from two of the port’s executives. At this point, I was really feeling ill and had a hard time paying attention so I won’t comment too much on this activity other than to say that it was really neat seeing how the port operates and how it is completely computerized. Visiting the control centre was pretty awesome for a techie like me (lots of toys to look at). Did I mention that they were a Nortel customer ;) You knew I had to throw that one in! Anyhow, it was nice seeing a piece of Canadian technology at the centre of their operations (perhaps it will be Chinese technology as Huawei perhaps bids on Nortel in the coming weeks). Hopefully the government will step in soon and save them.
In terms of memorable moments, I will share a funny story with you. I say funny now, but at the time I was pretty peeved ;) I mentioned in part two of my China blog series that this was the first trip that I have taken where I completely relied on others to get around, and to keep schedule. I pretty much just followed the masses to the point that I didn’t even know my own hotel name or where we were supposed to be at any particular point in time. Well it kind of bit me on the butt on one day: A group of us were riding the subway back from the Kowloon market toward the Ivey School of Business (Hong Kong campus) for a presentation. I wasn’t feeling well and it was crowded on the subway. To make a long story short, I somehow wasn’t paying attention and missed our stop and got separated from my classmates. I seriously had no idea of where I was in the city, nor an idea of where to go, or where the hotel was. I think this was the first time in my life where I can say that I was truly lost. Ooops! On top of that I was feeling very ill at the time. As I wandered the streets of Hong Kong, I struggled to remember the name of our hotel; was it ”Nova,” “Intercontinental”? The name “Novotel” finally dawned on me and I was able to find a taxi driver who knew where it was. I got lucky, it was the right hotel. For those planning on doing the China Study Trip in the future, always ensure that you carry a hotel card with you at all times with the name and address of the hotel so you don’t get lost like me!
Probably the most memorable aspect of Hong Kong was the party scene and the night life. The class went pretty crazy in the last couple of nights hitting up lounges, clubs, and ‘Club 711’ often with the many Ivey alumni that inhabit this vibrant city. What’s ‘Club 711’ you ask? Well, 711 convenience stores can be found all over China and in the party district of Hong Kong. Since drinks are very expensive in the clubs, most of us were frequenting the 711 store (which is right outside many of the night clubs), and making our own party on the streets before entering the clubs. The clubs and lounges themselves were quite the experience. Some of them charged $60CDN cover (for men, women get in free) and up to $20CDN for drink…ouch! Not great for that student budget; hence “Club 711” to start things off!
By this point in the trip, everyone was getting pretty tired. There was definitely some excess partying happening, and we were all enjoying life to the fullest (perhaps a bit too much). The last couple of days were filled with ups, downs, and a bit of drama; all events that will make this trip a memorable one! By the end of it I think many of us were ready and happy to go home to our families. Many others were continuing their adventures over the holidays in the Asia Pacific exploring Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Well that about sums up the China Study Trip. I hope you enjoyed it!
After a 45 minute bus ride into downtown, we reached our Hotel. This hotel was far superior to the dump in Shanghai. I remember being really excited about having landed in Hong Kong and finally having the opportunity to see the city. I love photographing skyscrapers and Hong Kong boasts a skyline that is arguably better than that of New York City. Over the next couple of days I would go nuts with my camera photographing much of the skyscraper architecture present in the city.
Picture: Hong Kong at night
After a day in the city I had come to the conclusion that Hong Kong rocks! It’s cosmopolitan and commercial like New York City, hilly and unique like San Francisco, and tropical like Hawaii; three of my favourite places. I think I could easily live in Hong Kong! After taking a couple of cable car rides over the surrounding hills and having ascended the ‘Peak’ (a mountain overlooking the city), I was in love with the views and sights of the city’s beautiful terrain and forest of skyscrapers.
On the second day in Hong Kong we visited the Hutchinson Port, which is the third busiest shipping port in the world. We enjoyed a very entertaining presentation from two of the port’s executives. At this point, I was really feeling ill and had a hard time paying attention so I won’t comment too much on this activity other than to say that it was really neat seeing how the port operates and how it is completely computerized. Visiting the control centre was pretty awesome for a techie like me (lots of toys to look at). Did I mention that they were a Nortel customer ;) You knew I had to throw that one in! Anyhow, it was nice seeing a piece of Canadian technology at the centre of their operations (perhaps it will be Chinese technology as Huawei perhaps bids on Nortel in the coming weeks). Hopefully the government will step in soon and save them.
In terms of memorable moments, I will share a funny story with you. I say funny now, but at the time I was pretty peeved ;) I mentioned in part two of my China blog series that this was the first trip that I have taken where I completely relied on others to get around, and to keep schedule. I pretty much just followed the masses to the point that I didn’t even know my own hotel name or where we were supposed to be at any particular point in time. Well it kind of bit me on the butt on one day: A group of us were riding the subway back from the Kowloon market toward the Ivey School of Business (Hong Kong campus) for a presentation. I wasn’t feeling well and it was crowded on the subway. To make a long story short, I somehow wasn’t paying attention and missed our stop and got separated from my classmates. I seriously had no idea of where I was in the city, nor an idea of where to go, or where the hotel was. I think this was the first time in my life where I can say that I was truly lost. Ooops! On top of that I was feeling very ill at the time. As I wandered the streets of Hong Kong, I struggled to remember the name of our hotel; was it ”Nova,” “Intercontinental”? The name “Novotel” finally dawned on me and I was able to find a taxi driver who knew where it was. I got lucky, it was the right hotel. For those planning on doing the China Study Trip in the future, always ensure that you carry a hotel card with you at all times with the name and address of the hotel so you don’t get lost like me!
Probably the most memorable aspect of Hong Kong was the party scene and the night life. The class went pretty crazy in the last couple of nights hitting up lounges, clubs, and ‘Club 711’ often with the many Ivey alumni that inhabit this vibrant city. What’s ‘Club 711’ you ask? Well, 711 convenience stores can be found all over China and in the party district of Hong Kong. Since drinks are very expensive in the clubs, most of us were frequenting the 711 store (which is right outside many of the night clubs), and making our own party on the streets before entering the clubs. The clubs and lounges themselves were quite the experience. Some of them charged $60CDN cover (for men, women get in free) and up to $20CDN for drink…ouch! Not great for that student budget; hence “Club 711” to start things off!
By this point in the trip, everyone was getting pretty tired. There was definitely some excess partying happening, and we were all enjoying life to the fullest (perhaps a bit too much). The last couple of days were filled with ups, downs, and a bit of drama; all events that will make this trip a memorable one! By the end of it I think many of us were ready and happy to go home to our families. Many others were continuing their adventures over the holidays in the Asia Pacific exploring Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Well that about sums up the China Study Trip. I hope you enjoyed it!
Monday, January 5, 2009
China Study Trip ~ Shanghai...Part 3/4
We boarded a domestic airline to make the trip to Shanghai from Beijing, ‘China Eastern Airlines.’ Wow, did they ever put Air Canada to shame; non-stop beverage and snack service with free alcohol throughout the entire flight. The two hour journey passed very quickly and before you knew it the Shanghai skyline was visible.
Shanghai immediately demonstrated a very different flavour than that of the one Beijing left with us. For one, it was commercial and less historical/political with no soldiers visible on the streets, and it was densely populated. There were roughly the same amount of people in the city as Beijing encompassed in a land mass that was roughly 1/4th the size. The buildings were predictably taller and the city felt busier, despite having 1/8th the cars on the road.
Picture: Shanghai Skyline
The skyline in Shanghai is mighty impressive. It’s dotted with large financial institutions, and future-like architecture that almost puts New York to shame. Almost all the development is new (within the last 15 years). In the downtown area, the sights of the 101 stories World Financial Centre (2nd tallest in the world) and the 87 stories Grand Hyatt steal the show and give a good representation of what the future of Shanghai’s skyline will look like. Already, construction has started next door on Asia’s tallest building. The development scene is incredible. Some estimate that 30% of the world’s cranes are in Shanghai, with another 30% in Dubai.
Picture: Group shot in front of the Shanghai skyline
Shanghai provided an opportunity for us to meet with a number of Ivey alumni, visit a number of plants, and really get a feel for what it’s like to conduct business in China. We had a opportunity to visit Bao Steel, the #2 steel company in the world. Visiting the plant, or should I say city, was eye-opening to say the least. We had an opportunity to witness how steel is manufactured pretty much end to end. We toured a building that was roughly 500 metres in length. It was an assembly line with some of the biggest machines that I had ever seen. These machines were pounding the molten steel, shaping it, smoothing it, and cooling it with water. The molten steel glowed bright orange and one after another a new beam of molten steel would zip down the assembly line giving off strong heat. It almost felt as if you were in a sauna for a split second as the beam zipped by. Visiting the plant was something like experiencing the Discovery Channel in reality. One could almost sense that China’s economic growth was hugely dependant on this plant in order to build its skyscrapers, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities. We also had an opportunity to get a presentation from an executive at the company that spoke in Mandarin and had a translator covert to English. I must say that the translator did a great job and the presentation was actually quite effective despite the language barriers.
Picture: Bao Steel presentation
Shanghai also provided us with an opportunity to visit Shanghai General Motors, and take a day trip to a Suzhou. Shanghai General Motors is a 50-50 joint venture between GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. We had an opportunity to visit the assembly line and witness how a car is manufactured end to end. What surprised me the most in China was how popular the Buick is, and I guess if there’s a bright spot in GM it is that they have a stronghold in China through this joint venture. We also got to eat with the local automotive assembly line workers to get a real taste of work life in the factory. I must say that the meal was delicious!
Picture: Visit to the Shanghai GM assembly line
Visiting Suzhou (about two hours outside of Shanghai) was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We visited a new master-planned high-tech community (as previously described in part 1 of the blog entries) where 6m people will call home. We visited a museum that demonstrated the future plans for this master-planned city and what it will look like. I think we were all blown away by the scale and dream of it. They seemed to be taking the best of all the world’s cities and implementing them into these new futuristic cities. For example, this new city will soon have a replica of the London Eye (Ferris Wheel), and the latest in skyscraper architecture with a number of 80+ stories building dotting a yet to be constructed skyline. Already, dozens of high-tech multinationals call this futuristic city home. On the flip side, we visited the historical side of Suzhou where we rode a boat through a canal that snaked through the village. It was our first taste of what rural China was like. One could see the poverty, and the lack of essential services. I must say though that despite some of the visible poverty, the historical Suzhou and the canal were magnificent. I think that the boat ride will be the part of the trip that I will most remember. It was very surreal, calming, cultural, and beautiful.
Picture/Video: Riding the canal through historical Suzhou
One afternoon, the class hit a popular market where we had another opportunity to barter and buy some souvenirs. The market was lively and came complete with Starbucks, which was a friendly and welcome surprise. Other highlights included dining with Ivey alumni, hearing a presentation from the author of a book on China's Supertrends, and riding the Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev train). The author of the China Supertrends book, Jason Inch, was very insightful and provided a unique perspective on what the future China will look like, and the role that they will play on the world stage (probably the best presentation on the trip). The Maglev runs from near downtown Shanghai to the international airport. There are only two such trains in the world (the other in Germany). The train topped out at 301 km/hr (see video below). What surprised me was that it was not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be for a train that has no wheels and levitates off the ground on magnets? There was a distinct buzzing sound as the train accelerated and it was not nearly as impressive as the TGV in France.
Picture: Visiting a popular market in Shanghai
Video: Riding the Maglev Train in Shanghai
Shanghai immediately demonstrated a very different flavour than that of the one Beijing left with us. For one, it was commercial and less historical/political with no soldiers visible on the streets, and it was densely populated. There were roughly the same amount of people in the city as Beijing encompassed in a land mass that was roughly 1/4th the size. The buildings were predictably taller and the city felt busier, despite having 1/8th the cars on the road.
Picture: Shanghai Skyline
The skyline in Shanghai is mighty impressive. It’s dotted with large financial institutions, and future-like architecture that almost puts New York to shame. Almost all the development is new (within the last 15 years). In the downtown area, the sights of the 101 stories World Financial Centre (2nd tallest in the world) and the 87 stories Grand Hyatt steal the show and give a good representation of what the future of Shanghai’s skyline will look like. Already, construction has started next door on Asia’s tallest building. The development scene is incredible. Some estimate that 30% of the world’s cranes are in Shanghai, with another 30% in Dubai.
Picture: Group shot in front of the Shanghai skyline
Shanghai provided an opportunity for us to meet with a number of Ivey alumni, visit a number of plants, and really get a feel for what it’s like to conduct business in China. We had a opportunity to visit Bao Steel, the #2 steel company in the world. Visiting the plant, or should I say city, was eye-opening to say the least. We had an opportunity to witness how steel is manufactured pretty much end to end. We toured a building that was roughly 500 metres in length. It was an assembly line with some of the biggest machines that I had ever seen. These machines were pounding the molten steel, shaping it, smoothing it, and cooling it with water. The molten steel glowed bright orange and one after another a new beam of molten steel would zip down the assembly line giving off strong heat. It almost felt as if you were in a sauna for a split second as the beam zipped by. Visiting the plant was something like experiencing the Discovery Channel in reality. One could almost sense that China’s economic growth was hugely dependant on this plant in order to build its skyscrapers, infrastructure, and manufacturing capabilities. We also had an opportunity to get a presentation from an executive at the company that spoke in Mandarin and had a translator covert to English. I must say that the translator did a great job and the presentation was actually quite effective despite the language barriers.
Picture: Bao Steel presentation
Shanghai also provided us with an opportunity to visit Shanghai General Motors, and take a day trip to a Suzhou. Shanghai General Motors is a 50-50 joint venture between GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. We had an opportunity to visit the assembly line and witness how a car is manufactured end to end. What surprised me the most in China was how popular the Buick is, and I guess if there’s a bright spot in GM it is that they have a stronghold in China through this joint venture. We also got to eat with the local automotive assembly line workers to get a real taste of work life in the factory. I must say that the meal was delicious!
Picture: Visit to the Shanghai GM assembly line
Visiting Suzhou (about two hours outside of Shanghai) was one of the highlights of the whole trip. We visited a new master-planned high-tech community (as previously described in part 1 of the blog entries) where 6m people will call home. We visited a museum that demonstrated the future plans for this master-planned city and what it will look like. I think we were all blown away by the scale and dream of it. They seemed to be taking the best of all the world’s cities and implementing them into these new futuristic cities. For example, this new city will soon have a replica of the London Eye (Ferris Wheel), and the latest in skyscraper architecture with a number of 80+ stories building dotting a yet to be constructed skyline. Already, dozens of high-tech multinationals call this futuristic city home. On the flip side, we visited the historical side of Suzhou where we rode a boat through a canal that snaked through the village. It was our first taste of what rural China was like. One could see the poverty, and the lack of essential services. I must say though that despite some of the visible poverty, the historical Suzhou and the canal were magnificent. I think that the boat ride will be the part of the trip that I will most remember. It was very surreal, calming, cultural, and beautiful.
Picture/Video: Riding the canal through historical Suzhou
One afternoon, the class hit a popular market where we had another opportunity to barter and buy some souvenirs. The market was lively and came complete with Starbucks, which was a friendly and welcome surprise. Other highlights included dining with Ivey alumni, hearing a presentation from the author of a book on China's Supertrends, and riding the Magnetic Levitation Train (Maglev train). The author of the China Supertrends book, Jason Inch, was very insightful and provided a unique perspective on what the future China will look like, and the role that they will play on the world stage (probably the best presentation on the trip). The Maglev runs from near downtown Shanghai to the international airport. There are only two such trains in the world (the other in Germany). The train topped out at 301 km/hr (see video below). What surprised me was that it was not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be for a train that has no wheels and levitates off the ground on magnets? There was a distinct buzzing sound as the train accelerated and it was not nearly as impressive as the TGV in France.
Video: Riding the Maglev Train in Shanghai
Friday, January 2, 2009
Sacha Gera: China Study Trip ~ Beijing...Part 2/4
It was the night before the trip and Geeta (my wife) drove a classmate and me up to Toronto to crash in an airport hotel so that we wouldn’t have to fight Toronto traffic in the morning. We were excited to say the least, and it was tough sleeping that night. The next morning, a number of classmates converged at the Continental airlines gate at Pearson International Airport. You could feel the excitement in the air that morning, although you could also tell that many in the class had been up all night packing and were exhausted.
My flight was composed of two segments, Toronto->Newark and Newark->Beijing. Upon landing in Newark, we had about an hour to connect flights. I sat down with some friends for a quick lunch and somehow we lost track of time. Yup… we almost missed our flight to Beijing. How embarrassing! Having the Continental boarding reps scream at me for being late didn’t make me feel any better, but I admit that I deserved it. Generally throughout my life, I’m the type of person who is quite timely, and relies on myself. I’m also the type that does a ton of research on our destination, follows a schedule to a tee, and often leads the group on a travel trip. This time, however, I decided that I would take a back seat, do absolutely no research on the destination, and would rely 100% on my classmates. I figured that there were enough type-A leaders in this class and that I could easily sit back and relax. Guess I didn’t get off to a good start ;)
The 14 hour plane ride to Beijing was enjoyable. I was sitting with two of my Team 5 teammates and close friends, which made for a comfortable and fun ride. As we landed in Beijing, my neighbour and I observed a puffy cloud that spanned for roughly 100 km around Beijing. It seemed like kind of an odd-shaped cloud as it had a number of pillars (like plumes) jetting out of the tops of the cloud. It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was not a regular cloud, but a pollution cloud engulfing the city. Those pillars jetting from the clouds were emissions spewing from factories! Upon landing, the pilot came on the PA and announced the current weather in Beijing; “cool and smoky.” It was hard not to laugh at that. I had never heard anyone use the word ‘smoky’ in a weather report. The Lonely Planet (popular travel book) reports that one day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes.
I shared a taxi with a couple of mates on the way to the hotel in Beijing. The taxi driver spoke no English and all we had was a name of a hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip, we realized that our taxi driver didn’t know where to go. On top of that, it appeared as though he was illiterate and couldn’t read the Mandarin title of our hotel (apparently 40% of taxi drivers are illiterate in China). My mates and I struggled to figure out a way to convey the location of our hotel to the driver, and after much struggle we found a suitable method. My friend had an iPhone with an English to Mandarin translator. We would type sentences in English and the phone would sound them out in Mandarin. That seemed to work and we finally arrived at the hotel.
After a couple of days, it didn’t’ take me long to formulate some initial thoughts on Beijing. For one, the infrastructure was far beyond what I expected. The highways were in excellent condition and very new, the airport was efficient, the subway was second to none, and the road system seems to do a fantastic job of handling 4m cars. There was some obvious real big $’s spent on the city in preparation for the Olympics and it showed. It wasn’t just the Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) or surrounding Olympic Park, the entire city had benefitted from the Olympic spend and it showed. The pollution on the other hand was out of control. It appeared foggy and hazy on most days and often times one couldn’t see the sun. The only time I had ever seen it so bad or worse was in India. Apparently, Beijing had implemented ‘Project Blue Skies’ in an effort to curtail automotive pollution whereby only even or odd number license plates could drive on specific days (most families were buying two cars with one even and one odd numbered plate to get around it). Based on the air pollution and particular matter in the air, it was difficult to judge whether the program was effective or not. Overall, the city had a historical and political feel to it as opposed to a commercial one. In some ways it felt like a big, historical capital city with a few thousand military personal roaming the streets, and was less commercialism than expected.
On the first full day, a group of us set out to do some sightseeing in Beijing. We covered a wide footprint of the city and nailed most of the top sights: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Silk Market to name a few. I like to do a lot of sightseeing on trips and one my biggest pet peeves is when I’m with a group of people and we aren’t moving quick enough such that we miss seeing out on sights, or if someone gets tired and alters the plans for the day. What I realized on this trip is that most of us in the program are very similar in nature. Most of us have the travelling and sightseeing bug implanted deep within us; perhaps this is a common trait amongst successful Ivey applicants? Not only did we function as an efficient sightseeing group, but there were no expectations of each other. If someone wanted to depart or do their own thing there were no hard feelings. Anyhow, what a great day!
Picture: Tiananmen Square
Hitting the Silk Market for the first time was insane. Silk Market is a famous market in Beijing where you can buy a variety of goods ranging from clothing to jewellery, and where no fixed prices exist. It’s bartering nation! Having Indian origins and having visited India a number of times, I must say that I was used to the aggressiveness and bargaining ways of the store keepers. I think a number of my classmates, however, were blown away and overwhelmed by it. In terms of bargaining, the prices were very elastic! Generally, one could bargain down to 1/8th of the starting price and sometimes even more. A classmate and I spent a number of hours trying to finish up my shopping list that my wife gave me, and it was tough and tiresome to say the least. The two of us recently took a negotiations class and functioned in a good cop/bad cop manner, and it seemed to work very effectively for us. After a couple of hours the two of us were feeling exhausted, and I had a pounding headache from all the screaming and insanity in the market. By the end of it I had so much stuff that I had to buy an extra suitcase. It was only day 2 and I was up an entire suitcase…argh! We decided to grab a coffee at Starbucks (yes: Starbucks is everywhere in China and is a bit more expensive than here) before looking for a taxi to the hotel. Getting a taxi home was a horrible experience. No driver wanted to take us home on the meter (as per law) and instead they were trying to set a fixed price which was roughly 10x the normal amount (they claimed that it was cheaper in rush hour). It wasn’t the amount of $ that they were attempting to charge us, but rather the principal of being cheated: We refused to set a fixed amount. The two of us decided to walk out of the Silk Market district (roughly 15 minutes out), and we finally found a driver that put the meter on (although we needed to repeat it to him in Mandarin about five times before he actually turned it on). I think I speak for most of the class when I say that taking taxis in China is not a pleasant experience!
Another highlight of Beijing was the ‘Cultural Plunge’ activity that we all had to take part in. Essentially, as part of the China Study Trip elective we were assigned to learning teams and had to partake in the ‘Cultural Plunge’ whereby our team was allocated a budget and had to complete a number of activities. As part of those assigned activities we had to engage in a personal service, barter and buy a good, do something kind for a local, take part in a local activity, and visit a number of locations around Beijing (to name a few). One of the memorable parts of this day was meeting a rickshaw driver and having him join us for lunch. He took us to a local Chinese restaurant where I had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life. What a cool experience.
Picture: Lunch with local rickshaw driver
On the last couple of days in Beijing we had an opportunity to listen to a number of keynote speakers including an executive from South African Breweries (SAB), a partner from IBM Global Business Services (consulting), and an executive from Fruits and Passion (Canadian retail chain expanding in China). We learned about the do’s and don’t of conducting business in China. For example, we learned about how the different levels of Chinese government play an active role in influencing business, including taking investment positions in many of these companies and forcing joint ventures on foreign multinationals. We also learned about how joint ventures play an important role for foreign businesses entering China, particularly in the areas of establishing government relations, and setting up operations. It’s was obvious to me after only a few days that China was a force to contend with lots of business opportunity. If you can't beat them you might as well join them.
I guess I didn’t mention much about our visit to the Great Wall of China and the Olympic Stadium Tour. What can I say other than it was incredible and very memorable. Climbing that mountain up to the Great Wall and taking a toboggan back down (almost like a bobsled) was something I’ll never forget. Checking out the Olympic Stadium was also surreal having just watched it on T.V during the summer.
Video: Sliding down from the Great Wall of China
Picture: Olympic Stadium-Bird's Nest (left), Great Wall of China (right)
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of 4; Shanghai.
My flight was composed of two segments, Toronto->Newark and Newark->Beijing. Upon landing in Newark, we had about an hour to connect flights. I sat down with some friends for a quick lunch and somehow we lost track of time. Yup… we almost missed our flight to Beijing. How embarrassing! Having the Continental boarding reps scream at me for being late didn’t make me feel any better, but I admit that I deserved it. Generally throughout my life, I’m the type of person who is quite timely, and relies on myself. I’m also the type that does a ton of research on our destination, follows a schedule to a tee, and often leads the group on a travel trip. This time, however, I decided that I would take a back seat, do absolutely no research on the destination, and would rely 100% on my classmates. I figured that there were enough type-A leaders in this class and that I could easily sit back and relax. Guess I didn’t get off to a good start ;)
The 14 hour plane ride to Beijing was enjoyable. I was sitting with two of my Team 5 teammates and close friends, which made for a comfortable and fun ride. As we landed in Beijing, my neighbour and I observed a puffy cloud that spanned for roughly 100 km around Beijing. It seemed like kind of an odd-shaped cloud as it had a number of pillars (like plumes) jetting out of the tops of the cloud. It didn’t take us long to figure out that this was not a regular cloud, but a pollution cloud engulfing the city. Those pillars jetting from the clouds were emissions spewing from factories! Upon landing, the pilot came on the PA and announced the current weather in Beijing; “cool and smoky.” It was hard not to laugh at that. I had never heard anyone use the word ‘smoky’ in a weather report. The Lonely Planet (popular travel book) reports that one day in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes.
I shared a taxi with a couple of mates on the way to the hotel in Beijing. The taxi driver spoke no English and all we had was a name of a hotel. About 10 minutes into the trip, we realized that our taxi driver didn’t know where to go. On top of that, it appeared as though he was illiterate and couldn’t read the Mandarin title of our hotel (apparently 40% of taxi drivers are illiterate in China). My mates and I struggled to figure out a way to convey the location of our hotel to the driver, and after much struggle we found a suitable method. My friend had an iPhone with an English to Mandarin translator. We would type sentences in English and the phone would sound them out in Mandarin. That seemed to work and we finally arrived at the hotel.
After a couple of days, it didn’t’ take me long to formulate some initial thoughts on Beijing. For one, the infrastructure was far beyond what I expected. The highways were in excellent condition and very new, the airport was efficient, the subway was second to none, and the road system seems to do a fantastic job of handling 4m cars. There was some obvious real big $’s spent on the city in preparation for the Olympics and it showed. It wasn’t just the Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) or surrounding Olympic Park, the entire city had benefitted from the Olympic spend and it showed. The pollution on the other hand was out of control. It appeared foggy and hazy on most days and often times one couldn’t see the sun. The only time I had ever seen it so bad or worse was in India. Apparently, Beijing had implemented ‘Project Blue Skies’ in an effort to curtail automotive pollution whereby only even or odd number license plates could drive on specific days (most families were buying two cars with one even and one odd numbered plate to get around it). Based on the air pollution and particular matter in the air, it was difficult to judge whether the program was effective or not. Overall, the city had a historical and political feel to it as opposed to a commercial one. In some ways it felt like a big, historical capital city with a few thousand military personal roaming the streets, and was less commercialism than expected.
Picture: Beijing freeway and pollution (left), soldiers (right)
What was interesting on a personal level was the fact that after a few days in Beijing I felt more confident about the possibility of living in an Asian city or reaching out beyond North America as a possible place to live in the future. I realized that the city was in fact quite liveable and that I could function just fine independently if I needed too. In some odd way navigating the city via public transit, bartering with aggressive shop keepers, struggling with the locals over language, dealing with corrupt taxi drivers, and getting lost on a couple of occasions, was a huge confidence builder. The trip was already having a positive effect on me and an in addition I felt that I was forming strong bonds and friendships with my classmates. I already knew that this trip was worth it and that missing it would have been a big mistake.
Beijing is a city of 18m in the metro area. It’s expansive and spread out and well connected with infrastructure. The boulevards are very wide open (very Paris-like), and the buildings are spaced out which seem to make the city feel very non-dense. I must admit that I was expecting a heavy population density, and big crowds everywhere, but I found that Beijing was quite the opposite. I still can’t figure out how 18m people live in the city. Where does everyone live? Sure the city is filled with thousands of mid-rise buildings, but few skyscrapers, and it only took about 20 minutes to get into the outskirts of the city. Frankly, in my opinion Toronto appears far more congested, dense, and expansive for a city of roughly 5.5m in the metro or 1/3rd the size.
The following are some of my highlights from Beijing:
On the first night, a group of us hit a local hole-in-the-wall restaurant where we experienced authentic Chinese food and beverages. What a fantastic night it was; one in which we had a nice meal, drank lots of local beer, and shared a number of good laughs with some good friends. The entire bill for eight of us was about $45 CDN; we couldn’t believe it! Definitely a night I will remember.
On the first full day, a group of us set out to do some sightseeing in Beijing. We covered a wide footprint of the city and nailed most of the top sights: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Silk Market to name a few. I like to do a lot of sightseeing on trips and one my biggest pet peeves is when I’m with a group of people and we aren’t moving quick enough such that we miss seeing out on sights, or if someone gets tired and alters the plans for the day. What I realized on this trip is that most of us in the program are very similar in nature. Most of us have the travelling and sightseeing bug implanted deep within us; perhaps this is a common trait amongst successful Ivey applicants? Not only did we function as an efficient sightseeing group, but there were no expectations of each other. If someone wanted to depart or do their own thing there were no hard feelings. Anyhow, what a great day!
Hitting the Silk Market for the first time was insane. Silk Market is a famous market in Beijing where you can buy a variety of goods ranging from clothing to jewellery, and where no fixed prices exist. It’s bartering nation! Having Indian origins and having visited India a number of times, I must say that I was used to the aggressiveness and bargaining ways of the store keepers. I think a number of my classmates, however, were blown away and overwhelmed by it. In terms of bargaining, the prices were very elastic! Generally, one could bargain down to 1/8th of the starting price and sometimes even more. A classmate and I spent a number of hours trying to finish up my shopping list that my wife gave me, and it was tough and tiresome to say the least. The two of us recently took a negotiations class and functioned in a good cop/bad cop manner, and it seemed to work very effectively for us. After a couple of hours the two of us were feeling exhausted, and I had a pounding headache from all the screaming and insanity in the market. By the end of it I had so much stuff that I had to buy an extra suitcase. It was only day 2 and I was up an entire suitcase…argh! We decided to grab a coffee at Starbucks (yes: Starbucks is everywhere in China and is a bit more expensive than here) before looking for a taxi to the hotel. Getting a taxi home was a horrible experience. No driver wanted to take us home on the meter (as per law) and instead they were trying to set a fixed price which was roughly 10x the normal amount (they claimed that it was cheaper in rush hour). It wasn’t the amount of $ that they were attempting to charge us, but rather the principal of being cheated: We refused to set a fixed amount. The two of us decided to walk out of the Silk Market district (roughly 15 minutes out), and we finally found a driver that put the meter on (although we needed to repeat it to him in Mandarin about five times before he actually turned it on). I think I speak for most of the class when I say that taking taxis in China is not a pleasant experience!
Another highlight of Beijing was the ‘Cultural Plunge’ activity that we all had to take part in. Essentially, as part of the China Study Trip elective we were assigned to learning teams and had to partake in the ‘Cultural Plunge’ whereby our team was allocated a budget and had to complete a number of activities. As part of those assigned activities we had to engage in a personal service, barter and buy a good, do something kind for a local, take part in a local activity, and visit a number of locations around Beijing (to name a few). One of the memorable parts of this day was meeting a rickshaw driver and having him join us for lunch. He took us to a local Chinese restaurant where I had the best Chinese food I’ve ever had in my life. What a cool experience.
Picture: Lunch with local rickshaw driver
On the last couple of days in Beijing we had an opportunity to listen to a number of keynote speakers including an executive from South African Breweries (SAB), a partner from IBM Global Business Services (consulting), and an executive from Fruits and Passion (Canadian retail chain expanding in China). We learned about the do’s and don’t of conducting business in China. For example, we learned about how the different levels of Chinese government play an active role in influencing business, including taking investment positions in many of these companies and forcing joint ventures on foreign multinationals. We also learned about how joint ventures play an important role for foreign businesses entering China, particularly in the areas of establishing government relations, and setting up operations. It’s was obvious to me after only a few days that China was a force to contend with lots of business opportunity. If you can't beat them you might as well join them.
I guess I didn’t mention much about our visit to the Great Wall of China and the Olympic Stadium Tour. What can I say other than it was incredible and very memorable. Climbing that mountain up to the Great Wall and taking a toboggan back down (almost like a bobsled) was something I’ll never forget. Checking out the Olympic Stadium was also surreal having just watched it on T.V during the summer.
Video: Sliding down from the Great Wall of China
Picture: Olympic Stadium-Bird's Nest (left), Great Wall of China (right)
Stay Tuned for Part 3 of 4; Shanghai.
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