Roy Morgan seems to think I'm a Young Optimist


Market research company, Roy Morgan, have a marketing tool called Roy Morgan Value Segments. It's a way of classifying individuals in terms of the way their think, their aspirations, behaviour, and more. As a result there are ten different value segments to which you could belong - Basic Needs, Real Conservatism, Traditional Family Life, Something Better, Visible Achievement, Conventional Family Life, Young Optimism, Socially Aware, Look At Me, and A Fairer Deal. Apparently, I'm Young Optimism.

"... the Young Optimism© segment are into image and style (not fads and fashion). They are conscious of the image they project and want to make the right one. Long term thinkers, they are busy planning careers, attending university and thinking about the future. It tends to be associated with people who want to experience all life has to offer: travel, a career, friends, family - and they are still idealistic enough to believe they can have it all."

jgeorge.com

My professor for Quantitative Analysis for Managers, Dr. Jenny George, has a personal website. Seems to be a bit out of date though - a few too many dead links.

And then there were two...

The Fox/Lew consortium Tesna have withdrawn their bid for Ansett at the eleventh hour, forcing the airline into liquidation. Flights will continue until midnight Monday, thereby avoiding the chaos of thousands of stranded Grand Prix and Mardi Gras travellers this weekend. Qantas now have close to 85% market share in domestic aviation, and are left with a single competitor: low-cost operator Virgin Blue.

Credit Increase

Despite the fact that I haven't earned a cent in five months, and that I'll be burning cash for the next 15 months while I finish my MBA, my bank have just upped the credit limit on my VISA card ;-)

Telstra's power stymies broadband

[the age 25.02.2002]

"Lack of competition is stopping Australia from becoming a wired nation."

Sue Lowe presents an informative round-up of the Australian broadband scene.

Could it be Hawthorn's year?

Hawthorn defeated Collingwood last night to make it two on the trot in the AFL pre-season competition. I have high hopes for the team this year. Having narrowly missed out on a Grand Final berth last season, they've come out guns blazing in 2002. I'm hoping to make it to several games this season, kicking off with the Hawthorn v Melbourne game at the MCG on April 1st. I've finally taken up my membership with the MCC (after 18 years on the waiting list), so I'll be able to attend as many games as I want (at the MCG)... unless, of course, I have study commitments ;-)

What's happening at MBS this week?

Two more recruitment presentations - Accenture and A.T. Kearney. I'll probably give Accenture a miss, as I know them fairly well already. I'm keen to find out a bit more about A.T. Kearney though, considering that EDS is their parent company. One of the guys on my course comes from EDS, and he's planning on using the MBA as an entry point to A.T. Kearney.

Also at MBS this week we have Allan Fels as a guest speaker. For those of you unfamilar with the Australian business scene, Allan Fels is the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (commonly referred to as the ACCC). Generally regarded as the Australian consumer watchdog, he has the power to block mergers, investigate pricing, and generally ensure a competitive business environment in our country. As an example of his work, the ACCC are presently protecting the rights on Playstation owners and "mod-chip" providers in a Federal Court case against Sony.

The study workload is building up in a big way. It's now Week Five. My first mid-term (Quantitative Analysis) is next week. I also have my first Marketing assignment due in seven days. We're already on to our fourth case study in Organisations, and I have heaps of readings to catch up on for Financial Accounting. I'm still maintaining an H1 average so far, so it's not all that bad.

IT job market picking up?

Got a call from a head hunter the other day looking for a Team Lead for a Lotus Notes/Domino group who were slowly venturing into the world of Java/WebSphere/etc. $105 - $110K base, Melbourne, limited travel opportunities. Alas - I don't consider myself to be an IT person anymore*. It was amusing turning down a headhunter with the line "Sorry, not interested. I'd rather focus on my studies. But if you come across any positions where I can pull in a couple of hundred dollars a week, but only put in two to four hours of contact time, please let me know." He promised to stay in touch.

* That being said, I have ended up as the Co-Lead for IT / Strategy in the MBS Entrepreneurs Challenge this year, and I'm also advising a non-profit in Indonesia on their website strategy (soon to be launched at www.humanitarianprojectsindonesia.org). Both projects are completely pro bono.

Ali

Michael Mann's latest blockbuster, Ali, leaves a lot to be desired. Will Smith is brilliant in his portrayal of Muhammed Ali, and may even bring home the Oscar. The fight scenes are entertaining, well-directed, but a little drawn out. The directional style - fly-on-the-wall, cameras shaking, strategic blurred objects in the foreground - is innovative and well appreciated (his previous movie, The Insider, was quite similar). What most bothered me about Ali though, was the presumptions that it made regarding the audiences' understanding of modern American history. As an outsider who has only been exposed to American history through movies and documentaries, I was frustrated by the brief encounters that Ali had with characters like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. It was also difficult to determine the relative timing of certain events. The movie spanned a ten year period in Ali's life (1964 - 1974, I think), but it was unclear whether some adjacent scenes occurred on the same day, or were actually separated by weeks or months.

Rating: 6 out of 10. If you haven't seen it yet, wait 'til it comes out at the video store.

VFR

In Marketing last week, we discussed the concept of how to market to the VFR ("Visiting Friends and Relatives") market. Do you market your product/attraction to the visitors or to the hosts they'll be staying with? What sorts of activities are VFRs interested in, compared with hotel-staying tourists? Should the hosts participate in activities, or send their visitors out on excursions to the penguins...?

This weekend, it was my turn to play host. Two of my Sydney friends, Saj & Gretel, came to visit for a couple of days. They've become Melbourne regulars over the past twelve months, so we're well beyond visiting the obvious tourist attractions. Our fun-filled weekend included a performance from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, doing the restaurant and bar scene on Fitzroy St (a favourite of mine, regardless of whether there's VFRs involved), lunch on Lygon St, and even a visit to a few Yarra Valley wineries.

In a couple of weeks' time, we'll turn the game around 180 degrees - I'm going up to Sydney for a weekend. They'll be the hosts, and I'll be the VFR. Probably not a typical sample for academic analysis though - I've been back and forward between Sydney and Melbourne at least fifty times in the past five years.

Star Wars in ASCII

Okay, I'm impressed. Someone has gone to the effort of recreating the entire movie in animated ASCII. (I'm assuming it's the entire movie - my connection to the telnet host cut out after about 15 minutes).

The world of the laid-off techie

[zdnet 08.02.2002]

"A year ago, Jose Carlos Cavazos was enthusiastic about his new career in telecommunications and his position with Nortel Networks. Now he's throwing mail on the night shift at a U.S. Postal Service distribution center for $13 an hour.

Cavazos didn't plan to go from high-tech to blue collar. But after eight months without a job, the 37-year-old Raleigh, N.C., resident had burned through his 401(k) savings and was nearing the end of unemployment insurance. He took the postal job to pay the mortgage--even though it leaves him wanting professionally.

"My daughter came home yesterday with a group homework assignment and I had to write a paragraph about what I do for a living," said Cavazos, who has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University and a master's of business administration from Pfeiffer University. "Here I am throwing mail with an MBA. I was totally embarrassed. I'm just grateful that my daughter is still too young to understand how tough this is for me."

My old company, Dimension Data, laid off another 58 staff yesterday. This brings the total for the last twelve months to over 250. It'd be interesting to find out what they're all doing now. I doubt they're all enrolled in business school.

Triple Palindrome: 20:02 20/02/2002

[smh 20.02.2002]

"As clocks around the world click a little past 8pm today, an eerie symmetry will momentarily fall into place.

The time will read 20:02 20/02/2002 - a rare triple palindrome, where the sequence of numbers reads the same backwards as forwards.

The last time such an event occurred was at 11.11am on November 11 in the year 1111."

Bring on the Recruiters

Bain, BCG, LEK, McKinsey, Deloitte, Eli Lilly, Accenture, A.T. Kearney ... the Recruitment Season has begun.

As a byproduct of the 16 month nature of our course, the 2nd year students are pretty much wrapping up their MBAs as the first years begin. As such, the recruiters are on campus at the moment trying to woo our greatest prospects into the worlds of consulting, strategy, marketing, and investment banking.

Almost every day there's a presentation or two that we can attend, at which these companies promote themselves as progressive businesses with high profile clients, plenty of travel opportunities, and a healthy work/life balance (although I question whether that applies to McKinsey & Company). Beer, wine, and sometimes even food follow, and we get the opportunity to debrief amongst our peers, or have a informal chat with a 'sample employee' of the company in question. Of course, I use some of these terms lightly - many of the consulting firms are not actually companies - they're partnerships, but we'll save that for my deconstruction of my Financial Accounting subject later.

Most of the consulting firms have a fairly similar career progression structure. There are Associates, Consultants, Managers, and Partners. Partners (a.k.a. the finders) bring in new business and get all the money. Managers (a.k.a. the minders) lead the projects, and Consultants and Associates (a.k.a. the grinders) do all the work. Some of the firms add another level or two into the structure, by having roles such as Senior Consultant and Senior Manager. MBAs typically enter a firm at the Consultant / Senior Consultant level, and will usually take around 2 - 3 years to make it to Manager. If you're brilliant enough, it's feasible to make Partner in around 5 - 7 years. Not bad considering the rewards that it provides, but I'm not sure it's the choice for me at this stage.

I'm keeping my eyes open and my ears to the ground, so to speak, and exploring all opportunities at this stage.

There aren't as many banks recruiting as I would have liked, at least not through official on-campus methods anyway. I think if I want to pursue a career in i-banking, I should really be looking overseas for my first position.

Study beckons. Must work on maintaining that H1 average if I'm going to open any doors at all through traditional recruiting processes....

...and Alisa Camplin brings in number two!

[smh 19.02.2002]

27 year old Melbournite Alisa Camplin pulled off an impressive victory in the Women's Aerial Skiing today. Unlike Steven Bradbury's tortoise-and-the-hair win in the short-track speed skating, Alisa's win was all skill. Her final jump - a triple twisting double somersault was sensational. With two gold medals, Australia is now ahead of Austria on the Winter Olympics medals table. Roy and H.G. will be wrapped!!

Bradbury wins Australia's first Winter gold

[the age 17.02.2002]

Steven Bradbury has become the first Australian to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympic Games, but he had to rely on all the other competitors stuffing up, in order to take the title. The event was the 1000m short-track speedskating. Bradbury, in his fourth winter olympics knew he was not the fastest skater in the competition, and was working on the strategy of holding back, hoping that some of the skaters in the lead might crash, thereby given him a chance at a possible Bronze medal. On the final corner, a Chinese skater caused a four-person pile up, handing the race and the Gold medal to Australia's Bradbury. Fantastic!!

"Obviously I'm not the fastest skater but they were my tactics and they worked like a charm."

Life in 1992

In 2002 I'm a full-time student at Melbourne Business School. In 1992 I was also a full-time student, completing what was the equivalent on Year 11 / Form 5 at the Casuarina Secondary College in Darwin. This photo is my bedroom in my parent's house in Darwin, which we sold about 5 years ago. Of all the furniture, trinkets, books, and decorations in the photo, I think the only thing I still have in my possession is the little Garfield plush toy in the corner. Notice the absence of a computer (we did have one computer in the house - a Macintosh SE with 4Mb of memory and a 20Mb hard disk!) and the tendency towards bright colours. I was told off at a party last night for wearing bright colours, so I guess nothing much has changed in ten years.

Financial Times 2002 Business School Rankings

Wharton comes out on top. MBS sneaks in at #84. AGSM at #67. Harvard alumni make an average income of US$174,000 per year three years after graduation. Insead and London are the only two non-US schools in the top ten. My original short-list of six US b-schools all fall within the top 15.

New one-day Cricket captain: Ricky Ponting

[smh 17.02.2002]

Following Steve Waugh's shock sacking from the Australian one-day cricket team earlier in the week, the selectors have chosen Ricky Ponting to take on the captain's role. Waugh will remain the captain of the test team for the time being, but one would assume that that baton would also eventually be passed on to Ponting, if he delivers in the one-day role. At only 27, it's quite feasible that Ponting could be our cricket captain for many years to come. For once, I think the selectors may have made the right decision. Time will tell.

These times, they are a changing...not

The promotional material on the MBS website includes a typical day-in-the-life of a full-time MBA student. The sample is from Joey Chang from the class of 2001, but the subjects that he talks about are first year material, which means that it's actually from early 2000. Two of the cases that are referred to are still used today ... in my first three weeks at MBS I've also seen the 'film about the probabilities of a big meteorite hitting and destroying earth', and we've been through the case of MacGregor - the manager who's never busy and delegates absolutely everything.

Learning Japanese

I resumed by Japanese classes at the CAE today. I'm enrolled in Japanese Module 1A: Part 2, twenty-four more hours of F2F lessons with my tutor Kaori Sato. Some of my MBA buddies think I'm insame for taking on an 'extra-curricular' activity, but I'm pretty certain I can cope with it. Besides, what's wrong with being a well-rounded individual.

I've recently come across of couple of web sites that might help in mastering the Japanese language. Try this link for Japanese (sex) slang, and this one for an innovative way to master the hiragana and katakana. (Warning: both links are a little crude in their own individual way).

Prior to my retrenchment in September last year, one of my grand plans for 2002 was to spend several weeks travelling in Japan. With my busy MBA schedule it doesn't look like I'll be able to make it there at all now. I'm going to persevere with the language though, because I definitely plan to get back to Japan one day, and who knows - maybe I'll need to use the language in business dealings post-MBA.

"Jam Factory, ...touched for the very first time..."

Opening in March at the Jam Factory: a Virgin Megastore!! Woo hoo! There were a few Virgin Megastores in Australia in the late 80's / early 90's, but they all packed up and went home. The Jam Factory was the host of the first Borders in Australia, and now it's set to host the re-emergence of the Virgin Megastore concept. Bring it on!!

Pong, the movie

Woo hoo!! Enterprise starts on Channel 9 next week!

Starting next Wednesday (February 20th), Channel 9 will be showing the latest Star Trek series, Enterprise in the 10:30pm - 11:30pm time slot. I've seen a few episodes of the new series as Internet downloads, and it's proving to be a very interesting and new approach to the whole Star Trek phenomenon. Set in the 22nd century, the show is about the very early days of human warp travel, 50 years or so before the United Federation of Planets even existed. The crew wear baseball caps, and have a very gung-ho attitude to most things. As usual, there's a couple of non-human crew on the ship, including the very luscious T'Pol, a female Vulcan played by model turned actress Jolene Blalock. It's definitely worth checking out, and I'm most impressed that an Australian free-to-air TV channel have taken up the show this early. In the past we've always been a couple of years behind the eight ball - this time it's only four months.

Check out this review from The Age today: To boldy go back. For episode reviews, you can check out Stuart Loh's weblog Hear Ye!, and the official Star Trek website.

Welcome to the University of Melbourne assessment scheme

I received my first assessment back from b-school today - a syndicate analysis of an organisational behaviour case. Our score - 3.1 out of 4 (77.5%) which is classified as an H2A. The grading scheme at Melbourne Uni is very different to that which I'm familiar with from my undergraduate days at UNSW. The grade we'd all like to achieve is an 'H1' which is allocated for marks of 80% and above. From there, we descend into the depths of H2's, H3's, the pass and the fail...

H1:	80% +	H3:	65% - 69%
H2A:	75% - 79%	Pass:	50% - 64%
H2B:	70% - 75%	Fail:	less than 50%

In order to standardise the grades that different professors offer to students, MBS has added to the Melbourne Uni assessment scheme by making a conscious effort to achieve a mean of around 73.5% for each class. In classes where the average is above (or below) this mark, grades are adjusted to suit - i.e. "we're on a curve!" This has been an interesting topic for conversation amongst students so far. Some of us are very much against it, indicating that it puts us at a disadvantage when compared to other schools. Others are somewhat indifferent. Time will tell.

Is the Internet a little slow today?

I thought things were a little slow on the Internet front this weekend. One of the major cables between Australia and Western Europe - the SEA-ME-WE3 cable - has been damaged by sandmining at a point about 50km south of Singapore. (Source: the australian 11.02.2002)

St Kilda Festival

Well the weather could be a little better (showers, windy, 19 degrees), but don't let that stop you checking out the St Kilda Festival today. Once a year, all of Melbourne descends on the beach and promenade in St Kilda for "a fun filled day of live music, extreme sports, street events, fashion, kids' activities, fun rides, art, food and wine and other carnival entertainment." This year I'm taking my younger brother and my sister along. Should be a great afternoon/evening.

Telstra abandons email users

[the australian 07.02.2002]

Apparently Telstra are shutting down their loss-making "easymail" service on March 13th ("email for the price of a local phone call" was the big catch cry when it launched a few years back), and will NOT be offering any kind of email forwarding option whatsoever. easymail's 250,000 users have only 3 weeks to notify their email buddies and to find a new email provider.

A word about Syndicates

Study at Melbourne Business School revolves around small group of people known as a "syndicate." Business is all about working in teams to achieve common goals. The theory at MBS is that if business is about teams, then business school should be as well. As such, for every subject that we do, we are assigned to a small team of around six people called a syndicate. We have no choice about who gets to be in our syndicate, but together we must work on assignments and other deliverables and share the marks equally. In the first term of the program, most of the first year students are doing the same five core subjects (Organisations, Managerial Economics, Financial Accounting, Quantitative Analysis, and Marketing). Since our subjects are in common, our syndicates are also set up that way.

As such, I'm now part of a team of five people, meeting several times a week, and hopefully heading in the same direction. There are two Aussies, one from Indonesia, one from Malaysia, and one from China. Four guys, one girl. A fair mixture of "poets" and "engineers" (MBS broadly fits people into these two categories --- if you prefer, treat these as "right-brained" and "left-brained"). We've completed our first assignment, and we're roaring ahead on the study front as well - regularly meeting to discuss our progress with each subject.

So far, the system is working well. It will be interesting to see how it develops as the workload picks up, and the individual assignments and exams come along. A second year student gave me some sound advice regarding syndicate relationships - "as soon as you know who's in your sydnicate, go out and get drunk together. It'll make the conflict in your formal meetings much easier to handle." Alas, I haven't heeded her advice yet, but at the first sign of trouble, I'll be sure to take them all down to the pub.

More union trouble - this time it's Connex

[the age 07.02.2002]

For those unfamiliar with the management structure of Melbourne's "public" transport system, Connex is a French-owned company that runs a fair proportion of the public train infrastructure within the city. Melbourne has a common ticketing system (OneLink) across all public transport, for which the revenues are subsequently split across the various privatised operators for the train, tram, and bus services, based on a fairly compex formula involving where the ticket was bought, where it was used, and how many times it was used. According to Connex, this revenue distribution system works against their favour, and as a result they are now in a position where they need to cut costs up to the equivalent of 70 staff.

Negotitations with the Union involved have so far been unsuccessful, and a round of work stoppages will begin effective today bringing train services to a halt during off-peak periods. Various cost-saving alternatives have been discussed including deferring wage increases, reducing wages, and downgrading positions, all without success. So now it's time to cut down on customer service, reduce revenues, and generate a bad image for the company - yes folks - it's strike time!

Give us a decent usage meter!

For Anthony, the Telstra Bigpond ADSL Usage Meter is working in his favour this month, supposedly missing all his traffic for the first two days of the month. For me, it seems to be a little confused about how much traffic I am actually allowed to generate in the first place. My account allows for 3Gb (which is equal to 3000Mb according to Telstra) of traffic per month, yet the Unrated Usage page of the application believes my monthly allowance is 1000Mb and the Billable Usage page believes my monthly allowance is 300Mb. Comes on guys - get with the program and give us a decent application - I can't believe how this app ever got passed QA.

So, which one are you?

Time for a quote from the many hours of readings for this week: "People vary in their attitudes toward their society. Some defend it (preservers), some run it (makers), some take what they can from it (takers), some want to change it (changers), some are looking for something deeper (seekers), and some want to leave it (escapers)." - Philip Kotler, Marketing Management.

Qantas brawl looming

[the age 04.02.2002]

More developing news on the Qantas maintenance workers wage dispute, and industrial action against overtime. Read at your leisure.

Vibes in Melbourne

My friend Stephenie has been visiting from Sydney this weekend. We've been doing the cafe and bar scene in St Kilda, and the shopping and clubbing thing on Chapel St. On Sunday we joined Melbourne's party crowd (around 15,000 people) for Vibes on a Summers Day at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Seeing acts like Groove Armada and Jamiroquai live was absolutely spectacular - Jay Kay really gets the crowd involved, jumping around the stage to the music, and generally being that extra bit quirky (I'm certain he'd had more than the daily maximum dosage of 5 Red Bulls).

Top marks to some of the DJs who also featured on the day. We especially enjoyed dancing to a set from Ekki Eletrico ("funky breaks with a latin flavour"), and Norman Jay's sets between the main acts were also diverse and downright groovy. After 8 hours at Vibes, and another 4 at Frost Bites last night, I'm ready for bed.

homesick.com.au

Are you an Aussie living overseas? Then this is the site for you. At homesick.com.au, you can order a jar of vegemite or a packet of Tim Tams, find out the latest Australian news, check which Aussie musical acts are touring the world, and even arrange to meet up with other Australians at organised events around the globe.

Rail, hail, or shine

At 5:30pm yesterday, I was taking the tram home from uni in sweltering 35 degree heat. Less than two hours later, as I was driving out to Tullamarine to pick up a friend at the airport, a storm of a magnitude I haven't experienced in quite some time swept across the city dropping hail stones up to four centimetres in diameter. Stuck on the highway, with nowhere to hide, I had no option but to drive on and hope for the best. Gusting winds, flooded roads, and many a near miss, I eventually made it to the airport intact. But it was definitely an adventure. My car is okay, but I imagine several others did not fare so well.

Full story available from The Age.

02.02.2002 20:02

Be scared. Be very scared.