'Holiday Season' Movies Review

The Holiday Season and the cold weather here in New York has brought with it the opportunity to catch up on the latest blockbuster movie releases. Here's my summary of the movies I've seen this past month:

Die Another Day

Seeking a mid-exam period break, I snuck out of the library one evening in early December to catch Bond film #20. African-American of the moment, Halle Berry, dons a saucy orange bikini, seduces Pierce Brosnon with some of the worst one-liners I've heard in years, and together they take down the bad guy - in this case, a North Korean warlord who has been through DNA replacement surgery to look like a pompous white Brit. Ice hotels, chase scenes on hovercraft, a space-based laser cannon, and a transparent Bond car - what would life be like without James Bond?

Rating: 7 out of 10

Star Trek: Nemesis

The latest installment in the Star Trek saga, Nemesis, proved to be a bit of a disappointment. The Next Generation crew get together for one last intergallatic fling. Riker and Troi finally tie the knot. Beverley Crusher and Geordi play token roles. Wesley Crusher's anticipated guest appearance doesn't materialize. And Data and Picard play a few games with a young Picard clone who is not entirely convincing as the villain. Bring back the Borg or Species 8472!!

Rating: 5 out of 10

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Probably even better the The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers is truly spectacular. The CGI work done to create Gollum is most impressive, especially with the different facial expressions associated with his split personality. The battles between Sauraman's 10,000-strong army and the humans is amazing, and the conference of tree-like Ents prior to their attack on Sauron's tower serves as an amusing break from the action-packed main storyline. Peter Jackson and his crew have created another masterpiece. Make sure you see this one on the big screen. Twice.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Gangs of New York

Set in the mid-1800s in downtown Manhattan, Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York is definitely one I'll be adding to my DVD collection next year. This movie sees the return of Daniel Day-Lewis (In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot), one of the most versatile actors of our generation. He plays the role of Bill Cutting, the notorious leader of the "natives" gang, the 19th century equivalent of the Mob. Boy wonder Leonardo DiCaprio and the lucious Cameron Diaz round out the cast in this action packed and rather bloody blockbuster. Definitely worth seeing again on the big screen (especially since I arrived late, and had to sit in the neck-craning front row).

Rating: 9 out of 10

Catch Me If You Can

Boy wonder Leonardo DiCaprio also stars as teen con man, Frank Abagnale Jr, in the Spielberg-directed Catch Me If You Can, which was released here in New York on Christmas Day. Set in 1960s America, this movie is based on the true story of a young con man who commited millions of dollars in bank fraud, impersonated a pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer for several years, before eventually being caught by the FBI. It is part comedy, part drama, part caper, with an amusing Pink Panther-like score from John Williams. Tom Hanks is understated as lead FBI agent Carl Hanratty, and Christopher Walken is brilliant in the supporting role of Frank Abagnale Snr, the father who's life gradually falls apart over the course of the movie.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Also on the "to see" list before I round out my time here in the United States:

- 25th Hour starring Edward Norton and directed by Spike Lee

- Adaptation starring Nicholas Cage, directed by Spike Jonze, with a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman (Being John Malkovich)

- Road to Perdition starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman and Jude Law, and directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty)

White Christmas

Forget about dreaming of a white Christmas - it's happened for real in New York today. After a relatively warm week with temperatures in the 30s and 40s (about zero to 10 degrees C), the temperature dropped below freezing about lunchtime on Christmas Day, and the rain turned to snow. The city's now covered in about 3 inches of snow, cars are sliding all over the roads, and the icy wind stings the face when we walk on the streets. It's been fascinating just to stare out the window, watching the street scene change as the snow piles up. Hopefully the storm will cease over night; clears skies tomorrow will make for some awesome photos.

All done

Big sense of relief....

My mother has actually been in town since last Friday, and I've been sending her out on her own while I finish off my term papers and exams. Now I'll be able to join her, visit a few museums, catch the latest Star Trek and LOTR movies, drink a bit, party a bit more, and enjoy the festive season in New York. Woo hoo!!

Highlights of Montreal

I was reminded recently that I haven't been posting nearly as many photos as I'd originally promised. Rest assured, I've been taking a few, and I'll get around to posting lots of them over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, here's a taste of my recent visit to Montreal.

Australian Graduate

Yet another totally shocking site devoted to post-graduate education in Austraila: australiangraduate.com

Supposedly set up to attract international students to our shores, this site is so unprofessional, I feel embarrassed to even link to it. I've sent them a constructive email with a series of suggestions, but I doubt I'll hear back from them.

Whoa!

The casebook fee for my Introduction to Venturing course at Columbia this term was US$203.

5 subjects down, 1 to go

Nearly there.

3 subjects down, 3 to go

It's been a looooong semester.

White-collar sweatshops batter young workers

[USA Today 25.11.2002]

"Nancy Collins remembers when she hit rock bottom. She was in Australia for her investment-banking job at JP Morgan, trying to seal deals on two projects at once."

She thought she could handle the stress. After all, co-workers had dubbed her previous boss the "Prince of Darkness" for making people work until 3 a.m., and she knew she was good at what she did. But then, one night after weeks of 18-hour days and constant travel, she staggered home at 7 a.m. Not to sleep. To shower. As she stood in the water, she started crying. At age 25, she was having a midlife crisis. "I started thinking, there's got to be more to life than this," she says."

As I venture back into the working world next year, I'm sure one of the questions I'll be asking myself is "Is it worth all the effort?"

1 subject down (Brands), 5 to go

Woo hoo!! Guess who's going to see Moby in Melbourne next March?

Concert description at inthemix.

Proposed subjects for final term at MBS:

I've submitted my preferences for subjects for Term 4 back home at MBS. Similar to this term at Columbia, I'm going to do a mix of subjects. I'll post descriptions later, but here are my top five preferences:

1. Marketing Strategy - the capstone subject in the marketing program at MBS; includes the simulation game MARKSTRAT
   
2. Risk Management - taught by a visiting professor (John Bilson) - this subject will be very handy if I end up in banking post-MBA
   
3. Managing New Ventures - an opportunity to put my Introduction to Venturing knowledge into practice; this subject is essentially a consulting project for an existing start-up
   
4. Corporate Strategy - the name says it all; handy subject for CEOs and management consultants
   
5. Negotiations - a mostly practical subject; should come in handy when negotiating that post-MBA salary package ;-)
   

If I don't get into all of these subjects, there are at least three other subjects available at MBS next term that I'd be very keen on doing. Should be an exciting semester!

The Current State of Recruitment at New York Investment Banks

I was having a chat with an M&A banker from one of the most prestiguous investment banks last week. Apparently the recruitment scene is so bad right now that people who used to be Analysts and have spent two years at business school are applying to be Analysts again, because the few Associate positions that are opening up this year have pretty much been allocated to people who did really well on their summer internships.

The whole recruitment scene here at Columbia is pretty surreal. I am surrounded by some truly brilliant people, and very few of them have managed to secure employment yet.

It's going to be just as challenging when I return to Melbourne in January to start the whole recruitment process myself. Aaargh - I shouldn't be thinking about this now. Must get my Columbia term papers and exams out of the way first.

Fast Thinker, but...

"Unfortunately, we have been unable to invite you to participate in the final stage of our recruitment process based on our current hiring needs."

Impulse Travel

After an intensive month of study, it's time for a break. It's Thanksgiving in America this weekend, which for Columbia Business School students, means a five-day weekend! I'm heading down to 77th St this evening for dinner with a friend and to see the balloons being blown up for tomorrow's parade. Tomorrow I'll head down to 40th St to see the parade, then it's off to Montreal for a couple of days! Full update when I return.

Retrenchment Holiday

Enjoy it while it lasts, my friend.

Distraction

(Personal high score: 284,085)

Adrian Hind - Certified Fast Thinker

Message from Barclays Capital: "Thank you for taking part in our recent recruitment test. We are pleased to advise you that you have reached the necessary benchmarks to be further considered in our recruitment process."

Next step: submit my resume and write a mini-essay outlining why I want to work at Barclays Capital. Then they'll consider whether I'm worthy enough to be invited to their "Assessment Day" on Dec 7th in New York.

All in the name of Market Research

For an upcoming presentation in my Building and Managing Brands subject, I'm working on a brand revival plan for A&W Restaurants. For the uninitiated, A&W are the oldest restaurant chain in America, and they are famous for their Root Beer Float. They're very much a brand for the suburbs - all All-American diner that popularised the concept of car-hop service in the 1950s and 60s. Today, it is the type of place that "your father would probably visit."

As a brand for the suburbs, A&W is nowhere to be seen in Manhattan. In fact, the only A&W Restaurant in the New York City metropolitan area is located at a highway intersection way out on Staten Island.

So, in the name of market research (and a chance to escape the Columbia Business School library), a colleague and I ventured out on a day trip to soak up the A&W experience. After 45 minutes on the subway from Columbia University to South Ferry station, 30 minutes waiting for the Staten Island Ferry, 30 minutes on the Staten Island Ferry (including a "drive by" of the Statue of Liberty"), 25 minutes on the Staten Island Railway to Jefferson Avenue, and finally a five minute walk to Hylan Blvd, we had made it to suburbia, ready for our feast. The exterior of the restaurant was ugly to say the least, and the cars in the parking lot seemed as old as the brand itself. But once we were inside, the whole experience changed. The root beer float was delish, the burger was fresh, and the waitress was very friendly. But how will this brand survive in an era of consolidation? And will they ever be able to attract the interest of Manhattanites?

Stay tuned for our brand revival plan, due to be presented in class on Nov 26th ;-)

12 more Typical MBA days

How to explain my absence for the past 2 weeks: Take the previous blog entry, adjust the end of day to 1:00am, and repeat 12 times.

Typical MBA day

Big day at Columbia today - worked on five of my six subjects over a period of 15 hours! I'm tired ;-(

• 6:30am - 7:30am - wake up call from Stephenie. Caught up on the latest news from Australia, and worked on our plans for travels at the end of the year.
  
• 7:30am - 8:15am - shower, shave, and walk to b-school
  
• 8:15am - 9:45am - Options Markets class (incl. breakfast and catching up on emails)
  
• 10:00am - 11:30am - Introducting to Venturing class
  
• 11:30am - 12:00noon - lunch at Uris deli
  
• 12:00noon - 1:30pm - finish off a case analysis on H-E-B's private label brands for Building and Managing Brands class
  
• 1:30pm - 3:00pm - meeting with my Building and Managing Brands team - planning our approach for a brand revival presentation for A&W Restaurants.
  
• 3:15pm - 6:00pm - Building and Managing Brands class
  
• 6:00pm - 8:00pm - Dinner break - found a great restaurant called Deluxe that serves a decent steak for only $11.95. Not really a break though, since I read an article for my Marketing Plans Workshop class over dinner
  
• 8:00pm - 11:15pm - meeting with my Advanced Corporate Finance team - we're working on designing a suitable capital structure for a management buyout of Cap & Seal, including various forms of debt with covenants.
  
• 11:15pm - 11:30pm - update the blog, then go home to bed. It all starts again at 8:30am tomorrow.
  

Actually, it's not quite a typical day, but as we get towards the end of the term, it definitely starts to resemble the norm.

Victoria Votes

It's been annouced. Victoria is going to the polls on November 30th. It's predicted to be a close one, although it's unlikely that my seat of Prahran (get that spell-checker out, ABC) will go down to the wire. I doubt my postal vote will need to be opened.

New York selected as U.S. Candidate City for 2012 Summer Olympics

nyc2012.com

"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) — New York City turned on its star power, flexed its financial muscle and touted its status as the "world's second home" to beat out San Francisco and become the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The New York organizers broke into cheers, tears and shouts as the close vote Saturday was announced and Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" filled the room."

[source: Associated Press newswire via FoxSports]

I think it would be absolutely fantastic if New York were to host the Olympics - baseball at Yankee Stadium, gymnastics at Madison Square Garden, and the triathlon in Central Park. Who wants to open the betting for what the cost of a ticket to the Opening Ceremony will cost?

Blue Brothers 2002 (a.k.a. the post about the NYC Marathon and a big car pileup in California)

I played the supporter role today, heading down to 1st Ave and 96th to watch the annual New York City Marathon - 30,000 runners selected by lottery from the far reaches of the globe, including my fellow MBS-Columbia exchanger Mark Mudie. In the near-freezing, yet surprising sunny, weather, I joined a small group of Columbia Business School students to support our 20 or so colleagues in the race. Mark has been training for a four hour finish, and I was really hoping to see him as he ran past, but 30,000 people makes for a big crowd, and I didn't find him amongst the sea of people running past our 18-mile mark position.

Heaps of the runners had written their names and country of origin on their shirts. Awesome idea. Adrian yells out "Go Aussie!" or "Go Paul!". Runner looks over, smiles, and raises a clenched victory fist, at this random stranger in the crowd.

There weren't nearly as many people dressed up for the run as you'd expect back in Sydney at the City to Surf, although I was amused to see a couple of guys dressed up as the Blues Brothers in black suits and hats. "Go Jake!" "Go Elwood!"

Here's an impressive "feature" of the race that will impress the IT geeks: each runner wore the obligatory number on their chests, but they also had a small electronic tag on their shoes. At each they passed each mile marker, their progress was recorded, and immediately updated on the official website. Perhaps if I'd had a mobile Internet device with me in the crowd, I would have known with more accuracy when Mark would have been running passed. As it turns out, he actually kept to his planned pace very well, finishing the race with a time of 4:00:53. Well done mate.

And the bit about the car pileup? Check out what happened on the freeway near Long Beach, California this morning. One would think they were filming a scene for the next Blues Brothers movie.

Make your own Bush speech

Ladies and gentlemen ... America stands committed to ... broken treaties ... violent ambitions ... and ... further destruction ... on a massive scale .. <laugh>

Barclays Capital recruitment exam - how fast can you think?

Last night I sat the on-campus test for the graduate recruitment program at Barclays Capital. Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays Bank, tests over 10,000 students world-wide each year BEFORE asking them to sumbit their resumes. Their theory is that they are a global employer (they took two Melbourne MBA students for positions in London last year), and that since not all business schools require the GMAT for their applications, they should give all applicants a fair and equal chance by having their own test.

I did a 96-question psychological profile ("are you a team member or an individual?" "are you interested in making a lot of money or having a lot of responsibility?" etc) followed by a verbal and a quant test. The questions weren't that difficult (any reasonably smart junior high school student could probably do them), but the amount of time allowed for the test was miniscule - four sections, each with around 15 - 20 multiple choice questions, but only 10 minutes allowed per section! None of the answers are immediately obvious - the questions require logical thinking and several calculations.

My advice to anyone who is planning to sit the test this season - make sure you're alert, bring a stopwatch, and make sure you are completely familar with the functions of your calculator. I didn't finish any of the sections (although I did randomly select an answer for the questions that I didn't have time to do), but I was fairly comfortable that I'd done reasonably well.

I should know within a couple of weeks whether I've made it to the next round.

Does the MBA force you to become a morning person?

Coming from a background in the IT industry, I would probably not be shocking people if I told you that I'm by no means a morning person. When I was working in IT back in Australia (especially when I was living the life of a computer programmer) I would struggle to make it to the office by 9:30. The first hour or so would be spent catching up on emails, surfing the web, consuming my first coffee, etc, and I typically wouldn't start any serious work until around 10:30. (Of course, I typically had dinner at the office, and would stay through to around 9:00pm)

I did well in Melbourne during my first two terms to avoid having any MBA classes starting before 8:00am. An 8:00am start at MBS would meaning leaving St Kilda by 7:15 at the latest. Which means getting up around 6:00am (ouch!). Here at Columbia I have one class that starts at 8:15am on Tuesday and Thursdays. The six-minute commute is definitely handy, but I still need to get my gf to give me a wake up call to ensure that I get up on time.

This is something I need to change. As an MBA graduate I'm going to have to be awake and alert in the mornings. Perhaps I should enrol in a bunch of 8:00am classes during my final term at Melbourne, and force myself to change ;-)

Changing of the guard at Hawthorn

News from back home: Daniel Chick has been traded to West Coast, and Hawthorn picks up ruckman Peter "Spider" Everitt from the Saints (source: The Age)

"Picking a VC is like picking a surgeon"

We had a guest lecturer today in my Introduction to Venturing* - Bob Higgins, founder and managing partner of VC firm Highland Capital Partners, Harvard Business School professor, and supporting "actor" in the documentary movie startup.com.

While it would be inappropriate to share with you the full contents of his presentation, there were a few key observations / comments that I found interesting:

• When evalutating an opportunity, VCs primarily look at the experience of the proposed management team. The market, product, and economics of the deal are obviously also considered, but the management team is essential.
  
• For around 80% of deals, VCs actually seek out entrepreneurs (by attending conferences and networking) rather than waiting for business plans to land on their doorstep.
  
• Virtually no new VC money is being raised at the moment, but there's about US$50 billion in existing funds waiting to be invested in ventures.
  
• For most deals, VC's like to take around 25% - 50% of the equity in a company, but it's important to ensure that the management team still end up with a decent share of the company (around 20%).
  
• A 'good' entrepreneur should be selective about which VC firms to approach. A VC will be making more than just a financial investment in your firm; they'll be on the board, will probably be involved in recruiting members of the management team, and may even be in a position to fire you if you don't perform (although this is rare).
  

* (full review of the course coming this weekend, I promise ;-)

Investment Banking exam

I have my first Columbia exam next Monday. It's a mid-term (20%) for my Investment Banking course.

I've been a little dissatisifed with this course so far. The classes are very difficult to prepare for as the professor does not provide very detailed notes and I don't have the experience/know how to provide enough intuition for the cases, however when I attend the classes the guest speakers are fantastic - lots of real-world experiences and heaps of insight. So far I've had the honour to hear from the CEO of collapsed west coast investment bank Robertson Stephens, the equity captial markets bankers who helped JetBlue go public in 2002, and the debt capital markets bankers who recently did a US$1 billion debt issue with an interest rate swap for FirstData Corporation.

For our mid-term exam, the professor has asked us to memorise a collection of industry terms that we would be expected to know if we worked in the industry. Most of them are fairly standard finance terms like maturity, volatility, warrant, and arbitrage, but we're also expected to know what NASDAQ stands for (about as useful as knowing what PCMCIA stands for), and how the fees for an IPO are distributed amongst the investment banks involved (very important).

I'll admit - I've learnt a great deal in this course, but I've been taking a passive approach to learning in a course where the professor's expecting me to be active. It's a good thing that only my pass/fail status will be reported back to Melbourne for this one as I don't expect I'll do very well. (This has been my approach for most of the subjects I've undertaken here at Columbia - I'm doing courses that will challenge me rather than those that I can cruise through and get a high grade).

Anthony is writing a book!

Check out the book cover - methinks he might have trouble getting this particular project finished. ;-)

An enjoyable break in San Francisco

I've just returned from a sensational four-day break in San Francisco! Columbia has a fantastic concept called 'mid-term break' - a full week off from classes while people who were enrolled in half-term subjects do their exams. So, I took the New Jersey transit (train) out to Newark International Airport, and caught a Boeing 737 Super 80 to Chicago and on to San Fran. A big thank you to my good friend Tristen who hosted me for the four days and took me on several outings on the weekend.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

• Dinner amongst entrepreneurs - on the first night I joined a large group for a dinner in San Francisco's financial district - the main topic of conversation: Germany's lack on entrepreneurialism. This was in spite of one of the guests who had bucked the trend and co-founded a dot com in Germany that had reached Euro 10b market-cap during the boom.
  
• Shopping Downtown - picked up some new 501s at Macys and a very cool woollen trenchcoat from Banana Republic - all set for those chilly New York winter days now
  
• A visit to SF MoMA - besides the regular Picasso's, Mondrian's etc, there was an interesting exhibition of the varied works of German artist Gerhard Richter, and some 1850s photography by Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame)
  
• Networking the Bay Area - I met up with a couple of people working in the Bay Area VC industry for some informational interviews - lots of juicy advice and some potential further contacts! One of them even partially restored my faith in career fulfilment in a big firm.
  
• Jack Johnson concert - "Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die / At least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes" - I went out to UC Berkeley to see Jack Johnson at a very classic open-air greek style ampitheatre.
  
• College Football - saw my first college football game out at Stanford University. Stanford beat Arizona 16-6. This was also my first exposure to the American concept of tailgating, an activity I sincerely hope never takes off in Australia.
  
• World Series - Go Giants! - the Yankees may have failed dismally in the post-season, but the San Francisco Giants made it all the way to the World Series. Games 1 and 2 were held in Anaheim while I was in San Fran, and I had the unique opportunity to watch game one in a San Francisco brewery bar with a bunch of very excited locals. (SF won game one 4-3, the series is currently tied at 1-1). Tickets for games three and four in SF have been selling in secondary markets for up to US$1000.
  
• A hike amongst the redwoods - on Sunday we headed across the Golden Gate bridge (US$5 toll - ouch!) and went for a breathtaking six-mile hike amongst the Californian redwoods at the Muir Woods National Monument. Absolutely beautiful.
  

Back in New York now - taking it easy for a day before classes resume with Advanced Corporate Finance on Wednesday.

US press ignores Australia's pain

[the age 15.10.2002]

"The British press has dubbed the Bali bombings Australia's own September 11.

But in the US, Australia is hardly rating a mention."

So true.

My observation is that the US press only seem to care about world events in the context of how the event affects them. So, the Bali Bombing is just another international bombing that continues to add to the threat of international terrorism and the security of US citizens.

my last five imoods: sad, subdued, sick, tired, annoyed

It's been a tough week ;-( Hopefully I'll be able to cheer up in time for my holiday in San Francisco, which starts on Wednesday.

Business Week B-School rankings

Business Week released their biennial b-school rankings this week. Columbia has held firm at Number 7. Wharton has finally been toppled from Number 1 by Kellogg. Columbia is the second highest-placed b-school available for exchange from Melbourne Business School, only to be surpased by Chicago which came in at Number 2 overall (a significant improvement on their Number 10 ranking from 2000). As usual Harvard had the highest tuition (US$36,770/yr) but only came in second on median pay post-mba (US$134.6K).

Bali Bombing

The Australian ABC seem to have the best online coverage of the Bali Bombing. Our Federal Opposition leader, Simon Crean, has described this as "Australia's blackest day since World War II."

BTW - all my family are present and accounted for.

Tomorrow's news

Hey! That SMH link is from tomorrow's paper. Gotta love the huge time difference between New York and the Australian east coast.

I've always wanted a harbourside apartment in Sydney...

Maybe I'll be able to afford to live at La Corniche one day...

Where every step you'll take is worth $28,500

[smh 13.10.2002]

"When $8.45 million was splashed out for this 294sqm McMahons Point apartment - a staggering $28,547 a square metre - the mystery buyer couldn't stop at one and paid $6.25 million for a second unit in the block.

The record price for what many regard as the country's best apartment, in the boutique development La Corniche on Sydney's lower north shore, smashed the Australian record by $5,500 a square metre."

The rumor seems to be that the mystery buyer is none other than Qantas Ambassador at Large and movie legend John Travolta,

Vegemite for Morons

I'm not a vegemite fan myself, but for those of you who were always interested in what we Aussies do with the stuff, Grudnuk has a complete demonstration.

Are you British?

Upon hearing my accent here in New York, more people have asked me if I'm British than if I'm Australian. Could it be true? If you combine an fair-dinkum Aussie with a post-graduate education, do they get the right to claim mother England as their home?

It would seem the answer is ... almost. For the UK's Highly Skilled Migrant Program (a points-based visa similar to permanent residency in Australia), the MBA is a contributing factor, but I also need to earn a minimum of 40,000 UK pounds in another country for at least a year before I could qualify (easy in the US, challenging in Australia...)

What's in a name?

Kind of related to the previous post, I've been wondering whether javaboy.blogspot.com is still a suitable URL for my blog. Javaboy was a nickname given to me at my pre-MBA company waaaay back in 1996 when I was dabbling with java applets for the company intranet. It hasn't been used recently, and it just confuses people in the online community.

I've set up a placeholder blog at melbournemba.blogspot.com which I may consider switching to if I decide to stick with the MBA theme for the blog in the long-term. Some of you have been suggesting for quite a few years now that I should have my own domain name (adrianhind.com is still available . . . whatever happened to all those cybersquatters? ;-) It all comes down to how I want to brand myself. Who is my target market segment? What is my positioning strategy? Aaarggh! I've been reading too many marketing textbooks.

Blog*Spot Plus?

I'm considering upgrading to Blog*Spot Plus. Anyone out there who has done so, would you care to share your experiences with me? Thx.

Can you believe it? I miss Qantas!

My big trip to New York and the rest of the world is on a OneWorld Four Continents 'round-the-world' fare issued by Qantas back in Melbourne. It's amazing value: For $2600 Aussies (+ taxes), I got my stopover in New Zealand, my flight to New York, a sidetrip to San Francisco (next week! woo hoo!), and stopovers in London, Singapore, and Bali on the way home. I get to use any of the airlines in the OneWorld alliance, and I can change my ticket after it's been issued for only US$75.

When I originally bought the ticket, I was a little annoyed about the US$75 ticket re-issue fee, but I thought "fair enough, they like to make a little profit out of you if you change your mind later on". Well, after going through the process of changing my itinerary, I've decided to re-label that US$75 as an incompetence tax. I believe most of the incompetence tax should be attributable to American Airlines, although the evidence would suggest that a small portion may indeed need to be allocated to our beloved national airline, Qantas.

The facts:

• The American Airlines web site lists two ticket offices in Manhattan. One of them is a construction site (which I discovered yesterday) and the other is a ticket office for all the major airlines located on Park Ave (next to Grand Central Station) - hint to other travellers: this is the place to go for anything travel related.
  
• It appears that Qantas did not originally charge me for my U.S. departure tax or my Canadian departure tax. American Airlines discovered this today, so on top of the US$75 'incompetence tax', I had to pay US$55 in other airline/airport taxes.
  
• Presumably because they involve a variety of airlines, RTW tickets are still 20th century paper-based tickets. On a paper-based ticket there is a space labelled 'Fare Calculation' which shows all the routings, airlines, and taxes that are included in the price. Apparently, my ticket was so complicated, that they had trouble fitting the details of the fare calculation into the field. How much trouble? Well, for something that should have been as simple as hand over some money and press print, the whole process took 2 3/4 hours!!
  

Now this would have been fine if I was dealing with a pleasant Australian travel consultant, but here in the USA, airline employees seem to have been to anti customer service school or something. They're a whinging bunch, generally from the 'older generation', who never smile, and never show any care for the customer (even if it's an act). It was a painful experience.

But I have my ticket now - ten coupons in total, for flights taking me through to the end of January. Five more flights on American Airlines, and then I'm in the hands of British Airways, for a couple of sectors, before getting on a Qantas 737 in Singapore.

Damn it! I'm a Qantas Gold Frequent Flyer. I expect equivalent service from your so-called 'alliance' partners!!

Geek Review - Iomega ZIP 250 USB Powered drive

While living my nomadic MBA existence here in New York, I am running on a limited feature set of technology. No ADSL connection. No 2nd PC. No CD Burner. And no subwoofer ;-( In fact, all I have is my trusty IBM Thinkpad with DVD drive and my old Palm III (which I'm not actually using).

Realising that I would need a backup solution while 'on-the-road' I brought a few blank ZIP disks with me from Melbourne, and planned to buy a new external ZIP drive when I arrived in New York. (I still have one of the original 100Mb parallel port ZIP drives from around 1996 - it's really really slow, and the transformer is almost as big as the drive itself) So, during the first week or so I ventured into Staples (U.S. equivalent of Officeworks) looking for a ZIP drive that I could plug into my USB port.

The sales assistant convinced me to try the new 750Mb external ZIP drive which available for a promotional price of US$179 (included 3 blank 750Mb disks). (Technology is so cheap these days. I remember when it used to cost.....)

Alas, this device came with an American power adapter (not good for a nomadic Aussie) and could not write to 100Mb Zip disks (important for me as I have about 20 of them back home).

Back at Staples again the following week, I decided to read the fine print on the box, rather than trust the word of the sales assistent, and I picked up the Iomega ZIP 250 USB Powered drive for $129 (no free disks this time).

I have to tell you - if this product were an employee at a consulting firm, it would receive a rating of 'exceeded expectations'. No installation required. Plugged it into the USB port and XP recognised it straight away. No need to reboot my PC for it to work. Complete plug and play. It's sleek, yet funky at the same time. Powered via the USB port. It even works when the laptop itself is running on battery. And it came with some very handy backup/syncing software that runs quietly in the background.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Oh the pain, the trauma, the challenge...

   Britney Spears Aims for a Second Act, as an Adult

[New York Times, 06 Oct 2002]

According to the editor-in-chief of Elle Girl magazine, American teenagers "are very anti-midriff right now". What will Britney do?

Certified MBA

What a scam! After spending US$60,000 on your MBA tuition, why not throw in another $450 and sit the Certified MBA test?

It's bad enough the GMAC have a monopoly on the standard MBA entrance exam, the GMAT, for which they charge around US$200. If the International Certification Institute succeed in convincing major MBA employers to require candidates to have this certification, I'll be really pissed.

FFS

I signed up for one of the many 'events in New York' email lists when I arrived here a few weeks ago. Yesterday, someone sent out a message to the list containing a virus. It happens occassionally, SpamCop picked it up an quarantined it on my machine, so that doesn't bother me too much. What really annoys me though is that the reply-to address for the email list is not an admin account, but is actually the list itself. Added to which, it let's anyone mail to the list.

So, after the virus was detected by various mail servers and clients around the world, several of them sent an autoreply to the reply-to address 'warning' the sender that there was a virus. Of course, all these warning messages were sent out to the entire list as well! Then, some of these list members start getting pissed off because not only have they received a virus, but they're also getting all of these warning messages. So what do they do? They reply to the original message asking to be removed from the list!! ... so now I'm receiving messages every couple of minutes or so from people requesting to be taken off the list.

Of course, no other options are provided for how to get off the list. There's no tagline on the messages, no link to a website to unsubscribe, nothing. Eventually, they (the list administrators) will figure it out, but as one of the list members said, they probably don't even know yet - they're probably lazing around reading the Sunday New York Times.

Week 5 Wrap-up

After an absolutely insane week of study last week culminating in four assignments due in two days, I've actually managed to take a step back from the rigours of the MBA and enjoy myself over the last couple of days. In the spirit of High Fidelity, one of the best movies of all time, here's this week's top five:

Top Five Memorable Moments of Week Five at Columbia:

1. Seeing a girl at the business school cafeteria with a 'number one' haircut and a headpiece made out of circuit boards - fantastic example of a way to deal with the excess capacity in the technology industry. (alas, I do not have a photo to share with you ;-(
   
2. Presenting a proposal (in jest) for Columbia Scholarships for Australian MBA students at a Presentation Skills Workshop on Friday. The theme of my presentation for closing the 'MBA Feasibility Gap.'
   
3. Enjoying all the free food and drink at the all-day inauguration celebration for Columbia University's new president on Thursday.
   
4. Despite number 3, realising the benefit of all the running I've been doing in New York, when I finally fitted into a pair of cool black jeans that I bought a couple of years ago (in anticipation that I'd fit into them ... one day).
   
5. Spending Friday night out in 'the Village' catching up with some friends, going to a comedy club, and enjoying a Sam Adams or three at the local watering holes.

Of course, it's back to the study today. I have to go to the library for a few hours and get up to speed on Black-Scholes and other aspects of the world of Options, Futures, and Warrants.

What is the deal with car hire rates in Manhattan?

It seems to cost about three times as much to hire a car in Manhattan as it does anywhere else in America. I know it's all about supply and demand, but this is ridiculous.

My solution: catch a train to Newark International Airport and hire a car from there.

One Hour Photo

It's been a while since I posted a movie review, and there's a few good reasons for that: (1) Columbia MBA students are very busy people; (2) most cinemas in New York do not offer a student concession; and (3) the typical price for seeing a movie in New York is roughly equivalent to $19 Australian (US$10). However, I recently discovered that Columbia Business School have a special deal with a local cinema chain which brings the price down to US$7, so on Saturday night I ventured out to Lincoln Square to see the movie One Hour Photo.

One Hour Photo is one of those movies that truly separates the cinema going public. It is R-rated, yet contains no sex, violence, or drug use. It is intended to be thought provoking - something the average cinema go-er is not usually up for on a Saturday night. If you look through the reviews on the IMDB site you'll find that most people have trouble "getting" this film. The whole point is that it's supposed to be creepy, not sensationalist. I don't want to give the plot away, but I will say that I think Robin Williams is absolutely brilliant in a completely non-comical role, and that I'll think twice about using the same photo shop for any extending period of time.

I give it an 8 out of 10, but it's highly likely you won't agree with me.

Hint to the outside world

When Adrian doesn't post to his blog for a few days he's either (a) really upset about something, or (b) so incredibly busy that the blog has to take a back foot. In this case, it was (b).

Love in the time of e-mail

[the age 30.09.2002]

Pertinent advice for an Aussie living so far away from home.

Clippings

Cameron's on again/off again venture, clippings is back on the air. As a well-travelled IT consultant, he has an interesting perspective on where things are headed, and why Australia is so different to the rest of the world when it comes to technology implementation.

Neglect

I've been neglecting the blog for the past week or so. I had three assignments due on the same day this week, so I was totally snowed under for the best part of four or five days. Things are a little better now, but I'm still annoyed that I seem to have no time to get out of town and see the rest of America. Two of the MBS exchangers here in New York have managed to get away this weekend. If I can manage my time well I might be able to follow suit next week.

BTW - subject reviews for Introduction to Venturing and Building and Managing Brands will be posted very soon.

Exposed: my life as a blog

The Australian ran an article a few days ago comparing the blog scene in Melbourne with that in Sydney. A few interesting quotes: ...

"Weblog culture seems to go deep; it is easy to find Melbourne weblogs with visual flair and good writing. None of this, of course, is obvious to an interstate visitor wandering along Swanston Street.

"Melbourne is very much a secret place," says Badger, who lives in East St Kilda.

"All our good bars and venues are hidden down scary, weird alleyways in places where the only sign is a projection on a wall opposite. We like discovering things, we don't want them to be too easy to get.

"So weblogs, and the anonymity they afford the writer, suit us and our dark, secret personalities – of course, this could well be just me."

Alas, I didn't receive a mention - probably because I've chosen not to take that anonymous route to the world of blogging.

Anniversary

It feels like a lot longer, but it's now a year to the day since I last did any paid work. On Sept 20th last year, I took my retrenchment package from Com Tech / Dimension Data after more than four years with the company. I was hoping Anthony (who took a retrenchment package just last week) would have posted his post-mortem essay by now, because I never really posted one in 2001.

Com Tech was a fantastic company with brilliant management and high aspirations. I truly admired its founder, David Shein, as a CEO, leader, and motivator. Unfortunately an international acquisition and a receeding economy caused major headaches for Com Tech. Hundreds of people have been laid off. Customers have left in droves, and the remaining staff, for the most part, do not have the same level of enthusiasm and loyalty that we all used to share together.

Add this one to your New York 'To Do' list - Arthur's Landing

I ventured out of New York state last for this first time since my arrival, to visit a restaurant called Arthur's Landing in New Jersey. I'll admit it's not very far out of New York state (7 minutes on the ferry), but that's America for you.

While enjoying a seafood platter, a delectable rack of lamb, good company and interesting conversation, I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the evening view of mid-town Manhattan from across the Hudson River. I'm not sure if it was the ferry trip or the company, but I was feeling very 'Sydney' all of a sudden. Perhaps I'm a little homesick.

(This was also my first opportunity to notice the gap in the skyline where the WTC used to be. I haven't visited Ground Zero yet, and to tell you the truth - I'm in no hurry to do so.)

New audience members

Readership of my blog has almost doubled in the past month. Two major reasons:

1. The MBS student community has become aware of the existence of the site, and
   
2. Soon-to-be-MBAs Tad and Martin have been sending new readers my way.
   

So, for everyone who is new to the site, I encourage you to read through the archives to get a feel for where I'm coming from. There's usually quite a bit of assumed knowledge when I make a post, so it's worthwhile getting up to speed. I try to post at least once every couple of days, but the MBA workload does get quite ridiculous at times, so hang in there if I occassionally 'disappear' for a week or so.

Life in New York

A few of you have been asking me to write about 'life' in New York, as well as just documenting the MBA student experience at Columbia. One must appreciate that 'life' as an MBA student is a very, very time consuming endeavour. A colleague of mine was commenting this week that, for him, the MBA is essentially lifestyle choice - instead of being paid to work 50 hours a week, we're paying to study closer to 80 hours a week and giving up virtually all our free time. Surviving the MBA requires skills in time management, prioritisation, and sacrifice - it's very difficult to find/make the time to do anything else ... but we try. In my both my first and second terms in Melbourne I found the time to travel interstate on three separate weekends. The Columbia MBA is definitely a notch higher in terms of intensity, but I am an exchange student after all and all I need to do here is pass my subjects (rather than striving for that magical mark of 80% which generates an H1 at MBS). In theory, I should relax a bit and ensure that I enjoy the New York experience.
So, what have I been up to since I arrived in New York three weeks ago? The short answer is: not as much as I was hoping to do. As far as the 'tourist' experience goes, I've revisited Times Square and the Guggenheim. I've attempted, on two occassions, to allocated a full afternoon to visit the Museum of Modern Art (temporarily located in Queens). I've caught up for dinner and a couple of beers at Washington Square with one of the MBS students studying at Stern. And I've been for the occassional walk/run in Central Park. In short - I'm not experiencing the tourist side of New York to the extent that I expected. It's amazing how much one can cram into a visit to a city when they've got the full day everyday available to them. I've had two short tourist visits to New York in the past, so I've been to most of the major museums, been to the observation decks at the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center (RIP), and taken the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. There are a few other 'typical' New York attractions that I'd like to visit, but they may have to wait until I'm either hosting visitors from out of town, or until I've finished my studies for the term. In the meantime, I'm definitely having the 'living' experience in New York, and I'll do my best to find the time to write about it.

The Seven Great Private Business Schools

On Thursday, I attended a forum held by Columbia Business School's dean, Professor Meyer Feldberg. He outlined the role that he plays within the school, how the school has improved during his tenure (1989 to present), and how Columbia interacts with and benchmarks against what he refers to as the 'seven self-appointed great private business schools.'

Regardless of the rankings that come out every year from Business Week, US News and World Report, and the Financial Times, the 'seven self-appointed great private business schools' (hereafter referred to as G7) remain the same group. These are the business schools that have stood the test of time. They have massive alumni networks, great locations, very impressive faculty, and receive upwards of 5000 applications each year.

When I did my MBA tour of the United States in 2000, my eventual shortlist for applications was Haas, Stanford, Kellogg, Harvard, Sloan, and Columbia. Guess what? 5 out of the 6 happen to part of the G7. Haas is public (it's part of the University of California, Berkeley), so it can never be a member of the G7. The other two members are Wharton and Chicago, which didn't appeal to me for various reasons that you can read about in my archives.

In general, the G7 b-schools have lasting appeal - they're the brand name schools. When one pays in excess of US$60,000 for an MBA at one of these schools, they're not just paying for the educational experience. They're buying a membership card into a prestiguous alumni network.

I received an email yesterday from 'Tad Holbie' who's currently going through the application process for his MBA. He's applying to seven different private b-schools in the USA. Can anyone guess which ones? ;-) You can read all about the applications process on his weblog (mbawire.blogspot.com).

Bull spread, bear spread, box spread, strangle, straddle, strip, strap

Believe it or not, these are all finance terms. More specifically, their trading strategies in the world of options. What's an option, you might ask - well, it's a contract which gives you the right to buy or sell an underlying asset (such as a share in a company or a commodity such as wheat) for a particular price at a particular point in time or over a particular period of time. Why should you care? Well, I'm taking a course at Columbia called Options Markets and I may be referring to it from time to time...

B8311 - Options Markets (Associate Professor Zhenyu Wang)

Zhenyu Wang uses the text Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives as the basis for his Options Markets course at Columbia Business School. In essence, my thinking is that this course will give me an opportunity to heavilly exercise my quantitative skills (we're talking calculus here ;-) and possibly give me a bit of an edge over my MBA colleagues in the application process for Investment Banks and other finance firms. It's also reasonably interesting - in the world of options trading there is always a winner and a loser for each trade, and you can make big money in options trading regardless of which direction the market is heading. Think a stock is about to plummet? No problem - buy a put option. Think a stock will rise a bit (but not a lot)? Try a bull spread to capture the small gain, but lower the cost by giving up the full upside potential. Of course, there is a downside to options trading - if any of your 'bets' are wrong, you could be seriously out of pocket.

Where were you?

Avid readers of my weblog would be aware that javaboy.blogspot.com experienced a hiatus around September to December last year. Indeed my final post prior to this period was a brief mention about the world falling apart. In the spirit of the stories floating around in our conversations and in the media today, I thought I'd add my own answer to that question, "Where we you on September 11th?"

September 2001 was an difficult time for me. I was dealing with my parents' separation, which had only just been formalised. I had just finished a two-year project at work, and my position had been made redundant - but at this stage I had not taken a package - I was essentially waiting at home (in Melbourne) while my manager sought out other opportunities for me within the company. I had a meeting lined up with the manager of one of the divisions in our Melbourne office to discuss the details of a position in one of his groups, so I'd spent most of the day at home outlining a potential compensation package, updating my resume, and generally pondering my future. In the early evening, I watched the movie, Fight Club, which for those of you who haven't seen it, is essentially about a schizophrenic terrorist who blows up ten office buildings in America.

After the movie, I made some dessert and settled down to the latest episode of The West Wing on Channel 9 - I can't remember what the particular episode was about, but around five minutes before the end, it was interrupted by a newflash from Jim Whaley stating that the World Trade Center was on fire, and that there'd been an explosion of some sort. I don't think he mentioned that it was the result of an aeroplane. They had a visual shot of the building. I think it was only two or three minutes after the actual event. They allowed The West Wing to finish, and then returned with a (slightly) more informed report, before switching across to the CNN and ABC America coverage. It was late at night in Australia, past 11 o'clock. My friend Anthony called me, to ensure that my eyes were glued to the television. We spoke for a while in interrupted disbelief as more news came in. I called my friend Saj, who was asleep at the time. He thanked me for interrupting his sleep for such an important event. When the first tower imploded, I was on the phone to someone, but I can't remember who - it was all a bit of a blur. I think I stayed up until around 4:00am that night, absorbing all the news and trying to make sense of it all.

The next day, I came into work and continued to watch the news via a webcast. Not much work got done that day. I did have my meeting, but the outcome wasn't good. For various political reasons, the Melbourne position wasn't going to eventuate for me, and on September 20 I ended up taking a package (but we'll save that story for next week).

Columbia Remembers

Well, it's an awkward feeling being in New York on the anniversary of September 11. As I walked to uni this morning, the general feeling of solemnness amongst those around me was incredible. After a brief breakfast and a chat with Mark (my fellow MBS student on exchange here at Columbia), I proceeded to the steps of the Low Library and joined a crowd of over 2,000 for the University's official Remembrance Service, Columbia Remembers. After a minute's silence at 8:46, the University President proceeded to read out the names of the 107 people (alumni, friends, and family) associated with Columbia University that lost their lives one year ago. I felt somehow attached to all of this, and yet, so distant at the same time. At the end of the service, the crowd gradually dispersed, and I returned to the business school to resume my classes. Later in the day, over a period of several hours, current students and staff of the University, read out the names of all the victims, over a period of several hours. This evening, there are candlelight vigils being held across the United States, including a large gathering in Central Park that I (may) attend.

Welcome to the world of Investment Banking

Today was a bit of a crash course to the world of Investment Banking for me: I had my second Advanced Corporate Finance class, spent an hour with a careers advisor discussing my resume's suitability to American employers (specifically investment banks and VC firms), had my first Investment Banking class, and attended a recruitment presentation by UBS Warburg, a European investment bank that is making inroads into the US market and was recently rated the world's "best [overall] investment bank."

Continuing with my plans to provide an overview of all the subjects I'm undertaking at Columbia, here's my take on Jim Freeman's Investment Banking course:

B8317 - Investment Banking (Professor James L. Freeman)

Considering I'm so far behind the eight-ball as far as knowledge of the investment banking industry goes, Jim Freeman's aptly titled Investment Banking course should prove very suitable to my needs. Jim spent 17 years as an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston before founding his own firm, Freeman & Co. which specialises in management consulting and strategic advisory services for the financial services industry. The intention of his Investment Banking course is basically to impart as much of his knowledge about the industry as he can within 13 three-hour classes. Specifically, the course covers what an investment banking firm does, how it is structured, how the various components function together, how investment banks solve problems (bring on the cases ;-), and how investment banks make money. For our first lesson today, Jim provided an excellent overview of the industry as it stands today - which firms are dominating the market, which divisions are making money, where the jobs are, etc.

Interestingly, the class is no where near full capacity - there are only around 35 students (compared to 104 in my Introduction to Venturing class). My theory is that if someone has already been at Columbia Business School for a year, they've probably had the opportunity to obtain most of this knowledge through on-campus events and discussions with their network. Coming in as an outsider, I'm hoping this course will help me come off as a knowledgeable prospect when (if ?) I get some interviews with these firms. Indeed, Jim states that his main objective for the course is "to inform students; so they can hit the ground running day one at an investment bank and never be asked 'what rock did you come out from under?' "

Garbage on tour in the US this fall

No Doubt are touring with Garbage in the US in October / November. I missed out on seeing Garbage at the Big Day Out in Australia earlier this year, so I'm pretty keen to catch them this time.

If anyone would like to join me, I'm considering either:

• Philadelphia (October 17th), or
  
• Orlando (October 30th) - roughly coinciding with a shuttle launch on November 2nd.
  

Weekend wrap-up

The distinction between weekday and weekend has become a bit of a blur for me over the past few weeks, what with exams, holidays, long flights, decontructing my apartment in Melbourne, setting up my new room in New York, and the like. As such, there's no compelling reason why I should write a 'weekend wrap-up' as such. Instead, let me just tell you about some of the highlights of the past few days. My primary focus since my last class on Thursday has been career management and sleep catch-up. With a multitude of company presentations coming up in the new two weeks, I felt it was time to do some work on my resume (American-ise it so to speak). After five hours work on Friday and Saturday, I now have both a one-page and two-page resume designed for the US market, and well as my original one-page resume for the Australian market. I also prepared three job applications over the weekend: a summer internship with Deutsche Bank in either Sydney or Melbourne, a summer internship with Macquarie Bank in Sydney, and a part-time resume reviewing job with the Careers office here at Columbia. If I get an interview invitation from either of the banks, we'll have to do the interview over the phone.

Today I put the books and the career aside, and went for a stroll through Central Park. The weather is very nice in New York at the moment - around 81 degrees Fahrenheigt every day (which translates to around 27 degrees Celcius for all the non-Americans in the audience, myself included). It wasn't an aimless wander though - my destination was the Guggenheim Museum. They have an exhibition on at the moment called Moving Pictures which definitely had that 'modern art' feel about it - very abstract, lots of bright colours, and a dash of erotica. Interestingly, they also have a Rembrandt on loan from The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The web graphic (follow the link) doesn't do this painting justice. The realism and condition of this picture (it's over 350 years old!) are absolutely incredible.

Course overview: Advanced Corporate Finance

This is something I meant to do originally on my MBA-orientated weblog, but didn't get around to for Term 1 and 2 at MBS. I make heaps of posts referring to particular aspects of my courses, without ever providing an overview of what the course is actually about. So, over the next few days, I'll try to put together a summary of each of the courses that I'm doing at Columbia, together with my personal expectations / outcomes.

B8301 - Advanced Corporate Finance (Professor E. R. Arzac)

Advanced Corporate Finance at Columbia is pretty much the equivalent of Corporate Finance at MBS. It is "a course on entrepreneurial and corporate finance dealing with the design of financial policy and the valuation of firms and financial instruments." More specifically, the course uses cases, mostly developed by the professor (rather than published through Harvard), to demonstrate free cash flows in domestic and international acquisitions, private equity and leveraged buy-outs, equity derivatives (options, futures, etc), real options, mergers & acquisitions, recapitalisations, and asset restructuring.

Enrique Arzac uses his own text and his own cases, which is unusual for an upper-level corporate finance course. From my understanding most b-schools have adopted Brealey & Myers' Principles of Corporate Finance as the standard textbook for corporate finance-orientated courses. However, Enrique's classes are always fully subscribed, and receive consistent student ratings around 6.5 out of 7.

I'm anticipating that I'll get a lot out of this course. Being a finance course, there's lots of numbers and formulas to learn, but untimately it's a course about how proceed with a big corporate finance deal; which approach to take, and how to deal with each of the stakeholders. Should be challenging, engaging, and maybe even a bit of fun.

Adrian is now a NYC Blogger

Check out the other blogs on the '1' line in New York. My closest station is 'Cathedral Parkway - 110 Street'.

Columbia Business School - Fall Semester 2002: Day 0

Administrative day today. Picked up my Columbia student ID card. Paid off my accommodation for the semester. Met with some of the staff in the Columbia Business School admin offices. And also attended an careers information session.

Adrian's 60-second summary of the careers situation at Columbia
Columbia seem to have had more success in placing their 2002 graduates than back home at MBS. Roughly 80% of the graduating class are now employed, compared to the undisclosed (but significantly lower) figure back home. The Columbia Careers Office's way of explaining this was a 'flight to quality': recruiters are focussing their search on top schools, since they're not looking to hire so many people over all, and cannot justify the expense of visiting so many schools.

Several major employers have chosen NOT to recruit/present on campus at Columbia this year, including two of the biggest investment banks. Goldman Sachs employed the largest number of CBS grads (roughly 30 of the 600 or so students).

The I.T. systems in place for managing the whole careers process at Columbia Business School are very impressive. Interviews are scheduled automatically to avoid conflicts with class times, and we even get the opportunity to bid for interview slots with some companies (just like bidding for classes).

My GSB

The b-school also has a fairly impressive portal set up for students, which includes personalised course material, summarised reading lists for each week, and face-books for each class. More details on this system later, after I've had a better chance to use it.

Bring on the study

Despite the fact that classes haven't even started yet, I already have 'homework' to do. For my first (and every) class for Introduction to Venturing, I have to prepare a Harvard case, and submit my short answers to the case questions online the night before the class. The Professor collates all the answers and cold calls students in class, asking them to ellaborate on their answers. Awesome.

It's going to be a sensational semester.

Jet lag

I haven't usally been one to suffer from jet lag, but I think the time difference between New Zealand and New York is really getting to me. Since my arrival on Friday, I've been going to bed around 3:00am every night, and waking up around midday. I'd better fix this up soon, as I have an 8:15am class on Wednesday to kick off the term at b-school.

Monopoly

At the US Open last night, I was required to store my backpack and carry its contents in a US Open-emblazoned plastic bag. Apparently, this is some form of post-September 11 security paranoia. I'm okay with that, but I was most annoyed when they charged me US$5 to do so. FFS, $5 to store am empty backpack (especially since I didn't end up seeing any tennis at all, due to the washout).

And, once I was inside, 20oz (equivalent to about 600ml) soft drink bottles were priced at US$4. $8 Australia for a soft drink. What is this world coming to. That's not inflation - that's extortion. Of course, an economics professor would start arguing that it's all about WTP, and that there's competition for the monopoly, rather than competition in the monopoly. Maybe, but they didn't get any money from me.

New York Mega-post #1

"...If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you,
New York, New York!!"

New York City, capitalism's home town, Columbia University heartland, and the major victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America.

After the two day journey from the adrenaline-orientated, fun-filled, scenic retreat that is Queenstown, New Zealand, I arrived in New York in the middle of the night (2:00am on Friday morning) disorientated and completely exhausted, and checked in to the most basic of hotels, West End Studios, for a few hours sleep. For $150 (Australian) a night, I had my own little broom closet, complete with creaky bed, barely working fridge, and a run-down sink that offered only cold water, despite having taps labelled both 'C' and 'H', and a 'color' TV with about 50 home shopping channels. (apologies for the partial nudity on the sink link)

Getting set up

My dorm room is surprising large by New York standards. For US$2300 for the entire term, I have a room over 4m by 4m in size, with nearly-new floorboards, a cupboard, twin-sized bed, basic office desk, and drawers. All my electricity and heating is also included. I'm just one block from the University, and I have cafes, restaurants, bars, and supermarkets all within a minute's walk of my front door. On a negative side, I have to use a shared bathroom and kitchen, both of which are rather unappealing. (The photos that I've linked to were taken within a few minutes of my arrival. I'll post some more photos when I'm more established)

I've had to go shopping for basics like sheets, pillows, laundry basket, etc, and I've also set up a fixed-line phone and a pre-paid mobile. Can you believe it costs me US$1.70/min to call Australia from my mobile?! Ridiculous considering there are calling cards available with rates are low as US4.3c/min which you can use from payphones. One of the interesting features of US mobiles (sorry, 'cell phones') is that users must pay to receive calls as well as make calls. As such, deals are advertised in terms of 'airtime minutes' (i.e. total time 'on the air').

Tennis

I also went out to the US Open on Sunday evening, but, alas, it was a complete washout. As a consolation, I get a free ticket to the same session again next year (now there's an incentive to get that job in New York post-graduation ;-)

But what about the b-school?

Well, it's a 'holiday weekend' here in the States, which means that things don't really start until Tuesday. There's a careers orientation session on Tuesday, and then classes start on Wednesday. My 3rd round bid for Building and Managing Brands was successful, so the list of subjects in the left-hand column are now confirmed. In anticipation of the new semester, I've changing the background colour for my weblog header to Columbia Business School navy blue, and I've adopted a new temporary title for the weblog, Melbourne MBA in New York.

Qantas gets a makeover

The Qantas website has had a fairly serious makeover, with heaps more features on the front page, but a fairly unintuitive navigation system. The <TITLE> tag for the main page is 'Homepage' which is very useful for bookmarking, not.

Term 2 Results @ MBS

Well, results for Term 2 are up, and I'll be the first to admit that I didn't do nearly as well as in Term 1. Business Law was the subject that suffered, which I deserve since I didn't do many of the readings and hardly ever participated in class. I also had a severe drop of 15% from my VFA midterm result to my final result, but I think that might be partially to do with the good old 73% mean requirement. Pleasing results for the other three subjects, but my Law result has really bitten me hard. My overall average has dropped from 84% to 79.6% (ouch! we're just below that H1 cut-off now).

• Valuation & Financial Analysis - 80% (H1)
  
• Economics & Public Policy - 81% (H1)
  
• Business Strategy - 75% (H2A)
  
• Business Law - 67% (H3)
  
• Project Management - 75% (H2A)

BTW, first New York post coming really soon...

Fitting a square peg in a round hole

My flight out of Auckland was delayed by 90 minutes, which meant I missed my connection to New York, so now I'm waiting at the Admirals Club at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a later flight. The reason for the delay: Qantas had leased a British Airways plane for the Auckland to Los Angeles sector, but the catering company in Auckland hadn't been told. As a result, they'd prepared all the meals to fit the compartments of a Qantas 747 which is apparently slightly different to a British Airways 747. Aaaah, the beauty of outsourcing.

New Zealand wrap-up

Well, it's about an hour to go before I fly out to the U.S. I'm in the Qantas Club in Auckland, catching up on emails, and getting a few things organised for next week. Today is a looong day of travel. I started at 4:15 this morning in Queenstown, having had just 2 hours sleep. Seven hour drive from Queenstown to Christchurch, send-off lunch and hug session with Saj, Gretel, and Stephenie at Christchurch airport, quick flight to Auckland, three hours at the Qantas Club in Auckland, then I fly to Los Angeles, and connect through to New York. All up, I think it'll be a 32-hour day. Here's hoping I can get some sleep on the long flight across the Pacific.

My week in New Zealand has been absolutely incredible. The mountain scenery is absolutely stunning - snow-capped peaks for miles around, beautiful sunsets, and shimmering lakes. The snow is impeccable - over a metre deep at The Remarkables, awesome powder which made for pleasurable skiing. I don't know how I've survived all these years putting up with the Australian ski-fields. New Zealand is in a class of its own. Of course, the experience was complemented by the fact that I was staying in a nice hotel, dining out for breakfast and dinner every day, and sharing the experience with three of my closest friends.

Now it's off to New York to begin a new chapter in my life. This will be the first time I have ever *lived* overseas. It should prove to be a very interesting, and hopefully rewarding, experience.

New Zealand rocks!!

I'm in New Zealand this week, staying in Queenstown and skiing at the Remarkables. The weather has been a bit up and down, but we've had some incredible skiing, tubing, luging, dining, and drinking. Alas, it's nearly over, but I'm comforted by the fact that my next destination is New York City!!

All exams complete. I am now 50% of the way through my MBA

Stay tuned for more details as they become available. ;-)

4 down, 1 to go

Huge day today. Two big exams, and five hours preparing a case study for my Business Strategy exam tomorrow morning. In less than 36 hours I'll be in the air on my way to New Zealand. Very excited, but also rather stressed. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

3 down, 2 to go

Economics can be nasty, but I think I did enough to get maybe 70%. Two more exams, and less that 48 hours 'til I leave the country...

After the Bubbly Days, the Financial Hangover Sets In

[Financial Mail - South Africa 19.07.2002]

"Didata's share price has declined sharply in recent weeks, bringing its losses for the year to more than 60%. It has collapsed by 93% since its peak in 2000, when it was SA's third-largest listed company by market capitalisation (it is now barely in the top 40). Didata's misfortunes are a classic tale of the excesses of the technology bubble, where companies used expensive paper to buy other companies at premiums that look ludicrous today."

Facelift for Columbia Business School - Students website

Alas, it's just a front. Once you follow any of the links, you're back to the old, ugly, inconsistent content. I get the feeling there's a lot of manual work involved in producing the many parts of the CBS website. Perhaps I could instigate a big IT project while I'm over there, and help them revitalise the entire site. Pity IT spending is waaaay down in organisations this year.

T minus 3 days...

This is my last 'day off' before the transition to New York begins. I say 'day off' in that I haven't got any exams today, so I have the full day available to study and prepare for New York. I have two exams tomorrow though, and their probably going to be the most difficult out of the four this week, so it's going to be a fairly intensive day of study. The excitement associated with my upcoming ski trip in New Zealand and the prospect of studying at Columbia are making it difficult to focus on this week's MBS exams though. Perhaps I should leave the computer lab, and head for the library...

Sydney photography

In preparation for my big trip to New York, I've been scanning hundreds of my photos for electronic storage and viewing on my laptop. Here's two of my favourites from recent visits to Sydney:


View from Stephenie's apartment, July 2002



View from Point Piper, August 2001

2 down, 3 to go

Valuation & Financial Analysis exam went okay. Way too much maths though, and not enough opportunity to provide insight. There was only one question that I couldn't answer, so hopefully I'll end up with around 85-90%. Should be enough to balance out the mediocre marks that I'll end up with in Economics and Law. Next exam: Wednesday morning. (4 days 'til I leave the country)

Playing with the BOSS

Subject selection at Columbia uses a fairly involved bidding system known as BOSS (Business Online Subject Selection). Each student is allocated 2250 points, and we have to distribute them amongst the five subjects/professors for which we'd like to enrol. The catch is that some subject are very popular, requiring 1000 points to get in, whereas for others a mere 1 point is required. I can't reveal my points allocation yet, since the bidding is still open and I don't want to be outbid, but the subjects that I've put myself down for are:

• Advanced Corporate Finance
  
• Debt Markets
  
• Options Markets
  
• Investment Banking, and
  
• Introduction to Venturing

It's very finance dominated, I know, but that's intentional. Columbia is pretty much the centre of the finance universe. The people that I'm reading about in the articles and textbooks for my VFA course here in Melbourne actually teach at Columbia (as well as working on Wall Street). If all goes well, I'll come back home a financial genius.

Bring on the exams

I had a take-home exam last week for my Project Management intensive subject, which took me a total of 35 hours to complete! Real exams start later this morning, and run through to Thursday. Here's the basic schedule:

• Mon 9:00am - Valuation & Financial Analysis (60%) (closed book)
  
• Wed 9:00am - Economics & Public Policy (60%) (closed book)
  
• Wed 1:30pm - Business Law (45%) (open book)
  
• Thu 9:00am - Business Strategy (40%) (semi-open book; we've already received the case study, and we're allowed to write all over it)

I've spent most of the weekend studying for the VFA exam, plus doing some reading from the EPP textbook, and analysing the case study for Business Strategy (I'll reveal which case it is after I've completed the exam). Business Law is the subject that's been suffering from lack of study attention. I'll put in 5 hours tonight, and maybe another 5 hours tomorrow, and that'll have to suffice.

When worlds collide

Ok, so I've been really slack keeping the site up to date these past few weeks. I hope you'll forgive me. I've been running at 110%, studying, preparing for exchange, and flying back and forward to Sydney. I've probably been averaging around 4 - 5 hrs sleep. We're at T minus 5 days now, and with the exception of exams, I'm pretty much ready for my move to New York.

Life has been pretty amazing these past few weeks. In essence, my worlds have been colliding.

• Melbourne Adrian and Sydney Adrian are becoming one, with my Sydney-based girlfriend recently meeting up with my Melbourne-based friends.
  
• Online Adrian and Melbourne Business School Adrian have been revealed as the same person, with various students and faculty from MBS finally discovering my website.
  
• Family Adrian and relationship Adrian have come together with my Auntie recently joining a group of friends (including my girlfriend) at a dinner in Sydney, and
  
• 1980s Melbourne Adrian, early 1990s Darwin Adrian, and late 1990s/early 2000s Adrian all got together for a big farewell/birthday dinner in Sydney last Thursday.

But "it's all good". I'm enjoying every minute of it, and I wouldn't give it up for anything.

T minus 14 days....

Two weeks to go!! Woo hoo!! Life's about to get very interesting. I've received my accommodation allocation for New York. I'll be living on the corner of 113th St and Broadway, just one block from the Columbia campus. The building I'll be living in is over 100 years old, and I'll have my own furnished room with a shared bathroom down the hall. Move in scheduled for August 30th, although I've booked a hotel room through to the 31st just in case. Visa, plane tickets, insurance, accommodation - looks like I'm all set now.

Better

Recovered from the flu. Having a fantastic weekend, before I head into exam mode next week...

Sick

Okay, this is something that I'm not used to. Since about Wednesday last week, I've been going through different phases of the flu. Sore stomach, sniffles, dizziness, headaches. Groan. At the same time, I've been trying desperately to start ... and finish ... an essay for Economics and Public Policy, and to make a worthwhile contribution to a syndicate presentation set for this coming Thursday. I'm certain that the only reason I'm sick is because I've been pushing myself to the limit this month. I guess it's come back to bite me.

25 days to go...

Family of travellers

My brother, Andrew, has just returned from a five month working holiday in UK/Europe. In typical Aussie style, he went all the way to London to work in a bar that pays homage to Australia - The Walkabout Inn. He also spent time in France and Italy, and of course, made the compulsary visit to Amsterdam.

T minus 27 days...

1 assignment to go. 1 presentation to go. 1 take-home exam to go. 4 'real' exams to go. Still haven't been allocated my New York accomodation. Haven't heard from my sublease tenant for a while - hope he's still coming to Melbourne. Nearly finished packing the apartment. My sister's already taken some of my shelves, and my dad's interested in borrowing my TV while I'm away (the vultures are circling ;-). It's all going to happen so quickly over the next few weeks. Before I know it, I'll be in New Zealand.

To make matters a little difficult, I've actually been a little ill this week, so much so that I had to skip a couple of classes and try and rest easy rather than working on an economics essay that's due on Tuesday. Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy this weekend playing catch-up.

Remember, if you're new to this website, it makes more sense if you read it in reverse, starting here. ;-)

The Dream

A friend of mine in the part-time MBA program asked me yesterday evening, "How can you be enjoying the MBA if you keep commenting on your weblog about the intensity of it all, and using moods like 'swamped'?"

I've had an interesting opportunity for some self-reflection over the past few days. Having been short-listed for a scholarship based on the content of my resume and my original MBS application essays, I decided to revisit the journey that I'd been on over the past couple of years.

My personal journal from my US b-school tour in 2000, combined with the eight application essays I wrote for the AGSM and MBS in 2001, and all the posts I've written for this weblog, make for a fairly comprehensive summary of the career growth/change process that I''m going through, and the end point that I'm trying to acheive. A common theme seems to be that what I'm really trying to do is 'live the journey' rather than end up in a particular job in a particular industry in a particular city.

Right now, I'm living that dream. I'm seven months into the MBA. I'm doing some challenging elective courses. I've interviewed for management consulting jobs, and I'm about to head off to New York to study at a top-ten school. This time next year I'll have my MBA, and I'll be working in a brand new role - in a new industry - possibly even in a new country.

One must maintain a positive attitude in an MBA program. It's a hard slog, the hours are insane, and it's expensive. However, with the right attidude and a dose of confidence, the returns can be substantial. And, yes, for the most part, I'm enjoying it immensely.

T minus 35 days...

Five weeks. Two assignments. One presentation. One take-home exam. Four final exams.

This is it, the final countdown. In a little over a month, I'll be off on my round-the-world adventure of self-discovery, world-class education, and potential career advancement.

Now, supposedly, I'm meant to get my New York accommodation offer today (New York time). Here's hoping for that luxury apartment overlooking central park at a bargain price of $500. (In reality, I expect to be in a share apartment without a view, located somewhere around 110th St, and with a price tag closer to $800*).

Some other good news - I've been short-listed for a nice fat scholarship which could potentially cover my remaining tuition expenses at MBS. I have an interview scheduled for next Tuesday, at which I plan to impress the sponsoring organising with my career achievements and ambitions in the areas of leadership, communication, and raw analytical talent. ;-) Although it won't make any difference to my present cash-flow crunch, the scholarship would make a significant difference to my financial well-being post-MBA.

(* For those unfamiliar with the US apartment rental system, rents are usually quoted in US dollars per month. A one-bedroom apartment in New York usually costs US$1000 - $1500 per month, but Columbia provides subsidised accomodation to graduate students.)

Don't trust the textbook

When most people get 90% for an exam, they're usually pretty satisfied - mass celebration, beers all round, that sort of thing.

When I received a mark of 90% for my 'Valuations & Financial Analysis' exam last week, I was disappointed. VFA is the one subject this term that I personally think is dead easy - a bunch of mathematical formulae which can be applied to various financial decision making situations. Having finished the mid-term exam twenty minutes early, I was pretty certain that I'd aced this one.

Alas, when it was returned with a mark of 36 out of 40, I couldn't understand my professor's reasoning for taking away those four marks. After a half hour discussion with my professor this morning, I'm still not happy (despite the fact that he's now bumped my marked up to 37). The problem centres around the fact that I answered one of the questions in the exam using an approach from our official textbook that my professor happens to have an issue with. Thus, despite the fact that my application of that approach is perfect, he's refusing to give me full marks because it's not the way he would have answered the question.

The moral of the story - question your professors in class, but when it comes to exams, put your own ideals aside, as do it their way.

Update (18.07.2002): My VFA professor approached me after class today and told me he'd had a change of heart. New score: 38 out of 40 (95%), which was my original target mark for the exam ;-)

What's the point of a decaf coffee?

In an effort to ensure a full night's sleep before my 9:00am Strategy class this morning, I decided to finish off a dinner out last night with a slice of cheesecake (yum!) and a decaf coffee. This was a first for me - it tasted the same, but didn't make me *feel* any better.

I didn't end up getting my full night's sleep, as I ended up on the phone for a couple of hours when I got home. As a result, I was in a rush this morning, and didn't have the time to buy a coffee before class. Let me tell you - I was really struggling. I didn't have the energy or the enthusiasm to contribute to the discussion (the case in question was The Body Shop, which is actually a really interesting values/PR/branding case), and instead sat in class continually looking up to the clock, waiting for 10:30 to come along so I could get my first coffee.

I tell you - I think I must be addicted.

T minus 40 days and counting...

Wow! What an intense couple of weeks. Business School is insane at the moment. There is soooo much work to do, that I barely have time for anything else.

Syndicate assignments for Strategy and Law, presentations for Law and Project Management, VFA and EPP exams, career planning seminars, presentation skills sessions, the list goes on. It's all a case of how high can you jump. In this past week, I've had three 14hr+ days at uni (including a Saturday), and I've spent over 70 hours in total on b-school work. It's all paying off though - I'm getting decent grades, and I'm learning soooo much. My super-intensive Project Management class is a real challenge, but the professor is incredible. He'll cold call at random, and if the answer you provide isn't satisfactory he'll press you for a better one. Awesome!

Not much more progress on my New York move. I'm still waiting for my accommodation offer from the Columbia Uni Apartment Housing group. Hopefully, I'll know the details of where I'll be living by next weekend. Forty days to go.