The Jaffa Race!

On Friday at lunchtime, time stood still - well in Dunedin anyway! Above is a pick of my beautiful girls at the finish line of the Cadbury Jaffa Race. Dunedin is the spiritual home of Cadbury in NZ and every year they have a week long festival chocolate festival that culminates in rolling thousands and thousands of jaffas (little coated chocolate balls) down the world's steepest street - Baldwin Street. It is every kids' wildest fantasy. Primary school kids are out in force with shopping bags picking up hundreds of chocolate balls!

Every year the colour of the coating of the balls remains a mystery until they release them in the second race. The first race is standard orange but this year, in the second race, they were lime green - it was mental. In each race there are 35,000 balls each individually numbered. The numbers are sold as raffle tickets and raise money for charity. The person who's ticket number matches the number of the first Jaffa across the finish line wins. 15,000 people showed - the local radio station ran the day and there was even some live music. There was a real community feel with schools and the Lions Clubs running sausage sizzles and bake sales to ensure we didn't go hungry. A welcome relief from study!

2013 Upstart Director Award

As part of the Otago MBA experience, we are encouraged to undertake extra curricula activity particularly with the local business community. Tonight was the announcement of the winner of the NZ Institute of Directors Upstart award. Yours truly was named as one of five finalists but was pipped at the post by another MBA candidate, Mark Berryman. Congrats Mark!!

The Upstart Business Incubator (Upstart) supports high growth start-ups in the lower South Island.  As students represent an important stakeholder, Upstart includes the voice of the student at its board level discussions.

Upstart, in conjunction with the Institute of Directors (IoD), offered up a 12 month directorship with professional development support to a current student of the University of Otago or the Otago Polytechnic.

Criteria
The successful applicant will be someone who can:

• demonstrate experience in organisational involvement and entrepreneurial activity
• demonstrate an insightful and thoughtful perspective on the role of governance in today’s environment
• demonstrate a commitment to developing governance skills as part of their career and professional development, and
• act at all times with integrity and professionalism

A great award to be a part of!!

Parlez-vous francais?

Well, after my exchange interview last week and my last minute change of heart, I have been selected to study at Grenoble Ecole de Management. The reasons for my choice is I really like France, the opportunity to study leadership at a top global and European School and well, there is the wine, the cheese and the food :)

Now comes the hard part, when do I go? I am hoping to get some scholarship support but I still need to self fund. Maybe a little consulting at the start of the year might help me get the cash together. My wife and daughter will be there for part of it too. Bloody exciting.

MBA Exchange Interview week

There are a bunch of things happening at the moment in week 3. This week we begin the process of applying for exchange positions at overseas business schools. The rules of the road are you cannot go back to your home country so Australia is out! Anyway, my interview is on Friday with the International Exchange Office. We have to put down three options. My first pick is the Schulich Business School in Canada. They are red hot on entrepreneurship that that suits me, plus it will also give me a chance to visit a part of the world I have not been as well as practicing a little french (I hope). My second choice is Duke University in the states because it one of the top schools globally. My final choice is Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. I think secretly I am a bit of a 'francophile' so an immersion in French culture, food and wine seems logical :)

Michael Porter Blues

Week 2 and we are into the swing. Probably the subject that has tested us the most has been Strategy Planning in International Markets. Michael Porter's frameworks for competitor strategies has really messed with our heads! The great man is pictured above. I am not sure if he would have been pleased or frustrated with the way we have grappled with his thinking but we are getting there.....

We have looked at his theory in its purist form - Pure Porter and applied it to case studies. It forms an essential part of a strategic framework we will use to deliver effective and efficient corporate strategies. Porter is an economic rationalist who has made us just a little more irrational at the moment.

Term 2 - Look at those lovely folders.....

 

 We enter the MBA classroom Monday morning and we are faced with a mountain of books and notes. I am under no illusion that term 2 is going to be busy but when you see all the material together it screws with your head a bit. I am sure a few of us felt a bit of anxiety when we saw our stacks!

This term we have 4 papers - 

• Strategy Planning for International Markets
• Accounting
• Human Resource Management
• Marketing

All looks good just a lot of it!

Part two of the dramas on the first day was the re-shuffle of the syndicates which happened at the end of the day. I am now in Syndicate A with a good bunch of folks - we will see how good when the pressure piles on.....

PS. Thanks for the photo Melissa