Weekly Diary 24-30 Sep

Monday

The first day of MBA stage! Although the courses started a month ago, but they were merely the pre-MBA courses. (But I' was already busy like hell!) Started the first class in Marketing, Corporate Finance, Economics and Research Method. Since large volume of content (equivalent to 2 to 3 chapters in a 1000 pages thick text book) has to be covered within the each 1.5 hour classes, the lecture can only touch on the key messages that the professors wanted to deliver. Without pre-reading before the class, and revision after the class, it is quite hard to follow the pace of the teaching. Several take-aways from the class:

Marketing: Do the right things, not the things right, especially in a recession period

Finance: Finance is about making investment decision (where to invest) and financing decision (where to get money)

Economics: Phenomenon before the sub-prime crisis: bank lending to bank, lending to household for real-estate speculation, and less lending to business which incur less genuine revenue generation.

After the class in the evening, continue with meeting of Non for Profit (NfP) Project. Followed by VCIC launching meeting which finally finished by 9:30pm! Oh hell, what a long long day!

Tuesday

Again a long day, Economics and Financial Accounting in the morning. Energy Club launching in the lunch break. Career Management Service Workshop, Guest Speaker Series in the evening and NfP project meeting with Client. Finally decided the project scope with Client. A big advance in the NfP project!

Wednesday

Marketing, Finance, Accounting, NfP meeting... Finished the Guest Speaker series report.

Thursday

Skill for Successful Manager (SfSM) - Class in Project Management and Working in Team. Quite impressed by the speaker to cover everything in Project Management in just 1 class by taking the example of a project to start a car race team.

"Working in Team" as the name sounds discussed about how to work in a team. Interesting points in the discussion of the disadvantages of a team work:

1) Team loafing: people tends to work lesser in a team than if they work alone.

2) Poor decision: group decision is better than average member decision but not as good as that if most competent member.

3) Dominant voice: decision may governed by the dominant voice which may not be the best decision.

4) Conformity: follow the majority which may sometimes misleading

5) Production blocking: individual will generate more ideas well if they work separately and combine ideas than if they work together. Conclusion -> brainstorming is not productive.

A game was introduced to test our team type. 5 minutes to figure out what to bring to a desert island for survival after your plane crash into the sea. Our group picked 4 correct items but a last silly choice which is SALT!

Friday

A good off from the school. Revision, pre-reading, revision, pre-reading...now only I know what GDP exactly is…

Saturday

Appointment day with the Talktalk internet installation engineer. I have subscripted this internet a month ago but the installation can only be a month later (which is ridiculous to my sense). Heard from friends that they didn't get the connection on the appointment day, either due to the reason that they didn't receive the router package, or the installation engineer didn't turn up the day or some other technical issues. Worried about same thing happened to me, I tried to email and call the customer service few days ago. But the Talktalk customer service was just suck, no reply to email, busy hotline which kept me waiting and ate up my handphone credits. As expected, I didn’t receive the router package by that day and although the engineer did come, he couldn't open the connection box for the installation. Felt really frustrated and disappointed with the impotence of the UK internet providers!

Sunday

Day off to Liverpool. Known to be poorest and dirtiest city in the past history of UK, but it really changed to a well-developed and clean (cleaner than Manchester at least) city. Visited the Liverpool Museum, Tate Art Gallery. Maritime Museum, Liverpool Cathedral, St. George Hall, World Museum, and Walker Art Gallery…all in one day! Amazed by the size and architecture of Cathedral, as well as the ancient and cultural collection in World Museum. These 2 are the must visit in Liverpool. Lazy to upload the photos, but I believe Ma Rui will, so please have a look on her Blog (the link at right) if you are interested.   

Pre-MBA is over!

Can't imagine how fast the time passed. Being still puzzling and struggling about the tremendous amount of learning in the first few weeks. The Pre-MBA stage is over! The so-called honey moon stage in MBS MBA program is over! Oh my god, is me the only one couldn't enjoy the honey moon period, or someone else also share the same experience with me. If I felt hard in this stage, how do I going to survive the remaining 18 months?!!!

Nevertheless, I still have a lot of take aways from this stage. The pre-MBA stage not only provide a chance to learn about those basic theories in the business subjects, which is essential for people with no business knowledge background at all like me, and most important, a chance to reflect, to scrutinize my personality from my own as well as from the feed back of fellow MBAs that worked together for the past few weeks. It is really a precious chance to know not only how you see yourself, but also how other see you as a team member, or as a person. Well, I have to admit that I have fields to develop as well as fields to keep.

Some of the highlights of the Pre-MBA stage:

1) Launch of NfP (Not for Profit) Project

115 of us are divided into 23groups with 5 to 6 people in a group to work on the consultancy projects in Not-for-Profit Organization. The projects cover wide range of business issues like fund raising, branding and marketing strategy, new service development and launching etc.

Our group consisted of a Brazilian Finance Manager, a Peruvian Innovation Office Director, a Korean Banker, a Indian Healthcare IT Consultant, a Russian Automotive Project Manager, and me, a Malaysian Civil Engineer. Being a group with such a diversity, the meetings were always full of argument

The real challenges are how to define the problems from 6 different perspectives, draw out the best ideas from everyone, and achieve an agreement on what is the best solution. So far, we were quite ineffective in the meeting as it was really difficult to come with a conclusion satisfy all 6 people. Nevertheless, those meeting outcomes are slowly and slowly transforming into something more tangible, which may be our first piece of deliverable in the MBA!

2) Skill for Successful Manager

The so-called soft skill course which cover courses in consultancy skills, presentation skills in this stage and will be followed by subjects in project management and negotiation skills in next stage. There are also 2 psychometric tests (Hogan & SHL) to check the individual personalities. The results really mirror myself, the weakness that I knew it for long but never take initiative to improve it. No more excuse to run away from it. Now is the time to fix it right here, right now!     

3) Brathay

The seniors told the excursion in Brathay will be the best days in the MBA. Can't judge yet as I was only went through the first month in the MBA. But the memory in Brathay is definitely unforgettable. At the famous Lake District, beautiful landscape, blessed with the sunny sky at the last day (raining the other 3 days!), challenging outdoor activities, reflective group feedback, interesting and funny group performance, really a perfect temporary run-away from the stressful MBA study. Here we built our rapport, our team work and our self-confident!

4) Career Management Service

MBS really put a lot of effort in the career management. It might due to majority of the students are here to seek a career change. Career related workshops are held regularly just like the other core course in the MBA. So far, we have the CV workshop, business etiquette workshop, alumni panels, career safari, guest speaker series. More and more on-campus company presentation will be held in the near future.

 

5) Time Management

Not a subject in the pre-MBA, but really a essential  skill to survive in the MBA. All courses have projects or assignments, case studies as well as pre-reading for each class. And it is just impossible to do everything perfectly. Think of your MBA objective, set the priority, and allocate the time efficiently, you may miss some of the works, but you won't miss your big objective...this is what being told...

Talk is always easier than do. In fact, I am still wondering how the hell to go thru this 18 months...

Drowning...

MBA is tough, it is what MBA students or alumnis used to say. I knew that and psychologically prepared for that. But I never knew that it is really that TOUGH. Only 2 weeks passed, and I seems to be drowning in the overwhelming workloads, the pre-readings, lectures, revisions, feedbacks, group works, group discussions, projects, social events...oh my god, how could I manage all these things?

Sense a smell of crisis whether I can live through the remaining 18 months. Nevertheless, this is my own choice, which I made up to stretch myself, and to discover the unknown me. And that's why I'm here, so I should stop grumbling and work on what I should do. One of the lecturer told that there are 3 types of students: the performer (aim for good grade), performance avoider (less study, more party), and mastery (care about what really learnt). I consciously trying to be the third one, to learn something, to take away something from each lecture, discussion. But experience told me that when there are a due date for everything, and they all come in the same time, you tend to ignore the learning and just try to finish everything for the purpose of submission.

"Don't forget the brief half way through the project", this is the advise I get from the Consultancy Skills class. "Start to write the report with executive summary" , similar advice by the lecturer on our Not for Profit Project. I think it is applicable for my MBA journey as well. "Don't forget the original motive (to get an MBA) half way through the study", "Start to plan the journey with the final ambition in head". And the project is about scoping, research, analysis, interim reporting, final reporting and presentation. While MBA journey is same thing like scoping (identify what you really wanna do), research, analysis, interim reporting (self check with original motive whether it is still on track), final reporting & presentation (final check of what have been achieved and what have not).

The study is tough. Luckily the lecturers and professors that I met so far are all very good in teaching. Unlike the classes that I have back in Asia, the classes here are more interactive, provocative and reflective. And this is the backbone of MBS method, the so-called Learning by Doing. Students have the hands-on chance to learn through projects and group works. What's more is the classes on soft skills, the skills that I wanted the most. As the lecturer on Presentation Skills say, "Without a good presentation/communication skill, what inside your head is just nothing, because you just can't express it". And expression itself is just not enough, it has to be impressive, effective, in such a way that the listener will take away only the key messages, nothing else, that you wanted to tell.

Sell attributes, not products. Another take away from the Introduction to Case Studies Class. Whether it is a marketing strategy, product development, or even job searching! We are selling our attributes. No company will hire you if you don't have the attributes they are looking for. Therefore, MBA study is kind of process to add attributes, valueable attributes to yourself.

Again, MBA is tough, and I'm feeling kind of drowning. I don't whether I can survive till last. But the goal is clear, and I just can't let it go.

 

First Impression

After a 7 hours flight from KL to Dubai, a 5 hours transit wait at Dubai International Airport, another 8 hours flight from Dubai, I finally reach Manchester, the first city that I am going to start a new live outside of Asia. There are always lots of excitement together with confusion when one arrives to a new city. And my first week in Manchester is considered a smooth and quite lucky one (although it can be better if I knew the city better and knew british english better...). At least I have settled down with a lovely apartment which is near to the school as well as the city centre; know where to shop, where to dine and where to party; or I should say that there should be no problem for me to survive in the next 18 months. 

For those who have never visited Manchester before, here is my first impression. Since I have been living in Tokyo for the past 10 years, it is inevitably that I tends to compare the city with Tokyo.

1) City
Manchester is the "second" city in UK according to BBC survey in 2007, mainly contributed by its popularity in Football. A very small yet vibrant city, with the mix of ancient and modern architecture. Although the public transportation is very convenient in the city, with free mtero shuttle, tram, train, but basically you don't need one to travel within the city centre. A walk around the city centre that cover the main spots like the China Town, Piccadily Station, Piccadily Garden, Arndale Shopping Centre, Town Hall, John Rylands Library and the Manchester Central will take you less than an hour. The city is busy even on the weekdays, with lots of activities/festivals over the weekend. I was so lucky to witness a gay parade, the so-called Manchester Pride during first weekend in Manchester. Residential area is clean and beautiful but the city centre where drinkers and smokers gather is so...

City Centre View

     Manchester Pride Parade

 
2) People

Manchester is the city with largest student population in Europe with several big univeristies in the city. Therefore, the population in Manchester is young in general and full of diversity. Walking on the street you will pass by the Whites, Blacks, Asians, South Americans, etc. A mix of colors, culture is normal and so no one will look at you strangely and say, "Hey, there is an alien here!". British men are very gentlement, as what I read in the books. They are polite and helpful, especially in showing us, the easy get lost new comers the way to our destination. But I have to say that I am still struggling with the British Accent or "Mancunian" Accent in specific. They tends to pronounce "u" as "o", like "bus" as "boss", "pull" as "poll" etc.   

 

3) Weather
Rain, rain, and rain. A waterproof jacket and umbrella is neccesary whenever going out. But I was so blessed because there were few sunny days (although mix with rain occasionally) in the week. The sky was so clear in the sunny day. And people were out especially in the garden to enjoy the sunshine. The temperature was just nice, about 17 to 24 degree celcius, so quite comfortable compare to the hot and humid summer in Tokyo.

Blue sky at the Media City, Salford Quay

4) Food
Thanks to the diversity in the city, there are lots of international cuisine besides the "notorious" British food. Tried the "famous" fish and chips at the Lowry Outlet Mall but will never give it a second try. There are many Chinese restaurants and Chinese grocery store in the city which help to reduce my homesickness somehow. Eating out is generally expensive, although the lunch menu will cost a bit less. The cheapest (and may be the most delicious one) is a home cooking dish, as the grocery  price is quite cheap compare to Tokyo. Not forget to tell that there are lots of pubs. For beer lover, the pubs can be found any corner in the city.

British "famous" Fish and Chips

Indian

Chinese

Nando Chicken

5) House (Accomodation)
There is a saying in Chinese that the man's happiest life is getting the US salary, a Japanese wife, a Chinese cook and a British house. It sounds that the British House is highly regarded by the Chinese as the best in the world. So, how about the reality? Well, depends on the location (city centre or suburban), the price (a businessman afforable or student affordable), the type (house or flat), it will varies significantly. I can't make any conclusion yet right now to say whether staying in a British House really contribute to the man's happiest life. But at least for the same price I pay here, I can get a more spacious, stylish, better location and well furnished apartment compare to Tokyo, one of the most expensive city in the world.    

6) The University
The Univeristy of Manchester is located at the south of the city centre. Due to its gateless campus, the universities building made up part of the city. Just like the city, the architecture is a mix of the 18th century and modern. The university museum,which is also called the Manchester Museum is housed in a castle-like building aged more than a hundred year while the Univeristy Place just opposite the Museum is new and stylish. One thing to my surprise is there is no free student sport facilities. I have to depend on the street jogging for free work out.

University Buildings

Anyway, these are all my first impressions after a one week stay. For sure there will be more to discover and the feeling may change when time pass by. And the fact is, I am already here in Manchester! This is the city that I was looking forward since a year back and that I will spend my next full 18 months (if I am not going elsewhere for the internship & exchange). For better or worse, it is up to me to explore. One thing for sure is, this is not the comfort zone (both the city and the program) for me, which will indeed stretch me after I get over with it. 

Previous blog tittle of "Road to Manchester" may sounds obsolete now. While I am thinking for a better tittle, let me tentatively rename it as "Roads in Manchester" to kick start the new journey!

<Lost my grandpa while writing this last week. May he rest in peace and continue to witness my endeavor from the heaven.>