Crazy Week

Things have been happening at lightning speed that everything in this past week seems to be a blur. I had classes 3 times this week, and on Sat I spent the last day of summer in a hotel basement conference room learning the requirements to be a CMA marker. Oh and yes, and there was a little bit of market mayhem...

I have been addicted to the news for most of the week. The Toronto financial sector has played the spectator part. None of our financial companies seem to have any significant exposure, however, I think it is more of a wait and see approach. This past week has changed my plans, or rather they seem to be delayed. In some cases, it’s made my game plan non-existent. Any of the networking on job leads that I was hoping to do in the next month have been shifted to the back burner. Contacting anyone now would be senseless and would show a lack of sensitivity. I think I am just going to have to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach too.

Moving on.. Being in class when a crisis is occurring makes the topic even more interesting. Our Options professor decided to spend the first half of our class giving us an overview of the crisis. It was great! He outlined what credit default swaps were, how the crisis unfolded, and why the US government needed to step in. We had our first Marketing course, and the prof is quite good so far. He really makes you think! At the end of our class he asked us to jot down a few points as to what we learned that evening. We learned about branding, and how successful brands focus on the customer experience rather than just a good product. He did say that he was going to be cold calling, and warm calling. Umm. What is Warm calling? A quick google search produced the following result :

Warm call: A softer version of the cold call where the professors gives a particular student advance warning that he will be asked to comment on a case later in the session or the next day.

Uh-oh.. this did not work for me in Strategy. I seem to embody the proverbial deer caught in the headlights when called upon. The whole idea of cold/warm calling is to think on your feet fast right? Well, this is what they are training you for. I really dislike this method. Everyone learns differently, and there is no one path for business success. I firmly believe that MBA training should allow students to be individualistic rather than conformists.

Alright I will get off my hobby horse. We have a globalization quiz on Tuesday. I haven’t the foggiest idea as to what she has taught us, as the class has been quite boring. All I remember from that class is that she told us about how there was an outcry in China when Kung Fu panda came out. Some Chinese people thought the movie should be boycotted as the movie’s main character was also China’s national treasure. I can’t remember why she brought it up... but, I am pretty sure there won’t be a question on that.