I stumbled upon Richard Florida’s creative class website by accident. His book ‘Who’s your city?’ is out, and of course I knew he was at Rotman, and he writes an article for the Globe which I usually glance over, but I still didn’t pay too much attention. We got an email about his new book, but we get so many emails a day that sometimes you skim them over. Well after visiting his website, and reading about what he has to say, I can now see what the big hullaboo about getting him on the faculty was all about. He was on the Colbert report!
So for fun I tried his which city should you live in.. I typed in these cities: Toronto, London, SanFran, NYC, Hong Kong. I thought of Dubai, and I forgot to include Bombay. This is what I got:
I should definitely consider staying in Toronto! And then definitely consider London and SF, and not consider NYC and HK.
Anyway, go to this website if you’d like to procrastinate. It’s fun! I need to see if he teaches a class, and buy his book.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
And then there were two.... or three?
Wow, what a day. I am so knackered from the drama of this morning. It seems to have surpassed the exhaustion of the past month.
Today was Investment Challenge day. Now, it’s not what you think.. No, we glided through our presentation, and the judges didn’t ream us. We didn’t make it to the second round, however I was very relieved to just go home, and relax. This is a breakdown of the hours that aged me...
9:30 AM : Our presenter calls me to tell me that he’s sick and can’t present. My response was you are kidding right? Apparently, he wasn’t.
9:40 AM : Frantic phone call to only other surviving member of our group. I am at a loss for words. I am in panic mode. He suggests we go ahead with it. We will just wait for the sick presenter to forward his speaker notes, and add our own notes.
We started this competition in Nov, with 5 team members. About a month into the competition, one dropped out . (The IC dropout even won free Stalla CFA seminar notes today, and he wasn’t even there!) Last week, another member said that he couldn’t be there on presentation day as he had work commitments.
9:50 AM : Crisis support call to biggest supporter (aka mom) who also suggests that yes, we can prepare in less than three hours.
11:30 AM : Get to school. Nerves are in total overdrive having drunk 4 cups of coffee. Team member and I go over our notes. Surmise that no one will know if we bomb the presentation. Find consolation in this.
12:00 PM Sick presenter calls saying he can make it. Yes, you read right.
12:40 PM Sick presenter arrives.
1:00 PM We present.
1:15 PM It’s all over.
2:30 PM We find out that we didn’t make it to the second round. The 4 cups of coffee is still wreaking havoc on my nerves.
3:00 PM Subway ride home with sick presenter. I am told, that I should relax more. Nearly whacked him over the head, but I restrained myself as there would have been witnesses.
Lessons learned: Always have more than one presenter. Even if you don’t show up, you might win a prize.
Today was Investment Challenge day. Now, it’s not what you think.. No, we glided through our presentation, and the judges didn’t ream us. We didn’t make it to the second round, however I was very relieved to just go home, and relax. This is a breakdown of the hours that aged me...
9:30 AM : Our presenter calls me to tell me that he’s sick and can’t present. My response was you are kidding right? Apparently, he wasn’t.
9:40 AM : Frantic phone call to only other surviving member of our group. I am at a loss for words. I am in panic mode. He suggests we go ahead with it. We will just wait for the sick presenter to forward his speaker notes, and add our own notes.
We started this competition in Nov, with 5 team members. About a month into the competition, one dropped out . (The IC dropout even won free Stalla CFA seminar notes today, and he wasn’t even there!) Last week, another member said that he couldn’t be there on presentation day as he had work commitments.
9:50 AM : Crisis support call to biggest supporter (aka mom) who also suggests that yes, we can prepare in less than three hours.
11:30 AM : Get to school. Nerves are in total overdrive having drunk 4 cups of coffee. Team member and I go over our notes. Surmise that no one will know if we bomb the presentation. Find consolation in this.
12:00 PM Sick presenter calls saying he can make it. Yes, you read right.
12:40 PM Sick presenter arrives.
1:00 PM We present.
1:15 PM It’s all over.
2:30 PM We find out that we didn’t make it to the second round. The 4 cups of coffee is still wreaking havoc on my nerves.
3:00 PM Subway ride home with sick presenter. I am told, that I should relax more. Nearly whacked him over the head, but I restrained myself as there would have been witnesses.
Lessons learned: Always have more than one presenter. Even if you don’t show up, you might win a prize.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
It was just a matter of time..
Before I was called upon in class and looked like an idiot... At least I didn’t say I don’t know.. The irony of it was the question was on Conrad Black. My award winning answer was something to the effect about the ‘class already took my answers’ .... and then I had to repeat what I said because the prof didn’t hear me. For someone who likes flying under the radar, and hates being put on the spot, this didn’t go down well. Well, at last I have learned to always have my name tag...being put on the spot by being called ‘you in the red’ only added to my embarrassment. There was a lengthy debate later that night on whether the Socratic method of calling upon you in class has merit.
Moving on. ..It has been a crazy two weeks and there is no slowdown in sight. The next few weeks are going to be tough. We have something due every week in March! Papers due constantly and all of them require a lot of ‘what do you think?’ I’ll take number crunching and an excel spreadsheet over that any day. As much as I hate writing these papers, and find them cumbersome, I do think this is where I personally get the most value out of the mba. With the exception of stats, and b law, I have coasted through most of the courses. These ‘soft’ courses are a lot more work than any of us thought. It does make me think in a different way, and takes me out of my comfort zone intellectually.
The investment challenge presentation is creeping up on us. In the last two months, our excitement has faded now that we are losing money. . It’s going to be a mad dash in the next two weeks to get up to speed on all the company and market news.
I better go and work on my ethics reaction paper. I am writing on none other than Conrad Black... it’s a good thing I blogged about him earlier, as I am using some of it in my paper...
Oh and one last note: I, along with everyone else have been fascinated with the Spitzer story. I know you probably have read everything there is to read about it.. for goodness sake People and ET are reporting on it too! So, I decided not to comment on it, but I wanted to share this ad by Virgin mobile canada with you. I think it is just brilliant marketing, and in line with Virgin's marketing strategy!
Moving on. ..It has been a crazy two weeks and there is no slowdown in sight. The next few weeks are going to be tough. We have something due every week in March! Papers due constantly and all of them require a lot of ‘what do you think?’ I’ll take number crunching and an excel spreadsheet over that any day. As much as I hate writing these papers, and find them cumbersome, I do think this is where I personally get the most value out of the mba. With the exception of stats, and b law, I have coasted through most of the courses. These ‘soft’ courses are a lot more work than any of us thought. It does make me think in a different way, and takes me out of my comfort zone intellectually.
The investment challenge presentation is creeping up on us. In the last two months, our excitement has faded now that we are losing money. . It’s going to be a mad dash in the next two weeks to get up to speed on all the company and market news.
I better go and work on my ethics reaction paper. I am writing on none other than Conrad Black... it’s a good thing I blogged about him earlier, as I am using some of it in my paper...
Oh and one last note: I, along with everyone else have been fascinated with the Spitzer story. I know you probably have read everything there is to read about it.. for goodness sake People and ET are reporting on it too! So, I decided not to comment on it, but I wanted to share this ad by Virgin mobile canada with you. I think it is just brilliant marketing, and in line with Virgin's marketing strategy!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Business Ethics
Is this an oxymoron? Can it even be taught? I am not sure, but I definitely think it belongs in the core courses taught at MBA schools. Even if you aren’t a highly ethical person, just learning about the consequences of unethical decision making should deter you (in some cases 25 years for white collar crime).
We had our Ethics class yesterday. Although it was a long day, we were taught by our B law prof, and he is very entertaining in class, and as a result it did go by rather quickly. We discussed the well known corporate scandals - Enron, Worldcom, Martha Stewart, Hollinger. The prof presented us with an interesting case that I hadn’t heard of at all. David Radler, Conrad Black’s former best friend and co-conspirator had donated $1 million (some through newspaper holding companies) to Queen’s Business School. In gratitude, Queens put up a plaque commemorating his donation. When he was found guilty, Queens decided that they would make a stance and return the funds and take down the plaque. In the end they couldn’t return all the funds due to the fact that some of the companies that had donated the funds in Radler’s name were not in existence. Mr. Radler did accept the return of his contributions. The question that was posed to us was would you return the funds? My group decided to, take down the plaque, and keep the money. It posed an interesting question, do politicians return money when they realize the money that was donated to their campaign was illegally made? The professor told us that Mother Theresa faced similar problems. Her response was that she couldn’t control where the money was coming from, but she could control where it would go. That line of thinking works for me.
One of the more interesting points that stuck with me yesterday was the fact that unethical behaviour doesn’t happen instantly. A person doesn’t actually sit there and think ‘Today I will be unethical’. It is a series of events that lead up to it. They hope that their little actions aren’t caught, and that they can mend it in time. But one lie always leads to a bigger lie and so on.
In concluding this post, a bit of legal advice for you: If you are ever caught in an unethical situation, and are being prosecuted: Be the FIRST to make a deal.......let’s hope you never have to use this advice.
We had our Ethics class yesterday. Although it was a long day, we were taught by our B law prof, and he is very entertaining in class, and as a result it did go by rather quickly. We discussed the well known corporate scandals - Enron, Worldcom, Martha Stewart, Hollinger. The prof presented us with an interesting case that I hadn’t heard of at all. David Radler, Conrad Black’s former best friend and co-conspirator had donated $1 million (some through newspaper holding companies) to Queen’s Business School. In gratitude, Queens put up a plaque commemorating his donation. When he was found guilty, Queens decided that they would make a stance and return the funds and take down the plaque. In the end they couldn’t return all the funds due to the fact that some of the companies that had donated the funds in Radler’s name were not in existence. Mr. Radler did accept the return of his contributions. The question that was posed to us was would you return the funds? My group decided to, take down the plaque, and keep the money. It posed an interesting question, do politicians return money when they realize the money that was donated to their campaign was illegally made? The professor told us that Mother Theresa faced similar problems. Her response was that she couldn’t control where the money was coming from, but she could control where it would go. That line of thinking works for me.
One of the more interesting points that stuck with me yesterday was the fact that unethical behaviour doesn’t happen instantly. A person doesn’t actually sit there and think ‘Today I will be unethical’. It is a series of events that lead up to it. They hope that their little actions aren’t caught, and that they can mend it in time. But one lie always leads to a bigger lie and so on.
In concluding this post, a bit of legal advice for you: If you are ever caught in an unethical situation, and are being prosecuted: Be the FIRST to make a deal.......let’s hope you never have to use this advice.
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