My blogging Warwick friend Chris is also feeling the end closing. But he has already started saying his goodbyes, this hasn't really started for us, although we have seen some of our own leave for good (to get cute little babies, for instance).
I haven't felt the sadness yet and the party at N2 yesterday was more of a celebration. But go check Chris' impressions out.
Showing posts with label wbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wbs. Show all posts
I just followed a discussion on WBS' intranet and wanted to share one piece of advice by my friend Singean. The intranet platform at WBS is, for some reason, the one which students use more effectively. The intranet at Queen's was high quality too and the one at MBS is very functional, although old fashioned (they are changing that, though). Maybe it is because of the big number of Distance Learning students who use the intranet as their main source of interaction. In any case, at WBS the contact between the different master courses is much stronger than at the other schools.
But back to accounting, I am publishing the question which started the discussion and one of the answers to it. I hope that the authors don't mind.
Greetings Everyone,
I was looking for a bit of advice and thought that I would try to reach out to the accountants out there ...
I am doing some consutancy for a small business that has a very healthy turnover and some fairly big clients - unfortunately they have no administration in place and there seems to be a fair amount of loss through the lack of control.
I was wondering if any of you can spare a moment to give some advice about what would be the best accounting package to put them on -
I have been looking at Peach Tree and Quick Books - as it turns out though quick books apparently fails to handle currencies ... has anyone got any suggestions? Please bear in mind I am not an accountant and I may end up having to set the whole thing on my own ..
The company has to :
1 Invoice Clients
2. Pay wages
3. Handle Multiple currencies as the TZ shilling is linked to the dollar and they are interchangeable -
4. Buy/sell inventory
- they are a services company
Thanks in advance
Gian
And my friend Singean's response:
Saw this thread and thought I would throw in my full penny worth too. It sounds to me like you are being pushed back on in a very classic way. Be very careful with any claims that "everything will be okay or nothing can be done until the new software comes". This is a very common excuse for poor performance which conveniently masks any need to improve things in the present. Software is just a tool not a panacea.
The start of controlling is to make sure you sit with people and make sure what they are doing actually makes sense, you don't need to be an accountant or have fancy software to do that. If you are reasonably bright and you still can't understand it then probably something is wrong. You can begin this process now without the software being in place.
Just go and sit at peoples desks and have people explain to you what they do, follow a couple of specific transactions all the way through the system. Tell tale things to look out for is if ever you hear the following: someone says they do something "because it's just like that", or "for historic reasons', or they do it "unofficially" then you need to circle back on the point later as there is a very good chance you have a financial leakage just at that point. I suggest you don't jump on the first instance of suspected leakage you see but instead quietly take a note of it because otherwise you will never get to see what is happening further downstream.
Don't expect to win many buddies doing this as unfortunately you may expect significant resistance and avoidance but if you are patient you will gradually regain control of the business. If you do not regain control first then you can buy the best software in the world and it still won't help you.
Good luck with it.
Singean
FTMBA 08
This would be something I would like to be able to take part in. But I am not. So all of you who can go, enjoy!
Join us for the annual SUMMER BALL!!
Saturday 19 July, 7.30pm - late
For tickets please visit www.wbs.ac.uk/go/summerball
The luxurious Lakeside Marquee here at Warwick Business School will provide the perfect backdrop for this Summer Ball, including an evening of cocktails, fine dining, charming company, dancing & more. Following an indulgent culinary experience you can dance the night away until the early hours. The Ball is a black tie event and is open to all members of the WBS community, their friends, colleagues and family.
And tonight they had a cool party at the Warwick Business School. All exams are over and the second term of MBA, with the last core subjects is also over.
From the Facebook updates I have been following, people have looked to this party with mixed feelings. They are happy for how far they have come and the feeling that exams are done is certainly very liberating. On the other hand, with the end of the core subjects, which everybody has to take, an important stage of the MBA reached its end. After these subjects, the whole cohort will maybe only get together again at the graduation party.
The A0.01 class room will no more be full with 80 plus FTMBA07 people again. It is kind of sad. This is a great group of people and it was a great group of people for me to start my MBA. I found good friends, open minds and, more important, open hearts. A very diverse mix: different ages, different countries, different professional experiences. But it was the group I started with and it is the group I would be with now if I could.
Anyway, I am now at the Business School in Kingston, Ontario, several thousand kilometers away, with another great group of people, watching a video after a good week of classes, relaxing deservedly. My first half of the MBA is also soon over. 10 more days and one exam. Then I will pack everything up and fly over to Germany. And the big job search will start seriously.
In Mannheim there will be yet a third group of great people assembled. I am really looking forward to meet the guys and girls I met for one brief week in Semptember 2007, an eternity or two ago. This will surely be great! And, to top it up, we will have weekly reinforcements from all over the place: the students who have been our hosts will come to stay at our home this time. Man, will that be fun!!
Last week I took part in a recruiting webcast done by UK's consulting arm of the company, IBM Global Business Services.
I thought, from the beginning, that it was a cool idea, as I would be able to take part in the same event as my colleagues from Warwick Business School, even being an Ocean apart.
But the webcast was set up in a surprising way: the slides were served through a password protected website, while you had to call a special number to be able to listen to the speakers. Why not have both online, I don't know, but, in the age of Youtube and Skype, it surely is strange. Since I don't have a good phone plan for daytime calls, I used Skype out, which worked just fine, bringing all back to the internet.
The presentation was fine, the slides being showed on the screen and the audio through the headphones. One glitch or two due to feedback, but that was really minor.
I would have one or two suggestions to make this type of event more effective.
First of all, it should be all online. I don't know the reasons to separate the audio from the video, but I am sure the folks at IBM know why they do that. But it certainly would make our lives easier. And taking part in the event would be more convenient for the participants. It certainly is technologically possible.
Then I would suggest doing it in two parts. The first part, the one way presentation, when the audience doesn't interact with the talkers, could be presented as a pre-recorded podcast. Not only would the overall production quality be better, it would give participants the chance to get the presentation at their own time.
The second part would naturally be the questions and answers part, which is two way. For this section, people would then all connect at the same time and use the teleconference possibilities.
Furthermore, there were only 3 questions allowed and I thought this was very little. After all, people had been listening for about 40 minutes, they could have reserved a little bit more of time for the more interactive part of the presentation.
All in all, it was an interesting event. But, more interesting, was the opportunity to talk to a more senior consultant from IBM Global Business Services Canada, who gave a guest lecture for the marketing course here at Queen's. The cohort went to the pub after the class, with the aim of having the possibility of talking to Todd. And this was certainly constructive, as I could discuss several higher level issues related to the consultancy profession in general.
Warwick Business School has achieved its highest ranking yet in the prestigious Financial Times Global MBA rankings, published today. It is now ranked 29th in the world, a climb of seven places in one year.
Read the rest of the press release or take a look at the Financial Times MBA ranking site.
WBS also climbed two spots in the European comparison, being the 12th business school in that category.
That is indeed a great result, and I am happy for the school, the teachers, the staff and we, students. That's a great way to go!
Now it is back to the investments class after a non satisfying quizz performance.
Was not really as I wanted it to be. Should be more romantic, but was a lot of hard work, doing the famed economics assignment. At least I had great company, as usual. Company which I will miss dearly.
Cause I'm busy with economics assignment (still!), farewells and stuff.
Was a great term, thanks to all.
And good luck to all too, the world is small, we'll soon meet.
Not much to explain here, just some hard information for you.
There are several launderetes around campus. The ones I know are the one at in the Lakeside 4 building (pictured below) and the one behind the students' union next to the mail room. There are others, of course.
Then you will need coins. Washing is 2 pounds, drying is one pound and you might need an extra 20 pence.
A big bag. You'll need it to carry your clothes and people usually use the green recycling bag you get in your rooms.
Then you have to dry them. For 1 pound you do that. Follow the instructions on the wall and transfer your clothes from the washer to the dryer. it works pretty well without creasing the clothes too much. It also takes around 50 minutes.
You will find chairs for the wait and even a Coca-Cola vending machine.
So, remember:
- Coins in the correct amount: (2 pounds + 1 pound + 20 pence).
- Detergent
- Good planning ;-)
BTW, good place to meet that cute girl from the opposite flat...
Yesterday was the last exam I was really worried about. Organizational behaviour. But it turned out that I wasn't too badly prepared, thanks to some own work and to some great help and a efficient summary on motivation by Marwa.
Now I have marketing and operations management to go. But I liked those classes, am confident about the subjects and the exams are only 40% of the final grade, having already gotten a good grade in the marketing group assignment and expecting a positive result for the OM project as well.
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| From 071211-12 Ice... |
Much more interesting, I believe, is the development of the weather around here. The lst 3 days have been very cold, finally. We had had a cold wave in November, but, after that, the weather had become pleasantly mild and unpleasantly wet. Now we can say that it is really cold: for the first time, the lake has frozen closed. The ice layer is not really thick at about 5 mm, but it is a beginning. Let's see how it develops. Maybe we'll celebrate our farewell party *on* the lake?
Some pictures in the following album:
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| 071211-12 Ice in Warwick |
OK, accounting is over. Passed. Probably. Maybe the grade isn't even too bad. But that is not important.
The check mark that I just put behind this big "to do" item just feels great. One gone, OB to go, still. Then Marketing and Operations after Wednesday. In the meantime, I just have to pack one box to Germany and two suitcases to Canada. And we did collect a lot, really a lot, of paper!
OK, I should be studying accounting and OB, but let's try to keep it simple.
Here is a list of links to information that I brought together during the term regarding practical tips for life on campus and classes. I hope they are useful. They can easily be referenced by clicking on the "WBS Tips" button on the top right of this blog.
- Adapter plugs
- Have at least 2
- Washing clothes at the University of Warwick
- The book fair
- An event to buy used books
- How good is the internet connection at Warwick University?
- The Language Centre
- If you plan to brush up your French or Japanese or...
- Societies
- You'll probably not have time for them, but...
- Midterm exams and a little bit more about Bristol
- A bit on exams here and some unrelated stuff
- Submitting assignments at WBS
- The tap issue
- A British curiosity
- High tech infrastructure
- An ode to Nicholas Bate
- Some about some of the teachers we had here
There are Mannheimers all over the globe. Even near Paris, at the ESSEC school. Pete is one of them and he sent these tips for those going there in the future. Not my case, but enjoy.
From: Peter Findlay
Date: Dec 7, 2007 6:11 PM
Subject: For ESSEC Students - Winter Term 2008 - Ignore Otherwise
Hello all If you are going to ESSEC for the January semester - here are a few points of advice.
Maina gave us some great advice about Warwick - let us know if anyone else has anything to add to that.
Cell Phones - the other guys were paying for prepaid cards - but they are quite expensive about 0.39 EUR per minute, with not too many deals. If you want to go through the hassle of getting a bank card like I did - (you have to make an appointment, bring a passport, attestation of residence and school enrolment) - then you can sign up for a long contract. The great thing about this is, you can legally break your contract after three months as long as you leave france. Delphine, the academic advisor gives you a attestation of leaving france and you're off the hook. A much cheaper way of doing things - but definitely requires some more hassles.
Residence - the residences are pretty average when compared to the Mannheim and from what I've heard Warwick residences. Nothing is included at the beginning, not even toilet paper. No bedding, no dishes, no light, nothing.
They charge you 90 EUR for a really crappy package - that we suggest you don't take. We all went to Ikea and spent anywhere from 50 -100 EUR and got more and better stuff - most of which we can resell for half price or maybe even give to you if we can figure out where to store it over the holidays. - We should arrange a swap system somehow. If you cant get to ikea - there is also Au Chan, which is about 5 min from ESSEC in the big shopping centre. It is a giant food store and has Wall Mart like items as well - cheap clothes / electronics / dishes, etc. Heating and windows are poor, so good to have an extra blanket. Internet has been a problem - bring your own internet cable.
Also we haven't been able to use torrent or other download tools which is annoying. Skype is sketchy sometimes.
School - not too bad, some of the rooms really need renovating - and often not well heated. Get used to sometimes wearing your jacket in class. The university is well-renowned (MBA just ranked 7th in the world for international business schools in the Wall Street Journal ahead of Harvard and Insead!!), however in reality - the program is not really an MBA. The students, although very smart, are very young and often without any real work experience. They are hired to work at the best banks and consultancy firms in France and throughout Europe, but they don't go in at the MBA level, but at an undergrad position essentially. However, you are going to ESSEC in the best term, as no other of our partner schools offer as many options for courses to take and you can really find courses you like from some generally pretty good professors. You will feel a little old here - the average age is probably around 22 in the MBA classes and many students on campus are like 19 or 20.
Paris - about 40-50 minutes on the RER subway train - a must do almost every weekend,and even during the week. Cergy really does suck and paris is amazing on so many levels. So make use of your time here to enjoy the city.
Food - Food at school consists of French sandwhiches at the cafeteria or the pub for about 2.5 EUR which are essentially a big baguette a few small toppings inside, or there is a student restaurant close which is shared with some local colleges - you have to by a booklet of 10 tickets for 2.8 EUR per ticket - and when you go downstairs - you get a big meal for your 2.8 EUR.
The meal is not always amazing, but lots of choice generally, and good to get veggies, stuff like that. Otherwise - there is a food court in the shopping mall which will be 5-10 EUR (be carefull the asian places are really expensive). To go out to a restaurant - Paris is obviously the best - but if you have to stay in Cergy - there is 4-5 nice little chain restaurants down by the harbour about a 10-15 walk from school - about 12-20 EUR. Residence - Le Haut - not to sure, but seems like there is nothing really around other than a bakery. Linandes - A McDonalds / KFC / Overprice American Steak restaurant and a bakery within 2-3 min walk.
Parties - go to Paris on your own or if you want to do one of the many ESSEC parties - we suggest the "MASTERIZE ME" parties organized by the masters students who are normally > 22 so there a little more your age. Many of the ESSEC parties are like 19 years old. The Foy's pub is pretty cool usually on campus - lots of French people there of course - but beer is only 1 EUR (25cl) or 2 EUR (50cl). Normally in france beer is 4 EUR (25 CL) and 6-7 EUR for (50 cl), so this is the best deal around.
Bakeries - these are everywhere, not as healthy as German bakeries, but more tasy. Almond Croissants are my favourite. Basically its like a croissant getting nuclear bombed by almonds and chocolate such that it doesn’t even look like a croissant anymore.
Hope this helps.
Pete
I just found out that Diego has a blog, in Spanish. He doesn't post often, but, when he does, he usually has great pictures. And a great sense of humour.
But if you visit his blog (http://eninglaterra.blogspot.com/)today, you will see that he has a great reason to be really, really happy: the arrival of his third kid, Juan Pablo.
Congratulations, diego! Toda sorte do mundo para você e sua família! Or, in Portuñol: Toda la suerte del mundo, par ti y tu familia!
From now on, his blog is linked on the right.
Tip of the week for the Mannheimers coming next term.
Assignments are submitted online through www.my.wbs.com. Usually the intranet is quite stable, although we had a problem during the submission deadline on Monday. But things were sorted out nicely.
Take a look at the e-mail below and do your files in shades of greys.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Miriam Mason
Date: Dec 6, 2007 11:52 AM
Subject: EBE assignment
To: FMBA students 2007 intake
Dear All
I understand there's been some discussion regarding submission of the assignment in colour. This is just a reminder for clarification purposes that you're required to submit online, and according to University policy all work is printed in black & white. It would therefore be more beneficial to produce your graphs/charts accordingly, i.e. using shading etc, rather than in colours which may not be clear when printed.
I hope this helps - and good luck with the assignment!
Kind regards
Miriam Mason
Programme Manager, Full-time MBA
The Warwick MBA
Warwick Business School
The picture above shows how focused everyone gets when it is revision week and the subject is accounting. And attendance was also high, as you all can see. This is also a nice shot of the class where we have our lessons, with around 80 people. The number of students increased from around 50 last year. It won't get any bigger, that's for sure. Maximum asset utilization (which is one of the ratios we have to know for the exam next Monday).
And then we have my favorite tree on campus. I guess it's an oak. I don't need to write much about it. It's imponent.
Undoubtedly Nicholas Bate was the teacher who had the most impact on our class this term. Mind you, he is not a WBS teacher. He is a consultant and trainer who has given us about half a dozen sessions on varied subjects, all dealing with personal development. You know that kind of self help and life philosophy Americans seem to like so much? Yeah, exactly that.
I personally don't care for self help books. How could I? They are extremely boring. They do present some neat and interesting ideas, but they rely on repetition and exhausting explanations to present you what is, usually, pretty much obvious stuff, good sense. OK, their merit is to put obvious stuff black on white and present it to you. On hindsight, everything is easy, remember Columbus' egg. But they are boring and patronizing anyway, most of times. So I shouldn't like Nick's sessions, right?
Well, what he does is to get all the clutter out of the way and present what really matters. And he does so in a consistent and excellent way, with all the meaning of the word. But more on that later. So, personally, I found his sessions good, will use some of what he has proposed, but not all of it. But that's the hang of it: you have to endorse what he is doing.
It seems that his way of teaching is, at least, very striking: many of my colleagues have written about him in their blogs, and his phrases or citations are common vocabulary in the cohort: "Love the dip, love the plateau.", "No failure, only feedback.", "Be here now.", "Be your own hero.", "MEDS", "Be distinct or extinct." and so on. One of Deepak's first blog articles was about Nick. Praveen has written about him. Chris also. And Marwa is a big fan. No other teacher we had made people think as much about themselves.
We did have great teachers. And Ben Knight is, from WBS, surely the one I liked best. He has an extreme enthusiasm for his subject, economics (the mother discipline) and he obviously has fun making everybody participate in his class. And he knows the students in the group. By name, nationality, experience. He put effort into getting our particular experiences out to illustrate his points to the class. Five stars for him.
Then we had the energetic Stuart Chambers, Operations Management. For me, one of the most entertaining classes. As his colleague Nigel Slack, which we had for only one session, also created an impression with his knowledge and humor.
Nigel Piercy, Market Analysis, was, IMHO, a very good teacher. But one with a mixed feedback. I liked his classes a lot, many people could not deal with his cynic and sarcastic style. Sometimes you were not sure if what he meant was what he wrote or the exact opposite. But that was fine for me. Our marketing course was very much a first grade strategy course and it treated marketing from an updated point of view. No 4Ps or established (and usually still valid) theories, but more about customer value, customer relationship, strategic advantage, effective communication. I believe we could not have had a better marketing course. And, for me, his slides and his presentation style, though monologic and maybe boring at times, worked well.
In organizational behavior we had so many teachers, that only the first and main one remains in my memory. Nick was a very pleasant guy and his classes are interesting. But sorry, didn't work for me. I couldn't find a structure in his exposition and this made it very confusing for me. I am not expecting to get a good mark in OB.
Accounting was well taught. But it was a technical subject, nothing special to report.
And we had other speakers and teachers coming in and out during the term for one day sessions. Graham from Sykes Fairbairn stood out and his colleagues were pretty cool. Not to mention Mark and Dana from Penhela, who fortunately I will be meeting again and listening to their extremely fast paced speech in Mannheim in April. These are some really expert recruiting consultants!
But Nicholas Bate was surely the most impacting character during these 3 months. And, for me, it has more to do with the way he presents things, than with what he actually presents. He clearly has control of the crows all the time. When he is in class, he means business, and you know it. He does joke from time to time, but he is dead serious. He is extremely well prepared. He know his handouts by heart. He doesn't use powerpoint slides. He speaks clearly and loudly. He repeats and emphasizes. The course of his lectures is dynamic and diverse. He has catchy phrases. No bullshit keywords. And, obviously, he likes what he is doing.
So, that's it for today. I gave you all an overview of the types of teachers we had and singled Nicholas Bate out. I hope this gives you a good idea of who we faced during the term and I'll end up with the weblink to Nichola's blog. Its feed is on my reading list.
http://nicholasbate.typepad.com/
Cheers,
Fernando, heading to the Practice of Management report which should have been done long ago.
P.S.: The geese are back. They disappeared for a week, when it was really cold, but it is warmer now and they are there again, although not as loudly as usual. But this is an old pic.
So here we are, almost there, almost finished. Only one of each left:
- one normal class week,
- one revision week,
- one exam week.
Actually, there are many people in the class I didn't really got to know. But this is OK. With a class big like this (82, AFAIK), it was to be expected. Anyway, I still wish to have two or three chats with some interesting people. Don't want the feeling of missing an opportunity now, although this is unavoidable.
And I still have 3 very special weeks to enjoy with all I got before parting to thousands of miles (yes, they are anglicizing me) away.
But enough of sentimentalism, let's talk about London. But not too much, I really do have those assignments to start. The weekend was great, the weather was even not too bad. It was cold, really cold without freezing, but we even saw some sun rays from time to time. And it was busy, walking around the city and showing the sights. I was impressed of how familiar I am with the city and its transport system, after only two visits (now three) and some 13 days.We had a situation with our hotel reservation which turned out well (or at least didn't turn out bad) right in the first hour of London. Then a very cold night in a cold top floor hotel room for fifty pounds. It is strange to see oneself thinking that 50 quid for a room is not expensive. After that a busy Saturday with parks and palace in the morning, Primark and Oxford Street in the afternoon and an Arabic music concert at Saint Barnaba's church.
Back to another hotel, Sunday. Camden Town station in the morning with its markets and curious shops. A great lunch with very dear friends who are at this moment flying over the Atlantic to Brazil and an afternoon on the Southbank. Walk, walk, walk. An evening at Picadilly Circus, China Town and Regent Street with its beautiful lights. Victoria Station and the long wait for the, of course, late Megabus coach. After another delay due to a fuel system fault and two bus exchanges we arrived safely at Cannon Park, just half an hour of more walking to the residences in the middle of the night.
No, I can't complain. It was a great weekend. But London was just the scenery, not that important at all.
And if I don't update this too much you know: only 3 more weeks to go. Gotta be here, now.
The Language Centre is the language school here in the University of Warwick. There the students can take the core language courses (one term) they need for the MBA and other courses, but they also can take extra-curricular courses, called leisure courses.
Originally, I wanted to take up French again. But I found it to be too much.
- First of all, the courses usually take up two terms, and I would be able to use them only for one term.
- Secondly, I personally could not free up the time for language studies. Just not high enough in my priorities list.
- Thirdly, there is a cost involved, about one hundred pounds for each course. So I decided not to try it this time.
Apparently, the Language Lab also has good multimedia facilities and material available to the public, so you could, in theory, go there to use their learning DVDs and do some private study in the language you prefer, on your own time and rhythm. I haven't tried it, though.
The full time MBA students will have to take one language course next term, when a second group of Mannheim exchange students will come. This means that they will have a group of colleagues to accompany to the language course, and this might work as a good incentive. Here is their website:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/languagecentre/courses/
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Yesterday we had two company presentations overlapping.
I chose first to go to the Deloitte presentation in the Teaching Centre. The director of strategy spoke about, hm, strategy. They promoted the event as something like "what you will not learn at university about strategy". Well, not really. Nothing new about strategy in this presentation. Mind you, it was a good and interesting presentation, but really nothing new. But it served to show that actually our marketing course is very much about general strategy and to confirm that what we are seeing at the MBA is what people are using outside.
Then I was able to participate in the networking part of the MBA RBS event. And this was really cool. The people from the bank were very accessible and keen to talk to us, MBAs. They really want to employ some of us in the near future and I had a good personal impression of the people working there. So much so that I feel inclined to take a better look at corporate banking.
I chose first to go to the Deloitte presentation in the Teaching Centre. The director of strategy spoke about, hm, strategy. They promoted the event as something like "what you will not learn at university about strategy". Well, not really. Nothing new about strategy in this presentation. Mind you, it was a good and interesting presentation, but really nothing new. But it served to show that actually our marketing course is very much about general strategy and to confirm that what we are seeing at the MBA is what people are using outside.
Then I was able to participate in the networking part of the MBA RBS event. And this was really cool. The people from the bank were very accessible and keen to talk to us, MBAs. They really want to employ some of us in the near future and I had a good personal impression of the people working there. So much so that I feel inclined to take a better look at corporate banking.
