Bye Bye Miss American Pie

Who Moved My Cheese?

That's how I felt this entire year. Everytime I stopped for a second it seemed everything around me had changed. I do take responsibility for creating a lot of the change myself though. Since I was little my mother always said that I had "chan di" (directly translated from Vietnamese as "feet go"). This meant that I could not sit still for long and always had to be actively doing something or going somewhere. How little she knew how right she really was.

If you've followed this blog then you probably already know what I mean about this year. I left the security and comfort of a job and industry I knew very well, graduated from business school, moved out of London, started a new job in a new industry, and started focusing more on my cooking. These are the major changes that I had control over but I was subject to so many other changes as well. I had two grandparents pass away, graduated business school during a terrible economy and job market (as I know many of you have), and had several people enter and leave my "urban family". With the flurry of activity and changes in 2010 at least I can say I was true to my theme for the year of doing. For those who don't know, I like to have themes for each new year versus having resolutions.

A Weekend in Food

A couple weekends ago it seemed that I traveled far and wide, for (you guessed it) food. My journey began on Friday night when I traveled all the way to the east side of London. My friends have decided that the demarcation line in my head between east and west London is Liverpool Street Station and I am definitely a west London girl. What got me to the other side of town was Galvin La Chapelle. This is the third restaurant by famed London chefs/restauranteurs the Galvin brothers and it is beautifully set in the chapel of an old Victorian school. I was amazed how Galvin La Chapelle had the closest resemblance in terms of size, space, décor, and atmosphere to a San Francisco restaurant. I really felt like I could be walking into RN74, Boulevard, or Range. The food did not disappoint either offering daring twists on French classics.

My next stop took me to Oxford where a classmate/good friend lives.

Out of Africa

Apologies that it has been nearly a month since my last post but it has been an extremely busy and interesting month. Since my school summer break started I have been to Champagne, Berlin, and most notably Cape Town. Although I visited Cape Town not too long ago, this trip was very different. The main focus of this trip was for an international assignment which is a requirement for my executive MBA. I did manage to go out about a week early with my classmates to do some sightseeing as well though. Both work and play turned out to be much more enjoyable and rewarding than I could have imagined.

Lessons Learnt - Term 2

Term 2 of the MBA proved to be an extremely challenging term. Perhaps it was because we hadn't really had a break since January or because I didn't enjoy the courses as much this term. Either way I'm just glad it's all over for now and we get a bit of break for real this time. I will miss my classmates and especially my study group though.

Lessons learnt from term 2:

• Macroeconomics - If you know the Blame Canada song then the equilvalent in macroecon is blame Argentina. Apparently Argentina is the prime example of an economy gone wrong. Too bad my study group buddy is from Argentina. Let's just say it was a difficult course for him.
• Deciscion and Risk Analysis - To this day I still don't know what this course was about. If Solver or Crystal Ball mean anything to you, then you're miles ahead of me.
  
• Strategy - BCG (Boston Consulting Group) has a framework for strategy. BCG works with many companies. BCG can figure out your competitive advantage. Can you tell my professor used to work at BCG?
• Corporate Finance - Although I have no quantitative skills, I really really enjoyed this course. It was extremely challenging for me but I volunteered to lead the group project and learned so much. I never thought I'd get it, but somehow the lightbulb clicked for me. It doesn't hurt to have an amazing professor as well. It's a very difficult subject to keep people engaged but somehow he managed to keep our attention even on the last day when he stated, "I know five hours of corporate finance is the only thing between you and a party before your summer break".   
  

Picture Blog Post

Every Saturday should start like this...

Fruit de mer platter at The Commander:

A bit of foie gras

And still procrastinating from schoolwork...chocolate chunk muffins

Lessons Learnt

Now that I've completed my first term of the executive MBA program I thought I'd share what I've learned at school so far.  After being out of school for nearly 10 years it has been both difficult and fun to be back in a classroom setting.  It is strange to be back in an environment where you need to raise your hand to speak and feel you need permission to go to the toilet.  I've also discovered that regardless of the fact that we are mostly all in our 30s and professionals in our respective industries, we've all regressed to being 16-years-old again (and that's generous for some). On the last day of the term we were told by a professor that we had been labeled as the "naughty class".  This is likely for our tendency to brashly question professors and talk back in lectures among other bad behavior.  During the first week I think certain defining moments bonded us as a class which has been good in the sense of camaraderie but bad in the sense of mob mentality. 

Although our case if likely more extreme, I think this is the issue you tend to have with executive MBA programs.  You have a group of people entering school with a certain bravado due to their so-called "real world" experience being taught by ivory tower academic experts who may have little or no "real world" experience.  This can lead to a contentious situation but I've learned that being shielded from "real-world" exposure gives the professors a perspective that is untainted from past experience which can be much more insightful.

Here are a few things I've learned from my specific coursework:

• Managerial Economics - Trying to say ceteris paribus as many times as possible in one class session really annoys the professor and your fellow classmates.  We also learned that you should always take the dominant strategy.

• Financial Accounting - Accountants are not bean counters, they are magic bean counters which explains the creativity behind all the major accounting scandals.  They also like to throw around obscure terminology and equations to weed out the mere mortals from the accounting geniuses. 

• Corporate Responsibility - Business ethics doesn't really matter until you get caught.  Ask the aforementioned accountants about it.

• Developing Effective Managers and Organizations - This class falls under the school of organizational behavior which begins with individual behavior.  So if you don't want to change your behavior the organization will never change.

Procrastinating

This is what happens when I have a final to study for and two papers to write...trade a slice of lemon cake for a paper on corporate ethics?

 

Bad B-School Decision

Today I realized that I chose the wrong business school not once but twice over. I chose London Business School for its excellent standing, diversity, and global perspective. I found out today just how wrong I was though. First of all, due to the schedule of the program I was too distracted to make reservations at El Bulli and now the 2009 season has filled completely. Secondly, when Ferran Adria chose a business school to speak at he chose Harvard Business School. LBS had better come through for me in other ways.

Snow Day

I was born in a tropical country and lived nearly all of my life in Northern California so snow was always something that you had to travel to see. However on the night of Superbowl Sunday; this is what it looked like outside of my window.

Between last night and today nearly 1 foot of snow has fallen in some parts of London making it the most snow the city has seen in 18 years. I got emails and texts all day from people saying they were taking a snow day as the buses and most of the tubes and trains weren't running. And forget about driving. When even a dusting of snow falls on the ground the whole of the UK comes to a grinding halt.

Aside from the snow what's been going on with me? I had a small Superbowl Sunday pre-game get together last night to my all-American pride. Why was it only a pre-game celebration? You must realize that the game didn't start until 11:30pm GMT. I was able to catch a bit of it and saw "The Boss" perform at half-time.

Lately it's just been a busy mixture of work (prepping for the big launch) and school. How has school been? The first week was very exhausting and overwhelming. Then came the first weekend and now I've just finished my second weekend. I must say I was still on the fence after the first week but school has improved by leaps and bounds since then. Perhaps the dissatisfaction with week 1 was mostly down to the fact that we were required to stay in a gritty hotel for an entire week. Everyday we would spend 8-10 hours in class together and then would be required to attend social events afterwards together. It was great for the first few days to all be in one place and get to know each other but by Wednesday we were all ready to go home, especially those of use who live locally (10 minutes away for me) and had just come back from traveling for Christmas holidays.

Since then the professors have improved (most but not all) and I've come to a point where I really fee like I'm learning. Not that I know everything there is to know about my job, but I don't have many of those "ah-ha" moments at work anymore. It's been a lot of work so far and there is still much more work to come but I have to say I'm enjoying it and I'm glad to not be sitting in the office all day long.

First Day of School

Today I completed my first grueling day of the executive MBA program. It was tough particularly after a restless night due to the sub-zero weather outside and the faulty heating in my hotel room. We started with breakfast at 7:30am where I made a great first impression by falling over in my chair. That will definitely be part of the EMBA experience that I will never forget. From there it was just like starting kindergarten all over again. We got dressed in our uniforms (business suits required) and were lead down the street in single file to the school by one of the administrators. Orientation and classes went from 9am to 7:30pm which is how our schedule will be for the rest of the program.

I do have to credit my friends for all of the encouragement and support. I received ~10 emails/texts/facebook posts today wishing me well on my first day of school and it sincerely helped me get through the day. The most notable was from The Divine Miss N and Grant who both previously graduated from the full-time MBA program:

We're so proud of you. We're sending our little one to school! Don't forget your lunch box or your apple for the teacher, and don't trade the contents of your lunch box with anyone else. Play nice with the other kids and make friends. Don't steal anyone else's toys and don't do anything we wouldn't do. Good luck!

I think I got the friends part down but not so sure about the toys.

By the way, apologies now for the infrequency of the blog postings. The EMBA is going to take nearly all of my free time for the next 18 months.