Almost There

Three exams down, two to go! As one of my classmates pointed out, in total, we have 17 hours of examination within a span of 51 hours. Lucky us!

I'm looking forward to going out for drinks tonight. I think we all need it and it will be well deserved. Right after exams, we will be heading to La Maisonnee, which will be followed by L'Abreuvoir, neither of which I have been to yet.

In the spirit of our final Marketing exam, I am sharing this article that provides four rules for better marketing. In only a few hours, I will be done with my Corporate Finance I and Marketing Management courses.

My CSR team is in the unfortunate position of having no weekend break, since we will be returning to school on Monday to work on our case. At least that is something to look forward to!

Corporate Social Responsibility

Just a few hours ago, my CSR team had our dress rehearsal for our case competition. We used last year's case to present our recommendations to our coach (our former Ethics and Governance professor) and two fellow students. We were fortunate to get great practice and feedback, which will certainly be beneficial for our upcoming competition. This week, I have been speaking with the HEC Montreal's Communications Department on my team's behalf, and it turns out that, if our team makes the top three, then press releases will be sent out. I hope we get there!

Apparently, York University has been ranked first among Canadian schools in the U.I. GreenMetric Global Sustainability survey (video below). I hope that doesn't give their team an added advantage in the competition!

 

With so much talk about CSR, this article about social networking and ethics in the workplace caught my eye. I'll definitely be keeping the solution at the end of the article in mind as we formulate the recommendations for our case.

It's hard to believe that finals begin in only two days! Although I've been studying, I've also obviously been distracted by the case competition. In a way, it's been great to be looking forward to something other than the dreaded final exams.

Studying Up

I recently stumbled upon what seems to be a great opportunity for graduate school students:  the 2012 Pitch for Change Competition. The entries will be evaluated by Harvard students and faculty, so I'm sure the contest will also be a great backdrop for networking. The only downside? The submission deadline is Friday. More information about the competition can be found here.

This afternoon, I studied for my Strategy final for a bit by reviewing my notes and creating a "cheat sheet," as the exam will be open book. Since I will have this professor for two more classes (Strategic Management II and International Strategic Management), I hope I end up doing well in this course.

The rest of the day was spent studying for Finance and Globalization with one of my classmates. Even though my initial instinct upon looking at Finance exercises is to run away and hide, I'm proud of myself for constantly trying to do the problems. The good news is that this time next week, P3 will be over! The bad news is that Corporate Finance II will begin a few days later.

Preparing

I've hardly begun studying for finals and I'm already exhausted. I had a great study session this morning with a few classmates to prepare for... you guessed it.. Finance! Fortunately, I've discovered that I can learn these concepts. After all, it's not rocket science. It's just a matter of practicing the exercises over and over again until they become something that makes sense.

In the afternoon, I met with my case competition team to prepare for our Wednesday dress rehearsal. I think we did great preparatory work today and now I just have to practice on my own and get ready to put it all together for Tuesday. Now that I've taken an Ethics class, written a CSR paper on IKEA, and prepared for this CSR case competition, I feel like I'm becoming a corporate social responsibility pro.

This evening, I will be out celebrating my friend's 30th birthday. Although it's -3 degrees Fahrenheit, I will be trekking outside for my good friend. At least it will be better than staying inside studying!

In Good Company

Having only yesterday discussed the issue of child labor in our Globalization class, it was interesting to see not one, but two articles today accusing companies of having suppliers that employ underage workers (Apple and Victoria's Secret). Now Nike and IKEA are in good company.

For anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship, I found this article to have some good insight about the "5 Things They Didn't Teach You in Business School." Although it's no surprise that starting a business is no easy task, it's always good to be reminded of the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice that it actually entails.

Ironically, on the one day that I allowed myself to sleep in a bit, I discovered that I share one main trait with 23 really successful business leaders:  waking up early. Although I'm not (yet) a CEO, I find that I am more productive in the morning hours and arising early gives me a great start to the day. I'm able to catch up on e-mails, the news, assignments, etc. and still feel like I have an entire day ahead of me.

Today consisted of completing my Globalization assignment, attending my final Strategy class, and meeting with my case competition team. This weekend will be spent studying for next week's finals (primarily focusing on Finance) and practicing with my CSR team. It's hard to believe that in only two weeks both finals and the case competition will be over!

Time is Money

A few weeks ago, my team member had approached me about an idea that he and another classmate had called "Brown Bag Lunches." Essentially, he realized that each of us has a talent, one that other people would be interested in learning about, in order to achieve some type of self-improvement. For example, some fellow MBA students have great PowerPoint skills, while others excel at giving oral presentations. My team member envisaged that it would be ideal to have informal lunches where those who have a particular skill would be able to share their tips for success with others. I was flattered that my teammate had asked me to present at one of these Brown Bag Lunches to speak about my time management abilities.

During lunchtime today, I gave my time management workshop and I am very pleased with the positive feedback. It was great to be able to share my tips and tricks, and I hope that everyone who attended was able to walk away with new insight into time management. I have to congratulate Hassan and Sam, my classmates, for organizing the Brown Bag Lunch initiative. I'm looking forward to attending future workshops!

Right after today's workshop, my group presented our Ski Mont St-Bruno case for IT Management. I'm definitely getting some great practice for the upcoming case competition!

Mark My Words

My team submitted our Globalization assignment on IKEA and the Rugmark label today. I was very happy that the professor mentioned several of the important points that we raised in our paper. I sincerely thank Lina, one of my classmates, for meeting with me to discuss this case a few weeks ago. We had a great brainstorming session before diving into the written part of the assignment.

After Globalization class, my team met to finalize our IT assignment on Ski Mont St-Bruno that's due tomorrow. I've just completed my final edit of the paper and tomorrow after lunch we will practice the presentation moments before the live version. I'm looking forward to getting some more presentation experience before my case competition!