Meanwhile, just a few pics to give you a flavor. What an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.
9 years ago
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Back from China!
By the way, I've been back from China for a little over a month. It was incredible! I am working on a report for school, I will share on the blog - with pictures etc. - later this summer.
Meanwhile, just a few pics to give you a flavor. What an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Great wall greatness.
Entrance to the Forbidden City.
Howard Johnson's in Shanghai spells out something profound in Chinese.
The view of PuDong from the Bund in Shanghai - what's all the electricity cost?
Good friends were made into great ones!
Port of Shanghai - an amazing engineering feat built in 2 year.
Local transportation.
Hangzhou - West Lake - views that inspire Chinese lovers and poets.
Meanwhile, just a few pics to give you a flavor. What an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Executive MBA: Things You Can "Apply the Next Day"
So, with Year 1 of Rutgers Executive MBA done (off to China in a couple days), I have a bit of time to write again about the experience.
The year was amazing. A little like the Matrix movie where you jam twenty different skills into your head in the course of a few minutes. Plus new friends who will surely be friends for life. Just now beginning to dust off and decompress. Where to begin?
First, it's been nearly two and a half decades since I've been in graduate school. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed learning. Being in this environment you really do get out what you put in. I maybe got a bit carried away because it also consumed more time away from life and family than it rightfully should. I probably pushed the edge a bit too much. Next year is about achieving more of a balance, carving out time during the week to spend away from both work and school. Difficult because between the two that's about 90 hours a week. Something has to give a bit and it will probably be school. That's hard, though, when I am really enjoying what I'm learning and seeing directly how to apply it to my career day by day.
People do talk about this so I just want to list a few of the things I learned that I was able to "apply the next day." Literally I would be applying something the same day I was doing homework or studying for an exam.
The two courses I applied most were financial accounting and financial management. Having never studied accounting or finance in college these were new to me - yet I've been working with financial statements and project financial analysis for years. Day by day I would learn something that was directly relevant to my work: whether it was GAAP for revenue recognition or IRR and discounted cash flow for project valuation, the very next day I could open up a file at work and make an improvement.
Other courses were relevant in a different way. In my strategic transformation class, I wrote a paper on a strategic transformation of my organization as it unfolded in real time, and was able to submit the appendix - a series of management recommendations - to my boss at the same time as we were re-organizing our group. Our international business class discussed a case on a foreign market entry: six weeks later, I was applying the same principals to our own foreign market entry at work.
When it came to linear programming in stats, I actually haven't used this one yet, but am planning to. A linear programming model applied to our selection of books for publication could yield fascinating results. I'm also hoping to apply the same type of analysis to Michael's consulting business.
If this were all, however, it wouldn't be so significant. The biggest change I've seen this year has been my confidence in myself and abilities in business. New skills in negotiations, leadership, and communications - combined with "talking the talk" when it comes to business lingo - have given me a leg up in any business setting. It isn't that the new deals I've closed this year or the progress I've made at work would not have happened without this program. It's that I'm comfortable working in the "Big Leagues," as it were. There really does seem to be a club of MBA-educated folks in a lot of leadership positions. Having the experience and references to speak their language puts you on an equal footing that would be difficult - not impossible, but just more difficult - to achieve otherwise. Maybe it's in the ways you see to connect the dots: between global economics, corporate finance, strategic management, and your day-to-day decisions about who to hire, how to lead a meeting, what to spend on thingamabobs, whether the CEO is doing a good job or not, or how many hours of your day to focus on x, y, or z. It doesn't change who you are, your experience or background, but it does give you personal clarity, and that extra bit of sparkle. That's hard to quantify but probably more valuable than all of those specific skills combined.
Now, off to China, then summer to recharge and reconnect with my family and friends, and then next year, when the program really gets interesting. Now if I can only get through with my marriage in tact, that's something to look forward to.
The year was amazing. A little like the Matrix movie where you jam twenty different skills into your head in the course of a few minutes. Plus new friends who will surely be friends for life. Just now beginning to dust off and decompress. Where to begin?
First, it's been nearly two and a half decades since I've been in graduate school. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed learning. Being in this environment you really do get out what you put in. I maybe got a bit carried away because it also consumed more time away from life and family than it rightfully should. I probably pushed the edge a bit too much. Next year is about achieving more of a balance, carving out time during the week to spend away from both work and school. Difficult because between the two that's about 90 hours a week. Something has to give a bit and it will probably be school. That's hard, though, when I am really enjoying what I'm learning and seeing directly how to apply it to my career day by day.
People do talk about this so I just want to list a few of the things I learned that I was able to "apply the next day." Literally I would be applying something the same day I was doing homework or studying for an exam.
The two courses I applied most were financial accounting and financial management. Having never studied accounting or finance in college these were new to me - yet I've been working with financial statements and project financial analysis for years. Day by day I would learn something that was directly relevant to my work: whether it was GAAP for revenue recognition or IRR and discounted cash flow for project valuation, the very next day I could open up a file at work and make an improvement.
Other courses were relevant in a different way. In my strategic transformation class, I wrote a paper on a strategic transformation of my organization as it unfolded in real time, and was able to submit the appendix - a series of management recommendations - to my boss at the same time as we were re-organizing our group. Our international business class discussed a case on a foreign market entry: six weeks later, I was applying the same principals to our own foreign market entry at work.
When it came to linear programming in stats, I actually haven't used this one yet, but am planning to. A linear programming model applied to our selection of books for publication could yield fascinating results. I'm also hoping to apply the same type of analysis to Michael's consulting business.
If this were all, however, it wouldn't be so significant. The biggest change I've seen this year has been my confidence in myself and abilities in business. New skills in negotiations, leadership, and communications - combined with "talking the talk" when it comes to business lingo - have given me a leg up in any business setting. It isn't that the new deals I've closed this year or the progress I've made at work would not have happened without this program. It's that I'm comfortable working in the "Big Leagues," as it were. There really does seem to be a club of MBA-educated folks in a lot of leadership positions. Having the experience and references to speak their language puts you on an equal footing that would be difficult - not impossible, but just more difficult - to achieve otherwise. Maybe it's in the ways you see to connect the dots: between global economics, corporate finance, strategic management, and your day-to-day decisions about who to hire, how to lead a meeting, what to spend on thingamabobs, whether the CEO is doing a good job or not, or how many hours of your day to focus on x, y, or z. It doesn't change who you are, your experience or background, but it does give you personal clarity, and that extra bit of sparkle. That's hard to quantify but probably more valuable than all of those specific skills combined.
Now, off to China, then summer to recharge and reconnect with my family and friends, and then next year, when the program really gets interesting. Now if I can only get through with my marriage in tact, that's something to look forward to.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Executive MBA Experience: First Semester In
Decided to get an executive MBA was one of the biggest decisions I made recently - not only the time commitment, but spending a significant amount of money: how much to spend, which school to go to, whether I would have any life, how I would manage it with work, and all of that. The Exec MBA experience is like a roller coaster, and this September I got on. Many people have asked me what it's like so I thought this post might give people a view from this inside. We just finished our first semester mid-terms so this is a good time to pause for a moment and reflect (and believe me, there haven't been many opportunities to pause...).
In an earlier post I discussed my decision to go to Rutgers and now that I'm there the first thing to say is that I made the right choice. I really believe this program is unique in how it builds a sense of collaboration, trust, and friendship amongst the students. The academics are solid but more than just learning statistics or economics, what really comes out of the program is how to apply leadership and management skills as you work collaboratively with colleagues and professionals from a variety of geographic, industry, and ethnic backgrounds. These "soft skills," as we characterize them in publishing, are not the kinds of things I thought I needed to learn - but now that I'm here, I'm realizing this may be one of the most valuable experiences of the Exec MBA. The first semester at Rutgers fosters an environment where you can assimilate underlying academic basic (law, statistics, economics) that will be more applied in future semesters while also having a laboratory to practice essential business skills such as negotiation and leadership. I've never "studied" these skills before and going through that process is certainly useful. I feel like a vintage car being "tuned up" for business, and already have noticed its positive effect on how I do my job at work. I really think that Rutgers could market this aspect of the program more, because now that I am here, I realize this is probably the most essential thing I was looking for from my MBA, yet didn't know before I arrived.
In other words - before coming, I was focused on things like quality of networking, school reputation, or specifics of the curriculum (did they have a class on this or that interest). Really all external surface factors. The real experience is what the program can teach you about yourself (you get out of it what you put in, certainly) - how relevant you make the homework for yourself, and the quality of the teachers and program. I'm sure there are many schools that can impart these things but what I've discovered is that you can't predetermine where the MBA will take you before you come in. If you are really open to the MBA experience, you will dive deeply into it and let it transform you into the type of informed decision maker, leader, and business strategist who can make the best decisions about where to take your business and your career. This was my real goal, even though I didn't know it, and I'm excited that this two year experience will take me there. Things like career progress and salary will naturally follow.
So in a blink of an eye two months have gone by, an eighth of the program. Does it consume every moment of non-work time? Pretty much. Is it a relationship strain? Yes, but here are two things that help:
1. Really think through and prepare with your spouse what the family will need. Do you need extra day care, cleaning service? How will you help your spouse manage the extra work load falling to them?
2. No matter what you arrange, it will be a strain, so when you can, take evenings off to return to the family. Yes, you will feel strained and worried about school and work. But you start to learn how to keep up with readings, what you can skip or delay. An evening every other week will seem overwhelming to you and terribly infrequent to your spouse but you will both benefit from it.
The hardest part: your day job demands. As with any job, there are ebbs and flows to the overtime and weekends when work starts to back up or you need to travel. This is where the strong friendships and the group dynamics of the Rutgers program really pay off. If you are a good study group they will step in when you are traveling and you will return the favor. You will learn to get by with less sleep, but don't sacrifice your workout or exercise routine: staying in shape and eating healthy are essential to keeping up your stamina. The Exec MBA is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to go in with proper discipline, but not panic and expend all your energy right away. You need to keep those daily things that keep you going, or you will quickly loose the energy you need.
Two months in, I feel I've gotten the flow. I've had to sacrifice not only hobbies and some favorite activities (like going to the movies or enjoying a fall hike) but also put off friends and cancel reunions with old acquaintances. But pacing yourself is important. A ten minute break to write this post, and now back to my law book for the rest of the day (and prepare for work tomorrow). That's the Sunday life of the exec MBA.
In an earlier post I discussed my decision to go to Rutgers and now that I'm there the first thing to say is that I made the right choice. I really believe this program is unique in how it builds a sense of collaboration, trust, and friendship amongst the students. The academics are solid but more than just learning statistics or economics, what really comes out of the program is how to apply leadership and management skills as you work collaboratively with colleagues and professionals from a variety of geographic, industry, and ethnic backgrounds. These "soft skills," as we characterize them in publishing, are not the kinds of things I thought I needed to learn - but now that I'm here, I'm realizing this may be one of the most valuable experiences of the Exec MBA. The first semester at Rutgers fosters an environment where you can assimilate underlying academic basic (law, statistics, economics) that will be more applied in future semesters while also having a laboratory to practice essential business skills such as negotiation and leadership. I've never "studied" these skills before and going through that process is certainly useful. I feel like a vintage car being "tuned up" for business, and already have noticed its positive effect on how I do my job at work. I really think that Rutgers could market this aspect of the program more, because now that I am here, I realize this is probably the most essential thing I was looking for from my MBA, yet didn't know before I arrived.
In other words - before coming, I was focused on things like quality of networking, school reputation, or specifics of the curriculum (did they have a class on this or that interest). Really all external surface factors. The real experience is what the program can teach you about yourself (you get out of it what you put in, certainly) - how relevant you make the homework for yourself, and the quality of the teachers and program. I'm sure there are many schools that can impart these things but what I've discovered is that you can't predetermine where the MBA will take you before you come in. If you are really open to the MBA experience, you will dive deeply into it and let it transform you into the type of informed decision maker, leader, and business strategist who can make the best decisions about where to take your business and your career. This was my real goal, even though I didn't know it, and I'm excited that this two year experience will take me there. Things like career progress and salary will naturally follow.
So in a blink of an eye two months have gone by, an eighth of the program. Does it consume every moment of non-work time? Pretty much. Is it a relationship strain? Yes, but here are two things that help:
1. Really think through and prepare with your spouse what the family will need. Do you need extra day care, cleaning service? How will you help your spouse manage the extra work load falling to them?
2. No matter what you arrange, it will be a strain, so when you can, take evenings off to return to the family. Yes, you will feel strained and worried about school and work. But you start to learn how to keep up with readings, what you can skip or delay. An evening every other week will seem overwhelming to you and terribly infrequent to your spouse but you will both benefit from it.
The hardest part: your day job demands. As with any job, there are ebbs and flows to the overtime and weekends when work starts to back up or you need to travel. This is where the strong friendships and the group dynamics of the Rutgers program really pay off. If you are a good study group they will step in when you are traveling and you will return the favor. You will learn to get by with less sleep, but don't sacrifice your workout or exercise routine: staying in shape and eating healthy are essential to keeping up your stamina. The Exec MBA is a marathon, not a sprint, and you need to go in with proper discipline, but not panic and expend all your energy right away. You need to keep those daily things that keep you going, or you will quickly loose the energy you need.
Two months in, I feel I've gotten the flow. I've had to sacrifice not only hobbies and some favorite activities (like going to the movies or enjoying a fall hike) but also put off friends and cancel reunions with old acquaintances. But pacing yourself is important. A ten minute break to write this post, and now back to my law book for the rest of the day (and prepare for work tomorrow). That's the Sunday life of the exec MBA.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Asia Trip: Days 4 and 5 - Hong Kong
On Wednesday, visited the International Islamic University of Malaysia on the outskirts of KL.
Beautiful campus in the hills. Then it was off on a three hour flight to Hong Kong.
Arrived at the JW Marriott late at night. Great, busy, business hotel - lot's of big meetings going on in lobby. Couldn't see anything at night but in morning, view of harbor was beautiful.
Hong Kong is GREAT city - New York in the hills of LA.
Only they are even more enamored of shopping malls and brands than LA. Pacific Place is right next to the hotel, one of the swank malls.
Had a Harvey Nicks.
Plus every big brand imaginable.
After meetings ended Thursday had a few hours to myself before heading home Friday. First tihing was checking out the Peak Tram to the top of the Hong Kong peak mountain.
Then later that night it was time for a night on the town with Nick and Glenn.
Highlight was the night market in Kowloon.
And of course the laser show at 8pm every night.
Arrived at the JW Marriott late at night. Great, busy, business hotel - lot's of big meetings going on in lobby. Couldn't see anything at night but in morning, view of harbor was beautiful.
Only they are even more enamored of shopping malls and brands than LA. Pacific Place is right next to the hotel, one of the swank malls.
Had a Harvey Nicks.
Plus every big brand imaginable.
After meetings ended Thursday had a few hours to myself before heading home Friday. First tihing was checking out the Peak Tram to the top of the Hong Kong peak mountain.
Then later that night it was time for a night on the town with Nick and Glenn.
Highlight was the night market in Kowloon.
And of course the laser show at 8pm every night.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Asia Days 2 and 3: On to Kuala Lumpur
A day of business in Singapore - our office building
An evening of spicy crab.
People love their scooters here.
At night the city vibes with tropical bars....
Colorful lights hang from the big trees.
Petronis towers:
An evening of spicy crab.
Then off to Kuala Lumpur. This city - though Muslim - is less gentrified, a more diverse mixture of old and new, with a bit of an East Village vibe. Hotel Shangi-La is very nice.
At night the city vibes with tropical bars....
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Marty's Asia Trip: Day 1 - Singapore
Arrived in Singapore today. As my classmate Mikael says, it's like Southern California (only a bit steamier). Weather in the evening was lovely however.
Stopped in the morning at the botanical garden. Many varieties of ginge and orchids. Also people doing calisthentics.
Stopped in the morning at the botanical garden. Many varieties of ginge and orchids. Also people doing calisthentics.
In the afternoon I went to Chinatown, saw the Buddist Tooth Relic Temple
Finally went down to the marina where the Sands hotel and financial center is. Beautiful at night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
