The Entertainment King: Disney

We have been talking about The Walt Disney Co. in our Strategy class for the past couple of days. The history of Disney provides no shortage of discussion topics. I won't get into specifics, but this weekend I discovered this video:

How's that for a blast from the past?

Enjoy!

The Social Style Survey

I was right. Q3 is unlike anything we’ve experienced so far, and will probably be different than Q4. It is just so… quiet…

I did want to mention our Leadership class though. Of all the classes we are taking this semester, this is by far my favourite. Just about every class, we have a case to read about someone in a leadership position at their organization. In class, we share our thoughts on what the leader did well, what was done poorly and how the leader could improve in the future.

We were also required to complete a social style survey. We were given a week to distribute an online survey to at least five people we interact with frequently (or have interacted with in the past.) If you wanted to know your social style within a professional setting, then our professor, Jia Lin Xie, recommended that we forward it to our old work colleagues. Otherwise, we could send it to our friends. I ended up sending my survey to several friends (and filling it out myself) and got a whopping 18 responses! Thanks to all who completed it for me!

Everyone received feedback based on the aggregate responses to the questionnaire which categorized you into four different styles:

According to the responses, my social style as seen by others is expressive, which matched my own perception of my behaviour. The feedback given to us indicated that others describe my behaviour as “friendly, candid and receptive.” It also said that expressives “bring out the feelings of others by showing their own feelings readily” and that our outgoing, spirited manner encourages many people to confide is us about their own dreams and ambitions.

Using these results, we had to write a short paper about a professional relationship we’ve had in the past that was sub-optimal based on differences in social styles. We then swapped our papers with two other classmates and offered each other suggestions as to how to improve our versatility when interacting with others with a different social style.

Altogether, a worthwhile exercise! I wish everyone could take the social style survey – I think knowing whether your self-perception differs from how others see you, and knowing how best to work with people with a different social style would be beneficial to anyone working in business.

Q3 is going to be interesting…

It’s at least going to be very different from Q1 and Q2.

Three reasons!

1. The buzz in the Rotman building has changed dramatically. Recruiting week is over and we have been in classes for two weeks now. But the chatter about finding summer internships is constant and for most, school has become that thing getting in the way of finding a job (whereas, in Q1 and Q2, finding a job was that thing getting in the way of school.) Everyone is in a different stage of the job-hunting process. Some are networking, some are interviewing, some have received an offer and some have signed a contract. It’s a stressful time for all. 
2. The classes are also quite different in that they are less numbers-heavy. We only have exams in three courses (Macroeconomic Environment of Business, Finance and Strategy) and final reports or presentations for the other two (Managing Customer Value and Leadership.) One thing for sure is that there seems to be a lot more reading than before. And to make things worse, my two reading-heavy classes are on the same day which means I spend a lot of my time the night before reading pages and pages of cases and articles.
3. For the remainder of the year, we have been assigned to new project teams. Just when we were getting used to working with our teams from Q1 and Q2, we were disbanded and introduced to new co-workers. To make things even more confusing, we have been assigned to a second team to work on a marketing simulation for Managing Customer Value. And if you really wanted to, there are several case competitions you can sign up for. There are no shortfalls of opportunities to work with different people!

There are also many interesting social events happening in the coming weeks, such as No-Talent Night and the much awaited Rotman vs. Schulich hockey game. Stay tuned for more stories!

The MBA Games!

Over the weekend, 39 Rotman students (myself included) travelled to Edmonton, AB to participate in the MBA Games, a series of challenges on athletics, academics and spirit.

We left Toronto Friday afternoon and arrived with barely enough time to check in, eat, pick up last minute supplies and practice our dance routine, which we performed at the opening ceremonies. The opening ceremonies were definitely a spectacle! All the schools were sporting their paraphernalia and making as much noise as possible.

Nobody from any school wasted a beat on Saturday and Sunday. All sporting events, academic cases and spirit competitions were in full swing from 8:00am until 5:00pm. And if you weren’t participating in something, you were cheering your face off for your school. I am happy to report back that Rotman came first in ultimate frisbee, first in dodgeball, second in water polo and made it to the second round in the finance case competition!

The only part of the weekend I did not enjoy was leaving. The Rotman clan had to be up, packed, checked out of the hotel and on a bus headed toward the airport at 4:30am on Monday morning. It wasn’t just the early morning and lack of sleep that made leaving the worst part – the MBA Games is something I have been looking forward to since September when I was chosen to be a member of the team. I was excited to be representing Rotman with classmates who are equally as passionate, outgoing and competitive as I am. And the weekend was an absolute blast. We laughed, cheered and socialized with people from schools all over Canada. Once we were picking up our luggage from the Toronto airport, I finally realized that it was all over, and all too quickly.

With that said, I can’t wait until next year! GO ROTMAN!

All about Q2!

As promised, here are my thoughts on the classes we took in Q2.

Statistics for Managers: Stats this quarter was simply a continuation of stats from last quarter. We had the same professor and literally picked up where we left off after the midterm in October. My sentiments on this course are the same from last quarter: I do not recommend taking this course lightly, especially since it covers material for two quarters. Stay on top of the readings and get extra help from the scholars whenever you can. It is not much fun trying to cram all this material in the day before the exam!

Strategy: This is the kind of course I have been looking forward to taking since I started at Rotman. Although I do not anticipate working as a business consultant, the tools and techniques we learned to evaluate a company’s strategic position will certainly help in my career in finance. This was also the first class I have taken where I have really experienced the value of class discussions, especially when we discussed the 8 or so cases we had to read throughout the quarter. You definitely hear a lot of different perspectives from your classmates, and mostly ones that you haven’t thought about before. This course also included a weekend-long case analysis project – each student worked with a new group of people to analyze Cineplex Entertainment and present recommendations for their future strategic position. In general, I really enjoyed the course and learned a lot.

Finance: Everyone had mixed feelings about this course. For anyone who is financially inclined, it wasn’t too bad. But for the students with little to no knowledge of finance, it posed a challenge. The workload was heavy – we had an assignment due every class – and it moved fast. We covered valuation of bonds, stocks and futures and discussed topics such as market efficiency and hedging. Even though the course moved quickly, the fact that we had an assignment due every class was pretty valuable, in my opinion. It gave us a chance to practice everything we learned over the quarter at least once. The scholars for this class were also very knowledgeable and helpful. If you are a future Rotman student: yes, this course is hard and can be frustrating, but there are many resources available for you if you need extra help.

Financial Accounting: Another class that was a continuation from Q1 with a very similar format: lectures, a quiz, two assignments and a final exam. There were a couple differences though. The assignments were to be completed in groups instead of individually. Although I prefer to work on assignments involving a lot of numbers by myself, it was nice to be with my group on this once since they both involved some judgement. As well, our professor, Francesco Bova, liked to use i-clickers in class. Basically, he would show a multiple choice question on the lecture notes, and we would answer the question using the i-clickers. The results were tallied so we could see what the rest of the class answered. And of course, we would always discuss what the right answer should be so that people have an idea of what they might be doing wrong. We also referred to the financial statements of Air Canada when discussing certain topics, which was nice because we became more and more familiar with the company as the quarter progressed.

Managing Customer Value: I really enjoyed this course. The professor, Nitin Mehta, stressed on the first day that we would not be writing radio jingles. It was actually a very analytical course on various marketing topics: analyzing the company, customer and competition (the 3 C’s), examining the market segments and deciding on a target, and deciding on the product, price, place (distribution) and promotion (the 4 P’s.) The first class of the week was a lecture, and the second class was spent discussing and debating over a case about a company that is dealing with some sort of marketing issue. If you make a point in class though – be prepared to defend it until the class is over! The professor remembers who said what and will ask you what you think again when someone brings in a new perspective. Throughout the quarter, there are three assignments, but only the top two grades will be recorded – so if you do well on the first two, you don’t need to complete the third. For the final exam, we were given a case the day before so we could read it and become familiar with the company and the issue at hand well ahead of time. The exam was very similar to assignments, except obviously we only had 3 hours to get our thoughts down onto paper.

You: “Ok, Paige, gotcha. But what really made Q2 so hard?”

Several things made Q2 so hard!

Case competitions: No matter what field interests you, there is one for everyone. And for the most part you can participate in however many you want. Although they consume a lot of time and energy, they are well worth the learning experience, even if you don’t win or make it to the finals. Do at least one!

Networking: Not just networking, but preparations for recruiting season in general. In addition to meeting people “on the street” (Bay St., that is), many people were participating in mock interviews, resume workshops and career consulting this quarter. A single mock interview by itself doesn’t take up that much time, but preparing for one does.

Study tours: Some first and second year students were preparing to go on study tours to China and Europe (they left over the holidays) by going to extra classes and doing some extra presentations. And some other students were compiling applications and doing interviews to head to India or Latin America in May.

Group homework: There were definitely a lot more of them this quarter. Two for finance, two for accounting, a giant statistics project and the strategy case analysis project. Working in groups is fun, but scheduling time to work together can be tricky.

Weather: I doubt this is a legitimate excuse, but it was getting cold and dark outside. It definitely affects the mood and makes it harder to get out of bed in the mornings.

And there you have it, folks! Q2 in a (big) nutshell. We are halfway through our Negotiations intensive this week and so far it is going very well (despite the early start time of 8am!) This weekend the MBA Games Team finally heads off to Edmonton for competition, and next week is the much awaited recruiting week.

The busy-ness begins!

Happy New Year!

Well, this post definitely took me way longer to write then I expected, and it’s not even going to be a lengthy one. I must have been enjoying the relaxation over the holidays a little too much.

In a nutshell, Q2 was definitely a challenge. There was more group work, the classes were demanding and on top of everything, preparations for recruiting season in January were consuming a lot of time and energy. I will provide a more detailed description of Q2 happenings this week.

For now, though, I just wanted to bid everyone a very happy new year. Let’s make 2012 the best year yet!

Keeping it real…

Q2 will be wrapping up in about a week and then we have another set of exams.

So far, Q1 and Q2 have been a whirlwind of case competitions, networking, classes, mock interviews, finance assignments, speaker series, dodgeball, class debates, Second Cup (is it just me or is the line getting longer?), job postings, study tour applications, resume reviews, class presentations, statistics projects, i-clickers, team feedback and much much more. People often wonder how everything gets done. In my opinion, it takes lots of planning, compromise and sometimes even some spontaneity with your team members and peers. And it’s a lot of work, but it can all be done. It’s a wonder how most people keep their sanity with this constant stream of items on our “to-do” lists.

This past weekend, all the first-year students had 29 hours to work on a strategy case analysis project, which involves coming up with recommendations for the company under study (don’t worry, I will have a lot more to say about this later on!) So as a tribute to the project, I have come up with my own three strategic recommendations for keeping your sanity amidst the hectic life of a Rotmanite.

Recommendation #1: Make it known what your “non-negotiables” are. A non-negotiable is anything that you partake in that you are committed to and are not willing to give up. For me, my number one non-negotiable is playing soccer on Tuesday evenings. For others, it may be getting home before 9:00pm, or exercising during the lunch hour, or eating dinner at home. Whatever it may be, make sure your teammates and others that you work with are well aware of what these are.

Recommendation #2: Don’t let anyone derail you from your path. This was especially difficult for me. As a member of the RFA, I am surrounded by a lot of people who are interested in investment banking. Even though I came to Rotman with a very clear idea of what I want to do when I graduate (private wealth management), I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what I should be doing. Once I accepted that I don’t have to pursue a career in investment banking just because everyone else is, I was better able to spend my time doing things that were going to be valuable to me.

Recommendation #3: Be positive. This is hard to do when you have a number of things on your plate and not a lot of time to work on it all. It's even harder when things don't seem to be going your way. And there are two things that will make it worse: a) not getting a lot of sleep and b) being pessimistic. Nobody expects that anybody here is getting 8 hours of sleep every night – it’s inevitable that you will have more than a few late nights. What you can control is your attitude and the people you spend time with, and a good attitude can make an immense difference.

I could go on: be realistic, set priorities, acknowledge your strengths and weakness, get involved, participate, and find a group of classmates who are supportive of your goals (this one is actually quite important.) You will receive lots of advice no matter where you go to school, but these three realizations specifically helped me maintain my sanity so far.