UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

It’s hard to believe that we are entering into week 5 of semester two already. After the initial burst of excitement and adrenalin last term, I think we are all beginning to find a rhythm. As a part-time MBA student, lectures two evenings a week seems like the norm and I can hardly remember what I did on those days before starting the programme.

The semester has brought us new teams, new subjects, new challenges and new opportunities. One of the most interesting things I have got from the MBA so far, is learning from the group work and team dynamics.  I think most of the groups felt at the end of Semester 1 that they had become a strong team and had gelled well together. So it was with a little trepidation that we all found our new teammates at the start of Semester 2 but I’m glad to say that it’s working out really well. It’s amazing how the prospect of assignments and work focuses the mind and facilitates real teamwork!

This semester we are studying Management Accounting, Information Systems, Competitive Strategy and Financial Management and it’s fascinating to see how they all interlink. I think that’s one of the great benefits of the MBA – getting a holistic view of business issues and being able to examine them from a variety of different functional perspectives.

The first class of Financial Management involved heated discussions about the property market. It was interesting to discuss the factors that led to the boom and bust in recent years. I think the property market is something we can all identify with and I hope to come away from the module with some useful lessons should there be another boom in the future!

For those considering an MBA, it is a wonderful opportunity to broaden your skill set, knowledge base and contacts and there is no better place in Ireland to do it than Smurfit Business School  which is triple accredited and internationally recognised. If you are considering an MBA, don’t forget to take a look at the Irish Times/Smurfit Business School MBA scholarship which is open for another couple of days – see www.smurfitschool.ie/irishtimes – you never know, you might just win it!

- Conor O’Donovan, EMBA

Mr. Tony Spollen: on the Bigger Balance Sheet in Life

On Friday 17^th February 2012, Mr.Tony Spollen (Guest Speaker) and Professor Pat Gibbons (Chair) kicked off the Inaugural MBA Thought Leaders Club (TLC) Speaker Series to sustained applause, in Lecture Theatre 1. Following a warm welcome to mark the official launch of the TLC Speaker Series, Pat Gibbons turned proceedings over to Tony Spollen, who delivered a thought provoking talk entitled “Lessons from Life”. I am sure it will stay with many of us for years to come. We were treated to a breadth of insights, experiences and stories; the distillation of a lifetime’s wisdom, encouraging us to live life to our full potential, to cherish our health, to focus wholeheartedly on the present- and to remember, above all else, the bigger Balance Sheet in life. Chatham House style rules apply at these events, so only those in attendance will truly appreciate what was shared with us that night, and will have a sense of the character, courage, and leadership required to so generously share so much, with so many, in such a meaningful way. A palpable silence pulsed throughout the talk- the likes of which I have never experienced- and the prolonged applause spoke for itself. This is the first in a series of talks which I hope will leave a lasting impression on us during our experiences on the MBA, and will create the space to have a different kind of discourse- about life, inspiration and realising potential.

Mr. Tony Spollen and Prof. Pat Gibbons: The Devil is in the Detail

They say that a rocket takes 90% of its energy just to get off the ground and only 10% of its energy to travel the remaining distance. On the basis of this 90/10 rule, I’d especially like to thank Tony Spollen- not only for the special message he shared with us on Friday, but for his invaluable guidance leading up to the event, to Professor Pat Gibbons for his immediate support of the initiative, to my classmates – Denis Shikunov (full-time Russian/part-time TLC photographer), Linh Thi Bao Nguyen and Justin Thomas (the Vietnamese/American SWAT Team of poster campaigns) – and to the MBA Programme Office and Services Team for their facilitation and forbearance of my ongoing efforts to turn their respective offices into TLC HQ!

The next speaker in the series is Mark Pollock on “The Art of Making it Happen”, chaired by Dean O’hOgartaigh, on Friday, 2^nd March 2012 at 11-12pm, in the Lawrence Crowley Boardroom, Smurfit Business School. The rocket is now launched; may the inspiration continue.

Davinia Anderson, FT MBA 2012 and Founder of the MBA Thought Leaders Club

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That New Year sense of anticipation and excitement is currently palpable in the UCD Smurfit Admissions Office. This is because the recruitment cycle for the 2012 MBA class is officially underway! There is a tremendous energy and buzz within the office as the Admissions Team connects with many uniquely qualified and diverse candidates who have an interest in undertaking the full-time or part-time MBA (Executive MBA) programmes this fall.

I have had various opportunities to meet with prospective candidates at events such as our first ‘Taste of an MBA’ breakfast lecture which took place on Wednesday, February 1^st, the Career Zoo Jobs and Postgraduate Fair in Dublin’s Mansion House, various Universities and Institutes of Technology around Ireland in addition to the Masterbeurs Career and Postgraduate Fair in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Given the success of the aforementioned events and, in particular, our ‘Taste of an MBA’ breakfast events, I very much look forward to our second and third lectures in this series which are scheduled to take place on Wednesday March 7^th and Wednesday the 2^nd May respectively. Next week the School will host our first Open Event of the 2012 calendar year at our Blackrock campus with a number of C.V. Review sessions scheduled to take place the following week. Finally, I look forward to meeting with candidates at the eFellows MBA Day which is due to take place in Munich on Saturday March 3^rd. Details of these events and others can be found on http://www.smurfitschool.ie/events/.

Applications to each of our Scholarship competitions are also being submitted at this time as the deadlines for our GMAT, Regional and ‘Ideas for the Future’ Scholarships are fast approaching. For those of you who are currently working on perfecting your Scholarship application essays its time to focus on finalising those applications and collating the required documentation as March 15^th is just but a few sleeps away!! Based on the applications received to date I am most excited about the diversity, experience and personal attributes of this years applicants and I look forward to connecting with those candidates who are currently in the process of preparing their applications for the forthcoming academic year.

- Gillian Durnin, MBA Admissions Manager

On Sunday evening after a long day studying, punctuated only by a break to watch the excellent Wales v Scotland match in the RBS 6 Nations, I flopped onto the couch to switch on the TV and switch off the brain for a while. The Biography Channel’s Storage Wars seemed the perfect opportunity for the latter. The premise is simple; it is a reality TV show that follows people that make their living bidding for the unclaimed contents of storage lockers. The only catch is that they can only peer into the locker from the outside before bidding.

“Interesting; they are bidding on the couch, the TV and the set of golf clubs they can see from the door, and the options on the contents of that trunk, those boxes and whatever is behind that old mattress. Of course with their limited funds the opportunity cost is quite high, the next (unopened) locker could be even better. That’s not even considering the working capital implications of whatever they find: how long is it going to take that guy to find a buyer for those antique chicken glasses? (I kid you not). And they have not thought about their reservation point for these nego………”

At this point my wife justifiably told me to shut up. Sometimes it is harder than you think to switch off from this course.

- Fergus O’Dea, FT MBA 2012