UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

At the Sunday dinner table, we’re debating investing in Apple shares (alternative pension if you will…). I begin discussing perceived value, intangible assets and heavy reliance on equity while having what feels like an outer body experience.  Clearly some of this course is rubbing off on me after all; terms that seemed so alien not 5 months ago are now making a lot more sense.

Many companies in Ireland today have experienced a very different few years to Apple, implementing austerity measures across the board, struggling for investment and opportunity with cripplingly limited access to credit. Yet while I keep a measured line of caution I can’t help feeling that the country is turning a corner. It may just be the promise of spring, but the painful and difficult decisions implemented during the crisis; restructuring, refocusing, realigning etc should now be starting to bloom.

We move to slightly lighter topics but stick to optimism. April will see Michael D come to Inchicore to hand over the keys to our new Habitat homeowners. After more than a year of struggle with banks, cashflow and the grim reality of the economy, it looks like the cloud has parted. A family of four living in a one bed flat that the boom forgot, will finally move into their 3 bed home that they helped refurbish.

Maybe it’s just spring, maybe I’m a little too optimistic or maybe its these three great weeks of midterm, but I’m thinking it’s time that the corner was turned and perhaps it is a Reasonable Projection for the country, that thoughtful investments in the tough times can yield their benefits in the not too distant future…

- Karen Kennedy, EMBA 2011/13

Having just touched down in North Carolina, the beginning of this journey in September last year seems but a distant memory. Having previously played one game of rugby in my life I found myself volunteering to be President of the MBA Smurfit Rugby Football Club with the aim of getting a team to Duke University, North Carolina to defend our status as MBA Rugby World Cup Champions…and so the journey began.

Having signed up one of the largest membership numbers to date we commenced training in November with a small group that was to become the core of this years club. Enthuasiastically we set out to bring both mens and womens teams to the tournament- perhaps doing so with a bit of naïvety towards the mammoth task that lay ahead. Having spent the Christmas holidays drafting letters to potential sponsors it gradually dawned on me exactly how difficult raising the required funds was going to be to make this trip a reality. However, as a committee and through a lot of dedication, hard work and ingenuity over the next three months we managed to make what at often times had seemed impossible, a reality. Yes, our studies may have suffered as a result but the MBA is about more than what we are taught in class and organising this club is proof of just that. This trip was made possible in no small way by our most generous of sponsors and the tireless efforts of both teams in their fundraising efforts so here’s hoping everyone gets their just rewards when we bring back two World Championship trophies to Smurfit after the weekend!

- Conor Price, Full-time MBA 2011/12

Since I was always told that the International Trip is the highlight of the program, much expectation was projected long before going on the trip. Especially as being a native Chinese, feelings and emotions were mixed. On one side, I was very excited that my home land will be introduced to my MBA fellow colleagues in both formal and informal ways; on the other side, I was very nervous how they will view the nowadays ‘China.  I believe most of my worries boil down to my very deeply embedded Chinese part of culture, which is “Mian Zi”, known as “Face” in English terms. In addition, I myself packed a lot of questions (and clothes) for this trip, and hoped to find answers to them all.

As expected, there were quite a few surprises to me as soon as I landed in China this time. I have to admit I was skeptical and unprepared for these surprises, such as different standard charge of taxi fare in Beijing and Shanghai;  overpriced foreign brand luxury goods(Chinese Government impose certain percentage of tariff on foreign imported goods, luxury goods’ tariff are much higher than commodity goods).  Apart from the surprises on the side of daily life, there were few points to highlight:

1. Multinational companies operating in major cities of China, such as Shanghai and Beijing created a very unique operating/communicating  environment  where international standard are established and updated as while Chinese culture is thoroughly penetrated
2. China’s focus of next decade has shifted to sustainability, which reflects the change in leadership style. It sounds more promising to Chinese and to the rest of world. In major cities, I saw rapid change in mentality concerning overall wellbeing of our earth.
3. Communist party is more open today and they admit they make mistakes, they are more open to talk about sensitive topics such as human rights and how the party functions

The trip was very well prepared and tailored for MBA students. The organizer did an amazing  job by fitting in many events within days aiming at expose as much aspects as possible to us which was very much appreciated. I found most of speakers related their presentations/talks to MBA students’ perspective, which made communication a lot of easier in a foreign country of a complete different culture and language. Most of events focused on cultural issues, seemed to me that to understand Chinese Culture is the key step to the success in doing business in China. Many of cultural dynamics have developed to international standard, such as the directness and openness in business communication style; while some of them remained the same, such as the famous terms of “Mianzi”, “Guanxi” and equation of “Baijiu + Table = Contract Signed”.

As being a native Chinese, it was first time for me to get a close look at the insight of modern Chinese styled international business operations. I was very much inspired by the level of modernization of how knowledge is shared, how information is managed, how operations are run and how modern their communication styles are. In addition, it is still astounding that Tier 1 cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai are as modern as international cities such as New York in developed countries. When we went to The Old Shanghai and Forbidden City in Beijing I discovered more familiar settings from my memories as a child growing in China. I realized it was my first time in Shanghai, the traditional Shanghai lay-out I was longing for was really from pictures and TV series.  Somehow a picture came across my mind, which was the image  of China Town in San Francisco, where I found most of traditional Chinese community culture lives and multiplies in the 21st century, regardless how modernized outside world San Francisco downtown is, which located 5 minutes away by cable car.

The Old Shanghai in its 80’s

Today’s Shanghai

China Town San Francisco

At the end of the trip, I got most of my questions answered. On top of that, I was very relieved that the feedback from my MBA fellow colleagues is very positive. I feel that now I can say it out loud as being a native Chinese “I am proud of my country.” And what the future holds for China.

- Christine Liu, Full-time MBA 2011/12

The School rugby club is now one week out from flying out to defend the MBA Rugby World Championship and hopefully win it for a record 10th time. We are now on the final stretch, and last night we had the final fundraising event, in the form of a table quiz in Bective RFC. It is absolutely brilliant that the School are managing to send both a men’s and women’s team out to Duke, and there are a variety of students from across virtually all the courses in Smurfit. Both teams have been training since early January under the tuition of former Irish International, Stephen McIvor, and are now both raring to go!

Look out for the official tour programme, which will be widely available on campus next week. We have some brilliant pieces by the likes of the great Willie-John McBride, Eddie O’Sullivan on his return from coaching the USA Eagles, and ex Lions prop Paul Wallace. There are also some eye-opening player profiles that are well worth a read! A big thank you to all our programme supporters! On that note an even bigger thank you to our official partners; Tourism Ireland, Newstalk, and Crowe Horwath for making this all possible.

- John MacMahon (Men’s Captain), Full-time MBA 2011/12.