UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Choosing MBA’

Day 5 (continued.): We landed in Rio de Janeiro after four exciting days in Sao Paulo and headed straight to Corcovado, where the monumental statue of Christ the Redeemer is located. Once arrived, we were left standing in awe of the legendary figure and the spectacular view from the top of the mountain. In the evening we had a Brazilian style dinner at a local Churrascaria.

The group at Corcovado

Day 6: The day began with a presentation by major development bank BNDES in down town Rio. It was very interesting to find out how Brazil was preparing for major sporting events including the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games in 2016. Following the insightful morning session, we had an eclectic lunch at Café Colombo. We then attended a meeting with Brazil’s largest company, Petrobras. After that we were free to explore Rio and the beautiful Ipanema beach by night!

Day 7: We had a meeting with Deloitte that morning and then visited Vigário Geral, one of Rio’s favelas for lunch and presentations by the social enterprise organization, Afro Reggae. It was a once in a lifetime experience where we witnessed a few exhilarating music performances and got to do some drumming ourselves! The final dinner was held that evening at one of Brazil’s finest restaurants, Porcao Rio’s. Most of the group then headed to Lapa, probably the most happening place in Rio on a Friday night!

Getting a taste of Brazilian music

Day 8: The last morning in Brazil was at leisure and I took that opportunity to visit the landmark Sugar Loaf Mountain. We all then boarded the flight back to Dublin after an intensive week of work that gave us a wonderful opportunity to get a first-hand experience of rich Latin American culture and understand how it influences business and society.

- Vishal Balasubramaniam, Full-time MBA 2011/12

Coaching has been one of the most beneficial aspects of the UCD Smurfit MBA Personal Development Programme in my experience. It is something I was offered in the past, but did not take up at the time due to time pressures.

In Year 2 of the EMBA, there are three coaching sessions offered to every single EMBA student.  In these one-on-one sessions, I set out my goals and my plans for achieving them. In my case, this was my business plan. My coach acted as a sounding board and through the coach’s skilful questions, it challenged certain assumptions I held and encouraged me to tease out certain issues – challenges that I envisaged and how I planned to overcome them. The coach helped me pin down my preferences on the options that were before me.

Managers can sometimes get caught up in the day-to-day operational aspects of the business and neglect to come up for air and look at the big picture and where they should be heading.  Have the goalposts changed?  A few sessions with a professional business coach can help you to take stock and review your position and focus on getting to where you want to go next.

Kate Healy, EMBA 2010-12

One of the things that attracted me to the UCD Smurfit MBA over other post graduate business courses was the emphasis on personal development (PPD). Above all else, I wanted to find a course that stimulated me, challenged me and gave me new perspectives on the challenges we face in business.

We had the opportunity to do some personality tests back in SEM1 of YR1. I have done exercises like this in the past, which I did not find particularly enlightening. However, this was a whole different ball game. While I consider myself to be quite self-aware, I was surprised by some of the findings that arose from this period of personal discovery that occurs in the first phase of PPD.

Following one of the personality tests called Strength Deployment Inventory, we were put into groups with other individuals with similar personality types. I remember the group members looking at each other with quizzical expressions. We felt we were quite a diverse group and we were surprised that we shared similar traits. The facilitator went through the typical personality traits with us – our strengths, how those strengths could become weaknesses and how we tend to respond under pressure. He outlined factors to watch out for in terms of our interactions with other personality types.

Certain personality types have different preferences in terms of styles of communicating and making decisions. Some people like to have only high level information – they are the types of people who only want the key information in bullet points in an email. Others like to have much greater detail about the process of how something will work.

This type of knowledge about yourself and the people around you is very valuable in terms of how you work together effectively in managing Highly Effective Teams and progress issues.

Kate Healy, EMBA 2010-12

Six weeks into the MBA, I am still trying to find my feet on this program. Speaking for myself,  I truly enjoyed the hard work, fun of group work, excellent class discussion, international atmosphere, the positive energy and a lot more. Its only when I listed them down I found there are so much being offered in my MBA class from both lecturers and classmates.  While it seems it is unbelievable that six weeks have passed, I am still trying to juggle among articles, case studies, reading, assignment, presentations and my beloved sleep. We were told on day one of the foundation course, the rule of this game is “how much you put into it, how much you get out of it”. I can now totally see the point. As suppose for everything else you do in your life, this rule always holds true.

I feel spiritual today, so I will continue on this track Read the rest of this entry »