Vishal Balasubramaniam – Smurfit MBA Blog

UCD Smurfit MBA alums join European elite at the Europas!

Best of luck to fledgling company Buzzoo who take on the best in Europe at the Europas on 22^nd Jan. 2013. Buzzoo are made up of FT MBA 2012 alumns – Dave Byrne, Vishal Balasubramaniam, and David Pierce.

The Europas have been deemed the premier European awards for early, mid-, and late-stage technology start-ups, by leading investors and media. The Europas seek out the “hottest new start-ups in Europe, Middle East and Africa” and have previously recognised such household names as SoundCloud, Mind Candy, Spotify and Betfair.

Buzzoo made the shortlist for the forthcoming Europas start-up awards in Berlin on 22 January from more than 1,000 nominees that were put through the judging process. The nominees were judged by venture capitalists from firms like Kleiner Perkins, Accel and Google Ventures, as well as founders like Bebo’s Michael Birch, Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, not to mention journalists from various tech news sites across Europe.

– Michael McDonnell, MBA Programme Manager

UCD Smurfit MBAs take on Brazil! Part 2:

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.

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!

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

Scaling new heights

It’s important to pause and reflect during the busy MBA. Here is how I chose to savor the opportunity outside of the classroom during a day off:

We reached the Glendalough Valley, now part of the Wicklow Mountains National Park, at around 1.30 p.m. The weather was almost perfect for an excellent hike. When my colleague Nihar insisted that we take the Spink and Glenealo Valley Route, a 9 km spiral loop trail, I thought to myself that I was never going to make it.

A view from near the upper lake at Glendalough

We had to complete the walk by 5 p.m. so that we would be on time to catch the only bus back to Dublin city. We set off at 2 p.m. with a few cans of beverages and a handy map (according to the map, the estimated time for the walk was 3 to 4 hours!). As we hiked along the scenic valley admiring the breathtaking landscape, I understood why Ireland was renowned for its walks. We saw so much from beautiful cascades to dense forests. After about two and a half hours of walking (at 4.30 p.m.), I noticed a familiar building about 100 metres ahead – it was the visitor centre, our starting point. Before this experience I never knew that I could push myself so much physically. In a sense, it has also been the story of my MBA so far!

– Vishal Balasubramaniam, FT MBA 2011/12

We had to complete the walk by 5 p.m. so that we would be on time to catch the only bus back to Dublin city. We set off at 2 p.m. with a few cans of beverages and a handy map (according to the map, the estimated time for the walk was 3 to 4 hours!). As we hiked along the scenic valley admiring the breathtaking landscape, I understood why Ireland was renowned for its walks. We saw so much from beautiful cascades to dense forests. After about two and a half hours of walking (at 4.30 p.m.), I noticed a familiar buildingabout 100 metres ahead – it was the visitor centre, our starting point.Before this experience I never knew that I could push myself so much physically. In a sense, it has also been the story of my MBA so far!

Do entrepreneurs need an MBA?

I would like to borrow from Gene N. Landrum to say this – “Entrepreneurs see risk as an opportunity, not a threat, which leads almost inevitably to fame and fortune”. One of the key takeaways from the MBA Entrepreneurship Club kick-off event was that successful entrepreneurs take calculated risks. UCD Smurfit Lecturer in Entrepreneurship John Cashell spoke about the importance of mitigating risks through detailed market research and planning. That evening I also had the opportunity to listen to inspiring short talks by Serial Entrepreneur Ron Immink, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland’s Head of Impact Annalisa O’Carroll, and Co-founder of ThousandSeeds Mary Cronin. Continue reading Do entrepreneurs need an MBA?

The MBA journey begins!

I am Vishal Vignesh, a proud member of the FT MBA Class of 2012! The diversity of my batch is quite incredible. There are students from India, Vietnam, Russia, Germany, Japan, Canada, US, UK, and of course Ireland. There are engineers, bankers, consultants, entrepreneurs and professionals from many other walks of life. It has only been a week and I am already a bit overwhelmed with information on a wide variety of topics ranging from Personal Development Plan Framework and Teamwork to Financial Reporting. Not to forget – it has also been a lot of fun! I can’t wait to see what the next few weeks hold in store for me.

Just to give you a brief background – I was born and brought up in Coimbatore, known as the Manchester of South India. Coming from a business family background, after school I took up a three-year bachelor’s degree in commerce. I had a brief stint with Google before joining OnMobile Global, a leading mobile services firm. After spending a little over two years in the corporate world, I co-founded the company Swadhist Foods as a specialty food retailer. I am also a Freelance Online Media Consultant.

In the year ahead, I hope to share plenty about the challenges of business school, the perspective of being an international student and more.

– Vishal Vignesh Balasubramaniam