2019-2020 – Smurfit MBA Blog

This is what we train for.

The Doing Business in International Markets Scandinavia Study Tour with the Sibelius Monument in Helsinki, Finland

Eighteen of us boarded a plane to explore the cultural, economic, and structural differences of Stockholm and Helsinki. Well that was was part of it. A good week away getting to know your peers was also high on the agenda.

By the time we returned from our study tour the world had changed. Governments were closing US and European airspace, cities across Europe were beginning to go into lockdown, and the global economy was about to experience the biggest shock since the Great Depression. Preserving life was all that was important. The financial cost would be counted later.

Your first thought, of course, is to ensure your family and friends are safe, and that all preventative efforts are being taken to stop the spread of COVID-19. But part of your mind can’t help but think: how will this impact my industry, my company, and my job?

Anticipating a crisis such as this swayed me to take on the EMBA 18 months previously. The world will throw many challenges at us, both personally and professionally. All we can do is ensure we have a breadth of experiences and skills to take them on.

So, unknown to us at the time, we were in Stockholm and Helsinki building the relationships, gaining the experiences, and developing the skills we would need to pull ourselves and our companies out of this crisis.

Now I’m not sure if you can call swimming in the 2℃ Baltic Sea as crisis preparation but it surely did build character. In particular, it told a lot about people’s characters as they scrambled over each other competing to get out of the water! Thankfully we had access to one of Finland’s 2 million saunas to recover. Burgers and beers may also have helped!

Transformation was the topic of the moment for the companies we visited. Everyone is striving to shift their focus to address a pressing issue in the way their companies react to world changes. For example, Nokia is trying to overcome the trauma from their failure to adapt to the transformation of the smartphone market, and reinvent themselves in the mobile network technology market.

ICEYE, a satellite radar imagining firm, is re-defining the satellite imagery market by providing governments and businesses timely satellite images to enable them to make better-informed business decisions. Their satellite images can even be used to calculate the world’s stockpiles of oil or steel! Supposedly their images can detect the height of an oil silo’s roof, telling how full it is.

Even the central bank of Finland, Bank of Finland, was looking to transform. Their focus was on restructuring the economy to ensure they can tackle the impending pension crisis.

Each company we visited was pushing the boundaries in which they operate. Over the next few months, we will all need to do the same and continue to do so. The world is ever-shifting and we need to keep shifting with it.

—Ruan Dillon McLoughlin, Executive MBA 2020

My Exciting Smurfit MBA Journey So Far

I have worked as a mechanical engineer within the power industry for the past 17 years and decided to do the full-time MBA to build on my business experience. Although I have only completed the first semester so far, I can already say that the UCD Smurfit MBA course provides an excellent set of business tools and has already opened many opportunities.

It was a bit daunting to get back into student life after so long away, but the orientation week and support from the college made the process seamless. The classes are small, so you get a great chance to develop a bond with each class and can easily interact with the professors.

I have had some great experiences in the MBA. I got the amazing opportunity to participate in the GNAM (Global Network for Advanced Management) week at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley–you can learn more about that week here.

I currently interact with students throughout the world via an online course on Corporate Entrepreneurship at EGADE business school at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, which is also facilitated by GNAM.

The UCD MBA Entrepreneurship Club, which I serve as a board member, has proved to be a great opportunity. The college has assembled an advisory board from government agencies, SMEs, and start-ups, to provide connections for the club members. We have arranged one event so far that brought in Conor Hanley to give us a fascinating talk about his entrepreneurial adventures within the medical device arena.

In November, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Edward F. Crawford visited the Smurfit campus to speak about his fascinating entrepreneurial journey. He met specifically with members of the Entrepreneurship Club before the presentation.

Participation in the MBA includes access to Executive Coaching and an assigned business mentor. I am taking full advantage of both options. The coach acts as a sounding board and offers help with my career direction. The mentor, provided through Career Services, is an experienced UCD alumni from the power industry, so will be another great resource.

I have also arranged to put what I’ve learned in the MBA directly into practice by providing some consultancy work to an energy company based in UCD’s start-up hub UCD Nova.

As the MBA programme at Smurfit has an international focus, I am preparing for a trip to Argentina next month for the hands-on ‘Doing Business in International Markets’ module. In June, we’ll travel to Lisbon, Portugal for a week of consulting assignments with local businesses.

I could not more highly recommend the UCD Smurfit MBA. It provides an exceptional opportunity to build your business and personal skills, while becoming part of an extensive alumni family.

—Kenneth Power, FTMBA 2019-2020

How Negotiation Helped Me Turn one Wheel into a Whole Bike

How can you use an MBA to help you negotiate the price of an old bike?

The answer is, simply, by enrolling in one of the many electives offered as part of the UCD Smurfit MBA program: “Managing the Negotiation Process”. Personally, I always felt that I am not very good at negotiation; but after attending this course, I feel more and more confident about my abilities as a negotiator.

Experiential learning in Negotiation class.

The course’s first pillar is to build self-awareness about our strengths, weaknesses, biases, and even the myths in which we believe. After doing my first self-reflection for the module, I found out that I am described as a ‘satisfier’, which means that I am not too ambitious when engaging in negotiation. I focus too much on being fair, thus letting the other party get the bigger piece of the pie.

“You Need to Be Either Tough or Soft” ; “Good Negotiators Are Born”; “Good Negotiators Take Risks”; “Good Negotiators Rely on Intuition”: here are some examples of the myths in which I believed in the past, and which I now know are wrong. The course helped me understand myself as well as improve my negotiation skills.

Many people think that negotiation is all about instinct, but it is also wrong. Negotiation is a logical process. The second pillar of the course is to give us a clear analytical process which if followed correctly should lead to a Win-Win situation. Yes, a Win-Win situation! Many people think that a successful negotiation should be a Win-Loss: False. A Win-Loss situation is usually unsustainable, especially if it is with a supplier, a client, or even a partner.

After my bike was stolen, I decided to buy another one, because riding is one of the most efficient means of transportation in Dublin. My criteria were that the bike should look as old as possible to avoid being stolen again, and that it should have a fair price. I found what I was looking for in a bike store downtown. The only issue was that it was priced twice the budget that I had planned for. Thus, I decided to apply my newly acquired negotiation skills.

One of the first things that I learnt is that negotiation is never a fixed pie. It is a variable pie. Therefore, I was looking to expand the pie, so both the shopkeeper and I can find a win in the situation. While discussing with the shopkeeper, I shared with him information that completely changed the course of the negotiation: I told him that I still had the tire of my old bike. For me, the tire had zero value; but the shopkeeper had a different perception of the same tire. He probably can use it to repair other old bikes, or sell it as it is.

This example perfectly shows that a negotiation is not a fixed sum and that a

Win-Win situation may arise if both parties are open to communicating effectively. Knowing from my first self-reflection exercise that I am a ‘satisfier’, I decided to maximize my part of the pie as well and accept the deal only if the shopkeeper cut the price by half, which – happily – he did.

Therefore, I was able to apply the process I learned during the module in one of the simplest negotiations of our daily life–and it worked. That is how the MBA helped me negotiate the price of my bike.

The MBA gives you a new set of lenses so you can see the world differently. The skills that we gain apply not only in the business world, but also in our daily life.

—Yassine Jelassi, Full-time MBA 2019-2020

I was wrong.

It all began so calmly. Eager and well-dressed, we met for the first time in the main hall of the business school campus. Flags of the world decorated the ceiling above us as we scanned the room with anticipation and nerves. There were a lot of suits in various shades of dark blue –these were MBA students.

I made it!

I used to believe the beginning of something is always the hardest. If you can survive the first day –you’re half-way there. I left the first day of foundation week, with a relaxed-looking half-filled schedule and real excitement about the people I met. This MBA thing is going to be ok, easy, I got this.

I was wrong!

The second day arrived, and it was in my first Financial Reporting class that I realized how very wrong I had been. As the week continued, I grappled with the fact my Philosophy degree would not help me build a Balance Sheet. Turns out, I was not half-way there. In fact, “there” seemed to be very far away.

The weeks continued and my half-filled schedule took on a very different dimension, filling up with wonderous-sounding (although totally mysterious) activities like “Presenting for Success”.

Two months up; two exams down; two presentations out, four assignments in; a thousand Irish raindrops survived; and having discovered new grey hair—can’t turn back now.

As I write today, braced for the avalanche of upcoming deliverables, I know that I am not the same person that arrived on the first day. Certainly, I am less naïve (less arrogant). The UCD MBA is not easy—it is substantial. In addition to the practical tools gained, it is pushing me to grow and confront my own nature. Would not have guessed that I’d do an MBA to realize I’m a Panther-Peacock. Uncomfortable, but also true. I didn’t imagine that the MBA would be a crash course in team work. I certainly didn’t imagine that I’d join the rugby club.

As the only loud African woman in my class I also could not have imagined the kindness and support I have experienced here: the exceptional people I have met and the genuine friendships I have made. I am incredibly luckily that I will suffer, and survive, the remaining ten months of this program with a wonderful mix of people. It will not be easy and it will certainly be rainy but I am ready. We got this!

Sláinte all my Panther-Peacock-Dolphin-Owls… but NOT the Ostriches

Kendi M’Mbijjewe, Full Time MBA 2019-2020

Making Connections

A couple weeks before we were set to begin orientation week, we were able to submit our preferences for the mysterious “GNAM.” We were to spend a week in October away from our regularly scheduled programming, attending a course at a member school belonging to the Global Network for Advanced Management. We received our placements quickly, and just as quickly forgot about them, as classes started in earnest. After all, we had studying and assignments to think about!

Sure enough, the time came for us to head to our respective corners of the globe to gather with other MBAs and complete the modules we had chosen two months prior. Our classmates attended sessions at ESTM in Germany, Koç University Graduate School of Business in Turkey, Haas School of Business in the US, UBC Sauder School of Business in Canada, Fudan University School of Management in China, and a strong contingency stayed to participate in the course at Smurfit. I was among four Smurfit students who spent our week at Yale in the US, learning about the Behavioural Science of Management.

To say it was an incredible week would be an understatement. We received five lectures from leading professors in the field, whose topics ranged from Making Better Decisions Using Behavioral Science to Negotiating Mindsets. Mid-week we visited an investment firm in a nearby town and learned about Behavioural Finance: how psychology affects investors and the markets or financial analysts, and subsequently, the markets. Most importantly, we shared the experience with our new friends from around the world. We spent our evenings socialising, and those from Ireland got a taste of life in America. One of our Irish friends even tried his first fried pickle.

Many of the other attendees were nearing the ends of their programmes and getting ready to start the next phase of their professional careers. They understood the hard work of doing an MBA and the mindset it required. They gave us advice, encouragement, and a window into our near futures. At the end of the week, we promised to visit each other soon, connected on LinkedIn, and then Instagram, because LinkedIn felt too stiff and professional for the bonds we had forged. Despite having only spent a week together, I have no doubt that we will continue to be part of each other’s professional and personal networks as we move onto the rest of the MBA and through our careers.

Bailey Talkington, Full Time MBA 2019-2020

Go Explore!

An MBA degree is not just about classroom and networking. We are currently on a one-year-break from our career and life, to decide on what we should do on the next ten. It is now the time to explore choices, long-term-plans and places; and talking about places, Ireland has the best to offer.

County Wicklow is a approximately 1-hour drive from Blackrock and it hosts a very beautiful and amazing landscape. Nothing else beats driving to the countryside on the weekend alongside some friends, to look at the lush green scenery and clear blue sky. For international students, you could rent a go car and find someone who has an international license. That worked well for us.

Our trip started by driving to Glendalough to visit the alluring upper lake. The weather was fortunately not too cold and the sky was clear all day long. We took pictures on the bank of the lake, started our hike uphill, and reached the mountain top to enjoy the dazzling view from a different perspective.

We then drove on a scenic drive route via Sally Gap to visit Powerscourt Waterfall, the highest waterfall in Ireland. The park closes at 6 and we were a bit late when we arrived there. However, that did not stop us from running our way to the foot of the waterfall and having a good time in the park. A lady who lived nearby said that we could swim on the river above and it was a very cozy place to have BBQ with family and friends. I will definitely come there again to explore those options.

Exhausted but satisfied, we ended our journey with a delicious dinner in Bray. Afterwards, we walked along the coast line while watching the sun set on the horizon. What an incredible journey!

Erik Hormein, Full Time MBA 2019-2020

Taking Care of Yourself

Moving to another country isn’t easy. Even if you speak the language, there’s a new city and culture to learn as you leave your old life behind. You’ll get a room but it won’t be home, not yet. No art on the walls, no books you’ve had forever, a different view out the window. Now, moving is exciting, don’t get me wrong! Everyone talks about the fun parts or the big challenges (visa, housing, etc), but it can be stressful in 1000 little ways.

In case it wasn’t clear, I moved to Dublin for the Smurfit MBA – in fact, I had never been to Ireland! Oh, I’d travelled before, but I was still nervous even with my friends promising I’d love it (they were right, btw). I wasn’t dealing with a language barrier (more or less, good luck pronouncing Irish place names), but everything else was totally new. And it was exciting! It’s something I wanted to do since I was a kid, but it’s also much easier said than done.

Welcome to Ireland, have some rain

Anxiety kicked in even before I moved, and the best solution I’ve found is to make a plan and make it detailed. If you don’t know something, look it up! Absolutely reach out to the Smurfit admissions/international office, but don’t forget other sources of information. Someone’s moved from your country to Ireland, is there a forum post on it? Check out your State Department’s website or your local Irish Consulate, especially for esoteric questions! Maybe your doctor can help with meds/vaccination/etc planning. Have previous students dealt with your issues before? Is there stuff to eat here that fits your diet? Are there accommodations for your disability? Will you fit in and be accepted, especially if you’re not a majority demographic? And on and on.

The benefit of planning is that when (not if!) the unexpected happens, you’ll already have knowledge and resources you can draw on. But I won’t lie, it can be overwhelming at times, and it’s that overwhelming I want to help you with.

You said it, random Dublin trashcan

I don’t know your situation, but I can tell you this: if you’re moving to another country, by yourself, to spend a year with 30 other students, be busy as all hell, and face the job market on the other side, you are officially a badass. And, since badasses can hear hard truths, I’ll say this: you won’t survive on willpower alone.

An MBA in another country is a stressful, busy, hectic, and anxiety-inducing endeavour as much as it is a fun, exciting, amazing, and novel one! When everything is crazy, PLEASE remember to take care of yourself. You cannot face the day on an empty stomach, with little sleep, if you’re off your meds, skipping exercise, ignoring your routine, or any other way you practice self care.

Team brunch is self care, right?

If you are someone who loves people, do not make the mistake I did and stay in your room all week before classes – get out, go downtown, go walk around a park! It’ll likely be summer when you get here, take advantage while it lasts! You don’t even have to talk to anyone, being around other people will lift your spirits. If you recharge away from people, take the time to get your room just the way you like it – put that art on the wall, get a duvet that’s extra comfy, rearrange your room, and afterwards go for a quiet walk somewhere green. While you build your support network here, don’t forget everyone back home who said they’d help you out. Yeah, there will likely be some serious time differences, but that’s the beauty of texting or snapchat: people can catch up anytime! Asking someone to talk if you’re feeling down isn’t weakness, it’s strength. <3

Above all, don’t forget – you’re in a new place and isn’t it awesome?? Why not find ways to make the most of it! Miss your pet? Maybe there’s a dog park or cat cafe around. Miss someone’s home cooking? I’m sure there’s a hole-in-the-wall family restaurant just waiting for you to sit down and chat with the server over something delicious. Bummed out by the grey weather? Make a point to get outside, even if just for a bit, every day – the sun still shines through the clouds (PS: if you’re not used to dark grey winters, get yourself a full-spectrum lamp. “Seasonal Affective Disorder” is real).

After the storm you get rainbows – cliche, but true (seen after hurricane lorenzo)

I’ve only been here 2 months and already this program is a roller coaster. I’ve been happy, I’ve been stressed, I’ve stayed in my room eating pizza and I’ve gone out and found a new bar with new friends in old rain. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it? We don’t ride roller coasters because they’re tame, we ride them because fear turns into exhilaration and fun.

We’re cheering you on, you got this <3

QB Quinones-Bangs, Full-Time MBA 2019 – 2020

Whack-A-Mole

I remember saying to one of my classmates on the Tuesday of the second week “I can’t believe that I’ve only known you for eight days!”. Many of the MBA graduates I had spoken to before I started in August had told me about the close bonds formed with MBA classmates, but the speed at which it happened still took me by surprise. We’re into our sixth week now and we laugh and joke with each other like childhood friends.

But the introductory weeks are well and truly over now and while we’ve settled into our study groups, I’m starting to realise that the MBA is like a year-long game of whack-a-mole, but with projects, exams and adventures instead of moles. The GNAM week is just one week away, our first exams loom the following week and master plans for the MBA clubs are firing left and right.

GNAM will see our class disperse to universities across the world, attending one-week courses in fellow Global Network business schools. I’m delighted to be going to Berkeley, while classmates are heading to destinations including Yale, Shanghai, Berlin and Madrid. Though I don’t think I’ll be alone in bringing my books along for financial reporting and economics in preparation for our exams in the following week! The MBA clubs are off to a flying start and plans are afoot for events from golf to rugby to entrepreneurship talks.

There is so much opportunity in the MBA programme and even now, just six weeks in, while there’s no doubt that the marathon has well and truly begun and sleep is a distant memory, the prospect of learning so much, with so many wonderful people over the next 11 months is an exciting prospect.

Grace Bergin, Full Time MBA 2019-2020

Presentation Skills Session with Paul A. Slattery & the Team

“Omne Trium Perfectum’

This is the rule of three, which states that a trio of events or characters is more humorous, satisfying or effective than other numbers.

For example;

1 second pause during the presentation speech helps the audience to hear,
2 second pause helps them to process, and
3 second pause helps them to feel

And remember, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

With 1 second eye contact, they know
With 2 second eye contact, they see
And with 3 second eye contact, they feel

Any eye contact of more than 3 seconds becomes a stare and gets creepy.. :-P

That’s one of the many lessons we learned from our session with the presentation skills team which includes three members Paul A. Slattery, Marie Lord and Ilaria Dondero

The team is led by Paul, who is the Founder & Managing Director of NxtGEN and an adjunct lecturer of the MBA leadership development program at UCD Michael Smurfit Business School.

I am sure some people would agree that it is a difficult task attending lectures from 9 AM to 6 PM, let’s not even talk about attending a single lecture for 9 hours. We had such a session with this team on 18th of September 2019.

But the time flew like a falcon and the session was over before we knew it. Various tricks used by the team during the presentation kept everyone at the edge of their seats and energetic during the whole session, like repeating sayings and famous quotes together as one group and several mindfulness exercises, such as, sitting on the edge of the seat and deep breathing, pattern claps, stand and celebrate like you just won the race of a lifetime etc.

This one-day session had a massive impact on all of us as we improved in different aspects. The whole session went by in a flash and at the end of it we were looking for even more. I guess Paul was completely drained from the day though as we had to carry him on our back for the group photo.

…..And I would not blame him. After all, it’s not an easy task moulding half-baked pots.

Lalit Saini, Full Time MBA 2019-2020

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue

These are the four objects that a bride is traditionally supposed to carry on her wedding day to bring good luck. Whilst an MBA is not yet considered one of the seven sacraments, the lucky 31 entrants to this year’s full-time programme certainly felt some wedding style jitters as they took the obligatory selfie by the front doors on the first day “back to school.” This was a solemn commitment that we were making for better or worse until August 2020 do us part.

Stretching the analogy, a bit further:

Something old – It has been a number of years since most classmates left full time studies. The first couple of weeks saw the muscle memories slowly return – mounting assignments, stacks of readings and missed deadlines all came flooding back. From a personal point of view the greatest difference between the MBA and previous studies was quickly revealed as a focus and reliance on group work – more in tune with real world. As a result, I can now look forward to the fact that I won’t be consuming the €70 of fresher’s week Supermacs vouchers in isolation.

Foundation Week with Orangeworks

Something new – in a wedding sense, this refers to optimism for the future and is apt to the MBA programme. Very quickly during the ice-breaking sessions of Foundation week, we found that there was a huge spread of skills and backgrounds throughout the class. Interesting people with interesting backgrounds. This was a key draw to the programme from a personal point of view and is a unique opportunity to work across cultures and disciplines. Group think isn’t an option when the group is comprised of such a spread of folks.

Something borrowed – this symbolises borrowed happiness – whilst perhaps too romantic a notion to place on course material such as “Financial Reporting”, it does capture that as full-time students we’ve hit pause on careers to sit back and take stock with the goal of being unleashed in 12 months wiser, more efficient and more impactful.

Something blue – this can only refer to Dublin. 5-in-a-row Dublin as our international classmates quickly learned in Coppers. For close on 50% of the class, this is the first time to immerse themselves in one of the great cities of Europe. A city that has given Joyce & Guinness to the world. As we learned during Business economics it also gave the double Irish tax treatment to the world prompting the ire of a multiple of acronyms including CCTB and BEPS.

Unlike most great weddings, our reception was held in Bray Bowling alley and it was a BYOB affair. Chat and warm beer were flowing in equal measures and it was clear that the initial goals of the program had been achieved. A disparate group had bonded and was looking forward to the year ahead. The honeymoon is over and the feared MBA stone is on the horizon.

Class Night Out

Martin Naughton, FT MBA 19-20