team work – Smurfit MBA Blog

Huge Success for the EMBA team representing Smurfit at the 2018 John Molson MBA International Case Competition at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada

Congratulations to our EMBA team of Andrew Gebelin, Ruth Lalor, Gearoid O’ Briain, Maria Barry and Paul Donnelly and their Coach Prof. Pat Gibbons who performed exceptionally well to claim victory with stiff competition from 36 international business schools from over 18 countries to be crowned 2018 Champions!

The many hours of hard work and preparation of the team as well as their drive and ambition was evident throughout and demonstrated the quality of our MBA cohort. Congratulations and a huge thank you to their team Coach Prof. Pat Gibbons who spent a huge amount of his own time preparing and training this team and who has travelled with previous Smurfit teams, offering his insight, expertise and vast academic knowledge, to Concordia over the last number of years. Paul Slattery our renowned MBA Presentation Skills expert was hugely influential and invested time and offered much support to the team. Thanks also to all the academic staff, the MBA team (notably Zoe O’ Connor) and previous EMBA Molson teams who have all played an important role in this victory for our MBA Programme, the Smurfit School, UCD and Ireland.

The John Molson MBA International Case Competition is open to top business schools worldwide, and is recognized as the largest case competition of its kind. Taking place over five days this is a tough and intensive competition which requires hard work, stamina and excellent preparation. The competition format is a round-robin tournament consisting of seven unpublished business cases, the highlight of the week is a live case presentation by a major company facing a real-life business challenge. With up to three hours of preparation time, teams of students must analyse and evaluate unpublished business cases using the skills, knowledge and experience they have acquired from their respective MBA curriculum. The students must then present their detailed plan of action to a panel of judges. More than 300 business executives serve as judges, using their unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to critically assess the participants’ presentations. Teams are evaluated on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of implementation.

Roisin Downing

MBA Leadership Development Manager

A Challenging but Rewarding Journey

It feels like the MBA started yesterday, but three months have already passed, and this is the last week of semester one. What an amazing and challenging journey so far! Sometimes I ask myself if it was a good idea to bring my wife and daughter to join me on this journey, but quickly I realize that we are all growing and learning in this wonderful country.

Looking through my calendar from the last three months, I can give a quick snapshot of this journey. Beginning the 7^th of November, after more than two months looking for a nice house for my family, I finally received a positive answer from Alan (our letting agent), and I could finally move with my family to a house just for us, right behind my daughter’s school. Even though Ireland quickly recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, the housing market is still suffering from the lack of houses available to rent.

The following week, I had the privilege to visit Howth together with my team members and family. Ayush was responsible for the spicy egg sandwiches (delicious 😊, considering that it was his first time preparing them), Lucy leading us on the first part of our scary walk on the edge of the Howth cliffs (not recommended for those with a fear of heights), and Marina (my daughter) leading us on our way back (I thought we would never return!). At the end of this incredible afternoon, we stopped at a little market to warm our bodies drinking a hot chocolate and to burn our tongues eating Ayush’s spicy sandwiches. Everyone ate them except for Marina who preferred a half kilo Nutella crepe.

Last week, a big new challenge was scaring all the teams in the class. By Sunday (26^th of November) we had to submit the Performance Marketing assignment, the main project for this subject. During the whole week, we could see all the teams working late, including Saturday with all syndicate study rooms full. By 11:28pm on Sunday, after the last few Google Hangout calls with my team, Eoin pressed the send button, and we could feel again a pleasant, but temporary relief.

The next day, here we are here again in the MBA room on a Monday morning discussing the next steps for our last two assignments of this semester. As we get closer to the end of the semester, I’m starting to have mixed feelings of relief, nostalgia, and gratitude.

I’m looking forward to the next steps of this challenging and rewarding journey!

Marcelo Cardozo de Mello Boccuzzi, Full Time MBA 2017-2018

A Roller Coaster Ride

Aaannddd… We are into week 6. It seems like a year already! As I sit to pen down my thoughts about this roller coaster ride, I can’t help but ponder a question: Did I make the right decision by pursuing an MBA? The first thought that crosses my mind is, indeed! The journey so far has been a perfect blend of surprises, reality checks, setting goals, broadening horizons and what not. I have really been surprised by how quickly my perspective has changed. Be it at school or at home, our topics of discussion have changed from petty personal issues to deciding companies’ strategies. The house of 4 ambitious MBA aspirants living together has turned into a battlefield these days, or maybe a BBC discussion forum (*sigh*)!!!

The journey began with Foundation Week, allowing me to put faces to names I had known for over a month. It was a hectic week. Though, I did enjoy losing millions in the business simulation. Boy, I would have been behind bars if I was running a real business that way. Fintan Ryan, the mover-and-shaker, introduced us to our study groups, which we saw changing into teams.

In week 2, I was recovering from the trauma of an intense and demanding Foundation Week. I was hoping that life would now get simpler. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come. While financial reporting continued to haunt us, Competitive Strategy made me realize that if I were to be a CEO of a company, it would definitely go bankrupt in a couple of hours. The Eureka moment- “marketing is certainly not my cup of tea!” The week ended with Friday night dinner followed by endless dancing at Sams Bar only to find my legs crumbling the next morning. Woaahh!!! Let’s plan the next party soon.

The next two weeks were all about completing assignments, chasing deadlines and delivering presentations.

“Presentation”, this word freaks me out. Paul Slattery to the rescue. The class cannot thank him enough for his inputs and feedback on our presentation skills. We all agree that our presentation skills have developed by leaps and bounds.

By now, we started chasing (more like bugging) Zoe for the extra-curricular clubs. Oh, and how can I forget the session with Brian McIvor who made us introspect about our strengths, weaknesses, transferable skills, personality traits and our values.

I glanced at the timetable once again for week 5 and it looked like an easy going week. Reality-check!, “Easy going life in MBA” is the best oxymoron after “Happily Married Man”! The week completely drained our energy; Comparing Accounting Policies of 5 companies and UFO Moviez case-study being the main culprits. For heaven’s sake, why can’t companies keep their balance sheets clean so that I can have my sleep? I slept for 14 hours this Saturday in order to revitalize myself.

I experienced the essence of what diversity brings to the table through my study group. At one end, it has a novice like me, who is all over the place, and on the other end, it has some really organized people. Their attitude has inspired me to plan things well and to keep myself organized. However, it is a continuous process and will take time. I keep trying though.

Fintan Ryan strikes back with yet another mind-boggling session of team building, facilitating the feedback barter in our team. We have retained our values; however, we have defined new goals and challenged ourselves to take up roles we are not comfortable with, to emerge as a stronger team than before. More than understanding the subject, we are trying to understand each other’s perspective in every assignment we do. From being the best team in the presentation skills class to scoring a C in our competitive strategy assignment, we have experienced it all. Yet, we continue to strive for excellence.

While we all start the 6^th week of this exhilarating journey with assignments continuing to create chaos in our lives, we are revitalized by careers consultant Daniel Porot. Daniel comes with a bag full of witty strategies for job hunting, negotiations and networking, having an impactful presence and a whole lot of it. He has made sure that we hit the bull’s eye in choosing our careers. Our financial reporting course is finishing soon and we are gearing up to prepare ourselves for the Corporate Finance course.

I look forward to the GNAM week later this month after which I have to balance both sides of the balance sheet in the Financial Reporting exam.

As I draft the concluding paragraph of my experience at Smurfit, I share a mixed feeling of excitement and anxiety, enthusiasm and apprehension, euphoria and melancholy. More often than not, I miss home. Fortunately, I have really amazing flat-mates who are also my classmates. In them, I find a family away from home (more because they cook delicious food!!! And I am always hungry :-p). Dublin has been treating me well so far. While I write this ending note, my mobile beeps and a message flashes up- “Halloween Party is on!” Let’s scare the ghost of the MBA. See you guys at the Halloween party.

Dhananjay Bairagi, Full Time MBA 2017-2018

Team Coaching

“You see us as you want to see us—in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain…and an athlete…and a basket case…a princess…and a criminal. Does that answer your question?”

— The Breakfast Club

It’s hard to believe that just one month ago we were enjoying a fun day of team building exercises that required leadership, teamwork, logic and patience. On this day, we were introduced to our Semester 1 study groups for the first time. Each group drew up a team charter, to clarify direction and common goals, while establishing boundaries. My team found no significant commonalities amid ourselves, yet we took immediate comfort in our differences, instantly recognising that they made us stronger. Like every study group, we are diverse, with not only distinct career experience, but also different nationalities; Irish, Canadian, Vietnamese and Indian. My team came from unique industries; from program management to teaching to technology management to marketing. We now have four approaches to business administration, four flavours of strategy, four perceptions, and the chance to see each challenge from four distinct angles. Nevertheless, in time all great teams will face hurdles.

Fast-forward 30 days, and we participated in a team coaching session at the Talbot Hotel. Since our team work is continuous throughout the year, it was important to debrief using a lessons-learned approach. Each team had the benefit of a coach to facilitate the afternoon session. We were provided with the opportunity to discuss openly as a team what we feel our issues have been, and then had the chance for one-on-ones with each team member to discuss what went wrong, what went right, what may be improved, and ways the improvements can be made. It was interesting to hear my teammates’ first impressions of me. The team coaching session helped us identify ways to improve our time management and teamwork efficiency. It was the perfect opportunity to reflect over the first month and recognise mistakes, errors, and failures, and make any necessary adjustments to our team charter.

Now that we have a better understanding of our colleagues’ individual strengths, weaknesses and personality types, it will be interesting to see how we evolve from here!

The days are long, and the years are short. After several 12 hour days at Smurfit, numerous hours spent in the syndicate rooms (for which we all received warning emails for overbooking!), social events, and communication outside of school hours, it feels like we’ve known each for months! With the close-knit nature of the program, I think it’s obvious to us all, that many life-long friendships are developing, and I’m looking forward to the countless adventures we will experience together throughout the year!

Laura Cunningham, Full Time MBA 2017-2018

As We Grow … as a Team

In early summer 2017, the Full Time MBA class and first year EMBA class travelled to Reykjavik, Iceland for Smurfit’s first MBA International Consulting Project.

We (Lorcan, Louis, Niall & Peter) teamed up with As We Grow, an indigenous design company specialising in the design of children’s (and, as we later found out, women’s) clothing – a sector none of us had any experience in. We were originally tasked with the rather broad scope of re-designing their business plan and growing their international online sales to ISK 100 million within 3 years. (To date, their sales streams had been heavily focused on wholesale and distribution.)

We soon realised that they had more basic and fundamental problems to address and reasoned that the main issues we could assist with were:

optimisation of their online presence
clarification of their differentiating factor
selection of new markets to target

After further discussions with the company, we agreed that selecting new markets to target wasn’t a priority so we dropped this point of business from the project but agreed to prioritise the whole area of brand awareness instead.

We soon learned that what customers like about As We Grow was:

The simplicity of the garments
Classic designs
The concept of its production
That they are made in Iceland

We provided the client with a presentation comprising real, practical recommendations that we felt addressed:

Development and improvement of their digital sales strategy
Optimisation of their branding
Optimisation of their website
Correction of some operational issues
Improved communication of their story

One of our key learnings was that relevant industry experience or knowledge can be very valuable. One of us had two contacts operating in this industry and we set up relevant communication channels. While we may not have agreed with or used their advice verbatim, it expeditiously put us on the right path and saved us a considerable amount of time. It was also interesting that these two contacts had very differing views of the online arena, and our learning from this was that companies can have different views on the exact same market; it simply depends on their goals, priorities and, ultimately, company strategy.

Two rounds of study groups and learnings from our Global Virtual Team were great preparation for the team-working dynamic of the trip. For Year 2 of the MBA, we feel that our team-working skills are much improved by the experience and this will be a real benefit when dealing with more study groups and more GVTs over the remainder of the course.

All in all, we found the Iceland trip enjoyable, eye-opening and a great experience from start to finish. While it’s not untrue to say that Iceland is expensive, this is but a fleeting observation because the real value derived from this trip was the richness of the Icelandic culture, the beauty of its scenery, and the bonding of an MBA class – the class… of 2018.

Niall Gallagher, Executive MBA 2016-2018

The Importance of Teamwork

When I decided to put my music business on hold and to take a year out of life and return to college at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the raw intensity of what was to come. Even after 15 years of intense work in the Hollywood entertainment industry, MBA life often seems to be an exercise in survival training for business more than academic learning. Part of me feels that this is the point of it all. From the beginning, the high pressure environment has created a strong bond between the Full-Time MBA students. We realise that supporting each other is the cornerstone of our fast evolving class culture, and this family attitude increases the chance of us making it through the year relatively unscathed!

Teams, teams and more teams

From the start, teamwork has been a huge part of our MBA experience. We work in assigned teams, in self-selected pairs, and as individuals. We also share ideas as a class on a regular basis. The thing about assigned teams, as you can well imagine, is that there’s no choosing who you get. At the start of Semester One, I think a lot of us collectively held our breath before meeting our teams after hearing all the rumors about teams being customized to create minor conflict to challenge us. I feel I have been very lucky. I have four teammates from different backgrounds, countries and cultures who support each other and have been there for each other every step of the way. It has been a great support to me personally.

I’ve actually been discovering a lot of hidden things about teamwork that will benefit me for many years to come. So many of us are being reminded that there is a lot more to it than simply having a meeting and then going our separate ways to work on tasks. For example:

What are our individual and collective strengths?
How can we learn from and with each other?
How do we engage with each other?
How can we align our goals or expectations?

Virtual Teamwork at Smurfit

Recently, we were hit with a new challenge – working in virtual teams across the various Executive MBA and Full-Time MBA classes. The task seemed simple: collaborate through virtual communication and make a video about the experience. In reality, it proved to be an engaging challenge. Trying to agree on simple things such as an online platform or when everyone is free is apparently harder to do with teammates you don’t know or see!

We tested the virtual team experience in a “safe psychological environment” (a phrase heard a lot in our class) and had a lot of fun doing it. When two of us attended Global Network Week in Yale’s School of Management for example, we took the time to organise a Skype call from Yale with our teammates back in Ireland to give us an authentic international Global Virtual Team experience.

Our final video project revolved around interviews with fellow Global Network Week students and our own team discussing our experiences.

The MBA Leadership Development Programme

There is a growing awareness among many of us, that developing our ability to work with and lead a team of diverse individuals is a far more significant part of our growth as future business leaders than simply getting the top grade in an MBA exam. It’s proving to be an interesting psychological transition. The ego wants to be selfish and to focus on what is best for the self, yet we see time and time again that the collective delivers better decisions and outcomes.

The Leadership Development Programme (LDP) focuses on the skills necessary to help us. It IS all worth it. This voyage of self-discovery feeds our emotional growth, and our capacity to be more productive both individually and collectively. At the end of the day, we unquestionably need to understand who we are, before we can lead others in the future. To help us understand our psychological preferences and our emotional strengths and weaknesses, we have done a barrage of personality tests such as an ESCI 360 Peer Review and a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test based on C. Jung and I. Briggs Myers type theory.

Honestly, it sometimes feels like we are doing a new test every second week!

Moving Forward

So what is next for me? I think most of all, I simply look forward to continuing on this voyage of self discovery and enjoying the remainder of my MBA experience.

Ciaran Hope ~ Full-Time MBA

Foundation Week & the start of the MBA

When I embarked on my Smurfit MBA journey, I said I will start a blog. I didn’t expect the workload to be so high though.

Three weeks later I am posting my first blog entry. I am still very excited to share my experience with you, and I hope you are still interested in reading it. I promise writing more often and on time in the future.

Foundation week.

The foundation week is a pre-programme part of the MBA to get everyone to know each other, and get everyone “up and running”, as they say.

It definitely involved a lot of running! From Monday to Friday we spent all day from 8.00 to 18.00-19.00 at the school. The week was so intense and beneficial in terms of learning that at the end of it, it was hard to realize that the programme itself had not even started. I felt I already learned so much! It would be easier to describe the week day by day.

Monday

Monday was a “getting to know each other day” with programme directors and staff greeting us, several lecturers giving introduction to specific fields, as well as a bit of talk on leadership and the year to come.

I was positively surprised by the quality of lecturers and by the experience of my fellow classmates. I obviously knew Smurfit is one of the top schools, but the quality of lecturing turned out to be beyond any expectations! Also I was happy to get to know my classmates. People in this programme are probably a bit older and more experienced compared to many other MBAs. It seems that the average experience among full time cohort is about 8-10 years, while among the Executives about 10-12. I was very happy to be among people older than me, even though at first felt a little bit weird, recognizing I am one of the youngest and less experienced in the class.

Tuesday

Tuesday was Financial Reporting all the day. Boring, you might say, right? Yes, not the most exciting subject on Earth, I agree! That is why our class was amazed that our professor Niamh Brennan managed to keep our attention for the whole day! Truly fascinating, and it adds to my previous comment about the quality of lecturers.

Wednesday

Team building activities. Many people have certain stereotypes regarding outside team building activities. People would picture running around, doing crazy stuff with no purpose, falling on their backs and hoping their team mates would catch them.

This workshop was very similar and very different. We did a lot of outside activities: we solved puzzles, did physical exercise, and even walked around with our eyes blindfolded trying to form a certain figure. However, a very distinct feature of this particular workshop was that it served a purpose of understanding, how teams operate. The facilitator gathered us together after every activity, and we debriefed what happened. The lessons adaptable to real life would be evident afterwards.

For example, we were given a task in groups of 4 and 20 minutes to plan, how we tackle it. Then 5 minutes into the exercise we were approached and told that the task had been changed, and we will have to perform it with other 2 groups of 4. We would spend the remaining 15 minutes still in the same group of 4, planning the task. When the time to perform comes, we would not perform well enough, of course.

Why is it so? Because we were blind to see that 5 minutes into the task our group has changed, and instead of planning in a group of 4, we should be planning in a group of 12. Now think how often you experience at your job that two departments (say sales and marketing) are doing something on their own? This funny experience in an outdoor game was a good illustration of how groups of people fail to see what are the boundaries of the team.

Friday

Thursday was a business simulation that I will not go into details about just to save your reading time. One distinct feature about that day was that it was my birthday, which I celebrated by getting a 2 for 4.25 EUR salad deal from Marks and Spencer.

Friday was another day full of highlights. First we had a workshop on listening and personality types (Myers Briggs). I think it might be because of the background of trainers in psychology, but they delivered the best workshop on listening and personality types I have ever seen (out of at least 3). The personality types was a more interesting part. They explained what it means, how it affects the working preferences, as well as sources of stress for various types. We didn’t do the test, but they explained each component and two extremes so well that my self-assessment completely corresponded to the results of the test I took later.

After lunch we had a presentation skills workshop. Again, when you have attended several poorly delivered presentation skills workshops, there is not much to expect. However, this one was brilliant! I did a lot of debating during my undergrads, and speaking in public is never an issue for me. I learned loads of useful tips and information from the workshop. It was not only the information, but also real time interaction, practicing, and coaching that turned the knowledge into practice. Now that we also had a second workshop in week 2 of studies, I see that not only me, but every single person in the class massively improved their presentation skills.

Cheers Smurfit for the fun and beneficial week! Thumbs up for the quality! We ended the week with a visit to a local pub, as Irish traditions require.

First weeks of studies

I am now in my third week of studies, and I will not lie, if I say I have mixed feelings about it. The quality is outstanding and beyond any expectation! People in class, lecturers, learning environment, and leadership workshops contribute massively to my development. I feel like an empty book shelf, gradually being filled with new skills and knowledge. I will write separate entries on the class, subjects/lecturers, and the leadership development part of the programme. The downside to this is that I find myself studying literally for 12-14 hours on most days. “Gotta run and keep going” I suppose! At least I know that all the effort put into studies will benefit my development.

I think it is enough of reading for the first entry. In the future, I promise to write shorter articles. I plan to write on several topics: (i) why I chose Smurfit; (ii) about the class, lecturers/subjects, and other components of the programme, so that people considering MBA in the future are better informed about Smurfit; (iii) about scholarship opportunities here and at other institutions, and why you don’t necessarily need to pay 100K+ for a degree.

Cheers for now!

Nikita Pusnakovs ~ Full-Time MBA

Check out Nikita’s Blog ‘MBA In Ireland’ here

UCD Smurfit MBA Foundation Week

When I joined the military 10 years ago, we had to complete an induction week. The week was designed to give us a ‘soft landing’ into the organisation and dismay any anxiety or fear. Now, ten years later I have completed a similar week as part of the EMBA Programme in UCD Michael Smurfit Business School and the induction week seemed to have quite a different objective; a hard landing!

If I was to walk away from the Programme now, the week, as a standalone undertaking, would have been worth attending. Although ‘life-changing’ may be a little dramatic, it certainly challenged me, questioned some of my long-standing beliefs, taught me several practical life-skills and allowed me to meet some truly interesting people.

The Why Marketing Lecture with Prof Damien Mc Loughlin

Although I have attended college before, UCD Michael Smurfit feels different when you arrive. The campus feels modern and all the staff (and fellow students) are particularly friendly. After arriving we received our ‘welcome pack’ and then sat through a series of presentations. The faculty introduced themselves and very soon the message was clear; hard work was the name of the game and there would be no hiding from it. The straight forwardness was refreshing; we all knew where we stood.

Tuesday involved a day-long team building exercise. I found myself at the edge of my comfort-zone before the end of the day, leading the class in the final challenge. I had been determined not to risk exposing myself to a position like this so early on but here I was. In the military, standing out early in a course of training is usually a bad thing. I expected that leading a group of natural leaders like those who might enroll in an MBA Programme, would lead to a ‘too many chiefs’ situation. Surprisingly there were no counter-ideas or subversive actions after I voiced my plan. Each individual acknowledged the action required to achieve the teams objective and played their part diligently. I have never experienced a team of this size come together and operate with such efficiency, in such a short time.

The rest of the week saw us meet our study groups, complete a day-long business simulation, practice our presentation skills and learn about our personality styles and those of others. I left on Friday, looking forward to seeing my new classmates again and in particular working with my new study group.

No one could say they weren’t challenged, no one could say they didn’t learn something new and it’s pretty clear what lies ahead: hard work, the development of great friendships and the opportunity to overcome huge challenges.

To quote Gordon B. Hinckley – “Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds”.

Gearóid O’Briain ~ Executive MBA, Year 1

There Is No ONE Answer…

My class and I are now nearly half way through Semester 1, Year 2 of the Executive MBA. The respite of mid-term is upon us as we take a breather before the run in of the last few weeks of the semester.

As I reflect on the progress we have made to date, one key learning sticks in my mind. Subjects such as Leading the Innovative Enterprise, Performance Driven Marketing, Strategy (corporate and competitive), Business and Society and Organisational Behaviour have taught me one thing: There is no One Answer.

My background is a technical one – a degree in chemistry and a number of years of experience in manufacturing pharmaceuticals. In those environments, technical problems, investigations and experiments have a root cause, a numerical answer or a concise conclusion. The subjects already mentioned have required some reprogramming of my brain.

As I read case studies and analysed the information, I came to a conclusion. I entered class with my notes in hand confident I had found the right “one” answer.

“Honda’s strategy was sound no luck involved – well planned and executed.”

“Developing a customer relationship by pretending to have a keen interest in thorough bred bulls – no ethical dilemma here, this is fair game in the sales world”

“Flat organisational structures – ideological, can’t work in practice”

As I waited in anticipation, throughout the lecture, for the various professors and doctors to validate my rock solid conclusions I was often disappointed. Why are they not giving us the answer?

As my brain adjusted to this new environment, I realised that me finding that one correct answer was futile. What is important however is the discussion, the insights of fellow classmates, my study group members and the theory outlined in articles and course text books. Eventually I stopped worrying about finding the right answer and more about incorporating the appropriate learning to strengthen my analysis and reasoning.

Michael Collins ~ Executive MBA

Every Little Helps

Barilla pasta and a large Coke, delivered on a Honda while reading Stephen King, before deciding between Nintendo Wii or PlayStation! Who knew the EMBA would be so much fun? On the other side of life, no more Netflix, Champion’s League, weekly five aside or Saturday morning lie in. Although the benefits of the experience curve should see weekly 5 aside reintroduced before long. After 6 weeks now, a good routine and an addiction to Costa coffee have taken hold. I think the secret lies in getting a good start to the week and taking advantage of whatever few free moments arise in the day to think through the weekly case work. Like Tesco, every little helps. Although Financial Reporting class suggests Tesco used a little extra help.

I begin to wonder what I actually did with my free time before September, probably not as much as I should! Joking aside, I have been impressed not just by the quality of the class learning experience but also by the balance in module delivery. Personally, I look forward to CS on a Friday afternoon, the class has changed how I look at the most basic everyday products and now I look around at cans of coke and 7 Up and wonder who really extracts the value from their existence. Life was so simple before!

The first few weeks are a shock to the system but slowly you find your feet. The team based nature of assignments helps you to realise everyone is in the same boat and before long you establish some momentum. It’s hard to believe we’re just at the half way point of Semester 1 or as I like to think of it as one eighth of the way through the entire program. Week 7 sees delivery of two of the main group assignments and I’m looking forward to our well-deserved break week. Unfortunately, I am still awaiting that Satori moment but I have had a few others, regret, fear and dreaming about IFRS but all that has dissipated now. Overall, the experience is different to what I expected but I am very, very happy with it so far. The focus on team work adds a lot of value, before beginning, I naively thought I’d mastered time management, I know now I hadn’t. Hopefully with some of the big assignments out of the way, we’ll get some time to think about the exams, that long Christmas break and maybe even a holiday in January.

So far so good.

Terence Dunne ~ Executive MBA Year 1