Unlike many other schools, Goizueta offers its students an opportunity of choosing electives in the first year of an MBA program.  After the fall-semester, when students finish the majority of the core courses, the spring semester is the time for the electives and this prepares the students better for the internships in the summer. Here are the electives that I have enrolled in for this semester:

Goizueta Marketing Strategy Consultancy (GMSC): This is a course and a competition combined into one. Six teams of 6-7 students work on a consulting project with a company to solve a real business issue that the company is facing. Throughout the spring semester, the teams receive guidance from second-year Team Guides and leadership team, faculty members, a number of external trainers and of course, the client.  At the end of the semester, the teams present their recommendations to the client as well as to a judging panel comprising of experienced marketing and consulting professionals from Atlanta business community.  The course is intense; the total time commitment varies between 12-15 hours a week and that’s not counting the classroom time!! But the learning experience is certainly worth the time investment. Actually, GMSC deserves at least one post of its own and I promise a post on this in near future. Meanwhile, you can have a look at these.

Managerial Accounting:
Sample these comments from recent alumni:
“Managerial Accounting changed my life. Before taking the class I was a real “girlie-man.” But thanks to activity based costing, I’ve got a great new job, tons of money, women, and a new attitude.”
“Prepare to be amazed. Once you’ve experienced The Death Spiral, nothing will be the same again. I’m a changed man.”
From these comments, you can have some idea about how much students love Managerial Accounting taught by Dr. Kristy Towry. I know it’s a bit difficult to imagine the words “love” and “Accounting” in one sentence, but this is perfectly acceptable, if Dr. Towry’s name is used in the same sentence! With her witty anecdotes, distinct sense of humor and excellent style of teaching, she literally makes accounting a fun-class. (For a sample, see attached scene from one of her classes. ) No wonder, she has won a number of Teaching Excellence awards over last 6-7 years.

Analytics for e-markets: The course deals with the nuances of how Internet and e-Commerce has fundamentally changed the way business is done. As a former techie, I was naturally attracted to this class, but after going through a third of the course, I realize that these are the issues that everybody needs to address to survive in today’s business world. Like most classes at Goizueta, this class follows a balance between lectures and cases. In addition, we have experts coming from companies like Google and Yahoo to keep us updated on the latest in the industry.

/* BTW, why did I just call myself a “former” techie? Just 2-3 days ago, I successfully wrote and executed a “shell-script” on my mac to rename a specific set of images for this blog’s new design!! */

Ideation: This is a course about “Thinking”! May sound a bit unusual, but it’s no more unusual than Professor Joey Reiman: the man behind the concept. He had a great career in advertising (He even won a Golden Lion Award at Cannes Film Festival!) before he decided to start his own Ideation company: Brighthouse .  Under the Ideation course, Joey lays out a sequential series of steps for coming up with great ideas to transform an ailing organization. This is purely an experiential class: each project team is asked to select a company, and uncover its purpose and impact on society. The purpose is to excavate and develop a Master Idea that aligns the company’s ideals, values, goals and objectives and allows it to stand for more than just its product offerings. In the past, the master-ideas from the class have made it to the CXOs’ tables and some of them have been implemented successfully by companies.

As you can imagine, life is much more hectic this semester (In addition to above, we have two core courses too!), even more than it was during the dreaded Block 2 of first semester. But with the choices I made in picking the electives, I am really enjoying the experience. Stay tuned for more updates on GMSC, internship hunt and more.

It feels like we just started, but spring semester is almost half way done and we are fast approaching mid-semester break. For first years, spring (second) semester is different from fall (first) semester in many ways, but perhaps the most striking difference is in how the courses you take are chosen. In first semester courses choose you, in second you choose the courses. Both have its own advantages. In first semester, Goizueta offers an integrated core, where you build a strong foundation and get ready to make your own decision about courses for spring semester. Right before the end of first semester, you can choose courses for spring from an exhaustive list of courses. In other words: first semester is what it is, but Spring, and in fact all the other semesters, is what you want it to be. So, Spring semester can be very challenging or not so challenging based on courses one chooses to take.

While I am taking small steps toward the end of spring semester with all the classes, numerous team meetings, club responsibilities, and internship interviews in between, my train of thought goes back to block 2, arguably the most academically challenging part of doing an MBA from Goizueta. One of the things – that we (first years) got warned about most often from second years when we started school back in August’09 – was block 2 (it was block B before it was renamed as block 2). Before I start elaborating on why block 2 is what it is, let me explain, to those not familiar with block system at Goizueta, how it works. Essentially, first semester is roughly equally divided into three blocks. Few courses are just one block long, and most extend over two blocks. There are exams at the end of each block.

Block 2 starts around mid-September and continues till about end of October. The senior class (second years) had a challenging time during block 2 (hence the warning from them) a year before because of the tremendous amount of multi-tasking required to get through ‘successfully’. Success can mean different things to different people. For most, it was about finishing all the readings and assignments in time for the four core courses, all very challenging and important. For few, it was about getting highest grades. For some, it was about doing well in the three career conferences, which also happen during same time (yes, same time), so that you have your dream internship before even on campus recruiting starts (internship recruitment does start as early as September). For some, it was about building networks and being socially active. Then, there were a few for whom success was to achieve all of the above. So, the ‘coefficient of difficulty’ varied based on which category one fell into. However, although the relative perceived difficulty varied, there was no denying that it was difficult even at the bare minimum level, just because there were so many things to do.

So, that was block 2. Difficult? Perhaps. More difficult than spring semester? Depends. That reminds me that the answer of many questions in b-school is just one word: depends. But, I will save more detail about that for some other time. Before I finish, let me share another interesting fact about block 2. It was actually even more challenging a year before than it was for us. Based on the feedback that the program office received from our senior class, we got a stripped down version of block 2, with lesser number of courses, for which we thank second years (and MBA program office) whole-heartedly. And, yes, at Goizueta, feedbacks are considered seriously and are acted upon. They trigger change.

After first six months of MBA full of great learning, tremendous work, new friends, surprises, and lots of fun, I can’t wait to discover the rest of the experience of doing an MBA here at Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Microenterprise is an incredible subject to study, especially if you believe in the power of business.

What is microenterprise? Of the world’s 3 billion poor who live on less than $2.50 per day, many run their own micro-business to earn money. And the business’s prosperity becomes the family’s. This is true for women in particular; for every $1 a woman earns, she invests 90 cents in her family’s health, education, and well-being. Unfortunately, a lack of business literacy can often hold a microentrepreneur back.

Meet Maria
Maria is a microentrepreneur. She runs a small store out of her home in the highlands of Guatemala. For her, some additional help in marketing and selling her textiles could mean the difference between sending her daughter to school or not. Speak with Maria and you will hear a strong desire for the tools of business. She knows business literacy is an obstacle.

When we think of microentrepreneurs like this, something changes. We begin to view the poor not as passive charity recipients, but as consumers and producers. If we can get rid of the obstacles and constraints in their way, we can give them the opportunity to effect change in their own lives.

The universality of business and entrepreneurship
What are some of these obstacles? Let’s talk about entrepreneurship itself. Entrepreneurs need two things: money and know-how. For microentrepreneurs, the money piece is called microfinance, and it’s a proven, scalable model that has spread around the world. Microfinance is still at around 10-20% of its full potential, but the model is there.

But business literacy has been a tougher nut to crack. No surprise there: money is a lot easier to spread around than knowledge. There are lots of smart people working on this issue – USAID spends $250 million a year on microenterprise development – but a microfinance-style scalable model has been elusive.

(Of course, microenterprise development comprises many more interventions than just microfinance and business literacy. Other elements include improving access to new markets, disseminating technology, and simplifying both business formation and bankruptcy. But for my money, business literacy is the most interesting.)

My experience is in business consulting. The central thesis of strategy consulting is that, at their core, all business problems have some pretty common causes. Poor understanding of one’s customers. Unnecessary costs. Lack of a clear, differentiated strategy. It’s a stem-cell theory of business – no matter what industry you’re looking at, the business challenges can be grouped into some common categories. These commonalities make a generalist MBA education not only possible, but incredibly valuable. Which is what makes business literacy such a compelling issue for MBAs like myself. We know that business is actually pretty straightforward. So how can we spread business literacy?

EXCO104: Microenterprise Development Lab
To share what I’ve learned, I have turned my business literacy questions into a class. As part of Emory’s Experimental College, I am teaching “Microenterprise Development Lab” each Thursday evening at Goizueta. If you’re in Atlanta, you’re welcome to attend.

We’ve had two classes so far. This past Thursday, each student role-played one of nine organizations – such as Aflatoun, Samasource, and Agora Partnerships – pitching USAID for funding. (Aflatoun won.) During the rest of the semester, we’ll talk about the broad challenges of micro-businesses, what microenterprise curricula look like, and how a bunch of university students might make a difference. More info is at andrewkstein.com/microenterprise.

So far, it’s a lot of fun. I came into Goizueta thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if there were an elective about microenterprise development?” Now there is. My hope is that, one day, a microenterprise class will be as standard at business schools as beer-powered networking.

–
Andrew K. Stein
Goizueta Business School
MBA Class of 2011

So, we are back to school in a new year – 2010 – and more and more it is the topic of conversation that we are graduating soon, really soon.  It’s true, the time left for some of us at Goizueta is dwindling, but I am no less busy than before.  Of course its a result of my extracurricular choices, and of course I have a lot on my plate.  But these extracurricular choices have really been some of the best learning experiences of my life.

Getting involved in leadership roles is expected at a school with the agenda to “build Principled Leaders for Global Enterprise”.  We have leadership courses and we read cases, but this year I have learned leadership in practice.  Remember GMSC, that course I wrote about last year? Well this year I am the Managing Director of the course, and basically make sure things work out and we that we maintain the course.  I lead a team of 6 directors and have a faculty adviser to help guide us through the process.  This role has really challenged me in interesting ways, while also allowing me to practice some of the leadership methodology I have learned.  I have been able to develop best practices, which I really think I can use in real life.

What’s more, having to prioritize between leadership roles, similar to other endeavors in life, has been particularly interesting.  I have been in leadership roles before, and I have had to juggle responsibilities, but leading and managing alpha – male and female, super smart, assertive MBAs has been one of the best learning experiences of my life thus far.  So the point of this message, that piling roles on to our plates may seem scary, but there are only 2 years in B-school….some may choose to load up on classes and others may choose extracurricular – either way, there is some good, and real leadership to be learned for us all.

And it’s not all intense, having to choose which wines to serve at a wine dinner, and which days of the semester to visit the High Museum of Art are also some of the demands of these roles.  Not at all bad skills to capitalize on for the future!

Hello out there, this is your host Parul, here to deliver another installment of “What the heck is GMSC?”…

When I last wrote about GMSC, our team was in the discovery phase of our GMSC project. The timeline for the class is designed for us to systematically go through this process, by doing an industry and competitor analysis, and conducting secondary research to begin the process. When we have defined the problem, then we begin the process of developing our survey for quantitative analysis. The survey is designed to collect data about your specific topic from users or relevant parties; ours is along the lines of usage patterns for data analytics. This survey can be internal to the client company or external, which has given many GMSC, groups the extra experience of working with email list brokers. The survey is reviewed and re-reviewed, by GMSC academics as well as industry experts, and can be a really intensive learning process…if you thought the simple days of check boxes were still around, you have another thing coming! Needless to say, when our team finally crafted our survey and sent it out, I was thinking… “Houston, we have landed”!

Our team is currently collecting survey data, a bit behind the “schedule” as it is laid out, but actually finding that our initial thoughts are very concurrent with the responses so far. The main challenges, as can be seen in any consulting-type deliverable, are ensuring that the work keeps going, that the client in involved in the process, and that everything we do will help us get closer to presentation day. If I had not mentioned it before, Presentation Day is one where each team competes in a competition (Case Competition to be exact) in front of several judges, both academic and from industry. The end result is a prize for best presentation, and best team…with a monetary reward. Anyone in GMSC will attest though, the glory is more attractive!

The coolest things for me so far with regards to GMSC are:

1. Interacting with a client I have never worked with (did I mention I consulted before B-school)

2. Working on the preliminary phases of a yet unexplored project

3. Interfacing with my awesome team

4. Working with faculty, and other students within GBS, who are experts in a certain area

5. Developing something which will potentially become a full-scale project at a very cool company, and

6. Competing with other teams, to produce the best quality product for our clients, and gain the glory of winning GMSC!

For the next month, our team will be working on some analytical data crunching, and presentation development. We have a long way to go, but we are beginning to really feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Stay tuned for the results in May!

As part of our MBA program here at Goizueta, we have the opportunity of attending mid-semester international lead week module in spring. This year we had Dubai and Cairo, Brazil or China as options. And because my love for Asian food, Jackie Chan and long flights, I chose the latter. Around 30-ish of my classmates and I left Atlanta on the morning of 26th February to embark on this 16 day trip, and

landed at the Pudong Airport in Shanghai next day. The flight was long and boring; however, I carefully chose an exit row seat and hence was spared by any inconvenience generally caused by fitting a 6′3″ body into an airline coach class seat. We had a lot of fun on the flight, but after hours and hours of chatting, watching movies (btw, I happened to see two Hindi movies on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Shanghai. Is Bollywood so popular now days, or was it the Slumdog effect) and playing poker (my friends and I are prepping up from Macau), we were happy to finally get back on the ground.

From the first minute in Shanghai, we started to see why everyone was so excited about the country. Shaghai has become one of the most modern and advanced cities in the world, and one doesn’t need to go far to discover that. The airport is connected to the city by MagLev – the magnetically elevated train that reaches the top speed of 431 kmph, and covers a distance of about 30Km in 7 mins and 10 seconds. The ride was obviously short, but very exciting.

Maglev - goes upto 431 kmph

We finally managed to check in to our hotel at about 5PM local time i; the hotel was right in middle of the commercial district. The surrounding places were very bustling and there was a lot to see in and around that area. There were loads of departmental stores, and other interesting stuff, and a popular nightlife destination, The Bund, is a few minute’s walk away. We had our dinner in a local Chinese restaurant, and the food was, let’s see how I put it kindly…, Interesting.

The next day we started our tour with a visit to the Shanghai World Financial Center, the tallest building in the world open for business. The design of the building is unique and the visit to the top floor was very entertaining as well. As you wait for the elevator to go up, the height at which the elevator is currently, is shown on the ceiling. And the floor is lit up with dancing lights. It was really catchy, and there were short light n music effects while you spend about a minute to travel 470m up in the air. Unfortunately, the view from the top wasn’t that great because of the fog and clouds. But, one could still see the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jin Mao building, and the skyline of Shanghai looked very impressive.

Our guide, Allan, told us that everything around the old town was built within the last 20 years or so, which makes this development even more impressive. The city also has an urban planning museum, where a 2000sqm futuristic model of the city which reflects the government’s vision for this port city.

Urban Planning Museum

In the afternoon we headed towards the Yuyuan Garden and the old city. The place is right in the middle of the city, and it’s hard to imagine how authorities have managed to save the ancient architecture and old look of the buildings with so much of modern development going on all around it. In fact the local authorities constructed some old fashioned buildings around the garden just to preserve the look of the place.

Old Town

See the above picture and guess which building was built earlier. you’d be surprised to know that the one in the background is an older one!

And then we went to a place called French Concessions, a nice little neighborhood with European architecture and pretty good bars. We bar hopped for some time, played roulette when it came to paying checks (and I learned that game the hard way, by winning it, and therefore ended up paying first one). I tell you, it was not a lot of fun winning the game.

For the night we had a very interesting pub in mind. Bar Rouge is an amalgam of European and Asian feel. Loud Euro music, expensive drinks and a lot of people dancing till wee-hours in the morning is exactly what we had hoped for, and we enjoyed every bit of our night there. I remember coming back to the hotel around 4am, but that is just a guess. The next morning we had Ted Hornbein from Richco speak to us about the way business is done is China and the challenges American firms face. One of the most exciting points he presented was about notion of China as a low cost manufacturing destination, and how that is no longer true. He also talked about some recent trends in China, and how the government now wants to move the country from an assembly model to a more high skilled design and production hub, and what are the challenges in achieving these long term goals.

Later we visited the Shanghai Port, located at about 2 hrs drive from our hotel. The port is built on a reclaimed island, connected to the city by a 31.5 KM long bridge, 3rd longest in the world. And it is HUGE. We spent some time understanding how the port works and how efficient it is. It is amazing how quickly the port was developed, the land was acquired about 5 years ago, and now it’s one of the world’s modern engineering marvels.

Shanghai Port

Then we flew to Hong Kong for our trip to the south end of the country, and I was expecting a lot of fun and excitement from our four day stop visiting HK & Macau. I felt HK was much more like Mumbai; on the water, crowded, always on the move, and “happening”. There are loads of people everywhere, and due to the colonial history of this city, the mix of people is more diverse as compared to any other Chinese city. The first night we tried some local food in a restaurant called Jade Garden, easily one of my best meals on this trip. And after the dinner and couple of stops at random bars, we finally stopped to my favorite place in town, a classic British bar “Bulldog’s” on the Kowloon Island. As a big fan of live music, I really enjoyed my time, often singing with the band, and most of the times requesting songs that the band didn’t knew (most of them were classic rock hits that I thought they should know). In fact I so wanted to listen to one of the songs, that I sang it on stage with the band. And somehow everyone seemed to like it. So Oasis’s Wonderwall became my karaoke song for the rest of the trip.

Bulldog's - Hong Kong

The next day, we visited the American Chamber of Commerce in the heart of business district in HK, and met representatives from AmCham and US Commercial Services. The speakers talked about how the two associations are helping US businesses get acquainted with the Chinese government, culture and markets. It was very interesting to know that any exporter from US could walk in to a USCS office in America, and make use of the services provided by the office and start doing business in China. Of course it sounds easier than it actually is, but it is good to know that even small and medium business can take help from these associations to grow globally.

One of the most exciting visits on our tour was the visit to The Venetian, in Macau. The presentation was hosted by the Strategic Marketing Department of the casino, and we were given some insights into how they manage their resources to become more cost effective without compromising on the customer experience. It was a very unique experience to understand the cultural differences when it comes to gambling, and how the casino has adapted to the market needs. The presentation ended with a tour of the casino, and later, some gambling enthusiasts tried their luck in the casino.

Our final destination on the trip was Beijing, the capital city of China. After a nervy take-off, and long and boring 4 hour flight, we finally reached the hotel, which had definitely the best rooms on the whole trip. The recommendations from the lonely planet guide, and Frommer’s proved to be really helpful, and hence we tried some more local hangouts mentioned in the tour guides, and they didn’t disappoint. “Serve the People” is one of the best restaurants in town serving Thai food, and was another “must-go-to” restaurant in our list.

Our sightseeing tour in Beijing started with the Forbidden City, the Olympic Sites and Hutong. Beijing was different from either Shanghai or Hong Kong in a sense that it was more spread out and definitely more diverse. The next day we visited the local Home Depot store in Beijing. The management team was very excited to have us at the premises, and after a brief tour of the store, we were given a presentation about the many differences in the business model for China as compared to US, and the market dynamics. The business model for Home Depot, Do It Yourself or DIY, is no more applicable in China. Instead, it is now “Do It For Me”, or DIFM. Since the labor costs are so low in China, it makes more sense for people to just hire laborers to get the work done. Hence, HD is adapting to the needs of the local markets to grow, and the going hasn’t been that easy. However, now the management is aware that the learning curve is steeper than they initially thought, and hence are studying the market in more detail before taking their next steps.

Our team at Home Depot, Beijing

In the tail end of our trip, we visited the Great Wall. For me, this was the most exciting day of the trip. We were amazed by the vast spread of the wall through the mainland, and spent most of the day walking on the wall. Equally exciting was the slide on the way down, which made our day even more fun.

Finally, we flew back to Atlanta via Shanghai on Friday, the 13^th (ominous no?). To make our return journey more interesting, the entertainment units in the flight chose not to work. Thankfully my exit row seats came in handy; I made the best use of it, and slept through the flight. All in all, I’m so glad I went on the trip, and I am certainly looking forward to another trip to China in the future!

Where is the biggest soccer stadium in South America? Which cosmetic company produces 2 million lip balms per hour? Which city is the third biggest city in the world? Have you heard of Google Mars?

Nearly 40 Goizueta Business School students found the answers to these questions during a trip to Brazil in March, 2009 for an international lead week. The lead week is supported by our dean, JB Kurish, who said, “Our students have been willing to spend money to go to places where they can have an enriching experience. It would be very disappointing if, because of economic forces, students felt they could not afford to go overseas.”  (http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/mar2009/bs2009035_357853.htm)

The biggest stadium in South America

We visited Petroleo Braileiro, an integrated oil and gas company, and learned about the company’s investing plans and the energy difficulties in Brazil. The presenter talked about the scarcity of the oil in Brazil in early 1990 and how much effort Prtroleo put into exploration and production to obtain the success they have today. However, they are also thinking about branching out internationally through a different distribution model. Even though they are observing the huge Brazilian market, Petroleo wants a bigger piece of the pie.

While in Brazil, we of course took the advantage of the most famous beach in Rio – Ipanema!!! The beautiful sunshine and the combination with the blue water amazed me. I know some people in our group basically spent one whole day on the beach and got sunburned and pealed, but still enjoyed it. Lying down and people watching around is huge fun as it is, not to mention drinking plenty of beer and coconut water, which refreshes you from the heat.

Ipanema Beach

If you go to library e-resource, you will find that Vale do Rio Doce is a metals and mining company, which may not sound terribly exciting. However, the moment you start talking to people in the company you feel their passion about transforming the world, instead of the cold metal materials, they talk about education, life and safety, and transforming mineral for everyday life!! The reality is that before every meeting in Vale, the speaker or presenter spent around 5 minutes explaining where the emergency exits are, isn’t that interesting?

Exploring restaurants was one of our missions as well. Brazilian people love meat and sometimes I wonder how many cows the whole group ate per night. My guess is that it was near 30. It was always all you can eat, and the Brazilian organizers always make sure that we were very hungry before going into the restaurant!

We also visited Natura, the leader of Brazilian cosmetics market, which has a fascinating factory. In 2007, they produced around 180 new products to fulfill their customers’ needs. With so many different products and customers, their picking system is complicated but at the same time efficient. I, however, was most impressed by the scenery around the factory – the grass field, the green hills and the sunset.

Factory

Sau Paolo, the city with afternoon shower, has around 15 million in population. The not stop night clubs and restaurants are generally the “tourist” places. Although we didn’t spend too much time on the city tour, it was all worth it when we found the most delicious tiramisu in an Italian restaurant (ya, the Brazilians and the Italians have to find a place to stay together peacefully).

Google Brazil, no need for me to explain what they do, has the most relaxing atmosphere you can possibly image. You can play pool, Guitar Hero, Rock Back, Wii, and even lay down somewhere while at work. One thing special about this Google office is that pets are NOT allowed here!! In every other Google office pets are allowed, but not this one because of the rules in the building. The funny thing is that Google Brazil even fought for that but they didn’t succeed.

Google

I considered this trip my graduation trip, maybe the international lead week sounds more official, but it was wonderful for me. Thanks to our classmates who organized the whole trip, the whole group could enjoy so much. This, again, shows the leadership spirit at Goizueta. If you want to organize a trip to your home country, home town, or somewhere else, just propose it to the program office, and you can do it, and at the same time, bring so much joy to the whole community!

So you may have heard the phrase “I took GMSC” by a Goizueta student or alumni, and wondered, what exactly is this “GMSC”.  Well, I am here to help clear the air, and explain a bit about the wonderful adventure (ahem) which is the Goizueta Marketing Strategy Consultancy Case Competition, aptly termed “GMSC”.  Now, for my part, I only have a small amount of knowledge to share at this stage in the semester, so I will be happy to take you through this journey as I venture through it.

GMSC is a unique course in which teams of 5 to 6 students are paired with companies (such as Coca-Cola, GE, and Solvay) to pursue a semester-long consulting project.  The projects are typically focused in the marketing discipline, with variations including work in strategy, supply chain, operations, and finance.  The focus of the course is to give exposure to consulting challenges, deal with client relationships, and pursue various data analysis techniques in order to solve a problem relevant to the client company.  This may seem like more than one can feasibly do in a semester, and it may well be, but the course is designed to account for about 10 to 20 hours of work by the student teams per week.

Sound scary?  Well, so far, it is not so much as scary but rather as a unique way to deal with interesting client issues, in a course setting.  My project, which has just begun a few short days ago, is in the scoping stage, where my team and our client company is beginning to determine and narrow down the issues to analyze during the semester.  As a consultant in my previous occupation, this is not new to me; it is however an interesting take on “MBA group work”.  We all bring different expertise and experiences to the table, yet have never worked together.

GMSC is different than other classes, in that the learning you do is in the form of composing deliverables to the client and course instructors, during which time you figure out how to apply all that stuff you learned in Marketing, Decision Analysis, Strategy, and even (dare I say it) Finance.  What is great is learning how to use the vast resources we have at Emory to help us along the way, in the form of expert professors, consultants, business librarians, and even the client company, and how to keep it all within our budget.  At the end of the semester, the results from each team are presented on a much anticipated “Presentation Day”, where the teams are judged by industry representatives, and awarded on the basis of their merits.

So far, GMSC is just beginning for me, and it has been an interesting couple of weeks so far.  I am looking forward to what this semester entails; granted I may not have a lot of free time, but I feel like I am getting to exercise my experience from my consulting days, while also learning a lot about a new client, project management with my team, and above all time management on the home front.  I guess for now I can leave you with a fully-loaded “Stay Tuned…”, as you join me along for this GMSC ride!

So Rule # 1 for international travel: Don’t lose your wallet going through security when you’re halfway around the world. After filing a police report I proceeded back to the gate where my flight to depart to Dubai from Frankfurt was set to leave. After landing in Dubai I had to figure out how to get from Dubai International Airport to the Holiday Inn without any money or credit cards. Fortunately, I was able to arrange for my cab fare once I made it to the hotel.

Our first day in Dubai we visited Jameira Mosque, the site of the oldest mosque in Dubai. After learning how Muslim men and women pray and interact in the mosque we did the only thing that makes sense to enrich our understanding of the spiritual journey of Muslim believers: we headed to the mall. Aside from the massive ski slope in the mall, the Mall of Dubai was just like any American mall.

Now for the secret motivation and major highlight for everyone on the trip: partying on New Year’s Eve in Dubai. Thanks to Aaron Kunney we received royal treatment at our late nightspot, Lotus. Throughout the evening we were served great hors d’oeuvres and even received party favors to complement the great music.

The 2009 Dubai/Cairo group

Upon arriving in Cairo on New Year’s Day we were greeted by a different climate. Whereas in Dubai security was never an issue and in many ways the culture was akin to that in the U.S., Cairo was conspicuously different. The first clue that we were in a different environment was when the bus pulled into the hotel and before passing through to drop us off, the bus was circled by a bomb-sniffing canine to ensure the bus was safe to enter. In addition each time we returned to the hotel we were required to pass through the metal detectors located at each entrance.

Day one in Cairo brought the unbelievable experience of visiting the Egyptian museum where the burial treasures of Tutankhamen and other Egyptian Pharaohs such as Ahkenaten and Ramses II are displayed. After taking us through a tour of the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom displays we prepared for the treat of visiting the Pyramids at Giza. After a short trip through the city to Giza we were able to view the three famous structures from different vantage points, take pictures on the big pyramid and even venture inside the second pyramid. The inside was pretty humid and certainly not designed for those affected by claustrophobia. Shortly thereafter we moved to the Sphinx and heard the history behind its purpose and how the country’s many invaders defiled it.

The next day in Cairo was spent visiting the Mansour Group, the affiliate for companies such as Phillip Morris, McDonald’s and Caterpillar. In addition to handling the distribution for Phillip Morris, the company also handles the advertising and servicing of the different retail accounts. Most intriguing was the fact that company was that 50% of all Egyptian males were smokers, allowing for the company to experience 40% growth in a society where no tobacco-product advertising was allowed.

The remainder of our time in Egypt was split between visiting companies such as Mars, a local advertising agency, and more sightseeing. We even took a daytrip to the beautiful coastal city of Alexandria. By the trip’s end I felt I had received a full cultural immersion into the workings of Cairo, including negotiating at the local market, conversing with the cab drivers about the Gaza conflict and even navigating my way through the perilous task of finding an operational Western Union in a city of 22 million people where apparently the lion’s share receive assistance from family members outside of the country. In the end I enjoyed an unbelievable cultural experience, ate some unbelieveable food and got the chance to know a group of Goizuetans that I don’t always have the chance to interact with closely everyday.

Western Union to Cairo from Columbus, OH: $100

Cost of a taxi-ride to hang out in Cairo: 30 Egyptian Pounds

Losing your wallet halfway around the world and forging lifelong friendships: Priceless.

Washington Campus is a week-long program for MBA students where they learn how the government works, and how it affects business. Every year students at the school (both first years and second years) bid for this five-day program, and it has been one of the sell-out program/classes at our school. This year we have two groups going, in January and March, but usually the program is conducted once a year in the spring semester. One of the perks of this program is that students earn up to three graduate credits for their participation (there is a final exam and project deliverable), but there is so much more to gain from the program. The interaction with top government officials, members of congress, member of the press and lobbyists is very unique and interesting. I took part in the January edition of the program, and I loved my stay in DC. I was quite excited to take part in the program, especially as an international student, and I was very eager to learn how the US government functions and its effects on the business community.

The 5-day program is comprised of presentations from a variety of offices in the government, from the most experienced of congress-members to industry leaders, to senior officers from regulatory bodies and lobbyists. We first found out why any business should know how the government works and ensure that any issue related to the public or government should be handled with a consistent business, public and political strategy. This is the reason why many firms nowadays set up public affairs department to ensure policy matters are handled by experienced DC patrons. The prime example was of course the much talked about visit by the big-three automakers in their corporate jets, and how it deteriorated the bail-out issue.

The program was a nice amalgam of introductions to frameworks for dealing with public policy issues, learning from the experiences of the speakers and using everything we learned in the program to simulate an election process. Everyone loved taking part in the Congressional Insight simulation. The whole group was divided into different teams (acting as strategists and help their representatives win the re-election) and we played out the various stages in an election and how the nominees battle against their own party members, the opposition, industry representatives and the press. The exercise was no different from preparing for a consulting case presentation: one had to listen to the facts very carefully and make a decision in seconds. However, the most important job was to communicate one’s point of view to the rest of the team quickly and succinctly and push for a consensus. Even a small wrong decision had huge implications and hence it was important to choose the most politically correct options: a wrong choice could swing the polls the wrong way. The simulation was definitely the most exciting and challenging aspect of the program.

I recommend this program to anybody who is going to work for or with the government (or any of its related offices), or in the public affairs office, but more importantly, for to anyone who is interested to know how the US government works in regards to business.