Term 2 and all that........

I write this post after a considerable gap since my last one. This is in a way a reflection of the tight schedule we had in Term 2. We were told that term 2 will be much better than term 1. But, man were we misguided! This term was even more jam-packed than the first and to add to our miseries we had to start worrying about our career aspirations (one of the major reasons of doing an MBA!).



I was put in the Green stream this term, but it wasn't starting all over again as I had met most of us until now. the teams were reallocated and I was again amongst a new bunch of people whom I thought i knew. How wrong was I! We were a very efficient and a diverse group at that. I again played the role of the 'prankster' amongst us. 'Milo' Miles was game too, as we both came up with different ways of making it a 'fun' experience. However, we didn't socialise and got to know each other well, unlike my first team. This was my only disappointment with the team then. But retrospectively, I understand that like every person is different, all teams are different. They have their own personality, their own way of being, their own credo. And for all of us, it was 'getting it done' that mattered more now than anything else. I think it was also the course workload I referred to before and the careers that were weighing on our mind which made us so 'practical'! Anyways, I do not have any regrets of being part of this team, I learnt a lot about team dynamics and how to make a team work effectively.



Amongst the courses, Supply Chain Management was a disappointment for me. I expected a lot more from Martin Christopher, who is one of the world renowned experts in SCM. But then that may be because I had worked in SCM before and knew a lot of what was being taught. Most us didn't appreciate the importance of SCM and the course was a introduction to them.



I am in the 3rd term now. All of us now start going our own way as we select different electives, projects, interships or look for a job. I jusst hope the social events that held us together will continue to do so as people start pulling in different directions. More to come on the 3rd term soon.

December - Exams, Christmas break and my road trip

December went in a jiffy - literally, at least the first 20 days. We had four exams scheduled on the two consecutive days. Quite unlike to what I was used to where we had only one exam a day and fair amount of 'free' days interspersed between two exams. Doesn't mean I enjoyed them though.

The last week before our exams wasn't quite eventful with people struggling to find enough time to review the course. For me, personally, though the last three days were. We had our team dinner, a precedent that my team has set here for cooking for each other every fortnight, at Alan's place. his family had cooked an amazing south american meal. This will rank among the best south american food I have ever had, not that I have extensive experience.

The exams came and went even before anyone could realise. Four exams - two days, no sweat! It wasn't because no one gave damn about it, but rather everyone was eagerly awaiting the Christmas Ball scheduled on night of the last exam. Fantastic event with dinner, drinks, music, drinks, dance, some more drinks, dance, again some more drinks. The sheer joy of the completing the 'whirlwind' first term was evident as everyone danced merry into early morning. After the dinner party, our troupe turned to the CSA (Cranfield Student Association), danced there until 02:30am and then moved to Nuno's kitchen for some 'cooling down' (read wine drinking) which lasted until 06:30 in the morning. Nuno was kind enough to make some pizzas for all of us hungry and somewhat drunk intrepid MBA's.

Many MBA's went home for christmas, I and a few of my friends were an exception. We decided to go on a road trip around England and explore the country. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable trips I have been on. We first went to the southern coast of England to places like Brighton (A place we all fell in love with maybe because of the sunshine. The photo heading of my blog has the picture I took there), East Bourne, Portsmouth and Southampton. After this we went to the northern part of the country and visited York, Scarborough, The Lake district, and Liverpool.

The 2nd term has started now and it feels like the course is back into top speed with a lot of team assignments, lecture preps, careers sessions, etc. I was told by someone that Term 2 would be easy, it doesn't seem so from the look of it.

November - Two WACs, 3 reports and presentation.....and much more!!!

November had been very busy on the academic front but also very fulfilling on the personal side. Academically, November is one of the most busy month of the year. With lots of reports, WACS (Written Assessment of a Case - Cranfield way of assessment) and presentations.

The report for OB (Organisation Behaviour), which happens to be the only course which runs for the entire year, was due in the 2nd week of November. It was one the toughtest reports I have written. Never imagined that knowing people and being able to analyse their behaviour would be so different and difficult.

Next was the EOS WAC, my second if I count the practice WAC we did in the Pre-MBA. It is a high stress assignment, given on Friday afternoon and to be submitted within the next 26hrs. WAC's are an integral part of the Cranfield experience. I could feel the team spirit coming through during the team and stream dumps.

The SMS (strategic Marketing Success) - part of the marketing course assessment required us to crictically analyse a product / brand / company which we think has been successful. Our team had selected Arsenal FC. We had the opportunity to go to the Emirates Stadium to meet the Commercial Director of Arsenal FC who happens to be a Cranfield MBA alumni. for me, it is an experience that I will never forget. It also happens to be that I was leading our team on this project and it was just fantastic! Well, the long hours we put in to actually write the report and the presentation are something were not that fantastic though. This ended with our team presenting to the faculty which was quite fun as well. I can't wait to get to do the next presentation.

Then came the Accounting WAC - the bane to everyone on the MBA. Well, may not be everyone but definitely the most of them. I could see the tension, and probably fear, in everyone's eyes. The moment everyone dreaded was here and we all prayed that it would pass without any casualties! Well, after a long night - writing the report until 4:00am in the night and some more work in the morning, I submitted mine around nooon. It just so happens that I was one the early birds to do so. Then, I walked back to the Social for a pint of beer before I get some sleep and then it would be back to the Social for the post-WAC party. This party is a ritual now -the post WAC party where everyone tries to drown in the beer to forget about the horrors of the WAC.

All this mayhem started with the SDS (Strategic Decision Science) report. I didn't do anything in this report completely, Sarah led us on that. So, personally that was a relief.

Looking ahead in December, we have another 3 reports, one presentation and the exams. Who said it was going to be fun?