Je suis arrivé au Brésil.

Temperature at 9 o' clock in the morning.


At my uncle's in the middle of São Paulo. Yes, it's true.


Tomorrow, the beach! See you in 2009.

Last day at DHL

I spent the last 3 months in Brussels, Belgium, working in the finance department of DHL Service Parts Logistics, in Vilvoorde.

If there is something that I am taking with me from this experience, besides what I learned about billing and invoicing, is the openness and friendliness that I found in this company.
I also have rarely seen such an international ambient, where each one was accepted because of their skills, regardless of origin. The number of countries represented in this office of 150 or so people certainly rivals what I have seen at my MBA term in Warwick, and that was already extreme!

It was a good time to put things into perspective and I am glad I came. Now I just have to pack and wait for the plane to Brazil tomorrow.

A good MBA reference site in Germany

I just received another newsletter from the http://www.mba-channel.com/ website. It is a relatively new website, started this year, and it has developed nicely.
What I like most in that website are the reports they write about different topics with a very critical view. From time to time they actually critic or put some school in check, which I think is very healthy.

One of the things that I found out during the MBA is that there is MBA reality and what I call the MBA "media hype". MBA schools are very clever in using the media for publicity. Of course. Positive reports go hand-in-hand with paid advertisements, as is usual in any industry. This gives MBA candidates a skewed impression of how an MBA develops, what one can expect of it, the job market reality afterwards. This gets reinforced by the fact that those owning an MBA title, like myself, will very seldomly critique the title and its institutions in a negative way. After all, we don't want to diminish the value of our degrees, do we? We have to care for our brand.
I continue to be extremely happy with my MBA experience, don't get me wrong. I met a lot of great people, visited interesting places, learned a lot, had lots of fun and, all going well, will double my salary in February.

Anyway, I just though of writing quickly to endorse the mba-channel.com website, which has also an English version.

Ah, they also tried to build an MBA community, which is commendable, but it hasn't really picked up yet. Maybe it is because they are offering features like blogs, photo albums, polls, etc., that people already use in other sites which are not MBA-specific. Maybe, instead of trying to create a whole new community environment, they might focus on getting content from elsewhere together, or focusing user interaction around their best features: their specialised stories and information.

Mannheim, Queen's and BusinessWeek

OK, so I checked out BusinessWeek's slides on the top non-US business schools, knowing very well that Queen's School of Business had grabbed the first place for the third time in a row (2004, 2006 and 2008). My surprise was to see the banner on the top of the page:

Mannheim is investing quite a lot in marketing. We have seen them on Facebook, I have seen them on the schedule leaflets on the ICE trains to Mannheim and now, BW.
I guess that all is good, after all, the better the Mannheim name is known in the business world, more valuable my Mannheim MBA degree gets.

The consultant's suitcase

I am looking for a new suitcase for next year. Being a management consultant living 5 days out of 7 in a hotel will certainly be a new routine for me. And, since it will be quite a tough routine, I am doing some research to get the basics right.
But it is not that easy to find out what I'll need, consultants don't seem to blog too much (with the exception of Paul Dunay, maybe, but social media is his speciality). And, surprisingly, luggage manufacturers don't seem to have models aimed at the 4+1 management consultants, which indicates that, just maybe, this is a niche which could be filled. At least it gives food for thought for the future of this blog.
I decided that, for a 5 day stay away from home, I would need the following:

• an extra suit (jacket and pair of trousers)
• 4 or 5 shirts
• at least one t-shirt, if not more (have to figure out if I should wear undershirts)
• 3 or 4 ties
• a pair of jeans for the evenings
• an extra pair of shoes, just in case
• underwear and socks
• one pullover, possibly
• a pair of shorts for sports. If the hotel has a pool, speedos
• toiletries

I used the tip to start with half of the suit jacket, fill the case with the rest and then flap the other half of the jacket over the other clothes. This should avoid getting the jacket creased across the middle, it makes sense.

Surprisingly enough, I found out that all of the items above fit in my carry-on (inflight) trolley. I wasn't very confident it would, but suspected it. That's why I did this small experiment. It worked.

Next week I'll take this trolley with me and look for a substitute. After all, althought it is still in good condition, its looks aren't what they once were. But it has served me well since 2004: China - Brazil - Germany - Brazil - Germany - Moscow - Germany - Brazil - Germany - England - US - Canada - Germany - Belgium. Not too bad for a case that cost me around 15 dollars, if I am not mistaken.
I am also talking to some of my consulting colleagues to see what their experiences are. What has worked for you?

Defeat of purpose

This is for my college media and design professor Luli Radfahrer, who posted a similar picture after a trip to Holland. The picture above comes from the same country, from Utrecht, and is a counter-example of good design. The flies, btw, are stickers, not originally placed by the manufacturer.

The MBS Facebook network

Thanks to Sascha, MBS FTMBA08, now there is a network for the Mannheim Business School on Facebook.

If you have an e-mail @mba-mannheim.com, you can join. 

Go to:

• Settings
• Networks
• Type "Mannheim Business School" in the "Newtork name:" field
• Fill in the details
• Click on "join network"
• Check your MBS e-mail for a confirmation link

That's it. 

BTW, I highly recommend you to send an e-mail to the IT guys and ask them to forward your MBS e-mail to your personal account. I use it with Gmail, it works like a charm.

Disqus comments

I have been reading about Disqus for some time now and tried to give it a shot.

Disqus is a comment system for blogs which should make commenting here more interesting.

Please, try it out and let me know what you think. From this post on, new posts will use Dis qus.

Blogger is back, will I be back too?

Since mid-August I had been locked out of blogger.com. Today, after almost a week without posting, I found out that my login at blogger.com works again. No idea why, no word from the not so nice people at blogger.com.

Funny that this happens now, because I have been thinking about this blog and its future. What is its purpose and who my audience is or should be.

When I first started blogging, it was a way to keep friends and family informed, and it was relatively private. I had a robots.txt file which prevented google to list it. It was written in Portuguese. And I passed the link to selected friends and family.

The MBA changed the aim of this blog. It certainly changed the audience I had in mind for it. I still wanted to keep family and friends informed. Luckily, they are all smart and well educated, so it was possible to change the language to English ;-) This was necessary to include three additional groups of readers: future MBA colleagues,  potential employers and future MBA candidates.

I am happy with the results. My MBA colleagues, their relatives and members of the 2009 class of the Mannheim MBA told me they read this. My family and friends certainly do. And, if your google "Fernando Bresslau" you find this blog followed by my LinkedIn and Xing profiles.

But soon I will be definitely employed. And I have been far from the MBA life for a couple of months already. So the audience of my blog will revert to what it was before: family and friends. With one big change: more of my friends now don't speak Portuguese, so the language will continue to be English.

I will certainly blog about my new job, the industry and the trends. But this will be on a blog separate from my personal blog. I could be blogging, starting in February 2009, about the chemical, automotive or wind power, depending where I'll land. And I would then blog with the interests of the company in mind. But this is the future, let's see.

I was also thinking about the declining frequency of my posts here. Sure, I have a project at DHL Brussels which keeps me busy 8 hours a day, job search and career decisions get another chunk of my attention and other beautiful things in life also captivate me, Brussels is an interesting city.

I certainly have transfered much of my broadcasting to a new tool, twitter. Actually, twitter linked to my Facebook status, through which I reach most of my MBA colleagues. Interestingly enough, Luli Radfharer, a professor at the arts and communication school at the University of São Paulo, whose courses I took in 2002 and 2003, twittered about an article stating that blogging was passé. I kept in touch with Luli over all these years through our blogs at first, and now through twitter. And I can see where Paul Boutin, the article's author, is going. He has good observations on how blogging has emerged and developed, and what we can expect from personal communication (or broadcasting) in the near future.

I will continue to blog. But I suggest you to follow me on twitter or on facebook. I will certainly be more present there.

And if this article is a bit confusing, please excuse me. It has been a long day, a long week, a long month and a long year. Can't wait to go to Brazil on Christmas and take the whole month of January off.

Harmonica Masters' Workshops 2008

It was great to be in Trossingen again and feel kind of at home once more. I was very fortunate to meet several of my friends, listen to great music and see the first snow of the season. It was a great weekend, even though I am really, really tired.

A familiar view

 

I took this picture when the ICE back from Stuttgart was passing exactly in front of my former apartment in Mannheim. Nothing special about the picture, but I just found it interesting to be suddenly in one of the trains that would bother me for months with their screetching noises...
BTW, the building to the left is a DHL building.

And thanks to Facebook updates...

I met these three wonderful girls for 20 minutes while changing train connections in Mannheim, tha was great! And this is maybe my favourite Mannheim photo ever! Don't you agree?

After the Delloite Minis...

I present you the PWC Minis!

At least they have Cooper in their name...

Added-value Graffiti

Comments and suggestions for your job search strategy

I just answered a questionnaire by the Mannheim Business School on my job search. In the end, they asked to highlight what we thought was important and add other points. I added a few.

These are the points that the school suggested which I think are important:

• Career fairs
  
• Contacts to professors or to external people that came to our lecture
  
• Online career services
  
• Analyzing and focusing on capabilities and experience
  
• Career services by partner schools
  

There is no order of preference in the list above, nor in the list below, where I went on writing down what I thought was useful for my search.

• Apply to companies which are not on the top of your list first
  
• www.monster.de
  
• EBS Symposium
  
• Konaktiva Darmstadt
  
• www.access.de
  
• Send a big number of applications, but keep them relevant.
  
• Evaluate clearly what is important to you: salary, function, industry, location, work-life balance, company culture, ethics and reputation. There isn’t only McKinsey with fat bonus.
  
• Keep track of your expenses and follow up on interviews.
  
• Share jobs with your colleagues; they will send you good jobs back.
  
• When talking to companies at fair boths, go in pairs for a general Q&A session, than come back with focused questions alone.
  
• When talking to a company, try to have a specific position you want to apply to in mind. Germans like to see focus and confidence.
  
• Rewrite CVs and cover letters constantly, ask others for feedback and keep good version control. Expect to dedicate several hours a week for this task.
  
• Install a PDF printer driver to convert your documents. Send only PDF files to recruiters.
• Consider going back to your country of origin as a very concrete option.
  
• Be prepared by the fact that the MBA is still a big unknown in Germany.
  
• Learn as much German as you can.
  
• Use your master thesis project to interview high ranked executives in companies you plan to apply for. It is easier than you think, you learn a lot, you train for a real job interview and you get valuable contacts.
  
• Don’t expect too much from the semesters abroad in regards to job search. The timing is not right. Use the career services to refine your application documents and goals.
  
• Get as many reference letters as you can from past employers or professors as soon as possible. In Germany, every line of a CV has to be confirmed by an official document.
  
• Use Xing.com. In Germany, it is more important than LinkedIn, even if it has a horrible name.
  
• Use LinkedIn. Get recommendations from contacts.
  
• Blog and Twitter about relevant aspects of your MBA. I got a job lead through twitter.
  
• Let your colleagues know which kind of job you are looking for: industry, function, location.
  
• Get your GMAT book out and do some math exercises. Good preparation for consulting interviews.
  
• Look for MBA specific positions. In that way, you avoid being compared to 24 year old undergrads fresh out of college.
  
• Don’t ignore positions for 24 year old undergrads fresh out of college.
  

Strike on Monday

From www.xpats.com:

SOCIAL - Unions call for Monday strike
BRUSSELS - The country's three leading trade unions have called for a general strike on Monday to bring pressure on public authorities and employers over the cost of living. Public transport and services, schools and retailing are likely to be the most affected. The VBO/FEB employers association has called the strike irresponsible in the present economic climate while the government will be spending the weekend reajusting the state's budget, taking an expected 7 billion euro shortfall into consideration. Meanwhile, luggage handlers at Brussels Airport are on strike today over work conditions and low pay. (Source:xpats.com)

I still don't know how I am supposed to come to work. But where there is a will, there is a way.

400 mini Delloitians

I am staying at a hotel near the Delloite building in Diegem, Brussels. To get to the train or bus stops I pass their parking lot, which is packed with blue Cooper Minis, often with Delloite green side-view mirrors. I then asked one of the Mini drivers about the cars and she told me that Delloite had hired 400 new people and they all got Minis to start with.

Vilvoorde

The DHL SPL office is in the town of Vilvoorde, just outside Brussels. I took the chance on Thursday after work to explore the streets a bit. The following picture is a 360° panorama taken from a roundabout.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

I am testing drop.io with this picture, but you can try to download the original panorama here.

I made some other stitches and put them up on drop.io too: http://drop.io/vilvoorde.

Of course there are more pictures and you can take a look at them on Picasa, it is worth it.

080925 Vilvoorde

First impressions of Brussels

I have been in Brussels before, twice. Once for an afternoon, then shortly after for a whole weekend. And I still have the impression that all is very, very new to me. And that's because it really is. The first time I had Brazilian friends showing me around by car. The second time I had local company and advice, so I didn't pay too much attention to how things work around here.

For me, the most striking feature of this city is the plurality of languages. Arriving at the Noord Station (Gare du Nord), the train announcements where done in four languages: French, Dutch, German and English. You don't get always the four-language-menu, but in most situations you see the French-Dutch combination. Restaurant menues, party flyers, product packages, promotion material, advertising, maps, etc. And this is not bad. Because I speak both Portuguese and German, I usually can understand more than 50% of the French and Dutch written material I get in my hands. So, when something isn't clear in one of the languages, I just turn to the other and am, usually, able to fill the gaps. Curiously enough, I am observing that I prefer to start with French.

But even if you don't have the advantage of my two mother tongues, you usually can get by with English in Brussels. It is not always easy, but it certainly is not a problem. People are very open to foreigners and try to help where possible. I guess they have to, after all, we are in the European capital and internationality is a strong part of reality.

The other thing I noticed here was the German railway system. Sounds strange, but, although the Belgium system is very good by any standards, the comparison just shows how incredibly advanced, well organized, tidy and even pretty the German transportation system is, starting with the websites. To get around in Brussels, you use www.stib.be. To get around in Germany, very often you can use the national rail website, even for city connections: www.bahn.de. Otherwise, you use the regional websites, like http://www.rnv-online.de. And I even found out that it is sometimes easier to use the www.bahn.de site for connections in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Another practical aspect I dedicated some time yesterday to was mobile telephony. While in the US I had the worst conditions, followed closely by Canada and at a greater distance by Britain, in Belgium it is very easy to get a prepaid SIM card with a simple prices overview. I am paying 20 cents per minute anytime, any Belgium line and 10 cents per SMS. And I might get interne for 50 cents a Megabyte, if I figure out how. That is certainly not bad, but, in Germany, I was paying 9 cents per minute or SMS and 24 cents per Megabyte. Again, going abroad (whatever abroad means in my case) is a good exercise to put things into perspective.

And now I'll go down for some breakfast. I spent some hours in Vilvoorde yesterday and took many pictures. I'll try to post them in the weekend, I am curious to see the results.

19th EBS Symposium

I applied for and was invited to the EBS Symposium this weekend. It is an impressive event held by the European Business School, a private institution, and its students. It seems that 1200 people were invited, among students, young professionals and representatives from the business world.
The list of speakers was also impressive, with many high caliber personalities there. Unfortunately, many simply didn't show up, maybe because of the consequences of the games played in Wall Street last week. But, just as an example, the German or European bosses of the main consultancies were all there. Again, impressive.
I stayed with 4 other students i nthe apartment of 3 EBS students. This was a good thing, as this created a group of familiar faces with whom I spent most of the time during the event.
We were well taken care of. Besides the simple, but free accomodation, we had a very good shuttle service, all meals taken care of, internet access and even a very nice party on Friday evening, at a winery. I didn't stay for the party on Saturday nigh.
Some of the talks were very good, like the one from John Major and the one from Dr. Burgess, EMEA Chairman of BearingPoint. Other talks were not as good and I missed one or two talks because they were post poned or simply cancelled, without notice. But there was always something going on, so that was ok.
Furthermore, there was a good career fair and pre-scheduled interviews with interested employers. The list of companies was very good, of course. But after being in Berlin, Mannheim, Darmstadt and München at career fairs, you start recognize some of the faces and new information gets more scarce. The interview with KPMG was very interesting, though, and I got the confirmation that I would be invited for the next partner round. But this will probably be after Belgium and Brazil, in 2009. Let's see.

I have put some pictures up on Picasa. I hope you enjoy them.
Tomorrow I should be leaving to Brussels, finally.

Tayloring marketing campaigns

It is impressive how it is now easily possible to create billboard with location specific data. It makes targeting much, much more effective. But it increases the probabilities of mistakes. You don't have to aprove one design for a whole regions, but dozens, hundreds or even thousands. In this example, the ad directs you to places where you can get the catalog near the billboard. Note that the word "Straße" is mispelled.

Brussels, DHL: the next step

It happened very suddenly during the "thesis week", the days before the deadline. An e-mail from a good friend from Warwick advertising a job at DHL in Brussels, a CV and motivation letter sent very quickly and an interview on the next day: I will be working for DHL in Brussels until Christmas.
It is a very interesting project in the finance department, working with the finance director of DHL Service Parts Logistics. It is a new field for me, therefore I expect to learn a lot.
I am also excited to be in Brussels. I have been there a little over one year ago and have some confusing, but nonetheless, fond memories from the city (well, not really the city).
I am also glad to have some time to research and think about the next permanent employment. This job gives me the opportunity to do the job search while employed, which takes some pressure of the job hunt. I now have the time to consider the offers that I already have and the ones I expect to get in the next few weeks carefully.
Of course, linked to the job search, DHL itself and the DPWN group are employers which have been on my radar since the beginning of the MBA and I am looking forward to getting to know this group better. They are growing rapidly and I expect to find interesting possibilities there.
So now you know. If any of you plans to be near Brussels in the next few months, send me an e-mail, I would be glad to show you around and, if possible, even offer a coach or sofa to sleep for a night or two.

Imported traditions

Jalal just posted this:

It was fun!

Welcome to the Mannheim FT MBA 2009!

Last year we were not able to attend the graduation ceremony of the Mannheim FT MBA 2007, as we were already scattered around the globe, having the first subjects of our own course.
This year things are somewhat different, and we have students staying in Mannheim for their complete MBA. So they were able to attend our ceremony and even our party afterwards. It was cool to meet them by chance yesterday and see them officially for the first time today. It is a pity that this will also probably be the last time that the two classes meet in such big numbers, but I am happy to say that they are a really cool bunch of guys. And there is even another Brazilian to make things a bit more fun!

 

Welcome guys and girls and all the best for your MBA! Don't forget to learn how to row, go the the Schneckenhof parties, check out the Hafenstrand bar in the summer, eat takeout food from Mr. Chang, watch videos in the classrooms in N2 and go to the Pfalz for some wine tasting.

The Mannheim FT MBA 2008 is officially over!

And the ceremony was really nice, the "Rittersaal" at the Mannheim University Palace was a great place to celebrate it.

 

And the party afterwards was even nicer! I am still coming down from the thrill of it, I had a blast and was very happy to meet new people, enjoy the company of good friends and have my cousin representing my family.

Everybody almost done, short update

 

All groups have handed in their dissertations (as you can see in the picture) and most of the groups have done all their presentations too. So, this week is dedicated to finishing things in Mannheim. My group still has to prepare the results for the company (we'll meet one last time next week in Hanau), but most people are going after their own things: job search, apartment search, vacating the apartments in Mannheim, buying dresses and shirts for the graduation ceremony, receiving relatives who have already arrived for the party on Friday, etc.
We are also slowly saying our goodbyes. Yesterday we had a nice get-together at Markus' place, on Sunday I even went rowing one last time, tomorrow some people are meeting in Frankfurt, Thursday is Hafenstrand and Schneckenhof double party night and Friday is Friday.
Personally, I am moving to Darmstadt first and have 3 or 4 interviews scheduled in the next 10 days. There is so much I want to do, but I seem to have too little time. Nonetheless, I am still able to "waste" time reading a book or surfing the internet, when I should be concentrating on work. So let's try to do the latter.

Thesis is ready, call me Master

It is done. It's just not printed yet and B is going over it one more time, but the version I have on my USB stick is already very, very good (IMHO).
This was the last step of the MBA and it is done. Now tons of paper will be expelled to recycling and I and our team room 3.3 will be cleaned. For the first time this week, my computer will be taken home.
BTW, great infrastructure here at the new learning center at N2: good internet connection, air condition (sometimes too cold), great chairs, tables, white boards, flip charts, printer & copier, water coolers and even a kitchen. I lived here for the last 3 or 4 days, just going out to buy food (scattered all over the room at the moment), eat at the mensa (cafeteria)or go home to sleep.
B and T are creating the final PDF of the thesis now, the printer will start working in a few minutes.
And I will unplug now. I am not a bit sleepy, but tired as hell. It was a great week, and it hasn't ended yet.

Mannheim Business School 2.0

So this is what I found while surfing my colleague's Facebook pages for productive, thesis related purposes.
I would be really interested to learn how Facebook advertising is performing for Mannheim Business School. In Canada we had a presentation of the founder of www.redflagdeals.ca who said that his results with Facebook had been very disappointing.

The end from another perspective

My blogging Warwick friend Chris is also feeling the end closing. But he has already started saying his goodbyes, this hasn't really started for us, although we have seen some of our own leave for good (to get cute little babies, for instance).
I haven't felt the sadness yet and the party at N2 yesterday was more of a celebration. But go check Chris' impressions out.

Now I can say that it is almost over

We had the final presentation of our thesis today at the Heraeus site in Hanau, and all went really, really well. Heraeus is an interesting German, family owned high-tech company and it is not everyday that you have the opportunity to present and discuss your findings to the two most senior managers of a company with 12 thousand employees in over 70 countries and a turnover of more than 11 billion Euro. Yeah, billion.

Our academic supervisor, our project sponsor (head of corporate development) and a great team!

The presentation went smoothly and was actually fun. I was very happy with the results of the team and so were the professor and the company, I had the impression. It was an intensive 2 months of work, getting ourselves into a very new subject for us, but the conclusion we got were solid and useful for the company. And we learned a lot, especially from the 10 or so interviews we conducted with senior managers from important corporations.
But not all is over, we still have 50% of our thesis to be written this week and, after that, we all will be MBAs, deservedly.

But tonitght we have decided to commemorate a bit. And I should go back to where the music is playing.

Façade in Mannheim

 

Just one spot I discovered today Mannheim. I must have probaly seen it almost everyday while walking to class, but hadn't paid attention to it.

Message to the next MBS Full Time MBA students

Hi all,

I understand that some of you are already arriving in Mannheim around the 10th of September. My plan is to see how I can bring you and the FTMBA 2008 students who are still around together. One of the great things of the MBA is to meet new people, and this should be fun. And useful for you, you should feel free to ask us any questions you have.

Until the 5th of September, none of us 2008ers will have much time, as we are all working on our thesis. On the 12th of September we have our graduation ceremony. So between the 10th and the 15th of September we should have several chances to meet.

Let me know your plans and we will work from there. You should also forward this message to your other colleagues and tell them to get in touch with me. I'll be happy to organize this.

Now let me go back to my project presentation slides.
All the best,
Fernando

Communicating the purpose through

I am eating something similar to a Soupy Snax, so I decided to publish this text I wrote as an MBA assignment. It is one case were I can combine the themes MBA and harmonica safely.

I had previously seen the Soupy Snax 4:00 example somewhere, but it is a very good instance where the purpose of the product is so well communicated to the client.
In yet another example of the harmonica industry, Hohner has secured for them the best name a diatonic harmonica could ever have: "The Blues Harp".
Harmonicas are divided in mainly 3 groups: traditional instruments, chromatic instruments and, the most popular, the ten hole diatonic harmonicas. The latter are the more affordable models and are the only ones whose notes can be soulfully bent, giving it the characteristic wailing sound so intrinsic to harmonica blues playing.
But these instruments are not known as ten hole diatonic harmonicas, but under the nick name "blues harp". So, by registering this name decades ago, Hohner has made sure that, when an aspiring musician comes to a music dealer and asks for a harmonica to play the blues, he or she will probably ask using the most common name in English (and several other languages, additionally): "I want to buy a blues harp". The consumer is not aware that he is using a specific model name, but he has narrowed the choice of the dealer to this Hohner product. If he or she asks for a blues harp and gets a Hohner Blues Harp, he or she will be reassured to be buying the correct item. If the dealer offers a Suzuki Folk Master, which is a very similar instrument, the customer might become confused.
Just as a side note, the most traditional blues harmonica is The Hohner Marine Band, which, for a harmonica, is an awful name, as it doesn't convey any meaningful message to today's population (the Marine Band was a popular American Navy brass band in the late 19th century).
Hohner has tried to name their chromatic harmonica in a meaningful way. A chromatic harmonica is a harmonica which, differently from the other two categories* of instruments, can play a full chromatic scale. It was probably the most significant invention in 200 years of harmonica history. The name the Germans out of Trossingen came up with was "The Chromonica", which should convey the differentiating quality of this instrument. They had success in that, as it is easy for a buyer to figure out that he or she is doing the correct purchase when looking for a chromatic instrument. But Hohner's hopes of establishing the name Chromonica as a synonym for chromatic harmonicas didn't really work out that well. Some older generation Germans will use it in that way, but most of the harmonica community uses the term "chromatic harmonica" instead.
During my stay there, we launched the "7 Blues Harmonica Starter Set", which is a set with 7 inexpensive and low quality harmonicas, for a very affordable price. We tried to manage consumers' expectations by including the "starter" word in the name and by mentioning in the package that this was the ideal product for starters wanting to experiment with different keys or tonalities. Furthermore, we refrained to use the expression "blues harp" to differentiate this product from the actual "blues harp" model.

*Okay, not really. Richter style harmonicas and even tremolo harmonicas can be played chromatically with the use of advanced techniques.

Recruitment Goes Mobile

I saw the title above in a twit from SJDelaney and thought that was a very counterintuitive thing. I don't want to look for jobs using the small screen of my mobile phone. And my Nokia E61 has a pretty decent screen. So I dismissed it as a hype, but went after the post anyway.
And lo and behold, I had to change my opinion after reading this paragraph written by Julian Stopps:

At the same time changes in corporate culture have motivated employees to migrate their job seeking off the PC and onto the mobile phone. The tightening of business policies and attitudes towards acceptable Internet usage has resulted in companies restricting access to career sites from office computers. Employees who wish to conduct their job hunt over lunch now have little option but to use an Internet cafe or their mobile device.

Well, I am looking intensively for a job from my own computer and wouldn't want to migrate to mobile. But now I see why other people might want to. Always question your assumptions.

This is the great team I have been working since June. During this project, we have interviewed all 5 Business Units of Heraeus to establish the technology fields we would look at, I developed an online algorithm for skimming the internet, we identified over a hundred information providers, had interviews with high profile professionals in 3 international high-tech corporations and got in touch with at least 2 VC firms.
There is still a lot of work to be done (like preparing the final presentation and actually writing the thesis), but I am very happy with the results so far, considering all the other paralel activities that have taken place (like job search and rowing competition) during this period.

Another Mannheim night scene

 

View of the train station.

Intercultural tidbit

I just happened to write down today's date on a (unfortunate) bill I just paid:

08.08.08

In Chinese, that's 八八八 (bā bā bā). And eight is a very lucky number in China.

So I guess that it is not merely coincidence that the Chinese olympic games start today.

The castle at night

One of the nice things of studying in Mannheim is certainly the castle where the university is located. I especially like to take pictures of it at night.

Short observation during the rowing competition

Yesterday we had a group of WHU MBAs visiting for a rowing event and get together. As I had observed in Berlin, the Spanish speaking croud (5 to 6 people) quickly came together. I do understand Spanish fairly well, but have a bit more trouble speaking, which makes me quieter than I would usually be in a conversation in German, Portuguese or English. Besides that me being quieter might be a good thing, It made me ponder that Brazil and Brazilians would be better off if the oficial language was also Spanish. Communication, especially with our neighbours, would be so more simple, with positive effects in all fields.
Brazil stands as the biggest and only Portuguese speaking in Latin America. I wonder if the unique language has some value as a differentiating factor. I am not sure, curious to see what others think.

The maritime career value chain

Great representation found on the website www.maritimecareers.com.sg, sent to me by a great friend.


Being a shipbuilding engineer (or naval architect), I am always keeping an eye on the industry.

Project office

 

Thats us working on the master thesis at the new Mannheim Business School facilities at the Dalberg Platz, N2.

Networking on Accounting through the WBS intranet

I just followed a discussion on WBS' intranet and wanted to share one piece of advice by my friend Singean. The intranet platform at WBS is, for some reason, the one which students use more effectively. The intranet at Queen's was high quality too and the one at MBS is very functional, although old fashioned (they are changing that, though). Maybe it is because of the big number of Distance Learning students who use the intranet as their main source of interaction. In any case, at WBS the contact between the different master courses is much stronger than at the other schools.
But back to accounting, I am publishing the question which started the discussion and one of the answers to it. I hope that the authors don't mind.

Greetings Everyone,

I was looking for a bit of advice and thought that I would try to reach out to the accountants out there ...

I am doing some consutancy for a small business that has a very healthy turnover and some fairly big clients - unfortunately they have no administration in place and there seems to be a fair amount of loss through the lack of control.

I was wondering if any of you can spare a moment to give some advice about what would be the best accounting package to put them on -

I have been looking at Peach Tree and Quick Books - as it turns out though quick books apparently fails to handle currencies ... has anyone got any suggestions? Please bear in mind I am not an accountant and I may end up having to set the whole thing on my own ..

The company has to :

1 Invoice Clients
2. Pay wages
3. Handle Multiple currencies as the TZ shilling is linked to the dollar and they are interchangeable -
4. Buy/sell inventory

- they are a services company

Thanks in advance

Gian

And my friend Singean's response:

Saw this thread and thought I would throw in my full penny worth too. It sounds to me like you are being pushed back on in a very classic way. Be very careful with any claims that "everything will be okay or nothing can be done until the new software comes". This is a very common excuse for poor performance which conveniently masks any need to improve things in the present. Software is just a tool not a panacea.

The start of controlling is to make sure you sit with people and make sure what they are doing actually makes sense, you don't need to be an accountant or have fancy software to do that. If you are reasonably bright and you still can't understand it then probably something is wrong. You can begin this process now without the software being in place.

Just go and sit at peoples desks and have people explain to you what they do, follow a couple of specific transactions all the way through the system. Tell tale things to look out for is if ever you hear the following: someone says they do something "because it's just like that", or "for historic reasons', or they do it "unofficially" then you need to circle back on the point later as there is a very good chance you have a financial leakage just at that point. I suggest you don't jump on the first instance of suspected leakage you see but instead quietly take a note of it because otherwise you will never get to see what is happening further downstream.

Don't expect to win many buddies doing this as unfortunately you may expect significant resistance and avoidance but if you are patient you will gradually regain control of the business. If you do not regain control first then you can buy the best software in the world and it still won't help you.

Good luck with it.

Singean
FTMBA 08

Starting-up

At Queen's University I wrote a lot about start-ups. I decided that I would write start-up like this, with the dash. Not startup nor start up. Start-up.
And now I am involved with start-ups again. First for my master thesis at the Heraeus Corporate Development department. We are developing a technology scouting strategy and are naturally looking at start-ups. I am using Yahoo! Pipes and Twitter for a part of the project, let's see if it works.
Then I was contacted by a start-up looking for managerial talent to invite as founding members. It is in the area of social networks, which I find very interesting.
And today I read the following article at VentureHacks which deals with the situation above, so a link is appropriate.

I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal? Part 1

And all Mannheim MBAs are invited for lunch at EO at 12:30 today.


View Larger Map

Internet and cell phones in Mannheim

Sandeep, who is planning to start an MBA here in Mannheim soon, sent me this question which I thought I wuld answer on the blog.

From: sandeep jain
Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 21:24

Hi Fernando

How are you doing?

I am sure you must be at a half way to complete your year end company project.

Fernando had a few questions regarding the Internat and mobile technology in Germany.
How about internet at home (provided by Mannheim) is it free of cost or payable. Is it wireless or we have to arrange for the internet on our own?
Mobile technology. Which is the technology used in germany GSM or CDMA. Are mobile services expensive there? Is it a viable option to use for connecting with family in emergencies?

Thank you .......Sandeep Jain

If you are staying at one of the apartments organized by the Mannheim Business School, like I am, then broadband internet is included. In my case, I have a LAN socket and a very long cable in my apartment, which works very well. In other buildings I hear they have wireless LAN connection. So no worries there.
Furthermore, you have wireless LAN connection all over Campus, either through the university's WLAN or through the b-school's own. Some places in Mannheim also offer free WLAN, like the Star coffee shop on N7.

Germany is GSM country, which is very practical, as you can change operators by simply changing SIM cards, as long as your cell phone is not locked. You can either buy a contract (usually 2 years, gets you a free handset for a fixed monthly price plus extra expenses. You might be able to cancel the contract uppon departing Germany, but you have to make sure of that before signing) or, as I prefer, pay as you go or pre-paid plans.
I am a happy customer of Symio, a pre-paid provider based on the internet. Their plans are simple and the prices are good, so far I am happy, even though there was a great deal of confusion when I decided to change from GPRS SIM card to a UMTS one.
This means, of course, that I use my cell phone for internet on the go: maps, e-mail, twitter, reading, news, train schedules, IM, etc. Works pretty well on my Nokia E61 and the Symio internet price is unbeatable: 0,24€ per MB. That means that my weekly internet bills are usually below 2€, even with daily internet use.
Call prices are 0,09€ per minute any number in Germany. To Symio number it is even cheaper, but I have no idea who of my friends also use Symio. And SMS is also 9 cents.
For international calls, I use Skype Out. Other alternatives are the several call shops available downtown and near the train station. rAtes are just cents per minute, if I am not mistaken.
Now let me put a link in this post and continue our project work.

Heraeus

Yesterday we started the last leg of the MBA course: the company project and dissertation thesis. I am working with two colleagues or, better said, friedns. I am happy with the choice of project and, more importantly, the choice of teams.
It will be strange to take charge of the next two months after having had our schedules taken care of by our great program manager, Susann. But it is time. Classes were great (some not that great, unfortunately), but I was looking forward to the end of the MBA. I feel that I have already gotten all of what I expected to get in the course and want to move on. The project will be a nice extra bonus, for sure.
I will talk about Heraeus and a bit about the project later on, but I am excited to be able to get to know this company from the inside. The products they produce are all very technical, but I felt like a child in their exhibition yesterday in Hanau, so thrilled I was looking at precious metals, quarz glass, miniature and giant sensors, special lamps, dental implants and titanium pacemaker casings.
It is good to be starting once more.

Until the end of the MBA

Classes are over!

Just delivered the last assignment for the GIM class 30 minutes ago.
That means that, apart from the Global Supply Chain Management assignment due on Monday, I am done with MBA classes.
I wish I could continue to have classes indefinetely. I like classes. I like to learn, to ask, to discuss. And I like the feeling of beeing worry-free, as the only thing you are supposed to do is pay attention.
ButI need to find a job and to write a thesis. So it is good to be finally able to concentrate on that from now on.
Pity that this last module was, in my humble opinion, way below the level of other modules, so it wasn't very enjoyable. And I was (am) sick.
They are having a reception with champagne and snacks in the next room, I should join them. But I think that my health won't allow me to drink or eat much. That also the reason I am missing out on the Hazmat Modine concert in Stuttgart in an hour. But I should be fine tomorrow.

A week in review

Well, actually a bit more than a week, as the picture below was taken two Saturdays ago. I went with 2 other colleagues, one Canadian, one French, to a very small town somewhere in the wine lands around here to a wine and castle festival with some live music. The first band was bad, the second was ok. The festival was much smaller than I expected, but the Weinschorle (whine mixed with - little - sparkling water) was plentyful and cheap. The place was called Wachenheim.

Monday saw us rowing again, as well as Wednesday. I believe that I will be able to post better pictures later during the week, as I cannot take my camera in the boat. On Wednesday I tried to row a single boat for the first time and landed 3 times in the water. Of course. But it was warm, so that wasn't a problem.
Monday was also the day when I discovered that my locked bicycle was stolen from the locked bike garage in the locked apartment building. Really upsetting.

On Tuesday I went to an interesting networking event in Stuttgart organized by the BWcon institution, on the role of business angels in start-up financing.

Thursday was a busy day. Career strategy coaching session at the business school and soccer game watching with barbecue in the same location, in company of the students of the EMAT course. It was also the day I got my push scooter as a replacement for the stolen bike.

Germany won, everybody went to the Wasserturm to commemorate.

Saturday saw me taking the train to Idstein, for a Jazz Festival in a very picturesque town. Was really fun with good company. We even did a small rock climbing stunt which reminded me of Dee's blog: Venture to the top.

Barrelhouse Jazz Band in Idstein.

Sunday saw me for some hours in Mainz, and this is the only view I had from the impressive cathedral.

Today the last MBA course for our class and my sixt in Mannheim started: Global Information Management. It started slow with an analysis of Friedman's "The world is flat" text.
The afternoon was a bit more exciting, with a quick (and I mean quick: 1000 years in 1 hour) review of the world's history based on economic cores and a tentative look on how the world might look like in the next 50 years. I am curious to see how the course progresses and how today's class integrates with the rest of the course's material.

We went to rowing practice again and I spent half an hour in the single boat once more, this time returning safe and dry to land.

And tomorrow I will be the CIO of Volkswagen of America, at least during the case study discussion.

The browser war

Firefox 3 is out now. And I just came accross this comment on Internet Explorer at one of the websites I use:

What can we say, the divide between Explorer 6 and the rest of the world is becoming gargantuan. Sorry Explorer 6 users, Passpack will work for you, but it’s just never going to be fast for you.

Firefox 3 seems nice. But I have Firefox 2 working now more or less stable, even with a ton of add-ons installed, especially for working better with Gmail.
The questionis: am I ready for Firefox 3??

Plans for tomorrow: meeting angels

There is a kind of an institute in Stuttgart aimed towards start-up companies which has a series of interesting events for those who want to learn a bit more about the venture capital industry in Germany.

I am going tomorrow to the following event, if everything works out:

bwcon: Business Roundtable „Was macht ein Business Angel? – Unterstützungsansätze für Technologieunternehmen am Beispiel der FUZZY! Informatik AG“

I have this week free, as I am not taking the EC Law course at Mannheim Business School and the activity tomorrow is part of my job search. I hope to learn some and meet interesting professionals, let's see how it goes. But all this has costs:

• I will not be able to attend to the company presentation of Deutsche Börse AG at MBS and
• I will invest almost €100,00 in the event, which, at the moment, is a considerable sum for a student with a bank loan like me

But it should be worth it. No pain, no gain.

Europameisterschaft

We had yet again another nice get together at the Villa, this time to watch the soccer games.