A presentation epiphany

When designing your presentation, create some extra slides anticipating some of the questions that the audience will post at the end. It will certainly impress the heck all of them if, besides answering the question well, you have a graph or other evidence to support your point. And you can still use the Q&A time to present that extra idea you are so fond of, but hat to strike from the main presentation because of time constraints.

Over-commitment and decision making in the Venture Capital industry

I have been busy this week with the most thorough assignment I have worked on during the MBA for the "Problem Solving and Consulting" course I took last two blocks, using the "Problem Based Learning" methodology.

Based on the suggestively titled paper by Staw and Ross, "Knowing when to pull the plug", I developed the mnemonic model below, dubbing it the 6-finger-hand action plan. Sometimes it is necessary to introduce a bit o fun in academia.


The paper is coming along nicely, and I really enjoyed researching for it, as it was certainly aligned with my own private research for my professional development and career plans. I had the chance to interview 3 senior executives in the Canadian Venture Capital industry and a leading professor in the field of new ventures, Dr. Elspeth Murray. I will most probably put some of my findings here in the blog later on but, at the moment, I have to go back to writing, as the clock is ticking quicker and quicker.

BIG assignment due soon, but some older pictures first

Exactly a month ago we had the opportunity, on a Sunday, to do some sports and go for cross country skiing in a reservation park they have near Kingston. It was a nice Sunday, not too cold and with enough snow.
I hadn't done it before, but it worked quite well, it was certainly good exercise.
After this week I believe that I will be able to relax a bit more and have some free time. Who knows if, by then, I won't be able to go skiing again? I wish to go snowboarding, but this involves much more money, so I am not sure if it will be possible.
In any event, now I have to concentrate on the most important assignment I've had so far and I don't have much time available anymore. Enjoy the pictures below.

080127 Cross country skiing

http://picasaweb.google.de/ferbress/080127CrossCountrySkiing

Risk management and the 3 pigs tale

As promised on twitter, here the fairy tale from another point of view.

The three little pigs told their parents that they wanted to move out. The parents, being caring as they should, wanted to be sure that their piglets knew what adventures they were facing.
The pig parents were glad to see that their piglets identified the main risk out in the woods correctly: the big bad wolf. He certainly was a big risk, as the probability of an encounter was high, and the consequences of such encounter serious, probably leading to death.
The piglets presented their risk management plans.
The first one decided to build a wolf-proof house made of bricks and mortar. This should be enough to neutralize the risk. But, additionally, he bought a rifle. Being a good handyman, he certainly knew how to handle a gun and an encounter with the wolf would be a short-lived occasion.
The second pig decided to build a less expensive house with timber and wood. He knew his house was not too strong and, in an attempt to divert the risk, he signaled the surroundings of his home with signs and directions to Little Red Hood's granny's house. Maybe not very ethical, but, after all, he IS a pig.
The third little pig was nature loving and a pacifist. He built a lightweight, environmentally optimized living space out of straw and some natural fibers from organic extraction out of Venezuela. He believed in dialog, and set up a solar powered information kiosk which provided well researched information based on the latest researches on the benefits of vegetarian diets. Using the latest neurolinguistics approach, he convincingly presented the hazards of the ingestion of pig meat.

Well, you know the rest of the story. This version of this fairy tale was presented to us by our Services Management teacher, Barry Cross. I added my touch here and there, it was quite amusing.

No playing allowed anymore

The weekend in Montreal was a well deserved pause. And, considering the fact that I am only taking one course this block, I was expecting to have a bit of slack now.
But it ain't so. It is not bad, but I have to pay attention. I am taking Services Management as a full course and Advanced Topics in Marketing as a listener. Should (and will) work out quite well. But Services Management is a very case intensive course, I have to read a lot. Additionally, I have to prepare 2 written case discussions, a case presentation with a group, another group assignment on customer loyalty and a compliment/complaint letter exercise. At least the last one is done and I had to do it anyway, as my complaint is a real one with a store in Toronto. And it seems that the issue will be solved.
The workload is high, but not unbearable. And the cases are interesting. But two of the courses I have taken last block still have left me bigger assignments I have to complete until the end of next week. This means quite a bit of juggling with appointments and a need of good planing and discipline.
I believe that I have found a good way to work. I simply stay in my team room in the Business School from as early as 7:45 in the morning to as late as midnight, or even 1 a.m.. I have the impression that I can concentrate better here that at home. At least during this week, when the co-op dining hall is closed and I am living of instant noodles cooked in the resource room's microwave oven. At least I don't have the co-op kitchen duty of 3 weekly hours to do. And now let me get back to the IKEA Child Labour case.

More pictures from Montreal

The second day in Montreal was really cool. During the day we had a great time at the park, as you've seen. In the evening we went out to eat at a Jewish deli called Schwartz's, on Saint Laurent Street. But, at arriving there, we saw that it was a very simple place, which didn't comply with the expectations of part of the group for a 'Saturday night dinner. So we ended up in another restaurant on Duluth Street, which was a great choice. I just don't remember its name.
At this point Silvia joined us, and it was great to meet a familiar face from Brazil. We probably had the longest conversations we've ever had so far.
On Sunday we went for a walk at the port and the old city centre, which was nice. We ate at La Popesa near Notre Dame and went back to get the car. We drove to the Olympic stadium and said our goodbyes to Montreal. Just in time, because the weather changed completely and we drove back to Kingston under a very persistent rain. Rain! In January!
Oh, yes. Before coming back to Kingston we drove again to Schwartz's and half of us got smoked meat sandwiches, which are great!

080215 Montreal

080216-17 Montreal

Mont-Royal aux Montreal

We arrived yesterday in the afternoon in Montreal, left our things in our great apartments in the hotel (really great accomodation, but at a certain price) and went out on foot to take a look at Montreal. It is cold here, but i don't complain, it is enough to be dressed properly.

At night we met Hadi, one of our MBA colleagues at his friend's place and went out to the Seven club, on Crescent Street, where we got VIP treatment. Thanks a lot, Hadi!

Today Marc suggested we go to the Mont-Royal Park, so we took our comfortable Grand Caravan van and drove up there. The day was magnific and we had a great time in the park. The views from up there are fantastic, it mus be great to have such a nice park in the center of the city.

I decided to take a break and do some work on an assignment I still have to hand in this weekend, so I have to give it a go now. Others went to take a look at the Museum of Fine Arts, with the lights show at the Notre Dame in the old center of the town at 7 p.m..

In the evening we plan to visit a restaurant suggested by Peter, a Mannheim colleague who actually is from Montreal, Swartz's. I hope to meet a Brazilian friend then, who is studying here. She actually was my sister's good friend during college.

Well, a great weekend so far. A few pics for you. Talk to you later.

Fit to lead, tobogganing and pizza

It certainly has been a very eventful day at Queen's School of Business Full Time MBA today.

Preparing your laptop for a presentation

If you are using your own laptop to connect to a datashow projector for a public presentation, make sure that whatever the audience sees is up to your usual standards.
The best scenario is, of course, to set everything up in advance. When the audience gets in, the cover slide is already up.
If you have set up on the spot, get the slide up on your pc and only then hook it up to the projector.
In any case, it is important to check what is showing on your desktop. What background or wallpaper are you using? What icons are on your desktop? What other files are stored in the same folder where your presentation is saved?
I've seen the weirdest stuff around. Uggly colours, tasteless wallpapers, bad pictures of loved ones, weird filenames, set of presentation files aimed at a competitor in the same folder, cute love cards from girlfriends, icons to embarassing games or websites.
A good solution might be to set up a complete new user or identity for presentations only and have a clean desktop with a meaningful background and the presentation files conveniently placed on the desktop. Simple, but certainly effective.
Another thought is to selectively make information visible clearly intentionally or seemingly unintentionally. It might be the company's logo and slogan, it might be a hint to that talent recruiter that you have been approached by others or simply a gag to break the ice in the beginning or having a good laugh in the end.

Formal rules or code of honour

Probably all business schools ask their students to sign a code honour or conduct during the first days. What you usually agree to is that you will be honest, doing your best efforts for the course and only submit materials for grading which are a result of your "unaided efforts". Bottom line: thou shalt not cheat.
I've seen schools where the code of honour is taken extremely seriously. Perpetrators often identify themselves and submit to their peers' trial and punishment. Conscience and group commitment play an important role here. In such schools, exams are taken without supervision and individual specific situations are dealt with on a case by case basis, assuming that the students have acted according to the code of conduct.
On the other hand, all schools have formal rules, like consequences for deadlines not met. Such rules are important, as they work as a guideline for most standard situations. They make decisions easier.
But what happens when both clash against each other? A formal rule was broken due to an irrelevant mistake, without the any disrespect to the code of honour. The teacher has every right to apply the penalty provided by the formal rule. But, by doing this, wouldn't the teacher signalise that the student's word of honour is worthless and, therefore, relegate the school's code of honour to a mere piece of paper?

A picture before sleep

The evening started great with a nice pizza and a movie in great company and ended with snow shoveling and an hour or two at the Elixir club, with the MBA class. An this is the Mannheim team in a great pic. Excellent night, indeed.
Tomorrow is Walmart Business Case Day, let's see how it goes.
Oh yes, and it snowed like crazy. Bit annoying, when the restaurant is waaaaaay down at City Hall and all taxi services are completely overloaded, but very beautiful anyway.