October 2008 Archives

P2 began well, because I stayed home during the short break and prepared my readings. I also compiled a list of assignments due this period in a Google Docs spreadsheet for my groupmates. Our seniors weren’t joking when they told us P2 would be more hectic than P1. We have 6 subjects this period compared to 5 in P1, although there are also less sessions. We have many more graded assignments, including individual online polls which count for a small percentage of your grades.

While it is hectic I think it is a good idea to make us do more work consistently, so that we’re constantly revising what we’ve just learnt. The only subject where exams count for 100% is Corporate Finance. This means that teamwork is essential. Our group has had mixed levels of efficiency so far. On the plus side, we worked well for the Leading People and Groups exam in P1 as we all had a common goal - agree on the theme, split the workload and then merge our input. We also planned our roles in advance.

This period I had hoped that my schedule would give groupmates more advanced notice to volunteer as leader for specific assignments. However, this week nobody volunteered outright, and when there isn’t a clear leader we go in different directions. I am now contemplating ‘arrowing’ people by random selection, so at least someone will crack the whip! ;-)

This period, I hope to contribute more for Marketing and other subjects requiring ‘softer’ skills. Like I told one of my groupmates, this is the area I am most familiar with, and while my knowledge was gained on-the-job in a specialised field, I could offer a more creative perspective to complement the quantitative analysis provided by other groupmates. Of course, we all have to agree on the quantitative analysis in the first place or else we won’t make sense!

I had a nightmare about my makeup microecons exam which is this coming Monday. I dreamt I turned up for class but along the way it morphed into my primary school exam hall. My classmates seemed to be a mix from INSEAD and other schools in my past. They were all informed that the microecons exam would take place very soon, and I was the only one who wasn’t informed! I didn’t even have my cheat sheet (a list of formulas we can use in the exam) with me. Alarmed, I ran downstairs looking for people I could borrow notes from, weaving through the crowds in a corridor which somehow morphed into a row of ‘pasar malam’ shops (night market) selling clothes and other things. All this while time was ticking away and the dreaded exam moved closer…

It was a very strange dream. The only good thing is that usually when I dream of bad things, the reality isn’t as bad, and vice versa - when I dream of something good, usually the reverse occurs. So I hope the classmates who told me the microecons paper wasn’t too bad, weren’t bluffing. Assuming that I’m not taking a totally different paper from them.

This afternoon I settled some High Tech club event planning with my senior, the outgoing President. I will be taking over the reigns soon, and am thinking of changing the club’s name and widen its scope. We also need to reach out to the new P1s coming in January because we need a team, not a one or two man show.

This evening I prepared a business plan presentation for a new venture idea I have. It will be presented to classmates in the Entrepreneurs Club who will critique it and give advice. So far at INSEAD, the spirit for innovation is enthusiastic; the vast majority of classmates think I have a good idea going, although I need to reinforce its selling points.

Later on I was pleased to learnt that the Wall Street Journal is giving INSEAD students free online access. This is in addition to the free Financial Times online access we already have (I obtained it via the FT Facebook link, which requires activation via student email address). We already get a load of free FT newspapers every morning. This afternoon I went for training to use a very comprehensive and intuitive financial news system by a subsidiary of Standard and Poor. Some of us may go for free Bloomberg training as well. It’s great being a student in a top B-school because these financial news providers like baiting us with free trials, hoping that once we rejoin the workforce we will pay for their expensive services!

Even later on tonight I gave an interview to a journalist on a subject in which I’m viewed as a bit more of an expert, although I cannot divulge details until the news is published. At some points we talked about INSEAD as well, though I’m not sure if the school will be mentioned along with my quote.

Lastly I wanted to say thank you to all my readers who have been sending encouraging emails to me. I now get 1 or 2 a week from you. These are mostly the newly accepted who will soon be joining our ranks. It’s a pleasure to know that my insights are helpful, and you guys are partly the reason I keep on writing. I do my best to bring out the exact flavour of my experience, good and bad because that is how I believe blogging should be.

Look forward to the best year of your life!

Today my class started at 10.15am so I thought I had enough time to get to school. However on my way out, I found a silly car parked in front of my gate. At first I thought the driver wasn’t in his car, but when I sounded the horn he jerked his head up and I realised he had been slouching in his seat. Still he took a looong time to move off. I was so mad. I called up one of my Social reps to let him know that I had a legit reason to be late (so I didn’t get a champagne fine!) and dashed off the moment my path was unblocked.

As a result, I was several minutes late and quickly walked in to class, trying my best not to disturb anybody. Our marketing professor didn’t look too pleased and I thought I had better explain my tardiness to him after class. It didn’t seem to make a good impression. Maybe I was being too sensitive but initially when I raised my hand to speak a couple of times, he would call someone else near me instead, and not get back to me. Anyway the questioning became more complex and there was silence… and I did have some specific insight to share on the music software case we were working on, that would add value to the marketing proposal. It seemed to make an impact as later on he referred back positively to my point.

After class, I quickly went to the professor and apologised for my late arrival, explaining what happened. He was amused and acknowledged the irony that those driving in Singapore sometimes have more difficulties than those who don’t! He extended his hand, and we shook on it. I told him I enjoy his classes (which was true, and what other people have been saying as well).

As we barely finished speaking, one of the visitors (prospective students who get to attend a sample class at INSEAD) asked me for advice about INSEAD. I spent my break time telling him about the pros and cons. I didn’t realise that beside him was a lady who I thought was a P5 senior, but turns out she was from INSEAD’s Marketing department. She thanked me for being able to advice this prospective student at such short notice. I didn’t mind at all.

I quite like marketing, naturally, because it’s the closest subject to what I was doing in my previous life. But after reading the course materials, I realise what I’ve done has been relatively tactical compared to what I’m learning now.

The visitor asked me if an INSEAD MBA was worth it. I told him that how ‘value-added’ an MBA is, depends on what you make of it, and where you’re starting from. For me, even though the quant can kill, I wouldn’t have learnt this at work on my own, so there is a lot of value-added for me. The question specifically for those interested in INSEAD, would be whether they want a truly international experience, and whether they can handle a really compressed MBA and all its sacrifices. Another question of course is the cost, and whether you feel INSEAD is worth it.

It is so interesting how, just months ago I’d look up to INSEAD alumni for advice, and now I am giving advice to juniors and visitors. They say time flies, but at INSEAD, it’s at Concord pace. If I had more time I’d have chatted more to that Marketing gal as well. I told her I had an INSEAD blog but never got to give her this URL, though I know other INSEAD staff are aware of this. We could do more with social media - but now I might hold myself back while I recalibrate my instincts with some more strategic training.

Just got back from the INSEAD end of P1 party at Dover. There are two more parties tonight for those with more energy - at Le Noir, our favourite club at Clarke Quay, and at another yet undisclosed venue. Our social reps have done a great job putting things together!

As for other happenings: I was supposed to go for band practice this evening (we’re trying to perform as an INSEAD band for our Ball) but I couldn’t make it due to groupwork, and work comes first, so again music has taken the back seat for me :-/

In any case, things are feeling good and I just hope my health improves so I can get some real exercise.

For most people, exams are over! Unfortunately for me, as I was quite sick on Monday morning with vomiting and diarrhoea, I could not take the Prices & Markets (microecons) exam and will do so somewhere at the start of P2, hopefully in the next couple of weeks before I forget what I’ve learnt!

I hope to have a fresh new start with P2. There were some things in P1 I wish I had done. Improving my time management is probably the most essential thing, followed by having the courage to ask more questions instead of quietly telling myself, “It’s OK I’ll figure it out when I have the time” - because at INSEAD there is no time for long reflections!

Another thing is fitness. Before I started INSEAD I had an ambitious plan to wake up fresh and early, go to the gym and then to school. However, during the first month I was simply too sluggish (back to my first point about time management). Then I had an unfortunate blood clot that filled up a sac that was threatening to burst, and I was advised by my doctor not to strain myself or exercise. So that was the end of my exercise plans!

However, being around highly motivated and intelligent individuals has influenced me. I know who works out at the school gym and every time I see them it reminds me that I really should be going back. It’s been years since I was a regular gym goer. And to think I have a small gym at home which I hardly use…

The other thing is, simply hanging out with more people. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I need to play hard too, but have to address my concern that I’m not doing enough academically and therefore should not be going out so much. P1 is the most quantitative that it will ever get for me, hopefully.

Many others are going to various parts of Indochina or Malaysia, but I am staying put. I need to keep up my golf to prepare for two pleasant golf outings, beyond Singapore, in the next few months. Also good for a future MBA graduate to be able to play golf! ;-)

Also, I have to review my French. My class resumes in the morning. I really hope to pass the DELF A2 in December and be done with it. Classes at INSEAD are so tightly packed that I may only be able to have French classes during evenings or weekends.

That’s it for now… time to sleep.

This evening, INSEAD was honoured to host the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. I read in the local papers today that the Crown Prince is in Singapore for 3 days to meet with various leaders here.

Professor Helmut Schutte first introduced one of our seniors, Eyad, who is Bahraini and also a member of the outgoing Students’ Council.

Eyad gave a polished speech, introducing the Crown Prince and the roles he had played in shaping the modern policies and strategies of Bahrain. Consulting Wikipedia on my iPhone, I learnt that the Crown Prince was educated in Washington, DC and also in Cambridge like his father.

The Crown Prince’s speech broadly covered his plans to take Bahrain to the next level. He wanted Bahrain to diversify its economy, beyond oil. He stated that Bahrain should retain its Muslim values while at the same time respecting the cultures, nationalities and ethnicities of people who come to Bahrain to work. At one point the Crown Prince seemed to address our Singapore Minister who was also in the auditorium, recalling Singapore’s own rapid developments in its recent history and adding he looked very much to meeting Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

The Q&A session that followed was more interesting, with classmates from various countries like the US/France, Turkey, Pakistan/Bahrain, Malaysia and Ireland asking him about his plans for education, developing other industries in Bahrain, elaborating on the difficulties in effecting change, and his thoughts on the region and sharing of know-how between government officials from other developing countries. Professor Schutte also asked if INSEAD entrepreneurs would find it easy to set up business in Bahrain.

One area I felt Bahrain was more progressive was how it did not make its scholars (who are also sent to top universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge etc) return straight to public administration. Instead, they were allowed to join the private sector right after graduation, but would be asked to mentor the new batch of scholars.

Overall I felt it was a good talk; nothing mind-blowing but not boring either. However some classmates felt the Crown Prince was not detailed enough. I actually did not expect him to be too specific. I am not sure how many of you have been in public service and have written speeches or talking points for important Government officials.

Firstly, if the speech is made to the general public, the subject matter will probably be broad, to cater to everyone. Already the Crown Prince seemed to focus more on business development and public policy aspects which would appeal to us MBA students.

Secondly, one should avoid being too specific especially about things that might change later, especially if one is a political figure being watched by one’s own people and the international press. I’d think the Crown Prince’s Ministers would be the ones to give specific details. For instance, one INSEAD Alumnus cited very specific figures and the Crown Prince looked at his Ministers to confirm the facts first, although he was mostly on top of things. This wasn’t meant to be a low-level sales pitch but a big picture speech. (Of course, if our Prime Minister gives his Budget speech we expect him to give us financial details, because there is a specific topic in mind already. And Barack Obama, who used to be criticised for not being specific enough, is now scoring points for giving lots of details about his policies. So it is a case by case situation.)

Lastly, if you want to cover a wide area, you can’t get too detailed within a limited period of time. I’d rather paint the broader picture and if asked again, I’d go into the details. Our professor was also very mindful of the time constraints due to the Crown Prince’s busy schedule.

As a Singaporean, what the Crown Prince said had an added dimension by reminding me about what my country has achieved. Sure, we’ve heard it all before - we had no natural resources, a tiny piece of land, a small population; we are just a ‘little red dot’ on the map, yet we have become a developed nation. Nothing is perfect, of course, but we definitely could have done much worse.

Another insight shared by the Crown Prince was his observations of other countries’ officials. There were officials who cared about the country and were comparing notes at meetings, telling each other to avoid the mistakes they themselves had made. It is heartening to hear these little anecdotes from a high-level figure. Then there were other officials who didn’t take such pride in their work and the difference was telling.

So overall I still think it was a good session, because it was a little better than how I expected it to be. Frankness and occasional displays of wry humour are refreshing in any sort of politician or statesman, and the Crown Prince will definitely be a most urbane, intelligent future ruler.

Update: My classmate Mel H has similar thoughts on her blog.

Today is Friday and we have just another week of lessons before exams begin! The library gets pretty packed during the day.

My group has been working very fast as usual and scored top marks for our first Finance assignment. We have been quite enthusiastic in volunteering to present our work, and today a few of us - including myself - received feedback from numerous people that we should take it easy and give others a chance. I’d be happy to :P

We were all playing the Prices and Markets online trading game (aka our first taste of Game Theory) for the past couple of weeks. The point is to make as much profit as possible. We do not know who the other teams are - they are from the Fontainebleau campus and Wharton - and cannot collude with them, just like in real life when duopolies are forbidden to price fix together. We did OK as our competitors understood we could both benefit by choosing a certain price. The last team tried to screw us but also screwed themselves in the process.

However, overall the atmosphere in class is still lighthearted and we are becoming more mischievous with our professors.

Today was our very last Statistics (aka Uncertainty, Data and Judgement) class and since we all like Professor Lobo - particularly the girls! - we decided to spring a little surprise for him during our multiple regression presentation.

As he could pick any of our groups to make the presentation, we all inserted a couple of slides at the end our Powerpoint files, thanking him but adding there was one question he has yet to answer: “So how can I be sure that I am satisfied with the sex….?” It was accompanied with a photo of the poor classmate who uttered that unfortunate phrase - he was quite a good sport about this! (Read my previous post if you don’t understand what’s going on)

Lobo said he would definitely remember our class and relate this story to future students. We gave him a standing ovation.

Later on, we had Financial Accounting with Prof Segal, who requests all latecomers to leave the classroom (unless they have a very good reason, like being caught in the rain). Anyway, this time HE arrived late, so we immediately waved our ‘Champagne Fines’ cards at him. It was quite funny. He asked if he had to pay just $10 (our standard fine) and we shouted no, he should pay $700! (the number of students in the class)

We asked him questions about the current crisis so the lesson was more interesting than usual. We actually applauded at the end of his class, too.

Finally, we had an interesting session with Prof Hawawini, who is a Finance legend, author of our Finance textbook and former Dean of INSEAD. As we waited for the projector to be fixed, we asked him about his thoughts on the crisis. Another of my groupmates wanted to know whether this was the worst crisis in Hawawini’s living memory, and began by saying, “You’ve been around a long time…”

The class immediately started waiving the Champagne Fine card at him because it sounded like B was implying that Hawawini was old! You can get fined for being late, having your phone ring in class, or by asking smart alec questions. Later on we learnt from our social reps that thanks to the amount of fines collected, we are going to have a great post-exam party!

But back to serious stuff … I don’t have anything much planned except to catch up as much as I can with my brilliant classmates and groupmates. Actually I think a lot has to do with time management. If I sleep earlier, and get more sleep, I will be more alert. Then I will wake up earlier. I could do my work in half the time, if I wasn’t easily distracted. There are however some concepts I need to grasp well. I know what I don’t know and will be going for some tutorials and review sessions.

Interestingly, I heard from groupmates that our seniors think we are working too hard and that the library has never been so crowded before. As much as I’d like to think we’re a bunch of nerds who could cut ourselves some slack, times are also difficult, and people are trying to get good grades so they can get good jobs. Dean’s Listers get picked by top companies. Also, our seniors are in P4 and are now doing subjects they’ve elected to do, winding down as they hand over the club responsibilities to us, and their main focus now is job interviews. So we think our seniors may have forgotten the madness that is P1.

A few people have asked what are my plans for the break. Well, it’s a short break and I don’t intend to spend money on an overseas trip. Firstly, I am definitely going for the post-exam party! I will also be going for French classes again to prepare for my DELF A2 test. I and an Italian classmate will also be playing tennis together. Maybe then I’ll also have time to repair my Mac and restore my home studio activities. I also intend to go for the INSEAD Ball, and I will be preparing for my new term as President of the High Tech Club.

But for now, it’s time to hit the books!! Tomorrow the family is throwing a party so I will not have much time left over the weekend after that. I have started to think that it is actually a disadvantage being Singaporean, living with family, and going to the Singapore campus. But that will be for another post.

I was present for the first half hour of a live streaming presentation in Second Life, titled ‘Capacity Building and Partnership in Development’. This is the first of two talks, as mentioned previously. The next talk is by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate so it is worth catching as well.

There weren’t many of us Second Lifers in the audience, but the real life audience and speakers were aware of our presence. I had no problems getting Second Life to stream the video. There was a bit of lag every now and then but that always happens when accessing Second Life in Singapore.

However, my MacBook Pro (2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM) started freezing intermittently, until it happened every few seconds which was quite disturbing, so I had to quit Second Life. I restarted Second Life and the problem occured again. I gave up and started doing my homework instead. I haven’t had this problem on my powerful machine before. It could be due to the latest Second Life software update.

However, I did manage to take some screen shots and learn a little bit about what Lilly was doing about Corporate Social Responsibility. I left when they were discussing HIV/AIDS issues, which is a pity because I handled the new media campaigns for AIDS at the Health Promotion Board, and it would’ve been great to hear more.

I am not sure if there was any interaction between the Second Life audience and the speakers. They just told the real life audience that we were watching the live stream. Someone joked that if confidential issues were discussed, they should ‘accidentally’ pull the plug on the Second Lifers, to which I replied, “HEY!!!” but I’m not sure if they saw my message.

If there isn’t interaction between us and them, and if they really turned off the telly at some point, then I fail to see much value-add using Second Life as opposed to normal web streaming, like ustream.tv. Second Life takes up a lot of processing power already. At the same time it is still a good platform for simultaneous, international dialogues. I was just hoping that it would be a full conference in Second Life, like other sessions I’ve attended on other educational campuses. Maybe one day…

From tomorrow we’re deciding whether to go do a campus exchange in P3. Initially my plans were to go to Fonty only in P4 when the worst of the winter is over. However, another Singaporean classmate told me it is better to go in P3, then return to Singapore in P4 and P5 to look for a job here or in Asia (where I’m planning to work). So for a while I thought of going to Fonty in P3.

Then I looked at the electives I wanted to take in P3, and realised that a lot of them were taught on both campuses, so there was little pull factor for either side. Next, I looked at the evaluation scores given to these professors by our seniors. From what I saw, the higher-rated professors (a few scoring over 4 out of 5) will be in the Singapore campus in P3 while the others will be in Fonty (scoring over 3 out of 5).

I know evaluations can be subjective but some of these were done a few times over the course for the same professor. If this professor is given roughly the same score each time, I am sure that the rating would be a good indicator. Maybe the seniors in Fonty were feeling cold and grumpy and gave lower marks - but I really don’t think so.

The other aspect is the networking. If a lot of Fontysiders move to Singapore in P3 then return to Fonty in P4 and P5, and if I’m going to do the exact opposite, there is a chance I will not meet a lot of classmates, ever. Of course I think with the possible permutations I may not meet some classmates anyway, but the winter season is when a lot of classmates want to come to Singapore, so I might as well stick around.

The only thing I will miss in P4 in Singapore will be the famous INSEAD dash, where everyone living in Dover and Heritage will dress in costumes and run across the public roads of Singapore to school. But my priorities are academics and job search. I still think I can handle a job search in late P4 by applying then, and returning to Singapore in P5 to go for interviews. At worst I can do video interviews in Fonty.

So tomorrow I will probably not request to go to Fonty in P3.

Today, we had a pillow fight! We came in our pyjamas and brought pillows. In the Singapore campus we are divided into two sections, A1 and A2, and we were pitted against each other after our two morning classes. Whoever took over the rival amphitheater would win.

This morning, our amphitheaters looked like large bedrooms, with pillows on our desks and seats and some even on the floor. Some guys were wearing boxers and cotton t-shirts! A few girls wore nightgowns. One guy from the other section came in full striped pyjamas. One girl wore fluffy bedroom slippers. One guy wrapped himself in a blanket with his pillow tucked behind him, looking dreamily at our Econs professor who told him jokingly not to fall asleep!

Of course there were a few spoilsports who didn’t come in their pyjamas and tried explaining to the rest of us that they really did sleep in jeans and polo t-shirts … yeah right! However, many who wore pyjamas changed into normal clothes after that. I thought the fun part was staying in your pyjamas! How often do you get to wear PJs to a top b-school and get away with it?

Anyway… how it works is that our professors take turns to teach us. My section had Econs first, followed by Accounting. The other section had Accounting followed by Econs. Unfortunately I think they ended their class slightly earlier and stormed into our amphi. We fought bravely but alas, after a few minutes of mayhem, A2 declared themselves the winners.

As they cheered, we booed good-naturedly, and one classmate muttered, “Stop disturbing us! We’re studying!” and we laughed.

I took a few blurry photos of the pillow fight but my iPhone was whacked out of my hands!! Fortunately nobody stepped on it. My groupmate, however, had his camera lens knocked sideways and so it couldn’t retract back into the camera… I empathise with him because a similar thing happened to my camera last year.

I’m sure there will other interesting social events coming up … kudos to our social reps for coming up with such wacky entertainment!

I thought I better write this story down before we all forget about it!

A few days ago, in Statistics class, our professor was showing us how different types of data polled from our two sections, such as age, gender, shoe size and weight, could be used to determine each other. Some factors were more correlated while others were irrelevant and could be removed from the equation.

For instance, to predict someone’s height and weight, age would not be a good factor (seeing how our age range was narrow, and being older doesn’t necessarily make you much heavier), but shoe size would be better (because if you’re tall you tend to have a larger shoe size, and possibly weight more).

Along the way, questions were asked and we were quite engrossed in the data, because it was about our own class!

One Italian classmate looked intently at the screen and asked something like, “But how would I know if sex is a good factor?”

There was a split-second pause, then the whole class erupted in laughter!!!

Our classmate was a little embarassed as he didn’t mean it that way, but we all found it pretty funny. Needless to say we were in good spirits…

(Classmates reading this: If you recall the exact line used, please let me know!)

We had 1.5 hours of a Finance mid-term quiz this evening. It wasn’t insanely difficult but it made me realise that I needed to understand the concepts properly, above all. And it’s a little bit ironic to call this mid-terms when we only have 2 more weeks of school before our exams start.

It is crazy how we have classes up to the last Friday, and then the next Monday we have exams. All the more it is important to understand as much as you can during classes, then during groupwork, because you will not have much time left to try understanding them again!

From my perception, most classmates seem to be doing fine. Obviously the ones who are flying high at the moment are those already with a business, finance, economics background. The next group that picks up quickly are the Engineers. I would add computer scientists as well. Basically anyone who’s done quant-related stuff in school and at work.

Yours truly? Well … let’s say my arts-oriented background is starting to show. In the office, there would be someone else doing the financial work. I was more interested in managing new media projects and coming up with new ideas, not ploughing through the details. At the most I’d manage my projects’ budgets and forecasting, but even then there was someone else making the final adjustments. So this has been an eye-opener for me and obviously I am learning a lot more than my classmates who’ve done all this before. On the bright side, I am definitely getting my full 50,000 euros’ worth!

The pace at INSEAD is like a Formula 1 racetrack. Can you imagine that in just our 6th finance lesson (with our 1st lesson starting from scratch) we’ve learnt to do company valuations? And in two months we’d have completed Financial Accounting (next term we’re doing Managerial Accounting). Likewise, this term we’re completing Microeconomics and next term we move to Macroeconomics.

I told my auditor friend, who has worked in one of the big firms, that we were squeezing what she learnt into 2+2 months. She said we were probably covering very basic stuff. I told her, “Well, we’ve had to prepare cash flows, T-accounts, Income Statement and Balance Sheet!” She looked surprised. Of course we’re given the facts in case format but have to lay out everything and get our hands dirty with numbers.

If anything, I will probably use my newly-acquired knowledge to read financial statements so I know if my investments are headed in the right direction. I will probably look at my investments and bank and credit card rates more carefully. Beyond that? I don’t foresee a future in finance (though my ever-encouraging group mates chimed in, “You never know!”) but I will do what I can do understand everything and pass the exam.