Looking forward to tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. The reason is we, all MBA students have been asked to come up with our own ideas as Entrepreneurs and pitch them to the rest of the class. The idea can be about anything and everything. We have had brain storming sessions multiple times so far and we are now trained on how to go about these brainstorming and how to come up with something out of nothing. Last week we have gone through problem solving exercises using various tools and techniques. We have been then given a case on restaurant and asked to use these tools to come up with solutions and quantify the benefits of these solutions. We have been divided into teams again and everyone came up with commendable presentations. As we draw close to the end of the course, we all have become skill full presenters thanks to all the practice and assessments we have had so far. One of the key learning’s from the course is ability to work in groups and presentation skills. Anyhow enough said on last week and my focus is on tomorrow. We are divided into two teams and two ideas will be selected from each team which will go to next round and it will come down to one idea that will be selected as the best. I do have an interesting idea and I did discuss with my colleagues but I am not going to let the cat out of bags for now folks. We can pitch in anything crazy, weird and out of the world. However there is a criterion to fulfill academically too. So that’s why I say – looking forward to tomorrow. Will come back and share all the experience with you guys :)

The fag end

As we have come to the fag end of this course, the real test lies now. The end is going to be very exciting as we have some interesting assignments and projects to accomplish before we completely claim ourselves as MBA graduates. Students who have finished their course last year should be getting ready for the graduation ceremony scheduled for next month. The ceremony is held only once in every year around July for all the graduates and post graduates and hence some of them like us have to wait till next year though we will be completing the course by Sep this year. Thinking ahead, it is going to be a great occasion and very precious one for all the hard work done and I can only imagine how students this year would be looking forward to it. However it might be too early for us as we have few more things to be done before we can start thinking about it. The last sem is packed with lots of interesting tasks like choosing your own entrepreneur and constructing your theory on entrepreneurship. That is just one part of it. The next part is coming up with your business idea and pitching it to the students and lecturer to have their feedback. We have just concluded a presentation last week where we dealt with a problem of a restaurant and used several problem solving tools and techniques to come up with our recommendations. And now comes the best part, the individual consultancy project. This is where you work for a company doing a live project based on the requirements of the client. University provides all assistance in finding a client and a project that suits the profile and experience every student carries. As I have mentioned earlier this module is all about entrepreneurship and leadership skills with innovation and I can’t think of better ways of learning these apart from those mentioned above. I don’t want to give away too many interesting things in this blog and want to keep you all glued till my next blog, so stay tuned for more :)

Made in Manchester

June 19^th 2011 was an eventful day in Manchester marked with the parade at the city centre displaying creativity and talent from different communities. It is an annual event celebrated to demonstrate the iconic status of the city and this year was the second time it was being celebrated. The theme was called “A voyage of discovery” where around 59 floats are built inspired by creative ideas from various communities at a workshop in Castlefiled. The parade started from Liverpool road at around 2PM passing through Deansgate, Albert Square, Peter Street and ending at the same location where it started after couple of hours. There were 80 groups and over 1800 people taking part of the parade and the spectacle was witnessed by over 70 thousand citizens on the streets. The floats, the costumes and the dance was marvelous to watch and it brings all the Mancunians together with a feeling of pride and honor to be part of such a great city. Some of the prominent floats which gathered everyone’s attention include a giant Gulliver figure, Pirates, Lancaster bomber to name a few. The vent apparently generated around 4m£ for all the firms participated and a nice stage for those firms to market themselves. This also helped to boost the city center business amidst the turbulent times. This was recorded as one of the best civilian events witnessed by large group of people overtaking the last year’s event. There was choirs singing and music played at Albert square while the parade was passing by. People came out in large numbers with families and friends to witness the event and everyone had a joyous day out. I was fortunate to be part of the event with my friends and will post few pictures which describe the event much better than my words. Proud to be a Mancunian :)

Third Sem

The study trip is over and we were all given a week’s break to reflect on the journey so far  in MBA and also what lies ahead. So we are all back to school after the break and feel so fresh and rejuvenated. The advantage of Salford MBA is it gives proper breaks for students to refresh and get ready for the next sem. This sem is going to be completely different with focus on entrepreneurship and leadership skills. We are already a week into it and everyone enjoying the module as it is all about exploiting opportunities and creating something out of nothing. There were so many myths about entrepreneurs and business men and all those myths laid to rest after a week into this module. We are all encouraged to think differently and come up with ideas which can create a huge value in its own domain. We had brainstorming sessions in groups and the ideas that came out were very innovative and exciting. Then we had a workshop on how to go about implementing the ideas and turn them into meaningful businesses. Salford MBA insists on entrepreneurship and most of us now thinking about creating jobs for ourselves. This is actually the way forward in a world economy currently we are all going through. There were also interesting insights into how to get your business funded and how to deal with failure. The inspirational videos on various entreprenuers form around the world, the innovative ideas everyone came up with and the inputs form the experienced professors charged us up and the thinking perspective of all the students now given a new dimension. For now the task is to choose an entrepreneur of our choice and write an assignment about them which should be lot of learning in the process. So I sign off for now and will come back to share more details on this module with all of you later.

One night in Paris

Hello all and I am back with more news from my France trip. As I have already shared my academic experiences in Rouen Business School, it is time to move to Paris. We were given a day to explore Paris and we tried to make the most of it. We had a farewell lunch after checking into hotel rooms. One of the striking features of French is the food they eat where they don’t waste any components of food and eat it as whole. So we tried testing our tasting buds with some fish while some vegetarians stuck to the usual. French food will impress those who like to experiment new recipes. Right after the lunch we set out on our tour around Paris city. The city is magnificent in its architecture and every building is worth taking a notice. As we were running on a tight schedule we visited the Louvre museum first. It literally takes you days to see the length and breadth of the museum so we winded it up in a jiffy. Then the best part – Eiffel Tower. It is nicknamed as iron lady and is the most visited paid monument in the world. It was built as an entrance arch marking the centennial celebrations of French revolution. The first two levels can be accessed through stairs and elevator but the third level only through elevator. We decided to be adventurous to take stairs till the second level and pushed some of us who were not too keen on such adventure. We remained as a team till we reached the second level and the view form there of the entire city was breath taking. An engineering master piece, it gives a wonderful view of the city which is so lively and jubilating. The cameras were too busy capturing in all poses with the city in the background. The learning’s on French culture, the strong economy and their excellence in technology and fashion stood at one level and the joy you receive from being on top of Eiffel tower is at a different level altogether. We dint feel like disembarking the tower but time was running out and we had to move. As soon as we got down the tower was illuminated with lights and I have no words to describe the experience of seeing it. We held back and just spent our time appreciating the beauty of it enhanced by the glow. Illuminated Paris trip in the night is a must and I strongly advice it to everyone who intends to visit Paris. There are different modes of transport to visit all the historical spots of the city – through bus and ferry but unfortunately we couldn’t do both due to the time restrictions we had and only settle for bus trip. Later we were busy scouting for nice restaurants and walking on the streets of Paris late in the night. The whole experience was short but worth as once in life time. The next day we bid adeua to the city of love and flew back to Manchester. I take this opportunity to thank the Salford MBA administration once again for providing a wonderful experience through this visit. On that note, I sign off churning out the moments spent in Paris :)