Stuart Little Gets an MBA at St Gallen!

My Biggest aspiration: The first lap

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:24:00 +0000

I started the MBA in September last year, and with that my dreams of making path breaking business decisions.. seeing myself in the FT and ofcourse minting money took wings..

and when u think of money.. no... oodles of money... the first profession that comes to one's mind is?? No, not armed robbery!! Not Ocean's 12/ 13...well Investment banking (well these days it is difficult to segregate the banking from the robbery .. considering that millions of investors have been robbed off billions of dollars...anyways.. that's another story!)

Well the charm of investment banking is irresistible and it draws so many people to top B-schools... just the name of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merill Lynch was enough to send cashregisters ringing between ur ears and light up ones eyes..

It was not long before I got fell for the dazzle of the I-Banking world and started dreaming of becoming an uber-chique wall street type deal maker. As luck would have it .. very soon, in October, St. Gallen organised the Investment banking days..

All the big names in investment banking were there.. smartly dressed young professionals flaunting expensive tailor made suits, exquisite watches.. gelled hair... with tales of the multimillion dollar deals that their banks were doing.. and handing out cool stuff... my heart throbbed .. and I felt.. this is it!!! Eureka !! I've found my dream job... oh how naive was i to think that it'll take forever to know what I wanted to do in life..
Now just 4 weeks into the MBA... I know it!!! yippee!!!

... continues.. stay posted...

MBA: My Biggest Aspiration? - Searching your dream job

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:50:00 +0000

The MBA is perhaps the most sought after masters program. It attracts aspirants from far and wide, draws participants from diverse backgrounds.. lawyers, doctors, special forces soldiers engineers et. al.

The MBA is positioned (by B-schools) and perceived (by students) as the pole vault into your dream job. MBA brochures are full of stories of highly successful alumni… and most top B-schools also publish a Career report. (I must mention that INSEAD has a pretty good one.. with exhaustive details!).

But behind all these great success stories and incredible placements is a lot of sweat and hardwork.Having studied at a European Business school I’m only aware of how the job hunting scenario works here. Also, the experiences may vary from B-school to B-school and also from person to person..

But I’d like to share my experiences from the job hunt process over the next couple of posts..

The first and foremost step of securing your dream job is to know what your dream job is?

Many people coming to the MBA are very clear about what they want to do post MBA and where they want to be 5 – 10 years after they graduate.. (Well you gotta know that else how would you write the MBA admission essays!!)

But there are also a few others like me who know that it is time for a major professional change but have absolutely no idea what I wanted to do post-MBA (except earning truck loads of money! ;) ). Now now, don’t ask me how I wrote those admission essays 

Seriously though, I came into the MBA seeking growth, development, change and also my future path. I knew for sure that I wanted to work in Europe, in a highly international environment, and do something that built upon my previous experience ( business experience, specialised knowledge of emerging markets, project management skills, etc. etc) but was not just an extension of my last job.

But then as you can see this was really a vague criteria. But I felt that the year I spend at the MBA would (hopefully) provide me enough opportunities to taste and perhaps savor various opportunities in the job market and perhaps that way I would know what I wanna do.

Well with this a took a headlong plunge into the MBA and hoped I’d resurface with my prize catch..

Stay posted…
Stuart

Acad Director or Rock Band Vocalist?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:36:00 +0000

Hi all,
Stuart is back again..
this time with rare spy cam footage of the St. Gallen MBA Academic Director Winfried Ruigrok...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FljM9o9ggY

And you thought he could only teach International Management or Corp. Governance?

Winfried (the vocalist with sunglasses) and other Profs (yes the drummer, guitarist etc are all professors@ St. Gallen) have a band called "No Business" (not bad for a band of B-school profs!)

btw if you thought I was kidding..here's Winfried's pic at the faculty profile page ..
http://www.mba.unisg.ch/org/es/mba.nsf/wwwPersonDivisionEng/B899CAE631BA971BC12573DF00392EEA

Strange things happen to you when you are at St. Gallen. Even professors can't escape the St. Gallen Mania!!
There's a lot that happens at St. Gallen... so u'd better get here.. & soon!!

MBA Review : block #1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:48:00 +0000

Hi again guys,
We're now in the 5th teaching block (out of a total 6 blocks) and i guess it is now a time to look back and review what we've been through so far. having completed 2/3rd of the course work we have now seen various professors, events and courses. So i will share my views on them in this series of posts. Today's post covers block 1.

Block #1: (Sep -Oct 07)

1. International Management (Winfried Ruigrok): My key take away from the course was an understanding of the cultural differences between international organisations and the most significant tool i learnt was the Hofstede's index. which gives u a fair idea of what to expect when going to a new international business environment. also got to know the various organisational structures and found the matrix to be quite interesting.

Winfried is a pleasing personality and tries different ways (like fun exercises) to get his points across. But the course had every possible assessment (research paper, exam, presentation blah blah..) making it too much of hardwork not all of which was useful.

2. Finance and Accounting (Fleming Ruud): My key take aways were an understanding of the balance sheet, some tricks of the trade that are used to play with balance sheet figures. What i really learnt was to look at numbers from a CEO perspective.

Fleming has the ability to make problems and discussions very simple and uses a basic table format to analyse and evaluate balance sheets. For a guy like me with no accounting background this was a big help! Fleming also has a fine sense of humour.

The course however is too intensive and covers 25+ chapters of the Needles accounting book in a course of just 30 hours!!! roughly 1.2 hours per chapter!!!! As a result u kill urself reading the book and dealing with the coursework the big exam and presentations. Huh! I went out of breadth trying to keep up with the pace of the course.

3. Marketing Management (Marcus Shoegel): The key takeaway from this course was STP (segmenting, targetting and positioning). We did a BMW case study (Warning: but so did our predecessors!!). I liked the two sessions by Andreas Herrmann which brought in some metrics for analysing consumer preferences.

Marcus as i have mentioned earlier is quite animated with his teaching and keeps u wide awake with his antics. He is an impressive lecturer with great showmanship. However, besides STP, I didn't find much substance in the course which was laden with too many european examples of brand names and hence was not international enough.

While marketing might be very vague or difficult to quantify, what i did not learn (and wanted to) was how would I as a CEO devise metrics to gauge whether the marketing initiatives planned would be effective or not. Also, what factors should govern the channel and media for advertising campaigns and product retail. If I am putting in money, I need to know whether it is going to be spent well!

In my opinion the best course in block #1 was clearly Finance and accounting. Lets see what the verdict of the next and coming intakes will be.

Admissions update!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:44:00 +0000

hi Guys,

Thanks for the numerous mails & messages ....

i have some scoop regarding the admissions of the incoming class (Class of 2009):

The class size is likely to be 40 participants (up from 35 of the present class).More than half of this number (> 20) have already enrolled and many are in the process of confirming their participation.
While there are 5 more seats available this year, there has been a 5 fold increase in applications compared to last year.
The average GMAT of the students admitted is around 710.
With an objective to ensure a diverse international participant mix, country specifuc quotas of a max 5-7 students from one nation are in place. As a result highly competitive applications (with good work experience and GMATs of 730-740+) from Americans, Indians and Germans have been turned away.
There is a discussion about cancelling the 4th admission round (June 1 deadline) as the target enrollment is likely to be achieved by the 3rd deadline (April 1).

(Meanwhile, Steve Riley has replaced heiko as the admissions manager.)

Hope this helps!

cheers

Stuart

p.s. : Many of you have written to me about the forum HSG. I will publish a post soon on that.

A pragmatic guide to choose your MBA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:18:00 +0000

Hi folks,
Through this post I aim to reflect back upon the MBA application process that most of us MBAs go through and outline things that we could do to improve our chances of getting into the job we desire post-MBA.

For sake of emphasis, I repeat that this talks about how to choose an MBA program so that you can get into the job of your desire.

The first and foremost step in this direction is to introspect and understand where you are coming from. By this I mean, looking back into the not so distant past to analyze the growth process that you have underwent. Growth in terms of personal and professional development; academics , exta-curriculars etc.

WARNING!: I am not guiding u on how to write ur MBA essay, However, doing this may help you with your essay as well.

"History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are."
As quoted by David C. McCullough

The ideal way is to do a timeline analysis (write to me if u want more details) or the least you can do is write down your skills, shortcomings and aspirations. Also, write down what exactly is your expectation from the MBA. Don't write "I want to be an I banker" .. but more in terms of what u aim to learn, which areas r u not so good at (Finance??) and what position you seek post MBA. (I Banker!! I Banker!!) ..

Ok!! Ok!!! If you indeed want to become an I Banker, lets c how you can do this analysis.

First Step: Search the web for I-Banking openings on the web. For starters, look for openings on www.efinancialcareers.com.

Second Step:Identify and outline the skillsets, professional experience etc etc mentioned in the job description.

Third Step: compare these skillsets with your current skillsets. Compare the job description with your current one + the value added by the MBA. This is what I call the Stuart MBA reality test (SMART) I.

Do you see a match? If yes, great!! if no, we will have to look at ways in which we can bridge this divide and also whether we can bridge this divide at all.

Why is this test important?

Till now all the MBA plans and aspirations of yours (& mine when i was an applicant) have been driven by your dreams without any guiding red thread or a check. As a result, sometimes some of us dream up very lofty dreams, which to be honest, are very difficult to achieve even with a top notch MBA!

Another reason why this is important is because once you start applying for jobs and internships during the MBA, the recruiters will look at these very aspects in your application. In case there is a gap between your profile and the job opening, he/she will look for ways in which you have tried to plug it. In case he is not satisfied, he will not call you for an interview. Period!

Please do not get me wrong, shoot for the moon for sure! However, if it is "Pluto" you are aiming at.... hmmm.. we need to re-evaluate the career strategy.

At this moment I stop. In case you find this approach outlined by me relevant, please leave me comments and /or emails. I would then write more posts that bring in perspectives from the post-MBA world to the applicants.

cheers!
Stuart

Career Opportunities rolling in!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:58:00 +0000

Hi folks..
haven't been around for a while but in the meantime i've been helping prospective MBA applicants with their applications.. and mind you they are not St. Gallen applicants!

Meanwhile lot of things have been happening at the career end..

we had three one to one sessions with experts in various fields.. we had one expert each for industry, consulting and finance.

Each of them had served in leading firms of their field (Mckinsey, bank of America) and were now to talk to us one on one about our individual aspirations in these respective fields.
The benefits of this exercise were manifold:

1. We got a practitioner's view about our prospects in these fields and also how we can enhance our profile for openings. We also had a resume check to see whether it matched the standards of the said industry.

Some of us also got a very honest view that we weren't cut out for a particular field. This may have disappointed some but for others it provided adequate reason to break through the herd mentality of applying to all Ibanks/ consulting and instead focus on areas where we are more likely to succeed.

2. We got access to the great networks of these people who have interviewed us and can provide potential links.

3. We got a fair overview of the market trends.

Besides this, one of us signed a contract with P&G! The first contract of the season!! Three others have an interview in BCG next week and six have been invited to interview for the Novartis Finance Leadership Development Program. Then there also have been a few interviews with other consulting firms but on an individual basis.

We also are going to a career fair in Berlin on April 13-14. this fair held jointly with 4 other German B-schools is now in its fourth year. The idea is to tap into the niche and captive German market where St. Gallen has immense brand value. Well what adds spice to the curry is the fact that it is an all expenses paid trip sponsored by the MBA Office. yes u heard it right.. air tickets, accomodation, food.. u name it !!
Wolfgang!!! Wolfgang!!! President !! President!!

The Forum HSG is now less than two weeks away and we eagerly await the start of the fair.
till next time!
Stuart

Motivation!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:46:00 +0000

The last two weeks have brought a cheer on the little mousey's face!
my blog figured as the Top blog for the week ending Feb 3 on findmba.com's list!

http://www.find-mba.com/blog/1/21/top-5-mba-blogs-of-the-week-february-3-2008

This was for my blog post titled "European Invasion, Asian Crusade" which examines the latest FT B-school rankings threadbare and spots trends for prospective MBAs.
http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2008/01/european-invasion-asian-crusade.html

and what makes it better is that for the previous week it debuted at No. 3 at the same list!
http://www.find-mba.com/blog/1/20/top-5-mba-blogs-of-the-week-january-27-2008

which rewarded my description of the Mongolian BBQ
http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2008/01/mongolian-barbecue.html

www.find-mba.com u made my day!! oops !! fortnight!!

Stuart

Get a job: The Forum is Coming!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 22:12:00 +0000

The most important career event at St. Gallen is the Forum HSG.

The forum is a 3 week (yes 3 week!!!) long event where over a 100 companies converge to recruit St. Gallen students.

The forumHSG 2008 is scheuled from last week of Feb to mid-March and while the site will be completely up in a few days, the companies who've confirmed their participation so far are:

http://forumhsg.ch/index.php?id=49&L=2

Did u spot a company u like in this list?.. well the top consultants are here, and the industry leaders like ABB, ALSTOM, SIEMENS (including the siemens management consulting), General motors, Holcim......so are the banks (but we already had an investment banking days event in Oct and the banking recruitment cycle is almost over so not as many would again show up)
http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/10/investment-banking-days.html

so tons of opportunities!

disclosure: These companies are not coming exclusively for a batch of only 35 MBAs with very diverse interests. However, a sizable number have already confirmed their particular interest in MBAs and most probably we'll have an apero and a few exclusive events with them.

Last year's class mentioned it to be an important event for generating contacts and getting offers.

To accomodate the Forum, the mba will not have any coursework during these three weeks so that we can attend the company workshops and interviews and meet representatives without bothering about skipped classes and missed assignments.

Well that's reasonable ain't it? After all getting a good job is a valuable ingredient of getting an MBA and in fact is a major yardstick to measure the success of the program ;)

Stuart

Stuart goes to the Carnival!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:18:00 +0000

It is carrrrrrrrrrnival time!!! The entire world is in the mood for carnival and this place is no different!

Well well well... before u start conjuring up images of bare breasted babes on floats and samba... guys we're not in Rio.... This is St. Gallen and it is rather cold here so people were really dressed up ;)

But yeah we had an amazing day nevertheless ... lol

The atmosphere was electric.... and music enveloped the streets ...

people in "colorful' dresses and vivid themes and tons of face paint were all over the place with trumpets, drums ... u name it...

suddenly the sleepy li'l town of St. Gallen was transformed into a musical village and the crowds simply loved it...

Interestingly, there was a Swiss/German group dressed in Indian costumes and playing Indian music... talk about globalisation ... lol!

European invasion, Asian crusade

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Over the past couple of days several events took place. One of the most relevant to the MBAs (mainly applicants!) was the release of the FT Rankings for the year 2008.

This year's rankings show some very interesting trends.
First and most visible developments was that London Business School jumped three notches within the top 10 and is now second only to Wharton!! Kudos LBS! INSEAD also progressed a notch to No. 6.

On a broader view, European B-schools have improved their rankings and two new European B-schools invaded the Top 10 space:

Institute de Empressa (IE) of Spain which jumped from 11th to 8th rank.
Judge Business School (Cambridge) which jumped 5 notches from 15th to the 10th rank.

As a result, NYU, Tuck and Yale are out of the top 10. Kellogg is down to 24!!

So is this a European invasion or do they have an unfair home advantage (FT is a European Business Daily). In case the former is true, it reflects the growing stature of europe (especially EU) in international trade.

Is it also a trend that hints that American B-schools are getting complacent? Well only time will tell. US is still clearly the favorite destination to pursue a business education. But the lack H1 B visas is now denting the popularity of american business education.

An another interesting development is the stellar performance of Asian business schools. China's CEIBS held on to its 11th position, Hong Kong UST returned to the FT table at No. 17. Singapore's Nanyang business school improved its performance jumping a whopping 20 positions to 46. The other leading Singaporean B-school (NUS) got edged out of the top 100. While India's sole entry to the FT ranking , the Indian School of Business made a spectacular debut at #20 with the highest weighted salary of US$ 169,355! The Asian crusade is picking steam and in the years to come it may cause a few upsets. :)

Other notable debuts were Strathclyde at #30, Shanghai Jiao Tong University(ACEM, China) at #41 and Vlerick Leuven Gent (Belgium) at 97.

B-schools that have demonstrated the most significant improvement in rankings over a three year period are:
Judge Business School, Cambridge at #10 (2006 ranking # 35)
HKUST #17 (#47)
Australian Grad School of Management #39 (#75).
Edinburgh University Management School # 44 (#82)
Nanyang Business School Singapore #46 (unranked)

These are perhaps valuable indicators for prospective MBA students and hopefully would help choose ur B-school.

Business Law

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:28:00 +0000

In Block 4 that's currently underway, we have a course on business law. The Professor is actually a practicing attorney at law with a mid-size law firm in Zurich.

Law as many of us would know, is very nation specific and we are all not swiss and not all of us would work in Switzerland post-MBA.

Hence, what we are trying to do in this subject is to get an overview of the laws applicable to business and the situations in which we would deal with them. In essence, looking at situations where we should be careful about the fine print and to ensure we don't get on the wrong foot (or the wrong side of the law!).

What makes this course rather interesting is the fact that we are looking at a lot of case studies and trying to identify the key levers on which the case is based. In the process we are putting ourselves in the shoes of the attorneys and CEOs and coming up with probable scenarios. And we're not looking at the issue in the context of any jurisdiction specific laws but are applying plain logic.

I find this immensely intriguing!! Hmm maybe i should become a lawyer...!!! cheeky little mousey lawyer !! lol!

Stuart

Rogue Trader: Nick Leeson Part Two?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:27:00 +0000

In the news the last couple of days have been reports about the alleged fraud committed by a "rogue trader" at the French investment firm Societe Generale (www.socgen.com) .

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/01/24/societegenerale.fraud/index.html

What is really alarming about the whole issue is that a single trader was responsible for a whopping $7.2 billion fraud. Basically he took positions much above his authorised powers. While, the bank might cite him creating fictitious firms and blah blah.. the pressing question to ask is how and why did such large positions get built without getting detected by anyone?

This also reminds us of the other infamous rogue Trader nickleeson (www.nickleeson.com) whose aggressive bets on the Nikkei futures on the now defunct Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX) and the infamous 88888 account led to $1.4 billion loss for Barings bank which also led to the collapse of Barings.

“How Leeson Broke the Bank.” BBC Online. June 22, 1999. British Broadcasting Company. 12 March 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/375259.stm

Later Nick also authored a book titled Rogue Trader which was later turned into a film. http://www.nickleeson.com/books/rogue_trader_book.html

Nick Leeson spent 6.5 years in prison, battled cancer and divorce and is now back into the mainstream. We have to wait and watch what happens to the Socgen trader.

The financial markets are already battling the subprime crisis, and if we have more skeletons out of their closets, investor confidence (which is already thrashed thanks to the stock market roller coasters) will plummet into an abyss.

Trading in SocGen's shares was suspended following the announcement.

This also raises the questions of ethics and its importance in business. And this is a question that we as MBAs and future business leaders or (Rogue!) traders need to ask ourselves.

Incidentally if we look at B-schools with the lens of Ethics, social responsibilty the FT rankings tend to get turned on their head. Beyondgreypinstripes is a site that looks into these issues and has its own ranking
have a look http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/rankings/index.cfm

Stuart

Mongolian Barbecue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:20:00 +0000

The block 3 fininshed last friday and as a tradition, we had the end of block event on the same evening. The event was a dinner at a Mongolian Bar be cue restaurant called "Han".

For those who've never been to a mongolian barbecue, it works like this: You have several bowls/containers of raw fruits, vegetables, fish, and meats. In additions u have jars of flavored oils ...

so u pick ur assortment of fruits/vegetables/flesh.. add the oil of ur desired flavor and head to the counter where u hand it over and watch it cooked in front of ur eyes.

once barbecued.. u add ur favorite sauces and u r ready for a delicious meal :)

Well delicious food and wine are just few of the benefits of an end of block event. It is usually an occassion to unwind.. break bread with friends... and enjoy an evening together after a long and intense block of coursework.... and considering that the very next day we were heading off to ebenalp, we were all very excited too!

The mba office is very thoughtful with organizing these events.. we've so far had swiss cuisine, chinese food, italian pasta and now mongolian barbecue.. besides a host of aperos and other delightful events...
We get an opportunity to taste delightful cuisines from all over the world and inevitably will find ourselves at home as delegates in any country devouring local cuisine with elan...

i guess these are some fringe benefits of a small but progressive mba program. !!
St. Gallen anyone??

Ebenalp : Sun & Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:37:00 +0000

Hey folks!
We just ended the third teaching block on friday and went for a class trip last weekend to Ebenalp (www.ebenalp.ch) a ski resort in Eastern Switzerland, about an hour from St. Gallen.
Here are some pics to give u a glimpse of the place

The place is very close to Mt. santis, which is a famous swiss mountain peak and infact we could see it from the mountain top...

We stayed at the Berggasthaus which is right at the cliff and is the only guesthouse there at ebenalp since 1852. So u know they've had a happy time with a monopoly. But the rent was ok about 36 CHF for a dorm with breakfast.. although the food isn't exactly cheap.. but hey it wasn't a rip off.

We reached in the afternoon and saw a very colorful "Drag" band (welcome to the carnival!!) . These guys brought up all their musical instruments including the drums.. the guitar.. and trumpets.. who lot of trumpets!! and just blasted off..
man it was amazing...

many of us then spent the day skiing while the others lay on the sun lounge (we had plenty of sun!) or took a walk amongst the mountains...which was equally delightful

the last gondola goes down at 4.30 pm and after that we have the mountains to us... in the evening around six the entire place was set up for the typical swiss dinner... and we had the dining hall full of people from far and wide...
in addition we had three musicians dressed in the typical appenzeller tradition (Ebenalp is located in the Kanton of Appenzell) and played on for almost the entire evening..

then there was this swiss maiden (ok she wasn't the youngest one i've seen.. but i'd rather not call her an aunt!) who sang swiss folk songs and the entire hall was filled with enchanting melodies and everyone including us swayed to the mesmerising music..

in the night we hit the games.... poker... booze games .... jenga... u name it...
and it was awesome fun..!!!!

the two days that we spent at ebenalp were amazing... we not only got to bond with each other in different scenorios and discovered so many common interests and the sun and snow.... awe i love this!!

i would've missed so much if i hadn't come to do my mba in this alpine nation...
ok the best part of the trip was that the MBA office has financed 60% of it! Wolfgang! Wolfgang!! President! President
:D
stuart

FAQs part Deux

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:55:00 +0000

Hi all,

this cheeky li'l mouse has been busy travelling all throught the christmas break and is now gearing up for the start of session in this new year.. gosh what a lovely break... !!

Meanwhile, the stream of questions from prospective applicants has been gathering momentum.. more recently i received the following questions on my businessweek forum

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=bw-bschools&nav=messages&msg=73646

I'm posting the answers to these questions here for the benefit of all involved.

Q1. The choice of electives (subjects) and what possible specilizations are possible by combining these electives ? I understand that program itself is tuned for general management.

Stuart: There is a range of electives being offerred and we have been given the option to suggest our own elective too. There's however one pre-condition to introducing a new elective: that we should have significant interest in the proposed electives. i.e. atleast 7 students.

Please note however that the degree awarded would be of an MBA in General Management. The electives in finance (we have 2 electives in finance taking the total finance courses to 5) would enhance your financial acumen but the degree title would essentially remain the same. A recruiting company like an I-Bank, will certainly give u due credit for ur enhanced financial prowess.

Q2. My personal objective is to move into strategic management (consulting). Do you see the current electives and/or past placements an indicator to comment on the suitability of the program to my objectives.

Stuart: My immediate seniors and people from the previous batches have joined the who's who of consulting. I think this is proof enough of the potential of the course to arm one to be a consultant. However, please remember, the consulting recruitment process is no cakewalk. You need to convince the firm that u have relevant transferable skills from ur previous experience as well as an industry/ sector expertise that is ur USP and makes u attractive to them.

Q3. Is the exchange program with Babson and NTU available for all HSG MBA participants, or only to a select group ? If only to a select group - then what is the criteria of selection (merit, desire, availability etc) ? Have exchange opportunities improved for your batch i.e. any new schools added to the exchange program ?

Stuart: Yes the exchange programs are open to all students. Most of the people have overwhelmingly opted for Nanyang and Babson has not found too much favour. The reason is clearly that Asia is booming and is a charming proposition for the westerners. Singapore is strategically located and gives one the opportunity to experience mystique of Asia while pursuing a western lifestyle.

Q4. Is the dual-degree MBA program with NTU available for all HSG MBA participants ? If not what is the entry criteria applied if an applicant desires to get a second degree from NTU ? What extra costs (host university fees, living costs) are incurred ?

Stuart: Yes. The extra costs are clearly mentioned in the mba brochure and website.

New Year!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:10:00 +0000

Hey guys !

2008 has just started.. and there's so much action in store... for starters the EURO 2008 soccer (British = football) is beng hosted jointly by Switzerland and Austria in June!

Wow! we guys at HSG are in for some real classy soccer action.. and the best part is that we'll be interning during that time.. so while negotiating our internship salaries we may trade in football tickets for$$$ .. what say?? ;)

On a personal front, we'll be graduating in 2008.. august to be precise.. so much much activity.. job search .. interviews.. travel.. parties... (how could i leave out).

Many of u people would be joining the schools of your choice.. 35 of you will join St. Gallen...

The new year always brings in hope , optimism and joy... hope i've rubbed off some onto you!
cheers!
Stuart

Finance and Valuations

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:28:00 +0000

Hi!

It's been a while since the last post.. but then it is also time for New year Resolutions, and this new year my resolution is to blog regularly .. no matter what!

The block III that started on a rather good note.. just finishing our party at Simon's we plunged into Corporate finance.. a subject that excites me…

Valuation of companies is really what I was looking for and this course by Prof. Pascal Gantenbein was really the one for me. Terms like DCF, LBO, WACC and blah blah all that mystery and "geek talk" surrounding these terms was finally uncovered..

What adds spice to the curry is that we had three company events as part of the course.. First was UBS with a Valuation workshop, wherein we analysed a hostile takeover situation on a recent M&A they advised. The second was another workshop with the Corporate finance guys at Mckinsey wherein we saw the application of the Mckinsey valuation hexagon in unlocking value in an organization.. in this case the merger of a leading FMCG company and the leading men's personal products firm.

The third was a talk on the M&A sector with JP Morgan execs from London. We discussed the M&A trends, role of private equity and also tried to do some crystal gazing about what the future holds in store for these sectors.. and with subprime being the flavor of the season we had a real juicy discussion on that issue too.

The various approaches of evaluating companies have been eye openers for me as a person.. and I'm now.. simply put.. enriched J !

I feel like I can now start making music out of numerals and figures out of company annual reports and earnings forecasts.. and the drab black and white print in the FT and WSJ about takeovers and PEs … Chryslers and the KKRs sound like an orchestra in concert!

Man! In the third block managerial economics opened up a new dimension for me .. and in this block it has been the corporate finance course which has added a new perspective and dimension…

What is most important for me as an individual is that all these wonderful courses and discussions that have added new dimensions to my personality and opened a plethora of pathways for me.. in turn have reaffirmed my decision to take up the MBA. The more concepts that I encounter.. the more I feel happy to have opted for an MBA… Had I not taken up the MBA .. I would have very clearly missed a whole lot in my life!

Stuart

St. Gallen FAQ

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:40:00 +0000

I started a forum on Businessweek addressing the prospective St. Gallen MBA audience..(http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools&tid=73646)
and immediately i found myself amidst a flood of questions on and off the forum

Well the interest in the program is heartening.. Euphoria?? i checked with the adcom, they are visibly pleased but are having a hard time turning away so many good candidates..
but there is so much interest!!! and the program is rather selective.. just 35 candidates from across the globe...

as i've mentioned earlier this place is worshipped in the German speaking world.. and just at the first round we're having troubles of imposing caps on the nationalities.. germans.. swiss.. indians .. americans.. even a rational cap of 15% means that only 5 students of a nationality would be able to enroll...in our present class we have 16 nationalities..(just 35 students!!) but the coming class is bound to be even more diverse..

each week we have prospective students share classes with us.... we even invited a group of prospective MBAs to our Diwali Party (http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/11/indian-connection.html)

guys and gals.. don't miss the second deadline for sure..!!

I think i'll take up a job in Zurich and then get to meet all the business wizzes of the next batch... :)

Anyways, the various questions that are frequently asked to me have spurred me to dedicate a post to the FAQs..In case i see interest.. I'll keep updating FAQs in future posts too.

Q. Where do most St. Gallen MBA grads work?

Looking at the immediate two previous batches, most people are based in and around Zurich...and a majority of the rest are in Europe...this is primarily because of grads prefer working in switzerland owing to the high salaries but amazingly low tax rates here.. so most guys are based out of Zurich... I'd also prefer working here.. imagine u get a 120K swiss Francs and pay 10-15% or less in taxes.. !!! as against 50k-60k pounds in the UK with prohibitively high taxes ... To add to the pleasure.. the cost of living in Switzerland in PPP terms is less compared to say London..

Q. Where do most company reps who visit St. gallen for workshops, presentations or recruitment come from? London / new york / elsewhere?

For recruitment,workshops and guest lectures, the company representatives come from a variety of offices.. Zurich, Frankfurt and London (in that order). Firms having big offices in Zurich send the Zurich guys while others send people from both Zurich and Frankfurt/London offices. So if a firm has a presence only in London.. the london guys will come..

Q. St Gallen Vs. IMD:

IMD is more towards industry and not so much towards I-Banking or consulting. Besides the candidates there are older...the median age of the IMD MBAs is atleast 4-6 years higher than that at St. Gallen.

St. Gallen has a reputation in finance, economics, business administration and international affairs that is unrivalled in German speaking Europe (not just Switzerland). The top consulting and I-Banking firms are full of St. Gallen executives. if on the other hand you want to go to the industry, the ABBs and Novartis and Hiltis of the world will offer you a large number of projects for your MBA summer internship even at St. Gallen. For instance, our Alumni meet in October was sponsored by Alstom. My buddies in St Gallen also applied to IMD but they somehow didn't like it and hence didn't join IMD.. so it is also a question of "fit" and preferences.

Q. St. Gallen MBA and Financial Times rankings:
Since the MBA program is new, it will debut in the FT rankings only in 2010.. but when it does it is going to cause major upsets in the ranking tables! For the moment though, it is worthwhile to have a look at the online businessweek comparisons of St. Gallen with other top European B-schools. http://bwnt.businessweek.com/premium_ft/compare.asp?r=1&schools=186&schools=187&schools=220&schools=538

what is worthy is looking at the career services sub-section in the comparison. Some stats that u'll need are the average salary at St. gallen was CHF 110,000 (class of 2006)

Q. Funding the MBA deficit:
The university of St. Gallen provides funding help for students. EU nationals can avail a loan without collateral from Credit Suisse at a favorable interest rate of just 4% p.a. while non -EUs can avail a loan by the university.. more details in my post
http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/08/mba-ahoy.html

For more queries, mail me , leave a comment or ask a question on the businessweek forum.
cheers!
Stuart

Parties Galore!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:21:00 +0000

The best thing about the St. Gallen MBA is the fact that u get to have sooooooooooooo many parties and aperos... so many events to socialise..and drink!! hee hee ;) soon i'm gonna have wine flowing through my veins... red wine for sure!!

Block II, like block one was packed with events... to quote a significant few...we had the rocking Halloween Party with a wonderful gig (guitar + vocals) .. then we had the amazing diwali bash (indian fest) i wrote earlier about .. then u add a few birthday parties and nearly a dozen aperos...

To end it we had the great traditional HSG MBA end semester event!! mooooooooooooore wine ... mooooooooooore food! moooooooooooore fun!!! all courtesy the mba office!!!

"Wolfgang for President!!!" .. i'm starting to like these guys... ;)

in short ...that's a lot of wine.. oops! a lot of fun ...in a block of just 5 weeks.. lol .. and the next blocks are not gonna be any different ..

going forward we have a big birthday bash tomorrow ... and then on saturday we have another great party once again by the MBA office ("chorus : Wolfgang !! Wolfgang!!! President!! President!!") :D

... this time at Simon's place (remember Simon? my Econ professor! http://mba-hsg.blogspot.com/2007/11/simon-nomics.html) ... So saturday evening we're going to Simon's place and.... we'll start with coffee and cake ....and then later in the evening order beer and pizzas for the gang!! how cool is that!!!

Have u ever heard of an MBA prgrammes where you could do that??? I haven't for sure!! HSG is amazing!!!

The beauty of this programme is that we'r a small batch and we hang out together.. and it is infectious.. :) even the profs and the admin is so much into this.. it is one large hell of a family :)

Later on saturday, a friend of ours is performing in a play.. we're all going to cheer him up...

the week is so filled up.. block III has started on a good note

and as we get closer to christmas.. it is gonna get even more festive....

I would miss so much once i'm outta here!!

Block II: Opportunities Galore

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:46:00 +0000

Hey guys!

i have been very busy (lazy!) ... the mba is (almost!) driving me nuts! :-)
Meanwhile, the number of visitors to my blog are on an upswing .. and the admission applications to St. Gallen are too... we've had nearly half a dozen prospective students visit us from across the globe... and attend classes with us during the past few weeks...
You can come and join a class with us too .. in case u r interested .. write to the admissions manager : Heiko .. he'll arrange it...

Also, been receiving emails from people from the Asia-pac, US, across the EU etc... MBA applicants with rather interesting profiles.... i think the coming batch (class of '09) is gonna be one hell of a group! just like us :)

Alrite... getting back to business.. i'd promised to summarize the various company events of block II.. and here they are.. to begin with we had a BCG workshop... and a senior exec from their India office made a presentation to us.. these guys were keen to show that they are very international and that they don't want very good business level german at the outset.. (unlike Roland Berger.. who said German or else!!) ..

I agree that in case one wants to be effective as a consultant in switzerland/ Germany/Austria, one needs to be fluent in German so that you could talk to the guy on the shop-floor with equal ease as you did with the CEO… however, most progressive companies to invest in their employees and train them in skills (language skills included) .. however some firms don't seem to get it!! They brag about international teams and blah blah and multi-country assignments … however, while recruiting they say try to emphasize too much on the language skills!!! damn who would make a better consultant ..a guy/gal fluent in german and no brains or a smart MBA who can get numbers and tons of data to spell out the true story? Skills like language, IT, et al can be acquired.. but people and personality traits.. hey that's a scarce resource…

My discussions with the principals and senior consultants at all the top consultancy firms have led me to believe that language should not be the deciding factor.. but somehow the HR folk seem to be singing a different tune..

Anyway BCG is of the progressive kinds …and it was their HR manager who took pains to emphasize that they value people and subscribe to this philosophy…they'll come back to the campus to engage us for recruitment in Jan/Feb'08..

Then we had a talk by the Managing Partner of Wegelin & Co. a boutique mid-size European investment firm based out of St. Gallen into an assortment of index funds based investment strategy. Something which sounds very banal.. but was very interesting!

Then we had a hedge fund presentation by a Goldman Sachs executive.. with rather interesting insights into the recent "happenings" (hurricanes!) in the hedge fund space.. (Bear Stearns anyone!)

Besides rather interesting presentation by ADIDAS about their new global management program : sports, high decibel music, soccer stars.. et al.. first company reps to come in casual attire.. most are dressed to kill (Will the I-Bankers in the house pls stand up!)..

Julius Baer's CEO was here too.. with an interesting workshop about alternative investments... and so was the CEO of Grisons Peak another medium size boutique investment advisory fund set up by a top honcho at ABN AMRO

then we had two Mckinsey workshops : one on presentation skills and another on storylining and story telling..

there was a talk by Capital international about their graduate programs too... and the last event of the block was a workshop about interviewing with PWC..

a couple of the workshops listed above were not exclusive to MBA students.. but included, at times, PhD or masters students also.. but the smart MBA folk do get themselves noticed in the pack! and the difference is for people to see.. it gives u that great shot in the arm!! :)

so u see if u were interested in any of these companies.. u have some opportunities to network and know about these firms first hand..what say?

For those from outside the German speaking region: if u told somebody in this region u are a student at St. Gallen, u will see their eyes widen with awe .. this place is the Harvard of the region... I've seen people turn around and stare at out HSG jerseys.. Man this is the place to be!!

Cheers!!

MBA: What's your strategy?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:59:00 +0000

Hi Folks!

humble apologies for being out of action lately. The 2nd teaching block came to an end today.. we do have some course work and a major Econ exam pending yet.. but most of the coursework is done. This block has been amazing!! The econ and the finance courses have been simply out of this world!

Strategic Management (the third course i had) didn't really excite me primarily because the cases were not the latest ones (All previous courses had cases from the events unfolding at that time).. but the Personal Strategic Action Plan (PSAP) that we had to develop as part of the strategy assignment was really insightful. In the PSAP we had to apply the various strategic frameworks and look inwards.. analysing ourselves on parameters like abilities , experience, ambition.. etc.. and identify what we want to do in life.. both in the long term and short term..
We then had to identify the company that best helps fulfil this ambition and make a case for a position that is mutually fulfilling. So there was a detailed introspection .. an industry analysis.. and a case for ur dream job...

In effect, this exercise helped me think clearly about where i should be heading post-MBA. (unlike what most people portray in the MBA applications.. a majority of us are not really very clear about which road to take!)

So very very insightful!
There have also been numerous company presentations and corporate events.. more about that in a later post!
cheers!

MBA:The Path to your dream job

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 08:00:00 +0000

Hi Guys,
for all those who wanted to know the path from B-school to Business Practice ($$$$$$$$ Job)i.e getting a top dollar job with a "sexy" firm (MC/IB, et al), fellow blogger Necromonger (http://onwardtomba.blogspot.com) has written a post that demystifies the entire job application and offer process. His post applies to all leading B-schools including the FT toplist and St. Gallen (except the Indian B-schools he mentions!). For a background, Necro is an Indian who worked in the US for years and now is doing his MBA at INSEAD.

I directly quote from his blog :

This post is to summarize some principal possible differences between recruitment in the top Indian business schools like IIM/ISB vs. top International schools (typical FT top 10 or M7 + LBS/INSEAD). Keep in mind the following

Recruitment is a long cycle - The process of finding a job can takes months, sometimes 4-6 months. The process involves substantial amount of career coaching, CV polishing, schmoozing, meeting with recruiters, follow-ups, attending cocktails and networking sessions, and then finally rounds of interviews. Jobs are not a "given", the idea is you learn all the skills needed to "earn" one.

There is no "placement week" with "zero day placements" and everyone getting jobs in 2 days - There is a recruitment season which lasts 2-4 months, but nothing stops someone from looking for jobs much earlier.

A lot of graduates get jobs outside career services / campus placements - A pretty high percentage - often as high as 30% (could be more depending on the year, school etc.) get jobs outside placements. They do so for variety of reasons - but the most important one is that search for the right job in a company of interest. Getting jobs like this is again a long process that involves lot of research, networking and persistence.

Astronomical salaries are usually outliers - Yes, someone from Columbia this year got half a million. Many from INSEAD do get high salaries. But keep in mind that these are statistical "outliers." They do not represent typical salaries. When I read many reports on IIM/ISB I read about many "1 crore" salaries which translates to over 250,000$ base salary for associate or 3rd year analyst positions. I might be wrong, but such salaries from banks may be specially given to IIM / ISB students because I don't think any of the international schools get such salaries on a regular basis. I don't know. But the typical average in most of the top schools is around 110,000 USD.

You are often pitted against those from other top schools - There are many interesting jobs and positions often open only to a select set of schools. What that means is you are not competing for it with just your class mates, but also with those from the other top schools - you compete on a whole new level. Without mentioning names of companies, I can tell you there are specific roles that companies open only to the typical FT top 10. The flip side is you are competing with all of them. Most of the companies recruiting are high profile and have access to the best talent around the world, so they're not standing in a queue to recruit you.

Job placement is a whole lot about specific roles and fit - A lot of placement is for specific roles and positions. This makes fit very important. There is very little of "we'll come in a bus, pick a bunch of grads, and then put them anywhere in the organization." I can say that this is a critical difference between lot of international blue chips that come on campus vs. Indian company style recruitment (of which I can speak of with considerable experience).

Placement is truly global - jobs are offered around the world, and often in very interesting management rotations that take you to multiple countries.Does it mean that it's a hopeless case to get a job? Uh..no. Most of them get great jobs in interesting companies and with pretty good salaries. But you need to work really hard to get them. In the process, you become a whole lot polished as a person. And this is a reason why some schools don't really worry you with grades (INSEAD doesn't) so you can focus on all the other critical skills you should be polishing as an MBA, and it's not all about theory and books.

Stuart's 2 Cents:

What necro has outlined is purely factual. If you come to St. Gallen, you do get premium attention from the hordes of recruiters in German speaking europe who rate HSG as Ivy league.

For most positions in german speaking regions esp. people jobs like consulting, you need good command over the German language.

Else u will have to seek London/US/Asia openings for which usually the Zurich Office of the Consulting firms conduct the initial screening (first round of interview) and u have a subsequent round of interview at your target office (UK, etc)

For Investment Banks, the situation is slightly different, but with the Sub Prime (or Sub Crime!!) crisis most major banks are taking a big hit, so this year may not be the best time to get into them. When they're losing CEOs, they're looking for CEOs too and in the short term, fresh hirings may witness a downward trend.

HSG MBA: Strategic Focus?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:11:00 +0000

Hi guys!

Many of you might know that University of st. Gallen has been offerring business education, economics and law courses since 1898. yes that's right, University of St. Gallen (HSG) has been offerring bachelors, masters and phD courses in these fields for nearly 110 years! (No wonder it is the most sought after university here!)

However, its MBA program was started only in 2005. My friend recently asked me thatin view of so many concurrent courses, how does the HSG view its MBA program and does the MBA have a differential identity of its own. Also, whether having bachelors and masters students is a disadvantage in any manner.

Well i'll try to address these issues one by one:

First and foremost, the MBA program was started by HSG in a bid to spread its wings globally. HSG has earned an unparalleled reputation in the German speaking region. however, it realised that it needed a global identity. So the MBA is a strategic decision and is of utmost priority for St. Gallen.

In view of this priority, HSG has undergone several structural changes in order to facilitate the creation of the right quality of mba program. First and foremost, in a clear departure from tradition, HSG has made this program self funded and declined state support. This was essential because swiss rules restrict the ratio of foreign students in each class for programs that the swiss government (or for that matter , any Kanton funds)

Secondly, a separate Executive School http://www.es.unisg.ch/ was set-up under the leadership of Prof Peter Gomez (the current SWX chairman) which is primarily responsible for executive education. The MBA program falls under the executive school which is responsible for making it a success.

To serve the interests of MBA students, the career services centre (http://csc.unisg.ch) has been detached from the university and is now under the folds of the executive school and the MBA program has its own career services coordinators. As a result, the company events for MBAs has risen and in addition for each corporate event that takes place in the main university, we usually have a separate Apero for MBA students.

We are a small batch of MBA students. While this is an advantage for us as students, it can be a turn off for most recruiters as we don't have the large numbers to offer for recruitments. In this sense, having a large pool of students in the University (over 5000) and HSG's reputation in the business world has helped ensure that year after year companies flock to the campus in herds.. the number of corporate events listed on the CSC website are very large and keep growing and we as MBA students find several opportunities to participate in ones that interest us. We arenot the odd ones out in these events as typically Masters and PhD students challenge us in these workshops, however, the clear edge we have as MBAs help us gain recruiters attention and provide us a premium positioning.

On other fronts, u have access to huge academic resources , diverse student body (read: pretty girls!!) and also initiatives like the buddy system, AIESEC, freshers parties and so much more.. so it is a lot of fun...

So doing your MBA in St. Gallen, is a very sensible thing to do!!
cheers!!

Finance II : Paul rocks!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:43:00 +0000

Hi again folks...
this 2nd teaching block has been absolutely fantastic so far!
yesterday i told you about the great stuff we're doing in Managerial economics with Simon..
today's post is about another genius!!
Paul Soderlind, our finance -II prof is like a sage.. soft spoken, humble and down to earth.. but beneath his cool demeanour lies a couldron of exceptional talent...

The first thing you notice about him that he is so organised.. the entire course structure is so well thought of and the step by step learning gradually opens new doors into the world of finance..

I came from a non-financial backround and was shit scared of the Finance -II course when i saw the contents.. but after seeing paul's handouts and attending his lectures.. i feel so stimulated and empowered .. i feel like a new light has switched on within me..
i now know why financial wizards earn so much money.. it is amazing how a set of numbers and what you can do with money can simply transform your life and the world with it.

All credit to Paul, he's made this financial expedition so rich and interesting..
well i have some batchmates who feel he is a genius too .. but not really able to trasfer the knowledge very effectively (read: teaching skills), however, being fair.. it is really important that u pay close attention to what Paul says (and not skype in lectures!!) and also that u do ur essential readings before u come to class...

What i really find very interesting about Paul is that he doesn't blindly give u concepts from the book, rather while explaining the models, approaches and theory, he also gives u his very valuable 2 cents. i.e. he will tell u why u should be sceptical of the model that the author propses .. and he'll dig into all the scientific and historical data he can find and come up with data sets clearly showing the contrary view points..
so it is really enriching for me as a student to get this first rate stimulus.

Some more details about Paul http://home.datacomm.ch/paulsoderlind/

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNWN_enCH241CH242&q=paul+soderlind

Paul did his PhD at Princeton under Bernanke (sounds familiar? he's the current US Fed Chief) and prior to HSG , Paul taught at the Stockholm School of Economics... He's also the economic advisor to the Swiss Central bank (equivalent of the US Federal Reserve) and woks there every Friday.

The Ideas database (http://ideas.repec.org ) of the University of Connecticut ranks him amongst the top 5% of authors according to research work in the field of economics http://ideas.repec.org/e/pso16.html

I can't stop myself from mentioning that Finance is also one of the very big strengths of HSG. The finance faculty is very established, influential and does some amazing work... It was no surprise that all leading Investment banks come here each year to hire interns...

I'm really glad i came to St. Gallen!!!