Last Day in Nice

For those who were trying to connect with us, our "free" internet connection that we discovered at our apartment weakened preventing us from getting online. But we are alive and well. We depart tomorrow morning and should be in Orange County by 11pm PST tomorrow.
The past few days was filled with road trips. The Cote d'Azur government provides regular buses to the outlying areas for on 1.3 Euros per trip. On Thursday, we went to St. Paul de Vence, a medieval walled village filled with artist galleries. On Friday, we drove up the coast to Monaco. We saw the royal palace and the church where Grace Kelly married the Prince.
On the 26th, we went to the Nice Opera's performance of La Vie Parisienne. The Opera house was stunning. The performance was well done, but the Opera, itself, was a bit convoluted ending with a 10 minute "Can Can" dance (don't ask me to explain it, but the French were loving it).
We also found time for a trip to the Modern Art Museum. Interesting museum, but not as good as the Barcelona museum. As I don't have a lot of time to post pictures, I have attached a bunch from our recent trips.
We have not eaten out as much as in Barcelona because it costs about twice as much. Instead, we have enjoyed some lunches and eaten some nice foods at home (there is reasonably priced take out food here).
Today, we took a gourmet tour of the local market and a cooking lesson from Canadian Ex-pat living in Nice. She is a gourmet writer who is well versed in Provencial cuisine. She took us through the market talking about the local produce and delicacies. Then, we went back to her home to cook a large, and delicious, lunch. After lunch we went to a Olive Oil specialty store to learn about and sample different olive oils. The tour is a bit costly, but it is a real good time. I wish we could have taken the tour at the beginning of the week, so we would know about what foods to buy to eat at our place.

Opera/Modern Art Museum/St.Paul de Vence



Monaco and some Bars

Christmas Day Walk in Nice

Here are some shots from a Christmas Day walk here in Nice. There were alot of people out; many restaurants were open, but few shops. The Mediterranean looked absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy, although quite mild.

Merry Christmas

Arrived in Nice

Lindsey and I took the train from Barcelona to Nice on Sunday. We decided to walk to the train station, but discovered we went the wrong way and had to rush to catch a taxi to get us there on time. As this is a 10 hour train ride, we decided to buy first class tickets. Here 1st class costs about 30% more and only means a nice seat and a bit more leg room, but is well worth it as it made our journey pretty comfortable.
We arrived in Nice Sunday evening and it was raining. We met up with the property manager who showed us to the apartment. The unit is on the 5th floor (which is really the 6th floor in North American terms) with a terrace overlooking one of the narrow streets of the old town. The stairs are a killer (I am really starting to feel the burn), but the unit is really nice. The property managers had a little welcome basket with coffee, tea, wine and some biscuits.
The next morning proved to be a real nice day. We could have walked around with only a sweater and felt pretty comfortable. We went and got some groceries to last us through the Christmas holidays. It wasn't very much fun carrying 50 Euros worth of groceries up 6 flights of stairs. Afterwards we walked around the old town. The area is full of little shops and restaurants. It looks to be a great starting point. Below you can see pictures of the apartment.

Commerc 24 Experience

One of the things I wanted to do while in Barcelona was to eat at one of its many world famous chefs. One of the chefs that I identified was Carles Abellan, a young up and coming chef who trained under Barcelona's famous chef Ferran Adrai. Last Friday, we got a reservation to his new Barcelona restaurant, Commerc 24. The experience was definitely beyond our level of sophistication, but definitely memorable.
The restaurant serves a series of small dishes of tapas designed to give the customer a full dining experience. On arrival, we were advised to order the festival menu of seven dishes including desert. Knowing we are small eaters compared to a traditional Barcelonan, we asked to share one order. They said that 2 people had to each order the menu emphasizing that these are small plates. We couldn't fathom any plate so small that we could each finish seven plates, so we decided to order four dishes a la carte from the menu.
We ordered a wild sea bass, a cuttle fish and morel ravioli, a chicken rice with prawns, and beef entrecot with potatoes and wasabi. We followed up the meal with a desert platter of one of each of their desserts. As you can see from the pictures below, the meals were intricately designed to maximize presentation. Each dish (except the prawns) demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of flavors and how unusual flavors can mesh to create a unique dining experience.
For example the sea bass dish (we forgot to take a picture) looked like a desert. It had a flat round slice of sea bass covered with a flat, round piece of salt water ice, topped with a small scoop of raspberry sorbet that had a tiny sliver of red onion on top. If you just ate a piece that had only the salt water ice and the sea bass, the flavor would be incredibly salty. But if you consume a piece of sea bass, with the ice, sorbet and the red onion slice, you would experience a unique, yet balanced, taste. Can't explain it, but it worked.
The ravioli and the beef dishes were equally amazing provided you pulled all the flavors together into a bite. The chicked rice with prawns was something that wasn't on the menu, just added for the night. It was a big disappointment and felt like it wasn't designed by the same chef who built the other dishes.
Overall, it was a unique and memorable experience. Although, I admit it may be a bit too sophisticated with both of us.

Oh, and About that Spanish Soccer Game...

We learned a tough lesson that when in Spain if you buy a ticket for a soccer game on a Sunday and they say that the they will announce the kick-off time at a later date, that announcement may also change the day of the game. We got a notice that the game was to start at 8pm, but did not notice that the day was changed to Saturday! Thank god we did not get all dressed up in RCD Espanyol gear, we would have looked like some dumb tourists. Oh well, on the bright side we got to know the Barcelona metro (very nice and clean) and got some incredible views of the city.

Sight Seeing Day 2

The second day of our Barcelona Tourisme Bus experience saw us take a southern route into the olympic stadium area and then along the waterfront. Unfortunately, the day was cloudy and cold, so it was not the most fun riding in the open top of the double-decker bus. Therefore, you may see that the weather affected the quality of the pictures.
We made that trip quick, so that we could make the 3pm tour of the Palau Musica. The Palau Musica is a concert hall built by a rich Barcelonan patron during the beginning of the 20th century. It is built in the architectural style of modernisme and is filled with intricate statues, mosaics and stained glass. The center-piece is a stained glass window in the ceiling of the concert hall in the shape of a water drop and made to look like a sun. It would be an amazing place to see a concert. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to take pictures of the inside, but you can see pictures here.

Lindsey's Birthday!

There was not much fanfare for Lindsey's 29th birthday. After that long day of sightseeing, we headed home to rest. Around 9pm, we went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. I had a lamb shank whose meat just fell off the bone. Lindsey had a tuna steak with soy and ginger served with tempura vegetables. We followed it up with a decadent chocolate cake with coffee mouse. It was quiet and romantic. We headed home around 11pm.
It is still weird to be walking home at 11pm and seeing people go into restaurants to start their dinner.
Yes, I realize we did not take any pictures of Lindsey at her birthday dinner.

Finally Some Sight Seeing

Sagrada Familia


Parc Guel


Other Barceleno Landmarks


Determined to see the wonders that Barcelona had to offer (and not the wondrous bars), we awoke and headed to Placa Catalunya for 10am to purchase tickets for their tourist bus service. For 23 Euros, you can ride open-topped double-decker buses through two tourist routes in Barcelona. We hopped on board and visited La Pedrera, Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell (a Gaudi theme today).
La Pedrera was an apartment building that Gaudi designed at the commission of a wealthy Barcelona family. It is known to be his finest example of modernist architecture. The next stop, Sagrada Familia, was Gaudi’s 40 year passion on creating a cathedral for the ages. Words are hard to describe the sheer scale of the building. One has to wonder if it is a bit overboard to design a church that will take approximately 150 years to build (especially with today’s technology helping the process)? It is impressive the unique vision of Gaudi coming alive with all the little details. Park Guell may be where Guadi’s architectural style is best represented. It is an outdoor park filled with architectural wonders inspired by nature. Again, hard to describe, but it feels like one of the few areas where nature and man-made structures co-exist symbiotically.

Barcelona Monday

On Monday, Lindsey and I decided to live in true Barcelonan style. We arouse around 9am to get out of the flat by 10am. We strolled around the streets of El Raval and toured the National Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum had a interesting exhibit that focused on art in the United States and Europe post WWII (1946-1956). It demonstrated how art was at the forefront of the cold war and how the new emerging themes of the era affected art.
After the Museum, we strolled through the Placa Catalunya into La Ribera area. We settled into have a Barcelonan lunch at El Quatre Gats. El Quatre Gats was a café where Picasso had his first public exhibition of his artwork and was known to be one of his drunken hangouts. We each ordered the Plate of the Day which is a fixed price 3 course meal with wine. I had a lasagna and swordfish; Lindsey had a soup and pork loin.
Definitely feeling full, we waddled home to have a siesta. It is amazing how a little walking and a big meal can knock you out. We slept until 6pm.
At 9pm, we headed for supper. We went to Le Quinze Nits in Placa Real. We had seen line ups outside the place every night, so we decided to see what the fuss was about. The food was OK, but very reasonably priced (A starter, two entres, and a litre of wine for about 30 Euros). Again, full we expected to head home as Monday was known to be Barcelona’s quite night.
On the walk, we saw a bar that was full of people. We went in and noticed that a number of the groups were speaking English. We started talking to a group from England and enjoyed the opportunity to speak English with people besides ourselves. At around 1:30am, they were heading out to a dance club on Las Ramblas called Fellini’s. Lindsey really wanted to go dance, so we joined them.
The bar played an interesting assortment of rock music. From AC-DC to the Doors to Oasis and to Nirvana, it was an interesting mix that you are not likely to hear in North America. Even more unlikely than hearing the music mix would be the packed house dancing to the music. My dancing queen got right into to it; she jumped up on the stage and didn’t come down for over an hour (just look at the photos – she was having a good time). We left the bar at 4am (the bar was still packed)! Truly like Barcelonans – and this is Barcelona’s quiet night?
The next day turned into a right off as Lindsey paid the price for being the disco diva. We only went for hot Xocolata (a cup of thick, melted chocolate and a little bit of milk) around 4pm. We walked through some of the markets, went home, made our own dinner, and I was in bed by 9pm.
For those of you keeping score, we have been in Barcelona for 5 days and two were write-offs due to hangovers. We are able to see the sights the next day.

Barcelona Day 2

The next morning was pretty rough. We learned a tough lesson that we should start slowly when in a new city. We slowly made it to our pre-arrange morning walking tour about the cuisine of Barcelona. At this point, the last thing I wanted to think about was food. It was a rough two hours for both of us. As soon as it was done we bolted for our apartment and slept through our second day in Barcelona. We got up at 8pm and headed out for dinner. We found a nice little restaurant/bar called Ginger, ordered a couple glasses of nice wine and three tapas plates. That filled us and we decided to go home early, in the hopes that we would be better rested to actually enjoy Barcelona by day.

First Days in Barcelona

Lindsey and I arrived safely early Friday morning. The flights were long, but bearable. The Barcelona airport was nothing special to look at. But they look to be building a brand new modern terminal that will look nice. We passed through customs with no problems and took a taxi to the downtown area where we met our rental owner.
We got into the apartment a little after 9am. The apartment is very quaint. Located right in the heart of the gothic quarter, it is a stone building with 20 ft ceilings. This makes it very difficult to heat up. I find it unusual that the Europeans use so many energy efficient appliances, but they haven’t added insulation to these buildings. We didn’t get much sleep on the plane, so we fell into a pretty deep sleep and awoke around 6pm.
We slowly got ready to go into the city. We headed to a tapas restaurant around 7:30pm for a light pre-dinner meal (remember, Barcelonans don’t eat diner until 9:30pm!). We ordered three tapas dishes and a half-bottle of wine and we were stuffed. I have no clue how the Barcelonans eat so often?
Feeling adventurous and full, we decided to find a bar to have a drink. We found this English pub, The Wooden Spoon, to have a pint of beer. Like most bars in this area, they somehow fit a pub into a tiny stone building. Most of the buildings have high ceilings, so their create floor space by adding levels. The bar was pretty quiet. It was 9:30 and well before most locals even think about going to a bar (they are eating dinner, remember). We decided to move to another bar.
We stopped in at the Bar Pastis. In my notes it said, “Quirky Bar” and it didn’t tell the half of it. Think of setting up a bar in your living room, decorating it with weird art and news articles and inviting over a bunch of artistic individuals and you have the Bar Pastis. The bar appears to have one owner and sole bartender who has been their forever. They have one beer on tap and they serve it in tiny glasses (un canya). It is features one sit-down table, two bar stool tables and an old typewriter. It is filled with people talking in Spanish or Catalonian. Occasionally, a person will walk up to the typewriter and start typing; his friends will circle around and start to laugh. Is it bizarre? Yes. Incredibly interesting to a foreigner? Quite possibly. Were we entranced? Yes.
At this point, we decide to make a pub crawl out of the night and moved on to the Indian Lounge. The bar is long and narrow with a main bar area, an upstairs that is a Houka bar (a middle eastern tobacco tradition), and a downstairs that is a lounge. We ordered the special of the day, Mojitos, and went downstairs. It was a comfy place and the mojitos were strong and good. I looked at my watch to see it was 1am. We needed to keep moving if we wanted to make the last bar.
The final stop on our tour was the famous Bar Marsella. This is the absinthe bar that famous authors like Hemingway and artists like Picasso would frequent to drink absinthe and get inspired. Absinthe is generally prohibited in many places around the world (due to its ingredient wormwood and its rumored hallucinogenic properties), if you buy it in the US it is a version without wormwood. This bar serves the real thing.
Walking into the establishment, you immediately notice two things. First, the place is packed with people who are very animated and loud. Second, this place hasn’t been dusted since Picasso was there. You have to fight your way up to the bar. Since most people order the Absinthe, they already have it pre-poured into rounded cups (about 3oz!). They give you a lump of sugar and a small fork. A big part of the drink is that ritual of preparing it. You dip the sugar into the absinthe; scoop it out with the fork; balance the fork with the sugar over the glass; and light the sugar on fire to dissipate the sugar into the drink. You add some mineral water to dilute the drink, stir and you are ready to drink. Without a doubt that drink ended our night (As Lindsey says, “That drink is stupid!). It really hits you like a tonne of bricks. One and your done (especially with all the drinks we had earlier). I told Lindsey, we come earlier one night to get a seat and people watch. The crowd and the liquor make it a very interesting scene.

Where Are We Going?

The flights are booked and we have finalized accommodations for 14 of the 16 days of the trip. If you're interested, we hope to post regular updates of our trip over the 16 days. Ideally, we want to post recent pictures and videos of our experiences, so that all of you can enjoy them with us. That's the plan; we'll see how it goes.

Barcelona

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Nice

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1st Quarter Final Stretch

This quarter has taken the cake for the busiest quarter yet. Generally, the rule is the 2nd year is a bit easier because you are taking classes you're interested in and therefore all your groups are motivated around the topic. Also, often teachers recognize many second years are working through the year, so they don't pile on the work. Well, I chose four really interesting courses, but I think I picked the four classes with the largest workloads. Add to that a 50% TA position and I am pretty busy.
My most important class is experiential learning. I have always had the policy that whenever I do projects for outside companies that I would prioritize those projects to go above and beyond expectations. Luckily for me, my team shares that commitment. We have taken what appears to be a different strategy versus other class teams. My team has allowed me to act in a traditional "management" role; I delegate tasks, keep the team on the same page, handle administrative duties, represent the team with the company executive team, and prepare and lead all presentations. I, in turn, assign the team members to roles of specialization responsible for specific sub-projects.
Most other teams assign a person to co-ordinate meetings but all members share roles equally and generally try to come to consensus on most issues. I think our approach has allowed us to move very quickly and create some very advanced tools. The risk is that you reduce the amounts of collaborative inputs from other team members. I try to minimize this risk by having sub-project updates at our regular meeting to highlight major issues and gather group feedback. We decide the best course of action and the responsible member implements the decision. The other drawback is that our structure requires a great deal of trust amongst its members. I have learned that it can be a delicate balancing act keeping all team members support in my leadership and belief in the other members. Nine weeks in, we have overcome our challenges and I think we are on track to deliver a very sophisticated model to our company.
I have greatly benefited from the feedback from our consulting mentors from McKinsey & Co. They have made a number of great suggestions on how to present our thoughts, approach important issues with our clients, and how to manage the whole process. Their feedback has helped me greatly improve my project management skills.
Work in the other classes in just as busy. The other classes each have a major project due in the next few weeks. I will also have one final exam for financial statement analysis and a team War Game for competitive analysis.
I am really enjoying the competitive analysis class. It really suits my natural ability to look at a pile of data and identify patterns. Professor Lane has done a great job of showing us a systematic way to establish a CI program in any company and help it grow to become a critical strategic pillar for a company. I have enjoyed the teaching experience so much that I have decided to sign up for two related classes next quarter.
As for financial statement analysis (FSA), it is still a necessary evil. Only really strange people love diving into the depths of financial statements, but the information they offer is very powerful (provided you understand them). It is hard to say I am highly motivated in this class, but I have definitely taken away a number of important lessons. The course started off horribly when the teacher really had a great difficulty leading an effective class. To her credit, she has listened to feedback and gradually refined her approach. She still is not a great teacher, but I respect anyone dedicated to improving. The workload is enormous, but again a necessary evil. You can't learn it without getting dirty and doing the work. That said, I will not be taking the second part of this course offered next quarter. I feel good with my solid overview of the topic.
Global teams has been another great experience. The course is less lecture based and more focused on structured group activities designed to teach important lessons about cross-cultural and virtual teams. There are a number of projects that this course requires. Some of which I am not sure deliver true learning value, but the Global Team project was a great learning experience. Over this past month, I was teamed with four students from Seattle, Helsinki (Finland), and Hong Kong. We were asked to research the business practices of another country and create a powerpoint training guide. I won't say the quality of our work was fantastic, but just the experience of trying to coordinate with the team and produce the work was a great learning experience. I have a list of key takeaways from the project that I am sure will help me in the future.
So final takeaway - bloody busy and tired. I am looking forward to the quarter being over and taking a break. On that note, Lindsey and I have decided to go to Europe for the Christmas holidays, but more on that later.

Regina Spektor at the Wiltern

See my audio post above. Check out a video of Regina's at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTDRztaCCw

Mobile post sent by Gwynn using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Two Champions

Ah, to have two great "athletes" in the family. Lindsey did her half-marathon last Sunday in great fashion completing 13.1 miles in under 2 hours (8 minutes less than her previous time). While just one week earlier I completed my "marathon" of chugging nine straight drinks at different bars throughout Newport Beach to win the Merage Golf Pub Crawl. What stamina we have!
Seriously, Lindsey did great. She ran so fast, I did not even see her cross the finish line (but there is no way a taxi could have gotten her close to the finish line). She commits a ridiculous amount of time to training with the constant goal of improving. It paid off on Sunday. I am sure she is scoping out the next competition.

2007 Merage Golf Pub Crawl

Last night we had a Golf Pub Crawl through the Balboa Island area of Newport Beach. Yours truly crushed the competition by completing 9 straight hole-in-ones :) In all seriousness, the event was alot of fun and a great way to learn about the bars in Newport Beach and get to know our classmates. Thanks to Michelle for planning the event.

A second extended version with new pictures from Carl and Michelle Ring:

School's Back

I just finished my first week of classes (I only have classes on Mon, Tues, and Wed). It didn't take long for school to pile up the work. It's funny how a summer can make you forget about what it's like to know you won't be having much of a life for the next three months.

Being in my second year, I am taking electives which means I am taking the courses that I am most interested in. I have enrolled in Competitive Intelligence, Financial Statement Analysis, Experiential Learning, and Global Team Collaboration.

Competitive Intelligence: This is a great (but gruelling) course that teaches you how to profile competitor companies. You watch the FBI profilers on CBS's Criminal Minds? This is that for companies. We learn to research competitor companies, create a profile, and use that information to predict how they react to our strategies to identify our best courses of action. This learning cumulates in a really cool "War Game" experience where the four class teams are assigned a company and forced to compete with each other.

Financial Statement Analysis: OK, this may not be joy to learn about as much as a necessary evil. Before attending my MBA, the one area I wanted to improve upon was my understanding of the financial health of companies. This should be the final course (in addition to my first year Accounting and Finance courses, my participation in a Wall Street Prep financial modeling course, and my participation in the Polaris competition) that will give my a solid high-level understanding of how to financially evaluate companies. The course is known to be a work-aholic's dream.

Experiential Learning: This is essentially a quarter long consulting project where a team of students work on a problem specified by a sponsoring company. My team is working on a really interesting project that will help a technology company develop a model of evaluating new product development concepts to manage their product portfolio in a way that will optimize the long-term value of the firm. This is the type of big, challenging project that gets me excited. I have volunteered to take lead on this project. It presents a great opportunity to gain great experience and expand my network with some great contacts.

Global Team Collaboration: The world is flat. More and more companies are conducting projects that utilize human resources located all over the world. This course is designed to give us strategies on how to manage that process. The professor is a well known expert on team dynamics who I am confident will make a very interesting and valuable class. The highlight of the class is that each student in the class will, alone, participate in a truly global project with other MBA students located all over the world.

Top that off, I am TA of an Executive MBA Microeconomics class. I have discovered some challenges that I did not expect. It seems that the Executive MBA candidates do not have to take the GMAT provided they have good work experience. This factor allows students to get in who have not refreshed their basic math skills. Throw them into a Micro class that heavily uses geometry, algebra and some calculus and you can see how they can get lost.

Anyways, lots of fun, lots of challenges - no life for Trevor.

California Region Child Analogy

After traveling a large part of this state, I can't help but think that the north, central, and southern regions of California can identify with the characteristics of the first born, middle, and youngest child. Northern California has a more mature, overachieving character of a first born, while Southern California is like the youngest child - spoiled, always trying to get peoples attention, not necessarily for the right reasons. In the middle, we have the Central part of California that is simply solid - nothing flashy, almost ordinary - it simply does its job. It is funny how each area is so distinct from the others. I think of traveling from Ottawa, through Toronto, down to Windsor and not being able to see such distinct differences in personalities.

UPDATE: Ok, my little sister doesn't like the youngest analogy. I would like to clarify, that today she is a mature, wonderful person. The analogy would only apply to her pre-university years :)

San Francisco Visit

Saturday morning we drove up the scenic Hwy 1, along the Pacific coast, on the way up to San Francisco. While it is a nice drive, it is rather long and, once you are on it, there aren't many reasonable ways off it. There were a couple of interesting sites including Hearst's Castle and a farm house on a tiny rock jutting into the ocean. The huge pine trees at Big Sur are amazing, but try not to follow our mistake and gas up your car there. I had to do a double take as I discovered that the gas being pumped in my car was costing us $4.75/gallon (current prices anywhere else was $3.10/Gallon).
After the 1, we darted into San Francisco, arriving by 5pm. We quickly got acquainted to the huge SF hills as we dragged our luggage up two blocks from our parking garage to our hotel, the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental. We were feeling a bit drained from our trip, so we decided to remain close to the hotel for our first night.
The Mark Hopkins is located at the top of Nob Hill and has a restaurant/nite club on its top floor called Top of the Mark. As guests at the hotel, we were quickly seated at a very scenic table overlooking the northeast part of the city. We enjoyed martinis and a nice bottle of wine while listening to some lite jazz and gazing out at the city. If you go, I recommend sticking with drinks as the appetizers are very ordinary and overpriced. But a decent bottle of wine is fairly priced and a great way to introduce yourself to the city.
Sunday was the "tour" day. I set up two tours for our enjoyment. The first was a Segway tour of the area around Fisherman's Wharf. A segway is a two wheel motorized vehicle that responds to how you shift you weight on the vehicle. It is very easy to get the hang of how to ride it and quickly we were driving up Beach St. heading towards the municipal pier. The tour took 2 1/2 hours and was a lot of fun. You only have time to see a few interesting sites, but the chance to drive Segway makes it a memorable tour.
After the segway tour, we hopped onto the F trolley and drove down the Embarcadero into the Financial district. We stopped for food, then headed to the next tour: a night tour of Alcatraz. Alcatraz, one of the most infamous prisons in the world, is creepy during the day let alone during the night. The prison has a great audio tour that lets you discover the history of the cell block at your own pace. I was able to go into the hole (the dark cell where they sent the misbehaving prisoners). After the audio tour there were a number of live presentations on special topics relating to the prison and its population. We heard a very interesting talk about the Birdman of Alcatraz.
Monday morning, we walked up Grant Ave. into Chinatown and then into Little Italy. We walked by Washington Square and hopped on a bus that took us up to the top of Pioneer Park where the Coit Tower is located. The area gives an amazing 360 degree view of San Francisco including great shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, and Alcatraz Island. In the afternoon, we changed into our nice clothes and visited the SF Museum of Modern Art. The museum features a nice collections of paintings and "living art" exhibits. I am not a big fan of the "living art" exhibits, but the paintings were remarkable. After the museum, we headed for our culinary experience of SF at the Slanted Door restaurant in the Ferry Building. While planning the trip, I heard from three different people that the Slanted Door is a must place to eat in SF. They were right. The food was incredible and reasonably priced (not an easy feat in SF). We definitely took our time and enjoyed a memorable meal that included a little desert. If you want to eat there during your visit, I highly recommend that you book a reservation at least a week in advance as they book up quick.
Tuesday, we packed up and headed for home, but I had one last surprise up my sleeve (although mostly for my benefit). We stopped in at the Google campus to meet up with a Merage alum and get a quick tour of the campus and eat at one of the magnificent cafeterias. The campus is a surreal experience of loaner bicycles, food from distant lands, and wireless internet access. The food was great. It was great to see such an emphasis placed on healthy foods for its employees. Anyways, I learned a bit more about Google and got some ideas about how to tweak the resume to get their attention. After Google, it was straight home - arriving around 8pm - fully exhausted.
You can see a slide show of some of our moments below.

Friday - Up The Central Californian Coast

The surprise is out. I'm taking Lindz up to San Francisco. I had a wonderful last day at THQ, but I wanted to get on the road early so we headed out at 4:30 into rain (yes, rain?) and heavy traffic going north on the 101. I planned to find a romantic spot to stop a few hours into the journey up the coast. I was very lucky to find the secluded ocean town of Avila Beach (just north of Pismo Beach) and the amazing Avila La Fonda hotel (By found them, I mean in advance using Obitz).

Avila La Fonda appears to a decent-sized hotel run by a kind family. The hotel is a block from the beach and immaculately decorated. They provide a great value for your vacation dollar here. It is so comfortable, I almost don't want to leave. I will be marking this down as a great weekend getaway. And PS: they have a good Costco discount.

Today we work our way up the coast with a goal of reaching San Francisco in the late afternoon. I think our hotel in SF charges $15/night for internet, so I may not be a frequent poster over the rest of the trip unless we find a wireless internet cafe.

The Drive Up the Coast

Avila La Fonda Hotel Room

The View From Our Balcony (ask for Room 210)

Weekend Plans

With the internship and summer break finishing up, I thought it would be nice to have a small vacation. So, Lindz is coming down to Agoura Hills tomorrow and we will be going to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Arcade Fire (yes, again)! They are calling for rain?? What are the odds. I hope the sunshine stays with us. We'll spend the night on the romantic air matress in my bachelor pad in Agoura. I will finish up work early on Friday and set out on our vacation.
I haven't told Lindsey where we are going, so it will be all a surprise to her. I have tried to plan some fun stuff to see and do. I will try to post blog updates over the weekend, but I am not sure where I will get internet access.

End of the Internship

Things are winding down in my internship at THQ. The Kids group brought in a recent MBA graduate to take over the Ratatouille and Wall-E lines. I have been getting her up to speed and winding down all of my existing projects.
Overall, it was a positive experience. The people are wonderful and the job has more fun moments than pains. I definitely have a good feel for the industry and the issues it faces. Given the circumstances of an internship and THQ's modus operandi, I regret that I was not able to make a more substantial contribution to the organization. While I did keep the Ratatouille lines moving forward, opportunities were scarce to make an impact. I had to turn my research study into such an opportunity. I hope that its findings and methodology may prompt additional studies in the other video game groups.
But this feeling of a lack of opportunity extends beyond myself. When I walk around and I see the education levels and talent at this company, I feel the leadership could do more to empower its talented workers. It is definitely not an easy task for a company going through such growth and radical changes in the way it conducts business, but more can be done. Don't get me wrong. I really like the company. For this one criticism, I could list 10 good things about the company. My focus is always on how to improve. My suggestion is to find more ways to empower the workforce.
But thanks needs to sent out to THQ. They recruited me and welcomed me into the organization. Many people were most helpful in guiding me through the THQ maze. I just hope I returned all their faith and efforts in me.

MySpace Implications for the Consumer Technology Industry

A few weeks back, THQ was visited by sales reps for the Fox Interactive Media properties. The primary focus of the presentation was how MySpace plans to leverage its audience for consumer product companies. Essentially MySpace is moving towards being able to create detailed segments of their audience. It is mining every piece of content on an individual's MySpace page to categorize him or her for companies like THQ. Now, this kind of segmentation is happening throughout the internet, not just on MySpace. I am sure Facebook is doing the exact same thing.
At first glance, that kind of segmentation sounds awesome for consumer product companies, but, upon further thought, it also poses some grave consequences. The obvious benefit of this segmentation is that companies will be able to reach highly targeted groups of individuals. As a example, think about a TV ad - it will reach an broad audience of a particular show. The MySpace segmentation would effectively allow a company to send its TV ad to only males, 20-24 yrs old, who drive Honda civics that they have customized. That is very powerful.
On the consequence side, it means that these product companies need to know their customer. You can probably see I am building on the theme of my last post. You may say that I am over-reacting - "Trevor, video game companies can still just advertise to all males, 18-30 yrs old, video gamers and hit their target market". Maybe so, but don't forget the video game market is shifting with the rise of casual games. More importantly, this new level of data presents opportunity to those companies who learn how to leverage it.
One of the big teachings of an MBA program is how to strategically take advantage of technology by creating business structures that leverage it. The company that figures out how to identify their potential customers at the level of MySpace segmentations for each video game title (or any other product for that matter) will create a competitive advantage over other their competitors. I am not sure many B2C technology companies are ready to do this. If they don't a competitor will and they will be playing catch-up.

The implication of the movement to higher segmentation on social media sites like MySpace and Facebook is that companies need to better understand who are their potential customers.

Helping THQ understand its Customers

As the video game industry matures, it will need to invest in understanding its customers. Sometimes you get the feeling that games are made based on what the people in control of the process want to play (or what their gut tells them other people would want to play). Essentially, it is a glorified guess. For the larger companies, they deeply believe in this process because it got them to that level of success. They ignore the fact that they were lucky; while they guessed a successful game, there were 10 other companies who guessed wrong. Now, as these big video game companies grow and go public, they are subjected to heavy pressure to continue to create new hit titles. Well, they may be able to guess one hit game...maybe two...even three, but when their revenue projections begin to rely on 10-30 solid titles, the odds of guessing will catch up to you.
So what do you do? The initial reaction of a immature industry is to go conservative. They try to find ways to release sequels every year even though it will not move the title forward very much (essentially trading future brand equity for current sales). They look at the hits of their competitors and try to replicate it them. I think you can see every large video game company committing these faux-pas. What they need to do is try to understand their customer.
This past Friday, I completed one of the first projects that was assigned to me back in week one. The project was to analyze data surrounding video games of boy-targeted TV licensed properties. Incidentally, a goal of the project was to better understand the customer. For the project, I amassed an impressive data set that included sales, advertising, TV ratings, and platform install base info and tried to sift through it looking for key lessons about the genre.
It turned out to be a very difficult project. The difficulty was not in interpreting the results, it was finding the proper methodology that would deliver relevant results. To this end, I had to redo my research three times - revising data, finding new data, modifying regression methodologies. On that 3rd go around I was very relieved and amazed to get some solid findings.
Now, I am not going to reveal the key findings (thats why THQ pays me the big bucks), but I can say the results reveal two distinct levels in the target market that dictated different product types and different marketing strategies. I won't be so bold as to claim my results are hard and true facts about how this genre operates, but they are starting point for further observations to test the validity of my conclusions. More importantly, it establishes a methodology for other THQ brand managers to evaluate their markets.
...And that is a step towards better understanding their customers.

The New Social Company

Over the past few years, I have grown convinced that the way corporations operate need to change (especially as they grow) in the face of the internet revolution. My recent experience at THQ has only reinforced this belief. Here is a great slide show overview about how the internal operations can improve for the the better (they are very different from our fathers/mothers companies). Interestingly, the software that is featured would cost less than a Microsoft Office set up.



Things also need to change on the marketing front. This week I discovered Jeremiah Owyang's insightful blog that clarified the random thoughts that were roaming my mind. Check out this post about Why the corporate website is becoming irrelevant or How the corporation can no longer centralize their brand (in fact they should embrace this decentralization). These are incredibly scary propositions for old guard marketers who control brand like a top secret recipe. Good thoughts for food.

Effective Presentations

Some of my earlier posts have touched on the art of presentations and how I have been working hard on improving my presentation skills - oral and written. On the written side, I have discovered how less is more - Less slides, less text and numbers. As a reforming lawyer this less slides and less writing is strongly against my training. Instinctively, I want to create a detailed argument that creates a complete story - the more details, the more real and understandable my argument becomes. Of course for a presentation, this is completely wrong. A human mind can only absorb so much of a visual presentation (Check out my other post on this topic). Visual is the key word; a wealth of text or numbers on a slide just overwhelms the majority of human minds.
This doesn't mean you can't create slide decks with detailed information. You just can't use it as a presentation. Keep your presentation to the point - Intro, The point of your presentation (or why it is in their interest to listen for the next 10 minutes), key supporting reasons (just high level points), Conclusion. Use your detailed presentation as a supporting document given to your audience after the presentation.
Keeping in the theme of more visual - less reading, marketing guru Seth Godin has a very interesting article about the use of charts in presentations. Again, a person like myself thinks if I actually get a visual representation of data in my presentation, my work is done. Seth shows that this is not the case and that it can be made much more effective if you take the time to dig into what is the true point that the chart is trying to convey. You can find the article here.

Managing the Product Life Cycle

Over the past few weeks at my internship, I have come to appreciate some of the things that THQ does exceptionally well. One of these is managing the tail end of the product life cycle.
Too often video game marketing is all about creating the big splash. How do we generate consumer buzz and awareness leading up to the game's release? While this is incredibly important part of the marketing plan, the area that is oft forgotten is the "how do we generate bonus sales after the release period (the 3-6 month window after the release)?" That is why you often see the sales graph for video games having three distinct stages - 1) the bulk of the sales occur very early; 2) a dramatic drop; and 3) trickle of sales for a period.

THQ (especially THQ kids) is masterful at stage 3. Looking at their sales graph, you see a series of peaks scattered through the 3rd stage where minor marketing strategies deliver increased sales and solid returns for the added expenditures.

Let's look at the example of EA's Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire compared to THQ's Cars. It is safe to say that both of these franchises are popular, but I think it is fair to say Harry is more popular. The Cars video game received a slightly higher rating than Harry (gameranking.com has it at 71% to 68%). Overall, I say its a push and these games should perform equally well. Let's see...

The graph below details their monthly unit sales after their release (data taken from NPD). You can see they both start pretty strong then drop off (Harry's first peak is higher than Cars). But look at how they perform after month 6! Harry levels to around 10,000 units per month and slowly declines to zero. Cars declines; then around Christmas it shoots up to a point even higher than the initial release; then it declines to a level just above Harry's sales; and it even experiences another small peak around a year after the initial release. The final results are clear. Despite having a superior brand and being on the market for an additional 6 months, Cars has outsold Harry Potter by a ratio of 2:1.



Now, admittedly the Harry Potter game was critically reviewed as lesser than the Cars game. And we could argue that because Harry Potter was released in November, it could not take advantage of a Christmas bump 6 months after release, but does that really explain the 2:1 margin in unit sales? I argue that it doesn't. I think it demonstrates THQ's understanding that video game sales go on beyond 6 months from release and a marketing strategy that accounts for these opportunities beyond a simple price cut can reap big rewards.

Back to School Shopping

It's that time of year again where girls and boys spend mom and dad's money on back to school supplies. The OC Register interviewed a number of kids out at the various local malls to discover their back to school spending plans. This one 12 yr old girl has a budget of $2000! I don't think I spent $2000 on back to school shopping for my entire grade school experience???
Hell, I don't think I will have a budget of more than a $100 to get ready for year 2 of my MBA program.
If your interested in learning how you stack up against OC parents, check it out:
http://www.ocregister.com/money/mesa-costa-beach-1816399-coast-south

A True California Vehicle

Lindsey and I used to joke that a car is not a Californian car until it is dented. Well, our "dreams" came true while we were enjoying our weekend together as some drunk or high or both "yahoo" did not notice that we were stopped at a stoplight for over five seconds and decided rear-end us. The day started nice enough - we ran some errands, got our car washed (oh, the irony there), and drove around Huntington Beach looking at the neighborhoods around the beach area. The street parking was very full, so rather than enjoy the beach we decided to head home for some dinner. It was on the way out of Huntington Beach on the PCH at a stop light that we heard an incredibly long screech of hard breaking and felt a smash to discover the "yahoo" driving in a large Chev Silverado truck had flattened our recently cleaned car back-end.

Once we pull over to the side of the road, he immediately begins begging that we resolve this personally without the police because 1) he was in an accident last week and 2) had a few beers just before he hit the road (Definitely two reasons to encourage us not to call the police). We immediately noticed he had Florida plates which just increased the possibility that we would never see him again. The driver also learned not to mess with my normally pleasant wife. She was pretty upset and just kept repeating "Call the cops. We are calling the cops." I just looked at the guy and said, "Hey, I am not messing with that. We got to call them."

I told him that he had until the cops arrived for him to get his shit together, but it is being reported. He immediately went on about how we came out of nowhere and it was either us, another car, or a tree. I just decided to try to ignore him, because his stupidity would send me over the edge. The "out of nowhere" comment was ridiculous because we were driving out of Huntington Beach on the PCH. On the weekend, no car, in their right mind, can move very fast in this traffic. Also, we were stopped at a stoplight for 5-10 seconds before he hit us. This means after drinking or whatever else he took off like a bat out of hell on a crowded road and was so out of it he did not notice three lanes of traffic stopped at a light.

Now I will give this guy credit in that he stayed. In this situation, I would have bet big money that he was going to make a run for it. It is pretty easy to get lost in the crowds here, so it would have been easy. But he stayed and accepted the consequences.

Once the cop arrived, the first question he asked the "yahoo" after getting his expired registration and insurance document (he claimed that he did they are both valid even if he didn't have the current documentation), was "have you been drinking today?" This guy was screwed. When the second officer arrived and went with him back to his truck to find the expired registration, he returned with a handful of prescription drug containers that he found in the truck cab. This guy is so screwed.

On a good note, the Huntington Beach police officer was without a doubt our most pleasant experience with U.S. authority figures. He took our information, did not give me a hard time about being a student without his passport on him, cracked a few jokes to make the experience more pleasant, let us know that we could legally drive the vehicle while waiting to get it fixed, and quickly sent us on our way so that he could deal with the yahoo! We couldn't leave fast enough from that experience.

Now, we are going to discover if State Farm delivers the service they promote.

Life as a Video Game Marketer

I have hit the mid-point of my internship experience as a brand marketer at THQ. It has been an enjoyable and great learning experience. Unforeseen circumstances required me to take over the Ratatouille video games. In addition to handling the domestic marketing side of the titles, I coordinate and support the our marketing teams around the world, and manage the Disney/Pixar relationship.

While there are many cool aspects of marketing video games such as you need to research competitive titles, there are challenges that one wouldn't think would be a problem. For example, one task that is a bit of a bane of a video game marketer and can drain countless numbers of hours are screen shots. First, it is difficult to find that perfect action shot that communicates the fun of a title. Video games are dynamic and interactive by nature. Therefore, finding a static shot that doesn't sell a game short can be challenging. Second, aside from Xbox360, the major video game consoles require special equipment (that often isn't readily available) to take screen shots. That means that you will have limited time to find that perfect shot and often you like to be able to quickly take new shots after reviewing the last batch. Lastly, if your title is a licensed property, the licensor will want to approve every screen shot. So even if you work to find what you feel is that perfect shot, it may be not approved.

Another pain in the video game marketer butt is dealing with ESRB rating. ESRB is the ratings board that decides if your title deserves an "E for everyone" or "Teen" rating. Before it goes on sale, every video game must be rated by the ESRB. ESRB rating requires a detailed application that outlines every occurrence of questionable content (I am not going to list everything, but it is a long list). From what I have been told that generally the game developer completes the application, but at THQ it is the responsibility of the video game marketer. Aside from not being fun to complete, the marketer is usually preparing the application based on an uncompleted test build (it is supposed to be the final build, but timing often does not make this practical) and the game design document (which often has differences from the final product). As this does not give us a complete view of the game (the developer definitely knows every aspect of the game), it raises the chance of errors in the application. The ESRB does not like errors in the application, but they do like issuing fines. Anyways, I think you can get the drift on how pleasurable this is for a video game marketer.

So, there you go. Not everything is fun and games for a video game marketer.

Week Four: THQ Internship

Week Four has gone by trouble free. It was the first time I felt a bit tired at the job. I generally get this feeling around the 1 month mark at most new positions. One takes in so much new information the mind just needs a break. The result is fatigue, but you push through it in a week or two.

This week has been spent better learning how to manage the Disney/Pixar relationship, writing the creative briefs, and summarizing the results of my data project studying "Teen"-rated and "E/E10+" children's games based on TV series. The data study has resulting in some unexpected results that I am confused, but excited to learn more about. As always I can't comment on a public blog, but the results indicate something contrary to conventional thinking.

The end of the week rocked with the Bourne Ultimatum free ticket to the premiere. It was a great way to end a tough week. After four weeks, like anyone, I have learned plenty. The video game industry is a fascinating industry as it is still very young and, only now, some companies, like THQ, are trying to transition to more sophisticated and mature management style. There is a lot of trial and error here, but atleast I can say, right or wrong, it is in the right direction.

Flight of the Concords - A Great HBO Show

After the Bourne Ultimatum, I figured I would stay on the "Pop Culture" theme to make a brief comment on the Flight of the Concords - a half-hour HBO comedy. I am not sure if Canada gets it on TMN, but this show is hilariously, unorthodoxly funny. I can't really describe it except to say it's two Kiwi's experiencing New York and the tough life of "wanna-be" musicians. Their experiences of the American way of life and their impromptu songs about their experiences are comedic gems. Too bad, I think the show is a little too unorthodox to last more than a season.

THQ Bourne Ultimatum Perk

This past Friday, I took advantage of a THQ perk where we were offered free tickets to a showing of the Bourne Ultimatum on the "release day". I believe the tickets were offered as part of THQ advertising the new "Stuntman" video game releasing this fall (It actually looks pretty cool and heads and shoulders above the first one).
I am a big "Bourne" fan. I love, and have DVDs of, the first two movies. I think they are some of the most intelligent and exciting action movies to be made in a long time. So when the opportunity to get free tickets arose, I jumped at the chance. The movie, like all previous movies, was excellent and action packed, but contrary to other reviews, I think is was the worst of the exceptional series. First, every Bourne movie has at least one amazing car chase seen. I think the car chase in Paris in the Bourne Identity was one of the best car chase scenes ever. Of course there are chase scenes in the Bourne Ultimatum, but they fall short of the scenes of the first two movies. Second, the director decided to heavily avoid using the steady cam for that "The Shield" in your face in the middle of the action feeling. I haven't decided if he either did not use it correctly (ie, made the shots "too" shaky") or if it was just an error to not use the steady cam. At times it felt as amateur as "The Blair Witch Project". From my limited understandign, the lack of steady cam is used to convey a sense of gritty, "on the streets" feel to the viewer. I've always felt Bourne should not convey this feeling. Bourne is not "on the streets". Bourne is ruthlessly in control - analyzing every minute detail of a situation. This controlled manner calls for a precisely controlled camera shot that was used in the first two movies.

Again, I acknowledge I am nit-picking. It was an action packed movie - probably the best action movie of the summer.

Lindsey is Back in the Great White North

After Sara's wedding in the Muskoka's (Canadians know where this is), Lindsey stayed back to visit her mom in London (as well as all of our friends) for the next 3 weeks. In under a week she has already done a ridiculous amount of activities (certainly more than the life of a luxury OC house wife).

It is weird not having her here. After a week away from home up in Agoura Hills, I come back to an empty home. I am so used to have her here waiting to welcome me that it is disappointing to come home to not have her here. But it is well deserved that she is having fun with her mother and her friends. I will just have to deal with the loneliness.

Wedding Over

Sara got married over the past week. Now, people who know me know I am not a guy who likes weddings, but this was a real fun wedding weekend. I have no pictures because Lindsey has our camera, but when she gets back I will post some great shots.

THQ Experience

Week 3 is over in my internship. My responsibilities are starting to pick up. One of the full time brand managers unexpectedly departed due to a personal issue (she moved pretty far from the office) and I was honored to be tapped to pick up her responsibilities to manage some of the Pixar titles. The experience has been a rapid engrossment of how a brand manager of a licensed property manages the license relationship. It requires alot of coordination with Pixar and Disney to keep everyone on the same page on how we are marketing the property (I do not want to announce the property due to confidentiality restrictions).

In addition to these new responsibilities I am now creating Creative Briefs for 2 new video games that will be released late 2008. A creative brief is a summary document that informs all key parties (sales, PR, and marketing) about the product, the competitive environment, and how we plan to market the title. I am sure in the grand scheme of things, the creative brief is only a small part of the marketing plan, but right now I am feeling the pressure to do a fantastic job. I am sure after a few are under my belt, they will soon seem routine.

I have also completed my research related to drivers for sales of video games based on licensed TV shows. I am not going to disclose my results (again confidentiality), but at first I was frustrated with the results of a comprehensive data set. After discussions with my supervisor, I began to see some of the benefits of my research and I will be able to pull a number of key lessons from my study. I think this is one of the benefits of deciding to work with a supervisor who has worked with marketing juggernaut Proctor & Gamble.

Another project on the burner: THQ is having a "take your kids to work day" on Aug. 10. Our other kids intern, Anthony, had a great idea to conduct a focus group with some of the kids. He took the initiative to submit a proposal for this study, but I am happy to participate in learning what makes kids tick when playing video games. At a minimum this should be a fun and great learning experience.

That's it for now, but I will try to keep you up to date on my internship experiences.

New Merage School Website is Up!

The Merage School has been diligently improving its website over the past year and phase I is finally ready for release.
I encourage anyone thinking about a MBA to check it out here.

My Fellow THQ Interns

I just wanted to briefly acknowledge the quality of my fellow THQ interns. I have met four others in total: 2 from UCLA, 1 from Ohio University (not State), and another from Virginia (I think the school is William Mary). All are ambitious, creative, and intelligent, not too mention pretty funny. I have really enjoyed working with them and learning from their experiences. It is great reflection on THQ that they were able to pick up such high quality interns.

Do You Need to Customer to Market It?

During one lunch the topic came up from a non-marketing intern, about how can you market to an audience you don't know. It came in the context that he would be unable to work in Kids Video games because he doesn't know the target market. I responded why would that matter?

While I acknowledge that it is essential for a marketer to know his target market, I do not believe a good marketer needs prior knowledge before accepting a position. One of the first things a marketer should do is identify his target audience and their wants and needs. Sure it helps, but you do not need prior knowledge of the target.

Marketing has very established stages:
1. Identify your target market
2. Identify your value proposition to this market
3. Identify the best marketing mix to reach your target market
4. Evaluate and improve.

By only taking positions with which you can relate, you eliminate a large part of what marketing is and, most importantly, you will be prone to skip step 1 possibly having your perceptions incorporate some detrimental assumptions about the target market.

Bottom line: It doesn't matter if you previous know the market, it matters if you LISTEN to the market.

The "Hardcore Gamer" Hurdle of the Industry

For most lunches at work, I go with three of the other THQ interns. Listening to their passion for video games, I was reminded of the "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle that video game HR departments throw up to potential hires. The "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle is one of the first questions that they look to your cover letter or resume to answer (or at a minimum for you to address in your interview). They want people passionate about video games. Hardcore games have no problem overcoming this hurdle as they seem to eat, sleep and dream video games (I slipped through on a discussion of how I love all types of games). Other people, who would still do a good job and offer a new perspective, often get overlooked by the hurdle.

But sitting at lunch and listening to these other interns talk the hurdle became apparent. All of these guys love video games. This is great, we should all be passionate about what we do everyday, but poses some risks for an industry that is changing like the video game industry. By imposing the "Hardcore Gamer" hurdle, video game companies are ensuring that they do not get the perspective of the customer segment that is growing the fastest in this industry: the casual gamer. The hardcore gamer and the casual gamer are getting two drastically different payoffs from their video game experience; and this is one case where I do not think a party can empathize with the other (see my next post).

The prevalence of hardcore gamers in video game companies delivers a big strategic blinder to these companies. Even if company leadership identifies new casual games as a target, if the majority of the company is filled with hardcore gamers where do you think they will focus the bulk of their energy. I think the evidence supports that they go after the hardcore gaming segment.

I think the video game industry is slowly seeing the removing the "hardcore gamer" hurdle. The question becomes will it come quick enough?

First Day at THQ

I am back from my first day at THQ for my marketing internship; Two weeks late, but ready to go. The THQ HQ is a huge, sprawling 2 level complex that is very easy to get lost in. You can tell that they have being growing very quickly as you find patches of one department mixed with patches of other departments in the pockets of cubicles found throughout the building. The good news is that the office is only 5 mins from my subleted apartment and I do not have to go near the highway.

The first day was more about meeting the team and the other marketing interns. The team is very nice. Most of the people are very new to THQ (the longest being not even 1 yr). The great thing is that they all have very diverse backgrounds. The other Kidz marketing intern is from Ohio University in Ohio. It is an incredible distance to travel to do an internship, but he is really passionate about video games. It is funny to hear his new perspective of California as if I am a wily veteran of this land.

I have been given two warm up projects: 1) to research the market potential of a couple of new licensing opportunities; and 2) start playing some of the upcoming video games from THQ Kidz (Yes, you read correctly - I am being paid to play video games). I get the impression that after the first week, the pace will increase. I made it very clear that I want a massive and diverse workload. I'm here for only 11 weeks, away from my wife, so I want to make them count.

Lessons from America: Never Rely on US Immigration

I was supposed to start work this past Monday, but I have been delayed because my OPT work application has not been approved by U.S. Immigration despite being filed over 90 days ago.

The student (F-1) Visa allows students to engage in work related to their training for up to 1 year full-time. This period may be done in part-chunks (in theory you can work full-time in the summer, part-time during 2nd year, and full-time after school ends). In order to be approved, a student must file an application with U.S. Immigration. For what is essentially a data recording exercise (simply logging when you want to work and making sure you do not go over your limit), the application process is supposed to take a ridiculously long 90 days.

Now, an international MBA has another work approval option for their summer internship, CPT. This is a quicker approval process because it is controlled by the school. CPT requires the student to sign up for a summer course (and pay the tuition) and it essentially makes the summer internship into a class, eliminating the need for Immigration approval. As a class, the student will have to attend some classes during their weekends and complete a project for the class. CPT is a great option for students who want to save their OPT time for after they complete their MBA.

I did not choose this route because the OPT time after my degree is not as important when you are Canadian. We have the option of getting a TN Visa under the NAFTA agreement if we do not immediately secure a H1-B visa. The TN has a same day approval process for Canadians (I am not sure if it is the same for Mexicans). I figured I can use some of my OPT during the summer, some during the school year and avoid extra tuition and the hassle of attending classes during the summer.

The second reason I chose the OPT route was that even if the approval process took more than 90 days, Immigration would issue an Interim Card that would allow you to work while they continued processing. Therefore, in my mind, as long as I filed my application 90 days before I hoped to work, I would have my approval. In retrospect, I definitely overestimated the simplicity of the OPT approval process.

Immigration has a great website that allows you to check what application receipt dates they are processing (They are generally 90 days behind). It also allows you to check the status of your application. Unfortunately, this great feature really loses any form of benefit by only having one status for the entire process ("Processing"). Yes, you read correctly, the immigration website allows an applicant to learn if they are processing the application. Thanks, Immigration.

As I approached my 90 day deadline without hearing a peep from Immigration, I took advantage of another feature of their website that allows you to schedule an appointment with an immigration officer. It is a slick feature. It asks for your ZIP code, then asks what would you like the appointment for? I choose "I have not received my EAD approval within 90 days and I would like to get an Interim EAD card". Then, the online program gives you a wide selection of times to schedule the appointment at an office closest to my ZIP code that can help me. So far, so good, I show up for my appointment and tell the immigration officer that I would like to get an Interim EAD card. To which she replied, "We don't issue Interim EAD cards anymore."

I was rather confused as the website says that they issue Interim EAD cards and the appointment program specifically gave me the option to meet regarding this issue. The officer explained to me that they no longer issue interim cards and that it would do no good to discuss what the websites say because she has no control over it. Bottom line is that I would have to wait for my application to be approved and I receive the card in the mail; my reliance on the interim EAD as the hard stop in the timeline was wrong.

Even more mind-boggling is that UCI's International Center is aware of this change in policy (as I learned when I approached them after my meeting with the officer) and their website still claims that we can get Interim EAD. Their job is to keep the international students up to date about key issues (one of them being work visa issues). They are not doing it. I was pretty blind-sided by this change in policy and it is now affecting my internship.

I could spend a lot more time bringing out every stupid detail of my experience, but this post is already long enough. And I am pretty drained going through the experience. I am used to cutting through tape and getting things done, but no one can be prepared for the experience of trying to get things done in a federal government agency.

As a P.S. to this post, if you apply for your OPT and you do not receive a notice to get your fingerprints taken within 60 days, contact the application service line. Although nowhere in the Immigration website or UCI International Center website indicates that fingerprinting is part of the process, I discovered that they are and your application will not be approved without them. Too bad that online status checking feature does not ever change to "awaiting fingerprints".

Essential MBA Reading III: Built to Last

Another title that should be on the reading list of anyone who want to lead a company is Built to Last by Jim Collins. BTL looks at 18 'visionary' companies defined by Collins as those in existence for over 50 years with a long track record of success. By comparing the inner workings and histories of these companies against a selected comparable company, Collins divines certain themes that consistently helped the visionary companies outperform their comparable.
The main drawback of the book is constant repetition of messages. The main messages of the book could have summarized on two pages. If we wanted a good discussion of each point, the book could have taken 50 pages. Instead we get about 250 pages including the epilogue, but excluding the appendices. The extra 200 pages is filled with example after example that reiterates the same messages. That isn't to say that the messages are not important. Always remember:

• Clock building, not time telling;
• No "Tyranny of the OR"
• Preserve the core/Stimulate Progress
• Seek constant alignment
  

Top Ten Tips for Potential MBA'ers

After my first year I have given some thought for things that people considering to do or are about to do an MBA should keep in mind. So enjoy and keep in mind that they are just my opinions - do what you will with them.

1. Experience - Experienced or not, you will be overwhelmed with the tools that an MBA gives you. Your work experiences will serve as the context that you can make these theoretical lessons practical. This will enhance your learning experience.
2. Network! - An MBA program is much more than the classes. The people that you meet during this time will be resources that you can draw from as you pursue your career. Also, love it or hate it, you will need to network to get ahead - so why not practice in this low risk setting?
3. Represent - How you represent yourself in this program will last well after school is over. When you reach out to your fellow classmates, they will remember how you represented yourself and make a decision if they want to put their reputation on the line to help. So don't constantly show up late for class, make an ass of yourself at school events, not deliver work that you promised, or miss team meetings. If you are not ready to commit to being professional, you probably not ready to pursue your MBA. Sure, you will likely get your degree, but you will also carry a big black "X" beside your name in the minds of your classmates.
4. Breathe - There will be times that the school work appears to be piling on. Relax, take a breath, break it up into to little pieces and just attack each piece until they are all done.
   
5. Call - As a corollary to 4. Don't be afraid to ask for help. An MBA is about teamwork and getting the work done. I once had a client who told me that it is a good thing to ask for favors and be in someones debt. It gives you an excuse to contact them and try to repay the favor.
6. Communicate - One of the great skills that business schools teach you is communication skills (I wish law school had put more of an emphasis on these). So, don't be afraid to communicate your personal goals with your teams. Once aware, they will try to help you achieve those goals.
7. Step-Up - Just because there are people in your groups with more leadership experience than you does not mean that they should lead. This is the time to gain leadership skills in a low consequence environment. You may be surprised to learn some of those leaders want to improve their following skills and would welcome your leadership and invest in your development.
8. Prioritize - Don't be the person who can't say no and finds themselves over-committed to too many tasks. While people appreciate those who are helpful, one bad experience where you cannot deliver what you promise can tarnish all your other good work. As a piece of advice, try not to commit to more than an average of 4 hours of extra-curricular per week. If you are over that limit, just say no.
9. Globalize - I know that it isn't a word, but it fits for this lesson. There is some much going on in your program that you can forget that there is a business community outside of the school. Use your education as an excuse to interact with these people. Do class projects for companies that you would like to know better; interview leading executives for class work; attend networking events; perform community service. People are generally more willing to help people pursuing educational goals than when that person needs a job or a sales contact. By establishing relationships in this more open phase, you can improve the odds that they will help you in the future.
10. Understand - People assume that they will get their MBA and businesses will line up to offer them big money and respect. They fail to understand that the MBA is a tool kit. And just like we don't hire the plumber with the best set of tools, businesses (in the long run) will not hire you because of your MBA. Your pursuit of an MBA should be a commitment to conduct your business affairs with the highest levels of professionalism; employing every day the team building and communication skills that you learned in this program. It is then that you will see the compensation and respect.

I completely realize that some of my views are idealistic, but I always shoot for the ideal because if we don't how will we know it is impossible?

End of Year Evaluation

I decided that I would end my posts about my first year of MBA school with two posts. This one about a personal evaluation of how I did and a following post about things for people to keep in mind when applying and participating in a MBA program.

Overall, I am happy with the progress that I have made. The wealth of tools that one learns in first year is overwhelming. I can honestly say that I have a solid foundation for financial modeling, analyzing financial statements, evaluating operations, defining business strategy, and market research. I have participated or am participating in two great Merage experiences that complement my learning (the Venture Capital Investment Competition and the Polaris Competition). I am also on the board of Merage's Entrepreneur's Association. My only regret is that I did not take a major leadership position within the school. This regret was more a product of circumstance as early in the school year I was asked to lead a major new initiative for Merage's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which motivated me to not to commit to other opportunities, only to later discover that the center did not have a unified vision of the initiative causing it to be put on hold (I am definitely not meant to work within a bureaucracy).

There are still things that I want to work on. When I came to school one of my resolutions was to become more high energy. Unfortunately, I still find myself in a meeting listening and analyzing every word that a speaker says; quietly sitting there thinking about the spoken ideas, often for 10-20 seconds after the speaker finishes speaking. It is funny how hard it is to break old habits. All I would need to do is remember to immediately say something positive when the speaker stops speaking, then I could continue with my comfortable analysis. Those few words recognizing the speaker can completely improve the dynamics of the meeting.

The second area to work on is more complimenting. As a ruthless analyzer, I have overcome my unmalicious instinct to immediately criticize by offering one or two compliments before engaging in the discussions. I still think I need to be more positive recognizing general good work. It is tough because I was raised to think a high quality of work was expected; you just did it. Thus, I don't even think to recognize good work because it was expected. I completely recognize that this line of thinking is definitely not they way to improve morale on a team, so I have been constantly reminding myself to offer positive comments. It's improving, but it can definitely improve some more. At least, people never have to doubt that my compliments are not genuine.
At the end of year one, I developed a broad range of skills that would benefit many of the companies with whom I have worked. I have identified areas to work on during my internship and next year. It is tough putting your career on hold for two years to go back to school, but I believe the development I have made over the past year is worth it.