Enjoying the Week Off

Lindsey and I decided to stay local for spring break. Why keep visiting other places, when you live 15 minutes from some of the best beaches in the world. We enjoyed an afternoon at Newport Beach. I am sure we will try to hit Huntington and Laguna before the weeks over.

5 Quarters Down - 1 to Go

Last quarter ended very quietly. Traditionally, end of quarter is a killer time for MBAs. All those weeks of procrastination, come to bear with numerous projects and exams due all during the same week. For some reason, most of my work was bunched in the middle of the quarter leaving me a light final week. This has given me time to catch up on blogging, job search, and relaxing.
It is hard to believe that I have one quarter to go. It feels like only last week that we arrived in Irvine, completely overwhelmed by its vast size, winding roads, and crazy highways. Now, I am on my final quarter and we feel like acclimatized Californians (We freeze when the temp drops to 10 Celsius).
Classes were a mixed bag this quarter. Internet marketing really missed a great opportunity to be the most interesting class in school. I tried to make the most of the class with the final project. I had to build a internet marketing plan. I used the opportunity to consider how internet marketing fits within the entire firm strategy and how best to set up a plan. So I have a template to use in the future. Macro was nothing that I didn't already learn in my undergrad, but the teacher was excellent. Strategic innovation raised some interesting ideas about how to look at traditional business in new ways - challenging the status quo to drive higher growth. It was the first year for the class, so there's room for this class to grow. Lastly, Business Dynamics taught how to strategically evaluate business challenges and, more importantly, how to execute change (or the strategy). The course was taught by a great teacher who really knows how to teach business case studies.
This quarter will have fewer classes than normal. It is time to focus on the job search. As my focus is on the technology industry, most job opportunities need someone to start yesterday. So up to now, my best opportunities got roadblocked on availability. Timing is everything and I hope the tech industry remains immune from the recession until I lock up something.
As an international, my best chances are through networking. I will be attending another Web2.0 conference in April.

Attended Graphing Social Pattern's 2008

Earlier this week, I played a little hooky from school and attended O'Reilly's Graphing Social Patterns West 2008 conference. O'Reilly is the premier brand for technology conferences and GSP is a conference dedicated to examining trends in the social networking space.
One of the big perks of living out on the west coast is the number of opportunities to interact with other Tech-Obsessed people. There was a great energy at the conference. Networking was made difficult as most people had their heads down into their laptops or cell phones during the breaks. Nonetheless, I still met a number of very interesting people.
The sessions ranged from incredibly interesting to ho hum. One of the big themes that I got from the conference is that we should be demanding social networks built around individuals, not built around a platform. For example, I should bring my data with me whereever I go on the web (it stays with me), not leave it in a platform like facebook. That means I only have to update my address once and all my internet accounts get updated (that would be awesome!). There is definitely a move to change this - from one of my favorites, MyBlogLog to the Diso-Project. Will it happen? I am not sure, but as long as people keep pushing for it, the more likely it will happen.
One of the coolest things I heard was that MyBlogLog a social networking service that tracks what blogs you visit (and more) wants to try to track your physical location using bluetooth technology. Still very early, but I like that they are pushing the edge.
In the end. Fun, thought provoking, and great people.

2008 Oscars Red Carpet

At 8am Lindsey and I arrived to be seated in the fan bleachers right next to the red carpet. That was the beginning of a long day that did not see us depart until after 5pm.
We got assigned seating in the 3rd row of the bleachers directly across from where Regis was doing interviews so we had a pretty good view for the event. The crowd was full of celebrity-focused fans. When I saw them going bananas over Mary Hart I knew this was going to be a little crazy.
The one good thing about being seated near hyper-fans is that they make alot of noise and talk to the celebs like they are best friends. Now, normally I think this would make celebs run in the other direction, however on Oscar day many celebrities reward this devotion by talking back and signing autographs. So we had George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen come right up in front of us to sign autographs. Viggo was particularly kind as he stayed to sign autographs despite being late for the start of the show.
Lindsey decided she would be too short to take pictures, so that duty fell on me. So if you saw me on TV with a camera constantly in my face that is why - I was listening to my wife. Oddly enough I am also writing the blog post. She just sat and enjoyed. Below are some of the pictures.

Innovation and Presentation

I want to post this speech on creativity by Sir Ken Robinson. It is a great commentary on how the educational system is killing creativity. I am proud to say The Merage School is taking steps to change this by focusing their curriculum around innovation; teaching us that failure is perfectly O.K.; and how we can bring innovation to our employers.
Currently, I am taking a course on strategic innovation where sometimes we are asked to do things in an "un-MBA" manner for the sake of creativity. I am sure I am guilty for being one of the first people to roll their eyes whenever we head in this direction. Nonetheless, I must still acknowledge its importance and commend The Merage School for exposing students to it.
As the rest of the world catches up to us, it will not be enough for employees and companies to be efficient. They will need to innovate. They will need to create leaps of new value for consumers, employees, and employers. This will come from creativity, embracing failure, and a slight shedding of some of our educational teachings.
Enjoy the speech. As a side note it is a brilliant example of the storytelling style of presentations. I am also proud to say The Merage School is trying to expose its students to this method of presentation (in addition to other methods that I posted about previously).

Going to the Oscar Red Carpet

Lindsey put our names into a draw to sit in the bleachers along side of the red carpet entrance at this years Oscars. Somehow we were 2 of something like 300 people who were offered tickets! That means we will be up front a personal watching all the stars arrive to enter the theater on the 24th.
Unfortunately, enjoyment of this privilege demands we show up for 8am in the morning a stay there all day until everyone is in the theater. I am sure I will be pretty cranky by the end of the day, but how often do you get a chance like this?
The only risk to our day of fun is that the writer strike is still on, but we hear they may be near a deal. If all goes well, I am sure we will have great pictures to post.

Pretty Darn Busy

Combining a full course load, with a TA position and a 20 hour internship is not the wisest of ideas. I have finally received approval from the International Center to take a paid internship this quarter, so between the TA salary and my internship wage I will be making a decent income for the remainder of the quarter. Unfortunately, it leaves me with little time to do homework. It is especially difficult to coordinate my schedule for group work as I am booked most days.
After taking leadership positions in most of my groups last quarter (some not by choice), my strategy has been to more of a follower this quarter and accept whatever final grades that come (I usually take the lead to drive a higher quality product). It is funny, now that I am not concerned about leading my groups I actually have two groups where we have yet to meet in person to work on the projects! As a person who likes to do things well, it can make me uneasy at times, but I am finding a drop in my stress levels knowing I am not leading the project. I rarely lose any sleep thinking about it (quite contrary to my experience last quarter).
It is the leadership positions that keep me awake. While I know that it is a group project, I take the view that the project is a direct representation of me. Also, I feel obligated to the group that I deliver the best possible project. For highly challenging projects, this can be tough. Those who know me, know that I can be quite the glutton for punishment when it comes to taking on challenging projects. As much as I say it creates stress, the alternative of not leading groups tackling challenging projects would be incredibly unsatisfying.
Still taking a 3 month break from these situations while learning about Private Equity in my internship is a nice break (although a busy one).