MBA achieved!

Well overdue post, but yes I graduated August 2009 from CBS and what a wonderful year this has been. I have met some fantastic people and I have learned more in a year than I could ever imagine possible.

It is sad that it is over, because it has really been great, but it is also a good feeling, because now I can actually get a job and start building my cash reserves again :O)
something which I will be doing as an Associate Art Producer at CCP one of the major MMO developers in the world.

So without further ado I will close this blog and start on my new grand adventure with spaceships on Iceland.

Term 5 & 6

I'm still waiting on the final grades for some of the electives from term 5 & 6.
However the following are done and passed successfully:

A-Board and LDP complete

The 2 long running modules "Advisory Board" and Leadership "Discovery Process" are also done.

Term 4 complete

Long time since last post, but things at the MBA went up a notch or 2 the last 2 terms.

First things first, I've passed everything so far:


TERM 4:



Which means that term 4 is now complete.

CF sit-in over

0900-1000, the entire weekend’s worth of work was put to the test in 1 hour.
I think it went ok, it could certainly have been worse.

Now it is on to the exam paper in Supply Chain Management, it is due this Monday and has to be 8-12 pages. A bit much for 2.5 days worth of lectures? I feel that I have to spend most of the time reading up upon the topic actually.
Oh well at least I'll learn something new.
The case is pretty interesting though, it is based on the Crocs company, yes the ones with the "very colorful" plastic shoes.

The case is set in 2007, when things went well for the company, so recommendations have to be based on that. However, lately things have not looked so good for Crocs.

CF study session complete

Went to CBS today to study Corporate Finance with some of my classmates.
09:30 to 16:30 not bad!
I feel much more comfortable with the topic now.
We basically went through all the chapters we have covered so far and made sure that all concepts were understood by everyone.
Tomorrow I'll go through the online exercises that come with the text book.
Hopefully that should be enough to pass the exam Monday.

I pretty much understand the concepts, but I can't remember all the formulas yet, well 1 day to learn them all, so no beer until Monday (just kidding), beer and sushi on the menu now.

Going to Carlsberg

Guess who is going to visit Carlsberg?
(In respect to future job possibilities)
:O) I was lucky enough to be in the group that is going to visit Carlsberg,
not bad, I'm quite a fan.
I Just found out yesterday and the visit is already March 11th.

Next week is going to be busy indeed.
Monday Corporate Finance sit-in exam and Operations Management group work.
Wednesday, visit Carlsberg
All week write exam paper for Operations Management.
Oh and of course the readings for Strategic Management, best class so far! I love it.
It is just as good as Change Management and the 2 topics go very well together.

Term 3 over.

Which means that term 3 has been completed successfully :O) ,
with a 12 in CM and a 10 in CB, so I am not complaining.

Now it is fast forward term 4.
We have already finished all classes in Operations Management, the term paper is up in roughly a week.
Corporate Finance is a blur, last Monday we handed in the first of 3 exams, this Monday we have the 2nd, the sit-in multiple choice. CF is by far the hardest topic I have ever had. But I'm sure I'll make it.

FA passed.

Term 3 the best so far.

Yes as it says, for me term 3 has been the best term so far.
I think all 3 topics:
Financial Accounting (FA)
Change Management (CM)
Corporate Branding (CB)
were relevant, however I enjoyed FA and CB the most.
As I have mentioned in my previous posts I was quite surprised to find that I liked FA so much. :)
Kudos to our teacher Jeff Gramlich who did a wonderful job. He really did an excellent job of teaching a very difficult subject in a short amount of time.

In respect to CM I had been looking forward to this subject since I started the MBA and it did not disappoint.
Our teacher in CM was John Hayes who both teaches and practices change management in the "real world"; and again a teacher who managed to cram more knowledge into a short amount of time.
It has probably been the most relevant course so far. The theories behind change and how to handle it effectively are arguably more relevant now than ever given the current economic situation.

One notion that I found to be of particular interest for companies in high velocity industries, arguably game developers fit this bill, was that in these high paced firms a change process should not be instigated by first unfreezing the company from it's static assumptions. No one should in fact freeze high velocity firms because they tend to move towards multiple end points at relatively high speed.

Almost done with term 3

I just need to hand in my final paper in Change Management at 12:00 and then technically the 3rd term is over, which means that I am 1/2 MBA.

The last two exams were two 8 page papers, one for each subject.
As mentioned above one was for Change Management, the other paper was in Corporate Branding.
I enjoy writing papers, it really gives you time to understand a topic.

In 40 min. I'll jump on my bike, head to school, turn in the paper and get myself a new calculator for Corporate Finance (4th term).
We start Monday, so I know what I'm going to do Sunday :O).

But today and tomorrow I'm not going to anything but relax and enjoy the weather.
We've had snow and the sun is out, so the park looks really nice.

Economics passed

Around last week we got our grades for economics, so that means that I passed the 2nd term :O)


Since the last update, financial accounting is done, we had the last exam last Wednesday and went straight into corporate branding and change management after.
Not without a deserved break to the local student bar "Nexus" however. ;O)

Mid term exam passed today

As the title states, I passed the mid term exam in financial accounting today :O).
We have 1 more set of homework for Friday, were we will also recieve the annual report we have to analyze for the final exam. So I can already foresee how my weekend is going to be: Saturday studying at home and Sunday studying at school.
But hey the weather is really bad anyway so it is easy to stay inside and read.

FA tasks

They were not kidding when they said financial accounting would be intensive :)
It is fun however! Who would have thought that.
Maybe that explains my love for Excel sheets?

Anyways, I am well happy with the first set of tasks done, ready to be handed in tomorrow morning. I think the trick is to work in small groups 2-3 otherwise things take too long.

I am actually looking forward to the next batch already ;O)
Tomorrow is class from 0900-1215, then reading all afternoon, then start on accounting tasks after dinner.
Thursday I plan on working on tasks all day and night.

Ah but for now it is time to relax.

Back to life.

Term 3 started today and it is a bit hard to get back into the groove after the X-mas vacation.
Good thing is that the new topic Financial Accounting seems to be very interesting and very well organized.
The book is pretty good, it is very understandable and the most attractive book I have seen on such a topic yet.
The course seems well planned with the final grade divided between 3 activities: Home assignments, mid term test and final exam. Quite nice actually.
The home assignments really keeps you up to speed in that respect this course feels like Management Accounting.
There is a lot to do and read however, but things will start flowing once I get back into the habit of studying again.

Tomorrow it is group work and Wednesday the first graded assignments have to be delivered at 0900.
Mid term test is next Monday (I believe) and the final exam is January 20th.
Talk about hitting the ground running :O)