Skydiving

Humans are the only animal that voluntarily put their life at risk. I joined the ranks of this crazy group two days ago when I jumped out of a perfectly functional airplane 15,000 feet above southern Nevada.

The emotions surrounding my first skydive were incredible – worry, fear, excitement and anxiety, and that’s all before I arrived at Vegas Extreme Skydiving Saturday morning. The airplane we flew in was very rickety, made a lot of noise and normally would be quite scary, that is if you’re mind isn’t pre-occupied by thoughts of jumping out of it a few minutes later.

Somehow I got the pleasure of going first, which required me to sit right next to the door. After the fact, I think it was good to go first. My friends were the last ones out, and the thought of watching everyone else toss themselves out the side of the airplane probably would have raised my heartbeat above an already dangerous level.

Immediately after leaving the airplane, the feeling of fear and anxiety turned to excitement. Then, 10,500 feet later when the parachute opened, that feeling of excitement turned to satisfaction, relaxation and enjoyment as the likelihood of me making it safely back to earth increased significantly.

Did I ever think that I would go skydiving? No. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely! I would encourage anyone to do this at least once, even if you're scared.

To put the risk in perspective, the company we used, Vegas Extreme Skydiving, has been around for 7 years and has never had an accident. Also, a few of the instructors I met have over 20 years of skydiving experience and around 20,000 jumps a piece. While it only takes one mistake to mitigate all this experience, these few little facts helped me feel a bit more comfortable before my jump.

Richard Hytner at London Business School

A few weeks ago my class welcomed Richard Hytner, Worldwide Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi (the advertising company), to LBS. Richard joined us as a guest lecturer in our Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities course. Overseeing 150 offices and 7,000 people, Richard helps to lead one of the world's largest creative organizations, and his task at LBS was to help us find our inner creative being.

Richard's session focused on how teams can foster creativity, and he blessed us with some excellent tools to assist our brainstorming and creative process.

After the class I realized that Saatchi & Saatchi was responsible for a great television commercial currently running - the T-Mobile "dance" commercial filmed in London's Liverpool train station. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then take a few minutes and watch the commercial here.

I actually was in Liverpool train station when this commercial was filmed. On my way to a meeting, a few classmates and I walk from the tube into the train station to see the ENTIRE PLACE DOING THE TWIST! Not exactly sure what was taking place, we stood by and watched for a few minutes before moving on. It was fun to watch, and we left Liverpool station with a smile.

Another LBS MBA TV Episode

And this time yours truly makes a cameo appearance...

The Milkround

Summer internship recruiting is in full force, and only five days after the New Year. Over the past five days I've attended eight company presentations. The model is very simple - company presentation followed by networking event (and then repeat two or three times per day).

All the investment banks and management consulting firms made an appearance. However, the investment bank line-up was a little unique this year...Merrill is in the process of merging with BofA, all the Nomura reps were from Lehman, Credit Suisse just sold their asset management division to Aberdeen and Deutsche Bank is recruiting for sales/trading roles but their star credit trader just quit to start his own hedge fund after losing $1 billion during '08. Morgan Stanley and Citi, who are dealing with their own issues but didn't have any news last week, now are in talks to merge their wealth management divisions, transforming both companies. Goldman, who recently has been fairly quite on the news front, also was on campus, but surely it won't be too competitive to land one of those internship spots.

It'll be a fun, interesting and stressful next few months as my entire MBA class attempts to find their dream internship.

A Taste of the LBS Life

Here is a photo of my study group, taken in November during an all-day case study project as part of our Strategy course. The case study was on Zara, the Spanish clothing company.

There are many horror stories about study groups getting stressed out and not working well together during this project. It's a little stressful because we don't know the project until that morning, and we must spend the rest of the day writing a report and then submit it by 9pm. Our report was a nine page, 2000 word masterpiece.

Fortunately, for us, we didn't kill each other AND we managed to get 91 on the project (class average = 79, median = 75)!

Why I Love Running

Lately I’ve been running more outside, with the hope to prepare myself for the Paris Marathon on April 5. Yesterday I went for a run around Hype Park in London, and while running I thought to myself about all the fantastic places I’ve lived and how that’s provided me so many fantastic places to run.

Today a 6-mile run takes me from my apartment south to Hyde Park, all the way around the park (all 350 acres) and back home. A year ago a 6-mile run would take me from my apartment, through the Marina-district of San Francisco, along the San Francisco Bay to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and then back home. And, four years ago, a 6 mile run would take me from my apartment in to Central Park in NYC, one lap around the outside loop and then back home. Needless to say, each of these runs offered a pretty spectacular setting, and each reminded me how fortunate I was to live in cities that offered such beauty.

So which is my favorite? Where’s the best running? Who knows, to each is their own, and to me each city holds its own magic. Winter running is a little colder in NYC and London, but the winds in San Francisco can be absolutely brutal!

MBA TV

LBS now is broadcasting a "mini-series", if you will, on YouTube. It's called MBA TV, and it aims to provide potential applicants with information about the School. Here is the most recent installment, with coverage of the LBS Media Summit. (I would of preferred coverage of the Asset Management Conference, but oh well...)

LBS Santa Pub Crawl

A London Business School holiday tradition.

450 Santas making their way through one of the greatest cities in the world, spreading holiday cheer and enjoying each other's company one last time before winter break.

In case you're having trouble imagining such a site...

(Santas in the tube!!)

(Most tourists at Piccadilly Circus probably didn't expect to see this)

A Chilly November Day in London

Raining, cold and grey – a normal November day in London! So, we decided to go to the British Museum, a London landmark that opened its door to the public in 1759. The British Museum is a human history museum, with artifacts from all over the world documenting human life. A few photos from our afternoon at the museum…

(Inside the British Museum)

(The Rosetta Stone - an Ancient-Egyptian artifact created in 196BC, on display at British Museum since 1802)

(Marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath)

(Preparing the British Museum for a future installment)

After the museum, we warmed up in a pub before heading to the Tower of London for ice skating. I’m sure that the few beers I enjoyed helped my ice skating abilities!! Fortunately, we found a brief break in the rain and had a blast on the ice skating rink.

And on our way home, we ended up near Regent Street, a popular shopping street between Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus. The holiday decorations were out in force, so enjoy!

(Looking down Carnaby Street, near Regent Street)

(Looking south down Regent Street)

Cool Places in Our Neighborhood, #2

Well school is in full swing, which is the main reason why no blog updates over the past few weeks. I’d like to expand on my previous post highlighting cool places in my neighborhood. One of my favorite places in this area of London is Regent’s Park.

(The Avenue Gardens)

The park, as it is today, first opened to the public in 1845. The park is huge – it’s around 500 acres in size. It’s great for sport, with plenty of open space to play football (soccer), rugby, cricket, ultimate frisbee, and, of course, a little American football. There are tennis courts and plenty of running paths. The London Zoo, the world’s oldest scientific zoo, also is located in the park. Finally, because LBS sits on the southwest corner of the park, I get to enjoy the beauty of the space from a few of my classrooms.

Whether I’m running around the outer loop, playing rugby or walking through the gardens, Regent’s Park provides an excellent escape from the busy streets of London, and if you’re in the area I highly encourage you to check it out.

(The Boating Lake)

(Next to the LBS campus; the white dome in the back of the photo is LBS)

Cultural Diversity

Last night was London Business School’s annual Tatoo Party. This gathering celebrates LBS’ cultural diversity, and because my class consists of around 60 different nationalities there is quite a lot of celebrating to do. There are around 20 regional clubs at LBS (North American club, Brazil club, Asian club, Africa club, etc) and each of these clubs brought something from their culture to the event. I enjoyed an excellent Russian meat dish (still unsure of the name), sushi from the Japan club, paella from the Spanish club, gelato from the Italians, and some pretty tasty chorizo from the Portuguese. You won’t be too surprised to hear what we brought from the States – hot dogs, hamburgers and apple and cherry pie.

And, it wasn’t all about food; I also caught a Lion dance, an African drumbeat and a Bollywood dance (with LBS students and partners dancing). I missed the belly dancers, mariachi band, salsa dancing and samba. I just couldn’t make it to everything!

Finally, this was the first time I heard the LBS student band, No Donuts for Hilda (btw - they're great). We ended the evening listening to the band, rocking out to songs like ‘Mr. Brightside’ and feeling like we were back in undergrad at a fraternity party listening to the great local cover band. Some things never change, regardless of where you are in the world. Enjoy a few photos…

(Lion Dance)

(African Drumbeat dance)

(A little Bollywood-style dancing)

(No Donuts for Hilda - the LBS Band)

A Day in the Life...

Here's a glimpse in to life as a business school student. (This is Tuesday, September 30, and I wrote this the following day but didn’t have time to post until now.)

7:30am – Wake up, read some news online and check to see 1) if the press developed some cheesy name for the rout in global stocks on Monday, and 2) if the European markets are going to continue to be battered after Congress failed to pass a bailout package. Futures down sharply; more fun.

8:30am – Arrive at LBS, pick up a copy of the WSJ, grab a coffee from The Bite (LBS’ onsite café), pick up my Managerial Economics binder from my locker and head over to the library. I run in to a few friends at The Bite who are on their way to a Speed Reading course taught as part of our Development Skills class. I decided not to take the speed reading class (although I'm sure it would help) because I'm taking classes on negotiation and influencing others later this fall. I’m at the library early today because I need to finish up some assignments before heading back to California for my sister’s wedding.

12:30pm – After grabbing a sandwich, I’m back on campus for an Investment Management Club meeting. The purpose of today’s meeting is to discuss the upcoming stock pitch competition. The competition is open to all LBS students, and each student who wants to be involved selects a stock and, in one page, explains why it’s an outstanding investment opportunity. The submissions are first reviewed by a small group of investment professionals (mostly LBS alumni) who then select 5 finalists to present their ideas. The LBS student who wins gets to represent LBS at a European stock pitch competition as well as at the Alpha Challenge, a global competition held in the U.S. at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

2pm – A 3-hour Managerial Economics class…highlight of the day.

6pm – After running back to my flat to change into more appropriate business attire, I’m off to a CFA Society event at Goldman Sachs’ office (“Alternative Assets: How Risky are Hedge Funds and Private Equity in the Current Climate”). My lousy understanding of London’s tube system means I arrive at the event about 15 minutes late. Following the event, I meet one of the speakers, Drago Indjic, who happens to co-run the Hedge Fund Centre at London Business School and who was one of the speakers at the event. Small world…

9:30pm – Finally get back to my place to have dinner with my wife.

11pm – Time to hit the sack. A busy day, but so far fairly typical of life as a MBA student…