Dear reader,

Thanks to the ubiquity of my mobile posts, I am going to post some week-in-review detailed information about what goes on in my MBA routine. I hope some of you (prospective, applicants) find it interesting.. There are plenty of gaps, but it will give you an idea about my schedule. And it is from Saturday to Friday, because it was Saturday when I got the idea

• Saturday:

Swimming for 1000m . First time I swim in two months, happy to be able to keep it up. However, I am out of shape and want to get some more speed. Relaxed day, meditating what comes ahead.

• Sunday:

Sunny day, let’s take advantage of it: Walk all over Hyde Park, Chelsea, Battersea Park and back home. About 7.7mi walk. Plan for the week, bc I want to keep up other projects while the MBA starts again, and I want to be able to prioritize accordingly.

• Monday:

Up at 6am. Preparing for classes, because the MBA is on again. First day of classes of 2007. DEO, Discovering Entrepreneurial Opportunities. Interesting concept of “systematically discovering” opportunities. Some homework to be done. Private Equity 101, excellent conference by classmates Sasa and Iliana. A couple of conference calls. Sleeping at 23:00.

• Tuesday:

Up at 6am. Prepare for classes. Finance (Joao is capable to make any topic interesting) and MOB, Managing Organizational Behavior. After a long day, reviewing the goals for the quarter and the things I want to focus more on. Back home for dinner, two chapters of “Yes, minister!” (glorious amazon dvd rentals) and off to bed at 10pm.

• Wednesday:

Up at 5am Preparation for cases early in the morning, cleaning up my inbox. Marketing class, slow paced for my taste, but with an interesting framework at the end. During the break, study group (I love my study group) meeting to organize quarter (this one is going to be tougher than autumn quarter). After class, sandwich lunch with Michael and Tien Lu. Work on other projects all the afternoon in the library, where I bumped into The Divine Miss N after her return. I just guessed it had to be her, and I was right, she is just great. Then moved on to swimming pool, swam 500m. From 4:30pm on, I was at the presentation of the book “Ready, Willing and Able?” by Asa Bjornberg and Nigel Nicholson with Nishant. Some more email at LBS. Then back to home to work on the multitude of assignments due for next week:

• 6 group & individual assignments
• 5 case preparations
• 3 Group Assignments
• 1 Questionnaire

…and buy some groceries. Keep working and have dinner. And discovering the joys of buying groceries online at Tesco. To bed around 23h.

• Thursday

Up at 6am. Work in projects. Go to DRA Decision and Risk Analysis class. Very dynamic and engaging teacher. The takeaway of the day: Never play Russian roulette and use regression analysis wisely. Back to home for lunch, showered along the way (glorious rain from the sky). Lunch and work at projects. Presentation by Ana Patricia Botin, Banesto bank CEO. Interesting to see how a high-powered Spanish executive behaves and addresses (direct, frank, no-nonsense, no apologies, owning the room, strong emotional ownership, normal-to-low voice tone, simple standing with no distracting movements) and her ” Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo“:

• The extreme problem in Spanish university system is the complete out of touch with the business world it is. The ” Knowledge and Development Foundation” is helping to bridge the gap and encourage better transfer of knowledge from universities.
• According to Ms.Botin, the first step they are undertaking is to gather data about the situation. Good starting point, but then, what is next?
• Yesterday I read in the news that 2/3 Spanish university students want to become “funcionarios” (public servants with lifelong employment), the opposite of entrepreneurial and ambition. Spain has a big cultural and social problem with the lack of ambition and drive.

after the presentation, discussion about divine and mundane matters with Mr.A and Ms.C, both attending the presentation and then head home. The wind was incredibly strong, but luckily there are no trees on my way home. A little bit of home improvement (bought a new powerful floodlight). Dinner, feeling a little bit exhausted, to bed at 10pm

• Friday:

No classes today. Up at 5am. Work at home in multiple projects. My first UK online shopping gets delivered, just on time. It’s official: I love tesco online .. I will buy more often there, although it requires a little bit of planning, I do not have to carry groceries home. I have pizza for lunch, I feel bloated in the early afternoon. Go to school. I do a mock interview to a friend who wants to work at Google at 3pm. She is good. Meeting with a teacher at 4pm. Work in the library for an hour.

In a couple of hours, I will probably go to Sundowners. Now I just post this. I hope you can gain a more intimate appreciation of what a week means for a MBAer. This was a weird week, because it was the first one in the quarter, so it always demands some adaptation.

If you like this post and want more of this sort of material, leave me a comment.

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