Since I installed the wonderful Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam Image Plugin for WordPress, I haven’t had a single spam comment. This is priceless, and the only minor price to pay is to write a minor buzzword easy to read captcha to publish a comment. I recommend it to anyone using WordPress.

Completely off-MBA-topic.: I am fascinated by the contents of strange maps, a blog on unusual maps. It has some of the most beautiful maps I’ve seen in a while…

In the next month, I should update my CV. It’s a tedious task, but given that I have it published online, it might as well be an updated version.

And then I will have only three projects left (two in group, one individual).

I am so looking forward being done…

In the meantime, and quite off-topic, has any of you practiced or tried Chi Running? I’d like to hear comments if so. Achilles tendinitis is a recurring problem I get when running, and I am curious of whether improving my running form could help me there.

I got a very positive review about it, I’d love to get more opinions.

Here goes a warning for all my foodie readers (and fellow bloggers, you know who you are!).

AVOID Spanish tapas restaurant Viña in Paddington st, W1 (near Marylebone High St, location here). I just came from lunch there, and it’s been awful. I saw the restaurant getting ready to launch a couple of months ago, and I decided to give it a try today.

Item by item:

• The bad: The tortilla was tasteless and came with tomato sauce (why!?), patatas bravas were moist and not krisp, chicken croquetas were extremely heavy.
• The more or less: Chorizo with red wine and the breaded squid were ok, but nothing out of the ordinary.
• The missing: The bread we ordered never made it to the table. The service was quite slow, in general.
• The ultimate sin: The “diverse” mar & montaña included both jamón, chesee, olives and boquerones (anchovies in vinegar). Guess what, everything came in the same big plate, and the boquerones were on top of everything, driping vinegar like there is no tomorrow. The outcome: The cheese, the olives and the jamón tasted all like vinegar. It was horrible! (The Jamón could have been prosciutto, but due to the vinegar… I couldn’t tell!)

Final outcome: Arriving at 1h30pm, two starving spaniards (yours truly and Ms. R) with a good appetite for Spanish food (and a first hand understanding of the limitations in cooking abroad) couldn’t finish a single tapa (all horrible), left in less than one hour, and directly complained to the manager that the food did not deserve to be called Spanish.

My note: Avoid restaurant Viña, that is not Spanish food, and spend your time somewhere else.

PS:  I know this was a little bit of a rant, but I needed to get it off my chest. Now, if only I could get it off my stomach…

One of the amazing things of business school is the people you get surrounded by. Here is a fantastic example: Fredrik, a classmate of mine, (go stream D!) and his team in Sweden are working hard to launch JayCut, a Wiki-Youtube, where people can share their videos and edit them collectively.

Quite a neat application! The other day, I started playing with it and this is what I came up with:

Yes, that is me, dancing in different places à la Matt Harding. The cool thing is that the editing, cutting, titles and music is all done online. Isn’t it cool?

JayCut is still not open to everyone yet, but I believe they will start inviting more users very very soon. Stay tuned to JayCut and their collective editing!

PS: Here is the link to my video mix and to JayCut: JayCut – Mix: World journey

All of us (un)fortunate enough to grow up in the 1980s, remember a classic pop song that explained how TV clips killed radio music, or almost.

Now, something similar is continuosly always happening on the interweb.

The last one is that facebook killed the blogging star!

killed the star

As it was anticipated by Gartner 10 predictions for 2007
it seemed that “3. Blogging and community contributors will peak in the first half of 2007.” While I have no figures on number of interesting blogs being published, I do know that one of the fundamental needs that blogs served for (broadcasting easily what are you doing) is being fulfilled more effectively by facebook.

One of the limitations of any blog, this one for that matter, is the control of who reads what. Unless I convince all of my friends & family to sign up to a access controlled blog (highly unlikely), anything I post here can be read by any person.

If you have ever posted in a blog, you know that will inhibit you from posting things that you would normally want to share with your friends, or start writing in code:

The other day, I went to J partay, he was with Z, and both ended up at 6 am shouking to the sras, in our usual rendezvous place, right before Mr X showed up, in his usual, you know what I mean, right?

No, I don’t understand you. That was 100% gibberish! Well, now facebook allows you to do this, while you get all of your friends to sign up not just for you, but for others as well, you get control of who reads what, etc…

And people write more on facebook than on blogs, and more comments as well!

Blogs will keep open for business, as an open window to the world for wanna be writers (or MBAs, for that matter), or for other people looking to share their views with the world, the other fundamental need that blogs address, but I don’t see how they will ever get back to their previous glory…

PS: I know you want it,…

Thanks to Nick, who send me a link to a very interesting new community:

MBAmarket.com - The premier online MBA Community
MBAmarket.com is a brand new online community for potential MBA students, current MBA students, and MBA alumni. Our goal is to bring the MBA community together and provide a marketplace for all members to benefit from.

I post the link because I think it can be interesting for some of my readers, and it is similar to one of my early initiatives in the Spanish sector of MBAs.

However, DISCLAIMER, I have not joined yet therefore I do not endorse it.

The end of the first year of the MBA is becoming a Grand Finale, very intense, with little time to join any extra community (facebook is demanding enough ). But I thought it was worth posting the link, delivering the news early. Maybe others with more time want to join.

Please let me know how it goes, in case you join

Welcome to the second era of this blog! As of lately, I was posting less and less, because my life is getting more and more demanding, time-wise. This is mainly due to me starting up a business while learning at the MBA. And while I keep my own notes about the startup process separately, I had less and less stuff to share to you, my MBA reader.

While I am still fully involved with the MBA, lots of my bandwidth is allocated to the startup . That’s why I am rebranding my blog, in a double effort to communicate clearly what I do and to revive my own interest in writing here!

That’s why I will write about both subjects now: Entrepreneurship and the MBA.

And why entrepreneurotic? First, because it sounds fun, and second because it offers a glimpse to what being an entrepreneur feels like. According to the definition of neurosis:

Neurosis: Neurosis, also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, is a “catch all” term that refers to any mental imbalance that causes distress, but, unlike a psychosis or some personality disorders, does not prevent rational thought or an individual’s ability to function in daily life.

Certainly, there is a little bit of “mental imbalance” in wanting to learn at an MBA and set up a business (there are interesting sinergies though), distress is involved, but rational though is not impaired at all (or so my grades and daily functioning suggest).

And I have lots of fun doing it!

Off topic items:

• Tomorrow is the stream party, to celebrate the 1st year together.
• On Sunday, my study group will celebrate the 1st year. Our performance and relationships is a remarkable achievement of teamwork of all involved. Some groups have no interest whatsoever in celebrating, or seeing each other anymore, for that matter. Our performance and enjoyment of each other deserves a well earned celebration.
• Admits WE: So fresh! So happy! So engaged! It was great to meet many of the admits. Moreover, many people read me!

Final thought: Last Friday was one of those perfect MBA day: Amazing lecture of Advanced Marketing Strategy, with an awesome speaker (best class speaker so far, clearly) and excellent opportunity to network with YPOers.

I came to the school for days like Friday

“If your customers start CRYING when you go out of business, you were not charging them enough!”[…]

“Charge them so some cry when you are still in business”

Hillarious comment from Prof. John Roberts during Advanced Marketing Strategy class discussion of the Webvan case.

Yesterday we had a memorable day long class, with the Andrea Formica (SVP Marketing and Sales of Toyota in Europe). On top of John’s outstanding and funny class, Mr. Formica displayed all his talent: Very clever, very market oriented, and a continuous effort into gaining customer insight through data and translating it into relevant action.

Toyota is executing a very ambitious strategy in Europe, with remarkable success in increasing its market share in a flat market. Top execution + insight into market reality is driving them to success. And a very focused, results oriented, no-trend of the day followers approach. Loved it!

In the afternoon, we discussed about Webvan, a fabulous case of ambition, VC money, marketing short-sightedness, and an unsuccessful final attempt to recover from near death experience.

A great Friday all day long class!

But the evening, with the YPO people, was even better… (pending post…)