Let’s begin with where we left
off – talking about the fun stuff between the other fun stuff called exams. We kicked off Term 2 with the great annual
Burns night event and quickly followed it up with International week. Burns night celebrates the life of Robert
Burns, the Scottish composer of poems,
lyrics and other pieces that addressed political and civil issues. Most can recite/slur one of his pieces on NYE when
they have an attempt at the famous "Auld Lang Syne". He used to be celebrated on the anniversary
of his death, July 21st, but the Scottish, being upbeat as they are,
switched it to his birthdate of 21st January, which being in winter
makes the traditional haggis, scotch whisky and poetry all the more palatable/enjoyable. At Cranfield we invite the London Business
School to come up and compete in various sports through the day and in Scottish dancing through the night. A great day and night was had by all.
We
followed it up with International week where all the countries represented by the
cohort get to be celebrated one by one through the week. We got to taste the countries culinary delights, hear the traditional music and experience other parts of the culture. We started with Asia on the first night,
jumped across to Europe and Africa the next night and covered the Aussies,
Kiwis and America’s on the last night.
If you ever have an international week always schedule to finish with
the South Americans, they know how to close a celebration in style with a Carnival
party – great fun. It quickly became
apparent that everyone has great pride in their countries – and why not! I think all of us have some great future
travelling ahead of us as we visit our cohort over the coming decades. Guys, how about 5 year reunions hosted by each
country over the next 100 odd years? Just
an idea.
Other
than that the term has been going well.
I am sure we have as much work as last term, if not more, but we are now
adept at drinking from the metaphorical 'knowledge fire hose' of the MBA whilst still being
able to drink at the social. The
subjects from Term 1 and term 2 are increasingly intersecting. We could be covering government bonds as part
of Monetary policy in economics and then corporate bonds in the next Finance lecture; reflection on Agency costs
in Economics, Finance, People Management and Strategy; Operations and Supply
Chain as part of the consideration for business recovery in Strategy; the
Porters five forces model covered in Marketing being used in an analysis for
project decisions in Exploiting Information Technology; director
responsibilities dealt with in Business Law relating with business ethics in
People Management. It all comes full
circle.
Speaking
of full circle, people are acutely aware of the need to return to a job to
apply this great knowledge (and to earn one’s keep!) so there is now a stream
of career events and visits from companies. Congratulations to Lekgotla who was the first
from the cohort to confirm a new role, in this case McKinsey’s, after he was
flown to Johannesburg last weekend for his final interview for the consulting
role. Nice work mate. I believe this means that the first 5 year
cohort reunion will be held in South Africa in 2018, hosted by Lex. Bring it on!
