A new check on my list of accomplishments: I gave my first public speech at our official GLOBE graduation. Having suffered from a strong stammer and a fear of public speaking as a child, it was a personal accomplishment. But also taught me first hand why public speaking is so hard.
First, a good speech. You need to have something to say, so unless you are Abraham Lincoln, most public speakers have their speeches written for them. Second, you need to rehearse it so that it feels natural. Ever written something semi-academic and then read it out loud? Sounds absolutely horrific. Short and crisp trumps long and detailed every time. Finally, you have to deliver it forcefully, empathetically, and (to highlight my weakness) slowly. After looking at the same words for so long, you race through the points without thinking twice - make sure other people get them as well.
Public speaking, to me, is one of the greatest skills possibly
acquirable. If you have the gift of oration you can voice
opinions and defeat arguments. You can convey messages in their simplest
form and in their strongest meaning. You can stir emotions and guide actions, and you are able to convince other men to follow your cause. Influential statesmen such as Jefferson, Lincoln, and Churchill have all been magnificent orators. Hitler, probably the greatest orator of the 20th century, is a perverse testimony to the power of speech.
The GLOBE speech was about anything - the only constraint was 5 minutes. Each school picked a speaker, so since there was a risk of them all being the same, I tried to pick a specific topic which all 45 students could still relate to. I wanted to make a point, but without jamming my opinions down other peoples throats. I wanted to speak to everyone individually, but I wanted to speak for everyone collectively. So I decided upon the topic of choice and tried to put some words to the puzzling realization that even after spending 18 months together on GLOBE, why are we now more different than ever before?
It wasn't exactly Pericles' funeral oration, but it went well. I missed a few opportunities to hammer home my points using my voice, and I had a couple of nervous stumbles. My style of writing definitely doesn't appeal to everyone, so not everyone was equally thrilled. But a couple of people complimented it, which I really appreciated, and I learnt from it. A good start to, hopefully, a long list of successful speeches.
GLOBE graduation speech, December 5th 2012. Any names have been removed.
As a child, I had a couple of phobias: heights, public speaking. But my greatest phobia was making the wrong choice. I would therefore try to get as many options as possible, I would try to keep them open for as long as possible, and in the end I would try to make sure I make the best possible choice - whatever that means.
In that sense, GLOBE was perfect for me. It represented unlimited possibilities, especially compared to a structured, student routine in Denmark. For me, GLOBE was the opportunity to learn business, languages, culture, social relations, the opportunity to travel for adventure, for taste, for family living, and simply for pleasure. I t was the opportunity to sharpen my talents and to improve my weaknesses. It was the opportunity to explore and be curious, and to hone in and be focused. It was an opportunity to make networks and friends, and time to focus on personal development.
We all had these opportunities. We were given a million options and told, expected even, to get everything out of it. If I didn’t come back to Denmark having trekked across Indonesia, been swimming with dolphins, become an expert in Chinese cuisine and road-tripped all the way across America, in their eyes, I would not have made the most of GLOBE. With so many options, equally many choices. Now at the close, out of the millions of choices I made, I feel the one with the most impact was: The choice to seek out differences and to try and understand them.
Being bilingual, born and raised in Africa, I thought: “I have experience a fair amount about cultural differences”. But from the very first day on GLOBE, it was evident that there are even more I don't understand: "Why do Americans persistently wear a visible white t-shirt with their otherwise flashy Ralph Lauren shirts?". "How could xxx breakfast simply be a whole liter of full-fat milk?". "And how could xxx be so lazy and still have a higher GPA than me?".
Over time, as I was busy trying to understand you, you all helped me understand myself: "How could I slam the perceived over-ambition of Asians without ever discussing the topic with someone who has tried it?". "Why did I not invite more people back to my parent’s house, when your gratitude for doing so was so obvious?". "And how could I not go to the Library on a Monday night when they have $1 well drinks?".
We began in similar positions in our lives, and we now leave more scattered than ever before. We made strong connections with some people, while others are simply acquaintances. It is as it should be – we made our choices, trying to move towards our dreams and ideals, and GLOBE is simply a point on the path towards that. Now, it has served its purpose, giving us the understanding, experiences, and friends we need to make the next big round of choices in our lives.
My fear of choices often came in justifying them. The “I want to” statement never really resonated well with me. Growing up, being different; the choices I made: to go to school, to work hard – they were all justified by an idea, the vision of “I am going somewhere”. I thought that at some time in my life, I would find people who understood these choices.
I have found many of you in GLOBE. But I was wrong: we shouldn’t have to justify our choices. We shouldn’t have to justify why we spend that extra hour on PowerPoint slides for Private Equity, or why we would want to travel that little bit extra and just settle for a B+. Everyone come from different paths, have different desires, and value their options differently.
So as we move forward in our lives, I hope you all get to make your choices as you see fit. I hope they take you toward that which fulfils you and makes you happy, regardless of whether those choices contain fame, money, family, personal experiences or human salvation. And when your travels take you through Denmark, I hope you’ll choose to give me a call. I promise - you will never have to justify it.
fredag den 7. december 2012
tirsdag den 4. december 2012
Behavioural finance
Recommended by my awesome derivatives professor, I took a behavioural finance course in the final quarter. Spanning the gap between my inherent desire for reason and the obvious realization that the world is not so, it also included elements of psychology, leadership and game theory. Having just finished my final lecture, it is time for contemplation: numerous take-aways, great in-class discussions, extremely competent professor, and (my favourite) a tool to understand why so many things we learn in school are inherently wrong due to human nature.
The best example, and perhaps the most fun, was a game we played: Everyone in the room writes down a number between 0 and 100. The numbers were then all averaged, and the winner of the $20 prize was the person with the number closest to 2/3 of that average. Mathematically there is an optimal solution, but for non-mathematicians, the way to think about it is what happened if you were playing against a large sample of trained baboons. They would write down random numbers between 0 and 100, implying that their average would 50. You should therefore write two-thirds of that number (33) to claim the $20. However, although you may sometimes think so, most of your classmates have more thinking capabilities than your average baboon. They are in business school, have gotten decent grades, and since you figured out that 33 is a good number, they probably will also. Thus the actual average will be 33, so you should write 22. But then they will figure this our as well, so you should write 15 - and so on. This gets you to the realization that the optimal number you should write is 0.
Let us pivot to think about the stock market. If the optimal value of an asset / a firm can be determined, then smart people investing should be able to figure this out and price the asset / firm accordingly. The underlying notion of functioning markets is that investors are rational - implying that the value of the asset / firm is fully reflected in its price.
Back to the game: so far, so good. You are a perfect specimen of rationality, intellectually supreme, and a model student of your University. You are also not going to win the $20. Because the actual game is not picking the correct number, it is essentially assessing what the ratio of baboons to business intellectuals in your class is, and what those baboons are likely to pick as a number. You can also think about the baboon's developing intellectuality, so how many times they go through the problem. Just because he realizes that the average of the class is going to be 50 and puts 33, he may not realize that others will think the same way.
That game, unfortunately, I am less good at. Having played this game several times now, people tend to do 2-3 iterations of the problem, so somewhere between 15 and 20 is a good bet. The smaller the class, the more a potential baboon can wreck havoc and the more other factors will have an effect, such as whether you think the semi-hungover junior in the corner who buttoned his shirt asymmetrically this morning actually understood the rules.
I picked "17" in a small class (13 people), which would have been bang on if only somebody hadn't put 93 (!). Being overly competitive I unfortunately blurted out that that is not even a possible winning number, even if everyone picked 100 - apologies. But is does show that just because you are in a business school, doesn't mean you are not a baboon.
Relating back to the stock market idiom, the takeaway is pretty obvious. It doesn't matter what the true value is, it only matters what people think the true value is. Markets should be inherently efficient, but because people are not, neither will they. If you give a good model to a huge group of baboon investors, the real skill which will create value is understanding baboon psychology. I picked the wrong business major.
The best example, and perhaps the most fun, was a game we played: Everyone in the room writes down a number between 0 and 100. The numbers were then all averaged, and the winner of the $20 prize was the person with the number closest to 2/3 of that average. Mathematically there is an optimal solution, but for non-mathematicians, the way to think about it is what happened if you were playing against a large sample of trained baboons. They would write down random numbers between 0 and 100, implying that their average would 50. You should therefore write two-thirds of that number (33) to claim the $20. However, although you may sometimes think so, most of your classmates have more thinking capabilities than your average baboon. They are in business school, have gotten decent grades, and since you figured out that 33 is a good number, they probably will also. Thus the actual average will be 33, so you should write 22. But then they will figure this our as well, so you should write 15 - and so on. This gets you to the realization that the optimal number you should write is 0.
Let us pivot to think about the stock market. If the optimal value of an asset / a firm can be determined, then smart people investing should be able to figure this out and price the asset / firm accordingly. The underlying notion of functioning markets is that investors are rational - implying that the value of the asset / firm is fully reflected in its price.
Back to the game: so far, so good. You are a perfect specimen of rationality, intellectually supreme, and a model student of your University. You are also not going to win the $20. Because the actual game is not picking the correct number, it is essentially assessing what the ratio of baboons to business intellectuals in your class is, and what those baboons are likely to pick as a number. You can also think about the baboon's developing intellectuality, so how many times they go through the problem. Just because he realizes that the average of the class is going to be 50 and puts 33, he may not realize that others will think the same way.
That game, unfortunately, I am less good at. Having played this game several times now, people tend to do 2-3 iterations of the problem, so somewhere between 15 and 20 is a good bet. The smaller the class, the more a potential baboon can wreck havoc and the more other factors will have an effect, such as whether you think the semi-hungover junior in the corner who buttoned his shirt asymmetrically this morning actually understood the rules.
I picked "17" in a small class (13 people), which would have been bang on if only somebody hadn't put 93 (!). Being overly competitive I unfortunately blurted out that that is not even a possible winning number, even if everyone picked 100 - apologies. But is does show that just because you are in a business school, doesn't mean you are not a baboon.
Relating back to the stock market idiom, the takeaway is pretty obvious. It doesn't matter what the true value is, it only matters what people think the true value is. Markets should be inherently efficient, but because people are not, neither will they. If you give a good model to a huge group of baboon investors, the real skill which will create value is understanding baboon psychology. I picked the wrong business major.
søndag den 2. december 2012
A cappella
One of the idiosyncratic pieces of American campus culture is a cappella. Bands are prestigious, professional, and present everywhere. In the intro weeks, bands would walk around campus, stand outside dorms, and give fantastic exhibitions of rhythm, creativity, and harmony. It is not uncommon to overhead a group of students singing together under their breath. Since a fellow GLOBEr is in a group, I went to his fall concert to be supportive and to see what the commotion was all about.
A cappella is music performed without instruments and originated in from religious chants. At UNC the style is always the same: A group of 12-15 stand in a semi-circle, often in two rows, with a soloist in the centre. Most groups perform popular music which is written with instruments, so there is almost always a beatboxer on one flank keeping a beat and emphasizing the musical climaxes.
The concert was presented by the Tar Heel Voices, UNC's oldest co-ed a cappella group. They sang popular songs from the likes of Taylor Swift and Disney, classics such as Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September", but also had couple of unknown songs such as my favourite by miles: Delta Rae's "Morning Comes". There were also performances from the UNC Loreleis, the schools oldest all-female a cappella group, a hearty, collective performance of UNC's Alma Mater with the audience, and small theatrical sketches. It was a great way to spend 2 hours a Saturday evening.
What I didn't realize was the amount of dedication that being in such a group requires. The group performs semi-annually and have produced several CD's - indeed the proceeds from the concert goes toward a new album in the spring. The amount of band alumni and their interaction with the group during the concert showed just how strong a bond one gets with the group mates once they being part of the fellowship. On the program, new members of the group were proudly titled "NEWB".
It proved to me once again the American culture of assimilating into sub-groups and defining yourself within those groups. In a ethnically homogeneous society such as Denmark, the group encompasses the nation. In America, the huge influx of immigrants and its sheer size makes such a group impossible. Instead, sub-groups have learned to co-exist (impressive if you look at global history), basing its principles of liberty for the individual. College is a microcosm of this trend, with people coming from around the state and being flung into a new social structure. People then chose their groups and significantly commit. This is a general trend, and exceptions naturally exist, but it helps explain both the lack of extremes in Denmark and the huge expectations of the American groups. This also makes social mobility between groups much harder, both in college and in America in general.
A cappella is music performed without instruments and originated in from religious chants. At UNC the style is always the same: A group of 12-15 stand in a semi-circle, often in two rows, with a soloist in the centre. Most groups perform popular music which is written with instruments, so there is almost always a beatboxer on one flank keeping a beat and emphasizing the musical climaxes.
The concert was presented by the Tar Heel Voices, UNC's oldest co-ed a cappella group. They sang popular songs from the likes of Taylor Swift and Disney, classics such as Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Earth, Wind and Fire's "September", but also had couple of unknown songs such as my favourite by miles: Delta Rae's "Morning Comes". There were also performances from the UNC Loreleis, the schools oldest all-female a cappella group, a hearty, collective performance of UNC's Alma Mater with the audience, and small theatrical sketches. It was a great way to spend 2 hours a Saturday evening.
What I didn't realize was the amount of dedication that being in such a group requires. The group performs semi-annually and have produced several CD's - indeed the proceeds from the concert goes toward a new album in the spring. The amount of band alumni and their interaction with the group during the concert showed just how strong a bond one gets with the group mates once they being part of the fellowship. On the program, new members of the group were proudly titled "NEWB".
It proved to me once again the American culture of assimilating into sub-groups and defining yourself within those groups. In a ethnically homogeneous society such as Denmark, the group encompasses the nation. In America, the huge influx of immigrants and its sheer size makes such a group impossible. Instead, sub-groups have learned to co-exist (impressive if you look at global history), basing its principles of liberty for the individual. College is a microcosm of this trend, with people coming from around the state and being flung into a new social structure. People then chose their groups and significantly commit. This is a general trend, and exceptions naturally exist, but it helps explain both the lack of extremes in Denmark and the huge expectations of the American groups. This also makes social mobility between groups much harder, both in college and in America in general.
torsdag den 29. november 2012
Thanksgiving
2 weeks before exams, 5 weeks before Christmas, and only 4 weeks after the previous holiday, it was Thanksgiving. And boy was it welcome! An opportunity to recharge the batteries, I headed north to Greenwich, Connecticut to family friends, a change of pace, and my first experience of this American holiday.
Like most historical American traditions, Thanksgiving Day traces its roots back to Britain. Under the English Reformation under Henry VIII, the vast number of religious holidays were moulded together and significantly reduced. Some wanted to reduce these days even further, into a couple of significant Days of Thanksgiving. These English dissenters (sometimes referred to as Puritans) could not change the Anglican church from within, not least due to a strong Catholic opposition and an unstable transition to King James I in 1603, so many emigrated either to the Netherlands or later to America. They brought their ideas and values with them, setting up their own church and religious ceremonies, and the Pilgrims would undoubtedly be thankful for surviving and prospering in this new land.
Things have changed considerably since then. More food, more football, more family - less stressing, less religion, less risk of being attacked by natives. It is a holiday where most people return to their family, and thus a lot of events are based in the neighbourhood: cocktails, meet-and-greets, touch football + lunch, and a trip to the local bar. When I was not eating and drinking, I found myself with a book on the sofa, outside in the awesome sunshine weather on walks, or playing pool, trivial pursuit, or Blokus in front of a fire or a Patriots game. And four happy days passed by in an instant.
2 things were especially striking. My bus ride back and forth operated out of Chinatown. It was a cheap $60 each way (a third of the airfare), but apparently they had safety concerns, were notoriously unreliable, and had a reputation for being pretty sketchy. I didn't realize this until I actual got on the bus, which was 75 minutes late, but the 8 hour overnight ride was uneventful. The seats were (naturally) Asian sized (Hong Kong busses also had seats designed for people 5 foot 8"), so I didn't get much sleep as resting my head was equivalent to staring straight up in the air. Going back, however, was considerably more pleasurable, especially since I had been packed a hearty late-night snack of fruit, crisps, cookies and turkey sandwiches!
The second thing is Paddle tennis. Played outdoor on a enclosed miniature tennis court with paddles rather than rackets, the rules are pretty much the same as tennis, although the ball is rubbery, the paddles are solid fiber (rather than strings), and if it hits the back / side walls you may hit it, similar to squash. It is thus a game of tactics, vision, and positioning rather than a game of technique and power, since a hard shot simply bounces back onto the court. This also means it is a game for all age groups. We played doubles, 3 close sets, experiencing my first snow of the year, and headed back for a cup of tea as the winter sun was setting. First Thanksgiving, and I wouldn't wish it had been any different.
Like most historical American traditions, Thanksgiving Day traces its roots back to Britain. Under the English Reformation under Henry VIII, the vast number of religious holidays were moulded together and significantly reduced. Some wanted to reduce these days even further, into a couple of significant Days of Thanksgiving. These English dissenters (sometimes referred to as Puritans) could not change the Anglican church from within, not least due to a strong Catholic opposition and an unstable transition to King James I in 1603, so many emigrated either to the Netherlands or later to America. They brought their ideas and values with them, setting up their own church and religious ceremonies, and the Pilgrims would undoubtedly be thankful for surviving and prospering in this new land.
Things have changed considerably since then. More food, more football, more family - less stressing, less religion, less risk of being attacked by natives. It is a holiday where most people return to their family, and thus a lot of events are based in the neighbourhood: cocktails, meet-and-greets, touch football + lunch, and a trip to the local bar. When I was not eating and drinking, I found myself with a book on the sofa, outside in the awesome sunshine weather on walks, or playing pool, trivial pursuit, or Blokus in front of a fire or a Patriots game. And four happy days passed by in an instant.
2 things were especially striking. My bus ride back and forth operated out of Chinatown. It was a cheap $60 each way (a third of the airfare), but apparently they had safety concerns, were notoriously unreliable, and had a reputation for being pretty sketchy. I didn't realize this until I actual got on the bus, which was 75 minutes late, but the 8 hour overnight ride was uneventful. The seats were (naturally) Asian sized (Hong Kong busses also had seats designed for people 5 foot 8"), so I didn't get much sleep as resting my head was equivalent to staring straight up in the air. Going back, however, was considerably more pleasurable, especially since I had been packed a hearty late-night snack of fruit, crisps, cookies and turkey sandwiches!
The second thing is Paddle tennis. Played outdoor on a enclosed miniature tennis court with paddles rather than rackets, the rules are pretty much the same as tennis, although the ball is rubbery, the paddles are solid fiber (rather than strings), and if it hits the back / side walls you may hit it, similar to squash. It is thus a game of tactics, vision, and positioning rather than a game of technique and power, since a hard shot simply bounces back onto the court. This also means it is a game for all age groups. We played doubles, 3 close sets, experiencing my first snow of the year, and headed back for a cup of tea as the winter sun was setting. First Thanksgiving, and I wouldn't wish it had been any different.
mandag den 19. november 2012
Unexpected fortune
After some 15 months on GLOBE, I have been overly susceptible to cultural influences. I personally believe that I have grown and become less surprised by differences of actions and opinions. But 2 experiences this week has reminded me that there is still much to learn.
First, a volleyball tournament. A couple of CUHK'ers are particularly interested in the sport, so on their initiative we made a GLOBE team to compete in a recreational tournament on campus. After crashing out in the quarter finals, two of them asked me if I wanted to join in a 3-a-side tournament on Monday evening. Entrance fee was 2 dollars, but their were prizes to be won. Having had a midterm moved and wanting to spend more time on the the court with them, I happily accepted. Come 8 PM, I burst through the door to the hall, panting after having sprinted not to be late. Expecting to see semi-pro volleyball teams warming up, I instead find myself face to face with 12 or so blonde sorority girls. To the unaware reader, UNC sorority girls can be spotted a mile away by their pony-tailed hair, large sweatshirt, short Nike shorts, and running shoes with ankle-length socks. None of them are warming up and none are more than 5'8", although the 3 volleyballs and nets assure me I am in the correct place. Looking at the door once more, a poster informs me that this is a charity event for the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, with the proceeds going to a scholarship. It is open for all, but that a sorority hosted it obviously scared away most male participants.
I spot my two Asian compadres (who stand out considerably by being the only male, non-white people in the gym), grab a ball, and trudge over to them. They obviously still have no clue that this is a sorority event, grinningly remarking that the lower nets will be a severe advantage for us. I look back at the girls and after hearing that some of them have never hit a ball before, I feel like I might as well leave now than waste an hour in an unfair fight. But it was charity, I had come this far, and my friends needed me. So I might as well make the best of it. Fortunate choice. It turned out the only other real "team" were 3 sisters who had been volleyball players their whole life. What they lacked in size they made up for in technique, jumping ability, placement, vision, and, surprisingly, powerful serves. We played 2 close games, but we prevailed in 2 sets both times. First prize in the tournament and 25 dollars worth of craft beer and a gift card for 5 to dinner. As my finance-savvy friend remarked: "Pretty good return on our 2 dollar investment"
The second experience was this weekend. A friend was turning 22 and his parents were in town and had invited us over for Cuban food, beer, and football. Afterwards we decide to head to a bar for a drink or two, but in my hurry to catch the bus there I had left my drivers license at home. In a student town like Chapel Hill they are super strict on under-age drinking, so no license = no entrance. It was midnight, bars close at 2, and I lived 30 minutes walk away. Most unfortunate.
The exact moment I realize this, 2 black dudes sporting baggy, colourful outfits (green and purple, respectively) with matching snapbacks (a cap) ask where we are going. After giving them the venue, the first guy replies he can get us in - no problem. I have had very little contact with black people outside the basketball court, so I am unfamiliar with their directness, the seemingly aggressive statements, and the fact that they speak with so much slang which, when being drunk, bears almost no resemblance to English. Memories of Shanghai flashed into my mind. Their un-shaved look, dreadlocks, and 200 pounds of pure muscle don't reassure me. So I politely try to decline while trying to keep everyone contained on the street until I could figure out what to do with my situation. But with the guy pushing and having no idea what to do with my ID situation, I thought "what the hell" and marched towards the bar.
We walk past a 50 person line, straight up to the bouncer, and after my new friend and him exchange words, we are ushered round the back of the building. Being some 12 people, the guy said we would have to go in teams. But after grabbing his mate and a female friend they had with them, he pointed at me at said: "You wit me dog!" He slung his arm around my neck, matched me round the corner, past the bouncer, and straight into the bar.
First night I forget my ID, a random black guy gets me into a bar. I was mindblown. I thanked him and bought him a beer, getting an opportunity to get to know him. My prejudices had got the better of me, and I was sure to make up for it. He apparently held a degree in electrical engineering (!), but was back because his younger brother went to UNC. He went by "JJ" and he kept calling me "dog", "homie", and "bro". I couldn't quite figure out why he spoke like a gangster or why he had helped me, but before I had the opportunity to ask he had finished his pint and gave me a series of intricate handshakes which I mimicked as well as could. He seemed to take a liking to me, because as he headed into the crowd he told me to meet him at 2 when the place closed to go smoke weed. I declined, not trying to push my luck any further, but he was gone before he heard the answer. I sat back down at the bar, completely perplexed, until my other friends showed up 10 minutes later, with a smile that couldn't be wiped from my face.
First, a volleyball tournament. A couple of CUHK'ers are particularly interested in the sport, so on their initiative we made a GLOBE team to compete in a recreational tournament on campus. After crashing out in the quarter finals, two of them asked me if I wanted to join in a 3-a-side tournament on Monday evening. Entrance fee was 2 dollars, but their were prizes to be won. Having had a midterm moved and wanting to spend more time on the the court with them, I happily accepted. Come 8 PM, I burst through the door to the hall, panting after having sprinted not to be late. Expecting to see semi-pro volleyball teams warming up, I instead find myself face to face with 12 or so blonde sorority girls. To the unaware reader, UNC sorority girls can be spotted a mile away by their pony-tailed hair, large sweatshirt, short Nike shorts, and running shoes with ankle-length socks. None of them are warming up and none are more than 5'8", although the 3 volleyballs and nets assure me I am in the correct place. Looking at the door once more, a poster informs me that this is a charity event for the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, with the proceeds going to a scholarship. It is open for all, but that a sorority hosted it obviously scared away most male participants.
I spot my two Asian compadres (who stand out considerably by being the only male, non-white people in the gym), grab a ball, and trudge over to them. They obviously still have no clue that this is a sorority event, grinningly remarking that the lower nets will be a severe advantage for us. I look back at the girls and after hearing that some of them have never hit a ball before, I feel like I might as well leave now than waste an hour in an unfair fight. But it was charity, I had come this far, and my friends needed me. So I might as well make the best of it. Fortunate choice. It turned out the only other real "team" were 3 sisters who had been volleyball players their whole life. What they lacked in size they made up for in technique, jumping ability, placement, vision, and, surprisingly, powerful serves. We played 2 close games, but we prevailed in 2 sets both times. First prize in the tournament and 25 dollars worth of craft beer and a gift card for 5 to dinner. As my finance-savvy friend remarked: "Pretty good return on our 2 dollar investment"
The second experience was this weekend. A friend was turning 22 and his parents were in town and had invited us over for Cuban food, beer, and football. Afterwards we decide to head to a bar for a drink or two, but in my hurry to catch the bus there I had left my drivers license at home. In a student town like Chapel Hill they are super strict on under-age drinking, so no license = no entrance. It was midnight, bars close at 2, and I lived 30 minutes walk away. Most unfortunate.
The exact moment I realize this, 2 black dudes sporting baggy, colourful outfits (green and purple, respectively) with matching snapbacks (a cap) ask where we are going. After giving them the venue, the first guy replies he can get us in - no problem. I have had very little contact with black people outside the basketball court, so I am unfamiliar with their directness, the seemingly aggressive statements, and the fact that they speak with so much slang which, when being drunk, bears almost no resemblance to English. Memories of Shanghai flashed into my mind. Their un-shaved look, dreadlocks, and 200 pounds of pure muscle don't reassure me. So I politely try to decline while trying to keep everyone contained on the street until I could figure out what to do with my situation. But with the guy pushing and having no idea what to do with my ID situation, I thought "what the hell" and marched towards the bar.
We walk past a 50 person line, straight up to the bouncer, and after my new friend and him exchange words, we are ushered round the back of the building. Being some 12 people, the guy said we would have to go in teams. But after grabbing his mate and a female friend they had with them, he pointed at me at said: "You wit me dog!" He slung his arm around my neck, matched me round the corner, past the bouncer, and straight into the bar.
First night I forget my ID, a random black guy gets me into a bar. I was mindblown. I thanked him and bought him a beer, getting an opportunity to get to know him. My prejudices had got the better of me, and I was sure to make up for it. He apparently held a degree in electrical engineering (!), but was back because his younger brother went to UNC. He went by "JJ" and he kept calling me "dog", "homie", and "bro". I couldn't quite figure out why he spoke like a gangster or why he had helped me, but before I had the opportunity to ask he had finished his pint and gave me a series of intricate handshakes which I mimicked as well as could. He seemed to take a liking to me, because as he headed into the crowd he told me to meet him at 2 when the place closed to go smoke weed. I declined, not trying to push my luck any further, but he was gone before he heard the answer. I sat back down at the bar, completely perplexed, until my other friends showed up 10 minutes later, with a smile that couldn't be wiped from my face.
tirsdag den 13. november 2012
Good Housekeeping
My room mate had been poorly for a week or so, but overnight his tonsils swelled to the size of a walnut. A trip to the campus health service immediately led to the diagnosis: Mononucleosis. So I have since turned into a Corpsman for my friend.
Mononucleosis, known as "mono", glandular fever, or colloquially as "the kissing disease", is a virus infection affecting the lymphocytes (a part of the immune system). Its symptoms are severe fatigue, swollen lymph nodes around the body, joint pain, muscle soreness, sore throat and potentially flu-like symptoms. Furthermore, the infection of the immune system makes the patient more likely to contract further diseases, such as a bacterial throat infection. Although it is non-fatal, there is no treatment other than symptom-relief, and it can take up to 2-3 months to fully recover. The virus spreads through saliva, so by sharing cups, cutlery, toothbrushes or by kissing, but it is not airborne - hence I have not been panicking about finding a new room mate.
The main impediment to the patient is fatigue, which makes it harder to maintain a normal, fast-paced lifestyle. The virus also affects the spleen, liver and the abdomen, meaning no alcohol and limited fatty foods. Furthermore, the patient should refrain from any contact sport, as a blow to one of the affected organs could cause internal bleeding and potentially be life threatening. So for an athletic footballing college senior in America on exchange with two months left, it is a utterly miserable situation.
Hence my desire to try to help as much as I can. He has been bedridden for the last 3 days, sleeping sporadically with fatigue, headaches, joint pain and a sore, swollen throat. Medication was limited to painkillers, and he was in no condition to go outdoors, let alone do any kind of work. So I have tried to maintain a steady stream of soup, milky tea with honey, and yoghurt every 6 hours to ensure he is somewhat nourished, making sure he drinks other fluids than just water to keep up his electrolyte balance, and trying to alleviate the worst element of lying ill: boredom.
Today was a change of events. He felt considerably worse, his throat swelling up even more, so he went for another check-up at the clinic. Here he got pumped full of saline, painkillers, steroids to reduce the swelling in his throat, and antibiotics for a recently contracted strep throat - he thus looked considerably better this evening, although severely drugged up. However, the steroids lower his already weak immune system, so when my late class got cancelled, I took it as a sign to turn our dusty bachelors den into a somewhat sterile infirmary.
After a quick shopping spree for cleaning utensils, my time in the military was put to good use: The place was vacuum-cleaned spotless, all dust wiped of surfaces with anti-viral wipes, all our laundry was done, including all bed sheets and pillow cases. The duvets were hung outside to get aired, and all items he had been in contact with were thoroughly washed or completely disposed of. Hopefully this will mean he is less susceptible to contract anything else, and he should be back to class on Monday (hopefully) and in some decent shape for Thanksgiving. Till then, I'll keep the orange juice and take-away meals coming!
Mononucleosis, known as "mono", glandular fever, or colloquially as "the kissing disease", is a virus infection affecting the lymphocytes (a part of the immune system). Its symptoms are severe fatigue, swollen lymph nodes around the body, joint pain, muscle soreness, sore throat and potentially flu-like symptoms. Furthermore, the infection of the immune system makes the patient more likely to contract further diseases, such as a bacterial throat infection. Although it is non-fatal, there is no treatment other than symptom-relief, and it can take up to 2-3 months to fully recover. The virus spreads through saliva, so by sharing cups, cutlery, toothbrushes or by kissing, but it is not airborne - hence I have not been panicking about finding a new room mate.
The main impediment to the patient is fatigue, which makes it harder to maintain a normal, fast-paced lifestyle. The virus also affects the spleen, liver and the abdomen, meaning no alcohol and limited fatty foods. Furthermore, the patient should refrain from any contact sport, as a blow to one of the affected organs could cause internal bleeding and potentially be life threatening. So for an athletic footballing college senior in America on exchange with two months left, it is a utterly miserable situation.
Hence my desire to try to help as much as I can. He has been bedridden for the last 3 days, sleeping sporadically with fatigue, headaches, joint pain and a sore, swollen throat. Medication was limited to painkillers, and he was in no condition to go outdoors, let alone do any kind of work. So I have tried to maintain a steady stream of soup, milky tea with honey, and yoghurt every 6 hours to ensure he is somewhat nourished, making sure he drinks other fluids than just water to keep up his electrolyte balance, and trying to alleviate the worst element of lying ill: boredom.
Today was a change of events. He felt considerably worse, his throat swelling up even more, so he went for another check-up at the clinic. Here he got pumped full of saline, painkillers, steroids to reduce the swelling in his throat, and antibiotics for a recently contracted strep throat - he thus looked considerably better this evening, although severely drugged up. However, the steroids lower his already weak immune system, so when my late class got cancelled, I took it as a sign to turn our dusty bachelors den into a somewhat sterile infirmary.
After a quick shopping spree for cleaning utensils, my time in the military was put to good use: The place was vacuum-cleaned spotless, all dust wiped of surfaces with anti-viral wipes, all our laundry was done, including all bed sheets and pillow cases. The duvets were hung outside to get aired, and all items he had been in contact with were thoroughly washed or completely disposed of. Hopefully this will mean he is less susceptible to contract anything else, and he should be back to class on Monday (hopefully) and in some decent shape for Thanksgiving. Till then, I'll keep the orange juice and take-away meals coming!lørdag den 10. november 2012
Election night
Last Tuesday was election night (in case you hadn't realized) and I was psyched and ready to go. Called one of the most influential elections in the past 20 years, the candidates were disagreeing on almost everything and the America that would emerge after the 4 years with either president would be starkly different.
I feel I had spent a decent amount of time covering the run-up to the election. I watched the debates, read articles and analyses, and discussed topics with my peers. Being a Dane, the odds that I was rooting for Romney was 1-100, not least due to social and foreign-policy issues, but I tried to put myself in the shoes of an American and I do believe he would be the better candidate for the economy. In a corporate setting, Romney would be the CFO, and Obama the CEO - simply a better man for America when looking at all their traits and ideas.
GLOBErs spend an awful lot of time together, so we had clashed swords concerning the candidates many times before. I therefore opted to stay on campus and watch the election in the common room of my dorm, hoping to discuss politics with Americans who had less exposure to a globalized world and who might offer up new viewpoints. Plus there was free food and drink.
I learnt a couple of things. First, Chapel Hill and the younger generation are overwhelmingly pro-Obama. Second, the active voter in America is surprisingly well-informed. Having two candidates might make for partisan chambers and little collaboration across the aisle, but it does propose a relatively simple choice, as compared to Denmark with its seven major parties. Third, there are a significant number of inactive voters. These people cast their vote, but have little clue about what is happening and why. They are also reluctant to discuss politics, and they didn't show up to election night. A girl I talked to a couple of days before voted Romney because her parents did, even though most of her beliefs were way over in the Obama camp.
So election night was somewhat anti-climactic. Only 25 students or so showed up, most with their homework to kill time (thus not in discussion mode). Food was cheese pizza (go figure), which made the room smell like fondue and made me slightly nauseous. On a practical note, America's 5 time zones (6 including Alaska + Hawaii) means that focus is only on a couple of states at a time. Furthermore, America's size, electoral system and inter-state diversity means that the individual vote seems to play a lesser role. A Democratic voter in Texas has absolutely 0% influence. North Carolina went Republican, but everyone who was pro-Romney seemed awfully quite on a blue campus.
The highlight of the evening was a discussion with my Danish room mate. CNN announced that Pennsylvania went Democratic after 40% of the votes had been counted. This was based on exit polls, the current vote count relative to past years' results on a county level, and the statistical confidence interval at that point in time when Obama was up 58% to 41%. This (as my room mate aptly pointed out) is never 100% accurate, and kept referring to the Bush - Gore election and the Florida recount. This could potentially happen again, and therefore CNN should not refer to Obama as the winner until those key states had been tallied. True, but the pressure to be the first to announce the winner was more important. Most surprising was that most of the Americans had no clue what we were talking about, taking Obamas victory as certain. So while we exchanged a few more arguments, the student body of UNC grabbed their phones and jackets, chanting Obama's victory into cyberspace and into the crisp Carolinian night sky.
I feel I had spent a decent amount of time covering the run-up to the election. I watched the debates, read articles and analyses, and discussed topics with my peers. Being a Dane, the odds that I was rooting for Romney was 1-100, not least due to social and foreign-policy issues, but I tried to put myself in the shoes of an American and I do believe he would be the better candidate for the economy. In a corporate setting, Romney would be the CFO, and Obama the CEO - simply a better man for America when looking at all their traits and ideas.
GLOBErs spend an awful lot of time together, so we had clashed swords concerning the candidates many times before. I therefore opted to stay on campus and watch the election in the common room of my dorm, hoping to discuss politics with Americans who had less exposure to a globalized world and who might offer up new viewpoints. Plus there was free food and drink.
I learnt a couple of things. First, Chapel Hill and the younger generation are overwhelmingly pro-Obama. Second, the active voter in America is surprisingly well-informed. Having two candidates might make for partisan chambers and little collaboration across the aisle, but it does propose a relatively simple choice, as compared to Denmark with its seven major parties. Third, there are a significant number of inactive voters. These people cast their vote, but have little clue about what is happening and why. They are also reluctant to discuss politics, and they didn't show up to election night. A girl I talked to a couple of days before voted Romney because her parents did, even though most of her beliefs were way over in the Obama camp.
So election night was somewhat anti-climactic. Only 25 students or so showed up, most with their homework to kill time (thus not in discussion mode). Food was cheese pizza (go figure), which made the room smell like fondue and made me slightly nauseous. On a practical note, America's 5 time zones (6 including Alaska + Hawaii) means that focus is only on a couple of states at a time. Furthermore, America's size, electoral system and inter-state diversity means that the individual vote seems to play a lesser role. A Democratic voter in Texas has absolutely 0% influence. North Carolina went Republican, but everyone who was pro-Romney seemed awfully quite on a blue campus.
The highlight of the evening was a discussion with my Danish room mate. CNN announced that Pennsylvania went Democratic after 40% of the votes had been counted. This was based on exit polls, the current vote count relative to past years' results on a county level, and the statistical confidence interval at that point in time when Obama was up 58% to 41%. This (as my room mate aptly pointed out) is never 100% accurate, and kept referring to the Bush - Gore election and the Florida recount. This could potentially happen again, and therefore CNN should not refer to Obama as the winner until those key states had been tallied. True, but the pressure to be the first to announce the winner was more important. Most surprising was that most of the Americans had no clue what we were talking about, taking Obamas victory as certain. So while we exchanged a few more arguments, the student body of UNC grabbed their phones and jackets, chanting Obama's victory into cyberspace and into the crisp Carolinian night sky.
mandag den 5. november 2012
Guest blogging
Blogging is apparently becoming the new black - so much so that a fellow GLOBEr asked me to contribute to his up-and-coming blog by providing a open entry. I was naturally honoured that there is a recognition of my efforts, and was happy to oblige.
As for the task, the subject was straight forward. Combining the date of November 5th and the masses of unaware Americans of the origins of the term, my post was on the Gunpowder Treason Plot. Find it at http://www.mcollignon.com/post/35110017245
As for the task, the subject was straight forward. Combining the date of November 5th and the masses of unaware Americans of the origins of the term, my post was on the Gunpowder Treason Plot. Find it at http://www.mcollignon.com/post/35110017245
søndag den 4. november 2012
Cats cradle
With many GLOBErs either travelling around the States (foreigners),
back home with their parents (locals), or recovering from Halloween on a
Wednesday, not much was happening this weekend. So when I was phoned and asked if I
wanted to go to a local concert I said yes. 20 minutes later a ride
showed up, and 2 GLOBErs and I headed 10 minutes down the road to Cats
Cradle.
Cats Cradle is a music venue / bar in the neighbouring town of Carrboro. Looking more like an abandoned warehouse than a concert hall from the outside, it has hosted a number of prominent names over the years, most of whom I have no idea who are anyway, but who have featured on Roskilde. Or so I was told. Inside was the same. A large, dim-lit single room, somewhat akin to a barn, hosted several shabby wooden tables, chairs, a basic bar, a couple of couches in one corner, a large sounds system in the middle of the room, and a stage on the far end. A $10 cover got us past a friendly bouncer, and another $4.25 got us a pint of North Carolinian craft IPA. A country / folk rock band was playing (a genre I was told was bluegrass) which was surprisingly good. More surprising was the fact that although it was 8:30 and the first of 3 bands had just started playing, it was pretty packed. That and the crowd was comprised of everything from college students to old, bearded men, to dating middle-aged couples.
Walk 5 minutes west on Franklin street and you'll hit Carrboro. You'll know you are there when the shops stop catering to college students and start targeting aficionados. Organic eateries, local products, farmers markets, that kind of thing. My friend characterized Carrboro as "granola" (as in the cereal, somewhat akin to müsli), inhabited by the kind of people "who'll buy an organic, vegan salad and feel that the quadruple price is a bargain". Initially I had a very different understanding of granola: someone described a tartan bow-tie as being granola, so when I saw a fraternity cocktail with all the guys dressed up in colourful chequered bow-ties, I deduced that granola = frat guy. After complimenting the first 6 frat guys with "Great outfit, you are so granola!", I realized I was sorely mistaken.
The main band of the evening was Mipso Trio (which tonight was a quartet, but anyhow). A band of 3 UNC graduates, they played a mixture of everything from rock 'n' roll to folk, indie, motown and bluegrass. The crowd adored them, they were immensely entertaining, and when they gave their final encore it was past midnight. 4 solid hours of entertainment for less than $20 dollars in total. To listen to their music / download it, check out their website: http://mipsomusic.bandcamp.com/album/long-long-gone
The evening is somewhat telling of Chapel Hill. There are all these great events which we can go to for almost no cost, learning a lot about American life and culture in the process, but we have no clue about the potential at our doorstep. I suppose one should take responsibility for one's own experiences, but when living on South Campus with mainly freshmen, concerts, art exhibitions, fine dining and rural experiences are not top of their of list of things to do. Access to a car, as well as the underground nature of most events, is also a deterrent for foreigners. In Hong Kong we spent a lot of time travelling abroad, and our city experiences were obviously touristy: skyline, Mong-kok, street food, ladies market, hiking, etc. In Copenhagen the immersion in a large city allowed for exploration on one's own, but many foreign GLOBErs also took time for international travel. In the US it is different. We have required attendance for classes, weekly assignments, group work in every class (all impairing our freedom to travel), and flying in American is ridiculously expensive.
I feel that the Americans are paramount for showing us the Chapel Hill area. They are busy like the rest of us, but finding interesting stuff to do in the Triangle area is harder than figuring out how to find the Colosseum or the Arc de Triomphe. Some of them have been great, and they have truly made my stay inexplicably better. With GLOBE graduation in 5 weeks time, I hope these individuals continue sacrificing their time and effort for my sake. Sometimes it takes nothing more than a phone call and a 10 minute lift, but the effort is highly valued. Thank you. You know who you are - stay awesome.
Cats Cradle is a music venue / bar in the neighbouring town of Carrboro. Looking more like an abandoned warehouse than a concert hall from the outside, it has hosted a number of prominent names over the years, most of whom I have no idea who are anyway, but who have featured on Roskilde. Or so I was told. Inside was the same. A large, dim-lit single room, somewhat akin to a barn, hosted several shabby wooden tables, chairs, a basic bar, a couple of couches in one corner, a large sounds system in the middle of the room, and a stage on the far end. A $10 cover got us past a friendly bouncer, and another $4.25 got us a pint of North Carolinian craft IPA. A country / folk rock band was playing (a genre I was told was bluegrass) which was surprisingly good. More surprising was the fact that although it was 8:30 and the first of 3 bands had just started playing, it was pretty packed. That and the crowd was comprised of everything from college students to old, bearded men, to dating middle-aged couples.
Walk 5 minutes west on Franklin street and you'll hit Carrboro. You'll know you are there when the shops stop catering to college students and start targeting aficionados. Organic eateries, local products, farmers markets, that kind of thing. My friend characterized Carrboro as "granola" (as in the cereal, somewhat akin to müsli), inhabited by the kind of people "who'll buy an organic, vegan salad and feel that the quadruple price is a bargain". Initially I had a very different understanding of granola: someone described a tartan bow-tie as being granola, so when I saw a fraternity cocktail with all the guys dressed up in colourful chequered bow-ties, I deduced that granola = frat guy. After complimenting the first 6 frat guys with "Great outfit, you are so granola!", I realized I was sorely mistaken.
The main band of the evening was Mipso Trio (which tonight was a quartet, but anyhow). A band of 3 UNC graduates, they played a mixture of everything from rock 'n' roll to folk, indie, motown and bluegrass. The crowd adored them, they were immensely entertaining, and when they gave their final encore it was past midnight. 4 solid hours of entertainment for less than $20 dollars in total. To listen to their music / download it, check out their website: http://mipsomusic.bandcamp.com/album/long-long-gone
The evening is somewhat telling of Chapel Hill. There are all these great events which we can go to for almost no cost, learning a lot about American life and culture in the process, but we have no clue about the potential at our doorstep. I suppose one should take responsibility for one's own experiences, but when living on South Campus with mainly freshmen, concerts, art exhibitions, fine dining and rural experiences are not top of their of list of things to do. Access to a car, as well as the underground nature of most events, is also a deterrent for foreigners. In Hong Kong we spent a lot of time travelling abroad, and our city experiences were obviously touristy: skyline, Mong-kok, street food, ladies market, hiking, etc. In Copenhagen the immersion in a large city allowed for exploration on one's own, but many foreign GLOBErs also took time for international travel. In the US it is different. We have required attendance for classes, weekly assignments, group work in every class (all impairing our freedom to travel), and flying in American is ridiculously expensive.
I feel that the Americans are paramount for showing us the Chapel Hill area. They are busy like the rest of us, but finding interesting stuff to do in the Triangle area is harder than figuring out how to find the Colosseum or the Arc de Triomphe. Some of them have been great, and they have truly made my stay inexplicably better. With GLOBE graduation in 5 weeks time, I hope these individuals continue sacrificing their time and effort for my sake. Sometimes it takes nothing more than a phone call and a 10 minute lift, but the effort is highly valued. Thank you. You know who you are - stay awesome.
fredag den 2. november 2012
Guest speakers
American professors are extremely fond of guest speakers. Perhaps it is the reputation and connections of the school which allows for such a strong network, but they do manage to have some extremely relevant speakers. Regardless whether it is mergers, acquisitions, banking, entrepreneurship, consulting, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, or traders, we have had real life examples of people who do this for a living, their views and opinions, and not least their pieces of advice.
I personally think guest speakers are a great idea. You have all this information from problem sets and textbooks and then you have an example from the real world of how to apply it. They love coming back and talking about what they do, and the students love the limited readings and an engaging lecture.
The only problem is if the speaker is terrible. My most anticipated guest speaker was a woman who was managing director for Blackstone Private Equity, a large investment fund. Super relevant to multiple classes, and a great contact in a somewhat closed off industry. Alas, she was morbidly dull, going into excruciating detail about her investments and contracts, rather than keep a overarching focus so that undergraduates students could understand her and maintain interest. She simply didn't know her audience, speaking to us as if we were seasoned investors. She was probably brilliant at her job; she was an awful guest speaker.
Conversely, yesterday was the best speaker we have had so far. A UNC graduate from '86, he went into the IT services as it was starting the develop and then set up his own company improving doctor-patient information flow in the cloud 16 years ago. He sold to a listed national company 3 years ago, but stayed on to help develop the product and maintain his legacy. He was great for two reasons: audience knowledge and honesty. He knew who we were and what we were looking for, and his direct (American?) approach and choice of words fully engaged the crowd. Basically he knew he had hit the jackpot, that he was the market leader in his field, and that as an entrepreneur he had to look out for himself. He also spoke openly of his frustrations, his ideas, and gladly told war stories from the entrepreneurial front. For a European, his smugness was almost too much, but you just couldn't help like the guy. For 75 minutes, this guy had me on the edge of my seat. It was pure entertainment. Below are some of his quotes, see if you agree:
"Imagine you build and sell GPS navigators. Suddenly everyone starts building them directly into the cars, but you already have contracts to supply every GPS to Ford and GM.... AND Toyota." - His analogy to his successful product
"We knew we were better, we were going to take them out, and we weren't afraid to show it. As my CFO put it at the negotiations in San Fransisco: 'Your best asset is this view'" - On acquiring their biggest competitor to become the sole provider of their service.
"Sarbanes-Oxley sucks! Now if I want an audit I have to pay $150,000 for someone to look at my numbers and agree with me that they add up. Remember how you took accounting last year and after reading all about GAAP you thought 'I'm never going to use that crap' - oh yeah you will!" - On the diverse functions of an entrepreneur
"When they want to dance, they bring a bus with the band" - On being a target for an acquisition
"Everyone kept saying: 'Kick a field goal, stop trying to for a touchdown'. Bullshit, I can only sell my company once and I am going to do it right!" - On investor pressure to accept a lucrative offer
"I got Michael Porter to invest! This guy is like the Godfather of strategy. He has his own building at Harvard, just for himself!" - On the personal joy of having a great product
"As a CEO I do 400,000 air miles a year - it is ridiculous! But its cool! I've met pretty much every founder in Silicon Valley and they are smart as crap!" - On becoming an entrepreneur who made it and the perks
After being taken over, in a corporate setting: Senior manager 1: "Should we buy this company as well?" Speaker: "Fuck no!" Senior manager 2: "He just saved you 2-3 million in due diligence." - On being a niche expert and speaking your mind to your new managers on the first day post-acquisition
"I'll tell you, the amount of crap you have to do with the 50'th employee is unbelievable. So I hired a competitors HR manager and she did it all. It was great!" - On the strains of American regulation and how to deal with it
I personally think guest speakers are a great idea. You have all this information from problem sets and textbooks and then you have an example from the real world of how to apply it. They love coming back and talking about what they do, and the students love the limited readings and an engaging lecture.
The only problem is if the speaker is terrible. My most anticipated guest speaker was a woman who was managing director for Blackstone Private Equity, a large investment fund. Super relevant to multiple classes, and a great contact in a somewhat closed off industry. Alas, she was morbidly dull, going into excruciating detail about her investments and contracts, rather than keep a overarching focus so that undergraduates students could understand her and maintain interest. She simply didn't know her audience, speaking to us as if we were seasoned investors. She was probably brilliant at her job; she was an awful guest speaker.
Conversely, yesterday was the best speaker we have had so far. A UNC graduate from '86, he went into the IT services as it was starting the develop and then set up his own company improving doctor-patient information flow in the cloud 16 years ago. He sold to a listed national company 3 years ago, but stayed on to help develop the product and maintain his legacy. He was great for two reasons: audience knowledge and honesty. He knew who we were and what we were looking for, and his direct (American?) approach and choice of words fully engaged the crowd. Basically he knew he had hit the jackpot, that he was the market leader in his field, and that as an entrepreneur he had to look out for himself. He also spoke openly of his frustrations, his ideas, and gladly told war stories from the entrepreneurial front. For a European, his smugness was almost too much, but you just couldn't help like the guy. For 75 minutes, this guy had me on the edge of my seat. It was pure entertainment. Below are some of his quotes, see if you agree:
"Imagine you build and sell GPS navigators. Suddenly everyone starts building them directly into the cars, but you already have contracts to supply every GPS to Ford and GM.... AND Toyota." - His analogy to his successful product
"We knew we were better, we were going to take them out, and we weren't afraid to show it. As my CFO put it at the negotiations in San Fransisco: 'Your best asset is this view'" - On acquiring their biggest competitor to become the sole provider of their service.
"Sarbanes-Oxley sucks! Now if I want an audit I have to pay $150,000 for someone to look at my numbers and agree with me that they add up. Remember how you took accounting last year and after reading all about GAAP you thought 'I'm never going to use that crap' - oh yeah you will!" - On the diverse functions of an entrepreneur
"When they want to dance, they bring a bus with the band" - On being a target for an acquisition
"Everyone kept saying: 'Kick a field goal, stop trying to for a touchdown'. Bullshit, I can only sell my company once and I am going to do it right!" - On investor pressure to accept a lucrative offer
"I got Michael Porter to invest! This guy is like the Godfather of strategy. He has his own building at Harvard, just for himself!" - On the personal joy of having a great product
"As a CEO I do 400,000 air miles a year - it is ridiculous! But its cool! I've met pretty much every founder in Silicon Valley and they are smart as crap!" - On becoming an entrepreneur who made it and the perks
After being taken over, in a corporate setting: Senior manager 1: "Should we buy this company as well?" Speaker: "Fuck no!" Senior manager 2: "He just saved you 2-3 million in due diligence." - On being a niche expert and speaking your mind to your new managers on the first day post-acquisition
"I'll tell you, the amount of crap you have to do with the 50'th employee is unbelievable. So I hired a competitors HR manager and she did it all. It was great!" - On the strains of American regulation and how to deal with it
lørdag den 27. oktober 2012
Navratri
That America is truly a melting pot of culture I witnessed yesterday, when a fellow GLOBEr invited a number us to her home. Hailing from India, her family celebrated Navratri (literally "Nine Nights"), a Hindi festival dedicated to the deity Durga. So after Monday classes, a 10 minute drive took us to her parent's house for Hindu culture, Indian tradition, and delicious Indian food.
Hinduism is, at least for a European, a potpourri of terms, traditions, deities, and beliefs. Rather than being a clearly defined religion from a distinct origin, vis-a-vis Christianity, it can be viewed as an umbrella organization of beliefs and traditions, and is more a way of life than a distinct religion (although most religions would argue that they themselves are ways of life). Hinduism grants freedom of beliefs and worship. The central figure is the individual, whose role it is to discover their own answers. Many Hindu's believe in some form of eternity for the soul, ultimately derived from Brahman, a universal spirit that creates and upholds all matter, energy, time and space. Some Hindu's believe that Brahman and the soul are indistinguishable, while others personify Brahman and worship these deities. A woman at Navratri told me that these personifications were once used to educate the general public in order to conceptualise ideas and morals, and they have subsequently become prominent figures in poetry, art, sculptures, and culture.
The personifications of Brahman are subdivided into the general functions of the Universe: creation, maintenance, and destruction, personified by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively. They are known as the Trimurti. From here it gets complicated. A pantheon of deities (deva in Sanskrit, often called Suras) exist, each with different roles, accomplishments, and ideals, but unlike the Greek gods, they are essentially all expansions of Brahman, the universal spirit, into various forms. They fight against the Asuras, who are demons or opponents, thus ensuring order and balance in the Universe.
As we are greeted at the door, the ceremony has already begun. In the living room a small shrine with a painting of a woman (Durga) is decorated with flowers and candles, and on the floor in front are 3 Indian women wearing saris, one of whom is my friend, sitting on the floor and chanting in Sanskrit. Around them are 15 GLOBErs, sitting on couches or on the floor, listening and observing. I drop down beside them, cross my legs, and try to get an idea of what is happening.
It reminded me of the Danish tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree. Each person had a little leaflet of songs and chants, and in the space of 75 minutes they completed 4 of them. The songs were stories of Durga, somewhat similar to a bardic poetry, while others were prayers and blessings to various deities. Between each chant, the family was helpful in trying to explain what was happening, and with the continuous influx of Indian friends of the family, it became quite a powerful vocal ensemble.
The best song (by rhythm and pace) was about Durga and her slaying of an Asura named Mahishasura. Of the Trimurti, Shiva is the destroyer and thus tasked with defeating the Asura, but Mahishasura had the power to not be defeated by any man. Shiva realised this and asked his wife, Parvati, to take the form of a goddess warrior to slay the Asura. She emerged as Durga, fought and defeated Mahishasura, and hence became known as Mahishasura mardini, the slayer of Mahishasura. Although I understood absolutely nothing of what was happening, the final line of each stanza was "Jaya jaya hey mahishasura mardini..." and then some more. I took that to mean something along the lines of "Halleluja, hail the Mahishasura slayer", and thus happily chanted along every time a stanza finished.
After singing and chanting, the night finished off with more small traditions (such as circling a light in front of the shrine 3 times and eating a sweet rice pudding, an offering) before a banquet of food was served. Everything was vegetarian, not too spicy, in over-abundance (naturally), and truly delicious. A spicy, pepper soup with yoghurt was my favourite. It was also the first time I had home-made chapathis, a flour pancake somewhat like a tortilla, since I was 9 and lived in Tanzania, and was therefore somewhat of a walk down memory lane.
The family have spent much of their life in America, and thus this was a chance to see how Indian culture was being passed on to the next generation, both adapting and preserving it. With the final presidential debate running on TV and 15 GLOBErs eagerly engaged, it seemed less Indian than I imagined. But scratching under the surface, I found that traditions are hard to break - a newly engaged couple told me of their life change and how much is still governed by family relations and expectations. But everything they needed to make it work was already in America.
The day after, as I walked home from dinner, I saw 20 Indian men playing a cricket match on the school's astroturf pitch, with another 60 rowdily cheering. I stood around and watched a couple of overs, pondering on how American diversity truly lets subcultures thrive. With the eruption of the crowd after a huge boundary, I turned and trudged home smiling, feeling that I had found something special, a glimpse of what America really is.
Hinduism is, at least for a European, a potpourri of terms, traditions, deities, and beliefs. Rather than being a clearly defined religion from a distinct origin, vis-a-vis Christianity, it can be viewed as an umbrella organization of beliefs and traditions, and is more a way of life than a distinct religion (although most religions would argue that they themselves are ways of life). Hinduism grants freedom of beliefs and worship. The central figure is the individual, whose role it is to discover their own answers. Many Hindu's believe in some form of eternity for the soul, ultimately derived from Brahman, a universal spirit that creates and upholds all matter, energy, time and space. Some Hindu's believe that Brahman and the soul are indistinguishable, while others personify Brahman and worship these deities. A woman at Navratri told me that these personifications were once used to educate the general public in order to conceptualise ideas and morals, and they have subsequently become prominent figures in poetry, art, sculptures, and culture.
The personifications of Brahman are subdivided into the general functions of the Universe: creation, maintenance, and destruction, personified by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva respectively. They are known as the Trimurti. From here it gets complicated. A pantheon of deities (deva in Sanskrit, often called Suras) exist, each with different roles, accomplishments, and ideals, but unlike the Greek gods, they are essentially all expansions of Brahman, the universal spirit, into various forms. They fight against the Asuras, who are demons or opponents, thus ensuring order and balance in the Universe.
As we are greeted at the door, the ceremony has already begun. In the living room a small shrine with a painting of a woman (Durga) is decorated with flowers and candles, and on the floor in front are 3 Indian women wearing saris, one of whom is my friend, sitting on the floor and chanting in Sanskrit. Around them are 15 GLOBErs, sitting on couches or on the floor, listening and observing. I drop down beside them, cross my legs, and try to get an idea of what is happening.
It reminded me of the Danish tradition of dancing around the Christmas tree. Each person had a little leaflet of songs and chants, and in the space of 75 minutes they completed 4 of them. The songs were stories of Durga, somewhat similar to a bardic poetry, while others were prayers and blessings to various deities. Between each chant, the family was helpful in trying to explain what was happening, and with the continuous influx of Indian friends of the family, it became quite a powerful vocal ensemble.
The best song (by rhythm and pace) was about Durga and her slaying of an Asura named Mahishasura. Of the Trimurti, Shiva is the destroyer and thus tasked with defeating the Asura, but Mahishasura had the power to not be defeated by any man. Shiva realised this and asked his wife, Parvati, to take the form of a goddess warrior to slay the Asura. She emerged as Durga, fought and defeated Mahishasura, and hence became known as Mahishasura mardini, the slayer of Mahishasura. Although I understood absolutely nothing of what was happening, the final line of each stanza was "Jaya jaya hey mahishasura mardini..." and then some more. I took that to mean something along the lines of "Halleluja, hail the Mahishasura slayer", and thus happily chanted along every time a stanza finished.
After singing and chanting, the night finished off with more small traditions (such as circling a light in front of the shrine 3 times and eating a sweet rice pudding, an offering) before a banquet of food was served. Everything was vegetarian, not too spicy, in over-abundance (naturally), and truly delicious. A spicy, pepper soup with yoghurt was my favourite. It was also the first time I had home-made chapathis, a flour pancake somewhat like a tortilla, since I was 9 and lived in Tanzania, and was therefore somewhat of a walk down memory lane.
The family have spent much of their life in America, and thus this was a chance to see how Indian culture was being passed on to the next generation, both adapting and preserving it. With the final presidential debate running on TV and 15 GLOBErs eagerly engaged, it seemed less Indian than I imagined. But scratching under the surface, I found that traditions are hard to break - a newly engaged couple told me of their life change and how much is still governed by family relations and expectations. But everything they needed to make it work was already in America.
The day after, as I walked home from dinner, I saw 20 Indian men playing a cricket match on the school's astroturf pitch, with another 60 rowdily cheering. I stood around and watched a couple of overs, pondering on how American diversity truly lets subcultures thrive. With the eruption of the crowd after a huge boundary, I turned and trudged home smiling, feeling that I had found something special, a glimpse of what America really is.
søndag den 21. oktober 2012
Remembrance
The final study trip of GLOBE VI took us to Washington D.C. for 5 days over our fall break. We spent our days at corporate and governmental visits and our nights at social events. I thought this was one of the better study trips, both from quality of visits and social impact on our group. An example was wandering around D.C on Saturday in a group of 6. On the first study trip, this group would be comprised of students from a single school. This time all schools were represented. Our leisurely walking tour took us from Lincoln Memorial, via a host of other memorials, to the Smithsonian where I spent a happy 2 hours being 8 years old again and roaming around the National Air and Space museum.
The highlight of the tour was, surprisingly, the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Located a stone's throw from the Lincoln Memorial, it is comprised of 15-or-so life-size steel statues of soldiers in a triangular shrub area. On one side is a wall with pictures of soldiers and civilians, and at the top of the triangle there is a flagpole flying the Stars and Stripes and a reflection pool. The memorial was busy, but still small in comparison to the majestic Lincoln monument we had come from, and the lack of information about a war I know little about left me without any strong impression or a feeling of attachment towards the memorial.
Out of nowhere, an old man in full uniform stepped up to the flagpole. He created a little space from the crowd in front of him, raised a gleaming bugle into the afternoon sun, and started to play. I felt a wave of emotion wash over me as I watched old veterans climb out of their wheelchairs, stand tall and proud, and with gruff, time-worn hands salute their flag. A handful of younger officers, family, and friends did the same. For 45 seconds, the bustling crowd of people stopped in their tracks, turned their head, and paid their respects. After the final tune had faded, the camaraderie evaporated, veterans once again became old men and sank tired into their wheelchairs, and the crowd continued as if nothing had happened.
I attribute my emotional reaction to a mixture of shameful ignorance, as well as humbleness towards extraordinary human hardship. The men in front of me were no older than I am when they were shipped of to the other side to the world to fight in a proxy war between the capitalist Allies and the communists of North Korea, the Soviet Union, and China. Although I have no contemplation of their individual stories, my initial indifference towards their contribution was duly put to shame. Seeing their emotions was enough to trigger mine.
Wars should be remembered, the people fighting them even more so. With the passing of Harry Patch, the last known surviving soldier from the WWI trenches, the "war to end all wars" has passed from memory to history. Educating the next generation on past horrors becomes increasingly difficult as the concept of war becomes increasingly abstract. The focus shifts to numbers rather than people, to macro-level goals and objectives rather than micro-level suffering and hardship. Books such as "Flanders fields" and monuments such as the Menin Gate make an attempt, but the apathy towards words such as "the Somme", "Ypres", and "salient", as compared to words such as "Auschwitz" and "Srebrenica", reflect the general ignorance of my generation towards wars no longer remembered.
As we continued our cultural tour of Washington D.C, we passed Thomas Jefferson's Memorial. A commanding statue gazes towards the Washington Memorial under a grandiose dome, with the sides decorated with his views and ideas on government, religion, and human liberties. We can easily sympathise with the notion that "men... are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among these are ... liberty", and we would do well to remember what has been done before us. A simple stone plaque at the Korean War Veterans Memorial read: "Freedom Is Not Free". Remembrance is.
The highlight of the tour was, surprisingly, the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Located a stone's throw from the Lincoln Memorial, it is comprised of 15-or-so life-size steel statues of soldiers in a triangular shrub area. On one side is a wall with pictures of soldiers and civilians, and at the top of the triangle there is a flagpole flying the Stars and Stripes and a reflection pool. The memorial was busy, but still small in comparison to the majestic Lincoln monument we had come from, and the lack of information about a war I know little about left me without any strong impression or a feeling of attachment towards the memorial.
Out of nowhere, an old man in full uniform stepped up to the flagpole. He created a little space from the crowd in front of him, raised a gleaming bugle into the afternoon sun, and started to play. I felt a wave of emotion wash over me as I watched old veterans climb out of their wheelchairs, stand tall and proud, and with gruff, time-worn hands salute their flag. A handful of younger officers, family, and friends did the same. For 45 seconds, the bustling crowd of people stopped in their tracks, turned their head, and paid their respects. After the final tune had faded, the camaraderie evaporated, veterans once again became old men and sank tired into their wheelchairs, and the crowd continued as if nothing had happened.
I attribute my emotional reaction to a mixture of shameful ignorance, as well as humbleness towards extraordinary human hardship. The men in front of me were no older than I am when they were shipped of to the other side to the world to fight in a proxy war between the capitalist Allies and the communists of North Korea, the Soviet Union, and China. Although I have no contemplation of their individual stories, my initial indifference towards their contribution was duly put to shame. Seeing their emotions was enough to trigger mine.
Wars should be remembered, the people fighting them even more so. With the passing of Harry Patch, the last known surviving soldier from the WWI trenches, the "war to end all wars" has passed from memory to history. Educating the next generation on past horrors becomes increasingly difficult as the concept of war becomes increasingly abstract. The focus shifts to numbers rather than people, to macro-level goals and objectives rather than micro-level suffering and hardship. Books such as "Flanders fields" and monuments such as the Menin Gate make an attempt, but the apathy towards words such as "the Somme", "Ypres", and "salient", as compared to words such as "Auschwitz" and "Srebrenica", reflect the general ignorance of my generation towards wars no longer remembered.
As we continued our cultural tour of Washington D.C, we passed Thomas Jefferson's Memorial. A commanding statue gazes towards the Washington Memorial under a grandiose dome, with the sides decorated with his views and ideas on government, religion, and human liberties. We can easily sympathise with the notion that "men... are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among these are ... liberty", and we would do well to remember what has been done before us. A simple stone plaque at the Korean War Veterans Memorial read: "Freedom Is Not Free". Remembrance is.
lørdag den 13. oktober 2012
Wharton Undergraduate Case Competition
Together with a fellow GLOBEr and three other UNC students, I was selected to represent UNC at a case competition at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. 18 teams from 12 different school were invited to participate. Although I have exams coming up, with the opportunity to try myself out against schools such as Harvard, Yale, Wharton and NYU, the chance to see Philadelphia and another US campus, and the solemn pride of being selected to represent the school, I accepted.
A case competition is an attempt to compete at business and hone skills such as critical thinking, team work, and presentation skills. A company (in this case Ernst and Young, an big accounting / consulting firm) writes a 10 page "case", a real-life example of a problem that a company has. You and your team then have to solve this problem by a deadline (here Friday at 9 AM, so some 60 hours from the time the case was released), and then present your findings and answer questions in front of a panel of judges. Even to the untrained "caser", a couple of points stand out. 1) The limited amount of time often means that there is very little diminishing returns to work - ie more work = better chance of winning. So sleep is often a luxury in this time frame. 2) There is never a single "correct" solution to a case. Because it is taken from the real world, a good solution is often an analysis of choices faced by the firm, and then arguing which option is the better.
This case was about the problem of a post-merger integration of two large wealth management companies (fascinating, right?). Essentially the company had problems with certain technologies after the integration, and found it difficult to pass information around the company. There were NO given numbers apart from the overall size of the company (normally you get an overview of their costs, revenues, profits, and how they spend their money). The problem posed was to create a "strategic blueprint" for 3-5 years of how the company could be better integrated - essentially how could the company better use the skills of its people, and how would we structure the flow of its information. This was qualitative, strategic, and without any numbers. My group worked hard and put in the hours needed. Our analysis was strong, our slide deck was professional, and our structure was coherent. So by Friday morning as we were driving to the airport, we all had a good feeling.
We didn't even make the final round. The anticlimax was unbearable, but that's competition. After the initial disappointment, I felt good about my effort and thought I had put up a good fight. We did well, but we were beaten by someone better. So although not having slept more than 3 out of the past 35 hours, I was content with helping myself to free tuna sandwiches and browsing around the consulting conference that was also on, looking forward to seeing the finalists and learn from someone better.
But the finalists were dire. They did well on most areas, coming up with interesting solutions and making it clear that they too had worked. But on so many other levels they disappointed me.´One was their PowerPoint, which looked like it had been made in an hour (I am no wizard at PPT, but I will definitely admit that it hurts my credibility. Luckily our group had other people with such talents). But it was mainly the lack of critique of their own assumptions. Groups said stuff like: "You should reinvent your organization", when talking about a hypothetical firm owning 35% of the market share and managing assets over $1 trillion, or "implementing this idea will cost you $3.5 billion dollars, but will definitely payoff in the long-run", when we were never told the composition of the company (so no idea where he got the 3.5 billion from), which ultimately showed when he didn't give a figure of the actual impact. Just assuming your idea is going to pay off is grasping at straws. Other moronic statements were: "this idea will improve efficiency by 99,5%" and "hiring midlevel managers will eliminate any problems of communication between the company's 800 offices". Some people did attempt to construct numbers (such as costs of acquiring a product; we did that) if these prices are available online, but then their calculations were poor. The cost of putting all your data into the cloud is not simply the cost of running the servers. You have to factor in license-fees, security, training of your employees if the program is different, and transferring hard data to the cloud, just to name a few. And then you cannot assume that it be implemented by tomorrow. I mean come on.
All case competition solutions have flaws, ours included. But the aim is to provide the most feasible solution, effectively showing how much information you can encompass without losing your chain of thought. From what I saw, I was not impressed. I did not feel I had lost to better opponents. So at the networking session afterwards, I spent my time soul-searching, as well as asking questions to try and understand their line of thought in order to improve for future cases.
My main take-away was "know your audience" and that case competitions also include luck. Ernst and Young is an accounting firm, but this case was written by IT-consulting (never knew). I also found out that the 2 judges in my room (there were several rooms of judges) were both Ph.D. statisticians. Speaking about knowledge transfer and corporate culture just didn't resonate with them. They would rather forgive a bad assumption and reward a line of thought that had data than reward a more feasible line of thought without data. The judge kept saying he wanted to know "how much" we would gain by creating a better platform for knowledge transfer, and I kept saying that with the data provided, his guess was as good as mine. It was like asking how much revenue will I get if I invest in R&D? I can tell you based on industry average (none exist for wealth management knowledge teams btw), or what the past 5 years have shown, but I can never tell you how much you will make by starting to invest in R&D now. Especially without numbers.
Apart from that it was an up-and-down experience. The networking event was a joke; companies sent people who hadn't even read the case and then proceeded to ask questions about how it was. If you are going to represent your company then at least seem like you are prepared. The worst moment was when a young woman who had been hired in September proceeded to tell me that "she had not expected more from an undergraduate competition, that she was sure I did well and tried my best, and the competition is a great learning experience for us all about the real world". Another point was that none of the finalists were Ivy League. I guess that makes them beatable - good to know.:) I also strolled around their beautiful campus, had dinner and drinks with 5 GLOBErs from previous batches (most of whom work for BCG), and made good friends with those who had been through this ordeal with me. Perhaps next time we'll make it a bit further.
A case competition is an attempt to compete at business and hone skills such as critical thinking, team work, and presentation skills. A company (in this case Ernst and Young, an big accounting / consulting firm) writes a 10 page "case", a real-life example of a problem that a company has. You and your team then have to solve this problem by a deadline (here Friday at 9 AM, so some 60 hours from the time the case was released), and then present your findings and answer questions in front of a panel of judges. Even to the untrained "caser", a couple of points stand out. 1) The limited amount of time often means that there is very little diminishing returns to work - ie more work = better chance of winning. So sleep is often a luxury in this time frame. 2) There is never a single "correct" solution to a case. Because it is taken from the real world, a good solution is often an analysis of choices faced by the firm, and then arguing which option is the better.
This case was about the problem of a post-merger integration of two large wealth management companies (fascinating, right?). Essentially the company had problems with certain technologies after the integration, and found it difficult to pass information around the company. There were NO given numbers apart from the overall size of the company (normally you get an overview of their costs, revenues, profits, and how they spend their money). The problem posed was to create a "strategic blueprint" for 3-5 years of how the company could be better integrated - essentially how could the company better use the skills of its people, and how would we structure the flow of its information. This was qualitative, strategic, and without any numbers. My group worked hard and put in the hours needed. Our analysis was strong, our slide deck was professional, and our structure was coherent. So by Friday morning as we were driving to the airport, we all had a good feeling.
We didn't even make the final round. The anticlimax was unbearable, but that's competition. After the initial disappointment, I felt good about my effort and thought I had put up a good fight. We did well, but we were beaten by someone better. So although not having slept more than 3 out of the past 35 hours, I was content with helping myself to free tuna sandwiches and browsing around the consulting conference that was also on, looking forward to seeing the finalists and learn from someone better.
But the finalists were dire. They did well on most areas, coming up with interesting solutions and making it clear that they too had worked. But on so many other levels they disappointed me.´One was their PowerPoint, which looked like it had been made in an hour (I am no wizard at PPT, but I will definitely admit that it hurts my credibility. Luckily our group had other people with such talents). But it was mainly the lack of critique of their own assumptions. Groups said stuff like: "You should reinvent your organization", when talking about a hypothetical firm owning 35% of the market share and managing assets over $1 trillion, or "implementing this idea will cost you $3.5 billion dollars, but will definitely payoff in the long-run", when we were never told the composition of the company (so no idea where he got the 3.5 billion from), which ultimately showed when he didn't give a figure of the actual impact. Just assuming your idea is going to pay off is grasping at straws. Other moronic statements were: "this idea will improve efficiency by 99,5%" and "hiring midlevel managers will eliminate any problems of communication between the company's 800 offices". Some people did attempt to construct numbers (such as costs of acquiring a product; we did that) if these prices are available online, but then their calculations were poor. The cost of putting all your data into the cloud is not simply the cost of running the servers. You have to factor in license-fees, security, training of your employees if the program is different, and transferring hard data to the cloud, just to name a few. And then you cannot assume that it be implemented by tomorrow. I mean come on.
All case competition solutions have flaws, ours included. But the aim is to provide the most feasible solution, effectively showing how much information you can encompass without losing your chain of thought. From what I saw, I was not impressed. I did not feel I had lost to better opponents. So at the networking session afterwards, I spent my time soul-searching, as well as asking questions to try and understand their line of thought in order to improve for future cases.
My main take-away was "know your audience" and that case competitions also include luck. Ernst and Young is an accounting firm, but this case was written by IT-consulting (never knew). I also found out that the 2 judges in my room (there were several rooms of judges) were both Ph.D. statisticians. Speaking about knowledge transfer and corporate culture just didn't resonate with them. They would rather forgive a bad assumption and reward a line of thought that had data than reward a more feasible line of thought without data. The judge kept saying he wanted to know "how much" we would gain by creating a better platform for knowledge transfer, and I kept saying that with the data provided, his guess was as good as mine. It was like asking how much revenue will I get if I invest in R&D? I can tell you based on industry average (none exist for wealth management knowledge teams btw), or what the past 5 years have shown, but I can never tell you how much you will make by starting to invest in R&D now. Especially without numbers.
Apart from that it was an up-and-down experience. The networking event was a joke; companies sent people who hadn't even read the case and then proceeded to ask questions about how it was. If you are going to represent your company then at least seem like you are prepared. The worst moment was when a young woman who had been hired in September proceeded to tell me that "she had not expected more from an undergraduate competition, that she was sure I did well and tried my best, and the competition is a great learning experience for us all about the real world". Another point was that none of the finalists were Ivy League. I guess that makes them beatable - good to know.:) I also strolled around their beautiful campus, had dinner and drinks with 5 GLOBErs from previous batches (most of whom work for BCG), and made good friends with those who had been through this ordeal with me. Perhaps next time we'll make it a bit further.
søndag den 7. oktober 2012
Academic entrepreneurship
2 of my 4 courses this first half of the semester are based on entrepreneurship. The hands-on approach, the obvious and direct link to the real world, and the positive reputation of the teachers made me really interested, but there were some things they forget to mention.
The two courses have very different foci: The challenging GLOBE class, Global Venturing, essentially wants us to build a business model from the ground up. The other, Entrepreneurial Consulting, pairs teams of students with an existing company, who use many of their tools, research, and time, to help the company out. On paper, this looks like a great opportunity to develop skills in an area which often flies under the radar in business schools more focussed on corporatism. There is a reason why that happens though:
Two main points stand out. First, there is a severe conflict of interest between working for a real-life client, but being graded by a professor (entrepreneurial consulting). Of course the professor is involved throughout the course, but while we are trying to discover some issues for our client, if our professor thinks those ideas are bad, we are most likely going to discard them. Conversely, if he likes something which we feel is odd or not really optimal, we'll include anyway. This conflict has been apparent since day 1. We were supposed to interview 1 person about our product to provide some data for class. Our group quickly figured that the response of 1 person would tell us exactly nothing about the market of our product, so we did some market research online instead, and started drawing up some exploratory questionnaires. When we got to class, we sat for 75 minutes and listened to a class of 30 people all described their single interview. A company whose product cleaned industrial pipes got great ratings and a solid forecast from the interviewers 19 year old room mate (who had no clue what was going on). That was great work - we had communication issues, since we hadn't done the research we were told to do. Because our professor has a structured framework for our course, we were a liability to his grading system, even though our client would benefit more from our work. Last week we had the first of 3 deliverables, and with hard work and some appeasement, we come out with good reviews.
Second, global venturing (the other course) shows the issue of "creating an idea". We have had several discussions on what "entrepreneurship" means, and it can encompass several stages of a start-up. Few people in our class were idea-generators, where a lot of people were idea-executors. Both are needed in a start-up. Unfortunately, my group failed to produce a great idea (let alone one that might actually be a marketable product) in the few days we had for that assignment. Therefore we got stuck with a lousy idea, but have to develop a whole business model around it. Thus our team (including myself) struggle to find motivation and dedication to a school project, rather than a potential venture. It seems to me that while your can teach modelling and structure in a classroom, idea generation tends to come from outside the business school.
The next 9 days are going to have exactly 0% blogging - two exams + a group paper of 30 pages needs to be written. Furthermore I am heading to Wharton on Friday with 4 other UNC students to represent the school in a case competition. Too much? Perhaps. A memorable experience? Definitely!
The two courses have very different foci: The challenging GLOBE class, Global Venturing, essentially wants us to build a business model from the ground up. The other, Entrepreneurial Consulting, pairs teams of students with an existing company, who use many of their tools, research, and time, to help the company out. On paper, this looks like a great opportunity to develop skills in an area which often flies under the radar in business schools more focussed on corporatism. There is a reason why that happens though:
Two main points stand out. First, there is a severe conflict of interest between working for a real-life client, but being graded by a professor (entrepreneurial consulting). Of course the professor is involved throughout the course, but while we are trying to discover some issues for our client, if our professor thinks those ideas are bad, we are most likely going to discard them. Conversely, if he likes something which we feel is odd or not really optimal, we'll include anyway. This conflict has been apparent since day 1. We were supposed to interview 1 person about our product to provide some data for class. Our group quickly figured that the response of 1 person would tell us exactly nothing about the market of our product, so we did some market research online instead, and started drawing up some exploratory questionnaires. When we got to class, we sat for 75 minutes and listened to a class of 30 people all described their single interview. A company whose product cleaned industrial pipes got great ratings and a solid forecast from the interviewers 19 year old room mate (who had no clue what was going on). That was great work - we had communication issues, since we hadn't done the research we were told to do. Because our professor has a structured framework for our course, we were a liability to his grading system, even though our client would benefit more from our work. Last week we had the first of 3 deliverables, and with hard work and some appeasement, we come out with good reviews.
Second, global venturing (the other course) shows the issue of "creating an idea". We have had several discussions on what "entrepreneurship" means, and it can encompass several stages of a start-up. Few people in our class were idea-generators, where a lot of people were idea-executors. Both are needed in a start-up. Unfortunately, my group failed to produce a great idea (let alone one that might actually be a marketable product) in the few days we had for that assignment. Therefore we got stuck with a lousy idea, but have to develop a whole business model around it. Thus our team (including myself) struggle to find motivation and dedication to a school project, rather than a potential venture. It seems to me that while your can teach modelling and structure in a classroom, idea generation tends to come from outside the business school.
The next 9 days are going to have exactly 0% blogging - two exams + a group paper of 30 pages needs to be written. Furthermore I am heading to Wharton on Friday with 4 other UNC students to represent the school in a case competition. Too much? Perhaps. A memorable experience? Definitely!
fredag den 28. september 2012
Smartphone
So I finally did it - I traded my old, banged-up (but impeccably reliable, albeit struggling slightly from wear and tear) Nokia for a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It cost me just shy of $400, but from the start it has been a terrific investment.
Where to start? I literally leap-frogged mobile evolution, going from a call-and-text phone to Androids new Jelly Bean (funny name, but that just so people know the difference) operating system. This means that simply being able to access the internet is new to me, and hence the convenience to check emails and facebook (yes, sad I know, but practical for updates of events on the go). I synchronize my calendar, I have Google Maps available (as well as navigation), and can listen to songs online. Furthermore, this means an exposure to apps. Basically free applications (some you pay for) for your phone, I can now read BBC news, check bus schedules, book work-out sessions, buy train tickets, and access my online banking over the phone. Sure many of these things are irrelevant, but the option is handy if you need it. There are apps for almost anything - recipes, live-scores, betting, video streaming - you name it. Shazam is for example a nifty app that records a song playing and finds it for you to buy. Communication apps such as Whatsapp (free texting) and Skype essentially enable you to call / text for free over the internet. Most cell phone deals have free call / texting / internet usage, so for national use it is irrelevant, but free calls to my parents in Denmark, my brother in Switzerland, or my girlfriend in Hong Kong is pretty neat. When a company does NOT have a well-functioning app it is quite a frustration: The Economist has received its first bad comment from me (ever!) - normally you can download the paper to your phone and read it off-line if you have a subscription, but its app is not compatible with newer operating systems. Disappointing.
That is like going from Stoneage to industrial revolution - now for internet revolution. Having all these functions is great - combining them is genius. Google has some pretty cool features out there (more than I can list), but Google Now and Google Play are my favourites so far. Google Play basically lets you put all your music in the cloud so you can stream it from your device, rather than having the files take up memory space - limit is 20.000 songs on your phone. Google Now is a program / feature that just makes your phone more intelligent. It reminds you that your calendar has a meeting at 10 PM, and shows you the way there on navigation. It also reminds you when to leave to reach your destination on time. It will update flight information, train schedules, traffic information on often-used routes, live scores of favourite teams; it will automatically convert text and currency to local terms when abroad; it will show places near by for coffee -and much, much more.
There are a million new things to get used to, and I am only on baby steps. My professor said that we were the first generation growing up in a digitised world of smartphones and interconnectivity. If that is a competitive advantage, I'd better get on the bandwagon.
That is like going from Stoneage to industrial revolution - now for internet revolution. Having all these functions is great - combining them is genius. Google has some pretty cool features out there (more than I can list), but Google Now and Google Play are my favourites so far. Google Play basically lets you put all your music in the cloud so you can stream it from your device, rather than having the files take up memory space - limit is 20.000 songs on your phone. Google Now is a program / feature that just makes your phone more intelligent. It reminds you that your calendar has a meeting at 10 PM, and shows you the way there on navigation. It also reminds you when to leave to reach your destination on time. It will update flight information, train schedules, traffic information on often-used routes, live scores of favourite teams; it will automatically convert text and currency to local terms when abroad; it will show places near by for coffee -and much, much more.
There are a million new things to get used to, and I am only on baby steps. My professor said that we were the first generation growing up in a digitised world of smartphones and interconnectivity. If that is a competitive advantage, I'd better get on the bandwagon.
onsdag den 26. september 2012
The Pope Box
While all UNC students can get into Kenan Stadium for UNC Football games on weekends using their student ID, I spent my first home game of the 2012/13 season in the loge, centerfield at the very top, colloquially known as the Pope Box.
But more on that later. The first (real) home game was against East Carolina University last Saturday. It was pristine weather, a local rival, and we were 17-point favourites, so the expectations were high. Game day is an all-day event, starting some 3-4 hours before kick-off with "tail-gating". Basically you drive up to the stadium or some parking lot in the vicinity in your truck, pitch a small tent / folding gazebo around the rear of your vehicle, and spend the next 3-4 hours eating and drinking like only Americans know how. For home supporters, this can be done at a house, in a clearing close by the stadium, or in my case, at a frat house.
A friend of mine invited my roommate and I to his fraternity - Kappa Sigma. We bought $6 game-day T-shirts (basically a Carolina blue shirt with a big UNC logo on it) and sported a UNC cap we were given strolling there in the early afternoon sun. We were greeted by live country music, an airborne American football, a 50/50 rum and coke, and a hearty slap on the back. Not feeling like drinking myself unconscious before kick-off at 3:30 PM, I traded my drink for a pint of beer and jumped into a circle of guys tossing the football (when in Rome, right?). That, along with helping myself to the buffet of meat, pasta and dessert, as well as more beer, made 2 hours pass in no time.
I meet quite a few people in this fashion - it turns out beer and food make for great conversation topics, leading both to debates on Carlsberg and European breweries, as well as on cultural differences and the need for "desserts". When we head back towards the stadium (centrally placed on campus), it turns out that these guys are friends of my host, and that they have an extra ticket for this Pope Box which they extend my way. My roommate was MIA from his battle to meet new people (and by people I mean those which are brunette, flirtatious, and female), so I assumed he was content (somewhat tipsy I figured he could just have called) and accepted their invite. We walk into the stadium, get in an elevator, and hit the top floor.
Doors open and the scene is changed completely. From a rowdy student crowd, we are now in a plush setting, filled with people aged 45 and up, more like a jockey club that a football stadium. There is a HUGE buffet of food, drinks, ice cream, popcorn, chocolate - pretty much anything - which is all free. Waiters dressed in black and white are handing out programs, and the majority of chequered shirts and blazers makes my Carolina blue outfit look completely out of place. I grab a Mars Bar, a cup of lemonade, a box of popcorn and pile a plate as high I can with corn dogs, pulled pork, and mac and cheese. We march down to our seats, some 5 rows up, but since the first to rows are completely empty, we snag those and prop ourselves back for a good day in the sun.
A couple of key take-aways: 1) Football is a loooong game. Tailgate at 1 and in the stadium at 3:30, we weren't out till 7, so it is more a social event than a sports game. Not a problem if you are in good company. 2) Lemonade is amazing - they served it on ice, it wasn't too sweet, it was immensely refreshing, and I must have had 1½ liters of it. 3) The bathrooms have complementary sunscreen - ingenious for a "gweilo" such as myself! 4) I really enjoyed myself. Game day is a tradition that seems here to stay! :D
But more on that later. The first (real) home game was against East Carolina University last Saturday. It was pristine weather, a local rival, and we were 17-point favourites, so the expectations were high. Game day is an all-day event, starting some 3-4 hours before kick-off with "tail-gating". Basically you drive up to the stadium or some parking lot in the vicinity in your truck, pitch a small tent / folding gazebo around the rear of your vehicle, and spend the next 3-4 hours eating and drinking like only Americans know how. For home supporters, this can be done at a house, in a clearing close by the stadium, or in my case, at a frat house.
A friend of mine invited my roommate and I to his fraternity - Kappa Sigma. We bought $6 game-day T-shirts (basically a Carolina blue shirt with a big UNC logo on it) and sported a UNC cap we were given strolling there in the early afternoon sun. We were greeted by live country music, an airborne American football, a 50/50 rum and coke, and a hearty slap on the back. Not feeling like drinking myself unconscious before kick-off at 3:30 PM, I traded my drink for a pint of beer and jumped into a circle of guys tossing the football (when in Rome, right?). That, along with helping myself to the buffet of meat, pasta and dessert, as well as more beer, made 2 hours pass in no time.
I meet quite a few people in this fashion - it turns out beer and food make for great conversation topics, leading both to debates on Carlsberg and European breweries, as well as on cultural differences and the need for "desserts". When we head back towards the stadium (centrally placed on campus), it turns out that these guys are friends of my host, and that they have an extra ticket for this Pope Box which they extend my way. My roommate was MIA from his battle to meet new people (and by people I mean those which are brunette, flirtatious, and female), so I assumed he was content (somewhat tipsy I figured he could just have called) and accepted their invite. We walk into the stadium, get in an elevator, and hit the top floor.
Doors open and the scene is changed completely. From a rowdy student crowd, we are now in a plush setting, filled with people aged 45 and up, more like a jockey club that a football stadium. There is a HUGE buffet of food, drinks, ice cream, popcorn, chocolate - pretty much anything - which is all free. Waiters dressed in black and white are handing out programs, and the majority of chequered shirts and blazers makes my Carolina blue outfit look completely out of place. I grab a Mars Bar, a cup of lemonade, a box of popcorn and pile a plate as high I can with corn dogs, pulled pork, and mac and cheese. We march down to our seats, some 5 rows up, but since the first to rows are completely empty, we snag those and prop ourselves back for a good day in the sun.
A couple of key take-aways: 1) Football is a loooong game. Tailgate at 1 and in the stadium at 3:30, we weren't out till 7, so it is more a social event than a sports game. Not a problem if you are in good company. 2) Lemonade is amazing - they served it on ice, it wasn't too sweet, it was immensely refreshing, and I must have had 1½ liters of it. 3) The bathrooms have complementary sunscreen - ingenious for a "gweilo" such as myself! 4) I really enjoyed myself. Game day is a tradition that seems here to stay! :D
onsdag den 19. september 2012
Business fashion
After attending social events, networking events, a case competition, GLOBE alumni events and formal class excursions, I have had a chance to get a glimpse of what male American business students deem acceptable attire for the various occasions, and how that fundamentally clashes with most European norms.
Fashion is just different here. In general clothing is looser, but other than that there really doesn't seem to be that many rules. Different social groups wear different pieces of clothing - most notably the slightly sporty girls wear short gym-shorts, running shoes, and loose T-shirts; fraternity boys wear sunglass straps; and curiously any Asian guy at the gym has spotless basketball shoes. Wearing Carolina blue is always acceptable, but then again, most things are: Walking into a business school in tracksuit-bottoms, red sneakers and a plain white shirt some 10 minutes after stumbling out of bed, the first comment from a classmate was that I looked like an American.
My main qualm with American fashion is the role of the undershirt. Basically it is a T-shirt used as a vest (in the British sense of the word - a vest to Americans is waistcoat to Brits), under a buttoned-down shirt. Imagine any flashy young chap, neatly shaven, wearing newly-polished shoes, pressed khaki trousers, a smart shirt (probably pink) and a darker blazer. He is casually dressed up, but all I see is the glare protruding from under his shirt; the crispy-white undershirt constricted around his neck. In America, flashing a undershirt signals casualness. I think it looks retarded - you are wearing a hundred-dollar Ralph Lauren shirt, but desperately feel the need to improve the look with a 4-buck shirt from GAP? Now all I can think of is your ability to breathe normally as the shirt nears your adams apple, as well as trying unsuccessfully to find some visual harmony from your quadruple-colour outfit. In Europe, this is solved by the V-neck. Basically the neck is cut in a V-shape, so undoing the top button of your shirt doesn't reveal it. Comfort, without destroying the style of the shirt. Ingenious.
Perhaps this stems from another peculiar American theme, the role of business professional. If one is going to visit significant institutions (such as the European Counsel or the Federal Reserve), then they might require certain attire. However, business professional is used in anything from MBA networking events (MBA students around the school are constantly sporting ties) to case competition presentations. I personally have no problem with business professional; it still makes all men look awesome, even though it is somewhat anachronistic. My annoyance is the requirement for me to wear a suit and tie even though no-one else is - at the case competition presentation, if my judges are all sporting shirts with rolled up sleeves and an unbuttoned collar, why am supposed to wear business professional when it is 30 degrees in the shade?
The feedback from the European delegation seems clear: American everyday-fashion is an oxymoron. This is naturally only a generalisation - loads of Americans are well-dressed. Many times it is just a difference in style - for example, I am starting to like the basketball style of baggy shorts, big basketball shoes, socks pulled halfway up your calf, and a loose T-shirt of some sort. But I think I might be alone on that one.
It mainly just seems to boil down to making an effort. Perhaps we Europeans are more vain about our everyday clothing? Maybe, but Americans can, and do, put in an effort when it counts. I will not speak for women's fashion, but male Americans will dress well for cocktails, social gatherings, and business professional meetings. As a European, I would make some tweaks, but hey, that's just me. Overall, they come through in style. Except for those nasty undershirts.
Fashion is just different here. In general clothing is looser, but other than that there really doesn't seem to be that many rules. Different social groups wear different pieces of clothing - most notably the slightly sporty girls wear short gym-shorts, running shoes, and loose T-shirts; fraternity boys wear sunglass straps; and curiously any Asian guy at the gym has spotless basketball shoes. Wearing Carolina blue is always acceptable, but then again, most things are: Walking into a business school in tracksuit-bottoms, red sneakers and a plain white shirt some 10 minutes after stumbling out of bed, the first comment from a classmate was that I looked like an American.
My main qualm with American fashion is the role of the undershirt. Basically it is a T-shirt used as a vest (in the British sense of the word - a vest to Americans is waistcoat to Brits), under a buttoned-down shirt. Imagine any flashy young chap, neatly shaven, wearing newly-polished shoes, pressed khaki trousers, a smart shirt (probably pink) and a darker blazer. He is casually dressed up, but all I see is the glare protruding from under his shirt; the crispy-white undershirt constricted around his neck. In America, flashing a undershirt signals casualness. I think it looks retarded - you are wearing a hundred-dollar Ralph Lauren shirt, but desperately feel the need to improve the look with a 4-buck shirt from GAP? Now all I can think of is your ability to breathe normally as the shirt nears your adams apple, as well as trying unsuccessfully to find some visual harmony from your quadruple-colour outfit. In Europe, this is solved by the V-neck. Basically the neck is cut in a V-shape, so undoing the top button of your shirt doesn't reveal it. Comfort, without destroying the style of the shirt. Ingenious.
Perhaps this stems from another peculiar American theme, the role of business professional. If one is going to visit significant institutions (such as the European Counsel or the Federal Reserve), then they might require certain attire. However, business professional is used in anything from MBA networking events (MBA students around the school are constantly sporting ties) to case competition presentations. I personally have no problem with business professional; it still makes all men look awesome, even though it is somewhat anachronistic. My annoyance is the requirement for me to wear a suit and tie even though no-one else is - at the case competition presentation, if my judges are all sporting shirts with rolled up sleeves and an unbuttoned collar, why am supposed to wear business professional when it is 30 degrees in the shade?
The feedback from the European delegation seems clear: American everyday-fashion is an oxymoron. This is naturally only a generalisation - loads of Americans are well-dressed. Many times it is just a difference in style - for example, I am starting to like the basketball style of baggy shorts, big basketball shoes, socks pulled halfway up your calf, and a loose T-shirt of some sort. But I think I might be alone on that one.
It mainly just seems to boil down to making an effort. Perhaps we Europeans are more vain about our everyday clothing? Maybe, but Americans can, and do, put in an effort when it counts. I will not speak for women's fashion, but male Americans will dress well for cocktails, social gatherings, and business professional meetings. As a European, I would make some tweaks, but hey, that's just me. Overall, they come through in style. Except for those nasty undershirts.
søndag den 16. september 2012
Alumni weekend
With many of the American's who went to Chapel Hill still based around North Carolina, we spent this past weekend having a GLOBE alumni gathering. Some 8-12 GLOBE graduates took time out of their weekend to come down to UNC for social events, career advice, and networking.
We met up a GLOBE VI's house 5 minutes walk from Franklin Street, the main road just north of campus for a tailgate on Saturday afternoon. The event is basically a pre-football social get-together with a keg, food, beer pong, and Carolina blue. The UNC Tar Heels were playing the Louisville Cardinals away, so the flat screen TV was the centre of attention for most of the afternoon. I helped myself to huge portions of coleslaw, chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad and hushpuppies (tasted a bit like a dry rösti), and plotted myself in front of the TV with a full-bred American GLOBE II chap to enlighten me on the intricacies of college football. By the time I had finished my meal the first half was still under way, but Louisville were up 23-0, having scored on all their plays, as well as defending impeccably. So I lost interest (with most of the crowd), and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting outside in the sun.
The second part of the weekend was a couple of hours of networking and career advice at the business school. It was very helpful to get some advice from people who have previously been in your shoes, but I guess most of the comments were directed at the current job-seeking Americans. I spent the time eating munchkins (doughnut holes), drinking coffee, and listening to war stories of 90 hour work weeks and business class travel from the consultant-front.
A main realization is that GLOBE students consume an awful lot of alcohol. Perhaps it is the work hard, play harder mentality, the fact that somebody else is buying, or the relatively limited amount of times when one can do keg stands at 2 PM on a Saturday. So no wonder most of the people looked weary-eyed on Sunday, even though it didn't start till 1. I decided not to go out, following a brutal week of case competition and the amount of homework that is piling up. I think I have gone out enough this first month. Although at next alumni event, I am sure I'll match the GLOBE standards.
We met up a GLOBE VI's house 5 minutes walk from Franklin Street, the main road just north of campus for a tailgate on Saturday afternoon. The event is basically a pre-football social get-together with a keg, food, beer pong, and Carolina blue. The UNC Tar Heels were playing the Louisville Cardinals away, so the flat screen TV was the centre of attention for most of the afternoon. I helped myself to huge portions of coleslaw, chicken, macaroni and cheese, salad and hushpuppies (tasted a bit like a dry rösti), and plotted myself in front of the TV with a full-bred American GLOBE II chap to enlighten me on the intricacies of college football. By the time I had finished my meal the first half was still under way, but Louisville were up 23-0, having scored on all their plays, as well as defending impeccably. So I lost interest (with most of the crowd), and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting outside in the sun.
The second part of the weekend was a couple of hours of networking and career advice at the business school. It was very helpful to get some advice from people who have previously been in your shoes, but I guess most of the comments were directed at the current job-seeking Americans. I spent the time eating munchkins (doughnut holes), drinking coffee, and listening to war stories of 90 hour work weeks and business class travel from the consultant-front.
A main realization is that GLOBE students consume an awful lot of alcohol. Perhaps it is the work hard, play harder mentality, the fact that somebody else is buying, or the relatively limited amount of times when one can do keg stands at 2 PM on a Saturday. So no wonder most of the people looked weary-eyed on Sunday, even though it didn't start till 1. I decided not to go out, following a brutal week of case competition and the amount of homework that is piling up. I think I have gone out enough this first month. Although at next alumni event, I am sure I'll match the GLOBE standards.
fredag den 7. september 2012
Teacher Enthusiasm
An unfortunate (but not unforeseen) effect of arriving at UNC has been the transition back to having class. UNC is extremely oriented towards group-work, so I find myself having groups in each of my classes, as well as the constant flow of group meetings and assignment. The lectures, on the other hand, are short and sweet, but often jam-packed with information. So if you haven't read, don't bother showing up. Nowhere is this more true than in my derivatives and securities class, but thankfully my professor in that class is one of the best I have ever had!
Classes are a brutal 8:00 to 9:15 AM, the readings are plentiful and condense, each lecture has a case which needs to be solved at home, as well as deliverable homework each week. The topic is counter-intuitive at times, murderously boring the rest. For any teacher this is bad odds. I have taken plenty dull courses, and had even more poor teachers. So what makes this guy stand out?
He is Spanish, always wearing a 3-buttoned suit and tie, well-polished shoes, and is impeccably clean-shaven. He is a vivid Barcelona football fan and former competitive chess player, he always has a large cup of Starbucks coffee when he teaches, and always has classical music playing before the class commences. But most importantly, he has a great sense of humour. Examples:
1) Each case is named after somebody famous, but not always obviously. Rocinante, Iniesta, Topalov, Bachelier, and Shostakovic are definitely not common names to the average American undergraduate, but Don Quixote's horse, the Barcelona midfielder, the Bulgarian chess player, the great French mathematician, and the acclaimed 20th century Russian composer reveal the professor's personal traits and his peculiar sophistication.
2) He loves Open-source, and views Microsoft as the devil. He therefore always points out his clean and custom-designed slides, and how it could never be done as well by standard PowerPoint. He naturally dislikes the school intranet, so he has his own website where he uploads our materials. I'll refrain from posting the password, but the username is "greatchess". Naturally.
3) He over-emphasizes the stories in the cases with witty puns and biased opinions. There are 3 questions, which really don't need that much information, but he makes an art out of writing interesting reads (quite an accomplishment - we are talking about derivatives here). For example Bachelier had a brownie company, which sold brownies to Europe and wanted to hedge against FX risk (Bachelier created the stochastic process known as Brownian motion). Iniesta gives up on "kicking a ball around on weekends" to utilize arbitrage opportunities in trading Barcelona stock. His troubles are on whether he thinks Barcelona will win the Double, thus increasing the stock price, or simply win one trophy, which will not have any effect, since the market has factored this victory into the price. He also tussles with Ronaldo, a "fierce, albeit weak, football competitor". Finally, Topalov Inc wants you to price a call option from Grünfeld Defence Corp. (Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening).
I am not sure if this information has befallen everyone in the class. I only realized it after initially noticing Topalov, Iniesta and Botvinnik, and then googling the rest. I guess I am almost as nerdy as he is - but I think it is awesome that I can learn something as nerdy as derivatives AND Russian composers in the space of an hour. Shostakovich' string quartet no. 7 was playing as I wrote this blog - it is recommended.
UPDATE: A favourite game he likes to pay with his kids (aged 11 and 9) is who can first count the prime numbers between 1 and 100. He is undefeated, and proudly boasts a record of just over 15 seconds. Awesome.
Classes are a brutal 8:00 to 9:15 AM, the readings are plentiful and condense, each lecture has a case which needs to be solved at home, as well as deliverable homework each week. The topic is counter-intuitive at times, murderously boring the rest. For any teacher this is bad odds. I have taken plenty dull courses, and had even more poor teachers. So what makes this guy stand out?
He is Spanish, always wearing a 3-buttoned suit and tie, well-polished shoes, and is impeccably clean-shaven. He is a vivid Barcelona football fan and former competitive chess player, he always has a large cup of Starbucks coffee when he teaches, and always has classical music playing before the class commences. But most importantly, he has a great sense of humour. Examples:
1) Each case is named after somebody famous, but not always obviously. Rocinante, Iniesta, Topalov, Bachelier, and Shostakovic are definitely not common names to the average American undergraduate, but Don Quixote's horse, the Barcelona midfielder, the Bulgarian chess player, the great French mathematician, and the acclaimed 20th century Russian composer reveal the professor's personal traits and his peculiar sophistication.
2) He loves Open-source, and views Microsoft as the devil. He therefore always points out his clean and custom-designed slides, and how it could never be done as well by standard PowerPoint. He naturally dislikes the school intranet, so he has his own website where he uploads our materials. I'll refrain from posting the password, but the username is "greatchess". Naturally.
3) He over-emphasizes the stories in the cases with witty puns and biased opinions. There are 3 questions, which really don't need that much information, but he makes an art out of writing interesting reads (quite an accomplishment - we are talking about derivatives here). For example Bachelier had a brownie company, which sold brownies to Europe and wanted to hedge against FX risk (Bachelier created the stochastic process known as Brownian motion). Iniesta gives up on "kicking a ball around on weekends" to utilize arbitrage opportunities in trading Barcelona stock. His troubles are on whether he thinks Barcelona will win the Double, thus increasing the stock price, or simply win one trophy, which will not have any effect, since the market has factored this victory into the price. He also tussles with Ronaldo, a "fierce, albeit weak, football competitor". Finally, Topalov Inc wants you to price a call option from Grünfeld Defence Corp. (Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening).
I am not sure if this information has befallen everyone in the class. I only realized it after initially noticing Topalov, Iniesta and Botvinnik, and then googling the rest. I guess I am almost as nerdy as he is - but I think it is awesome that I can learn something as nerdy as derivatives AND Russian composers in the space of an hour. Shostakovich' string quartet no. 7 was playing as I wrote this blog - it is recommended.
UPDATE: A favourite game he likes to pay with his kids (aged 11 and 9) is who can first count the prime numbers between 1 and 100. He is undefeated, and proudly boasts a record of just over 15 seconds. Awesome.
søndag den 2. september 2012
Beliefs
Week of welcome, ice-cream socials, and community dinners around campus guarantee one thing for new students: Meeting new people. So I seem to have spent an awful lot of time talking to North Carolinian freshmen about where they come from, what they study, and how it is so amazing to be away from parents and finally in college. Most of these 2 minute conversations involve single sentences, routine answers, and minimum brain power, so it was a pleasant surprise when I spent an hour on Friday in the library discussing the topic of religion.
I found myself studying in the company of two freshmen who live in the same dorm as myself. After everyone implicitly agreed that studying human cell deterioration, David Hume, and options and futures pricing, (respectively, guess which one is me) was better left for another day, we picked up a more personal topic. The conversation proceeded something like this: "Are you going to church on Sunday?" - "No" - "So you are not a Christian?" - "In Denmark we are protestants; it is common not to attend church" - "So what do you believe in?". The last question hit a sore spot - I could not come up with a satisfactory answer right away. Even after I left the library later that day, I spent much of my time mulling over that statement. Among other things, I found that much confusion comes from inadequate definitions of terms, as well as a desire to create oversimplified, one-sentence punchlines such as "Christianity".
First, the definitions. The questions "Are you Christian" and "Do you believe in God" were identical to my debators, but they are very different for me. I view Christianity to a large part of the Danish culture, history and moral values with which I associate myself, but I don't believe in a personified God. "Belief" was another. I believe the sun will rise tomorrow based on a strong argument (scientific proof, personal experience). I don't believe in Hell, simply because the argument is weak. Finally, the phrase "you must experience God for yourself" instantly triggered the question in my mind: "If you experience something and call it God, what must I experience to use the same term", not to mention the fact that humans are encoded to find causal meaning from everything, even it can be ascribed to chance.
Next, the oversimplifications: I associate Christianity with the Ten Commandments, a moral codex, a part of my upbringing, church on Christmas Eve, and sanctuary for my thoughts. I also associate Christianity with the inquisition, the gospel of Judas, and one of the greatest institutions in human history. I view Jesus as a popular and influential person some 2000 years ago, the Bible as a human creation, and the prevalence of the religion as a political and military accomplishment rather than "the work of God".
So what do I believe? I believe that there is a force (call it power or energy if you wish) which exists beyond our knowledge, and which is part of the reason for life as we know it. I believe that our understanding is limited by our cognitive ability (limited to 3D) and there is a possibility of a discontinuity of time and space, contrary to what we can perceive. I believe that religion is a tool for finding peace and mindfulness for humans, as well as a set of moral values and a code of conduct, and that it can still play an important part in many peoples lives - Vipassana meditation certainly helped me. However, I believe in facts and science rather than tradition and myth, and thus I tend to take a agnostic view on most religious topics. But I cannot escape the fact that I do not have all the answers, and therefore surrender myself to the uncertainty that there is something out there which I cannot comprehend.
What does this mean for me? I am by nature curious to find a coherent meaning in life, but I seem to be quite content with ignoring the large picture such as "where does the world, the universe, come from?". Instead I like to philosophize on what is here and now, such as will a conversion of religion influence my happiness, or can a human being be taught morals and virtue without also learning the fear of doing wrong (in Christianity, you don't murder because otherwise you go to hell).
My conversation ended less fruitfully in the library. I asked whether they thought I could be a decent human being without fearing God. They responded as they had learnt - without embracing the forgiveness of God, I would be condemned for eternity. They were firm believers, based on their own experiences and their relationship with God, and I had no intention of questioning or changing their belief. I have no compelling evidence that they are mistaken, so their view is as qualified as mine. But they seemed reluctant to accept my position, so I smiled, wished them well, and thanked them for our discussion. Then I turned, left the library, and shuttled home to pack my bags - apparently the highway to Hell goes via a friend's Virginian lake house over the weekend!
I found myself studying in the company of two freshmen who live in the same dorm as myself. After everyone implicitly agreed that studying human cell deterioration, David Hume, and options and futures pricing, (respectively, guess which one is me) was better left for another day, we picked up a more personal topic. The conversation proceeded something like this: "Are you going to church on Sunday?" - "No" - "So you are not a Christian?" - "In Denmark we are protestants; it is common not to attend church" - "So what do you believe in?". The last question hit a sore spot - I could not come up with a satisfactory answer right away. Even after I left the library later that day, I spent much of my time mulling over that statement. Among other things, I found that much confusion comes from inadequate definitions of terms, as well as a desire to create oversimplified, one-sentence punchlines such as "Christianity".
First, the definitions. The questions "Are you Christian" and "Do you believe in God" were identical to my debators, but they are very different for me. I view Christianity to a large part of the Danish culture, history and moral values with which I associate myself, but I don't believe in a personified God. "Belief" was another. I believe the sun will rise tomorrow based on a strong argument (scientific proof, personal experience). I don't believe in Hell, simply because the argument is weak. Finally, the phrase "you must experience God for yourself" instantly triggered the question in my mind: "If you experience something and call it God, what must I experience to use the same term", not to mention the fact that humans are encoded to find causal meaning from everything, even it can be ascribed to chance.
Next, the oversimplifications: I associate Christianity with the Ten Commandments, a moral codex, a part of my upbringing, church on Christmas Eve, and sanctuary for my thoughts. I also associate Christianity with the inquisition, the gospel of Judas, and one of the greatest institutions in human history. I view Jesus as a popular and influential person some 2000 years ago, the Bible as a human creation, and the prevalence of the religion as a political and military accomplishment rather than "the work of God".
So what do I believe? I believe that there is a force (call it power or energy if you wish) which exists beyond our knowledge, and which is part of the reason for life as we know it. I believe that our understanding is limited by our cognitive ability (limited to 3D) and there is a possibility of a discontinuity of time and space, contrary to what we can perceive. I believe that religion is a tool for finding peace and mindfulness for humans, as well as a set of moral values and a code of conduct, and that it can still play an important part in many peoples lives - Vipassana meditation certainly helped me. However, I believe in facts and science rather than tradition and myth, and thus I tend to take a agnostic view on most religious topics. But I cannot escape the fact that I do not have all the answers, and therefore surrender myself to the uncertainty that there is something out there which I cannot comprehend.
What does this mean for me? I am by nature curious to find a coherent meaning in life, but I seem to be quite content with ignoring the large picture such as "where does the world, the universe, come from?". Instead I like to philosophize on what is here and now, such as will a conversion of religion influence my happiness, or can a human being be taught morals and virtue without also learning the fear of doing wrong (in Christianity, you don't murder because otherwise you go to hell).
My conversation ended less fruitfully in the library. I asked whether they thought I could be a decent human being without fearing God. They responded as they had learnt - without embracing the forgiveness of God, I would be condemned for eternity. They were firm believers, based on their own experiences and their relationship with God, and I had no intention of questioning or changing their belief. I have no compelling evidence that they are mistaken, so their view is as qualified as mine. But they seemed reluctant to accept my position, so I smiled, wished them well, and thanked them for our discussion. Then I turned, left the library, and shuttled home to pack my bags - apparently the highway to Hell goes via a friend's Virginian lake house over the weekend!
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