Congrats Poker Players

During winter break, some of our classmates went to Caesar's Palace in Vegas to represent Haas at the three day MBA Poker Championship Tournament. Here are some of the guys who joined the tournament.

Many of us watched for status updates on Facebook to see who was still in the game each day.

Congrats go out to my fellow classmates for placing in the top ten each day of the tournament!

Sam Chatterjee - 5th out of 257 on Friday
Farhan Ahmad - 2nd out of 201 on Saturday
Christina Stewart - 9th out of 78 on Sunday
Sam again -10th out of 78 on Sunday

Go Bears!

The Final Countdown

So I'm now in my final semester, and I thought that at this point I'd be counting down the hours till graduation. But actually, I'm feeling kinda strange about coming to the end. It could also be to do with the fact that I've only got one unit this semester, and it doesn't start until the end of February, so right now I feel like I have a lot of spare time on my hands (well, apart from that Dubai paper that's due in a couple of weeks...). I guess the end of the program seems to be a time of reflection for a lot of folks in the program. As I come towards the finish, and hear about my classmates who are starting new jobs in the summer/fall or contemplating sticking around to try On-campus recruiting, or just listening to everyone's post-MBA plans, its getting me thinking about what I really want with my life..... Does seem kind of strange to be coming to the end. What am I going to do with all my spare time? Previously spare time was only a temporary thing, so I just enjoyed it while I could, but now the thought of all that spare time is making me feel a little anxious. Well, I think it might be time to distract myself in final assignments and my last class.....

The Start of A New Semester

It sounds like Deanne and Tim had awesome trips. I went to Hong Kong and Macau too and stuffed myself silly with tons of good food, but didn't manage to bump into Tim.

I also finished reading a book during break (something I don't normally do if it's not a book listed in my syllabus for the semester) and to get my car tuned up for commuting this semester.

While the first year evening folks have already been in classes for the last few weeks, my first class isn't until this Thursday. I've signed up for Pricing and Entrepreneurship (and yes, reading our blog has made me realize it's going to be a busy semester). The relaxing part of January is going to be over soon as I start reading case studies again.

Also, as Tim mentioned, we have new executive team members (including our very own Div), so I'm busy planning the upcoming EWMBAA Leadership Appreciation Dinner for last year's hard working volunteers as well as planning for the transition meeting to hand off everything to the new President. It's amazing to think how quickly the last year passed by and how many academic, social, and other events have taken place. I will definitely cherish the memories of being part of the EWMBAA leadership team and hope many of you reading this might consider volunteering once you become part of Haas.

Sleep MPAR'ed (impaired)

Wow, what a great trip Deanne had over the winter break! Exciting things have been happening, and the International Business Seminars are definitely amazing opportunities. I'm looking into the China trip for this Summer myself.

In the mean time, it has been quite a Winter. I had been swamped in December all the way through with "regular" work. But come January, I spent two weeks in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan on my own having a blast for my first extended vacation in two years.

I did get to meet up with one of my pals from the Haas program out there, as the Haas Finance Club also did a turn in Hong Kong to meet up with Investment Banks like Goldman Sachs and others as part of a joint program with other business schools. Several people interviewed for Summer internships, which are highly competitive.

Here's a pic of me (sporting new glasses made in Hong Kong in less than two days-- how are we not able to do that in the U.S.?) and my buddy, Asad Baheri (our current EWMBA Association Vice President) and his son, Kian, in Taiwan.

Asad joined the Finance Club in their Hong Kong tour before heading over to Taiwan. Several of the Finance Club folks (and myself) also got custom tailored suits in Hong Kong, since they are well-known for fine tailoring at an affordable price and with very fast turnaround (also only took two days). Never know when you're going to need another suit-- and it never hurts to have one custom fitted with your name stitched in the inner lining (grin).

I returned from Asia two days before MPAR started and am now back from our weekend extravaganza. For those of you that are not familiar with it, MPAR is our Haas Mid-Program Academic Retreat-- a Fri thru Sun adventure where we try to put together a lot of the learning from the previous year and a half AND get an opportunity to again meet with our full class (Go, Class of '11!). Simulation exercises in quick successive rounds kept things rolling, and it was great to "party on" at the Seascape Resort in Santa Cruz. The current first-years are definitely in for a treat next year!

To give you a taste of the less formal side of things, many late-night "informal networking events" (read: parties) went on, including poker (big winner: Jimmy Q.-- I broke even basically), and beach bonfire socials (along with glowing, luminescent algae in the area--weird-- people lightly dubbed this phenomenon: "Avatar"). With all the late night events, coupled with jet lag, I totaled roughly 7-8 hours of sleep across the two nights-- though I'm sure there were others who were worse off. The Program Office and our illustrious Frank Schultz (of OB, Leadership and Competitive Strategy fame) pulled off making it a fantastic experience. Maybe Div actually brought his camera and can share some photos later..

Sleep impairment (MPAR-ment) aside-- it was a blast, and I was so glad to see old and new faces. Looking forward to the new semester. Go Haasketeers!

- Tim

International Seminar: Dubai

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break, and the second year's are having a blast at MPAR.

I'm sitting in LAX waiting my final connection home from the International Seminar in Dubai. We had a fantastic trip! Below is a photo of the ladies on our trip during our visit to the Grand Mosque in AbuDhabi. When I get more photos from our official photographers (Marissa/TJ) I'll post some more group shots.

The trip took us on company visits to 10 different organizations including the Strategic Planning Department of the Government of Dubai, Unilever Arabia and Emirates National Oil Company. The 20 EWMBA students on the trip all got a first hand view of the effects of the global financial crisis on Dubai and the surrounding Middle East countries. The incredible development that has recently occurred in Dubai is amazing - contrasting the current skyline with the photos from 1990 which showed pretty much sand, was very stark.

The trip was made up of entirely 3rd year students, and before I left, I think I knew about a little over a quarter of the participants. It was a great opportunity to get to know others from the program in an in depth way. We immersed ourselves in the local culture in the evenings after our seminars. On Wednesday we went on a 'desert safari', including four wheel drives, camel rides and belly-dancing. We made good use of the cheap local taxi's to explore the city and its many sights, including the gold and spice souk's, the Jumeria beach area and its spectacular hotels and new 'islands', the Emirates Mall including the indoor ski slopes and the Dubai Mall with an aquarium, a Bellagio-esque fountain show and the Burj Khalifa - the tallest building in the world (for now!).

As well as learn about the local economy, culture and what it takes to do business in Dubai and the region, we also got to put some of the skills we learnt in other classes into practice. We used a lot of negotiation - in the markets, with taxi drivers and quickly found out who in the group we should send in for particular negotiating scenarios. We also used our Pricing skills, when setting our opening bids for items at the markets.

In the coming weeks we'll be putting together a report on our analysis of doing business in Dubai, and an element of this that has an impact on our own companies.

The international seminar was a fantastic experience to top-off my final semester (I can't believe it!) at Haas - I'd recommend taking one to anyone in the program.

Deanne

5 more months

It's amazing to consider that I've been blogging here for a little over two years now and I have a mere five months left in 2010 before my time at Haas is officially complete. For now, there is talk amongst classmates about upcoming academic trips both in early January and during spring break.

I'm enjoying my time off during winter break and enjoying the freedom from case studies and required reading. Instead of prepping for my upcoming classes, I'm reading a mystery involving theft, murder, and other non-business related topics. However, after the past few years, I find that I'm never really far away from my MBA experience - whether it's seeing a billboard and thinking about how a company brands itself to considering how a piece of news is affecting our economy and inflation - the Berkeley MBA has become such a part of who I am that, although it sounds cliche, I really am a different person now than when I started the program.

In any case, there are only a few days left before 2010 arrives - time to go back to sipping tea and relaxing before the break is over.

Entrepreneurship and Finals

Alas, while my fellow bloggers were partying at the Xmas Party, my Entrepreneurship Team and I were busy preparing for our VC pitch.

It's finally over now though, as we got to make our way up legendary Sand Hill Rd. to pitch in front of five VCs and our professor (he's part of a VC too actually, so I guess that makes six). That's quite a feeling to go in front of people and try to eloquently make sense of your proposed start-up, but congrats all around to the class's teams who have executed on Monday, and those who will this coming Saturday!

All in all, the class was an amazing learning experience. Interesting to sit in front of this V-shaped table (at the point) and get peppered with questions on the proposal and the small matter of a request for funding. But as a former classmate said to us, "if you don't get questions, you don't have a real case." Nevertheless, I'm sure that the VCs, knowing we were a class, gave us the kid gloves treatment.

Also, further cementing how important relationships are, I was delighted to find that one of the VC's listening to our pitch was an old friend from way back that I hadn't seen in years. He (and I) both have very common names, so I didn't think twice about it until we met in-person. In any case, kudos to the class and the VCs-- the feedback we received from the professor, one of the mentors and the VCs has been invaluable. I remember when one mentor's feedback to us was that our simple logo (see left) was "nice and consistent"-- that's not a good thing to hear as the first feedback point, is it (ha!)? We had our OB-related struggles, alongside working the market research and identifying the proper course of action, but we made it through

I'm sure the advanced entrepreneurship class that Deanne mentioned would be an incredible one too (and have to look into that for next year). I'm just looking to get through one last class and final, and it will be Winter Break smooth sailing. Party on..

Congrats to the new EWMBAA Student Body: it includes my fellow entrepreneurship teammate, Asad, who is the newly elected EWMBAA VP, Hector (Pres.), Rahul (Treasurer) and fellow blogger, Div, as Secretary (as was mentioned in an earlier post, I believe). Looking forward to another strong year-- big shoes to fill, with our incumbent President, Anlei (another blogger), graduating soon.

Good luck on finals, all!