MBA through Stanford GSB

FINAL POST ON STANFORD GSB. Best & not so good of the GSB- Mbwana perspective

2007-12-19T17:24:00.001-08:00

This is my final post before I transition this blog- You don't know how hard it is for me to do this- I greatly miss Stanford GSB- best decision I ever made. Anyway, I had been working on this post ever since I graduated and after some pressure to really get something out rather than perfect the post, here it is.

BTW- the blog will transition into technology and management issues in the developing world- namely Africa. All the posts on Stanford GSB will still be available here though.

THE BEST Bits

Fun & Laughter:

This is something that I don't hear many of my classmates say has been a highlight of the GSB experience, maybe its because my aerospace career did not expose me to such fun people, but I have never laughed as much in any other two year period as much as I have at the GSB. Never has a class gone by where the learning has not been entertaining, from a classmate taking risks and making a complete fool of him or herself, to the professor cracking a joke that makes the whole learning experience that much more enjoyable. Now, I will be honest here, I am not one to always be smily all the time, but the GSB really has made me lighten up much more,this could just be the product of the American experience compared to a mainly British up bringing. As a key management learning point, you have to make having fun as part of running an organization these days to get the best out of people- case in point, Southwest Airlines.

Thinking: Going deep and going wide- always open minded
My level of thinking has really expanded beyond what I imagined, the core took me deep into the disciplines of management and electives expanded the mind to areas of fundamental inerest to me that I am only now beginning to comprehend. To illustrate, I returned from Tanga during the summer, a town of my mother's side of the family, whilst there I met with some Stanford undergraduate students that I had shared an Africa related class with along with a University of Dar es Salaam student. The Stanford students were conducting independent malaria research in the Tanga region for the summer- anyone from Tanzania would tell you that Tanga has some of the nastiest malaria in east africa. Anyway, we had a fantastic discussion and debate about development, entrepreneurship, family business, corruption and the progress of Tanzania like I could never do prior to my Stanford experience ... And I really do mean "Stanford", since the business school alone did not allow me to think more critically about Tanzania development, rather an additional 5 unit course I took on Africa helped me expand core learning and knowledge into another domain, its amazing how well the organizational behavior classes can explain a ton of the government problems as well as issues regarding the scaling of local private enterprises. The discussion was fascinating because it included a deeply local and intelligent perspective from the Dar es Salaam Student- I deeply enjoyed learning from a 3 hour discussion over drinks and felt that I was back in Stanford class- but this time, we were out in the field. What I learnt in my 2 years is really applicable globally and across sectors- you can always learn more from being in the field and seeing how things work in practice- the classroom is also there!

Productivity enhancement:
In the end, an MBA should be a more productive individual than prior to having an MBA- this should definitely justify the salary uplift, I will reveal is that my pay has gone up 4X on a before tax basis, and the ROI including opportunity cost of being out of work for 2 years is substantial.

I will try and argue how the MBA has definitely justified this uplift. Firstly, through my decision making, which has been sharpened, mainly through analytical techniques and frameworks but also being exposed to a constant flow of information with the ability to take what is relevant to a decision at hand. In addition, there are numerous times when decisions have to be made under uncertainty. The amount of cases that we go through at the GSB as well as the diverse viewpoints all contribute to better decision making under many circumstances. Its amazing when the whole class is stumped due to lack of information in the case and the professor is lost for words, but then a classmate pulls through with critical information or viewpoint from an experience that advances the class forward and hence the issue under discussion.

Secondly, I feel I am bolder and more confident to take on risks, a topic I wrote about as a focus of my "What's important to you and Why" essay. In the end, MBAs should be employed to take a risks and push existing organizations to new heights through new ventures. I come against this time and time again as an advisor to family business, if a organization is happy to go on with the status quo there is no MBA needed! Any radical ideas that I present to my father will get turned down because things seem to run fine just as they are- of course, eventually I should be able to make a compelling case for improvements, and this is were organizational behaviour classes particularly will serve me well. This is also were leadership comes in, the GSB experience has left me with a sense of wanting to do more in the world, and believe me, the world expects a lot from an MBA. I recently met with an intern from the UN who is graduate school at Harvard, and within 24 hours, whenever he introduces me to his friends or colleagues- he tags along "... he is the future of Tanzanian business". If I expect so much compensation, surely my level of impact on an organization or society should be matched? And we should have great expectations from MBAs- whether that happens we have to wait and see- watch this space.

Finally, the diverse classmates in every sense of the meaning of diverse has definitely improved my ability to work with others and hence drive agendas and create changes- the GSB forces you to work on many assignments as part of a team, this has definitely helped, but also the out of class socializing, bonding on independent projects definitely helps build a sense of understanding of different cultures and viewpoints. I can now work much better with others, I am more of a team player than before I started at the GSB.

THE NOT SO GOOD...

Friends and family sacrifice: This is a big one, I remember attending a Harvard Business School information session when I was deciding on which schools to apply and one of the alumni saying how going to Stanford would be tough because from the perspective of staying in touch with Greenwich Meantime- its an extra 3 hours time difference. I wanted to laugh at such a stupid issue, what's 3 hours more time difference 7 from Tanzania, or 4/5 from UK? The answer, after a 2 years- a heck of a lot! I learnt what it really means to be on the other side of the world- although Silicon Valley is super amazing, flying to and from there from Europe or Africa is a pain. It took me about a week to really get over the jetlag when I go back which does not bode well when I try and return to Tanzania for 1-2 week vacations in future. This all adds up to significant sacrifice of friends and family, the number of important family events including weddings etc... was quite high during the last 2 years. You can never replace a missed wedding. And making up for lost time and connections is time consuming and I feel awful of neglecting really good friends. Part of the challenge of this past summer was balancing meeting new friends, visiting new places and seeing old faces.

Always connected, always marching lifestyle: I am now addicted to my windows smartphone and other classmates their blackberries whatever- I am available on e-mail, IM, cell, skype, facebook and my life was still run on outlook even thought I was not connected on MS Exchange in Tanzania! We live in amazing times, and you won't believe how frustrated I was for my first week back in Tanzania trying to get accustomed to not being always connected (broadband is terrible). The internet has become a life necessity now- a side effect of being more productive is that you are always connected- a friend from the UK who visited me instantly noticed this as I took her round the sights- I really did think she was going to just grab the phone and throw it away. I am now ever so grateful for Zanzibar as an isolated travel niche where I can speak the local language and find total relaxation and I can really put away my phone and be disconnected from e-mail. You also get time to think in between the madness of always being connected.

The end is coming

2007-06-09T16:03:00.001-07:00

This last week can only be described as being one of the most hectic. I have been juggling completing final papers and finals, being a host for a friend visiting from UK, arranging moving arrangements to Seattle and not to mention the insane amounts of partying. Having a UK friend visit gives me a chance to re-discover favorite places in California- I am now in San Diego on serious downtime.

"Disorientation" is the right way to describe the current times toward the end of my time of GSB, whether seeing friends on a one to one basis or shaking it at the "End of the World Party" in Atherton.

Next week my friend leaves, step one of my relocation gets under way, and parents arrive for as we head towards graduation. The only cloud on the horizon seems to be this Optional Practical Training /Employment Authorization Document (OPT/EAD)- very few international students who filed after end of March have received these essential documents that allows one to work... I am praying the documents get sent out before I fly out of the country.

New venture watch...

2007-05-31T16:51:00.001-07:00

photo source

The room next door to me at my Palo Alto home, sleeps an MBA who has been EXTREMELY busy in the last couple of months, whilst I have been ramping down. I feel so bad for not blogging about this earlier... But today is great news for a Stanford team consisting of MBA, engineering and design school students pursuing the entrepreneurial dream.

D.light design, a team that includes my room-mate and another Stanford MBA just secured $250,000 prize from the DFJ venture competition. The team is a for profit venture introducing a low cost LED light for the poor in the developing world intended to replace kerosene and those out of reach of an electric grid.

As some of you know about the funding process, you shop your idea around the valley for ages and then once you get that initial funding, everyone wants to participate! This is an interesting space, I am of course very interested in this area as it's making money by creating real value for the developing world.

The venture is a result of strong collaborative nature at Stanford between engineering, design and the business schools through some really great classes- the one that comes to mind is the increasingly popular design for extreme affordability class.

Its not over till its over...

2007-05-27T11:05:00.001-07:00

So I am trying to ramp down my time here at the GSB by shifting to more time with friends and enjoying California weather- but the GSB refuses to do so, a full quarter is a full quarter, and by no means dull. This last week a case in point, some big events that just showcase the diversity of learning and opportunity at the GSB that leave me hungry for more.

- Wednesday I ended up going to 4 dinners including a small yet informative Africa Business Club event with one of my Nigerian classmates' brother. Tope Lawani, founder of Helios investment partners a $300 million fund, came in to talk about his foray into Private Equity investment in Africa and had some great insights on the challenges and opportunities of private equity in the region- not surprisingly, real estate, travel/transportation and telecommunications are hot sectors- deal making infrastructure (lawyers) and exits (capital markets, willing buys etc...) amongst the things that make the business environment tough to handle for an investor coming in from more developed markets.
- Thursday was another treat in the Private Equity arena, with the founder of Carlyle, David Rubenstein, giving a highly entertaining yet serious overview of Private Equity and technology buyouts- I remember him saying that Microsoft and other visible tech giants such as HP and SUN may become buyout targets someday as the funds get larger and larger.
Later that afternoon, I headed down to San Francisco for the Facebook f8 launch, a developers conference/codejam. It was great to see some of my classmates in action outside the classroom- one a full-time employee of facebook coordinating the event, and even some getting their hands dirty trying to build applications for this, one of the hottest social networks today. Interestingly enough, we are doing facebook as a case in my aligning startup class on Tuesday, and the case was updated TODAY to reflect the major milestone of facebook opening its platform- a great example of how fast GSB academics catches up with the reality of business!
I then darted into the mission district for a the Africa Business Club dinner I had organized at the Bissap Baobab, with great turnout- I was nervous that given multiple events happening, there would be a high flake rate (typical of busy GSB students), but it turned out very well, with one female club member turning up in a full Ugandan outfit!
- Friday, was my usual classes on Supply Chain and Advertising- at the end of the day, I went up to Marin for a local entrepreneur and Stanford professor's engagement party which was particularly fun. I mentioned long ago, that one of my goals for my experience here at Stanford is to make close friends with real live entrepreneurs and engineers in the bay area beyond meeting them in the class-room environment- I am more than happy with this decision at the expense of more GSB events, I have now made real good friends in the local area that have been invaluable and have completed my California experience- I'll have more reasons to come back to California other than GSB alumni events or work purposes.

This memorial day weekend, the partying and catching up continues- will try and get major bits of work out the way, to clear a runway to enjoy my last 2 weeks at the GSB.

The UK trip... back in Silicon Valley- perspective forever changed.

2007-05-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

The final month of my time at Stanford is here, and I'm trying my best to give my time to friends, academics and a number of errands (graduation arrangement for my parents and siblings flying in from Tanzania). But first, a quick reflection on my UK trip, I hadn't been back for 2 years and my tour included my university town, Bristol, where a lot of my friends from uni still work and of course, London. Aside from enjoying the pub culture over the weekend, it was interesting to see how optimistic I sounded over the more conservative and risk averse brit friends of mine over entrepreneurship. The change at Stanford in perspective is definitely permanent...
A nice piece here on this very thing from a class mate who has been writing a Stanford diary on the Financial Times.

Final class is looking like the allstar finale...

2007-05-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

I walked into today's new class that starts midquarter (2 units)- "Aligning startups to their market", lead by Andy Rachcleff of Benchmark Capital. And I felt an amazing feeling- the class consisted of individuals that I could see have taken an amazing journey over the last 2 years- starting with the rigors of the core, fine tuning their way through the GSB to an entrepreneurship class taught by a practitioner in venture capital. I remember how I was so gun-ho about trying to get into consulting- but here I am, such a big proponent to entrepreneurship and risk taking... Looking back, it makes a lot of sense, kid from Africa, sent to school in UK at age 12, delivers results that satisfy parents, goes to work for a comfy aerospace company yet organizes random internal expedition to climb the highest mountain in Africa with 24 people doing it for the good of his country's education- then applies to school in a fantasy land that he has never even been to while his colleagues and friends look the other way... It's not surprising, that my final class is one on maximizing the success of risky ventures.

Some of my classmates have launched some interesting ventures:
Techtain- social networking meets swapping/trade objects on campus.
Reputation defender- In the world of blogging, social networks, wikis etc... what some call the "participation" phase of the net- a way to ensure your online reputation is sound has become increasingly important- these guys will help you out in a similar method to maintaining your credit report- enough said.
Trippert- A better way to research a travel destination through rich articles- I think of this one as social networks/wikis meets lonely planet.

I am heading out to UK tomorrow for a few days- I'm dying to see friends and colleagues that I have been out of touch with for 2 years! They'll think I've changed- beginning with my accent.

The Business of Space- reflecting on independent projects

2007-05-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about the GSB when you are coming out of the 1st year core is the independence you get to explore new ideas in projects. Last year around this time, I was in full swing in doing G390 independent project on the emerging entrepreneurial Space industry. The idea was that I could apply my 1st year business knowledge with my experience in aerospace industry in previous life. We worked with a former NASA Director and now part of the leadership of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) based right here in Menlo Park/Palo Alto.In a team consisting of MBA1, MBA2 and Sloan with aerospace backgrounds in public and private sectors from Israel, NASA, UK and Russia we interviewed some new space entrepreneurs including Elon Musk of SpaceEx.
I carried this on with a Mobile Marketing independent project last quarter that also went great.

An interesting podcast for further information is available here from the BBC's In Business program.
I'll post an update here later on the report that was the deliverable of the project.

Parties abound, GSB show is coming... the update.

2007-05-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

With Admit weekend and C4C behind us, recruiting for 1st years almost complete and 2nd year's winding down- parties are emerging all over the place around the GSB community, this weekend will feature a large 2nd year house party in Palo Alto,"Cabin 552", on Friday, Spring Formal at Bimbos in San Francisco on Saturday. On top of that, multiple dinner parties are being thrown- the house I live in has doubled its number of parties for the entire year in just week- and there's one coming up this Sunday. Its going to be tough finding time to hang out with my friends in Silicon Valley who are outside the GSB. I can expect a fun sprint finish to the end of my time at the GSB. I'm looking forward to "Disorientation" week, sandwiched between last day of classes and graduation day, where second years will bond and party for one last time- including drinks and dinners organized by different ways imaginable (sections for the core, destination cities after graduation etc...). Other events happening? The GSB show is on next week- a truly specular show of talent within the GSB. Who said MBAs don't party?

Here is the evidence:

GSB SHOW 2006- ADMIT WEEKEND CRASHERS Part II here

GSB SHOW 2006- Mock Interview- My personal favorite!

GSB SHOW 2006- 4

GSB CRIBS- This is how we roll at GSB!

GSB SHOW 2006- Mid-term Capital Management

UCLA CHEER LEADING @ C4C WEEKEND 2007(Stanford 2006 here)

A post for aspiring young MBAs

2007-05-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

A popular post on this blog I wrote in my 1st year. I got interviewed in January by MBA Podcaster about being a "younger MBA"... (I come on around 10 mins into the podcast) Ha, I wish i could do the MBA all over again- after all, I'm about the average to apply now.

The case for off-grid power in Tanzania

2007-04-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

...more than USD1bn was immediately needed to lessen power transmission losses now estimated at within the range of 27 percent of total electricity generation.

- IPPMEDIA, TANZANIA.

Some long-time readers of this blog will remember my frustrations with the energy infrastructure in Tanzania. The situation does not seem to be improving anytime soon- so much that I am seriously exploring the economics of implementing off-grid power such as solar to complement the diesel generators we use in the family business for real-estate projects... If you haven't noticed- there's currently a Green craze in the US and most definitely at Stanford GSB- I am now tapping into this knowledge from classmates before graduation.

Speaking of Green- I am off to Yosemite this weekend to enjoy the glorious Spring- should be fun.

India & startups...Never a better time?

2007-04-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

One of the most common things you hear as an MBA about making the tradeoff between joining an established company versus a startup is that although the upside risk is substantial for a startup, be prepared for a low salary and forgoing a cushy lifestyle in as well as accept the high possibility of outright failure.

My room-mate challenged this notion when he told me this morning that there has never been a better time for an MBA to returning to Indian to join a startup then now. Apparently salaries are 50% higher than the safe corporate job due to lack of talented managers to grow startups- this is the opposite to the US. You also have the upside of options and equity stake as large as 5% coming in as a non-founder with an MBA. Many accomplished Indian serial entrepreneurs from silicon valley are making their way back to India, with their experience and ability to get VC funding further reducing risks of joining a startup. Combined with even lower risk of transferring an established idea to a new market with potential such as India, it seems that startups might be compelling for Indians wanting to return home. Goodbye to brain drain? You see, people eventually do return home... I'd love this to happen to East Africa in the next 25 years.

UPDATE: A reminder what can happen if luck is on your side:

What kind of company makes me excited?

2007-04-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

Companies that utilize technology to provide a social good in Africa tackling fundamental problems and have potential to make a ton of money...
I came across Voxiva, a company that's providing solutions in healthcare from clinical trials to epidemic monitoring for NGOs with people out in the field, combining the reach of cell phones and power of internet.

C4C is on… International student apathy.

2007-04-21T20:33:00.001-07:00

The Challenge 4 Charity (C4C) is taking place in Stanford this weekend; this is an annual fundraiser which brings together business schools along the West coast down to our campus to compete in various fun sports. For Stanford students, requirements to participate in all the events is about 6 hours of volunteer and charity work . The event is well attended, except many international students, like myself, choose to increasingly ignore large events like this. I don't know what it is, but there has always been a international vs domestic student split- for me the reason is clear, spend more time with friends I don't see very often outside the b-school. Many think that you give up your social life to b-school throughout your MBA, this is very true in the first year, but for me and many international students, I decided enough is enough with GSB events- I attend the ones I enjoy and not every single one for the sake of participation. Now I heard C4C is a great party scene, particularly as it involves multiple business schools, I would love to attend- but I did not do my hours- you can't have it all!

CEOs make excellent Business School Professors…

2007-04-20T17:07:00.001-07:00

I hardly ever talk about what goes on in class, but I feel the class I had on Monday was a great example of the value of having a CEO as someone to teach and facilitate a class discussion. For my Supply Strategy & Factor markets class, we have the pleasure of having Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics and a partner at the private equity firm KKR. On Monday, we tackled Microsoft's entry in the video game console market, with the case being taught from the perspective of the contract manufacturer, Flextronics. Firstly, the energy Michael Marks generated within the class was pretty phenomenal, as well as clearly articulating the tradeoffs and issues involved in the case and constantly putting students on the spot. It was one of those rare moments when I suddenly felt how finance, marketing, accounting, human resources, strategy, organizational behavior as well as other areas such as sales and global management all come alive in an hour and half class.

I am looking forward to covering the X-Box case again in a few weeks, this time from the Microsoft angle to get the other side of this market entry. story.

HAVING GOOGLE ACCOUNT ISSUES

2007-04-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

This blog is corrupted or something- Google seems to have confused my various accounts as well as the migration from an old blogger account- as a result have lost posts from September 2006. Hopefully Google will do something about it and recover my posts- temporary suspension of blogging until resolve the issue. Apologies...

UPDATE: Recovered posts and blog layout- thanks to Google search cached webpages... Will resume blogging.

Stanford Cool Products Expo is on! 100th Post- commitment to accelerate blogging to 200!

2007-04-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

The Stanford cool product Expo is now on- showcasing some companies' new products as well as startups, not to mention some classmates who have been working hard on projects that are on the verge of becoming becoming fully fledged startups. I received questions from a reader asking about startup support at the GSB- well here is a clear example- apart from the Stanford GSB Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, visiting venture capitalist in academics, business plan competitions etc..., the cool products expo allows Stanford students to showcase their products to the world.

This is my 100th blog post, and I can't believe its been this long, I started this blog the day I got accepted into Stanford GSB about 2 years ago, and its now time to think about the direction of this blog...
I will make one commitment to my readers- I will accelerate the pace of blogging and try to add another 100 posts by mid September. What has happened is that I was excited during the lead up to starting my MBA which lead to 1-2 posts a week, then this inevitably slowed down as I got much busier in recruiting, academics during the core of the MBA. Now that I am reflecting on the MBA experience more as well and things start to slow down, I will accelerate the blogs to 3-5 posts a week to reach my goal of an addition 100 posts my mid September. Some posts will inevitably be shorter, but will ensure that I try and provide in-depth analysis/viewpoint often rather then letting this become a ticker news feed of my GSB experience.

Visa woes continue...

2007-04-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

It looks like I was right to be if a little worried about my visa status going forward- particularly on the H1-B application front. Apparently 150,000 applications were received with a cap limit of 60,000. So there's a 60% chance of not getting the H1-B status. At least the Optional Practical Training (OPT), which allows a Master's student to work for a year following graduation, is going well- got a biometric interview tomorrow at 10am for that, which means missing class- I hate missing class!

Can't get enough of San Francisco

2007-03-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

Spring break for many GSBers has meant exotic far flung visits to destinations including Brazil, Hawaii, and even Mexico and East Africa study trips. I've stayed put enjoying the bay area and specifically hanging out with friends- with just 3 months till graduation do I now begin to fully find my way around the city. I attended a great business plan competition last night at the University of San Francisco- it involved 2 minute elevator pitches from business school students across the globe- very exciting to watch with social networking, biotech and cleantech sectors well represented.
Additionally I'm starting to engage myself with project work at pixpulse (www.pixpulse.com), a mobile media platform start-up. With only 10 GSB units needed next quarter to graduate equating to about 2.5 classes, and a long awaited trip back to UK planned in May, I think I should finally be able to start meaningful work on my mobile ambitions in Africa prior to joining Microsoft. Speaking of which, they just sent me my welcome gift- windows vista ultimate and office 2007 standard (+ ultimate from my team)- my computer has a new life! Although I do plan to get an apple macbook pro + iphone come this summer- no I'm not a traitor, it just works for me for consumer device connectivity & creative works.

Winter Quarter in Summary...

2007-03-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

This has been a surprisingly busy quarter, particularly the dash towards the end where I embarked on a no. of trips.

Academics
Within the GSB, I took Competitive Strategy, Strategic Management of Non-Profits and Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital. Across the street I took a class on Africa- Health, Land and Education. I also undertook a fascinating independent team study on mobile marketing. The guests kept me thrilled in both the VC and Non-profits class- I saw these classes as extensions of Formation of New ventures I took in he Fall quarter- just being inspired by different ideas and personalities out there in business. The competitive strategy class had a fascinating simulation game where each team had to decide market entry strategies, capacity and pricing tactics as well as amusing press releases to signal to other players one's intentions OR not! The Africa class was a welcome relief from the GSB format, and I enjoyed sharing and collaborating with students from education and biology fields on the challenges confronting Africa- definitely some valuable contacts for the future when I'm back in Tanzania.
Personally, fatigue during classes started to creep in, I will admit that this is the quarter where I really started to feel the "senioritis" creep in- in essence, my participation and contribution in classes dropped, and I had some study groups that did not work out so smoothly- and I really begun to doubt the logic of a two year MBA- it gets tiring!

Career

Ok- I know I said I signed with Microsoft, but there's a ton of stuff that's occupying my mind including sorting out my visa status moving forward as I transition from F1 (student) to H1-B. In turns out this is not as simple as it seems, especially if one plans to travel over the summer as I do. The problem arises in getting back into the US in September, where apparently the immigration officers might see me as under "dual intent" immigration status which is a big no-no. Without boring you with more details, lets just say this is occupying too much of my mindshare- Microsoft lawyers/recruiters think I'm freaking out unnecessarily- lets hope so.
On the long-term career planning, I've also been developing my knowledge and connections in the area of mobile technologies and social communities/networks, this has tied in nicely with the independent project I am doing. Mobile is an area that I want to engage in future, within Microsoft and in a future start-up career, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. I recall a great meeting with the CEO and founder of Admob, which was insightful as to where the future of mobile is heading. Other interesting developments include- "m-banking", this is another top tip of a disruptive technology that has the potential to transform Africa- check out this innovative offering, from wizzit in South Africa.

Trips & stuff!

Ahh- I am starting to enjoy myself a bit more, with recruiting out of the way, I spent time in San Diego, tried my hand in snowboarding at Lake Tahoe (finally! Lake Tahoe is a GSB time honored activity- and I had to go atleast once!). The highlight was definitely the Las Vegas career trek organized by the Travel and Hospitality club- it was simply amazing, once in a lifetime trip! We got incredible access to casino security camera rooms, priceless suites, meeting with top executives from the Wynn and Venetian. I certainly see Las Vegas in a different light moving forward and learnt some valuable lessons on the meaning of customer service in the travel and hospitality industry.
I was not happy that I missed the Africa Business Club conference at Harvard Business School- thanks to stormy winter weather on the east Coast and flight cancellations- hey, aren't I glad I am in California!

The web has come a long way...

2007-02-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

Interesting video that describes how far we have come...

Game over, Microsoft here I come...

2007-01-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

So its time to break the news- I have signed on with Microsoft for a full-time role as a product manager in the Office Enterprise division where I interned last summer. Without going deep into the factors that made me decide, I will say that lifestyle made was a major influence in the decision:

Factors considered:
- I am passionate and have always loved technology- and the opportunity to marry this up with business in an organization that is balanced in engineering vs marketing.
- Ability to move around not only core software, but emerging media and consumer electronics product areas.
- Work with truly smart, driven, diverse people not only composed of type A personalities.
- Seattle area as an emerging areas for non-profits (another passionate area)- I will be able to give back to communities, including work on Africa related projects.
- Seattle as a great area to live, yet not quite being too far away from Silicon Valley and rest of California.

My life at business school has now changed! No more recruiting has opened me up to do a lot more within the GSB community. I am also spending considerable time building relationships with entrepreneurs in the valley.

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the world...

2007-01-10T19:55:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!
Its great to be back at Stanford after a much needed rest. Although I am excited to be back in California, half my mind is still in Tanzanian. Firstly, I should mention how proud I am to be Tanzania right now since the appointment of the new deputy of the UN Secretary General- Dr Asha-Rose Migiro. She is also the first woman to hold the post. Finally, I think Tanzania may finally stand out on to the map!

It is worth mentioning my last trip within Tanzania to visit my grandfather- at the age of 85, he runs a small drug store/pharmacy at a coastal town in the north of Tanzania. In discussing with him, he outlined his plans to open up a small clinic and healthcare training center as an extension of the shop on a micro-scale, focusing specifically on quick diagnosis and clinical tests. This struck me as very innovative, as it strives to tackle the stark lack of available and affordable healthcare in rural areas. Often the sick will travel miles only to be misdiagnosed by a busy and overstretched doctor- the results are often fatal, as everyone is "assumed" to have a case of malaria, when it could be something else.
I returned to the GSB within 3 days to attend a meeting where there is a huge effort to build a healthcare worker training center in Tanzania that will effectively double the no. of healthcare workers in Tanzania. Question is, after that where will they be deployed? In the already over-crowded hospitals in urban centers? What about rural areas? It turns out, the idea my granddad stumbled on is a concept in micro-franchising- known as "CFWshops". It is clear in my mind that just as microfinance is revolutionizing credit in the developing world- the concept of micro-clinics/drugs stores in rural will have a huge impact.

Hard to scale when trust and competence is lacking...

2006-12-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas everyone! Hope everyone is doing well wherever they are reading this from. First apologies to all those 2nd round applicants who have been trying to contact me to help them on their applications- timing is just not good around now, when I am trying to get a break from all things GSB, not to mention how infrequently I come online (internet connection is very scarce in Tanzania).

One thing I've been doing in the past week is observing and listening to some of the problems the family have had in running businesses here. It seems one of the big issues in trying to scale any business here in Tanzania, which may sound obvious, is of trusting employees and thus to effectively delegate. Or put another way, the lack of educated and competent middle managers to enable any business scale past more than a dozen employees. Its the sad truth when it comes to any high value, people intensive business. What ends up happening is that these professional/ or service orientated firms such as law, engineering end up having to bring in foreign or expatriate talent. The downside of hiring expatriates in Tanzania is that they often cannot thrive in the business or even living environment in Tanzania (power shortages etc...), not to mention fully understand the local markets. Inevitably, what ends up happening is that many CEOs or entrepreneurs are limited to organizations of no more than 20 employees with strict micromanaging and continue to doing basic tasks. Its crazy because when you try to offer any sort of long term strategic advice, these managers just rightly turn away- "I have enough issues just dealing with the day to day running of the business...". I suppose this sort of problem exists in the western world, although when the organization is at a much larger level- the need for such special projects outside the day to day running of the business is obviously met by management consultants.
The big limiting factor in Tanzania for the expansion of small businesses ends up being more of an issue sourcing local competent and trustworthy employees who can grow into middle managers rather than, as some would attest to, lack of available capital or market opportunities.

Homeward bound...

2006-12-16T00:06:00.000-08:00

I'm heading home... Sounds like an obvious enough thing to do since its the x-mas break after all. The GSB is still alive and kicking however, there are plenty of exciting study trips- India, China, Guatemala, Japan and Scandinavia amongst places. Opportunities lost since I am not going on any of the great trips, one might think- but after 18 months of being away from home, something has to give- this is by far the longest extended period of time I've been away and I'm anxious for family contact. And it's not like I'm not going to be learning anything when I'm in Tanzania- this provides the perfect opportunity to evaluate some of my ideas in context, I'll also be meeting up with a GSBer who is traveling the region. My life already spans 3 continents, cultivating relationships across these geographies is becoming difficult- an although I see the value of study trips, I'm not so keen to stretch myself in that direction until I have a firm grasp of the US. I'll probably head to Asia in summer. Interestingly enough, friends and family in Tanzania are largely approving of my efforts here in the USA- they see the value the education brings and always have and can tolerate me being away for such a long time. This is in sharp contrasts to my European/UK friends- who now label me as "too hard working with no time to enjoy life"- this shocked me a bit. I'm sorry, being in California surrounded by smart people around the world with access to wise professors, entrepreneurs is the most fun I've had. Sure, its tough at times, but clearly the interpretation of my European counterparts of how I feel about my time here needs some clarification.

It saddens me- probably the toughest management challenge...

2006-12-06T23:47:00.000-08:00

I'm ramping down towards the end of the quarter with only a week to go until I fly out to Tanzania. I am spending this weekend in Los Angeles and Vegas meeting up with some friends from the UK who happen to be in the area.

As I prepare to head back home for the first time since I came out here 18th months ago, I have been reading up more closely on the news there. The chronic power rationing as result of a combination of drought, corruption and mismanagement, vandalism and theft of equipment, lack of accountability (the list goes on...) the state owned power company undergoing privatization is causing big headaches back home. The power rationing continues to grip the country and seriously hinders economic progress- latest developments, the company put on a 6% price increase in the midst of 12+ hour black-outs.

The CEO/MD of the troubled power company was so stressed with trying to bring order to the company that he apparently suffered a stroke and is currently in hospital. Tanzania seems helpless and I think the situation is probably the ultimate management challenge- there is a CEO opening currently on the website
More info on the troubles is recounted by frustrated fellow Tanzanian blogger

Recruiters, please don't do this... How NOT to recruit MBAs

2006-12-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

I just started the last series of interviews with a company that did not impress me with regard to their recruitment process.
One of the things that one gets very used to in MBA recruiting is meeting outstanding individuals from companies- at least at Stanford and I'm sure most business schools, there is significant management level involvement in recruiting. After all, if you are serious about recruiting top talent, going to business school is the reason you go there- to access top talent. Some companies will go through On Campus Recruiting, or insist that you actually beat down a path to their door- either way, when you finally end up landing an interview, it is normally with a manager or associate of some sort within the company.
Now I have very little against using recruiting agencies to help screen candidate resumes etc... i.e. do the manual work of matching job requirements to skills, proving basic company/division information etc... It can can reduce costs, and let one focus on more important things and all those great things about specialization. but when I realized that my 1st round phone interview with this company was actually still with a recruitment agency (in effect outsourced or delegated the 1st round), I was shocked beyond belief. The exchange went something like this:

INTERVIEWER: "So do you have any questions for me about SMARTCO?"
MBWANA: "Great- I just wanted to ask about what you do and what your day is like at SMARTCO?"
INTERVIEWER: "I don't work for SMARTCO, I work for RECAGENCY..."
MBWANA: Pause... "In that case, I have no questions as I'd like to ask someone who actually works at SMARTCO"

Never mind if I offended the recruiting agent- it just came out and it was honest! In the end I asked some questions about timing of calls for second round, how many people the company hope to hire this year and other mundane questions that recruiting agencies would be aware of. But how the hell am I meant to ask questions about things like company culture and what its actually like to work in the organization? Talk about outsourcing or contracting your most crucial function in the process. Sorry- but Round 1 MBA interviews, including phone interviews, should be with a member of your organization! Talent is too precious to leave to a recruiting agency when it actually comes to assessing competencies and skills (and responding to questions) at this level! What if I asked, what was the company's last quarterly performance? Would the agency know that? Maybe, maybe not- but why take the chance with someone not from your organization... If I get through to the next round, I hope its with an actual member of the company- but more importantly, this sends negative signal to me about how effectively they can actually bring on great talented people and hence maintain the quality of the organization.

Thanksgiving- catching up with entreprenuers...

2006-11-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

This time last year, I was up Mt. Shasta, waist height deep in snow with a group of classmates. This year, I decided to rest after a busy recruiting season- which still hasn't ended by the way! Its never over until you've signed the dotted line.

In the last couple of days I've been meeting up with some entrepreneurs:

Last night I was at a dinner with two GSB alums, class of 2004 who are creating a new school in South Africa to build future African leaders- . A very risky and long-term education non-profit, but inspiring. The market for secondary education is booming (I should know- my parents sent me abroad because there are few if any institutions like this in Africa). I particularly loved the way they sought to subsidize African students with western students who are paying higher fees for experiencing the equivalent of study abroad in Africa.

I met up with Linxdating CEO, Amy Andersen, a dating service for high net-worth silicon valley individuals- Apparently, there are a few GSB alums who use this service! I found some of the no.s hard to believe, something like 50 million Americans use a dating service.

A new start-up involving some classmates including my former Schwab room-mate got launched this week. Although there is little, if any tangible product at this stage (keep tuned in)- its an interesting concept- internet users who create value on the site who are incentivised by stock- in essence instead of there being one entrepreneur who takes a majority of the rewards for building a community of millions of users who are valuable to advertisers etc... in this case, the users get to share in the value created.

On the fun side, Check out this out- a very fun Friday night at meetro hq in San Francisco (spot Mbwana!).

I am hoping to check out Kiva's new office this week in SF, they have been experiencing tremendous growth recently- amazing to think just a year a ago it was little more than an idea. Now they are approaching $1 million in microloans.

Thanksgiving- catching up with entreprenuers...

2006-11-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Half-time...

2006-11-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

Oh my God, I actually have a free moment on this Saturday evening to write a post… Its been a crazy, crazy first half of the winter quarter. In between interviewing, attending conferences and going into new initiatives, I have had very little time to reflect and think, yet alone write a blog post…Time to say some things that are clear about the 2nd year so far:
Second year of the MBA does not mean a slow down in activity: No way, for me it’s a been a ramp up, more engaging academics, club leadership and responsibilities and more serious recruiting. And this is even though I have Monday and Friday days off! I’ve been venturing into some new areas as well- for instance, making across the street contacts in the Africa Studies Department, meeting like minded graduate and undergraduate students interested in Africa- there are now plans to organize an Africa conference in the Spring (with an emphasis on 100% business), which will be fantastic- we hope it will rival the Wharton and Harvard conferences. On the non for profit side, there is a chance of me getting involved with a health care non-profit/NGO in Tanzania that one of the professors and a prominent Stanford GSB alum support- The Touch foundation. Another thing I’ve been doing is hosting and showing around quite a few prospective students- this has been rewarding and actually a great way to remind myself some of the great qualities of being at the GSB and give my part in attracting talented students.
Less time to see classmates: This is been a real downer for me. Just when you are getting to know some classmates really well, the fact that Schwab is no longer the more common meeting point means that it much harder to stay in touch- yes there are FOAMs and LPFs, but you cannot guarantee that second years will be there, and even then, these events only offer mild chatter, nothing in depth. The good news, is that we do meet up for birthday parties at a venue in San Francisco, we have much more of a ball. Of course, small dinners are and always will be the best way to solve this problem. Take tennis, I haven’t been able to have a single session this quarter, I end up canceling or being canceled due to that suddenly scheduled second round interview or other pressing event.
Confusing time for me career wise, like most, but I love the area: Silicon Valley is really growing on me this year, especially with my contacts outside the b-school. I mentioned very early in my blogs about how important it was for me to really meet ordinary bay area Californians to get a better sense of what it is like to stay here long term- and its great, I have friends who work for major silicon valley tech firms as employees, one is an editor of popular blog for the silicon valley area and have been acquainted with numerous entrepreneur friends. And no, these people are real friends that I have beers with, rather than far-removed or distant business contacts. For me this has been a crucial input into my decision to focus my job search within the bay area- I just love this area and the people I’ve met! Fingers crossed, at this moment in time, I can say that consulting and technology careers paths still remain open. Next week will reveal more clearly which of these avenues are still open to me. Interviewing is finally ramping down- thank god… On Campus Recruiting (OCR) is not pleasant and is thoroughly draining- I am looking forward to a relaxing thanksgiving, and looking to returning to Tanzania for x-mas- Zanzibar calls.

Finally, a word out to some people who have been commenting- I have not been silent because I can not be bothered- I just realized that I don’t get e-mail alerts for anonymous comments which are the majority of comments- I will reply to these pronto and the problem is now fixed.

Interviews and conferences....

2006-10-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Things are in hectic mode at the GSB- 1st years are stressing about midterms, us second years fretting about interviews... I just had my first 4 this week, and after my last one, I'm now on my way to the netimpact conference in Chicago at Kellogg. Never been there and l consider this as the last major city in the US that would of interest me, so it should be a fun trip. Of course netimpact was a great experience last year when it was held at Stanford, so I'm looking forward to networking and learning.

The GSB... It's just awesome (and draining...)

2006-10-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

I completed my 8 day road trip unscathed last month. California is one beautiful state- taking the whole thing (almost) in one week makes you appreciate it in its entirety.
My friend Matt then joined me in my first week of 2nd year b-school and it has been a fascinating hearing his fresh comments about the b-school experience as he attended class and social events. I easily managed to convince Matt that GSB really is an incredible place ( I have not just drunk the Stanford GSB Kool-Aid) and he is now motivated to apply. Speaking of which, I met a student who I advised about the b-school process and it was finally great to meet him in the first week. Welcome to the GSB, Puru. I am showing other prospective students around campus as they have contacted me through formal GSB channels- it feels strange, I feel like I’m part of the Stanford GSB legacy and now inducting the next wave of curious students! The day I leave campus will be a sad day indeed.
My classes are simply fantastic this quarter. I am taking formation of new ventures, paths to power and corporate finance (ok corporate finance- is not that exciting). I am also taking an across the street class from the international relations department- The Transnational Workplace. The course gets really moving at the end of this month and involves working in a virtual team across several b-schools around the globe to complete a deliverable under the constraints/challenges of cultural and time zone differences. Should be fun and a little crazy.
Then there is the question of recruiting… This is where I am currently feeling a big drain, I need to find the energy to survive the next month- unlike the great Marquis, I don’t think I will be able to provide regular posts of how its all going until its all done. I have my offer from Microsoft which I am happy with- lets see how much more I can push myself and then to be able to make the difficult decision whilst in Zanzibar over X-mas- I would not have been home in 1.5 years- Again a reminder of the sacrifices I have made to come this far to go to b-school- the least I can do is be home whilst I make the decision for my first post MBA job.

Back in Palo Alto, California…

2006-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

So, I left Seattle on Monday September 11th and missed 3 flights in a row due to security lines, boarding gate misinformation and good old getting bumped off a seat.. 4th time lucky, so as I was originally meant to depart at 7am, I actually ended up departing at 2:30pm! Not a fun day of travel for me, I can tell you…
Leaving the amazing downtown Seattle apartment for a spacious Californian Suburban definitely feels like a change. And changes to my study/activity-style will also be afoot- instead of the 7 minute walk to class from Schwab, where I had plenty of time in the morning to swing by to grab a coffee, print assignments and still manage to be late, I’ll now be cycling into class across Palo Alto at least 30 mins before class starts. Traditionally, I have always done a better job of managing my time both at work and at school when I lived further away- the separation helps me gain the relaxation when I need it, and the distance makes it less easy for me to want doze off for a siesta in-between those 10am-1:15pm breaks.
My 10 week internship at Microsoft was highly enjoyable- they treated us MBA interns very well, and I definitely felt that I made a contribution to this mammoth organization worthy of 2 and half months work - if I was to summarize what I am able to say more precisely- I applied what I learnt in marketing, data & decisions, Pricing and of course E-commerce to the Office Enterprise team to segment and identify opportunities for selling a higher SKU Office suite to be released this fall as well as ensure smooth migration of customers into the Office suite from a recently acquired company (Groove Networks). Whilst I was going about my actions, Iessons from the organizational change and both strategy classes were in the back of my mind. One of the most enjoyable parts of the internship was definitely the interactions I had with my team, the Groove team and the other groups I worked with- particularly communicating my analysis out to the sales field, a crucial lever in Microsoft’s success. I just loved how everything I learnt in the last year, plus my tech background came together very nicely in the internship and I felt like I learnt a lot, including the culture of working in Corporate America. I have transitioned out of engineering and into business- my view of product development is now at tension between my marketing vs technical disciplines- I can begin to make good sense of crucial questions such as do you just build gut instinct great products/technologies or do you spend more time listening to customers for insights and requirements? Do customers always know what they want? How do you go to market with them- do you start with early adopters? If so, when do you know it is time to move it to masses?
Other takeaways? I must brag- Going to Bill Gates’ House on Day 1 was a huge highlight, as well as the exec speakers series that I took full advantage of to hear insights into the strategic direction of such a successful company supposedly under immense threat and at a PR/media disadvantage to the new upstarts here in Silicon Valley. Also, it was great to hear from Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Tipping Point, at the Marketing Symposium that coincided in my last week. He left the marketers with a balanced view of decision-making (“gut/instinct” vs “analysis-paralysis”), work from his recent book, Blink.
I am now greatly looking forward to an 8 day road trip that fill in the gaps to my California sightseeing and culture- check out the side blog on this which will get more alive starting Friday. I’ll probably run into some first year MBAs tomorrow when I hit campus to do some chores- God, will I feel old!

End of internship is nigh…

2006-08-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

So the weeks have been going pretty fast now, lots of interns are having their final presentations and a flurry of good-bye dinners. As I speak to many of them, I try and keep rough poll in my head of the likelihood of people coming back full-time, and I would say it could be between 30-50%. That’s fairly high in all respects. I think for those who want to stay in tech the battle will rage between Google & Microsoft. And one of the things I hate most about whenever you hear those 2 companies in the same breath, is that it’s like setting up a battle between good and evil, when in fact the two are in some respects very different companies focusing on different markets and at different levels of maturity. I will leave it a future date to dedicate an entire post on this subject. But at the heart I do feel that when people try to back either of the company it comes down to some superficial arguments along the lines of - “Microsoft is evil- Google has smarter people and a better work environment- have you been to the Google Café??? “, “Microsoft has a much stronger competitive culture, they have never lost a fight!”.
I am hoping interns make their final choices on much more than just on the surface notions such as the ones mentioned above- it reminds me of when I am trying to convince an Englishman of the value of an MBA with this all too common reply- “its sooo expensive- management is a load of cr*p”. Comparing that with what a phenomenon first year of business school has been and the number of opportunities that seem to be panning out- it turns out this could be a good year for MBAs, definitely on the cyclical up-turn. The biggest challenge I think for an MBA, is how to rationally choose a full-time gig without being paralyzed by choice, there a so many variables in the mix- age, marital status, career aspirations/ambitions, lifestyle choice, cost of living, friendship base etc, not to mention strategic career management… For me, geography was a big deal, do I stay in the US, go back to UK or Tanzania? That answer is seems to have been resolved- stay in the USA for the foreseeable future. There’s too much to see, too much to do, and many opportunities to develop. I was lucky that being in the UK allowed me to go back often to Tanzania, and I think those days of returning twice year are gone, and adding some distance will do me some good and make me appreciate Tanzania even more. In the meantime, I'm thinking of launching a non-profit in the near term to keep me engaged and making an impact at home- for those long time readers of my blog, it's obvious that this makes sense- when I blog, I blog about what’s on my mind- since there are fair share of my outside b-school posts are on Tanzania compared to say the progress of the NASDAQ- so its apparent that I try and juggle that avenue whilst pursueing a for profit career...

An interesting story (and WHY I BLOG!)

2006-08-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

The following story really grabbed my attention.

An Austrian filmmaker has been strongly criticized by the Tanzanian president for his the documentary known as Darwin's nightmare. The film shows the impact of globalization on a fishing region on western Tanzania near lake victoria. Nile perch one of Tanzania's biggest export earners whilst at the same time, this non native fish that was introduced in 1950s has dramatically altered the ecological balance in what is the 2nd largest lake in the world. If that's not enough, the film tries to make a link between the fishing trade with the wars in the Congo, supposedly the Russian pilots who fly out the fish on a regular basis to the Europe bring back with them arms and munitions... Being a curious Tanzanian, I was actually able to watch the whole documentary within moments after first reading the article (so is the power of YouTube!- see it here)- I was further shocked and reminded of the difficult lives that people in the region have to live- particularly not being able to afford the very fish that is so abundant in the lake, instead being restricted in eating the fish heads, bones and other left-overs from the fillet packing processing units. This scene repeats itself across many parts of Tanzania, and I understand how sensitive this must be to Tanzania as it may damage a very lucrative trade between Tanzania and Europe- the trade balances are already hard enough for African countries to establish without needing to worry about a filmmaker's "negative portrayal" of the region. And indeed, the claim that guns make it back to Africa through the very planes that export the fish is definitely the weakest factual part of the documentary- once again, many may people in the western world may automatically assume that this is true- hence the president's concern on damaging the trade and negatively portraying Tanzania, which has a solid record of peace compared to other African countries in the region...

It raises issues- I have recently finished reading Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, as a deeper dive into this interesting phenomenon that the Internet has unleashed. I won't go into details here- but please follow up if you have the time and are not familiar with it, I should mention that we are taught this concept in the E-commerce class at Stanford GSB. Anyway, the long-tail phenomenon allows stories such as the one I cite which would otherwise not make it to mainstream media to actually make it to someone like me living in the US who cares. Chris Anderson also makes a claim that as you progress down the long tail, it is likely that the stories are of "less quality", again, applying it to this story, it is becoming increasingly easy for anyone to create media, publish it and potentially reach millions of people without the story actually being factually verified, it simply becomes one viewpoint. I'm not trying to say that the film-maker is making things up, but highlighting the dangers of such media being misinterpreted as factual and making it into the mainstream (up the long-tail). Its interesting to see how far this story escalates...

If this post isn't crammed enough as it is- this raises the opportunity for me to explain why I blog. Its to get stories like these out to a wider audience and put my own interpretation on it- so beyond the materials on the GSB website and other publications about b-school, this and many other blogs will report things about b-school in a different light- its not official, but I'm hoping readers appreciate it.

Meaningful Data coming alive...

2006-08-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

One of the best classes for me at the GSB was international development. However, it was one of the classes in b-school where one could become paralysed by the amount of data trying to describe the state of poverty, the progress made in recent years etc...

Hans, a professor from the Karolinski Institute does a great job in 20 minutes of making real sense of international development data to show real impact (http://www.gapminder.org/)... If only the data and decisions or other statistics or number crunching classes could be done in this way! Not only does this show the power of great data visualization, but how to be an effective communicator.

2nd Year is coming...

2006-08-13T23:36:00.000-07:00

A flurry of activity in recent weeks. Just past my midpoint review of my internship and I took the time to head down to Los Angeles last weekend to meet up with a few GSBers. I was so happy to see them! I was pretty excited to start my internship over a month ago, but it was nothing quite like meeting up with a bunch of classmates- some very interesting stories from those in consulting or tech as well as the more exotic internships stints such as in Vegas.

Resume drop deadline for 2nd year is tomorrow, and the reality of full-time recruiting has come into focus. At this point in time, I'm devoting my time on internships and enjoying Seattle than to really start giving much thought on full-time recruiting, but with the interviewers starting on October, I have no choice...

Closer to home, we had our final official MBA intern events on Thursday- yes a few people have actually finished their internships here at Microsoft, and as the weeks go by, we will see a steady trickle of MBA interns leave. Me and the other GSBer finish last about a week after the last interns.

So I turn 25 in half an hour's time... I feel old, certainly not for an MBA.

Being a young MBA (from Stanford)

2006-08-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest issues I find I have to deal with whilst being a business school student is being at the young(er) end of the scale relative to my peers. To cut to the chase, in general 28 year olds behave very differently to 24 year old like myself- this behavior can be amplified when in an MBA environment, especially when trying interact with a predominantly American crowd. I find that my interaction with some MBAs tends to be rough- they tend not to listen to your arguments, discount your "lack of experience" heavily like you were born yesterday- essentially treating you in disbelief. Let me just get things straight here, I am young for the typical MBA not because of a freak of nature, I happen to be 4 years younger than the average through a cumulative saving of years and a strict family who have always wanted me to put my academics/career first, in light of their high investment in my education relative to western students, I obeyed in satisfying them. When I graduated from high school and people were taking gap years for traveling, I went straight to university (1 year saved), rather than take a year to "see the world", I took a 3 year Bachelors in Engineering the UK when most take a 4 year course in Engineering in the UK and 4 years for most degrees in the US (1 year saved). I did not waste any time with regard to getting a job post graduation- within 3 months of graduation I had started my first job (allow 6 months). And then got 3 years work experience, when most MBAs get 4 years (1 year saved) in what was essentially an excellent rotational program for a prestigious technology company that was a former government R&D agency that needed young motivated individuals to span the organization fast and take on a commercial savvy approach. This breadth of experience essential gained me another half a year or so with respect to most 3 year jobs. This is all in the face of being an international (work-permit & security issues), and what I would say are fairly mediocre grades at top engineering school- I would not call myself a boy genius by any stretch, and I'm not just being modest- I once had to repeat a class in digital electronics because I failed- my parents came down on me very hard for that blip in my academics! All I am trying to say is that there are a lot of factors that contributed to me being 4 -5 years younger than normal. I just applied to the business schools that I think would value me for who I am, and I was fully aware of the business schools that would not even take a minute to evaluate my applications. If any older MBAs are reading this from schools outside Harvard and Stanford- please, don't discount younger MBAs simply for their age- take time to get to know them, we may not bring what is classified as "normal" b-school career paths- some schools value a diverse student body- if you meet qualifying requirements and can contribute to the educational process and experience for the student body AND HAVE LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL, why not an MBA? The world of "time served" to earn a promotion has largely gone any place that has that kind of value system will not see the likes of Mbwana- I'll always navigate away from that no matter what- and explains my success in where I am now relative for my age now. Socially this can create some difficulties, it means that I tend to have two age levels of friends- friends who are 27-31 year old who respect me for who I am, in and outside the MBA, and I friends who are my age. Nevertheless, the two groups do behave differently and I end up being middle of the road, perceived or maybe even actually coming across as immature to the MBA crowd, and almost no fun or too career minded to my age peers who are just getting used to their first corporate jobs.

Kiswahili Speakers in the USA???

2006-07-26T00:22:00.000-07:00

It has always deeply impressed me when I come across a westerner who can speak a basic level of Kiswahili to get by as a tourist. Then sometimes you’ll meet the odd British who can speak excellent, if not perfect Swahili, in part due to their colonial links with the East African region. But I never thought I’d meet an full on red-blooded American who can speak perfect Kiswahili in the Pacific Northwest until today. Just when I thought I’m all disconnected from home, you end up meeting someone who can speak my own mother tongue better than me! Pretty amazing… She should work for Kiva.org, the microfinance organization I raved about in the fall quarter that one of my classmates is working on, I think she would be a huge asset, speaking of, Kiva has been doing a super job of getting into the news recently, check out this businessweek story- those guys have become masters of generating good PR for their business and on their way to scaling up...

My view of Americans is changing- when you look deep enough, even a the ordinary non business school types, there are some real gems. May sound strange, but I sleep better at night knowing that one more American can speak really good Swahili and one more American is micro-lending to a poor entrepreneur in Africa.

First Year Evaluation

2006-07-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

One way to summarize my 1^st year experience at Stanford GSB is go back to a list of expectations I had about the experience and to see how it turned out…

People & Social	Rating	Comments
1. I will meet some amazingly talented people who are either amazingly intelligent and/or have worked to get to their positions from all walks of life. There will be no slackers.	***	Derrick Bolton and the admissions team do a fantastic job of a hard task of putting together a diverse and talented group of 380 or so students. It hugely shapes the experience, there's a ton of learning that occurs offline.
2. All the students will be willing to help one another out and in general there will be no selfish or self-centered MBA students (at least that I have to deal with).	**	War-rooms work really well, study groups can be painful but a necessary part of the experience to learn to work with diverse talent.
3. I will get to know pretty much all of the students in my class (yes, all 380) by name, and have a core group of friends, however, there will be no particularly strong cliques (e.g. by nationality, career function, age etc...) and it will be easy to drift into and out of different core groups in time in order to really get to know the few who meet my diverse criteria and will become my best friends.	**	On the surface, but I wish I had enough time to learn more about people- the MBA is so fast paced and busy, unfortunately there is not enough time get to know what seems to be a small enough class to get to know everyone
4. There will be beautiful girls, both on campus and across California (sorry, had to slip that one in... It's California!) and they will love my British accent. Otherwise, at least, my mates who have promised to visit me, will be disappointed.	*	Brainmater is negatively correlated with attractiveness, need to pursue off campus avenues.
5. I'll be able to find classmates who will appreciate a variety of social activities ranging from clubbing/raving, visiting pubs/bars to the occasional quiet nights pretty much on demand. In other words, I will not feel like I'm constrained into social activities by my immediate friends/classmates.	**	Small class and people being busy means a feeling of working on a tight schedule

Location/Environment & Lifestyle	Rating	Comments
1. The campus environment will be vibrant, buzzing during class time, but at times, will be the the quiet serene and spacious campus that it appears on the brochure.	**	Stanford campus is a busy and intense place.
2. I will be able to achieve a great work/party balance at my will. In this sense I don't strictly mean, 50:50 of course, but I can imagine for instance in the 1st month or so, having partying a lot, and at times, needing to do some serious cramming for exams etc... All driven my behaviour and discipline, and not so much dictated by the school or friends/classmates	***	1st 2 quarters were tough- once internship was secured, both academic involvement and amount to relax dramatically increased
3. I will be able to maintain and improve my general fitness and improve my tennis game and yet eat a pretty fun diet (yes, some American fast-food here and there without getting fat...)	*	Terrible- I've put a significant amount of weight- will need to work out and go to the gym.
4. Facilities and service (academic, sports, accommodation etc..) will be world class compared to what I've seen at other academic institutions so far.	***	Excellent access to tennis court and other facilities. Schwab is the bestr= dorm one could ever construct- I think pretty silly to have exec education students in the same complex!
5. The weather will be amazing 5 out of 7 days a week. "Amazing", means, good enough to play tennis.	*	Between Dec-March, more rain that I would have expected.

Academics & Workload	Rating	Comments
1. I'll spend on average about 50-60 hours a week on academics (here's hoping!).	**	There is significant variation. I did not realise how much I needed to work on weekends!
2. Mathematics/Quantative work required will not be harder than engineering mathematics (2nd year level at Bristol). However, I expect to initially struggle but ultimately get by in courses requiring statistics.	***	Engineering quant background was invaluable! Stats, stats and more stats...
3. If I'm disciplined and consistent, I can at least spend one and a half complete days away from academics. I am able to devote a complete whole day away from the Stanford GSB environment to visit external friends in San Francisco .	***	Looking back, I had enough time to explore and get to know the area.
4. To obtain a 2nd Master's, e.g. in Engineering, I will need to sacrifice a great amount of my social life in the second year, but I should not have to become a complete hermit to obtain it.	***	Not a chance… Might take Comp science not engineering courses.
5. The teaching will be exceptional and focused and I will receive suitable attention in areas I struggle, better than in my days in public school in UK, Bristol or at my last job training courses.	***	I'm a firm believer of paying for exceptional education with aid and financial support for the talented and less well to do. Generally the courses are well taught with some truly exceptional- I loved the E-commerce class the taught by Prof Haim Mendelson the best.

Career management & Jobs	Rating	Comments
1. I will be able to explore initially, a diverse set of careers through career management and advice from other students, but very quickly hone into one or two career options and will receive enough support through clubs and seminars. Management consulting in Strategy & Technology areas will remain my top career choice throughout the two years.	**	Club support has been quite weak- consulting much tougher to get into.
2. I will have to work reasonably hard to gain an internship, by reasonably hard, I mean I won't expect to get one just attending seminars or career fairs, I'll need to put some work, but not to an equal or more measure as the amount I put into my academics.	***	More than you'd know, surprised that I did not miss more classes.
3. I will get at least 2 job offers on graduation. At least one of those I will be within the United States.	***	2 for Internships
4. Hi-tech jobs in the Silicon Valley/Bay area will be the easiest for me to access whilst finance related jobs will be the hardest.	***	Goes without saying given my background and the area.
5. The MBA will categorically provide me with opportunities that I would have never accessed without it.	***	Both in corporate for profit and in the non-profit world, not to mention start-ups, it’s the most confusing time in my life- there's so much out there! However, there where an individual can make an impact does help funnel downthe choices.

Growing up American?

2006-07-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve been taking some time in the evenings and on weekends to catch up with my old life and old friends in the UK by e-mail and various calls. One question I often get is whether I have yankee accent yet. Am I speaking Americanese English yet? Well, I have a few friends at the GSB who update and watch whether I’ve begun to lose the accent, and so far, not so noticeable- it’s hard to change an accent that has been built up over 11 years from the age of 13. I am beginning to speak Americanese, there is no way I can say words like ‘Bathroom’ here without referring to the right accent tone.

The biggest change for me in the last year has definitely been in my behaviors- yesterday on my way into work, I had a huge craving for Starbucks coffee, and as I self-reflected in the queue, I realized that I had become one of them- a serious coffee drinking American machine! I should start to be conscieous about whose coffee I drink to ensure I support third world coffee farmers…

All this means a confusing time for me, as I approach my 25^th birthday, I start to wonder about what my real identity is. I would describe myself as a Tanzanian at heart- generous, simple , quiet and cooperative- or am I a guy who prefers to sit in quiet pubs by the fire in winter and in the beer garden at night sipping ale or lager that gets all exited and disappointed by the England football team like a true brit? The other day I found a drum and bass club in Seattle and I was sooo excited, as drum and bass is a music genre I’d grown to love in my time in the Southwest of England- do I still appreciate this music or am I increasingly becoming addicted to commercial hip-hop?

Clearly, like I morphed into the British culture beginning some 12 years ago, there is a level of Americanism that that will be part of me now and moving forward. It’s also easy to forget, how diverse America really is, more diverse than the UK in many ways and it is hence more tolerable and accepting of diverse people. The march to Stanford GSB begun a while back now, and I don’t think I really put much thought into how much the American culture would influence me- although I was well aware that I would go through one hell of an experience.

Yesterday, I ended the day with a talk Microsoft arranged on house buying should we return to the area full-time. Yes, it is premature given that I haven’t even reached my mid-point review to receive the ‘on-track’ signal, but so was going to Bill Gates’ house on Day one … The housing talk was a good info session, but I felt pressured into action- “buy, buy, get into the property market! Settle down- You’re Growing up!’’ Decision, decisions, I’m a small boy entering a grown up world…

The internship

2006-07-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I’ll take this post to describe my internship, 3 weeks in. Well, I am working for the Information Worker Product Management Group, specifically on the Office Team. We are working hard to launch Office 2007. I am specifically working on marketing a new product known as Groove that is being added to the Office suite. It’s a going to a available generally as part of the Office Enterprise suite. The software is a peer to peer like collaboration tool that allows one to create workspaces and invite users to work on it in the face of corporate firewalls, team members working offline/online- it also has some contextual features like instant messaging, discussion boards, meeting and issue tracking etc…

Groove is a tricky product to sell because it is highly experiential, most don’t understand its value until they try it. For instance, I have used it for the obscure application of collaborating with myself- I use it to synch My Documents folder on my personal laptop with the work one so I can work seamlessly between the two machines at home and in the Office.

The most fascinating aspect of the internship so far, is the insight into the effective marketing machine at Microsoft. The general public view (and the anti-trust authorities) on the success of Microsoft is predicated entirely on exploitation and tying of products with the Windows Operating System, what they don’t see the importance and scale of the partner community, particular the strength of the sales force in the field. Microsoft’s partner network is simply key.

Outside my marketing role, I am also attending the Executive speaker series arranged for MBA interns, which I treat as an extension of Stanford View GSB’s From The Top. I really appreciate these as they happen pretty regularly and provide an insight in the direction of the software giant. This week we had Head of Business Division and Kevin Johnson co-president of Platform and Services. In the next few weeks we should get to hear from Robbie Bach , president of Entertainment and Devices Division, not to mention the CEO Steve Ballmer.

Thoughts on New Curriculum

2006-07-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

I wanted to offer my thoughts on Stanford GSB new MBA curriculum starting with the entering class in 2007 (Class of 2009)- well I have to say it is definitely a big departure from the traditional MBA curriculum, having spoke to my other peers here in Seattle from other top business schools, Stanford already had a more customizable curriculum than others- allowing you to exempt or turbo (take a more challenging flavor) of courses. The new curriculum extends the customization- not only making a lot of sense for the extremely diverse academic and work experiences, but putting the student more in charge of developing their management education. The drive to become more global has been extended by requiring students to go on study trips, international internships or going on a student exchange with Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in China. I do think they need to definitely spend a significant amount of time globalizing the cases. There is also a drive to increase more international applicants by extending the testing requirements to include GRE test takers- this definitely makes a lot of sense in lowering the total cost of admission to would be graduate degree applicants- particularly for those who can’t afford to take more tests. I don’t think the comparing ‘’apples and oranges’’ part is that important- it’s simply a practical step in widening the application pool - yes, the tests are different, but in my mind it’s just a discipline test.
I like the leadership part- effectively emphasizing the importance of personal development and organizational behavior- no surprises, since time and time again alumni have said that courses such as ‘’touchy feely’’ (interposal dynamics) are the best thing they have ever taken at Stanford- its natural that they make that a core part of the curriculum.

The best Internship deal ever…?

2006-07-04T18:44:00.000-07:00

So I already talked about going to Gates’ house on day one of my internship, and the wonderful apartment Microsoft is subsidizing in downtown Seattle. In addition, we get access to the top class fabulous pro-club, possibly the best service in a gym I have ever seen in my life! Last and I’m sure not least, is the Microsoft prime card, an employee discount card that works on everything from 2 for 1 meals, i-max tickets to 10% of BMW parts. One thing is very clear- Microsoft values and looks after their employees. Of course some of these perks are unique to summer MBA interns, but regardless, its enough to make you really appreciate working for Microsoft- I suppose in this highly competitive knowledge intensive industry, every little benefit counts.
The biggest treat for me is the spectacular summer weather and environment in the Pacific Northwest- being a bit of a nature lover, tree hugging Stanford GSBer, this is prime. On Sunday, I went on a hike near the Olympus Mts, close to the border with Canada with some other MBAs to catch some amazing views:

And I know that this only lasts for the summer- Seattle is pretty grey outside this season. Happy 4th of July.

Day One at Micorosft- Bill Gates' house...

2006-07-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

Straight from an e-mail I wrote to some friends:

Yes- so I’ve got to brag about this one. Had my first day of my internship at Microsoft, and although there must have been some cruel joke or test for interns to get up to speed with the computer and networking- was on the phone for almost 2 hours trying to get logged on (never got logged on!)… This was more than made up by the invite to Mr. Gates house in the evening for a BBQ with another 300 interns ( as a sense of scale, there are a total 1200 interns this summer from high-school to graduate student level).

So the house is pretty modest in size, packed with some stylish/strange use of technology- like the music that plays through the jetty as you wonder near his speed boat. We had 90% access to the fantastic garden. However, security to get in was tight- no cameras, phones etc… and took up an hour.

Won’t go into detail- but lets just say the highlight for me was sitting on his personal wooden garden chair, beer in hand, with the perfect sunset overlooking Lake Washington… A momemnt to take in the personal achievements of a man with great vision and leadership...

I managed to get in two questions- one about the competitive threat of Google which he sidetracked and another about his work on the gates foundation- have to admire his commitment to funding drug discoveries that Big Pharma would never go for due to low/nil return on investment. He rattled off his commitment on malaria vaccine and on some diseases in Africa that I’d never even heard of…

Off to bed- but settling in well in area for the summer.

Mbwana.

Sleepless in Seattle

2006-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

I got my sleep! All that late night partying and trivial pursuit plus a 6am flight to Seattle from New York was definitely tiring- so I took the whole of Sunday just to sleep.

I am just impressed with what Microsoft have provided so far... Firstly, I must thank them for relocating me from New York which allowed to me to take a break to visit some new and old friends as well as my sister.
But then to arrive to some amazing accommodation right in the centre of Seattle is just plain spoiling me! Yes, the Harbor steps Apartment complex, scores top marks in my books. Amazing view of the harbor, great location, all the amenities one could ask for- a nice touch. It may sound trivial, but I know lots of my classmates who were struggling to sort out accommodation for their internships, particularly those in New York. I arrive in Seattle and everything is taken care of- just had to simply unpack my stuff (after sleeping of course!) and I'm ready to take in the sights and prepare for my role at Redmond. Only downside is the 40 minute or so trek to Redmond I'll have to put in every morning- although I plan to carpool with my room-mate and use the public transport when schedules don't align- sounds familiar to my UK days...

Haven't hooked up with the hordes of other MBAs who are on the complex, including those working at Amazon, but it should be fun to be in another community of like minded people during the next 10 weeks. Also looking to hike on Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood over the summer with a bunch of the interns.

So at this point in time, the value of the MBA has come into focus a little more, I had a furious argument with a friend in the UK on MSN messenger about the value of the MBA- she dared call me a "manufactured leader"- what? Of course she had no idea what she was talking about, and after a a series of fast and furious arguments attacking her, she backed off... But I have to say, it has got me thinking, can I really add value to a mega-corporation of over 70,000 people in 10 weeks? I pondered this with my room-mate who is also interning at Microsoft. Working at a Start-up one can clearly make an impact on a variety of levels, but what about an established company who in effect know everything they need to know about their own business?
Then I remember speaking to one of my new friends who used to work as a gallery director for a niche area of the art industry and being able to apply the MBA thinking and getting a clear sense of how attractive an industry it was. Question is can anyone else also see that? Is having MBA really worth it when one could come to the same conclusion without one?
I learnt a lot- but most of it I could have got reading management texts. Then again, some skills just need to be practiced- one can't simply read up and learn regression to really understand its value. Then there are all the Organizational Behavior classes such as the infamous "touchy feely", "paths to power" and "organizational change", the quality of these classes are highly dependent on the quality of students and their experiences. Some of these are invaluable classes with lessons and concepts that I can certainly apply in my next 10 weeks here at Microsoft.

Coming to you from the nation's capital...

2006-06-19T07:07:00.001-07:00

Ha! I missed blogging in May, oops and sorry.
Yes, I admit it, this blog is beginning to suck. Time for a revival.
So I am now in Washington DC visiting my sister who happens to be on a month long legal training course here at the International Law Institute. I conveniently set up my 10 day break in the east coast before starting my summer internship at Microsoft to coincide with my sister's visit. It's the first time I've seen a family member for 10 months, even in the UK I could guarantee seeing my brother or at least my dad every 3 months or so. Suppose it comes with being an international student in the states these days. So I've been catching up on events in Tanzania, from the recent intense power rationing that his been crippling businesses and ordinary citizens alike, to the performance of the newly installed president.
DC is nice, particularly the lively Georgetown, but I've become very snobbish about the weather these days. I know I was complaining in my last blog post about California weather, but soon after it was more than made up with a continuous 3-4 week spells of clear sunshine and blue skies. Although it's currently in the 90 degrees Fahrenheit now in DC, it's way too humid and muggy! I miss California... If I'm now complaining about the heat in the east coast, how will I ever go back to the grey and rainy UK?
So the first year has come to an end, and how fast its gone indeed. The summer quarter can be characterized by projects, time set aside for travel and lots and lots of parties and events. I really enjoyed the group project in which we wrote a paper on the emerging entrepreneurial space industry. It gave me a chance to apply some of the lessons learnt this year from human resources to non-markets to an industry I’m familiar. I also put on the brakes on campus involvement and ventured out more on the travel side, I finally made it down to San Diego in South California with a visiting friend from the UK.
My venturing out also made me come full circle back to business, I came across a Palo Alto Start-up called Meetro, a location based (geo-tagging) instant messaging platform, that I do believe is going places. Having hung around the Meetro team on and off for the last couple of months, I have been getting my fix on internet start-ups and the web 2.0 vibe... Again, its what I came to Stanford for… Out here and having recently been in New York City last week, the stark difference in the culture for entrepreneurship is now very apparent. But then again, the liveliness of New York City and the historical Georgetown area remind me of what I have been missing in the last year.

Update needed....

2006-04-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Time goes by so quickly and before you know it the future takes an unexpected turn:

I'll make this an update on the internship search- my consulting hunt came to partial disappointment- basically did not get any offers from the big consulting 4-5 firms I was after. I did receive an offer from Genpact, a firm spun out of General Electric which engages in outsourcing activities- this firm is going places, with 25% revenue growth year on year with innovative ideas in an outsourcing industry that is exploding- in the news recently was their announced entry into the entertainment and media industry (outsourced digitizing old movies from miles of tape reels). I was offered to choice to work in either their east coast office in Connecticut or in Gurgaon, India on either Re-Engineering/Benchmarking or Industry Value Proposition.

I had hedged my bet with consulting with one Technology company in the On Campus Recruiting process- Microsoft. Whilst most people interested in Tech are rushing to the likes of Google- I have to admit, I have always been a fan of Microsoft since they entered the video game industry, which although currently only a tiny source of revenue for them compared to Windows and Office- it is exciting that such a big "elephant" of a firm can execute so well in a console launch- the underlying capability is their superior marketing of technical products... But I also think that this would later allow Microsoft to eventually re-invent itself as a younger and "cooler" company not just known for their traditional products. With Software as Service now threatening some of Microsoft’s products as well as 2006 being the year the company launches a record number of products and services (Vista, Office 2007, X-Box360 etc...)- it should be an exciting period within Microsoft. The interview process was a challenging one- flew up to Seattle and had 8 back to back interviews from around 9am and finished at 6pm. I then spent the second day sight-seeing round Seattle- which reminded me of England, with a much more compelling choices for outdoor activities- opportunity to climb Mt. Rainier etc... The all expenses trip up to Seattle was as much an opportunity for Microsoft to sell Seattle as a great summer experience as well as to interview candidates. Eventually this was a big factor in my decision making process.

I was afraid Microsoft would delay with their decision (they had taken 5 weeks to actually schedule final round interviews), but to my surprise, they came back with an answer just after the weekend (with a week until finals). So in the end it came down to deciding between Genpact and Microsoft- after taking some advice from the Career Management Centre and a classmate who had worked for both firms- The Microsoft Product Manager role won, the over-riding factors were clearly the brand name the prospect of an excellent experience in the summer, not to mention to appear more favorable to consulting firms should I re-try later on this year. Unfortunately- it looks that I will not be able to fulfill the requirement for a GMIX (I would have if I had taken the offer to work in India for Genpact!), with 10-12 weeks, it leaves no time to fulfill 4 weeks of work in Santiago, Chile for Vertical. Will like to state that this is a function of this year's holiday scheduling- we lost time in the 1 week break for thanksgiving which has eaten time in the summer- hence, a lot of people are unable to easily meet their once ambitious summer plans... Of course I won't make it home to Tanzania, which I know my parents are not too happy about.

Okay- So I promise to document more about the other side of the GSB after the career search is over- I feel a huge weight/burden lifted from me- I estimate 30% of my time freed up to get to know my classmates better, engage more in academics and club activities (will soon begin planning the East Africa Study trip for x-mas 2006) and not to forget reaching out to get to know more of California- been doing exactly that this Spring Break. Made some excellent connections in the bay area outside the GSB scene- one character, www.zboinski.com. Is on a mission to get to know the Bay area and San Francisco well, every night Wednesday to Saturday, session out meeting new faces- I can finally keep up with half his pace.

Speaking of California: This week’s weather is looking very un-california like- it has been raining a lot- but there’s been a noticeable change in the fauna- getting nice and green- the land needs it- but I’m sure the sun will return.

This is not the Californian weather I expected!

Would like to say Congrats to Puru- for making it through- he reached out to me for advice, and I knew he had the makings to get into the GSB- Congrats man! Can't believe a year has passed- this blog is one year old! Hope people have been enjoying reading it- despite there having been large 5 weeks gaps from time to time- but that is understandable given the hectic business school lifestyle. The hard part of the core is over apparently- it should be plain sailing from here... More on academics in a later post.

Progessing...GMIX is getting there!

2006-02-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

It’s been a roller coaster of a fortnight, my progress through on campus recruiting has been tough. I’ve decided not to post information about my progress through specific companies until I’ve accepted my final offer for the summer. It’s not that I don’t want to be transparent and informative, it’s just that I don’t feel comfortable blogging about how I’m specifically performing on job interviews through rounds since some recruiters could be reading this and it may weigh into their decision making process (and I know that someone I did a mock interview with from a consulting firm had heard I had a blog!- there are not many Mbwanas around!)…

But I will divulge that I’m no longer considering banking; I interviewed with a couple of firms and not only was I not adequately prepared- I really did not put the work and motivation to compete with those who focused- and rightly those who are dedicated have the right to get the position over me… I also realized that I was not willing to sacrifice my soul for cash, and I’m not just saying this because I was ultimately not hired- it takes a certain kind to do banking.

I have pretty much sealed the deal with a GMIX over the summer, so I will divulge! The GMIX, is the 4 weeks work experience as part of the Global Management Program, where one gets to immerse oneself into a country that you have not lived in and is an excellent opportunity to explore a different industry at the same time…
Those who know me well and have read this blog a while, know how passionate I am about adventure travel, eco tourism and non profit in developing countries...I have been speaking to a friend who works at organization known as Vertical in Chile and it seems that they have found something for me:

Vertical consists of two parts in Chile - the for-profit branch which is focused on leadership and teamwork development programs (through adventure travel)- and have clients ranging from MBA students (mainly Wharton) to corporations. It also includes the non-for-profit branch Fundacion, is channel through which Vertical dessiminates its vast expert knowledge in exploring and appreciating the outdoors - publishing a series of books on Leave No Trace camping, how to dress for the outdoors etc...as well as recording information about many of the great places to explore in Chile. In addition to this, the Fundacion also works on providing underprivileged communities with access to the outdoor leadership and experiential programs that Vertical and others provide, aiming to expose youth from less fortunate backgrounds to alternative lifestyle choices that can help improve their economic position.

In going in, the projects I would work on would potentially be based around strategic thinking and analysis, but would also have some tangible requirements as well. Best of all I get to explore and learn about Chile, imerse myself in the adventure travel industry, and learn what economic hardships people have to deal with in South America.

Now to nail that main internship…

Interviews kick off but wait a minute....

2006-01-30T18:26:00.000-08:00

If I don’t say this now, I’ll probably forget to say it in future.

So I had my first interview today- my adrenaline was certainly pumping. I don’t know how I did, but I immediately had a Strategy class to go to about 30 mins after with different section than normal due to this being the only interview conflict I have this week. Whilst it was hard not to think and reflect about my performance which was affecting my concentration in class, something very clear suddenly came to me: “Mbwana, what you’re learning in the class will serve you for a lifetime, wherever you decide to take apply yourself- You were interviewing for a summer position, don’t dwell so much on this one opportunity among many other open to you. Focus on studies”
It was important for me to realize this because the probabilities are really beginning to stack up against me, and I have a confession to make- I have never been rejected for a job once I got to the interview stage. Things may be about to change! I am among some of the brightest and most business savvy young individuals on the planet. If I don’t get a summer job through On Campus Recruiting or whatever, I need to realize that it’s in part because of the intense competition and be thankful that there are other opportunities for me to transition into a business career. As the Strategy class I was in was different to my normal section, I got to see some people who I have never had ANY class with so far in action- and it really drove home not only how smart people are here, but also how amazing and brilliant and how business school at a place at Stanford MUST BE one of the best place to learn- totally worth every tuition dollar… Yes, I have interviews and I know I said it’s probably what I’m here for, but it doesn’t mean academic learning should take a back seat, at that point it became suddenlt very clear what that other great thing about being at Stanford really is- learning from the best professors amongst the best students in the world- and that’s got to be worth more than a summer job… One down, 8 to go (interview count increased to 9 as of this afternoon).

Must stay calm for the Ultramarathon of interviews

2006-01-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

It’s daunting to think that I’ll be doing 8 interviews next week. It seems madness… But this is in part what I came here for, to transform my career from Engineering into a business one. It will be a marathon- or as one of the amazing speakers who came to speak at the GSB, an ULTRA marathon (check out the David Letterman clip)! Dean Karnazes has run over 350 miles continuously! Some key takeaways from his inspiring talk:
• Break things into baby steps- one case interview at a time, and one interview at a time…
• It’s the journey that counts- An experience through life (or through interviews) should leave you thoroughly exhausted at the end with no regrets. So I should put in 110% effort…
• And my favorite, to run a 300 mile race, run a 101 miles to the start of an official 199 mile race, and then the rest of the 199 or so miles to the end… To relate to interviews, I need to feel confident that everything before has prepared me for this week and that the hard work, experience and dedication has got me to this point- now it’s just time to finish the rest of that 199 mile stretch…

Ramping up…

2006-01-20T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well done to those who got accepted into Stanford following Round 1, and best of luck to those who have applied during Round 2. I can’t believe it’s been a year already, I can still remember what I was thinking during this period, the prospects of school interviews etc…

I will briefly touch on job interviewing- I attended my last meet the company presentation a few hours ago, and what a journey it has been over the last 5 months. I have selected to go and meet over 15 companies and it has been an amazing learning experience. For me, this was a key part of my first year quarter experience, learning about the different industries and companies that I am to select for my next career choice. Now the closed list interview invitations are starting to come in, which means the time I invested is starting to pay dividends.

I’d like to briefly touch on some of the cool stuff that’s coming up or has happened. Yes, need to remind myself how much fun being here is:

Skiing- There’s a significant commitment among a core group of people in the class to spending every possible free moment in Tahoe. Only 4 hours away, the prospect of learning this sport (or Snowboarding) after putting it off for while is tempting- I shall try and put in at least one or two weekends, and then commit more next year when I have the time. It’s also nice to get away to a nice chalet after being Schwab for a while. I should also note, that even though we are in the middle of Winter, the weather here in Palo Alto for me feels like a Spring in the UK with even more sunny days… But when it rains, it does bucket it down, unlike the constant drizzle in England.

Las Vegas- Vegas FOAM is coming up (a drinks social event that for the one night of the year, occurs in Las Vegas!) I can’t wait for this event in March, it should be awesome! But a lot of people have been going more often, including for the MBA series poker championships held last weekend, which was well attended by some of the classmates.

The rest of California- I’m continuing to explore the area, spending significant amounts of time in San Francisco and Santa Cruz where I’m building up an outside Stanford friend base, I consider this important as I really want to see how the real local Californians live, they also make excellent tour guides for International Students! Next to visit, Carmel, and of course I have not been to LA yet, but I’m holding this off for the right moment, although I nearly went this past last weekend (a long weekend) with a classmate, but decided I needed to polish off some cover letters and prepare for interviews.

Finally, a word on academics. Taking four classes now instead of the six last quarter has really made a difference for me, I focus more and I have significant time to worry about career issues as well, and the level of tedious problem sets is also slightly less (aside from finance!), with more emphasis on case work. But I love how everything we have learnt previously or are learning in parallel in other classes continues to be fully integrated into the current classroom. And yes, E-commerce is really handy! Classroom participation has ramped up as well, mainly due to proportion of the grade it is now worth, but also since classmates’ experiences are starting out really be valuable in discussions.

Consulting Career prospects strong in 2006...

2006-01-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry to be overbearing with career related talk- I bet I'm starting to sound like all there is to me is "...job hunt, job hunt, job hunt."

2006 should be a very strong year for Management Consultanting, including recruitment activities according to top-consultant.com first quarter review following a survey they carried out.

A nice audio summary broadcast and transcript is available at:

http://www.top-consultant.com/UK/news/Article_Display.asp?ID=2507

Power up outlook and add that special course

2006-01-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

So the Holiday break is nearly over and I can get back to being run by Outlook 2003. Time to start reviewing those course outlines, buy those course readers and books. One course that I’ve decided to take, if required, is a 4 unit one (make that 5-6 units if pursuing multiple career tracks) called:

“On Campus Interviewing with Big Name firms at Big Name School”.

COURSE PERSPECTIVE:
The course is concerned with getting a summer internship in a career field that really interests you and involves a variety of tasks such as researching firms through various reading material & on the web, interacting and communicating with firm representatives (and classmates) and of course culminating in several on campus interviews. On successfully completion of the course, you should have a summer job lined up …

PREREQUISITES:
Updated and critiqued Resume specific to each firm/career, Myerrs Briggs Personality Indicator, Career Management Centre (CMC) workshops, mock interviews and whole lot of soul searching for what you want out of an internship.

READING:
Required: Vault, Wetfeet guides to the industries, Crack the Case, etc…, Case in Point etc…
Optional: How to Interview like an MBA, The fast track- The Insider’s guide to winning jobs in Management Consulting, Investment Banking & Securities Trading,, Sweaty Palms- the neglected art of being interviewed, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Economist..

LABS(optional):
Meet the company presentations, career seminars & treks, crack the case workshops, company dinners & drinks.

ASSIGNMENTS:
Tailored Resumes & cover letters to each company (use the resume drop feature online and observe the deadlines-). Of course, “know your stuff”- including case frameworks and financial & business concepts covered in class as well as making sure you come across as confident and intelligent individual won’t hurt. Some areas you could be tested in the interview you may not cover until the 2nd year- doesn’t matter, it’s fair game!

COURSE BEHAVIOUR & NORMS:
Candidates will display courteous manner to firm representatives- such as wearing appropriate business attire (inc. details such as matching belt). You will also observe the on campus recruiting rules laid down by the school, which include proper offer rejection & acceptance etiquette. Firms should avoid such practices as “exploding offers”, and in general will try to be nice to candidates. The course is not for everyone, and candidates may appear stressful at times- but hey, for some this is a core course and other areas of your life may take a backseat for a while- 110% commitment should lead to favorable results.

GRADING:
You’ll be graded on a variety of aspects, an effectively prepared resume and superior networking should land you closed list positions for interested firms but prudent point bidding on the online system should land you interview slots at firms that were not initially impressed by your one page story of your life you submitted. Anyhow, widely available jobs such as in consulting should require minimal bidding points. However, in the end it is how you perform during the interview (final exam) in areas such as articulating the skills you have gained as a good match to the job requirements, demonstrated research and knowledge of the firm/industry, enthusiasm and general fit within the firm’s culture that will distinguish you from other candidates. For consulting, how effectively you “nail” the case interviews will carry as much as 75% of the overall grade. Those who succeed will progress to further rounds and ultimately secure a 8-12 week summer internship offer and a high chance of securing a $100K (+ significant benefits) full-time job on graduation. There are limited internship slots, and should you not get any offers along the way, firms will try their best to provide feedback, and this should form the basis for improvement in other interviews and put you in good standing for next years full time on campus recruiting.

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES:
Networking on your own, job boards, and other MBA online applications with firms that do not participate in this activity- many candidates have gotten jobs this way. In the end over 90% of MBA students will have summer offers- if you fall outside this, just go traveling for 3 months and maybe work on a “summer project”, it’s a perfectly viable, if not a more fun alternative.

GODSPEED & GOOD LUCK!

New Year, new challenges...

2005-12-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays everyone!

Time goes by so quickly that it can be hard to keep track of things. 2005 was definitely one of those U-turn years for me- I have had 2 of those in my life, when I left for boarding school at the age of 6 and being whisked off to another boarding secondary/high school in the UK at the age of 12, those were the years that had a profound effect on my life. This time last year, I was sitting in some bar or pub in Glasgow Scotland probably on my ummthteen pint of beer- a well deserved rest after giving up the whole of December including the x-mas break to re-do my GMAT and polish my essays before submitting them for the second round applications- in many ways I was psyching myself up for year ahead. Looking back now all I can say is that it was certainly worth the sacrifice and having a positive mental attitude to the future was big factor. 2005 was year of deep reflection & sacrifice- On one hand, I had 11 years invested in the UK, I loved the company I worked in, met awesome people, did some interesting and unique work and I made some good friends around the area. Things could not have been better but it was also the perfect time for a change and give up the comfort zone around me. I felt that I was getting too settled in the UK for my liking and I knew that my engineering career had plateaued and come to an end with a much needed last push to get me where I want to be in the medium to long term. 2005 was turbulent- by April I had been accepted to Stanford, left my job in June, July-August I was relaxing in Tanzania, and then was hit by a freight train, literally blown away by Stanford’s offerings on so many levels- it is only now that starting to get over the fact that I made it here.

So what’s in store for 2006? Or to phrase it better, what does success look like in 2006? Execution! If everything goes well, I should be in a bar/pub on the night of the 31st December 2006 celebrating with a full time secured and challenging offer to a rewarding job that will set me on my way to achieve my long term goals. Sure there are many other aspects to a year at business school then acing the interviews- but I believe in judging one’s success in one major item per year, this last year was getting into Stanford, 2006 is will be all about capitalizing on being here and landing that dream career… in the end that’s the business of business school for me. The stakes are big next year, but I really do believe one can write the future if you are determined as the late Peter Drucker once said- often at a sacrifice.
New Year’s Eve is all about reflection though; tomorrow will be a time for celebration on the successes of 2005 and to psyche myself up for a prosperous 2006. To all those applying to business schools in round 2, just keep a positive frame of mind and things will turn out as you expected, YOU CAN write the future.

New Era for Tanzania

2005-12-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

Tanzania (my home country) has just had an election, with the ruling party winning 80% of the vote. I’m not very much into Tanzanian politics since the ruling party always wins the elections and there is often claims of vote rigging. But Tanzania has something to be proud of, the economy is growing at a rate of 6% per year and there is political stability. As long as the incumbent party continues to do a fantastic job, I am happy. At the moment, my plan is to return to Tanzania permanently after 5-10 years work experience in the west, unless anything happens to change my plans including any bright ideas for a start-up.
I thought I’d also use this spot to talk more about Africans at Stanford business school. We are probably around 10-15 Africans at most across both years and Stanford has recently been talking about pushing more Africans to apply here, particularly direct from African countries, unlike me, who has really come from the UK. There are some hurdles, for those applying directly, for instance the costs just needed to apply to business school are astronomically high when you consider GMAT, application fees etc…We are talking a good $600 if you apply to several schools, this is a barrier for citizens of a country with GDPs of $200. There has been talk about setting up a Stanford fund to help out such applicants, which is a great idea and may be something I may take on, except I’d hate to think how the process would work out in which applicants would qualify for such grants, but a good idea nevertheless- maybe this would work if all the business schools established this and gave applicants the choice to choose their schools, of course this may increase the total number of African applicants applying to business school, not necessarily Stanford. Our admissions office has been “reaching out” by going to visit places like Nigeria and Kenya. I had to laugh and then point out that these were only two African countries, which already see the lion’s share of African applications anyway. Stanford is a small school, and I did not come here for the African community, if I wanted that I would have gone to Harvard (dinged) or Wharton (did not apply). I came here for Silicon Valley, the weather and strength of non-profit offerings. We are just too far out from the mainstream to attract a mass of African applicants. I have noticed that Wharton, for instance, reaches out to African applicants the best way you can- through the internet. Throughout my application process, I have noticed how the Wharton African community have used businessweek MBA forum posts in this manner- we should do the same. Sure, admission trips to African countries are great, but if you want a diverse representation and maximum reach, the internet is you most obvious means to do it.
I think at the heart of Stanford’s plans to get more African applicants, is this drive to be a more “global” business school. This a deep topic, but briefly, I really believe this has to start with the academics (including bringing in more international faculty), and we are so behind other schools, if I wanted global offerings I would go to INSEAD or London Business School. I would guess that most African applicants who would come to business school would want to stay here in the US on graduation, and hence, an American focus on the curriculum is not all too bad, in fact since I came from the UK, that's what I wanted anyway! I fear the pressure of rankings may have something to do with all this. How global a school is may be of increasing importance these days and this is harder for a small school out in California to achieve, for bigger schools, simply diversifying the head count is an easy means to do it.

Quarter in review- academics. Grade non-disclosure is good

2005-12-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

I used to have more mixed views on grade non-disclosure until now. The general bottom line is that grade non-disclosure affects the attitudes MBAs have in their 2 years at business school, which on the whole are a net positive for everyone. Too right, particularly for me! Having just received my grades today, I can now reflect on my total “performance” this last quarter. Like I’ve mentioned previously, I probably took one too many courses given how much time I spent on recruiting events amongst other things. Put this together with the fact I am not used to the quarter system, it made the pressure on my final few weeks quite taxing (hence the lack of blog posts). So I certainly directly sacrificed academic performance for recruiting events and expansion of knowledge. Generally I did well on the subjects that I had interest in and was relatively strong in, such as E-commerce, against other courses such as accounting, where I have less interest not to mention being not an expert (they are plenty of bankers about!). Now just expand this view across the whole class, each student with their own different course loads, strengths & priorities, it would be hard to even consider grades alone as a single measure of “performance” over the quarter, especially for those who spent a lot of time on recruiting events, club events, golf, socializing etc... Everyone should truthfully ask themselves how they think they did taking into account all the goals they set themselves this quarter. Fundamentally, what matters in the courses is what you learnt. I think I've learnt a great deal, but if I could have changed anything, I would have probably turboed accounting (better professor), and exempted modeling for quantitative analysis, I actually think by making this “better” choice, I'm sure I would have simultaneously improved my overall grades and increased my learning! So future Stanford MBA1s, pick your core courses menu extremely carefully! Of course for me, taking E-commerce was an excellent choice, I felt that this had some overlap with some of the core course, and in some ways some of the principles are helping me in the case interview practice I’m currently doing. I even got to learn a huge amount about microfinance through the group project I spearheaded on this course. In effect it brought consulting and banking experience expertise to a non-profit microfinance start up that a classmate has launched- everyone walked out extremely fulfilled. So what do I have to say about those dedicated all their time on academics and did very well? Good for you! But I have to ask, what did you sacrifice? Not much- than you are a star! Did you meet you goals- even better.... Measure against thyself, use the grades to see how you did relative to the class, but bear in mind that in an environment such as Stanford getting top marks could well mean sacrificing other things, unless you’re a mega genius, or have covered it all before in undergrad (in which case, you should have either exempted, turboed some courses or focused on non-academic areas to really get value added on your $120K). So I'm all for grade non-disclosure, but concerned with the recent news that Harvard have now withdrawn their policy on it starting with the class of 2008 , this could force other schools to follow in response to tightening the focus on academics. However, there is a subtle difference with Stanford, where the grade non-disclosure is a student norm rather than institutionally imposed policy. Last I checked, most students still want the norm to continue, not surprising since it was a key reason why many students chose Stanford in the first place. If Stanford got rid of the policy, I think it would take out a huge differentiating aspect to the school. So maybe Harvard students could opt to collude to maintain a “norm”, but I doubt it would stick given the competitive stereotypical nature of their students. I think the result could be to make Stanford increasingly more differentiated to applicants who truly value the attitudes & values that come with grade non-disclosure- academic risk taking, focused recruiting, personal goal setting, basically enjoying what each student considers are the finer things in life. Bottom line, a great make up of students on an MBA program- and many people value that above everything else, including recruiters.

From one mode to the next…

2005-12-18T15:45:00.001-08:00

So winter quarter has come to an end- the finals were suffocating me under the weight of 15 or so hours of exams in 4 days. Can’t believe I’ll be earning 21 credits or over 21% of my MBA degree!!!. No sooner than after all the merry drinking and partying (which of course was in excess) had ceased have the classmates embarked on various adventures, some for a much needed holiday, Argentina is the place to be seen, other’s on study trip to India, Philippines or Israel. Or how about combination of holiday and study trip? Some, like me, are staying behind in the bay area over the break to do more serious things, as I asked someone outside Schwab yesterday what they were up to, they uttered, “Business planning for my start-up… After all we’re in business school!” Yup, says it all. For people like me, preparing for what should be an extremely tough upcoming quarter of on campus recruiting- so I’m trying to review my internship plans, formulate cover letters, touch base with business contacts, fill out application forms and of course practice for those interviews. I’m still in a state of confusion at the moment, on one hand I really to want expand on my weaknesses of finance by going for investment banking opportunities, whilst the other side is saying that I’m a natural consultant, that’s where I rose to in my last organization and I really only have one year’s experience in the aerospace & defense field more in operations, and I should continue this into strategy consulting. The end game for me would be to end up in private equity in emerging markets. Question is how can I get there the quickest and be most prepared? It’s that age old career question, do you broaden or focus? I’m only 24 and it would seem like I still have time to try out new things before deciding. In the end it comes down to what I’m most passionate about… I’m hoping this gets resolved for sure over the next few weeks- For now, I can reflect back to all the company dinners, recruiting events… On gut feeling, consulting is still ahead. Next quarter, I’m taking only the four core classes of 16 credits to give me room to breathe under on campus recruiting.
Don’t worry, I know it’s x-mas, so I will be traveling around California to enjoy myself… I just don’t need to travel 1000s miles to find a place to relax… Home (Tanzania) is far, Britain is grey & cold (although I do miss it)- I just need to re-ask myself, why did I come to Stanford, California again?

I'm the middle of finals-- there's my excuse

2005-12-13T21:58:00.000-08:00

Okay- So I've been getting numerous requests to update my blog- what, people actually read my stuff!!!? Okay, this time you'll get a short update that's much more in action, rather than the more instrospective accounts you get from me.

So I'm in the middle of finals, level of sleep has declined, never realized modeling could be examined so detailed (it was tough...). E-commerce was a marathon, my hand has never written for that long (3 hours 45 minutes)... Now trying to understand the intricacies of bond accounting, treasury stock and pension benefit obligation in time for that Accounting final tomorrow- then I have to hit economics to round out the finals on Thursday.

One thing that's pounding in my head:
TAKING 21 UNITS IN A QUARTER IS NO JOKE- NEVER DO IT!

I'm sure once this is all over, I'll start dribbling about how it was worth it, "...all for the extra learning... E-Commerce is so amazing... blah, blah blah..." For now, I'm tired.
Spare this for a thought- in the quarter system under Stanford, I learnt something last week and was examined on it no sooner than 5 days later! Apparently- no rest required...

End of manic week- rest required!

2005-11-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

Last week was just insane! Midterms from Monday through to Wednesday, I had a mock interview on Tuesday, and on top of that we had some company presentations- I attended the Lehman Bros presentation on Thursday, followed by an early start for those interested in London opportunities. The highlight for me was the opportunity to have lunch with Ian Davis, yes, Ian Davis the MD of Mckinsey & co. I was so excited! So glad I entered the lottery, and so lucky to have won! It turned out to be a really nice lunch, lots of interesting questions and excellent responses, Ian seemed worried that MBA students were now prefering to go into “sexy” jobs such as Private Equity, Venture Capital & Hedge Funds- I don’t think he has too much to worry about, there will always be people knocking on Mckinsey’s door for post MBA jobs- after all they are the largest single MBA employer around.
I suppose I should mention how my mock interview went- all I can conclude is that I do need to spend a significant amount of time getting my story & “headline statement” perfected- or should I say my “elevator speech” for my target job position. The other thing that came up were the mannerisms and gestures that are acceptable for interviews here in the US. It was good to focus the bulk of the mock interview on improving my entrance and exit into the interviews, for me these were clearly the weakest- so a lot to work on there too.
So after a packed week, the weekend was so needed- I just slept, slept and slept again to make up for those late nights studying and early mornings for exams, company presentations etc… But studying started to creep in by today, as next week is the netimpact conference, lots assignments and classes are being squeezed into the first few days.

On the bright side, I'm now only focusing on 5 courses, which is a relief- so I'm now going to expand my club membership to include International Development and hopefully more social events- assuming my remaining 5 courses don't ramp up too much towards finals.

Time to check in...

2005-10-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

This blog is starting to feel like burden- every time I think about writing a post I just think of multiple issues that are going through my head that make it difficult to write a clear post- so sorry, I’ll have to break things down:

Midterm- oh no!
Well mid-terms are coming up and although I do not feel that I have put in the hours required for the exams- I think they will go alright- this is helped by the fact that most of them are open book, so I’m not spending time cramming formulas, rather, making sure I understand how to solve the problems. I am also slightly concerned about the fact that I haven’t sat an exam in 3 or so years, I’m sure that is quite a small gap compared to some of the older students, either way, I hope I can still write consistently legibly for 2-3 hours!
I know I’ve given this topic more than it deserves, but doing 6 courses in the core has basically caused me to go wide and not so deep, this is worrying & frustrating, there are just some classes that I am literally swimming with the assignments as I don’t spend as much time on them as they deserve. On the other hand, I love the variety in my learning, I feel like I’m learning much more in E-commerce, it’s also the course that I feel connects across all the core disciplines. For now, I value going wide and not deep- as one of class ends after midterms, I can begin concentrate on going deep.

To bank or not to bank (Internship)…
I’ve been to my fair share of consulting events over the last month and I know pretty much all I need to know about this profession- I have even managed to fit in a practice case interview! Now, I feel strangely drawn towards investment banking as an internship opportunity to explore- yes, we all know the insane hours one has to work and the lack of a good work/life balance, but I can’t resist the temptation of the amount this industry pays and the finance training I could receive that would broaden my skill-set to more than a consultant. In addition, the training would open up doors to prestigious and highly competitive Private Equity roles, if not immediately for full time, but certainly 2nd job out of business school. I don’t intend on going full time in this area, but I feel the internship would provide me with the perfect opportunity to try it out without making such a big leap. Going for both consulting & investment banking internship will be hard work, not to mention the potential conflict risk this introduces during on campus recruiting- there’s a high chance of running into your i-bank interviewers whilst on your way to your consulting interview (which the banker apparently don’t take very well)! So depending, I may have to choose which track, I’m still most keen for consulting, but investment banking is on the horizon- as the company presentations start after the mid-terms, I’ll either get more clarity or more confused on this issue…

It’s the best space to be in your 20s
Serious stuff aside, I just have to comment on how much of love/hate relationship I have with the business school environment. I love being around such brilliant people and exposed lots of opportunities. But it is so tiring and at times, so intense… The hidden lessons such as learning to cope with high workloads, rationalizing what opportunity to pursue among 3 or more other good alternatives at a moments notice- these are the “soft” management lessons that will serve me for life… I’ve never been so busy, and slowly my hours of sleep have declined from a healthy 8, down to just barely 5 hours on some nights. I feel so relieved whenever I venture off campus and enter the real world- breaks from this environment are what keep me sane- California certainly helps… But I’m wondering how I would react if I was at a city based business school such as Columbia or Harvard, where I can step outside the bubble more easily than the pure campus environment? I best not go there- I’m at Stanford and I love it!!! After all, there are some fun aspects that balance things out- the work hard, play mentality make it a great place to be at my age.

And now- the party continues…In little less than 3 hours- the GSB Halloween party kicks off- it promises to be spectacular- and for once I made an effort on the costume. My friend in San Francisco will be the DJ which is great…

I'm managing...

2005-10-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

I feel really bad that I haven’t written my blog for almost 2 weeks… You’ve heard the excuse before- “I’ve just been too busy keeping up with….” … So hey- let me summarize what I’ve been up to:

I had to take control of my academics after the shock to my system in my first week when I realized that I may not be able to handle 6 courses and maybe taking an E-commerce elective was a mistake. In the end it has not turned out so bad, and my intuition was right in the first place- the busier I am, the more efficient I’ll be- this logic arises in that I feel bored when I'm doing too few things academically, and end up misusing any free academic time, especially when I have those annoying breaks say from 10am-1pm. So a full schedule for me makes good sense. I previously mentioned that Modeling was taking up far too much time- it is now easing a bit, which is a relief and is helping, but I’ve now generally learnt how to best allocate my time to each particular course, and naturally some get more of my time than others! I also cut back on my tennis (but not eliminated it) which has helped.
One of my classmates who runs an amazing microfinance organization in East Africa (which I am thrilled to be invited in joining the board of!) has started taking Swahili course, and today I sat in on this daily lunch time class- it was fascinating- I felt instantly transported to Africa- the full on sunshine and palm trees outside made this easier to imagine (the weather is still amazing!!!) I am thinking of taking the intermediate or advanced level of this class in the Winter quarter- the beginners’ and intermediate class had about 12 and 7 people respectively (the advanced has virtually none). I’m so excited by the prospect of being able to keep up or improve my level of the Swahili language in my two years here. Perfectly in line with my goals for returning to East Africa in the long-term.
It is scary that mid-terms are literally only a few weeks away- the pace of learning is definitely much faster than I could have imagined.
On the clubs front, I actually cut back on the clubs I would have naturally signed up to, instead I focused on the ones that I knew I wanted to be a part of in the two years, and in time I would find out which ones I should REALLY join from classmate feedback and the general buzz around campus. So Wine, Consulting and Africa business club were the ones that I can see committing long-term- I envisage joining Entrepreneurship or Venture Capital later and add others as/if my schedule clears up. I feel relieved that I’m not in the situation that some students are in- having joined lots of clubs, some feel in the position that they have over-committed and having to say “no”- and we know how hard that can be...

I’m looking forward to the Net Impact Conference in November, which should be a treat on a variety of non-profit and socially responsible business topics; it will be the largest conference Stanford has ever hosted, period! Although it’s a little bit on the pricey end- I do think it is worth it for anyone at the business school with a mild interest in careers that make a meaningful impact to society…

End of the party...?

2005-10-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

First week of the core went at a blistering fast pace. Most people take just the core courses or exempt one or two and load up on an elective, retaining the 5 core courses (or maybe an additional 2 unit course). Myself- I’m taking the core courses plus an elective in E-commerce... Yes, that's 6 total courses. So after returning on Sunday afternoon totally shattered following the rafting trip last weekend, I actually started the week unprepared and stretched- I won’t even pretend to say that it was a smooth ride, but I survived. Although, I wished I'd exempted out of Modeling (see Lady Rattler's post on this course), chats with a second years has revealed that this is one of the most time consuming, if not most difficult courses to grasp in the core... And no, just because I'm an ex-engineer does not mean I'm a whiz at Excel, I'm used to other modeling packages in engineering, not in economics and accounting...
I'm not the only one, I've found a few other people who are doing the same (6 courses) yet surviving- like ducks, some of us may look calm on the surface, but really underneath we are swimming like mad!... It didn't help that I fitted in 6 hours of tennis over the week as well, that could do with some reduction. I know want balance in my experience, but I was just trying to do far too much of everything- once again time management is key!

Following the last course on Friday, I attended the first of the Liquid Preference Functions (LPF), a nice get together of GSB over drinks and ice-cream. This then spilt over to a party at the Graduate Community Centre and a 2nd year party at a mansion in Atherton... Good to hear the social side is still strong when we do have the time- So no, the party’s not over.

Weekend starts early...to Santa Cruz.

2005-09-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, so pre-term has come to an end. I'm now loaded up on the next set of course readers ready to start the core on Monday. I can't believe pre-term has gone by so quickly, I feel this was just taster of how quickly things will move in the core classes... Managing my time is certainly shaping up to be the biggest challenge here. I'm anxious to see how I handle my time to fit extra-curricular clubs, not to mention recruiting prep- I know it doesn't start until later in the fall, but getting a strategy together will be crucial to go in prepared in the wake of the academic work to come. The Mckinsey company visit yesterday, although lighthearted and informative, was a gentle reminder of my key purpose of coming to business school.

So although there has been a lot of social pre-term activity and I've tried to remain true attending as many events as possible, it gets tiring, especially since last weekend was spent Napa Valley and a Scavenger hunt on Sunday left me tired starting the week. So keeping true to my promise to spend some time outside the b-school scene when things get intense, I ventured out to Santa Cruz this afternoon/evening with a friend I met in Zanzibar over the summer who happens to live locally. So I've finally seen the surfer town where they filmed that teen-horror film, the Lost Boys (fictional town name of Santa Clara). Great place, and more relaxed than Palo Alto. Just what I needed to end the week and start another big weekend- going rafting with a third of the class down south on the American river near Sacramento.

Getting ready to make the next two years count

2005-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

I feel like I’m slowly getting into the swing of things now here at the GSB, even though the core has not started yet. Today’s highlight was the first of the “View from the Top” series, where a leading CEO comes to give a talk at the GSB. Today was Richard Fairbank from Capital One, a solid alumni of Stanford undergrad as well as the business school. He was nothing short of an excellent speaker and gave a moving story at the end about his father’s determination to launch an ambitious experiment to prove Einstein’s theory of relativity. The experiment, finally being launched after 40 years following some hard times including being revived after being scrapped by NASA in1980s, is now on the verge of successful completion. I could certainly relate to the story, having just left the glamorous yet frustrating aerospace sector in the UK. However, the main message that came out of that speech that struck me was that it’s the journey that matters in any endeavor you go for, dream big goals, stick to the journey and you will have a rewarding experience.
I’m going to try so hard to make my time at Stanford count. For the next two years I’ll be connected to some of the brightest, most ambitious people my age on the planet which will provide tremendous opportunities that I must not waste. When I return to my room completely shattered after a long day, there is an easy temptation to just relax and let a few hours go by and let this become a habit, just as I’m sure, and we’ve been warned, how easy it is to fall into the trap of FOMO (“fear of missing out”). I need to maintain balance, to not over stretch myself to the point of over-stress, but find time to rest and enjoy the rest of California area. That’s why I place so much value on taking a day off in San Francisco or wherever outside the MBA scene from time to time. Additionally, regular tennis sessions, not only provides me opportunity to get to know a lot of people more closely (and offer some coaching for those who value it and improve my tennis). However, things can get intense on campus- I just need to optimize my experience over the next 2 years.
One other things, Richard Fairbank was a very eloquent speaker, so important for a business leader, and a reminder of why those management communication program lectures are so popular with MBA students… I’ll certainly push myself in this area too.

Now, a busy weekend lies ahead…

Bookworm has found his lair!

2005-09-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know this is nothing to get excited about, but I have finally taken the library tour at the Jackson Library at Stanford. So what, you ask? Well, me and libraries are inseparable when it comes to needing to maintain good academic discipline, I could never work well in my own room- least not the one at Schwab! What with all the cable TV, partying, tennis courts etc... to distract me? The library is the only place I can find the calm to work and I can put in insane work hours.

Another obvious issue is books. I only ever bought 2 textbooks whilst doing my engineering degree in undergraduate years, although I know I cannot replicate the same tactic at graduate school, I intend not to go out and buy every singe latest edition book that is out there when I am only 5 mins walk from the lair where I would want to read it anyway. Course readers are another issue, I found it so strange paying $90 or so for 2 syllabi and a bunch of articles.
The only pitfalls that may arise are when I have to study off campus or outside of library hours.

Cardinal Cards complete

2005-09-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can’t think of a better start for an MBA program than running a business simulation that get you to experience running a business. Cardinal cards requires a team of about 12 compete with another 5 teams to make & sell the best greeting cards from all day (it gets exhausting). Each “cycle” lasts 20 minutes as you rush around collecting orders, purchasing supplies, ordering market research etc… It was all pretty good as it forced you to appreciate all the functions of business/management. The stakeholder roles within the simulation were all played by GSB faculty and staff which is great for getting to know them early on. There are also appropriately inserted “lessons or hints” in between cycles to alert you of the issues faced by a manager ranging from ethics to leadership & teamwork. I was in the administration role, helping to prepare financial accounts on time at the end of each cycle as well as taking care of other random compliance forms. Our team, and I’m sure much can be said about others, struggled in the first day with everyone shouting over each other, but by the end of the second day we were an amazing cohesive team and I have to boast that we were the most profitable team and had the highest customer satisfaction! At the end of the second day marking the end of the simulation, we were notified of a GSB slip up on setting up our sections and study groups, leading to an emotional outcry by teams. The Cardinal Card teams were set up in such a way that many were part of the same study or section, so the change meant that I, for one, was not in the same study group that I had bonded with over the last few days… Of course, my new study group could be just as awesome as the former…!
Directly following the Cardinal Cards, was the Liquidity Preference Function (LPF), the first of the after week drinks sessions and get together, and you could finally grasp the size of the class and meet people who lived either in another part of Stanford or off-campus. At this point, I was beginning to get tired… I think the amount of sport I tried to participate in over the past week must have played a role, or maybe it’s getting up at 6:50am to play tennis before breakfast & Cardinal Cards that caused it…
Today, I need to escape the business school scene just for the afternoon… Yes, back to San Francisco. This time to explore Oakland & Berkeley area, find a barber and catch up with friends…

Completed my first week here

2005-09-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

So I survived International Pre-Enrollment. Although the immigration talk was a little overwhelming... Just think of this scenario:

You send you passport & I-20 to Pennsylvania to get your tax number (since you probably need to compute your taxes in April with the fellowship funds in your account). You then get stopped by the police and asked for your passport and I-94, since strictly speaking you are meant to carry these with you anywhere you go, especially if you head somewhere far from your local area, for instance San Diego. Since you do not have the documents you get apprehended as a possible illegal immigrant...

I know it's a highly unlikely scenario and maybe you should know better but to stay at school and do nothing while your passport is on the other side of America. But what happens if your passport is lost in the system? It’s also almost impossible for internationals to get a social security number, which although we will get one if we do an internship in little less than a years' time, it would be very handy to have it early on in order to get cell phones, credit card, driving licenses etc… The conclusion, being an international student means there are some unique barriers for accessing some useful services in the states, and one does need to be careful. The IPEP was very useful for new internationals as well as those from English speaking countries such as South Africa and UK, and it’s good to know that Stanford have someone who it is their full time job to advice on complex immigration status issues.

Exemption exams studying are the talk within Schwab at the moment and it has started to make me feel like I should have signed up to take some, despite the fact that I know reviewed this issue thoroughly in May and came to the conclusion that it is not worth taking any. But nevertherless, in a panic state I’ve just gone through the samne process again and come to the same conclusion! So no, although I know certain topics well, I don't know them well enough to pass the exemptions exams, or put in another way, I don't want to scrap through the exams and kid myself that I've mastered certain subjects. So Labor Day weekend will be spent lounging around and exploring, not studying… I'll heading back into San Francisco with some newly made friends this afternoon...

International Enrollment kicks off...

2005-08-29T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today was the first GSB classroom experience- International Enrolment (IPEP). Quantative Enrolment (QPEP)started last week. It was great to meet about 50 or so of the international students at the GSB and another 50 or people who have been doing the Quantative stuff. It seems the IPEP seems a damn lot easier than the QPEP work- although I did not expect to be video taped during the presentation exercises today...

On other news, San Francisco was awesome on the weekend. My friend was the perfect tour guide. The fact that he is a DJ meant that I was able to see 9 clubs and various bars in 2 nights... He shall come in handy on those gettaway weekends to the city when I need to escape from the MBA madness.

I hit Walmart twice in the last 2 days and have finally almost got my room fully supplied...
There have been some moans about the lack of available late night eating areas on campus amongs other things (or how far everything is- which is reflective of the huge Stanford campus)... Having a car and/or a bike is almost a must... Let's see how long I can last. I'm just not falling for the huge rush of people grabbing deals left, right and centre without taking a step back and evaluating what options you have- I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm no rush, although I recognise the necessity of having a vehicle whilst out here.

I'm totally shattered, completely overwhelmed...

2005-08-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Now in the normal MBA playbook, you are meant to visit the MBA program of your dreams before you apply or take the acceptance after having at least taken a peak at the school you are going to spend over $100K and live for 2 years of your life. Well I did not, I applied and accepted the position at the GSB without ever setting foot within 2,000 miles of the campus, I relied totally on what I had read and personal experience. I had it in the back of my mind-"what if I hate the campus? Or Stanford does not live up to all the ratings & hype?". After all we all have our personal opinions which can sometimes widely differ from the norm. I was even about to set myself up for disappointment when I saw the grey weather in the morning- "I thought California was meant to be ALWAYS sunny? And on my 1st day it's cloudy!". First impressions are everything.
But today I finally made it onto the campus, and had all my expectations were met if not exceeded. The campus is just breathtakingly huge and beautiful. And yes, the true California sunshine returned at 10am and lasted the whole day- not a cloud in the sky.
Everyone I met was also very friendly, and this made things run pretty smoothly on my 5 hours on campus, taking it easy touring with my mum whilst doing my chores. I then attempted to do 2 hours of shopping (getting the essentials) before the jetlag kicked in as predicted...
Tomorrow, we head for San Francisco. I'm shattered.

The last few miles...

2005-08-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm in California!!!! Not quite at Stanford, but near enough- I'm at a hotel in Palo Alto that at a guess, is a couple of miles out.
Oh my God! First impressions is that it looks just like parts of Africa- only more developed (obviously). A developed Bongoland! I could get used to this.
Don't even know why I'm on the computer, 10 hour time difference from Tanzania- I best go to bed. Tomorrow I move in and do some touring with my mum, not to mention sort the basics (student ID, bank account etc...) Could be a long day- just hope I don't burn out by 2pm as jetlag kicks in...

5,000 miles or so to go... Goodbye Britain

2005-08-23T11:20:00.000-07:00

After almost starving on the British Airways flight due to the strike being put on by the catering staff (Gate Gormet), I'm going to stock up on munchies for the Atlantic crossing tomorrow.
But being back in the UK has been pleasant. Now for the final plunge...

Last blog from Bongoland- 10,000 miles to go...

2005-08-20T03:47:00.000-07:00

So this is my last blog from "bongoland", I can't believe 7 weeks has passed since I finished work in the UK and set out here. Although, the prime focus was to relax and sort getting my new passport and visa, my main concern was getting too bored. I have not let the sun, beach and sea get to me and restricted myself to 2 trips to Zanzibar. I have gained some valuable experience on my short 1 month internship on the Tanzanian capital markets which has kept me busy, and added a much needed extra dimension on my resume. I was able to keep up with the pre-pre term preparation mainly involving hundreds of dollars worth of credit card expenditure that I really could have saved up for other things. I finally did the excel skills assessor yesterday and I was surprised by the result; apparently I lack the basic skills in "printing" spreadsheets, I suppose it’s something that I never do that much of.
Some useful messages came through this week from Stanford on the first few days for international students such as setting up a bank account, getting a cell phone, purchasing a bike etc... And on the accommodation front, I have been notified of my suite and room mate as well. My mum was relieved that there is an organised trip to Walmart on the Sunday I actually move into Schwab from the weekend stay in San Francisco, leaving me to finish off any last minute shopping and importantly, leaving my mum with more time to rest (it’s 10 hours time difference between Tanzania and California) before flying on to her next stop in Philly to visit my sister on the Monday. I've also contacted an old friend of mine that I knew at the age of 11 years old when I was at boarding school in Kenya and who now lives in the bay area and has offered to give my mum and I an assisted tour of San Francisco that weekend, it will be weird to not have seen him for over 15 years! Furthermore, an American friend of mine that I knew from boarding school in England has just moved from NY to San Francisco just this Friday gone- so I'll be in good company in the region thanks to old faces, what a small world. But before all that, I'll be back in England briefly early next week to collect my stuff and any spare moments I'll be sure to be in a beer garden at a pub to enjoy my last few English pints and ales.
It still hasn’t properly sunk into me yet, 12 years ago my parents sent me to UK to study, now I’ve opted to pack up again and send myself to study, this time over 10,000 miles from home.

Not on the pre-pre term preparation checklist but...

2005-08-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

...My father has kindly agreed to send me to have 2 hour golf lessons every morning from today until I leave in weeks time. I've had lessons and played golf before when I was younger, but they were pretty much forced onto me by my father who had just taken a shine to the game and wanted all the kids to get into it and accompany him- unfortunately at the time my sport of choice was tennis- so although I put the effort in, I would have rather be playing tennis where my heart was. Things have certainly changed, now I think I'm ready for this game of choice for business types.
So I had my first lesson today, and it was great, my priority is to work on my swing on the range rather than just leap onto the golf course- that's if you can call the Dar es Salaam course a golf course! The course is severly underfunded and really needs some corporate sponsorship to get anywhere near international standards. As my dad said- funding is the issue- a professional golf course requires an irrigation system equivalent to one required by a modern town of 15,000- now where is a developing country like Tanzania going to sort one, when the city water system itself needs work. As multinational companies flood into Tanzania, we hope they will put up the required funding- after all the executives would certainly want to play an occasional round now and then at a course that is right in the city centre! I'm definitely looking forward to trying out the world class Stanford course.

All clear for go

2005-08-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

So I finally got my visa this morning following an early start at 7:30am. Despite spending about 3 hours at the embassy, I should praise the embassy on their efficiency yet maintaining thorough checking for a vast no. of people, my mum tells me that there have been quite a few criticisms in the papers about their “over-fussiness”. Understandably so given the current state of world affairs. Some of the locally recruited staff seemed to be confused about exactly what documents students visa applicants should bring with them. For instance, why were they asking me for my high school certificates when clearly my bachelor’s degree certificate is evidence enough that I’m qualified for an MBA? Actually if they were really pushing this case they should have asked for my GMAT and university transcripts and most importantly my Stanford Admission letter! Yet, the memos put out by the embassy & on their website state that they are not in the business of assessing whether one is qualified to attend a university course- that’s what the admission process is there for! I made a judgement to process my visa in my home country rather than doing it in London, I recommend this process for international students if this option is available in order to get the advantage of beating the queues and waits of 5 weeks for the interview itself in major international cities like London. On the other hand, having it done somewhere like London would have eliminated the anxiety students face in knowing that as long as you have all the documents stated and met all requirements you’re fine, rather than being hassled for unnecessary documents or unrelated requirements by less competent clerical staff in countries such as Tanzania.
Apart from that, the actual counsellor was really friendly and I got an ego boost as he congratulated me on my admission and shared anecdotal accounts of his friends' application attempts- yes, I'm so grateful for getting in to such a competitive school. Then the counsellor asked an unexpected question -"So what are you going to do after the MBA? Investment Banking'?". I was a bit thrown because although the first question is fair and I'm meant to resolutely respond that my primary concern is to return to Tanzania, I don’t think he is meant to encourage me to seek/take a US job in the point of view of the immigration policy for students!? Last time I checked there were zero investment banking opportunities in Tanzania. Of course I answered “Who knows, should the opportunity present itself maybe- but in the long term, international development." It was ironic that during the wait there were 3 recent issues of the “Money Magazine” in the waiting room, so I was able to read up enlightening articles about the US economy and future job prospects just prior to being called up for the interview.
So as they would probably say at NASA (congrats on the shuttle landing by the way- sorry, the aerospace enthusiast in me is thrilled)- “Mbwana, this is Houston, you’re good to go!”- Only minor checks are left, including checking that my health requirements are OK- in light of Britchick-mba's recent experience, I'm going to visit the doctor and make sure all my tropical immunisations are up to date and more importantly to verify which immunisations are necessary for the US. So in approaching the final week here in Tanzania, I’m looking forward to going out for my 24th b-day this weekend and I could be back in Zanzibar next Friday to enjoy one of the greatest asset of my country- the sheer beautiful and relaxed nature of our tourists sights- I won’t be back at the earliest, in a year, and there’s no place like home. So bring in more farewell parties! Then it’s Jet setting to the UK to collect my stuff and say goodbye to rainy England and hello sunny California.

Final red tape hurdle in sight...

2005-08-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

I said I was cutting it close, but not to worry- The final bit of red tape to allow me to make the journey into the US is in sight. My new passport was returned within 1 week of sorting out all my finger & handprints. I've amassed all the 14 certificates/letters/statements/forms required to apply for F1 visa. My visa interview is set for next Thursday (11th) at 7:30am! After that I'll have 10 days left in Tanzania and I shall cease my short 1 month summer internship at the stock exchange for some quality relaxing, I won't mention the Z word- but yes, it could be a possibility if finances allow it.

I've managed to also solve my problem of transporting all my stuff to the US from the UK. Since my mother is coming with me, she'll travel light whilst I use up all her spare luggage capacity to load up all my stuff. It also makes sense to abandon stuff in the UK that I can easily re-buy here in Tanzania and in the US. Some things will just have to be left behind...

Totally unrelated but interesting is MTV's debut arrival tomorrow in Tanzania... My sister asked me whether we should attend this and I have to ask myself two questions:
- With my 24th b-day looming am I getting too old for this stuff? If I was a couple of years younger I would jumped at the chance of going...
- Tanzania is not normally associatd with such modern US exported culture, maybe I should spending my last days here in Tanzania finding more locally cultural nightlife or just plain relaxing. Then again, I'm beginning to like the recent African hip-hop music out there, and I'm scrambling about to load up my mp3 collection with the stuff.
Yes, these are attempts at excuses for not going... I'll probably get dragged along anyway. I'm not one to pass the opportunity for a party.

Career focus

2005-07-29T05:14:00.000-07:00

With the excitement building as the big day approaches before setting off to business school (although worry is starting to creep over me with regard to progress on my passport renewal and how best to move my stuff in the UK by cargo to California), career options have come into focus once again.

Over the last 6 months or so, I've been considering and researching careers in international development, but it wasn't until I initially went through GSB's impressive career section on this area earlier this week that I really started to realise how many potential opportunities lie out there - evidence of dozens of students over the years successfully placed on internships and onto full time positions with the exact firms I'd expressed interest in. Consulting is still my main career desire directly after b-school, but international development has recently risen to consideration mainly because I can currently relate to it more since I've been here in Tanzania, where the big thing in the news is always "poverty reduction this..", " a new plan for economic development that..." not to mention the recent make poverty history campaign, which means that development agencies have come under a lot of focus and there should be load of work coming up with the increase aid pledges. When people ask me here so what are you going to do immediately after your MBA and I answer that I'd like to work for Bain or McKinsey, they look mystified. But when I tell them I may want to work for the United Nations Development Programme, or the World Bank, they can completely understand the logic in the choice and the impact I could make. My desire and what I wrote on my essays was that I would like go into consulting to get the widest business experience and then go into international development when I've professionally matured. However, I am now formulating a plan to test the water by combining my interest for pursuing the global management program (GMP) certificate, in which I can go on the Global Management Immersion Experience (GMIX) 4 week internship abroad next summer, by hopefully landing a stint at an NGO at some exotic country. It still leaves me time to intern fully at a consulting firm if all is successful on that front, and by this time next year I should have an idea as to whether international development is for me or not (at least get some experience and relevant contacts for the future) - at the moment it certainly feels that I should wait and build up further experience before trying to land a high impact international development job.

Then there is of course, the chance of starting my own business, a choice everyone can universally relate to here in Africa and in the west, but during my exposure to more than my fair share of young entrepreneurs here in Tanzania, I'm starting to realise that not many of my entrepreneur friends are living the lifestyle I want to live toward the end of my 20s. More importantly, the environment for a start-up here in Tanzania is just not conducive or ideal- bongo land inefficiency is such a pain, not to mention huge barriers of entry in everything apart from say advertising. I would certainly have little chance with a hi-tech venture, maybe if the opportunity arose in the bay area, but plans for a start-up in Tanzania are certainly in the long term, when hopefully efficiency and infrastructure would have improved or I become more patient with age!

What about investment banking? At the moment this is one of the areas that I've least researched but I have been having a growing desire to learn more about - the attraction being the short term financial gain at the expense of long hours before burning out- who knows, I shall certainly consider taking a summer internship in this area instead of consulting should my further research lead me down this avenue and the opportunity arise.

Did I mention private equity? This offers the best financial rewards (as I recently read in an economist article), yet I currently know very little about, and I hear is very competitive to get into especially without prior experience... This is where my current work experience at the stock exchange here in Tanzania may show employers that I’m interested, but maybe probably not enough for me to be competitive against other applicants for full time jobs without an internship.
Last, and I’m sure not least is the extremely valuable advice I got from the North America/Commercial Director at my last employer to go into Product Marketing- again I currently know very little about this, the advice given to me was that I should strongly consider this area if I still wanted to make use of my engineering and tech skills and get the most out of the general management education at Stanford, it was also that an area that is looking increasing promising and important in countries such as the UK (should I want to return there).

What's clear is that my career interests are still at the stage of expanding, and I'm sure they'll mushroom once I get to business school. I'll certainly need to join quite a few professionally related students clubs to feed my career interests (so far, I reckon consulting, investment, Finance equity/investment, Africa business, hi-tech just to name a few…). I still have yet to take the career leader online self assessment that the career management centre are recommending on doing. When I last took this type of test in high school I came out with something being 95% suited to Engineering, so I do value these sorts of tests.
To date, I'm satisfied with the career research I've done on management consulting (already bought a case study preparation book and a guide to the top firms), recently I've been having a look at MBA consulting track, it has some helpful advice about preparation whilst at business school.
My aim is to reach this level of research on the other career interests (International development, investment banking, Product Marketing and a little on private equity)- there’s clearly a lot to be done here and a methodical and organised approach to manage all these career interests is definitely needed.
All this presents me with another challenge- How do I structure my resume for the resume book due in the autumn quarter, and another action to start on prior to enrolment, when this book goes out to the full gamut of MBA recruiting firms across a variety of sectors? Conventional wisdom states you should structure ones resume focusing on the career area one is interested- but what if you have many and are not firmed up on them!!?- I will carefully need to think about my resume to focus on achievements and transferable skills that appeal to a broad recruiting audience- and then later tailor resumes for specific companies that I apply directly to. Oh lord…

Safer Airport Runways...

2005-07-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

I've been checking out my previous employer's website pretty regulary, and I was pleased to see they announced a sale of key technological product, Tarsier, from leveraging its military expertise in radar technology to be able to track Foriegn Object Debris (FOD) on airport runways. FOD costs the global avaition industry some $4 billion a year and a piece of FOD was a cause of the fatal Concorde crash in Paris in 2000.

I worked briefly for the Tarsier product team in helping to developing the concept of operations, so I feel proud that I was part of its success, having finally made their first sale at Vancouver Airport. Hopefully busy airports such as Heathrow and JFK will follow suit. The radar can detect up to the size of a large nail or golf ball on a vast runway surface.

Digital Divide in Tanzania (or not)?

2005-07-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been painfully trying to sign up our home to the sole broadband internet service provider in Tanzania (if you can call a standard rate of 64kbps and a top rate of 120kbps broadband!). The company is so inundated with new customers together with the fact it has a monopoly on the business that it can afford to maintain poor customer service for the mean time. Having been to their offices 3 times last week they seem to be very slowly coming around (well, even before installation, they will need do a site survey this week). I’m not too bothered, since being here I have gone online at my local internet café just down the road from home for about the equivalent of 50 cents (30 pence) an hour.
In light of my struggles to sign up to the internet, a few insights from a variety of sources on communications technology have caught my attention; Firstly, on BBC’s clickonline program, a feature was done on Tanzania where it outlined some astonishing facts; less than 1 in 10 Tanzanians have access to a fixed line and yet 97% have access to a mobile/cell phone! In fact there are 4 strong mobile phone operators in Tanzania with fierce competition leading to not only cheaper calls but excellent customer service- you won’t have trouble signing up to an operator in Tanzania, and for that matter you can make calls from the most remote areas of Tanzania- even on top Mt. Kilimanjaro at almost 20,000ft.
Secondly, my father has shared his experiences over the years of how he ditched the once state owned fixed line phone (now recently privatised) company due to poor service, lack of capital to upgrade old copper wire infrastructure to a more reliable “mobile fixed line” service. In other words, a cell phone service provider installed a fixed line which is really mobile phone receiver posing as a fixed line. Many have said that the apparent “digital divide” in Africa being perceived due to the difficulties in getting reliable high speed internet is not so important to the ordinary Tanzanian, as the mobile phone is winning over the PC. The trend is certainly clear, Tanzanians love and have adopted mobile phone technology, and it seen as a means of great economic development for the region. For instance fisherman can receive texts on the latest fish prices on different markets whilst still out on the Indian Ocean before deciding where to sell. And finally this morning, I was astonished read in the papers that an Israeli company is teaming up with a local Tanzanian company to trial and eventually deploy Wi-Max, which would enable mobile high speed internet across a wide area. I’m particularly astonished because, whilst in the west, the industries are grappling with the regulation of the new and potentially destructive technology- many companies view W-Max with disdain (not surprising given the amount they have invested in traditional fixed broadband communication technologies), it seems that here in Tanzania, we are about to leap-frog straight to the mobile high speed internet era- so much for fixed line broadband infrastructure for the future. Hooray for hi-tech in Tanzania… For more on Wi-Max connectivity potential in Africa- click here.

Postcard from Zanzibar- on the trail alone...

2005-07-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

Zanzibar...

What do you do when your buddies abandon you on your travel plans? You go it alone. I went to Zanzibar (again!) for the long awaited full moon party weekend by myself for the first time, and it was surprisingly good. My friends gave me the classic excuse- “too much work to do…”. However, with no travel companions, it was not only great to go on my own schedule, but the best bit was the fact that I was forced to talk to people I’d never really talk to otherwise, I met so many different solo travellers; from a Japanese student to a Canadian accountant. I also had great time at the party chatting to a random bunch of people round a beach fire that I did not know and I ended up meeting one girl who lives 15 minutes away from Stanford in Palo Alto!
I used to think travelling by myself would be odd, but I’m now converted- something about the freedom to explore at your own will and not stressing about having to coordinate politely with others’ activities. Shout out to all the solo travellers out there!

Having said that, I still find people who go to the movies/cinema on their own pretty strange- but I suppose you can’t know until you’ve tried it.

Time to get a move on…

2005-07-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

In the backdrop of my last obsessive post on Zanzibar, I best bring things back in focus on making my preparations for Stanford.
I have one more month left until I make the final journey to California via the UK, and today signalled the day I should really shift up a gear in my preparations. Firstly, my whole family is having passports renewed, followed by the US visa process for mum and I. One snag is that virtually all Tanzanians are rushing do get their passport renewed before a government imposed deadline at the end of October (something about machine readable passports needed by then). As you can imagine, the immigration service is overwhelmed with applications and we have to pull a few strings to speed up the process. The US visa will only take one day, but my main concern is the potential delay the passport renewal process may create. 4 weeks to do it all? Fingers crossed- we are talking “bongo land” government efficiency here. On other things, I still have to finalise moving my stuff from the UK to the US and start creating a shopping list of things I need to purchase whilst I’m here in Africa and when I arrive in the US. I would like to minimise my shopping once I leave, and so envisage making a trip to IKEA and to the computer store to purchase a laptop and organiser (PDA) when I get to Palo Alto- it turns out my mum also needs one, so it’s convenient for her to get a good spec whilst out in the US.
I’m also finding myself being supplied with a steady stream of actions from Stanford to get on top of. The MBA Excel skills assessor, signing up for pre-term activities, reading up on accounting and economics fundamentals etc… I have had to set up Outlook on the home computer to track everything- and I thought I’d get a break from using office software whilst on holiday!
Pre-term is interesting, I am both shocked and impressed by the number of activities they have laid on- lots and lots of social activities which have to be pre-paid and booked. Having gone through them, I reckon I’ll be spending some around $400 ($600 if you include the International Pre-Enrolment Programme), which includes the $200 Outdoor Activity weekend right at the end. Well, I think I better sign up on e-bay and start saving some cash on books otherwise my summer spending will mushroom. I’m certainly not cutting back on the pre-term social activities, when else would one get the chance to have such a good time early on? It will be exciting and unforgettable, it kind of reminds me of “Freshers’ week” at British universities- I certainly didn’t skimp then, and I made a load of friends. For the outdoor activity weekend, I’m completely torn between the boat cruising trip on Lake Shasta and the White Water Rafting in the Gold Country- both appeal to me hugely; I would pay to do both if I had the choice! But hey, I bet these sort of difficult choices will come as standard whilst I begin the MBA- “you can do everything- just not all at the same time…”

Is it time to invest in Paradise?

2005-07-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

Two nights in Zanzibar and I am not only refreshed, but buzzing with excitement for what plans I have in store for the future of me and this island.
First I will let you into what I call paradise (if you get bored skip the italics);

You wake up in basic yet luxurious bungalow overlooking the beach and beyond it an intense contrast of ocean colour from emerald and to dark blue. The beach is pristine with a few and local fishermen and dhow boat builders minding their own simple lives. After an inclusive breakfast at the restaurant/bar on the beach (room rates were $40 a night for Tanzanian resident), you catch the small engine boat which ferries tourists to Nungwi, the village about 2 miles down the beach, half hour boat ride further beyond, one heads to the famous Mnemba Atoll, which has the best diving/snorkelling in all of Zanzibar and the island’s only super luxurious resort which has graced the likes of Tom Cruise, Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie. However, today is not a day for snorkelling or star spotting. At Nungwi, we get off and meet some locals that I’ve known since I first discovered the northern tip of Zanzibar some 2 years ago, I ask the same questions; “How’s life in paradise? Are the tourist numbers up and how is business?”, the answer is always the same, “Everything is Fresh!” in literal translation to Swahili.
You walk past the many souvenir shops and Internet cafés (which I resisted!) and venture 2 minutes walk inland into Nungwi village, where things take a totally different tone and the contrast is immense. From a tourist paradise, you are plunged into the real Africa, a very basic village with rundown looking mud houses and shops selling only the most basic of products. We ventured into the village for two reasons, my friend was after more locals in order to scout out for plots of land that may be going cheap. And secondly, I am after insect repellent (on mum’s advice). Malaria is still a big killer in Africa, especially Tanzania, where people still struggle to afford the most basic protection against mosquito bites such as nets and insecticide, I’m after a bit of a luxury item, “spray on” repellent. Eventually, I find one for $7.
Meanwhile my friend is smiling with the news that there is huge potential for buying plots of lands for the office of his advertising business and then sets about shooting video footage without upsetting the locals. We soon return onto the tourist trail and head for the beach restaurants for a bite before heading to Chole bar, a bar designed to look like a dhow boat that has run aground on the beach, it just looks like something out of Robinson Crusoe. The bar has an “upstairs” where a group can chill, which resembles the mast and rigging area of the boat directly above the bar area. I talk one of the locals working there into plugging in my mp3 player into the music system then started to play my pre-made 3 hour “Chill out Mix” as we watched boats sail by, beautiful people sunbathing with a steady order of cocktails delivered. For lunch we order the catch of fish- Red Snapper and Kingfish in a light coconut sauce and continued to chill. The perfect way to spend the rest of the afternoon…

I’m so in love with the Nungwi & Kendwa area of Zanzibar, this is the 6th time I’ve revisited this area since I first arrived in 2003. Before then I had ignored the place as being too far off the beaten tourist trail to be worth looking at, most ordinary and unadventurous tourists would totally miss it, but some things are just worth any extra travel or hassle to get to.
After the rest of my trip, which can only be described as the most “chilled” ever, I can only reaffirm my intentions to make this a part of my life in the long term. Yes, I intend on buying a slice of paradise! Property is dirt-cheap for Tanzanians (expensive for foreigners, unless you can invest $200K in a business!), and small plots are supposedly abundant, so financially it should be a certainty, although of course I’ll need to do my due diligence first. My intentions go much further than just building a holiday home though, the plan is to develop a unique bed and breakfast that offers a more unique experience than anything else currently offered and to re-invest any profits into developing the local region. I would be buying a sustainable lifestyle paradise in a not for profit venture. I’m confident this will work for a variety of reasons:
• Tourism industry is booming and set to continue (numbers, doubling by 2010) whilst the perception of Africa in general as being a dangerous for tourist is vanishing. Hence, there is a projected long term source of tourist revenue and an opportunity to tap into source to sustain the venture.
• Young Zanzibarians seem to be the most friendly, trustworthy people I’ve ever met in Tanzania, which is very important so as I can employ them to manage the venture whilst I am away from Africa. I was amazed when I saw evidence of this when I was talking to a local shop keeper who explained to me how he was running deals with about 15 tourists from the west (mainly UK, US, Italy & Germany)- every so often, they would send him money (convenient as he is the only bank account holder in the area), and he would buy rice, beans, the all important mosquito protection for the people who need it (what an excellent way to donate to Africa- directly to region you are interested in). In return, the shopkeeper would arrange for the tourists to spend a few months teaching at the local schools, accommodation and other such favours, which brings me on to my next point…
• There is a huge trend in tourists in the west taking time off of their hectic and relatively less meaningful lives, by going to teach (or assist) abroad in community projects where they can make an impact, and I need not explain the evidence for this trend, for there are some of my friends who could be reading this that fit into that category and I know of plenty of others who would do the same thing. Not to mention the no. of requests I get from people at work in the UK and some friends in US to arrange some sort of “teaching or working holiday”. I myself, would love to do it!

So in the same manner, that some people are providing a visit under the knife (surgery or other operations) combined with a holiday, so that one returns back with a new face, kidney or tummy tuck, this venture would provide people the opportunity to visit paradise yet returning home having taught children or helped to build a school and hence, made a difference. All tourist revenue goes toward sustaining the local region.
What’s in it for me? Apart from the fulfilment of making a difference and investing my money in Africa early, my service would be to set up the venture (I’d then get a trusty local someone to manage the place), and of course I would request a room or two be kept free for me to return with friends for a two week break during my busy 9-5 western job (it would save me hotel money!), and eventually on a more permanent basis when I reach or near retirement. It’s lifestyle investment which would hopefully generate some high impact charity work that use the tourists themselves- The idea itself is not new and I know an American couple, for instance, who have set up orphanage using the same model, what keeps them going, is their love of children. My love of the area and the fact that I’ve returned here 6 times (7 next Friday for the full moon party), is enough to keep me motivated for life. So next weekend, I’m going to be asking the serious questions to assess the feasibility of this idea.

I'm off to Paradise...

2005-07-13T03:02:00.000-07:00

I am off to Zanzibar (a.k.a Spice Island) for 2 nights to relax after an eventful morning at the stock exchange. The island has an exotic history not to mention just being a dreamy paradise.
Little did I know, Laura bush- US first lady, will be in Tanzania from this afternoon as part of her Africa tour to highlight the role of women and fighting Aids. She is apparently going to be visiting Zanzibar tomorrow as well.

I'll be staying at the northern tip of Zanzibar, Nungwi- Kendwa area- the beaches are out of this world and the atmosphere so laid back, it's horizontal! No matter what anyone says- I deserve this and I consider this my treat for getting into Stanford (and for lots of work to come!). I've been so looking forward to returning to my favourite spot to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the modern world.
Some photos can be seen on my links section (or just click here) from last years' charity expedition- then, it was a treat for a successful climb up Kilimanjaro.
My friend will also be shooting some video footage for a commercial his advertising business is producing for the local TV station which should provide some amusement. But I intend on just chilling, reading and having a few cocktails in the sunset. This is certaintly not my only trip, I expect to return atleast once more for the full moon party at the end of the month.

How cute...

2005-07-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Had my first morning at the stockbrokers today. My first impressions- what a quiet and cute little place. I had perceived lots of action, people buying and selling inflamed with the usual enthusiasm of Tanzanian salesmen; instead, it was actually the exchanges' day off. Trading days are Tuesday to Thursdays- I have to remind myself that this is a stock exchange of a poor developing country, not or anywhere near the NYSE or FTSE! The brokers are in the same building as the exchange so it’s just one flight of stairs up and you are there. The brokers were actually fairly busy with the unit trust sale, however, I was able to spend time just touring the place and talking to the managing director of the brokerage firm. There was certainly plenty of reading material to go through and discuss with the brokers. I’m now starting to get familiar with the history of the capital markets, the various structural reforms of the financial markets going etc... and the particular challenges that lie ahead. Rather than divulge what I’ve learnt today, I’ll wait a few weeks so I can summarise in more depth. Importantly, I’m confident that my experience will provide me with, at least, the financial accounting and economics preparation that the Stanford MBA require- I should get to beef up my excel skills too, although I do need to take that “MBA excel skills assessor” pretty soon.
I’m returning on Wednesday for a new bond issue and listing on the market, which should be livelier than things were today.

Leadership Development Platform- I want to develop and learn to use EQ…

2005-07-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

I signed up to the leadership development platform, which is meant to kick off quite towards the end of first quarter. I never heard of this program whilst doing my research for the Stanford MBA, so I was a bit mystified of what exactly it entails. Since those wanting to sign up for the limited space on the program have to submit a qualifying statement addressing some leadership questions, I thought I best get moving (for once) given how much time I have off.
From a lot of the press out there regarding what can and can’t be taught in business schools, leadership is one of those things that certainly comes up time and time again- “MBA’s can’t be taught leadership skills that take experience to build up during a lifetime.” The program stresses experiential learning through bridge teams, labs with further support from faculty and coaches (coaches are 2nd year MBA students).
In preparing to write my qualification statement, I remembered my father’s stash of Harvard Business Review journals which I had browsed through in the past, one special issue on leadership in particularly that caught my attention, was an article on the concept of emotional intelligence (EQ)- the soft stuff of leadership which include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skill qualities that set apart the best leaders. Lots has been studied and written about EQ, and I’m somewhat fascinated yet sceptical of the concept, normally the best managers I have come across are, not surprisingly, ones who are just plainly, the nicest. But how far can you take EQ? Especially when there are tough decisions to be made? I made this one of the thrusts of my qualification statement. Anyway, with only 72 people able to make it on to the program that counts towards an organisational dynamics segment of the first year, I really hope I get on it as it sounds like a great opportunity to “experience” something that was not traditionally on a normal MBA program- I wonder what other business schools out there are doing something similar so early on the curriculum and can any other MBA bloggers out there comment?

No place is immune... Pray for London

2005-07-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

I am distressed by the events that took place in London yesterday. I cast myself back to 1998, I heard and felt an explosion from the very spot I wrote this blog post from. I suspected it was gas pipe explosion or something, little did I know that it was the US embassies (only a few miles away from me) under attack here in Tanzania & Kenya and what was the beginning of the war on terror. 7 years later it still goes on, the events remind us that no country is immune from terror attacks. My condolences go out to all those affected.

Some work experience organised- Capital Markets in Africa here I come…

2005-07-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Before I left England, I talked about getting some work experience during my break here in Tanzania, especially to fill the in the times when I get bored in all the beach and sun. Well, I’ve finally managed to secure some form of work in the capital markets sector. I arranged this by targeting the leading law firm in Tanzania, where my sister works. After a discussion with one of the lawyers, it was suggested I pursue my needs with the largest brokerage firm in Tanzania. Basically, I would be given the opportunity to “work shadow” and assist some of the brokers in their dealings at the Dar Es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE). I just have to show up on Monday to meet the managing director of the firm and away I go. I’m hoping to negotiate 2-3 days a week of unpaid work if possible for the next month. So I’m pretty excited not only because of the relevance the experience would bring in preparation for business school, showing my motivation and interest for financial sector internships and jobs, but also of the novelty of capital markets in Tanzania.
The Capital Markets and Securities Act was only passed within the last decade, and the DSE was only set up in 1998. To date no more that 10 companies are listed on the exchange- nothing compared to the western markets of course- but we have to start somewhere and a start has been made nevertheless. Most of the major companies listed are ones that have been recently privatised and in order to facilitate and increase wider share ownership among the Tanzanian community whilst developing a savings culture, a unit trust (or fund)- called the Umoja trust, has been just been set up by the government exclusively for Tanzanian citizens offering a 30% discount during a sale period between May until the end of July this year- each unit costs equivalent of $0.10, which a minimum investment of about $3 required on current exchange rates. So most of the citizens can afford to invest although I doubt the really low earners, those who earn less than a dollar a day, will invest due to their lack of education and hence ability to understand what the trust really means. Now if only I could put some of that locked up UK pension I accumulated over the last 2 years into the scheme- in any case, I hope this will prompt other comparatively wealthy earning Tanzanians abroad to put some of their savings back into the country. The scheme certainly has the potential curb capital flight problems by providing an easy way to invest back into the country.
So far, I’m impressed by the transparency of the scheme considering how mindful of corruption one needs to be in sub-Saharan countries, and indeed most people are scared that their money will disappear down the drain. I was also afraid that the fund managers would be taking excessively large fees, but it is not so, one of the main benefits of the trust is the advantage gained through risk aggregation/pooling to reduce what would be high transaction costs for ordinary Tanzanians. It remains to be seen how competent the fund managers are, on paper they seem okay, although how wrong can you go in choosing a diversified portfolio from 10 listed companies (a majority are solid privatised companies such as tobacco and breweries)? Apparently interest in the trust seems pretty large following a wide marketing campaign across the country and I have to laud the governments’ efforts on pragmatically introducing capitalism to benefit all Tanzanians, not just to the wealthy and foreigners. I just hope the companies will perform well- another signal that Tanzania is on the path to positive development and a reinforcement of my goal to certainly consider returning here and putting my MBA skills to use. Let’s just pray for a good result at the G8 meetings this week in debt cancellation and the flow of more aid to Africa, which would greatly benefit Tanzania and put us firmly on the road to development and economic prosperity.

International Pre-Enrollment Program (IPEP)

2005-07-04T02:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't even had a chance to relax for a weekend before I have to start organising my next move to California.
First off, my mum will be accompanying me and we are planning to spend 2 nights in San Francisco so that mum can chill, do some shopping and take in the sights (remember it's a long way for mum to come just to turn round after a couple of days). We will then head to Menlo Park, a few miles from Stanford, for another 2 nights, from there we will try and tour the university, do any final shopping before I move into Schwab Residential Centre on Sunday 28th August (if possible) before starting on the International pre-enrollment program (IPEP) the next day. Mum will then fly to philly to visit my sister before flying home afterwards.

I'm home and it's beautiful...

2005-07-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Home sweet home Tanzania! After what was a mammoth journey in the end, I left on Tuesday afternoon and got in on Friday morning. That is certainly the last time I attempt to go standby during the middle of the summer- but hey, I did get to see some family friends and parts of Zurich.
Weather is good, it's winter here so it about 70-80 F or 25-28 C.
Now I'm exciting about heading to Zanzibar for this festival this weekend- if I can. I'm afraid all the local hotels in stone town may be booked up. The flight over was absolutely full of tourists, and I'm sure a good portion of them will be heading to Zanzibar this weekend. The festival lasts a whole week so I can head for the climax next weekend if need be. Otherwise, I think it's time to just relax and soak in the chilled atmosphere as life here is going at a snails pace. This should be the last time I get such a long time off- and a appreciate proper summer holiday. Post MBA I will working myself to death. I'm a little cranky with my parents. Specifically, how little faith they have in the job market post MBA- they have already been pestering me whether I left QinetiQ, my previous employer, on good terms. However many times I try and explain to them that going back to QinetiQ would be a step backwards immediately post MBA they insist on "job security this...job security that". I'm like, "for god sakes please! This is not the same world you lived in when you had one job for life!", "Yes, I recognise there could be a recession. No I have not burnt my bridges with QinetiQ, and they would have me back!".
Anyway, I'm sure they mean it all in good faith. But some optimism on their part would be really appreciated.

It happened...

2005-06-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

NOTE TO SELF: Do not talk about the possible negative consequences of going on a standby flight on your blog, cause it may just happen...

Connecting flight to Tanzania was full- over booked by 21 paying passengers and 10 standby passengers (really bad odds!). Luckily some family friends are able to look after me here in Zurich until tomorrow when I wil fly back to London and connect to Tanzania with good old British Airways (full fare on business class- ouch!). So tired after spending hours in the airport, but relieved to be able to explore parts of the city of Zurich this afternoon. I did pick up some swiss cheese and chocolate. Arrival in Tanzania for Friday morning- long week, but I am in no rush... The prospect of 6-7 weeks in Tanzania is keeping me happy. Oh, the Zanzibar festival of the Dhow Countries is also on this weekend, if I can find the energy, I will head straight out to the island.

One thing that occured to me today whilst chatting to our swiss family friends is that I have not seen any of my relatives/immediate family since my acceptance to Stanford! It will be so nice to get home and get a good official family congrats in person...

Standby for a risk!

2005-06-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

After some packing and sorting out loose ends, I’m ready for the next phase of my journey- flying back home to Tanzania. Flying with a difference, I’m going on Standby! In simple terms, flying on a standby ticket means turning up at the airport and praying that there’s a spare seat due to no shows and hopping on board if there happens to be one. This privilege is a result of my mum’s 25 years service with an airline, and I’m taking this opportunity to minimise moving costs- bearing in mind that I’ve got a return journey via the UK then on to California on normal full fare. Flying standby is fine off season, as there are always some empty seats. But approaching the middle of summer things can get hairy and I rely on my mother’s good judgement and sheer luck in taking this risk. Many times have I watched the long queue of passengers boarding, wondering how full the plane is getting, and it always looks like there’s never any room from the gate entrance. So what are the consequences? Well, I’d get stranded on Zurich airport for 2 days before the next connecting flight (a dull place with tempting expensive designer labels and Swiss chocolates for company). Then if I survive the wait and have not rescued myself by paying a full fare on another flight, there's the prospect of trying the weekend standby flight on Friday, a situation potentially worse, missing that one means a thrilling weekend wait till Monday. The stats are on my side- In my days flying standby over the last 11 years, I’ve only ever been bumped off at Zurich once when I was about 14 travelling back with my two elder sisters (it’s harder to get three spare seats then just the one as a lone traveller), and twice from the Tanzania end.
I rang the airline this morning and they said that there might be a chance of being bumped off in Nairobi (a stopover near Tanzania)-which is quite odd. Doesn’t matter if I do, since a night in Nairobi would actually be alright, I can take a day bus to Dar es Salaam and get views of my favourite geographical feature- the rift valley and of course, mighty Kilimanjaro. Haven’t been out in Kenya for over 10 years since the days I went to Primary/elementary School there, so it would be interesting to see how the country has developed- not saying I'd prefer being bumped off at Nairobi, it would just make an interesting journey.
This is also my last standby ticket under current arrangements- in August, I turn 24 and cease to be “son of employee/staff” and loose the standby privilege. But it has been good and I greatly appreciate the privilege, although it carries risks, the benefits in cost savings justify them- as a bonus those many nervous moments has made me pretty calm at airports these days. Thanks mum! Africa, I’m coming home…

Something for those entering the MBA application process..

2005-06-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

There is loads of advice out there about how to select your MBA program and get into b-scool. Without repeating anything and assuming applicants want a practical view on the process, I’m deliberately going to focus on how I ended up at my 1st choice school. I’m hoping that people reading this will be able to relate to my circumstances and find this useful in their experience through the MBA application process.

Need

This may sound like an obvious step for anyone who has already made this choice, I’m not insulting prospective applicants intelligence here, but it is really important to articulate why an MBA is necessary. People attend MBA programs for a variety of reasons along the lines of career advancement and making a difference in the world. What's your specific story?

My Circumstance:
At this point I was 21 years old, been in the aerospace industry barely a year and I came realise I did not want to be a straight engineer all my life.
I wanted to travel the world, develop wider skills, do more with my life and earn enough cash to fulfil my goals.
Particularly, I realised I wanted to return to my home country of Tanzania in the long-term by my 30th b-day and start a business. In between earning my graduate degree and returning to Tanzania, I wanted gain more work experience in the western world- say in strategy consulting with a tech focus.
I began exploring multi-disciplinary programs with engineering/ tech stance and came to a conclusion that an MBA with a tech focus and strong on general management/entrepreneurship would fit my needs, but made the decision to give myself a year to create a shortlist of top schools to apply to and to make myself a competitive applicant.
The MBA application requires long term planning (a year)- I knew that applying to the top schools would be tough and I needed to make myself stand out from other applicants by doing something amazing yet unique. I realised I lacked real leadership experience, I ruled out any experiences from university since most applicants would have an edge on me (to be honest, I concentrated on partying and academics during undergrad). So I decided to pursue an activity (or project) to last me a year,- I settled on my passion for climbing Kilimanjaro, this time on a larger scale and for a worthwhile cause. So I joined a charity that meant a lot to me (The Britain Tanzania society is a charity that I stand for and greatly believe in their work) and decided set about organising a large fundraising expedition for the following summer. It would be risky, but succeed or fail, I would have some concrete and recent leadership experience and most of all- I would have fun and make a difference in the process!

School Search

Begin the school search early and spend considerable time on research. Focus on identifying the schools that fit your needs. If brand and ranking matter to you, then they matter- no point getting beat up over it on business week b-school posts with other people. Rankings based on different criteria (focus, salary, faculty etc..) help you make a decision, use them for this purpose only. Don't forget to factor in things like quality of life costs and location near to target industry after graduation.

My Circumstance:
After about 2 months I settled on 3 top schools- Stanford, Harvard and Wharton. ALL satisfied my needs in some way (some more than others). In order at the time:
Stanford- has strong tech courses, a great engineering school that works closely with the business school and the location is hard to beat.
Wharton- Opportunity to do a dual degree with masters in engineering. Additionally, I’d be close to sister who lives not far from Philly.
Harvard- Big brand name, strong on general management with some opportunity in the second year to cross register at MIT for some tech courses.

I’d ruled out UK MBA programs based on 2 key reasons:
i) I’d been in the UK for 10 years, and was itching to study somewhere else, I was also single which made the decision to travel afar much easier.
ii) There are only 2 schools in the top 10 outside the US, one was in the UK (already ruled out UK) and the other, INSEAD, did not interest me in the slightest.

Concentrate your resources where it matters!

Apparently you need great GMAT scores, great leadership potential and outstanding grades to apply to b-school? Only true to some extent- Focus on what really matters and where you can stand out from the crowd. Essays are key- Spend more on this than anything else.

My Circumstance:
With the time available and my history, there was no way I going to be the model applicant that is portrayed out there in the books & press. For me, my undergrad grades were average from a top UK engineering school. I decided to focus on my leadership experience over slaving away on the GMAT. I took a major risk here, but I had an inkling that the top schools I selected would value leadership over solid GMAT scores. Additionally, the expedition took up about 10-15 hours a week for 8 months, a lot of weekend time training, and a solid 2 weeks out in Africa in the summer before applying. There are only so many hours in the day, GMAT would have to lose out (this ignorance/oversight would later cost me...)

Application strategy- FOCUS!!!

Use what you’ve got and throw it at the right schools. Don’t apply to schools that you are not a good fit and have any doubt about (GMAT scores, grades, experience, recommendation etc…). Validate your assumptions or hunches by further research and attending info sessions.

My Circumstance
GMAT: I took the GMAT and scored poorly the first time round, I mean very poorly! I would be insulting the top schools if I applied. I could not ignore the importance of the GMAT. I decided to retake and apply in round two. This was painful since I had a ton of work at the time and it would mean sacrificing my x-mas time off to work on applications. My second GMAT score was average, not outstanding.

ESSAY: Luckily for me, the expedition turned out to be a great success. That gamble had paid off, I found writing my essays easier due to sheer enjoyment of documenting this leadership experience- I still took a lot of time to capture what leadership lessons I had learnt and further refined my essays over a period of about 2 months.

Recommendations: I made sure my recommenders would provide a balanced view of my personality whilst meeting the requirements for the school. One would provide a good perspective on my analytical skills as an engineer, the other two on my leadership and other attributes (one recommender had been with me on the expedition).

Info sessions: At this point I decided to rule out Wharton- I never made it to their info session and I was having doubts about how the program would fulfil my tech needs. Additionally, at this point I had fallen for Stanford’s program after thorough research lasting a year and when I finally attended their information session in London- everything I wanted from the MBA course was validated and with the sort of information that you could not get from books- FIT. What does fit mean? Well, I knew Stanford was for me and that Stanford would value me.
From then on I wanted to get into Stanford even if it meant a rejection and applying the following year. I was not going to waste what little money I had on schools that I did not have such a passion for. I did not even know why I even applied to Harvard- I guess the lure of the brand name was hard to beat. I did not enjoy their information session as much as Stanford’s- I found Harvard’s alumni arrogant and too hard working. I only got 1-2 mins chat with Brit Dewey, the admission director, compared with 30 mins with a Stanford alumni. In a word, my tangible one to one experience with Stanford & Harvard was what tipped the balance- I spent loads of time and effort on my Stanford application, less on my Harvard one, Wharton was out of the window.

Interview:

Be yourself, relax and reflect on why you applied to the school.

My Circumstance:
Only had the one interview with Stanford. Since I had focused so much on the one school, I knew a lot about the program. Also, at this point, I had just started reading MBA blogs and got some good advice from BritChickMBA on her Stanford interview experience. I also used a handy website with a database of frequently asked interview questions for Stanford and indeed other schools.

The rest is history (oh and stay calm if you can without visiting businessweek posts too often, it makes the wait unbearable!)… I hope this helps any prospective applicants. I believe the key factors are:

· UNIQUENESS- Make sure you stand out from the crowd by having unique experiences. It may be an extremely high GMAT score, in most cases it's leadership experiences and being able to convey them in the form of compelling essays that really counts.
· RESEARCH- Initially use the literature out there (I used Businessweek week for a comprehensive view on top 30 programs and later MBA Admission edge) to focus on top 10). Additionally, visit the websites to study the courses, faculty and research centres and follow applicant & student blogs. Basically, research the the ins and outs of each school and validate through info sessions or school visits- eliminate those that don’t make the cut.
· FOCUS, ADAPT & BELIEVE, - You have limited time, energy and for some, money- focus on what counts for the school you’re applying and be prepared for setbacks- GMAT etc... Most important, you must believe. The journey is long, but you must believe you can do it, read lots of blogs for encouragement and to examine the realities of the process and don't get disheartened by some of those negative business week posts, especially the ones that focus exclusively on the score, yes GMAT score- it's only one aspect of the application, it's the whole package that counts.

Good luck!!!

The end of another phase…

2005-06-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

So I had my last day today at QinetiQ, the employer of my first full time job. From businessweek posts, I’m surprised at how many people seem to be so anxiously, yet understandably, wanting to leave work. On the other hand, I’ve had such a great 2 and half years at the organisation that I felt strangely sad when I got into work today- started to realise how nice the people at work are and how much I’m going to miss them. Walking through those big gates for the last time as the weather was turning thundery- it felt a bit of subdued at first as I went about my checklist throughout the morning. Sent out my final e-mail with my contact details to all the UK lot. Turned up at the pub for farewell lunch to see some key colleagues, by this point the weather had cleared a bit and was still pretty hot and muggy- we headed to the beer garden of course.
Then the leaving ceremony, one of the senior managers gave a impromptu speech that made me laugh, it just so happened that he was my first landlord when I arrived in the area for the job, so I could relate to his anecdotes of my beginnings- all innocent just out of uni. Then my short and sharp speech- I explained how much fun I had had and made the key point of how I was going to miss the laid back culture and extremely nice people within the organisation- and of course, had to mention my clear motivation for the MBA. Then came the fun part, the presents:
· I got some Amazon certificates to set me on some more books- Although I’m now debating whether I should really buy some novel to read on the beach in Tanzania over the summer rather than another management book, after all I’ll have two years to be read up on that stuff.
· An inflatable globe (was asked not to try and stick pins in it…)
· Then I got something really usefull- American English/ English American glossary. Yes, to ease the culture change in subtle differences in language, this book is a definite must. Is mince meat really known as "hamburger meat" in the US!!? You make hamburgers from mince meat, but I find it hard to believe that Americans refer to mince universally as "hamburger meat"! Someone correct me here please... Catapult- Slingshot is another one- to me these are two different things, Bart Simpson uses a catapult, David slays Goliath with a slingshot- barely interchangeable. Sorry I digress...

So after the presents and a few more pints I was set. Handed in my IBM ThinkPad laptop (I have to say at this point, having been through Dell and IBM laptops, I will certainly be sticking to IBM, they are just so much more robust). After clearing my desk, that was that- the end of another phase in my life, now student days are back! But first, packing this weekend, the occasional pint, then 7 weeks home sweet home in Tanzania, the second part of my complex move to California. Flying out on Wednesday. It’s all happening so quickly. EXCITING TIMES TO COME!!

Happy summer solstice

2005-06-21T13:07:00.000-07:00

Had my exit interview today with my employer... In 3 days time I will be unemployed- how scary...! More interesting, I was up at 3am this morning for the summer solstice celebration at Stonehenge- a beautiful sunrise and worth getting up early for to see some celebrating pagans, druids, hippies etc… I really do need to focus on packing my stuff now and stop partying, but I hope you’d agree, this was a unique event- I got to touch the ancient stones!

Summer Solstice Sunrise at Stonehenge, England.

Presentation and a half...

2005-06-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

My long awaited presentation on Friday to my charity went off well. The presentation was all about last years' Kilimanjaro Expedition, which raised funds to construct science laboratories for a community school in rural Tanzania. After preparing a mammoth 60 slides PowerPoint slide presentation over the last week, I felt ever more confident and relaxed, two years ago I would have melted at the thought of giving any sort of presentation. I fine tuned the slides on my way into London on the train, and arrived at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) campus 5 minutes before start. The audience was as expected, a mixture of students mainly dominated by ex-colonial Britain Tanzania Society members- however I did not expect a journalist with a TV camera from a random channel, BENTelevistion, to show up- Apparently it broadcasts to 70 million Africans across the globe!!! I quickly became nervous, but then calmed down. I ran through the presentation without a hitch in 40 minutes and was relieved that my presentation skills were still on form- In fact it was certainly my best presentation yet, you can only improve when making presentations I find. Mostly the audience were impressed that I did not concentrate too much on the intricacies of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro by giving them a dad by day account of climb, rather, I focused on the leadership and social entrepreneurship aspects of the whole project from start to finish over the 1-2 years and the difficulties of managing the expectations, culture shock and safety of 24 people on a mountain. I ended with brief interview with the TV journalist, in which I opted to do in the language of Swahili and had some quick discussions with some of the other charity members, before finally having a chance to say hi and bye to some of my friends who kindly attended. Afterwards, we headed for a goodbye meal at a cosy Italian restaurant with the other charity members and their extended families, which was nice. Over the dinner, I was embarrassed at how little Swahili I actually knew, this girl proceeded to tell me about the Swahili translations of new words such as "internet" and "website", apparently the language is quickly catching up and replacing the English words used for these modern concepts. A lot still to learn, despite my frequent trips home. So I said bye to the charity members and promised to return post MBA to further contribute my skills to the already excellent work the charity does helping to relieve poverty in Tanzania.
Of course, no London night is complete without joining my school and university friends at some bar on the King's road in Chelsea. Saturday morning, despite the scorching hot weather, I gave my time to help Alex on his Jazz agency website- specifically teaching him to maintain it by himself- although I’ll still deal with complex stuff (that I’m still learning!). I returned back to the English countryside by 6pm to enjoy a cool British summer evening. Good weather further forecasted in my last week in the UK. Looking forward to Summer Solstice celebration at Stonehenge on Monday/Tuesday, longest day of the year - a 20-30 minutes walk from work just after the sunrise. Should be yet another opportunity for a perfect party before departing good old England and back into Africa.

Could this be my last business trip in the aerospace/aviation industry?

2005-06-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today was my last client site visit as part of my current job. It is really winding down now. Next week I have 2 major project close/review meetings and I will have transferred all responsibility on my projects. I'm now reflecting on 2 and a half years of this interesting industry. Although there's a lot I dislike about it, the amount of politics, the huge product life-cycle spans (a typical commercial aircraft may take between 4-8 years to develop at a cost several billion dollars- even longer and more costly for military aircraft!), there's still some glamour, after all this is an outstanding example of european engineering and innovation... So I took a long hard look last at the concorde parked at the Airbus, Filton site.

But here's a better shot, the last flight- flying over Bristol and clifton suspension bridge- my undergrad university town.

Concorde over Bristol

I plan not to do more than just lounge around in the sun when I return to Tanzania...

2005-06-13T04:25:00.000-07:00

With less than 2 weeks to go until I leave my current employer, work has been decreasing and I've been making preparations to return to my home country. To many, being in Tanzania by the coast, only a stones throw away from the paradisal island of Zanzibar for 7 weeks before starting b-school would be an almost ideal retreat. But there's only so much rest one can have before boredom kicks in. The passport renewal and visa process should keep me busy to begin with but after that things could get dull. So I've decided to pursue some part-time jobs or work shadowing in the time I'm there. 3 top candidates include:

1. Umojaa Fund (Unit Trust of Tanzania) & Capital Markets:: Tanzania used be a deeply socialist country and in the late 1980s we became a democracy, the process of privatisation of many industries began in the 1990s and has been recently accelerating. Industries as diverse as telecomms, tabacco, power utilities and distilleries have been privatised with a lot more to come. It would be a valuable experience in learning about the capital investment market in Tanzania even for only a few weeks. The fund will enable ordinary poor to middle class citizens for the first time to be able to own shares in the country's key industries. Each unit will go for an initial cost of 100 shillings, that equates to 10 cents US! Sale ends on 29th July- before you take out your wallet- I should let you know it's only open to Tanzanian nationals.

2. Vodacom:: A giant mobile/cellular network that operates across Africa. My engineering degree was focused on communications technologies, particularly cellular, so I've always had an interest in this area. In addition, I'm keen to find out how this giant makes a profit in a poor developing world country, yet provides such affordable deals for a market where the average GDP per head is $300.

3. TANconsult: Family engineering consulting business. It won't be too exciting, but I might as well lend my ideas and manpower and start showing my worth with respect to the contribution my father is making to my MBA education. And who knows, one day it could be me making some of the company decisions.

Oh, and I almost forgot, although not strictly related, I've been enhancing my web skills by helping my friend's recently launched music agency site, TheLiveLink. The world of jazz, watch out!

MBA funding for 1st year sorted- African style...

2005-06-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

I recieved my financial award letter last week and was pleasantly suprised at how high it was. It was almost $23k! At first I thought it must have been a mistake since Stanford state that typically, financial aid is between 15-25%, mine was more like 33%. After some discussion with family, it was decided that I accept a slightly lower loan than proposed by the financial aid office, with parents offsetting this with a larger contribution. In this process I felt there was too much discussion with family- yes, I know, MBA financing is a serious matter and I should be lucky that my parents have and are still willing to contribute to my education, but I felt so out of control- after all, it's my MBA, I got in and not them, so I should have more say into this matter. The big issue that I still find hard to deal with is African cultural values of family participating in ALL decisions vs the western, independent & responsible minded values I have grown up with. When these clash, I get very frustrated- I'm only free enough to make my own decisions and life plans up to a certain extent before family step in. I suppose I should be grateful such a supportive and caring family, which I am, but I'm just wondering when I'll be fully independent and responsible to carry out actions for my life without family interference.
So the $67k budget will be funded roughly evenly across the three sources- fellowship, loan and gift from parents. Next is visa stuff, just to instruct that the I-20 forms be sent to Tanzania to await my arrival in 2 weeks time. Did I mention that I have to renew my passport before starting on the visa process as well? I have 7 weeks from then...

The four phase moving plan to Stanford has begun...

2005-06-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted after the first of four phases of my moving plan which spans 3 continents- life's tough for international students.

1. Move from rented flat to my friend's house temporarily for 2 weeks until last day of work and departure. Will split possesions, amassed over 11 years in the UK into two halves.

2. Depart for Tanzania with one half of my stuff that I don't need for b-school. Leave the other half (b-school stuff )in storage at my friends in UK for recollection in mid August.

3. Following 8 weeks in Tanzania, in which I'll be renewing my passport and sorting US student visa (easier to sort in home country) plus having a break, saying farewell to family and friends, I'll then depart for California, flying via UK.

4. Spend 2 days in UK collecting stored b-school belongings from friend's place and sending them on to California using an excess baggage moving service, they deliver door to door for small charge, so straight onto Schwab. Say final goodbye's to UK friends and make the final connection to California to arrive in late August...

Fire at my school makes the news...

2005-06-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to the news on TV that there had been a fire at my old school, Marlborough. After an initial panic speculating about how serious the fire could be, I was relieved to hear it was not as I'd feared- the fire occured at the boarding house well away from the main buildings and there were no serious injuries or casualties.

BBC news article had to mention the fact that a member of the royal family currently there was well.

Can't believe I only left that school 6 years ago. Need to find time to visit before I leave England, the experience there over 5 years is a big part of me and it forged my life here in the UK.

Sony’s my winner- I’ve rejected the i-POD as my personal music companion

2005-06-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been making a very important decision- what MP3 player to buy to accompany me on my travels and eventually through b-school. I reckon these devices have become like mobile phones, a fashion item- further complicating consumer choice these days.
I used to be a huge fan of minidiscs with their fancy ATRAC audio compression technology, having stuck with them for almost 10 years as my portable music format of choice. I resisted the temptation through the early phase of switching to MP3 players simply due to the fact that the cost for a unit music space was still far lower on minidiscs than for MP3 players (use of memory cards etc…). Then hard disk MP3 players arrived, and it all changed, with the now ubiquitous i-POD as the must have “cool” gadget. I was very tempted and I almost made the switch. When now forced to make the choice with prices of all players similar, I decided to do more research to get a balanced view, I first checked out i-river and other manufacturers of 20GB MP3 players, they differentiated themselves with a host of features including easy drag and drop features- but to be honest most of them still look ugly & clumsy- not cool enough for b-school. Just when I thought I had abandoned Sony’s offerings, they started releasing their “network walkman” (NW) series, and despite their un-original name and given the fact that they only played Sony’s proprietary ATRAC3 format it was not really an i-POD challenger. But the over the last year, the MP3 player war has been intensifying, and now Sony have released the NW-HD5, their latest instalment which plays MP3s, WMAs, WAVs and ATRAC. It is THE i-POD killer- yes, it looks good, very small, offers clever g-shock protection and to top it off, it is capable of 40 hours battery life! I was almost sold.
There was one thing I was not happy about. Why have Sony insisted so much on pushing their ATRAC3 audio compression technology from minidisc onto hard-disk players? I knew ATRAC compression was better than WMA & MP3, but who cares? Most digital music is in MP3 and they occupy roughly the same space… I was wrong about the last part. As a closet audiophile, I decided to investigate and compare- To my horror, tests claim that ATRAC3plus (now used in the NW-HD5) is significantly better than MP3, especially at the standard 128kps quality; independent tests have measured ATRAC3plus fidelity at 64kbps and found its audio quality equivalent to 128kbps MP3! What does that mean? It does not take a genius to work out that you can fit twice the music for the equivalent quality on the Sony NW-players that the iPOD. My mind is made up- And which colour? A Stanford red of course!

MBA through Stanford GSB

FINAL POST ON STANFORD GSB. Best & not so good of the GSB- Mbwana perspective

The end is coming

New venture watch...

Its not over till its over...

The UK trip... back in Silicon Valley- perspective forever changed.

Final class is looking like the allstar finale...

The Business of Space- reflecting on independent projects

Parties abound, GSB show is coming... the update.

A post for aspiring young MBAs

The case for off-grid power in Tanzania

India & startups...Never a better time?

What kind of company makes me excited?

C4C is on… International student apathy.

CEOs make excellent Business School Professors…

HAVING GOOGLE ACCOUNT ISSUES

Stanford Cool Products Expo is on! ***100th Post***- commitment to accelerate blogging to 200!

Visa woes continue...

Can't get enough of San Francisco

Winter Quarter in Summary...

The web has come a long way...

Game over, Microsoft here I come...

Meanwhile, back on the other side of the world...

Hard to scale when trust and competence is lacking...

Homeward bound...

It saddens me- probably the toughest management challenge...

Recruiters, please don't do this... How NOT to recruit MBAs

Thanksgiving- catching up with entreprenuers...

Thanksgiving- catching up with entreprenuers...

Half-time...

Interviews and conferences....

The GSB... It's just awesome (and draining...)

Back in Palo Alto, California…

End of internship is nigh…

An interesting story (and WHY I BLOG!)

Meaningful Data coming alive...

2nd Year is coming...

Being a young MBA (from Stanford)

Kiswahili Speakers in the USA???

First Year Evaluation

Growing up American?

The internship

Thoughts on New Curriculum

The best Internship deal ever…?

Day One at Micorosft- Bill Gates' house...

Sleepless in Seattle

Coming to you from the nation's capital...

Update needed....

Progessing...GMIX is getting there!

Interviews kick off but wait a minute....

Must stay calm for the Ultramarathon of interviews

Ramping up…

Consulting Career prospects strong in 2006...

Power up outlook and add that special course

New Year, new challenges...

New Era for Tanzania

Quarter in review- academics. Grade non-disclosure is good

From one mode to the next…

I'm the middle of finals-- there's my excuse

End of manic week- rest required!

Time to check in...

I'm managing...

End of the party...?

Weekend starts early...to Santa Cruz.

Getting ready to make the next two years count

Bookworm has found his lair!

Cardinal Cards complete

Completed my first week here

International Enrollment kicks off...

I'm totally shattered, completely overwhelmed...

The last few miles...

5,000 miles or so to go... Goodbye Britain

Last blog from Bongoland- 10,000 miles to go...

Not on the pre-pre term preparation checklist but...

All clear for go

Final red tape hurdle in sight...

Career focus

Safer Airport Runways...

Digital Divide in Tanzania (or not)?

Postcard from Zanzibar- on the trail alone...

Stanford Cool Products Expo is on! 100th Post- commitment to accelerate blogging to 200!