Conniving INSEAD bloggers

This is a bit bizarre to have to say, but if anyone has received an email supposedly from the author of this blog....let me set the record straight...it wasn’t me.

Guess someone dreamt up this misconceived tactic to shut me up or punish me for the last post…

Sex & the MBA

In the interest of preparing for my marketing and strategy classes which begin on Monday, I've decided to implement the oldest marketing trick in the book. Let's see if sex sells in the blogoshpere as well it does elsewhere...thank god I still have my anonymity :)

The underdog
How is a guy supposed to get laid in the MBA? It feel likes mission impossible, given the gender mix at INSEAD, there about 3 guys chasing each girl. On top of this, you have "the heros" who go out and get more than their fair share leaving the average guy fighting it out for the scaps.

The overpriced asset
I already miss Econ god, Nikos Vettas. How would he diagnose this predicament. Well given my top marks on his quizzes, I will speak on his behalf. The INSEAD market for tail is behaving like a closed economy. In a free market, there exists a market clearing price of X representing the value a guy must bring to the table in order to walk away successful. This could be looks, personality, power, yes....money, etc. However in INSEAD's closed economy, where supply is restricted by about 66%....there is a shift in the supply curve which forces prices WELL above the efficient market price. Right, but what does that mean for everyone who hasn't had Prices & Markets....well it means that MBA chicks can expect more than they would in the open markets of say NY or London.

The bright side
(1)top quality girls: The girls at INSEAD are amazing. Most are super bright and ambitious, 5% are super beautiful, an additional 20-40% could be considered pretty by various standards, the rest are...well, smart at least:)

(2)relatively weak competition: if you're a guy of average looks on the outside...you are probably above average at INSEAD....

(3)adjusted gender split: after adjusting for seriously committed people (a category to which I belong), I think the odds become relatively better for single guys. There seems to be a much higher percentage of committed guys in the program than there are committed girls.

(4)alcohol...ok, we all know that relationships start or progress thanks to alcohol. At INSEAD and I guess all MBAs, rarely is there a night here where you can't find some sort of social event. And never is there a social event without plenty of wine or other booze. Of course this can be a good or bad thing...I've seen some super sloppy hook ups on dance floors and outside of parties this year that shouldn't have seen like a good idea under any condition.

(5)biological clocks...the single girls are LOOKING FOR A PARTNER, some have this as an explicit objective for the year...wonder if that made it into any of their application essays

The heros
There are some guys here who know how to clean up in the given marketplace. They are able to win more than their fare share and are nimble enough to elude any relationship trap that gets laid out for them. One strategy I've seen very successfully played is "the bad boy". I'm amazed how many girls this guy has drooling over him, some of them are pretty top notch. It's not that he is a great looking guy but I guess he does have a blue ocean strategy in that not too many others are playing the bad boy persona.

The fling
They happen A LOT! They happen more than any of us really know, because in general, they are pretty discrete. What I do know, however, is that of my single roomates who have had some sort of fling, I doubt many other people in the class know.

The relationship
Often elusive for those looking for it. I think as we get closer to P5, the flings will die out and be gradually replaced by these relationships. There are, however, serious couples that have developed already. One couple I know started up by the end of the first week of class and are already moving in together starting P3. I spoke to a couple on campus for a 10yr reunion...apparently there were 10 couples married from their class. I think the same will happen in our class and all others. As I mentioned before...this is an explicit goal of probably most of our single classmates.

Virtual sex
Some of those with long distance partners need to find ways to be creative. I've heard the words porno-skype used.

MBA (Married But Available?)
Yes, a lot of relationships fail in the MBA. There is A LOT that one side of the relationship is going through and it is not easy to relate this to the partner. There is the jealousy from the partner who is maybe working in a distant place and possibly feeling marginalized by the intense work and social schedule of the participant. However, for me and others who are very certain about their relationship, I think the risks are overblown. There are many "committed" people who have come into the program and were clearly looking for better. I have definitely seen it...from those dating and those married. There is more than one example of students with partners far away where the phrase "out of sight, out of mind" seems applicable.

One incredible story that I've heard about was the partner of an INSEAD student. Apparently she accompanied the student to campus and had the reputation for having A LOT of fun outside of her relationship...with other students & partners... Sounds over the top, but with so many people mentioning it, could it be true??

Blogger sex
Two of my fellow July 08 bloggers seem to be spending A LOT of time together...and have been from week 1. Seems that they hit it off so well in blogland before meeting in person...could blogging be the next big way to find dates??? Hmmm...could be the first INSEAD blogger couple ever!

Who cares about MBA exams

My first ever MBA final will held tomorrow morning followed shortly thereafter by a second in the afternoon. Tuesday looks the same and then by noon on Wednesday, we will be celebrating the end of P1 (or wondering where the hell it went).

But why, I wonder, is there so much anxiety about these final exams.

Did I pay 50,000EUR to stress out once every 2 months and try to cram cram cram....NO. Sure I want to learn, but anything I wasn't capable of absorbing in the past 2 months probably won't stick if I try to jam in in my head with 500 other concepts in a 72 cram session.

Is there a chance that any of us will walk away without a diploma...Ha! are you kidding. I stopped worrying about that after I passed my 3rd language requirment with a score of 50/100 where pass requirement was...well 50/100.

Don't I want to work my ass of to make dean's list...not a chance, and the day someone comes to my office looking for a job and claims that being on the dean's list makes them a good candidate....see ya...it's laughable that the likes of McK & some big banks can drive students to strive for the DL. Smart of them, now it they want to know who will be willing to sacrifice all aspects of their personal life for an overrated job, they have a good proxy.

Why are all these consultants, who already have guaranteed jobs to go back to, interupting class to ask if X & Y will be tested on the exam, or if the professor can provide 20 more practice tests for them to do!?!?!? Is it just some irrational competitive drive. For me, it shows a lack of touch with reality. Even the professors repeatedly tell these people that the tests are not what's important, most think there shouldn't even be final exams in a masters program.

Results on the finals will be correlated to absolutely nothing that's important in life, so let's stop stressing people.

Singapore Campus

Dean Fatas met will all P1s this week to discuss 2 things, the grading system at INSEAD (z-curve) and logistics behind this years campus exchange.

I have planned all along to spend at least 1 period in Singapore this year. What the dean had to say threw a small wrench in that for me and most of my fellow students. The problem is that it is becoming VERY popular for July intakes to spend the Jan-Feb term in the beautiful climate of Singapore in lieu of the the cold dreary forest of Fontainebleau. Last year, the school accomodated every student who wanted to do this, meaning a very full Asian campus. While the school apparently has the capacity to handle this (professors are flown out to handle the demand), the Singapore short term Real Estate market could not. As a result, apparently the biggest complaint the dean recieved from the graduating class was that the Singapore process needed to be fixed.

The result:
This year there will be a cap of 230 people from my class allowed in Sinagpore at any time. First priorty will be those in Singapore already, second priority will be to those students committing to spend more than 1 period there. The remaining spots will be given away lottery style to all of us preferring to spend only P3 in Asia. Given that there are about 140 ppl there already, the Fonty intake has at least 90 slots available for P3. Unfortunatly, this will definilty fall short of demand. So....the tradional P3 holiday on the beaches of Asia is no longer a sure thing.

I am actually becoming more and more tempted spend 2 terms there. Working among the booming markets of Asia is looking very interesting compared to the stalling US market and the long time crippled European market. The key message from the INSEAD Asia campus career service this week: if you want to work in Asia, you better spend as much time on the Singapore campus as possible.

We have to make up our mind soon... we enter our preferences next week with the results soon to follow.

What have I learned?

When I started thinking about doing an MBA, a colleague with his MBA from Thunderbird told me that it would be a fun experience but I would learn nothing. Based on P1 classes, he is right...to an extent. From an analytical prospective, I have already had Stats, Accounting, Economics, & Finance courses much more comprehensive than what we are exposed to in the short 8 week modules at INSEAD. So I get to relax (relatively speaking) while those with "non-traditional" backgrounds like one of my roommates go into hysterics every now and then trying not to drown as we move at light speed from NPV formulas to DCF calculations to deriving the CAPM theory.

So why am I here? While I certainly do have plenty to learn from the courses themselves (looking to P3 when I can chose what I want to take) I have so many soft skills to be developing now and the MBA experience makes the perfect environment for this. First, our group of 5 setting is giving me A LOT of experience in trying to influence others and is now testing my ability to control my emotions (patience) on a daily basis. It's amazing how similar my brain works to that of the one consultant on the team....but the logic process used by some of the others can really boggle my mind. I started to lose my cool in a couple situations today...must get better at being 100% in control...we've now learned in LPG that good leaders have a high EQ which starts with knowing oneself and being able to completely control your emotions.

Also, I've been really working on improving my ability to plan. I am clearly a "P" for Perceiver on the Briggs Myers test. It is frustrating how difficult I find it to sit and structure out plans. In the last month, I have been able to take some steps towards building the planning skill. I have been able to plan and execute a couple large scale house dinners and also a few other social events. Going forward, I hope to use one of the INSEAD groups (such as the PE club) as a platform to plan something a bit larger.

One thing I must really push myself to improve on is networking. I made it out to the first career fair and chatted up a few of the HR reps. This of course was low value networking...these people grip and grin for a living and probably forget who you are seconds after you have thanked them for telling you about the great culture at company Z. I think the high value networking will come from the less frequented routes. E.g. professors, alumni, exec. program students, etc. I will make a first effort this weekend while attending the alumni reunion on campus. All students were invited to participate in a portion of the event, I'm guessing there won't be many of us actually there. As a side note, I've optimistically ordered myself 100 "business cards" through the bookstore, let's see how many of them I can get through by year end...I'll be very happy if it turns out I need to reorder!