Sunday, January 30, 2011

My first business case competition - Part 2

Thursday:
All the teams drove or flew down and checked in around 6pm. We were then taken to a nice reception dinner by Kelley volunteers where we got to interact with all the other teams. It was a delicious meal and a fun time was had by all, with everyone being friendly and forthcoming.
Note to self: Do not dress in a skirt when you have to walk 10 mins between hotel and restaurant in 3 degree weather.

Friday:
At 8am on Friday morning (that's 5am west coast time!) we were given the real-life case that we had to analyze. Here's the crux of it.

Sam owns three not-for-profit fair-trade stores in Indiana. His goods are the creations of artisans from developing countries like Bangladesh, Chile, Zambia, etc. He currently buys 95% of his goods from wholesalers who purchase the items directly from artisan co-ops. The wholesalers charge a 100% markup on the goods because they have to account for shipping, custom duties, inventory storage etc. Sam makes just 3-4% profit when he sells the goods from his store.

Sam is now thinking about getting up to 20% of his product base directly from artisan co-ops, in an effort to reduce his COGS (cost of goods sold) and build better relationships with the artisan community. Some of the questions he has are:
1. Will the savings in COGS cover the shipping and other costs that he would incur?
2. Since artisans have to be paid 50% of the price when the order is placed and 50% after delivery, how will this affect his cash flow?
3. Most of Sam's store sales happen in the holiday season from Oct-Dec. Buying directly from artisans means a lead-time of 6-7 months. Will he be able to place his orders that much in advance, and how will he store the inventory in the meantime?
4. How would his relationship with the wholesalers (who would still be providing 80% of the products) be affected if he went the direct route?

These were just some of the many considerations we had to keep in mind while coming up with a strategy for Sam. We were taken on a quick field-trip to one of the stores to get a feel for the products, and talk to the store manager and volunteers at the store.

We then had until midnight to brainstorm, conduct research, analyse the financials and put together our slides.Meals were provided but sadly there was no coffee after 9am! It was stressful and a lot of work for one day, and particularly hard without caffeine, but all the teams pulled through. I personally found the case very interesting so that helped. Slides were submitted by midnight, teams practiced their presentation for a while after that and it was around 2am when we went to sleep, ready to present at 8am the following day.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My first business case competition - Part 1

Earlier this month, I was asked by some 2nd year FEMBAs if I wanted to join their team for the Kelley Women's Business Case Invitational. It was a unique women-only event at Indiana University, aimed at encouraging more women towards business, specifically consulting. I jumped at the opportunity since I figured this would be a good way to find out if this is something that I'd be interested in pursuing in the future. (And also because I'll try anything once.)

What is a business case competition and how is it different from a business plan competition?

A business plan competition is one where teams come up with a proposal for a future business and compete to win funding for the proposed venture. On the other hand, in a case competition, teams are provided with details about an existing business and asked to come up with solutions for problems or strategies for growth, profitability, etc. Business plan winners will likely go on to become entrepreneurs, business case winners have the makings of successful management consultants.

A business case competition is typically a couple of weeks or more long because the case is sent to the teams those many weeks in advance. The teams would then analyse, research, put together a PowerPoint presentation by the due date, and then present their analysis on the final day. As you can imagine, full-time MBA students will have a vast advantage in this regard given the additional time and resources they can get their hands on in that much time.

The Kelley competition was different in that we were asked to check in on Thursday, handed the case on Friday morning, asked to submit our slides by midnight and present the case on Saturday morning. Since each team was equally time-constrained, I figured we were on even ground competing with the other teams who were all full-time MBA students.

In the interest of not boring you, I'll be writing down my experience in installments. How we fared and what I learned will be posted in Parts 2 and 3.

Indiana University
We left the 75 degree weather in SoCal and landed in 3 degree weather. This is how the university looked when we got there. Quite pretty, although this pic makes it look ominous..

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Hype Cycle

Despite working in the technology arena, I somehow never knew about the technology Hype Cycle until today. Or perhaps I had read about it in passing and never given it a second thought.

According to technology research firm Gartner, which coined the term, the hype cycle is a "graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities."



Their website explains the cycle in detail. Very interesting from a business perspective. It applies to upcoming wireless technologies like LTE and devices such as the iPad.

Tongue firmly in cheek, I think the chart can be slightly modified to represent other life situations as well. 
For instance,



Or, a more identifiable situation like the following. :P





Sunday, January 9, 2011

Advice from a 1/12th ripe FEMBA

I didn't do much research before I applied to the UCLA FEMBA program. It was only after I received the admit that I got in touch with a few seniors. Here are the top bits of advice I received from them and my views one quarter later.

The more you like your day job, the harder FEMBA will be.
Very true. I tried to balance my time between work and studies, but found myself giving work first priority on most occasions. I was told by seniors that I shouldn't expect to get straight As and be a stellar performer at work over the next three years. I'd love to bust that myth but it's going to be daunting.

The 1st quarter is fairly easy for those with a quantitative background.
I have to agree and disagree. I have an engineering degree so I didn't find stats as challenging as other majors did.  However, the sheer amount of homework assigned and the struggle to get settled into the new routine made the first quarter pretty darn hard.

If you don't know which clubs you are interested in, join them all. Measure the membership costs relative to the $$$ you're paying for your degree.
I heeded this advice towards the end of the quarter and signed up for the Entrepreneurs Association and Marketing Association. I don't know yet if I want to pursue either track, but the topics interest me and I'd like to network with people in those fields. There are many other clubs I'm interested in but I don't want to add to my confusion right now.

The Leadership Foundations week is the high point of FEMBA life. Be prepared for a downhill ride from there on.
Not sure I agree. :) So far I'm still riding the fun wave, so fingers crossed!

Other things I observed :
- How much effort you put into a course affects your classmates because you contribute to the discussions and overall quality of learning.
- Most people in the program aren't a 100% sure about what they want to do with their MBA degree and that's OK.
- It's hard to get much networking done if you're only on campus on Saturdays but it's not impossible. There are always happy hours to attend after class and other trips organized fairly often.

and finally,

- There is a fine line between social networking and networking for professional purposes. I think I'll make that a whole new post.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Parkinson's Law

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."


Especially true for the FEMBA lifestyle. Yep, school's back in swing!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

First sunrise of 2011. 
Looking forward to many more beautiful moments this year.