Another early day, we checked out of our hotels and headed back to Dubai, destination: Dubai Ports World and their operations in Jebel Ali Ports. The presentations we had from the CEO and the Operations  Manager were very informative where we learned about the companies strategy and their acquisition spree and expansion that put them as on the list of the biggest port operators in the world. The tour we had of the port was equally impressive.

For evening we had another two meetings scheduled. The first was with Intel where we were briefed about their initiatives in the Middle East in supporting education and knowledge transfer. The second meeting was with Chief Strategy Officer of Du Telecom, the first telecom operator to go against the incumbent telecom operator after the deregulation of the sector. Needless to say, the Porter’s Five Forces framework we learned in strategy took a whole different meaning.

Later at night the Gulf Chapter of the Oxford Business Alumni graciously hosted us for a reception in the Radison Sas Hotel in the media city. With breath taking views and great company, we couldn’t ask for more. It was great opportunity o touch base with the SBS alumni in the region and learn more from them about living and doing business in the region.

Final Day (Friday April 9^th)

Weekend Finally! Waking up late for a chance, no suits, the feeling was great. Going to the beach in the was a  great change from the weather back in Oxford. And our last event in the trek was an adrenaline pumped desert safari were we did dune bashing with a 4×4 Toyota land cruiser before heading to a camp in the desert for a barbecue dinner. It was a great finale to the trek.

Overall it was a very productive and fun trip. HSBC called a bunch of us back for interviews, and there were many ideas floated around for business ventures, internships, summer consulting projects and case studies write ups. Opportunities of a lifetime that you get when you are doing the Oxford MBA.

Day 1 (Sunday, April 4 th):
An early start as we headed to Abu Dhabi for our first meeting with the Abu Dhabi Health Council. The Abu Dhabi Health Council is responsible for providing full healthcare services to 1.9 million living in Abu Dhabi. Their CEO talked to us about the recent change that the council had gone through and their accomplishments as well as the challenges they face. It was a very enlightening talk about management in the Public Sector. After the meeting we headed back to Dubai to meet with Shell where we were met with SBS alumni Mehdi Chennoufi, General manager LNG Trading Middle East. The meeting started with a real case study of an oil refinery operation in an anonymous country. After that our host and his colleagues entertained us with some very exciting stories about their careers in Shell to give a us a taste of what it means to work for Shell. After the Shell meeting, we had a well deserved rest in the hotel before heading for night out in the city to explore some of its landmarks like Burj Khalifah, the tallest tower in the world standing at 808m and Dubai mall, the biggest mall in the world.

Day 2 (Monday April 5^th)

Our first meeting for the day was with HSBC Bank Middle East.  There we had a very insightful talk about HSBC’s operation in the middle east and their market and the way they implement their mission statement “your world’s local bank”. After HSBC we headed to the offices of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. The Foundation was formed by an endowment from the ruler of Dubai HH Shiekh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with the purpose of providing Arabs with opportunities to guide the region towards a knowledge economy through promoting entrepreneurship, research and innovation by enhancing access to quality education and professional development. During the meeting, we were briefed about the foundation’s strategy and programmes under Human Capital Development.

With end of our meetings agenda for the day, it was time again to relax and explore the city where we visited the Palm Jumairah Island (a man made island in the shape of a palm off the coast of Dubai) and the famous Burj Al Arab Hotel.

Day 3 (Tuesday, April 6^th)

The day started with a visit to Unilever where we had a presentation about the company and the FMCG business in the Middle East. After the presentation we had a very exiting tour of their operations in Jabel Ali Industrial Area where we visited their factory for packaging their Lipton brand. It was interesting seeing first hand stuff we learned form the operations management course we took in Hillary term. After Unilver we had a meeting with the renowned management consulting firm. The Boston Consulting Group. The meeting was focused about learning about BCG and career opportunities in consulting as well as their view on the Middle East region given the work that they do in this part of the world.

After these two meetings we checked out from our hotel in Dubai and headed to Abu Dhabi to spend a couple of days.

Day 4 (Wednesday, April 7^th)

Wednesday was dedicated to learn more about Abu Dhabi. And what better place to do that than the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  In their headquarters we had a very insightful talk about the economy of Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Economic vision 2030. After the talk we had a tour of the impressive one-stop shop where all the government agencies and ministries are in one place and business people can do all their transaction quickly and with ease.  Abu Dhabi government 1 – Red tape bureaucracy 0.

After that we moved to the nearby tower that holds the headquarters of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. We were led to a meeting room on the top floor where we were briefed on the investment strategy of ADIA. The views of Abu Dhabi from the meeting room were phenomenal.

After the our visit to ADIA, we headed out to Masdar City, the first zero-carbon, zero waste city ever to be built and haven for innovation in sustainability and renewable ebergy. There we had a presentation on the project and the milestones it had achieved so far.

With the meetings over for the day, we were all looking forward for the night, where the London Symphony Orchestra was playing in the Emirates palace with Sir Colin Davies at the helm performing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. We weren’t disappointed.

As Dean Colin Mayer spoke to the attendees of this dinner, I realized I had recently heard him give a similar speech to the attendees of the Skoll World Forum in April. This was another incredible opportunity afforded me by being a part of the Skoll Associate Fellows Program through the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Hundreds of the most impressive social entrepreneurs across the globe come together each year in this internationally recognized forum to talk about current issues and, this year in particular, how to collaborate more effectively. Some of my favorite parts of the conference were hearing Paul Farmer of Partners in Health speak about his work in Haiti, and hearing Tim Smit of the Eden Project talk about how he motivates his workers (including making every employee say good morning to 20 people before beginning work in the morning).

All in all, I realized how much is possible at this School if you get involved. There is so much more I could be doing, but I know that in the limited time here, I will never forget the experiences I have had.

I cannot say this enough…that the strength of our club depends on the quality of its membership, and in each and every instance, our guest speakers have come from referrals from fellow MBAs. During Michaelmas term we hosted Usman Hayat, director of the CFA Institute’s division on Islamic Finance. For Hilary term, we brought in Zeeshan Tayeb of Element Six (De Beers), who generously helped us organize a “Strategic Consulting Project” (SCP) for Trinity term.

For Trinity term, Emily (from my Michaelmas studygroup) arranged to have Dr. Ramin Khadem, Chairman of Odyssey Moon Limited, give a speech entitled, “Reflections on the Root Causes of the Current Economic Crisis.” Pretty typical fodder for an MBA audience following the “Great Recession of 2008-09,” but what made this speech unique was that Dr. Khadem took an ethical approach to solving the root causes of economic excess.

As a member of the European Baha’i Business Forum, Dr. Khadem was uniquely qualified to speak on the role that moral and ethical values can play in business to enhance overall prosperity. Another twist on this presentation, is that Dr. Khadem has been involved in the commercialization of outer space for the past quarter-century, previously as the CFO of Inmarsat, a global satellite network company that was sold to private equity firms Apax Partners and Permira in 2005. Who better to combine business experience with the “big-picture” perspective?

Following on his success, Dr. Khadem now serves as Chairman of Odyssey Moon Limited, where he aims to develop a “sustainable commercial transportation system to deliver payload services to the Moon in support of science.” We’ve certainly come a long way since Frank Sinatra’s 1964 rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon,” recorded just 5-years before the Apollo 11 moon-landing mission. In the wake of Goldman Sach’s Congressional testimony regarding charges of fraud last week, perhaps Dr. Khadem has the right idea, that when we search for ethical guidance we should look skywards where a more enlightened global perspective can be found.

1)      That as per the latest FT ratings, we are now the second best Business School in UK and the sixteenth best in the world.  Yay! Yay! Yay!

2)      Oxford is a cute little town with 800 years of history. That means that the college that you now live in was built when our great, great, great, great, great, greaaaaaaat grandpa was not even born.

3)      Some of the events held at the School allow you to rub shoulders with the best of the Business world. So the next time you run into a snob who boasts about his exquisite knowledge, you can very casually mention what Sir Terry Leahy said to you in his supper or what Roger Carr had to say in his speaker session.

4)      Diversity of the class means one day you sit next to a French Chef who explains how to make pumpkin pudding fantastic and the very next day you will be listening to a life scientist explain strange physiognomic phenomena.

5)      The authors who changed the world are your teachers. Some of the best books such as fresh Lipstick (Linda Scott), how Brands became Icons (Douglas Holt) and Social Entrepreneurship (Alex Nicholls) have been written by faculty members.

Things you would die before you tell anyone about your MBA

1)      That actually when you spoke to that great industry leader, you had spinach stuck between your teeth.

2)      That some of the books written by your teachers are really heavy stuff and you haven’t read them.

3)      That some of your fellow students achievements can sometimes make you feel small. Getting into the Business School was your biggest career achievement so far.

4)      The subject that you just passed has the highest number of distinction holders. (You wonder when they really study when most of the times they are hanging out with you in the Common Room.)

5)      That despite being the best of the best (thats why you are at Saïd after all!), you still have to look for a job, go through the hassles of applications, resumes and cover letters, interviews, case studies and yes, rejections!

The exams here are stressful. In the first 4 weeks of Michaelmas, it seems that the subjects are easy to tackle (specially for people like me who are from quant background), but then suddenly one is swept off the ground in a flood of assignments, and before you know, you are in the middle of the exam preparation week. You take a couple of more days to organise notes, take printouts, finalise study strategies etc. Then once you realise that you have to write 6 papers in 4 days, reality strikes you real hard! The rest is just a long and painful story of endurance, sleepless nights, desperation and iron-clad promises of studying hard the next term right from the beginning.

However, the winter break is sufficiently long to recuperate from the exam trauma. Oxford becomes a very quiet and serene place during off-term times and especially during the winter break. Almost all students either go home or to some warmer part of the globe. Which means that apart from other things, you can go to the most popular movies without booking tickets in advance, or eat out at the most popular joints without having to wait in a queue for nearly an hour, all of which was great for me. This year it snowed very heavy and for a few days Oxford looked like it has been chiselled out of a huge mound of icing sugar. There are a few tall places like Carfax tower, which when climbed, offers a brilliant view of the High Street colleges, the Radcliffe and such. The day after it snowed, we went atop the tower and it was simply brilliant! Highly recommended!!

OK. End of flashback. Back to Hillary Term week 1. This term is particularly known to present exceptional academic and intellectual challenge to the Oxford MBAs. This is the time when you get to do the Entrepreneurship Project. Whats an EP in SBS? Read here. What is interesting, we are being taught very specific tools needed to do the project. As an example, a little while ago, I attended a workshop session by Lucy Kimbell on how to generate and develop ideas at the early stage of planning. These are practical, hands-on techniques that can be used and it proved to be quite effective for my team. Looking forward to more of her sessions.

This is also the term when we start electives. As you would guess, since we choose our electives, there is an escalated level of commitment among the class to learn, which is resulting in very initiated debates in class. I have taken finance II, macro economics and strategy II, technology and innovation strategy as my electives. Let’s see how it goes.

I have a dinner invitation in Oriel College in a while, so have to run off to get dressed in a suit, my host has kindly informed that I cannot enter the Oriel College Hall without being properly dressed. So off I go. Please leave your comments and let me know what you want to hear more about.

Take care!

I attended the careers session on Social Finance, and loved hearing from Rod Schwartz of ClearlySo—an online marketplace for social business. Rod will be co-teaching the Social Finance elective in Trinity term, so it was fun to get a preview of his engaging talks. I also heard from Cecile Galoselva at the Ethical Property Company who talked about her company’s innovative model. In one of the general addresses, Caroline Casey from the organization Kanchi was literally one of the best speakers I have ever heard. I highly recommend checking out her organization if you get a chance.

My personal favorite part of the conference was being a mentor for contestants in the Ideas competition. Basically, budding social entrepreneurs submitted an overview of an idea then finalists were selected to pitch to judges at the end of the conference. During the day, peers and mentors helped them shape their pitch, and at the end of the day we got to see the finished product. There were some amazing ideas such as a new recycling process to make toys and household items, and a charitable loyalty card. The finalists will get support throughout the year to develop their ideas. Later in the year, a final will take place and the winners will get funding from UnLtd and Barclays Capital. 

Overall, it was a great and inspirational day, and one of the many examples of the amazing opportunities happening at SBS. I only wish I had more time to take advantage of them all!

San Francisco, is unmistakably one of my favourite cities in America. The chill from the bay, the magnificent view of the Golden Gate, the crooked Lombard, all reminded me of the July 4^th weekend of 2004. The city was as beautiful as ever. My MBA cohort that had embarked on the SE (Social Entrepreneurship) trek shared a big lovely house in Fillmore. Being co-located helped in a big way. Every morning and afternoon, before we left home to visit one of the organizations, we had a quick session educating one another on what the organization does, discussing what should we learn from them ?, and if there were any specific areas where we could offer consulting ?. After every visit we took time to debrief and reflect on our meetings. We spent a week in San Francisco (April 12-19) and had twelve formal meetings with social entrepreneurs, as well as a handful of less formal networking sessions.

The trek began with a visit to Skoll Foundation in Palo Alto. Their research arm, the Skoll Center at SBS offers three electives in the MBA’s Trinity term. I was thrilled to meet Victor and Jason with whom I had only interacted over emails. During the Skoll World Forum, I had written a series of blogs for Social Edge. Victor greeted me saying “So, there is a human being behind the blogger !” The Skoll Foundation family was very cordial and shared with us the work they do behind the scenes for the SWF. It was an amazing team and an apt way to begin our trek.

We then visited IDEO which was familiar to us from the case study we did on the TIS (Technology and Innovation Strategy) course. This design and innovation firm offers design thinking to a wide variety of areas from mundane kitchen issues to social issues. The team also did a consulting session with Mobile Metrix. Mobile Metrix is a market research company that assists the “invisible poor” by gathering data that shares their reality with the world. Accurate data is the first step to solving any social problem, because it directs resources and drives change. Working with partners IBM, Palm and Stanford University, Mobile Metrix has been instituted as a social enterprise and is contracted by private companies, foundations, NGOs, governments and international organizations who target the “base of the pyramid”. New Schools Venture Fund (NVSF), is another interesting organization that we visited. NSVF is a small organization trying to have a huge impact on K-12 education in the US. It is a non-profit that works as an intermediary. Their vision is a system of high performance schools. They look for a compelling role to play, where there is a market failure and where the private sector hasn’t addressed the demand, and incubate such solutions. They are ambitious and look at and invest in any aspect of the education system: from school meals to high policy levels, from teacher pay to curriculum development and grading.

Kiva was probably the most well known of all the organizations. Kiva is a social enterprise that allows individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. The organization became the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website. Further, we met with the Founder of New Leaf Paper. New Leaf Paper leads the paper industry in the development and distribution of environmentally superior printing and office papers. Their goal is to inspire, through our success, a fundamental shift toward environmental responsibility in the paper industry. Global Footprint Network, was one of the last organizations that we visited. We met with Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of GFN, and centered our discussion around GFN’s new Ecological Creditor and Debtor Initiative (ECDI – see: www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/ecological_debtors_and_creditors).

The other organizations we visited were:

· Benetech, which is providing technology solutions to social problems. One of their projects is for people with vision and reading disabilities, wherein they have formed the world’s largest accessible digital library of scanned material.

· KickStart, that designs and develops cost-effective tools that support sustainable economic growth. They work in rural areas of Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

· Good Capital, which is an investment firm that increases the flow of capital to innovative ventures creating market-based solutions to inequality and poverty.

Amidst all these, we also met with the BASES student group at Stanford University. BASES includes undergraduate and graduate students as well as leading faculty members from all schools at Stanford including Business, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Humanities, and the Sciences, promoting entrepreneurs through networking, discussions, competitions etc. We also had a chance to meet some like-minded MBA students on campus over lunch.

In summary, the SE OBN trek was one of the best student organised treks that was very educating and also helped us make valuable contacts in the Social Entrepreneurship space.

PS: The first part to this blog post is here.

6:30 AM Wake-up (Snooze) Wake-up

7:00 AM Breakfast – Cereal and milk (while remembering how nice it would have been to have idlis and dosa)

8:15 AM Bike to school, dump your stuff in the locker, check which of lecture rooms you ought to be in and go to class.

8:45 AM First class of the day – These are long 3.5 hour classes; struggle to be awake

9:15 AM Resist opening lap tops; Slowly, people start checking emails and make diligent notes side-by-side

10ish Coffee break – Grab a coffee or tea and also the free Financial Times and Wall Street Journal at the Common Room. Brood over when the economy will be on track or catch up with group mates on the assignments due.

11ish to 12:15 PM Back to class; Case Study time – Most classes begin with theoretical concepts and end with a discussion on the case study that was on the reading list.

12:15 to 1:30 PM Lunch or luncheon group meetings; If you aren’t lucky to have a relaxed lunch, grab a sandwich and come back to sit in one of the career presentations or an OBN meeting

1:30 to 4:45 PM Second class for the day; A similar schedule like the morning class, with a coffee break ofcourse.

4:45 PM Technically done for the day with all classes complete during Michaelmas and Hilary terms.

5:00 to 8:15 PM During Trinity term, a third class may be on schedule depending on the electives chosen.

5:00 PM to late You could end up doing one or all of these – Group meetings for discussing assignments; Writing and uploading assignments; study at the library; attending weekly debates at the Oxford Union; attend guest speaker events at school or elsewhere in the university; do pre-readings for next day’s class; attend a BOP; listen to a concert at the Sheldonian; workout at the college or university gym; attend meditation classes and an umpteen other things.

10:00 PM Back to comforts of the room; cook food; watch NDTV news over dinner (atleast in my case); do pre-readings for next day; plan calendar for next day; write journal entries and more…

12:00 midnight Time to crash…

Apart from all this, you can make time to row on river Isis, go punting on river Cherwell, take a walk in Port meadows, read in the Bodleian library, attend a prayer at the Church, visit one of the many museums, attend a book reading, be an activist, play cricket for the SBS team, walk down Corn market street to have the famous West Cornwall Pasty, drink beer at Eagle and Child, eat Michel’s crêpes at Bonn square, hear a Nobel laureate speak at the Sheldonian and many many more things. It is all a matter of priority and time management. If you are at Oxford, you will do them all and have one of the most enriching years of your life.

The highlight of the event was an impassionate speech by Rahul who shared the joys of creation as an entrepreneur. Introducing the entrepreneurial space in India, he spoke of the nuances of cultural baggage and the importance of native intelligence in a diverse country like India. He eloquently drew upon stories of how our ancestors had little luxury to waste resources and which automatically translated into them being entrepreneurial to solve the problems of the day. Summarizing the essentials of being an Entrepreneur he said that an innovative idea, integrity (inspiring trust with all stake holders) and collaboration (cross-sector sharing of best practices) were key elements of success. Anoushka from NetxGen’s Oxford chapter gave a fervent speech on Oxford Tutoring, a social enterprise started by her as also Oxford Emerging Markets.

The CII Young Indians delegation had visited the University of Oxford on June 25^th as a part of their UK tour. The event was hosted by the UKIBC (UK India Business Council). Young Indians (”Yi”) was founded in December 2002.  It is an integral part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and comprises of a group of young Indian achievers and professionals below the age of 40 years from various walks of life. Yi believes that young Indians can contribute to the community and society at large. Yi is a forum that focuses on issues of national importance and motivates a generational change in the economic and social agenda of India.

The day also marked the official launch of UKIBCs Next Generation Network’s Oxford Chapter of which Anoushka Babbar will be the Head. NGN is a network of young people interested in the UK India business relationship. The visiting delegation were taken around a small walking tour of Oxford through the covered market and a stop at Ben’s Cookies, Oxford Union, Radcliffe Camera and the Queen’s college where the event was hosted. The event also brought together a networking event where many MBA students spent time with the entrepreneurs exchanging ideas, notes, experiences and business cards.

Speaking of Entrepreneurship, do visit http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/ to learn about the Oxford Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Said Business School that hosts a series of talks on Building a Business between November and February. They also host the Venture Fund competition every year in Hilary term. The center is of strategic importance to Said and is an important part of the SBS MBAs experience. I am sure this year given the impact of the downturn there will be more MBA students than usual who will turn to being an entrepreneur and fill white spaces in the society.

As an end note, I want to say that some of us students of the current MBA batch are keen on continuity of the relationship established with the CII – Young Indians team. A virtual event in the form of a discussion, key note speaker event is planned with leading Indian B-School students and CII – YI in September. So, I call upon any of you (MBA batch of 2010) interested to write to me at Vinay.Nagaraju@sbs.ox.ac.uk or Abhishek.Pathak@sbs.ox.ac.uk on your arrival dates and we shall take it forward from there. See you soon !