Fall B - 2 down: Happy Holidays

Hard to believe, but now my second term Fall B is over!

So what did I learn?

I learned about Marketing, Organizational Behavior, Finance and World Economy.

Really? I need to be more specific?

Ok, so here are some highlights:

1.) I am now an expert on erectile dysfunction drugs

Yes, as part of my marketing class me and my time needed to analyze and improve the marketing campaign of Levitra.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR_qCt-jRQ0

Yes, indeed we had a lot of fun working on this!

Thanks Erica, Evins, Eric, Ivan and Douglas!

2.) I learned what a marketing problem is:

One my first day at Accenture a guy from the marketing department talked to all new hires about the trouble they are having with Tiger Woods not being number one in golf anymore.

Well, life is full of small challenges.

If the marketing professor asks in class: "To make this easier, who has not slept with Tiger Woods?" you probably know that you have a marketing problem.

The upside?

Accenture made it on Colbert:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/258581/december-16-2009/accenture-drops-tiger-woods

3.) While enjoyed the Finance lecture very much. I especially liked how Professor Bharath managed to explain stock valuation with the movie "Cast Away".

Yes, the coconuts on the island are like a stock with a beta of below 1. ;-)

(I know, you have to be kind of strange to find this funny, hence I spare you additional details!)

4.) Finance also taught me how to value a Senator seat. So in case I ever have the opportunity to sell a seat in the Bundestag, I now know how to value it.

Yes, Ms. Ypsilanti, in case you still have some political ambitions, just give me a call!

But now enough about academics!

My biggest achievement this term came not in the class room anyways but playing Whirlyball.

What? You do not know what this is? Shame on you!

It is a combination of bumper-cars, basketball and lacrosse.

Sounds weird? YES! Sounds fun? YES!!!

Another highlight, the bachelor party of Marcel!

I will not further comment on what happened that night.

Only so much: as far as I know nobody found a Tiger in his bathroom the next morning.

(Disclaimer: the term "Tiger" is limited to the animal and does not include a formerly popular golfer.)

So to summarize this term in one word: GREAT!

I had another couple of great months!

I wish you all a happy holiday season and hope you get a chance to spend some time with your friends and loved-ones!

In case you get bored:

A fun read: SuperFreakonomics - yes, I am totally sold on economics and markets by now! ;-)

German MBA Conference

I recently spend one weekend in Chicago at the German MBA Conference.
Approximately 40 German MBA students from all over the US came together for a great weekend in the windy city.

First of all I want to thank the organizers from University of Chicago. Great job, we all had a wonderful time.

So what did we actually do there?
Friday night we met in a bar in the Trump Tower. Key learning from this evening came from the president of Siemens Management Consulting. He explained what it means to have an option that is "in the money". While he pushed to get a marriage contract his wife did not agree. Consequently they do not have a marriage contract. But since his wife now earns way more than he does, he possesses "an option that is in the money".
As a side note and to be fair I want to emphasis that he was quick to point out that he does not plan to exercise this option ever.
We had a great time Friday night and it was great to get to know so many fellow German MBA students.


Saturday we had an impressive program at the University of Chicago.
Speakers included Frank Mattern (Managing Partner McKinsey Germany), Dr. Markus Schenck (CFO, Eon) and Martin Schlatter (CMO, Wrigley).
Unfortunately Nobel Prize Winner Gary Becker needed to cancel his participation at the last minute.

And yes, I enjoyed this Saturday way more than you can tell from this picture.

Nevertheless the highlight of Saturday was a Gala Dinner in a Chicago Skyscraper.
What a wonderful thing that there is no recession for McKinsey and they have still money for stuff like this. ;-)
I very funny scene was then when about 20 German MBA Students and suits and ties entered a Chicago Hip-Hop club in which the other guests were at best dressed casual.
Unfortunately I do not have pictures from that night. But it is surely only a bad rumor that this is somehow related to the amount of alcohol consumed by McKinseys' Principals. ;-)

Sunday morning we than drove back to Ann Arbor - just in time for my Finance Assignment.

Fall Break - One down

Yes, hard to believe, but after seven weeks the first term is already over.

What did I accomplish? Well, I am not allowed to disclose my grades. :-p But anyway way more valuable, the comment on our strategy paper: "Well argued!" :-)

Thanks to Ali, Filiz, Elizabeth and Brett. I was a pleasure working with you.

I guess we managed to impress our professor - at least a little.

Next stop: Fall Break!

I had one week off.

Together with 250 students I went to San Francisco. The official part of the trip was visiting companies in Silicon Valley, but way more important, having some fun in San Fran!

With a delay of half a day I arrived there, after Delta Airlines found some "technical issue" and decided to rather cancel my flight and have me wait 6 hours for the next flight.

But it least I arrived on time to meet a German MBA Student from Berkeley, who took me to San Francisco's oldest bar. A great start to a fun week!

The following day we went liquor tasting to "Hangar One". The sign at the entrance left no doubt: Emotional support, this was what we needed after Fall A. ;-)

Needless to say that this wonderful company was founded by a German!

And yes, Felix, not only the alcohol also the glasses were German. ;-)

The same day the Bay Bridge needed to be closed since a cable snapped. (As far as I know it took one week to repair it!) However there is of course no correlation between the incident on the bridge and the liquor.

The following two days were mainly business and networking events. The parts worth mentioning: a great keynote address from a venture capitalist on the economic situation and a company visit at Nvidia, which showed us their latest products.

Unfortunately after two more days, the break was already over. We used those two days to find out that it is possible to sleep with 5 people in one hotel room and that at Halloween San Francisco is even more expensive than usually.

So on Sunday I flew back to Ann Arbor. I even got there on time! Although Delta proactively cancelled my ticket. Why not?!? I guess I was right talking about what a horrible industry the airline industry is.

The next day: First day of Fall B. Classes: Finance, Management Organizations, Marketing and World Economy.

While it took two weeks in Fall A until I felt overwhelmed, it would only take about 2 hours in Fall B to reach this status. Bring it on!

The Quote of Term "Fall A"

Since the term Fall A is almost over (that reminds me of these final exams and these Strategy papers I should take care of :-(), I think it is safe to promote a quote from today to the Quote of the Term. The quote is brought to you by my strategy professor:

"Bonuses are supposed to be for past performance, not for future potential. These are not the Nobel Peace Prize."

Fall A - if you are not overwhelmed you are totally missing the point

I guess so far you get the impression that I do not study too much.

At the beginning of September my first term - Fall A - has started.

Since then I have more studying to do, then I could ever accomplish.

I thought I would know already, what a ridiculous workload looks like. This is a whole different ballgame, as they like to say here.

After I successfully passed the Accounting Exam before the start of classes, I have three mandatory courses left: Strategy, Economics, and Statistics.

Additionally I take one elective in "Management Presentations".

Up to now I have a lot of fun, the classes are interesting and the professors and classmates are great. Did I mention how much work this is already?

The most memorable experience so far, was my first strategy class.

After two minutes our professor calls me:

"Andreas, is the airline industry a good industry?"

For the next minutes I only heard "What else, ..."

What came in handy, was that I had some basic understanding of Porter's five forces.

So yes, Padde, I am really reading all these books. Padde once questioned whether I would really read all these books, or whether I would be running a book retailer.

Back to my strategy class. After a few minutes I got interrupted by a classmate. While I was thankful for the interruption, my professor did not like it and made sure it was understood that he was not happy about it. The next thing I hear: "Andreas, apologies for the interruption, please continue!"

A few more minutes later, he was finally decided to ask somebody else about what Ryanair was successful. However, that did not stop him from coming back to me every time he had a question on the industry structure.

The good news: I did pretty well, and (EVEN BETTER) I will most probably not be cold called again in Strategy this term.

The other classes are more relaxed. Management Presentations is extremely helpful and by fare the best public speaking course I ever had. Economics is great, because frequently I have to think: "Ah, this is why ... "

The scary thing about all this:

It is over in less than 3 weeks.

Oh, I guess this means that I have final exams in less then 3 weeks and I should get back to my books!

But before doing this I share a quote from my professor about the MBA experience:

"If you are not overwhelmed you are totally missing the point!"

If this is the standard, I totally get this MBA thing! :-)

Football - Hail to the Victors in the Big House

So what do I do on Saturdays? I watch College Football.

Is Football big in Ann Arbor?

No it is huge!

The Michigan Stadium, called the Big House, is the second biggest stadium in the US with a capacity of approximately 107,000. Since 1975 the attendance of every home game exceeded 100,000.

(btw Ann Arbor has 115,000 citizens)

On game days, the city is crowded from the early morning, with pre-game parties.

So how is the season going so far?

GREAT - after a bad season last year the team is 4-0 until now.

Especially exiting: A last second victory against Notre Dame two weeks ago.

So me and my classmates are having a lot of fun and plenty of opportunities to sing the Michigan fight song: Hail to the victors!

Next Saturday is the big game against Michigan State University (the local arch rival).

GO BLUE!!!

MBA Games - the downside of diversity

Briefly after the M-treks our never tired MBA2s organized the next great event for us: The MBA Games.

A collection of Sport Events like Soccer, Football, Softball, Volleyball etc. in which the different sections of the MBA program competed against each other.

Unfortunately my section finished last (by a mile :-().
We only managed to win the 4x400m race.

I personally failed miserably in Kickball (sort of Baseball but you kick a ball instead of hitting a baseball) where my section lost the very first game.
For the rest of the day I played Volleyball with five friends from my section. That was a lot of fun and we managed to reach the final.

In the final I realized the downside of diversity! Was ist really necessary to admit a player from the Israel National Volleyball team to the MBA program? Couldn't we have taken another overweight, uncoordinated Consultant or I-banker? ;-)

Well, at least over 100m I did not have to compete with the sprinter from the US national team who is in my class.


Another great day and fun event! THANKS again to the MBA2s for organizing!
The MBA2s also managed to convince several companies to sponsor that event a.o. Proctor & Gamble, IBM and Accenture. Embarrassingly Accenture did not even show up.

RLI - Foundation Session

So after we all came back to Ann Arbor after our wonderful M-Treks all over the world, the first mandatory event of the MBA Program took place:
The Ross Leadership Initiative (RLI) Foundation Session (I don't think it would have been humanly possible to come up with a longer name ;-))

So for six days we discussed about leadership topics like responsibility, integrity, diversity, creativity, and innovation. We practiced improvisation skills with a comedy group from Chicago (Second City). Moreover we listened to the wisdom of Ricardo Salinas, an entrepreneur from Mexico, and of our faculties.
But most fun were team building events like cooking a meal for 100 people.
At least most of these events were fun. Since the cooking took place outside in the pouring rain, I ended up being sick for the better part of the coming week.

But by far most impressive for the speech of Eleanor Josaitis!
The last day of the RLI Foundation Session was dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility. So we all went to Detroit and got involved in different projects.
One of these projects was overseen by Eleanor, who is one of the founders of "Focus: HOPE" a civil and human rights organization in Detroit.
At the closure of the event she gave a wonderful speech about her work, overcoming obstacles and giving back to others. Many of us (certainly me) had to fight back their tears.

So a great start to my academic life at Ross and a week which certainly gave me a lot to think about!

M-Trek: GuateBelize - Part 2: Belize

After a wonderful time in Guatemala we went on to go to Belize - finally some beach time! :-)

Soon after we departed from our lodge in the jungle in Tikal our bus needed to stop at a construction site. The joke from on of our Trek-Leaders '... they are paving the road as we go ...' was totally accurate as we would find out later.

After standing there for about an hour the queue of vehicles (or rather the driver to be precise) decided to not take this construction that serious after all and continue driving although there was no paved road.

Nevertheless we safely arrived at the border to Belize and did not even lose any luggage that was put on the roof of the bus.

At the border we needed to leave the bus and walk across.

Unfortunately our bus was not allowed to pass since the Belizian authorities figured that they rather have taxis from Belize earn our money as opposed to a bus from Guatemala.

So we got onto Taxis in Belize (I would guess these cars failed any western TUV inspection several decades ago). Interestingly our driver tried to convince us that an air conditioning would be less effective then just opening the windows. As it turned out he was absolutely right. However the fact that his a/c was broken played some part in this.

What I loved about our time in Belize in general: There are hardly any roads. So wherever you go, you take the boat!

So the majority of our time in Belize we spend on the beach, on boats or in the water.

We went snorkeling twice - I loved it! I never really snorkeled before. It was great to swim with a wide variety of fish, with sea turtles and smaller sharks.

I was so distracted by all these animals that my knees experienced how sharp coral reaves really are. Fortunately my blood did not attract any more dangerous animals! ;-)

Almost all of us got really bad sun burn on their backs.

So here is a business opportunity: I used sun screen with factor 80 and reapplied it about every 2 hours. I still got burned.

So if you figure out a way to make factor 800 sun screen: There are certainly some customers for you in Belize!

Besides the sun I also had a hard time getting used to the sheer heat in Belize.

One night a trek leader and I decided t go for a run the next morning. What we did not expect was that running at 9 am meant running at ~40 degrees.

Stubborn as we were we did stick to our 'stupid' idea of going for a run.

We asked one of the locals whether there would be a road we could run on. Latest the following answer explained why we took the boat all the time.

The guy would explain us how the beach would be in better condition, with less holes and more even.

After about a 45 min run, we tried to spend the rest of the day in air conditioned rooms! ;-)

On our second to last day we took the water taxi one final time to Belize City.

From Belize City we would fly back to Detroit the following day.

Since Belize City is a small but very dangerous city we spend the entire evening in the hotel.

I once again tried to prove that I can win money in a casino.

Well, I guess sometimes history repeats itself. I won quite some money early on, but I was not willing to call it a night that early. I guess you can image how it ended.

Fortunately I was disciplined enough to only play with my remaining Belizian Dollars. :-)

Put since pictures say more then a thousand words, I stop writing now!

Some more pictures from Belize:

Well, one think I still need to mention.

A big THANK YOU to our Trek Leaders how put this together during their internships, after the trip to Honduras was cancelled. Thanks for this first highlight of my MBA!

M-Trek: GuateBelize - Part 1: Guatemala

The first highlight of my MBA: 10-day M-Trek to Guatemala and Belize

So what is a M-Trek?

M-Treks are outdoor adventure trips organized by the second year Michigan MBA students for first years.

Which trip did I choose?

I originally choose to go hiking, kayaking, fishing, and snorkeling in Honduras.

Unfortunately due to the coup in Honduras the school did not allow is to go on this trip.

Thanks to the great effort of our leaders we were offered an alternative trip to Guatemala and Belize.

(For those as ignorant as me: Belize is a small country in the Caribbean with approx. 300,000 inhabitants)

Who went there?

14 incoming students and 4 2nd year students from Germany, Israel, India and the US.

Rumors has it that one of the Americans is actually from Finland.

What did we do there?

Via Houston we flew into Guatemala City and took a small bus to Antigua where we spend our first couple of nights.

Looking around Guatemala City I thought, well this world is indeed 'flat'. Along main street Burger King is next to the Mercedes dealer and next to a Bayer factory.

However Antigua is very different. A beautiful small town.

It has a McDonald's, but it is arguably the most beautiful McDonald's in the world.

Having this surrounding all the time I may even become a fan of the golden arches! ;-)

The first morning in Guatemala I found out that German Tourists are really everywhere. Next door they would be watching German TV from 6 am to 8 am.

For the first hand coverage of Usain Bolts incredible new world record over 100 meters, I had to trade two hours of sleep.

But why did they not spend their vacation in Berlin at the Championships instead of ruining my sleep?!?

Inspired by Mr Bolt (and without steroids I might add) we spend our first day hiking up a volcano near Guatemala City.

The two highlights of that hike: Running down a field of old lava and standing right beside glowing new lava.

To run down a gravel field of old lava was a lot of fun and almost like skiing. Too sad they did not have a lift to immediately get up again! ;-)

To watch the glowing lava in the dark, from only a few feet away was sensational!

Thanks to our guide we all arrived safely at the bottom of the mountain, although we climbed down in complete darkness.

The manager kept reminding us to tip our guide, which was even proclaimed by a sign in his office "... we do not pay them very much!".

As it turned out, he did not pay them at all!

On our second day we visited a coffee plantation in Antigua.

Most impressive for someone like me, who does not like coffee:

The coffee was delicious!

Since I never drink it I cannot judge, but my classmates told me that this kind of coffee would be very different (read: better) then the coffee you get at Starbucks.

So I guess although I liked it, it will not change my coffee drinking habits (or lack of them).

Definitely the most memorable experience of the trip was an overnight bus ride from Antigua to Tikal. For western standards the seats in the bus were uncomfortable and it was not possible to recline them without jeopardizing newly formed friendships with people setting behind you. When we got on the bus I thought that was bad - well it got worst! :-)

When boarding the bus we all had to go through a security inspection which seemed reasonable considering that Guatemala City would not be "entirely safe" as we were told. Nevertheless the driver would stop some blocks away from the station just to let some random duds on the bus.

More then compliant with Western standards however, was the Air Condition - at least its ability to produce ridiculously low temperatures which made one classmate put his feet into his backpack. Others slept in their rain gear since the a/c would drop water on the passengers when the bus went around corners.

Unfortunately that water did not reach the trunk. In the trunk a hole got burned into a bag destroying several dresses. (but maybe this started the next fashion trend? - watch out Ed Hardy! ;-))

At the end of the night we (luckily all healthy and with rather more then less friendships) reached our destination: an AIRPORT!!! (I am not kidding!)

Nevertheless we had some fun moments along the way.

One, was a conversation between one tall and one rather small classmate.

Do you play basketball?

No, do you play mini-golf?

After reaching Tikal we immediately went to see the Maya ruins which were extremely impressive and more then worth this bus ride!

Besides these impressive buildings, I still amazed how rather small monkeys are able to make such a big noise. Oliver Kahn (for none soccer people: a German player often compared to a monkey) would be proud of them.

The rest of the day I enjoyed time at the pool and lessons in US college card games.

The next day, we would be heading to Belize.

Getting Started - Admin & Accounting

It has now been a few weeks since I have moved to Ann Arbor. I spend the majority of this time getting settled and taking care of administrative stuff. Moreover I also took an accounting course and enjoyed first parties with my classmates.

But I should probably start explaining where Ann Arbor is:

So Ann Arbor is a college town - home of the University of Michigan - with approximately 115,000 inhabitants. It is about a one hour drive from Detroit and four hours from Chicago. (given the choice drive to Chicago! ;-))

As a side note: Next to Ann Arbor is a town called Ypsilanti. However it is just a rumor that some fans of 'Die Linke' from 'Hessen' moved here. ;-)

The first week I was busy getting settled, buying furniture, a laptop, signing up for a cell phone plan etc.

Recurring issue: "This is not a US credit card, is it?"

This made some purchases a little more difficult: AT&T required a deposit, Apple would only hand me the laptop after American Express confirmed that I had a tendency to pay my bills.

Pleasant 'suprises' of the first week: The wonderful shopping hours (I always wonder how much more we Germans would buy if we were only offered the opportunity?!?), my ability to install

Windows on my Macbook (on the third attempt) and my iPhone.

I guess I have to apologize to some iPhone users since I so far thought that it is not really that great. Well, I was dead wrong - it is sensational. Arguably the best piece of electronic equipment I ever owned.

Moreover very entertaining while shopping in the mall: Retirees having aerobic lessons in the aisle of the mall - only in America - weird!

But the best news from the first weeks: My wonderful banker Delia managed to get me a US credit card. After she submitted the application I received a rejection letter ('lack of credit history') in a matter of days. Nevertheless I found a credit card in my mail a few days later. So I don't know what she did - but it worked! Now I guess I need another topic to talk about with US Retailers besides my 'strange German Credit Card'.

After taking care of most administrative matters I started to spend a fair amount of my time in my new home - "the Ross School of Business":

This brand-new, beautiful building is where I will spend countless hours in the next two years.

(probably to the extend that I will stop liking it)

The two main reasons that brought me to school before the actual start of the semester:

1.) the gym

2.) an accounting class

Considering the (quickly approaching) Michigan winter and that I am not a big fan of gyms and prefer to run/cycle outdoors, I figured I should start to slowly get used to using the gym.

So fare I am pretty successful, mostly thanks to a fellow German classmate with whom I went there several times.

However I spend the majority of my second week in an accounting class.

It was a fun time, great to meet some more classmates and good to get used to sitting in class again. What mad it most fun was the professor 'Dr. Dave'.

He is a really funny guy who calls himself the 'WMD' (Worlds Most Dangerous) Accountant.

I could not confirm yet, whether there is any connection between him and Arthur Anderson. ;-)

However the following joke he told in class may provide some evidence:

There was once a business owner who was interviewing people for a division manager position.

He decided to select the individual that could answer the question "how much is 2+2?"

The engineer said: "It lies between 3.98 and 4.02."

The attorney said: "In the case of Svenson vs. the State it was declared to be 4."

The trader asked: "Are you buying or selling?"

The accountant looked at the business owner, then got out of his chair to see it anyone was listening at the door. Then he returned and asked the business owner in a low voice: "What would you like it to be?"

Fortunately the accounting class was not too time consuming so I still found enough time arrange some things in my apartment.

I live in an area called 'Woodbury Gardens' where many Graduate Students are staying (I would guess 1/3 of my class). So far my apartment is still pretty empty (hence I spare you the sight of an empty apartment for now) - however my roommate, once he moved in with his huge reservoir of furniture will certainly change that!

'Woodbury Gardens' It is about 1,5 miles and a five minute bus ride from campus, with a bus stop and grocery store nearby.

So I should be able to get around without a car.

Especially since my roommate - exactly: He owns a car! :-)

So who is this roommate who will soon solve all my problems:

His name is Patrick (I could see a pattern here - the name of my last roommate: Patrick), he is an avid runner (no more pattern! ;-)) comes from the California, went to Stanford for undergraduate studies. In the past years he has worked for Bain in the Bay Area.

I can't wait till he (and his furniture and car ;-)) gets here!

Last but not least the most pleasant part of the first weeks - meeting classmates and my first parties in Ann Arbor. :-)

I had a great time hanging out with them.

They are very interesting, smart and ambitious, but at the same time really down to earth (which I guess is not given for MBA students at a top school).

The city of Ann Arbor offers some very nice places to go out to. A few even sell German beer or brew their own.

Helpful in staying away from Bud and Miller light. ;-)

So we will surely have a lot of fun the next two years!