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!