EMBA - Business Blogs @ Oxford » Orin Gordon

Oxford

Orin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:33:33 +0000

I’d visited Oxford several times before. The first time, about 12 years earlier, I’d been part of a BBC course. As part of an organized tour we visited famous colleges like Christ Church and St John’s, and pretty much all of the touristy, pretty parts of the town. But to their credit, the tour organizers made sure we saw the deprived parts like Blackbird Leys, so that we did not go away with a one-dimensional, prettified view of Oxford.

There is the romance of the Dreaming Spires, but many others will only ever be able to dream.
There is real poverty, particularly in northern pockets of the town. So while on Friday nights the streets are awash with late-teen children of the great and good of Great Britain learning to get drunk on cheap lager, there are other, life-toughened children from poorer families who already know how to.
It’s a striking contrast. Henry will leave Balliol with the self-confidence that the well bred and well educated have, and take path to sure success, probably in the City or at the Bar. Henry from Blackbird will tread his own, predetermined path. There are exceptions, of course, but it’s a terrible indictment on the British schooling system that there aren’t enough.

Anyway enough of this downbeat stuff. Oxford is a very beautiful, historic town. As Andrey and I walked back to Saïd after registering at St Anne’s College, Andrey, a Muscovite, kept shaking his head and laughing.
“It’s like out of a fairy tale”, he said.

EMBA 6 has really taken to Oxford. Colleges are a unique part of life in old uni towns like Oxford and Cambridge. Scarves with the college crests were bought. One colleague flaunted her distinct green and white Jesus College scarf. She allowed me to wear it for a while.

We quickly sussed out the watering holes— special mention must go to the indefatigable Warren. The catalyst for many things social after class, and sharp, focused and prepared next morning.

Just past Trinity College on the other side of the road is The Turf. It’s like a labyrinth— a maze of cozy little rooms. Quaint. Old. Very English. Some good lagers and bitters there. I like Village Idiot.

The profits of the Executive MBA

Orin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:59:14 +0000

Alan Morrison was teaching a class on Finance, Rationality and the Profit Motive, and made reference to the AOL/Time Warner merger.
Then he asked in a by-the-way sort of way, “anyone here familiar with this merger?”
A cool California drawl came from the back of the class.
“I worked with AOL/Time Warner”.
Bob, one of the quiet men of class, spoke knowledgably about the effects of the merger in back and forth with Alan for a few minutes.
Later the subject of Vodafone-Mannesmann came up. Again the question. “Anyone here from Vodafone?”
Ahmed put his hand up. “I work for Vodafone”. Again, a knowledgeable dissection of the merger. From the class.
That’s when I knew I’d made the right decision— to join the Executive MBA and not the MBA class.
Notwithstanding the years of work experience— 20 in my case— there are solid arguments for going MBA.
One year instead of nearly two.
Singular focus on an academic year out of work, instead of mixing work and study.
The small difference of £15K or so.

The advantages of the EMBA were:

Not having to give up the job completely
A more manageable programme for people who’d not performed at an academic gig for a long time
Experienced classmates who’d achieved much professionally, from whom you’ll learn a lot.

Listening to Bob and Ahmed in class just confirmed what was already clear— there was some serious mental and professional firepower in the room, and not all of it was Alan’s.
There are some pretty robust incisive contributions.
Adrian or Tico talking financial trading.
Or Barbara talking company contracts.
I cite a couple dozen more examples.
I’d made the right choice.
It’s going to be tough for a broadcaster for whom garrulousness comes naturally, but if I’d just keep quiet I might learn something these next 20 months.

Saïd Business School first impressions

Orin — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:30:05 +0000

I first set foot in Saïd Business School in November, for my admissions interview. Stephan Chambers, Executive MBA Director, was my sole interrogator. It was a tough interview: he was razor sharp. He’d clearly prepared well, and seemingly had known me for years. I’d had an easier time with interview panels of three.

He eventually homed in two things I myself had reservations about: my frequent travel for work— how would I successfully navigate the demands of the programme? Most of my recent work related travel had been to the US to cover the primaries and general election, and now that that was over, I said, I’d be doing far more studio presentation.

The second was how I’d cope with the demanding quantitative component, seeing that my barely used engineering background was a long time in the past. I allowed that I was preparing for GMAT and getting a good sense of where I stood on algebraic matters.

Ginny Madeley from EMBA admissions kindly showed me around.

I came back to Saïd Business School in later that month, to cover the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event. I’m a techie, had done technology pieces for and presented the World Service’s technology programme, and talking with the guys like Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter and Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn, was like giving a greedy kid the keys to the chocolate shop.

I liked what I saw at Saïd Business School.

The quality of the lecture theatres was first-rate. I’d looked at some other biz schools and in this respect, the school’s teaching facilities were as good as any I’d seen.

I like the aesthetics of the building— brick, pale wood and glass modernism and high ceilings along the lecture theatre corridor.

The stone courtyard and the amphitheatre above look inviting. I had the feeling that as the days grew longer and, especially in the spring and summer, I’d really enjoy being at Saïd Business School.

Of course, the building has its critics, as I’ll show more fully in a later post. That muted mood lighting in the evening may look great along lecture theatre row but it doesn’t work in the library at night. MBAs and undergrads, who spend a longer time at Saïd Business School than we EMBAs do, find it wholly inadequate.

Nonetheless, I like the look and feel of Saïd Business School. I’d like to think that it’s not because I spend relatively little time there. Can’t wait for the summer. I hope we get an open air class in the amphitheatre. Never taken classes in sunglasses.