so you guys are big in strategy consulting , huh?

Companies that come recruiting in IMD are mostly professional, and show a lot of interest in us. McKinsey was no different. They brought out a partner, and actually were fairly low key versus the most perception of McKinsey: snubby. (BCG was a different story, but that is for another entry) In all fairness, the partner who came was really nice, down to earth, and left a great impression of McKinsey for me.

The companies come on campus and give an one hour presentation, followed by an hour of cocktail, and informal Q&A. I guess the IMD bunch are tough cookies too. I was standing next to the McKinsey partner when this conversation took place.

Johnny (student): so can you tell me how you measure your success? Do you tie your client's success to your compensation?
Partner: no we don't do that because that usually leads to short term focused goals that are exteremely easy to measure.
..................................................................
more tough questions follow. The last question is below.
...................................................................
Johnny: So, what is McKinsey's strategy in attracting more business, especiallly in those top 100 or 1000 movers and shakers in every market?

Partner: well, our clients are mostly relationship based, we get business usually comes because we have been advising them for a long time or we have had informal relationships with the top brass. We have not had to enter into a bid since the low in 2002. So we don't really have a strategy per se.

Bill (student): well, that is really strange for a company that is known for strategy consulting to NOT have a strategy itself.

Partner: *^@#$(@(#*&$(*#@:"{]+

(I guess they want to recruit people who can think on their feet, IMD is the right place)

the never ending accounting story

bombed it as promised............
(retake scheduled during the july vacation, bloody hell!)

Time to find a job

I guess it's the disadvantage of a one year program. Only 6 months into the program, we are beginning our job search. The two weeks between the end of finals, and our Argentina trip are pretty much set aside for job searches and workshops. We have two days of company presentations where companies like l'Oreal and McKensey come on campus and give presentations about their organization. The first one was last Friday, and tomorrow is the other one. There will be two more days of it in August. I am going to l'Oreal, McKinsey, and Amazon tomorrow. We get two hours for each company, one hour of presentation and another for imformal socialization. I guess it's pretty impressive. This year, 30 some companies are recruiting on campus, and there are only 90 of us. It is looking to be a good year for us.

For me, going through all these presentations is not just seeing companies, but also forces me to really reconsider my original intention before I came here of wanting to go into consulting. The attraction of being a consultant again, the fast paste life is all pretty exciting. But am I really ready to go back into that? And is that what I really want? It promises a certain level of success, but are the trade-offs really worth it?

I have been talking to Stephanus, a classmate from South Africa. He was a trader for RNB, and was really successful. Right now, he is trying to make a choice between going to London, back to the trader life (or lack there of working from 8-midnight), doing exciting stuff he wouldn't have the oppertunity to do in Jo Berg, and going back to Jo Berg, make a very comfortable living but give up the oppertunity to strike it extremely rich in London.

So, is this what we thrity-somethings all confront in our lives?

accounting continued

No, I haven't found out if I failed the accounting final or not. But, I did attend a birthday dinner tonight. The person who organized it has ac accounting background. After I got home from dinner, I got the following email.

Hey, double-double... Kim Kian's Birthday Bill. The damage is CHF 56 each.

Dinner = 1121

Zara = 110

Total = 1231

1x Ayin

1x Kenji

1x Maria

1x Lili

1x Paru

1x Woo

1x Anthony

1x Stephanus

1x Pierre

1x Sia

1x Steve

1x Fei Peng

1x Jie

1x Leizl

1x Nicolas

1x Rohan

1x Sabahat

1x Aaron

2x Carlos

2x Stephan

Total = 22 x 56 = 1232

DR Aaron's cash at bank

CR Accounts receivable

Nice to balance the accounts at the end,

Aaron.

Ok, so I was ready to pay Aaron the 56 francs tomorrow. But I couldn't stop cracking up after I saw the next email from another classmate who is an auditor.

Hey, if my audit is right, the account doesn’t ‘balance’

DR Aaron's cash at bank 1232

CR Accounts receivable 1231

CR Aaron’s profit 1

You’re banking 1 franc profit!!!!

This is what MBAs do in their spare time, I think. I totally missed it, never bother to question it for a minute. I guess this is why I will never be a bean counter.

finals

tomorrow the last final starts, and it's my favorite subject: accounting.
The professor already told the story a couple of times, every year, some of us don't pass the course. He makes them sign a pledge to never apply for accounting jobs. You know what, if he offered me that letter now, I would sign. Who the hell grew up asipring to be a bean counter anyway?

Lausanne Beer Fest

Beer! At last, some choices of good beer. They tell you that europeans drink better beer, but the choices in Switzerland are few and not all that great. I picked up 8 half-pint microbrew for 10 CHF (about $8). Ouch!

Anyway, the beer fest in town this year had a belgium theme, so there was PLENTY of good beer to go around from cherry beer to some pretty serious amber Kwak at 8% alcohol! It was great! Although half a pint costed me aroun $5. Better than nothing.