Stream of Consciousness Reflections from Kenya

I reached Mombasa, Kenya on 23^rd March 2014 after a grueling 30-odd hours of travel, straight after the grasp of the finals week.  It was my first time in Africa and the moment I got off the plane, I was greeted by a cool morning breeze that would turn into a heat wave hours later.

Our first day (there were 22 MBA1 & 2 students, led by four MBA2 students), we stayed in a fancy resort, enjoying ourselves before we got into the grunt of business.  We hung by the beach, played in the pool, chilled …essentially no different from what one would do in a resort anywhere else.  It was great that the trip leaders decided to randomize the room assignments each night so that we got to mix around with as many people in the group as possible.

On the second day, we proceeded to our 3-day, 2-night village stay in Chanagande.  The aim was to gain an appreciation of life in rural, low-income communities, and to understand the unmet needs in these communities.  All of us were paired up with fellow student and had our own ‘family’ to stay with.  The villagers we stayed with were very welcoming and seemed positively disposed towards ThinkImpact. The village chief did mention that we (Stanford students) were gaining a lot from them and that they hoped we could give back as much.  A general worry among us students was that it would be challenging to make a substantive/ measurable impact in a few days. The Unleesh application mentioned by ThinkImpact did not seem popular.  Most of the villagers I met used a basic phone; a few of the community organizers had a smartphone, but the app didn’t seem to have much uptake (yet).  

My homestay family was gracious, and we communicated via simple English and a lot of hand gestures.  The children were fascinated by us and we spent hours on our first day singing songs with them and playing with an inflatable ball that my roommate brought along.  There was no electricity and when the sun set, it turned pitch-back.  The villagers could easily navigate and recognize each other despite the darkness, while I was struggling to see using my torch light. We helped the homestay mum cook….the first meal was simple yet delicious – soup with potato in a tomato base.  They insisted on us eating more and when we could not finish the food, the children hungrily grabbed the remaining food.  At the end of dinner, the host guided us back to our room, which was housed in a mud-house.  I was impressed we had a bed!  I was also impressed with our ‘toilet’ as I expected a tiny hole in the ground, but it turned out to be a much bigger hole.  The bath area was also separated from the toilet (that is a luxury) and we managed to create a curtain to take our ‘bucket’ baths.

The next day, we met with our local entrepreneurs.  Mine was a fruit store seller who would travel 50km each way thrice a week to purchase fresh produce from the local market in Mombasa.  It seemed really dangerous to me as he would be travelling on a rented motorcycle and carrying bags of goods back to the village to sell. I tried to practice what I had learned in the empathy-mapping lessons we had before the trip.  It was not easy given the language barrier.  My community organizer (i.e. interpreter) was not very well-versed either and it was a struggle trying to understand what issues my fruit-seller was facing.  Poor communication coupled with an extremely busy store owner running the store while trying to answer my questions was not ideal.  I was afraid that we would not be able to contribute anything to his business.

Thankfully, another community organizer came to the rescue and he was so pro-active, sharp and mature in his questions (he was just 19-years old!).  I credit him for saving the day and the project.  At that moment, I thought of how skewed opportunities are presented to those born in different circumstances.

During the innovation summit, where we got to present our plans to the local entrepreneurs, I was touched when my shy fruit store seller stood up to share how he thought the project was helpful and reframed his thinking on how he could take incremental steps to improve his business and record-keeping.  I suppose I was more relieved than anything else because I did not know how helpful I would be and worse yet, I did not want to create a worse-off situation for him.  I remain skeptical on how much we could actually contribute and create major change in that short span of time, but I believe the exchange of culture and views was refreshing for both sides and helped shift perspectives for the better.

After the village stay, we headed back to Nairobi and begun our series of meetings.  We covered the spectrum of government, agriculture, finance, education and health in that fast and furious few days.  I am really glad we did the meetings post-village stay as we got to experience first-hand what the unmet needs were.  By experiencing lack of sanitation, days being ‘off-the-grid’, seeing how many children dropped out of school, understanding that healthcare was not easily affordable made the meetings a lot more meaningful and relatable.  We no longer were discussing in the abstract. 

The organizations were had meetings with were: Kenya Vision 2030, Bridge International Academies, International Finance Corporation, Equity Bank (which we also covered as a case in Strategy), Sanergy (my favorite), M-KOPA Solar (which recently had a partnership with d-light, a venture spun from the d-school), Open Capital Advisers, Miliki Afya (a very innovative low-cost and high-quality clinic targeted at the densely populated low-income areas – I was amazed at how clean they kept their clinics!), iHub, Juhidi Kilimo and finaly, the highly anticipated Safaricom/M-Pesa which dominated Kenya with their mobile money technology.

Some key take-aways from a few meetings:

1) Sanergy (hosted by David, co-founder)

Sanergy builds low-cost, high-quality, water-less toilet facilities (named FreshLife).  Sanergy’s target market is the 8 million people in Kenya’s urban slums lacking sanitation facilities.  Sanergy was piloted in the Mukuru community, where there are 500,000 people of which 80% lack access to hygienic sanitation.  Sanergy franchises these concrete toilets to ‘entrepreneurs’ in the community (Sanergy sees them more as local operators and prefers that they follow specific guidelines and not innovate on processes).  Each toilet is sold at US$600, or two for US$1100 to the operators, who usually take a loan from Kiva or Equity Bank.  The operators are allowed to decide on the pricing and they keep all the fees they collect.  On average, each operator makes ~US$1,000 per toilet in a year, which is more than the average in the community.

Sanergy has grown quickly over the past two years and there are not 189 operators, with 14,000-15,000 users a day.  About 7 tons of waste is collected a day and processed into fertilizers.  Currently, it takes 6-8 months for the waste to be processed into fertilizers.  However, Sanergy has recently imported an enzyme technology from Singapore that will allow them to reduce this processing time to one day!  Sanergy sees this as a game-changer. 

Sanergy is not yet profitable as they have not yet sold their fertilizers.  About 1 ton of fertilizer is processed from 1.3-1.4 tons of waste.  Sanergy views their fertilizers as a complement to the synthetic fertilizers and not as a substitute.  In addition to solid waste, they are now researching how they can use liquid waste and biogas.  Each toilet on average is operating at 50% capacity, and Sanergy hopes this can be increased.

I took pictures of the old processing plant but we did not get a chance to visit the new processing plant as it is located an hour away from the HQ.

2) M-Kopa (hosted by Jesse and Alvin, co-founders)

M-Kopa is an asset-funding company that started in Kenya 4 years ago.  It took just a year for them to prove themselves to series A investors.  M-Kopa is targeting the US$1B ‘light’ market that is currently fueled by kerosene (kerosene is the competitor, not other solar-powered companies).  Their target demographics are responsible parents who are invested in their children’s health and education.  Families who buy these lights generally finance their loans in two ways – sponsorship by friends/family or their own pockets.  They make payments to M-Kopa through M-Pesa.  It seems that the key differentiating factor that will sustain M-Kopa beyond their d-light technology is the payment system.  Their partnership with Safaricom which owns the M-Pesa system is critical in getting people to sign up (because they trust the Safaricom brand) and to pay (if they don’t pay, M-Kopa cuts off the system through an embedded sim card provided by Safaricom).

M-Kopa has sold 50,000 of these d-light systems thus far and is currently selling 5,000 per month.  Their biggest constraint to selling more is not demand, but supply.  They are hoping to sell 30,000 per month in future.  They are not yet profitable as they invest all their cash flows into growth. 

3) iHub/BRCK (hosted by Eric, CEO of BRCK)

We had a really short time with Eric as he was rushing off from one board meeting to another.  However, he did give us an overview on BRCK and showed us a prototype they developed.  

BRCK is essentially a router, modem and battery all packed into a compact system.  They intend to sell each system for $200 and are targeting SMEs and small business owners.  It is unclear what the take-up rate will be as the owners could alternatively buy separate routers, modems etc for lower prices.  

Eric said BRCK’s biggest challenge was the lack of clarity on government regulation.  For example, they want to assemble all of BRCK in Nairobi but taxation rules on some of the BRCK components prevent them from doing so. 

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That is all I have for the meetings; I actually ‘hand’-wrote notes for every meeting but re-typing them all would be too onerous.  On to the favorite part of my trip – the Safari!  We went to the Masai Mara National Reserve (apparently the most prolific safari destination in Kenya and a must-see for visitors to Kenya and East Africa).  As I was recollecting Disney’s The Lion King, I anticipated all the animals I really wanted to see in the wild – the lion and the cheetah.  During our sunset and sunrise game drive, I saw both and more!  Zebras, giraffes, elephants, ostriches, (one) hyena, vultures and their nests, 3! Lions, 2! Cheetahs (that actually walked towards us), gazelles, and those pigs that everyone seemed to be making a big fuss out of, probably because of nostalgic remnant memories from The Lion King.  Time flew by as we drove and saw the wildlife fending for their daily survival.  I would love to visit a safari again.

Before I end this stream-of-consciousness writing, I want to highlight a village a few of us opted to visit while at the safari – the Masai Village.  For an entrance fee, the village chief’s son showed us their nomadic way of life – fire was ignited using wood and dried leaves; houses were built from cow dung; food was a mixture of cow blood and milk (they rarely ate the cow except for special occasions).  The midwife held an esteemed position in the village and polygamy was widely practiced and accepted as a way of life.  The villagers were very proud of their existing traditions but the chief’s son also shared with us that they acknowledged the changing world and were also changing along with it.  For example, the entrance fees we provided them with would be channeled into funds to send the village children to the nearby school.  Another fascinating and almost hypnotic tradition they have is for the guys to sing and jump as high as they possibly can (and boy, can they jump!).  The height of the jump signaled some form of virility that was supposed to be attractive to women and crucial for courtship.  Certainly way more interesting than any other form of courtship I have heard of!  On that note, it is time to say goodbye.

 

 

 

Reflection

I got a mass generic letter from the MBA Student Life Office that was essentially giving us a pat on the back for going through this program.  Nothing profound about the letter but it was quite a timely reminder for me to reflect on my journey thus far.  I am more than halfway through my first year at Stanford.  What have I learned and achieved?

Before I came in, I had heard various accounts from alumni on how their Stanford journey was amazing/transformative.  While skeptical, I had secretly hoped to experience that.  About a month or so ago, I lamented to Shu that this was hardly a transformative experience.  Besides time and ego management, I was hardly learning anything that I could not have learned on my own.  Shu helped me put this into perspective.

1) Career-wise, the Stanford name opened doors to me that I would not otherwise have been able to knock on. I would never have been able to get a (summer) job in New York on my own.

2) Today I attended a talk by Christine Lagarde.  When I first got here, I attended a talk by Richard Dawkins and took a class with Condi Rice.  A month or so ago, I attended a talk and brunch with General McChrystal.  And there are many more such talks to come.  I would only be able to sniff at these opportunities if I weren’t here (or in another reputable school).

3) I have not fully made use of this, but I am surrounded by the brightest and most diverse people I will likely ever be surrounded by. That alone is quite a humbling experience. 

So yes, many things to be grateful for.  I got into the competitive Arbuckle Leadership Program too, which is something I feel will be essential to my long-term learning and personal growth.  

A few hours ago, I had my one-on-one with my personal leadership coach and we were discussing how I am uncomfortable with confrontations and tend to gloss over my achievements or stories.  We talked about my suite-mate and how I was bothered by me constantly being the one cleaning up and yet not articulating my unhappiness to her.  I reason with myself that I should tolerate better.  Anyway, when I returned after the coaching session, my suitemate came into the kitchen and I sensed she was unhappy.  So I asked her what was wrong and she basically shared some personal family problems and broke down.  I was really surprised when she said I was her closest friend here and that she never really got to share her emotions with anyone before (even outside the GSB it seems).  I’m not sure why she shares so much with me, especially since I think I’m pretty closed up towards her.  Anyway, I gave her a hug and offered to walk with her.  We just came back from a 2-hour hangout session and she says she feels much better now.  

This is helpful for me.  Listening to people’s problems and letting them articulate their thoughts mean something to me.  What does it mean to me?  It drives home the point that our time here is limited; that there are things that matter and there are those that don’t; that we are flawed and painfully human; that we are vulnerable and need each other, as strong and independent as we would like to be.

So yes, my short reflection – this has been a transformative journey, not in the way I expected but in this way.  Gonna call my dad now.  

Interview Season

‘Tis here. Flying to Dallas on Friday for the Deloitte Women Leadership Launch; back on Sunday. Interviews with Bain, BCG, McKinsey and DaVita all next week. Interviews with IMS, L.E.K, Genentech and Deloitte next week. Fingers crossed for a job in New York. Otherwise…can’t really think of otherwise.

Arbuckle Leadership Fellow interview is this Thursday. So many interviews…feels like judgement day on a repeat mode – the need to justify my worth and existence.

Looking forward to next Friday…thankfully there is next Friday.

Beginnings and Ends

Fall Quarter has ended, about a month ago actually. I have not been very diligent in up-keeping this blog but I will try to reflect on the past quarter and muse on the upcoming Winter Quarter (which begins tomorrow).

Academics

I am not sure how much I really learned the past quarter. Some random takeaways are that accounting proved more difficult than I expected it to be; organizational behavior turned out to be more interesting that I thought it might be; and Condoleezza Rice is an amazing lecturer with a wealth of knowledge and experience I could only have imagined.  Her class from Global Strategy, even though she only effectively lectured one class, was probably a defining academic experience for me.  

Grades-wise, I did better than I expected, which doesn’t say much really. At least now I don’t feel like I’m below the average Stanford GSB student.

For the coming quarter, I will be taking more quant-heavy classes, which should hopefully be better for me.  I’m not a fast reader, so the fewer case readings, the better.  I’ll be taking the below required classes:

• Managerial Finance (4 units)
• Data and Decisions (4 units)
• Managerial Economics – Accelerated (4 units)
• Optimization and Simulation Modelling (2 units)

I will only be taking one elective – Innovation and Management in Healthcare (2 units).  I had initially signed up for another elective – Strategic Communication (4 units) – because I do want to improve on my oral presentation skills. But this quarter will be challenging, what with the job interviews and Impact Labs job. Maybe next quarter or the following year.

School-related Stuff

I think I tried to be as social to the extent I felt slightly uncomfortable. I did not go for any club (party) events, except the Halloween party with Shu. Skipped all the FOAM (Friends of Arjay Miller) nights. Notwithstanding, I went for the ones that allowed me to actually talk to people – Women in Management (WIM) Retreat, Small-group dinners (went for 4 hosted dinners and organized 2 brunches) and the Open Mic nights (went for 3, including one with Shu, and sang at one too). I’ve also signed up to be part of a WIM group – a group of 6-8 women who will meet every two weeks for 1-3 hours to discuss anything really. Nothing has happened on that front yet; it only starts in Winter, so will write more about it later. 

In terms of the more serious stuff, I signed up for one of the Impact Labs job and got selected to work for an Impact Investing start-up. I’ve not actually done any work on it yet – the expectation is that we are supposed to work on a project of strategic value to the firm, and commit between 50-80 hours from Jan to May. I’ve already connected with my host firm and hopefully will get started on this soon. May be meeting Tom Bird, my host, this Friday too. We’ll see.

For the first time, I also ran for a Student Association position – got elected into the Diversity Comm. Surprisingly, this was the second most competitive comm to run for (the most competitive was the Finance comm). Anyway, I have not done any work for this yet, and we will probably start this quarter, just like the Impact Labs job.

Besides all the  job applications (7 first-round interviews this month), I have also applied to be an Arbuckle Leadership Fellow. Basically, this Fellow will be trained to coach others (the incoming MBA1s). It’s a competitive selective process and there will be an interview sometime this month, so we will see. The good thing about getting in is that the training doesn’t start till next quarter, so this is not gonna soak up my Winter time. Being a Fellow will be very time-consuming in both Spring this year and Fall for my second year.

What else? I’ll be going to Kenya for my Global Study Trip; this trip falls under the Social Innovation Center, so I expect it to be more well-organized, even if it’s run by MBA2s. That should be exciting – my first time to Africa!

Non-School Stuff

So that was a quick and dirty (or dry) run down of my Fall Quarter. On a more personal note, relationship-wise,  the past three months have been very defining for me. All my critical decisions are now shaped by this, which is really new to me. I’ve always somewhat prided myself on making independent decisions. Priorities have changed though, and that’s pretty clear to me. We have managed to meet up every month (I just spent 3 weeks in New York instead of returning to Singapore). The next time was supposed to be in mid-Feb but I was happily surprised to learn that it will be in mid-Jan instead. 

Friends-wise, I’ve not done a good job of keeping in touch with old friends, with the exception of Mel and Lor, but still not good enough. Shall try harder. As for making new friends, perhaps at the superficial level I have made a few. Not sure about how serious I am in establishing new strong friendships. Not a key priority for me. But certainly a good to have. 

Ok, I’m bored by my own writing now. Ciao. 

Midterms

Very exciting indeed.  Those who are taking Advanced Accounting have no exams on Monday, which means they can go take a 4-day hike to the woods.  Or go for the Pride retreat somewhere 2 hours from here.  While I try to figure out what checks and balances mean.  Accounting must be the most non-intuitive subject I’ve come across.  I’m lost in the rules.  Maybe one day when I get it, I will think this all makes so much sense.

Some random takeaways for the week.  I led the Leadership Lab this week and it went well.  Basically, this is how it works.  Each of us is given two chances to lead the Squad.  And LeadLab is supposedly a time when we get to try out any leadership styles we want; to take risks and just be.  So what was I?  I was trying to see if the military style would work for a bright, individualistic group of youngsters.  And surprisingly, it worked.  People can be told what to do, as long as you don’t push the boundaries too far beyond reason.  In my next LeadLab, I’ll try to adopt a role in which I absorb the individual and make them feel important.  Would love or fear work better in today’s management context?  My mind goes back to Machiavelli’s Prince – “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.”  Somehow, I don’t think fear works anymore.  The evolution of man’s mind.

What else.  I sang in front of ~100+ students.  Mike and Johnson, two extremely talented musicians from my Squad, organized this bi-weekly event called the ‘Open Mic Night’, allowing anyone who wants to perform, perform.  So I sang and Mike played the guitar.  It was a really amazing feeling to have people sing along with you and in that 3/4 minutes, give their complete attention to you.  Sounds very self-important, but it was quite an awesome feeling.  

Ok, I should get back to attempting studying now.  I guess it’s not too bad…I suck at accounting but am apparently good at reasoning/logic.  I think I would rather be good at accounting though, but I guess this is not a bargain.

And that’s my super boring post to end the Friday night.  

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On a personal note (I am trying to refrain from anything too personal here, but slight exception), I had the most wonderful and heart-skipping surprise last Thursday night.  A knock on the door and a meeting of two souls.  Happiness is not a feeling I’m used to, but I certainly don’t mind getting used to it.  Halloween and Great America. 

Women in Management Retreat

Yesterday (Oct 12) was my mother’s birthday.  She would have been 64 if she were alive.  I did not remember the date; my father emailed me and told me.  So maybe she was angry or something, because yesterday was also one of the more dramatic confrontations of my life, which I shall not elaborate here.  My mother was not one to shy away from confrontations, maybe this was her way of reminding me of her presence?  Of course, that’s probably a far-fetched idea and silly notion.  In any case, if I could tell her, I’d let her know that she influenced and shaped my life in a far greater way then she could have ever imagined, given that I didn’t see her much during my childhood and she died when I was 9.  I’ve never gotten over the events leading to her death, her death and the subsequent events that followed.  The pain will probably never will go away.  There you go, mother.  Be at peace; your struggles continue inside me.

On Friday, a group of MBA1 and MBA2 women got together and went for a 2 day 1 night retreat at Chaminade Resort in Santa Cruz.  It was wonderful and I’m glad I went.  A record number of women went (~160+) and 130+ of them were MBA1s; an astounding ~90% of the females in my class went. 

Everyone was receptive and nice and the atmosphere was very amiable.  I’m glad I got to hang out with a bunch of ladies without the hang of a competitive environment.  Finally getting to see them as people, and not a mass of faceless digits.  Anyway, what was wonderful for me was not the huge group, but just a select few.  The best part was probably my ride up there.  Lauren (the co-President of WIM) drove us there…I didn’t even know she was the co-President.  The other MBA2 in the car was Maayan from Israel, another amazing warm person, and Natalie, an MBA1 who was hilarious in her uniquely Korean way.  I don’t want to gloss over how impressed I was with Lauren and Maayan, but I don’t want to elaborate too much either.  Suffice to say that they are very humble, well-grounded and intelligent people with great but realistic ambitions..  Perhaps it helped that they were older too; both were 3 years older than me…and I’m already considered on the old side here.  Age really does change people, usually for the better I think.  At least in terms of perspective, wisdom and personality.

We spent Saturday mostly discussing life in Stanford and this is what I gleaned are the key worries of MBA1s. 

1) People are very afraid of how they are perceived to others, but often forget that how they perceive themselves is very different from how others perceive them.  Likewise, how they perceive others is often not reflective of reality.  There’s often a disconnect between perceived reality and reality.  We are getting metaphysical here, are we San?

2) FOMO.  Fear of Missing Out.  This is a HUGE concern of people.  I’ve always thought myself immune to this syndrome but there are times when I hear a party outside, and I feel a sense of sadness that I’m missing out on some fun or whatever.  Key take-away: stop comparing yourself to others and listen to what you really want to do and be.  If it’s an activity you will not enjoy and that you believe will not allow you to grow in the areas you want to, then there is no point indulging in those activities because of how you want others to perceive you, or are afraid of missing out.  That cover will fade and it will just be a farce.  If, on the other hand, what’s holding you back is breaking out of the comfort zone, then by all means, take the leap of faith and purposefully break through that inertia.

3) A lot of anxiety about time management and of being able to balance academics, social life and career stuff.  Key to this is mapping your priorities and learning to make trade-offs.  And to always be present in the moment.

In essence, you can perhaps infer that we have many First-World problems, or what I would call Stanford problems.  These are not real problems at all.  (I’m not discounting that there are people struggling with real problems – health, family illness, etc).  But in general, these are the key concerns of the majority first-years at the retreat.

Recognizing that these are first-world problems does not unfortunately liberate me from them.  I still have to overcome them and figure a way to do so.

I’ll write about my goals in the next entry and how I plan to achieve them without compromising what matters to me. Quality time matters to this person, and I’ll need to understand the nuances of that and give in such a way that is reflective of intentions.  

 

 

 

Richard Dawkins & The Unpredictability of Life

Life is unpredictable. I know, Cliche of the year. And yet, we pay so little attention to that, believing that every tactical action or grandiose plan of ours will determine our future and life. On the flip side, a seemingly inconsequential series of events can lead to an avalanche, vastly altering the path of our lives. An error in judgement can irrevocably change lives.

I shall not speak in the abstract. Last Tuesday, a professor got hit by an SUV while crossing the street just outside my dorm. Fortunately, he was only minorly injured and should recover in time. That is an event beyond his control and an error of judgement of the driver. Not fatal, no alcohol involved, not serious and thus dismissed.

On Saturday morning, Zak, a classmate of mine and someone I’ve grown fond of (he stayed a night with me in Singapore when he was travelling the world), got into a serious car accident. I only found out about it at night. The short of the story is that he made his way to San Francisco on Friday at around 11pm, after a small group dinner here, and was trying to drive back from San Francisco in the wee hours of the morning. At around 4am, he crashed into a cab in a head-on collision. The cab driver, a passenger and Zak were all seriously injured. One of the passengers (a 62-year old man) died. Zak was travelling in the wrong direction of the highway, so road-wise, he was definitely in the wrong. He’s now in hospital and is suspected of drunk-driving. If convicted, he will be out of the MBA program and will probably have to serve time. The series and consequence of events break my heart. I’ve also started to question what really is important (a recurring theme in my life).

When we gathered today to talk, or rather to hear the Dean’s address, I was struck by the coldness of people. Instead of sympathy, many were silently angry…that one person might ruin the reputation of Stanford. All we have so far are press reports, surely we should not jump to conclusions? Also, even if Zak was in the wrong, can we so easily abandon him? He will suffer for the rest of his life; the least we could do is to not judge, if we can’t help. Another thing that struck me was what the Dean said – ’48 hours ago, Zak was his resume: Harvard, Cambridge, Genetech…his world has completely changed now”.  What struck me was my hypocrisy in the loss I felt for him. Of course I was concerned about his well-being, but the heaviness in my heart was caused more by the thought that Zak would lose his future…

But surely, his life is more important than his resume? The lives affected by this are more important than resumes and reputations? I’m confused by what is preached by the school and what is in fact ardently pursued. I am guilty of that too. Blind pursuits, or pursuits given more weight than they actually have (in terms of consequence).  Complex issues, no clear answers and so we will continue going down the path of acting and reacting.

I see the flaw in my argument – we of course can’t just not care and take it that nothing matters (clearly in this case, a bad decision/action mattered). I just think it’s important to take things into perspective, and accord importance to things that are in fact, important. To know that our decisions and actions for certain seemingly unimportant events can have dire consequences, and on the flip side, that some things (like my accounting homework) have zero consequence on anything other than my accounting grade, if even.

Which brings me to Richard Dawkins. I attended a conversation with him today, he was there mainly to promote his book “An Appetite for Wonder”. I was excited to finally meet the author of “The God Delusion”, a book I’ve heard much about but never read. I was quite disappointed by his interview. Too many inconsistencies in his beliefs.

He started by saying that our existence is an extremely improbable event – everything had to fall perfectly in place for us to exist. Later, when asked why he doesn’t believe in God when we can’t disprove God, he said that the likelihood of God existing is too improbable. Isn’t our existence improbable as well?

When asked about his views on the religiosity of American politicians in the Senate, he said it is ‘statistically inconceivable’ that the 550 leaders, many of whom are well-educated, would all have religions, and that they are probably hiding their disbelief. Again, a flaw in his weight on probabilities. He also kept linking education with atheism, inferring that with better/more education, people will not believe in religion. I dare say a significant population of the scientific community, as well as a larger part of the highly-educated community, believe in a higher being of sorts. Does he discount their judgement and decide on his own biases to believe the other half of the disbelievers? Using education or science to prove/disprove God/religion will always yield disappointing results because science has no tools to validate God. I don’t want to go into a spiel on what are the right tools because I simply do not know (it’s always easier to critique another).

Another disconcerting point about Dawkins that I could not reconcile was his zeal to get people to ‘come out’ of religion. Does he discredit religion or believe that religion is inherently bad? In other words, what is his motivation for doing so? If it is to discover ‘Truth’ and get others to see it (which sounds like a religion really), then my question would be why that would matter. Does he accord some higher value to the idea of “Truth” than to something else? And if so, why? What motivates his value system and decisions to accord meaning/importance to issues? After all, if we can explain everything away using genes (including the idea of altruism), then we are in fact, free from the bondage that our genes have imposed on us. In other words, if I can say that I accord meaning to this value because that is what my genes tell me, I know that in fact, this value holds no meaning at all beyond what my genes tell me and am thus free from believing in this ethereal idea.

So much for the abstract, the complex and the unpredictability. It’s 11pm now and unfortunately, I do have accounting homework to do. I must pay attention to that, as inconsequential as it may be.

Week 1

Someone is not very good at this blog thing. Well, A for effort. Self-graded too. Brilliant. I don’t have much to say. That must be obvious by now. So, I’ll just write a list of the courses I am attending now and the time period of these courses.

I’m taking 9 classes this Autumn quarter – it’s all fixed; we don’t get a say in this. I’m all for control and decisions being made for me. Anyhoo. I think the classes can be broken down into 3 main categories – Leadership & Management, Critical Thinking, and Accounting. All these categories fall under the umbrella called “Management Perspectives”.

1) Leadership & Management

• Managing Groups and Teams (15 – 20 Sept): This pass/fail course was held during Week 0 and I must say it was quite painful. 3.5 hours everyday.
• Strategic Leadership (24 Sept – 20 Nov): I’m supposed to be preparing for this class but am writing a blog entry instead at 3am in the morning. Go figure. I need to strategize on this bugger called time management.
• Organizational Behavior (23 Sept – 30 Oct): Surprisingly, I really like this fluffy class. Very entertaining and full of experiments that I can take away from. From the two classes thus far, one should always be mindful against making quick decisions/judgements and use systemic methods (e.g. a check list) to correct against our natural biases. My favourite quote from an article I read on self-fulfilling prophecies. “If we find another person unpleasant initially, we try to avoid that person as much as possible, and he/she will have a difficult time disabusing us of our negative assessment. If we like another person, however, we seek our his/her company and thereby give him ample opportunity to ruin our hopes and expectations.” There is supposedly a positive takeaway from this anecdote but I find it too funny to make this positive.
• Leadership Lab (23 Sept – 4 Dec): This culminates in an Executive Challenge and for this class, we get videotaped for every session. Supposed to ramp up our leadership skills and is quite self-driven. You move the needle as far or as little as you choose to.
• Ethics in Management (4 Nov- 11 Dec): Seems self-explanatory
• Global Strategy (11 Nov – 9 Dec): Seems very high-level

2) Financial Accounting (23 Sept – 11 Dec): I spend way too much time on this, but the course goes on rapid fire and everyone is on coke so I kinda need to keep up. Would have been great if I had prepared for this in the months prior to coming here. Could haves, would haves.

3) Critical Analytical Thinking (23 Sept – 19 Nov): Great start thus far, with dinner at the Professor’s penthouse in San Francisco during Week 0. Today will be the first lesson. The class will be small (16 people only), so that should be good. It’s really a training in logic, applied to the business context. Basically, we will need to challenge ourselves (and each other) to always make judgements based on well-reasoned arguments and not just based on what we ‘think/feel’.

Right……….I should get back to Strategy……….is the Elevator or Cell Phone industry more lucrative……………

 

And so it begins…

Could it be…..that I am happy? I think so, yes. The feeling of possibility, possibilities……

Classes started officially today and I am certain I will be swamped soon, but I think much learning will happen…dragging personal growth with that. Looking forward to pushing the needle of my scale and reaching a new level. I’m fortunate to learn from brilliant classmates of mine, and will make a deliberate shift from seeing them as my competition to my learning partners.

So, Accounting and Organizational Behaviour today. Accounting went right over my head. Org Behaviour was fun – did the Carter Racing case and learned something new about making decisions – that making good decisions is not (entirely) based on intelligence – brilliant people make stupid decisions by not asking the right questions or deciding on biases they subconsciously have. The way to go around this? Ask the right questions, deliberately. Keep asking questions.

I’ve got a Leadership Squad meeting later (sounds so military).

End of Week 0

End of this week and orientation stuff, including our course on ‘Managing Teams & Groups’. I started off resistant to the course and ended it still not buying into the whole thing, but overall, I think I gained some insights into my own abilities and goals. The leader I strive to be is someone who keeps the big picture in mind and is calm and portrays confidence in all situations. Perception is crucial, and gender/ethnicity matters. We didn’t go much into that but those are my main takeaways. Perception, Confidence, Coolness = Leader. Good ideas help too.

Invited myself to the dinner with the Chinese students, mostly from China. It was an enjoyable enough dinner. Alcohol helped. There was the token Vietnamese, American and me. Nice to be in that community and hear Chinese being spoken so fluently. Had two shots of ‘bai jiu’ containing 56% alcohol. Was buzzed.

Ok, point of this random entry besides saying that it’s the end of Week 0 and work should start like now (taking placement tests tomorrow and have assignments due over the weekend). This is business school; a lot of the business stems from social activities. Weiyi was not totally off when he said that when MBA students tell him that they are busy, it’s largely because they are ‘tasting wine’.

Am buzzed and sleepy. Only had 2-3 hours of sleep last night. Ok, my point! Yes. I think I know what my useless talent is. I’m horrible in big groups and social crowds, but am very good at reading people and learning them one-on-one. I can see their strengths and weaknesses clearly and for those less confident, I have a knack for drawing them out of their shells and letting them see a different self. It takes a lot out of me and I only do it for those I am intrigued by, or at least have interest in (not interest in the physical sense,necessarily). So,that’s what I think I’m good at. I may also be totally wrong.