Fundamentals of Leadership [08/10 - 11/12]

The Fundamentals of Leadership is one of the first course in the University of Adelaide MBA programme. Personally, I find this to be a very fun module to take.

The First Intensive - Understanding self and others

Before the start of the first weekend intensive, we were told to attempt a few questionnaires and go through the readings. The questionnaires we attempted were the Influence Dimension, Assessment of Management Skills, Belbin Team Roles Profil and Tolerance of Ambiguity.

On the Friday evening when we got started, we played a simple game by going around the class and getting to know everyone. There were 35 students in the class and we mapped one of the behavioral or interest characteristics mentioned in the sheet to the person's name. Thereafter we were brought to understand the context of Leaders and Managers.

The first picture below is a photo of Ms Lois from the University of Adelaide giving us a lecture on management. The different schools of thought on management were gone through with us and how business environment affects management style during the second day.



By the third day, we touched on Understanding self and that's where the questionnaire we have attempted comes in. We were segregated into the different groups and I am an Analyzer.

I find the topic on Understanding Self to be very applicable in our day to day life. There is a natural tendency to discriminate against people who are different and band together with people similar, but from this course I have learn to understand and appreciate differences. Actually differences is a good thing. There is also the danger of Group Think in that if we have people of same mindset and character together, priority maybe in preserving harmony over what is right, creativity and innovation maybe stifle by Group Thinking.



Group Project - Interviewing the Managers

As part of our group assignment (which take up 30% of the percentage allocation for the course), we have to interview two leaders. Two of our team mates recommend their managers and on the 23rd October (Saturday) morning we went down to Jurong East and interview the General Manager of a Japanese company (below).



And also a senior financial manager from Prudential below.



During the interview with the General Manager of the Japanese Company (he has more than 30 years of working experience), he shared with us on his life perspective and leadership style. I have learn a lot from him during this 3 hours long interview. He shared with us on financial management, spending within our means, of leading by example and relating to people around and finally of leaving a legacy behind in life. He told us not to work for the money but to work for the passion.

Group Project - Preparing the Report

We spent several evenings chilling out at TCC Boat Quay for our project work. It's a great place to hang out. But do note that it closes at 11pm. I still fondly look back at the many evenings we spent there.



The Second Intensive - Presentation and Group Photos

As part of our course assessment, everyone have to give a presentation. We were the first group to do the presentation. The photo below shows another group conducting the presentation. After each presentation, we were individually given feedback via emails on our presentation.



Here is our group photo. We had lots of fun together. From left we have Adeline, Michelle, Edwin, Kar Yong and me.



Another group photo with Lois in there.



Here is a group photo of another group.



The Second Intensive - Supportive Communication and Conflict Management

One of the key learning from the second intensive is on Supportive Communication and Conflict Management. These are the most practical skills which I have learn from the course. There are actually certain ways of communicating which can be positive to people around. And when we encounter conflicts, what are the methods of resolving it. It is all taught in the FOL subject.

This is definitely one of the most applicable subject.

Marketing Management [30/07 - 18/09]

Introduction

The second module for my University of Adelaide MBA programme will be Marketing Management. I was deciding between Managerial Finance (which comes directly after my Accounting module) and Marketing Management (which is more relevant to my work). Finally I decided on the latter as I hope to use whatever I can learn from marketing to my work as soon as possible and also to take a break from all the financial jargons.

Coincidentally, one of my good friend, William also enrolled for the module. We matriculated at the same time during Term 2 of 2010. The lecturer for the course is Dr Cullen Habel from the University of Adelaide.

He is a great lecturer-cum-facilitator who goes through with us many of the case studies. Below is Dr Cullen leading us through one of the marketing session.

Some case studies include Procter & Gamble approach towards introducing new products, CRM@Tesco for market segmentation, Singapore Airlines' Singapore Girl branding, David Beckham as a brand and Nivea product line extension.



Social Media on Marketing

The impact of social media on marketing has been touched on very early in the course. This shows the University of Adelaide MBA programme has been kept abreast with the latest happenings on the technological developments these few years. Social medias include Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and online Forums, and a case study of how Dell bad customer service in 2005 resulted in an Internal Inferno (Hart, C and Blackshaw).

Dr Cullen also touched on Personal Marketing and this aspect of which interest me. I maybe creating a personal professional profile on the internet soon as part of the discussions on personal marketing.


Group Project

Our group project is to analyze Kraft's name change of Vegemite to iSnack 2.0. Dr Cullen let us have a bite into Vegemite during our very first lesson. It can be found in certain supermarkets in Singapore. It taste a bit like Marmite. But it's extremely salty and it's much thicker (guess Singaporeans are not used to this taste).



I really enjoy working with everyone in the group. We met 3 times in all (first time in Raffles Place MRT TCC, second and third time in Adelaide's discussion room). There are lots of topics we can talk about besides studies. The synergy between all of us just flows through naturally and William is our leader.

The group photo is below. From left we have Raymond, me, Shu Ping and William. After our exams, we went down to Graces Court Hotel Vegetarian restaurant for lunch. We always chat for hours. It's really so much fun working with everyone. Really hope to be able to work together on it again.



Wine Research

Dr Cullen is an expert in wine research. I have also done a bit on reading and research into wine due to my involvement with the Wine Hub below. The other reason why I choose the Marketing Management module is to see whether I can link up between Dr Cullen's research expertise with the Wine Hub Exchange. Finally managed to make that happen on the 5th August (Thursday). Truth to tell, I abstain from alcohol whenever possible due to personal reasons. As such, I am unable to participate in wine research. It's great that they are able to meet one another. Really enjoy the positive energy from this exchange. The link to Dr Cullen’s blog entry is here.



Gruen Transfer

Dr Cullen showed several videos of the Gruen Transfer in class. I enjoy it greatly cos it's extremely humorous! From what I understand, Gruen Transfer originally is about consumers walking into a shopping mall and be dazzle by all the sights and sounds in a mall setting. They may have plans initially to just buy a few stuffs, but they will eventually be distracted into buying more.

The Gruen Transfer series is broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia. It is all about advertising and marketing. Not only it is funny, i has a great bit of educational value, definitely a must-watch for advertisers and marketers. You can search on YouTube on the videos.

Accounting for Managers [14/05 - 26/06]

Here is my review of the first module I have taken for my Master of Business Administration Course - Accounting for Managers.

My Background

I have absolutely no knowledge or background in accounting. I haven't studied it in school as compared to the rest of my group mates. And my work has nothing to do with accounting. Within this 1.5 months, I have come to appreciate and understand the work done by accountants and its importance.

Lecturer

My lecturer for the course is Dr Chris Graves (in the picture below). He's an amazing lecturer and has a great sense of humor. Most importantly, he is able to explain abstract accounting concepts in layman's terms. I spent 3 weeks before the course reading up the textbook and got a bit confused. All the doubts are cleared in the 3 days intensive session where he easily explained and connect all the concepts together. Thumbs Up!



The main parts of the course are on Financial Accounting with the latter half on introductory to Managerial Accounting.

Learning to Invest

There is great emphasis in understanding the main financial statements covering the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flow. Real corporate financial reports have been used. Of course the non-corporate financial reports are also highlighted such as governmental financial reports, not-for-profit financial reports and so on.

To evaluate the profitability, liquidity and solvency of a company, the accounting ratios were used. One of the most valuable skill I have learnt is in reading financial reports. I have a few large bluechip equities holdings in the Singapore Stock Exchange and they would send me big fat financial reports which I would normally just throw them straight into the bin. Normally I invest based on insights given by my dad and they are always accurate, who is accounting trained. Currently, I am able to do the analysis myself.

Now I understand why bluechips like SPH give lots of dividends but there is not much fluctuation in its share price while Keppel Land give little dividends but there is considerable gain in its share price.

Case Studies

Several case studies were explored with the students, the most notable of which is ABC Learning - the corporate entity which Temasek Holdings invested in and went bust. The idea of creative accounting has been shared with us and we understand there are limitations to financial statements.

There are also business ethics in relation to accounting. Dr Chris Graves shared with us a few heartfelt events in accounting where corporate entities have to make decisions based on their bottomline over human lives. The first case is the Ford Pinto incident. He said 'When you add value to human lives...' It is very true indeed that we cannot just add a numerical value (insurance claim) to human lives lost. He also shared with us on a World War II run Buchenwald Concentration Camp record. Prisoners generate revenue based on their work and upon death and there is an accounting value for their work. A closer to date example is the BP oil spill incident.


Let's branch off a bit from the course and take a look at some light moments in class. Dr Chris Graves asked us a question below. My style towards study since the university days has been answer A! No point worrying about it, let's worry about it later. Just have fun~ ^_^



Everything is Business Accounting

From this course, I have realized that everything around us is based on business accounting. The government, not-for-profit organizations, religious bodies and of course corporate entities all following the same accounting principle and places great emphasis on the bottom line.

When I look at bank statements and there is a Debit and Credit to my account, I now know that the statement is generated from a bank's perspective. A credit means it's bad for them, good for us. While a debit means it's good for them, bad for us. So credit does not always mean deduction.

Even from a business school point of view, they are similarly run like business entities. We were working on a case study on how a business school is being ran. You can imagine how much those big business schools gets based on their tuition fees. And you can start implementing strategies on rapid student intake, getting accreditation, having online courses and so on while keeping fixed costs in check. Business schools spent a lot on marketing and charge high for student fees. At the end of the day, what they have learnt are pretty much the same. I still remember during the information session where the lecturer shared with us on the problem with accreditation. Imagine all business schools conform to the same standards, where is the uniqueness in each school. I shared this knowledge with a friend studying full-time in one of the top European Business school and he was amazed that I came to this insight in my first term. He realized it halfway through his course. It is actually thanks to the University of Adelaide Business School and its staff for their unique teaching experience.

All in all, for personal accounting, I have learnt not to pay my credit card bills so soon (pay it towards the end of the credit card bill deadline - accounts payable), and to collect cash owned by others as soon as possible (getting the pay check fast if possible - accounts receivable) and finally to invest idle cash in safe instruments while keeping inventory low (don't anyhow buy things).

I still remember the sharing by the Hungarian Zen Master Chong An Sunim that when we add value to everything, problems will arise. He relates a simple Greek story of how a king has a golden touch. Eventually everything he touches become gold. His love ones, his food, his followers. He also mentioned the flaws with regard to a Capitalist ideal. Capitalism is supposed to create wealth amongst all people. But currently, capitalism generated the greatest societal income disparity in history and created the most number of people living in poverty. Likewise, Communism ideal is supposed to be about a community of people living in harmony. But never in history has there been such an isolated group of people, living in fear amongst one another. This shows the extremes of ideals, the nature of duality.



Group Project
There is a 30% component in the module allocated to group project work. The entire class of 26 students have been divided into 4-5 students per group. I belong to the 'lucky' group with 5 students in it. All the members in the group are fabulous. The objective of the group project is to analyze the financial reports of Sigma Pharmaceutical and Australian Pharmaceutical Industries Limited.

As it is my first group project, I decided to be a group follower and observe how the more experienced students go about coordinating the project. It started out great with Gantt Charts and members name/contact all listed. As time goes by, with no definite leader within the group, it became quite chaotic and there is no clear sense of direction.

There are a few major mistakes that has been made and they are:
1) Too much time has been spent on numbers-crunching. Just a week before the group assignment deadline submissions, we are still doing verification of the numbers to ensure they are correct.
2) The group discussion time has not been spent constructively in discussing the integration and conclusion aspect. It's still spent working on the individual portion.
3) Without a clear direction of what is to be written, there are different analysis methods even a day before the assignment deadline.

This resulted in burnt-out and resigned members within the group. I did a check with the other groups on how they go about coordinating their portions. They said their respective tasks are delegated out right at the beginning so they are in-charge of their respective data integrity and correctness. The group discussion time is mainly spent on integration and in clarifying doubts along the way. That explains why they completed way before the deadline instead of rushing through at the last minute.

I noticed some of the problems have been recurring for some of the current group members based on their sharing. So the group management approach has to be changed. Using this first group assignment as experience, think I will play a more active role in guiding the direction of group assignments in the next module.