The AIM Blogger

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but there's a running joke in our class (at least in our section) about "The Young MBA Graduate", made famous by our Economics professor, Dr. Federico Macaranas . As Prof. Macaranas' story goes, he gives little nuggets of wisdom to this unnamed and fictitious young MBA graduate (hence the name) who struggles mightily in Economics. Prof. Macaranas would share little parables of how knowing Economics separates the good MBA's from the rest and having little Economics knowledge can get you fired. I guess the fact that the class jokes about it a lot, even on other classes, is a truism to the notion that comedy is about truth (Economics is a difficult course) and pain (We, as students of the Economics class, are screwed). Maybe its our way of coping with the stress and pressures of MBA school life. Call it a joke or a coping mechanism or whatever you like. In the end, that is what we students want to be: a Young ...

Yesterday, AIM's Career Management Services (CMS) held an orientation for the first year MBA students. While the content of the orientation is very informative, one set of statistic struck me: In 2006, the MBA class graduates were placed 100%. What makes this very relevant to me is that when I was doing my research for a business school, one of the flags that going to the Asian Institute of Management was its approach to student career placement: it was all up to the student! I was reading through a few forums dated 2004 and the feedback on the career placement was generally negative. The CMS was created in 2005 to address the placement concerns and the rise of placement rates was meteoric since. Three years in to coordinating with companies via trips and on-campus recruitment, the CMS was able to turn a virtual zero into 100%. I guess that puts our batch and future MBA classes in very good hands, career-wise. -- Another activity we had during the CMS Orientation was the election ...

With almost a month going into the 16 month MBA program here at the Asian Institute of Management, I'm starting to get a better feel of the working cycle of an MBA student. What seems to be an unending cycle of "case-discuss-exam-rest" is starting to emerge and like any other cycle, there times when you up there and there are time when you are down and out. At this point in time, I think I'm starting to go to the "up" phase of my cycle: I just received my score for the QA quiz last Friday and I'm glad to say I got a nice score in that one. (20/20) As I've mentioned in a previous post, I got a decent grade in my LOB quiz. On the first WAC , I got a decent HP-. The AIM Blogger is rising up the Google search engine rank for the keyword "MBA Blogger" (Rank# 17 as of this writing). I've also been able to find the time to play basketball with the other MBA guys. However, there seems to be looming challenges, which would be the "down...

Hilario "Larry" G. Tan is our well-respected teacher for the Language of Business (LOB) class in the MBA program. His expertise in accounting and finance is drawn from his experience in working with some of the biggest accounting and audit firms in the Philippines. He is also the Program Director of the Pre-MBA program . His tips of "reading between the lies" of financial statements and making things "clear as mud" have undoubtedly made strong impressions with the members of the MBA class. He was very kind enough to answer a few questions on LOB-- how it was handled during his time and how to pass his class with flying colors: The AIM Blogger (TAB): In your opinion, what has changed from the Language of Business (LOB) class you took in your MBA to the class you are teaching now? Larry Tan (LT): When I took my MBA, we had only three sessions in LOB, one was a video showing on basic accounting, and another two sessions of reading annual reports of different ...

MBA classes have been gaining steam this week and it was inevitable for me to feel the pressure . The past few days have been characterized by sleep deprivation, increased consumption of caffeine and the urge to argue with anybody in sight (especially in class). Judging from the decreasing energy from the members in the class, it's safe to say I am not the only one hitting the wall, so to speak. So when we had our communication workshop for our Management Communication (MC) activity yesterday, I felt it was a great way to release the stress and tension everybody was feeling. Our facilitator for the workshop, the talented and accomplished Ms. Ana Valdez-Lim (or Teacher Ana), lead the session on Improvisational acting or "improv," which aimed to help us be at ease during public communication. We had a few improv actors to help get the session going and our class had a chance to do some improv acting exercises where everybody was practically jumping up and down, making weird...

Pressure is defined as the amount of force per unit of area. Imagine a strong force being applied to a city block. That's the pressure here in AIM. I have to admit, I really thought the pressure couldn't get any higher than the levels of the Pre-MBA , where everyone was hellbent on catching up on Financial Accounting. Well, the pressure seems to be rising and coming from all sides as the days go by-- undue stress from dealing with the expectations in class, CAN group discussions, personal matters inside and outside of AIM is really hitting the roof. Where is this pressure coming from? Here's my list: Quizzes - We have two major quizzes this week and I'm not yet that confident with my knowledge and skills. I've performed rather poorly in an exam (albeit ungraded), and I really want to do better. Management of this pressure is contingent on my study efficiency, time management and retention. CAN Group Discussions - Dealing with people is never 100% perfect and my C...

The first WAC night was marked by MBA students from AIM pulling all-nighters. Some finished early, some were able to send their case analysis just before the 8am deadline. Regardless of whether someone cruised past the case or ground it out, lessons on time management, focus and stress management were learned. Speaking of the case, a case by our very own Prof. Ricky Lim on a Quantitative Analysis/Marketing problem was given. Here are some images taken just as the cases were dropped on our pigeon holes: My trusty pigeon hole, bringer of case packs and WACs: MBA students flocking the pigeon hole area: My classmate Prashant with the case: Neil Risos is all smiles in this one: Cheska Herrera picks her case gleefully: Kanishka wants to show the world his case: These guys are ready for action: Archit (right) may be taking his case seriously: Ruchak Mehta (left) and Berto Siahaan (right) ready to take on the case: Harneet picks his, while Pankaj looks on: Saurabh is probably too happy to se...