Travel For FOUR

Within a previous post, I mentioned that Cass provides sessions with a career coach and local mentor. I really lucked out and was matched to a couple incredible individuals who have provided great insight and perspective. But yet another job search resource has surfaced!

Last week, I contacted a person in the Cass careers department about a possible business research project/disertation client. Cisco UK was seeking somone to consult and develop a 3-year plan for its marketing efforts. The careers contact excitedly responded offering to submit my resume and follow-up, etc. And this week, the careers contact e-mailed me after sending my resume and following up with Saatchi & Saatchi on my behalf (working for this firm would be any marketer’s DREAM!). And she then followed up to say that she’s like my permission to contact other local firms on my behalf…this is the best! It’s like having a headhunter without the finder’s fee.

Fingers crossed that a good position and comfortable salary will be mine…

This block, I’m taking a third installment of Strategy…and we are under the watch of a brilliant professor, Joe Lampel. We’ve been exploring the depths of strategy development and I’ve turned a new leaf…

Those of you who have known me professionally won’t be surprised to hear that I like plans and controls. Even two months ago, I would have argued that a firm [or even an individual] must have a plan/strategy and stick to it in order to maintain their focus and realize their potential. WRONG!

To quote my [brilliant] professor, “plans are fine for mediocre companies that wish to maintain the status quo”…

Instead, innovative and responsive firms will operate with a general direction in mind, but will exploit strategic opportunities to the fullest whenever and wherever they appear…they won’t wait for the the “perfect” opportunity, or even the one that seems okay.  Ultimately, the perfect opportunity [according to the best laid plans] may never present itself.

So…the moral of the story is, allow your strategy to emerge and evolve and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves. AND once you accept an opportunity and establish yourself (or your firm) within a certain niche, don’t allow yourself to become complacent. Technology has changed may aspects of our lives today…Most notably, the crumble of a major corporate brand that once may have taken 5-10 years to unfold can now take place in a matter of months. All things (including failure and success) are speedy in today’s marketplace.

Today, I received the dreaded e-mail that I was anxiously awaiting (if that makes sense?)…Block I and II grades were released this morning. Reading the e-mail announcing that grades were ready for pick-up was one of those moments when I was a bit unsettled. It’s been 7 years since I took an exam…how would I do?

Good news. I passed! As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, the UK grading system is a bit different from the US. Here, anything above a 40 on the exam is passing…and anything above a 70 is fantastic (distinction)..the equivalent of an A+ or 4.0 GPA in the US. As long as your coursework and exam (each worth 50%) for each course totals at least 50, you pass. And (I’m unsure of whether this is specific to the MBA, or to British grading in general), they don’t consider gradepoint average. Coming out, I could earn only “distinction”, “pass” or “fail”. And in order to graduate with distinction, you MUST have above a 70 average in every block and assignment along the way (nearly impossible).

Going into exams, I had distinction in 5 of the 6 courses in Block I and II. And coming out, I earned a distinction in Block I and a Respectable Pass in Block II (65–equivalent to a B+). (They average the grades for all courses in a block in order to determine your block average). I don’t know that I’ll ever adjust to this new grading system…thank goodness the program’s only one year 🙂

An interesting angle on this hints toward the British culture. In America, we strive to reach high and need to see the carrot in the distance. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that excellence is attainable at all points in your education (hence, GPA). If you consider doing badly or “letting this one slide”, your GPA’s at stake. Here, however, there’s a long history of the “haves” and the “have nots” and hence, there are no carrots. Only pass, fail, and distinction. I miss the carrot and the American grading system!