It's Election Time Once Again

If the United States are deep into the coming elections featuring the Democrats' Barack Obama and Joe Biden against the Republicans' John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Asian Institute of Management student body will be casting the ballot as well.

The campaign period for the AIM Student Association (AIM SA) elections has started and the posts of Chairperson, Vice-chairperson, and Overseas Students' President will be vied for by candidates from our junior MBA cohorts.

If you remember, I ran for the post of Vice-Chairperson last year and I lost by only four votes. I guess there were still some positive outcomes for me because I was assigned to lead the AIM SA Sports Committee, where I was involved in steering the school's participation in the 2008 Inter-MBA Games and organizing the first AIM Community Poker Championships.

The candidates for this coming elections are:

• For Chairperson:
• Laurice Alaan (MBA 2009)
• Kshitij Dimri (MBA 2009)
• Siddhart Jain (MBA 2009)
• For Vice-Chairperson:
• Rohan Khera (MBA 2009)
• Kenneth Reyes-Lao (MBA 2009)
• For Overseas Students' President:
• Nirav Shah (MBA 2009)

I guess I'll be doing a feature on the candidates in the next couple of posts.

2nd AIM Alumni Family Day Reunion

Got this email from Prof. Jun Borromeo. I think Asian Institute of Management Alumni should really look into this nice event:

Dear Fellow AIM Alumni:

The Alumni Association of AIM-Philippine Chapter is inviting you and your family to join us in our 2nd AIM Alumni Family Day Reunion as we continue to celebrate the 40th Year Anniversary ofour beloved Institute.

Our theme, “STAND UP FOR LOVE” aims to foster unity among AIM Alumni and members ofthe AIM Community. The AIM Alumni Family Day event will also honor the members of theSpecial Olympics-Philippines and the Payatas Community who are the major beneficiaries of thisnoble activity. We will start our AIM Alumni Family Day with a fun run followed by exhibition gamesby the members of the Special Olympics-Philippines and to be concluded with a thanksgiving mass.The AIM Families and Community will have a sumptuous lunch together with our beneficiaries.Fellowship and various fun games for AIM Alumni Families will highlight afternoon activities.

• DATE:October 04, 2008 – Saturday
  
• VENUE:San Lorenzo Park, San Lorenzo Village, Makati City
  
• TIME:8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  

AIM ALUMNI FAMILY DAY REUNION IS OPEN TO ALL AIM ALUMNI COMMUNITY! ENTRANCE AND LUNCH IS FREE FOR EVERYONE!

For details & reservation, please call the AAAIM office at 750-6575 or 892-4011 local 2103-2106. Ask for Ms. Marilou D. Virata, Executive Director and Ms. Julie Ann B. Macapobre.

Anatomy of a Marketing Failure

 

Failure, in one form or another, is a part of student life and here at the Asian Institute of Management , failure does not only happen inside the caserooms.

A few weeks ago, I launched a project that aimed to produce and sell shirts for my MBA class. (I blogged about it twice-- one is an introduction of the MBA Dec 2008 shirt , another one is a reminder ). After weeks of weak demand, I decided to pull the plug on the project two days ago.

I reflected on this setback for the last couple of days and I have come to the conclusion that the shirt project I launched failed on the four P's of marketing: Product, Promotion, Price and Place. Here's my brief analysis:

Product

Based on the suppliers, I had three products to choose from: jacket, t-shirt and golf shirt. I decided on what product to produce and sell based on market research (an online survey of the class) and what emerged was that the majority wanted a golf shirt in blue or black colors and they were willing to pay PhP 500.00 for the shirt.

In retrospect, my market research was not enough. My sampling seemed to have been not representative (33%) and my decision to go for the best material from the supplier, which was based on the strategy to come up with the best quality product, now seems an iffy one. 

Was this a case of "failure by market research"? It could be.

Promotion

I promoted the product purely online, with an email blast, plus the blog posts. Looking back, I failed to communicate what the batch shirt was all about-- school pride and, perhaps, nostalgia. I wasn't able to come up with solid positioning to my target market (which is the whole MBA class), and I focused more on putting the pictures of the shirt on models, which is more inclined towards a value proposition of fashion and self-esteem.

Price

Like I've mentioned in the Product section earlier, the price was based on the market research and it actually drove me to go for the high-end product of the shirt supplier. However, as I offering the shirt to several of my classmates, I got feedback that they weren't really impressed by the shirt's make. I could have taken the comment in stride but it occurred to me that this matter was something I may have overlooked. 

Was the PhP 525.00 right for a batch shirt? I really thought so, but many seemed to have disagreed.

Place

I had the help of Ms. Amy from the MBA program staff to store the sample shirts. My classmates had to basically go to her office in the second floor to see different styles and try on the various sizes of the shirt. I soon realized that it was rather inconvenient for the buyers to do go through that process, so I set-up shop in one of the tables in the Zen Garden. 

I was able to get orders while in that place, but due to the bad weather lately, I soon figured it was not a sustainable location. There was some feedback to place the shirts in the dorm, but since I'm not staying the students dormitory and I was only a one-man-wrecking-crew, it was not a feasible option.

One final factor that made me stop this venture is time-- I needed to devote more time on more important things, like my MRR and a few other initiatives. If I were to get more people to order shirts, I needed to put in more effort and time, and those things are always a rare commodity in business school.

Failure is really a harsh teacher and my experience with this failed venture has more or less grounded me a bit.  But I'll definitely bounce back from this, I'm sure of it.

Nice Discussion about AIM in LinkedIn

I'd like to share a nice discussion going on at the Asian Institute of Management LinkedIn Group . Alumnus Ramki Ramakrishnan asked:

What are the three key actions that should be done to regain AIM in top Management institutes of the World? 

If you think you have some nice suggestions, scoot on over to the LinkedIn group. :)

Note: You need a LinkedIn account plus membership in the AIM group in order to participate in the discussion.

Two of My Blogs at the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards

In a few hours, the awarding ceremonies of the biggest blogging event this year will take place: The 2008 Philippine Blog Awards.

I'm pleased to share that two of my other blogs have reached the final list in their respective categories: Big Lakers Fan for the Best Blog for Sports Category and Screensucked for the Best Blog for Entertainment Category. While I believe in the effort I put in for my blogs, I think only have a longshot of winning since the list of finalists are a virtual who's who of great bloggers.

So, I'd like to allot a little space for my two blogs that made the finals:

1. Big Lakers Fan - This is probably the easiest blog I maintain because I always talk about my favorite basketball team-- the Los Angeles Lakers. Like any sports fan, I want to curse at the world whenver my team loses and rejoice when they win, so I figured creating a blog about them would be the natural thing to do. This blog is also my blog that got the notice of the global crowd when I got published at NBA.com last June, ironically about a post on the Lakers' loss to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 NBA Finals.
2. Screensucked - This blog has an interesting history. Almost three years ago, I wanted to make a blog about, well, nothing-- just rants, links I found interesting and travel posts. But I soon realized that I got bored with those things because I found those things too limited, i.e., I rarely had a strong negative opinion about something, I didn't have the time to look for "cool new sites" and I didn't travel much. Thus, I put the blog on the shelf for a few months (Look at the blog's archive).
   
   But I dusted the blog off after I realized I was watching movies with my girlfriend two to three times a week (thats's our "thing") and I seem to have something to say about the things that we watched. So, Screensucked was "reborn."

These two blogs may or may not end up winning the Best Blog plum, but I sure am glad they got recognized. :)

ISEP Party 2008: Rockin' the House!

The International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) at the Asian Institute of Management threw a welcome party to the exchange students from international schools last Friday and what a party it was!

In what could be regarded as one of the best parties our MBA class was ever went to, people had loads of fun, made lots of new friends and even had a taste (literally!) of the culture of other countries. There was a brief program that kicked off the party, with introductions from the exchange students from France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Austria and Mexico. I joined lively emcees Neil Risos and Pia Sanedrin and acted as the party's Game Master with Diamond Uy.

After every two or three countries have finished presenting or introducing themselves, party games were played, and boy, were the games rockin'!

After the program, we had everyone's favorite party activity-- karaoke! My classmate in the MBA program Mei Ling of Indonesia stole the limelight as she busted out her singing talents to the crowd's delight.

I'll let the pictures in the post tell you how much fun the people had in the party. :)

--

Post Script:

Go figure: the party coincided with the new MBA folks' first overnight WAC.

Case Writing Workshop, Day 2

Note: This post is a follow-up to the Case Writing Workshop that started yesterday.


Today's sessions at the Case Writing Workshop earlier were shorter and only consisted of two spots with Professors Gaby Mendoza and Mario "Mayo" Lopez but they were very filled with substance.

The morning session was a presentation and critique of our case plans and outlines and I presented my outline for one of the cases in my Management Research Report and thankfully it wasn't slammed by Prof. Mendoza. The afternoon session with Prof. Lopez was a more practical sharing/story-telling time as he shared his war stories of writing cases under James Culliton and other pioneers of the Asian Institute of Management.

The workshop over-all had a tremendous impact on me in terms of my appreciation of the Case Method and the whole deal about writing cases. I also had a small epiphany on one of the reasons why I decided to do a case writing project for my MRR-- I realized that I wanted to come up with cases that were my version of a "great case." We tackled, dissected, and discussed hundreds of cases in the MBA program and there are I think good cases and great cases that I enjoyed reading and analyzing. I figured that my contribution to AIM's body of knowledge is a case written about issues I think are relevant seen from a perspective worth looking into.

Case Writing Workshop, Day 1

One of my advisers for my Management Research Report (MRR), Prof. Jun Borromeo, required... er... invited me to join a special workshop for case writing pool of the Asian Institute of Management.

As you may know, I'm taking the path least taken (or is it path of least resistance?) by writing cases for my MRR, as opposed to writing a strategic management paper for my thesis. All things considered, I think the Case Series writing option suits my strengths and gives me enough flexibility. Besides, I really think I can come up with cases that can maximize the Case Method used in AIM.

The workshop kicked off with a case discussion with another mentor of mine, Prof. Ricky Lim. We discussed how the Case Method works from a pedagogical perspective and it was revelation. You know those moments in a movie where there's a big reveal, like say in Vertigo or The Sixth Sense where everything unraveled when the truth was uncovered? I had that feeling because after learning how the Case Method works for learners and teachers, I feel a lot we went through in the first eight months made so much sense. :)

We then had a session with Prof. Gaby Mendoza, who is regarded as on of the best Case Method teachers the institute has had. The question "What makes a Great Case?" was submitted to us and the session was handled in a a very Socratic way-- lots of "why" and "how" questions, but it ultimately produced a very rich session. Prof. Gaby Mendoza rocks! :D

The day ended with a session that dealt with the specifics of writing cases and more on the process of making a case outline. It was OK, but I really liked the previous sessions.

As the day ended, I was glad I made it to the workshop despite my initial apprehensions.

Thinking Third Term

 
Classes for our fourth term at the Asian Institute of Management will start tomorrow and I figured it was a good time to reflect on the past elective term.

The thirt term ran for ten weeks and I took five electives:

1. New Product and Service Development (NPSD) - Prof. Jay Bernardo
2. Creative Marketing and Selling (CMS) - Prof. Joe Faustino
3. Customer Experience Management (CEM) - Prof. Tommy Lopez
4. Marketing & Finance Creating Synergy (MFCS) - Prof. Richard Cruz
5. Self-Mastery, Arts and Spirituality (SMARTS) - Prof. Cecilia Manikan

In retrospect, I think I was able select suubjects that covered areas that I'm interested in, plus had a very good schedule-- SMARTS took only around half term because we had 3-5 sessions in a week, plus the meditation activities took up a good portion of the course. CEM was a subject that met more than the normal "twice a week" schedule, and CMS finished early because of our Sales Interview exercises and presentations. So in my last month of the term, I was only taking a total of less than eight classes per week That actually prompted me to blog about my relatively light schedule and enabled me to give talks at a couple of big events.

Did I learn a lot in the electives I took? Of course! I really think courses like SMARTS, MFCS & NPSD are value-adding to the MBA student since those subjects, plus the professors, focus more on expanding your worldview and emphasizing on having a positive attitude. I really think that CEM and CMS were professor-driven subjects wherein the classes are really given depth and texture because of the professors who handle them (I can attest that Professors Faustino and Lopez know what they are talking about).

One regret I have for the last term was not taking Direct Response & Relationship Marketing (DRRM) under Prof. Joe Miranda, who was out Marketing Management (MM) professor. I was what my friends were doing for their DRRM class and I have to admit, I was envious. (They crafted ads and communications that elicited reponse from the recepients, things I think are crucial for web sites).

I was pretty inconsistent with Management Research Report (MRR). I started off very well-- I met the recommended milestones and accomplished my documents early-- but in the last three weeks of the term, I was excited about things other than my MRR (like the Poker tournament we had and good old punditry). I even told one of my mentors a few days ago that I've been feeling unmotivated for my MRR and he said that's normal, but he empasized I should shape up ASAP.

Placement efforts also ramped up this term. Companies visited the school often to give presentations and held numerous interviews for placement. We even had our Recruiter's Night event where we hobnobbed with our potential placement destinations (although I don't mind doing my own thing like Paco Sandejas).

Things were generally not as heavy and requirements seemed very manageable for me in the past term. It seems like the third term gave a sense of foreboding, the lull before the storm that is our fourth and final term.

Left Out

Imagine there's a party like, say, an AIM BeerPub, an event that is known to get people from different groups or factions together and have them know each other better and socialize. And you know that this type of event has  always been open with little restrictions, if any.

How would you feel if you hear that you're not supposed to be there?

"Left high and dry," "left out in the cold," "excluded"?

No matter how you would describe it, the feeling sucks, right? You probably would feel a little slighted, but then again, you will try to grab a good and logical explanation why things are turning out that way. However, at that point you are already irrational and no matter what people tell you, you will feel you were shut out and decide to hole up and ignore the whole event, and think you have better ways of spending your time.

Yeah, this is a rant. A whiny rant at that.

Neil Risos for MBA Dec 2008 Shirts

The MBA Dec 2008 Shirts has a new model: Neil Risos!

 

 

Order your shirts now online at http://tinyurl.com/mba2008-shirt-order or go to Ms. Amy to also see the sizes and styles for men and women.

A Few Days Off

It's post-term (or pre-term?) break and I have a week off to either a) rest and take a break or b) do MRR stuff. I decided to take the early portion of the week to have a well-deserved break from the last couple of weeks.

Ironically, I have not been busy with my MRR in the lsat couple of weeks because I was devoting my attention inpreparing for the two talks I had last week-- the Philippine Youth Conference in Information Technology and WordCamp Philippines 2008. Now that those two are done, I figured I could relax for the next few days. Here's a pic of something I did over the weekend:

Yeah, I went back to my musical roots and I enjoyed every minute of it. :)

I guess everyone in our class is taking a break in one form or another-- there's someone who went out of the country, there's someone who went to the beach, I'm sure some folks are just enjoying lounging back home and watching TV (yeah, TV is a privilege you'll give up in while you're studying at the Asian Institute of Management). I also have been busy coordinating the production and promotion of the AIM MBA December 2008 shirts.

Hmm... I'd like to revisit this post when I'm deep into my writing MRR. I do hope I won't be cursing the high heavens and telling myself, "What was I thinking?!?" at that time. :P

--

UPDATE:

As you can see from the comment on this post, my MRR mentor chimes in to remind me about my MRR as if on cue. Well, more like the conscience in those old Safeguard television ads. :P

My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Experience

A good portion of the Philippine blogosphere (including myself) considered September 6, 2008 a special day because it was WordCamp Philippines 2008 day.

And that day started really early because I had to polish the presentation I was going to give as a plenary session for WordCamp. My topic was something very close to my heart-- Web Standards and WordPress-- two of the main components of this blog. Since I left the house late in the morning, that meant I had to miss a significant part of the day's talks. :( (This should be a lesson to me not to wait for the last day/hour/minute.)

The past week was already doozy for me because I had already given a talk at the Y4IT Conference on Wednesday, and then the WordCamp a few days later. (I think Jayvee and Juned had the same schedule) The two talks were significant, yet contrasting. Y4IT was like a rock concert, and WordCamp was more like an Unplugged event where it was more grounded and intimate.

When I arrived at the College of St. Benilde, it was in the middle of the i.ph talk. I met a few folks from the organizing committee who were extremely helpful. What they lacked in facilites, they really made up by the personal attention towards me and effort.

I was slotted after Aileen's Google Analytics presentation and once I got to the stage, I had some more clarity to what WordCamp was really all about. Unlike talks I've done before, I didn't feel like an expert lecturing people, but a peer to the audience sharing what I like and do. We were all bloggers or somehow involved in blogging, so it was easier to draw from my experiences. In the end, I really felt good about giving the presentation.

Unfortunately, I had to scoot immediately after my talk because of another commitment so I wasn't able to meet more bloggers and get my photo taken with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. (Damn!) I did attend the afterparty at the mag:net cafe where I went up to the stage again and performed with the resident Rock-a-oke band, the Johnny's.

Kudos to the Mindanao Bloggers, the volunteers and the Pinoy Blogosphere for making WordCamp Philippines 2008 possible. :)

I've culled this list form Jehzlau's blog (I hope he doesn't mind), where he has a compilation of the WordCamp Philippines 2008 posts. This list is up-to-date as of this writing so check his blog post out, which he updates:

1. The Best and Most Memorable Blogger Event in the Phils by Jehzeel Laurente
2. I Got Wordcamped! by Tess Termulo
3. The First WordCamp in Southeast Asia by Adrian Jeric Peña
4. My WordCamp Experience by Master Betong
5. WordCamp Philippines by Hannah Rika Villasis
6. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Nina Fuentes
7. Matt at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Binary Silver
8. Matt Mullenweg Highlights from WordCamp Phils by The Bachelor Girl
9. WordCamp Philippines Report by Fear the Spork
10. WordCamp Philippines Shirt Please by Evenly Piece
11. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Alrenz Cabasa
12. WordCamp Philippines 2008: A Success!
13. WordCamp Phils, 1st Southeast Asia WordCamp by Ana Katharina Pena
14. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Aftermath by Zero Blade
15. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Mae Paulino
16. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Green Bucks
17. Matt Mullenweg by Charmed Mom
18. WordCamp PH 2008 and Afterparty by Carlo Reid
19. WordCamp Philippines After-Party by The WordCamp Philippines Blog
20. WordCamp Philippines 08 by Project 365 Days
21. WordCamp 2008 Philippines by Karla Redor
22. Live Blogging from WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Spilled Lustre
23. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Aja Lapus
24. Experiencing WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Here’s to Life!
25. WordCamp Manila Blow-by-blow by Jonel Uy
26. Just got home from WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Jayvee Fernandez
27. Bloggers’ Event: WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Ada Lajara
28. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Winners and Bloopers by Funny Sexy
29. WordCamping 2008 by Billycoy
30. Ernie Meets Matt Mullenweg by AJ Matela
31. Matt Mullenweg, Volunteers, and WordCamp Phils by Misteryosa
32. The WordCamp in Philippines by Mark Aethen Agana
33. Matt Mullenweg by Animo Hosting
34. WordCamp Manila 2008, I was there! by Sha Ang
35. On WordCamp 2008 and Meeting MrWordpress by Diventare.org
36. My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Experience by Regnard Raquedan
37. WordCamp Philippines Status Report by AWB Holdings
38. Live from De La Salle CSB, Marocharim is at WordCamp! by Marocharim
39. For the Love of Wordpress by Kristina Ana Matanguihan
40. WordCamp Pilipinas Success by Ikabon
41. WordCamp 2008: For Healthy and Wealthy Blogging by Hitokiri Hoshi
42. WordCamp 2008 Philippines Success by Arvin’s Thoughts
43. WordCamp, Meeting Matt Mullenweg by Miss Wicked
44. Meeting Matt at WordCamp 2008 by Urriza.net
45. Finally, WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Estan
46. Toothache VsWordCamp Philippines by George Putong
47. Notes and Photos, WordCamp Philippines a Success by Tonyo Cruz
48. Some WordCamp Philippines Afterthoughts by Undercover
49. Live Blogging in WordCamp by Pageman
50. My WordCamp Experience by Junele Malaga Caravana
51. WordCamp Philippines A Success! by Wordpress Philippines
52. Bakla Goes to WordCamp Philippines by Bakla Ako
53. My WordCamp 2008 Experience by Micaela Rodriiguez
54. WordCamp 2008 Philippines: It’s a success! by Joyceish
55. My WordCamp 2008 Experience by Fitz Villafuerte
56. A Personal Evaluation of WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Danny Arao
57. An Event Which I Failed To Attend by Dexter Panganiban
58. The Wordpress WordCamp Fever by Pinoy Web Listing
59. WordCamp Philippines by Batang Yagit
60. Philippine WordCampers 2008 by Sabrina Lajara
61. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Roanna Roro
62. On Meeting with MrWordpress, Web Standards and Other Stuff by Shari
63. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Highlights by Sophia Lucero
64. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Mong Palatino
65. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Rowjielogy
66. I was WordCamped by The Industrious Time-Waster
67. HURAH! for WordCamp Philippines by Migs Hipolito
68. WordCamp is on today at De La Salle - CSB by AIM CSB
69. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Updates by Teacher Julie
70. My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Experience by Icezorg
71. I was at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Gail Villanueva
72. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Ramblings by Sarah Cada
73. Weekend Snapshots #6 WordCamp Philippines by Joni Ang
74. My WordCamp 2008 Experience by Paul Villacorta
75. Success! by WordCamp Philippines Blog
76. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Tina Elaine
77. On Being a Remarkable Responsible Blogger by Scrumptious Anime Blog
78. Word-F’N-Camp! by The Deranged Writer
79. WordCamp Philippines 2008 - a success! by The Mindanao Bloggers
80. WordCamp Philippines, below expectations by Kevin Georg Paquet
81. My WordCamp Experience by The Grape Bunch
82. WordCamp Philippines 2008: Wicked! by Andrew Dela Serna
83. WordCamp Philippines 2008 Video Highlights by Buddy Gancenia
84. WordCamped by La Dolce Vita
85. The WordCamp that was by Oliver Robillo
86. WordCamp Philippines 2008: A Blast! Rein Winds
87. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by On the 8 Spot
88. WordCamp Philippines 2008: Awesome! by i.PH News and Updates
89. WordCamp: Developing Wordpress Plugins by Markku Seguerra
90. A Day of Firsts! by Sablay.Org
91. WordCamp Made Me Sick by Charmed Mom
92. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Aileen Apolo
93. I was at WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Sun Choke
94. My Wordcamp 2008 Experience by Chiq Montes
95. My WordCamp Philippines 2008 Story by Ria Jose
96. WordCamp Philippines = WIN by Dean Lozarie

Please let me know if you have a post about the event; I'd be glad to add it to the list of links. :D

I also have some rough photos of the event:

--
UPDATE:
Found this news article covering WordCamp Philippines 2008 from GMANews.TV

No Thanks

I had my last class for the term today it was New Products & Services Development (NPSD) under Prof. Jay Bernardo and we concluded the class with a very interesting activity: Elevator pitches to "potential venture capitalists." (Well, not really VC's but folks from the Philippine Business for Social Progress and a couple of entrepreneurs :P)

How things went was everyone in the class was given two minutes to pitch a new business idea and five judges will either say "Yes" or "No" to your business idea a la American Idol, i.e.the judges will be very upfront with you and tell you in your face why your idea will either succeed or suck. Judges will also ask questions and give their critiques in an objective, but frank manner. So you could imagine how I had to condition myself for the activity because for sure the judges will not mince words and will not pull their punches in giving their comments.

When my name was called, I stepped up to the plate and gave my business idea (a student center that generates revenue from advertising) and after my two minutes were up, the judges pounced on my idea like a jaguar on a hapless deer. In the end all the judges gave a resounding "No" to my idea.

I have to admit, it initially bruised my ego because I really think my idea is good, but it just needs some little tweaking. You really have to have a positive outlook about things in order to get past the stinging comments and see the wisdom in their feedback. With the knowledge of what's weak about my business idea, I now know what to do in order to come up with a better proposal when I craft my business plan.

Class ended with pizza treat from me because my mobile phone rang and it was not in silent mode. Tip: if you are taking Prof. Bernardo's class, that's one of his house rules-- if your phone makes a sound, you will have to treat the class. Prof. Bernardo also practices what he preaches because one time he treated the class to Starbucks because own phone rang.

So it was a good class to cap off my first elective term in the Asian Institute of Management. :)

Get Your MBA Dec 2008 Shirts!

The batch shirt for the MBA Dec 2008 is now available!

The shirt is priced at PhP 525.00, with premium embroidered designs of the Asian Institute of Management logo and the batch name. It comes in two colors: black and navy blue, with sizes for men and women.

Here are some images of the shirt (Thanks to Ms. Monina Montepiedra of AIM's Insitutional Marketing for modeling the shirt):

 

  

  

  

You can fit the sizes and see the samples of the shirt from Ms. Amy at the MBA program office. You can also place your orders online at http://tinyurl.com/mba2008-shirt-order.

So get your shirt now! If total orders amount to 100 or more, the shirt's price will be discounted. :)

Recruiter's Night 2008

The annual Recruiter's Night was held last evening at the AIM Conference Center and it was one of those rare moments when everybody in the class dressed up (including myself!) and looked smart and spiffy. So you could imagine how annoyed I am that I failed to bring my camera to take some nice shots of the folks in our class. (Doh!)

The reason I forgot to bring my camera is that I brought it to the talk at the Y4IT 2008 Conference I had yesterday and I unwittingly left it in my car, which was parked far from campus so I guess I'll rely on the snaps taken by other people. :P

As for the event itself, it went pretty smoothly. Everyone was there promptly and the brief program started around 6:30pm. After a few talks from Asian Institute of Management President Francis Estrada, Enrollment Management and Placement (EMP) director Prof. Eli Santos, and a couple of student representatives, the evening of schmoozing with company managers and bigwigs started. I wasn't able to talk to a lot of people because I was feeling tired from doing the talk earlier in the day.

I was also able to invite a few bloggers from the new batch to cover the event. Freshies Johan Diaz, Yuva Bharati, Rajdeep Chakravarty, Shubhobrato Ghosh and Rajesh Lachlani were gracious to accept the invite and observe. Expect some write-ups in their respective blogs soon! :)

The whole week, which incidentally is the last week of the term, has really been about career placement. Numerous companies, foreign and local, have conducted interviews, group discussions, short-listings and presentations with the hope of landing talent. AIM graduates have generally been successful in landing shiny new jobs after getting the MBA diploma so I'm optimistic we'll all still enjoy the clout that the AIM brand has in the corporate world.

--

UPDATE:

Here are some of the pics of my talk yesterday:

The Convocation, Part 2

This post may have set my personal record for the longest interval for a sequel posting.

More than a year ago, I wrote about our Convocation event which happened on our second day of classes for the MBA program at the Asian Institute of Management. Now, I'm writing about another convocation event, but this time, it's the one for new class that came this month.

The event was like a coming into a full cirlce for me-- I was invited to give a little talk, along with my CAN Groupmate Madhu Ponnuveetil, to share our experiences in AIM to the new folks. Madhu and I basically did what Georgina Chingkoe and Shreyas Ramanathan did for us last year:

The talk was a chance for me to scare the heck out of the new MBA class (as if my blog posts weren't enough, hehehe), but I figured it would be more fun to share some nice nuggets of insights since they more or less knew what to expect.

So, I came up with five things the class would go through and here's a list of the items I brought up:

1. You will discover a whole new world - I cited the cultural diversity I was exposed to during my classes and of course, my Action Consultancy stint in Infosys.
   
2. You will be frustrated - I shared my difficulty in transitioning from a tech dude into a bean counter.
   
3. Your honest and integrity will be tested - There's a thing called dysfunctional behavior in AIM
   
4. Your personal relationships will take a hit - My musings on personal support systems. I pointed this out a month ago.
   
5. You will find love - Whoa! Love in AIM?!? There are many kinds of love.

Based on the feedback I got during and after the talk, it seems I did a nice job. I do hope I was able to share a thing or two of significance to the newbies and they would do the same thing to their juniors in 2009.

Business Simulation Game!

Last Saturday, our respective groups in Marketing and Finance Creating Synergy (MFCS) under Prof. Richard Cruz spent the whole day competing against each other in a business simulation game.

The game we played was Pharmasim, a brand management simulation game where groups took over a fictitious cold medicine and manage it in terms of the product's marketing and making sure it performed well despite the market forces and competition. Unlike the business war game we played in Development of the Enterprise (DE), we did not directly compete against teams in the game, but competed on how we performed relative to how each group fared in their respective games.

There were eight groups in all our group (me, Faye Abis, Maya Perez, Starrie Sun, and Jennifer Valenzuela) was erroneously named as "Regnard" because we failed to get an instruction in the game's registration. Prof. Cruz set specific goals for our class competition and group scores were based on 60% financial outcomes and 40% marketing outcomes. That actually was not good for us because our group's strength was on the marketing side of things.

The game was very in depth. Pharmasim simulated one year period in one round and the complexity of the game increased as rounds went on. We started making decisions on broad areas of the marketing mix, then went to go on deciding as detailed as the specific channels of distribution, up to the advertising messages in promoting the product. To add to the complexity, we were offered to introduce new products and product extensions and we had to make sure the new item will not cannibalize our existing customer base. Prof. Cruz gave bonuses to teams that were able to make accurate forecasts on the brand's performance.

The data we had to process also increased in every round. We initially had historical data pertaining to marketing and financial information, but we also had access to market research data where we could draw insights from customer preferences, buying habits and brand awareness. We literally drowned by pages and pages of data because we wanted to process the most amount of data in order to come up with a sound decision.

We started pretty solid where we ranked second in the first turn, but we made some mistakes that cost us a lot and at some point during the game, we slipped to sixth place. But thankfully, we were able to bounce back and regain some momentum.

After seven rounds, we emerged third place. :) Team Pintoos ranked first and followed by Team Bronchitis (Yeah, we got weird team names :P). I really found the results surprising because there were more teams with more financial acumen, but I guess our group's acuity on what we want to achieve helped us earn a decent finish.

My group was a joy to work with so I'm taking this chance to give props to the team. We did great team! :D