Congrats to the 2009 MDM Class!

Congratulations to the 2009 Master in Development Management (MDM) class! They graduated today and they are on their way to their development management careers.

Here's a webcast of the graduation:



I remember that this MDM class entered the Asian Institute of Management in the middle of my MBA days. I was able to talk to several MDM folks and they're pretty cool. :)

Congratulations again and all the best! :D

I'll be Contributing to the AIM Alumni Leadership Magazine

Just a quick one:

I'm proud to share that I'll be contributing my first article to the upcoming issue of the AIM Alumni Leadership Magazine.

Thanks to Mr. Greg Atienza, head of AIM's Alumni Relations Office, for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with The AIM  Blogger and the MBA program. :)

My First WIMST MBA Class

Last Saturday, I had my first two sessions in the Winning Internet Marketing Strategies & Tactics elective for the MBA students.(Last term, I handled several sessions on the Online Marketing elective).

To be honest, it felt kinda weird since most everybody in class are my friends, but I think I was professional about it. The discussion was about building relationships with your visitors/customers/users online and it was a lively discussion because it had the right elements: marketing, business, and sex. (Yes, sex :P)

Here are things I realized during that half-day session:

• Apart from the hair, I see some similarities between my class discussion style with Prof. Tommy Lopez'.
• Amazingly, it's easy to remember who gives good class participation and those who don't, and those who don't speak. :P
• More on CP, I got the practicality of Prof. Gallegos & Bolante's CP-recording methods. 
• There are 60 people in class and it occured to me that I've only interacted with a little more than half of the people there prior to the class.
• During my MBA days, I used to go out of the room numerous times during class for a variety of reasons (restroom break, coffee, naps, etc.). When I saw people leaving the room, it was a bit distracting. No wonder I got mediocre grades-- my profs probably got miffed with my constant exits. :P
• "Tough love" is best for the class. :D

Next week, we'll be having another session. I hope the discussion will be as lively. :)

Prof. Macaranas Knows Best

One of the professors at the Asian Institute of Management I look up to (and continue to hold on a high regard) is Prof. Federico "Poch" Macaranas.

He was our professor in Economics and he primarily was known for two things: a) being incredibly smart and b) telling the story of the"Young MBA Graduate". He was recently interviewed by Business World and Prof. Macaranas shared his thoughts on what's happening on the global economic scene. Here's an excerpt of the article in Business World:

PHILIPPINE-BASED firms may run into problems recruiting executives as other Asian economies poised for an earlier recovery may lure away talent, experts said at a conference on Tuesday.

Brain drain may occur if the Philippines’ recovery extends much longer than its neighbors’.
"Unlike other countries that have shown increases [in their leading indicators], the Philippines is delayed in all reactions," Asian Institute of Management professor Federico M. Macaranas said at the second day of the school’s Business Asia Week.

Noting that the next 12 months will see a pick up in hiring in Asia, he said "If we are delayed by three to six months and job prospects pick up elsewhere, the Philippines will have a harder time attracting [recruits]."

While the theme of the article is quite negative, Prof. Macaranas shares a very interesting details: he sees an upswing in hiring in Asia in the next 12 months. And this should be good news.

See, here's the thing, being an incredibly smart person, Prof. Macaranas has an uncanny sense of the what's happening on the economic situation (he wasn't a former presidential economic adviser for nothing) and he once predicted with good accuracy in our class when and what events will happen during the global financial slump. Heck, if predicting the economic recession recession events were like Las Vegas black jack, Prof. Macaranas would be the MIT kid from the movie 21.

So when he tells us that there's going to be more hiring in the next 12 months, MBA's should be optimistic. He knows best when it comes to these things. :)

The Mother of All CP

Class Participation (or CP) is one of those things that an MBA student at the Asian Institute of Management will love or hate.

Being a business school that employs Harvard's Case Method, professors put a great weight to how the MBA students put forward their ideas and points to the class discussions and how well they articulate these points. CP grade often constitutes at least a third of a student's final grade, and sometimes it accounts for 100%! So you could imagine the pressure on the MBA student in class to deliver good CP-- his/her survival in the classroom jungle (yeah, the classes can really get "jungle-like" often times, with folks trying to get the better of everyone.)

The common notion the students subscribe to is the concept of the one great point that will stop the show, one great CP that will make the whole class bow down to the point and subject the student to momentary adulation-- "The Mother of All CP."

I myself have thought that it would take one helluva point to make it through every class. I'd spend so many minutes cooking up that thought in my head, but more often than not, that bright spark of a CP never came.

After much frustration in the past, I let go of this notion of the "Mother of All CP" and just said what was in my mind, show-stopper or not. But it was this letting go that made my MBA life easier-- The Mother of All CP was as elusive as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster, so why put so much stress on myself to find it? The funny thing is that after adopting this mantra, I felt the quality of my points got better in class discussions.

What happened to me may not apply to all, but it's one perspective worth looking at. The Mother of All CP, that heroic, hail mary, show-stopping point may come, but it may all be over when it does.

Fuller Hall

Fuller Hall
Originally uploaded by Ajа

Just a quick one:

I just wanted to share this nice photo of the stage and backdrop at Fuller Hall during the past form function & class web design conference last July 10, 2009.

This photo was taken by PWDO member Aja Lapus.

AIM Webcast of Turnover Ceremony to New President

The Asian Institute of Management has a new president and the turnover ceremony will be webcast over the AIM Ustream.tv channel.

I've embedded the live webcast and everyone can view the ceremony starting 4pm (GMT +8):

Online video chat by Ustream

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Update: the webcast has already been finished. :)

Love Stories

The Asian Institute of Management is place where a lot of good things start-- business ventures, careers, and friendships.

But as two of my former classmates have proven, AIM is also a place where love stories are written.

Pradyumna "Praddy" Krishnakumar and Divya Jagadesh have made public their engagement. The news first broken by Gaurav Sharma, another former classmate:

Well a gud news from our batch mates, two of our batchmates have decided to be soulmate for rest their life.
this news was just shared to me by Praddy that "he" and "Divya" are getting married sometime in next year. he was bit scared and shy in sharing this news to the group so he asked me to do so.
so plz join me to pass good wishes to them. I have open the case and now the forum is open for discussion and respective CP.

To be honest, I was a little surprised when I heard the news because during our MBA stint, I never got to see the both of them together that often. (The other folks perhaps). But like most love stories, this one probably bloomed and continues to bloom in their own terms. :)

So to Praddy and Divya, congratulations and all the best! :D

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Prof. Larry Tan shared in the past that 7 couples in their MBA class ended up getting married. So who knew the MBA was one place to find "The One"? :P

AIM MBA Students Featured in Balikbayan Magazine

MBA Cohort 3 Students Laurice Alaan and John Lim were recently featured in Balikbayan Magazine. The magazine is a monthly travel and lifestyle journal for balikbayans and Filipino expats from the USA and other parts of the world.

According to Laurice:

When AIM's Marketing Department approached John and me to do an interview for Balikbayan Magazine (a monthly publication under the Asian Journal), we agreed even though we were unsure of what horror stories might slip on the subject of the first year of our MBA, which was just behind us. The experience turned out to be really enjoyable--a rare and surprisingly candid opportunity for us to reflect on the crazy changes we've been through since that rainy day we arrived last August...

(Photo & comment taken from Laurice's Facebook photo album)

How Socially Responsible Should Managers Be? (Part 2)

In the last post, I talked about my observation that MBA folks are getting a lot of flak because of the apparent lack of sense of social responsibility.

This is one observation one of my mentors at the Asian Institute of Management helped me see.

Prof. Jun "Junbo" Borromeo has been teaching at AIM for decades now and he has seen the widening gap of leadership in the business & management world. In one of our chats, he said that it's about time AIM further leveraged on its unique position as an institute that has strong programs on management and leadership and tying it together with development & social goals.

To him, there are two perspectives that AIM has full mastery of and should try to integrate more:

• Social consciousness, which will lead the student to discern, recognize and respect his or her various stakeholders; and
• Value creation for all those stakeholders, which he or she can deliver with the right competences.

Think about it: AIM has MBA, MM (Master in Management) and MDM (Master in Development Management) programs in one roof, and the integration is still very loose.

But Junbo has a plan.

(To be continued...)