September 2008 Archives

by Courtney Carlovsky (Nicholas 2010)

My fellow Nicholas Center first-years and I attended the Economic Outlook
Conference on September 12th. The four speakers presenting their thoughts
on the economy were: Charles Payne, Principal Analyst and CEO Wall Street
Strategies; Anirvan Banerji, Director of Research Economic Research Institute
(ECRI); Doug Ramsey, CFA Leuthold Weeden Capital Management; and Clare
Zempel, Principal Zempel Strategic. Each had his own view on what is going
on currently in the economy, how we got there, and where it is likely headed
over the next year. Some were messages of optimism while others were a bit more pessimistic. Overall, each agreed that we are in a recession; though, there
were some varying thoughts regarding how much longer the recession would last.

The signs of this recession were there early but its arrival was delayed due
to a lack of volatility in the system. The majority of the speakers provided historical indicators of all recessions, including this one. The indicators followed the same
pattern for this recession as those in the past. When times get tough, people often ask, "What is the government going to do to help us out"? However, there is only so much the government can do for the economy while we ride out a recession.

Continue reading "Economic Outlook 2008" »

by Peter O'Leary (Nicholas 2010)

John Oros Jr's' 44th email of the week specified (again) the dress code. He need not have worried. He could be sure no students would raise eyebrows in even their most outrageous rabble wear when Dean Knetter arrived at University Ridge Golf Course in a pair of shorts so gaudy they'd give Boo Weekley heartburn down in Kentucky!

Shortly after lunch and drinks, sixty plus golfers got underway with a shotgun start. My playing partners and I teed off from the 2nd minus our alumnus fourth member who was stuck in traffic coming from Milwaukee. Now I don't claim to be a great golfer, or even a good one, but the quality of golf that shanked left and right off my oversized borrowed clubs (thanks John) was truly awful. Nonetheless, my partners were on fire and post arrival of our last member the game was on. Birdies at the 2nd, 4th and 5th put us on a high, but a bogey on the 6th erased our momentum almost as soon as it arrived. We'd heard some whooping and hollering of an extremely enthusiastic student alumni foursome in front of us so we knew our 2 under wasn't going to cut it. The "Beat the Dean" competition on the forth was our sole remaining opportunity to make our mark. Two excellent shots to within 12 ft left us in a strong position. Then up stepped Dean 'Tiger' Knetter with a superb 7 iron to what looked like 10 ft from the pin. Closer inspection gave us the win by a hairs length which may or may not have been poetic justice for those shorts...

We battled bravely through the sunny afternoon but the pars piled up and we ran out of holes. Alas, it wasn't to be. The GBA Golf Day however was never about quality on the course but having a bit of fun with the guys who've been where we are in the Wisconsin MBA. I believe I wasn't the only one to take such a philosophical approach...there were some brutal golfers out there who also "chose" to enjoy the day rather than the competition. And that much was achieved. Everybody seemed to have a great time.

Thanks to John Oros Jr. and the Graduate Business Association for organizing a hugely enjoyable event for the alumni and students alike. You can guarantee I'll be looking to make a bigger impact on the leader board next year.

by Apurv Johari (Nicholas 2010)

Having little idea about case interviews and being excited about them, I was looking forward to the workshop "Crack the Case". This was David's second visit to the school. Nicholas students were privileged to have a complete two hour exercise with him on top of the regular session that was being hosted in the newly inaugurated Plenary room. David was a former Manager at Bain & Company and now runs his own institute coaching about case interviews.

For those who are not aware about case interviews, they are generally used by consulting firms to evaluate candidates. The broad skill set and limited time to accomplish things is what the case interview best measures.

We started with the session and it was far more interactive than expected. David began with an explanation of the open approach for looking at problems, no matter how weird they may same. If there was one thing that everyone walked away from the session with, it was what is the best way to get started with the most horrible looking cases. It's simple, just look for the breadth of the issues you can think of, and then look for depth in each of them. Some answers may seem to be stupid, but don't discard them, note them down. The paper, pen and notes are your best friends for the case interview.

What I really liked was the engaging approach of the program. After having a lesson of some key strategies, we were split into groups. All of us had least expected to have a case interview, with each other, right at that moment. I had no idea how we would handle these interviews. To top that off, we got the ugliest of the questions: "How many cabs are there in New York" and "How do you reduce the fuel costs of an airline". Trying our hands at the approach that we had just learned, we were happy to reach quite near the solutions to these problems.

The session continued with input from all classmates on their experiences and problem solving methods. We frequently got involved in small exercises about how to do financial, marketing, and a whole bunch of other management analysis. The best part of these exercises was to make presentable notes and to tactfully ask questions to the interviewer, to act as clues to crack the case.

Continue reading "Crack the Case 2 - Return of David Ohrvall" »