http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/ en-us Copyright 2009 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:10:46 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss by Kevin Urbani, Nicholas 2009 You are a finalist! I am a student in the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking Specialization at the Wisconsin School of Business MBA program. I recently participated in a worldwide business plan competition. The premise of the competition was to create a business plan which would provide a small island the resources to power the island with windmills. I was excited about the broad scope of the competition because it required me to think about multiple aspects of business not just the finance piece. I entered this competition just before Thanksgiving break in 2008. That Friday I received a message from the competition committee with four simple words in the subject line, "You are a finalist." I could not believe it! I was invited to fly to Copenhagen to compete against business students from around the world. It was then I realized how the University of Wisconsin MBA program prepared me to compete on an international level. As promised I met with students from all around the world. A student from the University of Singapore made the trip as well as students from Berlin and Ireland. There were quite a few Americans there but, there was also an American studying in Spain, and an Englishman studying in New York. I did not get the opportunity to see the other competitors' presentations, but simply looking through their slides I realized that I was competing against some of the smartest people in the world. While I did not win the competition, I can truly say that it was an honor just to have the opportunity to compete against these individuals. I believe the University of Wisconsin prepared me for that day as well as any of the other schools represented. My focus on finance allowed me to create a plan to finance the business. In addition, the core curriculum that I received equipped me to tackle other business problems such as marketing and strategy. I am grateful for the experience that I was awarded and thankful for the preparation that I received. ]]> http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2009/03/winnovation_challenge_copenhag.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2009/03/winnovation_challenge_copenhag.htm Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:10:46 -0600 http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2009/02/association_for_corporate_grow.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2009/02/association_for_corporate_grow.htm Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:15:40 -0600 by Papi Valmond (Nicholas 2010) Upon arriving in DC on Thursday night, I took the advice of many people who had previously attended the conference and sprung for the hotel nearest the event. It is a good thing because as I approached the lobby I could already tell there was a lot going on. I ran to my room for a costume change and went to my first corporate reception with Citi. Like many of these career events, there were more people than recruiters so my strategy was to try and make some meaningful interactions. Next was a closed event organized by AIG, but hosted by all of the big investment banks. I met some really nice people from Goldman and Deutsche Bank, not to mention some dynamic students as well. That night everyone was going out to meet at Love (apparently "the" night spot) to party all night. In retrospect, I wished I would have gone because I heard that many of the recruiters went out. The following day was the main day of the Career Fair. I had my list of people to hit and my elevator pitch ready, but once you get there it is almost intimidating. There were over 450 companies with elaborate booths and give-aways. I didn't get to all of the booths that I intended to, but once again I had some memorable engagements with some recruiters and even bumped into some friends I made from the Consortium Orientation Program back in June. All and all, it was a great time, I had a stack of business cards to follow up with when I returned to Madison. I definitely recommend this event for anyone looking for a leg up on the recruiting season and needless to say I will be back next year. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/10/national_black_mba_conference.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/10/national_black_mba_conference.htm Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:54:38 -0600 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. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/crack_the_case_2_return_of_dav.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/crack_the_case_2_return_of_dav.htm Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:34:07 -0600 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. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/gba_golf_day_2008.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/gba_golf_day_2008.htm Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:46:27 -0600 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. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/economic_outlook_2008.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/09/economic_outlook_2008.htm Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:19:29 -0600 by Deanna Olson (Nicholas 2009) During my 12-week internship with Best Buy, I was able to really get a feel for what a Senior Financial Analyst does on a day-to-day basis. My position was in the Properties Group, supporting the Real Estate team. My work was focused on helping the team to decide which possible locations for new stores would add the most value to Best Buy. I completed many projects and ad hoc requests during the summer, but there were three major initiatives I was able to support during my time with the company. In the New Store Opening Audit, I helped my team review new stores opened during Best Buy's 2007 fiscal year to determine if they had performed as our model predicted in terms of revenues and expenses. With this information in hand, I helped the team to determine what changes should be made in the predictive modeling process going forward so that they have a more accurate forecast for the profitability of new stores. This will help the team to be more accurate in their assessment of possible new store locations. A second project I worked on was helping the Environmental Affairs team assess the financial impact of rolling out Best Buy's consumer electronics recycling program nationwide. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/08/my_summer_internship_at_best_b.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/08/my_summer_internship_at_best_b.htm Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:25:44 -0600 by Andy Bruno (Nicholas 2009) Our adventure to Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting began with a seven hour car ride through the rolling hills of the Midwest, arriving in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday afternoon. The car was filled with eager Wisconsin MBA students thrilled to have the opportunity to listen to arguably the two greatest value investors of our time. Friday night consisted of eating at Gorats, which is a popular steakhouse often frequented by Warren Buffet. Luckily we made a reservation in advance, otherwise there was no chance we would have been seated. The place was packed wtih people who would be attending the shareholder meeting the next day. Saturday morning was the shareholder meeting, held at the Qwest Center. We woke up early to get in line, hoping to grab decent seats among the 30,000 plus who were expected to attend. Arriving at the Qwest Center at 6:00am with the doors opening at 7:00am, we found ourselves not first in line, nor were we the last. We were in the middle of a long line that curled around the outside of the stadium. Fortunately, another student had awoke at the crack of dawn and was at the front of the line, which resulted in our Wisconsin MBA group sitting on the floor about 25 rows from the "Legend of Omaha". http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/08/shareholder_meeting_with_warre.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/08/shareholder_meeting_with_warre.htm Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:19:25 -0600 Crack the Case Workshop by Armah Ngafua When I heard that the “MBA Case” founder, David Ohvall was coming to campus to host a workshop on how to crack a case interview I was very excited. In July 2007, I briefly attended one of David’s sections during the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management orientation in Indianapolis. As I ran out of David’s discussion, I plan to visit his website to purchase a copy of his MBA Case book. I didn’t. Hence, my excited about his coming to campus on February 8th. ]]> http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/04/crack_the_case.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/04/crack_the_case.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:37:58 -0600 One of the countries that the Global Business Program traveled to this year was India. Thirteen students and one faculty member went on the trip. The trip was about ten days long over the latter part of winter break and I was one of the students that went on it. Overall, the trip to India was fantastic. It was an eye-opening experience ..... http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/04/india_trip_1.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2008/04/india_trip_1.htm India Trip Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:05:36 -0600 It has been awhile since my last post so I thought I would update everyone on what it's like to be a second year MBA this time of year. In a word, CRAZY! http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/12/the_month_of_november.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/12/the_month_of_november.htm Interview Offers Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:53:11 -0600 I said it was coming soon. Well the midterm around here was very hectic and now that things are settling down again I thought I would post about the China trip. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/china_trip.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/china_trip.htm China trip Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:12:15 -0600 I had mentioned this trip earlier but thought it would be interesting to give a more detailed description on this trip. Here is what one of the organizers had to say about it. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/india_trip.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/india_trip.htm India Trip Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:09:13 -0600 M&A Case Competition: I-Banking Exposure: What would be better to get the feel for the investment bank life than actually competing in a case competition focusing on pitching an M&A transaction which is sponsored by Credit Suisse and Lehman Bros. The experience so far has exceeded my expectations. Myself, as well as three 2nd year University of Wisconsin MBA's (two ACFIN, one ASAP) flew into Washington DC Wednesday afternoon and arrived at the event to a welcome reception of other teams we would be competing against. This welcome event was utilized to introduce students from other MBA programs, including a team from Singapore. Networking between students occurred, but the main focus was for the teams to get to know each other from a social aspect so they can talk about their MBA life, internships and prior work experience. Knowing we would all be competing against each other within 12 hours, we took it easy and ate dinner and consumed a few beverages.]]> http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/ibanking_exposure.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/ibanking_exposure.htm Investment Banking Case Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:01:16 -0600 This past Friday, several ACFIN students participated in a round of golf organized by the Graduate Business Association (GBA) and sponsored by a number of companies that regularly recruit Wisconsin MBAs. The sponsoring companies each sent representatives to team up with students, and so we not only had a beautiful day on the links but a great opportunity to do some networking. I wound up sharing a cart with a recruiter from Best Buy, which is one of my preferred employers for both an internship and a permanent job upon graduation. http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/golf_outing_and_networking.htm http://www.bus.wisc.edu/nicholascenter/blog/2007/10/golf_outing_and_networking.htm Golf Networking Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:43:33 -0600