PP1 ain't no walkover!

I think a lot of us, when choosing our tracks and electives for PP1, felt that it was going to be easier now compared to what we had been through in Core I and Core II. As it turns out, we were all wrong! I am in the Strategy Track and have mostly strategy related electives with a few others such as Business Plan Funding and International Negotiation. I was careful not to pick too many electives in order to avoid being sunk under the weight of the courses and still, I find myself struggling with three cases, two presentations, class-prep and what not more or less each week. The elective on Corporate Strategy and Development is in itself like taking two electives and we are currently working on analysing Total S.A. as an integrated company vs the sum of its parts. We are presenting on Friday to a couple of company representatives so we better get it right. What I do like though is that I am now using all the skills from the earlier semesters in evaluating companies, making decisions and moving forward, all rather efficiently. I like it that I can transfer what I learn in one class to another and examine companies in much greater detail. Talking of which, we are working on a case for Oliver Wyman as 'trainee' consultants evaluating the strategy of a company - OW promised to invite members of the best group for interviews and some in my group are keen!

My life has been revolving around work for the last few weeks including weekends with too many 8 to 8 days at HEC for my liking. I take grace from the fact that my schedule will be lighter from Nov onward. I must say though that I did manage to go for lunch with all my buddies from the September 2007 intake - good people and definitely fun to talk to. We also have a lot of exchange students now and they bring a breath of fresh air and differing perspective to the class. I was also at the World Bank in Paris the other day to participate in a live worldwide videoconference on Millenium Development Goals.

The last few weeks have also been quite tumultous for the company sponsoring me and I am exploring options to just cover my back. Most companies in this industry seem to undergo a radical shake-up every now and then and I am pretty sure it would have minimal impact on my situation but I need to be prepared...afterall, this is what I am good at! Risk spreading but not sub-priming! :-)

Finally, for those of you who visit this site regularly, you will realise that I've changed the song...hope you like it.