fran on MBA

New home for 2010

2010-02-11T08:27:00.001-08:00

http://notawhiteboard.blogspot.com/

New Blog

2008-08-21T05:11:00.001-07:00

As promised, it has arrived.
http://frangoesdutch.blogspot.com/
hope you enjoy

The End

2008-07-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

So the MBA is over
We graduated on Friday, celebrated, said our goodbyes and people are starting to take off to their lives and careers in all corners of the world. After a busy first year and a long second year, it all seemed to end too suddenly and it left me with a sense of nostalgia and with a -frankly unexpected- sense of pride for being a London Business School MBA 2008.

Was it worth it?
A lot of people ask me these days. I ask myself too. The answer is clearly "Yes". However, as I reflect on the last 22 months, I realise that the MBA really was really a transformational experience, and as such it is not easy to weigh its value straight out of it. The magnitude of my "Yes" will probably only become clear in the next 5-10 years or so.

Have I achieved my goals?
(1) Like most of us, I came into the MBA with a decent career track, albeit limited to a very specific functional area. My first objective was to improve my understanding of business and general management. No question that the objective has been completely achieved, 100%, dead in the middle. LBS gave me the opportunity to study some fundamentals (finance, accounting, strategy, OB, ...) which I lacked, and many great electives. To all applicants reading this blog: if your goal is also to broaden your business understanding, an MBA is the right thing to do.

(2) My second objective was to advance my career, in terms of role, responsibility and salary. I guess most applicants have the same objective. As far as I am concerned, it has been partly achieved. Off course I am now off to a fantastic job, which I would only have dreamed about before, but the process of advancing career, role and salary is an ongoing one, and this is where it will take 10 years to evaluate success or failure of the MBA. The main learning I guess, and a word of warning to the applicants, was that there is a lot of hype surrounding business schools: salaries are not not likely to double the day you graduate and you are not likely to become CEO straight out of school. It takes time, and a lot of effort.

What was the hardest bit?
Without any doubt, the job search process, and particularly the amount of rejection that I had to deal with. A few numbers: In the second year I interviewed with approximately 28 companies. An average of 2 interviews per company. 56 interviews! Eventually, I received 4 offers. That means I was rejected 24 times over a period of about 10 months, or 2.4 rejections per month. I had never been turned down so much before, and I guess I am no exception compared to the rest of the class. In the end of the day, most of us have found fantastic jobs, but it was such hard work. So back to my advice to applicants: don't believe the hype and prepare to be turned down, battered, criticized, offended, ...

What was the best bit?
The people. Some of the class mates, with so many different backgrounds and so many different things to say. It has been a true privilege to share the past 22 months, they have added so much value to the whole experience, and I leave now confident that they will be happy to pick up the phone in the future when I will call. I guess this is probably where London Business School gets it so right with their emphasis on internationality and diversity.

What happens next (to fran and to this blog)?
Fran is leaving the UK after 4 years. I am off to the Netherlands, to work for one of my favorite brands in the world and to achieve extraordinary things. I am not sure I can disclose which brand on this blog (haven't told them about it yet), but there are clues here and there for those readers who really pay attention.

Franonmba (the blog) ends here. I thought about keeping it alive, but the truth is that the MBA is over and so should be the blog. I hope it was useful to someone reading. At least it was useful to me writing it, as it helped me reflect on what was happening and to crystallize a few ideas. So there will be a new blog coming soon, dedicated to the next experience. Check these pages every now and then: I will post directions.

farewell.

Nike+ better

2008-05-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

Ok. I spent a lot of money on Nike kit recently. Partly for research, partly for brown-nosing, partly because I like it. The best piece of kit I find is the Nike+ sportsband. I love the way technology makes my running gear better. I love that it lets me plot my runs, map them, keep track of them, share them with my friends back in Milan and see who is fattest and slowest. So you thought there was no room to innovate in running shoes? wrong!

But there are some limitations I think.

About a month ago I put down a little training program in order to run from zero to 5k comfortably in one month. The screenshots below show my progress:

The following thoughts spring to mind:

I am painfully rubbish. Although I am running quite regularly (green bars) I am behind on my program (blue bars). That's my problem I guess.
But hey: I am actually doing quite a lot of cycling. Last week I rode 225k and didn't run. (yeah ... I am on a 4 months holiday)
Hey. I am also swimming regularly. Yesterday 2k. Normally about 6-8k/week.
I am sure there are a lot of people who run, cycle and swim. Not just triatletes, but also normal people who try to get/keep fit like me.

So I am thinking that it would be great to have a sort of Triathlon Nike+ that

Does exactly what Nike+ does for running
Integrates with my bike computer, to let me plot my cycling workout and share it with others online
Works for swimming, for example by helping me keep count of how many lanes I swim (I tend to forget), my speed, etc ... and lets me sink all the above online.

... would be great

c2c ride. wow

2008-05-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Came back last night from the coast to coast (C2c) ride in northern England. I am taking advantage of this holiday before I start work in September to cycle around a bit. Nice weather, great ride, very stiff legs. Here a map of the ride (use this website to plan the ride: it's very good).

Day one: Workington to Keswick

The ride starts in Workington, a fairly ugly town on the irish sea. You cycle from there to the lake district on b roads and cycle paths. The road is pretty much up and down, so quite tiring, but to be honest I should have cycled a few miles more on day one and do the whole thing in three days instead of four.

Lovely scenery. I stopped for the night at the Twa Dogs Inn in Keswick for the night. Not exceptional

Day two: Keswick to Alston

This was the first day of climbs, and the longest stage on my ride. This is a picture taken from the top of the Hartside, a big climb on day two, and my struggling face. I stayed in a very nice B&B for the night.

Day three: Alston to Bee Cottage

This is when you think the climbs are over and you are wrong. There are at least two more big climbs as you leave Alston heading east, and to make things worse your legs are still in pain from the day before. The scenery is rough, mountainous and with few scattered mining villages. Stayed at bee cottage for the night. Glad to get there.

Day four: Bee Cottage to Sunderland

pretty much 50k downhill to sunderland, on dirt (although very manageable with a road bike). Nice to eventually get to the north sea in Sunderland.

get in there my son!

2008-04-29T07:28:00.001-07:00

My new favourite sport

2008-04-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

has to be diving. I want to go back!

Blocked YouTube/2

2008-03-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

A few days back I commented on an Economist article. I wanted to know more about how internet censorship works. Nick left a very nice comment to that post. So nice I thought it should be an entry in its own right. Still, it leaves me with a desire to understand how censorship works in the west.

Thanks Nick, good luck at LBS next year.
--
(guest writer: Nick)

I'm a US/UK citizen living in China (actually, I'll be starting my MBA at LBS this August...)

Anyway, I thought I'd share a little about the whole government censorship thingy. Living here in China, I'm subjected to it a lot and have to resort to various tricks to get around it.

Sites that are permanently blocked here (and no matter what tricks I try to get around the censor, I can't):

The US Democratic or Republican Party's webpages. Absolutely impossible to get to. Also, BBC News. No way, no how, I cannot read it.

CNN.com surprisingly almost always works, however when certain stories about China or democracy in the US are posted, the links are broken.

This past week with the riots in Tibet and the protesters that were shot, the central government has tightened restrictions more that usual. Two months ago a law was passed here that said any website showing streaming video had to be government controlled or owned, essentially shutting down YouTube and Chinese versions of it. This ban however had yet to be implimented... until this week. The government wants to make sure that there is not way that anyone living in Tibet can send photos or video out to the rest of the world (foreign media is banned from Tibet and Xinjiang Provinces due to "unrest"). There are some protest groups that if I were even to google their names, the government would take immediate note of my IP address and I would not be surprised if I had a knock at my door in the middle of the night from some special police. I'd be wary of even typing them here because I don't know what their ability is to read blog comments automatically.

Blogger's publishing tool is not banned here, but most of the time the actual blogs are. I have to use a tool called Anonymouse.org in order to view your blog or even my own.

You were wondering about the mechanism they use...

There are 4 levels.

Beijing central government has a list of banned sites. This is where the US political parties pages are blocked. Because Beijing is doing it, you'd have to have some serious hacking skills to get around it.

Next down, Provinces. Each capital city has an office dedicated to "cleaning" up the content of the internet before it reaches the masses. They have staff who search the internet all day long. If they find a webpage with "objectionable" content, they simply put it on the black list and anyone in China that tries to access it will not be able to (and will have their IP address noted by authories).

Then we come down to the city level. Same as the Provincial level. What the people in the city can see on the internet is up to a few people sitting in a office somewhere in the city. One week blogger and other blog sites may be blocked. The next week, one of the filter administrator's sons starts a blog so Daddy unblocks blogger for one week. Its arbitrary.

Then it comes down to a district level. I live 15km away from my office, but I can view different things in my house (different district). The powers that be in the district where I work will often block hotmail... as they have the power to read all email sent within China, if they read something that doesn't match the Communist Party lines, they will just shut down the email system for a week.

At each of the levels above, a select few have control over what millions of people are able to access. They can even control the content on Chinese forums and message boards. If a Chinese student writes something pro-democracy, their posting will be taken down within seconds and they will receive a warning. If they do it again, it is VERY likely that they will have a surprise visit in the middle of the night and be carried off to the police station were they may be kept for a few days.

I love this country... I love living here, I love the people, I love the food... but in order to live here and maintain your sanity you have to ignore the oppression by the government. If I thought about it as much as I have to write this comment to you, I'd spend my waking hours being furious on behalf of the Chinese populace.

Animoto

2008-03-14T02:25:00.001-07:00

I am testing this animoto.com thingy. It lets you create animated slideshows with music and nice transitions. Simple to use. I like. Thanks Gianni for finding it.

Sneakers (superficial impressions)

2008-03-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

I am researching sneakers these days. Fascinating stuff.

I Bought this book off Amazon ... it's a bit of a crap book (it costs a lot, it is not particularly well edited and I am not sure how reliable it is in terms of dates), but it gives one very interesting insight: all major sneaker brands are very old and have bags of heritage. For example:

- The sneaker was so-called for its noiseless quality when it was first made with elastic rubber soles. In 1892 GoodYear manufactures Keds, the first sneaker (I think) with a vulcanized rubber sole.

- Converse is really old. It was founded in 1908 by Marquis M Converse. The Converse All Star was designed in 1917 (although somewhere else in the book it says 1915). In 1918 (end of WW1!) it was endorsed by basketball player Charles "Chuck" Taylor, who later joins the Company. His signature is added to the star patch on the shoe in 1923. In 1935 Converse releases the Jack Purcell (badminton world champion). It's a wonderful shoe.

- Adidas was founded in 1920 by Adi Dassler. In 1948 Adi falls off with his brother Rudolf, who goes on to found Puma.

- In 1962, Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman start Blue Ribbon Sport (BRS). Initially they import Onitsuka Tiger to the US, later they start manufacturing their own shoes. Nike is established in the early 70's. In 1971 the Nike swoosh logo is purchased for US$35 from an Oregon University design student (she will later be rewarded with an undisclosed amount of Nike shares). In 1972 Bill Bowerman pours rubber into his wife's waffle iron, creating the basis for the popular Nike Waffle Racer. She must have been pissed off!

Having read the book, I was curios to find out what these brands are up to today. Particularly, I was interested in finding out how this wealth of brand heritage is managed nowadays. I took a trip down to central London. Without pretending to give a thorough analysis, here are a few random thoughts:

- Nike Town is in Oxford Street, just opposite the tube entrance. It can't be missed. Needless to say it is a masterpiece of brand display. Several sports showcased in different sections of the store: rugby, running, tennis, golf and there is a whole section dedicated to female athletes.

- Very interesting to see how Nike might perhaps be abandoning their exclusive focus on sport to enter the territory of style (I don't dare call it fashion) with two major sections of the store: the Sports Culture Section (which revisits the historical Nike products such as the AF1 in a modern key) and the Nike ID studio. I would love to discuss this with a Nike brand manager.

- Nike ID studio is just brilliant. It's multi-level glass environment in the middle of the store, in which you can design your own shoe. It's essentially the same concept of the online Nike ID, with the benefit of having a personal design consultant helping you through the motions and showing you samples of the materials you can work with. This is my creation. It retails for £80.00. The white bit is fake snake!

- Round the corner from Oxford Street, in Carnaby Street, you'll find a small Onitsuka Tiger shop and a larger Puma shop. The recurring elements are: 1) Colour and style over sport (particularly with Onitsuka Tiger) and 2) Very explicit references to the brands' heritage (with historic models on display under glass cabinets for Onitsuka). I leave thinking that the tree brands are blurring into the same space. Again, would love to discuss it with the above brand manager.

- Converse stands out. I found a small branded shop next to a multi-brand retailer. Like the other shops, there are plenty of references to the brand's heritage: vintage pictures around the shop, historic models like the All Star, One Star and the beautiful Purcell (I am tempted to attribute all this to the new Nike ownership). However, whereas the other three brands are all somehow blurring into the same sort of 70's-80's retro-colorful style, Converse style is somehow Punk-rocking. You may like it or not, but the Converse brand is definitely the undisputed master in its own space. I resist the temptation to part with £40 for a 90-years-old shoe.

nice ride

2008-03-03T03:17:00.000-08:00

Nice ride through the countryside yesterday with Gavin from LBS. Got lost a couple of times, rode 75km, never made it to destination, eventually stopped for lunch, then jumped on a train to head back to London, the legs incredibly stiff. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

blocked youtube (the economist)

2008-02-29T05:04:00.000-08:00

Bit of a shitty article on the economist. Interesting but incomplete: http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10754988&subjectID=348963&fsrc=nwl

here the integral text:
WHAT you see—or rather, what you don't see—on the internet may be determined by your government. The attitude of officialdom varies when it comes to filtering content of a social nature. In many places agreements are set with service providers to block nasty stuff such as child pornography. In a few countries intervention is stronger, up to the level of pervasive censorship. This week Pakistan's block on YouTube accidentally caused an international outage for that website. Iran and Saudi Arabia have also prevented their citizens from accessing the video-sharing site.

That's it. I would be intrigued to know more about it. For example: what kind of content is blocked in th UK? in Europe? in the US? why? who blocks it? how?

cheesy but good

2008-02-19T13:32:00.001-08:00

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Described as the commencement speech she would give if ever asked to deliver one, this charming, whimsical music video found its origins in a 1997 Chicago Tribune column by Mary Schmich. Two years later, Australian film director Baz Luhrmann (who would go on to direct the Academy Award-winning Moulin Rouge) set Schmich's musings, virtually word for word, to music. Rumored--falsely--to have been an MIT commencement address given by the author Kurt Vonnegut, the Luhrmann production reached #1 in the UK and Ireland, and became a cult hit in the United States.

Soled Out

2008-02-13T13:21:00.001-08:00

fascinating stuff

Brands: a big, bold and exciting perspective.

2008-02-07T02:45:00.000-08:00

So, I've been one of the lucky guests of Wolff Olins last night, for their Brand Next event. It has been an incredibly inspiring and intellectually stimulating evening, like it hadn't happened to me for a long time.

They have come up with a whole new way to see brands, which I find fascinating. I suspect I am only beginning to elaborate it in my head, and it will probably take a little while before I can really understand it in all its depth and complexity. Anyways, here is my attempt to explain it(*):

The fundamental premise is the following:

So far it may sound a bit naive, but then they expand upon it, in three points ... and the whole thing becomes very relevant:

1. brand = platform
This is for me by far the most interesting point:

"Brands started as a stamp on a product, and became a gadget designed to get people to buy, an emotional lever. Now they’re becoming something bigger and different. Brands are becoming platforms. More and more, customers are invited not just to buy things but to do things. On the platforms of eBay, Wikipedia, flickr and YouTube, people sell things, share knowledge, broadcast visual ideas. Through Zopa, people lend to and borrow from each other. On Sellaband, you can launch your favourite unknown band, and then share in the profits. [...] Across the developed world, consumers are becoming active, even activists, and brands their platform. [...] As consumers are invited not to buy but to work".

In my brand management class at LBS I learned that brands deliver value to the consumer in four ways: (1) they create familiarity, (2) they reduce search costs, (3) they provide a guarantee of performance and (4) they provide meaning. I guess that what the folks at Wolff Olins are saying here is that there is a fifth way: brands provide a platform for consumers to act and express themselves. That way they create value for the consumer, and in return they receive value.

For example, last night I pledged to visit two locations in London and write an opinionated review for World66. By doing so, I will contribute to making the brand more interesting and relevant, and in return the brand will give me an opportunity to perform an action, express myself. No payment involved, a lot of value created.

The 'free beer' they were serving last night really took the concept to it's extreme consequences. It's an open source beer licensed under a Creative Commons license. Basically anyone is free to chance the receipe and the branding elements, and to make money from it:

2. brand = link
Yet, there is another way in which brands create value:

"It’s not just individual customers who use these platforms. Other organisations do too, and brands increasingly link organisations together. [...] Amazon may seem like a bookselling corporation, but actually it’s a constellation of retailers of electronics, homewares, toys and more – plus the wider constellation of people who review and recommend. Creative people increasingly work in consortia, forming communities through conferences like TED or websites like worldchanging.com. Cities like New York are creating a city brand to connect and multiply the impact of the myriad of agencies who promote the city. [...] As brands become less the property of an organisation and more the banner of a movement, ownership will become even looser. Logos will be things other organisations, and individuals, can borrow and adapt".

I love it.

3. brand = theme
Finally:

"As brands become platforms and links, they get used and abused. People want to make them their own – which means they may no longer be the same everywhere. Brand becomes not one tune, but a theme with variations. As ideologies compete, as cultures become more multi, organisations are getting much more sensitive to context, to localness. Even Starbucks – the great exponent of a repeated formula – now believes in ‘identity, not identical’. The BBC has moved from uniformity to create distinctive channel brands. Mandarin Oriental thinks of its hotels as a family, not a chain, so that San Francisco looks and feels different from London and Hong Kong, though there’s a unifying oriental sensibility. [...] The new brands have many ways of doing things, many ways of speaking. They experiment and change over time. The brand is not a perfect blueprint, and brand creators are less architects and more inventors, learning by adapting. What unites the organisation (or constellation) isn’t the surface logo but the underlying idea".

I am wondering whether they had a bit of this in mind when they created the London 2012 logo.

--

(*) and here is how they explain it ... perhaps a bit better.

help needed folks!

2008-02-05T02:33:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to go an present my big-picture-plan-to-save-the-world in an interview:

"So, we’d like Fran to come and talk to us about the different roles that the web can perform for brands or organisations, and the role he feels they perform in the customer journey. They could as equally be examples that are doing a bad job and what a better approach might have been".

I have a few thoughts, but I'd like to hear your opinions, dear readers (if anyone is reading). The comment box is below ... we've got 12 hours to prepare. Feel free to chip in.

get relevant!

2008-02-01T03:11:00.000-08:00

Things I look for in a mobile operator:
- always on,
- good data pakage,
- simple tariffs.

Things I get from Vodafone:
- interruption,
- selling selling selling,
- annoying

Honestly Vodafone, stop doing this. You are killing your own brand. Get relevant!

please someone tell me what he is saying!!!

2008-01-30T09:40:00.001-08:00

I am literally rolling on the floor laughing, and I don't know what he is saying!!!!

you just have to love the internet ...

2008-01-30T09:30:00.001-08:00

... especially when you stumble across people like this guy. No idea what the hell he is saying, nor why there is stuff hanging off his right nostril. But he's just priceless.

nr.2

2008-01-28T03:48:00.000-08:00

so it looks like LBS is the second best MBA in the world.
wow! we must have done something good!
http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings

They want to legislate kids thin!

2008-01-23T07:05:00.000-08:00

I just received email from the British Heart Foundation informing me about their latest petition. They want the government to ban any form of junk food advertising to kids, and so they set up their little campaign.

To be honest, TV advertising has already been banned, but digital advertising (i.e. banners, websites, online games, etc…) hasn’t yet, so that’s what they are trying to accomplish.

Stories like this one (and this other one) find me very skeptical. I wonder:

1) Why do people attribute so much power to marketing and advertising?
The issue here is that UK children are fed an incredible amount of unhealthy food. As a result they grow up obese, and are likely to develop diseases in their adulthood, dying young and costing the NHS a lot of money. It is much more than advertising: it involves the (poor) food culture of a nation, parent’s lack of time to prepare good food, cost pressures leading school canteens to serve junk food instead of healthy vegetables, AND marketing. So to say that kids are unhealthy because of their exposure to advertising is stretching it a bit.

2) Why do people think that we can legislate the problem away?
Of all the causes underlying poor eating habits, I believe culture is the main one. Italy, my home country, is a good example: we are exposed to the same amount of junk food marketing as the UK, yet our eating tends to be a lot healthier. I believe it comes down to the fact that Italian kids grow up with their mum routinely cooking home food every day. That way we develop a better concept of what is healthy, and we learn how to cook ourselves from a very young age. This is not written in any law, so I believe that legislating food marketing will not solve the problem in the UK.

Nonetheless, healthy eating and healthy living are definitely a big topic out there at the moment, at least in the UK.

Some campaigning -like Jamie Oliver’s for example (here and here) - is in my opinion well done, because it is fundamentally attempting to use media to seed a better food culture into the nation, as well as putting pressure on the industry to adopt a more responsible approach to such issues. My hope is that good businesses will recognise this trend towards health, and will start adapting their offering to a changing consumer demand.

However, some other campaigning, like BHFs, is in my opinion purely provocative and aimed only at the most apparent aspects of the matter: marketing and advertising.
It might get some more marketing activity banned, but I doubt it will help children grow healthier.

-
UPDATE 24/01: kind of relevant: http://www.brandrepublic.com/Campaign/News/778867/Govt-industry-plot-75m-ad-drive/

MBAs: not just after money

2008-01-21T01:52:00.000-08:00

I received from Hill&Knowlton (big PR agency) a copy of their report "Reputation & the War for Talent"*. It is a very interesting survey of 527 MBA students and their career priorities.

The main message seems to be that MBAs will consider the 'reputation' of an employee as an important factor determining its attractiveness. Hence, according to H&K, building a strong corporate reputation is important in order to attract and retain talent.

Off course the big assumption, I would argue, is MBAs=talent (:-)), but apart from that it is a very interesting perspective. More can be found here.
--

* by the way: I appreciated that they first asked for permission and then emailed the report. Shows an uncommon appreciation of some basic netiquette principles. well done.

LBS Media Club careers evening

2008-01-17T06:50:00.000-08:00

The following is the invite to a Media Club event that we are organising. I'll post it here in case there are any media companies reading, who might be interested in attending. Drop me an email if so.

LBS Media Club careers evening, 20th feb 2008, 17.00 – 20.00

We are the London Business School media club.

We are a student-led organization, grouping some 300 MBA students with a professional interest in the media industry, including advertising, tv, publishing, film, content, gaming, etc.

We have on average 6 years work-experience. We are young, talented, international, and mad enough to leave good jobs to be trained at one of the world leading business schools for 22 months.

About half of us are first year students: currently looking for a 2-3 months work assignment during the summer, to get to know a new employer and apply MBA-learnings to a real-life business situation, before going back to class in autumn.

The rest of us are second year students, graduating in spring-summer 2008, and looking for a full-time job in media.

Our goal

We would like to invite a selection of the best media companies and head-hunters on campus February 20th 2008. We would like to meet them for a career chat, in a relaxed and informal context, and hopefully start a fruitful relationship.

The evening

We aim to start at 5.00 and finish around 8.00

Not all our company guests are familiar with the MBA programme, so we have invited Diane Morgan, Director of Career Services at London Business School, to open the event with a short explanation of what the London Business School MBA programme is about.

We will then quickly move to our cocktail bar, where we hope to get to know each other better over a drink or two.

We are aware that your time is valuable, so we will also provide a quiet area, with coffee tables and comfy chairs, for one-to-one meetings with the students that you are most interested in. In order to help you decide who you would like to meet, we will set-up a database of CVs from which you will be able to cherry pick.

We hope that this will be the beginning of many fruitful relationships.

home alone

2008-01-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

I am at home alone tonight and am finally finding some time to blog down a few interesting things that happened last week.

The first was the Brand Management course at LBS, which sadly has gone by very quickly. Absolutely ex-tra-or-di-nary: 30 hours of class to get branding like I never did before, and to realize the job of a brand managemer, providing it's on the right brand, can actually be rather exciting.
The credit goes entirely to the professor, Mark Ritson, who is an incredibly experienced, talented and entertaining teacher. It would be a tragedy if LBS, for whatever reason, was to loose this man.

The second interesting thing was actually part of the Brand Management course, but it was so special to me that it deserves a mention on its own: on Thursday evening we had Emily Richards as a guest speaker.

Emily is an alumna of LBS, currently brand manager on Cadbury Dairy Milk. She told us the story of how the best piece of advertising in 2007 came about, thanks to a very good brand strategy and an extraordinary creative idea. Without going into too much detail, I had literally goosebumps when she told us how close the campaign came to be killed off, and how hard the team had to fight to keep it alive. Chapeau.

Finally, the third interesting thing, at least to me, is that the recruitment season has started again on a positive note. There was an important interview last week, there will be one this Friday and there will be one next Tuesday. All of them with different, super interesting agencies. December was a hard and long month and I was really tired of interviewing, but for the first time in a long while I now am actually quite looking forward to it.

back again. not long to go

2008-01-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

It was a good holiday. chilled. relaxing.
Term starts tomorrow. Three courses: Brand Management, Financing the Enterpreneurial Business, Managing the Growing Business. Then management report on Jaycut, then done!
(ah ... I should also find a job).

Christmas wishlist

2007-12-19T04:38:00.001-08:00

Dear Santa,

if you really must bring me a book this Christmas, please make it an interesting one. See for example if you can find 'Rules for Radicals', by Saul Alinsky. I met so many people this year - including myself - who claim to want to change things and then are scared to death. I thought perhaps this book might give me some clue.

Alternatively, dear Santa, if you are thinking to buy me a DVD, see if you can find me "The fog of war". It's a documentary/interview with former US secretary of state Robert MacNamara. It's about the fact that decision making is really difficult when you are in the thick of shit, because the complexity of situations - the fog of war - makes everything really murky and unclear. I saw this already in class this year, but I'd really like to watch it again.

thanks!

lova-lamp

2007-12-17T05:43:00.001-08:00

Paths to power, and end of term

2007-12-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

So, Friday was for me the end of a fantastic block week course (Paths to power) as well as the end of the term.

Paths to Power is a bad name for a very good course about power and influence in organisations. It touches on the ethics of power, the dynamics of power, the mechanisms of influence, the dangers of power. Main learnings for me: (1) Power is necessary to get things done. It is better to have it than not to have it (because otherwise someone else will take it). (2) Having power necessarily means having to make difficult choices. Being naive about it does not help. (3) Power flows from the people that are around you in an organisation. So being powerful is pretty much about being very good at managing your relationships with people. Without their support, you can not have power. The course book is very interesting, although it will make you look a bit like a looser if you read it in the tube. Patxi says a bit more about it here.

Overall the term has gone well. For me it has been largely about deciding which job I want to do after my MBA, and finding it. I have been meeting about a dozen of companies, interviewed with about seven, of which 2 (possibly 3) have developed into very interesting conversations. There have also been a couple of disappointments, with a couple of companies showing commitment and then backing off. ah well!
The process of interviewing is all in all a highly stressful experience, but I guess on the upside it forced me to really clarify what I am really after and what my strengths are. Hopefully the new year will bring some proper closure on that front. For now I am looking forward to a nice break.

Happy Christmas everyone!

why do the brits grill tomatoes?

2007-12-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

We had Russell at LBS last night, showing us some interesting ads and trying to tell us what makes a good ad. One of my goals in organising the event was to see what happens when you bring a very good advertising person in a business school environment.
It turned out to be a bit of a clash of cultures for me, at least semantically: on the one hand we had Russell talking about 'interesting', 'negative emotions', 'cultural phenomena'. On the other hand, you had an LBS professor arguing about 'strategic alignment', 'effectiveness', 'positioning'. On the third hand ( :-) ), you had the students who pretty much wanted to see some ads and have a laugh.
I suspect all parties left slightly annoyed, and I pretty much spent all night thinking about it.

I woke up this morning and I was still thinking about it. I left home to go for an interview with a very intelligent woman at one of my favourite advertising agencies. It was more of a chat rather than an interview, as we both new that they don't have openings at the moment.
It turned out to be a very pleasant experience. We talked a bit about what an MBA is and how it might help in an advertising agency. Also we talked about how advertising is a discipline caught in between art and business (i.e. about the clash of cultures), and how exciting this is.

After leaving the building I got caught in 'severe tube delays on the circle, district, hammersmith and Godknowswhatother line'. It was pounding with rain, so I found shelter in a very British cafe and spent a good half-hour there, meditating over a lovely English breakfast. why the hell do the Brits grill tomatoes?

genius adwords

2007-12-03T04:45:00.000-08:00

brilliant! (the whole story, in Italian, on IMLI)

Ah Paris!

2007-12-03T00:19:00.000-08:00

Lovely weekend in Paris. Fast train, partly good weather, crap hotel, good food, fantastic churches, amazing concert, lovely andante guide for the Louvre (thanks Patxi). Will definitely do it again.

Project: The collaborative bank of ideas

2007-11-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

I scribbled down a project idea that has been playing in my mind for a while. I am looking for comments/reactions, as well as help to bring it to life. Everyone is welcome.

Title:
the collaborative bank of ideas (or bank of eureka moments)

Situation:
My experience in advertising is that having good ideas is very
important. I suppose it's the same in many other jobs, but
particularly in those with a high creative component: advertising,
marketing, marcom, design...but perhaps even engineering, science,
architecture, academia...

Problem:
When you have to come up with ideas all the time, you tend to notice
that ideas often come at the wrong time. And by the time you get to
work on them (if you ever get there) they are gone forever.

Example 1: You are working on a new campaign for clothing. It's late
at night and all you can think about is food. And perhaps you have a
great idea for a new pasta brand but you are just too busy working on
clothing to develop it, so that by the time you get to work on pasta
you'll have forgotten your idea. Or maybe you'll simply never find the
time to work on it, and that potentially great idea will never see the
light.

Example2: you are at the pub with your mates and you come up with a
great concept. You think it deserves some work, but you have a drink
too many and by the morning you have forgotten what it was about. Idea
gone, forever.

Solution:
A website, where you can quickly type your idea, maybe by uploading a
video or photo that explains it, or perhaps by just recording a quick
voice message from wherever you are.

Ideas are tagged, so you can find them when you are working on your
next project and you need inspiration.

You can choose to keep your ideas for yourself, on your page, or to
make them public by sharing them with groups of friends or with the
whole wide world (and this is really exciting, because it can become a
big bank of ideas, with a search engine on top!)

Site initially targeted to a particular professional community (eg
advertising) in order to allocate resources, but then can be extended
to neighbouring communities.

Business model:
Initially none: its just for fun. Later perhaps advertising funded or
maybe even auction based

Team needs:
Tech development
Advocates in the industry
Anybody else who wants to help

(update: I just found that it's been done, but it's horrible IMHO http://knownetgrin.honeybee.org/idea_bank.htm)

good luck waxwave!

2007-11-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

A few months back I had the pleasure of meeting a super clever, super nice LBS alumna, who took some of her time to share the tales of her post-LBS experience with me, and to provide advice. Today I learn her project is about to launch: www.waxwawe.com

"Waxwave is a new social venture. Our unique online fundraising product energises people to promote their favourite causes and helps charities promote themselves on the web in an entirely new way. For charities it means they get an innovative way to increase awareness and collect funds cost-effectively. For ordinary people, it means they get to have a bit of fun while telling the world what they believe in".

I guess it is still to early to understand quite how it will work, but if you look at their website you get the gist of it. Best of luck!

space station ... can you hear us?

2007-11-19T12:28:00.000-08:00

I love chatting to parents on skype. It's a bit like base camp trying to communicate with the cosmonauts deep into space. There are always some difficulties with setting up images, microphones, sending and receiving chat messages ... but it makes you feel closer to home.

things that numbers can not capture. or not?

2007-11-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

I am studying for one of those super-useful-mega-boring courses these days: Analysis for Marketing Planning and Decision Making (dubbed Anal Marketing). Currently focusing on measuring the effect of advertising on sales.

On the one hand it's amazing to see how much you can figure out with regression analysis, cluster analysis, conjoint, etc... On the other hand, there is a feeling that there are things that this number-crunching will never manage to capture, i.e. the infitite subtleties of how the human mind responds to persuasion. Or perhaps it can? Is advertising an art, or is it a science?

thoes of u who will not sing u must be playin with ...

2007-11-12T12:28:00.001-08:00

... ur own dingaling. ahahaha!!!!

Persil washes whiter ... since always

2007-11-11T01:22:00.000-08:00

Went to see the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in London yesterday. It is essentially a private collection of branded products, although a stunning one, spanning from Victorian age to today.
Interesting to see how many of today's brands were already around over 100 years ago (think Cadbury, Rimmel, ...). Also funny to see how some others haven't changed a whole lot in the past 60 years or so:

(Rolo, ww2 time. The pack hasn't changed a bit since then. Apologies for the poor picture quality)

(a 1950's Polo poster. It was already about mints and holes)

(a Persil pack from the early 50's, with a coupon! wow)

exciting

2007-11-10T03:39:00.000-08:00

When someone rises to the challenges brought by the digital media and is able to come up with a simple, well thought through, no-bullshit, relevant solution.

I have posted about Pleon's work before, but here is an update, and a PDF file explaining exactly how it works. I am sure in 10 years from now, if they market it smartly, we will speak of Gianni and his crew as the guys who reinvented PR. Kudos.

disproportion

2007-11-09T03:22:00.000-08:00

Hilarious flyer handed out by the police (yes, the police! :) ) last night in the streets of Soho.

I am impressed

2007-11-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

With Orange's work (created by agency Poke).

Not only I like how they execute the concept of Unlimited. I also like how easy they make it for people to borrow pieces of content and disseminate them out there. Consumers become co-authors to the brand: that's something a 30 sec tv commercial can not do in a million years. Hats off! (and thanks to Scamp for making me find this)

pop art portraits

2007-11-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

Went to see this exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery this afternoon. I am trying to take advantage of being a student with a lot of spare time while it lasts (it won't last).

I was taken back into the age of 'mass consumer culture' for an hour or so, and it was really interesting. I was tempted to look for dissimilarities between that age, and this one now, in which we all strive to find and offer as much customisation as possible. But I couldn't really.

(Andy Warhol, Double Elvis, 1963)

(Mel Ramos, Hunt for the Best, 1965)

(Andy Warhol, Self-portrait, 1964)

whooooo-hooooo!!!!??!!!

2007-11-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

Is there anybody out there? who are you people who read this blog? Greek man: what's your name? you seem to come here often. Swiss guy? Swedish chick? is there anybody out there? C'mon, at least you American old lady ... leave a comment.

Or are you all just robots?

London therapy

2007-11-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

If you ever are a bit stressed in London, jump on the bus. Go upstairs, sit in the front row and let the city roll past. Very calming. It cleared up my head from all the tension of interviewing.

shallow post about a fundamental issue in branding and the digital age

2007-10-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

My respect for this guy is growing, although I am sure he doesn't need it.

He wrote an article in last week's campaign magazine which I think illustrates a very interesting point about advertising and branding in this 'digital age'. (and for the love of God, I can not find the article anywhere online).

In short, it is about two Unilever brands, Axe and Dove, which stand for two radically opposite concepts of beauty. Axe stands for seduction (i.e. the more you spray, the more you'll get laid), Dove stands for real beauty (i.e. real beauty is within, and every woman is beautiful).

The point made in the article is that consumers are beginning to raise legitimate questions about Unilever's integrity, as a parent company. Thanks to the internet they are able to voice their question: where does Unilever stand in terms of beauty?

For me, the interesting thought is that whilst agencies and brand owners are trying to figure out how to exploit the digital medium from an advertising perspective, consumers are one step ahead, and they are using the digital technology to ask more fundamental questions about branding and business models. How will Unilever react?

--
UPDATE 01/11: Russell kindly posted the article in comments: http://russelldavies.typepad.com/advertising_practitioner/2007/10/dove-lynx-incon.html have a read.

I'm back

2007-10-25T12:35:00.001-07:00

Moved houses. No phone, no email and no telly for a while. been watching Woody Allen movies on DVD. :)

Lynx - Getting Dressed

2007-10-16T14:49:00.001-07:00

I was looking through some linx ads. This one for me is kinda where the big idea begun. I remember goosebumps when it came out. Some more are available on bbh.co.uk

I am writing an article. Comments appreciated.

2007-10-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

I am currently writing an article to support my own job search in advertising.

In it I argue that an MBA education is very valuable for people who want to work in the advertising industry, because advertising ultimately deals with business problems.

Normally i wouldn't need to write an article to find a job (my cv would be enough). Trouble is that the advertising industry is not used to dealing with MBA candidates, so a bit of explaining is necessary.

The article is currently in draft version, so any comment is appreciated. Have a look.

Estate agents, two good advertising recruiters, and a damn good advertising essay

2007-10-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

In the past few weeks I have experienced tons of frustration coming from two different sources: estate agents and advertising recruiters. I found that the two categories share the same arrogance and lack of professionalism, fuelled by an excess of demand and lack of supply*.

Whilst the property side of things remains a source of frustration, I seem to finally be making some kind of progress with recruiters, having finally met two who seem to be taking some time to work with me in a productive way.

Re-ignited with optimism after one such meeting I decided to buy a copy of Campaign on my way back home. In it I found a great little booklet called “what is a Brand”, by Stephen King, the father of account planning. It’s an essay on the importance of branding and the role of advertising.

I normally enjoy reading about advertising, but I have to say most advertising arguments tend to be fluffy, qualitative, vague in their language. King instead uses terms like ‘retailers’, ‘manufacturers’, ‘profit margin’, ‘discount’ … in short he uses MBA language and he really really cracks it!.

I have always believed in the value of a formal approach to advertising issues, and I guess this essay is one rare and brilliant example of it. It was written in 1971, and the outcome is clear, straightforward, limpid, 35 years sooner than anybody else. I find it reassuring.

The only version I found online is here (2Meg PDF, courtesy of The Straufenberg Repository), so I really recommend buying a copy of Campaing this week. There is also a book by King, A master class in brand planning, coming out soon.
--
(* I am debating whether to write a post specifically on estate agents in London)

I should have been born 15 years earlier. (at least)

2007-10-06T02:57:00.001-07:00

And I wouldn't have missed the Police live, when they still had it.

This is Can't stand loosing you, live in 1979. I was 2.

Not Made From Wheat Made From Oats Instead abix Oatibix

2007-10-04T07:24:00.001-07:00

this is a bit old, but i met the woman who did it on tuesday and it reminded how funny it is. enjoy.

Oxford to Cambridge. 150km

2007-10-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

I wake up this morning with a strong sense of accomplishment and even stronger pain in my legs. Yesterday I have been riding from Oxford to Cambridge (150km). It was one of my goals for the summer.

The start was short after 8.00am in Oxford (thanks Stefi for driving me there). It was 6 of us from LBS riding (Michael, Dan, Silvio, Phil, Gavin and me) plus 2 more who joined us later (Michael and Dan). I realised later how important it is to do these kind of rides with someone else. I don't know if I'd have managed on my own.

The first 60k were very enjoyable. Chilly autumn air, quite countryside lanes, riding as slow as possible to conserve energy. Kilometers 60 to 90 were where the climbs begun. Nothing like the alps, but enough to stiffen up your legs, which was my greatest fear.

At about 90k we took a break for lunch, and started again for the afternoon. A few more hills for another 30k, and then the final, dreadful 30k to Cambridge, with no more energy left in the legs, cramps, and a slight but annoying front wind slowing us down even more. A big thank you to Phil and Dan for riding with me in this last bit: they kept me going.

Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of the latter part of the ride, as i was too busy pedaling, but hopefully I will be able to add a few more if the other LBSers have taken some.

I will definitely do it again next year!

Strategy is a pattern in a series of decisions

2007-09-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

There are two kinds of courses in an MBA: the technical ones, in which you learn a specific set of knowledge (concepts, frameworks, techniques, formulas) and the non-technical ones, where you reflect on a certain topic or business problem, but you are not necessarily given a ready-made answer.

I think the first type of courses are a waste of money (go to the library, buy a book, save 40 grand). The second type are more interesting, because to learn you need a good professor, a good class and a good discussion. For me, this type of courses are what the MBA is really about.

This week I have been busy in Strategies For Growth, a "type II course" and in my opinion the best course so far at LBS (see also a review from Karlitos here). The course is "is about how to create a growing firm", and is taught by the excellent prof Freek Vermeulen, who has put an enormous amount of work, research and professionalism in it.

There has been so much interesting stuff going on in the course that it would be impossible to capture it all in one post.

The most eye-opening thing for me has been understanding that strategy is not necessarily something that is designed upfront, but often emerges from the interactions between luck, the environment, the organisational culture and the manager's personality.

We have seen maybe ten case studies to prove the point, and this has left me with a pragmatic and reassuring approach to strategy making. Making strategy looking at the future is certainly a daunting prospect (and perhaps a pointless exercise, because you'll never get it right), but doing it whilst looking at the present (luck, the environment, the organisation, your personality) is certainly much more reassuring and effective.

To say it with Henry Mintzberg, perhaps "strategy is a pattern in a series of decisions".

Speakers on!

2007-09-23T03:54:00.001-07:00

I have to admit i nicked the idea from gianni (http://www.pleon.it/web/blogs/geektalk.nsf) but ... hey: that's how it goes this morning.

Leading teams, organizations and media club

2007-09-20T13:06:00.000-07:00

Back from holiday. Two very interesting things happening this week:

One: the LBS media club has 'opened' up again after the summer break. We had our kick-off meeting this week about 90 first year students showing up (it's a lot for the media club), followed by free drinks (which probably explains why so many people showed up). There is a lot of enthusiasm for the club from the new class, so it looks like thanks to them we will do great things this year.

Two: I started my first course of the year. It's a block-week course on "Leading teams and organizations". It's taught by a brilliant professor, and I am sitting with some truly brilliant classmates (in the picture Scott in the tower-building exercise). Main take-aways so far: a) there are different leadership styles which are appropriate to different situations. One needs to be conversant in most of them and I need to improve on a few. In particular I need to be more authoritative, which requires a vision (note to self: start posting about vision). b) My emotional intelligence is quite possibly rubbish. I need to be more aware of other people sensitivities when in a team situation (this is a long story, but I really mean it).

All in all ... good to be back.

yay!

2007-09-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

I am on holiday for a while. During this time I will probably not bother checking my email. If you try to call me, please be aware that it might take a while before I get out of the pool and reach my phone.

Gorilla

2007-09-05T05:30:00.001-07:00

Right, I got a bit hooked to advertsing blogs recently. There is a lot of debate going on about whether this ad is good or not. For me and for many it is. Firstly: it makes you smile, which from what I could read and speculate was the brief (chocholate=joy). Secondly: it is hugely discussed already. (search gorilla ad on google and on youtube). Finally, one particular point of interest for me: I like to observe how the ad is disseminating through the internet. The ad was created by Fallon.

my ideal job (work in progress list)

2007-09-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

When you start making lists ... then you are really bored.

I made list of characteristics that my ideal job should have.

It's work in progress.

Here you go:

Must have:

1. The job allows me to be at home with my family most nights.
(My family are the reason why I work, not vice versa. I am not prepared to take on a job that makes me travel several days a week, but I am prepared to relocate my family abroad or to undertake a reasonable amount of travel)

2. It offers a general management challenge.
(in other words, I am not looking for a functional job, but for a general management role instead. To me that means having people and P&L responsibility as early as possible)

3. The company encourages people to become their best.

(I have been in companies where career progression is deliberately slow, where people are paid as little as possible, and where following the procedures is more important than coming up with great ideas. I think this produces average people. I want to work in a company where people are paid as much as possible, they are promoted as often as possible and they are encouraged to become as good as it gets at their work).

4. The initial salary should be at least +50% over my last salary.
(no need to explain)

Nice to have:

1. I’d like to have the opportunity for future share of equity/ partnership
2. I’d like it to be a small-ish company (max 200 people)
3. I’d like it to be a creative business (advertising, marketing consultancy, internet, etc)

nice conclusion (almost) to the summer internship

2007-08-31T00:56:00.000-07:00

Big day yesterday: Final presentation for all the MBAs, followed positive feedback and pub lunch with the other MBAs. In the afternoon, back half-drunk into the office and received job offer. Sense of accomplishment.

The rest of the MBAs are leaving today but for some obscure and somehow depressing reason I am staying for one more week. I long for a holiday, and I am going to miss them in the office.

At least the agenda for next week is interesting: they want me to present the project to the company's board to ask for funding for my project. I have never presented to a board and never asked for money so high up, so it's yet another new experience for me. Highlight of the week however is the company day of sport and fun on Friday. I can not wait to compete in the "health and safety quiz" :)

cool!

internet well done

2007-08-30T02:30:00.001-07:00

Several years spent working in a variety of digital agencies.
The recurring debate has always been around how the internet will fundamentally change the way we consume information, entertainment and the way we relate to each other, and how companies need to find new ways to relate to their audiences.

An interesting idea, but to be honest, whilst a lot of people are good at asking the question, very few are able to provide a credible answer.

So you imagine my surprise when I went back to look at what my first agency - Pleon: a PR group - are doing these days, and I found that not only they are approaching the question in a very interesting way ... but also they are, I think, very close to providing a credible answer.

Well done Pleon.

Do office politics really stink?

2007-08-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

Work was quite today, so I had a chance to reflect on office politics.

This summer has been my first experience in a large company. Until now I have only worked in very small enterprises. One of the things that are apparent when you enter this place - as with any company this size I suppose – is the extent to which politics are pervasive of office life. People are consciously aware that success here is not just about what you can do, but also about how you can work with people, who you know and who you are friends with.

The nicest explanation of office politics has been offered to me by one of my managers. She argues that as your career progresses an increasing proportion of your time should be spent ‘doing politics’, i.e. talking to people, coaching your team, entertaining relationships, building friendships. She sketched it down on a diagram:

I have to say I don’t mind this view. It is easy to give politics plenty of negative connotations, but I find that as with any large organization or community, a large corporation needs to be governed with a certain degree of consensus, hence why politics are so important.

I guess what people don’t like is when politics get in the way of getting the right thing done, because this or that manager has a ‘hidden’ agenda. (We are all familiar with the situation and with the frustration).

Today I was trying to think about this negative side of office politics in terms of a ‘principal-agent problem’, and in particular as ‘moral hazard’. I went back to last term’s class notes and here is what they say:

Principal-agent problem “arises because managers / workers (the agent) will maximise their own utility instead of maximising the owner's (the principal) utility”.

Moral hazard “is the case where an individual has an incentive to deviate from the contract and take self-interested actions because the other party has insufficient information to know if the contract was honoured”.

(Prof. Dennis Oswald, London Business School – management accounting lecture notes).

If this interpretation is correce, then office politics per se are not bad. Perhaps what’s needed in a large organization, i.e. one that requires loads of politics to be governed, is even closer attention to aligning the incentives to the interest of the principal to overcome the potential agency problem.

In conclusion: office politics stink because they are poorly managed. (?)

almost time to be a student again

2007-08-27T23:34:00.000-07:00

Two weeks to go and the interniship will be over. From what I can read on portal the 09's are already there and going through induction. I am getting with my mind back to being a student: need to organise media club kick off meeting for mid september, need to recruit people to help with the media summit organisation, need to get binders for the first block weeks, need to go to the windsor, need to find flat for the big move back to London .... cool!

No new experience is time wasted

2007-08-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

If there is one big lesson I am learning with this internship is that no new experience is time wasted. I spent the last day travelling around the country with a sales representative, meeting doctors and learning what pharmaceutical sales are all about. Now, becoming a sales rep is probably not going to be my lifetime career ambition, but that is probably why it has been a such a rare and interesting opportunity. Now that I think about it, this has been a bit the common thread of this summer experience: having the once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about things that otherwise I would have never come across. Whether or not I get offered and decide to accept a job here, this opportunity alone is worth a two-years MBA as opposed to a one-year. (I shall write more about this in a couple of weeks time).

the world's fastest edamame eater

2007-08-18T07:07:00.000-07:00

Had sushi with Stefi today in Cambridge. Then wend CD shopping. Nice.
(tune: Quick Ate, Wynton Marsalis)

ATTENTION PLEASE, ATTENTION PLEASE!

2007-08-16T03:42:00.001-07:00

"ATTENTION PLEASE, ATTENTION PLEASE! The fire alarm will be tested shortly. Do not evacuate. If this message or the subsequent fire alarm are not heard clearly, please report the situation to the help desk"

(AHAHA! this message is broadcasted, very loudly, every thursday at 11.40. I've heard it so many times already, but it still cracks me up)

Twickenham: one thing I love about this country

2007-08-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

One of the things I enjoy the most about this country is rugby at Twickenham. It's my second time since I moved to England. I have to admit I don't yet appreciate all the subtleties of the game, but I love the experience. Twickenham is the temple of rugby, and there is something magic about going to an international sports event with an 80,000 crowd drinking and singing together, and even applauding the opponents when they manage a good play. Despite the appearances, Rugby is an incredibly civilized game and watching it live tells you a lot about this country. So far from the reality of live football in Europe!

consumer insight

2007-08-09T10:35:00.001-07:00

I was trying to explain to someone at work today why spending money on market research to gather a consumer insight is something worth doing, but it's hard to explain in words. I guess this ad (a masterpiece, IMHO, although not exactly the latest) does a better job at it.

charities demand ban on baby milk ads - what's wrong with this country?

2007-08-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

From BBC news:

"LONDON: Children's charities in the UK are demanding a ban on the advertising of all formula baby milk. They say such marketing is responsible for mothers giving up on breast feeding their infants before the recommended six months. " [...] "The NCT's Belinda Phipps compares the behaviour of baby milk manufacturers to that of tobacco companies in devising ways to circumnavigate restrictive advertising legislation"

I don't get it. why do people attribute so much importance to advertising? and why do they think that banning it will solve the problem?

(full article here)

Young idea about to take off. Quick!! shoot it down!

2007-08-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I only discovered facebook a few weeks ago. Somewhat shameful for an alleged eMarketing expert, but I guess I never had time.

Anyways: one of the first things I thought when I first landed on the site was "what a great advertising platform this is". Advertising finally lands in the land of peer recommendation. A dream for advertisers (and for users too, IMHO).

Like always when you attempt something new however, there can be a few initial hiccups. You don't necessarily get it right the first time.

In this case, some unlucky media planner, having bought blind placements on facebook(*), ended up with their clients ads on a coulpe of undesirable pages displaying content from the BNP (an extreme right-wing political party). The media pore a few liters of petrol on the fire, and you end up with a ridiculous situation in which most major advertisers are pulling their ads from facebook tout-court, rather than addressign the problem more 'surgically'.

A new idea, which coudl have been really great if given time to develop, has probably been killed whilst still young. how sad!

(*) In simple terms, blind buy is pretty common in online advertising, although possibly not the most sophisticated buying models. You select a site or a network of sites that you deem are appropriate to place your ads on (because of affinity with your target audience, cost-effectiveness, etc) but you don't know exactly what the content of those sites will display at the moment your ads are live. By the way ... this doesn't happen only on facebook. A miriad of other sites sell ads based on the same principle, including the famous AdSense from big brother Google.

you have to love this

2007-08-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Now, perhaps this isn't the newest thing around, but I just downloaded the google maps application to my Nokia phone, and it is amazing! so easy to use, I guess I will never get lost again on my bike in the middle of the english countryside. Only I feel bad that my life is gradually being owned by big brother Google. Can someone please wake up and be as cool? (or maybe should I?)

schoolboy mistake!

2007-08-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

Friday: I have a chat with eMarketing consultant about my internship project. Very smart guy. I take him trhough my (initial, draft, rough, early stage) strategy to get his input on what kind of marketing research he recommends we should undertake if we went in that direction. We have a plesant chat.

Monday: I arrive in the office. Consultant has recapped our conversation in a 2-pages-long email. He sent it to the whole brand team in 2 countries, agreeing on actions, next steps, the whole sheebang! One person in the group has then forwarded the 2 pager email to Big Lady at the international group (the guys with the money), with a further page of comments and further actions agreed.

My draft strategy is no longer draft!!!! BUGGER!

Saturday morning: All looking good

2007-08-04T03:04:00.000-07:00

Came back last night from B to spend the weekend at home, after a busy exciting week spent battling for my internship project.
It's finally sunny in England too and we received great news last night from Stefi's side of things: after a few pretty rough months it looks like next year will be great!
Seems like all there is left to do, at least for a while, is lay in the sun and enjoy :)

This one is going to kill me

2007-08-01T02:35:00.000-07:00

I just signed up to the Oxford to Cambridge bike ride on sept 30th. 89miles = 143.2km. AHAHAHAHA I will never make it! The ride is organised by the British Heart Fundation. If you want to sponsor them you can do it here https://www.bhf.org.uk/my_sponsorship_page.aspx?p=86513

Best Global Brands 2007

2007-07-31T03:11:00.000-07:00

Interbrand recently published their Best global brands 2007 report, which ranks the world's top 100 brands according to their value.

The finance geeks will certainly find something to argue with the valuation, discount rates, etc ... but I can't help thinking that this is an extremely clever methodology for a branding consultancy to have developed (pp. 50-51 of the PDF report), as well as one of the most fascinating reads around if you are interested in brands. (note to self: invite them to LBS next year).

This year, probably biased from my internship, I noticed that no major pharma company has made a decent place in the rank (except J&J at #90, but are they really pharma?).

Think how big some pharma companies are! Think how many million people use their products every day! Think how important those products are to their lives! Is pharma getting it wrong?

Bike maintainance & marketing strategy: improving

2007-07-30T15:28:00.000-07:00

First sunny weekend in months, spent preparing for the Suffolk Coast bike ride coming up this weekend. Lots of cycling, followed by (nearly) successful front derailler maintenance and (largely) successful front wheel straightening. I am quite proud of these achievements, given that I usually am pretty useless at repairing stuff.

Today - Monday - back to work. Big presentation in the afternoon to get buy-in on strategy form Lady at 'international' (very smart!). I used Aaker's strategic marketing audit framework, from John Roberts Advanced Marketing Strategy course this year. It went down very well. I couldn't help noticing that the same presentation done one year ago would have met a lot more resistance. Perhaps in the end the MBA is starting to pay off?

Last terms' grades and front derailler

2007-07-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

This term's grades have finally arrived. Pretty disappointing overall. Funny because I really enjoyed a lot of the subjects, but hey ... that's life. Year one of the MBA is officially over now.

I could spend time complaining about the courses, the grading and all that stuff. Instead, I think I'll go try and fix my front derailler. http://www.bikewebsite.com/ftder.htm

bugger!

London-Cambridge bike ride

2007-07-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Picture of Ryan and me after completing the London to Cambridge bike ride last sunday (50 miles). It was so good I already signed up for the Suffolk Coast bike ride on August 5th (58 miles)

two speeds

2007-07-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

FAST:
the nice thing about working for a big company is that they have a formal career path for MBAs. In other words, if you are good, they will give you the opportunity to make it really big, and really fast (and I would like to stress the word "if"). A select group of people who work their ass off for big gains.

SLOW:
if you don't have a certain type of formal qualification, whether an MBA or a Phd, there seems to be a limit to how far you can go, no matter how good you are. A lot of bright people are pretty much stuck in the middle, worrying about safety procedures, telephone training, fire drills, company car, my colleague has a nicer laptop, the menu in the canteen, the color scheme on a powerpoint slide ...

SO WHAT?
A discussion with K and U today during lunch makes me realise how hard it is for a big company to keep their people leaner and meaner. It was easy in the old days at the advertising agency, where everyone believed that they could change the world (the probability to get to the top was perhaps 1:70) and you could retain talent based on that promise.

But how do you achieve this in a large company? How do you create credible incentives if the probability to make it to the top is 1:40,000 ?

first post

2007-07-25T06:37:00.000-07:00