My swimming lessons have finally come to an end tonight. I am definitely swimming much better now than I did a month ago. My strokes and body movements are much more efficient. Knowing that this is my last class, I asked the instructor to coach me breaststroke. After a few drills in breaststroke, my instructor said that my breaststroke is fine but has a tip for me. She introduced me a new technique call gliding that I can use when swimming in breaststroke. Basically, the swimmer reduces the body hydrodynamics as the swimmer pushes the water to the side at the completion of the breaststroke arm movement. However, to compensate we can just extend both arms and legs straight after taking a gasp of air. This motion allows the body to glide after each stroke thereby improving the body hydrodynamics. I tried the new technique out in the pool and there was a noticeably difference in the speed. I finished the class with several lapse of a swimming medley of free-style and breaststroke. Indeed, the swimming lessons have been very rewarding.

4/22/2005 12:00:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Sports

I am becoming more critical on real-life businesses since I started taking the Technology Strategy class. For instance, I just realized that an ex-colleague of mine have just started a new company providing semiconductor yield management software tools and consulting. Being similar with this industry, I evaluated his business with the principles that I learned from the strategy class and I don't like what I see. I see 2 main problems with his business. First, there're no groundbreaking products or services that his company has to offer. Second, yield management is a saturated and established sector in the semiconductor industry. The barriers to entry for a new startup without a breakthrough products or services are very high to almost impossible. Furthermore, just like any competitive market, current companies are being squeezed out of the market because of competition. I am a huge supporter of entrepreneurship but I feel that pursuing a well-established market without groundbreaking products or services simply doesn't sound like a sound strategy to me.

On other business news, I have just learned that Adobe had just acquired Macromedia. With that move, Adobe practically has the entire computer graphics market cornered. However, will the merger of two different company cultures be seamless? But tactical questions aside, I suspect that Adobe is making the first move to acquire Macromedia out of fear that Microsoft may do it before Adobe does. Perhaps, this makes sense since Microsoft never really got a foothold in the computer graphics market and acquiring Macromedia seems like a good strategic move for the software giant. In terms of new products and the Internet, coupled with Adobe's own product offerings like Acrobat and Photoshop, Adobe will also receive a diverse portfolio of Internet enabling products such as Flash and Dreamweaver from this acquisition. Is Adobe also trying to corner the Internet market with this acquistion? Maybe this acquisition is starting to make sense to me now.

4/21/2005 11:21:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Business

You know you have fan, when someone asked "Hey, there's nothing on your blog." So Matti, just for you, I am going to start blogging now.

I have been running like a chicken with the head cut off 3 weeks in a row now. Things have been pretty crazy at MIT. This is what happens when all assignments or deadlines are due in one day of the week - Wednesday. Take today for instance, I have to complete 2 papers, study for 1 quiz, and complete the financial plan in my team's business plan for the MIT $50k competition. Once again, I have grossly underestimated the amount of work that is required for financial plan. I was practically consumed by financial plan over the past 4 days. After 2 nights of number crunching and coordinating with my team members, I got the financials done at 3 am last night. Unfortunately, this left me with less than 2 hours to study for the ERBA quiz, something that most of my classmates have been dreading. I woke up at 2 hours before the test and study for it. At this point, I was somewhat indifferent how I may do in the test. To my surprise, I knew what was doing in the ERBA quiz despite 1 hour of study and 3 hours of sleep. I think I am going to do well. I then stopped by at John's office and did a final review of the business plan with the rest of team before submitting it to the $50k competition website at 12 noon. I can finally start enjoying the beautiful spring weather that I missed over the last 4 days.

4/20/2005 5:51:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

School

I spent the winter looking forward to spring. When it is finally here, I am indoors boudn and simply too busy to enjoy the splendor of spring. Ironic isn't it.

4/16/2005 2:43:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Thoughts

It was a great swimming session today. Unfortunately, my buddy Camille wasn't able to join me because he is home sick with Mono. Yikes! The instructor was late today but that's okay since we were twice late for her swimming lessons before. I spent the first 30 minutes of the class practicing my swimming while I wait for instructor Rachael to arrive. Already exhausted from the practice swimming, I was surprised that I still have the strength to continue swimming during class. More surprisingly, I was swimming without the pull buoy. As you can see, I tend to sink when I swim free-style and I use a pull buoy to compensate. With Rachael's advice, I stretched my hands out and forward. In addition, I decided to relax and get into a good rhythm during my swim by getting my body, hands, and legs are in sync. At the end, I was able to glide my body effortlessly through the water. Consequently, my legs were able to stay just slightly underwater and I wasn't sinking anymore. I think I finally got it. I just need to practice swimming more at the Z-center now. Yes!

Tonight, I am simply too exhausted from the swim. I still have the financials that I need to complete by tonight for the 50k competition. Sigh... There's still no rest in sight yet. Oh well, I will get my rest tomorrow night by watching a movie with Hanri. Just the mere thought of hanging out with her makes me happy.

4/14/2005 10:16:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Sports

My Product Design & Development team showed our prototype to the professors and teaching assistants today and they loved it. We took the prototype out to the field, where it is supposed to be used. Not only were the professors in impressed with our machine, the passers-by were in awe. Some of passers-by were even asking if they could play with our machine. The demonstration was no doubt a huge success. Nice job, team 12.

4/14/2005 9:32:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [10]

School

Lately, I have been wicked busy on the first 2 days of the week because all my class assignments are due on Wednesday. Imagine that. I finally got a chance to breathe tonight. What a relief...

I think the whiner me complained too much about the Strategy class that I am currently taking last week because I got a lousy grade for my first assignment of this class. But I am beginning to like this class as I worked on the case studies more the last couple of days. The thought framework that I learned from the class has not only influenced how I can analyze corporate strategy more critically but I can actually apply the stuff that I learn in my future endeavor.

4/13/2005 10:24:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [14]

School

I was shocked when I looked out of the window 5 minutes ago. It was friggin' snowing outside!!! On April 12th. Geez...

4/12/2005 5:48:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [11]

Rants

I was a gorgeous day today yet I was stuck indoors doing my tax return for 2004. Thankfully, I am now done with my tax return but the bad news is that I owe the government money. Argghh...

I did sneak out to MIT and played volleyball with a bunch of Sloanies. It was possibly the best volleyball game so far this semester. I have been hanging out the MBA students, whom I found them to be energetic and sociable, quite a lot this weekend. 

4/10/2005 11:14:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Personal

I have just received an email from our running team captain that MIT finished second overall as a team in the BC MBA 5k Race and won ourselves a case of beer. Nice!

4/10/2005 1:22:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Sports

I think I have discovered the best recipe for a good sleep. The running and the beer drinking at a Harpoon Brewey sponsored after-party coupled wtih days of stressful school work set the conditions up for the perfect sleep. I have never slept so well after return home from the running race on Saturday.

Feeling rejuvenated, I went to Hanri's apartment and hung out with her. We reviewed my 50k financials with her and found a couple of areas where I need to correct or correct. I always knew Hanri's auditing skills would come handy someday. Thanks Hanri.

4/10/2005 1:16:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [15]

Personal

Instead of sleeping in as I would every Saturday, I woke up at 7:15am to prepare myself for the BC MBA 5k Run. The race was fun as I get the chance to really hang out with the MBA students at Sloan.

The race started at about 10:30am. I didn't complete the race in the time that I had wanted. The uphill stretch at the end of the race had drastically slowed my pace. I finished the race in 23:10 minutes (finished 119th out of 419 runners). While MIT was not in the top 5 teams, team MIT Sloan managed to finish better than the mean. Well done Team MIT Sloan.

I overheard this while listening to a conversation between a Sloanie and a MBA student from another school. "You guys, did the Cranberry case study in your Operations class too? What do you think of the operations optimization exercise for this case?" asked an MIT Sloan student, the other MBA student responded by saying: "What system optimization, we don't do the numbers."

4/9/2005 4:31:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [16]

Sports

I never supported the "revolt of ERBA" and do not wish to start another whine-fest on Technology Strategy. I am also glad that the Strategy class has introduced some critical concepts in corporate strategy that every management students ought to know. While Porter's 5 forces of competition, Barney's VRIO, or Hamel's Business Concept are well-established methodologies in realm of corporate strategy analysis, they are by no means the only methodologies available. I think any write-up would need to consider other options of assessing the viability of a company's strategy. My main disappointment for this class is the fixation on just 3 methodologies. But with a condensed class-duration and the limitation of 1,000 words in each write-up, maybe there is a reason for restricting to just 3 methodologies. I know that I am waffling on this, but the point I am trying to make is, what is the best strategy to implement in order to do well for the write-up's? I believe I know my material, the problem is how to express or show to the professor and TA that I do. I'll think more about this later. It's getting late now and I need to go to bed soon as I have to wake up early tomorrow for a running race.

4/9/2005 1:11:07 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [20]

School

I had wanted to post my thoughts on Peter Senge's workshop on leadership which he delivered at a SDM event last week but I was simply too busy to do it. Fortunately, I have just found a very good summary of Senge's talk on Robbie's blog. Check it out.

4/8/2005 10:00:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [13]

Business

Analyzing Harvard Business School cases reminds me of my English literature course that I took during my undergraduate days. In both cases, one has to dissect the story the apart to extract pertinent information in order to grasp the theme. The difference between the two is the terminology used. Literal analysis looks at an author's use of ambiguity, connotation, symbolism, or conflicts to determine emotions or theme in a given passage. Similarly, in HBS case studies, one needs to pick up on the underlying theme of the case and then synthesize a conclusion for it. However, the framework for the analysis can be quite different. I have found that with strategy or decision-making related cases, they often need to be evaluated with established performance metrics, competitive advantage sustainability, strategy coherence, competition, and resource availability.

I am fully aware of the approach but I still didn't score well for my first case study assignment for my Technology Strategy class. While I have eloquently described on my paper the basis of my analysis upon the conclusion of the case was drawn, I have failed to capture the essence of the case using the framework that we are required to use. So it's a slap to the hand that failed to follow instructions. Next time, I think I will stick with the more conventional (or acceptable) framework for analyzing the cases. Because as far as I am concerned, Porter's, Barney's, and Hamel's principles trumps over unconventional views.

4/8/2005 9:30:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [17]

School