The SouRCe Term 1 2016 by MBS SRC

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table of contents Message from the Dean

From the Editors

From the SRC President

Inside Clubs – Getting to Know the Asia Business Club

Rankings and Melbourne Business School

Feature Article – Careers Service: Here To Help

Inspiring Journeys – Student Profiles FT and PT

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MBusA and Incoming Exchange Student Profiles

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Year in Review – Corporate Lessons from 2015

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Alumni Article – Life After MBS

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Walk Around the Bay

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MyMBS

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Calendar of Events

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MBS Student Representative Council 200 Leicester Street Carlton VIC 3053 Australia t f email website

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Message from the dean

Zeger Degraeve In the last edition of The Source, Adjunct Professor Mark Ritson outlined his external research into developing a brand strategy for Melbourne Business School. It found that people in the market for business education look for schools that have the following core attributes: world-class/internationally recognised, career enhancing and elite (but not elitist). These attributes are not unique to Melbourne Business School. They are category attributes that our prospective students, participants and clients expect from us and other business schools.

Project one school

we need you

Our new School-wide initiative, Project One School, aims to align our external brand promise with our internal organisation.

No one knows the MBS experience as well as our students. Your insights will be essential to the success of Project One School.

Project One School will engage with everyone connected to our school – students, alumni, faculty, staff and other stakeholders – to answer such questions as:

The School’s Executive Director of Marketing and Communications, Penny Smith, is working with your Student Representative Council (SRC) to identify opportunities for all students to take part in the Project One School conversation.

• Why does Melbourne Business School exist? • What is our purpose? • Why do we want to deliver a world-class, elite and careerenhancing experience to our students, staff, participants and faculty? • How do we uniquely deliver such an experience in a way that distinguishes us?

You can expect to hear more about how to participate in Project One School, and how it is progressing, from your SRC. I look forward to you joining us on this journey. Zeger Degraeve Dean

As a school, we need to answer the ‘why’, and be clearer and more consistent on our ‘how’ and ‘what’. We need to capture the Melbourne Business School experience to increase engagement with our brand.

Many of our competitors clearly articulate what they do and why it sets them apart as part of their brand. We too need to take a look at who we are, what we stand for – and how this can help us deliver a world-class/internationally recognised, career-enhancing and elite education experience.

From the editors

Welcome to our Term 1, 2016 edition of The SouRCe, a journal for the MBS community, proudly brought to you by the Student Representative Council. In this edition, our featured article highlights the MBS careers program by hearing from Careers Director John Gurskey about how his team has been successfully liaising with the industries to secure placements for our students. We also discuss current global business school rankings with Jim Fredickson, who is delighted to announce that Melbourne Business School is ranked 87 in 2016, up three places from number 90 in 2015.

Furthermore, we hear from our own MBS strategy professor Geoff Martin, who shares insightful thoughts around business and corporate strategy and lessons learned from last year.

As your editors, we are excited to bring you an edition that encapsulates many facets of the MBS community. We hope you find this edition reSouRCeful and entertaining.

And as usual, we get to know some of our current students, each of whom brings something unique to the MBS community. Included are interviews with full time, part time, EMBA, MBusA and exchange students.

Smit Dave Full Time MBA Student 2016

We extend a special thank you to all faculty members and students who contributed to this edition. If you are interested in contributing to the next edition of The SouRCe, please email us at <src@mbs.edu>

Chelsia Tanoto MBA Part Time January 2015 Emma Young MBA Part Time July 2015

From the SRC President with the vision of the SRC in 2016, were split into teams, and encouraged to brainstorm ideas, projects and solutions that will contribute to a more positive MBS community. This event was a success, and served both to reinforce and add to our exciting pipeline of projects.

Phil neckers

Hello Melbourne Business School! I’m very excited to write my first editorial to you as SRC President. The SouRCe has proven itself to be a powerful communication platform. Yes, it keeps a finger on the social side of the School. But, perhaps more importantly, The SouRCe has given its editors an opportunity to reach out to the School with questions that you, the students, want answers to. At the end of last year we heard from our Dean about his vision at the helm of MBS. I believe in that vision. Now, we kick off 2016 with feature articles surrounding our careers team and the infamous MBA rankings. I hope the article on careers in particular will provide insight into the differences between the career requirements of the Full Time and Part Time programs here and the resources available to you. By now, all of you should be aware we have a new SRC team in place for 2016. There is a buzz at our fortnightly Sunday meetings – and I am humbled and honoured to be working with such an intelligent, motivated and engaged group of people. Our focus on 2016 is excellence. In early January, for the first time, the SRC hosted an open door workshop for three hours where all students were presented

After a soldout event in 2015, the SRC ball will be even bigger this year – don’t miss out! None of the above, however, would be possible without the foundation that previous generations of the SRC have put into place. I’d like to thank Rishi Garg for all the work he did in 2015. Under his leadership the SRC team achieved great success, including bringing back The SouRCe, moving the student lounge, selling out social events and, in general, bringing greater visibility of the SRC. It was a pleasure to be a part of the SRC team last year. At the end of January we celebrated the graduation of our inaugural class of MBusA students – Masters of Business Analytics. During the same week we welcomed 66 incoming MBusA students – over double our first intake. The MBusA course has been put in place in response to market demand, with these students positioned at the front of the big data revolution. I have no doubt the MBA and MBusA skill sets will complement each other in the workplace and I encourage

all students in the MBS community to embrace that relationship whilst still within the walls of this School. So what should you expect in 2016? After a sold-out event in 2015, the SRC ball will be even bigger this year – don’t miss out! Community events proved to be a huge success in 2015 and Gilma and Svetlana will be working closely with the School to ensure their continued success. We welcome AGSM to Melbourne for the AGSM-MBS Cup during the winter season and by then we anticipate the student lounge will be glorious. Expect AGSM to arrive to a sea of MBS red – we eagerly anticipate the arrival of new MBS merchandise in the first half of 2016. And finally … MyMBS. 2016 will be known as the year we introduced MyMBS. This student-driven change has been a long time coming, and the School has worked hard to bring this dream to fruition. By now, it should be percolating through the School community. I encourage all to embrace it, as you, the students, will be the heart and soul of this platform. This platform will enable you to engage with the wider School community including alumni, and to stay engaged with MBS into the future. MyMBS begins now and I couldn’t be happier. So with that in mind, I wish you all an exciting 2016. Good luck on your exams, make the most out of exchange and internship opportunities, and continue to push yourselves to be the best you can be. Phil Neckers SRC President | MBS SRC PT MBA September 2014

Inside Clubs: Get ting to Know the Asia Business Club The Asia Business Club is a student-run club that assists the MBS community to become more familiar with and enhance their knowledge of life, business and culture in Asia. To this end, events focusing on Asian themes are held throughout the year, involving guest speakers, culinary experiences and fun activities.

What is Asia Business Club all about? THow does a stock exchange in Shanghai affect housing prices in Perth? Why is Australia a founding member of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank? Why is there an 18-hour direct flight planned between Silicon Valley and Bangalore? The 21st century is destined to become the Asian century. Of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies, seven are in Asia. While it may have been par for the course to ignore or give just marginal attention to the region 20 years ago, it would be almost impossible for any business curricula

to ignore it now. What this means for Australia is doubly important, fully one per cent of Australia’s population are expatriates living abroad in Asia, and six of Australia’s 10 largest trading partners are Asian countries. More than an economic angle, Asia is 48 countries, four billion people and innumerable languages and cultures across and within those countries. For instance, do you know how to pour beer for your Japanese host? Or why you should never eat rice with chopsticks pointed up? Asia Business Club aims to help answer both economic and cultural questions like these through our events and postings. Our guests at these events have included MBS alumni, members of the business community, and even current MBS students to help share insights and experiences.

who is it for?

to share their experiences of having started businesses in Asia. This not only served the purpose of enlightening our audience but also showed how to prepare for situations where expectations and behavioural norms may differ vastly. Previous events have focused on networking, living in Asia and cultural best practices.

Our current Club leaders reflect a range of backgrounds involving Asia.

More recently, Asia Business Club co-hosted the Chinese New Year event with the MBS Services, which gave participants the opportunity to learn more about their Chinese zodiac. Chinese New Year, though observed mainly in China and Chinese communities across the world, is perhaps the world’s most widely celebrated annual event. Look out for upcoming events in the Club’s emails and student bulletins.

recent and upcoming events

Don’t forget to follow our Facebook page: <https://www.facebook.com/MBSABC>

The Club is open to anyone regardless of place of origin or pre-existing connections to Asia. As it’s a club for sharing insights, we welcome anybody who has an interest in Asia or its culture ranging from a passing curiosity to a determination to work there in the future.

The Club organised a panel discussion on ‘Australia to Asia: A Panel on Cross-Cultural Business Dynamics’. We invited members of the MBS community, including alumni,

Leadership team: Amy Zhu, Daniel Rosen, Justin Endo & Smit Dave

Rankings and Melbourne Business School

Professor Jim Frederickson, Deputy Dean, walks us through the inexact science of global business school rankings, and looks at what they mean for MBS. In business schools, rankings are a contentious topic. Some see them as adding value; others view them as a distraction. At MBS, we view rankings like any other standardised measure – they provide a useful benchmark for measuring performance, but they are imperfect measures due to limitations in their methodologies. Prospective students and alumni also often use rankings; theformer to determine which schools to consider, and the latter to check how the School is performing. MBS participates in those rankings of the MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programs that we believe are the most robust and of value. For the MBA program, the School participates in four rankings: • Financial Times Global MBA Ranking • The Economist Which MBA? Ranking • Bloomberg BusinessWeek International Full-Time MBA Ranking • AFR Boss MBA Ranking The first three rank the Full-Time MBA program, while the last is a

combined ranking of the Full- and Part-Time MBA programs. Each ranking is based on a different student cohort. For the most recent rankings, the Financial Times surveyed the FullTime MBA cohort of 2012; The Economist surveyed the Full-Time MBA cohorts of 2014 and 2015; Bloomberg BusinessWeek surveyed the Full-Time MBA cohorts of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2015; and AFR Boss surveyed the Full and PartTime cohorts of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The rankings also use different criteria and methodologies. For example, 43 per cent of the Financial Times ranking is based on alumni salaries versus only 20 per cent for The Economist. Plus, the salaries are for different cohorts and different time periods. The Financial Times uses the current salaries of alumni who graduated three years earlier, while The Economist uses the starting salaries of alumni who graduated only a year earlier (in the most recent rankings, 2015 salaries of 2012 graduates versus 2014 salaries of 2014 graduates). For comparability across Schools, each ranking measures salaries in US dollars, but each ranking converts salaries differently. Between different methodologies and student cohorts, it is no wonder that our rank varies across rankings. We are ranked 87th globally by the Financial Times, 43rd globally by The Economist and 23rd for non-US MBA programs by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Poets & Quants MBA Rankings and QS Top MBA Rankings are two high-profile composite rankings. They use other rankings and external information to determine their rankings; they do not collect information directly from schools or their alumni. MBS performs well, typically being the top-rated Australian MBA program. Unfortunately, MBS lost

the top spot this year in Poets & Quants because they mistakenly excluded our Bloomberg BusinessWeek ranking. As indicated earlier, MBS views rankings as a measure – albeit a flawed one – of the School’s performance. Since Zeger’s arrival, the School has had a renewed commitment to excellence and our students are at the heart of this commitment. Our priority is ensuring that every student has an excellent experience, from the admissions process to graduation to alumni reunions. While there is more work to be done, I am confident that the School is on the right path and is in a strong position to climb higher in the MBA rankings. But remember, because of the cohorts surveyed in the rankings, it can take years for rankings to reflect changes made. Most changes that Zeger made to the School in 2012 will not even begin to affect the Financial Times rankings until next year and they will not be fully reflected until the 2019 rankings. The School participates in two other rankings. The first is the AFR Boss Executive MBA Rankings, which in 2015 surveyed alumni from 2012, 2013 and 2014; the School was ranked 2nd in Australia. The second is the Financial Times Executive Education Rankings. The School has been the top Executive Education provider in Australia since 2008; for 2015, the School was ranked 30th globally. For more about the different MBA rankings, visit our website: <https://mbs.edu/landing-pages/ rankings> If you have any questions about rankings, please contact me at <j.fredrickson@mbs.edu> Jim Frederickson Deputy Dean | MBS

Career Services: Here to help This recruitment season, we interviewed Careers Director John Gurskey to clarify what services the Career Services team provides to Part-Time and Full-Time students.

Why is the career services approach to PT students different to that of FT students? Whether students are studying full or part time makes no difference to me as Director of Career Services. What matters is that we deliver a world-class experience to all students. To ensure our service best meets student needs, we have tailored our approach to each cohort. Part-Time students are unique in that they are in full-time employment and studying with us for two years. This enables careers services to have a more longstanding relationship with PartTime students to prepare them for their post-MBA careers. For our Full-Time students we have a lot less time to garner that relationship – less than a year, in fact – which naturally requires a more intensive approach to prepare our Full-Time cohort to compete in the local and global MBA job market. It’s also important to remember that many of the Full-Time students have moved to Australia, and may not have permanent residency or any legal rights to work here after they complete their MBA, so we have an additional responsibility to help them find employment before they graduate. It should be noted that, like our Full-Time students, companies like Microsoft or Intel or McKinsey see our Part-Time

MBA students as a pool of talent that they want to tap into. Recruiters see a huge amount of value in someone who can work successfully full time, manage home life or their family life and go to School. That’s why we often find ourselves placing Part-Time students in jobs – and I’m proud of our track record in supporting this.

What career services are available to PT students? We provide a full suite of services to Part-Time students; however, these are flexible and tailored to meet Part-Time students’ particular needs. Over the past 18 months we’ve developed a range of online resources that are hosted on MBS Direct.

These include webinars and guides around writing resumes and cover letters, and networking. The goal of these online resources is help prepare students (at a time that is most convenient to them) before they come in to speak with the careers centre so we can maximise the time they spend with their consultant. Students who make use of the resources beforehand can get right into the meat of their resume with their consultant, helping to showcase their skills and attributes and prepare them for the job they want without wasting their valuable time talking about formatting or style. We also hold a range of workshops primarily for our Part-Time students. Last year, we held about 20 workshops to support Part-Time students to develop the right tools to market

themselves, such as LinkedIn profiles, resumes, cover letters and behaviouralbased interviewing. Because Part-Time students are only here for limited hours due to their work and study schedules, we are conscious of not taking up more of their time. That said, I am more than open to providing one-on-one orgroup sessions on Saturdays for PartTime students, or adding additional live webinars at other hours during the week, should there be demand. I’m also pleased to confirm that we will soon be hiring a dedicated PartTime Student Consultant. Our new consultant will provide additional support to our Part-Time students and I expect that they will have five slots a day open to Part-Time students.

Why are career workshops important and how do they help with the one-on-one appointment session? Career workshops are an introduction and a slight guide into a topic. It may sound surprising but we do often work with students who haven’t looked at cover letters or updated their LinkedIn profile or resume in years. Career workshops are the critical first step students should attend before they book in a consultation session, as it outlines how to update and improve resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles. By finessing these elements before your consultation, we can utilise student time more effectively and provide a more tailored experience to add the most value. Another reason why workshops are important is the same reason that we do syndicate learning – we know our students learn a lot from each other.

There is a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge amongst our students. By bringing students together, we help stimulate their thinking around writing a resume or networking and often they end up learning as much from one another as they do from us. When students leave that one hour workshop, they feel like they’ve either learned or gained something valuable that’s going to help them land a job.

How do students find out about the workshops? They are promoted via MBS Direct and Program Services. When you spot a workshop you’re interested in, all you need to do is sign up via MBS Direct. It’s really important that students RSVP if they can attend so we can ensure our guest speakers aren’t presenting to an empty room.

When should PT students approach Careers for assistance? Part-Time students who are in the first phase or the PDM phase of their degree can go to all of our workshops, they can attend the webinars, they can go to company presentations and access all of our resources on MBS Direct. However, we ask that they do not meet with us one-on-one during this phase because you’re too far from graduating for a meeting with a careers coach to add value. It’s better to start meeting with your coach about a year out from graduation to figure out what your plan is in terms of working on a transition to a new career or a new company. That’s a model that I brought from Georgia Tech in the United States and it seems to work well.

There is one exception to this rule: if you are in the Part-Time Program Phase One or Phase Two, and you’re made redundant, we will work with you immediately.

Whether you’re Full Time or Part Time, the Careers Services team is here to support you. 1) Online resources Check out the webinars and guides on MBS Direct at a time that suits your schedule and start updating your resume and LinkedIn profile. 2) Workshops Attend our workshops – these are great way to learn from us and your fellow students. 3) Coaches Our coaches are experienced in helping MBA students take the next step in their careers. Make the most of your time with them by being prepared ahead of your meetings. 4) Check for updates Keep your eye out for updates from Careers (via MBS Direct and Program Services) about opportunities and events that may be of interest to you. 5) Communicate Let us know if you have feedback or suggestions on how we can better meet your needs. Email us at <careers@ mbs.edu>

inspiring journeys Two current MBA students – one Full Time, the other Part Time – share the challenges and rewards of their MBS journey.

alex block (Full-Time MBA, Class of 2016)

I started looking for other opportunities. As an officer I always enjoyed leading teams, even in challenging situations. Knowing I wanted a change of scene and transition to business, an MBA seemed like the best way for me to do that. I have been able to learn really useful business and analytical skills, and learn how to take my experience and apply it in the business environment. What’s been your greatest challenge while doing your full-time MBA?

Why did you choose to do an MBA after a successful stint in the Army? After serving for over a decade in the Australian Army, I had achieved what I set out to achieve in the Army and

Sarah Blaby (Part-Time MBA, September 2015)

The learning curve is very steep so my biggest challenge has been to keep pace whilst learning a number of new core business skills simultaneously. Luckily there is a very collegiate culture within MBS and there are always people happy to lend their experience and work together. There is always a lot going on at MBS so the other challenge is making sure you can get involved, and find time for the odd foosball and table tennis game. options in 2010 after moving back to Melbourne from New York. I’ve worked within the music industry for 20 years in record companies, venue management and band management, and as a musician myself, through to my current role as Sponsorship Manager for a notfor-profit (NFP) community radio station. I originally started looking at the Executive Master of Arts (EMA) at Melbourne University, as my dream role would be in a larger arts or NFP organisation. However, I realised what I needed most was the business aspects of that degree, so I decided to embark on the MBA and focus on my business skills.

I’ve wanted to do a Masters degree for a long time and began looking for

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Another alumnus of the MBA at MBS, who also worked in the radio sector,

What will you use your MBA for? Primarily the MBA is for me to transition from the military to the business sector. I want to use my skills in management consulting to gain deeper exposure into a variety of business situations. Why did you choose Melbourne Business School for your MBA? MBS has a very good reputation for producing graduates with depth of knowledge, analytical curiosity and an ability to lead. I was impressed by the structure of the Full-Time program, the strength of academic staff, and the opportunities that are on offer outside the classroom. One thing I have really enjoyed is the diversity at MBS, making friends with people from across the world, all with very different professional backgrounds.

assured me that while I would be the odd one out career wise, I would still find common ground within the student body. She has been a great help when I need a debrief or am feeling a little overwhelmed. It can be difficult when other classmates understand each other’s industries (banking, engineering, etc) and can’t relate to mine. However, this is great practice in showing that my skills and experience are transferable and learning the business language to communicate that to others. My career currently involves being on the board of Music Victoria, managing sponsorship and partnerships at PBS FM, playing in a band, all while studying my MBA and enjoying it!

MBusA student A single, inspiring question coupled with a passion for using data to make better business decisions led to Aisharya Shakraborty enrolling in a MBusA at MBS.

Aisharya Shakraborty (MBusA, 2016)

“The most liveable city – Melbourne.” I remember reading the article and so wishing to conquer this city one day. I finally happened to settle down in Melbourne in 2015 but about conquering it? I am still not sure! I have always been fascinated with the potential utilisation of data sources to have better business decisions. One day an idea flashed in front of my eyes: What if traffic lights stopped smog as well as crashes? When I had a closer look, it was the MBS MBusA Program’s information session banner, and I realised: this is it. To find out the answers, today I am here as one of the Masters of Business Analytics 2016 cohort.

I won’t forget the first ever class of Statistics, the most challenging day so far. By the time I finished understanding how conditional, joint and marginal probabilities work, the distributions started showing their colours in complexities. One day I will look back, knowing this is where I began identifying the paradigm of numbers, to become an analytics professional in a process of finding the answers. How can I make a business better? How can I conclude something meaningful out of numbers? How can I conquer the city?

incoming student exchange Meet Mayank Agrawal, one of our incoming exchange students, who joins MBS for Term 1 from Kellogg School of Management. Tell us a bit about yourself – your school, program and your professional background I grew up across 11 towns and cities in India, learning to adapt to new places until I became addicted to moving around. With a passion for mathematics and physics, I landed at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) for my undergraduate degree in Engineering. After graduating in 2010, I worked in operations management at one of India’s premier FMCG companies, ITC Limited, for three years, followed by one year of operations consulting at McKinsey India and a small internship in policy

design at the Office of Chief Minister, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Since then I have been pursuing a Full-Time MBA at Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, which has been an amazing experience, to say the least. Why did you choose MBS for your exchange experience, and how have you found it? Studying brand management with Mark Ritson has been an amazing experience in itself. I have found the MBS faculty and student community to be very warm and tight-knit, making all of us exchange students feel at home. Pete M, who taught us DBiA, has been more of a friend to us than a teacher. We still keep seeing him around the building. Finally, it would be remiss of me not to admit that the idea of replacing a Chicago winter with a Melbourne summer didn’t strike a

chord with me. The Australian weather, landscape, cities and most of all the Australian culture and people, have truly amazed me. Thanks, MBS, for this experience. I am sure that later in my life, I will be back in Melbourne for more.

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Year in review: Corporate lessons from 2015

geoff martin Geoff Martin, Professor of Strategy, highlights some key learnings from the successes and failures of business leaders throughout 2015. Think M&A, foreign investment and unrealistic forecasting by private equity firms. The study of business and corporate strategy is barely 50 years old. Hence, with every passing year, we significantly advance knowledge regarding strategies that lead to failure and success. So what did we learn during 2015?

learning #1 Business leaders seem to be improving their ability to add value through acquisitions. Prior to 2012, McKinsey told us that on average, acquisitions lost value for the shareholders of the acquiring firm. M&A can often be attributed to fiefdom building by CEOs whose pay is positively correlated to the assets they oversee, large completion bonuses for the CEO and bankers who get a one-off fee for execution. Why wouldn’t you keep acquiring? Yet since 2012, apparently there has been improvement. The Economist magazine asserts that this may be due to the role of activist investors. But is this giving too much credit to ‘activists’? I think credit can also be given to ever increasing proportions of top management teams who have been

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educated regarding strategic analysis and corporate finance. Business schools are a focal point of much of that training, either through the MBA or bespoke executive education. Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and board member of Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil, tells us that the current crop of CEOs is the best that he has seen in terms of knowledge. In my 25 years of business experience, I have seen the bar raised dramatically in terms of the qualities required to reach leadership positions – both the soft and the harder technical skills. You often still see a dominance of ego and personal interest prioritised over achieving stakeholder objectives. What can you do about that? One solution lies in the promotion and continued upward march of our wonderful female MBA graduates.

Learning #2 M&A is the preferred growth option in the era of low GDP growth. Organic growth is proving difficult in many industries in the developed world, meaning that top line growth is likely to be inorganic. The strategic logic also comes from the hope of cost synergies, which are more probable than revenue synergies. European firms are still playing catch up, given very few feature in the list of the world’s top 20 firms (by asset value).

Learning #3 Find a Chinese buyer or sharpen your act! Lower growth in China along with a weak AUD are likely to expedite the international expansion plans of corporates looking to acquire Australian businesses. The shareholders of Swisse Wellness were a lucky beneficiary last year when Chinese buyers purchased their business for $1.67 billion with the CEO’s share valued at approximately $200 million (according to Business First magazine). Yet, for those not lucky

enough to get a pay cheque, you need to be prepared for foreign entrants who have deep pockets, a larger risk appetite and, often, great strategic sophistication. This is the background that I provide to students embarking on their strategy course at MBS. It has never been more important to understand what good strategy looks like and how it should be executed in order to (1) build a business attractive to acquisitive foreigners, and (2) defend against new entrants.

Learning #4 Inventory management matters and beware of private equity firms writing down the values of assets (inventory and non-current) to benefit from lower COGS and lower depreciation charges in subsequent periods pre-IPO. Those were the lessons from the Dick Smith decline. There are lots of ‘knowledgeable’ experts with the benefit of hindsight and consumer electronics is a tough industry, so perhaps there are too many ‘Monday’s Experts’ lining up to kick Nick Abboud (former CEO). What we have observed is that some very good managers (with great track records) struggled with forecasting demand, managing growth and mastering in-store retail experience, after having impossible demands placed upon them by the forecasts of their private equity partners. At least the managers generally went down with the ship (they had not sold all their stock, unlike Anchorage Partners, the private equity firm that sold their shares at the top of the market), showing that the managers had genuinely believed in the story. The private equity industry has been tainted, which is a shame, as there are good and bad out there. For more such insightful analyses on happenings in 2016, watch this space! Geoff Martin Professor of Strategy | MBS

life after MBS What part of the MBS journey do you miss?

jessica stewart MBS alumnus Jessica Stewart reminisces about her time at the School, and reflects on the benefits – both professional and personal – that her MBA has provided her since graduating in the Class of 2013. Why did you decide to do an MBA? When I joined MBS I was an engineer from Jamaica who wanted to change careers. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but I knew an MBA would give me the knowledge, skills and exposure needed to grow as a professional – and find success. Since graduation I have returned to Jamaica and I now work as a Project Manager in the commercial banking sector. In this role I manage high-priority technology projects that enable the bank to satisfy its compliance requirements while delivering on its mission of convenience and customerservice. The projects are complex and the business environment dynamic, but my MBA has proven useful, giving me the confidence to lead and deliver results.

I miss being a part of a learning community. No, I don’t miss the three-hour classes, exams and syndicate groups! But I do miss being a part of a community that was focused on learning and growth, all the time. The information sessions, lectures and the discussions I had with classmates had at their heart an aim of facilitating learning. Whether we were struggling to complete an assignment or preparing a resume, we did it together – students and staff alike. We were always doing some introspection and figuring out how what we learnt could be used going forward. Now I have to be so much more deliberate at learning and growing as a professional on a consistent basis as I don’t have the community of lecturers and students at my disposal. Whenever I do catch up with members of the MBS community, I reminisce about my time at School.

How are you using your MBA and your MBS connection to reach out to people in the community? My location makes it difficult for me to participate in as many alumni and community events as I would like. I do, however, use technology to stay in touch with members of my cohort, and since graduation I have been able to actually

visit with one member of the cohort each year. I’m hoping to continue that trend going forward. I also respond to appeals from the Alumni Relations team and the SRC when called upon. These help me stay in touch with the MBS community and keep up to date with things that are going on. What advice do you have for readers on how to capitalise the opportunities at MBS? One of the things that have stuck with me from my time at MBS is the concept of ‘fit’ – identifying your core values and seeking opportunities that are compatible with these values. It’s easy to get caught up in the seemingly endless assignments and activities; easier still to find yourself going along with the majority in terms of their career mindset. My advice to the current cohort is this: take the time to identify what makes you ‘you’, find out what your core values are and use that to drive you in terms of time management, job placement and career growth. For instance, I took advantage of an internship opportunity with Social Traders while at MBS. The experience exposed me to a wide gamut of entrepreneurship opportunities in the social space; it challenged my thinking and encouraged me to carve out a plan to move forward into that space. Currently I am a project manager, but in the near future I won’t be. I will be moving into the area of education on a full-time basis; more specifically, in partnering with schools and teacher development groups to address the issue of educational inequality. I wouldn’t be as prepared as I am for this change if I didn’t use my time wisely at MBS, and I wouldn’t have known how best to use this time if I didn’t understand who I am and what the right ‘fit’ meant for me.

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Walk Around the Bay For the past two Christmases, MBS student Sunita Toraty has participated in Walk Around the Bay to raise money for beyondblue. Last year, she was joined by fellow student Max Wang. Here, Sunita describes what the walk involves and the positive benefits of taking part. Many of you will agree that keeping healthy and happy is something that we all want to do. After developing a keen interest in hiking and meeting some wonderful people during many hikes, I realised that walking is not only a simple and easy way of getting in some physical activity but also promotes mindfulness through connecting with oneself, people around us and connecting with nature in the simplest way. In 2014, this led to the inception of Walk Around the Bay – a six-day, 210 km walk around Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay. It is an ‘open’ walk, which anyone can join, and it aims to share and spread positivity and mindfulness, provide a vehicle to raise awareness for depression and anxiety, and support the well-known charity, beyondblue. Why beyondblue? The purpose of Walk Around the Bay is to provide a simple and easy platform for people to come together, share their personal experiences, support each other and ultimately create a strong sense of connection and community. The spirit of the walk really resonates with mental wellness and with the growing prevalence of depression and anxiety amongst people from all walks of life. beyondblue was therefore a natural choice. If you are reading this, odds are you have either been touched personally by depression/anxiety or

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know a close family member or friend who has. beyondblue does great work not only to help those suffering from depression and anxiety, but also for family and friends who want to provide support for those affected but may not know how to help. The vision is for Walk Around the Bay to be a movement that makes a difference to our community. In 2014, its first year, the walk started small. I set off on Christmas Day and walked between 25 km and 35 km daily, with a few unexpected adventures and detours! This was my schedule: Day 1 (Christmas Day) – Melbourne CBD to Werribee Day 2 – Werribee to Geelong Day 3 – Geelong to Queenscliff then a ferry to Sorrento Day 4 – Sorrento to Dromana Day 5 – Dromana to Frankston Day 6 – Frankston to Melbourne CBD A total of 10 people – young and old, experienced walkers and beginners – joined the walk at various stages and either walked a leg or showed their support. The walk raised $2,500 for beyondblue. The highlight? Countless personal stories shared by friends and, more importantly, by people I hardly knew. Everyone took away something different but

personally relevant to them from the experience. In 2015, Max Wang joined the walk and brought his energy, enthusiasm and a bigger following by spreading the word. We walked the same route with a slightly different schedule; 33 people joined and we raised over $14,000. It was a resounding success. Both years had one thing in common – the generosity of the human spirit and the feeling of community that helped us get through some physically gruelling days. The support was overwhelming and proves what it can help us achieve. Sunita Toraty and Max Wang MBA Part Time July 2015 So what’s in store for 2016? It’s simple: continue the movement! The plan is to organise and publicise the walk and its purpose through various avenues, from a social media strategy to old-fashioned community engagement! We would like to make the walk as accessible as possible and create a unique and lasting connection that keeps participants coming back for more. If you would like to get involved, just let us know. Otherwise, we hope to see you on the road!

MyMBS

In 2016, Melbourne Business School will be rolling out MyMBS, a powerful communications tool designed for business school students. It is built from Campus Groups, a powerful integrative platform that brings together the various social aspects at business school – the clubs, associations, workgroups, events, messaging, calendar, networking, as well as connecting current students with alumni. The first time I heard about Campus Groups was in late 2013. MBS students

Karen Allardice and Mo Barghash had just returned from London, and presented to SRC about this social platform designed for business school students. We joked that this was “Facebook for MBAs” but we could see the potential of having a single platform that could integrate all the various activities we encountered. It was put forward to the management of MBS as an option to help better communicate with students and foster stronger engagement. Fast forward two years, after much negotiation and platform development, a trial of MyMBS will be taking place in the coming weeks to test and see how well it fits into student life. Representatives of the student body (SRC and clubs), together with Program Services, will test out MyMBS before it is rolled out across the School. Alumni will be invited to join shortly after.

Being one of the original SRC members who put forward the idea of Campus Groups, I am excited to see it come to life at MBS and hope that it helps bridge the gaps. In the coming months, students will soon be able to log in and use this as a means to not only communicate with one another, but also as their main source to get involved with what is happening at MBS. Whether it’s signing up to the next MBS event, getting involved with clubs, attending professional development workshops from Careers, or networking and reaching out to past and present students, MyMBS is a powerful tool for students and a bold step in helping create a more integrated and engaged School community. Mirza Shamid President Emeritus | Students Representative Council

Calendar of Events

March 2016

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

1 Mar

Wam Club Event

Weekly Soccer Club

Students Event Trivia Night

1 Apr

Weekly Soccer Club

Students Event End of Term Drinks (T1)

Weekly Consulting Club

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