A Run

Friday (28^th) marked the end of Module 2a with three four-hour exams on consecutive days. The first four months at Ivey have certainly been transformational. I am glad that I could comprehend the financial statements and business snippets in news that once made zero sense. I am amazed, having looked back into what we have learnt in this module. Here is a quick high-level review of learning from module 2.

Designing and Executing Strategies:

High-level orientation to what a General Manager's does; competitive advantage; globalization; Traditional Manager vs. Cross enterprise manager; assessing performance of the organization(past, present and future measures in terms of profitability, financial position, market performance, organizational health etc) ; setting direction(mission, vision and values); strategy creation; implementing change; performance matrix(complacent organization vs. crisis vs. troubled organization vs. desired state); Collins and Porras vision framework; Strategy triangle(Foals, Value proposition; Product market focus and core activities); corporate strategy; Diamond E Framework(Strategy linkages to Management preferences, organization, resources and environment); strategic tension; various tools for environment analysis(Porter's Five forces, Porter's Industry value chain, Game theory, PEST and DPESTO, scenario planning, new economy models such as Disruptive Technologies, New economics of information, Unbundling and long tail, blue/red ocean strategies, Global industry models and stakeholder analysis); Business Environment Analysis Model(BEAM); Valuable-Rare-Inimitable-Organized(VRIO) analysis; Gap analysis; recycling obsolete strategies and re-instantiating new strategies; organizational capabilities, behavior, culture; Strategic choice and options; Strategic planning; leadership; implementing strategy and performance assessment.

Managing Financial Resources:

The finance course has particularly been an irresistible experience to me. Having come from a non-finance background, I had obvious troubles during the initial days. There were numerous topics fragmented across the entire course that originally didn’t make complete sense to me, however, towards the end of the course, all the bits and pieces came together as mergers and acquisitions; it all made sense. Thanks to Prof. Hatch’s well rounded teaching style in terms of news snippets, current trends, well guided case discussions, powerful lectures and his “Stay tuned” topics. I can’t believe the variety and depth of topics that we could cover in such a short period of time (8 weeks). Here’s a quick (yet long) overview of topics:

Roles and responsibilities of a financial manager; Different types of businesses (corporations, sole proprietorships, partnerships, etc); Examples of Capital investment decisions and financing decisions; Finance as a career option; organizational goals from finance perspective; ethics and management objectives; enabling managers to maximize the firm value and shareholder value; financial markets; financial intermediaries; financial institutions; business size-up(Business assessment framework; economy and industry analysis, firm analysis in terms of operations, marketing, human resources, technology and financial statements/ratios); types of banks; dividend policies; blended payments; burden coverage; sustainable growth in dividends; projecting financial statements; cash-budget method; sustainable growth rate model; Collateral Security, Bankruptcy and Reorganization; Sovereign Funds; Pension funds; leading economic indicators; interpreting earnings reports; debtor in finance processing; understanding the debt market; valuing bonds and stocks(bond characteristics, interest rates vs. bond prices, current yield vs. yield to maturity, bond rates of return, yield curve, corporate bonds and risks of default, dividend discount model, capital asset pricing model, price/earnings multiple approach, stocks and stock market, book value, adjusted book value, liquidation value, market value, growth stocks and income stocks, risk measurement and management(market risk premium, beta and alpha, cost of capital, criteria for evaluating risk - optimal capital are cost, risk, flexibility, control and timing ), Weighted average cost of capital, optimal capital structure, financing decisions, investment decisions(Discounted cash flow, price earnings and comparable analysis, value creation and value-based management, economic value added, free cash flow to the firm approach, free cash flow to equity approach); payout policies; credit management and collection; credit decisions; mergers and acquisitions(types – horizontal, vertical and conglomerate, synergies, evaluating mergers, leveraged buyouts, management buyouts), international financial management(currencies, exchange rates, spot/forward/futures rates, interest rates vs. exchange rates, hedging exchange risks, derivatives, call and put options, swaps); insider trading and control.

Accounting and Control for managers:

Non quantitative vs. quantitative information; overview of financial reporting, management accounting, management control and tax accounting; financial statements (balance sheets, income statements, statement of cash flows); accounting terms and definitions; sources and uses of cash; day to day cash flow management and sustainable growth rate; accounting practices(GAAP, IFRS, etc); accounting principles such as money management, entity, going concern, cost, dual aspect, accounting periods, conservatism, realization, matching, consistency and materiality; revenue recognition; timing of recognizing revenues(production method, installment method, collection method, bad debts, revenue adjustment vs. expense, monetary assets interest revenues, etc); assets and expenses decisions; financial ratio analysis ; long lived non-monetary assets and their amortization(depreciation techniques); cost behavior; variable, fixed, differential and full costs; cost-volume charts and interpretation; profit graphs; operating leverage; influence on costs; taxes; overhead; activity based costing; differential costs and analysis; contribution margin and analysis; return on investment analysis; management control(various phases; controllable/non controllable costs, goals vs. objectives; responsibility vs. full cost accounting, effectiveness vs. efficiency, transfer pricing, management control process, behavioral aspects of management control, responsibility centers, investment center issues, measures of performance, non-financial measures and balanced score card techniques)

The last week of module 2a - the most stressful week up until now!!!

Do, review my next post which will summarize the learning from this module. Everyone in my class prepared hard and their commitment seemed obvious. They were all helping each other and Spencer had almost zero free breakout rooms at any given time. Three four-hour exams on consecutive days has definitely been intense. By the time we could recover from an exam, the next one was due and technically, there was hardly any time to prepare they day before. If you haven’t prepared during the entire term, then you can never. All the exams were case based, open book, open computer and open notes. Adding to the stress, those who had signed up for the IBI financial technical training had two full-day workshops during the weekend.

All set to get started with the first elective season for the next three weeks. I have signed up for just one course Competition and Competitor analysis. The job search as well, is all set to begin. Stressful, yet enjoyable and transformational ride so far…

In addition to the regular class/case work and job interview preparation, my responsibilities started to expand in terms of club-leaderships and senatorship. I’ve started to feel the pressure and the fast approaching exams was scary. The week saw yet another airlines case in strategy and several other interesting cases in finance (international financials management) and accounting (balance score card, budgeting, etc). The highlight of the week was Monitor Group’s information session and mock behavioral interviews. There were Ivey Alumni from Monitor to facilitate the event and we had several impressive interview takeaways.

Job postings and information sessions have started to show by in eZone (Ivey’ internal content management system). September and October are expected to be loaded with numerous finance/consulting networking events and interviews. The week ended with the Ivey MBA Formal (farewell dinner) for the outgoing September class.

http://photos.tdotspot.com/Graduation/Ivey-Fall-Formal/

Monday started off with a strategy case on Hungarian wines and later a valuation case in finance. Afternoon, the MBA Association had organized a Q&A panel with Fall MBA students to guide us through the electives selection. The week saw several interesting M&A cases in strategy and finance and a few accounting cases on the management accounting, management control, balanced scorecard and non-financial measures topics. There were also several important sessions such as Cover letter clinic, marketing interviews clinic, Get-Connected week feedback session, Dragon boat practice sessions, United Nations initiatives presentation, and consulting case interview preparation sessions. Finally, the new MBAA executive committee, senators, club presidents, vice-presidents were all in place and our class took charge of the new tenure.