Hi!

It's been a while since the last post.. but then it is also time for New year Resolutions, and this new year my resolution is to blog regularly .. no matter what!

The block III that started on a rather good note.. just finishing our party at Simon's we plunged into Corporate finance.. a subject that excites me…

Valuation of companies is really what I was looking for and this course by Prof. Pascal Gantenbein was really the one for me. Terms like DCF, LBO, WACC and blah blah all that mystery and "geek talk" surrounding these terms was finally uncovered..

What adds spice to the curry is that we had three company events as part of the course.. First was UBS with a Valuation workshop, wherein we analysed a hostile takeover situation on a recent M&A they advised. The second was another workshop with the Corporate finance guys at Mckinsey wherein we saw the application of the Mckinsey valuation hexagon in unlocking value in an organization.. in this case the merger of a leading FMCG company and the leading men's personal products firm.

The third was a talk on the M&A sector with JP Morgan execs from London. We discussed the M&A trends, role of private equity and also tried to do some crystal gazing about what the future holds in store for these sectors.. and with subprime being the flavor of the season we had a real juicy discussion on that issue too.

The various approaches of evaluating companies have been eye openers for me as a person.. and I'm now.. simply put.. enriched J !

I feel like I can now start making music out of numerals and figures out of company annual reports and earnings forecasts.. and the drab black and white print in the FT and WSJ about takeovers and PEs … Chryslers and the KKRs sound like an orchestra in concert!

Man! In the third block managerial economics opened up a new dimension for me .. and in this block it has been the corporate finance course which has added a new perspective and dimension…

What is most important for me as an individual is that all these wonderful courses and discussions that have added new dimensions to my personality and opened a plethora of pathways for me.. in turn have reaffirmed my decision to take up the MBA. The more concepts that I encounter.. the more I feel happy to have opted for an MBA… Had I not taken up the MBA .. I would have very clearly missed a whole lot in my life!

Stuart

I agree that in case one wants to be effective as a consultant in switzerland/ Germany/Austria, one needs to be fluent in German so that you could talk to the guy on the shop-floor with equal ease as you did with the CEO… however, most progressive companies to invest in their employees and train them in skills (language skills included) .. however some firms don't seem to get it!! They brag about international teams and blah blah and multi-country assignments … however, while recruiting they say try to emphasize too much on the language skills!!! damn who would make a better consultant ..a guy/gal fluent in german and no brains or a smart MBA who can get numbers and tons of data to spell out the true story? Skills like language, IT, et al can be acquired.. but people and personality traits.. hey that's a scarce resource…

My discussions with the principals and senior consultants at all the top consultancy firms have led me to believe that language should not be the deciding factor.. but somehow the HR folk seem to be singing a different tune..

Anyway BCG is of the progressive kinds …and it was their HR manager who took pains to emphasize that they value people and subscribe to this philosophy…they'll come back to the campus to engage us for recruitment in Jan/Feb'08..

Then we had a talk by the Managing Partner of Wegelin & Co. a boutique mid-size European investment firm based out of St. Gallen into an assortment of index funds based investment strategy. Something which sounds very banal.. but was very interesting!

Then we had a hedge fund presentation by a Goldman Sachs executive.. with rather interesting insights into the recent "happenings" (hurricanes!) in the hedge fund space.. (Bear Stearns anyone!)

Besides rather interesting presentation by ADIDAS about their new global management program : sports, high decibel music, soccer stars.. et al.. first company reps to come in casual attire.. most are dressed to kill (Will the I-Bankers in the house pls stand up!)..

Julius Baer's CEO was here too.. with an interesting workshop about alternative investments... and so was the CEO of Grisons Peak another medium size boutique investment advisory fund set up by a top honcho at ABN AMRO

then we had two Mckinsey workshops : one on presentation skills and another on storylining and story telling..

there was a talk by Capital international about their graduate programs too... and the last event of the block was a workshop about interviewing with PWC..

For those from outside the German speaking region: if u told somebody in this region u are a student at St. Gallen, u will see their eyes widen with awe .. this place is the Harvard of the region... I've seen people turn around and stare at out HSG jerseys.. Man this is the place to be!!