Before we started the semester the CEMS students participated in a Block Seminar on "Managing Innovation" - this was a great experience where we were trying to reconceptualise the notion of a bank for the future by envisioning what that future may hold! The aim of the week was to try and capture our creativity through a structured framework and then channel these ideas into new innovative applications!for the retail banking industry Throughout the week we went to a variety of off-campus locations to complement this creative process including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sydney Observatory. Was also a great chance to meet the incoming CEMS students here on exchange and also the 2nd cohort of Sydney University Master of Management students for 2009!

The week was hectic and fun!

This semester is shaping up to be a busy one once again! Some of us are doing an "Innovation Challenge" with Deloitte for the duration of the semester where we brainstorm ideas and eventually choose one to explore further all the way through to a business plan and pitch. We've currently gone through the ideation and value proposition stage and are reevaluating how we thing we could really gain value from this venture - it's been a great learning experience thus far (we've really got to narrow our scope and present a concrete, feasible proposition - no mean feat when there's a group of creative minds at work!). We've also been teamed up with a mentor and coach from Deloitte and we just had the second formal event last night. Great to see how they operate from the inside!

So ...busy, busy, busy!! Tomorrow we've been invited to attend a Sydney Uni Rugby match (after our work with the Sydney Uni Rugby Club last semester!). So that shall be fun!

More news soon
Lorenn

Well now that we're on holidays it's been time for some serious socialising! Brunch (a late breakfast/early lunch) has become a very "in" thing to do it seems...brunch seems to be taking over from lunch... I'm not entirely sure why... but brunch does have a special novelty factor... there's something about having breakfast food later than usual and it being perfectly acceptable!

My friend and I went to a lovely Brunch place the other week in Surry Hills (a suburb not very far from Uni at all, just on the non-chinatown side of Central). The place we went to is called the "Book Kitchen" which incidentally is very similar to one of the "Common Project" ideas of a group in our cohort - their ideas was to open a "Book Cafe" on campus (stay tuned to see if this actually becomes a reality!).

The menu was quite eclectic and the food was delicious!! As for the books... well there were quite a few in a shelf adorning one wall...but it wasn't the ceiling-to-floor bookshelf-as-wall image I had in my head! I had spanish baked eggs with tomato and oregano and my friend had sour toast with avocado, persian feta, poached egg and rocket! We were also very tempted by the date and fig pikelets with poached pear, rhubarb and vanilla ricotta. Having said this, we were both quite adventurous with our choices- there were also more traditional brunch foods such as egg and bacon rolls, muesli and scrambled eggs.

After this feast we went across the road to the Bourke St Bakery for a very early afternoon tea (not sure how this translates when in the world of brunch!)... I had this yummy creme brulee tart and my friend had a raspberry and pear tart. And we both had hot chocolates that were soooo good! No wonder the line to this tiny little place was out onto the footpath!

All in all a very delicious way to spend one mid-week late morning/early afternoon :)

We've just finished the last exam of the first semester of the Master of Management - needless to say we're all very relieved. Now just a couple more assignments to hand in and we can enjoy some real holidays!!!

The final few weeks have been extremely hectic: we prepared our final pitch of our business idea and then pitched it to a panel, we did some more consulting work.. half of us were working on a project for the Sydney Uni Rugby Club and half for a not-for-profit - Habitat for Humanity, we had our final exams to prepare for (and do!) and now some final assessment tasks linger... but nearly done!

People are leaving the country already to go on holidays or to go home. We celebrated after our last exam and one of the girls in the course had a party at her house - lots of yummy food, drink and fun..

The Sydney Film festival is on at the moment as is a light show around Sydney Harbour. We're in winter, but there are still many sunny days (and more rainy ones than we're used to too!), so it's a good time to be able to experience some of what Sydney has to offer!

Planning some relaxation before thinking about the semester to come,
Lorenn

It's crazy to think that it's nearly the end of my first semester of the Master of Management! I'm a local student and did my Undergrad studies at Sydney Uni, but perhaps that is the end of the overlap between my past and what I'm doing now!

I finished a Science/Arts double degree last year and have gone from having no clue about anything vaguely business-related, to... well...where to begin... starting a business!!!! (well at least in theory!..perhaps more on that later), reading financial statements, creating financial models, understanding economics, interviewing entrepreneurs, being able to explain the GFC (well ...even using "GFC" as lingo!)...etc etc etc

I now read the financial section of the Sydney Morning Herald and, for the most part, understand!!!! - this I would never have predicted if you had have asked me a year ago!!

So it's been a steep but very valuable and rewarding learning curve in a stimulating environment...With half the class from business backgrounds and half from overseas, everyone is from a diverse and interesting background and we are always learning from eachother as well as from the lecturers!

40 people who see eachother nearly everyday and are working on a variety of projects together has meant that we get along well, socialise together and are a like a little management family...aww... :) We'll be sad to see some of our cohort leave next semester for their exchange semesters at CEMS partner institutions but are looking forward to those that join us from the other side of the world (very exciting!)!!

A busy couple of weeks now as the semester comes to a close, but shall be updating you again soon.
Lorenn