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Diary of an MBA

Date: 21 Mar 2010

Published: The Sunday Times

Author: Siobhan O'Dowd

Siobhan O'Dowd is a student on the Executive MBA programme at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.  She is writing a monthly column on her experiences.

March hit me like a tonne of bricks but this was inevitable. The first week in March was exams in Financial Markets & Valuations and Business Economics. The second week in March saw the launch and on-sale dates for two new festivals, Body & Soul Summer Solstice Gathering, and MindField, “A Conversation for the Nation”. The third week in March starts with a three day holiday in Spain, and finishes with Tiesto in the O2 – with a stopover in Navan for my first “official” UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School event, in Bellinter House. The last week in March will see the Electric Picnic media launch on the 24th, where the artist line up is announced. From there it’s into the summer at full speed. I’d always known that the final semester was going to be the trickiest of the three to balance, and forewarned is going to have to be forearmed in that respect.

The exams were fine. I’m better with words than numbers, so the Financial Valuations & Markets exams caused me more concern initially than Economics. Calculating Net Present Value, Accounting Rate of Return, Dividend Yields and Earnings Per Share gave me sleepless nights, but by concentrating on a few of the elements and working really hard on those as opposed to touching a little bit on everything, I was able to make a decent stab at the exam. Our lecturer in Financial Markets should be singled out as being exceptional – not only did he manage to make the subject really interesting, but he contextualised it within the real world and brought the subject alive.

I really liked Economics. I think working for a small company helps when trying to understand Micro-Economics. Grasping both the company operation as a whole, taking a snapshot and framing within the context of the wider market was fascinating I did a Micro-Economic analysis of  Electric Picnic for my individual assignment which was interesting. Although I had previously known we were not competing in the export market for festival tourism, it was interesting to scrape beyond the surface explanation and see why.  Our labour rates combined with the the monopolies of the contractors make the cost of our infrastructure substantially higher than in any other European country, bar none. The lack of government investment in art subsidies also drive up the costs of our non-commercial elements such as the performance, the art and the theatre. 

Macro-Economics I found more of a struggle. Having dropped history and geography for art and drama GCSE’s in school, my approach had to be back-to-front, first trying to establish what happened, and then working backwards to figure out contributing factors, or the “why”. Going into the MBA, I knew I had some gaps in my knowledge base, but doing it has highlighted these as being Grand Canyon sized gaps, rather than being London Underground-esque. A Harvard MBA graduate whom I met last week told me I was lucky, as it meant I would get the most out of the course. It is a good way of looking at things, but I can’t help thinking he was trying to be nice. 

The Bellinter event should be interesting. I organised it partly because it can be difficult getting to know people in my class as a lot of them commute from around the country, meaning that they find it difficult to come for drinks after exams etc. I thought if we stayed overnight, it would give everyone a chance to properly relax. The speakers lined up for the event include David McWilliams, Tony Keohane (CEO, Tesco Ireland), Jay Bourke and Brody Sweeney. The panel discussion will be “Help us or get out of the way – The State & Irish Business”. All of the rooms have been taken, and some of the other MBA classes are also joining, so it will be a good opportunity to make new contacts too. Starting an investment club has been something I’ve thought about for a while, and after a meeting with Stephen Cox from Share Navigator (I found him through an Alumni network – very handy!), he agreed to come to Bellinter and do a breakfast presentation for anyone interested in joining. Share Navigator is brilliant because it combines education and the how-to with ongoing hand-holding, which is definitely the way to go for a novice. Stephen did tell me my profile was a “cobra”, “in search of a quick strike”. Perhaps it was telling him I expected to be a millionaire by the time I’m 30 that gave the game away…  

Next term begins at the start of April, with Operations Management and Management Accounting, neither subjects I have any background in. I’m hoping to be able to front load the study, and do the coursework earlier rather than later. MindField, the spoken word festival we have just announced with Naoise Nunn, is the May Bank Holiday weekend – the weekend before my end of year exams. I have a vision of Howard Marx explaining operations management to me, while Alistair Campbell tells me how to spin it, and Jon Snow looks on in bemusement. Perhaps Simon Napier-Bell will be some use on the Management Accounting.