You are here: Home > About Smurfit > News

Diary of an MBA

Date: 29 Jul 2011

Cocktails out of a trophy, anyone?

The winners of a company strategy competition ponder the best way to celebrate their surprise victory.

Taking on more extra-curricular activity when your work is manic is a crazy idea – but it always seems to happen.

My classmates and I decided to go in for the MBAAI (MBA Association of Ireland) Strategy Forum, which was interesting. What happens in a strategy forum is that a college puts forward a team of four or five people. Each is given the same case study, has four hours to read it and then puts together a presentation outlining the best strategy or evaluation for the relevant company or individual to take.

The teams then present to a panel of professors (every college has a representative professor) and the professors vote on a winner. They are not allowed to vote for their own.

Alan and I were delighted to win the Smurfit heat and go forward to the all-Ireland final. Thankfully, the rest of our team was able to join for the final, so we had a full complement: Fionnuala Healy, Maria Finnegan, Alan Dunne and Tom O’Connor, all from my class.

Our professor was Pat Gibbons. He had not taught us, but we got to know him on our trip to China in March. The Thursday before the final, we met at my house for a practice run and a Thai takeout. We mapped out a presentation formula and allocated roles: timekeeper, slide preparation, financials, story-boarding marketing and presenting.

The night before the final, there was more emailing about outfits and blow-dries than about strategy. We hadn’t been out for guilt-free drinks before, and we were planning a night out regardless of how the competition went.

We went to the Hibernian Club on St Stephen’s Green for 10.30am, and met the other teams. The competition ran from 11am to 3pm. The last hour passed in a flash and we were under serious pressure to get it together.

The teams began presenting and were all really strong. We presented fourth out of five. I was a bit wobbly with the opening and then got into the swing, greatly helped by Alan, a natural presenter, and by the fact that Fionnuala, Maria and Tom were in the audience grinning madly and giving the thumbs-up.

We finished in 16 minutes, out of the 20 we had been allocated, agreed that, whatever the outcome, we had put our best foot forward and welcomed the wine reception that was laisd on while the judges deliberated.

Just before dinner the judges come back into the room. Prof Gibbons had a face like thunder and made straight for the wine. We took that as a sign that we hadn’t won, and concentrated on having the craic over dinner. We were in the middle of booking a karaoke booth in a place on South William Street when we were all hushed for the winners to be announced.

When we heard we had won, we couldn’t believe it. I had to accept the trophy and make a speech. My speech-writing could do with some work, as I mumbled something unintelligible and looked mortified.

We were thrilled and, after taking pictures of ourselves with the trophy to text to our mothers, we decided we should bring it with us to drink cocktails out of it. Thankfully, sense prevailed. It was a great result, but for all the right reasons. A lovely team, a good experience, a nice day and a great opportunity to meet other MBA students from different colleges to share experiences.

Meanwhile, on the day job, Martin Murphy, managing director of HP Ireland and my boss, was asked back in May to chair the steering group of the National Internship Scheme.

The group was set up to advise Joan Burton, the Minister for Social Protection, on the implementation of the scheme, which was set up to provide quality work experience for people on the live register for three months or longer.

I had a lot of ideas on marketing and branding, and Martin brought me on to the committee to lead the communications work stream. The energy of the group was amazing. It brought together stakeholders from the Department of Social Protection to Fas, to private sector representatives: Martin, Sean O’Driscoll, the chief executive of Glen Dimplex, and me.

We had a huge amount to do in a short time. I ended up coordinating the private-sector elements. The willingness of the team to try a new approach, take on board feedback and look at things in a different light was incredible.

We launched the initiative in the Facebook offices on June 29. We began with a business community breakfast in the canteen, and the companies, who had already got behind the scheme, including Aer Lingus, KPMG, Failte Ireland, Tesco and Arthur Cox, were thanked.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Martin and Minister Bruton all gave rousing speeches, before a media briefing took place. Martin and I had worked so hard in the preceding days that our preparation talk before his business breakfast interview on Newstalk at 6am on the day of the launch was water off a duck’s back.

The day passed in a blur of production, managing the event, working with the team at Drury Communications to arrange Martin’s interviews, finding interns at the last minute for interview on the news and doing two Orieachtas briefings to address any questions the TD’s and senators had and to encourage them to drive support in their constituencies.

I was proud of what we achieved. To be a part of it has been an amazing opportunity.

So what’s next? The steering group brief includes monitoring and progressing JobBridge, the internship scheme. The plan is for a nationwide drive in September, with road shows to encourage interns and companies to get involved. Martin is speaking at he Magill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal.

My dissertation has been sorely neglected, and is now giving me sleepless nights. In the words of Bananarama, it’s going to be “a cruel, cruel summer….”

Siobhan O’Dowd is a student on the Executive MBA course at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. She is writing a monthly column on her experiences. See www.smurfitschool.ie

back to News

Diary of an MBA

MEET OUR STUDENTS

MEET THE PROGRAMME COORDINATOR