CV, CV, CV!

After five weeks of struggling to stay awake in classes and having difficulties focusing on studying, I have finally transformed into my study mode. This past week I began seriously studying every night for at least two or three hours. I think this is pretty good considering all the other projects that I have going on. Which reminds me, AT Kearny is finally over for me.
My AT Kearny management consulting project group made it to the Italian finals along with three other teams. Making it there was an accomplishment in itself. I learned a lot through this consulting project and I am really happy I did. Plus, now I have something cool to add to my resume.
The AT Kearny challenge will look great on my resume. I am happy to add it on there, and in fact I was suggested to hurry up and add it by the career coach the school hired for me. The career coach is really nice. I spoke with her on Thursday and she gave me tons of suggestions to help realize my goal of working in the fine food/beverage industry. I was a little disappointed to hear that I should keep my geographical location desires flexible, but besides that I was quite happy with the session.
But back to the studying… I think overall, I have at least a decent grasp of all the topics we are covering in school, except for the class Firm and It’s Environments. I really dislike the organization and topics covered in this class. I think the class is far too broad to have any kind of logical final. Luckily we are graded on a curve!

While I am studying a lot, I am also trying to keep one night a week open for fun. Last night I got to go to the Gambero Rosso Bere Bene Low Cost 2011 wine event. I loved it. Basically Gambero Rosso is a wine and restaurant guide here in Italy, and this event was focused on Italian wine that costs under 8 Euros. We spoke to the person who wrote the guide and who had the difficult job of testing 6,000 wines in 4 months (how do I get that job??). The man was telling me that this is one of his favorite cultural wine events because these wines presented here were what real Italians drank. Italians are not looking to buy 30 or 40 euro bottles of wine to serve with dinner every night, instead they keep good tasting economically priced wine around the house to drink. I like this strategy and discovered a few new wines that I like.

Well, that’s it for now. I will update again early next week!

Zero to MBA in 1 year

First and foremost, I cannot believe that the Giants have made the World Series without me being home. Giants baseball is truly torture sometimes. I mean, the last several years we could never make it out of regular season play, and now that I am gone, they put together an amazingly lovable team and seem to be going the distance (knock on wood). I bet SF and the Bay Area are going nuts right now. Go Giants!

So it has been just about 2 months since my plane touched down in Italy. I know its cheesey, but it is amazing how fast time can fly when you are having fun/busy. In the past two months I've had tons of classes, homework, group assignments, and events, but I am enjoying myself. And as if I wasn't busy enough, I became the Vice President of the MBA Ski team. Our mission is to organize a multi day ski competition between 5 international MBA programs in St. Moritz. It is a huge task because we have to coordinate the lodging, transport, ski passes, ski rentals, gala dinners, night time festivities, and everything else that goes into such an event. And of course, since we are an Italian MBA and we are doing this in the name of our school, we have to ensure it is the most amazing trip ever! In addition to this, we have to plan several other weekend ski trips and tons of fundraisers to raise money for this awesome st. moritz trip. So far we have thought of maybe having a Thanksgiving dinner for people and charge maybe 30euros to cover the food and raise some funds for the trip.

(St. Moritz)

Now on to some other things. Group projects have been dominating my life. The main one being a consultancy challenge for AT Kearny. The project was completely voluntary, and while I don't really want to be a consultant, it was a great experience. On Wednesday we submitted our project and are now waiting for results. AT Kearny will select three teams (out of eight) to present their ideas to the partners of the office, and the winner of those three will get an all expenses paid trip to London to compete other european business schools. We'll see how that goes.

Finally, last Friday we had a go karting event and conference with Pagani Zonda (http://www.paganiautomobili.it/english.htm). It was amazing to hear him speak. He basically came from Argentina with nothing but a passion to mix high design and science. This passion, of course, brought him to the high performance Italian car industry. He worked for Lamborghini for a few years before deciding to create his own cars, which he now sells for more than $1 Million each. His speech was in Italian, but it was cool. I understood every word! The speech was confirmation that my comprehension is increasing, now I just need more time speaking. Speaking Italian is oddly enough, very difficult to do here at Bocconi because everyone is trying to perfect their english. All well. I am off to do some homework and then enjoy my three day weekend!

Ciao.

Days are long, but the year will be short...

The first week of school was kindergarden compared to these past two weeks. My blackberry is in constant use as I schedule meetings, lunches, times to do homework, exercise, apereativos, more homework, and several group projects. The schedule never stays put though. Everyday new activities are added, some cancelled, and some have hours changed. The life of an MBA student is in perpetual motion. I know the course work presented in school is very important in developing our core business strengths, but I am pretty damn confident that close to 80% of the MBA's value comes from learning to manage 10 things at once and being able to deal with the unknown.

I am not sure if it is because I am at an Italian university or because the school has carefully crafted this as a teaching lesson, but I am in the dark of most important school activities until 1 day before it is to take place. It is a problem because of all the other things we are expected to do as an MBA.

I cannot complain now because I like the challenge. This is the ultimate crash course in organization. Filtering through all the details thrown at me to find the one or two important things has almost become second nature. It is amazing how quickly you can mature in an MBA program. All of us here are in a delicate balance. We are the future business leaders, so we must maintain some professionalism, but at the same time, we are young and need to have fun. We need to network. And we need to learn to accept others as they are. It is a big job, and I will continually learn from this experience. Next time I will include some pics of events including the CEO of Vodaphone's presentation, go karting with Pagani Zonda, wine tasting, Soccer in the Italian country side, and some other less cool pics...

It’s not all fun and games (kinda sorta)

As much as I would love to believe the contrary, these past 5 weeks spent in Milan have been passed in the most leisurely way possible. I took advantage of every opportunity to spend money and waste time (sorry Dad). Want to spend a night out at the Cavalli club? Sure. Another apperativo? Count me in! A weekend excursion to Munich for the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest? Why not! Everyday I would wake up when I pleased, and as long as I made it to my single class at an extremely convenient 4:30pm, I was ok. But this week was different.
There was something in the air that I have only experienced a couple times in my life. During my first day at Santa Clara University I felt it. I felt it again during my first day as gainfully employed adult at Deloitte. And for the third time in my life I felt the excitement of something completely new and foreign, it was the first day as an official MBA candidate at SDA Bocconi. New faces filled the hallways in our home for the next year, Via Balilla 18, and I loved it. Meeting people is an incredible feeling. I think I met 200 people this week, and although our class size is 110, I am sure I did (sorry for those of you that I met “for the first time” more than once).
Classes were about what I expected. We are split into 2 groups, Blue and Yellow (shout out to the blue class!), and we are concurrently enrolled in the same 5 classes. I really enjoyed our Marketing, Quantitative Methods, and The Firm and It’s Behavior (kind of) classes. I seriously disliked our Financial Markets class and I am sure I will have equal feelings towards the Financial Reporting class. The classes that I do hate (I know hate is a strong word, but trust me on this) aren’t that bad, but I come from a financial/accounting background and that is a sector that I have absolutely no interest in going back to. I think the concepts that are being presented are fairly basic and I spent four years in my undergraduate studies learning them, but I am not saying that others are not getting anything from them.
Besides my general disdain for two of the classes, I am enjoying my time. I am already overloaded with class, homework, social events, and professional development events. This month is particularly crazy as the previous MBA class is departing for the work world and we begin to fill their shoes. This month alone I have a lecture by the CEO of Vodaphone, a tour of the Martini Factory and networking event in their office, a social event and lecture hosted by CEO and Founder of Pagani Zonda Motors (look it up, seriously cool company), a wine tasting and lecture by owner of Tenuta La Tenaglia winery, and then a private tour of a winery in a Barola based winery hosted by the owner. Besides those events I have homework and other social functions that I “must” attend. I know I am busy, but I couldn’t be happier. I can tell every event I attend and every class I sit through is preparing me for the future.
Well that has been the experience of my first week. Be sure to check back as I sit through the good classes, anguish through the bad, create millions of memories, and catapult myself into the best year of my life.

Road Trips: European Style

One of the greatest things about living in Milano is the location. Within one hour I can be on the beach, in the mountains, or basically anywhere in Europe (if I fly). So the past couple weekends I have taken advantage of that benefit and traveled. First was Gorgonzola for the gorgonzola cheese festival, then Parma for the prosciuto and parmeggiano, then I went to Munich for Oktoberfest. All three were great trips, but some were better than others.
Gorgonzola is a sleepy town about 45 minutesnorth east of Milano by train. If Gorgonzola was not invented there, I would probably never have gone. There is not much there, basically one church and a couple houses and basta. During the sagre (festival), it is supposed to liven up a bit, but as you can see in the picture there were still only a couple people. The cheese was great and I had tons of gorgonzola themed dishes like gorgonzola lasagne and risotto. Even though the town is lack-luster, it was a great experience.

Next up on the Euro road trip is Parma!! Parma is a beautiful classical

Italian town. It is the town where parmiggiano reggiano and prosciutto di parma come from. Ther

e are a couple really cool churches, but besides them, I think you only go there to eat and enjoy the atmosphere. Everyone rides around on bikes and looks like they love life. I hear they have a very high standard of living, and it is visible when you walk the streets. In Par

ma, Nick and I ate a 24 month aged parmiggian and some delicious prosciutto crudo. Man that stuff is good!

Finally on the trip was Munich. I went to Munich four years ago in a drinking binge that was Oktoberfest. We were literally there for no more than 12 hours, so I didn't really get to see the city. This time I planned better and spent 4 days there. I drove up with a fellow MBA student who is origina

lly from Munich. We drove up through the snow capped Alps of Switzerland and Austria. It was such a beautiful ride that I decided I have to go back there with my Girlfriend when she visits... Anyway, On Friday morning I received a tour of the city from my friend, and man, that is one beautiful city! Everything about is so clean, organized, and beautiful. The buildings are of a classic German architecture (or what I imagine to be classic German style). I really enjoy the culture that they have worked to maintain, for example, drindls (the dresses women wear), beer, Oktober

fest, and public gathering locations. After the tour, the remainder of my time was spent at the fest. In the fewest words possible (as not to incriminate myself) it was FANTASTIC. I had a blast.

I love living here in Milano and I cannot wait to travel more. I have a feeling I will be exploring the alps quite a bit this winter. I found out today our MBA ski cup will be held in st. Moritz and there will be about 400 MBA students from around the world taking over the town to ski and meet eachother.

Until next time!

Networking and its importance...

Networking. It's a funny thing. Everyone knows what it is. Everyone knows that it is an important thing, but I think many are confused on exactly how to obtain a network and how to use it.

Many people get an MBA for the network it opens you up to. An international MBA takes your network to the next level. I have been in Milano for about 1 month and I have already made friends from all around the world. I added people from Argentina, Israel, Columbia, Italy, Poland, Germany, the US, and Nigeria to my network.

Now people ask "Justin, how will you use these people in your network?" I would say, I already have. Just talking to them and understanding the world from their point of view has given me much more insight to the world, or international market, than I would have gotten by staying at Deloitte. I am also sure that in the future there may be business opportunities to share in.

But all in all, I think the activity of extending my network has been the most fun so far. We have done dozens of aperativos, gone to a couple clubs, and planned fun events all over Milano. So, enjoy the pictures, they represent networking in action!

Looking to the future

I just got done talking about how excited I am to start school. Well, in response to those feelings, I have been doing a lot of research on potential industries I would like to work in. So as of today, I am extremely interested in the green tech, agribusiness, and Ferrari industries.

The green tech industry is really just starting to grow up. Even just a few years ago it was a very young and immature industry. Today it is still developing itself. The term "green tech" is very fluid. Although it can be loosely defined today as environmental technology, there is still unlimited possibility for its final direction. It is amazing to see how companies have developed ways to be profitable and to care about the social responsibilities we have as inhabitants of earth at the same time. Yes, I can see me incorporating the green industry into my future career, even if I go into my second career interest, agribusiness.

Agribusiness is awesome because I love making great food. It is simple, we

need food to live and food is delicious. Making food from scratch is an incredible feeling. Lately I started brewing my own beer, and it was really good. Creating a finished product from raw natural ingredients is a very cool feeling. By making food from scratch, you know what is in your food. Its good to know what is in your food for obvious reasons, but by knowing exactly what is in your beer, for example, you can also tweak things very subtlety to create big changes in taste. There is also a bigger picture element to agribusiness as well. The population is growing. With the growth in population more and more farmland will be converted into suburban living. The industry needs to figure out a safe, sustainable, and efficient way to grow mass quantities of good natural food. This is an issue that will arise in the next few years, and it would be cool to be a part of it.

My third industry is Ferrari. I know it is not exactly and industry, but I think I would have an extraordinarily hard time refusing any offer that Ferrari would make me. Working there would be an awesome opportunity to fulfill some childhood fantasies, and who knows, they might even offer me a discount on a car. I think something like 95% off would put it in my price range.

Ok folks, until next time. Ciao.