SCP News 2006

Top Secret news from Paediatric AIDS Team

2006-08-21T16:00:00.000Z

Nothing to see here, move it along folks... Actually, not being cheeky at all, there is not much to say about our project because our sponsor wants us to keep it on the down-low. Pharma is a funny industry, rife with secrets and outmaneuvering and half-information, so we are trying to play the game, too. But I did sign up to blog so I am contributing...with 9 working days to go.

From the outside, this looks like a pretty tame project. Lots of desk research, lots of skype use, lots of learning how to say things like tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and viral load testing until it sounds like you know what you're talking about, and wake up at night with the phrases running through your head.

I'm based in London, along with Josh (most of the time), whilst Marty and Rebecca are mostly in Oxford, except for their glamorous tour of Toronto for the world's largest HIV/AIDS conference. My day consists of a lot of confusion, stress, and worry that we don't know what we're doing, plus excitement about working on something as important as getting treatment to the 2million+ kids in the world with HIV (half of whom will die before their 2nd birthday). Josh and I are bunkered in borrowed office space at the Young Foundation in Bethnal Green, east London... a neighborhood that is half gentrified, half not, so you get a mix of yuppies and women in burqas on the street. It is a great neighborhood.

And that is pretty much it, I think, in order to stay kosher with our client's wishes. On a personal note, I am very much enjoying living with my husband, in all 290 square feet of splendour (30 square metres) in Notting Hill. All are welcome, but only two at a time, due to space constraints. If you do come to visit, you will be invited to play a thrilling game of "find the shower"--a game which is challenging because the ingenious/hilarious placement of the shower in our flat bewilders most guests for minutes on end. See you then.

Foreigners seized - Aug 14, 2006

2006-08-14T13:38:00.000Z

More foreigners were seized in Nigeria but none from the Oxford team. We've seen a little of everything in Nigeria but fortunately no kidnappings. We've actually felt safe most of the trip. You definitely can't go walking around at night alone but all in all everything has been great. We have 11 days left in Lagos and then we're on a flight back to the UK. Of course, if you read cnn.com it doesn't sound like flying into Heathrow will be much different than a night stroll in Lagos.

In the picture you can see the team in their traditional Nigerian clothes. We'll see you all back at the ranch in a few weeks.

The Access Bank Team.

For more stories on our trip click here.

Malaria strikes Nigeria team

2006-08-08T20:25:00.000Z

Welp, we had our first Malaria incident in Lagos. Jayne wasn't feeling to hot on Friday and Saturday and it wasn't because of the Star Beer or spicy chicken. On Sunday she went to the clinic and sure enough she was diagnosed with malaria. Fortunately she went in soon enough that all she needs to do is take her medicine and rest and she should be back to normal in a few days. That's the big news from this side of the world.

I guess there is one more important bit of news: Mike found a golf course in Lagos and played on Saturday AND then again on Sunday. More to come on his blog this week.

Over and out,
Access Bank Team

Monsoon Wedding & Monsoon Package in Goa

2006-08-08T20:02:00.000Z

Two more exciting weeks lie behind us. And this is how we spent them (if we were not working HARD on our project).
Two weeks ago, we had the opportunity to attend a traditional Indian wedding ceremony. We went to see the "reception" on Saturday night and the "ceremony", including "the seven steps" and all, on Sunday morning. All of us were dressed in traditional Indian clothes (other than the male Indian guests...so we got even more stares than usual...). Sarees for the girls and Kurtas for the guys. We had a wonderful time despite the fact that the reception buffet was purely "veg" with no alcohol available AT ALL.
Oh well.
Indian wedding.
What can you say?
Later that Sunday, we met up with a couple of next year's SBS MBAs: Ravi and his wife, Deb, as well as Sumit and his wife. Deb offered me a ride on the back of his motorcycle through Bangalore's heavy traffic - a unique experience, let me tell you!
By the way, it seems as if next year's batch will, again, consist of a very amiable and smart bunch of people!
This last weekend we - Rachael, Leslie and Alex - went to Goa while Shawn stayed back in Bangalore to relax (and do some work on the project...by the way dude, you're working too hard!!).
We stayed in a beautiful 5-star beach ressort in South Goa, went golfing, hung out at the pool and the beach, visited the bars a couple of times, enjoyed massages as well as the delicious food, did Karaoke ("Take me home country roads") - - - and never left the ressort's grounds...;-)
But we also came to understand why the hotel offered us a so-called "Monsoon Package": it was raining more often than in Bangalore. Not too bad, but more than we would have expected.

Camels and Elephants and Monkeys – Oh My

2006-08-04T13:38:00.000Z

We cannot believe it is already week four of the SCP. Needless to say, our stay in India has been nothing short of an adventure. Some of our favorite highlights from the last four weeks include: riding elephants and camels in Rajasthan, visiting Asia’s largest mosque and the world’s largest sun dial, meeting the cricket super star M.S. Dhoni in Ranchi, learning to eat a full meal with one hand and no utensils, celebrating Vishal and Aman’s birthdays, salsa dancing in Delhi, encountering wild monkeys, enjoying a five-star dinner in Gurgaon and dancing with adorable Jaipur children. Oh yeah. And then there’s work.

Our team is in the process of analyzing India’s current infrastructure (transport) agreement
and providing strategic policy recommendations. You can understand why we
never leave the office before 5pm! All and all, it has been an incredible learning experience –

not just about infrastructure financing but about working with the Indian federal government in general. We’ve been privileged to meet and interview a variety of stakeholders and participate in national policy meetings. Now if only we can stop eating long enough to get some work done!

2006-08-02T22:26:00.000Z

Furthest from Oxford? Ahem... the southern half of the world takes offense.

Oxford to Wellington, New Zealand = 18,850 km
Oxford to Urubamba, Peru = 10,064 km
Oxford to San Francisco, US = 8,612 km

On behalf of ProWorld and Formway.

(this blog's too tame, let's spice things up...)

Do you Yahoo!

2006-08-02T16:41:00.000Z

It's been a while since the team that is furthest away from Oxford made a post that we thought that the time had come for an update.

New team name
First of all, we have decided to rename our team to team LICWTOIIN!, after our remit to refer to the company that we work with as the large internet company with two O's in it's name! Needless to say, we're thrilled to be here and have been treated very well (and yes, they have bribed us to say that).

And what bribes they have been!

Batter up
From company backpacks to free travel, a week in a very nice hotel to the latest freebie which was tickets at a Giants ballgame in the home ground in San Francisco. These weren't just any old tickets, these were for the luxury Diamond suite which was located behind the pitch and right next to the box where all the journalists sit. Talk about good seats! Naturally there was free food, beer and wine and as much Cracker Jacks as you could shake a stick at, not to mention programs and a baseball cap. Who knew that baseball could be so much fun?

Oink oink
Every year LICWTOIIN! hosts a Summer Picnic for all their employees at each site. This year in Sunnyvale and Mission, the picnic was at Blackberry Farm. It was a fun day, especially for the kids but there was lots of beer for the adults too...

BBQ's and swimming pools
This is California after all, and what do you do in the evening after a long day's work? Why, you have a barbeque by the pool and solve the world's (internet) over a beer and slab of beef with several generations of Oxford MBA graduates working at the same firm...

Overall, it's been a good week, with several other things that I haven't mentioned like having the band "Raining Jane" play for us during our lunch hour by the campus caffiteria, going to talks given by top execs in the company and having an honest Q&A session afterwards. A very worthwhile experience.

Turns out "tranforming the government" is not so easy...

2006-08-02T10:12:00.000Z

We are not so lucky to get to go to Swansea all the time... sometimes we go to London too! This Friday we were at IBM Business Solutions office on the south bank. Here are some "action" shots of us brainstorming to come up with a model to use as a benchmark to compare other organizations. Turns out when it comes government entities Porter has no "force" - as there are there is no competitive rivlary or subsitutes and consumers are mandated by law. Luckily the Canadian Government has come to the rescue with some good examples (never thought I'd see that!).

Mayor Bloomberg tells Mac that he is wrong (and that too more than once)!!!

2006-07-27T21:37:00.000Z

The Bronx Team were invited on July 25th, Tuesday to the NYC Mayor's Official Residence - Gracie Mansion - to attend the annual Mayor’s Volunteer Center BBQ . The fact that the current Mayor - Michael Bloomberg - has not stayed a single night during his term in this grand house speaks no less of his being amongst the world's 100 richest, as he supposedly uses the New York subway (to ride to City Hall only!).

After we managed to slip in the fact that we had come all the way from Oxford and established that he liked the British (his ex-wife is British and daughters have Brit passports), we had our official group pic with him. However, as we were not allowed to use our personal camera plus the fact that the boys tell me that we won't receive our copies for a coupla months...we resorted to extreme measures...aka the pic with Bloomberg in the far distance (on the mic)!

We then had the honour of Mac being one of four contestants to be chosen, from amongst a crowd of (literally) hundreds of interns, for a game of multiple questions that was hosted by the Mayor himself!

Sadly, Mac heard the phrase "you are wrong" thrice upon honking his horn!!! An instance - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2908978666478748315&pr=goog-sl!!! However, please note that Mac did get a Gracie Mansion white mug for his efforts :-)

Till our next adventure...laters from the steps of the Gracie Mansion!

- The Bronx Team

Ps - Mac, we are proud of you for standing up to those undergrads!!!

Infosys / Bangalore / India - Rollin' and Ridin' and Slippin' and Slidin'

2006-07-27T05:42:00.000Z

Hi all!
Our team is getting more and more accustomed to India.
We've learned how to balance our food (i.e. one Indian dish per day max!, one Western dish per day min!...otherwise, you'll simply explode...both directions at the same time, if you know what I mean).
Also, we've learned to value the mild climate in Bangalore - especially in comparison to Delhi and Chennai (Madras).
And we've come to understand how priviledged we are to have Infosys' Campus as our base-of-operation and safe haven...we can go outside for the India-experience and then retreat to our hostel to recover and gather new energy. Find pics of Infosys' campus (here: Mysore) attached.

We still have to learn how to stay within our budget when it comes to donations to children and beggars (since they're everywhere and you cannot ignore them).

Two weeks ago, Rachael and Leslie went to Delhi/Agra (see pic of them in the front and the Taj in the back). Apart from the fantastic sights, the temperatures of 40+ Celsius and an overnight-stay at an Indian 3-star hotel made this trip a memorable experience.
At the same time, Alex went to Mysore, a smaller city south-west of Bangalore. Find a picture of the Maharadscha's Palace, and Alex with fellow interns on the Krishna Raja Sagara dam attached.
Meanwhile, Shawn stayed back in Bangalore and explored our hometown.

Last weekend, the four of us went to Chennai (Madras). We flew over on Friday night, and went to Mahabalipuram on Saturday which is south of Chennai on the coast to the Gulf of Benghal. "Mahabali" is a huge and beautiful place with a beautiful beach (dirty sea water) and various sights: temples, "Krishna's Butter Ball" (or "Krishna's Butter Balls", which we found more appropriate), and large reliefs carved out of stone. Find various pics from that trip.
What else? We've checked out India's nitelife - - and are disappointed since all clubs seem to close at around 11.30pm. Moreover, beer and other alcohol is hard to obtain. Not all restaurants have beer or alcohol on the menu, and, even worse, alcohol is strictly forbidden on campus. :-(

Outlook:
This weekend, we will have the opportunity to attend an Indian wedding! And we plan to spend the following weekend in Goa!

Team Peru ambushes Machu Picchu at dawn

2006-07-26T15:38:00.000Z

You have to admire a civilization that can build something so beautiful and sophisticated in the middle of the jungle at the top of a frickin mountain…. Then it was abandoned for 500 years, overgrown by jungle, subjected to earthquakes every two years, and even today the walls fit together so perfectly that one can barely slip a piece of paper between the walls’ stones – which incidentally, are granite and were built without the help of mortar, iron, or steel. Some of the stones are so large they took 15,000 people to move.

Here’s the team in Cusco’s main plaza (photo courtesy of Señor Robert Mittelman), L to R: Sean Fauth, Nina Kriklewicz, and Cameron Kluth.

Oxford representing:

And the marketplace in Chinchero, where all the theory and practice of negotiation are coming in useful.

Team Peru is keeping their heads down working this week, but we will have a few more stories for you before it’s all said and done. We're heading to Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Lake Titicaca, hiking the Chacon Glacier, and descending into the Peruvian cloudforest/tropical rainforest in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, dodging armies of golf ball-sized mosquitoes.

VIDEO: A Day in the Life in Lagos

2006-07-26T13:47:00.000Z


The Oxford team is spending 8 weeks in Lagos on a consulting project with Access Bank. In the next 3 minutes, mcfaddenplace productions will take you to where the team, Jayne Thorpe, Lijun Jiang, Timothy Ojo, and Michael McFadden, are working diligently on their task at hand. Be on the watch out for a special guest appearance by Kelly McFadden.

Nokia - Dubai and Oxford bound

2006-07-24T09:39:00.000Z

The Nokia team will reunite later this week in the jewel of the Emirates, Dubai to present its findings to Nokia MEA. We expect this week to be one of the most challenging yet as we synthesise our discoveries and develop key recommendations for Nokia. Judging by the photos it has not been all work and no play.

Tim has purchased himself a stress relieving Hookah in Casablanca. Bing and Ankur enjoyed an off road desert excursion from Dubai and Doug visited a Lion Park outside Joburg.

Plus there is even more 'play' on the cards. The whole team is looking forward to being treated by Nokia to an afternoon of indoor snow skiing in Dubai this Thursday. Then it is back to Oxford for the big write up. We are all a litte tired of living out of a hotel and look forward to resuming normal pub routines back in Oxford.

Cheers all,
Tim, Bing, Ankur and Doug

Thirsty Thursdays

2006-07-23T22:53:00.000Z

Workin' hard or hardly workin?

After a long day at the office or maybe just in the seminar rooms of SBS, the Oxford and London based SCP's have been gathering Thursdays in London. Here are some pics from week 2 Happy Hour. Bad British joke of the week: in route to I asked a bobby at Victoria station if he new where "The King's Arms" was. He replied "under his shoulders, I reckon."

Rumble in the Bronx!

2006-07-21T19:38:00.000Z

Yo Yo Yo from the Bronx Team….cold chillin’ in effect! Hope you guys are doing well!! We are “hard” at work trying to understand and deliver medical insurance models for the uninsured employees of SMEs in the Empowerment Zone aka EZ (http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/nyez.html) of the South Bronx in NYC.

We are working right next to the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx Borough President’s Office and are conveniently placed at the top floor with a terrace that allows us to peak into the games (yet to take advantage of that!). Here is a view of our building from the home subway station courtesy Josh’s keen eye and photographic skills (way off in the distance... the one that looks like a mausoleum)

With accommodation in (NYC’s Jesuit) Fordham University Bronx Campus, we are living right next to the Little Italy of the Bronx (amazing restaurants!!!), the Bronx Zoo, the Bronx Botanical Gardens while getting a chance to experience the cultures of the Hispanic, African American and Italian American populations! Check out the pic of ‘Mac – an Italian singer’ at the three day centennial celebration of a church in Little Italy. The pic does no justice to his energy, enthusiasm and engaging skills!

Back to talking about the project – we had the opportunity of visiting, along with a Nicaraguan delegation during closing hours (thank god for that!), the world’s second largest fish market which is next only to Tsukiji in Tokyo. Fulton Fish Market is located in the EZ and is operated as a co-operative in an $85 million, 400,000-square-foot indoor facility with 37 wholesalers and approximately 600 employees. The new outlay is supposed to increase efficiency and cut unloading time by 50 percent. Smelly but impressive venture to attract investors to the EZ!!

We also had the honour of celebrating Josh’s bday!!! This meant amazing ice cream concoctions at ‘Stone Cold Creamery’ followed by the movie – You, Me and Dupree and then getting caught in torrential rains!

Till next time! Look forward to reading the adventures of everyone!

- The Bronx Team

Radioactivity is not that bad!

2006-07-19T20:28:00.000Z

York based Xceleron has rolled out a great new technology to the pharma world, but who the hell is going to talk about that. The first thing I learnt in our meeting at York was that a banana contains about 1 nano curie dose of radioactivity, and when we go out on a sunny day for about 10 minutes, we are exposed to more than 100 nano curies dose of radioactivity - after all it is not that bad!
So get ready to try the new technology being marketed by Xceleron (details on special request :)

Into the third week now, the project is going tougher, and the tough are definitely getting going! The beauty of York could not be captured much during our first visit there, so look out for this space as we go to York in the first week of August to pay a visit to the beautiful cathedral. cheers!

Xceleron team

Living La Vida Lagos

2006-07-19T12:05:00.000Z

An update from the team in Lagos...

The team has been working really hard. We are out of the house at 8am and often not back until 8pm - which are normal Nigerian banking hours. The picture on the left is our team standing at our front door on the way to work. The one below is command central - our office.

We will be sure to get another update soon, but we cannot access this website from our office. So for now, the best thing to do to find out about life here is to go to http://mcfaddencircle.blogspot.com/ This is updated weekly.

Cheers from Lagos,
Team Access Bank

SAS Marketing Analytics

2006-07-18T21:20:00.000Z

A quick update from one of the SAS project teams! We were lucky enough to head to Germany a few days before our kick-off meeting with SAS and managed to be in Germany the day that they won the third place match for the World Cup. We also managed to plan our overnight trip to Strasbourg to conveniently also be in France the night that they played in the final! The mood there was not as jovial after the game… but it was neat to be there anyway!

We had a good few days touring around Heidelberg and Strasbourg, drinking lots of beer and eating good portions of hearty German food – YUM! We saw castles and cathedrals and mostly tried to avoid the heat… thankfully there were many bars where we could find a refreshing drink.

On Wednesday we had our kick-off meeting with SAS for our project. We are working on a marketing analytics review. Basically our task is to investigate what types of marketing analytics SAS’s customers use and how sophisticated their usage of the different tools is. Apparently SAS thinks we will get a straighter answer than they would if they asked the question. Probably true!

So now we are back in Oxford, enjoying the sun and warmth, and working to more clearly define the objectives and approaches for our project. Should prove to be an interesting few weeks!

We hope everyone else is doing well – and hope to see those of you who are in Oxford!
-Kristin

Nokia - Connecting people, disconnecting people, reconnecting people.

2006-07-18T12:43:00.000Z

Connecting People:

The Nokia team has been hard at it since Tuesday July 5th with Ankur Bahl and Bing Ji in Dubai (photos coming soon) and with Doug Waller and Tim Robinson in Casablanca (see photo of Tim to the left).

Disconnecting People:

Doug aka "First World Waller" moved to Johannesburg on Friday July 14th in search of people who speak english and play rugby (photos coming soon), leaving Tim to transform into his alter ego "Mr Morocco". The Donkey is a common sight on the busy roads of Morocco. Tim picked this one up from a used donkey salesman for super price and 2 year service warranty. The cart was thrown into the deal at no extra cost.

Reconnecting People:

The team reunites in Dubai on Friday July 29th to present its findings to Nokia. We look forward to seeing all the Oxford based SCP people on or after August 1st.

All the best,

Tim, Ankur, Bing and Doug.

ProWorld - Peru

2006-07-17T14:11:00.000Z

Hola amigos!

We are spending the summer in the sacred valley of the Inca, the Urubamba Valley, six miles from Machu Picchu, helping ProWorld Service Corps account for new competitors, manage cashflows, and devise a new marketing strategy. ProWorld is a service NGO in Peru, Belize, and Mexico that fosters education, healthcare, ecology, women’s rights, and development projects like building schools and more efficient wood stoves.

In the mean time, we’re binging on guinea pig, alpaca risotto, and the national drink of

Peru

– pisko sours (to which we have callously stolen the grape brandy and egg white recipe and will be smuggling it back to Oxford).

Here in the ‘Bamba, we have been exceptionally lucky with accommodation. Our house is centrally located, 3 bedrooms, all tile and dark wooden beams, house-wide sound system (replete with record player!), hot water, and large common room and kitchen. The backyard is a walled in courtyard with about 20 fruit trees/rose bushes, a place for bonfires, a grill we're still figuring out, and a hammock overlooking an Andean Mountain vista. The weather is so hot during the day, you can sunbathe in shorts, and so cold at night you need thermal layers and a down sleeping bag.

Here are a few pictures from our hike yesterday up “the Two Towers.” For a few more pictures, check out http://www.cameronkluth.com/peru.html.

On the weekends, we have a few reconnaissance trips planned. Half the team is touring the Inca ruins of nearby cities this weekend, and the other half is living it up in Cusco, our “big city.” Next week, we are tackling Machu Picchu, and the weekend following that is either

Bolivia

’s Lake Titicaca or

Peru

’s Nazca lines/mummies. The big trip later this summer will be an expedition into the cloud rainforest of Peru (where a competitor of ProWorld also lurks) in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, a park half the size of Switzerland and supposedly the most biodiverse place on earth. Other team members are more swayed by the prospects of Buenos Aires, Argentina….

Over and out,

Team Peru

Yahoo! there we go

2006-07-17T09:33:00.000Z

After many hitches and false starts, half of team Y! have now gone to California to rehaul all of the Yahoo! processes, rewrite their business model and solve the worlds problems. Not really, but Venkat and Debanjan left on Sunday, David leaves on Wednesday and Vaniah next Sunday. Phew!

However, we have been doing some work over the last two weeks - here's a snap from one of our sessions, trying to decide the best way forward...

Team Infineon in Munich

2006-07-12T19:48:00.000Z

Going for the SCP to Germany in the final week of the World Cup. What else would you expect than starting with some pictures from our outings to the public viewing spaces.

Big screens on the river

and partying with the Italians after telling them that we are friends of Marco Riggio...

After several months of Domino pizza and Kebabs, the traditional German food was well received by our team.

Infineon team with the bull next to the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Rolf totally rebranded...

...before looking to his future office on the top floor of the European Central Bank.

Now back to business: COMPASS is the name that we gave our project: we will look to future trends in the semiconductor industry and derive strategic recommendations with a 5 year time horizon.

Our office is located in a brand new location (Infineon moved to a new campus half a year ago) with an artificial lake, a small shopping mall and a fitness centre (pictures will follow later). People are great, the sun is shining and most of the upcoming weekends are already blocked for sightseeing ...

All the best from Munich,
Carsten, Martin, Rolf, Tomas

Formway Team: Finding Fat Rabbits

2006-07-12T05:53:00.001Z

We flew 12.5 hours to LA, and 10 hours to New Zealand. 30 minutes before landing our plane was diverted from Auckland to Christchurch due to fog. Instead of waiting around in the airport all day, we decided to rent a car and head for the slopes.

Now we have been in Wellington, our home base, for about a week. The road was rained out a couple of days, but otherwise things have run smoothly. Gion-Otto has managed to charm all of the locals and has been averaging about 2.5 "zingers" per day. Some of our favorites have been:

"socks and spoons always go missing" -to the production manager at a factory

"in New Zealand we can go skiing for an apple and an egg"- to the team

"in business, it's quite nice to know if you make a profit or not" -to the head of accounting

Gion-Otto has also been hunting for fat wabbits in helping us devise a strategy.

India Planning Commission - Delhi

2006-07-11T06:45:00.000Z

“How can you make sense of this land? It's like emptying an ocean with a spoon.”

-- Anita Pratap describing India

Namaste! Greetings from your humble Planning Commission crew in Delhi. We arrived last Thursday and have been basking in the sights and sounds that contrast, confuse and delight. Our adventures have included a visit to colorful Indian markets full of spices, fabrics and food, evening rickshaw rides through Delhi’s bumpy roads, a driving tour of the President’s house, Parliament and Defense Building, exposure to Hindi and Punjabi pop music, a Bollywood movie night, and of course, the amazing Indian cuisine. I am currently obsessed with paneer tikka but that might only last until our next delicious lunch. Don’t be fooled, though. We ARE working hard! We arrived on Thursday from the airport to be greeted by stacks of documents for our reading pleasure. Thanks Planning Commission! Whilst we have our work cut out for us, we are thrilled to be here.

Infosys - India

2006-07-10T18:41:00.000Z

Hi everybody! We hope that you are all enjoying your SCP as much as we do (Leslie, Rachael, Shawn, Alex)!

How is India? We don't know, I guess - and we may never find out....but it's certainly about the monsoon, food (not only Chicken Tikka Masala), millions of different smells and aromas, jungle, chaos, traffic, pollution, incredibly friendly and open people - - contrasts.

The pic above gives you an idea of our weekend trip to Cochin in Kerala, which Infosys had organized for us and about 60 more student interns.
We boarded a train in Bangalore and traveled for 10 hours (sleeper wagon...yep, there were bugs...) through the night to Cochin. We spend the weekend there, in Kerala ("God's own country"), and discovered some of the differences between the South and, well, Bangalore. It was wonderful and we had a very good time.
Rachael, Shawn and I then cheated and took a flight back to Bangalore... But Leslie showed bravery (go Oxford!) and took the train back to Bangalore...we arrived last night at 10pm, she arrived this morning at about 5am - and was back in the office by 10am....kudos to her! ;-)

Cisco Emerging Markets Project

2006-07-09T21:27:00.000Z

Though not as exciting as the projects in India or Bing in Dubai for Nokia, the Cisco Emerging Markets Project kicked off on Tuesday July 4th. Our project is focused on developing a model that analyzes emerging markets. Not to bore you with the details, let's talk about the fun stuff- notable mentions - Cisco being Cisco, it has advanced facilities (videoconferencing, hi-tech everything), huge selection of great food for breakfast and gourmet lunch, and wonderful views from the campus.

Public Sector Consulting - IBM

2006-07-09T16:54:00.000Z

We started our SCP Wednesday with 2 days in Swansea, Wales. We are working with IBM Business Solutions as part of a 10 year contract with a client there. We toured the facilities and had meetings to get a better understanding of current processes and operations as well as our project.

For a team that has no one who has driven in the UK I think we did pretty well on the 3 hour drive. Siva did a great job with all those round-abouts!

Before heading home on Thursday, we drove down the shore to an area called Mumbles for lunch. Here are some pictures.

India Planning Commission/ T-Minus 8

2006-06-28T13:33:00.000Z

What's hotter than Mac sitting on a handicap toilet?

Um...everything.

But what's even hotter? You guessed it: Delhi in the summertime. Do Indian bureaucrats believe in airconditoning? Will the SCP team build an innovative financing structure or fall prey to the power of Cobra and curry? Most importantly, will Steve, Aman and Vishal run off to become Bollywood babes (only to leave Cat with Broquard, her pet rhinoceros)?

All these answers shall be revealed...Stay Tuned.

7 days until Nigeria

2006-06-27T12:07:00.000Z

The team: Ojo Timothy, Jayne Thorpe, Lijun Jiang, and myself (Michael McFadden) are leaving Monday, 3 July for Lagos. Updates will be coming weekly or so. In the meantime, check out www.mcfaddenplace.com/Nigeria for recent articles and links.

The beginning

2006-06-27T09:21:00.000Z

This is a Blog set up for the SBS MBA class of 2006 to help us to keep in touch with each other during the summer. We're following the example set by last year's class: See SBS News 2005 to get an insight into what they got up to over their summer.

We need a blogger from each SCP team. Please e-mail and we'll set you up as a contributer.