Fellows Bondage

The new Sloan Fellows class of 2010 came into town today. I think this had a big effect of actually bringing our class even closer together. Everyone said we'd be so close..but it took a while. I was waiting for it all summer. Now we are close and we only have 5 weeks to go till we disperse across the globe....but then the connections will last I am sure. Our final hurrah will be a 2 week trip to Delhi and Istanbul...divine and cementing those bonds. Already we have a reunion planned on a gorgeous Thai island in 2010.

Lean on Me (Please swallow your pride, If I have things you need to borrow, For no one can fill those of your needs, That you don't let show), U2's One (We're One, but we're not the same, we've got to carry each other and we do it again)...these are just two songs we have selected to sum up the year. Wow, it is going to be hard to leave MIT. Much of this year has been the sheer freedom, to learn anything, think anything, be anything...what is life like outside the academic bubble..?

Learnings: today was a long day from 8.30am-7pm with non-stop classes. First we looked at SouthWest Airlines and their respectful treatment of people who pay low prices. High share price, highest returns of any US company in the 1970s and 80s...but all with low-cost no frills airlines. Their differentiator: their people culture, laughter and fun at work.Then I moved to Finance where we re-did unlevering betas and valuation of a project within a larger company; then onto Financial Statement Analysis where we looked at GM and whether they would go into bankruptcy...looks likely, huh? Though bankruptcy is not to be confused with liquidation, it's Chapter 11 (Reorganisation) and not 7. We also learnt from a former equity analyst that despite our time spent on a long financial valuation of New Century Financial, a REIT, when he had valued the firm 4 years ago, he focused on speaking to the management and clients, rather than running the numbers. After that I ran around the Entrepreneurship Center meeting people about my business plan, then onto the next class: Web 3.0. This was fascinating as we looked at the Semantic Web- the future of the Web, as predicted by Tim Berners Lee (now at MIT). We discussed a future where the web would learn from us and be more intelligent, using our data to effectively replace an Exec Assistant. I am all for cyber slavery, pretty much, though the commercial applications are likely to get so out of control.

Then drinks with the incoming class, and then off to read the Pringles case for Branding class tomorrow, interviewed a sales person for Tech Sales, job search, FB, blogging, email...MIT time, a whole new invention..