Posted 7:45 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Congratulations to the Class of 2005!
The first ever graduating class from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan!

Posted 7:00 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Retrospective: 2 Years at the Ross School of Business
Graduation is today. Finals are done. My job is set and the move to New York City but two months away. It's time to step back and reflect on my experience as part of the Ross School of Business' MBA Class of 2005.

My #1 Goal
As I wrote about in July 2003, unlike many new MBA students, I entered school with a very specific career goal: getting into Wall Street Sales & Trading (S&T). In the end, this was to be the measuring stick of these two years. It was this goal that led me to give up my job at CSFB, sell my house in New Jersey, and take on $100K+ debt.

Through a lot of hard work, and help from classmates and alumni, I was able to land a summer internship in S&T, and was then able to translate that into a full-time job offer. Thus, all other considerations aside, my time here at Michigan has been a success.

Expectations Coming In
When assessing how an experience went, it's useful to look at the expectations coming in. Thanks to this weblog, I have a very clear record of that: my list of reasons for choosing the Ross School of Business, written in May, 2003.

Looking back over that post, it's eerie how dead-on accurate I was. I clearly took advantage of non-business school resources (#10), taking courses through the Math and Asian Languages departments. I definitely enjoyed the college atmosphere (#9), no more so than at football games. MAP rocked (#7), the Tozzi Center was a huge boon to recruiting (#5), I enjoyed both finance and non-finance electives (#3), the New York alumni base was huge in recruiting (#2), and, most of all, I really enjoyed spending two years with the people here (#1). As an added bonus, my wife grew tremendously during her two year MSW program at Michigan's #1 ranked School of Social Work.

So there weren't any major surprises coming into the program; perhaps the biggest is just how enjoyable these two years were. I didn't expect to have as much fun as I did.

What Does Networking Mean
Making friends. Helping friends. Turning to friends when they need help.

That's why it's key to find a school that is a good fit; you'll be that much more successful at making these kinds of connections.

The Real World Spins On
This may seem a straightforward observation, but it needs to be made: MBA programs are not two year vacations from reality. Aside from the lack of jobs, life goes on: classmates get married, and they get divorced. Loved ones pass away, and children are born. People say offensive things, and others get offended by stupid things. Business school is a vacation from work, but not from anything else.

Regrets?
I'm not one to dwell much on pass mistakes, and I truly don't have any major regrets about school. I definitely don't regret not taking more finance classes; on the contrary, I sometimes slightly wonder if I should have taken an even broader courseload. Slightly.

No, if anthing I regret not being even more active socially; for missing the [free] happy hours now and then, for not doing a road trip or two to Toronoto or Chicago. But these are very minor quibbles, compared to achieving my career aspirations.

Posted 8:53 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
If You Like Bluegrass Music...
And live in the southeast, key your eyes out for the rising band, Blueground Undergrass. This video, from Atlanta's Dogwood festival, gives a taste of how they rock.

Posted 8:48 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
The Forecast Said Snow and Rain
...which is why today turned out to be balmy, with cloudless blue skies.

Posted 8:49 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Jack Welch Book Tour
Just because it makes Ross look good, I'll mention that former GE CEO Jack Welch spoke at the school on the 14th, as part of his national book tour. I didn't attend, because, well, I had better things to do and, to be perfectly honest, I haven't yet read a management book that was worth my time. But I've heard Hale Auditorium was packed, and the Q&A lively.

Winning, by Jack Welch

Posted 8:33 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
April Snow Showers Bring..?
This scene is just wrong, on so many levels...

Posted 7:39 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
First Pangs of Sadness
Yesterday afternoon we crossed the finish line: my wife and I each wrapped up the remaining pieces of school papers and final exams. It was thus with an overwhelming sense of relief that we drove out to the Barton Country Club, for the Spring Fling party in honor of the graduating Class of 2005.

I can honestly say that last night represented the first time that I've felt a tug on my heartstring, the first time I've felt any pang of sadness, about graduating and leaving Ross. I'm not, by my nature, a very sentimental or nostalgic guy, and I certainly don't idolize school life like some people (whenever I hear someone say, "college was the best years of my life," I think "what a waste").

But as I mingled in the ballroom amongst hundreds of other MBA2s, the "loss" of graduation hit me. That is, leaving Ross means leaving behind a smart, down-to-earth community, a community in which I'm friends with literally 100+ funny, talented, sharp people. It's commonplace here to spend every single week with these great friends; after graduation, it'll be uncommon to spend more than an evening or a weekend with this many friends.

Don't get me wrong: I'm still looking forward to graduating and am jonesing to get back on the trading floor. But for the first time I'm realizing the loss of that graduation, and (to a small extent) grieving for that loss.

Posted 8:34 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Sunscreen and Colt 45?

(Disclaimer: This link is one I expect to see on Weather.com shortly, not one actually there. See previous post for examples of real Weather.com bloopers.)

Posted 5:48 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
One Final Blast of $#!++y Michigan Weather
After literally 3 straight weeks of sunny, 70s days, graduation week (next week) looks to be one final kick in the balls from the Michigan weather gods.

Highs in the 30s? Not a single sunny day?! Snow?!?

Even Weather.com is taunting us; how else to explain the link (highlighted below) that appears on the sole [forecasted] snow day next week?


Update: As a matter or principle, despite the forecast of 4 to 6 inches of snow tomorrow, I refuse to go down to the basement and unpack our winter coats, gloves, and hats. That is not an activity I will partake of in late April. No sir.

Update 2: Weather.com must [stupidly] have those little links randomly programmed in, because I'm seeing this gem now:

Posted 10:30 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Photo Album: 2003 to 2005
(Click for larger images).

Ross School of Business



University of Michigan



Ann Arbor and Michigan



IMAP in Ireland



Football



Other Sports



Miscellaneous



Video Clips
Touchdown
The Victors
Zamboni

Posted 8:40 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Best of the Ross School of Business

Best Class Overall - MO 512, Bargaining Behavior & Influence Skills. I raved about it here.
Best Finance Class - FIN 580, Options & Futures, taught by Prof. Seyhun. In 7 weeks he marches you, boot camp style, through the world of Options.
Most Overrated Class - MO 611, Business Leadership in Changing Times. Not enough crises to be called "Crisis Management", which I was looking for. Not a bad class, but definitely didn't live up to the hype.
Class I Regret Not Taking - Tie, the pair of FIN 631 and FIN 632 (Banking and Off Balance Sheet Finance). I heard they were rigorous, thorough, and very relevant for anyone going to work for an Investment Bank. They just didn't fit my schedule well.
Best Experience - The MAP projects, which set Ross apart from other schools by putting theory into practice. Put aside book learning, put aside debating cases, doing is the best way to learn.
Most Underutilized Resource - The Tozzi Center (trading room).
Best Post-MBA Career - Sales and trading, naturally. Added bonus: because of the small numbers of interested students, Ross has experienced 60%-80% success rates for S&T internship searches!

Posted 1:37 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
場外乱闘:ライブドアvsニッポン放送 (Battle Royale: LiveDoor vs Nippon Broadcasting)
Delivered the presentation, well received after the long slog. I'm going to blog more about this story--it's such a rich mixture of public relations, corporate politics, financial engineering, and cultural differences--once I recharge the batteries. Monday night I didn't get to sleep until 7am (Tuesday), from working on this, then yesterday I was up at 4:30am for a one day [job-related] trip to New York. Today is a sleep day.

Posted 2:45 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Final All-Nighter of my Life?
As I put the finishing touches on my 30 minute, PowerPoint presentation for Business Japanese II, I realized this might be the final [academic] all-nighter of my life. Maybe its the mixture of Thai Curry, Peanut Butter M&Ms, and Starbucks coffee talking, but for a moment, I felt a pang of wistful nostalgia in my gut. At least I think that's what that pang was.

This assignment has [re-]confirmed my admiration for the international students here (and at all schools, for that matter). I'd estimate that I've spent close to fifteen hours, over the past four days, reading a total of 10 pages of Japanese newspaper articles (on the LiveDoor vs Nippon Broadcasting takeover battle). Reading the same articles, but in English, would have taken two hours (it's fairly complex subject matter), tops. To think that every international student does this for every assignment, in every class, for two straight years is mind boggling.

Posted 10:27 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Best of Ann Arbor
Well, I've lived here for eighteen months, so I feel that I'm expert enough to pass judgement on the whole town. Here's my Best of Ann Arbor list (with maps from the business school):

Best Restaurant - A tie: Chop House (if you want an upscale steak house) (map) or Eve (if you want something other than steak) (map).
Best Sushi Restaurant - Yamato (a small restaurant right in the heart of Kerrytown) (map).
Best Italian Restaurant - None. Sad but true. Especially stay away from Argiero's.
Best Deli - It's obvious, but true: Zingermans (map). How good? I hate pastrami, but loved their pastrami sandwich. Go figure.
Best Entertainment - No brainer: Michigan football.
Best Non-Obvious Entertainment - Michigan ice hockey.
Best Culture - The University Musical Society. World class symphonies, ensembles, musicals, plays, operas, dance; you name it, they bring it [to campus]. Watch out for student discounts at the beginning of each term.
Best Movie Theater - National Amusement Showcase Cinema (right across the border in Ypsilanti, but worth the 10 minute drive) (map).
Best Service - The one big weakness of our townhouse in Woodland Meadows is the clothesdryer. To put it bluntly: I could fan my clothes dry faster than that damn machine. Thus, instead of taking 4 or 5 hours, a week's worth of laundry takes 10 hours, i.e. eithe eats up a weekend or gets dragged out over several days. That's why my discovery of Busy Body's wash and fold laundry service (@ 295 N. Maple), at a cost of $1.10 a pound, was such a godsend the past few weeks.

Posted 7:23 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Photos: Friday Barbecue Blogging

(Click for larger image)


(Click for larger image)

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I almost never feel like "time flies by". This week was the exception. I simply can't place what I've been doing the past 168 hours...

Posted 6:28 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Party? Parties!
On deck for the next ten day:
* Today, Tomorrow: Go Blue! Rendezvous, which offers its own set of parties.
* Tuesday: Follies cast party. I missed the first cast party (which was right after the 2 Follies performances, in February), so I'll be sure to make this one (and bring the Trumpian hair with me).
* Wednesday: [We interrupt this partying to bring you a 12 hour orientation session at [my investment bank employer] in New York.
* Thursday: Some classmates have organized an iParty at a local club. Basically, anyone with an iPod gets to plug it into the sound system and play DJ for ten minutes. The first playlist I've put together goes Can't Get You Out of My Head (Realmedia version), Call on Me (Amazon doesn't have a sample), and Ready, Steady, Go (Realmedia version).
* Friday: The annual Finance Club officers dinner, followed by the new annual (?) Finance Club spring party.

This is just the short list, i.e. the events I'll be attending. There's a lot more going on these final weeks as second years gradually slip the bonds of classes...towards freedom!

Posted 7:38 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Corporate Takeover Battle Royale
On February 8th of this year, LiveDoor Inc., one of Japan's internet darlings, sent shockwaves through the Japanese business world by initiating a hostile takeover of Nippon Broadcasting and its TV Network subsidiary, Fuji TV. This story isn't getting much press here, but try to imagine Yahoo! deciding to buy ABC, then ratchet up the vitriol by a factor of 1,000. The battle, still ongoing (?), has been nasty, bloody, and public--and that's on its good days. Nippon Broadcasting has tried new stock issuances, dividend raising, legal battles, PR maneuvers, everything to keep this young ruffian from taking over its hallowed halls.

I'm in the middle of researching the situation for my final paper in Business Japanese II. It makes for fun reading; since hostile takeovers just aren't done in Japan, the reaction of certain parties has been hilarious. Can you imagine Peter Jennings or the cast of "Desparate Housewives" saying, "We refuse to work for that dispicable Yahoo!" in a huff, if the above takeover happened here?

I'll post more on this story when I've finished researching it, but here are some links (for those of you who can read Japanese):
Yomiuri Newspaper's excellent cache of articles
LiveDoor stock chart
Nippon Broadcasting stock chart

Posted 5:07 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Slide Show: A Michigan Commute
Since the spring warm-up last week, I've been walking to school when weather permits. Most students that live in my area (there are a bunch of newer, nicer apartment complexes a couple miles SW of campus--see Lake Village, Harbor House, Woodland Meadows, etc.) don't even think about walking as a commuting option, but why not? It's good exercise, you're out doors, and its free.

Plus, the 2.3 mile rolling hike follows a nice path: past the UM golf course, the football stadium, through some of residential Ann Arbor, to the school. I snapped some photos of the walk to give a sense of what the area looks like on foot.

This also serves as proof that I did indeed attend class this week (at least once).

Posted 4:37 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Photo: Studying in Springtime

(Click for larger image)

Incidentally, much of this courtyard will be gone after the construction of the new building, replaced by a glass-enclosed "winter garden" (student meeting area).

Posted 3:01 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
Busy (?) Weeks
The second half of Winter Term (roughly March to May) is a weird time here at the Ross School of Business; a good portion of the MBA1s are off to various corners of the globe on their MAP projects, whereas MBA2s are busy living it up, enjoying the weather, and getting ready to graduate.

This weekend (4/7-4/9) is the annual Go Blue! Rendezvous weekend for admitted students. Two years ago I attended as an admit; last year I was a host for an admit (who decided to come to Ross); and this year I'm helping out with a couple panels hear and there. The weekend after (4/16) is the Finance Club's annual officer dinner, where the outgoing officers bestow their bounty of wisdom (tongue in cheek) on the new club leadership. The week after that finals start (4/20), and then one more week until graduation (4/29). The week leading up to MBA graduation is a blur of social events, final exams, and family visits.

I've greatly enjoyed being an MBA student here at Ross. That said, every fiber of my being is aching to get back to the hurly burly of the working world, to pulling down a paycheck, and to get settled in a new home.

Posted 2:55 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
The Biggest Lie in Business School
...is "I don't care about grades." All I'll say is that, with jobs in hand and graduation assured, it's astounding to see how many students still go to class on a balmy, 60-degree, Ann Arbor spring day.

Posted 4:01 PM by Zachary (e-mail)
FIN 618 - Derivatives
I've spent the past six hours churning my way through this week's project for FIN 618, Derivatives. This course is about all one could hope for in a business school finance class: focused on working through real world problems, and not hung up on theories. It builds on what was taught in FIN 580 (Options & Futures) and FIN 622 (Corporate Financial Engineering).

This week's assignment involves an evaluation of several hypothetical corporate compensation packages: straight cash and stock, and then packages with European, Asian, Lookback, and Knock-In options.

Guilt for slacking off the past couple of weeks, mixed with a dash of MIT hackishness and a spoonful of Excel programming experience from my CSFB days resulted in a nice (if I do say so myself) tool for modelling exotic option prices based of simulated stock paths. I've posted it to my Tools page.

(Click for larger image)

As you can see, I'm a believer in using graphic design techniques in spreadsheet design; it makes them all the more easier (and faster) to use. In trading, time (and accuracy) is money.

Obviously, these files are meant for educational purposes, and shouldn't be used to make investment decisions.

Posted 7:27 AM by Zachary (e-mail)
Ross School of Business: Application Numbers, New Building
The Dean gave a presentation and reception for all graduating MBA2s last night. The hour long presentation covered our school's accomplishments over the past year, how the current application season is going, and the plans for the new building.

Some of the accomplishments are probably well known to readers of this blog: the record-setting $100MM donation from Mr. Ross in September, the Wall Street Journal #1 ranking a few weeks later, moving up (to #6) in the Business Week rankings, jumping up 14 spots in the Financial Times rankings, etc. Lesser known achievements relate to increasing the applicant yield (i.e. the percentage of admitted applicants who decide to come to Ross) and diversity at the school.

One surprising stat that the Head of Admissions shared was that this year applicantions to Ross are up 1%, whereas our peer schools' applications are down 12%, on average.

The most exciting part of the evening was the presentation of the preliminary plans for our new building. The school has hired the same firm that designed Wharton's Huntsman Hall, and the drawings we saw for our new building look great: lots of sunshine, lots of [skylight enclosed] open space, more team meeting rooms, a stronger "front door" impression, and better classrooms. According to the Dean, the timetable will run something like this: by the end of this year, finish raising the $145MM funds for construction; start construction in Summer '06; complete construction in 2008.

Beyond the razzle-dazzle of the building designs, the thing that impressed me the most is the transition plan the school has in place for the two years of construction. The new building will require demolishing 40% of the current buildings, which presents a major logistical challenge. The plan is to move the executive education program out of its [relatively new, gorgeous] building to a spot off campus, and let the MBA students take over that building. That alone is a step up, so this plan feels like a win-win-win to me: not only do we have a great new building in 2008, but in the intervening two years the MBA students are in better facilities.

In the end, I'll be excited to see the new building when its done. I can't measure if and how the current facilities affected my MBA experience--if anything, the brand new, unrivaled Tozzi Trading Center makes Ross very attractive for S&T students--but it certainly is a morale boost to come to school in a cool building.