Pfizer hand-in and slides

Here is the work that the group and I handed in for the case "Pfizer's virtual CIO". We have also made a short slide show.

Enjoy! Finally weekend, and tomorrow I will be able to sleep in. It's going to be fantastic. Despite what I thought, this week turned out to be very hectic and "painful" to complete.

• Hand-in, word file of approximately 7 pages
• Slide show, approximately 5 pages

Finally, seeing the end of block #1

Went to bed way to late yesterday. I did a case in corporate finance.. at the same time, the Swedish I-bank, Carnegie took a very large hit, diving approximately 50 % (it looks like its gaining some points today though). I am still very interested in seeing how the Swedish banks will solve their investments in the Baltic states and the Ukraine. I am very much looking forward to the 12th of Nov, that is the day when we have 10 days off... oh, I'm so much looking forward to it.

And.. by the way.. Oslo saw its first snow today. The picture is taken at Metro station "Majorstua" this morning at around 7.30 AM.

New week and Pfizer case.

I once had a calm weekend, even though I worked about 7 hours yesterday. We are currently finishing off several courses in order to start the new block of courses - in China. I think I have written this on the blog before.. anyhow.. we are currently trying to "solve" a very hard case of the IT/IS trouble that Pfizer saw when they acquired Pharmacia & Upjohn.

It also seems as if the Swedish bank sector is seeing enormous problems.. A businessman, Mats Sundqvist seems to have used un-registered equity to back up loans that has been used in real estate purchases.. He has gotten a loan from Carnegie (Swedish I-bank) who now seems to loose 1 bn SEK... well enough to make them go bankrupt. Swedbank is issuing new equity of 12 bn SEK. Damn, when will this hell end? (Im also tired, I neeeed a break)

Fairly slow week end and well deserved break

This last week has been a monster, a lot of work I mean.. this week end will be spent on preparation for an IT case about Pfizer after they purchased Pharmacia & Upjohn. Very diverse IT structure with what seems to be a lot of small knowledge centres and domains.

Wal-Mart analysis.

I made an analysis of Wal-Mart and their operations - if they would go into Sweden.

The five competitive forces that shape strategy

Here is an interview with famous Harvard Prof Michael Porter. The interview was made during 2008 and he discuss his new updated article about the "five forces framework". It is very interesting to listen to him, and actually see him talk about this ubiquitous framework. Very much worth the time!

Blog at HBR

I recently read this great blog by Scott Anthony at HBR. The blog is called "Innovation Insights" and it's a great site for getting a hold of new important technical information. It's great, and the link is here.

On the case of Wal-Mart...

... here you can see the history of their logo-types... and here is the link to the blog that writes about historical logo-types. Really cool.

Finally.. one down, one to go..

Finally, the group is done with the marketing project.. Now, I only have one more hand-in to do.. an analysis of the fantastic company Wal-Mart.. when I write fantastic, i dont mean the goods that they have.. but their extraordinary financial strength.. its extreme, and very impressive. Danm, Im so tired.

Be cool, stay in school

I have no time to write any long messages since Im currently writing on two projects.. Other than that, im looking forward to the US election. Look here for polls, and Washington Post for good articles of first hand material and solid analysis.

Funny cartoon from CNN

I went onto cnn.com and saw this funny carton made by Bob Lang.

Friday.. 2.18 AM

... and I'm off to bed.. too bad this is going to happen tomorrow as well..

These hand-ins..

... are taking a lot of time.. no time to gather financial information on the web.. no time to blog. Oh, I will enjoy some free evenings next week - i hope. Its 2.54 AM and I'm off to bed to listen to some of this. Its been a very fast week.. and so hectic.

Hectic week

This is turning out to be the most hectic week since I moved here.

This is the most impressive thing i have ever seen..

I am currently looking at the balance sheet and P&L of Wal-Mart from 1993 to 2005. It is clearly one of the most impressive things I have EVER seen. Its astounding, breathtaking and beautiful. Take a look at it here or here.

Harvard Business Review...

I was thinking that getting a subscription at the HBR when Im done with my MBA.. since you are gaining such an information momentum, getting a subscription would be a very easy way to gain access to the newest and most comprehensive academic information and research.

International subscription. (Costs approximately SEK 999/year)
Swedish / Nordic subscription. (Costs approximately SEK 1430 / year)

Why would anyone choose to subscribe from a Swedish website? moronic. Well, Im going to get a subscription.. a lot of very good articles comes from this magazine.

One of my absolute favourite quotes...

I have this great quote from a theoretic article in Interfaces in 1984:

"...estimating cash flows properly is more important than fine tuning the discount rate..."

Stuart C. Myers

New week and presentation of Icelandic banks

Well, I was at a corporate fair the other week and got a hold of some very interesting information about the Icelandic bank Landsbanki. Take a look at the presentation material... I wonder how the bank currently functions as of now..

• PPT from Landsbanki
• PDF from Landsbanki

The new week has started with a lecture in accounting, and its very good as usual. I'm waiting fora comment by Hanno here.. The Stockholm Exchange is up 600 points as of now, only down 4000 points since January first, yahoo!

The first good article about the financial crisis - on the Swedish newspaper site, DN.se.

Strategy case and book about Wal-Mart

I have found this very interesting book: its called The Wal-Mart Effect and its written by Charles Fishman.. I have read about two thirds, and its very rewarding.

If you combine that book with the documentary, Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price... you will get a fairly unbiased picture of the company - i think. It is very hard not to get impressed.

Here is another interesting article from the magazine, the New Yorker about Wal-Mart and their tarnished reputation.

Buy the book? (its about SEK 170 a these different sites)
Link to Adlibris.
Link to Capris (Norway).
Link to Amazon.co.uk.

Micro and game theory

We are now having lectures in micro economics again.. which is nice. We are going to go through game theory and a couple of practical problems. Im also going to Stockholm today... It has been a really interesting week, especially on the financial side. Icelandic banks going bust.. several school hand ins and interest rate cuts - Talked with a friend in London two days ago and he concluded what we all know... "well, the party is definitely over for this time". Im pretty sure what is going down now, wont restrict anyone next time we will se a financial bubble or similar behavior.

Im so tired..

Damn, im so tired.

Strategy and disruptive technologies..

We are now discussing "blue ocean strategy" and Kodak - we believe that its a clear case of disruptive technology entrance. It started as an article in Harvard Business Review and its a very interesting concept of thinking.

The blue ocean strategy concept is also very interesting.. Value nets and so on (not to be confused with earlier mentioned value networks).

New book by Lowenstein.

Here is the link to the new Lowenstein.. I really really want this one. Ill buy it as soon as i can.
"While America Aged"

Here is the book review in NY Times.

Interesting article and short movie about Lehman Bros

Found this article about the interrogation of Dick Fuld (CEO of Lehman Bros) - and here is another one. Apparently, he and his management team did not have a clue about what they had on their balance sheet. Very weird - but it brought them down. Here is the video link to the testimony on Youtube.com. Very view-worthy!

In the short movie, David Weidner has some very interesting points and pointers that could be applied to the Scandinavian markets. Look at this article as well..

Lehman also seemed to value some of their assets at 100 %, when their competitors valued the same asset to 65 % of the face value. Talk about raping your balance sheet. Very weird, and interesting.

The night

Ok, its a quarter to one and I managed to create a new mind map of the the new IT article. Felt some flashbacks of IBM swoosh by my eyes. Well, Im really tired but cant help to think about the debate between McCain and Obama.. lets see, the Pollster.com report says.. 320 electoral votes to Obama (which is more than the needed 270! - wonder what happens in the near future). Too bad i cant watch the debate - would be interesting to see.. G'nite

Very late night, or early morning..

I had a very late night yesterday... I think I went to bed at around 4 o clock - saw some of the movements on the NYSE before I went to bed. We also had a very rewarding group seminar today, which I think will improve the group output a lot.

Work all night and reports from hell..

Well, it seems as if markets collapsed today - big time.. The value of many of the Icelandic banks - disappeared, the Swedish stock exchange dropping more than 700 points.. the Dow being in some kind of free fall.. and Lehman's Dick Fuld blaming the termination of "his" bank on rumors. Well, what can you say.. I personally think that it was the risky positions that brought down Lehman and the fact that many of the financial securities lacked any substantial backing..

I mean, in a system where you can just deliver your house (the asset backing the financial security) to the bank if you cannot make your payments (and the loaners debt is terminated), and the bank sitting on the joker of the deck.. then.. i think it was this system of intricate and somewhat foolish behavior (including the Triple-A rating of many CDO's - which made many think that they invested in something risk free, when in fact - it wasnt) of their investments that actually brought them down. I assume that Fuld would like to think something else. I remember that I had a conversation with a guy from a very famous information database that told me that he had once worked for Lehman, and that they more or less just had waited for them to go bust - for several years. I mean, something must have distorted the culture of Lehman Bros. Especially when G.S seems to have sailed through the rain of blood that is currently pouring on Wall Street (its like the movie Carrie, but in real life.. and with a street). There was also this pompous idiot in the Swedish media who felt sorry for Lehman brothers - because there were so many great people there. Shut up fool, let the market do the job - and I'm pretty sure the really talented people there can get a job - even in the darkest recession the earth has ever seen.. Only three hours more work, then Ill go to bed.

I just cant wait to see what happens with Wachovia, will be very interesting to see. I also think that we will see a collapse of the market value of the Swedish banks when the crisis really hits the Baltic countries. This is actually acknowledged in BusinessWeek. I'm so happy I'm in school at the moment - standing by the sidelines and waiting.

Great monday morning

Sitting in class and doing managerial accounting. We are going through activity based accounting. Its interesting and good, and it feels very usable - if I would end up in a financial-heavy role after the MBA.

I also found this great quote from A.P in San Fransisco:

"The government's commitment to spend up to $700 billion buying bad debts from ailing banks is likely to save some institutions that would have otherwise died, but analysts doubt it will be enough to avert a major shakeout."

It sort of sorts out what the bailout is actually about - and AP suggest a lot of bad banks are going to go bust.. the race has already started in Denmark with Roskilde Bank (Amagerbanken next?) - I wonder what will happen with the Swedish banks. I didn't know about the loans that they need to repay during 2009 (i just assume that will never happen).

Sunday and more work

I am currently sitting in the library.. After several days of rain we are now having a great day here in Oslo. The sun is shining, but its rather cold outside. I was up at around half past eight this morning, did some calculations .. and this "great" mind-map over the Chinese costmetics industry..

I have always thought that mind-maps is a great tool to remember a lot of data, and studying cases is a great way to practice drawing mind-maps.. I will definitely utilize this tool later in my professional career. Here is a link to a "free" mind-map generator.

The picture is taken at around half past eleven sunday. When I have time, Ill try to download the mind-map generator, and see how it works, the thing is.. i kind of like pen and paper.

The library, a saturday.

Yesterday I met up with some old friends.. Nothing extravagant. We had some beers at a local pub/bar in Oslo and then we went on to the sky bar in the SAS Radisson hotel here in Oslo.. it was quite nice. Im now in the library, reading up on some cases.. preparing a group discussion and so forth.

Saw that Wachovia - a bank that sold a lot its branches to Citi - now merges with Wells Fargo... well, what can you say.. Swedbank - the bank mentioned earlier in this blog... is going to repay approximately SEK 300 billion next year to the swedish government...

Free day: calm study day and visit

I gave a lecture today to my class mates regarding the calculations of GP-margin, EBITDA, EBIT and EAT and other very related stuff. I also wrote a case to this class, and we discussed some tips and trix to equity analysis. It seemed to be a success..

Now, Im sitting in the library and reading.. which is kind of nice and calm. A friend is on visit here in Oslo - so Im meeting up with him tonight.. Did I mention i slept until 8 o clock this morning? well, it was a fantastic morning.

A nice quote during class...

Thomas L.O during the class in strategy...
Teacher (T): "Which one of these factors are most important in the short or long term?"
Thomas L.O: "I would say that the socio-demographic part is the most important factor in the short and long term.."
Teacher: "What do you mean, in the short or the long term?"
Thomas L.O: "In the short.... and the long term"

... now thats a nice hedge, thank you very much...

The beginning of the end of the credit cruch?!

The news is full of information about the bail out plan that now is accepted. Could this be seen as the beginning of the end of the current credit crisis? Well, i have no idea.. i know to little about it. WSJ is reporting about the bill here - which increases the liquidity of the US financial market with approx 700 billion USD.

This graph by NY Times pretty much shows how much the financial firms have lost in equity value... Insane, that is a word that is appropriate.

My first official presentation in front of the class..

It seems as if our (group 4) presentation has been picked to be shown in front of the class tomorrow, which means that I have my first (official that is) presentation in front of the class. I think that will be a lot of fun :-)

Barneys model of competitive advantage and Porters value chain

We went through this model regarding sustainable competitive advantage. Really interesting and valuable tool to actually validate if a resource is a sustainable competitive advantage.

I have also added a picture of Porters value chain for the long linked technology.

New discussion about AA and SABRE

I am currently in a break and we are having one of the most interesting discussion of the MBA program (and in my entire academic career). We are discussing SABRE and the role of American Airlines... and how the airline industry has evolved.. deregulation, Alitalia (one of the most mis-managed companies in the world, which should be allowed to die) and a lot of other very very interesting stuff.