Connect through e-mail

Its quite funny, sometimes i receive e-mail regarding this site, often from Asia and the Baltics about the MBA program here in Norway and about Copenhagen Business School.. Well, this is the first time i receive "commercial" email; this time it was about the top 50 applications for MBA students from Apple Inc and their iPhone. I dont own an iPhone and wont do so in the near future either - but, anyways, here is the link... Its now less than 2 months until the program is over. It feels funny and weird, and very nice.

Our solution

Well, Laura and I decided to post our "solution" to the Apple case (Apple Inc., 2008, 9-708-408, HBS) we had with Dr Mark Kriger.. The "solution" encompass models from Schein, Kriger (a developed co-alignment model), Malcolm Gladwell, and VRIO framework by Barney. We get the grades tomorrow, if its good then ill post it.. if not, well.. then please write a nice comment and you would make me and Laura very happy.

One thing that I find amazing is that so many people from the US are visiting my blog. I wonder why.. but its great.

As Kalle said earlier last week: "Turning Apple into a family business would mean a heck of a lot more Jobs"

Out of diaspora

I came back from Stockholm to Oslo, and that felt weird yesterday.. Only three and a half more weeks of actual classes - well, I have to verify that with someone in school, but I think that is the case. Its a lot of mixed emotions, of course.. but most of all, im so tired.. I can most definitely say that I nerver - never - expected the amount of work to gradually increase in this way that it has. Egil was up until five writing on the hand-in while we could sleep, respect to that.

Friday, thank you very much

Ok, so this insane week is coming to an end, and will be followed by yet another insane week of studies. Im currently working on a hand-in in corporate finance about dividend policy, and it will hopefully be done in a couple of hours. I havent had time to look through the news in several days (besides that i noticed that Apple did better than everyone thought). So, what happened today:

• Came to school, we had a corporate meeting
• The corporate meeting got cancelled
• I slept on a couple of office chairs, put together in a row in the class room (this was the second time i did this, this week - i slept for almost 45 minutes)
• After that; corporate finance

Now, all i want is to get this done, and send it off to Geir.

What a day for a daydream

Got out of bed at 7.20 today.. managed to check my email and had approximately 3 hours of sleep.. well, its most definitely not sufficient, which means that I am completely wasted at the moment. Im currently in class, going through a hedging strategy. I cannot say that I am actually contributing, sitting like a vegetable in the MBA-trenches..

Well, we are having a hand-in in Corporate Finance (about div. policy) and a hand-in in leadership on monday. Ill see if i can post the things that I and Laura did on the Apple case.

3:58 AM

... and its a new record for me.. it was a long long time ago since I studied like this.. now, im tired.. oh so tired. Cant wait to go to Stockholm this weekend.

I have found life

Well, the workload continues to increase at a weird, slow, ever increasing rate. It is truly weird how much you can actually take in and produce in 24 hours. I have finished listening to the Tipping Point by earlier mentioned Malcolm Gladwell, which was good but nowhere near Outliers or Blink (even though Outliers was more interesting). Tipping Point takes up concepts like word of mouth theory and social epidemics.. I incorporated that information in tomorrows presentation on Apple Inc., so well see how that goes. Im now going to listen to Snowball, the story about Warren Buffet. It will be interesting to see how easy it is to get through, its on over 30 CDs!

The tech sector

I am currently doing some number crunching of Apples numbers, going back as late as 1981. We are having a fairly new case on the retail tech giant which is very very interesting. I have been a very loud Mac supporter for several years (the only reason why I didnt get new Mac was because of compatability problems and price differentiation strategy that I of course didnt like).

WSJ also reports that Google managed to increase their sales.. which is impressive. Apparently, the growth of sales is stagnating.. well, there is something that wouldnt come as a surprise since we currently are in a horrible recession. Now, its off to bed.

At eleven!

Ok, so time is now running by like usual, and it feels quite "ok". I received a link from Laura with some interesting videos with Niall Ferguson. He has especially one speech about the current financial crisis which is interesting, but the take on the US election was quite dull (i only managed until 6.57 or something like that). You find the link here.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

I just read on Swedish Statistical Page SCB that the Swedish consumer prices only were 1,9% on a full year basis. This is very interesting since stabilizing the rate of inflation will cause the Swedish currency to be fairly non-volatile as well as well as keeping interest rates (and the cost of capital) low. On the other hand, it could be seen as a double edged sword since low inflation could turn into deflation and Sweden would turn into Japan. I dont think that this actually could happen, but.. you never know. It would be nice if the Swedish society could ride out the storm and increase savings and see a gradual adjustment of the balance sheets and keep the cost of interest down. Read the report from SCB here, from what I have read on Swedish newspapers the information is more or less only paraphrased from this material. It is also fair to say that SCB does not spend their money in the Excel graph department...

Reflection on times passed

Since my blog has been "down" for a couple of days - due to easter and passover, I feel I have to comment on the recent events in the world economy that might affect all of us. Before easter, we saw a G20 meeting in London where rioters attacked a couple of bank offices and one person died. I guess this was very sad mostly because lives where lost and the fact that grown up people shouldnt smash windows that does not belong to them. Anyway, another issue, far more important than these two issues was the fact that no real steps were taken to tackle the the ongoing financial crisis (read more here from Brookings institute). Of course, we heard a lot of talk but no official plans were laid out that stipulated collaborative action against the ongoing lack of liquidity, demand and financial turmoil (even though some 750 bn USD where going to be allocated to the IMF - read the official statement here). I recently read it through, and it has some nice plans and words, not much else.

Some might say "well, they met, a new Nato chief was elected and all was good.. so we are good, right?". Well, no.. not really in my opinion. What we might see is that a few states (such as the US) are taking huge measures to counter the growing resession (I no longer think we are seeing a DEpression). These countries lower their interest rates and increase their quantitative easing (i.e. print more money) and buy bonds. If only a handful of states does this and if not everyone is on the wagon, we might see drainage from these progressive countries, and the effects of increased liquidity is diminished and we remain in a state similar to status quo. It is therefore absolutely vital that the G20 now collaborate and strike together and fast towards the evil of less liquidity. This reasoning is in line with some kind of Keynes theory, who had a thesis that more or less said (this is a great article):
"When times are good, save. When times are bad, spend"
...and this usually works fine - if you are a tightly knit and entirely closed economy with little or no leakages. The last time I took a look at the world economy and the worlds financial markets, it was like an imprenetable global web of nodes, interactions and trades. Could therefore one single actor, like the US government carry the burdon of all our greed and lust for cash? No, we all have to pitch in.

The reasoning is therefore that we all have to spend now, and spend like crazy to scare of the demons called recession, deflation and job scarcity. Hopefully we will see increased efficiency, products that the public actually want to buy and better and more efficient financial markets, where we are not reliant on a few to provide us with so much (I think of big banks). We simply have to lower the systemic risk, i.e. the statement "too big to fail" and face the fact that nothing in the future can be too big to fail and trying to get to that position should be punished, both by regulatory measures and by the stock market. How, in practice, this should happen - i do not know.

Even though its easy to think "lack of liquid markets does not affect me", it does. It is the common man that pays - not high flying CEOs of multinational corporations.

Easter break is now over...

... and I am heading back to the salt mine (even though passover continues)... oops, sorry, I meant to write school. Over the last week and a half, I have been in Stockholm and relaxed.. It has been an absolute treat even though I found it hard to wind down after the massive work load that we had over the last three weeks of school. We also received some grades in Organizational Design, where we wrote a theoretical paper about IBM, which was very well received. Hmmm, what am I going to do today? Well, might go to IKEA and get a new duvet and a pillow. And then Im off to Oslo again.. for the last "leg" of the MBA program. I have to say that it feels quite weird to soon be ready for the job market again, and see this journey come to an end.. after working towards a goal for several years.. and then.. see it through, it feels weird. Well, thats it.

Some reading that I have gone through over the last 10 days:

• Krugman (Article 1, Article 2)
• The Economist (Article 1, Aticle 2)
• Harvard Business Review (Article 1, Article 2)
• HBR Classic! (Must read)

Finally.

Finally, it is now officially easter/passover depending on your choice of religion. I am also free from school which feels absolutely fantastic. I am going to leave for Stockholm and I am definitely not going to do anythingi that isnt necessary.. I feel that I need a hot shower, a couple of beers and some nice chicken salad, prepared with some light sauce.

I have also been online and tried to read up on Gladwell and the New Yorker, seems like a very read-worthy piece of material.. Along with the Economist and HBR i guess. I have found a great article written by David Remnick, the editor of chief of the New Yorker... It is called "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", a very interesting piece on Mike Tyson and the world which he saw when he got out of jail back in 1997. Very interesting!

Enjoy the video!

Half-way through the week

I have now managed to get some really heavy assignment done.. Its around two o clock in the night.. And Im off to bed. I have listened to an audiobook called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.. Im listening to Outliers as I go to school every morning. I like his voice, and its interesting to listen to very specific topics that he has chosen. I am not familiar with the New Yorker Magazine, other than I remember a guy at Brandeis who constantly read it.. Well, Gladwell is good. And Im off to bed.. soon holidays.