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Made for LEGACY
AGSM MBA STUDENT MAGAZINE | ISSUE 18 | OCTOBER 2015
The Executive Forum
The Executive Forum
The Art and Science of Wine Making
Marketing at Disneyland ® Paris
Nothing happens in Business Until...
Entrepreneur’s Dilemma: Experience or Education?
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Editors’ VOICE
This month’s feature article was written by our very own Kaoru Nishinakagawa about the executive forum and the legacy that this year’s student society is hoping to leave behind in upcoming months. This issue of STAR also includes great contributions by Dr. Jeffrey Tobias, Prof. Mark Stewart, Kevin Brown and Nicolas Messio that can’t be missed. We hope you enjoy the variety of content that is included in this issue.
Many thanks to our readers and contributing writers for making last month’s issue our most read issue to date.Thank you for your future support as we continue to make strides at STAR magazine this year.
If you wish to contribute an article to the STAR Magazine, please contact us at [email protected]
Regards,Christine, Nandini & Tatiana
Editors-in-chief | Christine Savage, Tatiana Rivera Hadad, Nandini GaurSub-Editor | Erik BurkhalterLayout designer | Nandini GaurCopy-editors | Erik Burkhalter, Timothy Fagan, Shane Simon, Christine Savage, Robert LudwickCreative contributor | Neelam Joshi
AGSM STAR Magazine (STARmag) is produced by MBA students from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). This magazine is not for sale and intended only for educational and research purposes.
All published works are of the opinions of the individual authors and do not represent the view of AGSM or UNSW.
The ‘STAR Magazine’ logo is put together by Ace Choo using ‘Sommet’ fonts designed by Jeremy Dooley and ‘Cash Currency’ fonts designed by Jayde Garrow.
The blue and white AGSM logo remains the property of UNSW and any unauthorized use are strictly prohibited.
All rights reserved.
Website | http://stusoc.agsmclubs.com/
Corresponding email | [email protected]
Cover page | Photo Credits: Nick Nikolaiev
Page 2-3 | Sydney | Photo Credits: Erik Burkhalter
Editors-in-chief | Photo Credits: Pablo Quintero
CONTENTS
Editors’ Voice 2
FEATURE
Made for Legacy 4The Executive Forum
IN FOCUS
The Art and Scienceof Wine Making 6
Nothing happens in BusinessUntil... 8 Marketing at Disneyland ® Paris 8
Entrepreneur’s Dilemma:Experience or Education? 10
Monthly Columns Industry Insights 12 Current Careers 14
Originally from Orlando, Florida, CHRISTINE SAVAGE is a Mechanical Engineer who has worked in the Aerospace/Defense industry for the past 5 years.
Originally from Cali – Colombia, TATIANA RIVERA HADAD is an Economist who has worked in a consumer product company in the business development/strategy and finance division for the past 4 years.
Originally from India, NANDINI GAUR is a Fashion technologist, who has worked in the Retail Industry for past 3 years, as a Buyer.
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Kaoru is a corporate relationship manager with 10+ years of global business experience. She is currently study-ing MBA at AGSM as a full-time student and acts as an External Relations Manager of the Student Society. Her goal within this role is to create a space where Alumni, full time, and part time students can connect and share in the valuable AGSM network
The Executive Forum was held on 28th August with the aim of networking and seeking advice from former presidents in both the Student Society and Industry Clubs. It began with a presentation about what the Student Society and Industry clubs have achieved to-date along with the desired mission moving forward. A discussion session was then held to generate insights on how best to unite full-time students with part-time students and Alumni, and how to improve the AGSM community culture and branding.
Several accomplishments of this year’s cohort were discussed, including the expansion and increased readership of STAR magazine and the creation of Drink&Link.The Communication team of the 2016 cohort has succeeded in expanding the readership of STAR magazine with insightful articles from diverse business industries. Participation from eMBAs has been actively encouraged for the events and activities of the Industry Clubs and Drink&Link has been facilitated as a platform to bring all AGSM members together. These initiatives all started small however they have gained momentum with the support from our predecessors and AGSM faculty members who have helped build the foundation to accomplish our mission.
In order for us to enhance the visibility of our efforts, we asked the question during the Executive Forum on what else can be done and how can we achieve our ultimate goal of ONE AGSM VALUE.
The first discussion was about engagement with Alumni. One of the suggestions was to connect Alumni at the personal level through LinkedIn or AGSM events and expand the relations gradually. Alternatively, announcements could be made on the existing social platforms like Facebook for the successive cohorts.Ten and twenty year reunions
were also proposed to reconnect with Alumni. Either way, it is important that each one of us internalizes the mission and invite Alumni back into the AGSM circle. In terms of engagement with MBA (Executive) students, it is key to find the best way to match events with their busy work schedule. This can be achieved by organizing the opportunities to meet SMY cohorts while they are at AGSM completing their residential. Discussions with AGSM faculty members are currently in progress and we aim to have some trial events before the year end. Additionally, we are looking into the possibility of attending the MBA (Executive) classes at AGSM CBD campus.
Finally, some ideas to improve the AGSM culture and branding were discussed. Although all of our current and future activities will increase the presence of AGSM, we believe physical promotions with AGSM merchandise will help lift the AGSM spirit and bring additional excitement to the AGSM community- including UNSW Business School. We will keep working with the Brands team for the omnidirectional promotion and the further penetration of our brand.
Our collective mission is to continue to contribute to the expanding of the AGSM community and strengthening relationships.We would very much like to hear your opinions and ideas on how to generate greater momentum moving forward. Please feel free to contact Kaoru at [email protected]. Information for the next Drink&Link is provided below:
Drink & Link #49th October, FridayMartin Place Bar www.martinplacebar.com.au/ *AGSM section is at the end of bar 6 -10 pm (happy hour 5-8pm)
by Kaoru NishinakagawaExternal Relations Manager, AGSM 2016
THE EXECUTIVE FORUM
MADE FORLEGACY
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by Professor Mark StewartAcademic Director, AGSM
MARK has worked in many different roles over the years – commencing within the engineering sector. His MBA (from AGSM) facilitated a dramatic career shift into investment banking and he remained in this sector for about 20 years working as a specialist in M&A and equity capital markets.Mark holds a BSc (Engineering) with Merit, an MBA and a PhD (in Finance). His recreational passions are blues music, ocean swimming and farming.
Photo provided by author
Many challenges require a combination of art and science to achieve successful outcomes. A thorough understanding of the interdependence of art and science is an essential element to a well-rounded education in business manage-ment. This applies to business (in some of my courses I use a classic text by Howard Raiffa, “The Art and Science of Negotiation”) as much as it does to recreation.
It is within this context I have pulled together a few comments on my “hobby” of winemaking. Great wine requires science-based processes working together with what nature provides – all influenced by the artistic nuances contributed by the winemaker.
Penfolds is a winemaking factory – and reliably produces some of the best quality and best value for money wines in the world. But it took the artistry of Max Schubert to create Grange.
Winemaking has been around for a long time – more than 7,000 years. Locally, plantings of wine grape vines occurred in Sydney in the late 1790s – taken from cuttings sourced from South Africa as the convict ships travelled from England.
Australia was exporting wine to England in the mid 1850s (maybe earlier). The current shape of the industry emerged about 30 years ago – driven partly by a shift in local preferences from beer to wine (small factor) but primarily by the establishment of a truly global export business (big, big factor).Currently, the United Kingdom imports more wine from Australia than it does from France.
My interest in wine dates back too far to re-member. Whilst working as an engineer, many of my projects were in the wine industry – de-signing and constructing sophisticated refrigera-tion systems.
My farm at Milton (NSW) has a small experi-mental plot of vines.Fortunately, grape vines are tough and hardy and despite manifest ignorance and neglect in the extreme the vines have prospered.
That said, there have been challenges including disease and bird strike. The latter is so severe (the birds are obviously much smarter than the farmer) that we have put harvesting on hold for a few years – pending the development of a high tech netting solution.
The Art and Science of WINE MAKING
Since 2004, we have been making wine from high quality grapes sourced from Nurioopta in the famous Barossa Valley. Each year we pur-chase about 1500 kg, yielding about 90 cases. All the processing takes place at my farm.
The grapes are crushed the old fashioned way – using feet.With the help of friends, the hard work is usually finished by mid-afternoon, leaving time for a siesta and then afterwards a raucous late night party to celebrate the “crush”.
Over the following weeks, nature does its thing with as little human intervention as possible. Good quality fruit usually results in good quality wine – unless the winemakers get too carried away.
We make two styles of wine: a light rosé and a big red.
The juice from the ripe fruit (usually cabernet sauvignon) is sweet and sticky. After thorough biped crushing and removal of the stems we add yeast to the “must” and fermentation is kicked off. This chemical process involves the conversion of sugar in the grape juice into alco-hol – the higher the fruit sugar levels the higher the final alcohol percentage (within an upper boundary of about 16%).
The initial fermentation takes about one week and liberates copious amounts of carbon diox-ide – about 40 litres per each litre of wine. We induce secondary fermentation (malolactic for the tech heads) to add subtlety and complexity to the wine.
Start to finish (of this phase) is about two to three weeks. After which the must, now referred to as wine, is pressed off the grape skins and put into bulk storage in French oak barrels. Maturation takes several years and involves some intermediary steps that essentially refines the wine and removes impurities.
The penultimate step is to bottle the wine – which we do by hand. Then off to the cellar and eventual consumption.The end result is a rich big red.Currently we are drinking the 2006 and 2007 vintages.
A similar process is followed for the rosé ex-cept that the must is left on the skins for a short period of about eight hours.The rosé is made to be consumed young and typically is enjoyed as a light refreshment the following summer.
Wine and music go hand in hand.During pro-duction there is always loud music of various genres but with a strong blues influence – in-tended to keep the workers on task and per-forming at optimal capacity.Traditionally, we issue a selection of tunes on CD as a gift to the team.
As with many endeavours in life, deep under-standing comes from years of research and experiential learning.I remain committed to my craft but readily acknowledge that I am but a novice. Am off now to increase my knowledge (in moderation).Cheers.
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As an engineer, I hated the idea of sales and couldn’t understand why I needed to sell my ideas. Right was right, right? However, about five years into my engineering career my appreciation for sales really started to blossom along with my interest in business. But it wasn’t until I heard the phrase: “Nothing really happens in business until somebody sells something” that I understood just how important sales was to business. This one phrase made such an impact on me that within two years I had left my comfortable career in engineering to pursue an opportunity in business development at a start-up.Zero sales in three months was not a good start for me. It wasn’t until I hired a sales coach, Ben, that things started to change for me. Within nine months I had started topping the sales charts on a regular basis. I’m convinced though that the lessons Ben shared with me did not just apply to my sales journey but to how business is conducted around the world. So here is what I learned.
1. Be yourselfFinding my own communication style was a game changer for me. There are many different ways to sell and I feel like I tried them all in the early days. Ben gave me the permission to find what worked for me and this gave me the confidence I needed to communicate. I learnt that any message we deliver with authenticity and confidence has far more power to influence than what we actually say.
2.Make Friends not SalesBen’s first demand was for me to stop trying to close sales. Tough task, considering I had hired him precisely to help me close sales. Instead, he asked me to focus only on building a long-lasting relationship with each new prospect. This radical idea actually worked for me. I made my first sale later that month and I’ve never looked back. What sounded really strange at the time now makes perfect sense. Friendship builds trust and business only happens where there is trust.
3.Listen First, Speak SecondOne sure way to build trust is to make the person feel that they are being heard and understood. Yet, in the early days, I was so focused on what I had to say that I forgot to listen. Back then, I lost most sales in my first conversation. Ben showed me that questions really are the answer. There is a lot to learn from what others have to say. And the best way to get people talking is to ask the right question, then shut-up and listen.
Admittedly, these are really simple ideas to understand and implement. And if you’re feeling a bit cheated for having read this, spare a thought for me. I was paying Ben a lot of money at the time. But like most things, the real learning comes from the doing. I’ve enjoyed the doing and recommend that anyone interested in business give sales a go. Because if you’re in business, you’re in sales.
Nothing Really Happens in BUSINESS Until…
by Kevin BrownAGSM MBA (Executive), 2015
Kevin is currently a Client Relations Manager at Orient Capital where he helps senior executives at listed companies understand their institutional investor base. He is also completing his Executive MBA at the AGSM.
NICOLAS was born in 1981 in North of France. He graduated from IESEG School of Management and created a retail network selling sustainable products such as decoration items and fashion products, in 2003. The company (ALTERMUNDI) was part of the top non-profit organizations in France. In 2011, he decided to embark on a new journey, i.e. start his MBA at AGSM.
Background P
hoto by ©D
isney
Studying at AGSM in 2011-2012 was a fantastic experience from both an educative and personal standpoint. I had the opportunity to meet the smartest people from so many different cultural backgrounds. I especially remember our Services Marketing class being a true eye-opener about what marketing should really be: consumer-focused.
I returned to France upon graduation and had the unique opportunity to join a worldwide leading entertainment company: Disney – and especially Disneyland ® Paris. Everybody knows the stories, the movies, the resorts and it is absolutely fascinating to go “behind the scenes”. I will not reveal the magic here, but will give you a taste of what working in marketing at Disneyland ® Paris means. Here is just one figure that proves that the challenge is real: Disneyland ® Paris is the #1 resort in Europe with 14 million visitors last year! This is really exciting.
I am in charge of the sales and marketing strategy for the French market. I am dealing with consumer reports and business analyses in order to extract key learnings. The objective is mostly to make recommendations to the board on what we should focus on in the mid-term to keep on growing business.
To make it more concrete, let’s do some Q&A:
1. How does my MBA at AGSM help me to deliver my day-to-day work?First, classes of course. Dealing with different disciplines in my projects requires a sound background in economics, marketing and strategy. Also only AGSM has so many different cultural backgrounds and Disney is a true global company. Having to run projects during the MBA with people from all over the world helped to put myself in their shoes and be more empathic.
2. What do I appreciate the most by working at Disneyland ® Paris?People (we, as employees are called cast members) are passionate and dedicated to the product and the brand. The parks bring the guests into a magical world bringing their favorite characters to life and cast members are fully part of the experience.
3. What makes me really proud of working at Disneyland ® Paris? I have to admit that seeing the children’s eyes sparkling when entering into the parks has something unique. Only Disneyland ® Paris will bring you such a gratification.
MARKETING at Disneyland ® Paris
by Nicolas MessioAGSM MBA, 2012
Photos provided by author
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JEFFREY is a recognised thought-leader on innovation and commercialisation. The founder of The Strategy Group, a leading consultancy that helps organisations unlock their innovation potential, Dr. Tobia’s is as an
accomplished strategist with years of commercial and business experience. His most recent role was leading the Global Innovations Practice for IBSG, Cisco Inc’s executive consulting arm. He has also used his entrepreneurial
skills to start and grow, a number of commercial operations. Dr. Tobias is educating the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators at the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of NSW.
by Dr. Jeffrey TobiasAdjunct Faculty, AGSM
Entrepreneur’s Dilemma: Experience or Education?Everywhere you look, an accelerator hub is sprouting but it’s only with the best B-school grounding that a start-up founder’s education is complete.
Australia has accelerators for sectors from digital media and internet to mining, fintech and even space exploration. We’re approaching ‘peak accelerator’ but it’s questionable whether the educational benefits are filtering through to those who need them.
A classic accelerator gathers start-ups for in-tensive business development and mentoring with a view to sending them public or have them acquired (what is known as the ‘exit’). This also assumes a few breakout ideas on exit will pay for the next intake of exuberant hopefuls. Vendors and corporates are now starting accelerators to meet strategic goals. And as accelerators have learnt the value of their craft, we see more ven-turing into consulting in order to pay the bills.
But this frothiness means that start-up founders’ need to ‘learn the ropes’—the reason why accel-erators exist—might have been lost.
So it was gratifying to see TechCrunch ask if ac-celerators are the new business school?
As any smart entrepreneur is itchy to get their idea into flight, the question of which is better—education or experience—is acute. Why spend four years learning business when you could be out there doing it?“Smart Universities are now beginning to real-ise their disadvantage in the rapidly transform-ing world of education,” entrepreneur and Keen founder Vitaly Golomb writes at TechCrunch. Are unis at a disadvantage? It need not be an either-or proposition.
The issue is how to blend the rough and tumble of the start-up world and cloisters of business school. Done well, this is an intoxicating cocktail of theory and practical learning. And, of course, one can become agile and nimble, learning from failure but balanced by the superb grounding of a formal ‘B-school’ education.
There are three key reasons why a blended education is a founder’s best path to start-up success:
Immersion while experiment- Just as circus trapeze artists practice with a safety net, smart programs give learners permission to fail in the real world. Deficiencies noted while the student is out in start-up land are reflected on within the rigour and depth of the B-school environment.
Learning Management in a safe place- While keen entrepreneurs have a glint in their eye for a product to fill a market need and are tech savvy, their managerial skills might need work. These include soft skills such as leadership, market-ing, financial management and empathy, which distinguish leaders and turbo-charge a start-up’s later stages.
Built-in Network- The connections students make at B-school will carry with them though their careers. This is also a supportive place to find co-founders and others to help the founder’s journey.
However great it is, an accelerator by itself can’t match the depth and level of intellectual rigour of a great business school education. But in a blended environment where the best elements of an accelerator and business program are fused, transformative education outcomes are possible.
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Lockheed Martin is a global leader in the aerospace/defense industry and one of the most important government contractors for the United States government and its allies. They operate in worldwide across five separate business units: aeronautics, missiles and fire control, information systems, space, and mission systems and training.
Having been fascinated by airplanes since I was a child, it was an ideal place to begin my career after I graduated from engineering school at the University of Florida. My experience at Lockheed Martin was valuable in developing my professional and technical acumen and for learning about the way large corporations operate. I worked as a mechanical engineer on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which receives a lot of negative press in the United States for being overly expensive and behind schedule, but has just achieved a significant milestone on 31 July 2015 when it was declared combat-ready.
What I enjoyed most about my job was the opportunity to work directly with hardware and “get my hands dirty” on the production line to solve difficult problems. I also had an opportunity to actually perform conceptual and detail mechanical design on new parts and work on the team that brought them through development into production. The cutting-edge technology that I gained exposure to was the best and the latest in the industry.
Moving forward, I hope to combine my technical background with the skills developed during the MBA into a successful career as an executive leader.
by Christine SavageAGSM MBA, 2016
CHRISTINE, in addition to being one of the editors-in-chief of this publication, is a former mechanical engineer
and a proud member of the AGSM Class of 2016. She enjoys running, traveling, animals, wine and outer space
and is currently on exchange at the London Business School.
Photo provided by the author
Industry Insights
An American Aerospace Account
The Indian IT industry has taken the world by storm. Big names in IT such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro serve both domestic and international clients from a variety of industries such as financial services, telecommunication, retail etc. There are mainly two types of service provided by these firms: IT Service and business process outsourcing (BPO).
One of the main reasons for the IT consulting boom in India is the large availability of English speaking talent, allowing these companies to cater to international clients. The IT industry recruits thousands of engineers each year from various engineering universities across India. Most companies have a separate department (a resource management department) that exists only to allocate people to projects. The work done in most projects is extremely process-driven so as to limit any dependency on individual resources. The big companies also invest a lot in knowledge pools and information sharing platforms so that teams can leverage the past experience of others in the organisation. The key question then is: How do you differentiate yourself from the others in such an environment?
Working for TCS has been an enormous learning experience for me; I had the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology for large international clients. My most recent project was for a top US bank, migrating their Anti-money Laundering reporting system to a Big Data platform. From my personal experience, being proactive in taking ownership of tasks and seeing them to fruition is what contributes most to your growth in this industry.
Industry Insights
by Tathagay YagnikAGSM MBA, 2016
TATHAGAT is an Electronics & Communication engineer from India with over 4 years of experience in I.T. Consulting.
Tathagat currently heads the AGSM Public Speaking & Debate Club. He spends his free time reading, listening to
music and watching movies.
Photo provided by the author
IT Consulting Industry in India
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This year has been a year of collaboration, an alignment that has benefited both the AGSM Career Development Team and the Industry Clubs alike. At the start of the year the Student Society made it clear that they wanted to leave a sustainable legacy for both internal and external AGSM communities. This was music to our career development ears!
The team worked closely with Trevor and Rob, President and Vice President respectively, to set some parameters around what a successful, effective industry club could look like and what measures we could put in place at AGSM to achieve this status with each club. We’ve seen some real improvement in both the member numbers and engagement across the programs as well as the calibre of events/interaction that’s come from the clubs since the start of the year. We are looking forward to what the rest of the year may bring!
We’ve been pleased to be able to support the Club Presidents with connections to people within our employer and alumni community and also to manage communications with their members by channelling registrations through the Career Management Platform. This not only helps them manage numbers and event logistics but also means we can pull reports on their member demographics (program, year etc…) and see how active their members are.
Social media has been a large part of our conversation with the Club Presidents so that they not only reach current members but also raise the profile of the industry clubs amongst the business MBA world. The AGSM networks are unrivalled in the Australian MBA world and through the great work of the clubs these networks can now have an industry specific focus. All clubs have LinkedIn groups that are constantly updated with thought leadership pieces, latest research and interesting insights. If you are looking for a way to get involved with the AGSM community and re-connect with likeminded business professionals – join the club! Well done for a great year so far presidents!
Current Careers
by Careers TeamAGSM Career Development Center
Photo provided by the author
STUDENT SOCIETY (STUSOC) COMMITTEE MEMBERSPresident Trevor Harris | [email protected] President Robert Ludwick | [email protected] Manager Rizzia Litany | [email protected] Team Christine Savage, Tatiana Rivera Hadad, Nandini Gaur | [email protected] Relations Manager Kaoru Nishinakagawa | [email protected] Manager Pablo Quintero | [email protected] Manager Karan Kaushik | [email protected]
STUSOC CLUBS CONTACTSPresident Consulting Club Timothy Fagan | [email protected] Finance Club Shane Simon | [email protected] Innovation, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship (ICE) Club Luis Vegas Arias Stella | [email protected] Marketing Mikhail Narbekov | [email protected] Public Speaking and Debate Club Tathagat Yagnik | [email protected] Social Impact Club Fouad Qureshi | [email protected] Women in Leadership Club Ambika Asthana | [email protected]
