MEET YOUR NEW SRC !

Email: src@mbs.eduFacebook Group: SRC at MBS

YouTube Channel: mbsSRC

BHAVNAPresident

Will be keeping warm this winter by soaking up the sun

in Singapore

ASHLEYAlumni

How will it keep warm this winter? By wrapping myself in a curious overabundance of scarves whilst shackled to a

syndicate room

PRI J IVice President

Walking around MBS like a headless chook for the next

three months with my Hawks scarf and coffee to stay warm

HAMISHTreasurer

Condition myself to stay warm by spending some time

in Tasmania, and probably drink more Tequila

SAMANTHASecretary

To stay warm this winter, I am going to take a blanket and an

Irish Coffee to class to counteract the air

conditioning and keep the lectures interesting!

JAMES ‘ JC ’Student Experience &

EventsJC will be keeping himself

warm this winter by switching to Irish Coffee during the day and cognac at night. Offering free hugs to steal warmth is

another option

BEN Communications

This winter I'll be staying warm by finding a bar near MBS that sells mulled wine and has a fire place.  Then

burning all my D&D printouts while drinking a bottle

SHIVANGCareers

Staying warm through a combination of 'Bonfire on the Beach' and 'Scotch on

the Rocks'

ANNA Clubs

Going for a holiday to Gold Coast right after the exams and enjoy the sun and the

beaches

J ILLToo much free time! Don't

know how to utilise it! I guess I will slow down my life pace

and finally have time to explore my second hometown as well as Australia after 8 years living

here!

JUL IANAfter exams my plan is to get back into shape, I just won a lottery entry into the NY

marathon and need to start preparing for it. Also going to catchup on some other books that have been gathering dust.

JOHN Trying to get a start-up business off the ground

KAVITAEnjoying syndicate free

solitude!

JOIN THE SOURCE EDITORIAL TEAM!Like what you see in this edition and think you could contribute to future articles? Join the team as a contributor, editor or artistic director in Term 2! Contact Victoria Huang for more information.

The SouRCe

Editorial Team

Victoria HuangEditor-in-chief

Mathew KeenanContributing Editor

John LeungArt Director

Please email src@mbs.edu to send us your thoughts about the

magazine and any ideas you have for future editions

… AND A BIG FAREWELL TO OUR OUTGOING SRC MEMBERS!

LEAVING THE SRC WILL CREATE SUCH A VOID IN THEIR L IVES .

WHAT ON EARTH WILL THEY DO?!

MICHAELExecute my 4S strategy: surf, snowboard, socialise, sleep

\

VICTORIACupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!

A M

ESSA

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SRC END OF TERM PARTY

121 Flinders Lane Melbourne | Tel: 9654 5000 | Fax: 9654 5088www.fashionlounge.com.au

BOOKING AGREEMENT FORM

Come and celebrate the end of another term, and what will be for many the last chance to party together before they graduate!

This term we have something extra special for you all - Graduation Happy Hour from 7pm - 11pm:

$4 pots Carlton$5 Bubbly,Wine$7.50 Basic spirits

We also have the special "Graduate" shot for $5 during Happy Hour. Make sure you come on time and don't miss out!

Free entry only until 10:30PM. After this time, promoters who hold events at Fashion Lounge on Saturday nights will be charging $15 for entry

S a t u r d a y 7th May7PM to Late

Welcome to this special “Student Experience Edition” of the SouRCe.  As the final edition for Term 1, it’s packed with enough fun to last you country mile.  In these pages, we:• Introduce you to the new SRC team•Take you to Barcelona for the

Graduate Business Conference•Speak with Prof. Sally Wood on

business school rankings•Table highlights from the Innovations

Workshop•Catch up on the MBS/ AGSM Cup•Check out photos from the “Willy Wonka” Student Ball.

To the many students that are hanging up their MBA study gloves (including myself *sniff*), we wish you all the best in your next endeavours. To those that have just begun their MBA journey, brace yourselves for an adventure of a lifetime. To those that are midway through, enjoy your time, it’ll be over before you know it - just speak to the folks that are graduating!

At the upcoming End of Term Party, we will be announcing the winner of the Student Experience award. The award publicly recognises an individual for their outstanding contribution to the MBS student experience. However, we all know that it takes more than one person to make an experience special, and so we would like to also thank the many individuals who generously devote their time, energy and skills in making the student experience what it is: a truly memorable one. You know who you are.

It has been my absolute privilege to lead the SRC and represent the fantastic individuals of this school. You guys have been a stellar student community, and I hope to stay in touch with as many of you as possible. As one English poet said: “we only part to meet again”

As a final message, good luck with your exams and we’ll see you at the other end for one last drink (for now).

Michael NgoPresident, Your SRC

Best Practice Sessions

Sharing innovative solutions from Top Business Schools around the world

Enhancing Alumni EngagementM a n y s c h o o l s r e p o r t e d a disconnect between their current students and their alumni, resulting in countless missed opportunities for students, alumni and schools. To increase alumni engagement, Purdue offer podcasts of topical “business lectures” to alumni; Fuqua invite alumni to all their student events; Stockholm runs a CRM system to track interactions with alumni.Careers, Careers, CareersImproving career services was a critical topic and a number of practices were shared: ESADE partner with Georgetown to give s tudents access to more US co m pan i e s ; L SE u s e r e ce n t graduates as career mentors; ESADE, Fuqua, Purdue organise Career Treks to key (domestic and i n t e r na t i o na l ) j ob ma r ke t s ; Michigan State invite alumni to run “bootcamps” to polish recruitment skills; schools also structure class schedules to align with recruitment cycles and events.Effective communicationsCampusGroups is used by many schools to prov ide ef fec t ive f unc t i ona l i t y f o r i n t eg ra t ed calendar, event management, payment management, surveys, hosting of internal and external webpages.

These and many more best practice ideas are currently being shared with the SRC, the school, the Innovations Committee and the Careers Committee. Stay tuned for more updates on these exciting initiatives.

Interesting links:

Jim Deveau’s (GBF Founder) message to MBSGraduate Business ForumGBC at ESADE CampusGroups software

Trevor Waldock on leadership

The 2011 Graduate Business Conference Michael Ngo, President, SRC

For the last 29 years, the GBF (Graduate Business Forum) has brought together student leaders from the top 50 global business schools to:

* Share best practices on student government and experience * Exchange global views on responsible leadership * Learn from global business, industry leaders and each other

This year, the event (held from March 30 - April 2nd) was organised by the ESADE Business School in Barcelona. More than 130 students attended the annual event, along with leaders from business, education and non profit sectors, including managing partners from PwC, leadership expert and author Trevor Waldock, and serial entrepreneur and founding Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Professor Kenneth Morse.

For me, the key take aways are:* Many schools face similar challenges * We can learn from each other to effectively address issues and enhance student

experience* MBS should actively support student participation in such events* MBS should consider hosting the event in the future - it would be the first Australian

business school to do so!

The GBF Student Leadership Awards

One of the inspirational highlights of the GBC was the Student and Responsible Leadership Awards. The awards recognise leadership, innovation and a commitment to the greater global MBA community.

In 2008, MBS’ Luke Meehan was given the award for "Transforming Student Council Success". A fantastic achievement.

This year, students from CEIBS were presented with the Award and a $2,000 grant for their vision and plan: to make CEIBS the first 100% carbon neutral business school in the world.

Their plan estimates that the CEIBS Shanghai campus can deliver a positive net present value of 18 million RMB (2.74 million USD) and a reduction of 4,000 tons CO(2)e annually; approximately equivalent to CO(2)e absorption of 16,000 trees, driving a car 500 times around the world, or flying the complete CEIBS MBA class in a Boeing 737 2.5 times around the world.

The Grant will enable the recipients to develop a scalable plan that all GBF member schools can implement to make their operations 100% carbon neutral. Now that’s global business leadership.

The GBF is a global network of current and former student leaders from the world’s top 50 graduate business programs.   Its purpose is to inspire vision, create understanding and facilitate change in graduate management education. Since 1983, the GBF has:

* Inspired over 3,000 student leaders* Hosted schools from 30+ countries* Connected generations of student leaders, schools, corporates, governments and non-

for-profit organisations to enhance graduate management education

Graduate Business Conference, 2011: Student Presidents from HKUST, MBS, Fuqua/ Duke , Georgia Institute of Technology

Business School RankingsNot quite 100% sure how they work? Find out below.

Interview with Sally WoodAssociate Professor Business Statistics at MBS

What are the main MBA ranking systems and where does MBS currently sit within these rankings?

The two major ranking systems are the Financial Times (FT) and the Economist.  Currently MBS is ranked 53 by the FT and 44 by the Economist  out of the top 100 schools worldwide.   In the Asia/Pacific region MBS is ranked 1st by the Economist and 7th by the FT.

Why do the rankings differ?

There are many reasons why the rankings differ; each system has different criteria and different ways of measuring each criterion. The pie-charts below show these criteria and corresponding weights for the FT and the Economist ranking systems.

Figure 1.Criteria and Weights for the FT ranking (top), and the Economist ranking (right)

Probably the major differences can be summarized by stating that the FT ranking system is mainly objective while the Economist system is more subjective. By objective I mean that most of the data used in calculating a ranking is outcome based.   For example the highest weighted criterion in the FT ranking system is salary, which is an outcome. In contrast the Economist ranking system puts only half as much weight on this criterion1.

Furthermore the largest criterion in the Economist ranking system is Personal Development (PD), a category that is absent in the FT ranking. Most of the data used to calculate PD score is subjective; it relies on student assessment of the program, faculty and facilities. These are assessments of the process by which an MBA is obtained, not of the outcome. Of course a good school should try to do both; ensure good outcomes for its students as well as an enjoyable experience while doing the MBA. However research suggests that student assessment of the learning process is not a good predictor of out-of-class success, so achieving a balance between these two objectives is a challenge.

The other major difference in the ranking systems is the value each system attaches to “thought leadership”. The FT system considers knowledge creation as measured by research, as well as knowledge dissemination as an objective of a top business school and weights this criterion by 20%. The corresponding figure of the Economist is 3.5%2. There are of course many other differences, but the above gives an overview of what each ranking system is trying to capture.

When approached by third parties to complete surveys for ranking systems, how important is it to be honest when filling out surveys?

It is always important to be honest. This applies equally to filling out surveys, otherwise why participate?  In the context of MBA rankings it is particularly important to be accurate about your incoming salary. Many students inflate their incoming salary in the belief that it will lead to a higher probability of acceptance into an MBA program. This is not true. An inflated incoming salary will lead to a deflated percentage salary increase, which impacts negatively on rankings.

1 The FT weights salary 40%; which is composed of 20% exiting salary and 20% salary increase. The corresponding figures for the Economist are 20% made up of 5% increase in salary and 15% exiting salary.2 This is grouped in the “Other” category

Are there any external factors that could affect the rankings year to year?

MBA rankings are just a snapshot of a school at a particular point in time and there are many factors which impact rankings over which schools have no control, for example the downturn in the job market caused by the GFC. Probably fluctuations in foreign exchange rates have the biggest impact and this is particularly true for the Economist ranking system. For example in 2009 MBS was ranked 17th in the world, but this dropped to 44th in 2010 mainly due to a strengthening of the US dollar versus other currencies. When the 2009 rankings were complied the AUD/USD exchange rate used by the Economist was 0.84, in 2010 the corresponding rate was 0.77. These rates are the average AUD/USD exchange rate over a 15 month period prior to the rankings calculations. For example the average AUD/USD exchange rate from September 2007 to December 2008 was 0.84 while the average from September 2008 to December 2009 was 0.77. Interestingly the actual AUD/USD exchange rate in December 2009 was 0.91 and if this figure were used rather than the average figure of 0.77, MBS’s predicted ranking would be 28th (± 5).

The FT rankings are not as susceptible to exchange rate fluctuations because the FT uses Purchase Power Parity (PPP) to correct for these fluctuations. Of course using PPP can never perfectly correct for exchange rate induced fluctuations in rankings (indeed it can induce rankings fluctuations of its own) but it is an attempt to do so.

Is there anything we need to consider/keep in perspective when looking at rankings and comparing MBA programs and how schools may differ?

I would say there are four factors to keep in mind when using rankings to compare MBA programs.

The first is that you should compare schools in the same market. The US market is very different from Australia and Europe. For example 7 of the 83 schools that achieved average exiting salaries in excess of $150,000 are US schools. In Australia and Europe the salary structure is flatter than the US and an average exiting salary of $150,000 is highly unlikely. In order to achieve a high rank, Australian and European schools need to pay attention to percentage salary increases. Indeed five out of the six4 European schools in the top

12 as ranked by the FT, all have average exiting salaries below $150,000 but all have percentage salary increases above 130%.

The second factor to keep in mind is that rankings are just a snapshot in time and can fluctuate with exchange rates and regional economic conditions. It is best to look at the performance of a school over time to get a full picture.

The third factor is that the ranking of a school is affected not only by the quality of the program but also by the quality of the incoming students. A poor student attending a well ranked school may not achieve the desired career outcome. Conversely a good student attending a poorly ranked school may exceed their career outcome expectations. So it is important to look at not only the average outcome but also at the range of outcomes.

Lastly, although rankings convey much information, there is so much more to a school than its rank. For example research is measured by the FT by the number of articles published in one of 45 chosen journals, whereas the research activities of a good school are much broader. Also salary is only one dimension of career success. After I completed my MBA I went on to do a PhD in statistics. My salary plummeted but I have never looked back!

3 The 8th school is the Indian School of Management, Ahmedabad, a new entrant into the top 100 schools.4 Except Indian School of Management, Ahmedabad

Editors Note: A big thank you to Sally Wood for taking the time out of her busy schedule to contribute to the SouRCe!

John HuntStudent Experience Officer, SRC

Term 1 has been a big term for the student Experience portfolio. It has been a term focused on both building on the progress of Term 3, 2010 and to expand into new areas. There were three main areas of focus

Firstly, working closely with both Student Services and the Academic Director, the administration of the student survey was handed over to the school. In doing so, the ownership of the outcomes now resides with the school. Perhaps succumbing to the temptation of winning an iPAD, survey participation increased from 100 students (approx.) in T3, 2010 to 300 students in T1. This is a fantastic outcome as it ensures that the results are representative of the overall mood of the school. The survey is a great diagnostic tool that identifies to the school what areas need to be improved on and what areas are performing well, so I would encourage everyone to participate in future surveys. A big thank you to Jane Prior and Tamsin Ede for helping to make this transition happen.

Secondly, three times a term, the class representatives and the faculty get together to discuss and resolve day-to-day issues affecting the student experience. This term, we extended the audience to include “The Program Directors Committee” who is looking at developing the longer-term vision of student

experience. Not only does this create an environment between the student body and the faculty to raise and discuss common issues but it is also a formal home for student ideas on how to improve the student experience. To ensure that your voice is heard in these meetings, it is important that you link in with your class representative; if you do no know who that is, then you should contact the SRC Student Experience Officer. A big thank you to all of the class representatives and members of the faculty for participating in this forum, you input has already made an immediate impact!

Finally, we wanted to create a simulating forum that allows students to come together to develop longer-term ideas on how to improve the student experience, the first of these innovation workshops was held in week 10. The outcomes of these workshops feed straight into the work of the Program Directors Committee, thereby creating a 360º idea generation process. A key theme coming out of this workshop was about how to enhance the MBS community feel. One of the most discussed ideas was the ‘MBS big day out’ which would be a single day each term/year that brings together the Alumni, Students and Faculty to have fun and engagement across the three groups. A massive thanks to James Blake and Jeff Darlington for helping to get the workshop up and running and of course a huge thank you to everyone or coming along and sharing your ideas, especially those of us that are graduating and will not be here to see the outcomes.

Student Experience in Term 1 2011

Samantha Wright Alumni Officer, SRC

On Wednesday the 6th of April, around 50 MBS students attended “Lunch with the Alumni Council”. The Melbourne Business School Alumni Council is the peak representative body for MBS alumni. The Council engages with the School on behalf of alumni and helps communicate the School’s programs to alumni.  The President also represents the Council and the Alumni Network on the School's Board of Directors. The Alumni council meets twice a year, with members fly in from all over the world to attend, showing just how global the MBS alumni community is!

The lunch gave students the opportunity to learn more about the Alumni Council as well as the Alumni Network in general. This was very topical for many students who will be graduating in May this year, and will therefore become Alumni themselves! A lot of the discussion at the lunch was focused around communication and information sharing, between students and alumni. Students were keen to know more about alumni, what it means for them when they graduate, as well as how they can utilise the alumni network as a current student. Many students were not aware of the various ways to contact alumni and find out about alumni events, and were glad to know there

are various forms of communication available to them for this purpose.

The Alumni Council found the feedback and suggestions from students extremely valuable and will be including them for discussion in future meetings. The main point to come out of the lunch is that the alumni network is a resource that is available to current students as well as alumni, and one can get involved as much as they like through being proactive, and are encouraged to do so, especially through the use of social media channels.

Lunch with the Alumni Council will be offered to students again (on a first come first serve basis) when the Alumni Council meets again later this year. The annual alumni dinner will also be held at this time, and students are encouraged to attend. The alumni council and the SRC are aiming to create more opportunities for students to network with the alumni council and the alumni community throughout the year.

A frequently asked question section has been included to provide responses to questions asked at the lunch so all students have access to this information.

Lunch with the Alumni Council

MBS BALL 2011 DID YOU HAVE THE GOLDEN TICKET?

THIS YEAR’S’ BALL WAS HELD ON THE 2ND APRIL AT STUDIO 3 IN THE CROWN COMPLEX. THE

THEME OF THE BALL WAS KEPT HUSH-HUSH UNTIL WE RECEIVED OUR GOLDEN TICKETS TO WILLY

WONKA’S CHOCOLATE FACTORY ONLY A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE BALL.WHAT A SIGHT IT WAS ON THE NIGHT! WILLY WONKA MADE AN APPEARANCE WITH TWO OOMPA LOOMPA’S IN TOW AND THERE WAS EVEN A FLASH MOB WHICH HAD US “FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN”.NICOLE DUMOND, JULIA SEVILLA AND ODIA

UKOKO GOT THEIR GROOVE ON AND WON THE BEST DANCERS COMPETITION SPONSORED BY THE SRC.A BIG THANK YOU TO CELESTE ARMSTRONG

AND THE BALL COMMITTEE FOR ORGANISING AN AMAZING NIGHT!

Rosemary O’Brien, MBA 2011

Leadership, Pay equity, Violence and the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles. These were some of the key issues discussed by the prominent line-up of speakers and 150 participants at the Sydney summit on Gender Equity in the Workplace. MBS was a sponsor of the event and extended an invitation to attend the summit to a representative of the school’s WAM club.

Summit speakers included Kate Ellis, Minister for the Status of Women; Gail Kelly, CEO Westpac Group; Elizabeth Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner; Rachel Slade, Head of Diversity and Flexibility, Westpac; Helen Nugent, Non-executive Board Director; Peter Wilson AM, National President AHRI and Julie McKay, Executive Director, UN Women Australia.

The Summit explored company leadership and the correlation between a company’s prosperity and its board diversity. In 2009 there were 10 women on ASX 200 boards, and as of February this year, that number had increased to 59. Ways to ensure boards were more representative of the wider workforce and the virtues and vices of board quotas and targets were discussed by the summit. With women’s participation in the workforce nearing 60%, and the number of working men and women almost equal, the biggest gender challenge facing Australian organisations is to retain women in active senior roles beyond the years when those with a family found the demands of raising children too great in order to maintain fulltime work. Exploring flexible leave not just as a theoretical option but as a practical option - for both women and men - and an understanding that we all have ‘whole’ lives – as opposed to a ‘work life’ and a ‘home life’ – and ‘what’s wrong with companies if they can’t attract and retain highly educated women?’ are other challenges currently facing Australian organisations.

The summit coincided with the 100 year anniversary of International Women’s Day and was held in Sydney in March 2011. While working conditions have improved since the first women textile workers took to the streets in protest for their working rights following the death of their colleagues in a factory fire – they had been locked into the factory to make sure they worked harder and consequently perished when they had no chance to escape the fire – there is still distance yet to

be covered when considering statistics such as ‘right now, on average women earn 83c for every $1 a man earns. So when comparing a 25 year old woman to a 25 year old man, over the course of a career, the man will earn $1,000,000 more than the woman’.

The estimated financial cost of $13,600,000,000 and lost productivity is $500,000,000 is a result of 3,000,000 women suffering from domestic violence in Australia. Behind each number is a tragic story and a woman who has suffered, yet 2/3 of these women are in employment. Staying in employment offers women economic freedom and a greater chance to get away from the violence. Workplaces need to consider support in the forms of domestic violence leave, the ability to quickly change work telephone numbers and where possible offices; as well as institute zero-tolerance bullying policies.

The UN has re leased t he Seven Women’s Empowerment Principles1 and organisations such as Westpac are already reporting their progress against them ‘This is not about ideology or political correctness – this is a serious economic and business opportunity. It’s about economic growth, recognising the value of women as consumers and acknowledging the importance of female talent in a tight market. We owe it to our shareholders – empowering women equals better performance.’2

1 (http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/human_rights/Resources/WEP_EMB_Booklet.pdf)2 ‘On Target’ The Westpac Group.

Gender Equity in the Workplace Summit

Leadership, Pay equity, Violence and the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles

The #1 MBA in Australia vs. The #1 MBA in Australia

Luke Naughton, MBA 2012

Rankings are important in the land of MBAs. There are all sorts of them out there – do a Google search and you’ll come up with over a million hits. They are mostly nonsense, regardless of how fancy the descriptions of methodology or how many big numbers and ratios are used in determining the rankings. Nonetheless schools and most students take them pretty seriously. Fortunately, with the breadth of rankings out there, you can probably find one that will tell you what you want to hear.

A couple of weekends ago, I encountered not only a first hand example of how useless the rankings are, but also a better way of sorting things out. I was in Sydney along with 30+ of my classmates, for the Melbourne Business School/AGSM Cup, an annual event where two of the business schools in Australia get together for some festivities. So here’s what got me thinking about rankings: One of the first things I noticed upon stepping into the lobby at AGSM was a large banner proclaiming AGSM as the #1 MBA program in Australia. This left me befuddled for several minutes. How could this be? According to some, MBS is the #1 MBA program in Australia, and in the Asia Pacific, and on Leicester Street in Melbourne. So what to do? Send a nice business letter to BusinessWeek telling them that AGSM is confused? Nominate AGSM to be the next guest on Letters and Numbers, knowing full well that they would fail miserably on the numbers bit? Call the guy who made AGSM’s sign and tell them they had a misprint? Not hardly. A better idea: Scrap the salary data, the metrics, and the poofy alumni interviews and battle it out, mano y mano, in some real tests of ability. Fortunately the weekend was

going to provide plenty of opportunity to decide which program indeed is the #1 MBA in Australia, since the Cup is as much about competition as it is about socializing. Take note, Economist, in what is surely better than your weighted averages and crusty several-year old salary data, the following four rounds of ranking slugfest:

Round 1 – The DebateI am kind of non-confrontational, and as such don’t really like arguments. So the kickoff event to The Cup, a debate on whether or not management consultants have a role in government, was not high on my list. Maybe my hesitation was due to my past experience with debates: I’d seen them before, of course, back in the US where politicians have debates all the time, but those all typically end up being pre t ty useless and looking s taged. Surprisingly, though, the MBS vs. AGSM talk-fest was excellent. AGSM presented a decent case, in a steady and practiced manner. They found a way to work in several verbal snipes at MBS, which I thought was a fantastic inclusion and in my opinion should be mandatory in any debate, though they will be remembered with angst over the next year. MBS took more of a Wild West approach with its affirmative stance on the topic, shooting from the hip and building a strong case.

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In the end, AGSM was awarded the victory due to some debating rule minutiae that only the AGSMers understood – there was a definite home field advantage in this event. What a sorry way to lose – on a technicality. It was so troubling that I decided to do some research on the rules to see what was the real story. And then I decided our loss wasn’t quite troubling enough to learn the finer points of debate. An inhumane amount of my term has been spent getting a closer look at the dairy industry in Australia for strategy class, so piling on the rules of debate would most certainly be a disservice to my brain. Besides, the AGSM crew was nice enough to give us a chance to forget all about it by inviting us to a wonderful little beverage spot situated on Sydney harbour overlooking the opera house.

After coming back to my room that night, one of the Rocky movies was on the television. I could not help but watch a bit, as I could definitely relate to the fight of good versus evil. I fell asleep to sounds of ‘I am a real American’ running through my head, getting me focused on turning things around for MBS by winning rugby the next morning.

Round 2 – Touch RugbyUnfortunately I forgot that Real Americans don’t generally know anything about rugby.

Last year’s Cup included a game of basketball, which by all accounts I have heard ended up pretty embarrassing for the Sydneysiders. This year, basketball was pulled from the scheduled events at the last minute and was replaced by something called touch rugby. Conspiracy theory? Absolutely. And I when I say ‘something called touch rugby’, I am alluding to the fact that in an informal poll of those of us from MBS who were undoubtedly going to be roped into taking part, none had any idea about how to play.

As expected, MBS suffered a 4-1 good-natured thrashing at the hands of AGSM, though in our defense we were by far the best dressed of the two teams. One needs to celebrate small victories.

Round 3 – Beach VolleyballCompetition can be downright brutal, and some will go to any means to get a victory. So when AGSM decided to hold some drinking games as a prelude to the beach volleyball match, one should have had visions of Nancy Kerrigan, the American ice skater who was famously clubbed in the leg by one of her competitors prior to the 1994 Winter Olympics. Instead, MBS fell for AGSM’s bit of trickery, and fell in beach volleyball. At least everyone enjoyed the drinking games.

Round 4 – SoccerAhhh, soccer, the beautiful game. The world’s game. One would assume, being attendees of business schools that proclaim themselves as ‘global’, we would be fairly astute as to the ins and outs of such an international institution. Alas, AGSM is not. Hopefully their knowledge does not fall short in other equally important international areas, such as economics, marketing, finance…. Soccer went to MBS in a cakewalk, 6-2.

EpilogueEveryone involved with this year’s MBS/AGSM Cup had a great time. AGSM was a fantastic host from start to finish, and hopefully MBS will be able to live up to expectations when we host next year’s Cup. So despite the results of the formal competition events, everyone who participated in the weekend was a winner.

I’d be wasting your time, though, writing a fiery piece about competition and sorting out rankings without proclaiming one of the schools as the clear #1 MBA in Australia. So who’s the best? MBS, of course, on a technicality.

(Top) A good-looking bunch: MBS Rugby Supporters (signs you are doomed: bringing a Frisbee to a rugby match)

The MBS Debate Team

MBS Rugby Team, trying to figure out the rules

AGSM/MBS CUP 2011

Ivonne Edenton

“So I was on a flight in first class, enjoying one of the best wines in the world and w a t c h i n g T h e S o c i a l Network….”

And so the idea of using the movie to illustrate learning for branding and marke t ing was born. Mark Ritson in his usual lecture style captivated a f u l l h o u s e o f 1 7 0 audiences on Tuesday 12 April 2011 for the MBS Marketing Association Lecture Series. He made t he po in t t ha t g rea t company leaders l ive among their consumers thus understand what the consumers want, just like how Mark Zuckerberg realised the importance of having ‘relationship status’ on Facebook from his classmate. Another point that Mark Ritson emphasised was that marketing is not about getting everyone to buy the product. It is about targeting the right segment, groups like the elite Phoenix boys in the movie, which often means purposely excluding other people outside this segment.

“Marketing is not Sales, otherwise we would have called it Sales.”

This entertaining and insightful session was the last event in Term 1 by the MBS Marketing Association. It was organised in conjunction with the SRC, Net Impact and Melbourne Business School to raise funds for the victims of the natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand. The total donation of $1,441 was given to the Red Cross Japan and Pacific Disaster Appeal 2011. MBS Marketing Association already has an exciting line up of events for next term so be on the look out for future announcements through our Facebook page or mailing list. To be included in the mailing list or for any other comments or queries, please contact mbsmarketing@mbs.edu.

The Social

Network: What

this movie teaches us

about branding

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mbs sports clubAngie Born

February 25 - A beautiful day for tennis.

This term we had not only perfect weather but- 100% growth in participants - A late comer who messed up the schedule but made it to the final

- An upgrade from pure paper scheduling to doing it with a real computer. Which, of course, crashed.

- Beautiful Wayde (taking over Luke Naughton's spot) - The manliest Aussie running the BBQ - thank you Sam!- An awesome location - thank you Elena! Last year winners Elena and Agostin hand over the valuable trophy to

Sebastian, the new MBS Tennis Champion. In the background: Final a Ben fighting tears.  

Mick Horrigan

The Finance Club would like to Congratulate the top three teams of the 2011 Stock Picking Competition, which was sponsored by JCP Investment Partners.

Winners: Gideon Ratner & Adam RisborgStock: Harvey NormanCash Prize: $700 (sponsored by JCP Investment Partners)

1st Runner up: Samuele Romani & David SaktiStock: CarSales.com.auCash Prize: $300 (sponsored by JCP Investment Partners)

2nd Runner up: Nader Sianaki & Samuel HaytonStock: Wotif.com Holding

The preliminary rounds were held during March where 10 teams entered. The finals were held on 14th April, with 5 finalists competing. The judges felt that all the five finalists were excellent, with stocks being selected from the retail, online and mining industries. They were very happy with the quality of the presentation, the recommendations and answers to their questions.

Special mention must go to the Finance Club (Ayush Trivedi, Patrick Chu and Dinal Dalal) for

organising the event; Associate Professor Sam Wylie for his immense support throughout the competition; and the industry professionals from JCP Investment Partners, VA Advisors, SG Hiscock, NAB and Acorn Capital who all agreed to mentor the finalists and judge the competition.

Finance Club

(Top) Finalist Mick Horrigan and Will Herron, taking the ‘Business Attire’ more seriously given that they were presenting a stock from the mining industry

Finalist Vincent Crispin

1st Runners up Samuele Romani and David Sakti presenting in the finals

Rachel Edwards

Despite the very early start, on the morning of Tuesday 19th April an enthusiastic group of full and part time MBS students met to discuss an issue that has seen a lot of comment in the media lately, ‘Women in the Boardroom’. Hosted by the Women and Management club, this panel discussion benefitted from the insight and experience of two successful Non-Executive Directors:

Natalie Frazer - Senior Marketing Manager – Infrastructure, Government, Health - Ernst & Young and currently a board member and chair of the communication committee of Dolphin Research Institute (DRI)

Leharna Black - Managing Director, Whoosh Consulting Pty Ltd, Business consultant and mentor, non-executive director, finance, operations and strategy

The discussions, aided by strong coffee and warm blueberry muffins, provided an informal opportunity for our speakers to share their experiences and facilitated a rich discussion amongst the group.

Particularly interesting were their thoughts around quotas for female membership on boards (with opinion split 50:50) and essential skills for anyone hoping to contribute effectively at this level (financial analysis appeared the most sought after, but passion and enthusiasm came a close second!).

Thank you to all those who participated, and for those of you who missed out we will be hosting further events, so keep an eye out for announcements next term!

About WAM

The Women and Management (WAM) club seeks to assist students at Melbourne Business School make the most of their time at the school as a resource and support platform, where they can better acquaint with fellow female students, faculty, alumni and business professionals in the community.

To keep informed of our events please ‘like’ our Facebook page, or email wam@mbs.edu and ask to be added to the distribution list.

MBS Women & Management Club

Women in the Boardroom