Christmas wishlist

Dear Santa,

if you really must bring me a book this Christmas, please make it an interesting one. See for example if you can find 'Rules for Radicals', by Saul Alinsky. I met so many people this year - including myself - who claim to want to change things and then are scared to death. I thought perhaps this book might give me some clue.



Alternatively, dear Santa, if you are thinking to buy me a DVD, see if you can find me "The fog of war". It's a documentary/interview with former US secretary of state Robert MacNamara. It's about the fact that decision making is really difficult when you are in the thick of shit, because the complexity of situations - the fog of war - makes everything really murky and unclear. I saw this already in class this year, but I'd really like to watch it again.



thanks!

lova-lamp

Paths to power, and end of term

So, Friday was for me the end of a fantastic block week course (Paths to power) as well as the end of the term.

Paths to Power is a bad name for a very good course about power and influence in organisations. It touches on the ethics of power, the dynamics of power, the mechanisms of influence, the dangers of power. Main learnings for me: (1) Power is necessary to get things done. It is better to have it than not to have it (because otherwise someone else will take it). (2) Having power necessarily means having to make difficult choices. Being naive about it does not help. (3) Power flows from the people that are around you in an organisation. So being powerful is pretty much about being very good at managing your relationships with people. Without their support, you can not have power. The course book is very interesting, although it will make you look a bit like a looser if you read it in the tube. Patxi says a bit more about it here.



Overall the term has gone well. For me it has been largely about deciding which job I want to do after my MBA, and finding it. I have been meeting about a dozen of companies, interviewed with about seven, of which 2 (possibly 3) have developed into very interesting conversations. There have also been a couple of disappointments, with a couple of companies showing commitment and then backing off. ah well!
The process of interviewing is all in all a highly stressful experience, but I guess on the upside it forced me to really clarify what I am really after and what my strengths are. Hopefully the new year will bring some proper closure on that front. For now I am looking forward to a nice break.

Happy Christmas everyone!

why do the brits grill tomatoes?

We had Russell at LBS last night, showing us some interesting ads and trying to tell us what makes a good ad. One of my goals in organising the event was to see what happens when you bring a very good advertising person in a business school environment.
It turned out to be a bit of a clash of cultures for me, at least semantically: on the one hand we had Russell talking about 'interesting', 'negative emotions', 'cultural phenomena'. On the other hand, you had an LBS professor arguing about 'strategic alignment', 'effectiveness', 'positioning'. On the third hand ( :-) ), you had the students who pretty much wanted to see some ads and have a laugh.
I suspect all parties left slightly annoyed, and I pretty much spent all night thinking about it.



I woke up this morning and I was still thinking about it. I left home to go for an interview with a very intelligent woman at one of my favourite advertising agencies. It was more of a chat rather than an interview, as we both new that they don't have openings at the moment.
It turned out to be a very pleasant experience. We talked a bit about what an MBA is and how it might help in an advertising agency. Also we talked about how advertising is a discipline caught in between art and business (i.e. about the clash of cultures), and how exciting this is.

After leaving the building I got caught in 'severe tube delays on the circle, district, hammersmith and Godknowswhatother line'. It was pounding with rain, so I found shelter in a very British cafe and spent a good half-hour there, meditating over a lovely English breakfast. why the hell do the Brits grill tomatoes?

genius adwords

brilliant! (the whole story, in Italian, on IMLI)

Ah Paris!

Lovely weekend in Paris. Fast train, partly good weather, crap hotel, good food, fantastic churches, amazing concert, lovely andante guide for the Louvre (thanks Patxi). Will definitely do it again.