Global Business Outlook 2009

One of the reasons why it is great to be an MBA student is that you get to attend expensive functions for free! =p

One such function is the Global Business Outlook Forum 2009 which I attended today. The usual price of the forum tickets is AUD $195, with luncheon at AUD $110. MBS students were gifted free tickets for this function and I wouldn't miss it. I had a lecture today, Business Strategy, in the morning. But to attend the forum, I attended the part-time Business Strategy class last night instead.

The cool thing about the forum was that it was held at the Parliament House! I have passed the Parliament House of Victoria several times but I have never been in it before. And best of all, the forum was held in the chamber itself where many national decisions have been made before. Here are the pictures...

The forum had its fair share of interesting and boring speakers. The topics were mainly on the recession and how it is impacting Australia. Being a student from MBS, of course my favourite speaker was Mark Crosby, who is our Economics professor. =) He covered the trade relationships between Australia and China, and he gave the closing keynote address as well.

If I were to choose 3 main things I learnt today, they will be:

1) Bill Clinton loosened the credit worthiness criteria in US so that poor people can afford houses

2) One page summary of your business strategy should be your bible for SMEs

3) Bring your own translator when working in China

Career Presentations

It is the internship seeking period for my intake and we have been spending most of our time outside lectures in career presentations. Most of our weekday evenings are spent asking questions to speakers from Consulting firms to Banks. And I am running out of suits to wear to presentations!

So far we have had AT Kearney, BCG, Bain, Mckinsey and Deloitte for consulting firms, with Booz adding to the list with its presentation tomorrow. For banks, we have heard from NAB, ANZ and others will present next week or so. I am pleased with the mix of the employers who came to MBS so far. They gave good insights to their industries and corporate cultures.

Though times are bad and some companies are not hiring interns this year, it is still good to attend the presentations and talk to alumni who are in the industry. Hope I will land a good internship somewhere in Australia. Let's see... if not I will just spend next term mugging again and graduate end of this year!