Dear Friends,

Glad you are still here, reading this and supporting me from wherever you may be.

Today mark the eve of the end of another term for the various programmes that I am covering. I am exhausted from effort expended in my profession as an accountant. I am looking forward to the day that I can sit around and actually say I got nothing to do. When will that day come?

My MBA Journey
Just completed reviewing the survey questions to be posted to various companies for their completion. At this juncture, I wish to ask for your help in completing my questionaire when it is ready.

Without having to do Revision Classes for this term, I can go ahead with my two weekends of MBA classes in KL in coming weeks peacefully. Air tickets and rooms have been confirmed. A small investment to meet some new people in a new environment.

Marking "Accounting Theory" papers will be my theme in the next few days. Plenty of stuff to read. I am quietly very disturbed by the apparent effort that the students have not prepared well for the exam despite my best effort. But I guess they are still young and will hopefully learn some how (with the least pain and cost).

Till next posting.. Edgar says "Take care, my friend."

Dear friends,

A lot of "achievements" recorded since beginning of year. Achievements? Well I want to take them all positively.

The main one being handling the changing staff aspirations and subsequent changes we have to make to accommodate that.

Next, the MBA classmates and I managed to put together a topic and managed to secure acceptance by the first supervisor we submitted. Perhaps he was impressed that we are attempting a topic that could potentially enrich his knowledge of Asia. I will seek your help in my next posting after we get our clearance to start our project proper.

I have also booked my flights and hotel accommodation for two weekends in May 2012 in Kuala Lumpur. Just want to give myself the opportunities to get out and about to meet new friends!!!

Till the next posting... keep smiling!

Edgar, sincerely always. 

Dear friends,

It is already 11 days into the new year.. Firstly, I want to wish you, Happy New Year!!! 

Secondly, I want to share with you the news that I passed my exam for the last paper called "Managing People in Organisations". I was really pleasantly surprised when I saw the results. I had to read two books in a very short time and hopefully sing the tune as desired by examiner. In fact, I want to say that I actually learn something from reading the books. It is the chimmer / deeper version of Edward de Bono's different colour hats. The books are very interesting as they are filled with short stories to deliver learning points. Bottomline - just glad that the exam part of the MBA is done.

Thirdly, I have signed up for the required two electives. I will be spending two weekends in May in Kuala Lumpur doing topics like "Market in a Digital & Cross Cultural World" and "Strategic Decision Making". Hope they will be interesting outings for me!!

Lastly, I have taken a small baby step to start on the thesis when I agree to meet with my classmates to brainstorm this weekend. The thesis being the final requirement of the MBA. Keeping my fingers crossed on this.

If things go according to all the various plans from various fronts, the first six months of 2012 will be very very very demanding on me!!

Dear friends, I really really appreciate the support that you have given to me. To those I have not talked to much, do rest assured that you are always in my mind and heart.

Good health to you and family. Gongxi!! Gongxi!!

Edgar 

Dear Friends,

My MBA programme is now down to one last exam in August, two more electives and 20,000-word project to go to finish. One step at a time as I try to fit a money spending exercise with my income generating activities in the form of my business and teaching assignments.

Recently, I attended a talk. The speaker said formal education is becoming a thing of the past. He said we should not even force our children to study. Huh? He said we, as parents, will have no clue at all what the future high-paying professions will be. A high tech successful entrepreneur (whose name I have forgotten) actually offer college-going kids to quit college with $100,000 of his money if that kid has an idea accepted by him. Do you know of anyone who did not finish school but actually a billionaire? Of coz. But do you know of any professors, who teach business skills and entrepreneurship, who are actually billionaires?

As I sat there, I was also thinking about how we did our research for our MBA assignments. We no longer plough through tonnes of books at the library but instead the quality of our research depends on the choice of appropriate key words relevant to the topic.

I was also thinking about the shortening business cycle. After each cycle, you see many "old" companies with previously successful business model being dethroned by new ideas. The speaker asked how many of us is not wearing a watch? Two of us said they are not wearing any watch as they now rely on the handphone to tell time. Huh again! "Convergence" has destroyed and is destroying outdated business models.

I shared the above perspective with my children and both of them said it is certainly very interesting indeed.

See you when I see you, my dear friends. Be well. 

Dear friends,

Before I run off for my meeting with some staff, I thought I will spend some time with you here.

The month of May started with me paying $8,050 being the third instalment of my MBA school fees using my credit card. Technically already late due to me dilly dallying over which credit card I should apply or use to get some cash rebates or points ie. to maximise the discounts. Finally I proceeded with my existing card after considering the additional effort needed (which I can't afford) to apply for a card from Standard Chartered.

What is the main programme for third term? Firstly, one more exam (hopefully) which I really really dread to prepare. Why? I have to read two gigantically thick books. I postponed twice already. But I will definitely work towards August exam. I also awaiting my results for Operations Management exam.

Secondly, I will be attending my final compulsory weekend class on Strategic Consulting in Practice this weekend. It starts 2 pm on Friday and ends on Sunday 5pm. So weekend is effectively BURN.

Thirdly, while most of my classmates have signed up for 2 electives already, some of us (definitely including Edgar) have not committed to any. What is an elective? A particular course which you can choose from a list of courses being run over a few centres such as KL, HK, Dubai, Scotland etc etc.

Lastly, another big requirement awaiting for me to fulfill is to write a thesis of twenty thousands words which I have not even thinking about at this point in time. This would be my project for 2012.

So till the next posting. You will see me posting here if I am bored this weekend.

Take care, my dear friends.