Blog, MBA in Stockholm Blog

It is now exactly a month since I began my MBA studies in Stockholm and next week it's time for week 2.

Of course, I have not read as much as I liked. Some fellow students in Stockholm have formed a study group and met to review the economic studies. Ohh I wish I had become close to fellow students so that I could be involved and get some support and help. Hopefully, I will be able to get some support next week when I'm on the campus.

We will continue with the economy aspects of the MBA and then move forward onto the law, which  I look forward to beginning.  Also I am continuing with the project "Leading Change".

One of my passions is climbing and the being in the great outdoors. I have long planned a trip to Alaska to climb the world's coldest mountain. Now an opportunity came up, and I will be in Alaska in July to try to get up the 6194 m (I think it was) mountain.

Must pack the camera so that you get some pictures from Stockholm School of Economics next week.

Updates - I have been working on a new project recently in which I need to come up with a structure for the project that we should drive "home" in our working lives. I have created the foundations for the project, along with the business leaders and CEO here at my company Falun Energy & Water. I have managed to get a project team that goes well with my MBA training and have sent over the brief to my contact at the school.

The project plan must be filed before the end of the month, so there is only a little time left to work on the project together with my colleagues and the company.

As of yet, I have not been able to study economics as I would have liked. In the past year I have been examining the elements of economics in my free time. I've put this to one side of course now that I started on this MBA program. But I was in the final stages of a course when I began studying for my MBA and I felt that I wanted to finish it - So even though time is short, last Friday I sat down and completed the exam.

Tonight I'll get stuck into my project again and try to structure the material.

Falun Energy & Water (my employer) arranged a training course for me to learn how to work on a lot of projects. Today was the last day of training so now it's just time to go home and apply the new skills in the workplace. Among other things, as a result of this project management training I will now be responsible for managing the of building a new website for the company and applying the skills I have learnt in my recent training.

During the MBA program at Stockholm School of Economics, we will run a "leading change" project and I hope it will be a project that is relevant to my job. I'll try to apply this model in that, too.

I wrote earlier in this blog about employees and workplace culture, and the similarities to ethical guidelines. Project management is a bit like that and is not so easy to get people to come together. We are working on it though and have a good tips from the MBA program which it are gratefully received. What to bring and how to create the desired culture of enterprise is not an easy thing.

Although one of our speakers last week, Manuel Knight, put it simply "If You Want Corn - Plant Corn."

After a busy week on my MBA program, I've done the first day of my "regular" job since starting. It feels like I been gone from the office a long time but it's probably because last week contained so much information.

But it was quick to get into the usual routines. We are planning a leisure activity for all staff in May. In this context, we discussed our employee records. This document required to prepare for the event is very much about ethics and morality and to develop the document has not been entirely painless, but now it begins to take shape. The days when the so-called "Big Meeting" will take place will contain a great deal of dialogue between the business areas which are a useful way to add a cultural basis.

Culture in organizations was one of the topics discussed last week on the MBA course. One of the things that came up was that everyone must be part of creating a workplace culture - and must have a say in things. I promised myself to say no when meeting times are not kept (which in my organization are often not kept). I got to practice this in the first meeting of the day - in which all participants came about 15 minutes late. What was interesting was that all employees agreed that time should be kept and promised improvement.

Let's see if it works :-).

First week finished!

The first week has been truly intense and it is quite clear that you need a high level of English on an MBA Program. At the beginning of the week I was worrying about where my English had gone, but the longer the week went on - the better it became. Long days and lots of new knowledge made me feel full of energy but my head is tired. It's the energy of all the classmates combined with the new knowledge that makes the long days so worth it.

Something I really noticed during the first week is how important it is to be truly present. If there is something else that is getting your attention, like private jobs or home life, it becomes very difficult to concentrate. I am lucky, my employer is generous and is trying to make it easy for me. But I have noticed that some of my classmates who are very involved in their jobs during the week, were having problems concentrating, which they saw as a hassle.

This need to be really 'present' and to devote time to the program was something that we talked about during the week and several classmates said that they needed to talk to their workplaces about the importance of being able to fully focus when studying at IFL, Stockholm School of Economics.

Must see if I can document this experience with photos so you can follow me with picture proof!

Time passes quickly when you are having fun, and after only the first few days, I can subscribe to it! There are long days too, but time goes fast. Often when you are on a course or seminar, there are lecturers who do not measure up or who do not have the ability to keep the audience's attention.

Here, this is not so. Speaker after speaker here at Stockholm School of Economics delivers and keeps a really high standard. When we sit in groups and have discussions - among students :-) you have to sharpen your brain to keep up with all the angles. I have learned a lot these first few days and above all to turn and twist  problems and what others may have noticed, I have missed completely and thought the opposite.

The tempo is high but I feel it is that all participants think it's good. For my part, I usually feel a frustration of things not going fast enough - but now they certainly are flying by!

It takes a lot of energy for me to be a participant - but when I get back as much energy as this it feels "easy".

Well the first day of my MBA is over and wow what a day! What classmates! What stimulating discussions and what true leaders there were in the loosely structured training.

Most of the day was spent going through the arrangement of the program and clarifying what is expected of us as participants. It will probably not be an easy journey but it feels like it will all be worth it if it continues as it did today!

I have already met a participant who works with similar things as me but in a different branch. We realized that we reflect and ponder on the same things and decided quickly that we need to talk more about it here, either during the course of this week or later on.

In today's discussion the area that we touched on was how we think of the future employees and customers will behave. Is it OK for a member of staff to show underwear or surfing on huis private cell phone whilst on the job? It is OK for the young employees of today but not fort he "old" generation, and how should we balance this?

At the end of the first day, we visited a boule bar (soical bar) and had a boules tournament. My team did not get to the finals and I think it was due to errors gravel / sand on the tracks

;-)

Speaking English

Earlier this week we MBA students received our first piece of literature, and it was in English. Not unexpectedly, when the whole course is in English and my own assessment is that I created in that language after a year as an exchange student in the United States. But after plodding through 50 pages so did my confidence in my English language skills area took a blow. Now I have got through the book and done my assignments and I very much hope that I will loosen up in the English area, the more I get into it.

At 05.55 I take the train going to Stockholm, and have to pack. Wonder what kind of clothes one should wear when studying for an MBA?

On Monday, March 15th 2010 I began my Executive MBA education at IFL, Stockholm School of Economics in  Stockholm, Sweden.

In the days before I was due to start my MBA Program I had strong feelings of nervousness. I worried about how it would be when I will stepped through the doors of the Business School. What would I do there, and how would I cope?

I work at a small company, when compared to many of my classmates. I have a title and a role in the company that is well below many of my classmates. But the jury believed in me - and believe that I have to have something to offer and something that is worth going for.

I know that I have a drive that goes outside of most people's ambition, so now is the time to pick it up and enjoy it. Sweden also needs to develop smaller companies with a tangible benefit to society, such as Falun Energy & Water. The knowledge contained in these local technical companies is enormous. So with this in mind I will put my all into this Executive MBA!

I am just starting the 2010 Executive MBA program at IFL, Stockholm School of Economics. Something that I am both proud and a bit shocked.

My name is Ulrica Lindsköld and I live in Leksand, in the middle of Dalarna, in northern Sweden.

I work today with commercial and business development at Falu Energi & Vatten (www.fev.se).

In my job I work largely in a cross-section of the group of business managers.

I am a trained chemical engineer, but have studied further in both the environmental inspector and environmental auditor areas, and today I even study in areas of economics, but with this Executive MBA in front of me I am choosing to go for it and continue to read more into business at university.

This is a fantastic opportunity for me personally - and for the company I am employed by.

In my spare time I am active and practicing and like to renovate my house, go diving or climbing mountains.