Tanaka and Institute of Education Knowledge Days

I've learned a lot in the last three days at Tanaka Business School. Our mini-mini-mini-mini MBA is actually rather interesting.

Thursday was all about strategy - lots of chatter about vision and missions and objectives and internal analysis and external analysis and resources and capabilities and core competencies and gaining a competitive advantage. After 5 hours of intense lecturing and applying the theory to an education case study I am still confused by a lot of it. Nevertheless I got 100% in the multiple-choice test (perhaps evidence that certain assessment strategies aren't always that useful).

Friday was all about marketing. More jargon again. This time it was about creating a marketing strategy based on segmentation, targeting and positioning. There were the three Cs and the four Ps and various other random words here and there. Again a steep learning curve but I found the education case study today a lot easier to get my teeth into. I think this was because I was still enjoying the positive reception my PitPads had received.

Yes, that's right, the PitPads are back. We had to create a marketing strategy for a product and I managed to persuade my group to use PitPads. Lots of excellent marketing ideas and possibilities for the product led me to thinking that perhaps there's hope for the idea after all. However, this has rapidly been dashed since I got home and found out that another name for what I thought was my unique idea is "dress shields", which lots of companies seem to already make. Bugger.

Saturday was all about Finance. A bit of a cheat for me really since it was all about balance sheets, P&Ls, and cash flow statements - stuff I've done at Deloitte already. Very funny lecturer, who complained about his wife's spending habits. When trying to persuade him to buy her a £600 Gucci bag, apparently she said to him that it was "very strong". "So are two Tesco carrier bags put together. And they're free," was his reply. Anyway, enjoyed that quite a lot, and also the afternoon case study on trying to sort out the budget deficit for a fictional school. It was good to see the kinds of ways schools make and spend their money, and how teachers are such a huge expense. Good thing TF is out there providing all these cheap teachers!

All in all, Tanaka was really useful and engaging, at least for me anyway. Shame I don't have thirty grand to spare - an MBA could have been the way forward!

Tomorrow I start my three week summer project with Business in the Community. Just when I was getting used to a holiday!

Would you employ this teacher?

My Disney-buddy Sprouse is teaching English in Oxford. She mentioned a drama once when a child jumped on the table during a lesson. I sympathised with her, even when she elaborated that she only taught the one child by himself, he was 12, and it was a private lesson (so she got paid my week's salary in one session).

She sent across her potential teacher profile:

"miss rouse just finished her degree in chemistry and has no teaching experience at all. she has also never learned grammar so is not qualified in any way to be teaching your children. you are wasting your money. outside of academia, her interests include your faces". i'm thinking along these lines. sound ok?

I would employ you Sprouse - maybe this is the business we've been waiting for?

Coffee Bags, Micragolia, Scrubs Quote

Yay, I'm back from a glorious week in Venice! I bet you missed me :) So what's been happening? Well, I have made myself promise not to write about Venice until I finish my WA3, so you'll have to wait a bit on that front. However, I have to procrastinate somehow so here's a post for you anyway.

Firstly, I thought I'd invented fresh coffee bags (kinda like individual tea bags except with fresh coffee in them instead) and was whooping around celebrating my discovery before I googled them and found that they already semi-exist. Boo. But Potter helpfully told me about "second but better" theory so there's potential. Obviously what will ulitmately happen is that I'll just throw coffee bags onto my ever-expanding list of ideas and then forget all about it.

Secondly, my friend Netty is doing some crazy Mongol Race or something this summer, which essentially involves driving from Hyde Park to Ulaan Bator in a very small car. How exciting! And how faaaaar! She is very cool and made this lovely map, so thought I'd put that up.


If you wanna find out more or sponsor her, check out their justgiving pages:

Mercy Corps - www.justgiving.com/micragolia
Hope and Homes for Children - www.justgiving.com/micragolia2

Thirdly, CK sent me this Scrubs quote and said it reminded him of me. I assumed I was Dr Cox in it, but thinking about it now, I'm probably Elliot....

Elliot to Dr. Cox "Oh, you think you're funny?"

Dr. Cox "I do. I always have ever since I was little. It's one of the reasons that I'm a winner!"

Gimmealift.com

This is my other commuter idea. I am actually quite serious about this idea thus I am writing in black.

It came to me the other day when I was on my way to the gym. I drove past the bus stop at the end of my road and remembered how I used to wait there to get the bus to the station. Everyone waiting at that bus stop either wants to go to the station or to the town centre. Whenever I was waiting there I'd see car after car go by, and used to be fully convinced that over half of them would pass the station, and that at least one of them would think it'd be worth giving me a lift there if I paid them the bus fare (the journey from my bus stop to the station is about 5 mins, but takes over 15 minutes to walk). Anyway, this time I was the one in the car driving by, and I started contemplating whether anyone waiting at any of the bus stops I'd pass on the way was going anywhere along my route, and what it would take for me to give them a lift.

Later that day when I was having lunch with Ladun and debating the congestion charge, Ladun told me that outside of London most public transport is pretty rubbish and everyone drives everywhere. This again got me thinking about how many cars there were on the road, and how many people were going the same way as other people, and I started wondering whether it'd be possible to co-ordinate all these potential passengers and drivers, and what it would take to get a lift somewhere. To cut a looooong story short, I came up with gimmealift.com. I haven't actually got this website or anything yet - as always, I'm trapped in the idea phase. In fact, I haven't even pinned the idea properly down yet.

What I have done is a little bit of research. I typed in "organised hitch-hiking" into Google since I guess this is effectively what I'm proposing. It turns out that this is a long established practice in Germany, known as the Mitfahrzentrale (roughly translated as "the agency for shared rides"). True, this is over longer distances and booked more in advance, but it's kinda the same principle. People who want a ride somewhere give their request to one of the Mitfahrzentrale (there are quite a few agencies over there), who then match them up with one of the drivers who have said they are doing that journey. The agency takes a commission for setting up the match, the passenger gets a ride at a cheaper price than public transport, and the driver gets paid by the passenger for the lift (it's usually a certain number of euros per km, or the passenger splits the fuel cost or something like that). Similar schemes run in Belgium and across Europe too, some of which are for free (in that the agency doesn't take a cut, just matches up people).

The next commuter solution out there that I really loved is slugging. I think this only exists in America, and only this formally in Washington DC. Basically it's short-notice short-distance ride-sharing whereby drivers that want to drive in the faster "carpool" lanes pick up strangers (aka "slugs") so that they have enough people in their car to get into the carpool lane. This has become such a phenomenon that there are actual slug-lines where people queue to get their free lifts from strangers! Both parties win since the passenger gets his free ride and the driver gets his passenger so he can go in the faster carpool lane rather than sit in the traffic. Seriously, read through the link, its an amazing idea, I wish we could implement something similar here.

I guess what I'm thinking about is something in between slugging and the mitfahrzentrale. I'm trying to think of a way so that all the waiting commuters can get to their destinations just a little bit faster, while we make more efficient use of the cars that are out there. I guess I'm also thinking about more long distance journeys e.g. say if A needed a lift from London to Oxford on Monday and B was driving up then anyway, and A offered some money towards the fuel, would it be in B's interests to take A along?

My issues at the moment are: What are the actual logistics of a scheme like this (i.e. if it was going to be a spontaneous picking someone up at a bus stop type thing, how could the driver and passenger actually co-ordinate with each other)? Where's the incentive for people? What about safety? Could we make it more organised e.g. formal daily ride sharing by schools or companies?

I know it's a pretty vague idea at the moment, but I think it has business potential, and is good for the environment, and kinda socially enterprising too.

So, ideas/feedback? Could something like this work? And yes, we can change the name :)

Commuter Cupid

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you've had a good one.

Strolling around London, I noted that it was indeed full of love. Very nice. I received the obligatory sweets and note from my folks, and a comedy message from a mate to "a beautiful sweaty Asian"...mmm romantic, heehee.

Decided to focus my entrepreneurial energies on love. Came up with The Love Train. Essentially speed-dating on the Tube, set-up in the style of those random silent flash mob discos (which, despite continually getting told about, I'm yet to attend, although they sound wicked. As an aside, that funkypancake blog is ace!) So, for example, the message would be spread that the last carriage of the eastbound Central line train on departing from Ealing Broadway at 17:57 on Tuesday would be a Love Train, where single commuters could congregate and ease their lonely hearts. Think about it, commuters spend aaages on the trains each day, and there are actually quite a lot of quite fit people on it, so why not spread a little love? It would also be particularly funny for the random tourists that get on that carriage and are subsequently approached by genuine Love Train passengers, heehee. Jade went one step further and told me I could hire a whole Circle line train and have dates going on all carriages for a whole evening, with people just popping on and off as they saw fit. I like the idea of being a Commuter Cupid.

Had lunch with Ladun, who's on her way to America/St Lucia for the next three months. Was lovely to see her; she's one of the few people who can persistently and consistently challenge me intellectually, which I like. I look forward to her changing the world one day. The restaurant we went to made me cross. The bill was £47.20, which included a £5.25 service charge! How ridiculous, considering the place was practically empty and the food/service wasn't great. Boo! The place is called Carthage - don't go there! On the plus side, along with numerous debates about all kinds of political issues, I told her about my other idea of the day to do with transport, which she quite liked. I like it too, but will save it for tomorrow in case it's a dry day on the ideas front. If you need an idea fix, check this out.

Mouchey Peas, why are you rambling on about herons and stalks? More fictional pets?

And finally, the crude joke, which I expect you to try and drop into polite conversation as soon as possible:

How do you know if your sister's on her period?
Your dad's cock tastes funny.

Eeeeewwww. Heehee.

Ramblings

It's Tuesday of half-term at 17:16. I am very tired. I blame the builders for banging all the time. I am not convinced they are even making anything. Humph.

I also blame the "plague" I currently kinda have. It must be from the school kids. More humph.

Anyway, enough grumbling and on to the rambling. Yesterday I spent a day as a housewife, doing such wonderful things as spend aaages in the sauna (without the weird lady, thankfully), do the shopping, have coffee, bake a cake, and play the piano. I decided that being a lady of leisure is really rather appealing and so spontaneously revised my life plan. It turned out it was good time to think about my life plan since when I was dropping my Mum off at her fitness class we had a lovely chat about how I really should start thinking about settling down. Hmmm. I'm not convinced my parents realise I am a cheeky little monkey trapped inside an Oxford graduate, who will not mature enough to "settle down" for a long time.

I had dinner with Ish and Clare last night and we slipped into an impromptu brainstorming session, as we are often prone to do. Even way back in the first year we were all plotting away on how to make our millions, certain we are meant to be entrepreneurs. This part of me hasn't really been dormant, but it's been reawakened recently. They are both convinced the future is India (and not China as commonly thought) so we spent lots of time thinking of serious, and not-so-serious, ideas to hit the jackpot. I told them about my "commuter blind date" idea; they thought it was a bit stalkerish, and there's obviously loads of reasons why it wouldn't work, but I do kinda like it. I think my mind is stuck on matchmaking. Anyway, we didn't really get anywhere, but it was great to think about that kinda stuff again, and so obviously I spontaneously changed my life plan again. I guess I shouldn't really call it a plan...more of a strategy.

So today I came up with two more ideas:

1. Compatibility advice for couples based on astrology - Asian families do this anyway, in that they check out the compatibility of birth charts when they are looking for potential engagements for their son/daughter. This fits the matchmaking bill.
2. A life-choice simulator - some really really complicated computer program type thing that would calculate all the outcomes for your life depending on the choices you made. Obviously this is completely impossible since you can never predict everything and there are far too many factors, but it'd be nice to see in advance what will happen because of your choices. Thinking about this now, it has significant connections with time-travelling devices. So might have to scrap that one.

You may be wondering what happened to the medicine plan...well, now I'm not entirely convinced it's for me, and I guess you have to be certain before you go into something like that. Also my littlest brother has jumped on this bandwagon too, and I refuse for all three of us to be doctors!

Right, that is the end of the rambling today...ooh except I heard a really crude funny joke yesterday. I probably shouldn't write it on here, but if you wanna hear it, let me know.

PS Continuing on the theme of junk with the Disney girls, check out FreeCycle. There're groups for each of the London boroughs and all over the world too. What a great idea! Mouche, I may have to give away your PoS...