Ada Kong

Back to the Real World: Week 3

First week back from Sweden and we are off! My MAP team arrived back in the United States on Saturday evening and did not meet on Sunday as everyone was still adjusting to the time difference. Monday saw us back at the Ross School of Business. We knew that the countdown has begun for our project. During the course of the last two weeks that we were in Sweden, we had a minimum of three 1.5 hours interviews per day. A quick calculation indicated that we had interviewed at least 30 people. Now we had to compile all that information into the forecasting model that we were tasked to build. One of my MAP team members and I volunteered to research the prevalence and incidence rates for certain types of cancer. Another two team members were charged with building the backbone of the economic model. The remaining two team members planned to figure out the pricing scheme and competitive landscape.  At this point, everything still had a theoretical feel to it. It was not until I started to conduct research and then found an excellent website that will help me obtain the data that will calculate the actual number of people with cancer in the Nordic that I truly began to appreciate what the end product will be and how it will affect our sponsor. I am now researching the different types of cancers in the Nordic and how our sponsor’s drugs rank in comparison to its competitors.

On another note, the weather here in A2 has been fabulous. Goodbye snow and hello spring! My friends and I have definitely been taking advantage of the sun. We had lunch at Good Time Charley’s one day (outdoor seating of course!). I also just came back from brunch at Zingerman’s and a trip to the Farmer’s Market in Kerrytown. Tomorrow, our section is going to convene at Burns Park and continue to enjoy the lovely sunshine that we have been having.

Finally, I hope to see many of you at Go Blue Rendezvous on April 8 to April 10. I cannot believe that it has been one year since I came to A2 to visit the Ross School of Business. I have done more than I imagined I would during this year. Just to summarize, here are some of the highlights of my MBA career thus far …

·         Travelled to Egypt and Sweden

·         Performed due diligence and recommended an investment on behalf of the Wolverine Venture Fund

·         Represented the Ross School of Business at the Kellogg Healthcare & Biotech Marketing Competition

·         Obtained an offer to intern at one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company

·         Made some really excellent friends

Come and experience the Ross School of Business yourself. Your visit will open doors and provide opportunities you did not even know existed. Happy Easter!

 

Back to the Real World: Weeks 1 & 2

So concludes the second week of my multidisciplinary action project (otherwise known as MAP) in Sweden. When I was going through the business school application process last year, MAP was one thing that differentiated the Ross School of Business for me. Based on what I have discussed with alumni then and what I have read when researching the school, I understood the concept to MAP. However, it wasn’t until I stepped foot into Arlanda airport in Sweden thirteen days ago, traveled to Taby, and then went into the Novartis offices to meet up with our sponsors (after 15 hours spent travelling!) that I knew what MAP truly entailed.

MAP is about applying what we have learned during our first three quarters at the Ross School of Business to real life business situations. During the meeting that we had with our sponsors, it was emphasized that the results of our project will be utilized by top executives within the organization and that our recommendations to the company will be integral to their organization going forward. Subsequent to our meeting, a single thought emerged from my mind … this was no longer a 7.5 unit class that I need to take in order to complete my MBA. This was about going into the business world and coming up with the requested economic models and recommendations that will determine how a pharmaceutical company will allocate resources and strategically market its launch products in the next three to five years. What we do matters. Somehow, my MAP team of six students will put our brains together for the next six weeks to develop forecasting models and propose recommendations to executive management personnel who have been in the industry for 15 years. Our value add is that we will be armed with tools that we learned from some of the best minds in academia (courtesy of the Ross School of Business) and the fact that we will be looking at the pharmaceutical industry and company with fresh pairs of eyes and multiple perspectives.

During our two weeks in Sweden, we were exposed to a multitude of people who worked for the sponsoring company. Our goal was to obtain a thorough understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and how the company successfully launches its products. We then strategized on how we can accomplish our goal during the remaining four weeks in A2. To backtrack, I was very impressed with how the MAP office put our team together. We have six people on our MAP team, including three CPAs, two engineers, and one real estate developer. Of the six of us, we had two people who had exposure to the healthcare industry … a medical device engineer and an auditor who specialized in the healthcare industry. To say that the learning curve was steep was an understatement. And yet we managed. Team members shared thoughts and information and questions were posed to our sponsors during the six hours’ worth of interviews we had every day. Although our personalities varied, our group works well together. There is no one dominant voice in the group and individual members of the team are willing to work hard. For example, when one person takes notes for a meeting, another person would automatically volunteer to do the same during the next meeting. If someone works on the midpoint presentation, another person is more than happy to take over the engagement letter and faculty status report. In short, we have a good team.

The challenge of the next four weeks will come in the execution of the scope that we discussed with our sponsors. Although the scope of our project is broad, our team members are ambitious and aim to excel. We also want to ensure that relations between the Ross School of Business and our sponsoring company are well maintained as this is the first year that our sponsoring company has initiated MAP with the business school. Our team’s performance this year may potentially dictate how many projects the company will sponsor for the following year. We are approaching the end of our second week here in Sweden and will be flying back to the US in two days. And that’s when the tools that the Ross School of Business has given us will truly emerge to help us exceed the expectations that both the sponsoring company and the school has of us. More to follow …

Happy New Year!

Last week, three Ross School of Business ("Ross") MBA1s and I hosted a Coffee Chat for prospective students in San Francisco. We had an excellent turn-out of 10+ students. I still remember when I was sitting on the other side of the table, going through the application process. One of my questions to the MBA Ambassadors then (a question that was posed to the four of us in multiple variations during the Coffee Chat last week too) was Why Ross? The answer I was given a year ago and what continues to make Ross stand out for me today is the people (including alumni, current students, professors, and the staff members).

When I went through the application process last year and reached out to current students and alumni, everyone who I contacted was more than happy to talk to me about Ross. In fact, most of them went above and beyond to help me out. Current students recommended other students who I should talk to so that I can find out as much about Ross as I can. Alumni spent their lunch hours standing in the lobbies of their firms chatting with me about their Ross experiences. I am currently in the midst of recruiting for internships and the Ross alumni have continued to amaze me with the passion they demonstrate for the school and their willingness to go out of their way to help a fellow Ross colleague. One alumnus said it best to me today, “Once a Wolverine, always a Wolverine. Welcome to the family."

 

The Little Things

Nine months ago, I traveled to a college town called Ann Arbor to be interviewed for the class of 2011. Little did I know then that I was on the brink of starting a very interesting chapter of my life. When I look back into the 3.5 months that I have been here in A2, there are many things that I am grateful for. Some things that stand out in my mind include:

· Winning 1^st place for the Abbott Case Competition. Despite given only a week to read the case and prep for a Powerpoint presentation, our team managed to pull through and win this case competition. So what was the recipe for success? I would have to say it was determination and perseverance on each team members’ parts. It would have been easy for any one of us to throw our hands in the air and say forget it. However, none of us did that. Despite finance midterms and marketing symposiums, the five of us squeezed out whatever extra time (theoretical of course) we had and pounded through the presentation until 4AM on the Big Day (Michigan vs OSU football game) Would I do it again? A resounding YES!

 

· Being a part of history in the making for the Wolverine Venture Fund (WVF) http://www.bus.umich.edu/NewsRoom/ArticleDisplay.asp?news_id=17832 Note that this resulted in the WVF obtaining our biggest return on a portfolio company ever. Congrats WVF!

 

· Finally (and most important of all), really getting to know my section and classmates well. Since this is the second quarter, the hubbub of trying to settle into an unfamiliar town and routine of going back to school (what’s this thing called homework?) has subsided, I have enjoyed taking the time to get to know my classmates … some of whom I consider good friends already. Although I have only been in A2 for 3.5 months, the pace at which one undergoes classes and activities and events makes it seem like we have been here for twice or three times the actual length of time. So what does this result in? Getting to know some excellent people who have since become close friends of mine. When I felt the need to do some retail therapy one evening, a fellow section mate lent me his car and offered his car for any future therapy urges. Another example that comes to mind involves my love of music. Every year during the holidays, the Grammy Award-winning University Musical Society Choral Union launches the holiday season with its Handel’s glorious Messiah (http://www.ums.org/) at Hill Auditorium, which is known for its acoustics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_Auditorium). I invited a few of my section mates to this performance and have since exposed us to a different world of music.

Although I have learned a lot either through academics or case competitions, it really is my section and classmates who have taught me the most. It is the coffee chats when we talk about the most mundane or life altering topics, the dinners where we delve into heated discussions over history and politics, the random meetings of classmates at school and realizing common goals and interests that have made Fall A & B such a rich experience for me. These are the people who will be lifelong friends and colleagues of mine. And I could not be any happier with this realization. Go Blue (all the way)!

Greetings from A2!

Hello Prospective MBA Candidates!

My name is Ada Kong and I was born and bred in San Francisco, CA. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley thinking that I would pursue a career in medicine. However, I ultimately realized that I loved business just a bit more and so decided to pursue a career that would allow me to merge both areas of interest. I worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Silicon Valley and specialized in the audits of biotechnology and medical device companies and venture capital firms.

I am a first year MBA student at the Ross School of Business, focusing on corporate strategy and marketing in the biotechnology and medical device industries. We are currently starting the third week of Fall B (we’re on a quarter system here at Ross, so a year consists of Fall AandB, Winter AandB).

Some of the HIGHLIGHTS of Fall A include …

• MTrek (highly recommend!) in Egypt and bonded with 14 of the most awesome Rossers EVER. Even now, there’s a cohesiveness and support within our group that continues to be strengthened via dinners, Costco trips, group projects, etc.
  
• 
  

• Selected into the highly competitive Wolverine Venture Fund (the nation’s first student run fund) as one of the team’s healthcare advisors. The WVF is a is a multi-million dollar venture capital fund that primarily invests in early-stage, emerging growth companies. Please see http://www.zli.bus.umich.edu/wvf/ for more info.
• 
  

• Participated in and was selected as finalists for both the Medtronic Case Competition and the Net Impact Social Enterprise Challenge. This is a very good way to get to know your classmates in an extremely short period of time. Once again, highly recommend!
  
• 
  

• Chosen as MBA Ambassador to represent Ross. My Ross experience has been everything I thought it would be (and more) and this is the best way to share my MBA experience with you.
  
• 
  

• Taught by some wonderful professors who really want you to learn for the sake of learning.
• 
  

• Met really excellent section and class mates who have pushed and challenged me to exceed my capabilities, thereby allowing me to exceed even my own standards.

Of course if you have highlights, you will have lowlights. Not too many, but here they are …

• Interview season for summer internships is about to hit.
• 
  

• A definite nip in the air + flocks of birds migrating = winter’s coming.

Some things I am looking forward to during this quarter …

• Continue to get to know my section mates even better.
• 
  

• More section and class activities.
• 
  

• More case competitions!
• 
  

•  Ohio State Game =) Football is a religion here in A2. No more needs to be said.
• 
  

Until next time … onwards and upwards,

Ada