October 2008 Archives

This past weekend, while I was up in San Francisco visiting the Berkeley campus, I took the opportunity to meet with the author of Ask the Harvard MBA who I had lent my copy of "Ahead of the Curve" to. A little background: Chris Yeh, who authors Ask the Harvard MBA blog, had responded to statements of Philip Broughton's book, "Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School" on his blog based purely off the reviews of the critics not off his own reading of it. I disagreed with his comments and suggested he read the book and offered to send him mine. After reading the book he changed his opinion and wrote following in a blog:

"I'm about halfway through the book.  The midway report is that while I still have a number of criticisms of the book, at least based on what I've read to date, it seems like the author, Philip Delves Broughton, got jobbed by the reviewers and press coverage who sensationalized a few small incidents from the book into a expose, rather than portraying it for what it is: A good memoir of one man's experiences at HBS"

Since I was up in the Bay Area, where he is based, we agreed to meet up so I could retrieve the book and we could have a chat. It was a good meeting. He is a very knowledgeable guy and it was fun to hear first hand about the HBS experience. He also told me his secret tips for getting an A in the program, which unfortunately I'm sworn to secrecy over, so I can't divulge any of them.

Berkeley is a nice campus. But then again, everything in California is nice. Not much to report.

This past September I got married in Cessy a small town in the french country side. My wife's sister lives there and offered to host our wedding since my entire family lives throughout Europe and it would have been too expensive for them to come over. It was an amazing experience and an amazing wedding.

While I was there I spoke to someone about INSEAD, the international business school located in France. As my wife and I have always wanted to live in Europe (I'm also a British citizen so can work over there) and attending INSEAD would be a great oppurtunity. The school has a very good reputation and is affiliated with Wharton here in the states.

We spent a week in Paris after the wedding. Eating crepes and steamed mussels and drinking wine. Paris is such an amazing city.