Flat-Club launched a year ago with 5 flats in London and now has 2,000 flats worldwide, it was featured in the Financial Times and recently won the pitching competition of TechCrunch.

To join, simply go to www.flat-club.com and sign up with your Facebook account (or AGSM email) to see more apartments that are open only to the AGSM community.

Finally, you can also share this exclusive network with your close friends and family. When you invite them through the website, they get access to apartments that are only open to your exclusive club. This can be ideal solution for graduation week and travelling afterwards.

If you have questions or feedback, please contact Nitzan Yudan directly - nyudan.mba2011@london.edu, or nitzan@flat-club.com

Message from the President

Session 3 is over! Time has flown by amazingly fast, and graduation is just around the corner!!

This session was quite different from the previous 2. We started taking our elective courses which means that, on the plus side, we got to focus on the subjects we’re more interested in, but at the same time it was much harder to interact with students you don’t share classes with. The session was also different because we had outgoing and incoming exchange students; it was very interesting to meet new people, listen to their experiences from their home schools and have new perspectives shared in class. Finally the beginning of the ‘job hunt’ also added some spice to the session: a lot of networking, discovering interesting companies, interviews, a bit of nerves and uncertainty in the process….

Session 4 is coming soon!!

We will meet our heirs, the 2013 cohort. We have already started to know them through our buddy program but will be great to meet them in person and build a strong link as the AGSM community. Also we will have many of us going on exchange and several others (about 30!) joining us from abroad. Some interesting activities lined up for this last session include: one or two Masters of Business speakers, the AGSM-MBS cup in Melbourne, some more cultural dinners, the NUS Stock Pitch Competition, among others.
Hope everyone has an amazing summer break and deeply enjoy their last session of the MBA adventure!

- Maryfer

Consulting Club

The AGSM Consulting Club is one of the largest student run bodies at AGSM. The club wishes to thank all members who have made this year successful and run so many events throughout 2011.

We have always endeavoured to help students learn more about the consulting world so as to be informed enough to make the right choice in their careers. For those interested in pursuing a career in consulting, we have held several case preparation sessions not only internally but worked alongside the AGSM Career Services in inviting the top-tier consulting firms help our students learn the tricks of the trade and help master the all so important case-interview sessions during recruitment process.

We would like to congratulate those students who have been successful in finding employment during careers month. We wish you luck in your new job. However, for those who are yet to find luck with their career goals, AGSM Consulting Club will continue to provide support.

It is that time of the year when the full-time cohort is finishing Session 3 and many of us will be moving on to different Exchange schools in Session 4. Two members from the current cabinet, Daniel Möllerhenn, President and Fletcher Trowse, Vice-President – Events will also be moving on to different business schools on exchange. However, Sandip Pal, Vice-President (Skills Development) and Tarun Choudhary, Vice-President (Knowledge Management) will try to carry on the good work from this year through to the next, until we hand over to the new cabinet from the 2013 cohort.

Finally, the AGSM Consulting Club remains grateful to Karen Lewitton and the team from AGSM Career Services (Laura, Rachel, Winnie and Matt) who have been an invaluable support to the AGSM Consulting Club Cabinet.
We look forward to welcoming the 2013 cohort into the fold in January and on-boarding the new AGSM Consulting Club cabinet once elected. If you are not already on the AGSM Consulting Club mailing list and would like to join, have any ideas, feedback or suggestions please drop us a note at consulting@agsm.edu.au.

- Daniel M

Marketing Club

In Session 3, members of the Marketing Club were invited to work with new Telco ‘amaysim’ and e-commerce site ‘Delivery Hero’. These are just two companies who have recognised the value of tapping into AGSM’s pool of marketing talent.

DeliveryHero.com.au recently launched as ‘the next generation Australasian online food ordering and lead generation platform’. Run by a dynamic team of MBA graduates, the Sydney based start-up enables customers to quickly and easily order food over the internet. Their mission is to create the “Number one online food delivery business in Australasia” with a simple mantra…“Delivering happiness with food.” They are currently running a competition at AGSM for the best marketing strategy. AGSM has about 20 students entered. These students will have the opportunity to interview for positions with the company after graduation.

Amaysim is challenging the major mobile networks with their pay as you go sim cards, which offer rates previously unseen in Australia. The AGSM team headed up by Grant Dewar have been invited by CMO of Amaysim, Christian Magel, to come up with an innovative marketing strategy that will cut through the abundance of advertising and communication messages and effectively target the Australian youth market – particularly university students. While Phase I of the project (market research), is currently underway, Phase II’s ‘implementation’ stage will begin early next year. If you are interested in learning more about any of these projects please contact Angeles or Brianna.

In collaboration with Matt Barnett, President of the ICE Club, we have continued to host a number of impressive speakers this session including Mark Collis, Director of Innovation at Telstra and Paul Grey, co-founder of start-up Bubble Gum Interactive.

Please join the Marketing Club Facebook page for all the latest news and events.

- Brianna Ragel

First of all thank you to everyone who helped support the AGSM Movember efforts this past month. You can now all feel free to shave your face and no longer have to deal with awkward looks, although I understand that this may be hard because you have developed an attachment to your Moustaches!

In total AGSM raised $4,750 which is amazing and over four times our original goal! It’s a great legacy to leave as a class and it definitely went a long way in helping out an Australian charity, like Movember.

Highlights from the night include Matt in full costume to set the tone for a rousing game of Risk. Asif was crowned Mr. Movember, narrowly beating our other trucker ‘stache classmate Julien. Good on you both, you truly owned that moustache style and helped to bring the class alive in support of Movember. And for Mrs. Movember, the StuSoc president herself, Maryfer, got crowned Ms. Movember and won a custom designed Mo’ drawn on by AGSM artist extraordinaire Matt Barnett, Mayfer es muy bonita con un bigote! Of course to help them celebrate their achievement I lead everyone in a rousing rendition of “Cinco de Mustache”.

We capped off the night with an amazing raffle filled with heaps of prizes including tickets to Bondi Dreaming, Shore Thing, and a personalized photo shoot with Matt Barnett! I hope everyone enjoyed the party, it was a great chance to come together as a class before Session 4 starts and brings new exchange students and a new AGSM cohort!

Lastly, I just want to send out a huge thank you to all of our sponsors (see below) and encourage everyone to help support their businesses in the future.

Thanks,
Mike, StuSoc A.R.M.

Sponsors:
Bondi Dreaming
FBi Radio
Matt Barnett
Arthur’s in Randwick
BWS @ the Spot
The Sweet Spot
Noodi @ the Spot
The Ritz Cinemas
Kurtosh (Chimney Cake) @ the Spot

5 pm – Doors at the ASB Lounge on the UNSW Kensington Campus. From that point you’ll be able to get some drinks and unwind from a long week of work/school. Keep in mind course you are entitled to 1 free drink with entrance ($4/alcoholic, $2/non-alcoholic beverages from there on).

5:30 pm – The catered nibbles start to come out, enjoy!

6 pm – The games commence there will be 3 different games going on:

• Poker ($10 Buy-in, Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd)
• Risk ($10 Buy-in, Prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd)
• Perudo ($2 Buy-in, Prizes for the winner in each of the 4 rounds)

7 pm – Mr. And Mrs. Movember are announced and awarded their sashes and prizes – For this everyone will be able to cast votes at the party. The criteria for each is pretty wide open as long as you vote for a guy for Mr. Mo and a girl for Mrs. Mo. The tricky part comes with Mrs. Mo, whoever is announced the winner will have the privilege of have a moustache drawn onto her by our own AGSM artist, Matt Barnett, so that should be fun.

7:30 pm – The raffle starts so everyone remember to bring/buy your tickets. Just to whet your appetite here is a sampling of some of the prizes that will be raffled off:

• Bondi Dreaming Package (2 tickets to Bondi Dreaming and a bottle of wine)
• 1-hour photo session with Matt Barnett
• Date Night Package ($50 voucher to Chao Praya, 2 movie tickets to the Ritz Cinema and a bottle of wine)
• Mo Package (1 Movember Gala event ticket @ Luna Park, Movember Cuff Links, Schick Trimmer & shave cream)
• 2 tickets to Shore Thing on NYE in Sydney
• Free food, free coffees, free beers, free wine and heaps of things to enjoy

As a last reminder if you haven’t purchased your ticket yet the deadline for pre-order is at 1 pm tomorrow! After that the price goes up from $15 to $25! To place your order you have 2 options:

See Rafal at the Student Experience Office in the AGSM

Or transfer your $15 to:
Bank: Commonwealth Bank
Account name: “AGSM Student Clubs”
BSB: 062 303
Acct.#: 2802 2346
And bring a printout of your receipt (email: mfmwolf@gmail.com with questions)

Thanks,
Mike Moore
AGSM Movember Committee

I have posted details on Facebook, so all please RSVP to the event so that we have an idea of numbers. As a bit of a trial, partners are welcome to come along to this event and if that works out, we might open future events up too.

Regards,
George Crones
AGSM MBA Class of 2012

Paul Cave Bio:

Born in Newcastle, Paul completed an Economics degree part-time at the University of NSW on a Commonwealth scholarship. Following a successful career in Marketing, he was promoted to General Management for B & D Roll-A-Door and in 1974, at the age of just 29, he founded and created Amber Tiles. With 17 outlets, Amber Tiles became Australia’s largest tile and paving retailer. In 1996 Paul sold his 100% interest in Amber to staff via a management buy-out.

Paul’s personal dream to share the Summit of the Bridge with everyone, was inspired by a railway ticket inherited from his late father-in-law, who as a teenager lined up for two days to purchase the first railway ticket to cross the Bridge in 1932 on March 20th – ticket number 00001 from Milson’s Point to Wynyard Station.

Finally, 9 years later, on October 1st 1998, BridgeClimb was officially launched. Paul is the Chairman and Founder of BridgeClimb. In 2008 BridgeClimb was awarded the highest national tourism accolade, winning the Australian Tourism Award for Major Tourist Attractions. BridgeClimb has sold well over 2.5 million tickets to climb the Bridge including 560,000 Gift Certificates.

Paul receives many requests to do a variety of public speaking ranging from Business Groups, through to community organisations, charities, and education. He donates 100%of the speaker fees he earns to charities such as Lifehouse at RPA (The Chris O’Brien Cancer Centre); Northcott Society; etc.

In March 2008, the UNSW announced Paul as the recipient of the 2007 Alumni Award for Achievement for outstanding contribution to Business and Commerce.

Paul Cave was awarded the National Entrepreneur of the Year (Business) Award 2001. He continued his association with the program as a National Judge in 2002, 2003, and 2004. In 2009 he was the National Chairman of Judges for Entrepreneur of the Year.

Paul’s achievements were also honoured with the Australian Export Heroes 2002/3 Award and by Rotary in 2003, as a Paul Harris Fellow for achievements in business, and support of their humanitarian project in Mongolia, by providing an “Open Heart” Catheter Laboratory.

Paul Cave is Chairman of BridgeClimb International, the past National and NSW Chairman of Enterprise Workshop, a member of W.P.O. (World Presidents Organisation) and a previous member of Y.P.O. Paul is the Chairman – Clyde Bank Holdings (Aust.) Pty. Ltd; a Director of the public company Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd; and a Director of InterRisk Australia Pty. Ltd. He is also a Director of Lifehouse at RPA (The Chris O’Brien Cancer Centre); UNSW Advisory Council Member; UNSW Alumni Leader and a founding member of the Sydney Opera House Leadership Circle.

Jestar is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas and has been able to establish itself as a strong and profitable airline in a very short period of time. Bruce was instrumental in making this happen. Prior to his CEO assignment, he was at Qantas in a variety of senior management roles and he joined Qantas after working as a strategy consultant for a number of years.

Above all, the most exciting thing about Bruce’s background is that he is an MBA graduate from the AGSM itself.

In inviting Bruce we hope he can appeal to a wide variety of backgrounds and interests ranging from marketing & entrepreneurship to finance & consulting.

We look forward to seeing you at the event.

Satyendra Pandey
AGSM MBA Class of 2012

Speaker: Achal Agarwal, President of North Asia Region for Kimberly-Clark’s consumer business in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan
Date: Wednesday , 23rd of November 2011
Time: 12pm – 1:30 pm (refreshments and light snacks will be provided)
Location: 6th floor, ASB Lounge, UNSW Kensington Campus
Title: “Building Brands in China”

On Wednesday, November 23rd, the School of Marketing of UNSW presents for the Marketing in Asia Speaker Series, Achal Agarwal President of North Asia Region for Kimberly-Clark‘s consumer business in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
Achal will be discussing “Building Brands in China” and provide insights on how Chinese consumers are evolving and the need for marketers to adapt their strategies to these changes.

The Marketing in Asia Speaker Series is a forum where academic experts and industry leaders can meet and exchange ideas on the most pressing and exciting marketing issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The objective of this seminar series is to generate rich intellectual debate about Asia and the relationship between Australia and its key Asian partners.

RSVP:
Veronica Bona
M: 04 26 25 2712
asbspeakerseries@unsw.edu.au
**Seats are limited.

For more information brochure is attached or visit http://www.marketing.unsw.edu.au to learn more about the Marketing in Asia Speaker Series.

PS: Thanks to Swapneel Mudholkar, President of Business in Asia Club, who shared this event with the AGSM MBA Class of 2012.

TO THE START OF MOVEMBER!  Or the last time we’ll be able to shave our Mo’s.  This year AGSM is participating in Movember where we will be having individual participants on the AGSM team all trying to raise at least $100 each for the Movember charities including the Prostate Foundation of Australia, Beyond Blue (Mental Health), and the Movember Foundation (Men’s Health Issues).

If you are interested in donating or joining our team link is: http://au.movember.com/mospace/1444188/.

In addition this year in order to maximize our impact and reach our goal of $1,000 raised collectively we will be having an end of Movember Party at the ASB Lounge on Friday, November 25^th @ 5pm where the proceeds will go to the Movember charities. This will be a fun event and there will be a chance to win prizes worth over $500!!!

So please make sure to join with the AGSM team in raising money and either grow a moustache (because really you have NO excuse not to), or help motivate everyone growing them even if their moustaches are less than Tom Seleck quality.  With that I will leave you with THE ARCHITYPE of Moustaches, Magnum P.I.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Thanks,

Mike Moore
StuSoc A.R.M.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a year – with the global economy on a downward spiral, fluctuations with the Australian dollar, industrial unrest in the tourism and manufacturing sectors, unpredictable talent markets and a surge in demand for an MBA within Asia-Pacific.

The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and Melbourne Business School (MBS) recently hosted a collaborative panel discussion event on Monday 10^th October 2011 at the AGSM, addressing the economy, career prospects and how important it is to have an MBA in today’s marketplace. The panellists appeared before an expectant audience of current MBA students, prospective MBA candidates, alumni of both schools and industry representatives.

The panel included recruitment, HR and industry experts within education, banking and finance, government and executive search, as they shared their insights into the future landscape facing MBA grads, in Australia and beyond. An engaging and well-respected ABC Business Editor, Peter Ryan was the appointed Panel Moderator for the evening.

According to panellist, Frank Zapfinger, President of the MBS Alumni Association and former Chairman of prestigious law firm Malleson Stephen Jaques: “An MBA is a badge you wear which highlights to people that you have a certain degree of talent and breadth of experience – which is attractive to employers.”

Sara Marshall, Head of Research at global Executive Search firm Ellington Savage commented that, “the overall consensus is that the MBA is a key tool to getting the job you want but it’s most powerful when coupled with relevant work experience.”  She felt that managers who embark on an MBA too early in their careers do not usually reap as many professional and financial rewards upon completion. Therefore prospective MBA students should take note that doing your MBA at the right age is critical.

This theme of timing was also reiterated by panellist Andrew Valentine, AGSM Alumnus and Principal of Senior Executive Search company DH International. Andrew advised that MBA grads keep proactively looking for new career opportunities and challenges post-study, and try to maximise their MBA experiences as much as they can in positioning themselves for future career opportunities.

This led to another of the night’s important themes – that of networking. MBS and AGSM are well-recognised globally with high-powered alumni networks consisting of thousands of graduates in management roles across the world.  The importance of leveraging this network strength was repeated as a key theme for the audience, with the MBS and AGSM alumni on the panel outlining how they have been able to cultivate new career opportunities within Australia and further afield from utilising connections they forged during their MBA experience.

It was emphasised throughout the discussions that just having an MBA isn’t enough in today’s marketplace– potential employers want to know how graduates have used their new found skills.  All MBA alumni on the panel agreed that after completing their MBA, they felt they could add richness to senior-level discussions and Board-level meetings with a far greater understanding of what their C-level counterparts were talking about. Expanding their exposure should be an ongoing goal for MBA graduates. Panellist and leading AGSM alumni Matt Boxx, now Business Development Director at KPMG, made the point that recent MBA Grads should not expect the world as soon as they graduate, but should carefully construct a post-MBA career path based around further exposure and access to broad management areas of their organisation.

So what can we expect in 2012 and beyond?

Jane Prior, MBS Director of Academic Programs spoke about the latest QS MBA employer survey results in 2010/11 which reveals that “demand for an MBA within Asia-Pacific is at an all-time high – a trend which has been steadily increasing for the last 3 years.”   The research involving 5,007 employers globally stated that many companies in banking, consulting, healthcare, utilities, transportation, technology, telecoms and other sectors, continue to favour an MBA education, both for their own executives and as a source of new talent.

Sara Marshall added that there were some important key sector opportunities opening up management talent in Australia and the SEA region throughout next year and beyond:  in particular she listed: major infrastructure projects in the telco space, resources, oil & gas, environmental management and also agribusiness.

On this positive note the panel were all in agreement that MBA graduates from leading schools in Australia can make the world their oyster; – if they remain agile, flexible and open to new career options. This flexibility can include relocation to high growth areas of Australia and Asia, as well as moving to the emerging demand markets of Asia-Pacific – where an MBA is increasingly being sought after as a valuable and recognised management asset.

This marketplace optimism was summarised by closing remarks from Matthew Logan, Director of the AGSM Careers Services team.  “The good news for you guys is that more and more Australian and regional employers are looking for ways to engage MBA graduates to profile career options. Stay open to these new ventures, take your opportunities…and your decision to invest in a MBA from a premium B-school such as ours will certainly pay off.”

MBS will be hosting a similar joint event with the AGSM in February 2012, so please keep an eye out for this on our events calendar.

Student Comments

“I was liberated after the discussion as I can see where my skills and experience will fit. I come from a metals and minerals background and want to explore opportunities in Australia, hence the reason why I’ve chosen Sydney for my exchange. Sara, from Ellington Savage Executive Search, mentioned that there is a skills shortage in the resource industries and companies are looking to hire experienced personnel, especially project management personnel or people who will contribute directly to the resource company’s bottom line.  Even though I have not carried out project management previously, I am willing to explore opportunities in that function as I can see where my skills learnt during the MBA coupled with my previous experience will fit in. Knowledge gained from subjects like management accounting, operations management etc will allow me to contribute significantly in a project management role.  I am excited about the contribution that I can bring to an organisation in a job of that capacity.” 

Johnson Huan Fong Koh, Exchange Student from Hong Kong UST

“I attended the MBA panel one week ago. As an exchange student, I have never had such an event in my home business school and I regret it. I indeed found this event very interesting and informative. 

How the MBA qualification is regarded in the Australian market is quite different from the UK market. In the UK, this qualification is essential for career changers and to place professionals in the shop window for the most prestigious recruiters. There is furthermore a separated job market for MBAs.

Here in Australia, the MBA qualification is not as well regarded (except for management consulting firms) and Australian employers favour much more the job experience than the MBA by itself, even if the situation is gradually changing. 

My take away of this event is therefore to leverage more on my job experience than the MBA itself (at least for the first job in the Australian market) and to be open to any opportunities there, whatever the industry… “

Philippe Bellordre, Exchange Student from Warwick Business School

“The MBA Panel discussion at the AGSM premises provided a wonderful opportunity for alumni from two of Australia’s leading business schools (AGSM and MBS) to share their insights on what the future holds for MBA graduates in the Australian context.

As a full-time MBA candidate at AGSM about to hit the job market in 2012, the discussion was able to provide me with realistic expectations from the market and also potential future in the booming resources sector. I look forward to similar events in the future.”

Sandip Pal – Current Full-time AGSM MBA student

It’s over… Matt Barnett is apparently a rugby expert!

As stated in the original email, the money (A$170 in total) will be divided as follows:

1st place: Matt Barnett – 50% of the pool = A$ 85
2nd place: Kate – 20% = A$ 34
3rd place: a tie between Angeles and Grant – 10% (5% each) = A$ 8.5 each
Last place: Omer – 20% = A$ 34

Congrats to the winners!!

Also … here is the latest updates for our Fantasy Football.

Antonio Miranda
AGSM MBA Class 2012