Off to a Good Start at London Business School

We just finished our first day of class– which started today at 8:15 am with Understanding General Management, when we reviewed a case where Honda displaced established motorcycle brands in the U.S., and ended at 6:00pm in the computer lab running simulations on statistical data sampling for Data Analysis for Management.

Despite the long first day, LBS has been kind to us, easing us back into school after, on average, over 5 years away in the work place. This easing in started three weeks ago, when most of us arrived in London, just in time for Flat Hunters Pub Crawl. At “Flat Hunters” those seeking flats/flatmates wrote their names on nametags in green; those who were already all sorted wrote theirs in red. By the end of two weeks, and when Orientation started properly, most of us knew several familiar faces – and had found flats!

The official Orientation, which lasted throughout last week, eased us into the program even more (or I should say, “programme”). It started with two days of learning about what lies ahead, including a helpful lecture on how to prepare for and participate in case study discussions, and tons of opportunities to get to know the other 400 people in our MBA class. Then they sent us out of London, where, cheesy as it sounds, we practiced working on teams through physical puzzles and ropes courses. (My very-non-professional-grade photos from Orientation are here.

Thanks to all this mingling, orienting, and team-building, we were able to just enjoy and dig into class today. For instance, we had been forced to come up with a “contract” last week for how our 6-person study group would work together this year, and had agreed to prioritize teaching and learning from each other over executing a task as quickly as possible. We did exactly that when analyzing grade distributions in a probability exercise today. All in all, a good start to what promises to be a great two years ahead!

Liz Aab, Forte Fellow
Class of 2012, London Business School