Cotswold trip

Yesterday we had a wonderful trip to the Cotswold district in England. I must admit I had a tough time remembering this name... I have misspelt it every single time - Cotwolds, Cotswell, Cotwells, Costwold, Costwolds ... even Coldwell ! (after Coldwell Banker, the realtor). Luckily for us it was a bright sunny day - a bit breezy, but nevertheless a perfect day to go out on a trip - and many locals thought the same as well.

Cotswold is just about 90 minutes away from Cranfield. There were about 25 of us in the bus. The plan was to go to Bibury and then to Brouton-on-the-water, two of the towns in Cotswold. Bibury is a quaint little village with old-style cottages and some big houses nestled in a lush green countryside. It is known as one of the most beautiful villages in England and is a favourite romantic getaway. If you look at the pictures below you will agree why !








It's also famous for its trout farm. Unfortunately for us, the farm is open to visitors mostly in summer, when one can actually fish the trout as well. We did catch a glimpse of the fish though...




Bibury looks like a place where people own vacation homes or post-retirement villas. Just the number of luxury cars on the small road indicates the kind of population that this village has... although some of the cars could belong to tourists... We saw Jaguars, Land Rovers, Mercs, BMWs - the whole procession.

A 20 minute journey later, we were at Brouton-on-the-water nicknames as the Venice of the Cotswold. This town is definitely a family paradise. You have got the small canal, bird-life, quaint little tea-shops, candy stores, the miniature village, model trains, inns and restaurants - all in all everything a family could enjoy.
First up I enjoyed some fish and chips at the Duke of Wellington restaurant, then a nice home-made butterscotch cone and then English tea ( the flavoured ones - some combo of mango,honey... forgot the rest... ), crumpets and cakes. Come to think of it, I ate more than I walked in Brouton.









For me the best part of these trips is that it gets me out of my room and mix with my batchmates... it would have been so tempting to laze around on my bed on Saturday... after late night birthday party for one of our friends... With spring around the corner and summer up next, I hope we will have some more trips...

Let me also thank Jessie for organizing this trip... this girl is just so active and energetic, you have to see it to believe it !

Crisis management and beyond

Well I told myself at the start of the new year that I would write a Cranfield blog regularly so that I can at least have a memory dump of my Cranfield days since short-term memory has become the order of the day for me.. well that has not happened so here I go again and hopefully I will be more punctual from now on.

What has happened so far ? Well we have settled into our schedule... I have settled on to my front row seat... well I was sitting in the last row last term and needless to say that did not help my wakeful state... I still have not got used to it but I think a front row seat keeps you in the midst of the action.... you don't sleep lest you embarrass the lecturer and you have no option but to pay attention to what's happening on the board. Having said that most of the lectures are interesting and I really don't want to miss them.

Our Strategy and MIT group assignments are underway... its been a nice experience in my current learning team; we have got some balance and some real smart people and everytime we debate/discuss it's a great mental exercise. I hope we go on with the same spirit !

We had a fantastic session on Crisis Management by Steven Carver today. Crisis is a fact of life and an MBA needs to prepare for it. Think about Exxon Valdez, BP, Panam etc... one must learn how to deal with them... More importantly how to deal with them in front of the media and in the age of social networking ! Plenty could be said but for now I think we have an idea about how to handle press conferences at least in theory. As part of the OB course each one of us would be facing a live (yes !) press conference and grilled ( fried ?) by some seasoned BBC journalists. I have been told they now do it for free ... well they have quite a few Cranfield bunnies to skin (and roast) isn't it... I am looking forward to that experience... bring it on I say !

Lastly, we have a mock assessment centre coming up tomorrow. It will be a busy day with all the interviews, tests, group discussion, presentation etc. It should prepare us well for job interviews and assessments in the near future. I hope to get a sound sleep tonite and perform well tomorrow... especially since I have not prepared anything at all... typical MBA student that I have become... gung ho and all that ! But should be fun :)