Back to School

Ok, it looks like the virus stuff is all over now, and I can get back to blogging without selling drugs online. What are we learning this week? We have just completed an intense unit on Accounting, cramming a complete graduate accounting course into three days. Actually, we probably only cover the parts that the average graduate student REMEMBERS after graduation. Ratio analysis. Profitability analysis. Maximum sustainable growth rate. Today we completed a section on finance and capital project analysis - all kinds of arguments on the most appropriate way to conduct analysis of cash flow, net present value, internal rate of return, working capital management, management of trade payables, etc. Generally fun stuff. Seriously.

We also spent some time on the current financial crisis, the subprime houseing market, and credit default swaps. This was a new learning area for me.

Today we started a fascination negotiation unit. We covered research on the psychology of how people approach negotiation. We learned how to analyze the proper time to tender an offer, how to handle another party's early offer, how to analyze their fall-back position. We will continue this unit for two more days, with lots of practice exercise (we practice role playing with each other). By the end we should all be master negotiators. Or at least pretty good. Or at least better than before we started.

I did well in the first exercise, achieving a sales price for my simulated firm that set the bar for our class. I sure hope I can keep this up because now I have a reputation to preserve.

Tomorrow our learning group (seven guys I live with) will be having lunch a professor that is a frequent Wall Street Journal contributor and author of a business strategy book. We have invited several of the professors to meet us this way during the program.