Dynamics of Strategy A Consulting Perspective Careers Month … documents/A… · music industry (think about the journey from vinyl to CD to mp3 to iTunes to streaming to ???) and

Made for STRATEGIZING

AGSM MBA STUDENT MAGAZINE | ISSUE 17 | SEPTEMBER 2015

Dynamics of Strategy

Dynamics of Strategy

A Consulting Perspective

Careers Month Insights

Looking towards the Other Side of the Pacific

Career choices post MBA: A windy “full of learning” journey

2 AGSM STAR 3

Editors’ VOICE

End of semester two marks 50% completion of our MBA Journey. In semester three and four some of our classmates leave for exchange to great business schools around the world. We would like to convey our best wishes to our friends, who leave for exchange in semester three, as they embark on another interesting journey in their lives.

This month’s edition features articles on strategy, career choices after the MBA, and the experience of participating on the International Business Exchange in Chile & Brazil. Additionally, an interview style article of two alumni consultants, as well as Rachel Guest’s interview about the Careers Month event at AGSM, are great pieces of work that shouldn’t be missed! We hope you enjoy this captivating issue of STAR mag, and as always, thank you for your continued readership and support!

Regards,Christine, Nandini & Tatiana

Editors-in-chief | Christine Savage, Tatiana Rivera Hadad, Nandini GaurLayout designer | Nandini GaurCopy-editors | Erik Burkhalter, Timothy Fagan, Shane Simon, Christine Savage, Trevor Harris, Robert Ludwick, Justin ChmielewskiInterviewer | Timothy FaganCreative contributor | Neelam Joshi

AGSM STAR Magazine (STARmag) is produced by MBA students from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). This magazine is not for sale and intended only for educational and research purposes.

All published works are of the opinions of the individual authors and do not represent the view of AGSM or UNSW.

The ‘STAR Magazine’ logo is put together by Ace Choo using ‘Sommet’ fonts designed by Jeremy Dooley and ‘Cash Currency’ fonts designed by Jayde Garrow.

The blue and white AGSM logo remains the property of UNSW and any unauthorized use are strictly prohibited.

All rights reserved.

Website | http://stusoc.agsmclubs.com/

Corresponding email | [email protected]

Cover page | Photo provided by author (Patrick Sharry)

Page 2-3 | Sydney | Photo Credits: Erik BurkhalterEditors-in-chief | Photo Credits: Pablo Quintero

Page 6-7 | Consulting Event | Photo Credits: Nick Nikolaiev

CONTENTS

Editors’ Voice 2

FEATURE

Made for Strategizing 4Dynamics of Strategy

IN FOCUS

A Consulting Perspective 8

Careers Month Insights 10

Looking towards the Other Side of the Pacific 12

Career Choices Post MBA 14

Monthly Columns Industry Insights 16 Current Careers 18

Originally from Orlando, Florida, CHRISTINE SAVAGE is a Mechanical Engineer who has worked in the Aerospace/Defense industry for the past 5 years.

Originally from Cali – Colombia, TATIANA RIVERA HADAD is an Economist who has worked in a consumer product company in the business development/strategy and finance division for the past 4 years.

Originally from India, NANDINI GAUR is a Fashion technologist, who has worked in the Retail Industry for past 3 years, as a Buyer.

4 AGSM STAR 5

PATRICK has over 20 years experience working all over the world as a sought after educator and facilitator in the public and private sectors including financial services, international trade, and utilities. He works with organisations to help develop strategy and drive organisational change. He holds multiple degrees from institutions across the world and is currently an adjunct faculty at the AGSM.

Photos provided by author

The next 10 years will be a period of incredible change, the likes of which we have not seen for generations. The last time that the world went through a change like this was with the introduction of electricity at the end of the 19th century. So what is driving the current change?

Computer power continues to follow Moore’s Law, doubling every 18 months. Compared to Moore’s original circuits, we’ll add over 4 billion times the computing power this year and another 8 billion times the power in the next 18 months.That is an amazing amount of processing capacity and it will continue to grow at a pace we will struggle to comprehend.

Digitisation is driving us towards a zero marginal cost world. We have already seen this in the music industry (think about the journey from vinyl to CD to mp3 to iTunes to streaming to ???) and we will see similar things in a wide range of industries from architecture to manufacturing to financial services.

Data sources, like social media, are exploding and we are only at the beginning of the exploration of the potential of the Internet of Things where billions of sensors will provide real time data on all aspects of business and

personal life.

These developments will enable amazing changes in business models. Data sharing will allow the collaborative economy to thrive and it will also allow the disintermediation and re-intermediation of traditional models (consider what Uber and Airbnb have done to the taxi industry and the hotel industry, respectively).

We will also see incredible developments in automation. What we are learning here is that the easy stuff is hard—it is very difficult to get a robot to clean a hotel room—and the hard stuff is easy—the Google driverless car has been enormously successful.

While all this technology is galloping ahead, the geographic centre of economic power is marching towards India and China, driven largely by the rise of the middle class in Asia and the growth of mega-cities in the developing world.In a world that is changing this quickly, what is a strategist to do?

The good news is that the fundamentals don’t change. Michael Porter’s much quoted definition remains valid: “Strategy describes

Dynamics of STRATEGYby Patrick Sharry

Adjunct Faculty at AGSM

experimenting at the edge of their business.

To prosper in this environment, strategists will need to understand that data is your friend. One of the key roles of strategists will be to turn data into insights, use the insights to design experiments, and use the learning from the experiments to build new businesses, products and services.

The breakneck speed with which technology will drive change will produce tectonic shifts in industry structures and boundaries. Large players will leverage data to move into other industries—Coles moving into financial services, for example—and start-ups will capture customers with niche offers (peer-to-peer lending). Greater vigilance will be required of strategists as industries are redefined and new competitors appear, seemingly out of nowhere.

For MBA students, all of this presents a great opportunity. Businesses will be looking for “digital natives” with a strong understanding of strategy. Companies will need these people to translate to bridge the gap between the company vision and the possibilities that the rapidly evolving environment will present. And the tools and frameworks of strategy are the best place to start!

how a firm faced with competition will deliver superior returns”. Effective strategy will continue to be based on differentiation and choices. Understanding the job that the customer needs done will, if anything, become even more important.

What will change is the speed with which strategic thinking will need to be done. Planning cycles will become shorter. Strategising will become more important than having a perfectly documented strategy document.

Developing strategy at speed will require much higher levels of agility than many companies currently demonstrate.That agility is not just about developing strategy but, perhaps more importantly, about implementing strategy. Being able to get a new business up and running in a short span of time will be a much sought after skill.

One of the keys to success in this rapidly changing world will be the willingness to experiment. As it won’t be possible to plan in great detail over a five year time frame, companies will need to be better at testing the market through experiments and learning from the results. Companies that thrive in a fast moving world will be the ones that are always

MADE FORSTRATEGIZING

6 AGSM STAR 7

by Jasper Van HalderAGSM Class of 2011

Jasper van Halder is a class of 2011 full-time MBA graduate, and currently works as a consult-ant at McKinsey & Company.

Christophe Thibaux was the Vice President of the AGSM full time MBA class of 2011.

After graduation, he worked at Partners in Performance and is currently a Senior Manager in

Risks and Control Assurance at Westpac.

by Christophe Thibaux AGSM Class of 2011

1. How did the MBA help you in your career?

Christophe: The MBA taught me a broad set of skills and methods for approaching different types of business challenges. It also provided me with a network of colleagues - and friends - who support each other in our ongoing professional development.

2. What advice would you give to someone looking to move into a career in consulting?

Christophe: Research the cultures and styles of the different companies and be honest in yourself about which ones will/won’t suit your work style and the level of support that you need. A lot of very smart classmates of mine weren’t able to convert brains and smarts into a successful career in the first consulting company they joined. Sometimes it was down to bad luck – initially being thrown onto a tough project or two with insufficient support – and other times it was down to being the wrong fit for the company they joined.

3. How would you describe your time working at PIP/ Westpac so far? What have you found challenging/ or rewarding?

Christophe: PIP was exciting, challenging and a great adventure. I worked with a lot of very smart and successful people who taught me a lot. I also got to travel to locations that I wouldn’t have otherwise experienced. There were also a lot of stressful times with long hours day after day, both

during the week and sometimes also on weekends.Westpac is a very different beast. Here I get to spend more time investing in making a difference to both the team I work for as well as business units that that we provide a service to. Financial Services is a new industry for me and I’m enjoying developing my knowledge in this area. Like with most large companies, it takes longer for decisions to be made but there’s also an opportunity to make a deeper impact in the business.

4. Do you have any tips for those who are about to go through the recruiting process?

Christophe: Try to enjoy it. Also, find a way to stand out, be different from your ‘competitors’. This doesn’t mean being crazy, just make sure that your interviewers find you interesting and will remember you. They’ll be meeting with a lot of people and if they can’t put a face or a story to your name then you’ll struggle to get through.

5. What are your best memories from doing your MBA at AGSM?

Christophe: My best memories relate to the people that I spent so many hours with. Spending time and getting to know people from such a wide variety of backgrounds, both culturally as well as professionally. This was both to do with coursework – so many late nights (or all-nighters) finishing group assignments – as well as for social reasons. The common room certainly provided a central meeting point and melting pot for the whole class.

1. How did the MBA help you in your career?

Jasper: As a lawyer in 2009, it was quite hard to find a non-legal role in industry. The MBA provided me with the knowledge and opportunity to move sideways into industry or consulting. Besides that, AGSM gave me a social and professional group of friends in Australia.

2. What advice would you give to someone looking to move into a career in consulting?

Jasper: Talk to as many people as you can before you sign-up. ‘Consulting’ is too broad a term. There is a wide variety in consulting firms, both in what projects they do and in how they treat their people. For me, I was primarily interested in how my professional development was guaranteed so I did my research and found McKinsey.

3. How would you describe your time working at McKinsey so far? Challenges and rewarding?

Jasper: It has been extremely rewarding, and has had its ongoing challenges! Professionally, I could not have asked for more. I have had the privilege of working on difficult, sensitive projects that matter to those companies and Australia. McKinsey has an unrivalled coaching and training program which allowed me to develop into an all-round manager and problem-solver. The ongoing challenge is more socially: travelling as much as we do, it is

The AGSM Consulting Club hosted an event with AGSM alumni Jasper Van Halder and Christophe Thibaux on 31st July. The duo shared their insights into the world of consulting, revealed the expec-tations and demands of the industry, and gave a snapshot of their professional lives.They also took out some time to answer queries for students who are considering venturing into consulting.

sometimes hard to give enough time to family and friends while working out of town. My wife and I found a model that works for us, but everyone has to find a workable balance there.

4. Do you have any tips for those who are about to go through the recruiting process?

Jasper: Most top firms use the same interview model: half the time is spent on personal stories, the other half is used to do a case study. Both elements you can think through in advance, and you should! My other suggestion is on practicing case studies. To get the most out of your prep, you have to simulate an interview environment. Too often I see students who have only practiced case-studies with their friends, without real pressure. Practically, you should ask your friends to apply a high bar in the practice cases, then you’ll be fine in the real interview.

5. What are your best memories from doing your MBA at AGSM?

Jasper: Many great memories and it’s good to be back today! Beyond the courses, grades, and content, the people in your cohort make your MBA so special. When you’re in the program, you don’t realise it, but the period after your MBA is much longer than the period in the MBA, so try to invest as much time as you can in getting to know your class-mates.

A CONSULTING PerspectiveInterviewed by Timothy FaganConsulting Club President, AGSM 2016

8 AGSM STAR 9

Pho

to p

rovi

ded

by a

utho

r

RACHEL joined the AGSM Careers team in 2010 to project manage the first online eYearbook. Her

project coordination role evolved to focus on Student Engagement in 2013 and following a strategic

realignment within the Careers team, Rachel was appointed AGSM Career Relationship Manager in late

2014.

Careers Month Insightsby Rachel GuestCareer Relationship Manager, AGSM

1. Tell us about yourselfI joined the Careers team in 2010, I am the loud kiwi voice you can hear echoing down the AGSM halls. I can also talk for days without drawing breath, which is, I suspect, why I have been asked to contribute (finally!) to Star. After five years, my genius became apparent to all and I was appointed Career Relationship Manager late last year. This means I look after our employer engagement, play camp mother to our full time students and charm our alumni into coming back to hire from us.

2. What is Careers Month?This is our annual Careers on-campus event that kicks off our recruitment season and gives stu-dents an opportunity to hear from a wide range of companies, meet the senior leaders, investi-gate new opportunities and start the conversa-tion early so that when the timing and the right opportunity align, they are front of mind for the role.

3. How long has careers month been going?Since the MBA started here at AGSM I think, it has had a few different forms (Consulting Week, Career Week etc) but I know it’s actively grown since 2008. This is my sixth one!

4. What are the main changes that Careers Month has gone through, over the years?When I started at AGSM, many moons ago,

on-campus recruitment was geared towards the aspirations and needs of our full time MBA students. As a boutique school with a relatively small FT cohort, this can pose a few problems, particularly when engaging with corporates out-side of management consulting. Sectors outside of consulting don’t tend to recruit MBAs in a structured way in Australia like they do in the US and Europe, and we don’t have direct access to the Leadership Programs that are prevalent in more mature MBA markets overseas, so being able to talk with recruiters about the diversity of programs we have at AGSM really helps to get them on board. The level of engagement be-tween Careers, our MBA Executive cohorts and alumni community is ensuring a higher attend-ance rate from a professionally diverse audience to the on-campus sessions. This is an attractive offer for our corporates who now view AGSM as a One Stop Recruitment Shop. Let’s try to keep it that way!

5. How has the spread of companies changed over the last few years?Digging through the archives and checking out schedules of past Careers Months was interest-ing and hilarious in equal measures. Included in the companies invited to campus were quite a few boutique consultancies that have since been absorbed by bigger players, like Pacific Strat-egy Partners. Back in 2008 we didn’t see any of the top tier consulting glamourzons unlike now

where they are all wanting a piece of AGSM. Previous to now, most years presented a bunch of randomly compiled companies that have not, in my five years at AGSM, made even one offer as a result of presenting on campus.

6. What’s changed since taking on the organi-sation of Careers Month?In the past two years, I have worked closely with the firms to revamp their content to ensure that what is being presented actually speaks to the culture of the firm and what a typical day/project looks like rather than the stock standard “this is our company, this is our culture” which, after five presentations in one day, can all sound the same. You can learn a lot more about how a company operates and whether you would be a fit by meeting their people and hearing their sto-ries. Handy hint; if you have a penchant for blue suits and doing maths without a calculator, you have a shot at McKinsey….

7. What do we have in store this year? Less filler, more thriller!

Consulting week, as expected, is jam-packed and along with the usual suspects, we are pleased to welcome back PwC and Gallup to campus. Following consulting week we have presentations from GSK, Optus, Woolworths Strategy, AMEX and Google, amongst others. This year, I have also charmed LinkedIn and Scentre Group (aka Westfield) into hosting ses-sions at their fancy digs in the CBD which should hopefully encourage more of our EMBA and alumni community to get involved.

One question I always get from students is – “how do I make Careers Month work best for me? “My answer would be, shower me with gifts and ensure my glass is always full at the net-working sessions as I am the one that knows everyone.

I hope to see you all there and I look forward to a successful 2015 Careers Month!

As the highly anticipated Careers Month events are approaching, the STAR Magazine team has interviewed AGSM’s very own Rachel Guest to get some inside information on the upcoming experience. Rachel was kind enough to answer several questions, as well as provide some guid-ance and advice to those of us gearing up for the big month.

10 AGSM STAR 11

AGSM has a tradition of offering a course elective in International Business that revolves around an excursion to Emerging Markets, primarily in Asia. In the recent past, students have been to China (including Hong Kong), Japan and South Korea.

Australia’s growth and export prospects have been dominated by tales of the Asian century and the rise of the Chinese dragon. However, if you look far enough, there is another part in the world of Emerging Markets, just 11,000+ km east of Sydney – South America. In May 2015 a delegation of AGSM representatives ventured over the great pacific to experience business dynamics in South America, namely in Chile and Brazil, at first-hand.

The fully packed schedule in Santiago and Sao Paulo included a wide range of meetings, site visits and company presentations. The companies and organizations we visited represented the Agriculture, Airlines, Brokerage, Financial Services, Healthcare, Mining Services, Innovation & Business Incubators, Trade promotion, Start-up and Wine-making sectors. I would say that these visits genuinely added value that could not have been replicated

by Bjoern WernerAGSM Class of 2015

through the mere use of readings in a classroom setting. In addition, our tour featured a few highly memorable gems, such as a site visit to a gorgeous winery outside Santiago, a hiking-trip to the Andes and a Churrasco feast. While my personal lessons learned go far beyond the word limit, my concise Top 10 takeaways include the following:

1.“There’s LatAm and then there’s Brazil” Many people put all countries in South America into a box forgetting that Brazil accounts for more than 50% of South America’s population and is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the region.

2. “Chile is the Germany of South America” Chileans are known to be hard-working, fairly organized and productive. I did not say boring, I am German after all. In South America, the country is leading many tables for economic performance stats and proves to be the easiest place to do business in Latin America.

3. “Chile is like Australia 20 years ago” Chile is a fairly mature economy that heavily depends on raw commodity exports, primarily copper. As the country aims to move up the value

BJOERN is passionate about development economics, impact investing and international finance. A native German, last year Bjoern “escaped” the crisis-driven European banking scene in search for more exposure to Emerging Markets in Southeast Asia. Following the inspiring visit to Chile and Brazil, he is currently planning his next visit to South America.

Photos provided by the author

Looking towards the Other Side of the PACIFIC

chain to develop services beyond resources, this is not dissimilar to the challenges Australia was facing two decades ago. Chile wants to export mining, not just copper, but Mining Equipment, Technology and Services, basically everything that supports the mining ecosystem.The country looks to Australia to learn how it can create higher value added products and services for export.

4. “People count more than company names”Patience is a true virtue in South America and “security of contract” is less relevant than in Western business contexts.This applies primarily to small and medium-size companies.You have to invest the time to develop relationships

5. “Language and local habits are essential” Similar to the previous point, there is an absolute need for business people to be fluent in Spanish and/ or Portuguese, depending on where business is conducted. Knowing the language is a key to entering the intricacies of the local cultures.

6. “Some of our favelas can be considered Middle Class”I have learned that many favelas are simply self-established dwellings that form a community based on a sense of helping each other out in a joint effort to alleviate poverty. Not all favelas are dangerous and understanding the local economics of a favela better helps to decrease the negative prejudice one might have towards favelas.

7. “Poor infrastructure in Brazil is a real issue”Much of Brazil’s infrastructure outside major cities is considered fairly poor. We learned that it may be more expensive to transport goods from rural Brazilian towns to the ports, than it costs to export these goods to their final destinations in Europe or Asia.

8. “Personal investing and financial planning are virtually inexistent”We learned from our visits to ForexChile and Brookfield that the personal investment space and superannuation industries in South America are still in their infancy. Most investments are targeted towards personal real estate and pension planning is insufficient for ageing economies, such as in Chile. Going forward, I believe that this could be an attractive industry for Western companies to get involved in Chile and Brazil.

9. “Brazil is not necessarily a competitive economy”I learned that Brazil’s complex tax regime and inflexible labor laws are a major burden for the country’s competitiveness. Corruption is still a prevalent issue and inflation is high; the currency risk for USD or EUR-denominated investments is a problem.

10. “Default warmth of people”While all countries in South America are unique and carry different cultural habits, traditions and histories, one thing seems to combine them all - warmth of people. We heard this especially during our visit to Lan Airlines, where our contacts revealed that Chileans and Brazilians are very different in terms of doing business and also in terms of cultural habits, but that personal relationships and the overall warm-heartedness unites people.

A final recommendation from my side is for AGSM and UNSW’s business school to promote the subject of Emerging Markets and offer more courses and opportunities for students to understand what’s going on outside of Australia’s borders.

12 AGSM STAR 13

Career choices post MBA: A windy “FULL OF

LEARNING” journeyat Canva. Canva is one of the fastest grow-ing startups globally and is led by a fantastic personality, Melanie Perkins. My role currently revolves around talent acquisition, talent man-agement and broad people strategy. It is inspir-ing to be surrounded by colleagues who are smart, intelligent and driven. It is wonderful to work with leaders who work so hard to make the world a better place. It is also extraordinary to be literally living through a Harvard business case study; to be at the early stage of creation of a business and being able to see all the busi-ness levers set in place and connected. As an industry, I am thankful to be working in the tech sector where innovation is essential, to survive.

I definitely did not take an easy or well-worn route post-MBA. Instead I made YOLO choices like working in Mumbai and living without a pay packet for a year with my own startup. I am glad I made those choices. I am a more well round-ed business professional for having made those choices. It’s funny - after all of those experi-ences, I’ve realised that success in business can be broken down to the first few classes of the MBA program.

- It all revolves around the P = R - C equation. Follow the K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple & Short) principle- Culture eats EVERYTHING for lunch. Culture includes clarity and execution around vision and values

- Marketing is important; you don’t have to stray beyond the 5 P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promo-tion & People)- The success of your business is defined by how well you hire and how well you treat your staff. Every compromise you make on this; takes you a step further away from reaching your goal. Your business must be focused on customer delight and your first customers are your employees.

The two areas I believe the MBA could have spent more time on were (1) technology and (2) behavioural economics. Learning more about tech innovation and how we can incentivise and nudge diverse groups of people to work in alignment towards achieving a common would have been a fantastic complement to the other lessons.

The AGSM MBA is easily one of the best deci-sions I have made. I started the MBA program wanting to learn more about business and wanting to be challenged and pushed at work - and it has delivered this in spades. I met some wonderful life-long friends and learnt to appre-ciate the phrase “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” even more with the collision of the various cultures. It has definitely been a ca-reer less ordinary. The tools I learnt at the MBA have allowed me to have these experience. Fingers crossed; the learning keeps on going.

by Mahesh MuralidharPresident, AGSM Class of 2011

MAHESH was born in India, brought up in Singapore and grew up in NZ after he moved there for high school. He did a Statistics undergrad and then got into recruitment post his graduation. He has worked in Auckland, Tokyo, KL, Sydney and Mumbai. He wanted to live a life full of stories and safe to say the AGSM MBA has helped a great deal in making that a reality. Here is how.

Photo provided by author

Post completing my undergraduate I started my career in sales. This gave me the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of people and really taught me how to identify and deliver on de-mand. I was fortunate to be trained by compa-nies which practiced sales excellence. I learnt a lot and delivered solid results.

Sales organisations are predominantly a pyra-mid scheme. As you move up the ranks, you move up the ladder and “manage” and be more “strategic”; while juniors do more of the graft work. This culture - and my perception that there was a lack of intellectual stimulation in sales - led me to want to learn more about busi-ness. How does finance work? How do the dif-ferent levers in business tie together and what is the impact of pulling one lever on another? This was what drove me to explore an MBA.

When I joined the AGSM MBA program, my first priority was to learn about business; and the second was to get into an organisation that challenged me to keep learning (I assumed a management consulting firm). I loved my MBA

experience. I learnt so much, and I understand the material world so much better now. Impor-tantly, it gave me the tools to keep learning.

It has been 5 years since I completed my MBA. These are the career choices I have made since then:

A. Led a 6 month project setting up a multi-na-tional recruitment business in MumbaiB. Worked for a recognised management con-sulting firm; driving business improvement for public sector projects in NSWC. Led strategy for the Australian division of one of the world’s largest transport organisationsD. Founded my own startup and took it to seed funding roundsE. Currently lead People Operations for one of the world’s fastest growing startups - Canva

(D) and (E) are easily the most fun, engaging, learning-filled decisions I have ever made. Be-lieve it or not, I actually work harder now than I did during my MBA.I feel very fortunate to have landed my role

14 AGSM STAR 15

When asked to name Australia’s top industries with substantial competitive advantage many of us will probably think past iron ore and the mining sectors. There is a hidden gem that might be overlooked: Education. In 2013/14, Education was Australia’s fourth largest export behind Iron, Coal and Natural Gas, which earned an income worth $16.7 billion annually. It is worth mentioning that the above estimates only capture direct benefits of exporting education services. Indirect benefits arising from the import of International students have yet to be fully documented. For example, compare to the university or secondary school fees paid by students, the significant spillover benefits, including the job opportunities created by the ‘education wave’, tourism, and the boom of Australian real estate markets, were too huge to quantify.

Why is that? Australia has three strong competitive advantages in providing education export: an internationally recognized and high-quality education system; close proximity to major student sourcing Asia-Pacific countries like China, India and Korea; and the employment and migration opportunities after graduation.

To fully exploit the potential of Australia education services, stay competitive and support jobs and prosperity, the Australian officials are expanding their visions to maximize Australia’s comparative advantages. With more and more ‘Australian School’ campuses opened in Beijing, Singapore and other major cities in the world, the Trade Minister Andrew Robb believes that Australian education exporters could be teaching 10 million overseas students a year at their own countries in less than a decade. The story continues when in-bound and out-bound Education services serve as the backbone of Australian-based economics that produce huge community benefits and contribute to Australia’s long-term prosperity.

Industry Insights

by Ruoxi (Dennis) ZhangAGSM MBA Student

Class of 2016

Before going to AGSM, DENNIS had been working as the founding director of his education consulting company to provide education consulting and overseas education

services to students aiming for top-notch education in the United States, UK, Australia and other countries.

His interests focus on education management and entrepreneurship.

Photo provided by the author

Education Industry: A source of comeptitive advantage for

Australia

Did you know that two out of three Australians are overweight or obese? That places Australia as one of the fattest nations within the developed countries, costing the government more than $58 billion a year.

When I was previously employed by The Coca-Cola Company, I experienced how big corporations in the food industry are putting immense resources and efforts to fight this epidemic. In Spain, this company considerably reduced the sugar content of many of its products and worked intimately with health and nutrition professionals to develop an internal health strategy for bringing healthier products to the consumers. However, it is clear that these initiatives of the companies in the food industry have not proven successful, since the data shows that weight gain levels keep increasing every year.

As a PhD-level nutritionist with seven years of research on this topic, I fully understand the complexity of obesity as a metabolic disease and how challenging is to find a cure. This intricacy is extrapolated to the difficulty of obese people to reduce weight. Therefore, I believe the best way to address these serious health issues associated with obesity is to tackle them at the government level, building strong policies and passing legislation down that protects people from the oftentimes unknown threat in the food we eat. The cutting edge health policies made by former Mayor Bloomberg in the state of New York are an example that this is possible.

Even though we know how overweight and obesity significantly affect our health and lifespan, its increasing prevalence indicates that governments must act. The same way governments protected the people from tobacco, action regarding this health problem should seriously be considered. Billions of dollars and, more importantly, millions of lives can be saved.

by Pablo QuinteroAGSM MBA Student

Class of 2016

After working for Coca-Cola, PABLO completed his PhD in Nutrition and Physiology at the University of Navarra

(Spain). Afterwards, he moved to Chile for a two-year postdoctoral position where he managed and directed different research projects involving multidisciplinary teams. Pablo is passionate about entrepreneurship and

disruptive innovation, and aspires to build his own startup post-MBA. Also, he cooks the best paella in town!

Photo provided by the author

Industry Insights

Strategic Approach to Obesity Epidemic

16 AGSM STAR 17

Photo provided by the author

It’s nearly the beginning of Session 3 for the full time class – wow time flies! Welcome to our exchange students joining us for session 3 and good luck to the group embarking on their international exchange adventure.With Careers Month starting on the 7th of September we are preparing for a busy few weeks. In this month’s column we wanted to take a moment to stop, breathe and remember all the work that has gone into 2015 so far. In our reflection time, we took a look back at what we have achieved since the birth of the Career Management Platform, our online, 24/7 careers portal. Since January we have:

•Booked in over 450 1-1 sessions•Set up over 35 unique workshops •Posted over 70 jobs

All of which wouldn’t have been possible if the demand from students and alumni wasn’t there – it’s great to be part of a business school community always striving for the best! As if this wasn’t enough, this year we have also introduced an external jobs board function which links you to over +1,000 global MBA jobs with MBA-Exchange and offered you the chance to be part of The Search Party (if you missed this and want to join the passive job search, simply send your resume through to [email protected] and we will upload it for you).Over the next few months we will be ramping up our annual interstate Let’s Connect events, so if you are not based in Sydney look out for one coming to a city near you before the year is out. Previous evenings have included special guests Frank Seeley, Greg Joffe and Jennifer Solitario, speed networking and plenty of opportunity to swap stories with likeminded business professionals all with AGSM in common. As ever, we heavily rely on you keeping us up to date with your career progress. If you have secured a role recently please do tell us (we like news like this!), better still if you are in a hiring position, think of AGSM and let us know!

Current Careers

by Careers TeamAGSM Career Development Center

STUDENT SOCIETY (STUSOC) COMMITTEE MEMBERSPresident Trevor Harris | [email protected] President Robert Ludwick | [email protected] Manager Rizzia Litany | [email protected] Team Christine Savage, Tatiana Rivera Hadad, Nandini Gaur | [email protected] Relations Manager Kaoru Nishinakagawa | [email protected] Manager Pablo Quintero | [email protected] Manager Karan Kaushik | [email protected]

STUSOC CLUBS CONTACTSPresident Consulting Club Timothy Fagan | [email protected] Finance Club Shane Simon | [email protected] Innovation, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship (ICE) Club Luis Vegas Arias Stella | [email protected] Marketing Mikhail Narbekov | [email protected] Public Speaking and Debate Club Tathagat Yagnik | [email protected] Social Impact Club Fouad Qureshi | [email protected] Women in Leadership Club Ambika Asthana | [email protected]