tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57354312011-12-21T01:23:13.029-05:00Blogging my experience at U of Waterloo's new Master's of Business, Entrepreneurship & TechnologyEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.comBlogger1691100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-23072492797945044562009-09-22T13:58:00.002-04:002009-09-22T14:00:51.556-04:00

You may be looking for the Master's of Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology program at the University of Waterloo's Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1147440015492698092006-05-12T09:16:00.000-04:002006-08-26T11:24:22.480-04:00

Some news on the success of current MBET students from Howard Armitage, the Director of CBET:...the LaunchPad$50K winners were announced today at Bingeman's in front of a crowd of 500 people. I'm delighted to let you know that we came close to a complete sweep. MBET teams won the Gold, Silver and .5 Bronze. Our Cellugen Team came first and won $25,000; College and University Explorations came

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1126277048773037612005-09-09T10:37:00.000-04:002005-09-09T10:47:16.573-04:00

Ok, the post-post-etc joke gets stale, so I'll drop it.Anyway, Wednesday night was the start-of-term BBQ at Howard's house for the latest generation of MBET students. The third generation to be exact.And imagine my surprise when a bunch of them said "Ethan? You're the guy with the blog!" So a number of them read my stuff about MBET. Yay. Good luck people.This year's class is 34 people, up from 22

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1123528243992412152005-08-08T15:05:00.000-04:002005-08-08T15:10:44.000-04:00

It's been nearly a year since we finished. The 2005 MBET class did very well in the business plan competition put on by UW and WLU.Everyone from class is working now. I moved to Eloqua, in a full-time position as a Product Manager. For those wondering whether to do the MBET program or do a MBA at a more established school, it's only fair to point out that two full years after starting the whole

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1106923880228148992005-01-28T09:39:00.000-05:002005-01-28T09:51:20.230-05:00

So, it's been about 6 months since we wrapped up school. I've gotten a few emails directly asking about job things so I thought I'd mention where some of my classmates have ended up. Prem, the most entrepreneurial of the lot, has apparently obtained angel funding for his company. I think he'll go pretty far. Three people, Harish, Maciek & Konrad, are at Workbrain. This is the first full-time

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1097687498107590332004-10-13T13:08:00.000-04:002004-10-13T13:11:38.106-04:00

So, I should really pronounce this blog as done. School is long over, I have a job and in 2 weeks I'll be convocating and getting my diploma. Perhaps I'll post a picture of the ceremony. If you've come here looking for info about the U of Waterloo MBET Program then go back to the beginning and have a look at what happened in the first year of the program. Send me an email if you're curious about

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1095435469248746532004-09-17T11:30:00.000-04:002004-09-17T11:37:49.250-04:00

There's a funny story that's floated around forever that talks about technology standards and how the size of the solid rocket boosters on the space shuttle is dictated by the way Romans built their roads. The moral of the story? "Specifications and bureaucracies live forever." Which I thought of as I composed an email in Outlook a few minutes ago... spell check in the Outlook main editor is

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1094737347080794362004-09-09T09:40:00.000-04:002004-09-09T09:42:27.080-04:00

Last night I wentto the "Ignition Week" BBQ at Howard's house and got to meet many of the new MBET students. They seemed like a good bunch, although they all left pretty early and didn't seem to eat or drink nearly enough... our class would never have left a full platter of desserts behind. Anyway, they had questionsabout what the year would be like and I got to learn about them as well. A good

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1093920094287786842004-08-30T22:39:00.000-04:002004-08-30T22:41:34.286-04:00

So, just in case anyone in this fall's MBET class gets bored and finds my blog, welcome members of the class of 2005. I'll see you at Howard's BBQ perhaps. Have a look through the archives and if you all have any more questions after Ignition Week, feel free to leave them in the comments. Enjoy every second of the program! Even the 5 seconds where you spend $1000 on textbooks after your credit

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1093530677160244992004-08-26T10:24:00.000-04:002004-08-26T10:31:17.183-04:00

Marks are in. Or out depending on your view. I still appear to be missing marks for marketing & e-commerce. But I did OK. I have an 85.625% average. I assume (hope!) my marks for the missing two courses are in that ball park so that my final average will be pretty much the same. Relatively speaking, I think I did well, but I doubt I ended up completely at the top of the pile. I'm sure some

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1092852126983933312004-08-25T10:01:00.000-04:002004-08-25T10:07:38.590-04:00

Postings are slowing now that I'm back at a real job. One thing I've meant to write about for ages though is keeping active at school. Or at least how I kept active last term. First, I lived somewhat far from campus. A half-hour walk. Which, twice a day, is good exercise. Especially in comparison with how much exercise I get in a typical day at work - none! I commute so it's about a 1 minute

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1093378035228554212004-08-24T16:04:00.006-04:002004-08-24T16:12:57.006-04:00

Lots of fun.... all the places I've been. Unfortunately Taiwan shows up too small to see and I apparently missed something up there in northern Europe. create your own visited country map or write about it on the open travel guide

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1092243600088817682004-08-11T12:56:00.000-04:002004-08-11T13:18:32.006-04:00

Tim emailed me to ask some questions about the practicum element of the MBET program. Tim should be starting MBET this fall - congratulations on getting in, Tim. I want to use the practicum to build some contacts into companies already established. How would the process work for me (time to start, end, schedule)? Should I start writing letter of interests to the companies? Does the school already

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1092230596247618482004-08-11T09:20:00.000-04:002004-08-11T09:23:16.246-04:00

If you haven't seen them, some of the MBET students have their resumes on the CBET site now. Add an innovator to your organization! My resume is there, for better or worse. I have a job, but hey - don't let that stop you from offering me another one! I'm also available for reality TV series appearances. For people looking to hire some smart people, stop by and have a look. For prospective

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1092153122619846812004-08-10T11:50:00.000-04:002004-08-10T11:52:02.620-04:00

Because if I could have gotten the same entrepreneurial education in grade school. The Girl's Middle School (somewhere in Silicon Valley) runs a full entrepreneurship program for seventh-grade girls. Cool.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1091929589000852902004-08-07T21:44:00.000-04:002004-08-07T21:46:29.000-04:00

Done. D-1. Friday was the 610 (aka "Entrepreneurial Applications of Information Technology") exam. Now we're done. I'll have more to write next week. I'm just catching up with my family and trying to mentally prepare myself for starting work on Monday... no rest for the wicked.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1091112481426519272004-07-29T10:48:00.000-04:002004-07-29T10:48:01.426-04:00

So this is re-pimped from Gizmodo, but it's just too cool. Who doesn't want their kids' playground to look like the Alien Queen's Lair? We need more innovative design out there. Heck, even sho wme something ugly - at least it's not the same old thing.Posted by Hello

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1091062042335135452004-07-28T20:43:00.000-04:002004-07-28T20:47:22.336-04:00

So my good friend Konrad has started his own MBET Blog. Well, post-MBET blog really. (And let me try to self-googlize via a link the the original MBET Blog). Konrad should give a different perspective than me since he came straight out of undergrad at Brock (i.e. not Waterloo). So check it out.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1091029344895935152004-07-28T11:15:00.000-04:002004-07-28T11:42:24.896-04:00

So today we had our last class ever. It was the 603/604 presentations. It's good to be done. Well, done minus the three papers I still have to write and the three exams. Apologies to the internet for the lack of posts but I've been so preoccupied that I just haven't thought of a single thing to say. On the job front I have a contract for a three-month position that will lead (hopefully) to a

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1090418959026201492004-07-21T10:09:00.000-04:002004-07-21T10:09:19.026-04:00

This is truly incredible... this McDonald's owner outsourced his drive-through order taking to a call center. Not in India, but nevertheless, this is pretty funny. Funny because it's so brilliant.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1090247611679542242004-07-19T10:33:00.000-04:002004-07-19T10:33:31.680-04:00

Raganwald My friend Reg started a blog on software development... interesting stuff!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1089913479678349522004-07-15T13:34:00.000-04:002004-07-15T13:44:39.680-04:00

So we saw e-Dreams today. The followup is that the two founders of Kozmo ended up going back to b-school. So if these two dot-bomb survivors can go back to school I guess it's OK that I did too. Plus the CEO founder (Joe Park) put on some weight in the follow-up segment. At least I missed that part. (Not to pick on the guy but he shows the weight in his face like one friend of mine... it all

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1089747857483600732004-07-13T15:29:00.000-04:002004-07-13T15:44:17.483-04:00

So the exam for accoutning went well. I did it in about an hour and a quarter and it was fairly straightforward. ABC, ABM, BSC & strategy map stuff. Exactly what we covered in class. One thing I've been meaning to mention is extra-curricular stuff we've done this year. We had an ultimate firsbee team this summer which was lots of fun and considering none of us had ever played before our 2-2-1

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1089645005578138762004-07-12T10:59:00.000-04:002004-07-12T11:10:05.576-04:00

So we've got the final accoutning exam tomorrow morning. We're watching Norma Rae for business skills class. I missed seeing Glengarry Glen Ross last week. Business movies - yay. Things are almost done here - I hope I get a job soon.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1089041207755386612004-07-05T10:42:00.000-04:002004-07-07T09:46:22.150-04:00

So, another JavaOne come and gone. It was a good show although I must admit I went to fewer sessions than I meant to. I spent a lot of time catching up with friends, trying to network to find a job (although I don't want to move to the Valley, so it wasn't really all that useful) and an excessive amount of time trying to scam useful free stuff off the show floor. T-shirts are pretty boring but

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1088526624837470162004-06-29T12:28:00.000-04:002004-06-29T12:30:24.836-04:00

So I read USA Today this morning as I ate breakfast. Not one drop of ink devoted to the Canadian election. Lots of stuff on the handover of power in Iraq though. That's important, sure, but a couple of column-inches on the US' biggest trading partner? Is that too much to ask?

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1088439206923813312004-06-28T12:06:00.000-04:002004-06-28T12:13:38.240-04:00

Greetings from JavaOne. Someone asked what I'm speaking about... I'm actually an "alternate" speaker which means I only get to present in person if someone else doesn't show up. I do get to record my words of wisdom though and I'll be archived with all the other non-alternative speakers. I hate flying more each time I do it - so boring. Air Canada played a film about a dwarf who moves into an

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1088184388587664142004-06-25T13:24:00.000-04:002004-06-25T13:26:28.586-04:00

I am going to cut class all next week. Go me. I have a good reason though - I'm presenting at JavaOne as an "alternate" speaker. Which means I have to write a talk but only get to give it if someone else doesn't show up. But I get to see the sessions and netowrk and hopefully find some job leads.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087958889011261222004-06-22T22:48:00.000-04:002004-06-22T22:48:09.013-04:00

Daylilies. I don;t know whether this is new (where "new" for me is within the last 15 years) but there are a lot of daylilies planted on campus and they;re all about to come into bloom. I'll try to take a real picture of them when they pop open in the next week or so.Posted by Hello

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087958447273632092004-06-22T22:32:00.000-04:002004-06-22T22:40:47.273-04:00

So, for the strategy test, we have th play Diplomacy for three hours. The winner gets an A and everyone else gets a C. That might actually be more fun than reality, which is a three-hour case-based strategic audit. Not only is it open book, but we get to use the internet as well providing we don't chat with each other online. I take this as the ultimate sign that there is nothing that can help

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087566852098877682004-06-18T09:54:00.000-04:002004-06-18T09:54:12.096-04:00

Seven Reasons Why the API War is Not Lost After All So if I blogged Joel's article, then I should blog the rebuttal as well.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087482275356682462004-06-17T10:24:00.000-04:002004-06-17T10:24:35.356-04:00

Another great article from Joel. This one, however, is really apropos because it's really about Microsoft's strategic management of its technology. Also, it reiterates something I've been going on about for years - that garbage collection is a good thing. No - it's better than that. It's just about the second coming. To quote, "in almost every case, automatic memory management is superior to

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087414256189372052004-06-16T15:30:00.000-04:002004-06-16T15:30:56.190-04:00

BTW, the "stop asking me questions" bit was rhetorical - I really like readers asking me question because it helps me find things to say that I might not have thought of. I just don't have answers to some questions.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087414104602129222004-06-16T15:09:00.000-04:002004-06-16T15:28:24.603-04:00

So I got a tough question today here on the ol' blog... Hey, On your 02/22/04 blog you mentioned that you worked as Product Manager at a software company. Considering your significant experience prior to Waterloo, do you feel like MBET has opened up more opportunities, or added more value to your career? I really should have a good answer to that. I'm not sure if I do. So instead you get the

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1087185498963907772004-06-13T23:58:00.000-04:002004-06-13T23:58:18.963-04:00

CareerLeader In case you have no clue what you want to do after you graduate, you could check out CareerLeader and it'll help you asses which sort of MBA-type jobs you'd be good at. Apparently lots of major US B-schools use it.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086969299813205322004-06-11T11:54:00.000-04:002004-06-11T11:54:59.813-04:00

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086969114248810842004-06-11T11:44:00.000-04:002004-06-11T11:51:54.246-04:00

I haven't posted much lately except somewhat excessively corporate-sounding stuff about the program and school. I need a bit of a head-break between writing assignment though so here I am. I'm busy. I spent the last few weekends hanging out with my family so I was kind of behind. I'm getting caught up now. There are two assignments due next week and one the week after that and they're all mor

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086706749709253492004-06-08T10:59:00.000-04:002004-06-08T10:59:09.710-04:00

Peter Drucker and Innovation A summary of Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker which Prof Fader is talking about in strategy class right now...

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086638928493309092004-06-07T15:59:00.000-04:002004-06-07T16:08:48.493-04:00

Starting today we have a three-part, ten-hour sales course. It's good stuff - much of it is basic best practices but as the old joke goes "common sense" isn't that common. The course is being run by Market Access. Neat stuff.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086638098592554432004-06-07T15:14:00.000-04:002004-06-07T15:56:41.463-04:00

So another question popped up: Any suggestions on living arrangments for future students? On-campus or off-campus? Are off-campus apartments walking distance, cheaper? Will I need a car if I live off-campus? So, by this I assume that some people coming next year have never been to Waterloo before. You might want to check UW's Housing & Residence site. It has info on both on- and off-campus

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086635447419062442004-06-07T15:10:00.000-04:002004-06-07T15:10:47.420-04:00

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Interesting stuff on applying Ries & Trout's "22 Laws" to the software industry.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086203762249563482004-06-02T14:57:00.000-04:002004-06-02T15:16:02.250-04:00

The preceding photo was taken by the graphics people here at UW for use in promotional materials. So I hope my blog counts as promotional material insofar as it keeps me from getting sued. Yet another question appeared... Thank you Ethan. It's a relief to hear your comments. Before I go, please let me ask you something else. Can you give me an idea on how is the MBET classes schedule during

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1086183974795814292004-06-02T09:46:00.000-04:002004-06-02T09:46:14.796-04:00

The CBET classroom.Posted by Hello

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085977801211600072004-05-30T23:49:00.000-04:002004-05-31T00:30:01.210-04:00

Hello again. So, the other question. Before I answer, let me tell you a bit about my own situation which may (or may not) be repetitive. I'm 33, married with 2 kids who are 4 and 6 years old. Technically speaking, I live in Toronto. Practically speaking, I'm there on weekends and spend the week in Waterloo. My 10-year undergrad reunion is this summer. But I didn't find it that hard to come back.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085763792683338242004-05-28T12:47:00.000-04:002004-05-28T13:03:12.683-04:00

Wow! Two replies from future MBET students. Excellent. First, from Khurram: Is MBET more inclined towards entrepreneurship in Canada or can I maybe use the knowledge to start a company in Africa? Hope you get my drift! Well the program is definitely presented in a Canadian context. There's a law class and it covers primarily Canadian law. Now, intellectual property law is fairly similar the

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085595965806175842004-05-26T14:24:00.000-04:002004-05-26T14:26:05.806-04:00

With only a couple months left to go I want to throw the ol' blog open for questions once again. Will you be an MBET student in the fall? Looking for grad studies ideas and wondering if the MBET is for you? Curious which type of grass seed will work best in a full/partial shade area? Fire away!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085516778304103372004-05-25T16:26:00.000-04:002004-05-25T16:26:18.303-04:00

About Mark Kerbel Mark is a good guy who used to be the President of the Toronto Java User's Group. He ran a Java consulting company that got swept up into part of a larger company that provides data interchange for Ontario's quasi-deregulated electricity market. Now he's thinking a lot about "environmental capitalism". That is some cool entrepreneurial stuff.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085081564082016782004-05-20T15:12:00.001-04:002004-05-20T15:37:31.216-04:00

First of all Pyra/Google has, with Picasa, come up with a free photoblogging tool, "Hello". Blogger users will aready have seen the pitch. So perhaps we'll see a few MBET photos before we wrap everything up this term. So, what has the MBET class been up to as of late? Term 3 is "Market Development" so the classes have nominally focussed on building markets. Stress "nominally". Accounting is

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1085080352691210302004-05-20T15:12:00.000-04:002004-05-20T15:12:32.690-04:00

My Mystery ChildPosted by Hello

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1084815101503999612004-05-17T13:24:00.000-04:002004-05-17T13:31:41.503-04:00

So today we had a practicum team meeting about building a website. Prem had been away last week meeting with lawyers and doing presentations for potential customers and had lots of interesting news. One of his meetings was with a bunch of senior executives all wearing suits. Prem and his co-founder were in business casual shirts. The executives were old. Prem graduated last year. Executives are

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1084473711422219962004-05-13T14:37:00.000-04:002004-05-13T15:56:54.966-04:00

I changed the template. For first time visitors, you have no idea how much better this is. For returning visitors, you realize that things are only marginally improved. I switched from HaloScan to Blogger comments which gives me six of one instead of half a dozen of the other.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1084324742297584502004-05-11T21:18:00.000-04:002004-05-11T21:19:02.296-04:00

How did I miss the title setting all this time?

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1084296913075118982004-05-11T12:58:00.000-04:002004-05-11T21:12:20.950-04:00

Finnish Friday So on Friday we had a group from Finland in visiting. The whole entourage was led by Dr Peter Kelly who is a K-W native, went to London Business School and is now a professor at the Helsinki University of Technology. Dr Kelly gave a talk at the Communitech breakfast talking about what's going on in Finnish high-tech and how Finland is alot like Canada. Later on they came by CBET

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1084210284198354062004-05-10T13:31:00.000-04:002004-05-10T13:36:38.980-04:00

Although I never saw any notice of it, Blogger's bStats is now free. They used to charge for it as part of Blog*Spot Plus but if you log in at http://stats.blogger.com with your regular Blogger login it will just work. Cool.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1083798802532902912004-05-05T19:13:00.000-04:002004-05-06T13:41:12.030-04:00

Snark Hunt Someone asked how the job prospects were looking. I meant to post about that but like everything else I meant to post about I never quite got to it. So I'll post as a way to avoid having to send out resumes. First, having April off was great. Some people did a lot of practicum work, some just hung out. I went home and saw my wife and kids for a change, helped clean out the basement,

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1083785638795276592004-05-05T15:33:00.000-04:002004-05-05T15:37:10.840-04:00

Today in 610: "He was a brilliant cuckoo man." - Efrim Boritz

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1083591101012958512004-05-03T09:31:00.000-04:002004-05-03T09:34:43.013-04:00

Greetings From Day 1 Well, day one of term three at least. It's so hard to come back to class after a whole month off... but here I am anyway.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1083265400000237932004-04-29T15:03:00.000-04:002004-04-29T15:06:26.450-04:00

Let's talk about Word An excellent post from MS's Chris Pratley on the history of Word. Lots of good stuff on product management there but also on being a disruptive technology. WordPerfect got disrupted by the GUI & Word. They got stuck trying to please their existing customers when they should have turned around and started leaving them behind... which of course is idiocy. Which is why

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1083250546487584842004-04-29T10:55:00.000-04:002004-04-29T10:58:52.046-04:00

2004 Manning Innovation Awards So the Center for Innovation got a table for the 2004 Manning Innovation Awards dinner and I got to go last night. Interesting stuff. Checking out the past winners of the awards provides a real ashowcase for Canadian innovation.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1082423457446891202004-04-19T21:10:00.000-04:002004-04-19T21:13:54.013-04:00

Groupies Someone asked me to post a link to a MBET Yahoo group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/mbet_uw/. Not surprisingly, the current class also has a Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uw_mbet/. This is the group the current class is using and upcoming MBET students are welcome to do so as well. Membership is restricted and only to approved people, but I'm sure we can figure

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1081211482022832422004-04-05T20:31:00.000-04:002004-04-05T20:34:04.233-04:00

Hubris Why don't hubris and debris rhyme? Anyway, for those who follow my writings April may be a slow month as we all have the month off... the first three weeks of April are usually exams (which we don't have this term) and the final week lets the facutly and staff collect their collective wits to prepare for the onslaught of co-op students stuck in class for the summer. I do need to make one

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080846113406876512004-04-01T14:01:00.000-05:002004-04-01T14:04:47.840-05:00

Product Development Murray Gamble from C3 is back, this time going through case studies of actual products that have gone through C3's development process. He's showing how their stage-gate system evaluated projects in a really interesting way. I don't like stage-gate, but my experience bias leans towards small companies. For large companies and potentially very expensive product development

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080845793799660622004-04-01T13:56:00.000-05:002004-04-01T13:59:44.623-05:00

Don't Try To Stop Me! So this morning I had breakfast at Ground Zero. Why? Because I could! Someone stop me before I eat again! For those of you who remain unimpressed with my rather pedestrian act of gastronomic rebellion, both Ground Zero and the Davis Center Library are closing the summer. Ground Zero is becoming a 24-hour Tim Horton's . Today was their second-last day of business. The

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080668482196249882004-03-30T12:41:00.000-05:002004-03-30T12:43:57.936-05:00

"The Billies" Greetings from 610 class. Carla is giving us feedback on the CD-based "high-risk business startup" simulation. Raghavan got the "Best Use of Other People's Money" award for creating $309M of personal wealth vs an average of $87M. I think I made about $50M or so, but I defend myself by saying I didn't try very hard. Henry got the "Made in the Shade" award for making an $4.5M of

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080600390348636142004-03-29T17:46:00.000-05:002004-03-30T09:02:01.123-05:00

From the Globe and Mail Conglomerates depress valuePrivate companies are passeReligion has no place in businessSo how come Jimmy Pattison rules the world? An interesting article. In a program that focusses on technology, equity financing and the value of having an exit strategy, what lessons can we learn from Pattison?

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080583404916751732004-03-29T13:03:00.000-05:002004-03-30T09:00:46.826-05:00

Easily Confused So, upon reflection, I had it all wrong. Campaign Waterloo is indeed selling benefits and not features in its marketing campaign. Chair sponsorships are a "feature". "More talent" is a benefit. But I got it backwards. And there's a reason. I'm a feature buyer. In spite of trying to hold on to marketing dogma, I, personally, buy on features and not on benefits. If I'm buying a

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080228251339060652004-03-25T10:24:00.000-05:002004-03-25T10:27:48.546-05:00

Campaign Waterloo So, Campaign Waterloo kicked off and I've been having a devil of a time trying to figure out exactly what they want to raise $260M for. They finally sent me a link to the campaign web page and if you dig hard enough they do have a project list... and what a list it is. It looks like there's a lot of "small" projects in the sub-$5M range, which makes for a lot of projects. There

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080168418741117322004-03-24T17:46:00.000-05:002004-03-24T17:49:28.640-05:00

Nipper's Patent Law Blog An interesting, if somewhat technical, blog on US patent issues, news & case law.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1080058644752826112004-03-23T11:17:00.000-05:002004-03-23T11:19:53.780-05:00

Queen's wins Samusing MBA Case Competition OK, I know that MBET isn't a full-blown two-year MBA program. Still,I feel like we're missing out on all the MBA competitions out there - cases competitions, business plan competitions and so on. Nobody tells us about this stuff. Which isn't surprising I suppose as the profs are as new at this as we are. Nevertheless, future MBET students, keep an eye

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1079986333549568352004-03-22T15:12:00.000-05:002004-03-22T15:15:43.246-05:00

An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang's Finances Steve Levitt is my new hero. There was a piece on him in the New York Times last week and he's amazing. I never thought of economics being particularly, well, creative, but this guy is bringing economics to a whole new level. It's interesting stuff.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1079711734293624462004-03-19T10:55:00.000-05:002004-03-19T11:06:52.780-05:00

Ephemera So I'm nearly done marketing... nearly. The capstone sim runs on Friday mornings, making Fridays a bit of a treat - at least for capstone nerds like me. We hit $308M in sales with profits of $25M. We hit a stock price of $87 which is even better than I would have imagined. I'll give away a secret now that the game is almost over - in my analysis you need to come out of the gate

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1079475384206203452004-03-16T17:16:00.000-05:002004-03-16T17:18:46.496-05:00

Linked In So I finally joined LinkedIn. As far as social networking apps go, this one seems a lot more useful than other ones I've used. It's very focussed on professional contacts, specifically job hunting and sales. I loathe even mentioning it as there has already been so much written about social networking apps that it seems overkill to say anything else about them. So I'll leave it by

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1079381620763618842004-03-15T15:13:00.000-05:002004-03-15T15:16:03.590-05:00

Real Question? Someone asks if any of us are watching The Apprentice... which is either a real question or there's someone using blog comments for advertising. I suspect it's an honest question as there's more than enough media coverage of the Apprentice, what with both the Globe and the Post running a weekly analysis of the latest episodes. Yeah, lots of us watch it. Some of us were even glad

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078955837811952292004-03-10T16:57:00.000-05:002004-03-10T16:59:33.610-05:00

Lorem Ipsum - All the facts - Lipsum generator For the irrelevant department, my lifelong fascination with "Lorem Ipsum" continues. Ah, Aldus PageMaker, such find memories.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078778936878419682004-03-08T15:48:00.000-05:002004-03-08T15:51:10.700-05:00

Blame India Watch Alright! Blog on. Excellent blog covering anti-Indian and anti-outsourcing sentiments.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078778590859883332004-03-08T15:43:00.000-05:002004-03-08T15:46:02.013-05:00

Sick Heavens, was I sick on Friday. I came down with this fever Thursday night and I was basically confined to bed until Saturday. Luckily the family came up to Waterloo to take me home where I seem to have recovered. I still feel wiped out though. It could be the virus (or whatever) or it could be that I've eaten maybe 2000 calories total over the last 3 days which would make you feel a little

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078419167201372042004-03-04T11:52:00.000-05:002004-03-04T11:54:56.793-05:00

Software Trade I got this image from an Industry Canada report... Interesting that software is the only area where Canada runs an internation trade surplus for "high-tech" goods. I guess even with the relative downturn in the market it's still a great market to be in.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078345461429894052004-03-03T15:24:00.000-05:002004-03-03T15:26:53.996-05:00

For Those Who Have Not Visited Someone on campus (the Science helpdesk?) runs a webcam allowing you to view how lovely Waterloo campus looks... or how bad it looks today.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078252615808952542004-03-02T13:36:00.000-05:002004-03-02T13:39:03.686-05:00

Moitvation, Lack Thereof As we hit the halfway mark in the academic year (which goes until August for me) I find myself struggling to stay motivated. Ironically, I find that reading week made things worse, rather than better. It interrupted my flow and helped remind me of how much I miss seeing my wife and kids every day. Spring is here but that doesn't see to be helping any - Waterloo turns

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1078252761361952902004-02-29T13:36:00.000-05:002004-03-02T13:41:29.200-05:00

The Ministry of Truth I missed posting on the leap year day... but no! Here's to time-changing blog posts!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1077733297631897002004-02-25T13:21:00.000-05:002004-02-25T13:23:39.793-05:00

Yahoo! Directory Graduate School Business Plan Competitions Need some money for your startup venture? Enter a business plan competition!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1077644490292544542004-02-24T12:41:00.000-05:002004-02-24T12:43:31.090-05:00

What makes a software company successful? An excellent reference... I think the most interesting point was that successful companies had high levels of sales force productivity. So many people talk about success being based on technical excellence. To heck with that. Success is based on how hard you can sell your product. The rest of the stuff is important but never forget that a great company

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1077566391291194362004-02-23T14:59:00.000-05:002004-02-23T15:01:50.936-05:00

Hi Karen! Today at lunch Karen - one of the tireless MBET staff - mentioned she found my blog. So I better keep it clean.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1077500691285690312004-02-22T20:44:00.000-05:002004-02-22T21:05:34.513-05:00

Another Question The best part of answering questions is that it kills time without making me think a lot. It's a great tactic for presentations too. Can you give us more of an idea... things like age distribution, are most people coming straight out of CS or similar, what other disciplines, how much work experience is typical, how many involved at 'upper level' of previous startups, male/

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076895928954927132004-02-15T20:45:00.000-05:002004-02-15T20:47:21.200-05:00

MBET Businesses Someone asked what types of business MBET students have started... most are IT businesses. Let me preface the list by saying that most of the class are pretty young and most have, relatively speaking, little work experience. I'd like to say someone is working on the next Siebel, but it's a bit more modest than that. I have to sort of punt on this question though as I am,

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076633078646653062004-02-12T19:44:00.000-05:002004-02-12T19:46:27.640-05:00

Phone Fans of my blog (if I can be so bold to assume there is more than one) will rejoice at my being stuck on this plane. Here’s more stuff. I have not yet go on about how much I love my new mobile phone. When my old Samsung died I got a Kyocera SE47, the “slider”. Wow. First of all, let me carp about what I dislike. It would be nice to drop the big antenna – why are modern phones still

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076632985777786792004-02-12T19:43:00.000-05:002004-02-12T19:44:54.796-05:00

Mid-Term MBET Update While I wait for “Master and Commander” to help me while away the next 139 minutes here on Air Canada 755 let me go over the first five weeks of MBET year one, term two. Accounting moved away from deciphering public statements into more management accounting as I mentioned before. Cost analysis and job costing were the bulk of the material. Interesting stuff, although I

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076553724920692482004-02-11T21:42:00.000-05:002004-02-11T21:44:01.716-05:00

LES Update Tangam won! The presentation from Tangam, "Authorized Bootlegs" and NetDog were all great but we got the nod. I think our plan was further along than the others'... Prem has done a ton of work working with a casino to verify all the features & financial numbers as well as lining up some great new team members. So, congratulations to us and to Prem!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076553600054654302004-02-11T21:40:00.000-05:002004-02-11T21:41:48.200-05:00

LES Like a dope I forgot to pack my digital camera in my rush to get packed and get lunch for the kids before I had to hop a cab to the airport. I’ll buy a disposable camera once I get to San Francisco but don’t expect pictures right away. I’m no big fan of camera phones but here’s my idea – really, really cheap yet decent digital cameras. The problem is the optics as opposed to the electronics

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076553571190054152004-02-11T21:39:00.000-05:002004-02-11T21:41:19.340-05:00

Travel I’m on my way to San Francisco for the LES Business Plan Competition presentation. Only one thing stands between me and San Francisco – a 5-hour flight. I used to not mind these long flights. I actually used to look forward to them as they’re a great chance to get caught up on work, especially email. But as a student I no longer have to deal with 200 emails a day and without work I’m left

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1076096626559656172004-02-06T14:43:00.000-05:002004-02-06T14:45:29.450-05:00

They took me didn't they? Someone asks in the request for MBET applicant questions "How selective is the MBET program?" The glib answer is above. The real answer is that I think they took about 1/2 of the applicants last year. They have intake targets regardless of how many people apply. This year 23 people started and there were 2 or 3 deferrals I believe. Next year they want a class of

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075999377043076782004-02-05T11:42:00.000-05:002004-02-05T11:44:38.653-05:00

Google-fu Noticed that Google has added a new define directive? Neat. Google continues to unify the web.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075991243389387752004-02-05T09:27:00.000-05:002004-02-05T09:29:05.123-05:00

JLCA No, DC has not come out with Justice League California. Microsoft is workingon an automated Java-to-C# tool, JLCA. Obviously they must feel that Java is still worth fighting... though I think it would just be too complex to automatically convert apps built with complex systems like EJB or JMS. But there are some smart people at Microsoft - who knows what they can do.

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075938860611028472004-02-04T18:54:00.000-05:002004-02-04T18:56:02.153-05:00

Prebuttal So I'll admit that I got a certain amount of inspiration for talking about outsourcing because Slashdot re-ran their link the the Wired article I linked to earlier. This post says: "people are losing jobs and you're blaming the victim!" Yup. You bet. There are times when it is, indeed, acceptable to blame the victim. This isn't teenage pregnancy here. This is lazy people getting

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075938083436928522004-02-04T18:41:00.000-05:002004-02-04T18:43:04.360-05:00

Indian Outsourcing So I've still got Indian outsourcing on the brain. First of all, I'm not talking about call center outsourcing. This is menial work for any human being and call centers, like water, seek the lowest possible level. I've never understodd why New Brunswick is so damn proud of all the call centres there. I'm talking about real work, which in the Indian outsourcing context is IT

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075921250621225252004-02-04T14:00:00.000-05:002004-02-04T14:02:31.903-05:00

MBET Applicants If anyone applying to enter the MBET program in Sept 2004 wants questions answered, please just leave a comment and I'll answer. Good luck applicants!

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075921136961738952004-02-04T13:58:00.000-05:002004-02-04T14:01:27.106-05:00

Bloggers So last night I met up with Matt, Ryan, Jesse & Matt (whose exact blog I do not know but is on LiveJournal somewhere) at the Grad House and we shot the breeze for a while. I think uwstudent.org is the only outlet for campus agitation at UW... a campus defined by apathy. It was good fun. Nice guys. Nice to get out for a change - too much hard working around class. Plus I had "aqua train"

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075698475012031262004-02-02T00:07:00.000-05:002004-02-02T00:12:34.153-05:00

Point-Counterpoint So, there's nothing like arguing with yourself as you're guaranteed to win. In the last post I think implied that TV networks are being massively hypocritical for not running advocacy ads. If you missed that then one of us has a problem. However, do you really want the airwaves open to anyone with an axe to grind and a few million dollars? Don't you already get enough of

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075489767199194332004-01-30T14:09:00.000-05:002004-01-30T14:11:59.140-05:00

Advocacy Ads OK, so this has nothing to do with school or business. Everyone with a blog is apparently an political armchair quarterback and I've really tried to avoid doing that myself. It's so damn self-indulgent. Who really cares what you think of the PM or the Democratic candidates? It's as if your vote counts for more if you write a long explanation of your opinion. Democracy - it's one

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5735431.post-1075298775644333062004-01-28T09:06:00.000-05:002004-01-28T09:07:49.700-05:00

Wired 12.02: The New Face of the Silicon Age This article is goddamned brilliant. It's absolutely, 100% the best summary of the Indian outsourcing phenomenon I've ever read. Innovation and invention are the source of wealth in the future. Americans - and everyone else in the so-called "west" - need to realize that their historic advantage, infrastructure and capital - can be replicated more and

Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05821821252154949834noreply@blogger.com0