| Week 6: New Venture Tour, Career Stuff, Financial Accounting (Module 3) |
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| Friday, 13 June 2008 11:45 | |
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The week started off with each group doing a full day of touring 3 of the 13 businesses selected by the school. All were new ventures that were started and are currently in Kingston. This was arranged by both the business school and KEDCO. Every team was given the use of a rented van for the day to drive around Kingston. Each team spent approximately 2 hours at each company learning about the business and collecting information for the competition that evening. The competition was to give the best "pitch". Each team created a 90 second "pitch" and selected an individual to deliver it in front of a panel of judges. The judges then selected a winner and awarded a trophy and prize which was a gift certificate for a team dinner at Chez Piggy. The companies my team was selected to tour were B-KIN, Transformix, and Tri-Art. All were really interesting and I definitely learned a lot. We were also exposed to the many benefits of starting a business in Kingston. There are several grants or awards available to help start businesses here and the city is close to several major markets while offering the lifestyle of a smaller community. Perhaps some of this years grads will chose to stay and start up companies? One grad did a few years ago and started JetDirect. This week also included a lot of career related events. Tuesday afternoon we had a panel of Queen"s alumni from a variety of industries who had graduated in the last few years to discuss their companies. Friday morning was working on getting the current class to really breakdown their previous experience to try to recognize all the skills and abilities that they could put on their resumes for the online resume the Business Career Center is helping us create. Friday afternoon was dedicated to "dressing for success". The owner from Sir Gawain"s clothing in Kingston spoke to the men about what to wear, how to construct a wardrobe, how to shave, how to pack for business trips, etc. Overall a lot of very good information was given on resumes, careers, job hunting, and business dress/etiquette. In addition, we launched into MBA811 Financial Accounting. This course is based on similar material to the financial accounting workbook that was distributed with the pre-study material. The professor, John Moore, is an absolute blast. His quirky sense of humour and quick wit keeps the class entertained as he runs us through the basics of balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. These topics could be dangerously boring, but with the use of the "Q-T sheet" and an excellent professor this course has quickly become quite popular with the class. Finally, the fun is still going strong. Last night"s "point four" was at "MyBar" for a little karaoke. |