Goodbye 1st year - and by the way, here were my subjects ...

I can hardly believe that all my subjects for this term are finished: it's been a busy (socially, anyway - but also academically, honest! kind of) term indeed. I did SIX subjects:

• Organizational Growth. This was a pretty subject. We spent time studying a lot of failed and growing dot coms (like webvan.com, and the new facebook.com) and learning how organizations grow. Some heated discussions.
  
  
• Start your own business (part 2). This was a continuation of last term, our photo scanning business. Whilst we went very well - and learned a lot - we got savaged in our final presentation to venture capitalists, where we were asking for money. Unfortunately I guess it's back - at least in part - to the drawing board ...
  
  
• Strategy in the non-markets environment. This is a subject all about the parts of business that aren't just about profit - ethics, lobbying, the law. It had some great and infamous arguments which I will long cherish (kind of), such as "is it wrong to charge high prices for medical drugs" and "can the government video tape me?". Watching "Thank You For Smoking" for a summary ...
  
  
• Education Proseminar. As you may know, I'm also doing a Masters of Education at Stanford too. We had 17 (!) guest speakers tell us about their latest research. Whoa.
  
  
• Moral and Spiritual Inquiry into Literature. This was probably the coolest subject of the term. 40 of us read a novel each week - including classics like "Death of a Salesman" (which I love), "Of Mice and Men", Leo Tolstoy's "Ivan Ilyich" to some novels from other cultures and religions - Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim; to name a few. We then spent 3 hours (!) talking about the ramifications for our lives (most of the people there were 2nd year MBAs who are about to graduate). Yes, in a business school subject! Very challenging.
  
  
• Human Resources ... at 8am in the morning! This was a great subject about something I've always been skeptical about ... the HR department. The result? More skepticism. But some great tools to measure my suspicions now!!!
  
  

I'll miss my class a LOT. Though I guess I'll see them in 3 months, so hey ...