Students for students: Thirunda’s advice on “buying time”

Officially the person with the longest name on the residency, Thirunda comes from Sri Lanka and had the following to share with himself if he was able to travel back in time to the start of his studies:

Thirunda also has some crazy video editing skills, and we’re hoping to be able to show you that pretty soon. Stay tuned!

Dr. David Costa, Dean on CNBC 24 October 2012

ECB’s OMT a Much Needed Remedy

In many cases the European crisis was fuelled by a lack of confidence. The OMT programme was a much needed remedy to restore confidence in Europe and in the Euro. The fact that the OMT programme is conditional doesn’t mean that the ECB is now dictating fiscal policy or is outside its mandate.

The announcement of OMT was already a success in the case of Italy: the latest auction of 18 billion was four times higher than expectations allowing Italy to cover all the 2012 financial obligations. For a country with the highest private wealth to GDP ratio of any G-7 country the crisis of confidence is almost over.

Does it mean that the OMT is the solution to all European problems? Of course not. The main issue of some European countries is dealing with high unemployment and lack of competitiveness.

Luxury Slowdown: an Opportunity

From Burberry to Mulberry investors are rightly concerned about a global slowdown in the luxury sector and are taking profits. I think that the first distinction has to be made: while many luxury brands look similar there are substantial differences among them. For instance I see as a crucial competitive advantage where the luxury goods are produced for example in the case of Italian and French Luxury brands (like Brunello Cuccinelli +40% since IPO, Prada +90% since last year, Ferragamo +52% since IPO) is a buying opportunities in a selloff. This because, over the long term, they still maintain a distinct brand advantage vs the competition. This advantage is strongly anchored on where the products are manufactured and France and Italy are likely to remain long term leaders in this field.

In Short

  • OMT will boast confidence in Europe and the Euro and is within the ECB mandate.
  • Lack of competitiveness in many European countries is the main issue and it cannot be solved in the short term.
  • Luxury Slowdown is a buying opportunity for unique brands with a sustainable competitive advantage. Despite the similarities not all luxury brands are the same.

Students4Students@RKC – advice from students for students

Last month I had the honour of meeting thirty three amazing individuals, who came to Zürich alone and left as a group.

The MALIC residency brought together people from 15 different countries and all walks of life, from bankers and SAP managers, to management consultants and entrepreneurs.

Some of them were kind (and brave!) enough to step up in front of an intimidating lens and share some of their personal experience with fellow students, whether they are at the beginning of their journey in the programme, or already approaching the end.

This will be a series of videos from the Zürich residency, hoping we will turn this into a regular event.

So, without further delay, I give you today’s first speaker, Martin!

Money Management Class Hangout

University of Cumbria MBA in Leadership & SustainabilityMoney Management Class Hangout with Dr David Costa using a new technology in our classed thanks to the simplicity of Google+

Last August we did experiment a new technology to connect live with class members in a Q&A session. Despite some technical limitations I think that the result of our first attempt has been a good one:

As the programme has students from over 130 countries this type of live events is still experimental and not compulsory but we are working to add more of these optional hangouts sessions throughout the MBA.