Weekend Update ~ Operations Management Final Exams

Completed my 7th subject with the final exams for Operations Management and I have 11 more subjects to go. I was kind of disappointed with the exams question though because it was a really stupid question. Instead of requiring me to write a report using the concepts and theories that I have learnt in Operations Management, it asked me to find data on the trend of Toyota's recent recalls and from that information, find the root cause to the quality issues and recommend some quality management program to Toyota. Most of the theories and concepts we studied in Operations Management comes from Toyota and now for the final exams, I need to recommend Toyota something new? It's ridiculous!

Anyway, I downloaded the question at around 9pm on Saturday night after coming home from dinner with hubby and basically got so fedup with the question that I slept through it. I woke up at around 7am to do the paper and submitted by 1pm. I don't know how but I managed to squeeze 1900 words out and after that I was totally drained...

Nice long weekend...

This has been a long weekend for me as I have sick leaves for both last Friday and this Monday. I am not feeling sick but I have a terrible skin infection on a piece of scratched skin on my left foot. It all started last weekend at the wet market of Mongkok where I had an itch on my foot and I started scratching it until it was red and tender. I didn't think much of it until it became so painful and the skin was practically rotting that I went to see the family doctor. She told me that it was serious and gave me an injection plus anti-biotics to take for 3 days before going back to see her again on Monday. Then on Monday, she gave me 4 more days of medicine...really didn't think that it could be so serious.

Is it because Hong Kong is really dirty that I get all kinds of strange infections or is it because I am getting old? "Getting old"...I really hate to admit this. Will I be much healthier if I am living in Singapore instead? I guess I will never know as I have been living here for the past 4 years and I will be staying here for another year at least. The secondment contract is signed today.

I went shopping with mum on Friday afternoon at the fashion wholesaler, had dinner with the family including grandpa at the Thai restaurant in Elements and bought the sexy Nespresso coffee machine as my anniversary present. Hubby was happy that I have chosen the coffee machine over bags or shoes or diamonds. To him, it's a new toy where the whole family can use.

I started to download my final exams for Finance on Saturday afternoon, while D and hubby went to Mongkok to buy games and collect D's 11th birthday cake. It was crazy, I had absolutely no idea how I was going to answer the questions! The paper was really difficult! I needed my textbook but it has been left in the office...Hubby went back to fetch it for me while I continued to scratch my head. After 18 long hours of head scratching, hair pulling and eyeball rolling, I finally submitted the paper.

We celebrated D's birthday on Saturday night, after having California pizza for supper. D had chosen the cake himself at Maxim's and I think it was nicely done but somehow, they had spelled out his name funny with a capital L in the middle.

D's "Soccer Boy" birthday cake.

Father's Day Special Tea Set @ Elements

Sunday dinner @ Yamada.

Diamonds again

image source : www.debeersgroup.com

I have completed my 4th subject (Managing International Business) yesterday after working 15+ hours for the final exams. 4 down, 14 more to go...The task was to write up a report for De Beers' global business with recommendations on how the company should move forward from now. Last quarter results for De Beers had been badly hit by the on-going economic crisis, the demand for diamond roughs had dropped, pushing the prices down. De Beers had closed the Botswana mine for 50 days and laid off more than half of its staff in UK...So how should De Beers move forward from here? De Beers is involve with the whole value chain of the diamond business from exploration, mining, sorting, cutting, manufacturing to retailing. Each process add value to the diamonds with the mining and retailing being most lucrative for the company.

It was interesting reading up on diamonds, so much to learn about diamonds. It was my 2nd case relating to diamonds, the 1st was Gem Diamonds, a diamond mining company for the Marketing Management's final exams. Did you know that diamonds are at least 990 million years old? And some are even 4 billion years old! So they exist on earth even before life began? And most of the diamonds can be found in South Africa. Before polishing and cutting, a diamond is just a piece of rock but with remarkable craftsmanship, diamonds can become so brilliant! I know most guys will think that diamonds are over-rated but most girls love diamonds. Why? I think it's the famous slogan by De Beers, "A Diamond is Forever" and their concept of the diamond engagement ring that have made diamonds a symbol of love and fidelity. That was great marketing. But anyway, precious gems including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds have been used to adorn jewellery and all sorts of accessories by royalties and the wealthy for centuries. So, in times like this current economic crisis we are facing, how do you market a luxury item like diamonds?

1 down and 17 more to go...

Sorry for not blogging for so long, folks. I have been really really busy with my studies these days. I have just completed my 1st subject on Organisational Behaviour and had my final exams over the weekend. *Phew*

It was an open-book exams, fully online and I have exactly 24 hours after downloading the exams question to submit online. I really love studying like this, I woke up around 11am on Saturday, made myself some nice hazelnut latte, log-in to U21Global campus and started to download my exams paper. It was very relaxing, definitely much better than having to go to a venue for the exams. The best thing about it was, I didn't have to worry about getting to the venue on time, no worry if the place will be overly air-conditioned like most indoor places in Hong Kong and I didn't even have to worry about having to do my make-up and hair! I was still in my pajama when I started to work on my paper. :D

It was quite a long paper, I had to give a proposal as an organisational change management consultant to this imaginary large IT firm based in New York who have just acquired an Indian IT firm and was facing many challenges both internally and with the workers union in the US. I was expected to give the CEO a coherent change management plan to help him solve all the problems that his firm was facing and get the firm back on track for revenue growth. Open-book as it was, the paper was not easy. I was expected to submit a proposal within 24 hours with standards comparable to a team assignment with long deadline. I worked through the day, stopping only for meals, shower and I worked through the night. By the time I completed my proposal, it was 18 hours later! Yes, I worked til I saw day-light at 6am the next morning...

Hubby was sweet, he stayed up the whole time just in case I needed help from him with the PC, made me coffee late in the night and ocassionally gave me kisses for "mental support". He also helped me find the perfect coverpage for the proposal from Office 2007 templates.