If there was one mandatory course that all business school students are allergic to, it would be ethics. Not that business school students have a personality flaw that makes them hate the subject, it is just that we intensely dislike being preached to. We are smart, intelligent and savvy enough to figure out what is…
Author: Jawwad
Startup Trek: Pitching lessons
If possible always have multiple sales pitches for a meeting. A pitch could be for a product, a service, a referral or even information about the industry that isn’t widely available. For the US trip it was Alchemy Risk Manager, Outsourced research, two investment banking deal and selling Pakistan as an investment destination (product ideas…
Startup Guide: Darden Reboot Chat – transcript of the EVC, DSAS event
Thank you very much for showing up for my chat. My name is Jawwad Ahmed Farid and I am a failure. Before I became a member of Failure anonymous, I always wanted to be a winner. I wanted my own world record; see myself where you see Mr. Usain Bolt; ideally with a medal or…
Startup Mentor: Darden Reboot DSAS, EVC event
It takes a lot to fill up an empty room. Specially with smart people, who are paying good money to get a great education at a top ranked business school and have already had a roster of highly ranked speakers appear before them. But the Darden EVC and DSAS societies managed to do just that…
Startup Guide: Pitching in NYC – Day Three
The Amtrak sleeper option to Charlottesville turned out to be a brilliant idea. I had a mile long list of action items and follow-ups that I had to do and if I had taken the LaGuardia or JFK route to CHO (the airport code for Charlottesville) it would have taken 40 minutes and as many…
The Columbia Business School – Reunion – old memories
I feel like a kid in a toy store. There is so much to see and do so many memories to revisit. And at 7 am on a chilled Monday morning the Columbia campus has only a few early risers spread like frostings on a cake on college walk. It is too early for students…
Startup Guide: CEO Club session at Columbia Business School
Thanks to Hasan, Carolyn, Ben and the CEO and SABA members for first arranging the session at Columbia Business at such short notice and then showing up in strenght at 8 am on a Monday morning. I was pleasantly surprised by the size and the enthusiasim of the audience. And as Hasan and Carolyn put…
Columbia College Walk-Cherry trees for Fawzia
It was only when I first saw the cherry trees and realized that Fawzia was not here with me at Columbia that I realized that before Reboot, before startups, and before our California adventure, the Cherry blooms I wrote about reminded me of something far more important than I ever realized. Our first year together…
Oil price outlook: Goldman, Volcanic Ash, and oil prices
Asia takes oil to below 82 on Goldman and travel disruption in Europe on account of the volcanic ash cloud. Expect more pressure as New York opens Monday morning and the entire commodity group heads south. As I said earlier today while Goldman will most likely only suffer a few minor bruises, oil and commodity…
Startup Trek: Dubai T3 Transit: In Search of a Power plug at 2 am
So the first casualty of the trip was my super comfy grey fleece that I lost at Karachi airport. Apparently if I am not wearing something, or it’s not attached to me or my bag pack there is a very good chance that I will forget it somewhere on an airport and realize the loss…