Friendships Brought an MBA Some Lasting Lessons

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Larry Kao
Oxford
MBA Class of 2008

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It's overwhelmingly likely that they'll be fundamental to any business in your lifetimes. You can choose to think harder about these things sooner."

May 2008: Making a Connection

On a very cold Oxford morning, we dragged our feet at 6 a.m. onto a bus, headed for a European MBA Sports tournament (MBAT) at the great French business school HEC Paris. I sat next to our class' husband-wife MBA pair from Mexico. I never found the chance for a lengthy conversation with them and felt the long bus ride would be the perfect opportunity. I learned the wife had worked for Corona, and we talked about the exciting business of bottling and distributing beer. The husband had entrepreneurial aspirations similar to my own. He dreams of one day owning a vineyard and had previously thought about me when he found out I, too, wanted to start a wild and impractical business. I thought to myself, "Make sure you one day start a winery with Fernando."

My Lesson: No matter who we are or where we are from, MBAs have similar hopes and dreams.

September 2008: Remembering The Love

On a cold Oxford night, I sat in the Said Business School library, writing this note as my classmates left one by one.

The friend from Dubai, the one that taught me about the United Arab Emirates and the opportunities of the glitzy fantasy resort, had gone back to figure out her next career move.

The funny, bald-headed German is heading home to rock his country's finance industry.

The Japanese economics researcher, my girlfriend, has headed back to Tokyo to research "stuff" that's way too advanced for me.

The Skoll Scholar-sailor is making it happen, working with VCs from London to Africa on a venture to fund other African venture capitalists.

The Mexican couple is headed back to sunny Mexico to continue with their careers.

It was very exciting to think we would make friends with people all over the world, and we have. But eventually we must separate and now that the course has ended, our support system has stretched and thinned—globally. For all those first-year MBAs who will soon face these same experiences, I have three words of advice for you: Stay in touch. We may not remember what Ansoff, Wheelwright, or Clark did for business theory, but we will remember what our friends did for our lives.

Meanwhile, South Africa seemed to be the destination of choice for Oxford's 2008 MBA Class. Thanks to a wedding and traveling happenstance, a few dozen of us found ourselves heading to the African continent. A group of us spent time together at the Waterfront Shopping Mall as if we were still in Oxford.

Now that the fun is over, we are all excited to move on with our lives. As we re-enter the business world, it is a changed place from where we left it a year ago. A financial crisis, depressed co-workers, and opportunities await us all. I hope all fresh business school grads will keep their MBA fires lit and that together we can do our small part to help lift the economic world back onto its feet, so that come June 2009, we will be able to welcome next year's graduates with wide open arms (and jobs).

A note to my friends: Thank you for the best year of my life. You've challenged and argued and debated with me, which sharpened my crazy business plans and ideas. And if I forgot to mention you above, it does not mean I forgot you. It just means I wanted to thank you personally. Cheers.

Larry Kao is an MBA Journal writer and a member of the MBA Class of 2008 at Oxford's Saïd Business School.