9
Made for CONQUERING DISTANCES Sydney Marathon AGSM MBA STUDENT MAGAZINE | ISSUE 10 | JANUARY 2015 Meat rationing For the love of tennis Terra infirma Building a career in sustainability
Made forCONQUERING DISTANCESSydney Marathon
AGSM MBA STUDENT MAGAZINE | ISSUE 10 | JANUARY 2015
Meat rationing
For the love of tennis
Terra infi rma
Building a career in sustainability
2 AGSM STAR 3
From the Editor’s LabOn behalf of the AGSM STARmag team, I would like to extend a warm welcome to new incoming exchange students as well as full-time MBA Class 2016.
2014 ended with the tragedy of the Sydney siege and AirAsia QZ8501 while 2015 begun with the terrible attack on publication house, Charlie Hebdo. Fear spreads even as MBA Class 2015 are fi nishing our last term either in AGSM or partner B-schools all around the world.
As future leaders, how do we ensure the safety of those around us while instilling confi dence back into our society?
Share your views with STARmag via email:[email protected]
Editor-in-ChiefAce Yu Leng Choo#illridewithyou
Originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ace Choo moved to
Perth, Australia about 10 years ago to pursue a Bachelor of
Science (Biomedical) and subsequently a Master of Infectious
Diseases from the University of Western Australia (UWA).
After 5 years as a medical researcher and laboratory manager
in UWA, she aims to achieve a triple threat status with an
AGSM MBA: a medical scientist who dabbles in the arts and
skilled in business management.
Page 2-3 photo | The Globe (2002) sculpture by Bronwyn Oliver (1959-2006, Australia) on UNSW ground
Marine grade copper alloy, bronze; 3m diameterPhoto credits | Ace Choo
Editor-in-Chief | Ace ChooSub-editor | Maria Jose De la CalleLayout designer | Ace ChooCopy-editors | Jisha Ramachandran | Prasad Giribalan | Suryakirti SinghCreative Contributor | Sankshep Vashisht
AGSM STAR Magazine (STARmag) is produced by MBA students from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). This magazine is not for sale and intended only for educational and research purposes.
All published works are of the opinions of the individual authors and do not represent the view of AGSM or UNSW.
The ‘STAR Magazine’ logo is put together by Ace Choo using ‘Sommet’ fonts designed by Jeremy Dooley and ‘Cash Currency’ fonts designed by Jayde Garrow.
The blue and white AGSM logo remained the property of UNSW and any unauthorized use are strictly prohibited.
All rights reserved.
Website | http://stusoc.agsmclubs.com/
Corresponding email | [email protected]
STAR 32 AGSM
Cover page | MBA student Jia Pei crossing the fi nish line in the Sydney Marathon 2014
Photo supplied by authorCONTENTS
From the Editor’s Lab 2
FEATURE
Made for conquering distances 4A runner’s guide to the SydneyMarathon
IN FOCUS
Terra infi rma 6
Meat rationing 10A solution to the food crisis
For the love of tennis 13
Building a career in sustainability 14
4 AGSM STAR 5
Any time during the day you go to Centennial Park, even if the temperature is above 35 degrees, there will be someone running. Yes, running is very popular in Australia, and you will never have any problem fi nding a running partner to do some serious training for your fi rst marathon in Sydney.
The Sydney Marathon is ideal if you don’t have much experience in the 42.195 km challenge. The route starts at Milson’s Point, connects the most scenic parts of the city including Harbour Bridge, Martin Place, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Centennial Park, Darling Harbour and ends at Opera House. Also unlike most parts of Sydney, this route is in general fl at. You will experience some ascent around the 33 kilometer mark as you climb the freeway to Darling Harbour, but after that you will only fi ght with your own weight rather than the gravity.
Here are some tips for the day:
Take advantage of free transportationAll the runners with bibs can take public transportation for free on the day to the starting point and the easiest access is through train to Milson’s Point. You don’t have to arrive early if you are not a morning person, ten minutes before the start time is suffi cient without a bag drop.
Bring suffi cient suppliesSurprisingly there weren’t enough energy gels for full marathon runners in 2014. If you target to fi nish the race beyond 4 hours, it is advisable to bring your own energy supplies since everything in the aids stations beyond 20 kilometers will be taken before you get there.
MADE FOR CONQUERING DISTANCES
Photo supplied by author
A Runner’s Guide to the Sydney Marathonby Jia PeiMBA Student Class 2015
4 AGSM
A third year Runner dreaming about the best while knowing the limit, JIA PEI is a marketer who has proudly worked and led some of the best brands in China.
Photo supplied by author
Follow your own pace not the rabbits’Sydney Striders provides pace setters (the rabbit) for the event, who can lead you to fi nish the race within your target time. But bear in mind that those are very experienced runners, their pace for the whole run is very consistent and their reaction to the “hitting the wall” period is very different from yours. In general, it is better to keep your pace comfortable, especially in the fi rst 25 kilometers. Once you survive 35 kilometers, the nearby rabbit could be a great motivation for the last part.
Connect with your charityEvery year the Sydney Marathon offers runners who achieve a certain target of fundraising an opportunity to run for free. Moreover, almost every big not-for-profi t organization will have its own running team and after-run party including free food and drinks and a free 10-minute massage. Is there a better way to meet like-minded runners than over a drink after running 42 kilometers?
Decide on your pose of the dayThe events’ photographers will be around Hyde Park, Oxford Street, Centennial Park, Harbour Bridge and Opera House to make sure they capture you with the landmarks in Sydney. So think about your coolest pose before you start the run and whenever you see the photographers, smile, jump or even strip to memorize this sweaty and exhausting yet exciting and rewarding day of your life.
STAR 5
6 AGSM STAR 766 AGSM STSTSTARAR 7
According to Wikipedia, Terra fi rma is a Latin phrase meaning “solid earth” from terra, meaning “earth”, and fi rma, meaning “solid”.
26th January 2001. 8:46 AM. Bhuj, Gujarat, India.
The world turned upside down. Or at least, that is what it seemed like.
Just the previous day, my friends and I had participated in a marathon, “Run for India” held on the eve of the fi fty-second Republic Day of India. We were chatting and enjoying the weather, completely oblivious to what we were about to witness the next morning.
Four hundred thousand homes woke up to an earthquake on a public holiday. This was no minor earthquake. It did not get over within seconds. It only got worse as time passed and stopped after what seemed like forever.
Cracks appeared across walls such as in a scene from an apocalyptic movie. There was concrete dust all over the room. Breathing was a pain. There was a horrible rumbling sound like that of a liquid boiling in a huge cauldron. Lava? This high up the earth’s crust? Scientifi c reasoning could be left for later. Focus had to be directed to just one task - survival.
PRAVEENA AIRANI is a Full Time AGSM MBA candidate. She was a Senior Analyst with an Investment Bank working in Direct
Market Access technology. She enjoys reading, music and good company.
Terra INFirmaby Praveena Airani
MBA Student Class 2015
Left | View from inside the bedroom
Bottom | When the walls came crumbling down
Page 8 | Cut-off from the world
Photos supplied by author
8 AGSM STAR 9STSTARAR 999
There was no time to put on slippers. The normally spic and span corridor was unrecognizable. Running on the rubble hurt the feet, but that didn’t matter. The house was fast turning into debris and getting out was a priority. Exits to the house were jammed. A neighbor came to our rescue and hit hard on the main door until it opened and we were out safely.
It was a terrible earthquake! The initial shock was over. Now what? What about friends and relatives? It felt ridiculous to be standing right outside your own home in the cold without any slippers on, too scared to go inside. All our food, clothes, valuables, everything was inside. Yes, we were happy to just have survived but then, we did need those things to live.
The car was the only place where we could lock things up. The walls of the house couldn’t protect anything anymore! One by one basic necessities were dragged out. By the evening, we were comfortable. We had a bed, makeshift shelter and food. That’s comfort enough at times such as these.
This helplessness was nothing compared to the loss of some of the people affected by the earthquake, but I didn’t know then. I thought I was safe and so was everyone else. The graveness of the issue had not yet sunk in. We had no communication until someone got out a radio. I visited the city to see what it had morphed into and met up with staff at my school. I was told that a few of my classmates were dead. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I still can’t believe it!
Terra fi rma is a misnomer.
10 AGSM STAR 11
We’ve all heard that the food crisis is coming. Many factors including climate change and rising oil prices are linked to this crisis. But to me, the biggest problems that need to be fi xed are overconsumption and wastage of food. If we focus on these issues fi rst, other linked issues are likely to be addressed as a consequence. A big part of the overconsumption and wastage comes from the increase in consumption of meat.
The global demand for meat is growing, particularly in China and India, which could see an 80% boom in the meat sector by 2022 due to a new (and growing) middle class. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimates that global meat production will increase from 311.8 million tonnes in 2014 to 455 million tonnes by 2050.
A possible solution and one of the trendiest lifestyle options is to become vegetarian or vegan. Although this maybe a good short term option, but in the long term is detrimental to the general health of human beings and is not addressing the root cause of the food crisis – the unhealthy lifestyle
SHIPRA MAHINDRA is an experienced software developer and is pursing the MBA at AGSM to sharpen her business acumen. She aims to work at the crossroads where strategy and technology intersect.
Meat RATIONINGA solution to the food crisisby Shipra MahindraMBA Student Class 2015
due to overconsumption. In fact, most people who opt for such a lifestyle suffer from defi ciencies of Iron, Vitamin B12 and Calcium. This doesn’t have an immediate effect like saturated fat does on cholesterol, but has a long term effect in weakening of bones and the immune system. It took my body approximately 5 years to become anaemic after I turned vegetarian.
I believe that a better solution is rationing of meat. Now before you say that I’ve gone crazy, think about the food rationing system during the World War II in Britain. Although
food was a limited resource, the fi tness of the population was at an all-time high, with food wastage and obesity barely an issue as every bit of food was put to good use and each meal was planned out to be as nutritional as possible. Today our diets are too high in salt and saturated fat contributed by excessive consumption of processed meat driven by industrialisation of meat production, expansion of fast food outlets around the world and an overall increase in affl uence of the population.
According to the Guardian, Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network says, “Study
Source | http://www.businessinsider.com/how-we-eat-meat-around-the-world-2014-1
12 AGSM STAR 13
has shown that awareness-raising campaigns alone are unlikely to work, particularly when it comes to more diffi cult changes.” The study recommended that a person should be rationed to a litre of milk and four “modest portions” of meat per week. This initiative does not necessarily have to come through government regulation, but could be driven by world organisations such as World Health Organisation and United Nations. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is currently working on sustainable diets and lobbying with companies such as TESCO to improve the consumer’s diets by changing the food options available. Supermarkets are one of the biggest food choice regulators and have more control over our purchase behaviours than governments. It is not a huge leap for WWF to facilitate global policies around limiting meat production, especially processed meat production.
But, why meat? Because it consumes the most resources to produce and is the leading cause of obesity. Nearly 60% of the world’s agricultural land is used for beef production, yet beef accounts for less than 2% of the calories that are consumed. It takes 550 litres of water to produce fl our for 1 loaf of
bread - a fraction of the roughly 1500 litres used to produce 100 grams of grain-fed beef. Meat production is also a high contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. According to a study by University of Oxford, moving from a high meat to a low meat diet would reduce a person’s carbon footprint by 920 kg CO2e every year. That’s approximately the same amount of carbon emitted when driving 5520 km by car or operating your computer for 1200 days. However, the most compelling reason to me, is the ability to stop the abuse of animals in confi ned animal feeding operations which are standard practice in any industrialised meat production facility. The lack of compassion for animal life in today’s world continues to baffl e me.
The global food system is broken and something needs to be done to fi x it. Maybe my solution of rationing meat consumption or limiting meat production sounds too drastic a change but changing the habits of the world can take a few generations - old habits die hard. This could be one way to immediately bring down the overconsumption of meat, reduce the negative impact of food production on climate change and lead to a healthier human race.
As the Australian Open became the focus of tennis fans worldwide from 19 January to 1 February 2015, we look at some tangible benefi ts of playing the sport on a recreational level.
Firstly, playing tennis helps to improve one’s agility and hand-eye coordination. At the workplace, the tennis skills you pick up on the tennis courts allows you to sense invisible darts and arrows coming your way. The ability to skillfully manage, or when necessary, defl ect the items that come your way is correlated with your fi nesse to deal with the balls that come your way on the courts.
Secondly, tennis improves one’s immune system. Australia experiences a few changes in temperature over the course of a year. Having a great immune system helps one avoid catching fever during Week 6 and Week 7, and, as some say, Week 12.
Thirdly, playing tennis socially allows for networking opportunities. Similar to golf, the time spent on and off the courts allows fellow players to understand your personality and character a lot better, and vice-versa. Trust is developed on the courts. Hence, be sure to run for every ball and give your 100%, just the way everyone does at AGSM.
With this, I hope to see everyone on the tennis courts!
DERRICK WONG is a tennis enthusiast who feels privileged to be an AGSM MBA candidate. If you would like to link up with him, his LinkedIn address is: au.linkedin.com/in/derrick1986
Photo supplied by author
For the LOVE of tennisby Derrick Wong
EMBA Class 2015
STAR 13
Sour
ce |
http
://w
ww.
theg
lasg
owst
ory.
com
/imag
e.ph
p?in
um=T
GSA
0087
7
14 AGSM STAR 15
Last November the AGSM Social Impact Club put together a presentation for Careers in Sustainability with the participation of three panel guest speakers who shared their view and experiences on the fi eld: Lisa Tarry from Turning Green Career Consultancy, Anya Solovieva from ICAP and Ben Waters from Sungevity Australia.
Although pursuing a career focused on sustainability or green initiatives can be challenging depending on our location in the global map, this fi eld is no longer limited to governments, multinational agencies or NGO’s. Sustainability extends through every industry today and will be even more important in the near future.
JOSE IGNACIO “PEPE” MIRANDA is a Peruvian economist with 7 years of experience in banking
and fi nancial services. He is enthusiastic about green initiatives and renewable energy as a way to embrace a better outcome for society in the future.
Building a CAREER in
sustainabilityby Jose Ignacio Miranda
Director Social Impact Club
For MBA students, it is important to understand how consumers are now more informed about their products and brands. The consumers consider about the product specifi cations even to the extend of manufacturers’ practices and how responsible they are with the environment, community as well as society as a whole.
Companies understand this consumer behaviour and have adapted their practices to become better citizens of the world, some good examples are GE, Johnson & Johnson and 3M just to name a few. Even fi nancial institutions such as HSBC are using World Bank guidelines to ensure that their clients are socially and environmentally responsible.
If you are reading this article and are considering a career in this fi eld, here are some tips that our guest speakers shared with us about how to do it:
1. Think ahead into the future and do not limit your reasoning to the status quo.
2. Network, network and network. Do not underestimate the power of networking inside and outside of your organisation. Tell the world that you are interested in this fi eld.
3. Persevere, go for it with a passion.
From left | Ben Waters (Sungevity Australia), Lisa Tarry (Turning Green Career Consultancy), Jose Ignacio Miranda (AGSM
MBA student), and Anya Solovieva (ICAP)
Photo supplied by author
14 AGSM STAR 15
STUDENT SOCIETY (STUSOC) COMMITTEE MEMBERSPresident
Virginia Kane | [email protected]
Vice President
Frederik Mayeres | [email protected]
Finance Manager
Arun Pandiyan | fi [email protected]
Communications Manager
Ace Choo | [email protected]
Alumni Relations Manager
Bhuvan Bhushan | [email protected]
Events Manager
Davydd Kelly | [email protected]
Technology Manager
Sumit Yadav | [email protected]
Business Manager
Chris Jordan | [email protected]
STUSOC CLUBS CONTACTSPresident Consulting Club
Ankit Kothari | [email protected]
President Entertainment, Sports, & Events Management (ESPM) Club
Sanjit Kewalramani | [email protected]
President Finance Club
Dan Wong | fi [email protected]
President Innovation, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship (ICE) Club
Enrique Kike Munoz Revello | [email protected]
President Marketing
Rony Kristianto | [email protected]
President Public Speaking and Debate Club
Sankshep Vashisht | [email protected]
Liaison Social Impact Club
Christopher Chong | [email protected]
President Women in Leadership Club
Kirsten Brito | [email protected]
