New

New York --> New Haven; New address #16 --> New address #17; New school year; New classes at New schools and 234 New classmates to get to know. Lots of ‘New’. My summer was excellent - after 27 years of looking at New York City with wide eyes from afar and wondering what life would be like living there (trust me, it’s a long way from the little British Army base that I called home for 18 years), my internship gave me the opportunity to experience it first-hand. I worked at Sony Music Entertainment - one of the ‘Big Four’ record companies - in its New Products and Services team. Whilst I can’t go into detail about the nuts and bolts of my day-to-day work, at the core of it sat the execution of strategies and the rolling-out of initiatives aimed at developing and reinvigorating the experience of recorded music consumption. For me, the internship experience was exactly what I feel it was meant to be - on many levels. On the one hand, it was an opportunity to combine my professional experience to date with the exercising of tools I’ve been honing throughout the first year curriculum. This summer I was able to put into practice lessons and skills learnt from each of my Competitor, Customer, Employee, Innovator, Integrated Leadership Perspective, Microeconomics, Negotiation and Social Media Management classes. More than that though, I was also able to see where gaps in my expertise still exist and this has informed the shape of my second year at Yale. Those of you who know me well will likely have experienced me quizzing you about your music consumption habits (and most likely reprimanding you if they are anything less than entirely legal) because the proliferation of music piracy both fascinates and baffles me: I just haven’t gotten to the point where I can fully understand why many people simply think that it’s OK. I came to business school with a very specific goal in mind: to find solutions that allow the recorded music industry to circumvent piracy through the development of new business models. My summer reinforced this intent but having a passion for it is only half the battle - I realised that my toolbox was lacking a full understanding of the digital space and the laws that are in place to guard against piracy. The flexibility of the curriculum here has allowed me to tailor my degree to fill those specific gaps that were exposed this summer. I’m now taking classes on Intellectual Property, Technology, Law and Copyright at the Law School and at Yale College and am balancing those courses with Strategy and Marketing electives at the School of Management. Through the Law School, I’m also tapped into Yale’s Information Society Project which addresses the implications of the Internet and new information technologies for law and society - quite fitting both for my personal goals and those of the School of Management itself. I’m looking forward to seeing those goals and ambitions come alive over the next, New, year.