Oxford Odyssey

Author: cowleycorporateclimbers

  • A Guide: How to Survive in Consulting

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    Going from Oxford to becoming a consultant was one of the wildest leaps I made. The difference in mental models is rather significant. You are going from a place that rewards your personal thinking and synthesis as the be all and end all to the workplace, where value must be created for someone else. It’s…

  • Branding in the Information Age: Still Relevant?

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    The Erosion of Credibility in an Era of Information Abundance In the pre-internet era, brands were synonymous with trust. A name like Berry Brothers & Rudd symbolised safety in a world where a sip of counterfeit moonshine could lead to blindness. The brand’s reputation was its most valuable asset, built on years of consistent quality.…

  • Sandcone Model: Why I’m suspicious of cost-cutting measure

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    When I started my graduate role in corporate strategy at a large company, I had to take on numerous cost-cutting projects. What I learnt is that cost cutting is often underrated in difficulty and often misused. This is also why the Sandcone Model sets cost as the last priority in building competitiveness. The Sandcone Model…

  • Global Business History – the GOATed module

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    Have you ever wanted to step into the shoes of a Harvard Business School professor and create a case study that others will learn from? At Oxford, the Global Business History module lets you do just that.  This is perhaps my favourite course in Oxford. In Harvard Business School, students learn through the Case Method.…

  • Is a UK degree worth it for the chance to work there as an international student?

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    As a kid, I had always believed that the London streets are paved with gold, as was mentioned in the story of Dick Whittington and his cat. It’s one of the largest financial capitals of the world. A city with rich history and once a centre of power that controlled colonies across the world. I…

  • Why Blitzscaling is overrated

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    I believe that the blitzscaling strategy has lost a large part of its effective and is a convenient way for growth companies to obscure profitability problems. Firstly, switching costs for most applications today are overstated and valuations are hence over-estimated. The notion behind switching costs is best exemplified by Microsoft, which has built a durable…

  • Government handouts and its theoretical futility

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    Ricardian equivalence is an economic theory that challenges the effectiveness of government spending as a tool for stimulating economic activity. The theory posits that when a government borrows to finance spending, rational consumers anticipate future tax increases required to repay the debt. As a result, they save more, neutralising the stimulative effect of the spending.…

  • Travel tips from a consultant

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    If you are in consulting, you will probably more advice from the seasoned road warriors in your firm. That said, I’ve known MBB folks who got packed off for their first overseas assignment immediately after training, so it might be worth reading these beforehand.

  • Accounting: The subjectivity of hard numbers

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    When people hear “accounting,” they often picture dull number-crunching or meticulous cash counting. But accounting is far from the boring, mechanical process many assume. Beneath the surface of matching the debits and credits lies a fascinating world of interpretation, judgement, and subjectivity. At its core, accounting is using numbers to tell a story about the…

  • Tragedy of the Commons

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    The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation where individuals, acting in their own self-interest, deplete shared resources, leading to long-term collective harm. This concept highlights issues that arise when externalities—costs or benefits incurred by third parties—are not reflected in market prices. The inherent conflict between individual incentives and collective welfare often demands solutions…