Oxford Odyssey

Author: cowleycorporateclimbers

  • The marketing of renewables: Becoming Secureables

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    Jonathan Safran Foer juxtaposes the collective will to win WW2 against humanity’s inability to become vegetarian for the planet. The implication that individual sacrifice is far more palatable when the consequence is obvious and urgent. That is why climate change has not inspired the same behavioural changes we saw in wartime. As a hater of…

  • 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…

  • Tech Sales

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    This is coming from someone who had an account manager pitch to him to sell. I took an onboarding call with a vendor who has been working with my company to provide analytics software. Think through your existing product mix and what makes sense for client – prioritise it for them. Knowledge to the specific…

  • 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.…

  • Consumption smoothing – The case for BNPL

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    The consumption smoothing theory in economics posits that individuals aim to maintain a stable standard of living over their lifetime, balancing income fluctuations through saving and borrowing. Rather than spending excessively during periods of high income and cutting back drastically during low-income phases, people distribute their consumption more evenly. According to this theoretical model, people…