Well, we’re down to the final week before my final two exams. I’ve been doing this MBA over the last 4 years and have decided to finish off my last two exams in one go, just to get them out of the way. With any luck, that means I’ll be graduating later on this year. Yippee!

Anyway, my last 2 exams are Negotiation and Influence, both by Gavin Kennedy. Here’s a quick profile:

Professor Gavin Kennedy was Professor of Defence Finance in the Department of Accounting and Finance at Heriot-Watt University and Professor of Economics at Strathclyde University, where he helped to develop the MBA programme. His research interests are all aspects of the history of negotiation; he has written a book on Adam Smith’s philosophy and economics and has published extensively in the fields of defence economics and naval history. His books on negotiation are best-sellers and are widely read by practising managers. Professor Kennedy has been managing director of Negotiate Ltd since 1987, an international consultancy specialising in negotiation and influence, whose clients include corporations, government departments and non-governmental organisations in many countries.

They’re both pretty interesting; in a way, formalising things I sort of knew, but never really thought about. That’s really been the main value I’ve taken from this MBA, putting structure around things that I had learned organically and providing tools to help focus my thought processes.