Cold call...

At first, I wanted to talk about a threesome... but since I got cold called as I was typing about it in class, I will delay my rant on threesomes. Your lost. I blame corp fin. You should too.

Nah, just kidding, but knowing me, you should know that I think about threesomes all the time - which includes class time in corp fin. Anyway, will discuss (my) threesome another day. mmm... can't wait.

So today in Corp Fin, I was drifting in and out. Part of it was that the case was rather boring. Part of it was that there were many silly questions that the professor took way too seriously. This particular corp fin class has never been big in cold calling. Occasionally, there will be a "Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?" moment, but even those won't materialize into a "What do you think, Mr. Bueller?" moment. The professor usually answers his own questions. People had their laptops on and nobody gave them a hard time. No consequences anyway.

So when a cold call came attacking a student with a laptop on in the back row, it raised some eyebrows. Then again, the "sorry, I wasn't paying attention" and "that's okay, how about you, what do you think" exchange doesn't really raise red flags for the innocent MBAs.

Therefore, I was very surprised when the professor asked what I thought about the... (flipping through classnotes to recall what the question was. here it is) risk shifting for our star client in a typical HBS case. I was drifting, but I was looking straight at him, my laptop closed, my notes opened, etc etc. WHY ME!? What did I do? We may never know... but here was our exchange (thoughts):

Prof: So, Eric, what do you think?
Eric: (what the...!?) Um... let me see...
Prof: (stare down)
Eric: Risk shifting isn't a big problem
Prof: Ooookay. Why?
Eric: (#!@&%!) Well, our team didn't really discuss this issue, but... (buying time to reach into my behind for some answers)
Prof: That's alright... (stare down)
Eric: Because our client has historically not taken part in risky projects (keep buying time for nothing in particular), and there's no evidence of it doing so after the deal. (Time buying successful) blah blah blah, blah blah blah.
Prof: That is absolutely correct. (shifting focus to himself) blah blah blah, blah blah blah.

Of course, my blah blah blah and his blah blah blah were a bit different. But that time buying definitely felt like eternity. Back with a threesome soon. =)