A Day in the Life

Michael Pesce

Hometown: Basking Ridge, NJ
Where I lived and worked prior to Stern: Project manager at CGI, an IT services firm located in Fairfax, VA
Summer internship: Associate at Updata Partners, a venture capital fund investing in the software technology industry

8:00 a.m. I gradually wake up to the sunshine in Melbourne. I’m visiting Australia for the first time in my life participating in Stern's Doing Business in.. (DBi) program. This DBi is a two-week study abroad intensive offered by Stern in conjunction with the Melbourne Business School (MBS). There are also DBi visits to Dublin, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Beijing and Milan.

I get ready for the day and head to breakfast where I meet up with some of the other 40 Stern students that are part of the program. Someone encourages me to try Vegemite, a spread that is wildly popular in Australia but notoriously unappealing to foreigners, and I oblige them. It’s early in the morning, and I’ve already learned a valuable lesson. There will be no more Vegemite for me.

9:00 a.m. All students have gathered in the lecture hall at MBS, and we begin our morning session with an Australian wine maker. We spend the time learning about what drives success in the Australian wine industry and get a refresher on wine tasting. We discuss how the industry might approach the challenges associated with the current Australian climate. The country is in the midst of a drought that is not forecasted to let up anytime soon.

12:00 p.m. Class ends, and we have a few minutes to grab our things and hop on a bus. We are headed to one of the richest and most beautiful wine producing regions in Australia - the Yarra Valley - for a corporate visit that is part of the DBi program. 

Stern students at Giant Steps Winery

1:30 p.m. We arrive at Giant Steps Winery. We spend the next 90 minutes enjoying a lunch prepared by the winery and tasting a number of wines including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and  Merlot. We also tour the production facilities and learn about some of the operational streamlining Giant Steps has implemented to cut costs and improve both yield and quality. We’re also surprised to see how successfully Giant Steps has leveraged its own potential for winery tourism, an aspect of the industry now exploding in Australia. As we leave for our next stop many fellow classmates buy wine directly from Giant Steps.                                                                      

3:00 p.m. We make it to our next stop, the Punt Hill Winery. This winery is a much larger operation and unlike our experience at Great Steps, we get to see the actual vineyard. However, due to a phylloxera scare, our exposure to the vines is limited. Phylloxera is a nasty disease that destroys grape vines and is extremely difficult to contain. In the late 1860s phylloxera obliterated the French wine industry to the point where it has become nearly impossible to find any rootstock dating earlier than the 1860s. Punt Hill recently had a section of its vineyard destroyed by the disease and to prevent its possible spread we had to stay away. After a few hours of touring the facilities, playing bocce ball and tasting some more wine we head back to MBS.

5:00 p.m. Back at MBS we have a brief group meeting to discuss our team’s progress on the project we must complete by the end of the course. We part ways to catch up on email, take a nap and get ready for a fun evening.

7:00 p.m. A number of friends gather on a terrace at MBS and enjoy some drinks as we get ready to grab dinner and explore the Melbourne nightlife. We discuss the day’s events, retell stories about the trip and talk about our impressions of Australia. The conversation wanders in many directions, but perhaps the most interesting moments occur when those from England, Argentina, Nigeria, Mexico and Russia weigh in with their own unique perspectives on the experience.

9:00 p.m. A group of eight friends heads to Lygon Street for dinner. The street is famous throughout Australia for its Italian cuisine. The heart of Lygon Street is nearly a kilometer long with restaurants packed together and wide sidewalks that allow for dining outside. As we walk down the street, the competition among restaurants is so fierce that employees stand in front of the door and basically beg you to dine at their establishment. It’s hard to make a bad decision given the quality of the restaurants, and this night we choose a decidedly non-Italian fare. We settle on a steakhouse known to be one of the best so that we can try kangaroo. Most of us do, and everyone enjoys the experience.

11:00 p.m. After getting dinner we decide on heading to St. Kilda, a section of Melbourne on the beach and central to exciting nightlife. We get on the tram near Lygon Street and take it all the way to St. Kilda. The tram system runs throughout the city, is clean and greatly reduces congestion and smog. It is a signature aspect of life in Melbourne. The night begins at a place called Cushion and makes a few stops thereafter. We have a lot of fun and meet a number of Australians who party with us and help us find the next great place, which in Melbourne is often hidden down an unmarked alley or behind an unmarked door.

1:00 a.m. I arrive back at MBS and make my way to their executive lodging. After washing up I check e-mail and make some calls to the U.S. taking advantage of the 14 hour time difference. I then fall asleep after making sure to set my alarm for 8 a.m., as the next day includes a corporate visit to the Australian Open!