Food 4 Thoughts, Music 4 Souls

Harry's @ Boat Quay again, but this time round as an insider of the circle, albeit a bit premature. Thanks to Aaron's effort, the 3 of us newly admits have also been invited for this monthly alumni gathering at the upstairs (shown in the right).

3 from class 2006, 3 different nationalities, 3 from class 2008, similar mix. That's just a glimpse of the composition of our future colleagues. It's like a gene in IMD, not only the diversity, but also the teamwork spirit, which have been passed on from one class to the next. As Aaron recalled, two years ago, K.K. & him were in the exactly same situation, listening to the sharing of alumni from class 2004, preparing for the year in Lausanne.

Well, being Asian or being human, we all like to talk about food. That actually could be a selling point of IMD, although people don't go there for food. The daily 3-course lunch buffet is said to be very effective in helping students put on weight, if we don't control our intake, especially on the highly-acclaimed desserts which are prepared by the best chef trained in the top culinary school in Lausanne. People just love it & seemingly it's not easy to be disciplined while gazing upon those sumptuous sweeties:-)

Another surprise will be the ice cream from Mövenpick provided throughout summer season, all these are included in our program fee which has not been increased for a few years! Of course, they also remember the 1 CHF breakfast croissant group delivered to the class every morning as well as the Monday pizza. Ok, so much about food and I am just comforted to know the school is really taking care of us as a whole person.

Recalled one of my favorite movies from Hong Kong director / comedian Stephen Chow, God of Cookery (1996). As a celebrity chef in the film, he told all the apprentices, "the most important thing in cooking is not what you're preparing, but whom you're preparing it for. If you are cooking it with love/passion, the diner will taste your love/passion in the dish...". In a real world where many people are only results-oriented, it's quite heartening to have someone teaching you from his/her own heart. I guess & hope that's partly how IMD prepares those delicious foods (both in class & in canteen) for our thoughts, from their hearts.

An alumnus from class 1999 joined later and he can still recall most of his classmates after so many years, not to mention those who're in Singapore. Interesting to know 10/80 are now in Singapore, a trend of the job market shifting towards Asia Pacific in recent years. According to Jacques, 1999 was & still is his best year in life because at the end of 1999, he got a degree and met his soul mate from the same class - unforgettable double-happiness 雙囍臨門!

One funny episode was when KK's colleagues from Shell - 2 INSEADers dropped by to say hello. The girl immediately found out, "hey, you guys have a problem with the female/male ratio, where have the flowers gone (the 2nd half added by me:-)?" We don't know, but we hope more ladies will join the class. But never mind, if half of the class are married or attached, then it's quite balanced.

As we called the night off and walked downstairs, the live band just started playing not long ago. The night is still young & the music is for the souls:

"There You'll Be" from Pearl Harbor

When I think back

On these times

And the dreams

We left behind

I'll be glad 'cause

I was blessed to get

To have you in my life

When I look back

On these days

I'll look and see your face

You were right there for me

……

Bon Weekend:-)

The Invisible CEO - Chief Emotional Officer (by K@W)

An interesting article from Wharton @ Knowledge about the worldwide family business citing an example of a Malaysian entreprise:

Published: June 27, 2007 in Knowledge@Wharton This article has been read 1,655 Times

When your family business involves an extended network of 52 family shareholders, as it does for Bukit Kiara Properties, a leading Malaysian real estate development firm, simply pulling everyone together for family dinner can be hard work. But N.K. Tong, who co-founded Bukit Kiara with his father and is now group managing director, says there's just one person to call: "My auntie."

"When she picks up the phone, everyone comes running," says Tong. Her effectiveness at bringing people together was essential in the late 1990s when Tong and his father, Alan Tong Kok Mau, sold one family business and started Bukit Kiara. "My dad asked her to find out which family members wanted to join us, and over a single weekend she raised a fair sum of money from over 20 [of them]."

Tong's aunt plays a role some scholars describe as a family business's "chief emotional officer," an informal function usually filled by a family member or close advisor. But the topic is not as warm and fuzzy as it sounds: Not only can the emotional officer job be stressful and go unrecognized, it can also fall dangerously by the wayside as businesses are passed on to succeeding generations.

Nevertheless, nearly all family businesses have a person who plays the chief emotional officer role, according to Raphael "Raffi" Amit, a Wharton professor of entrepreneurship who studies family businesses. "Having worked with numerous families around the world, I have found there is always a confidant, either the patriarch of the family, a trusted lawyer or other friend of the family," says Amit, who chairs the executive committee of Wharton's Global Family Alliance, a private forum that brings global family business leaders together with researchers.

Family firms make up anywhere from 80% to 90% of business enterprises in North America, according to a 2003 research article in the journal Family Business Review, although other studies put the number much lower, closer to 50%. A 2000 study of East Asian firms, however, found that more than two-thirds were controlled by families or individuals...

For full article, please refer to http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1760

Corporate recruiters go back to school

By Della Bradshaw - Financial Times

Published: June 4 2007 03:00 Last updated: June 4 2007 03:00

Industrial companies have traditionally favoured hiring "second-hand" MBAs - those who have cut their teeth in banking or management consultancy and want to move on. Now, this is changing.

In spite of recent concerns in the business school world that MBA degrees do not teach students skills that companies need, recruiters are increasingly giving the professional services firms a run for their money when it comes to recruiting newly minted MBAs directly from business school. These days companies such as BP, BT, Google, Pepsico, Samsung and Shell are names as familiar on the business school campus as investment banks and management consultancies.

The change came with the classes that graduated in 2002 and 2003. Following the terrorist attacks in the US and subsequent economic uncertainty, management consultancies and bankers slashed staff numbers and stayed away from business schools. Industrial companies saw their chance.

... BT is not the only company recently to commence an MBA recruitment programme. In the past two years, Ericsson and Nike have introduced MBA recruitment programmes in Europe, says Katty Ooms, director of MBA admissions and career services at IMD, where 70 per cent of the graduates enter the corporate world...

To read the full article please refer to: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7749d366-1238-11dc-b963-000b5df10621.html

Beyond Borders - chat with Nnaemeka @ Port Harcourt

What are the things that are Beyond Borders? Music, Love, Gold, Doctor, Laughter, Bird-flu...

After an in-depth chat with my future classmate Nnaemeka in Port Harcourt, i can confidently add 2 more items on the list: MSN & IMD. It's magic that two people never knew each other before started chatting online because of IMD. We've surely covered more topics than the school. Cross Continents, Beyond Borders, there're things that we share & echo with each other: personal faith, family values, career goal, visa challenge, etc.

All can i say is, though we talked through MSN, I felt so real & connected to my brother in Nigeria. "Virtual World, Real Experience". I'm sure there'll be a lot more stimulating talks like this once we were in the "Real World, Real Learning" campus @ Lausanne next year. And I'm sure it will always be heartening & inspiring!

Let me end this post by inviting you to a series of http://www.ft.com/businesseducation/imd by Dr. Martha Maznevski, professor of organisational behaviour and international management at IMD. Lecture topics include how to identify the management challenges which accompany globalisation, how to manage across geographical distances and different cultural styles and how to develop and use business networks. Sit back & Enjoy listening!

Earshot...by 2 finance experts

4 weeks ago, the IMD interview team together with some alumni held a cocktail reception at http://www.harrys.com.sg/boatquay.htm on a Thursday night. About 16 interviewees were invited, some too nervous to turn up.

4 weeks later, 3 lucky survivors from Singapore met up at Earshot Cafe @ the Arts House (old Parliament House), still on Thursday night. Since I am less busier (Chinese / Singapore PR, marketing engineer for an European electronics company in Asia), it's natural for me to write a short diary for the first meeting of IMD 2008 MBA class in Singapore:-)

Sanjay (Indian / Singapore PR, finance controller of a listed agricultural company) arrived with a nice tie but he immediately untie it even before sitting down. John (regional treasury analyst for an inventive company) came shortly after in his jersey as if the soccer game just finished. Later he explained, that's the culture of the company. Wow! Flexible working hours, casual dress code, allowing working at home, are these rules more conducive for innovation?

Since both of them are in the finance role, our small round table talk soon turned into money talks. "So besides buying & selling currencies, what else do you do?", "Well, There are xx accountants report to me and I have to review their reports every quarter..." It's interesting for me as an outsider to hear how they communicate with each other. Doesn't seem too difficult, huh? I guess that's because both of them are really experienced and they know how to simplify their talks by avoiding too many jargon. The real challenge for us non-finance students will come when we start the basic accounting classes next year. That's why now one of the hot topics on the 2008 class website is about the "MBA Survival Kit". Good to start early & get ourselves prepared.

The night is still young but the night is also short. We all have to work on Friday though it's refreshing to discuss with perspective classmates about our future life in Lausanne. As John put it, to make our life next year easier, we have to work harder now until the day we say goodbye to colleagues.

P.S. Good news! Sanjay has also confirmed his place in the 2008 class & I will upload a photo taken during their discussion soon.

for Alan - 100 days in captivity

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/2007/alan_johnston/default.stm

The BBC's Gaza correspondent was abducted in Gaza City on 12 March. Wednesday 20 June marks Alan Johnston's 100th day in captivity. An online petition calling for his release has over 170,000 signatures.

We are inviting anyone who runs a blog or website to do the same to show support for Alan. It's a simple but, we hope, effective way of spreading the message.

To add the button to your blog, just copy and paste the code below into your blog's HTML. You could add it to an individual blog post, or, even better, to your blog's sidebar. Please refer to the following page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/04/how_you_can_help.html

Inspired, Motivated, Devoted - IMD 2008!

Haven't updated the blog for a while and many things have happened in the past few weeks. An eventful interview at the Mandarin Oriental Singapore with a nice cocktail reception by some alumni, Janet & Lisa beforehand. Those in the same group would understand how happening it was during our day and it actually started even before we saw the interviewers:-P

Later, I met up with an entrepreneurship professor from Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain). The school gave me a half-tuition fee scholarship. That meeting gave me some more thoughts on the MBA school decision. And hurray, I got the magic call from Lisa very soon due to this burning offer I shared the good news immediately with family & friends, it was a happy night! I immediately arranged the deposit payment, got in touch with other Asian interview survivors, and my boss left for Switzerland without me:-P Today (20 June), I got the confirmation from Corinne and logged on to the 2008 website. So exciting to see many "exotic" names which will be my colleagues soon next year. Look forward to seeing you in Lausanne!

P.S. though still a lot of things to prepare: housing, loan, visa, etc. I will put them aside for a while and have a good time with John, Sanjay for dinner on Thursday.

Bonne Nuit!

Shalom