A.B.C. - Andover, Boston, Cambridge

After 4 weeks of industry & company analyses, 2 weeks of first round On Campus Recruiting, we have finally travelled to the market where our issue analysis focuses on – the USA. Our client is a global leader in the dental industry and our mission for the International Consulting Project is to improve the Sales & Marketing effectiveness in the US market. Although two of our team members have healthcare industry experiences, it was still quite a challenge to understand at the beginning the unique business model, complicated multiple stakeholders and fragmented diverse customers. Our hard work paid off and we gained enough credibility from the client to carry on the field research in Andover, Boston for 7 days. All the planning was communicated during the stressful interview weeks and we got almost everything settled by lunch time Wednesday 1st October: logistics, agenda, working approach and visas – yes, Natalia and I are visiting the USA for the very first time.

By taxi, train, airplane and rented car, the team of 5 safely arrived at the Residence Inn after 18 hours of travel from Lausanne. There were only a few hours for rest before the busy schedule starting Thursday morning. Despite the jetlag, we decided to meet at 7:30 am to quickly discuss the first day agenda. Driving to the company US headquarters, which is located in the same industry park as the hotel, we were amazed by the beautiful colours of autumn reflected onto the glass buildings, very different from what we used to see in Lausanne. Arriving in the office, first thing we were informed of: change of agenda! The team was asked to present our Phase II – Company Analysis and discuss it with the Business Unit VP, Marketing VP and Senior Marketing Manager. This sudden change eventually turned out to be a very fruitful and long interaction with the client’s US management team to build a good foundation for our remaining days here. In the afternoon, the team interviewed managers from training, sales and we started first round brain-storming to identify sub-issues and possible solutions. The jetlag effect kicked in around 6 pm (which was 12 am Swiss time) so we called it a day.

The second day which was Friday was even busier. We started from a WEBEX meeting with managers from different functions and then participated in a Sales teleconference. In the afternoon, the team had to split for multiple tasks, calling dental labs, meeting VIP customers, discussing Sales & Optimization, etc. We had to finish the team debriefing by 6:30 pm because there was a client dinner planned at 7 pm. It was a great opportunity to know more about each other at a personal level. As our Faculty Director Prof. Ralf Seifert shared before, in a consulting project team, the manager’s main task is to communicate with the client and continuously align the objectives and outcomes.

Over the weekend, we had some time to visit downtown Boston which is famous for its Harbour, Harvard Business School and Happy shoppers. So some of us went for whale watching, some went for Sunday shopping [which is almost impossible in Switzerland], but we all went to the Harvard Business School in Cambridge. It happened to be the 100th anniversary of the business education here and we walked around in the night campus [see photograph above].

Someone once summarized the difference between school and life as follows: “In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” I would argue a successful school could combine both – Real World, Real Learning – a perfect explanation of the philosophy of our ICP or International Consulting Project, since 1980!

The Straumann team from Massachusetts, USA.

Good-bye, Prof. LPO!

Time flies faster at IMD! This is already the 10th week into our Building Block I, a whole week of exams have been scheduled at the end of March which leaves us only the Easter weekend to take a break or take a deep dive!

Anyway, most groups survived happily after last weekend's 1st Integrative Exercise which we dug into an interestingly long case of Two-Wheeler market in Pakistan. What's amazing is that Richard's (American) wife Tanya who was a Pakistani availed herself to share with us live experience of her home country. Where else can you find more dynamic exercise than this?

Some updates on-campus, selected interviewees after round 1 application for Class 2009 are already here. LPO (Listen, Pay Attention, Observe or Learn, Practice & Organize) course which spells for Leading People in Organization will finish tomorrow. Prof. Maury is someone you can't forget because he always starts the session by playing some music 15 mins before the class. Today he played two versions of a song from Elton John and asked for critics. It turned out to be his own performances in between 31 years - the lesson learned: how to sustain a life-long learning?

As many groups are working on the leadership essay and trailblazer projects, we'll definitely have more learnings to share. Ciao!

Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Professor!

It was a very emotional day last Friday 29 Feb 2008 and my colleague Mathieu Pointieau (French) has faithfully & truthfully wrote it down in the MBA Diary: http://www.imd.ch/programs/mba/programstructure/diary_detail.cfm?articleId=4171. Enjoy Reading!

P.S. attached is a "painting" from Prof. Ralf Boscheck who just finished our first module "Economics & Industry Competitiveness Analysis" last Friday (7 other modules are still on-going). Tomorrow a new module "Innovation & Product Design" will kick off!

The Drawbridge Story

With 44 hours lecture per week and many pre-course reading, group assignments, individual papers & start-up project on hand, it's quite challenging to digest everything, not even to mention pondering upon what we've learned or debated. Thanks to our extremely efficient MBA officers, we have monthly assignments & readings bound nicely before the start of next month. My target was to write down the key learning points on the 1-page assignment for each of the 4-hour module (total 8 modules during Building Block I from Jan - Mar 2008), hopefully, I can remember & try to apply 1 or 2 of the key learnings everyday.

During the leadership class last week, Prof. Jack told us a very simple "Drawbridge Story" involving 6 characters: Baron, Baroness, Madman, Lover, Boatman, Friend. Since the leadership module is very experiential, we were asked to do a quick ranking test "who is most responsible for the outcome of the story?". Jealous baron, lonely baroness, irresponsible lover, greedy boatman, self-righteous friend & the madman, sounded interesting! After that, each study group had to reach a collective ranking based on consensus. To give an example of the group diversity, my group during Building Block I includes a Canadian, Indian, Italian (San Marino), Russian, Mexican, Swiss and myself, Chinese.

When all 12 groups returned to the amphitheatre, Prof. Jack shared with us a comment from his artist friend. "It's not surprising that most business people would agree that the boatman is least responsible for the outcome, the death of the baroness. You may argue he's simply doing his job by asking for money before riding her through the moat. In another word, the boatman is the only one in the whole story who didn't offer an help to the baroness because of economic interest. That's typical business people, b-school students and many people in this materialized world".

We might have not thought of that while defending for the boatman, but I have to admit that is probably the reason beneath and I simply thought being greedy was not the cause of the baroness' death. The reality is the same test conducted among nurses or social workers, boatman is often ranked highly responsible for the tragedy.

However, I'm not that hopeless as I've seen 5 or 6 out of the 90 class did rebuke the boatman for being greedy. Many of the rest, I believe we have taken the lesson seriously and will try to make a difference in the community we live!

Name a Wish - The GREAT Outdoor Exercises!

Wednesday morning, 12 experienced Group Behavior Consultants flew from overseas to IMD. They were introduced to the 12 study groups in the afternoon at our leadership class. The fun started!


"Gentlement's Club #1, Quest, Tangram, Bungees, U.F.O. (United Fishers Of...), The Screwdrivers, bbb7, Magic 8, 9 United, 1 World, The Country Club, 12 Monkeys", above were the names of 12 study groups presented to the entire class with a video advertising & a logo explaining the names. All the preparations were done within 45 mins! It's interesting to see how the different names correlating to each group in terms of characteristics, directions or wishes.

7:45 am, Thursday morning, all 90 MBAs met at the foyer to board on the bus leading to Outdoor Exercise Centre in an old chateau. Competitions, group tasks, each session was video-taped and followed by a debriefing with coach. Finishing the whole exercise at 5 pm, delicious Chinese dinner was awaiting us at IMD. There was a 4-hour video for each group to review & discuss which is the highlight of the day. Emotions, retrospection & questions all came out, expected or unexpected, most groups ended at midnight, some 2 am.

Understanding how drained we were, Prof. Jack Wood kindly started the class 30 mins then the usual 8 am. Each group was given 90 mins to summarize key learnings, select a video clip and present a picture metaphor. It was kinda shocking when we realized how powerful the emotions were functioning in some groups! All in all, we've tried our best to be sensitive & honest with our feelings. In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to provide feedback to group members in both oral & written forms. More than 2/3 of the class headed to the White Horse pub, due to either too many positive / constructive (negative) feedback or too much stress / psycho talks. Some even saw a few consultants there as well:-) Saturday we had the 1-on-1 session with group consultant for an hour each. They all flew back later that day.

This is our first GREAT outdoor leadership exercise and I'm happy to tell The Gentlemen's Club #1 more or less stayed true to our names with openness & solidarity.

P.S. the mokey picture is our group metaphor after the outdoor exercises & key learnings found out. We realized the problems and want to see more, hear more & talk more whenever appropriate so we can grow more in the long run!

What are you selling?

What's so unique about IMD (http://www.imd.ch/)? After the orientation programme early last week, I confirm that the slogan "Real World, Real Learning" is what being practiced here.

Career Service team shared with us their mission & passion to establish the platform between us (the 90 MBA students) and potential employers (67 companies conducted on campus recruiting events in 2007 plus many posting job offers online). Class 2oo7 has done a great job, within 1 month of graduation, 96% has at least 1 job offers (preliminary results).

An interesting question was posed to us, "since the participants have an average of 7-year working experience which means a quality network around the globe, should we focus more on selling the school or selling ourselves during networking?" Of course, marketing for IMD is mainly the MBA office (career / marketing / admission)'s responsibility. However, to let others understand what kind of training we've been through here at IMD definitely helps. So my answer would be: selling myself as an IMD 2008 MBA!

Catch up in week 2...Bonne nuit:-)

The Home Song Stories & PPIN

The Home Song Stories, the autobiographical second feature by (Macau-born) writer-director Tony Ayres, is a story of a boy, Tom, his sister May and their mother, Rose, a Shanghainese singer who lands in suburban Melbourne in the 60s with little English and no money. Rose's only assets are her beauty, her cheongsams and an ability to seduce men. What unfolds is a tale of epic emotions. http://www.homesongstories.com

"Everything that happens in The Home Song Stories actually happened in real life," says Tony. "I had an extraordinary, wild traumatic childhood, largely due to the erratic behaviour of my charismatic but mentally unstable mother. My sister and I were buffeted by these events, but survived, mainly because of our love for each other. But also because, in spite of everything, we knew that our mother loved us. As a film maker, I knew that I was compelled to tell this story eventually." To me, there's a clear message conveyed - Things happened in our childhood have great impacts in our personalities & behaviors. If unfortunately, we were hurt or mistreated while innocent, somehow we need an approriate channel to release the pain. Probably throught counselling, recounting the stories, open up the scars, etc. The ultimate goal as the film director said is "to accept, to forgive & to love……"

It reminds me of the unique IMD pre-course assignment: Personal and Professional Identity Narrative

PURPOSE:
The purpose of the Personal and Professional Identity Narrative is to provide you with a “working document” that will help you to orient yourself as you make personal and professional decisions in the course of your life. If you take the process of reflecting on your life seriously that the PPIN provides, it can help you to better understand the key events of your life and their continued influence.

PROCEDURE:
We are asking you to complete a 10 to 15-page draft of your PPIN before arriving to the programme opening dinner. You will be given the opportunity to re-visit your PPIN during the year, and to modify the contents as you reflect on your learning from the programme. A relatively complete working document would be a narrative of between 15 and 20 pages.

DESCRIPTION:
The PPIN will be a narrative essay describing:
where you have come from, i.e., the central influences—people and events—in your life,
where you are now in the course of your life, and
the general direction in which you feel you are headed, i.e., your sense of a provisional life plan, however indistinct it might truly feel...

The Infosys Phenomenon - by IMD Prof. Georges Haour

By Professor Georges Haour (September, 2007)

As we look for models of corporate success, European and North American ethnocentric ways need to rapidly yield to being much more curious and knowledgeable about Asia’s ascending actors. The IT services company Infosys is a striking example of successful, profitable growth.

Early days of Infosys
Infosys was founded in 1981 by seven computer engineers. Their vision for the company did not have much to do with revenues and profits. They wanted to create the most respected company in India. For its customers, the company would deliver on promises and meet expectations. For its employees, it would create an open, fair meritocracy. For investors, it would provide consistent financial performance.

Infosys got its first real break from the German technology company Bosch. It moved from Mumbai to Bangalore, in order to be close to Bosch’s data center. It subsequently carried out application maintenance and software development for General Electric, Schlumberger, Siemens, Airbus and Crédit Suisse, delivering these services out of its offices in India.
In 1993, Infosys went public on the Indian stock market and shifted strategy to focus on selected vertical markets. The 1991 liberalization of the Indian economy, India’s plentiful and lower cost, skilled labor, and a time difference enabling round-the-clock operations for US/European companies, fuelled the growth of Infosys and India’s emerging software industry.
Mid-2007, Infosys counted 72,000 staff working in 22 countries. With sales of $ 3,1 billion per annum, its profitability is better than the average in this industry.

Ingredients for success
One element of Infosys’ operational excellence is its Global Delivery Model, based on doing work where it adds most value – that is, utilizing the best global resources with the lowest associated cost and at the highest possible quality. Reliable telecom infrastructure and India’s low-cost skilled manpower allowed most of the work to be conducted offshore. Onsite aspects of the project are limited to those aspects requiring market proximity and customer interaction. The resulting ratio of 30:70 onshore/offshore provides a strong customer focus, as well as significantly reduced delivery costs. Thus, close to 45,000 Infosys employees are based in India.

Customer satisfaction is another key to Infosys’ breakneck rate of profitable growth. Over a 25-year period, the company has successfully completed more than 20,000 projects with a 99.998% error-free record. Over 93% of the projects were delivered on time and on budget, far above the industry average of 30%. Such high customer satisfaction rates have resulted in 95% of clients coming back to Infosys for further projects.

Building on such exceptional customer satisfaction, Infosys proactively seeks to expand the scope of the work it does with existing clients, further fueling revenue growth. Infosys fully understands that in the business of outsourced services, lower cost alone is not sufficient. Quality, reliability, speed and customer orientation are fully part of the equation.

Infosys’ concern to provide its customers with a competitive advantage led to the creation, in 2001, of the Corporate R&D unit SETLabs (Software Engineering and Technology Laboratories). This unit develops methodologies, frameworks and tools to drive efficiency in project execution and delivery. SETLabs help clients with development projects, addressing specific technology or business problems, while also looking into radical innovations and long-term strategic issues supporting business process innovation for the customers. By mid 2007, SET Labs had grown to 500 consultants and software engineers, filing numerous patent applications.

Concerning staff training, Infosys massively invests in technical and management education. Young staff joining the firm typically follows a four month course. This is carried out in Infosys’ training center in Mysore, West of Bangalore, where 6 000 employees can be trained simultaneously. This contributes to Infosys having a staff much lower staff turnover than is typical in the industry.

Today, Infosys’ market capitalization is $30 billion. Revenues have consistently grown at over 50% annually through the past decade. As a result, it took 23 years for Infosys to reach $1 billion in revenues, but only 23 months to reach the $2 billion mark.

What can we learn from the Infosys experience?
I believe that the remarkable success of Infosys suggests that following elements were key:
At the core, the creation of a widely respected meritocracy combining engineering excellence with a relentless customer orientation
A no nonsense approach: speed and frugality
A sincere and acute focus on employee satisfaction and skills development
Agility: in a highly competitive environment, adapting constantly and anticipating the future through on-going business process innovation.

Georges Haour teaches innovation management in the Orchestrating Winning Performance program . His latest book is Resolving the Innovation Paradox . This text is derived from his recent IMD case study, first used at Orchestrating Winning Performance in June 2007, and now used in several IMD programs.

Start-Ups, Shout Out!

IMD 2007 Start-up Competition: Best Year Ever

Out of well over 70 ventures, 22 start-up companies have been chosen to work with IMD's MBA and EMBA programs in 2007. These are the winners of the 9th annual IMD Start-Up Competition.

According to the organizers of the competition, Jim Pulcrano and Dr. Benoit Leleux, the overall quality of the start-ups who entered the competition was the best IMD has ever seen in the past nine years. Jim Pulcrano comments: “Every year we have had a couple of stars, but this year we had many great start-ups to choose from. We had to make some difficult choices.” Benoit Leleux commented, “It was a challenge to decide which companies have the highest potential for commercial success and provide the best learning opportunities for our students.”

The IMD Start-Up competition provides a unique opportunity for early-stage companies to benefit from the support and insights of a team of dedicated and experienced participants from two of IMD’s flagship programs, the MBA and the Executive MBA. The objectives of this unique collaboration between entrepreneurs and managers/participants are two-fold: Provide hands-on learning experience in entrepreneurship and new ventures for the IMD MBA and EMBA classes Provide input and support to early stage companies, to improve their chances of funding and success.

“Life in a private company is unstructured, and IMD helped us to become more structured in our way of thinking”, comments Anil Sethi, CEO of Flisom, a start-up that worked with a team of IMD EMBA participants in 2005.

Winners of the 2007 IMD start-up competition: http://www.imd.ch/news/IMD-start-up-competition.cfm

MBA Global Career Forum

Nov 19-30, 2007, Feb 18-29, 2008

Organizer: http://mba-exchange.com/

Schools: Chicago /Columbia /HBS /IMD /INSEAD /Kellogg /LBS /MIT /Stanford /Wharton

Timeline: see the diagram on top

Early Birds - What 2 Expect?

As I'm counting down my last month before going back to China for a not too long break, provided the Swiss visa being issued soon after 8 weeks processing, more & more interactions with future clasmates thanks to the internet and stuffs like Skype, MSN, facebook, etc. Of course, the best is still face-to-face in a nice place for a meal & a drink. That's what i'm looking forward to - meeting up with John & Sanjay, plus our guest of honor, Glenn from the 2004 class tonight at an interesting Mexican restaurant.

Talking to Emeka this morning (very early in Nigeria:-), we've exchanged some thoughts about the career. It's now the recruiting season (2 weeks) for class 2007 in Lausanne and with a record year in 2006, we'd like to see what'll happen to the current class and of course, to us in 2008!

Record Year for IMD MBA Recruiting

When the MBA class of 2006 graduated on November 30, a record 91% had already received or signed a job offer. Many of them relied on the recruiting activities organized by the Career Services team. Some 60 companies came on campus and generated 60% of the 180 offers that have been received so far.

Everyone has changed at least one factor of their career: whether it be function, industry or geography, and over 30% have managed to change all three! With industry still typically offering the higher salaries, the year at IMD has changed the goals of many of our graduates, who found themselves accepting jobs in sometimes unexpected areas…

Tina Revsbech, Danish / Maxim Kuzyuk, Russian / Kim Nguyen, Swiss/Vietnamese, read their full stories here: http://www.imd.ch/news/Record-year-for-IMD-MBA-Recruiting.cfm

Advice to Future Participants:Tina, Maxim and Kim are unanimous: start the search early and do your research! So all early birds, there're something to expect:-)

1997 - 2007: Tales of 2 Alumni

Talking about 1997 to 2007, what can you think of?

Ten years ago, I started my college in that hot summer day near the beautiful West Lake in Hangzhou, China and am now busy preparing for my new study at the shore of charming Lac Léman, Switzerland soon.

At the same year, Mr. Tony Blair walked into 10 Downing Street & reigned for a decade. But long before he was there, his pre-predecessor Mdm. Margaret Thatcher had already negotiated a deal with Beijing for the big day to come on that summer. I remember watching the ceremony of Hong Kong's transfer a few days before taking national entrance exam for university. After I got the results, Princess Diana passed away dramatically.

10 years on, Mr. Blair left for the Middle East envoy, Hong Kong is growing fast under "One Country, Two Systems" and people still remember England's Rose. What has all this to do with me, time will tell. For now, I want to introduce two IMD MBA alumni (though one of them still has 5 more months to go until graduation) who are featured on the website. They have a gap of exactly 10 years.

MBA 1997 Alumnus - Soren Skou, focusing on HR & value-added leadership at Maersk：
"It had been 10 years since Danishman Soren Skou was last on campus – he graduated from the IMD MBA in 1997. Then in June this year he returned for his 10 year Class Reunion...

While Soren hadn’t physically returned to campus since his graduation, he has still played an active role, by sponsoring two of his executives for the EMBA program and a couple of MBA ICP projects, “I wanted to support the school if I possibly could, and in doing so the company has also been able to benefit.”

From a personal point of view, Soren believes that the three most important things he got out of his MBA were: an updated tool box, a sharpened analytical ability and improved communications skills. “It was marketed as a tough program, and it was. But it was also an inspiring year and I had the time of my life.”

MBA Class of 2007 - Serena Shamash: a long-term dream： 　
...“I came to IMD for the leadership focus and the practical and global approach of the program. What I didn’t realize was how much I would enjoy being part of a smaller business school. I now understand the benefits of belonging to a tight-knit community where I can get personalized feedback and training. Additionally, the relationships and networks I’m developing are much deeper than I ever expected.”

...Following IMD, Serena plans to continue building her management skills in an international environment, working towards her long-term dream of consulting for start-ups in developing countries. “Entrepreneurship is like painting – you start with a blank piece of paper and create something out of a vision and a passion. With an enhanced self-awareness and refined leadership skills, I hope to be able to guide and inspire potential entrepreneurs in the future.”

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:-)

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.

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

Hub Interview & fonty parcel...

Finally got the long-awaited phone call from IMD. Hub interview will be held here in about 77 days later. Just sent out the last parcel to Fontainbleau. I will finish the online part in 2 weeks time. And then wait for another 3 months...

IMD: It Means Diligence!

Finally submitted the last application before CNY for the round I - 1 Feb GMT, I suppose:-)

All I can do is to wait now? Relax..Prepare...

the Tour, the Exam, the Interview...

Probably last visting to MBA tours and had a good chat with IMD alumni Glenn. Also met up with IE alumni Arnd.

2 months, 2 applications.

Take a break, prepare for the exam & the interview! Look forward to the real tour:-)

iMD & SAiD

Wow, finally received two posted brochures from the above mentioned instituions. 1 disappointing, 1 inspiring! I really love the butterfly covered SAiD brochure with its bold yet beautiful colours used through the latest brochure. However, IMD doesn't seem to be very interested to attract potential students through this way. Anyway, students there are supposed to be more matured:-P

Just enjoyed the video production of Oxford MBA sent together with the brochure. Well done! Daytime - modern business school setting & facility for team work. Nighttime, historical colledge environment for solititude & soul resting. Plus a strong focus on entrepreneurship & finance, it looks very promising! Though I know brochure is just part of the MBA campaign, if this young schoool can do it so well, they might perform even better to improve their always fast-climbing ranking.

AS iT'S SAiD, it's a good choice!
BTW, tonight CBS & HSG info session @ Orchard*-*