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.

No. 1

IMD tops Economist Intelligence Unit's MBA rankings, but are the good times about to end for business school graduates? http://mba.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=2008rankings

IMD has been ranked the first in the world in the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest survey of full-time MBA programmes. It is the first time the Swiss school has topped the annual ranking. IMD took the number one slot from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, which drops to third, while Spanish school IESE claims second place. Stanford and Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business round off the top five. The highest ranked Asian school was Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 11th.

IMD is one of the most international business schools in the world. Ninety-seven percent of its students come from abroad—with around half of those from outside of Europe. One of the reasons for the school's triumph has been the success of its careers placement service. IMD students can expect to earn a basic salary of US$130,000 a year on their graduation—compared with pre-MBA salaries of US$79,000.

Indeed this year was a bumper year all round for MBA salaries. Columbia in New York, for example, reported an average leaving salary of US107,000, while London Business School's graduates can expect US$120,000-a-year. But with the banking crisis leading to job losses in financial centres around the world, this might be the best it gets for business school graduates for some time.

Bill Ridgers, editor of Which MBA? commented: "The financial services industry has for some time competed with consultancies to be the leading recruiter of MBA graduates, offering huge salaries along the way. But with recent failures, a lot of talented bankers are suddenly out of a job. It is likely that current students are likely to find themselves graduating into a buyers' market and salaries will start to reflect this."

To add on to this press release, we just had a 2-week first round on campus interviews with some 60 global companies in altogether 822 interviews for the entire MBA class. A big thank you to our fabulous Career Service team. Bonne Chance!

from Under-prepared to Over-prepared...

Since last Sunday, I had altogether 12 interviews with 9 organizations (focusing on Marketing or Strategy function) and it was only the first week of our On Campus Recruiting. Before that, I actually had an informal interview with an Executive Board Member of a leading industrial company based in Switzerland. It was not only informal, but also unusual. The setting was an bench at the meadow where we had outdoor lunch buffet at IMD, the weather was sunny, and the timing was after lunch. The interview was centered around my motivation & interest, or rather how have I aligned both, one of the trickiest question and the dynamics was not leading to enough "chemistry".

After the interview, I immediately contacted my career coach, an alumna graduated 10 years ago and now a seasoned Executive Coach (of course, she's assigned by our fabulous Career Service Team). She quickly responded and arranged a debriefing session with me, analyzing the interactions of the interview, giving feedback, pushing for preparations, and of course, I was under-prepared. My coach extended the session for an additional 30 mins to help me practice. I was really grateful for that and felt ready for the coming interviews.

Some companies already notified us about the results of 1st round interviews, both good & bad news. One of the rejection letter I received saying that I was a bit "over-prepared", in context of the particular company / headquarter country culture.

The lesson learned, preparation is always necessary & good, but execution has to be adapted according to the context. Look forward to the week II interviews!

Crisis & Conflict

Shepherd - "SupaClean Chemicals? My sheep are thirsty and if they can't drink the water from the river because of your factory leakage, where can they get water?"

SupaClean - "We'll be able to confirm the safety of the river within 2 hours. Can they wait?"

Shepherd - "You don't understand, they are not like human beings, they just can't wait."

SupaClean - "What about you and your family, where do you get drinking water?"

Shepherd - "We only drink alcohol!"

....

That's just one of the telephone calls we've received last Monday (28 July) after coming back from summer holiday. Nice surprise! It's part of the Crisis Management Simulation & Workshop run by Tom Curtin and his team from Green Issues Communications as a start of the second half of our MBA program. It was so exciting & emotional that I couldn't easily forget the "silly" conversations I had with "local communities" who complained to the company after the crisis happened. However, in real life, things could get even worse and we just got a glimpse of what it takes to assume the leadership in crisis management. The next day, we had the chance to hold a press conference in front of BBC presenters to practice Public Relations after crisis, video-taped with immediate feedback.

Not to destroy us but to equip us, we had another 2.5 days of negotiation workshop following the crisis simulation, again run by globally acclaimed experts from Conflict Management (CM) Partners . To negotiate with principles, based on interests and with perseverance.

One of the questions we were asked at the beginning of this workshop was "why children are generally better negotiators?". My understanding is that children are generally fearless, more focused on the things they desire (normally no idea about options) and more persevering because they have more time than their adult counterparts. Unfortunately, as an adult, we have learned about all kinds of fears and we are too complicated to have no option.

"The correct strategy for Americans negotiating with Japanese or other foreign clients is a Japanese strategy: ask questions. When you think you understand, ask more questions. Carefully feel for pressure points. If an impasse is reached, don't pressure. Suggest a recess or another meeting.” John L. Graham, Professor of Marketing and International Business, University of California, Irvine

What a mountain has taught us?

(on behalf of the Kili Trio)

06:00 of 7 July, 5895 meters above sea level at the Uhuru Peak, after 6 hours of hiking from Barafu camp (4600 meters), Peter Nielsen (Danish) & Bevan McKenzie (New Zealander) have successfully reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. It has been a long journey since they started from Machame village 5 days ago. Up & down, up & down, all for better acclimatization, and all is worth the 15 minutes' breath-taking view on the "Roof of Africa". It was too cold to stay there long so they started descending. I met them at Stella Point (5745 meters) and continued my way to the summit which happened after sunrise. So the Kili Trio of IMD have all made it to the top, with the help of mountain guides, porters and support from the MBA class, special thanks to Randy Balisalisa (American) who shared with us his first hand experience of reaching Uhuru Peak in 2006. Being in the real world, the marvelous mountain, what have we learnt?

Kilimanjaro has taught us a lot of lessons and I think the key is about respect. We respect the environment even when it meant to carry additional weight before reaching the rubbish collecting point. We also saw it from the porters, the guides and fellow hikers. If human beings don't protect the environment, this World Heritage will be destroyed soon. We also learnt to respect our own bodies. Being it a headache due to mountain sickness or the constant thirst leading to dehydration, we responded accordingly by taking medicine or drinking water. If human beings don't take care of our bodies, they will not collaborate with our minds. Of course, the respect has to be built up among the people as well.

"Pole, Pole" is how people greeting each other in the mountain (in Kiswahili, it means "slowly, slowly"). In practice, it reminded hikers not to rush through but conserve energy for the long journey. In theory, it reminded urban hikers to slow down, taking time, enjoying scenery and savoring nature. I personally benefitted a lot from it. Having headache since Day 2, I had to take pain killer and even lost appetite the next day. With walking poles, I really did it "pole, pole". Fortunately regained appetite before the summit night, I woke up early to start the slow journey. My mountain guide David said I probably set some "pole" record of reaching the peak in 8 hours. Before leaving for Kilimanjaro, Dr. Weiju Hsieh (Taiwanese, a seasoned mountain climber) gave me her insight, "a mountain is not to be conquered, but rather to be experienced and appreciated". So pole as I did, I was happy to enjoy the mountain Safari ("safari" means "journey" in Kiswahili).

This uniquely intimate experience of hiking, camping together for 7 days also taught us to be tolerant because we had to share a lot things taken for granted in a normal environment, e.g. space, clean water, hot water, noise, etc. During spare times, we also shared knowledge & fun including an alternative pain killer which is a card game called "Casino" introduced by Peter's uncle. I learnt something new about the 5 icons of Denmark, Karen Blixen whose memoir "Out of Africa" (the original title in Danish is "My Africa") which turned into a huge success in Hollywood (we actually visited the Safari where the movie was shoot during discovery trip in Kenya); LEGO = Play Well (abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt"); architect Jørn Utzon was awarded the project of the Sydney Opera House in 1957, author & poet Hans Christian Andersen whose fairy tales were read out to Peter (my colleague, fellow hiker) by his grandpa; the national bird of Denmark, mute swan. As to the "down under" New Zealand, I asked Bevan for a silver fern souvenir after his successful promotion of the country's symbol. Sir Edmund Hillary who just passed away early this year, is a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to have reached the summit of Mount Everest.

In remembrance of this extraordinary life, it is appropriate to end with his quote, “You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things – to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated.”

Pole, Pole, Karibu Kilimanjaro!

P.S. thanks to Aoife Hegarty (Irish / Rwandan) who kindly lent us her IMD umbrella.