Meeting the 2008 MBAs

Today was the day for the long anticipated match of the generations. The 2009 MBAs versus the class of 2008. The 2008 class had apparently suffered some casualties at the party the night before but was nevertheless strong in numbers and on the field. We had to use almost the entire length of Parc de Milan as we were playing 12 against 12 or something like that. It was a great match played in the spirit of the game.

For me it was particularly interesting to meet last year's diary writer, Mathieu Pointeau, who's shoes Kristin and I are trying to fill this year. It was also interesting to hear to old class' stories about the life both during and after IMD. It was clear that they had experience IMD very differently between themselves. For instance, some of them thought that February was the hardest month to get through, whereas others thought it was May. To me the week we just have been through have been the toughest so far and I sincerely hope that we have peaked now.

It was also interesting to learn that more than a third of last year's class have stayed in Switzerland after graduation and more than half of those are in the Lausanne/Geneva region. You can't really blame them. Life is so convenient and the nature so impressive around here.

We should be seeing much more to them in the coming month. Several of them will come to present the companies that they now work for and many apparently intend to join the IMD networking event on June 6th, where this year's class get the chance to meet all those that now can call themselves IMD Alumni, whether from 2008 or before.

And for the results of today's match, I will just let the numbers speak for themselves: We won 5-0. Thank you, 2008 class, for a great match. We look forward to you coming back for a rematch.


The Latin Express on the move. 09'er Andres Akamine [Peru] in pursuit of 08'er Janislav Marinovic [Chile].


Game over and a 'Great game' handshake


Line-up of the players of today's match. A good mix of the 2008 and 2009 classes.