Long days in the dungeons

It has been a couple of long days in the dungeons. We have been through the industry analysis time and time again, discussing for hours and hours. This world of Humanitarian Aid organisations is really an odd size for us and although the picture is starting to take shape it feels like there is still quite a way to go. The learning process is complicated somewhat by the fact we are taking turns in running off to different sessions in the OWP program. We are therefore seldom able to have the whole group together at the same time.

I had my second OWP session today, where I attended Jean-Phillippe Deschamps' class on innovation. The case was on the company DSM, which stands for Dutch State Mines despite the fact that the company is not state-owned (anymore) nor does it have any mines. It is specialized in life sciences and performance materials (whatever that means). The case was only a couple of weeks old; some of things in the case actually happened while we were here at IMD! It does not come much more fresh than that!

I particularly like hearing the inputs from some of the senior executives in the class room. You can sense that they speak with a lot of experience. Sometimes they come up with insights that are new to me, but most of the time they use more or less the same arguments and solutions that we would have used in the MBA class room. I find that comforting as it means we have had some realistic discussions in class over the past six months.

And not to forget, in four days I will be in Barcelona with my girlfriend, T-4.


Our Professor in Global Political Economy, Jean-Pierre Lehmann (center) hosted a discussion during the lunch break yesterday. The subjects was global warming, food and water scarcity and their connection to world trade. Jean-Pierre had as usual brought in a panel of experts on the subjects. Unfortunately time was short, so the session only became a bit of an appetizer to these huge subjects.


Stefano Giussani [Italy] as we have seen him the last few days actively engaged in digging out new insights about Human Aid organizations.