Movie Night

We had movie night tonight. Although it was very cosy with popcorn, coke and beer there was also an intellectual element to it. After the last two days teachings on 'Ethics and Social Responsiblity' Professor Michael Yaziji showed Al Gores well known movie 'An inconvenient truth' and Marc Achbar's 'The Corporation'. The former tells the story of the biggest challenge of our time, Global warming, while the second is about how corporate greed and lack of ethics and moral can leads to exploitation and human misery. The latter is a very anti-business movie, but it is nevertheless very relevant, particularly in a business school.

What I liked about both movies is that they don't end as doomsday wisdom. Al Gore's movie ends up concluding that we already have the necessary technology to turn the corner and bring our CO2 emissions back 1970 levels. All that is required is mix personal and political will, not more technology.

The yearbook committee is working serious overtime these days. They have collected more than 15,000 pictures and hundreds of pages of data from participants and partners, which they now are compiling into a book that we all will keep as a memory for many years to come. The hard workers are Adrian Smaranda (nearest), Rasmus Figenschou, Sylvain Cabalery, Manisha Mediratta and David Rohan (behind the screen). They get moral support from MBA2009 dog-of-the-year Kizomba. Thank you guys for the amazing work. We know how many hours you are putting in it and we all appreciate it!!

Thorsten

Crisis management

It was Monday morning in the study rooms. The external professor was running late (or so we thought) so we were just sitting in the study rooms doing a few emails, a cup of coffee in the hand, no rush. Then the phone rang! Weird, the phones in the study rooms normally never rings. They are used to call out. It was a journalist from BBC! And he wanted to know what we were going to do about the toxic material we had leaked into the river?!?! Huh, say again! What river? What material?

Then the other phone ring. We looked at each other very confused. It was a teacher from the local high school, who wanted to know whether they could still visit the plant despite the accident we had. School? Plant? Accident? You've definitely got the wrong guy, I am just having my morning coffee while waiting for the class to start. Leave me alone.

The phone rang again. Silence, confusion, more silence. Johan slowly picked up the phone, not knowing what to expect. It was the farmer from up the river who wanted to know whether it still was safe for his cows to drink from the river? Huh??? OK, this was not fun anymore. What was going on? Perhaps we should read the papers that had been left on the table in the room. 'You are the management team of Company XYZ..... accident...... possible leakage......'. We looked at each other in horror. For a couple of seconds the room went dead silent. Then we all jumped to our feet at once, two people went to the white board and started scribbling down the information we had, others started working on press releases and emails to the media, the employees, the customers, etc. Johan was immediately appointed spokesperson, a role we didn't envy him as he time and time again was fed to the hungry beasts (journalists) outside the door.

From there on it was just four hours of fire fighting. We were bombarded with phone calls, emails, sms'es from our boss and DVDs with news coverage from the local media. Protesters were hammering on our door and journalists were barging in at no warning. What a mess! What a Chaos! All extremely well orchestrated by crisis management expert Tom Curtin and his team of very, very real BBC journalists.

In the afternoon we saw the videos that had been made during the hectic morning, so we could hear what we really said. Ouch! We would have been slaughtered by the public if it had been the real thing. It was particularly fascinating to hear from the BBC journalists themselves, what they actually are looking for when they interview. In the afternoon it was wrapped up with a session on 'Brent Spar', very much an example of how not to do it.

Thorsten

There was real Swiss cheese fondue for lunch today....

...which was a big hit, as you can see.

Execution and Change

This week we have been back in the class room again for the first time in what feels like an eternity. It took some adjusting to move from the small ICP teams, where you decide everything yourself and back to the class room with pre-readings and discussions in the auditorium all day. Nevertheless, there was something comforting in being back, like meeting up with old friends for the first time in a long time. So much catching up to do! The fact that the we are back, but relieved from the excruciating pressure of the building blocks, makes both the classes and the days in general very enjoyable.

The subject was 'Execution and Change' and was directed by Professor Maury Pieperl. The class had many parallels to Leadership and Leading People classes, but focused specifically on leadership in periods of great change. A very interesting subject which (as the picture indicates) really got the class going.


Baby lineup of some of the MBA children that are in Lausanne with their Moms and Dads.

Two of the latest proud fathers with their daughters Bruna and Kavya.

From left to right the proud parents Isabella and Corinne with their daughter Camille followed by Swati and Prashant with their daughter Kavya.

Tutto bene!

Here we are, Stefano and I on the way back from Milano to Lausanne. We were lucky to get onboard one of the new fancy trains with airplane seats, power plugs and a restaurant that serves fresh-brewed coffee. It makes life so wonderfully comfortable.

We have been in Milano to talk to Father Kizito - founder of the Koinonia organization - and to the Amani organization - the primary source of funding for Koinonia . We felt that it was important that they also knew about the things both we and Koinonia had been through, so they can provide Koinonia with the optimal support. Our message was well received and we now only need to debrief with the MBA2008 class to bring the project to an end. That meeting is planned for Friday.

Stefano is from Milano, so we stayed with his parents while there. Here it is from left Fratello Stefano, Sorella Marta, Papá Fabrizio, Mamma Marina and one of their guest for the day. Gerald Lo was also there, but is unfortunately not captured here. We really enjoyed the hospitality of the family and the excellent cooking of Mamma Marina. It was a piece of Italy, like taken out of a movie.

The Giussani family lives in a charming high-ceiling apartment in central Milano. Stefano is the 4^th consecutive generation engineer in the family and surprised us by showing his hidden talent on the family’s piano!

It was also quite an experience for a northerner like myself to experience another of Stefano’s talents: Some real Italian driving in Milan rush-hour traffic! I know now why the Italians produce such great race cars: It is in their blood!

Ciao!

Thorsten

A picture from Kenya on Friday after we had our last workshop. These are the people from Koinonia and IMD that formed the core team during the project.

Ruslana and Eva under a beautiful purple-flowered tree at the Karen Blixen house just outside Nairobi.

Out of Africa

We finished our assignment in Kenya on Friday afternoon and started our journey back already the same evening. We had a few hours to spend before the flight, so Gerald and Stefano went to one of the rescue centers to spend some time with the kids, while Ruslana, Eva and I wanted to see the Karen Blixen museum. Karen Blixen, who is one of the most famous Danish writers, spent a good part of her life in Kenya. You may have seen her in the movie 'Out of Africa' which is about her life in Africa. She had a farm at the foot of Ngong hills and today that whole area - the south west outskirts of Nairobi - is simply called Karen.

Eva and Ruslana are tough negotiators and decisive women, so since they could not agree with the taxi driver on a proper price for our trip to the Karen Blixen house they decided that we should go by Matatu. Matatus are small jam-packed vans that the locals use to get around. They are very inexpensive, but in terms of comfort and security they leave a lot room for improvement. The ride was an interesting experience and we eventually made it to our destination, or so we thought. Instead of being in the museum, we had ended up in Karen Blixen's house, which had been turned into a restaurant and coffee bar. It was too late to try to get to the museum, so instead we sat down and enjoyed a good Kenyan coffe and the biggest slices of chocolate cake I have ever seen.

Less than 24 hours later I was attending my Grandmas funeral in Denmark. A lot of people had showed up and the whole family was there. Although it was no fun to carry the coffin out then I still felt that I had been through the worst when I had visited her in the hospital the week before. I had said my goodbye and now we were 'just' completing the journey with her. She left with dignity and in the evening the whole extended family gathered for dinner at my uncle and aunt's place, so for one last time - as countless times before - she managed to bring us all together.

Thorsten

Baking buns

I arrived in Kenya late Sunday night just in time for me to start the new week together with the team. They had done a fantastic job last week. Most of all they had brought together the Executive Council of the organization and with them defined the high level issues and the 'operational' vision and mission statements for the organization. A grand achievement that will provide a lot of clarity and guidance to the organization in the future and to the rest of our work here. It is important to note the word 'operational', meaning that it is separate from the 'spiritual' vision that Koinonia has a Christian community. One of the most interesting things about this project has been the question on how to bridge this gap between spirituality and day-to-day work. They don't teach you that at school!

Having established the overall objectives for the organization we prepared a workshop that should align the many initiatives with the overall vision. We made some adjustments to the framework that we had used during our first visit here......

...and asked the managers of the individual units to fill it in again. This time the objectives came from the overall organization, not from the units themselves.

A couple of them shared their filled-in framework. It became much clearer how both Social Initiatives and Income Generating Activities can pull in the same direction in support of the overall Koinonia vision.

Last night we met MBA2008 Jesper Hornberg and his friend Petter, who are in Kenya on a project of their own.

Early morning at Baraza Café where we have our breakfast every morning. Baraza is one of the Income Generating Activities under the Koinonia umbrella that serves the purpose of generating income for the social initiatives such as the children's homes.

Today Wednesday we took the next step in bringing the overall vision down to the level of the daily work. We did that by conducting a workshop on process mapping. The objective of the workshop was two-fold: To teach process mapping as a tool and to help Koinonia understand some of their own key processes better.
We needed a simple and recognizable process as an example to teach the very basics of process mapping. Inspired by my dad, who frequently surprises his family with freshly baked buns, we used the process of 'baking buns' as example. That proved excellent to get the points across.

We then split the Koinonia people in smaller teams and asked them to do a process map of a restaurant visit. Each of them were given roles such as host, waiter, cook and manager in order to spice up the discussion. The objective was to teach how to do an integrated flow chart for a process that involves multiple parties.

Next step was then to map Koinonia's own processes. Here Eva and Evelyn are working with the managers on the HR process 'Hiring-to-retiring'.

Helen from the Kivuli Centre - one of the children's homes - took the lead on mapping perhaps the most core of all processes in Koinonia, the reason for their existence, how to 'Integrate a child'.

The 'Integrate a child' process became center of an intense debate, which immediately pin-pointed some of the key issues that the organization is facing with its integration process. This is where the real power of processing mapping lies: Bring people from different parts of a process together and ask them to map their own work and you will be amazed about the understanding it creates. The issues with the process will unavoidable show up.

We were (again) amazed about the passion with which the Koinonia people speak of helping the children in Nairobi. This is much, much more than just a job for them. This is what they live for!

Monday evening I received the sad news that my grandma passed away. In the middle of these sad circumstances, I am so relieved that I made it home last week and managed to see her alive for the last time. When we left her on Saturday I said 'See you later, grandma'. I could not make myself say 'Goodbye', neither did I believe it was the last time. The funeral will be on Saturday, so when the rest of the team goes to Lausanne on Friday I will be heading back home to Denmark.

Thorsten

A sudden turn

Sunday evening I received the sad news that my grand mother had been hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage. Since noone knew the status or where it was going my parents recommended that I should still go to Kenya as planned the next morning.

Monday morning I met with the team at Lausanne train station and we went together to the airport in Geneva. After having checked in we received news that the situation with my grand mother had worsened, so instead of getting on the plane to Nairobi, I got on one in the opposite direction, back to Denmark.

My Mom and my youngest sister, Helene, were already there when I arrived at the hospital. My other sister Anne arrived later in the evening and today my brother came by train. All of them live in the other end of the country. It has been a couple of tough - but at the same time good - days. Tough, because of the gravity of the situation, but also good as the family very quickly came together. Not that I doubted that it would, it just warmed to see it happen as it always has.

My grand mother appears to have stabilized physically now, but other than that we seem to have lost her. She is no longer able to speak and only in a short glimse from time to time does she seem to recognize us. The old, calm and clever eyes are still there, but they will probably never again tell the stories they used to. My grand mother was born in 1920 and has lived a long life with three children, a 62-year marriage with my grand dad and an incredible amount of friends. It is a tired and happy old woman who says her goodbyes.

The last couple of years she has told us a lot of stories from a time we have never really known: About how it was to be a child in a small provincial town in Denmark in the 1930s and how it was to be a young couple in Copenhagen during World War II, sitting out some of the coldest winters in recent Danish history in an unheated apartment and in a society where everything was in short supply. We loose so much when these people leave us, yet we forget to ask or to listen when we still have them.

I will spare you a long philosofical tailspin on the meaning of life and death, although I have done quite some thinking on the subject the last two days. Let us just remind ourselves that we must live our lives in a way so that when we one day are taking our last breaths, then our loved ones will gather around our bed, sad because we are leaving, but also happy because we got the most out of our life. Do not wait until you loose someone to get an overdose of this realization, but make it a small part of your everyday life.

Thorsten

Decompression and recompression

I feel, it has been a pretty tough week. As tough as an average week in the building blocks. Coming back from abroad and being dumped straight into classes and the ICP project with a Friday deliverable to the clients.

This weekend my girlfriend was here. There is nobody that like her can make me relax and we immediately went into 48 hours of eating, sleeping and day dreaming about the 'normal life' that we soon will be leading again.

Taking it easy for a weekend is a sin in IMD language and always comes back with a vengeance. The last leadership paper is due tomorrow morning at 8.00 and I still have quite a distance to go on it. On top of that I need to get my suitcase packed again; tomorrow morning at 8.42 the train departs from platform 4 to Geneva from where we via Istanbul will find our way back to Ngong Road in Nairobi.

Life is good, but man, why does all the good have to back stacked so close.

This afternoon we went to the Open House at the Trimoto Harley-Davidson dealership in Cortaillod not far from Neuchatel. The trip was arranged by Christian Steiger from IMD, who also arranged the motorbike weekend into the French Alps a month ago. Christian is a passionate Harley maniac with several bikes in his garage.

My own bike is a bit egoist-bike, a bar-hopper if you want. It is a so-called naked bike with no backrest, a minimum of a backseat and as little equipment as the law allows. Not the most comfortable thing to be a passenger on. It is actually not even comfortable for the driver, if you go more than a couple of hours.

My girlfriend and I have therefore been talking about renting a real touring bike for a vacation trip. So when we got the chance to take one of the big Electra Harleys out for out quick spin, we took it. Here Jean-Claude explains all the ins and outs of it.
This bike has more buttons than the keyboard on my computer. Here is radio, CD-player, MP3-player, intercom, cruise-control, heating in the handles and a host of other luxury items. The only button on my own bike is the start-button, so it took me a while to figure this one out.
It is Christian Steiger standing in the back.

And off we go, just for a quick 15 minute trip. We were immediately convinced that this is the way to tour a country. On this kind of bike you sit so comfortably that you just can go on for hours and hours. We agreed that we next spring will explore our new home country Italy on a big comfortable motorbike like this one.

Back again! This bike is so heavy that it helps with an extra hand when you go backwards.

Kenya calling

It has been a couple of long days as we have been preparing the end-of-phase-2-presentation and planned the work for Phase 3. Luckily, doing these two things is very much one-and-the-same process. Quite a heavy process, though. It entails the usual iterative discussions, post-it notes and drawing upon drawing on the white boards. Over and over again, a process that is so tiring when you are in the middle of it but which is the only way to bring the real problems to the surface and consensus to the group. It is always very nerving, because you constantly are up against a hard dead line. Afterward follows the relief from the pressure and the tiredness of having been going flat out for a period. It is all covered by a feeling of either joy or frustration depending on how it went. Today it went well, the clients (which is last year's MBA class) expressed their appreciation and we feel on the right track as we move on to the next phase.

Next phase is again called Kenya, starts Monday morning in Geneva airport and lasts for twelve days. We have planned the next rounds of workshops there. The focus is this time much less on digging up information and much more on finding solutions together with the people in the organization. It is three weeks since we left Nairobi and in that time Koinonia (the organisation we work with) has been working with the frameworks we gave them. We look forward to learning what they got out of those exercises.

We chose to order the abundance of information that we had obtained during our first Kenya voyage by first writing the information on post-it notes.....

....then ordering it in complete silence....

....until we arrived at a few overall groups.

Finally, we drew up how the different groups are interrelated and we had a good picture of how to approach the issues.