From Enron to Biofuels in a day

It is past 2.00 AM and the lights are still on in most of the study rooms. No, it is not another Integrative Exercise although it feels like it. We are working on a presentation for Strategy with Professor James Henderson. The subject is Biofuels and we will presenting to a company in the industry in 6 hours. We are all at point where we mostly are thinking about our beds, but it will be a while before we can realize those thoughts. My group has nevertheless been kind enough to let me spend some time writing this diary entry.

It has been another one of those days. Marketing and Strategy in the morning, Accounting after lunch, a company presentation and then down in the dungeons to work on the Strategy presentation. Today's accounting class was about the fall of Enron back in 2001. Another fascinating story of just how bad things can go, even in big corporations. It is only a couple of weeks ago we learned how a single man in 1995 brought London's oldest bank, Berings Bank, to collapse.

What is on most of our minds now (apart from tomorrow's presentation) is the upcoming MBA Tournament (MBAT) in Paris. The first bus leaves late tomorrow evening and arrives in Paris Thursday morning. We will be a total of 70 students and 17 partners attending. The MBAT is a mini-Olympics between all the major European business schools. We will be competiting in a large number of sports from football and fencing to basketball and babyfoot (miniature football). I have the honor of being Captain of the Tug of War team.



Sylvain's dog, Kizomba [France], helps out with the Strategy presentation. Left it is Ruslana Zbagerska [Canada/Ukraine], right Alex Rubio [Brazil].



With a background in consulting Satoshi-San is amazing at setting up frameworks for our group discussions. Here we are discussing the potential consolidation of the biofuels industry.



Sunday in Parc De Milan. Joost Mackor, Captain of the football team, with the team strategy for the MBAT. We like to keep things simple at IMD!

The week in photos

MONDAY - The Mövenpick ice cream stand has arrived in the IMD restaurant! Eric Vergara [Thailand] and Alex Rubio [Brazil] gets the first two ice creams that are served this year.



MONDAY - Tough negotiations in the Finance exercise. Clarkson Lumber (Group 10) and Northrup National Bank (group 9) are working on an agreement for refinansing of Clarkson Lumber.



MONDAY - After several hours the chief negotiatiors from the two sides can shake hands and proceed with the paperwork. Alex Rubio [Brazil] (left) and Oren Yehudai [Israel].



TUESDAY - The intergrative exercise is on. Sylvain Cabalery [France] and Olivia Assereto [Italy] discussing early designs of the bag.



TUESDAY - Midnight pizza is required to keep the engines running.
From the left:Eric Vergara [Thailand], Yury Vasilkov [Russia], Chuks Onunkwo [Nigeria], Sebastien Guery [France], Albert Schultz [Germany].



WEDNESDAY - My group, now known as the 'Zen Army', presents our bag in a shadow play. We relied heavily on an agressive marketing strategy under the assumption that good marketing sells anything. That proved not to be true.....



WEDNESDAY - 12 bags oozing with innovation!



THURSDAY - Enjoying the sun in a break.



THURSDAY - On 30 April every year the Dutch celebrate the Queens birthday. It is a big event in the Netherlands and therefore also in Lausanne this year. The Dutch had invited the whole class. The only requirement was that you dressed in Orange.
Here it is the entire Dutch representation in this year's class: Back row from left: Liesbeth Bakker, Joost Mackor, Paul De Hek, Marco Simons and Joe Nai. In the front it is Paul's girlfriend Leonie Stolk.
After midnight we could also celebrate Paul's birthday.



THURSDAY - Happy campers. Slava Raykov [Russia] and Joost Mackor [The Netherlands]



FRIDAY - Outdoor coffee after lunch. From left, Alex Rubio [Brazil], Yury Vasilkov [Russia] and Sebastien Guery [France].



FRIDAY - The month of May arrived, which means changing of the seating plan. I am happy to be back on the backrow, better known as 'The Skydeck'. Moreover, I am back on the North Wing of the Skydeck where I also spent the month of February.
Skydeck from left: Albert Schultz [Germany], Thorsten Boeck [Denmark], Bruno Portnoi [Brazil], Liesbeth Bakker [The Netherlands], Stefano Cazzulani [Italy], Oren Yehudai [Israel] and Christian Cuenot [France].
Front row from left: Young-Ha Kim [Korea], Vladimir Korobkin [Russia], Eric Vergara [Thailand] and José Luiz Mesquita [Brazil].

Getting the balance right

The great thing about Switzerland is that the sun gets up a bit earlier and sets a bit later than in Denmark. The bad thing is that it doesn't matter because you are anyway in a classroom from 8 to 17.30 every day. Today was a bit different as we were released an hour early. I used the opportunity to dig out my running shoes and go for a jog for the first time since I arrived two weeks ago. The mountains around Lausanne are absolutely no fun for a Dane, so I ran the only flat stretch in the city, which is along the lake. I am by no means a natural runner, but I have been running for many years now as I always have found it the easiest sport to fit in with a busy schedule. You are to a large degree independent of time, space and other people. All you need is a pair of running shoes and you are good to go. As a bonus you get to know the area that you are in. Today I discovered that I live 300m from the Olympic Museum. The museum is in Lausanne as the International Olympic Committee has its headquarters here.

It was so rejuvenating to get some fresh air in the lungs and let the body work, while the head for once could take a rest. It is amazing what a difference it does to your mental health. The time spent getting some regular exercise come back plentiful in terms of increased motivation and efficiency. The same goes for sleep, if you ask me. The more we cut back on sleep to get things done the more inefficient we come, and the less we sleep..... and so goes the vicious circle. I don't think I am giving away any secrets when I say that most major MBA programs are built around the notion that the students must be loaded up with more material and tasks than they ever can handle unless they develop smart and efficient ways of getting things done. The IMD MBA is no different. So why is exercise and sleep the first two things we cut away when we get busy. It is definitely not efficient. The funny thing with time is that when we have it, we use it, but when we don't have it we get things done anyway. With that in mind I have promised myself to keep a proper balance this year and to keep exercise and sleep in the equation, when I do my priorities. It is much easier said than done, though, and so far I haven't done very good on this point. I guess this is one (of many) reasons that an MBA is something you need to LIVE and not just read about.