Rebound

rebound: a movement back from an impact

Now that we distanced ourselves a bit from last weeks exams it has become a little clearer what happened after the exams. Whether it was a reaction from the stress of the past 5 months or just the intensity of the last few weeks peaking with the exams, the energy level in the class had dropped to zero Monday morning. It was as if we all had made a deep exhale together and could not really start breathing again.

I walked around like a zombie most of Monday and Tuesday, like a spectator to my own life. I was going through the motions and I heard the words that were said, but nothing registered. The ship was sailing, but there was nobody at the rudder. I felt like I had not slept for a hundred years and I could not concentrate on anything for more than a minute at the time. If there is anyone out there that can describe what happened, please do let us know.

In retrospect it is probably good that we have been in the dungeons most of the week. Teaching us in the auditorium would have been a pure waste. The energy curve has been steadily rising over the past few days, but it is nowhere close to pre-exam levels.

Thursday we presented the first draft of our ICP industry analysis to each other. We taped our presentations on the walls in both the foyer and the auditorium and then walked around and gave each other feedback. My group harvested a lot of good comments and suggestions which we brought back down into the dungeons. The first big test on this project will be on Thursday where we will be showing our work to the executives visiting campus for the big OWP program that runs next week.

We ended the week this afternoon with an interview for our industry analysis. Jemilah Mahmoud and Manu Gupta have each built their own human aid organizations in Malaysia and India respectively. They were in Geneva for a conference and were kind enough to spend almost two full hours with us explaining the ins and outs of their 'industry'. The meeting was very conviniently held at Starbucks.


ICP Team Koinonia getting first-hand input from Jemilah Mahmoud and Manu Gupta on how NGOs work. (NGO = Non-Government Organization)

Stefano Giussani [Italy] teaching Corinne Avelines [France] the NGO value chain.

The auditorium was buzzing with presentations and candid feedback.

Simon Brunner [Switzerland] presenting the first draft of their industry analysis.

Myriam Vacher [France] explaining industry trends and drivers.


Shibu James [India] gives his feedback to one of the industries.

T minus 10

If I was an airplane I would be grounded on suspicion of metal fatigue, that is for sure.

The exams definitely got the best of us. It was as if we had been climbing a mountain for five months and had given everything we had during the last week to finally reach the top. We enjoyed the view from the summit for a day - ate and slept a lot - but then to our horror discovered that we were not there yet. There was still another two week hike ahead of us.

Whether consciously or not I had definitely told myself that once we were past the exams then I could roll through the last two weeks and straight into the holidays with very little effort. Reality has proven very different. We have kicked off the ICP projects at full speed while still finishing the last individual assignment and the case-writing for the startup projects.

Once you mentally have thought you were there and have started relaxing, it is almost impossible to get your heart beat and your energy level back up to the previous level. You felt it very clearly in the class room yesterday morning, when the first phase of the ICP project was introduced. It just did not really register that we had to get back to work. I had to be a mistake.

What you need to get through these kind of periods is a target. The weekend ahead of us is already lost to the cause in terms of preparation for and participation in the OWP program. I have therefore fixed my eyes on Friday the 26th of June at 12.00 noon. Ten days from now. That is the time we are let loose for our three weeks of summer holidays. I am SO ready for it and I sense that I am not the only one.

T minus 10.

Jellybrain and a jolly-good ride

'Jellybrain' one of my classmates just wrote in his Facebook status field. I know exactly what he means. A six and a half hour Finance Exam marathon just gets the best of you. Particularly when you already have done twelve hours of exams in the preceding two days plus whatever studying you could fit in. Just to add insult to injury there was 50 pages of pre-reading for tomorrows Strategy exam waiting in our mail boxes. At least it will be the last one.

Already yesterday I had had it with exams, so I decided - against all logic - to take my motorbike out for spin. It had been more than a month and half since I last took it out, so I was surprised when it started. Inspired by Kelley's Diary entry on Monday I went out East along the lake, past the Lavaux vineyards, through Vevey and Montreux before stopping for an Ice Cream in Villeneuve.

While eating my ice cream I decided to head up into the nearest mountain, which happened to be this one. There is nothing better than motorbiking in the mountains. You just feel that you are flying up the small winding roads. Before long I caught myself humming the song 'Country road, take me home, to the place...'. I think you know which one I talking about. It is an old classic that both John Denver and Olivia Newton-John have had success with.


As I went up the road became smaller and steeper and the temperature quickly dropped. I did not expect to meet anyone up there, but to my surprise there was a typical small Swiss Inn at the top. This is the view from their terrasse. I am definitely going there again, even if only for an ice cream! The picture is taken with my phone so it does not do the view justice, but you can sense the curvature of the lake. Lausanne is in the right-hand side of the picture although you cannot see it.


Coming from little 'flat' Danmark I cannot help being amazed how people like the Swiss adjust to living in such a vertical world where everything is either up or down. I passed this little mountain railway station next to a tunnel through a cliff under a house! All of it of course at a significant incline!

It was a great and really reenergizing ride albeit it only lasted a few hours. I have promised myself to do it again soon. Then again, that is what I have been doing for the past three months......


Thorsten


Hanging out on the lawn during yesterdays lunch break between the Marketing and Global Political Economy exams.

Henry Low [Singapore] and Rasmus Figenschou [Norway] talking while Lisa Bridgett is watching from the back.

Exam preparation!
Fadi Sbaiti [Lebanon/US], Wouter Naessens [Belgium] and Jodie Roussel [US].

Brad Moldin [US] and Oliver Freiland [Germany] enjoying a cup of coffee before diving into the Finance exam.

The Finance exam was a killer. Here we are around four hours into it.



The reward was a cheeseburger at the harbour front.
On the left: Olivia Assereto [Italy], Marco Simons [The Netherlands] and Carsten Bremer [Germany].
On the right: Ope Adejoro [Nigeria], Yury Vasilkov [Russia], Valeria Pavlyukovskaya [Russia] and Thorsten Boeck [Denmark].

Accounting, my old friend

There is nothing like having an old friend over for coffee. Today I am with Accounting, my old acquaintance from Building Block 1. We are discussing the same things that we talked about back in March, cash flow statements, ratio analysis and a little bit of Balance sheets. A few new topics - management accounting and relevant cost - have also sneaked into our conversation.

Yes, the exams are here. Five of them within the next four days to be exact. We kick off with a double tomorrow, Accounting in the morning and Global Political Economy in the afternoon, four hours of each. Then it is Marketing, Finance and Strategy over the following days. That does not leave time for in-depth preparation of all of them, so it is all about focusing your resources on the things that are right for you!

Finance is the big one for me this time. The biggest chunk is about assessing the financial health and the value of a company. Not really rocket science, but just an awful amount of details to understand and memorize.

I have said it before and I will happily say it gain: The exam period is a piece of cake compared to an ordinary week at IMD. Yes, the pressure is still there and so are the many hours with your head in the books or in your laptop. But you have much more control of your time as you don't have to coordinate your work across three groups and balance a million other things at the same time. I have slept a lot since Friday and I am getting some real quality reading done now that my head is not pounding from lack of sleep.

I have had a couple of other things to take care of as well, though. I have spent part of today finishing the end-of-course innovation paper, which is due tomorrow and I had lunch at the school with the other Scandinavians. We are arranging a mid-summer party on the last day before the class goes on summer vacation in a little more than two weeks. In the Scandinavian countries mid-summer calls for a bonfire. Whether we ever will get that through the Swiss authorities remains to be seen, but we will definitely give it a try!

Thorsten


The campus is so tranquil these days. People are just hanging around during the lunch break enjoying their Mövenpick ice cream or a coffee from the café.


Even the MBA students crawl out of their dark dungeons during lunch time to enjoy a few energizing rays of sunlight. From left it is: Stefano Cazzulani [Italy], Oliver Freiland [Germany], Seif Shieshakly [Saudi Arabia / Germany], Sebastien Guery [France], Wouter Naessens [Belgium] and Johan Jansen-Storback [Sweden/Finland].

Back to work!

I just got back to Lausanne a couple of hours ago. My suitcase was packed with liver pate and marinated herring, the good ol' traditional Danish dishes that any good Dane craves for when abroad. In Denmark we prefer to eat these delicaies with dark ryebread for lunch. The only places I have found the ryebread outside of Denmark is in Germany and - to my great surprise - here in Switzerland. I then only need to get the aforementioned toppings from home, which my girlfriend sofar has supplied on her frequent visits. So with the IMD restaurant for lunch and my native food for dinner it is understandably a serious challenge to keep the extra unwanted kilos away.

I feel better than I have done for three months. I need to say that while I can. Tomorrow we dive in again and soon we will have forgotten how strong and confident we feel when we are completely rested. I have slept a lot over the past four days, but it feels like we have been off for much longer than that. Most of all because the week of exams is much less stressfull than the normal IMD schedule. Nevertheless, I managed no less than three naps on Thursday: I slept half the flight to Copenhagen, took a nap in the afternoon and another one after dinner. Still I had no problem at sleeping from 11pm to 9am. I think I had some catching up to do.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Building Block II. That means a goodbye to Operations with Professor Nikos Tsikriktsis and a half goodbye to Economics and Professor Ralf Boscheck who dominated Building Block I, but who only will be back for a few 'guest appearances' in the next Building Block.

The new Building Block also means new study groups. The new groups will effectively start on Wednesday, but we should already be informed about the new groups tomorrow. I believe it is fair to say that everybody is excited to learn about their new groups as they will be the center for many hours of work on assignments, projects and integrative exercises until the summer break.

Thorsten



This is what an MBA exam look like in 2009. Here it is Finance.



Same exam, different angle.

Debit and Credit

Debit and credit, retained earnings, accruals, provisions and appropriations. I barely knew those words were part of the English language, but after two days of studying accounting I will undoubtedly be dreaming about all that tonight. If it isn't obvious already: Our accounting exam starts tomorrow morning at 8.00. If you need someone to calculate your return on assets or give you a quick overview of your cashflow situation then I know 90 people that I can do it in their sleep.

Although the exams does add some pressure I like the simplicity of 'just' having to do exams. Instead of having to balance a dozen things at the same time you just have to focus on one thing: The next exam. You can manage your own time and take things in the order and speed that suits you best. For me that has meant two nights of proper sleep. It is amazing what it does to your physical and mental health. I would also claim that you learn better, when your brain gets enough time to shut down and process the inputs.

'The MBA Survivial Guide to Accouting' that we have been given became just that: A guide to my survival. Yesterday I started on page 1 and read through the chapters on Balance Sheets, Profit and Loss Statements, Cash Flow Statements and Financial Statement Analysis that we will be tested in. One by one the things we have learned over the past two and a half months started to click into place. A few exercises on the same subjects and I now feel much more confident than I did just two days ago. Anyway, I better not celebrate too early. There is usually lots of 'red herrings' and other 'tricks' in the tests that are meant to throw us off course.


Yet another sunset picture from the beautiful Lausanne harbor. I took this earlier this week, when I was riding my bike along the lake.

Exams approaching

I went for a run along the lake when I came home today. I just had to get some fresh air to the brain after another intense day. On the way out I met my classmate Marco Simons [Dutch] who came running in the opposite direction. I was apparently not the only one in need of fresh air.

The sun sets around 7 in Lausanne these days and the view is just spectacular when you at that hour run on the small path between the lake and the huge villas with their boats and high fences. No doubt that this is an area with a lot of money. You can't help thinking that all this must belong to all the big bankers and insurance companies that have made this country so wealthy.

Everybody's minds are on the exams these days. Tomorrow is the last day of tuition before the exams. We get Thursday and Friday off to study. Accounting is the first thing that hits us. That is Saturday. Monday is Finance, Tuesday is 'Leading People for Performance' and Wednesday is Operations. And then we are off for an extended weekend! For the first time since we got here! That is the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us going at the moment.

The accounting exam is my biggest concern. I actually thought that I had a good grasp of the general accounting principles, but another few layers of complexity have been added that has thrown me off a bit. A big part of it is about understanding the 'language' of accounting, which at times can seem like it has been encrypted. A number of us are very grateful to our classmate Eva Hubsman [Israeli] who has been using her lunch breaks the past days to teach us (again) about the wonders of T-accounts and the meaning of 'capitalizing a financial lease'. Moreover, she has set up one-on-one sessions with a dozen of us over the next couple of days. Thanks, Eva!

Thorsten


Fadi Sbaiti [Lebanese/American] and Simon Sundboell [Danish] enjoying a moment in the sun.


Chuks and Arturas in the auditorium.

Staying afloat

I have an old mantra that says that 'stress doesn't come from too much work; it comes from loosing the overview'. That mantra is being severely tested these days. I have spent the entire evening skimming and sorting the seamless stream of emails and papers that we receive on graded assignments, new assignments, upcoming tests, industry presentations, invitations to group work, input on group work from other team members and so forth. The problem is that you spend so much time trying to figure all this out and getting it filed and scheduled that you don't have time to do the actual work. I still believe it is the right approach, so I will stick with it for now, but I might be proven wrong. Over the next 10 days we have five assignments and two tests, so I better get to work and not just sit and plan everything!

Today was one of those days with four different and short classes instead of the usual two. That always means a lot more preparation as the amount of work for each class is independent of the length of the class. We kicked the day off with Martin Koschat and a case study on how companies can use data bases to track customer behavior and thereby approach the customer in the most effective way. There is definitely a lot more going on behind the scenes than you realize as an average customer.

Martha Maznevski followed up on the personality tests we did last week with a session on the importance of matching personality and job and what you can do - or cannot do - when they don't match. The subsequent accounting class with Stewart Hamilton was spent scrutinizing Carlsberg's annual report for 2007. For a non-accounting person like myself it takes quite a bit of energy to get a meaning out of all the different ratios and abbreviations that the accounting world is so full of. Last, but not least, Phil Rosenzweig had the ungrateful task of taking us through the afternoon shift. He did a brave attempt, but by the end of day like this the fatigue has taken control and the energy levels are just close to non-existing.