Passion is contagious

The post-exam decompression has continued with a relatively light and rather social weekend. Friday night my second study group, a.k.a 'The Zen Army', met at Simon Brunner's place to celebrate the birthday of Alex' wife Fabiana. Alex mum and sister is also visiting Lausanne these days and joined the festivities. As Fabiana said: It was an evening with good food, good music and good company.

Last night the team from my startup project met at Slava and his wife Luba's place. The startup project is over, but that should of course not keep us from celebrating. Luba had made great food and we ended up discussing global politics from the Obama election to the conflict in Georgia. Both Slava and Luba are Russian and although Slava with his 27 years are one of the youngest in the class, both he and Luba still have some memories from the communist days in the Soviet Union. It was fascinating to hear these stories told by someone that young who had experienced it first hand. A reminder that this past is not so far away. We ended up drinking all Slava and Luba's wine (including the one we brought ourselves) and playing X-Box until 3AM. Another great evening!

The IMD campus is buzzing these days as the school is hosting its annual Orchestrating Winning Performance (OWP) program. 250 executives from all over the world are joining this event where the professors also teach their latest research. And for the first time the MBAs are participating, which is a great priviledge.

I took part in a class today, where Professor Bettina Büchel taught an interesting case on implementing strategic change. The case was about Julie Gilbert, an executive at Best Buy who started the so-called Women's Leadership Forum (WOLF) with the aim of growing women as leaders, capture more female buyers and much more. Not an easy task in the male dominated consumer electronics industry, but it became an incredible success that led to a cultural transformation of the company.

We had been told that there would be a guest speaker and in the middle of the session Julie was asked to come to the front. She had been sitting among us all the time without us knowing it! We just thought that she was one of the participants of the program. She spellbound the class for more than an hour with the stories about what she went through with WOLF. There is nothing as contagious as good old-fashioned genuine passion and Julie was full of it! Even a big guy like me could not help thinking: Go girl!


Julie Gilbert telling the story about how she created WOLF.

Even the IMD cafe is decorated with flowers during OWP. Here it is Eliane from the cafe (bottom right) together with the usual suspects (from left) Joe Nai [Hong Kong / The Netherlands], Walid Sahyoun [Canada/Italy/Lebanon], Myriam Vacher [France], Ricky Zhou [China] and Sebastien Guery [France].

Was it just a simulation?

The integrative exercise continued today. Third and last day. As Kristin mentioned yesterday we are competing in a virtual universe, where each group represents a company that is competing in the same market. Each company must set and execute a strategy for their product. This means deciding how to position the product in terms of price, quality, advertising and distribution? We need to plan the production, establish new production lines, invest in new technology as well as pay interest, taxes and dividends. All of it is managed on a piece of software that simulates consumer behavior and calculates your profit and loss statement, your balance sheets and not least your CASH! Although the different groups went very different ways in the market we all experienced the lack of cash in the early rounds. In the words of Accounting Professor Stewart Hamilton 'Profit is an opinion, cash is an opinion!'.

The game was very realistic and we had plenty of discussion on the many, many trade-offs that a company faces. In the words of Alex Rubio [Brazil]: 'I used to do this and this is exactly what it is like. The CFO is fighting to keep the company liquid while the marketing manager insists on investing in the brand'. Alex used to be a CFO and he quickly took on the same role in the group, constantly reminding us of our cash restrictions when we wanted to invest in advertising, production, innovation and so forth. A great and intense learning experience!

I am one of seven people hosting a party tonight to celebrate the May birthdays in the class. The party is coordinated by Ruslana Zbagerska [Canada/Ukrain] and will be held a Jodie Roussel's [American] apartment as she has a balcony big enough for all of us. The weather is perfect so I am sure we will have a great night. I have two friends from Denmark visiting at the moment and Jodie's sister is staying with her. The three of them have 'volunteered' to go shopping for us and to prepare for the party in general. So let this be a warning for you if you plan to visit an MBA student in the near future: Expect to be put to work!



It is midnight last night and group 10 is discussing the last details of the industry analysis that were presented this morning.



The case for Wednesday's marketing class was about the Japanese beer industry. The case was an example of how a so-called mature industry suddrenly can start changing dramatically. The class was the last marketing class and after the class Marketing Professor Dominique Turpin had arranged for refreshments, which of course was ........ Japanese beer!

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].

A night in Bollywood

Today was one of those days that just disappeared too fast. Class all day and a three hour start-up meeting afterwards. Two things were different, though.

First of all my old friend, Stefan, was visiting from Denmark. Stefan is half Swiss, half Danish and found time to stop by Lausanne while visiting his family close to Zürich. I think he got a good first hand impression of the frantic speed at which things pass by at IMD.

Secondly, tonight was the night of the Bollywood party that our Indian friends have been working on for the past couple of weeks. And what a party it was! There were shows prepared by those who really knows how to dance the Indian way and there was dance tuition by Suchir Swarup for those of us who have absolutely no clue how to do it.

The evening ended on the peak with Kanika Lakhwani showing a video of a somewhat younger version her husband Ajay in a real Indian TV soap opera! All this time we have had a real Bollywood star walking among us without knowing. Ajay is in my startup group. The group will never be the same again now that this fantastic secret has been revealed. It can only make you wonder what other talents or secrets that are kept hidden in the class.

Thanks to all our Indian friends for a fascinating and fun evening!


Left-to-right: Gerrit Sinderman [German], Marco Simons [Dutch] and Ruslana Zbagerska [Ukrainian/Canadian] looking great at the Bollywood party. Not surprisingly Gerrit went on to win the price as the best dressed.


Ajay Lakhwani and his wife Kanika showing how real Indian dancing is done. It was fascinating to watch. Shortly after this picture was taken Kanika revealed Ajay's Bollywood stardom to the class!