In the alps - Rochers De Naye

One of my wishes is to be in the mountains more often and so Alison will always hear me suggest - "how about going to the mountains?" So while we were planning for this sunday, we tried to figure out where the closest mountain adventure would be and we ended up with Rochers De Naye. It is a really short trip from Lausanne; short train ride to Montreux and then a 45min cog wheel train up the mountains. I must say, the train ride was magnificent and well worth the money. We went all the way to the top, above the clouds.

We then proceeded to hike down... this was the tougher part. It was really steep and not exactly a leisure hike like we planned. Kudos to my in-laws for toughing it out! Nonetheless an excellent adventure we walked away with some wonderful memories, pictures, a great story and some sore quads.

Cog wheel train (Toby & Dorothy)

Less than 2 hours later, we are above the clouds

Signs?

The great steep descent

Reminiscing the journey

Alp horn cheese aliens!

Alison, Dorothy & Toby in Gruyere

Raclette - melted cheese... mmmm

Gruyere cheese metropolis

The alp horn masters

The Giger bar where aliens dwell

Alien watching over Gruyere

The Giger museum!

Our side trip to Gruyere was great! The old town was beautifully set on a hill overlooking the area. We ate, walked and appreciated aliens in the Giger museum. I must say, it's such an odd location for a sci fi museum. Nevertheless, it was great to get out and it was fun to spend some time with the family.

Exams are over!

The long week of exams are finally over! The last exam was five hours long and I was almost in a daze afterwards. No, I was definitely in a daze. With finals over, we are halfway through the program and the next milestone will be our discovery expedition to South Africa. From here on out, we will have few classes on various topics, but mainly we will be applying everything we have learned in SA and our International Consulting Projects. They officially start in August, but we have already been spending several hours meeting and preparing to jump right in after SA.

This weekend felt like a real liberation and I got the chance once again to escape Lausanne! We took day trips to Gruyere and Rochers de Naye. Pictures to follow!

The magic number 3

One

Remember the video submission to GBSN? We actually won 2nd place! The news article by IMD was actually featured on the homepage for a couple of days, maybe weeks? Nevertheless, this again proves that you will never know what happens when you give gifts (thanks Seth Godin for Linchpin). I never did expect anything to come from it and being in second place, we actually do not receive a prize. Our program director, however was kind enough to sponsor one of us to Mexico city for the conference in June. So guess what, I will be heading to Mexico for the GBSN conference in a few weeks. Thanks again for all that participated!

the creative director at work!

the smile on Alison's face says it all

Two

The MBAT concluded several weeks ago and I must say, the IMD crew was the ones that made the entire event fun. The logistics at HEC was nothing short of disastrous, and not at all family friendly. The meals I heard were really bad and the parties were equally frustrating. IMD should have their own party! It is no wonder that we are a great crew, since we have close to 100% attendance from the entire class, whereas the other schools only send their athletes and they usually just stay in Paris anyway. Alison and I were lucky we rented a car, since on campus transport was limited to buses that did not run on schedule and were prone to getting lost. However, we spent so much money on the trip that if I were to do it over, it would have been much different.

Negatives aside, this trip showed me how united our class has become, and it is a great feeling to feel the sense of camaraderie. This IS unique to IMD, and when we face outside competition, you can be sure we have each other's back. Thanks guys for a fantastic time!

the cheerleaders!

handling the rock

Three

The start-up projects have concluded! It has been a great learning experience. We learned first hand what it means to work in a start-up and to feel his frustrations and struggles. Although I am glad we are done with another milestone of the program, I also feel that after everything we learned about this company, I want it to succeed. Secretly, I wish that I can help them take it to another level.

Raphael serving us some pasta

champagne! (Raphael, Christian, Kamini, Kemi, Veronika, Saskia, Me)

Yet another integrative exercise

The third exercise involved a full hands-on-deck simulation that involved every aspect of running a manufacturing business. We were given very tight deadlines to make decisions and agree on a winning strategy. I must say that it was more enjoyable than the first integrative exercise, that one still haunts me from time to time...

Two days of simulation and a presentation, we are finally done. Hopefully this is the end of integrative exercises. On another bright note, we will be presenting to a board of venture capitalists this Friday on the value we provided to our startup. On Saturday, we will travel to the clients office in Geneva to show him all that we have done and then attend his party in his new office.

Tomorrow, we are also meeting our International Consulting Project (ICP) Client. I will be working with a firm right here in Switzerland! Things are moving fast as we have also formed our South Africa groups. At the moment, I am in four groups:

1. Study group
2. Startup group
3. ICP group
4. South Africa group

Luckily, only 3/4 groups are running at the moment. All day back to back, double booked meeting days is getting to me!

Businessweek post finally out...

MBA Journal: Becoming a leader

Integrative Exercise 2

In our second integrative exercise, the 90 of us were split into four different universes that consists of three groups each. In each cluster of three, there was Egypt Telecom and two other telecom consortiums. Our team was Egypt Telecom and we were to run the negotiations starting at 8am the next day. In the mean time, we had to figure out a strategy, role play the Egyptian culture and figure out how much we are willing to sell a subsidiary for!

Our team started reading the pile of papers at 5.30pm and started discussions during dinner at 7pm. We then discussed the structure and how we want to split up the team. By 10pm, we split up to do the work. At midnight, we gathered to discuss what had been done so far and we decided to send out a memo to the groups the criteria - we had a board covered with the different items we were going to look at! At ~4.45am, I walked home and slept at about 5am. I woke up at 6.30am, well, not really waking up since I didn't really go into deep sleep. Anyway the team met up, some of them stayed in school to sleep in the nap room. We took the floor at 8am...

The discussions throughout the day was fun, but also frustrating as it was hard to keep the entire team on one strategy as there was a lot of improvisation on the spot. All in all, we learned that building trust in negotiations is definitely key! We ended the day with a happy hour which I hear lasted past 1am in the foyer! I left stumbling home at about 9.30pm.

Cheers to Team Fortynine!

brain dump

morning cheer after minimum sleep

bright and early 8am in the boardroom