Every classmate I have met has come to IMD to accelerate an already inspiring journey.
Every classmate brings a unique value to IMD that already many have started to share.
Everyone I have met here is already successful and already has so much to give.
In the spirit of sharing these experiences, I want to outline three vignettes from campus from the first week:
- In my first academic class of the MBA I took stock of the people surrounding me. It was a sub-zero Sunday morning at 8am, so we took a little while to get our hats and gloves off. As we all unveiled, on my right was a marketing director and board member. On my left was an exec from Nestlé. Behind me was a manufacturing VP, a group regulatory officer from a huge investment fund and a brand strategy consultant. This is an environment of successful people and despite the time and day we were all switched on and unafraid of asking incisive questions. And in front of me, our professor not only taught the material – at 8 am on a Sunday he relished the challenge of teaching these execs.
- I felt immense satisfaction when my family and I sat for lunch in the IMD restaurant. The place is gorgeous, the staff are extraordinarily kind, and the food is great. There is no doubt the environment at the moment is challenging, the mask protocols are strict and we eat off futuristic antibacterial plates. But never-the-less there is an overwhelming conviviality in the air. The energy the class has is palpable.
- I was fortunate enough to be seated for the welcome dinner with a member of faculty, who shall remain nameless for his protection. The professor convivially outlined some of IMD’s history and said to us “IMD is unlike any other business school in the world – here the professors fight to spend time with the MBA class.” Just that morning, some engaging and inspirational members of the alumni welcomed us as part of the first week. I remember thinking then that the time we spent with them was a little too short. This is a feeling I am slowly having to get used to. It is the end of the first week and already time is moving fast!
In the first week of conversations at IMD there is a moment when you scrunch up your face or shrink into your chair because you are not quite sure how you got lucky enough to be in this conversation. It takes a little while to see that quite often your fellow conversationalist has the same look on their face, and that you, and everyone else in the conversation is fortunate enough to belong here.
I am immensely grateful to the IMD MBA community; my classmates, the professors and staff, the alumni, and many others. I am still in awe of being a part of this with all of you!
