If IMD were a person, she or he would introduce herself or himself as: I am diverse, daring, and dexterous. As a participant, I cannot agree more as these have been a few of the many traits I experienced so far. Allow me to deconstruct the IMD personality.
IMDiverse
Coming from all over the world, what unites us is our diversity. Diversity extends beyond our nationalities, industries and languages we speak, to our course pedagogy, with sustainability at its core. It is further complemented by the diversity that our professors bring to class. This adds a different dimension to our learning experience. To illustrate, for most of us, finance and accounting are not our “first language”. Learning the concepts of these topics therefore seemed like a daunting task at the outset. However, thanks to the unique teaching styles of professors Arturo Bris and Florian Hoos, the process was not only easy but entertaining.
IMDaring
Daring and caring are IMD’s mantras to nurture and develop future leaders. My personal experience of the MBA’s Leadership Stream could be summarized in two words: “Uncomfortably Excited.” The journey of self-reflection is not always comfortable, but it’s exciting and rewarding. Daring doesn’t restrict itself to the curriculum but also transcends beyond. Last week, 15 bravehearts, including myself, decided to jump into the cold water of LacLeman. This was in keeping with the traditional “Polar Dip”, and the temperature was 5.5 degrees Celsius.
IMDexterous
As the IMD year is unfolding, the talents of our batchmates are also unfurling. Talents range from keyboard Geoff and guitar players to oil painting artists to ping-pong and football players. One of our batchmates, Nishant, is building upon his experience as a radio jockey in India. In this vein, he conceptualized and launched IMD’s very own internal podcast. In short, there is awesomeness all around us, and we have only just started.
IMD not only brought a diverse batch of 104 participants together, it challenges us multi-dimensionally, and creates a safe environment that enables us to express ourselves every day. I am sure the best is yet to come.
Keep smiling and stay tuned!
