Condensation coats the windows of the après-ski bar. Inside, ninety MBA students and faculty dance together, celebrating the end of our first week. Someone succeeds to crowd-surf, while another traces “<3 IMD” into the steam on the window. It’s only Friday of the first week of our MBA, and the energy is undeniable. We can feel we’ve come to the right place.
Just hours before, we were shivering on a ski piste, building our first igloo. Equipped with shovels, saws, and a heavy dose of experimentation and teamwork, we molded crunchy snow and ice into a slightly misshapen and structurally unsound igloo.
A few drops of blood shed and a near-collapse added a real sense of risk. Midway through, we paused for a frantic retrospective. Our snow-brick production line was efficient, but our sizing inconsistent. “Make them A4-sized!” We quickly pivoted, found our rhythm, and finished the structure just in time to catch the mountain train to our well-deserved cheese fondue. After celebrating, selfies, and high-fives of course!
My winter jacket did not make it through unscathed, luckily my borrowed ski pants held up. They weren’t lying that this would be an intense year of learning.
”If you’re feeling overwhelmed this week, that is normal, expected, and okay.” – overheard during week one.
Most of us arrived in Lausanne just a week ago, disrupting comfortable lives elsewhere to attend the program recently described by Poets & Quants as “the most forward-thinking MBA on the planet”. After months of anticipation, it’s real. I left behind friends, furniture, and comfort in Singapore to become a student again.
After just one week, my new apartment is starting to feel like home, with picture frames on the wall and an espresso machine that made it into the luggage allowance. But the comfort ends at the front door. Each time I step outside I have to pause and calculate exactly how many layers it takes to survive the winter weather.
During our classes, we fumble with describing past professional identities and future aspirations in our introductions. Over coffee, we exchange tips for grocery shopping, supermarket points, and sorting our trash in the right recycling bins.
The disruption to our routines and sense of (professional) identities is palpable. Everything feels slightly new and different. The good thing is, nearly all of us disrupted our lives elsewhere to be here, and we’re stumbling together as we unlearn the old to make room for the new.
Our first week focused on “Disruption”, and the world outside the classroom seemed determined to prove the point. We dove into the impact of AI, the volatility of geopolitics, and the urgency of sustainability. The group discussions about weaponised trade and “future-back thinking” to turn the corner on climate change by 2030 provide ample opportunity for us to learn about each other. In a week of Trump’s Greenland threats, Grok AI’s ‘undressing’ controversy, and extreme weather disrupting airports across western Europe, the theme of disruption fits today’s business environment. The memorial flowers in front of a school nearby IMD (for the tragic New Year’s Day fire in Crans-Montana) make crises feel closer than ever.
We are all thinking about our 2027 career goals, yet none of us can say for sure what the world will look like by then. What we do know is that we have a year of intense learning ahead of us. More than enough learning to keep us busy for the year: As future business leaders, to manage disruptions and crises. As a class, to collaborate across cultures. As igloo builders, to manage acceptable risk and available resources. As peers, to act with self-awareness and inclusivity. As citizens of the world, to find ways to address climate change and other pressing global issues. And perhaps the most difficult for now, to remember ninety new names. We’ll take the learning one step at a time, as one peer mentioned: “My goal for next week is to ask one question in class”.
“We cannot save the world with the capitalism we have today.”
– Peter Bakker (WBCSD) told us during a guest lecture that ran late into the evening.
Walking home late from campus, I find myself realizing that this program is courageous. It isn’t just about polishing a resume. It’s pushing for systemic change to how businesses operate. It puts sustainability and transforming organisations front and centre. And it provides a space for us to reinvent ourselves, making us question the impact we want to have. The first week has made me go from “these are my goals”, to “maybe these goals don’t feel big enough for me anymore”. We are all on a transformation journey here, and we’ll likely have fifty more changes of heart before we finally hold that piece of paper at the end of the year.
To an adventurous 2026 filled with learning, unlearning, and reinvention!
