Companies & alumni present to MBAs

On By suzylaurentIn Alumni, Career/Recruiting, Photo blogLeave a comment

Friday’s company visits gave the MBAs the chance to discover more about the culture of some of our recruiters, namely Werfen, McKinsey & Company, Honeywell, Google and Siemens and potential opportunities within those companies for a future career.

It also gave the MBA Office the chance to welcome back many friendly faces from across the years, as the companies brought with them alumni who could share their personal insights about how their careers have developed since graduating from IMD and the roles they currently play. So, while the MBAs benefit on the career side, we, the MBA team, also benefit by being able to catch up, and enjoy a kind of pride as we see how these people we got to know so well have developed, and hear about what they’ve achieved and how their families have grown.

Alumni from 2005 – 2016 presenting with their companies
1) Siemens CEO* Program and FEP, 2) Honeywell, 3) McKinsey and Company

Co Presentations_June

Suzy

Breathe !

On By PriyankaChandranIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Run, rabbit, run

Dig that hole, forget the sun,

And when at last the work is done

Don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one

I have been a huge Pink Floyd fan and some of the lyrics of this song beautifully capture our last few weeks or months at IMD. While there is genuine intent on our part to keep you all updated with our lives here, we have been running around in the last days not only preparing for our exams but also searching for our ceps. This point in time at IMD seems special almost like the pivoting point in a thriller.. the moment when things suddenly change… Pivoting point for us as we will not be together as a bunch of 90 in the Lorange auditorium for many of the next weeks.  NTF preparation and presentation will be followed by our trips to London, Munich and Zurich before we break for summer. Pivoting point also because we switch gears to spend more time planning our careers post IMD. Many of us have been getting queries from the upcoming batch about our apartments which is stark realization of the fact that time is flying. While so many things are similar, many more will change.

Before the exams, we ended the finance stream which was an emotional moment for us as a class. It was an absolute pleasure to learn from Prof Nuno and we can’t thank him enough for making this experience indeed a very memorable one. Another exciting stream was the strategy class by Prof Mishiek. External and internal consistency in strategy, role of game theory in determining competitor moves are some of the many tools that we learnt in these classes and the experience has been extremely rewarding and so much fun. As much as one always hears of the networking component in the MBA program, I strongly believe that the academics and the tools that we learn in classes go a long way in helping us analyze new businesses, industries and make better decisions as managers.

Many such courses present a tangible “value proposition” and it is easy to understand why we need them. Yet there are many other classes which have shaped my opinions and ideas in different ways. It is these courses that have helped me appreciate perspectives diametrically opposite to mine. I have learnt to better understand and respect such ideas even if not accept them.

Talking about breath, the end of exams gave us an opportunity to catch a breath albeit a very short one. This time around, it was a day trip for the class to Morzine.  After spending so much time in L’Orange and Dungeons in the last few months, the boat ride to Thonon felt unreal. I had to pinch myself multiple times to believe it was true! The weather was perfect and this trip was no work and all fun. On that note, I leave you with a picture from the trip that is more than symbolic of our journey in the MBA program.

Till the next time..

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Second round exams approach

On By suzylaurentIn Photo blogLeave a comment

As Mo mentioned in his last blog, the pace doesn’t let up for the MBAs, and the pressure is now on as they prepare for their second round of exams and wrap up classes such as Finance with Professor Nuno Fernandes and Strategy with Professor Misiek Piskorski. Here are a couple of pictures, taken as per tradition on the last day of these classes.

Finance

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Strategy

Misiekclass_IMG_6156

Suzy

Let’s see what we’re made of!

On By moallamIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

As the intense first module of the program came to a close with exams and an all too short Easter break, the second module is already making us yearn for more time off. Accounting, Operations, and Entrepreneurship classes have come to an official close as Strategy, Negotiation, Innovation, and International Political Economy have kicked off. In a way, I feel that we’re starting to move past the fundamentals and going towards the more macro-level courses that prepare us for the real world and the new skills we need in today’s job market, which is great.

Highlights from the past month include our Innovation week where we were split up into groups and tasked with designing a prototype to improve patient quality of life using design-thinking principles, which Suzy touched on in a blog post below. Immediately following the Innovation week, we had our IPE (International Political Economy) week during which we had dozens of speakers covering various issues ranging from migration to sustainability.

On top of this, we had a number of very high-profile C-level guest speakers from leading companies such as Novartis, Nestle, Tag Heuer, and IBM. I would definitely say the guest speakers were the highlight of the past month. I felt that it was a testament to IMD’s clout in the business world that such senior corporate leaders were taking the time to speak with us and it is definitely a much-appreciated part of the program.

As job hunting season is starting, we are also starting to go through several Career Services sessions covering topics including salary negotiations and interviews. Many of us are now working hard to secure our Company Engagement Projects (summer internships) and some are even starting to interview for full-time roles after graduation.

All of this has been happening on top of our regular class schedule and all the projects and assignments that come with it. Looking ahead, there’s no sign of it letting up before exams as several 12-14 hour days are coming up this week in the form of more class simulations and integrative exercises. Needless to say, I have definitely been feeling extremely time-poor as I struggle to have a semblance of a social life outside of IMD’s walls and keep up with basic errands without feeling guilty about falling behind on schoolwork. Fitting in the time to write this already delinquent blog post was not easy and trying to find the energy to tackle the job hunt in a systematic way early on is tough. As I look around, I can definitely sense that the overall class energy levels have drained significantly compared to the first couple of months.

That being said, we are all surviving and I am definitely learning a lot about how to manage energy levels with this much going on. At the end of the day, we are all going through the same thing together and the solidarity that comes from the tight knit 90-person class is keeping us all sane. My next post will be after exams so hope to have a bit more of my positive energy and vibes by then!

Til next time!

 

Mo