DomoDomo@INSEAD

The First 100 Days...

2008-01-21T07:22:00.000+01:00

Ok this really is going to be the final addition to this blog.
I figured out talking about the post-INSEAD experience was part of the actual deal, and that it may interest potential applicants.

Well, few thoughts that come to my mind:
- I feel so much stronger than before not only thanks to the knowledge, the network, and the soft skills, but also because of credibility and respect from the others (in my particular entrepreneurial field, from banks, suppliers, and family)
- the network works -some fellow INSEADs did help me out on various queries, tapping in their own non-INSEAD networks
- Sense of community is still very vivid. There are still INSEAD parties/gatherings/week-ends in London, in Europe, and even in Sydney (thanks Facebook!)
- Lots of graduates have really created their companies (one online peer-to-peer, one legal services, several real estate, one transport project) -or at least working really hard on it
- Opportunities abound as people seek your skills, knowledge, and network. I was approached by 2 companies to gradually take over management (the Family Firm course was so right on family businesses emotional dynamics)
- Many actually spent some or more of their Hundred days travelling around the world!

Of course, I am not saying other MBAs do not offer more or less the same. Just that INSEAD to me is shaping up as a key milestone in what I hope will be great entrepreneurial adventures!

All the best to all of you, dare to apply at INSEAD, and make sure that the School be a launchpad to your most ambitious dreams.

THE END!

The End - Fin -

2007-07-08T14:41:00.000+02:00

This is the last post. Number 170! Enough for you guys interested in applying to INSEAD to figure out about the fit.

I must say, a great memento for me as well, of a great year.

I have felt so blessed all year long, like having so much of good things, that I wanted to share some with you. Cheesy, but honest.

I will still be available for any questions regarding INSEAD applications or else. Just email me.

To any fellow July07 that may be lost over here, I was from E3G2 in Fonty, and G11 in Singapore P3.

There are very few decisive things that define a person: gender, nationality (maybe), family, undergrad (sometimes), friends (the rare sort of). INSEAD is one of them. It defines me.

See you all over the world, but it'll be easier in South Pacific or Paris!

All the best. And remember: give back to School!

Please visit July08 blogs in my links to get updates on INSEAD's programme.

The Graduation Ceremony

2007-07-06T19:13:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was Graduation Day.

My day started with a visit to the Chateau. A must I guess for INSEAD Grads' visitors, as evidenced by the number of students I saw there with their guests.
Then we had a quick lunch at Chez Bernard (opposite the Chateau entrance) which was ok but for the rude service.
I expected a siesta break to make up for loss of proper sleep nights of past days, but it was impossible. We had to head to School, for the first ever Graduation Ceremony in School (actually, a marquee on the parking lot). I do think this is the best choice, though it sounds less appealing than previous graduations in Versailles or Paris. INSEAD is from Fonty, and my guests were really keen on visiting the School facilities.

The marquee was pretty impressive from inside though. It was a bit hot, but bearable. We had nice speeches from Dean Fatas, Dean Brown, our guest Speaker -who was astounding (BT CEO), and Tongai from Zimbabwe for the Students. He was awesome too, reminding us of good times and carpe diem. I still think though that Singapore was portrayed a bit too much as party hard... Then the Ford Prize for highest GPA was given to -a surprise to me- Robert the Brit. It confirmed my theory that the Brits were the biggest achiever group in School, and was great news as Robert embodies perfectly the ideal student: work hard, play hard.

My favourite speech was given from one my favourite Profs -Kevin Kaiser- because it was funny and touching. This guy is a real guru in all meanings. I do remember waking up at 8AM in P5, just to attend his classes for which I was not even registered!

Closing the ceremony was an INSEAD alumnus who had a great quote for parents too. Something like: "The MBA is an investment. And these students have learnt this year that investments are sunk costs. To the parents..."

Fellow MBAs I clapped for every one of you, on stage while you were receiving your degree from brothers Franky and Tonio. Because, as Tongai said, I wished I knew more of you, and more intensively -but that is just a beginning, and you can always reach me! And I do thank all those that clapped for me, but I suspect my super cool super successful shell necklace played a great part too!

In the end, the only thing missing was a proper release of energy. The promotion picture was not the best way to end. I honestly wanted to jump, throw my programme, shout, kiss every one... Just do something!

Anyway I'm sure there'll be some improvements for future intakes. I liked my Graduation Ceremony anyway. It'll be an ever-lasting memory.

Then the cocktail was a good opportunity to introduce parents to friends, and say bye to some -already. In the evening, a very good INSEAD friend of mine invited some people to restaurant in Barbizon, including parents. We had a great time. But, we were so tired that most of us skipped the Grad Party. In retrospect, that maddens me because there are so many people I wanted to say bye to. But then, these people know that I care for them...

I also did my "coming out" to my favourite professors, and the Deans. They responded very kindly.
This week-end I'll upload the last pictures, and then the baton will be given to July08 Bloggers.

Cheers.

My special gift: Kevin Kaiser's acceptance speech for Best Elective Professor with nominations of Randall and Pierre. Winner of Core was Igor Vaysman, with nominations of Enrico and Pascal.

The last night before the End

2007-07-04T23:41:00.000+02:00

I'm returning from a restaurant in Fonty. I hate to say that, but gosh I'm full. My parents are in town, accompanied by my aunt and my uncle. They did not know anything about INSEAD just a year ago. Today, they'd barely stepped out of the train that INSEAD was everywhere: shuttle bus, students, parents, and taxi cab claiming that the whole Fonty city lives thanks to INSEAD. It's cool, they are in the mood of falling for the institution.

They are staying at Aigle Noir Hotel. Same stuff: INSEAD owns half of the rooms of the nicest hotel in town. Then we went out to Croquembouche Restaurant in Rue de France, and again, many INSEAD grads with parents over there.

The bottom line is: these days, Fonty breathes INSEAD, oozes INSEAD, lives for and by INSEAD.

Actually my dad is so proud of INSEAD that he may be more knowledgeable about School's stats that I do. For him who could never attend such quality institutions, although he fully recognises the learning of the School of Life, it is very important to attend Graduation too.

Yesterday, I invited my various elective group members to a Paris restaurant. We had great fun. It was a worthy ending for tremendous learning experiences. We had again lots of great food and nice wines... Nice food, nice wine, nice people, nice moments, what else can you ask for?

Tomorrow at 3PM it will be the end. Dress code being "business attire" or "National dress", I've decided to go for the risqué choice, weather permitting. In my country, formal dress is simple: a flowery short sleeve shirt, and for special occasions, shell necklaces. Shell necklaces for men capture different values that "looking good". They are much more decorated but much heavier than women's too. In a sense, they represent my post INSEAD life: much more beautiful, but also with a much heavier burden.

Many thanks

2007-07-02T10:08:00.000+02:00

As Graduation is fast approaching, marking the end of this blog adventure too (after all, I'll need to work very hard), it is time to wrap-up on the Programme, and thank everyone who participated in it.

I've had the pleasure to inform some applicants, sometimes help them through the application process. I've seen some accepted, some unfortunately denied.

On Admissions, if there's one single takeaway, it is that the more outlier you are, the more focused and determined you will need to be. Consultants or IBs follow a path. If you are creating your own path, you'll need to convince that INSEAD can help you, and stay consistent throughout in interviews etc.

While in, you'll really be able to customize your own track. Roughly, it seems to me that there are: the Entrepreneurship, the Finance/Accounting, the Leadership/OB, the Marketing, and the Economics/Strategy tracks. Realistically, you can follow in depth 2 tracks. For instance, I chose Entrepreneurship and Leadership. The good thing is, you can complement with bits of other tracks (like some B2B Marketing, or some Corporate Restructuring, or some ICA). But because 10 months is short, and credits are limited, you need to know what you want to take out of INSEAD. Where your weaknesses must be improved and where your strengths will be leveraged to give you a competitive advantage later. For these reason, INSEAD is so not a factory with a one-fits-all programme if you don't want it to. Although on some occasions you may need to audit because of excess demand...

As I said during the Alumni Reunion, I came in with a set of objectives/expectations. Looking back in my application dossier, I was looking for many answers:
"Through OB, I would improve my leadership and people management skills. Strategy classes would allow me to refine competitive dynamics and define strategic objectives. And Entrepreneurship and Family Businesses electives would provide me essential tools with which to understand the specifics of my family Group and optimise its governance and financial model, and guide me in mapping future opportunities. They would also help me to tackle the succession issue and model the optimal ownership structure."

INSEAD gave me answers to every single issue. Not only are they answers for pressing issues, but also for the longer term. The network will always be a pool of answers, as will be the prestige you get from School. I feel more confident than ever before, because it's no fluke -foundations are rock solid. Strong to have been able to go through 10 super intensive months, to have competed with such a bright crowd, to have exchanged with them. Strong, because I know them, and I can count on them, or on the School, and on Profs.

Back in November 5, I set myself a goal list to which my year would be evaluated. I've fulfilled all of them (but maybe for the longer-term relationships).

For this, I would like to thank:

- the Admission Committee for selecting an amazing crowd,

- Dean Fatas for doing an incredible job organizing this complex programme with extremely demanding people, and the Staff,

- Dean Brown for accepting the School challenge of raising the School's profile even more (my 2 cents, we are not Harvard and don't want to be it right?)

- The Faculty, for inspiring us so much,

- my Housemates for being so nice,

- all July07 for the whole experience, stay in touch!

- and of course, the Alumni for building the reputation, and giving back to School...

Many thanks.

The Most

2007-06-30T21:22:00.000+02:00

I've just finished my day with the 20, 30, and 40 year Alumni. Pretty interesting.
First on me, I think either my head is swelling like crazy, or I'm on illicit substances, or I've improved so much, because presenting in front of 80 alumns, in Amphi A, with a mike, caused me no stress or problem whatsoever. Actually my presentation was very well received, with plenty of people congratulating on the humourous touch, or at least the heart-felt tone. I'm so pumped up. Folks, that is 4 presentations in a row that went out perfectly. The point is: we'll leave INSEAD confident about our abilities, and with a brandname that gives respect. We'll have our First Hundred Days too, to fulfill expectations put on us...

Interesting points about the Alumni Reunion:
- Some of them were worried that Singapore and 900 people intake meant dilution and lesser selection. I beg to differ. First, ratio of applicant to acceptances is irrelevant, because of the self-selection to INSEAD (1 year programme, very differentiated, and 700+ GMAT). Second, in 30 or 40 years, the MBA market has grown to places untapped for before -Latin America, India, East Europe...
- Alumni were very impressed by the develoment of the School over years.
- They are so attached to School that many came with their children and groom them for INSEAD. I met an Israeli 40Y Alumn whose son (or grandson I can't recall) graduated in 2000 and other son is applying this year!
- In 30 years INSEAD has gone from less than 30 nationalities to more than 70. And has over 100 alumns in more 25 countries (against 12 for Harvard and co.)

On the train back to Paris, I met someone from the Student Council. While he did not want to reveal the recipients' names of Best Awards, he hinted at the finalists. Whoever wins will deserve it.

That made me wonder of all these great professors met during the programme.
Most passionate: Tim Van Zandt
Most funny: Enrico Diecidue
Most humour noir funny: Theo Vermaelen
Most sensitive: Michael Brimm
Most subtly un-PC (but I like that!): Thomas D'Aunno
Most cool: Igor Vaysman
Most weird-funny: Nils Rudi
Most edgy: Igor Vaysman
Most sharp: Pascal Maenhout
Most impressive: Phil Anderson
Most Hollywood: Horacio Falcao
Most nice and dedicated: Ilian Mihov
Most connected: Randel Carlock
Most obviously un-PC (but I like that!): Fernando Bartholomei
Most underrated: Deigan Morris
Most shrewd: Tim Bovard
Most challenging: Kevin Kaiser
Most insightful: Karen Cool
Most make-it-easy-and-fun: Jake Cohen
Most useful-for-survival: Jose Luis Alvarez
Most brilliant: all of the above -well, you know which ones I preferred for each period...

They made an impact on me, I will never forget them. And I did not attend most of the Finance track, which has lots of Stars...

Giving back

2007-06-30T01:31:00.000+02:00

I can't believe School is really, really ending on Thursday next week. As you know, I've skipped the Grad Trip, although on second thoughts they are probably having loads of fun to die for. But, too much for me, too much travel, too much party, too much booze, too much not enough time, at once. I needed a break. Well, not that I'll be idle though. Tomorrow I'm meeting 20, 30, and 40 years Alumns on campus, for a short presentation on life at INSEAD now, and a visit of the campus (with a strong emphasis on Salamander Awards Wall -the Donors Wall). Instead of the Adriatic Sea, this will be my Blue Ocean.
Kidding, I'm really happy to do that just for the School.

By the way, did you know that the Bronze Salamander Award started at only €15.000? That's barely the price of a small no-thrills car...

Cheers

New Business Idea

2007-06-27T11:16:00.000+02:00

It would be cool if someone came up with a something against hangover; a fast hangover recoverer...
That'd be a smash at School these days.
OK we are not drinking to get drunk. And mostly we are not really drunk. But the morning after, we are all a bit wasted.
Ooops. Maybe I am sick of something else then...

Yesterday, I had a presentation using 5 forces etc etc and other MBA stuff, mixing strategic necessities and operational alignment. People in the audience were captivated.
I feel strong, I feel good!
I loooooove INSEAD.

The Endgame 2: did you know?

2007-06-25T16:13:00.000+02:00

Did you know that Endgame is very close to French term "Endogame" which means marriage in a same class category...
Interesting...

Well I don't know what to expect in 4 hours, but I've prepared for the worst case scenario: have done some Abs and Biceps for dummies this morning, and put on clean underwear and non-holed socks ;-)
You never know...

PS: Dear INSEAD applicants, please read only the August 2006 to May 2007 posts. You'll be misrepresented of the seriousness of the School in my last posts :-)

Lessons of Power and Politics 7: There's more in Life than just P&P

2007-06-25T00:27:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm not sure Prof. Alvarez would sum up one of his star sessions as such. The case was about the political rivalry between Pete Peterson and Lewis Glucksman, in which the apparent winner of the power struggle ended up as the loser.

In a nutshell, key takeaways were:
- power base evolves with time or environment, if you don't adjust someone else will push you out; people are more rigid than environments
- political hunger is dependent on your alternatives (ie. outside options); be a Fox and a Lion
- when you go up, you have to work on your power base/network again, and expand beyond your traditional camp -Free yourself from previous patterns
- don't mess with people's money -they care more about their pockets than their families (well, at least in IB)...
- and you might win a power struggle and push someone out, but if your life solely is built around your work and your Company, what is the point?

I've enjoyed this class immensely. It really gets you ready to confront the tough corporate world. To me, it also revealed that networking (hence power base etc.) is a systematic approach that needs much rigour. Keeping track of people you've met, you need to meet, things said, things to do...

P&P and CRFD were my favourite classes of P5. In CRFD, it seems it's getting quite technical and tough, people spending much time in group negotiations. I suppose it is about negotiating distress...

Ok, I've officially finished all my courses, and handed in all my projects. L'Ecole est Finie
!!

The Endgame...

2007-06-23T17:52:00.001+02:00

So here's the recap of the graduation process: the Cabaret, the Endgame, the Graduation trip (Hvar in Croatia this year), the Official Ceremony, and the Grad Party.
The goal, of course, is to forge very strong bonds before leaving School.

The concept of the Endgame is very interesting. It's on Monday night, and surrounded by secrecy. What happens there stays there.

Basically, girls invite anonymously guys. Considering there are 1 girl for every 3 guys, lots of them are left over.

I'd define the Endgame as the Wild Adult Carnival. Because it's anonymous, because it's among adults, and because rumour has it it's wild. The original concept was that, before returning to our normal lives outside School, this is the last chance to have fun, any kind of which.

I believe now it's been watered down. I suppose there are 2 sorts of male guests: the real wild ones, and the inoffensive ones...

Guess what, I've been invited. I kind of suspect I've fallen in the wrong category though... But you'll never know, because whatever happens there stays there!

Cheers.

Cabaret 2007 uncensored!

2007-06-22T15:00:00.000+02:00

What a night it has been! Unforgettable.
It's really cool to see the hidden talents of people, and how diverse in personalities they can be.

Cabaret is part of the Graduation process; it's the students performing for others, on memories -like songs written on purpose or comical sketches, or on pure fun -like dance performances or live music.

My big, big favourites were the 4 girls in black, performing the INSEAD version of the Vagina Monologues... Incredibly insightful and funny. The one on, "My Vagina has learnt from Ilian Mihov (Macro Star), when you increase Money Supply, you get more Liquidity...", got everyone roaring in respect of the boldness! I have movies on these Vagina Monologues, but have decided, for the sake of these gorgeous babes careers ;-) not to put them online.

We also had a nice Ding comic sketch, and nice renditions of crooner music (the ever sophisticated Montmelian crowd)...
In the end, we did have our own House impromptu Cabaret, when Spaniards and French joined forces to sing while drinking until 4.30 or 5 (again)... My Lord I am going to miss this crowd!

Special thanks to Annie and husband who performed a wonderful song, and got the crowd starting a fun partisan war. E3 rules indeed, no doubt about it...

A quick wrap-up of P5

2007-06-21T08:34:00.000+02:00

P5 is coming to an end. It's the period during which (most) people chilled out after intensive job search experiences.

In P5 I took many classes. I skipped quite a few, for sure, but then went to many for which I was not registered too.

I liked B2B marketing, an Industraat Simulation for those who know. Group work in simulation against other teams is lots of fun. And Prof. Savary was really good in his case studies as well.

I loved Corporate Financial Reporting and Analysis (it's Jake, after all). Some sessions about CFO's role were on the boring side, but overall insights are great for IB wannabes or even CEOs. We had our group presentation, and everything went out perfectly considering we finished 5 minutes before class and that one person had joined the day before and one had vanished on the same day...

I could have enjoyed more Business Plan Workshop. This is a typical course out of which you get what you put in; its depth could range anywhere from the Maldives sea to the Mariana trench. I guess it also is the sort of course whose value comes from that of the participants. Steve did his best to facilitate the process of idea generation, and business models challenge from us. It is like a forum where people explain their ideas and audience responds with their experiences from all over the World. Where else could you see that but at INSEAD?

On Power and Politics, and Corporate Restructuring, I have commented already about how great they were.

Well, that is it.

Five periods, all thoroughly reported. More than 25 credits, mostly around the Entrepreneurship Track... And some other classes are just as good -Finance for instance. I'll comment on the tracks later.

On the fun side, the Paris group has met. It'll be hard to compete against London, but I'm sure we'll have just as much fun...

Turning the page

2007-06-19T02:04:00.000+02:00

I don't know what is wrong with me these days. Zilch motivation, it's terrible. First time that ever happens to me at INSEAD...

Actually, I know what's going on.

First, having secured my post-INSEAD position, I have too much free time in hand.

Second, I have fulfilled my knowledge objectives at INSEAD. Courses I wanted to take beforehand are over. Now it's just finetuning. I honestly don't know how people can bear a 2 year MBA. I just want to move on. Sure I will miss all the atmosphere and the people, and the excellence, but then there is also so much to do in the real world now...

Third, and this is personal, I have moved on in my head already. Some people are good at constant efforts. Some are good at closings. This is just not me. One former groupmate called me a pelotari (basque pelota player), presumably because I liked to distribute the tasks in a previous life. In brief, I am rather impatient, and 10 months is my limit... It's as if at 75% completion my efficiency rate dropped dramatically.

Finally, it is a question of priority. Now that everything is safe and secure, it is more important to take care of people than classes. Enjoy last dinners, parties -though I have skipped some as well...

Ok some more energy for the last 10 days, better regrets than remorse!

Cheers

Lessons of Power and Politics 6: The Bilingual Manager

2007-06-15T11:53:00.000+02:00

Life goes on. It's pretty hard to get back to usual stuff. On top of that I'm getting less and less thrilled by assignments, and the ones that are still on are real drags. Big mistake, I know. Especially since, having missed some classes of one of my favourite INSEAD Prof. (Accounting super God Jake Cohen), I'm now regretting that. You know that feeling: "Wow it's just so insightful I wish I could master the trick better". On the other hand, since Jake's course is all about Managers playing dirty accounting tricks, it's just as well, since I will be a manager right after School, not to know/understand about all these things. I must say the accounting bad practices can have particular appealing names for who is into that: Cookie Jar, Massaging (numbers), and with a little bit of imagination, Channel Stuffing...

But, I'm digressing again. Back to P&P. Oh, on this, before I forget. A Wharton groupmate of mine is so elated by her INSEAD experience. She is finding Electives soooo good, much better than at Wharton (so she said), at least in Finance and OB...

So last classes of Power and Politics were very insightful and practical as usual. Of interest, is the concept of the Bilingual Manager: having a language for Top Management, and another language for Employees and Peers. Pressure absorption, rhetoric on the one hand, and distant influence, on the other hand.
The analysis was taken from best seller "The Soul of a New Machine", which was really insightful in terms of organisational structure (how to use it as a Pull influence strategy). Really cool.

Prof. Alvarez's takeaways for us in our current situations were clear.
1. Don't be easy, Be difficult. That motivates peers and subordinates to work hard for you to get attention.
2. Beware of the "You are free" trick when proposed a tough assignment. Top Management has a sales pitch for you, don't feel pressured to step in what could be a big mess.
3. Don't be blinded by self-esteem. We tend to link pain (reality) to satisfaction (promise of a good thing). Lots of time you'll get the real pain, but not the promised satisfaction...

Tomorrow is the Summer Montmelian Ball. It'll be awkward. Show must go on...

Quotes of the Day:
"He is trying very hard to hide his superiority complex. But when you dig a little bit, you find out he thinks we're all monkeys..." P5 student confessing about his P1 Core group experience.

"There are 2 sorts of non emerged countries. The emerging, and the non-emerging. The non-emerging suck, and they are going to stay there.", clearcut Kevin on why Risk free rate is high in Zimbabwe (well, something like that).

"Are risk free rates different across countries?" Kevin to Student
"Hum, it depends on what you mean by risk free rate..." Student to Kevin
"It depends on what you mean by different too!" Kevin to Student. I like Kaiser, he's uber cool.

"I represented our section at the E4 reunion last Sunday, and would like to report back that our reunion was, as I am sure you would expect, a far classier and fun occasion." Cool Brit on defending our Section values!

Cheers.

For your Summer holidays reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine

A Day of Drama

2007-06-13T20:50:00.000+02:00

Today was a sad day at School. We were welcome by sad faces and figured out that a P3 had passed away in a dramatic accident.

As always, it's a time to pay homage to the too young bright Sam from Africa, and for others to reflect on life.

Prof. Alvarez showed us the video of Steve Jobs in Stanford. The message for those who stay, at 10.00 min onwards, is humbling.

School organised an Ardent Chapel, and I think Sam's intake may fund a scholarship for his country. That'd be a great way to remember him.

I'm sad. RIP.

The late night Drinking Sessions

2007-06-13T10:29:00.000+02:00

Wow. This morning I'm a bit wasted. Slept at 4.15.
Overnight I had one of the mythical Late Night Drinking with my Housemates. Don't get me wrong, the purpose is not to get drunk -none of us really effectively genuinely was, although technically we could have qualified as such- the purpose is to enjoy our time together and discuss about anything of interest.

Yesterday's topics:
- the Endgame, for or against (I'll try to post something soft on this very wild tradition)
- the Graduation Speaker vote, we appreciate them all, we value their commitment, but who did we pick up?
- last days in School, how are you living it?
- Housemates reunion planned beginning of next year!
- and lots of other stuff that could be discussed over a Slovak wine and some whisky.

Late night Drinking sessions rock! My Drink buddies rock!

July07 Promotion breaking record books... Vote please!

2007-06-11T23:33:00.000+02:00

It's been leaked by insider information (Finance/Others God Kevin Kaiser): the current promotion has broken records in terms of pre-graduation employment! As Kevin would himself say, that's "cool".
Apparently, before cross-checking, through a survey to Students, School is confirming that lots of us have gotten jobs already. I can only concur, based on my (biased) experience. Most of people I know have already gotten a job, and better than that, jobs they are really happy about. Take my housemates. One was sponsored. I was too -sort of. One got Private Equity in Eastern Europe -a dilemma between London and over there. One got Google in Western Europe -exactly what he wanted but for the fact that he may have considered more dramatic career change. One got a job in Consulting in London. One in Investment Banking in London. And the last one is still interviewing with relative confidence, for a marketing position in Western Europe, in the Temple of Marketing...

That is sooo cool.

Be aware, though I might sound cheesy as ending is approaching, I still have my head on. I am not falling in some of nostalgic mood where everything is nice and beautiful. Granted, I love INSEAD, and INSEAD students. Still, I'm keeping cold blood...

I probably cannot talk freely of Graduation Speech (a bidding process). But let me share some of the candidates' pitches.

Pitch 1: "I want to talk about my perceptions of the school and everyone here when I first arrived, and how those perceptions changed as we gradually discovered more and more about each other. " Though I must say, buddy Pitcher 1, your pitch is way too personalised to make the cut (private comment: I hope it won't turn into a popularity contest). The Graduation Speech is for ALL the Students, not for X or Y you liked more...

Pitch 2: "Although my “lifelong friendship passport” has been freshly stamped dozens and dozens of times, and the magic carpet ride has officially come to an end, I would like to think that this, nevertheless, is just the beginning." Nice...

Pitch 3: "We have concentrated many years of experiences into 10 incredible months but we have all lived the year in very different ways. Some partied at KM8 and slept in red London buses (and in classes) while others worked on business plans and grew their families. It has been an intense, rich year and the lessons we have learned will live with us for years to come. The graduation speech should trigger happy memories and make you laugh. It should provoke your own thoughts on what the year has meant to you and others and it should help you look forward to the future and think of ways to change the world for the better. As Enrico would say, “sounds good?” " - Sounds perfect...

Pitch 4: "So let’s get back to basics: we have made wonderful friendships with unique people and we are now being unleashed, with world-renowned qualifications, to go make a difference in the world. Awesome. No doubt: making things simple, and certainly adding the meaningful, will present the biggest challenge to come." - I agree...

Pitch 5: "What matters now is how we act going forward and how we represent the INSEAD name as we move on with our lives. What matters now is the reputation we build as responsible business leaders all around the world. What matters now is how we maintain the friendships we’ve created over the past 10 months. What matters now is how we carry the same excitement we’ve felt here through to everything that we do in the future. We are each CEOs of our own lives, so let’s get out there and start acting like it." - Buddy Pitcher 5, I had the pleasure to work with you, you are just awesome. I like you very much indeed!

Pitch 6: "Each of us for our own individual reasons decided to fill out an application, attend an INSEAD information session, and take the chance for our careers, our families, and ourselves that by coming to this school in the middle of the forest in Fontainebleau we would be better for it." - Pretty cool.

Pitch 7: "I’m not the most experienced public speaker…but I promise a speech that:
Is short, simple & sincere
Thanks family, friends, faculty for their support and patience
Urges further work on diversity at INSEAD
Hopefully makes us all think a little bit beyond just making loadza money
Makes you laugh a little (maybe even cry!)" - Given that you' re a journalist, Pitcher 7, I believe you!

I have made my choice. One that represents the School as a whole, not particular cliques. One that speaks about the future, as much as the past. One that captures the essence of the INSEAD spirit best. I don't know which my fellow INSEADers will prefer, I just hope they choose one that represents ALL of us: Indians, Asians, Europeans, Nerds, Geeks, Cools, Attitudes, Stars, Loners, Social Beasts, Blacks, Whites, Mixes, Rich, Poor... Start being a leader, and choose the best for the Speech job, not your favourite buddy...

Now, who would you vote for???

That's your chance, let's see where your values are... Comments please!

The REP secret (partially) uncovered

2007-06-09T17:02:00.000+02:00

REP is at last over. It was becoming a drag, although it was a nice class. The format of REP diverges somehow from other classical INSEAD methodology: usually, there's a big mystery awaiting for us, that is being uncovered bit by bit over the course, as a compelling framework. REP is very practical. It's the LBO side of entrepreneurship. You find a company and assess its potential and present it to real PE guys. The fun of this class is to make it as real as possible. We created a Website and a PE bogus fund. Then we approached our targets.
Ours presented the full monty of small and medium sized businesses issues: 3rd generation curse, poor management unable to react to competitive changing dynamics, but very strong expertise and local clout. In a way, we experienced in 3 months all of the frustrations of LBO entrepreneurship: ducks, entrepreurial heat syndrome (getting too excited), entrepreneurs valuations way over the rational valuation...

In the end, we did not win the competition, nor are we likely to pursue the deal for real -just remembering that none of the past class groups going for real have ever succeeded. Because, let's be frank: for INSEAD that we may be, the lack of credibility in this business (through connections, experience etc.) makes it natural that we should come across firms that nobody else wants.

Takeaways: LBO business is good, lots of businesses to be bought; junk companies can be really attractive too, Management in LBO is tough and requires lots of experience and pressure handling, and this is as successful as and potentially less risky than New Venture entrepreneurship.

This class will be entirely reengineered next year, fyi.

Cheers

What makes a good Section?

2007-06-07T01:46:00.000+02:00

I can't believe we're nearing the end. On the one hand, and all credit to the 1 year programme, I think we all want to go back to the real world and conquer it and prosper, but on the other hand, the sight of losing track of such wonderful people is scary. I guess London people don't feel the loss as acutely, because, as they say, London is going to be their P6. But for all the others we'll need to turn the page with conviction. To me, it just seems that some people I will meet again and again, some I will do business with, some I will help or will help me. In brief, some I will keep in touch as long as can be. At 30 years old odd, one must be able to discriminate people, and know in absolute terms which are worth and which are flimsy, or good-to-remember. I can...

So which one was the best Section of Fonty July 07? I'd be tempted to say mine, because it is a really great one.
Facts are:
- Best section tshirt was E4, then E2, E3, and E1 getting the prize for making history of not having a Section Tshirt (E3 getting the one of the ugliest of the year, and worse, with 10 Student names missing on it).
- Most active sections were E4, then E3...
- Most Dean's List productive Sections were E4, then the pack... E3 and the rest.

So E4 the best? It's funny because whenever I attended it I felt not home (some bias well known by statisticians and OB theorists). The point is, whatever your values, E4 made it glued more than others.

You readers and future intakes, here are some invaluable insights. Make sure you take care of your sections like that:
1. Probability is, sections have equal chances of gluing. INSEADs do share similar values whatever section they belong to. Sections become the Nerd section (E1) or the crazy section (E4) not because of some different profiles, but because they've been turned into that.

2. Section Social Rep, who are elected by the class, are key. Ideally you'd like to elect someone who does not care too much about grades (like a sponsored Consultant or a super bright individual), but also does not care too much about himself. Dedication is key, for at least P1 and P2. E4 actually got 3 Social Reps when the elected one graciously decided to share his burden. The result is, Win-Win situation, as the Section enjoyed more fun for less pressure on the Reps.

3. Ideally, a house that could accomodate the Section parties would help.

4. Section parties must start soon enough. Two in P1, 2 or 3 in P2, would be a good number. It's like Change Management, there is a definite "tipping point", or "critical mass" of parties that will make the Section glue together. E3, was a perfect Section, but did not have enough parties/gatherings, and in that sense never really passed that all-important tipping point.

5. Create a Section Tshirt early enough to foster some team spirit and belonging feeling. That sounds cheesy, but it works. And there is a balance between democracy and leadership. E3 struggled for weeks on its slogan (E3 got to be? E3 wannabe?) and its design, to, in the end, come up with the lowest denominator, several mistakes on it, and delivered the last night of P2 when 50% of people already had flown home for Christmas.

6. Individuals do matter. Strong values can balance loose section bonds. In my section, people have always been very cooperative, helpful, great networkers, and with such a great heart and mind.

With these tips, you'll have no excuse not to make it the most fun sections.
Again, fun to me is not partying "à gogo". Just non-work environments to know fellow participants more, in less formal settings, and without masks...

My section may be second best in objective terms, but to me it's still my favourite!

Cheers.

Lessons of Power and Politics 4: Thrive with Low Profile

2007-06-05T10:35:00.000+02:00

I'm being summarized the key learnings from last sessions of Power and Politics because for some obscure reasons I have missed them...
It's very interesting to ask for the key learnings to different trusted, diligent, and intelligent people, because they would apply it to their situations and you could see the impact of the class.

The last 2 sessions were related to each other: How do you deal with success?
As INSEAD MBAs, with all due modesty, we are likely to succeed in our careers. Very soon, two common situations may arise: quitting job for something better (being poached or leaving voluntarily), or attracting jealousy. Heaven and Hell (the subject of Roger van der Weyden's tryptich in Hospices de Beaune).

How do you deal with Heaven? Well, with no looking back. People will try any tricks to make you feel guilty or indebted, whilst in most situations they would have done the same choice.

How do you deal with Hell? Think Clinton after Monica's episode. But most importantly, you anticipate that success will bring jealousy. So keep low profile, don't boast, don't show off, don't be arrogant. That will prevent your sore enemies to trespass the line of attack vs. plain jealousy.

In my regular late night drinking sessions with house mates, we today discussed the paths of some people we care about. What the Entrepreneurial people are doing next. After all they are the one having the pressure now. I guess the best approach is: give it a try for some months after School to explore the options. After all, INSEAD being one year, you in theory have the luxury of 6 months and 40.000 euros compared to Harvard, say. Alternatively, some other people are returning to their previous ventures and getting ready to act on opportunities.

Tonight is my Section Party. I shall write a post on the dynamics of Sections and how the best Section this year became the best section...

Life is too short...

2007-06-03T23:13:00.000+02:00

... to miss on the good things. One of them being, good wine. There's lot of magic in wine: how to turn grapes into delight, soil into gold, and people into buddies.

This week-end I went to Burgundy with INSEAD friends to enjoy a nice weather and bond before we part. We had so much wine and good food, but so much fun as well. The thing I like with some INSEAD people is, they are very curious about Hows, and relate pleasantly experience to learning.

Example: we visited Romanée-Conti domain. This must be the most expensive wine in the world (see pic). From this 1.8 hectares of land come out 5.000 bottles a year at 6.000 euros each... How is it possible? Soil into gold (sustainable competitive advantage), grapes into delight (savoir-faire), and people into buddies (pleasure and marketing). Magic uncovered... And perfect discrimination when the Company produces wine from the land inches away from Romanée Conti at different prices: La Tâche at 1.200 euros apiece, Echézeaux at 400 euros... A whole summary of Prices and Market and ICA on the field...

I'm exaggerating slightly. But we shared some business and personal problems, and then you realise you could really count on these great guys. And get great insights on things.

Example: Burgundy is very different from Bordeaux. Bordeaux is sophisticated (blend of grapes) and noble. Burgundy is simple (mono grape, Pinot noir) and rustic. Wine producers are just the same... A Domain is basically a house, and inside most people treat you like bloody aliens. Frustrating experience. When we were kicked out, we analysed customer orientation, impact on sales etc. And we went to enjoy a very, every good Puligny Montrachet Premier Cru to remind ourselved that, thank God, life is much cooler with a smile enjoying good company and good things.

I'm not going to share the personal issues, but the bottom line is, it was an awesome trip to know one another even better. We even pictured us doing some regular Wine and Food and Culture trips for our 1 and 5 year Reunions (at least)...

Other topics debated: Are you Theory X or Y? Are there still ugly people today? Is it an undertone of Wood or Game in this wine?

The must-drink:

The trilogy of White Wines (the best in the World) - Chassagne Montrachet, Puligny Montrachet, Meursault...

We had cool Morey St-Denis, Nuits St-Georges in red...

The must-see: Vosnes Romanée, to pay hommage to Romanée Conti.

The must-NOT see: Domaine Guillemard-Clerc, unless you haven't experienced the rude, arrogant, drunk French people yet...

The last push before the end

2007-06-01T12:37:00.000+02:00

I have 2 goals in P5: to enjoy the last moments, and to mount a serious Business Plan with a team mate, at least for the sake of the Business Plan Competition.

It's becoming difficult when you mix the two together. Up to now, my team mate and I have met regularly in a Fonty Bar as our meeting point. Big, big mistake. Well, is it? It's definitely great for team morale, but it seems that our business model evolves with the number of glasses of champ that we take... I've now taken the serious commitment, with the help of course Business Plan Workshop (BPW) to cristalyse our model and have fun at the BP Competition!

Yesterday, an INSEAD friend had his girlfriend's photo exhibit Vernissage party. Lots of INSEAD showed up, some after a day trip to Disneyland, some after a dinner in Paris. I love that sort of events. I think people are loosening up incredibly. No more Dean's list pressure, no more job pressure. Some people that were kind of tense and uptight are now very cool. If that continues, by the end of the MBA we'll all love everyone...

On the other hand, as I was discussing with my flatmates, we're heading for a shock, and thanks God Prof Alvarez is preparing us for big time in Power and Politics.
The last case was about a high flying MBA grad -a situation you could easily relate to- crashing his first assignment because of the wrong tactics at the wrong time.
While he was used to consensus building, participative management, OB soft techniques with his MBA peers, he did not realise he had to apply tough leadership, strong drive and control, bossy style in an entrepreneurial company (think IT, or new market development...) You could see many of us doing the same mistake, as some persons suggested "outdoor team building events, or social events" to boost "team morale" when the project was days within launch after 18 months of MBA style management... You kind of get worried when you know that person is going to Top Consulting.

So love is good, but again, outside is a different world. I feel like I'm turning into a tough b**tard...

PS: BTW to all my Chinese friends, Dragon Week amphi storming was ok. Dances were not that bad (you should actually make a joke of it, it'd be hugely popular, see video). And the Dragon Week seriously rocked! Thank you.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword (El Presidente)

2007-05-29T22:51:00.000+02:00

I know this will interest many of you.
It seems that Private Equity is the hot subject at MBAs and in the Corporate World. To me, coming from a not-so sophisticated country, it was all new.
Today I had a meeting with a potential investor in our REP project (remember, the Secret Project that I still need to uncover to you later on). Now I'm touching PE from as close as can be. It seems to be a tough but rewarding entrepreneurial option too.

But better read from El Presidente (copied pasted from Comments he put in previous post) who I understand lives in London and used to be the Annie Smith of a past intake (Annie is our Council President). That may give some ideas for the late job seekers.
Thanks for your contributions, guys.

"TIP: Hunt down all INSEAD VC's and tell them that if they place you in a portfolio company, you will remove risk and increase reward. Serious - best way into an entrepreneurial company is through VC introductions. How can company say no to the ones who hand out the pesos. Worked for me...

Major Corporation (MC) paid my way at INSEAD, so I did several years at MC in return. Left MC to run an electronics company, where I left because ethics turned out to be quite shady. Then....got involved with VC friends, who placed me into the company I still run today. I just sold 15% of company to strategic investor to fund next round of expansion. That's it. The entrepreneur's life is rough on the marriage, but very rewarding and satisfying - you are actually building something, rather than at MC's where you fight for real or imagined credit for something already built. But be cautious, understand that if you are not increasing value, VC's will dump you in a nano-second. Live by the sword, die by the sword! "

The not-nice post

2007-05-29T19:17:00.000+02:00

People say I'm too nice. I don't think so. And I'll prove it right now: Dragon Week has just taken the prize of worst amphi storming of the year (Humour and Dance choregraphy categories). Just a notch ahead of Heart of Europe in these categories. Maybe it was their first one of the week but the scenario was hum and the dance was painful. It was hurting because I like them and care for them, so I was living an inner torture watching it.

Ok overall I think most people didn't notice too much and were happy with the result.

My point is, the National Weeks are so good at capturing the clichés on regions, that's what I love them.

On the other hand, Dragon Week produced the best tshirt -by far- of the year and tomorrow's dinner will sure be a hit. Similarly, their idea for the Friday party -on a peniche in Paris- to recreate the 1930s Shanghai is just brilliant. I just hope they won't dance again...

Now who says I'm too nice?

Now some not-nice comments I've heard (not shared by your reporter).

"The so-what course", on Family Firms in Fonty, from a tough PE guy, because whatever takeaway was not deep/hard stuff for him. In defence of Prof. Carlock, the course IS amazing, but we had it in a format of 16 student-class over there in Singapore P3, as opposed to 60 over here. I guess you can dig the "so what" key points when there are less people..

"We had cat food on a piece of bread; people would be happy if you just feed them", a very angry alumn partner for the limited quantity/quality of canapés before the Ball. He argued, rightly, that it should be an investment, ie. School should pay a lot to please the alumni, and hope to get back later.

"Maybe you're right, but I don't know what you're saying", tough guy Kevin Kaiser on a muddy comment from a student.

The Summer Ball revealed

2007-05-27T23:48:00.000+02:00

So there it was. The World's infamous Summer Ball. I'm saying "World" because people really flocked from all over the world to the Fontainebleau Chateau. Not just our intake. People who left 5 and 10 years ago.

I chatted with one Israeli who had graduated 10 years ago, and he revealed that in intake his fellow alumni travelled from places as fas as Australia. Indeed the Ball was a resounding success. Despite the rain, the fireworks welcomed us with Mozart's Requiem in the background, after a Brazilian Capoeira for alumni guys and Samba for alumni girls had warmed the crowd.
In the Colonnades Room inside the Chateau the Insanes (the rock group from 10 years ago) were just as good as the Commitments in their rock and folk style.

In other rooms, music was ok. My personal fav of the moment "Relax, take it easy" was not playing, though. I guess the Summer Ball is primarily for Alumni, to have them keep in touch with School and remind them to give back. So we got Depeche Mode instead, which was still ok...

Girls were absolutely stunning in their evening gowns. And patient too. I sympathised with them because, with so many drinks (champagne à volonté), I had to pee quite often. Their queue was pretty bad (see pic)...

In the end, after breakfast was served and dawn made its way, some people made use of space and tables. And we got a funny rendition of Village People dancing, I guess because that group was "in" 10 years ago, and that because Insead traditionally accepts Students from the top 3 military Schools in France, some alumni came in with their real uniforms so they looked like Village People dancers...

In our July07 intake, I can safely claim that our hymns were more Bob Sinclar's "Love Generation" and "World Hold on". Two songs that captured beautifully our spirits.

In summary: a spectacular Ball for us to remember our great year, see how we'll look like in 5 and 10 years, feel how the School's esprit de corps is still amazingly strong after time. And for the Alumni, a great opportunity to meet again, and feel that whatever they give back is worth it (come on, a Ball in the Chateau for the first time ever!)

Seriously, it was perfect, and I honestly have never been as proud as that night to be part of Insead. That says a lot.

Bob Sinclar's Love Generation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iXahMekSBA

Mika Relax (Take it easy):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfzaJytGHgk

D-Day for Ze Summer Ball

2007-05-26T14:55:00.000+02:00

Tonight is the night for lots of people. Most of all, it's the 5 year Reunion for July02. The 5 year Reunion is a major milestone post-INSEAD. After that span of time, you're supposed to have achieved wonders. On Summer Ball and Reunion Week-end, you've got to show it: wife, husband, children, big business, and School donations. I think it's a great INSEAD tradition. I was on campus yesterday for the INSEAD Private Equity Conference, and could see the hundreds of alumni who would make the trip to Fonty this week-end. It must be that they loved it, the people, and the life. And that they did pretty well...
This week-end also is the 10 year Reunion. Just as many alumni attending. Incredible.

For us, the Summer Ball is like our Graduation Gala. There's graduation trip coming, graduation party, everything is a pretext for celebrating the end. I just hope it's going to be better than the Winter Ball. It will take place at the Chateau of Fontainebleau, the first time ever the Chateau has opened its doors for such an event (presumably INSEAD is becoming ze major patron of the Town). The only problem is price: 160 euros... It put off too many students to my liking.

On the IPEC event. Great job. The must-see of Europe's Private Equity and VC. Sitting closeby to me was one of the first investors of Skype. Every of his words were scrutinized. He was bullish in e-commerce in Europe (and France), and in Russia and Eastern Europe in general.
While I was noticing that he was selecting CVs from INSEAD's Private Equity Book, my neighbour asked me whether his was on the list... This is how respected the man is...

Ok, must go to tuxedo renting place.

The one I went to:
www.deux-oursons.com (106 Bd Grenelle, Métro Motte-Picquet Grennelle)
It's cheap (70 euros for 4 days) and good quality...

Lessons of Power and Politics 3: the right Networking is the one that Hurts

2007-05-24T12:38:00.000+02:00

I'm starting to feel unfocused and overstretched. Too many parties, big ones coming are Summer Ball and Montmelian Summer Party (anyone has a military uniform to lend? Alternatively I may go in evening dress for fun...), Tavers Bunny party tonight, house dinners etc.

There's also the time pressure of the end. I think the right approach, at this point of the programme, is focus: some people you care about, some people you're indifferent about.

I'm also realising the opportunities opening up after INSEAD. To explore them takes lots of time and energy, and again, maybe I should focus more. It's just thrilling to enjoy that feeling of choosing. These opportunities have come to me at total random through personal network and INSEAD event. All of them have been made possible, or enabled, by the INSEAD brand, or clout. I think I've changed too. The MBA has been an extremely fast self-maturing process.

There was a great PP session yesterday. It was about Networking. The English word encapsulates very well the meaning: to create a spider web, a net, that will catch opportunities...

The most interesting part of the lecture was the pain idea. If, when you network, it's not painful, then you're not doing the right network. The point was, if the person you're connecting with is lots of fun, you're likely to expand your network in depth, adding a same-value same network to yours, whilst you should go for the breadth, because it's the most difficult one to get. Breadth is painful (networking with people you don't like a priori, or with different sets of values), in that regards when it's painful, it's good...

Prof. Alvarez also had an interesting theory about our tribal heritage in being cliquish.

Now a word about Kevin Kaiser. We're still enjoying tremendously his classes. The last one I attended was about Vivendi JM Messier's shot at Universal. Kevin's main point was that any managerial decision based on share price or attempting to influence share prices are bad, because, after a long explanation which lost me "you don't know what you know, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know what they know, you don't know what they don't know" (they being Capital Markets), therefore you'd be making decisions on shaky grounds...

I think this class, like Karen Cool's in P4, should be mandatory to MBAs...

Among his quotes -there are so many...

"If you get 1 out of 10 in Case Analysis, just relax, it just means that you've missed all the issues of the Case. Don't worry, you'll get a good elective grade, an MBA from a decent School. It just means that you've missed all the points..." commenting on his tough grading.

"That's a very good question. It's just not relevant..." replying to a Student's question which apparently was off subject.

"14 euros for a coke? In canadian dollars that's 500 something" on teasing one student's willigness to pay for a Coke, on defining Value ("Value is Happiness").

There were plenty of other funnier comments, but it's so many by the minute with Kevin that I can't read my crappy "fast-mode" writing anymore. And as said, too many things going on here, and that was 1 week ago. Sorry readers!

Lessons of Power and Politics 2: Killing Sharks

2007-05-22T02:05:00.000+02:00

Today I went to PP (Power and Politics) with Prof. Alvarez. I'm enjoying it much more than classes for which I'm registered. In fact, I've missed 2 courses of Corporate Financial Report and Analysis (interesting for those really into it), but wouldn't miss PP and CRFD...
As was the case with Fernando, people either love it or hate it. I love both of them.

Today's class particularly was insightful. It was on killing sharks in Corporate world. Prof. Alvarez is making it very practical, and as close as MBAs reality of post-INSEAD.

Not to steal the course's thunder, I'll be brief. There are 3 broad tactics post-INSEAD in the Corporate world: Survive and Adapt at first, then Create your Platform to build Power and Influence, and Be Competitive and Create strategic Partnerships (for the sake of learning and protection).
That latter point was studied in depth. The case was about a likeable manager not able to manage up, but quite at ease managing down. Comes the shark, brown-nosing the Boss during a crucial Seminar, and finally getting the promotion promised to the manager.

Funnily, lots of people in class were biased towards the manager, because we're nice, but the bottom line was: she was incompetent in politics, whether nice or not, skilled or not, and what matters is the Boss. At one point, the shark showed vulnerability by putting forward fluffy numbers. Though the manager could have crucified him, she chose not to, because it was not her style.
There was the critical mistake. "When you're dealing with a shark, don't postpone the fighting" claimed the Prof. He added that naive people invite aggression, and that was deserved. Using the analogy of a National Geographic documentary, he claimed that naive or weak people should be used as targets, or simply as exercise, to assure your own authority.

That was a bit chilling, I must say. But the truth is, he is 100% correct. Because we are judged by 2 elements: Task, and Fit/Style. Task is a given, Fit is more difficult to get. Hence people with attitude often win.
I first was relieved that, not going back to the Corporate world, I may be spared of this tedious game, but on second thoughts, Politics is everywhere...

A little bit of Spirituality

2007-05-21T01:18:00.000+02:00

I'm getting lazy. Just found out that my final report for BBI was late by 2 days. Was supposed to do it on Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday morning, then night. It's Monday 1.45AM I'm halfway through.
The reason is, I needed to rest. Thursday was bank holiday in France, and most people did the "bridge" on Friday (to get 4 days off). My fellow INSEADs are shocked by the number of bank holidays in France. I think it's not that bad.
I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed my Ascension week-end.
I went to visit friends in rural France. After months at INSEAD, knowing how much I'm in tune with the people there, and how we all share very deep values, to come back to a French France was somehow odd. I mean, you can hardly get more French than that family, which I love very much by the way. It was just funny to have this ethnologist attitude: what typical French people do, think... For me, so far from my family, to spend some days in one was really cool.

It made me wondered how this INSEAD world, which is about to end, is so different from the reality. How perfect it is, how much I will miss it: being at the leading edge of business, meeting razor sharp people (profs and students alike), having this feeling that anything is either possible or "easy" (no arrogance here). How much I will miss them all too, these funny people with whom you could relate/connect so easily.

Anyway, for your record, typical French bourgeoisie, on an Ascension week-end: go to the countryside in their second home, go to mass, go to visit parents, stay in the garden, eat well, visit local interesting places (where I was: monasteries, Merlin forest, local museums), watch Pop Idol, watch French news, and play with children... No wine drinking, that was I, as a typical INSEAD ;-)

What was much harder was to get back to Fonty for Saturday 8.30 simulation in B2B marketing...

... Revealing my non-PC side

2007-05-19T18:16:00.000+02:00

I've just received this message from the last post of India that I had written.

"Domo,
Stop being a white supremacist making comments about a society much richer, business-wise and culture-wise, than any place you have lived in based on 5 days of "enlightenment". You guys (the whites) have screwed this country over for 150 years and expect the difficulties that you indebted us with to disappear in 5 years of IT revolution?"

Hum. That's an interesting comment, thanks for reacting to the post.
I'm sorry to have come across as a white supremacist, because I'm actually not white, and coming from a colonized country as well.

There are things though that I must defend myself against.
First, I'm not sure the whites have screwed India. They have done many bad things, but also many good things. There's a big chance that India also works out well thanks to the British legal and educational system. Now I don't get the value of whining about what the whites have done badly. It was 60 years ago, the new generation has to move on and concentrate on the amazing opportunities. It's very convenient -also in business- to emphasise past errors for current performance.

Second, I don't think I've claimed that India is so much cooler than any places I've been to. On the contrary, for how much I loved India, I could not live there, because it is physically demanding. There are lots of business opportunities, that's for sure -I fully recognise that. So?
Also, one point where I could defend myself is about the perception of Indian businessmen. I have just claimed that Asians at large have different values. They don't like to show off, and assertiveness is sometimes regarded as arrogance. And sadly, MBAs like assertiveness. That was just my argument for explaining why some fellows were not impressed by some people I had found awesome...

And finally, my point of view is personal, I have never claimed any particular legitimacy in what I'm writing, except for the fact that it is genuinely/candidly what I think. Now it's great that some people would just not agree, but I'm taking particular care to warn that this blog is about perceptions, and that the reality is up to all of you to figure out. And while 5 days are sure light, we have met a good representation of Indian business today, with top people and top organisations. It's also MBA skills to get a quick and as reliable opinion of a market, maybe through its strengths and weaknesses, and decide what you could/would do in the face of these... Nothing's perfect, but your stance must be coherent with your system...

But thanks again for raising the debate. Cheers.

Of expected unexpected opportunities

2007-05-16T22:21:00.000+02:00

Today I had an interesting experience.
A think-tank on French Enterprise and Entrepreneurship came to School, to collect perceptions of INSEAD students who have lived abroad and worked in French companies on some key questions:
- How do we see French Companies?
- How do we define our Dream Companies?
- What would make us work or start a company in France?

Of course, answers will be compiled in the think-tank, and of course that will be used to give orientations for the French Government. Indeed, this has been a recurring message: France is losing its entrepreneurial spirit, young Frenchmen are leaving the country to grab opportunities elsewhere.

I think the interviewer found it funny it when I suggested that I would not mind launching businesses in France because of the differentiation INSEAD has brought in terms of entrepreneurial skills, that entrepreneurship was some sort of niche (a niche?! wow great French oddity)... We then discussed about the Dream company, that whilst I was speaking about High growth, audacious, entrepreneurial, people-minded, most of ESSEC B-School students he had met spoke about Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship... Generational gap or the Talk of Experience?

To finish, and that sums up a lot of INSEAD MBA opportunities, we exchanged on our similar experiences, and found out we could do business together... We agreed to meet in Paris and discuss further on the opportunity.

Lessons learnt: you never know what opportunity will show up. So meet as many people as you can, and go to as many events...

Cheers

The painful lesson of Empathy

2007-05-16T18:08:00.000+02:00

Ouch! I received a knock-out punch by Fernando in PIM. But that will be a good lesson...

Remember my Rogerian interview? How I wanted to shake the interviewee into getting a job and forgetting about the ideal world of MBA (his was LBS's)?
Well, I guess Fernando Batholomei concurred with that conclusions.

On his sore comments from the interview, taken from my Final Report:

"How French!"
"My God!"
"What a language!"
"Such a complex and pretentious way of expressing oneself"
"Such Bullshit"
"I wonder how you were feeling when listening to all of this!"
"Does he believe in his own BS?"
"He loves to hear himself speak so brilliantly"
"What?"
"I am curious to read how you analysed this crap"

Now that is so typical of Fernando...
I guess on the analysis we sort of agreed, though he said it was "so-so", but the conclusion was "It was very difficult to be Rogerian in handling the stuff he threw at you!" which reassured me -at least- on my abilities to listen to even the darkest, obscurest, sophisticated speeches.

The big lesson was: Don't empathize too much. You can listen, but still keep your critical reasoning.
Now I'm starting to believe that Fernando, for his personal reasons, does not like to be liked. He shot the widest array of grades 1 in INSEAD memory. I guess it's also a message that we should not feel like we're some sort of psychiatrists...
Still it's a very tough way to handle the message.

It's still a tremendous class...

Grades going loco for Semana Latina

2007-05-14T23:18:00.000+02:00

I'm not someone who cares about grades. I've said that all year long and it still holds true. I do care about the principle though, ie. some sort of feedback of your own involvement. Thus I have expectations on some grades. Today we got P4 grades out. I was a bit dumbfounded. On the one hand, I got 3 out of 4 in Real Estate, which stressed participation and a final report. I attended 1 session and a half out of 8, and worked very lightly on the final report (sorry team). On the other hand I spent nights and nights on PIM, for which I sat in all classes, and got 2/4. Since the grade was on attendance and quality of report, my reports must have been terrible crap. Now that pains me, because I'm usually quite ok in OB...

No complaints in Negotiations, I knew I was good at it ;-)

Now the good stuff: Semana Latina has just started. We're having a very intensive National Week Festival these days, British Irish just finished, Semana Latina on, and Dragon Week next week.

Tonight was the traditional quiz. Did you know that Chile ranked 20th in the World as the least corrupt countries? Better than the US or France...

Now my quiz question: What is the name of the Olympic Gold medallist who was anchoring the Semana Latina Quiz (on the picture in white blazer)? Discipline and Year will give bonus points...

Is INSEAD an Intellectual Capital factory for the UK?

2007-05-12T11:33:00.000+02:00

Well, someone even said a "Slave Factory" to London... Facts are, 40% of the intake will go to London, or so. Lured by big money, INSEAD network, and a cool city, in a way a smooth de-INSEAD transition.

Many friends are getting their offers now. It's cool. The big disappointment was Google London, which dinged all 25 INSEADs, apparently pretty unceremoniously.

As British Week is coming to an end, I can't help to emphasize the quality of the British intake at INSEAD. I might have said that already, but they, on average start with a 0.5 point advantage on the Z-Curve. You can explain it whichever way you want, the bottom line is, they are damn good. My explanation (on top of Oxbridge contentration, language ease, tradition of finance etc.) is simple: their delightful accent. They can say the stupidest BS, I will find it cool. They are just charming. Take girls. People would be barbarians to even want to harm in the slightest manner these cute little things with such exquisite manners... I'm under a spell...

Every thing has a dark side. That was unleashed in the Naughty Schoolgirls and Schoolboys party, closing the amazing British Week. Dean Fatas might not like the pictures...

Of interest too, behind the big London double-decker is the tent where our Graduation will take place. Have a look at Hallonman's logoff to have a rough idea of our thoughts on it.

http://hallonman.blogspot.com/2007/05/yalo-fonty-style.html

When Restructuring and Distress can be fun

2007-05-10T17:58:00.000+02:00

Maybe it's the British Week that unfolds superbly, maybe it's meeting up Fonty people again that stayed here in P3 then went to Wharton in P4, but I'm in a much better mood.

Part of this feelgood factor comes from Jake Cohen's class. As you know by now, I like Jake a lot. He reconciled me with Accounting and Financial analysis. He's so insightful and clear. Like today, the class was about the new role of CFO post Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the Enron Worldcom act putting personal liability on CFOs). With anybody else I would have died of boredom. With Jake it becomes interesting. That must be his American confidence, and a certain humility to go down to the level of participants.

Lots of this feelgood factor comes from Kevin Kaiser's class on Creating Value in Corporate Restructuring. As you can imagine, Corporate Restructuring and Financial Distress CRFD has one big enemy: Management. Kevin spent the first 2 sessions defining the economic ecosystem in big countries: Entrepreneurs (have ideas no money), Investors (have money no ideas), Banks (don't lend money anymore but retail packages), Capital Markets (inhuman bunch), and Managers (lack cash lack ideas, aka the Scumbags). Of course it's provocative, but very different. Kevin stressed his point by giving the example of RJR Nabisco, for which Management was ready to buyout double the share value, acknowledging outrageous agency costs.

Among the funny quotes:

"I have a friend, he's Romanian. But he's really cool. He's doing a PhD in biochemistry. I think he's done by now...", Kevin telling us stories...

"Ok, that's quite an IF, to say Banks are smart", Kevin, replying to a Student saying "If Banks are smart blabla"

"It's only stupid when you do it when you get paid", Kevin, on us using WACC not really understanding its intuition. He simplified it as OCC (opportunity cost of capital), for which even a simple less than 5 words definition was difficult to us.

On Sarbanes Oxley Act (Sox, or sucks...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act

Lessons of Power and Politics 1: Knowing where you're coming from

2007-05-09T23:52:00.000+02:00

I was not in the mood to attending classes. After skipping a couple -under the lamest excuses to myself (it's cold, need to do the laundry, need to clean up P4 stuff on my desk)- I found the extra motivation to reach School.

Four classes today (including 2 audits). God that was great. I'll write tomorrow about the BIG Star of P5 Kevin Kaiser, because his class was just, hum, just... I just cannot find the right word. A mix of fantastic, amazing, funny, fun, insightful. I know some will think my ability to discriminate is low (totally untrue), but this must be one of INSEAD gems. But, for tomorrow, because there's just too much to write about and it's midnight.

First, I started the day with Power and Politics. There must be something in Spain about OB, because Prof. Alvarez comes from Spain, and the class is something like OB4. It was a bit of a slow start. Like PIM, but Fernando had the advantage of being really funny.
Basically, using a Michael Lewis case about elbowing your way up in the corporate world, the Prof. separated people in two categories: the High Self-Monitored and the Low Self-Monitored. The Highs value prestige and mobility, and adapt very quickly. They are good at learning, imitating, and on the dark side, lying, cheating. The Lows value work autonomy and own job definition. They do not like to micro-manage, look for Fit. They are true to themselves and the others, but on the dark side, they are not charmers or entertainers.
There are two ways to interpret: 1/people have a natural tendency for either category, and 2/people may evolve towards Low with time.

To validate his point, Prof. Alvarez made a test. I got 6. The cut-off for High was 11. Ok, I'm a Low, then... Surprisingly, I found the fit pretty good. I mean, presumably Highs are very good in Corporate world, and Lows in entrepreneurship. Prof. Alvarez suggested one other option, that Lows be kicked out the class and take a crash course with you-know-who on "Customer Service, My best practice", which had everyone laughing out loud.

To know more about Michael Lewis's "Liar's Poker"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Lewis_(author)

Misconceptions about India

2007-05-08T14:16:00.000+02:00

This is going to be the last post on BBI.
I had a chat with friends yesterday about the whole Indian experience, and how I was so excited about it, and that some years younger I would have gone there and take big chances. They were skeptical, and one sent me that video today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwyvPs25TTk

In a nutshell it's about the low-cost business model of pizza delivery...
This is such a misconception about today's India. Offshore, while still very strong and potent, is not the future. The future of Indian business is local demand.

Maybe that point was not salient enough.

I'm still a bit high. Going back to classes in P5 is really tough...

Last lane

2007-05-07T10:16:00.000+02:00

P5 starts today. It's the shortest term. It's the last moment to bond, the last moment to connect, the last moment to enjoy the INSEAD experience. It should be better than P4, because there are few classes, the weather should be awesome, and people should be in the mood to socialise. Some students still have to find a job, but I hope they'll realise it's ok to find a job after INSEAD. It'll probably come across as selfish or insensitive, but priorities should be to nurture the network.

Courses I'll be attending/auditing: Power and Politics, Financial Distress, Financial Analysis, B2B Marketing, Business Plan Workshop. That should be fun.
I'll try to push for Your First Hundred Days. It's a course specific to INSEAD, designed by Entrepreneurship specialist Patrick Turner, about the first crucial moments in your company. It's so specific (with lots of legends around it), that I may not get in. I guess YFHD concept is derived from Milton Friedman's theory for Statesmen that the momentum, the flavour, the success of a leadership term is created within the first hundred days. It is within that moment that tough reforms must be held.

The good news is, for those who cannot get into the course, Sarkozy has just been elected President, and he promised he'll push for his reforms within his first 100 days. Thus, we all could witness live what a First 100 Days looks like. That's what I like about Sarkozy, and a good lesson of leadership for all; I suspect his team is very professional, very managerial in synthesizing Lessons Learnt from other countries, and leading theories in Strategy and Management.
- Strategy: to choke the extreme right, then expand to the centre. Tactics: leadership in ideas, in pace, in communication. Tough right policies and surprisingly cutting-edge social policies for France (like positive discrimination).
- Management: although he probably was not 100% sure of winning, he had a true faith, and the interesting fact is, this is the first time that a post-election is so clear. Why? He was crystal clear in his positions before (at the risk of shocking some) and prepared his first 100 days long ago! Sure, it does help that he got a clear mandate (both in 53-47 and huge turnout) ie. people either cannot say "I didn't know" or must abide by the majority.

My point of course, is not about the contents of Sarkozy's policies, it's about the whole vision and dynamics of his ambition. It is very relevant, say in a case where you would takeover a distressed company (a France in crisis): employees, suppliers, clients would be willing to make some efforts to change, so implement that in your first 100 days, in the momentum period.

Ok enough of politics. To answer an email about India, yes it requires more than 5 days to know India, although I believe 5 days are enough to get a very strong intuition of business there (Can I go there? Where are the opportunities? Where are the barriers?), especially since now is a time when business is getting its structure, mostly shaped by the guest speakers we have met.

Cheers.

PS: If it's not Milton, then it must be Thomas Friedman. Anyway you got the point, one of the big chaps of American theorists.

Indian Trip Day 5: Hope and courage

2007-05-04T23:30:00.000+02:00

Last day of BBI. Time for conclusions.

1. It takes a lot of courage to come to India, for non-Indians: despite all the real economic opportunities, life is not that easy. Even super cool Bombay is not for the faint-hearted (front-page of recent news: local government is offering 5 Rupees per rat killed -you need to show evidence with the body, but if too smashed, just the rat tail will do...)

2. Opportunities are enormous though, in all sectors, and in unimaginable scales. At 1% billionaires and 25% middle-class, you get in raw numbers 12 million super rich and 300 million bourgeois... The entrepreneurs met, all spoke about expansion plans of "11 cinema multiplexes from 4 next year", "50 Schools built next year"...

3. The space is there, for MBAs with adequate skills. It's less competitive in terms of "brightness" compared to the West, but just as much in terms of "go-getterness".

4. The hit-and-run strategy sort of recalls the 90s bubble, but Indian economics is pretty sound.

5. The Indian businessmen are very diverse, but 2 categories emerge: the ones educated abroad, who typically are MBA types (so similar to us), and the ones educated in India, who are very different and need to be understood deeper than from their face-value.

BBI was absolute fun. It's just incredible how powerful it is in getting a very clear sneak preview of the opportunities and challenges, in introducing us to super top people -as a networking base in India, in giving us new ideas and insight in entrepreneurship, and finally in helping us to know better some INSEAD students.

Michael Lawless and Aparna Dogra just made a fantastic job. As Michael concluded, BBI exists thanks to the Singapore campus, and INSEAD's commitment in Asia (as the only World's top 10 permanent campus B-School).

Today, in brief, we met 3 internet entrepreneurs (with the usual mix of Indian from US and Indian Indian), and the Indian Indian came across very well. We also visited the Number One Call Center in India, with the CEO and the CIO...
I can still perceive some biases for the Communicators in the BBI group. It's fine to me. My bias is too long-term maybe, in the legacy of a business, as opposed to a quick hit-and-run strategy.

Tonight to celebrate we went to Privé, which is supposed to be the top club in Bombay. It gives me the occasion to finish on what was not so cool over here. Customer service is very limited -and too often the number of people is taken as a proxy of quality of service. It's just so wrong, but since the trend is leaning to fast improvement, there's hope. Misery is still very visible, but apparently the Indian Nation is improving as a whole. Finally, though food is excellent, I've had my quota of Indian cuisine for the next couple of years. Your own physical abilities to bear the Indian regime could be a non negligible barrier.

BBI: an unforgettable trip, with India's premier business people, and some of INSEAD's top students...

Indian Trip Day 4: making a Ton out of it

2007-05-03T23:24:00.000+02:00

BBI is coming to an end. It's a difficult thing to organise; people are all getting a bit tired. It's nice that speakers are varied.

Today we had a panel of 3 famous entrepreneurs: one young female heir, one Bollywood films distributor, and one bookshop entrepreneur. Again, what speaks to me was the variety of profiles. Some participants found the Indian Indian a bit unassuming, most loved the Bollywood distributor. I think the comparison is a bit unfair. First, it is subjective: funnily, none of the speakers introduce themselves with numbers (revenues for instance), which leaves appreciation to what is visible. In that case, of course girls were melting for the schmaltzy savvy assertive producer. Second, and foremost, obviously we could relate more easily to the MBA-educated film producer (as someone commented, we speak the same language...)

The Indian heiress presented several interesting aspects: women in Indian business, Family issues and succession in Indian firms. It may be a cultural misunderstanding again (although she was fairly of the American Indian type), but I'm always hum-hum about dramatization, although I understand women in Business always have to prove more...

The afternoon session was amazing: we visited the Indian Adwords, courtesy of Mahesh (the big Guru of Advertising over here), and he showed us a demo of his business model. Very insightful. Product was cool, speakers were great, but more importantly, we got a feel of a real start-up: visiting the office, sensing the culture (Silicon Valley type)... The window is open for 5 years or so, according to the speaker, and he sure is making the most of it.

To finish with, we met some alumns in an INSEAD Bar. Was great, but turnout was lower than expected. Good news is, it seems post-INSEAD trauma is very well handled by most.

India Trip Day 3: Meeting the Indian Entrepreneur(s)

2007-05-03T03:28:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we were introduced to the 2 Business Indians (to oversimplify): the one educated and trained inside the country, who launched a business primarily focused on local demand, and the ones educated and trained abroad, coming back to seize opportunities -in our panel they were investors, but lots of them are entrepreneurs too.

The Indian Indian one, on the surface, could appear unassuming. Very modest, yet very accomplished, Satya did not fit our MBA-moulded impressions of the A-class player. That's one major takeaway of BBI: change your mindset when judging people who never had gone out of India. As Satya is a super A+ player, I'm not sure about how he would have fared in front of Western VCs when he was trying to launch his education business.

The investors on the other hand had plenty of savviness. Outgoing, sharp, they definitely were as successful as Satya, and more in line with our internal models.

It's nice to see both worlds. And be aware that Asian conceptions/representations of drive, potential, success, can be totally different. In a way, we learnt more in Satya about Indian style and more with the others about substance.

Tonight, we're meeting 60+ alumni in Bombay. I love this city...

India Trip Day 2

2007-05-02T05:26:00.000+02:00

Stomach problems, albeit on a lightish level, are spreading. That's the only thing up to our expectations so far. Cities have been worse for some, better for others, than expected. Bottom line is: never thought it'd be like that.

Yesterday in Bangalore we had guest speakers in Private Equity, Entrepreneurship (IT and Retail).
The big debate is clearly becoming one of whether India's miracle is based on labour arbitrage -ie. temporary- or not. What is clear is that lots of business models in the IT related sectors use both labour arbitrage AND India's vast source of top notch techies. Funny enough, although vast, the labour market still does match demand; it seems start-ups' most immediate, day-to-day, challenge is to retain people. (True, big companies like Infosys suck up lots of people too.)

Today, we are in Bombay. The city looks awesome.
More to come...

The India trip Day 1

2007-05-01T04:54:00.000+02:00

Day One has ended.
BBI has 2 clear advantages for me at this stage: 1/ for the serious about doing business over here (like starting one) the course is an immense network opportunity; 2/ for the rest (all but 4 or 5) it's a nice INSEAD trip to have a taste of India and feel that, after all India is not for them.

So far, the taste is a bit sweet'n'sour indeed. The country is crazy: amazing for the sheer scale of people, and knowledge, and energy; tiring by the heat, dust, and also (let's be open) by the physical demands deriving from the mix of spicy food, lack of hydration... Although it's not as bad as expected, our stomachs are a bit stretched...

We had 3 speakers yesterday: an INSEAD alumn praising the power of INSEAD network even in India, a German bloke ex-radio star, who showed all his oratory skills, and an Indian IT entrepreneur who made it form zero to $40M sales in 5 years.

Lessons of the day: Everything that you think of India, the reverse holds true. And India is changing at an incredible pace, creating opportunities not only in IT, not only driven by foreigners, but also in simple "Mom and Dad's shops to Modern Retail/Business" transformation driven by local demand.

Street Lessons of Management

2007-04-30T04:21:00.000+02:00

Even before BBI starts, Indian streets are full of life lessons.

Actually, 2 courses seems to be in favour over here: the street version of Negotiations, and the street version of SCB (Shaping Consumer Behaviour).

Meet the Yogi. Just out of Imperial Hotel in Delhi, he selects his potential targets. Me for instance.

He wanted to have a fortune telling session, to which I replied I was not interested at all. To build trust, he proposed a short game. I agreed, on condition that I could take pictures.

On a sheet of paper he asked me to choose from one number and one colour. I chose 7 and Blue. Now guess what: 7 and Blue were written on the back. Now that should have most of us believe in his mystic abilities I suppose. To continue the game he suggests to reveal to me the name of my loved one, my year of birth and when I will make money. On condition that I tick among 100 200 or 300 (Euros) if he suceeds in that. Of course, payable in advance.

I guess I would, if I had those galore. But even then, the whole manipulation (framing, limiting options etc.) just bothered me. That's paying not for revelations (presumably, since you would know if Yogi is right or wrong, you would know the answers by yourself), just for the game play.
And I must add that I wore a great Blue t-shirt that day, and that 7 obviously is the middle option...

In Nego, I was trying to buy some local handicrafts. And all the basic tactics were just thrown out to me. How much would you pay for it (Dilemma between Revealing own valuation and Anchoring low)? Let's divide the difference. Etc. I ended up taking nothing. Am I overanalysing things?
Today the real stuff begins. In Bangalore, meeting serious IT entrepreneurs.

The land of snake charmers and IT professionals

2007-04-28T21:00:00.000+02:00

At last in India... Building Business in India BBI is one of three field trips organised at INSEAD: China, Silicon Valley, and India.

Plenty of pics to come, but first impressions:

- taxi drivers don't care about traffic lights, but are the king of horns

- it's scorchingly hot

- Indian food is much better in India (I guess it's because spices are freshly ground...)

Nothing very deep yet, I admit. Oh yes, I've already lost my credit card and had to spend hours over the phone to cancel it... It's going to be a tiring trip. Hope loads of fun to come though!

Will keep you posted. Cheers from Incredible !ndia

The MBA Hidden Agenda

2007-04-26T12:04:00.000+02:00

Last day of P4.

Spring being in the air, hormones awakening from a long winter, stress vanishing after job offers pouring, it is a right time to tell about the MBA hidden agenda: Meeting Mrs/Mr Right.

I know many people would not admit that, but MBAs also are important for that kind of network. We're getting fast past our studly/sexy primes, we'll be needing strong support in our careers, so BSchools are natural places to find the love candidate. Now is that a realistic assumption at INSEAD?

Let's explore numbers.
Key assumption: we're exploring the long-term commitment market...
900 participants, of which 225 girls. Males are older, marriage rate or very, very, vey serious commitment (à la louche, roughly) 30%, meaning 470 of them are available. Girls are younger, of which 10% are married or totally out of the equation, meaning 200 are available.

Conclusions:
- Yes, the ratio is still bad, but from 1 in 4, you end up with 1 in 3, which is not that disastrous.
- Yes it is possible to find your life partner, and INSEAD couples abound. I know of at least 4 (AP, MA, MA, NA), and I'm not in the Gods' secret circle...
- Yes everything is negotiable in life...

In the short-term market, let's say that we're all human beings, and Fonty is lost in the forest, its largest population groups being retirees and game animals. So many things are possible. I understand though that Singapore is a different story...

Hereunder a pic from the Slxts and SxperHeroes party. That should reassure Dean Fatas on the wilderness of INSEAD parties... (although the front group is from Singapore, and most of them thought the idea of a costume party was an April's Fool joke).

Risqué Business

2007-04-25T22:04:00.000+02:00

Today there's one of the last P4 parties. The theme is "Sxxxs and Superheroes". I know I should censor a little bit, otherwise Dean Fatas (whom I like very much) will jump on my back...

I must share a funny episode though. Hell censorship and PC.

As one girl went into the only Costume shop in Fonty (or it could have been another shop), she asked for several things to wear. Upon seeing what the saleslady suggested her, still not convinced it would match the party's theme, she engaged into the following conversation (faithfully reported to me):
Student: "Hum, not really. Do you have something more risqué..."
Saleslady: "Risqué? What do you mean by risqué?"
Student: "Well, hum, you know, something more Pxte..."
Saleslady: "Oops. Are you at INSEAD. This must be an INSEAD party..."

Obviously, if you don't have the slightest fluency in French, you will never get it.

Anyway, the party's theme is, in this record 24th day of sunshine in a row (they said it in the news), showing off boys and girls' visible assets.

D-2 before India.

Getting ready for India

2007-04-24T18:28:00.000+02:00

I must say the myth about high-tech, super efficient India is each day becoming more and more of a mirage. First, the Indian Embassy in Paris was one of the worst in terms of queing. Then hotel bookings were all done via fax or email (even for credit card details, which I find more than questionable policy).

If everything is according to plan, I will be in Bangalore and Mumbai next week. If there's only one thing I would love to see, it's the dabbawallahs in action. We had them in POM, I really was impressed...

Today, we're also voting for July 07 Graduation trip. I have reservations about Antalya (Turkey), for having been there already. I'd be more inclined to go to Croatia (Hvar island). We'll see results tomorrow.

On the Dabbawallahs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

A quick review of P4

2007-04-23T20:46:00.001+02:00

As P4 is about to end, and the week is going to be quite frantic (term project deadlines), it must be the good moment to reflect on this period. In a nutshell: I liked the fact that courses were practical, real-life oriented; I disliked the fact that people were too stressed or busy with job search to take it seriously.

In the Entrepreneurship Path, REP was excellent, NBV was disappointing but not hopeless.
The good thing about REP is, it's rather unusual. When we think about entrepreneurship, we jump to "new ideas" and "start-ups". There are a lot of established firms, medium-sized, that are just waiting for MBAs to turn them around. And they are worth millions. Now if you don't have ideas, but are stronger in execution, this is a serious option. Of course, as there's no free lunch, there must be something tough. To succeed, you need to survive the search process, and to get down to management tasks. Tim Bovard used his great real-life experience, and several guest speakers to make this class lively and useful. On top of that, teams have to look for real companies to take-over, but I'll tell the story once my team gets the deal...

NBV is the classic "New Idea" start-up entrepreneurship class. It is very disappointing IF 1/ you have taken VOBM in Singapore and 2/ if your project is not mature enough. Presumably NBV is a transitory phase to carry a project from VOBM to Business Plan Workshop in P5 (which I will also take). Now Steve is a nice guy, but at times too urbane and too mild. Some dose of Fernando Bartholomé would really help, in his case (like, your project is crap, your business model is a sophisticated piece of BS...) Still, 2 ventures from the class are seriously getting funded so it's not all bad.

I also had Negotiations 2 with Ayse Onculer (she is Turkish, not French ;-) so beware of pronunciation). I was very enthused about Horacio, he is such a great communicator. However, I felt that his takeaways tended to evaporate quite quickly, and that it's fine to concentrate on value-creation, but if you don't claim it at some point, you're doing this for the Glory. Ayse's approach is the opposite: it's all about getting results. I liked it very much. The only problem is, by claiming value, you sometimes have to fight very hard, and it's not always easy to do so with INSEAD people. I mean, some reputations were seriously damaged, as were some relationships.

Real Estate, well I will pass on this one. It's just terrible.

Strategic Cost Management with Deigan Morris was very interesting at least for his brilliant and goldsmith's precision-like analyses. The counterpart of course is, at times it was not really fun... God I missed Igor -who, rumour has it more and more strongly, is leaving INSEAD. Great shame...

Brand Management, by Pierre Chandon, is alright. Easily one of the best Marketing classes at INSEAD. Not super insightful but still quite relevant. I mean, after all, it's Marketing...

Now the big star of P4, without a shadow of doubt, is Karen Cool. The guy created, polished ICA. He exudes ICA. He emits ICA radiations. It's just awesome to me. It's all about mixing economics, game theory, strategy, and some marketing. As someone said, this should be a core course. Karen is the type of Prof. I like: humble, bright, intuitive, challenging (his cold calls...), passionate. He did nearly kick out someone today, which is a bit tough, because that person was auditing, but it was more for the politeness of being asked for auditing rather than for the fact of auditing per se. That tells you about the man, all about manners and respect. A great, great INSEAD Professor.

My personal favourite though, in P4, was Fernando Bartholomé in PIM. In a rational way, I should prefer Karen's ICA, because of all the analytics, and strategic thinking etc. but I enjoyed so much PIM. It was so different from any other courses I've had, the guy was bloddy funny, and most of all, I think I'm bringing home a lot of takeaways...

Overall, a great period to enjoy your schoolmates (when they are not interviewing), Fontainebleau in spring, great different classes, and Paris... If like me you did not look for a job "seriously".

Being an outlaw

2007-04-22T19:48:00.000+02:00

I want to experience being an outlaw for 10 minutes. Today is French Presidential Election, first round. No polls are allowed before 8.00 pm. It's 7.50 and these are the polls estimates: Sarko 30%, Sego 26%, Bayrou 16%, and Le Pen 11%.

This week-end, I did nothing... Well, no INSEAD assignment, just INSEAD networking. Drunk on Friday night (so many people started to celebrate their job offers), hungover on Saturday, BBQ P2s/P4s Saturday evening, and catch-up with sleep on Sunday... And some sports... Housemates are either flying to London for interviews or studying really hard for exam retake.
Next week is the last week of P4. I just can't believe it. Time flies so fast. 2 months to go, and back to the real world. Actually, in theory I had one assigment in Real Estate. This is the worst so far, and by many, many miles, of INSEAD courses. I'll write a constructive feedback for the Prof., because on the one hand, I feel bad giving a 1 out of 5 to such a nice chap, but on the other hand, if people read the news, or even he does his text messages while guest speakers experiment hypnosis on us, there must be a serious problem...

The Token question - my last post on McKinsey

2007-04-21T12:58:00.000+02:00

I promised the answer to the Token question I had for the McK interview.
First you need to clarify the boundaries of the problem. You choose to either stock up tokens before the increase, or not. Stocking up depends on whether you're better of over 3 years, and if you want to maximise the payoff, you need to estimate the optimal duration.

Then, you need to assume lots of things in order to simplify the problem and "lock" some variables:
- no further increase of price over 3 years at least
- 2 tokens a day every day (constant demand is key)
- risk-free rate of 5% annually.

A simple comparison over 1 year tells you that if you invest in 1 token, your payoff will be 1.1 end of the year, to 1.05 for a placement. So it must be more than one year. Over 2 years, the payoff becomes 1.1 to 1.05^2 ie. 1.1025, so it must be less that 2 years. To estimate the "less", you compare .0025 or 0.25% to 5%, it gives 18 days or so... So the optimal duration is 2 years minus 18 days, and you should buy tokens now for your use over that period.

My theory about the Office recruitment strategy was fully validated. Roughly 25 INSEADs interviewed, only 1 accepted (from one of that country's top 3 schools). Now I know that 2 or 3 current MBAs max are sponsored, all from these schools. If you really want to go to McK with more probability of success, this year's success story is Dubai, which hired quite a few people.

Yesterday was Ibiza party, it was gigantic. I loved it. Although I'm a bit on a hangover now... Today is BBQ again.

On the Wharton Experience and INSEAD Weakness 4

2007-04-20T20:09:00.000+02:00

Classes stopped earlier this week in Wharton, and people are starting to come back. The Wharton exchange is a 2 month-period. Because it is half a term in Wharton, you can only take mini-electives.

When I ask the question of how nice it was, and the person starts by "It's ok", I expect the "but".

What is the "but" of Wharton exchange programme?

Apparently, the whole experience is very different from INSEAD and per se very interesting: huge campus with students from theology, economics, to nurses (it seems there nurses schools location are correlated to MBAs as well, we've got ours too over here... but there they've got interactions...), inpressive history etc.

Ok, now for the "but". There seem to be of three kinds.

First, the minis selection is limited. It's ok if you're looking for a job in parallel, otherwise it's a poor ROI for so much hassle.

Second, the clique is small because for some reason you're not wholly part of the big MBA... It's ok if you go with close friends or if there are lots of INSEADs, otherwise you just end up with the same small group of people.

Third, and foremost, the culture. If you fit with INSEAD multicultural spirit, you head for a shock. It's all American -even so-called other nationalities are Americanized. Cases are American companies, participants are Americans, Profs take for granted that you are American. In one of the courses, apparently when the Prof. asked about the Brits to come forward, there was not a single one. Unthinkable over here. It's ok because the US is at the forefront of lots of things, and if you want to experience the truly American way, otherwise it can be frustrating.

Having indulge in a top 3 MBA bashing, I can now expose INSEAD's major weakness, to me: the (in)consistency of Professoral Excellence at Core Courses level (Electives, because there have different dynamics, consistently provide the Star Professors to MBAs). Now, let's start with some caveats. To claim it is a weakness vis-a-vis the rest, would suggest other Top 10 MBAs are consistent. I had a housemate in Singapore from Wharton, he too admitted to some inconsistency in excellence levels over there.

INSEAD combines the following disadvantages: 2 campuses, 2 intakes per year, and 3 semi sections per intake. That means you basically need 6 professors in a calendar year. Now you can stretch some to Singapore on top of Fonty, but you can't stretch them on a full year. As a consequence, levels are bound to be unequal: there are only that many Star Professors on the world market, and INSEAD probably has that many Euros to spend on them.

Again, I'm convinced other top institutions have "Wow" faculty and "Arf" faculty, but because their throughput has not the same pace, it might not be as serious.

Now, maybe I'm lucky, but all my P1/P2/P3 Core Profs were at least good, and I had a good chunk of INSEAD Core Stars: Michael, Thomas, Enrico, Igor, Theo, Pascal, Ivan, Tim.

To finish on a positive note, despite the fact that all Core Profs are not stars, regardless of your intake, you'll get the chance of this unique, admirable Course Structure. I can't help but to stay amazed and speechless in front of such an intelligent, dynamic, interactive, integrated, cohesive Core Courses structure from P1 to P3. The concentration of the experience makes the learning process even more profound. I've written about it in P2 Courses, but it's even more acute with time.

Ok, enough rambling, need to get ready for Ibiza Spanish Week Party. I have to say, the Spanish Week is a bit hit. Today was San Jordi Day: guys had to offer a rose to girls, and they had to offer a book to them. Smart people, they've invented reciprocation for girls too...

My McKinsey interview

2007-04-18T13:39:00.000+02:00

I finally had my McKinsey interview. It was an interesting experience, although at times genuinely painful. I mean, as we were introduced to the waiting room, and were able to check bios of our interviewers, it already started hum-hum: my 2 guys were engineers at heart, from the country's best institutions. I knew they would be particularly keen on playing numbers...

First interview. The guy seemed interesting in my CV, trying to understand the logic to McK. I did hint to my strong preference for OB over numbers, and in a way he was kind enough to come up with a simple case of profitability analysis, and in particular fixed costs solutions. Everything was about fine until we went down to numbers... Arghh. Simple calculation, excruciatingly painful delivery. Gosh, in what pains I would go through to report an interesting story in this blog... Of course I knew the game was over even before the moment when guy was supposed to give me his business card.

Second interview. The guy found the holes in my story. Like, "I don't understand why you would come to McK instead of doing blablabla". But that was not too bad.

Then, THE question. Not a case, just the question: You're in New York for 3 years, Subway authorities have announced a token price increase of 10%. What do you do?

I'll let you think over it overnight...

Again I was pretty alright in assumptions, and intuitions. But then we had to do the numbers. And that was tough. I tried NPV, schoolchildren maths... To no avail. He helped me out a little bit, and walked me through the solution. Again, one outcome was rushing to my face: no business card moment...

But, we ended up talking about his views about McK in that country. Really interesting. Basically, if he had the power to do one thing it would be to have McK at the heart of higher spheres of power. Presumably, McK in US, or Germany, is very influential partly because they have ties with Power. He explained to me how they were trying to reach the same thing in that country. Then I had a flash. Power, long-term strategy, network... No wonder all McKinsey guys from that Office came from the top 1 or 2 institutions (more than any other offices): to increase network externalities...

In conclusion: a cool experience that puts me bluntly in front of my weaknesses, which I already knew, but sometimes reminders are not bad...

It's funny how life can present yourself with Butterfly effects moments. After my 2 interviews, I went to the waiting room, and chatted with some people. One interviewee asked me about my cases, which I explained. I hinted at what I did, he understood that this was the solution.

He came to me afterwards bummed. If he were a barbarian, I'm sure he would have pursued me all over campus with his machette... Think about this Butterfly moment: he picked up "NPV" (which in my case was what I did, and wrongly), got the same Question, started head down and mistakenly on an NPV calculation. If he is not in second round, it could have been due to that very tiny misunderstanding... Frightening.

Anyway, the McKinsey experience is ticked, time to move on.

PS: Pics were taken when I went running. This is what sort of things you can bump into in the forest. I learnt afterwards that Fonty was the French capital of Horse riding... Isn't life cool?

The Dog that doesn't bark

2007-04-16T23:09:00.000+02:00

I'm following lost of classes for fun this period. And also to report them to you...
Among the under-rated courses is Strategic Cost Management. This is a follow-up to Igor the Great in P2 Managerial Accounting. It is taught by Prof. Deigan Morris, and this guy is a little treasure. Granted, the first class was an absolute bore, worringly so. But now, all classes are incredibly good. There is one reason for that: Deigan is the best Case study solver at INSEAD. I've had tons of cases so far. None was as minutely solved as Deigan's. He admits being a follower of Sherlock Holmes, and tackles his cases accordingly. It's not just about exhibits, every single phrase, every single Executive's quote is analysed and dissected and interpreted. Frighteningly good... And it's not just the obvious, it's also the understated, the Dog that does not bark...

If you package that in some British humour, and delivery, you get the best mini-elective of this period...

Example of British understatement: "I understand you did not ask this question because you would not know what you are talking about..."

Also today, we had a panel of INSEAD alumns just fresh from their entrepreneurship experiences. They definitely were not as awe-inspiring as Andy, but it was ok. I liked the fact that they understood that chances were lower after INSEAD that anytime else to try entrepreneurship. I disliked the fact that one of them was a bit arrogant against Corporate world: I love entrepreneurship, because it matches my values, but the rest is not "BS" -far from it. I value my corporate experience a lot too.
It is still very refreshing to see grads making it to entrepreneurship. Some know they will fail (as one classmate confided "I love the idea, but there are holes in the business model"), but hey, better regrets that remorse...

Tomorrow is McKinsey interviews in a Chateau, for all offices but Paris... No wonder no INSEADs were present on campus for the Iberian Wine tasting event. Good luck everyone.

BBQ Season has officially started!

2007-04-15T23:38:00.000+02:00

We're having glorious sunny days right now. It's Summer 3 months ahead... As someone said, thank you global warming. On Sunday, I know of at least 3 BBQs scheduled at 1, 3 and 7PM. I was not invited at all of them :-( but on the other hand, I needed to work a little bit.

Typical conversations during BBQs: How was Singapore? (yeah, still some catching up to do with some people), or How do you find Fonty? (for Singapore people), How's the job search going on?, Who are you interviewing with next week?... Occasionally: Do you remember that we have this group work to do?

I like P4 with this sort of weather... To some extent, people are unconsiously realising that the year is ending, and that it's time to build ties for the future. P4 projects help that a lot in that regard. In NBV for instance, a lot of ideas are being exchanged, or experiences, or views on which business models worked in which countries. That's the beauty of INSEAD, when someone says: I like/dislike your model, I've seen something similar in Country X or Y, you should have a look at it...

INSEAD students vote Sarkozy

2007-04-14T11:01:00.000+02:00

In Imperial town of Fonty, it makes sense.

In this period of French Presidential elections, while the buzz has not quite permeated the campus, it is something many foreign students ask the French ones.
My poll is as reliable as any others, I took a sample of representative students:
- one Dutch was overwhelmingly in favour of Sarkozy (pronounce Sharkojy, a Hungarian girl told me), as were the East Europeans (the Hungarian girl and a Slovak guy)
- the Anglo-saxons were largely for him as well -albeit not so enthusiastically (the English because of his economic policies, the American because he seems open to alliances with the US)
- the others abstained (one Indian, one Chinese said to me: I would not like to be French and have to vote, it's too complicated)
- the French majoritarily leaned towards him. Although many reckoned it would be close.

There is something fascinating in this man though. Very Napoleonic, in its good and bad aspects. His drive is admirable, and just like in corporate world, this scares some. If elected, what side will he show: Bonaparte or Napoleon?

On a lighter side, in Brand Management, we had a good laugh about Karcher being mad at French politics for the use of its brand name as a substitute to cleasing... A word coined by the man himself during the 2005 "riots".

Wicked game

2007-04-13T19:25:00.000+02:00

Iberian Week 2007 must be either desperate for funds or very high on self deprecating humour. The concept of Tomatina is interesting: it's a Spanish festival in which people throw tomatoes to one another to recall some battle. Of course, it's all about release.
Now there are two assumptions: it's all against all OR it's you against someone you would want to release your energy on... Now, although I would like to participate in the game, I really can't picture myself throwing tomatoes on one of these guys. I have worked with some, lived with others, got drunk with most... This is a bunch of crazy funny cool people; it would be too tough to do it. Now, I understand there are some other Iberians fellows may want to throw tomatoes to, but there are not in the Student body ;-)

Anyway, some stress release will be more than welcome for most of us.

On the Tomatina tradition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina

Wild, weird P4

2007-04-12T21:37:00.000+02:00

P4 is strange. I'm not quite in the hectic job search, so have the luxury of observing my fellows. As said before, a lot of them are really stressed. It's getting slightly better, past the first dings, partly because a lot of INSEADs have never been accustomed to being rejected and are now accepting the fact that although competition is fierce, they are amongst the 1% top... It sort of soothes the pain of dings.

Also, some people are getting jobs. It's really cool to see them getting THE acceptance phone call. I like it. I must say though, that despite the importance of job search and professional calls, people should not lose the elementary etiquette in class. Today for instance, someone got phone calls presumably by a company offering her the job. Fine to me, she was radiating. Still, her taking calls in class 3 times bothers me. Just because class is class, and the Prof. and people like me care about a good learning experience.

Anyway... I can't wait for next week Iberian Week to get wild after a very serious week: interview with McKinsey (don't worry guys, I'm JUST experiencing it to report the experience, and because it will be useful to know how to interview candidates) -with little preparation, because I'm working hard on other projects. Notably a REP interview, and an NBV interview. The good old entrepreneurship shot...

A little log-off before leaving. It's not of the best of tastes, but people should be versatile...

"Tonio, my brother,

I have a special request for you.

Most of the P4 are quite excited these days, job search seems quite hot for these guys and I keep on hearing "ding", "dinged" from most of them while a few month ago, the only things that mattered to them were:
Booze, Champagne, Chateau, Hangover and for some guys the famous "OT" Vincent referred to in his previous email about body language requirements.

I've been told where the dings come from... What a shame the bell was removed from the garden. It was such a great way to celebrate INSEAD successes!!
On the other hand, the bell was so 90s.

Dude, I've got a proposal to bring INSEAD prestige back in the 21st century:
Let's have a cow in the garden, so that any eliminated candidate would pull the tail of the Cow so that we could a nice:

MMOOOOWWWWWW

Tony, Frank, all INSEAD camarades, Let me introduce you to the INSEAD MOOO:

Real (E)state of anaesthesia

2007-04-10T18:42:00.000+02:00

It takes some efforts to have us hibernate in such a glorious summer weather in Fonty. Well, Real Estate managed it. I don't remember seeing so many people dozing off during class. Or worse, reading the FT or Les Echos (the two free business papers on campus).
True, the class started at 8.30. Yet I think there were as many people having a kip in the first session as in the second.
I'm always suspicious when a session has 3 guest speakers, on top of the Prof. All three actually are very successful INSEAD alumni in Real Estate, but that is not enough... To be fair, one was alright, as he hinted some case studies from his past experience. But honestly what did we take away from class 1 (out of 4): zilch. Ok, maybe some valuable contacts. But is it the purpose of an elective? Contacts should be a plus from the course, not the core of it...

Meeting INSEAD's most successful start-up founder

2007-04-09T16:40:00.000+02:00

Andy Phillips founded Active Hotels, a UK start-up, in 2000. The initial business model was to get independent hotels online, and share revenues with them. He sold it 5 years later for $160M+ in cash...

This pic summarises well Andy Phillips. Very commonplace, very modest. This by no means should be taken as derogatory. It is what makes his story so amazing. (Andy is the youngest of the lot, back row.) Andy's story makes the whole entrepreneurship path worth it, because he seems so similar to other INSEAD grads. Not about a genius idea. Not about (so much) luck. It's about execution, and perseverance. He did point out his key moments: when he had to fire a member of the founding team, when he had to motivate everyone, when he changed his key partnerships and his business model. What I liked about the story: very reachable, very realistic (like, the original business plan was very academic to me, 5 Forces 3Ps type), very insightful about the Angels and VC world, and very inspiring.

This was just was I needed. The NBV course, so far, has disappointed me, because of its redundance with VOBM. Now I feel super hyped-up on entrepreneurship.

Contrast Andy, willing to admit his limits, hire a team accordingly, and get out when he thought he would damage the growth of the business, with another alumn who presented his venture on campus last week. This venture could have been a role model 2, 3, or 4 years ago. Now it would make sense to be critical of the founder's moves. He believed so much in his baby, he was such a control freak, that he did everything from day 1: coding, sales, etc... As a result, the venture never really took off, despite the founder's claim that he was prioritising his lifestyle by not wanting to grow, and worse, it lost its competitive niche position and will likely be driven out of business by a bigger player.

Consulting recruiting urban legends...

2007-04-09T01:54:00.000+02:00

... are starting to abound.

Many people here have ample experience in case cracking. Yet it still is daunting to most of us. As Hallonman writes (see link hereunder), it seems that the brain stops working just when you need it.
Supposedly, cases are meant to illustrate your quick mindedness, and your analytical skills. Supposedly, these are strategy consulting's most required skills.
Well, these are not my forte. So instead of trying to compete on my weaknesses, I have devised a strategy based on my strengths. Basically it goes like that: "These are not my forte, but I can bring this and that blablabla, which not only are my strengths, but also can be valuable to you".

I talked about this to a great MBA participant (Dean's List), and he had me practice a case he got from BCG. I was "Humm, Hu, I see" all the way-maybe I had too much of this Rogerian thing- and he made fun of me when I did not pick up on one of his lines, which was something about a market share of 250%. To which I replied, that this is the value of Strategy Consulting, to have a 250% market share, ie. to "OUT-grow the market". I'm really not for Consulting...

I discussed with one guy, already a lock with BCG. He told me that he encountered 4 types of cases:
- the ones about cost reductions (diffentiating fixed to variable, to apply different strategies)
- the ones about operations management (identifying bottlenecks and solving them)
- the ones about market shares (estimating, sensing numbers)
- the ones about revenues and costs (identifying levers of both).
If you have more, please share.

He also told me that, after attending all company presentations and cocktails on campus, 2 things struck him:
1. Consulting firms seem to self-select. One person apparently told him that his niche consulting (read, not McKinsey BCG Bain Booz) selected people they think will not go to MK BBB, and that one proof would be the little overlap between them. The rationale would be to not waste time and money on sure bets to McKinsey and co. I'm not quite sure about this. One question would then be: how can you define these guys? One answer could be: Dean's List!

2. Apparently, participants change personality in cocktails. It's who can ask an insightful question, who can punch his tagline, who can make an impression to the recruiter... I don't know about this, and so have decided to attend some cocktails to watch that funny game.

Anyway, I need to get some feel of stress. I thought McKinsey interviews started tomorrow, it's a week from now. I though REP project finished in 3 weeks, it's in 2 months...

To have a view on Case cracking (courtesy of Hallonman in Singapore):
http://hallonman.blogspot.com/2007/04/case-interviews.html

Thoughts on a great sunny day

2007-04-07T15:44:00.000+02:00

In the past two weeks, I have received 5% of the intake at home... This is just Fonty spirit: dinners, good food, good wine, good chats. I like it.
I can't help to be amazed by people over here. Bright, funny, sensitive, caring, with a very good mentality. If I were a big, big company recruiter, I would hire them all! So much talent should not be wasted ;-)

To see how Paris can be great on a sunny day:
http://webcams.tf1.fr/webcam/paris/tf1-tour-eiffel/0,,3290020,00.html

Ding time...

2007-04-06T17:16:00.000+02:00

It's interesting to see how people react to dings, especially the first one.

Unfortunately, some big guns are interviewing now, so that leaves very little time for practice. A couple of people really into Consulting were dejected to be out of the game for BCG... And McKinsey is already next Monday...

Industry is a bit tough as well, because firms are not as "interchangeable" as in Consulting.

What kinds of reaction have I seen (not representative):
- Feeling that you didn't prepare enough case cracking, so shutting yourself from the world
- Feeling not so down, sort of taking it as a proof it was not for you
- Feeling not so down, "less" options is easier to manage
- Feeling bad about yourself and your confidence
- Feeling bad about School for not "making it easier"
- Feeling bad about the Company, it not being that cool after all...

To me, it's difficult to blame anyone. Especially not the School. I don't think graduating from HBS or LBS would give any more advantage, or the Company would be pretty stupid to limit itself this drastically to potentials. Not the Company too. I'm a firm believer of some kind of corporate culture, so students' skills may not be at stakes. And it's better to be turned down now that feeling awkward inside the company...

Well, let's see the positive side of it. This week-end is the week-end of dings: it's Easter time. As you all know, this is a remembrance of life renewal, and hope. Happy Easter to everyone.

Mass Therapy 5

2007-04-05T09:25:00.000+02:00

Ok yesterday was the last session of PIM. As usual it was pretty emotional. I mean, the guy is so good. First, he puts you in the mood, with this: Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss feat. Jessie Norman. Then, he talks about expressing love to others. I don't want it to sound either sissy, or cult-like -so if you take it as such, you've missed the point (Fernando would say "F**k you!"). That was amazing: I honestly saw a good dozen of people crying. I'm pretty sure in the coming week, people will reach out their parents, their partners, their families, just to say that they love them, and why they care for them. Especially to their parents.

Now just to prove that I ain't a sissy, I got the Negotiations feedback from my peers.

- Would you like this person to negotiate on your behalf in a one-time negotiation?8.20/10
- Would you like this person to represent you in a negotiation in which long-term relationships are important?5.80
- Do you feel this person diligently prepared for the negotiation?8.60
- Do you feel this person acted in a manner consistent with your ethical business standards?8.20

Basically, I'm a tough ass in Negotiations, and better at claiming value than creating it (supposing that in one-time nego you want to claim as much as possible, whereas in long-term you want to share to trigger reciprocation). Now who said I'm a PIM sissy??

A word on Nego 2 (Negotiations Analysis). It's rather fun, a bit different from Nego 1 in the sense that you fight for the outcome, vs. you develop relationships. The z-curve grading on that is lethal. Ayse Onculer is pretty cool too. The best item on my grading is the 8.20 on ethical business standards. It's ok to claim as much as possible. It's not ok to be ready for a killing. By that, I mean that reputation is key, inside INSEAD. People don't fully realise that, but we're building now on a reputation that will follow us in the alumni network. Now if you lied, or screwed the other using very questionable tactics, you'll have that image for a long time. Same for group work behaviours. Compare being diligent and cooperative, efficient and bright, to free-riding. I'm a free-rider spotter. These people don't realise you can't fool all your life. At some point, your reputation catches up, and you're out... To quote Fernando again: selfishness is a sickness.

Last thing for interviews: yesterday was AT Kearney, Cambridge Consulting, Fidelity. I think Booz and Bain are today and tomorrow. McKinsey is next week. Main takeaways: prepare, prepare, and prepare. Be relaxed. Know what you want. And, there's less competition for positions outside of London...

Four Last Songs on Amazon (you can click to listen, and imagine the surreal atmosphere of the class):
http://www.amazon.com/Strauss-Four-Songs-Wagner-Wesendonck-Lieder/dp/B0000523QL/ref=cm_lmf_tit_24/102-9801493-4331304

McKinsey interview or not?

2007-04-04T08:12:00.000+02:00

I have been selected for interview by McKinsey, on the basis of School's intranet CV.
I should be proud, that after so many years of atypical experience, I still have some value...

Now should I go for the interview? It's next week, I'm not going to Consulting after INSEAD that's for sure, I haven't prepared anything...

Maybe, just for the sake of saying "I've been to a McKinsey interview"...

Mass Therapy 4

2007-04-02T21:43:00.000+02:00

Today we finished analysing "Ordinary People", a 1980 movie by Robert Redford. During the show, most people were very moved, some girls even cried. What fascinates me in this movie is how, when you dig deep, villains are not so much villains, and nice people have their dark sides too. Prof. Bartholomé summarised well the dilemma: you can either shy away from your feelings, and risk breakdown, or open up to them, and discover the positive and the negative ones.

Maybe I'm a perennial enthusiast, and find most of INSEAD classes awesome and insightful, but I'm enjoying PIM very much indeed. It resonates to situations I'm seeing around me, or have experienced before... Excellent stuff. And yes, I like most INSEAD Professors; yes, I've never given less than 3 out of 5 to any of them, and yes Bartholomé is a super awesome guy. As he recognised himself, he'll stay at INSEAD as long as feels welcome, so hopefully the School will not succumb to excessive political correctness (I have already mentioned a few examples for which I was in total disagreement to the Dean's caving in to some PC pressure).

Today, Fernando showed how changing patterns in marriage have made it so crucial to be in touch with feelings. Because you'll live with your partner for 30 years after the children have left. Because there's economic and social pressure to be selfish. He advocated motherhood for female participants, in a very touching way. Maybe I'm what the French call "good public", but I bought it, and I liked it.

Some quotes for today:

Prof: Can you tell me why you people don't want to share an experience in which you felt happy about yourselves?

Student: Because I don't want to dilute it.

Prof: Do you make love with yourself only then? You don't want to dilute it? Now that's a very sophisticated piece of crap...

"Being concerned for the growth of the other is a sign of love for them", Prof. Bartholomé making an analogy between wanting children to grow, and significant half too.

"Is she a lesbian??", my favourite Jordan student, on Fernando's hats off to Jodie Foster for making babies despite her being a lesbian, as a sign of courage.

On the Job search front, today was BCG interview day. Lots of cases cracked...

How many Interviews do you have?

2007-04-02T10:26:00.000+02:00

This must be the question of the Week.
Indeed, the great interview week is starting today. Selected candidates were contacted to schedule their slots, and invited for dinners.

I've never seen my fellow participants as stressed. Saw Olympian Cathy Freeman on TV this week-end, she said "Stress is the privilege of Champions"... Good luck, mierdas, merde!

As to me, I've just written to McKinsey and turn down the interview offer. I felt like saying adios to a girlfriend before she dumps me...

Now a real debate: some participants are missing a lot of classes for the interviews. Some even had to drop electives. I know they are looking for the job of their lives, and that equally they took some electives very seriously. Similarly, for Finance jobs in P2, some participants had to skip classes. In Harvard, they solved the problem by agreeing with firms on campus that they would interview outside class slots. Alternatively, INSEAD could have a free week just for interviews, or a morning-only class schedule...

As Prof. Bartholomé would argue ("If you think I don't know I'm being provocative after 35 years of teaching, then you must take me for an idiot", he replied to someone complaining), it must have been thought about before...

INSEAD to open US Campus in 2008

2007-04-01T10:41:00.001+02:00

I met Franck Brown yesterday in an event organised by the Town Hall.
We discussed about School's development, and while he said everything would be off-the record, he hinted at 2 major directions:

- A new Campus for INSEAD in the US, to enhance reputation, visibility, and attract more US participants and executives. Cities selected are Miami, New York and San Francisco.

- No more quotas for the US, Russians, and Indians applicants. Supposedly they are hot stuff on the market, so he does not want INSEAD to limit itself with some "company policy" that had been around for ages and for which nobody still knows the rationale. So guys this is your chance for a couple of years. APPLY NOW!

Here are the pics from the Event where I met Franck...
http://fr.search.yahoo.com/search?p=april%27s+fools&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-ftr&vm=r&x=wrt&meta=vl%3D

On Hidden Champions and Team forming

2007-03-31T15:37:00.000+02:00

I like the reading about Hidden Champions. These are companies which are small, but with specific skills. They usually come from old unfashionable industries. With some regional/national/sectorial dominant position.

Now I'll push a little, and do an analogy with team forming. The reason is, in one of my groups, we have some hidden champions. We have like, the obvious champions (it could be Dean's List, or outgoing, quick-minded). But we also have hidden champions. They are the silent blokes, very discreet on campus. You don't know you'd like to work with him or her, until you actually have to do it (imposed groups or last minute groups). Geez, I'm happy to have them onboard. Very diligent, good mood, and results delivery-oriented. I like that.

I guess the main lesson is, don't always go for the obvious, the people that look like you, or the clique. There's a minimum -like shared values, shared ethics shared objectives- but then, go for the different people. Not only will it be added skills, but also challenging mindsets, and lower team conflicts...

It also reminds me one lessons from VOBM Phil Anderson. He claimed that, after some students emailed him about some speakers who were not as, say, outgoing as the norm, there is a cultural component in A-Class people. We are so framed in our Western cultures, that we tend to take for granted that an A-Class person should be volubile, great communicator, super funny, super sharp, etc. But then, in Asia, these kind of people would be seen as arrogant. So don't be fooled by the wrong signals. I'm trying hard not to... Like seeing the small valuable un-trendy hidden champion, rather than just the flashy Fortune 500. Very tough job.

On Hidden Champions:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_04/b3867601.htm
http://www.amazon.ca/Hidden-Champions-Hermann-Simon/dp/0875846521

WhoSE fault is this?

2007-03-31T12:19:00.000+02:00

Some update about the job search.

We had a discussion yesterday in a House Dinner. As you know there are several company presentations during the week, more than one a day probably. Company presentations are a good tool to show your interest and have serious talks with alumni.
Now the issue: on a particular day, one company presentation had flown 5 representatives, and only 8 MBAs showed up, including 3 just for the sake of fundraising for National Week.
Some people claimed that if the company was offering better packages, students would show up.
Some said that the company did not prepare seriously the event, with not enough publicity, and last minute advertisement.
Some said that it's pretty tough in the 10 month-programme to get P2s interested in job search, and P4s have so many options.
It's definitely not arrogance...

Another information, McKinsey gives a chance of first interview to all grads. I did not apply, and they called back enquiring on the reasons and whether I was ready to give it a shot...

I thought about it for 2 minutes... And that is not arrogance, just drive.

The Save Igor Campaign

2007-03-30T08:30:00.000+02:00

Since I want to keep my word about promises made during P3 break (more sex and gossips), and because it seems to increase audience numbers, let me talk about school gossips I got from diverse sources.

Gossip 1: Accounting god Igor may leave INSEAD because he does not publish enough.
Analysis:
- Inferred is the fact that INSEAD Professors are graded against their performance (as evaluated by Students), their outside commitments for School, and publications. I think this is more or less true. Now is it right?
- Possible source of gossip is that Igor is not teaching Managerial Accounting for current P2s.
Conclusion: I'm not sure about the veracity of this gossip... If true, it would be a major loss because Igor is great, and his cases were so insightful.

Gossip 2: Antonio Fatas is considering merging the Singapore and Fonty z-curves.
Analysis:
- Inferred is that Singapore people are more Play Hard than Work Hard.
- Implication: exams will need to converge (current situation is, we get different exams according to Profs preferences, in most cases).
- Possible bias is source of gossip, who was a Fonty person...
Conclusion: I'm not sure about this one too. One could argue that Singapore participants care more about networking than grades -even that needs much closer study of hard facts. In that case, there could be a case about merging curves. Anyway Singapore people probably don't care much about this...

Conclusion of conclusions: arf... after taking PIM, I'm trying to decipher underlying concerns in gossips. Maybe the one about Igor, was the fact that maybe D07 Profs are not as funny as J07? (That's my gossip). Maybe, the one about z-Curve is from someone very close to making the Dean's List...
In any case, gossips should be taken very carefully indeed.

Programme of the week-end: House dinner tonight, House dinner tomorrow night, Italian Week DolceVita party tomorrow night/morning, and PIM Report on Sunday.

Spring is in the air...

2007-03-28T22:27:00.000+02:00

Persistence is key. Especially in REP and NBV real cases study. And INSEAD grads are persistant...

In NBV, one girl failed, then bounced back superbly. So I was told -because I skipped the class, and despite Steve's grandiloquence tendency, I buy it.

Especially after having seen Adam's cases in REP. This guy is awesome, so positive. We started REP with his first company turnaround at age 25 or so. He lost his shirt in it, as he made the crucial mistake of giving banks personal guarantees. Adam explained in the video his lessons learned -I documented it in a previous post.

Now Adam was on campus today, explaining how he was so close from success -having succesfully turned around a great company - but because he created a holding with another money losing machine, he lost the lot... Lesson of the day: don't create a group of your companies, if one is very fragile.

Talk about persistence.

And he still kept his British calmness, smile, positive attitude...

Now I'm wondering: either we have Adam the Return part 2 coming soon -which tells a great and deserved succes at last- or Spring spreads smiles and good mood to everyone...

This week is also mini Italian Week, already a huge success with one of the best Tshirt so far, and a sold-out Italian Dinner. So Italian indeed: excellent style, and some organisation frustrations.

Shoot the moon...

2007-03-28T02:04:00.000+02:00

You'll hit the tree.
Shoot the tree, you'll hit the ground.

There's a saying from somewhere that goes vaguely like that.

Just finished skyping with an applicant about his essays. Deadline is 23.59 tonight.
God he shoots the moon! I like that.

Just finished to read the Barcenas case for PIM tomorrow. About a couple deciding to move abroad for the man's career, and the wife sort of being left out. It sure will ring a bell to many INSEADs and partners. Now don't think I only have one elective, PIM, this period. I guess the introspection is much greater.

On the job front, people are starting to fly all over the place for interviews. HongKong, London, inside France, Switzerland...
In a bar tonight, I came across a Prof I liked very much in P1. I took a picture with him. Smells like the beginning of the end...

Mass Therapy 3

2007-03-27T09:18:00.000+02:00

During the break, I promised to add some sex in the posts as an attempt to boost attendance. It seemed to work, and last PIM session is the perfect vehicle for that.

While the umbrella topic was Stress, we covered many more or less closely related subjects.

Basically, stress is a physiological defence reaction from the body when it feels threatened. The levels of stress are thus determined by environment, personality, and existential awareness (this is especially true for pensioners for instance).

Based on these premises, Fernando tried to demonstrate that 1/ the environment is often made more hostile 2/ the person is often made different in representation to the others. And that it is these gaps which increase stress to sometimes unbearable levels.

He took several examples to convince us that being in touch with feelings, being self-aware, going beyond some nurtured artificial walls (like strong pseudo-religious concepts) was essential to know your whole self, and drop the masks. I liked the idea that everyone needs a couple of friends with whom there is no mask. I liked the models of self concept vs. self idea, and how he solved the Juan Estrada case (about suicide).

Now, where's the sex?

Fernando undertook 2 tests to illustrate his point that we were limited by education, morality etc. The massage test: 60% of grads would not do/have never done massage (unsease with body/nudity). The sexual orientation test: if you had to choose beforehand what kind of sexuality you would have regardless of all social stigma 30% of INSEAD girls and 20% of guys would pick Bisexuality. Which, as it turned out, would be the optimal "economic" view -2 being more than 1 in a one-shot game of life.

I must say we were all blushing red during the vote... How perverse ;-)

On the job front, interviews are scheduled for April 2 onwards. Now people are really stressed out!

PS: Don't panic, INSEAD or Prof. Bartholome does not advocate bisexuality. It was just an illustration of how "gaps" can occur...

Post-MBA Trauma

2007-03-25T15:25:00.000+02:00

I've just finished my Rogerian assignment for PIM. We had to find someone not too close, and conduct a 30 minute-interview on something on his/her mind, using a Rogerian approach.

I chose an LBS MBA Grad, whom I met while preparing for the Gmat. He had given me great advice on essays, GMAT prep etc. (which I would be happy to share, should you need to, just email).
The guy graduated in Sept. 06. He is still looking for a job -by choice-, after dropping his job 1 year and a half ago, and was talking about how he valued personal interaction, emotionally intelligent people, sensitiveness in workplace etc. I was trying to respond Rogerian way: "Hu-uh", "I see", "So you feel that X companies are more sensitive to your feelings than Y companies". So tough to restrain myself, when I meant -ready to shout: "Buddy, move on, the MBA is over. It was an ideal world where everybody was great". I feel that if I write this in the paper, I'll fail the grade...

The REP Class

2007-03-23T10:36:00.000+01:00

Realising Entrepreneurship Potential is an interesting class. It consists of finding a company to takeover, and doing deal financing, deal negotiation, and coming short of the actual purchase. There's a lot of urban legend around the course. This past group found a gem, that past group went it all the way, etc. We're finding it hard to come clean on our team representation to potential brokers and sellers, and be attractive at the same time.
Anyway, we'll see. I'll try not to be too excited on that one -the entrepreneur heat syndrome, as Prof. Tim calls it.
The class has really good guest speakers. Lots of alumni, some failing badly, some succeeding in awe-inspiring stories. Like the one about he who stuggled for years, until he decided to work for free for another INSEAD alumn who was excelling in company turnarounds. Less than 10 years after his graduation, the guy in question has mounted a group of €500 M of sales and 30M in profits. Wow. I'll stop here lest I may catch the heat syndrome (again...)

We had an interesting experiment in Negotiations 2. It was about free-riding. Suppose a class of 30 can collect 150 euros. If it succeeds, the Prof. gives back 300 euros. It should be a straightforward win-win situation: each gives 5, each receives 10. No brainer.
Now I just can't believe we only collected 115 euros, and that in 8 years, the Prof. has only had 2 successful cases. 20% of the class was free-riding on the others...

Of all people's shortcomings, this is the one that irritates me most. Because there's little you can do about. It's the scorpion crossing the river on the frog's back story, and killing it in the middle of the river.

Better thoughts: it's Friday; nice week-end to everyone! As a bonus, a log-off from Singapore Administration. My hint: the culprit might not be French (one French word, one spelling mistake).

"Cher Students

It has come to the Singapore administration’s attention that the recent mass emigration of P4s to Fontainebleau has severely skewed the male to female ratio in Singapore. Keeping in the spirit of “One School Two Campuses”, the tender part of the MBA administration in Singapore is willing to go beyond the call of duty and alleviate the shortcomings of the Singapore INSEAD experience by offering our services for the benefit of the future of humankind. Henceforth, all you Singapore hunks, please keep a lookout for us pretty little MBA staffers and share your love with us, as we will with you in return …..

Just remember, whenever you feel you can’t, we can can …..

Lah lah dahlings,
Luscious Lxxxx
President of the One Campus, One Love Campaign®

PS – please reply to me or Exxxx if you would like to be part of the speed dating extravaganza this Saturday at Dover Food Court (Fried Noodle stand)"

Of Houses, Mood and Funny Quotes...

2007-03-22T11:36:00.000+01:00

Here are the pics from the Tavers Party. Tomorrow is the Villercerf White Party. Next week is the Italian Week Party.
Houses compete on parties, which is good for all of us. House/Chateau life is an instition at Fonty, but there is some minimum fit to enjoy the full experience. Houses like to position themselves as "The Beautiful People", "The Coolest People", there's definitely an element of clique in the most traditional Houses. But competition is good, even in this case. Montmelian tops the party list so far...
There are unwritten rules though. Like, the calendar is large enough to accomodate all House Parties. Like, National Week Parties have priority, because they demand so much work, involve sponsors, and are "official" tradition of the School.
Anyway, lots of parties are much welcome to relieve my fellow participants. Most of them are under big stress, tension, to apply, or decide. Some of them are a bit desillusioned to find out that it's more competitive than ever at the top.
There's one thing we should all be careful of, it's getting advice across the board, hoping that it'll help your decision. After a PIM class exercise, we found out that 70% of advice were wrong, not because people don't care, but because they did not do their homework and could not empathise enough.
I find Prof. Bartholomé bully style quite amusing. Yesterday, he commented on our papers on Risks of Empathy and Adaptation to Foreign culture: "A lot of it was BS. Please cut the crap, even if you only end up writing 3 lines. Stop having fantasies too.", or "Ok. Very profound, thank you. Next?". Must be masochistic...

Quote of the day belongs to NBV course, on the benefits of equity sharing in start-ups. "Equity is like shit. If you pile it up, it stinks. If you spread it around, a lot of good things can grow."

The Career Fair

2007-03-20T11:51:00.000+01:00

It's difficult to assess how good the Career Fair was, in terms of matching expectations from Students, companies, and Career Services.
First, schedules were full of classes. Tough it's definitely easy to skip them, and quite accepted.
Second, it is quite early in the process. At this stage, a lot of people are still struggling to come up with job search criteria, let alone strategies. So approaching "seriously" recruiters in this state of mind in not easy.
Third, we, as participants, tend to expect too much from Career Fair or Career Services.
When I hear comments like "there's no big companies, companies that make me dream". It's partly fair. But then, they are available either through intranet, or they expect us to come to them. Typically, if you're interested in media, entertainement for instance, you won't find such companies in such a Fair.

Who was there? 35 companies. Maybe a potential of 100 positions on offer.
Some big companies in industry (Philips...), some banks (Barclays, Santander...), some telcos (BT, Telefonica), some smallish consulting firms, some bigger (Cap Gemini). A bit of everything. They all looked for international positions.
I'm sure some would be disappointed by the turnout (of companies and students alike), evidenced by a dramatic reminder mass mail at noon that 5 companies or so had not seen a single grad by that time. There could be some kind of long-tail positioning of INSEAD, like filling a position in Abu Dhabi, which could explain the low turnout of students to some firms. I might not be the best person to comment on that, but it also could be early in the process. Once some participants get rejected from McKinsey, Google and the "prestigious" likes, smaller, seemingly less fancy companies become rosier options. And of course, a lot of participants are sponsored.
Overall though, it seemed a useful event, especially if one could establish contact and keep it for later stages.

Alternatively, there are zillions of company presentations, on campus and sometimes via VC. Surely, it's choice that makes it so tough for participants...

I'm having a session of PIM on Wednesday about choosing jobs. I'm sure the Prof. will talk about options, peer pressure, etc. Might be insightful and in the nick of time.

Good luck to all.

Mass Therapy 2

2007-03-19T12:34:00.000+01:00

I like PIM. It's some fresh air in a term full of professional assignments and tasks.

Today we've just found out why Prof. Bartholomé was so bloody provocative. Because he is a follower of Fritz Perls. After sessions about Rogerian approach emphasizing listening and empathy, we were introduced with the Perls approach which stresses provocation, probe, acting. It was a great intellectual experience, rather than learning, as very few people possess either the acting skills or the Psychology knowledge to use the Perls method in a risk-free way.

Perls method is useful because it tears down people's walls and disguise. In that way it is disturbing, because we are used to protect ourselves behind barriers (culture, games). By using provocation, "aggressiveness", you allow for authenticity, and genuine rapports.

And it creates funny dialogues.

Prof: Has anyone said "I love you to you?"

Student: "Hum. No."

P: Suppose a girl comes to you and says "I love you", what's the message?

S: Hum, that she wants to sleep with me, she wants to use my body.

That may be true in an authentic Perls world, but in our world of games, it meant that the girl wanted him to say "I love you" back.

To me, the whole message about games was really insightful, and that you actually have to provoke, tease, act a little to get the authentic self.

The final word was that, despite 2 contrasting approaches, Rogers and Perls had the same objectives in using the client Gloria: to get her in touch with her feelings, to get her to be authentic, and to get her to be autonomous.

We also had a discussion on the risks of empathy both in personal lives, and when trying to adapt to a foreign culture, and on the HBS/INSEAD syndrome (adapting from best in your town to moderate in MBA). Great stuff.

To learn more about Perls -sorry I could not find anything on the Gloria case by Rogers and Perls:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Perls

The McKinsey Dinner

2007-03-17T10:08:00.000+01:00

A lot of people turned up. Around 200 of us. The McKinsey Dinner -a traditional social event in itself- capped a week full of company presentations, mock interviews, workshops. The message was: job search is starting now, so quit the cool MBA world and switch to the professional mode.

This requires some adaptation. I guess it's again a matter of normal distribution. Some people know very precisely what they are looking for, the vast majority is still a bit overwhelmed by the options given by the MBA.

In terms of campus atmosphere, it's weird. While we were so happy to meet up again, most of us are too stressed right now to party very much. Quite a few of us want to party and socialise, because we either have a job (sponsored) or want to go into entrepreneurship. I feel there are several kinds of pressure: peers, loans, family. It's all legitimate. I just hope that people will get the jobs of their lives quickly so that we can turn back to the socialize mode!

Back to the McKinsey Dinner. It was nice, McKinsey people are sleek and very interesting. High correlation with Dean's List. Food was supposed to be 1 Michelin star... I think it was communication. Wine was on the cheap side. Still, the presentation was very successful (apparently, these are good years for Consulting recruiting), the Chateau location amazing, the event, a big hit.

This week-end, no job search for me, I'm writing a paper on the risks of empathy... Anybody has any clues?

To know more about Chateau de Bourron-Marlotte (perfect for a wedding banquet...)
www.chateau-bourron.fr

Reality check at Mock interview session

2007-03-16T01:59:00.000+01:00

Today I had my mock interview session. I got to choose from different industries: entrepreneurship, VC/PE, Banking, General Management/Business Development, Consulting Case. I was put in VC/PE.

I can see several advantages in having the mock interview so early in the process. First, because you're not good, or underprepared, or because the interviewer is especially tough, you get a harsh reality check. Basically, out of 3 participants in my session, none got through the mock interview...

I must say, in many instances, we give the stick to the interviewer, even though I felt she over-read in body language, sometimes.

Here are my takeaways to anybody.
- It sounds ridiculously trivial, but be prepared. Preparation does not mean just doing your homework about a company or an industry, it's 2 things. First, know yourself by heart and be able to answer the basics (qualities, improvement areas, why MBA, why INSEAD...) Second, it's know the words your interviewer wants to hear. They differ from industries/positions. For VC/Private Equity, in case study, do not fear using buzzwords like "management team", "exit strategy", "decision criteria", "risk profiles", ie. use their language.

- Don't storytell, Do pyramid talk. That is, when delivering your message, start with the Conclusion, the Essence, then develop, walk through the whys. For one thing, it is more effective and sounds more professional. Then, if you ever get cut short, you would have delivered the core of your message.

- Frame your delivery. Know what the interviewer wants to hear, expects from you. And frame your message towards these messages. Make anything you say relevant to the interviewer.

- Don't lose eye contact, even when you think, during case studies. Walk the interviewer through your thinking. (Although, in my mind, it depends on interviewers. Some would give great importance to body language, some would not read too much in it.)

I was a bit bummed by my performance. If you're underprepared, don't expect a miracle. It's probably better not to do an interview in that situation, rather than to get a ding which hits your morale.

Talking about dings, let me tell you the sinister INSEAD Ding tradition.
Apparently, INSEAD used to have a bell in the campus. The tradition had it that, whenever participants got dinged in job applications, they would ring the bell. In the darkest moments of the 1990s, the bell rang so much that the Dean decided to stop the practice.

Tomorrow is the big McKinsey dinner. That should be fun.

Mass Therapy

2007-03-15T10:32:00.000+01:00

We're having a collective therapy in Psychological Issues in Management (PIM). I know I should not say this, as Prof Fernando Bartholomei hates that, but still, it's more catchy.

After two sessions, I'm more able to see the value of that class. There's something in Bartholomei that is so out of synch with what he says that it's puzzling.

The first session was about Law of Reciprocity. As future leaders, to influence, you must be willing to be influenced, to be trusted, you must trust. etc. It has to be a spontaneous "trade". I liked it. Not revolutionary stuff, but it's always great to be reminded that. To "work" on your "soft" side, after too many analytical courses, and before action-oriented electives.

I'm saying that the Prof. was so out-of synch that I suspect some bluff from him. He's a therapist of his own, and an expert in OB (I even wonder if he's not in charge of creating P1 teams). He talks about balancing life and work and all the usual blabla stuff. Yet, although you feel he means all that, he provoked us to an extent that some people felt uncomfortable. To me, it's always great to be pushed out of your comfort zone in such a place like INSEAD (a lab, if you like). Seeing some disgusted student faces, I don't think everybody felt happy with it. True, there were some rude words, tough behaviours, un-PC comments. But isn't it what INSEAD can afford vs. other US Bschools? To be sure, in the US, Fernando would have triggered zillions of lawsuits.

The second session was even more insightful. It was about the Rogerian method of therapy. Carl Rogers (pic) was some pioneer in listening methods of therapy. He probably believed that, by just listening actively, you let the autonomy out of the patient, and let him or her find the "solution".

We had a very nice exercise whereby the Prof. acted as the patient, and we came up with Rogerian questions.

Basically, anything starting by "Why" was a bad Rogerian question, anything just paraphrasing was an undershot Rogerian question. It seemed that 80% of the class was not very Rogerian, and very judgemental/action-oriented. Myself included.

I guess the best part about Rogers was the debate on accepting yourself as you are. By your own standards. Not to please others, not to perform in someone else's value scale. It is a great lesson for job searches. You have one or 2 chances in your whole life to do what you like, with a great bargaining position. INSEAD is one of these chances. Don't blow it just to do what others think is cool to do...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rogers

Same but different... About Career changes

2007-03-14T21:14:00.000+01:00

Someone asked about Career Change (see comments of Previous post). The question was: being an engineer, how possible is it to go to Investment Banking.

Well, I'm definitely not an authority on any part of the subject, and for this kind of very specific question, the first thing to do probably is to ask the Career Service.

However, I have made my short enquiry across campus, and come up to the following conclusions. First, all career changes are possible at INSEAD, and are done every year by grads. Yet, there's one change that is less "obvious" than the others: going to Finance, like IB. To me, people should have 3 ground rules when it comes to recruitment: you choose just as much as are being chosen (how many times in life can you afford to choose to change after all), everything is negotiable, and high performers are taken anyway. It's a matter of consistency, fit, and potential.

Indeed, someone who interviewed during P2 in IB made the following remarks: one ultra-bright person with a legal background got an offer in M&A, yet IB gets so much demand that it's only natural if, all being equal, they should select from past experience. Then, for the engineer with no IB background, if he/she has extraordinary analytical skills and outstanding personality, it should be ok. Otherwise, I suspect that if he/she is "only" super skilled super great, someone equally so with previous experience in IB my be chosen. Alternatively, I do believe being on the Dean's List could help as well. Then again, that's just my call. In this kind of switch, that MBA participant advised to get summer internships (December intakes) and catch up the others.

Tonight was the big Bain event, yesterday the big BCG event. These companies even invite grads by countries in restaurants. It's funny how many people claim they don't want to go into Consulting, yet the amphi was full tonight. Must be the buffet after as well...

Tomorrow, I have my mock interview. You get to select an industry or a type of interview you want to practice in. I got Private Equity/VC.

Recruitment time finally gets moving

2007-03-12T19:59:00.000+01:00

"Domo,
I'm a regular reader of your blog. It would be nice if you could put a detailed post on how campus recruitment has been this year, so far, that would be very useful for applicants like me. What is your impression of type of companies? how many were around this time? how is the recruitment going on? We don't see much of that for INSEAD on blogs, whereas we see more info from top US schools."

Here's a message I've just received. Thanks first for your interest in this blog. It's in the nick of time, because everything is really starting NOW.

Actually, in reality, you have 2 recruiting periods: one during your P2 (that is the previous intake's P4), and your own P4. Both are open to all INSEADs, all campuses, with a priority to P4s -although to me, a good candidate is a good candidate to the company.
I have seen mostly Investment Banks being ready to offer jobs in P2.

In P4, that is now, all jobs are on offer.
This week is the main one for Consulting (McKinsey dinner on Friday, Bain and Booz cocktails). During the week, companies present their offers, and candidates who have already applied and been selected are invited to interviews.

Still, it's not just Consulting. The talk of the day is Google. There are presenting tonight, followed by a cocktail party. Then all big 3 Consulting firms have their days, then on Monday next week there's a big Campus Job Fair.

This week, Careers Service also organises Mock Interviews sessions with a specific profile (like VC, or Consulting type interviews), and sessions about other relevant issues (like Negotiating Salary for Women, Body language...)

To synthesize:
- Locations seem to me from all over the world, with a slight emphasis to London. You'd expect more exotic countries than in other BSchools (Middle East seems pretty strong)
- Industries are across the board, not just Consulting or Finance

Examples of job postings received this week:
- one service company in high-tech looking for grads in Amsterdam, London, NY, Philly, Boston
- Google looking in all fields in all countries
- Alumni firms looking for grads in London
- 2 boutique consulting looking for offices all around the world
- 1 VC looking for London office

In the Career Fair, I'll try to enquire whether there will be others. INSEAD has invitations to other Career Fairs in Europe, but on campus, I only see 34 firms for Monday -one third in various Consulting, 50% in industry (big names and smaller), one NGO, and 4 Financial Institutions (most IB already recruited during P2).

The Careers Service at INSEAD is a common scapegoat of Students. I have no objective criteria to assess this. I know that so far, people who have secured a job are either sent by their companies, or in Banking from P2. Then people who are having interviews had them though the Career website (either applying to firms or them searching for you).
The next wave of interviews probably will come from Career Fair and Consulting...

In a way, it's good to see my fellows getting in the mood for job, but I'm seeing them a bit stressed... As to me, I have decided to give a chance to entrepreneurship. I definitely will report the job process though.

I promise to write a recap post at the end of the week.

Born or Made, Create or Buy

2007-03-10T10:15:00.000+01:00

Half of my P4 courses have started. You really get to see who's specializing in what now. The Finance Path has got ACF (Finance 3) and Super ACF going on, Private Equity, Options... The Marketing Path has got Market Driving Strategies and Brand Management going on. And Entrepreneurship has got the continuation of VOBM: Realising Entrepreneurial Potential, starring Tim Bovard, and New Business Ventures, introducing Steve Haslett.

You know you're getting into seriously real territory when Tim and Steve: 1. are not Professors anymore but serial entrepreneurs in their own sake, 2. both started their courses with heavy emphasis on the flip side.

What is the flip side?
First, they claim that entrepreneurs are most likely Born, not Made. It's even worse, you're born into a type vs. Risk -from buccaneer, promoter, farmer, to trustee.
Second, from the first time, we are seeing failure stories in cases. Two so far. Of course it's the real world, but, as Tim said his course is like a boot camp, I suspect it's also about scaring some participants off. I don't want to sound overly positive (or as someone once said in front of a famous French mineral bottle, read the label backwards*), but apart from serious takeaways like Cash is King and Never Ever give personal guarantees, the 2 INSEAD alumns took their fate pretty well indeed. It takes guts to come in front of MBAs who will know better a posteriori.

Tim and Steve also provide 2 approaches to Entrepreneurship: start-up a company, or buy and turn-around. I would say starting up is more for the buccaneer types, and buying up is more for the promoter types. I'll have the chance to go through both processes during P4 and hopefully P5 with 2 very interesting teams...

* The mineral water in question, of course, is EVIAN...

To learn about Entrepreneurs types:
http://www.robertcraven.co.uk/article-entrepreneur-traits-stimes.php

Kevin is so Cool

2007-03-08T18:20:00.000+01:00

I'm taking a lot of courses this term. Some I have enrolled, some I'm attending just for fun. ICA (Industry Competitive Analysis) is one of them. I'm pretty far down the waitlist, and auditing is not authorized. I might get kicked out, we'll see.

Anyway I had great expectations coming in ICA, to see what Karen Cool is about. So far, so good. He was a great storyteller. Very passionate about his class, quite demanding too. I don't know why but all P4 Professors have decided that cold calling would be the norm...

In a nutshell, today's story was about Creating and Sustaining above-normal returns. He gave the example of champagne. If you ask producers, they would say that champagne is more expensive that sparkling wine because of traditions, savoir-faire, and the soil. To Kevin, only the latest is valid. Indeed, there are 700 or so champagne producers in Champagne, so "it must not be that difficult to make it" and blind tests show that sparkling wines can be very well graded too. In that regard, he argues, while strategic theory has focused on competitive advantage -"the savoir-faire", assets -"the unusual fertile land" can be just as powerful to create a rent, or above-normal return. And it's sustainable. And it's not replicable. Economist David Ricardo was the first to study that, so Kevin referred to him as the Patron of Bad Business...
Very insightful. Of course the name of the ICA game is to create that fertile land.

I just hope that I won't be kicked out now...

To learn more about Ricardo's theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo

Promising P4

2007-03-08T09:07:00.000+01:00

The term is starting in earnest.
Job search wise, companies are visiting in mass. Next week is dedicated to the Big ones of Consulting: McKinsey dinner in a Chateau, Bain, Booz in cocktails.
On Monday, everyone's Corporate job dream is coming on campus, Google.
Then, many others are coming, I've lost count.

Course wise, I'll tell you more in the week-end, once all courses have started. One common pattern: it's all about Real Life. No models here. Just experience. How to build a business. How to buy one. How to claim value in Negotiations (yeah, I'm taking Nego 2).
I love it... It nearly makes you want to go right now to the real thing.

Anyway, great to be back in Fonty. After all, despite its flaws, Fonty is the soul of INSEAD...

Weakness 3: Financing

2007-03-07T23:00:00.000+01:00

Ok INSEAD is "expensive" at €45,000.
Not only that, to fully account for costs you should consider, for the duration of the MBA:
- rent in a Fonty House or Chateau (including a swap in Singapore), €10,000
- car in Fonty, €3,000
- ticket to Singapore €850
- travels in Asia during one period €1,500
- travels in Europe 4 periods €2,500
- phone -especially when friends and family call you on your mobile when you're miles away- €1,500
- food €5,000 (roughly €15 per day)

And to that you add opportunity costs of foregone revenues:
- €60,000 on average

That totals to a hefty €130,000. Gosh I can't believe what I'm writing... In any case, you should definitely consider in the range of €100,000. Then again, I'm pretty poor in Finance, so if my rationale is somehow wrong, please let me know.

Now of course, the real assessment should be in terms of NPV. That is, you should evaluate the incremental cash flows post-INSEAD and substract total costs, let's say in the next 5 years. If the value is positive, INSEAD is worth it.

Then again, other factors must be taken into account. The value of the network, to me, is immense. So is the value of knowledge, long-term.

Of course, many scholarships are available. Probably more in your own country than through INSEAD.

The full list of Scholarships as of today (by the way, I've noticed that Theo, from Finance 1, finances a scholarship for Iraqis -my respects):
http://www.insead.edu/mba/schlmgmt/index.cfm

Weakness 2: INSEAD MBA is too short, too shallow

2007-03-06T06:15:00.000+01:00

With 10 months, that is a most valid concern. Adding to that, the Party Hard culture, new environments (discovering France, discovering Asia), new people you meet (taking time to befriend), make it even less time to study and work on projects. After all, there's a 24 hour limit to a day...
I could say that it is a continuity to the corporate world, that it's a matter of prioritising. Fast pace is the single most striking characterisitic of today's world. Etc etc.

At the end of the day though, what really matters is your objectives. Will INSEAD help you reach them?
In my case, I came in with clear learning objectives: using the School's expertise in some fields on some of my sponsor's business/strategic issues, and doing the Entrepreneurial Path. I only applied to INSEAD, and would not have done an MBA in 2 years.
To me, BSchools will go the 1 year model. Consider that the 2 year model is as much a cultural inheritance as a necessity. It's still the model from 1900 Industrial America. I discussed with an exchange participant from Wharton, who claimed that the second year is very much about job search.

Thus, it clearly becomes a matter of goals and experience. If you come right out from undergrad (or so), chances are you'll be hugely disappointed. If, like me, you have more than 5-6 years of experience, it's just the right format -for all stakeholders (partners, sponsors, families) as well.
Of course, there are always some frustrations: having more of VOBM for instance, more time to speak to guests, to work on cases, on projects.
I believe the answer that the School is providing is the following -this is only my call, and I'm a notorious over-thinker. Because students are students, in the sense that the more you give them time, the more they will take time (to have fun), lengthening the programme will not add any depth to personal experiences. What the School seems to be doing (or how I experience it), is provide Paths. Take my case. P1 and P2 could be viewed as general, but I had personal takeaways in Entrepreneurship because I knew what I wanted to get out of the MBA. Then, even though VOBM seemed short, it was complemented by other levels of learning in Family Business, Negotiations (a little). Then in P4, I know that it'll tie nicely with Realising Entrepreneurial Potential REP, New Business Ventures NBV, and Industry Competitiv Analysis ICA. In this perspective, Entrepreneurship is not restricted to a single course VOBM. All others build on it, and complements one another.
The real frustration, in that regards, does not come from shallowness, but availability. I would have felt the experience incomplete (hence shallow) if I could not take all these electives. In reality, I did not get all of them, not even auditing rights, but I'll still attend the courses I need for my path. I don't think any Prof. could spot me and ask me to leave, right?

So, too short? I would say not, but it depends on your particular cases. In the end, consumers always want more, but they don't know why. It's not more that matters, it's better, and more available.

To skim through the History of the MBA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Business_Administration

Weakness 1: INSEAD is an MBA Factory

2007-03-05T09:43:00.000+01:00

As promised, I'll address some of the concerns expressed from people I have met, or emails I have received.
I'll try to give my insights on each topics: intake size, programme duration, financing, Singapore. Some questions were related to the programme itself, like "How good INSEAD is in entrepreneurship, in other fields but Consulting and Investment Banking". These concerns were addressed in the posts I guess.
Let me start with size.

When I hear that INSEAD is a factory which produces 900 MBAs a year, I get mad. This is totally untrue, or deceiving.
The reality is: you really are part of a 450 people-intake.
Even that does not reflect the truth. You are part of a campus (like it or not), the one in which you start, so 300 or 150 people. Inside, you are part of a section of 75 people. This is the centre of your network, I think. A study claims that 200 people is the ideal number for a good network to develop, because at this level, you pretty much know everyone. It is true in factories (some companies deliberately top the size of facilities to that 200 number), it is true at INSEAD.
Singapore people develop a very tight network over the whole campus. We, in Fonty, develop a strong network in the half-intake (75+75), because we share the same half day schedule, we share the same professors.

To bridge sections, several informal networks develop: National Weeks, Clubs, Houses/Chateaux... Of course sections dislocate from P3 onwards, yet it seems to me that stronger bonds start in P1/P2.
So forget about the argument that INSEAD is too big... I certainly have never felt lost. Although I would concede that Singapore campus probably is more cohesive than Fonty.

The full study on optimal Human social group size (it's actually 148.. with a range from 100 to 230) -INSEAD is so close I'm starting to think that the School is ruled by OB people-:
http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/05/65/bbs00000565-00/bbs.dunbar.html

Back in town

2007-03-04T16:14:00.000+01:00

I'm back from the Asian adventures.
To do list:
- Write a short paper for New Business Venture course for tomorrow
- Answer all your emails re: INSEAD size, INSEAD weaknesses (I know, I haven't quite spoken about that yet)
- Unload my tons of luggage
- Rest and recover from jetlag
- Catch up with friends, family, and business stuff.

Right now, it's a rather strange atmosphere over here. Some participants are in China now, doing the field trip "Building Business in China" which I missed in the bidding process. Most people are in their families. It just seems that we all meet in airport hubs, as I bumped to fellow students in Dubai. Some people are moving back in (just like me), including newcomers from Singapore who are experiencing quiet town life in the forest.
I hope come Wednesday, School will come back to life!

Girls at INSEAD

2007-03-03T15:41:00.000+01:00

A short stop-over in a fast technological frontier catch-up is a pretence to talk about one burning topic at INSEAD: Women participants recruitment. Some top Minister where I'm visiting now has just said in the news that to increase further, and sustain the current rapid growth, the country would need its women to participate in the economy.
I'm sure the subject of girls at INSEAD will please the male readership as well...

The issue: some people claim that it is easier to access INSEAD as a woman, hence hinting that the level of female participants is lower than that of their male counterparts.
The facts: women's presence in the MBA has grown from 17% to 25% in just 2 years, and still growing. It is a clear INSEAD priority.
Additional facts: Women in MBA is a assessment criterion of the FT ranking. INSEAD in lower than any other Top 10 on that. Women's average age is far less than men's.
The myths: Share of Dean's listers is proportionally higher for guys, INSEAD has admission quotas (both unverified).

My experience: I have had girls in my project teams. I enjoy working with them. I don't know if it's luck -in which case I'm extremely blessed- but all girls in my teams have been awesome: assertive, bright, hard-working, yet much fun. I have not experienced any Princess syndrom -I would not have tolerated it anyway, neither would they. In the end, I believe that it's NPV that counts, and NPV does not care about the past. It's not so much about who's the brightest, but rather who will bring value to the School and to the other participants.

To bring the debate further: Is INSEAD a right place for minorities?
Given its culture of tolerance, cultural openness (with a slight tendency to PC), I would say so. But then don't expect anything as entrenched as in US B-schools. For one thing, 10 months is way too short to have anything like Minority issues very hot. I know that the Womens group have had special sessions with the Negotiations Professor: Salary negotiations with Women, or something like this.

I'll try to get people involved to speak up for you guys... and girls.
In the meantime, last days of break, and first P4 assignment due this Monday.

Cheers.

Welcome to the first Australians, Swedes, Israeli, and Taiwanese.

Bye Bye Singapore

2007-02-28T09:11:00.000+01:00

It's over. It was superb.

Campus is awesome.

Spirit is great. Kind of top notch fusion cuisine: modern, audacious, international.

Courses were incredible.

New people met from Singapore were brilliant.

New people met from Fonty (there were a lot, for me) -why didn't I meet them before? Great bunch.

Week-end trips were much fun.

Food was excellent.

Shopping was ok.

Can Fonty P4 top that?

Don't miss out the next episodes of your dedicated insider, and you'll know...

Stay tuned. I'll do anything to boost current audience to 100 visitors a day (currently 50+). Tell School gossips, sex stories, betrayals, rivalries! ;-)

Thanks for coming, hope it helps in your decision to apply for an MBA, your choice of School.

Welcome to new visitors of the past days: Senegal, Croatia, Philipines.

End of P3: What a last day of term looks like

2007-02-27T06:27:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was the last day of P3.
I cannot believe it's gone so quick. No one can. I'm starting to feel the urge of keeping memories from School. A picture of the School, a picture of my Profs. Professors were so good in P3, that it would have taken great efforts to reach them and take a pic with them anyhow. And I would have passed for a weird Japanese tourist.

Time for recap. My favourites classes this term were: Family Business, VOBM, Negotiations Analysis. Awesome stuff, inspiring, and useful. To this I can add Macro. I know it sounds strange, considering past comments. But the course really started off after 4 sessions and reached the very top. And as one fellow participant said: "When you have experienced Macro classes in your previous life, you know that this one is unebelievably good". Fair enough. Political Analysis, in this regard, was alright, but could have been fascinating.

My favourite Professors this term, naturally were: Phil Anderson, Randel Carlock, Horacio Falcao, and Ilian Mihov (alphabetical order). They have different styles. It just shows that whatever your style is, as long as you're passionate, have integrity between your character and your delivery, people will follow. To all of them, my most sincere appreciation, and gratitude.

That's the thing about P3. It could be your greatest INSEAD experience so far, or a not so convincing one. It all depends on Electives that you choose, and, I'll be blunt, on the Professors as well. I'm lucky to have had A-class Profs this term. As you know, A-class people hire A-class people. B-class people hire C-class people, C-class people hire, well C-class people too. (learning from VOBM class). In Profs examples, A-class have A-class contacts and experience. Professor Mihov worked with Bernanke -although I promise that did not influence my appreciation of him ;-)

Phil had great contacts with Asian entrepreneurs. Randel had unbelievable connections with Asian families. That translates into great stories, great insights, and sometimes great guest speakers.

So, to come back to the Last Day of P3. Well exams were much easier than I thought. Considering my preparation, that was all I needed. I guess, to grab points, you could have put "Institutions" every 10 words for political analysis, and poured "Technological Frontier", "Output to Potential", "Shift of LM curve", "Productivity, non-tradable goods, wages increase" every here and there in Macro.

At lunch, our review time was disturbed by deafening noises. My curiosity got the better of me, and that was actually a Lion Dance to bring good luck and dispel bad spirits. Then INSEAD staff got their annual party. Pascal, from Finance 2, was there, and all Fonty people were pressing to get pictures with him.

After exams, we gathered for drinks and food, before going to restaurant, and finishing the night at Sentosa's Café del Mar, where everybody said bye to everybody. I really wanted to have a last chat and sincere goodbye to those who will stay in Singapore -that I will not see again before graduation- and with whom I had so much pleasure working.

Assuredly, INSEAD rocks...

Regrets

2007-02-25T17:31:00.000+01:00

Exams start in less than 8 hours... I started Macro review on this Sunday afternoon.
It's always like that, when I'm starting to get into the materials, I'm thinking "Wow, that is so interesting, that is so powerful... Too bad I did not get the intuition before".
Indeed, Macro can be very, very interesting, and quite powerful. Just like Micro with Tim Van Zandt, I suggest that Prof. Mihov put a mid-term mini quiz to force the learning process through.
Wish me luck.

The last VOBM class

2007-02-24T13:00:00.000+01:00

I know I should be studying for Monday's end of term exams.
I sort of feel confident though, that I'll perform ok in Political Analysis, and that I'll bomb the Macro exam.
It's just that, since I put in place the internet tracker on Wednesday, I'm feeling the pressure of numbers. I got my first visitors from Slovenia, Spain, Japan, Belgium, Brasil, Ireland, Ukraine. The bulk of visits still comes from France, US, India, and the UK.

VOBM ended on Friday. I feel so fortunate to have attended that course. Phil is definitely one of the toughest, most demanding, most passionate, best Professors. He is so amazing, because he does not transmit the virus of entrepreneurship through some great magician tricks (such as breathtaking communication abilities) -which are bound to collapse like a soufflé after some time- but through the ability to bridge the entrepreneurship dream to the realm of possibility. In other words, he demystifies the thing, and put down a concrete, achievable path for any MBA. I'm not saying that we'll all end up entrepreneurs, but that we could all become so.

With my group, when we had our last meeting to write the Final paper, by discussing, we came up with such a great new idea. Because we were too much into the Final, we kept it aside for P4, and continued to write on our previous blander project... That's the power of the course.
Well, I did some ground work for VOBM still: I tested advertising on the Net. Using Google's ad service (adwords), I inserted an ad for this blog on the net.
It costs:
- €30 for the month (well, I capped it to that level, for the sake of the project)
- You can bid for amounts per clicks (presumably, the more you bid, the more frequency of appearance) - I took the default option
- You select keywords- I chose MBA INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS, and in the US to start with. I know, it's wicked... Still it worked, one visitor came yesterday after googling "Harvard"...

I'll post a word on Macro and IPA later.

www.adwords.com

Three rounds of standing ovations for Horacio!

2007-02-23T07:05:00.000+01:00

Where is this number coming from?
Well, round 1 was because he's just had a baby boy. It's the 3rd INSEAD baby in less than a week. Congrats to all of them.
Round 2 was because it was our last session, and honestly Horacio is right up there in the pantheon of INSEAD legends. I just enjoyed every minute of his classes -not solely for the entertainment, and his communications uber-skills- but also because Negotiations are so important in every aspects of your life. From business contracts, to job interviews, to even selctecting the TV channel in the living room for the evening movie!
Round 3 was because, as a great communicator, Horacio claimed that he'll always remember the Great July 07 intake -for at least the fact that he fathered little Luca at the same time.

A word about the Nego last session. Recruiters beware, we know all your tricks and we are ready to negotiate. The topic was: Job interviews - not interviewing, negotiating (not just the salary).
Among the many tips, and the one that I can reveal without too much damage to the course dynamics, my favourite is the Future Opportunities. Say a Big name company gives you a low range salary -they always do that- and of course you ask "Where is this number coming from?". Very often, the answer will be like, "it's a great name on your CV, so it justifies less". To which you should claim that the only way to value that option is to leave the company. So let's take that number, thanks, but let's work on some more value for you and for me.
Another one I like is when they say -"Well the number comes from the average of your position in the firm". To which one way of answering is "Well, why should you pay for others' mistakes. I'll take that number, thanks, but let's create bla bla bla".
Of course, the minimum requirement is to engage in relationship building first. We had a painful role play of someone not willing to give his pre-MBA salary for fear of being anchored low, but completely destroying the relationship in the process.

During the session, we had other role plays. Great session. Among the best quotes:
- Horacio simulating interviewer "You're a great candidate, we'll give you 60K"
- Student "Hum... Where is this number coming from? Which currency? Is it per month?"
- Horacio: "Ha ha. No, it's for 5 years."

"The way companies treat you when they interview you is probably the best way they'll ever treat you.." Horacio on why should you care about interview signals.

Smile, you're being tracked

2007-02-21T15:38:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I inserted a tracker on the site.

It's fascinating. I feel I know you better guys... In a way, it's putting some pressure. Didn't know so many people visited.

Interesting facts: most visits came from the US, France, Singapore, and India. Most visitors access through a bookmark.

Among those accessing from a search engine (google by 100%), funny searched keywords were: Ice Fili case answer MBA, Chateau Montmelian wedding, Insead vs. Harvard, and Why Insead.

For the "Chateau Montmelian wedding" search, I am sorry to disappoint, there's no gossip in this column. Although all the School is aware that one of the Montmelian guys is getting married. The funny story is, it was his last question of the 10 No's assignment for Negotiations (the one in which you had to analyse 10 questions for which you were answered NO), to his current girlfriend, and guess what, she said... YES.

For your info, Montmelian is the Chateau of the self-proclaimed "Beautiful People", whatever it may mean... They do organise some of the best Fonty parties. And not to be misquoted, I appreciate them all.

Today, I've learned that Political Analysis exam is not only closed book, but NO cheatsheet. Big, big panick. Talking about that class, we had final presentations on North Korea problem, with groups presenting perspectives from US, China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea. The one from North Korea was pretty impactful. They used the Negotiations class structure, and were able to ask "legitimately" everything but the kitchen sink. Horacio (the Nego Prof), you rock! your model works well...

Where is this number coming from?

2007-02-21T00:47:00.000+01:00

If there's one thing you should take from Nego, it's this one line.
Although I have promised not to reveal too much about this Star class, I can't help to realise the every day benefit of it.

Today, I'm learning that a previous co-worker of mine has seen his pay rise by 30% to take on 1 single task twice a week. Where is this number coming from?
Last week, I went to Tanglin and selected this item, supposedly 200 years old buddha head from Sham period-a fact which I could not care less about- and €1000. Where are these numbers coming from?
During the term, I got 3 out of 5 in Nego debriefs. Where are these numbers coming from?
P2 Strategy final exam, which was not that stellar, with no annotations in the exam sheet from the Corrector. Where is this number coming from?

In most cases, Numbers come from one's own subjective valuation. Unless you sit down, de-emotionalise the context, bring facts, and agree on objective criteria for valuation, you'll end up raising doubts and suspicions. Not the most solid grounds for any agreement...