Calling all LBS Applicants - (2015 Intake) - Class of 2017

Hi all, does it really take LBS up to 2 weeks to lock down interviewers? It hasn't been a week since I received my invite, but I'm just curious.

Also, for those who already interviewed, how quick is the deadline for completed interviews? For example, does LBS give you 1 week, 2 weeks, etc.?

FROM LBS Current Students Blog: Belgium Trek (and diversity)

Diversity, it plays a big role in the MBA. It is a powerful word that lots of companies play with these days, and they have a damn good reason for it. It has been proven – I would like to cite you the official source in the Harvard Referencing System, but I have no clue who actually did the study – that diverse heterogeneous teams achieve better results than homogeneous teams. You’ve probably all experienced it before. Talk to diverse people about problems you are facing at work and it’s sure you will get a lot of different solutions you could try out. If you are able to get these diverse people around one table, building towards a common goal, you have increased the likelihood of success and finding innovative solutions. On a short side-note, you could even draw the analogue further. We had to read a book for Operations Management, ‘The Goal’, and this was also a key theme in there. Pulling you out of your traditional environment and taking a walk in your spare time, gives fresh ideas. You hear it so often that ‘while running I get the best ideas’. Bringing in different perspectives, challenging traditional viewpoints and avoiding common biases, diversity does add a lot of value. Companies reach better results and therefore better performance, so business schools must then benefit from it as well. But how do they benefit? On many fronts the diversity adds value to the program. In class, you get to learn from people that see business problems in a very different way. The diverse experiences people have, guarantees relevant examples when discussing a theoretical business concept. Also you see how people cooperate in teams and behave in group. Next to diversity in professional background, interests and targets, there is a high level of diversity in nationalities. Praising LBS for its international student body (65 nationalities in the MBA this year!), many people are getting important lessons in international and cultural awareness – so am I. Just as an easy example, I will never forget the first time I tried to kiss a Japanese or I was undergoing an intense hug from a Brazilian I barely knew. Those are only the basic aspects, so you can imagine what impact this diversity has on the experience of an MBA. If you have read the title, you probably think, when do we start talking about Belgium? Well in business schools, diversity means lots of fun as well! People are proud about their background and kindly share their culture. Everyone joins regional clubs, organizing activities like the Chinese New Year’s dinner party that is coming up next week. You get a privileged insight in how people celebrate and experience this. End of February there is a multicultural event ‘Tattoo’ across all programs and staff of LBS. People represent their country with a food stand and a dance performance. I really look forward to representing Belgium soon, although we still need a lot of practice on the dancing part. Another part is the diverse international treks people organize. I’m visiting Japan in the spring break, and multiple other treks are organized: South-East Asia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Greece, Israel, etc. Be it professional or fun treks, they are all organized by locals, passionate about their country and eager to share it with their peers. Coming closer and closer to the topic now J. We have 7 Belgians on the MBA program graduating in 2016, I think 5 on the MBA2015 if you count people with multiple nationalities. Combined with the MiM, MiF and EMBA program, there are about 20 Belgians at LBS.  We organized a Belgium trek, performing on ‘Tattoo’ and are looking forward to organize beer tastings and also probably a “cantus”, for those who know, a great piece of our student culture! The Belgium trek in short: 25 students, 9 nationalities, 4 cities, 3 mini-vans, 2 company visits and lots of beers and fun! We started our visit in Leuven with a walk past the Old market and the famous city council building. Beer being an important part of Belgian culture and AB Inbev a major recruiter of MBA students, we visited their headquarters in Leuven. After an informal presentation and touch point with senior management, we were taken on a guided tour around the factory. Ending the tour with a draughting course, everyone learned how beer actually should be draughted. Afterwards going to a bar serving more than 1000 different beers, you can imagine we had a great night. The walking tour or cycling tour discovering the great city of Brussels was followed up by chocolate workshop. It was a busy day as we went to Ghent in the early evening to visit a start-up. StoryMe is a young dynamic small company executing powerful promotion videos. They start from the principle that all complexity should be easy to explain. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing night walk through Ghent, which I would recommend to all of you if ever visiting Belgium. Our last day, op of the bill, we visited Bruges. Everybody was tired but still enjoyed the medieval breath of the city. We got a lot of positive feedback from satisfied travellers, saying it was a unique trek and view into Belgium and its culture. Mission completed!   After having organized this trek early November, I understood the importance to visit a country alongside locals. You can bring an exclusive viewpoint and experience to your peers. There again, it is proven that diversity enables a superior experience at business school. I’ll have to think about my next subject, but it might be about recruiting for an internship, as this is what everybody is currently concerned with. See you soon!

I haven't been able to find a hard number, but from what I've heard from current students, it's about 50%.

They seem to be fairly selective - plenty get dinged without interview - very roughly its probably two fifths to interview, then half of those to accept with a number of others getting waitlisted. Earlier rounds appear to waitlist more than straight dings.

They have over 3000 applications a year for 400 spots - even assuming a relatively low yield of 66% then that would be 600 accepts. That's potentially a optimistic 20% chance of every application getting in.



It can do - I had mine in a week though i know some were waiting a while.

LBS does the interview slightly differently to most other schools. Everyone at LBS is interviewed by an Alumni - secondly those alumni are 'paired' to you, meaning they will try to find one that has a similar background or interests or work experience, and is potentially working in your target exit industry.

This therefore takes a bit of time as they need to 'profile' you - then identify an alumni that meets some of your profile - before reaching out to them to confirm they can undertake the interview within the next couple of weeks.

This obviously gives you the best possible opportunity to make an impression as you don't get landed with someone who doesn't understand where you came from or where you want to go. It also gives you a great opportunity to really get under the skin of what the school is like from someone in your shoes potentially only a few years before.

So it can seem quite slow but i thoroughly enjoyed my interview - even the dreaded presentation which my interview decided to try and grill me on (but in a nice way)!

Very useful, thanks. Where was your interview? And what about the presentation - is it something standard for the interview, or your interview just decided to go out of the way?

I did mine in London - Alumni arranged to do it in a coffee shop.

Presentation was supposed to be c. 5 minutes of the overall interview. You will get more details in the interview emails, but in essence theres a number of preselected topics of which the interviewer will choose one. You will have a few minutes to prepare - with some paper and a pen - and then you will need to 'present' your ideas to the interviewer.

You really can't prepare for it other than perhaps reading as broadly as possible on business news to help generate ideas. Review some concepts on creating simple presentations and speak confidently about your ideas and it'll be fine - unless you are considering strategy consulting / advisory as target exit careers (in my case the interviewer worked as a strategy consultant and used it to really put me under pressure to see if I could think on my feet - in much the same way I might be in dealing with clients in the future.)

Having said that I doubt that's the norm and I've come away with $$ so perhaps helped him decide on how much LBS should pursue my application.

Great. Thanks!

Have any round 2 applicants received details about their interviews? I got the invitation last week but have not heard anything about the interview time/details.

I haven't received any details ince the invite either. All i've received is a an email selling the program and referring to my invite to interview...

"Congratulations once again on being shortlisted for interview, we wish you all the best and hope you enjoy meeting with our alumni.

I’m delighted to share the recent news that our flagship MBA programme has been recognised yet again as one of the best in the world, taking the second place in the FT Global MBA Ranking. [...] "

If you don't have anything by CoB tomorrow then drop your regional admissions officer a quick email or phone call. Sure it will be just a matter of trying to find an alumni to confirm they will do the interview - if theres a substantial delay in getting it organised the deadline for getting the interview done will be pushed back for you so dont stress. You will get a couple of weeks to contact and organise the meeting with the alumni.

The email says up to 2 weeks, so it's probably too early to fret now. It does seem to take them a while to lock down these interviewers though! I had my interviews with HEC, which were also matched personally to my background, and they got back to me with details within a day.

I'm just wondering if I'll have to travel, since I live in a place that likely does not have many alumni.

Ooo toughie - hard to know without specifics but i'd be surprised if they couldn't find an alumni in the same country if not city/metropolitan area. Have heard someone travelled over a couple of hours to another city but nothing worse.

Just heard from the admissions - they have paired me with an alum for the interview. Located in NYC.

Are you located in NYC, and that is where your interview will take place?

Interviewing in NYC as well...

FROM LBS Current Students Blog: #LifeAtBusinessSchool: How to Start a Successful Business

We all want our business HQ’s based in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, so I think it’s about time I talk about how one goes about starting from an idea and transforming that idea into a multi-million dollar business.     As you can imagine, starting a multi-million dollar business is not easy, so I have divided this post into 4 parts: 1) How to start a successful business 2) How to come up with a multi-million dollar idea 3) How to convert my ideas into serious money 4) Going from £millions to £billions To answer the question “How do I start a successful business”, I will tell you how to start an unsuccessful business. Starting a successful business is simple- do the opposite. Next I will briefly talk about the best way to generate great ideas. This is where most people do well enough by themselves. We all come up with great ideas, but can we convert these into serious bucks? The most emphasised concept I have learned at business school is that a great idea doesn’t really mean anything. Great ideas have no basis unless you can capitalise on them and transform them into viable businesses. We address this in part 3. Finally once we have spoken about how to generate your initial £1m, the game begins. This is where people will see you making money and try to take your customers. In part 4, Going from $millions to $billions, we will talk about strategies adopted by players such as Apple and Google, that enable your company to remain competitive and invest in projects that will keep you ahead of the game, increase your market share, and grow your business. Part 1 will be out soon- follow me on social media and make sure you don’t miss it! Twitter: @umarahmed12 Instagram: @umarahmed122 YouTube: Coming Soon Official Website: www.umarahmed.com