IMD Calling all applicants Class of 2015-16

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: What a day!

​Today we have learnt what does “Real World, Real Learning” mean, what we can see all around IMD. Today we had a crisis management session, where we had to handle a real crisis situation with all the elements and the huge complexity all around (of course in the form of a simulation). I don’t want to share too many details, as it would eliminate some part of the experience for next year students, but it was a super intensive and interesting day. We had continuously changing situations, and some funny classmates made it even more complex, when they unofficially volunteered to bring some additional difficulty into our story (especially as our team took it seriously). It was amazing, how quickly we could go into this story and how well our group could cooperate under the intense pressure. Luckily, we stayed calm during the whole exercise, and everybody could find a role in the team. We saw during the debrief session that one team even used physical pressure to handle an unexpected situation, which resulted in funny pictures and videos at the end. I’m sure no one will forget this day! András

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Exams Ahead

​More surprises came this weekend with a unique learning experience at IMD. If I were to say anything at all, I would be giving away too much. Instead, I will cover the outlook on exams. We have our first big exams coming up in two weeks. I am partly nervous about getting in enough study time, and partly thrilled… because after exams we have our 4-day spring break! We will have exams on four core subjects and will also be presenting and submitting our final start-up project at the same time. Strangely, the tensions don’t seem as high as they were and I am not sure if it is because I am now used to the work load, because I am better at managing it, or if it is the beautiful spring weather we are having to distract me from what lies ahead. Pulling together study plans has allowed me to see collectively how much material we have covered thus far, and it is intimidating but also impressive. It makes me feel assured that progress is being made, not just in terms of soft skills, but hard skills as well.​

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: My group’s turn for Repetitorium

​Today was finally my group’s turn to present our Repetitorium. What’s a Repetitorium, you ask? Well, it is something our program director Ralf Boscheck came up with. Each week, one group is responsible for summarizing the content of that week’s lectures and presenting a review to the class. Usually this takes place on Friday evenings (or Saturday morning!), but because we were busy with our special crisis management session this past weekend, our session was pushed to today. I was covering the Economics class, which is always quite a tricky subject to cover, since prof. Ralf likes to add a dash of philosophy to spice things up. I found the Repetitorium quite a tricky assignment, actually. It required extra special attention during classes last week, and extra preparation on top of all the regular readings and assignments. The toughest part was probably keeping the class’s attention first thing on a Monday morning, after we all lost an hour of sleep due to the daylight savings time switch! Still it was good to have another opportunity to present in front of the class, and it feels good to be done now! Marcelo

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: When our guest speaker is the CEO of Nestlé

​IMD is really a school, where you can meet with top leaders from all over the world. Yesterday we had a really special guest in the class, Paul Bulcke, the CEO of the largest food and beverage company of the world, Nestlé. He made a very interesting presentation about the core values and the main strategic pillars of Nestlé, and he also shared some personal stories and decision points from his life. It was a great opportunity to understand at least partially, how the head of a real multinational company thinks about management and strategy, and how he connects all the above mentioned parts into one consistent story. He also had introduced some outlook to the future via the development directions of the company, from which the Health Science direction was the most interesting one for me. He has not only shared messages about Nestlé and its strategy, but also gave some advices for our career choices. For most of his advices he gave also private examples from his really colorful professional career, so these gave even more credibility to these important messages. This was a great opportunity to meet with a real top manager from a top company, I hope we will have further similar opportunities during the coming months of the program! András ​

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: 90 Exceptional (Diverse) Individuals

​I am not sure if it has been the goal of IMD to put me through the mental and emotional challenges that I have been facing the past few months. I am not sure if it has been the plan of IMD to tear away my comfort and my confidence, but I have been going through these things. In IMD’s group of 90, with all of its beautiful diversity, divergent perspectives can be extremely challenging to accept. In a larger program, you will pick your friends and not get to know many others. At IMD, you get to know 90 very different people, and the more you get to know these people, as individuals, as team members, as friends, the more polarized perspectives will seem and the more conflicting viewpoints will arise. As we get to know each other more each day, our differences become more apparent and the more who we are, as individuals, can be challenged. How can we be true to ourselves, while equally respecting the 90 other different individuals with different cultures, different experiences, different viewpoints, different strengths and different weaknesses? We are each working on ourselves, as leaders, to not just overcome these challenges, but to turn them into opportunities for growth, with the understanding that this can only be achieved if we work together.

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Photo Blog - Country Analysis, Crisis management and Lake Geneva

blog.pdf There has been some intense preperation for projects, and we have improved with each presentation. Here we are presenting our Country Analysis for Economics. This was followed up by crises management activites. Of course, after this stress, it is important to remember what a beautiful part of the world this is, and to take time to 'smell the roses'. I did this with a scenic train ride which had magnificent vistas over Lake Geneva and the Alps. ​

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: The end of entrepreneurship course

​Yesterday we had a very interesting day. We started with a special accounting class. During the analysis of the case, Leif asked the question, who believes that this is a good solution? Quite few hands were visible in the room, so somebody from the back came forward, and introduced himself: he was Torkel Olrik, an IMD MBA alumni and the key player in our BG Bank case. It was fantastic to receive so many insights about a turnover process of a bank. He has not only shared many professional information with us, but also put a lot of energy into his story, making it even more lively for us. After the case discussion he also shared more information about his life. It seems, that he could write even a book full of his stories, but even during the limited time at the class we received many good advices from him regarding our future career. In the afternoon we had our last Entrepreneurship class. Due to the fact, that Benoit was the professor at my admission case interview and I had already some trials with some small ventures, this was one of the courses I waited a lot prior coming to IMD. And I can say, that it was above all of my expectations. I’m sure, that if you have entrepreneurial plans, this course will make you a good return for your money invested into your IMD year. He shares so many good and bad examples, very useful advices and insights about the world of start-ups and funds, that it increases significantly the chance of success of the future ventures you intend to start. I’m sure the whole class agrees, that the Entrepreneurship course was one of the best until now, thank you Benoit for this! András

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Has it really been 3 months? Only? Already?

This time in 2 weeks we will be finished with our first exams and our start-up project, but our short-lived Easter break will be almost over. It is bittersweet. Looking back on the first 3 months of the program, it has flown by in quite a blur. We have done so much but as I review everything I am seeing how much I have absorbed. I am stunned by how it has seemed like so long ago and at the same time just like yesterday when we started our first classes back in January. Only exams will tell how much I have personally accomplished, though the general motto is that grades are not everything, it is personal learning that really matters. I am hoping that this motto upholds… and that I won’t have any exams to retake over summer break!​

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Weekend time management

Today's entry brought to you by one of my classmates - thanks Justin! --- IMD is very good at making you manage your life in the limited time that you are given. Every weekend there is so much to do for school and outside of school and everyone wants to take advantage of as many of them as we can. This weekend, along with some of our classmates travelling around Switzerland, there was the Cully Jazz Festival and the Morges Wine fair, both in towns just a few minute train ride away. Some of us just kept it simple and went to the Olympic museum for a relaxing brunch. While students went out to enjoy the weekend for a bit, there are always some people that stay back and work in the dungeons or study at home. its not always the same person, but its always someone. It's much harder to go out and enjoy yourself when you know that someone is working or studying diligently. To survive here at IMD, sometimes you just need to forget about it for a while. We all need some time to get out of the house or the dungeons and enjoy some time with ourselves, our classmates and Switzerland. IMD's Motto is Real World, Real Learning -sometimes all it takes to revitalize ourselves is to get out into the real world for a few hours. Justin Jameson

Hello GMATCLUB Members,

GMATClub and Admissionado Consulting are conducting a webinar for the applicants got dinged this year. This is your opportunity to get expert guidance and build a smart strategy for the next application round/season. Webinar will be conducted by Admissionado's Founder and HBS Alum Jon Frank. Jon will share his suggestions followed by a Q&A session - this is your opportunity to ask your specific questions.

One lucky attendee will get the opportunity to have his/her (dinged) profile evaluated by Jon Frank during the session. If you'd like to be chosen for this opportunity, please email info@admissionado.com with the subject line "GMAT Club Webinar - Choose me!". Please include your name, nationality, age, GMAT score and a list of schools where you were dinged. And please also attach your essays + resume + LORs from one of your applications. Winner will be notified via email on April 16th!

Hey congrats to all who got invited for assessment day All the best for your interviews. I have submitted my app for R2 so waiting nervously.

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Start-up wrap-up

​After three months of ups and downs, trials and tribulations, the start-up projects have finally come to a close! Each group has had the opportunity to present their work to entrepreneurship professor Benoit Leleux, as well as a panel of very accomplished venture capitalists. My group was one of the first to present, so we weren’t too sure what to expect. We were under the impression the panel would be ruthless, so we went in thinking we would have to face some serious fire from the VCs. It turned out, at least for my group, that the VCs were very nice, polite and engaging. Not the mean, impatient beasts they were made to sound like. Their questions led to some interesting discussions about the project, some good insights on what venture capitalists want to see in a project – and not so much about what we did wrong or what we missed, which was a relief! After the VC presentation, we wasted no time and met with the entrepreneurs themselves to hand them our deliverables. That proved to be a 4-hour meeting, where the real tough questions came! All in all the entrepreneurs were happy with our work and with what we delivered to them. Mission accomplished! Being done with the start-up project is a huge milestone. It is the end of the road for the first study groups. In three months we spent lots of time getting to know each other and learning how to work as a team. We all helped each other improve on our weaknesses and sharpen our strengths. Now we become “free-agents” again, wondering what challenges we will encounter in our next groups, when the deck is shuffled again. Sadly, there’s not much time to feel nostalgic. With only a few days left until mid-term exams begin, it’s time hunker down and get studying! Marcelo

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Bye-bye Dahu

​Yesterday we had the final presentations of our start-up projects. It is a very interesting feeling, as our nice ski manufacturer company was a key part of our last 10 weeks. We have not only spent a lot of time with the young entrepreneurs, but at the end we have started to feel, that this whole story is our own as well, and  even when we could stop working on new deliverables, we continued to fine tune a report, a model or a summary, because we believed, that it will help them to make the next step forward. It is very strange to think about that this project will disappear from our life. But one thing will be even stranger: we have to change our study groups. Today my group made the „repetitorium”, and it was quite shocking for me, that this was our last thing we prepared in this group. In mid January we stepped into our study group, without knowing hardly anything about each other. After a very successful outdoor day and a less successful integrative exercise, many fights and debriefings it is really hard to imagine, that we will not step into our study room saying „Dahu!” instead of good morning or afternoon. Thank you Dahus for the great work together! András

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Day of Reckoning

​Tomorrow is the start of our first exam week. We will have daily exams in Finance, Accounting, Operations and Strategy. I am feeling quite nervous about all of them. Classes finished Wednesday and so we have have the longest time period without classes since the program began. It is difficult to focus and study becasue with all of this free time and the perfect spring weather outside, there are many temptations. The review has been going quite well, and I am feelinga bit better about how much I have learned as I review all of the material since January. The most impressive thing about the whole study experience is how much the students have been pitching in to help one another. Students have held multi-hour review sessions on finance and accounting, and teams of people have pulled together comprehensive reviews, complete with revised notes, Q&A and the like. It is such a harmonious atmosphere where everyone is there to help, you really get the sense of a strong community and I am so happy to be a part of it. You also see all of the value forming in the network, and I can image a culture of an extreme willingness to help post-MBA. Back to Finance- Ashley Silver

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Photo Blog - The days before the exams

Studying for the exams: Mental exercise has to go hand in hand with physical exercise. The ping-pong tables have never been busier... At leat one of us will have some challenges with concentrating on the exams as he just became a father. Here the class is applauding after hearing the good news: Meanwhile summer is approaching, so we can read our cases outside in the sun: ...and the IMD restaurant is preparing for outdoor lunches! Although having lunch inside is still the highlight of the day for many:

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: ​Table tennis, the refreshment between two exams

Yes, exam period is going on, and we have four exams in four days, two of them four hours long. And of course we had very limited time for preparation during the last weeks (or we can say, that we made learning by doing...), so I have very busy days (and nights...). Fortunately there are several tables, where we can enjoy the beautiful weather and we can play table tennis to calm down, empty our heads after the exams and collect some energy to start the preparation for the next one. Today Benoit Leleux, our entrepreneurship professor also joined us, and he played very well. If he would join the planned class competition, he would be among the top players probably, but with our classmate, Anurag they were definitely a very strong pair. But let’s go back to the nice Operations notes! András

FROM IMD Admissions Blog: The Final Hours

​We have our last exam in 8 hours and I am so looking forward to the 4-day "break" that we have following. Exams have gone ok thus far. It has been fascinating to seen how all of the information comes in so seemlessly. I find myself bringing in learnings from all of my courses while taking each individual exams, and it makes me happy to see the results of three months of hard work. After classes we will have a small celebration and then people will depart on holiday. In good IMD style, we start up with intense work next week, with plenty of reading assignments which could fill the entire holiday- that I won't be touching! Ashley