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IMD Calling all applicants Class of 2015-16

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newsIMD

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04 Mar 2014, 01:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: The chaos of democracy

Yesterday we faced an interesting
situation in class. We were given a new group assignment – nothing new there –
however this time instead of being assigned to a group, we were told we should
go ahead and identify our own groups ourselves.

A class size of 90 is certainly
pretty small, but it is still not small enough for an exercise like this not to
cause some chaos and frustration!

As soon as the first coffee break
happened, many of the MBAs rushed to the board to start picking topics and
groups. There was a loud discussion as people excitedly tried to be in a group with
the people they wanted, or to make sure they were among the first to claim a
certain topic. It suddenly looked like the trading floor at the New York Stock
Exchange in the auditorium.

I don’t think there is anything
wrong with the students organizing themselves – the problem was that, while all
this was happening, other students were taking advantage of the short break to
go to the bathroom or grab a coffee. When they came back to the room, they found
themselves on the outside looking in, and started to voice their frustration.

After a chance to talk things
through, the class took a step back and voted on a methodology to organize the
groups, using some of the original set-up that the early jumpers got started
yesterday. Things should start falling into place now, but this has certainly been
a lesson in how complicated it can be for a group like ours to self-regulate!

Marcelo

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05 Mar 2014, 06:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Suurprise assignments

Until now I have tried to plan my workload and my projects, but yesterday I realised, that this was maybe an overoptimistic approach.

We just finished our industry analyses presentations, and were happy to allocate more time to start-ups and other assignments, when Ralf introduced our new topics, country and macroeconomic policy analysis with a very short deadline, 20th March. I was first shocked, that if industry analyses took us one and a half months, how we will make it in two weeks with even an integrative exercise in the coming days. But I have realized, that the issue is just about this. They are stretching us even more, and we have to develop ourselves further, as what was good yesterday will not be enough tomorrow.

Fortunately the topics are extremely interesting, and I’m very happy that I can work on our specific topic about comparative analyses of economic development paths, so I hope I can earn some more energy from my special interest in the topic.

On the other side we have a different team for this assignment, which is great, as I can try teamwork with some other classmates as well, but a challenge also, as we have to play with time allocation even more among our start-up and our economics teams.

Now I’m continuously realizing, that although it was hard to imagine, but pressure is increasing continuously further and further. Let’s see, how we can handle it.

András

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06 Mar 2014, 08:20

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I got a call....i got invited to the assessment day. I am excited. Thank you IMD :-)

Good luck to everyone.....lets go change the world and leave a mark.

Cheers!!

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06 Mar 2014, 12:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: A quick entry

Just a quick entry today, as I am in the middle of this year's first
integrative exercise. My group has been working hard on our case study this
afternoon - analyzing the facts, deciding on a strategy and polishing our storyline. We’re now taking
a quick dinner break, but I know we have a long night of work ahead, since there's lots left to do before we
finish everything.

Hopefully I’ll get through the weekend in one piece, it
sounds like I will be challenged in a number of different ways over the next 36
hours. I know the lack of sleep probably won’t help. Right now I am feeling optimistic though - so it's time to get back to work!

Wish me luck!

Marcelo

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07 Mar 2014, 15:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Integrative days

For several days everybody spoke about the integrative exercise. And then we received it yesterday after lunch. We spent almost our whole night in the dungeons (we finished after 4 o’clock), and I’m sitting here even now with fine tuning the story line with my group mates.

We have a quite complex case, which we already presented one time to our jury. Of course we could not make it such perfectly, that we could miss a second trial. So we are working, calculating, falling asleep, but wakening up for some jokes or ice cream, and hoping the best.

This is a really special experience, but I hope, that we will be successful tomorrow and we won’t have a third round!

András

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09 Mar 2014, 02:33

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Congrats fafelu1 :-)

Anyone else with a call yet?

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09 Mar 2014, 11:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Still Recovering from the Integrative Exercise

We completed our first integrative exercise yesterday and
most of us are still struggling to recover from the lost sleep, high stress and
“real world” critiques on our final proposals.

All in all the experience was extremely valuable, and
certainly the most impactful experience that I have had at IMD to date. I could
drill down to a five-minute response from one of our professors as the most
altering 5 minutes of my year thus far. It felt as though the foundation on
which I stood was being broken beneath me. Now I have to rebuild it, stronger
than it was before.

I feel left with many unanswered questions on what more I
could have done, what I should have done differently, and how to improve going
forward. I somehow also feel both impressed and disappointed with my work at
the same time. I think that we all learned hard lessons over the 48-hour
marathon, and I know that these are the experiences that made us decide on IMD.
We didn’t want a walk in the park, we wanted a challenge, and that is exactly
what our professors gave us these past days. I feel a deep appreciation for
what they have done for us, for my team, and for the entire class of 2014.

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09 Mar 2014, 16:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: [Photo-blog] ICA

Last week we had team presentations of an Industry Analysis which we had been working on for several weeks. The presentations went well, we all learnt a lot, and then had some fun relaxing after!

It was my birthday this week, so I got the IMD flag. Also it is important to sometimes get out of the IMD bubble, and I had a great day in Gruyere.

Osaka

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Location: Japan

Concentration: General Management, Entrepreneurship

Schools: IMD '16 (S) INSEAD Jan '15 (S)

GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V40 Verified score

GPA: 2.8

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Schools: IMD '16 (S) INSEAD Jan '15 (S)

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10 Mar 2014, 05:15

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Got it!!

Super excited, waiting for the assement day as the story unfolds and journey begins...

Cheers~

sarab

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Schools: IMD '16 (A)

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10 Mar 2014, 08:20

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Hey

Even I got invited for the interview...excited and relieved

Will be taking the assessment day on 25th. Anyone else on that date ?

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10 Mar 2014, 09:27

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Hey folks,

Just got an interview call today...headed for Lausanne now

All the best to everyone

Cheers

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10 Mar 2014, 16:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: A wonderful surprise

Today we had a wonderful surprise during our Finance class.
No, it wasn’t that Nuno stopped the discussion of the case study half-way
through, when there was still about an hour left in the class time (although I
feel the class didn’t mind that too much either). It was actually what he
announced afterwards that blew me away – Nuno had lined up a guest speaker on
the phone for us, and it was none other than Harry Markowitz, Nobel Prize
winner and “father” of modern Portfolio Theory.

What a treat, to hear from the person who came up with the theory
and concepts we have studied in so much detail over the last few weeks - really
brought the material to life!

Harry is a vivacious character. He talked very candidly
about the limitations of the CAPM and portfolio theory, he gave his opinions on
asset allocation and explained some of his work with Guided Choice, an
investment and retirement account advisory firm he helped found. He even gave
us a little taste of what it was like to receive the Nobel Prize, telling the
story in a very humble and charismatic manner.

Needless to say everyone in the class was delighted about
such a cool surprise. Leaves me wondering who the next guest speaker will be!

Marcelo

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12 Mar 2014, 06:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Career strategies day

Yesterday was a key day for most of us, as it was a full day with a career advisor, Daniel Porot.

For most of us, career path after IMD is one of the most important points of the whole program, as all of us would like to leverage our new knowledge, skills, network, experience and passion as much as possible. But how to do that and also how to receive a sufficient salary to earn the money to pay back loans or accumulate savings sufficient to make those things happen, which were postponed due to IMD?

This day was about helping us to answer these questions. The first question to be handled is to choose and target your industry, company and the specific field of interest. We received useful ideas how to do it, and our presenter emphasized heavily the importance of answering this question first instead of wasting too much time to shoot on every opportunity.

This phase is essential not only for its own, but it hugely impacts our answer to the “how to do a proper job search” question. I was really amazed, how much practical advices we could collect yesterday, how professional the whole story was, and how much incremental improvement potential is in my job searching techniques.

This whole-day session was a really perfect one, addressed many of my questions and I feel I received also sufficient answers.

András

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12 Mar 2014, 16:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Business Models Across the World

With our start-up projects having one month left to go, we are rushing around to source all the information needed to make good assumptions and add value for our entrepreneurs.

My group has had two major breakthroughs in the past 2 days, by meeting with a thought leader in the field today, and by speaking with a leading company on the other side of the globe yesterday.

Because our start-up is in an emerging industry, it is part of a very small network of companies. With as few actors as there are, they are still global. It has been fascinating learning about different examples of success from Brazil to Cambodia.

We are also learning about the important and real challenges of regulations and patents while trying to find real solutions for our start-up. From sourcing suppliers, making investment scenarios, picking suitable locations and understanding logistics scenarios, the start-up project is giving us a real-world example of what businesses are made of.

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13 Mar 2014, 14:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: 5 unexpected things I like about IMD

1 – Partner lunches

We had a partner lunch today and I have to say, I really
love this tradition. All the partners and families come to the IMD restaurant,
and the bonus family time really gives lunches a different vibe. With all the young ones running around it
truly feels like we are all one big family.

2 – The coffee and tea selection

It’s a small detail but to me it makes a big difference that
IMD offers the students a nice selection of hot caffeinated beverages for us to enjoy during breaks – very necessary!

3 – The involvement of students

I like how IMD includes the students in several aspects of
the school’s operation – for example, requesting and incorporating student feedback
into the program, having students host applicants during assessment day, and even
inviting students to participate in discussions related to recruitment and marketing
strategies.

4 – The monthly changing of seats

Again this is a small detail, but let’s be honest we’re all
creatures of habit. I like how our seats are switched around each month, so we are
not always sitting next to the same people and we don’t get caught up in the
same old arrangement for the whole year.

5 – The professors’ musical choice

Every once in a while in the morning we will walk into the
classroom and hear the professors’ choice of tunes playing. When the music is
good (which isn’t always the case!), it really helps the day get off to a nice start.

Marcelo

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15 Mar 2014, 03:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Nespresso or Spanish wines?

You don’t have to make a choice, yesterday we could enjoy both.

During the day we visited the Nespresso factory in Orbe, close to Lausanne. I didn’t know that all the Nespresso capsules consumed worldwide are produced in two factories in Switzerland (a third one is also under construction). It was a little bit surprising for me that Nestlé is not moving the production into cheaper countries, but then I saw the fully robotized and automatized production center requiring minimal labor force during the factory visit.

First, we learned about the story of coffee beans from the plantation to the harbor in a video presentation, and then, also in live from the arrival of the coffee beans into the factory, until the point when it leaves it in the form of packed capsules. The whole system was really amazing, and it was great to see, how a well working production system looks in reality what we discussed during our operations or marketing courses. The continuous quality checks and the whole approach of Nespresso regarding quality were also key learning points for me.

And, this was not the only key event yesterday! Our Spanish classmates hosted our next wine class about Spain. We had a very nice selection with a Crianza – Reserva – Gran Reserva serie from Rioja. The event was very popular again, and even Leif, our accounting professor joined us. So we had the chance to relax after the busy week and at the end of the night we even started to dream about a good start-up idea based on the impressions of the week. Believe me, we were really creative after some glasses of wine…

Enjoy the weekend!

András

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16 Mar 2014, 15:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Lessons in Networking and More

Follow this link to the most recent video blog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZfNGAZn ... e=youtu.be

Ashley

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18 Mar 2014, 02:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: A new scholarship

Yesterday we were presented with a unique new opportunity –
another scholarship! At the end of our Economics session, we were introduced to
Francisco Szekely, Sandoz Family Foundation Professor of Leadership and
Sustainability.

He challenged us to think about
what sustainability really means. We all realize it’s a growing problem, and we
all see there is growing urgency for action. As business leaders of the future,
we face the tough task of figuring out how
to navigate through the dilemmas that the sustainability challenges
present. Should businesses forego a competitive position in the short-term and
try to invest in a sustainable long-term? What do we do if our business’s
product contributes to social problem?

This new scholarship gives us
the opportunity to think about the role of business in in addressing these
problems and turning them into opportunities. Social responsibility, environmental
impact, renewable resources, over-consumption and scarcity – how can we
leverage the power of business to drive positive change in these areas? We have
1000 words to put forth our best ideas, and win a potential prize of CHF 5,000.

The winner will also be tasked with organizing and leading three
class debates on selected topics in sustainability. Should be very interesting!

Time to put on my thinking hat and get cracking. As always the
biggest challenge is finding enough time to reflect, given that we have so many
other projects and assignments to keep up with!

Marcelo

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21 Mar 2014, 16:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Economics ends, Strategy starts

Today we had our last economics class. It is really strange, because until now this was the course, which had the most impact on us. From one side due to the amount of information to be absorbed by our brains, on the other side we had two group works, the industry analysis and the country analysis dominating quite a lot our "free-time". For the first one we have just received the grades today and we have just submitted the second one on Thursday. I’m sure that our life will be slightly different without the Economics course, but we will not miss Ralf, as he will be with us as a program director, and I’m sure also as the host of many further ideas.

On the other side, we started our Strategy course as well with Phil Rosenzweig. He shares very interesting thoughts about strategy, but also on other subjects. For example we have learnt, what our favorite position in the class means for our future career (a classification with sky deck, power deck and even a garden terrace) and why he asks less people from one side of the auditorium than from the other.

Have a nice weekend!

András

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23 Mar 2014, 14:00

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FROM IMD Admissions Blog: Patience with the PDE

I have been having some hesitation with my PDE sessions.
Where others come with stories of very acute realizations, my conversations
have remained rather light. This has been disappointing, as many alumni have
said that the PDE sessions were one of the cornerstones of their IMD
experience. I wondered what I was doing wrong. I wondered what my PDE analyst
was doing wrong. What else could I do to make it work?

Yesterday was a different story. I must be honest that most
days I do not feel like going to my PDE. There is so much work to be done, and
a PDE session will take nearly 2 hours with travel time. But, on the rainy
Saturday afternoon I made my way to IMD and tried to wrap my head around what I
would say.

I shared a dream I had and responded to questions. The
conversation then shifted and I found myself being very open and complaining
about different things. I felt like the session had gone completely off track,
and then my PDE picked up on something small, which was actually something
huge.

Lesson: Sometimes trying too hard can be a hindrance.