For the second consecutive year my high school was selected by US News and World Report as the top public school in the country (article). This year two of my alma maters have been ranked #1 and I am, once again, humbled. It is a great honor to have been selected for such institutions and not a day goes by that I am not thankful to have had the opportunity. Now, at the cusp of my next stage in life, I hope to be able to live up to the high standards set by my peers. While I can’t promise results, I can promise to do what I’ve done throughout my academic, professional, and athletic careers: my best.
With Honours
Yesterday we graduated and celebrated. The festivities began with a graduation ceremony at Beau Rivage Palace along the lake. Our guest speaker was Mr. Eitan Wertheimer, whom we first met when he was here with Warren Buffett. After his, MBA Program Director Benoit’s, and IMD President John Wells’s remarks, our classmate, Bevan Mckenzie (New Zealand), stole the show with his own address. Two months ago we elected Bevan as our class speaker and he did not let us down. His talk was witty, inclusive, and moving.
At IMD students are eligible for two diploma awards. “With Honours” is an academic distinction given to the top 9 students as measured by cumulative GPA. These nine students walk and receive their diplomas first. “Distinction in Leadership” is given to the top leaders in the class as measured by feedback from their groupmates throughout the year. I was honored (No superfluous “u” for me!) to receive both awards yesterday.
Yes it was great to walk among the first degree recipients, but what really made the experience special was being grouped with my favorite peers: Bevan, Daniel (with whom I shared two groups), Matt (with whom I interviewed for IMD last fall), and Lucy (about whom I blogged in the spring). I really admire these classmates of mine and being counted among them is a real thrill. I worked hard all year to achieve that status and I blogged several times about the failures I encountered along the way. Those failures, however, made attainment of these final successes all the sweeter.
After the ceremony and reception, we broke for the afternoon and returned to Beau Rivage in black tie for the graduation ball. It was a lovely affair and, although the DJ left much to be desired, dinner was excellent and it was a great way to say goodbye. Now it’s time to start packing up and thinking about what will come next!
Delinquent Blogger
I’m sorry to all my readers for taking so long to post an update. The last week has been very hectic for me between finishing school, career search, and preparing for the post-IMD tansition. Let me bring you up to speed in a few areas:
Classes
Last week we finished our second and final week of electives. Global Strategy changed somewhat as we moved to professor (and IMD President) John Wells, who focused on the need for strategic agility for long-term success. IAGD continued to be emotionally draining but we touched on some really significant–if painful–issues in group dynamics. Managing Change was replaced with Managing Information, taught by Don Marchand, who drove home the importance of focusing on people and information, not just on technology.
Electives really brought it all together for me. The classes presented many similar initiatives through different lenses. For example, to remain strategically agile (Global Strategy), it is critical to foster information sharing within your organization. Information sharing is facilitated by incentives and systems (Managing Information). Changing incentives and deploying information systems require major change management (Managing Change) initiatives. For change management initiatives to succeed, it is helpful to know what is really going on within your senior leadership team (IAGD).
Thanksgiving
The electives were excellent and really helped me finish on the right note. Another factor contributing to my happiness was a long, belated Thanksgiving dinner at my professor’s house in Lutry. Corey was our faculty sponsor for the ICP and invited the whole team (+ guests) to his house overlooking the lake. He cooked for us, shared wine from his awesome cellar, and facilitated 6+ hours of merrymaking as the sun slowly set over the mountains. Best of all, we also got to play with his 2-year-old dog, who was most excited to to have visitors. She left so much black hair on my clothes that I was reminded of the infinite supply of white hair once provided by Ivan the Terrible, Nick’s Samoyed. I will miss Corey and my ICP team a great deal but this was an excellent way to begin the process of saying goodbye.
Harry Potter
Another reason that dinner at Corey’s place was so nice was that I have a strong, positive association with Thanksgiving. I usually spend it with my relatives in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which I really missed this year. It is always wonderful to see them, catch up, and get away from the hustle and bustle of big city life. When I’m in Hot Springs, I’m so relaxed that I actually pull myself away from my computer and go to the movie theater.
In fact, it was in Hot Springs that I first saw Harry Potter and became hooked. Speaking of which, I finished the Half-Blood Prince and I am now making my way through the final book, the Deathly Hallows. IMD and Lausanne will always stand out to me not only as the place where I did my MBA, met life-long friends, etc., but also as the place where I [finally] read all the Harry Potter books.
Career Search
While I still have several opportunities in the pipeline, my only firm offer is with Poken here in Lausanne. It is a great opportunity with a company that has lots of potential. In that it is a start up, there is none of this “take your time, find yourself, and start in March” nonsense; if I accept with them I will start Dec. 8th!!! So, in addition to my other preparations right now, I am also soul searching and advancing my other opportunities to see, by the end of this week, if this is what I really want to do.
Graduation
Graduation is upon us! Our committee has put together a black-tie ball following our ceremony at Beau Rivage Palace, to which I am really looking forward. After that it’s goodbye, which obviously encompasses some very mixed emotions: jubilation at finishing, excitement about next steps, and sadness at leaving a great year behind. This was the subject of an entire day of classes yesterday: how to say goodbye and move on in a healthy way. We’ll see if I can put into practice tomorrow.
Winning the War on Cancer
Great news! For the first time since declaring war on cancer in 1971, we are winning! So reports the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. My heartfelt congratulations and thanks go out to the myriad scientists, doctors, experimental patients, and others who have helped advance the art. Now is not the time to relent and pat ourselves on the back, though. Let’s capitalize on the momentum and keep pushing!
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
I woke up this morning to a COLD apartment. I was so focused that I just threw on some warm clothes and immediately settled into job hunting activities. It wasn’t until I received an email a couple of hours later that concluded with “Enjoy the snow!” that I pulled my nose up out of my computer and looked out the window. Sure enough, big flakes were falling and a light blanket was forming.
I made my way through the snow up to Poken’s offices for a design session with the CTO and, by the time we finished, it was sunny and the snow was melting. Oh well, it was pretty while it lasted and now it’s dry enough that I can go for a run. Tonight a few of us are going to get together to watch some American football, including my bowl-bound Rice Owls!
More Rankings
Business Week released its 2008 MBA rankings this week. They categorize schools as either US or ouside the US. IMD clearly falls into the latter category and was ranked #7, disappointingly down from #4 in 2006. Only one major ranking (the Wall Street Journal) remains this year. The WSJ ranked IMD #1 in the world last year; I hope we can keep our crown!
The Crying Game
Wow, this week was really intense. Electives were fantastic and collective anxiety about the future was at an all-time high. One elective, Managing Change, is already finished; we had it every single day this week. It took all of our theory and forced us to think more concretely about the actual tactics to use for effecting change in different situations.
Maury continued to challenge us with “name that tune/artist” at the beginning of each class. After successfully identifying Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D (but not successfully identifying the violinist–I guessed Itzhak Perlman but it was actually Jascha Heifetz), I was on a roll. The next day was an easy one with Paul Simon, although I didn’t recognize the song. Yesterday opened with jazzy/bluesy guitar renditions of “Georgia On My Mind” and “Stairway to Heaven.” It sounded like several guitarists playing simultaneously but the fret tapping sound indicated to me that it might, in fact, be only one person playing melody, harmony, rhythm chords, and walking base line on the same instrument. The only guitar virtuoso capable of such a feat that I knew of was Stanley Jordan, to whom I was exposed in 8th grade during my study of classical and contemporary guitar. Sure enough, Maury confirmed that it was he. So it was a good week for me in terms of music identification–now my final Managing Change paper will illustrate whether or not I learned about more than just music!
The Introduction to Advanced Group Dynamics elective is half finished now and has been a real emotional roller coaster. I am bound by confidentiality not to relay too much of what has happened there, but I can share that at least 20% of our class has broken into tears so far. Some of this comes from the open, honest sharing of feelings within our groups but much of it is channeled from outside emotions, especially regarding family life and the uncertainty of the future. Heavy stuff–and now I need to write a paper about it.
Electives and Beethoven
The first week of electives is halfway done and what a ride it has been. We are definitely back in “class” mode: reading cases late into the night, showing up on time to class, and throwing ourselves back into heated discussions. Well, some of us are, at least. Some, on the other hand, are checked out, arriving at class late and unprepared; I feel like only a subset of us have successfully re-engaged.
I try not to be resentful of the “slackers” but it slips out sometimes with snide remarks. Perhaps I’m the stupid one, clinging religiously to school rules and assignments while I neglect my career search. However, my intention in coming to IMD was to learn, not to “get a job.” I’ll be OK with continuing my career search into 2009 if it means I can focus more on the few weeks of learning opportunities we have left here.
And speaking of which, our classes have been really excellent so far. Global Strategy is taught by IMD newcomer Cyril Bouquet who will later be joined by IMD president John Wells. We have visited some interesting topics so far: how to choose the right internationalization strategy and how to build the best cross-border consensus in international M&A.
Managing Change has also been great. The first half of this course was taught by Anand Narasimhan, who used many movie clips to help illustrate techniques for creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding team, and defining an inspiring vision. Old favorite Maury Peiperl (whom we first met in Leading People in Organizations) is back now to finish up the course and focus on implementation.
He began today’s class, as he did in LPO, with a musical piece that he was able to tie into today’s class objectives. I recognized it as I walked in as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D–such a tour de force and one of my favorite classical musical works of all time.
A performance by Leonidas Kavakos with the Houston Symphony Orchestra first impressed upon me the incredible difference between classical music on CD and in the concert hall. The intensity of the piece was communicated not just by the sound waves coming from the 1692 “Falmouth” Stradivarius he plays, but also his body movements, breathing, and facial expressions. It was amazing.
Perhaps someday we too will be virtuosi of business–I’m working on it!
Back In Lausanne
My few days in NoVA were absolutely wonderful. The leaves were vibrant hues of red, orange, and yellow and the weather was a sunny 60+ degrees F. In addition to interviewing with a great company, I took some time to eat the types of food we don’t really have in Switzerland (BBQ and lots of things with jalapenos!). Best of all, though, I spent some time with friends and loved ones, which was an excellent shot in the arm before this last home stretch.
Today marked the start of electives. My lineup was Global Strategy in the morning and Managing Change in the afternoon. It was interesting to be back in class again, in groups of 20-40 instead of 4-5. It felt familiar–almost nostalgic–as we moved from reporting to executives to participating in case discussion.
Today I also received the worst grade I have received on any assignment all year on a paper I wrote for our Leadership stream a few weeks ago. In fact, it may be enough to knock me out of contention for a Distinction in Leadership at graduation. Although my first reaction to it was defensive, I have now poured carefully over the feedback and I recognize that my grader has made some excellent suggestions. Here, nearly at the end of a very intense year, I have learned a great deal but I still have so much more to learn. I will always have more to learn. Recognizing that, doing my best, and still seeking to learn and improve future performance will always be part of my professional life and my experience here at IMD has helped me practice it.
Positive Energy
Yesterday I spent all day interviewing with Positive Energy, a startup software company that helps residential energy users consume less electricity, natural gas, and other forms of energy. It’s one of the few opportunities I’ve found that would really marry my passions for addressing the global energy challenge and innovating game-changing software.
Before the interviews even started, I had a good omen: The major tenant of the building where PE is located is Sparta, Inc., where my father spent much of his professional career designing LASER-based optical guidance systems. I haven’t thought about Sparta in a long time and seeing its familiar logo (slightly adapted from when he worked there in the 80s) warmed my heart.
The interviews themselves went well. I had discussions with the CEO, VP of Product (to whom I would report), program/process manager, product managers for different products, and lead software engineer. The software engineer had his chocolate lab with him and he joined us for the interview, which I considered to be another great omen. Furthermore, PE’s offices are within walking distance of the original Red Hot & Blue, one of my favorite BBQ joints of all time, even though now it’s been overcommercialized and franchised around the country. The VP of Product took me out to lunch there, which further fostered the “good” feeling I have about this company.
The questions that came my way were very diverse: experiential, design thought exercises, brain teasers, and other funky, “out there” conversation catalysts. My impression after a very full day is that A. the company is really trying to hit it out of the park and significantly affect energy demand, B. the team is smart/high-end, and C. it seems like a good fit where my participation could create value for both the company and for myself.
Hopefully they will see things the same way. Even if they don’t, however, I’m glad to know that such companies exist. As I’ve blogged before, I think the “solution” to the global energy challenge has to be one that also makes good business sense, otherwise it just won’t be sustainable.
And speaking of the global energy challenge, Gore et al have already offered up a public “challenge” to the Obama administration: US carbon neutrality in 10 years! I love it! Nearly impossible, worthwhile challenges have always inspired me and I view the energy challenge as very synonymous with the space race of the 60s. “Why reduce energy consumption, streamline transmission, and produce energy from renewable sources? . . . Why does Rice play Texas? . . . We choose to achieve a carbon-neutral energy infrastructure within a decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!” The stakes are higher in this challenge and I am committed to doing what I can to help ensure victory.