Daniel Day Lewis

Blogger’s note: I no longer use the term “Redskins” but am leaving my prior references intact in the spirit of learning.

In between rewriting my PPIN (a 20-page paper that defines everything I stand for and analyzes my past to understand why) and pounding my way through the 20 cases we have to prepare for this week’s course on stakeholder management, I had the opportunity to watch some movies this weekend.

Friday night I revisited a movie I hadn’t seen since pre-school: Howard the Duck. I was looking for something to have on in the background as I caught up on some emails so I didn’t want anything too intellectual–no worries there! This movie was just as bad as I remember it but it did bring back some memories.

Saturday I threw on Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay which was almost as bad. Again, though, I just wanted something for the background while I cooked and putzed around.

Saturday evening I settled in for a Daniel Day Lewis fix. I never really knew who he was until I saw Gangs of New York, in which I found his portrayal of Bill “The Butcher” Cutting absolutely riveting. When I saw There Will Be Blood (for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor) several weeks ago I was reminded of how much I admired his acting so decided to procure his other movies. Saturday night I watched The Last of the Mohicans and this evening I just finished My Left Foot, for which he also won Best Actor. Daniel Day Lewis only seems to surface every few years but, when he does, it is a performance worth watching.

I was glad to have some time this weekend to watch some movies–one of my favorite pastimes. Also, congratulations again to Washington Redskins greats Art Monk and Darrell Green, who were officially inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame this weekend. Hail to the Redskins!

2007

At long last I have finished my chronological tour through American popular music. The 2000s ended my journey with more of a whimper than a bang so I really don’t have much to say about them. Here are a few thoughts, though:

Although I’m no great fan of Mariah Carey’s, it is impressive that she has now been cranking out hits for almost 20 years.
I’m glad that the fad formula of female vocalist + Ja Rule groaning/grunting in the background came and went pretty quickly.
There are still a number of great rock/alternative songs that aren’t making it onto Billboard’s charts.

Now that I have completed this musical tour and, at the same time, played through all of Jimmy Buffett’s albums (35 years worth!), I almost don’t know what to listen to next. However, the weather is great, which means I need something to pump me up for some beach volley. I’ll just start at the top of the alphabet. Next up: AC/DC!

Allez Suisse!

We have spent the past three days in a negotiation workshop run by CM Partners. It was a great experience studying frameworks for analysis of one-on-one and multi-party negotiations. These frameworks are useful for advance preparation as well as mindfulness in the moment. The goal throughout our simulated negotiations was understanding each party’s interests in order to reach a wise decision for mutual gain. Of course understanding wasn’t enough; we also practiced many communication techniques to keep dialogs moving in a positive direction, even in the face of “difficult” circumstances or people. We wrapped up the session this afternoon by tying it in with other IMD course themes: principled negotiation can be a great tool to help us make the world a better place.

Today is also Swiss National Day. It was celebrated with a brilliant display of fireworks over the lake, which I could see very well from my window. Now that the official fireworks are over, the private fireworks are going off with loud booms and occasional flashes in the distance. I think I’ll sleep with earplugs in tonight as the “wild and crazy” Swiss get their celebration on!

Crisis Management

Today we finished a day and a half of training in crisis management. We began with a simulation. In each group we were given very little information about our company, told that we were in charge, and then BAM, the crisis started. We began receiving telephone calls from employees about chemical leakage from our plant. Before we could get a handle on that, news reporters burst into our offices asking accusatory questions to which we really had no ability to respond intelligently.

We spent the next several hours trying to gather information from our employees, the media, the townspeople, and the authorities. All the while the phone was ringing off the hook, the reporters were beating down our doors, and we were trying to figure out what to do given our limited understanding of the situation. By the end of the exercise we had a full-blown environmental catastrophe on our hands and our share price had fallen 50%. Our attempts to communicate via the media were amateurish at best and may only have exacerbated the situation. What a failure!

What a learning experience as well. We spent the next day analyzing what happened during the crisis and how best to prepare for/execute crisis management. This included a significant amount of time focusing on how best to give interviews, hold press conferences, and deal with the media. Our practice interviews were taped, replayed, and analyzed, which helped us understand what we need to work on–especially in situations featuring high anxiety and low information. This was a very good, eye-opening exercise.

In between the crises, we have had a few chances to catch up with one another about our vacations. It’s kind of funny; all the girls are showing off new clothes purchased over the break. All the guys look pretty much the same. Three of the guys were married in July. One of the guys had a baby–wild and crazy times!

Our next day will be spent on career strategy/search, followed by two and a half days of negotiation training. Welcome back to school!

Back in Lausanne

After three glorious days in San Menaio, a small town on Italy’s Adriatic coast, I am back in Lausanne. San Menaio was wonderful, as it always is: no Internet, no work, just peaceful beach life with my Italian cousins.

The Italian side of my family is always incredibly welcoming and accommodating in their little beach house. We spend the mornings and evenings at the beach, separated by lunch and a siesta. Then, after dinner, we travel to nearby towns at night to “fare la passagiata,” just walk around a bit. The food is always prepared fresh from little carts that travel by the house in the morning selling fish, fruit, vegetables, etc. Life is good in San Menaio.

I read some of the first Harry Potter book in Italian while I was there. It was slow going because my vocabulary of magic-related words is pretty deficient. By the end of the trip, though, I was reading much more quickly than at the beginning. Now that I’m about to recommence the torrent of IMD activities, we’ll see if I can finish the book by year’s end.

It’s great to be back but there is much to do before we begin a mini-course on Crisis Management tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind another week of vacation!

Hiking

Today was a simple day in Piemonte. We woke up late, had a huge breakfast at the villa, then went hiking around vineyard trails in Monta’, not too far off. We had gelato for lunch (still too stuffed from breakfast for anything more) and pizza for dinner. The evening is cool and the sky is clear for stargazing. I will miss Piemonte.

Tomorrow we leave for Puglia to meet the Italian side of my family at their house by the sea and I will be cut off from the Internet for a few days. The next time you hear from me I will be well fed and incredibly relaxed. Ciao, a dopo!

Barbaresco

Today was full of Bacchanalian goodness. We began in Barbaresco at Bruno Rocca. We were pleased to be greeted by Luisa Rocca, Bruno’s daughter, who led us into the tasting room to begin. No tour, just right down to business–we didn’t object! We learned about the vineyards that Bruno Rocca owns throughout the region and all of the different wines that are produced. Then we tasted three of them: Bruno Rocca Dolcetto d’Alba Vigna Trifole’ 2007 (unrated), Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Coparossa 2004 (93), and Bruno Rocca Barbaresco Rabaja’ 2005 (unrated). The Dolcetto was a wonderfully balanced value wine and the Barbarescos were divine. The day had started off right.

We then made our way into the little town of Barbaresco itself for lunch. We ate at a little trattoria in the shadow of the town’s main tower, wandered around a bit, then headed back to Barolo for our afternoon appointment at La Spinetta. La Spinetta held special significance for me since its mascot is a rhino and only a few weeks ago I was being chased by a rhino in Kenya. We arrived early and were offered a glass of champagne while we waited–off to a good start!

We toured the Barolo Campe’ winery then tasted six wines, beginning with the La Spinetta Barbera d’Alba La Gallina 2006 (unrated). We then tasted the three single-vineyard Barbarescos: La Spinetta Barbaresco Starderi 2005 (92), La Spinetta Barbaresco Valeirano 2005 (unrated), and La Spinetta Barbaresco Gallina 2005 (94). The one from the Valeirano vineyard was my favorite as it was spicier than the other two, which were lighter and showed wonderful finesse. Our final red wine was the La Spinetta Barolo Campe’ 2004 (95), one of the few La Spinetta wines without a rhino label. Its label featured a lion instead, because Barolo is the king of wines. And wow, what a king this was–all hail! We wrapped up with the La Spinetta Moscato d’Asti Bricco Quaglia 2007 (unrated), which was a light, refreshing way to finish.

Finally, we met the La Spinetta guard puppy, a border collie who chases tennis balls and nibbles on low hanging fruit (i.e. helps out with the green harvest!) all day. Adorable! After a day of such great wines, we didn’t even go out to dinner. We made it back to the villa early and I am heading to bed a super happy boy.

Barolo

As today is Sunday, all the wineries were closed and we were unable to book any appointments. All of the local enoteche, however, were open, so we took a leisurely drive around the Barolo valley, stopping every chance we had to taste Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera, Dolcetto, and even Moscato.

Some of the views on our meandering drive were absolutely spectacular. We were particularly fond of La Morra, on the valley’s northwest ridge. One of the aspects of Toscana I always loved was how its hills were a patchwork of different colors and textures. Here in Piemonte, every parcel is planted with vines so they have a more uniform color and texture. However, the color is a beautiful, rich green and the texture is a consistent, horizontal striation made by the rows of vines on steep slopes (Grapes are all harvested by hand here because machines couldn’t handle the grade!), so there isn’t much to complain about.

The enoteche in the castles of Barolo and Grinzane Cavour serve as the official tasting destinations for local varietals. What could be better than sipping on great wine in old castles with such beautiful vistas in all directions? La dolce vita.

We stopped in the city of Asti for dinner, settling on a restaurant with many local specialties on the menu, a nice wine list, and no English speaking staff. We weren’t disappointed. Our waitress offered to select antipasti for us then we just chose first courses, thinking we would have a light meal. But oh were we wrong. The waitress brought plate after plate of antipasti so delicious would couldn’t help but finish it. By the time my risotto with hazelnuts in a moscato cream sauce arrived, I could barely touch it. If that’s the worst problem I have, though, life is good.

In Italia!

After a long, beautiful drive along the Mediterranean coast, we arrived tonight at our B&B just outside of Asti in Piemonte. Our home for the next few days is Villa Sampaguita, a charming estate owned and operated by two ex-pats. They served us a multi-course dinner upon our arrival. Everything in it was grown and made here at the villa–including the several vintages of Barbera d’Asti that we drank. Our hosts are gracious, the grounds are beautiful, and we are prepared to take on the wines and castles of Piemonte . . . after a good night’s sleep.

Last Day in France

Today was a travel day. We began with a poolside breakfast then toured Chateau Figeac in the St. Emilion AOC. We were part of a larger group here, but our guide was excellent. We finished with a tasting of the Chateau Figeac St. Emilion 1988 (84), which was still as youthful as the day it was bottled–very impressive!

We then spent the rest of the day on the road en route to Marseille. About half of this time was spent in traffic once we had already entered the city! For dinner we returned to Le Miramar, where Cox and I had dined two weeks before. Once again we all had the Bouillabaise and once again we were not disappointed.

All though the FIVB beach volley world series is going on here right now, we won’t have a chance to stop in for a match before we depart for Italy. Oh well, maybe next time!