Today ended four days full of interview preparation and interviews themselves. On Tuesday and Thursday I had my two “big company” interviews with Shell and British Telecom respectively. They were both very structured, including cases, and really more “assessments” than interviews. Insomuch as I wasn’t invited for the next round by either company, I failedContinue reading “Interview Failure”
Category Archives: IMD & Switzerland
Blues, BBQ, Football, and Cool Weather
I have fond memories of this time of year in Virginia. As the weather would cool and it would feel more like autumn, I would be consumed by the excitement of heading back to school and . . . the football season! The weekend ritual was wonderful: Friday night: high school football under the fridayContinue reading “Blues, BBQ, Football, and Cool Weather”
Interviews
Day 1 of interviews is over and it went pretty well. Before I left my apartment in the morning I was listening to Bob Dylan’s discography. The superb quality of his decades of poetry is the subject of another entire post, but this morning I just had him on for background music. When it cameContinue reading “Interviews”
Fall Has Arrived
It’s 50 degrees F, it’s raining, and leaves are strewn along the ground. Fall has definitively arrived and I think my days of beach volleyball here in Lausanne are numbered. Good thing I have a trip to Houston, where the beach volleyball season extends from March to December, coming up in a week! Speaking ofContinue reading “Fall Has Arrived”
Deja Vu
Everytime I think I’ve left IMD’s first half in my rearview mirror, it jumps back into my life. It is late at night, I’m here at school with my team, and–just to ensure that I really feel like it’s Q1 2008 again–we all just trampled each other to get at sushi left over from anContinue reading “Deja Vu”
A Trace in the Sky
Monday evening I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit in on a session in an executive program for a major energy company. The speaker was Bertrand Piccard, who completed the first transglobal balloon trip. I had seen his balloon at the National Air & Space Museum, where my mother works, so I wasContinue reading “A Trace in the Sky”
Condom Understanding
Yesterday was the first presentation to our ICP client, the definitive end of Phase I. ICPs usually follow a four phase format: I: Industry Analysis – understand the client’s industry and which factors are key to succeeding in itII: Company Analysis – benchmark the client against those key success factors, identify gaps, and recommend initiativesContinue reading “Condom Understanding”
ICP Client Visit in Zurich
Following is an IMD MBA Diary entry cowritten by my ICP teammate, Daniel, and me. This is Daniel’s second time working with me (We were also in the same Mod II study group.) and he hasn’t strangled me yet. You know that something has changed when you take a train during a weekday. We haveContinue reading “ICP Client Visit in Zurich”
Swiss Dairy
Last night was fantastic. The entrepreneurs behind my spring startup project, deskNet, took my group out for a celebration dinner. This was something we intended to do back in May when the project finished, but final exams, Kenya, and vacation interfered. It was nice to take a break, though, as this way they could updateContinue reading “Swiss Dairy”
CSR
We wrapped up this week with another case on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Once again there was a great deal of debate. Was the company genuine about providing environmental benefit? Or was it just looking to improve its image and, hence, its returns? If the latter, did it matter so long as the environmental benefitContinue reading “CSR”