One year later

First, I need to say that I've hardly been able to contain my excitement this evening given that tomorrow is our last exam and it’s freedom for 4 days! (which by the way will be the longest break we have had since we started in January) We end exam week with Marketing tomorrow and that officially ends Module 1 for us!

It’s been a tough week for me trying to fight a really nasty cough for the past 2 weeks while trying to stay focused in spite of all the cough syrups and sedatives I have been having! I finally gave up on self-medication and took a 25 minute hike to the Vidy urgent care clinic today to try to find a cure for this annoying cough! FYI – good luck trying to get a doctor’s appointment in Lausanne if you don’t plan to fall sick in advance and by advance I mean at least a few weeks’ notice! It’s days like these when I miss the convenience of my old life in Dubai where I could drive to the first available doctor, get treated and be out all in less than an hour but Cést la vie and you win some and lose some! J

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to have lunch with an applicant for next year’s class and I couldn’t help but reminisce my assessment day last year March 21. We were 5-6 nationalities from completely different professional backgrounds and yet by the end of the day we all were gelling quite well….not surprising then that all of us eventually made it into the program and are classmates today (Steeve, Mathias, Truth and Alex)!  

And finally on the topic of exams, would it be wrong if I said that I actually enjoyed the opportunity to review, reflect and prepare for these exams? It not only helped me connect the bits and pieces of dispersed information but also helped me validate and realize that indeed I had managed to learn a lot in these past 3 months and that’s a great feeling in itself! Yes, a decent grade in all the subjects would be great after this but who cares about the results when you know that you gained so much in just 3 months!

It’s been a great journey so far and I believe the results will eventually come!

Back to marketing and preparing for a great celebration tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

Yours,

Vikas Menon​

 

Ooops…I forgot…

Yes, it finally happened….Hopefully, I’m the only one who realized – I forgot to post my regular blog entry over the weekend.  I knew it was bound to happen given the increasing pace of the program, the upcoming exams and start up deadline.

My mind is currently racing with 1000 thoughts about the exam and I’d be lieing if I said I weren’t stressed…for most of us, its been a while since we had exams and as my classmate Patricia said, we really thought that the GMAT would be the last exam for us!

We had our final class with Prof.Leif Sjoblom today for Accounting and tomorrow is the last day of class for Module 1. Yesterday, while reviewing balance sheets, cash flow statements, cost accounting etc,  I began to realize that amidst the pace of the program and the 101 things we do every day, I had managed to absorb and learn a fair amount of accounting...my only hope is that, this "fair amount" is enough to get me through the exam :-) 

On a different note, our ICP teams were assigned at the start of the week. In my case, I will be working with a global mobile phone manufacturer and given my background in high tech and telecommunications, this project and company are close to my heart! It’s also exciting to have a new group and new challenge ahead of us for Module 2!

But this is not all that’s happening at IMD – Thanks to our classmate Henrique and the Speakers Committee, today we had the pleasure to hear from Mr. Andre Laude, Chief Investment Officer for IFC(The World Bank Group).

Special thanks to our brave classmates who are taking the time this week to help us prepare for the exams by organizing various review sessions. 

As you can, lots to share but very less time....so until next week 

Wish us luck for the exams!

Vikas Menon

Summer Days are here….new beginnings....goodbye to Winter and Module 1

​The weather is not the only thing changing in Lausanne…we are gradually transitioning from extremely cold, gloomy days to warmer, summer days and my classmate Peter couldn’t have said it better than this picture below...

This past week has also been a reminder that Module 1 (3 months) of our program is coming to an end….first it wasProf. Ralf Seifert, followed by Prof. John Walsh & finally Prof. Benoit Leleux who presented their last lectures in Operations, Marketing and Entrepreneurship. In their own ways, they have not only educated us about their subjects, cross functional business but have also challenged us and helped us explore our various journeys post MBA. I especially admire the fact that IMD Professors are some of the most approachable teachers I have come across and this tremendously facilitates the learning process for us.....in their very own ways, they have impacted each of us and we will definitely miss their sessions!

Most of us are busy working through our start up projects, exam preparations(less than 2 weeks from now) and day dreaming about our “long” 4 day easter vacation! For me, my ever so kind partner has planned a trip for us to Nice and Montecarlo and most of us will be leaving Lausanne to get some much needed rest and hope to be back re-energized for Module 2.

But on the topic of new beginnings, let me congratulate my classmate Hernan and his wife Tina, on the arrival of their baby boy – Lorenzo! We are looking forward to meeting our first IMD baby for the year! We are super excited to welcome a new member to our IMD family! 

Until next time,

Vikas Menon 

The aftermath of the integrative exercise

We have successfully completed our first integrative exercise that started at 1:30pm on Thursday and culminated at noon on Saturday…..talk about an intense 48 hour exercise that covered most things we have learned so far. I wish I could tell you more but that would be giving too much away and taking away from the learning experience for our future class! All I can say is that we share a great sense of accomplishment in the (crazy) feat we have accomplished in such a short period of time working with our team through various challenges and fighting the clock to get the task done! For the future class, please make sure you get a good night’s sleep before the exercises (something I did not do before the exercise)..here are some of my classmates celebrating their achievements post exercise!

 

After our exercise on Saturday afternoon, I met with my psychoanalyst who had a tough time keeping track of the pace of my conversation given all the red bull and espressos that had me charged up! My partner’s father is visiting this weekend so we took him to Geneva later that day to meet some extended family and friends. I managed to get some sleep later that night followed by a trip to Evian across the lake today!​

Most of my classmates are either busy catching up on sleep, work or at the Geneva motor show. However, while we are relieved that the integrative exercises are done with, we also know that the next few weeks are going to be as intense with our first exams coming up in 2 weeks and our start up project presentations.

It’s time for an early dinner followed by some sleep!

Good evening,

Vikas

ICP's and the best advise

​Earlier this week we were introduced to our ICP(International Consulting Projects) and this evening, Prof. Margaret Cording discussed the various participating companies. And by now, you know that Diversity is a central theme for every activity at IMD and therefore, it’s only natural that we have a diverse range of companies with a range of problems spread all over the globe for our ICP.

We have a large global beverage company looking at improving their supply chain process in South America, an automotive insurance technology solutions provider looking at market entry strategies in the Nordics, a mid-sized business software company looking at expanding into different sectors in both Europe and emerging markets, a niche manufacturing company looking to revive a declining product line, an advanced material science firm trying to define effective industry applications for their products, a leading life science company trying to define its go to market strategy, a large well established global pharmaceutical leader trying to innovate by thinking like a startup, a global FMCG giant aiming to grow its B2B business, a global mobile handset pioneer trying to redefine and create a new market segment in Europe, a specialty housing/real estate firm trying to identify a profitable and scalable business model in UK, a leading high-technology aerospace and security leader challenged with developing a services model for their business, a world leading agri-business firm trying to analyze its channel partner strategy, a global non-profit organization trying to develop a growth plan and a leading HR outsourcing services organization trying to achieve aggressive growth in Europe.

I honestly wish I could reveal the actual client’s above to share some of our excitement and in some cases confusion with you. Why confusion? Because with so many good choices across industries, functions, geographies, it becomes difficult to make a decision about your ICP! Do you decide based on your past expertise or based on your post MBA career goals? And that’s when Prof. Margaret gave us some great advice and made the choice absolutely easy for me…she said “go with your gut” and irrespective of the decisions we made, we would have a great learning experience solving real business problems collectively with our classmates in a challenging environment. 

On my way back home while talking to my classmate Joaquin, we realized that the good thing about going with your gut is that, irrespective of the challenges, the geography, the function and the industry, you will always remember that you followed your intuition and in most cases it’s always worked for you in your life!

Wish us luck for the integrative exercises that start tomorrow afternoon and I hope to share some insight on that over the weekend!

Cheers,

Vikas​

The calm before the storm

This weekend was a welcome break for all of us after a tough week that included the 1.5 day marketing simulation. I believe this was the first time my group decided not to meet on the weekend and I for one celebrated that throughout the weekend with a few drinks and dinner on Friday night, followed by our classmate Truth’s son’s 1^st birthday yesterday afternoon and a movie marathon with my wife where we successfully watched not one but three movies (Argo, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and an Indian Movie – Dabaang 2). As a result of the “free time”, I woke up this morning feeling stressed thinking that I wasn’t doing as much as I could this weekend and so decided to finish up my finance homework and some pre-work for the sessions later this week. It’s strange when you start feeling guilty for actually having time to yourself on a weekend….it’s a feeling most of us have forgotten in the past 2 months!

This week promises to be exciting with a live case tomorrow morning for Entrepreneurship class, followed by a chat with an IMD alumnus on Tuesday evening to discuss his current role at Google and his transition from strategy consulting to Google! But truth be told, I think the one thing on all our minds is the upcoming Integrative Exercises, a 2 day exercise that runs from 1:30pm on Thursday until noon on Saturday. I have heard horror stories from alumni about the integrative exercises and some of them even said that we’d be lucky if we managed to get any sleep during the exercise. I tried searching the IMD website for information on the integrative exercises and came up with an interesting article from our Program Director, Prof. Martha (What might IMD's MBA program look like in 2051, when the 80^th class graduates? – December 2011) with some reference to the exercises: “IMD’s hallmark, the focus on self-awareness and personal development, is still evident. Teams work together intensively, with coaches guiding experiences and lessons about leading one self and others. Integrative exercises blow up and are resolved, and we can see the bonds being developed as people experiment outside their comfort zones and react to and support each other.”

And some of us are lucky to have our PDE​ appointments with our psychoanalysts scheduled for right after the Integrative exercises so that we can talk about everything that transpired! Nevertheless, it’s going to be intense, fun, challenging, stressful and an exciting period of 48 hours and hopefully I will be able to tell you more next week!

But for now, I’m cherishing the last few hours of the weekend before the storm of the integrative exercises, startup project and Module 1 exams approach me later this month!

Until then,

Have a fantastic week!

Vikas Menon