Stronger

​Today’s guest entry is by my classmate, friend and one of my favorite Brazilians in the class – Henrique. So with great pride and excitement, let me introduce a good writer in the hiding!!! Thanks for sharing buddy and thanks for being a great friend! 

Stronger

"Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering; not amid joy." - Felicia Hemans

Five months into the program, module I and II are over. Half the class is jailed in the dungeons doing desk work for their ICP projects (yours truly included), and the other lucky half is travelling around the world doing ground work for their projects. I thought (and eagerly anticipated) that things would calm down, and that I would have more time to myself – to sleep, to focus on my job search, to bike more, or to just procrastinate endlessly. I could not have been more wrong. But that doesn’t mean this is bad. I am now interacting much more with my group, an average of 12 hours per day. We are all certainly more aware and mindful about ourselves and about each other. Work is efficient, so much more. I am amazed at the end of each day of how much we have accomplished despite endless discussions that can last for hours. The behavior change on every single person in class is clear as water, and we still have another seven months to go.

I can’t help to go to bed each night and noticing that my heart is filled with pride about all of us. Coming to IMD is not an easy choice. It’s a life-changing option, and all of us have paid a very huge price for being here, be it personally, professionally, or financially. But none of us ever questions that choice – at least not anymore. We all can see the life-changing experience that we are going through, and how much it is transforming us into better persons. It’s not about the leadership stream teaching us how to manage people; it’s about being more mindful and aware in life. It’s about becoming more humane. It’s about understanding what we want, and what we don’t want. It’s about understanding who we want and who we don’t want. It’s about learning about ourselves, and which careers we can pursue that will give us the chance to be the most happy and accomplished. It’s about understanding that our personal and professional lives are interconnected, and one cannot function well without the other. In one way or the other, all of us had to face those questions in the past 5 months, and we will continue to do so for the rest of our lives.

I have been away from my home, family and friends for almost a decade. I have lived in 7 different cities and 3 different continents during this period. I faced countless obstacles that made me question my strength, my choices, and my commitment to go on. I look back from where I stand today, and I can’t find reason to regret any of my choices. I made good and (many) bad choices. But I learned from them. My choices made me the person that I am today, and they brought me to the grounds that I now stand.

I am where I’m supposed to be.  We all are. And we can count on each other when the times get rough.

Henrique Martins de Araujo

Half way through the program and knee deep in the ICP Lake…

​Can you believe it!!? We are 2 modules down and almost half way through the program and I don’t want to sound clichéd but it certainly feels like it was just yesterday when our program director, Martha, welcomed us to the program and there she was last week on Friday congratulating us for the half-way milestone we had achieved…

ICP’s (International Consulting Project)​ began on Monday and for some of us that means travels to faraway lands and for the others, it’s hanging out in the dungeons with the occasional meetings across Europe. I am part of a group of 6 energetic, funny, driven and enthusiastic classmates – Iulian, Emanuele, Aiwa, Rastislav and Marco – and our challenge…to help a global mobile phone manufacturer launch a new phone in Europe! One thing that brings us together on this project is our appreciation and passion for technology and our enthusiasm to help this client do it’s very best! This week we are knee deep in ‘Industry Analysis’ trying to understand every small nuance of the mobile phone ecosystem and also trying to look at other businesses who have been able to innovate and disrupt within their respective industries! And while the fun part of Industry Analysis is talking to the various players involved in the eco-system, the not so fun part is going over reams of financial data, marketing analysis, competitive analysis, etc….but it’s gotta be done to not only help us understand the sector better but also help us identify how we could potentially help our client position or reposition itself in a segment.  It’s very different from being in class and it takes a different level and kind of energy but so far most of us are happy to have a change in schedule and to start applying our learning to the ‘Real World’. Our first client presentation is in a week from now followed by the final one in mid-June and yes, we get to travel within Europe for both the meetings!

On the topic of Industry Analysis, I’ve been wondering all day how people collected similar information/data in pre-internet times!! And is it a good thing that we have all these great digital libraries, data, etc today? or would be better off by spending all that time talking to customers all over the world, suppliers, partners, competitors, etc? Nevertheless, in all our projects we will be doing a fair amount of informational interviews and of course a great amount of data analysis as well…

Ok…time to get to that data and more research and analysis!

From data-land, ICP country, Universe IMD

Vikas Menon

Milestones and what a great night!

​I’m going to keep this entry short because of a torn ligament on my thumb which I ‘acquired’ as a result of excessive IMD style dancing at 4am in the morning with my partner and dearest classmates to celebrate the last day of Module 2 exams, the integrative exercise and yes, my 31^st birthday…Thank you my dear classmates for making the celebrations a special evening for me and for all the lovely best wishes, gifts and IMD love!

My wife planned for my friend from home to surprise me as well and I couldn’t have asked for a better place than Eat Me to celebrate this great milestone…Eat Me is a fantastic restaurant in Lausanne set up by an IMD alumnus from 2007 and I have to thank her as well for not only entertaining us over the weekend but also for showing us that we can make our dreams happen when and if we are ready to recognize them and seize the opportunities…..I am super excited to be writing a case study about Eat Me as part of an entrepreneurship elective and about the opportunity to work with Serena (IMD alumnus and owner of Eat Me) as well as working with Prof. Benoit who has made me think of Entrepreneurship in completely different light!

ICP(International Consulting Projects)​ land starts tomorrow and we are now at the half way mark of the program and we all feel a sense of great pride(and relief) in that we have survived through sleepless nights, long weeks, insane assignments and an intense learning experience that has been a transformational experience and has made us closer as a class!

Another year older and I am grateful to god as always for having such amazing friends and for being part of a great IMD class with really great people!

Have a good week!

Vikas Menon

Muito Obrigado Prof. Nuno Fernandes…

​Let’s rewind back to January 2013…a group of 90 MBA’s in their late 20’s or early 30’s from across the world…each one of us with an average of 7-8 years of work experience in all kinds of tough and harsh work environments and cultures…

Just when you think you know it all…god (or a Portuegese Finance Guru) proves you wrong!! The first week after class with Prof. Nuno, I remember telling my wife “Oh my god! I didn't think that I would have the fear of god in a Professor at the age of 30!!” I was awake most nights past midnight studying Finance and ensuring I didn’t miss even one of the required readings for the class…because being cold called and not knowing an answer in Finance class was a feeling most of us never wanted to experience!!!

I came to IMD with zero background in Finance, with no particular interest for a career in Finance post MBA and with a fear of Finance…but ask me what I know about Finance today and I will tell you I am not an expert, but I can have a pretty good conversation with a finance expert and keep up and in most cases also understand what he or she is saying! J I’m not as petrified by Finance anymore and in all honesty, Finance is probably on the list of the top 2-3 things I have learnt at IMD!

And like most of my classmates, I can only attribute this to Prof. Nuno because he helped us push our limits and test our boundaries (and in many cases make leaps and jumps over those boundaries). Today during our last finance class, we all were dressed in either Black or White as dedication to Prof. Nuno (“Things are either black or white”) and we tried our best to say thank you to him in our own way. As a class were able to finally see Prof. Nuno for who he “really” is rather than the Professor we 'love to hate'…..you see, no one likes to be the bad guy but someone has to push a group of driven and egotistical (as proven by today’s exercise) individuals to work hard….especially, since it’s been a while since most of us left university and this is where our Finance professor has no hesitation in doing whatever it takes to ensure that we do our best and learn our best! So it's not just about finance, but its about leadership - because leaders need to be tough guys, make the difficult calls and take the blame for the greater benefit of their team! 

I’m still a bit concerned(actually afraid is the right word :-) ) that he might not like us talking about him on the blog or blowing his cover but I think I can speak on behalf of the class when I say that we will miss our Finance classes and our inspirational Prof. Nuno Fernandes!

Muito Obrigado Prof. Nuno Fernandes…

Vikas Menon

Is this the life you want…?

Happy Orthodox Easter everyone! Thank you to my Greek and Romanian classmates for enlightening me about their Easter celebrations!

I was talking to a friend from home today and he was surprised to hear that I have my exams again in a week from now…it feels like the previous integrative exercise finished only yesterday and we received our previous exams results barely 2 weeks ago!

And now, here we are juggling the initial ICP meetings, our Economics presentations for the week, the Economics quiz, our leadership paper which was due today, the usual finance assignments and an OP-ED for the GPE class on May 19……oh yes, did I forget to mention the minor detail about the E X A M S starting on May 13 ending with the two day integrative exercise on May 16 and May 17!! Things always move at lightning speed at IMD and we are finally beginning to accept that fact of life and deal with it…

When I met with IMD alumni last year, a few of them mentioned that the IMD experience helps you think about “how you want to spend the rest of your life?” and hence, they said that it was typical to find a lot of IMD grads focused on their career growth for the first few years post -graduation and having highly progressive careers but then quickly ‘’dropping off the grid”…don’t get me wrong, IMD has a fair share of famous leaders and CEO’s who were once IMD MBA students like us….however, for a vast majority, it seemed like at some point, they asked themselves how they wanted to lead their life’s and if career growth/work was the only thing that motivated them…they sought out a work life balance and decided to live their dreams sooner than later rather than life on the “deferred life plan” (i.e –“ Once I have enough money or a certain role in my career, I will do what I have always wanted to do”)…anyways, my point is this intense schedule at IMD sometimes makes me wonder if this is how I would want to live my life in the future…because it’s a fact that becoming a senior leader in the corporate environment is demanding and will require time away from the family, time away from doing what we enjoy doing...and at what cost does all this career growth come?

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls...are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” – James Patterson

Enjoy your week!

Vikas Menon​