Mea culpa - errors in judgement

One of the funniest things in the MBA that I've seen so far - the scramble for front row seats by otherwise sensible and smart adults.

Let me explain how it works...We'd got an email stating that we're free to choose our seats in the class on the first day, on a first-come first-serve basis. The catch, you're stuck with the seat you choose for the entire term. And the last line was, 'you better come early to get the seat you want'.

Error in judgement # 1

Now, since the classes begin at 1000 hrs, one would be justified in imagining that 0950 would be the time for some strategic positioning in the rearguard.

No sirree! Not for the overeager type-A personalities in the MBA program. My first error in judgement. These fine people booked their places at 0730 hrs, no later! I got this startling bit of info just as I was strolling into class at 0955 hrs.

Error in judgement # 2

My first reaction was "****, I'll have to sit in the first row now !". As it turned out, the early birds took all the pain to get to class really early, then just threw away this (sneakily, but hard earned, nonetheless) advantage to sit right down there, in the front in the class. That calmed me down, somewhat, and kept me amused throughout the day.

Methinks, the type-A's got it all wrong. The scramble should've been for the last rows.

Methinks, they're not the cool ones.

Methinks, the kids in my school (hell, all our schools) were smarter.

Anyhow, I'm good. I am where I belong. Up at the back.

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LAUNCH it

Tomorrow is the last day of the LAUNCH programme.

Our IMBA programme kicked off on April 13, at Segovia (a quaint, historic little town outside Madrid). There we were, all decked up in our business formals, already "networking" over coffee, and later over beer and wine as well (and for some reason I'll never understand, water too !). The ceremonies were in an ancient church. There were ruins all around. Awesome ambience!

Networking

The head spun a bit, keeping track of all the names, all the nationalities, accents and back-stories. Everybody was one their best behaviour, all charm and charisma. Pump a handshake here, flash a smile there, and voila, you're "connecting", like any MBA worth his salt should. Frankly, I'm already sick of this whole fake networking thing.

Spotting Pseudos - an art, not a science

Sure, not everyone is fake. I've already met a lot of very genuinely interesting people. A lot of people I'm going to be great friends with, over the next year and more. But the pseudos stand out easily enough. They're the jerks who're more concerned with the "breadth" of their network, the "depth" of their relationships be damned !!

Orientation & Launch

But, to get back to the topic at hand; the orientation went on for another 2 days. Then the Launch programme started. This was a pot-pourri of a lot of stuff, basically revolving around team-building and soft-skills/awareness. There were sessions on the Case Method, Team work, Action Learning, China, Japan, the Arab countries, and many more.

We tried to make a device (from straws and tape) that would prevent an egg from breaking when dropped, had some drills with a pro basketball player (formerly with the Chicago Bulls), worked with a theater artist (Shakespearean) on improving presentation skills. Did I say it was a pot-pourri?

And we're not done with the Launch, yet! It'll come around again at the end of every term.

Add-ons

In between, I managed to squeeze in a session on "Marketing for startups". Absolutely worth every minute of it! There were 2 IE graduates, one who'd set up busuu (an online language learning portal) and another who'd set up MasMovil (an upstart Telecom service provider). Inspiring stuff. I'd sure made the right choice, signing up for this one and ignoring another on Strategy Consulting that was going on at the same time. Who needs a classroom of would-be suits hanging on to every word uttered by a bunch of suits?

PS: We've got a quiz on Financial Accounting on the first class. W.T.F. !!

PPS: Each time I hear the word "Launch", I hear "Houston, we've got a problem!!" Can't get it out of my head. Man, I've got issues.

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First Impressions

OK !! I am finally here in Madrid. What a place !
The city is just amazing. A lovely place to spend a very important year.

But to cut to the chase, what are my first impressions of IE ?

The buildings and the infrastructure
There are some 5-6 buildings that we IMBA (to rhyme with Simba, as in 'The Lion King') folks use on a regular basis. They're all adjacent to each other, or across the road from each other.
There are no sports facilities, but that's not a bother. Madrid has lots of opportunities for this. Anyway, I'd rather attend school in the heart of the business district, and have no sports facilities, rather than have a sprawling campus located in the middle of nowhere!
The infrastructure is top-of-the-line. Wi-Fi access, good classrooms, vending machines everywhere, printing/xeroxing facilities, the day's FT/WSJ copies available at entrances to all buildings, it's all there.

The support staff
The student office folks are great. They're more than willing to help with issues ranging from Spanish translations, pointers to restaurants/bars nearby, Immigration issues, bank accounts... the works!

The content
It's still early days to comment on this, but already, one thing is clear. All courses manage to weave in some angle of entrepreneurship! Everything is taught using cases, and most professors use YouTube a lot. That keeps people awake in class, for sure!

The people
This is the main thing, isn't it? Well, the calibre of my batch is way more than anything I'd imagined. Not just the calibre, but also the make-up of the batch, and the maturity. It's a tad older than I'd expected, with most of the people in their early thirties.
No, I'm not going to put out the usual BS about 'ohh, my workgroup of 6 people has 6 nationalities', 'I had lunch with a Lebanese, coffee with an Italian, and sit next to an Egyptian' and other such nonsense. The batch is amazingly diverse, period!

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Ad-Coms deconstructed

While it's no surprise that applicants aren't really on the level in their essays, it should come as even less of a surprise that the ad-coms are worse (or better !) at obfuscation.

Here are a few things that people should know...

Spin : Your stats don't matter. You as an individual matter.
Fact : The colour of your skin, your gender, and your ethnicity/nationality matter. BIG TIME!

Spin : Leadership potential is valued.
Fact : B-schools are actually truthful here. And nothing shouts out leadership potential louder than having daddy dearest rolling in greenbacks! After all, which B-school would refuse admission to a scion of a major industrial houses? Someone who is bound to become the CEO sooner rather than later. Who is bound to land up on the 'prominent alumni' section of the website.

Spin : Diversity is good.
Fact : It is good. But it's used as a convenient excuse to get rid of one conventional applicant, to bring in another with the right gender / ethnicity / nationality. That boosts the rankings. That bring in more money. That helps you improve your ranking further. That gets you more money. And so it goes...

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