Conjugal visits, revisited

Well, maybe I spoke too soon on how wonderful and how much people look forward to conjugal visits. One of the visits from this weekend resulted in some pretty serious heartbreak. Come to find out, two relationships have already been broken since school started less than two months ago. One of them was a 10 year relationship (not mine). I guess they weren't kidding when they told us that IMD does lead to some life changing events!

I must confess that my girl friend of 10 years and I did break up last August, and it was mutually agreed upon (can you use "amicable" if you were not married?). She was starting her MBA program at London Business School, and I was coming to IMD. But there were reasons other than just our MBA programs.

Not to blow my own horn, but based on my own experience, I did tell Charlie (someone from my study group) two weeks ago, that if a relationship has gone on for ten years, and it hasn't led to marriage, chances are something is seriously wrong. I predicted that the person with the 10 year relationship in my class was going to end her relationship sooner or later. What do you know.

Conjugal visits

So, here is how it works at IMD. About a third to a half of us are married or the significant other is here. For the rest of us, me included, well, are here by ourselves. This however, doesn't mean that we have no "significant" other. (Unlike most MBAs in other schools, the average age here is 31.5, so most of us have pretty steady relationships)

We are here from 8am to 5:30pm everyday. After 5:30, most study groups meet after a quick dinner. My group typicall meets at 7:30 and we can go until 1, 2 or 3am. Even on Saturdays, we have class in the morning, and the afternoon are often reserved for project work. For example, we have class scheduled until 5pm this Saturday. As you can see in some of my previous blog entries, this becomes frustrating after a while. I am either here at IMD, or in my apartment. We are pretty much locked in at IMD when we are not taking a shower or sleeping.

So, here is how I call the visits by "significant others": conjugal visits. It's a free pass, or almost. The group becomes a lot more understanding if you show up late, or sometimes not show up at all. Hey, after all, we don't get a lot of conjugal visits. The 90 MBAs this year represent 45 countries. This means most us travel pretty far to get here. This week, a girl from Brazil is visiting someone from my team, and another is visiting from Spain before moving to New Zealand.

So, a lot of action from members of my team this week. (My time will come.......)

inspirational leader?

While reading a case on Ogilvy & Mather for the OB class (they call it Leading People in Organizations at IMD), I came acrss this line:

"Graham Phillips....... was appinted Roman's successor...........But few would describe him as an inspirational leader."

Well. That is an interesting point. I started asking myself, am I, or will I ever be aninspirational leader? Well, certainly, I can't, and don't claim to be an inspirational leader right now. Ask the guys that were on my team in Cendant. I think I am FAR from being an "inspirational leader."

But what made me think was, what IS an inspirational leader? How do you be an inspirational leader? How do you inspire others? I must say that personally, I have met very few inspirational leaders. To name a few that I know? Well, maybe Armin, my high school principle. How about someone else? I can't come up with one right now? Have you ever wondered? Do you know anyone personally who is an inspirational leader? Or is it just one of those story book concepts that seldom exist in real life, the Gandhi types? I don't know. I have been inspired by a few people in my life, but I can't remember who they were. But I am sure they have made an impact on me.

So, if you know how to become an inspirational leader, would you at least post a comment here or just email me? I am sure all the MBAs here at IMD would appreciate it!

Ralf Boscheck

(written way back in Febuary, but never finished it until today)
Ok, you have heard me rave about this guy for way too long. Here he is. http://www01.imd.ch/faculty/vitae/index.cfm?id=127
Don't freak out. He doesn't look like this any more. Not sure why they don't update pictures. Today was his last session with us. He gave us one of his two "quizes". It was, as usual, true or false. I get a feeling that he isn't all too crazy about the idea of exams. (The MBA program director commeneted to me at the beginning of the program that they are trying to have a few more tests during the program this year) Maybe Ralf is just going with policy. Anyway, like I have said, he is pretty damn good. Just like a classmate said, the stuff that Ralf teaches is not really going to be used in our jobs in the future, but it is great as personal development. I agree 100%.

He offered some advice. It wasn't the classic kind of advice that just makes me yawn. He told us a story about his first year here. One of the professors told him that before long, he would lose sight of how quickly time passes, and warned him to treasure his time at IMD. His advice was around how we should learn about life during the year we are spending here, and not just about academics.

It moved us, and the applause didn't stop until Ralf exited the auditorium. I think most of us identified with what he said. In addition, it wasn't some arcane advice on economics. Most of us took a year off because we have reached a point in our lives where we just need to figure out what we want to do. I am no exception. I am spending all my time in class, and I am missing out on what I came here to do: think.

cabin fever

Urgh............
Cabin fever set in last weekend, and took a little bit to get out of it.
I have been in Lausanne for a month and a half. I have only been to center of town once, and it was in a bloody hurry to get some basic supplies at the Coop. I have spent all my time between my apartment, and IMD. Bloody hell. I have not even had the time to go see my god doughter in Basel.
Last Saturday , I spent the night talking to my friends state side. A big thanks goes out to Banjot and Mark. I felt much better after talking to them. Of course, YiChun had the best stuff to cheer me up with.

Got a little sick on Wednesday. I think I just didn't have enough sleep. I actually felt like puking in the morning. I guess my body isn't built to only take on 6 hours or less of rest every night.

8 hours of lecture is just too much if you really listen to great professors like Ralf Boschek. They just have so much to offer. Sitting through one of his 4 hour lectures just takes everything out of you.

Then the unthinkable happened. It was the first time I missed Philly. I listened to WHYY, Philly's NPR station. It was just like I was back in my car, driving back home after class at Wharton, listening to the news, the traffic. Traffic jam from aouth to Girard ave on 95. I felt so home sick. I miss going to PJ's with the guys after work (or during our one on ones). I miss our bartender who always knew what I wanted. I miss going out, I miss the restaurant scene. The guys, and the house, really made me feel like Philly was home. After all these years, living in boarding school in Switzerland, college in PA, then job in Charlott, NJ, moving to NJ. I finally found "home" after I bought the house and made friends with the folks at Cendant.

I miss everyone, everything in Philly. I really hope this year at IMD is going to be worth my while.

Evian and beyond

I miss the Ecole.

It was nice and cold this morning. YiChun made the effort, as she does everyday, to wake me up. Except she called from a plane today. She was heading down to KaoShung for a wedding.

I took the longer path to school to enjoy the view more. I left the house 5 minutes earlier than I normally would. The sky was clear toward the lake, and you could see Evian from this side. The Alps showed up as well. It was beautiful.

It reminded me of the Ecole. I miss the Ecole. All in a sudden, I had the urge to go and visit Armin and Natalie. I just wanted to give up a whole weekend's work and go up to the mountains to decompress. Go skiing. I am in Switzerland, and haven't gone skiing once. I need to get out of this town and just regain some perspective.

I t was a beautiful morning. The first morning I enjoyed taking the walk to school.

I actually enjoy econ?

Well, isn't this amazing?
I hated econ in college. You call that science? Physics predicts that the apple will alwys fall from the tree, you can try this again and again, the apple will fall, and always downward too! Econ? You can't tell me what will happen with, say the S. African rand tomorrow. Or, so I thought.

Ralf Boschek. What a guy! You have to give him credit for getting me not just interested in econ, but excited. It's one of the classes I actually get exicted about. I will have to admit, that it is hard to concentrate at times, but given the circumstances, and I sure you can understand. We have two 4 hour sessions everyday. Sometimes, we have Ralf the whole day. I think once or twice, we had him three sessions in a row in two consecutive days.

Maybe because most MBA types think alike. I talked to a few people, we all like macro better. Maybe we all like to look at the big picture better?

See the picture. This is from today's session on macro. Pretty cool. This guy fills up 7 boards in 4 hours.

interesting exercise

Did this in class. I thought it was an interesting exercise to do with someone you know well. Brings up a lot of questions and things to discuss. It reveals a lot about our values, etc. "Why did you rank it that way?" is the question you should be asking the other person.

As he left for a visit to his outlying districts, the jealous baron warned his pretty wife: "Do not leave the castle while 1 am gone, or 1 will pun­ish you severely when 1 return!"

But as the hours passed, the young baroness grew lonely, and de­spite her husband's warning, decided to visit her lover, who lived in the countryside nearby.

The castle was located on an island in a wide, fast‑flowing river, with a drawbridge linking the island and the land at the narrowest point in the river.

"Surely my husband will not return before dawn," she thought, and she ordered her servants to lower the drawbridge and leave it down until she returned.

After spending several pleasant hours with her lover, the baroness returned to the drawbridge, only to find it blocked by a madman wildly waving a long, cruel knife. "Do not attempt to cross this bridge, baroness, or 1 will kill you," he raved.

Fearing for her life, the baroness returned to her lover and asked him to help.

"Our relationship is only a romantic one," he said. "1 will not help. "

The baroness then sought out a boatman on the river, explained her plight to him, and asked him to take her across the river in his boat.

"1 will do it, but only if you can pay my fee of five marks. "

"But 1 have no money with me!" the baroness protested.

"That is too bad. No money, no ride," the boatman said flatly.

Her fears growing, the baroness ran crying to the home of a friend, and after again explaining the situation, she begged for enough money to pay the boatman his fee.

"If you had not disobeyed your husband, this would not have hap­pened, " the friend said. "1 will give you no money. "

With dawn approaching, and her last resource exhausted, the baroness returned to the bridge in desperation, attempted to cross to the castle, and was slain by the madman.

Directions: In the preceding story there are six characters. They are (in alphabetical order):

the baron
the friend
the baroness
the lover
the boatman
the madman

Using the list above, rank each character according to how responsible he or she was for the baroness's death. Rank the characters from 1 to 6, with 1 being the most responsible and 6 being the least responsible.

I went over the exercise with someone I hold very dear to my heart. The interesting thing is that she and I had the total opposite ranking for the first and last spot. Very thought provoking.

Given that this exercise was given in a business school setting, we also discussed how some people ranked the boatman and how it related to people's lack of confidence of business people's ethics and morals.

what happens when you are on 5 hours of sleep everyday

差點把自己活活氣死

It's been a long day. I had class until 7pm and didn't get home until about
7:30.
I had lunch @ noon.

I thought to myself. Well, I had some stirred fried broccoli and beef
leftover from the weekend in a bowl in the fridge. I wondered how much of
it was left, so I went to check it. The bowl was filled to the top. "Oh
perfect," I thought to myself. All I have to do is make some rice in the
rice cooker, when it's ready, I can just heat up the broccoli and beef in
the microwave, and voila, DINNER!

So I threw the rice in the rice cooker, then went on to wash dishes from the
last three days. (yes, it was three days. I am a bachelor, and I live
alone, and it wasn't that much)

Done with the dishes, heat up the food in the microwave. Oh, the rice isn't
quite ready yet. Pretty hungry, so I fished out a piece of beef and chucked
it in my mouth. Oh, oh. Why is there a bit of white stuff under the
broccoli? A pair of chopsticks and two seconds of fumbling led to a
discovery. I must have had half a bowl of leftover rice along with the
broccoli. Damn. Don't have enough food. Oh shit.

Recovery strategy: make some soup, have it with bread, and salad. Sia
survives!

This is what happens when you attend an one year MBA. Your are in class 8
hours a day on less than 6 hours of sleep. Your brain starts to delete
things out involuntarily. Always have a business continuity plan, I mean,
meal continuity plan.

another personality test

We must have taken a dozen career orientation test, personality test, and what-kind-of-manager-r-u tests. Sure, Myers-Briggs tells me whether I an an extrovert or an introvert, but none have been as revealing as this test you are about to see. Take a look at the four objects above, and pick one. There is a square, a triangle, a "Z" and a circle.


Now I am going to tell you what type of person you are. Keep in mind that I was only able to write down some of the descriptions of the traits, so I don't have everything in here. Nor do I know if this is at all scientific. It's fun anyway.

If you picked the triangle, you are an organized individual. You tend to enjoin things to be neat, tidy.

If you picked the square, you are a very fare person. You are also a very good listener, and someone who people seek advice from..

If you picked the "Z" figure, you have picked the shape that is different from the rest.
congratulations, you are a natural leader.

The last but not least, the circle. The prof counted the number of people who raised their hand for the circle. breathed a sigh of relief and said, well, at least you are still somewhat of a majority. Indeed, about half of the people raised their hands in the classroom. What does this mean? If you picked this, you love sex and alcohol.

Guess which one I picked?

win-win

Definition of a "win-win" situation from our operations professor:
"You punch the same guy twice." You win twice.

(the guy wears pretty tight fitting pants from Zara)
P.S. Zara was a great case study.