IESE Graduates its First Global EMBA Class Focus on the Global Executive MBA Roland, Xantal, Jacques and Wolfgang have made history. They belong to the first class of the Global Executive MBA of IESE. The Global EMBA is an intensive program, international in character, which immerses participants in a dynamic learning environment, utilizing the newest technologies. The members of the first class tell us the inside story. Was it worth all the effort? The answer was unanimous: absolutely! 47
It is an exceptional experience which stays with you for the rest of your life. It s true that it is very demanding, but it rewards you with a unique and excellent learning experience within a privileged international group, with the satisfaction of achievement. Roland Poschner The Global EMBA is a very personal program offers an update on all managerial processes. And its influence becomes apparent from the very beginning: At work, many of the skills acquired at IESE were automatically reflected. The parttime format allows you to put many theories into practice immediately. Roland Poschner is a German working in Barcelona who learned about the Program on the Internet. He wanted to improve his management skills, and in IESE s Global Executive MBA he found a program that suited his requirements perfectly. He was attracted by the international environment, the e-learning experience and the Silicon Valley and Shanghai modules. My parents were proud when I decided to sign up for the Global Executive MBA, though my girlfriend knew that it meant 16 months of hard work and sacrifices, explains Roland. Nevertheless, everyone offered their support right from the beginning. For Roland, the only way of combining all his learning activities and his professional responsibilities during the course of the Program was to make great efforts and drastically reduce his own leisure time: It is not always easy, he confides, particularly during busy times at work. It requires a lot of discipline and you must accept that the free time that you normally have is substantially reduced. On the other hand, he feels that his efforts were rewarded: It is an exceptional experience which stays with you for the rest of your life. It s true that it is very demanding, but it rewards you with a unique and excellent learning experience within a privileged international group, with the satisfaction of achievement. I believe that it is fundamentally a personal development experience. We are not brighter or smarter, but we have developed our personalities, he explains. What has this meant for his professional career? According to Roland, the Program For Roland, the trip to Shanghai was the outstanding part of the Program. It had been one of the Program s main attractions and the reality lived up to all his expectations. So when he looks back over the months and considers the best moments, his thoughts travel to China. I really enjoyed the Shanghai module. It is such a fascinating city and definitely the most appropriate place to visit in China. The collaboration with CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) is also an enriching set-up. He has good memories of China, as well as of the Program in general, many moments shared with his classmates in Barcelona, Silicon Valley, Shanghai or working on-line. He sums up his experiences in two short sentences: Everybody cared so much about us. The Global Executive MBA is a very personal Program. 48
As far as content is concerned, the subjects of ethics and human resources stood out approached from a very practical perspective and the quality of the teaching staff a level beyond the norm. Xantal Oller We looked at the Global EMBA as a family project Xantal wanted to make history. She took the opportunity offered by IESE, showing everyone that with support from her family, enthusiasm and strength you can have time for everything. This executive, with extensive international experience she has worked in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, London and Barcelona did not allow her life to be held up by the MBA Program. I had the support of my husband and my parents. In my case, the Global Executive MBA was a family project, she says. The most attractive element of this new IESE Program was its international flavor: I really liked the idea of studying as part of an international group, working with people from different places, she recalls. Support from her parents was especially important following the birth of her daughter, Mercè, who was incorporated into the Program between two of the residential modules, five weeks before traveling to Shanghai. The Global Executive MBA is an intense Program that requires a lot of dedication: weekends devoted to studying, hours stolen from sleep in order to work with members of the team living in the Antipodes. Xantal s group included an Argentinean and an American, which meant that they had to arrange a timetable that worked for everyone during the on-line working modules. Among her strongest memories, two stand out: the long periods working with her team on some occasions into the early hours of the morning and the trip to China: Shanghai is very impressive. For me it was a great experience. Her not so favorite memories include the demands of the first modules: They were hard, because of the amount of work and the organization required. At some points I was overwhelmed and felt that they had made a mistake in selecting me for this Program. Nevertheless, you gradually organize yourself until you get used to the rhythm set by the Program. As far as content is concerned, the subjects of ethics and human resources stood out approached from a very practical perspective and the quality of the teaching staff a level beyond the norm. The Global Executive MBA has also had immediate consequences for Xantal in her professional career. Recently, she accepted a position at Lincoln Electric Europe. She currency holds the title of European materials manager, a job which allows her to apply the new knowledge and skills she acquired during the program. 49
The best moments were those shared with my colleagues and friends. Having the chance to work with and learn from so many diverse people has been a wonderful experience. Wolfgang Fueter I would certainly do it again! I came across the Global EMBA while surfing on the Internet. I looked at the web sites of the top business schools in Europe and requested information from them. IESE had an immediate appeal for me, explains Wolfgang. Learning to combine everything has been one of the lessons of the Program: Combining all of these factors is indeed difficult. Nonetheless, a great part of the learning that you get out of an extended executive program is how to combine all of these things. How do I prioritize, what is really important to me, and what goal do I want to achieve? If you succeed, as we all have in our year, to balance these elements, it is an essential part in preparing you for further leadership positions within the organization. Wolfgang has particularly fond memories of many moments spent with his classmates. The best moments were those shared with my colleagues and friends. Having the chance to work with and learn from so many diverse people has been a wonderful experience. Studying at IESE has meant certain changes, though he insists that the influence of the Program was gradual. The beauty of this Program is that things don t change overnight, he points out. Changes evolve with you over the 16-month period. After every module you come home enriched, ready to apply what you have learned. In my case, I have changed jobs, which was also due to the Global Executive MBA. One of the elements that he most value at IESE is the way that it treats people. We were treated as individuals, each with his or her own personal learning goals and needs. The faculty and staff on the Program all contributed to this atmosphere: faculty by being great teachers, listening to the students and promoting unity between participants, and organizational staff by offering solutions to day to day questions, and by being supportive and very efficient. I would certainly do it again, although right now I am not unhappy to have a little more free time. I would repeat everything we have done: study hard, learn a lot, push myself to the limit of my abilities, get the most out of individual and team assignments, learn from colleagues, but without forgetting to enjoy the Program, socializing with friends and making the most of the international modules. 50
IESE left a great impact. The drive for excellence in every single detail and the service orientation of the faculty, staff and the Global Executive MBA team all made a lasting impression on me. Jacques Coffeng A memorable experience One of the changes that I noticed on finishing the Program was that I didn t have any assignment to do in the evening, as had been the case during the previous months, recalls Jacques. The fact is that over the last few months, Jacques and his colleagues have had to be very organized in order to complete everything: My work involves a lot of traveling, which meant maintaining a daily discipline to work on-line. That meant sometimes working on the plane, in the hotel or at home, but basically trying to work every day. However, it was hard to combine work and studying and at the same time maintain some kind social life. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that working on the Global Executive MBA Program became one of his favorite activities, thanks to the teaching staff. The Global Executive MBA has given him a different outlook on the world. From the past months, he has taken away new ideas about management, friends and memorable experiences, as he himself calls them. From a professional point of view, he has completed certain areas of training that his position as Marketing Director had not allowed him to develop. The Program has allowed me to gain a great amount of knowledge in areas such as finance, as well as in aspects of management, entrepreneurship, understanding of the world economy, information technology, etc. The Global Executive MBA has also contributed to his personal development. Besides new friendships made and new skills learned, particularly the management topics have given some great food for thought in terms of personal development, remarks Jacques. In general, IESE left him with a good impression, and certain aspects stand out: IESE left a great impact. The drive for excellence in every single detail and the service orientation of the faculty, staff and the Global Executive MBA team all made a lasting impression on me. Jacques considers that two emotions combined on graduation day. On the one hand, the satisfaction of having reached his goal, but on the other, the sadness of knowing that he was coming to the end of a phase in which, as well as his work, he has enjoyed the company of a unique group of people also returning to their respective jobs, scattered throughout the world. 51
1 2 1 2 3 Fiona van Haeringen. Jordi Gual, Federic Sabrià, and Paddy Miller. Catharina Siewertsz van Reesema, Patrick Ryan and Joan Roget. 5 5 6 Gerhard Heiberg and Jordi Canals. 6 Eric Weber. 7 José Martínez-Rovira, Jordi Canals, José Mª Bastero, Gerhard Heiberg, Eduardo Martínez Abascal and Antonio Argandoña. 9 10 9 Wolfgang Fueter. 10 Michelle Erikson and José Mª Bastero. 52
An historic day 3 4 4 Gerhard Heiberg, International Olympic Committee. September 27, 2002 was an historic day for IESE Business School: the first class of an ambitious new program which began on June 15, 2001 in Barcelona, was graduated. Participating in the Global EMBA commencement ceremony was José María Bastero, President of the University of Navarra, José María Bastero; Jordi Canals, dean of IESE; and Gerhard Heiberg, president of the Marketing Commission of the International Olympic Committee and member of IESE's International Advisory Board. If you create expectations, you have to follow up, said Gerhard Heiberg. I feel this maybe more strongly than anyone else in our organization. As the marketing commission, we are not selling products, we are selling trust, confidence and credibility. Values are paramount. If we don't live up to our own values, we have nothing to market. The bribery scandals surrounding the Salt Lake City Games were a good reminder of what can happen when things go wrong, Heiberg told the audience, which included Juan Antonio Samaranch, former executive director of the International Olympic Committee. Thanks to Samaranch's strong leadership, the organization was able to handle the crisis in a thorough and expedient way, he said. However, the scandals served as a wake up call for the IOC, prompting the commission to realize it not been following what was happening in the outside world, was not responsive to outside developments, and was not sufficiently transparent. 7 8 8 Juan Antonio Samaranch (PADE-I 62) and Carlos Cavallé. As a result of what happened at Salt Lake City, the IOC realized it had to return to the core values of the organization. Among these values are hope, dreams and aspirations, friendship and fair play and joy in effort, he said. The Committee's next great challenge will be to apply these values at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he said. The event has the potential to help open up and promote human rights in a society of 1.3 billion people. And our great challenge is not to tell them what to do, but to get the relationship with our friends in China. If you get the personal relationship, the trust - that's what it's all about. It's incredible what you can then achieve. 11 José Mª Rodríguez, Joan Enric Ricart, Fernando Pereira, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Carlos Cavallé. 11 For his part, Dean Canals placed emphasis on the importance of the new program: This is the first class of the Global Executive MBA program, a truly unique international learning experience with people from all over the world and courses offered in Europe, the United States and China. We feel deeply proud of this program, mainly because we feel proud of each member of this class. The dean urged each member of the Global EMBA's graduating class to remember the necessity of basing leadership on trust: When we understand management as service to clients and indeed to society as well, we also begin to merit trust, he said. During his remarks, the President of the University of Navarra stressed the fundamental role of people in companies: Nowadays we hear again and again about the competititive search for talent and even for dreams. It may be the fashion, but underneath it all there lies a profound reality: that after so many fundamental and revolutionary changes that have taken place in recent years, we are on the verge of rediscovering that the basic competitive resources are the hearts, minds and dreams of a company's personnel. Representing the students, Wolfgang Fueter challenged his classmates to keep the friendships that were formed during the program alive well into the future. 53