Integration Weekend

Last weekend, HEC organised various events to welcome the new intake from September 2007. This included a grand party on Friday in Paris and a trip to Deauville for the weekend. The party was grand, alright, but they also had VIP tables and cordonned off areas in the middle of the dance floor which made it a bit difficult for us, the free dancers! Not to be easily discouraged, we danced until early morning before strolling out into the brilliance of Paris by night meandering our way around Notre Dame. We also came across quite a few Irish rugby fans who were still drowning their sorrows having lost to France the evening before.

Saturday was spent tending to the aching muscles, recovering my lost voice and doing some slow painting. And, early on Sunday morning, I picked up four other friends and we drove all the way to Deauville to join the others for the evening and dinner. We didn't get back until 4:00 am on Monday morning so you can imagine how much I struggled sitting through my 8:00 am lecture!

The MBA is on track now...I thought my electives were well spread out for me to be not overburdened but how wrong I was! We have a zillion presentations to do, which are all graded, and case memos to hand in. And, before we know it, exams will be here in a couple of weeks!


Below is a picture of the evening at World Place in Paris...a party to welcome our new intake.



Below are pictures from the day trip to Normandy. Five of us drove for the day to join the rest for just the Sunday.

The "Positive Power of Business"

Now that we are 'real' strategy consultants, it was appropriate that we were taught the business models of Sustainable Development (SD) by speakers from Areva, Unilever, UNESCO, etc. over two days of the HEC Net Impact SD Conference. As HEC students, we get two credit points for attending but it wasn't just for the credits that I attended. Personally, I have always liked addressing the three legs namely, economic, social and environmental, that keep the SD table standing. And, my classmates will laugh at me for repeating this again and again but I do feel that an oil company needs to go beyond other companies in terms of SD activities for the public to accept that the company is genuinely interested in SD and that it is not just developing a smoke screen to hide its sins! If you have been reading my blogs, you will remember that I flew from Chicago to Anchorage during my internship. On the flight, the lady sat next to me asked if I was going to Anchorage to fix all the leakages in the pipelines. I wasn't, but the questioned troubled me because I did not have a good answer. Just to sleep better, I made sure I spoke to one of the guys involved in fixing the leaks to find out more. My point here is that the question pricked my conscience and I think the idea of SD should be about wondering if what our companies are involved in are the kind of things we are happy to proudly tell our friends and families and, if not, what can be done to change things. I really enjoyed the conference especially the sessions on carbon trading, nuclear energy, the case-cracking session on AREVA's supply chain, agrofuels, and the leadership forum on Public Private Partnership. So, when at the end of the conference, the moderator called upon volunteers to briefly describe their experiences of the conference, I was happy to oblige! After all, I am not one to shy away from extempore public speaking!!! :-)

As for the first weekend since school re-opened, we have done nothing much more than all-day DIY for two days! While my wife was busy painting the kitchen, I was actively wallpapering one of the bedrooms. And, boy, do they look good now that they are done? Bien sur! The kitchen is ready and we have moved into the bedroom as it is dust-free compared to the other one. I have a day off every now and then during the week because of the way my courses are organised so I am going to spend as much time as possible renovating the apartment when I am done with my homework. Wallpapering is a really good test of patience and endurance. Imagine you have just stuck the top half of the wallpaper and climbed down the chair to fix the bottom half when, suddenly, the top half rolls down because you didn't put enough glue! Damn! Start all over again...

I have my first lecture on 'Thinking Strategically' this morning and the first session on 'Business Plan: Design & Funding' in the afternoon so I am looking forward to these. On a slightly different note, the students from the September 2007 intake are here and we have had a few interactive sessions to meet and greet them. Unfortunately, I have been so busy that I have not met most of them but there are a few parties coming up and I am hoping to catch up with them then. I suspect they have Negosim this week so they should be fairly busy too - it would be interesting to hear stories of personality clashes and blood drawings during the game, which can be quite stressful and demanding, but definitely fun!

PS: This was meant for publication yesterday.

Thomson seminar on strategy consulting...

Since Monday, we have been split into groups of 10 or so and asked to look at the five-year strategy of Thomson S.A., an integrated technology company in the media and entertainment industry. We are 'training' to be consultants and provide 'free' consultancy to the CEO of the company who has been spearheading the spree of acquisitions made by the company over the last few years. He is coming to HEC in October but, today, we were picked as one of two 'winners' for our work and presented it to the class and a senior consultant from Mars & Co. He liked my group's pressie and so we are ready to present to the CEO and Chairman of Thomson S.A in the next few weeks. I don't think I will be a consultant but it was an enjoyable experience and j'aime le fact that we got to present! :-) I guess this is not a bad start to Personalised Phase I though it has made me stay at school much later than planned. Well, not a bad strategy to avoid rush hour!

Back to School!

What a pleasure to be finally back and have a gras matin after literally having danced the night away at my wife's friend's wedding party! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am back in France...

The last few weeks at work were extremely hectic as I not only had to prepare a presentation on my work to be presented to some very senior people, the kind with 'Chief' and 'Senior' attached to the front of their titles, and also write a report summarising my work. Before I knew it, the report ended up being 50 pages long, and the presentation easily took 90 min! I was asked to take the time to explain the issues and findings in detail as on it lay the decisions to be made for some immediate actions on the best way forward.

Nonetheless, I was able to return to Paris for a long weekend and carry on with the property renovation. Now, I know all about the art of machine sanding a wooden floor to kingdom come! Just kidding, I did a fine job and made it all nice and clean for our son to finally come and live with us again. We just have to slowly work on the wallpapering, painting, and general decoration. I also had a chance to catch up with a friend, a classmate who had been interning in an investment bank over the summer, who, on the day we met, had just walked out of the bank with a full-time job offer in hand! So, before he headed back to Paris, we caught up to chat, share a drink or two and a meal in China Town before hitting the Odeon at Leicester Square for a high adrenaline dose of 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. And, for those wanting to attend HEC Paris, he wasn't the only one from HEC with an offer...

So, having traveled ~13000 miles across the globe, and having successfully presented/reported on my summer internship, I am back in France to start school again. This week, we have a live case session with Thomson, and HEC Paris's famous Sustainable Development Conference...I am looking forward to seeing friends, old and new...and getting my well-earned credits from the summer internship! :-) I have had a great summer and, thanks to a lot of people, have had some fantastic access to senior management in a wonderful global company. Hopefully, I have got the ball rolling for my next internship and a career in the future...

My son had been napping for the afternoon but he is now up so I need to go play with him...back in France, back to routine, and back to school! :-)