The ESADE MBA Blog · ESADE Business School · Barcelona

Archive for January, 2010

As I mentioned a while back, the MBA experience has so far been a good learning tool.

This term proves to be even better with classes and lectures that you can relate to and where the reality of business concepts become more practical.

The best experience has been last Friday when we had the pleasure of having Alex Cruz, CEO of Vueling airlines, give a lecture during our strategy class ! It is fascinating to receive up-front actual information and advice from a successful business personality.

Not only  was the presentation interesting and knowledgeable, but most importantly I was thrilled to be in that class, attending a presentation I wouldn’t have thought possible before.

Thanks to our strategy professor Luis Vives,  can’t wait for future lectures to come.

If you drive northwest from the doors of ESADE for about 1 hour, you’ll come to a small town called Manresa.  There, I discovered Moltacte—a discount designer fashion outlet that provides social rehabilitation and employment to mentally ill people.

Moltacte opened its doors in 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis and has managed to survive thanks to its founders’ steely commitment to the social mission.  ESADE professor Alfred Vernis introduced a group of us MBA students to Moltacte in the fall in order to discuss its need to validate and improve the economic aspects of its model and ensure sustainability.

Since then, we have entered into a formal consulting relationship with Moltacte and begun work on a business plan.  We (the students) are managing all aspects from start to finish, from people management to number crunching.  After establishing a good client relationship and clarifying our scope and deliverables, we designed the processes our team would use to complete the project.  Currently, we are implementing the research and assessment phase.

For me personally, Moltacte takes my learning from the classroom to the real world of social enterprise, where finding balance between the economic and social goals requires creativity and tough decisions, where people are the key to results, and where my new MBA tools are only as good as the quality of application.  It’s also a unique way to bond with truly impressive peers in the Net Impact club.

It feels like I just arrived and now it will soon be over for some of us.
I am one of forty candidates that belong to the last generation of the official “One Year MBA”. Now, ESADE has changed the MBA program so that once you have started your first semester and you are all settled in and familiar with the school, you decide if you would like to do the 12, 15 or 18 month MBA. In many ways this new system is better, because it gives you time to evaluate your situation and decide how much time you want, need and can – spend doing your MBA. I wouldn’t change the length of my MBA, it has been a great experience and I have learned more than I expected in these past 9 months.
I am actually looking forward to going back to work.
The following week will be a great opportunity to start looking for a job. The Winter Career Week is from January 22nd to the 26th and companies such as: LVMH, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, Johnson and Johnson, Roche Pharma and many others will come on campus and present to ESADE students their company as well as their job opportunities.
Can’t wait!

A little far into the year already for this heading, but I wasn’t able to post any sooner. This term started last Monday and it did so quite abruptly. 5 new subjects plus 1 elective (I’m in the 15 months program) plus the “Doing Business in the Middle East seminar” that makes 7 new teachers and 5 readers in the mailbox. I am really enthusiastic about this term because classes promise to be very interesting. In “Global Context of Management” we split up into 3 groups for most part of the class to discuss different topics that influence long-term management decisions globally. Last week we had a heated discussion about who was responsible and what to do about the financial/economic crisis. I’m guessing climate change tomorrow will be no less interesting …

So after one week I can say, it will be quite a busy term but definitely worth it. Plus, Barcelona keeps on proving to me what a great place it is to live in:

• 2,5 hrs to go skiing in Andorra
• First BBQ of the year on the terrace mid-January
• Lunch on ESADE terrace every day of last week

I can definitely get used to that!