Skip to main content

Five Years On

A clear, bright day along Lake Geneva in early September is worth beholding. Alpine shadows, lakeside calm, blue contrast with patterned green hillsides - the scenery is famous and attractive. This mountain-water backdrop once served as theater for a group of future leaders of the future back in 2005 - and served once more as the special location for the IMD MBA 5-Year reunion.

Returning to an alma mater draws complex emotions, none more complex than for an IMD MBA. "Real World, Real Learning" has perverse meaning at times, and the experience is transformative and exhausting; re-entering the famous dungeon rooms and auditoriums of our business youth is like re-visiting old battlegrounds for wizened warriors. Of course, these are great memories, made greater by the presence of those with whom the time was served. For this, we were lucky to have the largest turn-out yet for a class reunion, almost 60 by the time the event finished on a gorgeous Sunday morning.

Thanks to our fantastic event organizers Bruce Meadows (Australian - g'day all the way!) and Florian Wunsch (Swiss German - gets the sh** done!), the agenda was packed and tightly orchestrated. Auditorium time with Martha and Sean and all that is happening around IMD and the MBA program these days. Lunch and dinner in the famous restaurant and school addition, respectively. MGM along the lake, tours of the old town, a breezy lunchtime boat ride on the lake, followed by "tea time" at the Beau Rivage, a tour of the Olympic Museum, and a sumptuous feast afterwards while looking over Lake Geneva. More MGM, farewell breakfast at the Mövenpick, and a meander and supper in Geneva for those flying out the next day. All with that gorgeous weather that reminded us all of the pleasures we briefly enjoyed while living in Lausanne (and that caused several of us to stick around after IMD to enjoy indefinitely).

Of course, it would not be an IMD event without certain tense moments related to group dynamics. As appropriate as it was to use the site of the Olympic Museum as our selection grounds for the next reunion city (complete with the IOC-style politicking and vote-pandering), it was just as appropriate to use the event as a time-worn lesson in how to possibly assemble the future the leaders of the future together to decide anything collectively. In the end, Copenhagen prevailed for 2011, and the remaining wine soothed any lingering tensions.

So a glorious weekend passed, and the group left with brilliant memories to carry back to burgeoning careers; but we were also left wondering what IMD has really taught us, five years on? I was reminded of the question a few weeks later when a prospective applicant asked the same of me when I manned the IMD table at a MBA Fair in Washington DC. I thought of the many things that made my IMD experience unique and all the people that traveled that journey with me, and the answer became simple: I truly learned about myself and how to deal with the people around me - and it has made all the difference in the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Everyday Love Poem to my Wife

Over a year of marriage carries Happiness, love, and sometimes cranberries But eventually the pace slows down, Work intrudes, some days a frown And suddenly the world has changed. What we must do is simply rearrange The days so that other things fit neatly In their own places, and move on sweetly To the beauties of the everyday together. Because there is love everywhere, wherever You shall be - and perhaps also Rosie - This is a good thing naturally, So good to state it thus and remember That only frigid mornings in November Can keep us apart, but only so long As the work day lasts because so strong Is our pact that I worry not a wink - Your loveliness is worth so much, I think.
2 comments
Read more

Sitting in a NYC Taxicab

I was whirring up Park Avenue for a meeting at the Waldorf Astoria (oh, how posh!) when I pulled out my cameraphone to snap a picture uniquely indicative of New York City. Something representative without being overdone (easier said that done!). Something relatable to almost anyone that has been to this wonderful city. Something easy to recognize. Something difficult to forget. Sitting in a NYC taxicab, it was apparent where the shutter would point itself. Of all the places that I have been in Manhattan through the years, none have been so welcoming and iconic as the backseat of those yellow beacons of light after a bender of a night. An United Nations of drivers mans these vehicles, representative of the dream that the United States has often been for the fortunate, displaced, and ambitious - not that disillusionment did not follow when finding the cab as an occupation hopeful for a better future. Regardless, the taxicab is often friend, sometimes foe - and sometimes the instigator of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Muggles...

...is what I tweeted last night after having the privilege of attending a private screening of the movie hours before the midnight premiere. As much as the digital revolution has fragmented the shared experiences that we have, it has also greatly expanded the impact of those events that touch various peoples. Witness Harry Potter. In the pre-digital world, this would have been an uniquely British story about wizards and boarding schools, but it has captivated global audiences and transcended the borders of its now-uber-wealthy writer. We were part of the crowd that spanned the globe to see this movie, which I can say, lives up to the hype. On a Thursday evening, we could watch the lines of children queuing up to get a chance to say goodbye to a childhood growing up with Harry Potter and watching the actor grow from a plump-faced little boy into a serious actor and apparent alcoholic. It did not matter for 2.5 hours in the theater, of a movie that was pretty gripping from beginnin...
1 comment
Read more