Frog to Dragon: HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA Blog


The quest for wisdom, from France to China, of an HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA dual degree student (class of 2011)

This blog in English Ce blog en Français

Archive for the ‘2. At HEC MBA’ Category

Posted by at 5 August , 2010

Walking out of HEC

Walking out of HEC

I can’t believe it’s already been a month since my previous post.
As I’m preparing my big move to China, time has really passed without me noticing anything.

Before I go and start the second chapter of my MBA experience, I wanted to reflect back on what I have learned and what I’ll take away from it.

3 classes I enjoyed:

  • Marketing (with J.N. Kapferer)
  • Corporate Finance (with P. Quiry)
  • Luxury Strategy (with V. Bastien)


Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA , Just me | No Comments »

Posted by at 28 May , 2010

Social and Sustainable Business Conference

Social and Sustainable Business Conference

I should have mentionned it a while ago.

Indeed, the HEC MBA students organise two major events every year.

One is of course MBAT, which I already mentionned many times.
The other is the Social and Sustainable Business Conference (or SSBC), which is more recent but no less important.

I’m all the more guilty of not mentionning it earlier on this blog that I participated a lot in the organisation of this event, which is part of the Visions of Leadership cycle.

This year, on May 28th and May 29th, we will welcome around 50 speakers and 400 participants who will discuss sustainability in its economic, social and environmental forms.

Pretty cool huh! :)

Tags: , ,
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA | No Comments »

Posted by at 2 April , 2010

Last week we had a conference cycle called Visions of Leadership.

Theodore Zeldin at HEC Visions of Leadership

Theodore Zeldin at HEC Visions of Leadership

This week long event was opened by Theodore Zeldin and saw leaders from a broad range of sectors. I was certainly impressed by the diversity of ways one can be a leader in. We had, of course, people coming from the corporate world, but also from smaller businesses and start-ups. Further from the typical MBA target, we saw ambassadors, sportsmen and a former head of the French army in Afghanistan.

It was a very interesting discovery for us. Not all leaders are charismatic and the “Follow me to my vision!” type. Some were more collected and exhibited a more serious demeanor. Some came with the notes and presentations while others could just sit in their chair and start talking. Some were shy.

One of the things this week left me thinking about was, actually, how we started the cycle.
Just before the conferences started we were all given a bag with instructions and, amongst other things, Theodore Zeldin’s book: Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives. This book matched not only his opening speech but also made sense of the cycle and further.
Indeed, I believe that meaningful conversations can change people. It stems from a desire to share things and learn from others. One could even say that writing this blog is a way for me to have a conversation with you readers.

Anyway, philosophical ponders…

Tags: , ,
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA , Just me | 2 Comments »

Posted by at 27 September , 2009

Many things have happened during the past two weeks and I have to admit that my self-assigned discipline of writing here at least once a week is starting on a wrong foot…

Here are a few noticeable things we did.

Negosim

The second week of classes, basically after a first week of cheering and hugging, we got onto business with a business simulation game called Negosim. We were all dispached into groups of 4 to 5 people and our task, as the board or directors of a B2B company, was to compete with others.

It was a fantastic experience for those two main reasons:

  • It was a jump into the water of corporate strategy. For someone who had no idea what the terms “liability” and “equity” meant before school started (me), this game was a great way of teaching these basic concepts through play.
  • It was a first time for group work and interactions with other classmates. I was amazed at how a 4 day course allowed us to work with each other so quickly. Within our own group, of course, but also with people from other groups. It wasn’t always easy but it was definitely a good introduction to our future group work.

Classes

We were assigned to our sections (I’m in the bilingual section) and classes started for real on the 3rd week, along with group work and case studies. By the way, one of the reasons why I could not post my article on Negosim last week was because we had a Marketing assignment due for Monday 8am.

Garden of Chenonceau (Loire Valley)

Garden of Chenonceau (Loire Valley)

This week, I started to realise how crucial good planning is. After reviewing my class schedule and making a quick estimation for class preparation (reading material + preparing cases) I found that I’ll need to spend around 60 hours weekly on studies. Basically, my key is that for each class, I’ll have to spend once to twice as much time for preparation.

Holidays are finished for real now…

Integration week-end

This week end we went on integration in the Loire Valley. It was a mix between cultural visits (to the châteaux here and there), partying (with the regional wine, of course) and fun fun fun :)

I feel that by now, I know 80 to 90% of my intake by name.
Way to go!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA | 1 Comment »