Frog to Dragon: HEC MBA & Tsinghua MBA Blog

Posted by Pam at 9 October , 2009

Last time I wrote about the election campaigns going on at HEC.

Well, the vote for the MBAT team were cast today and the Game On team came ahead with a lead of just one (that’s right, ONE) vote!
Since the vote was so close I hope both teams can work together in preparing the best MBAT to date :)

Here’s the trailer :)

But, for now on, Game On!

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

Posted by Pam at 7 October , 2009

HEC Paris - MBAT

This week was an election (and electoral campaign) week.

Indeed, we had to choose 2 representatives for our respective sections. The difficulty of an election for 2 winners is that we don’t only vote for our favourite participant (such as for a presidential election) but rather for the 2 candidates which will work best together. So I cast my vote accordingly…

In addition, and that’s where all the buzz is, we have to choose the team which will organise the 2010’s edition of the MBAT. The MBAT is a sport competition event amongst the top european MBAs that HEC students proudly host (and organise) every year. This year will be the event’s 20th anniversary. So the stakes are important…

As a side note, I was very happy to show my parents around the campus on last Sunday. They were quite impressed by the infrastructure and by the lake side (where the MBAT is mostly held btw). We had a quiet afternoon walking around. All good :)

Tags: HEC events, MBAT, Students
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA | 2 Comments »

Posted by Pam 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)

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: Academics, Assignments, HEC events, Social, Students
Posted in: 2. At HEC MBA | 1 Comment »