IXMBA NOV 2009 intake has commenced!!!
The first presentation period has ended and it was a wonderful two weeks of intensive studies, bonding with class-fellows and the start of sleep deprived nights.
We all came with naive thoughts running through our heads which the professors and GAMA quickly eroded, and left Madrid with new friends & the start of a different perspective on life.
Now that we are in the first online period, having that face-to-face interaction is a key ingredient, as the program is so enriching and feels as if all the students are close together, even though we are spread over 6 continents.
Now if only a cure for sleep deprivation existed, hmm maybe an idea for entrepreneurship?
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Happy New Year 2010!
Let me take the pleasure of welcoming you all to this blog this new year! We at the Global MBA class of 2010 are back after enjoying a restful break. Yes, some of us were missing classes and forums, but for sure we’re going to be immersed full time into this throughout this year, so for me, it could wait until Jan 4th 
Some homeworks, assignments, presentations and even casitos are due this week and slowly but surely we are heading back to the books.
This was the first break since our program began and only first of two significant two breaks we enjoy during the program. It gave me a good chance to reflect on the time that has been, how I have managed my time, work-study-life balance (if there is one) and if there are ways I can change or improve things this new year. Sure enough, lots of resolutions emerged and the top one from there was time management, especially on the asynchronous portion of the program, that is the discussion forums.
Now discussion forums at first glance don’t immediately make sense when you consider that emails, web forums and the like are quite informal, haphazard and irregular as such. But IE brings in some good deal of structure to this format and uses it quite well to enhance learning throughout the week in between online lectures. Forums are an integral part of the course and this makes it very different from other face to face MBA programs.
For one, you have assigned readings and need to be prepared well before the forum begins; and second, you have continuous access to your professor and classmates as though they were your colleagues at work, who sit right across from you, but send email. Only here, they are almost always helpful Now which full time or Part time MBA guarantees that you get atleast 4-5 opportunities to speak in each class and the ability to converse with your professors each day in the week?
The forums are moderated continuously not just by the professors, who facilitate the learning, but also by students who read and respond to other posts. Each week in the forums, we discuss a specific concept, which keys off from a HBS or IE Case Study. The professor asks leading questions, which the class responds to, bringing in their global and industrial diversity. Unlike in a real class, where the time between the professor posing a question and the first answer coming up is a few seconds, here, you can take even an hour to think about the issue raised, t o process the information and to relate to your own experience, how you have dealt with an issue of this kind in the past. Then even as you are typing, a classmate posted his or her view on the subject and that makes you think differently and add a different angle. In class, I am sure 5 or 6 of us would raise our hand and one of us gets to speak what all of us wanted to say. Have you been there?
We are there too… there is the Hermoine from Harry Potter who always answers first and the Ron who never wants to answer and everyone in between. But the thing is, there is no Professor Flitwick who just rewards points and moves on after the question is answered and certainly no Professor Snape, who deducts points for answering out of turn or a Prof Trewalney who does not even listen to your answer Here, each professor we have had so far, takes the time to read each response, address us directly and indicate the key learnings for each question posed. There are no strict right or wrong answers like we see in most cases in life. Some professors even take the time to post multiple PDF files with contributions from us, from them and from useful sources and articles from around the web. I am a strong believer that all this strongly enhances discussions. For instance, when we are working on a Marketing case, it helps immensely to look at different examples of advertising or positioning products from Youtube. How many times would a professor teaching live in a classroom like it if you tell her that you are browsing Youtube for good examples to share with class?
The fun part of the forum is that it is always on! Just as it is getting time for me to get to bed after reading the last few unread posts in the forum and then add my own, there’s my classmate in Europe that has just woken up to read the messages posted from the Western and Far Eastern hemispheres. Similarly, when she winds up for the night, folks in Japan and Singapore are having their morning Coffee while reading the forums. The forum addiction that many of my colleagues have spoken about in their posts is simply caused by the fun and amount of learning that is attained through this medium. I believe this is a very valuable mode of learning and if you are lucky to have a class and teaching staff as good as I do, you’ll be always on your toes, pushed to do better, to think longer between posts and enrich the learning for one and all. Most posts in our class are as good as reading an article in the newspaper or business journal. I would write more, but time to post my next entry into the Strategy forum, so I’ll see you later!
Hello to one and all! Where ever you are reading this from, one thing is for sure, you have no doubt realized the convenience that the internet has brought to all of us in several facets of our lives. Whether we’re shopping for Christmas gifts, as many of us are doing at this time, on another tab in our browser, or if we’re looking to see which school is the best for our child and several other “applications” including researching for a good school in which to do an MBA.
Such a search, brought me to IE Business School, a Continent and an Atlantic Ocean away from the Western United States where I live and work. I am now a proud member of the Global MBA Class of 2010. Our class has just completed the first quarter and are relishing the Christmas break and I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the months that have gone past like a blur that you would see riding the Shinkansen Bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto, the ICE from Berlin to Hamburg or TGV from Paris to Nice or even the Rajdhani from New Delhi to Bombay!
Through this blur, I recollect T-accounts, the five forces, Multi-party Negotiations, the 4Ps & 5Cs and the art of Networking! We have been through it all with plenty more to come, as a class of 65 this year, effectively twice the previous class sizes. More classmates means a magnification in diversity, collaboration, experience and of course thoughts. Although I have met people from several countries, cultures, sectors and backgrounds in my 10 years of professional experience and 30 years of living or working in 3 different continents and some 7 countries, no where have I seen the diversity that I experienced at IE Business school, first via the virtual introductions and then for real in the Aula Magna that bright Monday September morning in Madrid. How often do you find yourself in the same room as others from 34 countries? Unless you work for the UN or as a Foreign minister, there are but a few chances that you would get this luxury. Add to this, the ability to share experiences, work on mini-projects, to have a drink with and it goes beyond luxury into a “Once in a Lifetime” opportunity, in this case, one that lasts not one day, not one month, but a full year and a quarter.
And so it began, the Global MBA, the transformational experience, about to shape the lives of 5 dozen people by engineering, welding, molding, crafting, chiseling, designing and painting their experience with the color of diversity and experience not erstwhile experienced! And so it begins… my series of blog posts via which I hope to convey the “Real Life Story” of a Global MBA class and its constituents. My predecessors and compatriots in this blog have been a source of great inspiration for me to write this blog and I am really standing on their shoulders as I draw from their experiences during their MBA and Specialized Masters programs.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010!
Well, folks, I know that it has been a while since the last blog post. Truth be told, the last few weeks were extremely busy at the Master in Digital Marketing 2010 with wrapping up individual and group projects, finishing the Digital Communication & Awareness course, posting for the forums and last but not least working on yet another section for the business plan for Entrepreneurship.
It is not easy. I am working on this Masters with an average pace of 12 hours/day everyday. And it is frustrating… I can only imagine how my colleagues that have day jobs feel and moreover how they manage to be prepared for the forums and participate. I must say that everyone is stretching it to the limit and manages to come up with great content and ideas. But to understand that, you probably need to know how the online studying is structure.
- Each and every week, we have 2 or 3 courses
- We shall prepare for, come up with either an individual or a group assignment report
- Than we go into discussing it from Monday to Friday posting answers to professors questions, expressing views or simply giving insights based on personal experiences.
- Usually, every class session is wrapped up by the prof and served as a summary of key points for the topic discussed.
It might all seem too much for many of you, but to tell you the truth it is not much different than working in a highly paced working environment. However, great discipline, focus and prioritization is required for succeeding in following it all. At first this might seems impossible, but soon after the start things get to the point that one realizes that it is possible. After all, your colleagues are just as much as you aware that this is a team. they show readiness to help, motivate and support when you find it difficult. And I should know.. I have been blessed with great team players in my group.
That’s all for the Year 2009. I wish you all Happy Holidays and all the best in 2010!
Before leaving this blog, I would like to take the opportunity to share my feelings about graduating from IE. Just a few hours ago, we got our final grades and the confirmation of our graduation. Needless to say we are all very happy, but also very tired from the very final efforts during our last presential period in Madrid. Like one of my fellow colleagues mentioned just yesterday, the human body has its limits, and we sometimes pushed the limits very far during the last 13 months.
A few words about the ongoing discussion about « online » MBAs. Some people may think an online MBA is less valuable than a pure face-to-face MBA. The online MBA is structured in a way that everybody, really everybody in the class needs to participate actively. During the weekly discussions on the different topics and case studies, every student made in average between 3 and 5 postings with a average length of 5 to 10 lines. In face-to-face classes, some people say a lot, many a few things and some manage to get away in saying nothing. The added value of an online MBA is the fact that you are getting the input and the experience from every class member. In our class we made 600 postings a week, totalling up to over 25000 postings for the whole MBA. I’m not making this statement to defend my MBA; I’m just challenging everyone to image how many hours of face-to-face classes are needed to get these 25000 interventions from everyone. At the very end this is the main point of doing an Executive MBA at IE; benefitting from the professional experience of people coming from 25 countries from all over the world. If you think that theory is more important, then spend a few hundred Euros on textbooks.
When we started we were told that it would be “Hell”. It was very hard, but it was also very motivating and fun. Of course I learned a lot of theory and new stuff; more important however for the future were the things I learned about interacting and working in multi-cultural teams. Finally I learned a lot about myself; my strengths and my weaknesses, and so far in my life no experience gave me so much input and feedback than this MBA. Many colleagues in the class shared the same feeling.
I could tell a lot more things about this MBA, how enriching the two weeks in Shanghai were, to discover a completely different and yet so important environment for our future. But I will only conclude by saying that this whole MBA was an awesome experience, and that I don’t regret my investment, neither in time, nor in money. And now that I have some spare time, don’t hesitate to contact me by email to get more details and answers to questions you may have!
Wishing everyone, especially my fellow classmates and the IE team, a Merry Christmas and lots of relaxing fun on New Year’s Eve.
Patrick
As promised in my last blog post, this week I will be focusing on the way the program works and especially the offline face-to-face periods.
IE’s Masters in Digital is based on online forums 11.5 months out of the whole 13 ones. For that 1.5 months or 5 weeks, we have to be present in:
• Madrid – two weeks kick-off period
• London – one week presential period in the most digital city in the world that will conclude the end of first semester and the start of the second one
• Madrid – two weeks wrap-up with exams, business plan presentation and naturally getting that piece of paper that would matter less then than it mattered when you decided to join the program. And it is mainly to the fact that you will treasure the experience through the past 13 months much more than your diploma.
Make no mistake, face-to-face periods are tough. You are expected to be on top of things from the very start. Most of us did not expect to be in for such a treat and we started our days at 7 am and finished them in 3 am the next day for most of those 14 days. And although it sounds too much and very demanding, I can not think of a single colleague of mine that complained or felt demotivated. At the end of the day we all had tremendous fun battling the assignments and getting to know each other.
Now when I have went through the first and the second periods I am more inclined to think that one can always find the time. Most of us have jobs, personal life involving dear ones or even families and this is all very demanding. But for the face-to-face period this all is put on pause in most cases and the focus is not only on the studying but also in socializing and adding up to that glue that sticks up together.
It won’t be fair to say that those periods are only about studying. They never truly are, you know. There is also tons of fun while sipping from your morning coffee or lunching/dining with your new found brothers and sisters, and not to leave behind those Friday and Saturday nights in metropolitan cities like the Spanish and UK capitals. Offline is also just as important as Digital is…
The nature of Instituto de Empresa is to foster entrepreneurship. It is a core value and you get to see it from day one. Some of you will be finding their future business partners or start-up buddies exactly at this place and the time spent together will add tremendously to your judgment and potential spotting.
Well, folks, this is all for this week. Remember that if you have any questions, this is the place to take advantage and get some answers…
Next week, I’ll be focusing on online experience… Till then, have a good one living digitally!
As a first post, I think it is only normal to explain how I got here at Instituto de Empresa studying Masters in Digital Marketing.
If you are reading this blog, you are obviously interested in doing a Masters in Management or an MBA and second to that you might be also thinking of doing online, as yours truly does. So, in the following lines I will be laying down my approach to picking up this degree and enrolling for it.
• Researching is a major point of a such endeavor. You are about to spend enormous amount of hard earned cash or actually get a loan from you bank. In both cases this is motivating you big time. What I did can be summed up in the following bullet points:
• I figured out that a general MBA won’t cut it for me, because of the number of graduate available and the fact that I already did my Bachelor in Business Administration
• I started researching online for a Marketing degree that focuses mostly on Digital, but also includes traditional approach.
• I talked to friends that have done their MBAs in Top 25 schools. Asked many questions and got some valuable answers.
• Got on FT.com, WSJ.com, BusinessWeek and Economist and checked all the rankings. I personally think that this is not a major think, but you will be surprised how many hiring manager pay attention to that, if of course you don’t know that by now.
• Once, I got to know IE and their program, I didn’t even want to apply to the previously envisioned universities. I went strait to talking to the guys and submitted my application.
• To my surprise I got an answer, plus proposal to enroll within two weeks. All done in a very professional and enthusiastic way (and I am not talking about my approach here)
Everything happened so fast that I was only able to believe it when I got to Madrid for my first face-to-face. Before it all seemed like an illusion.
Well, this is for this week. Next post I will be sharing my initial impressions of the program and hopefully answer some of the questions you, as a reader, might have.
… This was one of my questions that I was asking alumni when I was researching for an MBA course … I guess if you’re asking the same question, it’s important to first analyse what you’re looking for in an MBA: is it change, enlarging your network, financial/accounting knowledge, practical management tools, expanding your horizon, or a degree to add to your CV?
When I decided I wanted to go for an MBA, I was looking for short-term intellectual stimulation (as I did not consider I was challenged enough in my job) and a long-term change in career path. I didn’t want to leave my job and go for a full-time program because, although not challenging at the time, my job provided this very interesting thing called “salary”! … Of course in a typical Murphy’s Law fashion, I’m now all of a sudden busy and “intellectually stimulated” on all fronts!
IE Business School’s alumni seemed to have the best answer to my question: It depends on what you (the candidate) want to get out of it! … And I’m experiencing it now. Although I still have 11 months to go, I can say that I can already see some change: I have a close network of professionals that I would consider a bit more than “colleagues”, and the network and friendships are growing; I’m learning a lot of new things every day (and I can already understand what’s reported in the FT!!!); I analyse things a little differently … and the list goes on …
It’s great, fun, intense, disappointing (What? Surprised? I’ll talk to you bit more about that in future posts), exciting, unsettling, overwhelming, encouraging, and of course … EXHAUSTING (I know, I promised you a descriptive of the forums … soon)!
Till next time, take care,
IRB
Hello everyone,
First post … I’ve been struggling to get this one out! … I thought I would write to you about how busy this MBA has kept me for the past month, how exciting and intense it is, etc., but I guess there are enough posts that cover this subject … When I was researching for an MBA course, and I read the IE blog, I was struck by the amount of posts talking about the there-are-not-enough-hours-in-the-day-to-get-things-done-since-I-strated-this-MBA syndrome that I thought ‘can’t you people talk about anything else?” … Well, a 5 weeks into the program, and all I will add to this topic is BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ABOUT THE LACK OF TIME!
OK, now on to my first impressions: Let’s start with some stats: My class is 41 students, 22 nationalities, who mostly don’t live in their country of origin. We were divided into 2 groups, and each group is divided into 3 teams. Each group is following the same curriculum, but on different schedules. Groups will change 6 months into the program, and consequently teams will change too. We generally cover 3 subjects during a given week (plus preparation of 3 subjects for the following week). For most subjects each team has to prepare a group report for the upcoming week’s topic and send the final report to the professor by Monday before the online discussions which start on Tuesday (till Friday evening). Confusing? … I’ll tell you a bit more in future posts about the forums … Let me tell you about my team: We’re 7 people of 7 nationalities and 7 professions! … Just imagine the amount of intellectual wealth around the (virtual) table! … Each one of us brings in something different, and it’s not always just about content, but it’s about our perception of things, how we take on tasks, how we interact in a group, etc … we work together very closely throughout the week (and on weekends!). When general forum discussions start, it’s even more fun! … That alone is an exhilarating experience, because I feel like I have not only the subject professor to learn from, but 20 other “professors” who bring in real life experiences and debates that enrich the discussions. For instance, we have this brilliant guy in the group who has started a trend of answering questions with simulations (supply chain diagrams, spreadsheet calculations, etc.); and his method had a “viral effect” on the group … all of a sudden people started doing the same. You imagine reading 60+ a day of these postings (CRAAAZY amount of reading, but as one of our professors said, “This is the beauty of online learning!” You get the best of all worlds: Classroom interaction and time to prepare really well-thought answers!
One of things I was looking for when I decided to go for an MBA was intellectual stimulation … today I can confirm that I’m a 100% satisfied customer!!!
Back soon for more talk about the forums.
Take care!
IRB
Our first period is coming to an end, the hot is getting stronger and it is time for all of us to think about the decision we made, the output of these first months…
In my case I have to say that I am the first surprised person. Five months have passed by since that day when I first met my colleagues from all over the world and now I can say I became myself a different person. My approach to the digital world has totally changed, now I really know what I am talking about and the best thing I got is that I’m now prepared to “lucubrate” about the last digital acquisitions, the new successful launches and the coming trends. Now I remember one day when I went to see Manuel Alonso Coto and he told me “don’t worry, Elena, with this master you’ll be absolutely prepared to speak properly about the digital business in several months” and now I know he was right. In only these five months all of us got the big picture and I keep on with my own blog 
)
And of course I know that we just began but the more I learn, the deeper I want to fly because this world is exciting and in my opinion, the IE really knew, not only how to transfer the knowledge but to transfer also this attraction for the digital business.
I won’t lie, I’m starting my vacations really tired but also very happy for the changes I saw in my peers and in myself, and specially for the months that are yet to come….
Good holidays for everybody!!!
