Welcome MBA13!

Dear MBA13 Students, Congratulations and Welcome to the RSM MBA!

Thinking back to that first week, I am very jealous of you all. Sitting here at my parent’s farm back in Australia, it seems like such a long time ago now. But it was only one year ago today since we, MBA12, started to get to know each other and the good people of RSM.

How do I see the experience now, looking back on it? Like many others I see it enormously positively. I see the RSM MBA as a wonderful framework which you can use to get where you want to go; regardless of what that is, whether you want to score a great new job, develop a broader friendship network, develop your formal management and business skills or to simply have a good time and explore Europe.

The RSM MBA framework is like the scaffolding on a building under construction, you can use it to get where you want to go, but it takes effort and time to climb the scaffolding. But beware, this framework isn’t a lift! You won’t press a button at the ground floor of the MBA and then automatically find yourself at a new level, in a fantastic new job, in December 2012. It’s hard, hard work. Lots of late nights, lots of last minute case reading, lots of group meetings and lots of cold calling potential employers, hustling for job leads.

And while you’re clambering your way up through Term One and Term Two, spare a thought for the people who build the scaffolding you’re using, both students and staff of RSM. How can you help them in their day to day jobs? What can you do to ensure that future RSM MBA students have an even better experience than you?

In part that is a rhetorical question. To summarize it crudely, the lesson of the MBA12 year is that staff and students need to focus more on co-creating this scaffolding together. The RSM community should be wary of events becoming compartmentalized as either student or official activities. The students, through the Student Association, and the school administration organize a multitude of activities and events from which you can develop your skills. The more these activities can be carried out together, the more you, the students who are the future Alumni of RSM, will really feel like you were collaborating on something, and that you aren’t just a number or a consumer paying for an educational service.

So that’s my challenge to you MBA13. I challenge you to make it a more professional, more engaged and more enjoyable MBA year than any other! I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing what you all get up to this year.

Alex Dalley

The hustle and bustle of Brussels!

Every year our International Full-time MBA students take part in a TRIP. This stands for Themed Research International Project. As a Programme Manager for our Full-time Masters in Financial Management Programme I was asked to join the students on this outing to Brussels. As a native Dutchie (that is what we call locals in English) I am quite familiar with Brussels as I grew up in a part of the Netherlands which is only a 1 ½ hour drive to down town Brussels, or as I would like to call it ‘Bruxelles’. I have a soft spot for the French Language which comes in handy as this city is bi-lingual (Dutch and French).

I must admit that I have only been exposed to the Food & Beverage of Brussels as this is unfortunately a bit more refined when you compare it to the Dutch kitchen, but nonetheless this trip was not primarily designed to discover the local cuisine. This was about the intricate and complex system of Brussels as a leading European AND government city. A lot of companies that we all know have at least an office in Brussels in order to lobby – at least to a certain extent.

On Monday 27 May the students took part in a kick-off session given by Mr. Tom Yannuzzi – Assistant Professor, Communication Studies at Penn State University and a guest lecture by Prof. Koen Berden where he discussed the Economics of European Integration and Impact Assessments.

Tuesday morning 140 MBA students and RSM staff gathered at the main gate of Erasmus University and hopped on the two buses which took us to ‘The Hotel’ in Brussels on the Boulevard de Waterloo where no time was wasted as we dropped off our luggage and headed for the first presentations of the day. Mr. Jean-Michel Sers delivered an insight on how the European systems are working regarding research done by and in the E.U. followed by a presentation on ‘How the EU Institutions Work & How to influence the process’ by Mr. Dirk Hudig (this is the lobbying part). The last informational session was provided by one of our Executive MBA Alumni: Mr. Augusto Bergueno Arjona on Europe 2020 Digital Agenda for Europe.

The first day was concluded by an Alumni dinner at La Manufacture where the students had the opportunity to get the ins and outs of the companies where the Alumni are working. I am pretty sure that students concluded this first day a bit later than I did as Brussels has a great nightlife with little bars and pubs. 

Day two was all about company visits. We gave the students some time to recover from Brussels and at 11.00 hrs presentations were given by Ms. Henriette van Eijl on the subject ‘Innovation within the European Community’.  I attended a very interesting visit at the European Investment Bank. The other companies to visit were: BP, Daimler and Deutsche Bank.

At 20.00 hrs the buses left again for Rotterdam and hopefully leaving our students inspired, intrigued and motivated by the hustle and bustle of Brussels.

Cheers,
Bart

Asia MBA Road Trip – June/July 2011

One thing that is quite obvious about the Rotterdam School of Management International Full-time MBA Programme is its diversity. As I have been travelling around Asia, it is clear where part of this diversity comes from as each country that I have visited has its own particular form of diversity, be it their cultural, political or religious histories and environment, and people from this continent add this diversity value to our programme.

In not quite a straight line from north to south – from Tokyo to Jakarta via Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei and Bangkok – I have been privileged to meet a good number of enthusiastic candidates for our full-time MBA programme who are excited about the prospect of being part of our highly diverse community.

What strikes me most about the people I have met is that, despite their obvious differences, their mindset is interestingly similar. They live in a challenging world and are all more than ready to take on these challenges head-on. They are prepared to undertake a huge investment in time and money to educate themselves to a higher level than they have up to now in order to eventually go back into the world with their own lives enhanced as well as intending to enhance the lives of others. At RSM it is our privilege to support them in developing their business and leadership skills as well as be a part of the attainment of their dreams, and it is my personal honour to be at the start of that journey with them!

What is most encouraging, not only to RSM but also to myself as an individual, is to listen to the dreams these candidates have of creating a better future for their world. Yes, business is business and the bottom line is important. However, if just a handful of these young people become passionate regarding sustainable business, which is one of our core values, then there is much to be optimistic about concerning the future.

I look forward to meeting many of the people I met on the road in Asia again – hopefully as MBA students at RSM!

Good luck to you all!

Hetty Brand-Boswijk
Director Business Development

Work, Exams, Holiday. Not Work, Exams, Work.

My mind is still spinning from another day of writing, presenting and debating at the RSM full-time MBA.

We are in the last few days of Living Management, an intense training exercise which we carry out in small groups. Over the course of 6 days, our small group of six people, receives, analyses, solves and presents a consulting project to the management teams of companies like GE, Phillips and the Dutch utility Eneco. My group drew a project from Eneco (that’s us in the photo I have attached, standing with George Yip the Dean of RSM). Put simply, we have had to develop a new business model that will hasten their shift to a low-carbon economy. The company already has a range of renewable energy solutions, and is slowly rolling them out in pilot projects around the country. But how to upscale? How to reach the retail market where transaction costs are high and margins tight? How to compete with cheap coal and nuclear power generated and transmitted across infrastructure that is still heavily state subsidised? Sure. Should be easy, right!?
Well it hasn’t been easy, but it HAS been fun. Our presentation is all ready to go. We’ve pitched our solution in various forms to different people in the company and told that we are on the right track. So we know that at a minimum we won’t be laughed out of the room tomorrow when we present to the head of HR, the CFO and the head of the Sustainable Energy Solutions business unit.

So much for a holiday at the end of Term 2… Exams finished two weeks ago and I thought they were bad. Four exams in four days, for subjects like Finance and Operations Management. Then in the middle of exams I travelled to London for one night to interview for the finals of the MBA Student of the Year award. Two weeks later and the pace is still as hectic as ever. Next week we depart for a business scoping study in Belgium where we will be asked to research and write-up a business opportunity over the course of three days. Then we really DO get a holiday. In the ten days we have off, I will be presenting to a Rotary Club in the suburbs of The Hague and travelling to France to visit an Australian friend and his French wife.

MBA Admissions – recruitment events Spain & Portugal

Working as an MBA Admissions Advisor for the Rotterdam School of Management has given me the opportunity to visit many places in the world, and with that to meet prospective candidates and discuss in person their MBA aspirations. It is always so refreshing to hear their stories and getting to know each person individually, and actually understand their personal motivation, is the coolest part of my job.

Being a school as RSM, with one of the highest diversity in the world gives the opportunity to have a whole range of profiles at my table. I am always looking for the wow factor, for me the wow factor has a lot to do with your USP (Unique Selling Points). I always like to discuss with the applicants a bit more about what they want to achieve with an MBA and what they have done to get there. We have a saying in Mexico that translates into “For a boat with no destination, any wind is fine”. 

I was recently in Lisbon, at the offices of one of our partners there, the MBA House Lisboa. MBA House has been known to be in Sao Paulo and Brasilia for years and they just opened in New York and Lisbon, we were one of the first ones to visit their office in Lisbon, and I am hoping we will meet you if soon if you are in those cities. My visit left me with yet another wonderful impression of the candidates we consider for our MBA programme, their profiles were well sounded and I would love to see them in the programme soon, lots to prepare for some of them. …GMAT is where you start, but not where it ends!

After my visit to Portugal I went to Spain and had the opportunity to meet some more excellent candidates in Madrid and on Friday I had a session in Sevilla at the Offices of the “Junta de Andalucia” with our partners at “Becas Talentia”. It is so gratifying to learn that our efforts of providing excellent education is being supported by Institutions as the ones I visited last week.

Hopefully our trip to the US next week will give us more opportunities to continue to support MBA candidates.

Cheers, Maria-Rosa Parra

MBA first term highlights

First term was as hectic as it can get. It was no joke when alumni mention that it is one of the hardest terms – it definitely sets a milestone in your “back to the classroom” stabilisation process. There were ups and downs, exciting and difficult times, but undoubtedly all of them leading to a positive outcome both professionally and personally.

The programme begins with an energetic Rotterdam explorer activity organised by last year’s MBA students. It immediately gives you a chance to see the many things the city has to offer … besides the occassional cold and rainy weather, of course. Meeting your 138 MBA peers, from 38 nationalities, is culturally enriching and … The first week of Program Leadership Development (PLD) is highly inspiring and informative. It was led by Dr. Karen Stephenson, a leading business consultant in social-networking – just mind-blowing!

Another key variable that you may find attractive, as well as time consuming, are the inter-school competitions that start shortly after your arrival in Rotterdam. This is because most business schools start their programs in September, rather than January. Nevertheless, we found support from last year’s students and RSM faculty in the application process of the Venture Capital and Investment Competition (VCIC) and the Roland Berger International Case competition. The process is similar for each application and so we were ready for any subsequent competitions.

During your first term at RSM, you become very excited and enthusiastic to be involved in every opportunity that you are faced with. Be careful not to sign up to everything – it is not the wisest decision! For instance, I became involved in the VCIC and the Roland Berger competition. At the same time I ran, and was elected, as VP of Sponsorship and Communications. Afterwards, you get the feeling that there is only enough time for half of your responsibilities. This leads to fewer hours of sleep and high levels of stress! My recommendation would be to have a very clear objective of what you want to achieve and know beforehand, that you are going to be exposed to a LOT of opportunities. If you prioritise the options you devote time to, you will fulfil your ultimate goals and won’t get lost in the process.

Indeed professionally speaking, I would say the second week of February was one of the worst weeks of my life. I felt lost, frustrated and powerless that I was not able to deliver on all of my commitments. Nevertheless, thanks to the advice given by my professor and one of my friends, I realised that I just had to fully live every moment of my master’s program as best I could. I have to manage my time effectively, to include teamwork and class responsibilities but also focus my energy on those courses and events that fully match my future goals.

Accordingly, I was able to get involved in several extra-curricular activities that fully rewarded me in many aspects. These included the UK fundraising activity which involved running a half marathon, the flash-mobbing experience (that I’ve already commented on in my blog) and organizing an international event in Dubai for more than 1000 students, authorities and world leaders as part of the World Organising Student Committee (WSOC) for the 6th International Student Conference “Education Without Borders 2011”, an unforgettable experience.

Second term is already upon us and it looks like it will be another term of highly interesting and more in depth courses as well as other activities and opportunities including the MBAT-Inter Schools Olympics in Paris (May), running for scholarship for an entrepreneurial trip to Shanghai (early June) and Living Management Consultancy Project (late June). I look forward to telling you more about these in future blogs!

I better send this out before second term finishes – I’m fully aware of how fast time flies over here! It is already end of first week! Please, if you have any queries just send them through and I will reply as soon as possible.

Cheers.

There’s Always Room For Fun!

Term 1 exams got over yesterday and it feels like 6 months have passed by! Such is the pace of a one year MBA programme. Though most of our time was devoted to team meetings and finishing assignments, we always made room for fun.

As this is my first post here, let me introduce myself. I am Adithya and I am from India. I would like to thank RSM for this opportunity to blog about life this year.

The RSM International Culture and Social Club aims to provide a platform for the students at RSM to learn about different cultures in an entertaining manner. It is also known as the Party Club. After a very close election, I was elected to head the club this year. A month had already passed by and the Chinese New Year had just arrived. This provided the perfect platform to kick-off the club’s activities.

The club’s activities kicked off with the Chinese New Year party. Our Chinese and Taiwanese friends, representing 10% of the class, were excited about organizing the event. We wanted the experience to as closely as possible match the real thing. The Erasmus International House (I-House) Common Room served as the venue. Decorations included traditional Chinese paper lamps, wall hangings, and posters explaining each of the twelve animals that form the Chinese New Year cycle. In addition to the social lubricant (also known as Beer), there were dim sums, Chinese style chicken, eggs and other delicacies for everyone to relish. The Chinese are known to play games and gamble during the New Year’s eve. We laid out two tables for dice, with candies replacing money! The party was a huge success! Our Chinese and Taiwanese friends had set the benchmark!

The Chinese New Year was followed by the RSM International Food Festival. The event was organized together with the RSM Charity Foundation, with all the proceeds from the event going to the RSM Charity Foundation. This was the first time of the many times we would use Maria’s Cantina for our events. Over 20 countries were represented at the Food Festival with our classmates exhibiting their culinary and eating skills. Not only was the event a success, with over 140 students, staff and family members attending the event, there were requests to host this again in the summer, which I am really looking forward to doing so! The night concluded with a dance session, with the attendees jiving to songs of countless languages! Of course, there was beer as well, which brings us to the next and the final event of the term – The Karaoke night!

The Beer Appreciation is a club that aims to, well, appreciate beer! The Karaoke night served as a perfect opportunity for both clubs to collaborate and ensure that our fellow MBA12s had fun before heading into exams week. Maria’s Cantina served as the venue again. The evening began with the MBA staff members testing out their vocal skills, before students (and beer) took over. The enthusiasm was summed up by the below performance, where the entire class got Rick Rolled!

April will soon be here and The International Culture and Social Club is looking forward to Queen’s Day, followed by the trip to Keukenhof tulip gardens! And before I sign off for now, Happy Nowruz to my Iranian friends!

Flash-mobbing Graduation Day

I think no student can deny that everything goes high-speed within a MBA. I was planning to come back to you at the end of last month and here I am a night before first term finals. However, I certainly can’t wait to comment about a great initiative that took place last Friday during last year students’ graduation day.

There was an invitation that started almost a month ago regarding a “secret event” for MBA12 batch on March 11th. It didn’t make much sense as it was the very same Friday before our exams started. Nevertheless, it definitely caught our attention for the fantastic way it was communicated to us last month and that it provided us with a new opportunity to hang out with colleagues from both MBA sections. The day finally arrived and we found ourselves in the school’s gym in front of a couple of urban dancers. Everybody was clueless about what was going on!

After a few minutes we were introduced to a concept, at least new for me, called FLASHMOB. Moreover, a goal was set for the end of the day with a great charity component in it. We were going to flash mob Graduation Day for MBA11 & EMBA 10. Few people within faculty knew about it and strict discretion was necessary to accomplish our goal. We spent six straight hours practicing a choreography along with one of the most talented Dutch breakdance groups called Ill Skill Squad. Afternoon arrived and there we were performing at Beurs-World Trade Center in front of more than 500 people during a charity speech from Princess Cox. Watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr8GGWWuO3g

It is such a creative idea with a strong aim behind it – to support our RSM Charity Foundation, that constantly works to make a change in many people’s lives. Please feel free to donate at www.rsmcharity.nl

I am very proud to belong to RSM and it definitely was worth devoting time to this cause. I have to leave now to go back to my studies but I will see you again soon after my exams to tell you more details about my exciting journey during first term.

Cheers.

Getting stuck-in now!

We are now getting into the thick of the RSM MBA course; deadlines are starting to pile up and more assignments are coming out of the woodwork every day. But I want to take a breath and reflect on the progress we’ve made this first month. First, thanks to RSM for the opportunity to blog about life this year and thanks to The Rotary Foundation, Rotary District 9600 and Rotary Club Brisbane Mid-City for making this year possible!

Since December 2010 life has been a kaleidoscope of people, places and work responsibilities. I spent the first three weeks of December in East Timor carrying out a horticultural marketing consultancy where I worked with a group of Timorese farmers, to get them selling some new vegetable products (zucchinis and herbs) to a supermarket in Dili. Then I got a short-term contract to review an agricultural project in Cambodia, so just before Christmas I flew the long way round S/E Asia to get to Cambodia and drove 9 hours to a field site. I reviewed the project over five days and caught a red-eye flight back to Australia just in time for Christmas. After Christmas, I spent a short time with my sister in Melbourne for New Years Eve. Then I piled onto the plane 3 January 2011 to fly to the Netherlands.

Before the course started I had a day to catch my breath and get to know my housemates. I rent an apartment near campus with two other guys, Jason from America and Yannis from Greece, who are also students at RSM. Most of my fellow students are living in one of the two accommodation RSM offering. I had heard that these were comparatively expensive, compared to furnished apartment options in the area. I had also heard they were fairly old, built in the 70s and in varying stages of repair.

The first week of the course was a little slow to be honest. We were all very excited and ready for some material with conceptual grunt. Instead we attended a lot of administrative presentations in those first few weeks. But that didn’t last long. Once the lectures in Communication Theory and Network Analysis kicked off, we forgot all about the admin and were whisked away into some very interesting new ideas.

Communication theory was a fantastic primer for all of the group work which we are now engaged in. How do we communicate? Are we really thinking about what we’re saying? What are our communication goals and how can we best achieve them? As a perfect chaser to this, we had a number of lectures from an ex-anthropologist turned social network analyst who gave us a great model for thinking about how we all relate to each other. Who are the communication hubs? Who do we trust? Who do we socialise with? How can we use these connections to get our messages out and to learn about the other people we are taking the course with? Sadly, these two courses only lasted a week or so. Then we were into the more traditional management studies topics like quantitative statistics, organisational behaviour and management accounting. But we can’t eat ice cream for breakfast every day, right?

To add to all the study, I have been elected President of the Student Association. The presidency is part of an executive board which oversees all the different student clubs and a considerable budget devoted to supporting student activities. The role formally started this Saturday and I look forward to applying some of the interesting communication models and leadership principles that we have learnt about so far. But also I look forward to brushing up my public speaking skills and getting the RSM name out as far into the global business community as possible.

So in short, the future is looking bright and I am incredibly happy to be here.

RSM is around the corner!

First of all, I would like to wish you all a very successful 2011! May it bring along many opportunities of development, both in your professional and personal life.

Time flies, as I am already in the airplane on my way to Rotterdam, after running all around doing my best to leave all set and done back at home. I apologize, as I haven’t been able to deliver sooner some recent events and promised tips that you may had found helpful; I was caught in the moving away storm’s eye.

My Birth Certificate was finally issued! Hopefully, according to what Dutch’s authorities demand. I had to experience some changes in Peruvian’s international agreements, which made me find out how legalizing a local document process may differ from one country to another. At the end, it is all about if your country is part of The Hague’s Apostille Convention; if it is, you only need to legalize your documents directly to your Foreign Affairs Ministry office; if not, you are likely to need to legalize it directly in your country’s Dutch embassy (every case requires an official English translation). I speak by experience, as I needed to follow both procedures, due to the fact that Peru’s got signed into the apostille convention just in the middle of the prior legalization procedure. Who would know?!

Nowadays, if you are planning to study in the European Union, and your currency is other than the euro, picking up the right moment when to exchange and transfer your saving’s money could become more like a bet; being the turnout of such betting moment a huge difference in the final spent amount. My only recommendation, if you may count with a decent time frame to exchange currencies, is to closely watch the market’s news, and follow direct or indirect indicators, such as stock exchange performance ratios, which between many others commonly affects the euro-dollar exchange rate.

For warm temperatures countries’ citizens what to pack in your suitcase turns out to be a nightmare. You get in between opposite recommendations; from taking all the warm clothes you can to not bring anything at all, as your current clothes or local stores would not even fit the Dutch’s winter weather conditions. Besides, if we take into consideration the airlines weight limitations and quite expensive over-weight fares this subject become a time consuming analytical rehearsal. I opted to buy a strong goose feather’s jacket, gloves, merino wool socks, woolen cap, and hiking underwear. I am aiming these to work out for me until I get the chance to find proper apparel upon arrival.

Finally, starting date for RSM MBA12 batch is January 6^th, 2011, only two days away. In fact, being December my last official month at work, as for many others of my MBA colleagues, you can get the picture of how hectic prior weeks before moving away can get. Booking flights, getting medical routine checks, studying for and taking online RSM refreshing courses test, the list keeps growing. Furthermore, if we take into consideration the end of the year’s holidays, and how hard it is to say good-bye to your beloved ones, it also turns out to be not only physically exhausting but also emotionally challenging. However, as a Spanish said quotes “for personal growing even away from home I would get going”. Time will tell.

Talk you later!