Hallonman @ INSEAD

Done!

2007-06-27T18:18:00.000+02:00

My last project report was handed in on Friday. My last exam was this morning. We'll have our last Dinner @ Palais Barret tonight. Tomorrow, we leave for our grad trip to Croatia, returning only for the actual graduation ceremony.

Our time at INSEAD really is coming to an end, isn't it?

From the Cabaret - Making the List

2007-06-23T17:08:00.001+02:00

We had the traditional cabaret evening on Thursday. There were loads of good performances, unfortunately it's not possible for me to describe their brilliance, as most of them had to do with our shared experiences while at INSEAD.

What I can do is share one of the videos with you. Enjoy!

One more down...

2007-06-21T11:07:00.000+02:00

We just finished our final presentation for Realizing Entrepreneurial Potential. It was fun. In normal Fonty style, the meeting room we were supposed to be in was occupied by someone else's meeting, the video conference to Singapore was eventually set up, but to no-ones surprise, the equipment needed to show our slides was not quite there.

Fortunately, we'd sent our slides last night, so they had printed versions.

That leaves a final paper on Family Firms and the exam for Industrial and Competitive Analysis.

We'll finish off the paper today, and the exam is on Wednesday next week.

Scarily close to the end now.

Courses coming to an end...

2007-06-13T19:53:00.001+02:00

It's scary how quickly we've gotten to the end of P5. 10 months goes by so quickly!

We had the last class of Family Firms yesterday. The course is very interesting, as it looks at the different aspects of running and being involved in family businesses.

It was especially interesting for me as my dad, my two uncles, two of my cousins and my brother all run their own companies.

There's still the small matter of writing the project report, but we should be done with that by early next week.

Another course will be over by tomorrow. It's the "Your First Hundred Days." The premise of the course is that you, and three of your class mates, constitute a management team which has just taken over a business. It then, over the course of 2 weeks simulates the first hundred days in the company. This, of course, includes a lot of nasty surprises...

It's been loads of fun, with interactions with "actors" playing all kinds of roles...

After that, all that is left is Industrial and Competitive Analysis, which has a very uneven quality. Certain classes and cases are loads of fun, whereas others are, shall we say, less entertaining.

And, of course, the brilliant Power and Politics. Unfortunately, I didn't get in to the course - I bid 1 lousy point too little... But, I've been sitting in on every session so far and have really enjoyed it.

Barcelona Update

2007-06-13T19:37:00.000+02:00

Oh yeah, maybe I should do more than just post nude photos from Barcelona.

What did we get up to? Well, we pretty much just relaxed.

I was in Brussels for an interview on Friday, and went straight to CDG for our Friday night flight to Barcelona.

We arrived there around midnight, so there was barely time for some tapas before crashing in bed.

Saturday was very relaxed, with more tapas and red wine, this time on Las Ramblas. We followed it with a stroll along the shopping streets before heading to dinner and a birthday party for one of our classmates.

Sunday was equally relaxed with a late lunch outside Sagrada Familla, followed by a visit to the Picasso museum before heading back to Fonty. All-in-all a very relaxing and nice weekend.

Singapore Starter Party

2007-06-13T19:36:00.000+02:00

DomoDomo wasn't the only one to get smashed yesterday.

A couple of people who started with me in Singapore arranged a huge barbecue for all of us exiled Singaporeans. It was great to see so many of us at once - Fonty is so big, that very often you don't see people that you'd see everyday in Singapore.

What did we do? Oh, the usual... Eating, drinking, beer-chugging competitions, water fights...

It didn't help that I'd done more or less the same thing on Monday evening, at our regular Monday Dinner @ Palais Barret session. This one involved some excellent chinese food with, of all things, Swedish vodka and akvavit to round things off.

Barcelona II

2007-06-11T01:09:00.001+02:00

IMG_0992, originally uploaded by hallonman.

... on the other hand, they're quite supportive of the environment as you can tell from the turnout for the "World naked bike ride."

Barcelona

2007-06-11T01:04:00.001+02:00

IMG_1026, originally uploaded by hallonman.

Just back from a weekend trip to Barcelona, where not all locals are enthusiastic about the huge crowds of foreign visitors as you can tell from this sign.

Why call it tourist season if we can't shoot them?

Building Business in China

2007-06-04T18:31:00.001+02:00

Just came across this video from our trip to China during the P3/P4 break...

The Montybal State Reception

2007-06-04T16:26:00.001+02:00

One of the big events at INSEAD is the Montmelian Ball, or MontyBal for short.

It's arranged by the people living in Chateau de Montmelian, and is a very extravagant production, as you can see from this video.

Newsreel depicting the current state of affairs in the Republic of Montybal prior to a state reception to welcome the new Swiss ambassador. There are rumours of revolutionaries outside the capital city.

A nice evening

2007-06-03T22:57:00.001+02:00

Of course, I did manage to eventually finish my work, and could head home to enjoy the evening. We ended up having some friends over for a simple, Swedish, dinner of pytt-i-panna.

One of my house mates bought a Wii a while back, so we wrapped up with some tennis, bowling and boxing.

To my surprise, it is all very exhausting as you end up putting your whole body and lots of energy into it.

How did I do? Well, I think I need some more practice.

On signaling and credible commitments

2007-06-03T22:48:00.000+02:00

P5 is often a breeze, at least academically. Most of us have only 3 or so credits to take, compared to the 6 or so that we had to take in P2.

This is in order to enable us to go to interviews and finalize those job offers that we're all (ahem..) receiving... For instance, this past week saw one of my friends fly from Singapore to Europe for an interview, and another to fly from Europe to Singapore for interviews.

Of course, the course work isn't necessarily spread even across the period. In my case, a new course kicked off last week that's promising to be both fun as well as intense. It's called Your First Hundred Days. The premise of the course is that you, and your team mates, constitute the management team (CEO, CFO, Operations Director, Sales Director) of a newly acquired company. And, as the name implies, the course takes you through your first hundred days.

We've had two in-class sessions so far, which have both been fun. Equally "fun" have been the emergency emails we've received and been forced to deal with at 1 AM.

I'm really enjoying it.

Another course I'm taking is Industrial and Competitive Analysis, and I spent part of today working on a case involving signaling and credible commitments. Through the actions you take, you can send different signals.

As an example, take the weather here in France. My first four weeks or so in Fonty were very light, course-wise. So I had plenty of time to explore the French country side, travel to see friends I haven't seen in a long time, etc.

During this time, the weather was horrible. Really horrible.

Now, my course work is picking up. And what do you know - the weather this weekend was just brilliant. Around 25 degrees, sunshine. Lovely. Of course, I had to spend a fair chunk of the weekend inside, working.

I can't help but think that the weather in Europe is trying to signal me something.

Summer Ball Log-Off

2007-05-30T09:31:00.000+02:00

And, of course, the summer ball gave everyone something else to use as a theme for the log-offs...

From: OFF Log
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 12:13 PM
To: Everyone
Subject: Fancy pants

Hi everyone,

So pleased I finally managed to gain a ticket for the summer ball, but unfortunately in the process I managed to lose my underpants after hooking up with some 57-yr old HR manager from Goldman Sachs.

If anyone knows her could they ask her to kindly FedEx them to Insead.

Failing that, Pascal could you pick them up at some point over the summer during your internship? They're bright pink with sequins.

Thanks in advance,

L. Off

PS: in case you were wondering, it was most definitely worth it...

Rain, rain, rain...

2007-05-29T00:19:00.000+02:00

My earlier post about the improved weather seems to have been, well, premature.

Today provided us with wonderful 11 degrees, accompanied by rain.

I do miss the Singapore weather.

Of course, this miserable rain didn't stop us from having a blast at the INSEAD Summer Ball that took place on Saturday.

I barely made it back from a brief visit to Brussels to pick up my tuxedo in Paris before setting off to dinner prior to the ball.

After dinner and a (too long) trek in the rain, followed by a brief queue in the courtyard of Chateau de Fontainbleau, we finally made it in.

And it was spectacular.

Both DomoDomo and NYFrogMBA have written eloquently about it, and I can only concur. So much fun!

This week is Dragon Week, with chinese language courses (Ni hao), movies, a 10 course dinner on Wednesday and a Shanghai party on the Seine on Friday.

Nostalgia sets in

2007-05-23T01:39:00.001+02:00

As P5, and our year at INSEAD, draws to a close, nostalgia is setting in. We're all busy updating our profiles for the yearbook, reconfirming our bonds, etc, etc... And, in some cases, making movies about the great times we shared...

National weeks

2007-05-23T01:15:00.000+02:00

I wrote earlier about the large number of national weeks right now.

This is one of the differences between Fonty and Singapore. In Fonty you have the critical mass needed to arrange a national week for many more countries.

So many in fact that there's competition between the different countries (or coalitions of countries) to be allowed to arrange a national week.

That's not quite the case in Singapore - all you really have to do there is book a week.

I just realized how much of an impact that has today, as I attended the pre-election presentations.

When we pitched Viking Week in Singapore, we pretty much just said "Hey, Absolut Vodka and Swedish Bikini Team!" and their was instant support. We had no idea what events to have, what sponsors we'd get, etc, etc.

Contrast that with, e.g., the Lebanese Week's pitch today, which included a day-by-day planning for their week.

It's just a shame that I'll not be around to see it.

Finally some nice weather

2007-05-22T09:20:00.001+02:00

Those of us who stayed in Singapore for P4 kept hearing about the great weather in France from our classmates who went to Fonty.

So, coming over we had some very high expectations, and were all disappointed that the weather was unable to live up to them.

There were some lame excuses given, mainly that the weather had adapted itself to the British-Irish Week, but when the gray and slightly chilly (by Singapore standards) weather stayed for Semana Latina we began to get really worried.

Now, however, we've had two days of sunshine, so things are looking up!

Swedish Buffet at Palais Barret tonight

2007-05-14T18:23:00.000+02:00

I'm treating my room mates to a Swedish buffet tonight. There'll be ägg, ishavsräkor, rom, senapssill, skärgårdssill, vitlöksill, dillpotatis, knäckebröd and of course O.P. Anderson. We'll round it all off with a daimtårta.

And in the background, of course, Swedish music...

National weeks, one after the other

2007-05-14T17:48:00.001+02:00

British Irish Week just ended, and today Semana Latina begins. There's just no end to the nationalities here at INSEAD, and hence no end to the national weeks.

To give you a taste of what goes on during them, here's a video from the British Irish Week.

First reflections on Fonty

2007-05-11T15:17:00.000+02:00

Random reflections on Fonty.

It's big here
There's always something happening
Career Services do not send out invites to the OCR events
Service is... different...
More unknown faces
Great to see everyone again
Chateau dinners rock
Heating systems need oil to work
France is beautiful in May
Weather is colder
Canteen is (marginally) better
British-Irish week is sponsored by Diagoe = loads of free drinks
Mastery of mini-conversations is a plus
My Palais Barret-mates are brilliant
It's great to have a car again

YALO - Fonty Style

2007-05-11T15:15:00.000+02:00

Here's Yet Another Log-Off - this time from Fonty...

From: GUY Funny
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 6:31 PM
To: FATAS Antonio
Subject: Campus space utilisation - action required

Dearest Antonio,

It’s wonderful that summer is here – I am feeling as frisky as a fast ferret. The forest is green again, and the campus is looking beautiful - especially during the excellent British-Irish week. Don’t all those Brits look hot? I just have to say they are the best looking people on the campus! Grrrrr, grrrrr!
But onto more mundane matters… Antonio darling, I’ve noticed that white tent-like erection in the car park, which I have heard will be used for the graduation ceremony. It looks so empty – why don’t we start using it right now?

Let’s hold all our classes outside – what better place to be than the car park? It beats any Chateau or theatre at Versailles hands down! No more hot and stuffy afternoons in a 60s amphi, or long queues at the bar – just get outside into nature. With all that fresh air, no-one’s parents will fall asleep during graduation. Why not fill amphi B with sand and a pool, and make a beach? Amigo, I feel alive again!

Antonio, I hope to see you and Frankie showing your moves at the school disco tomorrow night – remember, we’re in the education business, after all. Ooooh, you naughty, naughty deans!

Welcome to Fonty for P3/P5! Party on Fontainebleau! Let’s make this the summer of love!

My summer house

2007-05-07T11:54:00.001+02:00

My summer house, originally uploaded by hallonman.

House boats, Kumarakom, India

2007-05-07T11:51:00.001+02:00

House boats, Kumarakom, India, originally uploaded by hallonman.

Thekkady - Elephant - After Bath

2007-05-07T11:50:00.001+02:00

Elephant - After Bath, originally uploaded by hallonman.

Madurai - Hindu Temple

2007-05-07T11:49:00.001+02:00

Madurai - Hindu Temple, originally uploaded by hallonman.

Yes, in my slow catch-up, here are now some pics from India.