Karibu's Blog

The End

2006-09-07T15:47:00.002+01:00

We came back in London a few days ago. That was a big shock! After two months in Asia, we had completely forgotten about the grey weather, utility bills, how to cook and grocery shopping... let alone work. The trip was of course fantastic. People, landscape, food, weather, transportation, hotels... we experienced the good, the bad and the ugly but those two months will, without a doubt, stay in

Final step

2006-08-16T10:10:00.000+01:00

We are in Myanmar since a few days now. After roughly one week in Laos, where we visited Luang Prabang and Vientiane, we flew to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar. What a change from the other three countries. Yangon is a big city of 5 million people and it doesn't look like a typical South East Asian city. Actually, it reminded us more of Delhi than Bangkok with its traces of British architecture

Live from Phnom Penh

2006-08-03T07:30:00.000+01:00

We are in the capital of Cambodia since three days, after a visit of Angkor. We took a plane from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is used as a base to visit the Angkor complex: about 1000 temples on a 400 sq km surface, most of them build between the 9th and the 12th century.We visited the main temples in two days but you can buy 3-days or even 7-days pass. Unless you are a real fan of old stones

Open Water PADI

2006-07-28T05:32:00.000+01:00

We are now Level 1 Open Water PADI certified, which means that we can scuba dive to a depth of 18 meters without an instructor... That's right mister!We did not really plan to pass the PADI but after reading about the crystal clear water of Ko Tao, we decided that we should really scuba dive to enjoy the fishs, corals and other wonders of the sea.So after Chiang Mai and the mountain trek, we flew

Back from the jungle

2006-07-18T13:26:00.000+01:00

After three nights in Bangkok, we took a plane for Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand. It's a complete change from Bangkok: the city is much smaller and quite welcoming with more bookshops and temples that you could ever visit.We did some sightseeing in the city but our main objective was to arrange a trek in the jungle and we are actually just back from a three days trek where we visited the

In the heat of Bangkok

2006-07-12T14:56:00.000+01:00

After a long flight with a three-hour connection in Dubai, we landed in Bangkok on Tuesday. After spending some time at the Bangkok Airways ticket counter to arrange our next flights in the region, we took a cab for Siam Square and managed to find a correct guest house: the A-One-Inn hotel which is relatively correct for the price (600B).First impressions of Bangkok: the most modern city I have

This is over...

2006-07-08T18:22:00.000+01:00

Yep, this time it is the end... Yesterday was Congregation day for the Full-Time MBA Program. The closing speech from the Dean Laura Tyson concluded two years of education at the London Business School for me. I hope never to read another business case from now :)It was a fine day. We were all wearing nice gowns and all went on stage to shake the hand of the Dean and receive a piece of paper

Zidane is magic

2006-07-03T18:18:00.000+01:00

Yes I haven't blog in a long time but I've been quite busy, and not only for the World Cup.Anyway, the game against Brazil was fantastic and if Zidane keeps on playing like this, we have a good change to go to Berlin on July 9th. Of course, the Portugeses are serious people and they sure know how to play football but they were not that convincing against England. We'll see...Couple of pictures

UNICEF bombs the Smurfs

2006-06-18T10:26:00.000+01:00

You may have heard about this commercial from the Belgium branch of the UNICEF. It shows the Smurfs (Schtroumpfs in French) village being bombed from the air. The objective is to shock people and motivate them to give funds for UNICEF projects in Burundi, Congo and Sudan.UNICEF discuss about the commercial here and the few versions that I have found (digitized from TV) are of low quality since

Ultimates internships

2006-06-16T23:52:00.000+01:00

Want to know how good is your internship compared to others? Well, Forbes has an article about Ultimate Internships with top law and consultant firms and investment banks. In addition to compensation ranging from $15,000 to $18,000, the interns are offered a lot of perks such as social events in top bars and restaurants or week-ends retreat at top class hotels.If you are lucky enough to be

World Cup and other

2006-06-10T09:21:00.000+01:00

I must admit my days are not so busy right now. However, they are now going to be filled with football, although there is so much you can take and I'm not going to watch games such as USA vs Czech Republic... (No offense intended here). France is playing Tuesday vs Switzerland and it is the evening my future employer has selected for a networking event... What to do? Watch some football or go

Final term

2006-06-01T17:40:00.000+01:00

So we are now well engaged into the last and final term of the MBA. I'm taking two classes this term and although the Project Finance class is quite interesting, my other elective is an Accounting one and I'm wondering why I choose it.I know I wanted to have a better understanding of Accounting issues before graduating but when I’m seated in class, listening to the teacher talking about IFRS

Possible explanation of the UK productivity gap

2006-05-31T10:00:00.000+01:00

I'm sure you know about the UK productivity gap: the UK falls behind the US, Germany or France (more here if you want) in terms of output per hour worked. There are a lot of explanations for this such as less skilled workers, lower capital invested per worker or less effective management in the UK.This is all good but I'm pointing to another source: the average Brit spends way too much time on

The Prof strike back

2006-05-30T09:47:00.000+01:00

I guess it was only a matter of time that Faculty would start blogging. I'm not sure about other Schools but I'm quite sure MBAProf is the first London Business School blog run by a Professor. It is anonymous but I may have an idea about the author.Welcome to the London Business School blogging community and yes... we want some good gossips and stories from your side!

More pictures

2006-05-25T12:26:00.000+01:00

Due to high demand :) I'm posting a few more pictures. As you may have guessed, photography is one of my hobbies. I have started more than 10 years ago during one of my first backpacking trip in Tanzania and since then, I have accumulated thousands of pictures, mostly slides. I've resisted digital camera but my Powershot SD500 is taking amazing pictures so the next step will probably be a Digital

Pictures of India

2006-05-24T09:17:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged in ages and I wonder if I still have some readers on that blog. We are now mid-term which means that there just more than one month to go before the end of the MBA...I still have my head banging with souvenirs from India so I'll post a couple of pictures here but I must already prepare my next trip for this summer (I know, tough life). After some hesitations between South

Back in London

2006-05-08T09:57:00.000+01:00

I came back last week after this fantastic trip to India. I'll post some pictures once I've sorted them (about 600)... The trip was great: food was spicy, people were nice, places beautiful, weather was hot (up to 40° Celcius) and I really had a blast. I'll try to blog more frequently now that I'm back and that my last term is not so busy.

India... Here I come!

2006-04-13T09:12:00.000+01:00

We are flying to India tonight with my girlfriend for 20 days of vacation in the North. This is going to be an amazing trip. We are landing in Delhi, stay two days there then go to Agra (Taj Mahal), Jaipur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Udaipur and finally Bombay where we will take our plane back to London. It's going to be nice to get out of London for a bit, especially when some of my classmates are

Arrested for insider trading charges at 23

2006-04-12T08:50:00.000+01:00

It seems there is no age limit for white-collar crime. Gordon Gekko, in the Wall Street movie, was in his 40s when he was arrested for insider-trading... Well today it's starting in the early 20s as reported by the Washington Post. Two employees of top Wall Street banks (Merrill and Goldman) have been arrested on insider-trading charges. The Merrill analyst is 23 and the Goldman associate is 26.

French students have won

2006-04-11T09:26:00.000+01:00

Chirac has decided yesterday to replace the controversial CPE law by a proposition to help young people in difficult situation to find a job. This victory was hailed in left wing parties, unions and students and with their renewed vigor, some of the most extremists ones now want to tackle the CNE that was voted a few months ago (basically, the same law as the CPE but for SMEs ) but the movement

My first interview

2006-04-05T11:32:00.000+01:00

I received a call from a journalist of the Guardian yesterday. She obtained my contact detail through the French Club of the London Business School. She was preparing a story on young French people moving to the UK to find a job. I guess it's a pretty hot subject right now with all the demonstrations in France about the new job law for young people.Anyway, it lasted five minutes and she basically

US show making fun of French

2006-04-03T15:44:00.000+01:00

Further to Guillaume's posts, I'm becoming an addict to YouTube. This video is from the Daily Show of Comedy Central making fun of French demonstrations.

Images of Paris

2006-03-26T11:41:00.000+01:00

In front of La Sorbonne. What's behind the wall?... police trucksNotre-DameParisian driving

Demonstrations in France

2006-03-23T08:08:00.000Z

Right now in France, there are large demonstrations against a new employment law (Contrat de Première Embauche or CPE) targeting the young (less than 26 years old) people. If the law is passed, employers will gain more flexibility in hiring and firing young people during a two years period. The employer won't be required to motivate the layoff anymore, which will be effective immediatly. After

Spring Break

2006-03-19T09:53:00.000Z

The Spring term is over. I'm not yet on holiday since I have a block week starting this Monday but an atmosphere of holiday is hovering in my head already... The end of this term also means the end of the MBA for a quite large number of students. Some are starting to work, some are travelling around the world and will start work in June/July so there is also an atmosphere of farewell at

What are the hot jobs for MBAs?

2006-03-16T10:25:00.000Z

According to this article from the New York Sun, the Private Equity industry and Hedge Funds are the two sectors that are attracting the most applicants. "Almost 75% of HBS students want to do private equity or venture capital. Only about 10% get to do it" according to a member of HBS student senate. The trend is the same at Wharton and Columbia with a lot of people trying to get in but little

I am a millionaire...

2006-03-10T09:08:00.000Z

I received a letter from the Loterias y Apuestas des Estado yesterday, which is apparently a lottery program in Spain. The letter was in English and was giving me instruction to claim my EUR1,498,160 prize from a huge international Spanish-based lottery.I was so happy… With that money, no more headaches to pay back the loan or buy a house or take some really nice holidays…But wait a minute… How

France higher education

2006-03-09T09:04:00.000Z

Critics of France's often say that it's model is outdated, including a higher education system that cannot compete against Anglo-Saxon Universities such as MIT, Harvard, Oxford and so on...That may be true in some areas but in one field, the French are still the best. And believe it or not, it's in a finance related subject and it's the very american Wall Street Journal who is saying it. The

Disparition of a great African musician

2006-03-08T20:47:00.000Z

Ali Farka Touré died today. He was one of the best musicians of Africa and gained international reputation following his Grammy Award in 1994 for Talking Timbuctu with Ry Cooder. If you like blues or are interested in new sounds, listen to Touré. You can also try Mali to Memphis, a great album contrasting African music with American blues.

Economic patriotism

2006-03-07T19:43:00.000Z

I was reviewing a document that our M&A professor gave us today: it's the list of all M&A deals in 2005 from Investment Dealer's Digest and it provides interesting statistics.French companies have been really active overseas and France was also a good market for foreign buyers:France is the third most active country for acquisitions in the US (behind Canada and the UK) with 60 deals worth $6bn

Outcome of VCIC

2006-03-07T19:12:00.000Z

VCIC was great. Our team did not win but I had great fun and learned a lot about how VCs assess opportunities and how entrepreneurs should pitch when trying to raise capital.The competition worked this way:Business plans from 5 real companies looking to raise venture capital were given to us on Thursday at 6pm. As a team, we assessed the plans and developed a list of questions for the due

Back from the Big Apple

2006-03-01T23:02:00.000Z

New York was really cool but freezing... We did party a lot, sleep little and it was a great extended week-end overall. Couple of pictures below:New York style truck...I would love getting a loft hereA view from the Reservoir in Central ParkFifth avenueThe return trip was not that great and I was actually quite disapointed with British Airways. The service was relatively OK on board and we landed

Power failure

2006-02-22T21:40:00.000Z

Massive power failure in the Marylebone area and the School was not spared. It started at around 2pm and at 4pm, the lights were still off. The security decided to evacuate the buildings and close the School given that after 4.30pm, there is not much you can do without light. I wonder how it happened! I mean, there was no storm today so why did the power went down? Anyway, I won't loose sleep

Brits are leaving the country

2006-02-20T15:11:00.000Z

While some of us are moving to the UK for work or studies, an increasing number of British citizen are leaving their island to find greener pasture elsewhere. Le Monde (in French) reports that 350,000 UK residents, of which 60% are British citizen, have left the country in 2005. This is the highest number ever registered. Main reasons for this departure are the search for a better quality of life

Some MBA news

2006-02-16T16:37:00.000Z

As reported by fellow blogger The Divine Miss N, the Marquee has been taken down, thus marking the end of the Milkround for internship recruiting. There is nothing to worry about if you did not secure an internship yet, since many offers are still going to come through the Career Services… In my case, I secured an internship in April so, even though it’s easier said than done, there is no need to

Foreign students in France

2006-02-13T19:21:00.000Z

Le Monde has an article on exchange students registered in top French Grandes Ecoles and on their views on France. Quite interesting (but in French).

Cherry Guevara

2006-02-12T11:03:00.000Z

You gotta love marketing... El Commandante, the Cuban guerilla leader of the 60s is now a type of ice cream from Mangum (Unilever). According to the Washington Post who relates the story, the label has the following:"The revolutionary struggle of the cherries was squashed as they were trapped between two layers of chocolate," reads the copy on the wrapper. "May their memory live on in your mouth.

Week end off

2006-02-08T20:11:00.000Z

Was in Hamburg for the week end to meet with old friends from Africa. It was nice to be back in Germany and get some delicious wurst and good Heifeweisen beer... I've lived in Berlin a few years ago and although I did not like it too much, I still enjoy travelling back to Germany for a few days. It's cheap, people are friendly and the beer is excelent :) Hamburg is quite a nice city but it was

India is unhappy with the French reaction

2006-02-02T15:54:00.000Z

As stated, I'm closely following the Mittal-Arcelor deal. Don't ask me why since I've never work in steel and probably never will!The political reactions:As expected, the governments of France, Luxembourg and Spain have rejected the offer. Although the French and the Spanish governments are not shareholders of Arcelor, they justified their position by arguing they are stakeholders in the deal (

The most expensive beer in the world.

2006-02-01T15:17:00.000Z

How much would you pay for a bottle of beer? I mean a real good beer, not your Budweiser or Heineken from the pub next door? Boston Brewing think that consumers could pay up to $100 for a bottle of Sam Adams Utopia and although this is the most expensive beer, other producers are lining up high end products as well. Come on, $100 a bottle... this is crasy but then again, some wine bottles go for

France: A Third World country...

2006-01-31T13:35:00.000Z

At least when it comes to entry in the US: since October 2005, all countries part of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) are required to issue digital passports to their citizen for them to enter the US without a visa. Of the 27 countries part of the VWP, only 1 did not make it one time to issue the digital passports... You've guessed which one... And this is because of a typical French thing: unions!

Job offer

2006-01-30T16:51:00.000Z

This is it! The consulting firm who wanted me in Switzerland has agreed (after long negotiations...) for me to start in their London office. I have received the updated contract that I will sign this week. I'm quite happy about that and I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic experience. We haven't discussed about the starting date but September seems good to me. I need my summer break to backpack

Where being American can get you out of trouble...

2006-01-20T00:35:00.000Z

... and being French can kill you: Ivory Coast. Newsweek has an article about the current situation in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast and it's really worth reading."No, no, he's an American," the police chief said. "Quickly—show them your passport." The passport was locked in the trunk. Hands shaking, I fumbled for my wallet and extracted my California driver's license. "American!

Million Dollar Home Page under attack

2006-01-18T16:38:00.000Z

For those of you who followed the great success story of The Million Dollar HomePage, the story ended very well for Alex who managed to make $1m with his idea (his latest 1,000 pixels were sold on eBay for $38,100). But now, the web site is under attack by Russian hackers who are asking for $50,000 to bring it back on-line as reported by the Financial Times.

Workload

2006-01-18T13:29:00.000Z

I’ve signed up for too many electives this term. We are only in week 2 of the term (still 8 to go) and I’m already exhausted. I’m attending four classes plus Spanish classes, which might not seem a lot, but three of those classes do require some heavy preparation and I’m not used to that anymore. The good thing is that I will have enough credits at the end of this term to graduate so I can take

China is reinforcing its presence in Africa

2006-01-13T08:27:00.000Z

A very good article from Le Monde about the increasing importance of Africa for Chinacan be read here (in French). The continent is very important for China due to its natural resources as exemplified by the recent $2bn investment of CNOOC in a Nigerian oil field. With the US currently trying to reduce its dependence on Middle-East oil by investing into Africa, a conflict of interest is bound to

Return to London

2006-01-05T18:18:00.000Z

Those holidays were too short! Two weeks was not enough to change my mind but I had a fantastic time in Cameroon. I spent a few days in Douala, the economic capital and then we went to Kribi, a city with amazing beaches just a two-hours drive from Douala. The food was great and the weather was fine. I could not resist posting some pictures below.Fresh lobsters and fishes grilled on the beachNot

This is it!

2005-12-17T10:48:00.000Z

Last class of the term was yesterday. The block week (ie: 5 intensive days of class on the same subject) in "Mergers Acquisitions and Alliances" was very interesting. There was a different teacher each day and external speakers almost every day. Did you know that on average, 70% of the M&A end up destroying value... In the end, only bankers, lawyers and consultants are making money :) Of course,

FT ranking

2005-12-05T15:07:00.000Z

London Business School is ranking #1 among European Business Schools according to the Financial Times. The full-time MBA is ranked #1 for the second consecutive year in front of INSEAD and IMD. The Executive MBA also rank #1 according to the newspaper. Download all the results here.In the same edition of the FT, there is a column by Laura Tyson, the dean of London Business School, about

One exam and a block-week before holidays!

2005-12-05T12:12:00.000Z

Two more weeks to go before I'm flying to Douala. I can't wait really since I haven't been back to Africa since 2 years and because I really need a break. But before that, I have to write a paper in World Economy. The subject is as follows:...an approximately 5-6 page note on an economic country, institution or issue of your choice. We stress that we are not after a repeat of an EIU country note.

Want to do business in Africa?

2005-12-01T22:27:00.000Z

You might want to read this article first. It's quite long but very enjoyable: it details the story of AES, an American utility company who is running the entire power network of Cameroon. The first batch of US managers did a terrible job by not adapting to the cultural issues of Africa such as accepting a slaughter of animals by chiefs and marabouts to make the rains come so that the

Skype 2.0

2005-12-01T21:40:00.000Z

Skype has launched its v2 with visio-conference capabilities. It's still in beta but apparently quite stable so I'll try the upgrade this week-end. I hope it works well so that I can ditch the lousy combination of Skype for voice and MSN for video. But enough blogging; I have my Spanish exam tomorrow and a Finance 2 exam on Saturday (yep Saturday) so some study time is required.

Google's culture

2005-11-24T19:17:00.000Z

BW has a long article about Google. Quite interesting and a must-read for prospective MBA applicants. A passage worth reading: The suits inside Google don't fare much better than the outside pros. Several current and former insiders say there's a caste system, in which business types are second-class citizens to Google's valued code jockeys. They argue that it could prove to be a big challenge

French strike season

2005-11-24T07:17:00.000Z

Even Libération is on strike

Depressed by the state of Europe?

2005-11-21T14:09:00.000Z

According to The Economist, you should not. The paper affirms that the situation is better than it seems in the Euro-zone and gives some interesting statistics on growth and employment.On a related subject, France is actually home of the largest IPO of the year: EDF has started trading on Euronext with a market cap of €7bn but the state still controls 85% of the capital. It's actually a great

Can trees grow to the sky?

2005-11-17T17:47:00.000Z

Google's share price has just broken $400 a share. Last August, I was predicting that at $280 a share, the company was at the correct price but now, some analysts are even targeting shares at $450.I'm posting about Google since the company was on campus today for its recruiting event. Impressive presentation with a lot of dynamic people clearly passionated about what they are doing and the

A $100 laptop

2005-11-17T11:51:00.000Z

At the UN summit on information and technology in Tunis, plans for a $100 laptop have been unveiled. They are running Linux, have wireless capabilities and a hand-cranck to provide power. Those laptops are aimed at bridging the Digital Divide (I would even say Digital Cayon) between the rich and poors countries. First shipments are planed in February/March to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and

A new week

2005-11-13T20:51:00.000Z

This past week was quite busy with those World Economy essays to write, a finance case to finish and my work as an independent consultant. Next week looks quite busy as well with a job interview tomorrow for an associate position with a boutique consulting firm and another interview planned on Wednesday with my summer employer. I'm actually quite relaxed for those coming interviews since I

A Boeing for Google's co-founders

2005-11-10T18:04:00.000Z

You know you made it to the top of the corporate world when you have your own private jet and the 2 co-founders of Google clearly made it. They are going to fly in a refurbished Boeing 767 for personal travel.

MBA salaries on the rise

2005-11-09T15:11:00.000Z

In Wall Street at least. See the article from the New York Post here mentioning that MBA are starting between $100k and $115K a year for a job in financial services. I did not find any recent numbers for London or Europe in general.This survey from Universum was interesting as well. It ranks the ideal employers for MBA graduates and no surprises: management consulting firms and investment banks

Update on the riots in France

2005-11-07T14:02:00.000Z

My post this morning was wrong. There has been travel warnings for France made by a range of countries. See the WP article here and extract below: "The U.S. Embassy warned travelers against taking trains from Paris to Charles de Gaulle International Airport because of attacks on two trains last week. The Russian Embassy established a hotline for tourists after a bus carrying Russian visitors

The French social model

2005-11-07T08:14:00.000Z

It was to be expected that non-French people at the London Business School (and elsewhere) would turn to French people to get an update and some explanations of the problems in France. Media coverage has been so extensive in the past days that everyone knows there is something quite tragic going on there and some of my classmates are asking me if it is still safe to go to France next week. Yes it

World Economy assignment

2005-11-06T12:59:00.000Z

Our first paper for the World Economy elective, taught by Richard Portes and Andrew Scott, is due this coming Friday. We have to write 2 essays, of 750 words each, and we can choose subjects in a selection of 4. I've chosen the following: "What are the two most important problems facing the economies of Continental Europe? In what directions do you see solutions?" "Evaluate the monetary

Urban warfare in Paris suburbs

2005-11-02T12:28:00.000Z

The appropriate term is actually riots but after 6 nights of violence, the suburbs North of Paris are really starting to look like the ground floor of a guerilla... 69 cars destroyed yesterday only, cocktail molotovs thrown by group of youth to the CRS (anti-riot police). The mess started when 2 teenagers were electrocuted 5 days ago in an apparent attempt to escape police. Sarkozy is under

Chinese bid for Exxon Mobil

2005-11-01T17:12:00.000Z

The Guardian reports that a bid could be made by a small Chinese company to acquire Exxon Mobil, in a deal valued at $450bn... Of course, this looks very much like a hoax as the newspaper accurately reports and the Chinese firm even mentioned that the "offer was subject to financing". Good luck with that! Yet could you imagine the response of the US government? They already went a bit crazy with

VC money out of fashion for internet start-ups

2005-10-31T08:40:00.000Z

Today's WSJ has an interesting article (Many Internet Start-Ups Are Telling Venture Capitalists: `We Don't Need You') about entrepreneurs who refuse VC money to build their businesses.With costs of creating an internet venture falling down (cheaper storage, open source, outsourcing software development to India...), there is no need for huge amount of capital to create a business: only $200,000

Which city is the most expensive in Europe?

2005-10-31T08:24:00.000Z

No surprises here: London of course. The FT reports that a basket of 250 branded goods in the UK capital is 5.3% higher than in the Eurozone average. So not only it is difficult to be on budget because you are a student, you need to do this in the most expensive city in Europe... I should have go to Warsaw instead where prices are 22% cheaper than in the Eurozone.The article also mentions price

New mega-deals in European PE?

2005-10-22T07:50:00.000+01:00

The NYT reports that cash-loaded private equity funds are pursuing even larger targets. The paper reports very early talks between Centrica, the British natural gas supplier (market cap: $15bn) and Compagnie de Saint-Gobain (market cap: $19bn), the French construction materials company. If the deal for the French firm gets more traction, it will be interesting to monitor the reaction of the

Ethics at Business School

2005-10-20T09:50:00.000+01:00

Ethics is not intensely taught at Business Schools. The FT discuss the "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" ranking report by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute. The ranking methodology evaluate how Business Schools prepare their graduate "on the social, ethical and environmental stewardship of business".Number 1 is Stanford followed by ESADE (Spain). The London Business School did not

Instant Messaging alliance

2005-10-12T22:22:00.000+01:00

One of the consequences of eBay acquiring Skype is that announcement made today by Yahoo! and Microsoft: the two instant messaging software operated by the two companies are going to be made inter-operable, meaning that a user of Yahoo Messenger will be able to "see" a MSN Messenger user and chat with him.The two companies are feeling the pressure from Google Talk and Skype which led to that

EU MBA are getting traction in the US

2005-10-11T08:28:00.002+01:00

Today's WSJ ("M.B.A. Track: European Schools Draw More Interest Among Americans") has an article about EU business schools. Worth reading, even if London Business School is the only top EU school not mentioned in the article :(According to the article, prospective US students are attracted by Europe for the opportunity of learning a new language and developping cultural sensitivity. However, the

Back to school

2005-10-02T23:01:00.000+01:00

The first term of the second year officially starts tomorrow... Not that it will be very busy since I only took 2 electives plus Spanish classes but the Milkround (recruiting) season is also starting the same week. Banks, consulting firms and some industry-type companies are coming to campus which is nice but it means you need to wear a suit and try to "network" with the various people and I

Time-challenged? You are not alone

2005-09-25T11:19:00.000+01:00

Business Week has a great cover story on long hours at the office. The article explains some of the reasons why the productivity gains of the last decades did not translate into fewer hours at work and what can you do to reduce the workload.This article was interesting in the light of my shadowing experience that ended up last week. My manager was clearly experiencing some the of issues listed in

MBA rankings

2005-09-24T09:05:00.000+01:00

The Economist Intelligence Unit (a sister publication of The Economist) has released its latest MBA ranking. The London Business School ranked poorly with an appaling 23rd position. The top MBA is the one from IESE in Barcelona and it's the first time a European school is ranked first against the US schools. The next 4 are Kellog, Tuck, Stanford and IMD.The Economist discusses the ranking and the

Next venture

2005-09-20T14:24:00.000+01:00

After making some nice money from his stock options, a former Google employee has left the company to start a new venture... Familiar story in the Valley except that it concerns the former Chef of Google who is opening a restaurant near Stanford. Read about it here.More seriously, it's easier now for start-ups to raise money from VCs who are loaded with cash. They are all saying that they learnt

ROI on Skype

2005-09-19T15:39:00.000+01:00

According to Financial News, the returns on Skype have been fantastics for the VCs who have invested in the firm (see my post earlier). Bill Draper, a partner at Draper Richards has invested $250,000 of his personal money for a 5% stake, when Skype was valued at less than $2m. He has made more than 1000x times his investment!

It's getting busy

2005-09-12T22:13:00.000+01:00

I though September would be relax but actually, I have quite a lot of things to do. The bulk of my work is to write the second year report. It's quite painful but I'm just glad to be over with it quite soon. My recommendation to the 2007 is to try to combine the second year project with the summer internship like I did with the other intern. It should save us quite a lot of time this year.Then,

eBay to buy Skype for $2.6bn

2005-09-12T12:21:00.000+01:00

The deal is worth $4.1bn overall since a $1.5bn additional payment is planned later if target are met. Read all about it here and here. It will create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine".I don't know how many shares did the two co-founders had but my guess is that they will enter the Fortune 1000 list next year. Well done!

EU VCs will be boosted by a Skype exit

2005-09-09T08:57:00.000+01:00

If the rumors are proven to be true and if Skype is bought by eBay for something like $3bn to $5bn, the VCs (Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners) who backed the company are going to make some impressive returns.If successful, this exit should impact the European VC industry in a positive way since two of the original investors are

Skype is in play

2005-09-08T14:16:00.000+01:00

New rumors on Skype being targeted by eBay for a deal value at $5bn. This comes after speculation of News Corp making an offer for the VoIP company last month. I could see eBay offering Skype services to its users interested in asking live question prior to a bid on an auction but otherwise, synergies could be limited... Or am I missing something here such as eBay becoming a generalist portal

New tech bubble?

2005-09-07T12:30:00.000+01:00

Great article from the NYT about inflation within the VC industry. The article mentions one of the lastest deal from Accel Partners: $12.2m invested in Facebook, giving the company a valuation of $100m. I can't believe this company, started less than 18 months ago, is worth that much of money! Clearly, web sites providing social network are increasingly popular within VCs (and web users). I'm

Airline safety

2005-09-06T09:42:00.000+01:00

There has been another crash of an airplane, in Indonesia this time. That's the 6th in a little more than a month. This really has been a black summer for airlines and I guess it's time for regulators to seriously look into that industry. Margins have probably been compressed too much, with some companies starting to compromise on safety and using planes at their maximum capacity.Countries such

Internship done

2005-09-02T12:48:00.000+01:00

We've performed our final presentation early this week and that was it! The last days were quite intense but we managed to deliver a good and clear presentation to about 20 people located in the US, Switzerland, France and the UK. I believe we made specific useful recommendations on how the company is to enter that new market and thus, we have avoided the MBA syndrome - ie. a lot of analysis but

A new powerhouse in the Silicon Valley

2005-08-24T10:51:00.000+01:00

Like Guillaume mentioned in his blog, Google is adding instant messaging with VOIP features to its large range of products. However, some people in the Silicon Valley are starting to complain about the increasing power of Google, making it difficult for the others to raise money, recruit talents or simply innovate. They are even comparing Google to Microsoft! That must be hard to swallow for some

BA strike

2005-08-14T11:12:00.013+01:00

We had a couple of meetings planned in Geneva last Friday so my colleague and I though: let's book a nice hotel and fly there Thursday evening so that we do not have to wake up at 5am to take the first flight from London. We took the Heathrow Express Thursday afternoon to arrive in the middle of a huge chaos at Terminal 4 of Heathrow. All the flights were cancelled (including ours of course) and

French youth is leaving the country

2005-08-11T09:34:00.000+01:00

Great serie of articles from today's Liberation (in French) about the French 18-35 years old leaving the country to see if life is better overseas. And guess what... usually it is since only 15% of them are coming back to France (although I suspect this number is much higher on a long-term). The article on French living in London is interesting. Can you believe that there are approximately

French values

2005-07-29T23:00:00.000+01:00

I was just reading this OpEd from Krugman comparing the French and the US society and thought it was interesting enough to link it. Have a look if you have 5mn in your busy schedule.

Return to London

2005-07-29T10:57:00.000+01:00

My Swiss leg is over after 3 weeks there. I have a plane for Paris in a few hours, will spend the Friday night there and then fly to London and move into my new appartment. On Monday, we are starting the final part of the internship in the London office until the end of August, where we will have to analyze all the data that we have gathered and prepare recommendations on whether or not the

Back to Europe

2005-07-12T12:29:00.000+01:00

After 3 weeks on the East Coast of the US, I'm back in Europe for a few weeks before going back to London. My US experience in the suburbs was quite interesting - it's so different from my previous experience in New York - yet I'm not sure I would be happy in this Desperate Housewife environment... I'm definitely more a city person.Since Sunday, I'm in Switzerland to continue my internship and

Shadowing project sorted out

2005-06-28T04:16:00.000+01:00

It was painful but I finally managed to find someone to shadow. The shadowing project is a core project, to carry out before the beginning of the second year of MBA, where the student observes a manager performing his day-to-day activities over a 5 days period.It's quite difficult to actually convince a manager to participate to this project because he usually sees little value in having a

Ice pop goes down

2005-06-23T13:04:00.000+01:00

Oh no, I missed it! One has to be really stupid to attempt breaking the world record of ice pop in summer time in NYC but I would have love to see this 35,000 pounds kiwi-strawberry bar melting away. One woman was hurt by slipping on the pavement and fire department was called to clean the street. Actually, in terms of marketing, that is probably a success since more people heard about this

Second day...

2005-06-22T00:01:00.000+01:00

... and I'm already exhausted :) The internship has started pretty strongly with a series of meeting with the CEO and the senior management of the company in order to understand a bit more the products and businesses this company is in. It's a bit complex and after two days, it's still blurry for us but according to a Wharton intern, who started a few weeks ago, this is normal and at least 2

Internship begins

2005-06-20T00:36:00.000+01:00

I landed a few hours ago on the US East Coast and after a short drive in a nice limo, I'm now in a company appartment that I'm going to share with another intern who is going to work on the project with me this summer. I'm a bit jet lagged and hungry but we've just ordered some pizza so things should be fine :-) I'm also glad we have the internet (well, I'm "stealing" a Wi-Fi from a neighbouring

Latest preparations

2005-06-17T07:06:00.000+01:00

I'm back in Paris for a few days, enjoying the great summer weather but I don't have much free time. My task lists looks pretty bad: finish a take home exam, prepare the full moving of the Paris flat to the London one, get ready for the internship, meet some friends... all this in two days. Well, it's not that bad actually once written down :)I'm flying this week-end to the East Coast to start

New model

2005-06-10T09:13:00.000+01:00

France is looking itself a new social and economic model. After more than 20 years with unemployment at 10% and high social inequalities ("la fracture sociale"), I'd say it's indeed time to look for something new... Of course, there are a lot of divergences on which model to adopt or develop: the Left wants more social protection for workers and less capitalism and the Right promotes more

I can't believe it's been a year

2005-06-08T22:54:00.000+01:00

One more exam and then we're out. Like Guillaume was saying, we're half graduate now. Although we still have one exam, my mind has switched to business like with my internship starting on June 20. I'll fly to the US for a few weeks, then back to Europe and finish in the UK so I'm quite excited by this. I'm going to work in business development for a financial services company and all this is

Globalisation, 35h work week and India...

2005-06-03T17:32:00.000+01:00

In an interesting edito, Thomas Friedman is attacking the European social model further to the French and Dutch referendums. Friedman compares the hunger of Indian workers ready to work 35h a day (sic) to French blue-collar workers who, according to Friedman, have voted 'NON' on the EU treaty in part to preserve their 35h work week and because of their fears of the "Polish plumbers".Friedman

I should be studying...

2005-06-02T21:48:00.000+01:00

We have an exam tomorrow; the subject: Information Management. I must say I'm not a big fan of this class but I guess that's mainly because I have a background in software. I missed a few lectures and did not prepare any of the cases so the exam will be a bit tough but I'm feeling a bit lazy so let's cross the fingers and hope that my general background of the subject will be enough.I'm also

So now what?

2005-06-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

After the resounding 'NO' vote from French voters on the EU constitution, President Chirac has appointed Dominique de Villepin as the new Prime Minister and Nicolas Sarkozy as number 2 (Interior). So we could call this game of musical chairs the change in continuity and basically not much will happen in France until the next presidential election in 2007.How is the vote perceived by the foreign (

A little break

2005-05-24T18:34:00.000+01:00

I'm leaving for Paris for a few days, even though we still have 3 weeks of class to go but a little break cannot be bad. I'm going to Paris to vote for the EU Constitution on Sunday and with polls so tight, every voice will count! I'm voting 'YES' in case you wonder because I believe the current institutions needs to be adapted to a larger Europe with 25 members and more to come. I'm also a firm