Students sampled a variety of Arabic traditional dishes, enjoyed watching performance of a belly dancer, and some experienced the sheesha pipe smoking!

Thursday 17 Nov. 2005

IE students from IMBA 2005, 2006 and other programs have enjoyed a night of the "one thousand & one nights" here in Madrid. A totally students-initiated event has taken place last week to celebrate the diversity of students.

A team of students calling themselves "The Flying Carpet Group" have organized this Arabic/MiddleEastern night, where students enjoyed a fascinating bellydancing show, Arabic cousine & dishes, and sheesha/hookah smoke (some for the first time). There was a specially-booked hall & show for IE students.

The event was a great opportunity for all students to meet their peers, have a fun time and a break from assignments & work. At the end, this is what most people remember from school times!

The Flying Carpet Group members are: Faisal Al-Kadi (IMBA06), Pinar Kavukcuoglu (IMBA05), Hanan Saeed, Shefali Jhangiani (IMBA06), Lynn Tabbara (IMBA05), and Reema Batal (IMBA05).

On October 31st, more than 300 IE students partied at a popular Madrid disco to celebrate Halloween. The IE IMBA class of 2006 sponsored the IE Halloween Party (Halloween Fiesta de Disfraces) and classmates attended from all IE programs (including IMBA 2005, EMBA, MBA and other masters programs). Until 6 am, the disco CATS was crowded with scary witches, sexy devils, bloody vampires, dancing cowgirls and escaped prisoners.

The award for the best male and female costumes were given to Spiros Milonas (IMBA 2006, Greece) and Berna Kosal (IMBA 2006), Turkey (pictured). Spiros dressed as baby Leonor, the daughter born that morning to Princess Letizia and Prince Felipe. Berna dressed as a pirate.

Built on last year's success, on 9 June Instituto de Empresa hosted the second edition of the Strategy Consulting Day: a major opportunity for students and alumni to meet and discuss emerging industry trends and up-to-date, real-life consultancy issues with top executives from AT Kearney, Booz Allen Hamilton, Mercer Management Consulting and Monitor Group.

Over 150 participants - Instituto de Empresa students, alumni and faculty members- joined the different workshops held by participating firms and followed subsequent panel discussions.

Meinrad Spenger (IMBA99), currently working for McKinsey & Company, conducted the workshop "Anything but Chardonnay!" - imitation and standardization as strategies for emerging product markets.

The theme "Challenges for Global Players in Emerging Markets" stimulated active debate, with students and alumni sharing their thoughts on and insights into the consulting field.

The event was organized by Chandran Fernando, Dirk Alois Peter Hickert, Jorge Fernandes, María Mercé Serra Pujol, Sara Caicedo, Stephanie Krahenmann and Udo Franz La Roche, all IMBA 2005 students, with the support and help of the Careers Management Centre and with the sponsorship of the management consulting firms invited to participate.

Santiago Íñiguez, Dean of Instituto de Empresa, opened the event and presented the speakers, all from their respective Madrid offices: Dirck Forquignon, Principal at AT Kearny, David Suárez, Principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, Jordi Duñach, Managing Director of Mercer Management Consulting, and Carlos Araoz, Group Leader of Monitor Group. David Allen, Director of the IE Strategy Department, introduced and moderated the final panel discussion.

All speakers highlighted that the consulting industry is changing rapidly as firms seek measurable value-creation from projects. Clients want implementation of strategies and a closer partnership in which rewards and risks are shared with the consulting firm. After a period of heady growth, the internet crash and lower corporate profits have led to consolidation and a movement toward fewer generalists and more specialists. In short, some of the glamour has gone, but consulting firms are now doing more for their clients.

"Future challenges in investment banking" was the theme of the first edition of the Investment Banking Day on 8 June. Duarte Gaia dos Santos, Franka Schäffler, Harald Wilke, Ignacio Martínez Sánchez, Jerónimo Eduardo del Villar Zamacona, Laurence Van Lancker, Marc Clapasson, Manfred Hick, Sergio Iardella, Susan Luff and Rita Valerio, all IMBA 2005 members of the Instituto de Empresa Finance Club, organised this highly successful event with the support of our Careers Management Centre.

The Investment Banking Day was a major opportunity for students and alumni to meet top executives of leading investment banks, gain a better understanding of investment careers, and discuss current industry trends and short-term perspectives. The initiative enjoyed great success, bringing together more than 150 attendees for a series of extremely participative and interactive seminars and workshops, as well as for two panel discussions introduced and moderated by IE faculty members.

Offered by the participating banks, different workshops covered topics such as "Public to Private (P2P) operations" and "Maximizing the value in an IPO process with independent advisors", as well as discussions about real cases. All attendees gained a privileged insight into various interesting industry features.

Jorge Vasallo, Joaquín Valencia and Alfredo Fernández, Managing Directors of, respectively, ABN Amro, JP Morgan and UBS Investment Bank, joined José Mario Álvarez de Novales, Associate General Director of Instituto de Empresa, in an open discussion panel. Francisco J. López Lubián, Director of the Finance Department of Instituto de Empresa, moderated the debate.

The speakers underlined that the best candidates for careers in the industry should have both a global understanding and local technical knowledge to help select the best investment strategy for a client. Furthermore, they pointed out that having impeccable social skills is another key to success.

The second panel discussion, "Future challenges of the investment banking sector", was presented and conducted by Gonzalo Chávez Negrete, Professor of Finance at Instituto de Empresa. It brought together Roger Ramos, Ignacio Álvarez-Rendueles, Juan Gich -respective Managing Directors of Fortis Bank, Goldman Sachs Spain and Lehman Brothers -, Ignacio Muñoz Alonso, Chief Executive Officer of Rothschild Spain, and José Mario Álvarez de Novales.