On March 25th, IE took a road trip to Barcelona to compete in the annual Spring Fling organized by IESE, a prelude to the MBAT in Paris and a nice two-day sports warm-up with 300 students from leading European schools such as INSEAD, ESADE, HEC and a host of others.

Sports included men and women football and rugby, basketball, ultimate frisbee, salsa, petanque and tug of war. We won in salsa, and our women football team had an excellent performance and ended second overall in the competition.

IE Women Football team at the final with IESE team

On 1 April, a team of Instituto de Empresa (IE) students -composed of Van Culver, Russ Browder, Imke Buttkus, Alberto Ordiales, and Alex Corrie, all IMBA 2006- joined five U.S. business school teams for the finals of The Global Citizenship Challenge, held on the campus of Thunderbird’s Garvin School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona. The team, sponsored by PwC & IE Corporate Responsibility Center and IE, outperformed 50 teams from other top business schools such as IESE, Columbia, and Harvard to earn the right to attend the finals, where they represented the only non-U.S. business school. IE’s team will donate half of their 3rd place prize to the Madrid chapter of Ashoka, an organization that identifies and invests in outstanding social entrepreneurs.

Instituto de Empresa Global Citizenship Challenge Team: Van Culver, Russ Browder, Imke Buttkus, Alberto Ordiales, and Alex Corrie (left to right).

The Challenge, sponsored by Merck, The X-Prize Foundation, and Net Impact, is the largest global case competition in the world focusing on corporate citizenship, sustainability and international development. The final round question challenged teams to devise a way to facilitate cooperation amongst the private and public sectors in order to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The IE team proposed an entrepreneurial approach, whereby a social enterprise would match complementary organizations with opportunities in developing countries and provide services to help maintain the partnerships.

Read this article in EXPANSIÓN (in Spanish) http://www.presstracking.com/archivos/00007YWT.pdf

Madrid, April 2006. Students from the IE Business School International MBA programme have won first prize in “Cerebration 2006”, the international business plan competition organised by NUS National University of Singapore. The winning team comprised Michael Cole from the US, Mohammed Al-Menifi from Kuwait, and Deepanjan Mukerjee and Kapil Jhindal from India, all currently studying the IE International MBA. Cerebration is an annual business plan competition, designed to promote the internationalisation of companies in Singapore.

This international success comes on top of last year’s achievements in Singapore, when a team of MBA students from IE were awarded second prize in “Cerebration 2005”, and IE students obtained the first and second prizes in the 2005 and 2006 editions of the “Innovation Challenge” organised by Thunderbird. “These international prizes evidence the high level of our MBA students as they compete against teams from the world’s leading business schools,” says Gonzalo Garland, Director of External Relations at IE.

“Cerebration 2006” attracted 641 teams of MBA students from 117 business schools and universities in 31 countries. The six finalists were from IE (Spain), Kellogg School of Management (US), HEC Montreal (Canada), RSM Rotterdam (Netherlands), S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (India), IUJ Business School (Japan) and Sailesh J. Mehta School of Management (India).

International Expansion

The main objective of this international business plan competition is to foster the internationalisation of companies in Singapore. In order to achieve this, participants are required to resolve cases of Singaporean companies who are interested in expanding their business on an international scale. IE’s winning team developed a case study for Informatics, a supplier of online information and training programmes interested in penetrating the Kuwaiti market.

"We worked together in Madrid for three months to prepare the report and our proposal for international expansion, and the mere fact that we reached the final and got to travel to Singapore was reward enough for us", say the winners. "Then, when we reached the final, it was amazing to see how the firm’s vice president got involved in the project, giving us feed-back on how to fine-tune our proposal to meet the company’s needs. Presenting our proposal to the senior management of Informatics was extremely gratifying". They also recall how the judging panel congratulated them on presenting a proposal that was strategic rather than operational, for transmitting the right message in accordance with the profiles of the top directors present, and for taking maximum advantage of market synergies.

Mohammed, Deepanjan, Kapil and Michael, from left to right

The judging panel comprised eminent industry leaders, CEOs of case sponsors, NUS Faculty and senior IE Singapore and Temasek Holdings representatives. Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister of State for Education and Manpower, gave away the prizes. Such event is subject of a major coverage by the media in the form of press releases, media events for Cerebration, in the region and overseas.

Click here to see our team in T.V. news Download file

“Cerebration” offers an opportunity to build on and strengthen a worldwide MBA student network, and permits participants to put the knowledge and skills acquired during the program into practice. In the case of the IE team "All four of us have different backgrounds and experiences which brought out the best in each other. It’s a source of great pride to know that the directors at Informatics have begun to implement the measures we proposed", said team member Michael Cole.

Focus on Entrepreneurship

This international success confirms IE’s strength in the field of entrepreneurship. Other IE initiatives include platforms like Iceved (International Center for Entrepreneurship and Ventures Development), a virtual portal that serves as an interface for 24 international schools and acts as an intermediary among entrepreneurs and investment funds. IE also coordinates the NETI Project in collaboration with Spanish telecom operator Amena, the Project’s mission being to promote the creation of innovative technology businesses. In recent years, these companies have created 900 direct and indirect jobs and have received over 3 million Euros from private investors. The NETI Project also runs a Business Angels School, where private investors offer specific training on funding start-ups and business plan analysis.

All MBA students at IE design business plans as part of the core program under the supervision of a team of over 200 external tutors. 25% of these plans go on to become businesses and more than 15% of graduates of the MBA programme set up their own firms. The IE Venture Lab, a platform that provides support for students’ business projects and the implementation process is another example of the school’s focus on entrepreneurship. Furthermore, IE is the Spanish arm of the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) report, an international observatory that assesses the levels and effects of entrepreneurship around the world.

More information on Cerebration 2006 at (http://www.nus.edu.sg/cerebration).

On Wednesday, March 22 Richard Vaughan, founder and owner of Vaughan Systems and Vaughan Radio, visited IE invited by The IE Entrepreneurs Club, and opened the first event organised by the Club under the title"Speakers´ Series".

Vaughan Systems is the largest in-company language-training firm in Spain. Currently, it has 119 teachers that provide 12,000 hours per month of language training to people interested in learning English. Vaughan Systems has a presence in some of the most important cities of Spain including its famous English-speaking village.

Richard gave the students some insights on how to become a successful entrepreneur. He shared that since his company began in 1977, they have sustained a rock-hard faith in the one single tenet that has made the company a leader: "The success of a language-training program depends solely on the human and technical caliber of the trainer. All the rest is pure adornment."

Mr. Vaughan's key lessons are:
- Be humble yet energetic.
- Feel passionate and compromised
- Listen to the people that are around you, be open to ideas
- Respect and appreciate your people
- Master communication skills, they are crucial in leadership
- Always motivate your employees
- To any ideas that come your away, tell yourself "Why not?" and do it.

"Got to do things -Pisando Fuerte-"

As a great English instructor and as a communicator, Mr. Vaughan also emphasized that for public speaking, you have to know your subject, believe in what you are saying, have the urgent need to share what you know, and transmit it with passion.

He succesfully captivated the audience and fostered its participation, so all attendants to the event enjoyed his speech and lessons.

To learn more about Mr. Vaughan and his business, tune into Vaughan Radio at 101.0 FM or visit:http://www.vaughancamp.com, http://www.vausys.com or http:// www.vaughantienda.com

IE's Entrepreneurs Club organizers: Jorge García (President), Alain Huber (Vice-President), Walid David (Communications), Ilias Hamdouch (Events), Alex Corrie (Social Entrepreneurship), Kapil Jhindal (Alumni, Networking), Alonso Solís (Investors Relations), Robina Leo (Finance), Philipp Diedrich (Venture Lab Support), Roman Korchagin (Events & Networking), and Alfonso Pérez (Events & Networking). All IMBA 2006.

Email: EntrepreneurshipClub@ie.edu
Website: www.ie-entrepreneurs.org

OUR MOTTO
"Learning by Doing"

WHO WE ARE
We are business students and spouses who share the same passion- achieving a better world through socially responsible business practices.

OUR VISION
To create an environment that fosters IE student growth in the area of social responsibility, including education, practical application, and employment opportunities.

OUR OBJECTIVES
Net Impact Chapter: we intend to join a network of more than 13,000 leaders committed to improving the world through socially responsible business practices.
Corporate Social Responsibility: we apply and develop skills in the real world, while making an indirect, positive impact on society through corporations.
Social Action: we apply and develop skills in the real world, while making a direct, positive impact on society through hands-on contributions.
Case Studies: we learn more and help others learn more about social responsibility by researching and writing case studies.
Job Opportunities: we increase IE student access to and awareness of NGOs and companies in the area of social responsibility.
Exchange Ideas: we learn from one another by discussing various social responsibility topics.
Guest Speakers: we attract fresh insights that increase IE student awareness of current topics related to social responsibility.

CONTACT US
Email: socialresponsibility.club@ie.edu

For more information on the IE Net Impact Chapter, see our powerpoint presentation Download file

The Marketing Innovations Club produced yet another eye-opener. This time the event was "Public Relations and Internet", supported jointly by the departments of Information Technology and Marketing at IE.

On March 1st 2006, the students of IE had the opportunity to gain insight into the rapidly growing use of technology in Public Relations (PR). Presenting the topic were:

- Pablo Paniagua, founder of Paniagua Consultores (a Spanish PR consulting Firm);
- Juan Iván Martín, MD and Financial Director from CommPact (a leading Spanish Technology PR firm); and
- Steve Maynard, Director of European Marketing of Visto UK

Visto is the client of both Paniagua and CommPact and provides a platform for mobile email solutions to mobile operators in Europe and USA.

The discussion was focused around two main areas: the emergence and importance of technology in Public Relations and where the technology ends and the marketing begins. The icing on the cake was the case study of Visto itself on how it used technology based public relations to gain footprint at 2005 3GSM Congress at Cannes.

Students at Instituto de Empresa showed immense insight into the industry and came up with questions that tested the knowledge and experience of the speakers. Tools such as Viral Marketing, Webstat, Rapid Action Sites, Virtual Pressroom and many more were discussed in detail, evaluating the pros and cons of each. The case of Visto was special as it also brought to light that technology is an augmenter of Public Relations and thus can not replace traditional PR at the very core.

We thank Commpact, Visto and Paniagua for insight into the fusion of marketing and technology! We also thank Eduardo Fernández-Cantelli and José Esteves from the departments of Marketing and Technology here at Instituto de Empresa.

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