IE & Asia-Pacific

By Enrique Dans, Professor at IE Business School

Many people use their mobile phone for much more than speaking, with the result that mobiles are now designed to fit well in your hands rather than against your ear. They’re no longer phones. They’re computers.I have always been particularly interested in adaptation processes where technology is concerned, especially those that happen at great speed. And I am lucky enough to live in a time when they happen quite often. Mobile telephones are a clear example: from being somewhat inconvenient and expensive, justifiable only in special cases, we are now in the situation where the number of mobiles in some countries is clearly higher than the number of users. The penetration level of mobile telephones in Spain is greater than 111%. In countries such as the United Kingdom, where it is 122%, and Hong Kong, where it is 150%, citizens presumably carry a mobile phone in each pocket.
However, the way in which they are used is particularly interesting. Many mobile telephone users still use the telephone for its original function, the one that made them start carrying the appliance in their pockets in the first place: making and receiving telephone calls. This would seem logical, except for the fact that any similarity with the “building bricks” that were popular at the beginning of the 1990s is now mere coincidence: today, the appliance many customers carry in their handbags or pockets is, let´s say… something else.

Let´s analyse the way they are used and let´s take two popular appliances, such as the BlackBerry or the iPhone. If we look at their users, what do we see? If we are talking about a BlackBerry, a person who holds the mobile between his/her index fingers in both hands while pressing the keys with both thumbs. In the case of the latter, we see a user who holds the telephone with one hand while moving the index finger of the other hand around the touchscreen. Each form of interaction has its supporters and detractors, but both cases have one thing in common: the mobile spends more time in the user´s hand than next to his/her ear. Many users spend more time reading messages, looking at websites, consulting maps and other operations that require them to look at the screen than speaking on the telephone with the speaker next to their ears and the microphone next to their mouths. This far down the line, the 1989 Fortune article that mentioned the Motorola MicroTAC and predicted that “portable phones won´t get a lot smaller than this one, because after all, they have to reach from your ear to your mouth” brings a smile to our face at the very least.

So why do many users normally use their mobile phone for something other than speaking on the phone, and why are they are designed to fit better in the hand and not next to the ear? The fact that what those users carry around with them is still called a “mobile telephone” is a kind of throwback to its original purpose, because now it is actually something else. What those users carry with them is a computer. Small, but a computer nonetheless: with its microprocessor, its ROM and RAM and its hard drive, etc., offering much the same scope as a computer. Not many people use this type of terminal to write long texts, but replying to an e-mail, searching the web, reading the newspaper, going over the restaurant menu or finding the location of their destination is pretty common. There are still those who buy the latest mobile because “it is very sophisticated” and use it for speaking on the telephone. And there are those who deny everything and say that “the telephone is for speaking on the telephone” and “I´m not going to live life stressed out looking at the screen every two or three minutes”, as if carrying it with them means that they have to check their e-mail and browse the web every 10 minutes. When all is said and done, it is simply a question of adaptation.

Of course, this kind of change needs many other things to change too. It requires a change in data rates to encourage use, and a change in attitude as far as web design is concerned to enable access from this type of appliance. Wanting to log on to your company´s website from a mobile phone and finding that you can´t because it has some absurd piece of Flash is frustrating – try it. Our “mobile telephone” is no longer just a mobile telephone: speaking on the telephone is only one of its functions. The mobile telephone has grown and taken us into another age.

By Prof. Javier Carrillo, Professor at IE Business School

The inability to reach an international agreement which would bring continuity to the current Kyoto Protocol is incomprehensible, from both an environmental and business perspective.After 12 days of intense work, last weekend saw the closure of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which took place in Copenhagen. Thousands of delegates from 193 countries again tried to reach, again unsuccessfully, an international commitment to the continuity of the current Kyoto protocol when it expires in 2012. Once again, the commitments were postponed and hopes transferred to later negotiations, which will take place later in the year, before the next summit in Mexico in December. The importance of clearing up the uncertainty concerning the post-Kyoto regime as quickly as possible is of great importance not only for the environment, but also for business. The lack of sufficiently clear price indications for reducing emissions after 2012 is having a negative effect on current business decisions concerning investments in mitigation measures, increasing risk premiums and the cost of finance. The continued postponement of national commitments and the resulting lack of decisive action by companies have particularly negative effects on capital-intensive sectors, such as electricity, in which investments must be made over a timeline of between 25 and 30 years. In this context of relative uncertainty, the predominant attitude among businesses will continue to be that of diversifying their activities for controlling emissions, including the purchase of emission rights and involvement in the clean development mechanism, where applicable, depending on the costs of the various options. There will also be greater emphasis on the lines of business that are profitable regardless of whether or not emissions are reduced, but may as well reduce the emissions anyway. The uncertainty is also causing a delay in more important investments, which, paradoxically, will prevent the assumption of more demanding commitments to reducing emissions in the future. Alternatively, if the tighter restrictions are adopted later, the time lost will mean greater investment efforts, which will undoubtedly imply higher costs for reducing emissions than if the reduction process had been more gradual. It is necessary to make urgent and significant progress in the definition of a post-Kyoto system in at least two directions. There is an urgent need to define and agree on emission reduction targets on an international scale, as well as the mitigation instruments designed to ensure said targets are met. In particular, there is a need to guarantee continuity and extend the scope of the international emissions trade system provided in the protocol itself, in order to meet global reduction targets at a cost lower than that of other direct regulation instruments. Accordingly, in environmental but also in business terms, it is appropriate for the European Union, and Spain as a member state, to continue to lead the negotiation process to reach an international post-Kyoto mitigation agreement within the framework of the UNFCCC that provides those two basic elements: targets and instruments. In short, generic, non-binding commitments are not suitable for guaranteeing an attractive context for investment in new technologies and mitigation projects. Establishing targets and instruments sufficiently in advance plays a key role in providing a long-term indication of the price of carbon. If the aim is to meet the targets set in the current system, it is both urgent and essential to convince investors these targets will be maintained.

As first Spanish business School IE launched this week its content on iTunesU.

It’s an exciting project and provides insights about the academic sphere for interested academics and candidates . The IE Multimedia Campus was the first step to generate this content but iTunesU facilitates to take it on the move, watching and listing to the media wherever you have your iPod or iPhone available.

Have a look and enjoy!

IE Focus | By Gonzalo Garland, Professor of Economic Environment at IE Business School

The dollar is at an all time low, and everything points to it continuing to show signs of weakness over the next few months. Is this the beginning of the end of its reign?In the last few weeks we have seen how the euro continued to appreciate against the dollar to reach 1.5 dollars per euro, settling at around 1.47-1.48. Though this level is still far from the high of 1.6 in July 2008, it has generated worries about European exports during the current economic lull. Moreover, although the official stance maintains the importance of a strong dollar, in reality this exchange rate boosts US exports which is positive for the recovery of the world’s largest economy. A weak dollar is also convenient for China: With the Yuan semi-pegged to the American currency, the weak dollar in turn lowers the prices of Chinese exports. Although there are many other drivers underlying the growth of the Asian giant, we shouldn’t forget this effect.

Furthermore, the US trade deficit remains substantial, constituting one of the main reasons for the dollar’s weakness. Additionally, the US policy of keeping interest rates close to zero attracts little capital to the country, further contributing to a depreciated dollar. Therefore, and despite the enormous appetite for US assets by countries like China, there aren’t many reasons to expect a serious strengthening of the dollar in the short term. In the medium term, however, the situation may change. The latest figures for GDP growth corresponding to the third quarter in the US was positive. But it’s still early for excessive optimism, since the recovery is fragile and plenty of uncertainty remains. The exit strategy for expansion poicies will be complicated, and adjustments will have to be made subtly. Experience from the recent past tells us that when the US decides to change the direction of its monetary policy and starts raising interest rates, it does so very rapidly in a series of raises that take them above the interest rates of the Euro zone, which in turn boosts the dollar. This is why analysts are forecasting a euro-dollar exchange rate of 1.2-1.3 dollars per euro for the next year or so. This could change, however, if inflation rises in Europe and the European Central Bank with its anti-inflationist attitude raises interest rates in the Euro zone.

And in the long term? In the long term and as long as the US current account deficit is not significantly reduced, it is reasonable to assume that the dollar won’t be as strong as in the past. This is even more likely if China opts slowly but surely to diversify its reserves and investments among other currencies and geographical areas, even though that particular move doesn’t seem imminent. We still live in a world in which the main currency is the dollar, with competition rising. If there is movement, it will be slow. Despite the fact that we have been hearing more lately about the dollar crisis, we shouldn’t expect a collapse of the dollar in the short or medium term.

IE University has designed an online game that brings interdisciplinary, international and collaborative aspects of science to students all over Europe. “The International Lake Game Competition” is an interactive game played over the internet, whereby participants gain first-hand experience of the tension involved in deciding between cooperating for the good of their community, or opting for personal gain. The game was created by the multimedia department of IE Business School’s e-learning unit, and will soon be played by students from countries that include France, Switzerland, Portugal and Spain. Participants will compete online on November 12 to demonstrate their capacity to cooperate in an unusual setting: an artificial lake on whose shores 8 factories have been built, all of which need the water in the lakes to produce their goods.

The way the game works is apparently simple: participants are divided into 24 teams, which in turn are positioned around 3 artificial lakes in such a way that each team is in charge of one of the 8 factories around each reservoir. The factories have to decide, as the game unfolds, if they will make the effort to clean the waste water that flows out of their plant and into the reservoir, in which case their income will go down, or if they dump untreated water, in which case their profits will go up. The production process of all the companies will be halted if the level of pollution in the reservoir goes beyond a given threshold, which means that cooperation with the other factories is vital for their own survival and a chance to get through to the final. The company who makes the greatest profit will win the game.

The teams, half of which will be international, will have two opportunities to communicate using a webcam and microphone; hence, the competition will be run entirely in English. It is the most innovative and risk-based activity offered by IE University for the Science, Technology and Innovation Week, a key event in the communication of advances in science and technology in Europe, and set to take place from November 12 – 19 in Spain’s Castilla y León province. 

The coordinator of activities at IE University, Jesús G. Ochoa de Alda, sees the game as an ideal opportunity to showcase the issue addressed by the latest winner of the Nobel Prize for Economy, US researcher Elinor Ostrom, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for her “analysis of economic governance, especially the commons”. Her theory overturned a line of thought that has stood for the last 30 years that claimed that the overexploitation of shared resources by a community would inevitably lead to their extinction. Ostrom rejected this theory, favoring an alternative ending, and which makes for an excellent setting for the Lake game, based on dialogue among the members of the community. Ochoa, who teaches Evolutive Biology at IE University, observes that “sometimes the individual has to earn less so that the community can survive”.

In addition to the Lake game, IE University has programmed a further 20 activities for the 2009 Science Week, including courses, workshops, conferences, roundtables, exhibitions, and fieldwork. The object of all said activities is to serve as a platform to bring science, technology and innovation closer to the society they serve.

IE Business School is 9^th in the world ranking of MBA programs published by the Aspen Institute´s Beyond Grey Pinstripes.  The biennial survey and alternative ranking of business schools evaluates the proper integration of social and environmental issues in MBA programs of the 149 best business schools worldwide.  This year’s ninth position – and the 2^nd in Europe – is a rise from the School´s tenth spot in 2007. 

IE also ranks first in the category which evaluates time dedicated to teaching MBA students about ethical and social environmental issues.  The authors of the ranking  note that among the other European Schools featured, IE Business School best integrates ethical, environmental, and social responsibility studies into the classroom. 

“The best business students move quickly into the front ranks of business–and the attitudes and values they bring to the table are deeply influenced by their time in business education,” said Judith Samuelson, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program.  “Will they accept the status quo or act on their passion for the positive role business can play at the intersection of corporate profit and social impact?  The schools that are competitive in the Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking are the real trailblazers – they assure that students have the right skills as well as the will to make things happen.”

Since its inception, IE’s commitment to society has permeated every aspect of the school and is reflected in the core program content, electives focused on corporate responsibility, and consolidated initiatives such as the Chair in Corporate Ethics.  This commitment has culminated in the creation of a dedicated department, Social Impact Management, which plays a key role in the day-to-day activity of the school.

“IE Business School continues to maintain and renew its commitment to society, backed by two decades of work towards progress in areas such as ethics, social responsibility, sustainable development, environmental protection, and management of diversity,” said Joaquín Garralda, dean of academic affairs at IE Business School.  “We are convinced of the importance of training managers who have a holistic view of the impact of their decisions on the environment.”

At the academic level, IE Business School has integrated social and environmental management in the content of more than 80 core subjects and electives in the Masters programs. Within the area of Entrepreneurship, IE has a specialization in ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ to promote the development of social enterprises.  In addition, all MBA students should discuss the social and environmental impact of their projects. Internationally, IE organizes collaborations with top-caliber institutions in the area of social innovation and sustainability.

IE School of Architecture (Madrid/Segovia) and Architectural Association School of Architecture (London) organized from 16 to 25 of July a summer course to work on the remodeling of the AZCA financial district. In this workshop 20 future architects from 9 different countries from prestigious architect schools like Harvard, Basil and Glasgow participated. The objective of this intensive course was to underline the importance of the emergent urban ideas, the experimental design strategies, the process work method and public hybrid initiatives to improve the public life in big cities.

Like Javier Quintana, dean of IE school of architecture mentions: “Although both schools have different backgrounds, our attitude is experimental. It´s international, it´s innovative.”

As a student of the summer school stated: The most important in a workshop is the experience…

If you twitter, do you follow any of IE’s twitters so far? Here you can find out about curious things about IE Business School, the IE University and most activities which are running across the world. If you live in Asia, you definitely should sign up for the IE Follower with many exciting news from the region related to IE.

Choose to follow:
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or the IE Dean

The IE Foundation is launching in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes in Manila a new scholarship initiative for the Philippines. These scholarships are aimed at the Spanish speaking community in the Philippines who wish to come to study in Spain a Spanish-taught Master Degree in the field of law or business.

This program requires the candidates to be Filipino nationality or residing in the Philippines with fluency in Spanish language (minimum DELE B2 required). Furthermore, the candidates will need to have passed successfully the admissions process for one of the following programs:

• Master in International Management (Spanish), intake April 2010
• Master en Asesoría Jurídica de Empresas, intake February 2010
• International MBA (Spanish), intake April 2010
• Global MBA (Spanish), intake February 2010

Selection Criteria: The whole admissions process needs to be undertaken in Spanish language (application and interview) to proof the proficiency in this language. A special focus will be drawn on professional experience and participation in extracurricular/community development and promotion activities of the Spanish language and Spanish culture abroad. Candidates must demonstrate economic need to qualify for these scholarships.

Award: 5 scholarships of a maximum of 15,000 Euros will be awarded to the Master in International Management or the Master en Asesoría Jurídica. 1 scholarship of a maximum of 15,000 Euros for either the International MBA or the Global MBA.

For more information, please contact: becas.konektar@ie.edu and apply through www.ie.edu/financialaid.