Archive for December/2008

2009年即将到来，祝大家新的一年万事如意，锦上添花，身体健康，事业兴旺，笑口常开。

Please find the below links to the recordings of IE Virtual Insight Session:
IE Careers Management Department
· Spanish (11 Dec. 2008) – http://conference.ie.edu/p85096238/
· English (11 Dec. 2008) – http://conference.ie.edu/p98627591/
· English (17 Dec. 2008) – http://conference.ie.edu/p10593521/
IE Financial Aid
· English (Dec. 2008): http://conference.ie.edu/p81631625/
· Spanish (Dec. 2008): http://conference.ie.edu/p58448306/
As of recently, we also have videos en our MediaCampus on Financial Aid (scholarships, fellowships and loans):
English: http://www.mediacampus.ie.edu/ieexperience/ieexperience.aspx?IdContenido=KvREoa%2bFBLs%3d
Spanish: http://www.mediacampus.ie.edu/ieexperience/ieexperience.aspx?IdContenido=eE7ucsJ1IlI%3d
大家可以到以上网站访问IE商学院的网上咨询。

From Santiago Iniguez, Dean IE Business School, dedicated to the 2008 graduates:

Congratulations to all our graduates, whose success we are celebrating today as we award them their IE master’s title. You all richly deserve your title after a year of huge effort and achievement.

Over the last academic year you have acquired relevant knowledge and strengthened personal skills that will be decisive in your future careers, and you have made lifelong friends. Moreover, during your time at IE you have left your mark on professors and staff at our school, with your spirit of work and commitment and your ambition to improve the society in which you live.

Congratulations also to the families and friends of our graduates, both those who are here with us and those who were unable to join us. You too have played an important part in the success we are celebrating today. You have our heartfelt thanks for all the support and enthusiasm shown this year.

The staff at IE is especially proud of you all today. On behalf of all the professors, directors and administrative staff of our school, I would like to thank you for making this year such a good one, and offer my very best wishes for the future.

You can follow the graduation online.

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December 2009 | Jose Maria de Areilza, Dean IE Law School

Obamaâ??s success opens a window of opportunities for Europe, but it also brings challenges as we find out how capable the old continent is of performing alongside its US partner.

Barack Obama´s election to the presidency of the USA may be a defining moment not only for his country but also for the international projection of the European Union and its member states. The transformational figure of the President-elect, to use a term coined by Colin Powell, will have two immediate effects on the watered-down relations between Europe and the USA. On the one hand, eight difficult years of tension and division, especially in the area of politics and the military, are now wiped off the board; on the other, the economic interdependence of the transatlantic community has not stopped growing, as shown by the financial crisis itself. The new White House will no longer classify Europeans into new and old and certain Europeans will have no reason at all for defining themselves as anti-Americans. Those who spread the word of anti-Americanism have suddenly been left behind and, for a few months at least, we will not have to listen to a choir of European politicians preaching to the USA on how to do things better from a the moral high ground, but incapable of practising what they preach.

As the best observers explain, we are witnessing the greatest public relations coup in the history of the USA and the best example of a hegemonic countryâ??s instant recovery of legitimacy or ´soft power´ ever seen. Barack Obama symbolises a new generation, a new way of doing politics based more on stories and emotions than on ideologies and parties; he also embodies an aspiration to global citizenship. His election not only breaks down racial barriers, but also makes his country and the American dream attractive again all over the world, something that is the opposite of what the Bush administration achieved during its eight years in power. It is true that the new president awakens such expectations on our continent that he will undoubtedly be unable to fulfil them, first of all because in many areas of security and foreign policy, the USA policy that has been in place since the fall of the Berlin Wall will continue. Indeed, the USA will continue to look towards the Pacific and pay less attention to a Europe that is less relevant in the current reconfiguration of world power. However, with the election of Barack Obama, the notion of the West begins to be more appealing, not only on both sides of the Atlantic. Read more…

Benidorm, the mass-market Spanish seaside resort, has been the butt of British jokes for so long that its desire to apply to Unesco for world heritage status has generated a predictable mix of astonishment and mockery. What do
1960s tower blocks on the Costa Blanca have in common with the Great Barrier Reef or the pyramids of Giza?
It was a gift to cynical humour that Benidorm unveiled a draconian set of by-laws banning sex and drink on the beach just as the Unesco idea was floated.
Benidorm’s critics assumed it was courting the world’s cultural policeman by cleaning up it tawdry image as a base for British lager louts and fornicating Swedes.
A place for Benidorm on the world heritage list, however, is not half as daft as it sounds.
Blackpool in the UK also wants a listing. Both towns could qualify under Unesco’s selection criteria because each represents a vital period in the architecture and history of tourism.
Blackpool says it was the world’s first working-class resort, but it has always been domestic. Benidorm hosted the first wave of international package tours and its skyscrapers have made it the high-rise capital of the Mediterranean.
The man behind it all was the late Pedro Zaragoza Orts. When he was mayor of Benidorm in 1959 he was threatened with excommunication by the Catholic church for allowing bikinis. He drove to Madrid on his scooter and persuaded the dictator Francisco Franco that two-piece bathing suits and mass tourism were good for Spain.
So it proved. “Benidorm was the creator of the biggest industry in Spain,” says Gildo Seisdedos, urban planning professor at IE Business School.
Tourism was good for the rest of humanity as well. Between 1950 and 2007, the number of international tourists grew from 25m to 903m. Benidorm alone receives 4m visitors a year, many of them Spaniards.
“We’ve brought much to middle-class society,” María-José Montiel Vaquer, Benidorm tourism director, told the FT this week in support of a possible Unesco bid. “We’ve brought much happiness to many people.”
The idea of a world heritage listing was first floated last month by a French professor who said Benidorm’s unique collection of skyscrapers made it “the Dubai of Europe”, but Ms Montiel said Benidorm had yet to make
a formal application to Unesco. She also denied any connection between Unesco and the new by-laws.
Quite right too, for the rules – including a €750 ($950, £620) fine for beach sex – could actually undermine Benidorm’s claim to be a worthy cultural icon.
However exaggerated the claims may be about drunkenness and orgies involving badly behaved Brits on the sands of Benidorm, they are as central to the cultural imagery of late 20th century mass tourism as Stonehenge is to ancient Britain or the leaning tower is to Pisa.
By Victor Mallet, FT.com

What is the best way to experience IE and the ambience at our urban campus? Definitely the newly arranged IE Campus Tour!

The IE Campus Tour is definitely an informal way to approach IE. You will have the chance not only to interact with members of the Admissions and International Development team but also with current students. They definitely give you personalised insights into the day-by-day of the program of your interest as well as life in the exciting and vibrant city of Madrid.   In comparison to the Open Day, you have much more opportunities to join one of those tours as they are offered on a more regular basis. So, if you plan to visit IE, please try to match it with the agenda of the IE Campus Tour. The general schedule is the following:

10:30 â?? Admissions Test in English (register separately through www.ie.edu/events)
13:00 â?? Tour in English â?? Admissions Director
14:00 â?? Meeting with an Admissions or International Development Director (optional)
15:00 â?? Lunch with current students

So, enjoy your trip to Madrid and breathe some air of the IE flair!

December 2009 | By Cristina Simon, Professor at IE Business School

Attracting and leveraging talent is the challenge now facing Peru if it wants to keep up the sustained economic growth of the last decade.

There is no doubt that a country´s economic development is linked closely to the evolution of its labour market. The problem that so often arises is the difference in speed of both concepts. At the present time, Peru is a magnificent example of this lack of synchronisation between the economy and the human capital that is there to keep it in place. As a result, a ´talent voidâ?? alert has recently appeared and could slow down the so far unstoppable force that has driven the country down a road of sustained growth for almost a decade.

The continuous progress of an economy generates an often very brusque change in the type of human capital that is required. This need for more intellectual work has become more evident in Peru in detriment of unskilled labour: in 1993, the EAP (economically active population) comprised 50% unskilled workers (with no academic qualifications or with primary education only), but the proportion fell to 26.2% in 2007. This figure clearly shows the shift in employers´ requirements and the need for trained, employable personnel, a concept that was christened with the name of ´talent´ in the United States at the end of the 1990s. Read more…

December 2009 | By Manuel Romero, Professor at IE Business School

The subprime mortgages unexpectedly sparked the financial crisis, but the resulting raging fire took hold because there was so much more fuel lying around to add to it. How can we rise from the ashes?

The first thing to be considered is the background to the crisis and the essential causes of it. Perhaps the best example has been the strong sensation of liquidity experienced by all the players on the market, which has led to excessive leverage and a significant undervaluation of the risk associated with excess debt and a significant overvaluation of assets that has given rise to clear consequences that include a lack of coherence and macroeconomic consequences such as negative saving rates in the USA and investment records in China in excess of the GDP. All the market analysts expected the system to break down as a result of macrospeculators such as the hedge funds and the CDS (Credit Default Swaps), but neither of the two originated the crisis.

The origin of the crisis actually came from an unexpected trigger, more specifically, the heavy default produced by ´sub-prime´ mortgages, which were none other than loans awarded to the so-called ´NINJAs´, i.e. people in the USA with no income, no job, and no assets, that had been securitised, which means that those who awarded the loans just sold them on the market, in many cases leaving nothing showing in their balances. One of the surprising aspects is that a market as small as the sub-prime mortgage market was the detonator of this entire situation. Read more…

Viet Ha just moved from her home town Hanoi to Spain’s capital Madrid to start the IE Master in Marketing Management. Read her first experiences and impressions about Madrid, IE and her program.

As you just recently moved to Madrid â?? how different and similar is Vietnam to Spain?
As I have always been living and working in Asia, I have been experiencing a whole new life in Spain, which is totally different from Asian cities such as Hanoi, Tokyo, Singapore or Hong Kong where I’ve lived, or have been to through business experience.
The most surprising thing for me in Spain is the different lifestyle, especially regarding the hours people conduct their daily habits. Particularly, it has taken me much time to get used to the meal hours here. In Vietnam we usually have breakfast at 7:00am, lunch at 12:00am and dinner at 7:00pm, and thus in the beginning at IE, I had a big trouble managing my lunch time and faced some health problems.
As many other foreign students, Madrid by night is a fantastic experience for me, I’ve never seen such a vivid night life anywhere else but here. In other Asian business cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, the night life is also exciting but I always felt that was more of “business excitement”. In Madrid, I feel that the night life is an “outside-the-work” excitement.
In my country Vietnam, life is also very different, without much night life. A normal day starts at 5:00am and ends at 10:00pm when all shops, restaurants or entertainment places are closed. Therefore, for me, Madrid also means a change in my lifestyle.
However, there is a similarity between Spain & Vietnam that I can see clearly, which is, people in both countries tend to spend much time enjoying themselves, and take much care of their personal life and people always look very happy. In the morning time when I get on the train to go to school, I do not see stressed or worried faces, people tend to look very relaxed and that often gives a pleasant start to my day.

What do you like most so far about the Master in Marketing Management?
Most students in MMMM are very young and many have not yet been experienced in the real business world. This sometimes is an advantage, as these students tend to be very curious and enthusiastic about knowing about the business world that they are going to enter, therefore they ask many questions and participate a lot in classes. Moreover, I can see that students of MMMM seem to be extroverts with high interpersonal skills, they are very open-minded in knowing more about other cultures, which I highly appreciate. I believe that in today’s global business world, understanding and knowledge about other cultures play an important role in business success, as we will do business with many countries.

How would you describe the student life at IE?
I am amazed by the liveliness and richness of the student life at IE. The Bar of the Week activities are very interesting and I get to know many friends from different programs as well. I am also very contented with the service and assistance that the Student Office or our Program Managers or coordinators have provided, they are very professional and kind. What captures my interest the most is the IE clubs, this year I have joined 13 clubs. I believe that more than academic classes, I might remember better what I do with the clubs throughout the year. I have made many friends with students from other programs of IE in the clubs, and the clubs are the places where I learn about other cultures the best. I have been appointed Vice President of Cooking of IE Gourmet Club, Vice President of IE Asian Business Club, Vice President of Communications of IE Emerging Markets Club and Secretary of IE Japan Club. I would like to contribute to creating a better image of my region to IE students from other parts of the world, as well as to make the one year at IE one of the best learning times of my life. As committee member of IE Asian Business Club & IE Emerging Markets Club, I would like to work on expanding the business network and investment chances between Spanish companies and Asia, which is also the career I would like to pursue in the future.
I also admire the various activities that students of 2008 have carried out with the clubs, and I always try to attend as many speeches that are arranged by academic clubs as possible. They are adding very much value to my experience at IE and I feel very contented to have been part of the IE community.

Deciding to undertake a Master program, means also an important decision on financial investment. Investing in education should definitely be considered as long term investment even though some people try to calculate their personal ROI (Return on Investment). The ROI for IE programs is usually quite low as the program duration is roughly one year and also the living costs are limited to that period of time.

To facilitate the access to education, the IE Foundation provides a series of scholarships for different regions, special merits or achievements to boost diversity in our programs. Those scholarship are administered by the Financial Aid Office which also negotiated student loan programs with local banks.

The upcoming online presentation give you an overview of all the financial aid support which IE can provide to ease the financial burden. At the same time you will learn about the application procedures and deadlines. Just register for the different presentation options â?? depending on your time zone â?? and enjoy the presentation:

• Friday, December 12 at noon (Madrid time)

• Monday, December 15 at 5pm (Madrid time)

Just for your reference, Singapore is currently 7 hours ahead of Madrid.

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