Archive for May/2011

Tomorrow is an exciting day for Entrepreneurs and Investors in Singapore. IE Business Schools and Angels Den jointly organized the first IE – Angels Den Seminar on Entrepreneurship. Here are the details:

When? Wednesday, May 25 from 18:00 to 20.45
Where? Pan-Pacific Hotel, Level 1, 7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square
Registration: IE Event Page

As follows please find the agenda

2 years ago IE University has created a Junior Advisory Board which serves to provide a worldly and youthful perspective to IE University. IE’s Junior Advisory Board is considered as a part of the IE community, and shows a commitment to excellence and innovation. Board members, though still in High School, are outstanding members of their community and serve as joint representatives of their communities to IE, and also of IE in their communities. Here are the impressions from the 2011 annual board meeting:

This year´s committee comprised of twelve pre-university students, all with an international profile and aged between 15 and 19. They met in Madrid and Segovia to debate the challenges facing university education. The members of the International Junior Advisory Board were selected using IE’s network of 23 international offices in 20 countries, and are from the Czech Republic,  Colombia, India, Jordan, Peru, Romania, Spain, Lesotho and the US.

The talented young members of the Board speak several different languages, are entrepreneurial and top-tier students in a range of disciplines. They are committed to humanistic values and social responsibility. They are international, practical, ambitious and above all they represent a generation which, thanks to its commitment to excellence, innovation, human values and ethics, will not only bring improvements to IE University, but will also serve as leaders in tomorrow’s world.

In their 2011 meeting, the Junior Advisory Board members were asked to think if entrepreneurship can be learnt and what is the role of universities in fostering an entrepreneurial culture. They also discussed how universities can promote diversity and how it can equip students with the tools and skills they need to function in an increasingly competitive global and cosmopolitan market. In an open forum they debated if Social Entrepreneurship has to be a part of a business education and how university sector can engage students in social issues. Read more…

José María Castillejo, IE graduate, is the president of Zinkia Entertainment, a world reference in children’s entertainment, thanks to the extraordinary international success of the happy character Pocoyó, a small boy dressed in blue. Pocoyo, protagonist of a television series, has become a global, multi-platform entertainment brand.

Zinkia was created in 2001 as an audiovisual content producer for TV. Whatare main characteristics today?
Actually, Zinkia wasn’t created as an audiovisual contents producer for TV: Zinkia was created with the idea of being able to create contents that would help change our lives for the better and, in particular, help change our children’s lives for the better; children who were only babies when we created Zinkia.

Your company has become a world reference in children’s entertainment thanks to the extraordinary international success of Pocoyo, a small boy dressed in blue. What are the key factors behind that success, especially bearing in mind the huge number of competitors on the market?
I think that one of the key factors has been staying focused: trying to change our children’s lives, helping them to enjoy themselves and, while they do so, to learn that there are certain values that make human beings different from other living beings and that when we assume those values, they help us to be happy: friendship, loyalty, sincerity, hard work… And all while they are discovering new things about the world. The world that opens itself up to them and that they look at under a light of never-ending curiosity. I have no doubts that keeping our focus on that has helped us to be successful. Then ther e is also the talent of the people w e have worked with, the quality of the designs, contents and technological developments that have been made to represent the world of Pocoyo as we wanted. Read more…

IE Business School has recently been considered one of the best schools in the World for Entrepreneurship by BusinessBecause.com. 

Venture Lab, at IE Business School, is highlighted as a great opportunity to turn disruptive and innovative ideas real by creating very strong feasible business plans. In Venture Day business plans are presented to Venture Capitalists in order to create relationships that can result in successful funding. On another note BusinessBecause.com also places emphasis on the the 25% of graduates that are actively involved in entrepreneurial activities 5 years after having completed the International MBA program.

Some recent entrepreneurial successes include companies such as Zinkia, RenewEn, BioOncoTech and CityDeal recently acquired by Groupon.

For the complete article please click here.

To mark the conclusion of the IE Consulting Project (IECP), sixteen International MBA students recently presented their final projects to senior management of Unilever. 

The IECP is the latest example of the experiential learning opportunities available at IE Business School, which provides students with real world experience in identifying and solving problems in management.

 ”Not only is the IE Consulting Project a rewarding opportunity for our students to work with Unilever, but the company likewise benefits from the energy, passion, and new ideas of our MBAs,” said Amrou Awaysheh, Professor of Operations Management and Faculty Director of IECP, which is now in its second year.

In this most recent project with Unilever, students were grouped into four teams of four and assigned to projects closely aligned with Unilever’s core activities including CSR, strategic planning, and process improvement.  For fourth months, the teams met with senior management, had access to exclusive company data, and visited various Unilever sites in Europe.

 The MBAs presented their final reports to senior Unilever management.  “The presentations were strong; the MBA students have given Unilever much to consider and a number of recommendations that can be implemented in future endeavors,” concluded Awaysheh. 

 ”Once again I am extremely impressed with the caliber, professionalism and enthusiasm of the students and the work they have produced. Some projects were more strategic and others more operational, but in all cases the conclusions and recommendations have been practical, and applicable immediately to our business,” said Duncan McIver, Works Director of Unilever’s Aranjuez facility.  “After only one year the current students have elevated the standard to a level that will be a challenge for future students.”

McIver added: “As always, it has been a pleasure to work with the students and Professor Awaysheh on these projects, and it clearly demonstrates the caliber of the IE Business School.”

An interview spanning two generations: distinguished sociologist Elihu Katz in conversation with IE University Communication student Mª Gabriela Cardoza, on a lifetime of communication research and the challenges for the next generation — the interaction between old and new media and the critical situation of the sector.

Starting in May 2011, IE accepts the CAIA exams, (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst), both Level I and Level II, as a replacement to the GMAT or GRE exam, one of the admissions requirement to IE´s Masters in Finance programs.

Before that, earlier this year, IE also officially started to accept CFA Level I as a substitute for GMAT or GRE for the Master in Finance & Global Master in Finance) and Level II for the Master in Advanced Finance program. In the past few years, plenty of IE´s candidates for the Masters in Finance programs presented their CFA exams during the admissions process.

Candidates to the Master in Finance, Global Master in Finance and Master in Advanced Finance programs therefore can submit either of the above four exam results at the time they apply to the program(s). Candidates for the Executive Master in Finance Biweekly have an additional option of taking the IE Admission test.

“The Art of Seduction ― Marketing the Subconscious” will explore the history and theory of appealing emotionally to potential clients and customers, and discuss ways to do so. 

The seminar, hosted by Seoul Global Center, will feature a guest talk from Prof. William Davila, Associate Professor of marketing at Madrid’s IE Business School, which specializes in entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategy. 

IE’s Korean academic partners include KAIST Business School, Seoul National University, and Sogang University Business School. 

There will also be a question and answer session after the talk. The event runs from 6 p.m. to 9p.m. on May 13 at COEX. Reservation is required. To reserve a place or find out more call (02) 6001-7242 or email joychei@sba.seoul.kr.

IE Business School and busuu.com, a European online community for learning languages, have conducted the 2011 Language Barometer survey, the world’s largest online report on the future of language learning. More than 16,000 people from over 150 different countries took part in the survey which was carried out in March 2011.

37% of the people surveyed believe that one of the best ways to learn a language is online. 24% specifically identify Web 2.0 platforms as the most efficient way to learn a language and 13% prefer individual online language learning. 32% of them believe that language courses abroad are the most efficient way to learn a language.

The lifetime average amount spent by survey participants on language learning is around 750 euros. More than 17% have spent even more than 1,000 EUR (1,400 USD) on language learning over time. 71% of them believe that the ability to speak a foreign language will directly improve their financial situation.

The reasons that people learn a new language are changing. The people surveyed want to learn a foreign language for travel (37.7%), business (35.7%), fun (37.1%), school/university (27.4%) and personal/family reasons (22.1%).

Regarding the difficulties found when learning a new language, 24% say that they don’t have time, 16% think it is hard to keep up the motivation, and 15% believe that not having access to native speakers hampers their learning process.

82% of the people surveyed believe that knowing a foreign language in the workplace is important.  The report shows that 40% of companies actively support their employees when it comes to learning a new language.

52% of the people surveyed believe that the language of the future is English, 23% chose Mandarin and 8% Spanish. The rest are split between languages that include French, Japanese, Arabic, and German.