Archive for September/2011

IE Business School survey reveals that expectations for economic growth in 2012 are focused on the BRICs. The highest growth rates in 2012 will be found in the BRIC countries. So say 94% of the directors who participated in the 2012 IE Global Alumni Forum (GAF)  survey of the world economic outlook for 2012.

Some 827 directors from 61 countries in all five continents took part in the survey, drawn up by IE Business School in the lead up to its Global Alumni Forum – GAF Madrid 2011, set to take place on September 30. Speakers include Ángel Gurría, General secretary of the OECD, who will be examining the world economic Outlook, together with Guillermo de la Dehesa, President of IE’s International Advisory Board de IE.

According to participants in the survey the BRICs are the countries with the greatest potential for growth in 2012, with Brazil being the country most expected to have the highest rates (40%), followed by China (39%), India (17%)  and Russia (5%). Meanwhile, 91% of participants think that the Latin American region will either maintain its current rate or grow faster. The survey results point to a generally held belief that the Latin American countries with the best future potential were Brazil (58%), Chile (17%) and Peru (10%). With regard to Europe, 77% feel that the European economy will stabilize or grow in 2012. Sixty two percent think the same about the EU. Within the EU, 64% consider that Germany will have the best growth rate, followed by Poland (7%) and the UK (5%). Read more…

On the same day of IE Finance Day, September 22^nd, we gladly had a Master Class with Prof Juan Pedro Gomez taking place in Shanghai, China.  The topic of this Master Class focused on Corporate Finance after the crises: beyond shareholder value maximization. This Master Class provided all prospective candidates a unique opportunity to obtain an IE classroom experience and also interact with IE professor and IE alumni. About 20 prospective candidates attended this event in Shanghai, around 60 percent of the attendance is from financial sector, and approximately 50 percent of the attendance is managerial level.

As a financial economist, there is nothing Juan Pedro Gomez likes better than to bury himself in complex statistics. But far from basing the assumptions he draws purely on these numbers or on abstract theories far removed from the real world, the work of Prof Juan Pedro Gomez is deeply rooted in the human psyche. “I get totally absorbed when I’m looking at the figures,” he says. “Particularly when I’m working with something that applies to a human relationship. There’s always asymmetry of information – and that applies to human relationship of all orders.”  Prof Juan Pedro Gomez used the real-life example of the film Wall Street to make the attendees have a better understanding of this Master Class.

Luis Isasi, President of Morgan Stanley in Spain and Vice President of Morgan Stanley Europe took part in the IE Finance day held at IE Business School on September 22, where he examined the role of education in the finance sector.

Participants in the event included Ignacio de la Torre, Director of IE Business School Masters in Finance, who gave an address on The World in Crisis: what can we learn from Financial History? and Carlos García de Juana, Senior Advisor for Masters in Finance at IE Business School. IE Finance Day is a workshop where candidates, students and alumni of IE’s finance master programs can gain insights from leaders in the field as well as build networks.

IE Business School has an extensive portfolio of finance master programs, comprising its Master in Finance, Master in Advanced Finance, Executive Master in Financial Management, Executive Master in Finance Bi-weekly, and the new Global Master in Finance, a blended program that includes residential periods in Madrid and London.

IE Business School’s Masters in Finance portfolio is unique in the market, offering a total of 200 courses in fields that include non-banking finance, Islamic finance, and micro finance. The programs use an eminently practical approach, including education tools like investment competitions; simulations of portfolio management in real time using the Bloomberg platform; Zoologic, to learn how to use investment banking applications; or MatLab, software for programming fixed revenues. IE Business School holds the No. 2 position in the Financial Times ranking of Masters in Finance (June 2011).

IE Business School holds the No. 3 position worldwide in Aspen Institute’s Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking.

The biennial survey is the most important in its field, gauging the level of integration of social, ethical and environmental issues in the MBA and executive education programs of 149 business schools. In this latest edition, IE Business School has climbed from 9th to 3rd place, thereby further consolidating its position as a leading reference worldwide in the integration of corporate social responsibility into management education programs.

The Beyond Grey Pinstripes report examines the extent of each school´s inclusion of issues related to social responsibility, ethics, and the environment in MBA programs, aimed at shaping managers and directors with a sound awareness of how their business decisions impact the environment. The ranking is based on a total of over 80,000 pages of information provided by 149 business schools from 22 countries. Parameters include social, ethical and environmental content in MBA programs, and the level of student exposure to related issues. In this year’s edition, the MBAs of business schools include an average of 33 courses that feature content related to sustainability, while the IE Business School MBA includes over 90. The report also evaluates the opportunities schools provide for their students to devote time to ethical and environmental concerns, along with the number of teaching hours dedicated to such issues, the percentage of students who choose to get involved, and the relevance of MBA course content and research carried out by faculty. Read more…

Good tourist destination management is fundamental to territorial tourism competitiveness. The way in which destinations are planned, developed, managed, promoted and marketed, and how public- and private-sector stakeholders collaborate is fundamental to their competitive advantage.

This Virtual Master Class will examine the main drivers of tourist destination competitiveness and the variables that managers, in both the public and private sector, can influence in order to improve a destination’s competitive advantage and therefore, that of the local tourist industry. 

This conference will be held on Wednesday, September 28 at 12 noon Madrid time, 6 pm Singapore time. You will receive the link to the virtual conference room once you register online for this event using this link.

The Virtual Master Classes are brought to you by faculty members and speakers of the Executive Master in Tourism Management. This blended program last 13 months and combines 4 face-to-face periods in Madrid, Costa Rica, Singapore, Madrid with extended online periods where case discussions and conferences are held.

Learn in the lastest edition of IE Edutainment about first year IE University BBA student Carolin who spent 2 months at UNICEF – part of IE University’s Social Impact Project – and we go behind the scenes at the First International BIARI Workshop, as participants wrestle with the issue of Climate Policy for World Cities.

On September 17, 2011 IE University will inaugurate its 4th academic year. This academic year 2011-12 its also marked by the launch by the LLB in English as well as in Spanish and the BBA-LLB Dual Degree in both languages.

This coming Friday students from 50 different nationalities will start to study at IE building a student body which is 65% international and therefore one of the most diverse student bodies in the university environment. Students are coming predominantly from Spain, UK, Germany and Switzerland but also from Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam to name a few.

The official inauguration marks the end of the orientation week WEEK O in which all activities are angled around team-building and cross cultural understanding. These initiatives as well serve to settle into the new environment – very few people are privileged to study in a 13th century monastery.

In case you wish to follow the inauguration ceremony online, please go to 

http://www.ie.edu/university/inauguration

Good luck to all incoming students – Welcome to IE University!