Archive for October/2011

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan visited IE Business School in June 2011. After his conference, he sat down with us for a short interview.

A group of students from the IE Masters in Finance progams assesed the development of microfinance institutions in Ghana.

The microfinance initiative “Financieros Sin Fronteras” (FSF) created by an IE fellow in collaboration with IE provides consultancy services to microfinance institutions internationally.

Eight students from the Master in Finance and the Executive Master in Financial Management, together with Maria Luque from IE, visited Ghana in order to team up with two microfinance institutions, Kraban Support Foundation and Calvary Enterprise Development Foundation, assessing them over their future plans. During the 4 day field trip, different managers of microfinance organizations and clients were interviewed by students in order to get a better picture of the microfinance sector in Ghana.

As one student puts it: “We helped the organizations to analyze the state of the sector and to set up a list of challenges which will be tackled by the organizations with the help of IE’s students.” A real life learning experience, created by students for students.

[First published on IE Learning Experiences Blog]

Here’s a short video on the new faces at the IE University campus in Segovia, Spain. Enjoy and engage with IE University online on www.ie.edu/university.

Can  studies of the mind tells us about dynamic and successful venturing?

In the upcoming IE MasterClasses in Tokyo and Seoul we will provide an insight on research for improving their entrepreneurial abilities and help them understand their own mental patterns important for entrepreneurship:

     Tokyo, October 8, 2011 12noon (local time) – Register
     Seoul, October 11, 2011 7.30pm (local time) – Register

Understanding entrepreneurial behaviors requires understanding entrepreneurial thinking at a deeper level, most usefully through the lens of neuroscience. At the heart of neuro-entrepreneurship research is the study of what makes the brain of entrepreneurs different from non-entrepreneurs when faced with opportunity, risk, challenge, and danger. This field suggests that the decision making processes and attitudes of highly successful entrepreneurs are quite different from most people. In fact, neuro-economics and other neuroscience domains also show us that much more of our behavior is driven by physiological/neurological factors than we really might want to believe, and such mental patterns make us better or worse at the most important skills required for leadership in entrepreneurial ventures.

This session is conducted by Prof. Dr Peter Bryant, Professor of Entrepreneurship at the IE Business School. Peter graduated BA with Medal from the University of Sydney and earned his PhD in Management from Macquarie University in 2006. He then began his academic career in Sydney, Australia. During the preceding fifteen years, Peter worked as a manager in the airline, banking, consulting and venture capital industries. He also worked at The University of Sydney during 2002-2006, where he managed the commercialization of new technologies through the creation of startup companies. In his academic career, he researches and teaches in the fields of entrepreneurial management and strategy, and their relationship to the evolution of organizational capabilities.

Who tells that the class room cannot be a circle? Prof. David Bach teaches in a new learning environment.

Last July, Professor David Bach, Professor of Strategy and Economic Environment and Dean of Programs, taught an optional Business Government and Society class under a new learning environment.

The “Open Space” room, at Maria de Molina 4, has been set up as you can observe in the photo. Students sit in two half circles around the professor. Four flat screens (two on each wall) show slides, with the professor able to manipulate these from a tablet PC. Under this method the class is more dynamic and communicative and less unidirectional. As one participant puts it: “This new layout fosters participation and interaction and could be superior in an array of class situations.”

The professor is able to walk through the middle of the class, or to sit in one of the half cycles to form part of the group.Professor Bach describes this new teaching experience in the following way: “This situation is much more collaborative, the class is coming closer and students are not obliged to look in one single direction, as there are 2 flatscreens on each row. The professor can write on the tablet PC from anywhere and the message is visible from all angles. ” It is possible that this experimental setting will be integrated in new learning experiences at IE Business School in the future.

[First published on IE Learning Experiences Blog]