IE & Asia-Pacific

IE Business School participates this weekend in the European Higher Education Fair in Manila. This event is open to all students intending to pursue a university degree and master degree in the European Union. For more details, please click on the image above.

IE Business School has a rolling admissions process which had been discussed more in detail in a previous post. Today I would like to explain more in detail WHEN is the right moment to apply to IE programs or better what is the tentatively latest moment to apply given that youâ??re not European citizen and you will need to apply for a student visa.

The best way to do this is using an example:
Imagine youâ??re applying for the IE International MBA program which starts in November. As you have researched the program, you quickly noticed that there is a complementary 2-month Spanish course before the official program start. So, your targeted program start is in September, or Day 0 in the attached scheme. This is the day when youâ??re in Madrid prepared to start studying.
Before youâ??re able to move to Madrid, you will need to apply for a student visa which takes in general 30-60 days from the moment of the application. Consequently, your student visa application should be in the Spanish Embassy in your country in July or August.
One of the requested documents from the Spanish Embassy will be a proof from IE that youâ??re officially enrolled in our institution. To issue this document and send it to your home address, we will need around 15 days from the moment of your place reservation.
Your place reservation can be done, clear it is, just only once you have been admitted and received from the Admissions Department the instructions for the down-payment of 20% of the tuition fees. As you already have decided for yourself to go to IE, waiting anxiously for the final communication of the Admissions Committee, you have already arranged the amount for the place reservation. Just to look back, from the admission to the visa application 30 days have passed, so that we are in beginning of June or July, or Day 60.90 before the targeted program start.
The Admissions Process itself will last between 30 to 45 days from the moment youâ??re presenting the full application package, independently if you do it one of IEâ??s Representative Offices around the world or directly in Madrid. So, your tentative deadline for the International MBA could be between mid-April and beginning of June.

But and THE FOLLOWING IS VERY IMPORTANT to take into account. For this tentative deadline

• you do not need any scholarships or financial aid – deadlines for financial aid are usually earlier.
• you assume that there are still places available â?? a case which is in the past years not easy to assume since there have been waiting lists and â??late-applicationsâ? could not be considered.
• your nationality quota has not been reached so far â?? for some countries due to a large amount of applications we will need to restrict the access to the program to guarantee overall class diversity
• you easily can quit your company with a very short notice

So, as a final result, you should consider to apply a couple of month earlier in order to have a comfortable timeframe to make your move to Madrid as smooth as possible for you, for your family and your company.

February 2008 | By Rosario Silva, Professor of Strategy at IE Business School.

Homeless, a quality designer brand named after street people, has achieved success using a unique strategy that distinguishes it from the rest of the sector.

This fashion company, created in 1994 under the name of Homeless and rechristened Hoss Intropia a few months ago, targets the medium-high segment of the women´s clothing market. To understand its strategy, we first need to take a brief look at the current situation of the fashion industry. The sector includes companies with very different strategies. On the one hand, you have the large international chains which, with their cheap & chic formula supply well identified consumer segments with a lot of design at low prices and, thanks to investments in outlets, they have created powerful brand names. On the other, you have the companies which also offer a lot of design but have a brand name that is generally associated with a designer. They have also preferred to invest in their own shops with the same idea of strengthening their brand name.

The strategy applied by Homeless is very different from its competitors in many ways. First of all, its position of high-level design and quality has focused on all kinds of women; in other words, they do not appear to segment the market, which is particularly surprising in view of the progressive specialisation of the sector. Secondly, its Homeless brand name has been associated with a social commitment by the company´s founders to helping homeless people, showing their own style and unique identity. Thirdly, its designs have been distributed through its own shops (it owns 14 in Spain) and through multi-brand shops (twelve hundred points of sale in Spain and abroad), which has afforded high growth without having to commit large amounts of financial resources. Finally, unlike its competitors, it focuses mainly on the domestic market (70% of sales).

Undoubtedly, the change of brand name was a good decision since the original brand sounded very harsh and was prone to being misunderstood by its target market. The enormous capacity for design the company has shown throughout these years, together with a new brand name, will be essential for the success of its international expansion, which began in London and is to continue in the direction of Italy and the United States.

This article was published in the monthly IE academic newsletter IE Focus. To see the originally published article please click here.
If you are interested in more international Spanish brands, please visit this previous post.

Look at this video at BusinessWeek with the IE Dean for MBA programs, Prof. Dr. David Bach.

February 2008 | By Dr. Javier I. García González, Professor at IE University

The recently signed Lisbon Treaty has brought new lifeblood to the EU after the failed Constitution, and now looks set to play a greater role in international politics.

We probably will not hear it referred to as the failed “European Constitution”, but the Lisbon Treaty aims to form part of our lives over the coming years. On 19 October, 2007, European leaders managed to finish a job they more or less completed in June, thanks to a successful German presidency. The reward for the current Portuguese presidency will be that the new document that will govern the life and workings of the European Union will bear the name of the country´s capital, where it was signed by the heads of government on 13 December, 2007. From that moment, a process for the ratification of the treaty by each member state began which, if all goes according to plan, will lead to the re-written text coming into effect at the beginning of 2009 (except for certain provisions that have been postponed until 2014), replacing the current Nice Treaty.

Hence we see the beginning of the end of a crisis that has not been the first and will not be the last, and one that has set the members of the European Union against each other on matters that are fundamental for defining its very nature, modus operandi and future. The now discarded “Constitutional Treaty” addressed many of these issues by shaping a European Union with a high level of integration, not only in economic terms, but also on a political, social and even symbolic level; however, the idea proved to be too ambitious. The history of European integration shows us that the Union has progressed better in short steps (albeit quickly at times) than in leaps and bounds and the misnamed Constitution was seen by many citizens as a large leap, beginning with its very denomination. In hindsight, the halt in the process for the building of Europe during these two years may even have helped a Europe that is growing in both size and complexity put its feet back on the ground, immersed in a world that is becoming increasingly small and interconnected. Read more…

Since last year IE Business School offers to its International MBA students the possibility to have a work period during their one-year MBA program. The program and its modules are redesigned in a way that gives a select group of participants the flexibility to pursue a working period during summer.

Please read this interview with Aditya Malhotra from India. Aditya started as a merchant marine officer in the energy shipping sector, he moved on to business development and Strategy with a shipping company accumulating work experience of about 7 years prior to the program.(at age 27). Completed his BS from BITS Pilani, a distinguished technical university in India prior to going for the IMBA. As a career switcher, he wanted to further his career in areas of Finance and Strategy with an ultimate entrepreneurial aspiration. After graduation, Aditya joined a financial services company involved in Reinsurance in Switzerland.

Aditya, in which company did you do your internship?
Adara Venture Partners, a Spanish VC firm based in Madrid.

What was your motivation to do an internship in such a short and intensive 1-year program?
As a career switcher, it gave me an opportunity to get my foot in the door for entering the area of financial services and making the most of my time by using the 6 weeks of vacation in a more effective manner. Having said that, it is a challenge to get an internship with the one year programme since people have far less time to put in for applications and interviews since the program starts in Nov and most internship interviews are in Dec- Jan when the workload is very high.

How was the online experience? Did you enjoy learning in this way?
The online learning was an interesting way to learn, something that I wasnâ??t used to. However it did prepare me well for the business world where today I regularly use virtual chat rooms to have discussions with different offices. You tend to learn how to listen and value people viewpoint through virtual sessions and text based discussions. It also gave me the opportunity to interact with people from different sections which otherwise would not have been the case. There were times that we could actually put our day to day business observations into the discussions and see what the professor and others had to say about it.

There were certain times when there are certain limitations to this methodology-based on the subject, or if the class size is too small and in case of presentations. It however does not work for courses with numerical requirements that well. On the whole it was an enjoyable experience.

How was your day-by-day during your internship period combining studying and working?
The workload changes on a daily basis and this is very clearly reflected in the discussion forums. When people are freer there tend to be more active postings on the forum whereas there are days when you are busy in the office and it does eat up on your free time to log in and read all the posts and make comments. There are times when you tend to feel left back and short of comments if you have lagged in the discussion or have not been regular. Thus, it does require a significant commitment on a daily level from each student who is part of this method.

Thank you very much, Aditya, for this interview and good luck in Switzerland.

This article was published on Feb 11, 2008 in The Edge Daily, Malaysia

More Spanish companies are coming into Malaysia due to the low cost of doing business here and as rising Spanish exports to Malaysia increase the demand for the countryâ??s goods and services. Spainâ??s economic and commercial counsellor to Malaysia and Brunei, Antonio García said compared to other parts of Asia, it was not especially difficult for companies to carry out its businesses here and the country was at par with Singapore and Hong Kong for the ease of doing business.

García said Malaysia also offered the perfect gateway for Spanish companies to tap into the Asean and other Asian markets. To date, there were more than 20 Spanish companies with a stable presence in Malaysia, with the three most notable making investments totalling close to RM200 million since their arrival here, he told The Edge Financial Daily.

He said Roca Corp Empresarial SA, the worldâ??s largest sanitary ware manufacturer, which in 2006 acquired Johnson Suisse (M) Sdn Bhd, had invested RM100 million while Acerinox SA, the third largest steel producer in the world, which had set up a service centre and storage facility in Johor, had invested an estimated RM40 million. In addition to setting up a Malaysian subsidiary, Acerinox had established an associate company with Yick Hoe group, a Malaysian steel stockist and distributor, he said. â??The business is going very well and they can still increase their investment in the future,â? García said. He added this was reflected by iron and steel products ranking second among Spainâ??s exports to Malaysia. Meanwhile, electronic developer and manufacturer Fagor Electrodomésticos S Coop had established a storage and manufacturing plant here for around RM25 million, he said. He said with the level of exports from Spain to Malaysia rising steadily annually, the number of Spanish companies coming to Malaysia was also expected to rise in the next few years.

He said Spanish exports to Malaysia were expected to rise to RM1.3 billion in 2007, from RM951 million in 2006, adding that the top five exports consisted of ships, boats and floating structures, iron and steel, plastics and plastic products, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances and parts, and tanning, dyeing extracts, pigments and colourings. Spain was also one of the largest foreign investors in the world, and with the worldâ??s eighth largest economy, Spanish companies were keen to do business in Malaysia, García said. He said the Embassy of Spain in Malaysia organised a trade delegation of 100 companies here annually. â??Every year we receive about 100 Spanish companies and we organise meetings for them with Malaysian companies. We receive about 200 trade or investment enquiries from Spain every year.â? He said the companies may be interested in service-based sectors such as telecommunications, banking, infrastructure, energy and environmental technology. The country also promoted some of its leading industries under â??Technology for Lifeâ?, which explored business opportunities in Spanish technology, such as in aerospace, agricultural machinery, irrigation systems and the automotive industry, he said.

Although Malaysian companies currently did not have a large presence in Spain, García said the companies could offer its expertise in auto components manufacturing and the oil and gas sector. Spanish companies may also be interested in working with Malaysian counterparts in producing bio-diesel and other forms of clean energy, riding on Malaysiaâ??s production of crude palm oil, he said. â??This year International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz will be taking a trade mission to Spain for the first time. I think this is going to help a lot because we need to promote Malaysia more in Spain,â? he said.

If you wish to learn more about successful Spanish brands, please go to a previous post in this blog

The Executive Education Division of IE Business School just launched the High-Potential Leaders Program (HPLP). This is unique international learning experience aims to prepare talented young professionals for their career development emphasizing in vision, skills and management capabilities required to meet the many and diverse global challenges business organizations are facing today and will face in the future. This program provides participants with the knowledge of how to create value in their organizations by presenting them a global overview of the business´ fundamentals, to successfully face higher levels of management responsibilities within their organizations in a near future.

HPLP has specifically been designed to teach its participants to be more effective leaders and team players in todayâ??s highly competitive global business environment. During the program, participants will meet other talented professionals from different culture, geographic and organizational backgrounds. This shared experience will be a valuable learning tool for participants to manage diverse relationships in a multi-cultural environment. The program is structured in two separate in-class modules and one back at the office module where the program participants will apply their knowledge directly at their organizations by developing a real-life corporate business plan. The topic of the business plan will need to be agreed upon and supervised by their superiors.

This program is aimed at young professionals who are in the early stages of their careers and have or are about to take on more responsibility within their organization. They have been recognized by their companies as high-potential individuals who are driven to succeed. Candidates must have a minimum of 3 years of relevant working experience. In the HPLP program they will embark in a journey of great self-awareness, effective decision-making and strategic understanding.

For more detailed information, please visit http://www.execed.ie.edu/hplp

February 2008 | By Pablo Triana, Professor and Director of the Centre for Advanced Finance at IE Business School.

Although recent chaos in the markets brings back memories of past investment fads that ended in tears, this time itâ??s different. Hedge funds and derivatives have had some positive effects on finance markets and the economy.

Investors who seek fashionable products have been successfully persuaded over the last few years to invest in hedge funds and credit derivatives. Although the chaos that currently reigns in our markets reminds use of investment fads that went wrong in the past, this time there is a key difference, namely the fact that recently promoted strategies had a positive impact on financial markets and the economy in general.

In recent months, we have been bombarded by headlines like “Disappointing hedge fund returns”, “Hedge funds collapse”, “Problems with CDOs”, “Losses in CDOs”. If you allow me a certain amount of nostalgia, I feel myself transported back to 1989 (when I was a bit of a wild teenager) or 2000 (when I was a postgraduate student who wanted to continue being a bit of a wild teenager). In those days, as today, investments that appeared to be unquestionably “cool” suddenly became a source of misery. The must-have assets (junk bonds and dot-coms) became a death-trap for many of those who blindly obeyed the dictates of fashion. In their desperate attempt to become a member of the cool set, those investors paid a very high price.

Hedge funds and credit derivatives symbolise the trendy investments that were the (partial) disasters of our time. The modern, chic destination for your money. Unavoidable for those who did not want to be pointed out as old-fashioned and off-track. In recent years, the prevailing atmosphere seems to have been one of glorious exaltation of those with sufficient vision for transferring millions to increasingly complex financial structures and funds, together with the unlimited ridicule of those who, inexcusably, failed to jump on the train of new trends. Not very different from the days of junk bonds and dot-coms. In much the same way that a young woman is made to feel uncool if she does not buy her clothes in Zara or Prada, investors have been made to feel desperately off-track if they did not have positions in hedge funds and CDOs. Read more…

The Embassy of Spain in collaboration with The Arts House present the 3rd Spanish Film Festival in Singapore. Spain has successfully produced a good number of movies categorized under the term film noir. A selection of famous movies where the crime fiction and intrigue are accompanied by the extraordinary sensuality of their protagonists it is found in this Festival. We hope the 3rd Spanish Film Festival will provide you an excellent opportunity to know better the Spanish Cinema and culture.

Screening Schedule
All films are in Spanish with English subtitles
Friday 15 7.30pm (NC16) La caja 507 (Box 507)
Saturday 16 7.30pm (NC16) Las horas del día (The Hours of the Day)
Sunday 17 2.30pm (R21) Son de mar (Sound of the Sea)
4.30pm (M18) En la ciudad sin límites (The City of No Limits)
7.30pm (R21) Tierra (Earth)
Tuesday 19 7.30pm (NC16) La vida que te espera (Your Next Life)
Wednesday 20 7.30pm (R21) Tierra (Earth)
Friday 22 7.30pm (NC16) La caja 507 (Box 507)
Saturday 23 7.30pm (M18) En la ciudad sin límites (The City of No Limits)
Sunday 24 2.30pm (NC16) La vida que te espera (Your Next Life)
4.30pm (NC16) Las horas del día (The Hours of the Day)
7.30pm (NC16) La Caja 507 (Box 507)
Tuesday 26 7.30pm (R21) Son de Mar (Sound of the Sea)

Venue:
Screening Room – The Arts House
1 Old Parliament Lane Singapore 179429

FREE ADMISSION
Reservations: tel: 65 6332 6919, email: tickets@toph.com.sg, www.theartshouse.com.sg