IE & Asia-Pacific

On November 14-15 IE Business School played host to internationally renowned experts in corporate responsibility at the 2nd Social Responsibility Forum, an event focused on best practices used to promote the positive social impact of business organisations. The workshops were organised by students on the IE International MBA program, and were sponsored by Acciona and Sanitas.

Speakers at the Forum included Jose Maria Figueres, Former President of the Republic of Costa Rica (1994-1998), President of Club de Madrid and an expert on sustainability; Bibi Russell, social entrepreneur and founder of Bibi Productions in Bangladesh; Jonathan Robinson, co-founder and General Director of The Hub in the UK; Pamela Hartigan, General Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in the US; and Alberto Vollmer, CEO of Ron Santa Teresa in Venezuela, and a promoter of the Alcatraz Project.

The forum also featured the 2nd Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition run by the Sumaq Alliance, which this year received 15 social business projects designed by students from IE business School, Fundaçao Getulio Vargas (Brazil), Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) and IESA (Venezuela), The business plans competed for the Social Entrepreneur Award, which recognises the projectâ??s potential for the creation of social value, the generation of sustainable economic value, and the possibility of replicating it in other countries.

Social commitment at IE
IE Business School has a long-standing tradition of research and teaching in the area of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. The results of these efforts include the schoolâ??s no. 1 position in Europe and number 10 in the world in the prestigious â??Beyond Grey Pinstripesâ? ranking conducted by the Aspen Institute, and which evaluates the degree to which the 100 top business schools worldwide integrate social and environmental issues into their MBA programs.

IEâ??s concern for social and environmental issues is evidenced by initiatives like its Department for Social Impact Management, which plays a key role in the day-to-day running of the school. The IE Alumni Chair in Corporate Ethics is another major initiative in the field of CSR, as are the schoolâ??s dedicated research centres like the Centre for Eco-Intelligent Management, Centre for Diversity and Centre for Corporate Responsibility, focussed on developing original research in these areas for subsequent inclusion in over 60 core and elective subjects in IE Masters programs. IE also offers a social entrepreneurship track to promote the development of social business organisations.

Moreover, all MBA students must present a business plan that includes an analysis of the social and environmental impact of the project. On an international level IE runs the Social Business Plan Competition which is open to students of the 8 partner schools of the Sumaq Alliance. IE also organises events like the Social Responsibility Forum and has recently launched the Corporate Responsibility Tribune, aimed at bringing CR discussion to top-level management in European companies.

Full information on the event can be found on netimpact.ie.edu.

285 students from the IE International MBA program travelled today from IEâ??s main campus in Madrid to the schoolâ??s Santa Cruz la Real de Segovia campus to celebrate the official inauguration of the program.IE Business School opted to inaugurate one of its flagship programs in Segovia as part of a series of events designed to integrate the new campus into the schoolâ??s activities following the acquisition of the university in Segovia earlier this year. David Bach, Vice Dean of MBA programs at IE sees the magnificent Campus de Santa Cruz la Real Campus as the perfect place to inaugurate the schoolâ??s intense IMBA program. â??We wanted to take our future leaders somewhere special, where they could think about their objectives and priorities for the coming year. In our changing environment itâ??s important to make room for reflection; the Segovia campus is steeped in history and is the ideal place both for deep thought and for sharing knowledgeâ?.

With a student body comprised of 91% non-Spanish students, IEâ??s one-year International MBA combines in-depth training in the functional areas of management, such as marketing, finance, human resources, and strategy, with the development of soft skills such as leadership, communication, and cross-cultural teamwork. Rather than using the conventional university lecture format, the programâ??s methodology is based on the analysis of real business case studies in interactive group discussions. Moreover, IEâ??s international faculty comprises 100 full-time and 200 part-time professors, all experts in different areas of business management, who combine teaching with applied research and consulting services. The results of the schoolâ??s international research projects are published in specialised communication channels and specialised journals.

The inaugural session featured addresses by the Dean of IE, Dr. Santiago Iñiguez, IE directors and professors, and David Sifry, founder of Technorati, one of the largest internet search engines currently in existence. Sifry was key note speaker at this inaugural session of IE Business Schoolâ??s International MBA program.

Some more details about the IE International MBA profile 2008:

Nationalities: 57

Geographic Distribution: Europe (including Spain) 38%, Latin America 36%, Asia 14%, North America 8%, Africa & Middle East 4%

Age: Average 28.7 years, 80% range 25-33 years

Undergraduate Degrees: Business 29%, Engineering 25%, Economics 15%, Humanities 7%, Law 7%, Sciences 6%, Social Sciences 5%, Technology 2%, Others 5%

Work experience: Average 5.5 years

Industry backgrounds: Services 15%, Technology/Telecommunication 15%, Consumer Goods 14%, Manufacturing 14%, Financial Services 13%, Consulting 11%, Entertainment/Hospitality Management 8%, NGO/International Institutions/Public Sector 5%, Pharmaceutical/Biotech/Healthcare 3%, Law/Auditing/Tax 3%

The photo was contributed by Yutaka Yoshimoto, IMBA 2008. 

Every two years, the â??Thinkers 50â?? ranking identifies the most influential living thinkers in the field of management. Essentially a ranking of management gurus, the list, produced by Suntop Media, is a fascinating gauge of what is â??hotâ?? in the market for ideas. This year, the guru at the top is University of Michigan professor CK Prahalad whose recent book, The Bottom of the Pyramid, urges managers to fundamentally rethink how we view the worldâ??s poor. Microsoftâ??s Bill Gates, Harvardâ??s Michael Porter, and author Tom Friedman are also on the list. Beyond the official 50, a number of up and coming management thinkers are recognized as making substantial strides to entering the top 50 in the next few years. Prof. David Bach of IE Business School has been nominated as â??one to watchâ?? for the future.

Bachâ??s research focuses on the nexus of business and politics, a field he calls â??nonmarket strategyâ??. The idea is that firms need to look beyond the traditional market-based value chain to create competitive advantage. Relations with governments, regulators, and NGOs are becoming increasingly important and successful firms try to manage relations in this â??nonmarketâ?? environment to obtain an edge over competitors. Together with his colleague David Allen, Bach directs a new Center for Nonmarket Strategy at IE that works with leading companies to develop best practices. Through MBA courses such as â??Business, Government & Societyâ??, IE has been able to bring this cutting-edge research into the classroom.

â??Itâ??s an honor to be mentioned in the same context as these tremendously influential thought leaders,â? says Bach. â??Nonmarket strategy is a very exciting field of research that offers new perspectives on the role of business in society, global competition, and sustainability. This recognition underscores the potential impact of the ideas on the practice of management.â?

Every country has its famous people everybody knows and is proud of. Spaniards, as you will see from this non-exclusive and well reduced list, can be characterized by creativity and innovation. Painters and artists in general have these attributes but also business men who innovated largely in their industries and are chosen by many others as references for their business models like Zara and Santander (the largest Spanish bank). Finally, athletes need apart from power this portion of creativity and mental freshness which makes them succeeding.

In the same way, IE Business School is recognized by its continuous innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit…. because in its heart itâ??s Spanish?

Here comes the list which his linked to the Wikipedia, just in case you wish to learn more about these famous Spaniards.

Painters
Antoni Gaudí
Diego de Silva â??Velázquezâ?
Francisco de Goya
Pablo Ruiz Picasso
Salvador Dalí

Artists
Antonio Banderas – Actor & Film Director
Ferrán Adriá – Owner of EL BULLI, considered world’s best cook 2006, 2007
Montserrat Caball̩ РOpera Singer
Pedro Almodovar – Film Director
Penélope Cruz â?? Actress
Placido Domingo – Opera Singer

Business
Amancio Ortega – Founder & President of ZARA
Emilio Botín – Presidente of SANTANDER
Juan Antonio Samaranch – Former President of IOC

Sports
Fernando Alonso – Formula 1
Pau Gasol â?? Basketball
Rafa Nadal â?? Tennis
Raúl González – Football

More than 100 international companies took part in IEâ??s International Career Fair 2007, underway at the IE campus from October 1 -5. Recruiting companies used the event as a platform to showcase their companies to over 600 IE students and graduates, giving presentations on their main lines of corporate strategy and organising on-campus interviews that form an integral part of their selection processes.The key objective of IEâ??s International Careerâ??s Fair is to serve as an interface for participating firms and IE students and graduates of the schools full-time and part-time programs, including MBA programs, the Executive Master in Marketing and the Executive Master in Finance. The last day of the fair was reserved for law firms, who presented their organisations to the students of IEâ??s Master in Legal Practice and Master in Tax Law.

This year the fair welcomed companies like Accenture, Arthur D. Little, Amadeus, Boston Consulting Group, BASF, BBVA, BT, Cap Gemini, Dell, Deloitte, Hilti, Johnson & Johnson, KPMG, Lâ??Oreal, LVMH, Microsoft, Philips, PwC, Procter & Gamble, Roland Berger, Santander, Schering Plough, Telefónica. Participating law firms included Allen & Overy, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Latham & Watkins, and Uría & Menéndez.

In course of last yearâ??s edition of the International Careers Fair some 80% of the 600 students and graduates had interviews with HR directors from the participating firms. The event gives student an insight into the main lines of strategic development of the companies, as well as their hiring policies and work opportunities. â??The market has turned on its head and companies are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit talented directors. They are now having to sharpen their recruiting methods and search for alternative routes to improve their human resources, which is where the IE International Careers Fair comes in,â? says Rosalía Rodriguez, associate director of IEâ??s Careers Management Centre

IE Business School will have the following activities in South East Asia in this month. If you are curious about these events and would like to sign up. Just click the corresponding link. Some links might go to non-IE web’s since the organiser is another company.

Especially the IE Interview Days give you the chance to have one-to-one meetings with members from the Admissions Department and you can get good tips for the preparation of your IE application package…

Philippines – Manila

November 19 – 18:00 to 21:00 QS World MBA Tour
November 20 – 18:00 to 20:00 IE Insight Session

Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City

November 21 – 14:00 to 17:00 IE Interview Day
November 21 – 18:00 to 21:00 QS World MBA Tour

Thailand – Bangkok

November 23 – 14:00 to 17:00 IE Interview Day
November 23 – 18:00 to 21:00 QS World MBA Tour

Singapore

November 25 – 14:00 to 17:00 QS World MBA Tour
No IE Interview Day will be organised. They are organized on an ongoing basis; please contact the IE Representative Office in Singapore.

Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur

November 27 – 14:00 to 17:00 IE Interview Day
November 27 – 18:00 to 21:00 QS World MBA Tour

Indonesia – Jakarta

December 4 – 16:30 to 21:00 IE Interview Day

For other upcoming IE events around the world, please visit www.ie.edu/events.

Since its inception, IE Business School’s commitment to society has permeated every aspect of the school, as reflected by core program content, electives specialised in the field of corporate responsibility (CR), consolidated initiatives like the Chair in Corporate Ethics, funded by the IE Alumni Association, or the IE code of professional conduct, the result of a joint effort by professors, students and alumni. This commitment culminated in the creation of a dedicated department, Social Impact Management at IE, which now plays a pivotal role in the day-to-day fabric of the school.

IE addresses Social Impact Management from 3 essential angles:
Knowledge, generated by research, and transferred through teaching and events. Research is powered by social impact management centres at IE, including the PwC/IE Centre for Corporate Responsibility, PwC/IE Public Sector Centre, the IE Centre for Diversity, and the IE Centre for Eco-Intelligent Management. Lines of social impact knowledge generation include: corporate responsibility; social entrepreneurship; social investing; strategic/effective philanthropy; and sustainable development. Forums and seminars include the Social Responsibility Forum, a student-led initiative where world experts in CR and social entrepreneurship meet to analyze challenges and opportunities in their respective fields, and the Corporate Responsibility Tribune in collaboration with PwC and Expansion, aimed at bringing CR discussion to top-level management in European Companies.

The engagement of IE’s MBA students, alumni, established professionals, and other members of the IE community to implement knowledge. Engagement of students in CR activities starts with the admissions process and continues through initiatives like the Net Impact Chapter and EcologIE; clubs dedicated to Diversity, Entrepreneurship, and Women in Business; the Mentor Program; internships in NGOs; career support; and the CR Community at IE, that provides a platform for lifelong encounter and debate on social impact issues. Students may also opt for the Social Entrepreneurship Track, a specialization whereby MBA students develop a business plan for a social enterprise. From the first day of the MBA experience, these students are immersed in the process through entrepreneurship courses, electives, and support from an academic tutor and visiting social entrepreneurs. The social entrepreneurship mindset is further fomented among IE students by initiatives like the Social Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition, designed to foster projects with social or environmental impact as a central component of the enterprise. The competition is organized jointly with the Sumaq Alliance, formed by eight leading business schools from the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world.

Outreach, via strategic collaborations and social entrepreneurial alliances and initiatives whereby IE members interact with the community. Outreach takes many forms, including alliances with organizations like the Global Compact – IE being part of the GC Principles for Responsible Business Education workgroup; the Sumaq-led 1st European-Ibero American Congress on Corporate Responsibility; and IE’s sponsorship of the EFMD CSR case study award, to name just a few.

In short, IE Business School’s drive to address social and environmental issues as one of the major challenges facing business organizations in the 21st century forms an integral part of the school’s strategic vision and future roadmap.

If youâ??re interesting in this field please do not miss to visit the web from the Social Impact Management Department or their blog.

Thinking about working in capital markets or a career in investment banking? Do you wish to be a future as chief financial officer of a company? Do you see yourself working in the hedge fund industry? Or as an entrepreneur with a firm supported by private equity?

IE Business School continues innovating with the evolution of its Master in Finance programs. These new programs had been exclusively developed by investment bankers and corporate financiers under the leadership of Ignacio de la Torre, Executive Director (European Equities) UBS Investment Bank and Academic Director of these programs.

The Masters in Finance provides a fine-tuned financial education in an environment that encourages to extend leadership capabilities while developing specialized expertise in this discipline. Building a solid understanding of financial principles, these programs impart detailed knowledge of the operations and activities of financial markets and provide a comprehensive view of the international world economy. The experience is enhanced by additional studies and tools that assist decision making in areas directly or indirectly affected by the financial manager’s reactions. Furthermore, it equips the participants with the skills needed to undertake the functions of finance with maximum effectiveness, efficiency and professionalism, and finally to create value both in investment banking, other financial companies, the industry and greater society.

The Master in Finance is a 10-month program aimed at recent university graduates with an outstanding academic record with limited or no professional experience and who aim to pursue a career as analyst in investment banking (corporate finance, equities, fixed income derivatives, etc.), hedge funds, private equity, private banking, asset management on the finance area of a corporation, or as an entrepreneur with a finance angle. The course will cover key fields in today finance including leveraged buy-outs, derivatives, mergers and acquisitions or private equity. Further areas covered include macroeconomics, financial accounting, financial entrepreneurship, presentation skills and negotiation. In addition to finance courses, students will be required to undertake level I of the CFA Charter, a highly respected international degree within the finance sector.

The Master in Advanced Finance is a 12-month program that targets professionals with 2-5 years of experience in finance or other professional fields such as engineering, law or business administration who wish to pursue a career as associates in investment banking (corporate finance, equities, fixed income, derivatives, etc.), hedge funds, private equity, private banking, asset management or in the finance area of big corporations.

Both masters will cover up-to-the-minute fields that now play a critical role in the finance world, such as emerging markets, current global economic issues, financial entrepreneurship and how to invest in markets. The masters will also furnish you with the practical applied knowledge you will need to succeed as a financier, including presentation skills, ethical dilemmas or negotiation.

These masters employ a highly practical approach. Students will not only be asked to assimilate knowledge, but also to apply it to financial markets, demonstrating the capacity to generate profits using their skills. Day-by-day challenges of these programs may also consists in selecting investment opportunities for private equity firms, analyze these opportunities, value them, and present a finance plan to the faculty and to a real private equity investor. Additionally, the â??open sessionsâ? will bring the opportunity to meet industry experts from all the fields of finance, affording relevant contact with the business world.

As non-academic activities IE also offers a valuable and powerful tool: networking with IE’s 3,500 finance alumni through IE’s web-based finance communities, where advanced knowledge in the field of finance is shared and key financial topics are discussed. Also the Finance Club provides opportunities to further network with other master programs on campus during the Master.

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IE Business School has established a large partner network with prestigious business schools and universities in the region. The main collaboration between those institutions are exchange programs with the International MBA. During the exchange program usually 2-3 students from each institution will enjoy classes at the exchange partner at the same time as they get a deep insight into country and culture.

Additionally, some of our programs (International Executive MBA and the Master in Marketing Management) have academic sessions in China as part of their curriculum.

Please find the current partner schools of IE Business School:

• Tsinghua University (China)
• Fudan University (China)
• Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business School (China)
• HKUST, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong)
• IIM-Ahmedabad (India)
• IIM Calcutta (India)
• Indian School of Business (India)
• KAIST Graduate School of Management (Korea)
• NUS Business School (Singapore)
• Australian Graduate School of Management (Australia)
• Melbourne Business School (Australia)
• University of Otago (New Zealand)

By Manuel Alonso. Professor. IE Business School, published on October 30th, 2007 in the IE FOCUS.

WRONG. The key to success lies in combining old and new methods.

Digital marketing is finally taking its place as the most up-and-coming commercial communication channel. A quick look at the figures confirm this: online advertising is going to increase by 25% in Europe in 2007. According to the Europe Online Advertising Report issued by the Internet specialist consultancy firm eMarketer in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK, this year, advertisers are set to invest $7,500 million in online advertising in five European countries, 25% more than in 2006. The estimated audience for online media in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK stands at 136 million people for 2007. The study shows that the largest market for advertisers on the Internet is the UK, a country that is expected to invest $146 in advertising per inhabitant in 2007, a figure that could rise to $216 by the year 2010.

However, as is usually the case with new technologies (in the digital field and any other), we tend to doubt their effectiveness in the Spanish-speaking market. And the doubt increases in the case of the Internet after reading more than our fill about the fact that buying things without seeing them, touching them and feeling them is not part of the Latin psyche. As a result, in all the countries where this psyche prevails, online shopping has not yet taken off. So, will these new marketing tools, which seem to work so well abroad, actually be effective?

If we take Spain as a reference, we see that, with a growth of 96% in the investments made by the leading advertisers in 2006 (figures issued by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers), no other sector has such a rate of development at present. There are three reasons for this:

(1) its lower cost;

(2) more effective and more specific campaigns; and

(3) the possibility of precisely controlling the ROI and the effectiveness of the actions taken (unlike advertisements in the press or on TV, which depend on estimates).

This forceful appearance of new e-marketing tools has brought about a fragmentation of audiences in all the traditional media, with many more digital and cable TV channels, free newspapers and magazines, etc. The trend is affecting the results of classic advertising formats (such as the press, e.g. the Wall Street Journal, which, for the first time, has had to include advertising on its front cover to compensate its fall in revenue from advertising).
As a result, certain false prophets want to see a marketing revolution and talk about a version 2.0 of marketing that will endanger and, in certain cases, put an end to old formats. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a great pity that some have not learned the hard lesson of the year 2000: it is not a new form of marketing, but rather the age-old marketing applied with new tools. Indeed, the key consists of integrating these new digital marketing possibilities with the formats and media that have proved their effectiveness year after year.

The combined use of online and offline tools in one single marketing campaign increases the memory-potential of the brand´s values by up to 18%, which presents the Internet as a very profitable and unavoidable medium, but not one that is exclusive for all marketing, advertising and publicity campaigns. The philosopher´s stone therefore comes from a combination of formats that has been labelled as ´blended marketing´. What is true is that marketing managers are increasingly facing newer, more demanding challenges.

The members of the general public are no longer passive consumers of advertising messages, but rather want to receive more and more information through a medium that offers them the possibility of interaction. As a result, marketing on the Internet currently has the best ROI of all the actions and campaigns included in the commercial plan. However, for it to be successful, the general marketing strategy must not be ignored and e-marketing actions must be developed to fit in seamlessly with the other campaigns. To achieve this, it is vital to dominate the online advertising ecosystem and be familiar with all the types of advertising offered on the Internet, but it is particularly important to gauge and optimise Internet marketing campaigns in order to improve the profitability of any marketing plan.

E-marketing plans must not be developed as isolated concepts, but rather designed to integrate on a line-by-line basis with the general marketing plan to help achieve the general targets. Consequently, the preparation of a companyâ??s digital marketing plan must be based on an analysis of its general marketing plan, from which the main targets and areas of marketing that need to be strengthened must be drawn. An analysis must also be made of the sector, market type and company in order to discover the corresponding digital trends. This must be followed by a study of the targets by product and service line to determine the sub-targets by client group and/or potential clients that may be covered by the digital tools. All these analyses will have laid down the initial bases of the e-marketing plan and the company will then be ready to analyse all the digital tools available in order to discover the most appropriate for the company and its strategy to constitute the best e-marketing mix. Then, all you need to do is develop the general formula for the campaigns and quantify their cost (as well as implement their monitoring and control) to produce an e-marketing plan that can be integrated into the general marketing plan with a full guarantee of success. So, when drawing up your companyâ??s next marketing plan, do not be convinced by extreme opinions. Include the digital format in your marketing mix and make the most of the pioneerâ??s advantage.

However, resist the call of the sirens and keep a good grip on traditional formats. Remember: the boldest pioneers lost their scalps to the Indians.

If you wish to learn more about online advertising and its challenges, have a look on the IE Master in Digital Advertising and Communication.