Experiencing Diwali: Indian Night

By Reita Hutagalung, Global MBA student 2012-2013, Indonesia

So we’ve said that our class is very rich in cultural diversity. However to live it is another thing; it’s far more exciting! Cultural diversity could be experienced by travelling to the country, knowing the habits, values, seeing the culture, dance, tasting food, etc. However, even though we are not going anywhere now, we in Global MBA class were able to experience cultural diversity right here with cultural night parties at ESSEC.

One event recently celebrated was the Diwali or Deepavali. Deepavali (also spelled Devali in certain regions) or Diwali, popularly known as the “festival of lights,” is primarily a five day Hindu festival. For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated in families by performing traditional activities together. The name “Diwali” or “Divali” is a contraction of “Deepavali”, which translates into “row of lamps”. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. So for our friends from India, this event was a very important event to be celebrated. The Indian Student Club at ESSEC arranged a gathering night to celebrate Diwali and invited us to experience Diwali together.

The event was arranged nicely – before entering the main performance, they provided a Sari-wearing workshop for the female. Having dreamed of wearing Saris, I was very interested to come early to get the chance to wear the beautiful Saris. There, one of the students helped me to wrap myself in Sari with a specific way. It turned out that wearing Sari takes special skill as well! It’s not just a question of wrapping around and around and around, but there’s a delicate way of wrapping one way and then it went another way and – ok, I’ve actually forgotten how to do it now! Anyhow, because at the time I was helped out by one of the students, the Sari was nicely done – yeaayy!!

Another thing that I wanted to experience is to use the Mehndi. Menhdi is a paint from natural herbs that is usually used to draw on one’s hand. Indian women usually use it on their hands on special occasions. As I had only seen the application from Indian movies, and usually they look very exotic – I was very eager to try it. So I queued to get a Menhdi and then a very nice student drew a pattern on my palm – I liked it very much! Although I had to hold out my hand for an hour and bear the aroma of the Menhdi, it was worth it.

The night went on with the opening explanation of Diwali, how it is celebrated by Indian communities around the world, and a presentation of India to the audience. An interesting part then was the performance of Dance Katthak. This dance, the performer said, was a dance that originated from the temples and was used as a means to tell stories. It was very interesting to see and hear the explanations of each dance that she performed in three stages, telling the stories of her favorite Krishna. The event then closed with a quiz on facts about India. For every question, the person who could answer got a chocolate. I am quite proud that I knew several answers in the quiz. Of those, I got a chocolate because I could answer the picture of 1994 Miss World, Aishwarya Rai. I have been a fan of hers for quite some time because she is very pretty and smart – of course I know her picture.

The night was closed by enjoying Indian food. It was rich in taste and interesting to experience new flavors. All in all, it was a very good cultural exchange experience and hopefully we’ll have more cultural nights to add some color tour assignments-filled days!

Essec Business School encourages the celebration of cultural diversity. This is very evident with their broadmindedness towards festivals of varied cultures. Such instances increase the appeal of the institute. Festivities of other cultures encourage the students to expand their horizons and look beyond their cultural heritage. The institute goes beyond the conventional parameters of a typical business school.

A life changing experience

By Khalid Al-Jalahma, Global MBA student 2012-2013, Qatar

From the moment I crawled through the 30 inch tall, pitch dark tunnel in the military camp Saint-Cyr, finding our way out for an hour and a half, I realized the message ESSEC wanted to send: it will be a challenging and exciting program, but it will be tough, it might be dark sometimes, but there will surely be an exit at the end of the tunnel. So far what can I say…exactly as expected! I was criticized when I decided to halt my career, and at some points I was hesitant, but now, five months after joining the program, it had definitely met my expectations and more. The tools that I am being equipped with, the leadership skills that I am learning, the knowledge I am gaining will definitely boost my career and all those overcome the investment of time, financials, and opportunities.

The program is well structured. In term one; we were looking at corporate strategy, nations’ economics, businesses’ financial performance and evaluations, etc… basically a holistic view of the business environment. Whereas, in term two we are confronted with the core of the business and the means to reach a business sustainability level. Next, we will soon pull our knowledge together to apply what we learned in theory to real life projects, as we will be travelling to Singapore, South Africa and an emerging country to explore business cases.

Moreover, being surrounded by a variety of more than 10 nationalities from different continents for more than 8 hours every day is an experience in and of itself. Though in my home country of Qatar I have had the chance to interact people from different countries, it feels completely different than having them as peers and students. Here, I get to see the other side of the culture.

So when ESSEC names the program ‘Global’, they mean it! Global students, global professors, global cases and global projects

Additionally, living in Paris is quite fascinating. For those who can manage their time, almost every weekend there is something interesting and unusual to be done. Taking a break to refresh after the pressure of academics can always be done here!

Essec is a business school that adds the touch of universality to their educational programs. Students come in large numbers to Business School Paris to pursue quality education. The reason for their popularity is that focus is laid on all round development. Students are encouraged to think out-of-the-box. Such an approach makes them stand out and gives them an edge over their contemporaries.

The French Argument

In a culture that prizes discourse and complexity, business leaders make the case for corporate social responsibility.

Gilles Pélisson, Chairman with a broad view

BY THE TIME HE STEPPED DOWN AS CEO OF THE ACCOR GROUP IN 2011, GILLES PÉLISSON HAD ACQUIRED ABOUT AS RICH AN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EDUCATION AS ONE PERSON COULD GET. With degrees from ESSEC and the Harvard Business School, he had served as marketing and managing director of restaurant chains in the U.S. and France, overseen Accor’s Asian-Pacific hotel business, and served as the CEO of Euro Disney and Bouygues Telecom. His definition of corporate social responsibility came to include respect for local cultures, and it grew from the messiness of having worked in the real world.

“The more upscale you go in the hotel industry,” he says, for example,  “the more standardized your product. A Four Seasons is always a Four Seasons, anywhere in the world. I ran Sofitel, in New York, and we were just as good in Paris and Singapore and elsewhere, because that’s what travelers expected. But the more you go into economy products, the more domestic you want to be. Your clientele is less international, and you have to respect the habits, the food, the way local people use their beds, their showers. You have to adapt. It can be adapting your physical product. It can be the way you interact with customers. But it’s also the way you do business.”

Pélisson oversaw hotels operating in countries where bribery was an accepted part of doing business. “How do you recognize and reward a manager who is in charge of your business where baksheesh is part of daily life,” Pélisson wondered, “ compared to France or the U.S. where that’s something you just don’t want to hear about and can’t explain?”

His approach included frank, open discussion. It was the only way, he felt, that he could create guidelines for operating without crossing a blurry ethical border. “You want people to feel empowered and know that yes, they belong to an international company with high standards, yet allow them to adapt to the local culture without offending it, and still be able to do business.” He had his managers in Africa and Brazil become involved in the fights against AIDS and malaria. They were trained not only to educate customers and employees, but also to talk with their families. The responsibility went beyond the business. “In some places,” Pélisson says, “we helped fight against sexual tourism. We had to learn how to put the employees at ease, to talk about and address these things. It was more than simply being a good hotelier. It had to do with making a commitment to the community.”

At Essec, professor Hamid Bouchikhi, co-author of The Soul of the Corporation, has seen that kind of social responsibility become more common in the teaching in the classroom — especially in courses on social entrepreneurship. “It’s been growing quite fast, as a separate stream,” he says, “in this and other schools. It’s good news. On the other hand, when I think about this from a longer-term perspective, I think it would be a pity if as a society we came to think there are two types of entrepreneurship; that there is the mainstream, heartless, entrepreneurship that is only about creating value and wealth. And on the other hand there is the “feel good” entrepreneurship, or social entrepreneurship, whose main purpose would be to primarily provide social value. We need to reconcile once and for all the fact that business has an economic component and must have a social component at the same time. We cannot just go on separating them.”

He sees ESSEC’s increasing role in international education as an opportunity. “The French like to argue,” he explains. “We like to discuss. Call it intellectual intercourse. The other thing the French value is complexity. The French mindset is wired to always look for complexity. If something is too simple, then it’s probably not worth it. If you think of complexity as an opportunity to understand issues from different angles,” he says, and he could be talking about the many issues involved with an overlapping, expanding, ever more interconnected world, “then different voices will help make better, more informed choices. That’s what the French bring to the table.”

Essec Business School is an institute that provides management degrees and a professional experience to its students. Their academic programs foster values that is essential for a promising career in the corporate world. Another interesting aspect about this institute is that students get opportunities to mingle with students of diverse backgrounds and nationalities. This business school has truly become a global village.

http://councilonbusinessandsociety.com/perspectives/thematic/the-french-argument

Going up? Perfecting the Elevator Speech

By Matthew Werner, Global MBA student 2012-2013, US

 

Throughout the first term the Global MBA program students enjoyed numerous career workshops focusing on the importance of communicating our strengths, previous experiences and the positions we hope to obtain upon graduation as professionally and succinctly as possible. Essentially, we learned how to sell ourselves to networking contacts and potential employers through short elevator pitches. For those not familiar with the concept, an elevator pitch is based on the idea that an elevator ride is normally very short and one would only have a minute or two to share his or her ideas with somebody else riding in the same elevator. These pitches are quite common for entrepreneurs who are often required to sell their ideas to potential investors in very limited amounts of time.

We first started crafting our elevator pitches individually and then partnered up with a random classmate to pitch our previous experiences and future plans in front of the class. Our classmates then provided constructive feedback on how to perfect our speeches. The next step was to practice in front of a professional videographer. Speaking in front of groups of people is normally not a problem for me and is something that I enjoy, but speaking in front of the camera was a new experience and took some getting used to. For some reason this inanimate object that cannot give any feedback added tons of pressure! Luckily all students received our first videos to review and had a week to perfect our on camera style personalities and our pitches. The next week we filmed the final version that we will be able to share with professional contacts, post on personal websites, our LinkedIn pages or use in other promotional materials.

After all the practice that went into filming the final speeches I felt like I could recite my elevator pitch to anybody at anytime. That is, until I actually had an occasion to use my elevator pitch and completely blew it! Shortly after the filming session I ran into the Global MBA career development manager who was having lunch with a key account manager with ESSEC’s corporate relations department. This would have been the perfect occasion to use my elevator pitch and explain my professional experiences and aspirations, but when introducing myself I totally drew a blank and just said my name and nothing else. What a missed opportunity!

So for me it was clear that I had to go back to rehearsing my elevator pitch and getting comfortable with the speech in an impromptu environment. I was very pleased when I recently used the speech effectively during several networking opportunities. Networking and making industry contacts are very important parts of the job search and one must be skilled in this area. Thankfully the Global MBA team knows this and has been preparing the students to confront the world of networking with polished elevator pitches that convey confidence and clear objectives for the future.

Essec is one of the educational institutes that offer courses catering to the requirements of various Multinational corporations. The Business school Paris has received accolades for the relevance of their courses in the corporate world. Their curriculum is in check with the demands of the business world. They strongly emphasize on practical application of knowledge. Such qualities make it to be one of the most sought after educational institutes.

http://essecglobalmba.blog.com/2013/01/21/going-up-perfecting-the-elevator-speech