2018 MBAs To Watch: Andrew Sims, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

Andrew Sims

IESE Business School

“Go big or go home – if it’s worth doing, do it with your best effort.”

Age: 30

Hometown: Chicago, IL

Fun fact about yourself: I have blue eyes, but the left one has a brown section in it.  Generally only noticed by people who make really intense eye contact… and dentists.

Undergraduate School and Degree: University of Southern California, B.S. Electrical Engineering

Where did you work before enrolling in business school? Paramount Pictures – Sr Systems Analyst, World Wide Technical Operations

Where did you intern during the summer of 2017? Credit Suisse, Chicago, IL

Where will you be working after graduation? Credit Suisse, Chicago, IL

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: Finance Club Vice President

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? Coming into the MBA with an engineering degree and largely tech & IT focused work experience, I knew that I was going to have a bit more intense of an adjustment period than some of my colleagues with academic or professional experience in more “traditional” business disciplines. This was especially true regarding preparation for recruitment into investment banking, which represented a major career shift for me. As such, I decided from an early stage to prioritize two goals to focus on to ensure my time and energy were well spent: to land a job in investment banking and to be a positive contributor to the class. I am happy to say that I was able to manage the career shift, while maintaining high marks and participating consistently in all subjects in what I hope was a helpful fashion.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? While working at Paramount, the first project I had been assigned to manage was the implementation of their automated digital preservation system. Aside from general project management duties, I would be responsible for the drafting of technical specifications; the development of software components; management of a complex array of contributors and stakeholders (ranging from media archivists to network engineers and software developers); and ultimately the deployment and configuration of the system as a whole. This was the largest and most complex project that I had been involved with to that point in my career and had been a priority for company for several years.

Nearing my one-year anniversary at the company, we successfully completed the project. Although there are follow-on projects planned for the system, this one represented the most substantial overhaul to the digital asset management system (DAM) and laid the groundwork for future enhancements. On a personal level, it is very satisfying to have put my fingerprints on the company by helping to establish a critical operational system which will hopefully remain in place for some time to come. From a bigger picture perspective, it was fun to have been able to contribute to the long-term safety of assets that are not only important to the company’s profitability, but in some cases are historically and culturally significant pieces of media (i.e. The Godfather, Titanic, The 10 Commandments, etc.)

Who was your favorite MBA professor? This is a difficult question because there have been many excellent ones. If I had to narrow it down to one choice, it would be Jan Simon. Aside from finding him a generally interesting person based on his background in both NATO and the financial sector, I really appreciate the degree of professionalism he brings to the classroom and asks from the students in it. There is a level of preparedness and performance expected in his Capital Markets classes that conveys a sense of respect for the quality and capabilities of the class. Furthermore, he always makes himself available for questions, and volunteers extra time each year for corporate finance coaching in preparation for first year banking interviews. He is a great example of a professor who doesn’t just want their pupils to be successful, he wants them to be the best students and professionals they can be.

What was your favorite MBA Course? In Entrepreneurial Finance this term, we discuss the financing decisions for early stage companies and most sessions are accompanied by a speaker session from the entrepreneur, angel, or VC in the case.  It has been a very unique opportunity to see the different aims and attitudes of people in these roles, and to see how the financing decisions in an early stage business can have a major impact on their growth and operation, as well as later exit opportunities. Much is made of the entrepreneur’s team impact on the success of the business. However, it is interesting to see how the alignment of investors and their relationship with the management team can be just as critical to the success of the enterprise.

Why did you choose this business school? Although I am originally from the US, I went to middle and high school in Antwerp, Belgium. Having spent nearly 10 years in California since beginning freshman year at USC, I considered business school to be an opportunity to return to Europe as a means of expanding my professional network there. I had the opportunity to meet a former IESE MBA and current MBA Admissions representative during a presentation at the MBA fair in downtown Los Angeles, and decided IESE would be one of two European schools I would apply to. However, after having interviewed and attended a “sample” class, I bought into the case method and was excited by the international diversity of the student body and made my decision.

What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? Start preparing now for the things that you want to accomplish once you get here. Life moves fast, and the MBA moves faster—there are so many opportunities that everyone must make tough choices on which academic, professional, and extracurricular activities they want to pursue. You don’t have to have everything figured out by the time you get to campus, but the earlier you start thinking and preparing for the experience the better chance you give yourself of getting everything you want out of your two years.

What is the biggest myth about your school? It was often suggested to me prior to the MBA that you should select a business school situated in the area you intend to do business. When I chose to attend a school in Spain, some people cocked an eyebrow at me as someone with a clear interest in going into finance and without Spanish fluency. Although I think this idea is wrong-headed for selecting an MBA in general, this is especially so for European MBAs and IESE in particular.

The overwhelming majority of students in the MBA are international (>80%), and my classmates post-graduate career ambitions span the map from Ecuador to South Korea, and everything in between. Furthermore, the case methodology at our school creates a plethora of opportunities for professors to draw out and highlight business practice differences across regions for an added breadth in the learning experience.  Geographic flexibility is increasingly important in the increasingly globalized business world. If you want to develop proficiency as an international businessperson, IESE is a tremendous place to start.

What was your biggest regret in business school? One of the challenges for me was that by making a choice early on to prioritize academics and making a career switch as my primary goals for the first year, I wound up foregoing a lot of social and extracurricular involvement as a result. Although it is tough to say that I regret this – since in my situation I believe it was a critical choice for success – I have definitely been making a concerted effort in the second year to get to know my classmates personally as well as academically and to get more involved with the extracurricular club activities.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I have a lot of respect for those classmates who have come to the MBA with young families. It can take a lot of courage to decide to step away from your career to work on yourself by attending an MBA, and I imagine that this must be even harder when you have a family to support. As a specific example, one of the members of my team, Yanyan Yue, came to Spain for the MBA while her husband and young daughter remained home in China. Yanyan was one of the most academically gifted members of our team and our team was absolutely made stronger by her contributions. Still, I know from our conversations that this was a big personal sacrifice for her.

The quality of an MBA is made by the people in it, and I am very grateful to the students who have improved my experience by sacrificing some of their time to partake in and contribute to our program.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? My parents, and my father in particular. I have always had a strong interest in science and mathematics, which is what led me to pursue an engineering degree early on. My parents were very supportive of this decision. However, like many students, I did have some trouble deliberating on my choice of major (for me, the choice was between (business, economics, or engineering). It was my father, a lifetime accounting and corporate finance professional, who suggested the option of developing hard technical skills via an engineering career early on before rounding out my skills as a business professional in an MBA later on. This idea appealed to me, and I set it as a goal from early on in my collegiate career that I would eventually attend an MBA with the aim of entering into investment banking.

“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…wondering why I hadn’t accomplished such a longstanding goal of mine… but also still trying to move my career into finance, likely via application of my engineering skills in a fintech company.”

What are the top two items on your bucket list?

• Start a business or non-profit with a specific focus on educational advancement.
• Run a marathon.

What is your favorite movie about business? Maybe There Will Be Blood. I like how the film explores the boundary between madness and genius, but there is a much more important lesson in the movie — You had better do your homework and know who are doing business with. Eli and his family squander the resources on their property because they don’t understand their value. Worse yet, they engage in business with a man who they do not know, which ultimately results in fatal consequences. Although the consequences of such negligence for most people today would not be so dire, the lessons still hold true.

What would your theme song be? “I’ll Be Your Man” – The Black Keys

Favorite vacation spot: Anywhere with a beach

Hobbies? Playing basketball, guitar, and attempting to play golf. I also enjoy travelling to historically significant buildings and landmarks (and occasionally making tongue-in-cheek references to ancient alien conspiracy theories).

What made Andrew such an invaluable addition to the class of 2018?

“If I have to select the best characteristic of Andrew, I would probably choose his intellectual quality. In class, he is a very responsible student who offers excellent contributions and ideas in class, which in turn inspire me to enhance my classes every day. He is an invaluable addition to the class of 2018, through his capacity for leadership and team working.”

Antonio Dávila
Professor of Entrepreneurship and Accounting and Control  

 

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2018 MBAs To Watch: Adelina Gerteis, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

Adelina Gerteis

IESE Business School

“Passionate hard-worker who loves deeply, enjoys life and faces its challenges head on.”

Age: 28

Hometown: Munich, Germany

Fun fact about yourself: I got a tattoo during my MBA in Barcelona that will always remind me about my learnings and my transformation at IESE. I was inspired by the statue “La girafa coqueta”, which is close to my house at the Rambla de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Undergraduate School and Degree:

Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Bachelor of Arts (Logistics & Supply Chain)

Where did you work before enrolling in business school?

Inverto GmbH – a Boston Consulting Group Company as Project Manager

Where did you intern during the summer of 2017?

Microsoft – Munich, Germany

Where will you be working after graduation?

Microsoft – Product Marketing Manager Artificial Intelligence Germany

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I am really proud of gaining a sponsored exchange term to Boston MIT & HBS from IESE. There are in total just two spots for the whole class and I felt really honored to be able to represent and transmit the IESE spirit across the big pond.

From a personal perspective, I am really proud of how my husband and I have managed our marriage during the MBA journey, since we have been apart the whole MBA living in different countries and even at times different continents. We have managed to stay driven and focused to follow our own dreams, but without forgetting about the joint impact we want to create.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I am really proud of my promotion to Project Manager within 12 months after becoming a senior consultant just the year before. This promotion was an important milestone in my career since it showed me that I was not just able to be analytical, but was also trusted to lead a team of five consultants.

This first exposure to leadership gave me a great opportunity to learn a lot about myself but especially to learn what my impact on others around me is.

Who was your favorite MBA professor? IESE has lots of amazing and dedicated professors who always go beyond teaching in class. For me, I always enjoyed the classes with Wei Luo, who was always very energetic and dedicated until the last minute in class. Wei always managed to make any theoretical content as tangible as possible and never forgot to illustrate the human aspect in everything. His enthusiasm is contagious and really gives you the sensation that you are learning for life.

What was your favorite MBA Course? I had my biggest “ah ha” moments in “Analysis of Business Problems”. Even though it seems to be a very structured and analytical subject, I found myself being surprised about how often numbers and concepts are important but not the most crucial components to making a decision. It was interesting to see that even if analytically speaking and number-wise it made sense to go for a certain decision, it was sometimes the wrong one because it ignored the human setting around it. To focus more on the human-centric perspective of business is absolutely something I will take way more into account.

Why did you choose this business school? IESE manages to recruit the right people. We have an amazing community that is very collaborative and supportive in every sense. I have never met so many successful and driven people, who are empathic and caring at the same time. Throughout the admissions process, I had that warm and caring impression about IESE and it carries on.

Another criterion was definitively the diversity. IESE is very international in comparison to many other schools. The multitude of perspectives that you can gain at IESE is incredible. It really enriches your MBA experience.

What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? Be authentic and be yourself. Grades are important, but everybody who is applying has great grades; try to stand out as a human being and bring a growth mindset to the table.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Being a business achool in Spain, IESE’s internationality and amplitude of diverse perspectives is underestimated.

I was personally surprised by how far many of my classmates traveled to be part of IESE. My core team of nine people, for example, came from Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Peru, Romania, Germany, Spain and Australia. Just imagine our discussions and intercultural experiences. I really learned to think outside the box and put myself in at least 40 culturally different shoes.

What was your biggest regret in business school? I do not have any regrets, since I believe in learning instead. Every day, we have the power make choices and I believe that as long as I am taking my choices based on well developed information, I should not regret anything. It is always easier to judge in retrospect, but that just makes us undervalue what we have learned and earned from that.

“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…way better off financially but way poorer in life-long international friendships

If you were a dean for a day, what one thing would you change about the MBA experience?

–     Build a Gym on campus.

–     Create an interactive app that consolidates the various platforms and resources we have at IESE.

What are the top two items on your bucket list?

–     Sabbatical in South East Asia

–     Run the Berlin Marathon

In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? As a passionate and approachable person who you can go to for any advice you might need in your personal life or business!

What is your favorite movie about business? My favorite movie is Catch Me If You Can, since it shows how important it is to challenge the way things are today. It really triggers your creativity and gives you a great spirit to find a solution and not be problem-oriented.

What would your theme song be?

“Feel It Still” / Portugal.The man

Favorite vacation spot: Tulum, Riviera Maya / Bohol, Philippines

Hobbies? Canyoning, Skiing, Sailing, Hosting dinners and cooking for my friends

What made Adelina such an invaluable addition to the class of 2018?

“From the start of the MBA program, Adelina brought a mixture of tremendous energy and very strong analytical and interpersonal skills, getting involved in a number of initiatives and projects as well as doing her coursework extremely well. At the same time, Adelina has a degree of humility which is surprising in a woman who is so driven and succesful. She played a key role in bringing her team together at a critical juncture and has been an asset to the program in every way.”

Pascal Michels
MBA Program Admission Director

“Adelina is one of those students who make it a privilege to be working at IESE. Her high levels of energy and spontaneity go hand in hand with a strict “zero bs” attitude and deep humility. She is a doer who makes things happen – someone I look forward to working with in her capacity as supporter of the school and advisor to MBA Admissions.”

Mike Rosenberg
Assistant Professor Strategic Management 

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2018 Best MBAs: Ahmed Bakr, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

Ahmed Bakr

IESE Business School

“An outgoing, goal-driven, hard-working, people person and self-proclaimed pizza connoisseur.”

Age: 28

Hometown: Cairo, Egypt

Fun fact about yourself: For Almost 10 years before the MBA, I played American Football semi-professionally, and was part of the Egyptian National Team of American Football that won 2nd place at the 2016 African Championship.

Undergraduate School and Degree: The German University in Cairo – BSc. In Information Engineering and Technology, Communication Engineering Major

Where did you work before enrolling in business school?

Business Development Manager with FlameSource LLC., an energy startup in Abu Dhabi, UAE

Business Solutions Partner Specialist at Vodafone in Cairo, Egypt

Radio Frequency Engineer at Deutsche Telekom AG in Bonn, Germany
Where did you intern during the summer of 2017? The Boston Consulting Group – Dubai, UAE

Where will you be working after graduation? Will be returning to The Boston Consulting Group as a Management Consultant

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

• Founder and President of the Business Analytics and Big Data Club
• President of the Ambassadors Club
• Vice-president of the Consulting Club
• Vice-president of the Middle East and North Africa Business Club
• World Government Summit Universities Competition Finalist
• Class Host for Incoming Exchange Students

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I’ve networked my way to a BCG interview after being initially rejected, and gave more than a 100 mock interviews to prepare my classmates for consulting recruitment. While I’m proud of these achievements, none have compared to the learning and satisfaction I’ve experienced from successfully founding the Business analytics and Big Data Club.

I believe that in today’s business environment, the traditional MBA toolkit has become insufficient, and that MBAs must develop a strong grasp on analytics if they want to remain competitive. This student group was launched to mend this knowledge gap. To do so, we hold practical workshops teaching students the fundamentals of business analytics, and regularly host industry experts to keep club members up to date with current trends and applications of analytics in business.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I’m most proud of my role in the turnaround of Flamesource – Working at a startup where there’s no defined business model, and being tasked to grow it is beyond daunting; Not to mention doing so in a completely new industry, city, and country.

By the time I joined the company, the founders had implemented stiff pro forma sales targets. I believed that these targets kept the sales team from taking risks, effectively killing our agility. After roughly 20 meetings, I convinced the founders to hand me the sales team management for six months. By adopting a more client-centric compensation system, our company was able to react faster to changes in customer needs. At the end of the six months, sales were up almost 84%. My time at Flamesource was instrumental in helping me realize my full business potential, and I owe my success there to my perseverance.

Who was your favorite MBA professor?
Professor Marc Badia – Professor Badia taught me one of my least favorite subjects coming into the MBA. Yet somehow, he managed to make me look forward to his class every week. It’s a combination of his really light and cheerful demeanor, and his great teaching style. He always managed to pace his class perfectly, so it never felt like we were racing the clock, and I never got a chance to check my phone once.

Out of class, Professor Badia’s door is always open for his students. No matter how busy he is, he somehow manages to respond to my numerous –and often poorly-timed– emails, and helps way beyond what is asked.

Why did you choose this business school? Definitely the people. I was completely torn between three schools, so I decided to visit all three campuses and meet up with students in an attempt to collect more data beyond what I learned while applying. The first thing I learned was that career opportunities and resources were very similar at schools of this tier. With that out of the picture, I was able to focus on what really differed. After talking with students from all three, it became clear that IESE was the right place for me. People here are so humble, helpful, and friendly that I think it’s impossible to feel lonely. Each course here has a teamwork aspect, and the teams are carefully engineered to reflect the diverse nature of the class as a whole. As such you have an unequivocal opportunity to enhance your leadership skills. This, combined with the intense utilization of the case method, offered the closest learning environment to the real world, and made IESE a clear choice for me. (Alright, Barcelona might have helped a little.)

What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? Meet as many people as you can from IESE. Ask them what they like the most about the school. While I’m pretty sure they will all rave about the culture in some way, you’ll be surprised by the diversity of answers you’ll get. Some might tell you it’s the gorgeous campus and the turtle pond. Some might say it’s attending the Africa Intensive Module in Nairobi. Others might tell you it’s simply making new friends from across the globe. You’ll get a million different answers. Take the ones that resonate with you the most, and bring them up during your application process.

What is the biggest myth about your school? Coming into IESE I was told that the school’s coursework is incredibly challenging. While definitely demanding, I found the coursework to be fairly manageable.

Having 80% of your classes taught using the case method means that if you are to get the most out of your time in class, you must prepare the cases. While time-consuming at the beginning, after the first term, you become really good at identifying the information that matters the most when analyzing a case. Cases that would have usually taken me hours to read and analyze, now take less than an hour to go through; leaving plenty of time to enjoy the extracurricular and social parts of the MBA experience.

What was your biggest regret in business school? Not graduating with a bilingual MBA degree. IESE offers a fantastic Business Spanish program, but to really accelerate my learning I knew I had to take advantage of living in Spain, and being surrounded by many native speaking classmates. The MBA is all about tradeoffs. Between classes, club work, sports, and socializing, I simply lacked the extra energy to interact more with the locals, and face the awkwardness of speaking in Spanish to my classmates. I know it would have come at the expense of other activities, but I truly wish I had dedicated more time into taking my Spanish to the next level.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? Antoine Lagier, who was fortunately also one of my first-year teammates. Antoine and I could not be more different. He is calm and soft-spoken, and I’m loud and, well…Mediterranean. Yet, he has the ability to read and understand people at a magnitude that most people, myself included, cannot begin to grasp. He managed to go through life, facing more adversity than most, and somehow remain grounded, humble, and considerate. I believe Antoine’s strength partially comes from his willingness to be vulnerable. As someone who spent his lifetime hiding behind his size, Antoine helped me learn that expressing emotions is not a sign of weakness, but one of great strength.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? My father. A self-taught businessman and entrepreneur himself, he started 3 very successful businesses while I was growing up. Shadowing him as he developed these ventures has been the best schooling a business aficionado such as myself could have ever dreamt of, and the traits I learned from him along the way are the strongest assets I possess. One of those traits is his love for learning. He taught me to relentlessly and continuously work on developing my skills, and to never turn down an opportunity to learn something new. The MBA was exactly that; an opportunity to accelerate my business learning and gain a broader range of skills. So I simply couldn’t turn it down.

“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…probably stuck in a corporate job I didn’t really like, wanting to start my own business but not knowing where to begin.”

If you were a dean for a day, what one thing would you change about the MBA experience? I would optimize the way new courses are rolled out, and less desirable courses are retired. The business world is evolving very fast, and with it the skill set MBAs need to acquire to remain competitive. While IESE’s current offerings leave little to be desired, courses teaching new alternative and unconventional management tools should be constantly rolled out. I believe taking such risks would cement IESE’s position among the best business schools in the world.

What are the top two items on your bucket list?

#1: Take my mother to see the world. She didn’t get to travel much while raising me and my sisters, but I know how much she loves visiting new places.

#2: To pick up wakeboarding

In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? I hope they will remember me as a lifelong friend who always tried to push their limits as well as mine.

What would your theme song be? “Good life” by OneRepublic

Favorite vacation spot: Basata. A small and tranquil beach camp in Sinai, Egypt. 3 days there and you’ll forget what stress means.

Hobbies? Playing football (both American and regular), watching Arsenal FC struggle, reading science fiction novels, and traveling.

What made Ahmed such an invaluable addition to the class of 2018?

“Ahmed is smart, empathic, caring and a person that glues a team together and pushes everyone to perform. He was a joy to have in class, a big presence and brought incredible energy into class.”

Mireia Gine
Assistant Professor Financial Management 

 

 

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2018 Best MBAs: Jieqiong Xu, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

Jieqiong Xu (Faith)

IESE Business School            

“A small girl always with a big smile and unlimited energy.”

Age: 27

Hometown: Tianjin, China

Fun fact about yourself: I don’t like sweets, and chocolate is the worst…

Undergraduate School and Degree: Statistics (I live up to my Chinese stereotype!), Bachelor of Economics in Beijing Technology and Business University

Where did you work before enrolling in business school? Marketing Manager at windeln.de SE in Munich, Germany

Where did you intern during the summer of 2017? Amazon DE in Munich, Germany

Where will you be working after graduation? EU MBA Consumer Leadership Development Program at Amazon UK in London, UK

Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School:

First Year MBA

• Spring Games 2017 Member of Sponsorship Committee – Secured €4K in-kind
• TedxIESE Barcelona 2017 – Speaker coach with Alden Mills
• First-Year Director of Social Action club – Assisted to organize social day initiative
• Capstone Winner – Team leader for consulting project with Schneider Electric

Second Year MBA

• VP of Technology Club – Led and organized London Tech trek and Amazon fulfillment center trek (30+ participants each); Initiated, designed and hosted workshops for Amazon internship panel, CV review workshop, interview workshop, mock interviews with Amazonians (150+ participants each), and on-boarding workshop; Initiated and organized big data workshop with tableau (100+ participants)
• VP of Women in Business Club – Core organizing team for 3rd Women in Business Conference (400+ participants and 30+ speakers)
• VP of Social Action Club – Organized fundraising events for NGOs (raised €1,000+)
• President of Ambassador Club – led open day panels and networking events for over 7 times
• VP of Outdoor Club – Organized bouldering and climbing events
• Spring Game 2018 VP of Sponsorship Committee – Approached 20+ companies with tailor-made proposals, and secured €5k in cash and €6K+ in-kind
• TEDxIESE Barcelona 2018 – Lead of speaker coach team
• Mentor for MBA students – Reviewed 30+ CVs and conducted 60+ mock interviews

Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? I am proud of myself for being involved in a number of successful school events while managing my studies, friends and life well. If I have to pick one thing I am most proud of, it would be that I served as the TEDxIESE speaker coach for Alden Mills, a Navy SEAL platoon commander, and also a successful entrepreneur. The more time I spent working with him, the more I saw him not only as a notable figure but also an approachable person, full of energy and perseverance in chasing his dream. Even more striking was his humility and wisdom as a man, a leader, and a father. This experience taught me how to listen, and how to convey feedback in a constructive way. Alden became my inspiration to continuously challenge myself more and more, to learn from failure, and to be unstoppable.

What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? I moved to Munich, Germany, to work at windeln.de when I was 21 years old without knowing anyone in the city. As the sole Chinese employee in this e-commerce startup, my initial role was simply to help the management team learn about the Chinese market. Instead, I convinced the C-suite to enter the market directly. With my proposed and executed soft-landing strategy, I helped the company penetrate the China market with €31MM sales uplift in my 1st year, and generated sales of €91MM with a team of five in my 3rd year, accounting for 55% of the revenue of the entire company. My role and responsibilities thus accelerated to team management and strategy. Interestingly enough, during my summer internship at Amazon DE, I was delighted to hear that Amazon DE’s Grocery Team considered windeln.de’s China team as one of the key competitors.

What was your favorite MBA course? It was (surprise, surprise!) Operations Strategy, taught by Victor. In his class, I had one of the most impressive cases, which was about BYD, a Chinese car manufacturing company. In the beginning, I thought it was a case about operational efficiency and I only put my thoughts into economic considerations. As the case evolved, Victor pushed me further to think from a totally unexpected guiding principle – “Don’t treat your worker like a human robot”. Rather than considering each employee as a “productivity” machine, I learnt about the humanity in people management. There are a number of great courses at IESE where professors teach us not only how to be a manager, but also how to be a leader, a person who has empathy. And I believe this is the unique value IESE teaches me.

Why did you choose this business school? Despite a lot of highlights of IESE that attracted me, such as location (Barcelona!), 2-year program length, and case study methodology, what really made up my mind was the people, my fellow students. I still remember the day I first came on campus for my assessment day, the final round of the MBA admissions process at IESE. All the candidates were assigned to teams in order to complete a task. Although it was extremely intense and stressful, I was impressed by how collaborative the group was. I learnt tremendously from everyone within two hours of team work, and I believed I could learn even more with such people in two years. That was the decisive moment for me in choosing IESE. I was right – it has been such an amazing rollercoaster of a journey.

What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program? IESE has, from my observation, a very unique admission criteria. This is a school that not only values your professional achievements, but also pays great attention to your personality. Humble, collaborative, and respectful are the very words with which I want to describe my fellow students. For anyone interested in IESE, I’d recommend you to cultivate these qualities in yourself and see if you would fit into IESE’s environment.

What was your biggest regret in business school? My biggest regret was that I did not have enough time for my family. Within the two-year program, I could only spare five days to fly back to China. I only thought about how I could make the most out of my MBA life, committing large amounts of time to organizing events, and being with friends. By looking back and reflecting upon my time, I’ve realized how little time I spent physically with my family. Thankfully, I’m looking forward to bringing them to Barcelona, their first trip abroad, for my graduation.

Which MBA classmate do you most admire? I have two people I want to mention – Alberto Bastida and Laura Cushing.

• Professionally, Alberto was my inspiration. My admiration came from how he, as president of IESE Consulting Club, structured and elevated the club to a new level, all while delivering the best results at BCG during his summer internship. To me, he is a great leader to learn from and a great friend to have.
• Personally, Laura influenced me greatly. She offered a lot of help to people who wanted to apply for Amazon, while managing three clubs as VP. She led herself as an example that it is possible to manage everything well, and thus inspired me to do more. When I wanted to express my gratitude, she said, “Don’t thank me, be the same inspiration for the next year”, which I shaped as a value in my life – to help people and inspire them to help others even more.

Who most influenced your decision to pursue business in college? My father. He has been an entrepreneur throughout his life. Initially, he ran a restaurant and later a small wholesale business selling cleaning supplies with three employees. He was the person who introduced me to the business world. What he taught me, by setting himself as an example, was nothing specific about vision or ambition, but simply about integrity and responsibilities. He earned his clients through trust and diligence, and had always been conscientious and honest in work.

“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…staying at windeln.de but making some strategic changes for the company. I would assist my new manager in taking a deep dive into the flaws in our current strategies and map a more organized plan for the following year. In the meantime, I would start looking for other positions outside of the company to make a move, either in digital consultancy or in marketing positions.”

What are the top two items on your bucket list? Visiting Antarctica and founding my own NGO

In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? That my help to them inspired them to help other people, and to keep passing on that same spirit of helping and inspiring to even more people.

What is your favorite movie about business? It’s not a movie but a miniseries: Black Mirror. The series makes me reflect that when people keep focusing on advancing technology, disrupting industry, and bringing more benefits to the world, we should not ignore the downsides of the lack of regulation and aftermath of overconsumption. It challenges me that, when I generate ideas, I always need to consider further the qualitative impact and potential social consequences.

What would your theme song be? “Breaking the Habits” by Linkin Park

Favorite vacation spot: Safaris in Kenya (Hell’s Gate, biking with Zebras!)

Hobbies? Bouldering and climbing; we have some great spots here in Barcelona (Montserrat!)

What made Jieqiong Xu such an invaluable addition to the class of 2018?

“Faith Xu is a tremendously energetic person that has passion for anything she does, in school and outside. She is very talented, sharp and with a contagious aspiration to excellence. She is a perfectionist and carries her team forward to higher levels, from a humble hard-working attitude. She also has a rich multi-cultural background: brought up in China, worked in Germany, went to school in Spain, what will be next? Finally, Faith has been involved in many different activities at IESE, besides academics, including the very successful Women in Business Conference.”

Víctor Martinez de Albeniz
Research Division, Director and Production, Technology and Operations Management Professor

 

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2018 Best 40 Under 40 Professors: Kate Barasz, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

Kate Barasz

Assistant Professor

IESE Business School

Kate Barasz is the total package. She checks all the boxes. Professional excellence? She spent four years climbing the ranks at Bain & Company. Academic chops? Start with a Harvard Ph.D. and move onto her research, with credits including The Journal of Marketing Research, The Journal of Experimental Psychology, and The Harvard Business Review. Teaching prowess? Well, just ask BK Kanjhan (’19) for his thoughts.

“Not only is Kate incredibly knowledgeable, her energy is infectious and quite frankly, necessary for an 8:30 AM class,” he writes. “She engages the class in a manner unlike that of any other professor without being overly dominating to the point where the voice of the class gets drowned out. She is always thoroughly prepared for every class to the point that she knows which of her students may have had relevant background or experience in the topic. She draws your opinion out and pushes you to see if you’ll stand by it, strengthening your understanding of the material.”

Indeed, Barasz is the proverbial academic triple threat. A marketer by training – and an observer of behavior since birth – Barasz enjoys upending students’ impression of marketing as simply “ad campaigns and commercial jingles.” Instead, she treats it as a way of understanding people and how they make decisions – a benefit that resonated quite profoundly for Udayan Kabra (’19). “Her knowledge about the world of marketing and advertising is exemplary and I can say that in this one course of 22 sessions I have been able to find solutions to most of the problems that I have been facing in my family business.”

However, Barasz’s popularity can also be traced something even more fundamental: She cares. She shares. She listens. And she inspires. “She dedicated a decent amount of her personal time to help me with my business, adds Boaz Toledano. “I came to her looking for marketing advice on my company and she not only met with me on multiple occasions, but also spent her own time researching and thinking of more ideas that could assist me.”

Age: 34

At current institution since what year? 2016

Education: (title of degree, area of study, institution and year obtained) DBA in Marketing from Harvard Business School (2016); BA in Economics and Public Policy Studies from Duke University (2006)

List of courses you currently teach: Marketing Management (core class for first-year MBA students)

Twitter handle: Pretty sure the world could use a little less tweeting, so I’ve tried to lead by example and abstained from Twitter.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LIFE AS A PROFESSOR

“I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when…I came back from a girls’ weekend with my best friends from undergrad. I’d been mid quarter-life crisis, ruminating about what I should do with my post-consulting life, when my former college roommate had a clever idea: “Remember when I took that Consumer Behavior class at Duke? You always loved hearing about it. Maybe you should look into something like that…” So I did. That’s how I discovered that you could get a PhD in Marketing (who knew?) and make a career out of studying the crazy ways that humans behave. It was the game-changing, offhand comment that cured a “crisis” and kicked off a career.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? Broadly, I research consumer behavior and decision making—understanding how people make choices and how we can encourage them to make better ones. Right now, I’m particularly interested in how we make sense of other people’s choices—e.g., the assumptions and inferences we make about others based on the decisions we observe them making. For instance, if I see that you’ve chosen to consume X, what do I infer about your preferences or personality or broader beliefs and values? And how accurate—or inaccurate—are those inferences? As it turns out, people are good at converging on some systematically bad assumptions about others. This has a whole bunch of downstream implications for managers trying to understand their consumers, or just for consumers trying to understand one another.

“If I weren’t a business school professor…I’d be a nomadic travel blogger.”

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? Someone once told me I have exceptionally legible chalkboard handwriting. I also binge drink caffeine during my teaching term, so I tend to have a lot of energy.

One word that describes my first time teaching: Imposter-syndrome (Yes, I took liberties with that hyphen.)

If your teaching style/classroom experience had a theme song, what would it be? To borrow my son’s favorite phrase: “Something jammy.”  

As a b-school professor, what motivates you? So many students start the semester knowing surprising little about marketing, convinced we’re going to spend ten weeks discussing ad campaigns and commercial jingles. I love proving them wrong and showing them the value in understanding business problems from a very micro, consumer-level perspective.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: It’s the best job in the world and I should’ve started doing it earlier.

Professor you most admire and why: My academic “parents,” Mike Norton and Leslie John, who both embody the ultimate professor/mentor wish list: inspiring, clever, creative, nurturing, motivating, and fun. Pretty sure I wouldn’t have survived grad school without them (and I’m really glad I survived grad school).

STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? Many MBAs ended up back in school because they wanted to change careers or try something new. It’s an exciting (and important) moment in their lives, and it’s really cool to play a role—however small—in the life makeover.

What is most challenging? Fighting through the palpable haze of 8:30am Friday classes.

Using just one word, describe your favorite type of student: Engaged

Using just one word, describe your least favorite type of student: Entitled

What is the most impressive thing one of your students has done? This year, one of my students took her midterms while 40.5 weeks pregnant with her first kid. And then managed to Skype into classes a few weeks later so she wouldn’t have to miss the semester. Respect.

What is the least favorite thing one has done? I can’t think of one…

What does a student need to do to get an A in your class? Bring me lots of delicious breakfast pastries. Or interesting insights that will challenge the class and push the discussion forward.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as…totally compliant with IESE’s mandatory grade curve.

But I would describe myself as…wishing I could be less compliant with IESE’s mandatory grade curve. (I hate giving Cs.)

Fill in the blank: “If my students can start to think about the world in a slightly different way—and come to share even a small bit of my fascination with humans’ behavior—then I’ve done my job as their professor.”

LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Fun fact about yourself: I love change.

What are your hobbies? This is the question that makes me grateful I met my husband before online dating was a thing. I would’ve gotten a big fat fail in the “make yourself sound interesting on a Match.com profile” category. I like reading, traveling, and long walks on the beach…

How will you spend your summer? Working (yes, we still do that even when we’re not teaching). And hopefully taking advantage of cheap Euro airfare and bopping around to some yet-unvisited destinations. (Wish list: Dolomites, Slovenia, and Montenegro)

Favorite place to vacation: Skiing or hiking in the Alps (and shamelessly using hot chocolate and ice cream, respectively, to bribe my 4- and 6-year-olds into following suit).

Favorite book: How to choose? A few that have stuck around in my brain for a while: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra, Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

What is your favorite movie and/or television show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? I loved the binge-ability of Narcos and Breaking Bad.

Favorite type of music and/or favorite artist: Anything that’s not on the Frozen soundtrack. (Mother-of-four-year-old-girl problems.)

Bucket list item #1: Spend a month (or several) trekking in Patagonia

THOUGHTS OF REFLECTION

What professional achievement are you most proud of? I didn’t know how much I’d love teaching until I started doing it. But I really love it. And I put a lot of myself into it. So to be recognized—in any form—for my efforts in the classroom brings me a lot of happiness.

What is your most memorable moment as a professor? That time I completely forgot to prep the case and showed up to teach in my pajamas. Oh wait…just a dream. #professornightmares

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more…

Dedicated time for students to reflect and figure out what they truly want to do with their lives. A

And much less…

tuition.

In your opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at doing what? Leading the charge on figuring out this whole work-life balance thing. It’s not just a woman or family problem; it’s an everybody problem. 

Looking ahead 10 years from now, describe what “success” would like for you”

Having students who still keep in touch, and knowing that I’ve made some kind of (positive) lasting impact on at least a few. (And if those grateful, indebted few also wanted to give me a cut of royalties from their future earnings, that would also be fine.)

Students say…

“Even when dealing with some ‘boring’cases, Kate’s energy and dynamism  keep the class on it’s feet and no student wants to miss out on a single minute of discussion during the Marketing classes. In fact, this course has been the only one which I looked forward to in my previous term everyday and I entirely credit Kate for this.”
Udayan Kabra (’19)

“Outside the classroom, Kate has been more than generous with her time and is always willing to meet with students to clarify marketing concepts or give career advice.”
Bhavishya (BK) Kanjhan (’19)

“Kate is the epitome of professional achievement – she is a graduate of Duke University, a consultant at Bain, and got her PhD at Harvard Business School. Now, she is one of few female professors at IESE Business School and one of fewer from the United States. As a marketing professor, she injects a sense of energy and excitement in to every class – it is infectious. It is nearly impossible to not be captivated by her charm and intelligence in and out of the classroom. Her impact extends far beyond the classroom though, she is always willing to meet with her students over lunch or coffee, giving professional, and life, advice. Kate also has two young children – proving to the rest of us female MBA candidates that successful, professional women can have it all.”
Stacey K. Robison (’19)

“Kate is super energetic, positive and always willing to help you get the most out of the learning process. Even on the day when she almost lost her voice she would still do her best and run an excellent case discussion.

Her professional background at Bain gives her extra credibility, which some of her peers coming from purely academic background lack. She would bring up examples from her personal experience which would add a lot of value to the overall case discussion.

Kate would often use HBS cases which along with her personal background in US North East would create an interesting feeling that you’re on an exchange at a US school while still staying at IESE.

In general, her energy, positive attitude and professionalism make you regret that your primary target recruiting-wise is finance.”
Igor Ustinov (’19)

“I’d like to nominate Prof. Kate Barasz for effectively throwing marketing prejudices out the window, and getting bankers, engineers, scientists and basically the whole class deeply interested in Marketing.

Prof. Barasz discarded old frameworks and challenged our core commercial instincts to understand failed and effective marketing practices. She lured us into signing up for Marketing electives when the sign-up time isn’t here yet.”
Sergei Lepiavka

“As an ex-Bain consultant and Harvard Phd, she epitomises intelligence and excellence through her academic and professional achievement. As a marketing professor, she brings a great amount of enthusiasm and energy into her case-based teaching. She encourages deep thinking and dialogues during case discussion, taking IESE’s experiential learning to a different level. Meanwhile, her impact extends beyond the classroom, she shared her professional and personal experience with students outside classroom, giving advices to many students who are making life/career-changing decisions.”
Kuan Chung Chen (Michael)

 

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2018 Best 40 Under 40 Professors: Inés Alegre, IESE Business School - Poets&Quants

 

Inés Alegre

Assistant Professor

IESE Business School

What makes a great professor? It’s certainly not flouting the breadth and depth of knowledge. That’s a given. Instead, great teaching boils down to two talents – and IESE’s Inés Alegre possesses both in spades.

For one, she makes students excited to come to class, exuding an energy that Antoine Crettex describes as “contagious.” Even more, she is able to distill complex ideas and processes into simple and memorable terms. In doing so, she has opened up the possibilities for her students. “I do not have a quantitative background and always struggled,” writes Pape Nicholls (’18). “Inés made our data analytics course so simple that I actually enjoyed it the subject and decided to deepen my knowledge on that topic after the end of the first-year MBA.”

Alegre has always been a teacher in one form or another. As a young adult, she tutored children. As an adult, this mother of three has taught math to prisoners. However, business students are unquestionably her favorite group to teach. “MBA students usually come from a successful early professional career, but they all want a change: more success, more challenges, a different industry, more international exposure, more responsibilities…It is a pleasure to hear their stories and concerns and help in this particular time of their lives.”

Age: 38

At current institution since what year? 2016

Education: (title of degree, area of study, institution and year obtained)

Industrial Engineering degree, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2004

PhD in Management, IESE Business School, 2013

List of courses you currently teach:

Decision Analysis

Quantitative Methods for Management

Twitter handle:

I don’t have any.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LIFE AS A PROFESSOR

“I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when…since I was very young. When I was 15, I was teaching math to kids who were 10. When I was 20, I was teaching those who were 16 and so on. I soon realized that the older the students, the more I enjoyed teaching them. In addition, the more international, the more enjoyable as well. Where could I find both post-graduate and international students? At a business school!

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it?

I am currently conducting research on decision-making in online environments. More precisely, in crowdfunding and crowdlending contexts. Why would people lend money online to complete strangers? And that’s the point. Platforms that succeed are those able to transform complete strangers into trustworthy individuals. Building relationships online is as important as offline.

“If I weren’t a business school professor…I would be a medical doctor. I think both professions have many commonalities. At the core of both is caring about the other. Caring about the patient or caring about the student.”

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?

I think my students appreciate that I am cheerful, energetic, I have a close relationship with the students and I am able to clearly explain somehow difficult concepts.

One word that describes my first time teaching:

Strong heart-beating

If your teaching style/classroom experience had a theme song, what would it be?

“Humble and Kind” from Tim McGraw

As a b-school professor, what motivates you?

The students! They are my “reason to be”. If I can teach anything useful to them, something they can use in their future careers, it is worth the effort.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:

How challenging it is to manage so many different nationalities, each of them with their sense of humour and their preferences.

Professor you most admire and why:

There are so many! I do admire some because they know how to engage very well with students, like José Antonio Segarra (IESE). I admire others because their capacity to do academic research like Ethan Mollick (Wharton). Others are extremely smart, like Antonio Dávila (IESE), my PhD thesis adivsor. Others because of their strong ethical values, like Juan Carlos Vazquez-Dodero (IESE). Is not possible to say only one.

STUDENTS

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?

MBA students usually come from a successful early professional career, but they all want a change: more success, more challenges, a different industry, more international exposure, more responsibilities…It is a pleasure to hear their stories and concerns and help in this particular time of their lives, if possible.

What is most challenging?

To not disappoint and bore those that know a lot about the subject I teach and don’t lose those that do not know much. Keeping the appropriate level so that everyone enjoys the class.

Using just one word, describe your favorite type of student:

Eager to learn

Using just one word, describe your least favorite type of student:

Passive

What is the most impressive thing one of your students has done?

Doing an MBA and, at the same time, having a family to take care of and a company to manage. Some students have an amazing capacity.

What is the least favorite thing one has done?

Being rude or disrespectful.

What does a student need to do to get an A in your class?

Participate, engage, enjoy, learn and perform.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as…

Nice and fair.

But I would describe myself as…

Strict and fair.

Fill in the blank: “If my students can making better decisions, then I’ve done my job as their professor.”

LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Fun fact about yourself:

I have three daughters and I am currently expecting…another girl!

What are your hobbies?

Inviting friends for dinner, cooking, chatting, reading

How will you spend your summer?

Hiking in the Pyrinees and always a small family trip with my husband and daughters.

Favorite place to vacation:

Alella, a small town in the coast, close to Barcelona, Spain.

Favorite book:

Recently, My Brilliant Friend from Elena Ferrante.

A classic: Man’s Search for Meaning from Victor Frankl

What is your favorite movie and/or television show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?

I don’t watch movies or television shows, so I cannot tell.

Favorite type of music and/or favorite artist:

Vasco Rossi and Bryan Adams, each of them bring me memories of great moments of my life.

Bucket list item #1:

Distinguish between important and urgent

THOUGHTS OF REFLECTION

What professional achievement are you most proud of?

My first publication. It was not in a very good journal, but just seeing my name there made me feel I started to really belong to the academic community.

What is your most memorable moment as a professor?

The standing ovation of my students when I finished one of my courses. It made me feel they really appreciated me from the bottom of their hearts.

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this…

Much more ethical values, self-reflection, getting-to-know-yourself type of subjects. To be a good manager is not enough to have excellent technical knowledge and skills, but is also necessary to be a good person.

In your opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at doing what? Many companies and organizations can do a better job on environmental sustainability, on fairly treating their employees, on eliminating any type of discrimination… Companies and organizations play a big role on improving this planet.

Looking ahead 10 years from now, describe what “success” would like for you

Success would mean I have been able to form a happy and united family. To educate my daughters to be deep, not superficial. To have good friends and have contributed a little to a better world. Professionally, I would consider a success if I can continue working at IESE for many years. If I have been able to publish at top level and if students continue to enjoy my classes as much as I do enjoy teaching.

Students say…

“As a professor, she is very engaging and patient. She knows how to conduct the class with great structure, but allow for the discussion to flow injecting a little bit of humor from time to time. She demonstrates absolute care for her students and it is always available to solve any doubts or provide further help. Her dedication and professionalism in the classroom are bar none.”

Antonio Recio

“Some of the greatest and rarest attributes I believe we can find in any professor is (1) the ability to repeatedly keep an entire classroom of 70 students engaged with quantitative-heavy materials, at any given time of day, and (2), the ability to convey so much passion in teaching, to the extent that it inspires others to pursue careers out of passion and happiness, rather than financial gain.

Not only does Inés embody both these attributes, but she makes it very clear that they can only be achieved through dedication and hard work, which in her case means very careful class preparations, with so much detail to the extent of planning the jokes she will crack in class to keep students engaged, and anticipated reactions. I find this quite admirable especially considering that she is a mother of 3 and expecting her 4th child.”

Amna Alyamani

“A teacher who used real life decisions and examples to teach us Decision analysis and probability, using her sharp sense of humour, no nonsense approach and her fast passed exercises to get the message across. Whether it was asking us to guess the probability her child was a boy or a girl, telling us how her husband was diagnosed with a serious disease and then asking us what the probability was that the diagnosis was accurate, she kept us on our toes throughout the sessions. And she stepped out, beyond her role as a teacher, and became a mentor and a guide.  She knew how as managers, we needed to be reminded that economics of a deal was only ONE of the parameters to be considered, and we always had to look at the bigger picture. She always went out of her to ensure that we learned- academically and personally, You could always see that she truly cared, that we were her priority and this is why she was such an exceptional teacher!”

Eunice Mudialba(’19)

“Professor Alegre has been able to turn the Decision Analysis course into a learning experience, that makes you not only understand basic decision making processes but it makes you question your own biases in taking those decision. Professor Alegre is able to communicate difficult concepts in a variety of formats utilizing formats such as decision-making polling or simulations of betting situations in class. In addition to making each class a new and different learning format, Professor Alegre deeply cares about her students and makes them question not only the way they make professional decisions but also those of their personal life. Her belief in that learning is not only about becoming a better professional but also being a better individual has left a deep impression on me and is one of the reasons for my high regard for the IESE MBA program.

Inés electrifies her Decision Analysis class and puts purpose on top of the decision processes. With her energy, even statistics are fascinating! Her cases describe real-world decision-making processes and their historical breath-taking failures. You can’t approach decisions processes the same old way after taking her class.”

Maximilian Czymoch (’19)

 

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