Today 10.000th view! MyESADEMBA.com insights and statistics

February 9, 2010 by tobias

10.000th view of my blog “My ESADE MBA“*! Who would have guessed that? I am celebrating a little :) Thank you very much for your support and readership!!!

I started to blog about my ESADE experience in Feburary 2009 in the wake of my application for a scholarship.  However once the scholarship application was rejected I decided to continue the blogging nevertheless because I enjoyed doing it.  (btw. some of those who received the scholarship are blogging on the ESADE blog)

Considering that today I have finally reached the 5-digit-views for MyESADEMBA blog I decided that I would give you some more insights about this blog and ESADE in general through my statistics. The statistics give you a very good overview of what people are interested in and what they like to read about ESADE.  Let’s see what we’ve got:

Top Posts

  1. Home page
  2. After Career Week = Before Career Week
  3. About My ESADE MBA
  4. Career Services’ reactions and promises.
  5. My ESADE MBA: Statistics and insights
  6. The Economist – FT MBA Ranking 2009
  7. Pre-MBA Readings
  8. About ESADE
  9. Barcelona – Insider Tips
  10. ESADE vs. IESE vs. others – my choice
  11. FT MBA rank 2010 – ESADE #19 (#18 in ‘09)
  12. 2nd Place in the Elevator Pitch Contest
  13. FT European Business School Rank 2009
  14. ESADE MBA Directory (impressive considering its date)
  15. My ESADE MBA Admission Interview
  16. Good luck for the first exam!
  17. ESADE MBA Class of 2010 graduating 2012
  18. Rugby Iberia Cup: ESADE vs. IESE vs. LBS

Busiest day: 285 — Sunday, January 31, 2010
Busiest month: 2565 – January 2010

Top Search queries on my blog (last week)

Search Engine Terms used to find my blog:

  1. entrepreneur
  2. roland berger interview
  3. esade mba
  4. my esade mba
  5. myesademba
  6. esade
  7. esade mba blog
  8. esade blog
  9. roland berger interview questions
  10. mba rank
  11. tobias caldeweyher
  12. esade entrepreneurship club
  13. roland berger interviews
  14. cavaria barcelona
  15. esade 2012

Google Search Engine Ranking for following search terms (?)

  1. ft mba ranking 2010 (#8)
  2. mba.com  (#12)
  3. nexus esade (#7)
  4. esade (#14)
  5. ft mba ranking (#9)
  6. ft mba rank (#7)
  7. ft mba (#10)
  8. mba ranking 2010 (#22)
  9. cerebration 2010 (#6)
  10. ft 2010 mba rankings (#9)
  11. esade nexus (#6)
  12. ecch cases  (#4)
  13. ft ranking (#8)
  14. ft european business school rankings (#8)
  15. nexus.esade.edu (#8)
  16. nus cerebration 2010 (#9)
  17. esade 2010 mba gmat club (#2)
  18. bcg barcelona (#7)
  19. aibc lse (#8)
  20. nexus esade alumni (#4)

Most clicked links:

  1. blogs.esade.edu/blogs/mba/mbablog/def…
  2. thembaexperience.wordpress.com
  3. itemsweb.esade.edu/mba/items_gestion/…
  4. economist.com/business-education/whic…
  5. economist.com
  6. delicious.com/myesademba
  7. morgans-musings.blogspot.com
  8. twitter.com/ESADENews
  9. bornliving.com/services/graduate
  10. linkedin.com/in/tobiascaldeweyher

There are tons of more interesting stats such as these but that might be a little too much. What fascinates me most is the interest, almost obsession, in the rankings, comparisons against other schools and interview questions. What I don’t understand is that so many people are obsessed with the rankings and placements of ESADE students but why do I see so few candidates visiting the campus and enquiring about the life as ESADE students? Is that all there is to a school? Visit the campus, speak to the students, attend lectures… Ask me ;) I am looking forward to seeing you all on campus and happy readership :)

*my own visits are not counted obviously

Barcelona Europe’s next entrepreneurship capital?

February 7, 2010 by tobias

Barcelona has a clear vision: Becoming the entrepreneurship capital of Europe. That is quite an interesting vision and marketing strategy for a city. Being able to say that you are the start-up capital is quite a titel however will not be easily achieved.

Considering that Barcelona is one of the most liveable and attractive cities and hosts two of the top-ten business schools in Europe, this could however be strategy that might actually work. ESADE’s strong focus on entrepreneurship and ESADE’s business incubator “Creapolis” definitely goes well along those lines.

In fact there is a number of developments, events and institutions, like Barcelona’s Activa, that push for this development, that I would like to highlight. The previously mentioned serial entrepreneur Christopher Pommerening for example has recently been asked by the “City of Barcelona and the “Plan Estratégico Metropolitano de Barcelona” to promote and create a special Advisory Committee for Entrepreneurship, in order to improve the services and infrastructures for Entrepreneurs”, as stated by the website “Barcelona Entrepreneurship City”.

The February 2010 edition of the  “Entrepreneurial Event Aggregator” (here) provides you again with a good overview of all the Entrepreneurial Events happening in Barcelona…

Host: ENB
Topic: TBC
Date: 4th of February, 19:15h
Location: Hotel Casanova, C/Gran Via de les Corts, 559
Confirmation: info@networkbarcelona.com or here

Host: ESADECREAPOLIS
Topic: XIII Foro de Inversión del CEI
Date: 9th of February, 17:00h – 19:00h
Location: ESADEFORUM. Av. Pedralbes 60-62. Barcelona
Confirmation: here

Host: ESADE
Topic: Business Angels Network
¿Qué es un Business Angel? Características y datos claves, con Luisa Alemany, Manuel Martos, Carlos Hernández
Date: 9th of February, 19:30h
Location: ESADEFORUM. Av. Pedralbes 60-62. Barcelona
Confirmation: ESADE Alumni

Host: Camera de Comercio de Barcelona
Topic: The day of Silicon Valley: Business opportunities and new trends
Date: 11th of February, 8:30h – 11:00h
Location: Viver de Glòries de Barcelona Activa, c/ Llacuna, 162
Confirmation: gperarnau@cambrabcn.org or here

Host: Gild International
Topic: Networking Lunch
Date: 11th of February, 13:30h – 16:00h
Location: Gild International, Passatge Permanyer 5, 08009 Barcelona
Confirmation: gildinternational@gildinternational.com or at here

Host: ACC1Ó
Topic: Emprenedors que inverteixen. Sector Internet
Date: 16th of February, 8:30h – 10:00h
Location: Hotel Gallery, C. Rosselló, 249
Confirmation: here

Host: Barcelona Activa
Topic: Growth Academy, Fourth Edition
Performing a process of strategic and growth planning using as a tool the application on-line PEC
Date: 17th of February, 9:00h – 19:00h
Location: Viver – Incubadora d’Empreses. Llacuna, 162 Barcelona Tel: 934019666
Confirmation: here

Host: Gild International
Topic: Webcast: Strategy with Jeff Jarvis
Date: 18th of February, 18:00h
Location: Gild International, Passatge Permanyer 5, 08009 Barcelona, España
Confirmation: gildinternational@gildinternational.com or here

If you want to find out more about Barcelona’s Entrepreneurship City click here. Good luck with starting your own business.

Career Services’ reactions and promises…

February 2, 2010 by tobias

After two meetings with the Career Services yesterday it seems that your feedback on the article had an impact.  It is not quite official yet but the following changes are planned for the coming days and weeks:

  • An official statement of the Management
  • Restructuring of the Career Services (apparently there will be a re-allocation of responsibilites)
  • Implementation of clear processes and K.PERFORMANCE.Is beyond staff-student ratios based on the recommendations of a famous consultancy  (not sure why a Business School spends money on a consultancy but…)
  • Survey for Career Week
  • Migration of discussion to Nexus to open up further “internal” dialogue
  • Workshops with students on how to strengthen Career Services
  • Renaming of Career Week to “Career Forum
  • More in-depth company briefings prior to campus visits
  • Differentiating between company and recruitment presentation
  • A stronger focus on developing company relationships with student clubs and academia
  • Publication of a clear hierarchical structure incl. responsibility allocations (should be expanded across the school in my opinion)
  • More transparency and new faster feedback policies
  • Publication of recruitment/interview statistics
  • and a few more…

Obviously not all of these are a result of the blog article and coincide with some changes that have been planned anyhow but it is a good development in any case.

These are all high aspirations and it is important that they are being implemented however most probably this will take some time.  However I still hope and think that it is important that the outgoing students see the changes implemented before leaving in two months.

On the other side we still have to acknowledge that they always put in a lot of efforts into attracting companies to campus, organising the career week, etc. And  you can’t honestly expect them to offer you placements. We do all need to be proactive ourselves. The crisis is bad for placements but that’s was already clear when we started, no?

In any case the latest discussions and feedback from us students have been heard. Let’s see and good job hunting!!

Guest speaker: Ignasi Cusido “Operations in a Family Business”

February 1, 2010 by tobias

Please join us on Tuesday, February the 2nd at 18.30 in Room A018.

The Operations and Entrepreneurship Clubs would like to invite you to attend “Operations in a Family Business” presented by Ignasi Cusido, CEO of LAMP Lighting and member of ESADE alumni society. LAMP Lighting, which is based out of Barcelona, has been one of the leading light innovators within the industry since its inception in 1972.

Ignasi’s presentation will focus on LAMP’s Operational Strategy as it expands its international presence. LAMP is a family business that offers a personalised service to clients and is totally involved in the projects it participates in by providing a comprehensive, innovative and aesthetic service.

ESADE MBA Directory

January 31, 2010 by tobias

Several readers have contacted me to provide information about the ESADE MBA that is essentially on the website of ESADE. Therefore I decided to write this directory that you will also find on the right side as a separate page for easy access (click here).

NAME: ESADE, Ramon Llull University
HISTORY: ESADE timeline since 1958
LOCATION: ESADE MBA, Avinguda d’Esplugues, 92, 08034 Barcelona, España
FACILITIES: Barcelona-Pedralbes Campus, Barcelona-Sant Cugat Campus, Madrid Campus, Buenos Aires Campus

PROGRAMS: Full Time MBA – 12, 15 or 18 months  (Brochures, Information Sessions), Part Time MBA, Executive MBA and Global Executive MBA, all other courses
RANKING: Overview (Business Week, FT, Wall Street Journal, Aspen Institute, America Economia)
ADMISSIONS: Full Time MBA, Part Time MBA
DATES: Application deadlines, interview dates, information sessions, news
GMAT: Preparation Courses
COURSE: Core courses and electives
CAREER: Parners and recruiters (Recruiter Portal)
ALLIANCES: Academic partners and Exchange Programs
FINANCE: Full Time MBA Financial Aid, Scholarships
STUDENTS: Full Time MBA Class Profile
FACULTY & RESEARCH: Directory and Profiles

STUDENT ASSOCIATION: MBASA
ALUMNI: ESADE Alumni
BLOG: ESADE MBA Blog
STUDENT LIFE: All about Barcelona and ESADE

MBASA event: Flamenco show + dinner (06.02.10)

January 29, 2010 by tobias

A message from MBASA for the first cultural event of the year:

Dear ESADE MBAS

Don’t miss out on getting your ticket TODAY, for our first cultural event of the year… happening next week!

Event: Flamenco show and 3 course dinner (price all inclusive)
To clarify the questions that many of you asked me yesterday: You will not be asked to dance or dress up in traditional flamenco outfits :)

Date: Saturday, 6th of February, 21.00 – late

Venue: El Tablao de Carmen in Pueblo Español (close to Montjuic).
Deemed the most authentic show in Barcelona !!!

http://www.tablaodecarmen.com/

Special Esade offer: € 38 including show and three course dinner
(the regular price is € 69 !!)

Tickets will be sold outside the cafeteria on level 2 from 13.00 – 15.00.
We need to collect the money in advance to take advantage of our special offer, so please let us know asap if you would like to attend put cannot make it tomorrow at those times!

Contact: Rachel K., Sharon Y. or Karolin K.

MBASA

After Career Week = Before Career Week

January 28, 2010 by tobias

—————————————————————————————————-
Update [31.01.2009,21:37h]: I think that the points have been made. I have taken the comments offline for now and now it is time for a dialogue. Everybody involved has been informed.
—————————————————————————————————–

Today somebody explained the Career Week quite well in class: “Career Week was a good branding exercise for the companies…!

ESADE itself did a great job! The networking tent was excellent and the video conferencing presentations worked really well. They also did well in  attracting quite a good number of interesting companies and there where some good positions available without a doubt. That however applied to only a few company presentations I attended!

From a lecture point of view some of the company presentations were very interesting especially the questioning session.

From a presentation skill or assessment point of view, they failed! Not all but many of them failed the whole point of Career Week.  A French luxury goods group was a good example!45min company presentation in Spanish, 20min questioning session. In the 65th min (5min overtime) one student finally asked the most important question: why did come you to ESADE? Answer: Oh yes, btw. we have a position in Portual but you have to speak Portuguese and preferably French! Mission of branding accomplished. Task failed!

If you give a presentation at a Career Week you should at least have a vacancy, mention the job profile at the beginning and sponsor visas in case applicants are non-residents! How about a job vacancy in Korea and you need to speak Korean! That applied to 1 student at entire ESADE. Thank you very much!

I still wish everybody applying to those companies a lot of luck and best of luck with your own job hunting in case you are also looking outside!

(For those interested in working for the French luxury goods group, I can confirm that everybody present had a handbag from its own company, men included!).

2 more months to unemployment

January 27, 2010 by tobias

Today being the 27th of January 2010 means that today in 2 months will be the first day after graduation. What an amazing experience it has been and still is however the speed with which the end is approaching is quite terrifying. Let’s finish strongly and pocket a job before we finish or raise the funds in time if you start your entrepreneurial future!!!

Online Conference about Social Media in Higher Education

January 26, 2010 by tobias

The online discussion with e-learning experts about the use of social media in higher education takes place today at 12.30pm (GMT+1).  This virtual “discussion aims to share best practices, experiences and interest in the use of social software technologies in Higher Education”, as explained by Margarida Romero (Twitter).

The dicussion will take place on Facebook, Twitter (#09CD10001) for external experts and on Nexus for Esade’s experts.

On Nexus, some ESADE IT staff joins (Raquel Boza, Manuela Calatayud, etc.) and ESADE’s DIPA members (Learning Innovation Department, Albert March, Cristina Martin).

In Facebook the participants will be the Esade PhD Students in Management and worldwide researchers and experts in elearning such:

  • Pirkko T Hyvönen (Uni. Oulu) – CSCL Researcher, Finland
  • Esteve Almirall – IS Researcher, Spain/Taiwan/Finland…
  • Niki Lambropoulos – CSCL Researcher, UK & Greece
  • Damien Clauzel (Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) – IS Researcher, France
  • Richard Peirano – Elearning Expert, France
  • Gaëlle Molinari (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) – CSCL Researcher, Switzerland
  • Franck Amadieu – CSCL Researcher, France
  • Beatrice Lantres – Elearning Expert, France
  • Bernhard Ertl – CSCL Researcher, Germany
  • Drechsler Michèle – Elearning researcher & expert, France
  • Josep M. Contijoch – Elearning Expert, Esade, Spain
  • Join the Twitter discussion and to read more about the topic have a look at these recommended readings: Owen, Grant, Sayers & Facer (2006). Social Software and Learning. URL:  http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/opening_education/Social_Software_report.pdf

    Lambropoulos, N. & Romero, M. (2009). Educational Social Software for Context-Aware Learning: Collaborative Methods and Human Interaction. IGI Global. URL: http://www.igi-global.com/reference/details.asp?ID=34747

    FT MBA rank 2010 – ESADE #19 (#18 in ‘09)

    January 25, 2010 by tobias

    The Financial Times MBA rank 2010 has just been published (full rank here). ESADE’s rank is #19, one down from 2009 (#18) with a 3-year-rank of 19. The top 3 MBA school in 2010 are again London Business School, Wharton and Harvard.

    Source: FT.com

    ESADE vs. IESE vs. others – my choice

    January 24, 2010 by tobias

    According to my blog statistics the comparison and choice between ESADE and IESE has be one of the main interests of my readers. Therefore I decided to dedicate an article to my choice of ESADE over IESE.

    IESE simply was never an option to me!!! It never made it to my radar. ESADE’s reputation was being the school with great people and culture and that reputation had reached me.  Nothing alike about IESE. So i never considered IESE to be quite honest.

    I met many of the schools at the MBA fair in London in 2008 and I based my choice simply on gut-feeling at the end of the day! LBS for example had some students present and the contact with them was terrible. After seeing how they were reacting to each other, talking to applicants, it was clear that I had no interest whatsoever in applying to them!

    Another very important factor to me is the teamwork! I love teamwork and team focus and don’t like the cut-throat mentality of many other schools. When you have a school with a bell-curve grading system I assure you that you will feel enormous horizontal pressure. ESADE students are competitve but we are teams at the end of the day and not competitors. The feeling I got from IE, INSEAD and LBS namely showed me the exact opposite.

    But at the end of the day you have to make the choice that feels right. you should definitely look beyond rankings though and consider the soft factors as well. I example only applied to HKUST, RSM and ESADE because these are the ones I had the best feeling about!! it is not only about ranks for me but about whether it feels right…

    One last thing that I can recommend is that you ask to attend some of the classes when you visit the schools. And speak as intensively with students while on campus as possible!!! Keep asking and asking and asking!!! The responses and the way people respond will tell you a lot!

    Overall i can say that I am very happy, I amazed with the selection of colleagues and definitely enjoy the experience!

    I hope that helped you a little with your choice and let’s stay in touch!! Good luck with your applications!

    10th anniversary of global roaming

    January 23, 2010 by tobias

    Today is my 10th anniversary of having left my hometown in Germany and of roaming around the world. I left Germany on the 23rd of January 2000 to move to Australia to study at The Southport School. Since then I have lived in Australia, Singapore, China, India, France, Spain and Germany. I had spent 1.5years in Germany in this time however life 1/4 of that time in Paris. What a great experience it has been. So what will the next decade bring?

    ESADE Winter Career Week (22.01.-26.01.10)

    January 22, 2010 by tobias

    Today the ESADE Winter Career Week begins and will take place as well on Monday (25.01.10) and Tuesday (26.01.10) on the ESADE Campus Building 3. This will be great recruiment opportunity for all MBA students graduating in March 2010 and the first year students looking for summer internships.

    There is a great line-up of companies presenting on campus as well as video presentations and workshops. Today the Career Week was kicked off by LVMH followed by PepsiCo LatAm this afternoon. Other companies coming are the following:

    • ALFA CONSULTING
    • ALTAIR MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
    • AXIS CORPORATE S.L.
    • CENTRE DE RECHERCHE PUBLIC HENRI TUDOR – TECHNOPORT
    • COCA – COLA FEMSA
    • DISNEYLAND PARIS (Business Case)
    • DISNEYLAND PARIS (Presentation)
    • DSM
    • EVERIS
    • GE LATAM
    • INFOSYS
    • JOHNSON & JOHNSON
    • LOEWE
    • L’ORÉAL ESPAÑA S.A.
    • LUXOTTICA
    • LVMH
    • NESTLÉ
    • PEPSICO LATAM
    • ROCHE FARMA SPAIN
    • SK GROUP
    • TECH DATA ESPAÑA SLU
    • TECHNOPAK
    • TRADEBE
    • WERFEN GROUP
    • WILLIAM J. CLINTON FOUNDATION
    • WIPRO
    • ZURICH FINANCIAL SERVICES

    This is a great line up offered to us with plenty of networking chances so we have to take advantage of it. I wish everybody a successful recruiment process!!!

    ESADE donates €60,000 for Haiti

    January 20, 2010 by tobias

    Besides the student initiatives, it seems that the top management of ESADE has reacted to the earthquake tragedy in Haiti. They have just transfered €60,000 to four NGOs (ICRC, doctors without borders, Intermon and Caritas) to support their help and relief efforts! Congratulations and hopefully Haiti will get all the help they need, guidance and quick recovery!

    My ESADE MBA Admission Interview

    January 18, 2010 by tobias

    Many people have contacted me regarding the Admissions process and my interview. Therefore I decided that it would be easier to just post the information to everybody.

    My interview was conducted during the Open Day on the ESADE Campus on January 31st, 2009. After a general roundtable discussion with Mary Granger and around 5-6 other candidates I was fetched by my interviewer Xenia Jarque shortly after.

    At first I had to work on a case study about Starbucks. The founder was made CEO again and was coming to Europe. I had to recommend him what to do with Starbucks in Europe to improve the operations and increase the turnover. I had to draw a Powerpoint Presentation on a piece of paper on what I would recommend him.

    The case study was followed by the interview about my resume and in particular my application essays. We had a discussion about post-MBA plans, asperations, motivations, etc. Then we discussed some scenarios and I was asked how I would react:

    • What will I bring to ESADE?
    • How I would behave in a team when they are cultural differences among two team members?
    • If my team member is not working to his potential, what would I do?
    • What would I do if I observed another guest at a conference taking my bag and walking away with it?
    • Which all other institutes I have applied for and why?

    Considering that my interview was almost a year ago the questions might not be the exact questions but that is what I remember. Your questions would most likely be similar but probably not the same and therefore  should only serve as a guideline. I hope that this helps you a little in your preparation and best of luck with your applications.