Archive for November, 2009

Start-up Weekend in BCN: iWeekend (20.-22.11.09)

November 9, 2009

The worldwide phenomena of start-up weekends has reached Barcelona. iWeekend is taking place in Barcelona on the weekend of the 20th until the 22nd of November 2009. This event was mentioned in the entrepreneurship aggregator I posted a few days ago but I would like to emphasize this particular event a little further:

Start-up weekends are events for entrepreneurs, who meet over an entire weekend, with the goal to have developed a business concept by the end of the weekend. This is similar to an un-conference or user generated conference that leverages the drive, motivation and creativity of the users. On Sunday night hopefully the result is a start-up with like-minded people.

This is definitely worthwhile experiencing and you should check it out here! Happy creations!

Source: iWeekend.org

My ESADE MBA: Statistics and insights

November 7, 2009

——————————————————————————————————————————

Update: This article made it to the 6th most-read article in a few hours and today the blog has received the largest amount of visitors in one day, exceeding the record by 22% reation!

——————————————————————————————————————————–

After having written 99 articles and having had 4000 visitors (October 1050 alone) since March 2009 I was thinking that it might interest you to find out some statistics about the blog.  The following are the 10 most read articles of my blog, which should give you an idea of the topics people are most interested in:

  1. About My ESADE MBA
  2. The Economist – FT MBA Ranking 2009
  3. Good luck for the first exam!
  4. Barcelona – Insider Tips
  5. My ESADE MBA: Statistics and insights
  6. Accomodation – ESADE Entrepreneurship
  7. Recommended Pre-MBA Readings
  8. MBA Career Portals
  9. Subjects & Seminars
  10. Pre-MBAT Soccer Match: ESADE vs. IESE

The following are the 10 most searched terms on the My ESADE MBA search engine:

  1. entrepreneur
  2. esade mba
  3. esade
  4. esade mba blog
  5. esade blog
  6. esade entrepreneurship club
  7. esade student blog
  8. my esade mba
  9. esade good at entrepreneurship?
  10. esade marketing career

I have received an increasing amount of personal emails, questions and enquiries about ESADE, the MBA and myself. A few issues keep popping up and I wanted to share my thoughts about some of these with you:

  • Many people are enquiring about entrepreneurship and marketing, which highlights the fact that ESADE is still famous for these, which also reflected in the statistics.
  • Yes, ESADE is focusing increasingly on Finance and Consulting
  • Yes, the fact that ESADE is famous for producing entrepreneurs makes it complicated to score on the salary-related aspects of the MBA rankings because usually entrepreneurs don’t earn that much at the start-up phase.
  • Barcelona plays an important role for people chosing ESADE
  • Why did I chose ESADE over IESE, IE and LBS? I will dedicate an article about this soon. Bear with me
  • What is the quality of the teaching, professors and course material?
  • Who is writing this blog, why and whether I have a link to ESADE? I would like to refer to the page About MYESADEMBA and reinforce that I have NOT received a scholarship from ESADE for writing this blog and I am free what I post here. To(un)bias-ed ;)

I wanted to thank you all for your support, comments and readership! I  hope that I keep helping you in answering some of the questions that you have been asking yourself about ESADE and the MBA. Please don’t hesitate to spread the word about the blog and happy reading :)

To: Dear motorbike-riders of ESADE

November 6, 2009

I would like to post this article again because now there are even more unexperienced motorcyclists buying and driving scooters and motorbikes.  There is a hardly a more liberating feeling than cruising around on two wheels and it is definitely a passion of mine, although I don’t currently ride a motorbike here (yet). However not many are very familiar with riding motorbikes and think that it is as easy as riding a bike, which definitely is NOT true.

I peronally have reasonable experience in riding motorbikes and therefore I would like to just quick remind you of the key issues when riding a motorbike, which the majority of students and friends are disregarding as I can see everyday:

  1. When you drive fast and then fall the first thing that touches ground is your chin!!!! Open-face helmets, like the MOMO-Design helmets, might look cool but losing the face from the nose downwards and scraping off the bottom jaw is not cool. I got to see accident photos of that and it is awful to be disfigured for the rest of your life because you wanted to look cool. Buy a helmet with chin protection!
  2. When you are “lucky” the second body part that touches the ground are your hands! One of our classmates learnt about this the hard way! Wear leather gloves, ALWAYS!
  3. The third body part touching ground usually are your feet and you will be amazed how easily those toes are ripped off! Wear proper shoes!
  4. The most difficult driving is driving in walking pace and not full speed. Practice it!
  5. Secondly knowing how to breaking is key! It requires a lot of training for the wheels not to lock up.
  6. Keep the front tyre straight when breaking because the main braking force is on the front tyre. When you front wheel is not straight it will twist and when it twists it will bring you to a “grinding” stillstand, on the ground!!
  7. On the road the positioning in the lane is very important and make sure that you always drive in either tyre track and not in the middle. The middle collects dust and dirt. Secondly you have to defend your lane in order not being pushed off your lane by cars. When you are not determined you can easily follow steps 2 – 6 if you are not careful.
  8. Never break on road markings because they are extremely slippery otherwise you will follow steps 2 – 6 if you are not careful.
  9. I have noticed an increasing amount of seats being cut open, bikes stolen and bikes being pushed over. Park at a place where not a lot of people are walking past but at the same time it is still in the light so not hidden somewhere. LOCK IT!

Enjoy Barcelona on a two-wheeler but don’t be stupid and dress properly! You wonder what this has to do with a MBA? How do you think most people drive to the school?!?! Drive carefully!!!

Entrepreneurship Events in Barcelona (Nov’09)

November 5, 2009

The Barcelona Entrepreneurship City has launched its Entrepreneurial Event Aggregator. The following are the upcoming events for the entrepreneur scene of Barcelona in November 2009. See you there?

Host: Global Entrepreneurship Week
Topic: Entrepreneurship for everybody
Date: 16th-20th of November,
Location: Everywhere in Barcelona
More information here

Host: Gran Foc – The Founders Lounge
Topic: “Boost your business with Twitter”: learn how to get the most out of Twitter with tips on personal branding, value-based relationships, increasing your audience and important do’s and dont’s. Join the microblogging age with trainer & media specialist Tom Hayton.
Date: 17th of November, 20:00h
Location: Gran Foc, Roger de Lluria 28

Host: Barcelona Activa
Topic: Barcelona Networking Day: Una jornada de networking con todas las plataformas y redes que forman el espíritu emprendedor y de innovación de la ciudad Barcelona.
18’00-18’30 : Acreditaciones y registro.
18:30-19:00: Presentación del Networking Bazaar por parte de todas las redes.
19’00-20:30: Sesión plenaria con André Vanyi-Robin, fundador de Bestv, Adecq Digital, Conseguir financiación: Luis Martin Cabiedes, principal business angel de internet en España y otros ponentes a confirmar
20:30-21’30: Dinàmica de Networking multisectorial entre las distintas comunidades de emprendedores.
Date: 18th of November, 18:30 – 21:30h
Location: CCIB, Rambla Prim, 1-17 Barcelona 08019
Confirmation: here

Host: Bioagora
Topic: Un espacio de encuentro entre inversores y científicos-emprendedores
Date: 19th of November, 10:00h
Location: Hotel Hespera Tower, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Confirmation: http://www.bioagora.cat/

Host: iWeekend
Topic: Weekend es una experiencia pionera en España que reúne a profesionales y emprendedores con talentos diversos para seleccionar una idea, desarrollar un producto y lanzar una startup de base tecnológica ¡en sólo un fin de semana!
Date: 20th – 22nd of November
Location: TBC
Confirmation: here

The Facebook Group of the Barcelona Entrepreneurship City Meta Community has more information. Check it out and join here.

Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition

November 4, 2009

The ESADE NetImpact Club has brought the following event to my attention. The University of Washington is organising a competition called the “Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition“. This competition tries to accumulate business ideas how to”alleviate a problem(s) of poverty in developing economies around the world.* To read more about this interesting Business Plan Competition read the instructions hereto below.

Source: University of Washington

GSEC Entry and Competition Criteria

GSEC business plans must clearly demonstrate the financial Return on Investment (ROI) and the Social Return on Investment (SROI), in addition to the social impact of the business idea.  Please refer to the GSEC Submission Requirements and Resources for application and business plan criteria.

GSEC plans are judged on three criteria: (1) effect on the quality of life and poverty alleviation in the developing economies; (2) financial sustainability; (3) feasibility of implementation.  To learn what former GSEC participants have proposed, visit the GSEC business plans section.

GSEC is open to students from any academic institution worldwide. Teams may be comprised of students from difference disciplines and institutions, and multi-disciplinary teams are highly encouraged. Both graduate and undergraduate students are eligible.  Looking for team members? Become a fan of GSEC on Facebook and post on the Discussions page to recruit a team or team members.

Review the GSEC rules for full eligibility details.

How to Apply
GSEC applications will be accepted August 03-Novemeber 11, 2009.  Before applying, please review the GSEC rules and GSEC Submission Requirements.

To apply, GSEC student teams must complete both of the following by 11/11/09:

1)    Submit an executive summary of your team’s business plan via email to gsec@u.washington.edu.  Executive summaries must adhere to the GSEC executive summary requirements, detailed in the GSEC Submission Requirements.

2)    Complete the online application, available here.

Both the executive summary and the online registration must be received by November 11, 2009, 11:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time.  Only one application per team.

To read more visit their website here.

Newsletter – Emerging Markets #3

November 3, 2009

Emerging Markets

EM new opportunities for Mobile Phone Operator – Mobile Phone Operators see a great growth opportunities with the large amount of SME emerging and growing in the Emerging markets. Reuters

HSBC is looking at the EM – HSBC is on the look out for M&A’s in EM and is particularly interested in China – WSJ, Reuters

Pension Funds are heading to the EM – Fund managers are looking at increasing the amount of pensions funds investmented in EM. Pionline

Latin America

Banco do Brasil wants US$5.7bn US share sale – SAO PAULO, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Banco do Brasil (BBAS3.SA), Brazil’s biggest bank, wants to fetch up to 10 billion reais ($5.7 billion) in a share offering in the United States to replenish its capital base, newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Reuters

Honduran coup leaders agree to restore ousted president to power -  The de facto government announces that it will sign accord reinstating Manuel Zelaya. The Guardian

AEI Pulls Offering Amid Record Low Returns for IPOs – Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — The market for initial public offerings, hurt by the worst returns in at least 14 years, suffered another setback after AEI pulled its sale. Bloomberg & Reuters

EMERGING MARKETS – LatAm stocks tumble, worst day in 8 months – NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Investors pulled back from riskier markets again on Wednesday after weak U.S. housing data upset economic recovery hopes and slammed Latin American stocks for their worst one-day fall in nearly 8 months. Reuters & Bloomberg

Forget China, Brazil’s a cheaper investment – The bustling economy survived the global slump in style, and many of its stocks are still reasonably valued. CNN Money

Asia Pacific/Pacific

Pakistan’s National Bank Net Declines on Provisions – National Bank of Pakistan, the nation’s biggest lender by assets, said third-quarter profit declined 18 percent after it set aside additional funds to cover bad debts and received lower dividend income. Bloomberg

China’s Sinopec posts 25% drop in 3Q net income – Sinopec Profit May Fall as Fuel Prices Lag Behind Oil. Bloomberg, China Economic Review

China sovereign fund buys 45% stake in Russian oil company – China Investment Corporation (CIC), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, announced Friday that it had closed the first phase settlement for the purchase of a 45 percent stake in Nobel Oil Group. People.com.cn

China’s economic policies, RMB exchange rate to remain stable – China is to maintain basic stability and continuity in the economic policies and RMB exchange rate to ensure a foreseeable prospect for its businesses. Xinhuanet

India is wondering what to do with all the capital
– India is facing an unprecedented inflow of foreign capital into the market and now needs to find new ways to cope with that challenge and opportunity.  Seeking Alpha

SE Asia Stocks-Markets subdued, Thailand leads falls. Reuters

Africa

China’s direct investment in Africa, excluding in the financial sector, shot up 78.6% – Mbendi, People.com.cn

IMF forecasts Kenya’s economy to grow by 2.7% in 2009 – A statement issued in Nairobi following the conclusion of a two-week visit to the East African nation said the economic performance is expected to improve gradually.Xinhuanet

Uganda’s Inflation Slowed to 13.3% in October – Uganda’s annual inflation rate declined to 13.3 percent in October after the prices of some foods fell, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics said.Bloomberg

IMF sees 3% Zimbabwe growth, warns on wages demands -Zimbabwe’s economy would grow by 3 percent this year due to improved policies said the IMF. Busrep

Sudan’s oil production has plunged to less than 500,000 barrels per day – Sudan’s oil production has plunged to less than 500,000 barrels per day in 2008/2009, said the minister of energy in an interview with Reuters on Oct. 25. Sudantribune

ArcelorMittal South Africa has posted a headline loss of R65 million – The third quarter loss represents a substantial improvement on the R607 million loss of the previous quarter. Mbendi

SA Rand Pares Loss After Steepest Intraday Decline in One Year – The rand posted its biggest intraday decline against the dollar in more than a year as the Tokyo Financial Exchange Inc. quoted a price on its Web site that was 35 percent below the rest of the market. Bloomberg, Update by Busrep

South Africa’s unemployment rate increased by 0.9% to 24.9% Mbendi

Middle-East

Mizuho Said to Form Investment Bank in Saudi Arabia – Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan’s third-largest bank by market value, received a license to start offering investment-banking services in Saudi Arabia. Bloomberg

Dubai’s Drake & Scull Q3 net profit $19 mln - Dubai-based contractor Drake & Scull International DSI.DU recorded a third-quarter net profit of 71 million dirhams ($19.33 million) on Monday and said it continued to review expansion opportunities in the region. Reuters

Most clicked articles last week:

Asian leaders seek to reduce Western trade ties Reuters

No Asia without us, India reminds Asean, Japan Hindu

East Asia Needs New Economic Model, Says Najib Bernama

This newsletter was sent by the ESADE Emerging Market Club. If you wish to unsubscribe please reply to this email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject. To subscribe please email to ESADE Emerging Market Club and write “subscribe” in the subject.

The (second) best job in the world – Worldwide Shopping

November 3, 2009

The recently re-launched online price comparison shopping portal LetsBuyIt.com just posted a job for the “second best job in the world” (view site here). You can get the job as the jetsetting “Shopping Consultant”: fly around the world, shop in the best shopping cities of the world, have a spending budget of €10.000, sleep in 5-star hotels of the Accor Group and fly in Business Class. That does sound pretty good.

What do you have to do for that?

Apply and then blog and report about your experience. You are then the official Shopping Consultant of LetsBuyIt.com

To view the entire job description and add click here

LetsBuyIt.com - The (second) best job in the world

Source: LetsBuyIt.com

Salon del Manga

November 1, 2009

The 15th Salon del Manga is happening this weekend at L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. The event started on October 29 until today. If you are a Manga fan you should definitely check it out because the number of exhibitors is large and many people dress up as well.

It is particularly interesting for those that the went to the Halloween party last night and who don’t want to have to do much today ;) To find out more click here.

Source: Ficomic


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.