Considering that ESADE has a strong focus on entrepreneurship then this might interest you. Financing for start-ups is always a very important factor that every entrepreneur needs to consider. There are many types of financing and one of these are external investors buying shares in your start-up.
Valuations are particularly difficult for start-ups as forecasts and cashflows are difficult to predict. In addition the investments can potentiallly dilute the founder’s shares and share values. In order to avoid a share dilution it is important to consider a protection against dilution. Anti-Dilution clauses are useful however knowing how each investment will impact your equity is even more important. Check out this Anti-Dilution calculator as proposed by the incubator “hackfwd“ here. This calculator does all the maths for you.
When students pick undergraduate schools, they often look at rankings to determine which school has the best faculty-to-student ratio, the nicest dorms, the most state-of-the-art libraries and recreational centers, and the prettiest campuses. And while these rankings are important, valuable tools for comparing schools, MBA rankings are even more closely examined. Business publications like the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, FT.com, and BusinessWeek release regular MBA rankings, and they all differ. Some of these publications even create different lists based on different qualifications like American schools vs. international programs; readers’ choice; school size; and more. So how are prospective MBA students supposed to interpret these lists? Below is an outline to help you understand what MBA rankings are based on and what they mean.
Each publication or institution that releases a list of MBA rankings uses different qualifications to determine their top picks. Before scanning lists, review the methodology used, so that you have a better idea of what the rankings mean. The Economist, for instance, explains their methodology here as being based on the MBA market at the time the list was prepared. They asked schools with full-time MBA programs only from around the world to participate in a survey, and then selected the top 100 from their choices. So, if you want to attend a school that only offers part-time MBA programs and do not see its name on an MBA rankings list, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the program is considered poor: it just wasn’t qualified for that particular list.
In most MBA rankings, many aspects of the program and school are considered, including student-to-faculty ratio, program size, financial aid and value, career services, student assessment, recruiters, number of student who found jobs soon after graduating, size and influence of alumni network, number of offered programs, average GMAT score, student diversity, campus services and facilities, and others. Publications like BusinessWeek develop different lists to help students narrow down their search and find more focused information on the schools they’re applying to. Two of these more specific lists include “ROI: Business Schools with Bang for the Buck” and “European B-Schools.”
Top-rated MBA programs and schools will have received favorable scores in most if not all of the qualifications listed above. There may be very slight differences in scores in schools, so don’t cross off a program just because it isn’t ranked in the top 10 or 20 on a single list. Compare lists, and make sure you always read the methodology and individual school report before making a decision to apply to that program or not. Campus visits, interviews with students and faculty, financial aid, and the appropriate program offerings are also very significant factors when choosing an MBA program.
By-line:
This guest post was contributed by Alvina Lopez, who writes on the topics of accredited colleges online. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez@gmail.com.
MBASA is revamping itself and there is a lot of energy it seems. I like what I am seeing. The new team has taken the leads and is really pushing forward with change. I first noticed that the communication with the students has become more professional with a new newsletter format and frequent surveys and drop-in sessions.
Then I noticed that there is an increased link between MBASA, the student body and the program mangement. MBASA is now entitled to join and participate in the monthly program management meetings and therefore is now able to contribute the student’s views and feedback and direct them directly to the program directors and the Dean. This is a great move forward from the past and it is good step forward for a closer collaboration.
Today I get an email from MBASA informing students that they would like to change the constitution with more modern and flexible statutes in order to allow for implementing changes more rapidly. This is very proactive and I am glad to see that the change process starts at the core. In addition they sent out a survey asking for the students’ opinion on the proposed changes and this leads me to my next point.
MBASA revamped its website. The survey was conducted on their website, which I didn’t know was relaunched recently. Great way of promoting the new website that hopefully will become the center of information. What I like is that there you can also find there the archived newsletters that I mentioned earlier. The clubs are also now being migrated to the same MBASA address so the online representation of the clubs becomes more uniform.
In addition on the right you will find a calendar for all the MBASA and student related events. This is a long awaited move and I am glad to see that it is finally online. Now we just need the calendar link so that we can import it into our calendars and that it becomes automatically updated on our computers as well.
The next thing that I suggest you start a little online shop for MBASA and ESADE merchandise so that we can buy the products all year around. I truly like the ESADE merchandise and I hope that we get to see more ESADE t-shirts, hoodies, caps, etc. on campus. You might want to use the Abacus technology of the current ESADE shop website.
Good job MBASA and keep it up. I like what I am seeing!!!!
ESADE has always been promoting feedback and now opened up a forum for better idea exchanging among students, alumni and staff called “Moving ESADE“. The discussions so far have been mainly focused on Scholarships (Youtube video)and Research(Youtube Video) however this is only the beginning. For those of you wanting to move ESADE to becoming one of the best schools in the world, join the discussions. Now it is your time to speak up and to be constructive!
I suggest that you join the Moving ESADE discussion on Nexus (besides Facebook and Linkedin) because it provides the best platform for a discussion. In fact I disapprove of this discussion being held on Facebook or LinkedIn because outsiders also could get potential access.
One last note: I really hope that this is not only a discussion because promoting a discussion and asking for feedback is easy. Implementing change is the difficult part! As we have learned: When you ask for feedback you raise expectations…
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).
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 Nexusfor 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
The Microsoft campaign “The ultimate steal” or “Da el golpe” is available for ESADE students. Under this student special offer, ESADE students can buy Microsoft Office 2007 for only €52. To get your own copy of Office 2007 click here to download. This “Ultimate” version includes Access, Excel, InfoPath, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, Groove and Outlook.
As of now the Office 2007 version is in Spanish however you can buy the language pack for €12 that converts Office in any language you want pretty much. I am still waiting for the feedback from Microsoft whether I can get an English version despite being a student in Spain. I keep you posted!
With the ever-growing needs for a better IT infrastructure, ESADE figured it is time to use the Christmas holidays to work on the IT. This is great news as it seems that our IT improvement roundtable in November is bearing fruits.
In the month of November the staff members who are related to the IT as well as 8students (4 with IT background and 4 without) sat together and held an IT improvement workshop. We raised all the pressing issues, prioritised them and started working on them.
Throughout the month of December on of the most pressing issues of wifi signal strength have already been attacked and new, stronger wifi routers have been set-up all over the campus. Hopefully this will have effect as of next January, as there was no noticeable improvement as of December 16th, the last time I was on campus.
In addition the printing services have been upgraded. Now the student ID, which can be topped-up with money, replaces the printing cards and simultaneously makes the log-in process to the print jobs more efficient. (Insider information: soon there will be a major push for using the student ID for paying in the canteens instead of using cash. That makes the serving a lot faster and therefore everbody should have the caffein level boosted much faster in the morning. There will also be top-up facilities outside the canteens, as I have heard from reliable sources ;)
The internal social network NEXUS has been launched in the recent days, which also indicates new ways of communication and networking among the students, professors and alumni. This is a great move and hopefully the communication becomes easier and does not need to be hosted on external networking services such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Tip: Nexus could also become a better meeting place for ESADE candidates, newly-recruits and applicants with current students.
Apparently there is major work being undertaken on the Intranet, as the new Intranet “Moodle” is undergoing maintenance as I write. Hopefully the ergonomy of the Intranet improves and the Moodle replaces the old Intranet in total.
As I am part of the think-tank I can assure you that there are many more issues being improved on and that ESADE is working hard on making student life easier from an IT point.
Insider information: there is a good chance that the ESADE application process will improve and that soon there will be an online submission facility of the recommendation letters. This would make the applications a lot easier. It seems that the ESADE is one of the last MBA schools that still has the paper-based only system but that hopefully should change in the coming months.
[Original message and event organised by ESADE Alumni]
October 1st – 19:00 hrs ESADEFORUM
Building 1 – Av. Pedralbes, 60-62
Sign-up: www.esadealumni.net
“Those who Remain” is a film about the families of those who have crossed the border to the United States in search of better opportunities. A film that explores the melancholy, memories and identity of those who remain, who continue to wait, to love and to dream. A film about absence, about the families whose lives are defined by the voids emigration has created.
Every time you go abroad or move away you are faced with the issue of deciding what to bring. With this post I am trying to clarify some of your questions:
- ESADE provides you with a welcome package that includes all the books that are required by the syllabus. For additional readings you have the library in Building 2, which is 5mins walk from building 3.
- Calculator: ESADE will provide you with a financial calculator (we got the HP 10bll Financial Calculator) so you don’t need to get a new one on your own.
- Filing and Organisation! You will be flooded by paper because each professor hands out tons of documents: case studies, syllabus, additional readings, powerpoint slides. Make sure that you have/get/bring a BIG holepuncher (> 20-30 pages) because the stacks are big and it is very painful when you have no holepuncher or one that is too small.
- There is no stationary shop on campus so be organised and bring/buy notepads, folders, pens, etc. because you will not be able to buy anything on campus (as of today).
What else could be interesting for you to know? Let me know if you have any further questions about what to bring.
