newsleter msc management consulting november 2012
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Newsleter MSc Management Consulting November 2012TRANSCRIPT
First things first: All of our warm congratulations to all MSc in MC students who have now finished their theses and are on their way to graduation. Many of you wrote your theses in very tough condi-tions, working autonomously on weekends and nights after grueling work days to get it done. We are very happy to know that all of the work is about to pay off.
I’ll take this time to now wish all of the MSc in MC2 students our best as they intensify their work on the thesis projects in more detail, as they, too, juggle working with writing. We will give you some time to settle into your writing process and work for those who have found a job, and then the next news-letter will focus more on you and your whereabouts.
We’ve gotten our third edition of the program off to a great start with a talented batch of international consultants to keep up the tradition (bright, driven, dynamic, focused, hardworking…). Rahma DIA has been efficiently working with us as our program coordinator during Marjolaine’s maternity leave. Marjolaine gave birth to beautifull Anaïs last spring and has been enjoying all of the pleasures of moth-erhood.
From the live case front, we’re doing a third live case on innovation with Cap Gemini (thanks to the stewardship of Professor Federico Pigni, Information Tech. course), another one for Vinci Codex under Caroline Coulombe (Ethics & CSR) and more coming up in both the Energy efficiency sector as well as Semiconductors.
We have a program ambassador this year, Mark Chanel, following in the footsteps of Nabanita Choudhury (MC2) and Lali Gigashvili (MC1) whose role, predominantly through social media platforms, is to champion our program, to connect with our alumni, and promote networking across the entire alumni-student group to keep you all linked. To do that we will be sending you information on our blog (http://gemconsulting.wordpress.com/) and ask you to contribute with comments on our posts and other insights you may have on Management Consulting. Below is an introduction to Mark (a.k.a. Darth ‘Blogger’ or Obi BLOG Kenobi).
Please note to mark your calendars for Graduation and Gala on March 16th 2013. We really do hope that all of you graduating from the MC 1 cohort will be here to receive your diploma in person onstage and to partake in the Gala festivities. More details will follow but save the date now!
There are plans currently underway to open our Msc in MC program in London at our LSBF campus for Fall 2013. We’ll keep you posted on that.
Finally, remember that we are part of the same family now and want to remain in touch, so do not hesi-tate to drop a line from time to time. Things around here in GGSB never slow down as you already know, but we want to be in touch with you as you progress in your lives…and careers.
Best to all, Michelle
Message from the Program Director
CONTENTS :
A word from Mi-
chelle
The New Ambassa-
dor in Town
Where’s my Alumni
In Brief
New Intake News
N ° 1 , F A L L 2 0 1 2
12 rue Pierre Sémard
BP 127
38003 Grenoble Cedex 07
Tel : (33) 4 76 70 60 60
Fax : (33) 4 76 70 60 99
GGSB MSc in Management Consulting
NewsletterNewsletterNewsletter Covering the whereabouts of our inteCovering the whereabouts of our inteCovering the whereabouts of our international alumni and studentsrnational alumni and studentsrnational alumni and students
P A G E 2
G G S B M S C I N M A N A G E M E N T
Meet the Ambassador 2012-13:
Mark Chanel, MSc MC3
Mark Chanel is from the United States and is a seasoned profes-sional with more than 14 years of experience leading Finance and Operational Improvements pri-marily in the Health and Chemical industries. Most recently Mark worked for three years as the Director of Finance and Admin-istration for a Healthcare compa-ny with 40 employees. He led the Finance, Human Resources, and Information Technology depart-ments, and was able to improve
Gross Margin by 8.7% by redesign-ing purchasing practices.
We are pleased to have Mark on board as our program ambassador this year and hope that you will feel free to contact him if you have any ideas about keeping in touch and getting together. We’d like to organize an MSc MC party around Graduation weekend in March … and perhaps organize a weekend in a city where alumni are working. Share your ideas
with Mark and the rest of us on how to get the word out about our school, program, and quality of our grads. [email protected]
Jobs in Management Consulting are current-ly on the rise : this year is seeing a shift in the professional services sector requiring more complex, interactive, human-centered skills along with heightened analytical capabilities accompanying the rise of big data. Innovation has hit the consultan-cies now and internal directives are looking inwards as to how to foster creativity at every level while focusing on lean approaches to ser-vices.
S$17.1 billion in FY 2012. Headquar-tered in Singapore and listed on the SGX-ST in 2005, Olam currently ranks among the top 40 largest listed companies in Singapore in terms of market capitalisation and is a component stock in the Straits Times Index (STI), MSCI Singapore Free, S&P Agribusiness Index and the DAXglobal Agribusiness Index. (Excerpt from http://olamonline.com/
Contact: lim khong siong [email protected]
has recently changed jobs, leaving his post as Head of the Price Discovery Unit in MARDEC in very good conditions. MARDEC recorded the highest profits of its 35-year history since his unit took over from the previous marketing arm. Ben is currently working with Olam In-ternational Limited in Singapore as Asso-ciate General Manager, together with his new team to set up a rubber trading desk. His team brings 50 years combined of trading experience and expertise in rubber to this new venture.
Olam: Olam International is a leading global integrated supply chain manager and processor of agricultural products and food ingredients, supplying various products across 16 platforms in 65 coun-tries. The company handled 10.7 million tonnes of products for a sales revenue of
Benjamin (Ben) LIM on a recent business trip to Bali
Alumni Focus: MSc in MC 1
Benjamin LIM (MC 1, Malaysia)
Jiazhen Michelle GUO (MC 1, China)
Michelle is currently working as a financial analyst with Delphi China in Shanghai where she appreciates the sincere and fair corporate culture.
Her job requires some consulting skills such as analytical skills, active listening, and frequently communicating with Delphi’s global team. Thanks to the study and suc-cessful internship in France, Michelle feels able to effec-tively work in an international environment.
About Delphi: Delphi is a leading global supplier of electronics and tech-nologies for automotive, commercial vehicle and other market segments. Operating major technical centers, manufacturing sites and customer sup-port facilities in 30 countries, Delphi delivers innovations that make prod-ucts smarter and safer as well as more powerful and efficient. Connect to innovation at www.delphi.com.
Contact: [email protected]
P A G E 3
Andrea Becke (MC 1, Germany)
Joy MATWALE
(MC1, Kenya)
Joy is currently working on a public sector project for KPMG Kenya – Naïrobi and is cur-rently reviewing one of the Reform Institution’s Strategy Implementa-tion. There are many different inter-ests at play in the job and it is very interesting to try to sass these out, as well as making sure that as a team everyone is in agreement on what needs to be done for the client in order to provide useful insights that will feed into the next period’s strat-egy.
Joy has been very happy to have landed a job in Management Con-sulting after getting back home. KPMG Kenya has just recently set up the MC department and she is privi-leged to be working with a very di-verse team. The partner is from India and her director, now closely mentoring Joy, is South African. There is also a Kenyan in the project who lived all of her life in the US and is helping set up the Healthcare line of business. So the diverse cultural and professional mix makes it a great place to work.
Since April this year Andrea has been a full-time consultant with Accenture in Zurich, working in the area of Change Management (Management Consulting sector). She is still working on her first project, where she supports or-
ganizational cultural change through targeted communication and training concepts.
In terms of advice, Andrea notes “If anyone is interested in working for one of the big con-sulting firms, it is probably best to get to know some Consultants working there. As I have experienced it is much easier to get hired by them if you know someone.” Since Andrea completed initially an internship at Accenture in Germany, and then went through the vari-ous stages of the case study interview process at Accenture, this is sage advice indeed! [email protected]
Is currently in Bogotá, Columbia. He is a partner in KBS Corp (Columbian branch) working as consulting director. KBS is an IT consulting boutique with pres-ence in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Peru and Columbia, with three Business Lines:
Enterprise Architecture: Consulting line dedicated to define IT
strategic plan, acting as the link between business strategy and Infor-mation technology where main goal is competitive advantage achievement.
Middleware: IT Consulting line dedicated to Business intelligence
tools, Business Process Management, SOA, and Cloud technologies
Applications: KBS Corp is an Oracle partner Gold certified in eBusiness suite applications implementations with Oracle Business Accelerators methodology, with expertise and tradition in Backoffice, CRM, SCM, HRMS and payroll processes.
Guillermo took a very active role in the leadership of the Cap Gemini live case as the project manager in 2010 and could be a useful advisor to current students working on a new live case for Cap Gemini (under the guidance of Federico Pigni). Guillermo notes: “I would like to keep contact with my MSC in Management Consulting colleagues, to share information and business opportunities. Please do not hesitate contact me at [email protected] [email protected]
Guillermo Bernal (MC 1, Columbia)
Joy notes “I greatly appreciated everything that I learned on the pro-gram and now that she is actually working in the industry, it is all com-ing together and making a lot of sense. [email protected]; [email protected]
of business. So the diverse cultural and professional mix makes it a great place to work.
Joy notes “I greatly appreciated everything that I learned on the pro-gram and now that she is actually working in the industry, it is all com-ing together and making a lot of sense. [email protected]; [email protected]
“If anyone is inter-
ested in working for
one of the big con-
sulting firms, it is
probably best to get
to know some Con-
sultants working
there.”
Andrea Becke
P A G E 4
G G S B M S C I N M A N A G E M E N T C O N S U L T I N G
In Brief…
LALI GIGASHVILI (MC 1; Republic of Georgia) is in charge of marketing and inter-national business development at Saint-Gobain Sully. It has been almost year and a half she lives in Orle-ans, in Loire Valley, which is full with amazing chateaus and enjoys her week-ends exploring France.
“My current job is very interesting and challenging. I work and live in a culturally new environment for me, travel within Europe for business trips, meet customers and participate in trade-shows. I facilitate cross-functional teams and develop innovative approaches for external marketing communication. Apart from marketing tasks, being fluent in Russian I support the company with business development in Eastern Eu-ropean region.” [email protected].
YARA EL CHAMAA (MC 1; Lebanon) is a very busy gal, long hours, lots of travel (the typical consultant) working with Price Waterhouse Cooper’s Dubai office on a project with the govern-ment team to develop Iraqi capabilities through executive training.. She explains that “…consultancy life is always busy and jumping from country to country. Currently I am in Jordan for a month as we are deliver-ing the courses here. I must say I never thought I will be working in education, especially adult education, but it is always good to learn something new.” Yara Chamaa [email protected].
Michael LEITNER (MC 1, Germany) is still happily living in Zurich and is still working as a Consultant for Page Personnel, a brand of the Michael PageGroup. He’s recruiting in the German and Italian speaking region of Switzerland all kind of Finance and Accounting profiles for his clients in the indus-try and consulting them on different recruitment, HR and staffing topics.
Michael tells us that “…I was promoted in August to Senior Consultant and the business is going great, lots of work and long hours. Besides that, I still love the mountains and go climbing as much as I can (though not as much as I wish to) and I am looking forward to the winter season to finally go skiing for 2 weeks. I will be coming to Grenoble next year to visit but no idea when. I am pretty settled around here and do not plan to relocate in the near future….”.
Brian BOURQUARD (MSc MC 2; USA) has moved his study plans on to a graduate pro-gram in Agricultural Economics at the prestigious Purdue University, USA, where he is the “…teaching as-sistant for the management capstone course for Purdue's undergraduate Agriculture Management pro-gram, which is very interesting. Admittedly, GEM prepared me well for this work.” Brian is concurrently writing his MSc MC thesis under the supervision of Professor Caroline Coulombe, writing about the appli-cation of Management Tools to non-profit organizations. Brian also notes that “As for Indiana, it is not nearly as exciting as Grenoble. I had a small cultural adjustment to go through here.” [email protected]
P A G E 5
Nabanita CHOUDHURY (MSc MC2; India) was recruited by Nestlé for a position in Nespres-so located in Lausanne, Switzerland. She tells us that “At Nespresso I am getting to work with big data, something that I always wanted to do. It has been hectic, but great fun. I am discovering the joys of work life balance, something that the Swiss work hard to attain. I am certainly looking forward to the skiing in December.” We hope to see you around Grenoble when you are back in the area Nabanita….to have a coffee talk with you (…what else?) [email protected]
Marjolaine’s baby
No, no, my dear film buffs, this baby is far from evil. Anaïs is a sweet little girl born on 15th June
2012. She is full of smiles and is a real bundle of sunshine.
Marjolaine is so happy with her baby girl, she extended her maternity leave to better enjoy
these first months. They do grow fast.
Welcome to Anaïs, and see you soon, Marjolaine.
Faculty Corner: Viva Italia
Michele Coletti, professor of Innovation, Strategy, and Consulting Skills among others, teaching
‘Perspectives on Clients’ Semester 1, is prepping for our visit to Italy on Nov 19-20 where we’ll discover some of APCO’s
member consulting firms. Michele tells us that …”currently I am participating in a couple of projects in Lombardy
(northern Italian region) dealing with policies for local economic development, in particular business incubation, cluster
organizations and creative industries.”
Federico Pigni, teaching ‘Information Technology’, Semester 1, is the proud father of Dario, his brand new baby boy. Congratulations are in order Federico! So although he’s not sleeping so much these days, he’s still managing to teach a busy schedule, publish on some very cutting-edge IT topics that all future consultants need to know about as they enter the era of big data, and work with our cohort to produce the best work possible for our client Cap Gemini.
Rahma Dia is holding the fort in Marjolaine’s absence.
P A G E 6
Did anyone say “teambuilding in Le Sappey with Eric
Morel?”
"The cow ate the map!" is not something you would usually hear, but in our case during the hike in Le Sappey en Charteuse, it was true. The hike-orientation course was part of an exceptional teambuilding experience led by Executive Coach, consultant, and professor Eric Morel. The MSc in Management Con-sulting students, along with the MSc in Strate-gic Marketing students rose early the morning of September 21st to catch the bus up to the village 13 kms above Grenoble at 1 000 meters altitude. We were split into groups and one team member was handed a map which was meant to navigate us to different pole loca-tions throughout the area. Each pole was equipped with a stamp which we needed to use to prove that we had indeed reached the pole. The 'navigator' was not allowed to show the map to the other group members, but was supposed to lead the group through active communication. Being part of a demographic in the current generation which is lacking in-terest in outdoor activities, we were not able to find the first couple of poles.
At that point, we met with Eric Morel, who through calm logic, illustrated to us the several reasons why we got lost. It wasn't that the group navigator was not accustomed to reading maps, but it was the lack of understanding of the strong and weak points of every member of the group that were not shared at the beginning of the hike. With the leadership of Eric Morel, we changed roles and I became navigator. At first, we were doing well until somehow we ended up hav-ing lunch with a herd of cows, who were some-what too friendly, in an area off the charted course. One cow enjoyed our cookies, while the other enjoyed eating the map. Eventually, we found our way back to original meting point. This experience showed us all the importance of ear-nest and open communication when working in a group. Focusing on each member’s strong points, being clear on our weak points, knowing when to
ask for help, and collaborating across teams to gain additional skills were just some of the lessons we learned from our approach to this activity. We learned that by taking on too much responsibility, regardless of our inten-tions, we may indeed harm the overall perfor-mance of the team. These key takeaway points are essential to any group activity that we undertake, whether it be in our profes-sional careers or in our social lives.
The most famous member of the MSc in MC 3 Teams
"The cow ate the map!"
It’s now risen to the status of a tradition.
NEWS From the Current Intake
Cows, Maps, and Collaboration
By Rami Daniel, MSc in Management Consulting 3 student from Lebanon
All smiles prior to the encounter with the
native map-eating beasts of the Chartreuse
G G S B M S C I N M A N A G E M E N T C O N S U L T I N G
Cross-Border exchange between GGSB, LIUC, APCO,
& IBM
P A G E 7
For the second consecutive year, the MSc in Management Con-sulting students are carrying out an academic and professional exchange program with 16 Busi-ness Consulting students from the LIUC-Università Carlo Cattaneo in Castellanza, Italy. The LIUC stu-dents, engineering students spe-cialized in Consulting, came to Grenoble for three days Oct 22nd to Oct 24th to complete a course on Personal and Professional De-velopment for Consultants with Professor Sharon Crost who de-vised an exciting and stimulating course designed to get everyone ready for client engagement and improve their consulting team-work and collaborative skills over-all. We are very happy to have these students here in our school for a concept introduced by the program last year--an academic exchange between a GGSB pro-gram and an external institution of higher education.
In November, our 14 Manage-ment Consulting MSc students will travel to Milano and nearby Cas-tellanza for a Learning Expedition first to Milano Nov 19th-20th to visit our partners and member consulting firms of APCO, with Professor Michele Coletti repre-senting the Italian national associ-ation of Management Consult-ants. Then, Nov 21-23rd our stu-dents will take a course on Busi-ness Process Modeling with Pro-fessor-Consultant Stefano Angri-sano of IBM Milano on the LIUC Campus in Castellanza. Stefano will introduce our students to the BlueWorks Live software pio-neered by IBM as a top modeling software used to optimize busi-ness processes in organizations.
The MSc in Management Con-sulting program is developing links with IBM in both Italy and France, and in January we’ll have the pleasure of working with Nicolas Nadal of IBM Paris who will fur-ther the Business Process exper-tise of our students by focusing in the management side of process-es in organizations, carrying out a simulation of the Innov8 Serious Game for our students and those who can attend from other pro-grams.
“We had a very interesting and productive day with Ms. Arm-strong, and the practical work with the horses. The most im-portant things I learnt that day are respect, communication, and leadership skills are crucial to build up. Those are three signifi-cant elements required in the business world for every consult-ant to acquire. Without these elements, it is almost impossible to become a successful consult-
HORSEPLAY Act III: October 11-12 2013
ant; in the current business envi-ronment, consultants come into contact with a variety of people with different backgrounds and cultures. It is imperative to have good leadership, and for one to know how to communicate effec-tively with different clients by being patient, respectful and un-derstanding”.
“During the horseplay workshop, my emotional state varied from
“For the third consecutive year, our consultants took to the stables with Nancy Armstrong who has developed this innovative approach to leadership studies thanks pioneer-ing work with the MSc in MC1 students. Our students again were in for some very useful lessons on leadership, interactions, intentionality, energy, and motivation, among many. After the episodes with map-eating cows, the group was ready for more intense contact with other fellow mammals. Or so it seems….
indifference, to con-fusion about the relevance of the workshop, to ac-ceptance, and finally to clear understand-ing of the importance of this expe-rience."
“The relationship between horse and his leader is like the relation-ship between consultant and cli-ent. In the latest theory of strate-gic leadership, a good strategist doesn't only need to express stra-tegic vision, but also need to per-suade others on board. In the management consulting field, it is vital to make your clients accept your guidance and ideas, which is like to get the horse follow your direction. Mutual respect is re-quired; also, mutual understand-ing is of significant importance for the cooperation. Through the role play game, I felt the feelings of being a horse, if I had a chance to
Thanks to all for your contributions! See you next time…..
Make sure to send your updates and news for the Spring 2013 edition to Michelle and Rahma
Hope to see you all soon;
Michelle, Rahma, and the GGSB team
Until Next Time...
run, I’d never hesitate, which is probably the nature of a horse.
I learnt a lot from the one-day activity, some feelings can't be expressed through words…”
“The points I have learnt during the horseplay are:
Clear communication
Body language
Trust / believe in your team
Accepting difficulties as challenges
Leading by example
Adjusting leadership style when necessary
As a conclusion I can say that the horseplay day not only is a fun day, with the right attitude and motivation we can take much more out of it and profit in terms of leadership skills as well as personal development. A side effect of spending the day in such a small group was teambuilding as we got to know us a bit better. Thank you very much for this wonderful day in the countryside! I learned a lot!”
Last but not least,
CONGRATULATIONS to our very first
MSc in Management Consulting Graduates