Welcome to ESADE Business School. I’m Diana Jordan with MBA Podcaster and this is a Day in the Life at ESADE in Barcelona Spain situated on the Mediterranean. ESADE Business School’s innovative full-time MBA gives students the flexibility to customize their MBA experience in 12, 15, or 18 months depending on their professional objectives as we will examine further into this show. ESADE prides itself in flexibility, team work and on its diversity. Approximately 180 students from over 40 countries for graduating class attend. We will shadow three students: one American, one Dane and one Englishman.

The first David Wright works for Morgan Stanley in New York and he’s married, the father of three children and he’s three months into his 18 month MBA program, “One of the things that I liked about ESADE is you are dealing with people from a broad range of backgrounds. For me industry doesn’t just mean industry, a guy working in Nike is different from a person who is working in a factory or working in the oil industry and we get that full range. So not only do we get a full range of experience and backgrounds but it just amazed me the full range of cultural backgrounds as well.”

Tilde Frostholm is single and 33 years old half way through her one year MBA. She works at a technical company in Denmark. “I really like the idea of being a person which you are at ESADE it’s a small school and you are not a number. And the focus that ESADE has on building people and not building management machines I really like.”

Edward Armitage is a 29 year old entrepreneur, married with a young daughter. He is in the second year of an 18 month full-time MBA at ESADE. “I saw it as an opportunity for two things, either to launch a more corporate career or as to find a place of likeminded people inside of the business. And so I choose ESADE because its entrepreneurial reputation and because of the location and because of the student profile.”

When we meet David Wright it is quiet in the halls of ESADE. It is somewhat early and most students are getting their morning coffee. We will, later. David’s MBA is being sponsored by Morgan Stanley where he has worked for five years. Can you tell us a little bit about the nuts and bolts of what you do at work and how you’re hoping to expand it? “Sure, I work in foreign exchange sales so it’s in the institute securities group within Morgan Stanley so I talk to our very large institutional clients. I talk to them specifically about electronic trading so that’s the business that we have kind of built within Morgan Stanley. For me at this point, I have lots of opportunities, I work closely with our equity people, I work with our investment banking people recently but I don’t feel like I fully understand what the different areas do and while I could take time away at Morgan Stanley to go sit in those other desks I think a MBA just gives you much faster, broader view of what the various areas of the bank are doing. In particular the investment banking side.”

David you’re three months in now. Is ESADE what you expected? “I think as far as the courses are concerned it was pretty close to what I expected. One of the things I like about ESADE is you’re dealing with people from a broad range of backgrounds. For me industry doesn’t just mean industry, a guy working in Nike is very different from a people who is working in a factory or working in the oil industry and we get that full range. So not only do we get a full range of experience and backgrounds but it just amazed me the full range of cultural backgrounds as well at ESADE. So as a result our groups that we put together are a full range as well.”

It looks like the classes are very long. Are they hard as well? “Yeah we do a lot of four hour courses throughout the week. While intense, I think the nice thing is they naturally split up so you spend 2 hours, go take a break for 20 minutes, 30 minutes but then you kind of do something else in the afternoons. So I think they managed to make the four hour thing work well.”

It’s almost time for David’s marketing class but first we head to the cafeteria to get coffee. “We all know each other and we all have report. We split into two sections so for the first year you split into English or Spanish section. So what we’ll be looking at today obviously is the English section.” So coffee is definitely part of this regime, yeah? “Unfortunately my coffee intake is back to the levels of University. I have early morning and afternoon; I’m back in the coffee business. And right now marketing is about four different sections so we’ll be in a section of about 21 or 22 people and each of us are going to present where we are at on the back of our surveys that we’ve been doing in our market research.”

“It’s time to talk about our findings.” “So what I’m going to is I will cover the interview, what we found out from the interviews, Howell went through some of the methodology already, what I’m going to cover is which you heard. What I found was most interesting was I think when we think of marketing in general we focus on what does the person themselves want to buy. When you buy it as a gift you got it completely turned around, it’s actually the person trying to predict what the person they are buying it for actually wants. I’m not sure what we can really do with that but I think it’s an interesting point and it adds a little bit of complexity.”

“Many of the completions reached through the research will be very useful for distribution. It is something you will have to consider in other assignments.”

“My name is Nuria Guilera. I’m the Marketing Director for the MBA program and I’m also a tutor in the marketing class for the full-time MBA.” What is the take away from today? “We were not so much concerned about the results that they got because we know that the sample was not right. You need to invest a lot of money to conduct real market research. So the basic take away was these are the steps that you have to follow to conduct good market research and by doing the small market research you can realize of the problem that you might have when you conduct large market research.”

Nuria what is the impact of the diversity of these students on marketing? “In this class we’ve seen that there is a big variety of cultural backgrounds, of academic backgrounds, professional backgrounds and I think that is it very enriching, I mean I myself find it very interesting to be in this class because I learn about how culture affects each of the products that we’ve seen and we just have seen five products. I guess that it affects everything so this multi-culturality that everybody’s speaking of we can see actually going on in the class. So I think it’s a good take away for all of the students.”

When you look at the overall MBA program where does the marketing piece fit in? How important is it? “Well marketing is a big part of the program. Every business is sustained by three main pillars which is finance, marketing and business strategy. For me the marketing course and that they have the understanding of why oil companies have to be consumer focused and have to be constantly looking at the market is very important even if they want to go and work in banking or consultancy these focus to the customer it’s essential.”

It is time for lunch with a table full of David’s friends. We’re in the cafeteria now at ESADE. “My name is Adesope one of my dreams is to obtain a MBA.” And you’re from? “I’m from Nigeria.” And what drew you here? “What drew me here? The weather for one and the campus, a top MBA in Europe.” “My name is Vanilynne Gulla and I’m from the United States and I decided to come here to pursue a MBA in Spain because I would like to go into global marketing post-MBA and I figured what better way to get an international education than in an international setting.” “My name is Max Cromwell. I’m from Sweden. I did my undergrad in the US but then I wanted to do my MBA in Europe and chose ESADE because it’s one of the top schools in Europe and the main thing was that it’s very international.” What kind of work have you been doing before this? “I was working in Whirlpool, in the marketing department but I would like to maybe switch into the real estate industry so this is a good way to move from industry to another.” What have you guys found most interesting about the program so far? “The cultural differences. I think for me that is the most exciting thing so far.” “You work a lot in teams here. So everyday you’re in a team meeting and you’re working with people that are very different from you.” “My name is Morgan Whitkin. I’m from America. I’m doing the 18 month MBA.” What drew you here? “What drew me here well I wanted an international MBA, ESADE is one of the best and I think the Spanish really drew me here because I plan to work internationally.” “Hi my name is Ventzislava Naydenova I’m from the US and originally from Bulgaria. I came to ESADE because it’s one of the top 10 international business programs in the world and I want to learn Spanish and also get a global perspective on business.” How’s it going so far for you? “It’s great. It’s very, very busy. Much more so than I expected.” “My name is Christophe Bochatay from Switzerland. I came to ESADE because it’s about a top school in Europe and because it has very complete core curriculum and because it does links to Latin America.” What do you find most interesting? Most surprising about ESADE? “The diversity in the student body is incredibly interesting and it’s a factor that draws other students here as well. Surprising, the workload. I don’t think anyone expects this. You know, you’re told about a MBA before you get here and you don’t let these you expectations and you have something in mind and you get here and it’s nothing like what you thought.” What is it? “It’s a lot of work. It’s all consuming and your life completely turns around. But it’s good.”

It is time for David’s World Economics class now, “I remind you that we define the national disposable income as the sum of the gross national product and net current transfers — money that are gifts from the outside, from the external sector to the domestic economy.…” “I’m Fernando Ballabriga Clavería I’m head of the Department of Economics of the school.” So basically what is your intention in this class? “What we do is just to try to compliment the micro business view they have with a more macro perspective to try to convince them that in the end the companies which they work with will be operating in an even economy and that they must know things about how that economy works, how it can affect the company in which they are working. This is our job.”

It is time to shadow another student. But we have to go get some coffee, right? “Coffee is good. Coffee it’s about time. This is the carpa, the tent, which is one of the two cafeterias, it’s not quite as fancy. The other one is more like a restaurant kind of place, but this is cozy.…. My name is Tilde and I’m from Denmark. I’m a one year MBA so I will be finishing in April and I started last April. So I’m more than half way through and before I came from a small, medium-sized technical company in Denmark.” Why in the entire world did you come to Barcelona to ESADE? “I didn’t want to be away from the work place for too long so the one year program was very good for me. Furthermore, I really like the idea of being a person which you are at ESADE. It’s a small school and you’re a person and not a number. And the focus that ESADE is in building people and not building management machines, I really liked. And I think that the whole focus of team work which is really big here at ESADE is something that you will not learn from reading a textbook.” So what do you think you’ll be going home with when you finally get your MBA? “I think I’ll good home with a more, I don’t know how you say it but being a person with room for more people. Being able to embrace more differences and being able to find solutions in situations where you have to work with people very different from yourself. So I think that’s my biggest accomplishment here. Which was also what I came for.”

Tilde and I head to her corporate strategy class, “We lost 17 people after Johnson and Johnson this week so they should be there in Atlanta Saturday night” “Is this very good? “ “I think so. I think so. So let’s hope for Johnson and Johnson to make at least 17 offers. Let me tell you the plan for the day.” During a break I speak with her professor, “My name is Luis Vives, I’m Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at ESADE Business School and this course is corporate strategies which is one of my many expertises.” What do you intend your students to take away from your class? “The idea for a corporate strategy class is for the students to be able to better understand and discuss where the critical issues when you are managing this diversification, as well as you know how do you manage it from the headquarters perspective and what are the potential problems and issues that may emerge out of this type of decisions in the corporation.” What is the case we are witnessing today? “The case we are witnessing today is about the joint venture signing of a small Spanish company with a Chinese player which is a very typical situation.” And now the teams of students in the corporate strategy class get their case. The Chinese team goes to another room. The European team stays in this room. The professor welcomes back in the Chinese team which walks past the European team and sits in the far back of the room. “I’m expecting someone to open the meeting. And this is an investing way. Please open our meeting.” “Née how.” “If anyone wants to stand that by introducing themselves to the other it will be nice.” After the negotiations between the Chinese and Spanish teams the professor calls for reaction, “They came right out and tried to buy us.” “Yeah, a little bit hostile.” “Yes I completely agree they were a little bit hostile and don’t forget they are not average Chinese. They are Chinese with a MBA and you knew that upfront. Okay? Thank you so much. To you all next week hard work we will prepare and then we’ll do the theoretical discussion as well.”

You have basically an optimistic point of view in your class? “I try to have an optimistic point of view. One of the things that we can learn from previous classes is that leaders that establish themselves on companies that are able to excel and do well in the future normally come out of crisis situations. So I think this is one of the best moments for our students to prove that they are ready and prepared to do well and in that respect if they prove to do so during a crisis they will be in a much better position once the good times come back. Hopefully soon in time.”

Your thoughts on the class? “I just like the relaxed atmosphere and that the room for everybody’s opinions and approaches and people are free to jump in and out of the discussions and the debates. It’s really a comfortable way of doing it.” We’re walking to Tilde’s Spanish class. We enter the class. “SPANISH”

Living in a multi-cultural world how helpful is it to have the Spanish class? “It’s quite helpful because it’s not only the language that we’re focusing on. Our teacher is definitely trying to teach us a little bit about the Spanish culture and why they have a certain approach to things or the customs which is really coming in handy. I mean the cheek kissing we learned in Spanish in the first class which is nice.” Tilde’s native language is Danish, she’s obviously fluent in English and she speaks German as well, Spanish is her fourth language.

The third student we are shadowing is fluent in English and French and he speaks some Spanish. “My name is Edward Armitage from London, UK. I turned 29 three days ago and I am in the second year of an 18 month full-time MBA and before coming here I worked various start-up businesses and as a freelance consultant for internet marketing.” That’s right you’re the entrepreneurial track right? Yeah. How did you choose this school? “First of all obviously I wanted to do a MBA. That was the initial thing before choosing the school.” I should probably ask you what was the spark for that? “Panic, actually I had a baby, I suddenly thought I better get a qualification and a bit more security because life as a freelance you know is getting you a monthly paycheck and I saw it as an opportunity for two things, either to launch a more corporate career or as to find a place where I could find likeminded people with whom to set up a business. And so I choose ESADE because of its entrepreneurial reputation and because of the student profile which was a little bit different from any of the business schools. It’s not an all pressed shirts and chinos consultants and bankers. There’s quite a diverse background of people and that really came close to me in the talks that I had with the admissions department and Barcelona is a wonderful place to have kids and have fun and study.”

“A brand is a portfolio of meanings we are not in control of all of the meanings that are going to be attached to our brand. Consumers are in control of our brand and not only consumers but the stakeholders.” And what is it that you like about the professor that is doing the branding class? “Oriole strikes a cord with all the students and as I said you can see in the class everyone is hanging on his word and very hushed and waiting to see what he is going to say next. The course he is teaching branding is crucial to any business. So a lot of the stuff that he is teaching is stuff that reaches into other areas of business and affects what everyone is in.” “My name is Oriol Iglesias I’m assistant professor as ESADE at the Marketing Management Department and I’m the leader of the brand management cluster.” What do you hope the students take away? “What I want from this class is that the students understand what it really means to manage a brand and that nowadays the keys to success factor for many companies in order to differentiate is to be able to build a really strong brand that is relevant to the consumer’s needs and wants and desires and that there is able to connect on an emotional level with his consumers and that is something that is really difficult to manage and it’s not only about communication, that’s usually what they think. It’s mainly about delivering on the promises that you make. That’s the most difficult part of brand management.” These students seem to be more unique, Edward for example talking about the entrepreneurship program, what is your best hope for them? “What I hope is that they become good persons and good professionals. Okay? It’s not only about trying to teach them and to learn also, I learn with them about brand management is about discussing things, encouraging them to share ideas, to be able to listen which is something that is really important. To be able to discuss and defend their own ideas to accept positive criticism and to work in teams that’s something really important for me and I think the that these are some of the capabilities or competences that a manager should have. And this is truly important to me, apart from the more theoretical content.” How is what they would learn about brand management help these future CEOs and managers? “Today what I am seeing in this crisis this difficult, turbulent economy that we’re living. Many companies lose the focus then they are ruining their reputation on the long time and their image. For me the most important thing that they have to be reminded is that even in this situations they need to know where they want to go, what they stand for, and be honest about it, be true to the brand identity, the brand values and of course adapt to the environment, establish some actions in order to live with that but preserving the heritage and essence of the brand.” What is your brand? “I hope that my brand stands for tenacity, integrity, proximity, heart and rigorous work and friendship.”

Edward, so we were talking about the value of teamwork and how this school is different, “The difference with ESADE is that most schools are competitive based on competition between the students and your value is on your personal grades and you’re personally competing against everyone in your class for a personal grade. So the way that ESADE does it is they grade you on your teamwork rather than your individual work and when you arrive here you’re put in a group of five or six people and they specifically choose within your group people from different backgrounds, say a finance guy, an operations guy, a marketing guy and from different nationalities so you’ll be a European, an Indian, a Taiwanese and two Latin Americans and it’s really tough in the beginning because you’re with these people with widely different views but in the end you realize each person has specialties in their own field, they have their own take on things. You have to organize yourselves to get the most out of what each person should offer and it works really well because that is what real life business is about.”

ESADE is located in the heart of Barcelona, Spain

We’re about to see what the future can be for entrepreneurs at ESADE. I met with Richard Foody with marketing and communications. So we’re leaving the building of ESADE now, where are we headed? “We’re heading off to the Video Entrepreneurship Awards. These entrepreneurship awards are not only a way of getting your business off the ground with the actual prizes themselves but there is also within the public there are investors interested in looking out for new business opportunities.”

The three finalists present their projects, this is Bea Blu: (Audio in Spanish from the presentation.) “The original 24 projects that were submitted for these awards there was a short list of three which had the three groups which we saw today and the winners turned out to be BeaBlu, which are graduates from the last graduating class.”

“I’m Olaya García Lancha I’m the Director of the MBA Full-time program.” So the entrepreneurship awards, what was going on? “Every year we have a contest as a part of the MBA students’ process they all take the entrepreneurship class in the last part of the MBA. As a member of the jury for the last three years I’ve been seeing the most successful projects that the students have developed and we reward a prize, we give them exposure to international media, venture capital and communications agencies.” ESADE has developed its own way of preparing future leaders.

“My name is Gloria Batllori and I’m the Executive Director of the MBA Unit.” “My name is Olaya García Lancha and I’m the Director of the MBA Full-time program.” What are some of the values that ESADE is trying to get across to the students? “ESADE, we want to position ourselves different than the other business school, as the other business school in order to get the best value proposition for our candidates and what we’ve done in the past five years is to figure out really what are the needs of the companies and what we have seen is that the companies all of them do really live in a very complex world and by complexity we mean that we are all global. It doesn’t matter if companies are multi-national or a local company because even in being a local company has to be purchasing in China or certain other countries so globally this is an issue that affects all of the companies. The other is technology and the third one is that now there is more weight of the need of alliances and network among the people and companies. So what we try to do the same in class, try to develop the competencies of our students in order to be able to cope in that complex world and add value to the companies in these areas. So the leadership that we propose is the leadership that is more based on alliances rather than the traditional archetypal attitude the hero, leader, solitary that makes a decision, etc. So that are the values we want to have at ESADE that we try to promote in the classes.”

One thing I’ve noticed in speaking to some of the students is that they were comparing this program to other programs and said that most programs espouse teamwork but here it’s not competitive in the student versus student is that what, go ahead, “It’s part of our methodology, the teamwork as many other students have in their curriculum but the way we visualize teamwork it’s a really share of knowledge and work. Actually the students have around 30% of their grade in each class is based on teamwork and what is different from our program and other program is this 30% of the grade is the same work for all of the members of the team. While in other business schools it could be the same percentage but it’s different for each student. Making that 30% of the grade the same kind of obliged the students to really work hard on a single solution so they spend a lot of time to get a consensus and they develop different competencies in that way. They coach each other, they teach each other until they arrive to this final paper which they are going to deliver and that really builds the teamwork. We’re presenting a lot the real world in the department because you know the department will be valued as a whole department not as each individual. And we try to simulate as much as we can the real world outside.”

You mentioned the real world and the word culture comes to mind and that is that you don’t have that many students but you have a lot of countries represented here. Obviously by decision? “Yes, we want to promote diversity in order to simulate that environment of diversity that we have in the world. And this new generation that are really global with the internet that they talk among each other from different countries, etc. And what we want to promote is the fact that coming from a different culture you have different values. And I’m not talking about the ethical values but entrepreneurial values; the way you do business is different. So this is the reason why we want to have this very diverse environment so they get to know how to do business with England people, with Chinese people, with US people, with European people of different countries because we do things differently. It’s something that we work for and when we do our applications the target per countries we look for that diversity.”

Can you speak to the methodology here at the school? “Case method is quite an important part of our methodology, around 40% but the other 60% is based on also different aspects in the learning process. We have theoretical classes, we have business simulations, we have all sorts of business practice that compliment and give a whole scope of in the learning process curve. So yes we have a quite diverse methodology also in purpose.” “I would add to Olaya’s comment that we call it the three c’s which is we go through the concept, that would be the first to see making all of these different sort of approaches with different methodology and how to understand the concept. The second is the context, that they are able to apply the appropriately context because concepts are applied differently in different contexts. So we also use different methodologies and to apply it in context and the third and more important is the capabilities. We develop the capabilities of the students in order to understand the concept and apply the specific and appropriate context.”

I noticed the big 50 everywhere I go, “So this is the 50th year of ESADE? “Yes.” So how has it changed over the years? “Well has changed a lot because one of the values that we have at ESADE that we are very flexible. So faculty is really diverse, the staff is really diverse so everybody is really diverse that makes it easier to innovate and implement innovations. So the culture of ESADE allows these innovation processes.” Tell me about the new program, “The new program has a very strong value proposition and that is flexibility. Flexibility meaning in terms of the student decides when he or she will finish their MBA which is something completely new in the market and we’re the first ones to be able adapt to the student’s need once they start it. So the students start their MBA and after around 3 months they decide whether they want to finish their MBA in 12, 15 or 18 months. So if a student decides okay I would like to come back to the market fast because the cost opportunity for me is really high, I would like to speed my MBA and they have the chance here to do it at ESADE in 12 months. If a student decides I would like to change my career, I’m coming from this area, I would like to have an internship or develop my career in a different area of the world, they will go for the 15 or the 18 month program which allow them to do an internship in the summer and maybe go on a exchange in the last part of their MBA so it’s a really flexible MBA. It gives a high degree of control to the students with their professional lives.”

When I first walked in to the building I had this sense of lightness. It’s very light, not only in the sunshine coming through but in people’s attitudes, yes? “The attitude that we have in the school helps a lot. Besides being in Barcelona is quite a positive it also helps. But you can feel and smell the positive attitude throughout everybody that is walking from the school, from the staff to the students, the professors so it’s a very positive environment and very open and close.” Anything else you two want to mention? “We just invite all of the future students that are interested in pursuing a MBA to visit ESADE because I think the best decision making process is to come and see where you are going to spend the next 12,15 or 18 months of your life. So I would just invite everybody to come and take a feeling about how we do things here.” “Because you will feel the environment and that is something that you’re going to spend a year and a half or a year you want to know that you’re comfortable and it’s a place that you want to belong to.”

The Director of Admissions and Career Services walks me to her offices, “These are different offices so companies use them to interview when they come on-campus and at the end is my office which also you can see it’s a really a video conference facility which now doubles as my office. My name is Camilla de Wit and I’m Director of Admissions and Career Services at ESADE Business School.” So you see people coming in and you see them going, “Exactly.” That’s unusual, why did they combine those two positions? “We have a very small program and our services are very personalized and when you have a small program you want to make sure that you manage expectations of students coming in. Because at the end of the day what we work on is helping people change their lives. They want to do a MBA because they want to go somewhere with their career.”

How many students do you have from how many different countries and how do you choose them? “We will have 180 students in our flexible format and right now we have students from more than 40 nationalities. Now we choose them based on four main criteria. The first is intellectual capacity. The second is professional experience and here we take a look at what has a person done up to this point. So the minimal number years of work experience is two. The third is maturity so what is their motivation to do the program, so why a MBA, why now and really grill them on that and capacity for teamwork. And then finally we take a look at certain competencies that we believe are important on a base level to be successful and those are leadership, empathy, flexibility, communication skills and that’s about it.” How many applicants are you getting these days? “We’ve experienced a rise in applications of 80% compared to last year so applying early, and being vigilant on your application in getting to know the school that you’re applying to is important because fit and fit in many senses is I think the name of the game.”

Who is your dream student? “My dream student is people who really know themselves and really know where they are going in hunger. Hunger in the sense of ambition. I want to change the world and I want ESADE to train me in giving me the right tools to achieve that dream. Whatever that dream may be. So there’s not one mold we’ve looked at but really what can we learn from you. What do you want to learn from us to make you successful?”

Tilde and I are out getting tapas in Barcelona. So is this a normal thing for people to do here when they go to ESADE? “Yes students at ESADE introduced me to this place. And the tapas are really good.”

Where are we Tilde? “We’re in the Borne, still, in the old part of the city where basically the nightlife is at the highest. But it’s still a little bit too early. The nightlife in Spain doesn’t start until midnight.” And it’s 10 o’clock right now. “It’s 10 o’clock yes but two hours from now then it’s better. They are going to dance now, the traditional kind of dance” Thank you for showing me around Barcelona at night. It’s a wonderful adventure and the school ESADE has been a wonderful experience as well. I’m wondering what can you tell me about the balance of life. “The balance of life here as in other aspect is just to make sure that you make the most of everything that you take advantage of the opportunities there are and in a city like Barcelona you have a ton of opportunities like we saw tonight. I mean you just have take a walk on the street and suddenly you’re a part of the traditional folk dance. So I think it’s just about keeping your eyes open and notice the little things and then I think the balance will come to you eventually and then of course on Fridays and Saturdays you might lose the balance after a few mojitos but that’s a part of life too.”

Thanks for listening to a Day in the Life at ESADE Business School. I’m Diana Jordan. Stayed tuned to MBA Podcaster for our next exciting adventure.

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