“We live in an increasingly changing world. People have to get used to change as a natural condition and to cope with this situation, you have to be an entrepreneur,” says Lucas Carné (MBA ’99), co-founder of Privalia, the online private sales club.

Carné’s remarks came during a special breakfast event organized by the  organized by the MBASpanish Business Club on March 15 on IESE’s Barcelona campus.

When asked about medium-term start-up financing for start-ups following an initial launch, he stressed: “There is money, but it is in a very global marketplace. In some cases, the problem I see among Spanish entrepreneurs is that they aren’t motivated to pack up their suitcases and go to the UK, Germany or the United States to knock on the doors of foreign investors. You have to realize that, even though you are a Spanish start-up, you don´t have to get financing in Spain.”

He also discussed online shopping trends, particularly the level of “personalization” facilitated by the Internet. This new scenario allows companies to “maintain direct contact with the customer, and the flow of information among clients and the company in real time.”

Carné said he hopes that the opportunity for personalization will provide a new boost for local industries, since “the current concept of globalized production and total offshoring cannot satisfy a demand for just-in-time.”

Personalization “can help local industry - which is not as competitive in price, but is more flexible and faster – become stronger,” he said.

Carné said he is a strong believer in the multichannel concept: “to be strong in the physical area and online, taking advantage of each cannel to better know and serve your customer.” He added that the physical advertising environment will become digital.

Experience has taught him that “entrepreneurship is contagious.” For this reason, business schools should “nurture contacts” among students who are at different phases of entrepreneurial projects. He also urged business schools to provide more opportunities for students to gain practical experience at start-ups, as well as encourage more new ventures – instead of large multinationals, consultancies or banks - to hire MBAs.

Reflecting on his own MBA experience, Carné said students today are less focused on traditional careers and are more interested in alternative paths, such as helping lead small or new enterprises or creating their own companies.

Overall, “IESE MBA students have always been pretty entrepreneurial. At least, when I go to other schools, I see the level of curiosity that you find about entrepreneurship is incomparable,” he said.

Carné said his visit to IESE was “refreshing.”

“It’s good to be surrounded by young people who want to do things and conquer the world, and who have curiosity about what you do and why you’ve been successful. It’s a breath of fresh air in your daily life,” he said.

Carné also said he wanted to do his part in helping prepare the next generation of entrepreneurs. “I like to know how young people see the world and I hope that I have been an inspiration because, in the end, the future of this country lies mostly in the ability of companies to generate wealth. And this depends on the creation of successful companies.”

Technologies and the digital universe are playing growing roles in society. For the first time, the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) consumer market is larger than the corporate market. This process, known as the “consumerization” of ICTs, is unstoppable. It is not only here to stay, it is transforming companies and business sectors completely. ICT consumerization has also created a series of important challenges, as well as opportunities for creating social value.

In a recent presentation organized by the IESE Alumni Association, IESE Prof. Javier Zamora addressed this topic on the Madrid campus. His talk, titled, “The Ascent of People: Beyond Consumerization of ICTs,” was part of the Continuous Education Program.

Zamora stressed that the adoption of new technologies should not be seen as merely a threat and part of a disruption in the traditional value chain. Instead, it should be viewed as a tool for boosting competitiveness.

For the first time in the history of ICTs, consumers are utilizing technologies at home that are more advanced and accessible than those typically used in the workplace. This shift, in which people suddenly have significant knowledge of the use and benefits of ICT tools and services, is driving social change. This, in turn, is having a direct impact on how companies are organized and how they relate to their clients.

Paradigm shift

Social networks, smart phones, Big Data and the cloud are key components of this new digital era. Moreover, the capacity to process information is advancing at an unprecedented pace, he said. Technology is also blurring the line between professional and personal life.

“This is taking us to a new paradigm. Without knowledge of the possibilities that new technologies offer, executives cannot set out a viable strategy for their companies,” he said.

Consumerization is altering flows of information, as well as specific social norms. Zamora stressed that companies need to leverage the benefits that ICTs offer so they can move ahead of rivals and increase competitiveness.

He went on to describe how tools such as email, Google and its multiple applications and Facebook have now become a fundamental aspect of the future of many firms. “Have we seen the full potential of social networks? I believe we will also see the rise of corporate social networks.”

The post-PC era

New technologies and the vast possibilities offered by Web 2.0 facilitate bidirectional communication, in which customers have the chance to express their opinions directly to companies during every interaction. He noted that society has entered the post-PC era, when mobile platforms are gaining ground over traditional PCs.

“This means that we are giving greater decision power to customers and employees, and it implies an atomization of business processes and an increase in competitiveness,” he said. In this context, “digital natives” – people who were born after the advent of ICTs – are gaining greater importance. This new generation will soon transform into new customers and employees, and therefore have a greater impact on business activities.
What will be the consequences of the consumerization of ICTs? Zamora noted that the consumer will have greater capacity to make decisions in real time; employees will look for greater participation and control in business processes; citizens will seek greater interaction with politicians; and clients will use social networks to adopt brands.

The power of ICTs is unquestionable, he said. While the radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million people, the Internet took just four years to reach this number. Facebook did it in just two years. Today more than 1 billion people use the network founded by Mark Zuckerberg. Against this background, a key challenge for executives is to identify ways to manage cultural changes and adapt their organizations accordingly, Zamora concluded.

A team of IESE MBA students won the Europe North Regional Round of the 16th Annual Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), held on March 8 on the campus of London Business School.

The group of five students took top honors over teams from University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, Copenhagen Business School, Cranfield University and HEC Paris.

On April 11-12, the IESE team will compete in the final round of the competition, which will take place at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The competition involves more than 1,200 students competing on three continents in 50 different events.

The integration of financial markets, a new attitude among investors and the lack of mechanisms to deal with turbulence have all contributed to financial contagion within the eurozone. Measures can be taken to reduce the contagion, says Prof. José Manuel González-Páramo, but business will have to wait some time before they notice any benefits.

A group of IESE MBA students and professors travel to Silicon Valley March 25-31 for an in-depth look at the region, which will include visits to start-ups, investors and incubators.

The main goal of the visit is to give MBA students a deep understanding of entrepreneurial initiatives and how they are being led in one of the most world's top business hot spots through direct contact with firms and business leaders in the area. Students will also gain a comprehensive view of the entrepreneurial, business and investment panorama of the Valley.

IESE MBA students will learn keys for launching new ventures, specifically how to secure capital, avoid common entrepreneurial mistakes, resolve problems and conflicts, lead global business projects and create strong teams. In terms of large companies, students will analyze how they maintain an entrepreneurial culture, expanded internationally and interculturally and what they look for when identifying new companies for acquisition.

An investment case will is aimed at helping students understand the complexities of growing firms, evaluating new business ideas and investment opportunities. The exploration of incubators is designed to provide new knowledge on selection criteria for entrepreneurs and financial management in these organizations.

Also during the week, on March 28, IESE will host an Entrepreneurial Forum in San Francisco, with guest speaker Andrew Chung, partner of Khosla Ventures. He will give a talk entitled, "Inventing the Future." A panel discussion including entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will follow, moderated by Mike Rosenberg, IESE Professor of Strategic Management.

During the activity-packed visit, which is called "IESE Meets The Valley", students will visit approximately 20 organizations, including WhatsApp, Khosla Ventures, 500 Startups, Lemon, Dorsey & Whitney, Scale Venture Partners and Cisco Systems.

As a result of the crisis, many companies have seen their ability to carry out strategic plans greatly reduced due to financial pressures. A new article in the IESE Insight management magazine analyzes how the finance function went off track and overstepped its legitimate bounds, leaving many companies exposed and vulnerable.

"Back to Reality: Lessons From the Crisis for Corporate Finance" examines the three main functions of finance – auditing and control, treasury and fund-raising, and strategic planning and forecasting – and considers the major shortcomings detected in the management of each, in light of the crisis.

The author, José M. Campa, is a professor of Financial Management and International Economics at IESE, who draws upon his considerable expertise in international finance and macroeconomics, gleaned through teaching (Harvard, Columbia, N.Y.U. Stern), as a consultant (World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, European Commission) and as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs of the Spanish government (2009-2011).

He predicts that "corporate finance will likely get more complicated as more and more stakeholders, internally and externally, begin to question what finance managers do."

"CFOs must be prepared to explain themselves more often and in much clearer terms to more vested parties. Stakeholders are looking for assurances that lessons have indeed been learned and that past activities will not repeat themselves, bringing any more unpleasant surprises."

He stresses the essential attitudes and principles that finance sector professionals must adopt – including clarity, vision, caution, care and prudence – as well as the appropriate actions to go along with them.

In the end, he urges corporate finance to get back to where it always belonged: supporting the company’s core business activities through financing and sound financial advice.

To read the full article, go to IESE Insight. IESE Alumni Members can access this premium article for free, or you can simply subscribe from the magazine site.

Crowdsourcing is not yet a major trend in the business world, in part because it’s difficult to put the infrastructure in place and build a community. The human cloud helps business to bypass this problem as it offers a global pool of online workers and a platform to interact with them. Prof. Evgeny Káganer tells companies what to take into account in order to properly manage human cloud engagement.

Watch video.

The world of retail is undergoing sweeping changes, as technology and a drop in consumption in many markets reshape the way consumers choose and buy products.

IESE’s upcoming Retail Industry Meeting – which this year marks its 10th anniversary – will take aim at many of driving forces currently behind the transformation of the retail industry. During the event, which is led by IESE professors José Luis Nueno and Julián Villanueva, speakers will address themes such as the changing role of stores, as well as the latest developments in mobile commerce and multichannel shopping models.

The impact of the recession, which has triggered lower consumption in many markets, will also be addressed. Retail experts and business leaders from diverse sectors will describe innovative models for the future, which target consumers who employ a mix of online and offline browsing. Fundamental changes in consumer behavior, such as less impulse shopping and more last-minute purchasing decisions to get the right product at the right price, will be analyzed.

The meeting will also tackle major challenges ahead for retailers involving location. Class-A shopping streets, for example, are poised to take market share away from secondary locations. Prime locations in the best shopping areas have become less affordable, while secondary locations are seeing heightened volatility as independent stores and chains close their doors.

IESE’s annual Retail Industry Meeting provides an ideal opportunity for retail professionals to gain a broader view of what’s happening in the sector and examine key challenges with insights from industry leaders.

To build a more sustainable future requires an approach and a long-term commitment. The Schneider Electric Chair of Sustainability and Business Strategy examines the strategic management models and governance measures that can contribute to this goal. The new chair will be presented on April 4 on the Barcelona campus.

Grupo Bimbo has come a long way since CEO Daniel Servitje’s grandfather emigrated from Catalonia, Spain, to Mexico in 1928 and opened his own bakery there. Servitje’s father, together with four partners, later founded Bimbo in 1945. Initially, they had just five trucks to deliver their bread and baked goods to Mexico City grocery stores. Today, Grupo Bimbo has more than 126,000 employees, a presence in 19 countries and more than two million sales points. Servitje grew up with the business. As a teenager in the ’70s, he helped out in the plants during school breaks. He has now been full-time with the family firm for more than 30 years, having earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Ibero-American University and an MBA from Stanford.

PANKAJ GHEMAWAT– Grupo Bimbo is unusual among Latin American multinationals in that it has expanded its position north of the border into the United States. How do you decide which markets to get into, and where do you see Grupo Bimbo going in the future?

DANIEL SERVITJE– For us, it was a defensive/offensive strategy. First, we went after Mexican consumers who were already in the United States and who knew our products. For a while, this was very profitable. But then we realized that we needed to be a local player, too, and take on the American brands. After all, the border was open, and if we didn’t go to the United States, U.S. companies would end up coming into our market.

Our strategy for Latin America is quite different. In a sense, we have replicated, country by country, the strategy that we had in Mexico many years ago: It’s about small businesses with low per capita consumption. From a profitability perspective, Latin America has not always been as positive as we would have liked. But as we continue to mature our distribution networks, it will become a very strong market for us. For the future, we are keeping our options open, but mostly we will be focusing on emerging markets.

PG– Given your status as an emerging market company, Grupo Bimbo is competing both in emerging markets and in the United States, in an area where brands and differentiation are very important. How have you managed to make that work?

DS– We have always been a branded company, and we value brands. However, in the packaged food industry, the name of the game is low cost. We have to fight, not only against our competitors’ branded goods, but also against private labels. As such, we need to be very efficient in whatever we do, so we are investing to become an even lower cost provider.

Where I think we have succeeded, and where we really add value for our shareholders, is by knowing our customers better than our competitors do. Every year, I spend time going to the homes of consumers, wandering the supermarket aisles with them and asking them questions about why and how they make the choices they do. By doing this, we believe that we can create distinctive products that consumers will appreciate more than the alternatives in that particular market.

I think it is essential for companies to have this culture of connecting with consumers – to get out into the field in order to understand what is happening in different markets. We found that there are subtle cultural differences throughout Latin America. In Mexico, for example, packaged bread is much more popular than fresh bread, but this is not true for the rest of Latin America. We also found that, whereas in Mexico people tend to buy their bread in small mom-and-pop corner stores, the Argentines buy theirs in large supermarkets. We had to adjust our distribution strategy accordingly. Local knowledge is essential.

PG–Do all these cultural differences across the markets you work in make it difficult to have a global strategy?

DS– First, baking is a very local business. From a freshness standpoint and a manufacturing standpoint, we cannot travel far with our own products. Second, in my view, the food industry is not a global industry. What works in one market might not necessarily work in another. A value chain can be global in some respects, systems can be global, but when you really get down to it, customers in different countries don’t all like the same things.

For that reason, we don’t dictate a global strategy. We have products that would be a complete failure in the United States but are a success in China, and others that work well in Guatemala but not in Mexico. In each particular market, we offer the teams a portfolio of products and examples of what has worked well elsewhere. But ultimately, the decisions are made locally. For example, with the 70 baking plants we have in the United States, we want each of them to be run according to the market realities of their location, rather than according to what we might say in Mexico City.

Watch video.

Read full article on the IESE Insight website.

"We need innovative solutions to create a sustainable future," said Julio Rodríguez, executive vice president of global operations at Schneider Electric during the presentation of the Schneider Electric Chair of Sustainability and Business Strategy on April 4 on IESE’s Barcelona campus.

After an introduction from IESE Dean Jordi Canals, Rodríguez said it was "the first chair that we have established at a world level," adding, in a reference to IESE, that "we have allied ourselves with the best of travelling companions."

The chair, which will be held by IESE Prof. Pascual Berrone, aims to generate ideas and disseminate knowledge, frameworks for action and tools to speed up the change towards a sustainable development of business.

Transformations and New Trends

During the presentation, Rodríguez, an IESE alumnus, delineated the principle changes that society is undergoing: urbanization on a world scale and digitization. However, he said these changes are accompanied by serious risks, such as growing peaks in energy demand, rising energy prices, pollution and a shortage of resources.

"Schneider Electric’s response is energy efficiency," he said, listing the main changes that are being developed in energy generation. He also highlighted the fact that in future all points of energy consumption will be linked through "a type of energy Internet." We will also see an increased use of electric vehicles and new energy storage technologies that will make energy available where and when it is needed by individuals and companies.

Profitable Sustainability

He was followed by Prof. Pascual Berrone who spoke about the urgent need to manage the planet’s natural resources more efficiently. He regretted that sustainability was not a priority for the majority of executives and that in many cases there is a large gap between theory and practice.

"Taking symbolic action without linking it to far-reaching change is not only useless, it also damages the company’s reputation. However, supporting such efforts has a positive impact on reputation," he said.

The dilemma is how to make sustainability profitable. "Innovation and identifying early on the best solutions is the best way to make sustainability profitable," he said, adding that "more than half the companies that have changed their business model and have made sustainability a permanent part of their strategy have been able to use sustainability to increase profits. Creativity and innovation are essential."

What can managers do to boost sales, once they have taken the "usual" measures of cost cutting, restructuring, adjusting prices and opening new markets? An upcoming event at IESE will answer this question by exploring new alternatives for sales strategy, as well as sales team management and leadership.
 
Set for April 17 in Madrid, the 6th Annual Sales and Marketing Officers Meeting is themed, "Reinventing Yourself to Move Forward: Sales Management Innovation." The meeting will specifically tackle how to find new customers today, what technological tools can help teams and what are the most suitable strategies in the current context.
 
Recent market research, led by IESE professors Cosimo Chiesa and Julián Villanueva, on the topics discussed in the different sessions will also be presented. Each participant in the meeting will receive a copy of the study's conclusions.
 
Invited speakers will present their views during three panels with the following titles 1) "New Scenarios, New Models: Sales Model Innovation" 2) "New Ways To Get Better Results: Sales Management Innovation" and 3) "Getting the Sales Team Involved: Sales Team Innovation."
 
A special session in which panelists, faculty members and participants will be able to  exchange viewpoints and interact will also be a highlight of the meeting. The program has been designed for CEOs, sales managers and sales and marketing directors.

Some stock market values behave in very similar ways. These are what are called "connected stocks" which up until now were connected in terms of size, sector or the company's geographical location. But the fact that they also have shareholders in common also influences their behaviour, says IESE Prof. Miguel Antón, who encourages investors to keep an eye on this phenomenon in order to buy low and sell high.

IESE's UK Alumni Chapter held its "Annual Flagship Event" in London on Wednesday, April 3. The event included the participation of Baroness Denise Kingsmill, who delivered the presentation "Corporate Governance: The Role of the Board of Directors."

Also providing remarks during the meeting was IESE Dean Jordi Canals, who introduced the session. More than 120 IESE graduates and invited guests were in attendance at the event, which featured a Q&A session after the main presentations.

Baroness Denise Kingsmill CBE is a member of House of Lords and a member of IESE's International Advisory Board (IAB).

Her career has encompassed periods as a Deputy Chair of the UK Competition Commission (the UK´s principle anti-trust agency) and a director of PLC, private, not for profit and government boards. She headed two Government enquires in 2001 and 2003, into women´s pay and employment and the economic management of labour. In 2007 she led an enquiry into health of fashion models on behalf of the British fashion council and the Mayor of London.

IESE’s New York Center is hosting a Business Competitiveness Council (CEC) event today, April 10. Speakers at the event will be Ignacio Sánchez Galán, chairman of Iberdrola and Angel Ubide, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute, who will deliver a session titled, "Spain: A Land of Opportunities."

The session will feature conclusions of a recent report describing adjustments made in the Spanish economy and the implementation of structural reforms that are set to contribute to revitalizing the economy. The study highlights a number of the country’s key attributes such as a highly educated workforce, quality infrastructure and positive geopolitical positioning. IESE professors José Manuel Campa, Alfredo Pastor and Juan José Toribio contributed to the report.

The CEC created in February 2011, is spearheaded by 15 major Spanish companies and the Instituto de Empresa Familiar (Spain's Family Firm Institute). CEC member companies employ 1.7 million people in Spain and their combined revenue accounts for 35 percent of Spanish GDP.

Among the leading companies that form part of the CEC are Inditex, Acciona, BBVA, Ferrovial, Iberdrola, Mango and Repsol. The council is currently presided by César Alierta, CEO of Telefónica.

"Spain’s economic crisis will come to an end sooner or later thanks to the adjustments made over recent years and through everyone’s hard work. However, there is another serious and worrying crisis: Spanish people are losing faith in their politicians their institutions. This will only change if we can offer society and approach based on ethics," said Josep Piqué, the president of Vueling airlines, in an address to IESE alumni in Barcelona on April 9. The session was titled "Values and Excellence in Management" and was organized by the Alumni Association and moderated by Prof. Joan E. Ricart.

Piqué said in his speech that it was essential the political class recover its prestige. "The stable bipartisan approach of recent decades is unthinkable now, given our politicians failure to represent the people. For this reason, beyond our economic problems, we have to be able to create a common strategic goal and communicate what it means to society so that people want to share and participate in it," he said.

He added that the entire process has to be guided by values. "We have to demand complete integrity from our leaders, business people and institutions. The only recipe for overcoming the present situation is to focus on ethics, exemplary behavior, coherence, hard work, respect and truth," Piqué concluded.

In Search of Excellence

Piqué was followed by Santiago Tarín, vice president of the Asociación para la Búsqueda de la Excelencia (Association for Excellence), an initiative that brings together representatives of various Spanish companies to foment the idea that values and excellence must form the basis of Spanish executive and institutional practice. "The association is pursuing a goal that is very easy to describe and very difficult to attain, that is, for society to produce better people. In order to do this, we wish to communicate that business success can and must be inseparable from high standards, rigor and commitment, as well as ethics, integrity and respect. If we are to create a more mature and just society, then young people must understand and follow this example," Tarín said.

What Makes a Good Executive?

During the early part of the session, Prof. Jaume Llopis discussed values and excellence in management by describing the career paths of successful executives from all over the world, careers that he has analyzed over eight years along with Prof. Ricart and from which emerged the book Qué hacen los buenos directivos: El reto del siglo XXI (What Makes a Good Executive? A 21st Century Challenge).

Among other aspects, Llopis revealed that executives who have achieved sustained success make a clear distinction between leading (vision and change) and directing (management). He added that they "tended to demand a lot of themselves, as well as being knowledgeable and honest. They also exhibited a spirit of service, an ability to manage conflict, a balanced personal life, passion and values. Good executives create the future in their heads and communicate it, design a business model and surround themselves with people who share their mission and aims."

This question has been asked more frequently in recent years. The same question was almost certainly asked about doctors during the Black Death. The analogy between the economist and the doctor can serve as a starting point in the search for an answer.

How do we judge that a doctor is competent? We expect them to be capable of correctly diagnosing the disease and prescribing the correct treatment. Most doctors know how to do both. On the other hand, if we ask an economist to cure a sick economy we often see that, after six months or even two years, the economy is in just as bad shape or even worse. Naturally we will conclude that economists are worthless and don’t know anything. Neither conclusion is correct.

To begin with, it is not difficult for a group of economists to diagnose an economy as sick because there is not a long list of illnesses. Nor would there be great differences between them when it comes to prescribing treatment. Certainly some economists, those of a naturopath persuasion, would say the best thing was to just let the patient rest and let it cure itself, while other more conventional ones would recommend some form of medicine. Some, of the homeopathic persuasion, would dare to recommend more public spending in order to cure the deficit. Others, however, would suggest more extreme measures such as amputation (this school is gaining followers in Spain). But if the economists put the patient’s interests first they will arrive at a treatment that perhaps contains an element of each of these, each applied during different phases of the illness.

So how can it be that the patient simply gets sicker? This is the fundamental difference between medical practice and the economist’s sad profession. The individual patient usually pays attention to the doctor’s recommendations and submits to the prescribed treatment even if it is unpleasant. They will swallow bitter pills, submit to injections and all form of physical manipulation. On the other hand, those responsible for a sick economy tend only to adopt those of the economist’s recommendations that are painless or are in their own personal interests, and call all the other measures into question. While the patient may recognize that their illness is often the result of their bad habits and promises to mend their ways, those responsible for the economy tend to blame everything on the previous government, an international conspiracy, on the bad harvest and in general on everybody except themselves. Moreover, they will do it with such virulence that it is not uncommon for the economist who insists that the medicine they have prescribed is indispensable to end up in jail or exile. The difference between the effectiveness of the doctor and the economist therefore does not reside so much in differences of knowledge, although they exist, as in the disposition of the patient.

Can economic data and arguments be of any use to ordinary people in their daily life? Of course. Economics after all, is a term that derives from home management, and this continues to be a good guide. A family with good habits usually has a solid economy. Bad economic habits in the family context have the same bad consequences when they are extrapolated across the entire country. If the national accounts don’t add up the same things happen as when the family budget doesn’t (although the disaster may take a long time to emerge). Economists can offer ordinary people two pieces of advice: firstly that they don’t let their government do what they wouldn’t do at home and secondly that they won’t let them make decisions that they don’t understand. Isn’t this useful advice?

Article by Prof. Alfredo Pastor published in the IESE Alumni Magazine #129.

“Operations are nothing more than a mix of activities necessary for delivering a product or service to a client with the best guarantee. But in the world of art and entertainment, this process means starting from a single idea and giving it form until you have outlined all the details,” said Lleonard Garuz, former technical director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Garuz spoke to IESE Business School alumni recently about the processes that allow an internationally-renowned opera house to work perfectly and at a frenetic pace. His presentation formed part of the Continuous Education Program and was held on March 12 on IESE’s Barcelona campus. To understand the level of management complexity of operations at the Gran Teatre del Liceu between 1999 and 2010 – the period when Garuz held his position – the context needs to be clearly described.

According to Garuz, the decade he spent as head of operations was marked by intense competition among theaters of similar caliber, as well as economic growth. “It was not a about having bigger audiences than others, but to have more prestige and excellence. This is what made us work to have a high level of activity,” he said. “Other important factors were that our budget was smaller than the average for these types of institutions, despite the economic situation at the time. Also the Liceu had just been rebuilt, after burning down in 1994, so we had to show the world all its splendor.”

Organization and commitment

Following a rigorous plan of objectives – which each year defined the number and type of works and stage set ups needed to compete with the world’s best theaters – and taking into account the opportunities the newly-reconstructed building offered, the management defined a personnel structure, an organogram and a system of process planning.

“We adapted personnel and the budget each season to meet certain standards and work in the way we wanted to. But in reality, it was only possible because people in the theater world loved their work above all else. Without this level of dedication from everyone, the success we experienced would not have been possible,” he said.

On an operational level, the most interesting and complicated process was integrating daily activities with preparations, rehearsals and new performances, he said. And because there is only one stage at the Liceu, bottlenecks were inevitable and had to be perfectly managed.

“There was no time for delays. To be able to manage everything, we had to start planning projects two years in advance, going through each and every one of the required processes until the day of the opening performance and transforming the initial project into a plan that included all the theater’s activities - day after day, hour after hour - so we could fit new stage set ups into an endless schedule.”

INEO – Initiative for Excellence in Operations

The Continuous Education session “Opera and Operations in a Large Theater: Competitiveness and Productivity” was moderated by IESE Prof. Josep Riverola, who also presented a new project, the Initiative for Excellence in Operations (INEO). Within the framework of IESE’s International Center for Logistics Research, the INEO seeks to generate new knowledge on operations management and technology in business through the exchange of experiences and dialogue among academics and business leaders.

The digital business Treeveo, founded by the second-year MBA student Jeroen Kemperman, is one of the new projects chosen in 2013 by Wayra to receive development funding. Wayra was established by Telefónica in 2011 to encourage the best business models in the IT field and help them to grow. Wayra currently operates in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela and plans to expand in Europe is search of new ideas.

After being selected as one of the winning projects at "Wayra Week Barcelona 2013," held on Match 19, Treeveo will receive an initial investment of €40,000, a rent-free workspace in the Torre Telefónica in Barcelona for six months, mentoring and access to the platform’s network of investors. Treeveo is expected to become operational in early May.

A Hard Road to Travel

"The first I heard of Wayra was through IESE’s MBA Career Services," says Jeroen. "At the time I was a first year and wasn’t eligible but later I attended a presentation in class and saw that this could be a great opportunity for me and my project and so I registered for the 2013 competition."

Jeroen said it has been a long hard journey. "To begin with, 350 teams had to present the documentation behind our ideas from which Wayra chose 40 to go into the semi-final. In that round we had to explain our proposal to a group representing the platform who chose 16 that would go into the final phase. The last round was the decisive one as each team had only five minutes to present their project to a panel of specialists followed by a 10-minute Q&A. Our team had to work hard to get there but we knew the project so well and we had trained hard so we were well prepared for the selection phases."

IESE is a Unique Milieu in Which to Create Companies

Jeroen doesn’t believe that being an IESE student gave him a special advantage over the other teams but is convinced that if he hadn’t studied at IESE he wouldn’t have been able to present the project with the same guarantees. "What’s important isn’t so much the school’s prestige but the support you get to work on your project and the knowledge you acquire about entrepreneurship. Is this sense, IESE is a unique place for an entrepreneur. You acquire high quality knowledge, it opens the door to a huge network of contacts and, being a two-year program, it gives you – through the entrepreneurs’ club - time to propose and develop an entrepreneurial project. Furthermore, the professors are always on hand to help and, in my case, their support has been fundamental."

Entrepreneurship Beyond the Digital World

Treeveo is web tool designed to help companies involved in the merger process. The aim is to maximize the synergies between two merging companies and minimize any loss of efficiency during the process. "Before I came to IESE I went through a similar experience and there were no tools like this so I believed there was a demand for my project. I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur, to develop my own company, grow it and through it contribute to society. And although I have a partner and two children, this is the right moment to try to do it while I’m in the perfect milieu to achieve it," Jeroen said.

"I don’t know if Treeveo will be a success but my idea is to manage it until it grows up. After that, we shall see what life brings, but I’m sure my career will always been linked to entrepreneurship. These days loads of new digital projects are appearing because it’s relatively cheap and the knowledge isn’t hard to acquire, but there are other paths to explore, such as health and medicine. I think the future will involve more interaction between business schools and technical universities in order to bring together academics and executives who can develop this type of project."

With An Eye on Silicon Valley

Like Jeroen, any entrepreneur carries Silicon Valley in their head as a point of reference which is why, when he arrived at IESE in 2011, he had the idea of organizing an annual visit of a group of professors and students to California to learn in situ from some of the world’s most successful companies.

In 2012, 20 MBA students took part in the first "IESE Meets the Valley" experience which included three events, meeting with 25 business people and visits to 20 companies. The 2013 trip took place from March 25-31 and students visited companies such as WhatsApp, Khosla Ventures, 500 Startups, Lemon, Dorsey & Whitney, Scale Venture Partners and Cisco Systems.

"It was a terrific experience. The quality of the visits and meetings exceeded our expectations and all the students came back feeling really satisfied. It was also interesting that a journalist from Poets & Quants came with us in order to write an article about the trip," says Jeroen.

IESE Prof. Africa Ariño has been appointed associate editor of a new online journal published by the Academy of Management (AoM). The publication, titled Academy of Management Discoveries, will debut in 2014.

"The mission of Academy of Management Discoveries (AMD) is to promote the creation and dissemination of new empirical evidence that strengthens understanding of important new or poorly understood phenomena relevant to management and organizations," according to the editorial statement.

The editor of the publication is Andrew H. Van de Ven, the Vernon H. Heath Professor of Organizational Innovation and Change in the Carlson School of the University of Minnesota.

Prof. Ariño is professor in the Department of Strategic Management and academic director of IESE’s Center for Globalization and Strategy. She holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), an MBA from IESE Business School and a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Barcelona.

In addition to her work with AMD, she is an Associate Editor of the Global Strategy Journal, and has served in the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Management and the Strategic Management Journal. She has published numerous academic papers, many focusing on strategic alliances, and is the co-editor of two books. Among the books is Creating Value through International Strategy, which was co-edited with IESE professors Joan E. Ricart and Pankaj Ghemawat and published by Palgrave Macmillan.