The End of Block 1

Hello everyone,

Quickly an update! The weeks have been busy, busier, and the busiest I’ve ever had. I must say this is even more intense than the Master’s semester in Sydney. I was warned about this from other students who had done CEMS studies at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM). After some discussion with other students and other knowledgeable insights, it seems that RSM is one of the toughest schools in the CEMS program.

Two weeks ago we also had a tour of the Rotterdam Harbor. I had specifically asked mother nature to bring us sunshine that day but no luck! It didn’t rain so that’s all that matters. The tour was organized by the CEMS Humanitarian Club and all proceeds went to the ‘School for Africa Fund’. It was very interesting to take a boat tour through the port, to see the ‘Old Harbour’ and then of course the massive port that was titled the largest port in the world for 30 years. Now the title has been overtaken by the ports in Shanghai and Singapore. Either way, Rotterdam’s Harbor is massive, covering 105 km² and stretching 40 km to the sea. It was first opened in the 14^th century and still going strong today with plans for major expansion (click on the link to see Rotterdam’s expansion plan). http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62104524/

Last week we presented our consultancy project findings to our client. This took place in Putten, which is a small town North East of Utrecht. In Putten, Jan Baan (a millionaire in the Netherlands) has a mansion in the countryside (see photos below). There he also has conference rooms and facilities to cater to events such as this. We had about 16 groups presenting to 16 clients about different problems that the clients needed solved. Our consultancy project consisted of market entry modes for the offshore wind parks in the North Sea (I cannot say more due to a disclosure agreement).

Starting Monday I will start the second block of classes. This block I will be taking Global Marketing, Entrepreneurial Start-Up, and Corporate Communication as classes. The entire block itself is only 7 weeks long but the Entrepreneurial class will only last 4 weeks as well as the Corporate Communication class.

It will be a very busy block as I will also be going to Budapest, Hungary for the CEMS career forum in November. This is organised by CEMS where all the students in different countries doing the CEMS Master’s program can come together and meet our corporate partners and partake in skill seminars.

At the beginning of December we will also have the CEMS Annual Event in Rotterdam which will take up quite some time as well.

Below you can find: Pictures of Rotterdam, Pictures of Rotterdam Port/Harbor, Pictures of Putten

These are in three separate bunches, so you will have to scroll down a bit.

The link for the Port of Rotterdam expansion plan: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/62104524/