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/

De Vanenburg, Putten

Internal Analysis Team and External Analysis Team
My Consultancy Team: External Analysis
L-R: Aleksandra, Christoph, Krista, Jade
Entry gate to Vanenburg
De Vanenburg


Stage for presenting the consultancy findings

Port of Rotterdam Pictures

Rotterdam Pictures

Kralingse Bos, the bike was used as a barrier to keep the rather large ducks from running at me
View on my way to the university, Kralingse Bos
Kralingse Bos
My closet is now used for studying purposes and not just clothes
On my way to the university, Kralingse Bos
Kralingse Bos
This week's morning sun, view from my house
Kleiweg, home in Rotterdam

Events

It’s been a few weeks since my last update, or perhaps a month, but as anticipated the study load has been very intense. We are near completion of the first bimester so I will have final exams in 2 weeks. Between now and then, a lot will have to be done.

Last week we had a project to do at Procter & Gamble for our Global Supply Chain Management Class. This was very interesting since P&G is a very large multi-national company. Most of us use P&G products one way or another. Some commons brands are: Dreft (Dutch brand of dish soap), Ariel (Dutch laundry detergent), Gillette, Herbal Essences shampoo, Head and Shoulders shampoo, Pampers, Oral-B floss en toothpaste, Wella hair products, and Pringles chips.

We had to do a forecasting project for one of the Dreft products (forecasting demand for an 18 month period). It was interesting and very intricate.

Each year this Master’s program CEMS, has an annual event which includes the graduation of this year’s students as well as networking, decision-making, and discussion boards to improve the programme. Each year it is held in a different country and this year it is in Rotterdam. So the University, faculty and students are very excited to host this event. All CEMS students from each country will graduate in Rotterdam. Also present will be Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2006 who will join for a symposium on Social Business and New Capitalism. The Annual Event will take place 30 November – 4 December, 2010. http://www.cemsevent.com/

Since I am the treasurer for the CEMS Club Rotterdam, I will be quite busy during this event. Along with the other members of the board, we will be 100% involved in the event and we have already started organizing many aspects of it.

So along with studying day in and day out, we as individuals and as the class are very busy. The CEMS Club also organizes many social events. Last weekend we had organized a running dinner, which is actually a “biking” dinner. This was an absolute success! It is one of the best ways to mingle with classmates and to get to know each on a different level than just studies and projects. Our “biking” dinner consisted of 18 teams of 2 people. Each team was in charge of cooking a certain course of the meal. So some groups cooked appetizers, others the main course, and others the dessert. Where the “biking” comes in, is between each course: you bike to another house to eat the next part of the meal. And each time you switch houses, you end up with new people. So for example, my friend and I cooked the appetizer at my house, and at 6pm 2 other teams came over to eat (so you only had to cook for 6 people). An hour and a half later, the three teams each went their separate ways (on the bike) to another team’s house to eat the main course. After another hour and a half, each team went to another house to eat dessert. Every time you switched a house, you ended up with different teams that came from other houses, thus, you were never with the same people you had your previous food with. So basically we ate for 6 hours straight. The food was absolutely amazing and the social aspect was unforgettable and it’s a great way to see the city as you are trying to find the house where the next meal is at. The committee that organized this definitely had a complicated logistical task!

Also, for next week the CEMS club’s humanitarian committee has organized a cruise in harbour of Rotterdam to raise money for Schools in Africa fund. It’s a great cause and it will be interesting to see one of the biggest ports in the world.

(Picture of P&G below)

Procter & Gamble project

RSM – Rotterdam School of Management – Erasmus Universiteit

To give some insight of the university, I was told that the university is actually named after a Dutch philosopher named Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) who is also from Rotterdam. He was a philosopher and Renaissance humanist nearly 500 years ago.

Erasmus has some wise words:

“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.” -Desiderius Erasmus

"I am a citizen of the world, known to all and to all a stranger." -Desiderius Erasmus

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny." -Desiderius Erasmus

The first week has been rather intense but also very interesting. The semester is split into bi-mesters so I have 2 classes (International Strategy and Global Supply Chain Management) for the first 7 weeks and then 2 classes the second half of the semester. Whilst doing the first bi-mester, I will also be doing a consulting project for a Dutch company. We will determine the feasibility of providing a maintenance and reparation service to off-shore windmills in the North Sea. The company falls under the larger umbrella of Gas de France who is focused a lot in the oil and gas industry.

When I was in Norway last week, for the seminar regarding climate change, innovation and social corporate responsibility, we had 2 guest lecturers from two Norwegian energy companies, Statoil and Statkraft. Both companies are in the oil and gas industry but also focus heavily on renewable energy. Since then, I’ve become a lot more interested in renewable energy and I’m very excited that the Dutch company chose our team to complete this consulting project. I cannot go into too much detail because of non-disclosure aspects, but I think it will be very interesting to become involved with an interesting renewable energy project and to see if it is feasible for this company to service windmills that stand in the sea.

This week we also had a guest lecturer to speak about International Entrepreneurship. His name is Jan Baan and he is a multi-millionaire in Holland. At one point he was actually a billionaire, but that changed one night but he still had several millions in the bank so he just went back to being a multi-millionaire again. Some years ago he started the Baan Company, a software company that obviously did very well. He gave everyone a copy of his book “The Road to Market Leadership”. It’s in Dutch but you are more than welcome to borrow it! (Also available in English, on-line I’m guessing).

This weekend I will move into my apartment in Rotterdam which I’m looking forward to, especially because I finally get to bike to the University every day rather than taking the train and tram. Ask me again after it has rained like mad if I still enjoy it then! :D