INSEAD Blog by Zanat0s the INSEAD(er) @ Tokyo ! The Biggest among INSEAD MBA blogs. Insead is over, blogging not.

a short trip to London!

One year after INSEAD started and almost 2 months post Graduation reunions have started. Most of my class and generally INSEAD have moved to London, either because they want to work there or simply that is where jobs are. This weekend was full with planned meetings and random ones.
What was really surprising in 4 days I bumped into 6 different people whom I didn’t expect to meet. I met up with two old schoolmates of mine at a tube station out of the blue; I met with 3 INSEAD alumni in various places in London. In London I stayed at my childhood’s best friend place and also caught up with friends from Greece and from INSEAD. Of course that meant a lot of food intake.
While I have been waiting for my working Authorization for Japan( a lengthy process which keeps me occupied in Greece) I decided to do something productive with my free time. The 2 INSEAD parties/events taking place in London this week was a good incentive to travel within Europe. Unfortunately the 2 events were taking place at the same time so I had to make a choice. I went for the Valmont party where there were a lot of people participating. It was also a nice opportunity to meet up with various people with whom I ad contact but hadn’t met up personally.
On Friday night we had a Greek INSEAD dinner at the same place where other Wharton MBAs had their dinner. Unfortunately our night was cut short since Michael was complaining about walking around without having found a place to go for 2 hours. Something else I learnt in London was it is difficult to find a taxi post midnight. Basically I would have written a more detailed organized entry but I am shocked after finding out that Abe has quit and Japan has not PM. Not the best time to start a career in Tokyo.

SPSD @ INSEAD: The Final COuntdown! and a Big UPDATE

The Crazy team blog has been inactive for 2 weeks but it is back for more. The previous week we held a very informative meeting in which everybody displayed his final concept/idea. It was fascinating to hear everybody going through his/hers proposals and explaining how he came up witha soltuion(feasible or not).

What was even more itneresting was how every each one of us prepared and presented his "ideal" luggage. Vikram Natarajan who is an IT consultant had some really good ideas. Fadi Shamaa had some great ideas and his sketches were good too. Ashvin came up with some interesting concepts which can be implemented easily. I had only 2 concepts that were developed in publisher. Lisa and Clair bombarded us with ideas and drawings.

Today we will finalize the offering and prepare our presentation more in the next update.

Interview with the Crazy Claire

finally the interview is uploaded, for all of those who want to know how the crazy team operates wait no more...

Click HERE

MRs Gerhardt won't give any more interviews.

INSEAD: SPSD, Another video and the prelude to today's meeting

I have neither the time nor the material to write today's  meeting. After yesterday's Class Fadi suggested to meet on Wednesday @ 10.00 Am. I told him to send an invintation and check if it collides with any1s schedule. I couldn't give him an answer because I didn't have my outlook with me. I always have my appointment @ outlook. Fadi didn't check our combined schedules and send an email. I found out that i had a meeting on Wendesday form 9 to 12 Am that was scheduled 2 weeks before. I wouldn't be able to attend the meeting and I rainchecked. of course now everybody had to be notified of the changes....... Vikram woke up at 12.20 last night to hear it from me.... In the end nothing happenned. Some peopole turned up for the 10:00 AM meeting while others didn't. In the end everybody got frustrated and we met at 17.30 for a very productive meeting. You can read about the results ASAP(need Claire to mail me the photos).

Surprise... Here is the video of our voting process, courtsey of Ashvin Bhatia!

leave your comments~! someone....

INSEAD: SPSD, Caveat to the viewers, free video

It is incredible in less than 10 days this page, as a part of Brutal Facts Blog has attracted more than 300 visitors. I hope this keeps on. As a good marketeer and showman i will provide the viewers with the video of what students said about the problems with travel.  But before that since I have your attention now let me update you with our progress. As mos INSEADers know, INSEAD students travel, a lot. Ashvin Bhatia and Lisa katsouraki are two on the field researchers did some work and came up with some very interesting data.  our team  based their actions on the responses we got. That's how we ended up with bags....

On Tuesday we had one of the best sessions: Creativity. Honestly i never believed there could be a useful session about Creativity. Thank god our teacher, manuel Sosa, proved my wrong. It was so interesting and beneficial. I feel so much stronger now thanks to him. Our team will try to apply his teachings during our project. We had our meeting on Wednesday but more about this on our next post. now enjoy the video

Problems with Travel: Presentation to the class

Hallo everybody,

         It was a tiring day but finally we can rest after posting this entry. We had session 9 today. Our group had to prepare a presentation regarding our project: Problems with travel. Session 9 was devoted to all groups. Each group would have 9 mins to present its case.

The presentation should give a clear example of what the problem/issue in question is plus how the team reached that decision. It was suggested that each team needs to assign roles to every team member and place some rules. Then every team needed to explain to the audience what it would do in order to satisfy user need, whether these Latent , linear or must have needs. It was also recommeneded to provide the audience with a visual of how the team worked and collaborated.In the End the team would do some Q&A if time permitted it.

What was the story behind our presentation then? First of all Kudos to Mr Fadi Shamaa, Mrs Claire Gerhardt and Mr Ashvin Bhatia. They were the ones who put in most of the work and with almost no help. They put together a very professional presentation that adressed all of the professor' s demands.  You can view the presentation here.

I took the lead and decided to present along with Mrs. Gerhardt. I felt really strong about the issue at hand and would try to utilize my core strengths, passion and energy. My group raised my self-confidence and i didn't want to let them down. I practiced the presentation around 1.5 time! The time limit was a constraint since out of the 9 available minutes 4 of them were video clips, courtesy of Mr. Bhatia, who created a fantastic clip.

So guess what... Our Group was the last to present.... The food cart group used some of the time reserved for us. I was anxious. Could I deliver in such a short time? The professor took some minutes for us. I didn't make a good start so i had to make up for it in the end. I activated my crowd pleaser. This was the beginning of a new century. The DAWN of a NEW ERA. As long people smile i will always have the strength to make them see the sunny side of life.

Now the group will work even better. But to be honest now we have the difficult task of COMING up with a product. And to be honest I do not think we have the capability of coming up with a blockbuster product within a month, while other companies have been trying to come up with one for the last 50 years. But we wouldn't call us the crazy team if we weren't capable. Right?

Problems with travel: Sport billy

wouldn't it be great if you could have SPort's Billy Bag? the magic bag that can carry everything....

Problems with travel: Claire Gerhardt, our Project Leader and inspiration

designers are always more useful. they think outside the box and see events and meaning that business people cannot see. Claire is a designer, but if you get to know you will think you are dealing with a Manager or a business person. According to her coworkers from California she is so hard working and dedicated that you are wondering if she in the right job? Claire was originally the person who came up with the project idea. People liked it and she made it to the top 8. Now instead of teaching her how managers behave, she is doing this for us...

a final reminder. There is an interview with Claire which can be downloaded HERE(the file will be upload later today, due to size restrictions).

Problems with travel: Meeting 2

On tuesday our team got together for the second time to go on with the project. We had to report back with our findings and our progress first of all. problems with travel is a very broad theme  and if we didn't narrow it down sown enought we would face problems on our way. After giving each one of use specific problems we face with travelling we categorized them in 4 types

1. Information/ Services
2. Luggage
3. Time
4. Resting/Comfort

All of these are needs that still haven't been met or if so not adequately. of course not all of them are equally important. For example some needs if they are met will be "delighters"(needs that increase satisfaction, but are not necessary), on the other hands there are some other problems that require immediate attention, these are the "the must haves". Unfourtunately the group members have limited time, as all of them have other things or appointments to attend to. This limits our coordination capabilities but at the same time increases the need for better coordination and efficiency.

It was interesting how each one of us approached the matter. Everyone of us has a different approach. For example I am a guy who values rest and leisure so resting for me was an important problem that i want it solved. Fadi on the other hand is more business focused and hates "losing" time at the airports. Lisa who is more fashion consious is dissatisfied with the current offering of luggage at the market. As for the collection of data Lisa observed people at the airport(no she didn't go to travlel for the weekend... she conducted research), fadi thought about his experiences, Ashvin tlaked with people and I sent emails to the readers of this blog.

At the meeting while we were listing the problems Vikram was the coordinator and we had everyone list his/her findings first. After the process was over it all came down to the bitter truth. The team needed to select which problem to tackle. It was a difficult decision. Some of the most interesting problems were either too much for the team, or simply were time consuming. The team cast their votes. Final Results?

Luggage - Resting =  4 Vs 2b

Winner: Luggage

This list was the final problems. now Luggage would be our focus. Everybody had to go but we had to prepare for the presentation on Thursday. We would meet for that on Wednesday. So luggage it is.... The teams has started to know each other. What is most suprsing is although 5 of us are from the same school our relationships aren't very strong. This project is a great excercise for us to build on our relationships.

Coming up with a better luggage is difficult, but not impossible... Get ready the Crazy team will suprise you soon enough.

INSEAD Deisgn Project name: Issues with Travel

The best class INSEAD has to offer is underway. We are learning how to create/synthesize new products or services. 2 weeks ago, like i have already mentioned, every student had one minute to present his proposal to the rest of the class. 50 proposals were presented, each one got rated and in the end the TOP 20 were up for grabs. Each student had to make 3 choices. this was very important and it would determine in which project the student would participate in. It was a very funny excercise because each on of the students had to think clearly had he wanted to do.

Otherwise he would end up in a project that he wouldn't find interesting. I have started to look at "Problems with Travel", although as a business person i have learned to use the word issues and I am trying to come up with a realistic solution to them. Our Team is consisted of 6 wonderful individuals whose great diversity may end up creating a true Breakthrough.

Our Project Manager is Claire Gerhadt a designer student from the States, who may be even better organized than the Business students she is working with. She is Charismatic and will create lean machines out of the rest. She brings to the Group knowledge how product teams work and behave. Lisa Katsouraki or Marylisa Katsouraki is an advertiser from Greece and she just came over from Fonty. As a woman and an advertiser she will be the "slave" of the group. Just not to have any misunderstandings she will be the one who will gather data, conduct research and alayse behaviors.  Fadi Shaama, another inseader from Fonty. Fadi is an advertiser and good at it. He will control the budget(more about the budget in the next paragraph). He will contorl the purse strings and indirectly us.  The team doesn't want to end being dominated by Mr. Fadi so it decided to appoint Vikram Natarajan, an Engineer from Singapore, as a safety check. These two will share the responsibility for the budget. My good friend, Ashvin Bhatia, will do the video editing(more about that in the next paragraph). Ashvin's experience may prove very useful since he is a frequent traveller. Stefanos Konstantinidis, will use his writing skills to report back to general public about the team's progress. He wil also make narrate to the rest of the class and the professor, Manuel Sosa the Milestones. This article is one example of the documentation that will happen.

The team has a budget of 500 Sing dollars that may use as it sees fit in order to accomplish its targets. The team has also been isntructed to document its meetings and interactions so future classes may learn from the teams' experiences and setbacks. Videos and written reports will be distributed all over the globe. This project must be approached proffesionally.

This report will be finished with the publication of the last meeting's results.