At IESE Barcelona convocation of Easaw George

With family ..

Our son Easaw George finished an exciting two years of study in Spain. He had his MBA  convocation in IESE Business school, Barcelona on 20 th May 2022 in the IESE campus in Barcelona, Spain. We went from Bangalore on 18th morning, reached Barcelona and attended the convocation ceremony in person. A very joyous moment. Our flight took us via Frankfurt with a 2 hour halt there. At the Barcelona airport we met other IESE students and parents with their partners and parents.  Barcelona and Madrid are the two most important cities in Spain which was once upon a time a colonial power that extended its reach to North and South America, the reason why one still finds lot of Spanish speaking people in North and South America. IESE was established with strong support and backing by Harvard in 1958 and is the only Harvard established institution outside the United States. Toledo near Madrid was the capital of Spain until the fifteenth century.

About 350 students attended the convocation which was presided over by the IESE Director after a mass at the IESE chapel. Junetio Maetsu, Dy. CEO of Ikea global was the main speaker at the convocation, who also happens to be an IESE alumnus. The IKEA Dy. CEO was mentioning the importance of being global, trying to understand the customer better and provide him with more value that what he could think of. 

If you ask any IESE student, they are more close with their class group of size 10 than with other students in the class of 50. Easaw's class of 50 students were from 40 nationalities. Thousands of hours of discussions , assignments, role plays etc with the group members have cemented their relationship with the group very stronger.

 

In convocation robes..

All the while I was proud of our son securing an admission at IESE on his own merit with a good GMAT score, but was humbled on learning that some of his classmates at IESE had GMAT scores of 770 out of 800. We should realise that a 730 out of 800 could get one into the prestigious Harvard Business School, considered to be the mecca of business education in the world.  These students with 770 GMAT score, preferred to study in IESE instead. I feel, there is some solid reason why they prefer IESE over other schools. The 350 students of the IESE 2022 passing out batch came from 60 countries of the world, no Institute in the world has such variety of intake, with a few Olympians also joining. With these smart students, we took the time off to share in their happiness and of their parents and relatives, exchanging pleasantries and good wishes for their bright future. It was very interesting interacting with native Spanish students and their parents to understand more of the Spanish culture.

 

In discussions with friends and colleagues it was indeed striking to note that IESE was 2021 global #1 in the 178 year old The Economist rankings (click here). But at the IESE campus I was surprised to find no mention of the Economist rankings, instead they were mentioning the 138 year old Financial Times global #4 rank in MBA (click here) and global #1 rank in Executive Education in 2021. 2021 was a great year for IESE. It has got #2 rank in 2022 global rankings in executive education (click here). 2022 MBA rankings will be out in a couple of months. 

 

A proud moment

At the IESE entrance we were welcomed by a quadruped robot,  I forgot to take a snap of the same, one thing I really missed. The robot was also keeping a tab on all visitors at the IESE campus. After the mass at the chapel from 3-4 pm and a sumptuous tea, the convocation started in the top convocation hall on the terrace from 5 PM and went onto 7 PM followed by an extravagant dinner in the same premises up to midnight. Because of the long ceremony, I could not meet any of the Professors of Easaw, I missed a golden opportunity there too. Though some of them had expressed the desire to interact with parents, sadly it did not materialise. If I had met them it would have given me a better understanding of the expectations and standards of world class management education.

As regards collaboration with other Institutions by IESE, I was told by Easaw that IESE would think twice or even refuse a proposal for collaboration, unless it is really global in intake and offering and there is something reciprocal for IESE to benefit from. A collaboration with other Business schools of the world is totally out of contention unless it is in the top ten or twenty.

To realise that our son was fortunate enough to study at this business school is truly humbling. God has been kind. Also to get an attractive placement with Amazon leadership team was indeed a great blessing from God. While at IESE captaining the IESE basketball team, Easaw brought back a couple of championships to IESE in Barcelona based tournaments. A personality  with equal interest in sports, games, interesting past times like skiing, scuba diving as much as in education, reading, travel, exploring etc by understanding the nuances of the global business environment is how IESE has transformed him.

It is happy to note that Easaw and his batch mates have become the alumni of a great global institution and would be banking on that association throughout their lives to add value to the organisations they work as well as to themselves and their alma mater. 

 

In short, their 2 year study at Barcelona brings a mix of great experiences, friendships and happy memories.

George..