The past 3 days have just been an absolute whirlwind of activity. Most of my section mates came in on Friday complaining about aching muscles they never even knew they had due the physical exertions of OBS the day before.
Friday was a slightly later start for us, which proved to be a lifesaver later as the Bain sponsored welcome week party was that evening. Needless to say, it was a the most eagerly awaited event of the entire orientation program (yes, even more than the 9-6pm introduction to general management the following day - SATURDAY!!!)
I thought that having Business Ethics as our first class was a timely reminder to all of us of our moral obligation to "do good". Given the financial scandals of the past decade ranging from the collapses of Enron, WorldCom, Lehman Brothers to the fraud practiced by individuals such as Madoff and Stanford. An interesting comment from the Dean at the very start was:
"While I blame the CEOs of these organisations for their wayward leadership, the rest of the management are guilty as well, guilty of failing to speak out about these questionable practices. Some of those managers must have known and yet they all quietly marched on."
The number of real life examples brought up in class highlighting various mistruths and lies from peoples' own experiences really reminded me that it's a minefield out there. You really have to be careful and you have to watch that you don't fall down the slippery slope yourself.
As for the Friday evening party? Let's just say that having a poolside beach party with about 200-300 people and lots of alcohol is definitely going to be a very wet affair. As far as I could tell, definitely marketing dollars well spent as a lot more people were talking about Bain and wanting to attend the presentations to learn more.
Saturday was just a very long and somewhat painful day, eased slightly by the fact that the Prof. was fantastic. Really high energy, really engaging. It's amazing he's that enthusiastic about the material given that it was the 3rd day in a row he was presenting the exact same thing. Mention the name "Erik Weytjens" and generations of INSEAD alum will give a knowing smile. Apparently the case that he discussed has been around for years and it's essentially a right of passage for incoming MBA students to go through this intense 1 day introduction. Interestingly enough, the protagonist is an INSEAD alum who used to be a consultant before moving to a line manager role. I found it to be a fascinating case study made all the more real with an accompanying video of the protagonist as he sets up the situations then explains what he did.
That evening I took the chance to invite out various members of the section for a seafood dinner at Jumbo Seafood. Judging from the messy table and the satisfied sounds coming from the people seated around the table, I'd say that they enjoyed their introduction to Chilli Crab and the accompanying seafood dinner. I personally find great satisfaction in sharing good food with other people. Sitting down to enjoy a good meal is something pretty universal. Hopefully there'll be other chances in the future.
As for Sunday? Let's just say I was really glad to be able to catch up on sleep. It's gonna be a really intense 10 months and I'll take whatever sleep I can get!
No comments:
Post a Comment