Dear readers,

Let’s talk about the deep dive challenge, a typical Vlerick Business school experience as it is a real life case and it requires a pragmatic approach. Our deep dive challenge was about forming a strategy for one of the big banks of Belgium.

We started off on Thursday morning and we had to give a presentation to several of the senior members of the bank the next day in the afternoon, so time management was of essence. Even more so, since we had the Morgan Stanley mergers and acquisitions game on Friday morning, but more on that later. Firstly, we got a presentation regarding the current situation of the bank from the CFO. Secondly, we had to split off in groups and analysed the current situation and what potential each of their markets have. It was a challenge with few available information and a lot of room for creative thinking. It was challenging and frustrating at times to find some data and to move to a next step. However the end results of every group were at a very high level. Although, the groups were competing, it does not have an impact on our class atmosphere as you can see in the picture below. We still have a lot of pleasure while doing these challenges. This photo was taken at 2am by the way.

At the presentations we could see the different approaches of each group. Some used a more strategic management approach, like PESTEL, while others used a more quantitative approach. Some even took the threat of Google and its Google Wallet into account. After the deep dive challenge we celebrated the hard work of those two days at the bar of Vlerick Business School.

But let’s go back to Friday morning and the Morgan Stanley M&A game. Here we learned from several Morgan Stanley investment bankers how they do deals. The business game focused on the negotiating part of a deal, where we had to come to an agreement or not. Compromising, hard-selling techniques, psychology and quick calculations were in order to reach an agreement. Afterwards, we had to present this to the shareholders of the firm (played by the investor bankers). Here we got feedback on how well we did… or not.

As you might see by now, “work hard, play hard” is more than just a song.

After we had our exams, we visited the Brussels campus in order to meet the corporates. Here we could network with a lot of interesting companies and get to know what kind of trainee programs or job opportunities they offer.

Next stop is across the border in the Netherlands, where we had the opening seminar. A perfect opportunity to be outside Vlerick Business School after the exams in a relaxing setting, where we were able to get to know one another again a bit better. You might think, did you not do this during the first month? Well, not enough. After getting to know oneself better in terms of cognitive and interaction styles, we did different exercises on how to act in teams and reach a predetermined goal. Our first evening, we organised together with MGM Aramis from the Leuven campus, a theme party “Beauty and the Nerd”. See the pictures below to get a general idea how memorable this evening was. The next days, we had different sessions on communication skills, different cultures and learned how fun it is to brain storm. To wrap up these amazing days, a show with a lot of movies, music performances and imitations were performed by each class.

On the 6th of October, the MFM praesidium organised a trip to the football game of AA Gent – Genk in the new football stadium of Ghent. Unfortunately, AA Gent did not win, nevertheless this did not affect the amusement of the group.

Cheers,

MFM ambassadors

Dear Readers,

Although the first semester is almost finished, we are going to give you a quick update the next few days on what has happened these last lovely 4 months.

Let’s start at the beginning of our great time here at Vlerick Business School, so that means the first day of school. This was Wednesday the 4th of September. After the initial introduction and the energetic class picture, we set out in the afternoon to get to know each other a little more and to show the city of Ghent to the internationals of our well diversified class. So we went on a typical tourist boat trip where it became clear that Mohammed (from Egypt) knew more about the city than the local boys of Ghent. Afterwards, we bonded with the class in a typical way that students do on a sunny day in Ghent, sitting at the Korenlei with some drinks.

If we did not know how the program would be like, we definitely did after the Godmother and Godfather event with the MFM students of last year. Hearing about their experiences at Vlerick Business School, their funny insights on the professors and the events during the year, it was a great evening. However this came at a price, we had to “perform” an act in order to be bought by them for some consumptions. They were lucky that MFM students always come to the rescue: [youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/Z_WRok3MNKo”]

After some weeks, our class was the first to give a party for all the masters and since pictures say more than words. Here are some:

Enjoy! “The best is yet to come!”

The MFM ambassadors

Dear reader,

After more than two months I finally found time to give you a first update!

I can still remember the start of our Vlerick Business School experience as if it was yesterday. Approximately fifty students, all of us wondering what the “business casual” dress code really stood for, gathered at 9 AM at the Ghent campus. The first chats with our new Athos-classmates started during the morning and went on during a sunny lunch break. After the first course in the afternoon, our first day at Vlerick ended at 5.30 PM – correction: that’s where it normally should have ended… –

Our group, MGM Athos, decided to meet at 9 PM at the AB Inbev lounge, because we wanted to “get to know each other in an informal way”. Without going into detail, I can assure you we did.
Credits must be given to Lore – our programme manager – to envision this, by having planned our first day off on Thursday (which a lot of us used to enjoy their first hangover of the year).

The next three weeks consisted of introduction courses and, whereas most of my university friends were still returning from their exotic holidays, at Vlerick the first exams took place already.

It gradually became clear that the “work hard” phase would surpass the “play hard” phase sooner than we expected. The Vlerick experience was (and is) having a huge impact on every single one of us.

During the first 2 months, Athos shared blood, sweat and tears together, trying to tackle the Deep Dive Challenge, group assignments, new exams and more group assignments. But in the end we are still alive and kicking! The reason for the latter is probably because of the fact that we also shared a 3-day seminar in Holland and a lot of fun, laughter, parties (and beers) together!

In an effort to combine both, it was no surprise that the days passed by in no time. Also some things have changed compared to day 1:

• Sunny lunch breaks are over, say welcome to lunch meetings to discuss strategic cases.
• We never use the word AB Inbev Lounge, it’s called Swa’s bar (named to the awesome bartender).
• Getting to know each other  is now called networking.
• Athos is now better known as Athosphere.

And to conclude, and probably the most important change: classmates have become best friends.

Talk to you soon!

Jeroen Van de Sompele
————–

Feel free to connect if you have any questions!

Jeroen.vandesompele@edu.vlerick.com
@JeroenVdSompele
be.linkedin.com/in/jeroenvandesompele/

We kicked off this week with the inaugural activity of the Sales Club here at Vlerick. Now in its third year, the Vlerick Sales Club has grown from being sponsored by one company into one that currently has around 22 sponsors who promote sales as an attractive career choice for our marketing students.
The evening began with a welcome note from Vlerick’s Dean and was followed by two testimonials from last year’s winner of the sales competition, Rebecca and Thomas. The next part of the agenda was a lively discussion with 6 sales directors and 2 HR directors on their thoughts about current issues in sales and also some pointers to our young students.
We wrapped up the evening with a networking event where the students could go around talking to the different companies and get some well deserved goody bags.

Prof. Deva Rangarajan

A Brief Overview of our Sales Initiative: http://youtu.be/zEibecx2NqU

Check out our new sales initiatives at: http://sec.vlerick.com

On the 12th of September, our Leuven campus had the pleasure in welcoming back MGM alumni from last year. The reason they were returning to their familiar learning ground, was to share some tips and tricks with the new Masters students of this year and officially pass the torch to the next generation.

At 8.15pm last year’s praeses kicked-off the event with a presentation on the Aramis 2013 journey at Vlerick Business School. They offered some insights in the important milestones of their year, stories and achievements, all coloured with a nostalgic feeling. They also highlighted one of their most important achievements, the fact that they had raised 1000€ through events. This budget was allocated to an international student’s scholarship for the next academic year.

They ended their presentation by appointing godmothers and godfathers to current students based on common backgrounds and nationalities. What followed was a night of sharing in an informal atmosphere and a nice gathering in the lounge.

The Vlerick Masters Office

Monday evening marked an important milestone in the history of our School.
Following the launch of our new identity one year ago, we celebrated the inauguration of our new campus in Brussels. This coincided with the Official Opening of the Academic Year 2013-2014, which made it all the more special.

All of our current students, faculty, corporate partners and some alumni, were invited to witness the event in Brussels.
The evening started with a welcome speech by our Chairman, Prof. Louis Verbeke, welcoming all attendees. Our keynote speaker, was the Flemish Minister of Education, Mr. Pascal Smet who offered us some inspirational words and interesting food for thought. Afterwards, our Dean Prof. Philippe Haspeslagh officially declared the Academic Year as opened and both proceeded to unveil the new campus.
After the ceremonial ‘cutting of the ribbon’, everyone was invited to share a glass and a tour of the new campus.

Check out our Youtube video below for the official unveiling
[youtube_sc url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2vqfhmnUw”]

Finally, the academic year 2013-2014 has kicked-off and we welcomed 250 students, from 54 different countries! As our 5 Masters programmes had their official kick-off on Wednesday in both Ghent and Leuven, our students can now start their Vlerick journey.

After a warm welcome by the Programme Director and Programme Manager, everyone had the chance to get to know their fellow classmates. The day continued with an introduction from our Careers Services and a helicopter view of what the year would bring. Afterwards, it was time to take a tour around the campus and discover where the classes, events and even late night brainstorming sessions would take place.
We wrapped up the day, by taking a group picture per programme, outside on the steps of our atrium. After some directives from the photographer, everyone smiled brightly on this first official Vlerick day.

The Vlerick Masters office

On the 2nd of September, 2 days before the official Kick-off of the Masters programmes, we welcomed 42 of our international students at our Ghent campus. Most of them had just arrived a few days earlier in Belgium and we wanted them to have all the info they need on living in Belgium, housing, travel and health insurance.
We started the day with a welcome by Prof. Marion Debruyne, Director of Masters programmes, together with the programme directors and managers of the different programmes. Then, we moved on to a presenation on health insurance, given by Euromut. Afterwards, our international office explained some more in detail all aspects of living in Belgium and more precisely, living in Ghent and Leuven. We concluded the morning with a guided tour through Ghent, to get a feel of this historic yet lively student city. Looking forward to seeing all students arrive on the 4th of September, so we can officially kick-off the academic year 2013-2014!

The Vleick Masters Team

The MFM class went on an inspiring trip to London at the end of January 2013 to visit some of the most renowned companies in the financial industry. More than half of the class was already in London during the weekend, to enjoy this beautiful city and to find some places to go to on the free evenings. The snowy winter weather almost prevented the rest of the class that would arrive on Monday morning, to be on time at Bloomberg. Luckily, they could take an earlier train and so they did not lose their attendance. Here is a small overview of the company visits.

The first visit was to the London office of Bloomberg, the reference in the industry of financial data provision. The class had the opportunity to follow a session concerning the use of the Bloomberg Terminal, the most widely used tool for financial information in the world. To get this session from Bloomberg employees was really inspiring. They gave us more insight on how the Terminal could be used, what are some key lookup functions and what are new features that recently have been made available on the Bloomberg Terminal. Later, a tour around the building pointed out how many different departments there are at Bloomberg and it showed us that providing high-level financial information and being the first to release financial news requires a huge and highly-skilled workforce. Every floor has enormous fish tanks and adapted lighting, which created a unique working atmosphere. Right before leaving, a former MFM student who currently works there wanted to speak to our programme manager to find out more about our visit. A wonderful first company tour that evoked our enthusiasm for the following visits and that reminded us why we chose to study this finance programme.

At Oliver Wyman, the visit started with a short overview of the company, the culture, the people and the recruitment process. Quickly we jumped into a practice case to be solved in small groups of 5 to 6 students. The market share of new current accounts in the UK for a major local retail bank had to be estimated. To be able to solve the case, we had to provide advice on the steps that the bank could take to grow the business profitability in this specific segment. A consultant walked us through the case, as he would do during an interview. Main takeaways were that structure and asking the right questions are vital to solving a case in a correct way. To conclude the afternoon, Oliver Wyman offered us a drink, which gave all of us a nice opportunity to talk with the consultants and learn more about the company and the life in London. In the evening, many students explored Chinatown, went to one of the cosy restaurants and later had some beers in a typical British pub.

On the second day, there was a company presentation of JP Morgan in a conference room of a hotel. First, there was an introduction to the firm JP Morgan and more specifically to the department ‘Asset management’. An introduction was given by Tom Vermeulen, who is JP Morgan’s senior sales for the Benelux, followed by a session with Dan Morris, an executive director at JP Morgan and a well-known global market strategist who is daily on Bloomberg TV and who is regularly invited to talk on the business channel CNBC. Not surprisingly, the session he provided was full of interesting market insights. The economic trends in the past 5 years and future outlook were discussed, focussing on five categories: the European economy, the global economy, equities, fixed income and ‘other assets and investor behaviour’. Keen questions were raised about the effects of the euro crisis on investing and the impact of regulatory interventions. After this presentation, JP Morgan Asset Management offered us a lunch where we had the opportunity to network with the people from JP Morgan. Among them was Christophe Timmermans, an alumnus of the Vlerick MFM programme who is currently working as a finance analyst at JP Morgan.

The first visit to Morgan Stanley consisted of a presentation by the sales and trading team. Being seated in a beautiful conference room, the class was introduced to the company, its divisions and brief history. After the introduction, three employees of Morgan Stanley were willing to provide us more information about their jobs. All three presentations started with the employees explaining how their common days looked like, which pointed out that they have to work long and hard. A ticket to London is obviously not obtained without effort. The most appealing part of the session was when each presenter gave examples of what he actually did during his job in the form of a quiz. Presenting through interaction got everyone’s attention and made us think about how the markets would react on certain information and how to deal with this. After the presentations, the Q&A session was mainly dominated by questions concerning the economic expectations and reasons why London is such a good place for the financial firms to be located. Morgan Stanley’s analysts have a rather good expectation of 2013 and they foresee an economic revival soon. Hopeful words to conclude an exciting visit.

After a day of banking sessions, the MFM class was invited to the Royal Anglo Belgian Club to network with Belgians who are working in the financial sector in London. There were many intriguing people with a lot of experience who could provide us with tips & tricks to get our way into London. The variety of profiles and age groups made it possible to get an idea of various financial positions, and to make up your mind on which position you would really see yourself working later. It was also an opportunity to talk some more to the people we met earlier that day and to further explore the London nightlife with them.

The third day of the London trip started at Lloyds, a company that is located in an amazing building designed by the famous architect Richard Rogers. A brief review of Lloyds’ particular history was presented, explaining how it started as a popular coffee house for sailors, which later became the biggest ship insurer in Europe. Despite the radical change of the nature and environment of the company, it maintains its tradition of having “coffee-boys”. The second part of our visit to Lloyds consisted of a guided tour of their impressive building. The guide ended up being the well-presented gentleman that first hosted us. Interestingly, he is the only remaining “coffee-boy” of the company. The most outstanding part of the modern building is the hall where the trading floor is located. Thanks to Lloyds’ powerful brand name, it is able to gather 88 syndicates (other companies) on its trading floor. In this big area, all the brokers from the 88 syndicates have a desk and deal with policyholders.  At the time of our visit, this space was still very quiet because the activities start after 11 AM when most of the brokers arrive. The visit to Lloyds allowed us to gain better exposure to the world of insurance and to gain a new perspective into the industry.

In the afternoon, it was time to visit ESCP Europe, the oldest business school in the world with campuses across Europe. It started off with a short presentation about the fundamentals of trading, after which we were introduced to a trading simulation by one of the host professors. The trading simulation mirrored a real-life trading environment and we had the opportunity to buy and sell two fictitious stocks. A lot of excitement was in the room, and you could feel the tension of having to meet deadlines and closing orders at the right time. Besides the trading game, there was also a session that gave us a broader view about the financial markets in general. Having been exposed to the trading simulation, one could really understand how certain basic principles in finance are easily overlooked when being in a situation of tension and stress. The host professor who was in charge of the trading simulation gave us the opportunity to play the trading simulation once more, which was highly appreciated by certain students. Competition was on again! Later the evening, we went to some pubs and eventually ended up in a club to celebrate this wonderful London trip.

On our last day in London, Royal Bank of Scotland invited us to attend a presentation on risk management at their head office. The people from RBS had put in their best effort in order to provide us with an insight in how the bank manages its risks on a day-to-day basis. The way risk management is applied at RBS has undergone a tremendous (r)evolution since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the resulting financial crisis. Instead of being considered just as an advisory organ without having too much input, the risk department has gained an increasingly important role in the bank’s daily operations. This growing culture of risk management contributes to RBS being a more resilient and sustainable company as it defines the framework and boundaries in which specific departments, such as for instance sales and trading, can operate. By applying various methodologies such as value at risk, credit value adjustments for counterparty credit risk, stress tests, etc. the bank succeeds in clearly identifying, measuring and controlling its exposures to certain risks while delivering its business objectives. Due to its increasing prominence, risk management has become genuinely indispensible in modern day banks and the people from RBS succeeded well in conveying this message.

Our second visit to Morgan Stanley included the Private Wealth Management (PWM) department of the bank. A thorough explanation was given on the different services offered by Morgan Stanley concerning PWM. The speakers also shared the view of Morgan Stanley on the future of PWM. After this elaboration on PWM, the subject of the presentation changed to what young starters should be aware of when entering the labour market. They provided us with tips and tricks on how to obtain the job of your dreams. First, the cover letter is more important than we assumed. It is your chance to make up for the imperfections in your CV and to stand out compared to other candidates. Next, preparation is everything. You should not only refresh your knowledge related to the specific job content but also look up the background of the person who is interviewing you. Furthermore, it is important to behave in a confident manner and be proud on your achievements so far. However, the line between being confident and being arrogant is thin, make sure to never cross it! Finally, we received the opportunity to ask questions relating to PWM and the job search process. Unfortunately, this signified the end of our London trip. Some lucky people extended their London journey and stayed with friends or family for a couple more days, but most of us were going back to Belgium late at night. On the Eurostar everyone was extremely tired, but that was all worthwhile. Certain special moments we encountered in London will be in our memories for the rest of our lives.

Check out more pictures in the London Study Trip album on the Facebook page.

Best regards,

Jente