Berlin insights

At a conference in Berlin I recently spoke to a German elderly man almost 80 years old. It turns out that he was offered by his employer in the 60s to do a fully sponsored MBA at IMEDE (which later became the IMD). He had just become father at the time, and thought that with a law degree of Harvard he would anyway not need further qualification to make a successful career. And so he turned down the offer. Although he actually had a successful career with banks and insurances and later with Siemens, this man of almost 80 years tells me in 2011 that he should have done the MBA in the 60s. I then describe to him what the programme looks like today, what major efforts students and their partners and families from all over the world undertake to study at IMD, and I also mention the current fee. I was arrogant to turn the offer down, he says with a smile.

The conference was the annual meeting of a network of Germans working in an international context, from business, public sector and academia. This might look like a strange concept, but in order to understand one needs to go back 60 years in history. The circle was established just after the second world war with the aim of reconnecting post-Hitler (West) Germany with the world - at a moment when one could have thought the world did for obviously good reasons not want to have anything to do with Germany. Just like the members of this network, the weekend was inspiring, and I think I felt a tiny little bit of the 'excitement of the new' which the MBA students must feel constantly. One of those weekends with a lot of discussing, meeting new people and listening to good speakers.

A US professor heading the Max Planck Institute for meteorology explaining to us that climate has constantly changed throughout the history of our planet. However, the speed at which it is happening is 40 times faster in the last 50 years than it used to be for billions of years. A guy of the earth observation mission of the European Space Agency presenting what is possible to observe and measure and analyse with the help of all these satellites up there. The US ambassador in Berlin proved to have good entertainment skills, paired with substance. He is actually one of the personally appointed, 'buddy of Barack' type ambassadors in the US system - a former senior director of Goldman Sachs for whom the ambassador salary is certainly only pocket money. He explained very well the restrictions for Obama to take a lead on fighting climate change: restrictions stemming from domestic politics at a time where economic recovery and job creation are the undoubted top priorities for (almost) every US citizen.

My personal highlight of the weekend was Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a leading thinker of the new Russia. A brilliant analytical mind, he spoke about the need for economic, social and political modernization, while setting out the politico-strategic restrictions stemming from history when it comes to today's Russia embracing (or not embracing) the West.

So this was my weekend two weeks ago. In the meantime, I have been to Lausanne (and had the pleasure of prolonging my visit by a day because I fell sick!) and will go again tonight. So my next entry will probably be more Lausanne focused again, maybe about skiing, or a delayed easyjet flight...