We can not disclose a lot about the programme, as it has some surprises for the participants. What we can advance is that the day will start wiht the welcome of Hugues Pirotte, director of MBA Solvay.

They will then have their first course with marketing professor Christian Bluemelhuber. This is a one day special course to get the brains rolling. The only thing we can advance is the title: Why Strategy?

If you do not know Christian Bluemelhuber,  he holds the InBev-Baillet Latour Chair in Euromarketing at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. These videos will give you an idea of his style and what his courses are like. They were recorded during The Top Managers Event 2008, where Christian gave the presentation Successful leaders on Customer focused strategies in a worldwide economy.

After this course, the participants will be given a set of tasks to accomplish downtown, with a final debriefing and networking session in the center of Brussels well into the night.

Welcome to the MBA rush!

The presentation’s tips and tricks were structured around the following areas:

• Working harder
• Resisting stress
• A better office
• A better time management
• Targeted personal finance
• Set your objective
• Set your leadership
• Set your team
• The small business cockpit

Patrick M. Georges is a professor in management, an active neurosurgeon and an expert consultant to managers. He advises and teaches managers worldwide on how to improve effectivity at personal, team and business levels. He invented the Management Cockpit, a war room used  by worldwide business managers now included in the SAP software.

You can download Patrick Georges’ presentation slides by clicking on this link: How to amplify your intelligence: Tips and tricks from brain surgeons to entrepreneurs .

This presentation was possible thanks to the MBA Solvay sponsorship of the Beta Group. Beyond the financial help to a great entrepreneurial initiative in Brussels, we try to bring a short  by one of our instructors or coaches that is relevant and useful to the audience.

Our prior presenter and first of MBA Solvay was Pascal Ledouble, who made a presentation about how to sell yourself doing short pitches and to cause a good first impression. Pascal is one of the professional coaches working with MBA Solvay students to help them develop their interpersonal skills, under the direction of Kay Lombardo and Bob Ward.

The Beta Group is a networking initiative promoted by Jean Derely, where local start-ups showcase their products for five minutes and then are exposed to a few questions from the audience. The Beta Group is the best and more popular Internet business networking event in Belgium. Among its participants you can meet investors, entrepreneurs and professionals open to discuss the business and new projects.

You can see the videos of the presentations done by the start-ups in the site of the RTBF Labs, who transmitted the event live for the first time.

Ivan Veloso, class of 2010, made a video and decided to share it: “I appreciated very much the experience we had in HK and recommend it to our colleagues.”

João António, Class of 2009, also wanted to share a little more about his experience:

Hong Kong was not what I expected. It had a lot more variety than I had anticipated, and I got that feeling after only one day there. It was exactly as I had pictured the city, big buildings and bright lights. We had to weave our way through crowds of people as headlights flew past besides us. Even as the clock approached midnight, the streets were still filled, the neon lights were on everywhere, and the shops were all-go. In fact, when I walked the same streets the following morning, the same dynamic was present, very impressive, and very vibrant.

The learning experience was unique! I had the opportunity to share experiences with a very international group of participants and learned a lot about one of the most important markets in the world. A top learning experience in one of the best business schools in the world (Hong Kong Business School)!!!

The course addresses the economic, social and political situation in East Asia, with a special focus on Hong Kong and mainland China. It takes place in Hong-Kong, Southern China and Macao, in the context of a partnership between MBA Solvay and Hong-Kong University. The course is led by Elfed Vaughan Roberts, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong, with the support of professor Antonio Nieto-Rodríguez, from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.