A warm welcome to the MBA 33 students, starting pre-courses Although the program officially starts on October 9 th, the majority of the full time MBA participants, especially the international ones, will be attending the pre-courses. This phase is a very important one as it offers extra time to warm up, to get used to resuming study, to get familiar with the School and with class mates, to stroll around Milan, maybe to spend a weekend at the seaside, to make friends.
It's always very exciting to welcome to a new MBA class.
The “MBAs 33” have received the welcome of Prof. Valter Lazzari, MBA director, together with several members of Masters Division staff and some current students of the MBA 32 class, during a welcome lunch.
The overlapping of the two MBA classes, one starting and one finishing the program, is certainly a great chance for the new comers: it is a way to pick up some good tips from senior students, in particular for the international ones, who can specially rely on the students from their own country. It is also an opportunity to join a students' club and work with the previous club members for a few months, learning all what they need to know to effectively launch new activities.
In addition to these unofficial mentors there are also the official ones: MBA students can find a point of reference in some faculty members, available for a mentoring activity. They support students in getting used to the MBA environment, understanding how to get the most out of a challenging program, and offer solid guidance in the most demanding times.
SDA Bocconi Golf Cup 2007 On September 14 -16 the SDA Bocconi Golf Cup 2007 took place in Rapallo at the beautiful Ligurian coast. The event was thought as a continuation of the 2006 MBA Golf challenge, a tournament between the US and Europe following the Ryder Cup formula which will come back to Europe next year. This year's purely European cup did not target only golfers but also non golfers, providing current MBA students and alumni opportunities for golf, fun and socializing at the same time. The sixty participants were a nicely mixed group with about a third being current SDA Bocconi MBA students and the others alumni, MBA 33, exchange students and guests from ESADE and London Business School.
The program included on Friday the proper SDA Bocconi Golf Club 2007 for advanced golfers and a beginner's day on the driving range with a putting competition for non-golfers. Dinner, award ceremony and party took place at the sea in the beautiful Sol Levante club in Lavagna. On Saturday most participants chose to do a boat trip to the scenic villages of San Fruttuoso and Portofino while some others continued the golf activities. The once that hadn't partied enough on Friday could do so at the exclusive club Le Carillon close to Portofino. Sunday was free for individual activities.
For the participants the weekend provided the first opportunity after the summer break to gather at a fun event. At the same time, the tradition of the SDA Bocconi Golf cup was successfully carried forward while some other participants got their first golf-experience in their life. However, the most important takeaway for all the participants was the possibility of socializing in an easy-going way with each other, new students, alumni, exchange students and students from other business schools. There is never such a good opportunity as such an event to meet new people with similar interests in a relaxed atmosphere.
But the joy of the participants is not the only thing that lies behind the idea of the SDA Bocconi clubs. The whole event was organized by the 2007 SDA Bocconi Golf Club, an organization purely consisting of current MBA students. It is the school's philosophy that MBA students should not only study but also actively organize and attend extra-school activities at the same time, thereby applying the acquired managerial skills in autonomously built teams. On behalf of this year's organizing committee I can say that organizing an event such as the Golf Cup is quite a challenging undertaking considering the facts that the support from the school is limited, the academic program is already itself very time consuming and the organizational tasks of the event require a lot of time and patience.
Knowing how to play golf is not enough for the organization of such an event: The members of the organizing committee need to have various skills for different tasks, such as marketing to attract as many participants as possible, negotiation with suppliers to get the best prices for participants, logistics and transport, collaboration with the golf course and planning of the competition itself, budgeting and cash management, fund raising and communication with sponsors and golf press. Furthermore, each club faces competition with the activities of other clubs and needs to attract with its activities potential participants. Teamwork combined with competition: isn't this what an MBA student typically likes? Oliver Schutte, 2007 MBA candidate
The Young MBA Alumni Annual Meeting 2007 at its 5th edition The Young MBA Alumni Annual Meeting 2007 was held on September 14th in the Aula Magna of Bocconi University to celebrate the 5th Annual Homecoming Gathering with the MBA 28, 29, 30, 31 Alumni and the current MBA 32 Class.
The meeting was attended by almost 200 participants and opened with the presentation of the results of the questionnaire aimed to provide support to the MBA community by tracking their professional paths and tailoring activities to meet their specific needs. Valter Lazzari (Full-Time MBA Director) and Andrea Gasparri (SDA Bocconi Managing Director) presented slides and analyzed the data by sector, salary etc.. They underlined how valuable this feedback is for the School: it will help organise initiatives heading in the right direction. Also present were 2 of SDA Bocconi's top recruiters: Gianni Baravalle, Director Marketing & Sales Services - PE Leader Janssen-Cilag Italy, and Sheina Sampson, HR & Recruiting Manager, Bain & Co. Italy, who underlined the strengths of Alumni from the SDA Bocconi MBA. Alberto Grando (Dean of SDA Bocconi) put emphasis on the Young Alumni project highlighting the fact that there is much to be gained for both the School and our Alumni from a closer collaboration and a continuous exchange of information.
The evening was also an opportunity for Riccardo Monti, AMSDA's President, to illustrate the Association's on-going projects and immediate priorities. Riccardo Monti was also pleased to introduce the winner of the BMW 2007 Award for Management handed over by Martin Harte, BMW Italy Finance Manager. An award, "BMW Prize for Management 2007: Generating Customer Value" assigned to an Alumnus/a from the last four editions of the Full-Time MBA who was able to successfully achieve his company's objectives while seeking to produce customer value in every possible way.
Winner of the prize this year was Antonio Pelosi MBA 29. After completing his MBA, Mr. Pelosi took over the management of his family owned 3 Star hotel located in Rome. In only two and a half years, he was able to achieve outstanding results by improving the existing business with a 20% yearly turnover increase, introducing MBO programs and rewarding schemes to improve employees' efficiency and motivation, and gaining a leading position in an international customer satisfaction index. Antonio Pelosi was unfortunately not able to attend the evening.
Additional awards were also assigned by Martin Harte to Antonio Linardi and Aliki Lampropoulou (who just started their course) for the “Outstanding Candidate” and “Women Candidate” which SDA Bocconi conferred to students of the MBA 33 Edition, again thanks to BMW Italy Spa.
During the second part of the evening at the dinner in the Aula Magna foyer, alumni, faculty, staff and guests spent a wonderful evening that ended with the special tasting of a good Italian grappa kindly offered for the occasion by the Distillerie Bocchino.
SDA Bocconi at the WIN Conference 2007: The Female Leadership Journey is the topic of Cristina Bombelli’s speech Invited to join the WIN Conference in Oslo as a speaker, Cristina Bombelli, senior professor of Organization and expert on Diversity Management, will talk about the “Female Leadership Journey”. She can draw from the extensive research carried out within the SDA Bocconi Laboratorio Armonia.
Laboratorio Armonia, in partnership with major companies committed to critical issues such as social responsibility and gender equity, for many years has been developing research on these topics. It also offers specific workshops on negotiations, leadership, interpersonal skills etc, to help women reach success and self-satisfaction at the workplace.
On the basis of this research and of the coaching activity offered to female managers, it has been possible to identify the core problems that tend to jeopardize women's career growth. These so called “toll gates” can become major obstacles and, if they're not overcome, they can lead women, who could otherwise have all the qualities to be professionally successful, to give up their careers.
Consequently many clever women fail to promote changes that could beneficially influence the organizations they work for and the entire society.
“This is why it is important to offer to women support and opportunities to reach a higher level of self-awareness and to improve and diversify patterns of behaviour, activating their own “male part”, and using their distinctive flexibility”, says Cristina Bombelli.
A fascinating path that will be presented at the WIN Conference and within an interactive workshop, with the help of Pilar Chaparro, SDA Bocconi MBA Alumna and professional coach.
Leaping ahead of Harvard, the Bocconi MBA finds favour with international recruiters Four places up in the annual rankings published by the Wall Street Journal, ahead of New York, Oxford and Stanford, according to the verdict of major selectors The selectors of the major multinationals, polled by the Wall Street Journal when compiling the classification of the best Master of Business Administration (MBA) courses, rated SDA Bocconi of Milan highly, placing it at no. 17 (up four places) in the world and at no. 8 (up one place) in Europe in the most prestigious league table, which includes business schools with a strong international profile. To make the classification, the Wall Street Journal questioned 4,430 international selectors, who were asked to rate the schools from which they recruit, under 21 different headings. Another factor contributing to the ranking is the number of selectors who state that they recruit graduates from a given business school, and their intention or otherwise of going back to that school for recruitment. The only schools which make this most prestigious of league tables are those whose MBA graduates are chosen by selectors from companies all over the world. The characteristics which the selectors rate as most important are interpersonal and communication skills, propensity for group work, personal integrity, analytical and problem-solving abilities and a strong work ethic. “Jumping four places was certainly good news for us,” says the director of SDA Bocconi, Alberto Grando , “but the really important factor is the continuing presence of our course, in highly flattering positions, in rankings using a variety of different parameters, because that confirms that our MBA is a truly complete course.” The 17th position in the judgement of selectors is in fact backed up by the 5th, 6th and 6th places among one-year MBAs calculated by Forbes , the monthly journal of the US business community, taking purely economic parameters into account (time to recoup investment, percentage return on investment at five years and absolute return on investment at five years), and the 42nd place in the Financial Times ranking, mainly on the basis of the judgement of alumni.
LA CLASSIFICA COMPLETA
1. Esade (Spa)
2. IMD (Svi)
3. London Business School (GB)
4. Ipade (Mex)
5. MIT (Usa)
6. Columbia University (Usa)
7. ESSEC (Fra)
8. Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mex)
9. Hec Paris (Fra)
10. Thunderbird (Usa)
11. York University – Schulich (Can)
12. University of Western Ontario – Ivey (Can)
13. University of Chicago (Usa)
14. Instituto de Empresa (Spa)
15. Insead (Fra)
16. University of Pennsylvania – Wharton (Usa)
17. SDA Bocconi (Ita)
18. Erasmus Rotterdam (Ned)
19. IESE (Spa)
20. Northwestern University – Kellogg (Usa)
21. Harvard University (Usa)
22. New York University – Stern (Usa)
23. University of Oxford – Said (GB)
24. University of Toronto – Rotman (Can)
25. Stanford University (Usa)
On September 14 -16 the SDA Bocconi Golf Cup 2007 took place in Rapallo at the beautiful Ligurian coast. The event was thought as a continuation of the 2006 MBA Golf challenge, a tournament between the US and Europe following the Ryder Cup formula which will come back to Europe next year. This year's purely European cup did not target only golfers but also non golfers, providing current MBA students and alumni opportunities for golf, fun and socializing at the same time. The sixty participants were a nicely mixed group with about a third being current SDA Bocconi MBA students and the others alumni, MBA 33, exchange students and guests from ESADE and London Business School. 
Invited to join the 
The selectors of the major multinationals, polled by the Wall Street Journal when compiling the classification of the best Master of Business Administration (MBA) courses, rated SDA Bocconi of Milan highly, placing it at no. 17 (up four places) in the world and at no. 8 (up one place) in Europe in the most prestigious league table, which includes business schools with a strong international profile. To make the classification, the Wall Street Journal questioned 4,430 international selectors, who were asked to rate the schools from which they recruit, under 21 different headings. Another factor contributing to the ranking is the number of selectors who state that they recruit graduates from a given business school, and their intention or otherwise of going back to that school for recruitment. The only schools which make this most prestigious of league tables are those whose MBA graduates are chosen by selectors from companies all over the world. The characteristics which the selectors rate as most important are interpersonal and communication skills, propensity for group work, personal integrity, analytical and problem-solving abilities and a strong work ethic. “Jumping four places was certainly good news for us,” says the director of SDA Bocconi, Alberto Grando , “but the really important factor is the continuing presence of our course, in highly flattering positions, in rankings using a variety of different parameters, because that confirms that our MBA is a truly complete course.” The 17th position in the judgement of selectors is in fact backed up by the 5th, 6th and 6th places among one-year MBAs calculated by Forbes , the monthly journal of the US business community, taking purely economic parameters into account (time to recoup investment, percentage return on investment at five years and absolute return on investment at five years), and the 42nd place in the Financial Times ranking, mainly on the basis of the judgement of alumni.
