2014 Brussels Student Board Newsletter

Student Board Newsletter

Brussels 2014

C E M S S t u d e n t B o a r d

NEWSLETTER

Brussels 2014

CEMS Student Board Meeting


Brussels 2014

15 Interview: New Executive Team

Global Sustainability17

Who are your Student Board

Representatives?21

Corporate Relations11

19 Alumni Relations

MIM Affairs9

5 Marketing & Communications

CEMS Club Support7

3 Outgoing Executive TeamTable of

Contents

New Student Board President23


Brussels 2014

Outgoing Executive Team

3

Dear Reader,

After 12 months of presidency, we as the

former Executive Team have the honor and

pleasure to write to you to reflect back on

this past one year, hand over our

responsibilities to the new Executive Team for

2015 and thank you for your support.

Our journey led us half across the globe

representing 1200 students as best as we

could.

Among our key achievements, we count the Global CEMS Sustainability Week, the CEMS

Ambassador Programme, the roll out of the Local Governance Structure of all CEMS

Schools worldwide & the closer collaboration with the CEMS Head Office. Our strategic

goal was to establish stronger long-time relationships with different stakeholders. We

considered this the first step for the students’ voice to be heard even more.

Looking back, this past one year has been full of great responsibilities, meeting new people,

cultures and stakeholders, while representing the students’ voice. Both professionally and

personally, both of us consider this to be an experience we will cherish for our whole life.

We second the opinion of former presidents, who said that this has been one of the most

challenging and yet most rewarding experiences so far. We also believe that the friends we

made, the difficulties we have overcome and the learning we went through have shaped

and influences us noticeably.


Brussels 2014

4

Acknowledgements

We want to thank you all for

your support and hope to see you again

someplace, sometime.

.

Best regards,

Rimli Das Gupta & Robin Vlaming

President & Vice-President/Treasurer 2014,

We would like to thank every individual and organization who has supported and

guided us as the Executive Team but also personally: The CEMS Head Office, the CEMS

Alumni Association, all Student Board members, all students who gave us their trust

and all CEMS Schools. In particular we extend our gratitude to UCD (Dublin), Koç

University (Istanbul) and LSM (Brussels) for hosting us and our Student Board

Meetings and making our journey memorable.

With the Brussels Meeting and the CEMS Annual Events we officially welcomed the

new Executive Team, Karel Kotoun, Merve Önbas and Arthur Brun and handed over

our responsibilities. We are glad be succeeded by such a dedicated and proactive team

and are confident that the Student Board is and will be in good hands.

Finally we would like to take this opportunity to encourage every student to take a

closer look at what the Student Board is engaged in. Our purpose is to represent the

students’ voice of every single CEMS Student and enhance their CEMS experience.

Therefore we animate all CEMSies to proactively get in touch with their Student

Board representative, when they face any issues where the Student Board can support

them both locally and globally. Our goal is to support you in living and enhancing the

CEMS Spirit.


Brussels 2014

Marketing and

Communications

5

The Brussels meeting was busy for the M&C team, as we had to take care of merchandise

sales during the Annual Events in addition to participating in the Student Board meeting.

Nevertheless, the meeting was very valuable for the team and we achieved many of our goals

for the meeting. Our top priorities for the Brussels meeting were increasing merchandise sales,

welcoming a new team member and coordinating our projects with the Head Office.

Merchandise Sales

We encourage students and anyone

interested in merchandise to get in contact

with us if you have any feedback.

Firstly, since our 2014 Career Forum sales

estimates (made during the Istanbul meeting)

did not materialize during the Career Forum

in Vienna, we had to figure out a new

approach to selling CEMS merchandise during

the Annual Events. We decided

it was important to have more points of sale

and to market the possibility to purchase

merchandise at the Annual Events well in

advance. Fortunately, this strategy seemed to

be successful, as we managed to increase our

sales figures from Vienna. If interested in

merchandise, make sure you check out

www.cemshop.org!


Brussels 2014

6

Secondly, we had the chance to welcome a

new team member: Eve Di Bian from

Tsinghua. Eve joined the team at the perfect

time, as the new Executive Team is re-

aligning the Student Board’s goals to focus

on increasing CEMS’ visibility in Asia. Eve will

be a valuable asset in helping achieve this as

she has extensive local knowledge.

New Team Member

Send us an email to:

marketing.studentboard

@cemsmail.org

if you have any ideas or

comments!

Best from the M&C Team

Sara, Leda, Tere, Dominik & Eve

Thirdly, we had the chance to discuss our

projects with the Head Office’s Marketing

Manager, Rebecca Rosinski, the Corporate

Relations Managers, Tara Miller and Marcel

Fuchs, and the Executive Director of the

CEMS Alumni Association, Wieteke Dupain.

We are extremely pleased with our

discussions, as we were able to coordinate

several joint marketing initiatives. Following

these discussion, we have decided to start

promoting the Job Market more through

social media and doing short interviews on

all the Alumni participating in the Alumni of

the Quarter campaigns.

Current Projects

Our priorities for the end of the year are first

to sort out the merchandise stock and

coordinate further points of sales, continue

finding new and interesting content across

the alliance to be shared through social

media to help foster a sense of CEMS spirit.

Looking Ahead

mailto:[email protected]


Brussels 2014

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how we can

help and support your CEMS community locally,

do not hesitate to reach out to any of us, or the

whole team as [email protected]

CEMS Club Support

7

The Brussels meeting was an important milestone in following up on the projects we in the

CCS Team enthusiastically started in Istanbul. As formulated in Istanbul, our overall objective

is to strengthen local CEMS communities by providing support to the CEMS Clubs and

facilitate knowledge sharing among them, as well as between them and the Student Board.

With this in mind, we do believe our current projects fill our purposes well.

The Global Ambassador Program enables

motivated CEMSies a chance to provide the

CEMS Club at their host school with

additional support in those cases the local

Club is newly established or is struggling

with setting up sustainable structures. During

the fall 2014, 9 ambassadors have done an

amazing job at their host schools, and we

look forward to evaluate the semester and

find ways to improve the program.

Recruitment for the spring semester is

happening within the next few weeks, so if

you wish to contribute to the development of

the CEMS Clubs worldwide – do not hesitate

to get in touch with us.

Global Ambassador Program



Brussels 2014

8

Closer CEMS Club Contact

How to best share best practices among

Clubs remains a burning topic on our agenda.

In the upcoming weeks, we will restructure

the platform used by the CEMS Club

Presidents in order to improve user-

friendliness and make sure relevant material

is accessible. We

hope this will help you Presidents to manage

your Club and find some new ideas. A review

of the CC Awards will also be done in the

beginning of 2015 in order to align the best

practices gathered via the awards, with

current needs of the Clubs.

CEMS Club Knowledge Management

All the best,

Your CCS Team

Antoinette, Clara, Nelli

& Saurav

As decided in Istanbul, the CCS Team account

management structure has been piloted

during the fall – a structure we are very

proud of. Via personal calls with each CEMS

Club President (24 out of 29 so far), we have

been able to gather information regarding

what each Club is working on and struggling

with. Not only did the calls result in new

ideas for future projects in the Student

Board, but also gave us lots of inspiration and

motivation to make sure we support the local

Clubs in the best way possible.

Looking Ahead

Looking forward, the question we as CCS

Team are now facing regards how to best

structure our work in the future and

standardize the data gathered in ways that

make it useful and accessible also in

upcoming semesters. This is crucial in order

to be able to leverage the success of current

projects and eventually also be able to start

new ones. This is particularly important as

several of our team members will end their

term in the Student Board in the upcoming

months.

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how we can support your local Club, do not hesitate to

reach out to any of us at [email protected].



Brussels 2014

MIM Affairs

9

The LGS project aims to collect best practices

from different CEMS Clubs and create a

unified structure and communication plan to

implement in all CEMS member schools.

Before the Brussels meeting, MIM Affairs has

conducted a questionnaire on how local

CEMS Clubs communicate with other CEMS

stakeholders, such as Program Manager,

Academic Director, Alumni, etc. In

collaboration with the Alumni Relations Team

and CEMS Club Support Team, the findings

were further elaborated. The MIM Affairs

Team will keep on to support the rollout and

implementation of LGS.

Local Governance Structure (LGS)

The Brussels meeting was a great experience, as the MIM Affairs Team welcomed two new

members, Tamás and Jaime. Led by team leader Konrad, MIM Affairs continued to emphasize

on improving the quality of MIM experience and expanding the CEMS member schools

network.

Student Board Level Peer Review

During the meeting, MIM Affairs has finalized

the second draft of the Peer Review based on

6 layers: CEMS Club, Networking, Alumni,

Image of CEMS, Corporate Partners and

Career Services. The objective of the project

is to supplement the Peer Review in

Executive Level to receive a more

comprehensive evaluation by including

students’ perspective. Research will be

conducted in qualitative methods, i.e. 1-1

interviews, focus group and self- evaluation

forms. The project will be implemented in

HKUST and IIMC next semester under the

supervision of corresponding Student Board

Representatives.


Brussels 2014

As to further expansion of CEMS member schools, the MIM Affairs Team

would like to take a deeper look into the possibility to recruit schools in

South East Asia to join the CEMS alliance..

10

Internationalization Capabilities Research

As to further expansion of CEMS member

schools, the MIM Affairs Team would like to

take a deeper look into the possibility to

recruit schools in South East Asia to join the

CEMS alliance. The team defined a research

scope and a set selection criteria to evaluate

potential schools in South East Asian

countries. MIM Affairs will work closely with

the Head Office to extend the global reach of

CEMS.

Brussels was the last meeting of the best

team leader, Konrad Semsch, and the most

creative team member, Romain Martignier.

All the best from the MIM Team

Konrad, Romain,

Wini, Tamás and [email protected]

Send us an email at:

Currently the MIM Team members are:

• Wini Yung, team leader

• Tamás Petrovics

• Jaime Perez-Maura


Brussels 2014

Corporate Relations

11

The meeting in Brussels was very productive for the new CP team. During these two days, the

CP team had the chance to collaborate with Head Office representatives, Tara Miller and

Marcel Fuchs.

Prioritizing Communication Channels

The CP team shared the feedback it collected

from MIM team summaries. Tara and Marcel

commented on each of the IT channels and

explained how they see current problems.

The main questions we addressed were:

• Is the channel still viable?

• What can be done in terms of making the

channel more valuable for both CPs and

students?

Afterwards, the team (under the supervision

of Tara and Marcel) came up with a way to

prioritize all the channels.

We also tried to structure our projects. This

helped us to see the big picture of what the

current situation is and how the information

flows between the main stakeholders. Plus,

the team has elaborated on a project

strategy.


Brussels 2014

12

According to our prioritization, the IT

channels will be analysed in the following

order and the following percentage of the

working time will be spent on them: Job

Market (50 %), Company Books (10%), CV

Book (10%), Social Media (15%), Webinars &

Other (10%), Cems.org private zone (5 %).

Each of these channels will be analysed with

the 4 main steps:

1) Problem definition & segmentation;

2) Benchmarking analysis;

3) Survey Analysis;

4) Recommendations & Implications.

As for the survey, the team is planning to

conduct two surveys: one for students and

one for corporate partners, which will include

questions about all the existing IT channels.

Afterwards, the team proceeded with

problem segmentation, that will be used for

analysis of each channel. The main segments

for analysis will be: functionality, content,

interface, frequency. Finally, the CP team

elaborated on a timeline for the whole

project, which will last for 10 months, and

proceeded with the division of the work.

Next Steps

The CP Team is just an email away, write them at

[email protected]

Best from the CR Team

Omar, Carla, Valeria & Aron



Brussels 2014


Brussels 2014


Brussels 2014

Executive Team 2015Karel Kotoun – President

Merve Önbas – Vice President

Arthur Brun - Secretary

The new Executive Team was officially introduced during the Brussels meeting. The newly

appointed President, Karel, is from University of Economics, Prague. Merve, the new Vice

President, is from Koc University. The new secretary, Arthur, is from HEC Paris.

We got the chance to catch up with the newly appointed team and ask them a few questions

about the Student Board and what they hope to achieve during 2015!

The Student Board is there to represent the students within the

CEMS Alliance, on a global level. Every Student Board member

is then responsible for representing his cohort within his/her

Home School, but also towards the other global stakeholders

(Corporate Partners, Alumni, other schools, and the CEMS Head

Office). Thanks to the Student Board, each student's voice can

be heard: we have a good visibility in the Alliance and our word

is always taken into consideration.

Thanks to the fact that the Student Board is also highly

involved in several projects with the Alumni Association or with

the Corporate Partners, we always intent to represent the voice

of students in relation to these matters.

Last but not least, in the Student Board we are discussing all

sorts of questions regarding CEMS, for instance the events

organized in the schools, the promotion of the program, its

globalization, its network, the corporate partners, the alumni,

the integration of NGOs in the program, etc... This is a real

challenge as we are on 4 different continents, but

communication is enhanced by physical Student Board

meetings that happen three times a year in various CEMS

Schools.

INTERVIEW

What is the Student

Board’s role in

CEMS?

15


Brussels 2014

What is the Executive Team’s strategy for

2015?

Our strategy, as the new Executive Team, is aimed

towards two long term objectives: Students and Asia.

We want to focus on the needs and concerns of the

students, who are the core of our wonderful alliance.

Working in the Student Board, we are aware that

communication between all the stakeholders is not

always easy, and we see ourselves as a two-way bridge

between all of them.

We also want to increase the CEMS visibility on this

continent as we think that the future of our alliance

should be across the European boundaries. Continuing

what has already been wonderfully done, we want to

build on the best of the alliance for the students all

over the world.

How can and should students get involved with the Student Board?

Every student can contact us in order to get his message delivered. Representing you is a

great honour and a responsibility we have taken, and we are aware that we are here to

provide the students with a voice in the CEMS community and to create value for all of us

involved. Our increase in visibility and accessibility strengthened our network, as a

consequence, please never hesitate to challenge us on thriving ideas and suggestions

throughout the year. Never forget that you can reach out to your local Student Board

Representative, the project Teams, and the Executive team.

16

INTERVIEW


Brussels 2014

The NGC is the oldest of our projects and one

that we cherish highly. It provides a holistic

real experience to CEMS students that allows

them to apply their skills in a real world

situation, by developing consulting projects

for Social Organizations facing business

related challenges. In this way, NGC is able

to generate an impact at three levels: the

students, the social organizations and the

beneficiaries of these organizations’ work.

For this semester, we wished to increase the

number of NGC projects so that we could as

well increase its reach. However, due to the

fact that our team has to manage other

projects simultaneously, we were not able to

do so, while ensuring the quality of each

project. Therefore, we have decided in

Brussels to initiate the externalization of

NGC from the Student Board and to the

hands of other CEMS students. Through a

workshop conducted with our fellow Student

Representatives, we have received their

inputs regarding which should be NGC’s new

structure.

By the end of February, we shall have NGC

working with a structure that will allow it to

grow and for the participation of more CEMS

students.

You can learn more about NGC at: www.ngccems.org or also by liking

our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ngccems

Global Sustainability

17

We are the Student Board team that aims at enhancing the CEMS program’s capacity to

shape sustainably responsible citizens and leaders. The Brussels Meeting has been essential

for our team by allowing us to evaluate our projects and plan ahead accordingly. This

evaluation and planning was conducted keeping in mind our mission, to offer students the

opportunity to engage in sustainability issues in practical ways, grounded in an interactive

and knowledge sharing environment with fellow students, social and corporate partners.

New Generation Consulting (NGC)

http://www.ngccems.org

https://www.facebook.com/ngccems


Brussels 2014

18

In Brussels, after having finished the first

stage of the CEMS Carbon Footprint project,

designing the framework for measuring CEMS

CO2 emissions, we have decided to focus on

how to offset it before launching an

emissions’ calculator. Thus, we are now

developing the business plan for the

plantation of a CEMS Forest, which we will

later present to the CEMS Board. We would

like this forest not only to address the

environmental dimension of sustainability,

but also the social and economic ones.

Therefore, we are looking for locations, tree

types and partners that will allow it to

involve and generate gains for the local

population.

The Brussels SB Meeting was also gave us the

opportunity to evaluate GSW and to compile

the take-aways for next year’s edition. GSW

took place between the 20th and the 24th of

October, with the participation of 18 schools

and many more CEMS students. It was with

great happiness that our team witnessed the

engagement of so many CEMS Clubs,

students, faculty and Corporate Partners with

sustainability issues.

During GSW, events took place at the global

level with the CEMStainability Challenge:

daily challenges covering the topics of

consumption, transportation, water and

energy, trash and food were launched on

Facebook, incentivizing participation through

the awarding of prizes.

At the local level, schools and their CEMS

Clubs organized a number of events, inviting

their students to participate. These events

ranged from trash collections, to blood and

charity donations, to seminars and

workshops. Together with other

sustainability-related activities that have

taken place during 2014, GSW’s activities will

be featured in the CEMStainability Booklet

which we are preparing at the moment.

CEMS Global Sustainability Week (GSW)

CEMS Forest

Best from your

Global Sustainability Team

Merve, Filipa, Karel, Philip

and Sergi

If you want to send us any ideas related to the projects we currently manage or if you have any idea

for a new project, please send us an email to: [email protected]



Brussels 2014

The team benefited from the

participation of Wieteke Dupain,

Executive Director of the CAA

Alumni Relations

19

After the Istanbul meeting, the AR team has

worked on the Local Governance Guide (LGG)

that aims at improving CEMS stakeholder

interaction at the beginning and end of the

semester in order to facilitate planning and

timing of common local events. During a joint

meeting with the MIM Affairs and CCS team we

received valuable feedback on the LGG and

further planed the first steps for its roll-out in

two pilot universities in the upcoming spring

semester.

Local Governance Structure

For the Alumni Relations (AR) team, the central theme of the Brussels meeting was inclusion of

stakeholders, where the feedback of all Student Board teams and CAA members on our ongoing

and new projects was gathered. In Brussels, we have successfully finished our projects aiming at

promoting the value and visibility of the CAA. In the upcoming months we will continue to work

on the Local Governance Structure the IdealAlumni Survey and start to plan the Global Alumni

Week and the Alumni of the Quarter & Throwback Thursday campaign.

Global Alumni Week (GAW)

A GAW will be planned and implemented by

our team in order to create more engagement

among alumni, corporate partners and students

and communicate the power and value of the

CEMS/CAA network among these stakeholders.

In Brussels, the feedback of all Student Board

teams gathered during a joint workshop on the

GAW helped us in collecting creative ideas for

local and global implementation of alumni

events and in improving its overall structure.

Especially learning from the expertise of the GS

team after the successful implementation of

the GSW was highly valuable. The GAW is

planned to take place in the spring semester

2015 for the first time.


Brussels 2014

20

Value and Visibility of the CAA

In Brussels the AR team has continued to be

in close collaboration with the CAA to

improve its value and visibility among

students, graduates and Alumni: Prior to the

Annual Events the CAA Information Booklet

to outline the value and function of the CAA

was shared among this year’s CEMS

graduates. Moreover, for the first time during

the Annual Events in Brussels our team has

supported the CAA in its promotion by

implementing a CAA picture frame featured

photo shooting and distributing the CAA

Information Brochures among graduates.

These initiatives aim at supporting the CAA

by establishing a solid presence at the Annual

Events, where most decisions whether or not

to join the CAA are made. Finally, the

IdealAlumni Survey, which evaluates opinions

of alumni on the CAA, will be distributed in

early 2015.

During the Brussels meeting we sadly said goodbye to our teammate and friend Dominik

Tartler, who has been a strong and inspiring Team Leader in the past months.

Best from the AR

Team!

Diana, Andrea,

Dominik & Tutku

If you have any comments or ideas related to Alumni, send us an email to

[email protected]

This project formerly started out as ‘Alumni of the Month’ in 2013 and continued as ‘Alumni

of the Quarter’ in 2014. In 2015, the Alumni of the Quarter campaign will be accompanied by

the Throwback Thursday campaign. This joint project with the M&C team aims at creating

more visibility of Alumni within the CEMS community through Facebook posts featuring the

election's candidates on Thursdays.

Alumni of the Quarter & Throwback Thursday


Brussels 2014

AALTO

Sara Montonen

sara.montonen

@cemsmail.org

CBS

Tutku Altinbas

zubeyde.tutku.altinbas

@cemsmail.org

CUB

Nelli Gyöngyosi

nelli.gyongyosi

@cemsmail.org

EAESP – FGV

Romain Martignier

romain.paul.martignier

@cemsmail.org

ESADE

Sergi Capdevila

sergi.capdevila.vilaprino

@cemsmail.org

GSOM

Valeria Kovalenko

valeria.kovalenko

@cemsmail.org

HEC

Arthur Brun

arthur.brun

@cemsmail.org

HSG

Dominik Gerber

[email protected]

HKUST

Wing Yung

chiu.wing.yung

@cemsmail.org

IIMC

Saurav Nandi

[email protected]

IVEY

Omar Itani

[email protected]

KOC

Merve Önbas

[email protected]

21

Student Board

Representatives


Brussels 2014

22

NHH

Aron Berhe

[email protected]

NOVA

Filipa Correia de Araújo

filipa.correia.de.araujo

@cemsmail.org

NUS

Diana Ho

diana.ho.shu.li

@cemsmail.org

RSM

Sinan Al-Mansour

sinan.al-mansour

@cemsmail.org

SGH

Konrad Semsch

Konrad.semsch

@cemsmail.org

SSE

Clara Nordlander

clara.nordlander

@cemsmail.org

Tshingua

Di Bian

[email protected]

UB

Andrea Marino

andrea.marino

@cemsmail.org

UAI

Maria Teresa Montiglio

maria.teresa.montiglio

@cemsmail.org

UCD

Dominik Tartler

dominik.tartler

@cemsmail.org

UoC

Philip Kettelhodt

philip.kettelhodt

@cemsmail.org

USYD

Carla Külby

carla.alina.kuelby

@cemsmail.org

VSE

Karel Kotoun

karel.kotoun

@cemsmail.org

WU

Tamás Petrovics

tamas.petrovics

@cemsmail.org

LSE

Jaime Perez-Maura

jaime.perez-maura

@cemsmail.org

LSM

Antoinette de Hennin

antoinette.de.hennin

@cemsmail.org


Brussels 2014

Student Board President 2015:

Karel Kotoun

23

The forthcoming year, altogether 1198 students will be enrolled in the CEMS

programme. It is a brilliant experience to live through the recent developments of the

CEMS alliance, both internationally and qualitatively speaking.

It is then our responsibility, as the Student Board Executive Team to make sure that all

the students’ voices within the Alliance are heard in order to maintain the world’s

leading position in management education.

Me and my team we are very much looking forward to the forthcoming year during

which we would like to focus on 3 major issues: improving the students‘ visibility,

increasing internal Student Board efficiency and incorporating the Asian schools more

closely into the CEMS alliance.

Improving the visibility of the SB in order to increase the students’

voice through more efficient internal and external communication

within the CEMS Alliance, with a specific focus on CEMS Asian

schools within the next years.

Word from the President


Brussels 2014

24

Annual Events

Best regards,

Karel Kotoun

Student Board President

The 2014 CEMS Annual Events held in Brussels by the Université catholique de

Louvain were a mixture of excitement, emotions, friendship and productivity. The

direct inclusion into the flow of the core CEMS events was mesmerising. We really

want to thank LSM for their help and their warm hospitality that made the Annual

Event a wonderful moment.

The following CEMS years will be amazing in the sense of being able to see CEMS

Alliance grow qualitatively on various fronts.

For instance, we will be experiencing the inclusion of Blended Learning into the CEMS

curriculum which will enhance the learning experience as well as the knowledge

sharing across the continents. Additionally, more thorough connection of Asian CEMS

universities will furthermore strengthen and boost the excellence that CEMS pursues

in order to form the next generation of Global Responsible Leaders.

We feel honoured to be part of such organisation and at the same time immensely

motivated to fulfill our objectives. We are certain that thanks to the joint efforts of all

of us, we will be able to move CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education one

step closer to Excellence.


Brussels 2014

November, 2014

We want to extend our gratitude to

for hosting the Student Board Meeting

Documents

2014 Brussels Student Board Newsletter