News & Events

This year, as every year, almost 500 women – and a few men – representing more than 60 nationalities, gathered in Prague to take part in the twelfth annual W.I.N Conference. Since hosting the first edition of the conference in Milano, SDA Bocconi School of Management has supported this unique event.

For this edition, W.I.N. Founder and Director as well as SDA Bocconi Alumna Kristin Engvig, has chosen an ambitious title: Wisdom in Action. The theme was chosen in order to highlight the decisive role women can play as change agents, both in the professional and in the socio-cultural environment.
The extensive goals of this meeting are clearly defined: it provides not only a great opportunity to monitor women’s career progression inside companies and to compare best practices on Diversity Management, but also a precious occasion to reflect on the need for a contribution towards sustainable and shared development.

The Conference is also the place where companies can tell their best stories. For example, Shell’s commitment to provide awareness for the solidarity campaign for AIDS sufferers in Nigeria, presented through a memorable video. In addition, the success story of Unilever which found itself amidst a controversy when working on the relaunch of the Dove brand. The company decided to make a campaign out of the controversy by daring to propose a more realistic image of women by drifting away from the current models of ‘perfect and unreal’ beauty. The big corporations are not the only ones who have interesting stories to share: SDA Bocconi Alumna Lorella Zanardo, MBA 1984, also aroused great interest from the audience by presenting her documentary “Women Bodies” . Speaking out against the abuse of the female body in Italian television programs, both private and public, this documentary caught the attention of Italian and international media, and newspapers such as Le Monde and the New York Times gave it great reviews.

Another important SDA Bocconi Contribution to the Conference was from SDA Bocconi Professor and Executive Master in Strategic Human Resource Management Director Silvia Bagdadli. During a plenary session, she illustrated on the basis of various research, the positive and decisive impact that the correct use of all the HR management levers has on the company growth in a concrete way.
During the three days of the Conference, plenary sessions alternate with workshops, networking and coaching sessions. In addition, the Corporate Forum opened the conference. This event was reserved for WIN’s sponsors, which include IBM, HP, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Shell, Unilever, Herald Tribune and others.

Bettina Gehrke, SDA Bocconi Professor, introduced the experience of the Diversity Management Monitor Centre during the conference, underlining that, in the Italian social context, women still have many difficulties to overcome in order to conquer spaces for their professional growth.
The Observatory proposes several different instruments to support women and has created a network of partner companies to collaborate on these topics.

On 5th October SDA Bocconi gave a warm welcome to the 2009-2010 FT MBA participants during the MBA 35 Opening Ceremony that involved Faculty, staff, ‘expert’ fellow students from the graduating Class of 2009 (MBA 34) and many other members of the SDA Bocconi MBA community.

Although many participants had already been attending MBA pre-courses from 7th September to tune up with the study life and the overall environment, the official opening of the 35th MBA edition took place on Monday 5th October, when the whole MBA 35 class of 116 new students from 31 different countries gathered for the event.

In the early afternoon the new MBA international students had the chance to receive some useful tips and advices from different staff members, starting from Valter Lazzari, MBA Director, that gave an overview on Italy and the current economic situation, touching upon the most relevant aspects of the political, social and administrative life in Italy, from the point of view of a foreigner living and working in Italy. Later on, Simone Consonni, Student Relations, talked about Milano and gave the students some practical information on the city life, how to move around and ‘survive’ paperwork without stress. Last but not least, Arianne Orillac, MBA 34 student, shared her ‘intelligence’ on Milano with the audience: how to live the city, where to go to eat and have fun, and best places to be as an international student.

This initial ‘orientation’ was followed by the actual ‘Opening Ceremony’ at 7 pm: participants received welcoming speeches from Dean Alberto Grando, Andrea Gasparri, SDA Bocconi Managing Director, Lucia Benedetti, Operations Manager, Riccardo Monti, AMSDA President and Valter Lazzari, MBA Program Director. The celebrations ended on a high note with an aperitivo followed by a dinner.

Like every year, September means fun, sea and racing for the sailing lovers that take part in the MBA’s Cup - Mediterranean Regatta & Conference, organised by SDA Bocconi Sailing Club.

The sixth edition of the regatta took place on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th September, in the harbour of Santa Margherita Ligure, and saw the HEC crew routing out the other teams and winning the Cup. Second place went to crew born from the collaboration between two Schools of Management, the American Kellogg (Chicago) and the German WHU (Vallendar), while the Canadian Sauder School of Business (Vancouver) reached the third place. SDA Bocconi crew, 10th in the final ranking, redeemed itself by winning the amateur regatta.

Organised by SDA Bocconi Sailing Club in collaboration with the Italian Yacht Club, the 2009 MBA’s Cup saw the participation of sailing teams from 14 Business School worldwide, for a total of 260 students and alumni, representing 37 different countries.

Since 2004 the MBA’s Cup has represented a major annual appointment for MBA students alumni and professionals, giving them the perfect chance to share their common passion for sailing and to network.

After the regatta, a conference on Sustainability: the Challenge for Tomorrow's Leaders was held on Saturday afternoon. The speakers, moderated by Prof. Maurizio Dallocchio, included: Jack Lowe, President Blue Orchard; Pietro Scott Jovane, Managing Director Microsoft Italia; Francesco de Leo, Executive Chairman Green Comm Challenge; Giorgio Lazzaro, Director Gabetti Agency Retail & Santandrea; James Reid Noble, Managing Director Deloitte Financial Advisory Serices.

At the end of the conference the 260 sailors took off their sportswear and continued the celebration with a gala dinner at the wonderful Cervara Abbey in Portofino.

Final standings:
HEC
Kellogg-WHU
Sauder
Insead
Instituto De Empresa
Warwick
WHU
Columbia Business School
Chicago Booth
SDA Bocconi School of Management
London Business School
RSM Erasmus
Wharton
Duke

Participants Business Schools:
Chicago Booth; Columbia; Kellogg-WHU; London Business School; Sauder; Warwick; Wharton; WHU; HEC; Duke; Insead; SDA Bocconi; RSM; Instituto de Empresa

With the collaboration of:
BMW, Deloitte e Santandrea.

SDA Bocconi MBA students are invited to compete for the A.T. Kearney Global Prize

As part of the long-standing collaboration between SDA Bocconi and A.T. Kearney, SDA Bocconi MBA students have been invited to compete for this year’s A.T. Kearney Global Prize, 13th Annual Strategic Case Competition. The selected teams from top business schools will compete in the European final in London on 20 November 2008.

For the past 12 years A.T. Kearney has hosted this case competition for top business schools, including, among others, London Business School, Rotterdam School of Management, INSEAD, Kellogg, Columbia, and Wharton. The Global Prize takes the form of a simulated strategic client engagement, developed from a real A.T. Kearney client project. The competition comprises a number of rounds, culminating in a school final, regional final and the appointment of a global winner.

Besides cash prizes for the winning teams, participants in this competition have the opportunity to meet fellow MBAs from other top B-Schools at the European final in London, as well as to get in touch with their local A.T. Kearney school team, learn about consulting and demonstrate their consulting skills. A really unique opportunity for our students.

For more info and registration: cds@sdabocconi.it

Marketing and DiVino Club Event

Thanks to the joint effort of SDA Bocconi Marketing Club and DiVino Club, on 21st September an event took place on the topic “Marketing Management: How Market Research Supports Strategic Decision Making in New Product Development”.

Aim of the event was to inform the future marketing managers about the latest tools and procedures available in market research to support the decision making process for the launch of new products. The event represented a great opportunity for participants to face a topic that is becoming more and more relevant in a time of high uncertainty and risk avoidance, as the current one. In fact, it is critical for new managers to have a solid ability in forecasting their product success.

The event has been coordinated by Nielsen Bases with a presentation and a panel discussion with special guests coming from prime companies, followed by a delightful ‘aperitivo’.