After 8 years or renovation the new California Academy of Sciences, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, opened its door to awe thousands of visitors with its innovative architecture and its spectacular exhibits.

At 2 pm on Saturday, the 289-foot Maltese Falcon, the largest private sail-propelled yacht in the world, designed by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, made its entrance into the San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate, sporting its beautiful computer-controlled sail system.

Things to be proud of.

More often than not, the typical request that lands on my desktop goes something like this :

Dear Sir/Madam,
My names is ____________. I am a student/manager/entrepreneur/professor/engineer and I have created/studied/developed/built/designed/launched this beautiful piece of product/research/technology/service. I am looking for a job/partner/internship/customer/investor. Here’s a brochure/patent/website/
If you think this is interesting and you can help please reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
______________

I am oversimplifying to make a point here. The point being that it is near to IMPOSSIBLE to do anythng meaningful with this request! If I am to help I need to:

• Know what you can do
• Know who you want to do it with/for
• Be able to process a referral in the most economical way

So, before you ask for help, check your script against these simple rules:

1. Tell what you do. Do you explain in a two line paragraph who you are or what your company does, what you top expertise is, your top achievements and skills. If not, write them down. In two lines.
2. Tell what you want. Do you explain exactly what company you want to work for or with? Who you want to connect with? Be specific and succint. Limit your targets to one industry, one function, three companies. Give names and specifics.
3. Make it easy to help you. Share all your contact information in a way that makes it easy to forward your request. Your Linkedin or Xing profile, your cell phone, Skype name, Twitter account, you name it. Those are formidable promotional tools. Include a one-paragraph, plain text description of your background, company or product. Something that can be easily pasted on an introduction email.

I have been there. I know how it feels when so many opportunities are in front of you. The temptation to “stay broad”, avoid specifics is strong, least you miss on the “dream job” or that “killer deal”… In the end the friction caused by a poorly focused request will cost you more than the value of any option you keep open.

Recommended to any startup entrepreneur.

Note: the video is in Italian.

It took a few weeks, but the video is now available on vator.tv.

Your Truman Show is bringing a new Widget, called Video Map, to the world that’ll work in Facebook and other Web hosts. This Widget lets you present your video stories in a new way: as a map. Here Matteo Fabiano, COO, talks about the new Widget that was presented at the Demo 07 conference earlier this week.

The official announcement recites:

“Hosted in the heart of Silicon Valley at Stanford University, the Conference aims to disentangle the drivers of innovation in the economy and the role of universities, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and corporations in promoting new ideas and technologies.

Open to MBA students, PhD students, GSB alumni, Stanford students and alumni, and professionals, the event engages distinctive policy makers, businesspersons, and scholars in the debate on the enablers of innovation in both technology-intensive and traditional sectors.”

Overall, the promise was kept. The organizers put together a great series of panels (5) and, with only some exceptions, panelists and moderators were able to keep the conversation lively throughout two long weekend days. Speakers included Guerrino de Luca, CEO of Logitech, Enzo Torresi, venture capitalist, serial entrepreneur and 30-year veteran of the high-tech industry, Paul Romer, the leading US economist, Jeff Jordan of Paypal pedigree, Diego Piacentini, SVP at Amazon, Marco Milani, CEO of Indesit, Roberto Crea, biotech pioneer and serial entrepreneur, and as the keynote speaker, Eric Schmidt of Google.

I have to admit I was a tad underwhelmed by Mr. Schmidt’s address, though it touched upon some very interesting trends such as reputation systems and personal data portability. I found the talk engaging but certainly not earth-shattering, especially the Q&A that followed. You have the top man from what is arguably the most influential and powerful company in technology today and 50% of the questions focus on the mechanics of one M&A deal? Sure, the YouTube acquisition is important, but is it as important as issues such net neutrality or the inadequacy of copyright law on the web, or government regulation of access to information?

While day 1 was mostly centered on software and internet innovation, day 2 switched to innovation in “traditional” industries and biotech. The two Sunday panels were probably the most interesting. Kudos to organizers and the panelists for taking a non-obvious angle on innovation.

A few random tidbits from the two days of conversations:

• “Don’t bet against the internet”, Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google
• “Entrepreneurship can be taught”, Tom Byers, Professor, Stanford
• “Entrepreneurs are born”, Enzo Torresi, VC
• “I am the most unemployable person here”, Greg Waldorf, CEO, eHarmony
• “Innovation is how to maintain margins with a 5% year-on-year price erosion”, Marco Milani, CEO, Indesit

See you next year.

Link to the original BAIA blog post.

I could not find a copy of the document in English, so I will summarize here its key elements. The original publications are available from the Ministry’s website.
The government overall 2007 policy objectives center around 4 key priorities:

• Maintenance of the “Made in Italy ” brand
• Reduction of Italy ’s gap in those markets where the country’s share is lower than the world average
• Incentives for the internationalization of firms operating in high value-add sectors
• Continued support to international IP protection programs and treaties

More interestingly, the Ministry is focusing (and therefore concentrating its activities) in specific geographies that are of particular interest to Italian business, whether because of the sheer size of their export markets, the relative importance in terms of share of trade, or their growth rate. Not surprisingly, BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) lead the pack. While China (and its unstoppable growth) among the ranks of Italy’s trading partners has been the focus of special program in 2006, India will take the lion’s share in 2007.

“Program India” will focus on six opportunity areas that leverage key Italian industrial strengths: Infrastructure and Transportation, Defense, Automotive, Food Processing, Movie industry, Luxury Goods “Made in Italy”.

The European Union, now enlarged to 25 countries and potentially to include a fast-growing Turkish economy, accounts for 59% of Italy’s exports, and is therefore a key area of focus. Within the EU and neighboring areas, special programs and funding will be address at Nordic countries, Turkey, the Balkans and the South Mediterranean rim.

Finally, USA and Japan continue to be countries in which the government plans to invest to push international expansion of Italian firms in high tech sectors. And indeed there seems to be renewed interest in high tech and innovation in Rome. The government has earmarked 20% of its promotional budget for “events, projects, initiatives that further international expansion of innovation-driven firms in sectors such as electronic equipment, agrochemicals, IT, telecom, nanotech, biotech.

Minister Bonino, just give us a call!

Link to the original BAIA blog post.

While most BAIA board members (me included) know little about the business side of the food and hospitality industry, we had been wanting to hold this event for a few months. We were fortunate to work with Debbie Slutsky, renowned food and wine expert, who helped us put together a great panel and moderated it. The panel included:

• Joyce Goldstein, national expert in Italian cuisine

• Craig Stoll, owner and chef of Delfina Restaurant in San Francisco

• Andy Griffin, owner of Mariquita Farms

• Mike Denny, owner of Drinks USA

Thank you, Debbie!

• Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO, Funambol.
  Funambol provides push email, PIM synchronization, and device management for mobile devices. It is the also the largest mobile opensource project.
• Michael Crane, Global Director, Wireless & VoIP Services, KeyNote.
  Keynote is a leading global provider of test and measurement products for mobile communications, VoIP, streaming, and Internet services.
• Baron Miller, CEO, SignalWide Corporation.
  SignalWide is a startup that develops and produces signal amplification products for the home, the office and the car.
• Vera Sparre, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Adobe.
  Adobe/Macromedia’s mobile division markets Flash-based products and platforms to handset manufacturers, mobile operators and consumer electronics manufacturers.
• Cosimo Spera, CEO, Zipidy.
  Zipidy is a San Francisco startup that has developed and deployed a mobile parking meter payment solution.

Each of the panelists and their businesses are betting on the pervasive growth of mobile data. They also generally agree with the broad generalization that the American market is lagging key Asian (e.g. Korea, Japan) and European (e.g. Italy, Nordic countries) markets in consumer behavior and feature adoption. Nothing new there. Several non-obvious, competing points were made. Here a few:

• The killer app is messaging. There is money to be made in offering messaging services through carriers and in the enterprise. Email, IM, texting, RSS on mobile blur the separation between synchronous and asynchronous communication and extend the reach of enterprise applications to the employee’s pocket.
• Rich media is coming to your handset. Mobile browsers have been designed as stripped-down versions of those installed on PCs. But mobile content and fruition are very different from “traditional” web content and user experience. For once, you do not have a mouse! The time is ripe for mass-adoption of rich media platforms specifically designed to manage the entire lifecycle of mobile applications and content.
• Local information, arm’s length transactions. Plenty of services allow you to get traffic information whenever you need it and wherever it is relevant. You will soon be able to browse a department store’s inventory on your mobile, while entering the mall. And if you need to skip the line at the movies you will be able to do so. Mobile technologies enable internet transactions at the point of fruition and open up innovative business model opportunities.

PS: Many thanks to the sponsors, Adobe for hosting the event and Copa Loca for the amazing Italian gelato!

The Electives started with a big bang. Prof. Didier Cossin had the honor to open the IMD MBA/EMBA 2004 electives program with an 8:00AM Advanced Corporate Finance session on real option valuation. As he likes to stress, “Not a class for the faint of heart!”

But, we will have plenty of opportunities to delve into the electives over the next few days. Today, memories of the recently completed International Consulting Projects are still very fresh (Having spent the last couple of days working on a second leadership paper essentially focused on my ICP team’s dynamics must have something to do with it!) I want to use this space to write about yet another one of the many ICP trips that have taken place during the last couple of months.

During the third and conclusive phase of our ICP, a week away from our final presentation, my friend Achim Bruder and I responded to the call of duty and completed a blitz-type mission in Hong-Kong. Our team had not originally planned a trip there. However, due to a project “emergency,” we concluded that a visit to a trade show that was taking place there would have greatly benefited our client. We secured our client’s agreement within a few hours, which left us with 6 working days to arrange flight and hotel, land in Hong Kong, take care of the dozens of contacts that we had planned to establish, fly back, consolidate and distill all the information and present it to the client.

Flight and hotel are usually not a problem… unless you trying to book with a 48-hour lead-time, you are visiting one of the busiest cities in the world and, yes, you are on an “economy” budget! After a long, but relatively comfortable flight, Achim and I established ourselves at the less-than-well-known Regal Oriental Hotel, in close proximity to the old (and virtually abandoned) Kowloon airport. Our feeling that we were probably outside of the path usually beaten by western visitor was reinforced after the second time our taxi driver drove us to the wrong hotel! The hotel is in fact good value for money and, more importantly, is right in the middle of Kowloon City, with its authentic Chinese Hong-Kong flavor. In the three evenings that we spent there, Achim and I decided to scout the neighborhood for interesting restaurants. We soon realized that the travel guide we had bought at Geneva airport was of little use, as very few restaurants exposed signs in English. It did not even matter that waiters and cooks barely spoke any English. Even half way across the world, when you are hungry you find ways to explain yourself!

When MBAs are on campus, they are likely to be rushing to get presentation material ready. John Evans, IMD Information Centre manager, has his plate full, always ready to help with the latest report on specialty steel market figures or semiconductor demand in South-East Asia. Michèle Luthi, from Audiovisual, scrambles to follow up on dozens of urgent MBA requests to install projectors all over campus. The Restaurant staff makes daily adjustments to its capacity, adapting to an erratic MBA population. Continue…

It would contain in one body and one mind all the best of the MBA class.� It would sure conduct a very active lifestyle.� It would run, swim, ski, skate, sky-dive, bungee-jump, ride a bicycle, a motorbike, a horse, a kart.� It would eat kebab every day, cook like a chef and drink like a sailor.� It would play the piano, the guitar, the violin, the trumpet, drums and triangle.� It would read every case, summarize every book, participate in every discussion, and belong to every committee.� It would enjoy Shakespeare and Tolstoy, AC-DC and Vangelis.� It would be up to date on the latest developments in WTO trade negotiation and know by hard all the players’ in the Premier League.� It would party all night, sleep 3 hours� and workout in the morning.� � It would travel to Vietnam, work in Guatemala, rest in Patagonia, hike the Mont Blanc, sail the Pacific. Continue…

From time to time applicants would contact me via email asking for information about the application process, about life at IMD and about my impressions with the academic and personal experience. Especially during this time of the year, with IMD’s MBA admission process is in full swing, that happens more frequently. I quite enjoy sharing my (limited) knowledge and my personal experience. The memory of the time and effort spent on my application is still fresh, and if I can help, I try to do it. Questions related to specific admission process details are obviously redirected to the admission office (whose staff is one of the most professional and available in the world!). Details that could undermine in any way the integrity of the admission process are never shared. There are however recurring questions that applicants address to me that I can and am happy to answer. Here are three I recently received… Continue…

As part of our marketing stream, we are now covering the topic of distribution and sales channels. Tupperware’s innovative approach to sales and distribution was devised more than 50 years ago. It still represent an unmatched example of creativity applied to marketing. As Mr. Skröder was speaking, it became apparent that Tupperware success is ultimately a result of relentless product innovation, uncompromising focus and constant nurturing of the relationship with its sales force: the huge army of demonstrators and party organizers that connect the company with consumers the world over.

How do you manage, train, and reward a sales force of more than 1 million “volunteers”? Continue…

If you are Sean Meehan, IMD MBA Program Director, you first run a 5-hour Orientation Session, then you invite the class to an exclusive welcome cocktail and dinner at the Lausanne Olympic Museum, and finally you assign a case study! Deadline: the 8:00 AM marketing class the next morning.

It is 2:10 AM. I am in study room #5. After having discussed the case for four hours, and come to what we believe are sensible conclusions, my teammates leave to their respective homes for a few hours of well-deserved sleep. We became a team earlier today - or shall I say yesterday? – when Study Groups were formed. That was when we finally knew whom we were going to be working with so closely for the next few months. Continues…

Today I want to give you a flavor of the pre-work each of us has been asked to complete as preparation to the program. Here is just a sample of the assignments… Continues…