Event Impressions

“It is one of the most inspiring “quickies” in leadership I´ve ever encountered”

So says SIMI alumni Anders Søndergaard Larsen (E*MBA10) from DI, Copenhagen about the two day course in Building a High Performance Team which was held on Thursday and Friday the 19th and 20th of August.

On the first day Paul Bennett from Henley Business School gave a breathtaking tour through the Do’s and Don’ts in building and leading teams. Besides being a director at Henley Business School Paul Bennett is a skilled yacht skipper and has participated in and completed one of the toughest yacht races in the world. This made the learning particularly relevant since the second day of the course took place on the waters outside Skovshoved Havn in three professional match race boats provided by the Royal Danish Yacht Center.

The participants were split into three teams: SIMI/CBS (with Henrik Rossen (E*MBA2), Søren Friis Sørensen (E*MBA9), Anders Søndergaard Larsen (E*MBA10) and Alexandra Overgaard (SIMI Alumni Office Manager), Henley administration and Henley Alumni. After 5 tough rounds (races) it was clear that due to hard work, concentrated minds and a great deal of high performance team efforts SIMI/CBS stood as winners.

All in all a great way of mixing learning, networking, hard competition and pure fun!!

As this year’s winners, SIMI Alumni Association and CBS MBA Alumni Society will be preparing next year’s tournament. We are looking forward to beating the other business schools again then.

Click here to see all the pictures here.

 

The SIMI Alumni Gran Reunion 2010 Day Seminar and Evening Party

The Day Seminar:

The SIMI Alumni Grand Reunion Day Seminar was a spectacular one this year. The theme of the day was diversity and the 4 speakers of the day talked about the potential problems that may arise when people with different cultural backgrounds have to work together, and they gave some input on how to turn cultural differences into strengths.  

Charlotte Mark, Managing Director & Site Leader of Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen explained that the need to embrace diversity comes from the need for talent. Attracting talent is a key ability for Microsoft as there is a lack of skilled workforce in Denmark. However the need is not only attracting talent but also making them stay - embracing cultural differences and making sure the new expats thrive in their new environment is key to then keeping the expats here. One example of how Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen embraces the diversity in their staff is the “Cake and Culture”, which are meetings where the employees make presentations on their culture to promote mutual understanding. It is also important according to Charlotte Mark that the company has a strong R&D brand, and that the city where the new expats are going to live is attractive to them.  
   

Craig Till, Head of Secretariat for Expat in Denmark explained that the Danish society tend to seem very closed and unfriendly to expats. The Danish workplace is unique in many ways, such as the flat management structures, informality in the workplace and teamwork mindset – very different in comparison to other countries. He mentioned that the primary reason that expats leave Denmark is the cost of living and taxation, and although he stressed the fact that expats are not a cohesive group, some of the most important factors for the expats choosing to stay in Denmark are the work/life balance and the level of flexibility on the job.

Ending the day seminar was Lucas Vos, Chief Process Officer at Maersk Line A/S who gave an excellent presentation on the strengths and challenges of the Danish society seen through the eyes of an expat. Among the strengths of the Danish society he mentioned that the Danes have an implicit high level of quality, they are very pragmatic and consensus builders. The Challenges of the Danes are that they are impersonal, very rule abiding, nationalistic and that there is such a big difference between the mindset of the “Winther-Danes” and the “Summer-Danes”.

The Evening Party:

The Evening Party of the 2010 SIMI Alumni Association Grand Reunion was, like the day seminar, held in the spirit of diversity. It was held at Ovnhallen, which is right next to the beautiful new building where SIMI is moving in after the summer vacation. Guests had the opportunity to walk around inside this building before the party began. The theme of the party was Studio54/Disco and almost everyone had dressed to impress in real 70’s and 80’s disco outfits. The entertainment of the evening was a “consultant” which came to give some humorous advice on mergers.

Click here to see the great pictures from the party.

A professional photographer took pictures of the participants which were later handed out as small laminated cards to the participants as a re´membrance of the day.

Click here to see the great pictures taken by LivePromotion - user: simi, code: studio54.

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