The United Kingdom

I spent the last week in the UK on business with meetings in Oxford and Cambridge. Katie had never been to London so we flew over for the preceding weekend just to soak it up a bit. In the security line at the Houston airport we bumped into Mike Unton, another Lovett alum, which was a good way to kick off our trip.

The flight from IAH to LHR was a significant one: for the first time in my life I attained Continental Platinum Elite status! I'm not sure it will change my life much but I have already been upgraded for this week's flight to DC so I'm excited about it. En route I watched Up and GI Joe. The former was pretty good while the latter was about as expected.

We arrived early Saturday morning and met up immediately with Mike Cox, another Rice alum who's currently working on a project in the UK. All last year while I was in Switzerland, Cox and I schemed about what we would do when this project started and we were finally on the same side of the Atlantic again. However, his project was delayed and delayed until it finally started shortly after I returned to the States--doh!

Cox was still recovering from a Christmas party the night before but he rallied quickly and we struck out together for the Texas Embassy. At the Embassy we met up with several IMD alumni, a few of whom are in green businesses--very cool! After lunch we donated a large Rice banner to add to the UT, Texas Tech, TCU, UH, and Baylor banners already present in the Embassy's upstairs bar. The manager humored us with a formal unveiling ceremony--go Rice!

Then we walked around London and Pub crawled a bit. Lisa Piguet, IMD's MBA admissions director, was in town so it was a thrill when she joined us too. Cox, Katie, and I had to duck out early, though, for dinner at a little French restaurant in the theater district. Dinner was delicious and full of fall/winter fare, such as pumpkin risotto, which paired well with the cold London weather.

Such a meal required that we walk around a bit afterward, which was basically an excuse to pub crawl some more. First we set our sights on a place with warm drinks and we found one quickly. There we also bumped into George DeMontrond, another Rice alum, whom I last bumped into at the Jimmy Buffett concert in Paris. Small world!

After our hot drinks it was time to take advantage of our proximity to Ireland so we migrated to an Irish pub for some Guinness. We also tried Guinness Red but quickly returned to our pure roots. Finally the pub closed up so we wound down with cocktails back at our hotel.

Sunday we walked around seeing London's historic sites during the day and then caught up with my IMD classmates, Randy and Ijeoma, for Indian food in the evening. It was great to see those two with whom I shared so much last year and, although they are both facing their own challenges now, it was gratifying to see that they are doing so well.

Katie caught an early Monday morning flight back to the US while I journeyed out to Oxford, where I spent Monday and Tuesday. Our principal supplier is headquartered there and it gave me a great chance to spend time with their CEO. By the end of the trip it was clear that personal relationships matter so much more than spreadsheets, contracts, or technology. We've been working on a deal with this company for months and the in-person time to solidify it was well worth the expense of the trip. Also in Oxford I found something that pairs very well with Guinness: steak, mushroom, and Guinness pie!

Wednesday I departed Oxford early for Cambridge, where I had never been before. One of the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturers was conducting a day-long meeting to determine how best to enter the home energy management market and they asked me to help craft their strategy. I was honored to be invited and excited to participate. After a full day of reviewing data from focus groups, evaluating the existing competitive landscape, and positing possible entry paths, I left feeling extremely energized by the process and excited about their direction. If they can succeed in this market it will do a lot of good--for them, for their consumers, and for the world at large--so I wish them the best with it.

Wednesday evening I returned to London to meet with a new VC--headed by a Rice alum. It was a great meeting and I'm excited about his firm--for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. This was followed by dinner with Cox and Scotch back at the hotel--where we were joined by another Rice alum living in the area.

At the end of five days I was exhausted and very satisfied with both the professional and personal aspects of this UK trip. What struck me most was that I met up with seven IMD alumni and four Rice alumni during the brief stay. Although the schools are small, I was impressed with the global distribution of their alumni. Next time I'll make sure to hook up with a TJ alum or two as well!

Pics are in my facebook album.

Family Time

The weekend was a lot of fun. Nick came into town on Friday so he, Katie, Cox, and I went to dinner at Indika for excellent Indian food. I accompanied mine with a Madras Mojito, featuring chili powder on the rim--awesome!

Saturday we took Nick's son, Aidon, to the zoo, which was a blast. I haven't been to the Houston Zoo since 1998 and I was happy to see that it's still a great place. We made our own Indian food for dinner and all crashed pretty early. Sunday Nick and Aidon returned to Florida pretty early so Katie and I spent the day just enjoying being at the house--something we'll do much more of in the near future!

Sunday night I took the red-eye to London and spent Monday in Oxford meeting with enistic's sister company. That night we celebrated our recent steps forward with dinner at Jamie's Italian. The food was all good but the CLEAR highlight was my main course: three orders of chips (fries): garlic and parsley, parmiggiano and truffle, and polenta chips with rosemary. I'm a fan!

Now I'm back in Lausanne and beginning to prep my apartment for the trans-Atlantic move!

Pics are in my facebook album.

MBAT Day 3

Today didn't start out any better than yesterday. Our indoor volleyball team, which had never played together before, was quickly eliminated by Oxford. There was no time to dwell on it, however, as our beach volleyball pairs match, also against Oxford, started immediately afterward. My partner, Mario, was still swimming at the time so his alternate, Martin, joined me on the court.

Martin and I had never played together but he did an excellent job of playing good, consistent volleyball. In contrast to the previous day's 4s, the ref today was calling tight beach rules. Considering Martin's inexperience with these rules and the large court size (still configured for 4s), we decided on a basic, consistent, let-them-make-the-mistakes strategy. It worked; we won very decisively and advanced to the next round. It wasn't always pretty volleyball but it got the job done.


In the meantime, basketball won its first game of the day (despite our captain's early ejection) and some of our swimmers were winning their heats so things were looking up. Martin's and my next beach volleyball game was against IE. In this game we gelled more as a team and were able to play a little more aggressively. Martin continued to play very well and gave me some dime sets that I was able to put away hard. 20-30 IMD supporters came out for the game and cheered us on, which felt really great. I'm used to playing with maybe a few cheerleaders on the side; having 20-30 yelling for us made a real difference!


We won another game after lunch (where the food was, again, terrible) to make it into the final three. Naturally HEC was disorganized and no one could tell us exactly when these semifinals would be. Plus, what kind of tournament format has a final three instead of final four?! I didn't have time to stick around and argue as it was almost time for the Tug of War to begin.


Tug teams were composed of five men and three women. Most of our men and all of our women had never tugged before. Furthermore we were significantly undersized relative to the other teams--that's what happens when you're the smallest school in the tourney! Still, I had tried over the preceding month to research best practices (Do yourself a favor and read the training section at the Scottish Tug of War Association's website; you won't be disappointed.) and teach them to our team during short breaks between classes. IMD's maintenance staff was kind enough to provide some rope for practice.

However, due to injuries and some of our tuggers taking off to spend the day in Paris, four of our starting team had to be replaced at the last minute. This lightened up our team even more and added the challenge of teaching our technique to half the team in just a few minutes. Many thanks to Lucy, Aoife, Bevan, and Sergei for stepping up.

So here it was, the moment I had been waiting for. Could we win with heart and technique instead of size? I sure believed we could but now it was time to find out. I sprinted across campus to the tug pitch where, surprise surprise, things were disorganized and running behind. Our first tug was against Cambridge and started half an hour late. The extra preparation time didn't help them as we won very quickly. There's nothing quite like pulling with every muscle in your body while your oponent, just a few feet from you and trying desperately to resist, is drawn closer and closer to the mid-line until . . . you've won! What a rush!

I was told by the organizers that our next tug would be in 30 minutes, which would give me just enough time to tug then sprint back to beach volleyball for the semis. Unfortunately 30 minutes came and went and we were still no nearer to our next tug so I had to leave.

In the beach volleyball semifinals against ESADE, Mario was available so he played with me instead of Martin. We never quite got it together and lost 16-14 in a very even match. While it was a disappointment to be sure, Mario, Martin, and I were happy with taking home IMD's first medals of the tournament, even if they were bronze.

Word came from our fans that IMD had won its second tug (against Oxford) and that its third would be starting soon. Many thanks to Matt for captaining in my absence and to Joonwon for pulling in my stead. Many thanks as well to Mathieu, who gave me a ride back to the tug pitch, saving me 10 minutes and arriving just in time for me to tug against HEC. There may have been some latent frustration released against our hosts but, whatever the motivation, we beat them to advance to the finals against SDA Bocconi.

The final match against our hotel-mates was a real battle. They easily outweighed us and their technique was good to boot. Moreover, their captain could have been my [evil] twin. We dug our heels in and tugged our hearts out. In the end, it wasn't enough. After what seemed like an eternity of stalemate, we began to lose traction and slide toward the midline. I worked feverishly to stop the movement but my shoes slipped too and I, as IMD's frontman, was pulled over the midline. So ended IMD's cinderella story and my long-time unbeaten streak in tug of war. My hat is off to Bocconi and Mike, their captain, as a worthy adversary. Still, we took silver, our second medal of the tournament, and proved that it wasn't the size of the team in the fight, but the size of the fight in the team that mattered.

With sports competition behind us, it was then time to celebrate with the closing BBQ on the lake. As a Texan, I was interested to see what the French called a "BBQ." We went back to the hotel to clean up and then returned to campus. On our way we encountered a Manchester University student whose car had slid off the road into a ditch. Fortunately it was a Fiat 500 so we got out and helped him lift it up out of the ditch and back onto the road. While we didn't get a medal for it, helping out a peer in need was probably the most rewarding feeling of the weekend.

The "BBQ" was, sure enough, just a cookout, but I wasn't complaining. It was a lot better than their cafeteria food and it was fun to wind down with all the other schools. In true HEC fashion they ran out of beer an hour into the event. "But don't worry," they told us, "there is still plenty of wine." The fermented grape juice they were referring to was in giant boxes and was terrible. Here we were in Paris, France, and they expected us to drink box wine. Au contraire, mon frere!

Pictures of beach volleyball, tug of war, and Fiat rescue are in my facebook album.

MBAT Day 2

The MBAT is off to a not-so-great start for IMD. It began this morning when our men's soccer team finished its first game against host HEC with a 0-0 tie. Within the first minutes Chilean Jani, one of our best players, was out with a pulled hamstring. Czech Martin and Portuguese Pedro were also injured, although they were able to continue playing. As the day wore on, things didn't improve; we tied Oxford 0-0 and lost to Cambridge 3-0. Consequently we did not advance in the tournament and won't play again tomorrow. As most of you know, I'm no great fan of soccer, but I am a fan of my classmates who have been training hard for this tournament and I feel for their disappointment.

Our basketball team didn't fare any better. Our captain, Ziad, who played professional basketball in Lebanon, was stuck on a lost shuttle bus for two hours and missed our game. While I suspect that the busdriver "got lost" due to a major payoff from RSM, our opponent, the more probable explanation is yet another failure of HEC organization.

In Ultimate Frisbee we did a little better, besting our first opponent with a last-second goal scored by Canadian Ian, the team captain. This goal came at a heavy cost, though, as the assist came from German Daniel, who severley sprained his ankle on the play. He was obviously missed in the next game, which we lost 13-0.

I only played in one sport today, coed beach volleyball 4s. My American ringer and I had both played beach 4s a great deal, but French Olivier and Belarussian Sergei were new to the format. We got off to a very slow start against IESE but finally settled down some. Unfortunately it was too little too late. We lost the first game 15-11 only to realize that that was the ONLY game. Despite the schedule explicitly stating that we would play best-of-three, the rules had been changed at the last minute to mandate single games to 15 with rally scoring. I argued that, if we were going to have a single-elimination tournament with single games and rally scoring, we should at least play to 21 or more. Alas, the decision had already been made. They only had one sand court so were taking drastic measures to speed up the tournament. Bravo, HEC.

It was a rough start to the games but we live to fight another day. After a 90-minute wait for a shuttle bus we headed back to the hotel and drank wine, ate pizza, played ping pong, and relaxed all evening. I'm not going to lie; I play to win and was disappointed in our performance (including my own) today. However, it's hard to dwell on that too much when drinking great wine with great people in great weather. Tomorrow is indoor volleyball, beach volleyball pairs, and . . . TUG OF WAR!

Pictures from today have now been added to my facebook album.