I'm a Symphomaniac, MANIAC!

Last Thursday Katie and I attended a performance of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for the first time since my return to the US. We used to be full season subscribers to this truly world class orchestra and it was exciting to be back. That night was a great performance for which to return as it was the world premiere of The Planets--An HD Oddyssey. Something I've always enjoyed about the HSO is its willingness to branch out and explore the integration of other art forms with the music it plays. In this case it meant stunning NASA video to complement each planet in Holst's famous score.

The program opened with renditions (sans film) of Stravinsky's Scherzo Fantastique and Dutilleux's Timbres, Space, Movement (The Starry Night), both fitting for an evening with a fantastic, heavenly, mythical theme. The evening was also the first time I've taken advantage of my office's location in the heart of the Theater District--and it won't be the last!

Saturday was Katie's birthday so we had several of her friends over for dinner to celebrate. I was in an Association of Rice Alumni board meeting all day so unfortunately some of the prep work fell to the birthday girl. However, I rushed home as quickly as I could and we got to cooking.

The first course, as guests arrived, was toasted baguette with olive oil, dark chocolate, and fleur de sel, paired with a sparkling white wine from Gruet. This course seemed to last forever as we all congregated in the kitchen while Katie and I put the finishing touches on the rest of the meal.

We migrated to the dining room for round 2: carrot-habanero-ginger soup paired with our old white wine favorite, Sella & Mosca La Cala vermentino, to cleanse and cool the palette.

This led to our "earthy" course: portabella mushroom caps stuffed with Minnesota wild rice and accompanied by lightly steamed broccolini. We paired this with Valdicava's Rosso di Montalcino as Katie, Cox, and I had all tasted it from the barrel during our vineyard visits.

Not that we needed anymore food by this point but we served three vegetarian cheeses anyway and attempted to continue pairing them with the Valdicava. However, too much wine may have impaired our judgement as we soon found several other bottles of exotic reds on the table. No one complained, though!

Finally we had dark chocolate birthday cake and Banyuls Rimage (kind of like Port, but French) from Les Clos de Paulilles. Miraculously this wasn't all succeeded by tequila shots and running around the neighborhood naked or anything--we really must be getting old!

Sunday the birthday continued as we took a cooking class at our favorite local Indian place, Indika. It was a small, intimate class--just a few couples--taught by the chef/owner back in the kitchen of the restaurant. It was our first time working with commercial cooking tools and very fun to experience a taste (no pun intended) of the chaotic restaurant kitchen environment. The result was a delicious dinner. This is to be expected from Indika when the real chefs are cooking so we were all pleased to have stepped up enough ourselves.

Tonight Katie and I watched Food, Inc., which galvanized our resolve to eat fresh, organic, locally grown foods. It's just amazing how much crap--and how little nutrition--is in most foods we are marketed and sold. The system drives us to buy the cheapest food--but it is so much more expensive when you consider the resulting healthcare, social, and environmental costs. We have to change the system to capture the true costs of food--in much the same way that we have to change the system to capture the true costs of energy--and it starts with consumers voting with their wallets.

A few things you can do right now are here.

Prague, Musical City

This weekend I took advantage of a last-minute fare to head to Prague, where I had never been before. A friend of mine from the Rice volleyball team, Klara, lives there and she kindly opened her doors on very short notice to host me. It was a wonderful--if short--weekend that has left me hungry to explore the rest of the beautiful Czech Republic.

The trip began well; while I was waiting to board in Geneva, someone kept whistling The Final Countdown. When I arrived at Prague airport Friday afternoon, I was disappointed that my passport wasn't stamped (Switzerland is now part of the Schengen area.) but my disappointment didn't last long. I was thrilled to discover that the baggage claim conveyor belts notify passengers of incoming bags with a sound similar to 80s-era video game lasers instead of the harsh buzzers I'm accustomed to. Good start.

When I exited customs, Klara was already there waiting for me and she whisked me off to her family's apartment in the 6th district. It was a nice house with a big garden, an apricot tree laden with fruit, two dogs (blood hounds), and three cats. Fun! We dropped off my stuff and headed immediately to Prague Castle, the largest castle in Europe or the world, depending on whom you ask.

Prague Castle is very cool and has a great view over the city. Its main gate features two very gruesome statues of men savagely beating other men with clubs and knives--what a warm welcome! Inside the castle walls is a very impressive St. Vitus Cathedral. Its exterior is mostly Gothic but includes Renaissance and Baroque architectural styles as well. Inside the cathedral stained glass windows create a dynamic light show on the stone and the pipe organ spans multiple stories. I could have spent an entire day there just learning about the myriad monuments, sculptures, and artwork--again, very impressive.

From there we wound our way down and walked around a bit, stopping at a cafe along the Vltava River. Everywhere we went there were numerous posters for classical music concerts: Mozart, Beethoven, and of course hometown favorite Dvorak. Every church, concert hall, and outdoor venue must have been booked for concerts. And then there were plenty of modern music concerts advertised as well: Madonna, Leonard Cohen, and on and on. Surely there must have been a music festival going on that weekend--nope, just business as usual in this very musical city.

After our exploration of Western Prague we returned to the 6th district for dinner with Klara's sister, Karo (also a Rice volleyball player), and brother-in-law at a converted abbey that now serves traditional Czech cuisine. I had roasted leg of rabbit on garlic creamed spinach--delicious!--and, of course, hand crafted beer. We wound down with a few more beers at a nearby beer garden and then called it a night.

Saturday we headed over to the East side of the river and walked around all day. We had lunch at Klara's parents' restaurant (Anna Bar--highly recommended!), where I had garlic soup and Czech goulash--so good!. Our next stop was Old Town, where we witnessed the chiming of the really, really, really ridiculously cool astronomical clock. En route to Vysehrad, we passed many beautiful towers, churches, theaters, concert halls, and other buildings--I'm so fortunate to have had a tour guide who knew where to go!

Vysehrad was another cool castle with great views over the city and a cool basilica (St. Peter & St. Paul). After paying our respects to Dvorak in the cemetery, we hung out on a bench along the castle walls and just enjoyed the nice weather for a while. We then relocated to a cafe with a black tie pianist who played everything from Beethoven sonatas to oldies. It was nice to be out of the direct sun for a while so we lingered before making our way to dinner.

In a major departure from meaty Czech cuisine we dined at Prague's best vegetarian restaurant. The food was phenomenal (I had bulgur risotto with chili tofu and peanut sauce.) but unfortunately Karo couldn't join us--because she was going into labor! We cut the evening short and returned to the apartment to await news--which came around 1:30 AM--of the birth. Congratulations to the entire family and no need to thank me for my services--I'm sure the baby would have come eventually even if I hadn't been there.

After a full weekend of Czech food, beer, walking tourism, and friends, and after instigating the birth of Klara's nephew, there was nothing left to do but return to Lausanne--but not before buying a bottle of Slivovice in honor of my Czechoslovakian classmate, Martin. Here's to you, Martin (Na zdravi!), I'm sorry we couldn't meet on this trip but I assure you that your compatriots gave me an excellent introduction to your beautiful country.

While I was waiting to board my flight back to Geneva, the Prague airport speakers began blasting The Final Countdown. What a poetic bookend to a great weekend in such a musical city!

Pictures are in my facebook album.

Carmina Burana

Thursday night several of us from the IMD MBA class of 2008 attended the Choire Lausanne's performance of Carmina Burana. Although it wasn't an amazingly executed performance, the music was, of course, great. Even better was the chance to catch up with my classmates before the show and afterward over beers at Les Brasseurs.

Friday then was an Indian day for me. I ate my first Swiss-Indian cuisine for lunch and then stayed in all evening to do yoga and watch the new episode of The Office. Although I don't love Ashtanga Yoga (I can't listen to audio books while I'm doing it!), there is no question that my flexibility is increasing so hooray for that!

The sun is shining now and the temperature is above 42 F. If this keeps up tomorrow I'll go for my first run along the lake of 2009!

Electives and Beethoven

The first week of electives is halfway done and what a ride it has been. We are definitely back in "class" mode: reading cases late into the night, showing up on time to class, and throwing ourselves back into heated discussions. Well, some of us are, at least. Some, on the other hand, are checked out, arriving at class late and unprepared; I feel like only a subset of us have successfully re-engaged.

I try not to be resentful of the "slackers" but it slips out sometimes with snide remarks. Perhaps I'm the stupid one, clinging religiously to school rules and assignments while I neglect my career search. However, my intention in coming to IMD was to learn, not to "get a job." I'll be OK with continuing my career search into 2009 if it means I can focus more on the few weeks of learning opportunities we have left here.

And speaking of which, our classes have been really excellent so far. Global Strategy is taught by IMD newcomer Cyril Bouquet who will later be joined by IMD president John Wells. We have visited some interesting topics so far: how to choose the right internationalization strategy and how to build the best cross-border consensus in international M&A.

Managing Change has also been great. The first half of this course was taught by Anand Narasimhan, who used many movie clips to help illustrate techniques for creating a sense of urgency, building a guiding team, and defining an inspiring vision. Old favorite Maury Peiperl (whom we first met in Leading People in Organizations) is back now to finish up the course and focus on implementation. 

He began today's class, as he did in LPO, with a musical piece that he was able to tie into today's class objectives. I recognized it as I walked in as Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D--such a tour de force and one of my favorite classical musical works of all time.

A performance by Leonidas Kavakos with the Houston Symphony Orchestra first impressed upon me the incredible difference between classical music on CD and in the concert hall. The intensity of the piece was communicated not just by the sound waves coming from the 1692 "Falmouth" Stradivarius he plays, but also his body movements, breathing, and facial expressions. It was amazing.

Perhaps someday we too will be virtuosi of business--I'm working on it!

Leading People in Organizations

I've made it to 1971 in my American popular music journey. This year marks the first major appearances of Rod Stewart, Carole King, the Bee Gees, Al Green, Bill Withers, solo Beatles artists, and many others. It also marks Tom Jones's surprising (to me), continued popularity.

As I find lyrics distracting, I've been listening to a great deal of classical music while working. It's been mostly Beethoven so far with some other classical-era composers mixed in. It still never ceases to amaze me how Beethoven's music can take me through such a range of human emotion and mood: joy, sorrow, anger, tenderness, triumph, loss, chaos, serenity . . . Who would have thought that notes scribbled on paper by a crotchety, deaf, old German would inspire such feelings in people two hundred years later? Incredible!

Maury Peiperl is a piano buff and opens each of our Leading People in Organizations (LPO) classes with a musical passage that relates in some way to our lecture. I've identified two of the three pieces correctly so far, which isn't bad for someone whose only classical music education has been concert attendance. Credit the special women in my life for being my dates to the Symphony and for introducing me to classical music in the first place.

Whereas our Leadership class focuses on deep personal introspection, LPO is about leading and motivating teams, managing HR issues, and creating situations/environments conducive to peak group performance. Tomorrow is our first LPO session in a while. After our intense week of Industry & Company Analysis/Economics last week, I am eager to return to this softer side of our studies.