The Melting Pot of Inspiration: MBA World Summit 2017

“Berlin is the last bastion of freethinking” - Mark Reeder, musician and record producer who escaped in 1978 from Denton, his home town in England, to live on the west side of the German city. He continued, “In Berlin, you can be comfortable, express yourself, find yourself, without anybody saying, ‘Look at you!’ It’s really vibrant, and I’ve never found another city as relaxed as it”.

100 MBA students from around the world landed in Berlin for the MBA World Summit 2017 in the first week of March this year. There was a little bit of Berlin in all of them. A year ago when I attended the 2016 Summit in Miami, I thought it was a meeting ground for the intellectual elite. I was wrong. The organizers never meant the Summit to be a gathering of academic geniuses. It took me a while to understand the identity of the participants of the MBA World Summit. There is something in common between the Portuguese innovator studying at CEIBS in Shanghai, the Pakistani engineer studying at NUS in Singapore, the Tanzanian TV personality studying at Stanford in California and the Egyptian-Canadian entrepreneur studying at IE in Madrid. That something is shared by everyone I met at the last two Summits in Miami and Berlin. That something is ‘Inspiration’.

The 100 attendees this year came from 30 countries and 42 different business schools. Although their life stories are diverse, their life lessons are not very different. Most of them have navigated adversity in life, demonstrated courage and persevered relentlessly through failure. In doing so, they also discovered their own little stepping stones to success. There are certainly many more around the world who are like them or even much better – the MBA World Summit is by no means a limit to the inspiration in the world. Out of the 2000 applicants, there were many more than just 100 candidates who deserved to be recognized for their achievements. However, the 100 attendees who were selected clearly embody the spirit of inspiring and being inspired. A couple life stories into the Summit, I realized the inspiration unfolding around me. It did not take too long before I gave myself permission to listen and learn from those who were there.

Day 1 - Setting the Stage

This year, the organizers welcomed the attendees at an evening cocktail event hosted by Amazon at their office in Berlin. Dr. Katrin Gruber, a senior category leader at Amazon introduced the attendees to the mindset that drives Amazon’s continuously evolving business. For the returning alumni from last year, the evening was also an occasion to reunite and catch up on our experiences since the last Summit in Miami. Probal Shome, a returning alum of the Summit in Miami and MBA graduate from the University of Mannheim took the initiative of organizing a dinner for the alumni at a local restaurant nearby. Meanwhile, the new participants of the Summit went out in small groups and had conversations that focused more on introductions and getting to know each other.

Day 2 - Unveiling the Canvas

A question many of my curious friends ask me upon returning from the Summit is – what did all of you talk about when you were there? Day 2 is when the canvas of conversation was unveiled. The keynote address by iconic German painter and professor Norbert Bisky painted the first strokes on the canvas sparking the rich and vibrant conversations that followed after. There is no expression that is more free and unbounded than art. Norbert Bisky stamped the freethinking spirit of Berlin on the character of the Summit. It was evident as the organizers let the participants of the Summit co-create the agenda through the Summit Laboratory Sessions (SLS) – a series of 25 talks and discussions, 20 of which were led by the MBA participants and five by sponsoring companies.

A few tidbits of the SLS talks from day 2 - Maanas Mediratta from ESADE spoke about the evolution of entrepreneurship, Hosanna Ohdner from Yale (in picture) spoke about the business case for empathy, Conor Leary from Columbia Business School spoke about how social missions can contribute to the bottom line, Maximilian Schaefer from Harvard spoke about bringing search funds to Europe and Alexis Jeffries from USC Marshall spoke about the art of storytelling. There were many more - all 20 of the talks touched issues that spoke to the heart of the MBA community.

Can the MBA World Summit become a global catalyst for social impact?

The talk that resonated with me the most was by Raymond Ledwaba, a returning alum from last year’s Summit and the organizer of the Summit next year in Cape Town. Raymond is a MBA graduate from the University of Johannesburg and an avid social entrepreneur. His inspiring words left me wondering, "Can the Summit become a global catalyst for social impact?". All of the talks of the day set the tone for a creative and stimulating discussion that continued throughout the Summit.

The second day was capped off with a spectacular networking dinner at Unter den Linden 1 hosted by Bertelsmann. Dr. Nico Rose, the ever so friendly and inspiring HR director of Bertelsmann, led the evening’s talk with some interesting insights on how Bertelsmann navigates its business across a diverse portfolio of media companies worldwide.

The Tim Eisenmann award for the best speaker, named after the first winner of the award in 2014, was finally announced. Based on the feedback from the participants of the Summit Laboratory Sessions, the award went to Kristina Partsinevelos for her talk on dating the media. The energy of the thought provoking sessions through the day flowed into the many conversations among the attendees after the award ceremony.

The little things in between, often difficult to describe, were gradually casting the magical spell of 'inspiring and being inspired'. At the end, there was food, music, dance and laughter – all the nuances that spark lasting relationships.

Day 3 - Exploring and Discovering

Day 3 split the attendees on different missions – corporate expeditions, social expeditions and the entrepreneur’s expedition called Big Idea Lounge. The corporate missions to Amazon, Roland Berger and Bertelsmann were an opportunity for career explorers to learn closely about the work culture and values of three of the corporate sponsors. As part of the Amazon expedition, the attendees met with a team led by the director of Fulfillment and toured an Amazon fulfillment center. The attendees on the Bertelsmann expedition toured the office of the music company BMG in Berlin and then visited a film studio managed by UFA that produces European TV shows. On the Roland Berger expedition, the attendees met with digital health experts at the Berlin office of Roland Berger and had the opportunity to work on a business case around digital health opportunities.

The social expeditions were mind opening. The expeditions started with a local workshop on the governmental and societal approach to tackle issues like poverty, unemployment, exclusion, discrimination or the influx of refugees. They later split into different groups to engage with 3 different social projects in Berlin. Here are some words from my friend and IE alum Becky Jeffries who attended the social expedition and visited a refugee welcome center in Berlin – “After visiting a refugee welcome center in Berlin today, I am feeling incredibly humbled and moved. Several refugee families from Afghanistan and Iraq welcomed the MBA World Summit group by cooking their traditional foods and sharing stories with us about how and why they fled their countries. Many of us couldn't even begin to imagine the things they have experienced, yet the smiles on their faces remained.”

This year featured a new addition to the MBA World Summit - The Big Idea Lounge which was was held at Axel Springer Plug & Play Accelerator’s office.

The Big Idea Lounge is a platform for MBA entrepreneurs to network with each other, brainstorm ideas that transform the world and engage with industry experts/investors in a casual atmosphere. 13 of the MBA World Summit participants were selected to pitch their ideas to a panel of investors. The ideas pitched were diverse in industry, function and geography. My friend and fellow student from IE, Ramy Fam (above) pitched his e-learning startup that aims to improve the access to quality education in Egypt and the MENA region.

In addition to the equity pitches, the Big Idea Lounge also featured five ideation panels on Media, FinTech, Mobility, E-Learning and Big Data. The panelists, who were selected based on their industry experience, discussed about the market trends and new developments in each of the ideation areas.

The evening featured a networking dinner at the 12 Apostel and a late night celebration at the Felix nightclub. By the end of day 3, the conversations were personal and the connections were meaningful. We shared life stories and laughter, reflected on our experiences and found common ground with others.

A couple hours after dinner ended, a handful of us continued to linger at the corner of the dining hall at 12 Apostel – Raymond, Frida, Johannes, Christian and Philip were there commenting on the hardest questions asked by our generation. The challenge is real for us – the rising population, the dwindling resources and the widening inequality. It may not be easy to find answers in the chaos we live in. All of us have had personal experiences that tested our trust in people and society. However, we agreed that we still trust the 'good' we have seen in our lives. It might be little or far in between, but it is still worth fighting for.

The Berlin inspired freethinking and the canvas of conversation of the Summit continued to conspire together late into that night. The staff at the restaurant dimmed the lights, picked up the chairs and set them up on the tables around us. We barely noticed until our table was the only one left. Not every conversation in life become a memory and not every memory becomes a call to action. This was one.

Not every conversation in life become a memory and not every memory becomes a call to action. This was one.

Day 4 - The Journey Goes On

On the morning of day 4, the Summit organized various cultural expeditions to experience the vibrant energy of Berlin. As the day progressed, the attendees bid adieu to their newly found friends. There was meaning in saying our farewells at different parts of the city during the expeditions – we may be leaving each other but the journey still goes on.

The MBA World Summit is, by definition, a high impact exchange of the 100 most inspiring MBA students from around the world. But it is also a journey through time as attendees from past summits return alongside those newly chosen every year. The ideas of the years before are challenged by those of the years after. This year, the freedom of thought and expression, that is woven deeply into the fabric of Berlin, lent itself to the identity of the MBA World Summit. The next summit in Cape Town will bring fresh meaning and purpose. But deep within, the MBA World Summit remains the same.

A melting pot of inspiration.

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Photos Credits: David Tang, Tim Keweritsch and Sean Bellamy