News Blog

Less than a week after Spain’s credit rating downgrade, the participants of the ESADE-Georgetown Global Executive MBA arrived in Madrid this afternoon to undertake the next phase of the round-the-world programme set to give them firsthand experience of the economic crisis and recovery as well as an MBA.

In this, the fifth module on the GEMBA programme, entitled Entrepreneurship and Advanced Economies, the twenty-nine participants of this unique programme will attend classes, CEO forums and company visits in Madrid and Moscow. The classes, taught by professors from Georgetown and ESADE, will give them a deeper insight into the world economy, help them to be more entre/intraprenerial, develop their cross-cultural leadership skills, in addition to introducing them to a comparative institutional analysis of the politics of international finance.

Aside from time in the classroom, during their time in Madrid, the participants, who live and work all over the world, will be received by T.R.H. the Crown Prince and Princess of Spain, enjoy a lunch with former EU High Representative, Javier Solana and talks by the sub-governor of the Bank of Spain and CEO’s form Santander, Union Fenosa and Telefonica. The module will then continue next week in Moscow where they will visit Russian companies such as Zhostovo, SIA International and Zvezda.

Yesterday, however the module got off to a relaxed start with an evening tour of the old city of Madrid and a welcome meal at a traditional restaurant, one of the several cultural activities interwoven with a week-and-a-half’s hard study. Nevertheless, with an average age of 45 and as business leaders in many different sectors, participants are used to making the most of opportunities.

About the GEMBA Programme

Launched in 2008, the ESADE – Georgetown Global Executive MBA programme is a joint programme run by three schools: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, their Walsh School of Foreign Service and ESADE Business School. This 16 month modular based MBA takes participants to Bangalore, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Sao Paulo and Washington DC. The group of 29 participants represents some 13 different nationalities. For more information see http://www.globalexecmba.com

Addressing some 500 participants from the ESADE MBA classes of 2010 and 2011, of 46 nationalities, ESADE Professor Javier Solana, asked them to not only to concentrate on their careers, but focus also on the globalised world in which we live. “Geopolitics will be very important for your future life” he stated.

In his first address as professor of ESADE, Javier Solana touched upon some of the issues that are changing the geopolitical landscape. Firstly he highlighted the transfers of power between countries and within countries post financial crisis, pointing out the changing roles of non-state actors, as well as the shift caused by population growth and the transfer of GDP, from West to East. Also on population changes, he highlighted, “By 2020, half of the population of Africa will be under the age of 18 years of age. This has massive implications for all of us. We all need to be aware of it.”

“The world of today is a multipolar world without sufficient multilateralism—and this is very difficult to handle” Prof. Solana said. He went on to explain that Europe has a long history of multipolarity dealt with by war, rather than multilateralism. He continued that the creation of the EU was a positive consequence of this, but that now we must build a structure of governance that will protect peace throughout the world.

Prof. Solana called for global solutions to global problems, a profound change in mindset and the involvement of all new countries in world governance. “The G7 and G8 are obsolete, it is important to change the structure of governance to better reflect reality.” He noted that the institutions created post-war, particularly the IMF, World Bank and the WTO must be transformed. “Brazil, China, India, etc must be incorporated” he said, “it makes no sense, for example, for Belgium to have the same number of votes in the IMF, as China.”

Focusing on the key challenges for the future Prof. Solana first discussed poverty.  “It is true that globalization has produced many benefits for many people.” he stated, “in China, a vast number of people, more than the entire population of the US have risen out of poverty in the past three decades, large parts of the country still lives below the breadline … Do not forget that poverty is not only unacceptable, but will become a source of instability for everyone in the future: we need to solve the issue.” He advised.

The second fundamental problem Prof. Solana highlighted is the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 20% uranium enrichment program will cause difficult consequences for the region and the world” he noted. The other major issue he pointed out was climate change. “This is a real and extreme problem” he began, “we have to organize the world in such a manner that every country is willing to do its part to cut CO_2, it is not enough for a few to try… we must see how we can solve this problem today, not tomorrow. It will only get worse. We mustn’t stifle China’s and India’s development with these measures, but we must cut CO₂ emissions.” He called for “Responsible Sovereignty” noting that states cannot just do what they want in this arena.

Following Prof. Solana’s address, Dean of ESADE Business School, Alfons Sauquet opened the floor to questions. An MBA participant from Nigeria got the ball rolling by asking about Prof. Solana’s views on terrorism. “It is an important challenge we must all be aware of” Prof. Solana responded, “Terrorism is never acceptable. We must combat terrorism and also look into the reasons that make someone becomes a terrorist.”

Other questions focused on Chavez, the current situation in Israel and Palestine, the future of developmental aid, the role of the IMF, the accession of Turkey to the EU and the role of China in the coming decades, among others.

Concluding Prof. Solana said “Carry these ideas close to your minds and hearts. It is people like you and institutions like ESADE who can make a difference, we are global citizens, we must engage and commit to the problems of the world at large. There are many, but there are also many solutions. I hope you will be part of these solutions.”

ESADE MBA’s hold expert panel on the future of mobile technology

The increasingly complex world of mobile technology has been steadily moving away from a way to simply make a phone call when you’re way from home towards a web 2.0 platform with an infinite number of applications and functions. This convergence has lead business of many different types becoming key players in the sector, making it one of the most difficult to get to grips with.

ESADE MBA students keen to take advantage of telecoms experts visiting Barcelona for the Mobile World conference took the initiative to organize a panel on the future of mobile technology with four experts in different fields of mobile technology. Gordon Rawling, Senior Director Regional Marketing at Oracle, an infrastructure provider to the mobile industry; Branden Claisse, Director of Business Development and Media Sales at Mojiva, Inc. a mobile media network for advertisers and publishers; Hassan Kabbani, CEO at Mobinil, an Egyptian mobile operator; and Hamilton Sekino, Partner at Nauta Capital, an investor in wireless space entrepreneurs, made up the panel. With each of the guests representing a different area of mobile technology and a different country, it made for an interesting overview of the sector.

Moderated by ESADE professor Jonathan Wareham, the informal panel got straight on to grappling with the somewhat illusive future of mobile technology. Each of the panelists agreed that there is a great need to develop new business models, particularly so that as Rawling put it “money goes to actual service providers, not over-the-top providers.” Kabbani further developed this advocating a need to “protect the ecosystem and get money to all those contributing to the value chain, making investment in infrastructure worthwhile for the operators, thus ensuring the service is available for all.”

This is particularly important when it comes to the issue of guaranteeing that there is sufficient bandwidth to support the increase in users and usage. As Rawling asked, “Why would an operator invest money into infrastructure which other companies will get revenue from?” Nevertheless while the sector mulls over a solution for this, as Sekino noted there are a number of cost-efficient ways operators can make their services more agile: 1) Operators can work to have handsets to automatically offload to Wifi networks where available, 2) they can create a system of prioritization based a) on user value or b) the type of application used. Where these are dynamic and able to adapt to changes in use, they may help operators meet users’ needs for the time being however, investment in infrastructure and innovation will still be needed.

In any event, he panelists highlighted that innovation is essential to move forward in many ways, such as driving down cost, making the most of revenue models and well as developing new uses. Kabbani noted we can no longer talk about a geographical concentration of innovation since interesting technology and ideas are being developed in emerging markets where people are less hindered by expectations and face different realities. As an example of this, Sekino cited M-PESA a mobile payment system launched by Vodafone and Safaricom in Kenya, which changed the lives of many Kenyans who could not afford bank accounts, and has since been rolled out in a number of other countries. Kabbani highlighted that a similar thing has happened in Egypt where despite only 10% of the population holding a bank account, there are already around 60 million credit and credit transfer operations via mobile per month.

The panelists agreed that future volume will come from emerging markets but that for this to work local approaches are required. Clays highlighted that advertising systems like his with global reach but a hyper-local approach will be able to harness the potential of the different markets. While Rawling called for companies to look at what they are trying to sell and where they are trying to sell it, “use the world as a laboratory to find out what people want” he suggested. Services too, need to adapt to the realities of different markets, as Kabbani pointed out, Egyptian customers do not take kindly to discovering their new phone is fully equipped with maps of Europe but offers none of their home country.

In terms of applications and devices, the panel underscored that the proliferation of the I-Phone and Android make it easier for developers to work on aps to meet the many different needs of consumers around the world. As an example of a new use for mobile technology, Sekino discussed the sales force automation technology used by Avon in Brazil to enable their sales girls to place orders, check inventory, etc. via simple mobile devices that each rep can easily afford and in most cases already has. “Mobile technology is really changing people’s lives for the better” he stated. Another example of this is its potential application in healthcare, where technology is being developed enable a Smartphone to read a user’s pulse and blood pressure and send the results straight through to their doctor. Along these lines, Kabbani underscored the need to keep developing services on a local level to keep creating value and make it available to all.

As far as devices themselves are concerned, perhaps unsurprisingly, no-one on the panel wished to speculate on what they might look like in five years time. Rawling noted that we are likely to see a change in the way we interact with devices, they will soon know where we are and be able to offer us value-added services based on this information, he suggested. While Kabbani noted that we are likely to see a proliferation in the different types of devices which connected to mobile networks. He cited the example of a 3G enabled picture frame to which a loving son, for example, could send a picture taken on his phone directly to his mother’s mantle piece.

Organized by ESADE MBA students through the Technology, Entrepreneurship, Media and Marketing clubs, the event is an example of excellent participant initiative to attempt to better understand a sector so changeable that it is hard to get a grasp on from the classroom.  “What could be called a ‘semi formal jam session on mobile computing’ was a great success” said Professor Wareham, “We look forward to supporting similar events on campus in the future.”

Henry Chesbrough, the guru of ‘Open Innovation’ has joined ESADE Busienss School’s faculty as a visiting professor, further consolidating the school´s commitment to excellence in business innovation.

Chesbrough, with his colleague Wim Vanhaverbeke (Hasselt University, Vlerick Management School and ESADE) will teach PhD, MBA and Executive MBA participants. This is an exciting step forward for innovation at ESADE; not least because Chesbrough´s theories of multi-sectoral collaboration (cross innovation between companies in order to speed up product delivery to market and retain value) have been of great influence in the creation of ESADECreapolis. His classes will combine analysis of open innovation theory with its practical application to participants’ business models.

For Chesbrough, ESADE’s investment in ESADECreapolis was a key factor in his decision to collaborate with the school, “I chose ESADE as it’s one of Europe’s leading management schools and also boasts a laboratory bringing together management students and companies in the pursuit of innovation”, explained Professor Chesbrough, “the environment at ESADE fully supports my favorite activity: teaching how to innovate”.

Henry Chesbrough, who coined the term ‘Open Innovation’ in his first book, has long argued that many businesses lack the infrastructure and strategy necessary to capture value. Instead of operating as islands, solely reliant on in-house R&D units, Chesbrough advocates the sharing of innovation processes between companies, to enable the development of new products and proposals that would not normally fit the model of a specific business. Chesbrough has worked for several Fortune 500 companies in technology areas such as mass storage, application software, networking and communications. He is also author of three Open Innovation-themed publications: Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology (HBS Press, 2003), Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape (HBS Press, 2006) and Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm (Oxford, 2006).

Committed to excellence in innovation, over the past year ESADE has held events and programmes relating to open innovation theory that have been successfully delivered to an ever widening audience. In 2009 the Beyond Pretty program run with leading California design school, The Art Center, paved the way in Executive Education when global business leaders from HP, Nestlé, IDEO and other proven innovators shared their experiences in promoting an innovation culture. Following on from the Beyond Pretty Program, sessions based on open innovation theory have proved popular additions to In-Company Training Programs for forward thinking multinationals, keen to augment the creative competency of their top managers. In addition, companies resident at ESADECreapolis enjoy weekly sessions on innovation taught by ESADE professors and external experts.

ESADE Business School is the best place in Europe to study Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility within the MBA, according to the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking Published this week. The school was ranked number 5 in the world for Marketing, number 7 for corporate Social Responsibility and number 19 worldwide. As a top twenty school, ESADE is positioned among other leading Asian, American and European business schools.

Committed to Corporate Social Responsibility since its foundation over 50 years ago, ESADE boosts an extremely active Social Innovation Institute that organises some twenty focused events throughout the year and involves a large number of the school’s professors. CSR themes are woven through many of the core MBA courses and students can choose to broach them further through elective courses. In Marketing, MBA students follow two core courses and have 11 electives related to marketing to choose from. ESADE has a large Marketing Management Department as well as a Brand Centre which aside from producing research, organises the annual Brand Centre Awards for new innovative brands in Spain.

The ranking also places the ESADE MBA in second place overall in Career Progress, which measures participants’ evolution in professional status other the 3 years following graduation. “Our training in soft skills is key reason our graduates do so well in this part of the ranking” states Gloria Batllori, Director of ESADE’s MBA, “We focus on ensuring our MBA’s know how to manage complexity and are able to rise to the challenge of a changing environment. They are used to working in international teams, discovering the strength of each person and coming up with strategies to make the most of them. Recruiters often remark on the fact that ESADE MBA’s are used to a collegiate environment, not ‘every man for himself’ approach adopted by other schools. This means that our graduates often progress quicker up the ranks of the companies they join, since they act in the best interests of the company.”

With 87% of this year’s ESADE MBA class is from outside of Spain a fact reflected in the school’s rank in terms of international mobility post MBA (7^th worldwide). Hailing from some 47 countries and having fulfilled the school’s “Global Mindset” admission requirement (generally implying that they have had significant exposure to cultures other than their own) participants arrive in Barcelona with a pretty good idea of what life outside their own country is like. “In the one or two years they are with us at ESADE these ideas are contrasted, honed and applied to business through contact with their international cohort and professors as well as exchanges, study trips and summer internships” explains Batllori, “by the time they graduate most are keen to put their international management skills to the best practice, even if this means moving to a new country.”

If you would like to see the full ranking click here

Javier Solana, who for the last ten years has been the European Union’s High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, has chosen to join ESADE Business School as President of its new Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics, in the new year.

Having left academia to pursue his political career, during which he has been Minister of Culture, Minister of Education and Science, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Spain, Secretary General of NATO and held a number of high ranking positions in the EU, Javier Solana will take on a research and teaching role in ESADE.

The new ESADE Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics, over which Javier Solana will preside, will focus on the evolution of global society, analysing the global economy, corporate leadership and good practice in public policy, among other areas. “In joining ESADE, I am becoming part of an institution of excellence and academic rigor” says Solana, “we hope to set up what will become an international reference for the generation of new ideas essential for the future of global society as a whole.” Solana also commented that he aims to establish relationships with other international centres of excellence that will support this goal.

Designed to instigate reflection, academic analysis and public debate focused on the role of public institutions, multinationals and other international actors, the Centre will comprise a number of other ESADE experts in the areas of corporate internationalization, macroeconomics, public policy and leadership.

Javier Solana will also teach on some of ESADE’s leading international programmes, sharing some of his experience and knowledge with ESADE’s executive education participants, MBA students and the school’s large alumni network.

Carlos Losada, Director General of ESADE said, “We are absolutely delighted that Javier has chosen to join ESADE, it will be an honour to work alongside such an international political heavyweight. We are excited about his leadership of our new research centre and sure that it will yield the pioneering new ideas needed by business and society.”

Javier Solana Madariaga was born in Madrid in 1942, holds a doctorate in Physics and is a tenured professor of the Complutense University of Madrid. He is also a Knight of the Order of St Michael and St George. A member of the Spanish congress since 1977, he was the Spanish Minister of Culture (1982-88), Official Spokesman for the Government (1985-88), Minister of Education and Science (1988-92) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992-95). In December 1995 he was appointed Secretary General of NATO, a position he held until 1999, when he became the EU’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy. His mandate was renewed for five years in 2004 and finally came to an end on the 1^st December 2009.

Global paper The Financial Times publishes its “ranking of rankings”

ESADE Business School has moved up three positions to place eighth in the Financial Times European Business School ranking published today. An amalgamation of the programme-focused rankings published by the FT throughout the year (MBA, EMBA, MSc and Executive Education) this ranking of rankings is intended to give an overview of the business schools as a whole.

ESADE took part in all the Financial Times rankings concerned, with the exception of the EMBA ranking, the school moved up in all those it was rated in. In the MBA ranking, ESADE holds seventh place in Europe, in MSc’s, eighth, in Open Executive Education Programmes, ninth and in Custom Executive Education Programmes, fifth. The school’s steady improvement in the rankings reflects its commitment to excellence in all its programmes and particularly its rapid response and ability to adapt to changes in the needs of participants, client companies and recruiters.

This year saw ESADE launch the world’s first flexible MBA, which students can choose to study in 12, 16 or 18 months depending on their specific needs. The ESADE MBA class of 2010/11, with 87% of its participants from outside of Spain, hailing from some 45 countries, is also the most international it has ever been.

The school’s MSc programmes are enjoying the extra room for growth derived from their move to ESADE’s purpose-built San Cugat Campus, just outside Barcelona. International students from all over the world are attracted to the Master in International Management, Master in Marketing Management and the new Master in Finance.

In the area Open Executive Education programmes, last month ESADE launched a new Advanced Management Programme (AMP) offered in Madrid and Barcelona with an intensive module at Wharton, while the school’s Program for Management Development (PMD) – offered in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid), Argentina (Buenos Aires and Cordova) Uruguay (Montevideo) and Brazil (Curativa and Campinas) – continues to be popular along with the ESADE-St Gallen Programme for Leadership Development (PLD) (with modules in St. Gallen, Munich, Berlin and Barcelona).

ESADE’s custom programmes, imparted on clients’ premises or at ESADE’s Madrid, Barcelona and Buenos Aires campuses, as well at partner schools in other parts of the world, were rated particularly highly by the FT, reflecting the excellent levels of client satisfaction with the programmes. ESADE is heavily involved in corporate universities as well and organises a an annual forum on developments in this area. Clients of custom programmes include Telefonica, Bunge, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Intermon Oxfam, IBM, Kpmg, Wagonlit, and Deutsche Bank, among others.

“With the opening of the ESADE San Cugat Campus and the neighbouring open innovation centre, ESADECREAPOLIS, the hiring of a number of new international professors and a plethora of great developments at a programme level, 2009 has been a busy yet rewarding year for ESADE, we are pleased that the ranking reflects this” states Alfons Sauquet, Dean of ESADE Business School.

To see the full ranking click here

To read the interview with ESADE Dean Alfons Sauquet published in the Financial Times today click here

You’ve got a great business idea, and you’ve taken it as far as you can without some kind of investment, you need to tap up your connections to help you get that meeting with a VC or angel investor, you just went down to pick up a coffee and you’re on your way back up to your floor with the best networked guy you know, it’s time to roll out your elevator pitch. You have three minutes to convince him that this is a one-in-a-million idea that will make him or his contacts money…

This is the pretext behind the ESADE MBA Elevator Pitch Contest held this week, organized by the ESADE Entrepreneurship Club and sponsored by Hard Rock Café. Pitching in front of their peers and a panel of judges, the ten finalists put forward innovative ideas such as: new approaches to advertising on food packaging;  a system to deal with organic waste; rapid repair of grounded aircraft;  tailor-made suits sold via an interactive social networking site; a way to ensure you get the right baby in IVF treatments;  a new way of selling houses; a higher-return, lower risk microfinance project in India; a network to help you settle in to a new city better; a solution for parking problems in Barcelona and a new mobile payment system enabling ‘cash’ payments to be made by mobile phone.

The panel, comprising ESADE MBA Alum turned venture capitalist for Active Capital Partners, Blair McLaren and ESADE Entrepreneurship professor, Jordi Vinaixa, rated the pitches on the viability of idea itself, the potential market, the strength of the team, the possible competition and the presentation itself – criteria used by VC firms when considering projects to invest in. Mr. McLaren also gave participants an insight into how and what to pitch to VC’s as well as an overview of their project selection process.

Winner’s technology developed by UAB scientist met at ESADE’s Innovation Speed-dating event

Second year MBA student from the US, Eric King was declared the winner for his project, “Cell Tag” based on technology allowing a human egg cell to be tagged during IVF treatment. He noted that with increasing numbers of couples wishing to start a family later in their lives, this is a rapidly growing market, citing recent stories of baby mix-ups he highlighted that “couples will see the cell tagging as a kind of insurance against getting the wrong child.” The technology was developed by a scientist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who King met at the Innovation Speed Dating Event held at ESADE last month.

In second place was Tobias Caldeweyher with “MAC Mobile Payment System”. Caldeweyher, a second year MBA student from Germany, talked of a world of charging mobile phones with cash, leaving pockets free from the weight of small change. The strength of his team particularly impressed the judges, comprising as it does a Japanese mobile technology expert, a Spanish marketer and a German e-commerce specialist, all current MBA students at ESADE.

Third prize went to second year MBA student from Portugal, Pedro Martinho, for his concept “Aircraft on Ground”. Based on a niche in the market discovered during his previous experience as an engineer, Aircraft on Ground would offer a quick and efficient solution to the expensive problem of having grounded aircraft, greatly reducing the amount of time they are out of service.

“More and more MBA students are looking towards entrepreneurship as a viable option post MBA and we want to encourage them through these kinds of events to help them see it as a possibility. Many of us have dabbled in entrepreneurship, so it’s also about sharing experiences” says President of the ESADE Entrepreneurship Club, Saurabh Prakash Mishra. “It’s also great there were two projects in the Elevator Pitch that have come out of the Innovation Speed-Dating Event we organized.” The next step in the process is ESADE Business Angels Network to be held in a couple of weeks, where participants will have the chance to pitch their ideas to the ESADEAlumni Business Angeles Club.

Elevator Pitch winners and organisers (Photo: Victoria Havens)

President elect of the American Bar Association speaks at ESADE

Addressing a class of law students at ESADE Law School, president elect of the American Bar Association (ABA), Steve Zack, focused on the importance of the rule of law and the role of lawyers as catalysts for change.  “If you study law simply with a view to making money, you fail to understand the power of law school” he said, “it is all about the ability to right a wrong.”

Zack, a Cuban immigrant to the US at the age of 13, cites his experience being separated from his family and isolated overnight by the Cuban authorities as one of the reasons he decided to become a lawyer. “I had the feeling that someone should have done something and I realized that no one should feel like that, like they had no rights.”

If you study law simply with a view to making money, you fail to understand the power of law school”

The four-hundred thousand member strong, American Bar Association has exerted its ability to at least try to right a wrong on a number of occasions, particularly in the area of maintaining a free judiciary.  “The ABA stood up and protested when the Pakistani government removed their independent judiciary and law students have the same responsibility: to speak out.” Zack stressed. “You will be practicing in a brave new world” he told ESADE law students, “it will be up to the international community of lawyers to protect the independent judiciary, because they can’t protect themselves.”

Throughout his address Zack painted a picture of the future of the legal profession. “We are undergoing the greatest upheaval we have seen for a hundred years,” he said, major changes to legal services are afoot, “in Australia and soon in England and Wales it will be possible to publically float a law firm, third parties in some jurisdictions can now fund lawsuits, technology has made virtual law firms possible and outsourcing has revolutionized document management.” He noted, “Technology has changed the world and the legal profession is no exception… It will soon be possible to work from the beach” he said, much to the delight of the law students.

When asked whether, in the light of recent years, America is still the land of opportunity, Zack affirmed, “Now more than ever! Where else could a diabetic woman from Puerto Rico be elected to the Supreme Court, as Sonia Sotomayor has been? … There is no other country in the world where someone like Obama could be president… Even I have lived the American Dream, when I landed on American shores, I didn’t have five cents.”

In legal education we can expect changes as well, “we are creating a generation of lawyers from the same legal system” Zack highlighted, “You will see it in your lifetimes” Along these lines, respected academic and practicing lawyer at KPMG, Ramon Mullerat O.B.E. expressed his hopes that a Hispanic president of the ABA might be the ideal person to bridge the great legal divide and join common and civil law. “There is much the Spanish Bar Association can learn from the ABA to help lawyers develop a collective understanding and defend liberties through practice.”

In closing Zack stressed the rule of law as the most important part of ensuring economic stability for developing countries. “No-one is going to invest if there is no rule of law… Strong economies are always based on a stable legal system… Large multinationals must solve many issues, but it is up to lawyers to have an influence through such companies.”

Dean of ESADE Law School, Enric Bartlett said, “It is a great honor for ESADE Law School to welcome such a prominent member of the international legal profession, his words have truly been an inspiration to our young lawyers who will partake in a period of great change in the profession.”

ESADECREAPOLIS, an international centre for Open and Cross Innovation set up by ESADE Business School and other partners, was inaugurated this afternoon by the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, and the Catalan Counsellor for Innovation, University and Enterprise.

The innovation park is the first of its kind to be created by an international business school and already houses over 50 companies, including BBVA, Roca, Laboratorios Esteve and FlowLab, all of whom share the common objective of getting results out of Open and Cross innovation. This innovation process is open to its environment, involves interaction with very different companies and considers elements beyond the company itself, such as suppliers, clients or the community.

Belonging to a wide range of sectors and of very different sizes, the representatives from the ESADECREAPOLIS resident companies get together for regular guided innovation and best practice sessions, round tables, and other activities. The crossover of ideas and sharing of experience in such sessions generates the kind of more disruptive, creative ideas, necessary for business development in today’s changeable global environment.

Companies housed in ESADECREAPOLIS’ Googlesque building not only attend specific workshops, but also network informally thanks to the building’s design features specifically thought out to promote socialization and knowledge exchange between the different companies. The state-of-the-art building includes many different environments intended to assist in the creative process such as Coffee Brain Corners, Open & Cross Innovation rooms, Focus Group rooms, open balconies and communal gardens and play areas.

The project also hopes to leverage the synergies between the business school and ESADECREAPOLIS‘ innovative residents. The purpose-built 20,000m² park is strategically located on ESADE’s new San Cugat campus allowing residents easy access to ESADE’s innovation experts, research centres and Executive Education programmes. Similarly, ESADE students and professors will benefit from having the opportunity to watch innovation at work close at hand.