04 May 2022
An adventure to find purpose and inspiration
On Sunday April 24th, ten students from the EMBA class of 2021-2022 met in Cambridge (MA) to kick off a week of entrepreneurship and open-mindedness.
After a year of intense courses and lectures, this study trip to the Cradle of Liberty was the cherry on top of the ice cream. The idea of such a trip was to give these students the chance to discover another environment and expand their network by meeting amazing people from various backgrounds. And that's exactly what they did.
Integrated management
The learning began on Monday with a meetup at Swissnex, the Swiss global network connecting Switzerland and the world in education, research, and innovation. From there, they went on a tour of Cambridge (MA) where they visited the Harvard Square and the MIT campus. This visit was very exhilarating for the students as they could grasp the vib and feel of the city.
On Tuesday, our ten students from Switzerland attended various lectures at Suffolk Law school, in Downtown Boston. In the afternoon, they had the chance and opportunity to meet Prof. Olivier de Weck, a native from Switzerland who moved to Massachussetts and teaches system engineering at MIT. Tuesday's course covered Technology roadmapping and the students asked very insightful questions about research at the MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory (ESL).
Wednesday was a full day of courses at Swissnex headquarters. The students met with Peter S. Cohan from Babson college and Franck Cespedes from the Harvard Business school. In the late afternoon, they all ventured out and headed to the Havard Innovation Lab where they were greeted by Thara Pillai and her firm determination to help as many startups as possible.
On Thursday, our (mostly) young executives from Switzerland were lucky enough to visit Autodesk and Essential Design, both leaders in their field. The evening was dedicated to networking with a reception at the Swissnex Residence in Lexington (MA).
swissnex.org
Finally, our closing day started with an inspirational pitch from Vinit Nijhawan from MassVentures where he talked about the important keys to financing a startup and what to ask when diving into the entrepreneurial world. In the afternoon, a space week was held at MIT where students could learn about the latest trends in space technology and meet with experts from various space-leading companies.
Our students all went back to Switzerland with a new type of appreciation. Thanks to Boston and the amazing people they met, our students all went back to Switzerland with a new type of appreciation and a changed vision of their work field. By opening their mind to a different culture, they are now able to take a step back and asset any situation with a new perspective.
