The wall

In the last two months I´ve done quite a lot of reading and researching for my master thesis. Everytime I stumbled over something useful I wrote it down on a piece of paper in order to collect sub-topics, ideas and so on. To keep an overview and see the ideas most of the times I started to create a wall (seems that I got somehow internet-addicted and copied the facebook concept to real life ;-)

Anyway I start to like this way because each time I want to get into the topic (again) I just can have a look at the wall, if I remember that I wrote down something I don´t have to search for it in my messy pile of papers and if I have a new idea I just can add it to the old ones and it mentally says Simon wrote on his own wall ;-)) Still, I have to be careful that I don´t overuse it and write down everything without filtering it. Otherwise it just gets another post on the wall or a wallpaper.

My wall

Marina di Massa

As already mentioned before, I´m quite busy these days. After Kick-off I spent only two days back in St. Gallen - one was for relaxing and the other for studying. On Wednesday evening me and some friends from my club left Switzerland and headed to Italy. We spent 4 marvelous days in Marina di Massa, a town in Tuscany between La Spezia and Pisa. On the beaches and in the sea we trained for around 6 hours a day our skills in Surf Lifesaving containing swimming, surf ski, surf board or running on the beach. As you can imagine I was pretty tired from the trainings and the travel back to St. Gallen when I arrived on sunday 11pm.

For all those who are interested in what you can do in lifesaving sports, you can check out these two sites:

Swiss Surf Lifesaving
Australian Surf Livesaving

Unfortunately there was no time for me to relax or even recover because the course which occupies me this week started already at 9 am on monday. The topic of the course is Emotions in Organizations and is an interesting topic. Though I´m facing classes from 9 am till 5 pm for four days in a row which is pretty exhausting. I´m just glad that it´s a mixture of lectures and case studies and not only lectures otherwise I might fall asleep...

Back from the OC

A lot was going on the past few days and will go on in the upcoming weeks. Since last wednesday I´ve been in Fiesch for Kick-off where I worked again for the organizing commitee. It was again a lot of work, not so much time and even less sleep.
To sum up there was a mixture of different feelings and emotions. There were cool moments like most of the time together with the OC. There were annoying moments, like during official dinner and awards night. There were tiring moments like driving through the whole Valais and back to get some inkind. There were relaxing moments like sitting with the laptop and some music in the sun while waiting for people showing up for coffee break.
There were hurting moments like when you just woke up after only 2.5hrs of sleep and move still a bit sleepy to breakfast and delegates telling you (as a joke for them) that you should work and not sleep. There were challenging moments like setting up several external workshops at the same time combined with room reallocation and there were stupid moments like fixing beamer problems because the beamer was attached to one extension cable meanwhile another not linked extension was put to the power supply.
There were disgusting moments like cleaning up in the morning after global village. There were funny moments like playing CSI with some OC members. And there were just great moments like when a delegate honestly and directly acknowledged our worked and thanked for it! And there were of course some really amazing individuals around!

Life in Cartoon Motion

Yesterday when I played around with photoshop I found out something I didn´t know yet.
After some learning about it I decided to do a post about some beautiful and / or important places I visited or lived in lately. And it´s somehow in cartoon motion...

St.Gallen, 2007

Bamberg, 2006

Venezia, 2006

Berlin, 2006

Stuttgart, 2006

Barcelona, 2007

Heidelberg, 2005

A part of my family story

Today in an article of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung about the election of the new federal canchellor one of the representatives of my family was mentioned. He - Johann Ulrich Schiess - was the first federal canchellor in Switzerland and the NZZ said the following about him:

Der erste Bundeskanzler, der Ausserrhoder Johann Ulrich Schiess, garantierte während einer Amtszeit von 33 Jahren Kontinuität im Wechsel der Regierungsmitglieder. Bereits in den Konflikts- und Kriegsjahren von 1847/48 hatte der damals 35-Jährige Kanzleiämter inne. Wie einer Dissertation von Simone Iten zu entnehmen ist, war es Schiess zu verdanken, dass sich die Bundeskanzlei zu einem mustergültigen Apparat der Bundesverwaltung entwickelte. Der äusserst exakte Bundeskanzler verlangte von seinen Untergebenen allerdings grosse Arbeitsdisziplin. Schiess stellte sich jeweils neben der Kanzleitür auf und verabreichte jedem, der zu spät kam, einen tüchtigen Klaps. So viel zur guten alten Zeit.

Apparently he had a very intersting managing style, especially when it came to management of his employees. I don´t know yet whether this style is in our genes or not. Probably I can say more when I got to a position where I´ll be responsible for some employees...

No friends? - !

Today when I finally signed in in studivz as well (why do we need 2 platforms for the same thing??) I really got a shock! This anonymus, computer-controlled thing told me the following:

I´m really depressed and feel very, very, very lonely ;-). At least I have a laptop which is still my friend and does what I want :-)))

Under construction

For the second time in around one week, the website where I uploaded pics for my blog-template somehow lost my stuff. Therefore I went back to a regular blog-template. And finally I managed to solve all technical problems which came along...

How much celebrity is in me?

Among others, there were the following matches as well ;-)))

• David Hasselhoff 63%
  
• John F. Kerry 58%
• Freddie Prinze Jr. 55%
• Colin Farrell 54%

Try it out here

What a wonderful world

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world

Random announcements

Announcement 1: Participated in the Train the Trainer Seminar this weekend. It was a really cool, intensive but funny experience as well. My official press release can be read on AIESEC Bern Blog.

Announcement 2: I´m definitely gonna be at kick-off 07 (which is surprisingly my first and probably last kick-off at the same time). I´ll join once again the extended OC! Just hope I don´t have to put on my "Phorensics" Jacket again because of TSI - Trash Scene Investigation ;-)

Announcement 3: I´m a bit disappointed at the moment because I didn´t get the tickets for Euro 08 I applied for. I really hope that people who got tickets are real fans and not just fashionistas!

Master thesis - topic is set

I just arrived back from a meeting with one of my profs here at university. We discussed my master thesis topic and finally decided to officially register it at the uni. For all those who are interested I´ll shortly describe what I´ll plan to do. And I hope I manage to write it in a way that people who´re not familiar with that business stuff understand it.
I´ll start with the title. Of course like each thesis, it needs one of those fancy titles ;-). My topic is called Brand perception in Business-to-Business: Impact and Instruments

Brand perceptions: Brand perception says something about a how a company, a product or a brand is perceived by it´s customers, it´s investors or the society for example. It´s what people think of a brand, it´s the attributes, the benefit they link to a brand. For example why do many people choose coca cola instead of pepsi? Because they perceive that coca cola is something different, something better than pepsi - btw. I did the test lately. There IS a difference and I could tell which one was which, but I couldn´t say that I like one more than the other.
Business-to-Business: B2B is that part, where one company´s customer is another company. This customer uses the products of the first company as components for their own products. One of the best known b2b-brands is probably Intel. Intel sells it´s chips to computer manufaturer eg. HP. HP needs those chips in order to sell their own product, a high-quality computer. Intel as an example is very famous to many end-user, because they did advertisement not only to computer manufacturere but to end-users as well. And those manufacturer can now use "Intel inside" as a quality label for their own sales.

Now, what I actually like to do in my thesis, is comparing the customer and the company side. To analyse what brand signals and attributes, values etc. b2b-companies are sending out (or how they like to be perceived) and what signals arrive at the b2b-customers side (or how they actually perceive the brand). And then combine it with an analysis about which communication instruments, channels they actually use for that.
At the moment I´m just at the starting point. I really have to start with basic work, because at the moment everyone is just stating that branding in B2B is important but "almost" no one did something about it. Then I have to find companies who´re willing to participate (if someone is interested or knows someone who might be interested please let me know and we´ll see...) and I have to think of a certain method to analyse that in the practice (as well here, if someone has a good idea about that please let me know).
So as you can see, a lot of work - but hopefully interesting work - lies ahead of me in the next months.

Proud to be Single?

Are you one of the species "I´m Single and I´m lovin´it!"?? Then this might be something for you...

Of blogging and branding

Lately I´ve been quite involved in a certain sub-topic of my studies: branding. I´m searching books, browsing journals and reading tons of articles because I´d like to write my thesis in a branding-related area. After I tried to storm my brain for some new ideas, I visited a blog called branding & marketing which I found through another blog called modern b2b marketing. On this branding and marketing blog I found an interesting post about marketing tips for recent college graduates, which was basically the start to this post here as well. The mentioned post has linked some posts in other blogs concerning branding yourself as a person and communicating this eg. through a blog. I dug a bit deeper and read some pretty interesting stuff I´d like to share.

Did you ever reflect why you´re keeping a blog? Is it because you want to entertain your readers, is it because you want to keep your friends updated about your life, is it because you want to keep a publicly available diary but basically just writing entries for yourself or do you even want to do sort of business with your blog? And how do you choose topics you´re blogging about, how much do you think about which picture of you or a friend of yours you want to upload? In the online world it´s pretty easy to stop by in your blog, read your posts, get to know you (or at least an image of you, you´re maybe unconsciously providing) and leave without being noticed. So, who - except the ones who´re leaving comments - is actually reading your blog then?

I raised a lot of questions now, but I think they might get important at one point or another to every blogger out there. And for me as a student who´d like to graduate soon maybe sooner than later. As stated in several blogs, companies are checking your online profile and perform web searches for your name in case you apply for a job. If they find positive stuff about you, it´s perfect but there might be some negative stuff as well and if they don´t find anything it might almost count as negative. Several bloggers write that you should actively use your blog as a tool to present yourself to the world, to create your own brand and to distinguish yourself. Some even go a step further and say that you should record a video of yourself and put it on youtube or the way you sign comments on other blogs affects your own brand.

I know, this sounds totally reasonable for people like me entering the business world from a marketing or generally spoken a business origin. And I´m convinced that people who want to apply for a job in this area, should actively check their online profile and keep a proper image. By proper image I mean the same image they´re providing in the real world as well. And yet, I believe that it´s not only important to people in the "business area". Although there might be less effects in other professions, I still think that the content of your blog or the way friends post about you, can affect a potential employers decision heavily. I mean if you´re always blogging about sun, fun and nothing to do and your friends upload all nasty party pictures they find of you, i don´t know if the company or organisation might trust you if you´re presenting yourself as a hard-worker at the job interview. And this is probably as true for companies as for NGOs or governments...

For those who´re interested to read some more about the topic. Here are some links for a start:

• Brand you with a blog
• Branding for Twenty Somethings
• Do you brand yourself in blog comments?

Snowboarding!

Some impressions from a marvelous day. I was on Belalp near Brig for snowboarding. It was truly amazing. Sun, snow and few people (we didn´t have to queue!). Now I´m just tired but happy...

Easter special

Ever wondered what the true story behind Easter is? Well, people believe that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus after being crucified. But where´s the link to rabbits and the easter bunnies? Why do people color eggs? Why has the easter basket to be hidden? And how got the chocolate industry into this?

There are probably more questions than answers around. But don´t worry, in case you can´t find a logic explanation to all this, you´re probably not alone. But now, I found some evidence which might tell the true story! It seems, that Dan Brown was somehow involved in this as well ;-)

Watch the evidence!

A beautiful day

On such beautiful days like today or yesterday, I can´t just stay inside the whole day. So, there were two options. Either, grab a book (of course study-related), sit in the sun, read and doing something reasonable. But being bored and not able to concentrate comes along with it. OR grab my bike, put some music on and head in a direction and decide on each cross-road where to go next until you´re tired and decide to go home. I chose both days option two, cause I should do certainly more sport than the last months.
And it´s so nice at the moment outside. The sun is shining. We have around 15° C. Flowers are prospering. Birds are whistling. People are outside again, walking, cycling, inline skating or just sitting outside, maybe playing games with their family. And everyone is smiling.
And while I am cycling, I can let my mind wander. Remembering nice experiences and moments. Being excited about what´s coming. Getting new ideas. Making plans for the future. And at the same time listening to music I like. My playlist today was the following:

Fortress Europe, Ch-check it out, Crazy in love, Song 2, You know my name, Maneater, Invincible, Tubthumping, What´s your number, I want rock, Shake your tailfeather, Take a look around, Till I collapse, Femme like you, Sorry, Hot in herre, California, The seed 2.0, A little samba, Big city life, Say it right, What comes around goes around

Xpectations

Today at university I got this graduate package which comes as a sort of announcement for Forum HSG (aka. Career Days). Well, I was pretty astonished when I took out a letter from our Dean and read the following stuff:
The term "HSG-graduate" is an academic seal of approval with international reputation (in German: ein akademisches Gütesiegel von Weltruf) - not only in business sciences.

And further down it said:
Carrier and ambassador of those values are you as a graduate. The HSG-Degree in your CV arouses certain expectations on your future employers side: You should perform in your occupation at a world-class level, indeed!

Well, I have to say, that sounds very interesting, but it gets better if you combine it, with what I just heard yesterday in my class about corporate communication. There we were told, that there should NOT be a gap between corporate idendity (that´s the picture you as a company really have at the inside) and the corporate image (that is, how your company is perceived by society). I don´t know, but for me, I´m really not sure about this point... Therefore I was really glad when I read the next statement in the very same letter:
Be aware of your value for the company, but evaluate yourself HONESTLY!

OK, to evaluate it honestly: for me it´s like sending out mixed signals through language and action. A difference between what you´d like to be and what you are. I don´t say it´s bad, really it´s a good level for sure, but still...
When I read this letter this afternoon, I associated it spontaneously with "pinky and the brain". At the end of each episode of this cartoon was the following tagline: "Gee, Brain, what'd you wanna do tonight?" "The same thing we do every night, Pinky - Try to take over the world!"

Time goes by, so slowly! - or not?

Do you think sometimes, that the clock is running faster than at other times? There are times, I really feel that it´s going slower. For example if I look ahead, I see, that it still takes me more than one year to finish my education (finally). And it takes almost a year until I´ll go abroad once again. And then, probably a lot of work-years are ahead...
But, on the other hand, I have the feeling, that life is sometimes running at speed of sound. I mean, we already passed a quarter of 2007 although it feels that it started just moments ago. I´m back in Switzerland already for more than half a year but my memories from the time abroad are so present, I can´t imagine that it´s already so long ago. When I look back to 2006 on one hand it feels that I experienced so many nice moments but on the other hand it feels like this year was like a dream - it was a nice imagination but didn´t exist.
When I look around me, I see people coming back from abroad, I see people going away for some time. I see people finishing their studies, looking and applying for their first job. And I even got an invitation today for a wedding of a friend, who´s just one week older than me.
Was Madonna right, when she sang Time goes by, so slowly, for those who wait - no time to hesitate!? Is there no time to hesitate? Is it better to take opportunities without hesitating? Just living and enjoying each moment and make the most out of it, because you can´t be sure what the next one will bring...?

Barcelona!

Today in the evening I arrived back from my weekend trip from Barcelona. It was really an amazing but exhausting time (a lot of walking, partying and not too much sleep). On friday morning, I left Switzerland in the snowy morning and arrived in the spring of Barcelona with around 15° and sunshine. After a short stop in the youth hostel we went of course straight to the beach. Later on in the evening (after a siesta of course) we went first to eat paella and then met with my friend Jenny (former intern from Bosch in Stuttgart) and her flatmate. After some local beer from Catalunya we went to a club called Mojito.

The day afterwards we got up at 11 and went to Parc Güell - a park built after the archetype of an english garden - which is UNESCO cultural heritage since 1984. After this we went to La sagrada familia, the famous cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi. Although they started to build it already back in 1882 it´s still not finished and judging from the plans it will take a while to finish it. In the evening (after another siesta and some tapas for dinner) we met again Jenny and some friends and went to a club called baja which is situated directly at the beach. We partied all night long and due to the change to summertime and losing one hour we arrived back in the hostel at 7 am...

Still, next morning we woke up already at 11 again and continued our Barcelona tour. We went to Montjuïc, the hill in the southern part of the city where you can have a look at the city, the beach and the harbour. After taking a look at the olympic stadium we went to the Palau National, a huge palace which is situated just in front of the Plaça d'Espanya. After the obligatory siesta, another paella we went again to the beach for an extensive photo-shooting session of nightpictures and the for a beer in bar in the city centre again.

Today we then finished our trip easily with having some coffees before going to the airport. There we faced some problems - we didn´t have electronic ticketnr. because we had to reschedule our flight (Swiss cancelled our original return flight to Basel). At the same time we had to explain why we just need the flight to Zurich and we don´t want to have our luggage brought to Basel again (our connection to Basel would have left 6 hours after arriving in Zurich). Anyway we managed to get all troubles solved and even appeared at the gate in time for boarding...

Ps. For more pictures surf here

Happy End of Chapter I

After I received the long awaited letter from university I finally can close Chapter I of my master studies. The grades arrived! It turned out that I did quite good in my exams. In the important courses (the ones with more credits) I performed slightly better than in the less important ones ;-) And with an average which is higher than in my bachelors or during high school I´m of course very very happy!!! Chapter one finished with a happy end!!! Hope to continue the same way...