Leaders @ MISB Bocconi - II

Peter Ohnemus, Entrepreneur

Thursday, September 6.

Peter Ohnemus, the Swiss based entrepreneur, is as jovial as he is dynamic.  The IMD graduate paid a visit to the campus and gave us a talk on the trials and tribulations associated with entrepreneurship.

Regaling us with tales from his broad experience in companies like Sybase, LogicWorks, COS, Asset4 and more recently QuentiQ, he taught us about the importance of certain concepts like the art of selling, the significance of the roles hard work and luck play in the life of an entrepreneur, and most importantly, about how it is important to maintain the balance between the professional and personal life.

“It’s not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get it and then stand again.”

This quote from the movie Rocky, was what came to my mind when he spoke at length about the difficulties he faced at different points of his life. The important thing is not to get bogged down by these failures, but to move ahead with even greater determination.

We are thankful that he could take time off his busy schedule to address us and speak to us at length and hope to have more interactions with him in the future!!

Contributed by

Sivanand Mahapatra

Student,2012-2014 Batch

MISB Bocconi

Leaders @ MISB Bocconi - I

K Ramkumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank

Friday, August 31, 2012.

We, at MISB, had the opportunity to interact with Mr. K. Ramkumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, as a part of Leaders @ MISB Bocconi series. He shared his valuable insights into strategy formulation and what it takes to manage an organization as huge as ICICI. Mr. Ramkumar, a die-hard sports fan, also explained how closed boardroom strategy makers in companies can take cues from Real Madrid and Manchester United team playing strategies.

We would like to present some thoughts shared by our esteemed guest :

• Taking the example of ICICI having to make a decision to chase market share vs profitability after 2008, he explained how strategy is always a tradeoff between the perceived goal and achievable target.
• Resource allocation is a very important factor for the successful execution of a strategy.
• Organizational and HR changes take time to percolate through the organization, normally 3-5 years, but common goal is what drives the organization forward.
• Citing several examples from history of Napoleon, Alexander to the soccer teams, he said there is always a choice of deployment of resources in a right way. 

We gained several insights into the art of strategy making straight from the man himself who have executed several organizational restructures throughout ICICI.

We look forward to attending such lectures ahead in our course.

Anurag Singhal
Student, 2012-2014
MISB Bocconi