7/12/11- Guest Speakers and Trip to IBM

Feeling a little better this morning, I was prepared for a long day of class activity. We started the day with two guest speakers. The first speaker discussed hi-tech entrepreneurship in Belgium and the major issues entrepreneurs face in the European Union, (e.g. language barriers, human capital, and angel investors). The second speaker discussed human resource research his group had performed over the last few years. The central argument of his presentation was that there is no correlation between job satisfaction and increased productivity, however, there is an increase in productivity when employees are "engaged" at work. Following the speakers' presentation we grabbed quick lunches and then headed off to the IBM offices just outside of Brussels where we were given a presentation on IBMs global expansion and strategic evolution. This included insights on IBM's acquisition of the PriceWaterhouse Cooper consulting division and business initiatives to diversify services and provide greater value to clients. To finish the visit we spent an hour with the IBM interns working on a consulting exercise, the winners got special Belgian chocolates....we lost. :(

When we returned to the hotel it was around 5PM. I spent the rest of the night with one of my groups to put some finishing touches on a slideshow to be presented the following day.

Sorry, no pics today!