"Time to act is now!"
by Martina Traub Kaiser and Alfred Max
The Management Workshop Days for the MSc International Business Development (IBD) and MSc International Accounting, Controlling and Taxation (IACT) programmes once again demonstrated the value of the cooperation between ESB Business School and its alumni. Former ESB students from the companies Dassault Systémes, Deloitte Consulting GmbH, Ernst & Young GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Hilti Deutschland AG and BSH Hausgeräte GmbH gave the current students valuable insights and the benefit of their practical experience in several areas.
“The time to act is now!" was the inspiring sentence with which Dr Christian Speth, CFO of Dassault Systémes, opened the Management Workshop Days. The workshops themselves dealt with current topics such as "Sustainability Reporting" and "International Tax Law". Together with the subsequent discussions, they offered a platform to expand one's own knowledge, to exchange ideas with experts and to network in the various sectors.
Hilti Deutschland AG invited the study groups to its plant in Kaufering. A graduate of IMX and IBD reported on her career in marketing and sales at Hilti. Afterwards, she and her colleagues were available for an extended period to talk with the students. The tours through the factory production of drills and chemical dowels supplemented the theory. Students enthusiastically took up the opportunity to test the Hilti tools themselves. Here, too, the motto was “The time to act is now". For the evening, the choice was a visit to a brewery in Munich or the IBD/IACT Alumni Meeting with Dean of Studies Prof. Dr. Wader and Coordinator Martina Traub-Kaiser in a rustic Bavarian inn. The management workshop days ended on the impressive company campus of BSH Hausgeräte GmbH (Munich), where an IACT alumnus had initiated exciting workshops on the topics of Sustainability in Customer Service. He and a colleague supervised the workshops. They gave constructive feedback to each group afterwards.
The overall feedback was positive, with one company reporting: “We were very enthusiastic about the questions and the work ethic during the case studies. A very good advertisement for ESB Business School." Each workshop day offered inspiring learning environments, discussions with experienced professionals and thus supported the students in their academic and perspective professional development. This is also reflected in the student opinion: "An interesting and a great week, with a variety of assignments on current topics."
On the part of the two degree programmes, a big thank you goes to the participating companies and all the contributors for their great commitment, the interesting insights and, last but not least, the invitations to the canteens.
