Hult Magazine Issue 7 | Page 5

THE GLOBAL ALUMNI SUMMIT 2014—LONDON Keynote address: Carolina Arriagada Peters Carolina is the Head of EMEA and Latin America for London & Partners, who work with organizations across the globe to grow their businesses in London. Giving a fascinating insight into the city’s business and economic landscape, it was a great opportunity for alumni to see how their own organizations could benefit from being active in the London market. Summing up the importance networking holds in the business landscape, Carolina pointed out that “For every 100 business cards you give out, one person will contact you,” which really seemed to grab the attendees’ attention. Carolina’s speech addressed London’s commercial appeal, highlighting that 27,000 foreign companies are based here, with more than 3,000 start-ups based in TechCity, the digital capital of Europe. Marking out biotech as the “the next Internet,” much to the shock of the attendees, it was onto lunch and some serious networking between alums. Masterclass with Marco Protano Next was a masterclass in Strategic Marketing from our very own Marco Protano. Professor of Marketing and Strategy here at Hult, Marco brings 25 years of experience working with Fortune 500s like Nestlé and BristolMeyers Squibb, educating executives and students at prestigious universities, as well as successfully launching his own e-commerce ventures. Marco delivered an inspiring presentation in his classic, energetic style. Focusing on the importance “the age of the customer” held for the future of marketing, his broad firsthand experience was evident from the very practical nature of the class, giving the delegates a wealth of tools they could use in their everyday work, from grids to effectively evaluate their value proposition and brand health, to formulas to calculate the contribution of marketing to their organization. “Marco was excellent. He went straight to the point and gave us practical tools that we can use at work. In any business, marketing has to fight for your share of the budget. You need to be armed with the numbers.” Olga Ivanova, BS Business Class of 2010 Brathay Trust leadership & management workshop introduction: Leadership In The Future—Developing Your Competency For Leadership Success After a short break, with Marco’s words of marketing wisdom still fresh in their minds, the alums went into a leadership and management development workshop with consultants from Brathay Trust, in preparation for the team-based competition the next day. Emotional intelligence and our impact on others was the theme, and the goal was to reflect and identify areas in need of improvement by filling out a reflection questionnaire. The relevance of this topic is clear from studies that show 80% of difficulty on work projects comes from managing team dynamics, with only 20% being down to the difficulty of the task. The workshop proved an ideal opportunity for alumni to benefit from this innovation in business education. It was then onto an exciting update from Hult’s Corporate Relations team on how CR at Hult can benefit alumni (read more about this on p. 8-9) before heading to dinner at quaint British eatery Bumpkin in the heart of Kensington. Alums were also joined by Hult President Dr. Stephen Hodges, Executive Director of Hult London Rebecca Churchill, and Dean of Graduate Programs at Hult London Nawtej Dosanjh. hult.edu/alumni 5