Company launch

As previously mentioned (in a prior post), this summer there are no classes. Rather we will be busy in a consulting project for an international company. Our team of 5, has been assigned to a Finland based company, looking to expand operations into China.

This past weekend, we had our company launch event at school where the CEOs, CTOs and other execs of 52 companies from around the world came to the campus and met with us. We spent two full days interacting with our own company execs trying to understand their product, company and goals from the project. Based on prior secondary research on the industry that our team had already done, we capped off the two day event with a 25 minute presentation and Q&A session. All went quite well and the execs, advisors and other observers were quite pleased with our performance.

That evening we took our execs to a fine dining restaurant. Oh what an experience. :) Other than the standard white table and stuff, we had 2 dedicated waiters for our table. Glancing through the wine menu, noticed that the cheapest wine bottle was $50 (max was $500+... could be higher - I just stopped looking at that point). Menu was fixed as in FIXED. No alterations allowed at all (I wanted them to make me a veggie dish but was told bluntly that there are 2 options in the menu and that is all they are willing to do). Soft music, nice company and good food... the overall experience was very nice. The execs appreciated our gesture very much with the COO inviting us to come over to Finland (even said we could stay at his house) :) Very touching. The restaurant was located right on the Santa Monica beach and a post-dinner stroll on the beach front was the perfect ending to the great 2 days we spent in school.

Now the action will really heat up over the next few months. Travel plans are being finalized. More soon on those...