Meet the Alumni
Walter Garbuio lives in Milan, with his wife, Dina, and their two
children -- Giovanni, who is four, and Aida, who is one.
I graduated from CIMBA
in 2000. My class was quite diverse,
with students from the US, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, Italy, and
Slovenia.
How has CIMBA affected your life, professionally and personally?
After graduating from the CIMBA program, I went to work for a
small boutique investment company in Italy (Finanziaria Internazionale). I
would have never had that opportunity had it not been for my CIMBA education
and experience. My initial position at the firm was as analyst. I was
quickly immersed in the world of structured finance, principal finance with a
particular focus on securitization.
After two years spent in Finanziaria
Internazionale, I moved to the largest bank in Italy (Banca Intesa) and
thereafter I moved to Calyon as Head of Public Sector Structuring. After almost ten years of working experience, I decided to set up my own
advisory company (Advisory & Finance) with the focus to advise small and medium
companies in mergers, fundraising strategies, and structured finance
transactions. It is the most challenging decision I have ever made.
If you had to describe your best memory at CIMBA, what would it be?
I graduated 10 years ago, but I still enjoy meeting with my ex-classmates
and remembering the people who played such a great role in transmitting the
sense of the master (Dr. Ringleb and Cristina). For me, born and raised in
Italy, the CIMBA experience was a life-changing one, a turning point that gave
me the chance to get in touch with a brand new way of thinking, living and working.
What advice can you give current CIMBA students?
I would suggest that foreign students take the opportunity to
explore and travel as much as they can. Also, getting in touch with the Italian
language and culture is a unique and enriching experience. My suggestion for
the Italian students would be to use the time that they have available to
really get to know their foreign classmates.
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Jeremy Lill (CIMBA Part-Time Program, Class of 2006) has accepted
a position in the accounting PhD program at the University of Illinois.
He will start Fall of 2010. Congratulations, Jeremy!
New job? Moving somewhere new? Getting married? Other life changes? Want to volunteer your profile for the Meet the Alumni section?
Keep your fellow alums in the loop! Send your news items to info@cimba.it and they will appear here the following month. |
Calendar of Events:
May 2010
Executive
21 May: Low Ropes Course with Dr. Milan Pagon
28, 29 May: International
Business Law with Prof. Joan Gabel
MBA
1, 2 May: Ethics with Prof. Nancy Hauserman
10-13 May: Final Leadership Assessment Delivery Sessions
11 May: CIMBA Resident Student Check Out
17 May: MBA Summer Session Begins
Undergraduate
17 May: 300 Undergraduates Arrive for the CIMBA UG Summer Session!
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Greetings!
Greetings from CIMBA! The weather has certainly been
heating up in the Veneto, and everyone seems to be comfortably settling into
the idea of summer. Currently, the CIMBA staff is in "preparation mode," both at
the undergraduate and graduate campuses, for summer programs that will be offered
at each of the separate campuses. The Spring 2010 CIMBA Undergraduate class members
have each made their way out of CIMBA and back home, or are traveling around
the continent (despite the Icelandic volcanoes...); meanwhile, the CIMBA MBAs are
finishing up their spring semesters, and will soon be packing up and moving
into local Asolo apartments to make room for the summertime MBAs.
Seeing as summertime is soon approaching, let us know if
you'll be traveling close to the Asolo area. We always enjoy seeing you all, so
please keep in touch! If you'd like, join our alumni networks (now on Facebook
and LinkedIn) -- the links are near the end of the left-hand column.
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CIMBA MBA
Having successfully worked through and presented their consulting projects, the CIMBA MBA students feel -- for at least a moment -- able to sit back, relax, and reflect on the challenges they have skillfully met during their year in Asolo. Katy Jo Brown, a first-year part time student and recipient of the Campus Life Coordinator Assistantship, says of her consulting experience, "I am relieved that my consulting project is over and was a
success. The consulting projects were a ton or work, but very rewarding overall.
We used concepts we learned in class, such as the economic order quantity &
LEAN production, to show our client how to reduce costs and how to keep their
process in control. The client was in disbelief that we came up with so many
conclusions and recommendations. I personally learned a lot about how to work
with different personality types and how to balance a fulltime job, the MBA, and
my consulting project. What's more, it was really enlightening to get real world
consulting experience with an international company." Congratulations on your consulting projects, MBAs -- a demanding job well done!
What's next for the CIMBA MBAs? This coming weekend, they will be sitting in on a New Venture Development course with Professor Nancy Hauserman of the University of Iowa. Hauserman, who holds the Williams Teaching Professorship and has a secondary appointment in the UI College of Law, has taught in the University of Iowa Department of Management and Organizations since 1977. A leader in educational innovation within the Tippie College of Business, she has been an early and successful adopter of new teaching technologies, and she was one of the university's first and most passionate advocates of service learning. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Judith R. Frank Business Communications Center, which now serves more than 400 students each semester. She won the Collegiate Teaching Award in 2003 and has been voted Professor of the Year by undergraduates and by MBA students.
The middle of this month marks the time during which the MBA summer session begins, when the current CIMBA MBAs leave the facility in Asolo and find their own apartments in the city. They will be joined from other MBA students from a variety of universities -- together, these MBAs will take elective courses that are the framework for CIMBA's summer session. And then, in June, the CIMBA MBAs will be leaving for Iowa City, where they will take their final capstone course... and graduate! The year has sped by -- the MBAs will certainly be missed here at CIMBA!
If you are interested in pursuing an MBA with CIMBA, or if you know of someone you would like to recommend to the program, please feel free to contact us. We are more than happy to provide you with any information and answer any questions you may have. |
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CIMBA Undergraduate
 Tommy Thompson joined the CIMBA staff as a Campus Life Coordinator in 2008, a position that allowed him to work at CIMBA Undergraduate campus while simultaneously pursuing an MBA at the CIMBA campus in Asolo. Tommy will be graduating from CIMBA through the University of Iowa this July, at which point he will be returning to the United States. We'll miss you, Tommy!!
What about CIMBA originally drew you to the Campus Life
Coordinator position?
My undergraduate experience at CIMBA left a profound impact
on my life. A lot of the memories that I had of CIMBA involved the Program
Coordinators that were here at the time, and when I got back to the states I
decided kept that I wanted to kind of follow in their footsteps, so to speak.
The position is incredible in that it affords us the opportunity to see and
meet so many people from across the world, and having the chance to work with
these students and ultimately learn from them has been incredibly rewarding.
What has been the greatest value of the position for you?
To me, the greatest value was in working with, and learning
from, all of the students that have come through the program. CIMBA is unique
in that it attracts some amazing people who are open-minded enough electively
live thousands of miles from home. Meeting these people, and helping facilitate
the same program that left such a great impact on my life in hopes that they
have a similar experience, is defiantly a valuable thing to me.
What has been the greatest challenge of the position for
you?
I would say time management has always been my biggest
challenge. The position is quite busy, and we find ourselves constantly wearing
different hats. One minute I might be working on the IS class that I need to
teach in 20 minutes, the next minute I might be helping students fix their
computers, or driving to Asolo to help with some website-development issues.
Things are constantly changing. In a lot of ways, this is one of the things
that I like the most about the program. I love how malleable our positions are:
the opportunity to really find something that you are good at, and then find a
way to take this talent or skill and apply it towards the program. I have
honestly never worked in a place that offered so much job flexibility.
Looking back on your experiences as a Campus Life
Coordinator, what do you remember most fondly?
Having the opportunity to teach. When I first found out that
I would be a Campus Life Coordinator, I never thought that I would have the
chance to actually teach people. But when the opportunity opened up to assist
our distance-learning Information Systems class, I jumped at the chance to be
able to fill the position. I have a newfound respect for our professors and the
amount of time and care that goes into preparing for and teaching a class. I
feel that I learned a lot from the students in the class, and the opportunity
to be able to teach really left an impact on my life.
What advice would you give to a future Campus Life
Coordinator?
I
would say that the key to success here is keeping an open mind. Ultimately,
this is what brought us to Italy in the first place: the chance to see and do
other things. Working for CIMBA is unlike any job that I have ever had, and I
can say that the key to getting the most out of your two years here, and
ultimately learning the most about yourself as a person, is to never lose sight
of the open-mindedness that brought you here in the first place. CIMBA will
provide you with the opportunity to learn about intercultural communication,
consulting, time management, presentation skills, conflict-resolution, and a
whole lot of other things that simply can't be taught in a class room. Living
every day like it is an opportunity to do something new is of paramount
importance because the chance is that every day you will be doing something
that you have never done before. Learning to embrace these opportunities is
perhaps the most important lesson that CIMBA has taught me. I believe
passionately that the CLCs who have come before me would agree to that.
CIMBA is currently accepting applications for the Campus Life Coordinator position that will begin this this fall. If you are interested in applying for this unique opportunity, please contact lago@cimba.it. |
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CIMBA Executive Programs
The
9th Edition of the Executive Certificate
The
latest edition of the program for the Executive Certificate in International
Management is now opening its application process! If you're looking for
additional training to get ahead of the competition and better your
capabilities and the capabilities of your business (or if you have any questions
about the program, its course load, and its benefits to you), please feel free to contact
us: lago@cimba.it.
Upcoming
Events for the Executive Programs
Low Ropes Course
21 May, 9:30 - 6:00 pm
CIMBA, Paderno del
Grappa Campus
Prof. Milan Pagon, PhD - University of Iowa
International
Business Law
28 - 29 May, 9:30 - 6:00pm
CIMBA, Asolo Campus
Joan Gabel - Florida
State University
In-Company Training & Coaching
Several companies are getting tangible benefits thanks to CIMBA's in-company leadership development training and coaching. If you are interested, give us a call or send us an e-mail and we will show you what your ROI could be.
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A-B-C: Al's Book Club
 The months of March and
April have witnessed considerable progress within the CIMBA leadership
development system. Of particular
importance was our decision to fully embrace a technology company with the
ability and the desire to collaborate and support our development system. Through a variety of tests both here and in
the US, it became apparent that our system benefited significantly from the
active use of neuro-biofeedback technology with the ability to measure heart
rate variability, skin conductance, respiratory rates, movement, and other physiological
data. We found it was important to have neuro-biofeedback equipment capable of
measuring those inputs wirelessly so that we could make use of the equipment both
in the laboratory and classroom environments. It is now our expectation to have a fully functioning measurement system
at both the graduate and undergraduate campuses beginning in September. I can
assure you that these are very exciting times at CIMBA.
So what are we measuring with this neuro-biofeedback
equipment? For those of you who read
this column regularly, you know that we have been systematically building a
leadership and talent development system based on the relationship between emotion, behavior, and
performance. We have long asserted the
importance of the appropriate combination of skill and behavior in a
manager/leader's ability to effectively bring about the desired result.
Traditional training has focused almost exclusively on the skill component,
making only brief mention of the need to bring into play the appropriate
behavior.
So what are these emotions and what drives them? Again, as
regular readers of this column know, those emotions range from excitement to
fear and anger. The primary drivers of those emotions in a social setting are
SCARF -- status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. With the
addition of self-regulation or impulse control, these six elements are the
primary focus of our new Genesis assessment program. After successfully
completing Genesis, an individual has a good understanding of their relative
response to situations involving self-regulation and SCARF issues relative to
their peers. This assessment is based not only on standard, written
instruments, but is also supported by the neuro-biofeedback data collected and
analyzed as the individual goes through a series of well-designed and tested
emotion-eliciting events and experiences. The uniqueness and effectiveness of
Genesis is driven by the quality of the measurement technology provided by our
technology partner, its accompanying software, and the CIMBA creativity put
into the emotion-elicitation events and experiences (which are both visual and
participative). The assessment data collected provides invaluable input to the
individual's coach as they work together to create a more effective development
plan. In addition, the information provides greater focus for personal insight
and development in the LIFE program that follows Genesis. The end result: a
leader capable of creating a productive, creative environment in which to work.
And that
leads me to the book that I would encourage you to read this month: Daniel
Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us. A very good video accompaniment is Pink's TED talk
available on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y.
I would suggest watching the video before or even during the time you are
reading the book. In essence, Pink's book takes a "social
science," as opposed to our neuroscience and social psychology, approach to
motivation in the workplace, comparing extrinsic motivation (essentially
monetary rewards) to intrinsic motivation (essentially creating our "positive
engagement" environment). The book is
well written, emphasizing three core ideas regarding motivation in the
workplace:
Autonomy: People want to have
control over their work.
Mastery: People want to get better
at what they do.
Purpose: People want to be part of
something that is bigger than they are.
As do we, Pink emphasizes the leader's role in bringing about this result,
stating that in most highly effective workplaces, it is the manager/leader who is
the most important force creating an environment when intrinsic motivation occurs.
Most leaders through trial and error
soon learn that the "carrot and stick" incentives (and behavioral psychology)
do not work.
In expanding upon Pink's thesis, we
emphasize that neuroscience research into the social nature of the brain
suggests a more effective approach. Five particular qualities enable employees
and executives alike to minimize the threat response and instead enable the
reward response, increasing motivation. These five social qualities are SCARF: status
(essentially what Pink refers to as "Mastery"), certainty (what Pink refers to
as "Purpose"), autonomy, relatedness, and fairness.
Status
In increasing STATUS, effective leaders stay engaged with their followers by actively seeking to understand and act
on behalf of their expectations and preferences. In giving feedback, they
provide followers with praise and recognition for strong performance. They
provide challenging and meaningful work with opportunities for career
advancement. Most followers really do want to do great things in their jobs.
Followers want to know that their input matters and that they are contributing
to the organization success in a meaningful way.
Certainty
In increasing certainty,effective leaders provide clarity
in job expectations and role responsibilities (to avoid negative emotions such
as boredom or resentment). They provide effective internal communications that
convey a clear description of "what's going on." Effective leaders communicate
a clear vision. Followers want to understand the vision Leadership has for the
organization, and the goals that leaders have for the division, union, or team.
Success in life and organizations is, to a great extent, determined by how
clear individuals are about their goals and what they really want to achieve.
Autonomy
In increasing autonomy,effective leaders know that followers
value control over the flow and pace of their jobs. They create opportunities
for followers to exercise this control. Followers want a feeling of "being in
on things," and want to be given opportunities to participate in
decision-making. Effective leaders know that this creates trust in a
culture where followers want to take ownership of problems and their solutions.
Relatedness
In increasing relatedness,effective leaders know that if the
relationship with their followers is broken, no amount of perks will persuade
them to perform at top levels. Employee engagement is a direct reflection of
how employees feel about their relationship with the leader. Effective leaders show that they value their followers. The state of engagement is a direct
reflection of how followers feel about the relationship with their leader.
Fairness
In increasing FAIRNESS,effective
leaders set realistic targets, select the right rewards for performance,
communicate the scheme effectively and frequently, present awards publicly and
evaluate the incentive scheme regularly. Effective leaders challenge their followers but at the same
time, instilling confidence that the challenges can be met by providing the
necessary knowledge and tools to be successful.
Isn't this the
kind of quality environment that we want our leaders to create?
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