New Impactroom Partner - Subscribe to the Guardian or The Observer :-)

I am a big fan of the Guardian. Especially the media section on Mondays is a treat. The weekly poster supplements are very attractive tools to children (and grown ups!). A subscription to the Guardian is an excellent gift to start 2007 with.

Merry Christmas!! 6 Christmas Quotes

(Churchil Hotel London, preparing for an overseas meeting)

"Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip." (Gary Allan)

“One of the nice things about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present” (anonymous)

“Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.” (Richard Lamm)

“From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”
(Katherine Whitehorn)

“Christmas is the Disneyfication of Christianity” (Don Cupitt)

“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”
(Oren Arnold)

ACE lunch 2006 London

ACE – the Association of Circulation Executives – is a UK association of like-minded executives drawn from the fields of newspaper and magazine publishing, news wholesaling and distribution and service provision.

One of the most popular events of the ACE calendar is the ACE Christmas Luncheon held at the Grosvenor House hotel in London. More than 1,100 members and guests enjoy a truly international publishing event whilst raising funds for charity.


To my surprise the lunch involved a lot of standing up, praying, hailing kings and queens, singing (hand in hand) and wearing stuff on your head you couldn't afford be seen with in continental Europe. A truly bizar, though warm, very very British event (not surprisingly the goal of the organization, founded in 1951, clearly states: ...to foster fellowship, friendship, and the exchange of ideas between members of our industry.)

This is networking to good effect.

Oxford

Oxford, (OMEC meetings). A few impressions.

Saïd Business School (SBS)
First big building leaving the train station at Oxford. SBS is the business school of the University of Oxford. After a gift of £20 million from Wafic Saïd in 1996 the former 'University of Oxford School of Management' became the Saïd Business School. (The gift was contested by Oxford students at the opening of the new building in 2001 - after an extra donation of £3 million for constructing the building-. The students claim Saïds fortune comes from questionable armaments deals between UK and Saudi Arabia.)
The MBA programme ranked 20th worldwide and 2nd in the UK in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings 2006.

Wafic Riad Saïd
A Syrian businessman(1939) who became a multi-millionaire working for the Saudi Royal Family as a consultant in the fields of infrastructure and armaments projects.

Saïd Business School entrance

Dining hall, Trinity College
One of the smaller (ca. 300 students) of the 39 colleges at Oxford admitting students for degree courses (1555).

Student house at Trinity College, rowing team.

English breakfast, while contemplating the idea of building a future leadership academy or institute out of OMEC

Christ Church
A unique institute with a dual function. On the one hand it is one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford. On the other hand it is also the church for the Diocese of Oxford. The Cathedral still follows the old Oxford Time which is five minutes west of Greenwich. (6 p.m. Oxford time is 6.05 p.m. GMT). Every day at '6' the Cathedral Choir will sing in the church.

Top Business Schools in Europe - Where To Get Your Top MBA

I picked up a copy of 'City to Cities' at City Airport London recently. In the glossy there was an article about the best business schools in Europe. Here is the ranking:

1. London Business School, UK. Ranked nr 1 in the Financial Times top ten business school listing. MBA tuition fees: 42.500 £. http://www.london.edu
2. Insead, Paris/Fontainbleau, France. Executive MBA tuition fees: 85.000 €. http://www.insead.edu
3. HEC, Paris, France, l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. EMBA tuition fees: 41.200 €. http://www.hec.fr
4. Cass Business School, City University, London, UK. The EMBA was ranked third-best in Europe by the FT. EMBA tuition fees: 31.000 £. http://www.cass.city.ac.uk
5. Otto Beisheim School of Management, Frankfurt, Valladur, Germany. Linked with Northwestern Kellog School of Management, USA. Named after billionaire Otto Beisheim, owner of Media Markt. EMBA tuition fees: 57.000 €. http://www.whu.edu
6. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Leuven/Gent, Belgium. Stats show it is the number one global school for graduates gaining employment within three months. Part-time MBA tuition fee: 19.000 €. http://www.vlerick.be
7. Instituto Empressa, IE, Madrid, Spain. Is considered a 'high pressure' school. EMBA tuition fees: 41.000 €. http://www.ie.edu
8. SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy. Milans's Bocconi University is the country's top business college and the School of Management its top graduate business school. Part-time EMBA fees: 28.000 €. http://www.sdabocconi.it/md

Did you study at one of these fine universities ? Do you agree with above ranking ?