Business school: the challenge on the open sea is on

The sailing challenge has begun at Santa Margherita Ligure, organized by SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Yacht Club Italiano, in partnership with Rolex.  Rolex MBA’s Conference and Regatta is an international sailing event that involves 20 of the best schools in the world and 390 MBA students.

On the boat as in the company. This is the spirit to be followed by 390 MBA students from the 20 best business schools in the world, during the challenge that started today, September 28th, and will last until the 1st of October. Taking place in Santa Margherita Ligure, the 14th Rolex MBA’s Conference and Regatta is the international sailing event organized by SDA Bocconi School of Management and the Yacht Club Italiano, in partnership with Rolex.

On the boat as in the company because in order to be competitive and win in both you need a leader, a team, tactics, and a strategy. Over the years only 8 schools have won the cup out of the 30 schools that have taken part overall. The list of winners includes the crew of SDA Bocconi School of Management, of course, and also that of IESE (Spain), Warwick (UK), Columbia and MIT (USA), HEC (France), Sauder (Canada), EPFL (Switzerland).
“Business schools and MBA programs are used to competing: the reputation of the academic programs and the schools themselves is in fact also established by their positioning in the international rankings, and the Financial Times and The Economist put SDA Bocconi and its MBA in the European top ten,” points out Beppe Soda, dean of the SDA Bocconi School of Management. “Taking the competition to a different field such as the Rolex MBA’s Conference and Regatta is also a chance for our students to share and interact with colleagues who are currently undergoing similar training.”

“On the boat as in the company because in order to be competitive and win in both you need a leader, a team, tactics, and a strategy,” reiterates the president of the Italian Yacht Club Nicolò Reggio. “These are the exact principles that are drawn from the experience of the members of the Club’s general management at regattas all over the world. Applied to individual business activities, they are the governing principles of the management of the Italian Yacht Club.”

Ever since the first regatta in 2004, about 4,000 MBA students of over 60 nationalities from the 5 continents have lived this experience. It unites sportsmanship, a chance to network and cultural enrichment thanks also to the conference that is part of the event’s program.
Starting this year, SDA Bocconi School of Management has decided to create a thread to unite the conference over the years: topics related to beauty, art, culture and its heritage. The title of the conference for 2017 will be “A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever: Building Credibility and Sustainability Through Culture” and it will be moderated by Maurizio Dallocchio. We will also see the participation of Rachel Sanderson from the Financial Times and Andrea Carandini, President of the FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano/Italian National Trust). One of the discussants will be Alexander Pereira, CEO and Artistic Director of the Teatro alla Scala.

The high points of the event will be Friday 29th and Saturday 30th September, when 50 boats will challenge each other on the water, divided in 3 classes: Open (10 J/70 speedsters), Offshore (9 First 36.7 boats) and Cruising for the remaining 31 boats. 3 crews will be awarded a prize in each class, while the Challenge MBA’s Cup will be shared by the crews who get first place in the Open and Offshore classes.
Our objective for the future is to involve more and more Business Schools so as to give this event increasing international relevance. 10 business schools participated in the first regatta, and this year we have got 20. “This is our first victory,” said Emanuele Visconti, president of the SDA Bocconi Sailing Club. We want to give special thanks to the members of our SDA Bocconi Sailing Club, who contribute significantly to the regatta every year.

All the numbers of the Rolex MBA’s Conference and Regatta 2017
14 years
20 schools
50 boats
60 nationalities
390 participating MBA students

Participating schools in 2017

1. SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy)
2. Chicago Booth School of Business (United States)
3. Columbia Business School (United States)
4. Goethe Business School (Germany)
5. Harvard Business School (United States)
6. HEC (France)
7. HKUST Business School (Hong Kong)
8. IE Business School (Spain)
9. IESE Business School (Spain)
10. IMD Business School (Switzerland)
11. INSEAD (France and Singapore)
12. WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany)
13. London Business School (Great Britain)
14. Manchester Business School (Great Britain)
15. MIT Sloan School of Management (United States)
16. Rotterdam School of Management (Holland)
17. Sauder School of Business (Canada)
18. Tuck School of Business (United States)
19. Wharton University of Pennsylvania (United States)
20. Cambridge Judge Business School (United Kingdom)

Source: ViaSarfatti25