What is HEC’s MBA Tournament (MBAT) all about? MBAT is an annual tournament in which Europe’s top business school (LBS) and some marginal and unimportant ones of a lower order (HEC, IE, Said Business School (Oxford), Judge Business School (Cambridge), Bocconi, IESE etc etc) come together on HEC’s campus in Jouy-en-Josas, close to Paris, and compete in sports ranging from rugby to dodgeball to salsa. A tremendous talent show, and a great opportunity to socialise and network with the other programmes! By now, I recognise MBAT participants from the MBA programmes, the Masters in Finance class, and so on, whenever I walk across campus. Fantastic parties and a fantastic team spirit all along were the trademark features of this tournament.
We MiMs entered the MBAT in strong form. MiMs celebrated their talent on the dancefloor (Congrats Sandra!), on the badminton court (Kudos to Aditi), in chess, dodgeball, squash (with Robbie relegating the competition to another league), cheerleading (a stunning choreography planned, practised and performed by a team led by Nadine). Ines dived for the beach volleyball team and the football pitch got rocked by Federico as goalie and Panos as striker.
And I celebrated my lack of talent with a boat party on a windy racecourse in Choisy-le-Roi outside Paris. A total of zero non-participating spectators witnessed us toiling on the water, underlining rowing’s claim to fame as an evergreen crowd pleaser.
Although, I have to say, entering the 20th edition of HEC’s MBA Tournament (MBAT) was the most expensive rowing regatta I’ve ever entered - £400 for an aggregate 1,000 metres and about four minutes of racing; this we covered with 150 strokes, bringing the CPS (Cost per stroke) to two quid sixty-seven pence and the CPSec (Cost per second) to £1.67. And if you haven’t noticed yet, I am SO much looking forward to our Management Accounting class.
By now you will ask yourself:
‘Michael, why didn’t you play another sport? Why didn’t you play a fun sport in the first place? Why rowing?’
The answer is that everything that involves a ball is not for me. Check it out – if you want a sure win in football, put me in one team and then join the other.
The rowing competition was easy, with Oxford and Cambridge fielding the strongest crews. Who would’ve guessed. But for an old oarsman with 15 years experience like me, they were no match. Except for, errh, the Winklevoss twins, which happen to be the inventors of something that became a site called Facebook, and, well, Olympic rowers of the two-by-two-metre format.
As we had never trained before, I guess a third place for LBS, with borrowed rowers from 1) Cambridge for the first and 2) Oxford for the second heat, was a great outcome. It fills me with great pleasure that our girls’ crew beat the first HEC crew by miles ;-), and equally, that we had the second fastest time of the day (1:56 min/500m in what was an old bathtub).
The greatest achievement of that day, however, was not our medal nor the girls whipping HEC nor the Oxford crew who TWICE managed to only narrowly avoid ramming us in the final heat. The prize goes to the LBS novice crew, who rowed the first 2,000 metres in their lives, half of that under racing conditions – chapeau!
I have to give honourable mention to our bus drivers at this point, which shuttled us from the hotel to the HEC campus, and to the final party on the Champs-Elysees. Phrases like: ‘Hey! This map just contradicted itself!’ simply deserve to be immortalised, because. They proved time and again that a bus ride scheduled for 30 minutes can be extended to anything between an hour and an hour and a half.
But all in all, the MBAT was an extremely cool experience I wouldn’t have liked to miss. It didn't matter that we became second overall, with the cup going to HEC for the first time. What mattered was that this was a fantastic opportunity to network and to make new friends among the other programmes, as well as with the other schools. Mission accomplished!
You will have to excuse me now, I have to get back to catching up with my newly-won MBAT friends. One of them promised me a jug of Pimm’s if I play football for the other side.
P.S.: Please excuse the sarcasm along the way. Rowing IS a brilliant sport to watch. And HEC is a brilliant institution mirroring the brilliance found at London Business School with a distinct, continental European flair.
P.P.S.: NOOOT.
