IEDC Bled School of Management and What the .Me Students Learnt There

Zarko was one of six Montenegrin students awarded by the .Me registry with a scholarship for the prestigious IEDC Bled School of Management. Following the program, Zarko shares their story:

It was the beginning of May when I found out about the scholarship for Discover Management Program at IEDC – Bled School of Management. After applying for the scholarship through the Montenegrin national web domain .Me, having an interview with the school in beautiful Bled, at the beginning of June there were 6 of us who won the scholarship.

From June to July we hada  few meetings with our sponsors at .Me,  signed a contract regarding the scholarship, exchanged some information and then we started packing for sLOVEnia. It was Monday, June 3rd when we took a flight from Podgorica to Ljubljana. As the program was starting on Tuesday the 4th, a few of us decided to stay in the capital of sLOVEnia and head towards Bled the next day.

Waking up on Tuesday morning, taking a bus from Ljubljana to Bled, settling in the hostel and little bit before 3pm we were all at IEDC – Bled School of Management.

Discovering The Program

On Tuesday, July the 4th, 3pm – we started the Discover Management Program 2011 at IEDC – Bled School of Management. Meeting the amazing program manager, Sandra Lisietzky, beautiful DMP program director, Nadya Zhexembayeva, inspiring dean and the president of the school, Danica Purg and absolutely outstanding program faculty director J.B. Kassarjian. We also met the other participants of DMP 2011. There were 50 of us –25 male and 25 female participants – perfect gender equality, from 16 countries.

The participants came from the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Russia as well as all the way from India. We got to know the program, participants, the school and then, like a thunder from a clear sky – we got our 1st case study which we had to read and prepare for the next day.

Actually, it was a game – a beer game, which we had to figure out… Since the program is short, only 8 days, it was obvious that it will be quite intensive. As the time passed by, we were working hard, solving case studies, creating and implementing new ideas, preparing presentations, etc.

Cases, Projects and a Bit of Rafting

The working environment at IEDC is just outstanding. The facilities, study rooms and the inspiring environment is quite hard to describe: you have to check it out yourself. During the whole time, the participants were no longer just that, we became really close friends.

As we were working hard, 24/7, we had one day off where we decided to give our brains a rest and gorafting. After all, that is what we needed after exhausting projects to pump up some additional energy for the grand finale and the last couple of days of DMP 2011. Rafting, beach volleyball, swimming in the lake, etc…

The last two days were the most intensive. Figuring out cases, solving problems, preparing the presentations… I still remember the last night, barely anyone slept. In the morning the entire family board of directors was in front of the DMP class. Struggling with the old-new faces and discussing about the bicycles with the Baldwin family was harder than anyone could have imagined. That was the grand finale of Discover Management Program 2011 at IEDC – Bled School of Management. Closing ceremony, certificates, tears, goodbyes – the end!