Must... not... buy.... Apple!

I...
am...
trying...
really...
really...
hard...
not...
to buy...
an Apple...
laptop.

Must...
fight...
temptation!!!!

MUST... RESIST!!!!!

Casa da Musica, at last!

The long awaited and controversial project known as Casa da Musica (House of Music) has finally opened yesterday, in Porto, with a Lou Reed concert. Here's a New York Times article about it.

Designed by the dutch architect Rem Koolhaas (Pritzker Prize laureate, responsible for other visionary designs such as the Seattle Public Library, the Grand Palais in Lille, the Netherlands Dance Theater and the Nexus Housing Project [what a cool name!] in Japan), it is indeed an extremingly beautiful building. A work of art.

But it is also one of the best examples of the usual portuguese bad management. Initially designed in 1998, Casa da Musica was approved with a 16 million euros budget and destined to be the most powerful, emblematic and symbolic building for the Porto 2001 - European Capital of Culture. The year 2001 passed by without its main symbol and, as I said before, it opened only yesterday after a 4-year delay and with a final budget of... 100 million euros! More than 6 times the initially expected.

Leaving these 'insignificant' details behind, this amazing building is destined to be one of the most important places for cultural events in Portugal. Already scheduled are concerts with the Philarmonia Orchestra, Nancy Sinatra, Joe Lovano and I also heard about a Keith Jarrett gig (although I can't find any confirmation in the Casa da Musica website, maybe it's just a rumour).

If you're coming to Porto, don't forget to visit Casa da Musica.

PS1: I didn't go to the oppening concert, yesterday. However, I would surely be there, if somehow someone had arranged for a lady called Nico to be side by side with Lou Reed, singing things like 'All tomorrow's parties', 'Sweet Jane' or 'Femme Fatale'.

PS2: This note has nothing to do with the previous post, but I just found this new Google logo. It's so cool!

World MBA Tour: The horror! The horror!

After a very stressing day (negotiation meeting starting at 10.30 and ending at 20.00) I drove for 30 minutes to visit the World MBA Tour in Lisbon. After all, I wanted to meet some future LBS coleagues and some people from their staff.

I entered the room where the schools were, started looking around and didn't find LBS. Nor IESE. "Well", I thought, "they must be somewhere in another room." That was when I found my Bocconi interviewer (yes, Bocconi was there) and discovered that LBS and IESE weren't at the event! What the fuck?!?! After this extremely tiring day I came here for nothing??

Talking about disappointments! Why didn't LBS send someone to this event? Please don't tell me that they have too much work at this time. So do I, and I was there. And what about the other schools? INSEAD was there (and their stand was packed with prospective students, obviously). So was IMD, Bocconi, IE, Tuck, Kellogg, ESADE, etc.

And pleeeaaaase don't tell me that the portuguese market doesn't deserve it! LBS has a portuguese teacher. INSEAD has a portuguese teacher and had, not many years ago, a portuguese dean! Is this is how LBS wants to keep the first place in the FT european rankings!?!

Man, I am pissed off! And very disappointed. And dying for the Open weekend in June to show them my disappointment!

Interesting...

I just came across these three posts. One is from Seth Godin's blog and defines 'creativity' in a very interesting and simple way (isn't simplicity a common characteristic of every good idea?).

The other one comes from Tom Peter's blog and presents a theory that our culture, a primarily objective left brain based one, is shifting into a culture based on more right brain activity, that is, on things like empathy, intuition, feelings, subjective...

Finally, HBS Working Knowledge describes how great managers discover each individual's unique talents. If you have ever had a manager that you liked, you'll know this is true. And if you ever played sports, you'll be so sure that this is true! Can I use José Mourinho as an example? Isn't he, probably, the best football manager of our time? And why? Using an analogy from this post, he plays chess with his players, while other managers just play checkers.

Well, changing to a more MBA-ish subject, I just sent my commitment fee to LBS. The first part of this self-investment has been made.

It's a clean sweep!!!

Great stuff! I just received the final decision from IESE and I am in!!

Nothing about scholarships, so... I guess that my preference for LBS is going to prevail.

London, here I come! :-) I said I would be back!