Geopolitical Alpha
There is nothing this man has not already done. Originally from Manhattan, he has lived in Europe since 1996, first in the UK, then Belgium, then Italy, and now in Poland. IE Business School Intelligence & Geopolitics Prof. Milo Jones has worked for Morgan Stanley in NYC and for Accenture in London, and also served as an officer in the US Marine Corps… Could this be why he wrote the book Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947-2001…?
Here Prof. Jones talks about geopolitical alpha which, he says, is basically intelligence analysis structured in in such a way that it provides a useful tool for financiers and the corporate world in general. If that sounds boring, he adds, it’s not, not to him at least. It enables him to spend his days pondering wars, terrorism, pandemics, elections, and all the huge changes that happen daily across the full spectrum of economics, and to focus on their impact on the business world around us. Put simply it lets him explore current events in depth and think hard about thinking. Believe me when I say you don’t want to miss this.
You never know too much
Finance professor Francisco López-Lubián is as passionate about finance as he is about the cinema. By the way, he’s not only a finance professor, he’s actually the head of the finance area at IE Business School. He’s also worked for the finance industry for quite some time. But most of all he just loves films.
That’s why we decided to cast him as the main character in a finance crime movie entitled “You Never Know Too Much,” as you can see in this trailer for the film. Don´t miss his references to films like The Godfather, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, or Amores Perros, not to mention The man who knew too much… Enjoy.
P.S. For a finance bio of Prof. López-Lubian please click here.
Photo Time
Private Equity and Corporate Analytics Professor Simon Hirst has been a keen photographer since he was a teenager. The reason he loves photography – he says – is because photography captures moments that can never be exactly replicated ever again. Of course there are other reasons, such as the intuition involved and the technique, but he insists that it is the art of capturing the moment that he finds so compelling about photography.
The most amazing thing is that when you talk to Prof. Hirst the first thing you notice is that he is supremely competent when talking about serious stuff like finance, but you also notice that as soon as the conversation turns to photography his whole face changes, his voice as well… That’s passion for you!!!
Toledo: a city of three cultures
Operations and finance professor Alber Sabanoglu Segura comes from Turkey, and he is also a Sephardic Jew. Hence we decided that there was no better place to shoot this video than the ancient Jewish quarter in Toledo. When the Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, they headed for many different countries, and his family ended up in Turkey.
What this basically means is that Prof. Sabanoglu Segura is a true world citizen. He was born in Turkey, lived in the States for a while, and now lives in Madrid. He is fluent in many languages, including Ladino, the old Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews.
Moreover, he is a critic and writer of short stories, not to mention the fact that he also sings in a group. I hope you enjoy his video, if only because he was such good company while we were shooting it!!!
Crazy Countries
The first sentence of Anna Karenina is one of the best-known openings of any novel: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Somewhat similarly, finance professor Juan Fernandez seems to think that all countries are crazy, but each country is crazy in its own way.
The crazy country he has in mind in this video is the US, where he has been living for the last 20 years. As you know, from October 1 through 16, 2013, the United States federal government went into shutdown and curtailed most routine operations after Congress failed to enact legislation appropriating funds for fiscal year 2014. Regular government operations resumed on October 17, after an interim appropriations bill was signed into law the day before this video was shot in Washington D.C.
Prof. Fernandez concludes that this is a historical moment for the US that will have knock-on effects around the world.
