This moment marked the beginning of my CBS career starting with a smile on my lips. It was kind of ironic that the lecturer in computer science could not get the IT equipment to work. I had definitely not expected that. However, I quickly learned that the lecturers might have a great amount of theoretical knowledge which I could combine with my practical knowledge about IT. Therefore, it all came together initiating the beginning of the next 19 years at CBS.

During my 19 years at CBS, I have been far and wide. I completed my bachelor in 2001 and was employed in a full-time position as IT administrator at the former Department of Informatics (today called the Department of Digitalization).  Besides my work, I started on my MSc in Business Administration and Computer Science in 2002. Despite it being a bit later than planned, I finished my master thesis in 2010 with a feeling of almost being married to CBS. I was however not ready to break the marriage and therefore accepted a job at CBS IT in 2011 where I am an IT Business Partner today.

I have been around for several years for one special reason. I have been provided with the opportunity to develop – especially within IT, one of my major interests. For me, CBS is freedom with responsibility. The university has given me free rein to explore and find new ways. And it is okay to make mistakes since you learn from them. This is exactly why two days are not the same. One more advantage of working at an educational/research institution is that you can try out many new things, and 19 years therefore do not seem that long.

I also have some fantastic colleagues whom I feel great with both socially and academically. There is room for both humour and seriousness.  In addition, an open-arm-like approach is applied to everything. You should rather ask one time too many rather than one time too few. Because at CBS, you do not always need to find the answers yourself if you can find them down the hall by one of your colleagues or through a number search in Outlook.

It has come to 19 years without any break. These years have taught me that if you want to fit in at CBS, you must be curious, try out new things and seek opportunities. It has been 19 good years which have given me a great deal of amazing experiences. A bachelor, a master, a full-time job – and my wife who I also met here and today have three lovely children with.

So thank you CBS and congratulations with the 100 years.

The post My “marriage” to CBS appeared first on CBS 100.

At CBS, learning is your own responsibility. I learnt a craft and its many related aspects and features. It made me eager to use my new knowledge in real life, but many times I found myself going back to the books. Only following real life, hands-on experience and revisiting the books did I truly learn. And how great it is to experience how learning gained in the past is revived when you get to apply it in real life! As an example, we learnt a lot about organisational management at CBS. However, it was not until organisational management recently hit the agenda at my company that I grasped the actual ins and outs of it.

I majored in applied math which is now my livelihood too. Not everyone gets to use what they have learnt while studying, but math is in everything I do, every day. My vision is to make every child in the world better at math. Why? Because I know how important it is to master your math. Not only as a student at CBS, but in business and life too.

CBS gave me the desire to learn and the enthusiasm for passing on my learning. I soon ventured into lecturing at CBS, not forgetting the importance of social life: five times I put on the cap to guide new students through induction week! Upon graduating, I continued as an external lecturer at CBS for another 10 years which created the perfect personal platform for me to simultaneously set off into entrepreneurship. Something I had dreamt of long before embarking on my MSc, and in 2006 I started my own business. Only in 2015 did I cease lecturing at CBS, only to focus 100% on my now rapidly growing business.

When I look back on my years at CBS, for me personally it was as much a social experiment as it was about studying. Indeed, I learnt about applied math and how powerful it is, but I also made the most of everything within my reach when it came to my social life. I call it my social experiment, and it turned me, a very young adolescent, into an adult, in thought as well as in action.

CBS provided the perfect setting for me to learn and grow professionally and as a person during some of the most important years of my life. The years who shaped me into the man that I am today. My hope is that the CBS alumni network continues to exist as many of us would not think twice about stopping by to share our great experiences of applying learning at CBS to real life practice.

The post Math – from learning to real life appeared first on CBS 100.

Interestingly, CBS was never my first or ‘natural’ choice. I wanted to be a journalist and therefore moved to London in the pursuit of a degree in journalism. During my time at City University London, I learned that writing, and writing well, is all about practicing—learning by doing. I also realised that I as a journalist wanted to specialise in the field that I was going to report on.

I completed my first year in London and decided to continue my studies at CBS’ Asian Studies Programme, since I have always (or as long as I can remember) had a keen interest in cultural diversity, languages and the many, different philosophical perspectives on the same issues of business, politics, etc. that you can find around the world, and, if receptive, how they can shape your own worldview.

CBS has, in that way, gradually come to make my world. Besides my studies, I worked for nearly three years as a writer at CBS OBSERVER (now CBS Wire) and got to know the people — students and staff — who, for me, are CBS and make it a homely place to be. Home is, after all, where your friends and family are, and I have over the years come to call CBS my home away from home.

So I decided to stay a little longer and am now roughly a year into my PhD at the Department of Organization where I explore issues of diversity, inclusion and (in)equality in relation to organisation and management. And after all these years, first as a student and now as an employee, I still feel energised and inspired when being on campus by all the student-driven activities as well as by the diversity of my colleagues’ research projects that engage with and take responsibility for the wider society that CBS is part of.

CBS can, in that regard, not be reduced to the impressive buildings that make the business school stand out. Rather, CBS is, to me, all about the flow of people and time; collaborative research, teaching as mutual learning and exams (for better or for worse). I have come to see CBS as a living lab and as a test bed for social change, and CBS is as such both my home and my field—a platform from where I can take an experimental approach to my research issues.

My CBS story was from the very outset one of disregarding CBS as a viable option for my future. However, as the story unfolded, CBS emerged as the protagonist of that story alongside myself and will, without a doubt, continue to play an integral role. Not only in the story that is my life but also in the stories yet to be told from the next generations of students.

I am grateful for the many good moments we have had and hopeful for many more to come. Happy centenary CBS!

The post My home away from home appeared first on CBS 100.

I have countless examples of this. I have worked at CBS for more than twenty-one years, as associate professor, professor, head of department and dean. But these are mere job titles that do not tell what you have (co-)created in the job. With great colleagues at CBS, I have co-created new courses, programmes, research projects, dissemination projects, new ways of recruiting, Business in Society (BiS) platforms, new leadership development … and much more.

Let me give three examples – I would have enough to write a book:

When I first arrived at CBS in 1996, I joined the Department of Economics. At the time, it was a small department – and dwindling. Kind colleagues from other departments suggested closing it altogether since – in their view – it did not produce any significant research and only taught elementary courses at the undergraduate level such as microeconomics and macroeconomics. These courses could easily be outsourced either to the University of Copenhagen or to adjunct faculty. It did not make the situation easier that the most research-heavy part of the department, the Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), a centre of excellence funded by the Danish National Research Foundation since 1991, decided to move from CBS to the University of Copenhagen in 1998. It seemed like an uphill battle.

We picked up the gauntlet. One of the initiatives was the establishment of a new MSc concentration called Applied Economics and Finance (AEF). We did this because we wanted to supply a new set of competences that was only partly covered by the concentration Finance and Accounting taught in Danish. At the same time, it gave members of the department an opportunity to teach at a more advanced level which was important for the recruitment of international faculty. Our suggestion that AEF should be taught in English was met with resistance in the department: People were worried that we would not be able to supply the teaching in English! Today, AEF is a well-established concentration which has long proven its value to the job markets in Denmark and abroad.

My second example is about never wasting a good crisis! In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008, many American universities and business schools were unable to recruit newly minted PhDs as assistant professors in the numbers they were used to prior to the crisis. At that point in time, I was heading the Department of Economics, and we grabbed the opportunity to go on a hiring expedition for economists in the American job market. Early 2009, we recruited five assistant professors. This gave CBS a positive reputation in the important international job market, and we have exploited this reputational opportunity for international recruitment ever since.

My last example is about how we also facilitate opportunities. Mid-2016, we issued a call for new BiS platforms. We got fourteen letters of interest indicating a vast array of creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation at CBS. The topics covered for example leadership, circular economy, mind sciences, Africa, data in society and arts & culture. After a careful selection process, we chose three topics to become full BiS platforms (Inequality, Diversity & Difference, Transformations), but we also suggested that some of the other opportunities should be developed further, partly with CBS seed funding.

My sense of CBS is that it is an organisation of opportunity. If you have the energy, you can create new initiatives. You may have to work around obstacles, but such are the working conditions of entrepreneurs and innovators. There is a lot of innovative, entrepreneurial energy flowing from all cracks and corners at CBS which should cause Senior Management to always feel the heat of creativity – and work hard to release it as much as possible within the limited resources that we have. But evidently, you need not rely on Senior Management to make an initiative fly. Often it can be done locally.

CBS orchestrates opportunities – in research, education, external funding, academic citizenship and dissemination. So… just do it!

The post CBS – the organization of opportunity appeared first on CBS 100.

It was fun – while the lessons at CBS were less inspiring. Despite a lack of effort and lousy French skills, I made my way through with a decent result and started studying my master in Strategy, Organization and Leadership (SOL) in 1999. I had several pep-talks with myself before study start that summer. They all sounded pretty much like this: “Get your act together and be serious about your education, otherwise, you will end up unemployed!”

I did get my act together, but this ended up being less important. The primary outcome of my master was a new understanding of teamwork and a deep respect for what you can achieve working with people who are different from yourself. Lotte, Christian, Jesper and I found each other during the first month of studies in the bunch of +50 students and decided to work together. We were and still are very different in our way of working and thinking, but through mutual respect, talk about our preferences and recognition of each other’s strengths, we managed to use each other to achieve something that was better than what we could have done individually – and we had tons of fun while achieving great results. For our first 48 hour case exam, we put a piece of paper on a door with an ambitious grade goal, and with that in mind, we started working. We got the grade we set out to get and realised that our group dynamic got us to places we would not have gone individually. Whenever the opportunity we continued to work together for the full two years of studies and the group magic happened every time, or you might say – because we knew and believed that we would kick-ass, we actually did Apart from all the serious stuff, we had lots of fun and threw quite a few parties that I will never forget.

What I will not forget either is the power of a team with different profiles. In my current, daily work as a manager, I often look for that power and think about how to establish it. This year, it is 15 years since we completed our master degrees, and I still think fondly back on our group and appreciate that they are still in my life today, even though we are all busy and do not get to see each other that often any longer.

The post The magic of teamwork appeared first on CBS 100.

The kind of research that I am interested in is public value as a process of creation – and CBS offers a space for me to deepen myself in my research.

Together with a cross-disciplinary group of professionals I conduct various forms of experiments and lab tests trying to bring people to think and act in qualitatively better ways. This – you might call it an active and engaging approach – creates new forms of public value while simultaneously being the performative out-put of the research.

Many municipalities are talking about welfare 3.0 and welfare as co-creation. These new kinds of buzzwords also pave the way for us as researchers to re-think the role of research. I usually say that we as researchers need to participate even more in the process of creation if we want to add more value.

Research is for me a question about creating a qualitatively better welfare system in and together with society. To actually create ”more welfare”, we need to explore how. Research becomes a question about making new practices together with others in accordance with theoretical approaches and art based methods.

CBS really offers me a space to become – what some international researchers would call – a path-up-setting researcher trying to pave the way for new and qualitatively better relations enabling us to change the deeper strata in our organisations and in our society.

CBS campus is thereby not just a place for people to go from one classroom to another. Campus and research become a ”vivid city” – a series of emerging events – trying to engage and inspire even more citizens to participate in value creation and in the search for a qualitatively better society.

The post CBS as a Community of Research in Creation appeared first on CBS 100.

I have kept in contact with the university for many years, but when I as a young student graduated from CBS, I was inattentive to the value which my network of fellow students had, and what I could bring with me in my future career if I kept the contact.

However, I became aware of this when I returned to CBS to take my MBA 10 years later. The teaching and the network of students, teachers and the administration elevated me in a way I never thought would be possible. Both academically and personally. I accepted the offer of lifelong learning, and I am deeply grateful for the value CBS has to me both personally and for my business.

To complete a MBA is challenging and tough for everybody. You are often on top of your career and pretty busy both in terms of work and privately. So after having fought through 2 years of syllabus, a number of assignments and a passed exam, I was happy to cross the finish line – and thought, as most probably think, I fortunately did not have to meet up at CBS every week any longer. However, I was barely done before I missed seeing my fellow students. Luckily, I was asked if I wanted to become a board member of CBS MBA Alumni Society, and even though I was busy with my job as managing director in an international company including a lot of travelling, I saw it as an opportunity to not lose contact with the valuable network and CBS which I missed and probably had become a bit addicted to. It resulted in 4 active years in the board and the creation of several academic, well attended events in close collaboration with my MBA network and CBS.

The final project at the MBA programme is a difficult task to get through and after submitting and successfully completing the exam, I had never imagined that I would look at strategy syllabus again, but when I was asked if I would like to be an external strategy supervisor, I said yes. And since 2006, I have been supervisor and examiner for a group of 4-5 students at their exam. The work is tough and demanding, but the value is significant. Through my job as external supervisor, CBS gives me the opportunity to keep me updated on the newest methods, terms and theory within the field of strategy. I have meetings with a group of top-motivated, clever business people who give you insights into and knowledge about their companies. Through the six months of supervision, I have regular morning meetings with a team of competent CBS professors and external supervisors. It has provided me with a totally unique network which I often draw on and which is vital for my business.

As vice-chair for the Alumni board for HRM (Human Resource Management), I have taken part in organising a festive and academic 25 year anniversary which both gave a professional overview of the past 25 years of development within HRM and the opportunity to reconnect with my class. Together with a range of top executives from both the public and private sector, I am a member of CBS Business Plan where we discuss how CBS best facilitates knowledge sharing and cooperation with the business community and society. When time is limited, I feel privileged to be allowed to take part in these activities with high levels of professionalism and a relevant network, which, in my opinion, is something only CBS can offer.

The post CBS provides me with lifelong learning appeared first on CBS 100.

Sitting at department meetings in the first years, I honestly had a hard time getting my head around the organisational structure, all the different departments, units, acronyms and organisational policies. To me CBS seemed as a veritable maze. Sometimes I got the feeling that, as a newcomer, I was merely looking through the peephole in a complex structure. I could only get a vague idea of the organisational contours but not get a clear picture of the organisation’s inner workings. These things take time in any organisation I guess. Years, even.

Luckily, in the beginning of 2015, having now finished my PhD, I was given the task to write up an anniversary book on the first 100 years of CBS’ history. Together with my colleague professor Kurt Jacobsen, I laboured for about two years to write up this history.

Now, after two years of going to archives, interviewing students, presidents and employees, I can honestly say, that I have a much better idea of CBS. I know why it looks the way it does, and I now understand the events and structures that shaped CBS as we know it today.

It has been a quite remarkable journey! I am not just saying this because I am an historian in the CBS payroll. During the span of 100 years, CBS has evolved from a modest series of evening lectures in the back rooms of the old Merchant School to become one of the world’s leading business universities. For most parts of this journey, it has been a bottom up process driven by engaged and visionary employees and students. My co-author and I discussed many times if we should use the metaphor of the Ugly Duckling to characterise CBS’ development. In the end, we decided not to because it came across as a bit tacky. Although I still recognise the tackiness of the claim, in some ways, it has really been the story of the ugly duckling growing up to be a beautiful swan.

It is my hope that the CBS book will help present and future students and employees to understand this CBS-journey. Instead of looking for the peephole for years, they can now browse through CBS’ anniversary book to get an idea of where CBS is coming from—and where CBS might be in the future.

The post CBS as an ugly duckling appeared first on CBS 100.

However, now when I come to think of it – CBS already became a part of my everyday life in 1988 where I as a brand new student showed up in just as brand new Dalgas Have to start on a business language programme (which later came to be known as BA) studying two languages: French and Spanish – yes, it might be an odd combination, but it was perfect for me. It resulted in an exchange stay in Barcelona in 91/92 and in a voluntary duty as language assistant during OL in 92. An amazing experience which I would never have got if I was not a CBS student. After returning home, I started studying a MA in International Business Communication with Spanish as language. It was a comprehensive programme with introductions to many academic fields since a translator’s assignments often are unpredictable.

As a student, I was always on the lookout for new job opportunities, and in 1995, I got the position as student assistant at CBS Library (the language library in Dalgas Have). I was very pleased with the job except from when the big encyclopaedias and dictionaries – yes, it was before the internet – had to be put back on their place. I soon got a temporary position which resulted in an employment as research assistant at the Department of Spanish where I had to develop a corpus of texts from the internet. Oh, it was new back then. Unfortunately, there was only funds for 5 months.

I was therefore unemployed for approximately a couple of hours. After those hours, I was contacted by the head librarian who wanted to appoint me as a subject specialist within linguistics and language (French, Italian and Spanish) if I wanted to. The answer was yes. And I am still here.

At the library, I have had different work assignments: purchase of books, guidance and teaching, projects, communication, web, my.cbs.dk and probably a lot more. I have also completed a third programme at CBS called CBS MLA (Master of Language Administration) and written a master thesis with focus on CBS’ language policy. If you just try something new and always make an effort, I believe it will never be boring to stay at the same place.

I sometimes think that many things have happened by chance, and I have been lucky to be at the right place at the right time. CBS is and will always stay a part of me with many changes and experiences along the way, great acquaintances and not least wonderful colleagues at CBS Library.

The post CBS by accident or by luck? appeared first on CBS 100.

However, like many others, I had some doubts during my studies about whether I had chosen the right programme because I also had my own company selling clothes in multiple countries which caused me to reconsider the direction of my education.

In order to enhance my knowledge on law and whether I also had practical interest in the field, I started as a student assistant in CBS Procurement. I quickly learned that I found law interesting, and from then on, I was determined to complete my degree in business administration and commercial law. My position as student assistant was replaced with a substitute job as legal procurement consultant in August 2016 followed by a permanent position as legal procurement consultant in CBS Procurement in 2017.

As legal procurement consultant at CBS, I work with contestability. My primary function is to help CBS’ decentralised units with fulfilling their needs while CBS still obtains lucrative prices and solid contracts in conformity with the law.

My main specialisation is in procurement and contracts within the area of IT where I contribute to increasing the maturity level in order for us to get better contracts with our external suppliers and simultaneously still reap the benefits.  I experience a great potential for personal development in CBS Procurement because of our focus on knowledge sharing and sparring and the fact that I have many different and challenging work assignments.

The post From thoughts of dropping out to legal consultant at CBS appeared first on CBS 100.