prisma - HSG-Studentenmagazin

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  1. The Internet Of Things

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    Today, this year’s HSG Alumni Forum on the topic of „The Internet of Things“ (IoT) took place in the Olma hall. The IoT or also the „Internet of Things, Services and People“ as ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer called it at the St. Gallen Symposium, is the confluence of the real and the digital world through the connection of basically everything. Moore’s Law has increased and will continue to increase data storage capacity exponentially. Based on ever smaller, faster and cheaper electronics it becomes profitable to put more and more sensors on everyday materials connecting them to other materials and the global brain known as the „Internet“. This continuous data explosion is estimated to form a „Trillion Sensor Economy“ until the year 2020 and will create about 19 trillion dollars of value in the next decade according to Cisco. In his 2014 Bestseller „The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism“ the American economist Jeremy Rifkin even goes so far as to proclaim that the decades of the construction of the IoT will be the very last years dominated by classical capitalism. Afterwards the majority of industries will have transformed into post-scarcity economies, which means not only that jobs get automated, but also that the overall sales volume of these industries will start to decrease due to (near) zero marginal costs or what Peter Diamandis calls the 6 D’s of exponential growth.

    As the Alumni Forum shows networking has always been a strength of the HSG. With its industry specific future labs the university has now also put itself in a good position for the market of digital networks (and created the neat explanation video below).

    However, let’s please not forget that the future consists of a confluence of different emerging technologies. At least from the perspective of a student the willingness and ability of the HSG to anticipate and adapt to those future and emerging technologies has still room for improvement. Take for example 3D-Printing. A personal 3D-Printer  is not yet paying off for students because A) the degree of capacity utilization would likely be very low and B) a certain know-how is needed. Why not create a “3D-Printing-Café” (analogue to a Internet-Café in the 90s) and add 3D-Printers as well as courses to the University so that students learn to apply this technology and use it for example to create instant product prototypes?

    Or what about programming?

    If we assume that in 10 years everybody is required to take programming classes why not start with this now? About 99% of todays students will still be in the work force in 10 years. Without the technical knowledge aka the “Wozniacks” they might just all become “Jobs” without jobs. Why has no HSG student created the “Tinder” for networking yet? Exactly, that’s why. And I will bet anybody who’s willing to take me up on this for a beer in the ad hoc that at the latest in 2 years from now people at events like the Alumni Forum or the Symposium will use a location-based networking App, whether it’s developed by a HSG student or not.

  2. Between East and West

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    Gastbeitrag von: Emir Çetinel

    How is it to study abroad in Istanbul? – a country torn between East and West, that grows more than any European country but lacks the merits of a liberal and democratic society.

    CEMS MIM means something absolutely different for everyone who experiences the various academic, professional and social components of the Community of European Management Schools’ Master in International Management.

    For me, CEMS at the very core means being globally connected. After spending only eight months as a part of this alliance in Istanbul, I realized how many new cultural perspectives I had discovered. Having an engineering background, I believe in the true power of numbers. As I was wondering how CEMS added to my personal network, a little Facebook data mining showed that I had added 352 friends since starting my CEMS degree. And these are not just people I have met once at a party but done intensive group work with, discussed challenging topics and created projects. Considering that this excludes all the corporate representatives I have acquainted, one can understand the value-added offering of CEMS.

    Through my tenure as a student board representative for my home university Koç in Istanbul, I not only contributed to the enhancement of the academic program by joining forces with very smart and hardworking students but also got the chance to see many new cities such as Sao Paulo, Dublin, Budapest and Barcelona. A direct reference of one of my colleagues also got me an internship in a top German Internet company. Being a Turkish student, I feared the work visa problem when I started my job search as my friends often got rejected at the very beginning because companies do not want to go through the lengthy process of a visa application – another hurdle of being non-European.

    Turkey is often torn by its geographic and cultural position between East and West. After having a decade of disciplined growth in the economy, the country started showing danger signs in the most fundamental pillar of a modern nation, namely democracy. Prime Minister Erdogan’s bold move of shutting down the access to Twitter and YouTube for about two weeks got extensive coverage in the world media in the spring 2014. Even though many interpretations had been made on the topic, there’s a two-folded explanation for his move. Firstly, Erdogan wanted to stop people accessing the sound recordings of his corruption actions. His tapped phone calls started leaking to such social media platforms after December 2013 and he desperately took this anti-democratic measure as a solution. Secondly, putting the ban effective right before the crucial local elections, many believe that his action was timed to provoke the liberal opposition of the country and put them on the streets once again. This chaotic environment worked for nobody but Erdogan; by polarizing the conservatives and the liberals, he made his (voting) ranks even stronger.

    Turkish society and politics are changing drastically and constantly. Needless to say, the direction of this change will be determined also by us, students with a solid modern and liberal education. In this sense, I find Koç University’s decision to join the CEMS alliance in 2009 very meaningful and hopeful for the future, as I can see it from myself how positively it adds to the students’ international orientation and personal network.

  3. Push Hour

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    The metabolism of a Tokyo Metro Station in 8 pictures.

    When the masses of salarymen and women slide through the fare gates of the Tokyo subway system, they surrender themselves to a world of its own. An estimated 15 million people use the subway every day to commute to work, the equivalent of twice the population of Switzerland. This leads to masses of bodies queuing up on the platforms, clogging the escalators and shoving into already over capacity trains.

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