Tom@ISM... Tomatism? 🍅ism!

Tom Hashimoto:  Here, we have Mr. Fabian Baumgartner. Fabian is currently pursuing the double-degree (MSc Financial Economics at ISM and Finance at BI Norwegian Business School), and with BI, he participated CFA (chartered financial analyst) Research Challenge this year. His team made it to the global final! Congratulations! So, Fabian, how do you describe your experience in the competition (especially, when you reached the global final)? Fabian Baumgartner:  Thank you. It was an intensive, emotional, memorable and stressful but in the end very satisfying experience. I regret nothing. Being a student is not always very rewarding, the whole feedback you get is at the end of a semester, when a few small numbers are published that tell you how you did in the last 6 months. The CFA research challenge is an opportunity for students to shine, and with a bit of luck as well as hard work of course, it brings you the reward most students really deserve. CFA Institute and other s...

Well, sorry for the quality of the picture. It is straight from Instagram... Speaking of technology, on Tuesday (13 November), Tom gave an open lecture on Tesla and corporate governance at ISM. Despite the cold weather more than 70 people came to the lecture... (Mr. Musk, I did not talk anything bad about you... just about your Twitter posts and the settlement with the SEC...) It is aimed to those who are not well versed in finance. Why did the SEC accused Mr. Musk for decreasing the value of company? What does it mean to be an 'owner' of a company? What do 'independent' board members do? These are some of the questions answered in this short open lecture.

Tom Hashimoto: Here, we have Dr. Maik Huettinger, Associate Professor in Economics and Ethics and BA International Business and Communication Programme Director at ISM. Maik teaches an ethics course for MSc Financial Economics programme. I heard that you went to France under the Erasmus scheme.  Did you notice any differences in terms of teaching and learning environments between France and Lithuania? Maik Huettinger:  Well, I have been only a couple of days in France. Therefore, it is very hard to make any judgment. Generally speaking, students in France are very polite, however their level of English is not comparable to the one of Lithuanian students. TH:  (Wow! That's an encouraging statement!) Ethics has been emphasised in many programmes, especially in the EU and the US. To be honest, I have rarely seen an 'advanced' ethics in business and economics programmes in other parts of the world. What makes ethics course so important these days? What kind...