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BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) – The Challenge
Sitting at her desk and gazing at the gathering clouds over the lake in Zurich (Switzerland), Katrin Muff was tapping her elegant pen on the writing pad in front of her. The page was covered with four blocks of scribbled notes. She smiled with the realization that, without intending to produce a SWOTi analysis, she had in fact organized her views about the Swiss film production company she had been working with into the familiar four categories. She was still not entirely convinced that she had made the right decision a few minutes earlier on the phone, when she firmly announced to the Director of the film company that she had decided not to invest in his venture, and not to join him as a full Partner. It had been a difficult decision to make; since early childhood she had nurtured the fantasy of some day writing and directing films that would tell a dramatic story, maybe even influence lives. Working with the director of the Swiss film production company for the past eighteen months, she could not help but admit to herself that producing films in fact entailed running around to find and structure the financing, and endless arguments with distribution companies, and constantly making deals that did not stick. Even the glamour of participating in the annual rituals at the Cannes Film Festival somehow did not compensate for all the superficiality that she had discovered the film business entailed. The ringing phone interrupted her reflections. Her first thought was, “I hope it‟s not the Director calling back to change my mind!” The voice of the caller was vaguely familiar, “Katrin, this is Trevor Johnson, surely you do remember – the Dean from BSL (Business School Lausanne), you called me Dr. Johnson? Well, to cut a long story short, I