This week went by in a blur! Work was great, I was given the opportunity to screen and question a few founders and was able to solve a large problem for my MD. My immediate boss also got back from Rome which honestly made the office feel much more relaxed. This feels relatively opposite of how it is in the US but there is a certain level of comfort that you feel when the person calling all the shots is sitting right next to you rather than only being accessible via Zoom. When he came back into the office everyone got up and started giving him hugs or handshakes and sharing pleasantries. What surprised me the most was everyone saying they had missed him. I suppose it’s true, yet it felt so odd given he had only been gone for a week. Nevertheless, we had an office wide lunch full of laughter and funny stories. I wrapped up some more work and then ended up working remotely on Friday so that I could catch my flight to Barcelona! 

Barcelona was fantastic! I went with 8 other students from the program and then met up with three of my friends from home who I hadn’t seen in months. Even better, my home friends had some people they knew in town which made our party even bigger! We started out Friday night with a calm trip to a hole in the wall tapas spot – where we ate the entire menu. It may have been the best food I’ve had this entire trip – could be slightly biased by having inadvertently fasted the day before. Saturday we meandered through the city streets and then met up with some students from the Lehigh in Barcelona program at a bar and club. A famous (so I’m told) DJ was playing which certainly made it a bit packed, still great to see some Lehigh folk. Sunday we had some more great food for brunch and headed out on a catamaran to enjoy the Mediterranean. They offered a free drink – which I didn’t need after the night before – although the tapas were welcome. I was hesitant to swim at first given that it was a bit cloudy but I’m glad I did, it was some of the most refreshing water I’ve ever had the pleasure of swimming in. Luckily, someone had brought goggles so you could dive down to be met by the endless expanse of the blue water. 

Class this week featured the screening of “A Civil Action” which I had been meaning to see. The sacrifices made by the claimants and their lawyers were truly inspirational. It was a great segway into our next topic surrounding the environmental side of corporate social responsibility and how companies should be held accountable. Earlier, we had discussed the Business Roundtable press release in 2019 that stated some goals of more than 100 of the world’s largest corporations. Initially, I was firm in my position that the release was no more than a publicity stunt and carried no real weight. However, as we argued the topic in class I became more and more convinced of the true intention of the paper. It should not be misconstrued as some document we will use to specifically measure these companies in the coming years, it is a declaration of the new standard that corporations should be held to.