‘Who is BISM?’, you may ask.
BISM is a school of management founded in 2010. As its name suggests, Bucharest International School of Management is based in the capital of Romania. At the beginning we started with the most senior program, an executive MBA for professionals in partnership with Maastricht School of Management from the Netherlands. After this, we developed our portfolio to include the mini MBA, the master for graduates and young professionals and, starting this year, 3 undergraduate programs for business enthusiasts.
Why a management school in Bucharest?
We thought of founding a school of management in Bucharest because we want to show that you don’t have to leave the country for quality education. International standards can be found here, close to you. We are happy to have a community full of passionate students, former students, teachers and professionals that we keep in contact with.
Before starting our journey as BISM, we used to be part of the Central European University from Hungary and we provided their MBA program here, in Romania. When the Hungarian university closed its support for the local program, our wish was to keep on our contribution to the development of the cool professionals we encountered there. This is why we united our forces with the people who had been by our side from the beginning to establish a school of management. Now, our business school in Bucharest is dedicated to the local environment with a touch of an international flavour.
As to why a school of management, our teacher and board member Andreas Antonopoulos, among others, noticed
‘the entrepreneurship sector has become stronger in Romania and education has changed for the better’.
Besides the fast growing pace of entrepreneurship in our country, Romanians are
‘as smart and as good as other students from MBAs across the world, but they are more enthusiastic and more energetic’,
according to Andreas.
We care about our students’ inner spark and want to bring people with the same values together, which is why we carefully select the participants in our programs through interviews. We are constantly looking for people who self-reflect, who find joy in creating beautiful projects and love challenges, people motivated to grow and that look for programs that offer more than a degree.
Our mission is to help our graduates be the change agents in the business community, with the help of our professors and peers. This means that we want them to take the know-how and insights from the MBA further – in their communities, their businesses and their lives. That way, we are all contributing to a better society.
Now, what about the lecturers?
Most of our team and board members have studied an MBA themselves. So, they know how important the lecturer is to a good understanding of a business course. We look beyond academia, to those trainers that have developed cool projects and start-ups, with experience in the region.
Our school of management has started with the premise of giving quality education to our students that have great potential. This is the reason why we chose teachers who are passionate and who choose to teach in their spare time, only because they like sharing their knowledge.
Adrian Stanciu is one of the co-founders of the school and also a lecturer who has an experience of over 10 years, working with many senior executives. He helps our students develop their leadership skills, using his know-how as a trainer, coach and business leader. Joy Chan is another experienced lecturer who worked for the government in Singapore before teaching. Her passion for teaching can be seen from her consistent good rating given by the students and peers and also from her vast experience in the teaching domain.
Mihai Bonca is our marketing lecturer. He has won over 25 awards in the marketing industry, as he had more branding projects with big Romanian brands. Claudiu Butacu is another cool lecturer we are glad to have, as he founded the largest Romanian NGO on sustainability education, EFdeN. Engineer by profession, Claudiu Butacu has dedicated his experience in creating accessible sustainable houses and making renewable energy.
These are only a few of the teachers we have and appreciate for their desire to share their experiences and their passion. Our shared values brought us together and keep us working on developing leadership, for business enthusiasts of all ages.
What programs do we have at BISM?
Our school of management has 2 programs for experienced business professionals, one master program for fresh university graduates and young professionals and 3 undergraduate programs for high school graduates.
Our most established program for business professionals is the Executive MBA. It is a 2 year part time program in partnership with MSM Netherlands. Besides a master diploma in business administration, you’ll improve your soft and hard skills with the help of our theoretical courses and practical tasks.
Fast Track Management Program is a mini-MBA that lasts 4 months. The main advantage is that it is a much shorter program, perfect for our students who have a hectic and busy lifestyle. The curriculum is a compressed version of the MBA courses. Unlike the 2 year MBA program, after the short Fast Track Management Program we do not offer a final accredited degree, but you leave with the know-how and networking. You will remain a part of our cool community and will take place in our exclusive alumni events
Last, but not least, our younger audience
Our newest addition (since 2021) are the 3 undergraduate programs for high school graduates in partnership with Abertay University from Scotland. They are 3 year full time programs, at the end of which you get a business degree. The programs are: Business Management, Digital Marketing and Business Management and Accounting and Finance with Business Analytics. These programs make it easier for students to attend classes from closer to their homes and still follow a UK program and get a UK degree.
The past and future of our school of management
Since 2010 we’ve had 400 alumni that we are proud to have in our community and we can’t wait to have 400 more and the next 400 too. We like to keep it going and, more than that, we like to meet people who have the potential to change the world we live in. We are looking forward to meeting the next changemakers!
Because we talked about the future, make sure you check our events here: https://bism.ro/events/. We love meeting new people who take part in our events and, why not, our future students that want to start their journey at our school of management.