Any product manager, marketing professional and CEO had a question in mind at some point (or always): why do people choose our brand? Ultimately, the goal of every business is to build and sustain a client base, without which you would go bust.
We’re a business school, so we always ask ourselves business questions, one of which was why would someone study an EMBA at MsM. But since we would be subjective, we turned to our alumni to find out from them. We conducted a survey on our community and discovered what made them choose an MBA and why they opted for MsM, specifically. Here is what they said:
Practical approach and entrepreneurial mindset
Ask any of our alumni about our Executive MBA program and at some point, they will tell you something about its practical approach or entrepreneurial outlook. It’s no wonder, since our teachers are all industry practitioners first, then members of the academia. Of course, reading books and articles is a great way to learn, but we all know there is no “one size fits all” in businesses.
The experience of implementing the systems can be even more valuable than the theory of it, especially when this comes in businesses active on the local market. Our lecturers are management consultants, business executives and investors, all involved in growing Romanian companies of all sizes, with a sound understanding of the regional culture and business environment.
For example, Sergiu Negut, our Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Growth, has grown businesses like Regina Maria, FruFru and is currently scaling the FintechOS start-up locally and globally. Radu Atanasiu, Adjunct Lecturer of Critical Thinking angel investor in some promising start-ups like 2Performant, SmartDreamers, and Evertoys, while also running critical thinking workshops for companies. And the list goes on.
We’ve written more about the experience of our EMBA lecturers here.
Why is an entrepreneurial mindset relevant for all business leaders, including those not planning to start a company soon? Because many of the concepts apply for intrapreneurial projects as well, without which companies can’t grow. Building a new team, embracing new technology or launching a new product are all challenges of entrepreneurs and executives alike. Large companies can’t afford to be slow if they want to continue growing, which is why they reap the benefits of developing an intrapreneurial team.
Mihai Rotaru, Deputy Head of Legal at Banca Transilvania said he chose the MBA “because I found it as a very provocative exercise in development, re-learning and re-inventing of good principles for life, leadership and business. MsM came as a natural choice, being recognized on the market by people I trust as the most applied MBA program in Romania”.
Diversity of attendees
You learn a lot of new things from your peers, but you learn even more from those with experiences that are complementary to your own. Over the years, our students included C-level executives, department heads, lawyers, government representatives, entrepreneurs, psychologist and even a Patriarchal Counsellor. Not to mention the diversity of industries, each with its own specifics but all governed by similar business principles.
The MsM Executive MBA adds a lot of emphasis on peer-to-peer networking and experience, because we believe you learn as much in class, from your colleagues, as you do from your lecturers or through individual study. This is one of the reasons why the program kickstarts with the Discovery Camp, a week-end far from Bucharest where MBA students get to know their colleagues, so that they are already able to draw on each other’s unique strengths and experiences from the first class session.
Over the last 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of examples of former colleagues that start business together, develop partnerships and expand their businesses into new verticals, with the help and support of other alumni.
Ogun Vehaplar, Senior Relationship Manager at Access Financial Services said he chose the EMBA “to develop myself, to increase my awareness and to trigger my continuous learning behaviour. I chose MsM mostly because of its local presence to develop my network with good quality people from different industries with different backgrounds while I am learning new things”.
Cool learning experiences
Our experience in the local business environment has shown us that most times, managers are picked from top performers, with limited formal training. You’re good at finance? Great, then you can manage the department and ensure reach of financial objectives for the entire business. We’ll show you the systems and have 1-on-1s. You’ll understand things from doing because you’re a fast learner. Which can work well, but if you top it up with formal education, it can work wonders.
The senior executives studying an MBA would get bored quickly if they had to sit through hours of lectures and individual reading, which is why we ensure the learning experience is enjoyable and dynamic. For example, the Entrepreneurship course has a different type of exam.
Instead of asking you to reproduce things from memory, you create a business plan for a new business, which you then pitch in front of a committee of angel investors. The feedback that you receive for the pitch offers insight into the business plan, strategy and implementation and has even given birth to businesses in the past.
The Strategy class also has an out of the box exam, being a 24 hour challenge. The RO9 cohort have developed strategies for the Romanian brand Ivatherm and presented them in front of Rucsandra Hurezeanu, the company’s CEO. Gina Bujor, a freelance software consultant said she started the EMBA with some “questions from the previous job as general manager, a big project, and I was looking for answers. I resonated with MsM, it was about me – a place to find those answers from many years of management.”
International outlook
Last, but not least, the MsM EMBA blends in the local know-how with an international outlook. Some of the lecturers are joining the course from universities based in Canada, like Khaled Wahba, (Adjunct Professor of Management) or from Singapore, from where Joy Chan (Senior Adjunct Lecturer of Finance) started her professional career. Others, like Steven van Groningen, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania and Adjunct Lecturer of Business Ethics, are cycling to classes from their home in Romania, his now adoptive country for over 25 years.
Plus, students can also study abroad, should they choose to. One of the non-mandatory classes takes place at the mothership, Maastricht School of Management from Netherlands, where students spend a week studying Supply Chain and visiting companies, to get a practical view too. This is not the only chance to visit an international university for a class. MsM has many partners around the world, from Asia to South America, where you can attend courses for a maximum of 2-3 weeks, as part of the MBA program.
Picture from Prague, where the Entrepreneurship business pitch took place in 2019.
Ovidiu Goran, Lawyer at Ovidiu P. Goran – Cabinet de avocat says he chose the MsM MBA due to “the teachers and Maastricht partnership”, which have helped him grow his own business.
By the end, the experience of each of our 250+ alumni was different, as were the reasons to study the MsM EMBA. Do you want to see if the program is right for you, now or later? Fill in the form below and let’s have a chat to explore what the EMBA would have in store for you.
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