As business professionals and entrepreneurs, I believe everyone at MIP (faculty, staff, and students included) has a desire to improve the professional ecosystem. We choose to experience and create an atmosphere of continuous learning to ameliorate the professional world, making it better for ourselves and future generations. The MBA accomplishes this by giving students a holistic approach to business. We take a step back, look at businesses, and then dive into the minutiae.

Pillars of the MIP MBA

The International Full-Time MBA begins with four pillars of management basics. We get to look at a business from every angle, from financial accounting to project management. While some subjects like supply chain aren’t my area of interest, it is important for me to understand their role in the ecosystem so I can improve the entire business. It also allows us the opportunity to experience areas we enjoy but may not have thought about before the program. As the pillars progress, we can see the business as a network, and the importance of each part working together. For me, as someone with business work experience but a humanities education, this allowed me to learn the fundamentals, but also put them into practice with business cases and absorb the experiences of my diverse colleagues.

Experiential Gym

While we are amid the essential pillars, we get to really apply our learnings in the real world, working with actual companies to provide innovative solutions. This takes a real ‘learn by doing’ approach to practice our skills obtained earlier and implement them in real time. It is one thing to learn the theory of something, but it’s another to see the theory put into practice. Viewing the impact of our education so early in the program will empower us to take these learnings into our future careers with confidence.

Bootcamps

The third part of our experience will be spent in specific areas of our choosing. This is where we will dive into the topics that pertain to our path, or our new chosen path. For instance, I am making the shift into the luxury market, so I will be able to learn the specifics of this sector, applying the general business tools I learned in the pillars, and taking them a step further.

Project Work

Finally, we will finish our program with project work, where we will bring our education into full-time operation. Whether we are doing an internship, starting a new job, or bringing our skills back to our previous position, we get to practice our new abilities with the guidance of our professors and mentors.

Putting it all Together

Taking all these pieces, my classmates and I will be able to improve the business ecosystem we enter with a holistic view of the company. For example, I will be able to confidently enter the luxury market knowing how the supply chain affects my final customer, and I can work empathetically with the supply chain to create a better business internally and externally. This step-by-step approach, viewing businesses holistically, allows us to find the gaps in between departments and processes, and creates an understanding as future leaders that every piece of the business has its importance. The more understanding we have, the more we can implement positive change.

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