Category: Educations Series

A veterinarian in the MBA world: interview with MIP Alumnus Nicola Morandi

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on A veterinarian in the MBA world: interview with MIP Alumnus Nicola Morandi

The purple background of Teams pulses insistently, asking me to take the incoming call. It is a sunny, post-quarantine day, and I am getting along after home lockdown on my MBA journey. Classes are over and my days revolve around preparing for the project work I will be following in a couple of days down the line. The voice on the other side hails me on a cheerful yet unexpected note, “Hello, doctor!” Nicola Morandi is a former student from the Executive MBA of some years ago. He is the Technical Manager of the Animal Health division at Boehringer Ingelheim, the company where I will be doing the project work, and – the thing has made me most curious about his profile, amongst the network of MIP alumni – a PhD, like myself.

Hello Nicola, thank you for taking the time to talk with me today! I am happy to introduce your experience here: you are a doctor in veterinary sciences, as well as an MBA. Can you tell me about the industry you work in and what part the MBA played in your career development?

“I have been working at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health since 2015. It is a multinational pharmaceutical company, but still a family business. If you have a dog, we are the “Frontline” people, just to make it clear! Our core business is in the production of vaccines and antiparasitics for all kinds of animals. Until 2015, I was a veterinarian, in the most classical way: I was curing animals, and specifically my fields of specialization were internal medicine, bovine surgery and infective diseases. Once I arrived at Boehringer, I found out that despite the fact that my background and knowledge as a specialist veterinarian gave me the basis for a good performance, I was lacking of a set of hard skills that would have benefited my job as a whole. Strategy, economics and marketing are, after all, the pillars of every industry, and of our company as well. I could quite easily have gained these competences with some hands-on experience in the field, exposing myself to all the tasks required in the various roles in my division, but this would have required a lot of time. Indeed, an MBA program could accelerate this path, so I chose the latter option, with an Executive Part-Time program, to gain this acceleration. As of today, I must say I am able to have an impact in many processes of the company going above and beyond my specific job function. I can say that the EMBA really worked as an accelerator for my career path.” 

During the MBA at MIP, you were exposed to themes and tools such as innovation and design thinking. In which way have these been useful and practical in your job?

“One of the most positive aspects of doing an EMBA deals with the possibility of putting into practice tools, methods and models you see during seminars and classes quite straightforwardly. In my case, there were some of them, such as design thinking, innovation of meaning and creative problem solving, that proved truly helpful and fruitful in my job. For instance, they helped me accelerate the sales’ pipeline of one of our star products and this was quite impressive, given the fact that this product was already performing in a surprising way, with 50% of market share.” 

Would you like to share an anecdote about your MBA life?

“When I joined the program, I hadn’t considered two aspects that later on became key takeaways for me: teamwork and time management. The ability to put together effectively your everyday workload, private time with family and the commitment of doing a Master program is challenging at times. However, these are after all the things I remember the most: to perform well, you need to leverage on the strengths of every team member you find yourself working close to in every course of the program and to negotiate successfully the work-study-life balance. Oh yes, and parties too…”

On a serious note, Covid-19 is making organizations experience an unprecedented need for change. What are the implications you see in the upcoming months for your industry and what will be the drivers companies and employees should focus on adapting rapidly?

“As I see it, Covid-19 is a stress test: it made urgent and clear the need for changes that were in a way already programmed or in plan. I am specifically referring to people management and digital transformation. People are the key element of every organization, and this situation is specifically requiring effectiveness by making them feel an active part of the change, not a consequence of a necessary adaptation. Digital transformation is usually seen as a trend that will act as a substitute for people. On the contrary, the missing point in the common way to see it is that it is an enriching element contributing to performance. Of course, this is possible when the transformation is effectively communicated into a people strategy. Another driver that I find important and that we still need to work on a lot are soft skills: with particular reference to the present moment, communication, teamwork, proactiveness and the ability to stay up-to-date, focus on the objectives and resilience are the winning points of the future of work.” 

On this note, Prof Sdogati from our faculty at Politecnico has recently remembered something Gramsci said: “Study, because we will need all your intelligence”.

 

About the author
 Marianna Trimarchi
I am a candidate of the International Full Time MBA at MIP. I have a background in academia as a PhD in Communication and Strategic Analysis and a career as content producer in the Media Industry.I have worked for the Italian Television as author and assistant producer for cultural programs as well as for other media outlets as journalist. I am passionate about understanding complex phenomena particularly related to internationalization and global development from a multidisciplinary perspective.

 

Invest in yourself: develop your soft skills

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on Invest in yourself: develop your soft skills

The longer the time I spend with my Part-Time MBA fellows, the more surprised I am by the mutual enrichment we get from our different working backgrounds and personal lives: we get involved as a whole person, and this goes beyond our differences.

The benefits for students on an MBA program, along with the hard skills developed during the courses, include the opportunity to work in a team and cooperate proactively to achieve the common goal of finding an effective and original solution to challenging assignments. This is anything but easy: emphasising our creativity, we produce a bucketload of different ideas and everyone tries to persuade the others to follow his or her line. In the end, a fine emotional intelligence is key to understanding when it’s time to find a shared thought, agree upon an idea and lead the road towards the target.

In a few words, enrolling in an MBA program offers a great arena for training soft skills.

In general, soft skills indicate all the transversal competences that are not directly connected to a specific task; they mainly refer to the relationships with other people involved in the organization and the personal attitude to dealing with a task.
Hard skills, on the other hand, concern the ability to do a specific task, require specialized knowledge and technical abilities: they’re easily measurable and they are usually very specific to a role in an organization.

Time and effort dedicated to the development of soft skills is thus an investment for the future development of each person’s career; as the need for specific skills can pass by with the development of new technologies, the attitude to rapidly approaching new, upcoming technologies and coping with disrupting changes will remain.
And these two competencies, learning agility and adaptability, are indeed soft skills.

In the complex labour market in the era of disruptive change, while hard skills must be continuously improved as the necessary enablers to access the game and hold one’s position, soft skills give the opportunity to move wisely and nurture a positive environment that is the key to achieving both one’s personal goals and those of the team.

Moreover, in a time of fast transformations that lead to the development of cross-industry teams and abilities, soft skills represent a business card that is valuable in multiple different environments.
In a multi-disciplinary team the ability to communicate effectively, listen carefully and delegate are key elements for success. And guess what? These are soft skills.

In our path as MIP students, we are offered boot camps, seminars and courses to improve our soft skills: the leadership class at EADA was a great opportunity to reflect on personal attitudes and the different ways to be a leader, shaping our way with the four pillars of authentic leadership.
Seminars offer us the opportunity to dig into ourselves and develop self-awareness, maturing a consciousness of our strengths and dealing with our weaknesses: we don’t get to choose our warts, but we must be able to transform them into opportunities for growth.

As Part-Time students, moreover, we have the chance to put into place the soft skills training both at work and with our MBA colleagues, in very different contexts with bosses, subordinates and peers.

But the downside is that we have pressure coming from both sides and we have to struggle with tight time schedules to balance work and study. Guess what? Again, soft skills are required here.

About the author
 Fabrizio Liponi

My name is Fabrizio and I work as a tunnel engineer in the construction of Underground Line 4 of Milan. Born, raised, studied, living and working in Milan: I love my city and I’m proud to take part in building its future. Travel addicted, I love to meet people and different cultures.

«Why did you choose Italy?» Tales of students from around the globe

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on «Why did you choose Italy?» Tales of students from around the globe

In the last article, we talked about the importance of Multinational Networking in an MBA. One of the most important benefits you can get is the development of long-lasting relationships with like-minded people. You can find real friends!

And talking about MBA friends, I’d like to share with you the experiences of some of them: Bruno Pivato from Brazil, Jo Eun Cha from S. Korea and Alejandro Tommasi from Venezuela. I guess their words will be much more meaningful than mine in helping you understand the beauty of diversity:

Bruno Pivato

“I was born in Brazil, where I was educated and developed my career. I have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

I started my professional career in 2005, as an intern in a national investment bank, working in the area of foreign exchange, and then moving to BankBoston. After 2 years in the banking sector, I decided to try a new experience in Marketing, in a totally different company belonging to the medical technology sector. I became a Senior Marketing Analyst and, in 2012, I decided to leave and join 3M as a project manager. After that, I accepted a start-up project linked to Covidien, a big multinational company in the pharma sector. This experience led me to join Zambon, at the HQ in Italy, where I became a “Business Operations Manager”, responsible for Marketing and Business Development for 5 countries: Brazil, Colombia, China, Indonesia and Russia.

It wasn’t that easy to adapt to the Italian environment, but I found out that the best part of Italy is the people. Both in the office and in the street, I have found Italians to be very open-minded and receptive.”

Jo Eun Cha

“I was born and raised in Seoul, S. Korea. I graduated in economics and worked as a Buyer for watches and accessories for 5 years. My dream was to work in the fashion industry, so I decided to study and go for it. I moved to Milan 10 years ago to study and to work. Then Singapore and Seoul again. Anyway, when I was in Milan, my manager called me one day, asking me to join his team in PVH. I accepted and now I’ve been working here for almost 4 years. I always wanted to apply for an MBA, so I decided to do it this year, so here I am.

Why did I decide to come to Milan? Well, Koreans love Italian products and I wanted to learn something about European culture. As soon as I arrived in Milan, I realized that the size of the city was right for me, even if it was much smaller than Seoul.

As far as the working environment is concerned, the Italian and Korean cultures are quite different. In Seoul, you work more and you’re more stressed out. In Italy, people work hard too ̶ but they place more importance on family, food, chatting and chilling. There’s a better work-life balance, and this helps you to perform better in the office too. This made me change my mindset, I guess for the better. I’m now confident that it is possible to set the path for my future career while enjoying life at the same time.”

Alejandro Tommasi

“I was born in Caracas, where I lived until I was 15. The awful political situation forced me and my family to leave our country, looking for safety, opportunities and a future in my grandparents’ land: Italy. At the beginning, it was hard to adapt to a completely different environment; it took me years to finally find a balance. This experience helped me to grow and improve myself. Italy has given me some amazing opportunities: I studied and graduated in Mechanical Engineering, in the beautiful city of Turin.

Italy is a place drenched in culture, history, style, art and nature. I think it is a place which everyone around the world dreams of visiting at least once in a lifetime. I’m confident that this country has enormous potential to excel in every single field, and this potential should be transformed into action and plans for future development.

In my current position, I develop technological machining solutions to meet customers’ needs for many industries. I’m sure that with the knowledge, experience and benefits of exchanging views gained during this International MBA at MIP, I could apply all my energies to contribute to improving this country and its potential, especially in this difficult moment. I’m sure that diversity is always a provider of opportunities, looking at a future in a more and more interconnected world.”

Well, I don’t have much more to say. I guess my new colleagues and friends have said quite enough to make you understand the many differences (and the possibilities connected with these differences) that you can find in a multicultural environment, such that of the International Part-Time MBA at MIP.

I just want to leave you all with a final quote, by Stephen R. Covey, the famous American educator:

“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” 

Let’s hope this strength will help us to get out of this tragic situation, and to increase our confidence in the future with a renewed spirit.

 

About the author
 Marco Di Salvio

Student of the International Part Time MBA at MIP Politecnico di Milano.
Industrial Engineer currently working @ Gucci as WW Supply & Demand Planner, based in Florence.
Tech passionate, Cinema-lover, Sports addicted.
Solving the world’s problems one spreadsheet at a time.

 

 

The power of diversity: the MBA & multinational networking

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on The power of diversity: the MBA & multinational networking

“Networking is not just about connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas and people with opportunities.” (Michele Jennae)

When I enrolled for an MBA at MIP, I already knew that this kind of experience would be much more than classes, exams and company visits. One of the main achievements of an MBA is the network you can create during this period.

I get it, often networking isn’t at the top of everyone’s to-do list. It can be time-consuming, awkward on occasion, and, depending on your personality, incredibly draining.

It can appear that hard skills and knowledge are far more important than having a few words with colleagues or joining events. But that’s quite wrong. Sometimes you learn more by taking a coffee or sharing a slice of pizza with a person with a different background, than actually studying a book on finance accounting (which is still a super-important subject. Nothing against it, I swear!)

And that’s what’s happening during my first months of the MBA; I’m getting to know many interesting people, with different stories, backgrounds, ambitions and nationalities.

Yes, nationalities. I decided to join the International Part-Time MBA in order to benefit from an international environment.

Sundar Pichai, former CEO of Google, once said:

“A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.”

And I totally agree with this sentence. A multicultural environment (and networking in general) can bring many benefits:

1.     Strengthen business connections:

Networking is about sharing, not only taking. It is about forming trust and helping one another toward goals. Regularly engaging with your contacts and finding opportunities to assist them helps to strengthen the relationships. By doing this, you sow the seeds for reciprocal assistance when you need help to achieve your own goals.

Tell me, would you rather help: A) a colleague with whom you have shared a drink, or B), a colleague who don’t even say “hi” when you run into him? The logical answer would be A (otherwise maybe you should be reading articles on how to deal with problems in socialising?)

2.     Get fresh ideas:

Your network can be an excellent source of new ideas to help you in your role (both present and future). And what about a multicultural network? It can be an even better source of inspiration. Different cultures have different ways of approaching problems. Everyone is looking at situations through a different lens, a unique perspective. This can lead to a wide range of ideas that would benefit any team.

Is it easy? Absolutely not. At least, not at the beginning. During my first group assignment on the Erasmus programme, I was in a group with a Chinese, a Japanese, a German and an American (it sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it actually happened). It was a real mess… One person focused more on the content, someone else more on the form, others on the speech, etc. But mixing up all these different approaches brought us to a final result which was much better than the one we had in mind at the beginning.

3.        Develop long-lasting personal relationships:

Last but not least! The point of networking is not only to develop professional relationships, but also (and above all) to create strong and long-lasting friendships. I’ve always thought that the more you grow up, the more you’re able to find people you share your vision of life with. Your MBA networking contacts will usually be like-minded people with similar goals to your own, so it’s not unlikely that they’ll become great friends of yours.

These are only a few of the benefits you can get from an international environment. But they should be enough to push you try out an experience like an International MBA. You’ll need to discover all the other benefits for yourselves! ?

About the author
 Marco Di Salvio

Student of the International Part Time MBA at MIP Politecnico di Milano.
Industrial Engineer currently working @ Gucci as WW Supply & Demand Planner, based in Florence.
Tech passionate, Cinema-lover, Sports addicted.
Solving the world’s problems one spreadsheet at a time.

 

 

Favourite bootcamp: Design Thinking

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on Favourite bootcamp: Design Thinking

After the first few months of intensive classes, the bootcamp season has paved the way for a very different style of learning: week-long specializations dealing with the main and most relevant themes in the business world. Every candidate can choose from amongst courses such as Big Data, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Circular Economy, and Global Management, to plunge into a fully-immersive environment of seminars from scholars and professionals, hands-on labs and company presentations by managers in which to both learn and put the acquired knowledge into practice.

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, this year the experience for my class was for the most part conducted remotely online, but normally the Biomarketing bootcamp, for instance, offers the opportunity to visit the Politecnico Pheel lab, where students have the chance to learn how to conduct and execute some real research based on techniques such as eye tracking and ECG (electrocardiogram recording).

Fortunately, my favourite bootcamp was held at the end of January and I am very glad it was done in person because, given its very practical nature, it was a great opportunity to have a hands-on approach. I am speaking of Design Thinking, a topic that I didn’t know anything about before the MBA but that I immediately fell in love with for its immense versatility and because of a set of skills and insight it provides that can work in any kind of environment, both in and outside of the business world.

Design Thinking is a methodology that provides a hands-on approach to solving problems stemming from the understanding of human-based needs. Hybridized with creative brainstorming, design, ethnographic research, prototyping and usability testing, this approach has gained so much momentum in recent years that consulting companies as BCG, PWC, Deloitte and Capgemini have acquired Design Thinking divisions -for the most part working in the digital area – to produce oblique solutions to business problems.

For someone like myself, coming from the humanities and with a background in qualitative methods, crossing paths with a subject like Design Thinking proved extremely relevant and immediately familiar as a way to reengineer my research experience in academia to business-focused issues. The bootcamp was conducted with the supervision of the team of scholars working in the Design Thinking for Business observatory at the Politecnico, who organized a real experiential gym for our class, to put the methods learned into practice. Activities such as “diverging” and “converging” during brainstorming phases, prototyping objects like a new wallet that would suit our desk-mate’s desires prior to an in-depth interview with our user, and ethnographic research through a “retail safari” aimed at scrutinizing, discussing and improving the user experience of some of the city’s famous retail spaces, were just a few of the awesome experiences that punctuated a very unusual but memorable week.

One of the takeaways that I evaluate as standing out from this bootcamp is how transversal Design Thinking is. In the past few weeks, as the other bootcamps have been taking place, I have found myself using some of the tools of this methodology more than once, for instance to brainstorm an idea or to get out of a blind spot when working on a project in teams with my classmates. The wide array of applicability makes it without any doubt my favourite class in the MBA and a valuable resource that will for sure help me in both my professional and personal life down the line.

 

About the author
 Marianna Trimarchi
I am a candidate of the International Full Time MBA at MIP. I have a background in academia as a PhD in Communication and Strategic Analysis and a career as content producer in the Media Industry.I have worked for the Italian Television as author and assistant producer for cultural programs as well as for other media outlets as journalist. I am passionate about understanding complex phenomena particularly related to internationalization and global development from a multidisciplinary perspective.

 

 

 

Multicultural Spirit

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on Multicultural Spirit

According to a study from the HBR (Harvard Business Review), living abroad is one of the most impactful choices on a student’s career development, enhancing creativity, reducing multicultural and intergroup bias, and promoting success in their future search for a job. When I chose to enrol at MIP to study for an MBA, the promise of being in an international class of students was indeed my highest motivator. In the past six months, I have learned a great deal from my classmates. That’s why I want to leave the floor to them to talk about the multicultural spirit we have created together.

Ganapati, or GG, as we all call him, is a Financial Analyst from Pune, in India. GG, the choice of leaving your family must have been exciting but also challenging. Why did you choose Italy, and Milan specifically, for your MBA?

It’s true, moving to Milan for the MBA was a really exciting decision but also complex in terms of convincing my family, because of the financial commitment and, of course, also emotionally, since my wife is doing her master’s in India and we have a 2½-year-old baby to take care of.
I had previously been in Milan for a business trip and I fell in love with its architecture. I chose this city both for its strategic location and for the opportunities I wish to find here, with it being the fashion and financial capital of Italy. I had planned to live an international experience for a long time and an MBA in particular would be an upgrade to get ready for more challenging roles in my professional life. 

There are students like Lili, a Project manager from China, who had business and personal trips to Italy before the start of the program. Lili, during this year you have shared a lot about your country and culture. Tell us about the Chinese new year party we had!

The Chinese New Year party was amazing! Not only because of the traditional Chinese food we made from scratch and the things we did, but because we were all together for such a traditional and important event in my culture. The greatest and most meaningful thing for me, being away from home during that time, was to share it with people coming from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, and still wanting to celebrate together. I strongly believe that the multicultural environment we have built will have a big impact in shaping our future as people and professionals.

And talking about parties, Alejandro, a financial and operations strategist from Colombia has fully embraced the multicultural spirit of our Master, from the Milanese aperitivo to playing calcetto. Ale, how has this experience changed your life and what are the takeaways for you?

It has been key for me to understand that not everybody has the same energy and willingness to do some things. I’ve learned to be more respectful about people’s decisions and to be an active listener with regard to their needs. I have an easygoing and chilled personality, but not everyone feels comfortable in all environments, also because of the dimensions that model their culture. In order to interact with others it is important to understand that the other person also needs to be comfortable. This has been the basis for building more solid relationships and a healthy environment in particular when we were working in teams for some courses. It will be my takeaway whatever project I work on in the future. 

In my class there are also Italian students, like Federico, a lawyer who is passionate about social and economic issues. As an Italian candidate, how was it to dive deep into a multicultural experience for you and what made this journey special?

Being immersed in a multicultural environment was, for me ̶ and I can say for all the Italian students   ̶ a journey to explore the different cultural roots of every colleague. Sitting side by side with people coming from the other side of the world, it enabled me every day to gain a different perspective on the way we look at the world of business, on society and on approaches and attitudes to situations arising in our daily lives. Having the opportunity to wear glasses other than mine to observe our complex world was the true richness of this adventure! We are all children of the same tree: traditions and diversity are the essence of our journey together and allow us to discover humanity in its manifold nuances.

 

About the author
 Marianna Trimarchi
I am a candidate of the International Full Time MBA at MIP. I have a background in academia as a PhD in Communication and Strategic Analysis and a career as content producer in the Media Industry.I have worked for the Italian Television as author and assistant producer for cultural programs as well as for other media outlets as journalist. I am passionate about understanding complex phenomena particularly related to internationalization and global development from a multidisciplinary perspective.

 

 

 

BlackRock Hackathon: a green experience!

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on BlackRock Hackathon: a green experience!

Milano Digital Week (MDW) is a social initiative hosted every year by the City Council of Milan to inform the public about challenges and issues in the digital environment. Among keynotes, roundtables and workshops, the organizational committee launches initiatives aimed at engaging companies and citizens in shaping the future of digital. The BlackRock Hackathon is an example of such public involvement.

At the beginning of 2020, Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, announced that environmental sustainability would be at the core of the company’s investment strategy. This was a bold decision made by a global leader in the industry. Following the news, the company decided to launch a challenge aligned with UN SDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Goal) #13: Climate action. The goal of BlackRock’s Hackathon was to create a tool, leveraging big data and analytics, to support investment professionals in taking environmentally informed decisions for their clients.

Hackathons are generally demanding, as participants are asked to develop a thorough, innovative solution in an incredibly short amount of time. Personally, I found this one even more challenging for two reasons.
I signed up to the event as an individual. I was reluctant, at first. Building something with people you have never met before in just 36 hours is not an easy task: you need to create a common ground of communication style and understand how to push your ideas, among other things. Then I remembered something I had learnt some years ago: if you wish to grow and achieve great things, you need to exit your comfort zone ̶ so that is what I did. Luckily, I got along quite well from the start with Mattia and Stefano, my teammates, and, since the team is the key, everything was downhill from then on. And, despite the struggles and the little sleep, we managed to have fun and achieve our goal: winning the hackathon.

Furthermore, the contest addressed a quite complex issue. Despite improved willingness from companies to disclose their environmental impact, the greatest obstacle remains data availability. Whichever solution you want to design, you need to take this into account. Another crucial element was the type of product to present. How are users going to benefit? Which channels to use?

Throughout the competition, teams were supported by BlackRock professionals: in our case, the mentoring was extremely useful. Mentors helped us reason better with regard to the choices we were making by questioning them constantly. In the end, when we prepared the pitch for the jury, Mattia, Stefano and I had motivated our choices so many times that we were confident about the idea, and it only took us a few minutes to find the right words to describe it.

After an initial, long brainstorming session, where ideas seemed to pop up from everywhere, we decided to focus our attention on something that could easily be implemented by an incumbent and whose usage could possibly be sold: an algorithm optimizing the environmental performance of investment portfolios. The name? (re)Balance!

Our starting point was the Paris agreement and its stated goal to contain any increase in global temperatures within 2°C by 2030. Upon that, we built a mechanism that allocates money by picking the most environmentally virtuous emitters and securities from among a predefined set of categories (best-in-class approach). Moreover, as a team, we wanted something visual that could communicate to investors how much they are contributing to the goal: something socially valuable; a thermometer, showing how much investors’ portfolios are helping limit global warming.

I am a student of the International Master in Fintech. One could say the competition was basically my bread and butter, as it addressed innovation in the financial industry. Looking at the specificity of the challenge, especially, one could equally add that mastering financial and technological concepts was pivotal to performing well. This is not completely true. First, because the environmental component was relevant. Second, because innovation does not result just from knowing things. You need to analyse, understand and take decisions in an unexplored environment. In other words, you need to exercise critical thinking ̶ and I believe that’s where the Master was a game-changer for me: it taught me to think about what I know and use it in unconventional ways.

 

About the author
 Lorenzo D’Auria 
I am 24 and grew up in Cagliari, Italy. I am a student of the International Master in Fintech at MIP and I hold a BSc in Economics and Management from the University of Trento. My professional interests revolve around the investment management industry and the impact new technologies have on it.

Becoming the leader of my career: a tough path to the goal

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Closeup shot of two businesspeople shaking hands in an office

Three pillars of training at MIP are high-level courses, a strong community to rely on and the mandate to be the leaders of our careers.

As we want to lead the development of our working life, we need to train to recognise, build and exploit the opportunities to achieve our goals: MIP has structured its Career Development Center to train Part-time MBA candidates, the students’ community at large and alumni in planning and executing their strategy to succeed. The program proposed for this training foresees different tools and opportunities in order to develop career-leading skills.

FLEXA is the main tool available to improve skill-awareness: I introduced myself to my digital mentor, describing the functional area and the industry of interest and then, through a structured test, I was given a deep insight into my skills. The FLEXA platform gave me a score on hard, soft and digital skills, highlighting my weaknesses and suggesting articles, courses and other training to fill in the gaps: my path of continuous learning keeps on daily to reinforce my skills and provide endless training. Along with FLEXA, other platforms help us to be aware of the power of our resume (like VMock) or the state of job opportunities (like JobTeaser).

Career Workshops are two-hour webinars held by experienced consultants and headhunters: before taking those courses, I was acting more out of enthusiasm or a feeling of discomfort, but then I learned how to effectively define my professional goals in order to make them specific, achievable and timely. I felt like an alchemist: motivation was the fire to ignite the reaction, my skills, competences and passions the ingredients, opportunities and constraints the alembic through which to distil my goals. The workshop trainers also gave me hints and suggestions as to how to structure my career goals into a road map of intermediate targets, learning how to analyse and recognise the best fit between my goals and the needs of the market.

Finally, I can’t wait to have my one-to-one consultancy meeting: the Career Development Center experts will be available to understand my goals, discuss my plan and help me to evaluate any possible improvements. As I was starting from a very foggy condition, I’m forcing myself to do a great job on my own before this meeting, in order to be able to exploit the consultants’ experience in the best way possible.

This tough path to define my goals and the targets for achieving them will enable me to take advantage of the great networking opportunities offered by MIP. Meetings with HR and headhunters, orienteering sessions and networking with colleagues and alumni are the best testing ground for refining my plan and my storytelling and ̶ why not? ̶ to lay down the basis for future opportunities.

 

About the author
 Fabrizio Liponi

My name is Fabrizio and I work as a tunnel engineer in the construction of Underground Line 4 of Milan. Born, raised, studied, living and working in Milan: I love my city and I’m proud to take part in building its future. Travel addicted, I love to meet people and different cultures.

The fundraising launched by MIP to support the San Paolo and San Carlo hospitals in Milan in the fight against Covid-19 comes to an end: thanks to all contributors.

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on The fundraising launched by MIP to support the San Paolo and San Carlo hospitals in Milan in the fight against Covid-19 comes to an end: thanks to all contributors.

Unity is strength! Students, alumnae and alumni, professors and all staff of MIP and of the School of Management of the Polytechnic of Milan: together we have tried to give concrete support to the San Paolo and San Carlo hospitals in Milan, to the patients and to the medical staff who have fought relentlessly to treat patients affected by Covid-19.

The active participation in the fundraising initiative launched by MIP demonstrated that a small gesture, multiplied by 263 donors, can become a great one. With a total of 32,973 Euros, we contributed to add new posts in intensive care department, essentials for saving lives, and to meet the great need of single-use protective devices such as masks, gloves and coveralls, allowing doctors and nurses to operate in greater safety.

The fundraising campaign took place in close coordination with the management and staff of the hospitals, at the forefront to fight against the serious consequences related to the rapid spread of Coronavirus, and the funds were directly and promptly donated to them. Matteo Stocco, General Manager of ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo in Milan, warmly thanked our School and all the contributors for the donations.

“We implemented concrete initiatives to face the emergency from a educational point of view. But, at the same time, we also tried to give our contribution to face the emergency from the health point of view. Thanks to the whole  community of our School, students, alumni, staff and teachers for the generosity and the solidarity spirit shown in this occasion! “ Vittorio Chiesa, Chairman of MIP Politecnico di Milano.

«First of a kind Global Business Program designed to teach applied Shared Services expertise»

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on «First of a kind Global Business Program designed to teach applied Shared Services expertise»

Starting in September 2020, a new set of online courses will focus on Shared Services, processes and capabilities that can be shared among the various business units of a company — including finance, purchasing, supply chain, human resources, and information technology. These courses are offered for the first time.

With the aim to professionally certify executives in Shared Services, a critical corporate operations area, the Professional Global Business Services (P-GBS) Certification will be a transformational learning experience for participants. These courses are from MIP Politecnico di Milano, in partnership with renowned advisory services firm Inixia.

Inixia will bring their practical executive leadership expertise, drawing upon years of practical operational experience in leading best-in-class Fortune 20 Global Business Services (GBS) organizations. Inixia’s distinctiveness lies in its unique capabilities of having created an industry standard certification, called Professional GBS.

Made up of several modules, all will encompass the best of the global business community, taught by an international faculty composed of industry founders and experts, including world-class shared services and digital technology strategist, Filippo Passerini.

With over 30 years of business-building career with Procter & Gamble, Passerini will be one of the key industry leaders giving insights, guidance, and testimonials throughout the program. He said:

“Global Business Services is a proven model and a fast-growth industry. In addition to helping businesses increase efficiency and reduce costs, it’s a strategic enabler for innovation and innovative business models. However, up until now, there was no structured training to provide professionals in this area with the required knowledge, competency, and skills. It’s an honor and privilege to make my experience available to such a mission, together with my distinguished colleagues and the top-notch MIP School.”  

Taught entirely in English, the unique set of online executive courses will allow participants to develop new skills, essential for the enhancement of their managerial professionalism within the Global Business Services market. As well as this, the courses are flexible and can be adapted to suit client’s specific needs.

“We can work with clients on an à la carte basis, creating different tailor-made streams of in-person courses leveraging modules from across pillars to suit the different types of roles their people may occupy across their organizations” said Sergio Terzi, Associate Dean for Executive Education at MIP Politecnico di Milano.

Participants who complete all three pillars of GBS Training Modules and the GBS Strategic Leadership Modules will be certified in the P-GBS discipline by Inixia and MIP Politecnico di Milano, a widely recognized and highly sought-after industry accolade.