Tag: #MIPexperience

On October 27th, my MBA MIP class and I landed in beautiful Munich to start our second international full week.

It was an amazing experience, full of insights, interesting topics and great in-company visits.

It was also a closely-packed week (with activities from 9am to 6pm every day!) of learning and enjoyable breakthroughs with my classmates in the historic Technische Universität München (TUM) that has “given birth” to 17 Nobel Prizes.

Firstly the content: it was great to have three TUM professors leading us through the Finance, Project Management and Business Law modules.

For me, with my Master in Political Science, the lessons have been tough, but very helpful. More and more I am understanding that this MBA is helping me to better understand many aspects of my current company and I find myself applying what I am studying to my day-to-day activities in a practical way. Even if it is difficult, the professors were great in helping us to fully comprehend the contents. What amazes me is that now, during our working meetings in my company, I can follow every aspect with a critical view.

We had two touchpoints with companies, both of which were very interesting. MIP has chosen two leading German players in the industrial area (automotive and aviation sectors) and the meetings were very insightful.

Firstly, linked to the Finance module, we met Lufthansa on the revenue management issue. Employers who came in to speak about this interesting topic presented the subject matter clearly and in an engaging way.

Secondly, we had the unique chance of an in-company visit at BMW. We visited the historic Munich production site and it was amazing to listen to and see with our own eyes how some of the most high quality and beautiful cars are produced. In particular, we acquired a true knowledge of the extent to which timing and work organization are key in a process from the creation of a car to our daily activities.

Also, the fun part was not missing!

My classmates and I were able to stay together for another whole week! We spent the free evenings  together and enjoyed the German culture (especially German beer…) and visited Munich, that personally, I love!

I feel so empowered by this experience and so grateful for how much I am achieving in terms of content and competences, as well as in terms of networking and human relationships.

The Munich international full week has been a great part of this MBA and I just feel sorry we do not have the chance to do one more!

About the author

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.”

I’ve always liked this quote, wrongly attributed to Mark Twain. It encourages people not to be afraid of changes, which can be terrifying sometimes… But without getting ahead of myself, I’ll tell you who I am.

I’m Marco Di Salvio, I’m almost 30 years old. I’m an Industrial Engineer currently working at Gucci, as WW Senior Supply and Demand Planner for the categories of Men’s Ready to Wear and clothing accessories. I’ve lived in Florence for more than 5 years now.

I like my job: I’m in a young environment, with an international flavor and great possibilities to innovate work processes. Anyway, sometimes it’s still not enough.

For a curious person, the possibility to improve yourself is essential, and you can do it in a lot of different ways. At the beginning of my career I focused on my technical skills and problem-solving ability in order to be independent in my day-by-day job. Afterwards, I grasped the importance of relationships and soft skills. And finally, I had to learn how to manage people in the most efficient way. Of course, I’m still improving in each one of these three aspects, but I became aware of something: my learning curve was flattening.

When you work in a certain environment again and again, you get used to the input you receive, to the people you must deal with, to the skills you have to put into practice. Hence the learning process shifts from acquiring knowledge of something new to improving how to put into practice the knowledge you’ve already got.

Well, after a lot of thinking, I’ve realized I didn’t want to stop learning. But how could I do that? I should have found a dynamic environment, with young proactive people, full of new ideas and ways of thinking different from my own.

Finding this in a company is extremely difficult. At the same time, the academic path could turn out to be much more theoretical and less applicable to the work environment. The best solution, which balanced the two aspects, would have been applying for an MBA.

I then decided to search for a proper one, which fitted my needs and my expectations. I wanted to keep my job, so I opted for a part-time MBA. The MIP International Part-Time MBA turned out to be the best choice for me: technical, sponsored by a lot of big firms, with an international environment and one of the best research centers in Europe. Besides, it was based in Milan, the industrial heart of Italy.

When I got selected, I had to face this choice. Should I invest my savings in this? Would it help me in reaching my goals? Would I be able to “go back to school”, getting in the game once again? All these questions are not easy to answer. I still haven’t answered some of them, actually.
But, let’s come back to my previous quote: in twenty years, will I be disappointed if I don’t take up this opportunity? Probably yes.
Therefore, I decided to set my fears aside in order not to have regrets in the future. This is the right moment to throw myself into this new experience: I can learn new things and apply them right away in my job, getting feedback from it.

I’ve spent the two weeks before the beginning of the MBA watching the videos and the online classes uploaded on the MIP Digital Platform, which turned out to be really convenient, since I could better schedule the time to “study” according to my job obligations.
Then, finally, on the 17th October, during the kick-off weekend, I got the chance to know around 60 new people, with different ages, different nationalities, different jobs, different university backgrounds, different ideas. But each one of them had something in common: the eagerness to improve themselves and overcome their limits and even their fears. They were all ready to embrace changes, and “sail away from the safe harbor”.

I’m pretty sure this will be the start of a new chapter in my life, and I’m happy to share it with people who I’m sure I can learn a lot from just talking during a coffee pause, discussing a business case, doing a group work, sharing future plans.

And right now it’s almost time to pack for Barcelona, where I’ll join the first international week at EADA Business School. Wish me luck!

About the author

In my last article in this series, I wanted to take the time and opportunity to write about what in my view is the most valuable resource that you will receive in an International MBA program such as the one at MIP, the people with whom you will interact and live this experience.

As an engineer, working for over 10 years in the same industry, I hardly got to interact actively with other professionals. I would go even further, from an earlier age, at high school when the division between “science” and “arts” was made, my interactions were limited just to people like myself.

Sure, I have worked together with Marketing or other departments, but always in the context of an engineering background. So while deciding who to work with on the final Project Work, I could not have imagined finding a more unique team.

Back in November, we had to make a decision, what would our final Project Work be? I hesitated to do something based on technology and for that reason, I explored other options. Here is when the first member of the team came into play. In my view, one of the best reasons for taking an MBA is a great network that you will develop. I realized this early enough, and one of the reasons was my relationship with Massimiliano Mesenasco. Massimiliano started the MBA working at Orange and it was already on our first day at MIP that we started discussing different technologies and applications. Over several meals at the local trattoria, we polished up our proposal for Project Work. It is amazing how people working in the same industry, looking at it from different angles, can arrive at ideas that, without this connection, would not be possible.

We had the idea, but we needed support. The first came from Marketing. Matteo Guerrini has extensive experience in Marketing in different industries such as the Automotive, Luxury or Alcoholic Drinks sectors. With a great entrepreneurial spirit, he is currently starting his own business. In addition, he has supported MBA initiatives such as the one successfully developed by Divya Singh, UBIQUE. Despite our great personal relationship, he was the perfect match for the project. This is one of those connections that would never have been possible without the unique framework that such an MBA program provides for its students. For me, without any knowledge of fashion, everything Matteo does is of great interest. This is such an enormous industry, could there be a way of bringing marketing concepts which have long been developed for fashion into tech firms?

The last member of the team is someone that I deeply envy. One of my biggest regrets in life is not having had the chance to have my own restaurant. I love cooking and all the ritual which surrounds it. Niccolo Santocchini and his family had, over the years, developed a successful chain of restaurants with an international presence, which I could not ask him enough about. I would not have got this opportunity anywhere other than in Italy and at MIP. Niccolo is currently moving into a new industry and this is another great example of a unique opportunity that such an MBA program can open up to you. Niccolo brought to the team his deep knowledge of operations that we would definitely need in order to evaluate the viability of our project implementation. International operations would be fundamental for our work.

These kinds of interactions would not be possible without the ecosystem of such an international program. For sure you can develop such connections in your daily life, but you would never be in the context that an MBA provides. My Project Work team is just a small sample out of all the people that I had the chance to work with. Over the course of two years and endless assignments, you are working with a group of people who come from completely different backgrounds and enrich the discussion with their very specific viewpoints. This is in my view the main reason why you should be thinking about starting your MBA journey.

I hope you have enjoyed this set of articles. I intended to look at the MBA far from the traditional knowledge-based point of view and more in terms of what in my experience really makes the difference. I had a great time at MIP and I look forward to using all these tools in my future personal life and professional career!

About the author

A whole year has already gone by! Time has flown so fast due to the usual strict work schedule, MBA commitments and family matters. I am now enjoying some free time on vacation and am able to think over this first part of my journey with MIP.

One of the most valuable things I have experienced so far is the strongly multicultural environment. Before starting this Master I was a bit skeptical about having a truly international experience; however, I was lucky enough to encounter an incredible variety of cultures.

First of all, in my class, this was the case with both my classmates and my professors. Our class is, in fact, composed of multiple numbers of different nationalities (Brazilian, Portuguese, Albanian, Turkish and Indonesian nationals, to cite just some), boosting the possibility of creating a network (but especially friendships), not only limited to the local but also at an international level. All the conversations and the sharing of personal issues have made me grow, both personally and professionally. Also, the coterie of professors is made up of many international individuals (or at least, they have a strong international background), allowing us to see diverse methodologies of approaching matters and relating to students.

This aspect is, in my opinion, particularly important because nowadays we are (luckily) more and more forced to face different cultures with their particular beliefs and traditions and we should be able to interact and create relationships, both at human and professional level, in this multicultural environment.

Also, the bootcamp experience has shown me how important it is to work in a global organization (even in a group with few people), and has given me the opportunity to exchange views with people with different values, cultures and behaviors in a genuinely international environment.
The last aspect is the international week we experienced in Barcelona (we are also leaving for Monaco in a month’s time!), that helped, in a real sense, to add an international breath to the whole MIP journey.

Once again, I feel that this MBA represents a great experience; it is giving us an intense and useful academic education and an incredible international network.
Second year, I am ready for you!

About the author

I work in Automotive Product Marketing at u-blox AG. u-blox is a Swiss company that creates wireless semiconductors for consumer, automotive and industrial markets. u-blox has grown organically over the last few years, also through several successful acquisitions. Some examples of these were connectblue in 2014 and Lesswire in 2015. u-blox was founded in 1997 in Switzerland, and since their IPO in 2007 the company has been listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SIX:UBXN). u-blox has several R&D and Sales offices in the USA, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

I could not imagine a better environment for proceeding with my MBA program than that of such a high-tech multinational company.
Let’s start from the beginning. The MBA welcomes you with nothing other than an express course in Financial Accounting. In my case, it was my first contact with this field. After managing the initial shock, as it’s not that easy to come back to the classroom after several years out, the first image in my mind was reviewing u-blox’s own Financial Statements. After several days of working on this, I understood how lucky I was to be in such an enriching environment. Being able to discuss those reports with our financial experts brought a completely new dimension to this course — one where the MBA is opening up your interest to new fields and making you a far more involved member of your company.

The case of Financial Accounting was far from being an isolated one. Personal development and HR Management allowed me to review the current strategy of our company’s organization so that I could understand the reasons for such organization, not only from a purely human management point of view but also from a financial one. The use of Cost Centers, Service Teams and Business Units made a lot of sense from then on.

Two of the courses that impacted the most on my view of the company day-to-day were those in Marketing and Finance. Starting with Finance, I was able to review different firms in my sector and understand their strategies. I reviewed the u-blox IPO, the reasons for it and its impact on the company and was able to understand the changes in the share price and the importance for the different entities connected to the company. As an engineer, I must admit that my views on marketing were really limited. I was sceptical about this course but the outcome was everything but trivial. I could now understand the reasoning behind our marketing campaigns, how we manage our KPIs and the different activities linked to public communication.

Last but not least, at the Innovation course I was able to study the reasons for the different acquisitions made over the years, the background on why we are currently proceeding with our joint venture activities and, overall, how such a high-tech leader firm is innovating to remain at the top of its industry.

My conclusion is the following: firms need to see the value of their employees proceeding with programs such as the International Part Time MBA. First, because their employees will increase their skills and capabilities but second, and even more important in my view because of their involvement and interest in the overall development of the company will be much greater. This will reinforce the links between the employer and the employee, leading to a stronger bond.

I hope you have enjoyed this article. In the next and last one, I will focus on how doing my MBA Project Work with professionals from completely different sectors enriched this experience in ways I could not have predicted!

About the author