You’re an executive with years of experience under your belt. You’re managing a team, a division or even the entire company and have seen a steady development of revenues in the past months. When you’re not in meetings, you try to squeeze in as much work as you can, whilst also trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance. So what good would an Executive MBA do to a busy person like you?
There is no denying that an Executive MBA requires plenty of time and resources from the student. Even if you have the budget for it (after all, it is an investment in your career), time spent in a learning program is either an opportunity cost for your business or your personal life. This makes the decision to study an Executive MBA a very important one. With 100+ Romanian-based professionals choosing to study such a program every year, let’s review why they do it and how it benefits them.
Becoming a better professional, a better leader, a better entrepreneur
The world’s biggest professionals and thought leaders agree on one thing: learning never ends. Regardless of the years of work under your belt, the range of experiences you’ve had and the number of books you read yearly, the business work is constantly evolving and so should you. Plus, what works now for your role or business may not work in a few years’ time, which is an extra reason to be prepared.
An Executive MBA does 2 things: offers you a 360 degrees view of the business, so you can identify the incoming challenges and gives you new methods and instruments to approach them. Any business, big or small, is like a machine: if one part doesn’t work to its full capacity, eventually the entire mechanism will under perform.
Most leaders reaching an executive position don’t have formal training into other areas of the business. Some may even learn the necessary business skills on-the-go, as they progress through their role. Stefan Slavnicu, CTO of Orange Romania has had a similar experience:
“When I started the program, my background was technical and all my knowledge was around telecom engineering. The EMBA courses opened my mind towards business, decision-making, strategy, leadership and many others, things that I could not get without the help of an EMBA program.”
The classes of an Executive MBA focus on both soft and hard skills. Plus, the lecturers are seasoned professionals, who mix experience with the academic background. They will have access to the latest tools and instruments for effective leadership and they will bring these to the classroom. They top these up with real-life case studies of dos and don’ts for business managers.
A transformational experience of personal development
A study of more than 300,000 business leaders conducted by consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman revealed the top 10 traits for success in leadership. Out of them, only 1 was based around technical and professional expertise (ranking on 7). The remaining 9 focus on inspiration, motivation, coaching, integrity, problem solving, communication, relationship building, strategic perspective and innovation.
As mentioned before, most leaders will have technical training throughout their careers, but a few will attend courses on strategic thinking, problem solving or motivating team members. Plus, a course of a few hours on any of the topics mentioned above can only scratch the surface, which is why an Executive MBA will combine class activity and individual study for the best results. Most courses are also followed by assignments or exams, to ensure proper understanding of the principles and theories discussed.
It is no wonder that an EMBA also changes your personal life. “The MsM EMBA experience was one of the most transformational times of my life. The lessons learned during 1 year and a half were far more than the business acumen! It was an experience where I have learned a lot about myself – what are my limits, how to build confidence and how to plan my time & energy to align family, demanding job and an MBA program” says Veronica Brejan, International Executive Coach at Fly Through Life.
An extended network of senior level executives
Networking with fellow professionals that have the same challenges as yourself can be scarce for senior executives. An Executive MBA brings together leaders from all walks of life, covering all departments from the business, all industries and all sectors – NGO, private and even public.
The lecturers are also professionals, so they bring in a wider network and know-how themselves, with some of them even being investors, experienced in evaluating businesses and start-ups. Due to this diverse network, some students become partners or even form new businesses together. This was also the example of Romanian based Evertoys, a sharing subscription platform for toys by 2 Maastricht School of Management EMBA alumni and with the investment of 2 lecturers from the program. One of the lecturers is now also a part of the advisory board for the business.
Andrei Radulescu, Commercial Director at Publicis One also mentions networking as one of the key components of a positive EMBA Experience:
“Looking back, an important contribution to this positive Executive MBA experience brought the diverse smart people I met: teachers and colleagues, the intense hours spent to find group solutions in such a diversity. Those experiences triggered business networking but also long-term friendships.”
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Do you want to find out more about the Executive MBA experience? Reach out and let’s see if it’s the right fit for you now.
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