# Sloan Masters in Leadership | LBS

Data: 11-01-2025 21:37:43

## Lista de Vídeos

1. [The Sloan Programme – Impact | LBS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrsTBqFjr0A)
2. [My Sloan Story with Andrea Engel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owuwY8NPBzY)
3. [My Sloan Story with Bhaven Pandit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gwyc5WBgpQ)
4. [In conversation with EMBA Global alumni: Akansha Arya and Alberto Tono](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2n4RYAoV-c)
5. [Lalaine's LBS Sloan journey | London Business School](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsiP9o4RXgM)
6. [Sloan Summit 2018 | London Business School](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuaA-AT5rVE)
7. [Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy (MSc) | London Business School](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKzpg34ovfc)

## Transcrições

### The Sloan Programme – Impact | LBS
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrsTBqFjr0A

Idioma: en

my time at the sloan program has given
me the tools i need to be an effective
leader in different contexts and in
different situations but also to embrace
my uniqueness and to
cherish the things that are different
about me because that sets me apart from
other leaders
we become better leaders when we leave
the sloan program because of the amazing
academic content
lots of reflections about life and
career and also the networking when we
have all these three
we are well prepared to face any problem
in the corporate world for me i think it
was the roundedness so that i have now
the tools and the mindsets and the
framework the theory but as well the
experience actually from my cohort to go
out there and be the leader i've always
wanted to be but somehow never really
had the tools to do it through the
throne program i transformed myself from
a domestic reader to a global leader our
strong professors taught us not about
how to do it what to do but why we do it
i became a reader
who can make a difference in a diverse
environment this year has been a pivotal
moment in my career journey it allowed
me the time to reflect
on myself raise self-awareness
become more confident
in the impact and influence that i want
to make in the world and in the business
world going forward not only in the
community i operate but also globally
i've gone through this journey with a
fantastic group of peers and i count on
them
as a cohort to make this impact even
greater in the years to come
[Music]

---

### My Sloan Story with Andrea Engel
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owuwY8NPBzY

Idioma: en

i would just uh introduce myself
my name is um elena i am the senior
recruitment admissions manager for the
embargo once loan programs
um and my responsibilities include
leading a strategy for both programs
conducting interviews
um leading the
recruitment strategy as well um doing
profile reviews assisting the candidates
uh and so on so there's like a whole
package to be able to build the classes
that we have here at
and today i'm just going to focus on the
sloan program
and as you can see uh this is the second
event that we do
this part of this loan series
and this time we have here um our great
alumni andrea angle
um but i will let her
introduce herself in just a few moments
so if we look at the
class that we just recruited last year
the average year of experience was 18
um and we had around 21 nationalities um
to be in the class so
we always try to make it as diverse as
possible um compared to the sloan 2021
class we had 12 new nationalities added
to um to the range um they're we're
coming from 38 cities um and of course
something that we always value
is
the percentage of women in the class
capturing trying as much as we can to
get to that 50 50 mark it's in men and
women um for the sloan 2022 class we
have the 21
women but of course
as i said we are always trying to to
improve this stats
and um overall we had 52
members that joined the the cohort
exceptional
members
great um
as you might know this loan program is a
one-year full-time program um so this
means that unfortunately you you'll not
be able to work while you study just
because it's going to be very very
intense
but before joining the class of course
there's the whole process behind
and
if you look at the admissions
cycle
we consider applications on a rolling
basis
we do have
still three more deadlines left one will
be on the 24th of may one in july and
the last one in august
but we are trying as much as we can to
encourage all our candidates to submit
as soon as possible especially those who
are based abroad because um there's a
whole process behind as well once you
get an offer and you get admitted for
instance in terms of the visa process
and there is your logistics because
you'll have to relocate to london um so
just to make sure that you are dealing
with all this in a timely manner and of
course for us as well to be able to deal
with our logistics from from our side
um in case you
do not know exactly if this program is
the best fit for you you can always send
your cv over to us to our recruitment
team on sloane london.edu
and we'll be more than happy not to
assess your profile to answer to any
questions you have about the program
and of course um if you wish to submit
uh we'll be there to assist as well with
the application process
and
some housekeeping
rules
so the experience they shared is just
for the sloan
candidates and sloan prospect but in
case
there are any other
attendees who
would like to hear more about the school
they can also of course participate
this is a webinar format so this means
that your camera
will not be on
um not even and you'll be muted while we
um
we run the event
however you can use the
chat function or the q a function to ask
us any questions either related to the
admissions
process or to our guest speaker today
so we'll be um for sure answering two to
your questions at the end
and without any further ado i just want
to introduce um andrea she was a sloan
2018
graduate
and andrea if you are here with us um
yeah we'll be more than happy to to hear
your stories and your experience within
the program
sure thanks very much for inviting me
and i'm very happy to share my
experience for potential news loneys
and um yeah so if there are any
questions please feel free to go ahead i
think getinna and i we will talk a lot
through the program and my experiences
with it but you know maybe you have some
special questions that i do not
um
give in the moment so then please feel
free to
yeah just to ask and also if you're keen
on you can
take me on linkedin and connect me on
linkedin if there's anything later on
[Music]
great thank you
um so thank you again for coming um it's
it's a great honor to have you here
um and uh one of my first question would
be if you can just tell us a little bit
more about your break your background
before you joined the the program in
2018
sure so from my background i am a german
lawyer so i'm registered as a german bar
and i'm specialized in international
trade and global supply chain law
and
i lived in switzerland almost 15 years
before i joined sloan i was working
for one of the biggest commodity trader
in the world some of you who are
listening uh might know it was glencoe
and um i was there for almost 15 years
as well
um running the legal department for
the commodity business
and um
yeah
i came to a point
where i just realized that i you know in
my career that i have seen almost
everything that i could have seen
um i am highly involved in the
operational business less in the
strategic business
so um
yeah that is that is actually my
background nothing more really to say so
as a lawyer as you can imagine we're
quite you know
limited in what we are doing
so um
yeah so i wanted to broaden actually my
you know my knowledge and my background
and i knew london
from a couple of business trips but i
used to go there also privately very
very often so
it was the perfect location for me to be
there
great and why did you did you choose you
know sloan and why did choose lbs as
well sure so as i just said you know i
am
besides other lawyers that work in in
legal departments i was always in the
operational department and i was working
um in the marketing and the operations
team
but um
i just wanted to get more strategic
um knowledge and i wanted to get out of
this purely operational business into a
more strategic position
so there was one reason the other reason
was that
as i just said i came to a point in my
career where i just knew that i could
not
go further in what i have done
up to that date um and i needed to make
a big jump
um either in the direction of changing
industry or changing you know what i'm
doing the profession
um
i wanted to leave switzerland for
personal reasons um
so
therefore
um i was looking for an opportunity
where i
could actually make a switch you know in
in the sense of getting out of
switzerland um
gaining a lot of more knowledge that i
have even from topics that are
interesting to me but that i have not
worked in
um
being able to
not only like making a sabbatical and
travel for a year but also to do
something that really would enhance my
career in the long term
and that would just you know shift me to
a different level
and um
i
thought from a personal perspective that
i wanted to work
probably more in
strategic development not only in
business but also in hr
um my very first jobs were in in labor
law and hhr and during the time while i
was leading the team
um and being an executive then i also
realized you know that
there are certain potentials and people
that are working in a job that are not
seen by their managers
so for me there was a i had this idea of
getting more into this
um fostering other people and
putting people into their right places
at work
which is about leadership which is about
strategic and um
that's why i was looking for a program
like that
okay and what were your expectations
before you joined the program what maybe
did you once which you further in terms
of your goals
so um
my expectation was first to get a new
completely
new setup on knowledge because you know
i mean there's so much you can read
about like behavioral economics or you
know strategy and all that but at the
end of the day reading is one thing
um sitting in a classroom having like a
teacher professor in front of you that
does know the the up-to-date knowledge
is much more intense plus
you know when you just try to do it on
your own there's so much material you
just don't know what to pick the right
the right thing for you
um
so that is what i wanted to do i want to
get out of the job for a while as well
because um before i did this long a
couple of years before i did an llm
a part-time llm i was working 100
and and did this master on top
and from experience is just
if you have a if you have a job that is
very demanding it is almost impossible
to be good at the studies and at the
same time good at work
um
unless you just do not have any spare
second for your life during that time so
i knew that i want to do something where
i'm out of the job where i can focus to
100 on the studies
and um
then of course you know doing the
researches you know what kind of
university in the world would
you know would offer this kind of
program and then you would see that a
lot of those programs
when it comes to strategy and leadership
are part-time
and where you still would work and then
like once a month you would go for a
week to france or to wherever and this
is what i didn't want to do so when i
saw the sloan program
um where i would know that it's a full
year full-time study out of the job
moving to a different place
being 24 7 in that student surrounding
that with just the perfect fit plus
if you look at all the other programs
the
peers that you would have
um are much younger
so um coming with 15 years
job experience
i wanted to have peers that would have
you know like same level of experience
and
it is it is not negative because i think
there are a lot of great mbas out there
you know and executive mbas and what you
have but it is a difference if you sit
in a classroom with other people that
have like 15 plus years experience and
that have been in executive positions
before
versus being in a class where you just
have five to ten years experience so
yeah
sure yeah sloan is one of the most
senior programs we have here lbs
and i think one maybe makes us unique
um is of course that
lbs is the only school outside of us
that offers this kind of program and
then um also the uh seniority of the
cohort itself is is really uh is much
higher than probably in the u.s and this
is yeah what um our students like that
they
they feel you know um comfortable with
dealing with executives with people with
um you know around the same level of
experience um age and so on and it's
really interesting to also to see their
experiences like um as a whole yeah
totally
great
um now if we if we are looking actually
on the experience on the program
uh when when you started uh within your
cohort
which new industries or perspectives you
were exposed to um you know that maybe
helped you
become worried what where you are today
and what you you are currently doing
yeah sure
um probably it sounds funny now for all
those people who deal with finances
every day
but as a lawyer i'm not dealing with
numbers and i'm not dealing with
finances so that was definitely an
industry um
which was new to me i mean there we had
some cfos in in in the classroom and you
know of course you have corporate
finance and all that which are like
topics that i've never ever touched
before uh in
in that intensity um
[Music]
so that was something completely new um
we had people
um i was very surprised we had two
people from the military um one from the
british army and then we had like a
doctor from the indian army there
um so that was also very
very refreshing and this was something
that you would never normally you know
come across
um
so i think those
those two were the you know the most
exceptional
things yeah the two guys that we had
from the british armies and the indian
military
um
yeah and then you know i mean we had a
lot of from from the finance world you
know banks investment bankers traders
and all that which i mean i knew before
but not in that
and how do you think this this was um
like a diverse cohort uh because we also
have a similar question from one of from
the audience um if you know your peers
were from like uh similar professional
progress where it was like quite diverse
in terms of nationality industry
uh job function and so on
i mean it was
it was completely diverse um
first of all i think you know if
from my perspective i think we had about
like five lawyers or so in the class
which were strange enough all women um
but from that perspective you know every
other industry is is very different um
then
we had
i don't know how many nationalities we
had but it was actually
from every continent there was some
someone
um
i have friends now in india and pakistan
kuwait you know jordan
japan
we had jamaica we had the us um i was
the only german one
um we have one guy who has three who
have or still has three passports like
swiss franc mexican
um
we had a lot of colleagues from brazil
from russia
uh georgia so it was
it was really all around the world and i
think
one of
and all around you know in in different
industries from pharmaceutical over
marketing to you know me as a lawyer and
i think
what makes it so
in yeah special
is that you have to deal with these
different
ways how people deal with things um
when you also are coming into the group
so you will be set into a group with
four or five people depending how big
the class will be at the end of the day
um
and there are you know sometimes it just
clashes because the the way how things
are done is different so in my group i
had a british guy a brazilian guy
somebody from south korea somebody from
india and myself
and
there are five different ways to deal
with issues there are five different
ways to you know to deal with it with a
project that you have
and um
then it's not always easy because you
have also five people who used to be
executives and who used to tell people
how to do things
and then suddenly they're all sitting
together and they try to find a work
solution
so um no that is that is
that is an experience that i think
personally and i used to work in global
companies not even in the most moving
international company you will have
in in that intensity
um that you can
actually experience with slow
yeah i think just to contribute on that
i think that this is one of the aims of
um us creating the study group as
diverse as possible and
sometimes of course then we might be
like on the same professional level um
but i think this um you know help you
as you said you know um see like the
broader let's say picture have more
solutions see how everyone you know is
is thinking how they approached a
specific issue and so and this is also
like a learning style um that we um
always like to to promote this peer to
peer learning uh that is really really
valuable here at lbs
um and what what do you think um you
have learned from from the others
from your study group or from from from
the cohort as a whole
um
i think what you can learn in general or
what i learned is that sometimes you
have to walk in the shoes of the other
person you have to change your
perspective
there's never a right or wrong you know
i mean it's not it's not a hundred
percent black or white there's
a lot of different you know shades of
gray in between
um
[Music]
what i definitely have learned is um
a lot also about myself it is a very
it is a very self-reflecting program and
also being in a study group
um
you realize very quickly in which
position you are from the group if
you're more the you know the the
mediator or the troublemaker or you know
you say just nothing
so these are the things that i have
i have learned a lot about myself i have
learned you know
when it's the right time to say
something or
better you know be quiet um
[Music]
as i can say yeah besides you know all
the
academical knowledge that you gain of
course
okay and what kind of um let's say
challenges have you faced as uh as a
female leader um
maybe uh even within the cohort or maybe
before that or even after you know
finishing the the program yeah
so um
so when i when i look at my professional
experiences i always used to work in a
domain that is
i would say eighteen ninety percent
control by men um
raw material commodity business um
and now also where i'm working now um in
you know machinery forklift truck
production
that is that is an industry
where
women are
not really
in high positions
so
in that sense you know it sometimes it
makes it difficult um
still unfortunately for being recognized
as you know a valued
respected partner um
and i say that just imagine you know
having meetings where you have
20 people sitting and out of these 20
people
um like 10 each side there are only two
women
and the rest are just like 18 men that
are trying to negotiate a contract
to their very best
and then in that position you as a woman
especially when you are there as the
the only lawyer for those contract
negotiations you have to stand up
and that can make it sometimes very
difficult
um
plus also
that is there's something very special
in germany
um to a certain extent sometimes as a
woman you also
give an advantage for the fact that you
are a woman
because you know they have to fulfill a
quote
they have to fulfill a female quote they
want to be to the outside they want to
be more the more diverse company and
they just realized whoops in our board
we just have men now we need to have a
woman
into it right
so this is what i learned um
i will not definitely not take this
experience into the classroom because
that is not the case here though i have
to admit it still if as you just said
just 21
of the classmates are women
so
the female
side is still very you know
low there are just more men
and sometimes you know it happens
that that behavior that men have in the
professional life
of course they will take it to the
classroom so when you have discussions
about a topic and that might happen i
mean this is what all we discuss right
it could happen you know that then you
just realize whoops hey just because i'm
a woman hey let me talk right so
yeah i think
um
probably we also get feedback back as a
as as women in the classroom
um learning how to stand up to be a
little bit more vocal a little bit more
louder i think this is something that
you have to have
um there's also refreshing when you're
on the study group so we we had study
groups where in each study group was one
female student
it is very funny how the perspective on
some things differs we had a we had a
assignment um in behavioral economics
where we had to get women
um
uh saving more money for the bank
accounts so it was it was an assignment
from the bank how we can you know just
bring women more into this financial
thinking in financial you know savings
and all that in investments
and
it is very funny if four men
tell you as a woman what might interest
you
and then you come as a woman and you say
i don't care about this what you're
saying because i'm looking it from that
perspective
and i think that is very important for
both sides because there you understand
you know that
men think just in a different way
sometimes than women
and you know so you have this discussion
but i think overall you know to all the
female heroes
listen us today
um
it's just a great experience and it
helps
it helps
us as future women leaders or women
leaders
um
yeah to be more
to be more open and more standing up
and be more um you know
visible for sure i think it's an
important thing
great great great advice and hopefully
with um with this webinar we can
convince more women to to start applying
because it's something
very beneficial for them as well
not only for for men but um yeah great
great to hear that
um now um actually looking at um the
class format itself and we have a couple
of questions from from the audience um
if you can just share um your daily and
weekly schedule during the program
and if
if you have any time for for yourself
you know just to probably to do um
yeah just to rest you know and take a
deep breath and say oh this day just you
know for me okay
um
it depends actually a little bit on the
class schedule so i don't know how the
class um you know the setup on the
classes
has been changed in the last three four
years
but
um
it starts very hard
and then it's getting less and less
so you can say
the first work the first week uh and i
we've just discussed it before this talk
right the first week is so exhausting
um
because you are there every day eight
hours and you're listening and um i
think
what we all or actually what i
mistaken was that that would be an easy
thing to do because now i'm not the
person who has to tell people what to do
right i'm not actively working so i'm
just sitting there and i'm listening
and this is something that is very
difficult if you haven't done that for a
very long time
because you cannot just stand up and
pick up a coffee you're sitting there
until the break happens right
and
you it's so interesting what people tell
you there and it's so good what is going
on there you just don't want to miss a
second
of this class and you just want to you
know you like a dry sponge you just want
to pick it up and that is very
exhausting you're super tired at the end
of this day which starts at eight and
ends at four
um
and you you just exhausted so the first
week we were all done
um the first quarter is very intense
because you have all your core classes
um you have days again from the morning
to the evening like four days a week
um
and then depending on the lectures that
you have on your electives you know your
your second your third and your fourth
quarter will be easier
less but i had for example i had every
second
weekend um during the second quarter i
had lessons because i had an elective um
that was only done on saturday
so then actually while other people on
saturday you know i had a fun weekend i
was like no i have class and i have to
be there and i have to be you know just
awake
but um
you have enough time for yourself i
think it's it depends how you come into
the program if you are on your own like
i was
um i could schedule exactly how i wanted
to have it right at the end of the day
it didn't matter if i was learning at 1
pm
or at 1am in the morning um because i
could schedule it for my own if you come
with a family i think that you have to
it's different because you still have
your family and we had a lot of
classmates
who came with a complete family over to
london for a full year
[Music]
and there it's different but
do not underestimate the amount that you
have to learn and the amount you have to
read and
i know it's a very individual thing
but you know for some
reading a lot
makes you tired some can do it easily
all the tasks where i had to deal with
finances and calculating that was a
killer for me
um on the other hand you know things
like behavioral economics where i was
highly interested in when i was reading
that for me there was pure pleasure so
it it depends right what you have to do
but you have to learn a lot that's true
you have to read a lot i still could do
my sports and all that
um
[Music]
but there's plenty of time plus there's
also
a lot of
private
private things that you do with your
classmates because it's not only about
learning it's about
um you know creating new friends or
making new friends
it's a very intense year
people come into that year with all the
same approach
uh majority of them have never lived in
london before so they come into a new
city or a new country
maybe even a new continent
um
and they want to make friends
and so you also have to balance this
it's not only
work
but it's also you know making friends
going out with them
um
spending your
leisure time with your classmates
um plus family so
you know it can be a very intense year
though
yeah and and also network because this
is something that
you know it's really valuable in the
program and people need to take
advantage of the networking
opportunities with their classmates uh
or maybe um across the school itself
because there are so many
clubs maybe they they can join um social
activities uh and and so on um now
because you already touched a little bit
about the courses that you have done um
you have your question um what is what
was the intensity
of the finance and accounting courses in
the sloan program oh god now you ask
somebody that it's really bad when it
comes to this
for me it was extremely intense very
much intense i can tell you for those
who are dealing with that on a
professional level before for them it
was nothing right so it was like yeah
i can calculate that um
it is intense um
[Music]
you really have to
to understand how calculations are i was
always like why do i have to understand
that if i'm going on a c level i have
somebody doing that for me
so um
but it is definitely
worthwhile to do it if you would ask me
today i have no idea but what
what is still in my head is
what kind of strategy for the company i
can take out of this and that is always
like
the key thing right i of course i have
to know how to calculate whack or you
know an abbot or whatever
but i also have to understand what that
it what what does it mean for the
company from the perspective what is the
next company strategic
okay brilliant
um and um
if we um look at the faculty members
what faculty
inspired you the most and then why
um
for me it was behavioral economics um
[Music]
because
is that the faculty behavior economics
or do you do you have
to which faculty that belongs that
enough
uh to be honest i'm not very familiar
with uh with the names but um for sure
you can just say the same subject and uh
probably we
we can look after yeah
um
because it was
something that anyway personally i'm
interested in that so um
for those who do not know what it is um
it's about
um
david farah would kill me probably now
when he hears that but it's uh it's a
it's very it's very psychological driven
um it's understanding how somebody makes
decision
and understanding how you can influence
these kind of decisions
and
for me that is a very
personally interested topic
but
it also
changed
my way
not only on a professional level but
also on a private level how i make
decisions now
um
and everything that it was related to
that was for me of the greatest interest
versus behavioral economics then you
have a different other electives which
are um going in the same way but have
different topics um like incentives
um there was like a change management
but it wasn't
in the sense
how you would do it on the purely
operation level change management in the
sense of how you get the people
from a company into this change
management process right
um these were the topics that i
personally liked the very very most and
then of course at the very beginning you
have a lot of basics like um corporate
strategy um strategy in general
um marketing um
these things that are just very
essential for you as you know um
somebody that
runs a company
brilliant thank you you know looking at
what you are uh doing at the moment so
what has changed it probably is this is
the most intriguing part uh part for um
everyone here is in the audience what
have changed professionally and
personally after you
uh completed the program um and
how also your perspective changed
um at the same time
so um
so i said at the beginning that you know
uh being a specialized lawyer for
international trade and and um global
supply chain
before i came to sloan i thought that i
wanted to change my
my profession that i wanted
not doing that anymore and that i wanted
to go more into a
consultant area and maybe working more
with people rather than with business
um
and i was really i was really of that
impression that after that sloan year
where i gained a lot of information and
knowledge about leadership leadership
and strategy that i would be able that i
would do it and that i would change
you know into a more consultancy role
that i would change into a role where
i'm related more to hr development
and
during the sloan
i realized that this is not what i want
to do and it came to me
um completely unexpected i was at a gba
in san francisco
and um
i was i was very much interested in this
kind of industry
um like google and facebook you know
this this kind of industry that is very
dynamic that is very creative that is
very flexible and agile
and i really wanted to go into
that way
um and then i was in san francisco and i
have visited a lot of companies um of
course in that area
um and i just realized that it bores me
to death
which is a very personal thing but i you
know i was listening to the to the 10th
talk like we had this brilliant idea and
then we did it and then we lost the
money and it was all the same story and
i was like no that is you know it is not
as brilliant and creative as i thought
it would be and at the same time
i um
[Music]
we i i it's such a stupid story but
maybe you know um funny to say because
my hotel room in san francisco had a
window that went straight to the
industrial harbor and i'm very
fascinated by international logistics so
every morning when i was looking out of
the window i saw the vessels in front of
the harbour that would be discharged or
you know just loaded
and i realized that every time i see
that i have a smile on my face because i
love that so much so it was really the
gba in san francisco that made me aware
that what i was doing the industry that
i was working in
global supply chain and in
international trade and logistics that
this is really what i love
so
therefore i just skipped my idea of you
know
going into consultancy and maybe hr
development
and i was talking to some consultants um
if i could be in that area but not
working in a company fixed but like
working as a consultant but the truth is
at the end of the day you know i had
several talks and they all said to me
you would be
since i do not have a consultant career
i would start as a junior consultant
which would not be you know
appropriate for me so i would be like an
expert and
it was it just turned out that there was
no way for me to go that way that i
thought it would be plus
i wanted to stay in my old
industry
and
um
then
just by coincidence um i got uh
[Music]
my my ex-colleague that used to work
with me i was her boss said to me that
there was a new job and she understood
that i didn't want to go to swift back
to switzerland at that time i still had
my old job at glencoe so i was planned
that i would come back to switzerland
and into that same company
after i studied in london
and um
[Music]
so
i just said look
it sounds interesting they were looking
for a supplier for a legal person in
international supply chain law
and then you know it just you know i i
spoke to my
now my boss and it just clicked from the
very first interview and then you know
we developed the position where i'm in
now together
um it wasn't planned to go back to
germany it was just planned not going
back to switzerland
um
but that's the way that it happened i
would have loved to stay in london that
would have been really my wish but then
yeah professionally it didn't happen so
um what has changed i think
i have changed industry i have changed
the company i have changed the country
but i haven't changed my profession and
um
one of my classmates just recently you
know we still have our whatsapp group
and we're texting each other you know
interesting stuff
and another
ex loan and friend of mine she was also
on a panel and she was also asked what
has changed and one of our peers said
well look it's the 20a rule
you change 20 percent
and then you have you know the outcome
is an 80 change and that is really true
i know a lot of my classmate mates and a
lot of people have this idea of i'm
going into sloan
because i'm tired of what i'm doing
today
i don't want to see that work anymore
and i want to do this and i want to
change the industry and i want to do
this and this and this
but
to be very honest i i don't think that
it happens
um and i don't think that it happens
when you are very
not open-minded
um
you have to come
to that program
being 100 open-minded about like
whatever happens happens and i'm just
looking where you know my interests are
really are
um because i think as as i did i had
this really this idea of
doing something completely different and
then i was like hit by the fact when i
realized no
the industry that i'm working in it's my
industry this is where i read what i
really love to do
so um now i'm in germany i'm working for
the kyon group
um which is um the europe's
biggest forklift truck producer and
supply chain warehouse producers so
actually my company is doing the big
warehouses for amazon or google
um and forklift trucks um
and um yeah that is i'm still doing what
i'm doing i'm still taking care of
contracts in the procurement
and
the international trade and global
supply chain
but it's a different country and it's a
different company so an industry
actually
brilliant and
yeah i think just to add on that and
probably say that in in the first series
as well
i think
of course it is very important to come
up with some goals before you apply for
the program because this will be
actually one of the interview questions
you know why you want to do the program
what will be your career goals but um
this doesn't mean that you have to stick
with that until the end um and you have
to follow that path because there are so
many other opportunities as you said you
just
realized that during the gpa that you
know um the current institute that you
are working in is something that you
like to continue doing so
um yeah i think i always say
in in our consultations with the
prospective students or with candidates
that
um it's fine if they want to change it
during the program because there are so
many other you know opportunities um
activities that they that can you know
influence their decision in what might
be the best of the book for them after
graduation
um so thank you for for sharing that um
i think um
everyone will find it very useful
um so what what did you learn in the
program that helped you know make this
uh you know the transition
from you know one rule two to another
so i think
it's probably more the the personal
development that you have rather than
the academical knowledge that you gain
i mean of course you know i learned a
lot of a lot of things
on theory that really helped me now in
my job
making
i would say i definitely make decisions
in a different way than i used to do it
before the program
but when it comes to being able to make
the transition
it is all that you learn about yourself
um
i mean
you know you have a biography class now
with armenia which is just amazing
um where you learn about
the biography of your peers and um i
mean also you have to think about your
own biography which
probably no one ever did before i
haven't before i i did this alone
um
you learn about you know um
how how change happens really you know
and what kind of
what kind of steps you have within a
change and um
i think that is
besides all the academical thing
the and besides the networking that you
do the the biggest achievement
that you can look at yourself from a
completely different perspective it's
not always nice to be very honest
um
but it is so it is so necessary and that
makes you
um
not a better person but it
it makes you to understand yourself much
better
which is very important
not only for the transition but also you
know in your job
um if you know
this is a trigger that i react on then
maybe you just know what i ah and then
you do not jump on that trigger so these
kind of things
okay brilliant um we have here in um in
the q a section just two other questions
from our audience and they're about
electives
um what are the most impressive and
inspiring electives from your
perspective and
how many electives did you choose as
well um
i think i had six or seven electives
actually i do not know anymore how much
electives is i think five is
mandatory
and then i think i took six or seven um
just out of interest really
um
i just can't repeat myself again so the
most impressive electives for me were
everything that is related to
um you know psychology and how you use
psychology in your business like
behavioral economics uh change
management that was my personal interest
i do know
i like paths to power these are the
things that are really you know
um
[Music]
stimulating to me i do know that um
there are also
a lot of other electives which are less
psychological which are more like you
know
financing related they were also very
very good for those who are interested
in that so i to be very honest um i
think for everybo for every
thing that you would like professionally
there is something that you can gain but
um
yeah it is it is it is
an eye opener if you know how decisions
are made
um and what happens within yourself if
you make decisions and
even more when you know how you
influence other people
making the decision
okay brilliant
um no because you only have like 10
minutes left of the event it's been
really really
insightful
in terms of um
the program itself and your experience
do you have any regrets uh or would you
do anything differently like i don't
know maybe spending
your time differently or maybe
interacting with more people um any
electives that you you would have liked
to do but probably you didn't have you
know the capacity to do
i think
i did i did a lot of electives and i had
a lot of
um exams i mean there's one thing that
you always have to remember every
elective also means you have to write an
assignment
right so it's not that you just can't
sit there and do nothing it's really
what i like there was one assignment and
uh it's very intense i think to be very
honest the only thing that i would have
made differently
or the only two things that i would have
made differently is probably
i would have
taken probably another elective more in
q3 and q4
just you know have a little bit more
interaction with the school at the very
end
um because there was less than
um
and yeah that was not so nice and the
other thing is
um
there was a summer break
um between the classes and then there
was a gba for me and then you know i had
a break until i think it was like end of
august
and
instead of taking
these four weeks in total
and making a proper vacation out of it
really like you know traveling for four
weeks somewhere far away
i haven't done that so i was traveling i
came back to london and i was traveling
again then i came back to london so and
that was the only thing um which is
pure luxury i get that but where i say
when do i ever have the chance to have
like four weeks
within one block vacation and there i
could have like a long distance travel
which i haven't done um but other than
that no i i would do it in a heartbeat
again
um
and um probably would even take the same
classes definitely again
great and then what is your interaction
with the school at the moment as an alum
um
of course you you also have the chance
to take some electives if you want to
according to the availability of course
um but how how do you feel as
an lbs alumni
um if you are in london there is much
more uh interaction as an alumni because
you have regular sloan alumni meetings
right and talks and so so i'm in germany
so the lbs alumni club is not really um
you know uh working so um
unfortunately that is that is related to
the country where you are
but otherwise you know i am still
very close with everybody from the
stallone from my class i also have some
contacts of course to other classes
um i'm with you here you know
being part of interview processes and
and helping and promote the sloan
program as much as i can
and promote lbs as much as i can um
and um yeah you know i still have
contacts also to some professors um
so there is
there is i think plenty that you can do
and um
probably you could even do more
but um
it is yeah once you're sloan you're
always a sloan and once you're part of
the lbs you're always part of the lbs
right yeah for sure as we like to just
say we don't only recruit students but
we recruit alumni you know to have uh
for
for for a lifetime uh which which is
great
um and if someone will be interested to
to apply what would be
your your advice um or what what they
should consider you know before uh
pursuing the program
um i think
what the the biggest change will be is
actually you're one year out of work
and you live in london so subject to if
you come with your family or if you come
on your own
um of course then you have to take care
of
you know all the preconditions that you
have if you have children you know with
school and everything so
i think the better you plan this the
more you can focus on your
on your program
um
[Music]
and then also
just be aware that when you apply it to
that you will get the most out of your
program if you really
if you really live this whole year in in
in the in the sense of a sloan spirit
saying um as he said you know there are
so many social activities there are so
many clubs so it's not just going there
doing your academic work and then
leaving it is much more it is you are in
a community
um
24 7.
and um
we also invited a lot of the families so
our cohort was with family with with
wives you know with everybody so that is
very important so this is i think what
you should think about and more you know
do the hygienics around your year living
in london
um that is the most important thing
okay
brilliant um great i think yeah it was
um a great session that that we had and
thank you thank you again for for coming
uh we had some good questions as well
from from the audience so thank you
everyone who stayed until until the end
um just to mention here um after uh
closing the event you will receive a
link to uh fill in some feedback from us
and that would be very helpful to for
our events team just to see how we can
improve further um and for sure if
you're interested i mean joining the the
class uh you know you can always get in
touch with us with myself with my
colleagues
georgia and eric as well they they are
part of the sloan team um and we will be
more than happy of course to assist you
if any questions you have with your
profile review or anything else you have
in mind also andrea offered as well to
have some conversations
with you on linkedin if if you are
interested to speak further um
but yeah thank you so much andrea again
it's it's been really really good um and
yeah hopefully uh yeah we'll be able to
to see
next time i'm in person too yeah very
nice thanks very much for organizing
ellen now also to join and the whole
team and
yeah very happy to help at any time you
know it's such a great program and more
than happy to promote it
great thank you as well and thank you
everyone have a have a good afternoon
you too thank you bye bye

---

### My Sloan Story with Bhaven Pandit
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gwyc5WBgpQ

Idioma: en

here so hi everyone and thank you so
much for joining us today
um as i said earlier while we wait for
the others to to join the session i'll
just start introducing myself
uh and then i'll give like a brief
overview of the program
so my name is elena i'm the admissions
manager for emma global and salon
programs so overseeing two programs and
i'm leading the recruitment strategy the
admission strategy as well
um screening candidates conducting
interviews
and then you know helping with
everything what is necessary to onboard
um and build the classes that we have
here um for the emma global islam
program but they're going to be focusing
only on the sloan program
so as you can see in this slide uh we
have uh i'm just going to show you the
admissions class of the 2022 so the the
previous uh sloan class um the average
years of experience was 18. we had
candidates from over 21 countries
but we at the same time we had 12 new
nationalities compared to the cohort
that we had in 2021
they came from 38 cities so very diverse
class um and the number of women was
around 21
of course we are trying our best to um
reach that 50 50 mark between men and
women so we are still working
on that
um and in total we have 52 class members
exceptionals and they are currently in
the london campus at the moment
and i believe they are finalizing that
at their first term
great um we are receiving you know many
more applications this year and probably
as a result of the new graduate scheme
visa the places have become very
competitive um at the very early stages
of of the cycle so we are placing an
extra emphasis
um on um screening the best candidates
that we have
at the moment we still have three rounds
left uh
three more deadlines so we are still
considering applications on the rolling
uh basis so this means if you submit
application before the deadline or even
after the deadline we'll still be able
to take it into restoration and we will
review it and process with the next
steps as as it goes
um so the next deadline will be on the
24th of may and then we have another one
in july and uh in august as well
if you have further questions about the
structure of the program as you might
know it's a one-year full-time program
based on the london campus
the next intake will start in
january 2023 but if you want to have
your profile reviewed or if you have any
questions about the admissions process
or about the application itself
or even the program you know feel free
to email us on sloanette london.edu and
then we can um start a conversation
and give you more insights after
as for the webinar housekeeping roles
uh before we get started i just want to
let you know that this experience is
shared
and will be exclusively for the sloan
masters in progress masters
strategy and leadership but in case you
know anyone else is interested in other
program they will be more than welcome
you know to finally be
information about lbs as a whole
this is a webinar format
so you can um you'll have your cameras
and microphones off
but you can use the chat function and
the q a
function in case you have any questions
that you want to
address either to myself coming from the
admissions team or to um our guest
speaker today
so without further ado i'm just gonna uh
let
even introduce himself
um and even if you if you're ready uh we
we can start our conversation
great hey um can you all um elena can
you hear me i'm on muted
very well actually yes okay great um my
name is babin pandit i'm a sloan 2016.
my background basically has been working
on strategy projects um not only in my
stint in the uae working for the crown
prince of abu dhabi and nation building
but before that working on nasdaq and
silicon valley projects my whole life
has been more technology infrastructure
based but the sloan program always turns
you into a boomerang of sorts and you
want to change and you want to do the
new curve and everything and after that
um i'm now in the food business
so you know um it's i've just changed
three years ago i've no experience in
the food business but the sloan program
actually gave me that
confidence to say i'm going to go and
try this and
i want to do something new and that's
basically the story with most of my
classmates nobody's stuck to
their industries we are counting
currently and we have got around 68 of
our classmates who have changed
industries which is uh fantastic so that
was just a nutshell over here i've i'm
now the ceo for a global stock global
company called wisdom attack
we are a quoted company in tokyo we will
be hopefully moving to the
new york stock exchange in the next two
years so my pet project at the moment is
moving us from tokyo stock exchange to
new york's exchange so that's going to
be a lot of fun
wow that's great i really like the way
you said
that everyone is you know not maybe like
everyone but most of the people you know
they they change the industry they they
the goals that they come in you know
before starting the program doesn't mean
they are the same
you know after they graduate just
because there are so many opportunities
throughout the one year program that
they can take advantage of so everything
you know their future can can be can be
changed right but great great
introduction um maybe you already like
touchpoint what you have done before you
started the program maybe just give us
you know more detail exactly what you
were doing what kind of responsibilities
you have had and so on so i was one of
the team we were five people who were
the strategic advisors for um the crown
prince of abu dhabi
and us
the five people had the job to actually
create new gdp for abu dhabi
knowing that oil is not going to stay
forever what are they going to do
my job was to a create a new industry so
i was the pioneer for the media industry
um and my baby project was 2454 create
employment for the emiratis up to 12 000
people create a whole campus where
you're bringing
you know apple google cnn as banker
clients um basically attracting
hollywood productions to shoot in abu
dhabi um
and you know our biggest ones were fast
and furious and while i was still there
uh it was um you know the star trek uh
and star wars series as well so that was
that was the fun thing which we were
doing uh the good thing about is my
background in startups
you can actually utilize that knowledge
on a bigger scale
so you you're not having to pay the
mckinseys of the world who charge you
the billions so you basically what they
want to do is people who are hands-on
and i actually enjoyed doing that after
my media project they wanted me to bring
education to abu dhabi
and my pet projects over there were new
york university
and the sobong two large um well-known
universities bring them to abu dhabi
again to attract a pool of people from
different parts of the world who will
stay in abu dhabi
and create that that rich culture which
they wanted so i was in abu dhabi for
seven and a half years where i was doing
an average of ten days abu dhabi four
days london
um because my family never moved and
after that seven and a half stint i was
actually drained uh of traveling i
didn't want to travel anymore and i
wanted to come back and to london my
base
and reinvent myself and reconnect with
all my my links my links had fallen off
i was very much well known in dubai and
abu dhabi saudi bahrain
but
what my call was europe before that um
all my links were dry so
i basically thought okay i have not got
a university degree i've got a rich
amount of experience which i can
actually use
i don't know if my practical knowledge
or how i implement everything
is the right way to do things let me see
what book knowledge tells me
and one of my colleagues was an ember
from lbs
and she said to me bef um
you shouldn't do an ember
i think you'll be better more suited to
the sloan program because you can go
back for one year full time you've got
20-year plus experience um why don't you
look at this because that will actually
be more the people in your cohort will
be up to your standard they will
actually um
replicate what you're doing as well so
that was the interesting side of it and
that was you know my reason for coming
back to london and you know saying let's
start fresh
from scratch i had no connections what
am i going to do
and i applied to lbs for the sloan
program and i got selected
wow that's that's really interesting i
really liked how you
um you know had this connection from an
mba you know fellow they recommended you
to the sloan program of course sloan is
different from an emma program first in
terms of the format in terms of the
um
seniority level of the handbags that
that we have in in the programs
um and for sure in terms of the
commitment as well because it is a big
decision
time wise and financially as well to
take one year gap from work and then
start something you know focus just on
the academics and then start something
new maybe after
um but really nice story um and this is
kind of the stories that we like to
share with our candidates um and
yeah in the end it was a successful one
for sure but what you know when you came
into london you moved here how was the
transition and what kind of goals you
had you know from the program itself
in what way
um you know like what were your goals
you know what do you want to achieve
from the program what do you want to do
after graduation well remember my
background was um
i've been out of circuit
from europe okay
and
ages is a long time to be out of circuit
from from an arena
i wanted to a reinvent myself totally
i'd given myself a target i'm gonna go
in and immerse myself in the program
unless you immerse yourself in the
program you're not gonna see those vital
changes or the nuances
you know because
you need to be dedicated to reinvent
yourself it's not going to happen by
magic or you know someone's not going to
switch on the light for you
you have to switch on the light yourself
you know so that was one thing the other
thing which i wanted to do was basically
you know
manage myself manage my expectations
a lot of people go into these kind of
programs with this the world of
expectations
okay and i just said to myself no i'm
going to do a piecemeal
i'm going to do a piecemeal because i
want to see
a how has my thought process changed
over the one year when i'm actually
doing this learn program
so i write i wrote down my expectations
from the program at the beginning on the
day one
and i left it there i did not look at it
till my first time was over end of march
and i looked at it i was like
no that's not what i want
no no this is wrong wrong wrong and i
changed it
that happened again end of june before
we went off to san francisco okay i
changed again in september when my
lectures were happening i changed again
and in december the final one i changed
it and i saw myself progressing and i
was thinking
why did i have those expectations but
that it was my thought process that was
changing by the people the vast amount
of knowledge that's floating around this
place it's a pressure cooker environment
so many clever people around you who are
giving you these wonderful ideas of
let's do this this is at one point you
want to be an entrepreneur the next is
saying nah actually that's not for me i
want to change something else but
there's this constant knowledge flow
happening
and that many that have actually helped
me manage
one thing
one thing that happened for me was
basically
i learned was managing myself
okay because without this management of
myself i could have gone haywire
that time of one year is too short
to do a lot of things
so you need to manage and say what are
my priorities i always prioritized it
top three boom go for this you know who
uh what was going to happen with me how
i was i going to beat the system of
electives and how are we actually going
to you know strategize about it because
you'd only use your maximum points and
all that stuff in my class was really
good about that kind of stuff we we
basically beat the system we beat lbs at
its own game by by playing with one
point each
and and that was the clever idea doing
around so for me um reinvent myself
change my
you know my practical knowledge and
match it to book knowledge and see what
do the professors think have i been
doing something right i must have been
doing something right because my jobs
were successful jobs
so so in that way i actually you know
manage myself i actually got to know
myself better and then we took it from
there but there are some bits of it you
know which i can talk about later on
okay great and you mentioned something
of course that you exposed to
new classmates you know those people who
had a lot of experience in other domains
what were the industries or perspectives
that you were exposed to and uh they
shaped you know
um they helped to shape your experience
like overall in in the program and even
after
yeah so you know you you have your
standard okay i call them standard but
you know we call them standard in lbs
but the other place wouldn't be standard
you have you invest in bankers you've
got your p p group people in there which
is a standard for lbs everybody's got
those but what i liked was the
the outliers okay
the outliers
the an inventor in in a.i okay was in my
class
a judge was in my class
a mayor was in my class i had a high
commissioner in my class you know and
just understanding their viewpoints and
how that works through that was more
interesting than having your standard
you know bankers and pe guys uh you know
because you would actually say what was
your world like
tell me you know there's a lady who was
actually her was having her own um
fashion company and she was going to
expand it and stuff and understanding
you know how that would work and how new
venture development which is an elective
could actually help her as well so there
was a whole lot of things that was going
through we had managing directors don't
get me wrong we had ceos managing
directors um you know senior cohort in
there but it was fun trying to actually
see the people you would never have seen
in a class before and thinking okay
great you know or designers um designers
are from branding and marketing areas
you know they're working for world-class
agencies and when they actually present
that work
if they have if they are in your group
you're going to have the most stunning
piece of work
presented over so you know actually i'm
going to get a good score over there so
but yeah they we had a very vast um
selection of people the backgrounds
entrepreneurs were you know there were
quite a few entrepreneurs in my class
but they were all very very
different entrepreneurs
people who are entrepreneurs with 16 to
18 companies
or people who were entrepreneurs with
five companies you know and how they
would work through it
and that was the interesting bit and
then you see the the conflict between
the investment bankers and the pe people
you know the one upmanship that would
happen is fantastic you're not going to
get a free show like that anywhere else
but
at the end of that
it's all done in the right spirit it's a
safe environment remember this 55 people
when you're talking in class it's a
completely safe environment for you to
express your viewpoint
and that's what was good about it
because no one took it personally
everybody said your turn boom do it
you'd express everybody but respect the
other people do not
get
too much of air time unnecessarily
you know that respect level went through
only because all these people had
roughly 18 to 25 years of experience
people knew how to behave in a class
so it was quite an interesting one
okay brilliant brilliant um so then you
you had probably a good study group as
well um very diverse as i can hear
well my study group was crazy because my
day one we went we were told this is
your study group and i had a politician
in mind who said to everybody saying i
have people like you who work for me
i had um a uh italian ceo who said i
don't do the basics you have to do it
for us and i had one person i won't name
the country said i've got anger issues
and one person actually came out to us
for the first time in their life in
their first meeting and we were like
what have what has lvs actually done to
us because we are the most wrong
team members
the idea was
actually
making sure we work together
and how we find the balance to work
together and we found it within the
first week
you know because everybody was like this
is going to be compromised guys we all
come from a different back so one thing
i suggested is throw your labels out of
the window
throw your labels i'm a ceo i'm a
charger throw that all out
we are first named people we have got no
restrictions over here we're going to
work together
and that helped us out
and six years on
two of the people from that group are my
best friends
so it just shows the people you never
thought you would get along with
they become lifelong friends for you
so that's the fun time
brilliant brilliant i really like that
yeah brilliant
um great now just looking at the classes
that you and the actual curriculum that
you you have studied um what
have you learned from the core modules
if you remember um and then that you
still apply at the moment
okay so you know the main thing um was
basically in the core sections um one
thing which no one should forget
jessica was our strategy professor
she never let us forget who what how
from day one
okay who's your customer what are you
serving them and how are you serving
them that's become my mantra for life
whatever you do you're thinking who what
how every single day every single day
and that's the most amazing thing you
know you like that lady was so good at
her job
that the entire class
you know would would say things about
her but then say you know what but she's
amazing
you know she's so good at her job and
and same thing happened with her finance
professor you know because we had people
who are not from a financial background
but they had to sit a finance exam as
part of their core subjects that was
very difficult how did we cope with that
was the people from the finance
background like myself
were doing tuitions
of groups of five
you know and people were taking five
people who are non-financial people and
teaching them okay and that was quite
cool because we were just like this is
what we wanted to do at the end of the
day no one was saying i'm gonna score
more than you what we wanted was all
these non-financial people to pass their
exam we didn't want a failure rate in
the class
that was the whole thing so for me look
strategy my finances there because i'm
always acquiring companies i have to use
that you know marketing again was a
wonderful wonderful i mean
i i have to do it because i work for a
multinational over here i have to look
after 19 companies so
all my core subjects were valid they
were valid i i think the program's
changed now but my my term one was super
packed
we had no space for anything
but we had to get them out of the way
and
you know there was a big celebration
when the finance exam finished because
we got champagne after that so hey you
know
but
you know to make it very short um
the core subjects are necessary
they are your building blocks
because once you go into your elective
area that's when you start specializing
so what you want is let's have an equal
platform for everybody once that equal
platform comes through and you have your
base knowledge you will not realize but
you will be using that based knowledge
in your electives
you know just just because you've
learned it and you'll be going okay fine
strategy what did what did jessica tell
me okay you're in a class of strategic
innovation with costas marquitas oh he's
going to be teaching about this so i can
use some of my knowledge over there or
achieving
a strategic agility with julian
birkenshow you know fantastic professor
but i'm still using jessica's knowledge
over there you know same thing with
marketing you know we were using that in
new venture development something like
that because we were thinking try and
get your logic so
never forget your course subjects okay
the course subjects will help you with
whatever you're planning for the rest of
the year
right they're still intense i would say
for for the first service still but i
think it's getting more intense in the
second term and then third term when you
have some of the core modules still to
do and then the electives as well
we had only one core module in the third
term so that was it yeah yeah yeah no
but yeah the structure is is still the
same and uh yeah unfortunately the rig
the regular regrocity of the program um
remain because we have to of course
ensure that still like this academic
excellence that we have over the years
for sure
you mentioned about the electives by the
way
what um do you have any suggestions for
the electives that anyone should should
choose um
anything in particular i'll tell you
what i did i did a lot of research
before i came over to lbs i'm a boy
scout
a boy scout always does research and
gets prepared um
and i wanted
the three superheroes of lbs to teach me
so it was michael jacobitis which is
corporate turnaround
julian birkenshow with
jet agility and then costas marquitas uh
with strategic innovation only because
costa's marquise
is a master class okay
that's that's the guy will walk into a
class without any notes or anything like
that and he will spend three hours
teaching you something through just his
head
and when you when he's done you just
think i got every single word of you
not every single lecturer can do that
magic
so they were my three main ones which i
was going for but then i was also
wanting another superstar which was nero
steven anthony
nero is
is absolutely stunning
at bargaining in negotiations okay
if you want to know if you're in the
procurement industry if you're in a
sales industry and you want to know you
know what am i going to do over here how
do i improve my skill set
this is this class is all about role
play
you are taught something
and then he matches you to somebody
and you have
to basically work through that
negotiation and you will have one
negotiation which will last up to
the entire period of your la of all your
course so you have 10 classes there'll
be one negotiation that goes on till the
last one and that i i have never seen
some people
and he mixes people as well
people getting frustrated with
themselves because the negotiations not
working i won't give away the details
because it's a fun thing for you to
actually do
but
for us to be in that environment and
then thinking actually you are part of
this negotiation you forget who you are
i mean that only something someone can
do it like that nothing nothing happens
like that
and and just to watch
how people react to you
and also be observant about other people
in the room
the silent types how do the silent types
use their silence
to improve negotiation skills because
they're listening
so i mean nero was great i also like um
was it
rupert merson
rupert merson was fantastic as well uh
dominic was great as well so i mean i i
ended up doing 10 electives
because i just wanted to do electives i
i kept on going on and on because i i
just went for it so
and there was there was a great thing to
do basically
great
um and probably you have been exposed to
some of the networking events that um
lbs organizes did you come any did you
come across any impressive guest
speakers uh during this networking
events
well i attended a whole load of
networking events i can't even remember
how many i did um
my idea was get immersed
okay so it was not just the networking
events to listen to somebody because
that's one thing
we had a huge amount of i mean the guest
speakers are impressive you have to
really pick and choose how many you're
going to go to in each week okay because
remember these guys are not going to
give you a job if you really want to go
to these
these networking events and to listen to
somebody don't approach this person
saying hi this is my business card and i
want a job they're just going to laugh
at you what you want to do is you want
to use their knowledge what did they say
how can i learn from that
okay so that's one thing but don't
forget it's not just the speaker you
want you want to know who's in the
audience as well
because the audience can have alumni in
there
it will have your current cohorts as
well you'll have the m bars in there
they're such a mix
and you basically your idea is
mingle with somebody new
in each networking event i used to i
used to basically score myself each
networking event speak to find new
people
you know that was my aim every time
because that way
i was expanding my network
there is nothing you know you will never
be short of
network power
if you're at the campus okay i mean
people are so friendly they're so
accommodating people will want to speak
to you to know your background and how
they can help you or put you in touch
with people
you know so
don't just focus on you know yes if if
elena's saying that the speakers were
impressive every single speak is
impressive because they want they want
to actually increase their profile too
that's why they come to lbs okay but
think about the power of being in that
room
that's more important
yeah actually seeing the bigger picture
maybe just to summarize what you you
have told uh just now yeah in
yeah again very interesting i really
like your thoughts how you analyze you
know everything here and of course
networking can come from from everything
from knowing from getting a coffee with
someone in in the campus from joining a
club from
anything uh that all the opportunities
around lbs elena i took i i basically
wanted to take part in the largest of
events we used to have tattoo which was
the largest event the fun event okay i
wanted to volunteer there i did there
was there was other big events like
hackathons and new cars where you
actually going to the new happening
companies of london and i was
participating over there my aim was a
silly one but you're a student that yeah
was how many lbs t-shirts can i get free
okay so if i'm a volunteer i get a lbs
t-shirt for every single event i'm going
to volunteer in and in that way it was
just fun i was you know i i was short by
one i told myself 10 i did nine but
those nine events actually helped me
introduce myself to other people and it
was great because these pe companies are
so difficult to get into but you go to
some events like hackathons they open up
their doors for you
you think great i'm speaking to the
managing partner over here let's have a
chat okay so
never forget that power by volunteering
taking part in events
keep the energy going because there'll
be a time when you'll be thinking my
energy is drained i've got
you know paper to write i've got this
deadline but manage your time manage
your time so well because then you never
have
this rush fridays usually used to be our
day off so that was my day to prepare
for the next week because i never lost
that
you know but
it's it's going to be your journey at
the end of the day
great and because you already mentioned
about the time how did you balance
everything you know being on the program
maybe family commitments as well
personal life how did you do it so
i'm
i'm quite
good at my management of my time and i
had i basically done a um
an agreement with my wife
that this was my year
to go back to school
so as as much as it's difficult for me
to manage
family time study time my own personal
time it's difficult for them as well
because they hardly see me
what we did was we said okay it will be
family sundays
that's the day when i don't do anything
university related nothing to do with
lbs that's my day with the family but
the rest of the days
was committed to everything you know and
if there's a big deadline going through
then people understand because you're
not doing it for fun you've got
literally have one year to get back into
that system and
one you know having
clear communication with family and
friends
making them understand you're not
ignoring them um also being transparent
with your cohort as well in the class
that you're not ignoring them either by
not going to the pub
because you've got to balance off family
time so that was a thing so if i went to
the pub one week the next week i
wouldn't because i'd spend it with the
family so that way you know you were
keeping everything going you know i i
was very strict on myself some of my
classmates were not strict on themselves
so they used to go for long weekends
away to iceland to spain to italy you
know because they came from countries
where they hadn't been to europe
and they thought this was perfect
opportunity to just explore europe i
wish i did that um but i was
i was chasing the distinctions so
um i wanted those distinctions and
my my motive was i had me to university
and i thought if i'm going to go to
university now at this level
i want to come out with distinctions
and that's why i was going for it on
making sure my papers were
a first-class submission
and we were working through it you know
because that's how you do it one thing
else which you have to use was i
utilized my time during the summer
most people went off air on holiday and
everything what i did was i
i volunteered to work with michael
jacobitus
and he was doing an actual corporate
turnaround
of of the english national ballet
and he was looking for somebody to help
him
and
i you know i got friendly with him and
we had a good you know connection and he
said path do you want to
help me on this real life corporate
turnaround i spent four months working
with him
on the english national valley corporate
turnaround so
here i was i just completed he's
he's elective
okay but then he was helping me put his
own
book knowledge
in practice
you know
it's a huge task english national valley
was huge there was so much it was nearly
going through bankruptcy how are we
going to deal with this and to actually
work with those professors
you know it was amazing i i then
connected with two more professors who
gave me jobs like that over the year so
my my year was packed my year was packed
because i wanted to see real knowledge
coming through
how was my book experience going to work
in practical world and how these clever
minds the professors were doing that
consultancy bit and working with
world-class clients and solving their
problems
so you know it's not just about here's
my lectures and here's my course it's
this is your year to make
whatever you want to do
lbs will just create a platform a really
good platform for you but then it's up
to you to find your destination
that lbs doesn't promise because it is
an individual journey
yeah very very very good point on that
um and every single time i have like
one two ones with prospective students
um i always tell them of course it's up
to them what they're gonna do and what
is gonna be the uh final result because
um in the end of course a lot of words
is faculty members the curriculum the
services that we offer from the school
but also up to them how they put that
into practice and take advantage of the
opportunities that um surrounds them
great now let's moving forward to what
you're doing at the moment um
how did you find your new role
again it was through networking so i'll
give you a bit of background when i did
electives
i made sure
in electives you had to make your own
teams
okay i made sure i didn't actually
go into a team with a sloane
because i already know them
you know
i i know the 55 sloanes inside out
my idea was
go to the elective and make new
connections and work with new people so
embers mbas even means okay memes are
there but i would connect with them and
reform teams over there only because i
wanted to learn from other people
and it was that one of these networking
events
where an embassador you might like it
it's about infrastructure come over you
know i'll introduce you to a couple of
people you you know you might just
like it or if you don't like it just
walk out it was at the institute of
directors
and i went there and i bumped into one
of my old connections who had lost touch
with
you know now that wouldn't have happened
if that ember guy had not invited me to
join there
and it was through that meeting that old
connection said oh are you looking for a
job in london um
you know i know you really well and
we're interviewing at the moment would
you like to interview
and that's how it happened
literally that's how it happened so when
you're looking at networking never say
no because you don't know where the hell
it will come from
you know
it was so true because that connection
of mine had lost touch with me that
didn't think about me when they were
looking for this person
it's only when he saw me face to face
and said ah
why did i forget you yeah why didn't you
interview for this job and that's how it
happened you know but again it's it's
about managing your expectations when i
went into sloan i told myself i wanted
to get three ticks on my on my first job
which was going to be i want to move
from uae to london take location
i was a cfo i wanted to be a ceo okay
tick and i was in infrastructure
industry i wanted to move away from that
industry and do something else
altogether
okay
now when this job was offered to me i
got the london move
and in the initial the second stop they
said to me pav look you're going to be
the cfo of this company i know you don't
want to be the cfo um but we promise you
within a year we'll make you the ceo
so that was a half take
okay and the third one was it was
infrastructure
now that
if i was bavin from january 1st
of the beginning of sloan year
i would not have taken it because i
wanted that three jump
okay
but the battery of december
was more realistic
i was saying actually it's giving me one
and a half potentially two ticks out of
this i'm gonna take this
okay now that is this journey which i
always tell the new people coming into
sloan program
there should be a management of
expectations
versus reality
i got my two ticks in that company
and then my this company which i am on
is basically a board member in my
previous company it was also a board
member in my current company
and she said to me
um i think now you've done your bid over
here in infrastructure i think you
should go into food
and that's how my introduction happened
i have not had my jobs
via recruitment agencies or anything
like that it's literally from
connections
connections coming over to me and saying
here
this is your next job would you like to
interview for it
so now after six years of my sloan
program i have got all three ticks
that's what i manage myself that way if
i had not taken my first opportunity i
don't know where i would have been
so manage your expectations versus
reality and see where we are going
everybody will have individual journeys
for that
so you know you pace yourself but look
at what's important to you
i had not placed so much importance to
money
i had placed more importance to location
big time because i wanted to come back
home
um and that helped me quite a lot
okay great thank you again
very insightful
um i i believe our audience
are thrilled as i am to listen your
stories
um how would you say you have
transformed you know since the sloan
program um as as a leader as a you know
usual person
how
what kind of changes do you see in
yourself
um
i keep my
messaging very simple
i try to keep my messaging
clear concise
and what i've learned by being in the
sloan program and
working in the different groups taking
on different electives is be transparent
if you're transparent you will basically
work better with people people will
follow your lead
if you're not transparent and you start
playing games
this is not going to work being an
impactful leader
you need to basically lead by example so
if i'm going to be transparent my teams
are going to be transparent as well
so that's very key message for me you
know is keep your messaging simple be
transparent and you will see people
learn from you
and it it was if it wasn't for the sloan
program i would still be
running behind spreadsheets and hiding
my messaging
now it's all about he's a one-liner this
is what i want to do
and let's start moving the other thing
i've learned ever since my lbs is
i've learned to be more agile
you know i i move i make very quick
decisions i mean
a japanese company is known for
risk averseness
that's something i've changed in europe
over here since the last three years
um they were very risk-averse in the
pandemic i convinced them to buy five
companies
we did five acquisitions in the pandemic
and each and every one worked it was
because a i was my clear messaging
worked i was being very agile so i was
buying family companies when they were
running out of money
before anybody else came in
okay and three was ensuring it was
transparent so the chairman of the board
in tokyo knew exactly what i was doing
and that's why these three messages are
very important for me because i have
actually proven it in the pandemic these
worked for me
okay
great great
um we didn't touch based on that i would
like to ask you if you have
used any of the
career support offered for ford
leadership candidates
services i only use it in the initial
period um
when when i joined sloane because as i
said to you i wanted it to be very
immersive so the first thing i did was
we used to have a lady called kathy i
believe she's retired now and she was
running you know the whole leadership
services over there and
she and i worked on my cv
and
she was extremely insightful extremely
blunt okay
of of what you thought was a world-class
cv and and she would just put it away
and rip it apart but you needed that
you absolutely needed somebody a third
party who doesn't know who rips away
your cv and she did that and we had 17
iterations of my cv
afterwards
and on the 17th she said papa you've got
it now go out and sell the cv you know
but that was the fun thing about it the
other thing i did was
in collaboration with kathy
we started a job club in our own class
so
we were 55 of us and we started job club
and we would actually say based on
experiences
if somebody was going for a pe interview
we would get four or five people who had
pe background to sit on a panel and
interview this person
okay and track them for the role
and that really helped because this is
some of the things which made it as a
class nobody told us to do these things
but all these ideas only come forward
when you are in this pressure cooker
environment where you think i'm in a
safe
bubble you know let's do this and that
worked quite a lot
because you were seeing people going
through the interviews people actually
you know being supported if they didn't
go through you know oh god uh mckinsey
didn't take me or amazon flopped me you
know the usuals okay and then you think
don't worry about it you get someone
else you know and that was the constant
thing i think the career advice being
given was amazing
um you know but again
can i just reiterate they're not there
to find you a job exactly
they're not there to find your job it's
your job it's your responsibilities i
had 400 applications in progress
in my one year
that's the amount of networking i was
doing and i used to keep a spreadsheet
with you know a rag status red amber
green to just follow up when was the
last time i followed up what's it
looking like what was the final
conversation i had that kind of stuff i
was constantly updating that and
my classmates were doing the same thing
you know because everybody couldn't keep
track of how many applications you're
making the career service is not there
to say hey you know what you're perfect
for this role here you go no
that's not going to work if that's the
expectation then it's someone's got the
wrong expectation
lbs will provide you with opportunities
like you know some of these jobs never
get advertised
but these jobs come advertised within
lbs the companies would come and say
we're looking for two or three of this
you know we're looking for an md on this
and that would happen but then it's your
journey you prep for it career services
will help you prep for it but they won't
actually say you know we'll put you in
through the door one of the examples we
did is one of our
one of our classmates was a um
a partner
in a top four company
um accounting company and he was fed up
with being a partner
and he wanted to teach
so and he was he's pretty good at it
and career services introduced him to
somebody inside business school
okay
and say now it's your journey from that
we've done the introduction because we
had a connection
if they didn't have the connection they
would not have but then
my classmate took it on board and now he
basically
runs the in finance invention lab
inside business school you know so that
opportunities just come through because
you're constantly talking to career
services and saying i'm looking for
something like this if you ever hear
from this
would you put me through you know
that's the magic of it
it will just happen
but please don't stop doing your own
research either because without your
research you're not going to go anywhere
the other thing is if you're an
international student and you're
expecting to stay in london as well
you know the current dynamics is you
know getting the visa or a company that
actually will give you the visa
you've got to play that as well if
they're well-known company they might do
it for you like my company basically
does it you know we have four visas
available um but you know that's it no
more than four we are licensed for four
so any other company could be done you
know would be available for that kind of
thing maybe two or something so there's
a big big pool of people who want those
two visas or the four visas
so you think about where do you want to
go you would go back home do you want to
work somewhere in europe you know an
easier country to get into uk is
becoming very tight in terms of job
opportunities as well so just be
realistic with your expectations here
okay great advice
um just because we are the final uh the
stages of the session so just final
questions from me
do you have any regrets you know um if
you have
you would have done something
differently maybe throughout the program
um or any other elective situation or
anything else to do throughout that one
year
um
it regrets in the sense that
i had such a pact here
[Music]
i didn't get enough time to know some of
my colleagues
okay because you
by term two you start having your own
cliques and
the ten friends who are always together
you know but not all the 55 of them
because everybody starts having yoga
groups in it and i think that was my
biggest regret i i still wouldn't say i
know all 55 of us
you know i would say i know
35 in a very good way the remaining 20
are acquaintances
because we never connected you know and
one year is not enough for that
so if you if you have um guys look um we
have a wonderful pub which is at our
doorstep um use that pub to just go and
talk to your classmates because that's
what we did um
and that was the best way you know and
sundowners use sundowners to talk to
people who you never talk to um we used
to use sundowners as a way to basically
find new friends in the class
and
my best one was when sloane's organized
a sundowner it was fantastic because we
had a great party so you know
that was my biggest regret to be honest
just not getting to know people i was so
academically inclined
because i wanted those distinctions that
i
i used to hide myself in a room doing
assignments
you know
um
but that's that's the reality i can't
change it now but what i do now is um
elena is i've already taken six years on
i've taken part in two lifelong learning
um courses
you know as part of lifelong learning as
loans we get offered electives
and i've gone back to school twice
you know it's fun it's absolutely fun
because
i'm the only alum who's in the class
mostly
and i get to meet the current sloanes or
the current members and you get to work
with them on different projects and
everything and it just
makes you feel you are part of this
society this community
okay this community never changes
the the ethos of this community is so so
strong and they're so connected
they make you feel welcome in fact
people will just say we want to hear
your stories
give us your stories of what you did
because we want to know how we can
change ours so yeah um i'm still going
back to school i just got an email last
week to see if i could go back to school
again but my diary is packed otherwise i
would have gone you know that's the fun
thing about it you will be a student at
lbs for life
yeah i know that that's true when we say
we don't recruit you know students we
recruit you know alumni for life to to
have
um
but yeah really really good insight um
and i think you know you said you focus
a lot on on the academics but i believe
that all the effort was paid off in the
end you you you got what you wanted in
the end you're doing what you like
um and also you know um
keeping this relationship with the
school like very closely which is
amazing
um so any no last words
any last advice uh wisdom you know for
for any
students that would like to to join lbs
and the storm program as well
just one thing you know
as alina said keeping that relationship
is crucial
um you know
the lbs family is my family
okay i give up time my time to talk to
i've given up time for the current slums
i have had one-to-one coffee chats with
people who wanted to just find a way
where they were going some of them
wanted mentoring so i was speaking to
them i spent my last um three months now
speaking to the current loans because
they connect on linkedin and then they
say coffee chat tell me where my where
my career is going wrong okay and
utilize that
there are a lot of people in london
who will you you will be able to help
you
they won't be able to give you a job
but they will connect you to the right
people and that's what if you manage
that expectation
you'll be in a good place
okay
one more thing is
lbs provides you a platform
it's up to you to make something out of
it
if you don't get what you wanted at the
end of the year
don't blame the school
it's all about you this year is all
about you how are you going to do it how
are you going to manage it how are you
going to achieve it
and how are you going to monitor it as
well keep on monitoring your progress
throughout the whole year
keep on monitoring your progress and you
will be surprised at how how much change
i i realized myself that i had changed
in october
as a person individual person my
thinking was completely different from
the baby of january
it's because i was spending so much time
with intellectuals
spending time with all these clever
people those new ideas floating around
and even perspective on life
you know we have a classical biography
okay which we did and that class
basically made everyone cry
we all cried and cried and cried when we
were in our teens and i can still well
up now just talking about it because
that is the effect
of the sloan family
we were talking such personal stuff
in the class that connected to everybody
and that because of that class we
connected more
so use that time please um
and
you know
the magic will only happen guys if
if you put in the effort
if you're going to come over here for a
party then your magic won't happen
you're going to go back the same person
so it's up to you thank you
great thank you so we just got received
two questions from one of the from one
of our participants so if you can answer
to that uh very quickly so have you
feared that you wouldn't you won't be
able to realize your your goals and to
advance in in your career
not at all because i was i was always
managing them
that was the reason i said every three
months i was managing my goals
literally literally you will you had to
do it one of the tricks i used was i
when i joined lbs i my aim was to settle
down very quickly
i did not want to waste time faffing
around and trying to find my way i
settled down very quickly and then i
started managing my expectations
straight away
you know by february i was even doing my
cv
you know because i knew i would have so
many reiterations
to deal with it's only in october in
april that my cv was finalized
because you have so many other
commitments going on so manage it and
then you're looking at it and your goals
will actually come through and you're
changing your goals as well because
you're changing as a person don't forget
you will change if anybody tells me they
didn't change there's a problem there
okay great and what was what was your
biggest challenge you know in in the
program
i
i think um i can like you might think
it's natural for me to speak like this
um
i used to be an introvert
okay
and um
my my issue was i could not speak in
public
and now this man
you wouldn't say
you wouldn't say that
so i could never speak in public
i i had a fear of people
and i i had a tendency to clamp in and i
was really on day one i felt clamped in
because i was thinking what am i going
to do these 55 super clever people are
in my class
you know
and then
um
costas marquitas told me babin
i want you to join the toastmasters club
and there was you know their clubs over
there
and that toastmasters club taught me
public speaking
i used to go and practice public
speaking once every two weeks
and that has changed me
more than the academics it was me
how do i change i keep on saying i
reinvented myself this was my big
reinvention you know
an introvert changing into an extrovert
okay if it and this has got nothing to
do with academics
i wanted to change myself
and it's a club which is available to
people use it you know
yeah and you overcome you know your
phobia or your
you know your fear or anything
it's happened
great great so we don't have any more
time to take further questions but um i
would just i just want to thank you um
even though you you came to our event it
was really insightful i really enjoyed
our conversation and we would love to to
have you again you know in in the future
from you know other events uh and also
maybe to see in the campus as well um
yeah it's home remember
yeah no that that that was i think a
really good session i mean for me um i
can speak on my behalf i hope for for
the other for the for our audience as
well so um yeah in case you are you know
interested to join the lbs um and sloan
program um and you would like to have
your profile reviewed uh or maybe have
further conversation with us you can
email us on sloan at london.edu and we
will be able of course to provide more
information
but that will be uh all for today thank
you so much again for joining and wish
you a wonderful afternoon
good luck everyone um and keep safe bye
everyone cheers sure thank you bye bye

---

### In conversation with EMBA Global alumni: Akansha Arya and Alberto Tono
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2n4RYAoV-c

Idioma: en

so my name is elena i'm the admissions
recruitment admissions manager foreign
global program
um and uh what i do to them in the in
this role is that i
did admissions and recruitment
strategies
and i'm overseeing actually two programs
so emba global and stone as well
um i'm doing this the cv reviews um
interviews um you know building the
whole pipeline for both programs um so
i'm working with prospects with
applicants and admins as well
in in this journey
and just to give you a little bit of
like snapshot of the class that we just
recruited previously
um so that started um last year um so
the average um years of experience is
usually 12 years of experience in the
class um ranging from either
six or seven years but i have like very
very strong profiles up to 15 20 years
of experience as well
we had 40 nationalities so you can see
about global it is indeed a very very
global program
we have students coming from all over
the world and this makes mexico very
very diverse
um of course the percentage of women is
really important um as a school we are
trying as much as we can to get to that
50 mark and to have you know the 50 50
balance between men and women um but
across the leadership programs um
embankment robust increase is doing
still fine with 30
um and we are hoping to increase um this
the statistics even further in the next
class and we had 71 admits in total
um amazing profiles very diverse
backgrounds um and they are currently
doing um i believe they're in the third
term um at the moment
and they came from 61 series in in total
um now as you um are aware
we have the embargo global program
starting on
in may this year
and the next application deadline which
is actually the final deadline to submit
application is on the eighth of march so
in case you are thinking to submit an
application uh my advice would be to do
it as soon as possible
um and not maybe to leave it on the last
deadline just because last night is
usually more competitive uh than than
the others um and also for you to have
you know enough time to
do to do the logistics and to to manage
the expectations
um so just to go through briefly through
um the application requirements um
you will have to complete the an online
application form
which can be found on our website it
gives you the chance to go through um
for all the details that you have to
fill in and also you can save it and go
back to it in case you think something
is missing
then you will have to upload the cv and
resume and to be up to date
then you'll have to provide two
references
uh one of them has to come from your
line manager because
um
you know the line manager
knows you very well and this also gives
us an indication that he's aware of the
time commitment uh that is necessary
throughout the program and also company
sport letter which has uh kind of the
same uh the same reason
then the essays as these are very
important as well
um you know the essays give
the reviewer the chance to see your
personal site what makes you different
from the other applications uh that we
receive up to that moment um so please
try you know and put some effort
and make use of the workout with those
um and of course as you might know we
accept all three tests either gmat gre
or executive assessment
but we do advise in case you haven't
done any of those you take the exact
assessment
and then the transcripts
um
which have to be you know um in um
um in case they're not like in into an
english
they don't know they're not translated
into english they have to to get an
official um translation for for those
and um as some housekeeping rules um of
course
um you know this experience is shared
today for amber global specifically but
of course um everyone is is more than
welcome to to attend and you might find
uh you know some um useful information
about obs as a whole and this is a
webinar format so your camera and your
microphone is not
um is disabled
but you are able to type you know any
questions you might have up to this
point
um and um you can use the q a function
for that
and i will be selecting now some
questions um at the end of the session
um and my uh
key speakers who will be joining today
uh they'll be able to to answer to that
as well
and with no further due i'm just gonna
uh let um alberto and akansha to present
themselves um
and um you know you can um
i can show if you want to start maybe
you know what
class you have to enjoin what you're
doing in the moment
and yeah
yeah thanks elena so hi everyone i'm
akongsha
i'm an associate partner at being a
company
i was an ember global americas in asia
graduating in 2016 which now feels like
a very very long time ago
prior to the program i was actually
i was actually originally a veterinary
surgeon and then i ended up working in
an oil and gas company called bg group
which has since been acquired by shell
then it was a 4025 company but it got
acquired during the program for me
and um so i moved to bain during the
program have been there since then
and um yeah i'm really excited to to
meet you all and talk to you all today
it was probably one of the most fun
experiences of my life actually doing
the program so it's um it's always
really exciting to chat to folks who are
interested
great alberto would you like to to go
ahead as well
hi hi everyone nice to meet you and my
name is alberto dono
and uh yeah it's uh it's a long time as
well and though and no not as long as
for cancer because i graduated in 2019
so hi akansha good to see you again hey
and so yeah my background is actually
an engineer background and i studied
aerospace engineering
and i also have a degree in music
classical guitar not that many people
know about that but that's that's part
of my
let's say on my background and uh
definitely
helped me a lot in in life
and i did uh my early part of my career
was actually more technical roles
um i've been project manager and
approach engineer for
offshore wind and oil and gas projects
and then after the mba i moved to more
let's say commercial and business
development roles which i'm still
covering now and uh
it's pleasure again to be invited today
so thanks uh everyone lord of the school
for organizing this call today and uh
very nice to talk to you
great thank you so much that's great to
have you and thank you for joining um i
believe uh the attendees as well will
learn a lot of useful things
uh from from you
so um this will be a question maybe for
both of you and i can't show if you want
to go first
to to answer to that if you can just
tell me a little bit more about your
background you know what um you already
mentioned what you're currently doing
and what have you done before you joined
the program
sure yeah so when i joined the program i
was a project manager at an upstream oil
and gas company it's called bg group
and um
but before that as i mentioned i've been
a trained as a veterinary surgeon and
practice as a veterinary surgeon for a
couple of years
and so i think um when i was at bg i got
to a point where i realized that i i
kind of really missed my health care
routes and i wanted to go back to those
and i thought that
an mba might be a really good way for me
to support me in that in that career
transition
in addition having never really had any
formal business
um
training beyond what i learned on the
job through experience i felt
i think quite lacking confidence at one
level that i didn't have that knowledge
and i really felt like i was missing
something and i would very much
appreciate the opportunity to to learn
some of the more technical content from
a business perspective
and um and i also just felt that doing
that kind of transition i i didn't
really have much of a support structure
in industry as in i knew had a good set
of contacts and network within the
company that i worked in and previous
places i'd worked but beyond that i
didn't really have anything and all my
friends and colleagues from university
were all vets so um and many of them
still love it so it just didn't really
seem like um
i had really that much of a network so i
think for me i joined the program very
much with the intention to to change
career change industry um to build some
knowledge on um on business
and um and also to
um to just build a bit more of a support
network in that area and so during the
course of the program so i made my
decision very rapidly that i wanted to
to move i um
i did a huge amount of research at the
beginning of the program and i moved to
bain within about
um seven months or about no nine months
so i started in april and i i moved to
bain in january of the next year so
during the third term of my of the
program and um yeah and i've been there
since then
i'm happy to talk more about that
journey obviously but probably not just
yet
okay of course that that that's great um
alberto
would you like to yeah so
uh as i mentioned before well my
background was pretty technical so
uh first of all there's always been
let's say uh
a theme within my professional career
which is uh offshoring so um it's a it's
let's say uh
an industry that is very dear to me i
started actually starting in 2008
and then moved to germany to study that
subject
the netherlands and then and then i
moved to the uk in 2010 and of course
i'm still here
and uh i felt like i always had this
desire of not attending one of the best
schools and program for mba
so this actually accompanied me through
throughout my career
and
the beginning i was involved i also
worked for example
offshore in the middle of the sea
building platforms for
for oil and gas so it's been quite let's
say a dynamic
environment at the beginning of my
career but then a certain point uh um i
really felt that call to to to attend
one of the best uh schools in the world
and um
[Music]
that's why i started actually getting
information about the uh the london
business school and colombia programs
which for me at the time was a dream i
was thinking well you know what i'm
never going to be able to to to attend
that because the caliber of people is so
high so amazing
um but then i attended one information
session like you're doing now and it
became let's say all more clear that it
was possible it could have become
reality
and so um the intention originally was
actually to attend
to learn from the best talented
group of people uh that could be my my
classmates but also knowing that i could
accelerate my career progress and i
don't deny as well the uh let's say the
attraction of studying different schools
in different continents that adds to the
travel side so these are let's say uh
the the motivations as well no great
yeah no that's great it is something
that i i think all the prospects are
interested in um
and it's the premium program that we
usually
um promoted because we have two
brilliant schools lbs and cbs and
um it is yeah i think amazing to get you
know the expertise and the knowledge
from from both schools at the same time
so what what were the expectations when
you actually joined akansha well what
did you expect from from the program
um
goodness as in what was i what my
objectives or what was like
yeah obviously like yeah objectives and
experience as well
okay so my objectives were
um
learn business education um from a very
well repeated school build a network um
change my career
meet some interesting people i guess
those are my objectives um
in terms of the experience that i was
hoping to have well
very similar to alberto i think before
joining i knew i wanted to do an mba
from um a good school
i figured that an exec mba just made
more sense just because i i needed to
continue working and i just didn't feel
like i fitted the profile age-wise
career stage wise for a full-time mba
so the ember program sounded exciting
quite daunting i wasn't sure how i was
going to juggle everything so i think
when i started i was probably a bit
terrified
i didn't really know what to expect or
how on earth it would realistically work
had a lot of hope and then i remember on
day one meeting everyone in our class
and thinking oh my gosh there are all
these people who just seem to be
brilliant i have no idea why they're
even here their careers and lives seem
so sorted
and
so i probably started with a lot of
excitement hope and a huge amount of
trepidation
um
yeah sure in the beginning
no for sure i mean i think uh coming uh
or maybe not being in a school for a
while also makes him a bit like anxious
about what's happening given the
intensity of the program itself
um so yeah i think it's something coming
up to to all the um for all the
applicants that we have
um so alberto when you decided to join
the masters what kind of gaps did you
think you will be able to to to fill in
yeah well first of all um the gaps are
related to
[Music]
acquire the language that would allow me
to be able to speak let's say a top
management level okay
i was a
let's say very well-rounded technically
but i didn't know anything about finance
economics uh leadership and what let's
say is uh is the way that you
communicate and how a ceo thinks about
the car i'm talking about ceo talking
about let's say um
a
higher level in the company when
youtubers see
everything not one part of it only
and so definitely i was expecting that
and and the the master gave me those
tools
certainly
and um and also
regarding
uh
yeah i mean uh
that's pretty much it to be honest and
uh as i said before
being surrounded by
amazing people i i share what i can just
said about joining at the first time and
being surrounded by amazing people and i
felt like well what am i doing here i
mean will i ever be able to be like them
but then in reality uh
there is a another reality behind and
you're all on the same boat
so but we'll discuss about that i guess
no no for sure for sure i think yeah
that um probably my advice would be for
everyone not to panic because you are
you both as you said are on the same
both with family commitments
working full-time still
studying as well and this travel back
and forth to the campuses so for sure
this is something that is is uh
miscommon
um
akasha because we um already touch a
little bit about like the the experience
overall you know within your cohort
which new industries or perspectives you
were exposed to you know either you know
in the study group that you were part of
or like the over overall class um that
help you know to shape your current
experience that you have at the moment
and knowledge as well
wow so our class was just incredibly
diverse um we had people from pretty
much every industry conceivable i mean
obviously for me i was particularly
interested in healthcare and i could
relate a lot to oil and gas there were a
couple of people from healthcare not a
lot to be honest there were a lot of
people there were a few people from oil
and gas and energy but there were people
from all other walks of life you know
from um from
funds from banking from consulting from
um
from real estate from from literally
almost every sector that you can
possibly think of so i think for me that
was incredibly enriching because
initially i went in being very focused
oh you know i need to meet people with a
healthcare background and then i found
there were just a couple in our class
they're obviously a lot more in the
broader lbs network which and i did
speak to a ton of them so that was still
really helpful but just in our class it
was just just really mind-blowing to
just meet all these people who done all
these different things and to realize
that
there's just such diversity you get so
many different ideas and different
people approach things in really
different ways so i think i i just
learned a lot by listening and asking
questions and
um and it was also just to be honest
exciting to just meet so many people
that i would never otherwise have met
and i think in some ways it also helped
me from a confidence perspective in two
ways one because i just became more
adept at talking to people from all
sorts of different walks of life but in
a business capacity which i'd never
really
had the opportunity or done before
and the second was that it then meant
that when it came to
um
talking about or understanding how
business concepts fitted in you could
start relating them in ways i'd never
thought of before so for example um
like in our corporate finance class we
we learned about it with regards to i
think a hospital
um
a football team and so you know really
really broad sets of situations that you
just wouldn't really think about and i
think um that just made it just really
interesting
okay
great and alberto um because of course
the global program has this global
perspective and you already has um
you have worked
in different countries i know some of
those are like germany netherlands spain
uk as well
um what kind of like global exposure you
were looking um at you know to to
develop even more
yeah that's a good question
well definitely as you say i had already
kind of um
european exposure
so definitely um i wanted to know how
and specifically select the america's
europe program because we wanted to be
exposed to the american uh way of uh
first of all education and also doing
business which are
i would say a bit different from the
american let's say the european ones
and
of course it's um
it's been let's say uh a
fantastic way for me to together to be
exposed also not only to those but also
for example
we had a program where there are one
classes in the middle east uh through
the schools and then another one in hong
kong
and then as akasha was saying
of course meeting so many nationalities
so many backgrounds in one class is just
an opportunity that you don't have every
day in your working environment in your
working environment especially if you
work in an industry is surrounded by
people more or less broadly with the
same background same type of expertise
more expert less expert but that
when you when you find yourself in a
class with 70 plus people with different
backgrounds it's just incredible the
learning curve for me personally was
also
i was quite confident in certain
subjects maybe
others not and therefore also within the
same group
school let's say the
the working group as well
all these let's say expertise and you
have a limited amount of time for each
subject you don't have years to develop
expertise like you ever work
therefore you know is a massive learning
curve in in
let's say in a very short time
okay you know no for sure and
um we have a question that might fit you
know in in the discussion that that we
have you know from your global
perspective um we have a question here
from captain saying that his focus is uh
into healthcare and has been in the
united states based um however he thinks
that he he is interested to get this
global perspective and what do you think
will be the advantages of lbs and
colombia to provide you know this global
perspective that he's looking
for i mean i would say it's a gen it's a
genuinely global program so as alberto
mentioned you there are people from our
class with i think we were like what 65
people and something like 57
nationalities or something so it is you
meet a lot of people from different
places um
because of the
sort of the program being based in
london being based in new york um and
then also you have sort of study
programs and electives in like hong kong
dubai and then you have informal class
trips as well as treks through the
schools so you end up going to a lot of
different places especially if you want
to you can go to even more so you get a
huge global perspective from a physical
perspective and meeting people then in
addition there's the cases those are
based in
all sorts of countries so you i remember
doing like marketing cases um or an
operational case in in brazil hair care
remember and then you know um you have
obviously cases in the us and and and in
europe you have them in all sorts of
very different countries well i say
different which is not necessarily
different for everyone else but for me
you know i'd never been exposed to
brazilian haircare so that was just a
totally different way of looking at
things and then you know we looked at
things like starbucks and just so you
just you look at cases from loads of
different countries and then the other
thing i think not to be forgotten is
that you're still part of the broader
school and especially if you can have
some time in
new york and in london during the course
the program as well but also you know in
between the weeks
it's massively valuable i went to almost
for the first couple of terms i went to
sessions almost every night at lbs when
i was there and at cbs and i was there
as well and you just meet a ton of
people um from different
countries different um industries they
have a lot of external speakers who come
in who have incred who are just great i
actually ended up interviewing with one
of them because i just got on with them
and i was interested in seeing if it
could be a good position for me
afterwards they didn't have a position
but we just i ended up having an
interview anyway um and then the there's
also the network of alums and you can
literally just write to people i wrote
to 20 people i'd never met before or
heard of
and i had i had chats with about 10 of
them afterwards and that really helped
inform me where i wanted to move my
career um so
there's just an enormous panoply of
people that you can talk to from
different locations different industries
it can be very informative
yeah thank you alberto do you want to
add anything uh on that
no not much i mean i would just
reiterate that for me the the power of
the network indeed uh you have had
countless times that but first of all
your immediate network which is your
classmates uh that you could be let's
say
class play with uh
with a person that is
let's say in
in the same
industry segment as you are but in a
different country and so therefore there
will be already an exchange of ideas
there but as i can just say there is
mostly the network they have access to
the aluminum network which is of course
is unparalleled probably because of this
joint nature of the program and then you
can access all of a sudden like
around 80 000 people probably that was a
number a few years ago maybe now is
extended actually
a network and people are extremely
helpful because uh it's one of the
traits of human nature that we tend to
help each other and even more if
actually we belong to the same we have a
same common background and doing the
same school is a huge
hugely strong latin background that is
common among people therefore there is a
tendency to help a lot
yeah and you you both mentioned the
networking part then of course you have
the networking within your cohort but
you also have the chance to network with
the other programs for instance
and as you might know um on
speaking on lbs side we also have the
regular emba program and i have here a
question you know what made you consider
the global and not the regular emba
what do you think would be like the the
differences between them from from your
student perspective
so i looked at both oh sorry go ahead no
no please oh please yeah go ahead um
yeah i looked at both um i originally
was planning to to apply for the london
program it felt like it was more
realistic you know logistically um and
um but i was i was sort of interested by
the global ones i thought i would just
explore that a bit as well
and i think the lander program is a
great program and there are a lot of
commonalities as well i think what
appealed to me about the global one was
um
i i did wonder about moving to the us or
working in the u.s and i felt i'd have
more exposure through the school
i was quite excited about going to an iv
school i'm a bit of an academic snob so
that sort of appealed to me as well as
like an addition to lbs
um
i think um
um
so
so yes it was just um
yeah so i i think that's that's probably
the the main thing from from my side
yeah um from my side very similar uh at
the end it's a long business school was
always for me after uh being living in
london for well before actually i
applied for for long busy school
i came to an information session for the
actually the normal emba london um
and then i got some information about
the ember global that made me think well
it would be just a dream if i could
attend that because of the
american side
and at the end it was actually
what happened so definitely the
attraction of study in the us ivy league
school obviously don't deny uh but
actually the dual nature of the european
american yeah no
actually one more thing sorry that i
forgot to say earlier was that i don't
know if it's still done now but in our
day we could um we could actually go to
lectures and meet the current classes
and so i sat in on a london class ember
class under a global class and for me
what actually
um made that made me think i really want
to make this dream come true was that um
in the global class everyone i spoke to
they they'd all had a background which i
could really resonate with so for me i
my back my family background is india
and i've grown up in the uk i've always
felt quite european i love languages and
everyone in the globe well program is
like that everyone has at least a couple
of countries in there in their blood or
in their like their life and um and so i
think i think
that was for me that really resonated a
lot of my life had sort of felt like i
didn't always fit in because i kind of
belonged to more than one place and a
lot of people on the global program
belong to more than one place or they
they're interested in multiple places
and and so i think that was that for me
was very powerful reason to to feel like
actually that was the right fit for me
yeah no great and then there's like
another question still related to that
you know what
um if we find like any difference in the
profile of the cohort and experience i
could say that from the recruitment
admissions perspective because i've been
in amber london as well working before
transitioning to embargo global i think
the profiles are quite similar um but
then with the with the mba global is um
i think the international experience is
also something that we we ask for and we
are looking to um
of course do to assess that in the
application or also in in the interview
session
um but overall the average use of
experience is is kind of the same around
11 12 years of experience
um and then the the profile side diverse
of course for for both programs
but again as i said the global
perspective on the emba global program
is much more intense because we have
um
you know profiles from all over the
world um preferring to to choose the
global program
okay great now let's just move back to
the classes so the actual experience
that you you have had um alberto what
did you learn in the core classes
um
you know and uh
how can you apply you know the
information that you you got there on
your current job for instance
yeah definitely so uh i think uh the
most relevant subjects that i still use
now are
well economics um let's say the first
economic class and also the second one
towards the end of the core
both of them are very very important
and then definitely on the corporate
finance part now i had zero knowledge
before uh but then of course uh you go
through the accounting and then
especially corporate finance which is a
bit more applicable evaluation etc which
is very important now for what i do
and then finally the strategy class um
to give let's say the the perspective
of strategy from
let's say a senior management position
perspective okay so these are the call
classes that really uh are very useful
for me now
yeah i can show would you like to take
this one as well um yeah sure so for me
um corporate finance and accounting were
helpful just to build my financial
knowledge acumen that i still use those
now not
in huge amounts of debt but it's just it
does help um i found marketing and
statistics pretty helpful we do a fair
bit of analysis and i ended up just
terms that i wasn't used to using um
things like conjoint analysis just
various things we use them sort of more
routinely so it just made it a bit
easier i find those quite useful
um i found negotiation incredibly
helpful i was an appalling negotiator i
wouldn't sound brilliant now but i
learned a huge amount
from the from the class
i found strategy classes interesting um
and um helpful they gave sort of
examples case studies um
but probably there wasn't so much there
which was quite so new for me i also
found um
a couple of the leadership classes
really valuable um
leadership change management classes uh
they they helped me to realize that
there's both a qualitative and a
quantitative element that you can
integrate for some of those subjects
which i hadn't previously appreciated
i'd only really seen them in a
qualitative way before um so i found
that that helpful and yeah i think
similar to alberto economics um it was
just uh just learning the language
really of economics helped i i wasn't so
familiar with that and it did help in
terms of understanding things like
supply and demand which i guess yeah i
use a lot more now than i did before
yeah and i think this is great to
mention here that even though we might
have let's say around 20 30 of the class
coming with the finance background all
the others they don't have it but they
still manage with in in the programs so
this is still something that shouldn't
scare like anyone um and shouldn't be um
you know as a challenge not to choose
the application um and join the program
of course
alberto which faculty members
inspired you the most and why uh
why did this happen
so i remember actually
a leadership class indeed in the call
definitely professor ingram
inspired a lot because of course of the
every class was a was a new discovery
about myself about organizations
about let's say the interaction
between between humans and how this
actually can influence uh achieve your
results uh building up a team and
everything let's say that is actually
very important as a fundament
in life in professional life as well
but also let's say in common
relationships among people you know
with your partner and with your friends
as well
and then then another class that
actually uh negotiations definitely
um class
and i've done the one at columbus school
but i heard the same actually for the
london business school one
and that was really um let's say eye
opener for many people in terms of how
to actually
i wouldn't say
i had before the concept of negotiation
is something that you have to win at all
costs uh there is a different meaning
and much more profound which is actually
um what's the best win-win for both uh
parties uh you should never have the
feeling that
let's say
the one part actually
wins over the other it's not a win
competition is actually creating value
for both okay
and then the last one for me was as well
the brand management um was fantastic
actually
i learned a huge amount and for some
reason i thought was actually completely
let's say not really
well
averse to to that subject but it came so
natural it was fantastic so i loved it
and credit to the professor as well
great and did you actually have the
chance to develop some kind of
relationships with faculty members
throughout the course yeah yeah with uh
with uh with several of them i remember
without
with indeed professor implant management
as well uh with professor um
nicosov as well
so
there are that of course
there are some professors that say they
are more open to but even the
professor's strategy
as well it was actually
a person that i i really have fond
memories you know in general because i
come from
studying in italy and the professors in
italy are perceived themselves like okay
deal with me at home's length
it's very different actually when uh
when i that's also one of the reasons
why i chose to to study a lot of this
quote in colombia because then you can
actually see the professor and then
there is a dispassion for teaching to
students and that actually you want to
go and talk to a professor and and
understand more about the subject and
you become passionate as well the
passion that comes through which i
didn't experience in my previous let's
say
education
no yeah no that this is something yeah
that we um we like to say about faculty
members i think
what you said like before is linked to
the fact that
they they
they are professors but they also have
actual jobs you know uh i mean in the
market so they have um
they come to
they go into the market they explore the
markets and then they bring all the
expertise all the business cases you
know into the classroom i think this is
this makes it more realistic um and you
know up to date with everything um so
yeah thank you thank you so much you
know for um
for this overview
um i kind of shot did you uh of course
you chose some electives but what kind
of electives did you choose and why did
you chose those specifications because
this is something you can um adapt to
your career goals to what you want to do
in in the future
yeah sure so um i electives i don't
remember all of my electives now i have
to admit but um so some of the ones that
stood out so i did um a couple in
strategy strategic agility corporate
turnarounds
um which were just really useful as i
said in terms of you know building
stories and anecdotes and techniques to
take to sort of the strategy table i
also did brand management that was um
that was great i'd never really thought
about the subject before and um we just
did some really cool things there you
know we had to sort of go into shops and
just figure out what we could interpret
about the brand from just entering the
store and it just taught me to to think
about brand in a whole new way
so that was great um
i did businesses and careers for the
future with linda gratton that actually
gave me some really nice ways to think
about my long-term career
things which i still still use
now on a regular basis and ways of
prioritizing and bouncing and managing
life it's work etc
i also
really loved um management leadership of
organizational change with professor
ingram so one of my electives was that i
wrote a case um with him um which i
think actually gets taught to some of
the global classes or some of the amber
classes occasionally
so that was super fun as well um
and i also did a couple of industry
specialist ones so i did like a
healthcare specific elective and i did
um one of the asian economics classes
because i really wanted to go to hong
kong and i wanted to learn a bit more
about um
yeah just
the business situation in asia and i
hadn't really i've never worked there so
um so i did um one of those which was
super exciting
great no that's that's that's great to
hear um and alberto you um i think you
mentioned before that there were like
many networking events many guest
speakers coming uh to you know to talk
to you
and and so on
did you come across an impressive guest
speaker throughout the program
yeah yeah i remember some of them and i
was actually added to my
impressive let's say
experience at the two schools so we met
uh the ceo of ocado tim steiner
came as a speaker for the operations
management class
then i think it was a
[Music]
well with with the statistics class i
think
uh we met with the founder of capital
one uh nigel morris
um and then uh not to mention all the
events and let's say the speakers that
our classmates organized
um organized events as well such as for
example we went to to see the behind the
scenes of the madison square gardens we
went inside the gherkin in london up to
the top which is only let's say four
certainly for guests so they were
of course this is the power of the
network and and also the faculty so
these are some of the examples that i
remember but there are many others
do you have anything
in mind did you remind did you remind
you of anyone specifically um
so maybe so i agree with alberto we met
a ton of amazing speakers in the program
outside of the the program at clubs and
the professors are also like pretty
inspirational they the way they teach is
just incredible it's um so that was
something but i think um
beyond actually speakers we sometimes
got um introduced to
um
different an alternative kind of speaker
so for example we we went to watch a
jazz trio play one day um and um and
sort of learnt about the concepts of
leadership through that um
also watched a quartet so we sort of
experienced some alternative forms of
speakers who which um which were just as
educational and inspiring i think
yeah yeah and wow that that's amazing to
hear i didn't hear that before so i
i think you know you're also trying to
uh mingle you know with social and with
uh you know academic as well so just to
you know please everyone not to always
be maybe um you know rushing to do this
it's a seminar to do this project with
this assignment so um yeah we had to
write assignments on the jazz tree
around the quoted off to it was very
academic
as well between improvisation and
leadership well at the same time it was
really cool
yeah but at least the experience you
know um per se maybe it wasn't you know
very uh maybe very intense but
afterwards of course um
um yeah assignments are something that
we uh yeah we we have to to to do
um
okay great so um i know
many people know are asking you know how
do you balance the full a full-time job
you know studying the traveling uh you
know personal commitments as well how do
you find this balance um alberto if you
want to go first
yeah so um
is let's say something that you have to
be prepared for uh you apply for for
this for this type of
program you know there is not going to
be a walk in the park
uh and that and making let's say more
abroad concept not only about traveling
which takes it it's tall let's say
in terms of jet lags and everything but
is about as well the time commitment for
studying and then you have a full-time
job most probably
and then some some people have family
maybe with newborn babies we have all
these examples in class and and people
can cope with that
you would be amazed how much
this program will will challenge your
personal ability to stretch them but in
a way that is still sustainable because
it can be done
regarding the travel yeah definitely in
my case being in london obviously that
decreases to half the travels and that's
also for me it would let's say it was
sustainable enough
but to give an example of one of my
classmates who came from melbourne every
month
uh from melbourne to london or to
new york every month and i remember
we're like amazed by how you're gonna do
that i mean for three days you're
traveling basically
but this is actually the tells you a lot
about the the caliber of people and the
commitment of people attend the club the
course
so it definitely can be can be achieved
and managed
wow that's that's a big one um i heard
another example on the mba
london class again uh we had like a
student who was uh told that he's gonna
be moved to london but by the time you
know the program started
you know this didn't happen so he had to
travel
every two weeks to london um and you
know it's it's it's a big commitment
it's something that people are
passionate to do
um and this they take this this
challenge akansha what about you
yeah i really agree with alberto you
have to um you do have to do a level of
preparation up front like preparing your
your boss your team
um your family so that people know that
you're not going to be as physically
available as you as you normally are and
you do really need to get the buy-in of
people at work because i think without
it
it would be impossible to do this
program so i think that that is super
important then i think as you go um
i think one needs quite an agile
approach because
you don't fully know what you're getting
yourself into until you get in and then
you you kind of realize okay there's the
time during the course but there's also
the time outside the course to um to
socialize with your classmates when
you're on the same city and then there's
the the time that you need to just get
your assignments done and do your
reading which also takes time and then
there's all the extra stuff if you want
to do it at the school to really make
the most of the school experience
and um and so you kind of need a bit of
an agile approach um i personally
stopped watching trashy television like
i realized that that made me a lot
enormous so you become a lot more
efficient
multitask a lot
plan a lot better
yeah get support from people around you
collaborate with your classmates as well
that really helps
um
and also just don't be too tough on
yourself as alberto said you know a lot
of people have managed to do this and
make it work i think it's probably
harder if you have a child like
personally i'm not sure how i don't know
how people manage it a lot of people do
but i don't know how
but i think that um it's it is very
doable a lot of people can do it there's
a lot of support and just don't beat
yourself up about being perfect on
everything but as long as you're good
enough on most things you can get by
yeah and you are both uh sorry just you
one thing that you are both like the
real examples you know that this you
know can happen they can do the program
so um anyone in no matter know that the
commitments is this is something that um
anyone can do just to be as you said
organized to
to know how to
um
organize their time and um everything
else
yeah alberto
you wanted to to add something oh just
saying let's say a personal example i
remember the beginning of the of the
course um
being let's say a bit difficult to start
thinking about studying and working at
the same time so that type of let's say
of a learning curve and then when i got
the momentum right where i could find my
balance between starting and and working
then as i kind of said you become very
efficient you know you scroll through a
lot of material very quickly and you
become able because you have to survive
you have to be able to develop that type
of skill and when i finish the program i
remember finding myself with so much
time
because
i mean i'm used to it so okay now the
evenings are free and then that's one of
the things that you to be able let's say
not to go back to your old habits of of
wasting time but that's you know that's
one of the lessons from the mba as well
starting a new routine and continue with
that day by day little by little
okay
the application process actually helps a
little bit i found with that because
like i hadn't studied maths or anything
for like years and so just doing the
gmat writing the essays um i actually
found it was quite helpful because it
kind of gets the brain back into the
cycle
quite a good prep for doing the program
itself
no yeah that's a really good point it's
actually why we ask um all our
applicants to to go through its
application process to do the either the
gmat objective assessment or the gre
because we use use it like mostly um as
like a preparation tool for them just to
see what they send you know academically
speaking speaking and also to uh prepare
them you know for for this intensive
course that is
is following after that
great so um let's move forward to what
you are uh doing at the moment um
alberto what has been the biggest
transformation for you after the
program i think
i became more self-aware
on
let's say my potential my abilities my
shortcomings as well
i had to measure myself with with people
with different nationalities obviously
backgrounds uh very talented and so it
made me realize how much
let's say
ground i had to cover to let's say be a
better full-rounded professional
and and so these are these are the
things that these two years gave me uh
personal growth about anything else of
course you have the hard skills uh you
know what you learn in the core etc but
it's really personal growth and the
realization that as i said before we can
stretch our abilities so much more
compared to what our jobs demands every
day
and in very different ways
yeah akansha would you like to take this
one as well
yeah i think i'll better put it really
well i think um personal growth is is
probably the
one thing i probably hadn't anticipated
but the biggest learning that came out
of the whole program i sort of went in
looking for the kind of the tick box
things you know you change your job you
um
um get a certain knowledge you get a
network and um i think those were
transformational for me for sure um but
i think more importantly was yeah
learning how to work in a different way
learning to work in a truly global
community
and um and i think also almost the idea
that
of really seeing potential and the
potential for oneself and realizing that
actually horizons which felt very
limiting before actually don't have to
be and that's partly because you get
exposed to so much and so much suddenly
seems possible but it's also because you
have a class
a group of classmates who are just a
real support structure and they really
believe in you and um and so there were
times when i was nervous about doing
things my class was like oh you can
absolutely do this you've got this go
for it and um
and that i think is is incredibly
reassuring and it continues even now so
we have a chat with our class and um
a group and you know someone
a couple of people that just started new
ventures this week and everyone is just
like so excited it's like it's our
personal ventures and um so i think that
that actually is um was a big thing for
me as well transformationally it kind of
removed barriers
yes physical and both um real ones and
the invisible ones in my head
great and um because we didn't talk
about it how did like the career center
the careers team you know helped you you
know make this you know the transitions
and get the role that you have at the
moment
um alberto if you want to go first
yeah i accessed the both the career
centers
let's say both in this case colombia and
long business school and uh there were a
lot of events and they made me of course
realize it's part of that growth process
where you think maybe you come in with
an idea and then you go out with another
one because of course you realize there
are so many other
facets to the same uh let's say approach
problem
and this was actually
for me the big takeaway learning then of
course there are a lot of opportunities
uh for for let's say uh
application for jobs and uh and then uh
um
also with uh with if i remember with
columbia business school as well there
are ways that you can actually do uh but
also with a lot of business school um
you can have mock-up interviews you can
prepare for interviews etc so there is a
myriad really of
opportunities that you can grasp the
question is do you have enough time to
do all of that or do you just select and
say what's what's most important for you
for me as well and only the career
center but also again the alumni network
talking to people you connect to another
one and then connects to another one etc
and then by talking to people in the
industry that you would like to enter or
you are interested in actually then you
have a real
understanding and so it makes you
realize yeah it's not what i want to do
and i want to stay in what i do because
of certain reasons
thank you um akanesha would you like to
add on that
yeah similar so i was actually a careers
rep for the class so i felt almost an
obligation to experiment with every
single element of the sort of the
careers
pro you know portfolio in lbs and cbs
um
i found the careers coach is really
helpful they helped me sort out my cv
which was a mess and just and they
helped me tailor it for both geographies
and for different industries um they
also i spoke specifically to um coaches
in um who focus on consulting as well
just to get the sort of the skinny on
different sectors and also to help me
sort of
negotiate some of the interviews and
think about things in terms of prep
that was really helpful um also
leveraged one of the career coaches even
after um during the course of the
program but after i changed jobs just to
sort of give me you know informal
coaching and guidance and things on um
on like leadership topics etc
uh leveraged a lot of the the clubs and
the alumni network too so the clubs i
think you meet a lot of people um you
can explore if you're not really sure
what you want and or if you just have
general ideas and go very broad and then
you can start going very deep in
specific companies especially um if any
of the companies or industries that
you're looking at are of interest to the
um
the full-time mba program then then
you've got an enormous amount of um
activities and openings which you can
leverage um i didn't i did go to some of
the the careers events where you where
you actually just meet people who have
positions etc they weren't necessarily
so relevant for me but i i did make some
good contacts and then yeah just
reaching out to alumni network i asked i
spoke right to a lot of people a lot of
people made time gave me advice on what
um things to consider in terms of career
options
um a couple also you know offer to
the generally offered to like you know
share your cv or look for jobs for you
so there's uh there are a lot of
different different avenues and it
doesn't doesn't stop when you leave the
program either like uh um so i still
come into contact with with folks from
lbs and cbs now in my job and people
reach out and say hey were you and so
you know you that's always handy plus i
think if and when i i moved jobs next i
would definitely reach out to alumni or
to the career service at lbs and cbs
because they they're just great
resources and they don't end when you
leave the schools
yeah no this is an advantage i think
that we we have that they offer you help
you know throughout the program but also
after you graduate so it's a lifelong
journey as as we like to call it and
akasha we have um
a question from from one of our
attendees do you utilize alumni
community in your current job
um
i'm not saying say i utilize it um
but i i definitely have quite a few
there are loads of alumni from cbs and
lbs in our company and so we definitely
cross paths and it's so it's kind of a
nice you know link or a nice talking
point
um i do mentor people who who go for who
want to we're uni people who want to go
to business schools and support them
with their applications and references
so it's actually quite handy to have
been through the process which a
full-time mba person would have gone
through as well because you can really
relate and
and be a sponsor and advisor in a way
that i would be harder without this so
that's good um beyond that i wouldn't
say that i necessarily use it so much in
my current job it's more that
i um i'm still in touch with all my
classmates so um but um
that's more just a personal thing which
is important for me in in a nutshell
alberto do you think demba global helped
you to
um improve your leadership skills and
make you like an impactful leader
yeah that's that's exactly what will
happen in reality and i think uh the the
ember global really gave me those uh
helped me improve those skills because i
still remember the 360
let's say assessment before starting and
i was quite shocked when i
read the the feedback from people i did
not realize i was not self-aware of what
my shortcomings were my part of strength
um
so
i went through the program and with the
same mentor that gave me the real
feedback at the beginning and uh after a
few years i fit that i finished to be
honest not immediately after they told
me that i changed very much very much in
especially in my empathic
empathy skills and and the leadership
skills how i come across when i um
my communication and and let's say when
i want to convey my message as well
and also the approach to work for
example that is much more let's say
composed um
and
with the idea that i'm not the only one
doing the job i can actually i have to
tapping to the network around me the
people around me to help me do a better
job which actually automatically
you have to get this leadership skit to
come out and make use of them
great thank you and now because we only
have like four minutes left of the
session just some final questions you
know
in your alumni perspective
um would you do anything different if
you look back now on these sprints that
you you have had you know either like
you know spending your time differently
you know interacting maybe with other
people
um or maybe something that you could
have done but you you couldn't do it um
in that moment i can't show you if you
want to go first
um i think the only two things i would
say i don't have that many regrets i
tried to make the most of the program
when i did it but i think
two things i would tell myself by doing
it again were worry less
it's doable um everyone in the program
is is in the same boat as you even
people who feel like they've got
everything figured out everyone's there
for a reason
and um so
i think i tell myself to just worry a
little bit less
and um and the other thing i would do is
um make even more time to go on more
trips and things with the class uh i did
a few
in i wish i could have done at the time
it was hard to do more but and i thought
i shouldn't or i could take time out of
work or whatever and in retrospect i
think um it it's a short amount of time
so you kind of have to make the most of
all the opportunities you take them a
bit for granted at the time um but it's
it's a really special
opportunity to have we only get it once
yeah
thank you alberto
well exactly the same point uh to be
honest uh
i'm i'm in geneva background so i
approach that let's say very much kind
of engineering way and i dedicate a lot
of time of course to classes studying
and try to let's say cover the
shortcomings and i did a few trips but
definitely one of the things i would say
if i would go back i would change i
would definitely go to more trips and
your classmates want to host you in
their country and there are sometimes
countries that you don't have an
opportunity to go in life normally
so just take it because it's just
fantastic you learn a huge amount it
opens your mind and then okay you may
say
it cost a bit of money or maybe cost a
bit of time well okay the time you you
study a bit more than the week after
the money
you did the program anyway and then you
will make money in the in the future but
you don't make time that you didn't
spend before with your classmates in
this trip so take these opportunities
they are fantastic and they can once in
a lifetime really great thank you great
great advice and for any prospective
students or maybe already admits for for
this current class that is um will start
in may
what should one really consider
uh you know when going you know back to
school to pursue an executive mba degree
i would say
um two things i would say um have an
approximate idea of what you're what you
want to get out of it because there are
so many options and so many
opportunities and if you try and do
everything you might run yourself into
the ground so at least have some big
objectives and then you can do other
things as well but that will at least
then you'll know you've done the main
things you set out for and the other
thing i would say is just um really lay
the groundwork with everyone around you
so before you get going you know invest
the time with all of them
and um
so that you're set up for successful
when you start the program because um
because you won't have quite as much
time for people at work people in your
personal life
and um you will need their support as
well through the program so
setting both yourself and themselves up
for success will make your time at the
program easier
and also then just just have fun it it
kind of gives you the world it's an
amazing time just make the most of it
great
alberto
yeah similar
of course this program is a financial
commitment but also
a time one
so you need to
want it and to desire it i'm sure that
that's the case if you uh if you apply
for this you know let's say you don't
know exactly what you will be going
through but you will find your way and
you're confident you will find your way
you need the motivation to go through
difficult times sometimes to juggle
between family work etc you know
sometimes your boss is maybe is not
happy because last week you weren't
there therefore he asked you to walk
more the week after but you also to
study the family
involved your family in the journey uh
because it will help you a lot and it is
also a way to to get them to appreciate
what you're doing to meet your
classmates to travel with you maybe uh
it's two two years you know two hundred
years and so if you do with your family
or with people that you care mostly it's
becoming more fun as well
great thank you so much both it's been a
pleasure not having you here um and for
sure i think we'll be in touch uh you
know for any other future events um and
anything else we are planning
um for the smds thank you as well for
for uh you know participating listening
to alberto and akansha and just a little
reminder uh that you will receive an
email with a survey and we would like to
ask you to to complete it if possible
just to you know get a sense of what
kind of improvements we can do with our
events um and so on um and again if
you're interested in the embargo program
feel free to reach the to myself um at
mba global at london.edu and i'll be
more more than happy not to have a
further conversation with you um so
thank you so much and have um have a
good uh
afternoon thanks so much thanks a lot
again
have a good day

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### Lalaine's LBS Sloan journey | London Business School
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsiP9o4RXgM

Idioma: en

the Sloane program has lived up to my
expectations thus far in terms of the
reflection that it requires of the
students it's a perfect time for people
like us to take a step back from the
world revisit and rediscover ourselves
and our purpose I specifically chose lbs
for several reasons first the brand
itself of lbs as we know very well is
very very strong it is V number one
business school in Europe and that in
itself is a differentiator the diversity
that I recognize it will provide me is
an added plus because that means I'd be
able to leverage on the different
perspectives which you know the student
population even the faculty population
who will be able to provide me during my
exposure at lbs and also the location
itself London is such a melting pot that
I know I'd be able to gain a lot more
more than just academics in the
classroom enhance the choice for LVS
what I love about the diversity and the
quality of my batch weights one we are
about 21 nationalities representing the
61 students in my cohort and you can
just imagine how rich the exchanges can
be from a cultural perspective also the
diverse backgrounds functional
disciplines where these talents have
come from enhance the exchanges in the
classroom and
again more importantly outside the
classroom have been very insightful more
than that it really pushes you to go
beyond what you already know when you've
experienced it is a test of will it is
challenging it is humbling but at the
same time it's very enriching and it's
very well worth it
[Music]

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### Sloan Summit 2018 | London Business School
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuaA-AT5rVE

Idioma: en

I'm here for the Sloane summit I have
never missed a Sloan summit it's been
amazing the summit is is the coming
together of hundreds of years of
experience to make sure we really try to
draw the best from ourselves through the
inspiration of others lifelong learning
is a bond strapline its youth but it's
actually very true it's very real and I
like to come back to the school I attend
the Alumni events because the fantastic
professors come back and and teach more
of the current things that we want to
learn Salon summit is a very good
opportunity to be back at school one day
to meet my friends to meet colleagues
and to know future people in my life
like the networking we are doing today
I've met a lot of my own Co here but
also people that have come from MIT from
Stanford for many many different years
all gone on to do a really wide range of
really interesting things it's like
re-energize in yourself and the talk
about the future where things are moving
I think it's absolutely great and it's
great to be here the biggest highlights
of Sloan is reinventing reinventing
yourself were inventing some parts of
the business and reinventing the way we
do leadership when I came here to do
this loan I was told that it's very
difficult to change all four parameters
your industry your geography your level
and your function by the end of the year
I had managed to change on fall so it
has had a great impact in my life the
biggest highlight of this loan is very
difficult to define because there were a
lot of them it's been absolutely
transformational absolutely no doubt
about it
Corgan gave me the confidence to really
completely venture out on my own
go full out in the Entrepreneurship
world again I started several features I
learned about the world about business
and really the most important thing more
about myself professionally and
personally this helped me gain more
confidence taking risks and things that
I want to do and see more opportunities
and how to deliver on them and it's just
made me live life much fuller than
otherwise there is people from your
class you really they humble you by
their kind of experience
and they can connect you with people
across the globe and that's amazing
right and and that's what you expect
from a school of Disgaea I was looking
for something that could help me with
the tools and the the network and and
quite honestly the confidence to be able
to move into something completely
different and that's exactly what Sloane
delivered if I'm trying to expand my
business overseas I've got lots of
connections with people in many
different countries now to initiate that
endeavour to develop in other countries
while the people I think is the biggest
highlight of the Sloane course you meet
the most interesting fascinating people
it's the most international of all
Sloane program so everybody is coming
from all around the world you know the
variety of experiences is is is very
rich and diverse you don't attend
classes anymore you don't attend anymore
every day but you're always connected to
be honest I never left LDS you never
leave lbs
[Music]

---

### Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy (MSc) | London Business School
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKzpg34ovfc

Idioma: en

[Music]
here at london business school we're
particularly proud of the sloan program
it was one of the first programs we set
up when the school itself was founded it
focuses on leadership and strategy it's
a one-year program only three schools
around the world offer this mit stanford
and us
sloane fellows are very special people
they come from all over the world they
bring with them 16 years on average of
achievement in their working lives these
are the people who are going to be the
movers and shakers of the next
generation the people who are really
going to make a difference for the
future
[Music]
i was fortunate to work in some of the
greatest companies in the world i worked
in unilever in pfizer and johnson
johnson and for 15 years and that was
absolutely amazing the program offers me
a new perspective it allows me to take
the time and think of how the world is
changing
where i might fit in that new world
i wanted to challenge my thinking i
wanted to interact with world-class
faculty at london business school to
understand what is the latest research
and what is the latest management
thinking out there
it was challenging to even get a place
in this loan program to start with but
it was worth it because the cohort i'm
in are an exceptional group of people
very experienced very successful in
their own right
it's fabulous working amongst them and
learning from them
i think the value of the program is in
giving you a really good skill set
in in strategy and leadership
the program has very much equipped me
for a very different style of
opportunity
the sloan program
makes me a much better leader because it
helps me to better understand who i am
what i stand for and how i want to lead
before sloan i suppose you could
characterize me as a salary man working
for big oil and gas
post sloan now i've had 12 years
in more entrepreneurial ventures
the mere act of doing the slow and act
as a kind of break point with the past
some of the skills that i learned in the
slo were ones i didn't have before
marketing strategy and later on the new
venture development all proved
incredibly useful
prior to coming to the sloan program i
spent 25 years in the technology
business
at microsoft i was corporate vice
president of msn managing the consumer
internet business in 35 countries around
the world
the thing that makes the sloan program
really special is it's aimed at very
senior business people a graduate of the
sloan program
is extraordinarily well qualified to
really take on very senior opportunities
i know the value of sloanes to employers
i know that these are outstanding people
by coming on the sloan program sloane
fellows have demonstrated their
commitment to building on what they've
already achieved
they go on to be leaders leaders of
large corporations family businesses
large and small they become
entrepreneurs they go into public life
this is something that is a remarkable
feature of a remarkable program
you

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