Executive MBA: How I got here and what I have learned so far

People often ask themselves “When is it the right time to make a change?”. Is it when things aren’t going the way you planned, when you are unhappy or when you feel you have fallen into a monotonous routine, or is it when you feel it’s time to seek new challenges? After ten years of working at my families business’s I started to ask myself this question.  I had been privileged to lead teams at a very young age, work in various business segments and lead the company turnaround that positioned the oldest company of the group to be the second largest precious metals company in South America. By all means things were going well, however deep down I knew I still wanted more. After attending a two-week, immersion, executive program at Wharton it became clear to me that I had reached the top of my mountain where I was and that it was time to go out and seek a bigger climb.  To better prepare myself for the next challenge, at thirty three years old, a father of 2 kids and one on the way I decided it was time to go back to school!

Why IMD

Thinking back to the long college weekends in the library fueled by Starbucks and Redbull I couldn’t help but to feel a sense of excitement and energy when thinking about what might lay ahead. I knew that based on where I was in my career and where I wanted to go my best option would be an executive MBA, but where? Naturally after having received my undergraduate degree in the US, living there and having had my two first children there, my first instinct was to look into the US programs. I quickly immersed myself in the “Executive MBA World” of online brochures, calls with program advisors and alumni and thorough course research at some of the country’s top programs such as MIT, Wharton and Brown. While the programs seemed incredibly interesting I couldn’t help but to feel as though something was missing. It took me some time to realize it but then it finally dawned on me, to excel in a competitive global environment I needed to study at a truly global university. My past had taken me to the U.S. but my future was leading me elsewhere…Europe!  In unchartered waters I began researching top European programs with a truly global focus, faculty and cohort and that’s when I found IMD Business School.

And so my journey began….

The Executive MBA Journey so far

After weeks of anticipation, hours of “pre-work” and several assignments later, I boarded a plane and started my journey to Lausanne, Switzerland, to begin the initial “immersion” portion of the program and one of the most exciting and life changing months of my adult life. While I would love to detail every picturesque scene from my trip, from the Alpes, to the endless cow pastures and unique French culture that seemed to prevail over the small town of Lausanne and while the people, the setting and the culture undoubtedly enriched the program, I think it’s more important to highlight my takeaways from the course so far.

Each Executive MBA progam has its own unique structure. The IMB program is divided into 3 “blocks”: the “Foundations for Business Leadership”, the “Advanced Management Concepts”, and the “Mastery Stage.” I have completed the first two and this (among countless other things) is what I have learned so far:

1.      Strategy and Competitive Advantage

Every business needs a sound strategy. That′s a no brainer. We were constantly presented with the question: “But are you sure you have a strategy?!” Many businesses and people confuse strategy and planning, which are two different animals. Same goes for strategic analysis x strategic formulation, again, two different things. IMD has challenged us to formulate and assess strategies using real case examples, forcing us to look at a situation from several different angles and different lenses.

We have seen many powerful, yet practical, frameworks to assess market attractiveness, competitive advantage, and strategies to sustain themselves against imitation through real world case studies. The tools we have acquired in this portion of the course can, and have been, very easily applied to companies competing today in a global market.

2.      Marketing and Customer Centricity

Even though many organizations claim to be “customer centric”, many are still product-oriented and have maintained an industrial logic business model. We have seen real world examples of companies that are truly focused on their customers, such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Zappos, among others. One of the key ingredients found in these companies is their ability to design their organizational capabilities around a value proposition for their customers. They truly understand that “very satisfied” customers have the greatest impact on profitability.  

Companies of the future know that financial metrics are backward-looking and measure performance in absolute terms. They know that to win in the new global environment it is required to developed forward-looking metrics aligned with relative measurements of performance.

3.      Critical Thinking and Decision Analysis

One of the best books I′ve read in a while was “The Halo Effect”, by Phil Rosenzweig. Phil goes through the several business delusions that deceive managers. Many things we believe explain performance turn out to be explained by performance. It is extremely hard to determine what actually leads to performance and the book mentions several well-known studies/books that do not articulate a theory of causation.

Issues such as data independence, design of the experiment/research, seriously affects their validity. Also, understanding lessons from cognitive psychology is extremely useful as people frequently make decisions that diverge from conventional definitions of what is rational. Understanding the implications for strategic formulation and other areas of the business, such as marketing and pricing, are crucial for a business.

4.      Integrating Finance, Operations, Supply Chain

Properly understanding which levers play a key role in a company′s competitive advantage is not enough. A strategy is only successful if effectively implemented. Integrating Finance, Operations and Supply Chain is a challenge that involves not only the collaboration amongst professionals of these areas, but the adoption of intelligent KPI′s that measure what is indeed necessary as well as improvement methods. Finance plays a key role in explaining the financial levers and impacts to those less knowledgeable n the area as well as disseminating an impartial and value driven view of the business.

Managers in different businesses may argue that their companies have “different” operations and “different” value drivers. And that can be true. However, the components used to calculate return (whether measured by ROE, ROIC, EVA, or others) are the same independent of what business your company is in. EVA will be EVA – but not all businesses generate value above its cost of capital!

5.      Leadership and People

From a strategic point of view, it is vital that a company can deploy its resources (what it has) and capabilities (what it does) towards its strategy formulation, in order to create competitive advantage. Think about Amazon′s resources and organizational capabilities when it only sold books. Have they applied those to other areas? Absolutely.

Employees play a key role within a company′s resources and capabilities: their skills, know-how, motivation, capacity for communication and collaboration, ability to innovate, integrated processes, structure, etc. Developing a high performing team is easier said than done. It requires the establishment of clear goals, roles and norms, which are the foundation for good teamwork. Understanding the values that are meaningful to individual members is absolutely critical. Having mechanisms for making decisions and resolving conflicts help set clear expectations for the team.

6.      Risk Management

While it may seem obvious to establish goals and create plans to improve the odds for success, while what might not be as obvious is the way in which we go about it. Mapping out potential pitfalls that can compromise the success of a project, beforehand, and working collaboratively on strategies to potentially mitigate those risks, are crucial components for any successful manager to take into consideration before course action is taken.

 Wrap-up

While the course is only beginning for me I can undoubtedly say that my experience has been unforgettable thus far. The cultural, professional and educational exchange has far surpassed my expectations and has led me to think more critically, strategically and efficiently. I strongly encourage anyone who is seriously thinking about pursuing a top Executive MBA to consider the IMD program.  In November, we begin the “Mastery Stage” of the course, but in the meantime I will continue to apply what I have learned so far, seek new challenges and never get “ too comfortable” with where I am or what I am doing. With great risk, comes great reward and with great challenge comes great opportunity. The best is yet to come!