My 7 takeaways from the MBA

One year ago, I decided to do an official MBA at the UNIR and a couple of weeks ago I finished it. Overall, it was a great experience and in this article, I would like to share with you my 7 non-direct academic takeaways and lessons I took. Each section starts with a quote that will introduce the topic. Let’s go!

1) “Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week” - Proverb

Let’s start by clarifying something: the MBA itself is not difficult. What is difficult is to do exactly the same that you were doing (work, sport, home tasks, family, sleep...) plus an MBA. And if you decide to do it, and you pay for it, it’s worth investing some time in it. I’m sure that with the 20% of the time I have spent I would have passed it, but I wouldn’t have learned all I learned. And that was actually my main goal: to learn. So I had to bring my time-management skills to the upper level and, still don’t know how, find the hours at the end of the day. And this, week after week. I thought that some days had more than 24 hours and I didn’t realize it, because now that everything has passed, I cannot imagine how I dealt with everything.

2) “With languages, you are at home anywhere” – Edmund De Waal

No, I don’t refer to English or Spanish. I consider that doing an MBA is like learning a new language. In this case the business language. This study will not make you an expert on accountability, finance, or marketing, but will allow you to understand those areas and speak the same language as the experts. Most likely the equivalent British Council level that fits better with the MBA is the A2 which is described as: “[…] be able to communicate in everyday situations with commonly-used expressions and elementary vocabulary.”. Just wondering how to add this course to the CV: into studies or in languages...

3) “We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are” – Anais Nin

Having the opportunity to discuss, learn and grow with people from very different environments helps you to better understand many situations and open your mind. No matter which is the background, position, or working area of your teammates, the discussion is always greater having different points of view. And when you have to face a challenging situation (for example, a business study case) there are some ideas that you would never have had alone or with your “common team”. That’s why it is so important to incorporate multidisciplinary teams into business, and that's why it is crucial to always listen to everyone's opinion.

4) “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand” - Confucius?

Learning by doing or learning with a challenge is the best way to learn. You indeed learn a lot in every single theory class in the MBA, but all the practical business study cases and the final project are the best situations to be creative, think, have challenges, and find a solution. When you are in a forest and a bear suddenly appears, you’ll quickly learn how to run. So all those practical situations are like mini-controlled bears where you can feel the fear and learn to run. Or in other words, try to apply and implement what is learned in the theory lessons. (please, notice that I've used the verb "try" as sometimes is not that easy to do it).

5) “When nothing is sure, everything is possible” - Margaret Drabble

I’m coming from an engineering and technical background where maths and numbers are predominant. You can easily check if something is correct and repeat it until you have that certain. But… in business there’s no one unique result and solution for a challenge, and even worse, the same solution might not be valid for similar situations. This has two faces: the good one is that, in general, no one can say that your solution is not correct (it might be more difficult to defend it, but only that). The bad one is that you cannot know if it is correct either. Dealing with uncertainty in a very volatile world is crucial nowadays. We all are aware of it (hi Covid-19!), so I'm not discovering anything new. I would say that a good recipe for handling this uncertainty would be to mix the data analysis, the technical and practical knowledge based on experience, and the intuition with a huge dose of coherence. And of course, knowing that there’s no correct answer and you have to be ready to pivot fast. You know, at any point, a real big and angry family of bears might appear... Ready to run?

6) “It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen” – Scott Belsky

This is related to the importance of being able to fully commercialize the idea you have. You might have the best idea ever, but if you are unable to bring it to life, create a feasible business case, connect with the correct people/partners, identify the correct target, set the correct operational model, create an attractive marketing strategy, etc... you will lose all your advantage and most likely your smart neighbor will do it. Managing a business is the art of taking into consideration all those aspects.

7) “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school” – Albert Einstein

A college education, in that case, the MBA, does NOT mean anything, this is not proving your intelligence, ability to run a business, or doing your job correctly. This, of course also applies to me. One of my takeaways is that there’s full of ignorant people coursing and passing the MBA, and there are even some people with top-management positions that can show a high level of ignorance. (Yes, yes, I know, I was a bit exaggerated and too hater here, but I'm sure you know what I mean and probably you have faced it in your day-to-day as well). So, why did I do the MBA? As I was introducing in the second section, I consider this MBA as a language, and this course offered me a balance between the contents I was looking for and the price. I only expect that this will help me to be better at doing my job, but I don’t expect that this will guarantee a top-management position directly. Actually, I don’t understand those positions where an MBA is a must, and excludes great people already running a business, but without that title.?But this is another topic, I know...

Conclusion:

I am very glad to have accomplished this MBA. After studying Telecommunications Engineering, and then the Biomedical Engineering master's, this MBA gave me an overview in an area I was definitely lacking. I did it in the UNIR which is one of the best Online MBA offered in Spain since I was unable to do it face to face. For people who haven’t done an MBA, I would recommend trying to do it on-site if possible. I would say that face-to-face communication gives a lot, and at some point, I was missing it. In the case I had done the onsite MBA I would have needed at least having 30 hours a day, which is quite complex and I haven't achieved it (yet)... I'll keep working on it but in the meantime, I'll continue playing and running from the bears, and trying to apply all those learnings in the real life. ??♂?????