Tell us about your background and career:
I was born in a small rural town in the Republic of Moldova. After graduation in my home country, I decided to continue my education abroad and enrolled in a master program at the University of Padua. In the final year of the program, I started working in Italy at a Vicenza-based company in the export/import business. Subsequently, I was hired as a junior accountant at Ferriera Valsider SpA and have enjoyed a rewarding career there. I currently serve as the Plant Controller.
Why did you choose to attend the Part-time MBA Program?
Simply put, my answer doesn't sparkle with originality but personal development and better career opportunities were the driving forces. From a more detailed perspective, the reasons behind the choice of attending an MBA program will vary greatly with the individual. In my case, "personal development" meant enhancing my leadership capabilities through a formal and very rigid training led by highly qualified instructors, whereas "better career opportunities" meant developing a wide range of business expertise through undertaking an interdisciplinary curriculum drawing from all areas of business including psychology, marketing, accounting, finance, and many others.
What benefits did you gain from attending the MBA?
First of all - time, meaning that the MBA course helped me to gain a wide range of general business knowledge in just two years, as opposed to ten years of long trial-and-error processes that characterize on-the-job learning. Second, a really practical and broadly-based business toolkit that helped me to improve my workplace performance from the very first day I enrolled in the CIMBA MBA program. Third and the most important aspect, I shared truly unique in-class experiences with my fellow students who came from very different cultural and educational backgrounds and this not only inspired me, but also helped me to increase my network of business relationships.
How do you see the world differently after your MBA experience?
Well, you might have heard how many business leaders complain that due to current economic downturn their companies struggle with credit crunch, high taxation, and competitive pressure from low labor cost countries and troubles alike. The MBA training made me realize that although in the short-run external factors might have some impact on the overall level of efficiency at which a business operates, in the long run internal factors outweigh any exogenous influences by far. The most important internal factor, the one that truly makes the difference between the prosperous life and painful death of a business, is the leadership ability of its managers.
In your opinion, what skills make a successful manager?
To elaborate on my previous answer, I'd like to take the liberty to reiterate my ideas and emphasize their relevance. Good managers, through self-discipline and broad technical skills, know how to achieve a business goal in the most effective and efficient fashion. Great managers know how to set clear goals, motivate, and inspire by personal example in order to organize an effective teamwork. An outstanding MBA program, such as the one of the University of Iowa offered through CIMBA, will teach you how to do both of these.
What's the best class you attended? The best professor?
For me, it's nearly impossible to single out the best class or the best professor, as I had the honor of being taught by professors who were all outstanding and did an exceptional job at sharing their business wisdom with us.
Would you mind sharing a dream or a future goal?
Like probably each and every manager, I still hope, one sunny day, to come up with such an incredibly inspiring business idea that will enable me to establish my own company.
What inspires you?
In the business setting, curiosity. When I look at a business process, I'm always curious - could I improve it, could I make it even more efficient?
How was combining your job, studying and attending the MBA program?
I guess it wouldn't come as surprise if I say it was quite challenging. It's funny how at some point after stress peaks, one develops a sort of adrenaline dependence and starts being depressed by the perspective that the workload will decline. But seriously speaking, good self-discipline, upportive teammates, and a sympathetic family is all that you need to make it through any apparently insurmountable MBA-related difficulties.
What about your experience in the USA?
Definitely beyond and above my already very high expectations. It was amazing and by far the most intense learning experience in my life I've had up until now. A truly unique blend of in-depth cultural immersion, high-profile guest speakers, company tours, the capstone strategy course was designed to integrate the prior coursework of the whole MBA program and also included a computer-based business simulation game creating an almost real-life business environment, a real venture capitalist fair, and tough negotiations... I really could go on and on describing this once-in-a-life-time experience, but I'll stop here and just say that one thing that I have read and heard about before enrolling in the MBA program, but never fully understood until I experienced it first-hand, is that after what you go through with your classmates and professors, many of the important relationships you develop during your MBA are for life, forming probably one of the most invaluable assets that an MBA program can offer.