Marks Jing Xu

Warwick Business School

“A global citizen strives to make a positive impact within the community.”

Hometown: Shanghai, China

Fun Fact About Yourself: Being an NBA player was my dream when I was little. But, having a height of 5’5 in high school, I knew the dream would always stay the dream. Then, I decided to pursue an ‘MBA instead of an ‘NBA for my career endeavor.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Miami – Public Relations/Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:

Omni Marketing – Senior PR Manager

Edelman – Senior Executive

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I quit a well-paid global corporate job and joined a start-up digital marketing firm Omni Marketing founded in 2016. At Omni, I established and led the PR team to provide communication plans for clients to gain brand awareness in China. The company grew from 5 people to 40 in less than 3 years. The revenue has been growing over 30% year to year.

Describe your biggest accomplishment at Warwick so far? Working with people from different backgrounds and building leadership skills has been the most valuable learning experience at Warwick so far. In term 1 and term 2, we are required to take a Leadership course at Warwick MBA. Through different activities and workshops, the Leadership course gave me an opportunity to reflect on myself and learn how to manage and communicate in a team instead of commanding people. A good leader knows the art of management and good management requires good communication skills. The Leadership course gave me many practices to accomplish being a better communicator within any organization.

What quality best describes the MBA classmates you’ve met so far and why? My MBA classmates are hard-working, accommodating and intelligent. The best quality I found among my MBA classmates is everyone is willing to help each other by sharing their knowledge or skill in specific areas.

In term 1, my syndicate group (Warwick separates us into groups of 7 or 8 people to work together for a full term) consisted of people from 7 cities with 7 extremely different career backgrounds. We had a consultant, advertiser, engineer, marketer, etc. Although our growing-up experiences are different, our group chemistry was surprisingly compatible. I remembered there was a task for each group to build a hand-made plane in three hours. Despite no-one having aircraft industry experience, each member in the group was willing to contribute their specialty, it’s all about teamwork! So, we had one person watching YouTube to learn the building process, two collecting materials and measuring cutting sizes, three working on the tagline and marketing presentation, and one person supervising the whole work progress. Thanks to everyone’s hard work, our group won the best presentation and the 2nd best plane in the whole cohort. We were so proud of ourselves!

I have never felt any hesitation to talk about my weak areas, such as finance and accounting with my MBA Fellows. People don’t judge you, instead, they share experience and knowledge to help you to improve. These lovely MBA classmates make this MBA journey more valuable!

Aside from your classmates, what was the key factor that led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA and why was it so important to you? Career support was a vital factor for me to choose the Warwick MBA. People come to the MBA willing to make a giant leap in their career, and I am no exception.

Being Chinese with an overseas education and working background, I enjoy working in a diverse environment. A globally recognized institution such as Warwick Business School was what I am looking for to study at. With a global community of over 40,000 graduates and students in over 140 countries, WBS gives me great networking opportunities that I wouldn’t get anywhere else. Having the WBS brand behind me can really help as well.

In addition to speaking to leaders of businesses as part of the career events at WBS, I practiced the theory in real-life cases at every module. The one-on-one coaching sessions provided by the WBS CareersPlus team are helpful in terms of connecting my own individual values and beliefs with the career objectives I have set for myself. I can see myself growing my business insights both personally and professionally at WBS.

What club or activity are you looking most forward to in business school? Warwick offers international study trips for students to better explore industries in another country.  I will be going to Milan, Italy in March 2019 to learn about luxury brand management and digital strategy, which I am super excited about.

I haven’t been to Italy before and I am always curious about the success of Italian luxury brands. The study trip offers a good chance for us to explore the best practices of growth strategy implementation adapted by successful Italian and European companies operating in luxury industries. Moreover, I look forward to having fun with my MBA buddies in Italy by visiting beautiful architecture, enjoying the local cuisine and meeting new friends.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? An MBA is an opportunity for me to learn business management theory, to meet wise people globally and to gain independent growth in a new city. With 5 years of PR agency experience, I want to switch my role at agencies to strategic brand consulting.  Also, starting my own business is my long-term career goal.

To approach the career goal, solid managerial skills and a large business network are a must to have.  The Warwick MBA education can help me to achieve my goal because of its ‘learning by doing’ approach, the class diversity, the global exposure, the reputation, and the location.  I am proud to be part of the Warwick community.

What other MBA programs did you apply to?

University of Hong Kong

National University of Singapore

Imperial College London

How did you determine your fit at various schools? My evaluation for the right MBA program can be mainly concluded as below:

Ranking: No doubt that most MBA students are obsessed with rankings. For me, when I applied to MBA programs, I categorized schools by their rankings. Usually, the Financial Times and QS are two ranking lists I viewed as more accurate. Also, in addition to the latest ranking list release, I would compare rankings in the past five years. The schools with continuous climbing in rankings may have good potential in the future. I would like to invest myself in a school with a bright future.

Course settings/tuition: An MBA for me is an investment for my career. When choosing a program, I need to make sure the courses are valuable for the money I pay. With the goal of working in the strategic branding sector, I would like to have more practical case exercises rather than academic lectures. Also, international exposure is important for me to know the global market. The Warwick MBA offers a lot of case studies in each module. A good thing about these case studies is the companies mentioned in the study are not only American companies, but there were also companies from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Learning business from a global perspective is key to future leaders.

Compared to US schools which have 2-year MBAs, most of UK MBAs are 1-year programs. For me, 1-year is not too long to stay away from the competitive workplace. In addition, the Warwick MBA has good value for money as well. The tuition for FTMBA 2018-2019 was £39,000, with a scholarship offered by Warwick, the ROI is very high.

Alumni: LinkedIn is a good platform for me to search MBA alumni. Using LinkedIn, I can have a quick browse about alumni’s industries, working functions, and companies. If the alumni happened to be in the same city as me, I would invite them for a chat over coffee. During the talk, I gained more insights regarding school life and the value of the MBA program. Before accepting the Warwick offer, I had talked to several Warwick MBA alumni either on social media or at coffee shops. These alumni were super helpful to give me “tips for MBA survival”. One feature about the Warwick MBA always mentioned is the student-centric care from Warwick lecturers, professors, and the admission team.

Career support: Career support is an important factor in terms of MBA selection. Whenever talking with alumni or the school’s admission team, I always ask about the job offer acceptance rate, job function distribution, salary increase, and a school’s professional network. After my first term at Warwick, WBS CareerPlus is impressive. All mentors are happy to give students professional advice. At each coaching session, mentors record the student’s progress to ensure the next coaching session with that student can have further improvement. Mentors always listen to student’s career needs and utilize the school’s resources to help students expand their professional networks either in the UK or the rest of the world.

When searching for MBA programs, apart from talking to alumni and the school admission office, I always get on gmatclub.com, FindMBA.com or Quora.com to get more perspectives from other students or people who have such MBA knowledge. Some posts on these forums and websites are very informative. This online information allowed me to compare the pros and cons among different schools and indeed make the ideal decision.

What was your defining moment and how did it shape who you are? In 2017, I participated in an entrepreneurial program in Silicon Valley in the USA. Silicon Valley is a dream place for entrepreneurs all over the world. It was my first time in Silicon Valley. Spending almost two months in Silicon Valley, the experience was mind-blowing. People are talking and sharing business ideas all time. When I was in Starbucks drinking coffee alone, there was a white male wearing glasses who approached me and asked: “Excuse me, sir, I wonder if you have a minute to give me some feedback on my business idea?” I agreed, and then he started introducing his idea about making a platform for small businesses to customize advertisements without outsourcing. I was impressed with how energetic this place was!

Being an introverted Asian man, such an entrepreneurial atmosphere influenced me to do something out of my comfort zone! During the program, many entrepreneurs showed a strong passion in Asia, but they are hardly getting their businesses into Asian countries due to a lack of local knowledge. Being Chinese, I can see the vital role Asian countries will play in the future global economy. So I, together with other 5 Asian students, decided to host a forum for building up a platform connecting Western entrepreneurs and Asian businessmen. Despite the tight-schedule of less than two-weeks preparation, I visited 3 media companies in San Francisco and made more than 10 phone calls. Our event ended up with over 50 attendees and generated coverage on social media.

Such an amazing Silicon Valley journey shaped me to be a person who does everything in his power to drive, build, and pursue progress and change; to explore the world with gusto and enthusiasm!

After the USA trip, I decided to challenge myself by quitting my job and applying for an MBA. At Warwick, I have begun a journey of self-discovery, cultural immersion and learning leadership skills to further broaden my horizons.

Where do you see yourself in five years? In the next five years, I wish to see myself having a career in strategic brand consulting with recognition from colleagues and clients. My family is happy and healthy. Most importantly, I will keep being humble and continuously making a positive impact within the community.