Alisa Vaz

IESE Business School, University of Navarra

“Working to be my most authentic self, cutting paths into tomorrow for others to follow.”

Hometown: Toronto, Canada / Yoshkar-Ola, Russia

Fun Fact About Yourself: I have lived on three continents. However, I never felt like an outsider. It seems that I finally found a home, because IESE seems to be full of students with stories like mine.

Undergraduate School and Major: York University – Honours in Environmental Studies

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Project Manager @ BlueRush Digital Media

What makes the case method so attractive as a means to learn and become a better manager? There is no recipe you can follow for insight and wisdom. IESE’s case method makes you walk the path and get to the destination, whereas other schools send you a postcard. In my perspective, the case method prevents the intellectual laziness that the next generation of leaders cannot afford (but that we can all have as human beings!)

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of the school’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? First, I was looking to understand the European perspective on business, which seems to me a stark difference to the short-sighted quarterly profit-based North American outlook.

Second, the case method was a big factor and IESE is quite special in this way.

And third, I spoke to many alumni to understand their perspective. Everyone had a special story to share about a class that changed their worldview significantly. This is something program statistics and rankings can never truly capture!

What club or activity excites you most at this school? I am looking forward to sharpening every mental tool in my kit, so I am equally excited about the Consulting Club and the Meditation Club.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: One achievement that stands out is being selected by a CEO to help shift a software company to a SaaS model. From an operational standpoint, this was a bold undertaking that required creative thinking and solid knowledge of the industry. It was a transformation of a decade-old established company spread across two separate provinces, with many different teams set in their own way. Strong people skills were mandatory to drive the transition. This immense project taught me about the courage being an entrepreneur requires, and how important it is to rely on the expertise of others when working on such a scale.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? The last couple of years, I have been working directly with executives who spoke of their MBA program as the biggest catalyst to their intellectual journey. I particularly admired their analytical ability to slice through the messiness of real-world problems, and the imagination it requires to picture the company in its fully-grown stage and create the roadmap to get there. I chose this moment because I felt my expertise in financial technology and project management would be relevant and enrich the class experience.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I only applied to IESE. I was very sure of my path forward.

What was the most challenging question you were asked during the admissions process? It was, without a doubt, “What do you want to be remembered for?”. You really have to get out of your own way to answer this question. It can be very easy to have blinders on and march full speed ahead while you are in the corporate environment. However, without the compass that this question represents, it can be entirely a hedonistic pursuit.

When you step outside yourself, your immediate circumstance, and even the current time, you see your path as something that will stretch far into the future and into many other lives. This really forces you to rediscover your values before you can act them out.

How did you determine your fit at various schools? This might seem simple, but I put the most stock into how alumni talked about their experience. IESE alumni reflections were very warm and sincere. They described their sections as a community, and their teams as a family. This spoke the most to me.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? A few years ago, I saw the potential of working internationally and remotely. I strongly believed in this as a shift to a much more productive corporate culture. The company I was with supported my vision and allowed me to lead a team of developers and designers in the Americas and Europe, while I was living in Asia.

The leaps in efficiency from being fully remote were incredible and prepared the team well for when, suddenly, the entire world was expected to work from home, overnight, due to COVID-19.

This experience taught me how valuable it is to follow my gut instinct. And more importantly, that instinct may sometimes be your saving grace when the world throws the next curve ball.

What is your favorite company and what could business students learn from them? For some time now, I have been inspired by the corporate culture of fully distributed companies like Automattic and Basecamp. I believe in prioritizing efficiency, boosting creativity, and minimizing ego, and I think this represents the future of work.

DON’T MISS: MEET THE MBA CLASS OF 2022 AT IESE BUSINESS SCHOOL