Noam Kan

London Business School

“Regardless of the winds, I always know which port I’m aiming for.”

Hometown: Haifa, Israel

Fun Fact About Yourself: I play the piano but still can’t type with more than one finger!

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Haifa School of Political Sciences, Political Science

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: ADAM CogTec (mobility start-up), Product Manager.

What makes London such a great place to earn an MBA degree? To tire of London is to tire of life; I’m sure that Samuel Johnson didn’t restrict his ingenious claim to London’s attractions and fun activities, and that he shrewdly anticipated London’s business sphere 200 years in advance. As the buzzing business hub of Europe, with the most mature VCs and the largest number of start-ups, London is an MBA candidate’s dream — the opportunities are endless. There’s no better place to try different directions in your MBA journey, and experience those alternatives throughout your time at London Business School.

An MBA in London is not just about sitting in class and studying; it’s about experiencing the studies and their practical applications in unison, in the heart of the city and alongside a variety of operating businesses that range from the largest to the smallest. Beyond the excellent business atmosphere, there is an endless selection of museums, theatres, and cultural experiences. London is a diverse city that really has everything to offer; it’s full of opportunities, incredibly interesting to explore, easy to travel in, and fun!

London Business School is one of the most culturally and professionally diverse MBA programs in the world. How do you see these global perspectives enhancing the value of your business education over the next two years? My life in Haifa, Israel’s most diverse and multicultural city, has taught me that diversity is a strength. Only by living alongside people of different cultures and sharing thoughts and experiences did I realise just how much we are shaped by our surroundings. Our cultural values, our heritage, and even the construction of our language greatly affect our thought processes and ideas.

In an ever more global world, increasing diversity in our institutions is not only morally correct but also incredibly beneficial from a business perspective. Exposing a diversity of mindsets to the problems we face in our societies introduces an inexhaustible mine of new ideas, methods, and solutions that would otherwise be unattainable. The MBA is an active programme, in which the participation of students is key; I expect to learn as much (if not more!) from my diverse classmates as I do from the curriculum, and count on them to make this unique experience rich and fulfilling.

And I haven’t even mentioned global networking!

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of London Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? To me, the most important aspect of a programme is its flexibility. An MBA is an opportunity to branch out, learn more about every part of the business world, and form connections with people outside your immediate surroundings. I wanted to join a business school that would enable me to take this journey in my own direction, and change that direction if I decided to.

Up until recently, I spent my career in the military, which didn’t exactly operate as a business (no revenue, no customers, no market, etc.). When I decided to pursue an MBA, I knew that there were plenty of opportunities out there, but I couldn’t really categorise any of them or fully understand what they meant. To me that uncertainty was exciting: I could aim for something large and zone in on the details along the path.

In London Business School, I intend to make full use of the flexibility of the programme. Perhaps some hours will be better spent in class and others in experiential learning? Perhaps I’ll feel more comfortable spreading my classes or grouping them together? I don’t know yet, but once I find out I’ll be able to choose the way that suits me best!

What course, club or activity excites you the most at London Business School? The activity that excites me most in London Business School is LondonCAP, an experiential event that enables students to work with real organisations to provide business solutions.

I look forward to testing my ideas and expanding my horizon by working in new fields alongside talented and experienced classmates. I’m sure that LondonCAP will let me test my innovative ideas outside the classroom, gain valuable experience in a real business setting, and help me form relationships with business leaders and influencers.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: When you spend a large portion of your career leading a team in a tight submarine, the biggest successes (and challenges) are human-related. The short version of my accomplishment is that I kept one officer in the fleet.

To provide some context, the Israeli Submarine Fleet is a special unit in which operators are handpicked and training is rigorous and long, with some roles taking up to five years to complete basic training. The fleet is uncompromising in its professional demands but encourages a Musketeer mentality (all-for-one and one-for-all). One junior officer in my team found the pressure too much to bear and asked for reassignment. Nothing would have been easier than to get a replacement, but I decided to dig a little deeper into this officer’s personal story; I learnt that the professional hardships were due to a combination of factors: problems at home, a lack of guidance early-on, unfair treatment by previous supervisors, and others.

I chose to not give up. We had a period of about six months to compensate for the loss of nearly a year of training and bring the officer back to track, and we also had to sort out those external problems. The effort took most of my personal time and required a lot of energy to persuade higher-ups, but we eventually managed to break through. The success produced not only an excellent officer, who is now a Chief Engineer in the fleet, but also a significant increase in morale and team-performance; when people feel that their problems matter, they’re willing to give so much more in return.

In the end, great organisations are made of people, and sometimes even great people need help. I have had the privilege of representing the Israeli Navy in NATO and have changed the fleet’s training methodologies to cut training cycles by 25%, but I still consider this one personal story to be my greatest accomplishment.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general? Despite the obvious and well-known negative implications of the pandemic, I found a lot of inspiration and hope in the way the business world adapted to COVID-19. The pandemic has taught me some valuable lessons about making the most of any situation, adapting to challenging circumstances, and using unexpected tools to my advantage.

The pandemic didn’t change my career goals; it only reframed them. During the pandemic, I didn’t change my objectives but I did change my outlook on how to achieve them and how exactly my workday will look. Lockdown was an excellent lesson on how to work with constraints, and I had to actively acquire new tools to complete tasks that would have otherwise been done in the traditional way. After two months, I discovered that my productivity actually increased as I learnt to use the best of both worlds to my advantage.

The whole experience of the pandemic has left me really hopeful about the future of our world and our ability to adapt and make the most of our opportunities. To me, that’s a valuable lesson.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? My experience in the Navy brought together two of my passions: the ocean and working with people. I decided early on that I wanted to keep dealing with both of those things in a civilian setting, but realising that an MBA would be the best place to do so took me a while.

Through an MBA, I aspire to lead people towards a cleaner, healthier ocean. Voluntary action is just not enough; to create real impact we need to influence large corporations that direct manufacturing. I believe that the key to saving our environment is to create sustainable businesses, and that my engineering skills and leadership experience provide me with the opportunity to contribute to the effort. After my graduation, I intend to join a technological organisation as a product manager to develop unique solutions to the problem of ocean pollution.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? The flexibility of the MBA programme was really important to me, so I also applied to Chicago Booth.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into London Business School’s MBA program? My personal advice to applicants of any kind is to read books that take you out of your comfort zone.

Reading will help you expand your horizons and better understand both yourself and your world. Essentially, an MBA (just like any degree) is a means to an end. As an applicant, you should first think about your goal and only then consider the possible routes and how an MBA fits into that masterplan. Once you can explain to yourself why you aim to do something, you can find the appropriate resources and methods.

Reading won’t help you with all the technicalities; it won’t entirely solve your “how.” Instead, reading will guide you to the “what” and the “why,” and those are significantly more important.

DON’T MISS: MEET LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2023