Yu Lin

IMD Business School

“An authentic aspirant of life story, delicious food, green future.”

Hometown: Xi’An, China

Fun Fact About Yourself: I was trapped in the cable car station on the Mt. Brig in Switzerland above the snowline for a night after 6 hours’ hiking because I missed the last cable car going down.

Undergraduate School and Major:

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Power Engineering of Aircraft Vehicles, China

University of Southern Denmark, Mechatronics, Denmark

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Commodity Management, Team Lead

IMD classes have been dubbed the “Mighty 90” for their talent and versatility. What has been the best part of being in a small class with this group of classmates? The best part to me is bonding and the exposure to diversity. In such a small class, I am closely exposed to different backgrounds which provide me a great learning experience on diverse mindsets and cultures. We are from 40 nationalities, and in group work where we work in teams of 5-6 people, there are usually 3 or 4 different cultures represented. Meanwhile, I have the chance to know everyone and build up a strong bonding in the whole cohort as a group.

Aside from classmates, what part of IMD’s MBA programming led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Except for classmates, the most important driver for me choosing IMD is the ‘Leadership Stream’. I was attracted by the idea of a transformative program and especially on further developing my self-awareness, self-acknowledgement, and self-improvement. All such personal benefits are way more important than knowledge to me. And IMD demonstrated such transformative function by the amazing experiential activities, intensive group work, impressive guest speakers, and discovery trips.

Since I have started, the ‘real learning, real impact’ aspect of the program has given us the chance to implement all our reflections into our program studies, observe changes in the dynamic and improve ourselves iteratively.

IMD is known for academic rigor. What is one strategy you used that would help a future IMD MBA better adapt to the workload early on? Be prepared and have confidence would be my suggestion. Especially in Module 1, there will be a lot of work to do, cases, calculations, and essays. All professors are amazing and helpful. It is great to have discussions with them either during class or afterwards. It feels like communicating with colleagues and friends with enlightening insights. Please be mentally prepared for hard work and have confidence in yourself and in IMD’s professors. And enjoy the hard work and classes!

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I was responsible for the procurement of some large steel parts in 2021. Due to the high logistics costs from China to other regions, it was extremely difficult to obtain savings. I coordinated among regional teams, aligned across company synergies, investigated the logistic shipping market with suppliers, and managed to get good savings of around 6% on material costs for the commodity.

Describe your biggest accomplishment at IMD so far: My biggest accomplishment at IMD is that, together with another four classmates in the MBA EI&D Committee, we organized the first LGBTQ+ experience, a sharing event, within the MBA cohort. It was an intimate event. People shared their experience about organizing activities and promoting inclusiveness in working environment, or reflections on previous experiences. I feel extremely proud of the event and the inclusiveness showed among the cohort. One of my classmates said that “it set a good ground for people to start talking about this topic more openly”.

Where is your favorite hang-out in Lausanne? Why do you (and your classmates) gravitate there? My favorite spot is a narrow track that runs along the lake from Ouchy to Pully (about 4.5 km). That is always my running routine. There are some amazing views throughout all the seasons and a few spots close to the lake that are good for relaxing and self-reflection.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? My suggestion is that if pursuing an MBA is something you want to do, then the sooner the better. I actually wish I could have done it a few years earlier. However, I needed the time to put together the necessary funding beforehand. Then there came a time when I realized that I could not wait any longer or I would miss my chance. I felt the need for a better business knowledge structure and a broader view on how to make business decisions in order to strengthen my leadership. Aside from these skills, I felt that an MBA might also lead to a beneficial career change, but the most important goal is firstly to be a better me.

What has been your best memory at IMD thus far? There are so many memories that I can hardly choose a best. One could be the COP simulation experience, which was organized for MBAs for the first time this year. I was really encouraged by the authenticity and effort Professor Knut Haanaes put into delivering the event. Over the two-day experience, I put myself in the role of certain countries, and their topics became such a reality that I felt both the strong urgency and the complexity of each situation as well. It reminded me to revisit the sustainability topics we face and to emphasise the effort we need to make.

DON’T MISS: MEET IMD BUSINESS SCHOOL’S MBA CLASS OF 2022