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Diversity and Risk-Taking: Alumni Reflect on their MBA Experience

Business school can be a transformative experience for many. Whether you’re trying to pivot careers or become a leader, an MBA can serve as an ideal launching pad for your new career.

The Financial Times recently interviewed past and present B-school students who offered insight into what they have learned from their studies and what’s surprised them most about their MBA experience.

DIVERSITY IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS

One of the main reasons why Syreel Mishra, an MBA graduate of Trinity Business School in Dublin and assistant manager of climate change and sustainability Services at EY, Ireland, pursued an MBA was to gain the skills needed to make a real impact.

“I have always been passionate and driven about the environment, having worked at various UN organizations and environmental foundations across Europe and Africa,” Mishra says. “The private sector plays a vital role in building a climate-resilient and sustainable world, and I wanted to expand my business acumen so that I could lead on and drive high-impact ESG projects in the corporate world.”

Mishra says the most enjoyable aspect of B-school was the people.

“I had the honor of working with diverse peers on a program that opened my mind to new ways of thinking and challenged me every day to think and be better,” Syreel Mishra, an MBA graduate of Trinity Business School in Dublin and assistant manager of climate change and sustainability Services at EY, Ireland, says.  “I learnt that diversity of thought and experiences in a team can greatly elevate the outcome — it prevents groupthink as solutions are developed for various business challenges.”

Diversity was also a huge selling point for Paul Beville, a graduate of the executive education program at Henley Business School in the UK and senior internal audit manager at Invesco.

“The diverse careers and industries of the participants, ranging from financial services to charity to media, helped to illustrate how effective leadership can be implemented in differing environments,” Beville says.

TAKE RISKS

Business school is the time for experimenting and trying new things. For Roméo Poncet-Labouche, a Masters in Management graduate of EMLyon, France and co-founder of cryptocurrency company Mon Livret C, France, an MBA provided the perfect environment for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The most important thing I learnt was the need to dare as an entrepreneur,” Poncet-Labouche says. “You can have the greatest ideas in the world but, if you don’t put them into practice, they will never flourish. EMLyon pushes students to come up with ideas and projects of all sorts and I’m grateful for that.”

Sources: Financial Times, P&Q