Ifechukwu “Eephie” Achife

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

“Always excited about new adventures. I carry a camera around to capture sunsets.”

Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria

Fun Fact About Yourself: For someone scared of heights, I’ve completed three canopy walks and plan to complete more as I travel. Trying for 10.

Undergraduate School and Major: University of Ibadan; Master of Science in Economics, and Bachelor of Science in Economics

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Accelerex Holdings as the Group Strategy Analyst

What has been your first impression of the Marshall MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best Marshall story so far. It has been exciting. Everyone has been welcoming and interested to know about my background. The professors are great and encourage open dialogue in the classes. Everyone’s willingness to help a fellow Trojan, whether it’s with recruitments, introductions, or something as little as where you could purchase a tennis racket is really inspiring. I’m proud to be part of the community.

What makes Los Angeles such a great place to earn an MBA? Just like in real estate, location is everything. But really, Los Angeles has such a great weather which made it a great consideration for me coming from a warmer clime. It also has such a diverse population of people and there’s always some activity to be done. Plus, my school of choice was in Los Angeles.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of USC Marshall’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? The global travel programme, PRIME was a major factor to me. I love to travel and the opportunity to travel for an experiential learning trip was one I did not want to pass up. I think it will be fun getting to apply some course concepts to solving solutions. In addition, Marshall has smaller class sizes, which I think ensures we can all get to know each other, interact more with our professors, and engage more. I also think the fact that the class sizes are small contribute to the bond within the Trojan Network.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at USC Marshall? We’ve had a few courses so far and I look forward to the Microeconomics classes. All the others are great, but my bias may be because I have a background in Economics. I’m also looking forward to joining the Marshall Consulting Club. I love the challenge consulting presents in structuring frameworks to solve sometimes ambiguous problems. Finally, I’m interested in the Marshall Wine Club. I hope we get to tour some of the vineyards in California. (Cheers!)

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: I had just joined this company in the fintech space and was given a target across metrics for this new product which was meant for the retail market. Working with the team, we were able to grow daily transactions by over 200 percent from less than 10 at the start of the year. It was great to work with a team and see the growth that we achieved as we put structures in place for continuity. I enjoyed the switch from consulting to implementation and my reward was seeing the performance.

What is one thing you have recently read, watched, or listened to that you would highly recommend to prospective MBAs? Why?  A good 99 percent of what I have been reading these days has been coursework. Something I did enjoy reading, which was a while back, was Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. It presents examples and helps you see how to identify opportunities in the market to create an innovative new product. Sometimes all it takes is a reduction or elimination of features. Other times, an addition or enhancement. Why? A lot of the times, markets keep competing on cost advantages but there’s always more to explore.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into USC Marshall’s MBA program? It’s a great MBA program. You gain access to the Trojan Network which is amazing. Plus, you get to experience the beautiful weather in LA. So, go on ahead and write those applications and show your diversity and I wish you all the best.

DON’T MISS: Meet USC Marshall’s MBA Class Of 2024