Chyngyz Ibraimov

INSEAD

“I try to live in accordance with R. Kipling’s “If”

Hometown: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Fun Fact About Yourself: Once, I learned the longest tongue twister in the world in Russian on a dare.

Undergraduate School and Major: Kyrgyz State Law Academy, Law

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Senior Consultant

INSEAD 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 year? One of the main reasons driving my pursuit of an MBA is my strong desire to bring the best global business practices back to my home country. I don’t just want to skim through successful case studies; I aim for a deeper, more impactful approach. This involves connecting with people who haven’t just executed these practices, but have personally experienced their effects in their own countries. This is where my diverse group of peers becomes an incredible source of insights and wisdom.

For example, during an international event I once participated, I had the pleasure of getting to know a young woman from South Africa. She shared the inspiring story of how she and her team successfully launched a water conservation project. While I had heard about the project before, it was her honest narrative that truly opened my eyes to the complexities and hurdles they faced. Through her words, I gained a much more genuine and thorough grasp of the entire project. I truly believe that such personal conversations enrich and enhance the learning experience, bringing a real-world dimension to the formal training I’m receiving.

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of INSEAD’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? One of the key factors that influenced my choice to study at INSEAD is the length of the course. Many MBA programs take two years, while INSEAD has 10 months. It was very important for me that the learning process was intensive and took almost all of my time, but only for a year. In addition, the one-year program requires less financial investment associated with accommodation and other non-essential expenses.

What has been your first impression of the INSEAD MBA students and alumni you’ve met so far. Tell us your best INSEAD story so far. Since I haven’t started studying at INSEAD yet, all my impressions are related only to online dating. For the convenience of communication between students, we use the Meet application, in which, among other functions, you can view profiles of classmates. After reading the previous work experience, hobbies and achievements of my future comrades, I was amazed at how diverse people’s profiles are. Different areas, different companies, different hobbies, but all united by one goal.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at INSEAD? While passing the master’s program, I would not like to constraint myself in formal    education and forget about extracurricular activities. The first place I will sign up for will be a Business Case   Club. I am sure that the value of such clubs lies in creating a platform for peer-to-peer education, where each member is not only a student but also a teacher, a comrade, and maybe a life-long friend. I hope to find like-minded people who will help me hone my structural thinking skills and share their professional experience of doing business in their countries. After all, an MBA is not only about studying but also about important networking that connects people with different backgrounds.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: At PricewaterhouseCoopers, working with one of the largest railway companies in Europe, I participated in two major projects. On the first project, I analyzed the company’s human capital investments and developed recommendations for cost optimization and budget allocation. My focus was on identifying activities with the lowest ROI in human capital development and understanding the reasons behind their inefficiency. I interviewed company employees, evaluated their performance data, and identified patterns in how well they achieved set goals over the past 15 years. Through my analysis, I found inconsistencies in work instructions that hindered employee performance and indicated areas where expenditures could be reduced by 6% without compromising the quality of work.

What do you hope to do after graduation (at this point)? Upon graduation, I plan to work for one of the top three consulting firms. By working with various clients, collaborating in teams, and operating in different locations, I will gain exposure to diverse business practices and market specificities. Since there are no international strategic consulting companies in my home country, I plan to establish my own in Kyrgyzstan after gaining the necessary expertise. The company will focus on helping local organizations develop strategies for accessing larger economies, identifying market entry barriers, and improving the quality of their products to meet international standards.

What other MBA programs did you apply to?  INSEAD only

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into INSEAD’s MBA program? When submitting documents to INSEAD, I read many examples of successful essays and I got the feeling that most of them are quite similar and written in a similar template. Therefore, when writing my essays, I strived to be different in the way I write and in the selection of my personal stories. INSEAD is a school that is very supportive of diversity and therefore it is very important to show that you are not just one in a thousand, but that you have an interesting and unique experience.

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