Meet the MBA Class of 2022: Juan Carlos Concha, Warwick Business School

Juan Carlos Concha

Warwick Business School

“FCMG veteran learning to do business in a new world.”

Hometown: Santiago, Chile

Fun Fact About Yourself: I went to circus school as a teenager. I learned how to juggle, diabolo, ride a monocycle, and trapeze. My reflexes aren’t what they were, so no demonstrations here.

Undergraduate School and Major: Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile, Business Bachelor

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: FEMSA Salud, Supply Manager

What word best describes your classmates and give an example of why? Energetic. It is hard to keep up with people around here. My classmates are very keen on giving their best on everything they do when it comes to schoolwork. We recently had a Strategic Thinking Challenge where the energy levels were amazing; we were each assigned a random corporation from a random country and had to analyse its business and come up with strategic actions. The result was a great display of cross-industry knowledge.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Warwick Business School’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you? Something that really impressed me about the Warwick Business School, that I can now confirm to be true, is their focus on sustainability. You can really see they are committed to it, not just on paper. In class it’s always present, the focus is real and the faculty is aligned to the view that sustainability is critical for businesses to thrive in the long term.

What course, club or activity have you enjoyed the most so far at Warwick Business School? To be honest, I would love to be part of a school club. However, I have been too busy co-founding the Warwick Latin American Society since there was no solid representation of the community on campus and it is a unique culture that must be shared. There is a wide range of clubs to choose from and they all look very interesting.

Aside from the Latin American Society, a module that I am very excited about is Managing in a New World. Learning about how the world is changing and how it will keep doing so, is one of the main reasons I decided to do an MBA, and this module has it all.

What has been your best memory at the Warwick Business School so far? Why? During the LeadershipPlus module we were invited to face “difficult conversations” of our past — or that are meant to happen in the future — with a highly trained actor. Wow! We were divided into small groups to keep the intimacy of them, and the result is as powerful as you can imagine. Gender, age, income — you name it; a huge number of issues came to light. It really made us think about how to approach our future interactions and that the old and bad ways of running businesses are not gone.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: While working for Mars, new regulations were introduced and we weren’t allowed to use very valuable brand assets (I think you can imagine what), among other restrictions and obligations. I had to take over the corporate affairs of the national company because the person in charge was on maternity leave. While working from a marketing/sales perspective, I was able, by working closely with other business units, to implement a series of swift actions that led us to comply while reducing the product image changes to a minimum and keeping our market share in a fiercely competitive environment.

What do you hope to do after graduation? I want to stay in Europe or work in North America while I keep on learning about the forces that are shaping the future corporate world.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Warwick Business School’s MBA program?Be authentic. I am sure you have a story to tell, and you may be working on how to present it the right way; be true to yourself — there is no other way and it is hard to inspire if you are going to deliver a prepared speech in your interview. Relax.

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