When global opportunities knock
Preparing for a global career in the Weekend MBA Program
I was six months into the EMBA program when our management decided to develop international sales. Most of our business is in North America, but we often get overseas requests for our products. Thanks to my prior European work experience and strong sales/business background reinforced by my MBA education, I was chosen to lead our international sales effort.
Doing business abroad was not new to me. What was new is how I needed to approach my mission. Previously, I worked with larger companies where much of the strategy had been ironed out. I used my technical skills to understand customer needs and manage project time-lines.
Today, my job is to develop a business model for international sales and select profitable international growth areas. EMBA core classes, such as Corporate Strategy and Strategic Microeconomics, really changed my perspective. Most of the hardware my company uses is available through international distributors, so I obsess about game theory. I work to create a unique set of attributes (hardware + knowledge + service) that others cannot replicate easily. If a project does not need our unique expertise, I pass up the opportunity rather than commit scarce resources. The result is we have developed three profitable projects without spreading ourselves too thin.
The Program has also stretched my horizons beyond the United States and Europe. There is a big difference between reading about China’s economic growth and preparing practical plans for entering the Chinese market. In the Marketing Management course, my team developed a plan for a cosmetic company to enter the Japanese and/or Chinese markets. We had strong arguments in favor of each market, and the only way to make a decision was to dig deep into the numbers. Being more comfortable with financial statements is a big help in making good decisions.
Electives courses also give me a chance to focus on my global career goals. For example, I’m taking Leveraging Human Capital for Global Competitiveness to help me assemble local teams to support our international sales.
Finally, the Weekend MBA schedule gives me the ability to plan international travel. On my next trip, I will be flying to Paris after my weekend classes and return the following week. Allowing for travel, I’ll have six business days to visit customers between class sessions. The most difficult part is dealing with time differences so that I don’t have conference calls with my MBA team at 2AM. But so far we’ve made it work. Thank you team #8!
