Young Professionals Archives - IESE Standout

Your career isn’t ending. It’s evolving

IESE Standout — Thu, 07 May 2026 13:19:06 +0000

Suddenly you find yourself faced with the challenge of pursuing another role and writing a whole new chapter in your working life. For many professionals, such a transition to second, or even third, career does not arrive according to a convenient timeline.

It may emerge gradually, as the trajectory that once defined your working life begins to plateau. Or it may be imposed abruptly – through restructuring, redundancy, or market disruption – demanding urgent and decisive action.

In either case, the challenge is the same: you need to take charge of the situation so that you can maintain momentum and keep forging ahead in your career. While some trepidation is natural, it shouldn’t be the defining response. At any stage, a professional pivot can be a powerful opportunity for reinvention and personal growth.

The question is not whether reinvention is possible – but how you can shape the change in your circumstances in profitable and fulfilling ways. The truth is that those who approach this moment with clarity and intent can unlock exciting and unexpected avenues for growth and a renewed sense of purpose.

Reframing your situation

According to Manuel Alonso Puig, who leads IESE Business School’s New Professional Horizons (NHP) program for seasoned executives in Spain, the key to navigating a career shift lies in adopting a structured and intentional approach.

“You need to determine your true professional value at this moment,” he explains, “and craft a value proposition that clearly sets you apart.”

This requires a shift in mindset. Rather than viewing a career change as a disruption, professionals can reframe it as a strategic transition – one that aligns their accumulated experience with emerging opportunities.

A changing world of work

Today’s professionals are navigating career decisions against the backdrop of profound shifts in the global labor market.

Technological advances – particularly in generative AI – are expected to drive productivity gains, while simultaneously raising questions about job displacement and evolving skill requirements. At the same time, demographic trends are reshaping the workforce: people are living longer, healthier lives, even as aging populations place new demands on labor markets.

These changes are extending the length – and complexity – of careers. The traditional linear trajectory is giving way to more dynamic, multi-stage professional lives, where reinvention is not the exception but the norm. In this context, the ability to adapt is key.

The NHP program at IESE encourages senior professionals to reflect on the following key dimensions as they translate years of experience into new opportunities:

How to align their professional experience and strengths with new career horizons.
What skills and tools are needed to reshape their working lives in line with evolving values and interests.
How to refine leadership and management capabilities for new contexts.
How to leverage networks, mentors, and institutional resources to uncover opportunities.

For many participants, this process leads back into executive roles. For others, it opens doors to consulting, investing, entrepreneurship, or interim management positions – roles that often capitalize on deep expertise while offering greater flexibility and autonomy.

“The time you spend at work is a very large part of your life,” says Yolanda De Gregorio Velazquez, who recently transitioned into a debt advisory role at a corporate finance firm in Barcelona after completing the program. “You have to be brave and seek work that truly fulfils you.”

Building a structured path forward

While a late-stage career re-set presents its own challenges, the truth is that people constantly need to review their professional paths to take account of fresh opportunities.

As part of its mission to support its former students at different stages of their professional journey, IESE offers tools to help them identify job openings or craft a strategic plan to achieve their long-term career goals.

The Professional Transition Program, for example, helps IESE alumni at any stage of their career to explore new opportunities via a series of “bootcamps” that guide them through the different steps of their exploration of a new role:

Discover your path: Participants begin by identifying their interests, values, motivations, and strengths to define a clear sense of purpose.
Build your brand: With greater self-awareness, they can then develop a compelling personal narrative with the help of career coaches and mentors.
Go to market: The final stage focuses on execution: refining the job search strategy, strengthening networking efforts, and preparing to communicate effectively in interviews and professional interactions.

“The people who lead it are really passionate about it, and you really feel that want you to succeed,” Pavel Veselov, who holds an Executive MBA from IESE, says of the PTP course, which he recently completed.

Courage, clarity, and opportunity

There is no denying that changing career direction can be challenging. It requires courage, careful planning, and often a willingness to step outside one’s comfort zone. Yet the potential rewards are significant: more meaningful work, greater alignment with personal values, and, in many cases, improved work–life balance.

Eugeni Brotóns offers a compelling example. After stepping down as global marketing director at the Spanish beverage firm González Byass in 2023, he chose to reassess his professional path. Following his participation in IESE’s NHP program, he transitioned into consulting and now advises firms including the Rioja-based winemaker Marqués del Atrio.

“The course really made me look inside myself,” Eugeni reflects, “and ask what, at this stage of my life, I truly wanted to do.”

Here are some of his tips for anyone looking to try something new in their career:

Take care of your network: Make sure to nurture your professional contacts long before you start considering a new career path.
Stay positive: Never forget that when one professional door closes, others open.
Be receptive to help and advice: “Allow yourself to let others enrich you with their experience,” says Eugeni.

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What Gen Z really wants: Rethinking commitment

IESE Standout — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:37:04 +0000

You look at your youngest hires and can’t quite read them. They want to balance long hours in the office with time for themselves. They question what you once accepted. They seek work that they see as meaningful, and having purpose.

It’s easy to see it as a lack of commitment. But what if it’s something else? What if they’re not less engaged but differently engaged?

The new rules of engagement

Generation Z, the cohort of workers born between 1995 and 2006, is redefining traditional career assumptions as it joins the workforce, placing greater emphasis on purpose, flexibility, and well-being. This shift that the arrival of Gen Z represents is significant. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, meaningful work and well-being now rank alongside financial security as key drivers of career decisions.

Prachi B., a 22-year-old taking the Master in Management at IESE’s Madrid campus, remembers the long hours her father used to put in at the office when she was a child and considers how attitudes have changed for her generation.

“Even though we are pretty apprehensive about how the future’s going to look, at the same time, I think that, as a generation we’ve learned to try and put ourselves first instead of focusing on solely what we can achieve in terms of career success,” says Prachi, from Bangalore in India.

Gen Z workers no longer define success solely by financial rewards, but how job progression can align with personal values and quality of life. “I think there’s a much higher emphasis now on the work-life balance,” says Pearce Richer, 25, from Cleveland, Ohio, in the US, who is also studying in Madrid on the IESE MiM course.

Digital natives, AI disrupted

Gen Z enters the workforce with a clear advantage: they are the first true digital natives, fluent in technology and comfortable in fast-moving environments. Yet they are also the first generation to face a workplace being reshaped by AI, where access to entry level roles and traditional paths to gaining experience is more restricted. In that sense, they are a generation doubly impacted by the digital revolution.

It’s this digital fluency and openness to experimentation that makes Gen Z workers well suited to help companies drive innovation and adjust to technological change – particularly in areas related to AI, says Luis Massa, international HR director at Verisure. “The key is to enable them to become protagonists of this transformation,” he says.

Working together

The goal for companies should not be to choose between purpose and performance but seek to integrate the two, says IESE Professor Sebastian Reiche. Achieving this requires a more intentional approach to job design, leadership, and culture, he says. The aim should be to offer Gen Z staff more flexible and personalized trajectories where they can develop and gain experience while contributing to the company’s strategic priorities.

Gen Z is “probably a generation that is looking out for a purpose more clearly than other generations did,” says Massa, who completed a General Management Program (PDG) at IESE in 2005. “They are definitely a generation that believes in working in something that has a real impact.”

To effectively engage and develop this talent, several priorities stand out:

Communicate purpose clearly: Employees need to understand how their work contributes to a broader mission.
Balance autonomy with accountability: Flexibility must be paired with clear expectations and responsibility.
Design developmental experiences: Cross-functional projects and continuous learning opportunities are key to growth and retention.
Leverage digital strengths: Create space for Gen Z to apply their technological skills and contribute new ideas.

Understanding Gen Z is not simply an HR concern – it is a strategic imperative. Organizations that successfully align purpose, performance, and development will be best positioned to attract, engage, and retain this generation, while unlocking its potential to drive innovation and long-term value creation.

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5 qualities top recruiters are looking for

IESE Standout — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 16:05:29 +0000

If you’re on the hunt for a new job, you may have notice how the hiring process has entered a more stable phase. Following the hiring boom seen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic—particularly in industries like consulting and technology—economic trends have leveled out. However, with global uncertainty still a factor, companies are now taking a more strategic and measured approach to signing up fresh talent. As a result, hiring trends are shifting, with recruiters placing greater emphasis on adaptability, digital expertise, and an international mindset.

The competencies companies want

A major trend reshaping recruitment is the move toward skills-based hiring over traditional function-based roles. Rather than focusing solely on job titles, more employers are prioritizing specific competencies and transferable skills, making the hiring process more fragmented, and in some cases, more time-consuming. As a job seeker, you’ll need to understand what recruiters are looking for and make sure you position yourself to ensure you stand out in this evolving landscape.

Stay ahead of the competition by focusing on these five must-have qualities that recruiters are actively looking for.

1. Skills-based hiring

Traditional hiring models that focused on job titles and a linear career path are being replaced by skills-based hiring. As well as individuals who can demonstrate adaptability, dependability, and the ability to tackle complex business challenges, companies want leaders with specific technical and leadership skills, with the focus increasingly on digital and AI fluency. There’s growing demand for candidates with proven technical know-how, and those who can integrate sustainability into business models.

2. AI fluency and the digital transformation

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into business processes is creating demand for tech-savvy professionals, and it’s up to you make sure you tick all the right boxes. Companies want candidates with a deep understanding of AI’s potential, not just from a technical perspective but also in terms of making sure it gets embedded in corporate strategy. As Prof. Javier Zamora explained in a recent article, there’s a need for roles who “orchestrate the cultural shift necessary for this technology to be integrated across the organization.”

Organizations need leaders who can leverage AI tools to enhance decision-making, assess talent, and drive innovation. But more companies also want managers both with the technical competencies to exploit the new technology and the leadership skills to direct the human teams that are deploying it.

3. Agility and entrepreneurial mindset

Startups and scale-ups have long favored candidates with hands-on experience and a proactive approach to business challenges. Now, larger corporations are also seeking individuals who embody an agile entrepreneurial mindset. This means being comfortable with ambiguity, taking ownership of projects, and proactively identifying growth opportunities.

Companies will expect you to show you can respond quickly to a changing business environment as they face increasing volatility and disruption in their industries. Volkswagen, for example, says it wants “versatile profiles and people full of energy, willingness to learn new things, able to face everyday challenges. There are a lot of positions where we need the combination of soft skills, product/project management and technical knowledge.”

4. Generalist expertise

While specialist skills are key, companies will also expect you to show a broad range of competencies and prove you can adapt to multiple roles and challenges. As industries evolve rapidly, employers find that generalists who possess a diverse knowledge base and know how to think critically often become the most effective professionals. As strategic thinkers with a broad perspective, they know how to break silos, adapt across industries, and make the most impactful decisions.

MANGO, for example, says it values the global vision, leadership and analytical skills of IESE’s MBA students, as well as their training in strategy and decision-making. “They bring innovation in sustainability, operations, and customer experience.”

5. Global business exposure

Another aspect you should be aware of is how recruiters, in an increasingly global market place, are putting a high premium on international experience. Professionals who have worked across different markets, managed cross-cultural teams, or studied in diverse environments bring unique perspectives to organizations.

Skills that are particularly valued include:

Cross-cultural communication
Understanding international regulations and market dynamics
Ability to adapt strategies for different global audiences

Advice for MBA talent

In today’s competitive job market, MBA students must stay ahead of evolving recruitment priorities and adapt their skill sets accordingly. Companies are continuously refining their hiring strategies and placing ever greater emphasis on new competencies and technologies.

According to IESE’s Career Development Center, here are some of the steps you can take to prepare your strategy for navigating the job market:

Highlight transferable skills: Showcase your ability to work across functions, solve complex problems, and lead diverse teams.
Leverage AI and digital expertise: Demonstrate familiarity with AI tools and digital business trends to hone your appeal to potential employers as an innovative thinker.
Emphasize global experience: An international background helps you to stand out from the crowd. Highlight your language skills and your ability to adapt and thrive in different cultures.
Network strategically: Engage with your industry peers through alumni networks and business events, and make full use of tools such as LinkedIn to promote and refine your personal brand.
Adopt a lifelong learning mindset: Employers favor candidates who continuously develop their skills through certifications, micro-learning programs, and hands-on experience.

The future of recruitment

As recruitment continues to evolve, job candidates must adapt to a shifting landscape that prioritizes flexibility, technological literacy, and a global outlook. Companies are seeking individuals whose skills extend beyond purely technical expertise, and who can demonstrate resilience, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial mindset.

As you hunt for a job, make sure you stay competitive by embracing continuous learning, leveraging AI tools, and cultivating a strong mix of soft and hard skills. The hiring process may have become more fragmented and take longer in some cases, but for those who can navigate its challenges, the opportunities have never been greater.

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Aya Sakai, aiming to break Japan’s glass ceiling. Success Stories

IESE Standout — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:02:12 +0000

Aya Sakai is a winner of an IESE Future Female Leaders Award 2024. She is currently on an MBA program at IESE in Barcelona, Spain, having previously worked for the Development Bank of Japan.

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A recent Kyodo News survey revealed that only 13 of Japan’s top 1,600 companies have female CEOs. What’s more, only around 15% of the country’s private-sector executives are women, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Aya Sakai is determined to help change those statistics.

“My mission is to be a leader in the Japanese renewable energy industry, which is a very traditional, male-dominated industry, and by being a leader in that industry, maybe I can change Japanese society a little bit,” says the current IESE MBA student (Class of 2026).

Her decision to do an MBA at IESE was an important step toward accomplishing that mission. “The opportunity to learn leadership skills and to work with teammates from international backgrounds in an intense environment will really help me when I go back to Japan,” she says.

A focus on renewables

Before embarking on an MBA, Sakai worked for the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) in Tokyo and in London. One aspect of this organization that she valued highly was that it pursued not only profit but also social impact; that part of its mission was to support and help its customers.

As is common in many Japanese companies, Sakai gained valuable experience in many different departments and sections, from financial analysis to human resources, which was quite a challenge for her, having to quickly get up to speed in new fields every one or two years.

This employment policy did, however, give her the opportunity to work in the renewable energy sector, leading her to the conclusion that it was what she wanted to focus on in the future.

Much of the innovation in the renewable energy sector is being developed in Europe, another factor that attracted Sakai to studying in Barcelona. She wants to learn more about green energy technologies in Europe that can help change the energy landscape in Japan.

Teamwork and leadership

While at IESE, Sakai is also getting used to working with people from a wide variety of different backgrounds and cultures, something she has not had to do before. In her team there are students from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Spain and the U.S., in addition to classmates from Japan, all with different management methods and communication styles, which naturally presents certain challenges.

For Sakai, the solution to those challenges is respect, both for people and for processes. “Individually we each have strengths and weaknesses, and we can all learn from each other,” she says. “And we have strict team rules, a contract that nobody breaks, and that helps us work together effectively in a comfortable manner.”

As an undergraduate, Sakai was a trainer for an American football team, where she enjoyed working for and with other people and achieving good things as part of a great team. And great teams need great leaders.

In her time working in different departments at the DBJ, Sakai had many different bosses. The best leaders, in her opinion, were “insightful, considerate, visionary and hardworking.” Bravery and having the courage to be disruptive are also values that she thinks are important. “A woman who dared to take the challenge of being the first female director in our company is someone I really respect,” she says.

A role model

As the winner of an IESE Future Female Leaders Award 2024, Sakai sees herself as being “a role model for younger female generations” in Japan. “In an environment where there are few female leaders or few female managers, women may feel a little uncomfortable. I want to show them that you can do it. Hopefully, my achievements and the good that I do will encourage and empower some people,” she says.

An achievement from her professional career up until now was, while working for the HR department at the DBJ, managing to increase the number of female applicants for certain roles that had been traditionally carried out by men. “Establishing a good work-life balance can be difficult in Japanese companies; maybe that’s one reason why there are so few female leaders,” she explains.

Less successful was her attempt to introduce reforms so that more men occupied positions that were seen as jobs for women. But that was a useful learning experience about how to manage change.

Looking to the future

Sakai is driven by a desire to “do good things for society,” especially in renewable energy. She envisions a future where the widespread use of clean energy technologies, some yet to emerge, will help achieve net-zero emissions, allowing people to enjoy the benefits of energy without harming the environment.

Sakai’s journey is set to be one of breaking barriers and inspiring change in a traditionally male-dominated society. Her experiences at the DBJ, her commitment to the renewable energy sector and the leadership skills she hopes to perfect at IESE reflect a powerful ambition not only to rise as a leader but to pave the way for future generations of women in Japan.

As she works to challenge the status quo, she embodies a new wave of leadership that is insightful, courageous and inclusive. Her example underscores the importance of diversity in driving industrial and societal change.

Are you a young professional woman with big accomplishments and even bigger goals? Apply to the next IESE Future Female Leaders Award. IESE will select a small number of young professional women who embody IESE’s mission, are focused on developing their careers and on making a positive impact in the world. The next IESE Future Female Leaders Award will take place on Jan. 28-30, 2025, on IESE’s Barcelona campus, coinciding with the Women in Business Conference.

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Starting a career with optimism and enthusiasm. Junior Kone. Success stories

IESE Standout — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 14:17:23 +0000

Junior Kone is currently studying for a Master in Management at IESE in Madrid and hopes to start a career in management consultancy.

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It is a challenging time for graduates starting out in the world of work with aspirations to senior management. The uncertainty caused by the global political and macroeconomic situation means companies are reluctant to make decisions about investments in people, making it difficult for individuals to get on the first rung of their career ladder. What’s more, this was perhaps the cohort whose education and development were most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and they are still suffering the consequences.

Despite these formidable obstacles, Junior Kone, 23, currently studying for a Master in Management (MiM) at IESE in Madrid, remains resolutely optimistic about the future. Embracing an unwavering belief in the cyclical nature of economic downturns, he confidently asserts, “Usually after these very bad moments, the economy starts growing, so opportunities will come.” His enthusiasm is infectious and inspiring.

Embracing change

He is especially excited about the potential offered by the current technological environment, especially artificial intelligence (AI). As he observes, “A lot of things will be substituted by AI. But this also means that new job opportunities will open up. This is how it works; things have always worked like that.” He is, however, well aware of the possible threats and pitfalls of this new technology. “We have to use AI as a support for decision making and not as a substitute for people taking decisions: we have to be the responsible ones,” he warns.

As, hopefully, one of those people taking those decisions in the future, Kone is clear what kind of values will be necessary, as they are now. Above all, he believes, leaders need to have a mission that goes beyond motivation based on money or power or prestige: “It’s taking responsibility, trying to do something that can be beneficial for the community, whether that’s local or global.”

Kone also says that leaders need to be flexible, to be able to adapt to different circumstances, to integrate into different environments. His multicultural upbringing and diverse academic trajectory underscore his adaptability and resilience. Born in the Ivory Coast to an African father and Colombian mother, his family’s journey took them from Africa to Italy, where Kone spent his formative years. His academic pursuits led him to Reims in France for part of his undergraduate degree and a work placement in Brussels, Belgium, before his current studies in Madrid, Spain.

The importance of mentorship and networking

At this early stage in his career, Kone is very clear about the need for mentors and role models. His parents, entrepreneurs who have navigated various ventures, serve as his primary sources of inspiration, instilling in him a deep appreciation for adaptability and tenacity. Reflecting on their experience in the movie industry – distributing African content throughout Europe – he admires their ability to pivot when the internet reshaped their business landscape. His father’s belief, “If you don’t have a job, just create it,” echoes as a guiding principle in Kone’s worldview, one that he believes comes from the African entrepreneurial spirit.

As a way of expanding his contacts, Kone is a member of two organizations aimed at helping young talent get ahead. Mentors4U is a mentorship program that connects students at Italian universities with experienced professionals. “When I joined my mentor was working in in a leading consultancy in Italy. He guided me through my career path, trying to understand if consulting was the right choice for me.” The experience of these mentors is invaluable, he believes: “Trying to understand your career plan and giving insights from their past experience because they’ve been through all the things that you’re going through right now.” The other organization he belongs to is Nova, a platform that has the ambitious aim of connecting the top 3% of the world’s talent. Every Wednesday Kone has a meeting with someone from around the world. Just talking to people and learning from them is something that he finds very helpful.

The spirit of entrepreneurship

Once he has completed his MIM, Kone aims to be a consultant in a top consulting firm. In the longer run, Kone’s main objective is to become a CEO. The alternative is starting his own company. And he has a bit of entrepreneurial experience, as he describes: “I remember when I was 15 or 16, one summer I was supposed to be studying for a French test and I had to learn the verbs, but I didn’t want to do it, so I decided to create a little app for my mobile that could be like a game where I could learn the verbs as a game. The problem is that I spent the whole summer doing that…! But when I finished, I decided to sell it to my classmates, and I made a little bit of money.”

Kone embodies a mixture of optimism, adaptability, and resilience, backed up by a clear set of values. His journey symbolizes the fusion of diverse cultural influences and a steadfast determination to forge a career path that has a global impact but that gives something back to society.

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Sarah Buckley, finding her voice, telling her story. Success stories

IESE Standout — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 07:22:09 +0000

Sarah Buckley is a winner of IESE’s inaugural Future Female Leaders Award 2023 and a recipient of an IESE Forté Fellowship, for women who demonstrate exemplary leadership.

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“Dream big, do right” is the motto of Mounds Park Academy in the U.S. state of Minnesota where Sarah Buckley went to high school. It could also sum up Buckley’s life philosophy. “As future leaders, we have the responsibility to explore how business can be a positive influence on the world,” says the current IESE MBA student (Class of 2025).

Before embarking on her MBA, Buckley got degrees in accounting and worked in financial planning and analysis, first for The Walt Disney Company and then for Netflix. “What attracted me to Netflix was the idea of being part of something creative. You see the power of storytelling and the impact that can have on someone, connecting with people of diverse backgrounds all around the world.”

She worked closely with the company’s creative executives, making decisions on whether to invest in new projects and managing all the financial implications and risks until the film appeared on-screen. It was, she says, “a beautiful blend of the numbers and the analytical with the creative side and the strategic lens.”

Out of the comfort zone

Initially based in Los Angeles, California, Buckley jumped at the chance to transfer to Netflix’s EMEA office in London as a way of broadening her horizons. There she witnessed firsthand the complexities involved when an expanding business goes global — from the need to adapt content to different cultures, to hiring local talent who understand the nuances of local markets. “It was interesting to see the mindset shift across the company as it grew.”

In 2022, the year she took up the EMEA assignment, Netflix reported its first subscriber decline in a decade, so managing budgets to produce the same top-quality content with fewer resources became the big challenge for her and her colleagues throughout the region. While cultural differences were inevitable, Buckley found the best strategy was to be completely straightforward and honest — “to communicate the goals and understand where local executives were coming from, so we could find the best solutions.”

This is the same approach she brings to the MBA classroom: “Being in a class filled with people from all over the world forces me to find new ways to communicate and connect with diverse groups of people, so we make better decisions together.”

Listening to and trying to understand a diversity of opinions, constantly challenging yourself to step outside your comfort zone, expanding the way you look at things and approaching problems from multiple angles are what Buckley thinks make a good leader, today more than ever.

Values-driven leadership

Leadership for Buckley is also a question of being true to your values. As she says, “The best leaders I’ve met haven’t been driven by extrinsic motivations of money, success or title, but have been those who led in a way that prioritized people, enabling them to achieve their full potential.”

The way leaders conduct themselves is fundamental, she adds: “Most important is having empathy for others, making sure we’re treating each other with kindness and respect.”

Buckley believes “some of the best ways we can drive positive change in the world are through business. How can we do business in a way that’s sustainable, ensuring every decision is aligned with the right core values?”

She’s passionate about empowering women to find their voices (“Women are sometimes made to feel they have to be extra qualified, competent and experienced just to be in the room”) as she advocates for equality in business.

The power of mentoring

Throughout her career, Buckley has been grateful for the feedback and encouragement of female mentors, who she says have had an extremely positive impact on her, both professionally and personally: “Seeing powerful, intelligent, capable women in leadership at Netflix has given me a model of the qualifications and competencies I need in order to deliver the same kind of value.”

Buckley appreciates the support IESE gives to female leaders, not just during the two years of the MBA but throughout their professional lives. For her, a mentor is someone who can “selflessly guide me in aligning the steps on my path with my future long-term goals, which can have more of an impact than any technical learning.”

Eventually, she would like to start her own business, becoming the kind of female entrepreneur driving social change that so inspired her on her own path. Like many of her generation, she wants to work toward solutions to climate change, particularly improving the health of the world’s oceans through a sustainable blue economy, something that struck her the first time she went scuba diving. “I felt an overwhelming sense of inspiration to take a more active role in the preservation of our oceans. Especially for those who never saw themselves as the loud one in the room, like me, I’d like to help others make their voices heard. Inspiring others as they have inspired me would make me forever grateful.”

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Christophe Chevallier, crafting beer from bread. Success stories

IESE Standout — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 07:51:05 +0000

Christophe Chevallier (IESE MiM-21) prioritizes sustainability and people. His Lavoisier brewpub in Madrid, which transforms leftover bread into craft beer, combines both his passions.

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“Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.” This quote, attributed to the 18th century French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, captures the idea that, rather than creating or destroying something, we can transform it into something new. It’s highly appropriate then that when French chef and entrepreneur Christophe Chevallier decided to open a brewpub in Madrid in 2022, he named it Lavoisier. Not only does he transform leftover bread into craft beer, based on principles of the circular economy, but he has also transformed the bitterness of his early work experiences into a more humane way of doing business and treating people.

Growing up in the famous French wine region of Burgundy, Chevallier developed a natural love of gastronomy, which led him to study at the prestigious Ferrandi culinary school in Paris. Before long, he was cooking at some of the best Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris.

His culinary dreams, however, ran up against harsh realities that would define his future path: “I witnessed some of the worst treatment of employees that you can imagine. The days were exhausting and the pressure was too much,” he recalls. Those formative experiences in Paris made him see things differently and reaffirmed his principles: where others only saw resources, he would always see people.

Realizing he had to find another way to pursue his dreams, Chevallier decided to get a bachelor’s degree in management from EMD Business School in Marseille. There, he encountered an entirely different way of treating people.

“The head of faculty knew each student by name. He even contacted me to wish me a happy birthday even though my birthday falls in the middle of summer,” says Chevallier. The experience could not have been more different from what he had experienced in Paris.

A plan with a purpose

Thus inspired, Chevallier wanted to continue studying management after graduation, but he wasn’t going to settle for any master’s program; it had to be underpinned by strong ethical, humanistic values. An EMD professor recommended IESE Business School. Although he would be based in Madrid, the international nature of IESE’s Master in Management (MiM) meant English was the language of instruction, which suited Chevallier, who did not yet speak Spanish. Most important for Chevallier was that IESE had the right philosophy he was looking for, which chimed with that of Chevallier’s family business group, Théos. “Our group is committed to taking special care of our employees, our customers and our suppliers, and operating in a socially responsible manner,” he says.

A highlight of the MiM was putting together a business plan: “Working in small teams, we drew upon everything we had learned and went through all the necessary steps — brainstorming, market research, financials, minimum viable product — and submitted a final business plan to a jury of professors and investors who, if they saw the project as viable, might invest in it.”

“The most difficult part was finding a good business idea. It was important to find something that we were passionate about. My team and I wanted to develop a product focused on sustainability, but with high scalability.”

Chevallier’s eureka moment came when he saw a local supermarket throwing away a huge amount of bread at the end of every day. “I wondered how we could take advantage of all that waste.”

A solution already existed: recycling leftover bread into beer. Indeed, it is believed that the ancient Egyptians had discovered a way of making beer by letting bread ferment in water. Based on similar principles, they figured the bread that supermarkets, bakeries and restaurants were going to throw away anyway could be substituted for 30%-50% of the malt used in beer.

Originally, their plan was to distribute their specialty beer directly to local bars. But the more Chevallier thought about it, he began to get other ideas.

Caring for people and the environment

Rather than being a private label brewer, distributing his product through other bars, why not open his own brewpub and distribute his own product himself? It made sense, since he would sell only what he produced, without intermediaries, and this would give him greater control over the experience he was able to offer to his own customers.

The Lavoisier brewpub opened in Malasaña, a hip neighborhood popular with students in Madrid. It offers tastings of craft beer, which is produced in collaboration with the Mica Brewery, located in Spain’s Ribera del Duero region, using leftover bread from area bakeries. Chevallier is already looking to expand his premises to be able to brew more beer.

In many ways, Lavoisier reflects the principles of caring for people and the environment that are so central, not only to Chevallier, but to his family business group, which also owns a stake in the business. He explains how their core values manifest themselves:

Renewal. “We have recovered more than a ton of bread that would otherwise have ended up going to waste.”
Conscious collaboration. “We choose to partner with a local artisanal brewer that shares our vision of sustainability, the circular economy and inclusion.”
Purposeful design. “Almost all the decor in our brewpub comes from recycled or repurposed materials — for example, reusing wood from old boats.”
Human attention. “We seek to maintain stable relationships with our customers, as well as with our employees and suppliers — whom we pay on time — built on an understanding of transparency and fairness.”
Work-life balance. “We close on Sundays and Mondays. While we could make more money if we opened on Sundays, for us it is vital that people have time off for rest, and Sundays are when people traditionally spend time with their families.”

For Chevallier, “the quality of our human relationships is what determines the economic results.” That is what life, school and family have taught him, and that is what guides his next steps. “Maybe Lavoisier is the beginning of a small revolution.”

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Favour Okolie, leading by example. Success stories

IESE Standout — Thu, 11 May 2023 09:58:46 +0000

Favour Okolie is VP of ONE Foundation and an alumna of IESE’s Master in Management (MiM) Class of 2023.

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An example can be very powerful. So it was for Favour Okolie. She had seen talks by Ibukun Awosika, a well-known Nigerian businesswoman and motivational speaker who, like Okolie, was a chemistry graduate.

“I admired the fact that she was a highly successful Nigerian woman — the first and only Chairwoman of First Bank of Nigeria — and she had a family. And then I found out she was on the International Advisory Board of IESE, so I figured I had to apply to this school.”

Which Okolie did, earning a scholarship for IESE’s Master in Management (MiM) in Madrid.

What inspires Okolie is not so much what people say as much as what they do. And she knows that if she wants to inspire others, particularly other young African women, then she must do something inspirational herself.

Passion alone isn’t enough

Okolie got her first taste of inspiring others when friends approached her about starting a nonprofit together. The result, ONE Foundation, provides training, mentoring, networking and funding for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Initially, Okolie helped organize courses, but as the organization grew, she soon found herself out of her depth. She realized she needed to acquire more skills to match the growing demands of their stakeholders.

“People came with high expectations and wanted advice for how to run a business, which I had insufficient knowledge about,” she recalls. “That was when I realized that if I really wanted to help others, I needed to empower myself. It’s not enough to be passionate. To really be able to help people, you need knowledge.”

Closing the knowledge gap is something that Okolie believes doesn’t just apply to herself but holds the key to overcoming the challenges faced by aspiring entrepreneurs across Africa.

Admittedly, a lack of reliable infrastructure, like electricity, adds an extra layer of difficulty: it’s harder to develop a grand business vision when you’re in basic survival mode. Still, if people are able to see “the potential they have,” Okolie insists, “the moment their mindset shifts, those physical obstacles stop holding them back from engaging in entrepreneurial activity.”

There’s no limit to what a young person, gainfully engaged, can do, she says, adding that an inspired young entrepreneur is the greatest antidote against them falling into hopelessness. Education in its broadest sense (not just in STEM subjects like she pursued) is ultimately about empowerment.

“If I really want to help others, I need to empower myself.”

Favour Okolie, IESE MiM-23

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Seeing yourself in others

In Nigeria, where Okolie comes from, entrepreneurial women are a common sight in local markets, selling goods to make ends meet. But move into the corporate sphere and high-ranking female executives are few, and even rarer at the board level. Although the situation is improving, with trailblazers like Ibukun Awosika helping to break down barriers, Okolie says there is still a long way to go.

Again, the shift has to happen in the minds of young people, particularly young women, which for Okolie requires seeing more female role models in positions of leadership who are also honest about the unique tradeoffs for women of having a career.

“There are male entrepreneurs that I admire and can learn from,” she says, “but when you see someone like you achieve something, it hits you differently. Your brain has no excuses left.”

For her part, Okolie wants to provide more educational resources and possibly even scholarships to help create a sustainable pipeline of female entrepreneurs in her country. Her blog to encourage others in this direction carries a title that fittingly captures her life philosophy: Love, Courage, Inspire.

In addition to her ongoing involvement with the ONE Foundation, Okolie has developed a community project for high-school students in rural southern Nigeria — called Project Inspire Akpabuyo — to, like the name suggests, inspire them with career possibilities and expand their horizons.

She plans to extend this work by collaborating with large companies upon completion of the MiM, as well as doing consulting, all with an eye toward fulfilling her larger purpose: “That I show love to every person I meet, encouraging them and inspiring them to fulfill their God-given purpose and potential. This is how we change the world.”

IESE has developed a wide range of courses and activities through the Women Win platform to support women like Favour in their personal and professional development and aspirations to lead.

The post Favour Okolie, leading by example. Success stories appeared first on IESE Standout.

Doctors in the MBA. Success stories.

IESE Standout — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 14:44:28 +0000

Sabina Zus, Tiwatayo Lasebikan and Ankit Chawla are channeling their passion for medicine into future management roles for healthier societies around the world.

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It’s the boast of many a proud parent: “My kid is a doctor.” Whether in India, Nigeria or Romania, becoming a doctor is a major achievement, representing years of hard work and regarded as not just a job but a noble vocation.

Among IESE’s MBA Class of 2024 are three doctors who have decided that part of their Hippocratic oath to serve others should include a management degree to expand their positive social impact. To help them on this path, they each received IESE scholarship funds, which are dedicated to supporting a mission-driven vision of leadership and preparing the leaders of tomorrow.

Ankit Chawla, a doctor in the Indian Air Force, is a specialist in sports medicine. Tiwatayo Lasebikan is the ninth in a long line of doctors in his family who also run three hospitals in Nigeria, two of them psychiatric hospitals, and he himself is a psychiatrist. Sabina Zus has worked in obstetrics and gynecology not only in her native Romania but also in Ireland.

None of them plans to abandon medicine. As Lasebikan points out, being a doctor is an all-consuming passion: “In fact, if you’re not consumed by it, you can’t give the best to your patients.” Indeed, they see the MBA as supporting their passion, enabling them to give back even more to the medical field after graduation.

Bridging the trust gap

Chawla admits he was inspired to become a doctor by his grandfather’s advice to pursue a career that wasn’t just about earning money. “But in my previous work,” he says, “I felt my impact was limited. In the army, I was sent to areas where I was the only doctor for 200 km. With all the will in the world, I couldn’t serve that many people. However, if I can push for a hospital to be installed there, I can be a real force for good.” In a healthcare management role, he feels he could accomplish more than in a one-to-one capacity.

Zus agrees: “As a doctor, you might see 20 to 30 patients in a day, but the choices a hospital manager makes affect everybody. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we realized how much we needed to change the way hospitals were run, including more digitization and keeping people out of the hospital if they didn’t really need to be there. We need to create new systems and come up with new solutions.”

All three doctors perceive a trust gap between management and doctors in most modern healthcare systems, as managers try to balance the books and doctors fundamentally distrust cost-cutting measures. Managers, in turn, often don’t have medical backgrounds; they may have a master’s degree in public health but no experience dealing directly with patients. When forced to step into a new role, these different pressures become glaring.

Lasebikan remembers times when he had wanted to prescribe particular brand-name medications, but upon seeing the accounts, he decided to evaluate which generic drugs were the most effective to still provide quality care while keeping costs down. Often, in their countries, there isn’t the same abundance as in Western hospitals, forcing medical professionals to be creative, which can also result in less waste.

The pandemic brought many of these tensions to the fore. While Zus worked in Ireland amid a relative abundance of PPE, her counterparts in Romania were wearing the same masks for hours or even days on end. That situation was clearly less than ideal for both doctors and patients, but Chawla tells the story from the opposite perspective. He was the COVID coordinator in his hospital and was trying to conserve and ration PPE. “There was so much mistrust because the doctors think you’re trying to cut corners, but from the management side, they simply don’t have the resources.”

Chawla believes this issue goes deeper than periodic crises about resources: “It leads to big barriers to innovation. I think that’s where the three of us come in.”

A prescription for purpose

Lasebikan is relishing the chance to learn the business side of medicine, thanks to the funding he received through IESE’s scholarship program. “There is no way I could have done this MBA otherwise.”

He plans to help build a better healthcare industry in Nigeria, with a particular interest in increasing access to mental health services. (The World Health Organization calculates there are fewer than two mental health workers for every 100,000 people in Africa.) He would also like to pursue innovation in areas such as pharma, biotech and medtech.

Thanks to her scholarship, “I’ll be able to choose a job based more on purpose than just going for the highest salary in order to pay back loans,” says Zus, who hopes to continue working in women’s health. “I’m a person who really needs my job to be a force for good. It’s hard for me to give up being a doctor – something I’m good at, something I’ve worked hard to achieve. And there are still so many ways we can improve care for women.”

Now, as the doctors dig into new subject areas like financial management and accounting, is there anything they miss? “I miss surgery,” says Zus. “I really loved it.” But thanks to MBA friends with a sense of humor, she can keep practicing, as they gifted their classmate with her very own game of Operation. “They said, ‘You’ll always be our doctor.’”

For his part, Chawla has also found the scholarship validating: “It convinced me that my idea to go into the management side was a good one. Somebody believing in your purpose – that is huge.”

For more information about IESE’s scholarship fund, or if you would like to help support more talents like those featured here, please go to Giving IESE.

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How to shine in your next job interview

IESE Standout — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 13:21:52 +0000

You’ve been dreaming about this opportunity for years. It’s your favorite sector, a company you connect with, and a position you’ve always wanted. They’ve finally noticed your profile and given you an interview. But, even though you have the skills, the experience, and the knowledge necessary to be successful in the job, just thinking about sitting down face to face with the person who will decide whether or not you’re worth hiring makes your palms start to sweat.

Job interviews: 3 keys to prepare for “D Day”

According to Lassi Albin, a member of IESE’s Executive Coaching Team, there are three main parts to managing any professional career:

Discovering what you want to do and what you’re good at.
Seeking out the training you need and a job that fits your aspirations.
Making it through the interview and hiring process.

The third point is really the cherry on top of this whole process, but we often give it less attention than it deserves.

There are many factors in a hiring process that will always be out of your control, but if you want to bring your full potential to your next interview, there’s just one recipe you need to follow: preparation.

1. Get informed

Find as much information as you can about the company and the interview. Try to figure out who is going to interview you, their profiles, when it will happen, the parts and tests that will be included, what you’ll have to demonstrate, the values of the company, its mission, its short- and long-term goals, the previous-year results, etc. Everything you learn beforehand will give you an advantage on the day of the interview.

2. Take care with your appearance and your setting

Whether your interview is online or in person, psychologically the image you convey is fundamental. Dress in the same style as the person who is going to interview you, figure out a way to determine what that will be, and organize your clothes a few days ahead of time to reduce the stress of getting ready.

If you’re doing the interview from home, make sure your setting looks clean and orderly. Choose a real background rather than a virtual one – which could result in more technical issues – and make sure you’re in a safe, calm, and silent spot with good lighting and a stable Internet connection.

3. Monitor your body language

There are other aspects of our communication that we sometimes don’t take into account but that are worth practicing because of the strong impact they end up having on the interviewer:

First, try to maintain eye contact with the person you’re talking to at all times and show that you’re paying attention.
Don’t interrupt your interviewer, which can be rather easy to do in virtual conversations and is quite annoying. When they finish speaking, leave a brief silence before you begin.
When you’re in an online interview, don’t have papers with notes on your desk. If you need to have written information to remember data, use post-its around your screen camera so you won’t have to look away.

The 6 most common job interview questions and how to answer them

What do you know about this company? Why do you think you’re the ideal candidate? Why are you interested in this position? There are countless questions that can come up in a job interview and there’s no way you can anticipate all of them. But some of them are particularly common – and sometimes complicated – and those you can prepare and rehearse for ahead of time.

1. The star question: Tell me about yourself

This is usually one of the first questions that comes up in a job interview, since it helps break the ice and lets your interviewer get to know you a little better.

What not to do?

Don’t go through your CV line by line. The company has already seen your profile and they’ve called you because they’re interested, so it’s not the time to recite a list, but instead to introduce yourself.

How to answer?

The best option is to approach the answer like an inspirational story:

Summarize your life with personal touches and highlight the most important steps you’ve taken: where you’ve lived, why you chose your specialty, or why you started working where you did.
Add some details about the most important positions you’ve had in your career and a few achievements that fit the requirements of the job you’re trying to get.
End by saying that these are your skills, this is your experience, and that’s why you’re here: because you believe you are a good fit for this job and this company. This will give your answer more consistency.

If you’re still feeling uncertain, record yourself practicing this answer. It’s the story of your life and nobody knows it better than you.

2. The trick question: Your weaknesses

Before you answer, consider why your interviewer is asking you this question. They’re probably not interested in your specific weaknesses, but rather in making sure you can be open, honest and sincere in this conversation, whether you have something to hide, and if you are comfortable with who you are in all aspects of your personality.

What not to do?

What you should never do is say that you don’t have any weaknesses or that you can’t think of any, because this will make it seem like you haven’t prepared properly.
Don’t try to camouflage a weakness as a strength, like saying that you’re very “detail oriented.” That’ll make it seem like you’re just trying to look good, when what the company is trying to see is whether you’re human.
Try not to highlight any of the key skills for the position as a weakness; it’s better to choose ones that don’t work against you. And don’t make an endless list of everything you can think of to try to come off as very transparent.

How to answer?

The most effective thing to do is choose one or two weaknesses and explain them well:

Describe each one and give it context: where it happens, when, and what consequences it has on your job.
Explain what you are doing to overcome it and what results you’re seeing.
Be clear that, despite your efforts, you still have a long way to go to continue improving.

3. The uncomfortable question: Your salary expectations

Never go into an interview without first knowing the market and the value that your profile has in that specific position and in that sector. These days there are a wide range of tools to help you figure it out, but if you need to you can also contact people who work at that company.

What not to do?

From the outset, try to avoid the question in the first rounds of the hiring process. How?

Make it clear that you’re a good fit for the company, you’re interested in the position, and you connect with the company’s values, but say that you still need to learn more about the project, the team, and the responsibilities you’ll have.
Explain that you’ll be in a better position to give an exact figure in the later stages.

How to answer?

When the time comes, avoid giving a salary range:

If you suggest a range, you already know where the company will come down: they’ll only hear the lower number and you’ll be disappointed.
To suggest a specific number, think about a salary you’d like to earn and then add between 5% and 10%.

4. The practical question: Why are you interested in this position?

If you are applying for a position with the idea that in two or three years you’ll try for a promotion, you may be at a disadvantage compared to candidates who are truly passionate about the job.

You don’t want to give off the impression that this is a mere formality in your professional career, so consider that if you want this job at this point in your career, it’s because you need to learn something from this new experience, so it’s the best place you can be today to get to the next level.

If you need some help clarifying your motivations, we have an exercise that could be of assistance.

5. The open question: Do you have any question for us?

This question usually comes near the end of the conversation, when you’ve had some time to size up the person you’re talking to:

If they’re someone who likes to talk, ask them about their own experience: “why you came to this company” or “what you like most about working here” will give you a more qualitative perspective on the company and will help you create a good connection with your interviewer.
On the other hand, if they’re someone who is analytical or introverted, ask more practical questions. If you’re drawing a blank, here are some ideas:
- Why is this position open?
- How will my performance be evaluated?
- What do you expect the person in this position to achieve in the first six months?
- What are the company’s goals for the next five years?
- What is the onboarding process for new employees?

6. The unexpected question: When you draw a blank

No matter how much you practice, it sometimes happens. You draw a blank at the most unexpected moment, searching for information in your mind that won’t appear or simply with no idea what to say.

The best thing you can do in these cases is to take a brief pause and a deep breath. Don’t fill the silence with the first thing that pops into your head. Taking a moment to think for five or 10 seconds is perfect. Use that time to build a short and schematic answer.

Understand and manage your worse enemy in a job interview: Nerves

Whether you’re an executive or entry level, chances are that all the job interviews you do in your career will be marked by nervousness. Why?

According to Lassi Albin, although we change jobs more often these days, “we’re not used to exposing ourselves to the pressure and emotions that come with an interview.”
Plus, there’s so much at stake: it’s not just about getting a job, but inevitably affects much deeper and personal aspects like our family, security, stability, lifestyle, or identity.
Finally, it’s a situation that always happens live and in person, with so many variables that you’ll never be able to rehearse for 100%.

Now that you know the source of your nerves and that it’s completely normal, you can practice some strategies for being a bit calmer:

Consider that the person who called you for the interview chose you over other people. You’re there because they want you, and for the value you can add.
If it’s the most important moment in your career, practice the route you’ll take to get to the company before you go. Familiarize yourself with the setting and the entrances to avoid that added nervousness the day of the interview.
Don’t wait until the last minute to practice; take your time to prepare in order to calm your nerves. Doing exercise and eating light and healthy meals on the day can help you feel more comfortable.
Talk before the interview so that you arrive in a more relaxed and communicative mood. Chat with the person at reception, someone you pass in the hallway…whatever it takes to avoid that half hour of solitude, anxiety, and silence in a waiting room.

In IESE’s executive programs you’ll build your strengths as a leader and perfect all the steps necessary to successfully tackle your next professional goal. Mind you, you’ll have to get through an interview to do so. Now you know how.

Quiz: How good are you at job interviews?

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