EMLYON Business School, which prides itself on an entrepreneurial spirit, is one such school that develops business leaders who can merge the two.
But MBAs, who need to balance lectures, case assignments and recruiting opportunities, may have a tough time juggling the notoriously difficult start-up scene. Throw in a full-time management position and you could have a recipe for disaster.
Yet entrepreneurship remains one of the most rapidly growing career paths at business school. And even on full-time MBA programs, some students manage to be corporate high-flyers by day and book worms by night.
Farrukh Hussain, who graduated from Henley Business School last year – while working as a business development consultant at Sony Europe, says that it can be done on a one-year program.
He had to learn the MBA curriculum while flying to business meetings around Europe. “When I took time off [the MBA] I would read and study on the plane. I wanted to study an MBA in the UK and wanted to work at the same time. It was difficult but the Henley’s staff were understanding,” he says.
While it is difficult, even balancing a full-time career and running a start-up can be done, says Sihong Yan, who has been running a tourism business in China for the past four years.
And after gaining an MBA from EMLYON last year, she feels she has another string to her bow. “I have to admit that I am a workaholic. I love to be busy when I am at work and always want to exceed the forecast,” she says.
“But as I love travelling, I try to arrange vacations each year in an exotic country. By doing so, I feel refreshed and am ready for challenges at my work.”
Those challenges came thick and fast. Even though China is regarded as an economic powerhouse, marketing her business, KUAILEREN Tour Service Ltd, was difficult.
China is still a developing country and the business sector has much to learn from Europe, Sihong says. “The challenge was how to spread our reputation by the world of mouth. The job of the team was to make sure we paid full attention to our employees, as well as meticulous preparation and a fine attention to detail on each trip for our clients,” she says.
KUAILEREN Tour Service has a range of tourism products and packages to cater to the needs of different companies. Sihong planned, created and arranged tour and travel operations throughout her MBA program at EMLYON.
She chose to study on the other side of the world, in France, in-part because of the entrepreneurial spirit and smaller class sizes at the school. EMLYON’s International MBA program was developed to cater specifically for entrepreneurs.
Sihong says that Europe has a well-developed market, whereas China is still learning. “After working for several years in a management position, I felt that if I want to move further in my career path I needed to have scholastic knowledge to compliment my practical one,” she explains.
Her inspiration came from that management career, however. She was working in the shipping industry and noticed that many Europeans needed to organize trips for the Chinese owners to visit their factories.
Most of the suppliers had no experience in dealing with business people in China, and didn’t speak Chinese. Although, understanding people and maintaining relationships is essential to doing business in china, Sihong says. She has a notebook that records all the information of her clients, such as the age of their kids, birthdays and habits.
“The clients have to feel emotionally connected with us and this is the key,” she says. Many of the shipping suppliers she worked with lacked that connection. “This created a problem which needed to be addressed and I saw my opportunity. So I decided to start my own business, which would organize customized trips for personnel from Chinese companies,” she says.
Managing a top-ranking MBA degree and a tourism business may be difficult enough. But Sihong took up various roles at Carich Consultancy and Carich Marine Engineering in Shanghai after graduating. It is challenging, no doubt, but a lot of fun, she says.
Her start-up is still progressing in the tourism sector in China, but an MBA from a European school has given her a new goal: to launch an additional company. “The international exposure and class interaction were the highlights of the course. And in a few years I think I will be able to launch an additional company to bind to my current firm,” Sihong says.
“The MBA program at EMLYON has equipped me with the means I need to go through with it.”
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