Hugo Santos spent nine years in finance, but the Manchester MBA is banking on his business school's Entrepreneurship Club.
After working in banking for nine years, Hugo Santos decided to begin an MBA to gain new skills.Despite coming from a financial background, he is an active member of Manchester Business School's Entrepreneurship Club. Hugo explains the insight and the industries that facilitate becoming an entrepreneur.
What are your club’s main aims this year?
Our club has three priorities this year:
The first is to bring guest speakers who can share their experiences and inspire the group. The second is to keep members informed about relevant events, such as conferences, speakers and competitions. Finally – to become a place for the improvement of ideas, where members can share their thoughts in a safe environment, knowing that the group will help them by sharing their own experiences [too].
Who was the most exciting speaker you had this year?
We had Glyn Powditch, CTO and co-founder of Dream Agility and an MBS alumnus. He not only shared his business experiences, but showed how it is possible to be an entrepreneur without giving up a regular job, and introduced some of the tax benefits of investing in a new company in the UK, with the SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme).
Why did you decide to begin an MBA program?
All my work experience was in the same company – nine years in banking, and even thought it was a good job, I knew I did not want to do it forever. I was looking for new challenges, to learn about a new companies, markets or industries, and the MBA is good for supporting a career change.
What is the key to entrepreneurial success?
I believe that an entrepreneur needs to aim to solve a problem, not create a product without a target audience in mind. And of course, be passionate about your idea – that will keep you motivated during the journey, and [be] resilient – handle the challenges and [do] not give up.
What area of business do you think is best to start-up as an MBA entrepreneur at the moment?
With the growing usage of smartphones, businesses targeting mobiles are very attractive at the moment. But there are opportunities everywhere, and the best area to start your business is where you identify a problem waiting to be solved, and preferably in an area that you know well, and are interested in.
Student Reviews
Alliance Manchester Business School
The course structure
The course is well structured and organised effectively. Every subject in the field of international business is covered in the course module. The lectures are of excellent quality and are simple to comprehend.
· The lecturers are also very knowledgeable about their subjects, quite thorough, and very helpful when it comes to answering questions and giving additional information on their subject.
· Students can easily access the assignment, lectures, and seminar content thanks to the blackboard technology. Students also benefit greatly from the reading materials that are posted on the blackboard.
Practical Business Experience
3 live consulting projects, Non-for-Profit consulting, Commercial Business Consulting and International Business Consulting projects within the programme, provide us with a great opportunity to exposure to the real business world.
Quality education and student support system
What I love about The University of Manchester is the fact that, alongside with the excellent education it provides, it also takes care of the well being of the students and supports them throughout the year.
Endless networking opportunities!
I would 100% recommend this university! Throughout my 4 years there I received endless guidance and support from the amazing staff; both professors and student support teams. A particular highlight was the insightful guest lectures, networking employability events and career meetings, these significantly helped in preparing me for my future career.
Fantastic University!
AMBS provides excellent teaching and outstanding facilities, both of which combine to make a great learning experience.
The teaching staff make sure we have plenty of resources to aid our learning, and always make sure we are making the most of our studies.
The business building itself is the most impressive on campus, and provides plenty of places in which we can work.
Great facilities and support
It is a great university that provides extra support for its students. The teachers are very helpful and willing to support you and the environment is just great. It offers good facilities, study spaces and workshops that can help in your experience as a student.
New building, innovative teaching methods
The staff is very well prepared and pays a lot of attention to the student. The building is new and full of updated facilities. Teachers propose intriguing learning methods and there are plenty of international students to learn from.
It's an amazing University!
I think that AMBS is among the most well rounded universities in the UK. The cultural diversity among the students as well as the faculty is what catches my attention the most. The campus is very new and beautiful and has all kinds of facilities.
Quality and QS World Ranking
AMBS has the diverse set of batch where the students get the opportunity to mingle with the students coming from different parts of the world. The group of faculty is also very diverse having different skill set. I'd always recommend it for studying masters in business analytics.
