Florina Tanase, Senior Director of Legal and External Affairs at Vodafone Romania and Daniel Mateescu, Chief Operating Officer and coordinator of operations for all TotalSoft divisions, are graduates of the Executive MBA program of the American Tiffin University.

For the two graduates, the Executive MBA program offered by Tiffin University in collaboration with the University of Bucharest meant effort, commitment, new challenges, sharing ideas and lessons learned. When it comes to life lessons, the most important one that Florina Tanase learned was: “People matter! To me, the program was a reminder that, no matter how much education we have and the business title we’ve acquired, our humaneness is always the one that makes the difference. Treat your employees, superiors and partners the way you would like to be treated and then things will go smoothly and correctly!”

Daniel Mateescu’s choice of an academic experience of this type came as a natural step forward in his career. “I believe I enrolled in the Tiffin Executive MBA at the right moment. I had already gathered several years’ experience in management, and the Tiffin EMBA program enabled that information to set and validated some of my knowledge”, Daniel Mateescu explains, as one who can boast some remarkable professional experience gained in 15 years at TotalSoft.

In her position at Vodafone Romania, Florina Tanase coordinates legal, compliance, regulatory, corporate social responsibility (CSR), public relations and corporate security activities. It is easy to understand why time management was one of her main concerns when she made the decision to attend the Tiffin EMBA. “I realized that my weekends for the next 21 months would be mostly dedicated to attending school”, Florina Tanase recounts.

In spite of her extremely busy schedule, which is divided between the activities of the company and those of the Vodafone foundation, Tanase decided to enroll in an Executive MBA. In that sense, the moral support provided by her fellow program students was essential. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mihai Tarniceanu, Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs at Vodafone Romania and graduate of this same program for supporting me constantly throughout my studies. For that matter, one of the key ingredients of this program are one’s colleagues, who add to its value by sharing their experiences and especially by providing mutual support”, Tanase admits.

The Tiffin Executive MBA is as much an academic experience as it is a way to become acquainted with new people, ideas and strategies. “Aside from the excellent professors and interesting courses, what made for a pleasant experience was also the fact that we formed a group which shared the same principles, ambitions and visions. It is a group which has remained just as solid in spite of classes being over and I hope it stays this way in the future. I met lovely people, in whose midst I felt right at home”, Daniel Mateescu recounts.

Florina Tanase was pleasantly surprised when, during the program, she came across professors who break with stereotypes and, with their typical American ease, share not only theoretical knowledge, but also concrete events which marked their professional and personal development.

“I was impressed by Professor John Millar’s classes <Let me put on my surprise face>, he would often say. That become, to me, at least, a way of positioning myself in relation to the unexpected situations I often face in my professional life”, Florina Tanase confessed.

The Tiffin Executive MBA is a managerial education program aimed at middle and top-management professionals with clearly outlined expectations as to their professional and personal development following the completion of their studies. “Such a program influences your character and changes it to a great extent. I believe its greatest impact is reflected in a more analytical and clearer manner of thinking”, Daniel Mateescu explains.

Another secret behind the program’s success consists in ‘knowledge validation’, as Daniel Mateescu put it, and in the capacity to develop certain abilities which students acquired during their years of professional activity. “Two of the most important such abilities have to do with strategic thinking and determining a company’s degree of health based only on financial reports.”

At the end of a journey fraught with challenges, as well as achievements, Daniel Mateescu recommends approaching and pursuing an MBA program from multiple angles. “On the one hand, the applicant’s management experience is important, even vital, I would say, and so is his or her career plan and openness towards an international work environment. You need to be willing to learn, as it is fairly demanding, and to sacrifice most of your free time. However, I believe the effort paid off.”

Source: Wall-Street.ro