The decision to pursue an Executive MBA program was rather a bet with myself, a personal ambition “encouraged” and actively supported by my boss from that period. As time goes by, after 20 years of experience in sales, you tend to believe that you know everything, that nothing surprises you anymore and that your success is guaranteed. And you enter that comfort zone that does us the greatest possible disservice. Until you realize that things change faster than our power of reaction, that the business depends on the technology, and that the new reality is about permanent change, adaptation, speed of reaction, multifunctional capabilities, and perhaps most importantly, that the people and teams you have built and led need a new leadership model.

This is why I decided that I need a reset, that I need to start over, and that the best way I can do this is to pursue an EMBA in General Management.

After graduating such a program, you cannot consider yourself an expert in all the disciplines you’ve studied, nor being able to specialize yourself in all business areas, in two years of study. But you will definitely have a better understanding of the general, local or global context, you will improve your structure, discipline, Team Work, Communication and Presentation Skills, Decision Making. Last but not least, you will identify new perspectives in the areas of ​​Human Resources and Leadership.

When I chose my business school and started looking at the offers from the Romanian market, I set three must-have criteria, without excluding the options from the other European countries, that I could have reached in a maximum of 2-3 hours, traveling by plane. It was important for me to be a business school that already has a prestige and a very good image, to be locally accredited, in Europe, as well as in the U.S.

The procedure of recruiting/accepting the candidates was also very important. The stricter the acceptance criteria, the higher the quality and level of the colleagues you will interact with.

Another criteria was based on the study method and the curriculum. I excluded from the start the programs that are based on individual study and I chose only the options that follow a learning by doing in the class methodology. In addition to the business knowledge gained, I considered that the interaction with the colleagues and the professors, the teamwork and the exchange of experience on real business situations are also very important in such a program.

And, the third criteria that we must take into account, is the cost, the duration of the program and, very important for me, to be able to study mainly during weekends. Based on these criteria, two programs remained on my short list, one outside Romania and Tiffin University in Bucharest, the last one being the one that best suited my needs.