EMBA Student Profile: Sanzhar Kozybayev - INSEAD

Sanzhar Kozybayev embarked on an Executive MBA at INSEAD after the increase in demand for local business leaders in his home country of Kazakhstan. He speaks with QS TopMBA.com about gaining that competitive advantage.

"Broadly speaking Kazakhstan needs people able to think outside the box to create value to our people," says Sanzhar Kozybayev, director at Visor Capital, the leading investment bank in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

A former senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, CFO of oil and gas servicing companies, and executive director of Visor Investment Solutions, Sanzhar is seeing a range of issues arising in his field on a daily basis as the 2009 economic situation continues to change - issues that need effective solutions. He's also seeing the business environment of Kazakhstan quickly developing and integrating into the world economy - a key reason for applying to INSEAD's Global Executive MBA program which has campuses in France and Singapore and is now ranked as the sixth best executive program in the world according to the Financial Times (FT) EMBA ranking 2008.

Sanzhar already has an impressive educational background. He majored in international economic relations for his Bachelor of Science, and graduated with a Masters in Economics from the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP), before completing the first level of his Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) UK diploma.

He gained substantial theoretical knowledge during his master's degree ten years ago but says business life doesn't stand still. "Kazakhstan is an emerging country in terms of political and economic developments. Everything moves relatively fast. So my decision [to apply to INSEAD] was partly driven by the clear need to catch up to the modern business theory and best practices on one hand, and by the need to develop personal competitive advantages on the other."

Development of human capital in Kazakhstan is one of the biggest issues facing the country and Sanzhar believes the demand for future local business leaders is enormous. However, he says the quality of local business education is somewhat questionable. "One can argue this statement but I believe that you cannot bring up a young generation of leaders with a purely theoretical mindset. You need to be able to reflect your gained knowledge with the best world practices, and apply your understanding and new attitude based on this reflection in solving day-to-day different business issues in Kazakhstan. Business definitely needs MBAs and moreover MBAs from the best universities of the globe."

Sanzhar's criteria for Executive MBA programs included membership in the top ten FT ranking, syllabus, geographic location, diversity and an Asian campus, timeline of modules and a convenient admission schedule. "INSEAD met all of my requirements, especially with regard to diversity and their very convenient timeline of admission processes and modules. The latter was crucial from a logistics point of view because it takes a lot of energy, cost and time to get to Europe and Asia from Kazakhstan taking into account the frequency of travelling implied by the nature of any Executive MBA program." Business professionals, like Sanzhar, have since encouraged INSEAD to visit Almaty with the QS World MBA Tour. INSEAD has responded to this demand and will participate in the tour for the first time on 3 March 2009.

Applying to and being accepted into one of the world's top Executive MBA programs is no mean feat and to do so, Sanzhar needed to pass the GMAT. He took a different approach to the rigorous test - one that he wouldn't advise others to take. "It was not easy. The first time I took the GMAT without any preparation to get a sense of time pressure and degree of difficulty with a purpose of formulating a successful strategy to be applied during the second trial. I challenged myself in open water first in order to understand my capabilities in terms of speed of thinking and my overall level of intelligence. It was not an illusionary effort, however. Deep inside me still was a slender hope that I was capable to get through immediately."