My Time As An EMBA Student at IMD Business School

Business school hopefuls choose an executive MBA for a number of reasons. Designed for managers with extensive work experience – generally between 10 to 15 years – EMBA programs are an ideal fit for candidates with considerable business knowledge to draw upon.

The EMBA offers an opportunity for students to reach higher managerial positions and curate their leadership skills for not just the benefit of their company, but also their personal growth.

Tatiana Zaytseva, IMD Business School EMBA Class of 2015, spoke with TopMBA about her EMBA experience and how it helped her in her career.

Finding the right executive MBA program

For the last 20 years, Tatiana has worked in marketing roles, taking on different positions at local and global levels.

She said: “My job is diverse and exciting. To summarize it, it’s about finding prospective markets that can deliver profitable growth to the business and create strategies on how to address them with a proper value proposition based on customer insights.”

Tatiana says finding the right executive MBA program for her was a quest – she attended several MBA fairs, introduction events, master classes and searched across the internet.

She said: “It had to match my future expectations of my career, my level of experience at that time, it had to be a good reputable school with solid and stable ranking, which could equip me with good education and very tangible skills in the areas I wanted to improve myself.

“I finally applied to the IMD Business School in Switzerland, which completely matched my search criteria.”

One of the events Tatiana notes was our QS event in Zurich, she said: "Thank you for the event you organized in Zurich which was exceptionally well done and organized!

"Thank you for giving me a chance to meet with the desired business school (IMD EMBA) and giving me the opportunity to discuss my profile more in depth."

Tatiana enjoyed her EMBA program at IMD Business School and says it prepared her to become a global leader. She said: “It gave me a solid knowledge of key business concepts, introduced me to a cohort of extremely high level professionals from whom I learned a lot, but most importantly it built my awareness of myself as a leader, and I was able to adjust my style, behaviors and gain confidence.”

A vital alumni network

One of the many benefits of an executive MBA is of course the alumni network graduates find themselves a part of – a valuable source for professional connections.

Tatiana said: “IMD alumni is a strong community of business leaders around the globe. The school invests in annual events, making sure people stay in touch, and get connected constantly.

“It creates a strong sense of community of like-minded professionals, who whom I can reach out anytime.”

In fact, Tatiana acknowledges the business knowledge she acquired on IMD’s executive MBA program was instrumental to her job today.

She said: “Finance, Leadership, Organization behavior is critical to the success in my position and I still refer to all the concepts I learned during my studies. IMD is “real world, real learning” that creates a real impact.”

Advice for future EMBA students

For EMBA hopefuls looking to attend business school in the coming months and or years, Tatiana has a few words of advice.

She said: “To a prospective MBA applicant I would advise to be clear about your motivation and take your time to find the best school to match your criteria.

“Reach out to independent sources for help in assessing different schools, and most of all - be ready for change.

“You will not be the same person after finishing your studies, it will set you to the high standards. Be ready for a positive change, embrace it and enjoy the journey!”

But what does the future look like for Tatiana? She thinks to prepare for the future, there’s no time to begin like the present.

She said: “The future is built today, and I am strong believer that what you do today creates a grounding for the days and years to come.

“In the next few years of my career, I would like to be challenged intellectually and have enough resources to fulfill that challenge, therefore I embrace continuous learning and hope to keep developing as a responsible and ethical business leader.”