As young French engineer being at the beginning of my career, I quickly decided to set my professional objectives into the consulting sector. The achievement of a degree of one of the top ten French engineering school gave me already good cards. However, I immediately planed to reinforce this strong asset by international mobility.

Two tough years of product engineering in the R&D department of a major automotive supplier located in Germany have been a rich experience in this direction. This has also been the occasion for me to understand what I really looked for to achieve my professional goal: a Management Program, preferably by keeping contact with the industrial reality. Indeed, I realized at this time how important a continuous link with a professional environment is, to apply and test directly all theoretical lessons taught.

This approach led me to enrol for an excellent management program recently developed: the International Management Program (IMP) of the Zurich Elite Business School. This Program is based on a close partnership with different companies, and aims to combine high quality theoretical teaching with concrete practical experiences.

On the one hand, the selection of the company I accomplish my projects confirmed the seriousness and the quality of this program. The choice of the firm, among several possibilities in different sectors, allows to better fit with the student skills and personal interests or aspirations. In my case, a dynamic engineering and management process consulting firm. The customer: a worldwide top ten automotive supplier of tier 1. The project: implement a brand new innovative product for a first vehicle application of one of the main European car manufacturers. The challenge is exciting, combining intercultural and conflict management with solution of technical and project management issues in front of the end-customer. Nevertheless in this project I am supported by a personal mentor, improving highly my efficiency and my understanding of management aspects.

On the other hand, the first seminars I attended in the Zurich Elite Business School have totally met my high expectations. All lecturers were very experienced consultants and convinced me with clear explanations illustrated with numerous concrete examples and combined with team exercises and real-life case studies. The result-oriented content of these lessons does not deviate from the main objective of the IMP: train and strengthen the main qualities of a good Manager as pro-active thinking rather than reactivity/passivity, decision making skills, strategic thinking, intercultural awareness, and communication skills.

Along with all these experiences we are strongly supported by a personal ZEBS mentor, improving highly our efficiency and our understanding of management aspects.

Yan, IMP – Fellow at Zurich Elite Business School