Tell us about your training

Charlotte and I are no strangers to training – we have always loved stepping out of our comfort zone and seeing how far we can push ourselves. For this challenge it’s all about strength training to minimise the risk of injuries. We have an Ocean Rowing coach, Gus Barton, and train seven days a week.

I had an operation on my wrist 6 weeks ago (terrible timing), so recovery has kept us off the water.  However, prior to the operation we went from zero ocean rowing experience to an overnight row in 3 sessions. As we enter the last few months of training, especially with the set back of my wrist, we will need to live on our boat!

How are you preparing for the mental aspect of this challenge?

The most crucial element is mental endurance. We both have very strong personalities with gritty determination and would go above and beyond to support each other and those around us. However, up to 60 days on a 7 x 1.5m boat, with nothing and no one around you only vast Ocean, coupled with sever tiredness and physical pain, will be extremely hard mentally. We’ve heard stories of teams falling apart because of the strain.  We’ve been focusing a lot on how we talk to each other, how we address issues and how we communicate. Understanding and supporting each other will be as important as physical capabilities.

What else goes into planning for a challenge for this?  

It’s not just physical training. We have had to learn how to operate and manage our boat, and ourselves, in extreme ocean conditions. We’ve gone on courses for electricals, water making, sea navigation, weather routing, ocean safety, first aid and VHF radio, most followed by a certification. It’s has been a steep learning curve, however as the row is unassisted, we need to be self-sufficient.

For us personally this will be the most rewarding, life-changing experience and will catapult our fundraising efforts well and truly to the next level.

We will row 2 hrs on, 2 hrs off continuously. Those 2 hours off are crucial to recuperate, if we do not maintain a proper routine, we could become sick.  As a team we will complete 1.5 million oar strokes so our hands, glutes, feet, and whole body really, will need constant care and attention. The last thing we want is open sores and sea rot! Food planning is also critical, we eat dehydrated food and need 5,000 calories as day, so there’s a lot to think about.

Oh, and the answer to the question everyone asks is ‘We go in a bucket’!

How is the fundraising going?

We want to raise £100k for our two amazing charities. On top of this we need to raise £50k to take part in the challenge, which includes the race fees, equipment, certifications, shipping, food and so much more. The financial aspect of this challenge is as daunting as the row.

We have some amazing corporate sponsors already on-board. It’s not been easy in this climate but thankfully companies are starting to realise the huge benefits of sponsoring a team in challenge like this. We have great corporate packages that promote business opportunities and brand awareness (last year the race made 11.4 billion impressions thought multi-media channels), CSR strategies, and employee engagement. You can download our Corporate Brochure for more information or reach out to me directly. We are already talking to a few companies from the Imperial network which is amazing. 

Personal donations are also a huge contributor. We’ve already raised £14k on our Team Wild Waves Virgin Giving Page but we have a long way to go. We will also be hosting a black-tie gala event and auction in London in May 2022 to raise further funds. We are so grateful to everyone who has supported us so far. I hope our Imperial alumni community can get involved and be part of this once in a lifetime experience.

Immerse yourself within Imperial College

Imperial College Business School is positioned within Imperial College London – a globally top-ranked university renowned for our faculties of engineering and medicine, and more recently have been recognised for our expert research and insights that informed the COVID-19 response in the UK.

As a Business School student, you are part of this inspiring community. On the Full-Time MBA, you have the opportunity to become part of the ground-breaking thinking and life-changing research taking place every day across the College.

Opportunities to learn and collaborate exist around every corner: from the Imperial Innovation Challenge where you will have access to the latest research by our leading STEM academics and researchers; the Entrepreneurial Journey project, which provides the chance to collaborate with Imperial medics, engineers and scientists; exploring our ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship through the Enterprise Lab, and choosing electives where you will study alongside students from other faculties, such as AI Ventures shared with the Faculty of Engineering. There’s no shortage of ways to reach out and build your network beyond business and immerse yourself in all the wonders Imperial College can offer you.

Additional support from our Careers team, plus over 300 cross-College clubs and societies will give you all the opportunity you need to forge connections that will pave your road to success.

Connect with London and explore international business

Not only does the wider Imperial community open up a whole new world of opportunity, so too does the thriving metropolis that Imperial calls home at our campuses in historical South Kensington and innovative White City.

London puts both corporate giants and trailblazing startups right at your fingertips and provides the ideal setting for kickstarting your career after the MBA. To help you get the ball rolling, we are introducing the London Tech Trek, a two-day tour of the most innovative startups and future-facing corporations in town; enhancing your connection within the city and focusing on digital transformation and how to disrupt in an ever-evolving landscape.

With a global reputation, internationally famous location, and international experiences* such as our Global Experience Week, LEADS capstone and Glocal electives to match, the Imperial Full-Time MBA is your bridge to the world and the future of responsible business across borders.

I have worked in international higher education for seven years, so when it came to researching my own post-graduate study, I had something of a head start.

So, what was it that lead me to Imperial College Business School’s Weekend MBA programme? How is the programme structured?  And, four months in, has it proven to be the right choice so far? I’ll explore these questions in this blog.

Why Imperial?

When considering business schools, it was key for me to consider the right ‘fit’; it is important to remember that the School is not only selecting you as a candidate, you are also selecting the school.

Imperial College is a brand that is known around the world for innovation, science, and technology. I currently work as a Business Analyst delivering technology-enhanced change projects and plan to continue my career in this space. The Imperial brand was a clear fit for not only where I am but also where I intend to go.

Location was a significant factor for me. I live, work, and have family based here in London. While international relocation was an option, London is one of the few cities in the world that is an economic, political, and cultural hub. Pairing my personal situation with this made London study appealing. The potential loss of the benefits of studying abroad was tempered by the many international opportunities the programme offers, from the Global Experience Week to the international electives.

My desire to learn from different experiences, cultures, national backgrounds, and ways of working was also met by the diverse Imperial community, both within the Weekend MBA itself and the wider Business School and university. Taking my own syndicate group as a microcosm, we are six individuals from six different countries working in six different industries; the diversity of thought, perspective, and experience is invaluable.

The Imperial Weekend MBA format: studying part-time in London

What particularly sets the Weekend MBA programme apart from the traditional MBA pathway is the format. For one weekend a month, my classmates and I come together from our different locations to learn with and from one another on campus at Imperial. Outside of these structured times, we use the power of technology to remain in contact and support each other on our MBA journey.

The weekend format works for me in particular as it allows me to apply the learning from the classroom to my work in real time, and then to bring those learnings back into the classroom to further enrich the experience.

Within four months of starting the programme, I have already applied skills gained from Decision Analytics to enhance prioritisation processes at my workplace, used Organisational Behaviour theories to improve the way I engage with stakeholders, and utilised Management Accounting to better understand my organisation.

Combining full-time work with studying

The Weekend MBA format also allows me to continue to progress with my career as I earn my MBA. For some, the immersion of a full-time programme suits their individual approach, giving them space and time to pause and reflect. For me personally, I am keen to maintain professional momentum, a feeling I know is shared by others in my cohort who even at this early stage in the programme have grasped new professional opportunities.

For people considering the Weekend MBA programme, however, the format certainly does not make it a ‘soft’ option compared to a full-time programme. The core and elective learnings of a world-leading MBA programme remain the same; the commitment should not be underestimated.

Outside of the structured on campus weekend teaching, I spend between 15-25 hours of my week studying in addition to maintaining my full-time job. But I can fit those hours around my other commitments – personal and professional – with an element of flexibility less available had I taken the full-time studying route.

Beyond my MBA graduation…

So, how does the Weekend MBA programme and Imperial College Business School link to my future career goals beyond graduation?

The programme attracts individuals who already have notable professional experience behind them. Indeed, learning from such individuals is almost as valuable to me as learning from the excellent faculty. As a result, my Weekend MBA classmates and I are not at the point in our careers where the ‘traditional’ MBA internship route is not necessarily appropriate.

I intend to leverage my learnings, new networks, and professional experience gained prior to and during the programme to transition to the consulting and/or digital transformation space as an experienced professional. I hope that the Business School’s electives on Business Problem Solving, Digital Transformation, and Project Management will  build on the fundamental learnings of the core modules to help me execute this.

This said, as I discussed with my personal Careers Consultant from the well-equipped Careers team at the Business School, I remain open to the new possibilities and avenues the Weekend MBA experience may reveal to me. From my professional experience working in higher education, I know these programmes are transformative, and I look forward to what I continue to learn about business, innovation, and myself over the months and years ahead.

I am a data science consultant in one of the Big 4 consulting firms. This means that I use data, maths and technology to solve business problems. After working for a few years, I realised that data science is too vast a topic to continue learning from the internet at the level I was working at. Therefore I made the decision to pursue a formal Master’s part-time to establish a strong understanding of the fundamentals of business analytics.

In September 2020, I joined Imperial College Business School’s MSc Business Analytics (online, part-time) programme. It has been an exciting journey so far, and I am already using a lot of what I am studying already at work.

On a recent project at work, I was building a supplier allocation system for one of my clients. They are a manufacturing client who wanted to source different parts for their business, and for each part, there were multiple bids from different suppliers. The goal was to reduce overall costs involved with logistics and sourcing. In addition, there were many business constraints, and they wanted a tool where they could add or remove conditions and get the optimal supplier allocation in each scenario.

The project started with creating databases and queries for handling bids from suppliers. Concepts that I had learned from MSc Business Analytics (online, part-time) module 'Fundamentals of Database Technologies' like normal forms, database maintenance and ORM's, were helpful to use during this process. Next, I used the 'Network Analytics’ module concepts to understand the supply chain network and the flow. Finally, the supplier allocation system was implemented using integer programming in Python, which I learned from the 'Optimisation and Decision Models' module.

The problem was complex, and the concepts that I had learned on the programme helped break down the problem into manageable parts and implement them one step at a time. Thanks to my experience working with Python from the 'Data Structures and Algorithms' module, I was able to converse with the backend and frontend teams who integrated the data science part into an application.

The experience of implementing what I have been learning on MSc Business Analytics (online, part-time) has helped me to understand the concepts better and look at the programme content from implementation and business use, rather than a purely academic perspective. It has also opened my eyes to the complexity of real-world problems and made me appreciate the depth of teaching material.

I am originally a computer engineer. I've done some coding for companies like SONY, but for the last 10+ years, one of the most exciting industries out there has captivated my attention: advertising. I specialise in advertising technologies, programmatic advertising (i.e., using data & algorithms to show ads), and digital-out-of-home advertising for the last few years.

Advertising has been around for thousands of years, and probably it will be around for another few thousand years, so it has a past and it has a future. We know the history, but how will the future look?

I want to discuss some macro trends I see in advertising. I believe they're powerful enough to rethink some concepts in our industry and potentially shape the future of this industry.

1. Online advertising losing its touch & a privacy-first world

All those ads we see on the internet are about to become less effective. Why? Because you don't like them. You think they're intrusive, annoying, and many companies track you without your permission.

And you're right.

Advertising companies have failed to show ads in a balanced way. Let's admit it; we have greedy players in this industry, and they have gone to extreme measures to make more money.

In particular, intrusive tracking has upset many people, so governments introduced strict regulations like GDPR to help people. Our privacy concerns gave companies like Apple and Google reasons to limit the usage of our data. Everyone in our industry knows about the impending death of cookies, increasing limitations of mobile device IDs, ad-blockers etc.

So, the trend in online advertising is somewhat straightforward: it's losing its touch with people. Advertisers favored online ads because they could run targeted ads with personalised content, but soon those days may be over.

All those ads we see on the internet are about to become less effective. Why? Because you don't like them.

2. Back to the future

I think we'll start seeing some reverse trends in our industry, and we may go back to old-school techniques to advertise. Below are a few of the reverse-trends I observe:

From personalised to contextual: What happens when personalised ads are gone? Well, let's say hello to an old friend: contextual ads. For instance, while reading financial news, you'll see finance-related ads. As simple as that. Contextual ads used to be popular, and soon they may become popular again.

From math-men to mad-men: For the last several years, we've heard the phrase "from mad-men to math-men" a lot in our industry. I think we'll start hearing "from math-men to mad-men" soon.

From AI to HI: Artificial intelligence in advertising? Yes, maybe, but probably for different reasons than personalising ads (there wasn't much of an AI anyway, so not a significant loss). So human intelligence (HI) becomes relevant again.

From programmatic to automation: Programmatic advertising technologies may take a new form, as these technologies usually use data to target specific users. Big programmatic players desperately try to find a solution to replace cookies, but it's unclear whether they'll win this game. So while I believe automation is still essential, programmatic advertising, in particular, may lose its touch.

3. Digitalisation of Ads

This trend has been around for the last 20+ years, and it is still as relevant today.

We used to read printed newspapers to access information. Now we mainly use internet websites for the same purpose.

The same thing happens in other channels like TV (rise of ‘Over the Top’ & ‘Connected TVs’) and out-of-home (rise of digital screens). We'll see more and more connected TVs and connected digital billboards. That means we'll see more digital ads on these channels.

4. From inefficient to efficient

The trend from inefficiency to efficiency is a slow but potent one. Almost all industries try to optimise towards efficiency, and it's been happening in our industry. Below are the three main efficiency-related trends I observe in our industry.

From non-transparent to transparent: Transparency has been one of the significant issues in our industry. Especially with the rise of programmatic advertising, marketers started to question how algorithms work and how their ad agencies spend their budgets. Although there are positive developments in this area, it is far from fixed. I think in the next few years we'll see some further innovations in this area.

Digital transformation: All industries go through some digital transformation, so does ours. For example, some traditional advertising channels like out-of-home advertising have been using manual flows to operate. However, this inefficiency damages trust in these channels and limits potential ad budget increases. So we see some innovative companies in this area as well.

Optimised supply chain: There are many players between marketers and publishers. Each player takes some cut of the advertising budget, and in return, adds some value. Some of the players do not exactly add any value, yet they're still there. This trend creates confusion around the importance of these 3rd party players, and it is not sustainable. That means marketers and publishers will start asking questions like "can we rethink how to advertise effectively with fewer players between buyers and sellers?" Furthermore, this will force companies to innovate in this area.

In my opinion, all the macro-trends mentioned above are very powerful. They will potentially shape the advertising industry's future, and probably we'll be in a different world in 10 years - like we're in a different world compared to 10 years ago.

Let's better observe these trends and prepare ourselves and our companies accordingly. And in the spirit of preparing our industry for the future, we built an ad platform called Airsqreen to improve the digital-out-of-home advertising in response to many of the trends reviewed above.

Before joining Imperial 

With 10 years of professional experience in several high-profile roles across numerous sectors and companies, I currently work at Vodafone in the London office as a Global Senior Commercial Manager in Big Data & Artificial Intelligence. 

In this role, I have had enormous opportunities to learn different business processes, understand obstacles and come up with creative solutions. I also act as a public speaker and have delivered more than 50 speeches to date, providing insights and stories related to motivation, the future of business life, technology and more to over 2000 people.

Imperial has one of the most well-established and outstanding business schools, with an Executive MBA that will allow me to join the exclusive Imperial Alumni network to stay fully connected to the latest developments in the business sphere. A diverse class profile, knowledge-rich curriculum, and international residencies in Berlin and Hong Kong were all important motivators for me to pursue an Executive MBA at Imperial. 

Programme highlights 

All the modules on the programme cover different aspects of modern business, and the information we’ve been exposed to at Imperial is mind-blowing. Group work has been taken seriously throughout, and working with diverse teams is a fulfilling experience that allows me to learn from my fellow MBA candidates. It is also great practice for people who don’t have much international work experience.

Most of the core modules relate to leadership, decision-making, communication, analytics, or organisational behaviour in some way and have been extremely well rounded.

The modules related to marketing have been my favourites so far, as they are all about understanding consumer pains and enticing them with the service/product that we offer. To establish humanised, robust and long-term relationships with consumers, I’m constantly trying to learn more about this subject so that I can boost customer satisfaction – something that should be the ultimate goal for all enterprises.

Networking and leadership

Imperial is a great place to build an extensive worldwide network and the best place to leverage your skillsets in different areas like leadership, decision making, communication and analytics. For example, Imperial’s comprehensive Executive Leadership Journey is quite interesting indeed. The programme’s design has helped me to put effective and collaborative leadership into my work and harness the capabilities and potential of teams and other colleagues. It helps you to focus on development of your own leadership capabilities as well as exploring teamwork for competitive advantage, change and renewal.

Life after the MBA 

After completing the Executive MBA, my short-term professional goal is to obtain a Big Data & AI Product Director position at Vodafone. It will be a great experience for me to apply all the theoretical information taken from Imperial, and combine it with my professional experience to create real impact that affects millions of people’s lives directly.

The information flow in today’s digital world is truly astounding. New products and services are released every day, and Imperial has taught me how to be an early adopter of new technologies and enhancements, particularly around artificial intelligence, to create efficiency. The Business School has encouraged me to be more curious, analytical, and a good communicator to realise my long-term goals and enable me to make remarkable contributions to the society that we all live in.

What do you think of when you think of leadership? And what does leadership entail in the current context of crisis and uncertainty?

Traditionally, leadership is broadly understood as a set of skills – a matrix of technical and certain psychological or emotional competencies geared to managing people and resources in order to optimise outcomes.

Technical or hard skills have always been very much on the radar of all aspiring leaders, and rightly so. Managing any organisation successfully is contingent on truly understanding its different mechanisms; the interplay of finance, accounting, human resource management, marketing, sales, supply management – all of the diverse cogs that turn together and that drive day-to-day operations and continuity.

More recently though, there’s a growing focus on the so-called soft skills; the more human competencies and attributes that also form an essential part of the leadership toolkit. Leadership experts and researchers have highlighted the importance of things like compassion, communication skills, active listening or empathy in motivating, aligning and optimising human performance in the workplace.

McKinsey and others have published articles and studies that reveal that “compassionate leaders” outperform others and are more successful in fostering team spirit, engagement and loyalty. And in times of crisis, such as the present pandemic, this type of leadership becomes even more critical.

So what are these soft skills? And more importantly, how do you develop them?

First off, a lot depends on your mindset. The renowned US psychologist, Carol Dweck, has dedicated her career to shedding light on our mindsets and how personality and motivation tie to success. Broadly speaking, Dweck organises leaders into two mindsets: fixed and growth.

People with a growth mindset believe that they (and others) can develop, evolve and adapt to new circumstances or contexts over time. Conversely, the fixed mindset sees human behaviour as somehow set and immutable. We are who we are, and we don’t change.

Key to developing your soft skills as a leader is first to adopt a growth mindset; to embrace the possibility of change and growth. And that means reframing failure or challenge as opportunity; acknowledging and embracing imperfection; and leveraging what Dweck calls the “power of yet” – in other words, understanding that knowledge and skills are attainable over time and with effort.

Having a growth mindset means you are open to change in the way you think, learn and develop new skills – including the soft skills that compassionate leaders will need to deploy to steer their teams and organisations out of this crisis and towards the next normal.

Imperial’s Lisa Umenyiora, Executive Director of Careers, has run studies and surveys over the course of the pandemic looking at the kinds of qualities or soft skills that are increasingly on-demand and on the radar of organisations looking to rebuild and fortify their position as we enter the post-Covid landscape.

Here are just some of them.

1. Communication

Good communication is key not only to the flow transfer or important information within a team, but also to the shared understanding of culture, values and purpose of the organisation. Leaders who are effective communicators are better able to motivate, mobilise and align people and resources, especially in uncertain and complex environments. Think about how you communicate with your team, and focus on what matters – the meaning of your messages – and on how to keep things clear and simple. Think too about the way you use your body language, and how you decide when to be quiet and to proactively listen.

2. Active listening

Listening effectively means you capture vital information at the right time from the right person. But that’s not all. Leaders who actively listen also signal to their team members that they care, value and appreciate them as individuals; and that their input, opinion and expertise matter. And this is critical to building strong interpersonal relations and engagement which are critical to weathering difficult times.

3. Candour

In “normal” times, trust matters. But in times of crisis and uncertainty, trust is absolutely vital. Effective leaders understand that building trust is a two-way process and that it hinges on transparency, candour and vulnerability. Being honest, authentic and open even – perhaps especially – when you don’t have all the answers, demonstrates that you are a leader who can be trusted; that you have the human warmth as well as the competence to rally your team around a shared purpose and act in the interest of all.

4. Empathy

Empathy is the capacity to imagine and to understand another person’s perspective, experience and feelings. It’s the ability to “put yourself in the shoes” of someone else and see things from their point of view. Not only does empathy help leaders to build stronger, supportive relationships with employees – enabling them to succeed and excel – it also helps to understand the causes of performance issues or poor outcomes.

Empathy, like the other qualities mentioned here, is a skill that can be learnt, practised and developed. Taking time to think about why an employee or colleague makes a certain proposal or suggestion before critiquing or accepting it helps unlock a deeper understanding of motivation and perspective. So too will thinking about the impact or effect of your own words and actions – and remembering to care about what that impact might be.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought about a reckoning in terms of the way we work. But there is also an imperative to re-think and reevaluate the way that we lead. And it seems likely that even as this crisis fades, a new model of effective leadership built on empathy, candour, transparency, compassion and a willingness to listen will not just endure, but will actually determine who thrives in the new normal. (And who doesn’t.)