Why did you choose to undertake an MBA?  

I was at a point in my career where I realised that life was short so I’d better work for a purpose and an industry that drives me. I have always been excited by everything that can be driven or piloted. I am a private pilot, a certified scuba diver and skydiver and a boat captain for my beach holidays. Therefore, stepping into the mobility world seemed an easy transition.

In terms of purpose, congestion, pollution and people safety are global challenges that I care about and have interested me for many years. I want to make an impact and pursue the challenges around pollution and congestion to make a real difference.

Last but not least, I wanted to integrate into this career change a relocation to London. I knew that a Full-Time MBA would be the perfect entry door to successfully undertake a triple professional jump.

The fusion of business, technology, innovation, sustainability and entrepreneurship is at the heart of the Imperial experience. The College is a global leader in these areas of expertise. I believe that these are fundamental keywords to be successful in the smart mobility industry.

How has your MBA changed your career?

I do what I do, where I am today, thanks to my MBA. I changed country, industry and even if I am still a consultant, the job itself is completely different. I also met my current MD as part of a networking effort during the MBA. I work as a Senior Consultant, Neckermann Strategic Advisors, a small boutique company that strives to transform the way we live and work.

You will discover what kind of leader you are and how this fits with your future goals.

I am a member of the Global New Mobility Coalition part of the World Economic Forum and contribute to how to create smart cities of the future. I look at smart mobility trends – ‘The Mobility Revolution’. It is a fascinating and fast-moving industry. I enjoy sharing my passion for the industry and have volunteered my time to speak current students, as well as being a Business School Alumni Ambassador. I also mentor startups and have my own blog.

What did you learn from your time at Imperial?

The MBA is a very special programme and it was an intense year. The programme has a great balance of theory, practice and personal development.

The DNA of Imperial is characterised by entrepreneurship and innovation. Facilities such as the Enterprise Lab provide amazing opportunities for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

In terms of personal development, I have changed as a person. The support you are given is very pro-active in terms of workshops, one-to-ones and intensive training. You will discover what kind of leader you are and how this fits with your future goals. I re-evaluated how I interact with people, and realised how hard it is to effectively communicate in a global and connected world.

One key learning point was how to handle a vast diversity of people, nationalities, interests and skill-sets. One very important concept for a leader is how to leverage individual key skills to get the most out of people and your team. These are the kind of skills that can’t be taught in the classroom but are developed through group projects, and the time and space the MBA gives you to be introspective and evaluate your own ability and goals.

It was really refreshing to be able to work with like-minded people, but people who work in different industries, in different positions and with different outlooks. I believe that you can have a great experiences if you are inspired by others and their opinions and experiences.  This is what you get from a MBA. And on top of this the network of students and alumni I met, the family of Imperial is incredible. Plus it was very special to be in the heart on South Kensington, surrounded by history, culture and art.

The skills and experiences I gained during my MBA will follow me throughout my career. It is demanding and challenging. You will laugh, cry and swear and sweat, but it is unique opportunity and will only happen once. So my final piece of advice is to enjoy it!

Watch Frederic’s full interview with Centre Court 2020

Arguably, no one could have predicted that 2020 would turn out to be such an eventful year... Yes, I know it's only July. Being a recent graduate in the wake of global health, societal and economic crises is both a daunting and exciting experience. Every day, we are uncovering new information about how we can better prepare ourselves for what's coming. However, significant questions remain about the future.

How might we better collaborate when we are not together physically? How might we improve ourselves so that we can improve the world around us? In this post, I will share with you two valuable lessons from my time at Imperial College Business School that stuck with me during these times.

Treat everything like an experiment.

Being removed from the office means fewer distractions and more time to focus on our work. As we grow more accustomed to isolation, it can be easy and even tempting to behave in a similar way when it comes to our work, may that be a startup idea, a work project or a job application. Keeping our work locked away and hidden from the world increases the risk of spending time, energy and money perfecting things that might not be feasible, viable or desirable. Meticulous planning, of course, is beneficial and should always be in a strategist's toolbox. But if there is one thing that this crisis taught us is that even the best plans are subject to failure and change.

Throughout my time at Imperial, I understood the value of exposing my work to the world early and often. Treating my projects like experiments fundamentally changed the way I approached them. Experimentation means changing your approach from sequential and linear steps to multiple iterative cycles aimed at testing your assumptions, learning from your findings and improving your work accordingly.

Experimenting is especially valuable when we are all working remotely. Putting our work out in the open makes it easier for us to collaborate as we can share and receive feedback on an ongoing basis. Sharing your work as early as possible reduces the risk of wasting precious resources building something no one wants. Doing it often means that you can test one assumption at a time, avoid entangling them with one another and generate more interpretable findings.

Treating your deliverable like a prototype will fundamentally change your view of failure. If failure is only introduced at the end of a project, we waste its potential as a tool for improvement all the while making it something to be avoided at all costs. Your prototype' should not be perfect, but it should communicate just enough for your target audience to provide you with the feedback you need to progress to the next step.

In this uncertain and hyper-connected world, fast often beats perfect.

EQ as well as IQ

Working from home means less time commuting and more time for ourselves. Many people have seen this as an opportunity to dedicate more time to self-improvement, may that be more exercising, picking up a new language or learning a new craft. If you have opened your LinkedIn feed recently, you might have noticed that many people are now focusing on becoming better professionals through courses and certifications. I cannot speak on behalf of everyone, but I certainly at times have rushed to the conclusion that these courses were the best and most efficient way for me to improve as a professional. 

Empathising with your target audiences not only means innovating more effectively but also solving significant societal and environmental problems.

Of course, this is a great way to upskill, but it is not the only avenue to explore. My time at Imperial showed me the importance of training my emotional intelligence like I would a muscle. Now more than ever, we should be thinking about becoming more aware of our limitations, more empathetic towards others and more motivated to act. This is even more important as the boundaries between our professional and personal lives become increasingly thin.

A learning that I will always carry with me is that to become better professionals we need to become better people and vice versa. Empathising with your target audiences not only means innovating more effectively but also solving significant societal and environmental problems. Being more self-aware surfaces the strengths we can leverage to have an impact professionally all the while exposing the implicit biases and limitations we should address to become better people. Understanding what makes us truly motivated not only helps us improve performance but also allows us to be more honest with ourselves about what makes us truly fulfilled. In a world where we have more time to dedicate to ourselves, let's not only pick up that new language but also use it to ask someone about how they feel. In a world where we have to ask ourselves uncomfortable questions, let's not only ask ourselves what this crisis mean for us but also what they mean for others.

In a world where the boundaries between our work-selves and personal-selves are disappearing, we cannot become better professionals without becoming better human beings.

Congratulations to ES Tech and Defynance who won this years’ Entrepreneurial Journey Grand Challenge Prize as part of their MBA programme. The winning teams, who both won £1,500, were:

• Clarissa Agnew and Kristle Haroon, both Weekend MBA students who pitched ES Tech, which provides secure, anonymous online electoral voting powered by blockchain.
• Cameron Orcutt, Samuel Hatley and Khalid Alyousef, current Full-Time MBA students who pitched for Defynance, an alternative financing to democratic home ownership.

The Entrepreneurial Journey Grand Challenge Prize is a six-month project aiming to simulate the launching of a startup and build the entrepreneurial skills of Full-Time, Executive, and Weekend MBA candidates. This team-based project sees students taking an idea for a new product or service, developing a value proposition, carrying out customer discovery research, validating the product or service, and creating a plan for how to realise the business proposition.

The project culminated in an online pitch to a panel of investors to compete for seed funding for their startup. One of the judges was alumnus Stefano Ciampolini (Full-Time MBA 1994), CEO of Renal Services, who sponsored the prize for the second year running.

Defynance overview

Deposits are the biggest hurdle to home ownership for first time homebuyers. Defynance aims to introduce a real estate financing programme where homebuyers purchase a property with deposit financed through an equity sharing scheme. As the homeowner lives in the property, the property appreciates in value. The home is sold or refinanced and investors reap any capital gains on their share of the property.

ES Tech overview

ES Tech is a blockchain powered online voting platform. It uses design thinking research to build a product for the customer, designed with support from Professor Stigliani from Imperial College Business School. The aim is to turn the British built voting system, the oldest English-speaking democracy, into the most modern.

In addition to my meeting with current students I am already taking meetings with incoming 2020/2021 students. It’s really interesting and encouraging to be speaking so early with those of you yet to arrive but looking to make effective use of your time now to plan and prepare. I have already seen some early drafts of CV’s and covering letters and a number of you now have actions to follow up on with a view to further developing your proposition to the consulting sector. You have begun the long process of preparation for entering this unique and fascinating sector in a little over a year from now. 

Besides the covering letter and the CV which so far remain the basic staples of any job application, the dynamics have been changing gradually over the years around how companies shortlist candidates for interview. As we currently live in the long shadow of a global pandemic, these changes will have been accelerated and so emphasis on the traditional CV and covering letter will change. How you perform in online tests and through initial video interview screening will very often dictate if you reach the end of your application journey or crash out at early stages.  

Consulting is a very popular and highly competitive sector in which to access and begin your career. Furthermore, it is not actually for everyone and there is nothing wrong in realizing that during your studies. We will provide you with information on the sector, the types of roles and the work you could be doing along with access to recruitment teams, consultants and alumni who successfully navigated their way through the myriad of application processes to secure their consulting careers. 

So, what can you do before you arrive, to make effective use of your time now to lay some key foundations for the journey ahead? 

Once you have completed the Careers Primer you gain access to a number of aspects of the online career's elements such as eResources and meetings with us. Anyone strongly considering consulting as a career choice will be expecting a Case Interview and I cannot overstate, the need to prepare. Throughout your time at Imperial, we will work with you to build your case interviewing skills and techniques. I have a number of current and former consultants coming in to support you in this as well but at this stage, I recommend making use of PrepLounge. You will have been given Premium access to this following successful completion of the Careers Primer.  

Alongside PrepLounge, our online case interview prep tool, I also encourage you to work through the Consulting Module found on the Hub as well as the Case Interview Module, which you will find there too. 

So, these initial building blocks will lay some foundations and I suggest you begin with these at this stage. Next time I will be talking more about our plans for supporting you around making applications and how to stand out as a candidate in what is always a crowded field 

In the meantime, on July 9th at 11:00 I am delivering a webinar giving you some background on the service as a whole, the state of the employment market for consulting following my post-COVID review and plans for next year. I will discuss the areas of opportunity within consulting and how the programme of events, workshops and teaching will help you focus on your future career and become high-performing candidates in the market.  

In the first our this year’s Finance blogs, our Finance Sector Lead, Marie Portier talks about what will be driving her careers delivery plans for Students in 2020/2021…….

The uncertainty of COVID-19 and its impact on the finance sector provides an opportunity to explore subsectors that are coping well and investigate potential growth areas. Areas such as fintech, risk management, and ESG investing have already been highlighted by several reports as the most resilient. In this post, we will focus on the fintech sector, its rapid growth and how it has been positively weathering the current storm of COVID-19 better than most.

Recent research by McKinsey & Company indicated that 80% of traditional financial institutions have already developed new emerging tech initiatives since 2019 (think voice, VR, AR, AI and DLT) and new fintech investments are predicted to skyrocket in 2020 to exceed $30 billion. This is a phenomenal increase in comparison with the $1.8 billion investment in new fintech products in 2011. The biggest trends have been focusing on use of AI, data-driven development, wealthtech, the fundamental importance of execution and the need to go beyond simply having a great UX.

Has COVID-19 heavily impacted the fintech sector’s booming progress? A recent report from Beauhurst stated that 53% of the UK’s most ambitious companies are under moderate to critical threat from the pandemic but that the fintech sector is still better positioned than most to weather the current storm. Reasons behind this positive news are (1) the majority of fintechs (87%) have raised equity finance – giving them both hard cash and access to expertise and investor networks, (2) that 73% of fintechs are located in London – where there is the highest proportion of positively impacted businesses, (3) tech sectors tend to be the most resilient thanks to their high agility, innovation power and access to remote working.

In addition, the need for companies to quickly digitise seems to have accelerated the demand for fintech services and products (20% increase and growing!), with the vast majority of those affected seeing a surge in demand in AI, automation and digital ID services.

What about employment? Few jobs in the fintech sector are at risk, with only 2% of jobs immediately under threat versus 22% of jobs in the wider high-growth economy and with only 20% of fintech jobs moderately at risk. Given the increase in demand for products and services we also expect future recruitment to stay fairly stable in 2020/2021 and even potentially increase for the most disruptive and fast-growing companies (Revolut, Iwoca, Flagstone, Yapily and Transferwise amongst others).

In summary, whichever finance subsectors you are interested in, whether that’s fintech or something else, our key tip in this year of great change is to be aware of areas of growth that you can target for your future career.

In July I’ll talk more about the specific things you should be doing to prepare for Autumn term….

Marie Portier, Career Consultant

The APAC Team (You and the APAC Opportunity)

At Imperial College Business School Careers, support is organised vertically by industry sectors. Career Consultants specialise in their industry with a view to providing effective, knowledge-workshops and employer events tailored to student needs and the evolving market.

Around this time of year, we review our delivery for next year. Beyond our core industry offering, we are taking in to account the needs of the future job market due to the current pandemic and its effect on the global economy.

In Mandarin, crisis is pronounced “Wei Ji”, which literally mean risk (Wei) & opportunity (Ji). The risk part has been well discussed so let’s have a look at the opportunities the crisis has opened up for our business students.

The pharmaceutical and healthcare industry is currently under the spotlight and attracting investment from both the public and private sectors. This is good news for anyone seeking to launch their career in relevant business functions such as consultancy, investment, project management.

E-commerce is also one of the biggest winners during the crisis, with Amazon’s share price reaching new highs, to China’s streaming sales boom; the retail sector is being transformed. This rapid change is bringing a set of new requirements for the marketing, supply chain, operation, and e-finance functions, spurring demand for new talent. 

Increased demand for virtual communication and online work collaboration tools has opened opportunities for online conferencing, cloud computing and online entertainment. Growth has not been restricted to technology giant such as Microsoft and Tencent, with many SMEs tech companies enjoyed rapid growth. These SME’s can be a nice starting point for candidates who prefer a more “start-up” style employer.

The banking and insurance industry is also an interesting area to pay attention to. Hong Kong released 8 virtual bank licences last year. This, alongside a pandemic fuelled e-payment boost, those candidates with hybrid skillsets of finance and digital will be in high demand. 

For those international students who wish to secure top jobs in their home country or outside of the UK, remote working has worked in your favour. Most companies have moved the end to end selection process online with many providing virtual internships. This has levelised the playing field considerably as there is less need to return home for interviews and selections centres.  More and more companies may adopt to this practice and the remote candidate selection may become the new norm. As ICBS careers department, we have many different resources to prepare students for a strong performance when encounter those new hiring practice.

I will talk about what you as an international student can do this summer to boost your chances of success in the competitive gradate market in my next blog.

XiaoBei(Bei) Wu, Career Consultant (APAC)

There is a great deal of debate currently about what kind of leadership we need in the face of change. I believe we need a new model, with emotional intelligence be at the centre.  But what is it that creates this need? If we are able to answer this question, we will be more willing to embrace the change.  And if emotional intelligence is at the centre, what are the other key characteristics a leader needs today? And how hard is it to adapt to this new way of behaving?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotional intelligence (or empathy) is the ability of a person to be aware of the feelings of people around them (fellow workers, customers, clients, third parties, citizens etc.), to understand them, be authentic and to take their opinions into account.

Some people confuse this behaviour with ‘soft’ or ‘weak’ leadership. But this is not the case. Strong leadership means bold solutions. To be able to resolve complex problems, a leader has to know the full picture and understand all key parameters, including the emotions of people around them. This ability is becoming much more important, especially as we move to a more remote working situation.

Why emotional intelligence and ‘soft skills’ are so important today? 

1. Millennials and Generation Z

Millennials make up a large part of the current workforce, as well as the new Z-generation. They are developing their behaviours, their contacts and networks, their communication and sometimes even their work-life relation through social media and via technology. At the same time, digital and AI jobs are booming everywhere.

The upcoming benefits of these trends for humanity are great, but there are some potential side effects. For example impact on areas such as communication, empowerment, adaptability and empathy etc.  We have to address this gap now at the early stages of the new world.

2. Direct response

The new technology makes life run faster than ever before.  Response is impulsive, especially when it comes to millennials and Gen-Z.  Enormous availability of info just with one click, seamless connectivity at the speed of thought, images override texts and experiences change very fast. And a large part of it is happening at a distance without physical presence.

If so, then human touch loses ground and we need to address this.

To be able to resolve complex problems, a leader has to know the full picture and understand all key parameters, including the emotions of people around them.

3. The economic crisis

In the last decade the economic crisis has hit many countries in the world.  And the consequences are many. One of the things that has not been much discussed is the downgrade of jobs in these countries. In addition, it is difficult for young people to find a good job and they are therefore slow to enter the labour market. And this gap widen in countries with low–level jobs and low personal development prospects.

4. AI and robots

In the very near future much of today’s works will be done by algorithms and robots.  A large part of the workforce will have to redefine their role, addressing different needs to those of today - more tailor–made, personal and human–centric - the needs that cannot be met by algorithms and robots.

If emotional intelligence is at the centre, what are the other skills a leader needs today?

Soft skills are becoming much more important than ever before. It is worth mentioning integrity, honesty, accountability, communication, teamwork, care, empowerment, problem solving, decisiveness, passion, business sense, creativity and agility and adaptability. If we had to choose one of them to accompany emotional intelligence in terms of importance, I believe it would be adaptability. But why?

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent that survives.  It is the one that is most adaptable to change “, Charles Darwin said.  

Usually there is a preconception that these skills are easy to acquire – that it is just a matter of some good training and that’s all.  But this is not the case.  On the contrary, it is hard to get these skills.  At least at an acceptable level.  And this is because:

1. In the last decades the dominant leadership model was exactly the opposite, mainly focused on hard skills. This means that a change in mindset must take place.
2. The ability to accept, embrace and adapt to change, integrity, care and other skills relate to attitude, and this can take a while to develop.

Moving to a new leadership model

In response to the change that is happening, a different leadership models is required. In this new model, we have to find a new balance between soft and hard skills. Focus needs to be on the development of soft skills, as they become even more important, with emotional intelligence at the centre of this new model.