Why I Chose the St Gallen MBA

Rassul

I recently embarked on the St. Gallen MBA program at the Swiss university of the same name. As my studies have not yet reached full swing, I have some time to share my thoughts concerning three things – why MBA? Why now? Why the St. Gallen MBA?

Why MBA?

So, why MBA? Some might say that the MBA has passed its peak demand and the world now needs more specialized experts in finance, economics, marketing and other fields. Half of this argument is true – despite recent crises that we have survived (well, it is still stormy in some regions and industries) the global economy is reviving, the planet’s population grows, countries get bigger. This means the world needs more professionals.

The MBA is here to unite business professionals – to make large corporations and governmental bodies function effectively. I would say that MBAs all over the world act as a neural system, passing signals between various industries and processing separate and specialized information from them into an understandable and transparent decision-making process. Graduates of leading business schools know business fields deep enough to understand them and their skills cover enough tracks to perceive an entire structure.

Of course, getting to this point takes work; one must read what feels like at least 100 pages of texts a day for one year or more, understand them, analyze the knowledge and draw one’s own conclusions to become an MBA graduate. Plus, one must add to this; discussions, case studies, and other group activities.

My personal answer to the question ‘why MBA?’ comes from my experience in the media. When you work in this sector, you have access to tons of information every day. Sooner or later it occurs to you that you can also try to analyze this information in order to effect changes in the world, rather than only disseminating information.

Why now?

Easy. I chose to start my course this year because I am confident that is a good time to do so. Markets have started their slow growth; if I do an MBA now, I will be able to board the train before it’s going too fast.

Why the St. Gallen MBA?

When many MBA bloggers write about their universities, it is all about cities, financial centers like London, New York, Hong Kong and so on.

Switzerland and the St. Gallen MBA are unique because this European country is an all-round financial, industrial and management center. Here you can not only learn at the business school, but also outside of it, and get an insight into how effective companies are built and managed.

The second pro is that the St. Gallen MBA offers an extremely intensive one-year full-time program, delivered in English with amazing faculty from all over the world. I couldn’t afford to enroll onto a two-year program because of time-pressure, so I was looking at 10-13 month programs.

The third argument for the St. Gallen MBA is that many professionals consider this university as the Harvard of the German-speaking world. And I’m sure we all know how well German-speaking economies performed during global crisis! No fewer than 50% of business executives in Switzerland are graduates of St. Gallen.

And finally there is the diversity – 40 students, literally from all over the world. No fewer than 28 countries are represented in my class.

So, when you ask why I chose to do an MBA, why now and why at St Gallen, it seems to me the answers are pretty clear...

About Rassul

Rassul is originally from a nation in Central Asia, where he worked in the media sector. He is currently studying an MBA at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland.