How A Part-Time MBA Can Turn A Specialist Into The Leader Of An Organization

Malte had a passion for entrepreneurship before the beginning of his MBA. By the time he started the program in 2010 he had been successfully running Evo Electric for four years. "But the MBA strengthened that affinity for entrepreneurship – I learned how to put together a business plan in detail, how to think about companies, how they grow, why they fail, why they don't fail, you know, the full entrepreneurial universe."

After the MBA, Malte started the four companies referred to earlier – making five companies including Evo Electric. "These four were entities on the side, but what the MBA did for me was increase my motivation to get involved in these entrepreneurial activities, it gave me confidence in saying, 'Ok, I'm going to do this.'"

At Porsche engineering's electric drivetrain group, Malte stepped in where two people had previously failed. This was in March of 2013, the year following the receipt of his MBA with a distinction.

In fact, the electric drivetrain group didn’t even exist at that point. Malte arrived on his own, and was assigned the task of creating something from nothing. "Like an entrepreneur, " he says. Familiar territory then.

From one person, he took the group to 20, and projections are that this team will only expand further.  Delivering high efficiency electric cars to market are an important part of the ongoing green revolution, and Jaensch and his team play a vital role in contributing to a fossil fuel-free world.

Apart from the school's strengths in entrepreneurship and technology, Malte says, "I wanted to do my MBA part-time and I was looking for a course that would have a general focus, and by that I mean, not focused on finance, accounting or marketing, but broader in scope."

The aspects of Imperial's MBA curriculum he appreciated in particular, "were those areas that I knew little about, such as organizational behavior and marketing strategy – those were courses where I think I took a new viewpoint on issues."

Looking at his experience overall he says, "I feel that the Imperial MBA contributed quite strongly towards making me a more complete manager, with a wider view of what matters, technology aside; to ask, 'how might other people look at this problem if they're not engineers?' for example."

Malte places real emphasis on the human side of the MBA and the need to see all angles of an issue, be it from a technical perspective, from a colleague's point of view, or broader still, from a social perspective. "The MBA framework helped me to hone my communication, presentation and problem-solving skills, but I gained more of a general appreciation of the fact that the world is just bigger than technology."

Imperial has recently added the Global Online MBA to its portfolio. This program extends the business school's reach toward a broader range of students, whether they’re geographically remote or unable to commit to regular attendance in London. Students are presented with the same core courses, taught by the same faulty, on a more flexible basis.

The Imperial College Business School MBA suite includes three part-time programs:

• Global Online MBA: A flexible two-year part-time online MBA program that places engagement and technology at the forefront of your learning experience.
• Executive MBA: A two-year part-time MBA program designed for people who are already in a demanding job and want to transform their business effectiveness and careers.
• Weekend MBA: - A 21-month program taught on long weekends once a month to accelerate your career while balancing study with a demanding job.

This article is sponsored by Imperial College Business School.