Taking it to the Next Level: Executive MBA Alumna Profile

For Myrto Arvaniti, a graduate of Rotterdam School of Management’s executive MBA program and marketing officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the motivation for attending business school was – to paraphrase a little – to make life a little easier for herself.

Up until that point, she had certainly enjoyed a great deal of international success in her career – which had taken her from Athens, where she worked as a consultant for the Greek Ministry of Education, to Paris where she worked as a press attaché for TV5, then to Nuremberg where OTR Global hired her as a senior analyst and finally to Amsterdam where she worked as manager for strategy and business development for Elsevier’s science and technology arm.

However one day, something struck her: “I was very successful at what I was doing, in all the positions I was offered, but that required a lot of work and a lot of individual learning. I saw around me people who had finished a business school and were able to do some things with much less effort than I did.” To move into senior management, she surmised, more time had to be spent making decisions than on educating herself to a level where she felt comfortable making them.

“The MBA gave me the global picture of what an organization is and how it should operate optimally,” she reflects, “it also trained me to develop insights for events long before they happen.”

Elevating yourself to a higher career level

Her passion for her work, and a desire to stay within the job market meant the executive MBA format was ideal for her. “It was the only reasonable option for somebody who works full-time and enjoys her work. I did not want to be out of the job market just to study, since I knew it would be hard to get back in.” She was also attracted to the slightly greater maturity of the executive MBA cohort, which meant they would approach problems in the same way.

She was also drawn to the level of ambition on show. “You don’t start an MBA if there is not something you want to change in your life, if you don’t want to elevate yourself to a higher career level.” Her executive MBA peers, she adds, are one of RSM’s greatest assets. “The big surprise for me was to hear that most of them were not happy with where they were, and started the executive MBA to find out where they wanted to be; not everyone knew what they wanted to do next. The fact that we had so much in common, from career ambitions brought us very close to each other. Some of my executive MBA class mates are now my best friends.”

What skills does she feel she gained from the program? “The most important skill I gained from my MBA was to be diplomatic and patient. I also learned to think strategically by understanding how the different links of the corporate chain work and by foreseeing events and reactions long before others do.”

The negotiation skills she gained from her program not only help her day-to-day in her job, but also helped her to get the position in the first place, she adds.

Business schools: Determining the future direction of society

She feels that program – and business schools in general – play a great role in determining the future direction of society and would strongly object to those who would question the tangibility of the skillset one acquires. “People say that it is not like a medical school that produces doctors, or an engineering school that produces engineers. People forget that the future of our societies is not decided by doctors or engineers, but managers, be they politicians, corporate leaders, or non-profit managers. Therefore, I strongly believe that skills and values one gets at business schools are fundamental.”

Backing this up, she states that, fundamentally, management in the NGO sector is not far removed from private sector management. “At the UN we talk about results based management and key performance indicators and dashboards that are supposed to monitor and evaluate our work. The only difference is that everything we do has as aim the improvement of livelihoods of the people of the world, versus the mere creation of shareholder value.” 

So, what advice would the arch-negotiator give for candidates hoping to follow in her footsteps? “If you want to succeed in your career, it is not enough to only work hard; you have to also understand the vision and purpose of the organizations you are working for and make sure your role always fits in that vision.” She adds a final piece of advice, aimed at her compatriots: “Given that Greece rates very high on risk-aversion, I would advise Greek students to not be afraid to embrace change and take risks!”

The QS World MBA Tour comes to Europe in spring and fall.