Executive MBA participant Vijay Kiran from India wrote in his blog that he had a “fantastic first week.” Kiran was particularly impressed with the way of learning at RSM. “The teaching method focused on ‘why’ rather than ‘what’ with lots of class participation,” he said, adding that the courses or lecture sessions primarily focused on real-world cases.
Team building
The Executive MBA (EMBA) programme kicked off on Saturday 30 January 2016 with a workshop focused on team building and leadership through West African drumming. The following Monday, the students were welcomed by Kristel Baele, Erasmus University Rotterdam’s new president; Eric Waarts, RSM’s dean of degree programmes; and Karim Jazzar, RSM’s director EMBA programme. In addition, participants from RSM’s Executive MBA Class of 2015 talked to the new cohort about the lessons they learned and how they made the most of their studies.
Personal leadership development
From Tuesday 2 February until Saturday 6 February, the EMBA Class of 2017 had classes about personal leadership development, managerial accounting, business decision methods, organisational behaviour, managerial economics, and management science.
Kiran said he was most surprised by the Personal Leadership Development (PLD) class. “I gained some good insights about leadership,” he said, explaining that is was about goal orientation, values-based leadership, and interpersonal strengths, problems and sensitivities. “I look forward to the future sessions to see what more I can learn.”
Diversity in nationalities, education and industries
Students in the new cohort of RSM’s EMBA are from Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the USA, Turkey, Ukraine, and the UK.
Not only are the cultural and geographical backgrounds diverse. The students, who have an average age of 33, have various educational backgrounds, including engineering, business and economics, humanities and law, and science and medicine. Their average work experience is nine years, and they work in a wide range of industries, including IT, energy, health and pharmaceuticals, electronics and consumer goods, consulting, and NGOs.
