"It was the rich tapestry of cultures, languages, and worldviews that truly set my MBA experience apart. From discussing business strategies over Italian espresso to debating ethics in global boardrooms, every interaction was an opportunity to broaden my horizons. Interacting with individuals from different cultural backgrounds not only enriched my understanding of global business practices but also reinforced my conviction of the importance of empathy, adaptability, and open-mindedness in today's interconnected world."

“Don’t worry about it. You may think everyone has it figured out, or that they know what they are doing, but we are all just humans doing our best. It is okay to not fully understand your life or the lives of those around you, and this is partially what makes life exciting! Do new things. Challenge the core beliefs you were raised with. Break down your informational silos. Listen and be empathetic. Challenge norms that don’t make sense within your organization. The world is tough, and we need more people standing against the status quo.”

“CIMBA is first and foremost an institution and a family. Entering CIMBA, one realizes that people matter; this is constantly emphasized in every course, always maintaining a humane approach. If we want to make a difference for ourselves and the company, we must be fertile ground for constant learning and improvement. A “soil” that is only fertile if we cultivate soft skills, that is, all those human aspects that enable us to relate better to others.”

“I see the business world through the eyes of an entrepreneur. It doesn't mean I have funded my startup (not yet 😊). Whenever I face a new problem, I feel the urge to challenge and tackle the situation to find value for the customer and the company.”

“Thanks to the MBA experience, I understood instead the importance and the "beauty" of teamwork and the quality of the result that is obtained with the contribution of all the different points of view. The international environment allows you to deal with cultures that are completely different from your own and to open yourself to new ways of thinking and approaching business and life in general. Thanks to the MBA and CIMBA, I have grown a lot, especially as a person.”

"I brought home 2-3 “big tickets” from every class of the MBA, but the BIG TICKET is clearly the mindset. I do not meet a person, approach a problem, assess risk, or make a decision in the same way I did before the MBA. I’m used to introducing myself as a person with a special pair of glasses: the “Lean glasses” because I love lean management and I see everything as a process with improvement opportunities."

“Studying, doing projects together, and becoming friends with people from all over the world puts you in touch with different cultures, and different ways to see and approach things. It prepares you to interact with different mindsets in real life.”

“For me doing the full-time program was the best way to fully embrace the MBA experience. By doing a full-time MBA I had the benefit of not only improving my academic knowledge but also improving on a personal level. The leadership skills, the individual coaching, and the team coaching helped me with that.”

“There are so many good memories that I carry with me from the MBA experience. To name just a few: the conclusion of the LIFE journey, the Thanksgiving Day dinner at the CIMBA campus, the trip to Chicago, or the Mexican dinner and boat trip we had in Iowa City. What remains and will always remain the most important thing for me are the bonds of friendship established during the MBA that continue to this day and of which I can only be happy and proud.”

When I am in class with the CIMBA MBA students, one thing I noticed is a lot of supportiveness and positivity among the students. They will be leaders who really care about others and care about the culture of the organization and the community. In the USA, my MBA students are a little more individualistic and think more about “me as a leader“. There is a greater sense of connectivity between people here at CIMBA. I feel there is great care and that translates into leaders who care for others. 

The date was May 17th, 2022. I can still remember what it was like stepping onto my first flight alone. I knew I had a layover in Minneapolis, another in Paris, and then I would arrive in Venice. After that, I then had to catch a bus, a train, and a taxi so I can end up in a foreign land known as Paderno del Grappa. It was in Paderno that I knew I would be spending a month and a half of my summer at the CIMBA Italy campus. When I got out of my taxi and walked through the CIMBA front gate, I couldn’t help but think about all that was to come.

Teaching in an old fashion “ex-cathedra” way is a long-gone concept in most of the best educational institutions. Passing on knowledge through different interactive experiences, relating to real-life cases and encouraging students to get involved in lively class discussions has become a new standard.

As the MBA academic year in Italy comes to a close, the full-time MBA class found themselves delivering the final consulting presentations to their client companies. After months of research, data collection, interviews, analyzes, and dedicated hard work, it was riveting to see each team complete their real-world experience and showcase skills developed throughout the year. We asked each of the MBA teams to reflect on their consulting project experience.

After LIFE Training, our MBA and Undergraduate students are matched with a personal development coach to maximize their potential. This program is designed to help students develop personal and professional goals and pave the way to achieve them. A few students were asked to share their experiences and benefits.

Salaries for MBAs are hitting all-time highs in industries ranging from consulting to banking, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) found in their February 2021 Corporate Recruiters Survey that 96% of technology sector recruiters are seeking to hire MBA graduates. Additionally, several prestigious MBA programs have reported an increase of $5,000 in the median salaries of their MBA graduates, doubling the average for graduates with a bachelor’s degree.

Over the past month, the full-time American students have been learning the Italian language and getting accustomed to the Italian culture with the help of Professoressa Michela. This month, she took them to the beautiful city of Asolo, just minutes away from our campus in Pieve del Grappa. This beautiful city has much to offer, and Michela led the tour of a lifetime. 

Completing an MBA at CIMBA is both a remarkable and extremely rewarding experience. Not only do you earn a degree, but you also can immerse yourself in a culture that is different from yours. People who move to a different country have the unique opportunity to experience firsthand the many differences and similarities that we have as humans. After completing a period abroad, most students will go home more susceptible to interacting with others.

Students first began arriving to our campus in Paderno del Grappa on September 1st — a refreshing sight after a long year of no full-time MBA classes due to the COVID-19 ongoing global pandemic. The first group to arrive was composed of four students from the University of Arkansas and one Kansas University Student. This group went on a ten day trip across many of the major cities in Italy. The rest of the students arrived in the week that followed, and during their first days in town they worked on becoming accustomed to the area, people, and culture.

For this month’s spotlight we had the opportunity to sit with Dr. Timothy L. Shaftel, professor of Corporate Financial Reporting. Dr. Shaftel is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas. He has been part of the CIMBA faculty for over 20 years. During the conversation Dr. Shaftel shared some of his most memorable moments at CIMBA and what makes him passionate about CIMBA.

In searching for a job, it is important to remember that it is not just only about what you can provide to the company, but also about the potential for growth and development the company can provide to you. To this end, it is important that your goals, principles, and values align with those of your potential employer.

“Uneasy” is the word that could best describe how I felt when I first learned about CIMBA’s MBA program. At the time, I was working as an office manager for a construction company in a town hidden in the expanse of the Kansas plains. Back then, I wanted to hone the leadership skills that make up an effective manager, expand my understanding of the international business outlook, and be exposed to a variety of different cultures. I resolved that the best next step in my journey towards self-fulfillment was by obtaining an MBA with a focus in global business education while bearing in mind the hefty cost of such investment. 

As we are near the end of November, it is difficult to overlook the idea that in Italy people do not observe Thanksgiving Day, at least not in the same way Americans do. Granted that many countries around the world commemorate Thanksgiving, and each one of them may celebrate it for different reasons. American Thanksgiving is highly contextualized in the idea of family gatherings, turkey, and a cold November weather. It is in fact one of the biggest holidays in the US, along with Christmas. To my surprise however, I ran into a holiday that is strikingly similar to the American celebration: San Martino’s day.

It has been a wild year. At the beginning of the year, I was serving in the United States Peace Corps in an Albanian village bordering Greece. I was training other volunteers, working on tourism projects, and marking hiking trails to increase tourism in the area. As the entire world knows, COVID-19 had different plans for all of us. We were evacuated on March 15th back to the States, along with over 7000 Peace Corps volunteers worldwide. I was not ready to be back in the States in general, and much less so in a COVID world.

Although both impacted and dismayed by the global pandemic, we found ourselves filled with enthusiasm and anticipation as the Class of 2021 began its studies this past month. Guided and supported by a strong belief that truly great leaders do not merely survive in uncertain times, they thrive, we directed our energies toward managing and overcoming the seemingly endless series of barriers and obstructions that blocked our path.

As when I first started the CIMBA MBA program and was just getting to know my classmates, I was fascinated by a palpable quality that was present in many, if not all of them: the value of cultural diversity. While I fully appreciated the academic and professional properties of the program, each individual’s own background was a factor that captured my interest even further.

Attending a Full-Time CIMBA MBA means compressing several different things in a relatively short amount of time: leadership training, 17 courses, monthly individual and team coaching sessions, neuroscience, negotiations, public speaking, PSDM KT workshops, and a consulting project.

Originally from the Veneto region, Marco Parisi is now based in Hong Kong, working as a General Manager Apac for Brioni. We are excited to share his journey from a CIMBA MBA student to a General Manager in an international company!

On October 29th, 2019, our Full-Time MBA students dived deep into their team coaching journey with our ICF Professional Certified Coach Katiuscia Baggio, who challenged and supported them in pursuing the best version of themselves. From their first MBA team coaching session, they enjoyed four monthly meetings as a class to build the foundation of the team by creating a mission statement and a set of "team" rules to commit to - all of which to deepen their connections.

The Full-Time consulting project is a very intense, three-month project, where our students can put everything they learn during the MBA into practice. They are assigned as consultants to a company, and they collaborate with the employees to solve a problem the company has.

As the Covid-19 outbreak became more prevalent, there were certain adjustments that needed to be made as we underwent the “new normal” following this unprecedented global emergency. While this phenomenon has posed, and continues to pose, obstacles to the CIMBA community across the globe, it is important to look back and reflect on how this experience impacted our lives, and the important lessons we have learned as a result.