“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.