Yehya Baroud: an international learning experience and how best to engineer it
Yahya Baroud
Participant of the International MBA
Having built up an impressive track record in energy, construction and project management primarily in Saudi Arabia, Yehya wanted to renew acquaintances with an international learning experience, having been educated from secondary up to Masters level across the Lebanon and the UK. He shares his journey through the emlyon International MBA program, one that more than lived up to its name whilst putting students through an intensive period of study.
With what prior experience did you arrive at emlyon?
“My background was in electrical engineering and close to 10 years working on construction and energy projects. Slowly but surely, I moved away from working on sites to project management, which involved much more contact with legal, HR, finance and procurement departments. This was where the idea of doing an MBA started to take root, via this process of discovering many facets of how a company works. I’d already studied abroad in the past, so the move back to Europe was not a problem at all, quite the contrary!”
Why the MBA and at emlyon in particular?
“France was a draw for me as I’ve always viewed the country as one of the hubs of Europe. Delving into the MBA market means targeting top business schools, so then it was factors such as emlyon’s position in rankings and how well suited an international background like mine would be to the school and program that came into play. The duration of the MBA was ideal for me as I had just racked up almost 10 years of professional experience and didn’t want a break of more than a year from that. I began my search for an MBA with the next steps in my career firmly in my mind, so when I began researching the kinds of companies emlyon alumni had gone on to work for after graduation, the idea was fully sold on me.”
How would you describe the MBA learning experience?
“It was intensive, which was something I welcomed, starting with a block of obligatory modules even before the academic year had begun covering areas such as Finance, Strategy and Marketing. This initial contact with classmates and faculty was much appreciated, dense though this introduction to the curriculum was.
“Another defining characteristic was the international nature of the whole experience, which provided continuity with the kind of settings I’d been working in previously. Studying at emlyon is the perfect illustration of diversity and multiculturalism, starting with the program coordinator or director through to the MBA team, the professors and, of course, the cohort. I had dealings with people from the UK, France, Croatia, Italy, Canada, Switzerland and the USA, to name a few.
“Another plus is that you find yourself studying alongside people from a range of age brackets and with varying amounts of experience from different industries, from whom you can all learn so many lessons.”
How was the program organized?
“The emlyon approach to the MBA adds to the challenge and the benefits you’ll get out of it – you work on five modules every five or six weeks in teams, four members of which change at the end of each six-week section. This means you’re not only learning the fundamentals but, just as crucially, teamwork, dealing with and learning from different personalities, nationalities and professional profiles. Add into that the fact that some group members have already secured a post-MBA job while others are still on the market, and you have classmates who are all working on the same program but bring to it not only different prior knowledge but also different motivations. This approach came as quite a surprise to me to begin with, but in the most positive sense of the word.
“The program content was exactly what I was looking for – topping up the finance knowledge I had begun to acquire earlier in my career whilst improving my grasp of areas such as marketing and strategy. It’s impossible to go into all areas in huge detail but to say that the curriculum was comprehensive would be the understatement of the century. We also gained insight into more recent trends and phenomena such as cryptocurrencies and blockchain, which could serve me very well in the future.”
How has the MBA prepared you for your return to industry?
“The project-based nature of a lot of the work and the choice and range of specializations were especially useful and will continue to be so in my career. The Consulting Project sees you actually signing a contract with and working for a company over five months, in my case for an American corporation with management headquartered in Europe where they’d had a change of CEO. We were tasked with improving the company’s free cash flow and to analyze how best to enter new markets. We were even asked to present our proposal to the CEO for Europe, which underlines just how seriously they took our role and contribution.
“Beyond the chance to apply knowledge in a real-life business context, this kind of placement gives you a real feel for how people interact within certain companies in a given part of the world. A lot of people opt to do an MBA in order to bring about a shift in their career, and the emlyon version of the program definitely enables that. I was looking to stay in Europe after the MBA, having worked for many years in Saudi Arabia, so it was an especially rewarding experience that made me even better prepared for where I have been working post-emlyon, for Capgemini in France.”
What advice would you give prospective students considering a similar path to yours?
“Establish clearly in your mind why you’re looking to do an MBA. You’ll no doubt be even more attractive to recruiting companies upon graduation but do not assume they will automatically open their doors to you. The job market is pretty saturated in some parts of the world, so I would strongly advise a clear plan of a) your reasons for choosing to do an MBA and b) what career shift you’re looking to engineer upon graduation.”