{"id":16288,"date":"2021-07-21T09:56:45","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T07:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/?p=16288"},"modified":"2023-04-26T16:11:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T14:11:53","slug":"is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/","title":{"rendered":"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"506\" height=\"325\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res-506x325.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res-506x325.jpg 506w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res-768x494.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res-1536x988.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before studying at ESMT&nbsp;Berlin,&nbsp;Shangyuan&nbsp;Chen&nbsp;received his bachelor\u2019s degree in finance&nbsp;from the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico&nbsp;and his&nbsp;Master of Accounting from the&nbsp;University of North Carolina&nbsp;at Chapel Hill,&nbsp;both&nbsp;in the US.&nbsp;He then&nbsp;started his career in the real estate and financial sectors in&nbsp;China,&nbsp;before&nbsp;he began his Full-time MBA&nbsp;studies&nbsp;at ESMT in 2020.&nbsp;Shangyuan&nbsp;recently graduated from&nbsp;ESMT&nbsp;and we caught up with him to gain an insight into his MBA experience&nbsp;and&nbsp;life after graduation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Having studied in both the US and Germany, how would you compare those experiences?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Generally speaking,&nbsp;my&nbsp;experiences&nbsp;were quite different during these two periods.&nbsp;The first thing that comes to mind&nbsp;is the difference between two words: Diversity and&nbsp;decentralization. The&nbsp;US schools&nbsp;showed diversity, while ESMT gave me a&nbsp;decentralized&nbsp;experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In terms of students,&nbsp;at the two&nbsp;US&nbsp;business schools I&nbsp;attended, American&nbsp;students accounted for about 70-90%&nbsp;of the student population. The diversity I&nbsp;felt&nbsp;at&nbsp;US&nbsp;universities usually&nbsp;referred&nbsp;to African American, Asian American, Hispanic American,&nbsp;female&nbsp;American, and so on,&nbsp;who&nbsp;were&nbsp;raised&nbsp;within&nbsp;the US education system. They shared&nbsp;a&nbsp;common&nbsp;ideology and viewed&nbsp;the outside world mostly from&nbsp;a&nbsp;US perspective.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International students&nbsp;need to&nbsp;try to understand the United States&nbsp;and&nbsp;try to fit in&nbsp;with the local culture,&nbsp;such as going&nbsp;to&nbsp;American football games. Of course, most&nbsp;business&nbsp;schools around the world&nbsp;are likely to have&nbsp;mainly local students&nbsp;and there is nothing wrong with that. But&nbsp;when&nbsp;I came&nbsp;to ESMT,&nbsp;there&nbsp;were only two German students in our class of 48&nbsp;and because the language of instruction&nbsp;is English, they spoke to us in their&nbsp;second language&nbsp;with a&nbsp;foreign&nbsp;accent,&nbsp;which made&nbsp;it&nbsp;feel&nbsp;like&nbsp;everyone was an international student.&nbsp;I was able to get to know&nbsp;the&nbsp;German culture and&nbsp;many other cultures&nbsp;in parallel.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students&nbsp;at ESMT&nbsp;are not only from different countries and industries, but most of them have studied or worked in more than one country and speak a third or additional languages. They&nbsp;can&nbsp;introduce the culture and business environment specific to the countries&nbsp;they represent, as well as ideas and thoughts based on&nbsp;their&nbsp;international perspective&nbsp;on top of&nbsp;their&nbsp;understanding and&nbsp;acceptance&nbsp;of&nbsp;diverse cultures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US&nbsp;or German&nbsp;perspective is only one&nbsp;of many.&nbsp;Moreover, I felt that&nbsp;Chinese students&nbsp;were&nbsp;often the largest group of international students&nbsp;in the US universities,&nbsp;and being in this \u201csecond center\u201d,&nbsp;we often had relatively less interaction&nbsp;with other international students.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the&nbsp;decentralized&nbsp;environment&nbsp;at&nbsp;ESMT, it was&nbsp;very interesting&nbsp;to listen to students talk about their work, study,&nbsp;and life experiences in class, between classes,&nbsp;and during lunch every day. It&nbsp;was&nbsp;a daily activity for me&nbsp;to get to know&nbsp;each individual, each with a part that represents their own cultural background and a personal characteristic that is different from those who come from the same country.&nbsp;I think this decentralized environment&nbsp;allows&nbsp;students&nbsp;to reduce&nbsp;preconceptions about a particular country in our business analysis, to understand business from their perspective,&nbsp;and to make better&nbsp;decisions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"506\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res-506x340.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res-506x340.jpg 506w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res-768x516.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res-1536x1032.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1030944_ESMT_Low_Res.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In terms of faculty and content, when I studied in the US, most of the&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;were American, and almost all the cases I studied were&nbsp;US&nbsp;companies and finance based on the US stock market.&nbsp;They&nbsp;rarely discussed&nbsp;how a company would do business between Europe and Asia, or how the political and cultural environment in Europe would affect the operations and management of African companies.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESMT, on the other hand,&nbsp;has a much richer source of&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;from many&nbsp;different countries, who&nbsp;often bring in cases from their own countries. Of course, many of the courses also use cases from Harvard or other US business schools, which is where the MBA education originated, but&nbsp;we also studied&nbsp;cases from other business contexts and &#8216;non-US&#8217; perspectives on management.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was in my early 20\u2019s in the US, I thought I had seen the world and&nbsp;I thought I knew&nbsp;enough about China after working&nbsp;there&nbsp;for many years.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;there was still a big gap between&nbsp;my knowledge of&nbsp;internationalization&nbsp;and&nbsp;globalization.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the one hand, I&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;know enough.&nbsp;For the first time,&nbsp;I heard&nbsp;professors&nbsp;mention the Romanian stock index, the Ecuadorian microfinance, the case of Napoleon about team management,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the case of Magellan about ethics.&nbsp;When&nbsp;a&nbsp;German&nbsp;professor&nbsp;used the case of a&nbsp;famous&nbsp;Chinese company&nbsp;for a discussion, I could not contribute&nbsp;to the discussion&nbsp;from a Chinese student\u2019s perspective because I&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;know about the company.&nbsp;I realized&nbsp;then&nbsp;that I needed&nbsp;to broaden my horizons and&nbsp;go beyond the China-US-only view.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the other hand, I&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;reflect enough.&nbsp;Thinking&nbsp;about the logic behind the same issue&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;the trade war between China and the United States)&nbsp;from the perspectives&nbsp;of&nbsp;professors&nbsp;from different&nbsp;countries or&nbsp;backgrounds, or&nbsp;seeing&nbsp;the practice of waste&nbsp;management&nbsp;in a certain region in India and&nbsp;thinking&nbsp;that it might be more relevant to China at this stage&nbsp;than the &#8220;advanced methods&#8221; in Europe,&nbsp;US,&nbsp;and Japan,&nbsp;I&nbsp;realized&nbsp;that I needed to learn more and reflect&nbsp;more&nbsp;on&nbsp;globalization, and even on China and&nbsp;the&nbsp;US.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another&nbsp;area where&nbsp;I&nbsp;noticed a difference was&nbsp;on the&nbsp;topic of&nbsp;sustainability. While both sides address it,&nbsp;I feel&nbsp;that it&nbsp;is more&nbsp;common&nbsp;and intense in Europe.&nbsp;I see a lot of people cycling to and from work on the streets of Berlin whereas, well, I&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;have to say how cars are used in the US.&nbsp;At&nbsp;ESMT, many of the students come from this background and more of them want to go in this direction after graduation, and it is always covered in the discussions in class.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A similar daily routine can be found at the school, where the enthusiastic information&nbsp;center&nbsp;manager sends out weekly information on sustainability and every&nbsp;student&nbsp;club has a clear outline of sustainability. In addition, ESMT has a dedicated&nbsp;Centre for Sustainable Business and Leadership, which holds regular roundtable discussions with&nbsp;organizations&nbsp;specializing&nbsp;in sustainability and with managers of sustainability departments&nbsp;from various&nbsp;companies. I attended last year&#8217;s roundtable and it was&nbsp;very&nbsp;rewarding.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My undergraduate degree and Master&nbsp;of&nbsp;Accounting were both in business and&nbsp;while&nbsp;sustainability was a mandatory part of many of the&nbsp;courses, it&nbsp;was left for the last session towards the end of the course. In many of the ESMT courses, sustainability is brought up&nbsp;many times and integrated into the course content.&nbsp;Some&nbsp;of&nbsp;the professors&nbsp;at ESMT even&nbsp;use sustainability as the main idea in the first lesson and then discuss business aspects based on this core idea in the rest of the lectures.&nbsp;I think&nbsp;this&nbsp;is&nbsp;very different&nbsp;from&nbsp;just&nbsp;saying &#8220;sustainability is important&#8221;&nbsp;during the discussion of business content.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">After&nbsp;graduating from your MBA, you began ESMT\u2019s&nbsp;Responsible Leaders Fellowship&nbsp;(RLF)&nbsp;program, can you tell us about the&nbsp;program?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sure!\u00a0The\u00a0RLF\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0post-MBA\u00a0program\u00a0offered by\u00a0ESMT, usually four\u00a0to\u00a0six months\u00a0in length, where MBA graduates can contribute their knowledge and talents\u00a0to create value for\u00a0projects in developing countries on a variety of topics. These projects are\u00a0led\u00a0by the\u00a0fellows\u00a0in collaboration with local non-profit\u00a0organizations\u00a0or NGOs, and the project proposal is\u00a0finalized\u00a0and submitted to the\u00a0school\u00a0for approval. The\u00a0fellows\u00a0do not benefit financially from the project but do not have to worry about the costs of travel and\u00a0living expenses, which are supported by the\u00a0Friends of ESMT\u00a0(ESMT&#8217;s community of friends and sponsors).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Towards&nbsp;the end of the ESMT MBA&nbsp;program,&nbsp;there is&nbsp;a&nbsp;Consulting Project&nbsp;for&nbsp;around eight weeks, in which students work in teams of&nbsp;four to six people&nbsp;to provide consulting services to real companies, resulting in a&nbsp;final&nbsp;report or thesis. Of the nearly 20 consulting projects available this&nbsp;year, I took part in a project offered by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/fsc.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)<\/a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;consult on a&nbsp;strategy&nbsp;and implementation&nbsp;plan&nbsp;to improve the sustainable management of rubber forests and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers&nbsp;in Indonesia through FSC certification.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I benefited from this&nbsp;Consulting&nbsp;Project which was a real eye-opener for me as I had never worked with a non-profit&nbsp;organization&nbsp;before.&nbsp;I had the opportunity to discuss solutions online with rubber&nbsp;value&nbsp;chain&nbsp;stakeholders and other NGOs from&nbsp;Southeast&nbsp;Asia and&nbsp;other parts of&nbsp;the world, and to experience the pros and cons of&nbsp;globalization.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The content of the project was also a good fit for the future direction&nbsp;of agriculture that I want to pursue. Therefore, everything suggested that continuing this project would be a good choice,&nbsp;which is why&nbsp;I decided to do so through the RLF program&nbsp;with the same&nbsp;topic,&nbsp;but in&nbsp;Thailand.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, due to the&nbsp;pandemic, the RLF&nbsp;accepted&nbsp;3-month remote projects,&nbsp;therefore&nbsp;I am participating remotely from Berlin and hope to have the opportunity to visit Indonesia and Thailand once the&nbsp;pandemic is under control. I&nbsp;would like&nbsp;to thank our MBA alumni,&nbsp;Bin Yan and Sean Nyquist, who&nbsp;accepted&nbsp;the RLF project and the previous&nbsp;Consulting Project on behalf of&nbsp;the&nbsp;FSC.&nbsp;I am hoping to change my career to an agriculture-related industry through this MBA, so the whole process of&nbsp;the Consulting Project&nbsp;plus the RLF was&nbsp;extremely helpful&nbsp;in terms of career development.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Choosing to quit your job to do a full-time MBA after working for a while was a decision that required a trade-off.&nbsp;How did you make the decision and&nbsp;<\/strong>measure <strong>the&nbsp;return on investment (ROI) of the MBA? And how would you&nbsp;evaluate&nbsp;what you gained from your year at ESMT?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interesting question! Well, although my undergraduate and Master&nbsp;of&nbsp;Accounting were both&nbsp;finance-related&nbsp;and I worked in the financial sector&nbsp;before my MBA, I don&#8217;t really recommend using ROI to calculate and decide whether to do an MBA or which school to choose.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For&nbsp;me,&nbsp;ROI is a pure investment concept&nbsp;which is&nbsp;usually an indicator used when&nbsp;the&nbsp;investors are not involved in management and the&nbsp;returns and costs are clear figures.&nbsp;Doing an MBA is more like&nbsp;entrepreneurship&nbsp;for me;&nbsp;the outcome depends&nbsp;largely&nbsp;on the entrepreneur&nbsp;her\/himself&nbsp;and there are too many&nbsp;returns that cannot be quantified,&nbsp;which&nbsp;depend on what you have experienced in the past, how you define value and meaning, and how hard you work&nbsp;and explore&nbsp;in the process.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For prospective candidates, I recommend that you&nbsp;work out&nbsp;a learning method&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;best suited&nbsp;for you and allow yourself to improve the returns, rather than looking at the numbers on the school\u2019s ranking list.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My year at&nbsp;ESMT&nbsp;made a lifelong impact on me: I want to&nbsp;see myself&nbsp;in the field of agricultural technology&nbsp;in the next decade.&nbsp;Of course,&nbsp;it&nbsp;wasn\u2019t&nbsp;so easy to&nbsp;make this decision. Initially, it was&nbsp;only&nbsp;a simple idea,&nbsp;a&nbsp;very uncertain&nbsp;one at that. But during the year at ESMT,&nbsp;the path has been&nbsp;made&nbsp;clearer and&nbsp;my&nbsp;will has become&nbsp;stronger.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, I am\u00a0a\u00a0co-founder of ESMT&#8217;s Agriculture Technology Club,\u00a0which aims\u00a0to\u00a0actively help the innovation of agriculture technology by\u00a0exploring\u00a0the application of emerging technologies in\u00a0customized\u00a0products and services for agriculture.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"506\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team-506x675.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team-506x675.jpeg 506w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FSC-team.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We went on field trips, visited&nbsp;Gut&amp;B\u00f6sel&nbsp;where&nbsp;Benedikt&nbsp;B\u00f6sel, head of the German&nbsp;AgTech&nbsp;Platform, presented his current projects on sustainable farming.&nbsp;We&nbsp;also&nbsp;organized&nbsp;a variety of activities such as&nbsp;workshops and&nbsp;networking&nbsp;with companies such as Bayer Crop Science and Bosch (who provide equipment and services that use AI to predict the occurrence of pests and diseases in crops).&nbsp;Many other activities were&nbsp;planned but&nbsp;were&nbsp;unfortunately&nbsp;delayed due to the pandemic, such as&nbsp;building&nbsp;a&nbsp;greenhouse&nbsp;on campus&nbsp;to test the equipment&nbsp;and a tree-planting&nbsp;trip was to be&nbsp;hosted by&nbsp;Bergwaldprojekt.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnetwork.io\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/globalnetwork.io\/\">Global Network for Advanced Management<\/a>&nbsp;(GNAM)&nbsp;Week,&nbsp;I chose the Inclusive Business Model course at the&nbsp;Indian&nbsp;Institute of Management&nbsp;Bangalore (IIMB), which was about how for-profit companies can embrace people living in poverty in the business processes and improve their livelihood through&nbsp;innovative&nbsp;profit model while generating profits for the business.&nbsp;The course used a wide range of&nbsp;applications in education, healthcare, infrastructure,&nbsp;and&nbsp;agriculture,&nbsp;especially in&nbsp;rural areas. This&nbsp;showed me how things that are usually done by non-profit&nbsp;organizations,&nbsp;can be&nbsp;done by for-profit companies in ways that non-profits may not think of.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I mentioned earlier, I&nbsp;was involved&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;project on the natural rubber industry as part of my pre-graduation&nbsp;Consulting&nbsp;Project, gaining relevant experience&nbsp;in agricultural-related supply chain&nbsp;and solidifying my choice. I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the industry and further clarify my plans in the RLF project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would like to thank the Career Coach&nbsp;that the&nbsp;ESMT&nbsp;provided, which&nbsp;is different from the Career Services team. The Career Services team&nbsp;at the school focuses&nbsp;on helping&nbsp;students by&nbsp;organizing&nbsp;career fairs&nbsp;and workshops, revising your CV, providing job information, etc. But a Career Coach&nbsp;does not&nbsp;help with a specific task,&nbsp;they&nbsp;guide&nbsp;us to&nbsp;find&nbsp;our&nbsp;future&nbsp;direction.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I use the word &#8220;guide&#8221; because she&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;tell me what to do, but rather she inspires me to think in a way that I can find the answers myself. My&nbsp;coach has really helped me a lot. When&nbsp;I&nbsp;chose to venture into a completely new industry,&nbsp;I was anxious and had&nbsp;doubts.&nbsp;Throughout the process, she listened patiently, asked me questions based on my background, and encouraged me to try and practice through the process of finding answers and refining my goals and plans.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESMT has provided me with so many resources and platforms&nbsp;to reevaluate my plans for the next 5-10 years and to be more prepared for the uncertainty of the future, the returns cannot be summarized into a specific number for ROI calculation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is often easy to compare&nbsp;the economic numbers, but&nbsp;how to interpret these numbers requires avoiding some misconceptions. For example, when I was applying for&nbsp;the&nbsp;MBA, I saw some sources that used the average annual salary of graduates as a return value to assess and compare schools. There can be three problems with this.&nbsp;First,&nbsp;history&nbsp;does not necessarily reflect future returns. Second, the average annual salary figure does not include those students who have chosen to start their own businesses. Third, many students who have gone into social services or sustainable development have created significant self-value, social&nbsp;and environmental value, and salaries in these sectors are usually lower.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This reminds me of the GNAM course.&nbsp;Many business graduates have experienced the difference between the ideal and the reality and as the &#8220;bubble&#8221; of merely pursuing bigger and more profitable businesses comes to an end, the Inclusive Business Model offers a lot of room for business.&nbsp;Most&nbsp;of the cases are not&nbsp;about&nbsp;non-profit&nbsp;or&nbsp;charity, they are just not pursuing \u201cprofit maximization\u201d or \u201cshareholders\u2019 value maximization\u201d as the goal of enterprise development. This is&nbsp;very interesting&nbsp;and&nbsp;shows that&nbsp;much of what you learn at business school can be put to good use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore,&nbsp;the surrounding environment comes with the choice of school. For example, ESMT and UNC are both excellent schools with similar faculty&nbsp;quality&nbsp;and talented students, but Berlin and Chapel Hill are completely different worlds where people care about different things and think differently, and the impact on each MBA student is different.&nbsp;Both schools provided a great number of talents, contributing to their respective professional fields and geographical areas that cannot be measured by ROI.&nbsp;Therefore, the inspiration from the environment also constitutes part of the future returns that cannot be quantified.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&nbsp;would recommend future candidates to&nbsp;start&nbsp;with&nbsp;yourself, carefully review your experience, reflect on your limitations, consider what kind of changes and growth you wish to obtain through the MBA experience, and take the initiative to&nbsp;pursue, instead of passively considering how much ROI the MBA can bring&nbsp;you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Agriculture&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;seem to be one of the most sought-after industries for MBA graduates, so why did you choose this direction?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was looking for a job after graduating from North Carolina, I gave priority to the more popular industries. And&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;normal. For students who have never been in the workplace before,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;not very clear what they really want, and&nbsp;making enough money to support&nbsp;themselves&nbsp;is the priority.&nbsp;However,&nbsp;after&nbsp;working&nbsp;for a while and accumulating&nbsp;some experience and capital, your ideas&nbsp;can&nbsp;change&nbsp;and you&nbsp;might think more about&nbsp;what you&nbsp;really&nbsp;want to do in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You said that agriculture does not seem to be the kind of industry that is sought after by MBA graduates, and the reason is&nbsp;obvious:&nbsp;money comes slowly in agriculture.&nbsp;I remember the time&nbsp;I visited a vineyard&nbsp;in Burgundy, the local farmer said, &#8220;We haven&#8217;t had good sunshine for three years here, there&nbsp;were&nbsp;too many rainy&nbsp;days&nbsp;and the wine is not good, but we don&#8217;t think God will be so unfair to us, the next three years should be good.&#8221;&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;when&nbsp;I&nbsp;realized&nbsp;that farmers have such a different concept of time from&nbsp;those&nbsp;who&nbsp;work in finance.&nbsp;We are talking about&nbsp;six years&nbsp;duration and the success is dependent&nbsp;on uncertain weather.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you see this kind of time and riskiness in a&nbsp;project,&nbsp;few&nbsp;investors will&nbsp;give&nbsp;a&nbsp;second look, so&nbsp;passion&nbsp;is the most important driver. I grew up in the mountainous area&nbsp;of northern Fujian&nbsp;Province&nbsp;and I always feel close to&nbsp;nature, but I never thought&nbsp;of a career path in this direction. It was only a few years ago,&nbsp;when&nbsp;I took the WSET certification for&nbsp;job-related purposes,&nbsp;that I&nbsp;became interested in&nbsp;viticulture.&nbsp;I&nbsp;was fascinated by&nbsp;the way grape farmers try to improve grape varieties, enhance&nbsp;flavors,&nbsp;and increase yields while following the laws of nature and using sustainable methods.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On another occasion, I joined an agricultural&nbsp;field&nbsp;study&nbsp;trip&nbsp;to Taiwan to see&nbsp;great&nbsp;farming and management&nbsp;practices, which I found particularly interesting.&nbsp;Later on, when discussing cultural tourism projects with&nbsp;my partner, the agricultural element was also a point of continuous interest to us. When I came to ESMT, I found that many of my MBA&nbsp;classmates&nbsp;had worked in popular industries before focusing on sustainability and wanted to make the transition through the MBA. While working on the FSC project, I was&nbsp;very happy&nbsp;to find out that a&nbsp;forest area&nbsp;in my hometown had just been certified as an ecosystem services forest by&nbsp;the&nbsp;FSC. There are many more of these types of experiences that have&nbsp;supported&nbsp;my interest in agriculture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;The&nbsp;\u201cT\u201d&nbsp;in ESMT stands for technology and the school is exceptional in this area. For example, starting&nbsp;in 2016, ESMT&nbsp;became the first business school in Germany and one of the first in the world to start accepting Bitcoin for tuition payments. Part of our curriculum exposed me, a guy who knows nothing about coding, to programming languages.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The goal of the MBA is to train business executives or entrepreneurs and having this group learn relevant programming to empower their data analysis skills can help to&nbsp;open up&nbsp;some of their blind spots&nbsp;in thinking,&nbsp;helping&nbsp;to reduce communication barriers with&nbsp;programmers&nbsp;in the future. After attending these classes and talking to my classmates, I also started to think more about the application of these technologies in agriculture and exploring more possibilities for agriculture.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, recently I attended a webinar about \u201cfuture agriculture\u201d &#8211; AI and bio-info analysis, which involves the application of supervised\/unsupervised learning, cluster analysis, machine learning, deep learning, neural nets, etc. in the future of agriculture practices. I was so glad that I took the Analytics&nbsp;Track&nbsp;during the&nbsp;MBA, which helped me to get a basic understanding of&nbsp;all of&nbsp;these terms and the possible applications of these methods so that I could partly follow up with such a technical talk, which I couldn\u2019t possibly&nbsp;have&nbsp;understood&nbsp;before&nbsp;the&nbsp;MBA.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everyone has different experiences and different expectations of an MBA. For&nbsp;me, I wanted to explore new possibilities in&nbsp;other&nbsp;industries&nbsp;through my MBA, which I&nbsp;had&nbsp;little idea&nbsp;about before I came here, but now&nbsp;it&nbsp;has&nbsp;become&nbsp;much clearer. The experiences in New Mexico, North Carolina,&nbsp;and&nbsp;China&nbsp;have been&nbsp;very&nbsp;valuable, providing&nbsp;a lot of&nbsp;contexts&nbsp;for thinking about&nbsp;my&nbsp;future direction. On top of that, the ESMT experience has further&nbsp;opened up&nbsp;many blind spots in my consciousness that I think will last a lifetime. I&nbsp;can&#8217;t&nbsp;predict what the future holds, but I have the confidence and patience to explore, and will strive&nbsp;to create new possibilities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p><span class=\"rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\"><\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\">10<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">min read<\/span><\/span> Before studying at ESMT&nbsp;Berlin,&nbsp;Shangyuan&nbsp;Chen&nbsp;received his bachelor\u2019s degree in finance&nbsp;from the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico&nbsp;and his&nbsp;Master of Accounting from the&nbsp;University <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\" title=\"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant?\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[732,604,258],"tags":[624,23],"ppma_author":[1283],"class_list":["post-16288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-alumni-interviews","category-mba","tag-alumni","tag-mba-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ESMT Berlin Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-21T07:56:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-26T14:11:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1286\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ESMT Berlin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ESMT Berlin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"21 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\",\"name\":\"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-21T07:56:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-26T14:11:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/1f36d930910eec3a120055d4443b45f5\"},\"description\":\"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/\",\"name\":\"ESMT Berlin Blog\",\"description\":\"Empowering you to create a better tomorrow\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/1f36d930910eec3a120055d4443b45f5\",\"name\":\"ESMT Berlin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bf380778cfeb76ccdcd7c69f13d1e645\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b49efa94bd6e55309621c4d7b1b038bd9f81ad8024762e6cbb61fd1cec4c5d47?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b49efa94bd6e55309621c4d7b1b038bd9f81ad8024762e6cbb61fd1cec4c5d47?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ESMT Berlin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/author\/administrator\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog","description":"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog","og_description":"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.","og_url":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/","og_site_name":"ESMT Berlin Blog","article_published_time":"2021-07-21T07:56:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-26T14:11:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1286,"url":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/09-09-20_L1020477_ESMT_Low_Res.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ESMT Berlin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ESMT Berlin","Est. reading time":"21 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/","url":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/","name":"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant? | ESMT Berlin Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-07-21T07:56:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-26T14:11:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/1f36d930910eec3a120055d4443b45f5"},"description":"Doing an MBA is more like entrepreneurship for me; the outcome depends largely on the entrepreneur her\/himself and there are too many returns that cannot be quantified.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/is-measuring-an-mba-by-roi-relevant\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is measuring an MBA by ROI relevant?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/","name":"ESMT Berlin Blog","description":"Empowering you to create a better tomorrow","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/1f36d930910eec3a120055d4443b45f5","name":"ESMT Berlin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bf380778cfeb76ccdcd7c69f13d1e645","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b49efa94bd6e55309621c4d7b1b038bd9f81ad8024762e6cbb61fd1cec4c5d47?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b49efa94bd6e55309621c4d7b1b038bd9f81ad8024762e6cbb61fd1cec4c5d47?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"ESMT Berlin"},"url":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/author\/administrator\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":1283,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"administrator","display_name":"ESMT Berlin","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/029316fde6d323627aef1c8f5c8fd2753c97999da165132ba9806c21c20ff23f?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","description":"","first_name":"ESMT","last_name":"Berlin","user_url":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16288"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21832,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288\/revisions\/21832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16288"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.esmt.berlin\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=16288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}