Marco Panvini

In the summer 2015, my employer, Bonfiglioli Riduttori, an Italian multinational in the field of transmissions (gearboxes, motors and controls) offered me the chance to undertake an international experience, joining the position of Operations Director in Shanghai (China). This proposal represented an opportunity I had always aimed for, but arrived in a moment of my life when I could not move my family abroad. However, with my family support, we decided to seize this opportunity: I accepted this challenge and moved to Shanghai, alone. It gave me the occasion to have free time available on my own and I therefore asked my employer to support my deep desire to join an Executive MBA programme.

In fact, this was a great chance to go back to books and study. Moreover, during an international experience! I searched the offers for university education in Shanghai with the support of my local HR team and I found KEDGE Business School, that perfectly fitted my interest offering not only the traditional subjects of an MBA programme, but also several leadership topics, with the possibility to personalization and customization through a multitude of choices for the major and elective seminars.

Finally, in December 2016 I became a KEDGE participant in the EMBA programme in Shanghai! My experience in China was really challenging for the high professional workload and studying over the weekends. During the week I was focusing on international operations and learning how to deal with a new business culture, and over the weekends, I had the chance in class to open my mind to different subjects. As most participants in my intake were Chinese, I had the opportunity to better understand the local culture and build up a valuable network. At the beginning of 2018, I was recalled in our HQs in Italy and therefore completed the remaining part of my EMBA on KEDGE French Campuses, which resulted in a further chance to enlarge my network also in France.

I recently concluded my EMBA journey discussing my final strategic business project, developed to support the e-commerce start-up (www.joyluxury.it) of my wife in the high-end jewellery sector, which is something far from my daily professional experience.  I found the EMBA journey motivating and exciting. The most important point has been the opportunity to touch topics and themes out of my everyday life and working experience, which resulted in a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the business dynamics and the world in general. More important, the programme continuously pushed me beyond my limits, hammered my lazy part, reinforced the ambition and recalled to humility, sense of ethics and respect for diversities. An incredible valuable experience, which changed me for ever. I can now look upon my current position in my company with a different perspective, while in my free time, I can support and work with my wife for her own business project.

And yes, I did not stop studying; as soon as I can, I keep reading books, articles, forums and whatever is grasping my attention, because an EMBA is a journey which you know when it starts but you really do not know, when and if, it will reach an end.