Fabio Nani, MIP MBA Alumnus tells us how the MBA has allowed him to “connect the dots” and thus be able to approach the consultancy sector. 

Watch the video above to discover how important is the content of our MBAs and read our interview below.

 

What were you doing before your MBA?

Before the MBA I used to work for the Tenaris group in Italy and Romania, first as a buyer of logistic services and then as regional coordinator within the same area.

What made you decide that you wanted to study an MBA?

It’s something I had in the back of my mind since I obtained my MSc, I was just waiting for the right moment to do it. Going through my second international relocation was the right milestone to “catch the ball”. 

Why did you choose to study at MIP?

Because MIP is the business school of the best engineering school in Italy, Politecnico di Milano. I graduated at a university which is very close to MIP in terms of subjects, geography and relationship (some teachers are actually MIP members and I met them again once at the Business School). I was really impressed by the quality of those teachers during my university studies and by the level of preparation which I was able to competitively test during my trainee program in Argentina, against many international graduates from all-over the world and from re-known schools. As me and all the engineers from Politecnico ended up in the top 10% of the trainee program I thought I probably had to go on investing on this path. 

What are the key lessons you learned from you MBA? Did you learn anything unexpected?

I learnt how to drive a team without the formal authority to do it (which is quite a useful skill in the consulting world), and many useful subjects I was not fully aware of (from LBOs, to PE Strategy). The most useful thing is how the MBA helps you develop an integral view of business subjects still preserving a polyhedral capacity to breakdown different perspectives. The most unexpected thing is that you understand this realizing all of a sudden, when in front of a problem, that you own it!   

Tell us about the academic experience of doing an MBA – what did you enjoy and what was challenging?

I couldn’t pick just one aspect, I really did enjoy everything across the program and time management was the main challenge, but I guess this is kind of a constant problem in life. 

How about your life outside of the classroom?

The class was really amazing, we had 28 different nationalities and as you can imagine everybody was trying to teach everybody else about their country. We ended up partying quite a lot when we had time.

Also as Italians in Italy we had some duties towards our colleagues, and I think we succeeded as Italian ambassadors: in fact I am not aware of anybody losing weight during the program!

What have you done since completing your MBA? How have you applied what you learned in real life?

I’ve been 1 year in strategic consulting, 2.5 years in the industry working on Procurement and M&A, and now back in consulting with Operations and M&A focus. The question is… what have I not applied?

What are your future plans?

I’d say the plan is always to grow, maximising the speed and maintaining the learning trend. I would like, maybe in a future, to get into something more entrepreneurial, either starting up, or sharing the risk (and the gain) of an existing company. The best has (always) yet to come!

What advice would you give to someone who was thinking about following in your footsteps?

That someone thinking about it already has a strategic view, therefore the next step is implementation. Everything else will come through effort and exposure to opportunities. It is important to be able to recognise and catch them without any fear!