“I was able to shift from the hospitality industry into marketing and eventually into technology. It wasn’t just the studies that helped, it was the diverse experience and networking with my classmates that added lot of value,” he recalls.
“Without the Edinburgh MBA, I’d likely still be still working in hospitality.”
With the tech industry booming, and its growth in the UK twice the country’s overall economic growth in 2016, it’s a sector many MBAs want to move to. Big data is the buzzword of 21st century business, and Saurabh in one of a number of Edinburgh MBA grads working in the red-hot big data analytics field.
“Big data has place in all industries: hospitality, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, you name it. The amount of insight that business can get from big data is just phenomenal,” he says.
“It’s being used by larger retailers and manufactures for social listening, product development, even for development of toys, as small chips embedded within toys can tell the companies how they are being used by the children.”
Scot Carlson, a fellow Edinburgh MBA alumnus, is managing director of business transformation at Publicis Media, a multinational advertising and PR firm.
“Some people would say that data is now more important than brand,” he says. “I can see their point. Ultimately, data-driven decision-making is on the minds of most of my clients.
“All our clients seem to understand that consumer and customer insights are critical to better business performance; and that data collection, interpretation and insight generation are critical to improving the overall customer experience.”
Scot, who completed his MBA in 2009 after spending several months on an international exchange in France, was drawn to the Edinburgh MBA’s global profile. 21 different nationalities are represented in the current Edinburgh MBA class.
“I chose Edinburgh because I wanted the experience of studying business internationally. The school had an globally-recognized reputation for research and the program included the opportunity to study abroad at a partner business school,” he says.
“Additionally, the city of Edinburgh was a big plus. It offered a fantastic, cosmopolitan lifestyle in a compact, friendly environment. I literally walked everywhere, and I loved that!”
At Publicis Media, Scot’s working with artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to revolutionize consumer experiences.
“Our business helps clients create the link between media and product sales,” he says. “We will be the first in our sector to release an Artificial Intelligence solution worldwide that will use machine learning to help connect our talent to client challenges and opportunities.”
For Scot the value of the Edinburgh MBA is undeniable: “The MBA really starts to pay for itself after you have been in business a few years post-graduation. The skills you obtain and the network you build while in school also prove invaluable to landing that first post-graduate job.
“I’m still friends with many of my classmates, and have enjoyed seeing them succeed,” he continues. “The MBA has not just changed my career, it changed my life.”
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