Having worked in technology roles in the past, I was strongly motivated to build on my expertise and get a management perspective that complemented my core strength. While I had always been a technology savvy guy, I had made up my mind to sharpen my entrepreneurial skills with a motivation to have my own techno-startup at some point in the future.

Another factor that weighed on my decision was that I didn't want to study an MBA that worked like a 'one-size-fits-all' - IE Business School was therefore an educated choice since it allowed me to customise about 50% of the entire course structure to suit my learning needs. Location and length of the program were also extremely important factors - While living in Madrid and learning Spanish has added tremendously to my life experience, IE Business School's 13 month program was of ideal length - neither too short nor too long. Other factors included studying in a city based school - right in the commercial capital of Spain (Madrid) and getting the opportunity to network with some of the top entrepreneurs in this part of the world.

MBA specialisations are quite a fad these days - everyone seems to have one. However, specialisation should never come at the cost of learning general management skills that are needed in any kind of business. This is one of the strong points for an entrepreneurship focused school like IE Business School.

While the school had always been at the forefront of entrepreneurial education, the program was also well balanced to include multiple courses from Strategy, Operations, Supply Chain, Advanced Finance, Organisation Behavior, Information Systems, Accounting and Human Resources in the core (mandatory) study plan of the course. Some of my peers chose to go on long and short exchanges to schools of their choice in the US, Asia and across Europe within their MBA study plan. Interestingly,

IE Business School's MBA curriculum was chosen the 'Most Innovative MBA curriculum in the world' a couple of years ago by some of the leading business journals and this gave me a perspective of what I could expect as it spoke volumes about the school's focus on both, course adaptability and the ability to offer intense specialisation.

One of the biggest selling points of IE Business School's International MBA was that it offered the world's most diverse MBA - with over 80 nationalities represented in an MBA class. Being in an International program tremendously helps expand one's horizon and break common myths, while appraising oneself of so many social intricacies and cultures. Little things matter - How does one toast wine in Spanish, French and Hebrew; how to courteously accept business cards when speaking to a Japanese; What is forbidden in the Iranian business culture and what topics are forbidden in a Chinese corporate environment - they all matter in the long run.

An International MBA is a safe environment to fail and learn these skills - one wrong move in an actual job and you end up in a very sticky position. Therefore, why not learn these skills right at school? Furthermore, the opportunity to hear an Israeli and Lebanese (peacefully) discuss the Middle East crisis, or an Egyptian talk about the Arab spring, or a Greek give his perspective of the ground realities today in Greece can not be replaced by reading a 1000 books. That is my strong belief, and IE has provided me that experience.

Personally, the diversity factor has been tremendously enriching for me - not just in terms of international students, but also in gender, race, language or sexual orientation (Did you know that IE organises an LGBT business forum each year? This year's event was held last week and was sponsored by IBM). 

Kundan Bhaduri is a 29 year old tech savvy consultant with an International MBA and has graduated recently (2011) from IE Business School in Spain.