“Extraordinary professionals from different sectors made me think outside of the box, rethink about myself and I started seeing things from a different point of view which enabled easier cooperation and more productive meetings in my workplace.”

Ever since I started working, I am a part of financial industry, the banking sector respectively. All the positions required excellent knowledge of Croatian corporate sector and the ability to synthesize a lot of different data trough communication with internal and our external clients in order to make the best decisions. However, being a banker in today’s world isn`t just that. Banking industry is going through a process of massive change as it moves towards digitalization. While bankers have started to embrace the technological revolution, there are still challenges that need to be overcome. In a digital world main competitor in banking sector aren`t just other banks. Our main competitors are telecom companies, IT sector and FinTech’s that are successfully challenging our decisions and strategies. 

Hence, besides my constant willingness to learn new things I believed that MBA program could make an additional push in my mindset in order to embrace the challenges mentioned. Meeting excellent professors with broad international experience supported by Cotrugli team and having the best colleagues made this two-year journey a life changing experience. I got to know extraordinary professionals from different sectors that made me rethink about my ideas, my view on things and my stands in general. They made me think outside of the box, rethink about myself and I started seeing things from a different point of view which enabled easier cooperation and more productive meetings in my workplace.  

We did a lot of brainstorming but most importantly, we become friends along the way. We had a lot of fun working on our case-studies in dedicated teams and we always learned something new about ourselves trough these interactions. This makes you open your mind for new challenges trough practical work on real life situations, but the best thing is that you see how important teamwork is and that sometimes it is worth it to thrive on someone else’s idea rather that your own which is a common compromise that you have to accept in big teams such as mine.   

Nevertheless, one of my favourite take-aways is the Leadership module that is primarily oriented on reconsidering your own self-worth, self-management and self-awareness so that later you could use this as a tool for empowering and inspiring others. Namely, by learning and getting to know yourself you can improve your relationships in both your business and your private life. And I would say that this is a most challenging part of our life-long learning process that never ends.