Katja Matić

Katja’s career path began in marketing and logistics, and 15 years ago, in human resources, where she quickly advanced to managerial positions. When she started thinking about an MBA, she was focused on HR and felt she lacked a broader business perspective.

“Before the MBA, I wanted to be an excellent HR professional. I was leading recruitment and employee development across several countries and realized I was missing the sales and financial aspects to become a complete professional,” Katja recalls. The MBA was the step that steered her toward bigger ambitions.

During her studies, she experienced a turning point: “I realized I had greater potential than just being a specialist – I wanted to reach a position where I could make a broader contribution.” After graduation, she followed that path for several years, and then the idea of starting her own business matured – one that would allow her to do what she loves most: working with people on their development. Today, together with two other remarkable women, she is building her own entrepreneurial story.

MBA as a Tailwind

Katja emphasizes that the MBA played a crucial role in her transition to entrepreneurship.
“The MBA gives you a package of knowledge needed to run your own business. You learn how to be a marketing, financial, and sales expert all at once. Of course, with collaborators, but a lot of it you still carry on your own,” she points out.

She chose COTRUGLI Business School because she had been following it for years: “I knew several people who had completed it, and I liked the focus on networking and high-quality modules. COTRUGLI was always my first choice.”

The most challenging yet most useful module for her was finance. “It’s hard to single out just one module. Finance definitely shook me up. In the positions I held after the MBA, I could, without hesitation, participate in discussions about all financial reports because I understood the background and how they were created.”

Leadership Through Experience

Katja’s development as a leader was most shaped by her experience in human resources.
“Although I was already in a managerial role, only then did I realize what it means to be a quality leader. Through working with people and enabling their development, I was also developing myself. I was influenced by the people I reported to. Every superior along my journey influenced me. In my corporate career, I reported to business unit directors or executive directors, even CEOs. From all of them, I learned a great deal not only about human resources or business, but also about myself as a person. I realized what kind of leader I want to be – and what kind I do not want to be”, she explains.

Today, she runs a mentoring program through which she wants to provide others with what she herself has learned: “I want to empower and encourage people, especially women, to realize how much they can achieve in both business and private life. I want every person who enters the mentoring program to understand the importance of their own potential, to remove self-limitations and prejudices. Support through mentorship is key for everyone on their career path. Having a mentor who has gone through countless challenging situations and is aware of how much they have learned along the way is an invaluable gift.”

Balancing Family and Business Obligations

At the time of her MBA, Katja was the mother of high school students, but it wasn’t easy then either:
“It was hard, especially in the second year, because of the amount of material. I literally used all my free time to prepare for papers, exams, or upcoming modules. I had great support from my husband and children, as in everything I do.”
She still keeps in touch with MBA colleagues, mostly on a friendship level, and occasionally contacts them in business situations for advice or collaboration.

Personal Transformation

The greatest gain from the MBA for Katja was increased self-confidence and belief in her own abilities:
“I realized I can do much more than I thought, and that significantly influenced my further career path. The MBA enables participants to push their own boundaries. You find yourself in situations where you have to try to do things you might never do at work. This is especially true in group work, where you take on roles outside your domain of expertise.”

For her, a successful leader is someone who “shows genuine understanding and curiosity for people, who searches for solutions together with them, and who leads by example. If you want to be a successful leader, you cannot ask your people to do something you yourself are not willing to do. Likewise, you cannot consider yourself a good leader if you are not willing to learn from your team. And you can only learn when you are truly interested in what your team knows and how they perceive the situations you are in.’”

If she could turn back time, she wishes she had known two things earlier: how important it is to understand people and to continuously work on oneself. “At the beginning of my career, I went through jobs without the need to understand others. The real things started happening only when I realized the beauty of mutual understanding. Today, I believe in continuously working on personal skills, not only through work but also through education, such as the MBA.”

Advice for Future MBA Candidates

Katja tells everyone considering an MBA not to wait too long:
“Enroll before the need arises, because the MBA is a process of changing your mindset, not just a study. I would recommend it to everyone who wants to lead teams and advance to a higher position or start their own business. Still, it shouldn’t be too early either, because work experience is necessary for the MBA to make full sense. The MBA requires contribution in teamwork, and for that, work experience is essential.”

For maximum results, she adds, discipline is necessary: “Good preparation before each module, concentration in class, and completing assignments. The curriculum is thoughtfully designed, but results only come if you are consistent and disciplined.”

In the end, Katja also emphasizes the importance of new topics in education: “Artificial intelligence should definitely enter the curriculum. It is a topic of the future to which we must adapt.”