Do you have an eye for detail and a passion for a career within the luxury goods sector? London Business School’s MBA should be your number one choice. With our Luxury Management programme, taught within our MBA and in partnership with Walpole British Luxury, you’ll have a unique opportunity to gain real experience in successful luxury brands. Find out more about how we support careers within the luxury sector.

I recently caught up with Renita Bakshi, MBA2017 to find out more about her experience on the MBA programme. Renita studied an undergraduate degree in Marketing and International Business at Indiana University- Kelley School of Business. She most recently worked in Planning for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan at Tiffany & Co., United States of America.

What are your post MBA goals?

I hope to build a career in an industry that I am most passionate about and eventually be CEO.

Why did you decide to consider business education? And why did you choose to embark on an MBA at that point in your career?

I was looking to transform professionally and personally. While, I was at Tiffany & Co., I noticed that everyone in the C-suite either had an MBA or robust international experience. I knew that if I wanted to grow into a business leader, I needed to garner both and there was no better place to do it than London Business School. Apart from the international student body, LBS provides students with many opportunities to gain global experience. Next year, I am going on exchange to Hong Kong. I want to do my Global Business Experience in Johannesburg, Africa and take block week classes in Dubai. By the end of my MBA, I will have had exposure to doing business across four continents and living in three of most magnificent cities in the world – New York, London and Hong Kong.

Through the MBA, I was also looking to gain exposure to new industries as I had spent five years in the retailing industry. Through the recruiting process, I was able to secure two offers, one from Google and another from Accenture Strategy. I am interning at Google this summer and hopefully at Accenture in the fall. When, I come back from Hong Kong, I am thinking to do a third internship in private equity within the retail space. LBS’ flexible program will allow me to experience three industries – Tech, Consulting and Private Equity and that would not have been possible at any other business school.

Lastly, I was a Marketing and International Business major in undergrad, and wanted to round out my skill set by taking more Finance, Accounting, Operations and Strategy classes which would provide me with a solid business foundation to set me up for success for my long term goals.

Are there specific barriers you think women face when deciding on whether to go to business school or not?
And what advice would you give women when considering them?

I have seen women with kids and spouses certainly face barriers when deciding to go to business school. I certainly would like to encourage these women as many of my classmates have children, are balancing long distance marriages, and have managed to secure some of the most sought out internships at top consulting or banking firms. It is completely doable and the LBS community is very supportive.

Why is London Business School a good place for women to study?

LBS has ‘Manbassadors’ and a whole ‘He for She’ campaign by which women are seeing men being supportive of both their personal and professional aspirations. The idea is that when these manbassadors and other MBAs return to the workforce, they will continue to be supportive of women.

Tell us about your interaction with other students through study groups?

LBS is a very unique place when it comes to the student body. What makes this experience so special is that we have students from 68 different countries where no one country represents more than ten percent of the class. The class room discussions as a result are amazing because you are literally learning from a world perspective. No one voice or country is dominant. My study group comprises of six students from different countries and industries. I have someone from China and Private Equity, Italy and Management Consulting, India and Tech, Portugal and Civil Engineering, Brazil and Banking, and I am from America with a Retail background. Through the study group experience, you not only learn how to work with people from different cultures and backgrounds but truly get a sense of how business is done across the world.

The LBS community is truly a collaborative and supportive community. About a month ago, a student had a great idea of LBS making a Guinness World Record and hundreds of students from 72 nationalities came together to make this happen. LBS currently holds the world record for the highest number of different nationalities taking part in a popular singalong.

Source: blog.admissions.london.edu