“We have an association of over 1,160 alumni who have businesses both in Romania and abroad. At the end of each series, two-three new entrepreneurial companies emerge, meaning that our alumni have the courage to start a business on their own,” Duhaneanu told ZF Live.
ASEBUSS, who offers an Executive MBA program in partnership with Kennesaw State University-Atlanta, in 2012 had 25 graduates, while 30 managers attended the program in 2013. This year, ASEBUSS celebrates 20 years of presence in Romania, and the price of the EMBA program offered by the school stands at EUR18,500.
According to the 2013 edition of ZF’s TOP MBA, almost one in four MBA alumni (23%) who were polled for the drawing up of the ranking became an entrepreneur, meaning that more than 30 managers opened their own business during or after graduating the program.
One of the alumni of the first ASEBUSS EMBA generation was Nicolae Voiculescu (photo), who worked in the pharmaceutical industry (former general manager of Eli Lilly and Novartis) and who was the first physician to graduate ASEBUSS’ EMBA program (in 1995).
“The business school helped me get acquainted with certain concepts and tools the Medicine and Pharmacy University did not convey to me. Unfortunately, it does not look at the managerial side of a physician to this day, either. A family doctor, besides providing health services, also has this management side. Approaching the managerial side of a physician is a material need,” said Voiculescu.
He is one of the founding members of the Romanian Association of International Drug Manufacturers (ARPIM) and of Aspen Romania Institute, and is currently a partner at health consultancy Link Resource.
In 2013, ASEBUSS launched a new MBA program particularly dedicated to entrepreneurs. Annually, over 200 managers complete a program of this type offered by business schools present domestically and the MBA alumni community currently goes beyond 4,500 people.
What Marcel Duhaneanu (ASEBUSS) and Nicolae Voiculescu (Link Resource) also told ZF Live:
Marcel Duhaneanu, rector of ASEBUSS business school
The emergence of ASEBUSS Romanian-American business school was a necessity. Until 1990, the entire economic education system was centered on state planned economy. After the Revolution, economic education had to be centered on transition to market economy, which in terms of syllabus was an impossible mission. The US, under the aegis of USAIT and a consortium of 5 major US universities, created a training program for professors of Central and Eastern Europe to help the countries in the region shift to the market economy.
In 1993 we launched an Executive MBA program addressing the elite market segment. It virtually addressed all the graduates of higher education and people who had a 3-5 year experience in the business field. We had students of the banking, insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
We succeeded in making the shift from planned to market economy owing to cooperation with American partners and students of their programs.
Our students came up with managerial experience and at a certain moment became regional managers, had missions abroad.
Most CEE alumni of the first series who visited the US preferred to go to the private sector after they returned and attended no other school. In many cases, they set up their own companies after having worked with multinationals.
In 2013, we created an MBA program for entrepreneurs.
One can learn how to do business from other people’s experience as well. We have an integrated approach of managerial development, as well as of the concrete case studies discussed during courses. Students learn from us, we learn from them and they learn from each other. These talks where they have to make decisions depending on real elements of the real life are not to be found in any book.
We use a lot of internal studies, but also studies from other renowned schools to help them develop an economic way of thinking.
Nicolae Voiculescu, Link Resource partner, graduate of the first generation of ASEBUSS’ EMBA program
I was the first general manager of Eli Lilly in Romania. Right after the ‘90s, there were not many physicians holding an Executive MBA.
I had the opportunity to change some people’s lives in the early ‘90s, we are the ones who introduced the use of human insulin in Romania.
After I graduated in 1995, due to the limitation of the Romanian market Eli Lilly insisted I attend a professional development program and offered me the possibility of working at the company’s headquarters of Indianapolis. I had the possibility of choosing the kind of expertise I wanted to develop, that of general manager. I worked for about one year as HR manager for one of the members of the operating committee, which was made up of 5 people. We had 150 people with absolutely impressive academic competences.
Those of the Romanian healthcare system who showed to me this was not a meritocratic system did me a great favor. They drove me to a place where I could truly fulfill my intellectual potential and desire.
Graduating a school does not necessarily make one a successful businessman. In a competitive global environment, the lack of access to high-quality structured education makes you lose sooner or later. Entrepreneurs lacking structured education can very well stand chances, they can endure for a period, but on the medium and long term this is not sustainable.
Looking at the competencies of Romania’s managerial class both in terms of quantity and quality, I believe there’s a lot to be done.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)