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From 7th to 11th of February, International Master in Management participants enjoyed a new edition of EADA’s Personal Inspiration Week, an initiative led by Programme Director Antony Poole to accelerate students’ professional and personal growth. Through the inspirational stories of three EADA Alumni -Philipp Herz, Joao Perre Viana and Raquel Rubio- they had the chance to focus and develop their own path for growth, now and in the future. According to Poole, “the Personal Inspiration Week gave them the opportunity to learn from inspiring experts and Alumni who led them in refining and clarifying their professional and life goals and what they need to do to achieve them.”

As Poole says, “there has been much talk of personal branding over the last fifteen years, and much of it is no more than how to sell yourself.” On the contrary, Professor adds, “Philipp, Raquel and Joao avoid this trap”. In his opinion, “they helped participants understand themselves in relation to their goals and abilities; they helped them develop specific approaches and skills to successfully manage their goals and their personal and professional growth.”

Leadership development insights

The three Alumni invited to this year’s edition of the Personal Inspiration Week gave to participants important insights from what they learned after their experience at EADA. Philipp Herz (Master in Management Class of 2012), who is Commercial Management Director at Bungert oHG, conducted the class ‘Leadership skills to succeed in life’. Philipp told them about how to build their unique competitive advantage to enter successfully in the corporate world and also to balance their personal and professional life effectively.

To Philipp: “With companies that are constantly disrupting the market, skill requirements have been raised and the ability to be able to pivot careers will become increasingly important. Graduates need to know how to continually raise their value and successfully build and keep their competitive advantage.” For this reason, he recommended to students to never stop learning after graduation: “You need to learn everyday to build and keep your competitive advantage.”

The second Alumnus invited to this Week was Joao Perre Viana (International MBA, Class of 2003), who is the Founder and Pioneer of Walking Mentorship, an innovative methodology that stimulates people to reflect more deeply and clearly on themselves and their goals. His class ‘Business + Career + Walking Mentorship’ was a unique opportunity for participants to revise their personal and professional challenges using three powerful tools - mentoring, walking and nature. 

To Joao, “we use this combination because of the power each brings to the thinking and the creative process”. He adds: “Over the years, we have learned that this is a very effective way to think deeply and more clearly. Walking and nature are like medicine available to everyone at no cost. And mentoring places a structured methodology on top of this experience to create a framework to identify and capture important insights in a very relaxed and fun way.”

Finally, Raquel Rubio (Master in Human Resources Management Class of 2003), who is Solutions Director at MindGym, conducted the class ‘The human leader in a digital age’, where students had the chance to experience new ways of connecting with themselves to make better decisions. They put into practice mind-body exercises that consisted of simple breathing sessions, visualizations and meditations. To Rubio, “the response from participants was very positive, they appreciated the importance of self-reflection as a mechanism to integrate learning throughout their life moving forward.”

A unique experience

According to participants, the experience was very rewarding. For example, to Paul Hardt, from Germany, “this week was very important to prepare us for interviews, or for just being in a company knowing what to do from the start.” In the same way, to Martina Raimondi, from Italy, “after this Personal Inspiration Week, I will better understand what I actually want for my future and how can I achieve it.”

Piedad de Garay, from Mexico, agrees this was a great experience: “When I came here, I did not think that I had to work in a very concise way. But now, I really believe that I have to be very specific about my dreams and work towards them. Not only to have dreams but to make them come true.”

To José Almeida, from Portugal, “It is super important as future leaders to have these leadership skills, in order to lead organisations in the future, interact with people, understand their needs and how