It has been more than 6 months since our Sloan students onboarded into this transformational journey at LBS. Rodrigo Herculano and Vandana Subramanian are two of our current fellows who just wrapped up the first two terms. They are now stepping into a well-deserved summer break before coming back in autumn for the last cores and electives. Let’s check their insights and reflections within the Programme so far.
1. Could you please tell us a little bit about your background and career pre-programme?
Vandana: I am an Electronics engineer by background from India’s premiere university, BITS Pilani. Having started a career in R&D in semiconductors, I moved to customer-facing roles early in the Asia, and soon after, onto healthcare as my chosen field. I have spent over 18 years in strategic roles, building multi-million-dollar businesses in the US, Europe and Indian markets. I have been instrumental in leading product development and launching novel innovations, such as India’s first handheld portable ultrasound and introducing cancer genomics panels to the majority of hospitals in India. I have also founded two start-ups: in commercialising novel cancer pharmaceuticals and launching India’s first cancer genomic panels, followed by a second one in AI-driven predictive analytics in cancer care.
Rodrigo: I am a finance professional with 16 years of experience in Investment Banking, Corporate Treasury, and Retail investment. I started my career at Credit Suisse, spending 13 years in Equity Research and Electronic Trading. Later, I moved to Corporate Treasury at AB InBev, one of the largest beverage makers in the world, managing currency and commodity risk exposure of over US$2bn in South America. Most recently, I was a partner at XP Inc, a retail brokerage firm in Brazil, in the treasury department developing derivative investment products for wealth, private and retail investors.
2. What has been your primary motivation to pursue the Sloan programme?
Vandana: With deep sector expertise, global, and leadership roles across several job functions, the timing felt right to explore how best to maximise my potential and set the stage for the next two decades of my career. An essential criterion for me was to join a full-time programme that would give me an immersive experience. With my aspirations to pivot to finance in VC, LBS was an easy choice, as it is a top finance B-school. Having worked out of the US for a significant time in my career, I wanted to understand the UK market. London is a top financial capital, a melting pot of cultures, which would give me access to some of the top PE and VC firms. The proximity of LBS to the European markets was another significant advantage.
Rodrigo: Over my career, I was exposed to various leadership roles and mainly relied on empirical experiences to lead my teams. Despite being successful thus far, I realized that a more profound knowledge of the theory behind effective leadership could help me continue progressing in my career. When I learned about the Sloan programme, its origin and goals, and LBS’s focus on people’s development and strategy, I thought it would be an excellent fit for continuing to hone my leadership skills.
3. You have been almost 6 months in, and half of the programme has already been completed. What do you think you have learned so far that you did not know before?
Vandana: So much! In my case, the expertise we already bring to the table, for example, strategy, sharpened so many times over with the unique case studies analysed. Then I was excited to upskill myself with new topics, for, e.g., corporate turnaround and restructuring. In addition, the top-notch alumni network and other current programmes have been a revelation regarding the quality of conversations. What they could lead to – a co-founder match, a mentor or a sponsor – the possibilities are endless within the community. Our cohort involves CXOs, country heads, family office heads, investment bankers, start-up founders – you name it!
Rodrigo: Many of us come highly successful but also with something to learn. There are PhDs, entrepreneurs, and C-level executives, yet they all came here to address something they felt they needed to cover. No matter how rich your background is, you can always learn from your cohort’s members’ experiences and their fresh angles on something you might have had a dead-set mind to. Returning to school some 15+ years later is a humbling experience. You must switch modes from a talker to a listener, which might go against years of training and instinct. You may need to forgo your corporate identity and business card, and that’s OK.
4. Has your mindset changed in your position as a leader? If so, in what way?
Vandana: Organisational behaviour courses like ‘Leading People and Organizations’, and ‘Paths to Power’ explore stories of leaders from a geopolitical perspective and current CEOs of top companies – what worked and what didn’t are all masterclasses in us understanding what better we could do with our leadership styles, stepping up from a microscopic angle to a more vantage viewpoint in leveraging your team and company. Another exciting aspect is that the programme places you in study groups, aiming for the best possible diversity in every group. For example, mine comprised people from Argentina, Japan, Saudi Arabia, India and China. The opportunity to lead this team on various projects puts to the test your leadership skills and how adaptable you can be in extracting the best out of every assignment.
Rodrigo: We are all prone to make decisions influenced by our biases and raw emotional responses. Moreover, we are attracted to staying in our leadership comfort zone. To break that cycle, LBS and its faculty offer a series of opportunities to think it over and, through experience exchange, realize that it is ok not to know all the answers and that every situation requires a different approach to leadership. Understanding that leadership is fluid and that within the same day, you have to exert different types of leadership to different people under different circumstances is key to being a successful, long-lasting leader. A good leader can glide across that spectrum of styles while being authentic, thus avoiding the one-trick pony stamp.
5. You finished most of the cores, I believe you are now taking the electives. What has been your core and elective highlight?
Vandana: Organisational behaviour courses have been particularly insightful, as I am more of a tactical executive. Professor Herminia Ibarra teaches us ‘Leading People and Organizations’, which lays the foundation of how people and processes become the cornerstones of successful organisations. We explored styles of leadership, company culture and how to blend international cultures in global organisations. The line-up of guest speakers from Microsoft, Starling Bank, and Alibaba, tied up the theory to application in companies to help us become better future leaders.
An elective that I enjoyed is Financing the Entrepreneurial Business. We spent plenty of time analysing deal flows and structures across the world, start-up trends and associated industries, fund flows and funnels, and valuation metrics—all of which give you a thorough knowledge of being a successful entrepreneur and investor.
Rodrigo: One of LBS’ major strengths is diversity: geographical, cultural, and professional. Core classes aim to level the playing field and set a common base for all Sloans to extract most of the programme and their electives. We cover various topics, including accounting, leadership, strategy, and biography, where we learn about ourselves and our classmates to a level we have not experienced since junior school.
I came from a technical background, so I focused on developing my leadership skills taking, courses which involve a higher human factor. We cover three terms within one year, and plenty of room exists for experimenting and trajectory correcting.
6. The faculty members that teach Sloan are the most senior with LBS, and given their unique background (field research, industry-focus specialised, business actors), they get all the expertise from the current market and share it with the class along with critical case studies. In your opinion, who has been the most inspiring faculty and why?
Vandana: There have been at least two professors who have had a tremendous impact. One is Professor Jessica Spungin. She brings many years of McKinsey experience, meaning she can engage with us through various sectors. She taught us a core course – ‘Strategy’, with techniques and frameworks that make you 1000x better at what you used to do. Her roster of guest speakers Amazon or Publicis and more gave us brilliant facetime opportunities to engage in real-life scenarios of top companies.
Professors Gary Dushnitsky and Luisa Alemany teach ‘Entrepreneurial Business’. They adeptly teach us the nitty-gritty of start-up deal structuring, fundraising, exits, types of fund houses. We had the CXOs from Open AI, Global Ventures and TDK Ventures speaking to us, which was deeply insightful– I think the entire class decided to found a business at the end of the course!
Rodrigo: It’s difficult to pick just one, so I will go slightly off script here. I am picking one whose delivery was enlightening because I could leverage the learnings from two professors to connect the dots and make the most of it. I chose Managing Corporate Turnarounds, lectured by Professor Michael Jacobides, which, beyond the enticing discussions on a wide variety of cases and situations and great guest speakers, tied concepts from other electives I had taken: ‘Paths to Power’ with Professor José de Areilza and ‘Negotiation and Bargaining’ with Professor Minseo Baek.
At some point in Professor Jacobides’ course, I could see this mosaic forming in front of me, with experiences, learnings, and memories from all three disciplines coming together and shedding light on the optimal solution I was looking for.
7. What piece of advice would you have for the upcoming Sloan candidates?
Vandana: Speak to as many alumni as you can to understand their perspective on managing this intense programme. Be prepared to come into this course with an open mind. This may lead to exploring opportunities; keep talking, connecting to people within your cohort and outside of; there is value in every connection you make. Commit to this year and challenge yourself to come through on the other side of the programme with choices that accelerate you to deliver the most impact for your remaining career.
Rodrigo: Ask as many questions as possible to feel comfortable and confident about joining the programme. The programme team and alumni network are happy to help you make the best choice. I attended several online events and reached out to alumni to share my expectations and understand what motivated them to join Sloan and their experience. Joining the programme is a big step in both professional and personal lives, and the better prepared and at ease you are when you arrive on your first day, the more enjoyable and fruitful your experience in the Sloan programme will be.
Find out more about our LBS Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy programme here.