Graduation Speech- Mihai Chiriacescu, Alumni Representative Executive MBA 2021
Dear colleagues, Distinguished professors,
I was very humbled by the invitation to speak in front of you today. Especially as one who did about half of the EMBA program during Covid, I have to say this is an amazing day for me as It’s great to finally see more smiling faces live than emoticons in Teams or Zoom.
I will apologize from the start to any traditionalists in the room, but this will probably not be an usual EMBA graduation speech, as I thought it would be a lot more interesting and a bit fun if instead of just taking a nostalgic or formal approach I would just… share a few secrets. Hope that sounds good.
So, here it goes. The first secret.
Well… for the first secret I need us to remember just one moment. Think of ourselves some months before starting the MBA or EMBA program. Are you picturing it? More precisely, that moment when we each decided to enter the program. Or if it’s easier, at least for some of you, that moment when you clicked on the transfer confirmation for the down payment?
We were already at that point managers, directors, business owners, we probably all had solid careers, good positions. But we also had one thing in common… we wanted more. We wanted to learn, to develop, to improve, to lead better. Because all of us here, in this room, are curious and ambitious by nature and explorers at heart.
So we climbed the mountains of accounting, finance and macroeconomics, we swam through the blue and red oceans of strategy and marketing, we negotiated our way through the tight passes of HR and operations and we travelled across the borders of management and digitalization.
And all those travels lead us to another moment I want us to remember now, the one when we presented our dissertation and everyone congratulated us and told us … great job, you’re finally done. You did it. You finished. Congrats. You’re done.
Well, here comes the first secret of the day. We’re NOT done ladies and gentlemen. We’ve only just started. We’re the same explorers, now with a GPS and a satellite instead of a magnetic compass and a paper map. We’re not done, we’re only starting to shape the world around with everything that we learned here in Asebuss.
I still have two more. So, the second one… the second secret I plan on telling you today.
This is a real fun one because it’s more of a Polichinelle’s secret. That kind of secret that sits in the open for anyone to see. So, yes, basically, it’s a one that all of you know, yet here it goes.
The secret is: We’ve learned during our EMBA that you can answer any question in two simple words [it depends].
IT DEPENDS. Very easy. Anybody can say it.
Do we invest or divest? It depends. Do we go for product superiority or invest in advertising? It depends. Why do you need an MBA or an EMBA for that really?
Well… because there’s a difference. Yes, there is a real difference between the moment we started this program and the moment we finished. And that difference is that we put our hearts and souls and our knowledge and experience on the table when we joined Asebuss. And during the two years of the program we’ve been guided by these great teachers and their incredible arsenal of books and study cases and exercises into crystalizing all that knowledge and experience. We’ve been sometimes even pushed into putting them together. And we ended up polishing all that wisdom and information into one of a kind lens that allows us to have the birds-eye-view in any business, but also have the knowledge to know where and how to look with a razor sharp microscopic view when things are not going as planned. We have a perfect image of any long term goal but also understand the intricate details. We know where and how to look at any topic. We know on what IT DEPENDS. And that makes the people in this room and the many alumni before us into some of our industry’s finest.
So… I said three secrets right? One more to go. And in that line, what if I told you that during all your MBA or Executive MBA classes, we also graduated with an A in general relativity? Einstein would be proud of us all.
Because I can definitely tell you, each and everyone of us proved to her or himself time can be very relative. Myself, I remember time compressing during the nights of decision making during our games in accounting or marketing and expanding infinitely as we were solving problems for statistics (or finance). I remember being able to read over a hundred pages in one night, sometimes while also replying to work emails and still eagerly awaiting for the next day to come so that I could meet my MBA team. And not once did we not have the time to finish.
So I guess, what I’m trying to say, my third secret is that beyond business school, EMBA taught me and all of us that if you want something, if you really set your mind to it, you can find the time to do it.
So that also means we can find the time to dedicate to our next big project but also find those 5 minutes to call our parents, we can find the time to think what product to launch next but also play with our kids or pets when we get home, we can find time to text our loved ones during work or surprise them when they least expect it. Especially now, when, you know… we don’t have to spend hours doing homework.
Those were the three things I really wanted to tell you. But… I have to stay close to my true nature as a pure marketeer and offer you a promotion. So, it’s sort of 3+1 today. And the final secret comes right from the US, from a person whom I admire since the first day I saw his presentation, professor Ken Harmon, who besides all the business-related topics taught us the power that two simple words can have in our lives – saying thank you. What I can tell you is that I tried it and the secret is… it works. So I urge you to use that newly found time to practice the same thing and say thank you from the bottom of your hearts to all the amazing people I’m sure you have around you daily.
Finally, please allow me to perform a big Ken Harmon routine on everyone here and give my warmest and most sincere thank you to
– the amazing professors from Kennesaw State
– the formidable professors from ASEBUSS
– the great ASEBUSS and Kennesaw staff
– and of course, to all of you, my friends, ASEBUSS alumni, which make me feel so proud of being part of this community.
Thank you everyone!
