Kirsten Pillar, Global MBA Innovation Management: “BBS has allowed me to develop a 360-degree view on the managerial world”
5 July 2019My name is Kirsten Pillar, I come from South Africa and in 2017 I attended the Global MBA in Innovation Management. I have always been a creative and curious person, open to change and interested in progress in every area.In particular, I have always been fascinated by emerging technologies related to the human resource field, and I am interested in understanding how technology could replace human presence in some tasks. I wanted to learn how to manage innovation and how to be a supporter of innovation in the professional environment.
For these reasons, when I decided to change my career in this direction, I had no doubt that the Global MBA Innovation Management was the perfect choice for me.
An MBA in the Country of my dreams, entirely focused on innovation and entirely taught in English: I could not ask for better! Since childhood, I always dreamt of living abroad, and Italy was at the top of my list since I had visited it in 2015. So, when I did a targeted research on training centers within Europe, I got to know BBS thanks to the prestige of its Faculty and its academic programs. The proposed training course has allowed me to develop a 360-degree view of how a company works, an aspect that I believe remains the starting point for undertaking a solid and constantly evolving career.
To all this we add the international context that reigns in the beautiful Villa Guastavillani where BBS is based: I love meeting people from all over the world and with different backgrounds, assimilating new cultures and networking. I was able to find all these aspects during the Global MBA in Innovation Management, which have given enormous added value to the whole experience.
It was a crucial phase for me that allowed me to get to know my limits and aspirations, to work on my strengths and to test myself in the most diverse contexts as a person and as a professional. After the Global course my career has taken a completely new path, which I would not have even hoped for a few months earlier. Three days after the end of the courses, I started a 5-month internship in the Technogym training and development division in the HR team: the leading company in the production of sports and leisure equipment founded in 1983 in Cesena.
The internship was a great experience which opened other doors for me: during January 2019 I joined the Ferretti Group, world leader in the design, construction and marketing of yachts based in Forlì, as an HR Generalist Intern, before being contacted by Massimo Ciociola the CEO and Co-Founder of Musixmatch, based in Bologna, the Music data intelligence company having clients such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. Here, as Talent Acquisition Manager for the company, I manage the staff resources, the community, and I am responsible for all talent acquisition.
My stage at BBS was crucial for the professional development of my career: I can only advise all prospective students to undertake their journey with an open mind, and to be curious and hungry for new knowledge. The Global MBA in BBS is a unique opportunity to add decisive pieces within a constantly evolving path, made up of aspirations, networks, contacts, stimuli and challenges.
Kirsten Pillar – South Africa
Global MBA Innovation Management – Class of 2017/2018
