Michela Nieddu | MBA Evening
19 December 2022Michela Nieddu, Corporate Relationship Manager in a leading credit institution, chose BBS for its ability to combine strong local roots with an international approach that is open to innovation. Along the way, and thanks also to the Faculty composed of academics, consultants and business people, she found useful insights and practical tools that she was able to apply immediately to her professional environment.
Can you tell us about your career path?
After graduating with a master’s degree in law, I decided to continue my studies by attending the postgraduate school for the legal professions. During those years, I became passionate about business law and in particular corporate law, and I realized that my academic interest needed to be complemented by more practical aspects. After finishing my studies, therefore, I decided to pursue a profession in which I could combine my passion for the legal world with more purely financial aspects of business. I started working for a leading credit institution and from the very beginning I expressed my interest in the corporate world. I therefore began my experience as a consultant and then landed in corporate banking, the sector of the Bank that deals with medium and large enterprises. For about a year now, I have taken on the role of Corporate Relationship Manager.
What made you choose to continue your education with the MBA Evening at BBS?
In 2020, I chose to turn my career around by seeking an educational path that on the one hand would broaden my professional skills, which are mainly legal in nature, and on the other hand would provide me with a widely recognized qualification. BBS is an institution that is rooted in the local area, thus within the context of the corporate realities within which I work – but at the same time it is an environment with an international scope. Finally, the Master’s program is divided into modules that analyze various business areas: from sales management to marketing, administration and control to human resource management. My choice was determined by the fact that nowadays, more and more, the various business tasks are interconnected. Precisely for this reason, I decided to combine my specialization with skills in other corporate functions with the aim of gaining a comprehensive vision.
The Business Plan is a key part of the MBA Part-time (Evening) education. Participants face as a group the challenge of formulating a plan to start a new business, whether it is a start-up or a new division. The work produced by your group was the winner of the last edition of the MBA and was published within the volume Market Strategy & Business Plan. Can you tell us how your idea was born and how it evolved over time to fruition?
An interesting feature of the MBA Part-time (Evening) at BBS is that the teams are randomly drawn: working with engineers, economists and business people was not easy at first. To complicate things further, we decided to measure ourselves against a field that was alien to the professional backgrounds of all of us. Thus began our collaboration with a young entrepreneur from Bologna, dealing with her start-up specializing in silver fiber luxury lingerie. Initially, we focused on analyzing the sector, product and competition, but the most challenging part was undoubtedly getting to hypothesize the different business developments (e-commerce, internalization, etc.) and understand, thanks to the tools provided by the Master’s, which ones were actually viable.
The Master’s program aims to train managers who intend to hold top positions in the company. For this reason, professional growth is at the core of the course. What do you see as the strengths of the Master’s in this regard?
One of the features I have most appreciated about Bologna Business School is the choice of alternating lecturers who come from the academic world with lecturers who come from the management and consulting world. This allows participants to receive a comprehensive learning view that is at the same time practically applicable to their own profession. In my opinion, the frequent testimonials from important personalities from the business world are another strong point.
What did you bring with you to the company after this training experience? What did the Master’s program change in your approach to your profession?
The Master’s program deals with Business Administration as applied to its various aspects, and this has given me the opportunity to acquire a decidedly cross-cutting approach to work. Not only that, if before my vision was focused on my specific field, to date I have transcended these boundaries and gained a broader vision that allows me to better understand the point of view of the entrepreneurs with whom I interact on a daily basis. For example, after completing the “Operations Management” module, visits to companies’ production departments have become active food for thought.
