Who am I and why AMBS MBA?

I’m Kevin Miao, Chinese Name as Zhiqiang MIAO. It has been a great honor and fantastic life journey being with Manchester Business School for around three years. I have been planning to pursue a Global MBA degree since the 3rd year of the graduation from my Bachelor’s degree of Industrial Trade Engineering, however, it took me a quite a long time to find one globally well-recognized program while I could continue my work in professional development. I’ve moved around several largest metropolitan cities of China including Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai etc. where I took splendid adventures in several global Fortune 500 listed multinational companies such as Panasonic, Philips, GE, Nokia and Qualcomm etc. These companies all focus on the new and high technology product developments and innovations to connect people and improve the people’s life quality. I have been working in Supply Chain Management, Sourcing, Operations Management, Program Management and Product Management related roles for more than 15 years. I also have the experience to establish and manage company level product business portfolios when I worked for China based mobile phone maker G’Five which designs, manufactures and sells mobile products to India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, Latin America etc. global markets.

During my professional career, an important dilemma question often came upon to me:  As a professional manager, how to make most appropriate but logic and valuable decision under some certain circumstances with limited resources and big pressures. The thinking is deep and lasts long time, however, I could not find a good and comprehensive answer until I decided to study one MBA. The essences of the real world commercial world are people, resources and value. All three items can be utilized via the most efficient and effective way of thinking and solid execution. AMBS’s philosophy is to provide the “Original Thinking” to students which fascinated me a lot. Personally, I love the sports and soccer game, I like the Manchester United team a lot as a football fan. I love the great depth and professionalism of UK higher education, I love the case based study method and enjoy one of the largest alumni network globally, I cannot name out all the reasons, but apparently as a result, I made the final and wise decision to take the MBA study in AMBS.

Picture 1: In Main Entrance of the University of Manchester, April 2016

An AMBS Experience – Fun or Pains?

Time really flies! You may not realize that you have spent around three years with so many sleepless nights and restless weekends for catching up the deadlines of assignments, frequently reading 300-400 pages above thick books, several hundreds of literatures, references etc. written by world class economists and professors in pure English ever since you start the journey. While looking back every moment of this fantastic journey, I will feel so privileged and proud that I ever studied, fought, challenged and had so much fun with such amazing cohorts and professors from UK and all around the world. It is a perfect life experience accelerator which combines fun and pains. As a result, the great joy of being fruitful and confidence of tomorrow will be the dominating feeling after this journey.

The teaching and study method—Manchester Method—is very unique and practical method in AMBS, not only because its dynamic and innovative methods of knowledge delivery and acquisition which including the face to face on-class workshop, the study in different global centers (WITC), utilization of most advanced learning technologies, the best teaching staff and professors and competitive cohorts, but also it provides a disruptive way of challenging the real-world puzzles and problems and providing solid and executable solutions which never just stops in the book and papers. That’s why so many classmates started their own businesses once completing their MBAs.

I personally found the Business Simulation program and Game Theory courses very interesting and meaningful in real commercial world. I also enjoyed a lot in the Entrepreneurship & Innovations Management and Negotiation Skills courses through many practical projects and team activities. The professors from UK, Ireland and Spain etc. delivered a perfect experience of MBA study.

Yes, it is very true sometimes you will feel a lot of pains while you’re taking the MBA journey and trying to find any way to accomplish the assignments before deadlines. This means that you have to scarify a lot of personal, professional and family time and only focus on literatures, numbers, papers and assignments. Sometimes you have to give up the vacation plans or skip the school parental meetings for your kids. Professionally I was very busy working as a senior program manager for mobile phone chipset programs since I started my MBA study and I have passed through a tough period to balance both work and study. Fortunately, I have been lucky enough to have a considerate wife and family as well as a nice employer. The tried best to provide the conveniences to me so that I could pass through the peak times of study efforts. My daughter knows I’m busy and she forced herself not interrupt me too much during my study either at home or school. I appreciate it so much for their support in the past several years. Without their strong support, I would not possibly have achieved the final success of MBA study. This journey does contain some pains but it will be very worthy in long run. My daughter is deeply encouraged by my MBA study and she now also has a MBA dream in her young age. I also made much bigger contributions to company business.

The Final Project is a wonderful team work experience with world class instructor in both academic and industrial side. We targeted our research in the knowledge management area and their value and impact on company talents retention.  It was a big success and great fun of half year’s team efforts and seamless cooperation.

Offline I’ve actively participated many school-organized or sponsored activities through which I really understood how we play as a team and enjoy the honors which we contributed. The 6th Annual Asia Pacific Business School 70 KM Teng-Ge-Li Desert Challenge in May 2017 was one of the great successes, we have achieved historically best performance for AMBS as No.1 among foreign universities and overall ranked 18th out of 81 universities. As a result, we won the highest award of the challenge competition – Sandgull Award Trophy! We also celebrated this great success with AMBS school and alumni. In same year, I also participated in the well-known charity Egg-Walkathon 50KM competition for AMBS School in Shanghai and successfully prompted our school’s image as good citizen in China.

Picture 2: Asia Business Schools 70KM Desert Challenge, Inner Mongolia, China 2017

AMBS MBA Changes Me

Professionally, during the MBA study, I have been working for the world largest mobile chipset designer – Qualcomm and taking leadership of several strategic initiatives which include Qualcomm Tablet business and Qualcomm Global Pass (QGP) programs as the program owner in China. I have worked with the global team to commercialize the QGP product offerings with world top tier OEMs to North America market and top tier wireless network operator. The MBA weapons me a lot on the toolkits and mind-sets how to manage the complex and start-up business within the world-class company. I also got high payback with exceptional-case promotion even in the difficult year of company in 2015. I successfully managed the multi-tasking within the short period and pushed myself a lot and improved work efficiencies dramatically. My program management roles have been expanded again in end of 2016 for Mobile Internet and Gaming section business cooperation with global tier one providers.

Through studying the Ethics and Corporate Governance, I clearly understand now the vital important responsibilities on shoulders of our professional managers. We have enough reason to act proactively and behave as role models to prompt much healthier world business environment.

The MBA study in AMBS transformed me into a professional with much more boldness, systematic way of thinking and confidence in further professional development. In 2017, I made a big decision to challenge myself further in new knowledge areas of product design, graphics and Internet of Things. I’m very confident about the future.

Picture 3: In Negotiation Skills Workshop, Manchester Main Campus, 2016

Why Should You Consider an AMBS MBA?

As mentioned in the beginning, Alliance Manchester Business School is part of the University of Manchester, one of the UK’s original 'redbrick' universities with a proud history, including 25 Nobel Prize winners among its legacy. The degree wins all of triple international accreditations (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS) which ensures the world class quality. According to latest Financial Time MBA ranking, it ranks the Top 30 Best MBA Degrees globally. It owns one of the largest alumni networking with over 24,000 alumni based in 130 countries worldwide which absolutely is very helpful to future career development.

The AMBS candidates normally own around 10 years successful and professional work experience in world reputable companies and different sectors of industry which all prospective MBA students can learn from each other. AMBS MBA offers a world-class view of business operations and management methodologies; The program also offers the career development services and job searches which help the fresh graduates to find a new job soon. The program provides well combined delivery method including online tutorials, discussion forums, workshops and WITC options which make the study very flexible and a lot of fun.

A better world will be built by us, let’s work together and make it happen.

February 2018

In Montréal, Canada