Jaya Sharma was part of Alliance Manchester Business School's Young Potential Leaders programme (YPL) last year and was the youngest in her class. She shares her experiences being on the YPL programme and her travelling to New York last year...
I’ve nearly finished my MBA (Masters of business administration) and a trip to New York as part of a consultancy project is the perfect way for it to end.
It wasn’t my first time to New York but I was still excited. Before leaving, I designed a detailed plan of where we were going, putting my strategy and operations skills to full use. However, I was not prepared for the minus ten temperatures. Coming from England, I thought I could bear the weather but I actually found myself missing British weather.
We were lucky enough to be staying near Times Square, right in the heart of New York, making it easy for us to go out to all the different surrounding areas. My project is based on the healthcare industry, primarily looking at New York as a market they want to enter. I was learning so much about the healthcare system and listening to industry insiders’ views on how they see healthcare in the US moving forward was intriguing.
We travelled from upper Manhattan through to Brooklyn and Queens, looking at cultures, social behaviours and healthcare systems while taking in the beautiful sights of the concrete jungle. Researching a new industry in a new country is part of the magic of the MBA. It opens up so many opportunities, grows your network and creates great memories.
Going out to New York and talking to industry leaders and potential end users made me realise how important face to face conversations are to really understanding your market and supporting all the data. Sometimes the MBA can be too data-focused, basing everything on stats, NPVs and future growth patterns, when really what you need is a customer view to put all the numbers in perspective.
I came back from New York with a couple days spare to go back to check in with my group, my supervisor and have a couple of job interviews. The end really is coming soon, but the work isn’t over yet. These last couple months have been the best in my MBA life.
Find out more about the Young Potential Leaders page and apply today.