Bence Balogh

Here at MaastrichtMBA, we love our alumni and enjoy staying in touch. We recently spoke with alumnus Bence Balogh; we recalled his time at MaastrichtMBAs On-Campus track and discussed his current life.

FAST FACTS

  • Name: Bence Balogh
  • Started: February 2018
  • Graduated: March 2021
  • Nationality: Hungarian
  • Company: Mosa Meat
  • Function: Procurement Manager

HI BENCE, WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO DO AN MBA?

From a younger age, I wanted to be a leader, a manager. Not just any, but the best in the field who constantly moves ahead, who becomes the next Elon Musk. With my previous degree, I was happy with my career progress. However, at some point I started to feel stuck, I felt my thoughts and ideas were becoming dull and lacking the spark to take me further on my road to becoming the leader I so aspired to be. I started to feel bored in my career, and I felt I needed stimulation that I wouldn’t be able to get at my professional environment at the time. I was also terrified of the thought of getting stuck. Therefore, I decided to take initiative and started studying again, after a 6 year long break.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE THE ON-CAMPUS TRACK AT MAASTRICHTMBA?

At the time, these thoughts ripened in me. I was living in Maastricht and naturally – out of pragmatism – my first idea was to find a programme that was close and that I could pair with my professional and personal engagements. However, as I started weighing different options in different places in the Netherlands, Germany and Hungary, I realised, that the format MaastrichtMBA offered was unique. Most importantly, the Leadership Development Trajectory, the modular approach and the family-like community, one instantly became a part of during these on-campus modules made me choose this special MBA programme after all.

HOW HAVE YOU PROFITED?

First of all, the MBA saved me from becoming a terrible leader. In fact, – as embarrassing as it sounds – before the programme, my ideas of leadership were all focused around me, myself and I. Leadership was all about elevating myself, however during the Leadership Development Trajectory, and the many experiences gathered along the programme, I came to realise, experienced and practiced what good leadership is really about: empowering others and serving our followers. And through these actions finally making ourselves totally redundant as leaders, because in the end if we are truly focused on empowering and serving there will be nothing else we can give to our followers.

 

Besides leadership experiences my most important takeaways are the unbelievably rich conversations and experiences I had with my fellow students, during walks in the forest, lunches, hiking in Cape Town and of course our Thirsty Thursday’s.

 

Overall, the MBA gave me a very all-around experience, by helping me realise how much there is still to learn and how I could get out of my silo-thinking approach to see the world through the eyes of a beginner, who sees many possibilities.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING AN EXECUTIVE MBA AT THE MAASTRICHTMBA?

Try the Class Experience, talk to current students or alumni about the aspects you hold important and make yourself open to other aspects that they might explain to you too.

WHAT SHOULD APPLICANTS THINK ABOUT WHEN DECIDING TO DO AN MBA?

An MBA takes time and sometimes it is a challenging endeavor. Are you ready to face your blind-spots and realise how much you don’t know?

HOW DO EMPLOYERS BENEFIT FROM EMPLOYEES WITH AN MBA DEGREE?

The employers not only benefit from employees, who already have an MBA degree, but they also do benefit from employees who are only enrolled in an MBA programme already! By being in the programme, you are already thinking about old problems in new ways, you experience other aspects and you are refreshed in your old habits. Maybe you even change some. The MBA degree is only the cherry on top.

WHAT STANDS OUT FROM YOUR MAASTRICHTMBA EXPERIENCE?

  • The Leadership Development Trajectory – all in all.
  • The Leading Strategic Change module in Orshof.
  • The friends I had the honour to share this MBA experience with during and hopefully, after the programme.
  • The experts, teachers, content, modules and projects I got to meet and work with.
  • The creative process I had to walk through to finish my Business Consulting Project (BCP).

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST ENJOYABLE PART OF THE MAASTRICHT MBA PROGRAMME?

The week at Orshof, also known as the Leading Strategic Change module, experiencing change in the most unique way possible – trust me, there is nothing quite like that in any other MBA programme.

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