Dr. Boris Blumberg
Dr. Boris Blumberg, Strategic Management Teacher, works as senior lecturer at the department Organization and Strategy and is also your and the school’s MBA captain. Boris holds a PhD in organization sociology from Utrecht University and an MSc in business from Mannheim University in Germany. He has been visiting scholar at the Booth Business School of the University of Chicago and the Haas Business School at the University of California at Berkeley. His research focuses on social networks and entrepreneurship. Moreover he is interested in methodological questions. His research has been published in Organization Studies, Small Business Economics and Journal of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development and he serves on the editorial boards of Organization Research Methods and Journal of Small Business.
A COFFEE AND COOKIE MEETING WITH UMIO’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DR BORIS BLUMBERG
Our MaastrichtMBA programme belongs to the 1% of business schools worldwide that have been granted the Triple Crown status. This internationally renowned accreditation ensures the high quality of our professional approach in academic achievement for a practical business-related outcome. Despite being driven and serious about our task as educators and facilitators, the informal atmosphere we like to offer our students holds equal merit. We value people. We value a personal touch. Hence the coffee and cookie meeting with dr. Boris Blumberg.
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As assistant professor Organization & Strategy, researcher and author, his experience and knowledge regarding entrepreneurship and strategic management fit the MBA programmes like a glove. His last role as MBA director was diverse and working with a small team contributes to the department’s transparency and workability. “Prospects always already have a talk with our admission officers Pia and Chantal,” Boris Blumberg explains. “But they can also have a talk with me, whether in person or via Skype if they don’t live nearby. Of course I would like to get to know our students a little bit better after the first introduction. I’m interested in their motivation, why they decided for the MaastrichtMBA, like how will it fit into their career plans, or what their expectations for our programme are. I always assume they have read all the information available in our brochure and on our website. So what I then try to explain to them in our talk, is the philosophy behind our programme.”
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One of the pillars is focus on leadership. “The reason why is because it’s an executive MBA programme. The average of our students have eleven to twelve years of work experience, so the people in the programme are what I would call mid career professionals. They have made the first steps in their career, or have experienced their first promotion. Average age is 37, so they still have a lot ahead of them. They are given room and time for development and what they usually lack or miss despite their bachelor or marketing degree, are sufficient skills that are required for a leadership position. Now we don’t believe that if you start the programme on Monday and finish it by Friday, you will already be a better leader if you return to work the next Monday. The learning is very much a process. We’ve incorporated this leadership development into the whole 2-year programme with different educational weeks.”
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Small scale teaching and Problem-based Learning (PBL) are two other pillars. “We have a different understanding of the role of our teachers,” says Boris Blumberg. “Our students are working professionals and also participants. We encourage them to bring their work experience to the classroom and vice versa, which makes for a new dynamic in work, learning and teaching, or coaching.”
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