The relevancy of the Questrom Executive MBA program and the fact that it’s deeply rooted in the practical, is one of the benefits to pursuing an EMBA, explains Erwin Vollering, “The EMBA’s use of case studies allows you to quickly draw practical comparisons to real world scenarios,” he says, “Whether it is the decision to launch a new product or enter a new geography, EMBA’s use of theory augmented by practical examples from case studies and class discussions with peers at various levels in many industries immediately opens your eyes to new insights and spot parallels to your day job.”

EMBA has boosted his confidence level in many areas and helped him to shine in areas that he hasn’t before touched upon pre-EMBA. He says, “It has boosted my career in many ways, for one it gave me more self confidence in areas where my previous education and experience was lacking, such as finance.”

Vollering says that the many opportunities to make connections allowed him to truly expand his world perspective, vision, and network. “There are several people that I continue to stay in touch with as all of our careers evolve….” He says that this focus on connection has been an incredibly helpful resource to be able to tap into. He says, “Interacting with classmates in wildly different industries might have been the most value out of the EMBA program for me, as someone who has been in technology my whole professional life, it is eye opening to understand what drives people and companies. Especially as technology is not a goal by itself but always supports another mission, it is key to understand what drives someone in health care and be able to talk that language.”

Because close to half of Vollering’s class was made up of individuals who were born outside the US or had worked outside of the US during several points in their career, the program took on global approach. He explains, “This made for a very global mindset of people who understand different cultures and therefore are more effective in business. A global mindset is imperative to be successful,” he says.

Overall, he says that EMBA has given him the sort of tough love he needed to push his boundaries and take his career to the next level. He candidly explains, “EMBA provides a confrontational, sometimes painful, but very necessary look in the mirror. It does this in the comfort of a learning environment where mistakes have little consequences allowing for a very effective learning environment. EMBA’s leadership curriculum is designed to reveal those weak spots and arm you with tools to improve.”