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Pauline Schellart's OneMBA Class of 2006 Diary

Pauline Schellart is the CEO of St. Kinderopvang Leiderdorp, a Childcare firm based in Leiderdorp, the Netherlands. She is also a participant in the Global Executive OneMBA programme. On 16 June 2006, nearly 21 months after she began the OneMBA programme, Pauline will graduate, entering the next phase of her life. Over the course of the next few weeks, Pauline will detail her highs and lows - giving a little insight into her experiences.

May 26, 2006: Broadening my Horizons

“Why are you in a global MBA programme?”, the Alliances Director of KLM asked me with surprise during an interview last March. I had to smile, because I have been asked this question many times. As the CEO of a day-care company, people are frequently surprised that I would want to study international business. Childcare is not a global service (yet!), but you never know how it will develop or what related services will have the potential to go global. Although I chose to study the OneMBA because of personal interests, I am ambitious and like to broaden my horizons. One thing I have learned during the OneMBA is to be proud of what I am doing.

I was quite nervous walking into the classroom that first day. I expected my new classmates to all have broad business experience and educations. Fortunately, they were quite diverse, which created a very rich learning environment.

Our group of 17 was already highly diverse, and when you included the other 85 global students, the range of backgrounds, industries and personalities was profound. One of the main reasons I decided to study the OneMBA was to study management issues from a strategic point of view. I have learned numerous theoretical frameworks and - even more importantly - how to apply them in practice. For example, I worked on a joint assignment with one of my classmates in his company, a bakery ingredients factory. Childcare and bakeries – they seem like two completely different worlds, but in the end the strategic challenges are the same. By applying the theoretical frameworks in diverse environments and situations, you learn to use them effectively and creatively. And creativity is, in my opinion, very important in a business career.

Along with business knowledge, the main learning experience for me has been more personal: leadership development. The OneMBA emphasises this by requiring each student to create and track a personal development plan throughout the programme. The experience of managing life and school challenges you in ways you would never expect.

First, working in global teams, with people from different backgrounds, living and working in regions all over the world, is a very special experience. It makes you critically think of your own assumptions and habits. Second, you quickly learn to juggle many balls: I have two young kids, Abel and Silke, I work full-time, I moved from Amsterdam to Gouda and my house was reconstructed during the programme. Since I am a bit of a perfectionist, it was a real challenge to deal with all these different worlds and tasks. I had to let some things go, to make delegation an art and to make choices. Not an easy thing for me, but very essential to moving forward in life.