CJBS Voices

When you first walk into the School, you immediately notice the bright yellow banners. They’re so striking and they’re so yellow. It’s like a bright yellow.

Everything that I’ve experienced at the School has just been in your face. It refuses to go unnoticed. The practical technical skills, the speakers, the equipment that you get here is in your face.

It’s yellow. It’s bright. It’s loud. It’s Cambridge.

When I walked first into the School, I was surprised by the energy of the place, that everybody is so warm and friendly. Classmates– it feels like maybe at some other schools, you might get lots of competition. But here, everybody is genuinely excited for what everyone else is working on, and you can really feel that tangibly the second you get in. There’s just a buzz to the building.

Before I first came here, I had this notion that the faculty members, the staff here, was, in English terms, hoity toity, up there, you know, stiff, not able to move. But I was so wrong.

I don’t feel like I’m just walking into a group of investment bankers or engineers or entrepreneurs, for that matter. But I walk into this group of hyper-achieving individuals who just sit there with almost contagious amounts of curiosity and an eagerness to learn from everyone around them. That’s a very unique experience that I can draw back from Cambridge.

You remember our first day in the Entrepreneurship Centre?

Of course. We had no money but a good idea.

And now we have more than 30 people supporting us, and we are leading a 1 million grant from Innovate UK. So yeah, guys, we came a long way in one year.

And my impression of the business school and Cambridge before I came here was that it wasn’t for me. It was part of the university, and I wasn’t. But I was wrong. I felt like I’d either laugh or cry because I was welcomed with open arms, and they have seen me from the beginning when we were very embryonic right through to now when we are a viable business.

When we first entered accelerator programme in Cambridge Judge Business School, we wanted to reinvent education. And we wanted to use magic to teach science. And they could either say to our idea, it’s a crazy idea, or it’s a very good idea.

Well, luckily, they said, you guys are completely crazy, but we loved the idea and we’re on board with you. The next week, we’re starting the programme.

Every time we get together, I feel energised. It’s incredible being here. Able to step away from our day jobs, from our daily routines, and effectively come into this bubble for a weekend. I think the unique points of the Executive MBA is that it’s not only a place to gain knowledge, but it’s also a place where we’re sharing knowledge. It’s a place where we all want to learn from each other, and we try and make sure we use every hour of that weekend to ensure that happens.

The Cambridge Judge Business School magic to me has been about being exposed to super energised, just a go-getter, motivated classmates that come from such incredibly diverse backgrounds and have such incredibly diverse ways of thinking and doing things. There’s just something about that that creates an air of you can do anything.

Natan and I are both in the MPhil in Management. So it’s been great having another rower in the same course so we can sort of support each other and understand the hard work and sacrifices that go into trying to win a boat race.

I always watched the boat race as a child. And being here, doing the course, I am excited about and still being able to compete at a high level. It’s a pretty unique opportunity.

If it’s true what they say and you’re a reflection of the people you spend the most time with, then I feel incredibly lucky because I spend the majority of the day here with some of the greatest minds in finance, and then I spend my mornings and the evenings at the rowing club with some of the most inspirational and dedicated girls I’ve ever met.

My particular area of interest is really looking at social change, and I think Cambridge Judge Business School is really a perfect place to engage in these conversations because here, we’re not only looking at traditional businesses and traditional business problems but really engaging in very unique and interesting settings, such as refugee camps, such as prisons. And I think that really enables a unique contribution in management academia.

I work in the NGO sector, and I came to the MBA to get a wider set of skills so that I could have more impact. I’m a scientist. I have a PhD.

I have a range of scientific publications. But I felt that the impact I was having was lacking in an additional skillset. Basically, how to run an organisation, how to manage your finances, how to grow your impact is beyond my scientific training. And that’s what I came here to do.

The previous and current collaboration between the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and Cambridge Judge Business School is a reflection of the world that we’re living in today. It’s a reflection of the fact that business as usual is no longer an option, the fact that severe changes are needed in how we interact with each other and how we interact with our planet in order to sustain our basic existence and how we can be innovative in the process.

Our business, POCKit Diagnostics, is transforming the way that stroke patients access treatment by speeding up their diagnosis with a one shot blood test in the ambulance.

When we first walked in the Cambridge Judge Business School in Entrepreneurship Centre, we were scientists. Now this is science from a business perspective.

If we had to thank Cambridge Judge Business School for something, it would be for believing in us from the very start and accelerating our business beyond what we could have imagined back then.

If I were to thank the Cambridge Judge Business School and its partners for anything, it would be for the generous funding of the PhD programme. My current PhD research is focused on health operations and in particular the opioid crisis. Cambridge Judge is one of the few departments across the University that offers funding for a fourth year, and I can see firsthand how valuable this extra time is going to be in helping me become a lot more competitive in the job market.

If I were to thank the School and its partners for anything, it would be giving me the confidence to really go for it with BeeBee wraps. And we know that if everybody who’s brought a BeeBee wrap in the two years we’ve been going uses it for 100 times, then we’ve saved over 7 million pieces of single use plastic hitting the natural world, which is truly transformational.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, or as we say in Ireland, go raibh maith agat.

Asante sana.

Thank you.

Evcharisto poli.

Grazie mille.

Muchas gracias.

Thank you.

Dhanyavaad.

Obrigada.

Thank you, or even better, grazie.

Thank you.

Ndo livhuwa.

Thank you.