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OCTOBER 2003 MBA JOURNAL: INTRODUCTION Maxim Mironov: Who I Am, and Why B-School Is for Me "There are two ways to start a new company: have a brilliant idea or know a person with one. Hopefully, my time at Sloan will introduce me to the latter. I want to drink beer and eat pizzas with the rising stars of high tech." My name is Maxim Mironov, and I'm starting MIT Sloan's MBA program in the autumn of 2003. I'm eager to share my story because I want to inspire people to think of an MBA as a way to reinvent themselves, and to have a lot of fun. By my 26th birthday, I had married the best girl in the world, Olena, adopted a cat, and become a manager at a "Big Five" consulting firm. I am full of energy and ideas, and I have high aspirations. Looking back at my youth it's clear that I was a hyperactive kid: I played chess, violin, and tennis, attend karate club and took a lot of extra-classes at school. What was the rush? At my high school graduation party, I was asked who I wanted to be in ten years. I answered that I would be a "Big Person." Every time I recall this moment with a smile. It was naïve, but look, I have accomplishments to be proud of. I was born in Cheliabinsk, a city of more than a million people in the middle of Russia, on the border between Europe and Asia. Both my parents were engineers. If I studied well, I had a chance to follow their path. I didn't think of other options. I suppose that my greatest talent is to be in the right place in the right time. Thanks to a recommendation of my chess trainer, I was accepted at the best school in the city. I took classes with extremely bright and talented classmates. It was a great challenge to be at least as good as they were. In high school, my mom got me involved with non-profit work. I liked spending time with people who were passionate about what they were doing. My role at Movement for Nuclear Safety began in IT support and an interpreter role. It turned into more than a six-year commitment. I raised about $70,000 for community development projects, and even managed my own $25,000 project.I chose to continue my studies in Cheliabinsk, at Southern Urals State University, where I got an MS in Chemical Engineering. I learned how to think scientifically and approach problems in a logical way. But, most importantly, I had time to work, travel and have fun. Hippie Becomes a Professional By chance, I saw a job posting that advertised, 'develop your communication skills,' and 'become a management consultant.' That was appealing to me because my non-profit work was very similar to consulting. I had several interviews. The last one was extremely tough, as a number of case interviewers asked me why I thought I should be hired. I answered, "Because I can smile, and thus make good friends." Before we said good-bye to each other, my interviewer noted that if I wanted to work as a consultant I 'should cut my hair and take the earring off.' My hippie years were over. I traded my old shabby jeans for a respectable suit of a conservative color. My job in Moscow with Accenture became another great step forward. I learned how to work 100-hour weeks while remaining socially active. (I slept five or six hours per night -- working hard can not go without having fun - all the while staying affiliated with the non-profit, and advising them on their proposal writing. I maintained this work tempo for six to seven months per year!) Many people compare Accenture with an army, but it was a great place for me. Most of my friends are my ex-Accenture colleagues. At a certain moment, I realized that unless I took on more responsibility, I would stop growing. In 2002, I got a job offer with KPMG Consulting, and found that new challenge for my managerial skills. The most exciting part of my new job was interacting with top management. I had solid experience managing a team and was a competent consultant. Yet, the greatest challenge of being a manager appeared to be finding new opportunities for a client's business and establishing a long term and mutually beneficial partnership. After almost a year of managing projects, I realized that my expertise was limited. I needed more knowledge and new experience in order to widen my horizons. I needed a change. Why not to Become a Captain of Russian Economy? The Russian economy has a long way to go from the Soviet-style to free market, but it is restructuring extremely fast. There is a great hunger for experienced managers ready to take on responsibility at multi-million dollar enterprises. The job market is far from perfect. Owners of companies are not satisfied with the performance of "post-Soviet" directors, many of whom are not able to adapt to a market economy. The need for changes is so great that the ability to learn fast is a more important prerequisite for job candidates than industry experience. The carte blanche for learning that a new manager receives is unbelievable. A certain amount of managerial mistakes are expected and forgiven. If you decided to start a career in industry (with work experience similar to mine) you could easily become a CEO of a $100 million company in five years. I carefully considered this option, but rejected it. My career isn't everything. Following the industry track would have required me to continue working long weeks, exhaustively traveling through Russia, and -- most important -- sacrificing time with my family. Since restructuring an enterprise is an extremely stressful task, it would have been very hard to leave all of the work-related conflicts at my desk, and I would have had a lot of them in an executive position. I believe that it is very important to spend as much time as you can with your family. To tell them every day how much you love and care for them. My willingness to share every moment of my life with my wife became another very important argument for preferring graduate school to a rocket-style career.
BW MALL
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