Simon started his career as a mechanical engineer in the automotive business. He worked for a company called Flabeg for a total of 17 years. Step by step, he started to migrate within the group. He was sent to China as a maintenance leader, and after 3 years ended up there as an operations director. Returning to Europe after 5.5 years in China, he worked as an global operations advisor for the company, and later took over a plant manager position in Germany. After two years, he was sent to Hungary. Simon spent six years in Hungary as a managing director for Flabeg in Mátészalka. By this time, he had decided to “put a theory behind what he was already doing,” so he applied for Corvinus’s Executive MBA Program. 

“I wanted to develop my skills and meet people from other industries, so I joined the program,” explained Simon. 

He found the Corvinus Executive MBA’s curriculum very inspiring, especially because at the end of the program he could earn a dual degree. To this day, he has made great use of what he learned about change management, leadership, and dealing with different cultures. 

“I am basically a multicultural guy with multiple origins — my father is half German and half French, and my mother is Dutch. Although I already had some experience working in a multicultural environment, I gained very useful tools in the program for managing people with different backgrounds. I work as a plant director for the Webasto Group in Luxembourg. I have to motivate employees of different nationalities. We have many French and German employees, but have over 20 different nationalities on site including Hungarian employees. So I use every day the skills I gained in the program,” added Simon. 

The program also improved Simon’s leadership skills. He realized that psychological factors play a major role in management. 

“There is always room for improvement. I know, for instance, that I was not good at giving feedback to people. That is because I am usually already projecting myself onto the next step. I had to learn to take the time to celebrate my colleagues’ and my own success as well. Corvinus’s EMBA program helped me a lot to better understand how you can manage the emotions of different personalities,” explained Simon. 

Beyond the skills Simon learned, he gained a valuable network from the program: “I got useful input and feedback from my EMBA peers. Basically, the added value of this program was being part of a very diverse group of people with different origins and backgrounds. I’ve gained a network of contacts for life.”