Rochester-Bern EMBA: Class 30, one journey
With our graduation ceremony this summer, we closed the chapter on 16 transformative months. The EMBA journey brought us together as a class of diverse profiles, backgrounds, and industries, all driven by the goal to understand business from new angles and learn from each other. Looking back, the EMBA has been a game changer for me. As a lawyer by training and a public affairs professional at a pharmaceutical company, I realized that I often lived in my bubble, sometimes without taking economic and commercial aspects sufficiently into consideration. The EMBA was a great opportunity to dive deep into general business administration topics – from valuation, financial accounting, marketing management, and pricing to corporate financial policy and corporate strategy. This helped me better understand the dynamics of operating in a large corporation like the one I am working for, Pfizer.
Our reputable professors in Bern came from Switzerland and abroad, from institutions such as EPFL, IMD, INSEAD, Vlerick Business School, and London Business School. Considering also the full month at Simon Business School, University of Rochester (NY), and the Asia experience in Bangalore, the program had a truly international touch.
Beyond the classic exams, we regularly wrote assignments directly linked to our own companies – a practice-oriented approach that allowed us to apply what we learned immediately and create hands-on benefits for our organizations.
With the program running from February 2024 to June 2025 – a period that also saw the rapid rise of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in both professional and private life – the timing was ideal for a course such as Information Technology & Strategy in Rochester, where we gained early insights into how to make the most of these new opportunities and kept up to speed on AI adoption. We could then put this into practice in the Business Analytics course in Bern, where we explored how AI is making business analytics more accessible for everyone. For example, we trained a prediction model in ChatGPT to forecast loan acceptance based on a dataset about bank customers, including demographics and financial activities. The aim was to identify which factors influenced loan acceptance so that marketing could focus on the most likely customers. The exercise showed how such tools can build prediction models quickly, without requiring specialist skills in computer science, data analysis, or statistics. The key takeaway: this approach works across industries, and AI is democratizing business analytics by putting data-driven decision-making within reach for many.
Of course, the journey came at a cost. Combining the workload of the EMBA with a full-time job meant sacrifices – less free time and less time with loved ones. However, it was worth it. Personally, the learning curve was steep, and I improved in how I set priorities, guided by the motto progress over perfection.
And just like that, it was over. One moment we were still submitting group projects and rushing through the last assignments, and the next we were standing at graduation. Sixteen months were gone in what felt – in retrospect – like a heartbeat. It was intense, yet it left us better equipped for what lies ahead and changed the way we think.
