November. It is around 8pm and we are cycling in a typical cold and wet Cambridge evening. Our destination is the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. Our objective is to meet our CVP clients.
We are working on commercialisation of a breakthrough battery technology. Sounds cool, right? Because it is cool. For someone like me, who uses the word “battery” only to indicate that his phone’s battery is dead, doing a project on a novel battery technology is incredible.
Our team has been working on the project with our clients for almost a month now. The CVP was one of the reasons why I chose Cambridge, and as the Michaelmas term advances, I’m even happier that I’ve made the right choice. It is the second month of my MBA, and I’m already working on a real-life project, with four bright people from different parts of the world. I’ve learnt many new skills from my teammates, but most important of all, I feel myself very confident in this multicultural team environment now, which is great, as I only had a little professional experience in a multicultural setting before.
One of the highlights of my MBA so far has been the Management Praxis course. The practical tips that we were taught about creating successful teams from teachers such as Keith Goodall and Matthew Jones were probably among the most important factors that helped me get the most out of the CVP.
We’re finishing our project soon and advise our client a commercialisation strategy. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years I’ll read the success of this new technology in newspapers when I’m in some other part of the world. And I’ll say, “I took part in this success”.
It is around 10 pm and our meeting is over. We go to the lab where our client is working on his technology. I ask if I can take a selfie with the team and our clients. And here it is. One of the most unforgettable moments of my life.
