My MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School has been a dream-come-true and I still can’t believe I am studying in one of the best business schools in the world!

The first term of my Cambridge MBA is already over, and my learning curve has been exponential thanks to the diversity and the practical nature of the programme.

The Cambridge MBA is a rich environment where I met brilliant people with different professional and cultural backgrounds. I am impressed by the knowledge and the wide range of skills of my colleagues, as you can learn something new even during a 5-minute coffee chat with them.
High collaboration and deep intellectual curiosity are key pillars of my cohort and thanks to the small class size, I also had the opportunity to get to know my colleagues more deeply and build stronger relationships with them.

The Cambridge MBA is also an experiential team-based learning opportunity, as it provides valuable situations to test yourself and to apply theoretical concepts to real situations. During these three months I worked on the Cambridge Venture Project (CVP), and I took part in the Royal Challenge M&A Case Competition.

The Cambridge Venture Project (CVP), which is an eight-week live-project for a UK-based client, was an opportunity to work with an exclusive entrepreneurship community together with my MBA study group. The scope was to analyse the UK entrepreneurial environment and define a growth strategy to successfully attract new clients. It was a pivotal experience because I could get out from my comfort zone and work with outstanding teammates in a sector, which was completely new to me. I was impressed not only by the curiosity and the humility of my MBA study group but also by the amount of effort we were able to put in, given that the CVP project was also done alongside and simultaneously all the core eight courses of the Michaelmas Term at Cambridge. Finally, this project was a way to better know the personal attitudes of my teammates and to have fun too.

The Royal Challenge M&A Case Competition is an international event where candidates from top universities globally form their own team, choose a target company, build financial models and pitch to experts. Four of us formed a team and we placed 3rd out of 100 teams from over 70 of the best universities in the world. We had the pleasure to present our leveraged buyout proposal to fellow members of the competition and judges from Blackstone, CVC Capital Partners, Partners Group and Verdier at Cambridge Judge Business School. The competition was fierce, and I had the opportunity to gain strategic insights about private equity and to learn from my brilliant colleagues.

Finally, being part of an inclusive community, like Cambridge, has made this MBA term simply amazing! I took part in many different social activities and events, and I joined the football team of my college!!

The main takeaway from this term has been: “Never stop challenging yourself and get the most out of this incredible experience”

I am looking forward to seeing where this MBA adventure leads.

Daniele Blanco can be contacted on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniele–blanco/

To see the diversity of the Class of 2022-23 visit our Class profile pages here >