Statement of Fabian Leistikow

"After completing my training to become a lawyer, I was lucky enough to find just the sort of job I was looking for. Nonetheless, I soon realised that the type of career open to me was going to be closely linked to the decision whether I wanted to specialise in my area or take a more interdisciplinary path. In concrete terms, this meant either continuing to work in the area of labour law or shifting my focus to HRM.
The MBA programme at the Berlin School of Economics (FHW) promised to give me precisely the kind of expertise needed to work in international HR and the set of skills to decipher and steer internal corporate processes. I will never forget the discussions we had in class - when a group comprising doctors, economists, lawyers, engineers, literary scholars, biochemists and agricultural scientists comes together and jointly tackles a business issue, they can develop some quite astounding ideas!
The partnership with the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge was another interesting aspect of the programme. This was not simply about speaking English, but being taught in English by Professors from a different cultural background - an extremely enriching experience! Interestingly enough, even within the same subject areas, the British and German approaches to problem solving strategies at work resulted in quite different solutions. And anyone looking for a career in an international environment, as I was, will find these process lead to absolutely invaluable insights.

The new impetus I was hoping for in my career actually came during the course of my MBA studies. Changing to an international research institute based in Grenoble allowed me combine both labour law and HR in one job and apply my newly acquired skills in international management. "

Fabian Leistikow, MBA
2004 Graduate
Head of Recruitment and Integration