MBA Abroad: How A Year Of Exploration Helped Me Embark On An Impact-led Career Path

Each year sees new generations of ambitious professionals enroll in MBA programs across the globe. Many seek opportunities to progress in their chosen career paths; others look for personal as well as professional enhancement; and, for some, it’s a chance to take a break and explore their options. 

For Caio Naganawa, exploration was key in his decision to pause his career and enroll in The Lisbon MBA program in Portugal. He felt enrolling in an MBA would not only help him expand his knowledge but also provide space to undertake a new experience in a different environment. 

“It was one year of being content with questioning myself,” he explains. 

Choosing to study an MBA abroad 

From São Paulo, Brazil, Caio earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering at a local university before spending the early years of his career working across a variety of roles located in and around Brazil’s most populous city.

Despite graduating in a technical field, after completing his undergraduate degree, Caio’s career shifted into the realm of business. He landed a role as a consultant with Peers Consulting and Technology, and after two years he began feeling the need to upskill himself in business and leadership. 

Never having lived outside São Paulo, Caio felt an MBA would also provide a perfect opportunity to experience life beyond the environment he knew. 

“There was a lot of motivation to be in contact with different kinds of cultures, different kinds of people,” he says. “It was interesting for me to learn a lot not only inside the classroom, but also with my peers.” 

He therefore searched for business schools abroad, eventually choosing Portugal—a country where he’d enjoyed vacations in the past and which offered the benefits of a similar language, a warm climate, and a welcoming environment. 

“I decided to choose a program where I knew that I could live in that country,” he adds. 

As Portugal’s top-ranked MBA program, and one that boasts global study experiences and a diverse, practice-based curriculum, Caio felt The Lisbon MBA International would offer the ideal environment to explore. 

Upskilling in a global MBA program 

With a key objective of developing his business understanding, Caio relished the opportunity to cover a variety of topics during the initial core period of The Lisbon MBA International, where students learn about subjects ranging from marketing to organizational management to accounting. 

Throughout the theoretical learning period, Caio was struck by the quality of the teaching environment. “It's an amazing program, considering the small classroom, the number of students, and the teachers and professors who are very good,” he explains.  

With an action learning component as one of the core principles of The Lisbon MBA International, Caio and his fellow classmates were also able to experience a range of practical learning opportunities. Team-based consulting challenges required him to apply his problem-solving skills to business issues. Other challenges focused on aspects such as communication, entrepreneurship, and innovation. 

Each week brought new guest lectures from speakers hailing from a variety of industries and countries. Caio even had the opportunity to learn about leadership during sessions with the Portuguese Marine Corps. 

Perhaps the most impactful period of the program, he explains, came during the immersion period with the school’s partner, MIT Sloan School of Management. This provided students with a one-month opportunity to spend time in Boston, learning from the school’s faculty and developing skills in areas such as entrepreneurship and innovation. 

“MIT has an amazing ecosystem of entrepreneurs, and there’s lots of innovation there, it was super interesting,” Caio adds. 

Embarking on an impact-led career path

The array of practical and group-based learning opportunities featured within The Lisbon MBA International curriculum helped Caio develop his ability to work in a team and solve complex business problems, vital skills when preparing for life after graduation. 

“Having group projects with people from different cultures, peers from different backgrounds, helped me learn new ways to solve problems,” he says. 

He was able to continue his development in these areas toward the end of the program when he embarked on an MBA summer internship with the Portuguese branch of the Spanish multinational bank, BBVA. 

Later, as he approached the end of his studies, Caio began planning for the next stage in his career after graduation and felt drawn to return home to Brazil. 

Initially, he returned to Peers Consulting, where he took on an enhanced leadership position, however when an opportunity came to join his parents’ business in a director role he leapt at the chance to use his new knowledge and skills to make an impact for his family.  

“My parents have a lot of knowledge and experience in this industry, but they don’t have the same energy they had 20 years ago,” he says. “Not only am I bringing the knowledge and frameworks I learned on the MBA, but also my energy.” 

Now operating as strategy and finance director, Caio’s main responsibilities include developing innovative commercial and marketing strategies to drive the growth of the company, and working with various stakeholders to implement them. 

Operating within a smaller, family-run business, he is able to see the impact of his work each day as he interacts with employees at all levels of the company. He feels the MBA was essential in preparing him for the role. 

“The experience was not only amazing for me to develop my career and business knowledge, but also amazing for my personal development,” he says. “Day by day I see the return on the investment for myself.”