MBA

Profiles

Alex Roth, MBA 2010

For four years, Alex Roth studied chemistry at Oxford. But instead of following the traditional path to the PhD, Alex took a position with Procter & Gamble where held positions in Finance and Marketing.

"I want to marry science and business in my career," Alex says. "Science can offer breakthroughs, but business is the best way to distribute them to millions of consumers. We see a lot of good ideas fail because they weren't executed successfully — we need leadership that understands how to bring value to the people who can benefit from new ideas."

Open to a deeper understanding

After five years at P&G, Alex says, "I wanted a broader swath of business knowledge than what I could obtain at one company. I also needed time to reflect think about my direction — and to gain exposure to different industries."

"HBS has always been at the top of my list," says Alex. "It's the standard bearer, the place where the case method was conceived. And its reputation is known all over the world. As a European, I want that extra seal of approval to make my MBA pop on my resume."

But HBS has also challenged Alex' expectations. "I came here thinking I'd learn models and techniques — like a cash-flow analysis. I didn't realize I'd get a structure for thinking about the moral dilemmas in business and leadership. I just finished the Leadership and Corporate Accountability course; in a time when Wall Street is struggling and the business world is not highly respected, I'm glad HBS invests so much time talking about ethics. You can walk through life blind — and then make terrible mistakes. But now I can approach situations with my eyes open — with a deeper understanding of what the issues are. Our education isn't about facts in a textbook, but about something that changes inside of us."

Looking at the world

In one example of a changed perspective, Alex refers to his spring break India IXP. "It was an amazing experience. We did a case today in an entrepreneurship course on an Indian company. Being in India gave me a much more powerful understanding of what the protagonist should do."

It also gave him a many-layered perspective on the meaning of business. "The Harvard name opened a lot of doors in India," says Alex. "But we didn't just sit in boardrooms. We went with micro financiers to tiny villages where we witnessed the night-and-day differences in lifestyle. We got to talk to farmers and ask them how they used the microloans — what it means to invest in another cow, for example."

In his summer internship, Alex will return to London to work on a consulting project with Bain & Company. "Ultimately," he says, "I want to run a business, perhaps by taking an entrepreneurial idea to the next level."