Kim Pho

Why did you choose to pursue your EMBA in Digital Transformation at DeGroote?

I have always wanted to pursue post-graduation education and never felt like I had the time.  When the pandemic occurred, I took advantage of being stuck at home and signed up for an EMBA.  I chose McMaster for its high academic reputation! I chose Digital Transformation because it’s timely and relevant as there is an urgent need for organizations to adapt to the current digital world.

Looking back at your experience, what were the top 3 highlights of the program from your perspective?

People:

1. Invaluable learning from my colleagues. They are an inspiring group of individuals from different backgrounds and different industries. I was able to learn from them and develop new, meaningful, and lifelong friendships
2. Amazing top-notch Faculty: I was impressed with the knowledge shared by the staff, professors, instructors, lecturers, and guest speakers.

Capstone projects:

1. I learned how to put together a go to market plan for a start-up company for our mini capstone. I learned so much in the process. That was an invaluable experience.
2. Working on our capstone project was both challenging and rewarding. Finding the right problem statement was much more difficult than I thought it would be. Throughout the process, we discovered that what our clients thought was the issue they needed to solve turned out to be something else. It was so satisfying to be able to present a solid proposal to address our client’s problem.

Ability to apply digital transformation learnings to my role:

1. I was able to apply my MBA learnings immediately. We were in the middle of the COVID pandemic, and my company was about to launch a new therapy indication for a drug in a traditional launch method. The pandemic forced us to pivot quickly to launch virtually.  My learnings helped me tease out what our company really needed to excel in to compete in the new normal. I learned that we need to revisit customers’ needs and their NEW pain points during and post pandemic to adapt and come up with NEW pain relievers.
2. The program has also enhanced my ability to stay ahead of our competitors as technology and innovation go hand in hand. By improving technology, we also improve processes which saves time and enhances efficiency. Of course, technology provides better connections to customers and allows me to be more responsive to their needs which is very important in my business.

How has the DeGroote EMBA prepared you as a leader?

The program allowed me to gain a lot of knowledge related to digital transformation and I was able to apply my learnings on day one to help my team navigate virtual customer engagement throughout the pandemic. The program has allowed me to understand my analytic colleagues better and the work they do in their department.  I can ask more insightful questions when it comes to data and what data I need to make the right decision. When it comes to business planning, the learnings on innovation and design thinking really helped me tease out our customers’ pain points in the future of work. What I apply every day is the leadership skills that I’ve gained. I continue to work on improving my own leadership capabilities so that I can better support my team to develop and grow to be successful.

As a graduate of the program, how has the DeGroote EMBA impacted your career?

As I did my EMBA later in my career, the program has allowed me to be relevant and ahead of the industry. The program and my colleagues have inspired me with new ideas, concepts, and innovations from other industries which I can now utilize and share with others. I often become excited about what I learned and immediately shared with our cross functional teams. Now, I have more brainstorm sessions with my own direct reports. I started Walk/Talk meetings where we “blue sky” new ideas with colleagues or by myself, I called it “my Blue Ocean time”.

After my EMBA, I moved from Sales to a Marketing role as part of a Switch Job Program. My learnings from the EMBA have helped me tremendously and I am enjoying my new role. I am very excited as Marketing will round out my experience and allow me to consider other roles in my organization.