shipping and logistics

CBS Insider: Blue MBA

No one is better qualified to give us the inside track on the Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics (AKA: The Blue MBA) than its founding programme director, Irene Rosberg. In this exclusive blog, she outlines the course and explains how it can prepare you for an exciting career in a rapidly evolving industry.

To use an aquatic analogy, the shipping and logistics industry is like a river, not a pond. It’s fast moving and ever-changing, and that’s what makes it such a fascinating sector to work in. Today’s leaders need to grasp so many new skillsets such as digitalisation, sustainability, marketing and IT if they are to thrive, and that’s exactly what we set out to do in this course, which has been established since 2001.

Designed for mid- and senior-level management as well as financiers, lawyers, equipment manufacturers and executives in related sectors, the course has a unique dynamic that helps to make it the best in the world. Once it was enough to be a former practitioner – a seafarer, for example – and work your way up the career ladder with a narrow skillset, but no longer. Today you need a broader worldview and a much deeper knowledge of different aspects of the whole maritime sphere; we deliver a holistic learning experience that incorporates a better understanding of all its constituent parts.

After all, this is probably the only sector to be affected by such a wide set of influences, such as natural disasters or the environment, to the fluctuations of the oil industry, and more recently to the Covid-19 emergency that has posed huge challenges throughout the industry.

Shipping has been called “the invisible industry” because it helps deliver 90% of food, clothing and fuel to wholesalers, processors and retailers, without any evidence of its involvement in the eyes of the public. Our candidates play a critical part in facilitating its efficiency and indeed survival. They are responsible for a sector where a single ship and its cargo can have a physical value of up to $2bn – and the complexities run through the supply chain.

We’ll teach you how to read the market, understand these drivers and to make informed, smart decisions. We’re proud to say that our graduates have led thorough-going, beneficial changes in the industry, occupying top positions in leading companies.

The student body is hand-picked to create an unrivalled learning dynamic in the classroom, where every single market segment and many nationalities (20+ in our current cohort) are represented. In addition, the lecturers are the crème de la crème with significant amounts of industry knowledge and experience. You’ll meet with us for eight one-week modules and carry out extensive group-work, and this will enable you to build a trusted network that you’ll draw upon for many years to come.

It’s a challenging and diverse syllabus that encompasses every aspect of the shipping and logistics industry, but each module will be relevant to your own company and you’ll examine and scrutinise real life examples from your own professional area of influence, and from shipping industry practice across the board.

The ISP (or final Integrated Strategy Project) is the part of the course that many of our students find the most rewarding. You’ll be asked to identify an issue of strategic importance from your own workplace and to write an in-depth, comprehensive report that defines a strategy for addressing that issue. It’s something that you’ll complete, coached by two experts, over the last seven months of your programme and will immerse you in your company’s DNA.

At the end of the course, you’ll be encouraged to present your findings to your employer and to deliver a cohesive, cross-examined strategy for improvement. Our experience is that 99% of graduates go on to implement that strategy and to begin a new, fast moving phase of their career. Join us and see where the Blue MBA takes you.