Glen Schlehuber

Vice-president and managing director, Tiffany & Co. Oceania

The course

Australian Graduate School of Management Executive MBA, University of NSW Business School

The impetus Glen Schlehuber says his motivation to do an MBA was twofold – and it wasn’t about the next big job. He’s been with Tiffany & Co. since starting in the Manhattan head office as a summer accountancy intern in 1993 and saw the MBA experience as a way to explore the world outside the famed jeweller, “not having had the experience of changing companies”.

Equally important for the affable American-born-and-educated executive was building a trusted local peer network in Australia. “Because I’m the head of Australia and New Zealand for Tiffany... I don’t have a peer group of other vice-presidents in the office, whereas if I worked in New York, I’d have the VP of finance, the VP of marketing and so on.” ↓

The impact “The MBA gave me the opportunity to develop an external peer group here in Australia. They’re people I can rely on and talk about business issues with if I need to,” says Schlehuber. “In the final year, the school puts you with 40 people who you remain with for the entire year and you develop some amazing personal friendships.”

The MBA, which he completed in 2013, also beefed up Schlehuber’s understanding of key corners of the Tiffany operation beyond his financial background. “As a leader you don’t need to be an expert in every functional area; that’s why you have a head of marketing,

a head of HR,” he explains. “But you do need to know enough about each area to challenge them at times and the Executive MBA provides an in-depth overview of those important functional areas so that you can have those conversations.” ↓

The juggle “I think it takes more of a toll on your personal life than it does on your work life. I didn’t have a free weekend outside the school holidays for four years. Every weekend was taken up with some sort of assignment or reading. My wife was very supportive – though she was really happy when it was finished, that’s for sure.” ↓

The learning “With an Executive MBA, teamwork is everything. You’re constantly doing teambased assignments and projects. So at work now I definitely enjoy solving problems as a group, as opposed to just trying to solve a problem myself – also designating a team to solve a problem and having them report back. Five heads are better than one and the good thing about doing it at work is that you can select your team... mostly in the Executive MBA they select it for you!”

THE WISDOM

“WAIT UNTIL YOU’VE BEEN WORKING FOR AT LEAST 10 TO 15 YEARS. THE MORE EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE, THE MORE YOU’RE GOING TO GET OUT OF IT.”