Kasper

Why did I choose my programme (and CBS)?
Since high school, I have been interested in business operations, especially transportation and warehousing. Actually, my final assignment in high school was about logistic efficiency. I enjoy when people, processes and systems are working holistically together which made supply chain management the obvious choice for me. It is also cool to see how important it is in the real world with all the supply chain challenges that companies are facing: problems that are just waiting to be solved.

What do I like the best?
What I like best with the Supply Chain Management programme was the new perspective that was present. Studying HA Almen, I had the feeling that every course saw things from their own siloed views. However, supply chain management is about zooming out to get a broader overview. In other words, you learn about different aspects to help supply chains serve the end customers whether it is quantitative decision support or managing relationships. Personally, I do not believe that any other programme has such a broad viewpoint.

How do I experience the difference in academic level between my bachelor and master programme?
There was a lot more freedom. For example, there were less lectures every week and usually only one exam for every course. However, this freedom meant that you were in charge of keeping track of the curriculum and being ready for the exams. There was not the same guiding hand compared to my bachelor’s programme. The reading was also heavier with more literary articles. All in all, you are expected to know different things about studying from your bachelor's degree.

What are the biggest challenges in my study programme?
There is a lot of reading every week, and I have difficulties remembering the content if I only read it once. This meant that I needed to spend all my time reading every week. My solution was a good study group, and by good I mean a well-functioning study group. Two friends and I shared all the reading and presented what we had read to each other every week. Consequently, I only had to read and write notes to one third of the curriculum. The two other thirds were delivered to me by my study group.

What would I have liked to have known before starting my programme?
In retrospect, I would have liked to know the full curriculum before the courses began. There is a lot to read if you want to keep up, and my study group and I were always a week behind, sometimes two weeks. I guess I am just the planning type of guy. I like to come prepared as much as possible. The techniques I developed during my two years would have been helpful in the beginning. For example, I developed a Gantt-chart for every article and chapter for each course with deadline and responsibilities. A cool tool for my study group and me.

What do I want to do after finishing my programme?
After my thesis is submitted and defended, I am starting as a consultant at Deloitte Consulting in the Supply Chain & Network Operations offering in August. Here, I will continue to work with companies to optimise how people, processes and systems work together. I am also inspired to spread the word of supply chain management as an alumnus. Maybe, I will teach supply chain management at CBS as an external lecturer. Who knows? But I will keep working with supply chain management for sure.

If I could give myself a piece of advice, before starting it would be…
Studying is so much more than getting good grades. If you only think about grades, you forget to have fun and learn. This is of course a personal opinion. For example, I had a blast writing a consultant-like exam about making a glühwein market in Germany logistically efficient during Covid-19, but I received an average grade in the end. However, this did not throw me off course because I remembered the fun of the challenge.