RMIT Vietnam News MBA: promotion, career boost, personal triumph Home ❯ News Chris Ngo, chief operating officer at Café RuNam Nguyen Ngoc Thanh Phuong, Associate Market Manager for Expedia and Pham Ngoc Thach software developer at TRG International RReellaatteedd ssttoorriieess Handing over the keys to global success MIB scholarship winner dreams big First students graduate from Bachelor of Fashion RMIT Vietnam graduates ready for new global market trends Thursday, December 3, 2015 - 14:31 Can a Masters in Business Administration give you a promotion boost or open doors to a better career? Three management employees who just graduated from RMIT Vietnam give their opinions. Chris Ngo is living proof that an MBA can bring promotion and a great future career outlook. Chief operating officer at Café RuNam, she has recently been promoted within RuNam Corporation – coinciding with the week of her MBA graduation. “I will be taking care of reforming the whole root corporation, comprising established brand names including the Ciao Cafe chain of restaurants, the Terrace chain of restaurants, the Fly Cupcake chain, Maxim Club, Nam Vien and Thanh Nien restaurants,” she said. “With the knowledge and connections I have gained from the MBA program as well as my work experience, I am confident in accepting this new role and its responsibilities.” Having completed formal qualifications in hospitality management in Singapore where she worked her way through the management of KFC over five years, Chris worked on the redevelopment of seven Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf stores in Vietnam. She has led the establishment of four additional RuNam Café stores, taking the chain to six stores nationally, and took an MBA so she could understand the theory behind her daily decisions at work. “Now I look at things with a different perspective,” she said. “I wasn’t sure why and how what I was doing worked; the MBA gave me that understanding and forced me out of my comfort zone. It challenged what I knew and exposed me to the latest global issues, management techniques and business practices. “I now use these to help grow the company I run.” Chris says that as an MBA graduate, her opinions and advice to her board of directors, associates and colleagues have been taken much more seriously. “I communicate and analyse problems more professionally because I can consider the deeper dimensions of issues. And I’m able to relate our current business direction to global opportunities or risks limitation and devise strategy accordingly,” she said. From her MBA Chris also now accesses a much larger network of RMIT alumni, a pool of talent to find potential clients, suppliers and partners for her business. But she points out that completing an MBA has not been simply a career move. It’s a personal triumph as well because of the perseverance she needed to complete it. “It’s not just a course – it’s a dream,” she said. “I’ve wanted to do it all my life and I’ve reached it on my own. I feel so proud of myself.” Nguyen Ngoc Thanh Phuong, Associate Market Manager for American online travel booking company Expedia believes an MBA qualification definitely gives you an advantage over other candidates in applying for jobs. “I took it because I wanted to enhance my knowledge to prepare myself for the next level of my job, especially in the area of strategic thinking,” she said. “The Strategy course helped me to comprehensively understand different business strategies that my company is taking and understand how I can contribute to the company's success.” Phuong, whose undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Hotel and Resort Management from Northwood University in Montreux, Switzerland, says the MBA also extended her thinking in areas other than hospitality: finance, entrepreneurism and data research. Pham Ngoc Thach, who works in software development at TRG International, believes the MBA qualification is valuable applied to his current work and will help his future career and career goals. RMIT News - MBA: promotion, career boost, personal triumph ... https://www.rmit.edu.vn/news/mba-promotion-career-boost-pers... 1 of 2 1/4/16, 2:41