Alumni Hiring Alumni: Recruiting in the MBA Network

Dushan, you are CEO & President of the Management Board of Replek. In which market are you active, which products do you offer?

We operate in many countries: Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Ghana.

The products we offer are 200 generic pharmaceutical products in various forms like liquid (syrups and solutions), semiliquid (ointment and creams), solid (tablets and capsules) and powder (granules).
 

Who is your target group? What kind of company should approach you?

Our target group are pharmaceutical wholesalers/distributors.
 

What are the benefits for your customer?

The benefits for our customer are receiving high quality products with added value and competitive advantage. Unlike other generic pharma manufacturers, we at Replek offer products that do not address illness but prevent it, we do not address patients but consumers, and we do not offer health but we embrace wellbeing.
 

Dushan, you and Panche are both MBA alumni of the WU Executive Academy. What made you hire an MBA colleague?

I had the opportunity to meet Panche during the program and had the honor to get to know him during several courses while also working together on some projects. This gave me the chance to realize his qualities, mindset, and values, which in my opinion stood out from the rest and were in line with what I was looking for at our company. The fact that he made it to the WU Executive Academy and went through the same program encouraged me additionally.
 

Is there a reason why you start searching within the alumni network of the WU Executive Club, instead of directly recruiting via an executive search agency?

For such key positions as the one Panche holds, I prefer to get people on board who I personally feel a connection with and share an aligned point of view in terms of future strategy, planning and development. Panche’s case is a great example of this.
 

In what way, do you think, is an MBA graduate/student of the WU Executive Academy different from any other candidate out there on the job market?

The admission criteria and recruitment selection are of high standard. The people who you interact with during the program all carefully chosen, well diversified and contribute to a great manner. WU Executive Academy’s staff and professors challenge the students and bring hands on experience to the courses. The curriculum is very well designed in giving you the right amount of knowledge and experience to be able to lead, make decisions and plan. It is a benefit and competitive advantage, which not too many candidates possess and most important it is tangible, since you can really feel the difference in terms of output and results.
 

Panche, why did you join your former MBA colleague’s company? Any particular reasons why you prefer to work with a colleague than with any other company?

One can always recognize a fellow WU Executive Academy graduate in their open-mindedness and progressive thinking, as well as propensity towards strategic analysis and organizational improvement, these were some of the key attributes that I found appealing in both, Replek as a company and Dushan as its CEO.
 

From your point of view, what is the advantage, both from a company’s and from an employee’s perspective, to hire someone who has also done an MBA with the same business school as yourself?

The fact we both followed the same curriculum and shared a team in multiple projects is an advantage on its own, due to the opportunity to know one’s mindset more closely.

The Professional MBA Marketing & Sales, which we both graduated from, has its way of strongly influencing your way of thinking and expanding your views, I find sharing these values with your colleague or even better your employee a great asset and mitigation in one’s professional success.
 

Similar cases, like Peter Wilfinger recruiting among the WU Executive Club, or Daniel Bezan hiring an alumni within the MBA network, proof the WU Executive Club to be a reliable recruiting tool.