Having completed her bachelor’s degree in international relations and anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Kim-Sa Ngo was unsure which career trajectory to follow. She considered exploring roles in non-governmental organisations or the UN, but after graduating, secured a position in international education in Vancouver, a city where – with the exception of a few years in Vietnam and Denmark – she’d spent most of her adult life. But Ngo quickly realised that she wanted to switch industries and explore a more corporate route, which led her to consider a master of business administration (MBA) degree.
“I started looking at programmes in North America, but most of them were for two years,” Ngo says. “I was keen to enrol in a one-year course, so I started to consider opportunities overseas. I also knew I didn’t want to sit in another lecture hall with hundreds of other students, so a small cohort and more bespoke learning opportunities were important.”
It was then that Ngo came across the one-year, full-time MBA at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). With a strong focus on sustainable business leadership, the CBS MBA is in the 1% of business schools worldwide that hold a prestigious triple accreditation (from three of the world’s most rigorous accrediting bodies). As such, it is able to attract industry-leading management experts and lecturers. The MBA boasts strong business links, an engaged alumni network and crucially, in Ngo’s case, an intimate learning environment.
“In terms of the school ranking, the opportunities it came with, and from speaking to alumni and hearing the types of careers they went on to achieve, it felt like a good fit,” she says. “I was also born in Denmark and lived there for five years, so I had a personal connection.”
The application process cemented her decision. “What stood out was how supportive the admissions team was. The process was so welcoming that, even though it was competitive, it didn’t feel like a cut-throat MBA school, particularly compared to others I’d applied to. I was delighted when I was accepted on the 2023 programme.”
Andreas Rasche, professor of business in society at the CBS Centre for Sustainability and the MBA’s associate dean for eight years, says: “We understand the course as a boutique MBA, and by this I mean we are not large scale and we deliberately keep it that way. We have a maximum of 50 students, so they really get to know each other and the student-faculty interaction is not so anonymous. You get a personal feeling around the programme.”
Over the course of the year, the core curriculum covers accounting, finance and marketing, as well as modules that respond to current business environments, including data and analytics, geopolitics, supply chain management and sustainability.
“It’s a very dynamic curriculum,” says Rasche. “As a result, we can proudly say that the types of careers that alumni follow are very diverse. We are not a consulting and investment banking kind of school – of course, some do follow these paths – but a significant number of students move into industry. For example, some work at Ørsted, a Danish energy company that is one of the very few to make the transition from fossil fuels to almost 100% renewable energy. Some students set up their own companies; some are sustainability managers. We deliberately encourage diversity.”
For Ngo, the diversity and adaptability of the programme allowed her to discover exactly what she wanted to do post-graduation. “I specialised in finance because I wanted to learn something I’d never learned before,” she says. “I did an internship through the MBA at Danske Bank, where I did my thesis in strategisation for the data protection team. They knew that I had no experience in GDPR, but they took a chance on me and because of that, I was able to get a role in consulting at KPMG after graduation, and now I’m working as a senior business risk manager at Nordea Bank with a specialisation in data protection.”
Ngo also credits one of the key elements of the MBA, the leadership discovery process , with allowing her to explore her leadership potential and develop her personal and professional confidence. “It’s really where I think I grew the most,” she says. “I learned so much about not only how to lead, but it made me reflect on how to be a better collaborator and communicator.”
Through stimulating exercises and activities – which Ngo says “push us out of our comfort zone” – the practical leadership discovery process encourages students to navigate complex situations with responsible leadership.
“It’s the biggest course we have and runs throughout the year,” says Rasche. “For us, it’s about self-leadership, which is absolutely necessary before they start to lead others.”
Part of the process involves a two-day camping trip in the Swedish wilderness, where students get to integrate many of the experiences they’ve learned throughout the year. “It allows them to build self-awareness and situational leadership in unique, demanding environments,” adds Rasche.
The MBA is clearly suited to students looking for a multidisciplinary, personalised business education with real-world applicability – notably, in an intimate and collegial environment. As Ngo says: “It was through the MBA that I even knew about this type of industry [business risk management]. It changed my career trajectory, and pushed me exactly where I wanted to go. It changed my life, really.”
Find out more about Copenhagen Business School’s full-time MBA
“I started looking at programmes in North America, but most of them were for two years,” Ngo says. “I was keen to enrol in a one-year course, so I started to consider opportunities overseas. I also knew I didn’t want to sit in another lecture hall with hundreds of other students, so a small cohort and more bespoke learning opportunities were important.”
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Source: theguardian.com · Ali Pantony. Published 1 Sept 2026, 09:23 am.
