Andrey started the Bayes Executive MBA in 2024 as a technical expert with a record of delivering difficult projects. Two years on, he has a seat on the scientific board of a company in Dubai, two days a week for recreation, and a different view of what leadership means.

When Andrey began the programme, his thinking was organised around a single question. "I already had considerable professional experience and a strong technical background. I was used to solving difficult problems, developing products and delivering projects. Looking back now, I realise that much of my thinking was centred on one question: what do I need to do to make this project successful?"

The MBA widened that question.

I now think much more about people, stakeholders, organisations, finance, opportunities and the environment around a project. Perhaps the biggest change is that I increasingly think of myself not simply as a technical expert or manager, but as a leader.

His story starts with a decision many senior professionals will recognise. As his role as CTO evolved, he looked for ways to grow with it, with his company's backing. "I undertook the MBA, which my company agreed."

He now sees that as a wider lesson. "An important lesson has been that professional development does not have to end entirely within the office. This taught me to respond to constraints with less conflict and more creativity." Other people's interests matter too: "Other parties have legitimate interests too. It means looking for an outcome that accommodates both perspectives."

Opportunities that don't appear on a to-do list

The board role came through a habit he once undervalued. "Earlier in my career I was heavily focused on deliverables. Conferences and networking could feel secondary to the 'real work'.

It worked while he was still on the programme. "Conference engagements grew up and led to joining the scientific board of a “unicorn” company in Dubai. This created a new professional role for me. More importantly, it showed me in a very practical way that networking is not separate from productive work. It can create opportunities that would never appear through normal day-to-day activity."

The business side of the MBA changed his sense of what was possible.

Commercial thinking does not necessarily mean becoming conservative. In some ways it has made me more ambitious because I can see more ways of structuring opportunities.

Letting people attempt the uncertain

Andrey also changed how he thinks about risk, and about the people he manages. "I preferred to give people tasks where I was reasonably certain they would succeed. I thought I was protecting them. I did not want to ask someone to attempt something uncertain, see them fail, and perhaps have them lose confidence in me or themselves."

The finance, entrepreneurship, strategy and decision-making teaching gave him a new frame. "A portfolio of uncertain projects can produce a better overall result than concentrating all resources on one apparently safe project."

It changed his leadership style too. "I am more willing to admit what I do not know. Rather than pretending that I have certainty because I am leading the project, I can invite other people into the uncertainty with me."

Doing less, and doing more

Perhaps the most unexpected change happened away from work. "Over the last two years I have deliberately created more space outside work. I have taken up aviation, flying aircraft and paragliding."

He once would have counted that as time lost. "I now think almost the opposite. Distance from day-to-day work helps me retain perspective and generate ideas. By doing less, in one sense, I have become capable of doing more."

What comes next

The MBA added to his technical thinking rather than replacing it. "That remains an important part of who I am. What it has done is add other perspectives around it. I now look beyond the technical problem towards the people, incentives, capital, partnerships and opportunities surrounding it."

He wants to keep developing, and he doesn't see graduation as the finish line. "I do not see finishing the MBA as finishing my education."

His own summary is hard to improve on.

I am more willing to admit uncertainty, more willing to take calculated risks and more willing to create opportunities rather than wait for them. For me, that is probably the most important professional development of the last two years.

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Andrey Volkov completed the Bayes Executive MBA, which he began in 2024.

Considering an MBA alongside a demanding role? Find out more about the Executive MBA programmes.