Testimonials

Driving remarkable growth

'I joined Capstone Asset Management in 2016 to establish and lead their global investment division. The company was founded in 2009 in Korea, formed by a group of real estate experts from the investment, development and management industries. At the time, Capstone’s total AUM (Assets Under Management) was worth around $1.4 billion and the company had no exposure to global real estate markets at all.

'So, the main question on my mind was: How am I going to grow the division and expand into the global market?

'I felt that I needed to understand how to approach creating the right strategies on a deeper level, and to learn how to assess and analyse the right options to use at Capstone. This was the reason that I chose to study at Oxford, and I joined the Oxford Diploma in Financial Strategy in 2017.

'During the programme, I learnt various practical frameworks to help me identify the global market potential. By applying several market analysis frameworks that I had learnt, such as Porter’s five forces, PESTEL and Ansoff’s growth matrix, I could understand how large the global real estate market was, how fast it was growing and identify how other Korean investors and asset managers were performing. I was also able to identify the predicted growth trajectory of the market and how our competitors were preparing their corporate strategies to grow further.

'By studying the diploma and applying my learnings immediately into my daily work, I was able to demonstrate that Capstone should continue to focus on expanding into global markets where more investment opportunities are expected. I concluded that it should develop its core competencies in the longer term whilst the market environment is favourable. As a result, I was able to rapidly grow our global investment division to great effect.

'Since then, Capstone’s total AUM has grown remarkably and is now currently worth around $4.2 billion. Our global investment division has grown significantly over the past six years to $1.8 billion – constituting 44% of our total AUM. Our investment portfolios have become more diverse as a result and currently comprise of various regions in developed countries such as the United States, UK and Germany. Despite the impact of the pandemic, we expect to continue to grow our market coverage overseas.

'Ultimately, the Diploma in Financial Strategy equipped me with the necessary tools to steer our global investment division in the right strategic direction and to grow our business for the better.'

Completely reshaping our business 

'After 20 years of working in commercial roles, and primarily serving local and international B2B markets in the industrial sector, I took on the challenge of a lifetime at Grupo El Comercio: leading a complex business transformation process to completely reshape the company.

'Working in the graphics industry, I had seen and experienced first-hand the threat and disruption caused by the rapid rise in digitisation. With large printing facilities serving regional markets, we had to quickly find, assess, and enter new markets with high growth potential. Eventually, we decided to fully enter the packaging industry – and that’s where my story really begins.

'As this challenge emerged in early 2018, I had just completed my Oxford Executive Diploma in Financial Strategy at Saïd Business School; a journey I had taken during 2017 which was definitely one of the best experiences that I have ever had. Coming from South America and having previously pursued my MBA in the UK, I really valued the quality and diversity offered by an international programme at a top British institution. The University of Oxford and Saïd Business School was nothing short of impressive, from the faculty I had the privilege to meet and learn from, to the programme content, the rich heritage and tradition evident at every turn, to my classmates and friends with whom I shared so much. All of this enriched my experience on both a professional and personal level.

'Practically speaking, the programme enabled me to significantly enhance my professional toolkit and confidently face the challenge ahead. In my role as Commercial Director, I had to put into practice all the advanced strategic and financial knowledge that I had learnt on the diploma programme. I had to create a strategic plan to effectively scale a single business division into four new ones to support our entrance into the packaging industry. I also needed to design a commercial strategy to ensure that we accelerated our growth and met our ambitious plans.

'In hindsight, realising the first growth phase seemed relatively simple, as we focused on inorganic growth through a successful merger with another company in the same commercial parent group as ours. However, the second and most intense phase involved creating whole new business units from scratch, not only embedding them in a rapidly changing organisation and external market but also crafting the right strategy to ensure exponential growth. If we failed to land it correctly, we risked damaging our company culture and our internal ecosystem in the process.

'To avoid the risks of failure, I once again turned to my learnings from the Diploma in Financial Strategy. By applying all the financial concepts and strategic frameworks that I learnt through the programme, I was able to thoroughly assess our business plans and work out a way to connect all our divisions together that would maximise value. Equipped with my refreshed analytical approach, I was able to effectively analyse the project valuation, understand the value map and assess how to maintain the strong pace of growth whilst managing liquidity. Thanks to the insights and experiences that I had gained on the programme, I was able to extend the scope of my role beyond commercial strategy and better lead my team to achieve our goals.

'Fast forward three years later and the company was hardly recognisable. We had completely changed its profile and launched a renewed business portfolio. The new business lines that represented 20% of our overall revenue in 2018, now accounted for 68% in 2021 and were on a steady growth trajectory.

'In 2020, the pandemic severely increased the decline of our classic printing business, but we were prepared - the company had already transformed and was successfully competing in the packaging industry. Our transformation project was a success and had undoubtedly secured the company’s future.

'I feel thankful to have had the pleasure and privilege to work with my team to steer our business through this journey. They all showed unwavering professionalism and commitment, consistently going the extra mile to ensure the success of the project. Thanks to them and the Diploma in Financial Strategy, we literally shaped our own future.'

Supporting my role as CFO

'After almost 20 years working in the banking industry, including for household names such as Deutsche Bank and Citi Group, I had a sudden realisation: my work had become quite operational.

'Initially, I couldn’t pinpoint why I felt this way. It wasn’t that I was stagnating, in fact, I had enjoyed a really successful banking career and at the time I had an active role as CFO of the Addiko Bank in Croatia. But what I felt I was missing, was the opportunity to step back from my day-to-day tasks, reflect on my experiences, and refresh my approach.

'I already had an academic background in Finance, having studied an Executive MBA in New York focused on financial management, and I found this to be a useful opportunity to revitalise, rethink certain approaches and challenge myself again. But this time around it wasn’t an option for me to take a career break for a year – particularly given my role and that, as a banking group, we were beginning the IPO planning process. Equally, as I had already completed various finance training programmes, I was looking for a way to reflect and engage with the topics on a much deeper, more advanced level.

'This is where the Diploma in Financial Strategy came in. The part-time structure of the programme provided the balance I was looking for, and the course content offered a rich and unusual combination of both finance and strategy topics. It was a perfect match and I quickly decided to join the programme in 2019.

'Joining the programme as a CFO, I wasn’t quite sure how I would compare to my fellow peers’ experiences. Would I fit in? What new experiences could I learn from?

'As I entered the classroom on the first day of the first module, I was struck by just how diverse the programme cohort was. My peers were from over 35 different nationalities, the majority with extensive financial knowledge and others with significant experience on the strategy side. It really was a truly diverse, worldwide network.

'The programme format was lively and engaging and the professors were highly experienced at drawing out relevant insights from each of our backgrounds for the wider class to learn from. The interweaving of theories, contemporary case studies and practical frameworks with a critical exchange of views, was a priceless experience.

'Regardless of whether you had a background in finance or strategy, everyone could benefit from the diploma in many ways. For me personally, it helped to advance my finance knowledge and strategic toolkit to a specialised level, improve my critical viewpoint so that I can better assess the efficacy of our work, and think outside the box.

'When it came to my final integrative assignment (FIA), I decided to focus on a specific company challenge that we had to tackle. At the time, we were owned by a private equity firm and on the road to an IPO, so we weren’t a traditional bank as such. The challenge we had was that we were looking at how we could completely rethink our corporate strategy to become a modern, digital consumer bank, and the risks of not doing so were equally great. As I was part of the senior team, I was going to be part of the group that would perform a complete strategic assessment to understand what the ultimate impact would be on the bank’s bottom line as a result of a successful IPO. I knew I was going to have to tackle this challenge head-on at some point and we had six months to reach our final decision, so why not start some of my thinking now as part of the diploma?

'At the time, I had no idea how powerful it would be to make this the focus of my FIA. Firstly, I was able to take the opportunity to spend more time on the project. From the start, I was able to approach it from a much more independent, objective and ‘consultant-style’ viewpoint than I ever could in my day job as CFO. It meant that I had the permission to ask more challenging questions, and the freedom and creativity to explore the answers. In doing so, I was able to analyse the problem from all possible angles and to a greater depth than ever before.

'Secondly, I had the support of my peers behind me. How often can you say that you’ve been able to draw on the advice, opinions, and recommendations of a classroom of consultants to help solve your biggest challenge? Being able to reach out to my peers who all bring such different and rich experience to the table was so valuable.

In the end, the FIA in particular helped me tremendously. I was able to reach a conclusion and make a thoughtful decision, based on research, empirical evidence, arguments presented and quantitative result derived from academically accepted valuation frameworks which would impact the future of our company. It made me feel completely assured of my standpoint and it became much easier to present my thinking and get the buy-in from key stakeholders.

'But my story doesn’t end there. After completing the programme in 2020, I was delighted to hear that my FIA had been awarded The Worshipful Company of International Bankers’ (WCIB) Prize! I was so honoured – it was truly a great ending to an amazing experience at Saïd Business School.

'If you’re reading my story and thinking about applying to Oxford – do it! Stay focused on your studies and maximise the time you have at the School. Come as prepared as you can to get the most out of the wonderful professors and your fellow cohort colleagues. I was blessed to meet so many brilliant and amazing peers during my studies. Now, whichever continent I travel to, I know that I can ring someone who is based there for professional advice, personal support or just to catch up over coffee. And it’s for that reason that you just know these relationships will last a lifetime.

A note from the Programme's Academic Director

'We are pleased to announce that Joško has won the WCIB prize for the best Final Integrative Assignment paper in our 2019 cohort,' comments Diploma in Financial Strategy Academic Director, Ken Okamura. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Joško on being selected for this award among other recipients from a range of leading business schools.