Alumni Success Story: Romina García, ZLOG 2017, Associate-Implementation at McKinsey & Company

Alumni Success Story: Romina García, ZLOG 2017, Associate - Implementation at McKinsey & Company.  See profile on Linkedin

Back in 2016 while working in General Electric in France, you decided to embark on a new chapter in your life, enrolling as a student of the MIT Zaragoza Master of Engineering in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (ZLOG). Can you outline what aspects of ZLOG proved particularly useful and why?

In terms of technical knowledge I have always had a big interest in Supply Chain and logistics. ZLOG is an extraordinary place to get in depth knowledge on cutting edge techniques and supply chain trends. It brings best in class experts on each topic and it gives you a great opportunity to improve theoretical knowledge yet having a strong bound with industry to put it into practice. On the personal side, ZLOG brings together a very multicultural and diverse group of people who are all sharing the same passion and eagerness to learn about a same topic. It creates the perfect environment to develop lifelong friendships, being surrounded by talented people who make one grow both professionally and personally. The master’s organization team puts great efforts to make this magic happen, and it works. I have the chance to create a network of friends spread over the five continents, literally, and despite the pandemic context, we manage to regularly connect and keep in touch.

Once you completed the master degree you secured an exciting opportunity with IKEA in Switzerland. The world’s largest home furnishing retailer has 445 stores in more than 50 markets. What are the best-kept secrets behind IKEA’s supply chain management processes?

Its corporate culture! IKEA is a place where employees truly live company values, making their own the aspiration of “making a possible and affordable home for everyone”. It creates strong commitment in everyone to sustain and to constantly improve a cutting edge supply chain network that allows to get the right product, at the right place, at the right time, all of that while juggling with suppliers strewn all over the world. To keep such a network alive, internal communication and empowerment are key. People feel as their duty to raise any improvement idea to management, who in turn listen and value all of them, from the smallest to the most revolutionary, with a spike in being fearless about breaking paradigms.

Soon thereafter, you went straight to McKinsey in Chile and your career path jumped up a level. How has this whole experience affected your personal and professional life?

Joining McKinsey has been a massive game changer opportunity in professional and personal development. On the professional side, I had the chance to get exposed to a very broad range of industries, working with top management to achieve deep and long-lasting impact in major companies. There is truly no such place to develop one’s professional flexibility, rigor and focus on what matters. Working at McKinsey also offers the opportunity to collaborate and learn from some of the best experts in almost any area, topic, or industry. It is also a constantly challenging environment, being surrounded by talented colleagues with the highest professional standards. Professionally, it makes no doubt that there is a before, and an after.  On the personal side, moving from Switzerland to Chile was a terrific change, also considering that the day I landed in Santiago with two suitcases to live there, was the first time I would set foot on this continent! These past years have been an endless opportunity to travel, discover new places, taste new foods, and meet new people, widening my personal perspectives like never before. I also had the chance to work in numerous countries in South America, all with their own cultural codes and habits, that tremendously developed my adaptability and flexibility.  I have also built here lifelong relationships with people from all over the continent tying indelible bonds while travelling to magical places like Patagonia, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco or Uyuni salt flats.

These past years have been a hell of a ride, and I am confident that more is to come!