CNN: Chinese CEO shares secret of his success

LONDON, England (CNN) – Roberto Lee Jr, 35, is the President of Fresh Bread & Company in Shanghai. He has an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business and an Executive MBA (EMBA) from INSEAD and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Roberto Lee: “I don’t think I’d be as complete a manager as I am today without the EMBA.”

Roberto tells CNN how his EMBA has helped his career.

CNN: Tell us about your current role.

Roberto Lee Jr: I’m president of Fresh Bread & Company, in Shanghai, which I started in 2004.

We supply finished products like sandwiches, cakes and desserts for Starbucks, Walmart, Metro AG, Tesco, and a number of franchised restaurants.

We also have a more upscale chain with bakeries, coffee shops and the biggest bread chain in the Shanghai subway system. We currently have 620 employees, 32 shops in Shanghai, and we hope to expand into Eastern China next year.

CNN: You already had an MBA, what made you decide to do an EMBA?

RL: We are hoping to expand Fresh internationally, at least in Asia, and it could become an international company. The Tsinghua/INSEAD EMBA is a really global MBA. We had classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Fontainebleau (in France) so it gave a very international focus.

CNN: What was the biggest difference between the MBA and the EMBA?

RL: A key difference is seniority. The average age on the MBA was 28 and on the EMBA it was 37. On an MBA people are getting ready to move into senior management, whereas much more senior management things being discussed on the EMBA.

The other difference is that for the MBA you take off two years of your life. With the EMBA you still work, so every five to six weeks you meet for a week or two and you go to classes.

With the EMBA you don’t get spend as much time on the books, so an MBA is more theoretical and with the EMBA you learn a lot more from your classmates. I had numerous high-level people in my class and they shared how they’ve done things in the past.

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