When I was 21 years old, Tamara Adzic She started the café because she had always wanted to run her own business, and it was the freedom that really attracted her. “I wanted to broaden my horizons. I like working with people, but also working in a way that doesn’t necessarily require me to take charge and gives me autonomy in what I do,” she says.
Adzic, who completed her bachelor’s degree in business administration in Scandinavia, had planned to return to Scandinavia once she decided to complete her master’s degree, as she still wanted to become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship and Business Design, Master’s in Chalmers University of TechnologyThe next step was easy.
Tamara Adzic. Source: LinkedIn
This Master’s programme emphasises action-based learning, featuring simulated business scenarios, real innovations and engaging business projects. You won’t just learn theory – you’ll put ideas into practice. Along the way, you’ll gain the know-how to put what you’ve learned into practice by co-creating, reflecting, taking responsibility for decisions and putting ideas into practice.
The first semester is the Business Creativity Lab (BCL), which consists of three mandatory integrated courses taken by all program participants. These will be the foundation for later context setting: You will learn general concepts and frameworks on intellectual property strategy, innovation strategy, and entrepreneurship Working in groups, you will tackle technology-based business cases Not only will you navigate uncertainty, but you will also understand how management, economics, law, and technology are interdependent in technology-based ventures.
Adzick appreciates that the master’s program blends disciplines and brings together people from different backgrounds. “The content of each person’s undergraduate program was quite broad,” she says. “We had engineers, business people, people studying textile design, psychology and human resources. I think the goal of the course was to be a melting pot of abilities.”
In the second year of this master’s program, students can choose between two tracks: Technology Venture Creation (TECH) or Corporate Entrepreneurship (CORP). Adzic chose the latter. “We were placed in a company running an innovation project,” she explains. “It was a learning endeavor, but also an opportunity to get a foot in the door into a corporate environment.”
In this training, students come with a goal or a set of requirements and are basically involved in projects that they solve by themselves. Although it was difficult at first, she had developed many skills by the end of the training. Her training site was PowerCell Group, where she was hired after graduation.
In three years, Adzic was promoted from project manager in sales and business development to business performance director in application development. Working with different teams was challenging at first, but the knowledge she gained during her master’s degree helped her to speak and communicate across departments. “I think this openness and ability to deal with uncertainty is what has got me where I am today,” she says.
If you ask Adzick, she’ll tell you that it’s her master’s degree that has made her an effective communicator — from her ability to speak with internal and external stakeholders to her ability to read between the lines and understand what people are really thinking — that has helped her thrive as a manager.
Decisiveness and the ability to act are other skills she picked up during her master’s degree. “The program really challenged me to understand the fact that I have to make decisions based on something,” she says. “I think the ability to make evidence-based decisions and be able to articulate the reasons and rationale for why I did it that way, why I chose X, Y, or Z, is one of the skills I’ve gained.”
During the program, Adzic served as an International Student Ambassador, a role that helped her network and make connections, ultimately leading to her being nominated for the Global Swede Awards 2021. “It was great to meet people outside of my initial circle at Chalmers, as I was able to share my experiences from what others were studying and use that time as a springboard to meet more people,” she says.
Adzic is determined to start her own business again one day, but for now she plans to stay in the clean tech field. The master’s program broadened her horizons and allowed her to explore areas she never dreamed of. “I thought it was a really great program that challenged students in so many different ways, from teamwork to being able to stand up and feel good about your decisions,” she says. “I would definitely recommend this program and would participate again if I had the opportunity.”
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