The cleaning industry professional earned his Corvinus Executive MBA degree in 2021. In our interview, he explained that the programme equipped him with a much broader set of tools for successful decision-making, helped him develop new skills, and enabled him to apply what he had learned not only in business, but also as a parent.
László Zsombók enrolled in the Executive MBA programme at Corvinus University on his own initiative, after earning a degree in marketing and management from Heller Farkas College, now known as Budapest Metropolitan University:
It was entirely my own decision. I had always wanted to take part in an English-language programme with internationally recognised accreditation that would broaden my perspective. I had previously worked in the FMCG sector, and one of my goals was to gain deeper insight into several other areas of business as well.
He added that without intrinsic motivation, and when driven solely by external pressure, there is little point in applying for or beginning any educational programme.
Intrinsic motivation is what drives me to continuously improve my performance. The programme also taught me how to achieve exceptional results while genuinely enjoying the process.
He considers the two-year programme to have been exceptionally intensive. His cohort was the final one to graduate before the introduction of the dual-degree programme delivered in partnership with Maastricht University. As part of the programme, László Zsombók also spent an international study week at Católica Porto Business School in Portugal. The experience provided him with a wealth of new insights and inspiration from the business practices he encountered there. Alternatively, he could have chosen New York or Munich.
Another aspect he appreciated was the opportunity to meet fellow leaders with whom it was valuable to discuss business dilemmas at the time and remains so years later. Perhaps surprisingly, the Kärcher executive also explained that he was able to apply what he had learned in his private life and in his role as a parent.
When I attended the programme, my twin daughters, Anna and Eszter, were in the sixth and seventh grades. To some extent, I involved them in what I was learning and shared many of the methodologies with them. At the time, they were beginning to compete in sports and play volleyball. I had previously been a professional volleyball player myself. Today, they are highly talented athletes who have achieved outstanding results internationally within their age group. As parents, we have tried to teach them something that is also central to my own philosophy: they should have their own intrinsic motivation and personal goals, and they should never pursue results purely because of external pressure.
– László Zsombók
Alongside sport, he also considers education, learning, and continuous development to be essential. As a result, his twin daughters have already received Hungary’s “Good Athlete, Good Student” award three times. As a father, he is extremely proud of this, but above all, he is proud that they achieve outstanding results without anxiety and with genuine enjoyment.
This is also what I stand for as a leader in my professional life. I believe it is essential to create the right environment—one that supports development and enables people to achieve outstanding results.
He has been able to apply much of what he learned at Corvinus throughout his career at Kärcher:
In 2022, Kärcher Hungary approached me with the opportunity to build an entirely new sales division within the company—the consumer business—and to make it successful together. It was an extremely exciting challenge, as the task was not to fine-tune an already well-functioning business model, but to build and restructure almost everything from the ground up. Fortunately, we succeeded and achieved very significant growth over the past few years despite the challenging economic environment. Naturally, the knowledge I gained during the MBA programme also contributed to this success.
As he emphasised:
I was able to apply the knowledge gained during the programme to strategy development, organisational development, process optimisation, management control, and leadership responsibilities.
He added that, after two years, he can confidently say that the new business division at Kärcher is operating successfully. He has built a committed and motivated team that is capable of delivering results while continuously adapting to change. As a leader, Zsombók also considers it essential that team members work in synergy and achieve more together than they could individually.
They should feel free to express their opinions honestly about anything, and they should also be allowed to make mistakes. Making a mistake is not the problem; the problem is failing to learn from it.
As another outcome of the programme, alongside his professional role, Zsombók now also works in business consulting, leadership development, and mentoring. He is a member of the 3rdGEN Management Consulting community, with whom he has successfully delivered numerous business development, leadership development, and mentoring projects for Hungarian SMEs and international companies.
Despite his positive experience, would he change anything about the MBA programme? According to Zsombók, the programme provided a global perspective, although there could perhaps be even more opportunities for exchanging experiences across different countries and regions. He added that his cohort consisted of 22 participants, many of whom remain in contact to this day and continue to follow one another’s professional and personal journeys across various platforms.
Perhaps the university could organise even more alumni events, as one of the programme’s greatest strengths was the opportunity to understand one another’s perspectives and experiences, and to learn from each other.
– László Zsombók, Sales and Business Development Director at Kärcher
