The rising star at Coca-Cola

Miguel da Silva still won’t drink Pepsi.

It’s a sign of his commitment to Coca-Cola, his first employer after graduating from university in his native Philippines. And for a while, he felt at home in one of the most successful companies in the world.

He joined Coca-Cola as a financial analyst in 2012, and his success soon led to promotion after promotion. Fast forward to 2017, and Miguel was a Coca-Cola marketing manager. 

“Because of moving so fast, also to be honest, maybe a lack of experience, being a marketing manager had some conflict with my finance training,” Miguel explains to MBAGRADSCHOOLS. “And there were things that made it more difficult for me to work at the start. From a very promising trajectory – a young rising star type – I also ended up having certain months where it was very difficult for me – and I was almost put on probation.” (01:36)

Miguel wondered if a fresh start might be the best thing for him. This line of thinking led him to something which had been in the back of his mind for a while: an MBA.

“Every time people struggle in life, more questions come,” he says. “So I wanted answers to these questions that I couldn’t get alone, and I started to see that the MBA would be a good environment for me to meet people or to get new ideas that will help me answer my own questions.” (05:30)

Things moved quickly once Miguel decided to leave the corporate world behind to study for an MBA. He left his role at Coca-Cola in July, and by September, he was on a plane to Spain, bound for EAE Business School Barcelona.

How the EAE MBA guided Miguel toward the world of startups

Miguel soon found that his fellow students in the International MBA program at EAE Barcelona had experiences he could learn from. This allowed him to reflect on his career and better understand his choices and why he had made them.

Miguel then had a clearer idea of where he wanted to go. “The MBA was able to show me that there is another route to things,” he says. “There’s another way to be passionate about your job.” (07:28)

Miguel suspected that veering away from the corporate world might serve him well. However, he still wasn’t entirely sure what that would look like. Fortunately, his experiences at the EAE Business School Barcelona crystallized where he should go.

Its focus on modern businesses makes EAE MBA stand out from others. Of course, the program teaches students about classic case studies from long-established companies. But the school also asks students to examine young companies such as Airbnb, Uber, and the Barcelona startup Glovo.

Miguel realized that actually, getting involved in an early-stage company was something that excited him. Companies in the growth stage don’t need to have their business model set in stone. They can produce minimum viable products that quickly get feedback from customers. 

“If you’re in a corporate giant, if it’s already stable, sure you can do a good job. But also tomorrow if you leave, most likely that company is going to continue on without you,” he explains. (13:22)

Employees at startups generally experience higher job satisfaction for the reasons Miguel identified. They are actively involved in company growth and can significantly contribute to success. Plus, founders make more significant efforts to maintain employee happiness at such a small scale.

Although in Miguel’s case, the founder would be himself.

The water filtration company born in EAE Barcelona

After graduating from the program, the next step in Miguel’s career became crystal clear, much like the filtered water of his upcoming venture.

“I was approached by a friend of a friend of mine, literally a roommate of one of my close friends from the master’s. I met him only during parties,” he laughs. “But then he approached me and said, ‘Hey, I, along with another guy, want to bring this thesis from paper to reality … here’s the business, this is the idea … Do you want in?’”  (13:49)

This conversation was the catalyst for the creation of Jibu h2o. The idea is to provide clean filtered water from a beautifully-designed refilling point. The startup aims to make people comfortable drinking tap water through premium design. It also aims to reduce plastic waste and support communities without access to drinking water.

EAE Barcelona’s business incubator gave them a head start to get the company off the ground. “It was one of the very first times where we actually put Jibu the business on paper and started to bring it out to reality. So literally, this is a project born in EAE.” (15:40)

But EAE Barcelona’s support didn’t end there. They invited the trio to events, connected them with business mentors, and generally gave Miguel’s new venture more exposure. EAE Barcelona was also Jibu h2o’s first-ever client; you’ll find their water fountains in the business school. Miguel says that the company wouldn’t be where it is today without EAE Barcelona’s support.

By swapping Coke for a (reusable) bottle of water, Miguel has shown that it’s always possible to change who you are and in which direction you’re heading.

Discover more about the MBA program at EAE Barcelona by directly reaching out to Miguel on the ambassador’s page.