Meet the startup company that had seven MBAs graduate in one day

One company accounted for more Melbourne Business School graduates than usual this year – but it wasn't one of the big four banks or consulting firms.

Emerging business consultancy Innovior had cause to celebrate in October after seven of its staff graduated with MBAs from Melbourne Business School on the same day.

Among them was Senior Executive MBA graduate and Managing Director Jure Brkan, who was particularly proud to share the milestone with a group of colleagues he'd helped to hire.

"I was either the first person to interview them, or the last. It was hugely rewarding, not just to sit there and watch my team walk across the stage, but to know that they were also watching me," he says.

Innovior is a specialist consultancy that combines human and artificial intelligence to improve business processes and operations. Founded in Melbourne just three years ago, it has since opened an office in Sydney and is growing quickly, with clients including Telstra, Aurecon and Jetstar.

In addition to Jure, Innovior congratulated Scott Lunga, Hetnon Freitas, Omadbek Redjapov, Pallav Agarwal, Greg Goh and Karan Sabhani on the completion of their degrees. Five of the graduates were in the Melbourne office on the day we visited.

All up, about a quarter of Innovior's employees have MBAs from Melbourne Business School, which Jure says is thanks to a culture of curiosity and critical thinking.

"We're a young organisation, so part of what I look for when I hire is people who can think outside of the box," he says.

"The people we have here are all very smart, but they also have a thirst for knowledge and are really inquisitive.

"Sometimes I actually find it frustrating when they ask me a thousand whys, but when you see it on the client side – and they're asking 'oh, so why do you do this and have you thought about that' – you can see just how powerful it is.

"They have a really good handle on what the client is trying to do, where their problems are and which approach we can take together to address the challenges. They provide a fresh set of eyes and push the boundaries a little on the options they're prepared to put forward."

Jure attributes the growth of Innovior to its broad pool of skills, which allows it to solve problems across an entire organisation – another reason he likes hiring MBA graduates so much.

"When we talk to clients, we talk to finance, human resources, marketing, operations. We work across every single business unit within a company," Jure says.

"When you look at an MBA, all of those subjects are covered. That's why the MBA is so important to us – it helps us work with clients.

"It's so rewarding to look into a company and see that they know they have problems, but they don't necessarily have the capacity to fix them. We come in and put forward options that are a little bit different to what they've been given in the past."

Jure says the diversity of backgrounds of students at Melbourne Business School also aligns well with the needs of the consultancy, where each individual brings a different perspective to the table.

"We're really conscious of the diversity of thought we get from having so many people with different backgrounds in the firm. We have civil engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, CPAs, IT people," he says.

"It's such a broad spectrum and it's amazing to see it play out in real-life – rather than just hearing about it as a concept in class."

To learn more about Jure and the team, visit the Innovior website.

To find out more about studying at Melbourne Business School, visit our Degree Programs and Short Courses pages or learn about how we design Custom Solutions with organisations.