At 21, Tamara Adzic started a cafe because she always wanted her own business. It’s the freedom that really called to her. “I had this desire to push what I could do and I like a very kind of people-oriented profession but also one where I could, not necessarily call the shots but have autonomy in what I’m doing,” she says.
Having completed her business bachelor’s in the Nordic region, Adzic knew that when she eventually decided to do her master’s degree she would return. She still sought to become an entrepreneur, so when she found the Entrepreneurship and Business Design, MSc at Chalmers University of Technology, the next step was easy.
Tamara Adzic. Source: LinkedIn
This MSc prioritises action-based learning, featuring simulated business scenarios, real technology innovation, and engaging business projects. You will not learn theory alone, but turn ideas into practice. Along the way, you’ll develop the know-how to implement what you learn by co-creating, reflecting, and taking responsibility for decision-making to progress ideas into practice.
The first semester features a Business Creation Lab (BCL), which contains three integrated courses mandatory for all programme participants. These serve as the groundwork for later contextual settings. You will cover intellectual property strategies, innovation strategies, and general concepts and frameworks around entrepreneurship. While working in groups, you will take on a technology-based business case. Not only will you navigate through uncertainty, but you will also grasp how management, economics, law and technology are interdependent in a tech-based venture.
Adzic loved how the MSc merged multiple disciplines and united people from various backgrounds. “In terms of what everybody’s bachelor’s were, it was quite broad,” she says. “We had engineers, business people, people that study textile design, psychology and HR. I think the whole purpose of the course was to be this melting pot of competencies.”
In the second year of this MSc, there are two tracks you can choose from: Technology Venture Creation (TECH) or Corporate Entrepreneurship (CORP). Adzic chose the latter. “We got placed at a company to run an innovation project,” she explains. “It was a learning initiative, but it also had us put one foot in the door of the corporate environment.”
The placement meant that students go in with an objective or set of requirements, essentially a project for them to figure out. While initially daunting, she honed many skills by the end of it. Her placement was at PowerCell Group, where she even secured a job after graduation.
Over three years, Adzic climbed up the ranks from Project Manager in Sales and Business Development to Business Performance Director in Application Development. While it was tricky working with different teams at first, what she learned from the MSc made it possible for her to speak and communicate cross-functionally. “I think that this openness and the ability to cope with uncertainty really supports me today,” she says.
Ask Adzic and she’ll credit the MSc for making her an effective communicator. From the ability to speak to stakeholders both externally and internally to reading between the lines to understand what people are really thinking, she is thriving as a manager.
Being decisive and action-based is another skill she attributes to the MSc. “The programme wanted us to really embrace the fact that we needed to be able to make decisions based on something,” she says. “Having grounded decisions and being able to speak up and give a reasoning and rationale for why you went that way or why you’ve decided on X, Y or Z, think that that’s also something that I’ve taken in my back pocket.”
During the programme, Adzic was an international student ambassador. This position helped her network and build connections —ultimately getting her nominated for the Global Swede Award 2021. “Meeting other people outside of my initial circle at Chalmers was great because we were able to share experiences from what the others were studying and use that time as a little bit of a catapult into meeting more people,” she says.
While Adzic is determined to start her own business again one day, she aims to stay in clean tech for the time being. The MSc has allowed her to expand her horizons and explore an area she never dreamed of. “I think that it was a really great programme because it challenges its students in so many ways, from teamwork to just to be able to stand up and, you know, be comfortable in the decisions that you’ve chosen,” she says. “I would definitely recommend the programme and I would do it again if given the opportunity.”
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