Name: Bradley Charbonneau
Occupation: Travel writer; namer; director of his own web development company
RSM Connection: Full-time International MBA ’95
One of the biggest benefits I got from my MBA is that now I can choose not to work for a big company. I can run my own company and take a year off to write a book because I have the knowledge and networks to do so. It has really been about having more choice.
I am American, but from 15 I had an infatuation with Europe. After doing an exchange year in France with my university – I majored in Maths and French – I asked various companies for advice on how I could live and work in Europe. They all said “get a degree that is recognised in Europe in something that will open doors”. I decided I needed an MBA.
RSM seemed broader in scope than the other schools and more entrepreneurial, so I headed to Rotterdam, and had two of the greatest years of my life.
After my MBA I got a job consulting for a Dutch management consulting firm. I’m technical but also creative and I ended up more in the marketing department, working on the website.
I had been there for two years when my partner Saskia and I decided to travel the world for a year. We got rid of our cars and flats, and took off. We visited RSM friends literally all over the world: in Cape Town, Singapore, Hong Kong, everywhere.
We were almost at the end of our trip and sitting in a café in Hanoi, Vietnam, when I saw a feature in an old issue of BusinessWeek about an industry called ‘naming’ – companies that name products and other companies. A manager was quoted saying, “our ideal candidate is a linguist with an MBA.” I almost raised my hand in the café: “that’s me!” I speak German, Dutch and French; I love languages. All three companies were in the San Francisco area, and we had talked of living there. I tore the article out and off we went.
Once in San Francisco though, I decided to fulfill one more dream before joining the corporate world. It was February, Saskia was working, so I gave myself the rest of the year to write a book. And that’s what I did. It is a travel memoir/romance about our six months in Africa, but is still to be edited and published. Really, the best thing that came out of that nine months was that by the end I was absolutely convinced that I did not want to be a full-time writer! It was solitary and difficult. I decided it was time to get that naming job.
After doing some research, I got a few interviews with naming companies, one of which was the company from the article. I walked in, put the torn article from BusinessWeek on the table, told them the story, and I got the job.
That was 2000, and I still work for that company. In the last few years though I only do the creative work and on a per-assignment basis. And it is only 10% of what I do.
A few years ago, having always been a techie guy, I started building websites helping writers promote their work. The industry has changed a lot and these days writers really need to be sales people as well. In time the business started taking off. So I quit my daily office job, and now I run a business in website development from my home office.
I’ve developed quite a name in the writing industry. A big turning point came when I did the website for Khaled Hosseini, the author of the The Kite Runner. He had so many events and reviews that needed placing, I couldn’t keep up. That’s when I started creating sites with content management software so people could update the sites themselves, and I now specialise in that.
Today I have four people working for me, all in different locations, and way more demand than I can handle. And I still write and do creative naming. I love it – you could not pay me enough to work in a big corporate job.
Because of my MBA I have always felt confident that I can get a job wherever, whenever, which has allowed me to indulge in my dreams. I always felt if I didn’t get a job, I would just create one. The other big benefit has been the people. I can’t remember accounting, but my best friends live in Beijing and Cape Town, and for me that is huge. The old adage is true – it is who you know. I can run my business because of my network, and I think a big part of that has come from the MBA.
Bradley Charbonneau is the author of Urban Travel Guide San Francisco (available on Amazon.com). His company website is www.likoma.com.
