A childhood spent between the Ivory Coast, Italy, and France meant Henny Guiesso grew up with an international outlook on life. Now studying at Hult International Business School’s Dubai campus, she explained why living here has inspired her to dream big.
It wasn’t always Henny Guiesso’s ambition to be a businessperson. She studied law, economics, Italian, and English, but couldn’t see herself as a lawyer and already spoke both languages. So, why did she study these subjects? She says it gave her “time to think [about] what I want to do.” (02:41) Yet after completing her undergraduate studies, things started to become clear for Henny.
“I want to be a businesswoman. I want to study business,” she tells MASTERGRADSCHOOLS. (02:45)
Around the same time, her business ambitions also started to come into focus. She dreams of kickstarting the luxury industry in her native Ivory Coast, which would unite the passion she has for luxury with the pride she has for her home country.
“I had an idea when I started to focus my mind on business,” she explains. “In some countries, like Ivory Coast, there is no luxury there, and I love luxury, so I was like: ‘Why not have a negotiation between two countries like France and Ivory Coast?’” (03:09), enabling collaboration between the two countries through the luxury industry.
Having already lived in three different countries, Henny is no stranger to new experiences and new cultures. She is a self-proclaimed “international person,” and when looking for business schools it was the program as well as the international outlook of Hult that appealed to her.
She says, “I checked online and saw the Hult program. This is what I like the most… traveling, marketing, luxury.” (04:36)
“Hult [also] offered me a big ability to move [campus] whenever I want, so why not choose Hult?” (05:13)
The mix of people who have come from all over the world to study at Hult is something that excites Henny. But it is the sense of community and family that ultimately makes her feel at home: “This is the approach I really love. I came from a big family so for me it was really important at Hult to have a second family.” (08:55)
Hult has seven campuses dotted all over the world, so Henny wasn’t short of options when it came to choosing her study destination. In the end, she chose Dubai, which is proving to be the perfect place to realize her big ambitions. Dubai is a city that is always growing and expanding, with new buildings appearing almost every day. It’s something that has inspired her since moving here.
“Dubai and their construction inspired me a lot: how to think big and how to develop my idea,” she says. (11:48)
“This is the mentality here: that there is [always] something new, something in construction,” she continues. “They are evolving and there is no stopping. If you have a project where you’re going to keep thinking about something else, something bigger.” (09:50)
As Henny illustrates, thinking big is something that simply comes with the territory in Dubai: “Being in Dubai can really help you because when you think about Dubai you think big, you think expensive, so you want to be at that level. You want to think bigger. This is how I feel. I want to do something new, something as big as Dubai.” (10:33)
A university that reflects her outlook on life, a program that excites, and a city that inspires. Henny had time to think about what she wanted to do, and now she’s making it a reality.
