Interview for Executiva: The Lisbon MBA experience was absolutely transformative on a personal and professional level.

In this interview for Executiva magazine, Catarina José, Product and Innovation Manager at Netflix, reflects on her career path and the transformative role that The Lisbon MBA played in her personal and professional life.
Catarina José has a degree in Economics and started her career at the Banco de Portugal, a very valuable experience as it allowed her to quickly realize what she really wanted for her career: to generate a positive impact on people’s lives through innovation and technology. The next step was to look for the best way to do it, and that led her to consulting, which exposed her to a wide range of possibilities. From there, she has worked in industries as different as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment. She says that change has never scared her. On the contrary, it is part of her DNA. She worked for nine years at Portugal Telecom, where she participated in the development of new products and services in a business that was changing at an incredible speed. In 2015, Catarina José decided to take The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova because she needed to rethink what she wanted to achieve in the long term. At the time she still had no idea of the disruptive change that the MBA would bring to her life. It was following an internship during the program that she received an invitation from Novartis to work in Oncology. Not only did she enter an industry she didn’t know, but also Catarina José started working in a country she didn’t know, Mexico. Today, everything she learned in her five years at Novartis is serving her in the challenge at hand at Netflix: to develop great partnerships with telecommunications companies in Latin America to accelerate innovation adoption in these countries, from Mexico to Argentina.
Today, Catarina José continues to live and work in Mexico City, where since May 2021, she has been responsible for large partnerships with telecom companies in Latin America. Having been born and spent her childhood in Africa, then studied and worked in Europe, and now in Latin America, the international career does not scare her. She warns that today the big challenge is to get noticed in an increasingly competitive global environment, especially in top companies in her field like Novartis or Netflix. If the remote work model has brought many opportunities, Catarina José also points out that it puts us in a position of direct competition with resources at a global level, where the place where we are no longer matters so much as the skills and value we actually bring. Amidst all these new opportunities, the truth is that the opportunities for growth, learning, and having a more significant impact are endless for those who embrace an international challenge, as Catarina José did.
What are the main stages of your professional path?
Following my degree in Economics from CATÓLICA-LISBON, my first professional experience was at the Economic Research Department of Banco de Portugal. With this experience, I realized that despite my strong analytical side, I needed to promote a more direct impact of my work in society, although I didn’t know yet exactly in which area. In order to find my path, I joined Deloitte as a consultant, motivated by the possibility of working with many different industries in a short period of time.
At that moment, my interest in innovation and technology began, dictating what would become my purpose at a professional level: to generate a positive impact on people’s lives through innovation and technology. The pursuit of this purpose led me to work in various industries (telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and technology), and in various geographies, in positions of strategy and product management, i.e., analyzing trends, identifying business opportunities, and translating these opportunities into concrete products and services.
With innovation as the common thread throughout my career, I can identify three major stages in my career: the first one at Portugal Telecom, in particular at SAPO and MEO, where I worked on developing new products and services in a business that was changing at an incredible speed, from the landline phone to the Internet, cell phone, TV, and finally services over all these platforms. Then at Novartis, after getting my MBA, where I worked in a regional leadership position in Europe and then Mexico, thinking about how to evolve business models to launch new Oncology products. And currently, at Netflix working in a regional position in Latin America, partnering with telecom companies to accelerate innovation adoption in these countries, from Mexico to Argentina.
What is the most disruptive change you have made, and what led you to make it?
My professional and personal trajectory is full of big changes, it’s something that I have imprinted in my DNA, but the move to the pharmaceutical industry after getting my MBA at The Lisbon MBA Católica|Nova was, without a doubt, the most disruptive in my career. The year I took the full-time MBA was a period to rethink what impact I wanted to have and where I felt I could bring more value with my professional experience. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the industries that invests the most in innovation and has an incredible impact on the life expectancy and quality of life of millions of people around the world. It is still relatively traditional in the way it works, so I felt that I could have a positive impact by bringing a new perspective. Additionally, I had a very strong personal motivation, since my father was very ill with cancer and I knew I had to help other families going through the same thing. After an internship during my MBA at Novartis Oncology, I was invited to be in charge of Commercial Excellence for Portugal and a group of European countries, with the objective of developing new business models, ways of working, and tools, in an increasingly relevant business area. My adventure in Novartis took me to Mexico and to work in Latin America to define strategies to launch new products in Oncology, where the barriers to bringing innovative products are huge and where the positive impact on the lives of thousands of families is very tangible. More than five years later, I can say that this was the most disruptive change and one of the most rewarding in terms of impact on my career.
What added value do you derive from such a diverse career?
I’ve had the opportunity to work in companies that are global leaders in terms of innovation but with very different cultures. Novartis for example is a company that is very focused on operational excellence, very strict from a compliance and process point of view, but naturally moves at a slower speed. It can take 10 to 15 years to launch a new drug. Netflix is an example of a company that has completely reinvented itself from selling DVDs to being the leading global streaming platform, where all decisions are made based on data and experimentation. It is a company that lives at a dizzying speed always with a lot of information to process. Working in different regions also adds a lot of complexity. Besides language, the ability to build relationships and develop trust, critical skills in a professional context, are completely different between Denmark and Mexico, but also surprisingly between countries in the same region like Peru and Argentina. All these experiences bring great learning that can be leveraged in different contexts, making us more creative. On the other hand, they require a very large capacity for adaptation and learning, which makes me more flexible to adapt to an uncertain and ever-changing business context. Finally, I believe they can bring a more holistic perspective to business problems that are increasingly complex and global.
What does your role at Netflix consist of, and what are the main challenges it poses for you?
I am responsible for major partnerships with telecommunications companies in Latin America, ensuring that Netflix’s service is integrated and available for streaming through these companies’ services. We work to bring more value to the ecosystem, but also to enable many people who don’t have a credit card (the vast majority in these countries) to access Netflix content, increasing its reach and impact. One of the most interesting, but also most challenging factors of this position is the fact that it is a bridge between a company as innovative as Netflix and a customer market that is very distinct from the typical customer with less experience in technology. In this context, it is critical to build trusted relationships with our partners to influence and manage a long-term, higher-impact joint roadmap. Netflix has a mindset of constant innovation and experimentation, while large telecom companies are more focused on day-to-day operational efficiency. This tension creates challenges but also very interesting opportunities from a business perspective.
Why did you decide to take the MBA, and why did you choose The Lisbon MBA?
When I finished my degree in Economics, I knew that I would continue to invest in my future education and business skills. The world changes too fast, and all forms of learning add value and make us grow personally and professionally. The doubt was when and where to pursue this project. I chose to pursue the MBA at a moment in my career when I felt I needed to stop and rethink what I wanted to achieve in the long term. After analyzing several programs in Portugal and abroad, I chose The Lisbon MBA. It is an internationally recognized program, with a strong connection to MIT Sloan, one of the best programs globally. It values not only the so-called hard skills, but also the development of critical leadership skills such as effective communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Finally, I was looking for a program where I could network with relevant global professional experience. Considering my priorities, The Lisbon MBA was undoubtedly the most cost-effective program.
How did you reconcile the MBA with your professional and personal life?
When I made the decision to pursue the MBA, I knew I needed time to fully immerse myself in the experience and deeply understand where I wanted to take my career. In that sense, I opted for the full-time option for one year. Looking back, I feel that it was effectively the best option in my case, allowing me to fully invest in this growth process, identify my strengths, where I could add the most value, and in which companies/industries there was a better fit. The completion of an MBA is a project that involves a large financial and personal investment, with many trade-offs, also from the personal point of view, but that, in my case more than compensated that investment.
How did The Lisbon MBA help you to define and implement your purpose and achieve your professional goals?
My experience of The Lisbon MBA was absolutely transformative both from a personal and professional point of view. I believe that as in everything in life (in relationships, in experiences, in challenges, in opportunities), we take back what we really invest. The year I invested in the MBA took me on a journey of self-knowledge, of challenging my own thinking, of accepting vulnerability, of exploring new ideas and perspectives, with the goal of defining my purpose: to generate a positive impact in people’s lives through innovation and technology! The extraordinary colleagues, professors, professionals and mentors I had the opportunity to meet in the MBA helped me to challenge my own ideas through constructive feedback, to think outside the box and expand my horizons. I feel really grateful for the network of contacts that I have created, some of which have become true friends, and which accompany my trajectory to this day. Additionally, with the MBA I had the possibility to strengthen and acquire new skills that gave me the confidence to pursue in a structured way my professional goals, change companies, industries and embrace an international career.
Having worked outside of Portugal for a few years now, what do you consider to be the major challenges to consider in an international career? And the main advantages?
The biggest challenge in pursuing an international career is getting noticed in an increasingly competitive global environment, especially in top companies in your field like Novartis or Netflix. The migration to a remote working model has brought many opportunities. Still, it also puts us in direct competition with resources globally, where it is no longer so relevant where we are, but rather the skills and value we bring. On the other hand, the opportunities for growth, learning, and having a more significant impact are endless, which is very attractive to someone like me who values personal growth. From my perspective, there is no better way to get out of our comfort zone, constantly force ourselves to grow, and feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. Having been born and spent my childhood in Africa, then studied and worked in Europe and Latin America, I am often asked where my roots are? For me, the beauty of an international experience is precisely the possibility to have many roots spread over many different places. It is an infinitely richer life!
What advice would you give to a young executive?
The young executives reading this interview are women who are interested in their professional growth and are more dedicated than most to achieving it. I would advise taking that “leap of faith” to the next big challenge in your professional career with full confidence, whether it’s pursuing an MBA, looking for a new job opportunity, or an international career. There are always several resources that can support us on this path: a network of contacts, scholarships, and mentors, among others. It is always in our hands to take the following small/big step toward that change
Read the full article (original) in Portuguese here.
Source: Executiva Magazine