Today’s profile comes from Brazilian Pedro Kniphoff…
Who am I?
I hate normalcy. Whenever you look at me, you will find me unsettled, curious, wanting to do something new and usually multi-tasking. I love getting to know countries, cultures, and food I have not eaten before. In summary, I live for new experiences.
What did I do before IMD?
I have worked my whole life in my passion: finance. Most of it was in multiple sub-departments of treasury, but most recently in my career I moved to FP&A and became a more generalist finance professional, partnering with the commercial department and looking at business in a holistic way.
One unique thing about myself
I am a firm believer of discipline. I heard a retired navy seal, Jocko Willink, who said that discipline equals freedom. If we want to be free from financial problems, we must be disciplined at study and work. If we want to be free from health issues, we must be disciplined at sports and diet. I completely agree with this and have been living a disciplined life for a long time.
My vision of success
Success is being satisfied with what you have achieved, either personally or professionally, no matter how much you have. It is OK to be ambitious and keep on seeking challenges; however, you must be grateful for your achievements. True gratitude and satisfaction is where real success lies.
At IMD, I have seen these traces of my personality very strongly: appetite for finance, discipline in the readings and sports as well as jumping on a plane on any rare weekend to get to know a new European country, all happening when people tend to be snowed under. Once again, discipline has given me the freedom I sought during my MBA life.
Me (2nd from left) with some of my MBA classmates
Pedro
