Grant Janssen

Coming from a military background, what sparked your interest in the London Business School MBA?

My family has a strong history in the US Navy, and it always stood out to me as a career that would be both meaningful and full of adventure. As a submarine officer, I had a very dynamic and exciting role. Sometimes I would be working in the reactor, and at other times I would be strapping on my scuba tanks for diving operations. I was deployed everywhere from the Middle East to the Arctic.

After six years, I came away from the Navy with technical depth and leadership experience, but I knew I wanted to pivot to the corporate world. An MBA was the clear next step, but I also wanted to use those two years to step outside my comfort zone. After working in such a regimented, tight-knit environment with a small group of colleagues, it felt important to be somewhere diverse and international. Living in London, surrounded by exceptional people from vastly different backgrounds, was a vision that really appealed to me.

I can say that London Business School lived up to that vision, and then some. It was the perfect place to make the transition from being Lieutenant Janssen to just being Grant again.

Is there a particular skill, mindset, or opportunity from London Business School that you draw on in your work today?

The most tangible opportunity London Business School gave me was a path to a successful career in consulting at Bain, something that would have been significantly harder to achieve without the learning, mentorship, and community it provided. It gave me the core business toolkit to be effective from day one and a more structured approach to critical thinking. But the mindset shift has been equally valuable. The School taught me to genuinely listen to other people’s ideas and perspectives before forming a judgment. Too often, when someone presents an idea at work, you immediately start thinking about what might be wrong with it, rather than staying open to their perspective. Whether in my personal life or in a business setting, that shift consistently leads to better outcomes and brings more nuance to how I think and operate.

My elective in Financial Statement Analysis with Alastair Lawrence was also particularly impactful. I had always thought accounting was quite black and white, and more broadly I had assumed that many aspects of business operated the same way. The course showed me that even in areas that seem the most clear-cut, there is often significant room for interpretation, and that perspective has been incredibly valuable in my work at Bain.

Looking back at your Orientation photos, how do you feel you’ve grown personally since then? Do you feel like a different person from day one?

Definitely. In the Navy, I spent years working with largely the same group of people in a very structured, regimented environment. My schedule was defined, and much of my day-to-day life was controlled. At London Business School, it was the complete opposite. Every day I was meeting new people, exposed to new ideas, and living in a foreign country where there was a constant sense of possibility. That experience pushed me out of my comfort zone in the best possible way, and it was genuinely fun.

I feel like the world is a much smaller place after London Business School, not least because of how extensively I travelled on treks to places like Greece, France, and the Middle East. I came back to the US a more complete person, shaped by an environment unlike anything I had experienced before, surrounded by people from all over the world. The military taught me discipline and resilience, while the School taught me curiosity and perspective. I now carry both with me every day.