Anna Krupnova’s passion for learning sparked at a young age. At three years old, she started picking random books off her parents’ shelves and taught herself to count. She later encouraged her family to send her to school a year early.
“Studying was always a part of my life,” Krupnova says. “And that passion stayed with me. I’m fascinated by information, like to expand my knowledge in different domains and take different courses to increase my proficiency, and that never stopped.”
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DOWNLOAD NOWKrupnova earned two bachelor’s degrees—one in information systems and technology and the other in banking and finance—from the Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology in Russia. She simultaneously took evening classes to become a professional English-to-Russian translator.
While studying, she interned at a local consulting company, which turned into her first full-time business analyst role. The job enabled her to combine her finance and information technology (IT) knowledge and help clients implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software to improve their processes and drive internal digital transformation.
During that time, Krupnova moved from Russia to Toronto, Canada, where she earned her master’s degree in information systems and technology from York University. Unsurprisingly, her learning didn’t stop there. She became a certified business analyst professional (CBAP) and acquired nearly 20 certifications in areas like process improvement approach Lean Six Sigma, Microsoft Dynamics, and IT project management.
“I wanted to provide higher-quality recommendations and best practices to my customers,” Krupnova says.
Her commitment to career advancement helped her progress from a business analyst to a program manager, delivery manager, and then director of process optimization and business operations. She provided business partner support to internal teams in areas like IT, global processes, and software tools while collaborating closely with senior leaders to prioritize, plan, and implement improvements to optimize the employee and customer experience.
As Krupnova advanced from manager to director, she transitioned from overseeing nine employees in a corporate environment to building and leading a business and technology operations department with five teams at a startup.
“My focus was on ensuring all processes and tools worked seamlessly to make the company more scalable and efficient,” Krupnova says. “I was managing almost 100 applications with the team. And in some areas, I didn’t have expertise. I had to constantly learn and apply the knowledge in practice. That made me think about how to grow from an operational project management mindset to a strategic one. I started realizing strategy and operations come together; it’s impossible to separate the two.”
It was then that Krupnova started exploring strategy courses and discovered Harvard Business School Online’s Strategy Learning Track, which enabled her to take three courses in the topic area to earn an advanced certificate. Her goal was to better understand how leaders make strategic decisions for scaling companies, define organizational structure, and innovate—all while navigating a fast-changing business landscape.
“When scaling companies, employees are often given the power to decide on strategic implementation projects or process implementations, impacting companies’ results,” Krupnova says. “However, the tension between growth, profit, and control across departments limits the results companies could achieve.”
Krupnova enrolled in Business Strategy first and, as she says, “was absolutely in love.” The platform’s interactivity kept her engaged, and she was impressed by the global community's expertise. The experience inspired her to pursue Disruptive Strategy and Strategy Execution.
“Throughout the learning experience, we worked side by side with VPs, CEOs, and team leaders to analyze famous business cases, gaining a better understanding of value generation in key strategic decisions, understanding jobs to be done for customers, and addressing strategy execution tensions,” Krupnova says. “All three courses gave me the knowledge and understanding of how to manage the strategy development process and close the gap I originally discovered.”
Krupnova describes feeling empowered to share strategic ideas with her organization’s C-level executives. The courses built her confidence, validated her thinking, and highlighted that the roadblocks she experienced at work were normal.
“I had to find areas where I don’t have expertise, expand in this domain, and implement optimization initiatives, all while thinking strategically and raising myself from the project and program execution perspective,” Krupnova says. “The right balance between an operational approach and strategic mindset on the director-manager level may significantly impact the company's profitability. Every company will go through these strategic challenges and need to raise new strategists and change leaders.”
While Krupnova applied her knowledge at her full-time job, she also leveraged it to manage her online tea shop, Fleur Palace. The shop offers dozens of globally sourced green, black, herbal, and matcha teas from Canada, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Africa.
“My goal now is to keep growing the tea business,” Krupnova says. “I was looking at it as my passion project, but I see it becoming more than that. These strategy courses helped me think about new market domains, about disruption for new and existing customers, and about how to innovate in the tea industry.”
Looking ahead, Krupnova is excited to welcome a baby into the world and spend time with her newborn. From there, she aspires to rejoin a corporate environment and pursue more strategic roles in IT, leveraging her new HBS Online knowledge alongside her deep operational and project management expertise. It’s an unknown she’s excited to explore and encourages others to follow.
“Never stop learning and exploring the horizon of the unknown,” Krupnova says. “Life and the work environment are bigger than one role and one job specialization. Finding ways to gain more knowledge will contribute to your success and establish you as a thought leader in your current role, but it will also benefit the company in the long term.”
If you want to develop strategic insights to advance your career, explore HBS Online’s strategy courses. Aren’t sure which is the right fit for you? Download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals.
