Throughout her professional journey, research, and position as a strategy professor at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Lena Lizunova has seen that there are many potential disadvantages people could face in both their careers and their lives. But through her own experiences, she has also seen that feeling like someone believes in her can make a big difference in overcoming challenges—especially self-imposed limits.
Lizunova’s interest in studying disadvantages—and the opportunities to overcome them—has been shaped in part by the time she spent as a young girl with her grandmother. “She could do any kind of math in her head and recite hundreds of poems. She had an amazing memory,” Lizunova recalls. But due to World War II, her grandmother never finished high school. “She was so bright, but because of all those opportunity barriers, she wasn’t able to fully realize her professional potential.”
Even though Lizunova has always been driven to make an impact, her understanding of how she can best create that impact has evolved over time. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in international relations and a master’s degree in public policy from Brigham Young University, Lizunova moved to the East Coast and worked with a nonprofit organization. “But I soon realized that it’s challenging to make an impact that way when a financial crisis hit and funding became scarce,” Lizunova says.
Frustrated by the financial limitations of nonprofit organizations, Lizunova turned her attention to business, spending several years working at a startup before returning to school. She earned a dual MBA from the Tsinghua-MIT and HEC Paris programs, and then a PhD in management from HEC Paris. But the idea of working in corporate settings also didn’t fully resonate with Lizunova. “I love exploring new questions. I love being with students,” she says. “I think that getting a PhD and being a professor has been a great fit for me.”
Having lived on and gotten degrees from three different continents, Lizunova enjoys the opportunity to share global perspectives with her students at BYU Marriott. “Every company has become global in some sense,” Lizunova says. “If you look at the value chain, there is a really high probability that part of it is abroad.” Lizunova makes a point to help her students expand their minds by discussing international cases in class. “I think that you become more innovative as you’re exposed to different ideas from around the world.”
Lizunova also researches and teaches about untapped potential and overcoming disadvantage—whether due to structural inequality, economic trends, or societal expectations. Lizunova believes that “disadvantages create a lot of subtle problems that don’t allow us to maximize our potential—whether as individuals, companies or societies.” She says her professional journey, including her experiences as a woman in a field historically dominated by men, has helped her connect with colleagues facing various workplace challenges.
In an effort to help those facing disadvantages, Lizunova is studying and trying to address some of the barriers that different groups face in their careers, including women in the business field. She has seen that women exit male-dominated industries at higher rates than men, even when their ventures perform equally well financially. One common reason, she says, is that they feel unsupported in their fields, leading to a sense of isolation. Wanting to help female strategy students at BYU Marriott feel connected and supported, Lizunova began advising the Women in Strategy Association last year.
In addition to mentoring students in the association, Lizunova says that she tries to help every student recognize their own potential. “There are often barriers to opportunity, some of which are external, but others are self-imposed. We may think we’re not good enough, or there could be some anxiety that prevents us from pursuing opportunities,” she says. “When you’re a student, life can feel uncertain and self-doubt may creep in, so the people who see potential in you can really make a difference.”
She credits a few BYU professors for doing exactly that for her when she was a student. “They told me ‘Lena, you are good at writing. You are very naturally curious. You would be a really good professor.’” She says that she never would have considered the profession she now loves if her teachers hadn’t encouraged her. “Because they saw my potential and mentored me, I was able to begin developing some of that potential.”
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Written by Elizabeth Walker