Taking live lessons from the comfort of one’s home or office is no longer a difficult task. Leveraging the opportunity to offer classes through a live virtual classroom to professionals all around the globe is Marina Tognetti, whose company delivers live tutoring of 45 languages over the net. She is the Founder and CEO of mYngle, a global quality language learning platform, one of the pioneers in the field. Lessons at mYngle are delivered using a virtual classroom, a tool consisting of VoIP combined with an integrated whiteboard.
Before founding mYngle, Marina had more than 20 years of experience as an international manager, had lived in different countries and learned six languages, she therefore knows very well the benefits of communicating in a native language. She was prompted to start mYngle after the difficulties she faced while trying to learn Chinese in a way that could be combined with her busy job.
Pioneers in the Field
After graduation Marina found herself thriving in an era where entrepreneurship was not very common for academics, she decided therefore to first build a successful career with large multinationals. She worked at Procter & Gamble, Philips, Sara Lee, The Boston Consulting Group, and eBay in different Countries while also pursuing her MBA from INSEAD.
Marina was working as a consultant on a project on internet strategy when she first saw the potential of the internet to disrupt entire industries and change forever the way they buy/sell/interact. This experience was the driver to start an innovative company like mYngle, as Marina saw the possibility of making a real difference with it.
When the company started, it was among the first to provide one-to-one teaching in all languages over the internet. Now COVID has completely changed the world as we know it, causing major disruption to many businesses. While many of the traditional offline players have been challenged by this sudden shift caused, mYngle was already in the ‘right place.’ It was built on many years of experience and knows that migrating existing classroom training programs to digital is not just the application of existing technology solutions. It requires a more fundamental rethinking of the total learning experience, from trainers to content to the blended form. This is where mYngle is making an impact, keeping ahead in this digital transformation by constantly innovating and pursuing the best possible quality and results, educating the market on the difference between improvised solutions and years of expertise.
Obsession with Customer Satisfaction
In mYngle, the team nurtures an obsession for customer satisfaction, which is also one of the company’s key strengths. Three of its key core values are in fact around customers: Customer-centric, Commitment, and Excellence. The purpose is to continuously improve the service. The team does it by constantly listening to users’ feedback and improving accordingly, as well as leveraging new technologies to their advantage.
Innovation is achieved by stimulating a culture of experimentation and allowing mistakes. Innovation cannot exist in a culture of fear of consequences. Myngle tries to develop people that think and not only do “jobs.” Marina looks for entrepreneurs in the staff that joins mYngle, people who do not keep the status quo but push themselves beyond their comfort zone. She is not afraid of failure and constantly urges the team to innovate.
The company’s vision is to disrupt the traditional world of education by providing high-quality, virtual language education at any time and place. With COVID, all has changed, and the world is embracing online education. Soon it will become the norm, setting the standards in terms of quality and flexibility. The company is trying to leverage this opportunity as it forecasted the future much before others did.
Interactive and Immersive Classrooms
Customers are now discovering all the advantages of virtual education compared to the traditional ones in a physical classroom. It offers the same results, but with significantly more convenience, with lessons 24/7 and flexible scheduling, and the possibility of benefitting from the skills of teachers that are not located in geographical proximity. These benefits go beyond the short-term limitations of the lockdown, modernizing the world of education.
The education industry is now going through significant changes. More changes are to be expected shortly, like an increase in the use of big data, such as students’ achievements and attention rates to predict their performance or customize their learning experience. Augmented reality and virtual reality can help the classroom become more interactive and immersive, and the use of AI can tailor learning for every student. This is something that could change the future of education. Marina shares, “For mYngle, this means that we need to keep innovating and pursuing the best possible quality and results, educating the market on the difference between improvised solutions and years of expertise to keep on being ahead in this digital transformation.”
The Future is Bright for the Education Sector
Marina believes that the education industry was operating in the old traditional way, offering learners what is available, not what the industry needs. But “One size does not fit all. I would like to change that,” Marina says, “Something we are doing at mYngle, one of our focus areas and key strengths. Online, of course, makes it easier to offer a much more personalized training and experience. By understanding the customer and diversifying our offer regarding teacher- content- frequency- technology solution, we can match each specific need.”
Marina believes that the integration of information technology in education will be further accelerated, and online education will eventually become an integral component of education. This shift to online also opened the company’s eyes to the potential of the broader training market, which is less mature than language learning in terms of online solutions. This means that there is a window of opportunity here, similar to that of language learning years ago.
The most important advice Marina would like to give to an aspiring entrepreneur is to stop comparing. The stories they read about the few that ‘’got it all’’ are rare exceptions and often not the full truth. They need to let go of that. “Let go of trying to imitate the types of leadership you see around but are not you and be true to yourself.” She adds, “Don’t look around for answers; look inside.”
