Oranges from lemons
ONE of my friends asked how an MBA (master’s in business administration) would be useful to my career. She could see that doing the MBA was taking a toll on me. I would travel from long business trips on Friday night and go to class as well as complete assignments on the weekends. On Monday morning, I would be back at work.
It was tough but since I have always wanted to do an MBA, the thought of giving up never crossed my mind. I focused my search on the best available part-time MBA option in Malaysia. I chose Strathclyde Business School because it was one of the globally recognised MBA schools available in Malaysia and the weekend classes suited my schedule. Little did I know I would go on to gain more than I bargained for.
The difference between an MBA and any other specialised degree is that it gives you the opportunity to meet a spectrum of people from various backgrounds. You can count the chief executive officer of Monier Indonesia, the head of client solutions of Facebook Malaysia, a former chief financial officer of a theme park in Malaysia and the head of finance of iflix Malaysia as prominent Strathclyde alumni.
The Strathclyde MBA dedicates an entire semester on strategy-related courses. It also emphasises being a reflective practitioner – doing, learning from mistakes and making it better the next time.
As such, the assignments given were real, relevant, challenging but exciting nonetheless.
During my time, we did a scenario planning for Kazakhstan, a strategy paper for Uniqlo, a branding and marketing paper for the tourism board of Australia and a consulting assignment for a well-known local cartoonist.
All credible business schools will show some form of calculation to prove the return on investment of taking up an MBA programme. However, there is no guarantee that an MBA will catapult you to success.
So, is it worth the time and effort to pursue an MBA? Yes. After all, an investment in education and knowledge persists or increases in value over time.
Would you need an MBA to be successful in your life or career? No, but it does help. The MBA is like breadcrumbs to your career goals. You would still have to pick them up and figure out a way to your destination.
Without the breadcrumbs, you will have to rely on trial and error and maybe a whole lot of innate ability, inheritance and luck.
– By Vincent Lim, Strathclyde Business School MBA graduate
For more information, visit www.cdc.edu.my or call 03-7660 8950.