Aug 19 2011
Business People, Working People & Fresh Graduates in MBA – Part 1 of 3 (Original Version)
This is the original version of my article sent to be published in MBA Edge Quarterly magazine October 2010 issue. The edited version published in magazine might be a little different. Your feedback is much welcome.
Dato’ Muni is finally back to school. Having spent over 20 years working and building his business, an education courseware provider for homeschooling kids, first of its kind in Malaysia. He just enrolled himself in an executive MBA program. Already in his late 40s, does he really need the qualification? Of course no. So why waste time studying for MBA when he has achieved so much success already?
But Dato’ Muni has his own reason. He wants to expand his business regionally and bring it to the next level. He also plans to list the company in Bursa Malaysia later. He believes an MBA can help him gain new knowledge and insights to attain another new height in business. He enjoys discussion and brainstorming with classmates so that he may be inspired with new ideas. He loves to learn from the experience of others and he likes to share his too. He may even find future business partners in the class. But honestly, it is not so nice telling people in IPO that you as a company director have only a bachelor of arts in accounting. To him, a master degree in business will just fit the bill nicely.
Lisa is a bank officer. Since joining as a management trainee five years ago with a bachelor degree in economics, she has gone through job rotation in various departments to get familiarized with the bank operations. Her pleasant personality and ability to work with people of every temperament earn her the reputation of being able to get work done well. In terms of ability, she is well poised for promotion as a manager. But she has one problem. She does not have a postgraduate qualification. It is difficult for the bank to justify promoting her when there are others who possess master degree.
Lisa has reached a plateau in her career. She lacks the necessary qualification to climb up the corporate ladder to earn higher salary. Something must be done. That is why she has chosen to do an MBA for a breakthrough in her career. As her boss keeps telling her, she also wants to learn to look at problems more holistically and solve them from a managerial perspective. She believes MBA will teach her the right problem solving skills she needs, and trains her to see things from a vantage point she never experiences. Furthermore, an MBA qualification will give her some insurance in job prospect. As her supportive husband advises, even if one day she is downsized by the bank, armed with an MBA, she still could have a good headstart in another company, or even a different career.
Rocky is a young aspirant. He is ambitious, independent, outspoken, entrepreneurial, Internet-savvy and wants to make a difference in the world. He maybe just a fresh graduate in bachelor of business administration (BBA) having very little working experience. But he already has high ambition to chart a career in corporate world. He even speaks of making it big in business one day when opportunity strikes like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, though he does not know yet exactly how.
Rocky too has chosen to take the MBA course. He does not know how useful it might turn out for him. But an MBA seems to be a natural progression path for a BBA holder like him. After all, the economy is not doing so well and many seniors do not get the job they want. His parent’s advice makes sense to him to stay in the university for another year to acquire a master degree so that he may have a competitive advantage over others next time in the job market. To him personally, he also hopes to find a girl friend in the course. This is evident from his status update on Twitter the week before his MBA starts. His tweet reads, “I hope can meet some leng lui lah!”
Read related posts
Be updated about this blog by email or in your feed reader (RSS)!
[...] Continued from previous… [...]