Tag Archives: postgraduate
Welcome to the UWA MBA Full Time Intensive – “the place where you will all read until your eyes bleed and think until your head hurts. The contained energy inside the Tony Howarth Lecture Theatre stirred as our lecturers delivered these sentiments as anecdotes for the next 12 months. This energy resonated from the 20 MBA students who tried desperately to sit and make sense of everything that was thrust upon them during the first weeks of Session 1. As daunting as this statement sounds – I think I speak for most of us, when I say that we were quite ready to start what looked like a very exciting year ahead.
I arrived 3 days late for the MBA orientation, as a curious traveller not entirely sure what to expect – but ready to star in another chapter of my life’s adventure. I chose to come to the University of Western Australia (UWA) because I wanted to meet individuals who share the same fundamental values as myself – but who, at the same time challenge me with new meaning. I chose to come to UWA because I wanted to test my limits and learn more about my own ambition. So it goes without saying that I was pleasantly comforted when the Dean, Phil Dolan, emphasised the fact that ‘becoming an effective leader is a life long process and progression’ and with that I believe that we must all put ourselves in position of discomfort (in order to succeed)”.
Subscribe to receive latest blog posts via email
I know, I know…what an MBA ‘did to you’? It’s not what it sounds like, trust me. As I approach the end of my MBA journey at the University of Western Australia (UWA), half way through my second to last unit, I find myself thinking back to when i first began my MBA journey. I recently attended an open house for prospective MBA students where I had to provide insights into what my journey has been like and answer their questions. In doing so, I found myself thinking:
What’s changed? Is this another tick on the old CV or has something else happened as a result of it? Am I still the same person? Finally, was it all worth it?
Here are my key takeaways for anyone considering an MBA. It’s a big purchase (I could have spent the money on a number of other things), so anyone considering it needs to be well informed. This is my experience of it but I encourage you to do your homework (pun) before committing
Subscribe to receive latest blog posts via email
Isn’t life funny? This time last year I would never have imagined that I’d be sitting here writing this today. I was literally on the other side of the world, living in Washington DC, enjoying a muggy summer and reflecting on what was coming next. Now I am back home in Perth and half way through an MBA at the University of Western Australia (UWA).
I was in a unique position as I sat contemplating my next career move; I had personally witnessed the transformational power of an intensive MBA program. I spent two years in Durham, North Carolina as my husband undertook his own MBA program. I saw him and his friends blossom into the next generation of business leaders and develop everlasting bonds with their classmates.
Subscribe to receive latest blog posts via email
My name is Laurent Barrere, and I am currently half-way through the UWA MBA Full Time Intensive program at the University of Western Australia (UWA). I am also the recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship for which I am very grateful. I was expecting to learn a lot this year, in finance, economics, and organisational behaviour. And I did. But I couldn’t possibly anticipate the learnings I gotten so far about myself, my strengths, my weaknesses, and my potential. Over the past six months I have interacted with great leaders of Australia; close encounters with greatness that would humble me and excite my aspirations for the future. I recently came to realise more broadly what those learnings about leadership were and how they lay critically at the core of Corporate Australia’s attitude towards change.
Subscribe to receive latest blog posts via email
There’s currently extensive media coverage of an “ideas boom” now underway in Australia. This “boom” is being strongly supported by the Federal government, who have recently introduced a range of measures to promote and foster the boom in the form of special tax incentives and direct government funding. Increasingly venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are looking for the next winning idea.
What is the relevance of an MBA to this ideas boom? Naive thinking has it that an MBA is incompatible with the new environment of innovation and disruption, however nothing could be further from reality.
While it’s a popular myth, disruptive, innovative ideas don’t spring from nothing. Rather, developing and articulating a new idea or concept requires a careful and structured consideration of a wide range of factors – the size and dimensions of the marketplace, the “problems” being faced by consumers, the competitor environment, and proposing a solution that addresses these competing considerations, that is viable and executable. The skills required to perform this kind of analysis are broad based and an ability to work effectively across business disciplines is required.
