MBA: Teamwork tips from the experts
In May the 2004 full-time MBA class at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business (GSB) took on the annual Three Peaks Challenge, a strenuous hike over the city's spectacular backdrop of Devil's Peak, Table Mountain and Lion's Head.
Starting out in high spirits at the crack of dawn, it seemed a good way to spend a Sunday, until the clouds descended shortly afterwards and we became disoriented, the targets we were aiming at no longer visible in the dense fog.
This strikes me as an analogy for my MBA experience to date - exciting and character-building but with much energy wasted stumbling around on the lower slopes in frustration, at first looking for the elusive summit and then for the quickest way down.
In my last diary I was concerned that, despite travelling thousands of miles to attend business school, I would not have time in a crammed schedule to engage in any depth with the world away from campus.
While this remains an issue, I am having more opportunities to interact with the outside world.
Early in the intensive schedule, I glimpsed the richness that South African society offers, from a lecturer's inspirational life story to the professional insights of a guest speaker from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
My South African classmates, although not representative of their society as a whole, have given me an insight into the complexities of their country and the issues it still has to face.
On a canoeing trip on the Orange River (which forms part of the border with Namibia), I was a privileged bystander to a conversation between two of our party. The two men discovered they had served as soldiers on opposing sides of the liberation struggle, for the South African Defence Force and Umkhonto we Sizwe (the military wing of the apartheid-era ANC) respectively. Their mutual understanding and capacity for forgiveness spoke volumes about how far South Africa has come and what it has to offer from an education perspective.
The opening weeks of the MBA found me oscillating between disillusionment and optimism.
The shock of returning to the classroom after so many years away hit me hard. The predominant method of assessment - written exams - inhibits a deeper understanding of the course content. Our minds are often more focused on short-term performance than on what we can learn from each other. The ability to set priorities and work as a team in our allocated syndicate groups is essential to success, but I hardly needed to give up my job to discover this.
My partner is with me, but my workload hinders our ability to spend time together.
These misgivings have receded, largely with the realisation that my classmates, competitive by nature, are also highly supportive of one another. There is a willingness to collaborate and share information for collective gain. Although each week of lectures makes me hanker after working in a real business again, I appreciate the insight and opportunity for reflection that academia offers.
In the first two terms, the lecturers may not have been the star-studded names of some business schools but most scored highly on knowledge and teaching ability. Economics, accounting and operations management were brought alive. As I suspect may be true of many MBA programmes, the statistics course was the nemesis of many students, although there was a lively relevance as my group investigated the patterns of usage and dangers of paraffin as a fuel for cooking, heating and lighting in Cape Town's less affluent neighbourhoods. My South African education certainly benefited from a day's door-to-door calling in Khayelitsha (the Western Cape's largest township), meeting residents and conducting the survey.
A course called communication, learning and leadership helped me learn more about myself, my aspirations and the way I relate to others. I found finance largely dry and uninspiring, and marketing a disappointment. However, the overall quality of lectures has been high, with an impressive line-up of guest speakers and an opportunity to broaden my perspective beyond its previous sales and marketing slant.
The South African business education sector has recently seen a big shake-out, with only six of the country's MBA programmes receiving full accreditation by the Council on Higher Education. The GSB may not feature highly in the rankings against its European and US counterparts, but its status internationally has been officially endorsed and the business, economic and social environment that it actively engages with makes it a rewarding place to be.
More than half way through the 10 months of the MBA, we have completed most of the compulsory core courses and are now able to put together our own programme from a choice of electives.
Despite a desire to get through the next four months unscathed, take a holiday and then get back to work, things have taken a turn for the better with the real world now a more prominent feature of the course.
Where possible I have turned down the chance to read more case studies and taken the practical route, including an elective that enables me to work with small emerging businesses run by entrepreneurs previously disadvantaged by the apartheid regime.
The research project I need to complete before graduating at the end of November re-engages me with my publishing industry background. My focus will be on better understanding consumer attitudes towards reading and buying books in South Africa, and is motivated by wanting to identify the growth potential in the local market. This has also got me out and about, in an attempt to meet, and pitch for funding from, local publishers and retailers.
All this is evidence, if I needed it, that I can learn more outside the lecture theatre than in it, and I urge anyone considering studying full-time to take this into consideration.
MBAs have had a bad press recently, much of it justified. My main recommendations for choosing a school are to make sure your fellow students have work experience you can learn from and to consider the balance of where your learning will take place.
I have no regrets. I am now benefiting from what South Africa has to teach about working positively, constructively and compassionately with others to build a better future. The conversation I witnessed on the Orange River is the kind of lesson that will stay with me long after the statistical formulae, economic theories and strategic models have faded from memory.
By Peter Shemilt
Published: Aug 01, 2004
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