I left school at 16 and
joined the RAF. Six months later I was at
college taking A-levels, before falling
into a job with a local council doing Data
Preparation. It was 14 years later, after
fulfilling the role of ‘technician’
across a number of different disciplines,
that I was first assigned to ‘manage’.
I was an untrained, inexperienced
worker, and yet had responsibility for seven
staff all looking to me for leadership and
guidance. What resulted was a virgin manager
being over-worked, under-paid and critically
under valued. Why? Because of a lack of
credibility – stemming from limited
management competence. The time had arrived
to re-invent myself, to redress the fact
that I had not made the most of my youth
and education. To face the fact I had no
professional qualification, and to make
the transition from ‘techie’ into
manager.
I needed training and education
in the nature of organisations. What is
strategy and does it matter? What role did
culture and organisational dynamics play
in making organisations and managers successful?
Why were operations always ‘sold out’
by marketing, and why did the financial
director always seem to have the real power?
If I was to be successful, I knew that I
personally needed to know all of these things
and more.
The thought of studying corporate
strategy, marketing, corporate finance,
and organisational change filled me with
excitement, and if I could survive what
I knew would be a hellish three years of
distance learning, then I could survive
anything. I had never been an academic,
yet I was confident that I could readily
tie together the theory to the practice
– that I would make myself a capable
manager and deliver to my staff the sort
of leadership, methods and practices which
they deserved.
I would be lying if I said
that I didn’t think my studies and
qualification would gain me career advancement.
I wanted recognition and I wanted to be
different – I wanted the skills I needed
to be successful, and I saw the MBA as a
route to that success. I expected it to
give me an advantage over other managers,
and it did. I was able to communicate effectively
with senior managers much more readily.
I firmly believe that the
MBA remains the most comprehensive and challenging
management training programme, but only
when it is tied to practical experience
and undertaken in a real life environment.
No amount of lecture theory can substitute
for six months in a fast changing and dynamic
organisational environment. Tie the two
together and you have a recipe for success
and development, both individually and organisationally.
For me, the experience of doing it was worth
more and was more important than the end
qualification; the learning experience was
terrific. I grew as an individual and as
a manager. I learned how to survive under
a ridiculous workload; I understood more
about myself, and what makes me tick. I
now have a passion for strategy. A real
coup for me was entering the Cap Gemini
International Business School, the company’s
elite corporate university, that everyone
wants to attend but only a few are accepted.
I was fortunate to be chosen, and my MBA
helped open the doors to the programme.
I have now taken up a position as a technology
head in our strategic technology unit.
I set out to re-invent myself,
to develop myself and to make myself more
valuable to my staff, my organisation and
to me. I think the MBA experience has done
that and more, and I would recommend it
to anyone. I am now part of Cap Gemini’s
Ebusiness team – advising on the future
strategy and direction of both our and our
clients’ business – hard at work,
putting the MBA to use.
Author
Sam Forster
Head of Technology
Strategic Technology Unit
Cap Gemini
