Tag Archives: Engineer

For most people considering an MBA, it is assumed that once they have completed their studies, they will be rewarded with career advancement with a prestigious company and an immediate salary increase. But do students have realistic expectations about getting an MBA? And how do expectations compare to real-life experiences of going through an MBA programme?

In this article, we will cover both the realities of business school life with the help of three Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMFs), scholarship students who (at the time of writing) are still studying as well as taking a look at ‘expectations versus reality’ post- MBA regarding salary aspirations, how much value employers put on an MBA and opportunities in the current job market.

Undertaking an MBA programme is extremely challenging and requires a lot of work and dedication. This is not too surprising as graduates will earn a world-class business education in one to two years, depending on the business school. However, some students can underestimate the work that MBAs require and the pressure this creates.

The intensity of business school begins from the moment you arrive and involves long hours with hardly any free time. It is not something students complain about as everyone is working to the same end, it is just that many say that they have never worked so hard before, despite many having come from busy, thriving organisations.

2020 Scholarship Winner Kieran Chandler — SMF Kieran Chandler

Kieran Chandler, an SMF currently studying at INSEAD shines some light into the atmosphere students can expect when they first arrive at business school, “Everyone I spoke with before starting my course told me that an MBA would be intense, but little could prepare me for just how much is crammed into every single second. From studying to career development, sport, clubs, and of course some socialising, there are a million and one opportunities. The only thing that is for certain is you can’t do everything, and you will soon become far too familiar with the concept of MBA FOMO!”

2020 Scholarship Winner — SMF Sam Vennin

Another SMF Sam Vennin, an MBA candidate at London Business School was surprised by the initial intensity of term life but grateful for the many opportunities and electives to choose from, “However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much you can tailor your experience through a vast number of electives. I liked the fact you can pick most of them in your second year, once you have already done your summer internship and have identified areas you feel you need to improve. A lot of thought goes into the composition of study groups. I felt like mine suited my character and way of working perfectly while I know it would have been harder for me in other groups.

“It’s important to get in early if there are clubs and societies you want to get involved in. I was not expecting the application season for positions on the clubs’ executive committees, such as the Healthcare Club or the Technology & Media Club, to start so early! My MBA started in mid-August and by late September/early October, all the leaderships positions had already been filled,” said Sam.

Students may underestimate the amount of competition they will encounter at business school. Being ‘top dog’ is the norm for many students, but they will soon discover that the ability level at business school is incredibly high. With the tough entry requirements of top international MBA programmes, students will quickly discover that their classmates are also top performers. It can be difficult for new students to come to terms with, but the intensity of the classes tends to drive everyone to a stronger performance overall.

Reflecting on his first few days at IMD Business School, entrepreneur, SMF Henning von Spreckelsen said, “One of the attractions of my business school, IMD, was the multicultural, multilingual nature of the students – there were 42 nationalities in my cohort. I’m a German national, educated in the UK and Belgium so I speak fluent French and German and thought that with three languages I would be on par with other students, but the average number of languages spoken by students was between four and five. You went into the study rooms to debate different cases and it would be done in Spanish in one group, in French in another group; you might have a German lawyer arguing with an Italian engineer in a language that was not their mother tongue – it was impressive.”

Most students who first attend business school admit to being amazed by the diversity of students on their course. Far from the misconception that business schools are filled with a certain type of character, the opposite is true. They are very diverse with students from different countries, different cultures, different ways of looking at problems and different perspectives of the world. Most say that the course changes their world view of things – they realise that there are different ways to look at one problem, and importantly, they make a network of friends which they keep in touch with for life.

As an example of the level of diversity students can expect to enjoy, the current MBA class at Cambridge boasts 41 nationalities and students hailing from educational backgrounds in the arts, business, engineering, political science, and science.

The MBA experience is certainly challenging with schools actively pushing students well out of their comfort zones. For example, you will now always stay within a study group for the duration of the course – this approach ensures that students work with a diversity of students and are pushed to their limits and begin to think differently.

SMF Mihir BhushanFor SMF Mihir Bhushan, an MBA Candidate at MIT Sloan, business school is both unexpected and a revelation, “The flexibility has been astonishing in a positive way. It means that no two MBAs come away from business school with the same experience. I’ve chosen to take a heavily analytics-based course, far more so than I expected to be able to do. I’ve even taken two computer science courses from the Engineering School. Some friends have been able to focus on start-ups and entrepreneurship and others on soft skills. It’s also super practical and applied.”

Post-MBA
Expectations versus reality post-MBA are harder to detail as they are dependent on the economic climate and in recent times, the unknown long-term effect of the global pandemic. However, some factors remain the same and are useful to consider before students embark upon their studies.

A lot of students expect that once they graduate with an MBA, they will be able to quickly find a high-paying job with a prestigious company, much of this expectation is true because business schools provide extensive recruitment services. However, the technical skills taught in an MBA are not the only important factors. As well as strong business understanding and acumen, firms also look for soft skills, from effective team working to leadership, so be sure to think about this when choosing electives and working through the programme. In addition to your MBA, you need to be able to demonstrate to potential employers that you also have a variety of soft skills.

The top five soft skills most desired by employers according to a survey by the Financial Times are the ability to work well with others, the ability to manage time and resources, being able to see the big picture in business, being able to network with others and the ability to demonstrate problem-solving skills.

Post-MBA, when students are preparing for job interviews, it is useful to think about times when you encountered problems in the above areas and managed to solve them. And if you are still a student, it is important to build up your network and work on extra-curricular activities to develop your skills further.

A very real potential obstacle for current students is the long-term effect of the coronavirus pandemic. There is no doubt that it has hit the economy and jobs market hard. Businesses had to furlough staff, the hospitality and travel sectors were in forced hibernation, and the ability of workers worldwide to work from home is still being put to the test. However gloomy the situation may appear at the moment; it could be that an MBA will make you stand out even more in the post-coronavirus jobs market.

It is cause for optimism and a belief that the impact of coronavirus, is only a temporary hit and that we will travel again, and we will return to bars, restaurants, cafes etc. In fact, many believe that consulting firms specialising in digital transformation will be in high demand. A factor that could provide a lot of employment opportunities for young people coming from a computer science or business background, like MBAs.

MBA graduates may well be in high demand in the years following the coronavirus pandemic, as companies look for recruits who understand every mechanism that makes up a business. A great advantage for MBA students who have acquired these skills in a very intense and recent learning environment.

In terms of salary expectations versus reality, it is also difficult to predict as salary levels depend on a variety of factors including the amount of previous work experience, location, and the economy at the time of graduation.

The Independent’s article on the Advent Group’s global survey highlighted that two-thirds of MBA graduates reported being able to climb the career ladder and received higher salaries as a result of their studies, indicating that career expectations are matching reality when it comes to life post-business education. The survey also found that a candidates’ primary motivation for getting an MBA degree is to climb the career ladder, followed by getting a better-paying job, and the ability to switch career lanes.

Pre-pandemic, a Financial Times article reported that, on average, MBA graduates more than doubled their pre-MBA salaries. Reflecting back to the 2008 financial crisis and through to 2014, the average MBA salary increased by only four per cent per annum, while the average cost of an MBA increased by 44% in that time frame. It is reassuring to know that from 2014 salaries have picked up by 12% and have continued to recover – the FT article states that by 2017, the average post-MBA salary was more than £100,000.

Overall, and before the current economic situation, studying for an MBA was almost guaranteed to provide a positive long-term salary increase. However, and especially in the ‘new normal’, students should thoroughly research the salaries in their industry and take their work experience and other factors into consideration as part of their MBA decision-making process. It is harder than ever to map out what might happen in the next five years and a time of uncertainty especially regarding expectations versus reality post-MBA. The landscape may have changed forever but one thing is for sure, employers will still be looking for candidates with the best skills to help their businesses thrive.

To hear more from our Sainsbury Management Fellows, you can reach interviews here and case studies here. If you are interested in finding out about our MBA scholarship scheme visit this page.

Top photo credit: ChristianChan

case studies

How Applying the Learning and Experience from an MBA Enhanced the Career of Civil Engineer Tony Walters

11/25/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

As one of our earliest Sainsbury Management Fellows, Tony Walters has forged a far-reaching and illustrious career in the construction industry. His engineering journey started with a successful application to Cambridge University. Then twelve years post-graduation and having achieved his professional qualifications he spent a year studying for an MBA at IMI, Geneva with the help of an SMF scholarship. This broadened his skill-set giving him the breadth of experience and the confidence to take on roles at the forefront of some of the world’s most fascinating and challenging infrastructure projects. The Channel Tunnel, High Speed 1, Crossrail, the Trans-European Railway, Boston Central Artery in USA and high-rise buildings in Hong Kong are a selection of his career highlights. Transitioning between contractors, consultants, project management and client organisations with the continuous thread of major infrastructure projects has enabled him to direct major project work in some eighteen countries. He has seen his industry become more integrated and innovative as well as witness the growth of the Sainsbury Management Fellows – a network that started with ten scholarship awards and now boasts over 375 graduates representing all engineering disciplines. Here, Tony shares his career highlights which all began with a simple desire to “get things done”…

An interest in theory, a passion for its application
My journey to becoming an Engineer was progressive. At secondary school maths and the sciences were, without doubt, my favourite subjects, which led to my choosing double maths, physics and chemistry at A level. My subsequent short-list for degree courses was Architecture, Maths and Engineering. Realising that my two favourite A level subjects of Applied Maths and Physics aligned very well with Engineering I applied to Cambridge. I was very keen on their engineering degree as the first two years included subjects that underpin civil, mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines leaving options open until the final year when there was the chance to specialise. I was fortunate to gain a place at Cambridge and have no doubt that a grounding in a breadth of engineering disciplines is very beneficial. Most projects involve several professions and the greater the ability one has to understand and therefore build and co-ordinate effective project and business teams the better the outcome will be. Similarly, I would counsel that a grounding in the breadth of business disciplines afforded by an MBA is also very beneficial for a career in the construction industry.

At the time the Cambridge entrance exam required a single term 3^rd year sixth and my father suggested applying to the Borough Engineer’s Office where we lived to ask for work experience from January to August prior to taking up my degree place. This was successful and I spent eight months in the Drainage Department undertaking both office and site work in a very supportive team. As it happened while there, I was involved in my first tunnelling works as part of a surface water drainage project. This was all superb preparation for my degree, enabling me to see applications for what I was studying. I returned to the council for a couple of months during my second summer vacation and was fortunate to be given a different experience this time in its Bridge Department.

Nurturing a strong affinity with the built environment
In my third year at Cambridge, I chose subjects from the Civil and Structural Engineering options so a career encompassing those branches of engineering beckoned. Sensing at the time that there were two distinct career paths in the UK construction industry, broadly consulting and contracting (or project design & development and project construction) and fairly certain that I wanted to land up in the former I, perhaps perversely, applied to join a contractor. There was method in the madness however as it was with the specific aim of learning about construction by being immersed in it and figuring that it would be easier to make one move from contracting to consulting rather than hop back and forth. My overall career development plan at that time was to obtain broad industry experience, attain professional engineering qualifications and then undertake some formal management training. It is an indication that the industry has become more cohesive that I have in fact moved back and forth several times during my career and also into project management and client organisations.

So, I joined Laing O’Rourke (formerly John Laing) being one of the major UK civil engineering contractors as a Graduate Civil Engineer training under agreement to become a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE). Two years heavy civil engineering construction experience on a major oil-fired power station was followed by eighteen months in the design office as part of the training agreement. That Laing had a reasonably large design office covering both permanent and temporary works was unusual outside a few of the major contractors and more akin to how the industry is organised overseas. This was followed by a return to site in a management contractor role on a large office construction project. During that period, I was successful in becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer and began looking to make a move to an engineering consultancy.

I was successful with a speculative application to the engineering consultants Arup and joined them some five years after graduating. Based in London I worked on structural designs for projects in the UK and Jersey working closely with external architectural practices. I then moved into a team responsible for the design of two high-rise building structures in Hong Kong (Exchange Square and Admiralty Lot 2) both in excess of forty storeys. This was awesome. Engineers at Arup are given significant responsibility and three years there was, without doubt, better than taking a Masters in structural design! I gained sufficient experience to sit for and become a member of the Institution of Structural Engineers (MIStructE) during this time.

Pursuing my true passion for civil engineering
As enjoyable as working at Arup was, I had gained further insight into the construction industry and more certainty as to where my real interests lay. These were civil engineering, project management and the direction of major infrastructure projects. At that time Arup focused almost entirely on structural building projects and they wished to continue in that vein. So, I looked around and found that Mott MacDonald was almost the mirror image of this.

Another speculative application resulted in my joining them, initially working on an arbitration. This was very useful, providing an early chance to interact with senior members of the legal profession and experience how contract documentation can be interpreted. I then moved into the Tunnel Division working on such projects as the Medway Tunnel, Cairo Wastewater Sewerage Scheme and then the Channel Tunnel. Again, significant early responsibility was there to be grasped and I found myself managing a team on this latter project designing several kilometres of tunnel and associated shafts forming the start of the landward and seaward railway tunnels. Mentoring team members and assisting graduates with their training to become chartered engineers was an inherent part of the role. This all confirmed my thoughts that having achieved professional engineering qualifications and with a burgeoning interest in project management that I should seek formal management training.

Seeking formal management training
Seeing an advertisement by The Royal Academy of Engineering in New Civil Engineer (the magazine of the Institution of Civil Engineers) seeking engineers to study for an international MBA sponsored by David Sainsbury and with the encouragement of my employer I applied for one of the ten scholarships on offer. My plan was for the MBA to augment my engineering and to return to Mott MacDonald afterwards. The choice at that time (the second year of the Sainsbury awards in 1998) was between three business schools. These were INSEAD, Paris; IMEDE, Lausanne and IMI, Geneva. I chose IMI on the basis that students on the programme had a similar number of years work experience to me and that the curriculum comprised a good balance between formal teaching and case study work. The availability of the Sainsbury scholarships was the catalyst for my choosing to progress along this particular management development path. Without it and with a young family it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to undertake such a high-level intensive programme. I would most likely have taken a part-time MBA or MSc in project management in the UK, which would have been a good option.

The year spent at IMI, living in Geneva with my family, exceeded our expectations in every way. Firstly the immersion in an international setting both from living abroad and from the twenty nationalities drawn from just forty-seven students on the programme. Then from the intensity of the course, the no holds barred class debates during lectures, undertaking exercises in small international teams and presenting the outcomes to the class together with the sheer volume of work. For some professions on such a course certain subjects are not new whereas for engineers they are all new. This is a challenge but more importantly an exceptional learning and personal development opportunity (as well as representing good value for money!). In order to apply the learning while on the programme I chose to investigate the effectiveness of the business development activities of my industry as the topic for my individual research project.

Returning to the workplace with new skills and taking on new roles and responsibilities
The MBA provided a body of management knowledge and understanding most notably in accounting & finance, management & human resources and business development & marketing to bring back to my employer and broaden career development opportunities. It was a catalyst that Mott MacDonald gave me the opportunity to exploit becoming involved in strategic planning, business development and business and project management. This entailed positions as Associate for European Business Development and subsequently, at my instigation, returning to line management as Divisional Director for an engineering division. This convinced me that it is possible to combine the ongoing development of an engineering career with developing, managing and directing the business side of construction industry projects and organisations. The MBA enabled me to assume a broader range of responsibilities with confidence and with a significant international flavour as evidenced by increasing responsibility for managing and directing a broad range of international projects and businesses. This involved numerous trips to Europe, USA, Malaysia and Taiwan. While all roles used skills and knowledge from the MBA programme, establishing and implementing a company-wide strategy for entering western and central European markets, determining the business case for and setting up joint venture companies in Hungary and the Czech Republic and liaising with European Community Directorates in Brussels concerning project funding made most specific use of them at that time. Other projects included the Boston Central Artery, Sungshan Airport Highway Tunnel in Taipei and the Kuala Lumpur Mass Rapid Transit. Development and introduction of enhanced project progress monitoring and bid management initially for these before they were rolled out more widely was, I believe, a further direct influence of the MBA.

Boston Central Artery - Complex installation of highway tunnels under rail tracks serving Boston South station (photo: courtesy Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections) — Boston Central Artery – Complex installation of highway tunnels under rail tracks serving Boston South station (photo: courtesy Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections)

No problems, just challenges to be overcome
After a total of thirteen years with Mott MacDonald, seven of which were post-MBA, I wanted to become more focused on the management and direction of mega-projects. I began looking for an organisation with such a focus. Coincidentally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) project was just commencing, and I was tempted by the prospect of involvement in the largest private infrastructure project in Europe at that time. I sent a speculative application to the project promoter London and Continental Railways, which was passed on to the consortium Rail Link Engineering (RLE) that had just been awarded the contract to engineer, procure and manage the construction of this high-speed railway from St. Pancras International to the Channel Tunnel. The US company Bechtel was part of RLE and I joined them specifically to work on CTRL and to work through the full project cycle from engineering into procurement and on to construction (termed EPC). A colleague said that they thought my career would follow projects from then on and this has proved broadly correct. With this, my first appointment with an overseas company came new philosophies and ways of working. In particular, I was struck by the very strong sense of corporate identity, the process-driven environment and the mindset that recast problems as challenges that would be overcome. With overall responsibility for around one-quarter of the CTRL route, my experience of railways grew substantially.

Eurostar train enters the Medway tunnel on CTRL (photo: Alamay)

Mega-projects have for some time been defined as those with a cost exceeding £1bn. This is a somewhat broad definition and depends on context. However, with a budget of £7bn CTRL falls squarely into this category. I consider that the process for such projects is akin to building a FTSE250 company to produce a single product and when completed dissolving the company. This is all while meeting peoples’ career aspirations, managing risk and change (the world outside a mega-project does not stand still) and looking to develop and adopt appropriate innovations. The ramp-up, implementation and ramp-down phases all present unique challenges in the mobilisation of people, securing finance, procurement, stakeholder liaison and interfaces with government, other projects, stakeholder businesses and people. Expenditure on CTRL was in excess of £1bn per annum during the construction period. The knowledge and experience gained from an MBA are very valuable in undertaking such projects.

Liaising with Brussels
After completing the design, procurement and civil construction on CTRL over a four-year period the opportunity to become involved in international projects again opened up and I joined a second American company, Parsons Brinckerhoff. I joined as a Director in the Major and Overseas Projects division with responsibility for a range of work. The largest was a 170km section of the trans-European Railway Project in Central Europe. The project scope included the development of the design and construction proposals as well as the business case and preparation of the financial model for both the construction and subsequent operation of the railway. This entailed close liaison with the European Union in Brussels for project viability, environmental impact and ultimately to gain funding approval. Once again MBA-acquired skills and knowledge together with subsequent experience were of immense value in directing an international multi-disciplinary team and driving this infrastructure project forward successfully.

We were also developing the second Bosporus rail crossing in Istanbul, establishing an office in Poland to work on Polish and other railway projects and involved in Dublin metro. Projects closer to home included the Southern Rail power upgrade and review of the proposed Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract conditions on London Underground. The team for this latter appointment required a wide range of contractual and legal as well as railway knowledge. In this context, while there is a school of thought that management is a skill with universal application, I firmly believe that knowledge of a range of disciplines makes for more efficient direction and can engender greater respect and thereby enhance business performance.

Appearing before Parliamentary Select Committees
Four years on saw me join a client organisation for the first time. This was Cross London Rail Links (CRL), responsible for Crossrail Line 1, a £15bn project providing a new east-west railway under London joining Shenfield, Stratford, Abbey Wood and the Docklands in the east with Heathrow and Reading in the west. This project was at a much earlier stage than CTRL had been, with several years to go before a hybrid Bill seeking powers to build the railway was due to be put before Parliament. As Chief Engineer I assumed responsibility for all engineering on the project and as a member of the Project Executive found myself, as many years before, in close liaison with the legal profession in the form of Queen’s Counsel in preparation for promotion of the hybrid Bill. I bought inter alia the experience from CTRL of implementing the same type of powers that we were seeking on Crossrail.

Discussing Crossrail with the Duke of Kent (photo: courtesy Crossrail)

The opportunity to appear before Select Committees in both the House of Commons and House of Lords was an honour and I was reminded that Brunel famously championed major infrastructure projects in Parliament. During my time on Crossrail I found that the MBA also enabled me to understand our stakeholders better. I was able to understand the drivers within their businesses, organisations and communities and how our project could impact them. I assumed specific responsibility for liaison with the London Olympic Development Agency (ODA), Network Rail and London Underground and my team managed negotiations with over fifty utility providers. Powers to build the railway were granted ultimately and awards of the numerous detailed design and construction contracts followed.

Returning to contracting
My initial plan was to stay with CRL for the eight years that the project was scheduled to take through to opening. After eight years and owing to factors outside the direct control of the project, construction was quite advanced but opening was still some way in the future. Eight years is in any case a fair time to spend exclusively on one project however large and when the opportunity to join a major contractor as Engineering Director presented itself, I realised that it was perhaps time for a move. As Engineering Director for Kier Construction involvement in the business of the Board called on all my previous experience with particular emphasis on technical issues as well as commercial, contractual, safety and strategic matters. We had work in the UK, often in international joint ventures and overseas notably in the Middle East and Hong Kong. There were two major railway projects in Hong Kong involving major underground works, one as it happened being the construction of an underground interchange station beneath one of the forty storey towers I had designed while with Arup. Almost déjà vu.

Company and project management
With the successful completion of numerous projects, I learnt from a professional colleague that a small engineering management company that works on major infrastructure projects and for whom I have a lot of respect was looking for someone to take the helm and manage the company through a succession issue. This sounded very interesting and on a personal note would provide the opportunity to work in a small organisation that I had not had previously but had often thought would be rewarding. It might also be a step towards more of a portfolio career. I joined this company, London Bridge Associates and once again the knowledge of business developed on the MBA and consolidated by subsequent experience was of immense benefit. Inevitably in such a small company with 50 staff, undertaking management and direction of the business was combined with some direct project involvement. This included the High Speed 2 rail project, some further Crossrail work and as a complete contrast advising on the provision of the infrastructure for a large radio telescope project in Chile. The portfolio took shape with the above combined with periods of work in Malaysia advising on a major underground rail project in Kuala Lumpur and scaling up my involvement with the Institution of Civil Engineers becoming a reviewer undertaking Professional Reviews of aspiring members.

Advice on developing management skills
There are myriad opportunities and challenges that both clients of and the construction industry itself face globally. The chances this39 presents to use the combination of an engineering degree with formal management training from an MBA are many and varied. I have found that an MBA provides a valuable augmentation to an engineering degree increasing one’s breadth of skills, imparting confidence to challenge the status quo together with the tools to develop and direct the implementation of both project and business change. With the advent of AI, robotics, virtual reality, new materials to improve performance and drive down carbon together with the requirement this brings for new ways of working, new contracts, more efficient risk allocation and new sources of finance the need for engineers who understand business in its widest sense has never been greater.

My advice to those in the construction industry contemplating undertaking an MSc in project management or an MBA? It is quite a commitment so think about how you are going to use it afterwards to benefit yourself and your employer. To look at it in the context of your current employment. This can also be a catalyst for changing direction or moving on, but you need to want to set out in this new direction rather than simply to leave your current role. A project management course will tend to focus on the industry from which students are drawn whereas an MBA will tend to provide a wider business education. For me, the latter has proven valuable in enabling me to understand from first principles the businesses I have worked in and those of other organisations that it has been necessary to do business with during my career.

The Sainsbury Management Fellows MBA Scholarship
If you are a professional engineer considering a full-time MBA as a stepping-stone towards a business leadership career, visit our MBA scholarship application page, you could

case studies

MBA Helps Engineer Imogen Rey Broaden Her Perspectives and Step Up to Strategic Challenges

09/06/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

Deciding to do an MBA is a big decision and cost is a major factor. For most, the cost of attending business school is daunting enough, let alone attending one of the most prestigious schools in the world in a country you have never visited. For UK-born Imogen Rey, now a Senior Manager at global management consultancy Bain & Company, her MBA at Stanford Business School in California was an eye-opening and inspiring experience.

Imogen’s studies were supported by a scholarship from her employer and a Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) MBA scholarship, without which, Imogen says, she would not have been able to attend Stanford and build an exciting career in the US. Imogen tells us how a business education enabled her to transition into a leadership role at Bain & Company.

Starting My Engineering Journey
My journey to becoming an engineer began with a love of maths and science and a natural aptitude for the practical, problem-solving aspects of both subjects. I was fortunate to be at a school with strong maths and science departments run by passionate teachers who encouraged students to pursue these subjects.

Initially, I was fascinated with biomedical engineering after having read books and watched documentaries showing the impact it has on people’s lives – from high-tech prosthetics giving paralysed patients the ability to walk again, to replacement valves keeping hearts beating. Whether through prosthetics, bridges or aeroplanes, I was inspired by the impact engineers can have on the world around us.

I did my engineering degree at Oxford University. Apart from it being a prestigious university, I liked the environment and the people I met there. I chose a four-year course; the first two gave me the opportunity to try out all engineering disciplines, and the last two allowed me to specialise in mechanical engineering, which I found I enjoyed the most.

Towards an MBA
While I was studying at Oxford University, I interned for two summers at Jaguar Land Rover. I worked on various projects and loved analysing different problems and working towards solutions. I found that engineering training gives you a set of powerful analytical skills which enable you to tackle complex projects spanning different areas of business.

When I graduated from Oxford, I decided to go into consulting as a way to experience a broad range of industries and projects. I was delighted when I was offered a position as an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company in London. Bain is a global management consultancy that works with large businesses on projects spanning strategy, operations, finance, transformation, digital and more. I used my analytical skills to help clients address their highest priority challenges. Around two years into my time at Bain, I started thinking about the benefits of business education. I spoke to colleagues and clients who had done an MBA and they all spoke so highly of the experience that I decided to apply. I believed an MBA would give me a deeper understanding of my clients’ problems, complement my engineering skills, and open new career possibilities.

I was accepted by several schools including Harvard, Wharton and Stanford, and visited the schools before making my decision. A few things made Stanford the most attractive option for me. It has smaller class sizes than the other schools, which I felt would offer a more personalised experience and allow me to chart my own path through the two-year course. I also liked that they use a mix of different teaching styles. They have lectures, case study-based teaching, and experiential classes. Stanford also has a strong leadership curriculum which I was drawn to as I am very interested in the people side of organisations. Stanford over-indexes on this area and has some fascinating pathways and approaches to teaching leadership skills.

Financial Support for My MBA
Once I had decided on Stanford I spoke with my employer and they were happy for me to take time out to do the MBA and offered some financial support contingent on my returning to the company after graduation.

Although I was sponsored by my employer, I still needed additional financial support – I did not have significant means myself, or family members who could support me, and while you can fund your MBA with a loan, I was uncomfortable taking on such a large debt. An MBA is an investment in your future, but it is a significant outlay. Before I started researching other funding sources, I recalled a conversation with an engineer I met at an event, who was also working in management consulting and had received a Sainsbury Management Fellows scholarship for her MBA.

I investigated the SMF scholarship scheme, submitted my application, was selected for an interview and, to my delight, was awarded a £30,000 scholarship. Without the SMF scholarship, I would not have been able to attend a world-class business school or move myself and my husband to California. The funding allowed me to show US immigration that we had sufficient resources to cover our living costs, allowing us to get the visas we needed.

The MBA Experience
Arriving in California was hectic – there was so much to do. I had to organise an apartment, buy everything I needed to get settled in at home and business school, and there were a lot of new people to meet and get to know.

The business school experience was very different to my undergraduate degree. At Oxford, I attended a lot of large lectures, followed by individual work on problem sets. At business school, the classes were smaller and more centred around debate with no single right answer to the issues we were exploring.

The diversity in my class made for fascinating discussions. There were people from so many different countries, industries and backgrounds, all of whom had different perspectives and aspirations – it was a melting pot of ideas and a truly unique experience.

Mixing with so many new people also opened my eyes to a much broader range of career paths. Many students were involved in entrepreneurial ventures and there were lots of large tech firms in the area, and both sectors were hiring a lot of engineers. The experience showed me that the fusion of different skills and perspectives is essential for the innovation that will define our future.

Lessons from Business School
Going into business school, I was keen to focus on softer skills such as leadership. At Stanford, I had the opportunity to learn from leaders with decades of experience. They shared strategies to manage people, deal with difficult situations, drive organisations forward and problem solve. Their years of wisdom and expertise have been invaluable to my post-MBA career.

Among the most important things I have taken away from business school are the relationships with my peers. During the two-year course, I made life-long friendships and strong connections with many people I would feel comfortable turning to for career support, particularly when it comes to making big decisions or exploring new paths.

Going to Stanford also broadened my horizons and gave me the opportunity to explore different career paths, including an internship at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. It was fascinating to work at a big tech company, and it taught me a great deal. One of the key things I learnt was the importance of autonomy and the freedom to innovate. I observed Amazon hiring talented people and giving them the freedom to spend time developing new ideas, an approach that I think has been key to their continued success.

An Exciting New Role at Bain & Company

After I graduated from Stanford, I decided to transfer to Bain’s New York office, where I have been working for two years now. Returning to Bain has allowed me to gain further exposure to diverse companies and work on some of their highest-priority projects. The environment is fast-paced and challenging, and I am learning a huge amount, which is a priority at this stage in my career.

Having an engineering background helps enormously in my role at Bain. A big part of my job is to take a problem and break it down into components, and then analyse each component before putting them all back together again. My engineering training taught me how to approach problems in this way, and to find a logical path through complex issues.

Before my MBA my role was primarily analytical. Now I spend most of my time developing the approach, drawing insights from the analysis, coaching and developing my team, and building relationships with clients. Stanford gave me the leadership training, confidence and broad perspective I need to succeed.

The SMF MBA Scholarship
If you are a professional engineer considering an MBA as a stepping-stone towards a business leadership career, visit our MBA scholarship application page, you could be awarded a £50,000 scholarship.

case studies

How Being Open-minded and Taking a Leap of Faith Helped Engineer Kofoworola Agbaje Become a Successful Venture Capitalist

07/29/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

A broken Walkman and advice from a younger brother may seem unusual career influencers but they both combined to set Engineer, Kofoworola Agbaje on an inspirational career path via seven years in banking to her current role as an Investment Associate at Quona Capital which, so far, has seen her successfully close venture investment deals in six countries. Quite a feat for someone who has, in her own words, experienced ‘imposter syndrome’ at points in her life. A key turning point came in 2017 when Kofoworola was awarded a Sainsbury Management Fellows scholarship for her MBA study at Wharton Business School where she would build her business skills further. Kofoworola’s story told by her, highlights the importance of not being afraid to step out of your comfort zone and, above all, being open to advice and guidance from others.

Choosing Engineering
Becoming an engineer wasn’t my first career plan. I had a hankering to be a doctor, but unfortunately for me, I hated the sight of blood, and it transpired that biology wasn’t my strongest subject. Clear signs that a career in medicine would not be my path.

However, I excelled at maths – I absolutely loved maths and at school I would jump at the chance to help younger students, even today it’s still one of my passions. I find maths comforting which is just as well as I do a lot of analysis in my current role. Clearly, maths was going to play a big role in my career, but as much as I loved working with numbers, for me studying maths at university would be too narrowly focused. I felt it could limit my career options.

I started to think about career options. I had always enjoyed tinkering with tech and one incident prompted my brother to suggest that I study engineering. I had accidentally broken the Walkman that my dad had bought me, so purely on instinct, I took it apart and repaired it. Seeing this, my brother jokingly said, “you should study electrical engineering”. That banter turned into serious discussion and then research into the subject. I applied and to my delight was accepted into Imperial College London. So, my route into engineering was partly due to playing to my strengths in maths and partly from listening to a shrewd piece of brotherly advice.

When I arrived at Imperial College London for my interview, I remember feeling lost. I’d been to school in rural Sussex so wondered how I would survive in central London and what the course was going to be like. Unlike a lot of universities, the term started later in the year which, thankfully, gave me time to build my confidence. I used that summer to get comfortable with the idea of being at university.

The best part about the university experience was the diversity of students. There weren’t a lot of females in my classes, but there were far more than in my A level classes, and more importantly, there were females from many countries and lots of students with different backgrounds and stories and studying with such a diverse group broadened my view of the world. It was also my first experience of expressing my African side in the UK which I was able to do through the university’s Afro Caribbean Club. There are many such clubs at universities that give you the opportunity to mix broadly with students academically and with specific communities. This was incredibly good for me.

Above all, my time at Imperial gave me so much confidence. I did well to get there, but I struggled with imposter syndrome. I remember thinking “why am I here?” and that feeling lingered for the first two years of my four-year course, yet I graduated with a first-class degree. Being at such a prestigious university and still being able to succeed despite my concerns boosted my confidence and it was an important part of my growth at that time.

During my first year at Imperial, I was convinced that after graduation, I would get a job with an engineering firm like Land Rover. In my second year, firms came to the campus to recruit – there were so many tempting opportunities that it was hard to decide. There was a period of confusion trying to figure out what my post-graduation career would look like. Everything fell into place in my third year – I gained an internship with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and I went on to join its graduate trainee programme after I graduated.

RBS Internship Helped Me Choose my First Career
Whilst on the initial RBS internship, I met a lot of people with totally different backgrounds and seeing all those people working in finance, helped me realise that I could do almost anything post-degree. You can feel a little overwhelmed with all the opportunities presented by recruiting firms and an internship helps you focus on what you want to do.

During my two-month internship, I worked in different teams depending on who needed support. My boss at the time, Stuart Gurr, was incredibly helpful and was one of the reasons why I took the graduate role. He was always busy as he ran a department of over 100 people, but whenever we had our catch up, he always took time to talk and that impressed me. He said that to build a career in banking, you must do multiple roles and advised me that whether I loved or hated a particular task, banking would provide a solid foundation that would allow me to do many other things. Whether I opted for a banking or an engineering career long term, he said the experience would be invaluable and he was right.

Full Time at RBS
When I joined the RBS graduate programme, I received the obligatory six weeks’ training and then did my rotation across different teams in multiple roles. During that time, I learnt that I could do anything I was tasked with! I went from doing an electrical engineering degree at Imperial where the only coding language I knew was Pascal to learning C#. Then I became a business analyst and later moved to another team that coded only in Java. I worked at the equity desk, in finance and strategy and credit risk – I moved around a great deal and learned so much.

During my seven years at RBS, I held a variety of challenging roles that stretched me. The experience taught me that it’s important to remain open and not to put yourself into a ‘career box’. It’s easy to fall into trap of thinking that you must do the same job as your last one. The default position tends to be move from being a developer in one firm to being a developer in another, from business analyst to business analyst and so on. However, many skills that we learn as undergraduates and on-the-job are transferrable: you may be working in healthcare today, but it’s possible to take your skills into banking tomorrow. My time at RBS taught me to stop thinking about myself as someone who could only do one job.

Five years into my time at RBS I began seriously thinking about doing an MBA. The MBA had always been in my mind, and I had attended an MBA information session in London while I was studying at Imperial. Even though it was early days, and I was advised that applicants need work experience before doing an MBA, I registered on the GMAT website so that I could receive the MBA articles and build up a knowledge bank for the future.

Which Business School – Wharton or MIT?
The desire to do the MBA was spurred by my increasing interest in working “front-office”, as it’s called in banking. When you work in tech in a non-tech organisation you are often seen as back-office professionals, people who help the business to function rather than driving growth and profit. I was keen to move into the business side of things and succeed but my resume was very tech. That’s what I mean by putting ourselves in boxes. I asked myself, how can I move out of the tech space where everyone thinks that is all I can do? Doing an MBA was the answer.

Choosing the business school was not straightforward. I ended up in a school where I was so adamant that I would not go! I knew for certain that I would study in the USA because I wanted a completely new experience.

After initial research, I attended information sessions for Harvard, MIT and Wharton. I was confident about wanting to apply to MIT and Harvard, but I didn’t feel any affinity with Wharton. However, when I delved into Wharton’s website, I quickly realised that my experience in financial analytics was a perfect match for the school. I was also a good fit for MIT, so I applied to both schools and received offers from them.

Then I attended the welcome weekend for both schools and again I came away with the feeling that Wharton was not for me, but I felt at home with MIT. The attendees at the MIT event included a lot of people with similar backgrounds to mine: engineers, rocket scientists and the like. Wharton’s event was attended by people who were a world apart from me at that time, for example, from private equity backgrounds. My first thought was, “this is not my tribe, and I don’t know how to interact with them.” I was uncomfortable and I was so sure that I wouldn’t choose Wharton that I didn’t go to view the accommodation options!

As always, I discuss big decisions with my family and my brothers had an influence on my final decision. Talking to them about how well I fitted in with the MIT group compared to the Wharton group, they made me realise that I was putting myself in a box. One said, “The fact that you felt uncomfortable with the group at Wharton is the exact reason why you should choose that school. You’re not going to business school to get comfortable; you’re going to get out of your comfort zone!” It made sense. I was going to America because I wanted to experience something new and challenging, what could be more challenging than joining students with totally different backgrounds to me? So, I chose Wharton, and it is the best decision I have ever made.

Scholarship Awardees Helped Me Secure MBA Funding
Neither of my business school offers came with financial support, which is not unusual. The MBA is a significant cost and even with family support, I needed additional funding. The work to raise the funds started with a list of sources of possible help. I researched many websites, anything that was related to masters, MBAs, engineering, and diversity support, be that gender or ethnicity. It was during this research that I found the LinkedIn profiles of SMFs. First, SMF Busola Banjo, who had been awarded a Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scholarship to study at INSEAD. I checked out the SMF scholarship and it looked like a great opportunity. I messaged Busola to ask for her help and she willingly agreed to share her scholarship application experience.

Thankfully, the SMF scholarship applications were still open for the year I wanted to start business school and I was selected for an interview. I contacted another SMF, Animish Sivaramakrishnan, who had just been awarded a scholarship to ask questions that helped me prepare for my interview, The information and advice shared by both Busola and Animish were enormously helpful, and I am so grateful to them both.

I must confess that despite all this preparation, I was very nervous on the interview day and my imposter syndrome tendency crept in, but I needn’t have worried. I was interviewed by a fantastic panel, and it was reassuring to see the diversity on the panel: someone older, someone younger, someone who had done his MBA fairly recently, and a hugely impressive lady called Naomi Climer CBE. I was so impressed I emailed her after my interview. I heard quickly after my interview that I was being awarded the SMF scholarship; I was delighted. Not only would I have financial support for my MBA, but I would become part of the SMF network.

Key Lessons from My Business School Experience
So, I headed off for my MBA adventure and what an adventure it was. Again, I learned the value of not putting myself in a box and being open to fresh ideas. I tell anyone who wants to know about MBAs, that you can literally craft the experience to suit yourself. People who knew me before the MBA tell me that I came out of my shell because of my MBA. I met so many people that were not like me and that forced me to change my worldview. It was challenging at the beginning, but it helped me flourish.

I learnt many important lessons at business school. Probably the most important is to embrace people and their ideas and don’t be afraid of failure. I work in venture capital now and the idea of working in this sector came from a classmate who had worked in private equity. I was deeply sceptical at the time because I had no experience in buying companies but listened to his rationale for saying that my tech background and experience would be ideal for venture capitalism. Despite my protestations about lack of experience, he kept insisting that I would be a good venture capitalist. So, I started taking courses in the subject; I did eight in total and spent four months in San Francisco during my MBA, to get to know the venture world first-hand.

It’s amazing how those experiences have helped the career path I’m on now. The idea of becoming a venture capitalist seemed random back then, but my classmate was right. I am so grateful that I was willing to step outside my comfort zone: that’s why I picked Wharton Business School and even though venture capitalism seemed strange electives at the time, I still checked them out. I’m grateful for being open-minded and for being surrounded by people who were so different from me.

When I tell people the story of my MBA journey and post-MBA career, they think it makes sense, but it didn’t always make sense to me back then, because my journey wasn’t straightforward. Even with the MBA from Wharton, transitioning into venture capitalism took tenacity. I must have sent hundreds of emails with a response rate of around 0.1%, but I made it!

Taking to VC like a Duck to Water
Now, I’m an Investment Associate at Quona Capital, a VC firm that invests in financial services technology in different markets – it’s such an exciting business. Since I have been with the company, we have invested in businesses in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, UK, Egypt, and South Africa. I’ve worked with all our portfolio in these countries supporting our investments (though of course much has been done remotely during the COVID pandemic). I love my job, especially working with seriously smart people who are experts in their field and who are so passionate about their ventures!

My job entails analysing markets and specific sectors, as well as deal sourcing. Once we have the data on a sector, I research companies and propose them to my team. If we decide to invest, I build a model on that investment so that we have clarity about its likely progression and return on investment. When we commit, we support the lifecycle of our investment, which covers everything from supporting the CEO with hiring and financing to product and company expansion. Essentially, anything that helps companies achieve their goals.

Engineering and Business Skills Working in Harmony
My path into venture capitalism has been atypical and I draw on my engineering background and skills all the time at Quona. Analytics is the bedrock of an engineering career. You learn how to analyse situations, models, numbers – the skills you learn from that, regardless of what engineering you’ve studied, are transferrable. My manager says that when they were recruiting for my role, they saw my engineering background as a real asset. I might not have done consulting or investment banking but put me in front of any Excel spreadsheet and give me time with it, and I will tell you what is going on with the data! Most people I know who studied engineering have strong analytical abilities. It’s important to remember that there are so many things that you can do with those skills.

If you’re a young engineer looking to make a paradigm shift in your career, I would suggest that you take stock of what you’ve been doing and what you’ve learnt in your current role. Then think about what you can apply your skills to. Think laterally, you might be a lawyer – companies need lawyers in high-tech too, you don’t always have to work for a legal firm. You might be a coder; you can work in healthcare just as much as you can work in cleantech.

So many industries have tech underlying them. There are so many roles within different sectors where you might not have been able to work in five or ten years ago, but today you can because of the pace of innovation. Explore sectors you might not have considered before, and don’t take the easy route! Then figure out how to get there – do you need another degree, extra work experience, or a new classification? Whatever it takes to get where you want to be, do it!

I’ve come a long way in my business life, and I have left the imposter syndrome tendency behind me. I think I’ve shown what is possible with a combined engineering and MBA education and by embracing other people’s observations and advice, not least my wonderful brother, who reminds me far too often about his hand in my career! I’m delighted that he is also thinking about doing an MBA and now it’s me who is trying to convince him to go to Wharton – remember, if you can dream it, you can do it!

Blog

How to Fund My MBA?

07/13/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

The decision to embark on an MBA is one of the most important of your career. The experience will sharpen your business skills and will open the door to new and exciting career opportunities in the future, but at what cost?

An MBA is a big investment, with tuition fees varying considerably (depending on the business school’s pedigrees) from £7,500 at the University of Wales Trinity St David to £87,900 at London Business School. Of course, there are also living expenses to consider as well.

With these costs in mind, most people looking to study for an MBA will be faced with two crucial questions: ‘How do I fund it?’ and ‘am I willing to take on the risk of doing an MBA given the financial commitments?’

The funding dilemma
This is one of the most important parts of the whole MBA process. The consideration of these questions and then coming up with the answer, ‘Yes, I can find a way’, and ‘Yes I am willing to take the risk’, is all part of the self-development process of getting into a business school and having a successful outcome.

There are risks involved but finding a way around these challenges is an excellent introduction to what you will be doing for the next 20 to 30 years of your career. People who take on personal debt to do the MBA are indeed taking a big risk. For example, one never knows what the economic climate and job market will be like at the end of their MBA – COVID being a prime example of how things can change dramatically. Yet the ability to take on and manage big risks is one of the attributes that top business schools, future employers and indeed Engineers in Business Fellowship, is looking for in candidates.

To cover the cost of an MBA – particularly in the absence of full-time employment, savings or help from family members – it is critical that prospective students thoroughly research the potential sources of funding available.

Research what help is available
The key to resolving the question, ‘can I fund an MBA?’, relies on extensive research. There are many different options and opportunities, so it is essential to find out which is best for you. Unearthing this information involves intensive desk research, not a one-hour Google search. The process could take as much as eight hours of exploration over several days, weeks or even months.

What can you offer?
Competition is stiff for MBA scholarships so you will need to demonstrate in your application that you have the skills and experience needed to succeed on a demanding MBA programme, that you have clear goals post-graduation and how you intend to contribute to society.

As part of your research and planning, you should go through a period of introspection and ask yourself the questions that a grant-giving or financial institution will want to know. The typical questions you could ask yourself are ‘who am I?’ and ‘what do I have to offer?’, ‘What makes me special?’, ‘What traits, attributes and experiences do I have that make me different or stand out?’, ‘What have I done in the past that makes me special?’, ‘What will I do in the future that will make a difference in society?’. In essence, what will impress and convince a grant or loan giving body that you are worthy of the investment?

Some of the main characteristics that universities and funding bodies will be looking out for when assessing scholarship applicants include leadership potential, evidence of entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship, track record of innovation and a proven commitment to a particular sector.

Once you have an idea of what differentiates you from others, you can start thinking about who can help you achieve your potential. There are many grant-giving bodies, so it is essential to research them all and understand their perspectives. However, there is no point tracking down these funds unless you can answer the questions about why they should award you a grant (or a loan from a financial institution). You must match what they are looking for with what makes you stand out.

Choose the right funding or mix of funding
The funding options have different terms, conditions and requirements and they can be quite complex. Below are a few categories of funding sources; for more information, these articles are a good starting point – Findamasters and Figmat.

Part-time study while working
Part-time study is a relatively common option for MBA degrees. Many programmes are intended to be completed by practising management professionals and some courses set tasks for students to apply within their workplace. A part-time MBA could therefore be a great way to study while continuing to earn a salary. The UK Government’s postgraduate loans are available for part-time masters. The amount you borrow will be divided evenly across the duration of your MBA programme.

Banks
Before the 2008 financial crisis, several banks in Europe and the US offered loans tailored to MBA students. Following the withdrawal of many banks from the MBA lending market, choice has been limited, particularly for international students. In the UK, there are few tailored MBA study loans offered by high street banks, leaving higher interest personal loans as the predominant option for bank borrowing (see Figmat).

Employer sponsorship
An MBA could represent an attractive investment for your employer. After all, these programmes are aimed at enhancing the skills of experienced business professionals and developing advanced leadership skills that could prove invaluable in a current employer. You will need to persuade your employer that sponsoring your MBA would be worthwhile for the company as well as your continuing professional development. Some employers may contribute towards the cost of an MBA, providing that you are willing to commit to returning after graduation.

Scholarships and bursaries
There are many different scholarships and bursaries aimed at helping talented prospective MBA students get their dream qualifications. Most universities and business schools run funding schemes to attract the brightest and best applicants from all backgrounds. According to the Financial Times, 54% of students who graduated from a ranked USA MBA programme in 2010 received some form of financial assistance from their school or an external source. Among their peers who studied in Europe, 31% received such assistance.

Scholarships are also offered by various organisations and institutions from across the world. For example, Chevening scholarships are offered by the UK Government to help talented international postgraduates study in the UK and our own Sainsbury Management Fellows £50,000 scholarships are available for engineering graduates from the UK, EU, and EEA to study an MBA at 14 of the top international business schools.

It is worth noting that institutions that offer money only have a limited pot each year. Some of these schemes waive a portion of the fees, while others are cash positive, helping with living expenses as well. Some schools have specific grants for certain demographics, for example, widening participation schemes. You will need to know which demographic you fit into, whether you are part of a minority that can gain additional support. So, you need to look at both the macro and micro levels when researching. Remember that it is possible to apply for multiple grants from different institutions. Some grant authorities may well be inclined to support an applicant because having one grant already shows that their decision to support a candidate is a good one because another body is already investing in that person.

Thankfully, there are many grants, loan schemes, fee waivers and other forms of assistance to help people to fund their MBA. The most important thing is to find what is right for you. Once you have done your research, look at the big picture, consider how you fit into the offerings by defining your special qualities and then leverage that to come up with what works best for you. Most of all, invest as much time as you possibly can to track down the many sources of funding. The time may pay off in the end and help you to achieve your ultimate goal.

About the author: SMF David Falzani MBE is President of Engineers in Business Fellowship and a Professor of Practice in Sustainable Wealth Creation at Nottingham University.

Blog

Personalised, Digitally-enhanced Student Experiences at Imperial College Business School

05/13/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

Joёl McConnell, Executive Director, Imperial College Business School

Engineers in Business Fellowship has been awarding Sainsbury Management Fellows MBA scholarships to talented engineers with leadership potential for more than 35 years. Our awardees attend the top international business schools in the world where they acquire a first-class business education. Fourteen business schools are partners of the Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scholarship scheme and we are delighted to be starting a series of articles contributed by these schools. We are commencing with Imperial College Business School in London, the most recent to join the SMF scheme. Joel McConnell, Executive Director at Imperial explains how the school is using digital technology to enhance student experiences.

What an unusual year it has been for students, staff and faculty at Imperial College Business School! Resilience has been key, but Imperial College Business School has made important investments under the broader context of COVID-19 that will benefit MBA students for years to come, and particularly in the area of digitally-enhanced student experiences that align with the broader benefit of studying at the business school of leading STEM-focused university, based here, in London.

Imperial College Business School aims to be at the forefront of personalised, digitally-enhanced student experiences
Today Imperial College Business School is firmly focused on the broader disruption happening in the graduate management education (GME) landscape and the various sectors where our graduates go on to work after they complete their degree with us. We know that recruiters are demanding new and different leadership skills, which has only been accelerated by a change in processes and how people and organisations interact – especially under the extreme circumstances of a global pandemic. Finally, we aim to amplify the student transformation and leadership journey as well as capitalise on digital innovations led by the Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions teams, our Careers and Student Life teams, and our award-winning Educational Technology (EdTech) teams as well.

Imperial College: An End-to-End Candidate Experience from Day One
The Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions (MRA) teams at Imperial College Business School provide an integrated candidate experience, from the moment a potential applicant registers their interest with the school, right through to when they step into our classrooms. Once a candidate has decided they want to study on one of the school’s programmes, they will have a highly interactive experience as they work to complete their application, the admissions process, and then enrol with us as well. Under the pandemic, the MRA teams have made big investments in marketing automation platforms and CRM systems, with leading technology partners, that allow the teams to provide more personalised support, and we’re actively piloting new tools that will allow these teams to have the most effective technology stack in place so that candidates can complete their onboarding process as seamlessly as possible.

A Full Support Package to Complement MBA Programme Delivery
For those candidates who obtain an offer to study the MBA programme at Imperial College Business School, joining the programme is just the first step. This past year our Careers and Student Life teams have focused increasingly on integrating Digital and smart tools, virtual experiences, and technology that directly supports candidates as they prepare to return to the workplace upon graduation. We now make LinkedIn Learning available to all MBA students, so our students can top up their programme content with additional training in more technological skills such as C++ or Python for example. Another great example is how we work with a company that leverages AI and Machine Learning to help candidates evaluate how their career profile matches their target job characteristics, and understand the strengths and weaknesses of their profile, and then we complement this tool with 1-1 appointments with dedicated career consultants to ensure our MBA students develop an action plan to reinforcing their profile and better meet their expected career outcomes.

EdTech and Learning Analytics for Optimal Student Outcomes and Programme Delivery
Imperial College Business School is working to better understand how MBA students are learning, and how the institution can make continued, neuroscience-based investments in the most impactful EdTech possible, which will help the programme delivery teams deliver optimal outcomes for our students. Under COVID-19, our EdTech teams have led key investment programmes that have seen our lecture theatres become more interactive, in a way that has allowed for the delivery of the MBA programme in multi-modal format – something that has been crucial to manage the uncertain environment this past year, but that will also allow for a more dynamic student experience in the future, that allows students to pursue multiple interests at once. Finally, the EdTech Lab at Imperial College Business School works closely with our parent university infrastructure dedicated to instructional design and delivery, and other areas of the college such as the Department of Mathematics on a pilot project related to unsupervised machine learning to learning data. Imperial College takes a research-based approach to EdTech, and MBA students benefit directly from this.

The Sainsbury Management Fellows Opportunity
Imperial College Business School is one of the newest partners to the Sainsbury Management Fellows programme, which is managed by the Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF). As the business school of Imperial College London – a leading STEM university in the UK and top-ranked internationally as well, we actively welcome engineering graduates who wish to complement their previous studies and professional experience with an MBA from Imperial. The fellowship is a unique opportunity as graduates not only become part of a national network aimed at connecting top engineers in the United Kingdom – which includes career and entrepreneur mentoring, but by completing the MBA degree at Imperial College Business School, you also become part of the business school’s alumni network of some 19,500 professionals, but also of the broader university that has 200,000 graduates located in some 190 countries. So, if you think you might qualify for a Sainsbury Management Fellowship, don’t wait, and apply for one of the fellowships, and the MBA degree at Imperial College Business School.

Joël McConnell leads the Programme Marketing, Student Recruitment, Admissions as well as CRM, Data, and Insights teams at Imperial College Business School. A graduate of the MBA and several other postgraduate degrees and certifications from leading business schools such as Saïd Business School (University of Oxford), IE Business School, IMD, and the Booth School of Business (University of Chicago), today Joël is also actively engaged in cross-college initiatives related to technology programmes and equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). He has also been an active participant and leader in IEEE events and activities across Europe as well.

The SMF MBA Scholarship
If you are a professional engineer considering an MBA as a stepping-stone towards a business leadership career, visit our MBA scholarship application page, you could be awarded a £50,000 scholarship.

case studies

An Engineer with a Head for Finance: How an MBA Paved the Way for a Billion-Dollar Dealmaker – SMF Simon Duncan, CFO & Entrepreneur

03/22/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

As an A level student, Simon Duncan wasn’t sure what he wanted to do for a career. His mother would ask him what he wanted to do, and he would reply with vague ambitions of becoming a pilot or a nuclear scientist, never quite settling on anything permanently.

With his three A levels in maths, physics and chemistry almost complete, Simon decided to visit the careers room in his school for inspiration. It was 1979, and the careers room consisted of little more than a shoebox containing cards with different job titles written on each. There were holes in the box, and students would write each of their subjects onto a piece of paper and attach it to a knitting needle and push them through a hole and then pull them out to reveal career suggestions! A single card was pierced by all of Simon’s needles and it said Chemical Engineer.

At the time, Simon didn’t know what a Chemical Engineer was, but, given that he was interested in chemistry, he thought it sounded like a good idea – and, believe it or not, that’s how his career started. Here he reflects on that journey …

Making a start in chemical engineering
“There must have been more than one hundred cards in that box, so my three needles piercing the card that read Chemical Engineering seemed like fate. I was already interested in nuclear reactors and particle physics and had written essays on the subject at school, so I was happy when that career option came out of the box.

I set about researching universities and decided that, if I was going to commit to being a chemical engineer, I wanted to do my degree at one of the best institutions in the world, so I applied to Imperial College of Science and Technology in London and was accepted. I graduated from Imperial College in 1983, but, when I stepped out into the world of work, I was met with very few job opportunities, thanks to a severe economic recession. Despite that, I managed to join a London-based graduate scheme at Davy McKee, a multinational chemical engineering contractor.

From graduate to lead chemical engineer
One memory sticks out in my mind during my early days at Davy McKee. We were designing an ammonia plant for ICI and among the team was a man who stood out. He would sit in the middle of the working area surrounded by technical documents and whenever anybody on the team wanted to know something about the project, they sought this person’s advice. Eager to find out more about his role, I asked him why everyone turned to him for decisions and he told me that he was the lead chemical engineer. Here was an engineer who seemed to know everything about chemical engineering, and also took full responsibility for the big decisions. I knew straightaway that I wanted to work towards becoming a lead chemical engineer as well.

My chance at being the lead chemical engineer came sooner than I expected, at age 25. Four years on from joining Davy McKee, the head of process engineering called me into his office to brief me on an English China Clay project, a mineral plant at Indian Queens in Cornwall that had to be completed and commissioned. The assignment was due to last six weeks, then we would hand over the plant to English China Clay to produce kaolinite, the chemical used to make paper white. At the meeting was an important-looking man who I assumed was the lead chemical engineer and that I would be working alongside him, learning on this important project. Not so – he was the graduate trainee, and my boss was now entrusting me to run the show and commission the new plant. It was so unexpected; I was now the lead chemical engineer.

Developing a thirst for business
During our initial meeting with the engineers at the English China Clay site, we learned that half of the plant was actually ready to go live, and, in addition, that the plant was designed to work half on/half off. Yet the plant had not been started, despite the company needing it to be operational as soon as possible. All that was needed was for the lead chemical engineer to sign things off and give the green light.

I had a discussion with the decision-makers of the new plant and explained that half the plant was ready and asked them if they wanted that half to be commissioned immediately, and the whole plant once the other half had been completed, and they agreed emphatically. To their surprise and delight, the following morning half the plant was up and running. The delay in commissioning that half of the plant was due entirely to the fact that a lead chemical engineer was needed to evaluate the plant and ensure that everything was in perfect working order before it could be started – none of the other engineers on the project had the authority to do that. This was a milestone in my career, one I had been working towards for four years.

The other half of the plant was completed in the next three weeks, so the project took half the contracted time. That was a significant success for Davy McKee and the company earned a bonus. That experience got me thinking about the economics of projects: how do contracts come together and how does a company make money and profit? I began asking questions about how we cost proposals, for example, how does a business know how many labour hours to allocate to a given project and that the quotes given turn out to be accurate? When you do your chemical engineering education, you are taught some economics, so you get a basic understanding of supply and demand and company finance, but it doesn’t delve further. I became extremely interested in learning more about how businesses work.

Unlocking career options with an MBA
At this point, I started talking to other people about my interest in learning about the intricacies of business. It was my current girlfriend who suggested an MBA; at that time, I knew next to nothing about MBAs. After doing research on what an MBA is and how they help to expand your knowledge and opportunities, I realised that the career potential following an MBA would be incredible – some graduates were receiving five or six job offers and doubling their salaries after graduating. It was during this research phase that I discovered the Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scholarship which, if successful in making an application, would pay for tuition and accommodation for my MBA programme. This would be transformative – I could do an MBA straightway and not have to get a loan or save up for several years.

I contacted the Institution of Chemical Engineers which promoted the SMF scholarship to find out how to apply, only to learn that I had missed the application deadline by two days. However, I must have said something convincing during the conversation because I was asked to apply despite the missed deadline.

I really enjoyed the whole process. In addition to the application form, I had a three-hour panel interview which covered everything from my education and career experience, to what I had accomplished in engineering, why I wanted to do an MBA and how I planned to use the new skills after graduating. I talked about my experience at Imperial College London, my work at Davy McKee including my progression to lead chemical engineer and gaining chartered status. I also gave a presentation on a unique project that I had worked on: the first ever plant to encapsulate nuclear waste in concrete and store it, which the panel found fascinating. When they asked what I wanted to do when I got my MBA, I said I wanted to become a strategic planner at Davy McKee and be more involved in the future of the business.

I received a conditional SMF scholarship offer. After successfully completing the GMAT, I was offered a place at my first-choice business school, INSEAD. Then my SMF scholarship was confirmed and I was on my MBA journey.

The ‘golden ticket’ effect
When I graduated from INSEAD in 1991, having learned a great deal about finance, business, and strategy, I was raring to go. We used to call an MBA a ‘golden ticket’ because, career-wise, one could go anywhere with it – the possibilities were limitless. Sadly, my graduation coincided with another global recession, and the job market wasn’t as ripe and fertile as it should have been. In fact, when I left INSEAD, fifty per cent of its graduates did not have one job offer, let alone the typical five or six.

Despite the downturn, I was fortunate to get a job offer from the chemical company Eli Lilly to work on its European inventory and was considering it before fate intervened. A friend I hadn’t seen for a while invited me to a birthday party and I dithered about going, but then decided why not, nothing ventured, nothing gained! During the party, my friend told me that he was working for a large American company called GE Capital, financing big infrastructure projects. It sounded fascinating and, despite the recession, they were looking for six new hires. Before I knew it, I was in an interview with the director, with him talking about how much he valued experienced engineers with an MBA. He explained that finance was easy to teach, but engineering skills and acumen were not, and that having an engineer overlooking business decisions gave them a unique and informed perspective.

The next day I was offered the job and went on to work for the company in London, where I stayed for seven years before being transferred to the USA. I worked for a decade in the US before being lured back to the UK by another interesting and lucrative offer, to be a chief credit officer within the European arm of GE Capital.

As a chief credit officer, I was responsible for reviewing the team that analysed the performance and financial status of 800 companies in order to tailor-make financial solutions for them. This involved looking at the businesses holistically – marketplaces, supply chains, purchasers and finances – and then developing innovative financial solutions beyond conventional bank loans, for example equipment finance, leverage finance, equity, etc. By analysing these companies in depth, we were able to pitch solutions and work with them on alternative routes to develop and create partnership opportunities for GE Capital.

Ironically, recession has played a pivotal part in the forks in my career path. Come 2008, the financial markets crashed, and, like many other companies, there were cutbacks and reorganisation at GE Capital, and this led to a change in my role. I was handling leverage finance doing management buy-outs. At that time GE Capital did not have a retail bank in England (as it did in other major cities), so the company decided to set one up, and I was tasked with establishing the credit and risk side of the bank, ensuring that it was completed properly and gained FSA approval. Despite the responsibility, my transition from project finance to retail banking was difficult because I didn’t find the new role as stimulating, so eventually I felt I wanted to move onto something new.

A Shade Greener and becoming Chief Financial Officer
A company called A Shade Greener, which generates electricity through solar panels, was looking for funding. It had secured £20 million from RBS, which was at the limit of what it could lend to the company, and that’s when it crossed my desk at GE Capital. It seemed like a great business. At the time, it was doing 40 installations a week, but I thought it could manage three times that amount. Long story short, I ended up taking a 92% pay cut to join A Shade Greener as its chief financial officer in 2011.

To move from a steady corporate job with the largest company in the world to becoming an entrepreneur was, to put it mildly, a calculated risk. However, this job move was an exciting challenge, much more in line with my aspirations at that time. Overnight I went from approving loans to trying to borrow money. My initial expectation was to work three days per week to raise money for the business, but it quickly became a full-time job. Within four years, we had raised £500 million in equity, debt and sales acquisitions and were doing close to 500 installations per day. The business has flourished and today it is what is known as a cash-cow.

Lessons from the MBA
One of the most important things I learned at INSEAD was how companies make money. If you are in business and you don’t understand how a business makes money, you won’t understand how it will continue to make money and survive. Engineers with MBAs help because we’re not bamboozled by financial terms and we tend to look at risks in a critical way. Running a business and making decisions is surprisingly similar to working on a chemical plant where you are constantly doing ‘what if’ analyses. The combination of engineering experience and an MBA puts you in a unique position to do this analysis.

Today I’m an entrepreneur working with several innovative UK tech and engineering companies. I’m passionate about helping new businesses raise the funds they need to take off. A huge part of that is helping entrepreneurs effectively communicate the unique selling points and benefits of their innovations so they can secure investors. For me, this all started with A Shade Greener, but I consider myself a lilypad-hopper, jumping into exciting new opportunities as they arise, for example plastic recycling, an SME fund to cover the Covid impact, and assisted living accommodation.

For instance, through the SMF network I was recently introduced to a company called Plastecowood which manufactures plastic lumber and outdoor garden furniture from recycled plastic waste, and I’ve since become its CFO. I’m also trying to set up a ‘Back to Normal Fund’ to invest in British businesses with the aim of delivering more innovative and flexible funding solutions than traditional banks allow. The aim is to support companies that have a strong offering and future but have suffered the ravages of the COVID pandemic lockdown.

I have always felt that I owe British engineering something because of my SMF MBA scholarship; that’s how I got my big break and ended up where I am today. If I can get this fund off the ground, that will be the epitome of what Lord Sainsbury wanted us to do!

Advice for those thinking about an MBA
My number one piece of advice to anybody considering doing an MBA is: do it now! We are about to experience another recession, this time driven by the pandemic. So, going to business school now is, I think, a good time. Do it now and come out of business school with your ‘golden ticket’ when we are bit further along this difficult route. My other bit of advice would be to keep an open mind about job roles and go and see anybody who expresses an interest in interviewing you. My unexpected turn of luck was getting an interview at GE Capital that led to me doing deals of $1.5 million to $27 billion. That opportunity would not have come my way had I not taken a punt and gone to a party that I really wasn’t in the mood for at the time!

If you are an engineer seeking an SMF scholarship to help finance your MBA, always be yourself, be thorough and well-prepared if you want to impress the panel. Be three questions deep on every topic and back up everything you put into a presentation, with facts and examples of your achievements. Make sure you know what you’re presenting and what’s behind it, and never wing it as inevitably you will be caught out and will lose your credibility.

Simon has had an incredible career and, most importantly, he has had fun along the way. Today, as an entrepreneur, he can decide which projects he wants to support, and is helping a diversity of businesses become financially sound. Like many Sainsbury Management Fellows, Simon is involved in community and voluntary work. He is one of the country’s many volunteers on the COVID frontline, in his case, as ambulance crew for St John Ambulance doing 999 calls.

case studies

How an MBA Helped my Transition from Chemical Engineer to CEO of Ceres Power

02/08/2021 Althea Taylor-Salmon

At a young age Phil Caldwell’s passion for engineering was sparked by his sister who is a mechanical engineer and his brother who was studying physics at the time. He then met a group of chemical engineers and was fascinated by the versatility of the discipline and his destiny was cast – he would study to become a chemical engineer and get a job that would enable him to work on interesting projects that would make a difference in the world. But it wasn’t only the chemistry that fascinated Phil; from an early stage, he was drawn to business; how technology-based companies are grown into great businesses. Now a Sainsbury Management Fellow, Phil Caldwell shares his journey from chemical engineer to CEO of Ceres Power, one of the UK’s leading clean energy technology companies…

Early Education to Chartered Engineer
My interest in engineering as a potential career was sparked through family and friends in engineering during my teens, however, even at that stage I was more interested in the business side of engineering rather than a purely technical role. At 18 I was fortunate to secure a scholarship from Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and worked for year in industry before university. Being onsite at chemical plants was an eye opener for me and a great way to start my career, especially as I returned to ICI during my university summer breaks and had the opportunity to work overseas in the USA and Holland.

I went to Imperial College London to earn my degree in chemical engineering. Studying at Imperial was great because they injected a lot of business into the course and we had access to Imperial College Business School as part of the curriculum. I also had the opportunity to learn more about business by handling the management and business side of several student group projects.

After graduating, I was offered a fantastic opportunity to join ICI’s graduate scheme and work anywhere in the world that had a chemical plant – that was irresistible. Initially I went into conventional engineering, but I was interested in getting into something that had a business focus and I learned about a small business unit within ICI which was selling electrochemical technology to companies outside of ICI. I was successful at securing a position in this unit, so I deviated from an engineering path onto a commercial path. I went from a technical service engineer, helping customers onsite, into business development, working on new sales for chemical plants globally. That was my transition from traditional engineering into my first commercial role. I travelled extensively working in China, Indonesia, Korea and India – and I was still only in my mid-twenties. It was brilliant experience as I was expanding my business knowledge and developing an understanding of different cultures, all whilst working to gain chartered status.

Pursuing a Business Interest
Back then, switching from engineering to commercial at ICI was not a natural process. I recall a conversation with the head of engineering, expressing my desire to work in the commercial side of the business. He explained that, as a rule, they hired engineering graduates from the likes of Oxbridge and Imperial to be engineers and looked to humanities graduates for commercial roles and if I deviated from the traditional engineering path it would have a negative impact on my progression. This made no sense to me, surely it would be beneficial to have engineers who understand technology working in commercial roles. It spurred me on in my goal to combine business with engineering, but at the time I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

Discovering the MBA
As I got more involved in the commercial side of the small business unit at ICI, I started to feel that certain tools were missing. For example, I did not fully understand the financial aspects of the business and felt that, if I wanted to continue down this path, I needed to add a business qualification to my toolkit. During this time ICI was undergoing significant change as it split into different parts divesting several businesses and was no longer the blue-chip company I joined. After eight successful years it felt the right time to make a change and pursue my passion for business. I decided the best way to do this was to get back into education and, specifically, do an MBA. Fast forward a few months and I had secured a Sainsbury Management Fellows MBA scholarship and was on my way to IESE Barcelona.

Spring-boarding to a New Career
There was a huge emphasis on entrepreneurship in the MBA at IESE. I found the best courses for me were Entrepreneurship, Finance and Strategy, which really resonated with my passion for business and filled significant gaps in my knowledge. The MBA as a whole was a time of reflection for me and I had to think hard about whether I went back into a major corporation. The MBA qualification made me very marketable as an employee and I had brilliant offers to work for big companies, but one of the things I learned about myself while studying the MBA is that I wanted to do something more entrepreneurial. This was inspired by the courses taught, the exposure to business cases and learning how to finance start-ups.

So, I turned down the safer job offers from the major corporations and took on a position in a small fuel cell company, Intelligent Energy, where I felt I could make a real difference. At that time not many people knew about fuel cells, but because of my previous electrochemical technology experience at ICI, I understood the potential of this technology and felt that this experience combined with my newly acquired business skills, would enable me to make a valuable contribution at Intelligent Energy, an exciting new venture.

The Journey to Directorship
Intelligent Energy was a spin-out from Loughborough University. I remember being at one of the Sainsbury Management Fellows alumni dinners and mentioning the opportunity at Intelligent Energy and the other Fellow said to me, “It’s certainly not a safe option, but there will never be a dull moment.” He was right! Like many tech start-ups, managerially it was quite disorganised at times with huge ambition and high growth along with significant downsides and the usual challenges of a tech start-up.

It was challenging but having the MBA behind me was a great help. I had the theoretical knowledge of how a company should be financed and run and this enabled me to help with financial management and investment strategies. From a blank slate, I set about establishing joint ventures with partners including Suzuki in Japan and Scottish South Energy. I progressed to the role of Commercial Director, grew the team and increased the top-line revenue. I enjoyed the 10 years I spent at Intelligent Energy, but it was not for the faint hearted as it went through significant highs and lows. Having said that, I wouldn’t change a thing about my time there; the exposure you get to tough business challenges in a smaller venture is invaluable.

The Move to Ceres Power
Throughout my career, I had been aware of Ceres Power, another fuel cell company that had spun out of Imperial College London, which had started well but later fell on hard times. It ran out of money and the technology wasn’t working at that point. While I was at Intelligent Energy, we had considered a possible acquisition, but the timing wasn’t right for various reasons.

Seven years ago, I was contacted by Engineers in Business Fellowship (which awards the SMF MBA scholarship) and informed about the CEO vacancy at Ceres Power. The company was under new ownership and I was curious about the change in direction. Was it a serious bid to turnaround the business for good, or a quick flip for profit? I decided to apply for the position and meet with the new owners and was encouraged with what I learned. They wanted to get the right management in, build the board, support teams, and finance the company to long-term growth and profitability. I came away thinking here was an exciting opportunity – a chance to become a chief executive, run a business in its entirety, with a supportive board and shareholder base that would allow me to rebuild the company.

First Steps as a CEO
The turnaround at Ceres Power wasn’t easy. At that point, it had reputational and morale issues, but underneath all of that it had exceptionally good people and great technology. Right from day one, I could see the passion from the staff, and I thought that if I could set a clear vision and lead, people would follow. Step by step, we changed the strategy towards partnering with large international organisations, just as I had done at Intelligent Energy.

The first thing I did was open a Japanese office because that is the biggest market for fuel cells. We invested in the core technology, worked hard to secure partners and as we started to build business with commercial partners, rather than just internally focusing on technology development, people started to believe. Once we secured our first major partnership, it was easier to get the second and the third and it grew from there. Our first partner was Honda, followed by Nissan, Bosch, Cummins and more. Today Ceres is working with world-leading partners to embed its SteelCell® technology in mass-market energy products for the commercial, residential and transportation markets, bringing cleaner and cheaper energy to society to address climate change. That purpose of applying cutting edge technology to address climate change is an incredibly powerful motivator for our people!

I have been CEO at Ceres for seven years and, in that time, we have grown from 50 to 350 people, increased the value of the company from £50 million to more than £2 billion and recently secured Bosch and Weichai Power as strategic investors in the company each with approximately 20% shareholdings.

Value of an SMF Scholarship
Engineering is like a language, it’s a skillset and disciplined approach that is used consistently by our partners globally no matter which region or culture they operate in. It gives you an understanding of what it takes to develop products, run projects, deal with technology and understand complex issues. These skills never leave you. If I didn’t have an engineering degree, I could not run an organisation of 350 scientists and engineers. What I felt was missing all those years ago at ICI, where the gap between the engineering and commercial areas of the business is not the case at Ceres. The engineering and commercial and business side at Ceres are all closely linked.

That’s what makes Engineers in Business Fellowship (EIBF) so special – it’s getting engineers into business. I strongly believe that, like myself, most engineers need rounding out with business skills. We are so tuned into critical thinking that we need exposure to business, risk, finance and entrepreneurial skills, otherwise we will tend to play it safe. The SMF MBA scholarship helps to get engineers into boardrooms, running businesses, generating income and creating jobs – that’s powerful.

The MBA scholarship made a huge difference to my life and career. Being able to leave my job at ICI and go to business school, without having to worry about financial support or debt, was invaluable. Winning the scholarship was also a huge confidence boost; it was validation that I was doing the right thing. Being able to draw on the SMF network post-graduation was also useful. I may have found out about the Ceres CEO position separately, but it was the contact at EIBF who first alerted me. One could say that I wouldn’t be where I am now without the SMF scholarship and the connections in the network.

Advice to Engineers Considering Business Education
Whether or not you do an MBA, it is important to develop commercial and business skills no matter what job you are doing. Choosing a high growth sector is likely to provide more future opportunities than a conventional industry path with little or no growth and gaining exposure to the business side of the organisation at an early stage will open doors to new ways of thinking and new opportunities. The MBA is a personal decision because it is a big investment, but it has incredible rewards too. It may sound like a cliché, but you literally step off the treadmill and do a big assessment of your life and career and go into a whole new chapter. It takes you to new places and you meet amazing people many of whom you stay in touch with for life. It really is a life-changing experience.

case studies

From Engineer to Entrepreneur: How an MBA Helped Change My Career Trajectory – SMF Chris Hughes, Founder of Wilfred’s Aperitif

12/07/2020 smf_fms

SMF Chris Hughes has always been an engineer at heart. As a child he spent many happy hours in his parents’ basement workshop designing and building things – he enjoyed the process of creating solutions to problems. At just 11 years old, he built a ping pong pick-up device from wood and a levy system to avoid having to manually pick up the ping pong balls himself. One of his creative inspirations was Leonardo da Vinci (he was an avid reader of comics featuring da Vinci), which gave him an early understanding that engineers are innovators, people who create rather than fix things. Chris said, “The idea of innovation excited me. Looking back, I guess engineering was always a natural path for me.” Chris takes up his story…

Becoming a student of engineering
“I did Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London with an Erasmus year in Lyon, France. After graduation, I wasn’t sure how I was going to use my engineering degree because there are many different routes you can pursue with an engineering degree. My third-year project at Imperial was designing an artificial heart valve, but my internship in France was working in R&D on high-speed trains. These are such different aspects of engineering, yet both interested me greatly. When I graduated, I took a year out and travelled to Argentina where I worked for a charity and learned to speak Spanish. It was a great time to reflect and think about my future and I decided that I would like to do a job that allowed me to travel and to build on my experience in the rail industry. I started applying for engineering jobs in the UK and abroad and a golden opportunity presented itself at the Japanese company, Hitachi, inventors of the high-speed bullet train. I couldn’t pass up the chance to work for such an innovative company and, possibly, the chance to work in Japan.

Starting a career as an engineer
“The Japan dream would have to wait for a little while. When I started my 5-year stint at Hitachi, the company had just expanded into the UK and had a 30-strong team in Ashford in the UK. This provided excellent experience and knowledge of how Hitachi was run. Because the UK team was small at the time, I shared an office with key decision-makers including the MD and even brushed shoulders with the CEO. I was entrusted with assignments that would normally be out of reach for someone of my level of experience at that time. I always had a hankering to work where the trains were being built and persuaded my superiors to post me to Hitachi in Japan. I was the first UK engineer to move to the Japanese business on a semi-permanent basis and it was fantastic.

“In just under a year, I was back in the UK managing the coordination between Hitachi Japan and Hitachi UK. It was around this time I started to take a keen interest in the business operation, rather than focusing purely on the engineering side of things. Being so close to the team in the UK, and then mediating between the UK and Japan while helping to handle customers, gave me a real insight into how to nurture and develop a business. I started to think about whether I could I have a bigger impact in an engineering company if I had a stronger business background to help make big decisions. This is when the prospect of doing an MBA entered my mind.

The Move to an MBA
“By that time, I had also become a Chartered Engineer, an important career milestone for me. I felt like I had achieved so much, and it would be a good a time to explore other possibilities. I first heard about MBA courses through some of my friends who were studying MBAs at the time. It sounded like something that could open doors for me and get me more involved in the world of business. Hitachi kindly offered to support me through a part-time MBA, but I wanted to make a huge leap, transitioning from a pure engineering role into a management one. I felt it was best to get a formal business school education, so I started researching schools and the application process. The only real concern I had was how to fund the MBA. I couldn’t believe my luck when I got speaking to a stranger on a train who also happened to be an engineer. She worked for the Royal Academy of Engineering and mentioned the SMF scholarship and the generous MBA grant. Getting the scholarship wasn’t a given, but if I could get the grant it would remove the financial worry of doing an MBA. I got through the scholarship application process and not long after that, in 2015, I was awarded a £30,000 SMF scholarship and I was on my way to INSEAD.

Doing an MBA at INSEAD
“My time at INSEAD was enlightening. I learned the basics of good business acumen, from marketing and strategy right through to finance and accounting. It gave me real insight into how business works, how people think and how organisations behave as a collective enterprise. I learned that business is about more than numbers; it’s very much about people.

“As an engineer, you tend to want to fix every individual problem you encounter. But business is different and managing people can be unpredictable. There’s a discipline I learned about at INSEAD called ‘Design Thinking’ which takes a human-centred approach to business. You start with a human problem, and then you work back to find a solution to fix it. This approach works well with engineering, once you identify the human need and establish problems and barriers, you can apply an engineering solution.

“During my MBA, my passion for innovation was reinforced. I went into my studies thinking I would do a management role in an engineering business when I graduated, but I met so many amazing people and saw so many different perspectives. It felt like another world of opportunity was opening up to me. Instead of going back to engineering after graduation, I went to work with an innovation company called What If, something I might never have had the confidence to do without the MBA.

How Wilfred’s Non-Alcohol Aperitif was Founded

“I worked at What If for two and a half years following my MBA, which allowed me to hone my innovation, prototype testing and business skills. Armed with this knowledge and my MBA skills, I had the confidence to branch out on my own and create Wilfred’s Non-Alcoholic Aperitif, my first business venture.

“Like most young people, I enjoyed the occasional alcoholic drink with friends. But as I got older, I became less interested in alcohol, to the point where I barely drank and would rather have alcohol-free drinks. It frustrated me that, aside from one or two instances of clever branding, no interesting non-alcoholic drinks had really made it into the mainstream. I decided to try and change that, which began with prototype testing.

“I started making drinks from scratch for my friends to try using ingredients from all over the world, such as English Rose, Japanese Hibiscus, Mate from Argentina. Increasingly though, I ended up using ingredients that were closer to home – rosemary, strawberries, raspberries – many from my mother’s garden. I had a formula to describe how I wanted the drink to taste, which is typical of an engineer or mathematician – that’s the way my mind works now. I would say making a drink is part science and part art; I’ve taken a very scientific approach to making Wilfred’s. Without a doubt, engineering has helped in ways you would not expect. Just three and a half months into the launch, Wilfred’s won the award for Britain’s Number One Non-Alcoholic Drink, as judged by the 2020 Great British Food Awards.

“There are many ways in which my business education, the innovation courses and experience have helped me in developing and launching Wilfred’s, ranging from understanding the intricacies of finance to marketing and scaling-up the business. Like most entrepreneurial ventures we had challenges along the way, for example, scaling from home batch to production batch involved trial and error to find the right production partner, and many months of work went into creating exactly the right brand. Even though I had adopted a “bootstrapping” strategy to finance the business in the early stages ultimately I decided to engage a branding specialist to perfect the design. The drinks industry is complex and highly competitive and getting the branding wrong would have set me back months. Understanding when to make these big decisions is vital and having a business education helps.

“Likewise, deciding on the channels to market is critical to success. Before the COVID-19 pandemic I had ambitious plans to sell to restaurants, bars and pubs and had some success, for example, Wilfred’s is available at the Hilton Lexington Rooftop Bar, but once lockdown came, I had to completely pivot to online sales via the website. Because I now have a good grasp of sales and marketing planning, I had already established a strong network of partners, for example, a reputable and cost-effective distribution centre which ensures that everything from the packaging to the delivery are perfect. I had also implemented a communications strategy, including traditional advertising and social media, to build a brand reputation, long before the product hit the market.

“I am at the start of an exciting journey. I am already looking at selling the product via channels like Not on the High Street and Yumbles, and the long-term goal is to get Wilfred’s into major supermarket chains, a goal that requires considerable work and relationship building with buyers. In a year or so, I will be looking at fundraising, something I would not have embarked on without the knowledge I gained through the MBA and working for What If. External investment will enable me to start bringing team members on board.

Value of the MBA
“The MBA has given me a much more strategic and structured approach to launching my business and has helped me make critical decisions at the right time, for example, changing from the original production company to a new one. Likewise, my engineering background helped me to deal with production issues we encountered with the first company. Having this knowledge allowed me to understand what the problems were, probably better than the people who were bulk producing the drink! I have been able to speak with people on an equal footing when it comes to technical areas such as pasteurisation and sterile filtration. In this respect having an engineering background has been so helpful.

Advice for Young Engineers Considering an MBA
“Doing an MBA was one of the best decisions I ever made, but it’s not necessarily the route for everyone. Think long and hard before making this decision, as MBAs are expensive. That said, even the process of considering it (or applying) can be extremely helpful in terms of thinking about your career. Just exploring the benefits of an MBA will focus your mind on what you want to do with your future, as well as the things you might want to steer clear of. If you really do want to open doors and take a sideways, upwards or altogether different step, an MBA is definitely worth doing. If I had not been awarded the SMF scholarship and done the MBA, I would not be where I am now – with my own business, winning awards and looking forward to a strong future for Wilfred’s.”

The SMF MBA Scholarship
If you are a professional engineer considering an MBA as one of the stepping-stones towards a business leadership career, visit our MBA scholarship application page, you could become one of our successful awardees – today the individual scholarship is £50,000.

case studies

How an MBA Helped me become A Business Leader in the Energy Sector: SMF Busola Banjo, Business Development Manager at Siemens

08/26/2020 Althea Taylor-Salmon

SMF Busola Banjo was born with an intensely curious mind. At a young age, while her peers were playing with their toys, Busola would take hers apart piece by piece – much to her mother’s dismay – only to reassemble them. It’s as if her path to becoming an engineer was being written from that tender age, even though she says her passion for engineering was not instant.

At school Busola’s gift for mathematics and science related subjects was recognised early. She said, “In Nigeria, schoolgirls are actively encouraged to take an interest in engineering. If you’re good at maths and science subjects you are nudged towards engineering regardless of gender. Engineering was presented to me as an option more than other subjects because of my educational ability. I didn’t fall in love with it right away, but I certainly grew into the role. So much so that I went on to study Electrical and Electronic Engineering at university, with more of a focus on the electrical element which helped guide my early career choices.”

Five Year ‘Itch’ Led to an MBA
After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Busola spent six years at Arup, a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London that specialises in engineering, architecture, and design. Once again, her talents were recognised early on and she was on track to becoming a manager when she started to wonder what other options could be open to her.

“I started to get a bit of an itch and wondered if being in a purely technical role was right for me long term. I wanted to do more than just engineering and project management, so I started looking at different paths,” she said.

By this point, Busola was close to achieving Chartered Engineer status – a big milestone in her career – but then what? She continued, “Do I go back to school to study? Maybe take a course or two and see where it takes me? At that point, I was lucky that friends started discussing MBAs. I didn’t know anybody personally who had done one, but the more I learned about it, the more I was drawn to the idea.”

After attending a few business school fairs and events to learn more, Busola’s mind was made up; an MBA was the next logical step in her career. She approached her employer at the time, Arup, and explained her life plan. In a bid to retain her, they offered to put her on an accelerated path to management. “I was delighted they wanted me to stay, but I also wanted to excel outside of a purely technical environment, make a move away from construction, and learn more about the managerial and administrative side of business, so I felt it was best to do an MBA.”

Busola set her sights on doing her MBA at INSEAD, a top international business school in Europe, to balance her technical expertise with career-advancing business administrative skills and was successful getting into her first and only choice business school!

MBA: Expectation Vs Reality
Figuring out your main reasons for doing an MBA and how it fits into your career plan is a huge part of the application process so Busola had to consolidate her thoughts on why she was pursuing an MBA and what she wanted to get out of it. She continued, “During the application process I had to do a lot of thinking about why I wanted to do an MBA. At the time, I was looking for a trifecta of change – different location, a new industry, and completely new role. I wanted to pivot into real estate finance with a corporate developer, and thought my technical background combined with the MBA could get me there.”

In many ways, Busola got more than she bargained for at business school. For the first six months of her MBA, she focused on real estate finance with a firm view of what she was working towards. However, speaking with her network of friends and colleagues at INSEAD, she began to realise that there were many different career options to explore. “Gradually, I realised that I was limiting myself by being so focused on the original plan. Throughout the MBA, my mind was opened to new opportunities – suddenly I could see myself working for the likes of Google or Facebook, or even moving into a completely different industry.” Despite never having considered retail as an option, Busola did a summer internship at Amazon which reinforced the idea that she could think more broadly about ‘what next.’

Into the Corporate World
Even before graduation from INSEAD, Busola was recruited to join Siemens, the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, with branches worldwide. She joined the prestigious CEO* Program which provides a unique opportunity for potential future leaders to work on top level strategic projects and to learn what it takes to lead a global enterprise. Busola said “The CEO* Program was the ideal launching pad for a successful career in general management in Siemens. There was continuous exposure to top leadership as well as the opportunity to work on impactful business growth projects.”

By the time Busola completed the Siemens CEO* Program, with three job rotations in Zurich, Berlin, and Newcastle under her belt, she had switched to Siemens’ Energy business. It was around this time that the company announced that the energy business would carve out and become an independent company. Busola was then given the opportunity to play a vital role in the carve out. Three years into her career, she is a Business Development Manager, and today she is a key member in the carve out Project Management Office and currently runs the Post- Formation Office which handles legal requirements for a carved out German entity. Every day, she works with colleagues all over the world (albeit remotely at the moment because of the COVID-19 pandemic), drawing from the business and leadership skills gained through both her past roles and her MBA to drive vital collaborations amongst diverse teams across the globe.

She said, “This was an opportunity of a lifetime. I will probably never again be in a position to have such in-depth understanding of the inner workings of a company as I have gained from working on probably the largest carve out in German industrial history.”

Biggest Takeaway from the MBA
Busola’s goal was always to complement her background in engineering with business administration skills. At the time she was destined for real estate finance, but now that she is at Siemens, does she think she achieved what she wanted from an MBA?

“My engineering background definitely provided the right foundation for me to be where I am at Siemens right now and the MBA made all the difference. When I look back to where I was in terms of my business knowledge before the MBA and where I am today, I’m amazed. Previously, I knew so little about the commercial side of running a company because I was so technically driven. Apart from understanding and being able to interpret company reports, I had also wanted to learn about strategy execution in management. Now I have both these skills – educationally and professionally, they were the two biggest take-aways from my MBA. The gain was 100%,” she said.

Becoming Part of the SMF Network
Every engineer who receives a Sainsbury Management Fellows scholarship to do an MBA automatically becomes an SMF on graduation, with access to the SMF network and all the benefits it brings. What did Busola make of the scholarship?

“The SMF scholarship, which at that time was £30,000, was a tremendous help. I had a reduced amount of debt after my MBA, which many of my colleagues weren’t fortunate enough to have. Since graduating I’ve attended an SMF Annual Dinner and, along with other SMFs, was a mentor at an Engineering Leaders’ Scholarship training weekend. There’s always a lot going on and I try to contribute when I can. I feel very reassured that if I ever need to draw on the network it’s there for me to tap into,” she said.

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Engineers
There is still a lot of work to do to inspire girls to consider engineering as a career path, so to wrap up our interview we asked Busola for a few thoughts on women in engineering. She said, “I would tell any female student wondering about studying engineering, not to be put off by what they may have heard about engineering. It’s not that it isn’t difficult, but the rewards are great, in terms of the knowledge you acquire, job satisfaction and the impact you can make on society through your work. For example, for two years I worked on projects to further develop Siemens’ large gas turbines services. That work is helping to improve the reliability and efficiency of gas turbines that, eventually, will enable towns and cities to have more reliable power, thus supporting people in their homes and workplaces.”

Busola concluded, “Engineering is so broad it is easy to become overwhelmed, so narrow down your areas of interest. If you like gadgets and electronics, consider Electronic Engineering; if you like to see how things can be dynamic and changed, maybe Process Engineering is for you. Break it down, look at your interests and link it to the relevant type of engineering. Never be discouraged because engineering seems more difficult than it is. And don’t let people dissuade you – even if you do not seem like someone who would naturally lean towards engineering, if it’s your dream, you can make it work!”
The SMF MBA Scholarship
If you are a professional engineer considering an MBA as one of the stepping-stones towards a business leadership career, visit our MBA scholarship application page, you could become one of our successful awardees – today the individual scholarship is £50,000.

Sainsbury Management Fellowship champions the benefits of a combined business and engineering education to help improve the performance of the UK economy

The Sainsbury Management Fellows is registered as a charity: Engineers in Business Fellowship, charity number 1147203 and is a company limited by guarantee : 07807250

Tag Archives: Engineer

MBA Expectations vs Reality

Top photo credit: ChristianChan

How Applying the Learning and Experience from an MBA Enhanced the Career of Civil Engineer Tony Walters

MBA Helps Engineer Imogen Rey Broaden Her Perspectives and Step Up to Strategic Challenges

How Being Open-minded and Taking a Leap of Faith Helped Engineer Kofoworola Agbaje Become a Successful Venture Capitalist

How to Fund My MBA?

About the author: SMF David Falzani MBE is President of Engineers in Business Fellowship and a Professor of Practice in Sustainable Wealth Creation at Nottingham University.

Personalised, Digitally-enhanced Student Experiences at Imperial College Business School

Joёl McConnell, Executive Director, Imperial College Business School

An Engineer with a Head for Finance: How an MBA Paved the Way for a Billion-Dollar Dealmaker – SMF Simon Duncan, CFO & Entrepreneur

How an MBA Helped my Transition from Chemical Engineer to CEO of Ceres Power

From Engineer to Entrepreneur: How an MBA Helped Change My Career Trajectory – SMF Chris Hughes, Founder of Wilfred’s Aperitif

How an MBA Helped me become A Business Leader in the Energy Sector: SMF Busola Banjo, Business Development Manager at Siemens

Sainsbury Management Fellowship champions the benefits of a combined business and engineering education to help improve the performance of the UK economy

Blog

5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts for a Successful MBA Decision

Thought Leadership: SMF Energy & Sustainability Group – Gordon Wylie

Top photo credit: ChristianChan

About the author: SMF David Falzani MBE is President of Engineers in Business Fellowship and a Professor of Practice in Sustainable Wealth Creation at Nottingham University.

Joёl McConnell, Executive Director, Imperial College Business School

Sainsbury Management Fellowship champions the benefits of a combined business and engineering education to help improve the performance of the UK economy

Blog

Follow SMF on Social Media

Twitter

Instagram

LinkedIn

Pinterest

YouTube

Facebook