The MBA Legacy

As if a day at the Olympics wasn’t exciting enough, I happened across a couple of MBA classmates there. It was as uplifting as being in the stadium.

There is a special quality to meeting up with people who went through an MBA experience together. It hardly takes any time at all to reclaim the mutual support and respect which ran through the year I spent studying. I did my MBA course because I needed to learn more about strategy and finance. Like most people, I came away with that and so much more including the self-understanding which underpins leadership.


There were 180 students on my MBA so it is not surprising that I finished the course with good friends and with a network of business contacts. What is interesting though is the large group of people who aren’t close friends but are a lot more than business contacts even if I don’t see them except at our five-yearly reunions and the Olympics. I have that feeling with some former colleagues I come across but not with the high proportion of them that is the case with my classmates.

An MBA is a social experience. It is an education cliché that students learn as much from each other as they do from their classes and certainly when experienced practitioners from different fields and different industries study together, how could that not be true? Not surprisingly many MBA programmes, including at the University of Bedfordshire, are constructed around that truth. The learning can be practical and deep. I gained great confidence as well as learning from working on an equal footing with people I respected and who, I discovered, respected me.

An MBA is also an intense experience. Personally I think too much work should be a characteristic of MBA courses – just enough too much to amount to some pressure, to ensure students set priorities and make choices. Combining work, family and study is always a challenge and particularly so for Executive MBA students who usually already have challenging jobs. The intensity is important and is a large part of what makes an MBA such a stimulating and satisfying experience.

The social learning experience and the intensity make an MBA a lasting experience. Long after the current operations management model has been superseded and possibly even when Philip Kotler is no longer the best selling marketing author, the relationships derived from an intense shared experience will endure.

The friends who came to the Olympics with me decided that “Inspire a Generation” didn’t have to mean just young people. It could mean us too. For me so far this has meant getting on the bike more often and planning visits to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Learning certainly isn’t just for the young and it doesn’t really work as a spectator sport. So I envy the students about to join us to start their MBA course. I know some of the challenges and rewards they will experience over the next year or two and I know the legacy it will leave with most of them.

About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.