Master of Business Administration (Executive)

Employer Profiles

Glenn Taylor, Head of Scientific Services, Hampshire County Council.

Over the years we have had a number of staff go through the MBA programme at the University of Portsmouth. The University's Business School was an obvious choice, primarily due to its close location, but because the course has been awarded AMBA accreditation. Obviously, organisations need to consider time and cost implications of staff undertaking an MBA, but in our experience, we believe benefits more than outweigh the costs. We have found that MBA graduates have a much wider perspective of business issues, which has enabled us to respond quickly and more competently to challenges faced both locally and in the wider organisation. MBA graduates are also more effective in their roles and we have seen acceleration of innovation and development, as well as more engaged and motivated staff.

Generally the MBA provides a broader understanding of how successful organisations operate and gives people the skills and confidence to operate more effectively. Importantly, it provides a differing perspective from the students’ organisational norms. The MBA also provides great networking opportunities with others with a high degree of international business experience from both the public and private sectors. The qualification is internationally recognised and held in high regard.

As a former MBA student myself and manager of MBA students since then, I've found it valuable and interesting to discuss modern business thinking as students progress through the course. These discussions take me back to my MBA studies at Portsmouth around fifteen years ago, which has helped me to reflect on new ideas and where I need to focus my own learning and development. We will certainly encourage staff to undertake MBAs in the future if we are in a position to do so.

Rik Prowen, Operations Director, JS Humidifiers.

'MBA graduate Sarah Miles joined JS Humidifiers as the Associate for the company's current Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP), which aims to help senior management to understand better the contribution that each strand of business makes to our overall performance.  The KTP is intended to analyse workflow throughout and identify ways in which we can work more efficiently, to establish a methodology for more relevant management reporting to provide better data for more information decision making and, ultimately, to be more profitable.

'Eighteen months on, we are in no doubt that we were very fortunate that Sarah chose to join us.  We've made significant progress in understanding our business, a journey facilitiated entirely by Sarah, and we're about to enter a very exciting stage with the implementation of a new reporting system.

'Would anyone with anything less than an MBA have been as effective? It's hard to tell but,  for a project that involves working with top management and challenging the status quo, we're delighted that we were able to attract someone of Sarah's calibre.  The evident knowledge, the capacity to involve, communicate effectively with and engage people at all levels, the ability to project-manage and effect change, and the appreciation of the benefits of two-way knowledge transfer between the academic and business worlds are all elements of the MBA that have enabled Sarah to make and continue to make tangible and valuable differences to the company'.