Portsmouth MBA

Mark Phillimore

After A levels, I tried my hand at various things before getting into public relations, eventually starting my own PR business, Workhorse Communications. In addition, our family also has some property interests, which I manage.

Thinking about my motivation for doing the MBA, I felt I wanted to go university and take my interest in business to another level. In addition, I think PR consultancy is a younger person's game and I felt I needed to get into new areas, and change the direction of my career. I saw the MBA as a way of developing myself, an investment in my future - less as a way of consolidating my current position, more about where I wanted to be in ten years time.

Deciding that part time study would better suit my circumstances, I compared the programmes offered at the universities of Southampton and Portsmouth, and spoke to business contacts who had come through both courses. I opted for the Portsmouth MBA.

I very much enjoyed the programme and got a lot out of it. The quality of the teaching was very good. Having left school and gone straight to work, I had concerns about the intellectual challenge of returning to education, but this was not insurmountable. Certainly, the mutual support derived from the study group system helped immeasurably.The highlight for me was the Maastricht Residential. I have attended a number of conferences over the years, but, from the quality of the businesses we visited, to the engaging guest speakers - the whole thing was absolutely first class.

My research project looked at how firms used their experience of the past in their planning for the future. One of the areas I researched was the hotel sector, which was in itself an excellent learning opportunity. In general, I found the research process really interesting.

Doing the Portsmouth Executive MBA has been extremely useful for the family property business. Our business model needs to be spot on because our leases typically run for very long terms. The knowledge I gained from the MBA, particularly the economic and statistical models, has already allowed me to go back over all our data, analyse how well we have done so far, and look at whether the business model would work in future. In these terms alone, the MBA has already paid for itself.

I've gained a sense of intellectual rigour and confidence, which has helped me enormously in the way I handle day-to-day projects. We are currently launching an Internet-based venture, the concept, development and launch of which has been guided by my MBA studies. The concept of the MBA equipping graduates with a "tool kit" of analytical frameworks and models is certainly true, although this is only part of the story. The benefits have been much more far-reaching.