Meet our Students: selfies

This blog serves the purpose of allowing candidates to learn about us; meet our lecturers and students; and follow what's going on term by term. Here's an opportunity to listen to our students talk about their Otago MBA experience and international exchange.

Enjoy,

David 

Shared Enquiry: the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker

Shared Enquiry = the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker

Right answers do not exist in MBA-level discussions; everyone

in the classroom should actively engage in the discovery of knowledge.

The Otago MBA management team and our lecturers subscribe to an active learning model in which students participate in the learning process and daily practice their thinking skills, while demonstrating the ability to apply course material (e.g., marketing, finance, organizational leadership, economics, statistics) to complex business problems. In other words, we encourage shared enquiry as the path to becoming a self-reliant thinker, someone who can express him or herself with clarity and conviction; who can think conceptually (e.g., identify and define key terms); as well as contribute to the collaborative discovery of a deeper understanding of fundamental challenges facing global businesses.

Our students are asked to adhere to essential guidelines for engaging in productive discourse in our small seminar-style classes:

• Resist overly quick judgements
• Avoid arguing from small-N experience (e.g., we did it this way) and opinion
• Support your reasoning using credible references (e.g., course materials)
• Relate comments to the ongoing discussion
• Strive for dialogue rather than a monologue
• Seek to include all others in the conversation
• Do not direct all discussions through the lecturer
• Consider questions as a good way to enter the conversation
• Avoid dominating with comments that are too lengthy or of little interest to others
• Use courtesy and civility in all communications
• Feel encouraged to continue lively debates outside the classroom

I will have more to say about the importance of building powerful thinking

skills in future posts: we consider this as fundamental to the transformation our students

experience in our programme.

Cheers,

David

Our Classroom: the Power of Introverts

Everyone Contributes Valuable Insights!

In a prior post, I emphasized the importance of active learning and the collaborative discovery of
knowledge through shared inquiry in our classes.   Some of our students may remain reflective by nature; others may initially feel hesitant to speak in class; still others may face the challenge of thinking in one
language (e.g., Chinese) before translating thoughts into English; and differences in
culture may compel others to remain respectfully quiet.

I have included the "Power of Introverts" Ted Talk to embolden our more reflective students
and encourage more vocal students to remain culturally sensitive, respect everyone's
right to participate and strive for an inclusive learning experience.

Thank you,

David

Why does the Otago MBA remain a boutique programme?

Sidewalk Cafe on the Octagon in August (like February in the northern
hemisphere) with high temperatures consistently exceeding 10c/50f

We frequently receive two questions from MBA student candidates: (1) why is the Otago MBA programme relatively small; and (2) why isn't our programme ranked in the "Top 100" in the world?  The simple answer is, "by choice."  

I have explained the value we deliver to our students (defined as attention to the individual and whole person, with an emphasis on his or her thinking abilities and character) and our selection of high-quality student candidates (less than one in ten is accepted). Here's an important insight into strategy design: all of the elements of any enterprise's business model must fit together to deliver best value to its customers. You cannot produce a Ferrari on an assembly line and can't sell gourmet cuisine in a fast food business model.

We choose to remain a boutique programme (N = 30 to 40 full and part-time students) and fly beneath the radar of ranking organizations (Financial Times and Economist) to deliver best value to our students. Now consider, the top one-hundred MBA programmes in the world possess the resources and talents to deliver high value to their students: you still need to define this "value" for yourself. Perhaps one percent of MBA candidates attend these schools. The other 99 percent of MBA candidates face the choice of attending a "me too" programme that (less effectively) mimics the strategies of Top 100 schools or look for something different.

What will happen to these "me too" programmes?

The Otago MBA management team made the decision long ago to design a fully-integrated programme to deliver value at the individual level and not compete head-to-head with large scale "name" programmes. We continue to articulate our business model and refine its implementation year by year to create an integrated experience aimed at developing the individual into a career-ready business professional.

We choose to operate as a boutique programme and we're the right choice for MBA

 candidates who want to differentiate themselves from the masses.

If you're concerned about getting lost in the crowds,

I welcome you to apply now.

David