Me & L3-Choice or Necessity?

AUTHOR: Paul Chipperton   DATE: 17.05.06   ISSUE 1, 2006

Having spent his post-graduate business education engaged at 3 different organisations on 3 different continents, offering 3 different environments for learning, (including the AGSM MBA 2002 intake), Paul feels he is uniquely placed to comment upon what each offered, how they differed, and what lessons, if any, he has actually learned.

1994-1996 UK OU, Post-Graduate Diploma, The Capable Manager
2002 AUS AGSM, MBA non-elective core course
2002-2003 CAN McGill, MBA “Advanced Standing” elective course

Upon graduation in 1993 with an Applied Chemistry degree from Newcastle Poly in England, Paul entered pharmaceutical research as a Medicinal Chemist at Roche in the UK. Even though the type of research was cutting-edge and high-profile, within a year he’d realised it wasn’t for him and wanted to pursue options in the business environment. Making a switch would likely require some form of business qualification to add credibility to the enthusiasm.

“So soon after the University Degree I was completely uninterested in submitting myself again to the classical full-time “classes & exam” approach. The UK’s Open University (OU) offered an 11-month part-time, distance learning course called The Capable Manager which was a pre-cursor to their 4.5 year long part-time MBA.”

The course components would appear very familiar to any MBA, covering Marketing, Operations, Finance, Accounting, HR, etc., but did so in a way where you were regularly exposed to the thoughts and experiences of 30-50-something middle managers from a broad array of industries, backgrounds, and ethnicities.

“There were essentially 3 steps to the process:

1. Study a topic and relate it to your immediate experiences
2. Compare and contrast your experiences with the books “best practices”
3. Discuss the findings in group “compare and contrast” sessions, and learn from your experienced colleagues where “best practices” and the real world meet…or part company.

The continuous reflection of theory onto immediate, urgent, real world issues is often sadly lacking from a full-time MBA course. Case studies undoubtedly have value, but you can’t realistically solve Coca-Cola’s vertical integration issues in 2 lectures, 3 hours of team discussion, and a 1,000 word paper as a key component-context, is missing.”

Armed with formal training in the basics of business, and leveraging his science background, Paul made the jump into entrepreneurial biotech. The next 5 years were spent in 3 different successful biotech start-up companies in Boston and Montreal. The classic start-up experience of “one job title, many hats” included leading roles as Product-, Brand-, Marketing & Sales-, and Business Development Manager.

His next engagement in formal learning was catalysed by the tech bubble burst of 2001. “I was at a Boston start-up that was fighting for its life, with 50% of programs in biotech, and 50% in telecom, at a time when the tech markets were tanking. To save the company we essentially decided to offer up my project, the only one into a pre-production phase and therefore sellable, and hope the cash would see the company through to better times. I decided the downturn was a great moment to jump into a full-time MBA, and chose AGSM.”

“AGSM was a very pleasant surprise in many ways. Obviously, everyone is fully cognisant of the rankings, and in your minds-eye you have certain expectations about each school. However, having lived in Boston and Montreal, and having visited the campuses of Harvard, MIT, and McGill and hung-out socially with their students, I can say that the AGSM and UNSW stands-up against any of these very well.”

Just like the OU experience, AGSM offered some direct and indirect learning. “From the formal lectures there were several things that have resonated long-term, particularly from a start-up perspective. Bob Wood’s thoughts on Organisational Development, that individual and team goals and rewards must tightly align with the corporate vision is critical. Gary Robert’s course on Strategy, going beyond the simplistic Porter’s 5-forces model, and focussing on the issues of Sustainable Competitive Advantage and where that exists in a company’s Resources and Capabilities continues to be important. It forces focus on what you have, how to protect it, how you can effectively sell it, and highlights areas where you need to mitigate risk and exposure. In the technology sector where the critical needs and skills typically reside with the knowledge worker and the IP they generate, these two remain stand-out areas of attention for me.”

AGSM courses also inadvertently provided the key reasons why Paul decided to transfer to McGill’s MBA Advanced Standing program after completion of the core components at AGSM. “I recall one of the very first orientation classes was about Opportunity Cost. Essentially, what were you giving up to be here? and what else could you have done with that time, money, and investment? After realising that I really enjoyed biotech and would likely return to it, and that all my network and the largest opportunity base is always going to be in North America, and finally as a Quebec resident I could complete the MBA at McGill for C$ 4,500, it really was a no-brainer to switch.”

Paul qualified for Advanced Standing at McGill through successfully completing the first two terms and passing all the exams at the AGSM.

“I finished with a double major in Strategy and Marketing, reinforcing and building upon areas I was already strong at, and achieving some incremental “value-added” learning. Additionally, I volunteered myself for the necessary pain of 3 Finance courses, leaving with sufficient competence to pitch and negotiate Venture Capital term sheets. So now I feel like I am a reasonably well-rounded, well-educated, and seasoned biotech manager, and currently take care of Operations, Finance, Bus. Dev. & Marketing for a start-up biotech in Toronto.”

On reflecting upon the whole learning experience, one thought stands out.

“I can honestly say that 3 years on, looking back at my experiences at AGSM & McGill, I’m still a little baffled by the disparity in rankings. In my humble opinion, and you have to acknowledge I speak from a pretty broad experience base, I still insist to anyone who asks that I consider the quality of the facilities, the students, and the faculty of AGSM to be of the highest order. Perhaps the difference lies in McGill understanding and leveraging its competitive advantages; its 100 year brand value in North America, its perceived excellence in Finance, and its proximity to the USA’s high salary Finance markets of Boston, New York, Toronto and Montreal. However, I do heartily recommend the AGSM MBA to colleagues and acquaintances when the opportunity arises, and by doing so hope that the stature and reach of the program and its students will continue to grow in the future.”