Taking the time out to do a Master of Business Administration programme can open new horizons and support a change in direction. HELEN COMPSON talks to a former University of Glasgow student who is glad she made the leap of faith.
She was already a business woman to her very core, but for Sharon Morrow, University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Business School’s MBA gave her opportunities she’d never even considered.
Working at the Department for International Development for a week on a live challenge was just one of them.
After the 30 or so students in her class had been divided into teams, Sharon’s group of four found themselves tasked with helping to improve an Aid Management Platform.
“We were very lucky, because for a full week we worked in the department’s headquarters near Glasgow – a rare opportunity,” she said.
“They didn’t think the Aid Management Platform was being well used and they asked us to come up with solutions.”
Part and parcel of a competition that was sponsored by Bell’s Whisky, the crux was a presentation marked by representatives of the public sector organisation they had been working with, as well as their tutors.
Sharon and her team were delighted to win. They were presented with their prize by the whisky company’s managing director, Prof. Raymond Miguel, during a special luncheon.
“Doing the presentation was like being on Dragon’s Den,” she laughed. “It was nerve-wracking, but very worthwhile!
“There was such a sense of satisfaction at having worked on a real-life situation, and the consultancy aspect was something I really enjoyed doing.”
A state-registered nurse originally, Sharon changed direction in the early noughties when she moved abroad, to Portugal, and became a nursery teacher at one of the international schools there.
“It was a complete change, but I had always had a huge interest in education and training and young people,” she said.
“I loved it, but I was homesick so I came back and started work in a public health role, dealing with young people, and did that for a number of years.”
Marriage to a dentist proved her next turning point. She subsequently went in to manage his dental practice at the point it had 10 members of staff.
By the time the couple sold it last year, the business had three branches and 45 staff.
“I worked hard on that business, driving change and expanding it, while being a mum to three,” she said. “It was tough, but I have always been driven – whatever I’m doing, I want to do it the best I can.
“I even did my dental nurse training, so I would understand the language and the very basis of the business.
“But I always felt that I’d fallen into that particular role and there was a yearning to do something for myself, something of my own choosing.”
Her interest in education had never waned and for her, when she thought about the different strands of her life to date, an MBA was the answer to the question, what next?
She had several strong reasons for choosing University of Glasgow. The relatively small class sizes appealed, as did the international mix of the student intake.
“A big part of it for me was the opportunity to learn from others,” she said. “My time in Portugal had taught me just how much I enjoyed working with different people from all over the world and the breadth of vision that gave me.”
There were 17 nationalities represented in her class, so she certainly got that. “When you have all these different people at different stages of their career from different corners of the world coming together to learn, well, to me it was invaluable.
“There weren’t many people from the healthcare sector, but it allowed me to learn so much more about other industries and sectors besides my own.”
Most of all, she liked the look of the Glasgow MBA itself, because that too offered breadth of vision – and choice.
The fact she was allowed to investigate and write on a particularly niche subject matter for her dissertation earned the university brownie points in her eyes.
Sharon said: “One of the professors really inspired me, because he had a background in healthcare and patient safety, so I chose to do my dissertation on patient safety, which I always championed in our dental practice.
“I chose to do it on the lack of a reporting system within dental practices, which are yet part of the Primary Care system.
“I didn’t expect when I started the MBA that I’d be able to do something in that area, but it allowed for a breadth of choice far wider than just marketing and human resources and that was really important to me.”
The MBA is a 12-month long, full-time course that, while participants do get the Christmas and Easter holidays, is more intensive than the academic year for undergraduates. They work straight on through the summer, for one thing.
As for Sharon, she is putting what she learned on the Glasgow MBA to good use. She enjoyed that taste of consultancy work she got with the Department for International Development so much that she has taken on a couple of consultancy roles of her own.
One is with a large Scottish dental group, focusing on quality improvement, learning and development, and the other is with a printing company, helping to roll a new product out to international markets.
Oh, and she’s also launched her own training company too, producing dental nurses proficient in the art of sedation, a boon to dental practices and dental hospitals requiring the skill.
Furthermore, as a volunteer, she has been instrumental in setting up a local mental health project, called ‘The Living Room’. She is now part of its management team and the volunteer co-ordinator, ensuring the drop-in centre is manned appropriately.
Sharon feels that she has gone full circle in her career, that she is hands-on once again, working at ground level – and she couldn’t be more pleased.
“When I sold the dental practice, it gave me the freedom to do other things,” she said. “I’m as busy as ever, but in a different way.
“I loved the MBA, not least because it allowed me the time to reflect on what I wanted and didn’t want to do in both my career and personal life.
“It not only gave me the time to decide if I should sell our business, but also the courage to do so.
“The MBA provided me with new experiences and ideas and, ultimately, the confidence to take advantage of new opportunities.
“It is hard work, yes, but I’m so glad I did it.”
