On Monday, 24 January, the North-West University (NWU) Business School embarked on the first day of their week-long MBA Summer School. No fewer than 125 MBA students showed up in person at the Stonehenge venue outside Parys, and more than 70 students attended online.
During his opening address, Prof Jan van Romburgh, the chief director of the NWU Business School, said that the school is experiencing a huge interest in its MBA qualification – the number of enquiries from prospective students has doubled. “This can be because of various reasons, the most prominent being that the school has recently acquired its five-year accreditation from the Association of MBAs, and is the first business school in Africa to receive international accreditation from the Business Graduates Association.”
He said the NWU Business School will this year embark on a huge alumni involvement drive, as they consider alumni to be ambassadors of the business school. Prof Van Romburgh also elaborated on the school’s plans to establish a Centre for Corruption and Integrity Studies, and shared his views about the new focus of the school’s Small Business Advisory Bureau.
He concluded his address with a motivation to students. “Make a difference – you are the guys who will be making the difficult decisions in your companies. Equip yourself, identify opportunities, grab it, and run with it,” he said.
Mr Omri van Zyl, the CEO of Agri Enterprises, was one of the guest speakers during the official opening of the summer school. He shared his experiences and views of the South African and international agricultural sectors, and how acquiring the right and needed skills could influence an economy to a huge extent. His main message to MBA students was that hard work pays off. “My advice is to make time to understand the global economy. This influences everything. Use your time during your MBA studies to equip yourself with the necessary skills that South Africa needs. We need this – now!”
Another guest speaker, Prof Jacques Faul, the current CEO of the Titans Cricket franchise and former acting CEO of Cricket South Africa, gave valuable advice to the students. “If I had to give my 20-year-younger self some advice, it would be something about the value of education and upskilling yourself. Do not ever think you have reached the top. Keep on going, as far as you can, even if it is very hard. Also, as a business leader you need to be brave. You need to face the ‘bouncers’ or challenges in life, but you also need to have a good technique to deal with them.”
He spoke about turnaround strategies in business and said: “Always remember, people give to people! Not necessarily to big enterprises or companies, but to people. Planning is very important, but even more so is getting buy-in from surrounding experts and colleagues before you execute.”
Other keynote addresses included that of Prof Mornay Roberts-Lombard, a professor at the Department of Marketing Management of the University of Johannesburg. He gave a talk on the topic of deconstructing consumer behaviour and future trends.
Prof Waldo Krugell, the deputy director of the School of Economic Sciences at the NWU’s Potchefstroom Campus, gave an insightful lecture. The students hung on his lips as he gave his lecture with the title: We have to talk about unemployment.
A workshop in financial accounting ratio was presented by Mr Willie Bezuidenhout. He is the chief financial officer at Buffalo Coal Corp and was just the right man to present this workshop, since he has been part of multi-million-dollar international mining projects and corporate mergers and acquisitions in the gold and uranium industry.
During the week the students had the opportunity to receive valuable insights from Retha Scholtz, a life coach who also coaches and mentors MBA students. She reassured them that this great journey will guide them to self-fulfilment.
Another guest speaker included Professor Geeta Dupati, from the Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand. She is an academic with 17 years of teaching experience across the globe. Her topic for our summer school attendees was: Financial leverage and capital structure policy.
Prof Sanjay Mishra from the University of Kansas spoke about customer lifetime value. The students enjoyed his insights on how investors make investment decisions and whether entrepreneurs learn as much from failures as from successes.
After academic lecturers had touched on the topic of strategic management, the guest speaker, Dr Tendai Douglas Svotwa, addressed the students on the role of African business schools in promoting entrepreneurship – prospects for the future.
It is always great to hear from people who are working in the industry, who have gone past theory and are now involved in the practical side of business. Prof Chris Lombard is a management consultant who started his own consulting firm. He gave our MBA students a taste of the advice he gives to both the public and private sector and to international clients: change capacity and people’s capacity solutions.
Students also gained much-needed information on how to make use of the library and all online software they will be using. The week was packed with information and it is hoped our MBA students were inspired and excited to grab this opportunity.
Students did not shy away from providing great feedback about the week’s study school.
Prof Christo Bisschoff, study school leader, said that although he is convinced that their best attempts at online study schools during lockdown added considerable value to the MBA class of 2020/21, they paled in comparison to this study school. “Listening to the analytics in class, the academic discussions and the social conversations convinced me that there is just no alternative for personal contact in high-level tuition,” he concluded.
Listen what our students have to say:
