How this CEO used an MBA to join the space race

“I completed the leadership subjects when I was young and the finance and economics subjects when I became more senior and those subjects became more applicable. Spreading out my MBA also meant I met more people than I would have, had I completed the degree in a couple of years,” he says.

Bryant credits his MBA with giving him many connections that have underscored his success. “The network has been extremely powerful for me.”

The enterprise has a training division and Bryant’s MBA gave him connections that led to a new client, a high school. “You can email a principal but they get 1000 emails a day. If they get a sales email, and they don’t know who you are, they’re not going to answer. So I contacted one of my colleagues who knew a principal at one of the schools I was targeting. We organised lunch and we’re doing a training course for the school in October.”

Bryant says the opportunity to study at Harvard University through his MBA was also priceless. “I learned about applying the agile thinking process to manufacturing to take a product to market very quickly.”

‘Changed my life’

Melanie Arnost says her MBA from Griffith University completely changed her life, but not in the way she expected. Arnost started her business Montessori Medic in the middle of her MBA.

“It was coming up to my elder daughter’s third birthday and I couldn’t find the realistic doctor bag I wanted to get her. I wondered how hard it would be to make it myself and I started to look up different bag manufacturers and playing with design ideas. I found someone to make me one, but it turned out if I made 20, it would work out a lot cheaper. I thought I would sell them to friends, but the business exploded. Then COVID happened and everybody wanted a realistic doctor bag.”

Arnost says her MBA taught her about supply chains and economics, knowledge she was able to apply to her own venture. “I wasn’t expecting to get as much out of marketing as I did, but it turns out that was really a game-changing subject for me in starting my business.”

She’s presently searching for a buyer for the business after accepting an adviser role in the public sector. She credits the degree for setting her on a different career trajectory.

“The Griffith MBA helped me leave my journalism career and move into corporate affairs at a superannuation fund. The finance unit was particularly helpful for understanding investments, risk and strategy.”

Arnost was fortunate to win a half scholarship for her course and paid for the remainder of the $41,000 fee through HECS-HELP.

New business models

Tom Arnold is another MBA alumnus who credits his course with a COVID transition. Arnold finished his degree through RMIT in 2020 and was just about to open his business, Canberra Martial Arts & Fitness, when the world shut down due to COVID.

“I used the principles I’d learned to take my business through the lockdown years and grew it 30 per cent year-on-year,” he says.

Lockdown conditions were hardly ideal for his studio, given the physical nature of his business. But Arnold was determined his business would survive. When the pandemic hit, he switched to a completely remote teaching model almost overnight.

“We installed TVs and cameras on the Friday, did testing on Saturday, and we were ready to go 100 per cent online on Monday when the first lockdown was called.”

He drew on what he learned during his degree to create a new business model based on online memberships. Half his membership base transitioned to the online offer.

Post COVID, he has called on the insights he learned during his MBA to figure out how to restructure the business to expand to new locations.

Home truths

UTS MBA graduate Lorraine Gnanadickam says she learned many surprising lessons through her degree. She started her business, Foodst, when she was a student in the course. The company is an online portal for frozen home-cooked meals where talented cooks can sell their creations.

“I learned as a CEO, you don’t need to know every granular detail about the business. But you must know enough to ask the right questions of your team. By making sure you are asking the right questions and getting the right information, you are informed enough to make strategic decisions,” she says.

Gnanadickam says an important insight she gained during the degree was that in corporate environments you often don’t see the bigger picture, unless you’re in an executive position. “The executive MBA gave me an eagle eye view on the way business runs. It helped me to understand my own capabilities and demystified the role of executives in business.”

She sees her transition into her own business as a natural progression. “In 2007 I was a business manager working in a structured corporate environment. I craved the opportunity to work in more strategic roles that required lateral thinking, which is why I did the MBA. I was gravitating towards roles that were more entrepreneurial. I was always at the forefront of change, setting up new management structures and leading first-of-their-kind projects.”

The UTS executive MBA program is for students who already have managerial experience.

“I studied alongside other managers and worked on projects in my business. It taught me how to look at a business from all different perspectives, economics, accounting, finance, marketing, innovation, leadership, strategy and global expansion. These are all subjects CEOs need to understand to set and manage the strategic direction of their company,” says Gnanadickam.

When the idea for Foodst came to her, the MBA gave her the confidence to take a calculated risk and leave the safety of a corporate job and start her own business.

“It taught me business skills and the power of networking. I was a year 10 school-leaver, having been a chef to pursue my love of food. In my 20s I exited kitchens for the corporate world, but my passion for food remained.”

Gnanadickam says her MBA training has given her the skills to navigate an unstable economic climate.

“It gave me the knowledge to attract investment in the first three years and keep the business growing through the pandemic and a difficult economic climate. The last year has been challenging for food businesses with a number of start-ups and great businesses like Milkrun, Providoor and Colab winding up. My MBA gave me the ability to assess multiple factors to navigate the business successfully.”

She says the entry and exit of businesses in the same sector she works in affects the positioning of her firm. “We’re now launching a corporate program to help businesses to meet their employee wellbeing targets through programs with our meals. We’ve achieved an average of 25 per cent revenue growth over the last two quarters and are well positioned for our Series A capital raising next year.

“Our vision for Foodst is coming to fruition and I’m thankful for the grounding of my corporate career and my MBA. The guidance and support from my network of advisers has ensured Foodst is surviving and thriving.”