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On Thursday February 9th 2017, DCU Careers Service, the Alumni office and the DCU Business School MBA team hosted inaugural DCU Executive MBA network conference. This half day event, exclusively for graduate and current DCU Executive MBAs, featured key industry speakers and academic speakers on current topics and debates of interest to our DCU Executive MBAs, with a particular significance for what is happening in Ireland and Internationally today, which impacts on their organisations.
DCU Vice President, Daire Keogh and Professor Theo Lynn, Associate Dean for Industry Engagement and Innovation at DCU Business School opened the event, bringing our MBA alumni up to speed on recent DCU achievements including the significant AACSB accreditation.
Gerry Collins, VP, Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Strategy & Deployment and former Past President of IBEC, discussed the key challenges facing organisations today, with fascinating insights on the speed and foreseeable impacts of technology and change. DCU Lecturer in Economics Tony Foley focused on Brexit and its impact for foreign direct investment in Ireland. The bottom line advised by Tony Foley is do not make the mistake of applying logic to reading implications of either the Brexit or US political outcome.
Stephen McNulty, CEO and Co-Founder of AmbiSense provided an enlightening talk on the trials, tribulations and personal experiences of the start-up journey. These included building something customers love remembering your audience, the role of mentoring and the importance of grit and perseverance. Jeanne Bolger, VP Venture Investments at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, closed the day, with the anatomy of innovation and her tips on innovating for organisational agility.
“This was the first event of its kind for the DCU MBA. We were delighted to provide opportunity for DCU Executive MBAs to reunite with their old classmates and lecturers, and connect with the wider DCU MBA alumni community” said Dr Claire Gubbins, Executive MBA Programme Director and organiser of the conference. “Particular thanks to Yvonne McLaughlin, Director of DCU Careers Service and Padraig McKeon, Director of Alumni Relations, whose contribution made the day a great success. We look forward to strengthening our MBA network with even more events like these in the future”.
The Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia is a triple crown Business School with which DCU Business School enjoys a close working relationship in teaching, research and school development.
Recently, participants from the University’s Executive MBA Programme enjoyed a very successful International week in Dublin. A highlight of their visit was a Masterclass on Leadership with Professor Patrick Flood which they shared with our own Executive MBA students.This provided both groups of students with the opportunity to network and share perspectives on Leadership.
Dr John McMackin, Lecturer in Human Resource Management
DCU Business School is delighted to announce that it has been ranked for the first time by the Financial Times.
The ranking, which places the MSc in Management among the top 90 in the world, makes DCU the youngest university to feature. As the Financial Times is considered one of the leading ranking system for business programmes it is a very significant achievement and another international endorsement of DCU’s quality as a young, dynamic university.
The MSc in Management at DCU is a well established programme with a reputation for excellent career development and already has a large community of successful alumni. It is renowned for its innovation and its creative approach to the postgraduate learning experience as seen in its multi-project Next Generation Management and the Practicum industry project.
Professor Anne Sinnott, Executive Dean of DCU Business School puts the success down to DCU Business School’s innovative approach to teaching and extensive industry links, “The ranking indicates that we are placed among the top universities in the world which deliver an MSc in Management Programme and further confirms our position as an innovative and quality business school, which prepares our graduates to be work-ready.”
This success also highlights the strong relationship between DCU Business School and its alumni as their endorsement was critical to this outcome.
DCU Business School is accredited by the AACSB which is the leading international accrediting body for Business Schools and the Financial Times MSc in Management ranking is another acknowledgement of the quality and success of its programmes and graduates.
For more information about the MSc in Management click here.
I completed my Executive MBA in the summer of 2015 at DCU. It was a great experience and our class comprised a spectacular bunch of people. Before I start to explain what life has been like post the MBA, I would like to acknowledge what a great experience it was. It certainly tests you on all levels – it tests your time management, it tests your productivity, it tests your ability to be part of a team, it tests your leadership – but the end result is highly rewarding.
During my MBA studies I was a Director of Research in Dublin with 16 direct reports the majority of which are PhDs. A couple of months after completing the MBA I moved to New Jersey to take on new responsibilities at our research headquarters. At that time Bell Labs (and our mother company Alcatel-Lucent) was becoming part of a new parent company (Nokia) and in that time there was a lot of flux and changes in management and structure. I was promoted up one level in the organization and I am now responsible for 50 people across 3 different research departments spanning everything from audio visual research, to photonics integration & packaging, to efficient energy transfer research.
With respect to how the DCU MBA helped me personally and in my career progression – the MBA gave me a much better sense of my strengths and areas for growth. Because I am in research I don’t get to explicitly use many of the elements thought in the MBA (for example, marketing, finance, accounting etc) but the fact that I have the fundamental leanings from the MBA program means I now have the ability to engage those skills at any moment and in any context. More importantly, and in my particular case, going through 2 years of extracurricular activity while also holding my day job, was viewed by senior management as extremely positive. They saw that I am serious about my personal growth and career progression and that I am willing to go many extra miles to be as good as I can be and use those growth experiences to help the company. I commenced the DCU Executive MBA programme for personal growth and to try and bring in business best practice into a research environment.
Since moving to the U.S I have been asked to lead many large projects and I have been given much broader responsibility beyond the 3 departments I am directly responsible for. I think there are a few reasons for this but for sure the things I learned during my MBA, especially in the team aspects, have stood me in good stead. I am now also responsible for driving new site initiatives at our research head quarters in New Jersey and part of this role is to help build the Bell Labs brand by collaborating with external partners. One example of this work is shown below where we engaged in activities called Experiments in Arts and Technology (E.A.T). This is a gathering where technologists interact and collaborate with artists to help develop more advanced technology by pushing the limits of how we view the world and how our technology can be used to help humanity.
This post was kindly written by Domhnaill Hernon, Director of Research & Site Lead for Research Interactions, Nokia Bell Labs, New Jersey, U.S.A. You can follow him on Linkedin and on Twitter.
Final applications for the DCU Executive MBA are being accepted now. If you’re considering undertaking an MBA, get in touch with DCU Business School today.
My MBA journey: “It’s about horsepower not brain power and I think that anyone who doubts their ability to do it, my advice would be to go for it”
Taking on two years of part-time study, whilst working in a full time job and raising a young family is no small task, but as Barry Gavigan (40) found out, it can be very rewarding and can also lead to greater things, career wise.
Gavigan has a degree in engineering from the University of Limerick and works for British Telecom. With years of management experience under his belt, he decided to go for a new job but wasn’t even shortlisted for interview. He began to ask the question, why?
The feedback he was given showed he was pigeonholed into engineering. He decided to take back control and have his management experience formally recognised in the form of a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Dublin City University in 2013.
It wasn’t all plain sailing and he encountered many “peaks and troughs” along the way, but ultimately the hard work paid off.
“It’s a significant investment, both financially and of personal time. The family have to be brought in to it. I had a 4 year old, 2 year old and a newborn in the middle of it and I also changed jobs internally. It does involve a lot of personal sacrifice but it’s not one of these excruciating scenarios, and there are peaks and troughs, like your work life. The real ability is to cope with the workload and stay on top of it. It did mean sacrificing nights out and getting up early to study before the kids got up. It was a trade-off but good support from home was vital.”
As an MBA is usually paid for, or part paid for by the employer, it’s vital that they give full support. “My employer was extremely supportive. The MBA required a half day on Thursdays and other times outside of that, so the employer needs to be very committed towards it as well. British Telecom was very accommodating and flexible. It’s a two-way street, my commitment to them was that my work wouldn’t suffer and they got flexibility out of me in other ways.”
Gavigan says the MBA has broadened his mind and made him understand the value of carrying out a task in a certain way. “You recognise why best practice is used,” he says.
It has also got him a new job in another sector, something he says the MBA gave him the confidence to go for.
Peer learning is another key element of the course and he says the insight into other industries is invaluable. “People frankly and honestly share their experiences and rationale behind why a business has taken a certain line.”
He says he would advise anyone considering the masters to “stop procrastinating” and get on with applying.
“It’s about horsepower not brain power and I think that for anyone who doubts their ability to do it, my advice would be to go for it. Everyone who did it had busy lives and busy jobs but they all juggled it and managed it.”
This article was originally published in conversation with the Irish Times.
To learn more about how the DCU Executive MBA fits with your career goals, download our brochure here.
A team within the DCU Centre for Family Business was commissioned by Fingal County Council to complete this case study. The Family Business Report, Lessons in Resilience and Success: a Snapshot of Multi-generational Family Businesses in Fingal, Dublin was produced by Martina Brophy and Eric Clinton. Their study follows twelve family businesses which are all multi-generational, family-owned and head-quartered in Fingal. Through conducting interviews with these individuals they were able to distinguish needs, challenges and strengths that come with running a family business.
“Family businesses are a complex and highly resourceful business type. Knowledge, learnings, resources, values and traditions pass across generations of a family: often, what is found are strategic resources and capabilities that can make a family firm distinctive and competitively advantaged,” writes Dr. Eric Clinton in this study.
The report provides a snapshot of 12 multi-generational family businesses in Fingal with family involvement ranging from second to fourth generation. Between them they employ over 3,500 and have turnovers ranging from €1.5 million to in excess of €100m per annum.
Business & Finance, Ireland’s leading business magazine, have covered the topic in an article, Talent in Family Business. Dr. Eric Clinton, Director of the DCU Centre for Family Business, covers a variety of topics within the topic of family business from how much family should get involved to how important it is to become a cohesive team.
Families have an effect in the businesses day-to-day happenings whether it is positive or negative. Thus, through the Family Business study Clinton and Brophy come together and provide information and recommendations on how to run a successful family run business.
Check out what the DCU Centre for Family Business is all about:
Congratulations to Doireann Sheelan, a DCU Executive MBA student, who received a Special Award for her individual contribution at the recent MBA Association of Ireland Strategy Challenge competition, held recently at Waterford Institute of Technology.
Doireann was part of team, with fellow Executive MBA Students Kalum King, Neil Curran and James Cannon, who presented on the case study “Turkish Airlines – Widen Your World”. While they did not win the competition (the prize went to WIT) they acquitted themselves admirably receiving great praise from the judges for the depth of their analysis.
DCU Executive MBA Team (Kalum King, Neil Curran and James Cannon)
This annual competition, hosted by the MBA Association of Ireland (MBAAI), attracts entrants from all the universities and institutes of technology in Ireland that run MBA programmes. Peter McNamara, Professor of Management & Head of School at NUI Maynooth, and Chairperson of the competition, commented: “All four of the teams did a very good job of analysing the case and making recommendations, especially under considerable time pressure.”
The DCU Executive MBA is now recruiting ambitious participants for September 2016.
For more information, visit postgrad.dcu.ie/mba or email mba@dcu.ie.
Pictured is the DCU MBA team with the MBA Association of Ireland President Alacoque McMenamin,
On Thursday 3rd March 2016, Sharon Walsh, Marketing Director at Heineken joined us for an Executive Speaker Seminar with our MBA1 and MBA2 classes.
Sharon has over 15 years marketing experience during which time she has held senior marketing positions at Coca-Cola (Head of Marketing Sparkling Portfolio and Head of Media), Gilbey’s of Ireland and Diageo Ireland (Brand & Marketing Manager, Smirnoff & Baileys). Since joining Heineken Ireland in 2012 as Marketing Director, Sharon has been responsible for the marketing of Heineken Ireland’s portfolio of brands including the Heineken brand itself, Coors Light, Tiger beer, Desperado, Murphy’s Irish Stout and Paulaner.
Sharon is a DCU alumni and graduated with a Masters in Strategic International Marketing. She has has delivered some of Ireland’s best known marketing communications campaigns and won a number of awards in the All Ireland Marketing Awards programme. Her professional standing and achievements were recognised recently by the Marketing Institute of Ireland where she was awarded fellowship status. Sharon’s presentation to the MBA group covered her most recent campaign, the launch of Orchard Thieves cider.
If you are interested in undertaking an Executive MBA at DCU, join us for our upcoming Taster Evening. Details can be found here.
DCU Business School, home of the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and the Leadership & Talent Institute, has further strengthened its position in the latest Eduniversal Best Masters rankings, with 4 specialist Master’s degrees ranked within the top 30 in the world.
The Eduniversal Best Masters rankings, which rates Master’s degrees on reputation, student satisfaction, and employment prospects, placed theMSc in E-Commerce in 18th position, the MSc in Emergency Management in 24th position, the MSc in Human Resource Management in 26th position, and the MSc in Accounting in 28th position, in their respective subject categories.
Dr Anne Sinnott, Executive Dean of DCU Business School puts the success down to DCU Business School’s research informed teaching and extensive industry links. “The latest rankings show that we are not only ranked among the top global universities but leaders in specialist areas like E-Commerce and Emergency Management. This ensures DCU Business School students are graduating with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills ready for the global marketplace”.
The DCU Executive MBA and MSc in Finance were also ranked within the top 100 in their categories. Eduniversal rates the academic excellence and quality of 4,000 programmes in 30 fields of study across 1,000 academic institutions in 154 countries, with final rankings determined through a survey of 5,000 international recruiters and 800,000 students.
To find out more and apply for our next intake in September visit our postgraduate listing
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