Paul Murphy

How did you first hear about The Henley Flexible Executive MBA – Senior Leader Masters Degree Apprenticeship?
I was on a leadership development programme sponsored by my organisation when I first heard about the Henley Flexible Executive – Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship. It was communicated as a follow-on step to bridge between being a functional business specialist to that of a more rounded business influencer. That it would enable me to add more impact to cross-functional conversations and prepare me to lead a business unit in the future; should this be my chosen career path. After further personal research, I was pleased to read that the programme was constructed in a way that allowed me to apply each learning step to a work-based situation, in the form of an assignment. This re-enforced the learning and concreted it in my mind, whilst also adding value to my business. Finally, I was pleased to see that there was a Personal Development stream in the programme. This helped me to navigate my personal career aspirations and was very much a cherry on the cake.

What tips would you give to people in order to prepare in advance for their application to the programme?
If you are thinking of applying for a Henley MBA either funded by the Apprenticeship Levy or self-funded, I would recommend you have an honest conversation with yourself regarding what your motivation is for doing the MBA. This motivator is necessary when the going gets tough, such as when working weekends to finish an assignment, or late evenings of research into particular topics.

Next, have an open conversation with your family regarding how the MBA will work with your current situation. For example, are you at a place in your life currently where the extra study time really works for you? Remembering that the MBA is an academic commitment that you will need to invest time and effort into get the most out of it. Hence, some sacrifices are likely.

Finally, talk to your manager. Help them to understand the commitment and if they feel they can themselves cope when giving you the time allowance (20%) that you’ll need to take advantage of to give yourself enough capacity to get value out of the learning.

What stands out as the highlight of the first day of the programme?
The Greenlands campus is an excellent learning environment. Away from the hustle and bustle of everyday office life. It helps you to detach your mind from office life and break into a different world. Whilst on campus, meeting numerous senior leaders from other organisations whom are also students provides insights into other worlds and significantly increases your personal network of influencers. Finally, the plethora of ice breaking activities on the first day helps to create a long-term bond with your academic comrades. People you will likely to call on for support during the apprenticeship.

As part of the Apprenticeship scheme it’s important to apply the learning back to your work place. Can you give examples of how you may have done that?
This is one the most important aspects of the MBA Apprenticeship. Anyone can go to a classroom, learn something new and forget about it almost as fast as they have learnt it. Applying the learning is what is needed to re-enforce it into the student’s mind and be something they can recall and pull on in the future.

So far, I have been able to apply the Managing Processes and Systems learning to create a tighter and more effective bond between our sales and marketing functions. I have applied the Managing Financial Resources module to examine the margin contribution of each of our product lines to recommend where to focus scarce resources. I have applied the Managing People (HR) module to deep dive into the rewards policy of our organisation and make recommendations on how to improve the Total Rewards approach for employees. Finally, I have applied the International Business learning to analyse an acquired start-up and recommend how best to expand internationally.

It really is a thrilling experience to be able to learn and apply that learning to your own organisational context and really bring it to life.

What’s been the highlight of the programme so far for you?
There are so many, but I would pull out the key ones as learning and applying topics that surround me at work as the top one. This is because it both helps me to understand the world of another function and consider how I can improve my business to make it work more effectively for both customers and shareholders. Secondly, the network you can create of senior leaders in different organisations, whom are fellow students, is a useful by-product of taking the MBA. Finally, the learning group of 5 to 6 other students that you are placed into really spurs you on to get the work done. It also helps you understand new approaches to challenges that you would not have thought about if learning alone.

What overall advice would you give to anyone about to start on an Apprenticeship?
Just do it! If you have the time and enthusiasm for the size of commitment that a Senior Leader Masters Degree Apprenticeship demands. My advice is, be clear from the start on what is driving you to start the MBA, as you’ll need to draw on this later during the 30 months of the programme when times get hard. I have also found that if you have a general enthusiasm for learning and an inquisitive nature, this amplifies the positive experience gained from the learning. The subject matter is very interesting to anyone whom is operating at senior enough level of any business. May many more people start and benefit from this scheme which provides another stone on the path to life-long learning.