Month: February 2020

Clayton Mwaka, ME, CPA-U Director Clayton & Company 1) Why did you choose Anaheim University? I must say that I came across Anaheim University much later during my search, after spending several weeks considering options and even writing to some Universities, before making a decision. I had been considering doing a Master in Entrepreneurship for about two years before but had not gotten around to making a decision. The focused search commenced after I made a decision to proceed with the program. Principally, I found Anaheim fees affordable in light of several issues, and the online approach also could enable me to study from whichever part of the world I was in. The profiles of the faculty also greatly impressed me. 2) Can you tell us briefly about your career? I have been working in various roles for the last 27 years, since 1992, when I concluded my Bachelor of Commerce degree (specializing in accounting), at Makerere University in Kampala. I later studied ACCA (which I did entirely with home study without a single lecture) and became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), and also a Certified Public Accountant of Uganda (CPA-U). The Anaheim ME program followed my M.Sc in Professional Accounting with University of London. I began my career as an accountant, and later worked in positions such as Group Accountant, Principal Internal Auditor, Financial Controller, Managing Partner (in external audit and consulting), and Finance Director/Chief Financial Officer. My work history has covered industries such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, food (FMCG) and animal feeds, building and construction (steel industry), external audit and consulting, and commodities (coffee). I worked in several Groups of companies in Uganda, and also did expatriate assignments in Nigeria and Tanzania. Beyond my core accountancy profession, I’m also a Certified Business Mentor under ACCA, Youth Business International (YBI) and Enterprise Uganda partnership, and in that I mentored a few young entrepreneurs. I have also written and published two books so far. I enjoy tapping from great minds of other people through reading books. I enjoy doing several things beyond core accounting, since I like developing capacity in people and organizations. I thrive in challenging and multi-tasking environments that provide solutions and change, so in reality my career and activities go way beyond professional accounting. I sometimes find pure accounting boring, but I’m not a boring accountant. 3) Why did you choose to earn a ME? I have always believed that entrepreneurship can provide various solutions to the challenges of humanity; hence my keen interest in it. That partly resulted into the book entitled ‘The Wise Entrepreneur’ which I published several years back (available on Amazon), and also blogging on various entrepreneurship issues. I have also been involved in several start-ups and mentoring young entrepreneurs as mentioned earlier. The Anaheim ME to me was like sharpening my skills further: to be able to add more value to entrepreneurship globally, whilst also positively impacting other enterprises and entrepreneurs generally towards creating value as well as having better societies and providing solutions to some of the challenges of humanity. 4) What do you like best about the program? The ease of accessing various professors running the courses was a big plus for me. Other things I liked included interfacing with globally renowned experts and leaders (non-academic) arranged occasionally by the University for the Real-time Meetings, the very engaging and continuous online discussions amongst students and professors with various perspectives, and the global diversity amongst students attending the program. 5) What was your favorite course from the program? I particularly enjoyed Entrepreneurial Innovation (ENT 500), in which we formed teams for a simulation exercise we did for several weeks, managing a carbon bike business globally. Due to the small class, our team comprised only two of us, Junie Djamen (an origin of West Africa who migrated to the US) and me, based in Uganda. This online exercise involved making real business decisions spanning the entire business, such as business strategy, product design and manufacturing, selling and distribution, financing, human capital etc. I found this very useful because it enables students to understand and appreciate practical and real world business issues. We made use of logical decision making, feedback from the market, and synchronization of our decisions to dominate the market for three weeks (equivalent to 3 years) out of the six weeks, but also learnt very hard lessons by underestimating our competitors’ potential to adapt and fight back, which made us lose significant market share during the last (sixth) week. We did not have the opportunity to make a powerful comeback as the exercise ended (to my disappointment). Another very interesting thing in this program was the study of Hybrid organizations such as Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. (a Social Business), Sanergy: Tackling Sanitation in Kenyan Slums, among others. Some of these social enterprises are a notch higher in addressing social problems, compared to the common CSR phrases and activities we see around. 6) How do you balance the time required to study while working full-time? This is not an easy thing, and I’m sure everyone faces some challenges. Oftentimes I could study in the middle of the night during working days, and also for many hours over weekends, to catch up with the pace of study and also doing weekly assignments on time. I did not see any easier way to handle this other than sacrificing more time. I also got used to working and doing academic reading while travelling by road and air. Oftentimes transit time at airports was very useful time to catch up with some assignments. 7) Do you feel you were part of a learning community? Absolutely! The online academic community was quite engaging and I loved the online discussions on various topics. The professors were also actively participating in these online activities and I found this very valuable. Moreover, having at least two online meetings with our professors, each lasting at least an hour, sometimes with very distinguished guests from

Amit Pattnaik Senior Business Development Officer Informit RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University 1) Why did you choose Anaheim University? Anaheim University was an obvious choice for me as they were the only one who were in the sweet spot of affordability, flexibility (being completely online) and most importantly offering a MBA in Sustainable Management. I didn’t want to do just another generic business degree as I already had a master’s degree in international business and was aware of the traditional business concepts. I was looking to learn more about how the social and environmental aspects work together with business and hence I chose the Green MBA from Anaheim University. 2) Can you tell us briefly about your career? I have worked in the knowledge industry since 2010 and have been in various managerial positions in both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations. I currently work at informit – a business unit of the prestigious RMIT University in Melbourne, where I look after the digital library resources. These resources span from journals and databases to training assets used in teaching and learning throughout Australian universities, colleges, and government institutions. I have always been passionate about teaching and learning, and I believe that if we can change how we teach today, we can change how we will be treated tomorrow. 3) Why did you choose to earn a Green MBA? I opted for a Green MBA because I believe that it is tomorrow’s MBA, which prepares you as a business professional for the next generation. While a traditional MBA degree provides you with a thorough understanding on business concepts like finance, accounting, marketing and management, it fails to touch on the real soul of business, which is to create value on three fronts of profit, people and the planet. This sustainable approach towards business is what attracted me towards the Green MBA, where all the traditional concepts were examined and debated from a social and environmental lens. 4) What do you like best about the program? There are many things which I loved. Firstly, the content which was delivered mostly faultlessly through the Learning Management System (LMS). Secondly, the educators, most of whom had several years of experience in both the industry and in academia. Thirdly, my peers who were working professionals like me from all over the world. Finally, and perhaps the best feature for me – the flexibility which allowed me to complete my course while working full time. 5) What was your favorite course from the program? I had a few that I enjoyed learning about, but my pick of the lot will have to be “BUS 535 Triple Bottom Line Accountability and Management”, with “Social Entrepreneurship Strategy” coming in a close second. The thing about Triple Bottom Line Accountability is that it talks about the balance of profit, people, and planet. We have long been taught that profit is good as it alone is the answer to improving all other issues in our communities and the environment. Therefore we should pursue it at all and any cost, and this is where understanding the correlation between the 3-Ps is so crucial for all future business leaders. 6) How is the experience studying online? It was my first time doing a fully online course and I enjoyed the online studying experience. The learning management system was clean and very easy to understand and navigate with weekly tasks laid out at the start of every unit. It helped me immensely in juggling study and work by allowing me to study from anywhere and at any time. 7) How do you balance the time required to study while working full-time? This was truly challenging, but then nothing substantial in life comes easy. Thinking about it in hindsight, I wouldn’t have had it any other way as the satisfaction that followed upon completion was unparalleled. One thing that helped immensely was that I had the best study partner in Stephen Mason, and we both shared the planning responsibilities. Stephen prepared a thorough study guide in the first couple of days of the course being live and we followed it throughout the length of the course. We knew exactly when a paper was due, when readings were due and when to setup team meetings for group assignments. This kept me organised through my entire MBA journey. I used to stipulate at least an hour every day after work to do some reading and research and did most of the heavy lifting of writing assignments and projects on weekends. One of the areas that was affected the most was my social interactions, but I can say now that it was all worth it in the end. 8) Do you feel you were part of a learning community? Yes, very much so. I always made the effort to know my class mates from all around the world and had discussions on various concepts throughout the course. I also loved the online guest lectures (one of the highlights) conducted by reputed industry professionals and thought leaders. 9) What was the most unusual location you joined an online class or discussion forum from so far? It was from an airport lounge in Singapore while I was on my way to attend our annual sales conference in Bangkok in January 2018. I remember finding a quiet corner in the lounge and using the airport Wi-Fi to login to our online class. I had to carry my laptop in my hand all the way to the boarding gate to maximize my participation. Although not ideal it sure was memorable. Apart from this, I have written assignments and attended online classes from hotel rooms after client meetings and while I was traveling in Europe in April 2018. My most beautiful location was overlooking the snow-covered mountains at the Hallstatt lake in Austria. 10) What would you say to someone who is hesitant about studying online? Studying online is fun! It’s not always easy as there will be technical difficulties if