“Making the decision to change the course of my career was my first big challenge. The second, was embarking on my MBA with the University of Canterbury. This is a reflection on my MBA journey and the significance of the skills I developed when completing the final consulting project.”
Love Joshi, MBA graduate 2021
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Both pursuing an MBA and then having the opportunity to complete a consulting project for the Christchurch City Council aligned with my purpose of making a small impact on the community.
The project mainly focused on improving the usage of the Council owned and managed community facilities which are available to the larger community in Christchurch. The goal of my work was to provide a strategy that focuses on improving these facilities and the services related to them in order to make them fit for purpose to meet the changing needs of the community. Thus, making them modern, robust and more desirable. Throughout this project, I tried my best to keep the community at the centre of my research as that provided a sense of fulfilment to me. This strongly aligned with the Council’s strategic goals and vision they have for the city as well.
The outcomes of the project focused mainly on two areas of opportunity, one being improved community consultation through a real-time and regular feedback mechanism between the council and the community. The second outcome of the project helps the council communicate effectively the good work and initiatives they take to support the community through various marketing initiatives. The willingness of the community to be a more active part of the decision-making process as far as community facilities are concerned set the foundation for my work. The result of this project was a prioritised list of recommendations to be implemented over a period of next one year.
The specialist skills I developed during the MBA programme through the Design Thinking and Digital Transformation papers provided me with the best methodological tools to successfully deliver the outcomes for the project. In addition, the Data Informed Strategy paper helped me realise what a big role data plays in the decision-making process of almost all the successful organisations today. This remained with me while working on this project and I invested almost 70% of my time and energy on collecting and analysing a substantial amounts of data. Importantly, the papers focusing on Leadership and Sustainability taught me how to effectively communicate my research to key stakeholders especially when you believe in and are passionate about your work.
During my journey, the most beautiful feeling was being able to confidently and successfully use a range of tools introduced to me as a part of the MBA programme. I remember using these tools for the first time in the classroom and failing miserably. However, the lecturers were so supportive that this never impacted my confidence. I think this enabled me to use these tools in the real world with confidence and effectiveness.
The past 18 months has been an extremely emotional time where my cognitive abilities have been developed beyond my expectations. I realise how this hasn’t just impacted my professional life in positive manner but also my personal life. Through this journey, I saw my dream getting defined as a goal and was achieved as a successful outcome.
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About Love Joshi
Love, once an aspiring actor, is now pursuing a professional career that combines his performance skills with business consultancy in strategy, training and analysis. Thanks to the specialist skills gained through completing his MBA at the University of Canterbury in 2021, Love is now inspired to work with businesses to have a positive impact on their community.
Connect with Love: https://www.linkedin.com/in/love-j/
