Mission Accomplished

I came into the Master of Management program at the start of the year looking for definitive career direction. Now I have it.

As of next March I’ll be working with Deloitte in the area of Human Capital Consulting. It’s a fantastic opportunity and something I never expected at the start of the course. Back then I’d just finished my commerce degree but wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted to go as far as a job was concerned. I had a friend who’d done the degree the semester before and had given it rave reviews, so I just thought it’d be a good option for getting a practical perspective on the theory I’d already learned.

The first thing that struck me when I started the program was the relatively small size of the student body - something that really allows you to get to know everyone. The large emphasis on collaboration has also been fantastic. With a huge percentage of marks based on group work, you quickly learn how to function in a team that includes members with different backgrounds and knowledge bases. It’s great preparation for the challenges I’ll face next year.

But by far the part I've enjoyed most has been taking part in the Deloitte FASTRACK Innovation Challenge. It was definitely different to anything else I’ve ever done and not at all what I expected. Even better was being part of the team that won the latest competition. I remember when we first pitched the bones of our idea we were rated second-last by the course coordinators, so to come back from there was a great achievement. Although I’d applied for a job with Deloitte early in the program, our final result definitely helped me secure the role. Needless to say, signing up for the Master of Management degree has definitely been the right move.

Out With The Old….

You can take it as a given that managers of the future will differ markedly from managers of the past.

While technical knowledge will remain an extremely important commodity, it’s the things we refer to as “soft skills” that will become increasingly useful for those wearing the leader’s hat. Soft skills refer to the ability to work effectively with people of different professional backgrounds and take advantage of their skills and expertise. They refer to the ability to lead and inspire, as well as the ability to confront problems from a number of different angles and not be constrained by the limitations of conventional frameworks.

Why are these abilities so important? Unlike the “good old days”, managers can no longer work in their own little bubble. These days, a lot of business problems are not just simply marketing problems or finance problems – they’re business problems with implications across all areas including marketing, finance and logistics. That’s why new-age managers need to be able to recruit expertise from different areas and leverage that into creating effective solutions. Additionally, an increasing percentage of management work is project-based (implementing IT systems, starting a new business line, ramping up an existing business), so the ability to build and successfully manage a team is critical.

Significantly, the need for a multi-faceted business approach won’t be the only challenge that the next generation of managers will face. While managers of the past had a long time to develop their craft, the next generation will be expected to take on the senior roles much earlier in their careers. With no interim option available due to the non-recruitment policies adopted by many organisations over the last two-decades, senior management roles will fall to those in their 20s and 30s when the bulk of the current hierarchy, now aged in their 50s and 60s, retire in the next three to five-years.

Follow Nick @NickWailes on Twitter.

On The Fastrack

The Deloitte FASTRACK Innovation Challenge is an incredibly exciting program that allows students to experience the demanding realities of the corporate world while exploring the emerging trends that will shape the future of business.



Integrated into degrees such as the Master of Management, the FASTRACK initiative sees students actually join Deloitte's globally recognised innovation program. Students are partnered with Deloitte mentors and go through an intensive 12-week innovation simulation process. It takes them from the idea generation phase through to the development and testing phase and then finally requires them to pitch a business case for a $50 million business innovation to a panel of senior Deloitte partners.

Just like the actual corporate environment, the challenge enjoys a strong collaborative yet competitive focus, with teams from different universities all vying for the top spot, a generous cash prize, and as many business opportunities as the students can create. Impressively, the latest challenge, run just last semester, saw University of Sydney teams fill the first three places; the winning side pitching an idea for an online workforce rewards portal that sees work and performance management turned into a serious game.

The FASTRACK challenge has been running for four-years now and I have to say I’m constantly impressed by the quality of the Master of Management students who are selected to take part. The strength of ideas they’re pitching at the conclusion of the program continuously surpasses expectations of both myself and the Deloitte partners. In fact, two of the graduates from the winning team in the latest challenge were hired by Deloitte.

Perhaps not surprisingly, students who participate in the challenge report having never worked harder on a unit. They also say they’ve never had a more rewarding experience. That’s probably because it’s a genuine real world experience that tests them and the skills they have developed. They face the same hurdles, difficulties and rewards that they’ll encounter when negotiating their future career paths.

Strength to Strength

Towards the end of last year I came to the decision that I wanted to do something a little different from what everyone else with my degree was doing.

I just wasn’t satisfied with the options open to me after graduating with an applied science degree in exercise and sports science and I knew I had to undertake some additional study. In today’s jobs climate you need to be quite versatile and possess a range of diverse skills to succeed, so I looked around and found the Master of Management course. I thought that no matter what it lead to, the skills and knowledge acquired would not only come in handy for employment purposes, but also for life in general.

I’m now halfway through and can say that the best part is not necessarily what you learn, but the way in which you learn it. The practical emphasis of the degree makes it feel like you’re getting real business experience that will help you make the transition to the real world. Having had no prior experience of things like economics and business strategy, it’s been excellent.

At this stage I’m not quite sure what the future holds. Currently I’m working part-time as a strength and conditioning coach at one of the GPS schools, which has been fantastic. I haven’t ruled out pursuing a sports science-related career in the future, but I have to say that the Master of Management has really opened up a heap of new opportunities that I wouldn’t otherwise have had. I’m in the position now that at the end of the year I could apply for a job that wouldn’t have been imaginable six-months ago.

Will I somehow combine my sports science knowledge with my Master of Management qualification? Possibly. Or I might do something completely different. It’s quite exciting and I’m now starting to think differently about my future. Right now it’s about keeping as many options open as possible.

A New Breed

Ever wondered what the art of effective management really entails?



While things like business acumen, technical expertise, and a detailed understanding of the corporate environment are certainly important, the real key lies in the ability to develop creative solutions to complex business problems. Not surprisingly, the individual who can routinely formulate such creative solutions will be the one who enjoys the highest degree of employer demand.

The great thing about teaching students with diverse non-business backgrounds is that they tend to approach business problems in surprising and original ways. When we’re looking at the particulars of, say, restructuring a business, the input of someone like a science graduate can be very interesting indeed. Because they haven't been trained or conditioned to think about a problem in a particular way, they’re able to bring a very different approach to the table.

Increasingly, corporate organisations are requiring graduates who possess non-business backgrounds and highly developed business skills. More and more, they’re becoming aware that candidates possessing non-traditional pedigrees are highly effective at generating creative solutions and bringing different thought patterns and perspectives to existing business models. As we all know, the CEO of today’s telecommunications company doesn’t necessarily have to have a degree in telecommunications.

Importantly, opportunities for our versatile graduates to exercise their skills are never in short supply. Through course initiatives such as business projects, guest lecturer programs, networking functions and skills seminars, participating business partners have ample opportunity to monitor students’ progress and assess their ever-improving ability to critically evaluate business problems and present creative solutions. As such, it’s not uncommon to see students presented with numerous job opportunities following the conclusion of their studies. It’s just another example of the way we focus on delivering real results and real opportunities.

What do employers look for?

Good Answers To A Difficult Question

CPA Australia’s involvement with the Master of Management program has turned out to be a fantastic opportunity to tap the insights of some newly emerging corporate talent.

Keen to involve a group of course students with a key issue we’re currently contending with, we commenced our association by steering them onto some opportunities with our tertiary market. Essentially, we wanted them to tell us how we could show students who are just about to finish their university studies the benefits of moving straight into a CPA program. How could we go about increasing those particular numbers? How could we have more of an impact on that particular demographic?

Over the course of six-weeks we had five students sitting in our offices two-days-a-week. It was almost like an internship. We gave them access to specific material, office facilities, and the expertise of our staff, their task being to analyse the available data and come up with some recommendations. That’s a hard call at the best of times, but they were fantastic, quickly getting to the crux of the question and getting the project done.

Their final presentation was highly impressive and I can honestly say they’ve left CPA Australia with something tangible to consider. One of the ideas to emerge was so good, we may put it to our Executive Team for consideration.

Based on our experiences, I think it’s fair to say that the Master of Management program shapes as a great recruitment tool for companies looking to establish a relationship with course students. It’s an ideal means of accessing a rich talent pool and observing how well potential recruits function in a practical business environment. I’d have no qualms recommending an involvement.

Author: Archie Petsas, Employer Relationships Manager at CPA Australia

Visualising The Future

The thought first popped into my head last year when I was working full-time as a producer’s assistant.

With a Bachelor of Visual Arts majoring in film and digital art already behind me, I was basically given the advice that if I wanted to develop my career in a more business-orientated direction then it was probably in my best interests to undertake some further study. I started looking around to see what was out there and pretty quickly came across the Master of Management course. It’s concise nature appealed to me straight away and I enrolled earlier this year.

For me, art has always been my primary passion. In year-12, I made a film and entered it into a few festivals and subsequently realised it was something I should definitely pursue. I also really enjoy working in the online area, and since last year have been working with a team of friends on developing an iPhone app. It’s been a challenging process but it’s almost finished. Ultimately I’d like to be an executive producer and I think the business knowledge I’m currently developing will help me get there. I want to be successful at what I do, and while my Visual Arts degree already sets me apart from a lot of people, I’m hoping the Master of Management will help define me even more.

Of course, having no previous background in economics or business has ensured I’ve been on a pretty steep learning curve so far. But that certainly hasn’t proved to be an insurmountable hurdle and I’ve found the whole experience to be extremely rewarding. Another highlight has been meeting and interacting with the large number of international students enrolled in the course. It’s been amazing. Through the degree I’ve also received an offer of work for next year, which is something that wouldn’t have been as likely had I not made the contacts I have.

A Brave New World

Today’s business environment is certainly no place for the ill prepared.

Indeed, you only have to consider the developments of the past decade to realise that the world occupied by the modern management professional is far more complex and challenging than ever before. Economies have evolved into global entities, firmly established distribution channels have seen the rate of new product introduction increase significantly, while ready Internet access has created a highly interconnected marketplace and irrevocably altered the ways that consumers inform themselves about products and product choices.

Added to this is the rapidly growing drive towards things like ethical sustainability and best practice policies. Rather than simply focusing on profits, efficiency or shareholder returns, today’s manager needs to ensure that the business he or she presides over also conforms to established norms around positive social and environmental impact. Then there’s the actual workforce and what I call generation i – the iPhone, Internet-savvy demographic who have a very different attitude towards careers, job expectations and what a workplace should look like.

It’s no surprise, then, that today’s management graduate requires a far more diverse and adaptable skill set in order to survive and prosper. The world has changed, and the expectations of consumers, the workforce, and society in general around what a manager does have changed dramatically. Importantly, the Master of Management degree is a program that imparts business leaders of the near future with the skills required to function in a contemporary business setting, enabling them to focus on the key issues and the way in which they challenge the 21st Century business model.

Making A Difference

As the largest non-government provider of out-of-home care services in Australia, Life Without Barriers has benefited enormously from our association with the Master of Management program.

We approached the University of Sydney’s Business School last year for help with a vital project that involved examining the application of social impact bonds on the type of services we provide. In a nutshell, we needed the students to help provide an economic analysis of the various elements of the out-of-home care system and how it might be possible to apply a social impact bond. This basically relates to getting investors involved so that essential services (such as therapeutic assistance for families who may be struggling to stay together) can be delivered before families reach a crisis.


It was a very complex piece of work done over many weeks in partnership with Deloitte, and the four students involved worked incredibly hard. Prior to the project, I guess I expected that maybe 30% of the work could be done by the students. But they far exceeded my expectations. Despite no previous background in our area, they quickly got across the subject material and applied their unique skills to develop a product that’s going to be enormously helpful.
 


Ultimately, the work was presented to NSW Treasury in its final draft stage, with the students themselves briefing senior treasury officials. Treasury asked hard questions and the students were able to clearly and confidently answer them. Treasury was very impressed with the results, which will now form the basis of our bid to establish a social impact bond in NSW.
 


Upon conclusion of the project, we offered a position to one of the students on a temporary basis until she takes up a permanent role at Deloitte early next year. It’s been a delight having her on the team and we’re really looking forward to getting more Master of Management students involved with Life Without Barriers in the future.

The Importance Of Stress Relief

I read with interest last week an item in the UK’s Daily Mail stating that British workers required a holiday every 62-days as a means of coping with debilitating job stress.

While not an authority on the latest UK workplace research, I can however say that the issues of annual leave and job stress definitely represent significant challenges here in Australia. Indeed, our research into employee stress within the community services sector indicates that workers in that area appear to be using their annual leave to deal with accrued job stress – a tendency that’s highly problematic. Afterall, annual leave is meant to be about improving quality of life, going on holidays, connecting with families and friends and achieving some degree of work-life balance.

Across the broader spectrum, there's also evidence that Australian employees are opting to save up their leave - forced to do so by work-related commitments and expectations, or as a form of insurance policy if they’re feeling insecure in their jobs. With other research figures indicating that Australians have 118-million days of accrued annual leave, it appears that the taking of yearly holidays is not a reality for a large proportion of workers.

Considering that stress and workplace injury are just two detrimental health affects arising from overwork and lack of genuine mental recuperation time, this represents an alarming trend. For business alone, the costs resulting from subsequent compensation claims, resignations, job transfers, sick leave, staff turnover and staff re-training can be significant.

Clearly, the importance of reducing stress and ensuring that workers have access to meaningful annual leave is something modern managers and executives can’t afford to ignore. Such outcomes may require a re-assessment of the way jobs are designed, or more importantly, the implementation of annual leave programs that enable staff to have control over when they take their holidays. The rewards of such initiatives would be enormous. Indeed, a happy, rested, stress-free workforce will engage in their work in a different, more productive way – a critical factor in providing better outcomes for both employee and business health.

Authors: Toby Fattore and Maja Moensted from the University of Sydney Business School

The Next Big Step

Having completed my Honors in Government and International Relations last year, the next step in my academic career was always going to be a crucial one.

As someone who’s interested in politics and how government works, I’d been primarily focused on bureaucrat policy creation, looking at why bureaucracies operate the way they do, as well as why some policies get suggested at certain points in time and not at others. But I still felt I was lacking a fairly large piece of the puzzle. That’s why I signed up for the Master of Management degree.

There are a lot of people working in government who have political science or policy degrees. They’re very much aware of how the science behind decision-making works. But there aren’t many people within the government sector who have an idea of how to actually implement what they’ve researched. I think that zone of intersection between the public and private sectors is an extremely important area, and I believe that combining my interest in policy creation with a strong understanding of business will prove to be highly beneficial.

I’m currently halfway through the degree and I feel it’s definitely providing me with the tools I’ll need to apply my policy knowledge in a practical sense. For example, I’ve really enjoyed learning how financial markets and businesses operate, and think that a project we worked on with accounting and consultancy firm Deloitte (we had to come up with an innovative business model idea and sell it to them) has been a definite highlight.

When it’s all over, ideally I’d love to get into some sort of lobbying position, which would be a great example of that intersection between public and private. I’m also interested in the management consultancy side of things, or possibly approaching my career path from the governmental side via a ministerial advisory role. I really can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Standing Out From The Crowd

Achieving an undergraduate degree is undoubtedly one of the most significant milestones in the life of any individual.

Yet achieving real world success upon entering the workforce can be another challenge entirely. Indeed, what’s often missing is the ability to take a particular specialised skill set (such as an expertise in language, engineering or chemistry) and apply it within a commercial context. To really stand out from the crowd, these types of knowledge bases must be augmented with the skills required to succeed in a dynamic business environment. It’s only then that the transformation to future corporate innovator can be made.

Significantly, the Master of Management program is not just a theoretical classroom-based initiative. Rather, it’s run in conjunction with the business community, with much of the course curriculum designed with input from our dedicated business partners. As such, we’re able to contextualise course material by giving students exposure to practical business settings within multinational corporations, professional services firms, industrial firms and NGOs. It’s an opportunity to really apply what they’ve learned, including skills around planning, finance, strategy, entrepreneurship, marketing, business regulation and cross-culturalism.

It’s interesting that the majority of students who opt for this approach come from non-business backgrounds. Our current student collective includes a landscape architect, a physiotherapist, a filmmaker, as well as numerous graduates in law, engineering and the arts. They’re all individuals who know where their passions and interests lie, but who also recognise the importance of being able to capitalise on their qualifications.

Ultimately, the key truism for any career-minded individual to consider is this: there are many people who hold an undergraduate degree, but not all of them are marketable commodities.