MBA With Honours – A Challenge

I stopped sailing on merchant vessels in March 1992 and then by beginning of May 1992, joined a ship repair yard known as Dubai Drydocks, in Dubai (U.A.E.). Work was quite a challenge as shifting from technical to commercial field was totally new to me. However, I was happy because my family was with me. I was learning quite fast about my new job. Quality of life also was very good. On the whole everything was in order except one thing. I always wanted to develop my business administration skills. I had a strong desire to do MBA with finance as major. However, at that time there was nothing available in Dubai, which I could take up with my work in hand. But anyway, that desire remained there, and my eyes were always on lookout.

Somewhere in June 1994, I saw an advertisement in one of the local newspapers. University of Hull (UK) was offering a distance learning MBA programme in Dubai. I made a full inquiry about everything through their local partner “Al Khansa Institute”. It was a two years programme. Initial 18 months were divided into 6 modules of 3 months each. Each module was of two subjects. Last 6 months were kept for project preparation and submission under a University appointed guide. University of Hull was offering to send Professors across and conduct classes in Dubai itself. For every module, classes would be conducted for 6 weeks, every day in the evening from 18.00 hrs till 23.00 hrs. And towards end of the module, for every subject an assignment to be submitted and a written examination would be conducted.

With my daily ongoing Drydock work, complete programme was highly taxing. Also, this programme was costing a lot of money to my pocket. Still my desire overpowered everything, and I enrolled for it. I also needed to take permission, as well as recommendations from my Commercial Manager and Commercial Director in Dubai Drydocks, which I did. There was lot of paperwork involved with enrollment and took some time. However, by beginning of July, I was able to complete everything and fulfill all requirements, required by University for enrollment. By mid-July, the programme was started.

As I had expected, programme was highly taxing physically and mentally. In the evening, I had to rush from my work to classes. And then by the time classes were over and I could reach home, it used to be beyond 12 o’clock. I was not even getting enough sleep. Also, my three children were too young to realize, what was going on? So, in all it took some time to adjust with everything. However, on one front I was lucky too. All my MBA class friends had agreed to join for group studies at my home. That made my life little easy.

I was consuming all my earned leaves for written examinations purpose. Hence, coming to India and meeting parents, relatives or friends was out of question, especially for eighteen months. I used to send my wife and children to India for holidays, however I stayed back for classes or examination etc.

One of our Professor Mr. John Oliga was highly educated and qualified person, and a real down to earth man. He had come to Dubai second time for our 5th module, i.e. 9th and 10th subject. That was also the time, we were explained about our project work and to choose the project and the guide for the project work. By the way, John was quite friendly with all the students. So, one day we friends invited him for lunch at my home.

Once the lunch was over, we all started discussing about our studies, project and grades etc. He was asking everyone about the work individuals were involved in and based on that he was suggesting different possible projects. Most of my colleagues were involved with routine jobs. When it was my chance to discuss, I told him about my involvement with ship building and ship repair and was interested in doing a project with oil and gas. He seemed to be quite interested in that subject. Then he asked about my grades. I told him that by then I had four A’s, three B’s and one C.

John seemed to be little thoughtful for a while, and then said. Any project related with oil and gas will be a very good choice now adays. If you want, I can guide you in your project. I readily agreed for that. He also suggested that completing MBA with honours was still a good possibility with my current grades. I was little surprised but then asked for his guidance. He suggested few things. Out of which mainly he wanted my focus on followings.

1. Project work should be of top quality. He will help me as much as possible.

2. In left over modules, I must secure at least three A’s and no C.

Now it was all up to me. I had thought over this for a while and then decided to challenge myself. I promised to work hard and ensure that these requirements were fulfilled. I simply had to complete my MBA with honours. Thanks god, after John’s advice things really worked out. Suddenly I was quite serious about left over modules. From my side, I left no stone unturned and worked hard. I was lucky to secure all four A’s.

Now my entire focus was on my project. I also asked for guidance from my company Commercial Director, which he happily did. While staying at his home in Hull (UK), John kept a good eye on my work progress and kept on guiding. We used to discuss the project progress after every two weeks. He told me about all the flaws and corrected me time to time. By end of five months, I was able to complete my project work. Then it was mainly printing and binding according to University norms. Our local office helped us in that matter. And so, the project was complete and submitted. John was quite satisfied.

After about two and a half months, we got our MBA results. Out of 18 students, two could secure honours. I was one of them. My hard work had paid.