Asad Ullah Sheikh, Pakistan
My name is Major Asad Ullah Sheikh and I am a regular commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army. I come from the Air Defence Corps. During my service, I have served on a variety of command, staff, operational and management assignments, including one tour of duty as a United Nations military observer in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire).
My 12 years of experience in the army has been very demanding, diverse and full of challenges. Though I benefited a lot from the leadership and management courses of the army, I always knew that these courses focused more on the procedures being used in the army and were less in line with the latest management tools and techniques being used in the corporate world. There had been a number of times when I had to deal with situations, problems, conflicts and projects with no specific solution, guidance principles or rules from the books. This has always been my missing link.
While I was working for the United Nations mission in Congo, back in 2002, I met an EBS graduate working in a senior managerial position. He told me how the EBS MBA, dovetailed with his experience from the army, helped him improve his managerial skills and get a good job with the UN.
Getting the lead from him, I started my own search. Plus I knew that since I wanted to continue with the present job, distance learning was the best study option for me. I carried out my search for over six months, during which I considered different MBA programs, including University of London (Royal Holloway College), Imperial College (Tanaka Business School) and a few American universities. Finally I decided to go for the EBS MBA program because it suited me the most. For me, being able to study at my own pace was a prerequisite, because I wanted to complete the degree in the shortest possible time.
Initially when I joined EBS, I had a number of reservations about the program. But as time passed, I felt as if the faculty and the staff were with me every step of the way. My affiliation with the institute became stronger and stronger. Whether it was a matter of exemptions approval, processing exam requests, coordination with the exam centre or a follow-up, I had this strange confidence that I could refer the slightest possible doubt to them. All the staff are highly professional and they understand and deal with the problems and requirements of every student individually. The best thing is that they are always ready to accept and rectify a flaw or weak area in their system or administrative procedure.
In October 2004 I went on an official joint military exercise to the UK and had a week-long stay in Edinburgh. I asked my sponsors if they could arrange my visit to EBS, since I was curious to go and see the campus. EBS responded promptly and I was invited to visit the campus. I went to EBS, met the faculty, the administration staff and on-campus students. I don't have the right words to explain the hospitality and warmth with which I was welcomed. I even had a chance to meet the School's director, Professor Keith Lumsden, and I was really impressed by his charismatic personality. The cooperation and favour that the School gave me during my visit is something I will never be able to forget.
These are the key points for prospective and new students:
- EBS MBA is not an easy task, especially for a person like me with no background knowledge of economics, accounting or finance. For the first attempt, it took me a year before I was confident that I was ready for the exams. In the beginning, I had been reading for two to three hours daily in the evening for over three months. A month prior to the exams, I had to call off all other commitments except my daily office routine. On average, I had to give four to five hours daily to the courses.
- If you plan to finish this program within two years while continuing your job, it's a tough challenge. This is what I realized after going through the course text once. For the exams, I read the course text two to three times, and a month before the exams I started revising the past papers so that I fully understood the requirements of the exam plus the time management, which is absolutely necessary for the exams.
The army is a tough job and it doesn't give you much time in one place. So I always have my miniature notes with me and whenever I find some time off, I just take out one of the modules and start revising. Initially I had plans to finish the MBA by December 2004 but now I have decided to do the specialization in human resource management, something which is directly related to my vocation. So, four more courses to go and I look forward to completing my MBA with specialization by June 2005.
Even before completion, the EBS MBA is proving successful for me. Now I understand the system of my organization and other industries in a much better way. I am able to exactly pinpoint the mistakes, identify the missing links and focus on weak areas which need improvement, something which I considered a specialist's job before. I feel much more confident in meetings and my negotiation skills have tremendously increased, and all this is mainly because of the application of what I have learned through the course text.
