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Getting a good slap of African educationLast year, I made the decision to head back to school. Recently having pushed past the 30-year mark, and with a solid business background behind me, in reality there probably was not a good reason to go. My current profession certainly did not require it, but something inside made me head back to varsity – grad school, this time – and see what I had been missing on the education front.
My friends told me I was crazy, and alumni to whom I spoke referred to it as the divorce course.
This was coupled by the fact that my employers could not understand why a radio deejay needed to pursue anything remotely to do with business; after all, I was making a satisfactory income by crossing to economists on my show any time I required relevant and credible fiscal and business updates. Why should I need to invent my own?
In hindsight, the toll it took on my family, social circles and pocket was a tad severe for what physically amounted to a “Class of ’09” picture on my wall, a few more drinking buddies and a nicely framed qualification signed and stamped by someone in academic authority.
However, while Statistics and Financial Value Management may not ever be my reason for existing, the change in thought process and my view on this country and its people was worth paying tenfold.
Business schooling in Africa is a unique beast. Sure, like any business school worldwide, the student car park was made of up of the haves and the have mores (R8s and BMWs are the order of the day). The guys and girls studying there were on the up and up, no doubt, but it comes with an interesting twist.
While we follow traditional grad school principles – certainly, the UCT Graduate School of Business is both highly rated and respected internationally – we have our own set of demons to deal with compared to the rest of the world.
Building business in South Africa always comes with the thought, “What is my exit strategy here if it all goes Zim on me?” It is a fair question for anyone critically aware of the political tremors beneath us at all times.
So how does this relate to business school? Well, perhaps I had removed myself from the corporate world for too long and entered into the much traded negativity of the media world. Or if I were more honest with myself, I was trying to figure how to create the business gap working around the system: against the African-ism of our commerce, looking for the Western way and radically ignoring the possibility of trading inside it.
My moment of eureka came while sitting in a class given by Emeritus Associate Professor Chris Breen, an insanely clever lecturer with a mathematics background and a man who will make you squirm at your own preconceived ideas of other humans.
Breen’s course is deliberate in nature, knowing yourself and your terrain and removing the preconceived ideas you have of others and getting to understand not only what makes you tick, but also what winds up others.
Forget operations, strategy and understanding the inner workings of information systems – through Chris, the more I looked around, the more I realised this was a perfect opportunity to question others around me about racial issues and cultural stumbling blocks.
It was a rude interruption to why I really thought I was at grad school. I was there to gain a qualification from a fine institution, drink at the student bar at discounted prices and perhaps walk away with a good grade and some new Facebook friends. Understanding how I worked and how I was missing the point of doing business in this country, to be honest, was not on my academic gender.
It did not matter, though. Breen had opened the floodgates for everyone, and everything had changed. A white model-C schoolboy, now interacting with captains of industry, highly educated members of council and government of all walks of life, quite frankly got what he deserved. A good slap of Africa education.
My world was turned upside down and I loved it. I questioned everything I knew there and then, on issues and arguments I dared never to talk about, even with an open forum such as live radio. You simply did not go there. Until now.
I am not saying I have turned into the Mahatma Gandhi of peace and business tranquility. I am not the Mother Teresa of new racial preachings when it comes to openness. I am, however, a man who drank at discounted prices, made some amazing new friends and had some things pointed out to him that I reckon many of us could do with.
I do not have the space here to tell you what they were, and besides, I paid much money to find them out. But I do know that if you are thinking of the next business education step, do not go in blind and be looking for a piece of paper to increase your salary by a percentage.
Go the whole hog, immerse yourself and explore your ideas among people who are making a difference in this country. You will find them sitting next you. And so will they. ?
Richard Hardiman
