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10 months ago
Arthur Lok Jok IMBDI - A risk worth taking?
I have always loved to innovate, to think of problems in a way that others hadn’t yet and come up with interesting solutions. However where I’ve always fallen short is in not just knowing how to drive those innovative ideas I’ve had into something concrete in the form of a business, but also to drive it to a success point I was happy with (in most cases simply making it a profitable business). This is why I was interested that the IMBDI that is now being offered at UWI’s Arthur Lok Jak School of Business. It just seemed one of those things that would fill a gap in knowledge I know I have, right now!
To give a taste of the new program ALJ hosted a two-day bootcamp featuring some of what students of the new International Master’s in Business Development and Innovation would expect to experience.
Day One
The first day focused on teaching the audience on what is known as the “Design-Thinking Approach” and was led by Professor Miguel Carillo, the Executive Director at ALJ . Not unexpected, I was pleased to see several former co-workers present from Medullan, one of the most innovative companies I have worked for, and also where I first learnt to hone my innovation and execution skills. Great minds think alike it would seem.
The Design-Thinking session was extremely exciting, energetic and amazingly fun. Traditional education makes us not believe learning as fun, but in this case it was definitely fun learning how to innovate with this approach, first realised by a company known for innovation worldwide, IDEO. Interestingly enough, the process of innovating with this approach was not totally unfamiliar to me as Medullan uses a variation of this style in many of its client workshops.
What surprised me is how well a randomly chosen group of people could adopt to the style within one day and actually produce a ‘new innovative idea’, build something concrete behind it and then present on it. “Making soca globally known, successful and profitable” was the sum of the problem looked at, and I must say I was impressed with my team’s design and delivery of our consensus-driven idea, which basically focused creating a ‘virtual world’ online that tied to an online music store and featuring cool mini-games like Soca-cise (think Tae-Bo is to Karate what Soca-cise is to wining).
Day Two
The second day was a similarly fun experience. Many folks from the first day also appeared, and it being a Sunday it was still surprising to see some 50 persons willing to give up their weekend for this. In this day, “Innovating Customer Experiences” we learnt from Angel Alvarado, the new Strategic Marketing Director at ALJ, to look at consumer experiences with new eyes. I must say I’ll never visit a SuperPharm and look at it the same way again, as part of the day was a ‘field trip’ to one to observe customer experiences in the dimensions the session guided us to. The workshop after this again went through the “Design Thinking Apprach” to generate some very cool innovative ideas of improving the customer experiences with the aim of driving increased traffic and sales per customer. Again, I was placed with a group, and again a cool new innovative concept was produced which was prototyped and presented. If Superpharm wants a superhero mascot that entertains and also sells some of the improvements we recommended, they should talk to some of the folks from that group.
Details of the IMBDI
Today, we got down to the nitty gritty details at their information session. I must commend Shivma and Risha for their continued smiles and attention to answering my questions, despite having worked 8 days straight to get all this content delivered to me and others like me. The basic cost, over 75,000 TTD (after GATE’s 50% coverage) for the two years, might be enough to scare off most folks, but after talking through with them the options of GATE, payment terms and schedules they had available, it still wasn’t a deal breaker. My concerns about the ILEA exam cost of $1000, which was non-refundable, and which one needs to do and pass before an offer can be made, were also addressed as I understood its purpose was only to ensure the caliber of your student peer group was at an exceptional standard since they expected graduates to go on to lead with great things afterwards. Having gone through working at companies and university programs where I felt like my peers weren’t as driven as me to succeed, I could respect this, and if this cost helps ensure it, I could respect that too.
One concern remained, which was that most of the grade for each course was driven by groupwork, and I’ve been stuck in some pretty poor groups before, and paid the cost for it. This was also addressed, as one of the first one-day workshops that are compulsory as part of the course gives you the chance to learn about your peers in the program, and choose your own group which will work with you throughout every course in the program. I’ve seen this approach used at top worldwide schools such as the London Business School in their MBA program, and I must say it’s a welcome relief to know if I choose the program, and they choose me, that I would have this level of control over my teams.
The bottom line
So frankly, is it a risk worth taking? Well, your mileage may vary. I’m very enthusiastic about the program, but I’ve also invested a year continuing my M.Sc. Computer Science at UWI, so to do this program I’d have to withdraw from it, without any recognition for the last year’s efforts. I know for other students engaged in the IMBA at ALJ they face a similar choice. So in short, for me, as well as for them, it’s not a decision I’d make overnight, although honestly I am leaning towards it given my underwhelming experience at UWI in the Computer Science program this last year.
For anyone else though with similar ambitions, I’d highly recommend learning more about the IMBDI. It’s what’s needed for me and others like me, Trinidad’s entrepreneurs, to not just become innovative, but to be armed with the tools and networks needed to build and lead globally competitive and successful organisations. The opportunity to interact directly with lecturers from multiple reputable international business schools, including ones I highly respect like Harvard Business School, only adds to the ten-fold value I see being delivered by this program when compared to the cost. The IMBDI is worth exploring, and to most with my type of thinking, worth applying to.
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