Global MBA Testimonials
Value creation through work-integrated learning is phenomenal. It transfers the main learning experience from the ivory tower to our students' workplace. This creates unprecedented meaning. It releases skills training from being taught theoretically to the most valuable experience that happens on-the-job.
Also, work-integration shifts the traditional study focus from analysis to implementation. It is implementation that changes the world. This new dispensation allows students to experience that they are able to change their worlds at work.
Enjoy screening incredible feedback about real value creation that some students agreed to share publicly.
Vincent Bosha, Sales Executive at Rainbow Tourism Group, Harare, Zimbabwe
07.2021 |
| This residential was challenging but Prof Janos made understanding finance a lot easier. Despite being online we managed to go through the content and also participate in group discussions. I have been empowered and ready to take on my next chapter in my career. |
| Finance Intensive |
Tatenda Makuni, Executive Director at Introcane Enterprises, Harare, Zimbabwe
07.2021 |
| One week with Proffessor Janos, empowered for a lifetime. It was all worth it. IBR is the institution to learn with. |
| Finance Intensive |
Moreblessing Mutswiri, Project Director at Sanning Foundation, Harare, Zimbabwe
07.2021 |
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The residential period was most insightful. I now have a much better understanding of the fundamentals of financial management which helps me to be prepared in a new world of connectivity and international business. This has hugely provided me with a foundation for making decisions along with the input of deep learning. Once again thank you Prof Janos for walking with us in this great journey. IBR Institute of International Business Relations - is the place to be! |
| Finance Intensive |
Moreblessing Mutswiri, Project Director at Sanning Foundation, Harare, Zimbabwe
06.2021 |
| One thing that stands out to me at the end of this course is that church leadership training is often neglected and usually people survive on improvising most of the time or rather rely on the grace of God. I would like to believe that church has to be managed like a business to be effective. |
| Tasks and Tools of Effective Management |
Moreblessing Mutswiri, Project Director at Sanning Foundation, Harare, Zimbabwe
05.2021 |
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Whilst studying this course what was new to me was the patterns of cross-cultural business behavior and how they vary in different environments or continents compared to our local business behavior when it comes to doing business or negotiating business deals globally. I have learned and realized that, when one needs to get into the international markets, to negotiate any international business deal or relations, there are many ways to attain one’s desired results without provoking or misjudging others. Thus, avoid losing or delaying to conclude any business deal. I have seen that confusion, serious disagreement, and frustrations may emerge simply because people with different business cultural behaviors have different assumptions during a business negotiation process. I have seen this with the experience we had when we were trying to do business and partnership negotiations with the Chinese suppliers and the Americans, respectively. Therefore, the new communication skills I have learned as described by Gesteland R.R. (2012:21) will help me to improve myself and our organization. The course has also taught me to learn to accept and be patient with differences in cultures, especially when it comes to doing business internationally. After studying this course I have seen and related again to the personal experience we had with the Chinese supplier when we wanted to buy the packaging products for our organization. If we were not assisted and encouraged to be patient by the agent we eventually engaged, during the negotiating process, we might have ended up losing a supplier with the best products we were looking for. I believe what I have learned will help me to improve my patience to understand local business customs and practices of a particular country that we want to do business with as an organization, even if we do not engage a negotiator. |
| Cross-cultural Management |
Michael Kavalata, Senior Engineer at City Of Windhoek, Windhoek, Namibia
05.2021 |
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The assignment is of great value to me and my organisation. Firstly, I never thought that the differences in people’s behaviour is due to culture, I had always though that this was due to idiosyncrasies. I now understand that the differences are caused due to norms and cultural differences. I also never imagined that a simple misunderstanding which can be due to a body language can lead to promising deals to be cancelled. This assignment has therefore opened my mind up and enriched me with the skills of observing and studying the negotiating partner’s cultures in order to avoid misunderstanding that can lead to deals being spoiled. The assignment also made me learn about the different global business protocols and etiquette which comes in handy when doing business on an international level. This has certainly added value to me personally by making me a better negotiator as I can now use this knowledge on my personal business as well as on the City of Windhoek to better the organisation as far as doing business across the borders is concerned. |
| The Nature of International Business |
Tatenda Makuni, Executive Director at Introcane Enterprises, Harare, Zimbabwe
05.2021 |
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The assignment comes at a stage where there are actual negotiations taking place at my workplace. The negotiations are currently at a stage where the two parties are deciding to form a totally new company altogether and this assignment helped me to examine what will be the best way to move forward and the regulations involved in terms of debt-to-equity ratio. During the interview with the tax accountant, she mentioned that transfer pricing is a big thing in Zimbabwe now and that it was something that foreign investors would need to be familiar with before one runs into penalties thereby jeopardizing investment. Hence there is critical need to familiarize the involved parties with the rules and regulations that can affect them, directly or indirectly. I have scheduled myself to attend tax training sessions for business, I realized how important this is. The tax accountant I spoke to runs such trainings and I believe they will be beneficial to me. |
| International Business Law |
Cosmas Zvikaramba, Market and Operational Risk Manager at ZB Financial Holdings, Harare, Zimbabwe
05.2021 |
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Globalisation of production and consumer markets is real and failure to respond to global environment trends is a recipe for disaster to an individual and/or an entity. This course gave me an opportunity to analyse things from a global perspective and also to view the Group in the global arena. Coming from a developing world country and coupled with being in the financial services industry, during this course the most outstanding global trends were on the ecological environment and technology environment. How serious is the issue of climate change and how fintechs are transforming the banking industry. I learnt new things on climate change, how it is a threat to the environment, as well as how international banks have responded to growth of fintechs. After going through such a course, one’s mind will be inclined to solve individual or work related problems with a Global mind-set and not only the local environment. |
| The Nature of International Business |
Itayi Marufu, Concentrator Manager at Bindura Nickel Corporation, Bindura, Zimbabwe
05.2021 |
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Personally, in this course I improved my personal time management. This course required a lot of reading for me to understand the basic principles of law and taxation. I got understanding of what the assignment was all about during the tutorial, which required that I had to start compiling the assignment whilst managing work commitments within seven days. Technically I can now compile my own business proposal with confidence, as the course gave me an opportunity to understand the principles of a business proposal. |
| International Business Law |
Leon Whyte, CSO/Co-Founder at SMC Ltd, Maidenhead, Germany
04.2021 |
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I think the reason why I really enjoyed working on this course is due to the potential value that it will bring to my employer. This was the first course where I actually involved key members of my company from the concept stage. Approximately half of the organisation provided their input into the course and in addition to this, this course has sparked a train a thought and initiatives which has created a buzz within the organisation. Off the back of this course outcome, the CEO has personally created an organisation wide strategy meeting during the first week of April 2021 to discuss this product, this course outcome and to create initiatives which will hopefully lead to its implementation. In general, I feel that my thinking and writing skills have become a lot more analytical and strategic in nature which is all in all moulding me to becoming a better director and leader. |
| Marketing Research |
Chido Boka, Managing Director at Boka Floors Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
04.2021 |
| On a personal level I would like to pass this information on to the farmers as they are also business people so that each and every farmer may be able to do cba planning and monitoring for their own farming businesses and this will not only have a huge impact on Boka Tobacco Floors but also on the country as the farmers can apply this knowledge not only to tobacco farming but to other crops that they farm as well which will lead to a better productivity for Zimbabwe as Agriculture is the backbone of our economy. |
| Financial Planning |
Kelvin Mukuku, Metallurgical Manager at Eastplats, Brits, South African Republic
04.2021 |
| This course has opened my understanding as to the critical role of IT and Digital Technology to the improvement of the company’s performance and competitiveness. LMC has always looked at IT as supports of emails and company network only. The role of IT is broader and quite significant if properly utilised. The company has come up with many short terms and long-term strategies but have never looked at how we are failing to compete in the modern world due to our manual system. IT is very important if LMC wants to be competitive in the modern-day world. |
| Managing IT and strategy |
Tashinga Chimuti, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Medical Aid Society of Central Africa (MASCA), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
04.2021 |
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I have always had an idea as to why our appraisal process was not helping much in terms of managing performance and promoting development. This assignment has helped me to granulise this and understand fully that there is no deliberate success without alignment of performance of staff holistically and the performance of the organisation. The two are synonymous and therefore, the value this has created for me and our company is that I shall push to ensure that we start immediately on beefing up our appraisal process. Previously I was not too clear on where to start but now, I am very confident as to the basic steps to take to getting us to have a sound performance management system for our company. |
| Appraisal and Performance of HR |
Samantha Kachikira, Process safety engineer at Ishecon cc, Johannesburg, South African Republic
03.2021 |
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4.0. industrial revolution, plus Covid-19 has allowed me to research on possible digital options available that will keep Ishecon in business for the coming decade. These are simple tools that management is willing to try out, and when it works it will potentially retain our market position as a business in this industry. Personally, this course has opened my eyes to new possibilities, the training program that I will carry out will use AR technology. It has always been fascinating for me and I am sure it will be for the generation Z of professionals that I will be training. |
| Innovation and Digital Technology |
Miranda Khumalo, PARTNER at Atherstone and Cook, HARARE, Zimbabwe
03.2021 |
| The assignment has afforded me an opportunity to do some introspection on some of the cross border transactions I have worked on with my partners. At the time of the transactions, my partners and I would have just brushed the issues aside. However, this assignment gives us opportunity to consider those cross cultural differences which could have been deal breakers and how best we can manage those. |
| Cross-cultural Management |
Alfred Mabika, Finance and Business Development Director at LAFE INDUSTRIAL GROUP, Harare, Zimbabwe
03.2021 |
| The principles of management in full were a very critical value addition and something fundamentally valuable to my career as a manager and entrepreneur. Further the assertion that management is a profession of achieving results then brought revival and fresh impetus to my approach more as an entrepreneur especially on the issue of focus and always looking at the bigger picture contributing to the whole and focussed more on results than input. |
| Principles of Effective Management |
Leon Whyte, CSO/Co-Founder at SMC Ltd, Maidenhead, Germany
03.2021 |
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As I am a sales specialist and marketing activities are very closely aligned to sales activities. I assumed that this course would be very easy for me to complete, hence my justifications to leaving it until the end. However, this course really challenged my thinking and forced me to think on a strategic level and outside of the box. I had never heard of Lateral Marketing, prior to commencing with this course, however I thoroughly enjoyed working through it and expanding my knowledge and skills within this area. |
| Strategic Marketing |
Japhet Zoraunye, Research And Development Engineer at Stamicarbon, Waalre, North Brabant, Netherlands
03.2021 |
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The course and the research was valuable to me in that I was able to get awareness of the several global trends that affect the fertilizer and agricultural industry. I learnt a lot of new things especially with regards to analysis of external factors that affect business. The PESTEL framework was new to me and I was able to gain insight on how this tool can help in identifying threats and opportunities to any business. I am looking forward to using this tool to analyses other business sectors besides the fertilizer sector. I am convinced that this research and its recommendations if implemented at ZFC will be able to result in a transformed business that is able to face the challenges of tomorrow and be a market leader in fertilizers in the region with high customer satisfaction. |
| The Nature of International Business |
Cosmas Zvikaramba, Market and Operational Risk Manager at ZB Financial Holdings, Harare, Zimbabwe
03.2021 |
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This course gave me an opportunity to analyse things from a global perspective and also to view the Group in the global arena. Coming from a developing world country and coupled with being in the financial services industry, during this course the most outstanding global trends were on the ecological environment and technology environment. How serious is the issue of climate change and how fintechs are transforming the banking industry. I learnt new things on climate change, how it is a threat to the environment, as well as how international banks have responded to growth of fintechs. After going through such a course, one’s mind will be inclined to solve individual or work related problems with a Global mind-set and not only the local environment. |
| The Nature of International Business |
Vincent Bosha, Sales Executive at Rainbow Tourism Group, Harare, Zimbabwe
03.2021 |
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This course has been particularly challenging however, it has allowed me to look at strategy in a holistic view. Technology presents a world of endless opportunities but not every technology is right for the business. I have learnt how to evaluate appropriate technology and ensure that it is working towards fulfilling the organizations strategic objectives. This has been a very good learning experience. |
| Managing IT and strategy |