Global MBA Testimonials

The process of creating value through work-integrated learning is extraordinary. It shifts the primary learning experience from the confines of academic institutions to the actual workplaces of our students. This transformation leads to an unparalleled sense of purpose, as it transitions skills training from theoretical teaching to the invaluable experience gained on the job.

Additionally, work-integration redirects the traditional focus of study from analysis to practical implementation. It is the act of implementation that has the power to bring about real change in the world. This new approach enables students to realize their potential in effecting positive changes within their work environments.

We invite you to explore the remarkable feedback from some of our students who have been willing to openly share their experiences of creating genuine value in their workplaces.

Tokozana Dhliwayo, Finance Director at ZETDC, Harare, Zimbabwe

11.2018

Working on this assignment made me realize our major weaknesses of failing to set personal annual objectives for employees. Strategic management ends with identifying key result areas for the business and not personal objectives for the individuals.

The symptoms of a bad organization I have noticed also it in other departments where there are lots of meetings with lots of people and lots of jobs with a bit of everything. The outcome of this assignment will lead to improve decision making; that is for sure.

Tasks and Tools of Effective Management

Chido Boka, Managing Director at Boka Floors Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

11.2018

Once again, this assignment forced me to introspect and look at my past actions and really consider ways in which I could be more effective. This assignment has helped me to see where I could have done better in the past in my everyday work. The most important outcome of this course is that I believe I will be a more effective manager.

Once again, I feel I have gained as an individual and I also feel motivated to share this information with my team in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in our organisation.

Tasks and Tools of Effective Management

Tashinga Chimuti, Chief Finance Officer (CFO) at Medical Aid Society of Central Africa (MASCA), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

11.2018

There was a lot to learn in this course.

What is particularly new to me is that I can actually manage myself as a manager by having a manual in the form of my implementation plan above. Going forward I am going to use this research to start being systematic in my management approach.

Tasks and Tools of Effective Management

Ndomupeyi Chikonye, Projects Manager at Zesa Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Harare, Zimbabwe

10.2018

By going through this course, I have seen how my lack of knowledge of effective management has negatively impacted on the quality of my work. It has raised my consciousness on how important issues such as trust are critical in achieving the best out of people. My perception about multi-tasking has been changed and I will be able to do it better using the recommended control span rule “seven plus/minus two” of the principle of concentrating on a few things at a time.

A great exercise to write an assignment for myself

Principles of Effective Management

Perseverance Chavunduka, Production Superintendent at Bindura Nickel Corporation, Bindura, Zimbabwe

10.2018

Going through the assignment has made me to dig more into some of the key financial planning principles. I got confused at one point in the application of TARI to attaining the gross profit as the figures were not making sense. But as I went based to all the assumptions I had made as well as the plant design capacity, I managed to pick the error and be able to continue.

One thing I like about this MBA is that “copy-paste” does not work; I have to think and apply myself to the subject matter. (Not always a joyful task!).

What I have learnt from this course and module, I am already applying in the family business model we are doing as well as in my own cosmetics side sales thing am doing. For the cosmetic line, I have managed to determine my own pricing, taking into consideration my expected net income as well as total costs. I now know how many sales per day am supposed to make in order to achieve my monthly targets. Each day counts!

Advanced Financial Planning

Tashinga Chimuti, Chief Finance Officer (CFO) at Medical Aid Society of Central Africa (MASCA), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

10.2018

Before I attempted this assignment and forced myself to pick a case where I was a poor manager, I was really clueless as to why on some jobs/ assignments there was conflict or failure to achieve results. I also did not see at all where I went wrong on the particular case and therefore did not have closure on the issue to enable me to learn fr om the experience.

Now I feel better equipped to do an honest assessment of myself as a leader and have clarity on wh ere in the past I made mistakes. I have a new zeal now to continue to apply the 5 principles in a more conscious manner and to train those beneath me to do the same.

Principles of Effective Management

Sharon Bwanya, Chief Operating Officer at Nurture Invest, Harare, Zimbabwe

10.2018

The greatest value creation for me coming out of this assignment has been the opening up of my mind by application of the lateral marketing method to come up with a draft mobile application for the firm.

I have named the application MS Connect for now and it is designed to do just that, to connect our law firm to the market. The application is an exciting platform that will be a first in our jurisdiction for a law firm and it will ensure that we deliver the content we want to deliver to the market (within the confines of the law) timeously and in a manner that is customized to every user as they can sel ect which content they wish to receive fr om us.

Strategic Marketing

Chido Boka, Managing Director at Boka Floors Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

10.2018

This assignment was particularly stressful for me.

This is because it forced me to introspect and look at my own actions and personality as opposed to the actions of others. I believe I created value as I have made several personal commitments as part of my recommendations which I will work hard to adhere to in order to succeed. After having written the assignment, I understand that I do not always have to be “right” being the head of an organisation. It was also an eye-opener that those working with me “trust” me. This was truly a light bulb moment for me as all of a sudden, a lot of mistakes that I made in the past made sense.

I feel I have gained as an individual and I also feel motivated to share this information with my team in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in our organisation.

Principles of Effective Management

Rufaro Muzamhindo, Sales Manager at Rainbow Tourism Group, Harare, Zimbabwe

10.2018

The course created value as it taught me that though the Marketing plan was not being considered as important at my workplace it is very important to give direction to the company and to solve problems.

Writing the assignment has also helped me identifying ways to come up with new ideas that I will propose to management so that we can even generate more ideas to boost sales.

Strategic Marketing

Sithabile Rondozai, Client Relationship Manager at CBZ, Harare, Zimbabwe

09.2018

This course was an eye-opener for completely new business opportunities that we have never been thinking about.

I work in the private banking department as a financial adviser. Having written the assignment, I will now be able to advise my clients on the best procedures to following when seeking a foreign investor. This can develop into a specialized department that could assist local businesses attract the best foreign investors by producing good investment proposals.

This specialised department could charge for its services and increase revenue to the bank.

International Business Law

Henry Hoveka, Managing Director at Multi-Wealth Management (Pty) Ltd, Windhoek, Namibia

09.2018

The value created by this module was extensive, more specifically through the analysis of the marketing planning processes, theoretical tools and frameworks.

We applied the learning outcome again in our company. The build-up of the marketing planning process framework coupled with lateral marketing results were mind blowing. I just could never have gotten through to the ultimate solutions I derived if it was not the Global MBA that introduced us to tools for creating new ideas.

Thank you very much IBR, I am grateful for the learning I gather with each module I undertake and can’t wait to consolidate all this into my business at the end of the Global MBA learning experience.

Strategic Marketing

Ndomupeyi Chikonye, Projects Manager at Zesa Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Harare, Zimbabwe

09.2018

In carrying out this assignment, I have been exposed to an area of business that in the past has been left to my counterparts in the legal and financial departments.

I have found it very useful in that now I am conversant with issues about business forms and requisite taxation to be able to offer potential investors a comprehensive proposal. This came at the right time as during the course of doing this assignment, I was confronted with an offer by an investor for my company to collaborate with them in one of their business outside the country. This has made it quite easy for me to assess the potential ways of participating in this offer.

International Business Law

Chido Boka, Managing Director at Boka Floors Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

09.2018

This assignment brought to light so many dimensions to me.

I learnt about the different business forms that exist both in my country and internationally. I also learnt about taxation and how it affects multinational companies. I believe this has added value to our company as well because every business proposal I write from now onwards will have more detail and will focus on all the practical issues that the investor needs to think about.

International Business Law

Tashinga Chimuti, Chief Finance Officer (CFO) at Medical Aid Society of Central Africa (MASCA), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

09.2018

This was one of the most involving assignments since I started this MBA programme.

I feel I applied what I learnt more in this assignment. The value this experience has created for me is that I am now confident to participate in the negotiations with discovery that are expected to happen in the next four months. I feel better equipped now to participate in investment strategy discussions not only with my employer but also with other businesspeople.

International Business Law

Jessica Moore, Organisational Effectiveness Manager at Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC), Windhoek, Namibia

09.2018

It was extremely interesting for me to find out how a portion of our supply chain works in MTC and how complex it sometimes is and all the things that go on the background that we are not always aware of. It definitely added value to me in expanding my environment and knowledge of the business but also, I think I added some value with some of my ideas whether or not they will be implemented.

Supply Chain Management

Sharon Bwanya, Chief Operating Officer at Nurture Invest, Harare, Zimbabwe

08.2018

The greatest personal use of this course for me has been in the area of a personal business venture that I decided to launch. In fact, the IBR Global MBA has, over the past few months, particularly after the Strategic Management module, ignited in me a desire to set up my own business venture so that I could apply the lessons I have been learning on the program in a setting where I have more or less total control and therefore not restricted by policies and practices dictated by others or through the corporate culture of my current employer.

From financial planning process of this last course, I was finally bold enough to apply these principles to something of my own and I established a branded apparel retail business aimed at selling faculty and club apparel to college students which launched on lately.

So, this course has had a tremendous personal impact and I look forward to applying more concepts learnt during this module in my own business.

Advanced Financial Planning

Sithabile Rondozai, Client Relationship Manager at CBZ, Harare, Zimbabwe

08.2018

I enjoyed studying this course very much.

I am not very well travelled. In my naivety, I had painted all foreign business cultures under the same brush and felt that they behaved in a very similar fashion. To my surprise, not two countries are ever identical, even if they have similar traits.

As an outcome of studying this course, I would like to grow my private banking client portfolio by targeting individual clients in the diplomatic community, in appreciation for different races and cultural groups. Furthermore, writing the assignment has given me the idea of proposing employees to learn speaking multiple languages, which will help us target foreign investors to the bank.

Cross-cultural Management

Ndomupeyi Chikonye, Projects Manager at Zesa Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Harare, Zimbabwe

08.2018

This assignment has been so enriching to me as it improved my knowledge on international trends in my industry.

I have been able to learn the new trends in other areas different from my area of specialisation, such as electricity transmission, distribution and customer service. My employer will benefit, as I am now able to contribute to the corporate strategy in a better way. My assignment was a first step into this direction.

The Nature of International Business

Tokozana Dhliwayo, Finance Director at ZETDC, Harare, Zimbabwe

08.2018

The subject of Cross-Cultural Management made me realize the importance of business etiquette in our company in order to interact effectively with our business clients and suppliers.

Recently as I was preparing my assignment, I attended meetings with potential larger investors. The first meeting was with a South African Banker and a Chinese marketer and lastly a British investor. Even before the meeting I was clear what type of culture I was crossing and their focus on either the contract or the relationship.

This course turned out to be value creation on the job.

Cross-cultural Management

Chido Boka, Managing Director at Boka Floors Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

08.2018

While studying this course, my mind was opened to the importance of cross-cultural communication.

In my previous dealings across cultural borders, there were some events that had taken place that I did not understand. Looking back, I now understand why some of my foreign colleagues behaved the way they did and why they reacted to my behavior and the behavior of my local colleagues in certain ways.

Going forward, I will plan accordingly, to make sure that my job performance will not be negatively affected by communication across cultural borders.

Cross-cultural Management