Manchester Metropolitan University Business School has designed and developed a brand-new MBA programme; director Anastasia Kynighou talks us through the details of what was an arduous yet rewarding journey Voyage of discovery
O ne of my favourite poems is Ithaca by CP Cavafy. The poem narrates Odysseus’ journey back home to Ithaca after spending ten years in Troy; it describes in exquisite detail the obstacles he faced on his long journey back, including the mythical one‑eyed Cyclops and angry Poseidon, as well as the many wonderful things he experienced along the way. The poem has a stark reminder embedded throughout: that our fears are often in our minds and that the journey is much more valuable and desirable than the destination itself. Indeed, Cavafy advises from the outset: “As you set out to Ithaca, hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery.” I have found myself thinking about Cavafy’s poem often over these past 12 months. It has been an intense yet rewarding period, during which time we have been immersed in an incredibly creative process in order to design, develop and deliver our new Manchester Met MBA. I look back with pride at the long road and the many adventures and discoveries we’ve made collectively as a team this year, which led to us transforming our MBA offer. Embarking on an exciting journey It all started when we made a decision as a business school to craft a completely new programme with a fresh, forward- thinking outlook. Without a doubt, the first leg of this journey involved a lot of conversation: we asked many, many questions. What do students need from an MBA nowadays? What are our core values and strengths as a business school? What impact do we want our graduates to have? How do we engage with our
alumni community? What additional, extracurricular support do we need to provide to our MBA students? And how do we make all this happen? The answer to some of these questions came from outside the business school, some were woven into the very fabric of our internal organisational culture, while others remain unknown still. Our objective was to find a way to best articulate the answers and translate them into practice – so we went back to the drawing board. Laying the programme’s foundations To start with, we had to lay down the very foundations of the programme. These were found in the core purpose of the Manchester Met MBA, which we aligned to the business school’s mission and the strong values we hold. We decided,
22 Ambition • ISSUE 1 • 2025
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