AMBA ANNIVERSARY
Thanki has used her MBA studies to grow her company as she progressed through the programme: from utilising evidence-based management principles to developing a new recruitment process and applying strategic analysis to franchise her business. She has also built on knowledge and skills in online education, honed through her online MBA studies, to adapt her business to cope with the Covid-19 restrictions, as well as developing it further by providing motivational and well-being sessions for students to bolster learning. For her achievements, Thanki was recognised as the AMBA Student of the Year 2021 and was subsequently selected to join the panel of AMBA Global MBA Award judges. She is now a key member of the school’s Business Advisory Board and shares her expertise and knowledge with us. We endeavour to ensure our business development and engagement initiatives are designed to provide practical and lasting support for businesses, encompassing large organisations and regional SMEs as well as social enterprises. In reflecting on our successes, we are grateful for the role that AMBA has played. Over the past 25 years, the combination of AMBA accreditation and our established history of quality management education has given us the kudos and credibility to attract a high calibre of students. At the end of the day, it is our students and alumni who demonstrate the success of the MBA; they will be the ones who will lead both business and society to a brighter future.
the key elements of project management into nine neat boxes, which when printed on poster-size laminated sheets of paper allow students to work on the elements of the canvas, while keeping an eye on the bigger picture. Not only did this have an immediately apparent practical relevance, with many students telling us that they would be rolling this out within their work environment, but the student feedback was fantastic. E ective leadership requires dexterity, creativity and the ability to transfer operating models to new and unusual situations. This learning was aimed at enabling our students to see the transferable value and to explore the contextual variations of project management skills. As Boddison noted of his involvement: “The University of Leicester MBA provided me with powerful insights into myself and the world of leadership, so the opportunity to pay that forward could not be missed. It was a privilege to be involved with the workshop and ultimately, I hope project management will become a core pillar of the MBA.” Harnessing the expertise of alumni As well as working in collaboration within learning and teaching, we harness our students and alumni as members of global business communities. One of these is Mital Thanki, the founder and CEO of Spark Academy, a multi-award-winning company that provides tutoring for primary and secondary school pupils in Leicester, one of the most ethnically diverse and educationally underprivileged areas in the UK.
BIOGRAPHIES Dr Deborah Price is an associate professor in work and employment and has been the director of distance learning at the University of Leicester School of Business for six years. Dr Olga Suhomlinova is associate professor in management and director of the Leicester MBA
The masterclass programme aims to develop responsible business leaders who can help to make the world a better place
Ambition FEBRUARY 2024 | 21
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