The Practitioner Scholar

Year 1

Looking back to year one of my doctoral studies, I have changed in more ways than anticipated.  My goal was to earn a terminal degree in order to realize my dream of teaching in higher education and at the corporate level. My understanding of the changes I would go through was based on knowledge I would gain in my field.  I began the program with some angst relative to the level of rigor and my insecurities around “fear of the unknown” and perhaps a shaky confidence in my abilities. From that first day I boarded the van from the Intercontinental Hotel with two very different gentlemen who would become great friends until today, the transformation, fulfillment and emotion continues to fill me with awe.

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Twenty two thousand five hundred dollars times 6 semesters is a lot of money for a terminal degree in management.  $135,000, plus expenses; plus lost time; lost experiences with family and colleagues; lost opportunities to pursue other ventures; emotional stress and strain and much more.  The value is almost immeasurable.  But I tried, anyway. 

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I cannot begin to count the number of time people, from close friends to new acquaintances, have asked me this question. When I went back to school for my MBA, with a decade of work experience behind me, I was often asked this question, and found no issue in quickly responding. I often explained that as I moved into leadership, I often wondered if what I was doing in my own role corresponded with what ‘I should be doing.’ I was hoping that getting an advanced degree, specifically the MBA, would help me in clarifying what best practices were and how I could be most effective.

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Scholars point toward the importance of creating networks as a noteworthy element for entrepreneurial success. But, may this be the missing link without which we cannot be successful in our entrepreneurial endeavors?

In fact, most of the experts in the field highlight the positive effect of networking for a business’s start-up and sustainability. However, others question this by stating these relationships may destroy the likelihood for success of a business, instead of helping it.

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Albert "Jack" Stanley, the 65-year-old chairman and CEO of KKR, a senior executive at Halliburton, was legendary for winning billion-dollar contracts in emerging countries; he seemed to possess a magic wand for dealing with government officials and winning their trust in countries like Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria and Yemen. Those who know Stanley well describe him as a smart and fearsome competitor, intent on winning big deals and getting rewarded for his contributions. His dedication to Halliburton was unquestionable and he was considered a global rainmaker. He had it all. But all that changed on one private trip to Abuja, Nigeria.

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We live in exciting times. We hold in our hands phones that allow us to communicate freely, access data and plan our schedules. We partner with companies and workers halfway around the world, and do so in real time. We have immediate access to information that can change outcomes, even lives. Our understanding of “business” is changing. True, most students leaving business school will have in mind careers in corporations making considerable salaries, perhaps traveling widely or relocating to other countries. However, students also now have the option to choose “social entrepreneurship” – that is, to use the tools and strategies of business development to make socially conscious enterprises succeed.

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This past week kicked off the last semester of my classroom work in the DM/PhD program. This made me think back on the past two and a half years to when this journey started and I realized that I had written several reflection papers that first semester. Reading these papers again, I had a few observations that I thought note worthy.

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Go to any nearly geographic location in the US where there’s a high density of medium and larger sized businesses and you’ll find at least one small business focused on helping these corporations with “team building events”.  There’s a good chance that you are familiar with such businesses; they usually have some outdoor space dedicated to an obstacle course and have “camp counselors” who both help teams negotiate the obstacles and spark debate over various challenges the team is expected to accomplish.  The courses are typically fun, the events challenging and the results for the team in the long term… well… inconsequential.

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The ultimate test of any scholarly program involves the way that the program impacts the thinking of its students... Without exception, alumni indicated that the program changed their thinking... “I view the world differently now, I think about it differently, I process input differently, I speak about it differently, I write about it differently.”

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I learned something new about myself after the fifth residency. One of my classmates suggested that since we were ahead of others in our cohort in completing the research work that we should reach out to our cohort and see how they are doing and help them in whatever way we could. I learned two things. One is emotional and the other is intellectual.

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