Joe Morgan

Can you talk us through why you choose to do this course?

In 2012, I think, when we started it, it had been quite some time since I'd been in an academic setting. And given that, I work in IT, and that whole ecosystem and industry, it can move very fast. I just thought it would be beneficial to touch base and try and get an appreciation of how industry best practice from an academic perspective had moved on.

So that, was the interest, if you like. And there was a lot of fanfare and buzz about the particular course up in Premerica as well. So it's very much seen as a right of passage, if you like. I thought it was very, very powerful just in terms of my own professionalism within the industry for a couple of reasons.

What do you think you gained by taking the course?

One, and probably most importantly, the content that we went through in one particular section of the course, which was around organisational change was very much relevant to what I was doing in Premerica at the time due to an assignment that I had with one of our divisions in the States. Whilst learning about organisational change management, I was able to apply some of that learning to what I was doing, for a new group in in the States.

I remember John Cotter's eight step framework of change, which we went through. It's a very practical, very simple framework, in terms of how you go about changing how an organisation works today to how you want it to look tomorrow. And I actually believe that if I hadn't had the insight of that particular framework, I would have failed and I didn't. We were actually successful in transforming a particular process within that organisation to work differently than how it was working.

And it was very much deemed as a failure as it was current state, but when we transformed it, it was very much deemed a success. So there was a really strong connection there. So that was one. And then the other one for me, because I've spent most of my career in large corporates. Getting exposure to what it was like to work in a start up type scenario rather than a large corporate was eye opening and of interest to an extent, that within three years, I'd actually left Premerica myself and joined a start-up, on campus here at ATU.

There was a lot of clarity in terms of the difference between large enterprise and start-up and, you know, start-ups are very chaotic, but they're also very exciting, very challenging. I'm not sure I'd have made that step if I hadn't have had some appreciation of the journey that other people have been through at the time.

Any advice for anyone considering applying for a part-time online course at ATU?

I thought it fitted very well with people that already are in full time employment. Because obviously you can't be doing full time. So that mix in terms of, two full days on site and then with additional time after that to reflect on what you've learned and then put together some effort and time in terms of putting assignments together.

I think that worked well. I would say, and I'm not sure if we're lucky or other cohorts are the same, but we had a fantastic group and there was a lot of collaboration and when it came to the classes themselves and going through listening to practitioners, the conversation was very easy and relaxed.

We got on quite well and I think that that worked well and if there was a need for extracurricular support outside of those hours there was a lot of willingness in terms of people just coming together off to the side and, having discussions in terms of where they were and where they were trying to get to.

I think the timeframe in terms of the level of time on site and the level of effort off site worked really well. The academics, particularly our own personal tutors, because we had an allocation for the final dissertation, but even as you were going through the assessments, we had a particular academic assigned to us, and their time was always available.

The benefit that they brought, particularly for me who hadn't been in an academic setting for so many years, just in terms of how to frame an assessment, how to do your references correctly, how to structure the assessment in terms of introduction, main content, and then justifying that content. The academics within ATU obviously have a lot of experience in doing just that, so being able to leverage that from them at the appropriate time was fantastic.

If I look back to when I applied to this, I guess there was a little bit of anxiety relative to not being in the academic setting initially, but I think if you're at all interested in just keeping up to date and maybe learning new best practice, just have a go at it. It's a fantastic course, there's a lot of support available, and you will get something out of it, I can nearly guarantee it.

Learn more about the Masters in Business (MBS) in Innovation & Leadership here.