MBA Learning Journey update from Kath Kemp
After receiving an MBA scholarship through WNA's partnership with Navig8biz and Ducere Global Business School, Kath Kemp has been immersing herself in the world of study and achieving incredible results!
See below the latest update from Kath as she undertakes her MBA journey.
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Happy New Year everyone! I was back at Ducere Global Business School on the 2nd of January to start the year with a bang! This term, we are studying People and Culture.
Another fantastic subject to be covering, but as I have progressed through, I found myself a bit stuck, asking myself, “How do I relate this to my business? I don’t have any employees yet?” and the questions seemed to be geared towards organisations with sizable staff.
The first subject was Inclusion and Diversity in the workplace, which I love, but ended up answering the first assessment from a theoretical standpoint because I don’t have staff! But the great thing about learning globally online with this university is that we submit our assessments to an online platform and then respond to at least two of our cohort’s submissions.
After kicking imposter syndrome out the door, I find this way of learning fantastic; it was a submission by a fellow student who prompted me to look at how this applies to my company in a completely different way. The other student wrote about their personal experience of onboarding a new staff member from a different country into their team, and a lot of what they were saying sounded familiar to me, which triggered me to write about my office in response to their submission.
I work in an office with two other women-led businesses, where we also have weekly meetings to talk about our work and upcoming contracts that we have. We also use this opportunity to support and workshop our work outside of business, such as organising community events, charity work, fundraising and so on; we support each other with family matters that can range from dealing with LGBTQAI+ community and neurodiverse children to work-life balance. Our office is a safe place for all members of our community to come and to feel welcome, it says so on our front door!
I also work with a range of culturally diverse people in my workshop, and I have a long list of diverse contractors that I depend on to keep my business running. Another area of diversity and inclusion in a small business environment is one of our biggest contributors: networking.
WNA exemplifies diversity among our members and how valuable it is to come together and share business tips and have conversations with the wide range of businesses and the interesting people we meet, sparking creative thinking and improvements to our businesses. All the members I know, certainly fly the flag for generosity, inclusion, diversity, and support of one another.
In conclusion, I am excited to represent small businesses in this subject, committing to being brave and responding to my assessments from a very different point of view to my cohort; fingers are crossed!
