Businesses need leaders with a broad skillset who can take a holistic view of the organisation, ask the right questions and understand how to connect and empower different teams. After working as a tax specialist in multinational corporations for over 20 years UCL MBA student, Iain Cooper wanted to develop his strategic skills and help take his career to the next level. Speaking with QS Top MBA he explains how the UCL MBA has helped him achieve this and why the online learning method was perfect to accommodate his work schedule.
For Iain, the online MBA model was perfect as it allowed him to study remotely and accommodated his hectic travel schedule at Jacobs, whilst networking and collaborating with other talented individuals on the programme. Iain’s goal was to “develop better intelligence around strategy; setting strategy, operationalising strategy and executing strategy… and understand how businesses make money, what levers to pull, how to focus on resources and capabilities in order to drive competitive advantage which goes beyond the normal accounting and finance knowledge.” – The UCL MBA helped him achieve this.
With digitalisation at its core, the UCL MBA is a future-focused and data-centric MBA programme that helped Iain upskill in data and analytics and futureproof his digital capabilities. This unique set of skills has helped Iain develop a clearer understanding of data analytics, so he can ask the digital team the right questions to support Jacobs’ new strategy focused on digitalisation and the automation of its services.
The UCL MBA has given him credibility at a senior leadership level within a leading technical and professional services company, and since studying on the programme he has been promoted to Senior Director of Finance and is now responsible for delivering key strategic initiatives as part of Jacobs’ ‘Focus 2023’ business transformation.
