Cicely Brown, Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprise
Cicely Brown, Micro, Small and Medium size Enterprise, Fantsuam Foundation, Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria
Undergraduate Degree and Major:
BA (Oxon), Geography (Hertford College, Oxford 1985–88)
Graduate School(s) / Degree(s) / Year(s):
IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, MBA 2000
What are your responsibilities at work and how does your degree help you achieve them?
My role is to provide a business perspective in the world of the NGO. I do this in two ways: I provide advice for the Foundation's microfinance clients (business turnover from $150 to $500 a month on average) and other beneficiaries. I also help Fantsuam's own social businesses to become more effective and thereby make Fantsuam less dependent on external funding. Those businesses include microfinance (about 1,500 clients at any time), ICT Schools (about 500 students per year), and Internet Service Provider (ZittNet).
My business knowledge and management skills were honed at IMD so that many things that now come naturally to me are far less evident to the small businesses and entrepreneurs of Kafanchan. However, it is scarcely high finance! In conducting a post-loan impact interview with one of our clients, he described how the N5,000 ($50) loan had enabled him to take buy and sell 20 rather than 10 chickens on market day.
Before I came to Nigeria, my MBA provided me with business skills to manage a large trade association and run a business development department of a billion dollar business process outsourcing company with confidence.
However, today I recognize that it was the classroom discussions amongst Peruvians, Swedish, Chinese, and Indians (amongst the 30 other nationalities in my MBA class) that allowed me to appreciate how to harness culture to get a job done—how to understand what is valued in personal relationships and what is not.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
Helping my colleagues, Fantsuam’s clients and beneficiaries, to understand some of the principles of business through training and advice. In a survey undertaken after a business development services training at one of our client groups, many of the participants listed “making a profit” as one of their main learnings. Many microbusinesses are seen more as a subsistence occupation than an opportunity to generate wealth. Realizing how doing certain things differently can radically improve the position for you, and for your whole family, can be inspirational for a poor rural woman.
What do you enjoy least about what you do?
Many times a simple business idea is defeated by local infrastructural deficiencies such as lack of power, transport, water, or any disposable income within the community to buy your product or service. Sometimes it can be difficult to find the opportunities amongst the weaknesses and this can become quite frustrating.
Why did you choose this career?
My current career in the development world is a recent change in my working life.
After 20 years working in London’s corporate world, the principal motivation for the change in career was to do something completely different and I chose VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) as the vehicle to help me achieve that change. In April 2008 I applied to become a volunteer and in July 2008, after a long assessment process, I was offered the post of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Development Officer in Fantsuam Foundation, Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
The job role fitted my previous skills perfectly and I was tremendously excited to move back to Nigeria, where I had lived as a child.
Why did you choose to get an MBA?
After working in business, latterly in management positions, for 11 years, I was still uncertain whether I was “doing the right thing” in my daily work. I was keen to boost the effectiveness of my work experience with the injection of professionally honed skills and expertise. I felt that an MBA was the best way to achieve this.
What was your first job post-MBA?
I joined Accenture immediately after IMD in 2001 as a consultant in its Communications & High Tech division; however, during that difficult time, I (like many other consultants) fell prey to the dot-com bust. Within the year I had secured a position as a director for the British Printing Industries Federation, one of the UK's most successful trade associations. Within three years I had risen to Deputy CEO.
What traits should someone have to be successful in your career:
I judge success in my career as a degree of the personal fulfilment I get from my working life. From school, through college and my working career, being flexible, having a willingness to learn and a continuous determination to “set the bar high” have opened up a world of career opportunities so that I have continually enjoyed my working life whilst earning the rewards that enable me pursue choices in my personal life.
Traits to be successful in an MBA program:
Be prepared to work hard and set the bar high, to not give up when you get tired or the task seems to be too difficult.
Be willing to share your experiences and learn from others rather than constantly thinking that your way is the right way.
Have a sense of humour and enjoy working with other people. It’s very hard work but if you take things too seriously you may lose the support of your group. In a stressful environment, such as many MBAs are in, you need that support to give you the emotional energy to succeed.
What advice would you give someone considering an MBA?
- Make sure that you have been working for at least five years. Your MBA experience and learning will be enriched by real life experiences—by the ability to compare what you learn to what happens from day to day.
- Make any decision wholeheartedly and not as an escape from something else. The best MBAs today are both extremely competitive and very expensive. Unless you are fully committed to the program, you are unlikely to be admitted—if you are admitted, you may not derive maximum benefit from your investment.
When considering MBA programs, what do you suggest prospective students look for?
- Look carefully at the school and talk to alums. You will get strength from your peers and it helps to be in a like-minded group, both from a perspective of maturity and experience of work.
- Have a look at the environment. There are precious few chances for recreation so, if fun or exercise is important to you, make sure that it is easily accessible from your program.
- Check out which recruiters the school has a strong relationship with—be it banks, multinational corporations, consulting companies, etc. When recruiters have a good relationship with schools they will tend to recruit from them and if you know the company or industry that you want to pursue after your MBA, any pre-existing relationship between the school and that employer will help.
