Case Study: Graeme Young

Graeme Young wanted to deepen and broaden his knowledge of business practice as well as enrich his options for career development with his organisation, BP.

Not wanting to give up his job, but deciding the MBA - which he believes is 'recognition of a level of capability, accomplishment and achievement' - was for him, he chose to study the MBA via flexible learning at the University of Strathclyde Business School.

By doing so, he was able to continue with the programme while living variously in Glasgow, Aberdeen and London during his period of study.

Graeme was a business advisor with BP in London when he began the MBA and is now back in London as manager of the upstream portfolio, the oil and gas fields, pipelines and affiliated companies BP holds interest in.

He chose SBS, he says, after comparing the school with other UK establishments and he concluded SBS was 'top tier.' In addition, he says, "Although I was working in London, and later Aberdeen, my home remained in Glasgow and it was convenient for me to attend weekend schools, and I also found the flexible arrangements for examinations most useful - in fact, I took all my exams in London."

"The greatest benefit has been the integrated picture of business that is built up around a core of strategy and an underlying model of business and the individual. I use this new knowledge and insight mostly every day to make sense of what is going on and to make my own interactions most effective. I also found that I collected a toolkit of models and processes that I can call on for problem solving and working with people in my workplace and in other companies."

Graeme says the project pulls together most of what has gone before in the programme. He chose to work on an area that was directly related to my area of work, with immediate application. "There was a lot of help available, especially from my tutor. The completed project was useful, not just to me, but it was available to BP for use in planning its next round of strategy-making for the North Sea."

He adds, "I'm very pleased I've done the MBA and I'd recommend it to most colleagues who want to deepen their grasp of how business works and to improve their own interaction with it. My MBA indirectly made me a very good candidate for my new role at the heart of BP's upstream strategy."