Into business?
I was privileged to have the opportunity to take
a PhD at WBS in the early 1980s, immediately after graduating
with a Mathematics degree from Warwick. My doctorate was sponsored
by the Department of Health and Social Security and focused on
the use of analytic techniques to improve social security policy
making. It was formative in shaping my career for four main reasons.
Firstly, it gave me the time and space to focus on a subject
that was important to me. This was not only rewarding in its own right,
but crucially, it also helped me to decide what I really wanted
to do in my professional career - which was to use my analytic
and organisational capabilities to make a difference to
public services. And this is indeed what I have been doing ever since.
Secondly, the discipline of the programme itself enabled me
to develop those skills in a rigorous and demanding environment.
It also taught me to appreciate early on that
relationships and how you work with people are even more
important than the rigour of your analytic work if you are
to achieve your goals and really make a difference.
Thirdly, I made some important personal contacts through
WBS that led me directly to securing my first job after completing
my PhD. Networks are ever more important in professional life,
and these early relationships were invaluable to me as I
started out. I know from my continued involvement with
WBS that it is better placed today than ever before
to help students develop their networks and expand their horizons.
Last but not least, the completion of the thesis has
given me an inner strength that I can always fall
back on. The knowledge that you have seen a challenge like
that through to the end is something that no one can ever
take away from you, and when times get tough, this can
provide helpful sustenance!
The Doctoral Programme at WBS was in its infancy in my
day, with just a handful of students working quite independently
of one another. Nowadays, it is far bigger and much more
structured, with many more commensurate benefits and opportunities.
A doctorate is not for everyone, it is at times an unavoidably
lonely experience. But if you have a passion for a subject and
the time to pursue it, then it is a unique opportunity to
benefit from the best that the higher education system has to
offer - and there is nowhere better than WBS to do it!
Dr Craig Baker, PhD Industrial & Business Studies (1985), Partner, Advisory Services, Ernst & Young