Andrew Collins

Would you attribute any of your career success having done the MBA?

I would definitely attribute some more of my career success to having studied the MBA. My fellow directors decided that they would vote me as chairman and CEO of the company. Even though I’d worked with them for many years in a technical role, by doing the MBA they just saw a lot more skills had developed and decided I was the best one to take on the strategic management of the company and give the guys guidance.

Looking back in your journey, what was the best part or what were the best parts or greatest challenges, and how did you overcome those challenges?

Looking back over the MBA course, by far the thing that I enjoyed the most was it being an online course. I travel very, very extensively for work and from one month to the next I just don’t know where I’m going to be in the world or what time zone, what place. By studying online, I was literally able to travel, keep up with study, do study in the aeroplanes, at the hotels. It was certainly a big challenge to get it done but I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it without it being a practical online course.

The greatest challenge I had was making sure that I kept enough time for family and friends and having a very specific guideline to do that. I found the AIB to be very, very helpful in giving structured suggestions on how to achieve that, and if not for that, I don’t know if I’d have been able to finish the MBA in the time I did it.

Do you have any reflections or thoughts about your MBA journey?

On reflection, after completing my MBA, after being 25 years away from university, it was a great surprise to go back and I remember just how much I love learning and have a passion to do it. Which actually leads me to further my education next year, where I thought that phase of my life was over, but the AIB has opened my eyes a bit again to just how much fun learning can be.

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