Kane Ryan

Why did you decide to study an MBA?

I decided to study an MBA based on having a lot of experience previously at Holden. I started off as a toolmaker, straight out of Year 11, did my apprenticeship and worked my way up to leading hand positions and then into a staff position in supply quality. When the closure announcement was made I decided that I needed an MBA to back up my experience.

A lot of students struggle with time management when they first start. How did you make it work?

When I started my MBA, we had actually just had our second child, to throw something else into the mixture. The biggest and hardest part of the time management for me was to lock myself away and get away from all that other noise in your life. By studying down here in Adelaide locally made me come away from life to study for those set weekends. Then I’d make sure at night that I’d lock myself in the office, try and keep away from other distractions.

As I got further through my MBA, I’d stay back a few hours after work because I had found that that was a lot easier to keep yourself away and focused for just a few hours every few nights, to really focus on what you needed to get done and make sure you hit your deadlines that you set yourself.

Are you currently applying the skills you’ve learned from the MBA in your new role?

Now that I’ve gone to a small family-owned business, it’s a lot more broader position that I do as the operations manager. I’m using a lot of the skills that I’ve learned through the MBA for the general knowledge of some of the different areas that I didn’t have a real core knowledge on previously working at Holden.

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