Change from the Ground Up: QS Scholarship Winner

Gugu Mona, Edinburgh Business School

Gugu Mona hopes her MBA will help her effect policy change in South African healthcare

While some MBA candidates aim to use their qualification simply to move to a higher management role, QS Community Scholarship winner Gugu Mona desires nothing less than to help bring about large-scale reform of an entire country’s approach to healthcare “So often in South Africa we wait for diseases to happen, and then start to manage them. Preventative and curative care are much more effective, and that’s what we should be focusing on.”

The occupational health practitioner hopes her MBA will allow her to move into a sustainable development role from which she can better influence policy, and allow her to present a business case for her proposals. “At times it becomes difficult to manage in the healthcare sector without business skills and knowledge. Whatever strategies you present need to be cost-effective. An MBA will give me the administrative and economic management skills necessary to present the best strategy.”

Community involvement

Change, however, Mona believes, cannot simply be imposed from above in South Africa – it must also come from the ground-up. “One of my strengths is the promotion of social cohesion; getting the various stakeholders in a community to work together to develop themselves – socially, economically and in terms of healthcare.”

An example of the effectiveness of such an approach can be found in the project which won Mona the QS Community Scholarship, awarded to students who can demonstrate exceptional levels of socially responsible leadership. She was working in the Rakgoadi community (in Marble Hall in the Limpopo province), in which the issues of HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis testing presented a considerable challenge. People affected by these diseases found themselves stigmatized by the community, which also meant that many were unwilling to be tested.

“I did a situational analysis, and saw that if I only worked with my team, we wouldn’t be successful. We had to involve the local leadership, people from the community, from the start. They had to feel like they were part of the campaign, which would create a sense of responsibility. It wasn’t just a case of managing the project, but giving it over the community.”

Community leadership was, therefore, involved from the planning stage, and was instrumental in the campaign’s success. Mona believes that it will also help make this success a long-term one, by leading to a societal shift in the perception of HIV. “In the healthcare sector, we often forget to involve people on the ground. But when we do, the change is so much more profound than if we simply impose it.”

A user-friendly program

Mona is studying her MBA by distance at Edinburgh Business School. “For me, a course at a UK, US or Australian business school was preferable. But I have a family here, and other dependents that rely on me financially, so I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to study at a UK institution without leaving South Africa.”

She met Edinburgh Business School at a QS World MBA Tour event in Johannesburg in 2011. What drew her to that institution in particular? She replies that their level of support during the application process was one major factor, as was the relative affordability and the school’s reputation. But the decisive selling point was the flexibility of the course. “It is so user-friendly; they have an intake every month so you don’t have to apply at a certain time, and I can start a new course or take an exam whenever I want. Also, you don’t have to attend classes at a set time, which suits me because I am still working – sometimes from Monday to Friday, so having to do things at specific times would be difficult.”  

Support, she reflects is good, and the resources and information available online are of a high standard – important as she lives in a small town with not much access to offline resources. “There is a student website where we can communicate and come together, and we’re also able to communicate with our course facilitators – really useful when you’re not attending classes.”

Is she gaining the understanding of business she hoped she would get from the program?  “I feel that it is opening my mind, and helping me to think outside of the box, to think beyond today, to how my decisions will affect the future, financially and otherwise.”

She urges other healthcare managers to follow in her footsteps and enroll on an MBA program. Does she have any other advice for other prospective MBA students? “My father always said, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Don’t think if you don’t have the money to hand, you can’t do an MBA. Apply for scholarships; it’s not easy, but you need to get out there and look for opportunities and not just sit back and give up. If that doesn’t work out, cut down on your leisure time, or think about taking a loan. You’ll be able to pay it off in the end, and, you’ll see; it will be worth it.”

The QS World MBA Tour travels across the world.