The PPD (Personal and Professional Development) program led by Career Manager Brian Marrinan has brought many interesting presenters to the MBA group. These aim to improve our career and communication skills and make a nice change of pace from our academic studies. PPD sessions have so far included topics such as 16PF (16 personality factors) and Career Leader which have enabled us to profile our strengths and weaknesses, jobs we are most suited to etc.
The best so far in my opinion have been the Networking sessions firstly a session by Kingsley Aikins and Edward Kelly of Networking Matters, secondly a follow up talk from Brian Marrinan to clarify and expand on it. As an example Kingsley and Edward spoke about how to gather charitable contributions for a foundation. Firstly, they recommend researching the people who both would be able to make a substantial donation and would be willing to do so. Kingsley explained that he always finds someone who he knows to introduce him, never does a cold contact and is patient, sometimes waiting for years before asking for a donation for his fund. He allows the potential donor to get involved by allowing him to give speeches and sit on boards and finally has the courage to look directly in his eyes and asks for a large sum of money. This should be very helpful to us as the MBA is all about networking.
– Richard Emberton, FT MBA 2011/2012