News

MBA puts ex-bobby on business beat

(4 January 2007)

A former policeman’s decision to study for an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at Durham Business School took his career in an unexpected direction.

Craig Crowther, 35, from Lanchester, County Durham was working as a policeman for Northumbria Police when he decided to enrol on a part-time MBA programme at Durham Business School in 1999. Craig explained: “I felt that doing an MBA was a great opportunity to develop myself within the police or even to look at career options outside the force.” The Durham MBA gave Craig the help he needed to develop his management skills. “I felt that I had strong business instincts, but the MBA’s ‘management toolkit’ gave me a real framework to develop these instincts into something more concrete,” he said. Another important facet of the MBA is peer learning. Durham’s MBA brings together students from a range of public and private professional backgrounds, from across the world. Craig added: “It was great to interact with the others on my course, as we all had different business experiences and could learn so much from each other.” After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in Economics, Craig had joined Northumbria Police as a police constable in 1993 and quickly moved through the ranks. But the Durham MBA also prompted a turning point in Craig’s career, when it came to completing the final dissertation. Craig explained: “The dissertation counts for a substantial amount of the marks for the MBA and it’s also a practical project which you can directly apply to your own workplace. “I had worked in the public sector since finishing university and saw my dissertation as an opportunity to see how I could apply what I’d learnt to the private sector.” He offered his services as a human resources consultant to a chemicals manufacturer Thomas Swan & Co in Consett, County Durham, where he looked at solutions to their HR challenges. After completing his dissertation, he was offered a permanent position at the company, where he was able to implement the strategy he had created, in his new role as Group HR manager, where he worked for three years. Now Organisation Development Manager for Middlesbrough-based technical training group, TTE, Craig’s responsibilities have taken on a global perspective. The company trains employees in the petrochemical, oil and gas industries and Craig is responsible for the Group’s worldwide organisational development. TTE, which counts BP, Shell, Corus and many others as customers has recently opened an office in Dubai. Durham Business School offers a range of MBAs to suit the region’s professionals, with the opportunity to study full-time, executive or by distance learning modes. The programmes also attract students from across the UK and around the world. Craig has no doubt that his MBA has allowed him to achieve his personal and professional goals: “The combination of analytical and ‘soft’ skills, consolidated in the Durham MBA, along with skills needed for leadership, mean that I have a qualification which is really relevant in today’s business world.”