Simon Bottomley admits he didn't have to do much arm twisting to persuade his company to sponsor him through his master of business administration course at the University of Queensland.
Mr Bottomley, 28, was fortunate enough to be able to open his pitch to the managing director of the Northgate-based Havestock Pty Ltd by saying, 'hey Dad, how about this for an idea?'
His father Tim's ready agreement to provide funding for all course fees and textbooks has paid off handsomely for the company, which manufactures and distributes manhole covers and grates to the construction and civil engineering industry.
Simon Bottomley readily attributes much of the rapid expansion Havestock has achieved since he started his MBA in 1993 to both the course and contact with other students whose studies were sponsored.
Four years ago the company had five employees and mainly catered for the Queensland market. It now has 26 employees, is Australia's largest supplier of manhole covers and grates, exports to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea and has an annual turnover of $9million.
Mr Bottomley was Havestock's marketing manager when he embarked on the MBA after receiving a bachelor of commerce from Griffith University in 1989, majoring in marketing and information systems.
After completing his undergraduate degree he moved to Sydney and worked as a graduate management trainee for QANTAS to get a taste of big business before returning home to Brisbane in 1991.
Mr Bottomley, who completed his MBA in August, is now both a director and general manager of Havestock, as well as a firm advocate of the benefits of postgraduate study to both students and employers.
'The sponsorship made it possible to study while still living a reasonably comfortable lifestyle,' he said. 'If I had to pay for it out of my own pocket I would have had to do a lot more soul searching before making the decision.
'I saw it as important to get a grounding in general business strategy and things such as accounting, human resource management issues and law, which hadn't been part of my undergraduate studies.
'I also saw it as an opportunity to gain a greater confidence in my own ability, and to form networks which would benefit both me and the company.'
The networks formed with other MBA students has led to both new customers and new suppliers for Mr Bottomley's company .
'The benefits don't come just from what you learn, but also from the opening of contacts, meeting people you would never have met if it hadn't been for doing the course,' Mr Bottomley said.
Before completing his studies, Mr Bottomley was among the 60 percent of the 500 postgraduate students in the University's Graduate School of Management undertaking employer-sponsored MBAs or Consortium of Australian Management Schools (CAMS) courses.
Employers meet all tuition fees so students can develop skills to benefit the company, or to enable them to work in different fields for the company, or in the case of advanced MBAs, to undertake specific research projects on company problems.
CAMS courses are bridging courses into MBAs, graduate certificates and graduate diplomas.
Students can undertake subjects at any of the CAMS member establishments, the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide, Sydney, Western Australia, Tasmania and Deakin, depending on where they are working at the time.
Courses integrate with any MBA programs of consortium members.
For more information, phone Mr Bottomley on (07) 3266-7222.
