MBA Business Administration (MBA)

Jim Onions

Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service

I was aware that to progress within the Fire Service, I needed to not only expand my understanding of strategy and its application, but also to underpin this with academic learning and accreditation. The MBA at the University of Gloucestershire targeted the key areas of development that I required; business strategy, financial management and human resource management.

Whilst the university has excellent buildings and facilities, its key strength is in the quality of its people - the academic and other university staff and also the students. I think that the diversity of disciplines from the public, private and voluntary sectors across Gloucestershire attracts students who provide a broad perspective on many of the issues and subject matter discussed and debated in the MBA. The Human Resource and Financial Management programmes fulfilled my development needs and the Strategic Management sessions were excellent. All of the learning was brought together by the dissertation, particularly the one-to-one sessions with my assigned mentor, who helped me both to shape the subject matter of the research piece and to challenge some of my preconceptions regarding my theme which related to culture, equality and change management in the fire and rescue service. My mentor’s challenge and guidance led me to explore other sectors, where people work in close-knit teams, and where the underlying cultures were similar to that of the fire and rescue service. I continue to use my dissertation as a reference piece and I now consistently try to view problems from multiple viewpoints and draw from as many references as posssible. Public services are facing particular challenges at the present and we are each trying to resolve the conflict between an increasing demand for our services, combined with shrinkage in our staffing, finances and resources.

I feel that the MBA has equipped me to be more challenging towards accepted practices, to seek new opportunities through partnerships and collaboration, to re-design how services are delivered and engage staff and communities along with other stakeholders to work with us to deliver our priorities. In my role as Assistant Chief Fire Officer, I lead the Service support function which manages the vehicle fleet, operational equipment, premises, procurement, operational procedures, training and development. I also lead on the project to migrate to the West Midlands Regional Control Centre and the Service's Improvement Plan.