Winner of The IMD MBA Alumni Scholarship for Africa:
"The MBA scholarship made it possible to pursue my goal i.e. to work in Africa in a career of my choice. I am the only member of my class to return to Africa as a local employee versus an expat and am also one of the few to have made a career switch upon graduating. Had I not had the scholarship I would have had to give up one or both of these goals."

Akwasi Opoku-Dakwa, from Ghana, came to IMD in 2004. An IT guy from a small consulting firm, his key intention was to leave the IT world behind and find a career in a field that would stimulate him long term. “I was not passionate about IT - I'm not techy enough. I wanted to decide on a functional career outside of IT and Consulting and felt that an MBA would give me a broader, more solid business understanding....

I chose IMD because of the focus on personal development and real world learning. I wanted a program that would provide me with good exposure to non-service industries and careers, whilst also broadening my international experience.”

The first half of the year was a mix of highs and lows for Akwasi: while he doesn’t have fond memories of the heavy reading workload, and still remembers the frustration of watching one of his teams disintegrate without knowing how to fix it, his best memories are based on the close bond formed between his classmates: “Giving a standing ovation to a classmate after he entered class late, back from his final day of chemotherapy; performing U2s "One" with the whole class during graduation week and finally, presenting the class yearbook - I love that book!”

Following graduation, Akwasi successfully fulfilled his aim to change career and entered the Marketing field with Procter and Gamble South Africa. “After having left my home Ghana in 1993, I was ready to return and carve out the next phase of my life on the African continent. I find marketing very stimulating - understanding the consumer, getting your product to that consumer (not so straightforward in Africa) and knowing how to connect in a mutually rewarding way with that consumer. I currently manage 3 brands (spanning 2 product categories) and find that P&G is very like IMD, but with more people. Similar values: commitment to developing people's capacity and similar people: we like challenging goals and are mad about leadership. IMD gave me a pretty solid understanding of what the P&G game is all about and the tools to succeed in it. Some people are born to this, but I could not have thrived here without the skills and perspective I picked up at IMD.”

Published: 2006