Deep Thoughts from the Steps – Why Do I Need an MBA?
As a 40-something professional with a family, I seriously questioned why I needed to go back to school for a Master of Business Administration degree. After all, I’m a senior sales manager at a large company and the owner of a growing business; it’s not like I’m not busy.
But it’s not just about the labels for me. It’s about my purpose and if what I’m doing helps me live into it. I frequently perform “check ups from the neck up” where I consider if what I’m doing is actually contributing to both my short- and long-term goals. I also try to remain teachable so that I can learn what I need to graduate to the next level.
After a lot of research, I realized that earning an MBA fits perfectly into this approach. You select a school that offers what you’re looking for in style, structure and substance and then you develop your plan to satisfy their degree requirements. This requires focus and knowing yourself. Or at least having a good idea of where you want to go.
One of the first things I found is that there are a lot of MBA programs available for working professionals. However, the Warwick Business School’s Global Online MBA program quickly emerged as the best for me because of its focus on diversity and its consistent rankings as one of the best business schools in the world. Warwick’s commitment to teaching students how to be change makers was also very important to me.
Why do I want to be a change maker? Firstly because leaving things better than how I found them is important to me. Secondly, because we live in a world rich with both blessings and challenges and it’s important to me to use the former to address the latter.
That’s why my final dissertation for Warwick spoke to the challenges of integrating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into a successful business model. This entailed analyzing pay and leadership disparities for African Americans in the U.S. workforce through personal experiences and contemporary organizational data. Additionally, I wanted to illuminate what "separate and unequal" means in today’s corporate America and develop methodology that could be used for creating leadership structures that embodied empirical DEI applications.
I also wanted to address the aspects of workplace culture that facilitate “imposter syndrome.” This phenomena occurs when people of color and women are treated as if they were only hired to fulfill quotas and not because they are qualified for their jobs.
In addition, many professionals, particularly people of color and women, feel pressured to code-switch—adjusting their speech, behavior or appearance to fit dominant workplace norms. But true confidence comes from the self-assurance that you belong without needing to conform. My dissertation also explores the importance of building self-esteem to break free from code-switching and discusses how workplace cultures that devalue diverse talent contribute to imposter syndrome. When employees are made to feel like diversity hires rather than valued professionals, it erodes confidence and creates self-doubt. The key to overcoming this? Owning your authenticity, embracing your worth and pushing for inclusive environments that recognize merit beyond optics.
At the beginning of my pursuit of an MBA from Warwick, the school asked me to list the goals of my dissertation, which were:
Contributing to understanding and addressing persistent workplace inequities;
Informing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies for my organization and potentially others;
Enhancing personal expertise and credibility as a DEI leader and changemaker;
Potentially drive meaningful changes towards more equitable and inclusive workplaces; and
Helping others build the confidence to overcome the obstacles, while achieving their personal and professional goals and career aspirations.
Warwick not only deemed that this as noteworthy but awarded me a scholarship, based on the topic and my goals of growth through learning, thereby improving myself and the world around me.
But this topic holds both personal and professional significance to me. Throughout my career, I have consistently observed that African Americans and other people of color are rarely represented in executive leadership. I also noted that people of color are often relegated to front-line or customer-facing positions that are often considered as less intellectually demanding.
This concept was reinforced by how I was perceived as a Black man in my professional dealings outside the company. When conducting personal banking, for example, branch employees frequently assumed that I was in a front-line technical operations role rather than a senior leader in a Fortune 50 telecommunications company. To me, this reflected deep biases about Black jobs in corporate America, based on the perception of our inability to perform some types of work or hold executive positions.
My research revealed a similar trend: While the company I studied reported a 16.4% African American workforce, most of these employees were in customer installation and repair, call centers, field sales and retail stores.
Ultimately, earning this degree was never just about getting the degree itself. While an MBA can boost your career, I wanted to demonstrate how working through our prejudices can lead to greater success and fulfillment for everyone. I pride myself on creating diverse teams that value everyone’s contributions and uses shared experiences and learning to meet – and exceed – our goals.
However, I’m still happy to announce that as of Feb. 10, 2025, I became an official graduate of the Warwick Business School’s Global MBA program. Despite the challenges and doubts I faced in earning this designation, it’s a testimony to the reality we must still make the climb, no matter how steep it may seem.
