Firstly, I would like to congratulate all students of Makerere University that made it to the graduation list and are part of the 75^th graduation ceremony scheduled for the week of January 13-17, 2025. Without a doubt, what they have accomplished is, by no means, an easy task.

I also count myself among the fortunate for having attended Makerere University, through its Business School – The Makerere University Business School (MUBS) – for both my undergraduate and Master’s (MBA) degrees. MUBS has a rigorous curriculum for its programs, and I was blessed to encounter and interact with great lecturers.

What I learnt at MUBS in terms of accounting, finance, strategy, human resource, and marketing have been of great value to me. Since graduation, I have had the opportunity of dealing with multiple types of business situations ranging from private institutions, government entities, financial institutions, individual businesspersons to Not-for-profit organizations.

However, from my experience spanning over a decade, I have keenly observed with concern, the existence of a significant gap between University education and the practical realities coming from the day-to-day experience of working in a successful Organization. And I will share some thoughts hereunder:

Lesson #1: It’s about the Team not You. While at University, it’s all about you – It’s about you performing better than others; it’s about you raising your hand to give the right answer. However, once you get into the workplace, it goes from being about you (the person) to being about everybody (your team).

I have learnt that teamwork and team spirit can cause a group of individuals to perform well above the level of their individual capabilities. And I have found it crucial to treat everyone in the organization with respect, fairness and as important members of the team, working together towards a common goal regardless of rank, education level, or paycheck.

I have realized that the customer is not actually the most important constituent of a business; it is the employee. The employees have the greatest influence on customers and how the customers perceive the business entity. These employees influence the attitudes of customers more than anything else.

Lesson #2: Leadership is critical for Organizational success. At University, we spent way too much time on strategy/management and nowhere near enough on leadership. Yet, in today’s corporate world, we desperately need leaders to successfully run organizations.

I have come to appreciate that people at the top should be leaders but quite often, they act like managers. Managers administer; leaders innovate. Managers rely on systems; leaders rely on people. Managers need control; leaders need trust. Managers work on getting things right; leaders work on the right things.

 Lesson #3: It’s okay not to have right answers all the time. At University, assessments are primarily done based on written exams and students with the best grades obviously excel. However, in a real business environment, getting ahead does not necessarily require perfection, and the right answers sometimes arise through ‘trial and error’.

Also, it’s worth noting that failure of an exam does not necessarily mean that the student failed. It sometimes means that the material the student chose to focus on did not match the information required for that exam.

Lesson #4: Running a Business is much harder than you think. The Makerere University MBA program, for example, is mainly designed to impart the requisite skills needed for careers in business management. The focus of many students enrolling for this program is on career growth, increased earning potential, and job security.

On the other hand, little attention is paid to entrepreneurship. I have realized that it is much harder to stay in business than starting it. It is harder to keep a company’s momentum, to shift its speed and to alter its direction. It is harder to make decisions, because so many additional factors must be considered, and it is harder to get them executed.

Running a business will test every part of who you are, including your passion, your endurance, your perseverance, your leadership skills, your sales ability, etc.

Lesson #5: Learn to Think Differently. Finally, Albert Einstein once said, “The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think”. Therefore, the graduands should be willing to develop their own ideas in their chosen fields, while also candidly examining any related pitfalls and most importantly, get the fundamentals right!

Mr. Brian Mukalazi is the CEO,

Talis Consults Ltd.