On the day that I decided to apply for Cambridge MBA, I took the time to look around at the jewellery store that I had built and run for over 5 years. The jewelleries sparkled and shone, indicative of the growth that my entire team had experienced and contributed to. We had spent years acquiring the skills of looking at gemstones and natural inclusions inside them and appreciating them. For me, running a retail business with a small team, in theory, sounded very simple but why did it feel the opposite to run it, not to mention, grow it sustainably over a long period of time?
Incentivising my own team and recruiting new members while acquiring more loyalty from customers did not come naturally to me. Luck and resilience helped me push through challenges. But there seemed to be plenty of gaps I needed to fill in my skills. As I fortunately received the School’s acceptance into Cambridge MBA a few months later, I wondered how a prestigious school with all of its renowned visionaries and accomplished academics and alumni, would help me think about my own small business tucked away in a remote corner of the world. Operating in a developing country like Myanmar with its own nuances, customer preferences, and team dynamics felt far removed from the global corporation case studies I expected to encounter in Cambridge classes.
Fast forward a few months later, as I sat in the class, Organisations vs Markets, taught by Professor Raghu, agency problems were one of the topics that we explored. These arise when there is a separation between capital and brain – between owners and managers. In global corporations with strength and power, investors with business acumen set up contracts with highly qualified and experienced managers to align goals. Investors can set up explicit or implicit contracts with managers. They can allow autonomy to managers or assert control. Regardless, any contracts would be imbued with imperfections. It is simply because identifying goals or setting up perfect contract terms is next to impossible in quickly evolving ambiguous business landscapes.
As I listened in class, I realised I had been grappling with agency problems all along, albeit on a much much smaller scale. As both the owner and manager of my business, I often had to navigate misalignment in business goals with my team members, setting expectations, balancing oversight with trust.
How strict should I be with expectations within my team? How much autonomy should I give to my team members? Am I supporting my team well enough? How do I establish explicit agreements while leaving room for implicit ones? Whenever issues arose, I questioned whether I needed to improve my management approach or whether the team just simply needed to do better. I attributed the root cause of the problems to the limitation in my own resources. Perhaps, I didn’t have enough business budget allocation to set up good contracts. Or I didn’t have enough skills to think about these issues properly. These problems, I predicted, would surely vanish as my business and my resources grew. These imperfections, after all, shouldn’t exist in a good well-run company.
What stood out to me in class discussions was that these problems are ubiquitous even in the most well-run powerful corporations with the most experienced board members and managers. Trust alone or explicit contracts alone are not enough to solve agency problems. Well-thought-out systems must be in place, along with constant checks and improvements to address the misalignment of interests.
For all the effort and heart I had poured into my business, I had often felt like I was navigating uncharted waters alone. The MBA programme at Cambridge showed me that frameworks exist to guide even the most specific challenges, whether in well-resourced corporations or in small businesses like mine.
These moments of realisations help me see the value of stepping out of the daily grind of running a business and transporting myself a few continents away from Myanmar to pursue the Cambridge MBA. I appreciate getting to zoom out to see the bird’s eye view and develop different perspectives.
Outside of the classrooms and social activities, I have also been appreciating my own solitary moments in my dorm room. Two weeks into moving in, the rice cooker I ordered from Amazon finally arrived. I remember the unexpected comfort of unpacking it, placing it in the kitchen and knowing that I now have access to cooked warm rice at my fingertips. After a week of enjoying British food, there is something so soothing about having a familiar piece of home so easily accessible.
These different moments characterise my time in Cambridge, summing up appreciation for both the new and the familiar. I find myself eagerly looking forward to what lies ahead but also cherishing the present of getting to know my classmates and appreciating the privilege of simply being here at Cambridge.
For more on the Cambridge MBA curriculum and skills for start-ups and small businesses, visit our Curriculum pages here >
For careers in entrepreneurship visit our MBA career outcome pages here >
Aeint Myat Chel is a Cambridge MBA Scholarship for Entrepreneurs recipient, for more about the support available to study for your MBA at Cambridge, please visit our scholarship pages here >