DBA : A Gateway Towards better Research and Consultancy Projects, The Quest of a Corporate Consultant

by Lim Yu Lin

It’s natural for MBA holders to motivate and scale themselves upwards to pursue the Doctorate in Business Administration degree for academic and professional excellence. This degree is a golden opportunity offered through UUM’s (Universiti Utara Malaysia) College of Business with the approval of the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education. In addition to this course being offered in-campus at UUM it is offered at four Rezzen off-campus teaching Centres at KL, Penang, Melaka and JB.

Scholars pursue the DBA degree for various reasons as this degree signifies the pinnacle of academic achievement in Business Studies, earning the “Dr” title. It is a prelude to a teaching and research career as well. It is not uncommon to find doctorate qualified people doing exceedingly well in business circles. Yulin Lim (pic) is an example of a doctoral candidate in the making.

Yulin Lim, a former MBA graduate from the United States, is currently a DBA student at UUM. She attends classes at both the Rezzen Penang and Johor Baru centres. With a strong academic background and more than two  decades of professional working experience, today, Yulin is a much sought after corporate consultant where her selection of projects focus on helping organizations to maintain their competitiveness, develop their employees and make good profit. In short, Yulin turns poor performance of corporate entities to good and good entities into great busineses.

Yulin actively provides end-to-end sales, strategic management and human resource management consultancy services as well as conduct accredited management training and development programs to local and foreign multinationals (MNI), small-medium industries (SMI) and small- medium enterprises (SME) in Malaysia. Her key focus areas include:

• Diagnosing organizations’ issues that impede growth.
• Identifying opportunities for innovation and development.
• Formulating and implementing business and change management plans.
• Conducting workshops and providing individual and group mentoring for job

competency and development.

Yulin’s ultimate goal is to expand her thriving business to include research consultancy projects from both the government and private sectors; she believes a doctorate degree will be instrumental to this quest.

Yulin was first introduced to Rezzen’s DBA program through a newspaper advertisement. She was attracted to the program as it was conducted by UUM professors who have a reputation for being good academicians with extensive practical experience as well. In addition, the degree takes off-campus students 3.5 – 4 years to complete, including a consulting stint as well as preparing a dissertation. The design of the program is well suited for a working professional like Yulin, who is able to work while pursuing the degree on a part-time basis. Funding is also not a worry since HRDF subsidies are available through Rezzen to companies which are qualified.  Also PTPTN loans are available.

Although its centers have expanded throughout Malaysia, Rezzen continues to provide its students with individual attention when it comes to student counseling and attending to administrative services. Rezzen is supportive as well as accommodative of its students’ plans. Its supportiveness in handling student problems – a one stop center liaising between UUM and  nearly 300 students – has lifted a heavy burden off its students’ shoulders where the time spent resolving issues can be used to focus on more fruitful outcomes such as completion of academic assignments and reading the exhaustive literature review in preparation for the dissertation. In short, Rezzen helps out with the students’ plans for their future and advises so that their execution can be done with the utmost efficiency.

Yulin has throughout enjoyed all her classes where her UUM professors share their academic experiences and best practices with the students. The professors at all stages, help the students gain the knowledge they require, and shape them into high level tasks such as being able to  write a research proposal – an essential  prelude to the dissertation.

Students are required to attend a series of courses whereby the emphasis is on writing conceptual papers or research proposals based on the particular subject. All these exercises lead to the ultimate objective of training students to do empirical research. Yulin finds this approach to be extremely beneficial as it acts to prepare students for the writing of the consultancy paper and the dissertation. UUM Professors coach the students in all aspects of the methods for preparing a thesis, and the techniques to conduct an empirical research leading towards a thorough yet conclusive and reliable recommendation.

This entire process provides a broad base for potential effective and efficient research work. Yulin’s aspiration is to capitalize on this invaluable knowledge to enter into the business world yet once again to capture a bigger market share of the consultancy industry. Rezzen plays a key role in all of its students’ plans.

To find out more about Rezzen, call their counsellors at 03-2261 4248, 03-2261 4248 or 013 420 3888. Email answers@rezzen.com.my or visit their office at Plaza Sentral Suite 2B-5-1.