Dr. Valeriy Potapov
Director International Wealth Management
Credit Suisse
Postgraduate Diploma in Small Enterprise Consulting
Tertiary School in Business Administration, Cape Town
August 03 - August 07, 2017
Cooperation with university staff
My key cooperation partner was Reidwaan, as he is the Program Manager for the Postgraduate Diploma in Small Enterprise Consulting. Reidwaan provided absolutely critical introductions/onboarding to me, as well as daily support with my course and my stay in Cape Town. Thanks to this, I could smoothly kick-off and deliver my course to the students. I appreciate also being introduced to the TSiBA management (Pearl and Adri) as well as the teaching and faculty staff (Peter, Anneke, Yolanda and others). Reidwaan and Pearl took time to share with me their perspectives on higher education in South Africa and how TSiBA contributes to this mission. Especially rewarding and personally enriching for me was the opportunity to attend the graduation ceremony of TSiBA (certificate, bachelor and post-graduate programs), which was possible thanks to TSiBA management and marketing staff.
Cooperation with students
I had a great class, who helped me set off quickly, who were motivated to upgrade their Finance knowledge and were actively engaged throughout the course. The class was small (5 postgraduate students), which allowed us to be more interactive with every student and address every question and topic of interest. The class was composed of mature and experienced professionals in their fields (NGOs, government agencies supporting SMEs, etc.), who had both learning and practical exposure to Finance in the past, but still needed a structured and comprehensive refresher on this topic. Thanks to availability of entrepreneurial projects as a part of the program, plus the students’ sharing of own experience with small businesses in South Africa, we could have very interesting and practical conversations about various Finance topics. We had a very broad spectrum of topics to cover during the course week, but still managed to mix theory with interactive discussions of practical aspects and sharing concrete small business ideas and problems & solutions within the class.
Impact and win-win
Overall, I like a lot the set-up of the TSiBA’s Postgraduate program in Small Enterprise Consulting: TSiBA’s Ignition Center provides a real business for the students to develop in the course of 18 months. South African small businesses, unfortunately, demonstrate lower survivorship ratio than the world’s average. And one of the key reasons for this (some estimate, 70% or more) is lack of Finance knowledge and lack of financial planning by the entrepreneurs. I am convinced that the graduates of TSiBA’s SEC program will contribute to improving this situation – through personal engagement not only with the one assigned small business project, but also in their day jobs where they focus on capacity building for multiple SMEs. As for me personally, the assignment in Cape Town was definitely beneficial for many reasons. It has challenged me as a professional to deliver and achieve certain educational goals in (yet) another cultural environment. While preparing for the assignment, I have learnt a lot about South African business and economy. I learnt even more during discussions with the students. It also allowed me to get a much deeper insider perspective on the amazing country of South Africa.
Personal message
Last but not least, I would like to thank Sabina and Reidwaan for their trust and giving me the opportunity to be part of this great educational initiative. Thanks a lot to the TSiBA crew for their very friendly welcome, great hospitality and support during the course. Special thanks to the B360 team for the very smooth organization!