Matthew Stammers was working in a mid-level job at Corgi, the national gas safety watchdog, when he decided that he need to take action if he was to move ahead. He also wanted to change his perspective on both his employer and his own career. “I wanted to think more broadly and take more strategic decisions. I also needed more understanding of myself and more [experience of] networking with others,” he says.

As he saw it, there were two paths open to him: move to a different company or stay where he was and take an MBA. Given that he liked where he worked, he chose to start an executive modular MBA at Henley Management College in September 2004. He finished it in March this year. He could have finished it six months earlier but decided to take more time to complete the final dissertation. “It took me a bit longer because I was trying to balance [it with] the pressures of work,” he says.

While he knew others who had taken distance-learning MBAs, Stammers decided that the executive modular course suited him better. “It’s important to understand how you learn. I knew I didn’t have the discipline to do it [by distance learning]. My style means that I like to be involved with other people.” Stammers, who is now his organisation’s strategy and communications director, says that personal contact with classmates also helps to forge effective networks.

“The academic element was important but it was [only] a component. You get most of your learning from working with other people and getting the benefits of their insight.

“One thing that has really changed [because of the MBA] is my confidence. I wasn’t exactly shy before but I wasn’t always confident about the way I presented myself to a variety of people. Now I am confident and relaxed about doing it.

“A lot of people do [MBAs] to go from being a specialist to being a general manager. I was already in general management, but I found it a very useful way of gaining a broader perspective on people and on corporate decisions.”