UEA

Dr Pranab Baruah, MBA Strategic Carbon Management 2010

Only a few weeks after graduating from Norwich Business School Pranab Baruah was offered a position with the Lower Carbon Futures Group at the University of Oxford

Pranab joined Norwich Business School in January 2010 from his position as Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo.  His research into sustainability and low-carbon building technologies gave him the background to make a strong MBA application and he was awarded a top scholarship by the business school which enabled him to make the move from Tokyo to Norwich to study the full-time Strategic Carbon Management MBA.

‘It was a big step to leave Japan and move to the UK with my wife and my baby son who was only a year old at the time.  It was also a bold career decision to give up my academic position at the University of Tokyo and to take a year out to study at the University of East Anglia – it turned out to be a very good decision for me and my family.’

‘I was attracted to UEA by the reputation the University has for its Environmental Sciences research and teaching.  I wanted to be able to study the business of low carbon technologies; I looked around but couldn’t find anything which compared to Norwich Business School’s strategic carbon management course.  When I was offered a really generous scholarship I jumped at the opportunity and moved to Norwich.’

‘My work in Tokyo and at the Asian Institute of Technology as Research Associate had given me lots of experience with low carbon technologies but I wanted to be able to apply my knowledge in the commercial world and to develop my business skills.  With its emphasis on learning through live business consultancy projects, the MBA delivered well on my aspirations in this respect.  In my second consultancy project I was selected to work in a team of four to undertake development of a carbon strategy for a leading automobile processing company which prepared several makes of car for their initial sale and re-sale in the UK.’

‘This consultancy was a very good learning exercise for me and our work proved to be useful for our client too: we produced some detailed value-at-stake analysis which provoked the company’s board to look again at reducing their carbon footprint as a way of tackling rising energy costs.  Even before we had completed our final consultancy report we were told that the company had used some of our findings to renegotiate its contract with a major European car manufacturer which was looking to partner businesses in the UK which could demonstrate taking concrete steps to reduce their environmental impact.’

‘The consultancy projects during my MBA proved to be very real and very demanding but they gave me a real grounding into the business angle on carbon management and the confidence to pursue my career in the UK.  Only a few weeks after graduating from Norwich Business School I was offered a position with the Lower Carbon Futures Group at the University of Oxford and since then I have also been ad-hoc consultant to a few companies for their carbon management.’

‘I now live in Oxfordshire with my family; Witney is a far cry from Tokyo and the work at Oxford University is very demanding at times but I look back on my decision to relocate to Norwich and study the carbon MBA and I am pleased that I made the right move at the right time.’