GLOBIS Journey Spotlight: Alfiyah Nur Oktavia Ningsih

W. Tanner Kirk
Posted: September 26th, 2024

Alfiyah Nur Oktavia Ningsih is a GLOBIS MBA student from Jakarta, Indonesia. She has transitioned to a career in finance after gaining valuable experience as a technical and sales engineer.

She started her MBA journey at GLOBIS with the nano-MBA where she learned the fundamental business concepts and skills from expert lecturers and collaborative discussions with peers. The practical application of this knowledge not only in business but also in various life aspects prepared and motivated her to take on the Pre-MBA journey at GLOBIS as well. She is now preparing to start her part-time MBA studies at GLOBIS University in Tokyo, Japan.

We sat down with Alfi to discuss her inspiring GLOBIS journey and gain valuable insights for potential MBA students.

Note, the contents of this article are based on an interview transcript. Some elements have been edited for clarity.

Alfi: My name is Alfi. I’m from Jakarta, Indonesia. I currently work in finance in East Jakarta, and I became a student of the GLOBIS part-time online MBA in 2024.

I embarked on my journey to the MBA program because I know right now we are in a rapidly changing era–and my philosophy is to become a lifelong learner. 

What inspired you to begin your nano-MBA journey?

Alfi: My family are all educators. My parents were both principals at government schools until they retired. My sister’s also a university lecturer from a famous university in Indonesia. Maybe that’s why my philosophy is to become a lifelong learner. 

Around 2019 I felt like my life was so flat. I did the same things all the time, and I knew I needed to make improvements. One of my sisters had just finished her PhD and then my younger sister got her law license, and I thought ‘Wow, what have I got?’

[I discovered the nano-MBA] and thought ‘why not?’

What is your kokorozashi (personal mission)?

Alfi: My country, Indonesia, has very low literacy. So one of my kokorozashi (personal mission) is to improve literacy in all generations from younger ages to seniors, because I think literacy is very related to education.

I also love to work with my community. I just got a license from the National Board of Indonesia to mentor small entrepreneurs. I want to level up small-to-medium sized entrepreneurs  in Indonesia.

I think one thing that I’ve learned from GLOBIS is that business education can be very related to my goals with improving literacy.

How do you manage to find the time to study around your responsibilities as a mother and business professional?

Alfi: From the start of the nano-MBA program, I started to reflect on my strong points and also my weaknesses or areas that needed improvement. 

One thing I found that I needed to improve on was the fact that I’m not a fast learner. I know that young young people right now are really fast learners. But maybe because I’m middle aged, I can’t follow that same pace. So I’m trying to reflect on myself, manage my time with work, my family, and my personal life as well as time for studying. 

Focusing on studying, I allocate my time at least five days a week for maybe just forty-five minutes to an hour to learn the material. 

For the nano-MBA, it’s more videos than text. But in the Pre-MBA and MBA programs, there’s much more text that I need to read. Sometimes I cannot just read the case once and understand it. I may have to read it multiple times to really understand everything, and then answer the questions. 

Do you have any advice for future nano-MBA students?

Alfi: I’m usually studying at night, or even sometimes on my lunch break or during some spare time in the afternoon. You just need to make a commitment and allocate your time.

I know it’s not always easy to find that balance between family, work, and yourself, but I think everything should be fine if you make your commitment and then apply that discipline with yourself and your priorities.

What has your experience been like moving from the nano-MBA into the Pre-MBA, and finally beginning the part-time MBA?

Alfi: I took the Leadership and Career Vision course in the nano-MBA program. So I learned about the fundamentals, the theory behind leadership. And I thought, ‘oh my goodness! That’s the theory that I have been applying,’ but I just didn’t have the knowledge behind it. 

So it’s not just all about doing something intuitively, but if you have some fundamental theory, you can apply what you learn. So I think that was a really useful part of the nano-MBA and Pre-MBA for me. 

It starts from small parts, because in the nano-mba, I think the cases aren’t necessarily easier, but it teaches you to develop a certain way of thinking. It’s all about identifying something through reasoning, and having evidence to support your answers.

And I think having that knowledge is very important on the path from the nano-MBA, to the Pre-MBA, and even the MBA program.

What was your impression of the nano-MBA?

Alfi: I think [the nano-MBA] is a good place to start for everyone who wants to start the MBA, but maybe feels like a full MBA program requires more effort than they’re able to put in right now. Because with a full MBA program, you have to dedicate a lot of your time and expenses.

So the nano-MBA is a good choice. It will help you understand some very small parts of the MBA program, and help you feel more sure about what you want to do in the future.

After completing the nano-MBA, how did you know that the Pre-MBA was right for you?

Alfi: I think for me, the decision to continue from the nano-MBA into the Pre-MBA was all about the timing. This was around 2019, and because just after that, COVID-19 happened and everything changed. I couldn’t think about continuously studying at that time.

But after joining the nano-MBA, I knew I couldn’t lose the momentum. When you feel like you’re in the right moment, at the right time, that’s when you should start.

Who would you recommend the nano-MBA to?

Alfi: I would recommend the nano-MBA for people that have something they’re conscious about, like maybe their workload, or the expenses of studying. The course duration is shorter and it’s not too expensive, and it’s a good place to start your MBA learning process.

What about the Pre-MBA and MBA programs?

Alfi: I think if you want to leverage yourself to become a business leader, then it’s very important for you to take the MBA program.

In recent times, we now know that we can’t simply make decisions based on intuition alone. You need strong evidence backed by data. And that’s why it’s so important to gain an understanding of what innovation really means. It’s not necessarily all about technology, but innovation can also come from within the organization itself.

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