Esteemed OBE alumni returned to graduate and showcase their DBA success

HUDDERSFIELD Business School was honoured to be able to welcome back esteemed alumni and OBE duo Dr Steven Michael OBE and Dr Owen Williams OBE as they returned to graduate and showcase their DBA success.

The pair, who were both senior healthcare leaders at the time of completing their doctorates, now want to share their DBA journey with others to highlight the positive impact it has had on them as individuals as well as the organisations they have worked for.

The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme, in addition to being equivalent to a PhD, is centred around bridging the gap between an individual’s academic knowledge and their professional practice. Widely regarded as one of the highest and most prestigious management qualifications in the UK, the programme retains emphasis on an individual’s contribution to their organisation whilst also enhancing their analytical and research skills.

Prior to his current role, Dr Williams was Chief Executive of the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust for over nine years having consecutively served as the CEO of Rossendale District and Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Councils.

The senior healthcare executive is passionate for reducing health inequality to ensure that no community - regardless of race, colour, or creed - gets left behind and was invited by the Board of NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) to chair a National Task & Finish Group that would focus on addressing inequalities in NHS provision and outcomes.

He said he has been able to apply the findings of his thesis to both his current and previous roles and in doing so, has helped him gain an understanding of the thought process on how organisations approach recruitment.

In his thesis, Dr Williams stressed the importance of ensuring people are truly committed at seeking out health inequalities, adjunct to equality, diversity, and inclusion, and are not just doing it because they feel it is the seen thing to do.

He also explained why it’s imperative for recruitment consultancies, who are involved in senior recruitment, to not find themselves in a position of becoming too familiar with using a certain pool of clients which by default, could be omitting people with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage.

“I initially started my DBA thinking I had reasonable knowledge and approach around research,” said Dr Williams, “however, what the DBA demonstrated and enabled me to do was to focus on replenishing the knowledge I had, understand about working with my action learning set, and how to feed off the colleagues I worked with.”

Throughout his career, Dr Michael has encompassed roles in clinical leadership as well as the charitable sector. Now, Company Director of SPM Creative Consulting Limited, he was previously CEO of the Southwest Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, a post which he held for nine years.

He chairs several advisory boards including one for an international project called ‘Implementing Recovery Through Organisational Change (ImRTOC)’ which supports recovery and organisational development in mental health. He is a trustee with Wakefield-based charity Spectrum People and is also an associate of global recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash, specialising in board-level recruitment.

Dr Michael believes at the Southwest Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, where he was CEO, the findings of his DBA research have added and provided more clarity in terms of the strategy they’ve adopted to date and the business model they will need to implement if they are to move forward in a more sustainable way.

“Completing the DBA allowed me to learn an awful lot about myself in terms of reflexive practice,” said Dr Michael. “It gave me the ability to test out my own taken for granted assumptions at all points within the system, and to also help others to test theirs about why they are here, why the management entity exists, what its purpose is and what it is ultimately trying to do,” he said.

Through the DBA programme, Dr Michael, who also chairs the advisory board at Huddersfield Business School, became aware of a University-led project titled “A Better Future Post Covid: Empowering Communities in Wakefield District (ECWD)”, supported by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) and funded by the UK Community Renewable Fund (UKCRF).  Dr Michael’s links with the organisation Spectrum People led to numerous student placements taking place at the charity and the support he provided has been vital in helping facilitate the project’s success.

Dr Andrew Jenkins, Course Leader for the DBA and Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) programme, says all candidates are given the opportunity to focus on their own research project, under the expertise and supervision of academics from Huddersfield Business School, applying sound theory and rigorous research to complex, often ‘live’ problems.

“By developing their strategic leadership and reflective capabilities, the course opens up a range of career progression opportunities, that can potentially lead to senior management positions in business, consultancy, and academia,” he said.

• To find out more about how to become a member of the advisory board and what would be required, a detailed description of the role is available. Expressions of interest are invited and can be emailed to hbsenterprise@hud.ac.uk.