Edward Shila ‘20 is an East-African in every sense of the word: he was born in Tanzania to an Ugandan mother and Tanzanian father, he studied in Kenya, he works as the Managing Director of Dentsu Aegis Network in Dar es Salaam and is currently pursuing his MBA in Kigali.
Most of his time, however, is spent in Tanzania, where he oversees the day to day activities at Dentsu Aegis Network, a global advertising, and marketing agency. “We help brands come up with strategies, communication plans, media plans, digital plans, creatives, production and overall below the line activities.”
As a Managing Director, Edward naturally has a lot on his plate: “A big part of my role is about tracking the financial performance of the business. It’s thinking about how we are performing against the revenue targets that we’ve set for ourselves and offering the team reports on how we will be able to achieve the numbers. Apart from that, it’s also about managing relationships between the business and our clients; whether it’s beer brands or telco’s, we have to make sure that we’re really delivering and the clients are happy.”
Even with all these responsibilities on his plate, Edward still decided to go for his MBA. His reasons were twofold: leadership and growth. “I’ve always been interested in leadership and I wanted something that was going to help me grow in my career. I wanted to move into the C-suite level and most of the places I’ve been interested in require you to have an MBA or at least a Master’s degree. I thought it was the right time for me to go and do that.”
His search for the right MBA, however, took some time: “I finished my undergrad in 2010 and in these 9 years, it was a struggle to find a school or an MBA programme that was different… until I found ALUSB. I chose ALUSB because it’s a different type of degree or rather, a different type of MBA; from what you’re being taught to how it all weaves together in everyday business operations or leadership and management.
The first thing that really stood out to me was the focus on leadership and building future African leaders. The other thing that stood out to me was the fact that it’s a pan-African MBA. ALUSB gives you the chance to learn and experience other pan-African leaders, expand your network and increase your opportunities.”
How does Edward juggle his roles as father, Managing Director and MBA student? Read on to discover his day-to-day and how he approaches work-life balance!
1. Maintain a routine
This new addition in his life required a little adjusting. To keep everything structured, Edward maintains a strict routine: “Every morning for me starts with trying to get to the office at 6.30 or 7 AM. I start the day by reading the bible, listening to music and I meditate for about half an hour. And that is followed up by me catching up on my studies up until 9 AM. At 9, I start working and checking my emails. By 11 I have a weekly status meeting. The commonality here is that up until 9, it’s routine.”
This routine continues throughout the week. It’s at the beginning of the weekend that Edward gets to change it up a bit: “What my Saturdays look like, all depends on the workload; sometimes I come into work or catch up on assignments. And on lighter days, I spend time with the kids, take them out for dinner, swimming or something else. Sunday is church day. After church, I go back home and I spoil the family.”
2. Handle your challenges
“I’ve always been an optimistic person and I’m very solution-centric. I’m always keen to find a solution to a roadblock and maintain a positive attitude. So whenever there’s a roadblock, I always believe that that is where solutions are supposed to come out of. Being able to do that really helps me to focus on the issue at hand and think about how to move forward.”
3. Find your motivation
“There is more that needs to be done and that keeps me going.”
“Two particular things motivate me to keep going. One is my ambition. Seeing where I come from and where I am today… It is a journey that I’m really proud of. So I keep increasing the bandwidth because I know that I’m not there yet. There is more that needs to be done and that keeps me going.
Apart from that, my daughters really inspire me. Even though they’re small, they seem to be very wise. After a long day, they are really able to lift my spirits and make me feel motivated and really give me the energy I need for the next day.”
4. Make sacrifices
Work-life balance simply means being able to regulate the amount of time and energy that you spend on your work, yourself and things that are personal to you. How do you split your time between your work, school, your health, and your family and friends, while also doing things that are good for you? For me, I always make it a point to not work during the weekend and I make an effort to go home early and not stay up late.
It is a challenge, it is hard and it’s quite a lot of work and a lot of effort to try to maintain that. In my case; I’m doing an MBA, I have work, I have a life and this means that the life part has to suffer a little bit for a time for me to be able to complete this. But whenever time permits, I compensate for the times that I wasn’t able to be there.
