Meet your MBA lecturers: David Dingli
Wondering who your MBA lecturers are going to be? What their teaching style is? How you can apply what you learned in your job? This and much more will be addressed in an upcoming series of blogs in which your MBA lecturers will introduce themselves and their classes. This time we introduce you to David Dingli.
Let me introduce myself…
My name is David Dingli and I come from the Mediterranean island of Malta. I have been an Assistant Professor for the past 21 years. At MSM, I have lectured in the Full-time MBA, the Master in Management and in our Global Programs. In total I have worked in 30 countries spanning from South America, Africa, The Middle East, Central Asia, East and South-East Asia as well as Europe. Over the years I have lectured Operations Management, Corporate Strategy, Global Supply Chain Management, Change Management and Entrepreneurship.
Apart from working at MSM, I also run my own Training and Consulting Practice “Resource Productivity Consulting Services” where over the years I have focused on SME organizations in Malta specializing in Strategic Development, Business Planning, Operations Management, Internationalisation of SMEs and Human Resource Management while the corporate training arm focuses on management development programs on a broad range of topics. I have consulted & provided training in private manufacturing & service organizations as well as Government bodies in a wide range of industries. Prior to launching my private practice and joining MSM, I worked as the Secretary General of The Malta Institute of Management for three years. Prior to that, I worked as an Industrial Engineer for ten years with Medwear Clothing Ltd, a German owned clothing manufacturing concern in Malta where I was responsible for the daily running of a second factory for 5 of those years.
There is extreme satisfaction in knowing that I am adding value by what I do
I have always felt confident in front of people, a skill I developed from playing guitar and singing in rock bands in my youth. After I had completed my MBA, I was asked to deliver a set of tutorials on Operations Management to a new group of students. I prepared meticulously but when I delivered the sessions, I felt that it all came very natural too me. All that was missing was a microphone in my hand!
There really was no turning back and when I joined the Institute of Management, I had a tremendous opportunity to engage in lecturing to corporates. So, my career changed gear in a way I could never have predicted. From technical Engineering within Industry, to lecturing Management courses to executives. I don’t think I ever worked another day in my life as I just love what I do. I found my true passion and meaning in life and in my small way, I know I am contributing to changing people’s lives for the better, giving them confidence and hope for a better future and career.
I like to define my lectures as a “Roller Coaster ride”
Students will experience similar emotions. There will be the thrilling and fun moments, others will create tension and anxiety, maybe even some fear and panic as you will be challenged to think but knowing full well that you are in safe hands. At the end, when the ride is over and you know you have survived it, you wish you had more
About my teaching style
I want students to feel at ease and comfortable. I want them to enjoy their learning experience. I tend to mix my sessions between traditional lecturing, where I explain concepts and topics, with my practical consulting experiences. In addition, I engage students to ask questions and work on case-studies and other types of class exercises, where they get the opportunity to put their learning into practice.
I had come across a saying that goes like this “If I teach you everything…you will have nothing to learn”. This concept totally transformed my approach to lecturing adults. I fully believe that adults must be treated as such and they are to be entrusted to engage themselves in the topic being covered, to read, search and discover their inner beliefs and thoughts about the topic, challenge their colleagues in group work and enrich themselves throughout the process of learning. I just want to give them the motivation to want to do all this. If I spark that flame, then I would have done my job well.
My Entrepreneurship class will bring out the hidden entrepreneur in you!
As I will be lecturing Entrepreneurship to both the Master in Management and Full-Time MBA groups this year, my classes will bring out the hidden entrepreneur in you and with your team of fellow classmates, you will develop a business idea that you would have never given a second thought before you entered my class. As I mentioned earlier, the course is a mix of lecturing, case-study analysis and new Business Idea development. Students will also have the opportunity to deliver a pitch to the class on their business idea.
The main take-away…
By the end of my course, you might never want to be an employee again in your life. The key take-away from the course on Entrepreneurship is to bring out your personal qualities, to make you confident about your ideas and not to fear to take risks or fail in business.
How you can apply what you learned during the Entrepreneurship module
For students who are employees or who want to remain in employment, then the best they can apply in their job would be creative Intrapreneurial skills to be able to develop new products and services within their current job. They will be capable of creating an Intrapreneurial climate that is a driver for corporate innovation. For others, and here is where their current employers should not read this, they will quit their jobs and set up their own dream business and become self-employed entrepreneurs.
To my future students I would like to say
Buckle up, hold on tight and get ready for the ride – you’re going to love it!
About the MSM MBA
The Master in Business Administration (MBA) of Maastricht School of Management is an experience in the essence of organizational leadership and entrepreneurial management in a fast-changing, multi-cultural and global business environment.
It is offered in three different formats to accommodate your needs:
Our MBA takes a practice-oriented approach, focusing on putting your newly gained knowledge and skills into your daily professional and personal life. Immediately from the first course you can apply what you have learned during the interactive lectures, practice-based assignments, work visits and guest lectures (on-campus MBA programs). During the MBA you will also develop your hard and soft skills to be able to manage in an effective and responsible way. To fully align your MBA with your career ambitions or to develop yourself in a completely new area you can choose from different specializations. You will share your MBA experience with fellow students coming from different countries around the world and having different cultural and professional backgrounds. This not only adds to your learning experience but will help to significantly grow your international network.
About the MSM Master in Management
The MSM Master of Arts in Management (MM) program is a one-year full-time master’s program for recent graduates and young professionals (< 3 years of working experience) with the ambition to manage people and processes with success in any organization, country or context.
Our MM provides you with a first necessary step to fast-forward your career to higher levels by providing you with a solid foundation in the practice and theory of management in a fast-changing global world. During this course you will be provided with the opportunity to understand how to steer your organization to high performance in a diverse and multicultural international business context. You will learn from experienced faculty, international companies and fellow participants from different cultural, business and study backgrounds.
The MSM Master of Arts in Management will ultimately challenge you to develop your own unique approach to management that inspires.
