Meet your lecturers: David Dingli

Let me introduce myself…
My name is David Dingli and I come from the Mediterranean island of Malta. I have been lecturing at MSM for the past 23 years. At MSM, I have lectured in the Full-time MBA, the Master in Management and in our Global Programmes. 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 organisations in Malta specialising in Strategic Development, Business Planning, Operations Management, Internationalisation of SMEs and Human Resource Management while the corporate training arm focuses on management development programmes on a broad range of topics.

Call it chance or opportunity
While running my own Training and Consulting Practice, I started delivering short courses to our members. I was then asked to provide tutorial sessions for the Henley MBA programme in Operations Management. Students just loved how I lectured, and I realised that I had a skill that needed developing, apart from the fact that I loved it, too. Having made contact with MSM, the rest is history. As a Master in Management student, you will follow my course in Entrepreneurship and as a Full-time MBA student you potentially follow my course in Entrepreneurship, Supply Chain Management and/or Global Corporate Strategy.

About my teaching style
As most of my classes are education and degree-oriented courses, undoubtedly, I will need to cover the theoretical underpinnings of a topic. However, I will blend this with practical experience gained throughout my consulting career. I will only teach subjects in which I have had personal experience so I can shower the students with examples I have witnessed in companies when I carried out consulting projects.

“I want students to expect an enjoyable and motivated learning experience.”

A first insight into my classes
My classes will consist of an element of “lecturing”, where I do most of the talking. There will then be ample time for group work where students will work on case studies, prepare presentations, or develop a business in my entrepreneurship classes. The courses are usually assessed with an individual assignment with a solid practical dimension and group work assessments consisting of class presentations. Students must develop their self-presentation skills and responses to case-study questions, testing their analytical and judgment skills.

The main take-away for the students
New knowledge is always going to be a fundamental takeaway I would wish my students to take home after the course; however, primarily, I would want them to be able to recognise the practicality of the topic and that they can put their new learning into practice, making a real difference to their company, peers and subordinates.

How to apply the learnings into your job…
My entrepreneurship course is a bit tricky! I am mainly encouraging students to consider self-employment as a career option. They can only apply this topic as an employee if they work in an intrapreneurial environment. As far as strategy is concerned, all students are intrigued by the subject. I must admit, unless the student reaches a senior management position, they can only implement a pre-determined strategy put together by others. I want to see my students be in positions where they can create the strategy for their companies. They will have the tools to do this. Still, I cannot teach them “foresight” for what is best for their company, so strategy can be extremely difficult to get right in a real-world scenario! Regarding the supply chain, not all students will be working directly in areas specifically related to the supply chain. Still, they can apply process flow thinking in all they do.

To my future students I would like to say
Believe in yourselves. Challenge the boundaries of learning and knowledge. Be prepared to work hard. It is the only way to embrace an achievement. I will be there to assist you in accomplishing these goals.

“I want to be the person who motivates students to enjoy learning, who, apart from lecturing, gives them life skills and transforms their thinking about their future careers.”

Fun fact
When I first lectured in China, my students expected a Chinese lecturer. That’s because my surname “Dingli” was written as “Ding Li” on their notes. Only then did I realise how Chinese-sounding my name was.

Would you also like to join the Master in Mangement or the Full-time MBA?
Click here for more information about the Master in Management.

Click here for more information about the Full-time MBA.

On the programme page, you will find all the details about the curriculum, the available scholarships and the admission requirements. You can also chat with current students and alumni and get first-hand insights in how they have experienced the programme. The next intake of both programmes starts in September 2024.

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