Enrolling in an LBS programme involves significant commitment from participants, with financial considerations being a crucial factor in their final decision-making process. While some students rely on a combination of personal savings, loans, and both internal and external scholarships, others benefit from sponsorship from their organisations. In this context, our Sloan student, Charles Lesia, who successfully obtained company sponsorship, shares his experiences and strategies regarding how he engaged with his employer to secure funding for his studies.
- Could you please tell us a little bit about your background and why do you think a programme like Sloan is beneficial in your career at this point?
I am proudly South African, raised by a loving family and wider community. My parents were doctors, in fact most of my extended family are in the medical profession, so you can imagine the conversation when I broke the mould and decided to pursue a career in finance.
I have an undergraduate degree in Economics and Econometrics in Econometrics and Trade & Finance along with a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification from the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP).
As I mentioned, I am a finance professional with 14 years of experience in Global markets and Retail banking. Much of my career has been with Investec Bank, where who I have worked for both in Johannesburg and now in London. Investec Bank was founded in South Africa in 1974 and offers services in Private Banking, Wealth Management, Corporate and Investment Banking.
My aim is to use my finance experience within a social entrepreneurship context. I am passionate about addressing unemployment and contributing to the future growth of the economy with a focus on education and the health technology sectors. The Sloan Fellowship provides the start to my entrepreneurship journey and the foundation for refining my business ideas and transforming it into a tangible plan. I am excited to explore other areas of interest outside my traditional finance background in an environment with motivated and high performing individuals who want to continue the work of personal development and contribute meaningfully to a broader society. With Sloan being a full time programme, it met my criteria of being able to fully immerse myself in the process.
2. When applying to the programme, what plans did you have in mind in terms of funding?
Attending London Business School has been a long-term aspiration of mine, so I have been preparing for this opportunity for some time. My plan for funding was to first approach my company for sponsorship, if that was unsuccessful then I was planning to explore scholarships and, as a last resort, I had made provisions to self-fund if required. However, I was conscious that if I did need to self-fund, this would have a significant impact on my family’s finances, and I would need to wait a few more years to gather the required level of savings.
3. How did you approach your company to support with the finances?
I have always been ambitious when it comes to my career and so, since joining the London office of Investec, I have been working closely with my leader on my personal development. As part of that drive to grow and learn, I have also spent time developing relationships with colleagues and leaders across the bank from a mentorship and sponsorship perspective.
I was mindful of the fact that, as a baseline, I needed to be a consistent top performer in my organisation before broaching this type of funding conversation and luckily, the focus I had placed on my development enabled me to build a good foundation in this respect.
Before speaking with my leader, I prepared an informal business case to help steer me through the conversation. I focused on (i) benefits to me, (ii) what the programme would enable me to bring to the Firm, and (iii) how the programme and LBS align with our culture and values and the importance of the role of a leader to embody those values and not just speak to them.
I was also able to draw upon those previous conversations around personal development to explain why this opportunity was so important to me. It may sound like an oversimplification, but I cannot stress the importance of being a master of your craft and building a network of mentors and sponsors as I truly feel that played a key role in helping me to unlock this opportunity.
I leveraged my network, spoke to friends and peers who have been through similar process in the organisation in preparation for my discussions. Tested my plan and business case with my mentors and sponsors before formally approaching my line manager, my sponsors in particularly were great in helping remove any blockers. I put a lot of thought about how I could tie the benefits of the Sloan programme to my leader’s objectives/vision for the business unit.
4. Sloan is a full-time programme that requires students to leave work for one year. In this sense, it might involve a bit more effort to build a case (compared to a part-time programme); thus, have you used any specific strategies to achieve your goal?
From the outset, I made sure that my business case aligned with the strategy and people values of our Firm. Investec is deeply rooted in its culture and people, a quote often used by the leadership of the bank is that “we work in a highly commoditised industry, our differentiator is our people”. I used the same phraseology around differentiating myself when explaining the benefits I could bring to the organisation after returning from the Sloan Programme.
I anticipated the questions that my leader would ask about my proposal to leave the business for a year and proactively worked the answers into my business case. For example, I knew my leader would question how I planned to minimise disruption to the team and to business activity so I put together a compelling proposal for how the team could be rearranged to cover my absence. I should flag that proposal was made easier by the fact that I had worked hard to ensure that my team and business unit were performing well and set up for success, and already had a strong pipeline of talent within the team. I was also able to set out how my year of absence would provide excellent motivation and development opportunities to our top talent.
Finally, I emphasised the fact that completing Sloan in a year would enable me to focus on getting as much out of the programme as possible and ensure that I was able to bring that knowledge back into the business quickly, allowing the Firm to realise the benefits of their investment in my education much sooner.
I understand that timeframes and objectives of the individual and organisation may not always align and in those instances, you may wish to explore i) deferring the start date of your programme or ii) scholarships or iii) self-fund. I therefore would strongly encourage future prospect students to start the application process early, to allow adequate time to explore the various options.
5. What piece of advice do you have for any upcoming students who would like to explore this route, but are still hesitant to start the discussions with their employer for financial sponsorship?
Performance and personal development and the ability to engage with your leader(s) and organisation should be the minimum requirement for any professional. Work to ensure that the mechanisms are in place for you to have the dialogue.
Be a master of your craft, this will help create a platform from which other opportunities may arise and the ability for you to build the network of mentors and sponsors.
Leverage and engage with your network, your sponsors for example could assist with any challengers or blockers within the organisation.
Apply early, give yourself sufficient time to explore all the various funding options.
Even if the conversation does not result in you achieving the level of financial sponsorship you were hoping for, having the conversations about your personal development, being open about your ambitions and putting yourself on the radar of senior leaders in the business is always worth it.
For more information on the LBS Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy, please visit our website.