Hadley Taylor
Advisor, Corporate Relations, New Zealand Red Cross
Master of Business Administration with Distinction
When Hadley Taylor decided to come to AUT to study administration, he wasn’t entirely sure if university was for him. He soon discovered a passion for learning that would take him all the way to an MBA.
“I had been in the workforce for more than ten years and had never finished an undergraduate degree. I wasn't sure study was for me, or that I could do it, or that it was the right time, and the years kept going by. AUT recognised my work experience as comparable to academic learning and admitted me into a postgraduate certificate in business administration. I did well, and, to my surprise, I found myself enthused by learning in a way I hadn’t with my previous studies. That was enough to take me all the way from the postgraduate certificate to completing the MBA.
“A big part of why AUT worked for me is that I kept working full-time in a professional role the whole way through. I genuinely don't think I could have done the degree, in that way, anywhere else. The MBA was humbling in the best way, and it taught me to ask the questions I didn’t understand the answer to, without fear of looking like the biggest idiot in the room. And almost every time I did, it turned out someone else in the room had the same question and didn't feel comfortable enough to ask it. It's become one of my greatest strengths.”
He had a number of highlights throughout his time at AUT.
“Throughout the MBA we heard from real practitioners, often AUT MBA graduates themselves, working in the fields each course covered. The sustainability course is a good example: it could have been purely moral and ethical, but hearing from someone who worked in sustainability for a major international brewing company gave it a solid business grounding. I came away understanding that business and sustainability are inherently linked. I also appreciated that in the strategy course we worked with a real client, a leading global technology company, constructing a strategy for a real problem they actually had. Not a case study. A live client, a live problem.
“That high-performing teams course was another highlight. It's taught through the metaphor of rowing, and it's such a profoundly different learning experience. I could translate it straight into the National MBA Case Competition I participated in the following semester. Winning the National MBA Case Competition with my team, for the first time in AUT's history, was a standout moment. We worked incredibly hard together and travelled to Wellington, completing the special interest course that was essentially created for the four of us to reflect the additional work we'd put into representing AUT and the extra time we invested in developing case-competition skills. AUT held a celebration for us afterwards. Through all of it, I felt exceptionally well supported.”
Supported to thrive
Hadley says he appreciated how well AUT staff supported him throughout his studies, and there are a few staff members who had a particular impact on his university journey.
“Ken Lee, who was the director of the MBA and professional masters programmes, Kim Daly and her whole administrative team, Jenny Xu and everyone working behind the scenes, and teaching staff including Associate Professor Fiona Hurd, Associate Professor Rouxelle De Villiers, Professor Marjolein Lips-Wiersma and Dr Dave Harris – so many of them went above and beyond to encourage and support me. After my studies, Angela McCarthy in the Employability and Careers team took the messy sum of my work experience, studies, values and passions, and honed it into a clear direction, one that near-instantly led to me being employed, with a few surplus job offers to boot.
“But the person I’m most thankful for – the person who changed the course of my life – is Dr Bhavani Paulraj, the postgraduate recruitment consultant. Before I could reach the excellent academics, or the supportive business staff, or the services for students and graduates, there was one person who listened to my story, and then listened some more, and saw a possibility I hadn't seen myself. I hadn't even considered an MBA until she talked me through the options, starting with that first postgraduate certificate. Everything that followed, followed from her. I feel deeply thankful to her, and for her.”
Making a difference
Now working for the New Zealand Red Cross, Hadley loves putting his MBA skills to use on a daily basis.
“I spend a great deal of my energy thinking about my work, how to do it well and how to do it better, so it matters to me that my time is well spent. My ethos is to leave every interaction, every person, every project better than I found it. My role lets me combine those values with the things that genuinely engage me: revenue targets, complex strategy, real problems with many moving parts. It's fun, it's engaging, it makes a difference, and it lets me put the skills I built through the MBA to work and practise them, every single day.”
He has some great advice for other students who are thinking about their own university journey.
“My advice is to just start. I talked myself out of studying for years – it wasn't for me, I couldn't do it, it wasn't the right time, and the time ticked away. Had I simply committed and ripped the band-aid off, I'd have finished by the point I was still wishing I'd begun. Give it a go, and ask for help if you need it. There is so much support available, and there are so many people whose job and joy it is to provide it. Reach out, and be part of the community, because AUT works genuinely hard to build one for you.”
