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Michael Taylor

Executive says his course gave him a better insight into research and theories

GORDON YEN IS an executive director at Fountain Set (Holdings), the world's largest manufacturer and seller of circular knitted fabrics for the global apparel market. Mr Yen, who joined Fountain Set in 1999, is responsible for corporate and operations planning as well as business development for the group.

He earned a bachelor's degree in manufacturing engineering from Boston University and a master's in business administration from McGill University in Montreal.

'I decided to do a DBA because I had been away from school for more than 10 years,' Mr Yen said. 'I was at a point in time when I wanted to acquire a different perspective in understanding the behaviour and dynamics of the business world.'

One of the key things that set a DBA apart from an MBA is learning to do original research.

'An MBA equips managers with practical skills and theories to help them deal with actual business problems,' Mr Yen said.

'A DBA is designed to show them certain methodologies that will allow them to creatively form these theories.'

Even if they spend years in the classroom, it would be impossible for students to learn all the theories that exist or have been published.

'The DBA is designed to expose us to different sets of methodologies,' Mr Yen said.

'This can help us to identify and understand the various research and theories that have been done. It can also provide us with the methodology to conduct research in areas that we are interested in.'

Writing a thesis constitutes about half the programme, but Mr Yen said the process was more important than the findings.

'We learned how to qualitatively and quantitatively gather information and data  and finally analyse the information to come up with hard conclusions.'



Acquiring a new understanding of the world of business