After finishing my undergraduate degree in Banking, Finance and Management at Loughborough, I recognised that most new business models, particularly in the finance sector, are based around technology, so decided to do an MSc in Information Management and Business Technology. During my first degree I became really interested in the ‘Solow Paradox’, a theory which questions whether technological advancement has resulted in increases in GDP. The MSc gave me the opportunity to study this in greater depth.
My favourite project was my master’s thesis, because it is a topic I am passionate about, and has become so important in today’s society. During my studies I realised that in business, sustainable competitive advantage is derived from intangible elements, such as people, culture, and relationships. As a result, my research looked at strategies for organisational mental health and the impact they could have on competitive advantage.
I wanted to bridge the gap between the business objective of making money and the public health objective of peoples’ wellbeing. I carried this out from a positive psychology perspective because I found that traditional initiatives focused on the absence of disease, rather than health and making people as happy as they could be. I aimed to prove that there is a tangible benefit to making people happier in order to motivate organisations to invest further in strategies to manage organisational mental health.