My MBA dissertation was entitled “An analysis of director interlocks on the JSE -with reference to the top 40 listed companies” and took me quite some years to complete. There were complexities of having to collect all my own data due to inaccuracies in the CIPC database, having to relearn that matrix mathematics that I thought I would never use again after first year university 20 years ago, then figure out how all these analytical tools work.

During the completion process a few people commented that the only people who would ever read the document would be my supervisor and the two examiners (and even then I would be operating on faith). After all the work I had put in this was quite disheartening. When Leo Deodutt (my supervisor) suggested that we create a paper from the dissertation and submit it for the Southern African Accounting Association Biennial Conference to be held in Cape Town in June I jumped at the chance. What an opportunity to get the message out. Leo did a lot of hard work to cut down the dissertation to a 20 page paper, and in the process we had to restrict the paper to just one of the research questions covered in the dissertation. When the comments came back from the blind peer reviewer there was a nomination for best paper award, which was most gratifying. What an honour just to be nominated.

The presentation itself was again a challenge: to try to fit into 20m what took years to research, and to try to simplify the complexities and distil the message to one that can easily be conveyed to a broad audience. In the end this was achieved and the final presentation is attached. Leo is looking for opportunities to further present the work, and it is likely that we will present again at UKZN in the coming months. Mail me if you have ideas of appropriate forums who may be interested.

The day after the presentation I was absolutely thrilled to discover that we did indeed win the best paper award. I am pretty sure I didn’t stop smiling for a week. Thanks to Leo for all his hard work in making this happen.

Enjoy the presentation and leave any questions in the comments or drop me a mail.

Justin

Download a copy of the presentation :  SAAA conference June 2013 – director interlocks on the JSE final

 

Tags: corporate goverannce, director interlocks, dissertation, jse, mba, old boys network, research, small world

Categories: Research

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