Meet The DaVinci Business School’s Master’s Alumnus, David Sebiloane who is engaging us about his path to remarkability.
David Sebiloane exudes a sense of confidence, and the self-awareness about the direction towards which he is moving is palpable. He is a certified Project Management Practitioner. With his excellent business acumen, David likens himself to a delivery agent by experience. He has worked in the academic, energy, petrochemical and logistics sectors – industries in which he successfully led teams in the execution of strategic projects and programmes.
With a scholarly bent of mind, David is a Master’s degree graduate of The Da Vinci Institute (class of 2022). His dissertation, entitled: Managing cross-border project teams: The case of Transnet SOC Ltd and Eswatini Railways, explores ways that cultural differences and communication influence project management of a cross-border project. The study attempted to make significant contributions to both academia and practice. In the main, this study found that cultural differences certainly have an impact on communication, which in turn may influence various project management functions such as negotiations, allocation of tasks, team building, conflict resolutions and other processes. Moreover, David’s study recommends that management should adopt a proactive and culturally sensitive approach to the management of a cross-border project in order to ensure its success.
Through focus and the knowledge of the end goal, David holds that his was a journey of tenacity, hard work and passion. “The journey to completing this qualification was exciting and challenging. The modules were designed in a way that challenged my view of the status quo and what I knew to be the norm. The interactions forced one to think out of the box and to be innovative. On the other hand, the research journey was challenging as the supervisor fostered a pioneering approach in dealing with the identified research problem”, says David.
Concurrently, David’s way of thinking was, as he asserts, “altered greatly as the modules introduced a systems’ thinking in my persona which was impactful to my personal life as well. Furthermore, my outlook and execution approach in the programme I am currently running was also positively impacted.” David’s advice to a student embarking on this journey is that they should keep an open mind, work hard and persevere even when the going gets tough.
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