Louis Epoh delivers MBL's best research report

Five hours of study every day, including weekends, goes some way towards explaining how Louis Roland Epoh managed to earn an astonishing 85% for his MBL research report.

“I am a very hard worker and I like challenges, and when I want to know something, I become very inquisitive. I also set goals for myself,” says Louis, giving the example of the language and career goals he has set for himself.

A quality control expert in Cameroon, he was recruited to South Africa eight years ago as a French-speaker with very little English. A few months later, he was speaking English fluently.

Next, in 2012, he set his sights on becoming a Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspector Level 3 (who tests the integrity of construction and engineering materials, components and systems using various methods without damaging them). “At the time, there were about 30 American Society for Nondestructive Testing NDT inspectors in South Africa when I decided to do the course,” says Louis, who passed with flying colours.

He then set himself another goal: “To study at a university to facilitate my integration.” After going for academic literacy testing at the Wits Language School, which gave him the green light, Louis enrolled for his MBL at the UNISA SBL in 2015.

His research project was about investigating the impact of green supply chain practices on environmental and supply chain performance, focusing on small and medium enterprises in South African. “I read everything I could find. When I am passionate about something, I want to know as much as I can,” says Louis, who went through “hundreds” of books and peer-reviewed articles.

To fit in the vast amounts of reading he needed to do, he read deep into the night and early hours of the morning, catching a few hours of sleep before rising at 05:00 to go to work.

After all this reading, writing his report came easily. “I had a lot of ideas and asked myself a lot of questions, which I investigated until I had the answers.”

Louis, who also started his own NDT consultancy in June 2016, while his studies were in full swing, says his excellent results came as a surprise. “I thought I would do a great job but I was expecting about 75%, not 85%!”

Now he is working towards his next goals: doing a Doctor of Business Leadership (DBL) and then making another career move by pursuing his passion for geen supply chain management.