As a Senior Consultant at EY, Godwin Shorland has harnessed the practical skills and resourcefulness he learned in the Master of Entrepreneurship program to drive innovation for his international clients.

Godwin Shorland is all about removing manual work and automating data to make businesses more efficient, but he cautions that artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t necessarily a silver bullet. 

‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,’ he argues. ‘Don’t just get on the bandwagon because everyone else is doing it – understand how the business could have added value by bringing in AI. Maybe that doesn’t mean you create an AI chat experience for your customers to use when they log in.’

Working as a Senior Consultant in the Global Employee Data Solutions team for EY, Godwin looks at companies through a critical, cost-conscious lens – one he cultivated while studying University of Melbourne’s Master of Entrepreneurship, co-delivered with Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship. 

‘I learned about running a business that has to think about the finances every day, that has a limited amount of cash in the bank,’ explains Godwin. ‘So you’re not just managing a budget of $100 million every year. You’ve got seed funding of $100k, and every dollar counts because you’ve got to turn a profit. None of that was covered in my undergrad degree.’

When Godwin joined the Master of Entrepreneurship program straight after graduating with a Bachelor of Business Management, he originally wanted to co-found a tech start-up. The program appealed with its strong practical focus, and the Wade Institute connection was a big differentiator from other masters degrees. ‘You’re thrown in the deep end,’ says Godwin. ‘You actually have to go out and start a business.’ 

Godwin remembers soaking up the wisdom of Professor Colin McLeod, and embracing Lean Methodology as a guiding principle – ‘having limited resources and actually making those count’. His biggest takeaway, though, was how crucial people are to business success: ‘Choosing the right people, knowing them well,’ he says. ‘It’s easy to assume it’s all structure and process, but it’s really relationships.’

When Godwin graduated in 2018, he was just 23 and the car-insurance business he’d co-created in his final year didn’t continue. ‘I was still finding my way at the time,’ he says. ‘I needed to go out into the world and actually get more experience understanding a broader range of client problems.’ 

For Godwin, the program made him see entrepreneurship in a whole new way – beyond start-ups. ‘The reality is, it’s teaching you how to create things, and you could use that at different stages in the cycle of the business,’ he says. ‘There are skills, like problem-solving, that I can bring to consulting – they’re not only of value if you become a founder. That’s not the only avenue. You can go out into industry and find ways to be innovative.’

According to Harvard Business Review, the average age of a successful entrepreneur is 45, so Godwin figures he has plenty of time to experience the world and start a business later if he wants to.

‘That door’s not closed,’ he says, ‘but what I’ve learned is, you don’t have to do that when you’re in your 20s. My view is, I’m creating value and finding efficiencies for the clients I serve, while also understanding their problems. One day maybe there’ll be an opportunity to solve one of those problems in a different capacity.’

As for AI, Godwin uses it most days – to help him understand data modelling, for example, or to suggest solutions. ‘It’s not like I’m asking it to write a project report for me or just do my work – I don’t want AI to replace the work that I do,’ he says, pointing to AI’s inaccuracies.

‘I use it to support my own learning, so I can then build better tools for our clients. AI is still new, and with anything new, it’s good to embrace it, but it’s also good to have a little caution. Do the due diligence. Look deeper.’

This article first appeared on the University of Melbourne.