IMPACT magazine - Issue 12

The leadership issue

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Welcome IMPACT / Issue 12

Welcome to issue 12 of IMPACT magazine, the School's thought leadership publication.

This issue is themed around leadership and the many aspects that comprise the subject area. The School has a number of research centres and hugely talented academic staff that devote their time to researching leadership in business and wider society.

Perhaps it’s appropriate at this point to say how delighted I am to have taken up the position of Executive Dean at Durham University Business School. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Professor Fernandes for his support in handing over the reins on my arrival and to all the faculty and professional service staff that have made my first ten months a pleasure.

The IMPACT team suggested by way of introduction to myself that they include an interview I recently did for AMBA's Horizons Magazine. You'll find this in the opening section alongside some wonderful articles by Professor Jackie Ford, Professor Julie Hodges, Professor Xinming He and PhD candidate Jeni Smith. Professor Ford outlines an ethical model of relationships and reciprocal leadership in her article ‘The uncomfortable truth of good leadership’. Professor Hodges examines how leaders can best adapt their organisations in an ever-changing climate with ‘The leadership of organisational changes in a post-pandemic world’. Professor He considers the impact familial ties can have on decision making in 'Firms with CEOs under clan culture influence are more likely to be internationally focused'. And small business owner and part-time PhD candidate Jeni Smith shares the five

characteristics of a good leader in networking in ‘Network like a leader’.

This issue also covers the wider research output of the School which aims to benefit business and society. Professors Martyna Śliwa and Barbara Bechter in their articles look at two different issues relating to the workplace, equality and wellbeing. Professor Nejat Anbarci touches on how climate change can impact national leadership, while Professors Dimitris Petmezas and Martin Robson look at the economic impacts of terrorism and landslides in their respective pieces. The society section is ended with individual articles from Professors Kevin Dowd and Laurence Ferry considering different issues relating to the importance of governance and audit.

Our research is just one of many ways that the School works with its stakeholders and the engagement section of IMPACT provides some fantastic examples of how we link our students with organisations through projects such as MBA alumnus Ronan Murray’s Strategic Consulting Project, study trips to employers in Athens and Stockholm and undergraduate placement with companies such as Mazars, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal, and Samsung. We also look at how we are delivering executive education to Cummins, Hargreaves, LNER, Nissan and Sage Group and consider the difference between PhDs and part-time executive doctorate programmes (DBAs).

We close this issue with a look at the latest news and events since

the last publication. This is just a small selection of successes such as the School’s five-year EQUIS reaccreditation and Financial Times MBA rankings, together with high profile conferences and appointments such as the China Economic Associate (Europe/UK) conference hosted by the School and Lucian Hudson’s announcement as our latest Professor in Practice. There are also updates on alumni reunions and events. For more regular updates on the latest news and events I would recommend you bookmark and regularly visit the School website.

I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this issue of IMPACT magazine. The support from all of those featured, from staff and students to alumni and business connections, has been exceptional. There are many exciting developments underway at the moment and I look forward to welcoming you to the next issue of IMPACT

Professor Cathy Cassell Executive Dean

The leadership issue

Issue 12 / 2023

Credits

The IMPACT Team

Katrina Savage

Senior Marketing Manager Business Partnering

Martin Thomas Marketing Manager

Lindsay Webber Marketing Relations Manager

Sophie Patterson Communications Officer

Charlotte Wareing Marketing Officer

Paula Lane Marketing Officer

Stephen Close Marketing Officer

Jade Gourley Marketing Officer

Deanne Dutton Conversion Relations Officer

Thank you

Thank you to all those who have worked on this issue including faculty, other School staff, students, alumni and business connections.

Contributors

Professor Nejat Anbarci

Noah Arthur-Tinworth

Professor Barbara Bechter

Jacope Bertone

Sue Boyd

Professor Cathy Cassell

Dave Coldwell

Professor Kevin Dowd

Professor Laurence Ferry

Professor Jackie Ford

Professor Xinming He

Professor Julie Hodges

Vic Horan

Matteo Lai

Vivien Lin

Rosie Macdonald

Alisia McKay

Natalie McNeil

Alex McNinch

Ronan Murray

Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos

Stephanie Osborne

Professor Dimitris Petmezas

Professor Habib Rahman

Dr Martin Robson

Sophie Roe

Professor Martyna Śliwa

Jeni Smith

Tiffany Tjia

Jemima Vanhegan

Professor Karena Yan

BlueSky PR

16

The leadership of organisational transformations in a post-pandemic world

Professor Julie Hodges on how managers can ensure a smoother transition.

23

The impact of digital communication on employee wellbeing

Professor Barbara Bechter shares her findings as part of a collaboration with SSF UK.

28

The economic consequences of fatal landslides

Dr Martin Robson on his research as climate change sets the stage for more extreme weather.

clan culture influence are more likely to be internationally focused Professor Xinming He explains how business leaders are influenced by family connections.

18

Network like a leader PhD candidate, Jeni Smith shares her five characteristics to be a great networker.

33

World-leading research impact leads to Rio Declaration on public audit

Professor Laurence Ferry’s influence on international congress in Brazil.

Front cover

Photographs sourced from Wikimedia Commons and are either in the public domain or published under a Creative Commons copyright license.

Leadership

06 The uncomfortable truth of good leadership

Why we need leaders to rethink interpersonal relationships

10 Interview with Cathy Cassell

Our Executive Dean on her career and plans for the School

14 Firms with CEOs under clan culture influence are more likely to be internationally focused

The impact of ‘clan culture’ on crucial company decisions

16 The leadership of organisational transformations in a postpandemic world

How employee engagement leads to effective change

18 Network like a leader

PhD candidate Jeni Smith on key traits for powerful networking

30 The near collapse of the UK pension sector exposes a string of failures by UK financial regulators

Professor Kevin Dowd’s scathing take on the UK’s regulators

33 World-class research impact leads to Rio Declaration on public audit

How Professor Laurence Ferry has made international impact

34 The Peter Problem

The gender divide is still going strong…

Engagement

36 PhD v DBA – Which is the right doctorate for me? What’s the difference, and who should apply

38 Durham’s Women in Business Scholar – Tiffany Tjia An MBA scholarship winner shares her background and ambitions

39 MBA Strategic Consulting Project MBA alumnus Ronan Murray about his project and current role

50 Encouraging Future Leaders through professional Placement Years

Helping students gain ‘real world’ experience

52 Leadership programmes delivering Executive Education

Our Senior Leader Apprenticeship and Nissan Tailored programmes

News and events

54 Lucian Hudson, Professor in Practice

A new post for our Director of Advancement, Marketing & Communications

56 Mentor of the Year 2022

Congratulations to Dr Paul Aldrich as our MBA mentor winner

57 DBA Conference – Putting business theory into practice Research showcases and networking at our inaugural conference

58 The 33rd Chinese Economic Association (UK/Europe)

Annual Conference

Hosting more than 140 experts, scholars and PhD students

59 Durham-Gothenburg workshop on environmental sustainability

Our green journey with the University of Gothenburg

60 Ferry at the Lords!

Professor Laurence Ferry's keynote speech at the House of Lords

61 Recognition round-up World-class rankings and a prestigious fiveyear re-accreditation

65 Alumni activity

Just some of our international graduate community events

Contribute

Want to find out more or contribute to the next issue? Email us at Business.marketinghub@durham.ac.uk

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The uncomfortable truth of good leadership

There are three parts to my article. First, I explore the roots of my discomfort with much leadership thinking and practice. This leads me to explore more recent trends that challenge ‘one-size-fits-all’ theories of leadership. Finally, I outline an ethical model of relational and reciprocal leadership, where each party acknowledges that they’re flawed human beings who each has a duty of care for the other.

The roots of my discomfort

The research I’ve conducted with wonderful colleagues over the last 30 years highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships, and the powerful effect that interactions between leaders and led can have on our lives. Current stories of organisations and government and politics are besieged with the harm done to the majority by the minority who hold powerful positions. Interest in the topic of leadership continues to grow, spurred on not only by academic research but also by media attention, which often takes the form of either praising good practices or condemning the malpractice of high-profile leaders – whether from business, arts, politics or other contexts. Recent exposés of senior political figures across the globe remind us of how central many of them have become in representations of both good and bad leaders. We can also turn to the current landscape of effective activism through the MeToo movement, Everyday Sexism Project, the Black Lives Matter movement plus the numerous, almost daily reports in social and wider media that show the continuing effects of harassment, inequalities and injustices in the workplace and beyond in our wider societies.

For the concept of leadership to have a more inclusive meaning, we need to critique this cult of leadership that’s so engrained in organisational and political life. We need to turn away from the assumption that we’re focusing on the elites – on people at the top. There’s still a tendency to focus on hierarchical and traditional forms, with too much attention paid to senior leaders as a masculine superhero. This attention reinforces the notion of leaders as powerful and elitist, who manipulate their environments in their own egotistical interests or for personal gain. These practices reinforce masculine leadership behaviours that take the form of the competitive, aggressive, and self-reliant individualist against which both women and men as leaders are judged. It’s these dominant norms and practices that need to be questioned so that we can explore how to be more inclusive of women’s and minoritised individual’s experiences, as well as of others including men who don’t identify with the popular imagery of leadership or masculinity.

Current stories of organisations and government and politics are besieged with the harm done to the majority by the minority who hold powerful positions.

Professor Jackie Ford, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies, shares why we should drop traditional leadership relations for more compassionate ones.

Recent trends in leadership

Recently, we’ve started to observe a shift in focus – away from the almost exclusive body of research on (mainly white, male and middle class) leaders and their styles, behaviours, qualities and contributions, and towards explorations of leadership focused on the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers and recognise leadership as more of a collaborative practice. We’re also pursuing research that looks to critique the power relations and challenge the inequalities, silences and assumptions about organisational life. These provide opportunities to explore new interests and voices that shed fresh light on the research field.

Relating this to the current context, role models that’ve emerged during the coronavirus pandemic have also alerted us to the success of different forms of leading and leadership that tend to be more collaborative, relational, empathetic and reportedly more feminine in approach. For example, colleagues have written about Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and other female role models who haven’t been constrained by the masculine norms that have until now dominated leadership practice. It’s their empathy, shared purpose and compassion that’ve been celebrated – the very qualities that the recent pandemic (and many other crises in leadership) demands.

These explorations align well with the research that we explore within critical, feminist and psychosocially informed writings which I take forward in my work in advocating more radical relational leadership thinking and practice. My own studies in leadership suggest that leadership research needs to be based more extensively on qualitative, local, and in-depth critical studies of leaders, followers and leadership practices and processes. Leadership learning needs to be designed in more inclusive and relational ways so that all parties to the leadership relationship are actively engaged. This learning needs to challenge the taken-for-granted, dominant assumptions that pervade leadership and introduce other ways of seeing, interpreting, and understanding that take more account of ethical, moral, diverse and inclusive ways to research, conceptualise and practice leadership.

Towards more radical, relational leadership approaches

So, my recent research considers the contribution that thinkers like Jessica Benjamin can offer to studies and practices of leadership. Benjamin argues that as ‘fundamentally social beings’, humans crave social stimulation, warmth, and emotional interchanges. This can be translated through to organisational life. We’re active, social beings who need interaction and recognition from others so that we can make sense of who we are and how we relate to each other. In my research, I explore the interdependencies between leader and led; the power and powerlessness within these relations and the damage that happens when leading and following are practiced without due recognition of the other. It’s through our practices of mutual recognition – of our need to be recognised as well as recognise the other that allows us to develop more radical relational forms of leadership.

Relational and reciprocal care in leadership

Benjamin advocates the concept of the ‘third’, which is about creating an open space between you and someone else so that you don’t feel that you’re being completely determined by them. Benjamin describes ways in which we move from a position of oneness (the great individualist that’s so nurtured by our Western neo-liberal culture) through to the position of twoness. Twoness is about doing to others what we wouldn’t want them to do to us. It's about not recognising each other as fully and fundamentally equivalent in the ethical sense, which means we carry on misjudging, manipulating, neglecting and excluding. We’re still stuck in the extreme and partial, populist identities of us against them; us above them; do-er and done to; perpetrator and victim; violator and violated; master and slave; leader and follower. These positions of domination and submission represent a breakdown in equal and mutual human relationships and it’s through the notion of the thirdness that we can move beyond this destructive dyad. The concept of the third allows for an open space that moves away from one living at the expense of the other and into a position of shared, responsible living together – through acknowledgement and recognition. This cocreated space recognises conflict and dissent and seeks to generate mutual contribution, understanding and generativity. This way, it also demands acknowledging wrongdoing and creating space for reparations. So, if we can all be more courageous and consider how our actions make the other party react, then we can re-engage our empathy for one another.

Leadership learning needs to be designed in more inclusive and relational ways

This is the direction in which I suggest that future ethically responsible, reciprocal, and caring approaches to leadership need to turn. Leadership is best viewed as the collective work of many people in organisations. So, we need to steer away from the dominance of the heroic leader figure and to rethink leadership in ways that enable more collaborative, relational forms.

Equally important, followers in the leaderfollower dyad must be aware that if they suffocate their personal longings for recognition, they’ll extinguish all hopes for social and moral transformation in the workplace as well. Renouncing the victim position is a necessary step in the process of mutual recognition and reciprocal appreciation. It’s also the responsibility of others in organisations (nonleaders, followers, whatever) to claim their voice and value the contribution they make to the leadership relationship. Too often, we hear of followers feeling unable to speak or be recognised, thereby denying their sense of self and what they can contribute. When working in a follower role, actively speaking up and speaking out is also crucial.

So, we really do need understandings of leadership that are more inclusive, ethical, reciprocal and contextually meaningful. We need to develop a language that can challenge prevailing assumptions and structures of privilege. As Jacinda Ardern stated during her announcement of her resignation, we need to foster kindness.

Many catastrophes can be laid at the door of leadership, including global warming, the polarisation of poverty and wealth, unresolved conflicts and wars, racism, sexism, harassment and fear and mistrust of the other. We’ve been stuck in the rut of traditional ways of theorising, researching and practicing leadership and we need to break away from such mediocrity and challenge some of the bigger social, economic and political questions of our time.

To conclude, I’m not suggesting that any of this will be easy, but I think many of us have positive examples where we’ve experienced something more akin to an ethics of reciprocal care in our leadership relations where mutual empathy, shared purpose and compassion is allowed to surface.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Ford and her research interests.

Interview with Cathy Cassell

In this Q&A, Executive Dean Cathy Cassell shares the highlights of her career to date, her plans for Durham University Business School and what makes Durham different.

For this issue, focused on responsible leadership, we thought there was no one better to interview than our Executive Dean, Cathy Cassell. Cathy was appointed in September 2022 after her previous role of Dean of Birmingham Business School. Below she highlights some of the key focuses for the coming years, as well as why hybrid working, diversity and sustainability are at the top of her agenda for the Business School.

QCan you tell us some highlights of your career to date?

In my career up to date I’ve had plenty of highlights, both from a research perspective in my role as a Professor of Organisational Psychology, as well as from a business school management aspect, working as Dean at the University of Birmingham Business School for five years, and now moving to be Dean at Durham University Business School.

From the academic perspective, the opportunity to change the way in which we think about how we do research in my field, plus the impact of my research on diversity and inclusion has been a personal highlight, and the further impact my research has also had on wider industries too.

Whilst from the business school management perspective, the opportunity to see others flourish and personnel develop over time, and the role I have had in helping with that is a highlight. At Birmingham we also managed to successfully change the business school's strategy to focus more on responsible education and business and sustainability too, and leading the change was a highlight. One major indicator of this success was the jump up 18 places in the REF research positions in my time, which I am particularly proud of.

And now, my most recent highlight is moving into my role now as Executive Dean of Durham University Business School, where my next chapter begins. I get to meet new people, focus on a new business school and the challenges that come with that.

QWhat are your plans for the next 12-18 months – especially in terms of the School’s global ambitions?

I am only very early into my time as Executive Dean of Durham University Business School, so while I have thoughts and insights on how we want to move the School forward, these are certainly not set in stone as of yet. For now, I’m enjoying getting to know the members of faculty, professional services, and students, and really understanding what challenges we face in the future and how we will steer towards taking these on.

My task now is to really get to know Durham and how it works, the culture of the School, etc., and focus on the future development of the School on the global stage. We certainly want to be as international as possible, as well as ensuring the faculty are continuing their great work in producing industryleading research in their key fields, and we’ll be continuing many of the successes the Business School has achieved previously.

But, as an academic, I think you never stop wanting to be a ‘thought leader’. Academics thrive on research and exploration, it’s in their blood! They’re always thinking, and they’re always interested. Currently, I’m really interested in researching the inclusive workplace.

Thankfully, my background in Organisational Psychology is a great tool for me to understand the importance of instilling the right leadership culture, which will be a key part of the future development of the School which, as Executive Dean, is my top priority.

My background in Organisational Psychology is a great tool for me to understand the importance of instilling the right leadership culture.

QWhat do you think differentiates Durham?

I think what really characterises our programmes is that we really focus on trying to create those globally minded business leaders of the future, and that we do it in a number of ways. Whether through our diverse cohorts, the themes of our classroom-based learning and international modules, our in-class projects or our interactions with industry, everything is designed to develop those core leadership skills and knowledge base. We set our programmes up in such a way that students are able to learn from everybody – not just those charged with educating them but the industries they come into contact with, the alumni who support them and the classmates sitting alongside them.

We keep a close focus on tying what students learn to how it can be applied in industry. From providing students with an option to tailor their learning journey through our specialist subject pathways, to giving them real-life company challenges to provide solutions for and experience delivering those solutions in a boardroom styled exercise, we ensure students fully realise the importance and practicalities of their education so they can go on to be those change makers we wish to see.

QHow do you see the School’s online and innovation capabilities developing over the next few years?

We are constantly scanning the global landscape to see where the future of business education is heading and how new technologies can be leveraged to best effect.

We are fortunate in that one of our flagship professional programmes, the MBA, was offered online long before the pandemic. Our online MBA has been wellrecognised for its quality and effectiveness. This meant our technology, approaches to teaching, and willingness to experiment were significantly ahead of our competition.

Better tailored learning for in-person and online delivery, taking the best bits from both to enhance the study experience overall, is important. Our own hybrid executiveeducation model reflects exactly this. We, therefore, expect this trend to continue, and we must continue to be investing in new technologies in the education sphere.

Whilst from a hybrid-working standpoint, I do not think we will ever go back to what was previously perceived as ‘normal’. A hybrid workplace is much better for people’s work-life balance, much better for people's mental wellbeing and is much better for organisations now too. The convenience and flexibility it affords are too great to go back.

When you look at it from a business education standpoint too, hybrid working allows us to really ensure we have the best of the best at our Business School. Allowing, not only our faculty but professional services staff too, to have a flexible, convenient hybrid workplace really does allow us to attract highly talented staff, to push the School further.

We keep a close focus on tying what students learn to how it can be applied in industry.

QHow do we truly impact the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) agenda through business education?

We need to challenge more. We see great diversity among student bases and faculty too, but when you look at wider business, the levels of diversity at the top level are still shockingly low. We need to be more challenging when we see something that needs changing in the world. If there is one thing recent movements and protests have taught us, it is that it is not enough to just be passive when we see inequality, especially if it is not directly affecting us, we have to call it out and help to make a change. I think that’s where we need to do a lot of work within organisations to empower individuals to challenge behaviours that are unacceptable in the workplace. It takes everyone from all walks of life to improve the equity of all.

From a practical sense, we must ensure we continue to have our actions reflect our words –by having diverse cohorts and faculty, ensuring the case studies we use are diverse in all aspects, and we truly listen to each other to ensure that everyone associated with Durham University Business School feels included – we cannot change the wider world if that is not the case.

The idea of inclusion is certainly a crucial part of this debate around EDI. We can easily hire a female dean, or recruit lots of students from around the world or have initiatives focused on LGBTQ+ people, for instance. But if there is diversity without inclusivity, it does not work. We must ensure that people from all walks of life do not feel like the ‘other’ and that they feel included in their organisations. The feeling of belonging is crucial to an inclusive culture.

We must also bear in mind that diversity goes beyond gender and race. We’re becoming a lot more sensitive towards things like neurodiversity and the impact of that on the workplace, as well as mental health etc., but as a society we’ve still got so much more to learn when it comes to how we manage diversity.

The research I’ve done shows that what makes people feel like they’re in an inclusive environment is when the interventions leaders make are designed for everybody, as people feel they are being treated fairly. It’s more important that businesses create a culture of inclusion than it is to, for example, appoint women to senior jobs. It’s inclusion that needs to be the focus.

QHow important do you think sustainability is, and in what ways have business schools adapted this into their programmes?

I think it’s absolutely crucial. And, as business schools are responsible for training the next generation of business leaders, we must be at the forefront of solving the wicked problems the world is facing. It’s not enough to comment on those issues, we must be doing something actively to challenge them. This is something that our students now expect of us, and similarly, employers. One of the key challenges facing businesses is how we train people to deal with the challenges that being truly sustainable brings.

Again, it comes back to making a cultural change. If schools wish to make a real impact, they must embed a focus towards sustainability into their everyday thinking – not just what they teach but how they run their programmes and their campuses. Sustainability should be a starting point for every discussion.

Whilst sustainable and responsible leadership comes down to encouraging others; through succession planning, role modelling and development opportunities, so that you’re creating a standard of better leadership for the future. It starts with us – making sure our behaviours, priorities and actions match what we’d want to see in those who will come after us.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Cassell and her research interests.

Interim Executive Dean Professor Kieran Fernandes with Cathy at the School.

Firms with CEOs under clan culture influence are more likely to be internationally focused

Xinming He, Professor of Marketing and an expert in international strategy, explains how leadership can be influenced by strong family connections.

My research in collaboration with colleagues Professors Feifei Liu and Tao Wang of Wuhan University sought to understand the impact of clan culture –a collective culture among households originating from natural blood based on the same common ancestor – on crucial firm decisions, such as internationalisation.

Analysing characteristics

Our research team analysed a sample of 285 publicly listed Chinese firms from 2012 to 2018. The data included the CEO’s characteristics, such as family they came from and their location. We also reviewed the business decisions made by these firms as to whether they worked internationally or not, comparing their overall income to the percentage that came through international activities.

The research found there are three reasons as to why clan CEOs are much more likely to have an internationally-focused strategy:

1. They have a long-term focus. Whilst international strategies can be risky in the short-term, they are likely to have longerterm benefits, which clan CEOs can wait for.

2. CEOs with a long-term outlook also value resilience. If a firm simply has a local outlook, then shocks and downturns in their country are likely to have a greater impact on that firm. However, if a firm operates more internationally, then they are much more likely to be able to mitigate risks and build resilience to these country-specific shocks.

3. Clan CEOs are more likely to secure support from stakeholders, including shareholders, suppliers, and distributors, due to their familiarity and the increased trust given to them, which can help them secure support for internationalisation.

Clan CEOs are more likely to secure support from stakeholders, including shareholders, suppliers, and distributors.

We also found that the domestic market, as well as the economic policy in their home country, can also impact on how internationally a firm chooses to operate. When the domestic market is intense, internationalisation becomes more appealing to CEOs, whereas when economic policy at home is uncertain, firms take a greater focus in their short-term, local efforts.

Internationalisation is a strategy that comes with long-term benefits but also short-term risks. There is certainly a trade-off between the two, and the decision to become more internationally focused or not often rests upon the values and preferences of the CEO. Those that have greater sense of serving their longlasting family and believe they can look further towards the future in their positions – like clan CEOs — will take more of an international approach to their strategic decisions.

Hiring candidates who match company culture

These findings have important implications for firms, boards, and policy makers, including highlighting the importance of selecting a CEO whose managerial style matches the corporate culture and strategic target, such as hiring a CEO from a clan culture background if the firm wants to be international.

I believe that selecting a CEO with clan culture background who values long-term orientation is a wise decision when the domestic market competition is stiff, and the economic policy is not uncertain.

Finally, our research has relevance for policy makers as the findings showcase the importance of internationalisation too, and policy makers should look to provide a predictable and reliable environment which may help CEOs with stronger clan culture background to make international efforts.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Xinming He and his research interests.

Selecting a CEO with clan culture background who values long-term orientation is a wise decision when the domestic market competition is stiff.

The leadership of organisational transformations in a post-pandemic world

How can leaders best adapt their organisations in an ever-changing climate?

Professor Julie Hodges, Professor in Organisational Change, gives her thoughts.

In a world of increasing volatility, complexity and chaos driven by forces such as economic and environmental instability, geo-political conflict, and technological advancements, organisations are under pressure to swiftly transform their businesses in order to not only keep pace, but to survive and to thrive. However, the nature of how those organisational changes are decided, disseminated and implemented is undergoing something of an evolution, and managers who remain inflexible to the changing nature of what constitutes the successful leadership of organisational change will quickly find themselves left behind.

The traditional approaches of process-driven, top-down change are being transformed to ensure that stakeholders internal and external to the organisation are fully engaged, so that new practices and procedures can be identified and sustained by and with people. This peoplefocused approach is crucial. While leadership envisions what an organisation aspires to become and seeks to drive change, the success of these efforts is largely contingent on the support and engagement of the organisation’s stakeholders. As such, it’s vital for leaders to get their people on board and gain their commitment to their organisational change from the outset.

This shift to a more people-centric approach also requires leaders to navigate a brave new world of business transformation, moving away from the classic but increasingly ineffective linear models of change. Doggedly sticking to a predetermined path for organisational change might well once have been successful in more stable environments, but such methods are ineffective at addressing the exponential increase in organisational complexity and chaos we’re now facing.

Instead, as uncertainty continues, the requirement for leaders to actively engage their employees in decisions on changes to the workplace and to their work is essential. Managers need to regularly interact with teams to engage them in decisions, not only on what needs to change, but how these changes can happen. This needs to occur at an individual and a team level. Managers must take the time to ask employees about their work – what’s going well and what needs to be done differently –exploring if there are things they could stop doing and considering what that will mean, as well as enabling employees to challenge what their managers do and why they do it. These are often not easy conversations to have.

Managers must take an active role in creating the time and space for meaningful conversations.

To conduct such discussions effectively, managers need to create spaces for dialogue where employees can feel confident in voicing their issues and concerns and sharing their ideas and hopes. There must be no fear of rebuttal or judgement and, most importantly, employees must feel they’re being listened to. As remote working continues to be a staple of modern industry, there’s a danger that workforces might lose the art of informal conversations and begin to rely more and more on formal video conferencing to get work done. To avoid this, managers must take an active role in creating the time and space for meaningful conversations. It’s these exchanges that will lead to, and foster, engagement, and motivation with change amongst employees, and help to create an environment for authentic discussions about the why, how, what and when of change. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach here. Small meetings – formal and informal – or drop-in sessions (even over Zoom) might be the best approach to providing space for people to share ideas, ask questions, be listened to, and to get answers.

Managers need to take time to listen and feed back to employees on the contributions they make; for example, “You said..., We did...”, or engaging them on helping to create the change they asked for so that they feel a sense of ownership and responsibility in ensuring its

success. In instances where it’s not possible to take action based on employees’ views and ideas, managers should take the time to explain the reasons why it’s not possible. It’s also key that employees are made aware of what won’t be changing, which is often missed from discussions and communications about change. Being clear on what will stay the same can help to reduce individual levels of anxiety and stress.

In this era of the acceleration of change individuals and teams are going through incredible transformations, not only in how they work, but also in their personal lives, which managers must be mindful of – especially with the move to hybrid and remote working which is eroding the boundaries between work and home lives. Such transformations have the potential, especially when imposed on people, to create an enormous amount of pressure and stress that can impact on employee motivation and their overall wellbeing.

With individuals facing so much change, managers shouldn’t assume that employees will view the need for change in the same way that they do, as the knowledge and experience of frontline staff may mean they hold very different perspectives and ideas about what needs to change and how. They must be given the opportunity to share these views in conversations, reach mutual understanding and receive any additional support they might need. Acting in this manner can help to ease the concerns felt by employees, ensure a smoother transition as planned organisational changes are implemented and even help to gain greater commitment from people.

As for managers who prefer to play by the old rules? Well, it’s likely they’ll find their options and successes ever more limited in the months and years ahead. These past few years have been, and continue to be, a challenging time for everyone, which requires every person within an organisation to adapt their thinking and their actions. Before asking people to make significant shifts in the way they work, managers must first consider how they can effectively engage people in change rather than imposing it on them.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Hodges and her research interests, including her books on organisational change.

Network like a leader

Jeni Smith, Founder & Networking Strategist at NetKno and part-time PhD candidate, shares the five key characteristics of a good leader in networking.

The world of networking involves a range of complex power dynamics and social etiquettes that can be difficult to navigate. People leveraging connections to get ahead, cultural and institutional hierarchies, not to mention the general social awkwardness and impostor syndrome all make networking environments widely feared.

Yet networking can provide a platform to catapult both yourself and your work into the spotlight and open doors that would otherwise be firmly shut. Utilising these opportunities as a leader, you’ll play a very different part to someone simply out for what they can get.

Here’s what I’ve witnessed as the key characteristics of a leader through networking:

Equality

It’s easy to get swept away with the excitement of networking events – fancy dinners, open bars, glamorous global venues – but once you allow your ego to come into play, your relationships suffer. As we climb our chosen ladders, success can go to our heads and that’s when power dynamics can come into play –we deem ourselves above people just starting out in their careers or on their academic journey and we treat them as such. A leader will network and engage with each and every person equally, giving them the same amount of time and respect as the next, regardless of job title, ranking, salary, or status. People are people, and leaders understand that the way we treat everyone we encounter, be that the cleaner at the café or the CEO of a multi-national, we’re always networking and leaving people with an impression of who we are and what we stand for.

Transparency

A huge part of effective networking is building relationships based on trust. Trust is also a powerful characteristic of a great leader as we need to be able to follow them, sometimes blindly. Being honest and telling the truth are traits I’d expect from anyone with good values but going that step further to full transparency is what real leaders do for their networks. It could be putting our hands up in the air and saying, “I’m really sorry, I messed up.” Or having the courage to be our authentic selves. Transparency can come from actions, or words, but they always need to align. Our online and in-person personae should match, we should look for ways to speak our truths, and we shouldn’t be afraid to show vulnerability because that’s what makes us relatable and that’s what makes us human.

We often focus on meeting new people when we network, but actually the real value comes from nurturing the relationships we’ve already got.

Diversity

One of the greatest assets that networking provides is access to knowledge, and a great leader is aware that they don’t know everything but are willing to learn. Utilising networking events as a way of expanding your knowledge can be hugely impactful to you, your work, and your career progression, but it’s important to look outside of our areas of expertise in order to build diverse networks.

If you only ever network with people who know what you know, you’ll never learn anything new. Approach networking strategically and tap into the knowledge and expertise of people working in different fields, sectors, cultures, and see what you can learn from them.

As a leader it’s important to try to see the world from different perspectives. Not only will this allow you to empathise with others, but it will also spark new innovative ideas, help you to problem solve, form collaborations, and apply your own knowledge into new areas.

Value added

The best networkers are always the ones who add value to others. The more value we add, the more valuable we become, and the more people want to get to know us. Adding value to the people in your network raises your social capital, whilst creating a network of people who are continuously looking for ways they can add value back to you in return.

Every time you introduce two people to each other or recommend someone for a project or a promotion at work, you’re adding value to the people in your network. Leaders serve their people, and networkers serve their networks.

We can often get wrapped up in the volume of connections we have in our networks – social media has a big part to play in this – but actually if we had a network of just 20 people whom we really knew, and nurtured relationships with whilst continuously adding value to, then that is an incredibly powerful network to be at the centre of.

Time

Just like anything, the greatest thing you can commit to your network is your network itself. We often focus on meeting new people when we network, but actually the real value comes from nurturing the relationships we've already got.

Leaders recognise the value of each person on an individual level, so spending time in their presence, looking for ways they can support and add value, and being a helping hand or listening ear when it’s needed is the greatest way to nurture your network as a leader.

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Making workplaces equitable and inclusive: one micro-practice at a time

Professor Martyna Śliwa, Professor of Business Ethics and Organisation Studies, shares her research on inequality in the workplace.

We all want workplaces to be inclusive and equitable, not least because inclusive organisations are the building blocks of an inclusive society. While there are obvious ethical reasons for treating everybody in an equitable and respectful way, be it at work or in other social spheres, researchers have been demonstrating that diversity makes business sense for a long time now. Having diverse teams allows organisations to better understand their customers, come up with more creative and innovative ideas, and – as a result – generate greater turnover and profit. But for us to leverage these advantages of diversity, it’s necessary to create a working

environment where everybody feels included, staff feel they’re valued, and all are given the opportunity to progress regardless of ethnicity, gender or any other diversity characteristics. Leaders and human resource management (HRM) practitioners are well familiar with the above reasoning, and in favour of inclusivity. In many countries, anti-discrimination legislation provides a general framework that underpins HR policies aimed at eliminating workplace discrimination and putting in place conditions which bring the values of equality/equity, diversity, inclusivity and respect (EDIR) to life. And yet, despite years of social struggle for an equal society and organisational efforts to accomplish equity and inclusivity, we’re still a long

way from societal and organisational inclusion. There are complex reasons and many possible explanations for the so far limited success of EDIR initiatives. One is that perhaps even when (almost) everybody tries to act in a fair, nondiscriminatory way, and no one consciously excludes others, there are still ‘tiny things’ that can happen on a daily basis. These ‘tiny things’ can lead to persistent, well-documented workplace disadvantages experienced by members of minoritised groups, while privileges are granted to members of dominant groups.

The British Academy of Management funded research which I conducted together with colleagues from the universities of Dundee (Dr Lisi Gordon), Lancaster (Professor Katy Mason) and Middlesex (Professor Nic Beech) to understand what those often unnoticed ‘tiny things’ might be. We called them ‘the micro-practices of disadvantage and privilege’ and set out to investigate how inequalities and exclusions are reproduced in organisations, with the view to find ways to change those ‘tiny things’ and create genuinely more inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Knowing that the issues we were researching are complex and sensitive, we opted for an in-depth qualitative study. We chose UK schools of business and management as our empirical setting, both because they’re highly diverse organisations that’ve found the achievement of inclusivity challenging, and because of their mission to educate future leaders and to further develop the knowledge and competences of current ones. We believe that to succeed in preparing leaders for promoting and contributing to equality/equity and inclusion, business schools must embed these values themselves.

Our sample of participants consisted of a diverse group – in terms of gender, ethnicity, nationality and type of institution – of business school leaders (e.g. Deans, Associate Deans, Heads of research institutes) and university leaders (i.e. Vice-Chancellors) who’d previously served as business school Deans. We first conducted in-depth individual interviews with them on their professional life histories and their prior experiences related to EDIR in the workplace. We then asked each participant to record a series of audio-diary entries describing their EDIR-related observations and experiences from the week preceding the recording. Finally, we conducted indepth ‘exit’ interviews, where the participants were encouraged to share reflections on the previous few months, including whether their thoughts and perceptions of EDIR matters had changed as a result of participating in the research.

Our findings demonstrated that there were differences in how the leaders’ careers had developed, and that these differences had a gendered and racialised dimension. The detailed descriptions of the leaders’ experiences uncovered three types of ‘tiny things’, or micropractices, that happen in workplaces on a daily basis and cumulatively result in persisting structures of inequality that privilege members of some groups and disadvantage others. In particular, these micro-practices related to three aspects of career development: 1) promotion, 2) receiving support (networking, mentoring, sponsoring), and 3) supporting others through challenging exclusion and discrimination. The specific situations described by different participants were unique to them. However, our findings reveal, on the one hand, a high level of diversity of experiences shared by women and members of ethnic minorities, and on the other, a set of similarities within the experiences discussed by white British men. For example, white British men typically spoke about encountering favourable and unproblematic practices when applying for promotion, exemplified by clarity of the promotion process, experience of being ‘tapped on the shoulder’ by senior colleagues to apply, and success in internal applications. Women and members of ethnic minorities, by contrast, tended to report obstacles: for example, changing goalposts and uncertain expectations, discouragement within the organisation from applying, and the need to move to a different workplace to secure promotion. In a similar vein, white British men tended to share experiences they had throughout their careers of being invited to join professional networks and benefitting from hands-on support by mentors who made them aware of attractive professional opportunities and helped them take advantage of them. By contrast, a sense of loneliness, experience of very hard work, and at best, ‘light touch’ support in the form of helpful advice, were commonly discussed

In workplaces around the world, millions of people are constantly involved in millions of micro-practices which privilege some and disadvantage others.

as part of women and ethnic minority leaders’ experiences – a stark difference compared to the ‘sponsoring’ and ‘pushing forward’ mentoring approach white British men reported. Another insightful finding is that women and members of ethnic minorities were more likely than white British men to take a proactive role within the micro-practices of supporting others through challenging racism, sexism and other forms of inequality and discrimination in their workplaces. Representatives of the latter group, on the other hand, spoke of how, in their experience, they often found such micro-practices difficult or even impossible for themselves to initiate or be active within.

There’s a lot of richness in our findings, even more so in these frequent workplace ‘tiny things’ that constitute the ‘molecules’ from which current organisational systems, with their structures of inequality, are built. In workplaces across the world, millions of people are constantly involved in millions of micro-practices which privilege some and disadvantage others. We can be certain that at any given time, there’ll be people trying to navigate the promotion process with little guidance and support, while others will be receiving plenty of help, resulting in a successful promotion. We can also be certain that there’ll be a gendered and racialised dimension to the kind of experiences one person has versus someone else.

Our study, which advances an understanding of sexism and racism in the workplace, has a range of organisational implications, not only for business schools but for all types of workplaces. One is the need for training, to develop knowledge, empathy, skills and confidence – in particular in members of the dominant group – so that they understand how and why to intervene and feel the need to do so. We advocate, in particular, intensive, experiential workshops in which participants share their stories, learn about possible ways of intervening within exclusionary and/or discriminatory micro-practices, and reflect on their own biases and privileges. Above all, we call leaders and organisations to commit to a cultural shift, where certain micro-practices of privilege and unfair advantage lose their legitimacy and acceptability. How will we realise that this much-needed shift is happening? Look out for the good signs. When you notice, for example, that members of the traditionally privileged group decline offers to be promoted outside formal processes; that managers and staff consider their workplace to be a safe space where gendered and racialised privilege and disadvantage are openly and routinely discussed; and that situation- and context-specific solutions to the micro-practices of disadvantage and exclusion are sought and implemented, you’ll know that inclusion is happening.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Śliwa and her research interests.

The impact of digital communication on employee wellbeing

Does digital communication in the workplace help us, or hinder us? Barbara Bechter, Associate Professor in Human Resources Management, shares her findings.

Despite digital communication technology changing the way we work, there’s still little known about how these technologies facilitate and shape employee interaction and wellbeing. To fill this gap, I’ve been working with the Shared Services Forum UK (SSF UK) and Associate Prof Paddy Ross from the Department of Psychology, to understand the impact, direct from business. Shared Services is a growing business sector that’s highly exposed to technological innovation. This industry is characterised by the extensive use of digital technologies offering new opportunities to increase firm efficiency while reshaping how people interact in the workplace. Although Shared Services Centres

were already experienced in offering flexible work arrangements, Covid-19 provided them with an opportunity to test existing knowledge on remote working in an extraordinary pandemic context.

SSF UK is a not-for-profit, national membership community for the Shared Services sector. It connects like-minded practitioners across the sector, bringing together a wealth of cross-functional knowledge, experience and opinion. Members operate in a variety of professional roles from both public and private organisations representing numerous business sectors, all with a common interest in the evolution and sharing of best practices for

The need to belong and to feel connected to others are basic human needs –social interactions play a fundamental role in shaping employees’ psychological wellbeing.

Shared Services. The forum reaches thousands of leaders, practitioners and specialists across the UK, working within Shared Services and Global Business Service operations.

Together with Lisa Hooley, SSF UK’s Board Director, I’ve been able to gain valuable insights from a wide network of companies. The initial research investigated how the adoption of digital technologies affects communication among and between employees, and management. The need to belong and to feel connected to others are basic human needs – social interactions play a fundamental role in shaping employees’ psychological wellbeing, which in turn has a positive impact on how satisfied they are with the overall quality of their workplace.

Our findings revealed that employees are most satisfied with face-to-face interactions in the workplace. The higher they rated the effectiveness of face-to-face live communication, the higher the job satisfaction score. Employees who rated text-based communications (emails, business communication platforms) as more effective scored lower on psychological wellbeing. The more an employee uses telephone technology, the worse their overall job satisfaction and social connectedness was found to be. We were interested in whether the use of social media enhances social connectedness. The findings suggest this isn’t the case. Increased use of social media for communication was found to result in both lower job satisfaction and lower social connectedness.

The research also considered work relationships and wellbeing and found a positive relationship between seeking help and guidance from managers and colleagues, and job satisfaction. We found that seeking help from friends and colleagues correlated with feelings of social connectedness, while digital self-help and guidance tools are detrimental to psychological wellbeing.

Reduced face-to-face meetings and interaction will continue long after the pandemic is over, therefore an understanding of how this technology affects our ability to communicate, interact, and how it affects our judgements is crucial. Building on the findings of this pilot, we’re currently investigating the role of digital communication technology on employees’ willingness to exercise their voice in the workplace. Further research is planned in collaboration with SSF UK, which will contribute to a better understanding of how digital technology affects social interactions and its impact on individual and collective forms of agency, influence, and power in hybrid workplaces.

The engagement from the SSF UK network was invaluable in providing insights into the technologies used in member companies and revealing both the positive and negative impact of the communication tools that we all use.

The findings of our research are clear. Having experienced a significant period of rapid change in expectations over the past 1-3 years in both digital technology and wellbeing in the workplace, a number of traditional elements of organisational design are still evolving through digital technology and other factors – particularly expectations around employee experience and engagement, communication, remote and hybrid working approaches, and management and leadership practices – all which directly affect employee voice and wellbeing. Members of SSF UK are managing priorities around these factors on a day-to-day basis across their Shared Services operations, and so all the insights generated from the research have been welcomed, as they work through how to best respond and manage the change in their setting.

I’m looking forward to continuing the collaboration with SSF UK as further research into these areas develops, particularly given the growing relevance they have in the future of work. Certainly, this kind of collaboration and knowledge exchange with industry enhances opportunities for impact on both sides.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Bechter and her research interests.

Together with Lisa Hooley, SSF UK’s Board Director, I’ve been able to gain valuable insights from a wide network of companies.

Scan or click for more information on Lisa Hooley and SSF UK.

Could climate change be fuelling dictatorships?

Professors Nejat Anbarci and Habib Rahman share their research on the impact of extreme weather conditions on political systems.

In recent decades we’ve witnessed a significant increase in extreme weather and natural disasters, both of which can be attributed to climate change. Despite growing calls to curb the toll that humanity is putting on our planet at a quicker and more effective rate, there’s unfortunately been little progress. From devastating floods in Pakistan to wildfires across Australia and droughts throughout East Africa, we’re seeing more and more countries, and their inhabitants, suffer untold damage due to climate change.

With the likelihood and frequency of such disasters set to continue rising, we, alongside Mehmet Ulubasoglu, Deakin University, Australia, undertook research into the impact of such extreme weather conditions on political systems across the world.

We found that following sizeable natural disasters – such as tornados, cyclones and hurricanes – not only are people’s lives and homes at risk, but their democratic freedoms are too. This is because governments, particularly in small island nations, become more oppressive in their rule following a natural disaster event.

Reviewing data from 1950-2009 that measured every country’s polity score – which evaluates the strength of a nation’s democratic system, from autocratic to democratic – we compared each country’s democratic score at the time of natural disasters and in the years following.

From our analysis we saw that the disruption to communities caused by severe storm – e.g. breakdown in day-to-day routines and business, the need for government intervention to support storm recovery – presents regimes with an opportunity to exploit their citizens’ vulnerability and tighten their control. This is more common in smaller island nations than larger landlocked states, simply because of their size. For larger countries, natural disasters represent a local or regional issue, but for small island communities these disasters can have country-wide effects on their social and political system. Along with this, following island-wide natural disasters, a macrolevel relief effort is required alongside macro-level policies, rendering the government the primary source of financial and medical assistance.

We found that following sizeable natural disasters, not only are people’s lives and homes at risk, but their democratic freedoms are too.

More specifically, we found that democratic conditions deteriorated significantly following natural disasters, with small island countries’ polity scores dropping by an average of 3.26% within a year and plummeting by around 10.1% over the subsequent five years. Along with this, governments increased their political oppressiveness by around 2.5% within one year of storm-related disasters.

We observed that the incumbents in islands tend to secure their citizens’ support through providing post-disaster relief expenditure. Furthermore, more frequent storms offer more opportunities to governments in allocating relief assistance in exchange of restricting their citizens’ democratic rights. The ultimate outcome turns out to be authoritarian populism.

3.26% Polity scores dropped by an average of WITHIN A YEAR and plummeted by around 10.1% OVER THE SUBSEQUENT FIVE YEARS

Recent examples of oppressive governments in countries such as Fiji, Haiti and more notably the Philippines, offer existing examples of the clear relationship between extreme weather and the rise of populist authoritarian governments. Exploring the case of the Philippines in particular, we can see how Hurricane Haiyan offered then presidential-hopeful, Rodrigo Duterte, an avenue to exploit people’s helplessness as a means of securing support for his presidential bid, which proved successful.

While countries such as the UK have generally been storm-free, the ever-worsening climate crisis could bring about unforeseen vulnerabilities which could give way to the possibility of more authoritarian tendencies within political regimes across the globe, as more frequent and extreme natural disasters drive greater uncertainty both in weather patterns and political systems.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Anbarci and his research interests.

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How terrorism kills innovation and kicks out human talent

When unthinkable events such as terrorism occur, the impacts can be devastating, long-lasting and far more widespread than anyone might immediately consider. Professor Dimitris Petmezas explains…

When setting the stage for innovation, companies must have a few core elements in place: an open culture that promotes sharing of ideas and experimentation, talented staff inclined and motivated to engage in such work and a level of organisational and financial stability to be able to facilitate this. Whilst firms that have a healthy attitude toward innovation are, typically adept at embracing uncertainty and navigating new, challenging waters, unpredictable external events such as acts of terrorism occurring in the vicinity of an organisation can for obvious reasons, make creating and maintaining these environments impossible.

We’ve seen through previous research how, in the aftermath of terrorist events, businesses face significant struggles. Aside from the day-today of continuing to run a business amid such tragedy, there are deeper consequences which can limit or destroy a company’s capabilities. For example, the potential for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for companies in locations where attacks occur is significantly hindered –both in the short and long term. These firms can become less attractive to potential acquirers, have pre-standing deals withdrawn and even find themselves facing the reality of accepting lower acquisition premiums, making it difficult to bounce back. As a result, local economies take a significant hit as firms’ profitability and productivity crumbles.

With this, understandably, comes a domino effect on workers, who might find their jobs no longer as stable as they once were, or whose experiences of the events may impact upon their ability to do their work or desire to remain in the same location. Coming full circle, does the loss of staff and talent then pose a further challenge for the wider organisation, and indeed local economy, when it comes to organisational recovery, as well as future growth and development?

Local economies take a significant hit as firms’ profitability and productivity crumbles.

My latest research, undertaken with colleagues Eliezer Fich (LeBow College of Business, Drexel University) and Tung Nguyen (Faculty of Finance and Investment, Academy of Policy Development, Vietnam), seeks to find the above out by exploring the impact of terrorist attacks on inventor productivity and mobility. Our sample was not insignificant – we observed innovative activities at US-based firms following every terrorist attack occurring between 1985 and 2019, according to the Global Terrorism Database (GTD). This totalled more than 2.1 million inventor-year observations at innovative firms located within 400 miles of an attack and recorded our results over the fiveyear period following each event.

We constructed two proxies of terrorism based on a firm’s proximity to an attack. The first flagged cases where the distance between a firm’s HQ and the attack’s location was within 100 miles. The second indicated whether corporate HQs and terrorist strikes resided within the same metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Our reasonings for these distinctions were based on the idea that the effect of terrorism decreases the further away a firm may be from ‘ground zero’, and to remove the possibility that inventions developed before an attack might distort our findings.

We discovered that within five years of an attack, in which at least one life was lost, patents per employee and per inventor declined by 5.82% and 1.69% respectively for the average firm located within 100 miles of an attack location. We also uncovered a robust negative association between terrorism events and invention activity at the inventor level. Within a five-year period after a lethal terrorist attack, inventors in firms afflicted by the strike were associated with a decline in patents of 2.18% and in citations by 5.35%.

In addition, echoing what was witnessed in the M&A arena, the value of inventions was also seen to suffer, as patents generated by inventors in attacked locations declined by as much as 4.4%. Not only that, but, in the aftermath of a deadly attack, inventor ingenuity also seemed to take a dive. The data revealed that inventors went on to produce patents that integrated existing knowledge from fewer dissimilar areas and, as a result, had a lower originality value.

In regard to being able to source and retain inventive talent, our research showed that this too posed a challenge. On average, firms located within 100 miles of a fatal terrorist strike were associated with a 3.92% reduction to the pool of inventors, saw a 1.98% decline in the number of new inventors hired and, in a further loss, suffered a 3.05% increase in inventors leaving the area.

For firms that were already operating under tight finances before a terrorist attack, the impact was, understandably, heavier. Our results revealed that, notably, constrained firms generated patents from fewer locations after an attack, suggesting they were less able to either outsource invention activities or conduct them in areas further away from the attack site.

Regardless of a firm’s financial standing, across the board, it wasn’t uncommon to see those classified as ‘star’ inventors subsequently relocate to firms in distant locations.

So, what can we take from this? Whilst the first and (rightly) most important focus of any attack response should be to the protection and respect of life, it’s also important to do what we can to ensure that livelihoods can also go on, help communities to recover and limit further fallout. Whilst the impact to creative roles like innovation is significant, there are other roles within a company that seem to fare better in the aftermath of a terrorist attack – for example CEOs gaining a pay rise to encourage their continued loyalty.

But, for any company seeking to come through such troubled times, the message is clear: whilst it is vital to focus on the fundamentals in times of unprecedented hardship, it does not do well to lose sight of the elements that make your organisation stand out – notably its creative talent. Whilst some staff will indeed hold steady, proving their resilience in a show of loyalty and unity, others will undoubtedly seek their fortunes elsewhere.

And without that innovative spark, what else is left? Sometimes, after the storm passes, it’s the rainbow that lifts us up.

Professor Petmezas’ paper: The effects of terrorist attacks on inventor productivity and mobility is available to be read in full in the Research Policy journal.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Petmezas and his research.

The economic consequences of fatal landslides

As the chances of extreme weather events increase, Dr Martin Robson, Associate Professor of Economics, looks at the impact of economic factors on fatalities.

The growing body of research on the impacts of climate change highlights the increased frequency of extreme weather events, from which no country is immune. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently pointed out that the increase in risks associated with extreme weather preferentially impacts disadvantaged people, not just in developing countries. Indeed, the developed world isn’t immune from environmental tragedies, as shown by the rainfall-induced landslide on the Italian island of Ischia, which resulted in the deaths of eleven people in November 2022. Many of the physical effects of climate change are well documented, but the impacts on human systems are more difficult to capture. In a study of natural disasters, I, along with my co-authors Dr Roxana Radulescu, Newcastle University Business School and Professor Dave Petley, Vice Chancellor, Hull University, focus on the impact of landslides, which have been reliably linked to climate change through their dependence on the frequency and intensity of rainfall. We examine the factors that determine the occurrence of landslides and on the subsequent number of fatalities, and investigate their effect on a country’s real income, as measured by the level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita.

We use data from the Global Fatal Landslides Database (GFLD), which gives us a much larger dataset than has been used before. For example, over the period 2004-2017 this dataset captured four times as many fatalities compared to the number recorded in a previously established but less rigorous database. This is an improved quantification and therefore a greater appreciation of the true impact of landslides.

The global distribution of fatal landslides shows a strongly heterogeneous pattern, with clusters being evident in a number of locations.

These include China, the southern edge of the Himalayas (e.g. northern India and Nepal), the Philippines, Indonesia – most notably in and around the island of Java –and in a chain that follows the mountains of Central and South America. In contrast, less serious landslides – measured in terms of the number of landslides and the number of fatalities – are found in Oceania and Europe. In a series of regression models, we show that geographic, economic and institutional variables have an important role in causing fatal landslides. Amongst the geographic variables, the most important is the level of rainfall. Changes in population density are also significant. Given the increase in population predicted over the next eight decades, we predict that this alone will add around 20% to landslide fatalities due the increase in population density. However, the effects of geography can be mitigated by economic and institutional factors. Rich countries, for example, have fewer fatalities for a given geography because they tend to have better quality of regulation, less corruption and better infrastructure. The effect of a 10% increase in real GDP per capita is to reduce the number of fatalities by 3%. This result is in line with evidence obtained from other disaster databases. We also find that spending an extra percentage point of GDP on government consumption reduces fatalities by 6%. More external openness also reduces the number of casualties, with a ten-percentage point increase in openness reducing the number of fatalities by 19%. Not surprisingly, the presence of internal conflict serves to increase the number of fatalities. There’s no evidence, however, that autocratic regimes can reduce the death toll from this type of natural disaster.

Our study underlines the importance of public policy in reducing the death toll inflicted by natural disasters.

Loss of life due to landslides is undesirable in itself. However, after controlling for other growth determinants, we find the presence of fatal landslides increases growth of GDP per capita by between 0.5 and 1.2 percentage points. Growth also depends positively on the severity of landslides as measured by the loss of life and on the number of landslides taking place each year. This positive effect looks surprising at first, but it’s not out of line with other studies that examine the relationship between, for example, floods and real GDP per capita.

In general, previous research has produced mixed results for various types of natural disaster, but this is one of the few studies that looks in particular at the effect of landslides. Global warming sets the stage for more extreme levels of precipitation, and with this the likelihood of landslides increasing across the globe, as the recent event on the island of Ischia attests. Our study underlines the importance of public policy in reducing the death toll inflicted by natural disasters. While richer countries have more resources to address the problem, developing countries can also decrease the impact by opening their economies and minimising conflict. These policies don’t reduce or reverse global warming, but they can combat its most damaging effects in the short term.

Scan or click for more information on Dr Robson and his research.

The effect of a 10% increase in real GDP per capita is to reduce the number of fatalities by 3%.

The near collapse of the UK pension sector exposes a string of failures by UK financial regulators

Is our financial regulation fit for purpose? Kevin Dowd, Professor of Finance and Economics, has his doubts.

The collapse in the long-dated UK government bond (or gilts) market on 28 September 2022 that followed the ill-fated Kwarteng ‘mini-budget’ exposed a previously under-appreciated problem: UK pension schemes were massively exposed to changes in long-dated gilts rates.

The week after the mini budget, the gilts market became very unsettled. To quote the Financial Times, huge shifts in bond prices were leaving analysts and investors bewildered. “The moves in long-end yields were nothing short of incredible; the gilt market was in freefall,” said Daniela Russell, head of UK rates strategy at HSBC.

The market then collapsed on the morning of Wednesday 28 September, when it became clear that if the Bank of England didn’t intervene, most UK pension plans would default on their Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) strategies and swap positions by the end of the day. The Bank responded by temporarily suspending Quantitative Tightening and announced a £65 billion Quantitative Easing (QE) package to buy long-dated gilts and bring their rates down. The gilts markets recovered sharply after the announcement and by the end of the day, gilt yields fell back to under 4%.

“If there was no intervention today, gilt yields could have gone up to 7-8% from 4.5% this morning and in that situation around 90% of UK pension funds would have run out of collateral [and become insolvent],” said Kerrin Rosenberg, Cardano Investment chief executive. “They would have been wiped out.”

Liability Driven Investments

So, what are LDIs and why are they significant here? A standard explanation goes as follows: a pension scheme’s main liability is an illiquid annuity book that falls in value if interest rates rise and rises in value if interest rates fall. The scheme then hedges its liability interest rate risk exposure with a liquid interest rate swap (IRS). When there’s a move upwards in long-term rates, the scheme will lose on the swap side, but gain an equal amount on the liability side. In theory, these should offset to produce a net zero change in the scheme’s present value. However, the scheme is hedging an illiquid exposure with a liquid one, with the latter marked to market, and with a margin requirement to cover markto-market losses. When interest rates rise, the losses on the swap trigger margin calls, which the scheme must meet by posting additional collateral (e.g. cash) on pain of default. If a lot of firms are affected, there can then be a scramble for cash that creates a death spiral where interest rates are pushed to higher and higher levels. This is what happened on 28 September. This explanation doesn’t quite get to the bottom of the issue. For those with the time and interest, I'd encourage you to watch a presentation for the Shareholders Association UK by my colleague Dean Buckner. In brief, the key is the way in which a rise in interest rates triggers margin calls, which a scheme must meet by posting additional collateral on pain of default

The potential dangers of hedging an illiquid position with a liquid one are well known. What few hadn't appreciated was the scale of the issue as it applied to UK pension funds.

To add to which, there are at least three further concerns:

The first is that regulators don’t have much data on how large the pension funds’ LDI positions are or how large the funds at risk might be. Press reports suggested figures for the latter ranging from £1 trillion to £1.7 trillion, but all we really know is that the number is a big one.

The second issue is leverage. Helen Thomas from the Financial Times explains:

“To take a simplified example, a pension fund buys £100 of gilts and then sells to a bank with an agreement to buy them back in a year at a specified price. (Collateral is due on the trade depending on whether gilts rise or fall.) The fund takes the £100 it got for its gilts and does it again: another £100 of gilts, another repo transaction. And again. And again.”

The third issue is that regulators have little data on the extent of any leverage and no controls over it. Curiously, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA, a part of the Bank of England) regulators had spotted the pension fund vulnerability years before. As one insider recently wrote me:

“The big question is why neither the TPR (The Pensions Regulator) or the PRA spotted the risk of hedging an illiquid liability with a liquid asset. I remember some sort of row about this in 2015, where the working level supervisors got blamed for raising this as a problem. “We mustn’t impose more regulation [burdens] on the firms than they can withstand,” was the [management’s revealing] response.”

Even so, the issue managed to make its way onto the Bank’s November 2018 Financial Stability Report: “... fund managers running pension funds’ [LDI] programmes report daily monitoring of the level of liquid assets held by these pension funds against the potential calls on collateral that could arise in a stress. … However, it is not clear whether pension funds and insurers pay sufficient attention themselves to liquidity risks. For example, initial work by Bank staff has found that some insurers may not be recognising fully all the relevant liquidity risks.”

The same Financial Stability Report also reported the results of a stress test and concluded that there appeared to be “no major systemic vulnerability.” I’ve always maintained that regulatory stress tests were worse than useless because they offer false risk confidence – the analogy is of a ship relying on a radar system to detect icebergs that can’t detect big lumps of ice in the sea.

Also, having a stress test that a firm fails causes unnecessary hassles for the regulators themselves: the firm would complain to their senior management who would then come down on the stress testers to make the problem go away. Hence the Golden Rule of Stress Testing for Regulatory Stress Testers, which is an open secret of good practice in the regulatory community, but almost unknown outside it: don’t ever do a stress test that a firm will fail. I’ve yet to see a single case where such a test correctly identified a key vulnerability in advance, but I’ve seen many instances where they missed vulnerabilities that led to spectacular disasters that could’ve been avoided.

To give just one example, American readers might recall the stress tests that Joseph Stiglitz and his colleagues carried out for Fannie Mae in 2002. These modelled a highly adverse decade long ‘nuclear winter’ scenario for the U.S. housing market and predicted that the probability of Fannie failing under this adverse scenario was essentially zero. Fannie and Freddie were then taken into government ownership to avert their failure only six years later, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Returning to the UK, the Bank realised there was a problem, wrongly concluded that it did not pose a major systemic risk because it did not want it to be, and never followed up. That systemic risk then came back to bite them at the worst possible time, as these things often do. These sorts of things happen, but they happen a lot to UK financial regulators and Governor Bailey himself has presided over a good number of regulatory fiascos. To be fair, the Bank is not responsible for the prudential regulation of pension funds. The regulator with designated responsibility for pension funds is ‘the’ TPR, but it’s well known among those in the know that TPR is even more clueless than the other two main regulators, the PRA and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the incompetence of the FCA is legendary. And how did ‘the’ TPR mess up, you might ask? Well, it pushed pensions to load up on LDIs, incorrectly thinking that LDIs offered a virtually zero risk investment strategy that would help solve their deficit problems. Then TPR failed to collect much data about LDI positions, as a result of which UK regulators had woefully inadequate data about them at the very time when they needed that data most. So, we have three regulators who may as well be Curly, Larry and Mo, and the intractable jurisdictional and coordination challenges they pose, even if any of those regulators were any good, all of which confirms, again, that UK financial regulation is not fit for purpose.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Kevin Dowd and his research interests.

I’ve always maintained that regulatory stress tests were worse than useless because they offer false risk confidence.

World-class research impact leads to Rio Declaration on public audit

Laurence Ferry, Professor of Accounting, shares the influence his project has had on international audit and accountability arrangements.

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) are public oversight institutions that audit a government’s use of public funds. They’re therefore a fundamental link in a country’s accountability chain.

The International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) is a non-governmental organisation with special consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It’s an umbrella body for SAIs internationally with 196 Full Members (195 countries and the European Court of Auditors) primarily arranged across seven geographical regions of the world.

The International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions (INCOSAI) is the supreme organ of INTOSAI, equivalent to a general assembly, and is composed of all Full, Associate and Affiliate Members. Once every three years, it holds meetings which are chaired and convened by the head of the SAI of the country the Congress is being held in.

The XXIV INCOSAI was held from 7-11 November 2022, with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as the venue for the world’s leaders in public audit to meet. For over two years I’ve been leading a project team with INTOSAI and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), including our Honorary Professor Khalid Hamid, who is CIPFA’s International Director. The team is undertaking an international comparison of audit and accountability arrangements of SAIs to strengthen INTOSAI’s global voice. This work has included a steering panel, survey, reports and workshops.

Based upon this extensive work, Minister Bruno Dantes (Chair of INTOSAI and member of Brazil’s SAI) presented the Plenary address at Congress and put forth a declaration to be approved by members. As part of the presentation, my work was acknowledged in leading the project.

The Rio Declaration on Global Voice in Public Audit was approved on 11 November 2022 at the XXIV INCOSAI, which was successfully underpinned with my research and ESRCfunded impact work on accountability, transparency and regulatory space of public audit. This declaration importantly addresses UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, promoting ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’.

The research impact is of global reach and significance through changing and reaffirming principles regarded as best practice in government audit and accountability arrangements. These principles are employed by around 200 countries for improving public management to the good of the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of citizens. The project was funded by ESRC and forms part of a range of work undertaken by our International Centre of Public Accountability.

Scan or click for more information on Professor Ferry and his research interests.

The Peter Problem: Exploring why there are more male CEOs called Peter than there are female CEOs in the UK

Jemima Vanhegan, Durham University Business School alumna, shares her findings on the gender divide at the top level of UK organisations and the barriers female CEOs still face today.

Having a female Chief Executive Officer (CEO) leading some of the top UK companies shouldn’t be a groundbreaking achievement, yet today, it still is. In 2020, there were more male CEOs called Peter than female CEOs in the UK. Underrepresentation of women at this level is a problem for organisations but, perhaps more importantly, it’s also detrimental for society and leadership as a whole. Similar

levels of underrepresentation aren’t seen in other spheres of public leadership. Why then, is the gender divide so drastic amongst CEOs? When carrying out some initial reading around the topic, it became clear that there was a pressing need to understand the reasons for the underrepresentation of female CEOs, as academia had yet to explore this sufficiently. Previous studies were often not UK-based, outdated, or hadn’t spoken with the female CEOs themselves. Having women in some of the top roles is a win-win situation: other women have role models, so women in the pipeline increase, and society benefits from a broader outlook. Why then have we, as a society, neglected this topic for so long? Why have we failed to address such a significant problem?

Driven by a desire to understand why so few women are seen at the top level of organisations and to appreciate the problem from women themselves, I carried out a qualitative study using interviews to discover whether systematic problems existed which prohibited the advancement of women to CEO level. Initially, I hoped – perhaps naively – to interview every female FTSE 100 CEO. While all the women I spoke to were CEOs of wellrenowned UK companies, only one was from the FTSE 100. I certainly overestimated the accessibility of these high-profile women.

My research was guided by three prevailing research questions developed to target what I believed were the three main problem areas. The questions were: to what extent does education received impact the acquisition of CEO status for women; to what extent does an understanding of leadership and the way a woman leads contribute to their underrepresentation; and finally, what are the main barriers which existing female CEOs faced in their career progression and how does this explain their underrepresentation.

Traditionally, effective leadership styles have been seen to be developed for, and by, men. Those such as ‘The Great Man Theory’ were established on the premise that historical

Having women in some of the top roles is a win-win situation: other women have role models, so women in the pipeline increase, and society benefits.

leaders, such as Napoleon, have provided society with the best example of a successful leader. Consequently, society has drawn patriarchal conclusions about what we think a great leader should be like, and, unfortunately, look like. However, since the establishment of theories like this one, society has changed and evolved. Why then, haven’t we let the traits and characteristics of leaders evolve with it?

The findings from my research revealed that all the women supported the need for change, stating that there was a fundamental need to redefine leadership to be more aligned with modern society. They also remarked on the need to eliminate the gender factor from leadership. A good leader is a good leader, regardless of sex.

While each of the women gave many responses to why they believed underrepresentation reigned, one of the most common answers was centred around sexism. The fact that even today this is still deemed to be a predominating issue is shocking. Sexism was experienced by these women in two different forms. Firstly, a couple of the participants commented that they’d been discriminated against because of their appearance, i.e. her hair was blonde so she wouldn’t be taken seriously; or she should wear glasses to look more intelligent. The detrimental impact that a woman’s appearance could have on her career trajectory (previously called the ‘beauty is beastly effect') was identified in studies in 1985. That 37 years later such a barrier is still pervading, implies a significant shakeup is still needed at executive level. Secondly, the participants argued that the continued existence of male networks limited their opportunities. For example, almost half of respondents stated that they’d been left out because of ‘old boys’ clubs’, or that their career advancement was limited because they couldn’t participate in boys’ days out to the golf course. The extent of the issue is best highlighted by one of the women who began golf lessons so she couldn’t be discriminated against. Why as a society are we still allowing factors like these to prevail and restrict talent? Society shouldn’t need women to join a boys’ club to succeed.

Fundamentally, it became plain that the lack of women at the top has no justified reasoning. While my study addressed and answered the proposed research questions, it also produced other avenues for exploration. Given the heavy impact having children has and will continue to have on women, it would be beneficial to understand the moderating effect this has on women’s career progression. By understanding this impact, we as a society can hopefully implement means to limit this factor. Another key finding from the investigation was the emphasis on the outdated nature of the pathways to CEO and the structure and expectations of it. More

PhD v DBA –

Which is the right doctorate for me?

There’s often confusion between DBA and PhD programmes at business schools. Once gained, both will give you the title of ‘Doctor’, but which one is the right option for you?

Here Professor Karena Yan, Associate Dean of DBA programmes and Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos, Programme Director of the Durham-emlyon Global DBA, discuss the differences between the two, the type of applicant who suits each one, the career paths they can expect after graduating and the experience they can gain.

PhD

Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos:

The PhD degree is the highest qualification a business school can award, and a PhD from Durham University means our graduates obtain their doctorate from one of the highest-ranked schools in Europe. Candidates undertake a doctoral programme for a whole variety of reasons but underpinning all of them is a deep-rooted intellectual curiosity that only a research degree like this can satisfy.

Individuals may have a burning ‘what if’ question that’s always fascinated them, for example, or a real-world business problem to solve that just isn’t covered in existing literature. For some candidates, the PhD is building on recent research work undertaken for a Masters degree, while for others there’s an opportunity to construct a project that’s aligned to a broader programme of research being conducted by a senior academic in the School.

By far the most common reason for going down the PhD route, however, is a desire to better understand the world of business and to uncover unique new insights, as yet undiscovered. Whatever the underlying motivation, the Durham programme is the route to individual success. It offers candidates comprehensive training in research methodologies, a worldclass research environment and culture, and an opportunity to conduct original research under the guidance of supervisors who work at the frontiers of management knowledge creation.

Graduates mainly go on to become academic faculty in their own right, with the PhD programme still very much representing the traditional scholarly ‘apprenticeship’ for wouldbe professors working in leading institutions across the globe. But not all – around half of our graduates pursue a range of exciting alternative careers, from innovation-oriented research and development posts in major commercial research organisations to senior leadership positions in premium business consultancies.

DBA

Professor Karena Yan:

The DBA is a professional doctorate with the same status and level of challenge as a PhD.

For practicing experienced business managers and executives, the DBA offers them the opportunity enhance their business, professional career and knowledge to a higher level. Candidates continue to work within their profession, while applying and developing their theories and expertise to enable them to make a significant contribution to the business world.

The primary goal of the DBA is to advance professional practice, preparing candidates to carry out research and make a direct contribution to their profession, policy in a workplace or in a wider industry and business context.

DBA

The focus is very much on researching in a practical context, as opposed to the more abstract, theory-driven research development that’s provided by a PhD degree. DBA candidates will learn high-level skills in conceptual and reflexive thinking, analyse complex situations, and design, implement and monitor research and interventions in their own organisations. Both the DBA and PhD support career progression, allowing for knowledge to be learnt and applied directly into a workplace. Career aspirations is where they differ. PhD candidates usually undertake their PhD following their Masters degree, and once they attain their qualification look for a career in academia. In an academic role they’ll guide new PhD students and take on further research for policy makers and companies. Some top organisations look for new PhD graduates from top universities and recruit them on the successful completion of their research to undertake research roles for them.

DBA candidates are experienced professionals, and this qualification allows them to enhance their business, career and understanding by contributing to the world’s understanding of business theory. With this doctoral qualification, they realise an improvement in their professional profile and demonstrate their expertise in organising, planning, forecasting and researching. Many DBA candidates pursue a DBA to distinguish themselves from other MBAs in the business world or simply for personal satisfaction and achievement.

Scan or click for more information on our PHD programmes.

Scan or click for more information on our DBA programmes.

QUICK TAKE-AWAYS:

PhDs can be full-time and part-time, but are usually 3 years full-time. PhD candidates don’t need significant work experience and can follow on directly from Bachelor or Masters degrees. PhDs are ideal if you want to work in academia or research.

DBAs are usually part-time, as candidates continue to work and may base their research on a subject directly related to their employment.

• DBAs are ideal for senior leaders who want to stay curious, explore/ develop new business knowledge and be acknowledged for their expertise.

• DBAs can be 3-6 years part-time, with the opportunity to network with faculty members and executives from a range of organisations and sectors.

Durham’s Women in Business Scholar –Tiffany Tjia

Gender parity is incredibly important, not only in business and society, but at a business school too. How can we expect candidates to understand and learn from each other’s experiences if they all have the same background, culture, and point of view? Candidates want to not only learn from faculty and lecturers, but also from their peers – and the more diverse the class, the more peer-to-peer learning there’s likely to be.

All business schools are striving for gender parity in what’s a competitive market, but one way Durham University Business School sets itself apart is by providing dedicated scholarships for outstanding women in business.

The Durham MBA programmes (Full-time and Online) offer nine Women in Business Executive Dean’s Scholarships, designed for women with outstanding career experience, impressive academic record, potential to be an outstanding leader in their field, or who’ve provided supportive, inclusive environments for others.

We caught up with Tiffany Tjia, a scholarship winner, to discuss what the award means to her, why she applied for Durham’s MBA, and what she hopes to achieve from the programme.

Can you tell us about yourself and your background?

I’m the Head of Business and Operations for Tokopedia, the biggest e-commerce company in Indonesia, with a mission to democratise commerce in Indonesia. I’m a person representing three minorities in my country: female, Christian and Chinese-descendant. I was born and raised in the sixth country of greatest wealth inequality in the world, Indonesia.

What inspired you to pursue this programme?

A lot of people asked me, “Why Durham?”. After researching top UK business schools, Durham featured very highly with impeccable ranking and accreditation. The next question is “Why the OMBA programme?”.

There’s a constant debate on which is more important for young professionals to succeed: work experience or a degree?

Instead of debating, I chose the programme that gives me the luxury to do both. The tech industry is rapidly growing; things are going to be different in the next few years.

How did you become aware of the scholarship? What motivated you to apply?

Allow me to share a bit of my family background. I’m the breadwinner of my family. My father is a blue-collar worker, and my mother is a full-time housewife. I couldn’t afford to do the study while I have the responsibility to finance my parents.

I was made aware of the scholarship from Google ads while googling Durham University, and thus I applied.

How has receiving the scholarship impacted your academic and personal life?

This scholarship has been helping me generously by removing the financial barrier so I don’t have to work a second job; instead I can focus on my studies. The scholarship has motivated me to give 100% in academic life and the motivation to give my best.

What advice do you have for other young women considering applying?

As women, we often limit ourselves before even trying. We keep saying these phrases in our minds, “Oh, I’m not smart enough”, “Oh, I don’t think I’ll get it, so why bother?” Try. Do it. Just try. Believe in yourself, because if you don’t who will?

What do you plan to do after graduation?

The MBA degree is prestigious, and I believe it’ll complete my résumé to gain investor confidence. My plan is to start my own business. It’s been my long personal mission to take real action to minimise poverty in Indonesia. Short term, I’m planning to start a technology company that educates and partners with traditional stores, fisherman, farmers and other professions not yet touched by technology, so they can compete with the present world. Longer term, my plan is to unite the 58.97 million Micro and Small to Medium-sized Enterprises in Indonesia to drive the nation’s economic recovery and end poverty there.

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Our MBA programmes at Durham

Our Durham MBA Scholarships

MBA Strategic Consulting Project – Designing TfL’s data science department

The School offers MBA students the opportunity to undertake a Strategic Consulting Project as part of the programme. We speak to MBA alumnus Ronan Murray about his project.

Between June and September, our MBA students work with companies to complete a Strategic Consulting Project. The project provides students with the opportunity and support to conduct an in-depth investigation at an advanced level of an issue or a business challenge. Our students work across all sectors and functions, applying their skills and knowledge to deliver results that can move a business forward. The consulting projects also provide an excellent opportunity for students to gain practical experience during their study which is relevant to their career aspirations, enhancing their experience and professional network.

Full-time MBA alumnus, Ronan Murray, chose to do his Strategic Consulting Project with the London Underground, a rapid transit system serving Greater London and the surrounding areas. Before studying his MBA at the Business School, Ronan came from a design background and chose this particular project as he wanted to test himself in a different field and truly understand how translatable his core skills were. The structure and subject of the project also appealed to him and he felt it linked well to his studies throughout the MBA.

Ronan shares his Strategic Consulting Project experience as part of his MBA.

Please can you provide an overview of your Consulting Project?

The Consulting Project sought to develop an organisational design for a new data science department across both London Underground and the wider Transport for

London (TfL). Currently, data scientists are embedded in the different business units across the organisation and as such, the profession is not leveraged to its full potential. The project sought to understand industry best practice and using this research alongside accepted academic theory, suggest a new structure for data science within TfL, with the data science department in London Underground as a pilot scheme.

What were the project outcomes?

The project really generated some discussions within TfL and I believe they are implementing some of the recommendations. The project was very well received, and the grounded research and theory really convinced the sponsors of its worth and the possible future it sketched out for London Underground.

What did you learn from doing your Consulting Project?

Beyond the obvious knowledge gain in the field of organisational design, the most valuable learning from the Consulting Project was the experience I gained working as a consultant in industry, whilst having the safety net of an academic advisor from the Business School. I received incredible mentorship from my supervisor, Peter Allen, whose wisdom and insight guided me through both the relationship with London Underground and the Consulting Project itself – advice I still rely upon in my current role.

What are you doing now?

I now work as a Senior Consultant for Cedus, a data-led strategy and change consultancy in London. To date, my clients have all been FinTech startups and I have been working directly on their engagements with traditional financial institutions. It is a huge change from my previous career, and I am learning something new every day – much like the MBA!

Scan or click for more information on the Durham MBA.

My Durham Masters and 5 tips for making the most of your postgraduate experience

Before joining Durham, I undertook my bachelor's degree in industrial economics at the University of Nottingham. I was looking to take my business acumen to the next level by building on my economics knowledge in a management course that was modern and relevant to current international businesses. Durham’s internationally prestigious Business School offered an extensive array of modules led by experts in their field. Such a unique opportunity combined with Durham City’s beauty and heritage made my choice to pursue a Masters here an easy decision.

So far, the experience has exceeded my expectations. Modules are taught by enthusiastic lecturers who have impressive experience working alongside some of the largest companies in the globe. They often present theories and discussions that involve the newest and most innovative ideas within the topic.

Additionally, we have had numerous highquality guest lecturers speak which has helped to develop a deeper understanding about how theories apply in real-world practice. For instance, recently we had guest lecturers from Mastercard and World Commerce and Contracting.

The Business School itself also has a diverse community. You’re likely to meet lecturers and students from every continent, which is a great way to expose yourself to interesting and different people. Besides its obvious beauty and rich history, the city has a real community feel about it. I think the college system really helps with this because you bond with fellow students through a shared association with your college and can get involved in all sorts of societies and teams. I think this really makes it easy to settle into the city and the University. The smaller nature of the city adds to the tight-knit feel at Durham because everything is within walking distance. This makes it easy to meet other students and bump into friends all the time.

Durham’s internationally prestigious Business School offered an extensive array of modules led by experts in their field.

Noah Arthur-Tinworth, MSc Management (Finance) on his experience at the Business School.

The scholarship I’ve received has allowed me to attend Durham and fully indulge in the University and City’s community. The financial opportunity has meant I’ve had more free time to immerse myself in university and college sports and societies. Through these I’ve met friends for life and have had some fantastic experiences. The scholarship has also presented a fantastic talking point during interviews and has been a great addition to my CV, given the competitive nature of the job market.

My Top Tips for others who are looking to study a Masters:

1. Do it in something you genuinely find interesting.

2. Put the effort into your personal statement to show why you love your subject area – if you don’t want to do this, then maybe that subject isn’t for you!

3. Join the Middle Common Room and postgraduate-specific societies as this is a great way to meet other Masters students.

4. Use all the resources at your disposal –lecturers are keen to discuss their subject with you so don’t be afraid to approach them.

5. Prepare for seminars – these are the best time to get you critically thinking and have meaningful discussions with peers and tutors. It really helps to consolidate an understanding of a topic.

Scan or click for more information on the School’s range of Masters programmes.

The Business of Sport –Durham leading the way as Sports University of the Year 2023

Sport is at the core of Durham student life and we pride ourselves on the huge range of sporting opportunities that are available for our students. From joining college teams to competing at university level and beyond, we offer exceptional opportunities to get involved. Our alumni include Gabby Logan, Jonathan Edwards, Will Carling, Sophie Hosking and Caroline Atkins

We’re extremely proud of our reputation for enabling students to combine sporting and academic excellence. For almost 15 years, the Business School has played an important part in Durham University’s Team Durham Postgraduate Scholarship Programme.

The programme presents a unique opportunity to students who have recently completed their undergraduate studies, with a particular focus on students in North America. Our strong partnership with Team Durham supports the programme, as most of these students are looking for business-related opportunities in Management, Marketing and Finance to further their education.

To date, we remain one of the few universities in Britain to offer such a vast programme for overseas students, growing from 18 overseas scholars in 2009/10 across the sports of men’s basketball and men and women’s lacrosse to over 100 scholars in the current academic year across a variety of sports. Over 50 of these students are studying postgraduate programmes at the Business School.

With many athletes’ sporting careers lasting only a short number of years, postgraduate study is an extremely important consideration to ensure they have viable options once this stage of their career is over, or if the worst should happen and they sustain a serious injury. The partnership between the Business School and Team Durham goes beyond recruiting students, ensuring that they have a meaningful experience.

Dave Coldwell, Deputy Head of Sport & Physical Activity commented, “The support the Business School provides our students to reach their potential in achieving a world-class degree, whilst also preparing them for their next career is something that adds incredible value. This is clearly demonstrated by the career progression of many of our athletes. We can only see the partnership with the Business School grow from strength to strength through our innovative plans to continue to support our student-athletes.”

IMPACT caught up with one of our sporting students, Jacopo Bertone from Italy, who’s studying for an MSc Management (International Business) and competing with the rowing team.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Last May I graduated in Political Science from Syracuse University, New York. I have been studying hard to expand my cultural horizons and to build the basis for my future career by learning valuable skills. One of the achievements I am proud of is the fact I was elected Captain of the Syracuse Varsity Rowing Team for my senior year. Objectively, it was a huge step forward for an international student to be voted into this role. Outside of university, I have recently worked for the recruitment company Adecco managing HR tasks.

What were your reasons for choosing to study with Durham and why you chose your Masters programme?

As graduation was approaching, I started to explore different Masters programmes that could fit with my interests, aspirations and values. As an international student-athlete in the United States, I developed an awareness that my future was in my hands and depended solely on my will. After spending four years far from Italy, my personal ambitions and my interest in managerial issues led me to consider which European universities could provide me with the high level of education that I desired. On the Internet, I found out that a programme in International Business Management is offered at Durham University. It happened to be that Durham is top ranked in the UK, so appeared to be very attractive. Furthermore, I also noticed

Maiden Castle is one of the best sports centres I’ve ever visited so far.

that I could express my love for rowing, the sport I have been practising at a high level for years, so it seemed like the perfect fit for my future plans.

What are the benefits of studying your Masters programme?

The Masters in International Business Management I am currently attending is revealing itself to be far better than my expectations. Teachers are making me understand how management can play a crucial role on a global level from various perspectives. Just to mention some lessons, Organisational Behaviour, Strategies, Marketing, and Economic Issues are all subjects that have their own peculiarities, but they also work according to synergic processes. What I find the most beneficial is the critical thinking and the flexibility that I am developing as a student, so that I am gaining an interdisciplinary vision.

Can you tell us about your overall experiences of studying here and in particular your sporting activity?

My experience at Durham is very positive. Although at the beginning I faced some difficulty with an accent I did not understand very well, during four years in the USA I built a sort of comfort zone. Changing environment saw me more prepared and better equipped from an organisational point of view. But new relationships with new teammates, that is another story. I was a little afraid not to find an inclusive atmosphere. Sport generally is a bridge between different experiences, but I am also aware this it is not guaranteed that you find new friends ready to take in a stranger who can potentially be a danger to the normal equilibrium of the team. Despite these thoughts, I found that my sports teams here come with openness and great respect. Coach Dauncey is very caring about our wellness; he organises our training according to programmes calibrated to improve our performances in different ways. Sessions of weightlifting and access to nutrition advice are notably good here, they are highly important to get a general improvement of the team. We also feel supported by the administration office of Team Durham. Mr Coldwell religiously watches our races and fixtures and is one of our biggest supporters.

What are you doing currently and any longer-term plans?

At the moment I am coaching twice a week the Stephenson College Boat Club. It is an activity I am carrying out with great satisfaction so far. Each time I see a significant improvement that makes me proud of the programme I am delivering to my guys that are happy to learn. Regarding long-term plans, I am very ambitious. I will soon start my job hunt: being Italian and being a car racing fan, I can comfortably say my dream is to work for Ferrari. What I am doing now is putting myself in the best position for them to hire me, attending one of the best schools in the world.

What do you think about the sports facilities at Durham?

I think the facilities are new and functional. Maiden Castle is one of the best sports centres I’ve ever visited so far with cutting-edge equipment and qualified professionals that help to bring out the best in our athletes across all sports.

Scan or click for more information on the School’s range of Masters programmes.

Top row left to right: Henry – Kidney, Neil – Heart, Vic – Kidney, Fran – Heart, Steven – Kidney, Kristian – Kidney and Pancreas.

Bottom row left to right: Garth – Kidney, Bill – Coach, Vince – Kidney, Millie – Liver, Lee –Kidney, Liz – Kidney, Tom – Physiotherapist.

Staff success at the 2023 World Transplant Games

Faculty Coordinator Vic Horan represented Great Britain & Northern Ireland at the World Transplant Games 2023 held in Perth, Australia. This was Vic’s 4th World Transplant Games, and not only did she play for both volleyball and basketball teams, but she also captained the volleyball team.

A double British Champion and a World Champion in volleyball, Vic truly is an inspiration. Not only has she been recognised for her athletic skill by being regularly selected to compete and now captain the team, but she has repeatedly overcome challenges to her health in the form of kidney failure and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body.

Vic commented on the success of Team GB&NI at the Games, “We topped the medal table, the volleyball team took the silver [medal], but I was ruled out of the basketball as I injured my foot and knee in the final of the volleyball.

There were some fantastic achievements by team members and I’m blessed to have been able to witness them. One of our swim team broke seven World Records, five of them individual and two in the relays. Despite my injury it was still a fantastic Games.”

While this is possibly Vic’s last World Transplant Games to play in, she’s been asked to put her coaching and leadership skills to use in managing the England Women’s Football Team. Watch this space.

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Team GB and NI Volleyball silver medal winners.

Photo credit – Phil Horan Photography

Global Opportunities –Study Abroad is back and bigger than ever!

Natalie McNeil, International, Engagement and Careers Coordinator

responsible for organising the School's Study Tours reflects on the difference a year makes.

Without question, the Covid-19 pandemic severely impacted international student exchange and engagement, with overseas travel coming to a halt and severe doubt if it would ever get back to how it was. Despite the uncertainty of recent years, we’ve seen a huge increase of 73% student participation from 2021-22 to 2022-23 with increased interest this year, proving more than ever that overseas exchanges are back and growing!

Preparations have been underway to promote study abroad opportunities to our current Business School year 2 students for 2023-24, with significant engagement at our briefing sessions and frequent questions in our inboxes. The application process for non-European exchanges opened in Michaelmas term. Following the University-wide application process, successful students were offered the available places and subsequently the Business School application process opened to students in January to apply to study at one of our exclusive European Partner Universities. Overall, the 2022-23 academic year proved to be a resounding success with students eager to share their feedback and photos of their time abroad. We were delighted to welcome Sophie Roe and another of our returning students to our briefing session in October 2022 to help us promote the benefits of studying abroad as well as the personal and professional growth of the amazing experience offered to them.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Australia so far, it is definitely going to be a challenge moving back to the UK! My highlights have to include the amount of lovely people that I’ve met from all over the world in my residential college and I’ve loved learning about their different cultures.

Sophie Roe BA Business and Management (with Study Abroad)

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1. Study Abroad student Sophie Roe feeds a friendly marsupial while in Australia.

2. Sophie was able to visit cultural sites and a site of outstanding beauty during her year abroad.

My experience in Stockholm

Rosie Macdonald, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics (with Study Abroad).

Last year, I did my Study Abroad at Stockholm University in Sweden. I studied Economics there for one semester and it ended up being one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Study Abroad offers you so many surreal experiences you never thought you’d get.

Academically, it gave me an extra year to practice my degree as well as the chance to view it from a Swedish perspective. As well as having the extra time, it also gave me the opportunity to study with slightly less academic pressure which encouraged me to choose more unusual modules that I wouldn’t have considered at Durham. Over the year, I was able to explore economics more broadly, seeing how it overlapped with subjects like law and even climate science (Stockholm is renowned for its research on the economics of climate change). Overall, the experience enhanced my technical understanding of my subject as well as my appreciation and passion for it. As rewarding as my studies were, the best parts about my time in Stockholm were all the incredible opportunities outside academia. I’d never had the chance to live abroad before, and I cannot explain how exciting it was making the city my home. Sweden might be one of the most accommodating countries to move to: the people were so friendly, laid-back and all spoke impeccable English, but were also very patient when I tried to practice my Swedish. There was so much to do and see in Stockholm, from free museums and art galleries, amazing vintage stores, to world-class café culture! There’s truly something for everyone in the city. But most significantly, being able to live in a foreign

country is an invaluable and rare experience to broaden your horizons and worldview –it’s something everyone deserves to do!

Of course, one of my biggest fears about moving to a new country on my own was whether I would struggle to make new friends. But after arriving, I quickly realised I didn’t have to worry at all. I was offered student accommodation close to the university which made it super easy to meet other students and make friends – a bit like living in college in first year. The Erasmus network was also very active in Stockholm and organised many socials, activities, and trips to make sure international students were connected! One of the best parts of my exchange ended up being an Erasmus trip to Lapland where we saw the northern lights, tried cross-country skiing, and swam in the Arctic Ocean.

Study Abroad offers you so many surreal experiences you never thought you’d get. I travelled to new places, met people from so many different countries and learnt things I never thought I’d get the opportunity to. It’s an experience which will push you out of your comfort zone, but it’s endlessly rewarding. Coming back to Durham to start my fourth year, I feel more confident in my subject and in myself. I’m so grateful I took the plunge and applied. My time in Stockholm will for sure stay with me as one of the most exciting chapters in my life!

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2 1 1. Cross country skiing in Lapland on the Erasmus trip!

2. Showing friends from home Stockholm's famous ABBA museum!

Athens study tour helps define Vivien’s career aims

Current MSc Management student Shao-Wei (Vivien) Lin looks back at her experience visiting Athens earlier this year.

Motivated by my experience as an accountant after my bachelor’s degree, I applied for the MSc Management programme to further my business knowledge, knowing that Durham University Business School provides real-life experiences and opportunities for students during their studies. Based on this, I applied for the International Study Tour module to Athens, Greece, which is a wonderful choice for students longing to gain practical skills for future careers under professional guidance.

Putting theories into practice

As part of the module, students work on various business consulting projects and present solutions to directors and managers of successful companies. In our case, my partner and I worked closely with the Research and Development Director of Apivita, a natural skincare company, to assist their expansion and entry into China’s cosmetic market without animal testing, where the practice is mandatory. Other students worked in groups with cases including Melissa, a Greek pasta brand, Symbeeosis, an organic food supplement company, and Vouryia, a handcrafted travel agency, who are all expanding their markets in different fields.

A wonderful choice for students longing to gain practical skills for future careers under professional guidance.

With previous studies on basic business theories through my business school modules, and support through the workshops leading up to the tour, our module leader Dr Spyros Angelopoulos guided us through not only the content but also individual difficulties. Participating in the study tour enabled us to apply learned theories into actual practice with excellent support.

Study tour in Athens

Of course, students can look forward to sightseeing arranged by the international study tour team as well as the academic content. During our visit to Athens, we got the chance to appreciate the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum, led by a local tour guide. Special thanks to Pauline Dowson-Pounder, our International, Engagement, and Careers Manager for organising the five-day trip. It’s a fantastic opportunity which not all students get to experience.

Future career

What sets this module apart is the feedback you get on your consultation project from directors and managers. Apivita specifically gave me and my colleagues praise for applying for the Leaping Bunny China Qualification Program, a company who work with businesses to help make shopping for animal-friendly products easier and more trustworthy, under attentive supervision on the company’s behalf. It’s during this business project that I set my goal to pursue project management-related roles after graduation. In fact, I’m now taking the Project Management module to improve my project management skills to fulfil this goal. Looking back on the process, I really enjoyed working on the business project as well as observing projects by my classmates. I can assure those who are considering applying for the International Study Tour that it would be a memorable experience worth having.

The study tour enabled us to apply learned theories into actual practice with excellent support.

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1. Caption 1

2. Caption 2

1. Vivien visiting the Acropolis.

2. Vivien and other Study Tour students visiting one of Apivita's beehive sites in the Athens area.

Encouraging future leaders through professional Placement Years

(The Placement Conference Week 2022)

Completing a Placement Year can help students to gain key experience and tangible skills that will set them apart in the future and increase their capacities to become future leaders. Recent studies have found that Placement Years have a significant impact on employability in the UK, noting that ‘real world’ experience is seen as invaluable by employers.

In November, we welcomed 500 undergraduate students during a week of workshops, insight sessions, and panels with well-known organisations to discover such benefits of completing a professional Placement Year and how to be successful in their applications. This is an increase by over 25% of attendees from our 2021 event, highlighting how the placement route is becoming more popular across the University. In fact, in the Business School alone placements have grown by 50% since 2020. At the event, companies were welcomed back onto campus for the first time since the pandemic, with the week being ran as a combination of in-person and virtual sessions. To facilitate the event, a SharePoint site was created to house the schedule, company information, sign-up information and recordings of the virtual sessions. With both first-year students getting organised ahead of time, and second-year students in the midst of their applications invited to attend, the site attracted 2,351 site visits.

These talks provide great opportunities for students to get insider views on what the job market looks like.

25% Increase of on attendees from 2021 event

Business School placements up

674 unique visitors 50% since 2020

8.69/10

Average rating of 92% of attendees came away with new knowledge

The week began with Faculty Placement Manager-led workshops, covering a range of topics centred around developing confidence, outlining the process for those considering the placement route, and covering the speculative approach. The international route was also discussed, with the option becoming increasingly popular among students as they seek new ways to expand their horizons, learn new skills and gain up-to-date international exposure. These placements allow students to increase their language ability and country and culturespecific knowledge, not only helping them to sell themselves in the global job market, but giving them a better appreciation of diversity, as well as stronger communication skills and problemsolving abilities, which is key in the increasingly international working world.

Tuesday and Thursday’s sessions were led by visiting employers from companies including Mazars, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal and Samsung, who shared information about what they look for in applications. These talks provide great opportunities for students to get insider views on what the job market looks like as well as gain first-hand knowledge on the latest trends in the industry. Similar opportunities were provided on Wednesday, where we ran the Showcase Event. Representatives from Unilever, Oracle, BMW Group and more joined us on the balcony of the Calman Learning Centre for one-to-one chats, providing valuable networking opportunities for the students.

The conference was a great success, receiving an average rating of 8.69/10. Be it from connections made during networking opportunities or application advice received during workshops, the week was set up to help all students, regardless of how far along the placement journey they were. With over 92% having come away with new knowledge or awareness of their next steps, this aim was certainly met.

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Placement presentation to undergraduate students in the Business School lounge.

Leadership programmes delivering Executive Education

Senior Leadership Apprenticeship (SLA)

Aimed at highly motivated middle-to-senior managers across all sectors, the SLA is funded entirely via the Apprenticeship Levy. This applies to all organisations with a wage bill of over £3 million and non-levy paying companies contribute just 5% of the course fee.

SLA Programme Director, Professor Ian Whitfield, discusses how the use of the apprenticeship levy is a route to levelling up:

“The Senior Leader Apprenticeship is an important initiative that facilitates the continuous development of leadership skills and abilities for participants both regionally and nationally. At Durham, the apprenticeship is delivered at the Business School, a renowned centre of teaching and research excellence. Furthermore, the programme provides an excellent opportunity for organisations to take advantage of the apprenticeship levy.

Many more companies could benefit from making good use of the levy for executive education and, in doing so, contribute towards levelling up in the North East and other regions of England. In the current challenging economic climate and rapidly evolving ways of working, there is clear value in using the apprenticeship levy as a tool to invest in lifelong learning and professional development. Importantly, a senior leader apprenticeship adds significant value to participants at many stages of their journey to senior leadership roles.”

We’ve recently expanded our Executive Education portfolio with the addition of two key programmes: the Senior Leader Apprenticeship (SLA) and the Nissan Tailored Programme.

8th

Online MBA programe RANKED in the UK

In addition to the apprenticeship qualification, we also offer a Postgraduate Certificate as part of the programme, giving successful apprentices the opportunity to continue their studies by completing our prestigious Online MBA programme (ranked 8th in the UK by The Financial Times). In June 2022, we welcomed our first cohort consisting of apprentices from a variety of companies including Sage, Hargreaves, LNER and Cummins.

Chris Riding, Portfolio Director of Sage Group and current Senior Leader Apprentice or SLA student, reflects on his experience:

“The Senior Leader Apprenticeship has been a real development opportunity for me, stretching my learning and helping me contextualise what I have been taught into my business environment. The course has allowed me to step outside of my day-to-day activities and test my understanding of the subjects taught in both an academic and practical way. I have been able to embed skills I already have, build on these with lots of new ideas, and apply them practically.

The Senior Leader Apprenticeship has been a real development opportunity for me.

Strong teaching, face-to-face in Durham, in group sessions, has allowed me to learn from subject-leading academics and, as importantly, bounce ideas off a cohort from a mixture of businesses. The environment is academic, but relaxed, and is supported by a great team who ensure everything runs smoothly. Tutors have been responsive to questions and in providing support when needed both during teaching weeks and when needed during assignment writing. These experiences have given me the confidence to take ideas back into my workplace and apply themes and practice to work I am undertaking. This has brought value to the teams I lead and wider business as I continue to grow and nurture the skills shared.

Durham is a very reputable university, and their experience and prestige was a draw when looking for a provider for the apprenticeship. The team were really accommodating and helpful in getting our team onto the course and guiding us through the application process and I felt valued throughout. The range of resources available online make learning away from the University easy and is certainly an eye opener in its breadth and depth after all the time since I last studied!”

These experiences have given me the confidence to take ideas back into my workplace.

We recently welcomed our third cohort on 5 June 2023 and are currently accepting application for our fourth cohort which starts on 10 June 2024. If you’re interested in learning more, please get in touch: exec.ed@durham.ac.uk

Nissan Tailored Programme

In October 2022 we welcomed our first cohort from Nissan, with 24 delegates embarking on a tailored leadership programme.

Employing 6,000 people at its Washington site, Nissan has been a key player on the North East landscape for over 30 years and has become a cornerstone of the UK’s automotive sector. Its commitment to the region continues with recent investment in electric vehicle technology and a focus on internal development.

We’re therefore delighted to be able to support Nissan with this innovative programme that will develop their business management competencies, equipping their future leaders with the skills to continue the company’s exceptional performance. The programme explores key leadership themes and includes guest speakers from Nissan’s senior management team, giving delegates exposure to those setting the strategy and leading the business. Delegates take on a range of practical exercises, problem solving and reflective activities to ensure the direct application of learning in the workplace.

Claire Jones, Nissan’s HR Manager – Learning and Development, outlines why they chose to partner with Durham:

“We are delighted to be working with Durham University Business School to deliver a bespoke Nissan leadership programme focused on developing our leaders of the future.

The Business School have worked closely with the Nissan Learning and Development Team every step of the way to co-create a programme that meets the needs of our business and provides meaningful development for individuals that builds on their knowledge, skills and experience. The programme provides stimulating content in a dynamic, comfortable learning environment, with insights provided by leading academics who are experts in their field, alongside Nissan business leaders. My experience of working to co-design and deliver this leadership development programme with the business development team at Durham has been collaborative from start to finish. The result is a programme that provides our staff with a fantastic opportunity to receive firstclass development at a first-class university.”

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The Nissan cohort in front of the Business School.

Lucian Hudson, Professor in Practice

Lucian Hudson, Director of Advancement, Marketing and Communications, Durham University, has been appointed as a Professor in Practice at our Business School.

Lucian, who joined the University in 2020, has to date a 40-year career in communications and leadership, spanning media, government, business, higher education and civil society.

Lucian Hudson, Director of Advancement, Marketing and Communications,

Professor in Practice appointments, overseen by the University Provost, are given to high-achieving, non-academic professionals who are invited voluntarily to share their knowledge with students through special lectures, presentations and seminars.

Executive Dean, Professor Cathy Cassell, said, “We are delighted that that Lucian Hudson is joining the Business School as a Professor of Practice.

Lucian brings an exceptional wealth of experience in leadership and communication that will enhance our already considerable expertise in this field. We are excited to be working with Lucian and the positive impact his contribution will make across our education, research and external engagement practice.”

Lucian will continue to lead the University’s Advancement activities, overseeing marketing, communications and development to further Durham’s global reputation and influence.

Lucian brings an exceptional wealth of experience in leadership and communication

I very much look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with academic colleagues and business students.

A wealth of experience

In his early career Lucian was a pioneering journalist and television executive at the forefront of developing 24-hour breaking news coverage. He worked for both ITV and the BBC, where he established commercial joint venture channels with international broadcasters.

Lucian has experience as a senior civil servant in the UK Government, leading communications and marketing in several high-profile departments including Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice and DEFRA. During this period, he supported summits and ministerial meetings as the UK Government’s chief spokesman, engaging with international media and multiple stakeholders.

Prior to joining Durham, Lucian spent seven years as Director of Communications at The Open University and served as Interim Director of Public Affairs and Communications at the University of Oxford where he led strategic change, overseeing integrated communications across multi-disciplinary teams.

Professor in Practice role

Lucian will be a Professor in Practice (Leadership and Organisations) with the Department of Management and Marketing in the Business School.

His appointment will initially run for three years and will see him contribute his time and expertise at our Centre for Leadership and Followership and Centre for Organisations and Society.

Lucian will contribute to the School's teaching agenda in the areas of human resource management, employment relations, leadership, strategic policy, marketing and communications.

Commenting on his Professor in Practice appointment, Lucian Hudson said, “I am thrilled and honoured to take up this exciting role in topic areas that continue to fascinate and challenge us at a time of change and uncertainty.

“I very much look forward to sharing my knowledge and experience with academic colleagues and business students, engaging with my wider professional networks.

I will draw on case examples and experience of strategic communications and corporate leadership in public, private, civil society and higher education sectors. I hope that this work will stimulate reflection and learning, contributing to the world-class student experience at Durham University.”

Professor Hudson was one of the recent keynote speakers at the School’s DBA Conference reviewed later in this section.

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Mentor of the Year 2022

Each year, alongside their programme, our Durham MBA (Full-time) students are offered the support of a mentor to help them navigate the demands of MBA study and prepare for the transition to the workplace.

The mentoring programme is a cornerstone of the programme, in which each student is matched with mentors from the business and alumni world to provide guidance and support.

This year we’re delighted to announce MBA Alumni Dr Paul Aldrich as the winner of Mentor of the Year 2022.

The mentoring experience

Commenting on his mentoring Dr Aldrich said, “I have been a Visiting Fellow at the Business School for a number of years and providing mentoring to students is a key part of this role. Supporting them at a critical moment in their life journey is immensely satisfying. I have found it doesn’t take much time to have significant impact and would recommend the experience to other Business School alumni.”

His mentee, Evon Chan, recognised the contribution Dr Aldrich had made to his MBA experience. "At first, I wondered why Paul was assigned as my mentor as his current job profile did not align with my professional plan. As the programme progressed, I realised that this was a positive thing because I'm able to learn from his perspective and have become a well-rounded person, benefitting from both personal and professional growth. We recently met up in London for coffee, and talked about society, the economy and even the weather! Overall, having him as my mentor has made me feel this mentor-mentee programme is the most useful and beneficial programme of all."

Supporting students at a critical moment in their life journey is immensely satisfying.

Contributions to the School

Stephanie Osborne, Alumni Relations Manager, congratulated Paul, "We are deeply fortunate to have Paul as both an MBA and DBA alumnus. He has a deep understanding of strategic people management and how to implement it most effectively in different sectors and countries. We are most grateful that he continues to support the Business School as a visiting fellow, hosting alumni events and as a mentor to our current MBA students. He embodies the exceptional and generous nature of our graduates."

Paul joins previous illustrious winners

Raghava Manglik, Paul Hollick, Cecilia Luras, Travis Callaway, Stephen Tunnicliffe, Kamales Lardi, Frank Wege, Claire Rose, Hotung Lee and Elizabeth Scott.

DBA conference – Putting business theory into practice

The inaugural DBA Conference was held on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 May at the Business School. The aim was to provide Durham DBA students and alumni with the opportunity to present their work to internationally recognised academics, leading executives and DBA peers, as well as to interact and network in a supportive and enabling environment. The event reflected the international and collaborative nature of the School with delegates travelling from Canada, Lebanon, Qatar and South Africa. Alongside students from the Durham DBA were representatives from our joint DBA programmes with Fudan University, Shanghai and emlyon business school, France.

Attendees both in person and online were able to hear keynote presentations by Dr Jonathan Sims, Chief Procurement Officer at EQUANS, Professor Lucian Hudson, Professor in Practice and Director of Advancement, Marketing and Communications at Durham University and Professor Margarita Mayo, Professor in Organisational Behaviour at IE Business School, Spain. Associate Dean for DBA Programmes, Professor Karena Yan commented, “Hosting the inaugural

DBA conference is a significant milestone, bringing together three DBA programmes to create a collaborative platform where students can showcase their research and build meaningful connections within the academic community.”

During the conference dinner held at Hotel Indigo, the research efforts of the current DBA students were acknowledged with a presentation for the Best Paper. A student from the Durham, Global and Fudan DBA programmes was selected and received their award from Professor Hudson and Professor Yan.

Congratulations to Said Al Saqri (Durham DBA programme) and his paper, ‘It is not easy to let go: How power and status concerns of incumbent leaders affect their active involvement in the family business and consequent family succession success’, Samantha Yarwood (Global DBA programme) and her paper ‘Understanding leadership development programs and change’ and Leon Zhang (Fudan DBA programme) and his paper ‘The purchase journeys of omnichannel customers’.

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Attendees at the School's DBA conference.

The 33rd Chinese Economic Association (UK/Europe) Annual Conference

The Business School was honoured to host the 33rd Annual Academic Conference of the Chinese Economic Association (UK/Europe) from 1213 November 2022. The conference coincided with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of ambassadorial relations between China and the UK and so the Chinese Economic Association (CEA) event received strong support from the Chinese Embassy in the UK. The CEA conference set up 19 parallel sessions, bringing together more than 140 experts, scholars and PhD students from many countries to participate and discuss the economic development of China and the world. The meeting elected Professor Karena Yan from the Business School to be the president of the CEA.

With the theme of ‘China’s Dual Circulation: Openness, Technology and Innovation Network’, this annual conference focused on China-EU and China-UK cooperation under the current complex economic situation, and sought to deepen the understanding of China's economy, and promote mutual benefit and win-win collaboration.

Key note speakers in attendance included: Yang Xiaoguang, Minister of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, Baroness Manzilla Uddin, Member of the House of Lords, Professor Weiying Zhang, Economics National School of Development, Peking University, Professor Zhang Yunling, Member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Jianing Wei, Inspector of Department of Macroeconomic Research Development Research Center of the State Council, Professor Timothy Devinney, University of Manchester Business School, Professor Hinrich Voss, University of Bristol; with Durham University being represented by Professor Claire O'Malley, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global) and Professor Kieran Fernandes, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Development & Business Engagement).

The CEA’s Journal of Chinese Economics and Business Studies used the occasion to present the Best Paper and Best Special Issue awards. Best Paper was awarded to Abdul Rasheed Zakari and Irfan Khan for ‘Promoting Economic Growth Through Energy in Africa: The Role of Chinese Investment and Institutional Quality’, while Best Special Issue was awarded to ‘The impact of Covid -19 and Post-pandemic recovery: China and the world economy’.

This annual conference focused on ChinaEU and China-UK cooperation under the current complex economic situation.

A blockchain summit forum was held during the conference, moderated by Baroness Manzila Uddin, member of the House of Lords, Professor Li Zhou, Deputy Director of the Network and Urban Systems Center (University of Greenwich Business School) and Director of the Blockchain and Supply Chain Research Group (University of Southampton Business School), Associate Professor Yu Gong, and his team members.

A PhD career development workshop was also held, chaired by Professor Yingqi Wei, Associate Dean of the Leeds University Business School, and Professor Chengang Wang, Birmingham University Business School.

CEA UK/Europe is the second largest Chinese economics association outside of China, only after the American Chinese Economics Association. It’s an independent not-for-profit research association. Composed of scholars, researchers, students and industry members who are concerned about China's economic development, it aims to raise public awareness through publishing research on China's economy.

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Professor Shaojia Liu, Director of Peking University HSBC Business School UK Campus shared his view on China-UK cooperation in innovation and economic development.

Durham-Gothenburg workshop on environmental sustainability

In November 2022 (16–18) the School hosted a workshop on environmental sustainability, organised jointly with the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg.

We were excited to receive a delegation of 10 colleagues from Gothenburg, including the Dean of the School of Business, Economics and Law, Professor Per Cramér, and Deputy Dean, Professor Marie Stenseke. The visitors were welcomed by Executive Dean, Professor Cathy Cassell, and the event was hosted by the Associate Dean for Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability, Professor Martyna Śliwa. The joint workshop on environmental sustainability was an important milestone in our partnership-building with the School of Business, Economics and Law in Gothenburg, with whom we’ve committed to undertake a sustainability journey together. Both schools are triple-accredited and high-achieving in terms of delivering excellence across education, research and engagement. A few months earlier in April, the first partnership-building workshop focused on equality, diversity and inclusion was held in Gothenburg. Both the Gothenburg workshop and the one held in Durham last November were successful and inspiring.

During the November workshop, Durham and Gothenburg staff, including educators, researchers and professional services colleagues, delivered presentations and engaged in lively discussions about different aspects of environmental sustainability. It was a wonderful opportunity to listen to talks representing a range of perspectives on sustainability, to learn from each other about the fantastic work that’s taking place in both institutions, and to make plans for future collaborative activities. We identified areas of common interest and intend to continue with conversations over the coming months in preparation for another workshop, which will be held in Gothenburg in autumn 2023.

Scan or click to contact Professor Śliwa about the Durham-Gothenburg partnership and ways to get involved

It was a wonderful opportunity to listen to talks representing a range of perspectives on sustainability.

Ferry at the Lords!

At the House of Lords, UK Parliament, 3 November 2022, Professor Laurence Ferry successfully presented his research and impact findings in a keynote speech on ‘An international comparison of audit and accountability arrangements for local government across 20 countries’.

Professor Ferry’s underpinning research for the talk was based on his recent journal article and international book on local public audit that involved 35 academics and practitioners, including Dr Henry Midgley from our Department of Accounting. This extended Ferry’s national research into regulatory space across UK local government audit from 2021. It also built on his work as a Steering Panel member on Sir Tony Redmond’s Review in 2021 and an adviser to UK Parliament select committee for Housing, Communities and Local Government 2020 (after being Parliament Academic Fellow 2018 and 2019 with the select committee). His work looked at local government audit in England, which in turn built on his long-term work with the National Audit Office (NAO) and UK Parliament and enabled a world-leading REF2021 Impact case.

Following his talk, Professor Ferry was part of the expert panel including Lord Bichard (Host and former NAO Chair), Gareth Davies (NAO Comptroller and Auditor General), Clive Grace (Honorary Professor, Cardiff University), Professor Susanna Jorge (Coimbra University, Portugal), Professor Andreas Bergmann (Zurich University, Switzerland) and Rachel Ashworth (Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School) that discussed local public audit with a packed-out house of participants from all four UK nations, the USA, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland among others.

The final panel discussion also had excellent contributions from Durham University’s International Centre of Public Accountability (ICOPA) Members: Dr Henry Midgley (ICOPA CoDirector) and Honorary Professors Aileen Murphie (Adviser Parliament Select Committee) and Khalid Hamid (CIPFA International Director).

Lord Bichard commented that this was, “one of the best events that brought (academia) to life and showed how it can contribute to solving real problems.”

Scan or click for more information on Professor Ferry and his research interests.

One of the best events that brought (academia) to life and showed how it can contribute to solving real problems.

The excellence of our programmes continues to be globally recognised

We review the latest accreditations and rankings since last issue, beginning with a five year re-accreditation from EQUIS.

The School has been awarded a fiveyear extension to its accreditation from EQUIS, the leading international system of quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institutions in management and business administration.

The School also successfully achieved a five-year re-accreditation in 2017. There are fewer than 21 UK schools with the so-called ‘gold standard’ of five years’ accreditation status and under 55 in the rest of Europe.

The recent announcement follows a

• The provision of student support and counselling services.

• The quality and internationalisation of faculty members.

• The impact of research, with international research leadership also clearly evident.

The Peer Review Team also commended the School’s staff and students for their engagement with the wider community through a wide variety of outreach activities and public service initiatives.

Professor

Karen

O’Brien, Vice-Chancellor

and Warden, commented, “This is a wonderful achievement and a credit to all our colleagues

There are fewer than 21 UK schools with the so-called ‘gold standard’ of five years’ accreditation status.

Masters in Management ranked by Poets & Quants

We’re happy to announce that we've been included in Poets & Quants’ ranking of the world's best Masters in Management programmes.

Poets & Quants is a leading news website dedicated to the coverage of business education, highlighting the ranking of the best graduate business schools across the United States and further afield.

As one of only two UK business schools to receive this distinction, we’re proud to be recognised as one of the best.

With over 80% of our cohort coming from 25 countries, our Masters in Management offers a truly unique international study experience in Durham, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

American MSc Management student, Ayodeji Temitayo Lawal, comments on his experience of studying at Durham, “Having completed my undergraduate degree at Florida State University in the United States, I decided on a change of scenery for studying my masters. I found that Durham University Business School was on a smaller scale than what I was used to in the United States, creating a sense of community I’d not experienced before.

There is a warmth here that emanates not only from those that you will be academically connected to but also those you meet in your day-to-day life. The courses are intellectually stimulating as they challenge you to pursue your academic limits.”

ERS credentials see the Durham MBA sustain Corporate Knights Global Top 25 Ranking

Of the 160 schools assessed in Corporate Knights Better World 2022 ranking of the most sustainable MBA programmes, we’re pleased to say that the Durham MBA (Fulltime) has been placed in the global top 25.

This ranking, released in November 2022, specifically focuses on and evaluates the extent to which programmes integrate sustainability knowledge and skills into business education. Information used to rank business schools across the globe includes the modules taught as well as the diversity of faculty, research and research centres.

The School has a long association with both Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability (ERS), ensuring that both are integrated into all levels of the School’s teaching as well as being the focus for excellent and impactful research.

Professor Cathy Cassell, Executive Dean, said, “Many business schools around the world responded to the financial crash and its aftermath with a pledge to widen the scope of their MBA programmes to embrace the issues of sustainability and responsible management.

Here at Durham University Business School, ethics and sustainability are embedded in our ethos and form an important part of everything we do. That ranges from the development of programmes and curricula to the research efforts of our world-class faculty. We want to create the globally-focused, ethically-minded and forward-thinking business leaders of the future, and this is clearly reflected in this ranking, which puts the Durham MBA in the top 25 best globally for our sustainability focus.”

TOP 25

25

Durham MBA (Full-time) placed in global 80% of Masters in Management cohort from countries

1st

in the UK for Value for Money

The Durham MBA ranks first in UK for value for money

The Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2023 has ranked the Durham MBA (Fulltime) 1st in the UK, 5th in Europe and 12th in the world for value for money.

This reveals the exceptional return on investment our full-time MBA graduates are realising, as they have seen, on average, an increase of 92% on their salaries three years after graduating with their MBA.

Commenting on the success, Professor Cassell said, “This excellent result demonstrates the School’s dedication and commitment to providing an outstanding, inclusive business education for all.

We are conscious of the investment made by students who decide to embark on an MBA and we seek to add value with differentiating activities, so that our graduates stand out in their job markets and impress prospective employers.”

This prestigious ranking also showed the Durham MBA (Full-time) climbed 17 places to rank 78th in the world, with the programme positioned 8th in the UK and 23rd in Europe.

TOP 10

Durham MBA (Online) leads the way for ESG

The report, published in March, names the Durham MBA (Online) within the top five best programmes within the UK and Europe, and amongst the Global Top 10, alongside other prestigious institutions such as Warwick Business School, IE Business School and Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business.

In keeping with the current needs and demands of today’s business school applicants, the programme has also ranked 1st in the UK and 2nd globally for its efforts toward Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and net zero teaching.

Professor Cassell believes it’s these factors that the Business School must focus on further in the future.

“It is a fantastic accomplishment for our Online MBA programme to be once again recognised amongst the best on the market. As an institution we have always strived to provide high levels of quality, variety and access for applicants to our business education programmes, and our Online MBA programme has always been a key part of that mission.

Another core part of our ethos is sustainability and social responsibility. Increasingly, business schools must strive to ensure their programmes, activities and values continue to meet the needs and priorities of applicants and can make a positive impact on the world around them.”

This ranking maintains the School’s steady reputation as being amongst the top institutions globally from which students can pursue an Online MBA. We’ve remained within The Financial Times’ top 10 since first entering into the ranking in 2014.

The Durham MBA (Full-time) ranked

Durham MBA (Online) amongst the global

This prestigious ranking also showed the Durham MBA (Full-time) climbed 17 places to rank 78th in the world.

Guardian University Guide 2023 undergraduate subject rankings highlight the School’s strengths in career prospects

The Guardian University Guide published its annual subject level tables in October 2022 and three of the School’s undergraduate subject areas achieved a top ten placing. The ranking also highlighted the School’s strengths for graduate prospects.

Durham University received an overall ranking of 6th from a total field of 121 institutions, and three of the School’s undergraduate subject areas achieved top ten positions. Economics climbed three places to 7th, Accounting & Finance climbed six places to break into the top ten at 8th and Marketing & Public Relations also debuted in the top ten.

Our highly rated Accounting & Finance undergraduate subject area climbed nine places to 8th in the UK with an overall score of 88.6 out of 100. Durham scored 90 for The Guardian’s career prospects measure which is based upon the proportion of our 2018/19 and 2019/20 cohorts who were in ‘graduate level’ employment or continuing in higher education 15 months after graduating.

16th

The subject area of Business and Management ranked overall out of 118

For Economics, Durham rose three places to 7th overall supported by top ten positions for four of the nine individual measures considered by The Guardian: ‘Entry tariffs’, ‘Continuation rates’, ‘Career prospects’ and ‘Expenditure per student’. For ‘Career prospects’ Durham scored 94 points. The subject area of Business & Management ranked 16th overall out of 118 included in The Guardian University Guide table. ‘Career prospects’ was again a strength of the subject area provision and scored 86 points out of 100. Adjustments to The Guardian’s rankings this year created a new subject area category of Marketing & Public Relations and resulted in a 10th place ranking in this debut year. A score for ‘Career prospects’ isn’t possible due to the subject area being created in the last year and data required not being available for 15 months.

Scan or click for more information on the School’s rankings and accreditations.

Alumni activity

Reunions in Durham

September 2022 saw nine alumni from the MSc Management class of 1976/77 – a predecessor of our current MBA programme – visit Durham for the weekend for their 45-year reunion.

The returning alumni had achieved success in a range of career backgrounds and travelled not only from across the UK but also from countries including Germany and as far away as the USA. They enjoyed revisiting Durham and visited local attraction ‘Beamish, the Living Museum of the North’.

On the first day, the alumni joined Alumni Relations Coordinator, Matteo Lai, for dinner at the Cellar Door Restaurant for an evening of fond memories and interesting discussions on new developments at the School and changes that’ve taken place in Durham over the years.

On the second day, the alumni and Matteo met at the School for a tour and video call with two other alumni who joined virtually from Australia.

"It is a testament to the abiding impact of studying at Durham University that our graduates are still keen to return after 45 years. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to welcome them back to the Business School and hear their recollections. Although so much has changed, I was struck by the international nature of the cohort and much heartened to hear from the women how their studies in Durham had enabled them to progress their careers – values that are still important to us today," Matteo commented.

As part of their reunion weekend, the MBA Class of 2009 visited the Business School building.

With over 36,000 Business School graduates in over 140 countries, there’s always plenty of activity to report on. Here are just a few examples since the last issue of IMPACT. For information on how to keep up to the minute on news and activities, read on to the end of this article.

The MBA Class of 2009 was joined by Matteo Lai (Alumni Relations Coordinator) for a reunion dinner in Hatfield

Class of 2009

More recently in May we welcomed back the MBA Class of 2009 for a reunion in Durham. This group have formed long-lasting friendships with their cohort and Business School staff, with Charlotte Howell (International Engagement & Careers Assistant Manager), Professor Julie Hodges (Professor in Management), Professor Jorge Lengler (MBA Programme Director) and Matteo Lai (Alumni Relations Coordinator) reminiscing with our alumni on a beautiful Durham summer afternoon. Alumni travelled from as far as America and Japan to join this celebration, which included a tour around the Business School and dinner at Fusion, the School's in-house restaurant on the Friday. On the Saturday, activities included a tour around the Castle followed by dinner at Hatfield College. A wonderful weekend was had by all and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing what our inspiring alumni are doing since they graduated. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming the group back for their 20-year reunion.

Class of 1976/77 in the MBA lecture theatre.

Bangkok and Tokyo

In March our recruitment team represented the School at QS Masters and MBA Fairs in both Bangkok and Tokyo. They took the opportunity to also host alumni reunions in both cities. In Bangkok, 21 alumni joined School Marketing Manager, Martin Thomas at an evening reception in the Sheraton Grande Hotel Sukhumvit. The earliest graduate was from 2010 and the most recent from 2023. In Tokyo, 11 alumni joined the event at the St. Georges’ Bar of the Tokyo Hilton, Shinjuku to hear about developments in the School and meet fellow graduates. Alumni at both events gave positive feedback and we will look to hold further events at other cities when the opportunity allows.

Beijing and Shanghai Faculty members from the School’s Department of Finance and Department of Economics visited China in May to meet with staff from the University’s China Office, current offer-holders and alumni. Alumni Relations Manager Stephanie Osborne travelled with Professor Julian Williams, Head of Department of Finance and Professor Michael Naef, Head of Department of Economics sharing the latest news and research updates to our alumni who attended the events. Steph reflected, “It was fantastic to be back in China for the first time since 2019, as we welcomed over 100 alumni to the reunions in Beijing and Shanghai. The warmth that our alumni community has shined bright as they shared their reflections and memories of Durham. It was wonderful to host these events which harnessed opportunities for alumni and staff to create new connections and start new conversations with our remarkable alumni and supporters in China.”

Martin Thomas hosted alumni in Bangkok.

1. Alumni Gathering in Beijing, hosted by Professor Julian Williams, Professor Michael Naef and Steph Osborne.

2. Alumni Gathering in Shanghai.

The warmth that our alumni community has shined bright as they shared their reflections and memories of Durham.

Dunelm Days - A Global celebration

Since its launch in 2014, Dunelm Days has been an annual event planned and organised by our alumni community all around the world. It’s a great opportunity to get together informally to celebrate a shared connection with Durham University, to catch up with old friends and to meet new ones.

Organised by Durham graduates around the world, nearly 40 events took place this year, bringing together over 400 alumni, supporters, friends and family in 20 different countries and five continents. Business School graduates took the lead at 17 of these events including the establishment of two new Alumni Chapters in Delhi and Santiago.

Milan

Accounting and Finance (2009)

Lahore

Dunelm Days Host

Scan or click to keep up to date with all of the School news, including events and to connect with your fellow graduates.

1. Dunelm Day in London.

2. Alumni in Islamabad.

Dunelm Days is that time of the year when you remember that Durham is always with you no matter how far you travel in life.

Alessandro Berlé Management Studies (2019)

Dunelm Days host

Dunelm Days is like living the best life again.

Muhammad Turab Ghani

3. Karachi Dunelm Day.

4. Alumni at Delhi event.

5. Dunelm Day gathering in Hong Kong.