Imperial Business | 2020

Imperial Business 2020

Building a better world Making business work for people and the planet

18 10 questions about blockchain

30 Data science is good for you

32 International figure skating

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Imperial Business

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In this issue...

Regulars

Profiles

04 Dean’s welcome 06 News 08 Events 42 Alumni

14 Maurizio Zollo 22 Harveen Chugh 32 Mauro Bruni 40 Zola Foods

INSENDI: The new platform developed by our Edtech team. Read more on page 36.

Q &A

Comment

Features

16 Virtue signalling 20 Marketing 26 Machine learning 30 Data science 34 Diversification 38 Air pollution

12 Executive Education 18 Blockchain 24 Careers 29 Annual conference 36 Edtech 46 Last word on...

Zola Foods: Building an ethical supply chain that supports female farmers. Read more on page 40.

Editorial enquiries imperial-business@imperial.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7589 5111 Alumni enquiries alumni-business@imperial.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7594 6137 Editorial Michael Mills Communications Manager (Interim) Alix Goodwin, Priscilla Owusu Communications & Marketing Executives

Contributors Serena Cowdy, Bernadeta Dadonaite, Aine Doris, Amanda Houchen, Mansoor Iqbal, Temoor Iqbal, Celia Pearce, Lauren Pow, Helena Pozniak Original photography Marcus Ginns With thanks to Evie Burrows-Taylor, Janice Man, Megan Taylor-Silva

Cover Philip Bailey Design opx.studio © Imperial College Business School 2019 Zola Foods image © Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe

The opinions expressed in Imperial Business are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of Imperial College Business School. While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the information in this publication is correct, matters covered by this publication are subject to change.

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Welcome from the Dean This isn’t sustainable. For too long, business leaders have ignored the crucial question of how to create business models that are truly sustainable. To face this challenge, we need to be bold and innovative. This means we stop treating finite resources as if they will last forever, and make sure that business works for and with society, as well as the economy.

That’s why we’ve turned this issue’s cover over to the theme of sustainable business. It will be one of the School’s key areas of focus over the next 10 years, and Professor Nelson Phillips takes us through much of what we’re already up to on page 12. Professor Maurizio Zollo explains the newly launched Leonardo Centre’s mission to support the development of responsible business through strategic sustainability (p 14); Dr Christine Hemingway zooms in to show how individuals can make a difference to the actions of their employers (p 16); and Dr Harveen Chugh tells us about some of the programmes in place to support student ideas that benefit society (p 22).

Key to sustainability is diversity; not just a metric or a nice-to-have, it is essential that different experiences and skills inform your business model. And, of course, there are the softer benefits. As Mauro Bruni, the first recipient of our Reach Out MBA scholarship puts it: “different personalities from all backgrounds and sectors... [bring] colour and dynamism” (p 32).

Beyond sustainability, this issue we also look at how data science can improve society (p 30), the changing career aspirations of our students (p 24) and our pioneering work in educational technology (p 36). And Dr YingYing Hsieh provides some much-needed clarity on that most complicated of hot business topics: blockchain (p 18). All this and much more.

In uncertain times, businesses need diverse leaders with a shared social conscience: executives and entrepreneurs who understand through their own experiences and their exposure to others’ where it is that models have traditionally let down businesses, society and the planet.

We need graduates who know how to build a better world.

Francisco Veloso Dean of Imperial College Business School

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The business news A round-up of the top stories from across Imperial College Business School Carol Propper appointed President-Elect of Royal Economic Society

New research centre launches As issues such as sustainability, climate change and social responsibility continue to affect the way we live and work, the Business School was pleased to open a new research centre that focuses on these issues.

Led by Professor Maurizio Zollo, Head of the Department of Management and Professor of Sustainability & Strategy, the Leonardo Centre offers an innovative way to tackle the complex issues related to developing inclusive and sustainable forms of enterprise.

As a business school, promoting sustainable business growth is at the

core of our strategy, and essential for the long-term health of our society and economy. Together with its external partners, the Centre aims to use its research expertise to contribute to the evolution of business by helping business leaders implement more sustainable practices. The Centre also aims to become part of a collective effort to improve society in environmental and human terms.

Professor Carol Propper was appointed President-Elect of the Royal Economic Society, a prestigious association that aims to promote the study of economic science.

In this role, Professor Propper will chair the Society’s Communications and Women’s Committees, as well as the Council and Executive Committee.

Dean Francisco Veloso said: “I’m delighted to congratulate Carol on this incredible achievement. As a leading expert in health economics, her work on addressing the critical challenges facing healthcare systems is widely regarded by economists all over the world.”

Professor Propper will work alongside current president Professor Rachel Griffith, Research Director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies: the first time in the Society’s history two women have held presidential positions concurrently.

In order to fulfil her commitments to the Society, Professor Propper has stepped down as Associate Dean of Faculty & Research at the Business School; she is succeeded by Professor Franklin Allen, Executive Director of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis.

You can read more about the Leonardo Centre on page 12.

Harveen Chugh named one of the top 40 academics under 40 Senior Teaching Fellow in Entrepreneurship, Dr Harveen Chugh was named one of the world’s top 40 business school academics under the age of 40 by business education website Poets & Quants.

The “Top 40 Under 40” is a list of the world’s best MBA lecturers under the age of 40 from around the world. Dr Chugh, an expert in entrepreneurship, was recognised for her outstanding teaching and enthusiastic contribution to the School. She said:

“I’m honoured to receive this recognition for my work by Poet & Quants and would like to thank all my incredible students, colleagues and alumni from across the Business School and wider college who nominated me... I hope this achievement will highlight the great work we’re doing at Imperial to support students on their entrepreneurship journey.”

You can read more about Dr Chugh and her work on page 22.

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Erkko Autio honoured by the British Academy Professor Erkko Autio, Chair in Technology Venturing & Entrepreneurship, was made a Fellow of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Professor Autio was recognised for his pioneering research in the areas of national and regional entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, international entrepreneurship and high-tech startups.

Dean Francisco Veloso said: “This Fellowship is an acknowledgement of Erkko’s dedication to academia and teaching and is a proud moment for the Business School.”

Professor Autio is the fourth current academic from the Business School to be made a Fellow of the British Academy.

He will sit alongside Professors Franklin Allen, Carol Propper and Mike Wright.

Business School academics receive College recognitions Drs Marisa Miraldo and Renáta Kosová this year received a Julia Higgins Award for their work to support the progress of women in science. Named in honour of Professor Dame Julia Higgins, Senior Research Investigator in the Department of Chemical Engineering and current President of the Institute of Physics, the awards recognise individuals’ achievements in ensuring the culture at Imperial College London is friendly and inclusive and provides an environment in which everyone can succeed.

At the postgraduate graduation ceremony in May, Professor David Gann, former Vice President (Innovation) of Imperial College London and founding head of the Business School’s Department of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Emeritus Professor Samuel Eilon, founder and former head of Imperial’s Department of Management, each received a prestigious Imperial College Medal in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the life and work of the College.

PhD student receives award for Best Student Paper Eva Kirchberger (pictured on the right), a PhD student at the Business School, was selected by the Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Research Committee to receive the Best Student Paper Award at the 2019 OMT Division, Academy of Management Meeting. She was recognised for her submission “Authentic Adaption as Response by De Novo Category Pioneers to De Alio Entrants”.

The OMT is a global community of scholars who build and test theories about organisations, their management and organising processes, intraorganisational relations, organisation–environment relations and the role of organisations in society.

The Best Student Paper Award is given to an outstanding student paper that is not related to a dissertation. Eva was presented with the award at the OMT Business Meeting in Boston.

New scholarships established The Business School was delighted to offer two new scholarships to exceptional students on the MSc Investment & Wealth Management and MBA programmes this year.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Fidelity UK Foundation, the W L “Bill” Byrnes Global Scholarship of £25,000 is now available for students enrolling on the MSc Investment & Wealth Management programme.

The new scholarship honours the memory of Bill Byrnes, who played a significant role in the development of Fidelity as an international investment management business. The scholarship supports academically brilliant students who have come from a financially disadvantaged background or are of the first generation in their family to attend university.

As part of its continued support of LGBTQ+ professionals, the Business School became a partner of Reaching

Out MBA (ROMBA), an international organisation that seeks to empower and connect graduate business students from the LGBTQ+ community to support the next generation of LGBTQ+ leaders.

The Business School now offers the ROMBA Fellowship, a scholarship worth up to £20,000, to an MBA student who has demonstrated leadership in championing LGBTQ+ representation within business education.

You can read more about the first recipient of the Imperial ROMBA Fellowship on page 32.

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Events

25 Sep

Over the past academic year, the Business School has brought together students, alumni, academics, policymakers and industry experts to discuss the most pressing issues in global business. Here are just some of the highlights...

Imperial College Business School 2018–28 Strategy launch Dean Francisco Veloso formally launched the new 10-year strategy for the Business School at a small event on campus. He outlined the strategic vision to be a worldleading business school with a diverse, engaged and supportive research and learning environment that leverages technology and entrepreneurship to improve business and society.

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Oct

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Oct

Annual Business School Alumni Celebration Over 150 alumni, guests and staff gathered at the Business School in South Kensington for our annual alumni celebration, this year held in the Energy Hall of London’s Science Museum. The evening, a celebration of the lifelong connection between alumni and the Business School, was attended by alumni from across all programmes, from 1976 to 2018.

Student Welcome Reception The Business School welcomed students from all 17 programmes to the Natural History Museum for a special event to kickstart the academic year. Over 1,400 students of 103 nationalities were greeted by faculty and staff in the famous Hintze Hall, which features “Hope”, a 25.2-metre-long blue whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling.

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Oct

The Playful Entrepreneur – book launch A major new book about the future of work by Professors David Gann and Mark Dodgson – both affiliated with the Business School – was launched with a showcase of student entrepreneurship. Among the Imperial startups giving demonstrations were: BlakBear, which develops air and water quality sensors; Mitt, a firm developing comfy, easy-to-use and affordable artificial limbs; and ThinAir, which uses biomembranes to collect and clean water.

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Women in Tech: The Inside Story The School hosted the world’s first live holographic university lecture. Guest speakers were beamed into the College atrium from Los Angeles, New York and London to give their accounts of the challenges and opportunities they had experienced in their careers.

The hologram technology was subsequently deployed in a number of lectures and presentations.

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The Imperial Women’s Network: Innovation in Banking and Financial Services The alumni-led Imperial Women’s Network, in partnership with Oracle Women in Leadership and Oracle Women in Technology, hosted an event on innovation in banking and financial services. Keynote speakers included Antony Welfare, Director of Innovation Strategy at Oracle, and Marta Piekarska, Director of Ecosystem at Hyperledger. The event also featured a panel session chaired by Hugh Halford-Thompson, a software entrepreneur and investor.

Nov

Nov

28 Mar

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Fintech Professional Interest Network: The Changing Face of Financial Services The alumni-led Fintech Professional Interest Network held an event to debate the evolving nature of the financial services landscape. A panel of senior industry figures and thought leaders, including Andrea Dunlop, CEO of Merchant Acquiring Europe, Paysafe, and Sean Kiernan, CEO of financial services group DAG Global, shared their views and opinions on whether the changes taking place within the financial services industry are caused by true disruption – an innovation that leads to the creation of a new market – or are just natural evolution.

Annual Hedge Fund Conference The Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis organised and hosted the 13th Annual Hedge Fund conference at the Berkeley Hotel, in partnership with the Centre for Economic Research.

Bryan Kelly, Professor of Finance at Yale School of Management, delivered the keynote speech, which looked at the use of machine learning in asset pricing.

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Digital Transformation: Reimagining Business for the Digital Age – annual conference Lord Mayor of the City of London Peter Estlin, Royal Society of Arts CEO Matthew Taylor and Glamour magazine Editor in Chief Samantha Barry joined business leaders and thought leaders at the Business School’s fourth annual conference.

The conference focused on how to successfully harness digital transformation across organisations.

You can read more on page 29.

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May

Dean’s Graduation Reception On the eve of their graduation, Dean Francisco Veloso welcomed students to the Institute of Directors for the annual Dean’s Graduation Reception. This was an exclusive event to honour the brightest, most innovative, engaged and overall outstanding students, as well as those recognised on the Dean’s List and award winners.

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Events

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China’s Next Strategic Advantage – book launch Emeritus Professor George Yip and co-author Dr Bruce McKern, from the China Europe International Business School, launched their book China’s Next Strategic Advantage at a celebratory event held at the Business School. During his talk, Professor Yip put forward the case that Chinese industry was becoming more innovative thanks to flexibility in meeting customer needs and a trialand-error approach to development.

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Venezuela’s Debt Crisis: The Options Now The Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis hosted a talk on the Venezuelan debt crisis.

Professor Mitu Gulati of Duke University shared with an audience of Business School staff, students and alumni his opinions on how best to address the economic crisis facing the Latin American country. He argued the only viable solution was to restructure Venezuela’s debt in a way that blocked holdout creditors who could pose a lethal threat to any prospects of economic recovery.

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Executive MBA 30th anniversary celebration The 30th anniversary of Imperial’s Executive MBA programme was marked with an event at Millbank Tower. Alumni and guests attended, and Dr Charles Donovan, Principal Teaching Fellow and Director of the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment, gave a guest presentation.

May

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May

David Miles and Nelson Phillips on Brexit Leading UK economist Professor David Miles presented his take on the global impact of Brexit at talks given to alumni based in Hong Kong and Singapore. Professor Miles was a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee for six years in the aftermath of the financial crash.

He was interviewed by Professor Nelson Phillips, the Abu Dhabi Chamber Chair in Innovation & Strategy, and gave his views on the reasons for the result of the UK’s EU referendum, the outlook for the British economy, and future trading relationships between the UK and Asia.

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May

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May

Bank of England speech Ben Broadbent, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, delivered a speech at the Business School on the investment paralysis caused by fears of a no-deal Brexit. Mr Broadbent’s speech highlighted how companies were holding off their investments until the outcome of Brexit was more certain, even though employment in the UK had grown.

Social Impact Day The Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation held its annual Ideas to Impact Challenge as part of a broader Social Impact Day. The event also featured several panel discussions, exploring issues such as the role of women in impact investing.

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Jun

19 Jul

International Holographic Conference: British and American Perspectives on Climate Finance The Centre for Climate Finance & Investment hosted its first holographic conference between speakers in London and Toronto. The topics discussed included sustainable finance, renewables, infrastructure and long-term investing. This was the first conference of its kind to demonstrate how new technology can facilitate international conversations about sustainability without the environmental costs of transatlantic travel.

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Global MiM Network The Business School joined three other international business schools (ESMT Berlin, SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Smith School of Business at Queen’s University) to create a global exchange programme for Master’s in Management students.

The Global MiM Network allows four students at each member school to take courses at one or more partner institutions, providing a more global study experience without the cost of an overseas programme.

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Data Science for Social Good DataFest 2019 The Data Science for Social Good Fellowship programme concluded with an event attended by staff, students, entrepreneurs and policymakers at the Business School. The event was an opportunity for five teams of Fellows from the programme to talk through their projects and showcase interactive demonstrations of their findings.

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You can read more about the Data Science for Social Good Fellowship on page 30.

Alumni world tour Led by Dean Francisco Veloso and Associate Dean Leila Guerra, our global tour met with alumni communities in over 10 countries to share our new 10-year strategy to be among the world’s leading business schools. It brought together hundreds of Business School and College alumni from a range of professional backgrounds, allowing us to see first hand the strength of our wider community.

In cities as far apart as Beijing, Mumbai, Toronto, Paris, New York and Dublin, we presented our strategic vision to drive global business and social transformation through the fusion of business, technology and entrepreneurship.

As well as a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the successes of our alumni community, the tour also formed a key part of our strategy to deepen links and strengthen engagement with alumni to help make the most of their lifelong connection to the Business School. Our alumni play an active part in building and strengthening the School community and make significant contributions to the ongoing success of the Business School.

“It was exciting to reconnect with our global alumni community and share the Business School’s new 10-year Strategy,” said Erin Hallett, Head of Alumni Relations. “The tour is just the start of the Business School’s outreach programme to our global community, and we will continue to build on its success and work with our alumni around the world to support our students, develop our brand and provide philanthropic support.”

As our best champions and advocates, our alumni community are key to achieving our ambitions, and we look forward to working with them to build a world-leading school.

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How Imperial is developing corporate sustainability leaders Companies that invest in sustainability generate better returns than those that do not

Written by: Professor Nelson Phillips

“The world needs your leadership. As divisions continue to deepen, companies must demonstrate their commitment to the countries, regions and communities where they operate, particularly on issues central to the world’s future prosperity.”

The most interesting thing about this passage is who wrote it. It wasn’t written by an NGO leader, scientist, politician or other typical social change advocate. It was written by the founding partner of an investment

“The Centre provides detailed benchmark data to corporate partners.” firm, a member of the business elite whose company is responsible for managing assets worth more than the GDP of Japan. This is a passage from BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink’s 2019 letter to CEOs urging them towards corporate sustainability.

Researchers have shown that companies that invest in sustainability generate better returns than companies that do not. Now shareholders and investors like Fink are also leading calls for companies to achieve longterm value for all their stakeholders, including consumers, employees and local communities.

For established companies, taking urgent and meaningful action to address climate and other social issues may force them to rethink the very foundations of their business

models. It is also an enormous task for leaders personally, potentially requiring a major shift in mindset and leadership style.

Working with business At Imperial College Business School, we are supporting leaders who are striving to meet ambitious sustainability goals.

First, we are working with organisations to develop more sustainable business models using Imperial’s science and technology research innovations. In a recent project, we were engaged by Panasonic to help their senior executives build circular economy principles into their product development processes.

Second, through our MBA programmes and executive education experiences like our intensive Leadership in a Technology Driven World programme, we are supporting leaders to develop authentic leadership styles and to lead transformational change in a world disrupted by new technologies.

But we are also conscious that we need to be more ambitious in our efforts to help businesses achieve corporate sustainability.

The Leonardo Centre We have recently launched the Leonardo Centre, led by strategy and sustainability expert Professor Maurizio Zollo (about whom you can read more on page 14). This Centre is using Imperial’s expertise and networks in areas including energy, climate and health to help companies design sustainable business models.

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The Leonardo Centre is producing actionable information to help companies evaluate sustainability investments. The Centre has collated and categorised five million corporate sustainability initiatives extracted from corporate reports. Using this resource, the Centre provides detailed benchmark data to corporate partners, helping them to understand if their sustainability work is having a meaningful impact on financial and other measures of performance.

The Leonardo Centre is also taking a pioneering approach to business education.

The Centre invites companies to work with them for between six and nine months to create and test sustainability strategies through field research projects. Executives who take part simultaneously generate ideas for new sustainability projects and evaluate the effectiveness of these projects in their companies, accelerating the innovation process.

The Business School, collaborating with faculty across Imperial, is uniquely placed to help companies leverage technology and scientific insights to deliver sustainable organisational change. As corporate sustainability becomes imperative, we are embedding sustainability as a key theme in our research and education programmes. w

About the author Professor Nelson Phillips is the Associate Dean of External Affairs, as well as the Abu Dhabi Chamber Chair in Innovation & Strategy. His areas of research interest include entrepreneurship, technology strategy and innovation, organisation theory, and qualitative research methods. He has published more than 100 academic articles and book chapters, and holds editorial positions on several journals.

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Profile

Maurizio Zollo: researcher, collaborator and activist The School’s new Head of the Department of Management and Scientific Director of the recently launched Leonardo Centre is finding solutions to the biggest social and environmental challenges

Imperial Business

Written by: Helena Pozniak

One of the biggest questions Professor Maurizio Zollo asks as he settles into his new role at the Business School is why hasn’t anyone done this already: conduct real field experiments among businesses to discover if there’s a better way of working. He wants to tackle some thorny problems: how to combat the “I want it now” behaviour of business, how to challenge inequality, reconcile conflicting interests and include voices of those excluded from company boards.

“Our overarching question is how do firms evolve – how do they grow, change, improve?

And how do they do this amid today’s social and environmental challenges? How can we, as researchers, help them to do that?

It’s amazing that business doesn’t have a culture of experimentation in the way, say, that science or medicine does.”

This is what he aims to investigate as Scientific Director of the Business School’s new Leonardo Centre – which harnesses the collective wisdom of the College’s scientists, and climate and sustainability experts, as well as the School’s best business brains.

I N BRI E F

Studied under former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti Former consultant and investment banker Served a decade at Bocconi University in Milan Visiting Professor of MIT Sloan School of Management

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“Nowhere have I seen such a willingness and incentive to collaborate as at Imperial.”

It was the spirit of collaboration that enticed him to Imperial College Business School – that and the lure of living in London, which he loves. “I find it an amazing, fascinating city.”

Before arriving in February 2019, he served a decade on the faculty of Bocconi University – where he’d previously studied under the guidance of economist Mario Monti who became Italy’s prime minister from 2011 to 2013. This was after a decade at INSEAD, and he’s still visiting professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Bocconi.

Rethinking business Before he began his academic career with a PhD in Management from Wharton, Maurizio worked as a consultant and investment banker. “But nowhere have I seen such a willingness and incentive to collaborate as at Imperial. I’ve been stunned by the goodwill towards the project, and the prospect of working among 14 different research centres. It’s very innovative.”

What he wants to explore – and he’s speaking to business leaders linked to the School to get them on board – is to experiment with how companies can create value not only for shareholders but for everybody affected by a business: “How to create economic and noneconomic worth not only for investors, but also clients, employees, suppliers, partners, communities.” Should customers have a say in product development or pricing for instance, or should local communities have a say in suppliers? What about the methods companies use to create incentives or exert control – could these be rethought?

Of course, how you make this a reality rather than an ideal – listen to the perspectives of all those affected and give them power – is complex and requires profound change. “This model doesn’t exist at present – it’s nowhere to be seen. But it’s something the world needs badly amid the huge social and environmental challenges we face.”

A business utopia Maurizio compares the modern company to a castle: “A locked stronghold where only the management and investors are allowed in, while local communities and employees sit outside, and decisions are communicated down. Our idea is to open the castle and allow everyone to have a say.” This might sound utopic, but he has no illusions about the difficulties entailed: “You will never please everyone.” Pilot projects, he hopes, could play around with this idea in a low-risk environment, with the support of rigorously designed experiments.

Imperial’s medical expertise has a part to play in this inquiry, he says. He’s keen to build on his previous findings from neuroscience and management science that show a strong link between meditation and how managers perform. An individual who meditates not only improves their wellbeing but tends to have a longer-term perspective, think more creatively, frame problems differently and work more intuitively, he says. This could have a knock-on effect at a strategic level and help incorporate the views of people at many stages of the company.

Any change in business is risky, he says, and requires a leap of faith. “We need to create a space where experiments can take place in a safe environment and with the support of knowledgeable people. We have the freedom, the right and the duty to experiment with companies – it beats me why we haven’t done it before.” w

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Virtue signalling: how individual actions can drive a newer, kinder form of capitalism If you find yourself accused of virtue signalling, take it as a compliment

Written by: Dr Christine A. Hemingway

About the author Dr Christine A. Hemingway is a Research Fellow within the Leonardo Centre at Imperial College Business School. Her research focuses on the personal motivations and values that can drive the sustainability agenda within organisations, and the development of responsible leaders and managers.

Do you remember the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and money for motor neurone disease that went viral on social media in the summer of 2014? Maybe you support the Fairtrade movement, choose ethically sourced ingredients, shun “fast fashion” produced in poor working conditions and favour the companies that pay their workers a fair wage. Or perhaps you’re one of the UK’s 600,000 vegans because you worry about animal welfare and the effects of eating meat on our health and the environment.

These are just a few examples of causes that people decide to champion in order to change an issue they regard as a social problem. They also address one or more aspects of sustainability, whether health and wellbeing, community, climate change or some other. But not everyone will agree on what is a worthy cause and may also think one person’s action is futile. This has led to the popularity of the term “virtue signalling”, defined in the Cambridge Dictionary as “an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media”. Trying to change the world is not always well received and “do-gooders” risk accusations of being sanctimonious, sometimes attracting abuse or even persecution. Can individuals really make a difference?

Corporate social entrepreneurs A 2017 article in Harvard Business Review described how small group protests can become successful social movements and how the ability of ordinary individuals can create the groundwork for transformational change. For example, Rosa Parks and Greta Thunberg were not formally appointed leaders, but individuals whose actions inspired others to change, demonstrating an informal leadership. Social change was the starting point for my own study into notions of employee social responsibility and the possibility of activism in the workplace, driven by personal values.

The multinational company selected for my study had a reputation among its peers for its efforts in sustainability, despite not having any formally appointed ethics or corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers at that time. The findings revealed the majority of employees involved with one or more area of sustainability either participated because it was part of their job description or because they believed it would be a good career move.

A small minority were engaged in progressing a social and/or environmental agenda either overtly or covertly, i.e. sometimes acting under the radar. I called these people the “corporate social entrepreneurs”.

They championed all manner of initiatives, ranging from a company-wide environment project, to serial charity fundraising, to speaking up against racism on the factory floor.

Imperial Business

“Can individuals really make a difference?”

These findings complement a growing stream of research in business and management on “identity work”, developing earlier research that was published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1987.

However, is the discovery of corporate social entrepreneurs entirely explained as socialsymbolic work? Or might these activities indicate the possibility of human character and agency, where character is enacted in a nexus of behaviours, relationships and structures?

Existential experiences Character was a key finding of the corporate social entrepreneurs who spontaneously recounted personal, transformational moments in their lives. These events amounted to momentous turning points that may have been triggered by studying CSR as part of an executive education programme, a serious family illness or bereavement, or a self-transcendent religious experience.

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These existential experiences led to a seismic shift in the personal values systems of these individuals; one that had inspired their leadership in specific sustainability issues. Such actions underpin the responsible business model. They also form a basis from which to build stakeholder capitalism.

Imperial College Business School is a world-leading authority on business, not least because it embraces and encourages businesses to adapt to social change. We also recognise that the global sustainability movement indicates a growing demand for responsible business that is the way forward for the benefit of everyone. Many of the choices we make are a question of what we value, which can sometimes be political and contentious – as is the subject of CSR. It is very easy to criticise and question the motives of individuals, organisations or institutions that are investing their resources in social responsibility and sustainability.

But isn’t it better that a social and/or environmental problem is actually being tackled, rather than worrying about selfinterested motives? Human beings are complex individuals and real-life saints are very thin on the ground. Imperial is committed to transforming organisations to sustainability, despite their complexity and the tremendous political, economic, societal and technological constraints within which they operate.

The Leonardo Centre, underpinned by the Business School’s strategy, aims to work with all our internal and external partners to co-create solutions to the global challenges facing society and our planet. So, the image of business that was personified by Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street is way out of date.

Keep up the good work – the world needs more virtue signallers. w

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10 questions about blockchain Dr Ying-Ying Hsieh explains this most complicated of hot topics Written by: Bernadeta Dadonaite

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What is blockchain, where is it used and will it become mainstream? These are just some of the questions on the lips of the public as the word – and cryptocurrency in general – becomes more widely used.

But if you’re new to the idea of blockchain, it can seem a tricky concept to get your head around. With this in mind, we sat down with Dr Ying-Ying Hsieh, Assistant Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, to talk about blockchain and its applications in cryptocurrency and beyond.

Here are her confusion-busting answers to some of the public’s most common questions.

What is blockchain?

Blockchain is simply a softwarepowered public ledger that enables the sharing of value, such as payments, between peers online.

Importantly, blockchain allows the information to be shared without the need to go through any intermediaries such as banks or payment companies. As its name suggests, it is made of blocks that are connected in chains and each block stores a small part of the history of the transactions that have taken place on the blockchain.

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When was blockchain created?

Blockchain is not so much an original idea as it is a combination of a number of pre-existing technologies such as cryptography, peer-to-peer computing and others. The successful first digital implementation of blockchain was in 2008, with the publication of a whitepaper by an anonymous developer, nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto, in which the idea of blockchain-mediated cryptocurrency, known as bitcoin, was first proposed.

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How does blockchain support bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency that one can think of as digital cash. Bitcoin only exists online and therefore its exchange needs to be recorded digitally. Blockchain essentially acts as a digital ledger to record all transactions happening between the peers online and provides a secure and decentralised record for all the exchanges.

What does a “decentralised” blockchain mean?

It means the information in the blockchain is not stored in a single place, but it is distributed across the network of people who are using it.

For example, standard cash, such as pounds or dollars, are issued by the central banks that keep the records of where the money is going. However, with bitcoin, there is no single entity that is responsible for issuing bitcoins and keeping the records. Bitcoin works through an anonymous network of people who provide nodes to the blockchain. Anyone can join or exit the blockchain at any time and the crossvalidation between the nodes is required to record anything on the ledger.

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Does the decentralised nature of the blockchain make it more secure?

Yes. Here is an example. If you have a pot of gold, you can store it in a vault and trust the people who own the vault, i.e. banks and their personnel, to keep it safe for you. But if your gold is analogous to bitcoin then, rather than putting your pot of gold into a bank vault, you actually put it in someone’s house in some imaginary village and it gets moved to a new house every 10 minutes or so. No one knows where your gold will be moved, which makes it very difficult for any burglar to know where it will be at any given time. Moreover, to enter the houses in which your gold is stored, the burglar would need to solve complicated equations, which are both time consuming and extremely energy expensive.

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But there have been many reports of bitcoins being stolen, so it is possible to hack the blockchain, right?

Well, most of those reports actually refer to the hacking of exchanges in which the cryptocurrencies are being traded and not the blockchain itself. In fact, we can still find the stolen currency on the blockchain, we just do not have the access to it or know who has stolen it.

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Are there different types of blockchains?

Currently, there are several different types of blockchains, which were mostly developed to improve the original bitcoin blockchain. Another very popular blockchain is the Ethereum blockchain developed to exchange ether tokens online. Ethereum blockchain is more energy efficient, allows smart contracts (the transfer of currency only under certain conditions) and also uses proofof-stake rather than proof-of-work protocols to validate transactions.

Can anyone start a blockchain?

Yes. In principle, anyone with some computing knowledge can do it. The success and value of the blockchain comes from its size and, to make it attractive to the users, the creator of the new blockchain needs to be able to grow it fast by adding as many blocks as possible to the chain.

The scaling of the blockchain is referred to as bootstrapping and it is often done through the so-called initial coin offerings at the early stages of a cryptocurrency creation.

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Is there any disadvantage to using a blockchain?

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage from the government’s perspective is that blockchain-based technologies are very difficult to track. The decentralised nature of the blockchain makes it difficult to regulate transactions happening online and therefore it is very attractive for criminals to use for illegal trade and money laundering purposes. In fact, we often see bitcoins being the preferred payment method during ransomware attacks and in the online black market for weapons and drugs.

Can blockchain be used outside the cryptocurrency field?

There are many potential avenues for the use of blockchain, though so far, it has been used more as a proof-of-concept and not yet fully implemented. Essentially, any situation where trust is of key importance could make use of blockchain, whether that is the financial industry or electronic voting systems. In the shipping industry, the blockchain could be used to track where the goods versus the money are, and in the healthcare system, it could be used for the secure storage of patient data.

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From the art to the science of marketing How do you know which marketing actions will work best with your customers?

Written by: Dr Gokhan Yildirim

When trying to work out how to effectively allocate marketing resources to increase returns, companies often turn to gut instinct or experience. But our research shows an evidence-based approach not only removes the guesswork from delivering an effective marketing strategy but can also boost sales revenue by more than 16 per cent.

We know email and direct mailing are typically profitable: studies suggest that for every pound spent on email marketing you can expect an average return of ÂŁ38.

Similarly, direct mailing usually generates a robust response rate of around four per cent. It’s clear these channels represent powerful opportunities to reach target audiences. What’s less clear is how these channels work in a complex scenario where variables like customer segmentation, crossborder dynamics, and online and offline sales responsiveness can muddy the water for marketers.

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Different demographic groups respond differently to marketing. While promotions might work with prospects, they fare less well with acquired customers and might even produce negative effects. Cultural differences at country level that moderate the effectiveness of marketing communication are a recipe for complexity that can translate into hefty marketing spend and a less than optimal return on investment.

Doing the maths We wanted to see if econometric modelling could provide a framework by which we could accurately measure these variables in order to make firm and reliable forecasts about impact on revenue – and provide guidance to companies on which specific marketing actions to take with different target segments in order to yield optimal results. Working with data sets provided by L’Occitane, we began by quantifying different audience groups across six countries. These groups were then organised into six consumer segments based on the value they have for the company: from prospects through to high-value repeat customers.

Next, we modelled consumer responses to L’Occitane’s own and cross-channel marketing actions and looked at how this varied both by segment and by country.

Using statistical analysis, we were able to make predictions about the effectiveness of different marketing actions like direct mailing of catalogues or email promotions.

This meant we could extrapolate concrete recommendations for the company about how to best reallocate its resources for return on investment.

Our immediate findings produced interesting results. Email campaigns influenced both online and offline sales, but only in three of the six countries studied.

With direct mailing, we observed no differences between the countries, although as a strategy, we found it to be more effective with prospective customers across the board.

To test our framework in a real-life setting, we conducted a field study for L’Occitane in Italy in 2017. Between July and November, we tested the model across four variables: no marketing action, only emails, only direct mails and a mixture of both. To push things a bit harder, we included a fifth dimension: whether customers had said they could be contacted through a particular channel or not.

The results were as significant as they were concrete. Our field study for L’Occitane in Italy revealed direct mail is only truly

effective for customer acquisition. With email, only those customers with a preexisting relationship with the company were positively receptive to the communication.

Translating this intelligence into concrete resource reallocation decisions, we found we were able to increase revenue for the company by 8.4 per cent.

But that’s not all. When L’Occitane came to us they brought with them an assumption that mailing catalogues directly to high-value, wellestablished customers was the best marketing strategy. Our framework suggested otherwise.

Processing the data, we found prospects were a better bet for catalogues – a strategy the company had never previously pursued.

About the author Dr Gokhan Yildirim is Associate Professor of Marketing at Imperial College Business School.

His research interests lie primarily in the domain of return on marketing investment.

A simple model The model we have developed can be just as readily applied to companies and organisations across a range of sectors and industries.

“We were able to increase revenue for the company by 8.4 per cent.”

We used the model with a US-based clothing company and generated a revenuelift of just under 10 per cent. As a method of boosting financial performance, it is as simple as running the calculations and then creating a spreadsheet that can be easily managed by marketing or finance executives to forecast revenue and profit impact. We see our research as part of a paradigmatic shift in which marketing is moving from an “art” to an evidence-based discipline – one in which art and science have equal importance.

This article draws on findings from the paper “Direct Mail to Prospects and Email to Current Customers? Managing Multichannel Marketing for L’Occitane” by Albert Valenti and Shuba Srinivasan (Questrom School of Business), Gokhan Yildirim (Imperial College London) and Koen Pauwels (D’Amore-McKim School of Business). The paper was awarded the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science Gary L. Lillen Practice Prize for 2018. w

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Profile

Written by: Temoor Iqbal

Entrepreneurship expert Dr Harveen Chugh aims to build a generation of practical, businessminded entrepreneurs free of the myths and preconceptions that stifle first-time founders

In an age defined by innovation, it’s no surprise entrepreneurship is on the rise.

According to Companies House data, an average of over 625,000 new companies have been registered annually in the UK since 2015. However, over the same period, the number of dissolutions averaged over 440,000, with most new businesses going bust within three or four years. One factor behind this is an instinct to aim high without laying the groundwork, with inexperienced entrepreneurs often “aiming to solve a huge problem such as poverty, climate change or looking to build a sophisticated product without ensuring market fit”, says Dr Harveen Chugh, Senior Teaching Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School.

Harveen’s solution is to transform entrepreneurship training. “The aim of my research is to develop a consistent approach to entrepreneurship coaching, so that we ensure entrepreneurs cover the fundamental questions and steps that will lead to their success.”

Harveen Chugh: scientist, educator and entrepreneur

Syllabus for success Harveen began her journey combining science and business with a BSc in Biology with Business Studies at Queen Mary University of London and an MSc in Bioinformatics at Birkbeck University of London. She joined Imperial College Business School in 2002 to undertake a PhD in Entrepreneurship, focusing on biotech startups, and went on to lecture at Royal Holloway University of London. She later founded her own business (VIS-3) providing entrepreneurship programme design and coaching to clients around the world.

“I felt it was important to gain skills as an entrepreneur myself, learning how to define and target a market segment, how to sell, and how to deliver a product to a client,” she explains.

Harveen returned to the Business School in 2017, where she’s dedicated to training the next generation of entrepreneurs.

As well as providing coaching that “breaks down myths and preconceptions”, she’s about to launch a new MBA module focusing on scaling up successfully launched businesses. Given that data from the ScaleUp Institute shows the UK has a “scale-up gap” compared to the US (“promising companies struggle to grow domestically and expand internationally”), this new unit is extremely timely for the wider economy.

Beneficial business Beyond coaching, students need a testing ground to gain practical experience. The Imperial Enterprise Lab facilitates this through networks, competitions and events.

Harveen is the Lab’s Business School lead, working on programmes such as Imperial Business Pitch: a competition that sees teams develop ideas to pitch to a panel of investors with the aim of winning a £5,000 prize. “It’s been great to see the number of ideas that benefit society as a whole; it’s not all about profit,” Chugh says. “It’s important to think about having a positive social impact, and I have been really impressed to see our students thinking about this more.”

In recognition of her work, Harveen was recently named one of Poets & Quants’ “Best 40 Under 40” Professors for 2019, which was “a surreal, pinch-me moment at first”, she admits. As the only female recipient of the award from a UK business school this year, it was also a trailblazing achievement that fits with the forward-looking nature of her work. This is not lost on Harveen, who acknowledges “it was an honour for my work to be recognised and appreciated globally”.

However, her focus remains on the future: “My dream would be for the coaching framework that I develop to be used at business schools, accelerators and entrepreneurship centres around the world.” Given her achievements so far, don’t bank on this taking long to become reality. w

Imperial Business

“It’s been great to see the number of ideas that benefit society as a whole; it’s not all about profit.”

IN BRIEF Graduated with a PhD in Entrepreneurship from Imperial College Business School Named one of Poets & Quants’ “Best 40 Under 40” Professors Founded a company that provided entrepreneurship coaching around the world Working to develop a consistent coaching framework for business schools worldwide

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Swipe right for Gen Z

With growing awareness of sustainability issues and corporate social responsibility, graduate employment aspirations are changing Written by: Sarah Ranchev-Hale

About the author Sarah Ranchev-Hale has been the Director of Employer Relations at Imperial College Business School for over two years. She has a plethora of experience in delivering seamless services to students, employers and other Careers customers.

We have seen an increase in aspiration for roles in ethical or impact investing, renewable energy and cleantech companies.

The technology sector continues to attract, with the promise of cutting-edge innovation and a startup atmosphere. At on-campus recruitment events and at interviews, career progression, work–life balance and corporate social responsibility are frequent topics of conversation. Employers are having to rethink their messaging and reposition their employer brand to meet their ambitions for entry-level talent.

With the youngest millennials already well into their 20s, the graduate recruitment industry has shifted its focus: Generation Z is entering the workforce. This is the first generation for whom the internet has always existed; a generation more alert to issues of social justice that is operating in a world of options.

Access to information is in the palm of their hands and at the tips of their fingers.

But what do Generation Z want from their career and how is the job market responding?

According to IDEO research, Generation Z are seeking “purpose-driven work”, operating in a social environment where their employment reflects who they are and what they stand for. The traditional sectors of interest for business school students, such as finance and consulting, remain relevant to those at Imperial College Business School but with one caveat: are they doing the right thing?

Brand is not enough Responding to the changes in aspirations is not just key to attraction, but also retention, as hiring the wrong people is an expensive mistake. The Institute of Student Employers’ 2019 Development Survey reports: “In general, the responses given to the question on why entry-level hires leave suggest that career development is the key issue. While issues of salary and performance are also important, the most common reasons for leaving are finding a better career opportunity elsewhere or concern about the career opportunities that are available within the firm.”

We have found this reflected in our interactions with students who are prioritising “startup culture”, professional growth opportunities and company values over traditional employer brand. The strong name of obvious market leaders is no longer enough to make them the first choice.

Imperial Business

“The strong name of obvious market leaders is no longer enough to make them the first choice.”

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Consultative approach In order to respond to the needs of students and to facilitate employers in attracting the right talent to their organisations, Careers uses a consultative approach to engagement.

When employers work with the Business School, we don’t just book recruitment presentations and fairs, we advise companies on ways to engage their desired audience and how to stand out in a crowd. Employer Relations has sector specialists who understand the marketplace regularly speak to employers to relay students’ feedback, suggest the format of their engagement with the School and advise on content. We often share this feedback with employers at flagship events, such as our Employer Forum and faculty-led seminars.

Employers have responded to our advice, alongside the changes in our students’ aspirations in several ways. One obvious change has been the decrease in employer -branded merchandise at events and fairs, a direct result of companies listening to the concerns of students over sustainability and the environmental impact of these gifts.

Many companies have also moved away from the traditional presentation format and are delivering more interactive workshops and targeted events. The impact of this change has led to higher engagement and a more positive student experience.

In a market where students have more options and the war for the best talent each year only gets fiercer, employers can no longer afford to sit back and wait. w

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Written by: Professor Tarun Ramadorai

Objective unfairness: the impact of machine learning on mortgage lending decisions Technology has a tendency to amplify pre-existing inequities, but how far does machine learning extend these biases to mortgage approvals?

About the author Tarun Ramadorai is Professor of Financial Economics at Imperial College Business School.

He has a broad range of research interests in the areas of asset pricing, international finance and household finance.

Imperial Business

In January 2019, US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines when she claimed that algorithms “have racial inequities that get translated”. In this case, she was referring primarily to facial recognition technology, but the point echoed existing concerns over the growing use of machine learning technologies. By analysing huge datasets and identifying patterns and features within them, machine learning programs can accelerate and improve the accuracy of decisions in such areas as recruitment, marketing, healthcare and finance. The problem is the algorithms that underpin this technology are designed by humans and learn from historical human decision data, which means they risk taking on and, potentially, exacerbating human biases.

Learning from the past What is undoubtedly true is decisions made on the basis of algorithmic predictions have the ability to make finer judgements based on more subtle factors than conventional methods. Take mortgage applications as an example: lenders primarily care about ensuring the loans they make are repaid, so they approve or deny applications (and set interest rates) based on the risk of default. Conventionally, this is done using a statistical model that benchmarks each applicant’s default risk based on income, job security, previous borrowing and a number of other factors.

Machine learning systems take this further, not just comparing applicants against statistical benchmarks but continuously combing vast amounts of historical data to find an applicant’s statistical neighbours (previous applicants with similar material factors). Decisions can then be made on the basis of how reliable these neighbours were as borrowers. Over time, as the system learns more and receives more data, its decisions should become increasingly accurate in terms of avoiding likely defaulters and charging the ideal interest rate.

“Can machine learning algorithms morally be relied on?”

Hidden factors In our research, we tested this by taking a dataset of nine million US mortgage approvals from 2009 to 2013 and tracking them over the next three years. On the basis of this data, we put together a conventional statistical model of default risk and a more sophisticated machine learning model. The latter did indeed predict default with greater accuracy, identifying (among other things) marginal applicant “winners”, i.e. individuals who would have been deemed unacceptable credit risks or offered high interest rates by the conventional model, but are understood to be reliable borrowers at attractive rates by the algorithmic approach.

Proportionally, these winners increase across the board, but it’s here that racial inequality enters the discussion: in our model, the proportion of winners was around 65 per cent for white and Asian borrowers,

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but only around 50 per cent for black and Hispanic borrowers. What’s driving this disparity? It goes without saying that race was not included as a variable in our research, but it is possible the algorithm has effectively learned to triangulate race, i.e. to work out a borrower’s likely race based on the other factors included. Equally, it’s possible the well-documented social injustices that affect certain ethnic groups make them, through no fault of their own, more likely to pose an objective default risk, and the algorithm is picking up on this.

No simple solution In order to work out which of these causes was at play, we tested the model again, this time including race as a factor. The results were only marginally different, indicating triangulation was most likely not the main factor at play – in other words, the algorithm is not inherently racist in the sense of calculating ethnic background and discriminating on the basis of it. That’s not to say we can rule out triangulation as a factor, as it does play a part, but rather it is primarily the flexibility of machine learning in predicting default based on permissible factors that leads to the racial disparity in the proportion of winners.

Of course, this knowledge does not solve the problem. At the end of the day, our results show Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s concern was valid: machine learning does reflect existing inequities, even if the cause is not inherent in the technology itself. A lender genuinely concerned only with maximising financial gain and minimising loss will nonetheless see its approach have an inadvertent negative social effect. What’s more, as this is the case, can machine learning algorithms morally be relied on? And what level of regulation is required to mitigate these effects? These questions will rightly be at the vanguard of research as the technology develops, and we can only hope the knowledge of what needs to change will prove a valuable tool in making that change a reality, leading us into a future in which machine learning can be an equalising force.

This article draws on findings from the paper “Predictably Unequal? The Effects of Machine Learning on Credit Markets” by Andreas Fuster (Swiss National Bank), Paul GoldsmithPinkham (Federal Reserve Banks), Tarun Ramadorai and Ansgar Walther (Imperial College London). w

Future you is designed for disruption At Imperial we transform intelligent minds into inspiring leaders.

Our Master’s, MBA and Doctoral programmes fuse business thinking and technology to drive innovation.

Become a leader in our transforming society, and shape the way the world does business.

Discover our programmes at imprl.biz/Future-You

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Digital transformation Businesses must embrace digital technology to survive and mustn’t leave anyone behind, agreed experts at this year’s Imperial College Business School annual conference An inspirational line-up of thought leaders spoke at Imperial College Business School’s fourth annual conference in March 2019 – Digital Transformation: Reimagining Business for the Digital Age. The event brought together business leaders, public policy experts and digital entrepreneurs. Topics discussed ranged from the meaning of digital transformation and how businesses can take advantage of these changes, to how digital technology can bring together society and further social and political progress.

Preparing for the workplace of the future The first keynote speech was given by Peter Estlin, Lord Mayor of the City of London, who spoke about digital skills and how the education system needs to change to keep pace with technology. “The biggest challenge we face when it comes to training our children for the workplace of the future, is that we do not yet know what that workplace will look like.”

He also highlighted his Shaping Tomorrow’s City Today programme, which champions the digital and human skills vital for our future as well as digital and social inclusion.

The second keynote speaker, Matthew Taylor, CEO of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce and formerly Chief Advisor on Political Strategy to Prime Minister Tony Blair, provided valuable insights into the political and societal implications of dramatic digital change.

In an engaging Q&A session, the Lord Mayor and Mr Taylor agreed social inclusion in the digital transformation journey was crucial if we were to achieve societal cohesion. “When people feel they are being left behind,” the Lord Mayor commented, “they also often feel that they have no option but to pursue a different and divisive agenda.”

Championing digital inclusion In a series of panel discussions, delegates heard from both digital entrepreneurs and those tasked with reshaping existing business models. Geraldine Calpin, CMO of the Madison Square Garden Company (pictured), explained that a business’s digital transformation should make a positive difference to all.

Rashik Parmar, Technical Executive at IBM Europe, said: “How do you make people

Written by: Serena Cowdy

comfortable with feeling vulnerable? How do you encourage them to open themselves up to new digital challenges? That is at the heart of the issue across all industries. Technology is the enabler, but first and foremost it is about managing minds.”

From print magazine to digital platform The final keynote speaker was Samantha Barry, Editor in Chief of Glamour magazine.

Ms Barry made a lot of noise in the publishing industry when she decided to transform the 80-year-old magazine from print to a digital-only format. Once again inclusion was at the forefront of her strategy, encouraging those who had previously worked in print to embrace the nuances of digital storytelling.

Reflecting on the conference, Dean Francisco Veloso said: “It’s crucial that business leaders grasp how key digital innovations relate not only to their own companies, but to the individuals within them, and to society as a whole. Here at Imperial College Business School, we are uniquely placed to provide intellectual leadership and support in doing this.” w

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How data science will help solve many of the world’s most pressing challenges

Written by: Professor Francisco Veloso and Dr Sankalp Chaturvedi

Not only do we have the largest amount of data ever available to us, we also have a much greater capacity to capture, analyse and utilise it

In 2015, the United Nations set out a plan to tackle some of the world’s most pressing global challenges by the year 2030. It identified 17 individual issues that are impacting the global community and environment – labelling them its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs covered a wide range of areas, including reversing the impacts of climate change.

Twenty-first century technologies – and data analysis tools in particular – have the biggest potential to effectively tackle the global issues identified by the UN. Not only do we have the largest amount of data ever available to us, we also have a much greater capacity to capture, analyse and utilise it to create products and services to tackle fundamental and relevant human issues.

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Collecting strong data sets on a specific social, health or environmental issue will allow academics and researchers to truly understand its severity and impact.

Collectively, academics, businesses, NGOs and governments can then mobilise their leadership, entrepreneurial and innovation skills to create products and services that tackle the problems they identify – using the data sets to ensure the solutions are grounded in evidence.

This is something we have already been investing in at Imperial College Business School through our Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation and hosting the Data Science for Social Good Summer Fellowship. This fellowship, run in collaboration with the Data Science for Social Good initiative based in the University of Chicago, was the first of its kind in the UK, and aimed to provide organisations and non-profits with talent, capabilities and a focused effort to address critical, real-world problems. During the 12-week programme, fellows worked in small interdisciplinary teams on projects that could have major social impact (focusing on areas such as healthcare, education, energy, transport and social services) in collaboration with government departments and non-profit organisations.

The programme underpinned Imperial’s position as an international university that embraces interdisciplinary research and global collaborations. It brought together an international cohort, whose work showcased the commitment of the Gandhi Centre to getting more quality, socially beneficial research into the public domain.

Reducing air pollution in London One of the projects developed during this year’s Data Science for Social Good programme used data science to help tackle air pollution in London. This project aimed to provide more accurate information about traffic congestion in the city, so air pollution levels could be better estimated.

The project analysed live traffic via video data provided by over 911 Transport for London jam cameras. The fellows’ algorithm generated an accurate count of unique vehicles by type (everything from a bike to a truck) in near real time. More importantly, it captured the number of stop-start events for each vehicle (difficult to capture with existing methods and an important contributor to pollution levels).

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“This fellowship was the first of its kind in the UK.”

This method has the benefit of generating improved estimates of air pollution in London via accurate air quality models, and makes possible the planning of “green” routes, the designing of accurate emission zones, and optimising red-lights/roundabouts at appropriate junctions. The work will be open for others to build on and enhance, to better assess this critical issue. Policymakers will be able to utilise this data to improve London’s air quality.

Climate change and poverty Other members of the fellowship programme used data science to develop better ambulance routes, to ensure the most vulnerable people get medical assistance as quickly as possible.

This project sought to identify people who had the potential to become high-frequency 911 callers in Memphis, Tennessee so the emergency services could better prioritise their resources by providing urgent care to those who needed it most.

Others looked at providing personalised interventions and job recommendations to the long-term unemployed in Portugal. They took into account contextual information about the individuals’ desires and restrictions, as well as their socioeconomic context. This enabled jobseekers to get better access to advice and information about roles that matched their skills and experience.

The Data Science for Social Good programme was a great opportunity to host researchers from all over the world and received positive feedback from those who participated. In future, the Gandhi Centre and wider Business School will look to develop more programmes that focus on how data-driven projects can achieve significant social impact.

Data science is, so far, an underexplored method of tackling the world’s most pressing issues. More effective collation and analysis

of data, as well as strong leadership to create transformative products and services, could be the most viable and effective way of solving such extreme challenges as climate change, air pollution and poverty. This effort to use innovative technologies for social good is something Imperial continues to explore, and other academic institutions must do the same if they want to have any chance of solving the world’s biggest problems.

A version of this article first appeared on Imperial College Business School’s Forbes Leadership channel, Imperial Business Insights. w

About the authors Francisco Veloso is the Dean of Imperial College Business School.

He is a leading authority on innovation and entrepreneurship, whose research has focused on how firms and regions develop and leverage science and technology for economic growth.

Sankalp Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour & Leadership at Imperial College Business School. He also leads the Gandhi Centre for Inclusive Innovation within the Business School.

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Profile

Mauro Bruni: MBA student, entrepreneur and international figure skater

Imperial Business

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Not your typical MBA student: former figure skater Mauro Bruni is challenging misconceptions around business education in more ways than one

Written by: Helena Pozniak

International figure skater turned entrepreneur Mauro Bruni is not one to suffer from stage fright. He’s performed in front of crowds at Wembley and worldwide, and recently staged his own gala on ice. He’s bringing that same level of chutzpah to his debut on Imperial College Business School’s MBA programme. “Anyone gets jitters, but I love to perform. I’ve developed the tools necessary to handle anxiety.”

He’s the Business School’s first student to receive the Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) fellowship: a scholarship awarded by the Business School to MBA students who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community. ROMBA aims to change misconceptions around business education and inspire a broader range of candidates to apply for MBAs.

IN BRIEF International figure skater Founder of performance company House of Mauro First recipient of Imperial’s Reaching Out MBA Scholarship Marketing Director of the Business School’s LGBTQ+ Business Club

House of Mauro Not that Mauro has always planned to do a business degree: “I loved my job so it was hard to think of doing anything else.” But beginning an MBA is a fitting way to end his performance career. He’s also just launched a performance company to bring contemporary skaters, choreographers, musicians and artists together. “Every athlete has a shelf life.”

He’s here partly to sharpen up his business skills for the new venture, House of Mauro.

“It’s early days but I feel I’m finding out what it is that I need to learn.”

“Anyone gets jitters, but I love to perform.”

His new company has already staged one event, in June 2019: “A big gala show collaborating with professionals in different industries, from costumers to painting, music and dancing.” In the past he’s choreographed productions, but this time he found himself in charge of the nuts and bolts of staging a show too. “All those things that happen off the ice – the preparation, lighting, staging – this time I had to take care of that, and it involved way more juggling.” Most initial investment in his company came from his own funds, and he found sponsors to help with the first production costs. “I was able to make the experience special for audience and cast.”

But he’s the first to explain where he lacks experience. “I’m a creative, I don’t have a business background, and there are some areas I’m not comfortable with. I’m coming here to learn how a business is run.”

If he brings creativity to the classroom, he’s delighted at the variety he’s discovering among his fellow students. “There are different personalities from all backgrounds and sectors: finance, energy, sustainability. This brings colour and dynamism to the course.”

He’s also comfortable rubbing shoulders with different nationalities and cultures.

“I’ve worked around the world, as a leader, manager and team member. Navigating cultural differences and learning styles comes naturally after so many years spent in cosmopolitan teams.”

New realms When deciding where to go to business school, London, where Mauro’s performed many times, was a natural choice: it’s a home from home. “I only applied to schools in cities where I feel comfortable. I love it here, and that helps when I’m outside my comfort zone.

I have many friends who are performing here.”

While in London, he’s also been appointed Marketing Director of the Business School’s LGBTQ+ Business Club. “As an [LGBTQ+] professional, it’s important to remain active and connected.”

In the past, he’s led productions, choreographed shows and coached performers. “People management comes naturally to me.” He’s also adept at skills such as time management, but he knows the MBA will fill in the gaps: “In anything related to finance for instance – that’s absolutely outside my realm. But I’m really interested in learning; I hope my knowledge expands in different ways I didn’t know I was capable of.”

Once he’s completed his MBA, he will return his energies to House of Mauro, but the platform will go on the backburner this year.

“The company revolves around me. I need to manage my workload, so at present it’s just simmering. We want to promote what’s contemporary and avant garde, and build momentum. Bringing a whole community together to realise this project is my greatest achievement to date – it’s my greatest leap of faith.” w

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Written by: Dr Harjoat Bhamra

Does household finance matter?

By encouraging households to spread their bets, governments could achieve growth beyond anything possible through monetary or fiscal policy

About the author Dr Harjoat Bhamra has been an Associate Professor at Imperial College Business School since 2013. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy and an Associate Editor for Management Science.

The short answer is yes, it does matter a great deal. Not only for the sake of individual households, but also for the welfare of society as a whole. We all know we should not put all our eggs in one basket, but as households we don’t seem to understand that at all, and we fail to properly diversify our investments.

The consequence is we miss out on the risk– return trade-off we could expect.

Households invest disproportionately in companies with which they are familiar, or those that operate locally. Even worse (in the US in particular), employees tend to invest in their own company’s stock, tying their entire fate to the fortunes of their employer. This can have potentially disastrous consequences – as it did for the employees of Enron, who lost their nest eggs as well as their jobs when the company collapsed, because their pensions were invested entirely in the company’s stock.

If households fail to diversify their investments, they can hold portfolios that are excessively risky in comparison to those that are properly diversified. Consequently, they might move money from risky assets to safer ones, resulting in lower returns. This will have a knock-on effect as to how much each household chooses to save and how much to spend, with a negative effect on their welfare.

Benefit to society All these reductions in households’ welfare could be mitigated by simply encouraging them to properly diversify their portfolios.

Wider society stands to gain from this: if many households diversified their investment portfolios, the aggregate gains could result in as much as a fivefold increase in the returns for society as a whole. (And even if there are households to which the idea of contributing to the wider economy does not figure highly, the individual gain should be enough of an encouragement.) I would go so far as to say that affecting this change at a household level could be a better spur to economic growth than anything that can be achieved through monetary or fiscal policy.

There’s real impetus, then, to seriously think about how households can be encouraged to diversify their investments.

There are a few options that could work, individually or in combination. Improving financial literacy is one way. In an ideal world, this would happen at high school, but goodsense marketing campaigns or employer-led programmes could be a viable alternative

Imperial Business

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“The employees of Enron lost their nest eggs as well as their jobs when the company collapsed.”

(couching the issue in easily understandable terms). This could help address the notion in any given household that deeper financial thinking is “not for them”.

We could try to “nudge” households towards diversification by gently guiding them to make better decisions for themselves and society alike. Offering default portfolios to households could be an option, or even some kind of automatic enrolment scheme.

In either case, participants could choose from a handful of schemes of varying risk, with a default option in place for those not able or willing to make such a decision. We’ve seen this work in Sweden, where the default social security plan is diversified internationally.

Thirdly, legislation could be introduced to encourage diversification: for example, a requirement that employer-led pensions be diverse (and not own-company stock). It could be through a simplification of investment procedures into mutual funds. Certainly, an obligation to offer plans with limited options could increase uptake: research has shown a negative correlation between the number of investment options and participation in plans. Or a requirement that households invest their wealth in funds rather than individual assets (in a way that didn’t require any great investment of time or effort for the households themselves).

Building the right products There are already products out there around which we should aim to increase awareness – or even push as default options. Exchangetraded funds can offer households a simple path to diversifying their portfolios.

We should be looking to the financial services sector to help design products that make it easier for households to diversify their investments, or to improve access to those that exist. From high-street banks to emerging fintech app developers, there’s plenty of scope to help people help themselves – with the further economic benefit that engenders.

This article draws on findings from the paper “Does Household Finance Matter? Small Financial Errors with Large Social Costs” published in the American Economic Review,

by Harjoat Bhamra (Imperial College London) and Raman Uppal (EDHEC Business School). w

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Q&A

Written by: Aine Doris

It’s time to take learning out of the lecture theatre Dr David Lefevre, Director of the Imperial Edtech Lab, on the shortcomings of traditional teaching practices, the power of the internet, and an initiative that will shake up teaching across Europe

Dr David Lefevre has a long history of working in the field of education technology. From teaching soft translation with the British Council in the late 90s, where he developed a passion for online learning, to setting up the Edtech Lab at Imperial College Business School specifically to identify opportunities to deploy online learning and help develop future solutions.

We sat down with David to find out more about the plans for education technology at the Business School.

What kinds of opportunities does online learning present?

Online learning has the potential to do a better job than traditional teaching in some instances and can enhance the quality of the learning experience. With online, you can address practical things like commuting, which is major in big cities like London.

Imperial Business

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“We knew it would be fun, but would it be effective?”

Offering courses in an online format allows students to reflect more, practice more and achieve understanding at their own pace.

Pedagogical research tells us that lecturing and classroom learning impose a certain rigidity that is at odds with effective learning. The lecture hall, in particular, is a very impersonal context that delivers the same experience, at the same pace, to every student; there’s very little going on by way of interaction, synthesis of knowledge and, crucially, in terms of feedback.

Learning should be a continuous cycle of acquiring knowledge, applying it and then receiving feedback. And online learning has the potential to use technology to address the shortcomings of traditional face-to-face learning by offering a real admixture of media and activities, a personalised experience, self-paced knowledge acquisition and that important interactive feedback from faculty.

So where is Imperial in terms of online learning?

I’d say we’re pioneers. We currently offer two fully online degree programmes, 180 online courses and a host of new-generation online elements are increasingly blended into our face-to-face programmes. Underpinning all of this is an “engineering mindset” which means that, when we try something new, we test it to see how it works. It’s an evidencebased approach. Last year we trialled using holographic presenters at our climate

change conference. We knew it would be fun, but would it be effective? Canvassing students, we were able to prove that, because the holograms created a greater sense of presence, the audiences felt more engaged.

So that’s a direction worth pursuing because it enhances the learning experience.

With technology and online learning, the key is to create a whole variety of activities from group work to simulations to assessment and beyond. And the platform is critical because it dictates the experience. That’s why we’ve developed our own online learning platform, INSENDI [pictured above], which launches in January 2020. INSENDI leverages all of the expertise and the latest thinking in online teaching to create an interactive, varied, tutored and supported learning experience. Our online courses support more than 300 different activities.

Student feedback at Imperial has been phenomenal, and we’ll also be supplying INSENDI to students at 13 different universities around Europe from 2020.

So it’s something totally new.

This kind of traction suggests online learning is the future of education.

Is that how you see it?

I think that undergraduate education is less likely to be disrupted because of the importance of the campus education in personal development for younger people.

But postgrad and executive education

are likely to experience increasing shifts as the balance tips to online. And this is in corollary with the changing way we work.

The workplace is moving to a blended structure with things like Zoom sessions, online projects, remote teams, and there’s an onus on education to keep pace with that kind of innovation.

What do you see as the major innovations to watch?

Every four years or so we see big changes – gamification, holograms and so on – which settle down pretty quickly into niches. But I think that artificial intelligence and big data analysis have genuinely huge potential to change the way we learn online, because this technology has the power to address the key issues of personalisation, tutoring and feedback at scale. AI is the space I’d suggest we watch. w

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Imbalanced inhalation: inequality in air pollution in London’s open spaces

Written by: Dr Laure de Preux

About the author Dr Laure de Preux is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School and is affiliated with the Centre for Health Economics & Policy Innovation. Her research interests lie in environmental and health economics.

Imperial Business

Why we can no longer rely on the green spaces of London for a breath of “fresh” air

In 2016, the UK’s cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee declared air pollution “a public health emergency”, insisting action be taken immediately to reduce the tens of thousands of preventable deaths attributable to harmful emissions. In the years since, however, little has changed. Recent data suggests only coastal and sparsely populated UK regions comply with EU air-quality requirements, with cities by far the worst offenders. With over 92 per cent of the UK’s population predicted to be city-based by 2030, it becomes clear this is more than an emergency: it’s a disaster waiting to happen. This is particularly true for the next generation, growing up in an environment that will permanently affect their lung development and capacity, and that will make them much more likely to develop a range of chronic or fatal conditions.

Air pollution affects children at all stages of development. Research has found, for example, that high nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) exposure can harm foetal development and increase miscarriage risk as much as smoking. The risk continues into education too, with over 1,000 nurseries in the UK located within 150 metres of a road breaching legal NO₂ limits and over 400 London primary schools in areas that exceed legal pollution limits. Clearly, something needs to be done if we are to avoid a generation of children developing health issues, but the problem is so widespread and entrenched that it is difficult to know where to start.

Unequally equal In order to address this issue, my colleagues at Imperial’s School of Public Health, the University of Leicester and I looked into air quality in the UK’s most populous and most polluted city: London. However, while many of London’s busiest streets, such as Oxford Street and Brixton Road, are among its most polluted, they do not necessarily draw many

“The faster we take meaningful action, the better the prospects for the next generation.”

children. With that in mind, we focused our research on areas designed for or visited by children. Buildings can act as a buffer to reduce NO₂ levels indoors, therefore we specifically looked at the capital’s open spaces, including parks and playgrounds.

We calculated average NO₂ levels in all of London’s open spaces; while the results supported what we already knew – that the city has an air-quality problem – it was particularly telling that London’s green spaces also fit this bill.

These various parks, green spaces and play areas are considered the lungs of the city and an escape from the pollution of built-up areas, but our results showed 24 per cent of outdoor play spaces and 27 per cent of public parks exceeded the annual legal NO₂ limit. On top of this, our research also showed harmful concentration levels were not spread equally throughout the city. Across London, we noticed a strong positive relationship between increasing average NO₂ levels and increasing deprivation levels. In the most deprived areas, a far greater proportion of children found their nearest play space to have air containing NO₂ concentration above the legal level, compared to the least deprived areas.

Take a deep breath These findings serve to demonstrate the scale of the challenge, but the bigger question is what to do about it. There are two aspects to this: the individual and the societal. On an individual basis, it is tempting to think the best response would be to keep children inside, using buildings to minimise their exposure to harmful pollutants. However, research has found the benefits of exercise and physical activity still outweigh the negative effects of pollutants. Furthermore, if we look beyond NO₂ levels to the full bevy of harmful particles in the air, it is possible air quality indoors and in cars is actually worse than outdoors. The responsible response, then, is to pick where

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you go and how you get there: walk, scoot or cycle, solely or in combination with public transport, and use maps to help find less polluted routes and spots in local areas, while taking advantage of the extra benefits of physical activity.

On a societal level, meanwhile, we need to see policy change, both locally and nationally.

Within London, for example, our research demonstrates open spaces in the inner city and the most deprived neighbourhoods suffer disproportionately from poor air quality; targeted measures in these areas would be of great benefit to those who live in and around them. Across London, we need to see a change in transport habits, improvement in active transport infrastructure and, most importantly, a serious environmental and health impact assessment of new development projects, as health impacts are still omitted from project evaluations.

When pollution already exceeds legal levels, any increase cannot be ignored.

Car-free days (as have been successfully trialled in Paris) for local areas, or the introduction of car-free zones (as planned for Barcelona) are not sufficient to respond to the current air-quality crisis. On a national level, initiatives such as a diesel tax, subsidisation of electric vehicles or car-pooling schemes are already in play, but could be prioritised and accelerated. Local councils and citywide authorities also need to start working together; in London, for example, “red route” roads see some of the heaviest traffic pollution, but are under mayoral control, which means borough councils are powerless to make changes to them – this needs to change. The faster we take meaningful action, the better the prospects for the next generation; the onus is on the here and now to ensure the equal distribution of clean, breathable air for the future.

This article draws on findings from the paper “Inequalities in Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide in Parks and Playgrounds in Greater London” published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,

by Charlotte E. Sheridan, Charlotte J. Roscoe (Imperial College London), John Gulliver (University of Leicester), Laure de Preux and Daniela Fecht (Imperial College London). w

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Profile

Zola Foods: international, ethical and nutrient rich The demands of city life can leave you feeling drained and burned out, but Business School alumni Misha Patel and Anusha Mahtani have the solution: African nutrient-dense superfoods

Written by: Amanda Houchen

Through their social enterprise Zola Foods, Business School alumni Misha Patel and Anusha Mahtani are building a Fairtrade supply chain of African superfoods that include baobab, moringa and hibiscus: “We aim to convert these superfoods into multiple forms including powders, oils, teas, granola and beauty products that are exported sustainably worldwide to meet the growing demand for natural, healthy products.”

While spending time in Zimbabwe, the pair were amazed by the seemingly superhuman energy of a local woman working effortlessly on just one nutritious meal a day of grains and vegetables. They understood the incredible potential of these ingredients to combat fatigue and burnout, and how they could be shared around the world.

The pair met on Imperial College Business School’s MSc Management programme in 2016 and were keen to develop the practical skills to start their own business. Misha has a LLB Bachelor of Laws from the London School of Economics and Anusha a BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from the University of Warwick.

Though they have both lived and studied in London, between them they have lived in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the UAE. Before launching Zola Foods, Misha joined the graduate programme at Shell UK, working in Operations for Aviation, and has been involved in agribusinesses in Eastern and Southern Africa; Anusha has worked as a consultant for a UAE-based educationtechnology startup.

Environmental and social responsibility Growing up in Kenya, Misha was keenly aware of sustainability and the agricultural supply chain. She explains how the Master’s programme at Imperial helped her develop that awareness into practicable skills: “We did a module called Sustainable Operations & Projects and in that we learned a lot about other businesses, their supply chains and success measures, so we like to base our success on the triple-line framework: profit, people, planet.” Constructive feedback on the programme also helped them take a flexible approach: “As a small business we can’t plan for everything. We have to work in a very fluid way – we can’t pick one strategy and stick to it,

Imperial Business

IN BRIEF Both graduated from Imperial in 2016, with an MSc in Management Founders of Zola Foods, a social enterprise selling African superfoods The company’s model enables rural farmers in Zimbabwe to develop a sustainable source of income They plan to expand on a global scale, entering new markets such as India and Turkey

as we find that markets change, and we learn new things along the way.”

Misha and Anusha firmly believe every entrepreneur has an environmental and social responsibility. Through Zola Foods they can enable the rural farmers of Zimbabwe to develop a sustainable source of income: “We have developed a competitive advantage by building our own ethical supply chain that supports female farmers and preserves biodiversity.”

Profitable sustainability Maintaining a competitive price can be difficult, with operational costs being higher than their competitors: making sure to pay fair wages, ethically sourcing products to ensure they don’t deteriorate soil quality and purchasing carbon credits. But through awareness campaigns they have been able to justify their prices, attracting a socially and environmentally conscious group of consumers and businesses as supporters.

Making a good profit is also crucial to sustainability: “Profit is a key success measure for us as it allows us to invest in leaner and cleaner operations, vertically

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“We have developed a competitive advantage by building our own ethical supply chain that supports female farmers and preserves biodiversity.”

and horizontally integrate our supply chain, create more job opportunities and offer our customers a wider range of healthy products.”

Misha and Anusha are inspired by the effect Zola Foods has already had on employment in African communities, the environment and the health of their customers. They have plans on a global scale: collaborating with e-commerce platforms and health food stores, they plan to enter new markets such as India and Turkey through their B2B efforts. w

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Classes of 2001–03 Ferakh Lakhany Full-Time MBA 2001 Ferakh is the founder of arabee, a unique multiformat online Arabic language programme, aimed at three- to 12-year-olds. Now in its third year, arabee has grown from strength to strength, with 79 per cent of clients renewing their subscription to date. Ferakh reached the semi-finals of the MIT Enterprise Forum in Beirut in March 2019, and won second prize at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Smartrepreneur 4.0 in April.

Alumni updates A degree from Imperial College Business School is just the start of a great business leader’s journey.

Here’s what some of our alumni have been up to in the past year

Theodore Panagopoulos MSc Finance 2001 Evan Bonoris MSc International Health Management 2003 Evan is an active member of the Hellenic alumni association and has been working in the consulting and pharmaceutical sector in the UK and Greece since graduation.

“The company is now one of the fastest growing developers and suppliers of pharmaceutical drugs in the EU.” Five years ago, he joined forces with fellow alumnus Theodore to grow PharOS. The company is now one of the fastest growing developers and suppliers of pharmaceutical drugs in the EU with partners covering markets around the world.

Class of 2006

Ben Prouty MSc Management 2006 Ben is the co-founder of Shepper, a startup that carries out ondemand inspections on assets.

The business has just raised $5.4 million in funding, with support from angel investors as well as Aviva Ventures and Norway’s Idekapital Fund 1.

The business has also been shortlisted for the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

Ben is a serial entrepreneur with experience at some exciting and disruptive startups, including Streetcar (which was sold to Zipcar in 2010) and LOVESPACE.

Tim Trailor Executive MBA 2006 In 2018, Tim started working at Monzo, the self-titled “bank of the future”. As Chief Credit Officer, he is responsible for the lending part of the bank’s business.

Class of 2010

Caroline Knight MSc Management 2010 This year Caroline set up Herbaceous Blends, a herbal tea brand specialising in loose leaf, naturally caffeine-free

Imperial Business

infusions. She has written blogs for the Business School and writes many for her own website regarding the beneficial nature of herbal tea. She is committed to sustainability: all her products are plastic free and use minimal packaging, and she works with suppliers who share the same sustainability values.

Class of 2013

Oliver Inow MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2013 Oliver recently joined the Business School’s Alumni Advisory Board after his return to KPMG London from a two-year secondment in Toronto, where he helped to grow and scale a consulting business. He has worked for numerous global institutions on financial services and advising clients on strategic financial initiatives. He is focused on how best to leverage emerging cloud-based technologies to drive fundamental business transformation. He credits his time at Imperial for accelerating his progression up the ranks at KPMG.

Class of 2014

Salwa F. Darraj MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2014 A Senior Consultant at EY, Salwa has advised on several international transactions

and restructuring projects for multinational banks, news agencies, and pharmaceutical, technology, and oil and gas companies. She had a prominent role in expanding the private client services/wealth management and governance practice at the local office.

Additionally, she helped to develop the business transition strategy during an internal restructuring project.

Salwa was also selected to be the Women’s Network Champion at EY, was nominated to serve for a second term on the Board of Directors of a non-profit organisation, and to chair its Finance and Investment Committee. She joined the Business School’s Alumni Advisory Board in 2019 and became a Fellow at the Chartered Management Institute. She plans to launch her own technology startup.

Jean-Paul Diaz-Caneja MSc Strategic Marketing 2014 Jean-Paul is Marketing Manager at Job Today, an app for employers and job seekers that enables people to find a job quickly, often within 24 hours.

He is involved in all aspects of the marketing activities of the company, from SEO project management and digital advertising to nationwide out-ofhome campaigns. Jean-Paul is responsible for user acquisition and campaign management, as well as overseeing marketing analysis, strategy and execution.

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Imperial College London alumni network in the Netherlands and is also a member of the School’s Alumni Advisory Board.

Andrea Guzzoni and Dennis Helderman MSc Strategic Marketing 2014 These former classmates set up Rentuu, which began as a solution to providing ecofriendly, sustainable solutions to temporary furniture, and has now developed into a B2B marketplace providing high-spec items for hire.

“Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (founder of easyJet and easyGroup) joined their shareholder and advisory base in 2019.”

The business has been so successful the duo were selected to participate in the Pitch@Palace 11.0, an initiative founded by the Duke of York to help entrepreneurs. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (founder of easyJet and easyGroup) joined their shareholder and advisory base in 2019.

Adrian Matze MSc Risk Management & Financial Engineering 2014 Adrian completed the Shell Advanced Technical Programme in Upstream Maintenance in 2019. After gaining some operational experience, he shifted to a commercial role and is now part of the New Business Development Economics team.

He works as an economist on a wide range of opportunities that optimise Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream portfolio. In his new role, he draws on his background in risk management and financial engineering. Adrian is the main coordinator of the

Gabriel Moukhbat and Dionas Sotiriou MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2014 Gabriel and Dionas met during their studies at the Business School and have gone on to set up Maison Flaneur. This e-commerce website allows customers to create unique and Instagram-worthy interiors, where every object has a story to tell. They take inspiration from their travels and have curated a collection of beautifully designed homeware.

William Soulier MSc Strategic Marketing 2014 William is the founder and CEO of global brand influencer Talent Village. He launched the business – an online platform that allows brands to manage their social media campaigns quickly and easily, with the help of “hyper-engaged models, athletes, authors and other key talent” – in 2017.

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Class of 2015

Olivier Khatib MSc Management 2015 Olivier is the co-founder and CTO of Sensefolio. After working for several years in the finance industry, he realised how important global environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability topics were becoming to the sector. His business assesses and monitors on a real-time basis companies’ involvement in ESG topics with an unbiased and objective view.

Sensefolio covers more than 20,000 global companies in more than 80 countries and analyses more than 100,000 different sources of information using trained machine learning and natural language processing algorithms. The business has also developed robust frameworks that allow standardised ratings across companies and countries.

Melvin Poh MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management 2015 This year, Melvin was recognised in the Forbes “30 Under 30’” list for Asia in Media, Marketing and Advertising. He is the founder of the Asian Entrepreneur: a media platform that allows entrepreneurs to share practical insights and valuable experiences of working in Asia.

Melvin hopes his site will fill the knowledge gap surrounding

the unique challenges of entrepreneurship and business in the region, where business processes are fundamentally different to those in Europe and North America.

Satbir Sandhu MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management 2015 Satbir has started Ladoop, a strategy and marketing consultancy that combines the skillset of a creative marketing agency and a strategy consultancy with a full development team to build applications and websites.

He credits his time at Imperial College Business School with inspiring the unique selling point of his business with regards to strategic advice, and several of his clients are Imperial alumni.

Class of 2016

Christopher Toomey MSc Management 2016 Chris had a successful career as a consultant but, following a simple conversation about environmentally friendly products, all that changed.

“I felt I could do something worthwhile and knew I’d regret not trying.”

He decided to combine his writing skills and drive for environmental change to raise awareness and make a difference. Chris founded Cosmic Panda, which provides a range of every-day eco-friendly products, as well as sharing informative blogs about living in an ecofriendlier way. “I felt I could do something worthwhile and knew I’d regret not trying.”

Class of 2017

Maria Oliveira and Lara Kufoof MSc International Health Management 2017 Having met at the Business School, Maria and Lara now work together to empower women with fertility knowledge. Their company, Myovaplan, is an online future fertility education platform providing information about the female reproductive system and fertility preservation options.

They offer fertility coaching and can link clients to highly reputable experts in fertility preservation – from nutrition and wellbeing to clinical egg freezing treatment.

Byron McCaughey and Henry Oakes Full-Time MBA 2016 Byron and Henry met while studying at the Business School and have spent the past year working on their startup, TRACK, a free mobile and web application that aims to simplify property finances for homeowners and help people make smarter decisions.

“50 per cent of the 45 investors were from their cohort.”

They recently closed a very successful pre-seed funding round, which drew amazing support from their fellow alumni: 50 per cent of the 45 investors were from their cohort, who jumped at the chance to support the budding entrepreneurs.

Sotiris Kopatsaris MSc Management 2017 Sotiris is the owner and Managing Director of Carpe Diem Santorini, a boutique hotel that was named the “World’s Best Relaxation Retreat” at the World Boutique Hotel Awards in 2018. Since taking over the running of the hotel, he has worked to revamp it from the inside out, including its positioning and brand. This year the hotel was listed in the top 20 best adults-only hotels in Europe (top three in Greece and best in Santorini) by The Times and The Sunday Times. Sotiris has also started his own digital marketing agency, Loveworthy.

Imperial Business

Kyriakos Eleftheriou MSc Management 2017 Kyriakos has been active in several entrepreneurial activities in the past year. He continued to grow his business, Cartaroo, a leading online marketplace in Cyprus, successfully increasing its market share in the country.

He also launched a ride-sharing delivery platform to address the markets in MENA and Eastern Europe; he is currently finalising the fundraising round. In addition, he launched Founder Series, a series of talks with successful entrepreneurs as a collaboration between Imperial, UCL and London Business School. In 2019, Kyriakos took to the stage with the CEO of Flux to address the topic of growth in startups at Imperial’s Enterprise Lab.

Maryna Omelchenko MSc Management 2017 Maryna is the founder of Careerhub, a business that offers career coaching and mentoring programmes to help international students get the best graduate jobs in the UK. Careerhub supports students with everything related to their careers, including career planning, visa advice, job application support and skills training.

After leaving Imperial, Maryna worked for 18 months in strategy consulting at EY-Parthenon in London while growing her business and mentoring students. Since then, Careerhub

has grown to become a trusted partner for many UK universities and has helped over 90 per cent of candidates get jobs at leading companies (including McKinsey, BCG, Bain, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs).

Careerhub most recently secured a partnership with Imperial College London to deliver career workshops in 2019–20.

Class of 2018 Yin Noe MSc Innovation Entrepreneurship & Management 2018 Yin is an award-winning entrepreneur who founded energy startup Coillection, which collects waste cooking oil for conversion into biodiesel. In 2019, she won the Shell LiveWIRE Smarter Future Award, which supports young entrepreneurs with smart and innovative ideas that meet the energy and resource needs of a growing population. Coillection will shortly be launching its first pilot scheme to work with schools to create oil collection points and engage students in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in a broader sustainability campaign.

Shivangi Gupta MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2018 Shivangi is an education advisor and entrepreneur. Based in Delhi, she provides career and education counselling, profile building, advice on overseas education and soft skills training through her company Intelligent Education. She is also helping to transform the curriculum for schools and institutions through motivational talks and speeches.

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private equity fund and credits the programme with contributing to his career success: he says it enhanced his technical capabilities and boosted his confidence in a deal-driven environment. w Tina Chen Full-Time MBA 2018 Tina launched myTEA, a vegan, Fairtrade, organic tea latte range.

It is sold in local farmers markets across London, and at Imperial College London’s new vegan café.

“Tina was recognised

by Women4Climate for her use of sustainable and clean technologies.”

The business supports both physical and mental wellbeing initiatives as well as sustainable packaging and circular economy techniques. Tina was recognised by Women4Climate for her use of sustainable and clean technologies in her production process.

Dr Yu Zheng PhD 2018 Dr Yu has already put his Quantitative Finance PhD to good use by launching a fintech startup, Arraystream Technologies. The business helps fund-providers launch the next generation of mutual funds, powered by artificial intelligence.

Shaun Scoon Weekend MBA 2019 Shaun was previously a Strategy Consultant at Accenture, but moved into corporate finance during his time at Imperial. Since completing his Weekend MBA he has begun working for a

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The last word on...

Healthcare innovation management and policy “ Healthcare is at a real crossroads. In the 20th century, the major advances in healthcare were around combating infectious diseases. Now, people are dying essentially of diseases that are related to lifestyle.”

Professor Carol Propper Professor of Economics

Sustainable development and social responsibility “ Sustainability essentially means: the capacity for business to create value for the long term... for a plurality of stakeholders.”

Professor Maurizio Zollo Professor of Strategy and Sustainability

Digital transformation “ It’s crucial that business leaders grasp how key digital innovations relate not only to their own companies, but to the individuals within them, and to society as a whole.”

Professor Francisco Veloso Dean of Imperial College Business School

Financial and institutional resilience “ If we can find a way to set up a financial system that works well, both for households as well as for business, and one that doesn’t have financial stability problems, then I think we will have built a financial system that is resilient.”

Professor Tarun Ramadorai Professor of Financial Economics

Economics and finance of climate change “ Future businesses could respond to climate change by developing new technologies that revolutionise our management and control of energy use and activate a change in consumer behaviour.”

Dr Mirabelle Muûls Assistant Professor of Economics

Be a part of Imperial’s future with a legacy gift.

Legacy gifts help us to pass Imperial’s tradition of excellence on to future generations.

Last year, Imperial received over £1.5 million in legacy gifts to support research and education. This vital funding enabled us to offer more scholarships to young innovators like Darshan Shah, whose wrist simulator is helping us to better understand how normal wrist movement is affected by injury — and which surgical procedures are most effective at restoring normal function.

After you have remembered family and friends, please consider being part of Imperial’s future by remembering the College in your will.

To find out more about making a legacy gift, contact the Legacy Giving Team on +44 (0)20 7594 6159 • giving@imperial.ac.uk

“I found the MBA course I undertook at Imperial hugely valuable to myself and my business.

I am glad that, together with my wife, we can leave a legacy in our will for the benefit of future generations.”

Mr Oliver Woolley (MBA DIC, 1992)

Q. What will climate change do to the economy? Q. Is big data dangerous?

Q. Is “blockchain� just a buzzword?

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