Issue 01 September 2015
Imperial Business
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Sustainable and adaptable business for the future
12 Intelligent Business 16 Financial Technology and Innovation 38 Women in leadership A blueprint for achieving gender balance
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From the Dean
Editor: Rachael Glasgow Contributors: Rebecca Firth, Amber Hall, Maryam Philpott, Laura Singleton, Phil Thornton Cover image: Charlotte Slingsby Contact: imperial.business@ imperial.ac.uk Imperial College Business School Imperial College London South Kensington campus London SW7 2AZ United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7589 5111 F: +44 (0)20 7823 7685
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’m pleased to introduce you to the Imperial Business magazine.
We are excited to share with you the latest developments, research, student and alumni achievements, news and opportunities from Imperial College Business School. In this issue, you can learn more about the FinTech industry and the innovative ways we are contributing to the developments in this area. Our new MSc Climate Change Finance and Management programme represents the cutting edge in planning for the impact of global issues on business and society. Sustainable business is one of our key initiatives and we are working with industry and the best minds in the world to solve global business challenges. We have enjoyed some great successes over the past year, which you can read about in the news and media sections, and have a suite of events coming up in the near future. Page 12 outlines our new Intelligent Business events, including our speaker series in which the School welcomes top business leaders to share their insights, and our Global Business Vision series which will see us travelling to Hong Kong and Singapore later in the year. I hope to see some of you at these events in the near future.
We have recently launched our new Executive Education Open Enrolment Programmes, giving you the opportunity to learn from our world leading academics, experience our unique Impact Lab, and take that knowledge straight back to your organisation. You can learn more about these ground-breaking programmes on page 14. Our links with industry, other institutions and the science faculties within Imperial are highlighted within this issue, and reflect our ambition to drive business advantage through the fusion of business and technology and the power of innovative thinking. We are proud to have some of the world’s leading business academics, and to attract some of the most brilliant minds to join us as students and go on to represent us across the globe as they continue on their career paths. Thank you to all of those who have taken the time to share your stories in this issue, and I hope you enjoy hearing about our inspiring school community as much as I do. Imperial means Intelligent Business
Imperial Business
Alain Falys co – founder of Yoyo wallet
Contents
Features
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Financial technology and innovation Like all revolutions, the rapid rise in financial tech poses both threats and opportunities. We compare insights from two of the world’s leading banks and explore how Imperial is contributing to this new realm. Sustainable and adaptable business for the future With increased conversation surrounding climate change and the associated policies and risks, businesses must be at the forefront of sustainable innovation to survive. Imperial is driving this innovation, providing real business solutions to these global issues. Women in leadership – A blueprint for achieving gender balance An insight into how over the past 30 years, the Business School has been working towards achieving gender balance in the lecture theatre, and in the boardroom.
04 School news
23 Social Media
06 College news
24 Sustainable and adaptable business for the future
08 In the media 10 Events 12 Intelligent Business 14 Executive Education 16 Financial technology 19 Future by Imperial 20 Scholarship spotlight 21 Dean’s photo competition 22 Research impact
27 Staff profile: Fotis Bekglis 28 Staff profile: Nelson Phillips 30 Global initiatives 32 Alumni connections 34 Student profile: Rana Lonen 36 Student success 37 Staff profile: Hannah Daniels 38 Women in leadership 40 Alumni news
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News
Business School news
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New programmes We continue to address the pressing issues facing businesses and society through our evolving portfolio of Masters programmes. 2015/16 sees the launch of the new MSc Business Analytics: a programme designed to enable graduates to solve critical business problems and obtain valuable business insights using analytics. The one year programme addresses the key challenges facing companies in the digital, retail, healthcare, banking and finance, logistics and supply-chain sectors.
A round up of key news, announcements and events from across the Business School.
Our faculty This year we welcomed 11 new faculty members who joined in Autumn 2014 across all departments, expanding our world class expertise in business knowledge and practice.
Department of Finance
Department of Management
Professor Franklin Allen Executive Director, Brevan Howard Centre
Dr Johannes Hattula Assistant Professor of Marketing
Professor Douglas Gale Director of Research, Brevan Howard Centre
Dr Sven Mikolon Assistant Professor of Marketing
Dr Emiliano Pagnotta Assistant Professor of Finance
Professor Kalyan Talluri Munjal Chair in Global Business and Operations; Programme Director of MSc Business Analytics
Dr Thomas Zhang Senior Teaching Fellow
Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Professor Alan Hughes Professor of Innovation
Dr Heejung Jung Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship
Dr Paolo Taticchi Principal Teaching Fellow in Management and Sustainability; Programme Director of MSc Management and Director of Global Initiatives Dr Jiahua Wu Assistant Professor in Operations
“As part of our mission we are creating new programmes to reflect the strengths of the School and the needs of a changing business environment.� Diane Morgan, Associate Dean of Programmes Launching in 2016/17, the MSc Climate Change, Management & Finance is designed to equip future business leaders with the skills to tackle the challenges of climate change. The one year programme, created in partnership with the Grantham Institute, an internationally renowned centre for climate and environmental research, aims to open doors to a wide range of careers including carbon finance, risk management and green technology. The programme, which opens for applications in November 2015, is suitable for both career changers and recent graduates with a background in science, engineering, finance, economics or mathematics.
Imperial Business
The Imperial MBA To meet the growing demand for online education, in January 2015 we launched the Imperial Global Online MBA. Designed to meet the needs of busy professionals around the world, students receive the full content of the Imperial MBA delivered to them in a flexible format using the latest online teaching tools. The programme enables students to develop their own pattern of learning and enter a larger online global community, by connecting with other students online and being able to communicate with their tutor from wherever they are based around the world.
Flexible learning is also at the heart of our new Imperial Weekend MBA, which launches in April 2016. Taught over a series of long weekends at the Business School once a month, the 21-month-long programme enables professionals to study for an MBA whilst continuing their day job during the week. The flexible nature of the programme allows students based outside of London to study alongside other professionals and take advantage of face-to-face tutoring, group exercises and opportunities to network during weekend classes.
KPMG partnership Imperial has developed our partnership with KPMG, launching the KPMG Centre for Business Analytics at the Business School in 2014. The Centre focuses on developing fresh approaches to working with large, ambiguous and complex data sets and developing new tools, methods and techniques to harness the power of big-data. KPMG will invest over £20m over the eight year project, which focuses on five key areas: analysis of business capital, growth opportunities, people, operations and resilience. One of the highlights of the project is the new Data Observatory which will launch in October 2015. The Observatory
will bring large and complex data sets together with data visualisation capabilities, allowing researchers to spot patterns and get real insights into complex business issues.
Image credit: Thomas Angus
Credit: David Parry/FT
Student competition successes MBA students from the Business School have demonstrated their business skills and knowledge by winning two major international competitions. A team of five students from Imperial beat business schools from across Europe to win a 5,000 euro prize in the SDA Bocconi International Finance Competition, held in Milan in May this year. Students were challenged to produce and present a sustainable business model for a renewable energy business before presenting their proposal to an investor roadshow to raise funding for the project. The winning team were: Sandeep Kumar, Henry Quiroz, Mario Abdisa, Pavika Tanveerakasem and Pakaporn Thongyai NA Ayuttaya.
Abu Dhabi partnership The Business School will bring its expertise in business to new audiences in Abu Dhabi thanks to a new partnership with the Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM), an educational institution dedicated to developing the UAE’s future entrepreneurial leaders. The partnership was agreed during a signing ceremony held at the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the presence of His Excellency E. Mohamed Helal Al Muhairi, Director General of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce
and Industry; Professor G. ‘Anand’ Anandalingam, Dean of Imperial College Business School; and Professor Abdullah Abonamah, President of the Abu Dhabi School of Management. Under the terms of the partnership, Imperial will strengthen its existing role as a mentor to the ADSM, provide guidance on academic research and support ADSM’s teaching and academic quality review services. The two organisations are also exploring the possibility of student and faculty exchanges in future.
Imperial also triumphed in this year’s Financial Times MBA Quiz 2015, for the second year running. The quiz, open to business schools worldwide was designed to test students’ knowledge of business topics. The Imperial team was made up of: Will Thorne, Adi Khera, Jonathan Lai and Stephen Zhang, and alumnus Ram Ananth. Nine business schools took part in the competition including Chicago Booth, LBS, Cass, Warwick Business School, and HEC Paris.
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News
College news A round up of key news, announcements and events from across Imperial College. White City campus A major new research and translation centre, worth £150m, will form the centrepiece of Imperial’s new seven acre campus in White City, west London. The new Research and Translation Hub is a 48,000 square metre facility that will deliver world class education, research and translation activities and foster partnerships with global stakeholders from business, industry, higher education and the NHS. Due to be completed in 2016, the new campus will provide a high specification, multidisciplinary research space for 1,000 scientists and engineers, supporting the College’s vision for a £1bn innovation ecosystem where researchers will work to solve the scientific challenges of the future. The project will place an
emphasis on linking research and commerce to benefit society and the economy. The College is encouraging businesses and other leading universities to relocate and collaborate on initiatives with Imperial’s world leading experts in science, technology, medicine and business. The new campus currently provides accommodation for over 600 postgraduates and early career researchers and has been occupied since September 2012. Situated close to Imperial’s Hammersmith Hospital Campus, the project will bring regeneration to the White City area, providing homes, publicly accessible green space, pedestrian subways and leisure and retail facilities. On completion, the campus will generate an estimated 3,200 permanent jobs.
Credit: Wadworth 3D/PLP Architecture
First Althea-Imperial award for student entrepreneurs Imperial College has teamed up with the Althea Foundation, a social venture philanthropic organisation, to offer a £10,000 award to the most innovative female student entrepreneurs at Imperial. The prize was awarded to Charikleia Spathi, a PhD student from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. She won the award for her idea to create a product which draws on the use of waste material to develop a super-hydrophobic powder. It is designed as a cost effective waterproof solution for concrete buildings and critical infrastructure. Charikleia beat four other teams who were shortlisted from 67 female undergraduate and postgraduate students who submitted their innovative business ideas for this year’s programme. The shortlisted candidates were invited to pitch their ideas to a panel of five international technology and investment experts. The prize forms part of the Althea-Imperial programme, a three year initiative worth US$100,000 to support innovative and entrepreneurial female students.
Imperial Business
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Alpha Trading Challenge
New Dyson School for Design Engineering A new generation of much needed graduate engineers and technology leaders will be educated at Imperial’s new Dyson School of Design Engineering. Launched by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and inventor and industrial designer Sir James Dyson earlier this year, the School has been established thanks to a donation from the James Dyson Foundation. The School will begin teaching a new four year undergraduate MEng in Design Engineering in October 2015. The programme will teach a range of engineering fundamentals, design thinking, creative problem solving, and management and communication skills. The project follows the success of Design London, an international centre for interdisciplinary collaboration and design led innovation, which was run by Imperial College Business School and Faculty of Engineering in partnership with the Royal College of Art from 2007–2011.
In January, the Business School teamed up with Alpha Capital Markets to develop the Alpha Trading Challenge. The competition gave students the opportunity to try their skills at trading, receiving a trading account credited with US$100,000 in demo funds and access to trade in a large choice of markets. The competition was the brainchild of two Business School students: Jean – Francois Leon Pernet (MSc Investment & Wealth Management) and Elie Afram (MSc Investment & Wealth Management as well as part-time Client Relationship Manager at Alpha Capital Markets). Competing students came from a range of business schools including Cass Business School, London Business School and London School of Economics. Judged on risk-adjusted performance, Imperial College Business School student Jincheng Xiao took first place after successfully increasing his funds to US$1,000,000.
For his success Jincheng was awarded a month paid internship at Alpha Capital Markets, beginning in July, as well as the winning trophy. This is what he had to say ahead of his placement: 1. What are you studying at Imperial? I am currently studying MSc Risk Management and Financial Engineering. 2. How are you feeling ahead of your Internship? I am grateful for this opportunity and really excited to learn how forex trading is performed in real life. 3. Do you think you will able to apply your course knowledge during your Internship? I believe the financial awareness and economic intuition I gained from my course will be very helpful. Also, risk management is essential for a trader to be successful in the long run. 4. Where do you see your career heading over the next 5 years? I will strive to be a trader with a deeper knowledge of markets and hopefully be able to generate consistent revenue. We wish Jincheng all the best for his placement, and will have more news on his progress in the next issue.
Left: James Anderson, Cass Business School, placed third Centre: Jincheng Xiao, Imperial College Business School, placed first Right: Junnan You, Imperial College Business School, placed second
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News
In the media
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Sep 2014
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Jun 2015
Navigo, dunque non voto: svelato il rapporto tra internet e astensionismo Published in Italy, the article is based on Professor Tommaso Valletti’s research discussing how the internet reduces electoral turnout. imprl.biz/1JWfkHH
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Jun 2015
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Imperial College Global MBA blended programme: case study
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2015
Imperial College Business School’s Global MBA programme uses the web to enable people to learn wherever they are, but also encourages them to meet in person periodically at Imperial’s London campus. imprl.biz/1JtNA6V
2015
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New British Center Seeks to Offer Ideas on Preventing Financial Crises The Brevan Howard Center for Financial Analysis aims to offer its own recommendations to help prevent future financial crises. imprl.biz/1EhRfcg
Making the invisibles in the economy visible Jonathan Haskel of Imperial College Business School says that if investment in private R&D were counted in GDP, then national output would be increased by around £15bn. Along with better measurement of other intangible investment, he finds that UK GDP has been under-measured by about 1%. imprl.biz/1WQw32U
Professor David Miles interviewed on Newsnight In an interview with Evan Davis, Professor David Miles says he is more optimistic for the UK economy than at any time since he had joined the Bank of England, stating: “Within the UK economy consumer confidence is strong, corporate confidence is pretty strong and the financial system is operating near normal now.” imprl.biz/1hoqEQz
Imperial Business
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May 2015
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Jun 2015
Royal College of Music’s stage simulator is now being used to train business leaders Business leaders with a dose of pre-presentation nerves can now turn to a simulator originally designed to prepare young musicians for recitals. imprl.biz/1EvRERu
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Now, to let the genie out: India needs better, not more, entrepreneurs
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Imperial College Business School, with the London School of Economics and the University of Pécs, Hungary, have created a Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), measuring the quality of countries’ entrepreneurial ecosystems. imprl.biz/1IisCaN
2015
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2015
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International Business Times: Climate change: UK and Europe failing on technology essential to meet carbon emission targets The technology that is essential for the UK to meet its carbon targets is making little progress and will put both Britain and Europe far from their climate goals, according to a new Imperial College London study. imprl.biz/1JhlT20
Should MBA prestige be a priority? Marco Mongiello discusses what attracts students to Imperial College Business School, noting Imperial’s reputation as a centre for technological innovation as a key influence. imprl.biz/1PwIDif
Measuring Technology’s Impact on the Evolution of Financial Services How is the financial services industry likely to evolve into the into the future? This is the question addressed by ICT & the Future of Financial Services, a report published last year by Ericsson in collaboration with Imperial College Business School and the UK’s Sustainable Society Network. imprl.biz/1UbfxGs
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Events
Events
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Bank of England deputy governor event hosted by the business school Dr Ben Broadbent discussed ‘The Economics of Deflation’
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Alumni debate in Cyprus More than 100 alumni and friends gathered to debate the challenges the Cypriot economy faces in an uncertain European economic environment.
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Brevan Howard Centre: Reflections on 10 Years at the Fed: Through the Financial Crisis Organised by the Brevan Howard Centre, President Richard W. Fisher gave his last lecture in Europe before stepping down as President of Federal Reserve Bank in March.
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Brevan Howard Centre: international Monetary Fund’s Chief Economist gives keynote address at the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Conference Olivier Blanchard, Chief Economist at the IMF and one of the most cited economists in the world, gave the keynote address at the conference, which was jointly organised by the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis (part of Imperial College Business School), the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and the International Insolvency Institute.
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MSc Management 10th Anniversary Staff, students and alumni gathered at the National Gallery to mark the 10th anniversary of the Business School’s MSc Management Programme.
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Brevan Howard Centre: Lecture: ‘Deflation: Japanese Experience and Lessons we should learn’ Lecture given by Masaaki Shirakawa, Former Governor of the Bank of Japan.
May
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09–10 May
Imperial Festival In the fourth annual Festival, South Kensington campus was open for a full weekend with exhibitions, demonstrations and talks on Imperial’s cutting edge research. 15,000 visitors explored the exhibitions, including a series of talks on future business.
Imperial Business
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Department of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Annual Conference Organised by Dr Markus Perkmann the 2 day event saw 50 Scholars from around Europe present papers and discuss their work focusing on universities and their role in innovation and entrepreneurship.
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The MBA Ball at the Forge This year’s City Glam themed MBA Ball was held at the Forge. Guests networked and celebrated in style at what was a very memorable event!
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Student Welcomes at Science Museum New students were welcomed to Imperial with drinks, canapés, and an interesting backdrop provided by our neighbours at the Science Museum.
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Imperial LaunchPad LaunchPad Day brought together people looking to start their own businesses with 50 exhibitors, including some of the UK’s leading start-up organisations, at a networking event open to students, alumni and members of the general public.
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Innovation
Intelligent Business “Innovation is anything but business as usual.� (Anonymous)
Written by: Rachael Glasgow
Imperial Business
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In 2016, the intelligent business season of events will culminate in our inaugural ‘Intelligent Business’ conference, to be held at the Business School.
It is innovative thinking, and incorporating the latest research, industry knowledge and continual learning that drive business forward. Only by pioneering new ways of working founded on data–based research and technology to address real business problems, can truly ‘intelligent’ business take place. This is the theme behind Imperial College Business School’s research and teaching philosophy, and we have developed our event series in order to share this ‘intelligence’ with the most influential people in the business world. The Imperial Business Insights series has been running for three years, with guest speakers from industry joining to share their experience and knowledge gained from careers at world leading organisations. Guests have included the likes of John MacArthur, Vice President of CO2 Policy at Shell; John McGagh, Head of Innovation at Rio Tinto; Martin Roth, Director of the V&A Museum; and Graeme Pitkethly, Executive Chairman at Unilever. Topics have been wide-ranging from sustainable energy business to digital communication, monetary policy and innovation in the mining industry. Exploring key challenges faced in the business world today, the Imperial Business Insights series features sector leaders at the forefront of business thinking. The aim is to inspire audiences, provide opportunities to network and develop collaborations, as well as to share new ideas, encourage debate and examine how the latest thinking in finance, innovation, technology, entrepreneurship and management impacts both business and society. The series, sponsored by KPMG, will return in the autumn of 2015, covering key topics such as climate change, opportunities in big data, and family business, with guest speakers including representatives from the Bank of England, Google and LSE. KPMG are the principal sponsor of the influential series, supporting its relevance and importance in today’s business world. Mazhar Hussain, Director of KPMG Digital, Analytics & Innovation explains:
“Business leaders are facing a plethora of challenges, from working out how to drive sustainable growth to limiting the impact their actions have on the environment around them. This series brings together the best minds in the corporate world with the business leaders of tomorrow to debate these issues and progress solutions: we are proud to work with Imperial College to deliver it.” Bringing the leaders in industry to our South Kensington campus ensures we stay connected with real business in the global financial hub of London, but we also strive to bring our expertise to the wider world. November 2015 marks the third Global Business Vision series, where we host events in key locations around the globe. The series aims to explore the key challenges faced in the global business world today, and consists of keynotes from influential speakers, developing links with our alumni community, and building relationships with key corporate partners around the world. In 2012 we travelled to Singapore and Shanghai to discuss topics including: ‘Singapore – a magnet for entrepreneurs?’ led by alumnus Eddie Chau; and ‘China: the age of innovation’ with Egidio Zarrella, Head of Global Clients and Innovation Partner at KPMG. In 2014, New York was the focus, where Professor Franklin Allen gave his inaugural lecture on ‘The Future of the Financial Industry’, before joining the Business School later in the year as Director of the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis. In November this year, we will return to Singapore and visit Hong Kong to explore the topic of Business Analytics. With our KPMG Centre for Business Analytics dedicated to harnessing the power of big data to solve complex problems for real clients, and our
new MSc Business Analytics programme welcoming its first cohort this year, we are in a great position to share and raise awareness of our expertise in this emerging area. In 2016, the intelligent business season of events will culminate in our inaugural ‘Intelligent Business’ conference, to be held at the Business School. This conference will bring together the world’s leading academics and business leaders to discuss topics including sustainable business, business model innovation and entrepreneurial growth, and the fusion of business and technology. It will focus on business foresight, exploring the challenges businesses face and how Imperial’s research can help inform future strategies. The Intelligent Business conference will become the School’s annual major conference, enabling us to share our most innovative and ground-breaking research directly with industry, truly translating it into ‘intelligent business’. Professor G ‘Anand’ Anandalingam, Dean of the Business School said: “We strive to ensure our research has a real impact on business and society. This conference will enable us to bring together key business leaders from across industries, and provide an opportunity for us to share our thought leadership and business foresight, as well as discuss the key issues facing business now and in the future. Our ties with the corporate world are an invaluable asset to the School and help to enhance our relevance in both research and teaching. The Intelligent Business series is the perfect place to bring together the brilliant minds of the business world – I look forward to seeing you there.” If you would like to hear more about any of the above events or request to attend, please visit the webpage: imperial.ac.uk/businessschool/events
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Executive Education
From the boardroom to the laboratory: New Executive Education programmes Written by: Laura Singleton
As one of the world’s leading universities for science and innovation, it should come as no surprise that Imperial thrives on a hands-on, experimental approach to learning.
This theme underpins our world class Executive Education programmes, where we work with businesses and individuals to address a specific development need, either individual or organisational. This could be helping someone prepare for a management position or helping a company formulate a corporate strategy. Our programmes normally attract people from a range of industries and job functions and over the past five years we’ve supported a multitude of companies, from high-tech startups to global corporates. Guy Gumbrell, Head of Custom Programmes for Executive Education said, “At Imperial we really try and get into the blood stream of a client’s business by helping them solve a specific problem. Our understanding of technology and innovation makes us uniquely placed to assist companies with practical problem solving.
Imperial Business
We also understand the importance of ‘soft’ skills such as management and team building which is reflected in our diverse portfolio of programmes.” The past year has seen the launch of a new portfolio of Open Enrolment programmes aimed at professionals seeking to develop new skills or gain insight into a business function beyond their normal area of expertise. The programmes have been developed to meet the ever changing landscape of today’s business world. The Risk Management programme, which launched last year, is designed to give people a broad understanding of what risk means and how to calculate it in different situations within business. Given the highly relevant nature of the subject, the intensive one week programme has attracted participants from a wide range of sectors and from all over the world. A second programme, Finance for Non-Finance Executives launched in June this year. Aimed at managers without any formal financial education, this challenging programme equips participants with the tools to understand and critically analyse financial information in order to make sound business decisions. One of the participants on this programme was Ester Hernandez, Contracts and SM&P Specialist for Boeing Research & Technology Europe. Commenting on her experience she said: “The programme was pitched at the right level for executives like me who have limited knowledge of corporate finance. The programme was very well organised and we had excellent teachers who really brought the subject to life through interesting case studies, which made me want to learn more. It was also a pleasure to interact with other professionals from all over the world, which made for a highly enjoyable experience.” This year has seen Imperial’s hands-on approach to learning go one step further – by taking executives out of the classroom and placing them in unfamiliar environments where they can experiment with new ways of thinking and working. This is the concept behind the Impact Lab™, which capitalizes on Imperial’s science heritage by using its laboratories for hands-on exercises. Beate Baldwin, Head of Open Enrolment Programmes said: “Evidence shows that people remember less than 50 percent of anything they learn in a classroom. Instead, people are more likely to absorb what they’ve learned when they are emotionally involved in an experience, which is the principle behind the Impact Lab™. The laboratory exercises challenge people to tackle situations in which they have no prior technical expertise, taking them out of their comfort zone and exposing them to uncertainty. However, these environments also encourage people’s emotional intelligence to shine through.” The laboratories used for the Impact Lab™ include the Carbon Capture Lab, which was originally designed to
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enable chemical engineering students to gain experience of managing a real industrial chemical process. The lab is now used for Executive Education programmes, providing a stimulating environment to assist exercises in decision making, team work and leadership. Ten professionals, from companies including the London Stock Exchange, BT, Panasonic and HSBC were invited to the launch of the Impact Lab™ in June this year. The team was taken to the Carbon Capture Lab for an exercise designed to test decision making skills in stressful situations. The group was divided into two teams and given a half hour task which addressed the challenge of running a plant which captures CO2 emissions from a power station and transports the CO2 across the North Sea for use in oil and gas extraction. Taking part in the programme was VanDyck Silveira CEO of FT | IE Business School – Corporate Learning Alliance. He said: “The challenging task and real-life laboratory setting were effective in getting us to think on our feet and make decisions under pressure – skills which are essential in the fast-paced world of business. I really benefited from the hands-on approach of the Impact Lab™ which is far removed from the usual corporate culture.” One of the key activities on offer in the Impact Lab™ is a virtual audience simulator, designed to help people improve their skills in public speaking and manage the stress of public performance. Based at the Royal College of Music, the simulator was originally designed to help musicians overcome stage fright by encouraging them to perform in front of a simulated audience. The first business person to try out the simulator was Christel Wolthoorn, Head of Strategic Engagement, Digital and Innovation with KPMG UK who came to a preview of the device at the Royal College of Music. She said: “The way in which you deliver a speech is the key to winning over your audience. The simulator allows you to become better at reading the body language of your audience and lets you hone your skills in a safe environment so you are better prepared to face real life challenges.” The simulator was first showcased to the public at this year’s Imperial Festival where visitors were able to try it out and find out more about the Executive Education programmes at Imperial. Other activities currently being planned for the Impact Lab™ include an inflatable operation theatre, developed in collaboration with Imperial’s Faculty of Medicine. This activity will be designed to help businesses adopt a more individual approach to customer service by asking for feedback from the customer, represented in the operation theatre by a patient due to undergo an operation.
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Feature
Imperial Business
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Imperial at cutting edge of financial technology innovation Like all revolutions, the rapid rise in financial technology poses both threats and opportunities in equal measure. Within the space of just a couple of days, two of the world’s leading banks offered an insight into the opposite sides of that same coin. Written by: Phil Thornton
BBVA, the Spanish bank, announced in July it was “dramatically” boosting investment in European financial technology companies and launched a dedicated team to harness digital disruption in banking. The upbeat move came just two days after an analyst at BNP Paribas, the third largest bank in the world, warned that the technology underpinning Bitcoin, the digital currency, had the potential to make existing companies “redundant”. In other words the issue for existing financial service players is whether they find themselves digitally disrupted as their income streams are picked off by new innovative players, or digitally dominant as they embrace new technologies and prevent start-ups gaining a foothold. A recent survey of 25 leading financial services executives involved in innovation found three out of five believed the established players would survive and thrive in the digital future. But two-fifths saw a bleaker future: half felt the industry would become disaggregated, while the remaining fifth feared banks would lose market share, revenue, and scale. At the heart of the debate is the shift towards digital money, an issue that Imperial has devoted much research to in collaboration with financial services group Citi to produce the Digital Money Index, which measures 90 countries’ readiness for new technologies. Working alongside Citi analysts, Imperial College Business School researchers Llewellyn Thomas and Antoine Vernet defined digital money as ‘currency exchange
by electronic means’. This definition included not just non-cash transactions such as credit and debit cards, but electronic channels such as ATMs and pre-paid cards, new exchanges like PayPal and M-PESA, and even stores of value used for transactions, such as Oystercard.“ The goal was to use the index as a tool to look at where each country was going and whether there were tipping points and actions that countries needed to take to push them up the readiness scale,” Dr Thomas said. They found being ready for cashlessness did not mean the country was actually using less cash. Dr Thomas contrasted Venezuela, where the cashless economy was growing because of the government’s desire to reduce the informal economy even though it was technologically illprepared, with Germany that had high levels of readiness but low usage. “We were able to look at the political, cultural and technological dimensions to get a better flavour of the drivers of digital money adoption.”Looking forward he said while consumer demand would drive digital money innovation in developing countries, in developed countries it would be better technology making services quicker and better, that would drive adoption. “There’s a massive amount invested in the existing infrastructure, so it will be a technological push but the question is who will do the pushing – payment agencies or start-up fintechs and how happy will the banks be at having it taken from them. These are complex questions.”
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Feature
“Global investment in fintech ventures has more than tripled during 2014 alone – growing to US$12.2bn from US$4bn” Accenture
Measurable benefits One of the key findings was that digitising money flows could deliver measurable benefits for businesses, governments and consumers. A 10% increase in countries’ digital money readiness would bring 220 million people and US$1trn out of the informal economy into the formal financial sector, which in turn would generate an extra US$100bn of tax revenue. Access to affordable credit would lower people’s cost of financing by US$600 a year that would lead to an extra US$150bn of consumer spending. But phasing out coins and paper money poses challenges, as was highlighted at a conference in June organised by Imperial’s Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis. Franklin Allen, its executive director, said it was possible people could “live entirely without paper cash”. But it was also clear this would be challenging for people such as the elderly and poorer households without access to technology. “The biggest change would be people adapting to the idea of paying for all their services, no matter how big or small, electronically,” he said. One innovative digital currency is Bitcoin, the one that scared BNP Paribas. It is a peer-to-peer exchange mechanism that is not backed by governments and bypasses banks by using a ledger of every Bitcoin, who owns them, and the history of all transactions known as a “blockchain”. Because it uses encrypted computer codes it is practically impossible to alter transactions and defraud users. The Imperial Bitcoin Forum, made up of academics from computing, bioengineering, mathematics as well as the Business School, believes blockchains could revolutionise the way business is carried out across the world. The forum has set up a biannual student competition with a prize pool of £5,000 for research into issues such as privacy and security that innovative technology used in blockchains raises.
London ‘excels’ New financial technologies are emerging all the time. The growth of fintech has seen a massive acceleration in the past year. Global investment in fintech ventures has more than tripled during 2014 alone – growing to US$12.2bn from US$4.1bn in the previous year, according to Accenture. It took the previous six years for investment to make a similar jump from 2008’s US$930m. Imperial alumni are involved in a number of projects that are part of this wave of innovation and investment. A good example is Yoyo Wallet, an innovative app that allows users to pay for items with their smartphones that was founded and pioneered at Imperial. Yoyo was co-founded by Imperial Innovations, the College’s technology transfer company, and launched in January 2014 at Imperial’s South Kensington Campus. Alain Falys, cofounder of Yoyo Wallet and a venture partner at Imperial Innovations, told an Imperial conference on the fintech sector in June that the app recorded 150,000 transactions a month and represented 30% of all transactions at the College and was used at employers such as The Guardian newspaper and Diageo. He said while the US led the world in terms of investment – Accenture said it made up the “lion’s share” of 2014’s US$12.1bn – the UK was stealing a march on innovation. “From an innovation point of view the UK and specifically London has a lot to offer in terms of fintech,” he said. “You can build a truly global fintech company from here. “I think we are going to see a lot more firms from the financial technology sector emerging from London that will branch out across Europe and Asia and other parts of the world.” Abdul Basit, head of finance at Innovate Finance, a venture that supports technology-led financial services innovators, agreed the UK and Europe could not compete with the US for investment. “Where London excels and the things it needs to build on are the huge financial services sector, the huge technology sector, and great universities like Imperial,” said Basit who earned his MBA at Imperial. “There are very few places on earth that have those in the same place and that will be the driver for London’s leadership position in this industry.”
Innovation
Imperial Business
Future by Imperial Written by: Rachael Glasgow
Particle acceleration, artificial cells, space exploration; what does this have to do with business you ask? A lot says MSc Management Director Dr Paolo Taticchi and his colleagues from across the faculties of Imperial College London. Astrophysicists, biologists and everything in between have joined forces with the Business School as part of the Future by Imperial lecture series, run as part of the MSc Management programme, but open to all. The series is aimed at exploring the real business challenges and opportunities associated with scientific innovation and discovery. Series creator Dr Taticchi said: “The series aims to expose Business School students to big scientific challenges, and provides them with a great opportunity to hear from leading academics from around the College as they discuss their research from a business perspective.” Dr Taticchi continued: “Science and business are often seen as two distinct disciplines, but they are explicitly linked at Imperial where brilliant minds from both disciplines are encouraged to collaborate and explore opportunities. This is often where the real magic happens and new ground is broken which really benefits society.” Launching with a lecture by Professor Jordan Nash, Head of Imperial’s Physics Department, and Chaired by Ferdinando Giugliano, Economics Correspondent at the Financial Times, students, alumni and guests were drawn into the futuristic realm of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Professor Nash, himself having worked on experiments at CERN for the past 25 years, did not underestimate the intellect of his audience, and went into some detail explaining how the Large Hadron Collider works and how its operations and the associated challenges, risks and benefits affect both business and governments. The CERN laboratory covers a huge area across the border between France and Switzerland. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now involves 21 member states, and hundreds of academics. The implications for science, industry and global society are immense, and
exemplify the cross-disciplinary challenges that are associated with such projects. The second lecture of the series looked at the novel technologies that are transforming our ability to manufacture artificial cells from the bottom-up. Speaker Dr Oscar Ces of the Department of Chemistry, explained that such technologies are part of a multi-billion dollar global industry. In fact, the synthetic biology market is expected to reach £7.2bn by 2016, impacting many business areas from funding, to intellectual property. The audience was invited to partake in the lectures via a live Twitter Q&A, with answers discussed at the end of each lecture. This year’s series concluded with a foray into space exploration as Professor Michele Dougherty FRS discussed Imperial’s involvement in two outer planetary missions to Saturn and Ganymede. Diane Morgan, Associate Dean of Programmes at the Business School said: “being in an institution such as Imperial gives us an exclusive opportunity to connect with world-leading researchers in science, technology, engineering and medicine and open up our students’ minds to the possibilities and challenges arising from the impactful research happening in the buildings that surround the business school. Applying innovative business thinking to abstract ideas, inventions and discoveries will help to benefit both business and society.” Ahead of launching the series, Dean of the Business School, Professor G. ‘Anand’ Anandalingam said: “Science and technology play such a huge role in today’s world, you cannot be a competitive business analyst if you don’t have an insight into these worlds. Imperial College Business School is unique in being able to draw on the expertise of colleagues who are world leaders in these scientific fields and to pass that knowledge onto our Business School students.” Next year lectures will include speakers from Life Sciences and the Centre for Environmental Stability and topics such as Smart and Digital Cities, Human Evolution, Energy and Financial Stability. Details will be available on the Future by Imperial webpage later in the year: www.imperial.ac.uk/businessschool/events/future-by-imperial/
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Profile
Kim (picture third from right) with her team at a recent commemorative event
Kim Nates Scholarship holder MSc Management 2014
Since graduating, Kim has been based in her home country of South Africa working for the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre as a Special Projects Officer. We connected to discuss her Scholarship experience at Imperial College Business School. The Entry Process “The Scholarship was more than a financial benefit. There was great engagement potential, it looked to be a good package,” explains Kim. Her decision to follow through with an application was also made easier by her love for writing, “The [application essay] topic was about the impact of coupling 3D printing and online social networking on economies around the world. I thought this sounded like an interesting topic and I enjoy writing so I thought I would give it a go” she recalls. Once her submission was complete, she modestly pushed it to the back of her mind: “I took the application quite seriously, but thought nothing of it” she recalls, not believing she would be a viable candidate. Engaging As one of the factors that drew Kim to the scholarship, the engagement proponent was an experience she relishes to this day. “There were a few ways to engage, these included speaking on panels, speaking with students and their parents at open days – this was something I really enjoyed,” Kim reveals. “It is great to talk to students and see their excitement. There are so many people that want to attend Imperial, and this enthusiasm is something you can lose sight of whilst studying.” “The ability to engage with potential students was invigorating, as well as the ability to work with marketing and recruitment staff. I was able to see the processes that staff use which was a valuable insight to have,” says Kim. On top of her experience as a Scholarship student, she reflected on the relationships formed whilst studying as one of the enjoyable features of the Imperial Business environment. “It’s definitely the
people that make the school a great place to work and study. It is a truly international environment, with people from all walks of life. I made friends at Imperial that I will have for a long time.” From Imperial to the World In a previous internship experience at the New York based not-for-profit Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Kim discovered the need to understand the management and logistical skills involved with running a non-government or not-for-profit organisation. This discovery influenced her decision to undertake a MSc Management degree. Kim has always had a passion to work in the not-for-profit sector and post-graduation she was faced with the decision to remain in London or move to South Africa and do what she loved. The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre is an organisation with a strong personal connection: “my mum works in the same field, and the organisation is one that my family have been involved with for a long time – it is a family legacy.” As part of Kim’s role as Special Projects Officer she co-ordinates the organisation and logistics of two-week intensive education trips. Recently overseeing a group of Australian university students through Rwanda, she will also oversee a high school trip each year to Poland and Israel with a focus on the Holocaust. “Communications, events, public awareness, social media and many other miscellaneous activities,” she laughs, as she lists some of the other tasks required of her whilst working with a small team of eight people. It is the opportunities to engage with the greater population that she finds most rewarding, explaining: “here
in South Africa, it is a compulsory part of the National Education Curriculum to learn about the Holocaust. It is highly encouraged for teachers to also use the Rwandan genocide as a case study to further explore our own history. We don’t just work with affluent schools. We are connecting with rural schools, and teachers that have never taught these topics before. It is an important part of our history that we are still involved with today. Helping to educate and change lives energises me. It is incredibly fulfilling,” she says. In addition to financial support, scholarships provide recipients, like Kim, with the ability to challenge themselves beyond the classroom through a range of ambassadorial duties. Summarising her scholarship experience, Kim added ‘I really value my time at Imperial and the opportunities afforded by the scholarship. Through my degree I feel I have developed my professional and interpersonal skills helping me to a career of giving back to the community’. Kim is currently working with the team on the upcoming launch of the new Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre and Museum to be officially opened in 2016. To get involved or learn more please visit: http://holocaust.org.za
Imperial Business
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Dean’s photo challenge The photo challenge set by Dean Anandalingam asked students and staff to submit photos in four categories that represent Imperial College Business School’s brand values. 01
“The power of innovative thinking was truly demonstrated in this year’s Photo Challenge for the Business School... we received almost two hundred beautiful and thought-provoking entries in four photo categories and they certainly demonstrated the extraordinary talent amongst our students and staff.” Professor G. ‘Anand’ Anandalingam Dean of the Business School
“ I really like the Southbank walk from Big Ben/ London Eye area towards Tower Bridge because you can see almost all sights of London. Especially at night when it gets less busy with less tourists walking around it is nice to walk from one bridge to another or to enjoy a drink in one of the restaurants and bars.” Christian Dethlefs MSc Management Student
02 “ I took this picture when I travelled to Spain. I was sitting on the steps of Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC). A street artist was singing in front of me and this little girl was his daughter. When doing her homework, the little girl sometimes looked up and smiled at her father. That moment was very touching.” Ying Song, MSc Management Student
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04 “Besides intensive study, the highlights [of my time at Imperial] would be the conductive environment to nurture creativity and inspiration from being surrounded by talented people and staff.”
01 Christian Dethlefs London Category Winner 02 Ying Song Photo Challenge Winner 03 Catherine Spence Fusion of Business and Technology Winner 04 Patraporn Tardtong Imperial Winner
Patraporn Tardtong, MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management
“ I took this image when walking down Oxford Street when Selfridges had just unveiled their new show window featuring the Apple Watch. There were a lot of people trying out the new technology in the shop and there was a bit of a buzz about it. It struck me as a great opportunity to enter the fusion of business and technology category in the photo competition!” Catherine Spence, Programmes Marketing Co-ordinator
22 Markus Perkmann Associate Professor of Technology and Innovation Management Markus recently conducted a survey of all academic staff at Imperial, examining the extent to which they undertake impact-relevant activities, and their attitudes towards it. Markus has a PhD in Sociology from Lancaster University, and joined Imperial in 2008. His research focuses on science business, university-industry relations, scientific entrepreneurship and translational research. In particular, his work explores how public science generates impact on the economy and society. Markus has published numerous articles in journals and collaborated with firms including GlaxoSmithKline, Syngenta, Shell and Rolls Royce. The outcomes of the new academicengagement report details the level of collaboration with industry, consulting, patenting and entrepreneurship, as well as individuals’ motivations and perceived barriers to engagement. Importantly, this work shows that the impact generated by academics is likely to be considerably more extensive than commonly reported. This research has significant implications for the methods and systems used by government to assess and measure impact-relevant activities.
Ilze Kivleniece, Assistant Professor Project Management & Strategy Ilze is currently co-editing a Special Issue of the Journal of Management Studies on ‘PublicPrivate Collaboration, Hybrid Organizational Design and Social Value’. The Special Issue will draw together a variety of research areas in management studies, sociology and organizational economics to encourage greater interdisciplinarity. In November 2015 the School will host a paper development workshop to refine work submitted to the Special Issue organised by Ilze prior to likely publication in 2016. Ilze completed her PhD at HEC Paris in 2012 before joining the Department of Innovation & Entrepreneurship as an Assistant Professor in 2013. Her research focuses on the global water and sanitation sector and considers emergence and performance of novel, innovative organizational forms, and how models of governance can be important mechanisms of economic value creation and capture. Ilze’s work also considers the impact of social interests and political pressures on firm strategy and performance. Written by: Maryam Philpott
Research with impact Walter Distaso Professor of Financial Econometrics Working in an 11-partner consortium led by the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Walter is part of a project that is investigating whether landslides occurrences could predict the distributions and characteristics of severe tsunamis. This will include modelling landslide motion, tsunami wave generation and propagation, and how tsunami waves would interact with existing UK coastal defence structures. Outcomes from this project will inform key stakeholders including the Scottish Government and Defra, the Environment Agency, as well as the reinsurance sector. Walter joined the Department of Finance in 2006, having previously completed his PhD at the University of York and held positions at the University of Exeter and Queen Mary University of London. His research interests include estimating, testing and predicting instances of financial volatility in continuous time models, analysing macroeconomic and financial time series using long memory models, and analysing the features and effects of market microstructure noise practice.
Carol Propper
Marisa Miraldo
Carol Propper, Chair in Economics & Marisa Miraldo, Associate Professor in Health Economics Carol and Marisa were recently awarded a prestigious grant from the Health Foundation as part of their Efficiency Research Programme. Marisa has a PhD in Economics from the University of York, joining the School in 2008 to examine regulation and competition in the health care sector and, more generally, in the public sector. Carol joined Imperial in 2007 and is Professor of Economics focusing on the impact of incentives on the quality of health care delivery and, more widely, on the design and consequences of incentives within the public sector. This new £450,000 project will run for five years and considers how the social networks of clinicians, spatial networks of hospitals, and competition between hospitals determines the take-up of innovation in cancer treatments. By focusing on senior clinicians this project explores some of the most powerful ways that health and social care services can address the challenge of increasing value and providing more in time a of resource scarcity.
Imperial Business
Social Media
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True Start @TrueStartUK – May 28 Kicking off at the Imperial Launchpad day #IMPLP15, great to meet so many passionate #entrepeneurs
The Duke of York @TheDukeOfYork – May 28 Good luck to everyone at #IMPLP15 – look forward to seeing some potential #pitchpalace participants 6
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Nick Marsh @nickdmarsh – Sep 8 Great study from @ImperialBiz on what the America’s Cup teaches businesses about rivalry: www3.imperial.ac.uk/ newsandeventsp...
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BMLMunjal University @BMLUniv – Jul 6 We’re just so excited! Our students will gain a lot from this experience.
BMLMunjal University retweeted
Rajiv Gandhi Centre @RajivGandhiICBS – May 19
Imperial Business @ImperialBiz – Jul 6
Excited to welcome students from @BMLUniv for #BMUSummerSchool programme next week! Hope to meet some young innovators and entrepeneurs!
Welcome to campus @BMLUniv students! We are looking forward to sharing business insights over the next 2 weeks during summer school. 2
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@wanderwild Another presentation in the bag #teamlumos #icbs
Paolo Taticchi @taticchipaolo – Feb 19
Gary Deans @gary_deans – May 19
The synthetic biology market is expected to reach £7.2B by 2016 #futurebyimperial @ ImperialBiz @FerdiGiugliano
Many thanks to all at the @ImperialBiz #familybusiness club event last night. Great attendance and good debate – really appreciated
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FIND MBA @findmba – 3h New MSc from Imperial (@imperialbiz) takles #business chalenges caused by #ClimateChange bit.ly/1lGyizT 3
Hubbub @hubbubnet – May 28 Lovely to meet so many talented people at #IMPLP15. Thanks for the great event @ImperialBiz @ICEntrepeneurs!
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Paolo Taticchi @taticchipaolo – Feb 5
Behind the scenes: from this morning’s Q&A with Steve Hatch, Facebook’s regional director for UK and Ireland. Full interview to come next week! #imperialbiz
Discussing our future #futurebyimperial started @ImperialBiz #leadership @ FerdiGiugliano #cem
Paolo Taticchi favorited Heather Chisholm @heatherchisholm – Feb 5 #futurebyimperial budget for Large Hadron Collider approx $9Bn versus IPO for Facebook approx $104Bn – LHC is a great bargain for humanity 1
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Imperial Business follows Dan Ward @dan76ward – Jun 7 3
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Leaving #ImperialBiz after a full day of Innovation, entrepeneurship & Design and Negotiation Analysis instagram.com/ p/3pMaJWrPOZ/ 1
Connect with us using #ImperialBiz: @imperialbiz @imperialbiz facebook.com/imperialbusiness linkedin.com/company/imperial-collegebusiness-school
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Feature
Imperial Business
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Sustainable and adaptable business for the future Written by: Rebecca Firth
With increased conversation surrounding climate change and the associated policies and risks, businesses are required to be at the forefront of sustainable innovation in order to survive. This need for innovation and new technologies drives Imperial’s pioneering researchers, students and alumni who continue to create ingenious solutions to these global issues. Earlier this year a report commissioned by Shell Springboard suggested that the UK is not fully exploiting the growth potential of the rapidly expanding low-carbon sectors. The research team, led by Professor Erkko Autio of the Business School’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Department, published the report titled ‘Engineering growth – enabling world-class entrepreneurship in the lowcarbon economy’. The findings state that, in the green energy industry, Britain is producing double the number of university spin-outs as the United States relative to GDP, but they raise less than half the equity raised by their American counterparts. Evidently there is a gap in the UK market for new technology and pioneering ideas that will change the way we understand renewable energy and power usage. This creates an exciting opportunity for students and academia to bring their developed ideas to market and make a real impact. Professor Autio said: “In order to successfully transition to a truly low-carbon economy, innovation is needed across all areas of industry, society and economic life. This research shows that we not only need new technologies, but also new business models and new entrepreneurial attitudes. A new breed of entrepreneurs will be spearheading such innovation, from university spin outs to individual entrepreneurs, and we must do everything we can to ensure their scale-up performance is the best it can be.” Imperial’s new MSc Climate Change, Management & Finance programme helps to
support this challenge. It has been designed as a joint-venture between Imperial College Business School and the Grantham Institute to equip students with the interdisciplinary skills required in business on issues relating to climate change and sustainability. Programme Director Dr Mirabelle Muûls said: “The innovative new programme for 2016 educates business leaders of tomorrow by combining a strong and quantitatively based understanding of business and finance as well as climate change and sustainability.” The course was created with input from key corporates and policy makers who indicated there was a lack of graduates with such skills. The programme will explore the role of innovation and technology in addressing climate change and provide insights into the scientific and political concerns that underpin international agreements on carbon reduction targets. Graduates of the programme will have the skills that businesses need to manage climate change-related challenges and also capitalise on the opportunities that arise from moving to a low-carbon economy. Fostering a culture of analytical thinking and creative solutions is promoted across the wider College. In July, an interesting array of innovative prototypes were placed on display in the College’s main entrance. The devices were developed by students as part of the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) and Global Innovation Design (GID) programmes – run jointly by Imperial’s Dyson School of Design Engineering and the Royal College of Art. Designs included a sonar inspired
head set a smart exercise suit, and Charlotte Slingsby’s invention, Moya Power. Moya Power was inspired by Slingsby’s native South Africa, where power-cuts are a frequent occurrence. Moya Power meets the challenge of developing a new way of harnessing energy that does not require expensive land or infrastructure. Charlotte’s invention uses a number of finger-like filaments which are moved by passing currents of air with the movement harnessed to generate electricity. The end result is a low cost flexible material that can wrap around buildings, coat windows, line bridges or be hidden in structures unlocking their potential as energy generation sites. Such inventive solutions to complex problems exemplify Imperial’s innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. Innovation should also be considered to come from the re-thinking of existing research and technology. “We obviously need new things, but Innovation doesn’t have to be new,” says Dr Ritsuko Ozaki, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “It can be a new combination of existing ideas.” Dr Ozaki’s recent work suggests there is often a gap between an engineer and the end user. Common sustainability technologies are often developed without the consideration of the everyday user who has the ability to make a significant change to the environmental and carbon goals. “When engineers see a problem, they come up with a fantastic engineering solution
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Feature
“In the green energy industry, Britain is producing double the number of university spin-outs as the United States relative to GDP, but they raise less than half the equity raised by their American counterparts.” ‘Engineering growth – enabling world-class entrepreneurship in the low-carbon economy’ report
and they tend to think it solves the problem. But there are human beings between their solution and the problem,” says Dr Ozaki, who also noted that engineers sometimes over anticipate the end user’s ability to use new and innovative technologies. In addition to adaptive technologies, come adaptive business ventures. Whilst studying at Imperial College Business School, Karl Harder came up with the idea for Abundance, an investment company that enables communities and individuals to invest directly in renewable energy projects across the UK and share in the benefits. The company is now in its third year, and has a strong investment community of nearly 2000. “We started with a simple idea – to link up communities and individuals with Renewable Energy Projects and make it possible for everyone to share in the benefits of clean energy production,” says Karl. “Our investors don’t just get an income from their investment. They are contributing to a better environment for future generations, so we can all breathe air that’s a little cleaner and look forward to a more sustainable future.” Business models that transform the way funding is achieved for renewable energy are helping to push the agenda of clean energy beyond the timescales of government policy. Re-thinking and challenging policy is also important in helping to ensure the paradigms of sustainable business practices are truly adaptable to our changing environment. Professor Richard Green, Head of the Management Department at the Business School, has been working on a number of policy issues relating to the electricity industry, including the best way to integrate electricity storage into the market and create a system of regulatory rules. His latest project is part of the UK Energy Research Centre, a network headquartered at Imperial. Working
with Dr Iain Staffell, from the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial, Professor Green will be modelling the interactions of the UK with the rest of the European energy system. His research suggests that building more (undersea) transmission lines to the rest of Europe will help to deal with fluctuations in the output of wind and solar generators. “Renewable energy is central to the decarbonisation of Europe’s economy,” said Dr Staffell. “However, as output of present electricity systems are unpredictable, uncontrollable and resource constrained, there are many challenges. So, intelligent economic solutions are needed to enable wind and solar resources to be exploited more efficiently and at lower cost”. A paper previously published by Professor Green and Dr Staffell investigating wind farm longevity is already being used in the UK government’s calculations. Following debate about whether wind turbines have a more limited shelf-life than other technologies, their research found that UK’s earliest turbines, built in the 1990s, are still producing three-quarters of their original output after 19 years of operation, nearly twice the amount previously claimed, and should operate effectively up to 25 years. This is comparable to the performance of gas turbines used in power stations. In addition to the innovative solutions currently being developed by the brilliant minds at Imperial, developments in the realm of climate change management continue to provide a wealth of opportunity for entrepreneurial minds to leverage. Promoting entrepreneurial spirit and innovation will further Imperial’s legacy of helping to futureproof both business and the global economy against the impacts of climate change and other issues.
Ritsuko Ozaki is the Coordinator for the Business School’s Energy Business Research Laboratory. Her research interests include innovation for sustainability in the urban and built environment, adoption and diffusion of energy technologies, and usertechnology interactions. Recent research published last year saw her work closely with the housing association. “We looked at how social housing residents used installed technologies. The housing association installed energy saving technologies into homes which residents were forced to live with. The installment turned out to be a waste, as people don’t know how to use it, or the technology does not fit with their lifestyles”, revealed Dr Ozaki. Residents were given a brief introduction upon arrival and a thick ‘How-to’ manual. Dr Ozaki’s research showed that in conjunction with being overwhelmed with the new houses, many did not absorb the instructions nor were they able to read manuals and therefore did not fully understand the technology. When it came to using the technology, some tenants would not be using them and others were using it in different and unexpected ways, and would be consuming more energy rather than saving. Findings from the published research are being translated into practical solutions for the housing association to implement and improve uptake of the technologies in the future.
Inside IB
Imperial Business
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Fotis Begklis Media Specialist, Musician and Balkan Folk Music Enthusiast Written by: Rebecca Firth Image by Orly Zailer
The water-cooler is commonly known as a place for collaboration and networking, and it is where I first heard about the musician, Fotis Begklis. Better known amongst staff and students as a Learning Technologist, Fotis is a talented clarinet and percussion player. In addition to countless concerts across the UK, his performance portfolio includes two appearances at Glastonbury and regular appearances at Rich Mix with fellow musicians of the Trans-Siberian March Band (TSMB). By day Fotis is usually found wearing a pair of headphones, working with his colleagues to create, film and edit video content for programme and website use. The team’s current focus is creating videos for the Online Global MBA. There are 22 videos in total and the team have created all the content from scratch, a project that has taken them over two years. Filming usually takes place in the small recording studio tucked away behind rows of staff desks in the Business School. The small quarters are where a lot of Fotis’ business relationships are formed: “we meet people in a different way; during a week we are with them for 8 hours a day so we have a different relationship. I quite like that!” he says. “It is intimate; we are in the studio just them and us. Standing up for hours and hours trying to get the best product – it can be very challenging.” Currently studying his PhD in Interactive Media at Westminster University, Fotis has previously obtained a degree in Media which is a field that requires constant learning, and up-skilling: “I have learned a lot of things on my own, because there is new technology
every year. So in general I am some kind of self-taught media specialist,” he says. Fotis started playing clarinet when he was quite young, and after a break in playing he pickedup woodwind and then percussion again roughly 12 years ago. On top of traditional music methods and obtaining his Masters in Ethnomusicology, Fotis has a keen ear for sound and pitch, noting he can often hear sounds that others can’t. From hearing to playing unique sounds, the Trans-Siberian March Band website provides a great window into their performance world. The photo gallery is a vibrant portrait of Balkan costumes, caricatures, mid-performance captures, and thoughtful soloist moments. As the name suggests, their music is influenced by a number of cultures including traditional Balkan, Turkish and Russian cultures. Fotis’ Greek heritage and strong interest in folk music makes him a valuable member of the band when it comes to donning costumes for song and dance performances – a process that can take a couple of hours. Together, the band have been rehearsing every Monday for ten years. Their sound is made up of rich brass, married with airy wind instruments all backed by the rhythmic percussion, producing a very playful track – one critic named them the “Sex Pistols of Balkan Brass”. The band’s performances draw a large crowd, and they are called upon to entertain at many different social events, cultural performances and bar gigs. “We are a professional band, so if they pay us, we will play!” laughs Fotis. When asked about his most memorable performance, he notes
there are many that come to mind however the Glastonbury experiences are concerts that have stuck with him. “The second Glastonbury was quite good. We collaborated with DJ Yoda, and we played on a massive stage. He asked if we would collaborate so we developed a show and went to Glastonbury, which was our biggest performance to date,” Fotis recalls. Fotis’ best kept secret? The college practice rooms that are available to students and staff. “The best room is always available. I am not sure why though, it has a very beautiful view,” he says. It is in these quiet rehearsal spaces, as well as vacant lecture theatres he finds time to practice his music most mornings. Squeezing practice in where you can is important especially when you belong to two bands, work full time and are undertaking a PhD. When we asked how he fits it all in he shrugged and smiled, replying “I don’t know.” You can read more about the TSMB at transsiberianmarchband.com/music.html
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Inside IB
Professor Nelson Phillips Tech Enthusiast, Professor and Cross Cultural Communicator Written by: Rebecca Firth
10 things you didn’t know about Dean Anand 1 Can play the Saxophone 2 Has a Beagle-mix dog called Dash 3 Has two children: Kavi and Siddhu 4 Is a great cook – favourite dishes are: Truite Amandine and Chicken Tagine 5 Is a sports enthusiast – favourite teams are Boston Red Sox (which he has followed for 35 plus years!) and Tottenham Hotspurs 6 Is a fan of Hip Hop music, but his favourite artist is Miles Davis 7 Favourite city is London (by a long shot!) 8 Person he looks up to most: his father, for being honourable and hard working with good values; also really admires Nelson Mandela 9 Life advice: “I try to live by the credo in the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling (although I dislike Kipling in general)” 10 Tips for a successful career: “Be the change you wish to see in the world” by Gandhi
Anand’s dog Dash
When I arrive at our meeting, Professor Phillips is already talking to a young man who is keenly jotting down the Professor’s advice. I too am keen to gain his insight from his international business and teaching experience, his thoughts on upcoming technology and his extracurricular editorial activities. Starting off in Calgary, Professor Phillips completed a degree in Computer Engineering followed by an MBA “which was kind of by accident,” as he puts it. Working with a number of technology start-ups he found there was a requirement for additional business knowledge. “At first I thought, ‘I don’t want to do an MBA, I’m a tech guy’ and that I would just take the interesting courses.” But taking more courses required him to start his MBA and he quickly realised it was interesting and useful. As he neared the end of his MBA, Calgary experienced an Oil Price Crash: “one of the companies I had started was starting to struggle as other businesses were reducing their outsourcing”, Professor Phillips recalls, “so I thought I would lay myself off and go back for one term and finish off my MBA.” Serendipitously, at the time of completing his MBA a guest speaker visited the university and spoke about PhD opportunities at the University of Alberta, which piqued his interest; “There were no jobs at that time– so I went to Edmonton to do my PhD, which I really enjoyed.” Professor Phillips has a strong interest in technology strategy and innovation, a field that he has been working in for several years. His focus has been on various aspects of the social dynamics of technology adoption and the ramifications of these dynamics for technology strategy and innovation – in particular his interest lies
in the dynamics of adoption with digital consumer devices and the impact of these dynamics on firms and industries. His favourite piece of technology to use? “I’m kind of boring, the technology I use most is my iPad,” he answers, “and my Fit Bit!” Talking technology trends, he notes one of the biggest upcoming trends is Big Data. “Everyone is trying to figure out what this means. How to analyse, interpret and display Big Data, which is a challenge.” In addition to Big Data, Professor Phillips highlights Wearable Tech and anticipates further evolution to come with future generations. “Everyone’s really excited about [Wearable Tech] but people haven’t quite figured out what to do with it yet. You always need a generation to grow up with a new device and then they figure out what to do with it. Like the PC, which people started using as a typewriter. It took 10 or 15 years to grow up and realise ‘this is not what it’s for’ and now we have all of these products like the internet and Twitter. So you need to grow up with the technology to get a sense of possibility.” In addition to his academic and teaching duties at Imperial, Professor Phillips plays an integral role in the newly signed partnership between Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM) and Imperial College Business School. Acting as a relationship manager he communicates weekly with the ADSM Dean, as well as providing professional opinion and advice to the number of ADSM committees on which he sits. “I am there to help them see and understand international best practices.” Visiting the school in person 5 to 6 times a year, he acts on an academic level, teaching lessons on Executing Strategy and Leadership.
Imperial Business
Cross cultural interactions are something that Professor Phillips is very familiar with, and is a topic he discusses in his Leadership course which is an MBA elective. Professor Philips also provided insight into the current aspirations of the Emirates stating: “in Abu Dhabi and Dubai they want to work with people who will help them learn how to do it themselves. So they don’t want to just hire you to do something for them, they want to be your partner and they really want to learn to do it for themselves.” In addition to the many roles already played by Professor Phillips, editor is another title he assumes. Sitting as editor for an academic journal and a book series allows him to challenge the traditional paradigms of business writing. “We have an important role, in that if we feel something needs to be
covered or talked about we can commission someone to write about it,” he said, adding that the Journal of Management Inquiry is considered a “cross between an academic publication and the New Yorker. I like that it challenges academic norms. It has been really interesting and an opportunity to publish articles that are a bit different and use really different methods and topics. Recently we published a paper about Bathroom Graffiti; people did an analysis on what employees wrote on the walls and what that says about the organisation.” If you would like to learn more about Professor Phillips and his work, please visit: imperial.ac.uk/people/n.phillips
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Global Initiatives
Global Initiatives It is not just a diverse student population that contributes to the Imperial College Business School global outlook. We continue to strengthen our overseas presence through a number of strategic partnerships complementary to the implementation of an innovative curriculum and involvement in symposia and programmes abroad. Speaking of future plans to further develop our global presence, Paolo Taticchi, Director of Global Initiatives said: “We aim to develop new strategic alliances for student exchange, explore the possibility of dual programmes and identify international opportunities for revenue generation.”
Global Experience Weeks A capstone unit for students some of our MSc programmes is the Global Experience Week, where students experience first-hand the social and cultural dynamics of business in another country. “There have been a number of trips run over the past few years,” said Dr Taticchi, “most recently I led one to Silicon Valley to study the ecosystem of digital entrepreneurship. It was a fascinating experience to speak to experts and get an insight into the mind-set of an entrepreneur.” Other experience weeks have taken students to China and Brussels: Global Experience Week: Brussels As part of the MSc Finance programme, students visited Brussels to widen their business knowledge and hone their skills
Globalisation Task Force The Globalisation Taskforce works with members across the College to identify potential partners and areas that could result in further international opportunities for our staff and students. The taskforce is comprised of Professor Nelson Phillips, Dr Markus Perkmann, Professor Marcin Kacperczyk, Dr Sankalp Chaturvedi, Dr Enrico Biffis and Dr Paolo Taticchi.
in an international context. During their stay, students received presentations from Henrik Morch, Head of the Single Market Policy Unity at the European Commission, as well as Dirk Dewitte, Managing Director, BNP Paribas. Global Experience Week: China “It was an excellent trip; we got to meet some really interesting people and walk the floors of companies like Lenovo and Shanghai General Motors. We also managed to squeeze in some cultural events, such as visiting the Great Wall and the Jade Buddha temple. Perhaps my favourite company visit was the Shanghai office of BBDO, where we discussed advertising and consumer trends in China.” Michael Wieder, MBA Student
Imperial Business
“ We aim to develop new strategic alliances for student exchange, explore the possibility of dual programmes and identify international opportunities for revenue generation.”
MBA Students in all corners Launched in 2014, the Imperial Global Online MBA allows professionals from around the world to access the full content of the Imperial MBA in a flexible format using the latest online teaching tools. Our current cohort reaches across globe and back, and one student in particular gave us the lowdown on what it is like to be one of the Business School’s most remote students:
Q&A
Paolo Taticchi Director of Global Initiatives
Gerald Hanna Asset Manager, Yoma strategic holdings Singapore & Myanmar Why did you decide to undertake the Imperial Global Online MBA? Gain better business knowledge, access a network, gain credibility while doing better business, and the quality of the institution. What are the advantages of being able to complete your MBA from anywhere in the world? I can continue to generate income while studying which prevents loss of opportunity. I can apply the knowledge acquired directly to my everyday job. What does a regular study day look like for you? Early morning readings, work all day, evening online courses and exercises, chatting in between with my cohorts
Global Partnerships May marked the signing of a new partnership between Imperial College Business School and Abu Dhabi School of Management (ADSM). Under the terms of the partnership, Imperial will strengthen its existing role as a mentor to the ADSM, provide guidance on academic research and support ADSM’s teaching and academic quality review services. In addition to the strong partnership in the Gulf, a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with BML Munjal University (BMU) to
provide assistance in developing its School of Management. The Business School will serve as a mentor institution helping BMU to form, develop and grow its School of Management. Students from BMU recently attended Imperial’s campus for a two week intensive summer school. The programme concentrated on Leadership, Design Management, Bringing Ideas to Market and Business Models/Intellectual Property, and explored the challenges and opportunities that innovators and entrepreneurs the world over encounter.
What do you do in your regular job? I handle real estate developments and investments in Myanmar for a Singapore listed conglomerate focussing on hotel, and residential projects. What are some of the challenges of studying remotely and how do you overcome them? For me it’s mainly the quality of the Internet connection in my country which prevents me from accessing the courses at times and also my time
management skills. I’m the type puts off my studies for a couple of days and then go intensive to catch up on my delays instead of studying at a regular pace like most students do. Do you chat regularly with your classmates? What are the networking opportunities like? Almost on a daily basis. We exchange on the courses via social networks and chat software. We share our work-related experiences and link it with our course content. What is your favourite part/ most interesting thing you’ve learnt in the programme so far? Definitely marketing. It was an inspiring course that I’m able to apply to my daily job when putting together and presenting my business plans. What would you say to someone considering undertaking the Imperial Global Online MBA? This is a no brainer. The MBA team itself is always available for us. That makes a big difference versus other schools . We feel the support and we get to meet amazing classmates, on top of getting a top quality degree from a prestigious school and without interrupting our job. We win at every level.
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Alumni connections
Alumni connections This year the Business School alumni network grew to over 12,500 strong, with a presence in over 125 countries. The UK, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Greece have our largest alumni populations, but our alumni live in places as diverse as the Bahamas, Netherlands, Antilles, Tunisia and Mongolia. Wherever you may be, there are excellent opportunities to connect and network with fellow Imperial alumni as well as the Business School, whether in person or online. Many of these initiatives are coordinated by our Country Representatives (alumni volunteers who represent their country/region or enthusiastic locals).
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If you’re interested in organising an event in your city, or stepping up to the role of Country Representative, see imperial.ac.uk/businessschool/alumni/country-connections As our recruitment team travel globally to connect with potential students, we would like to invite our Alumni Volunteers to support our recruitment efforts. If you are interested please contact alumni-business@imperial.ac.uk
Countries
Alumni
Alumni Country Representatives
“I’ve been working with Leo Suarez (fellow alumnus) and we’re looking to run our first freight train in Colombia’s Magdalena valley later this year! And as business partners we certainly hope to keep working together for the foreseeable future.”
“We celebrated our 31 year reunion back at campus, organised by our classmate, Smadar Gabbay. It was a great reunion and we were made to feel so welcome! I was touched and enjoyed the evening immensely. Hopefully now we will be able keep in touch more frequently.”
Marcus Mayers Weekend Executive MBA 2009 London, United Kingdom
Michael Munrow MSc Management Science 1984, New York, USA
Imperial Business
Location of our Alumni Country Representatives
“Social Media is extremely useful because it has made networking so much easier. It helps in finding alumni and other acquaintances and makes it easier via status updates to share your thoughts and ideas hassle free. It is also extremely effective in organising meet ups. It is always great to meet people from Imperial.” Theoharis Mihailidis Full-Time MBA 1996 Athens, Greece
“Building a strong network of like-minded professionals is key to a successful career. Taking a trip down memory lane and meeting good friends while doing that is a welcome added bonus.” Antonios Menegas Full-Time MBA 2006 Athens, Greece
“I helped the Marketing team at a recruitment event in Milan because I had a great experience during my MSc at Imperial College Business School and I think it’s great if Alumni can help through sharing ideas and experiences – and it’s a good way to network.” Gabriella dalla Chiesa MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management 2013 Rome, Italy
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“I volunteer because I am really proud to be a graduate from one of the world’s top universities and I believe that only alumni passionate about Imperial could really motivate and inspire talented students interested in becoming part of Imperial College London.” Anastasia Kritskaya MSc Strategic Marketing 2013 Moscow, Russia
“Currently I am the Business Unit Director, Neuromodulation Division and board member at St Jude Medical Australia & NZ (STJ.NY).” Ofer Elboher Full-Time MBA 2001 Melbourne, Australia
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Inside IB
“My interest is in how we can apply science into a business context and develop an innovative product�
IN BRIEF
Born in Lebanon PhD in Molecular Biology Currently undertaking the Imperial Executive MBA
Imperial Business
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Dr Rana Lonnen Executive MBA Student, Molecular Biologist and Businesswoman Written by: Rebecca Firth Photography: Iain Crockart
Dr Rana Lonnen is an accomplished scientist currently undertaking the Imperial Executive MBA. Her passion for partnering innovative business with science drew her to study at Imperial College Business School and sees her access valuable networks and insightful professionals which are imperative to her next business ventures. We met with Rana to discuss her studies, research and how she manages her schedule. Originally from Lebanon, Rana relocated to England after receiving a scholarship to study at the University of Leicester where she completed her PhD in Molecular Biology. In 2007, Rana was naturalised as British citizen and describes this as one of the “proudest moments of her life.” As a scientist by training you could question why she has traded her lab coat for lecture theatres, and this is where her passion for improvement becomes evident, “my interest is in how we can apply science into a business context and develop an innovative product,” says Rana. In her time at the University of Leicester, Dr Lonnen discovered a molecule which is thought to be a possible cure for pneumonia. After discovering the characteristics of the pneumonia fighting molecule, Rana successfully raised funds from the Wellcome Trust allowing her to take the next steps in preclinical development, which led to the foundation of a start-up. As founder of this venture, she explained: “the start-up aims to conduct trials in humans. We really want to see this molecule work in patients. If it does, the company could attract large investments from a pharmaceutical company, who would then take the invention and test it in a larger scale trial.”
Rana’s enthusiasm for partnering scientific research and business is contagious. “There is amazing work in UK universities,” she beamed. “However, experience in the business and science side is imperative for the commercialisation of innovation.” The ability to mix science with business is one of the reasons Rana chose to study at Imperial, stating: “it is inspiring to be part of the Imperial ‘ecosystem’, at the cutting edge of innovation and this is one of the reasons why I chose to do my MBA at Imperial.” In addition to positioning herself in the middle of a research community, choosing to study her Executive MBA was a logical next step noting: “the commercialisation of science involves at some stage the creation of business ventures and this why I wanted to go back to the lecture theatre, to get equipped with further business tools, refine my understanding of business functions as well as nurture my business networks – for me the MBA is an integral piece to complete the puzzle.” As a student, scientist, class representative and business founder it is a wonder how she fits it all in. “I find when I have more things to do, my time management becomes better,” she laughs. “You have to focus. It is all about planning and what you can achieve in that time.” Rana notes that along with giving yourself time to recharge and unwind, a busy schedule is made easier if you enjoy it, “I really love what I do, so I find the time I put in very rewarding.” From schedules to future visions, our conversation turned to post graduation. Rana is excited for what the future will bring not only for her personal work but for those at the university with an interest
in science and medicinal advancements. “This is a very exciting time for translational research,” says Rana, as an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies turn to academic institutions to seek out new therapeutic treatments to replenish their pipelines. Rana suggests that individuals seeking a similar career path to her, could be leading innovative business ventures at the interface between academia, biotech, investors and large pharmaceuticals. Based at the Stevenage Biocatalyst Centre, Rana is currently Head of Preclinical Development at an innovative biotech that develops novel antibiotics for life threatening infections. Here she is able to work on one of her particular interests – developing antimicrobials to treat infections. “The need for new antibiotics is very urgent with the alarming increase in resistance to antibiotics,” she says. When we asked what her advice might be to students aspiring to take a similar career path, she responded: “Take risks, bring the right people on board, work hard and continue to learn.” Drawing on her own experience, she reflects: “When I was researching and found these potential new therapies, there was a very big risk that I would not secure the seed funds to further develop the molecule. At that time I declined another opportunity that secured immediate and guaranteed funds. The latter is not what I aspired to do. Taking a calculated risk paid off. Sometimes you get pulled away and you miss out on the benefits that could come in the future. So take risks. Without taking risks, you can miss opportunities to materialise your ideas into successful ventures.”
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Student success
MBA alumni join forces for venture success Written by: Laura Singleton
Maulik pictured third from the left. Jeffrey pictured on far right.
Maulik Sailor, an MBA graduate from 2011, is the CEO and Founder of Innovify, a company that helps entrepreneurs, businesses and startups to create innovative products and services in the digital sector. He started working with fellow alumnus Jeffrey Sinick in 2014 after he invited Jeffery to write a business plan for Innovify as part of his final MBA project. They spoke to us about their journey from students to startup supporters. Maulik, how did Innovify come about? My main aim for doing the MBA at Imperial was to create my own startup. However, during the year I learned a lot about the venture creation process and used this knowledge, together with some newly found connections to find a niche in the market. I’m also passionate about helping others achieve their business dreams, so the idea of creating an incubator business that nurtures businesses and startups was the ideal career move.
How did your collaboration with Jeffrey first come about? Maulik: I first took Jeffrey on to do a specific piece of work which would form part of his MBA consulting project. We structured this project in a way that it could be practically applied to Innovify. After he finished his MBA, he continued to work on this project and he now plays a leading role within the business and really makes his mark with executive decision making. Jeffrey: Maulik needed someone to write a business plan for the incubation side of Innovify. He gave me the opportunity to do this for my final MBA project. I never expected to be offered an actual job, so I was delighted when he offered me a permanent position as a product partner after I graduated. Maulik is very ambitious and has great ideas which makes Innovify such a dynamic place to work. Our shared experience of doing the Imperial MBA has strengthened our relationship and impacts on the way we conduct business.
Describe your experience of studying at Imperial. Jeffrey: Imperial has a thriving entrepreneurship community across the College which gave me lots of inspiration and opportunities to gain practical experience through the various student projects taking place on campus. These projects included a competition for forming an accelerator with the Create Lab, run by the Faculty of Engineering. The MBA programme also provided great opportunities for networking with outside speakers and forging connections with like-minded people. I also loved being in a class full of people from all over the world and from different industries. The experience, insights and friendships were the best part of my experience. Maulik: I was the President of the Entrepreneurs’ Interactive Society, through which I networked a lot to identify new contacts. The MBA gave me the confidence and knowledge to found Innovify. Since starting the business, I’ve found that the degree makes a difference in enabling potential clients to place faith in me and my team to deliver results. What advice would you give to other students looking to set up their own business? Jeffrey: I’d advise students to proactively seize the unique opportunities offered at Imperial, including external talks at the Business School, Tech City and entrepreneurship events taking place on campus. You won’t get these opportunities anywhere else! Maulik: Focus on developing a small but carefully selected founding team of people who can help you develop your unique selling point. Believe in yourself no matter what people say. There are a lot of unknowns on your journey and the best way to overcome those is by ‘Failing fast and learning quickly’. Being an entrepreneur can be difficult and lonely so you need to have a strong support network of people who will stay with you if you don’t succeed.
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Hannah Daniels Senior Programme Manager, MBA Suite Written by: Rebecca Firth
September sees the start of a new term and new wave of innovators, entrepreneurs and future business leaders arriving at Imperial. Wind back a month, and behind the scenes is a flurry of activity as the team finalise the details ready for a new cohort. Leading the programme team is Hannah Daniels who joined the School in January 2015. Hannah’s CV reads as an impressive list of student services and programme management experience at some of the world’s leading universities. “I love working with students and being part of their journey,” she says. “In this role every day is different, and it is a real privilege to work with our students.” The past year has seen a number of developments to programme content as well as delivery of the MBA suite. “Right now, the biggest task is working towards the Full-Time MBA induction,” explains Hannah. “The Full-Time MBA has been through a comprehensive review and we are in the process of implementing some very exciting new elements to the programme.” The programme improvements focus on building and enhancing the student experience. One key change will see students starting a month earlier in September to allow an extended induction, providing an opportunity for building foundation skills before the core teaching starts. This includes a Team Building and Leadership day, two days of advanced Excel training and a significant careers offering including workshops and company visits. Students will hear from both practitioners and faculty as they embark on their year ahead. “Beyond the Full-Time MBA I am also responsible for our Executive MBA cohorts as well as the Weekend MBA, which are launching in April 2016. Hannah says that part of her role is to leverage as much as possible from the opportunities arising with the programmes being part of a
suite. “We want to make sure that MBA students have the ability to network with each other. We also want to make sure there is a consistency in their student experience,” says Hannah. “We are working to provide a myriad of learning opportunities whether they be speakers, elective courses or networking events – moulding the MBA programmes to be part of the one coherent suite gives us that ability.” Hannah’s enthusiasm for her role is aided by the ambition she says runs through the School. “The Business School sits in the middle of an incredible university. There is the ability to work with people from science, technology and engineering backgrounds,” she says. “Students, as well as staff have the ability to apply their business skills to creating meaningful and opportunistic relationships throughout Imperial.” Outside of the office, Hannah makes the most of her free time by immersing herself in all London has to offer: “I have lived in London for 16 years and feel I am only just earning the right to describe myself as a Londoner, it’s one of the greatest and most diverse cities in the world with limitless new opportunities to try out.” Before Hannah returns to the office rush, she reflects on one of the School’s principles: “Intelligent Business, I believe, means providing an incredible learning environment. At the end of their time here we hope students leave with improved business and leadership skills to make an impact within their organisation, with their colleagues and their clients - the ripple effect of our programmes is powerful.” More details about our MBA programmes can be found on our website: imperial.ac.uk/business-school/programmes
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Women in leadership A blueprint for achieving gender balance Written by: Amber Hall Photography: Jason Alden
Over the past 30 years, Imperial College Business School has been working towards achieving gender balance in the lecture theatre, a necessary and supporting step towards gender balance in business. In 1986, the Business School had just 93 students on the MSc Management Science programme – more than a third of those students were women. Each cohort since has had its own individual make up (fluctuating up and down), but the School has deliberately taken steps towards a representative balance – meeting or surpassing the 50/50 ratio in our Master’s programmes five times since 1994. Most recent graduating classes (2014) included nearly 100 more women than men in the MSc programmes. “It’s important for us to recognise diversity in our programmes and in our classrooms, and part of our commitment to gender equality,” explains Diane Morgan, Associate Dean of Programmes at Imperial College Business School and member of the board of the Forte Foundation, an organisation that launches women into fulfilling business careers through access to education, opportunities and community. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done at Imperial, to have on most of our programmes, 50% women. That has been a really conscious decision and conscious effort on behalf of the School.” It’s a goal that our students are working towards too. Tandem, a student society launched on campus this year, have been working to change the way students at Imperial College perceive gender diversity. An inclusive society for both men and women, their ambition is to inspire students to take a fresh look at the business world and help them to strive towards a world where both genders work together to create solutions and value for
the business challenges of the future. With such good ground being made at the graduation stage, there’s still work to be done to maintain that balance later in the career cycle. Graduate employment is comparable between the sexes after graduating from the Business School, but the real opportunity lies in the C-suite and board level, where currently, numbers drop dramatically. “Worldwide, there is an underrepresentation of women pursuing postgraduate management education and this has a knock-on effect on the number of women who hold senior director roles within corporations and therefore ultimately board positions in FTSE100 companies,” said Diane. “I think what we need to be doing as a business school is demonstrating it’s not enough to get the women into the programmes, but what are their long term career aspirations? Where are the role models for women? And where are the leaders that are demonstrating that you can have a long standing career?” We’re proud to have so many great role models within the Business School Alumni Network, such as Jocelyn Brown, Vice President at Institutional Shareholder Services, London; Jenny Yao, Partner / Head of Healthcare at KPMG, Beijing; and Golnaz Samadi, Lead Project Engineer - Global Projects Organisation, BP Plc, London; a trio of high achievers from the same cohort – MBA 2005, and celebrating 10 years since graduating. With a background in technology, Jocelyn’s MBA helped her to make the change to financial services. “I started on a technical career path, which was fun for the first few years, but over time I recognised that I needed to gain a broader skillset to continue to develop. My post-MBA role was a mix of
business and technology consulting, and I wouldn’t have made the transition into financial services without it,” said Jocelyn. “My year at Imperial College Business School was one of the most formative of my life. I identified my post-MBA role in management consultancy through the Business School Alumni Network, and in return have always tried to be generous with my time and experience when approached by current students.” The Imperial MBA was equally formative for Golnaz, “I use all that I’ve learnt through my MBA course on a daily basis but more importantly the network that we built during the course with my cohorts has been invaluable to me.” The three agree that having both genders represented at all levels of an organisation makes good business sense. Jenny explains, “Women approach business decisions with different perspectives. The world is a much better place when important decisions are made by a balanced group of men and women.” Jocelyn adds, “it allows businesses to attract talent from the widest pool available, to better represent an increasingly diverse customer base and decreases the risks of ‘group think’ in the boardroom.” “I believe each individual brings a different perspective based on their personality, background, education – and in this case a female ‘touch’! But the key is to break a historical trend and establish a fully meritocratic system and this is true for any historical minority in the senior level roles,” says Golnaz. It is part of the School’s vision to have a positive impact on society – and that starts with getting our own house in order. Earlier this year, the Business School, in partnership
Imperial Business
with the 30% Club, who aim for a better representation of women on FTSE100 boards by the end of 2015, launched two new scholarships to encourage more women to undertake post-graduate management education. The scholarships, worth £20,000 each, will be awarded to two exceptional female candidates who are interested in undertaking the Imperial Executive MBA. We also launched the Dorothy Griffiths Full-Time MBA Scholarship for Excellence; two scholarships of £10,000 that will be awarded to candidates who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement and a drive for innovation, excellence and gender parity. To coincide with International Women’s Day, on 11 March 2015, we hosted our first MBA Information Session specifically for women. We welcomed 29 attendees interested in the Imperial MBA programmes to the President’s House at Imperial College London, for what was a very successful and inspiring evening. Women studying on the Imperial MBA programmes are now also able to register to become a member of the Forté Foundation, thereby gaining access to career advancement advice,
resources and a growing community of 50,000 women in business. “I’d also love to hire more women faculty,” said Diane. “Education institutions struggle with the same challenges as industry in bringing women into the most senior positions. The Dean and I are keen to continue to bring more women into the faculty and the boardroom.” With that in mind, the Business School is leading by example and over the past year has appointed five women to School Advisory Boards: Mary Meaney, Director, McKinsey and Catherine Moukheibir, Executive Board Member, Innate Pharma both joined the Business School Advisory Board; Anke Richter, Senior Credit Analyst, Conning Asset Management and Tanit Curry, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley joined the Finance Master’s Programmes Advisory Board; and Naomi Kasolowsky, Global Capability Managing Director, Dunnhumby joined the Strategic Marketing Advisory Board.
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50% Imperial has 50% women on most of our programmes.
4 New scholarships
5 Women recently appointed to Business School Advisory Boards
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Alumni News Our Alumni Network is a truly diverse tapestry of people, ideas, careers, hobbies, cultures and life ambitions. This makes our alumni an inspiring group, with fascinating stories to share. Here is just a selection of those stories:
1990s Dennis Ng Full-Time MBA 1995 London, United Kingdom I am now a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Universitat Internatiocional de Catalunya (UIC) in Barcelona and am also the Co-Director of the MSc Entrepreneurship programme there.
Dr Anthony Lye Full-Time MBA 1991 Singapore There are 1.1 billion youth worldwide exposed to the risk of hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices. About 12% of all children between the ages of 6 to 19 have noise-induced hearing loss. I started a company called Aegis Soundlabs (www.aegissoundlabs.com) to produce headphones with auditory safety features. I’ve recently completed my postgraduate degree majoring in Strategy and Innovation from Oriel College, Oxford. I will be embarking on another Master’s degree in Sustainability Leadership at Wolfson College, Cambridge this coming August. I’ve also just joined the board of Omega Consulting and Management Services Limited, as Chairman in March 2015. Omega Consulting is one of the leading human resource outsourcing companies in Singapore.
Colin Brown Executive MBA 1996 Chippenham, England Four years ago, I launched a charity, wellboring.org, with two other trustees. We focus on delivering life-changing projects in Africa that bring water to needy schools and communities. This year we’ve already completed five boreholes and changed the lives of over 4,000 people in Kenya and Zambia. Running a charity has been even more challenging than running my own consulting business. Building the in-country capability, securing funding, marketing the charity and what we stand for, and being really clear on who we help and who we don’t have all drawn on lessons I learnt from my MBA. We’re now looking for a couple more trustees to join wellboring.org who can bring specific skills in fundraising, international developing and marketing. I’m keen to see if there are other alumni out there who may have something to offer. If you’d like to get in touch with Colin about this opportunity, please contact the Alumni Relations Office at alumni-business@imperial.ac.uk
Stefan Magnusson Full-Time MBA 1999 Stockholm, Sweden I am a partner in two small venture capital groups: one that is family based and one that is together with colleagues. Neither are big or high finance but both are very stimulating. I work as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist and, in my role, I have provided seed funding to a range of health products to find out more you can visit www.happyvitamin.se. I have also converted a care home into a residence for asylum seekers. Converting the old age care home into a residence for asylum seekers was very exciting as it gave me new insights into facilities management, public procurement, national and European migration policy and structuring business deals around short term specialist lets.
Imperial Business
2010s
2000s Dr Frank Lefley PhD 2003 Goole, United Kingdom I’ve been working on a research project on project appraisal of ICT projects at the University of Hradec Kralove, in the Czech Republic and writing my new book: The FAP Model and its application in the appraisal of ICT projects, (London: 2015 Palgrave Macmillan), ISBN: 978 1 137 44351 9. I’ve also been involved as the lead researcher in writing a number of other academic papers – including Lefley, F., and Sarkis, J., (2013). How to evaluate capital projects that offer environmental/carbon reducing benefits. International Journal of Applied Logistics. 4 (3), 14 – 24. ISSN: 1947 –9573. and Lefley, F., (2013). The appraisal of ICT and non– ICT capital projects: a study of the current practices of large UK organisations. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. 6 (3), 505 – 533. ISSN: 1753 –8378., and many others. Sanjeev Kumar Executive MBA 2008 London, United Kingdom I’m working in the pharmaceutical industry as an Associate Director, and am also Director of a personal consultancy company providing consultancy and services to pharmaceutical companies on drug development. A particularly exciting project I’ve been involved in, was providing services to a global Top 5 Pharma company evaluating the safety of a marketed drug. It has been a great journey since my Executive MBA and I’ve enjoyed applying knowledge gained via my study and learning via experience. My Executive MBA was a great experience and the learnings have played a central role in my career progression that involve a significant component of planning, organisation and execution on the projects I was responsible for.
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Matthew Stafford Weekend Executive MBA 2010 London, United Kingdom I’m Co-founder of 9others – www.9others. com – which is now a global network of entrepreneurs – over 3,500 in 33 cities around the world. We connect the best entrepreneurs in the belief that ‘your success requires the aid of others’. Occasionally we curate the ‘others’ from the 9others network to spend time with corporates, governments and investors to give inspiration and fresh perspectives. I also occasionally mentor start ups to help them with getting investment and customers as well as connecting them to other entrepreneurs. Gabriele Lucente Weekend Executive MBA 2009 London, United Kingdom I am currently a Senior Manager for the Internal Audit function of Marsh & McLennan companies, with direct responsibility over Marsh Ltd, the UK branch of Marsh LLC. I work with the Internal Audit function in the US, the board and senior management to provide independent, objective assurance and consulting services designed to add value and improve Marsh Ltd operations. The Weekend Executive MBA helped me shape my career. After graduation, I was selected to take part into Marsh & McLennan Financial Leadership Program, which entailed working during a period of two years in four different groups and geographies, further broadening my company and industry knowledge. Despite the career advancement, I believe the most beneficial aspect of the Weekend Executive MBA was the development of a mental framework to enhance your knowledge and develop new skills – a mental framework which I still use today and have now fully embedded into my way of thinking.
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2010s Nattavut Vichiankave MSc Management 2010 Bangkok, Thailand I am currently working at international bank in Thailand, as a Relationship Manager. I have just started up a gelato business with my siblings in Bangkok, called Deerato (www.facebook.com/deerato, you can also follow us on Instagram – @DEERATO). Currently, outdoor market events are a hit among teenagers and hipsters in Bangkok, so Deerato used this opportunity to open a pop-up store. What makes us different from other gelato shops is that instead of serving a plain gelato, we offer the customer many cute toppings such as a syrup syringe, marshmallow stick, and other creative toppings. Cute toppings together with delicious gelato means Deerato has become an instant hit among Thai society. I’m still connected with the Thai Imperial College Business School alumni, and we normally have dinner to catch up about once a month. We were very close during our time at the Business School, so we don’t want to lose this good relationship. Lastly, I would like to use this opportunity to say thank you to Imperial College London and all my lecturers for teaching me all the skills in doing business.
Bahareh Fatemi MSc International Health Management 2012 Tehran, Iran After living a total of 17 years in the UK, I moved to Tehran, Iran. I was never raised in a capital city and my only experience of living in a capital city was my year at Imperial College in London. Tehran, is a vibrant, inspiring and challenging city to move to. I have co-founded Tehran Centre of Social Innovation. Bringing Tech Wizards, Social Activists, artists, young entrepreneurs, start up lovers, venture capitalists, business angels and the community together in an exciting and inspiring space based in one of the top ten universities in Iran/Tehran. We are founded by Samsung Iran and seeking funds from international and national organisations. The website is currently under construction, but I am up for any connection via LinkedIn.
Xinyu Niu MSc Finance 2012 Singapore After graduation I moved to Singapore where I got connected with Singapore alumni associates and re-connected with my classmates. I even work for an Imperial alumnus! After the LIBOR scandal, global regulators are reacting fast, checking global and local benchmarks. Luckily I am part of the movement, where my firm helps clients to refine their controls to pass MAS (Singapore local regulator)’s test. Ankita J P Shroff MSc Management 2012 Pune, India My company SAV Chemicals manufactures instant adhesives. It’s a joint venture with Cartell Chemicals, an adhesive expert (launched by one of my Imperial classmates from Taiwan). After intense discussions, meetings, studying of projections, future market scope, product portfolios, pricing, investments and Taiwan visits, we eventually launched our company on 9 April 2014. We also started our manufacturing Unit in Bhukum Pune, in October 2014 and have a small team of 20 already. As Director and Founder, I’m a firm supporter of employing women and we have only women labourers at the manufacturing unit. Getting to work and collaborate with a fellow Imperial College Business School alumnus has been invaluable. I think Imperial gave me a great opportunity to network and a platform for international exposure.
Imperial Business
Tamar Ghosh Weekend Executive MBA 2012 London, United Kingdom I’m currently working at Nesta running the UK’s biggest science prize focused on global health. The Longitude Prize, a £10m prize, is focused on fighting antibiotic resistance, one of the biggest challenges to the world right now. The Longitude Prize involved a significant partnership with the BBC to implement the first ever publicly voted science prize. Since graduating, I’ve also launched Tamarind Healthcare Enterprises, which acts as the UK distributor for Aravind Eye Hospital, India, and I am also a trustee for two charities, Heart UK and BAAG.
Tara Sundramoorthi MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management 2012 London, United Kingdom We run Kitchen Table Projects, London’s first retail incubator for artisan food producers. We provide retail sales space, market research opportunities and business support and mentoring from a roster of over 14 industry experts. Currently we have a pop-up at Old Street station and we will be there until 13th September, showcasing 11 of the newest and most innovative food brands on the market, as well as championing countless other small producers, many of whom have not been seen on the High Street before. We have won seed funding from Capita as a business with high growth potential and we’ve been selected to be one of 10 Transition Town businesses in Brixton. You can find out more about us here: www. kitchentableprojects.com In addition, I have mentored students from the MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management programme. It’s important to mentor small businesses because it is a useful insight into the newest and most innovative happenings on the start-up scene.
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Lora Mihova MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2013 London, United Kingdom In my official role, I lead strategy & planning for big data monetisation at Telefonica. On the side, however, I founded a charity programme to enable young girls to engage with technology. I developed coding workshops and educational content with a colleague and we started inviting girls aged 10 and over from deprived areas to the Telefonica offices. For half a day, we teach them how to code in HTML, let them design their own website and introduce them to women in the industry. We have reached 240 girls so far, seeing not only a lot of enthusiasm for the industry, but increased levels of confidence and eagerness to learn in the girls. The charity is now fully sponsored by O2 Telefonica and we are being considered for our first industry award. Maximilian DÖelle MSc Economics & Strategy for Business 2014 London, United Kigndom I’ve started a new business called Kazendi. We aim to solve the problem of “innovation muda” – wasted resources during the innovation process. Our explorative approach is to provide lean experimentation capabilities to test innovation propositions within one week sprints, bringing together a unique technical knowledge as well as a large network of digital experts. For instance, we’ve effectively tested for a well-known financial services organisation, seeing how Google Glass can be used to deliver the most personal customer experience in a branch environment.
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Contact Information: Imperial College Business School Imperial College London South Kensington campus London SW7 2AZ United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7589 5111 F: +44 (0)20 7823 7685 W: imperial.ac.uk/business-school @ImperialBiz linkedin.com/company/imperial-college-business-school facebook.com/imperialbusiness instagram.com/imperialbiz/ Editors: imperial-business@imperial.ac.uk Disclaimer: While all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure that the information in this publication is correct, matters covered by this publication are subject to change. Published September 2015. Designed by opx.co.uk Š Imperial College Business School