MBACONNECT Lord Ashcroft International Business School Magazine | issue 11
www.anglia.ac.uk/aibs www.anglia.ac.uk
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Contents Hello to you all and welcome to the December 2012 issue of MBA Connect. As I write this it is a very snowy winter’s day here on the Chelmsford campus! It’s great to be able to take a moment to sit down and write to you all as the last few months have been very busy for the Development & Alumni team. Over 7,000 new alumni graduated at 18 ceremonies in October (including over 100 new MBA graduates joining your MBA Network) and the annual Telethon fundraising campaign was in full swing throughout November. Our dedicated team of 40 current students called around 1,200 alumni over a 3 week period. Our thanks go to all of you who donated to the Alumni Support Fund, Scholarships, burns research and international community projects. If you didn’t donate but gave our callers time to speak to you about your experiences and memories of studying at Anglia Ruskin University, thank you as well. It was great to meet some of you at the free lecture by Honorary Award holder Jerome Booth on the 7 November in Chelmsford. Jerome gave an enlightening, and occasionally humorous, insight into recent economic events and emerging markets. I must thank Senior Lecturer Robin Gowers for organising the evening and everyone who was able to stay for the MBA Network refreshments afterwards. It was wonderful to spend time catching up and to hear about all of your successes! The plans for the MBA network dinner in summer 2013 are almost complete. We are very close to releasing details for the evening and other up-coming events, but save the date in your diary now – 10 July in London. Please keep an eye on your emails and update your contact e-mail with the Alumni Office to receive specific MBA event news. If you haven’t already, please join the Alumni Network Directory which is open to graduates of Anglia Ruskin University. A large number of you have registered already, letting us know what you have gone on to do in your business lives. The Alumni Network Directory is a wonderful way to network with old classmates and other alumni and can be found at http://www.anglia.aluminate.net/, so register today! As always, please keep in touch and let us know about all of your successes and achievements. I hope you all have a lovely December and a very happy new year!
David Abbott Alumni Relations & Development Officer
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Senior Russian academics visit LAIBS to study for work-academic links
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Society’s super-heroes!
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Shadows and darkness, silence and secrets: the poetics of organisational space
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Leavers’ Ball
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Microgenius goes live with hydro scheme
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Conference keynotes
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LAIBS making wave at Academy of Management: mindfulness and partiality at work
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The Police and Anglia Ruskin University
10 Sponsors help charities go back to the classroom 10 Responding to the downturn: where will the growth come from? 11 Barclays degree lands national award 12 Oral evidence to the House of Lords select committee on SME exports 13 Professor Packham takes research brief
Left to right: Jan Skene, Deputy Head of Degrees at Work, Anglia Ruskin University; Irina Pervukhina, Ass. Professor, Department of Business Foreign Languages, Urals State University of Economics (USUE); Irina Tkachenko, Department Head, Corporate Business, Corporate Governance and Business Evaluation, USUE; Maksim Maramygin, Vice-Rector, USUE; Stephen Bloomfield, Director of Corporate Governance Unit, Lord Ashcroft International Business School; Marina Vidrevich, Deputy Director, Arena Multi-Media, Project Manager, USUE.
Senior Russian academics visit LAIBS to study work-academic links Four senior Russian academics spent a week with the Corporate Governance Unit at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School in early October to study UK practice in developing the links made between academic subjects and the world of work.
During the visit Maxim Maramygin (a vice rector of the university), Marina Vidrevich. Irina Pervukina and Irina Tkachenko visited the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the Institute of Directors in London for discussions with senior staff. They also met Jon Bouffler and Jan Skene of Anglia Ruskin’s Learning and Development Services in Cambridge.
The visit was funded by a grant from the British Council and is the result of a seven year association between LAIBS and the Urals State University of Economics in Ekaterinberg. The MA Corporate Governance/GradICSA, delivered from LAIBS’ Chelmsford campus, is a paradigm of linking academic and professional qualifications.
Stephen Bloomfield, Director, Corporate Governance Unit T: 0845 196 6834 E: stephen.bloomfield@anglia.ac.uk
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Society’s super-heroes! Professor Gary Packham, Deputy Dean for Research and Development, argues that a vibrant and prosperous society needs growing businesses, increasing wealth, and, above all, its entrepreneurs.
It will take a coordinated approach and we need to have a realistic expectation of what the private sector can, and should, provide to society. Unrealistic expectations will result in unnecessary conflict and bureaucracy; diverting our entrepreneurs away from their primary purpose and contribution to the communities they serve: wealth creation within society through profitable activity.
Businesses don’t operate in a vacuum. They reflect the values and rules of the society in which they do business. People form new enterprises for a specific purpose: usually to create goods and services to sell to other members of their community. But if these businesses are to meet their obligations to society, they need to need to make money.
We shouldn’t just focus on business start-ups, or major inward investment. More recently, entrepreneurship and social innovation have also become cornerstones of economic and social development activity, with policy-makers starting to recognise (more overtly) the increased importance of the small business sector as a primary source of innovation and growth. We need most of all to focus on developing entrepreneurial mind-sets, behaviours and skills in our young people.
Profit is used to meet the expectations of all stakeholders. A healthy society has employees with good wages and career expectations. Investors deserve a return on their capital and new technological and product development rely on investment. Society also needs thriving businesses to pay taxes and make other contributions. Put more simply, without profit there is no business.
Entrepreneurship is more than just understanding how to start and run a business. It is about a different way of thinking, behaving and an ability to be agile, creative and resilient – skills and attributes that are all being demanded by businesses, governments and society. As a society we have come to acknowledge and value entrepreneurship in all its forms. Entrepreneurs are often cast in the role of ‘cultural super heroes’ fighting valiantly to drive innovation, change and growth. It is certainly an image that I have used successfully to inspire many of my own students to follow an entrepreneurial career path. But we need more of them.
My own experience with local businesses in South Wales tells me that enterprises interact with communities in different ways and for different reasons. Some interact at a purely local level, drawing employees and selling goods and services. Other firms however, extend beyond these boundaries, introducing new technologies and working practices which have a more profound impact in developing the wider economic and social society in which they work.
Progressive, entrepreneurial and business-orientated universities like Anglia Ruskin will play a significant role in this effort, committing to increase graduate entrepreneurship rates for the benefit of our economy and communities. We can’t do this in isolation: it is something that must be realised through stronger and more meaningful links with government and our business community. We must also continue to develop sustained flexible and timely support which builds the capacity and capability of our businesses. If our society is to reap the benefits of the much coveted knowledge-based and creative economy, we need our entrepreneurs to succeed.
The UK Government reported in 2011 that, of the 474,000 businesses in the East of England fewer than 1% employ more than 250 people. Whilst policy makers and the media may focus on larger organisations, the wealth of small companies within the region and around our cities, tells a different story of a society in which entrepreneurship is a vital, if invisible, thread. Our current economic and employment outlook remains uncertain. What we do know is that we must not rely on large multi-nationals and the public sector. Instead, we must continue to support and develop our private sector.
Professor Gary Packham, Deputy Dean for Research and Development T: 0845 196 5699 E: gary.packham@anglia.ac.uk
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Shadows and Darkness, Silence and Secrets: The Poetics of Organisational Space Best Paper Prize Andrew Armitage who attended the Sixth Arts of Management and Organization Conference at the University of York was awarded the Best Paper Prize entitled Shadows and Darkness, Silence and Secrets: The Poetics of Organisational Space.
around us. Pallasmaa was concerned with our visually dominated world, campaigning instead for an ‘architecture of the senses’, and identifying a trend towards what he describes as ‘retinal architecture’ – an observation that architecture has become ‘the art of the printed image, fixed by the hurried eye of the camera.
The conference was attended by a wide variety of participants from across the globe, including performance artists, painters, singers, poets, musicians, book illustrators, and academics from leading universities who are pioneering the use of artistic approaches to explore and understand management and organisational practice. Andrew’s paper explored the connection between space, aesthetics and organisational studies which have attracted a varied and a well-established set of literature, such as the emotional well-being of individuals and their psychological dispositions associated in dealing with things that please or cause concerns for those who encounter inanimate objects in offices and working spaces, and was a response to Pierre Guillet de and Juhani Pallasmaa.
Andrew’s paper used the lens of Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space to explore his organisational environment. Whilst Bachelard is an often forgotten thinker of the 20th century, his work had enormous impact upon those that followed him in the latter part of this century, including Foucault, Althusser, Lecourt and Derrida. Bachelard’s philosophy was a journey towards a concrete formulation of the imagination and reverie, the creative daydream is central in his emerging metaphysic, which becomes increasingly phenomenological in a manner reminiscent of Husserl. This resulted in and auto-ethnographic reverie, an aesthetic intentionality to provide a metaphysic of the imagination. Andrew’s alternative engagement with his work environment notes that Bachelard’s poetics of space allowed him the freedom seldom experienced through the more accepted modernistic discourse of organisational theory to explore his reality. This allowed his conscious existence to roam in the exploration of his work environment and in doing so revealed an alternative perspective of the organisation.
Monthoux has explored the seemingly unorthodox alliance of the arts, management and marketing claiming that art firms, as avant-garde enterprises and arts corporations have existed for at least 200 years, using texts, images and other types of art to create corporate wealth. Monthoux investigates how to apply the methods artists use in creating value to the methods more traditional managers use in running their businesses. The Eyes of The Skin describes the power that architecture has to silence the noise of external activity to focus on attention on one’s very existence away from everyday day life and in the present moment, and to initiate a private dialogue with the space
Dr Andrew Armitage T: 0845 196 6846 E: andrew.armitage@anglia.ac.uk
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Leavers’ Ball Graduands celebrate success in style Our Lord Ashcroft International Business School Leavers’ Ball was held on Friday 12th October 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Downing Street, Cambridge. Upon arrival our guests were offered hand-made chocolate canapés from ‘Chocolat Chocolat’ and a complimentary glass of wine. Our female guests were given a beautiful golden rose (whilst gold is our graduate colour, in the United Kingdom gold or yellow roses signify ‘joy, gladness and friendship’). The evening’s entertainment began at seven with live music in the Bloomsbury Bar from ‘Midnight Blue’ a three piece Jazz trio and a selection of upbeat contemporary songs played by a DJ in the Orchard suite, whilst Magical Edd circulated the venue surprising our guests with his close up magic! A colourful mezze of European and International foods was served as a finger buffet from eight o’clock and this was followed by several athletic dance routines performed by a local dance troupe – who stayed on to give our guests a few basic dance lessons! During the course of the evening guests could try their luck on our ‘fun’ casino tables and four guests were lucky enough to take home a prize. Our faculty Dean Dr Trevor Bolton gave a short congratulatory speech and joined other faculty staff members who circulated the event, conversing and celebrating with our Graduands and their guests. Later in the evening our musical entertainment continued with two sets from ‘Party-Up’ a six piece London based band during which there was a balloon burst which scattered balloons and ticker-tape across the crowded dance floor. It was a splendid evening of entertainment and celebration that could not have been achieved without the support of faculty staff or our wonderful Graduands. We wish all our graduates a happy and successful future and look forwarding to seeing them again someday. Allison Beaumont Student Experience Coordinator, Cambridge T: 0845 196 2084 E: allison.beaumont@anglia.ac.uk
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Microgenius goes live with hydro scheme Community shares platform, backed by Anglia Ruskin start-up cash, is first in UK A technology that kick-started the industrial revolution is being brought into the 21st century with the support of Microgenius, the UK’s first community shares platform focusing on renewable energy projects.
awarded £10,000 to Mackay in December 2011 as part of its Enterprise Fellowship Scheme, and has also provided her with ongoing mentoring support.
One of the first schemes to use Microgenius is a share offer launch by Sheffield Renewables, which aims to raise £250k towards its Jordan Dam hydro power initiative.
Mackay’s not-for-profit website, which has the support of Cooperative Energy and Good Energy, is designed to link people with an interest in sustainable energy with communities that are developing microgeneration projects.
Cambridge-based Microgenius, backed by Anglia Ruskin University, is the brainchild of Emily Mackay. Anglia Ruskin’s Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (CEDAR)
Mackay said: “When I was looking to invest in renewable energy, I found it really difficult to find the community projects. It was so frustrating. I eventually found and talked to some
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co-operatives and ‘community benefit’ societies and I realised then how burdensome they find attracting investors and the administration that comes with it. So I could see that something had to be done to help.
“Our Jordan Dam hydro project aims to generate 310,000kWh of electricity a year, the amount used by 80 typical family homes, and save the 170 tonnes of carbon-dioxide that would otherwise have been produced. It is the first in a number of local renewable energy initiatives.
“Microgenius is designed to simplify the process for both projects and investors. It is a web-based platform that has been specially developed to manage the administration of fundraising and also to make it possible to reach a much wider range of people with the share offer.
“Profits from the scheme will support local environmental projects, so by purchasing shares, investors will be contributing to creating a greener, more sustainable city. Investors will become members of Sheffield Renewables and gain an equal vote in how it is run. We plan to offer a modest rate of interest and have a target of 3% plus tax relief.”
“Sheffield Renewables is a great example of the type of community energy project that Microgenius aims to support. A proportion of the shares will be sold through our platform simplifying the process for investors.”
The Sheffield Renewables share offer runs until 31 December and Wells sees the benefit of partnering with Microgenius as a way of reaching a much wider community. He added: “We have strong grass roots support from the Sheffield community but want to expand our membership. Microgenius is exciting as it offers a new way for people to engage in community energy generation across the UK.”
Ben Mumby-Croft, Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin and Mackay’s mentor said: “We are delighted to see the progress Emily has made since being awarded the CEDAR Enterprise Fellowship in 2011. She has taken her initial idea to a national launch in less than a year.
Another scheme to recently approach Microgenius for support is Woolhope Woodheat based in Herefordshire, the UK’s first green heat supply co-operative.
“CEDAR specialises in finding and supporting true entrepreneurship, which is about having a positive attitude, being tenacious, and not being afraid to try out new ideas and approaches, which are all traits Emily has aplenty. We are very excited to see this beta site launching.”
Woolhope Woodheat began life as a collaboration between Fownhope and District Carbon Reduction Action Group (CRAG) and Sharenergy Co-operative. It is aiming to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by installing wood fuel boilers in hard-to-heat local buildings and then to fuel these boilers using locally sourced woodchip, bringing neglected woodlands in the area back into management.
Community energy is thriving. There are some 59 energy cooperatives registered across the UK according to the Community Shares Action Learning Research Project and although the sector is still emerging, some are already generating energy using wind, hydro and solar power and other technologies, and there are many more projects planned. An estimated £25m has been invested in community shares in renewable energy to date.
Ben Dodd, Development Manager at Woolhope Woodheat said: “We are aiming to bring ‘green heat’ to South Hereford and have set up the co-operative to involve the wider community. Already we have over 100 prospective members and have negotiated a contract with a local supplier of wood chips from a sustainable source. “Capital is required to purchase the first boiler and we are well on the way to achieve this through the share offer. By teaming up with Microgenius we hope to reach a wider community and attract more members and support for the project before the share offer closes on 28 September.”
Sheffield Renewables is a social enterprise that aims to reintroduce hydroelectric generation to the city and provide a social, environmental and financial return to investors. The Jordan Dam hydroelectric scheme will use a ‘fish friendly’ Archimedean screw, which turns as water is channelled through it generating electricity. The site chosen already has a weir and the project will include a fish ladder to improve fish migration up river.
For further information about Microgenius, please visit www.microgenius.org.uk Microgenius, the UK’s first community shares platform focusing on renewable energy projects, is now up and running and is supporting a hydro power scheme in Sheffield and a green heating initiative in Herefordshire.
Mark Wells, Business and Funding Director of Sheffield Renewables, said: “Fast-flowing water was the powerhouse that started Sheffield’s steel industry. Sheffield Renewables is drawing on that heritage and inspiration to create an entrepreneurial community with an interest in sustainable energy and developing hydroelectric generation.
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Conference Keynotes Professor Simon Down, Director of the Institute for International Management Practice has recently given Keynote Addresses at the following conferences: SME Regulation: Building Better Policy, at the 10th SME Research – Policy Symposium, at the invitation of The New Zealand Centre for SME Research at Massey University, New Zealand
At the heart of Institutional Research lies a desire to understand better the operation of our institutions of higher education, both in themselves and in comparison with other institutions. By increasing this understanding, it is hoped that the quality of policy formation and decision making can be enhanced. Institutional Research provides relevant information for governments and funding bodies as well as university leaders and managers; it offers tools to assist in steering the development of our higher education institutions and to help inform crucial human judgements.
The focus at this year’s conference was on SME Regulation. Building better policy on SME regulation is a key concern for modern developed and developing economies. The World Bank measures and monitors business regulation in their annual reports on Doing Business. In this symposium there were presentations on the latest international research and policy perspectives. The symposium provided an opportunity to participate in discussion and debate on building policy on regulation for New Zealand’s SMEs.
Today, all over the world, higher education faces massive challenges, including the pressures of competition, new funding arrangements, increasing expectations from students and from society in general, globalisation and new technology. In such circumstances, the need to understand our universities and colleges more fully is increasing all the time.
The 5th Annual Conference of the Higher Education Institutional Research Network in association with the Journal of Organizational Ethnography and the Journal Ethnography, University of Liverpool Management School The theme for the HEIR Conference 2012: using Institutional Research to strengthen institutional effectiveness within the rapidly changing world of higher education.
LAIBS making waves at Academy of Management: Mindfulness and spirituality at work Over the summer, Dr Bronwen Rees, Senior Research Fellow at LAIBS, was invited to chair a panel at the Academy of Management conference in Boston, US in the Management, Spirituality and Work Stream. The panel consisted of Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, editor of the book Inner Peace: Global Impact, Yochanan Altman, founder editor of Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion, Judi Neal, Director of the Centre for Spirituality and the Workplace and Victor Friedman, well-known author in the area of establishing communities of practice. The panel was created to establish world-wide networks of practice in the rapidly growing area of spirituality at work, and LAIBS work was well-represented in this area through both Bronwen Rees’ work with ‘mindfulness’ practices, and also Jon Smith’s hard work in creating and building spiritual networks in the UK.
of the action inquiry movement, Kathryn Goldman Schulyer and Susan Skeije, leadership consultant. It was part talk, part experiential. Bronwen Rees also has a chapter in the book entitled ‘East Meets West: The Development and Methods of Crucible Research’ which summarises her work to 2010 in developing ‘mindful methods for sustainable business’. The chapter places LAIBS clearly at the leading edge of a movement towards mindfulness which has grown to such an extent that over a period of two days, there were several other sessions on this approach including panel representative such as Richard Boyatzis and the executive director of Development at Google, Rich Ferendez who has agreed to give an interview on this and other methods for the March issue of Interconnections. Bronwen will be developing and bringing in this method and practice into short courses run for the business school.
In another session, which was attended by around 300 people, on ‘Mindful Leadership’ the book Inner Peace, Global Impact was launched in a three-hour long workshop. The launch consisted of a panel of management giants such as Peter Senge (who also has a chapter in this book), Bill Torbert, leader
For further information contact Bronwen at: E: bronwen.rees@anglia.ac.uk T: 0845 196 2238
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The Police and Anglia Ruskin University Policing and spirituality are something of an oxymoron to many, which is what first attracted Jonathan to explore this area. This was back in 2000 when spirituality in the workplace was a relatively new field and Jonathan was a Director of Studies at the National Police Training Centre in North Yorkshire. His PhD began with exploring the relevance of spirituality in the training of trainers for the police, although this soon expanded into examining the challenges of operational policing and how spirituality may be able to assist the organisation as well as individual officers cope with the enormous challenges they encounter on a daily basis.
Jonathan, Ginger and Fred, building on their previous qualitative research have also conducted some quantitative research with police officers using EEG brain integration tests. High levels of brain integration have been shown by Travis to be an indicator of better abilities in coping with stress – a key factor not only for the police but also for organisations internationally. This was a pilot study and only involved 11 police officers from Colorado, but the research revealed some of the highest levels of brain integration Travis has ever known. Ginger, Fred and Jonathan are now left exploring the reasons for these high levels – is it because the respondents are police officers, that the respondents all have well developed spiritual practices, the training they have received within the police, some other factor, or a combination of all the above?
Since then he has been on a bit of a journey. He joined LAIBS to give him more opportunity to conduct research in this area. He was invited by the FBI in America to be part of a working group at the FBI Police Academy exploring the relevance of spirituality in policing in America. He took part in two working conferences in 2008 and 2009 in Washington and as a result of this work a course is now taught at the FBI Police Academy. This course has so far been offered as an undergraduate course during ten National Academy sessions and as a graduate course during two sessions.
They are planning now to extend the pilot study and are aiming to conduct tests with 50 police officers in the UK or America. He is looking to submit a number of grant applications within the next year to support this and other related police research. Jonathan is currently supervising a Major in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Police who is doing a PhD with us looking at strategic leadership development within the UAE police. He is also working to develop contacts within the police locally, nationally and internationally and is developing programmes of new recruit, 1st line supervisor and leadership training.
He has continued to work with two people from that FBI working party, Ginger Charles, PhD, a police sergeant and research psychologist working in the Criminal Investigation Department at the Arvada Police Department in Colorado, and Frederick Travis, PhD, Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, and Dean of the Graduate School Maharishi Vedic Science University, Fairfield, America.
There are eight people at Anglia Ruskin University who are involved in some aspect of police work, research or teaching and Jonathan has established a VLE for those at Anglia Ruskin University who are involved in research or teaching with the police, or are interested in the fascinating area. With considerable changes currently taking police within the UK police training environment he is hoping to establish a centre of expertise at ARU to capitalise on this. This would be focused on research and teaching for the police or for the emergency services and could build on the excellent work and reputation that LAIBS have already established with a number of fire and rescue services in the UK.
Jonathan and Ginger discovered that they had conducted similar research on spirituality in policing at the same time and found similar things, although they were unaware of each others work. They have written several academic journals on their work together now, presented at a number of international conferences and conducted further research with officers in the UK and America. Jonathan and Ginger are also just completing a book which was submitted to the publishers at the end October 2012. This is focused on developing leadership resilience and targets a much wider audience than just the police.
Jonathan is keen to hear from anyone wishing to get involved in the work, or with experience or expertise in this area. For further details please contact Jonathan: E: Jonathan.Smith@anglia.ac.uk T: 0845 296
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Sponsors help charities go back to the classroom Invest in Impact scheme offers opportunity to access Anglia Ruskin course at half price Helen Robinson, who works for the Salvation Army and is a trustee of Chelmsford YMCA, added: “It’s great to see a course covering the topics which are relevant to managers in the sector, including areas in which they need to develop, like social impact and marketing.”
Managers from Essex-based charities and social enterprises have an opportunity to access an accredited university course at half price, thanks to sponsorship from local businesses. Britvic Soft Drinks and Central Essex Community Services CIC are backing Anglia Ruskin University’s Invest in Impact scheme, which sees sponsors paying half of the £4,500 fee for the Charity and Social Enterprise Management course. Organisers of the two year course hope this will encourage smaller local charities to join this September’s intake.
The sponsors for Invest in Impact, which allows applicants from Essex to apply for a bursary of up to 50% off the course fees, were attracted by the opportunity to make a difference.
The course, which now has over 100 students enrolled following its launch last year, offers students the chance to study six modules via distance learning and gain a Certificate in Higher Education in Charity and Social Enterprise Management. The topics covered include leadership, finance, marketing and social impact assessment, and the flexible learning delivery has proved popular with students who are looking to develop their careers in the voluntary sector and social enterprise. Suzanne Harris, from the Rural Community Council for Essex, said the course was attractive to her because of its specific focus on charities and social enterprises. She said: “I hadn’t been able to find a qualification that was aimed at voluntary and third sector work. I would definitely recommend this course to other charity managers.”
John Niland, Chief Executive of Central Essex Community Services CIC, a social enterprise providing health and social care services in Essex, Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Cambridgeshire, explained: “As a social enterprise we are passionate about using any surplus we generate to help local charities and other social enterprises to become better, and Invest in Impact gives us a really good way of developing the people who can give them a brighter future.” Lauretta Lamont, from Britvic Soft Drinks, added: “We have always been committed to helping local charities. The nice thing about Invest in Impact is that we can help both the individual manager and their organisation, which benefits from better management and more sustainable services.” For more information visit: www.anglia.ac.uk/csem
Wednesday 16 January, 2013, 6.00pm Lord Ashcroft Building, Chelmsford campus
Responding to the downturn – Where will the growth come from? A lecture where Keith Attwood (Chief Executive, e2v), Councillor Peter Martin (Leader of Essex County Council) and Dr Trevor Bolton (Dean, Lord Ashcroft International Business School) will share their views on the role that each of their groups and sectors have in enabling future economic growth. The lecture will take place on Wednesday 16th January in the Lord Ashcroft Building on our Chelmsford campus. The collapse of Lehman Brothers led to the near melt down of the financial (and capitalist) system in September 2008. The effects of the financial crisis have seen the deepest post war
recession in many countries and changes to social security systems as governments struggle with meeting the burden of their debts. Our speakers will consider both the short term and long term requirements that will enable the economy to return to stable growth together with the vital roles that each of their groups can play in this process. There will be a drinks reception at 6.00pm, followed by the lecture. If you are able to attend, please reply to Carole Martindill on t: 0845 196 6833 or e: Carole.Martindill@anglia.ac.uk by Friday 4 January.
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Vanessa Knowles, Anglia Ruskin Principal Lecturer, Corporate Education (third from left in the group), Rachael Hall, Anglia Ruskin Principal Lecturer, Corporate Education (fourth from the right), Patrick Kilty, Guest Speaker (second from right, at the back) and Mike Thorne, Anglia Ruskin Vice Chancellor (right)
Barclays degree lands national award Anglia Ruskin’s work-based learning programme is recognised by the CIPD Anglia Ruskin University, in partnership with Barclays plc, has won the Talent Attraction and Management Category at the prestigious CIPD National 2012 People Management Awards. Barclays and Anglia Ruskin’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School have successfully designed, developed and managed the Retail Development Programme (RDP), which has adopted the BA (Hons) Management & Leadership degree as its academic award. The RDP specifically targets new talent to the business with the aim of the trainees achieving the position of branch manager, or equivalent, within three years of joining the programme. Since the programme has now seen three cohorts successfully graduate, there was a significant amount of management information data available to tell a compelling “valued added” success story, and also highlight achievements in relation to diversity, retention, academic success and simultaneous career progression. Anglia Ruskin was shortlisted alongside Boots plc, Cape, MITIE Group plc and NHS London (Strategic Health Authority), and won first place after delivering a presentation and being interviewed by a panel of judges, which comprised of representatives from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Hays, and Marks & Spencer plc.
The judges commended Barclays and Anglia Ruskin “for their innovative work-based undergraduate assessment and degree, placing emphasis on the cultural value the programme has given rise to through creating opportunities for a broad pool of candidates – many of which have come from disadvantaged backgrounds”. Will Rist, one of the first Anglia Ruskin graduates from the programme, was invited to attend the awards evening in recognition of his career success and on-going contributions to the Retail Development Programme. Other representatives included Anglia Ruskin’s Vice Chancellor Professor Michael Thorne, Course Leaders Vanessa Knowles and Rachael Hall, and Johannah Lynch, the RDP Programme Manager at Barclays. Vanessa Knowles said: “This work-based degree programme is an excellent example of how the Lord Ashcroft International Business School is successfully developing its practice-based agenda and employer engagement activity.” Work is now commencing on the recruitment and selection of the sixth cohort of students to begin studying in September 2013.
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Oral Evidence to House of Lords Select Committee on SME Exports Professor Lester Lloyd-Reason on his day at ‘The Lords’. policy communities with a deadline of 14th September. In addition to the written evidence, a small number were invited by the Select Committee to provide oral evidence to the Committee at the House of Lords. The Committee is due to produce their conclusions and recommendations for Government action in February 2013. In providing oral evidence to the Select Committee, Prof LloydReason drew primarily upon his research with UK Trade and Investment where 1,000 small and medium sized enterprises were surveyed and his work as expert adviser to the OECDAPEC 44-country survey ‘Removing Barriers to SME Access to International Markets’. Prof Lloyd-Reason suggested to the Select Committee that ‘If we really want to have an impact, then there are three key messages for the Government: 1. All too often we hear that what is needed to help international SMEs to grow their exports is financial assistance. But it is not about money at all. Rather if we are to help our SMEs to compete effectively in international markets, what they need are skills, knowledge and experiential learning. A mix of simple ‘how to’ training through to managing complexity. 2. Having developed a typology comprising: the curious, the frustrated, the tentative, the enthusiastic and the successful, it is the enthusiastic category where the Government can generate the highest return for minimal investment. These firms, which have high growth potential, typically employ around 30 staff, have strong domestic markets, some international successes and although they face many challenges, these challenges are often easily addressed.
Back on the one of the few sunny days of the summer, Prof Lester Lloyd-Reason, Director of the Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (CEDAR), was invited down to the House of Lords to be interviewed for the position of Special Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on SME exports. Prof Lloyd-Reason was one of four UK academics interviewed for the role and although it did not work out due to the time commitment involved, he was invited back in October to provide oral evidence to the Select Committee. The background to the Committee is as follows. In May 2011, UK Trade and Investment, the Government export promotion body, unveiled their new strategy: Britain Open for Business: growth through international trade and investment. In response to this strategy document, Lord Cope of Berkley established the House of Lords Select Committee on SME exports to examine what the Government is doing to assist and promote SME exports. In order to gather information, the Committee sent out a call for written evidence to the academic, practitioner and
3. The emphasis on language skills is a myth. All successful international SMEs tell us that it is not a question of language but of developing what we call “international skills”. That is, the ability to perform effectively when faced with a totally alien environment. When seeking to operate effectively in countries such as China, Russia, Brazil, the issue is not language, but the ability to successfully negotiate your way through a strange, unfamiliar, often hostile environment trading environment. ‘ Reflecting on the process, Prof Lloyd-Reason commented ‘It really was quite an experience. Even though I was there to assist the Select Committee, the questioning was pretty robust. It really gave you an insight into what those summoned to give evidence, such as Alistair Campbell and Rupert Murdock, must go through. It was a very stimulating day, but if I am ever asked back, I really hope my invitation means exactly that!’ For further information on Prof Lloyd-Reason’s experience or on the work of CEDAR, please contact: lester.lloyd-reason@anglia.ac.uk
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Professor Packham takes Research brief New Deputy Dean at Anglia Ruskin’s Lord Ashcroft International Business School Professor Gary Packham has been appointed as Deputy Dean (Research and Development) of the Lord Ashcroft International Business School. Prior to joining Anglia Ruskin, Professor Packham was Head of the Glamorgan Business School at the University of Glamorgan and also Director of the university’s Centre for Enterprise. Professor Packham began his career in the financial services sector before returning to Higher Education. In 2001 he completed his doctorate, which examined management practices in fast growing firms. He has led and managed a wide range of research and business engagement projects over the past 12 years; working for organisations such as the European Commission, Belgian Science and Policy Office, Welsh Government, Sector Skills Council and the Federation of Small Businesses.
He continues to publish widely in international peer reviewed journals on subjects such as economic development policy, entrepreneurship education, small business management and strategy, technology transfer, innovation management and commercialisation. Professor Packham currently holds visiting professorships at the Moscow International Higher Business School and the University of Glamorgan. His current research includes examining small business development and performance, ICT use in SMEs, the emergence of entrepreneurial universities and the contribution of women to the economy through selfemployment.
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He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, the Higher Education Academy and the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IoEE). He is also a member of the SFEDI advisory Council and on the board of trustees for the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE). Professor Packham said:
“I am delighting to be joining Anglia Ruskin University at a time when we are making a significant investment to develop research and business engagement within the Business School. “It is truly an exciting time and as a leading entrepreneurial university I am look forward to working closely with our business community and ensuring that we are delivering research, enterprise and innovation which can contribute directly to both our economy and society.”
Editor: Christine Durrant (Marketing, Communications and External Relations, LAIBS) E: christine.durrant@anglia.ac.uk
MBACONNECT Websites: www.anglia.ac.uk/alumni www.anglia.ac.uk/laibs
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Professor Packham has also been the academic lead on a number of European projects ranging from the use of e-learning to support entrepreneurs and business start-ups, examining key issues surrounding women’s entrepreneurship across the European Union and the early stage commercialisation opportunities associated with university research and intellectual property.