Tuesday 17 May 2016

Royal Holloway MBA Study Tour - PRAGUE

The second half of the Royal Holloway MBA international study visit saw students drive from Berlin to Prague stopping off at the Dresden VW factory en route.  Images below share the beauty of Prague and another range of interesting company visits.  

MBAs now back on campus working on their reflective assignment, gelling for the group business consultancy and thinking about their final piece in the jigsaw - the individual business consultancy.
















Wednesday 11 May 2016

MBA International study visit - BERLIN

 Royal Holloway MBA International Management international study visit 2016 - Berlin leg 












MBAs visit Deutsche Bahn (German Railway) to meet Senior Strategy Analyst, Dr Markus Rometsch, for presentation on Managing Growth & Change, Strategic Partnerships, Industry Leadership and Future Vision.






Ran, Karin and Susanna pose by one of the more famous Berlin wall murals.


MBA administrator Michelle with MBAs Karin and Hishgee


 Hishgee celebrates her birthday !




Early evening rest and relaxation in a Biergarten (beer garden)










Photos: Thanks to Michelle Casey

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Ideation and Business Storytelling with Warrick Harniess, Scandinavia Stories

What should a company do to defend a slim market lead in a fast-changing industry against a powerful incumbent with significantly greater financial resources and brand recognition?


MBA students got to grips with this wicked issue in an interactive workshop, working in groups on a tricky innovation challenge for fictional music-streaming company Zounds.

 The winning team !




The winning team!

The groups debated the present day issues that Zounds face and the greatest uncertainties, before creating four future scenarios to test whether the company’s service has long-term viability.



The four scenarios

Students were encouraged to take a subjective view of the situation and to debate their different perspectives, using a SITU analysis – an environment-scanning framework developed by Warrick.

   
The groups’ SITU analysis notes


Students took a vote to determine which of the uncertainties listed were the most potentially impactful for Zounds.


Voting for the most impactful uncertainties



They created consumer personas for Zounds’ service, who served as protagonists in their scenario narratives.


Raoul Raj Naka Mura, a composite customer persona

After designing proposals to help Zounds innovate further, the groups used a storytelling toolkit, borrowed from tried and tested Hollywood screenwriting techniques, to create stories that explained Zounds’ predicament and persuasively articulated why their innovation proposals should be taken forwards.


Scenes from a scenario narrative



Finally, the groups voted for the idea they thought was most powerful.


The workshop gave students an opportunity to put their creative- and critical-thinking abilities to the test, and challenged them to take the initiative in a situation in which there is no obvious right answer. As all good MBAs should, they responded to the challenge, devising a range of innovation ideas and choosing a variety of different ways to tell their engaging stories!