Noh Drama here, we're MBA students !

As a two times College Teaching prize winner in 2012 Justin O'Brien, MBA Director at Royal Holloway, University of London looks each year to grow and develop his teaching portfolio with new innovations and collaborations.  With a goal to provide at least five "pixie dust" moments (poignant and highly memorable learning experiences) for the prestigious full time MBA programme one of this years innovations was via an enterprising barter based collaboration with  Dr Emma Brodzinski from RHULs highly regarded drama department.

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The RHUL Drama department is going through a rather golden period at the moment, benefitting from a stunning refurbishment of the 'old boiler house' theatre space and across the A30 the building of a stunning new and state of the art theatre, to be named after leading English playright, Caryl Churchill, slated to open in Summer 2013.

The MBA group, having attended a Caryl Churchill production at the Royal Court theatre and participated in a get to know each other warm up session, were invited to attend a day long work shop with Dr Emma Brodzinski and professional actor,  Alex Turner, one of the founding members of of non zero one, the RHUL Drama department's resident theatre company 2012/13.  

The group were lead through a variety of exercises to help develop self-awareness and a sense of groupness, that saw many MBA candidates find themselves pushed into their discomfort zones quite quickly.  The approach was drawn from experience of developing a strong group ethos amongst professional drama troupes that demanded extensive use of movement, communications skills and reflection.

One exercise saw the group brain storm a number of different useless objects that they were then asked to go away and prepare a sales pitch for.  One of the ideas that required the use of the improvisation technique was plugging shampoo for bald people.  In addition to the development of creative thinking, students were required to work spontaenously in small groups to deliver an impact presentation of their ideas. 

The brief given to Emma Brodzinski, who designed and delivered this highly innovative workshop with collaboration from Alex Turner, sought to challenge the MBA students in a very different way and push them firmly into their discomfort zones.  Whilst some students struggled to connect with the activities, others found the final afternoons performance aspects a little bit too much out there.  The majority of participants in the whole workshop found it to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience. 

The drama sessions concluded with a performance piece in the Noh Theatre space.  Royal Holloway Drama look after Europes only Japanese Noh theatre (pictured below), a beautifully carved natural and untreated wooden construction, it is considered  by many as a holy space and used to present highly ritualised live performances.  Management students would never normally be provided access to this space

Jessica explained about the drama experience "It gave us the opportunity to experience management theory and practice in a way that was very different from what we've encountered in the classroom so far. It was refreshing to find how dramatic exercises such as developing a mock advert sketch or creating an abstract performance piece based on a work of poetry could be usefully complementary to our course. The workshops were also a great bonding opportunity for us -- we learned a lot about one another and discovered skills we didn't even know we had. "

Elena commented that "Anyone who worked as a part of a team in their job really appreciated these sessions. No one teaches you how to manage a room of over-excited people or read the intricacies of body language and energy levels when you start a new job. But those skills are essential for any leader. I will definitely be able to bring the skills from these sessions to the workplace."

Nathaniel Johnson said "I presumed that the Drama Development workshops were simply geared towards enhancing presentation skills, but I soon found that it was so much more.  I assumed that I would spend my time doing artistic re-enactments of dramatic pieces, but the activities proved to be enjoyable, relevant and extremely useful. 

The sessions enhanced my awareness of differing dynamics within groups and the activities focused on improving communication and collaboration.  The sessions contrasted the norms of our rigid lectures, coercing me beyond my comfort zone. However, participation was rewarded with a great experience, a greater understanding of myself, and my cohort.  Additionally, I discovered that my competitive MBA cohort, like to be silly and have a fun side too."

Dr Emma Brozinski felt the experiment was a great success.  The group were very engaged, and although she set her expectations a little lower, as none of the students had any background in drama, the enthusiasm and focus the MBA group brought to the enterprise to a highly successful conclusion. 

Justin O'Brien, in his role as MBA Director, stated "This is exactly the kind of activity that Royal Holloway MBA candidates appreciate.  It celebrates our strong arts based heritage, benefits from cross-disciplinary team teaching in a highly innovative format that sees students stretch and grow from a full range of learning experiences."

Snow Tyres: Let it snow ! Let it snow ! Let it Snow !

For the first time I have invested in a pair of new snow wellies for my Beetle.  I'd just seen my red bug fail its MOT due to insufficient tyre tread.  Expecting a 90 min wait I'd killed time looking around all the warm public places in our village and nursed a large pot of tea for an hour in our coffee shop.  I had even purchased a couple of car magazines, surely being disloyal and looking at new cars was going to tempt fate and see an expensive failure result.  Luckily for me, this was not the case. VW's are gooood. 

 

When asked if I wanted to wait another 40 minutes for a new pair of tyres for more than £200, I declined due to extreme frustration around a wasted afternoon and no desire to wait a single minute longer.  I figured I could try out the specialist tyre place that is literally down the end of our road.  Whilst it doesn't look much different (historic images from the 1920s or whenever cameras were in their infancy anyways). 

It resembles the kind of one person garage that each village will have had in days gone by.  You'll know the kind of place I mean, located on the road to be able to offer in person petrol sales delivery and with a building just big enough to hold one or two vehicles inside, jacked up with their engine parts being tinkered with by grease monkeys in blue overalls.

It wasn't about the pricing - I figured tyres are tyres and this seemed entirely reasonable, surely it wasn't worth shopping around.  But pig headed as ever, I was going to use the local specialist because the other time I'd used them I had driven straight in, been the only customer and got an amazing service for a puncture at a tiny cost. 

Just like the case study I'd learnt during my MBA studies: Japanese car industry break through in Europe - offer a fully loaded product at a great price and you will find customers in their millions.  You really can have a mould breaking better product and lower price - the idea that low price equates to low quality and high quality requires a high price is a concept I often look to challenge.

 

Continental Tyres promotional video clip with a powerful emotional appeal

Of course, this time (having given up due to a queue on a previous attempt) I had to queue.  As it happens, this was just enough time to negotiate a price and discover that winter tyres would be much cheaper than I suspected.  We have had a bit of a frost, but worse winter weather is expected.  As I write Frankfurt and Berlin airports are closed due to heavy snow.  On the campus Royal Holloway MBA we have worked closely with Contiential Tyres over five years on a live business consultancy and some of the wisdom shared by Guy Frobisher from their marketing team had landed.  Winter tyres =  a great idea. 

I was intrigued at how such a fast service could be delivered, when I had been quoted 40 minutes for this work at a generalist motor mechanics.  Putting my MBA operations management knowledge into action I sought to analyse the systems being used.  I noted clear role specialisation, yet some very effective team communication.  With six bays and the ability to blitz a four wheel change with four mechanics, the wheels are off your car before you can walk into the customer waiting areas.  Within 20 minutes my tyre change and credit card payment was completed.  If the store room for new tyres were co-located with the main workshop space (a very tight footprint the legacy of a historic business, carefully organised to offer maximum working bays) I am sure a couple of minutes could be taken off the change time. 

Good pricing, fast service, happy customers, no wonder they don't have to worry too much about marketing, Word of Mouth is going to be very powerful. 

National Press coverage of The Royal Holloway MBA

Study Pods in the School of Management Foyer

One of my personal targets for this year was to see if we could get some coverage of the campus MBA programme in the national press.  The distance learning programme had received coverage from both the FT and Telegraph, as the trend towards non-traditional full time study was a popular news theme.  

Sadly, my attempts to generate interest from internal newsletter type pieces had brought no returns.  In my previous corporate existence supplying some reasonable copy (using tactical quotes from the right senior people you wanted profile with) and an appropriate photo always brought results, and the right photo could mean placement on the front or back covers.

Not in the UK national press it seems.  

Once I took a step too far and used an embarrassing photo of a close colleague in a social context (wearing a silly hat) without his permission.  I have learned my lesson here - always, always, ask for permission if you are going to use images of people - we all tend to be a bit particular on how this is done.

The rule on photos was always "no line ups" and this has stayed with me since then - although you will notice in this blog a number of "prohibited" line up photos, most because we all seem to want to have such photos and the editorial guillotine operated on MBADirector  is not as exacting as it might be. 

I must thank Tanya Gubbay and the three featured MBA students for helping make this happen. 

FT.com coverage of three current campus MBA students, which went in the Asian and North American editions of the paper, so truly global.

Christmas MBA Alumni Event 2012

Royal Holloways unique Victorian art collection in the stunning Picture Gallery

 

The last day of term saw the Royal Holloway MBA cohort celebrate in some style with a sumptuous luncheon alumni event organised brilliantly by Fiona Redding.

Not quite the traditional Christmas turkey dinner

The dedicated School of Management Alumni officer role is still relatively new and it is particularly gratifying to see how the heady mix of current MBA students with alumni and industry guests is now building a momentum of its own. 


Current MBA students were feeling a sense of relief (having just handed in their last piece of assessed work for the term, an HR essay) and also tiredness, as the end of term has seen them work particularly hard on a variety of group presentations, individual course work and in class tests.


It was great to hear of plans for candidates to be reunited with their families over the Christmas period.  Many had plans to travel throughout UK and continental Europe.



We were also pleased to see a strong representation from the various business partners we have worked with in the last year.  Several were keen to explore opportunities to offer internships, work placements and full time roles.  With a range of very interesting people present, all with a passion for the College and the MBA programme it was not surprising that there was some extensive networking taking place.

Royal Holloways highly renowned choir performing added a very special feeling to the proceedings

MBA 2012/13 Candidates Huiya Chuang and Eri Yazawa (who kindly allowed her photos to be used in this blog) with Royal Holloway MBA Director Justin O'Brien

Market Research at the Movies

The Hobbit in 3D - market research experience

My wife was pretty annoyed today at being given in a very confusing manner pens and sheets of paper for a market research company looking to evaluate different consumer reactions to the 3D and 2D versions of the new Hobbit movie, released this week.  Because I teach market research at Royal Holloway and use the movie industry as the context for one seminar, I was, naturally, keen to participate and hoped to bring home a blank copy for more detailed analysis.  (Students never far from my thoughts !)

Gollum: The MOST engaging eyes, brilliant CGI

Motivated, encouraged and plain nagged to arrange a family visit by our 10 year older son, we assume a function of peer inspired buzz was behind this behaviour.  Some class mates were going on premier evening after school, we felt this was a bit too much, given the 2:45 run time. 

We could not book opening weekend seats in flat screen mode, generally I do not like 3D because I have to put glasses over my own glasses and mostly because the movement scenes make me feel sick, without moving in my chair it is just the feeling that a roller coaster gives me.  This blog is not a movie review site (check out IMDb if you lust after movie news) so, suffice to say this was a great family movie experience, we all loved it. 

I am always putting my own MBA into action and whilst I completed the first form (I was given a single sided form, the crucial motivator email data capture for free stuff was missing) I found myself in that terribly academic manner tutting at some of the question formulation and several of the response box options did not let me share my opinions effectively. 

New Zealand scenery a prime draw

I felt pity for the coding team (mostly tick box closed responses were required) when trying to analyse the consumers hand written descriptions of the three best scenes.  I was surprised at the numbers of questions that seemed to offer up comments on length of the movie and the action scenes.  (I love the scenery of New Zealand that is an integral part of this film franchise).

Whilst chatting with the market researcher, waiting for toilet formalities to be completed, he gave me permission to take some blank forms (ethically I was in the clear) and he also offered the different colour forms (exactly the same questions, just printed on different coloured paper).  Proof that engaging in conversation with strangers can bring benefits.  It is clear that in addition to the internal bench marking (including questions asking if we would by DVDs and Blue Rays) that would perhaps give an indication of the commercial success of the movie, perhaps the most important research objective was to measure the difference between customer satisfaction across the two and three dimension formats.  The reading I have done on this suggests that the jury is still out on whether 3D is the winning format.  I do not plan on buying a 3D TV any time soon.

Innovative Air New Zealand strenthen beauty visit us credentials

Wellington Airport boasts movie associations

The campus MBAs  are now off on a well earned Christmas break, heads buzzing with ideas for what their dissertation topic might be.

One candidate is going to look at the brand of his country.  I think it is interesting to note how brand New Zealand is being show cased thanks to Kiwi director Peter Jackson's choice of is home country as the back drop to this interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkein's writing. 

Air New Zealand (home market size: 4 million) have a strong record in developing creative advertising concepts that have an enduring appeal that often has traction in the world of social media, for example this video.  Safety video or viral communications asset ?

Country of Origin (CoO) effect is an important brand marketing concept that Royal Holloway MBA students are likely to cover.  A simple image search shows a fully integrated marketing campaign (IMC) in action around this movie, with South Islands main airport (Wellington) investing in three dimensional models of Hobbit characters to clearly identify itself as the gateway to Hobbit country.  Even the Kiwi post office looks likely to cash in on Hobbit mania with its range of promotional stamps featuring key characters.  I applaud brand New Zealand for cleverly exploiting this movie franchise. 

Guest Speaking at The Royal Marketing Society

Having played a small role in helping the Royal Marketing (student society) form last year, I was delighted and rather honoured to be asked to be a guest speaker at one of the regular society meetings.  I am a keen advocate of a strong marketing society and feel that the committee this year has done an amazing job, especially when you consider that Students Union funding only applies to societies that have been up and running for a year.  (I guess a sensible viability test and filter)

Some of these students are even smiling !

Given that the target audience for the Marketing Society are undergraduates who have typically followed the Marketing Management module I run a regular big lecture slot on (with my marketing colleague Andy Whalley) I was expecting a low turn out for my session.  I braced myself for less than a handful of hardy souls.  In fact, I was doubting the logic in inviting me in the first place.  Can you really have a full time marketing lecturer deliver a guest speaker slot at the marketing society ?  Anyway...


Having worked on marking and lesson prep during the day and seen my family arrive home, it felt entirely incongrous to be going to campus to run a 1900 talk.  Campus was surprisingly buzzy, busier than I've seen it during the daylight period.  It was quite exciting.  I was quite nervous.  I did not know quite what to expect.  I was not at all sure what I had prepared would work, as clearly in a voluntary, beyond class setting the rules of the game are very different.  Firmly out of my comfort zone and regretting agreeing to particpate, I wore my favourite green hoody, with plenty of space to hide in if things went pear shaped.  Perhaps it was the stage fright of a stand up comedian I was feeling.  You know the material, you've done the gig scene for ages.  Yet every new audience provides its own particular challenge.  I often liken lecturing to the role of the stand up comedian.  I like to watch the good, the bad and the ugly to understand different approaches and unpick why some don't work as well as others.  I digress.


However, Nathan (founding society president) and the executive committee had done a sterling job in marketing the event (I guess there is a clue in the name !) and they had ensured that there was quite a large group of students in attendance.  Given a very challenging topic that felt it might be dangerously heavy on the dry stuff that doesn't work, I decided to focus my efforts on sharing with the student group (which, pleasingly included four current Royal Holloway MBA students) a light hearted career profile, the global McDonald's story that got me into academia and case study on my own global vs local marketing struggle as British Airways Sales and Marketing Manager for Russia, from back in the day when this was a hot new topic.

Royal Holloway MBA Director, Justin O'Brien

As ever, I used my own particular lecturing style, based as it is on my strongly held belief that engaging the audience is the critical objective.  "Fun Learning" is how I describe it.  I am not funny and really cannot tell jokes - but trying to find different ways to surprise, entertain, amuse and enlighten the group in front of you is always an exciting challenge.  Getting a reaction is crucial to see if it is working.  


My objective is not to (using the European learning metaphor) to fill lots of empty jugs with knowledge, but (UK style) seek to light a fire that will never go out.  I hope to inspire a natural curiosity, to enable others to look at the world in a different way (often using marketing tools and concepts) and give enough to inspire interest to go away and learn more.  I (amusingly appropriate here) remember vaguely research that suggested that 50% of information is forgotten within an hour and by the end of the week most people would be lucky to remember even 10% of any given lecture without using some form of revision.  Thus creating highly memorable 'peaks' of learning, amazing stories or facts, humourous (remember - I don't do funny) anecdotes from which personal learning journeys can commence is the modest objective I set myself.  Feedback suggests this approach generally works quite well.


Gratifyingly, the Royal Marketing session was completed, a few good questions, a few people leaving once the hour slot was done and several thank yous (now that did feel a bit strange).  A quick pint of Guiness in the pub with a hard core and back to reality.

Wonder if I will get invited back to do something next year ?

Thorpe Park: The Royal Holloway MBA business engagement

For a second succssive year, The Royal Holloway MBA group of 34 temporarily left their leafy campus setting and hectic schedule of classes to visit the nearby "Thrills Capital" of the UK.  MBAs, drawn from all over the world, are particularly keen to visit organisations first hand to get a stronger appreciation of how business in the UK works.

Thanks to the generous partnership of Thorpe Park management team, MBA students were able to hear about the challenges of a quite remarkable business, which not only faces the typical challenges of a leisure business, a particularly wet summer, the 2012 Olympics, and competing for share of spend in a slow growing economic context, but one that also includes a  special ecological considerations, operating as it does in a site surrounded by a wetlands wildlife sanctuary. 


Thorpe Park is one of 93 attractions that form the Merlin Group, a global operator that currently lies second only to Disney.  In close proximity to other Merlin Group attractions (Legoland and Chessington) the Thorpe Park mission is carefully targetted at the mercurial 16-24 age group.  The Royal Holloway MBA group were given five real business questions to respond to after having been given the chance to visit the park 'behind the scenes' and fire questions at a panel of Thorpe Parks senior management.

Having worked together in groups to address the set questions the Thorpe Park management team will be hosted on the Royal Holloway campus to hear what the students recommend.  It is hoped the fresh and challenging perspectives, pitched using newly acquired analysis and presentation skills, will provide some genuinely helpfull insights for the Thorpe Park management team. 

Not-for-Profit and The Royal Holloway MBA

Over the past couple of years whilst I have been involved in the recruitment of prospective students onto The Royal Holloway MBA I have reasonably often asked about the relevance of this programme for the public and third (not-for-profit and charities).   The stereotypical MBA would be expected to look for a high pressured, well remunerated role in the financial services or consulting sectors. Fortunately, whilst a few do follow this path, the global group of MBA candidates that start each year in September at the iconic Egham campus tend to follow a much broader range of paths on graduation.

Royal Holloway used to offer a wide range of public sector specifc programmes and modules, but as the differences between the three sectors have reduced, these highly specialised options no longer exist in our portfolio with lecturers considering private, public and third stream sectors as a matter of course. Perhaps due to the liberal arts history of the College, Royal Holloway tends to see MBA candidates join from very wide backgrounds that includes representatives from all three sectors.

As part of a regular lunch time speaker session, laid on specifically for the MBA group, Peter Berry came to campus on a foggy, damp, November day, to share insights from his illustrious career, which included rescuing and reinvigorating the not-for-profit Crown Agents organisation, as well as being decorated by both Britian and Japan.  Using an example of change management he described how he had recommended to unpick the civil service pyramid organisation that saw a product led orientation staffed by personal fiefdoms switched to a market facing one that required 30% fewer staff, but resulted in a more efficient and effective organisation.

Peter also regaled a story that challenged the idea of assessing a charities effectiveness by measuring its running costs as a percentage of turnover, preferring to encourage the Royal Holloway MBA group to consider mission effectiveness.  His organisation set up a logistics operation to deliver essential food aid to people isolated by war, in both the former Yugoslavia and then in the African lakes (Rwanda).  The introduction of convoys of well paid ex-soldier driven trucks replacing low cost and heroic locals, protected by guards, whilst more costly to operate, were considerably more effective at completing their missions, and thus saving starving people in great peril. 

Having operated in many parts of the world where corruption was the norm, Mr Berry talked through how he managed to ensure that his entire organisation understood that moral and ethical behaviour was a fundamental requirement, however elusive the concept was to define.  The value of integrity in doing business was also highlighted, that whilst some significant markets were unaccessible due to the firm stance taken by Peter in his leadership role, this position in itself also opened up other opportunities. 

Growth in non-goverment organisations (NGO's) and charities was identified as an important area for MBAs to consider for their future careers.  Peter rather surprised the group at one point by suggesting that having fun is vitally important, and that you should never consider moving for less than a 20% improvment in your package - but this might not be a financial 20% - but may be entirely for fun.  He flagged that many non-profiteering organisational roles do not pay badly and when interesting work, combines with good training and development and enjoyment of the work (for an outfit that is about doing good for society) - this is a combination that can offer satisfaction that a high salary for work you hate cannot compete with. 

Peter Berry neatly answered one question about the validity of The Royal Holloway MBA in the public and not-for profit sectors by identifyingkey skills of ensuring the mission is delivered as being crucial, and suggesting that the training offered in the MBA programme would give individuals the capabilities that should make them highly desirable and effective managers and leaders in these sectors.

It was also clear from the strong and positive thanks that was given to Peter after his talk, that several students were positively invigorated about the possible opportunities companies like Crown Agents might hold for them going forwards. 

The 10 Commandments

Can you talk the talk and walk the walk ?  The best advice I could ever give a new people manager.

 

The 10 Commandments 

(for managing people)

1. Recognize peoples' effort

2. Act on poor performance

3. Stop fire fighting - start planning

4. Delegate and stop meddling

5. Make informed decisions

6. Stop controlling - start influencing

7. Communicate more

8. Take more business risks

9. Ask for feedback

10. Be seen to be doing 1-9 above

I have a little card on my desk, it dates from before Y2K (the IT panic concept that saw us all run around undertaking risk assessments and major software/system updates just incase computers thought we had gone back to 1900 not 2000 due to the DD-MM-YY date convention used inside many computer chips.  This, much like my local firework display this year, was a bit of a damp squib).

A learning campus - safe space where MBAs experiment with new leadership styles

It was something my then boss Paul Giblin had us print up for every manager in the BA Germany organisation for our conference that year.  I think it was a pretty snappy management philosophy even back then when my hair was thick and curly.  I keep it on my desk now, even though formally I no longer have anyone reporting to me.  As I have matured and gained more experience I note that the wisdom contained within this ten short paragraphs is more appropriate now that ever before.

Feedback sandwich start & end with positives

'Act on poor performance' is something that I need to keep reminding myself.  (With exceptions) my impression of the civil service is one where many of the great (and some of the awful) commercial managerial practises have really yet to manifest themselves.  When coaching students in groups I often suggest that giving feedback (using the feedback sandwich approach - lots of positive bun with a meaty developmental centre, but start and end on positives) and explaining (using a factual approach) is very helpful.  Most people do not wish to annoy or disappoint others, its unintentional and perhaps because noone has ever told them before.  Take a big breath, find the right moment and give it your best shot (honest and true, but diplomatically, of course.)  Starting the process with "You know what your problem is..." and alike are NOT recommended. 

I need it to remind me that I have a nasty tendency to do everything over email (my wife jokingly suggests that I would even have proposed over email, given half a chance...) and No. 7 "Communicate more" is there to remind me that informal corridor chats are not work denying opportunities but the chance to deepenend and widen my networking, you just never know when someone will be able to thrust an idea or solution into your lap.  In my role supporting the Royal Holloway MBA this week I found myself regretting that I had not done something face-to-face, whilst painfully wordsmithing a series of email tennis communications.

In a blame culture where criticism is rarely in front of the at fault individual, it is often the case that the giving and receiving of honest and meaningful feedback is an approach that is lacking.  We all want to improve, building trust in your colleagues to be able to tell you where you are over stepping the line or have been a bit too much is important.   Looking out for what people are NOT saying is also key, perhaps they do not feel comfortable telling you how they feel. 

Number 10 always makes me smile.  When we came up with this list - the first five were easy, the next four came slowly.  The last one - the all important tenth - that made sense of the 10 commandments title we'd rather irreverently developed - always felt like a filler.  But actually, of course, demonstrating your managerial/leadership philosophy is crucial, perhaps most aptly demonstrated in the "walk-the-talk" expression.  I am proud to have played a small role in support Paul Giblin putting his pocket book management in ten simple bullet points. 

Can implement a few of these ten commandments ?

Justin O'Brien

Sharing Cultural Experiences: MBA's learn the power of social networking

Following a suggestion from MBA Director Justin O'Brien during their induction a hardy gang of The Royal Holloway MBA students chose to spend a rare 'off' day from the hectic study schedule to familiarise themselves with some English culture with a visit to Windsor. Organised by Russian born but locally resident Elena Savchenko the group benefited from her knowledge and by all accounts enjoyed a 'fun' day of touristing, eating, shopping and bonding.  Naturally, no visit to Windsor is complete without experiencing the changing of the guard. 

The iconic bear skin busby hats and red tunics worn by the Queens Household troops provide strong associations for Brand Britain around the world.  (Prince Harry's cavalry regiment, Blues and Royals, is assigned to the Windsor barracks when not on active duty overseas in theatres such as Afghanistan.)  MBA candidates will study the country of origin effect on brands, covered in marketing, and look at the benefits and risks associated with linking with a geographic identity.

Quaffing not olde Englishe beer, but cool, contemporary cider

The importance of social networking cannot be understated and the group prioritised a small amount of time on a quirky and traditional English practice of  re-hydrating with a warm, cloudy, frothy liquid served in elongated glass cylinders and referred to as "pints". Joking aside, the power of social and semi-social networking cannot be under valued. Academic studies of General Manager activity have highlighted the high proportion of time spent focused on personal networking/bonding, and the relative limited focus on business issues, suggesting that relationship nurturing was a higher valued activity.  These guys, from the photo evidence here presented, look set for high flying careers !

Thanks to Elena for organising the visit and Mariusz for photos.


 

Lights ! Camera ! ACTION ! MBA Thespians ?

At Royal Holloway, University of London the MBA Director is always looking for innovative ways to challenge MBA candidates on their learning journey.  Drawing on the (relatively) recent memory of his own Global MBA programme undertaken around the turn of the Century whilst a full time employee at British Airways, Justin remembers that some of the most poigniant learning was achieved using unconventional learning environments.  This included facing a group of thespians to consider the leadership lessons found in Shakespeare whilst on a World War 2 airfield turned campus at Cranfield.

Fast track a decade and thanks to a positive reaction to a rather unconventional offer, a tactical collaboration between Royal Holloway's Drama team (Embodied by Dr Emma Brodzinski and  Alex Turner, one of the founding members of of non zero one, the drama department's resident theatre company 2012/13) and the School of Management's MBA cohort was born.  The initial creative enterprise that will hopefully yield further exciting learning encounters. 

The idea was to use professional and academic insipired drama techniques to engage the MBA group in the early stages of their programme.  Four half day sessions (two back to back on one day) were envisioned, starting with a common shared experience of a Caryl Churchill play "Love and Information" which was running, to critical and commercial acclaim, at the Royal Court theatre at the head of Sloane Square.  The contemporary production with 57 vignettes or scenes portraying 100 characters by a cast of just 16 was an ideal edgy and challenging play for the MBAs to experience.  The set was a white cube, sub-divided by black grid lines and a variety of bright lighting.  Vignettes used simple but highly effective props to generate a sense of place in an otherwise stark and austere stage, including an amusing upright double bed, cycling machines and a large sofa to feature a family watching TV (the audience).

Pleasingly there is also a strong play and campus link for Royal Holloway MBA students.
Caryl Churchill, whose work spans six decades and has been performed globally, is considered by some to be Britains greatest playwright.  Professor Dan Rebellato, Head of Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London stated that it was entirely fitting to name the soon to be opened £3m new 175 seat campus theatre in recognition of Caryl Churchills work. (BBC,  4 Sep 2012)


The first campus based interaction for the MBA group took place with the two drama professionals Emma and Alex leading.  With convential lines of table and chairs pushed away, replaced with a circle of chairs and a bean back the first session kicked off with more than a little apprehension.

Simen Gudevold, a Norwegian national who has taken a sabbatical from the HR function at the United Nations in New York, said "Although I generally prefer management classes over theater-studies, and feel more comfortable discussing case studies rather than expressing myself through images, I most definitely see the link between management and drama."

Gungzhong Xia stated "The drama workshop was truly refreshing.  The atmosphere in the class became more harmonious after the interaction.  We got closer to each other." 

Jessica Dacchille added "We were happy to have been challenged in a different way."

Simen concluded "I think this session was a great initiate. The lecture made me realize how we communicate through non-verbal expressions and how power and authority is not only expressed through conversation."

Olympic Sponsorship reflections during BT Tower visit for Royal Holloway MBA's

 

Royal Holloway MBA candidates treated to a contemporary reflection of BT's highly successful involvement in the London 2012 Olympic games. 

Rob Thomas, Director of Cost Transformation, BT Wholesale hosted an International MBA seminar exclusively for the Royal Holloway MBA 2012/13 group in October 2012.  The timing and theme selected could not have been better, as the highly successful Para and Olympic games has just drawn to a close, giving a number of senior BT business leaders a chance to reflect on their organisations involvement.

The Royal Holloway MBA 2012/13 cohort and academic staff at the BT Tower

The seminar took place at BT’s premises in London - the iconic BT Tower.  In addition to Rob Thomas, other key BT speakers included; Mick Wayman, BT Managing Director, London 2012 Programme, Lee Hamill, BT Brand/CSR, Marketing Lead and Mark Wilson-Dunn, Global Sales and Marketing Director, BT Media & Broadcast.  The invitation to host a group of MBA students was extra-ordinary, the BT Tower is closed to the public and usually reserved for hosting important customers and hosting the ocassional high profile charity event.

Presentations given covered BT’s involvement in the Olympic & Paralympic games providing key insights into the company’s role as a key service provider in delivering the most connected games ever - responsible for carrying every call and every TV picture transmitted.  Thanks to BT, London 2012 was the most connected Olympic games ever, with 27 live streamed web channels. 

 A special lunch was provided in the restaurant at the top of the BT tower providing spectacular views over the whole of London, along with the exclusive opportunity for our MBA’s to network with the key speakers.  Students spent time orienting themselves, spotting the gerkin in City, the shard at London Bridge, Canary Wharf, the Emirates, Wembley and the Olympic park, of course were also visible, thanks to a reasonably cloudless day.  The University of London's main campus and iconic Senate house building were close by and easy to view.

Several areas key to the MBA syllabus were covered during the highly engaging and interactive sessions, including; operations, marketing, HR and strategy, providing our MBA’s with highly valuable insights from BT. The dedication and commitment shown by all BT staff throughout the games was made evident and served to inspire our own MBA’s as to how to lead and motivate people that they may manage in their future roles.

Each seminar ended with ‘Lesson for the future’ and a highly engaging Q&A session between the speakers and our MBA’s. The event was deemed highly successful by both parties.  Justin O'Brien, MBA Director at Royal Holloway, stated "This was a brilliant opportunity for our international group of MBA students to engage with one of UK's leading companies and to focus on their successful involvement with a highly current and enormously impactful Olympic games."

 

Interesting fact: The BT Tower was completed in 1964, though until 1993 the building was officially a secret and did not even feature on official maps. Public access to the building ceased in 1981 and the building was awarded Grade II listed building status in 2003.  It is one of the seven largest global television hubs and place a crucial role in distributing audiovisual programming worldwide.

 

 

Special thanks to:  Sonya Murrell for text copy and Rix Cao for the images.

Why study for the Royal Holloway MBA ?

Royal Holloway MBA 2011/12 students at the end of their programme talking frankly about why they wanted to study for the MBA. 

Reasons to study for an MBA ?

Why study for an MBA ? 

As academic Director for the prestigious Royal Holloway MBA this is a question I get asked quite a lot.  Glass ceiling ?  Change of direction ?  Broadening in preparation for a C-suite role ?

High Flyer ?

The School of Managements dedicated MBA careers advisor asked the MBA group exactly this question "Why study for an MBA ?" and this is what he got in response, graphically displayed using the highly visual www.wordle.net word cloud application.  The simple to use web tool strips out common words from a body of text and displays duplicated words in proportion to the number of mentions, essentially the more mentions, the larger the word.

The careers advisor team was awarded a rare teaching, recognising the Royal Holloway careers team innovation of designing and delivering a day long assessment centre experience for 200 post graduate students which saw MBA students role play recruiting line managers in a very realistic range of selection exercises that included a one-to-one interview and group discussion exercise.

Why study for an MBA ? Happiness, personal growth & thinking differently

Analysis of the MBA cohorts feedback on why they had chosen to to study for an MBA was summarised thus:

• Desire to buy into the MBA brand

• Learning theory from experts

• Worried about reaching the glass ceiling in their corporation – wanting the keys to the Exec toilets

• Build credibility· Share an international collective learning experience

• Seeking a return on investment – salaries in some countries can triple if you have a MBA

• Change of lifestyle / career break

• Set up a new business

• Making new friends & learning about new cultures

•  Career development, industry exposure & networking

• Personal growth & happiness

• Making a difference

• Turning dreams into reality

•  Learn leadership and management skills

• Learning to think differently

Campus updates - new academic year

Summer seems to have just blown by.  The Long Grass of summer did not seem to arrive this year, for a variety of reasons.  I describe this notion of long, sunny days with few deadlines and lots of freedom to undertake those not urgent, not important items that always seem to be left untouched on the to do or action list, despite being 'worthy'.

My summer starts after the MBA International Management/ MSc International Management Distance Learning plenary session has taken place at the Royal Holloway, University of London campus in Egham.  So why did summer pass so quickly ?  On campus we had an exceptionally strong year with post graduate students and this saw me supervise double my usual number.  We had weeks and weeks of rain and cool weather, so spring in Jun and July rather than hot and balmy, but fortunately this was resolved (thanks to the excellent planning and management provided by Lord Coe and the London 2012 Olympic team) and we have a great buzz about the place over the Olympic periods.  Surprising to see so many (often stereotyped as grumpy, aloof, uncommunicative) English people volunteering to support the games.  70,000 or so I vaguely remember, successful evidence of a great Cameron government "initiative" to boost our under funded public services.  Umm. 

Rhossili Bay, Gower Peninsula, South Wales

The genuinely warm and effusive greeting provided to Olympic visitors was surprisingly amazing, and will have done British Tourism a big favour, as even I was impressed and felt welcomed.  So just at the point of getting used to the sun, being outside and having a good feeling for outdoor dining, September was upon us and my children had to return to school.  We moved house and managed to get a few days by the sea in beautiful (but a bit too cloudy and rainy) Gower peninsula in Wales, and as I write I am surrounded with unpacked boxes, full of stuff I probably don't need and we definitely have no where left to put it.  Wham ! Bam  ! - summer over, nearly before it started. 

I have now spent a couple of days back on campus (dissertation marking return, a hernia inducing pile) and have been delighted to find out that the Green Mermaid has made her way onto our hallowed turf.  Many of my colleagues find fault with Starbucks, but unfortunately I love successful global brands - I want to know why they are - and the standard Starbucks coffee is a flavour I love.  Expect to see me more often at Cafe Jules in the International Building over the coming term....

The old boiler house (at one point under consideration for an MBA dedicated facility) boasts a new glass atrium roof, I think it might be an exciting new drama space.  And lastly, in what might be a scam cost saving activity from poor old Royal Mail (you'll notice now that many of what should be bright red post boxes are rather faded and past their best), we have a golden post box.  To mark our involvement (Royal Holloway was voted the friendliest Olympic village) and the success of many of the rowing and paddling competitors that used our facilities we have been allowed to paint our post box gold. 

In case you are unfamiliar with the UK post box design, this one betrays its age showing GR under the crown (George Rex - Latin I think for George King).  Post boxes installed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (since 1952 - 60 years ago) will show ER (Elizabeth Regina - Queen), George VI was the present Queens father. Given the rise of the internet and competitor courier services, I wonder how long the British innovation (universal pre-paid delivery service) will continue ?

It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it !

Justin's beloved VW Beetle

A story I heard on the radio inspired me to write this short piece on academic writing style.  The story was of a middle aged, professional man who had hired a white van to help his mother move.  Dressed in suitably casual clothes he parked up his hired white van on the forecourt of a Jaguar dealership to pick up a brochure for a new model.  Whilst flicking through the brochure an attentive sales person walked over to him and told him it was ok to look at the brochure, but that he should not take it away with him.  Bitter sweet revenge was enacted on the dealership when a few weeks later the white van man returned in his brand new £65,000 Jaguar to explain that the poor customer service he had received had seen him buy his new car from another dealership.  (BBC Five Live, 7 Dec 2010)

Would you try to sell this man a Jaguar ?

Clearly a marketing lesson in not judging a book by its cover and to avoid using stereotypes in a customer service environment. 

Three tips for effective academic writing:

(1) Whilst content is king, style is also very important.  Referencing accurately and using an appropriate academic writing style pays dividends in assessments.  Present your work pristine and polished, not a rough diamond.

(2) Make yourself aware of what is expected before the pressure of deadlines overwhelms you.  Below are a number of writing style guides that you will find useful.  Print out some of the pages for future reference.

(3)  Read text books and academic journals to pick up the tone and feel of academic writing, over time you will bring this style and its vocabulary into your own way of writing.  Emerald, Science Direct and Business Source Complete (Ebsco) are online search engines to access a wide range of material, click 'peer reviewed' and 'full text' options where you can.  I award top marks for work that includes content from here. 

Royal Literary Fund

http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/essayguide.cfm

Edinburgh Napier University

http://www2.napier.ac.uk/gus/writing_presenting/academic.html

Birmingham City University

http://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.20.htm

Harvard referencing guide from Sheffield University

http://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowshipscheme/writing/essayguide.cfm