Royal Holloway MBA's Social Royalty !

Social Media Royalty:  Amy Sharath & Kelliann McDonald

Social Media 'royalty' Amy Sharath (pictured above left) and Kelliann McDonald (above right) pose with their fun social media prizes.  

Challenged by MBA Director Justin O'Brien to generate a blog post profile and encouraged to amplify their posts using ethical social media promotional approaches, the competitive spirit of the joint queens of social media generated came to the fore.  

Hits recorded on www.MBADirector.blogspot.co.uk in 2014 were tracked, with both Amy and Kelliann achieving scores that were head and shoulders above their peers.

Pictured outside the luxurious venue of their end of taught programme garden party, Kelliann and Amy clearly had lots to be pleased about as they look to complete their dissertation, the final element of their MBA.

Flexible and Distance Learning Summer Plenary 2014

Campus is blooming and the sun is shining as students join the annual summer school plenary that sees new students join together from all around the world to enjoy a rich mix of academic lectures, guest speakers, a business visit and a number of social events for the evenings.  

 

Stockholm MBA study visit

It's true that we luck out as an MBA group getting to visit our exchange business school in Stockholm at a prime time.  The sun shines, the nights are very long with just three hours of shade separating one day   from another, everyone is happy and the city is just fantastic.  Admin colleague Dawn played a blinder in getting a modest budget to stretch to include a trendy, hip located hotel, two meals a day, and a bunch of business visits and some cracking academic lectures.  

Stunning views on the archipelago tour

It is my third visit to this off the beaten track northern capital and I just cannot get over how friendly everyone is.  Not usually outgoing in public, I am from south east England afterall, I struck up random conversations with roofers dangling from ropes four storeys up and even found out why my favourite icecream flavour was called 'tin roof', (sound of bouncing peanuts in mix process).  I even contacted two businesses from their Swedish web pages to arrange visits that were mini adventures in their own right, more of this later.....

Alumnus Fredrik Fehn talks standards as a strategic weapon

I remain a huge ABBA fan and wish they were making more Kenneth Brannagh acted Wallender Swedish detective series.  The large numbers of four wheel drive Volvo's with their sleek hip-like lines make me swoon.  I love design here.  I like the uptight ironic humour that permeates, including witty shop names in English.  As a visitor you are struck by multi-gender toilets, although as a man I do not welcome queuing, nor paying 50p for using public toilets, even if the are modern and clean.

High School Graduation celebrations

Sweden is very laid back, you do not hear car horns often.  Numbers of women seem to match men in  politics, although men only get half the years paternity leave offered to women, at 80% of your salary.  I have seen more men alone with their kids than women. Generous enough to make you want more kids, particularly when you note that education from kindergarten to university is free.  The third largest European country by lamdmass, yet fewer than 10m in population with some 2m concentrated on the circa 30,000 isle archipelago that makes the capital Stockholm. We have seen High School students bounce around in the back of dump trucks whilst celebrating their graduation and annoying our bus drivers.    Supposedly the light beer @  3.5% being sprayed around is bought by the parents and police POLIS check that no hard liquor is on board.

Team dinners:  not all the Swedish food was popular

The MBA group seems to have really enjoyed their time here. As well as offering a strong international and cultural perspective on Swedish business with visits to packaging, telecoms and standards organisations, there has been plenty of time for personal exploration, shopping and tourism. Yang, from Chengdu in China, noted how nice it was to stay longer than the 3/4 days typically afforded a major European capital by most Chinese visitors.   

Several were keen to experience top locations for partying such as f12 and Bernes, as recommended by MBA candidate for 2014/15 Marie  who hails from Stockholm.  Rachel was impressed that Swedish McDs sell chicken wings, unlike UK, but gutted that just three wings constitute a portion.  The vibrant independent coffee house scene seems to have kept Starbucks off grid here.  An odd omission.

Jon Haag discusses packaging design with MBAs

We even got a D-school approach to learning as packaging giant BillerudKorsnas set up a highly engaging business briefing and innovation challenge in the Radisson Blu hotel that was formerly the SAS airline training centre.  I managed to squeeze in visits to two craft breweries, although one was very hard to find, which should help my plan for this summer to write about innovation and brand building in this space.

Look at me, looking at you ! MCM ComicCon gains a reluctant visitor

The SouthWest Trains guard on the Woking-Waterloo inter-city out of Portsmouth Harbour announced "Would any passengers carrying guns or replica guns or swords please put them in a bag or cover them up, as they can cause security incidents on arrival at Waterloo."  I quote with loose accuracy as I was frankly quite bemused.  The mandatory repetition of the message made it more clear, "If you are going to ComicCon at the Excel...."  We smiled, inspite of the hour - it was before 0800 on a bank holiday weekend - there was a special message for us, and my 12 year old son and his mate were very impressed.

Games demonstration table

Now, I didn't do double maths A levels or even computer science, which in my school days was the only way you could get your hands on a BBC computer or justify to your parents a need for a ZX80. Honest - the first time I actually used a computer (vs. word processor) was at university, for a forecasting module in my final year, with a floppy disk.   Neither did I partake in the often related Dungeons and Dragons.  Clever/Sporty was my bag.

Brain washing: "No go away and dress up funny !"

So when I was nagged into agreeing to accompany my eldest getting up at stupid o'clock, lingering for 8 hours or worse at the Excel exhibition centre bored out of my brains, and then fight the crowds home again you can imagine just how enthusiastic I was feeling.  Still, having children is the decision in life to be 95% selfless in your existence and this was my turn.  It was going to be duller than washing dishes, gaming geeks playing games, turned into zombies by their screens.  A bit like this..(but note the kid front of shot with a green head set on is actually sporting a false moustache.)

This behaviour is NOT a form of punishment ?

Then we started spotting people in bizarre outfits.  A man with a high school cheer leaders outfit putting his long hair into a net.  Orange, pink, grey, purple wigs worn with Japanese school girl uniforms adorned with lace.  Grown up women in hello! Pikachu hoodies and round red circles on their cheeks.  Themed groups (many I just didn't recognise) of people striking poses so random strangers (also dressed up) could take photos of them.

Strike a pose: you spikey haired gang of boys

Now Royal Holloway undergraduate management student Jess had introduced me to CosPlay (her site link) the idea of conventions (people coming together from far and wide) to spend time with each other having dressed up in a likeness of their favourite cartoon/scifi character.  I must say checking out some of the images I found it all to be a little bit racy for my taste.    Imagine my concern when my twelve year old wants to dress up as a mute character from 'Game of Thrones' and actually attend one of these events.  I guess it could have been worse...

Beauty and the Beast: even cheezie Disney is allowed ?!?!?

So tickets were serious money (not quite the same league as going to watch Northampton at Twickenham at the Aviva Rugby Premiership final) so I wanted to know what we would be getting.  Joel nonchalantly said 'You know, manga, comics, merchandising, gaming and Japanese Ramen noodles for lunch'.   

Look at me, looking at you ?  Alternative identity affirmation

My marketing colleagues enjoy serious counter culture, so I thought it might be good for me to get insights into some of this kind of activity.  Essentially we paid to go into two big rooms to buy stuff from other people, from the useful food and clothes (Maslow isn't all bad !) to the unnecessary, fake tattoos, false eye lashes, cosplay devils horns, masks, the little tail company.  Why is this good ?  We paid extra to have priority access from 9-11 (with cheaper general access tickets then kicking in) but found ourselves queuing for 40 minutes around the building in the rain.  I felt annoyed and cheated - but I was going to be walking around bored inside shortly, so at least this offered fresh air and a nice view of the Thames.

There was a strong Japanese under current and you could buy a range of samurai swords, sign up to learn Japanese in country or even buy the wooden puzzle box that Sheldon in Big Bang Theory used (and others.)  There were sweets and cupcakes galore, with several stores offering mikado sticks (thin long flour sticks covered in chocolate my kids love) and even the fabulously regionally branded Japanese Kit Kat boxes I've blogged about last year.  I love Japan and all things kitsch from this culture.  It wasn't a totally wasted day after all.  

There were serious commercial players present, e.g. a Wii stand and Nintendo in all its corporate glory.  The Tokyo Toy company was making strong sales & promoting its Trocadero retail outlet.

Now, it must be my age, but I'm not sure it is ok to be seen outside the house in these (photo left) kinds of clothes ?  Don't Anne Summers and Victoria Secrets make a fortune selling black and lace underwear like this ?   I think they call it lingerie.  Yet put an outlandish coloured wig on and we were seeing serious numbers of women (and some men) dressing this way. The Japanese doll look or school girl cartoon character ?  In a world obsessed by over sexualisation of children I guess there is room for the reverse, adults dressing as kids.  It feels very creepy to me, you can't just call it innocent fantasy and let it go ?

There were a wide range of genres represented, with the UKGarrison putting in a highly professional show for the Star Wars franchise.  Outstanding static props and a wide range of costumes, that have to be film ready (i.e. exactly the same as the films or you aren't allowed to exhibit).  They have a strong charitable orientation, but seem to enjoy stalking around too !  Star Wars, of course is alright because of its vast popularity, its moralistic (good vs. evil) stance - but doesn't it have counter religious undertones (May the 4th etc) and some strong use of violent fight scenes ?  Can't wait for Disney to bring on film 7, 8 and 9....

There were also Dr Who impersonators, Zombies, Pokemon characters, Victorian Brocage and so, so many more.  I was lost, but amazed.  There were 30,000 visitors the day we went, attendance getting bigger each year.

Manga team photo shoots

From my own rational consumption perspective I could not understand the value in buying a ticket to walk around commercial stalls.  There was a stand giving away free smoothies (I had several, it was hot, I was thirsty) but I don't remember the name of the company to plug it to you.  But pretty much the rest were there to make money, no doubt paying for their exhibition space like I was paying for my hot air and limited personal space too.  However, for motivated attendees, rather than reluctant chaperones, the appeal seemed to come from the voyeurism, the appreciation of effective, striking costumes that many attendees (a large minority perhaps ?) had chosen to wear.  So co-creation of the product - then why not meet in a park for free ?  Eventually I discovered my son had gone outside and spent much of the afternoon at a Yogcast meet, talking with people who enjoy this brand of YouTube video content.  Honestly, there was nearly as much exciting stuff going on outside for free as there was inside, certainly the way the boys engaged.  

More misery ?  Non-participant gamers watching others do it on the big screen

The point was more the gathering than the events at the venues, there were small, fading celebrities signing photos and authors plugging their scifi books, and the stands and some seating areas where stars and panels would engage in Q&A with 'fans' - people who seemed to know who they were and appear to be interested in banal exchanges of personal information.  One Canadian actor from Bones (I think) when asked what she liked watching played the suck up to the mostly British audience and said Luther, Downton and any other reasonably hip UK programming that has broken stateside.  Hollywood trained not to disrespect their audience.

Ninja action héros recording their own activities

I am trying to understand social identity theory at the moment.  I can hardly claim to really have a good understanding, but it appears to me that participants who engage deeply in the role playing activities benefit from peer validation (lots of others are doing the same or similar) and the mutual admiration that bi-annual large conventions (and other smaller ones) can offer the positive, reinforcing feedback that builds self-esteem and encourages more of this behaviour.  

Please buy my manga ?

Social identity theory sees us put our own character into roles that is subjected to the interaction and feedback we receive from our the social structure around us which validates, tempers or rejects behaviours in that context.  The idea being that we have multiple identities that we choose (and choose not to) adopt in various social contexts.    e.g. the friendly/human lecturer is one I try to project in my work place, to various degrees of success.

I also noted a number of individuals (one even scratched on a replica pistol) saying "Free Hugs" that seemed to want to encourage complete strangers to give plutonic embraces and walk on by.  

Still struggling with this one - is it a genuinely open statement of free love, the kind of rhetoric that was commonplace in the 70's ?  Or merely a manifestation of a more relaxed and openly tactile millennial generation.  Or indeed, something else again ?  It feels like a sleazy pick up line to me - wouldn't it be better to 'fess up and state "Single, seeks partner" or "Up for a one night stand" ?  Some of the t-shirt designs came close to this I guess.

I am still slightly bemused by 'cupcakes', I don't understand the source of the popularity, now, why would you pay £4 for a single, sickly sweet iced fairy cake ?    Surely it can't be down to Paul and Mary with their bake off show on BBC ?  In my mind calling someone a cupcake was US movie slang term for mental illness which then morphed into a general, mildly insulting term of endearment.

I wonder what this guy (below) gets out of his cosplay persona ??  

Off loading his aggression ?

I couldn't get the MBA group to visit Brighton together this year - there is no hope of getting them to attend MCMComicCon ?
No cupcakes were eaten or zombies created in the making of this blog post.

Re-launch of the Royal Holloway MBA

Extra curricula launch of the SunKissed digital project

Over the past two years, following some deep market research with current and past MBA students, teaching staff, business partners and bench marking with leading competitors, we have made a number of substantial improvements to the Royal Holloway MBA programme that will commence on 22 September 2014 this year. 

Of course, the core of an MBA remains very much at the core of an MBA and the curriculum continues to cover the essential elements: finance, marketing, management, accounting, economics, strategy, leadership, technology, operations - we have taken the opportunity this major review presents us with to consolidate a number of the innovations that have been trialled over the last couple of years e.g. international study visit, drama ensemble development techniques, digital marketing with some new elements e.g. the year in business option to extend the dissertation into a second year, project management, a shift away from heavy weighting on exams, cross-cultural management and a more integrated, theme based team teaching approach that looks to take a joined up global view of management, rather than a silo disciplined view that has been popular in the past. 

Hogs Back Brewery study visit

Company visits will take place directly related to theoretical learning and assessments with take on a more practical nature that relies on reflective learning and, often, group collaboration (just like in the work place !)

Please check out the 'course overview' tab on this link to see a detailed week by week plan of the programme and a summary of the contents of each of the chunky modules. 

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/management/prospectivestudents/mba/home.aspx

Many aspiring MBA candidates ask me the question "What is distinctive and special about the Royal Holloway MBA" - which being frankly open, is quite a difficult question to answer. (remember above my point about what makes an MBA, means that the skins can look quite similar) 

Airline Industry guest speaker session "Which seat would you choose ?"

The kind of question Prashob (India) fired at me I think... What I have tried to write down here are a summary of key points that I have picked up over the past four years in conversations with a wide range of MBA students (remember we have 100 flexible and distance learning students join us each June for summer school, I talk to a lot of MBAs....) I try to reflect what real MBA candidates and graduates feel about their own experiences...

Why study for the Royal Holloway MBA ?    Read more...

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/management/prospectivestudents/mba/why-study-for-the-royal-holloway-mba.aspx

The following link shows the philosophy of the MBA programme ​- I have tried to project some of the feeling of the programme using the MBA Director blog (link below in my footer which includes a piece on Japanese KitKats following Hayata-sans (Japan) in person visit) and the YouTube channel (link below), you can see the smiling faces of students and staff, passionate about what they do, having fun learning and developing. I have tried to put across some of this in words for the web page, please check this page out: 

Learning to look at life differently: Royal Holloway MBA philosophy  Read more...

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/management/prospectivestudents/mba/learningtolookatlifedifferentroyalhollowaymbaphilosophy.aspx

I do hope you like the look and feel of the new programme, applicant Erik from Norway suggested the new MBA looks very modern. 

Success ! End of Exams

Although potentially quite dangerous, I did walk through some current MBA students (Paola (Colombia) was there & she'll be able to validate this) ​they liked the linked themes, the reduced exam load, the new project management and digital marketing, the part time options (that should see Wednesdays often a 'free' day), the more careful spread of coursework through the year and the year in business option. They felt it involved lots of positives and no particular negatives - although I didn't manage to get them to sign up to do another year..... 

Interested ? Do get in touch directly with programme director justin.obrien@royalholloway.ac.uk

Justin O'Brien 

MBA Director 

Founders East 111, School of Management,

Royal Holloway University of London

Justin O'Brien Profile 

MBADirector Blog link

MBADirector YouTube Channel

Sun shines brightly as MBAs finish Exams

Royal Holloway 2013/14 MBA candidates mark the end of exams

The sun was shining brightly this week when the Royal Holloway 2013/14 cohort completed their last exam.  After two highly intensive terms of classes that run Mon-Fri from 0900-1800 or 1900 for some of the finance modules, a stressful Easter vacation revising and nearly a month of examinations this years cracking group of work experienced students lingered long enough to be personally congratulated in person by their MBA Director.

Most were shattered after weeks of late night revising but with the international study trip to Sweden, group consultancy and dissertation still to complete, they aren't quite finished.  But it certainly was a milestone in their programme and signals the beginning of the end.

Standing outside the Windsor building in the centre of campus, please note the special degree of cleverness used to 'click' this masterpiece - some of the stunning chimney roof line from Founders is reflected in the shadow on the windows.  

Discussion in the Happy Man afterwards with the tired but happy group centred on what they had learnt - clearly serious answers were off the agenda so stories of learning to cook different international food ensued, topped by the 'how to kill a lobster' and how to put off the campus room cleanliness inspectors ensued, calling "I'm in the shower" insufficient we learn.  Unfortunately, the fine details aren't suitable for public consumption via this blog.  

Hate to think what we are going to learn during the Stockholm visit.....

What's in a logo ? Royal Holloway re-brands

A bit of house keeping has unearthed this (no longer timely, but still worthy) posting I held back lest I changed my mind materially about the College new brand image.  Several months have now passed and the conservative grumbling about a bold burnt brick orange and slate grey new brand statements appear to have gone away.  I am wearing my new brand MBA hoodie with pride - so I guess that is a form of positive endorsement ?

After some extensive market research amongst the student body and wider University stakeholders (including staff) we see a new logo launched, bold and bright using highly contrasting colours of glowing orange and black. 

The 2013 'new' Royal Holloway logo

The college shield plays centre stage, and I know that students have strongly expressed a preference for this.  I am not surprised, with positive associations for a long history the heraldic imagery should reinforce a number of Ye Olde English brand attributes that Universities in new countries struggle to compete with.  When asked to design a hoodie a recent MBA cohort sought to utilise the shields latin moto and lots of the sports teams and student societies use the shield on their uniforms.  I wonder if teams will elect to move of the striking and unusual (bar Wimbledon tennis) and very regal (purple = colour of Roman emperors) green and purple. 

Five years ago, when I started at Royal Holloway the blue and white clock tower relief 'envelope' was in the process of establishing itself.  Although, of course, these things take time and evidence of the previous 'Royal Holloway' with counter pointed blue and orange triangles were in much evidence. Branding is a long and slow process.  Some of my longer serving colleagues have muttered "Not another branding !! How long will this one last ?" and flagging that this will be the fifth (?) re-branding in fifteen years.  Perhaps this one will stick around a bit longer. 





Baroness Thatcher did not approve ! Mail photo

Re-branding can be a tricky exercise to get rigtht.  Remember famous reversals like New Coke ?  Or more recently The Gap ?  Starbucks seems to have got away with dropping words and using just the green mermaid (siren) in a push to become part of a global elite, the image only icon brands (e.g. Nike tick).  Way back, British Airways tried to position itself as a global brand in an attempt to deliberately shed some of the negative British reserve perceptions (stand offish, old fashioned, stiff upper lip and poor customer service) with a daring 'World Images' concept.  I loved it ! Re-branding is an extremely expensive exercise, typically undertaken every ten to fifteen years. Unfortunately BA's highly conservative and influential stakeholder group (that included pilot staff and blue suited business executives in UK) found it all a little bit too racy and it was quickly de-radicalised by the new CEO, Rod Eddington, despite hasty market research 'evidence' that suggested strong, positive responses from customers around the world.  Margaret Thatcher epitomised the home market distain by putting a handkerchief over a model plane sporting the then new decals. Extensive media coverage of her reaction may have been the straw that broke the camels back, although the world image, of waves in union flag colours selected for Concorde remains the universal livery that is still being utilised today. 

However, the FMCG trained brands department knew that a logo was more than just an image.  They sought to symbolise a change in the way the organisation thought about itself and to win the hearts and minds of its 50,000 plus staff by seeking to galvanise an internal cultural change, in addition to the more obvious intended messages to customers.  Shrouded in intense secrecy, seeing need-to-know staff sign confidentiality agreements before being shown the re-brand project, the launch fan fare was a hugely exciting and a memorable event that used large, theatre based staff briefings with senior staff presenting a slick multi-media story that sought to emotionally engage, not merely inform staff about the new image that would be portrayed.  And, the College leadership team has undertaken some useful iPad based market research with its staff to better understand how frontline delivery staff feel about the brand they collectively represent. 

The University operates with a decentralised marketing function, and as befits its not-for-profit status invests relatively small amounts of money marketing itself.  (Of course, with a fast changing context that sees the government encourage direct competition from newly founded private universities and cash strapped initiatives that effectively reduce public university funding, this is no longer a rational assumption going forwards).  Thus the hurrah attached with this change is significantly more muted, no multi-million pound campaign as you might expect with a FTSE-100 rebrand.  Perhaps not of central importance to staff, it is of course immensely important for current, future and alumni students, as the brand (image and wider associations) are profoundly enduring.  Hence my choice of this topic for this blog, which includes a wide audience of future, current and alumni students.

I understand one of the ideas is to put more emphasis on Royal Holloway, which is obvious from the size of the lettering, with the smaller 'of London'. But one of the crucial brand associations that is very powerful outside UK is the University of London moniker.  No one says "London - where is that ?"  So, thankfully, this remains as a source of competitive advantage regional UK universities can not easily match. 

The previous image was highly restrictive, with essentially one, singular creative.  No reverse colour way, no fragmented elements, no watermark.  No flexibility in execution.  It was not designed with social media and co-creation in mind.  In the old days the powerful brand guardians would jealously guard how and where the brand was used.  The fairly static web design, merchandising and various print media would be created centrally and therefore had to be approved.  Unfortunately this straight jacket and unimaginative approach saw many teaching staff reluctant to adopt the constraining powerpoint format they were encouraged to use.  (Of course, there are other motivations/explanations for this behaviour too !)  The opportunities to see staff and students adopt and adapt the College identity come from a choice of creative executions that can fulfil a wide variety of needs, ranging from tiny 'buttons' (like the white B on an orange square that Blogger uses) to cover slides.   Thus I do hope we will see other elements come forward beyond the expected letter heads and business card designs and perhaps linkages to a wider positioning of the Royal Holloway brand.