| Mar 2008 | View back issues |
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| March 2008 | ||
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Click on any of the headlines to go to the story:
New Dean for SBS 
Professor Susan Hart has been appointed as Dean of the Strathclyde Business School, from the beginning of April 2008.Professor Hart, who has previously served as Vice Dean Research and Head of Department of Marketing at Strathclyde, will build on the continued excellence of Strathclyde Business School to maintain its premier position in Scotland as well as being in the top tier of UK and European Business Schools. Hart said "Strathclyde Business School has been amongst the lead players in the UK in terms of business research and management education for four decades, with clear international hallmarks of excellence as one of the elite 1% of Business Schools with triple accreditation from AMBA, AACSB and EQUIS. In addition, Prof. Hart we were endorsed by the most recent National Student Survey as 1st in the UK in Management as well as being ranked at No. 30 in the FT global rankings, 13 in Europe and 7th in the UK. "Our research profile goes from strength to strength, with 22 recent ‘Best Paper’ awards, the hosting of major international conferences and leadership in consultancy and development work with top management teams in both the public and private sectors. We are supported by awards of £5,000,000 annually from industry, research councils, trade unions and government bodies and the research profile of our staff is outstanding with academics in SBS publishing in, inter alia, world-leading journals as Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Human Resource Management, Organization Studies, Work, Employment and Society and Journal of Marketing, to name just a few. "It is a very exciting time to be at Strathclyde Business School as we further internationalise our research, industry collaboration and educational activities", she added. Back to top Young Scots Award 2008 As an official sponsor of this year's Young Scots Award, staff from Strathclyde Business School hosted a table at the Awards Dinner and Ceremony at City Halls on Thursday 20 March 2008. Strathclyde's award category of Enterprise, aimed to recognise young Scots who have demonstrated excellent entrepreneurial ability, and from three short-listed nominations, Stuart Dale, 16 and James Clements, 15, from Glasgow received the award. DJ Dale and business partner Clements have made a big impact on Glasgow's club scene after unearthing an untapped market in under-18 nights and although they're still at school, they have a net profit of £5,500 a year. The pair set up their own company, Presentable Productions, last year and now employ 12 teenagers to hand out flyers. As well as ploughing money back into the business, the boys donated £1000 to help Angolan refugee rapper Levis Albano, 21, record an album. Anthony Keating, Executive Director, Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship presented the award, alongside local TV celebrities, Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan. Back to top Premiere for Equal Pay Kay Gilbert, Department of Human Resource Management, was invited to a special premiere in London at the Curzon Soho cinema on 27th February 2008 showing "The Equal Pay Story: scenes from a turbulent history". The premiere was attended by those key to landmark equal pay cases in the UK including claimants, lawyers and experts in the field. A 30 minute historical archive film the TUC made (with Warwick University's support) is background to a series of filmed interviews for some of the key cases all make good teaching resources for history, law, HR or sociology HE courses. The Department of Human Resource Management supported the making of one DVD case history and have copies of the series. Those interested in using the material can either contact Kay Gilbert in the Department or go to http://www.unionhistory.info/equalpay/. Back to top Business School organises successful labour market research and policy conference 
On 4 March 2008, the Business School's Scottish Centre for Employment Research co-organised a one-day, invitation only conference on labour market policy and practice. Co-organised with the ESRC Centre for Skills Knowledge and Organisational Performance based at Oxford and Warwick University and Futureskills Scotland, the Scottish Labour Market Research and Policy Conference attracted around 140 policy-makers from Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Keynote speakers included Fiona Hyslop MSP, Cabinet Secrerary for Education and Lifelong Learning, and Sir Michael Rake, Chair of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. Plenary presenters included Professors Ewart Keep and Chris Warhurst and head of Futureskills Scotland, Dr Patrick Watt. Chris Warhurst presented early findings of SCER's PhD research programme examining skill supply, demand and formation across Scotland's jobs. The conference concluded with a Question Time style panel of key trade unionists, business representatives and government policy-makers from across Scotland debating the future of skills policy.The conference was timely. The UK government has recently signalled that it wants more bridges built between academics and government policy-makers and wants to include measures of engagement in the next, revamped research assessment exercise. A huge success, it is hoped that further events might be spun out from the conference in the future. Back to top Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Scottish Student Conference On Saturday 1 March 2008 a group of students from the Department of Human Resource Management, who are currently working towards a CIPD qualification, attended the Scottish Student Conference held at Napier University in Edinburgh. The theme of the conference was "Leading HR - now and in the future". As well as taking part in case study sessions, the students had the opportunity of networking with CIPD students from other institutions in Scotland. Back to top Tourism keynote address Professor Richard Butler was invited to present a keynote plenary paper at the conference, "Tourism Geographies: Space, Place and Lifestyle Mobilities", held at the University of West of England on March 6. The paper was entitled "Tourism Geographies or the Geography of Tourism: Where the Bloody Hell are you / we?". The conference proceedings will appear in an edited book next year, for further details please contact Professor Butler via the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management on 0141 548 3941. Back to top The future of EU regional and rural development policies 
Professor John Bachtler and Dr Sara Davies participated in a 'Sub Rosa' Seminar in Brussels on 29 February - 1 March 2008, where they presented a paper on the future of EU regional and rural development policies, sponsored by the Scottish Government EU Office, Highlands & Island Enterprise and Scottish Europa. The paper was based on a study, led by Sara Davies and John Bachtler, examining the added value of EU Cohesion policy and EU Common Agricultural Policy Pillar II, as well as the need for enhanced coordination structures between the two policy fields in 2007-13.The study drew lessons from area-based policies in the Member States, focusing on experiences in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany), Krajna & Paluki (Poland), Algarve (Portugal), Pohjois Suomi (Finland) and the Highlands & Islands (UK). Lastly, the project identified a range of questions for discussion, under the two main themes of the form of rural development policy needed, and how EU policies should support rural development. The paper is expected to be published on the Scottish Government Sub Rosa website. Back to top Royal Society of Edinburgh – National Natural Science Foundation of China The RSE - NNSFC Joint Project scheme is designed to facilitate international collaboration between researchers based in Scotland and China. Professor Lesley Walls and Professor Tim Bedford were invited to speak at a workshop meeting of this project which was held at the RSE on 17th & 18th March. Professor Bedford gave a talk on 'Partial specification of risk models', and Prof Walls spoke on 'Supporting Reliability Informed Design in Aerospace Product Development'. A delegation of Chinese academics then visited the University of Strathclyde on 19th March, some visiting the Department of Management Science for presentations on department research and teaching initiatives. 
A delegation of Chinese academics during a visit to the university
Back to top Department of Management Science Seminar Series The department has held the following seminars: 1) Friday 14 March 2008 'Modelling Default Dependence in Portfolio Credit Risk' Speaker: Professor Alexander J. McNeil, Department of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics, School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University 2) Friday 29th February 2008 'State-of-the-art in the dual simplex method' Speaker: Istvan Maros, Imperial College London, U.K. and University of Pannonia, Veszprem, Hungary 3) Friday 22nd February 2008 'Managing software testing risk via a Bayesian graphical approach' Speaker: David Woof Director, Statistics and Mathematics Consultancy Unit and Senior Lecturer in Statistics, University of Durham Department of Mathematical Sciences, Science Laboratories The department holds a 'Friday Lunchtime Seminar' every week at 1pm, usually in room 886 of the Graham Hills Building. For more information on all upcoming seminars please see www.strath.ac.uk/mansci/seminars Back to top Recently won grants Jill MacBryde (Management Science), Steve Paton (Management) and Kepa Mendibil (DMEM) have been awarded £60k from Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service to conduct a study into high value manufacturing in Scotland. Laura Davidson has been appointed as the research assistant to work with the team on this project. Back to top NOT Ross Priory Event NOT Ross Priory is one of two events that take place annually via the department of Management Science, and focus on fostering a research community in particular, among doctoral students. The first event comprised presentations by research students enabling all to understand and learn about the different research avenues being undertaken (and the different methodologies) as well as providing feedback and suggestions to presenters. Alongside this was a session on ethics entailing a presentation on the University's position as well as group work where each student reflected on the ethical issues stemming from their work. The two other sessions / activities were a) an update from Dr Viktor Dorfler on the on-line site supporting the research methodology programme and b) a discussion regarding the design of the summer two day event. Back to top KTP Jill MacBryde and Hasib Kosgi from Management Science were invited to join the senior management team from Campbell & Kennedy at the Dunbartonshire Business Excellence Awards at Cameron House Hotel on 14th March. Campbell and Kennedy were nominated for the award of Best Performing Business in Dunbartonshire. Jill and Hasib have been working with the company under the auspices of the KTP programme for the past 8 months, helping the company to identify new ways to grow their business and improve their business processes. Back to top Colombian conference address In February Professor Roger Sandilands was invited by Colombia's central bank to address two conferences, one in Bogota (Feb 6) the other in Cartagena (Feb. 7), on the extensive contributions of Lauchlin Currie to Colombia's economic development over the period from 1949, when he headed the first World Bank comprehensive country study of Colombia, until his death in 1993. Currie was an eminent Harvard economist who became the intellectual leader of the New Deal in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration, going on to be FDR's personal economic adviser in the White House from 1939-45. Sandilands worked with Currie in Colombia on many occasions from 1968 till 1993 and was his intellectual biographer (The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie, Duke University Press, 1990). 
Professor Sandilands with Currie and his secretaries in his Bogota office in 1987
Back to top Scottish MBA and Business Postgraduate Recruitment Fair The first Scottish MBA and Business Postgraduate Recruitment Fair was successfully held at the Business School on Friday 8th February, 2008, attracting 23 organisations and around 300 students from 7 business schools across Scotland and the North of England. The Fair was set up with the collaboration of Edinburgh School of Management and we were successful in encouraging further support from Stirling, Robert Gordon, Dundee, Heriot Watt, Newcastle and Lancaster Universities, whose students attended. Among the companies attending - manning stands and giving presentations throughout the day - were Royal Bank of Scotland, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Johnston & Johnston, Proctor and Gamble, Scottish Investment Operations, Inverhouse Distillers and BSkyB. Talent Scotland, Scottish Enterprise and AMBA also supported the event. Feedback from companies and students alike was positive and encouraging and the Fair looks set to take its place in the annual Scottish recruitment events calendar. 
The Scottish MBA and Business Postgraduate Recruitment Fair
Back to top Cranfield Trust and SBS help Scotland’s voluntary sector Professor Valerie Belton, Professor Stan Paliwoda, Melissa McCrindle and Irene Aitkenhead Taylor attended the launch event of the "Cranfield Trust in Scotland" on 4 March 2008, with HRH Princess Royal, the Trust’s patron, delivering the key address. Strathclyde Business School has set up an agreement with the Cranfield Trust – the UK’s leading provider of free management consultancy support to the voluntary sector – to actively encourage SBS alumni, predominantly MBA graduates, to register as executive volunteers. The Trust provides annual support worth over £1.6m to the voluntary sector by operating a free national service that is unique in using only MBA or postgraduate qualified alumni volunteers from leading international business schools. It currently holds a register of 650 such alumni volunteers. All volunteers are assigned to management projects on a skills sharing basis that enables the volunteer to utilise their key skills and professional expertise. Historically, the Cranfield Trust has dealt with voluntary organisations south of the border, largely in SE England. However, as Scotland’s voluntary sector has expanded, so has the demand for senior management and consultancy skills. Consequently, there is an immediate need for highly skilled volunteers to work on projects across Scotland. Professor Stan Paliwoda, Department of Marketing, a Cranfield Business School alumnus, is one of Scotland’s first executive volunteers. His project involves working with Glasgow–based Emmaus, a charity offering homeless men and women a home and work in supportive Communities. SBS and Cranfield Trust plan to hold a launch event for interested SBS alumni during May, and full details will be distributed in the near future. 
SBS staff with HRH Princess Royal at the Cranfield Trust in Scotland launch event
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