| Oct 2008 | View back issues |
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| October 2008 | ||
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Strathclyde Executive MBA Among World's Best  Strathclyde Business School's MBA programme has been listed on the Financial Times' league table of best Executive MBA courses in the world.The prestigious shortlist, which was published in the Financial Times on Monday 27 October 2008, features only two Scottish universities - Strathclyde and Edinburgh. The table is based on a range of criteria, from graduates' salaries, career progress and seniority of positions held. The Strathclyde MBA is also among just one per cent of programmes to boast the coveted 'triple accreditation' from AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, based in the USA; EQUIS - the quality assurance scheme run by the European Foundation for Management Development; and AMBA - the Association of MBAs. The course was listed at number 80. There are around 3,500 business schools in the world, each hosting at least one Executive MBA programme. More about the Strathclyde MBA: http://www.gsb.strath.ac.uk/mba/ Back to top Honorary Degree for Strathclyde Risk Analysis Expert A management scientist from the University of Strathclyde has been awarded an honorary degree in Belgium for his outstanding work in the field of risk analysis. Professor Tim Bedford, who is based at the Strathclyde Business School, was recognised by the Polytechnique Mons for his pioneering research into probabilistic risk assessment. The field enables the evaluation of risks in complex engineering environments, including airlines, nuclear power plants and the space industry, as well as improving reliability, safety and maintenance. Professor Pierre Dehombreux of the Polytechnique said: "The Faculty of Engineering has the great pleasure to honour a great scientist whose talent and hard work have been contributing to the development of a new and major branch in engineering sciences, which is also of major importance to our society. "Besides his academic activities, he has proved to be an outstanding writer. So far he has been the author and co-author of more than 100 scientific articles. Among all the qualities he may have, the most remarkable one is definitely to unfold his science to a wide range of engineers. "Another feature of Professor Bedford is his full involvement into important research programmes with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This enables his scientific team to investigate and be productive in valuable research work. "His expertise, involvement and kindness are highly appreciated among members of scientific and professional societies, amongst others the European Safety, Reliability and Data Association." Professor Bedford was nominated for the honour by the founders of a new Risk Research Centre established by the Polytechnique. He said: "It is a great pleasure to receive this honour from the Polytechnique Mons, and to have the opportunity to see the new Risk Research Centre. "Risk analysis is a rapidly evolving and exciting field to work in and I'm delighted to see that latest developments in Belgium." Professor Bedford was joined by four fellow Honorary Graduands, including former astronaut and past French Minister, Claudie Haigneré, and President of the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control, Michel Cosnard. He has been teaching risk analysis and tools for decision-making at Strathclyde since 2000. As a student, he obtained an MSc degree in mathematics at Warwick University, followed by a PhD. He then held post-doctoral positions at King's College Cambridge and Harvard University, where he worked with the renowned mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot. Following a lectureship in applied probability at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, he became Senior Lecturer in Applications of Decision Theory in the same department. 
Professor Tim BedfordBack to top Tim Bedford Presented "Historical Explorations" Tim Bedford gave an invited presentation on Wednesday 1 October about the work for NASA which is being done by Tim, Lesley Walls, John Quigley & Matthew Revie to the International Academy of Astronautics History Study Group during the International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow. The title of the presentation was “Historical Explorations: Learning Lessons from the Past to Inform the Future” Back to top Mik Wisniewski Invited on Panel discussion Mik Wisniewski was invited onto a distinguished panel discussion for the topic of “performance league tables: help or hindrance” along with Prof Robert Dyson of Warwick Business School. Back to top Lesley Walls Represented the UK as an Expert in Reliability Modelling Lesley Walls represented the UK as an expert in reliability modelling at the international standardisation meeting of the International Electrotechnical Committee (IEC) in Copenhagen, Denmark, 13-16 October 2008. Lesley is the project leader for an international standard which is being revised to include methods developed by reliability modelling researchers to support industry during the design and operation of highly reliable systems. Back to top Graduation Congratulations to Robert van der Meer, Department of Management Science, who will graduate on 5th November, having achieved his PhD. Back to top Working Paper The Department of Management Science announces a new working paper : 2008/05 Bedford, T & Bayle, C Sensitivity analysis of the CREAM method for Human Reliability Back to top Department Establish Risk Consortium The department has established the Risk Consortium in order to provide highly specialised high-value consultancy services to a range of industry partners. The Risk Consortium will initially contain Tim Bedford, John Quigley, Matthew Revie and Lesley Walls however it is hoped that over time, other members of the department will become involved. The Consortium is a commercially oriented research unit aiming to bridge the gap between research and industry in the area of quantitative risk modelling whilst developing innovative methodologies with sound scientific basis that support risk-based decision making across a number of different industries, businesses and government. Back to top History Lessons Help Tackle Future Exploration Risks Advances in technology and education have not eliminated the risks faced by history's great explorers, according to a study by Professor Tim Bedford and colleagues in the department of Management Science. The research, commissioned by US space agency NASA, examined a number of expeditions which changed the course of history, including the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir John Franklin's search for the North-West Passage, Sir Ernest Shackleton's polar expeditions, Scotland's Darien venture and the Apollo space programme. The study finds that, apart from Apollo, all of the missions failed to meet their original objectives but some could still be described as strategic successes because of unplanned or unforeseen consequences. For example, Columbus failed to reach Asia, as he had intended, but did discover America instead, and even the ill-fated Darien expedition led to the foundation of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The research concludes that there was a set of risks at various levels which were common to all the ventures examined, among them leadership decisions, external events, lack of learning and using 'false models' of inaccurate or incomplete information. Although the case studies cover a span of nearly 500 years, the researchers find that, despite huge educational and technological progress over this time, human nature means that there is no reason to believe these risks can be better identified, prioritised or controlled in the 21st century. Bedford commented, "A risk-informed approach to understanding what happened in the past helps us guard against the danger of assuming that those events were inevitable and highlights the chance events which shaped history. "It also allows us to learn more clearly from the past about the way modern risk-modeling techniques might help us to manage the future – and brings to light those areas where they may not." Read more at http://www.gsb.strath.ac.uk/news/historylessons.asp Back to top SIOM Research Seminar The Strathclyde Institute of Operations Management (SIOM) is hosting a research seminar on Monday 3rd November, which will address, among other topics, the growth of manufacturing in Scotland: Date: Monday 3 Nov Venue: Court Senate Agenda: 16:45 tea and coffee 17:30 Introduction by Prof Kenny Miller 17:40 Jim Mather MSP - "Scottish Government on growing manufacturing in Scotland" 18:00 Overview of SIOM incl Future SME 18:15 "What makes successful companies different?" - the results of the 3 year EPSRC-funded Manage Processes research project 19:15 Q & A 19:30 Reception with refreshments 20:00 close Strictly invitation only - for further details please contact Margo Hutchison margo.hutchison@strath.ac.uk Back to top Christine Cooper Accepts Co-Editorship Congratulations to Christine Cooper who has accepted a co-editorship (with Marcia Anisette and Dean Neu) of the journal Critical Perspectives on Accounting, published by Elsevier. More information about Critical Perspectives on Accounting can be found here Back to top EPRC at the Open Days: Debating the Future of Cohesion Policy 
At the Open Days 2008 in Brussels, John Bachtler participated in a panel debate organised by the European Commission on the future of EU
Cohesion policy post-2013. With around 200 participants, the debate was chaired by the Commission's deputy director-generals for cohesion and
employment, and the panel also involved senior regional policy officials from Austria, Denmark, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the UK. John
Bachtler's panel presentation contained an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the governance of EU Cohesion policy and proposals
for the future. In a separate presentation to the Open Days, he also presented interim findings from the ex post evaluation of the John Bachtler management
and implementation of Cohesion policy (2000-06) being carried out for DG REGIO by EPRC.
Back to top 29th Annual Meeting of EPRC’s EoRPA Consortium  The 29th annual meeting of the EoRPA Consortium (European Regional Policy Research Consortium) was held at the University of Strathclyde’s
country house, Ross Priory, on 5-7 October 2008 and was attended by senior regional policymakers from the nine Member States which, together
with Norway, comprise the Consortium. The meeting was arranged around four keynote papers produced by EPRC staff: first, a comparative
overview of recent regional policy developments in the EU and Norway (written by Douglas Yuill, Martin Ferry and Heidi Vironen with Irene McMaster and Katja Mirwaldt); second a review of recent State aid developments as they relate to the control of regional aid (by Fiona Wishlade); third, an assessment of the debate on Cohesion policy 2014+ (by John Bachtler, Carlos Mendez and Fiona Wishlade) and fourth, a
reconsideration of the contested debate on territorial cohesion (by Katja Mirwaldt, Irene McMaster and John Bachtler). The meeting built on
detailed country studies produced by the EPRC EoRPA team which includes all EPRC research staff plus associate researchers in Denmark and
Greece (Professor Henrik Halkier and Maria-Amalia Vergoula) and a number of the new Member States. For more details on EoRPA, seehttp://www.eprc.strath.ac.uk/eorpa/default.cfm. Back to top Professor Phil Taylor  Professor Phil Taylor has contributed keynote articles to the first two issues of the recently launched magazine of the Customer Contact
Association, entitled InTouch. Based upon his ongoing research, Phil presented an updated analysis of the dynamics of call centre offshoring,
focusing on growth of the Indian sector and the practices and intentions of companies in the UK. In the second, Phil outlined the emergence
of global service delivery with call centres now being situated in an expanded number of locations, including the Philippines, South Africa,
Eastern Europe and Latin America. Professor Phil Taylor gave a presentation in London on 29 September 2008 to trade union UNITE’s National Financial Sector Committee on the crisis inProfessor Phil Taylor the financial sector and its potential effects for employees. The talk prefaced an in-depth discussion of how the union might respond to the threats posed to employment and working conditions. Back to top PhD Visitor  Louise Weibull, from the Department of Working Life Science, Karlstad University in Sweden will be visiting the Department of Human Resource Management from 25 October to 6 December 2008 and will be based in Graham Hills Building, Room 8.22.Louise is a PhD student at Karlstad University, while also working part-time as a Research Assistant at the Department of Leadership and Management at the Swedish National Defence College in Stockholm. With a background in Social Anthropology from Stockholm University, her research areas cover culture perspectives of Swedish expeditionary forces, emotional labour in the expeditionary forces service and military families. Specifically for her thesis she has been conducting interviews in Kosovo and Liberia with a group of soldiers and officers. She has alsoLouise Weibull been doing more extensive fieldwork at the Swedish National Counter-terrorist Unit involving the recruitment of female police-officers. Louise will be presenting her work at a research seminar in the Department on Wednesday 3 December 2008, 4.00pm, Graham Hills Building, Room 8.33. Her presentation is entitled: Emotional Labour - an Overlooked Demand on Military Personnel Serving Abroad. Back to top Colin Mason Invited to join Academic Journal Quality Guide Panel Colin Mason has been invited to join the ABS academic journal quality guide panel, a new member for enterprise to replace Simon Parker. He has also been invited to join the ESRC Virtual Research College. Its role is to assess small research grant applications (applications under £100k). Back to top Tom Baum Initiates a Major Collaborative Project  Tom Baum, Professor of International Tourism and Hospitality Management, spent a month over the summer as Visiting Professor in the School of
Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The purpose of this attachment was to initiate a major collaborative research
project which will explore the applicability of a range of human resource management concepts and tools to the Chinese hotel sector.Tom Baum was one of three External Reviewers to the University of Botswana's programmes in the Department of Management, focusing on the undergraduate degree in Tourism and Hospitality Management. Located inProfessor Tom Baum Gaborone, the University has high quality learning and teaching facilities and the programmes there build on tourism research that is located in a range of academic areas including environmental science, history and archaeology. Back to top The Neil Hood Memorial Fund 
Set up in memory of Professor Neil Hood, the first awards have been made to three students from the Business School to bring to life
Professor Hood’s vision of a graduate workforce with a truly international perspective. Friends, colleagues and business associates have made
generous donations to the Fund.The three successful students from the Business School are: Blair Provan who is in third year studying for his BA in International Business and Modern Languages at Concordia University, Montreal; Gemma Campbell who is studying for her BA in Business at the Arizona State University, and Volker Prediger will spend his third year at Hong Kong Polytechnic University studying for a BA in Business Management (Hospitality & Tourism). These award-winning students greatly appreciate this ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ and the chance to develop their international outlook on the world. If you would like to find out more about the Neil Hood Memorial Fund, or make a gift, please contact Caroline Notman in the Alumni & Development Office: Tel: 0141-548-4029 E-mail: caroline.notman@strath.ac.uk Back to top |
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