| July 2009 | View back issues |
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| July 2009 | ||
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Financial Services Rising Star finalist  Strathclyde Business School alumnus Usman Ali has reached the finals of the Deloitte-sponsored Financial Services Rising Star of the Year Award 2009. The final will take place on September 23 at the Weston Link of the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh in front of industry leaders. Usman, who studied on the MBM programme (2005-2006), now works as Systems and Support Manager for St Vincent Investments Ltd, an investment arm of Clydesdale Bank Property Division. He is just one of four finalists in the competition organised by The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland (CIOBS).At the semi-final stage on July 2 he was one of eight nominees who had to Usman Alimake a short presentation on their nomination and participate in an interview before a panel of judges. The final will see the four nominees presenting live before an invited audience on a theme chosen by CIOBS and Deloitte, relating to a statement by Bank of England governor Mervyn King: "If some banks are thought to be too big to fail, then they are too big." There is a first prize of an overseas holiday for two for the winner as well the industry-wide recognition of the winner as a high potential individual, and there are additional prizes for the three runners-up. http://www.charteredbanker.com/MainWebSite/CIOBaea1126b.aspx?Map=6A5684135BFA8403A61D33E5263EA066 Back to top Operational Research role Professor Tim Bedford (Management Science) was elected Chair of the Committee of Professors of Operational Research at its recent meeting at the CASS Business School. COPIOR's aims are to further the development of OR within the UK universities, through developing young academics, promoting communication with practitioners, supporting the OR Society and expanding the scope and impact of OR. The COPIOR officers include John Mingers from Kent (secretary) and former SBS colleague Terry Williams who is the Treasurer. Back to top Alumni sought as 'enterprise' volunteers  Strathclyde Business School has been involved over the past few years with Young Enterprise Dunbartonshire, which exists to encourage and develop entrepreneurship within schools across Dunbartonshire. Volunteers are needed to act as business advisors. Every year, the schools put forward teams of students to develop a product or service which they then sell before Christmas at the Young Enterprise Fair at the Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow. This takes place on Saturday November 28 this year. The students receive regular support from their teacher but the teachers are not always trained in all areas of business administration which is why there is a need for alumni to act as business advisors. This role involves visiting a Dunbartonshire school team at Prof. StanPaliwodathe start of the school term and a few times further throughout that term, usually for around an hour at a time. There can be an element of personal development as well in that the role helps develop facilitation, coaching and mentoring skills. This is also an opportunity for showing the students what Strathclyde Business School can offer if they wish to pursue undergraduate business education. Anyone interested should contact Professor Stan Paliwoda - stan.paliwoda@strath.ac.uk - for further details. Back to top British Business Angels judge role for professor Professor Colin Mason (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship) was invited to be one of the judges for British Business Angels Association's awards for 'achievements in the early stage investment market'. The awards celebrated the achievements of angel investors, fund managers, practitioners and businesses that made a significant contribution to the development of the early stage investment and SME growth in the past year. The ceremony was part of BBAA's annual conference which was held at The Belfry Hotel near Birmingham mid-July. Professor Mason performed a similar role earlier in the year on behalf of E-BAN (the European Business Angels Network) at their annual conference in Madrid in April. Back to top EURO conference papers Professor Fran Ackermann (Management Science) and Professor Colin Eden (Department of Management) attended the EURO Conference in Bonn from July 5-8 and presented 3 papers entitled: "Scriptsma: a tool to facilitate design of strategy workshops" (with George Richardson and David Andersen); "Modelling competitive advantage"; "Modelling the dynamics stakeholder reactions: a process for considering stakeholder responses, reactions and interactions when developing strategy" (with David Andersen and George Richardson). Back to top Management science publications Two new textbooks by Mik Wisniewski (Management Science) have recently been published. The first is the 5th edition of his best-selling MBA-level text "Quantitative Methods for Decision Makers" published by Financial Times/Prentice Hall. The text is used on most of the top MBA programmes in the UK. The second is "An Introduction to Management Science" written with David R. Anderson, Dennis J. Sweeney, Thomas A. Williams, and published by Cengage Publishing. The original US text is the best-selling introduction text globally. He was commissioned to produce an international version. Back to top Invited speaker at Colombia workshop Dr Jason Whalley (Management Science) was an invited speaker at a workshop organised in Bogotá, Colombia in June 2009. At the workshop, which was organised by Colombia's Departmento Nacional de Planeación, Ministerio de Comercio, Industria y Turismo and Ministerio de Comunicaciones, Dr Whalley spoke on the impact that electronic commerce will have on the telecommunications industry and the challenges that this brings. The workshop was part of a series designed to provide input into the development of a national electronic commerce plan. Back to top Research Philosophy in Croatia Dr Viktor Dorfler of the Management Science Department, who teaches the Research Philosophy module of the Research Methodology postgraduate course to the research students of Strathclyde Business School, delivered a research philosophy course from June 16-20 to the doctoral students of the Faculty of Economics & Business, University of Zagreb. Back to top The Capital of Intelligence – the Intelligence of Capital Dr Viktor Dorfler (Management Science), together with Zoltan Baracskai and Jolan Velencei, contributed a chapter to the bilingual book, "The Capital of Intelligence – the Intelligence of Capital." Their chapter is in English and is a study with the title, "Knowledge Sharing in Knowledge Restaurants", in which they introduce four restaurant metaphors to describe the four ways of knowledge sharing today: in the buffet instant knowledge is available through self-service; in the restaurant the waiter services a la carte knowledge; in some very expensive ones the chef recommends suitable knowledge; and in the coffee room, we can chat while making our own coffee or tea. Back to top International marketing group appointment At the recent Academy of Marketing conference at Leeds Metropolitan University, Professor Stan Paliwoda (Marketing Department) was appointed Chair of the International Marketing Special Interest Group. Back to top New programmes launched  Strathclyde Business School launches three new hospitality and tourism degrees as of August. These programmes have been developed in response to the business community's demand for highly skilled professionals for the UK's rapidly-changing hospitality and tourism industries.The new undergraduate programme offers the BA (Hons) in Hospitality and Tourism and is run by Dr Kevin O'Gorman (Department of Management). Two postgraduate options – International Hospitality Management and International Tourism Management – will be run by Dr Karen Thompson (Department of Marketing). Professor Susan Hart, Dean of SBS, said, "These plans have been warmly Dr O'Gormanreceived by our colleagues in industry and we will draw on the expertise of our growing industrial advisory group as this fast-moving sector continues to evolve. "Industrial relevance remains a defining characteristic of Strathclyde's 65-year history in hospitality and tourism education. The new programmes build on this legacy and ensure Strathclyde graduates can lead the way in meeting the challenges of hospitality and tourism in the 21st century." Back to top Fellow of Market Research Society Professor Alan Wilson, Head of the Marketing Department, has been elected a fellow of the Market Research Society. Back to top EPRC evaluation research on cohesion policy presented at European Commission hearing  The conclusions of an 18 month study by the European Policies Research Centre, evaluating the management and implementation cohesion policy, were presented by Professor John Bachtler together with Laura Polverari as well as core team members from partner organisation Metis(Vienna) at a European Commission hearing in the Berlaymont on June 23.Funded by the Directorate-General for Regional Policy (DG Regio), the study involved a team of almost 40 researchers in 25 countries, managed by EPRC, who assessed the delivery of Structural Funds in the 2000-06 period, particularly the effectiveness of the funding, the degree of spillovers onto the domestic policy management of member states, and Prof. John Bachtlerthe integration of sustainable development principles. The results of the evaluation highlighted the varied quality of management systems, especially in the new Member States, but also the significant progress made since accession in 2004. Also, throughout the EU, the increasingly stringent financial control requirements (and associated administrative resources) are having negative consequences for the strategic management of programmes. The research found that the experience of delivering the Structural Funds has influenced the practices and procedures used by Member States for managing their own domestic policies. The study recommended a fundamental reassessment of the EU regulatory framework to facilitate more strategic programme management, more investment in leadership, greater opportunities for learning, the development of institutional capacity in the Member States and a wider effort to promote higher standards of public administration of Cohesion policy. All of the reports from the evaluation will be published during July/August 2009 on the DG Regio website. Back to top EPSRC-funded project examines role of distributed energy resources  A team of researchers led by Professor Peter McGregor from the Fraser of Allander Institute, began working on a project entitled "Decentralised Policy and Macro impact Assessment" as of July 1. This is one workstream within SuperGen Highly Distributed Energy Future (HiDEF) Consortium, which is led by Strathclyde's Institute of Energy and Environment.Funded by the EPSRC to approximately £4 million, this consortium unites colleagues at a number of leading universities across the UK in examining the possible role and impact of distributed energy resources in the future UK power system. The workstream also involves Professor Kim Swales, Grant Allan and Prof. Peter McGregorIgor Eromenko from the Fraser of Allander Institute and Department of Economics, plus Dr Ivana Kockar and a PhD student from Strathclyde’s Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department, as well as Tim Cockerill and Adam Hawkes of Imperial College, London. The project is due to run for two years and was launched at the headquarters of the UK Energy Research Centre in London on June 17. Back to top "Portfolios for technology innovation" workshop attended Professor Peter McGregor, Grant Allan and Igor Eromenko attended a workshop on June 12 at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, entitled "Portfolios for technology innovation". The workshop was held with colleagues from Cambridge University and King's College London, in the multi-disciplinary EPSRC-funded initiative, UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium. Grant Allan presented the Strathclyde team's research entitled "The impact of learning in the UK 2050 scenarios: A portfolio selection approach". This uses mean-variance portfolio theory to assess the efficiency of alternative electricity generation mixes from the UK Energy Research Centre’s recent "UKERC 2050" report. The Strathclyde team also includes Professor Kim Swales, Department of Economics. Back to top HRM professor's presentations Professor Phil Taylor of the Department of Human Resource Management gave a presentation to a UNITE Finance Sector School on "The Economic Crisis, the Restructuring of Work and Sickness Absence Management" at Wortley Hall, Yorkshire, on July 2. He also gave a presentation on "Call Centres in Scotland and the Effects of Offshoring" to the Development and Regeneration Services Department of Glasgow City Council on June 24. Back to top Strathclyde team scrutinizes gender pay gap in financial services  Financial services – banks in particular – are under considerable scrutiny at the moment. With a gender pay gap significantly higher than for the rest of the UK (60% versus 42% of annual gross earnings), the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in London has launched a formal inquiry into the causes of the gap.The research for the inquiry ranges over high street banks in Scotland to investment banks in the city of London and is being undertaken by the Scottish Centre for Employment Research in the Department of Human Resource Management. The research team consists of Kay Gilbert, Jo Commander, Professor Chris Warhurst, Anna Symeonides and Professor Phil Taylor from Strathclyde, and Patricia Findlay and Andy Adams from Edinburgh University. The EHRC will publicly launch the report from the research in August. Back to top |
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